4 -- ^//^'J^/c^t^'C^^na/Lyayi&c I £4.fi.o ^a Vinct^ By permission of the COUNCIL OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY, from the Photograph in possession of the BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB THE ITALIAN SCHOOLS OF PAINTING BASED ON THE HANDBOOK OF KUGLER. SIXTH EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED AND IN PART REWRITTEN, BY AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD, G.C.B., D.C.L., etc., etc., etc. IN TWO PARTS.— Part I. -2.-2.-? O ^ WITH NEARLY 250 ILLUSTRATIONS, A- THIRD IIVIPRESSION OF THE REVISED EDITION. ■ . J » J J - , * i * J « • LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, AV. 1902. UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT WORK. HANDBOOK OF PAINTING.— German, Dutch, and Flemish Schools. Based on the Handbook of Kugler. Revised by J. A. Crowe. Illustrations. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 248. LIVES OF THE ITALIAN PAINTEES ; and the Progress of Painting in Italy. Cimabue to Bassano. By Mrs. Jameson. Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 128. • • r • c . 1G70 C, / ( v./ CONTENTS. CSAT. I. II.- III, IV.- V. YI.- VII.- VIII.- IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. List of Illustrations .... Introduction to the Present Edition -Eaely Christian Art.— The Later Koman Style. —The Byzantine Style —Art of the ^Middle Ages.— The Romanesque rAOB V XV bTYLE —The Florentine School —The Florentine School— (ecu I in ued) —The Sienese School . —The Umbrian School —The So-called Neapolitan School —The Veronese School — The Paduan School —The Venetian School —The Ferrarese School —The Bolognese School — The Lombard School —The Lombard School (co7i<«»»ed).— Leonardo DA Vinci and his Followers . . . 391 —Michael Angelo Buonarroti and his Followers ^-"^ Other Florentine ]\Iasters . . .444 .— Kaphakl .... . • -463 30 60 72- 153' 187. 20G 249 253 274 292 347 3G3 376 iv CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGB XIX. — The Scholars and Followers of Raphael 533 XX. — The Later Masters of Siena . . . 543 XXI. — Later School of Venice .... 550 XXII. — Later School of Venice — {continued) , 590 XXIII. — CORREGGIO AND HIS SCHOLARS . . . 626 XXIV. — The Decline of Art in Italy. — The Mannerists 640 XXV. — Eclectic Schools 650 XXVI. — The Naturalisti and Latest Italian Painters 674 Index . 689 Index to Places 728 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. -♦- PACE The "Academy" Cartoon, by Leonardo daVinci (Photogravure) Frontispiece Ceiling in Catacomb of S. Calisto, Rome 4 Painting on wall of a chamber, left of entrance, in the Catacomb of S. Calisto, representing Daniel, Job, and Moses .... 8 Paintings on wall of a chamber, right of entrance, in the Catacomb of S. Calisto, representing Elijah, a Figure in the attitude of Prayer, Noah IN THE Ark, and the Raising OF Lazarus . . 8 Head of Christ ; from the Catacomb of S. Ponziano in Rome . . 8 Wall Painting in the Catacomb of S. Calisto, representing Christ A3 A Teacher, surrounded by the Vine with Genii gathering the fruit 9 Mosaics of the 6th century, in S. Vitale, Ravenna, representing Jus- tinian AND Theodore 23 Mosaics of the 9th century, in S. Prassede at Rome 49 Madonna Enthroned ; by Cimabue, in S. Maria Novella at Florence 79 Mosaics of the Tribune of St. John Lateran in Rome %^ Mosaics of the Tribune of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome .... 84 St. Francis Wedded to Poverty ; a painting by Giotto, in the Lower Church of S. Francesco at Assisi 87 St. Francis in Glory ; by Giotto, on the Vault of the Lower Church at Assisi 88 The Navicella ; a mosaic from a design by Giotto, in the Vestibule of St. Peter's, Rome 89 Allegorical Figures of Fortitude, Temperance, and Infidelity; by Giotto, in the Arena Chapel, Padua 90 Allegorical Figures of Justice and Prudence; by Giotto, in the Arena Chapel, Padua 90 Marriage op Louis of Tarentum and Giovanna of Naples; fresco attributed to Giotto at Naples 95 Portraits of Dante, Corso Donato, and Brunetto Latini, in the Chapel of the Podesta at Florence 9G The Triumph of Death; a fresco in the Campo Santo, Pisa . . Ill The Last Judgment and Hell; a fresco in the Campo Santo, Pisa 112 The Misfortunes of Job ; a fres' o by Francesco da Volterra, in the Campo Santo at Pisa 115 Scene from the History of Job ; a fresco in the Campo Santo at Pisa, by Francesco da Volterra 116 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Fall of Lucifer, by Spiuello of Arezzo ; a fresco ia the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli, Arezzo 122 The Fall of Lucifer, by Spinello of Arezzo ; a fresco in the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli, Arezzo 122 The Flight into Egypt, by Angelico da Fiesole ; a panel compart- ment formerly in the SS. Annuuziata, in the Florence Academy 128 Judas Receiving THE Money 128 Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, by Angelico da Fiesole ; panel compartments formerly in the SS. Annunziata, in the Florence Academy 128 The Annunciation, by Angelico da Fiesole ; a panel compartment formerly in the SS. Annunziata, in the Florence Academy . 128 Coronation of the Virgin and Miracles of St. Do.minic; a picture by Angelico da Fiesole, in the Louvre 130 St, Stephen Preaching ; a fresco by Angelico da Fiesole, in the Vatican Chapel of Nicolas V 132 St. Lawrence ; a fresco by Angelico da Fiesole, in the Vatican Chapel of Nicolas V 132 Noah's Sacrifice ; a fresco in S. Maria Novella at Florence, by Paolo Uccello 137 The Deluge ; a fresco in S. Maria Novella, at Florence, by Paolo Uccello 137 History of the Baptist; a fresco by Masolino da Panicale, Castiglione d'Olona 140 St. Catherine; a fresco by Masolino, in S. Clemente, Rome . . 141 The Fall, by Masolino; fresco in the Church of S. M. del Carmine, Florence 14] The Expulsion of Adam and Eve, by Masaccio; fresco in the Church of S. M. del Carmine, Florence 141 St. Peter Baptizing ; a fresco by Masaccio, in the Church of S. I\I. del Carmine, Florence 144 Resuscitation of the King's Son, by Masaccio and Filippino Lippi ; fresco in the Church of S. M. del Carmine, Florence .... 144 The Tribute Money ; a fresco by Masaccio, in the Church of S. M. del Carmine, Florence 144 Death of St. Stephen ; by Fra Filippo, in the Duomo, Prato . . 149 Calumny; an allegorical picture by S. Botticelli, in the Uffizi . . 154 Moses Overcoming the Egyptian ; a fresco by Sandro Botticelli, in the Sistine Chapel 155 Madonna and Child, with Angels ; by S. Botticelli, in the Gallery of the Uffizi at Florence 156 St. Paul Addressing St. Peter in Prison ; from a fresco by Filippino Lippi, in the Carmine, Florence 160 Martyrdom of St. Peter ; a fresco by Filippino Lippi, in the Church of S. M. del Carmine, Florence 160 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii PACK Madonna and ANGEiiS ; tondo by Raffaellino del Garbo, in the Museum at Berlin 162 NoAir AND His Family ; a fresco in the Cainpo Santo at Pisa, by Benozzo Gozzoli 166 Christ's Sermon on the Mount; a fresco in the Sistine Chapel, by Cosimo Rosselli 1G7 TuE Calling op Peter and Andrew ; a fresco in the Sistine Chapel, by D. Ghirlandajo 171 St. Jerome; a fresco by D. Ghirlandajo, in the Ognissanti, Florence 172 The Death of St. Francis ; a fresco in S. Trinita at Florence, by D. Ghirlandajo 173 The Birth of the Virgin ; a fresco by Ghirlandajo, in the choir of S. Maria Novella, at Florence 174 Martyrdom of St. Sebastian ; by Antonio and Pietro Pollajuolo, National Gallery 178 Baptism of Christ ; by Andrea del Verocchio, in the Acadcmia. Florence 178 The Nativity ; an altar-piece by Lorenzo di Ci"edi, in the Academy of Arts at Florence 180 Figures from Luca Signorelli's fresco of Hell, in the Duomo at Orvieto 184 The " Fulminati : " Destruction of the Wicked ; part of a fresco by Luca Signorelli, in the Duonio at Orvieto . . . 184 The Paradise ; a fresco by Luca Signorelli, in the Duomo at Orvieto 184 The School op Pan, by Luca Signorelli ; an oil painting ia the Berlin Gallery 185 Altar-piece by Guido da Siena, in the Church of S. Domenico, Siena 187 Christ's Entry into Jerusalem ; compartment from a large altar- piece by Duccio of Siena ... 189 Compartment from a large altar-piece by Duccio of Siena . . 189 Christ Found in the Temple ; a picture by Simone Martini, in the Royal Institution, Liverpool 194 Madonna and Saints ; a fresco in the Town Hall of S. Gemignano, by Lippo Memmi 195 Allegory of Good Government; a fresco in the Town Hall of Siena, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti 198 The Apostles' Visit to the Virgin ; a fresco in S. Francesco at Pisa, by Taddeo di Bartolo 199 St. Bardara, Saints and Angels ; an altar-piece by Matteo da Siena, in the Church of S. Domenico at Siena 203 The Nativity ; a fresco by Girolamo del Pacchia, in the Brother- hood of S. Bernardino at Si "na 206 Mii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Madonna and Saints ; a wall-painting by Ottaviano Nelli, in S. Maria Nuova at Gubbio 208 The Adoration of the Kings; an altar-piece by Gentile da F:\briano, in the Academy of Arts at Florence 211 Altar-piece by Pietro della Francesca, or Fra Carnevali, in the Brera, Milan 218 Federigo da Urbino in Triumphal Car ; by Pietro della Fran- cesca, Uffizi Gallery, Florence 219 Angel ; by Melozzo da Forli, in the Sacristy of St. Peter's, Rome . 220 Angel ; by Melozzo da Forli, in the Sacristy of St. Peter's, Rome . 220 Madonna with Saints; an altar-piece by Giovanni Santi, at Montefiorentino 225 The Death of St. Louis; a fresco by Benedetto Bonfigli, in the Palazzo Pubblico at Perugia 230 Christ delivering the keys to Peter; a fresco by Pietro Perugino, in the Sistine Chapel 232 The Marriage of the Virgin ; an altar-piece by Pietro Perugino, in the Museum of Caen 234 The Resurrection ; attributed to Pietro Perugino, in the gallery of the Vatican 230 The Adoration of the Magi; a fresco by Pietro Perugino, at Citta della Pieve 236 The Journey of Moses ; a fresco in the Sistine Chapel, probably by Pinturicchio 239 Virgin, Child, Angels, and Donor, by Pinturicchio, in the Sacristy of the Duomo of S. Severino 239 J^neas Piccolomini going to the Council of Basle ; a fresco by Pinturicchio, in the Library at Siena 242 The so-called ' Ancajani Raphael,' attributed to Lo Si>agna, in the Berlin Museum 245 The Last Supper ; a fresco in S. Onofrio at Florence .... 247 Holy Family ; by Domenico di Paris Alfani 248 The Landing of the Body of St. James ; fresco by Altichiero, in the Cappella S. Felice in S. Antonio, Padua 25G St. George baptising a Heathen King ; fresco by Altichiero, in St. George's Chapel, Padua 258 Martyrdom of St. George ; fresco by Altichiero, in St. George's Chapel, Padua 258 Madonna and Saints ; a fresco by Francesco Morone, formerly near the Ponte delle Navi at Verona 264 Christ taken down from the Cross , an altar-piece in the Church of Malcesine, by Girolamo dai Libri 269 Christ taken down from the Cross; by Cavazzol.i, in the Public Gallery of Verona 270 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ix PACK MoTius ScEVOLA BEFORE PoRSENNA ; a fresco by Montagnana, once in the Town Hall at Belluno 282 S. EUFEMIA, by Mantegna, Brera 284 St. James blessing a Convert on his way to Martyrdom ; by Mantegna, in the Chapel of the Eremitani at Padua . . . 285 The Triumph of Julius Cesar; from cartoon by Andrea Mantegna, at Hampton Court 287 The Triumph op Julius C^sar ; from a cartoon by Andrea Mantegna, at Hampton Court 287 The Marquis of Gonzaga and his Family ; a fresco in the Castello of Mantua, by Andrea Mantegna 287 The Triumph of Scipio ; by Andrea Mantegna, in the National Gallery 288 Virgin, Child, and Saints; an altar-piece by Bartolommeo Montagna, in the Brera at Milan 290 Virgin and Child enthroned ; by Giovanni and Antonio da Murano, in the Venice Academy 297 St, Augustin ; by Bartolommeo Vivarini 299 An altar-piece by Bartolommeo Vivarini, in the Naples Gallery. . 299 The Crucifixion ; by Jacopo Bellini, once in the Cathedral of Verona 30l^ Portrait of Sultan Mehemet; by Gentile Bellini, in the possession of Sir A. H. Layard 304 A Miracle by the Relic of the True Cross ; by Gentile Bellini, in the Venice Academy 306 The 'PietI'; by Giovanni Bellini, in the Brera, Milan . . . . 309 Virgin, Child, and Saints; an altar-piece, by Giovanni Bellini, in the Academy of Arts at Venice 311 Bacchanal ; by Giovanni Bellini and Titian, in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland 313 The Crucifixion; by Antonello da Messina, in the Antwerp Gallery ^1" History of St. Ursula; by Vittore Carpaccio, in the Venice Academy 320 The Presentation in the Temple ; an altar-piece by Vittore Carpaccio, in the Venice Academy 321 The Incredulity of St. Thomas; an altar-piece by Cima da Conegliano, in the Venice Academy 326 Virgin, Child, and Saints ; an altar-jiiece by Luigi Vivarini, in the Venice Academy 327 Coronation of Catherine of Siena; altar-piece, by Pittro Francesco Bissolo, in the Venice Gallery 329 The Agony in the Garden; by Marco Basaiti,in the Venice Academy 330 LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. PAGB A Miracle by the Relic of the True Cross; by Giovanni Mansueti, in the Venice Academy 332 Marriage of St. Catherine ; by Andrea Previtali, in the Sacristy of the Church of San Giobbe at Venice 334 The Virgin, Child, and Saints; an altar-piece by Carlo Crivelli, at Dudley House 344 Virgin, Child, and Saints; an altar-piece by Francesco Cossn, in the Gallery of Bologna . 349 The Court of Isabella d'Este; an allegory by Lorenzo Costa, in the Louvre 354 Circe ; a picture by Dosso Dossi, in the Borghese Gallery, Rome . 351) The Nativity; an altar-piece by Francesco Francia, in the Gallery of Bologna 36G Virgin and Child, and Saints ; by Timoteo Viti, in the Brera, Milan 371 Plates, pi'obably painted by Timoteo Viti, Correr Museum, Venice . 373 The Magdalen; a picture by Timoteo Viti, in the Bologna Gallery 373 The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian ; a picture by Vincenzo Foppa, in the Biera, Milau 379 The Adoration of the Magi ; a picture by Bramantino, in the possession of Sir Henry Layard 380 Altar-piece in the Brern, Milan, by Bernardino de Conti .... 385 The Marriage op St. Catherine; a picture by Boccaccino, in the Venice Academy 389 Group from Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated cartoon, The Battle of the Standard 407 St. Anna and the Virgin and Infant Christ, by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Louvre 409 St. Catherine borne to the Tojib bv Angkls ; a fresco by Luini, in the Brera, Milan 423 Group of Women ; from a fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari, in a Chnpel of the Sacro Monte, Varallo 426 Group op Angels; by GauJenzio Ferrari, in the Cupola of the Church of Saronno 427 The Holy Family; by Michael Angelo, in the Tribune in the Uffizi, Florence 433 A portion of Michael Angelo's celebrated cartoon — Soldieiss bathing in the Arno 433 Jeremiah ; by Micliael Angelo, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 437 A Group by Michael .\ngelo, from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. 438 The Last Judgment ; by Michael Angelo, in the Sistine Chapel . 440 The Conversion of St. Paul ; a fresco by Michael Angelo, in the Vatican 441 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi PACE The Descent from the Cross; by Daniele da Volterra, Rome. . 444 The Last Judgment; a fresco by Fra Bavtolommeo and Alberti- nelli, in S. Maria Nuova at Florence 446 The Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena; an altar-piece by Fra Baitolommeo, in the Pitti at Florence 448 The Holt Family ; an oil painting by Fra Bartolonimeo, in Earl Cowper'-s collection at Panshanger 448 St. Mark ; by Fra Bartolommeo, in the Pitti 450 A Group from the Madonna della Misericordia, by Fra Bartolommeo, in the Public Gallery, Lucca 450 The Presentation in thk Temple ; by Fra Bartolommeo, in the Vienna Gallery 450 The Visitation ; by Mariotto Albertinelli, in the Gallery of the Ulfizi, Florence 451 The Crucifixion ; a fresco by Fra Paolino, in S. Spirito at Siena . 453 The Birth of the Virgin ; a fresco by Andrea del Sarto, in the SS. Annunziata at Florence 457 The Madonna del Sacco ; a fresco by A. del Sarto, in the SS. Annunziata at Florence 458 St. Zenobius restoring a Boy to Life ; by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, in the Gallery of the Uffizi, Florence . . 462 Vision of a Knight ; drawing by Raphael, in the National Gallery 408 The Marriage of the Virgin ; by Raphael, in the Brera . . . 475 Raphael's first fresco; S. Severo, Perugia 479 The Madonna del Cardellino; by Raphael, Uffizi, Florence. . 481 The Entombment; by Raphael, in the Borghese Gallery, Rome . 484 Poetry, OR the Parnassus; a fresco by Raphael, in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican 489 La Disputa del Sacramento ; a fresco by Raphael, in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican 489 The School of Athens; a fresco by Raphael, in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican 491 Heliodorus; a fresco by Raphael, in the second Stanza of the Vatican 495 The Conversion of St. Paul ; a tapestry in the Vatican . . . 506 The Stoning op St. Stephen ; a tapestry in the Vatican . . . 506 .\postles; designed by Raphael and engraved by Marc' Antonio . 509 Apostles ; designed by Raphael and engraved by Marc' Antonio . 509 St. Michael ; by Raphael, in the Louvre 522 Lo SpasimO DI Sicilia ; by Raphael, in the Madrid Gallery . . . 523 The Transfiguration ; by Raphael, Vatican Gallery .... 524 The Overthrow of the Giants ; by Giulio Romano,.Palazzo del Th, Mantua 536 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Presentation in the Temple ; a fresco by Baldassare Peruzzi, in S. Maria della Pace at Rome 549 Picture by Giorgione, Giovanelli Collection, Venice 553 Sleeping Venus ; by Giorgione, Dresden Gallery 554 Altar-piece by Sebastian del Piombo, at Venice 559 Altar-piece by Pal ma Vecchio, Vicenza 565 Descent from the Cross ; by Rocco Marconi, Venice Academy . 568 S. Antonino Distributing Alms ; by L. Lotto, Venice .... 509 Dives and Lazarus ; by Bonifazio, Venice Academy .... 573 Feast of the Pharisee ; by Moretto, Venice 579 The Glorification of the Virgin ; by Savoldo, in the Brera, Milan 584 Altar-piece by Pordenone, in S. Giovanni Elimosinario, Venice . . 587 Glory of St. Lorenzo Giustiniani ; by G. Antonio Pordenono, in the Academy at Venice 588 Virgin and Child with SS. Ulfo and Brigida ; by Titian, in the Madrid Gallery 595 St. Peter Martyr ; by Titian, formerly in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice 599 Charles the Fifth on the Field of Mdhlberg ; by Titian, in the Madrid Gallery 605 Fisherman Presenting St. Mark's Ring to the Doge ; by Paris Bordone, Venice Academy 610 The Entombment ; probably by Caprioli, in the Monte di Pieta at Treviso 611 The Miracle of St. Mark ; by Tintoretto, Venice Academy . . 614 St. Sebastian Going to Martyrdom ; by Paolo Veronese, Church of S. Sebastiano, Venice 619 Virgin and Child ; by Correggio, in the UfSzi, Florence . . . 627 Portion of Corroggio's fresco. The Assumption of the Virgin, Parma 631 Madonna Adoring the Child; by Correggio, in the Utfizi, Florence 632 Moses Breaking the Tables of the Law; by Parmigianino, Parma 639 The Communion of St. Jerome; by Domenichino, in the Vatican Gallery 657 Phcebus and Aurora ; a fresco by Guido Reni, in a pavilion of the Rospigliosi Palace, Rome 662 The Triumph of David; by Matteo Rosselli, Pitti Gallery, Florence 671 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xni THE MADONNAS OF RAPHAEL. 1. Berlin Museum . 2. St. Luke painting tlie Madonna, a spurious picture, Rome 3. Berlin Museum . 4. Hermitage, St. Peters- burg 5. Del Gran Duca, Florence 8. Colonna altar-piece, King of Naples .... 9. Ansidei Raphael, National Gallery .... 10. The Cardellino, Tribune, Uffizi 11. Virgin in the Meadow, Vienna .... 12. Holy Family and Palm tree, Bridgewater House .... 13. Holy Family, St. Peters- burg 14. Virgin and Child, Due d'Aumale .... 15. Canigiani Raphael, Munich .... 16. Virgin with the Pink, a copy ...... 17. Madonna of the Casa Tempi, Munich 18. Virgin and Sleeping Child 19. Virgin and Child, Par.s- hangcr .... 20. Colonna Madonna, Berlin PACE 472 21. 22. 472 23. 472 24. 25. 472 26. 472 27. 478 28. 29. 478 30. 478 31 32 47 S 33 34. 35 478 36. 37 478 38 39 478 40 478 41 42 478 43 478 44 478 45 46 478 47 478 48 P.iGK La Belle Jardiniere, Louvre .... 483 Del Baldacchino, Florence 483 Madrid Gallery ... 483 Wendelstadt .... 483 Loreto 483 Casa d'Alba, St. Peters- burg 483 Garvagh, Nat. Gallery 483 Diademe, Louvre . . 483 Madonna di Foligno, Rome 483 Bridge water Gallery, London .... 483 . Formerly Rogers, London 483 Divin' Amore, Naples . 483 , Del Posce, Jladrid . . 483 Delia Sedia, Florence . 483 . Delia Tenda, Munich . 483 Under the Oak, Madrid . 520 , The Pearl, Madrid . . 520 , Holy Family, Louvre . 520 Small Holy Family, Louvre .... 520 Di San Sisto, Dresden . 520 Dell' Impannata, Florence 520 , Riposo, Vienna . . . 520 , Madonna del Pnsseggio, London .... 520 . Viorge aux Candelabres . 520 , Madonna among Ruins . 520 , "Ecce Agnus Dei," London 520 , Delia Gatta, Naples . . 520 . ? Raphael, Uffizi, Florence 520 INTRODUCTION TO THE PEESENT EDITION. Z 2. 7 o 4^ K>« Kugler's ' Handbook of Painting ' was first published, in German, in the year 1837.* In 1851 an English translation of that part of it which relates to the Italian schools was edited by an eminent critic, connoisseur, and scholar, the late Sir Charles Eastlake. The additions made to the knowledge of the lives and works of the early Italian painters by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's ' History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century,' rendered a new edition of the ' Handbook ' necessary. It was undertaken by Lady Eastlake, an accomplished writer, who was specially qualified for the task by an exceptional acquaintance with Art, and who enjoyed the additional advantage of the use of the careful notes on pictures and galleries made by her husband during frequent visits to Italy, chiefly when Director of the National Gallery. The ' Handbook,' revised and remodeled by her, was published in 1874, and has remained a standard work on the sulyect of which it treats. A book has, however, since appeared which may be con- sidered, in many respects, the most imj)ortant contribution ever made to the study of Art, and may be said to have caused a revolution in the history of Italian painting, and to have been the first successful attempt to give a sound and scientific basis to investigations into the genuineness of pictures ascribed to the Italian Masters. The work referred to was published in German, with the title of ' Die Werke ItalienischerMeister in den Galerien von Miinchen, Dresden und Berlin; ein kritischer Versucb von Ivan Lermolieif' — an anagram, with a Eussian termination, of the Author's name. He was not long able to maintain his disguise. The Russian enquirer, who ventured to dispute, so boldly, the * ' Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei von Constantin dem Grossen lis auf uiisere Zeit,' vou Franz Theodor Kugler. 2 vols. 8vo. Berlin. 1837. XVI INTKODUOTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. opinions and decisions of the most learned professors of Germany, and of others who claimed special knowledge on the subject, was soon identified with Signor Giovanni Morelli, a member of the Italian Senate who had taken a leading part, when a Deputy to the Italian Parliament, in legislative measures for the preservation to his country of works of art contained in churches and public institutions, and who was already known as the most distinguished of Italian critics and connoisseurs by his articles on the Borghese Gallery at Rome.* Signor Morelli has since allowed his name to appear as its author in an English translation of his book.f Signor Morelli's work caused a profound sensation — especially in Germany, where the study of Art is pursued with greater ardour, and upon more scientific principles, than in any other country. The novelty of his opinions, his method of analysis, and the unsparing way in which he destroyed the reputation of many famous pictures, and exposed the falsity of many time-honoured traditions in the history of painting, raised, at first, a storm of protests. But his views have now, for the most part, been accepted, and have even led to extensive changes in the naming and classing of pictures in the principal Gei'man galleries; whilst in England and elsewhere his method of investigation has been approved and adopted by the ablest writers on Art, In his own country he has founded a school of criticism, and has had many distinguished followers.^ * See * Kunst Kritische studien iiber Italienische Malerei die Galerien liorghese und Doria Panfili en Rom,' von Ivan Lermolieff, Leipsig, 1890. t ' Italian Masters in German Galleries. A critical essay on the Italian pictures in the Galleries of Munich, Dresden, Berlin, by Giovanni Morelli, member of the Italian Senate. Translated from the German by Mrs. Louise M. Eichter.' London: George Bell & Sons, 1883. An Italian translation, with some additional notes by the Author, still under the name of Lermolieff, has recently been published at Bologna. It is to be wished that Signor Morelli could be persuaded to publish a work con- taining so rich a mine of knowledge in a different and more methodical form, and to make sucji additions to it from his boundless stores of in- formation as would render it still more useful to the Art-student. X Among them may be mentioned the late Signor Marco Minghetti, the eminent statesman, and, at one time, Italian Prime Minister, the autlior of a Life of Raphael receutlypublished ; the Marchese Visconti-Venosta, formerly Minister ior Foi-eign Affairs, the autlior of ' Una nuova critica dell' autica' INTEODUCTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. XVU The aj)pearance of a book of this importance alone would have rendered a revised edition of Kugler's work necessary. Moreover, many pictures mentioned in the ' Handbook ' as existing in churches and public edifices in Italy have been removed to local galleries and museums, and these changes of place required to be recorded. Again, some of the numerous and remarkable additions which have, of late years, been made to the National Gallery, now ranking among the first collections in Europe, especially as a chronological series illustrating the history of Italian painting and of its various schools, equally required notice.* In addition, recent researches in Italian Archives have brought to light facts and dates which disprove the statements of Vasari with respect to many artists whose biographies he wrote, and to the works he ascribes to them — statements which have been generally accepted as true by subsequent writers on Art.f The Editor has endeavoured, by making the necessary additions and corrections, to render the ' Handbook ' what it was originally intended to be — a help to the student of Art and a guide to the traveller. "With this object he has visited most of the galleries and churches mentioned in it. He has had the advantage of having been accompanied, on many occasions, in these visits by Signor Morelli himself, and of learning from his own lips his views of pictures and their authors. To information thus obtained orally from him, to his writings, and to his help in revising Herr Pittura Italiana,' published in the' Nuova Antologia,' v. xlvi. ; Dr. Gustavo Frizzoni, the author of several able works and essays on the Fine Arts, &c. To the north of" the Alps, among those who have accepted his views and ably supported them, are Dr. Jean Paul Richter, and Dr. Francis Wickhoff, Professor of Fine Arts in the University of Vienna. * The additions which have recently been made to thp National Gallery have enabled the Director to carry out a more systematic arrangement of the collection, according to schools, than had previously been possible, thus adding much to its usefulness to the art-student, and to the instruction to be derived from it by the general public. t The discoveries of Signor Gaetano Milanesi, the learned Sub-Director of the Florentine Archives, may be specially mentioned. They are principally embodied in notes and commentaries to the biographies of Vasari in Sansoni's edition of the works of that writer, Florence, 1878-1883. Re- searches similar to those of Signor Milanesi, and attended with similar results, have been made in other Italian archives, as by Professor Rossi At Perugia, Signor Venturi and the Marchese Camponi at Modena. Michel- angelo Gualandi at Bologna, &c. xviii INTRODUCTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. Kugler's work, tlie Editor is largely indebted for any new matter of value whicli he lias been able to add to the present edition of the ' Handbook.' The Editor has also to return thanks to Dr. Eichter for much valuable information. Whilst making such corrections with regard to the description, localities, and nomenclature of pictures as were required, the Editor has retained, in most instances, the judgment pronounced upon their merits and qualities by Herr Kugler, corroborated as it has been by Sir diaries and Lady Eastlake. It would, indeed, have been ijresnmp- tuous on his part to have made any changes in this respect. It will be observed that the division of the ' Handbook,' in previous editions, into " periods of development " has been abandoned, and, instead, separate and fuller descrip- tions have been given of the different schools of Italian painting with their branches — those painters which belong respectively to them being grouped together— from their earliest time to that in which they lost their distinctive characteristics, and were overwhelmed by that general flood of eclecticism which permeated Italy from the closing years of the sixteenth century. Each has its own history — its periods of rise, of development, and of decline, not always corresponding with those of contemporary schools — and each, consequently, should be treated separately. This the present Editor has attempted to do, especially as regards the schools of Northern Italy, the account of which he has re-written, partly from his own personal observations and inspection of pictures, and partly from new information concerning them recently published. He trusts that this edition of the 'Handbook' will consequently be more com- plete and more useful to the student than its predecessor. " Hard and fast lines " fixing periods of development are not to be drawn in the history of Art. They can, at best, be but arbitrary and unscientific. If any divisions are to be made, those suggested by Signer Morelli appear to be pre- ferable. The first, or, as he terms it, " heroic " period, ac- cording to him, is that in which the religious sentiment domi- nated the plastic faculty, and the painter ornamented the walls of churches with divine images, Biblical stories and the INTRODUCTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. XIX legends of saints, for the encouragement of piety ; and those of public edifices with symbols and subjects conveying moral precepts, intended to teach citizens the advantages of justice, good government, peace and concord. In the second period, the artist, giving himself up to the study of anatomy and perspective, endeavoured to imitate nature faithfully by attempting to produce the effect of relief by chiaroscuro, and to portray the exact proportions of the human form. This period, which the Italians style that of the " quattro-centisti," Signer Morelli terms that of " character," because the primary object of the painter was to seize and represent the moral and material character of persons and things. It was succeeded by that of the " Renaissance," in wliich the techni- cal processes of painting — principally owing to the use of oil as a vehicle — reached their greatest perfection. The artist now sought to raise the forms, closely imitated from nature by the " quattro-centisti," to the highest order of ideal beauty, and to give to the representation of the sentiments and atfections the utmost ideal grace and energy. This tliird period extends over the last ten years of the fifteenth century and the first thirty years of the sixteenth, and includes the greatest painters that Italy has produced. Then followed the era of mannerism, eclecticism and decline, and that of the Academies which proved fatal to Italian Art, and brought about its virtual extinction. All the Italian schools, like living organisms, have gone through, although not contemporaneously, these successive periods. Signer Morelli maintains that, in order to account for certain features and peculiarities which some schools and painters may have had in common, writers on Art have hitherto attached too mucli importance to the influence which one school is supposed to have had over another, or which foreigners — such as Van der Weydeu and other Flemings — may have had upon Italian artists. He has shown that although, at times, a great master like Giotto or Mantegna, may by the force of his genius have given an impulse and direction to contemporary ai-t, or a painter of one school may have learnt his technical methods from one of another, yet that each true school of painting in Italy, like the various XX INTRODUCTION TO THE PEESENT EDITION. dialects of tlie Italian language, was the spontaneous manifes- tation — the product, as it were — of the thoughts, feelings, traditions, and manners of the population of that part of the Peninsula in which it rose, and that it retained imtil it became extinct its general characteristics and types, which are to be traced in the works of all those who belonged to it, however much they may have been affected by influences from without. It is only by studying the history of each school, and the works of the painters it produced, that a full knowledge of the rise, development, and decline of Art in Italy can be acquired. This can be best done in local museums in which those works have been brought together — such, for instance, as the Brera for the Lombard School, the Verona Gallery for the Veronese, the Venice Academy for the Venetian, the Pinacoteca at Perugia for the Umbrian, that at Siena for the Sienese, &c.* The races from which the diverse populations of Italy originally sprang have not all shown the same aptitude for the Fine Arts. Whilst the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Venetians and the Lombards have been specially gifted in this respect, the Romans, Neapolitans, and Ligurians, or Piedmontese, have had no indigenous, distinctive schools of painting. The so-called Koman and Neapolitan schools did not owe their origin or development to native artists, nor has either of them produced a painter of eminence who did not derive his art from a foreign source. Piedmont is altogether without a s^chool of painting — those painters who came from Vercelli belonging to that of Lombardy. On the other hand, there is scarcely a town in the remaining parts of the Peninsula which has not produced artists of renown — painters, sculptors, or architects. The connection between race and art would form an interesting subject for study and investigation. The zones in which the Fine * The student of Italian art may consult with advantage the copies made for the Arundel Society of frescoes and pictures by Italian painters, exhibited at the Society's rooms (19 St. James's Street) and partly repro- duced in chromolithography. They illustrate the histories of the various schools of Italian painting from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries — from Cimahue to Tiepolo. INTRODUCTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. XXI Arts have flounshed, and those in which the populations have no natural disposition for them, might almost be marked out geographically on a map of Italy.* In adding, in some instances, to the pictures described in former editions as examples of different masters, the Editor has selected only such as are specially deserving of notice, or as have become known since the last edition was published. For a complete list of their works, which the ' Handbook ' does not pretend to give, the reader is referred to the ex- haustive volumes of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. It must not be forgotten that there are but few pictures by the old Italian Masters, whether in public or private collections, which have not undergone the fatal process of " restoration." Not only have the greater number of them been covered, more or less, with " re-paints," but they have also been rubbed down almost to the panel or canvas, under the pretence of reqtiiring preliminary cleaning, so that little of the original surface remains, and the work of the painter is alone seen in the composition. It is therefore, as Signer Morelli has pointed out, only by recognising peculiar and characteristic forms, such as those of the hand and fingers, of the foot, of the ear, &c., that a picture can be frequently ascribed to its true author. He consequently urges the study of original drawings and sketches by the old masters, which have not been tampered with, as affording the best materials for coming to a right judgment as to the genuineness of works attributed to them. This process of cleaning and restoration has everywhere prevailed, and every European collection unfortunately shows * See some interesting observations on this subject in Signor Morelli's introduction to ' Italian Masters in German Galleries.' He remarks, "Among the populations of old Italy that were mostly endowed with the sense of art, we count the Etruscans ; among those who were devoid of this feeling are the Latins. Hence the latter have produced great citizens, great legislators, statesmen, lawyers and warriors, but not a single national School of Art," p. 25.S, note. Messrs. Crowe and Caval- caselle (' Life of Raphael,' vol. i. pp. 4 and 5), give a list of the painters employed at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sis- teenth century, in the decoration of the Vatican: it does not include- a single artist of Roman origin, except Giulio Eotiiano, who was the pupil and follower and imitator of Eaphael, and who is far from taking a place in the first rank. xxii INTRODUCTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. the results of it. But in no country has it been more system- atically practised, and in none has it proved more destructive to the most noble works of Art, than in Italy. An official " restorer '' has been attached to most Italian public galleries — usually an ignorant dauber who has failed to become a painter, and has had sufficient influence to obtain the appoint- ment. As he is only paid, generally by the day, when em- ployed, he contrives that a picture should always be on his easel for cleaning and restoring, and when all those in the collection of which he has charge have gone through his hands, he commences anew with them. This state of things having existed for very many years — each freshly appointed " restorer " undoing and redoing the work of his predecessor — the little that may have remained of the original picture soon disappears altogether. Thus not only the pictures in the Academy and the Ducal Palace, but those in the churches at Venice and in the neighbourhood, have passed more than once into the repairing rooms of various suc- cessive official restorers, whose hands, rather than that of the master, may now bo traced in almost every picture of any importance in the Venetian territory. The celebrated altar-piece by Titian in the Church of the Fiari, with the portraits of the Pesaro family, has, it is believed, been " restored " seven times, and the important early work by the same great painter in the Church of the Salute — St. Mark enthroned — perhaps as many. They both underwent the operation so late as 1884. The once-splendid altar-piece by Giorcjione in the church of his native town, Castelfranco, retains little but the composition. Now that it is too late, an attempt is being m:ide by the Italian Government to put a stop to this work of destruction. Tlie student and traveller should bear these facts in mind when contemplating, with feelings of disappointment, some renowned picture which may once have excited universal admiration by its brilliant colouring and for beauty and refinement of expression — two qualities which, the most precious in a work of painting, are the first to disappear under the brush of the "restorer." They should also be placed upon their guard against the fabrication of ' pictures by the old masters ' and the falsifipj^,- INTRODUCTION TO THE PRESENT EDITION. XXlll fcion of their signatures — practices which have been carried on in Italy with no little skill and success from oven the time at which those masters lived up to the present day. Sir Charles Eastlake's valuable Preface to the fii'st English translation of the ' Handbook,' treating of the character and end of Art, lias been retained in the present edition, and his notes are still indicated by his initials, C.L.E. Numerous illustrations have been added to these volumes, mostly of the works of the principal Italian Masters of the sixteenth century, who were not adequately represented in the previous editions. In order not to increase inconveniently the size of the ' Handbook ' by the addition of fresh matter, the Editor has curtailed the descriptions of early Christian mosaics and catacomb wall-paintings, contributed by Dr. Jacob Burckhardt to the German edition of 1847, which, however valuable and interesting, belong rather to the domain of archaeology than to that of Art. The Editor himself has endeavoured to make the index to these volumes as full and complete as possible ; for without such an index a work of this nature loses much of its value. A. Henky Layard. Venice, 1886. PREFACE BY SIE CHARLES L. EASTLAKE TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. In tracing the history of Painting and the differeat character of its schools, we find that an equal measure of the world's approbation has been sometimes awarded to productions apparently opposite in their style and aim. This is not to be explained by the variety of tastes in connoisseurs ; for, allowing for all individual and peculiar predilections, the approbation in question may be admitted to be universal. This admission supposes the existence of some less mutable criterion ; and it is therefore important to inquire what are its grounds. Considered generally, the Arts are assumed to have a common character and end : this principle is, however, too vague and unde- fined to meet the question we have started. The opposite process — the discrimination of the different means by which a common end is arrived at — will be found to lead to more definite and in- telligible results. In all the Fine Arts some external attraction, some element of beauty, is the vehicle of mental pleasure or moral interest ; but in considering the special form, or means, of any one of the Arts, as distinguished from the rest, the excellence of each will be found not to arise from the qualities which it possesses in common with its rivals, but from those qualities which are peculiar to itself. We thus comprehend why various schools have attained great celebrity in spite of certain defects. It is because their defects are generally such as other modes of expression could easily and better supply : their excellences, on the contrary, are their own, and not to be attained except in the form of art proper to them. Such ex- cellences constitute what may be called Specific Style. Accordingly, it may always be assumed that pictures of aclcnow- ledged merit, of whatever school, owe their reputation to the display of qualities that belong to the art of Painting. In histories of painting these merits are often attempted to be conveyed XX vi PREFACE TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. in words, and the mode in which language endeavours to give an equivalent for the impressions produced by a picture is at once an illustration of the above principles. The changes of time, of motion, the imagined interchange of speech, the comparison with things not present— all facts beyond the scope of a silent, stationary, and immutable Art — are resorted to without scruple in describing pictures ; and yet the description does not therefore strike us as untrue. It will immediately be seen that the same liberty is allowable and necessary when representation enters into rivalry with description. The eye has its own poetry ; and as the mute lan- guage of nature in its simultaneous effect (the indispensable con- dition of harmony) produces impressions which words restricted to mere succession can but imperfectly embody, so the finest qualities of the formative arts are tliose which language cannot adequately convey.* On the same grounds it must be apparent that a servile attention to the letter of description, such as accuracy of historic details, exactness of costume, &c., are not essential in them- selves, but are valuable only in proportion as they assist the purposes of the art, or produce an effect on the imagioation. This may sufficiently explain why an inattention to these points, on the part of great painters (and poets, as compared with mere historians), has interfered so little with their reputation. In this instance, while the powers of Painting are opposed to those of language generally, they are, on the same principle, distinguished in many respects from those of Poetry ; and in like manner, if we suppose a comparison with Sculi)ture, or with any other imitative art, the strength of Painting will still be found to consist in the attributes proper to itself. Of those attributes, some may be more prominent in one school, some in another ; but they are all valued in proportion as they are characteristic — because, in short, the results are unattainable in the same perfection by any other means. The principle here dwelt on with regard to Painting is equally applicable to all the Fine Arts : each art, as such, is raised by raising its characteristic qualities; each displays those means of expression in which its rivals are deficient, in order to compensate for those in which its rivals surpass it. The principle extends even to the rivalry of the formative Arts generally with nature. The absence of sound, and of progressive action, is supplied by a mxore significant,mute,and momen- tary appearance. The arrangement which, apparently artless, fixes the attention on important points, the emphasison essential as opposed to adventitious qualities, the power of selecting expressive forms, of * See Lessing's ' Laokoon.' Compare Harris, ' Three Treatises^' Loadon, 1744 PREFACE TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. xxvii arresting evanescent beauties, are all prerogatives and resources by means of which a feel)le imitation successfully contends even with its great archetype. As this selection and adaptation are the qualities in which imitation, as opposed to nature, is strong, so any approach to literal rivalry is, as usual, in danger of betraying comparative weak- ness. Could the imitation of living objects, for example, in Painting or in Sculpture, be carried to absolute deception as regards tiieir mere surface, we should only be the more reminded that life and motion were wanting. On the other hand, relative completeness, or that consistency of convention which suggests no want — thetest of style — is attainable in the minuter as well as in the larger view of nature, and may be found in some of the Dutch as well as in the Italian masters. Even the elements of beauty, incompatible as they might seem to be with the subjects commonly treated by the Dutch, are found to reside in charm of colour, tone, chiaroscuro, and in other qualities. The rivalry of the Arts with Xature thus suggests the definition of their general style. The rivalry of Art with Art points out their specific style. Both relate to the means. The end of the Arts is defined not only by their general nature, but by the consideration to whom they are addressed. The necessity of appealing, directly or indirectly, to human sympathies, as distinguished from those asso- ciations and impressions which are the result of partial or peculiar study, tends to correct an exaggerated and exclusive attention to specific style, inasmuch as the end in question is more or less common to all the Fine Arts. The Genius of Painting might award the palm to Titian, but human beings would be more interested with the productions of Baphad. The claims of the different schools are thus ultimately balanced by the degrees in which they satisfy the mind ; but as the enlightened observer is apt to form his con- clusions by this latter standard alone, it has been the object of these remarks to invite his attention more especially to the excellence c^f the Art itself, on which the celebrity of every school moi'e or less depends, and which, whatever be its themes, recommends itself by the evidence of mental labour, and in the end increases the sum of mental pleasure. Next to the nature of the art itself, the influence of religion, of social and political relations, and of letters, the modifying circum- stances of climate and of place, the character of a nation, a school, and an individual, and even the particular object of a particular painter, are to be taken into accoimt, and open fresh sources of interest. With the cultivated observer, indeed, these associations are again in danger at first of superseding the consideration of the art XXVlll PREFACE TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. as siich ; but by whatever means attention is invited, the judgment is gradually exercised, and the eye unconsciously educated. In avoiding too precise a definition of the end of Art, it may nevertheless be well to remember, that so great a difference in the highest moral interests as that which existed between the Pagan and Christian world must of necessity involve important modifica- tions, even in the physical elements of imitation. However im- posing were the ideas of beauty and of power which the Pagan arrived at, by looking around but not above him, by deriving his religion as well as his taste from the perfect attributes of life throughout nature, the Christian definition of the human being, at least, must be admitted to rest on more just and comprehensive re- lations. It is true the general character of the art itself is un- changeable, and that character was never more accurately defined than in the sculpture of the ancient Greeks ; but new human feel- ings demanded corresponding means of expression, and it was chiefly reserved for Painting to embody them. That art, as treated by the great modern masters, had not, like Sculpture, a complete model in classic examples, and was thus essentially a modern creation. The qualities in which it is distinguished from the remaining specimen^ of classic Painting are, in fact, nearly identified with those which conutitute its specific style. Hence, when carried to a perfection probably unknown to the ancients, and purified by a spiritual aim, the result sometimes became the worthy auxiliary of a religion that hallows, but by no means interdicts, the admiration of nature. ' The consideration of the influence of Religion on the Arts forces itself on the attention in investigating the progress of Painting, since so large a proportion of its creations was devoted to the ser- vice of the Church — in many instances, we fear we must add, the service of superstition. Yet the difference or abuse of creeds may be said in most cases to affect works of art only in their extrinsic conditions ; the great painters were so generally penetrated with the spirit of the faith they illustrated, that the most unworthy sub- jects were often the vehicles of feelings to which all classes of Christians are more or less alive. The implicit recognition of apocryphal authorities is, however, not to be dissembled. Indeed some acquaintance with the legends and superstitions of the Middje Ages is as necessary to the intelligence of the contemporary works of art as the knowledge of the heathen mythology is to explain the subjects of Greek vases and marbles. Certain themes belong more especially to particular times and places ; such are the incidents from the lives of the Saints, the predilection for which varied with PREFACE TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. XXlx the devotional spirit of the age, and the habits of different countries and districts, to say nothing of successive canonizations.* Even Scripture subjects had thuir epochs : at first the dread of idolatry had the effect of introducing and consecrating a system of merely typical representation, and hence the characters and events of the Old Testament were long preferred to those of the New. The cycle from the latter, though augmented, hke the Bible series generally, from apocryphal sources, was from first to last comparatively re- stricted, many subjects remaining untouched even in the best ages of Art. This is again to be explained by rememberin::, that while iihe scenes and personages of the Old Testament were understood to ^e figurative, those of the New were regarded as objects of direct edification, or even of homage, and hence were selected with caution. f In general, the incidents that exemplified the leading dogmas of faith were chosen in preference to others, and thus the Arts became the index of the tenets that were prominent at different periods. The selection, or at least the treatment, of subjects from the Gospels, may have been regulated in some instances also by their assumed correspondence with certain prophecies ; indeed, the cir- cumstances alluded to iu the predictions of the Old Testament are not unfrequently blended in pictures with the facts of the New. The subjects called the Deposition from the Cross, and the Pieta (the dead Christ mourned by the Marys and Disciples, or by the Madonna alone), may be thus explained % Hence, too, the never- faihng accompaniments of the Nativity ;§ hence the " Wise Men " iire represented as kings,|| and the Flight into Egypt is attended with the destruction of the idols.l" Subjects of this class were Sometimes combined in regular cycles, which, in the form they fissumed after the revival of Art, probably had tlieir origin in the selection of meditations for the Rosary (instituted in the thirteenth * Iu altar-pieces it was common to represent Saints who lived in different ages, assembled round the enthroned Virgin and Child. This is not to be considered an anachronism, since it rather represented a heavenly than an earthly assembly. Many pictures of the kind in churches were the pro- perty or gift of private individuals, and in this case the selection of the Saints rested with the original proprietor. •f " Picturae ecclesiarum sunt quasi libri laicorum," is the observation of a writer of the twelfth century. — Comestor, Histvria Scholastica (Hist. Evang. c. 5). X Zechariah xii. 10. § Isaiah i. 3. II Psalm Ixxii. 10, 11. Certain accessories in pictures of this subject are derived from Isaiah Ix. 6. ^ Isaiah xix. 1. (See Comestor, Hist. Evang. c. 10.) The incident may have been directly borrowed from an apocryphal source, the 'Evangelium Infantiae.' Circumstances adopted fi'om similar authorities were sometimes interwoven with the subjects of the New Testament. XXX PREFACE TO FIRST ENGLISPI EDITION. century) : among these were the " Joys "* and " Sorrows "f of the Virgin, and the principal events of the Passion.J Other themes common at the same time had their appropriate application : the History of St. John the Baptist was the constant subject in Baptis- teries ; the chapels especially dedicated to the Virgin were adorned with scenes from her life ; § the hosts of heaven, " Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,"|| were sometimes in- troduced in cupolas : but the more customary subjects were the Ascension of Christ and the Assumption of the Virgin.^ The sub- jects of the Old Testament were universally considered as types: their assumed ulterior meaning is frequently explained in glosses of * 1. The Annunciatiou. 2. The Visitation. 3. The Nativity. 4. The Adoration of the Kings. 5. The Presentation in the Temple. 6. Christ found by his Mother in the Temple. 7. The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin. + 1. The Prophecy of Simeon (Luke ii. 35). 2. The Flight into Egypt. 3. Christ, while disputing with the Doctors in the 'J'emple, missed by his Mother. 4. Christ betrayed. 5. The Crucifixion (the Virgin and St. John only present). 6. The Deposition from the Cross. 7. The Ascension (the Virgin left on earth). X The ' Seven Hours of the Passion ' were : — 1. The Last Supper. 2. The Agony in the Garden. 3. Christ before Caiaphas. 4. Christ before Herod. 5. Christ crowned with Thorns. 6. Pilate washing his Hands, 7. The Crucifixion (the centurion and others present). The more complete series contained, in addition to these and other subjects : — The Flagellation. The Ecce Homo. The procession to Calvary, or Christ bearing his Cross. The Entombment. The Descent into Limbus. The Resurrection. The Life of Christ contained, in addition to many of the above, the Baptism and Trans- figuration. The Life of the Virgin, though interwoven with that of Christ, formed, for the most part, a distinct series. The subjects of all these cycles varied in number, perhaps accordingl}"^ as they were separately or collectedly adapted to the divisions of the Rosary and Corona. The ' Speculum Salva- tionis ' (Augsburg edition) assigns seven to each of the first three series in the above oi'der. The more ordinary division was five for each. § See the ' Evangelium de Nativitate Marias,' and the ' Protevangelium Jacobi.' The subjects from the history of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin (painted by Taddco Gaddi, Domcnico Ghirlandajo, Gaudenzio Ferrari, and others), are chiefly in the latter. II The orders of angels, as represented by the Italian pninters, appear to have been derived from a treatise 'De Hierarchia coelesti ' (c. 7-11), which bears the name of Dionysius Areopagita, and may be traced to Jewish sources. St. Thomas Aquinas (after Dionysius) gives the nine orders of angels as follows : " Seraphim, Cherubim, Throni, Dominationes, Virtutes, Potestates, Principatus, Archangel!, Angeli." Vasari ventured to cover a ceiling in Florence with " Illustrations " of a still profounder lore — the Cabala. See his ' Kagiouamenti ' (Gior. 1). Compare Brucker, ' Hist. Philosophise.' ^ This last subject frequently adorned the high altar. The subject of the Death of the Virgin, which occurs iuMSS. of the Middle Ages, as well as in pictures of later date, was gradually superseded by it. For the legend, see the * Flos Sanctorum ' (Aug. 25) and the ' Aurea Legenda; ' both give the early authorities. PREFACE TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. xxxi MS. Bibles, and in the ' Corapendiums of Theology' which were in the hands of all ecclesiastics. These commentaries contained much that may be traced to the early Fathers ; but during and after the revival of Art they were more immediately derived from the wholastic theologians,* whose writings appear to have had consider- able influence on the sacred Painting of Italy and Europe. * The most renowned of these doctors were of tlie Dominican order (de' Predicatori) ; the same fraternity afterwards boasted some distinguished painters (^Angelico da Fiesole, Fra Bartolommeo, &c.), and on many accounts may be considered the chief medium of communication between the Church and its handmaid. Art. Among the earlier commentaries on Scripture evidently consulted by the painters, was the ' Historia Scholastica ' of Comestor, already referred to. In the Editor's Preface to the second edition of this Handbook (and more especially in the reprint of that Preface in his * Contributions to the Litera- ture of the Fine Arts'), some works were enumerated which treat, more or less fully, of the Iconography and Legends of the Saints. But all such works may, in relation to these subjects, be now considered superseded by Mrs. Jameson's ' Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art.' The first two volumes contain the legends of the Saints, Martyrs, &c. ; the thud (a separate work), the legends of the Monastic Orders ; the remaining portion of the work treats of the history and legends of the Madonna. HANDBOOK OP PAINTING IN ITALY, CHAPTER I. EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. Greek art sprang from Greek religion. It was art wbicli gave the Gods form, cliaracter, and reality. The statue of Jui)iter Olympius brought the Father of the Gods him- self before the eyes of men. He was deemed unfortunate who died without beholding that statue. Art, among the Greeks, was an occupation of a priestly character : as it belonged to her to lift the veil of mystery which concealed the Gods, so was it also her office to exalt and consecrate the human forms under which they could alone be repre- sented. The image of the God was no mere copy from common and variable life ; it was stamped with a sujicr- natural grandeur which raised the mind to a higher world. In subjugating the territories of Greece to their dominion, the Eomans had also reduced Grecian civilization and Grecian art to their service. Wherever their legions ex- tended, these followed in their train. Wherever their splendid and colossal works, whether for public or private purposes, were carried on, Greek art, or such art as owed its invention originally to the Greeks, was called into re- quisition. Every object of daily use bore its own particular impress of art. That which had been the natnral product of the Grecian national mind, now, detached from its A 2 EAELY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. original home and purposes, assumed a more general character. The Grecian ideal of beauty became the ideal of all beauty. The types of Grecian art furnished the materials for a universal alphabet of art. And although that charm of beauty which is shed over the creations of the highest period of Greek art necessarily departed from lier when she was led forth a wanderer among nations, yet the more general principles of form and proportion had been too firmly laid down to be easily alienated. Wherever she was seen, whether in the most barbaric luxury or in the vilest corruption of Roman life, some po/tion of that religious feeling which had given her birth was found cleaving to her outward forms ; and wherever these appeared, a world, peopled with beings, divine and heroic, met the eyes of the beholder. True to her calling, Art remained the most powerful prop of the old faith. The light of Christianity now broke upon the world, proclaiming the truth of the one God, and of His Son our Saviour, and exposing the lie of Heathenism. A way had to be prepared for the spiritual renewal of mankind. Christianity addressed herself to tbe inner man alone. Unlike the religions of Heathendom, she needed no direct alliance with art. From art, such as it then was, asso- ciated and bound up with the very spirit of Heathenism, Christianity could only shrink with horror; and as it was well known what important service, nay, what essential support, Paganism had derived from it, so, in the struggle of the early Christians against the old idolatry, the art which had sustained it became equally the object of their aversion. The carvers of graven images were looked upon as tho servants and emissaries of Satnn. Whoever carried on this hateful calling was declared unworthy of the cleansiug waters of baptism ; whoever, when baptized, returned to his old vocation, was expelled from the community. There is no doubt that the circumstances of the times favoured these interdicts. The Gentile converts were at first poor and obscure ; the Jewish converts, by law and long habit, were debarred most forms of art. As the Christian community advanced in power .and included more Chap. I.j THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 3 wealthy classes, the need for art, as well as its instincts, in the minds of a race surrounded with classic objects, gradually revived. And even before this happier period had arrived, in the times of oppression and neglect, the natural instinct had not been totally extinguished. The life and manners of Paganism had been too closely interwoven with artistic forms for the followers of the new faith entirely to dis- engage themselves from them. Almost every utensil of common life had its established shape and its figurative ornament, bearing not only the charm of grace, but the impress of an allegorical meaning. Imperative, therefore, as it was to the early Christian to banish from his new life every object of his former idol worship, however ex- quisite in construction, it was not so absolutely necessary to renounce those which were innocent in purpose. But even in these instances all the allegorical designs with which they were enriched had been borrowed from the pagan mythology. The eagle and the thunderbolt, the symbols of power, were the attributes of Jove. The rod with the two serpents indicated commerce, because Mercury was the God of traffic. The club, the emblem of strength, was originally the attribute of Hercules. The griffin, which appears so often in the decoration of antique objects, was sacred to Apollo. The symbol of the sphinx was taken from the fable of GEdipus. Thus allegorical representa- tions could not be retained in the dwellings of Christians without reminding them of a mythology which they re- pudiated. It was possible, however, to substitute others which stood not only in no connection with the ancient idolatry, but, on the contrary, bespoke the owner's acquies- cence in the new doctrine The Oriental mode of teaching by means of parables with which the Bible abounds, supplied an abundance of subjects. Symbolical forms were taken directly from Scriptural illustrations : others were conceived in a similar spirit ; here and there some which bore no direct allusion to the old mytholouy, or admitted of a Christian interpretation, were retained in the antique form. Thus a numerous class of Christian symbols sprang up 4 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. vvhicli gave at once a higher character to those ohjeots of common life to which they were applied, and became also a sign of recognition among the members of the new faith. It was natural that early piety should seek some more direct representation of the person of the Eedeemer, though still under a symbolical iigure. The words of Christ Himself soon pointed out a proper choice of subject. He had said, " I am the Good Shej)herd." He had told His disciples of the shepherd who went into the wilderness to seek the lost sheep, and when he had found it, carried it home rejoicing upon his shoulders. He it was whom the Prophets had announced under this iigure. Christ was, therefore, por- trayed as the Good Shepherd, and innumerable are the speci- mens of the early Christian works of art, of every form, including even statues, in which we find Him thus repre- sented. Sometimes He appears in the midst of His flock, alone or with companions, caressing a sheep, or with a shepherd's pipe in His hand, sometimes sorrowing for the lost sheep, and again bearing the recovered one upon His shoulders (see woodcut, p. 8). This last mode of representation is the most frequent, and even so early as Tertullian's time (second century), was generally adopted for the glass chalices used in the sacrament and love-feasts. The Saviour is usually represented as a youth, occasionally as a bearded man, in simple succinct drapery ; often with the short mantle of the shepherd hanging over the shoulder. A graceful idyllic character pervades these designs which, under one aspect, were familiar to the Heathen. For Mercury, attired as a shepherd with a ram on his shoulders, was no uufiequent object in mythology, and in some instances has led to a confusion between the antique and Christian representa- tion. By the type of the Good Shepherd a further idea, that of pastoral life, was also suggested, as in a similar Gcene the introduction of naked boys, or genii, among the foliage and fruits of the vine, suggested the scenes of the vintage. The companion to the Good Shepherd, namely, Chi-ist as the fisherman, sometimes occurs. The Saviour is also allegorically depicted as umpire in the popular games (Agonothnctes), but not often, CEILING IX CAT.i'JOMB OF S. CALISTO, ROME. B 2 Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 5 A rare and, at first sigbt, strange emblem, which can only be interpreted as an allusion to the Saviour, is that of Orpheus captivating the wild beasts of the forest by the sound of his lyre. Tliis adoption of one of the personages of pagan mythology, as a fitting object for Christian con- templation, may also be accounted for by the high respect in which the purer Orphean precepts were held by the Fathers of the Christian Church, and by the analogy which was supposed to exist between the fable of Orpheus and the history of Christ, especially as seen in the taming influence of Christianity over the hearts of heathens and savages. In such examples Orpheus is represented in the Phrygian costume, in which later antique art always clothed him, seated with his lyre among trees, and surrounded with animals ; so far, therefore, a certain affinity may be traced between this emblem and that of the Good Shepherd. Mean- while, if, on the one hand, so daring a representation of the Saviour soon vanished before the further progress of the Christian Church, it may be observed, on the other, that many modes of expression of a more innocent kind belonging to ancient art, however closely associated with the ancient idolatry, long maintained their position. The most remarkable of this kind are those personifications of Nature under the human form which the materialism of the ancients had led them to adopt. Even to a late period of the middle ages a river is occasionally represented by a river-god, a mountain by a mountain-god, a city by a goddess with a mural crown. Night by a female figure with a torch and a star-bespangled robe, Heaven by a male figure throwing a veil in an arched form above his head. Many of these symbols may even be traced down as far as the thirteenth century. Other heathen forms, such for example, as those of naked boys or genii, which had been employed by later pagan art only for purposes of deco- ration, continue at least to the fifth century, and even the fable of Cupid and Psyche occurs upon Christian sarcophagi. The first images of Christ of which we read were not in the abodes of believers, but in those of heretics and 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. heathens — for exainijle, in the chapel of the Emperor Alexander Severus (ahout a.d. 230), where a figure of the Saviour, though here rather to be considered as an ideal representation than as a portrait,* stood next those of Apollonius of Tyana, of the patriarch Abraham, and of Orjiheus. Even Eusebius of Cesarea refused, on positive religious grounds, to procure for the sister of Constantino the Great a picture of Christ ; and a century later, St. Augustin declared that as regards the personal appearance of the Saviour nothing was known. Neverthe- less, the temptation to counterfeit a likeness of the Saviour was so great, that, in defiance of all theological scruples, the so-called portraits of Christ became common. The origin of them was alternately ascribed to a picture by Jesus himself, or by Pontius Pilate, or by St. Luke, or (according to later views) by Nicodemus; or, as founded upon some manifestly counterfeit, but still early manuscripts — such, for example, as the letter of Lentulus to the Roman Senate, not mentioned in any record earlier than the eleventh century ,f though believed to have been fabricated in the third. In this letter by Lentulus, who (though contrary to history) has been called the predecessor to Pontius Pilate in the government of Palestine, Christ is described as " A man of lofty stature, of serious and im- posing countenance, inspiring love as well as fear in those who behold Him. His hair is the colour of wine (meaning probably of a dark colour), straight, and without lustre as low as the ears, but thence glossy and curly, flowing upon the shoulders, and divided down the centre of the head, after the manner of the Nazarenes. The forehead is smooth and serene, the face without blemish, of a pleasant, slightly ruddy colour. The expression noble and engaging. Nose and mouth of perfect form ; the beard abundant, and of the same colour as the hair, parted in the middle. The * A very ancient, but much restored mosaic, in the Museo Cristiano in tlie Vatican, belonging possibly to the third century, gives us some idea of the style of physiognomy which the heathens attributed to Christ. It is a bearded head in profile, agreeing pi-etty much with the type of conn- touance given to the philosophers at that period. f Jn the writing's of Anselmus. Archbi.shnn of Cantftrbnrv. Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 7 eyes blue and brilliant. He is the most beautiful among the children of men." * Of similar character is the description given, about the middle of the eighth century, by John of Damascus, taken, as he avers, from ancient writers. " Jesus," he says, " was of stately height, with eyebrows that met together ; beautiful eyes, regular nose, the hair of His head somewhat curling, and of a beautiful colour, with black beard, and corn- yellow complexion like His mother (on which circumstance the greatest stress is laid), with long fingers," &c. Later descriptions are more embellished, and evidently follow, in some particulars, that type of the Saviour's countenance which painters had meanwhile adopted. Miraculous portraits, or as the expression was, " pictures of Christ, not made with hands," declared to have been imprinted upon His winding sheet, to have been impressed by Himself upon His robe, to have been left on thb cloth with whicli He wiped His face, and which He gave to St. Thomas (all of which legends long preceded both the fii"st and second story of St. Veronica),f so abounded, that in a general council held at Constantinople in the eighth century, it was found necessary to condemn them. What class of countenance may have been thus exhibited is unknown, but it is certain that a belief in a particular type of our Lord's features transmitted from an early time, is not corroborated by early works of art. Christ is seen under a form of ideal youthfulness, performing miracles, or, as a bearded man en- throned upon a symbolical figure of heaven, or standing on an eminence from which flow the four rivers of Paradise ; but in either case the patriarchs or apostles who accompany Him have generally precisely the same type of feature as Himself. The only peculiar feature most commonly seen in representations of our Lord, and those by no means the earliest, is the hair divided down the centre and the forked beard, though numerous examples might be cited where both * See Didron, ' Histoire de Dieu,' p. 229. t It was not till the middle ages that the legend of St. Veronica's hand- kerchief, on which the suffering Redeemer was supposed to have left the impression of His face, first arose. 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. these signs are absent, or are common to the attendant figures. It has been usual to point to two heads in the Eomau Catacombs, as the types of our Lord adopted by the early Christians ; but the one bears no sign of having been in- tended for Him, and the other (identified by the cruciform nimbus) is of the common and morose type which long prevailed in Byzantine works (see woodcut j. The earliest examples of Christian art that have been preserved to us are the wall paintings in the Roman Cata- combs. That the reader may have some idea of the sub- jects and mode of arrangement and treatment of these paintings, we give a woodcut of a ceiling in the Catacomb of S. Calisto. They represent events which illustrate the evangelical ideas of regeneration of life, and resurrection from the dead, and also the power of Christ to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and raise the dead, all centring in His figure as the Good Shepherd carrying His sheep. Five of the subjects are from the Old Testament, three from the New ; as follows : — Noah in the ark, with arms extended, welcoming the dove; the ark being a mere box floating in a boat. Moses striking the rock. Jonah ejected by the whale. Jonah swallowed by the whale. Daniel between the lions. Christ restoring Lazarus to life. The miracle of the loaves. The lame man made whole and taking up his bed. The birds and fruits in the inner circle have been inter- preted as the human soul feeding on fruits of Paradise ; out are too identical with antique ornamentation to be strictly taken in such a sense. Our next plate shows two walls in a cubiculum in S. Calisto. On one, is seen Job seated, Daniel between the lions, and Moses unbinding his sandals. On the other is a woman in attitude oi prayer, next her Noah welcoming the dove, and Christ raising Lazarus. Beneath, in a limette, we see Elijah taken up to heaven, dropping his mantle to Elisha ; the other figure is probably one of the youths. Painting on wall of a chamber, left of entrance, in the Catacomb of S. Calisto, representing DAXIEL, JOB, and MOSES. _^'S ^S-^h-M-ii.ivn.tNfati. Paintings on wall of a chamber, right of entrance, in the Catacomb of S. Calisto. representing ELIJAH, a Figure in-the attitude of Prayer, XOAH IN THE AKK, and THE R.USING OF LAZARUS. p. 8. ■^iM D,0N is- jn-c,mDiom§JjS^ HEAD OF CHRIST ; from the Catacomb of S. Ponziano, in Rome. p. a % Eh C a a a '3 Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 9 Another painting in the Catacombs of S. Calisto de- serves mention for its antique stylo of beauty. "Within and above the arch of one of the recesses are seen eleven little genii, encircled with vine tendrils, eagerly occupied in the labours of the vintage. In the recess itself appears a figure, interpreted as Christ, with a scroll in his left hand, turn- ing with the air of a teacher towards a number of hearers. Thus it was, that the spirit of Christianity succeeded in infusing itself into the forms of ancient art. And it is highly important to observe bow the system of early Christian symbolism, by the deeper meaning which it sug- gests to the mind of the spectator, unites itself to the spirit of the later Pagan art, in which the subjects of ancient fable, considered as emblems, were merely vehicles for a general idea. Much, therefore, as the higher feeling for power, richness, and beauty of form, as such, had departed from art in the later period of the Empire — much as the outward expression of art at that time, like the forms of government and habits of life, appears for the most part only fit to be likened to a broken vessel or a cast-off garment — yet, in the formal simplicity of the Catacomb paintings, in the peaceful earnestness of their forms, in their simple expression of a spiritual meaning, to the exclusion of any other aim, we recognise a spirit which contrasts refreshingly with the affectation of later pagan works. As regards the state of art under Constantino the Great, there are many works which give us a far higher idea of its technical processes and resources than the clumsy and ugly sculpture upon the probably hastily-erected Arch of Constantino. Great as was the deterioration of ancient art, there still remained too much vigour in its tradition of manv centuries not to conceal here and there the reality of its decline. It is true the old laws which regulated the dravy- ing of the human figure bad already been much neglected. The heads and extremities upon the sculptured sarcophagi are too large. In painting, on the other hand, the pro- portions are too long. The positions and motives * in both * [This word, fiimiliar as it is in the technical phraseology of other lan- guages, is not yet generally adoj.ted in our own, and hence some apology 10 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Cuap. 1. are too conventional. The marking of the joints is defective and the drapery, though here and there finely felt, is weak in execution ; nevertheless we are sometimes agreeably sur- prised by a spiritedly conceived figure. In point of deco- ration, too, we observe for a length of time a certain grace, though no actual beauty ; while in neatness of execution, for example in the ivory Diptychs, nothing better is to be found in similar works even of the best period. Further, it must be borne in mind that, as compared with the gigantic works of Constantino's time, described by Eusebius and Anastasiue, such relics as have descended to us can only be regarded as very inadequate specimens ; for we may take it as a rule that the Catacomb pictures of that time belong, without exception, to the more unimportant class of works. To form, as far as possible, a just conception of this epoch of art, we shall, in the course of the ensuing pages, especially call the attention of the reader to such works as, however late in their own date, may be with proba- bility considered as repetitions or imitations of the produc- tions of the fourth century. With the general recognition of Christianity as the re- ligion of the State, followed also the introduction of paint- ing into the vast Basilicas and other churches of the new faith, where walls, cupolas, and altars were soon decorated with the utmost splendour. Not content, also, with the rich treasury of Scriptural subjects. Christian art sought her may be necessary for employing it as above. It may often be rendered intention, but has a fuller meaning. In its ordinary application, and as generally used by the author, it means the principle of action, attitude, and composition in a single figure or group ; thus it has been observed, that in some antique gems which are defective in execution, the motives are frequently fine. Such qualities in this case may have been the result of the artist's feeling, but in servile copies like those of the Byzantine artists the motives could only belong to the original inventor. In its more extended signification the term comprehends invention generally, as dis- tinguished from execution. Another very different and less general sense in which this expression is also used, must not be confounded with the foregoing ; thus a motive is sometimes understood in the sense of a sugges- tion. It is said, for example, that Poussin found the motives of his land- scape compositions at TivoJi. In this case we have a suggestion improved and carried out ; in the copies of the Byzantine artists we have intentiont not their own, blindly transmitted. — C. L. E.] Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 11 materials in the wide circle of saintly history, nor hesitated oven to avail herself of the persons of distinguished living characters. Circumstantial inscriptions, ornamentally dis- posed, were now adopted to explain the meaning of the picture, and in smaller churches were eventually substituted for them. The technical processes in vogue at Byzantium, at the time when the city assumed its present name, and elsewhere, consisted at first in such as had hitherto been used for wall paintings — namely, in tempera * and encaustic. During the fourth century, however, mosaic, which had hitherto been restricted more particularly to pavements, began to be preferred for the walls of churches and even of palaces — a circumstance to which we are exclusively indebted for the preservation of a number of early Christian subjects of the first class. Mosaic-work, or the placing together of small cubes of stone, terra-cotta, and, later, of vitrified substances of various colours, for decorations and figures, on the principles of ordinary painting, was an invention of the sumptuous Alex- andrian age, during which a prodigality of form and material began to corrupt the simplicity of Grecian art. According to general tradition, the application of mosaic as an orna- ment for pavements commenced in the close, imitation of inanimate objects, such as broken food and scattered articles, lying apparently upon the floor — thence proceeded in rapid progress to large historical compositions, and, under the first emperors, attained the highest technical development and refinement. It was subsequent to this that it first came into use as a decoration for walls.f Under the protection of * A more or less glutinous medium, soluble at first in water, with which the colours were applied. f The temples, baths, and palaces of the later emperors contained in- numerable wall-paintings, stuccoes, mosaic work on ceilmgs and walls, and mosaic pavements. Pliuy tells us (xxxvi. 64) that mosaic work, proceeding, as it were, upwards from the pavements, had recently taken possession of the arches above them, and had, since then, been made of vitrified substances ; also that mosaic work had been made capable of expressing- every colour, and that these materials were as applicable for the purposes of painting as any other. *' The Capitoline Museum in Rome contains some large wall-pictures formed of glass tesserae found in a house on 12 EARTiY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. tlie Eoman dominion this peculiar art spread itself over the ancient world, and was executed in the same manner upon the Euphrates, on Mount Atlas, and in Britain. The inherent defect of such pictures — the impossibility, from the almost mechanical manner in which they were wrought from the cartoon, of imparting to them any immediate expres- sion of feeling — appears, consistently with the Eoman love of solidity, to have been fully counterbalanced by their durability. The essential conditions of this branch of art — its restriction, as far as possible, to large and simple forms, its renunciation of rich and crowded compositions, and its indispensable requisite of general distinctness — have exercised, since the time of Constantino, an important in- fluence over the whole province of art. It must be remembered, however, that the style to which the materials and practice of this art necessarily and gradu- ally tended, may by no means be considered to have at- tained its highest perfection at the period of its first application to the walls and arches of Christian churches. The earliest, and the only Christian mosaics of the fourth century with which we are acquainted — those on the waggon-roof of the ambulatory of S. Costanza, near Rome * — belong essentially to the decorative schools of ancient the Quirinal Hill in 1878, which, as far as technique goes, are exactly similar to the mosaics of Christian times. Others of the same class were found on the barrel vault of the Cryptoporticus which connects the Flavian Palace with that of Caligula on the Palatine Hill." The discovery of these mosMCS has done much to supply the formerly missing link between the mosaics of classical times and those of the Byzantine Christians (see notice of this work in 2'he Saturday Review for June 4, 1887). Other specimens of Roman mosaic work, but of a purely decorative style without figures, have been discovered at Pompeii, such as the four pillars in the Naples Museum, and the mosaic fountains ; but it is strange that neither upon the arches of Diocletian's baths, nor upon those of any other edifices of this period, have any traces of painting in a material thus durable been found. Anastasius, in his Life of St. Sylvester, where he describes the splendid ecclesiastical buildings erected by Con- stantine, and numbers their scarcely credible amount of objects of decoration, is, curiously enough, entirely silent on the subject of mosaics. . * Kither built under Constantine as a baptistery for the neighbouring church of S. Agnese, or, soon after him, as a monumental chapel to his two daughters. The supposition of its being a temple of Bacchus, which the subjects of the mosaics had suggested, is now given up. Chap. I.] THE LATER EOMAN STYLE. 13 art, while their little genii, among vine-tendrils, on a white ground, stand on a parallel line of art with similar subjects in the Catacombs of S. Calisto of which we have given a specimen. In the fifth century historical mosaic painting attempted paths of development which it soon after and for ever renounced. Considered apart from those, at first frequent, early Christian symbols and Biblical allegories, which subsequently became less common, this style of art also essayed its powers in the line of animated historical composition. It was only by degrees that the range of its subjects became so narrowed as to comprehend only those where the arrangement was in the strictest symmetry, and the mode of conception, as regards single figures, of a tranquil statuesque character. But as our power of judgment here depends especially upon a knowledge of the transi- tions of style, we shall proceed chronologically, and point out the changes of subject as they occur. Fortunately for us, the dates of these changes are for the most part ac- curately defined. Here, however, as in the later times of heathen art, only very few artists' names appear— a circum- stance consistent with the moral condition of the world of art at that time. For it may be assumed that where, as in this case, the mind of the patron is chiefly intent upon a display of luxury and a prodigality of decoration, the fiime of the workman is sure to be obscured by the sj>len- dour of material execution. At the same time that artist who, in a period like the fourth and fifth centuries, could establish such a type of Christ as we shall have occasion to comment on in the church of SS. Cosnia and Damiano, well deserves to have had his name transmitted to posterity. The most numerous and valuable mosaics of the fifth and following centuries are found in the churches of Eome and Ravenna. The Bishopric of Rome, enriched beyond all others by the munificence of its emperors and the piety of private individuals, raised itself, more and more, into the principal scat of the hierarchy, while Ravenna, on the other hand, became successively the residence of the last members of the imperial Theodosian house, of several of the Ostrogoth (sovereigns, and finally of an orthodox c 2 14 EAELY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. Archbishop, whose power and dignity for a long time hardly yielded to that of the Papacy. Here it was that painting again united itself closely with architecture, and submitted to be guided by the latter not only in external arrangement, but in great measure also in direction of thought. In the generally circular or polygonal Baptisteries, the decoration of which was chiefly confined to the cupola, it was natural that the centre subject should represent the Baptism of Christ, round which the figures of the Apostles formed an outward circle. In the few larger churches, with cupolas and circular galleries, scarcely any traces of mosaics have been preserved, though we have reason to conclude that in their original state the decorations in this line of art exhibited peculiar beauties of conception and arrange- ment. In this we are supported by the chai-acter of the mosaics in the existing, and in some measure still perfect, Basilicas. This form of church-building had generally obtained in the East. It consisted in a principal oblong space, of three or five aisles, divided by rows of columns — the centre aisle loftier than the others, and terminating in one or more semi-domed tribunes or apsides, before which, in some instances, a transept was introduced. A gradation of surfaces was thus offered to the decorative painter, which, according to their relation with, or local vicinity to, the altar (always in front of the centre apsis), afforded an appropriate field for the following frequently recurring order of decoration. The chief apsis behind the altar, as the most sacred portion of the building, was almost invariably reserved for the colossal figure of the standing or enthroned Saviour, with the Apostles or the patron saints and founders of the church on either hand — in later times the Virgin was in- troduced next to Christ, or even alone in His stead. Above the chief figure appears generally a hand extended from the clouds, and holding a crown — an emblem of the Al- mighty power of the Father, whose representation in human form was then not tolerated. Underneath, in a narrow division, may be seen the Agnus Dei with twelve sheep, which are advancing on both sides from the gates of Jeru- Chap. I.] THE LATER EOMAN 8TYLE. 15 Balem and Betlileliem — a symbol of tlie twelve disciples, or of the Faithful generally. Above, and on each side of the arch which terminates the apsis, usually appear various subjects from the Apocalypse, referring to the Advent of our Lord. In the centre generally the Lamb, or the book with the seven seals upon the throne ; next to it the symbols of the Evangelists, the seven Candlesticks, and the four- and-twenty Elders, their arms outstretched in adoi-ation towards the Lamb. In the larger Basilicas where there is a transept before the apsis it is divided from the nave by a large arch, called the Arch of Triumph, upon which subjects from the Apocalypse were usually repre- sented. In addition to this, the clerestory of the centre aisle and the spandrils of the arches over the columns were seldom left, in the larger and more splendid Basilicas, without decoration. So few specimens, however, have been preserved, that it is not easy to arrive at any general con- clusion, though we have reason to believe that the decora- tions consisted of a series of Biblical scenes, or of a double procession of saints and martyrs, and in later ages of a set of portrait-heads of the popes. In the spandrils were introduced a variety of early Christian symbols. Of those representations of the Passion of our Lord, which, in the middle ages, occupied the high altar, no trace has yet been found; the idea of the Godhead of Christ having for ages taken precedence of that of His earthly career. For it lay in the very nature of an art derived from Pagan sources not to dwell on His human sufferings, but rather upon His almighty power. To which may be ascribed the fact that no representation of the Passion or crucifixion is traceable before the eighth century. The earliest mosaics of the fifth century with which we are acquainted, namely, the internal decorations of the baptistery of the cathedral at Eavenna, are, in respect of figures as well as ornament, among the most remarkable of their kind. Between splendid gold leaves and scrolls on a blue ground, are seen the figures of the eight prophets, which, in general conception, especially in the motives of the draperies, are in no way distinguishable from the later 16 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. autitiue works. Though the execution is light and bold, the cMaroscuro is throughout tolerably complete. At the base of the cupola is a rich circle of mosaics representing four altars, with the four open books of the Gospel, four thrones with crosses, eight Episcopal Sedilia beneath conch-niches, and eight elegant sculptured balustrades — between columns, behind which are trees and shrubs. All these subjects are divided symmetrically, and set in a frame- work of architecture of beautiful and almost Pompeian cha- racter. Within this circle appear the chief representations — the twelve Apostles^ bearing crowns; and in the centre, as a circular picture, the Baptism of Christ, which has been much and badly restored. The heads, like most of those in the Catacomb pictures, are somewhat small, and, at the same time, by no means youthfully ideal or abstract, but rather livingly individual, and even of that late Eoman character of ugliness so observable in the portraits of the time. In default of a definite type for the Apostles the first traces of which can at most be discerned in the figure of St. Peter, who appears with grey hair, though not as yet with a bald head — they are distinguished by inscriptions. Especially fine in conception and execution are the draperies, which, in their gentle flow and grandeur of massing, recall the best Eoman works. In the centre picture, the Baptism of Christ, the character of the nude is still easy and unconstrained, the lower part of the Saviour's figure being seen through the water — a mode of treating this subject which continued late into the middle ages. The head of Christ, with the long divided hair, corresponds in great measure with the description ascribed to Lentulus. Tne river Jordan, under the form of a river God, rises out of the water on the left in the act of pre- senting a cloth. The combined ornamental effect, the ar- rangement of the figures, and the delicate feeling for colour pervading the whole, enable us to form an idea of the genuine splendour and beauty which have been lost to the world in the destruction of the later decorated buildings of Imperial Rome. Of ft totally different description are those now much Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. restored mosaics, datiug from a.d. 432 to 440, which occupy the centre aisle aucl arch of triumph in S. Maria Maggiore at Eome. On the iipper walls of the centre aisle, in thirty-one pictures (those which are lost not included), are represented, on a small scale, incidents from the Old Testa- ment, with the histories of Moses and Joshua; while, on the arch of triumph, on each side of the apocalyptic throne, appear in several rows, one ahove the other, scenes from the life of Christ. In the freedom of historical composi- tion which characterises these mosaics they differ in no essential principle from the antique; however evident, in point of deficiency of keeping and drawing, in awkward- ness of action, and in the laborious crowding together of tho figures, the increasing inability of execution may appear. The cosiumes, especially of the warriors, are still of the ancient cast, and in single figures (particularly on the arcli of triumph) excellent in style, though, at the same time, not seen to advantage in this material on so small a scale. Outlines and shadows are strongly and boldly defined. Contemporary with these last examples, or, at all events, before A.D. 450, we may consider the rich decorations of the monumental chapel of the Empress Galla Placidia at Ravenna,* generally known as the church of SS. Nazzaro e Celso, preserved entire with all its mosaics, and, therefore, fitted to give us an idea of the general decorations of the ornamented buildings of that period. In the lunette over the entrance of the nave we observe the Good Shepherd, of very youthful character, seated among His flock ; while, in the chief lunette over the altar, Christ appears full length, with the flag of victory, burning the writings of Ihe heretics or of the philosophers. Upon the whole, the combination of symbols and historical characters in these mosaics evinces no definite principle or consistently carried out thought ; and, with the exception of the Good Shepherd, which approaches a classic model, the figures are of in- ferior character. At the same time, in point of decorative harmony, the effect of the whole is incomparable. Another * See the admirable coloured illustrations by Von Quiiit 18 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. 1. probably contemporary work, namely, the single apsis of tbe vestibule in the baptistery of the Lateran in Rome (of the time of Sixtus III., a.d, 432 to 440 ?), gives us a high idea of the fine feeling for decoration which was peculiar to this otherwise degenerate age. The semicircle of the apsis is filled with the most beautiful green-gold tendrils upon a dark-blue ground, above which the Agnus Dei appears with four doves. The age of Pope Leo the Great (a.d. 440 to 462) is distinguished by an imposing work, the conception of which is attributable probably to the Pope himself, and which became a favourite example for subsequent times, — we mean the mosaics on the arch of triumph in S. Paolo fuori le mura, in Rome, which partially survived the unfortunate fire in 1823, and have since undergone repair. Within a cruciform nimbus, and surrounded with rays, shines forth in the centre the colossal figure of the Saviour — the right hand raised, the left holding the sceptre. A delicately folded mantle of thin material covers the shoulder ; the form is stern, but grand in conception ; the eyebrows in finely arched half- circles above the widely opened eyes ; the nose in a straight Grecian line ; the mouth, which is left clear of all beard, closed with an expression of mild serenity, and the hair and beard divided in the centre. Above, in the clouds, on a smaller scale, are seen the four winged animals bearing the books of the Gospels ; lower down two angels (perhaps one of the earliest specimens of angel representation) are lowering their wands before the Redeemer, on each side of whom the four-and-twenty elders are humbly casting their crowns. Finally, below, appear, on the left, St. Paul and St. Peter. These mosaics may be considered to indicate in more than one respect a by no means unimportant transition period. The feeling for ancient art here only sounds, as it were, from a distance. The little naked genii, by a total change of intention give way now to the figures of angels, represented as tall and youthful forms, with wings, entirely draped, and occasionally indicated by their wands as messengers of God. The earlier Christian symbolism, with the idyllic scenery of the Good Shepherd, and the gay decorative forms Chap. L] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 19 of tlie genii of the vintage, have now passed away, and that fantastic mystifying element which has always accompanied all religious art, and has sought to express itself in characters, partly symbolical, partly real, here takes possession of that portion of the New Testament which, from the earliest Christian era, had been enthusiastically read and promulgated, namely, the Book of Eevelation. But, as in the history of the Saviour, only the aspect of His glory and not of His suffering was to be given, so in these Apocalyi)tic pictures it is not the forms of death and destruction which appear, but only those which, indicate the glorification of Christ and His people. For we are still in presence of a youthful Church, which required that the glory of her Lord should first be depicted ; and also in that of an art which, sunk and decrepit as it was, still retained enough of the strength and dignity of its better days to keep itself free from all that was monstrous and vague. During the worst times of the decline of the Western Empire, up to the period of Theodoric the Great, art appears to have remained in a stationary condition. The chief mosaics of the sixth century are, in point of conception, scarcely perceptibly inferior to those of the fifth, and in splendour of material by no means so. The distinctive difference between them can at most be traced in an in- creasing want of spirit, with the still gorgeous style of ornament, and in a somewhat altered treatment of colouring, drawing, and mode of shading. We commence this new class with the finest mosaics of ancient Christian Eome, those of the Church of SS. Cosma e Damiano (a.d. 526 to 530). Above the arch of the apsis appear, on each side of the Lamb, four angels of excellent but somewhat severe style. Then follow various Apocalyptic emblems: a modern walling-up having left but few traces of the figures of the four-and-twenty elders. A gold surface, with little purple clouds, forms the background ; which, in Eome, at least, at both an earlier and later date, was usually blue. In the apsis itself, upon a dark-blue ground, with golden-edged clouds, is seen the colossal figure of Christ, and above the hand extended from the clouds— 20 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. the emblem of the First Person of the Trinity. Below, on each side, the apostles Peter and Paul are leading towards the Saviour, SS. Cosmo and Damiauo, both with crowns in their hands and attired in the late Eoman dress, followed by St. Theodore on the right, and by Pope Felix IV., the founder of the church, on the left.* Two palm-trees, sparkling with gold, above one of which appears the emblem of eternity — the plioenix — close the composition on each side. Further below, indicated by water plants, sparkling also with gold, is the river Jordan. The figure of Christ may be regarded as one of the most marvellous specimens of the art of the middle ages. Countenance, attitude, and drapery combine to give Him an expression of quiet majesty, which, for many centuries after, is not found again in equal beauty and freedom. The drapery of this and other figures is disposed in noble folds, and only in its somewhat too ornate details is a farther departure from the antique observable. The high lights are brought out by gold and other sparkling materials, producing a gorgeous play of colour which re- lieves the figures vigorously from the dark blue ground. Altogether a feeling for colour is here displayed of which no later mosaics with gold grounds give any idea. The heads, with the exce2)tion of that of the principal figure, are animated and individual, though without any particiilar depth of ex- pression ; somewhat elderly also in physiognomy, but still far removed from any Byzantine stiffness. Under the chief composition, on a gold ground, is seen the Lamb upon a hill, with the four rivers of Paradise and the twelve sheep on either hand. The whole is executed with the utmost care; this is observable chiefly in the five or six gradations of tints which, in order to obtain the greatest possible soft- ness of shading, the artist has adopted. But, in spite of the high excellence of this work, it is precisely here that Ave can clearly discern in what respects the degeneracy and impoverishment of art first showed itself. Both here and in succeeding works but little action is exhibited. Eeal, animated, historical composition also * This figure has been entirely renewed. Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 21 in the higher sense, left its last, and, it is true, very imperfect memorial in the mosaics of the church of S. Maria Maggiore. With the exception of a few and constantly repeated Biblical scenes, we have henceforth only to do with the glory-subjects of the apsis, and with repre- sentations of ceremonials almost as lifeless. The slightly animated action also, which imparted to the figures some appearance of life, ceases with the seventh century, at wliich period an absolutely statuesque immobility of form commences; while the artist soon ceased to comprehend both the principles and the effects of natural movement. Not less characteristic of the rapid wane of art is the in- creasing age of the holy personages (with the exception of the Saviour, who nevertheless appears in the ripeness of man's estate), SS. Cosma and Damiano being rej)resentcd as men of fifty years of age. In Eavenna no mosaics of the Ostrogothic period have been preserved.* Even the picture of Theodoric the Great, on the front of his palace, which represented him on horse- back, with breastplate, shield, and lance, between the alle- gorical figures of Rome and Eavenna, has, like the mural piiiutings in his palace at Pavia^ entirely disappeared. It was not till towards the middle of the sixth century that mosaic painting recommenced in Eavenna; consequently, after the occupation of the city by the Byzantians in 539 — an event, however, which does not warrant the application of the term "Byzantine" to works of that period. The style of art is still of that late Eoman class which we have already described, and we have no reason to conclude that the artists belonged to a more Eastern school. Of doubtful age are the mosaics in S. Maria in Cosmedin, the Baptistery of the Arians, though the decoration of that building belongs almost indisputably to the time of the veritable Byzantine dominion ; probably, therefore, to the middle of the sixth century. We here observe a free imita- tion of the cupola mosaics of the orthodox church. Sur- rounding the centre picture of the Baptism of Christ are * There is, however, reason to believe that the mosaics in S. Apoliinare nuovo and the Baptistery of the Arians were executed in the time of Theodoric. 22 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. arranged the figures of the Twelve Apostles, their line interrupted on the east side by a golden throne with a cross. The heads are somewhat more uniformly drawn, but the draperies already display stiffness of line, with unmeaning breaks and folds, and a certain crudeness of light and shade. The decline of the feeling for decoration shows itself not only in the unpleasant interruption of the figures caused by the throne, but also in the introduction of heavy palm-trees between the single figures, instead of the grace- ful acanthus-plant. In the centre picture the nude form of the Christ is somewhat stifier, though that of St. John is precisely the same as in the Baptisteries of the orthodox church. The river Jordan is introduced as a third person, with the upper part of the figure bare, and a green lower garment, his hair and beard long and white, two red crescent-shaped horns on his head, a reed in his hand, and an urn beside him. In the drawing and shading of the flesh no great alteration is observable, but the general execution has become somewhat ruder, and the motives here and there less free. In the year 545 the church of S. Michele in Affricisco was consecrated, the beautiful mosaics of which, in the apsis and upon the arch of triumph, representing the Saviour triumphant among angels and archangels, were taken down and sold to the Prussian government. Two years later, a.d. 547, followed the consecration of the celebrated church of S. Vitale, the mosaics of which may have been comi^leted some short time before. Unfortunately, the decorations of the principal tribune, and those of the quadrangular arched space before it, are all that have been preserved. They refer in subject to the foundation and consecration of the church, with the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Gold grounds and blue grounds alternate here, the former being confined to the apsis and to two of the four divisions of the arched space. In the semidome of the apsis appears a still very youthful Christ, seated upon the globe of the world between two angels, and St. Vitalis as patron of the church, and Bishop Ecclesius as founder ; the latter carrying a model of the building. Below are the four rivers of Paradise, flowing through Mosaiis uf the Gth centuiy in S. VitaU'. Uiiviima, reiireseiitiiig JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA. p. 23. CiiAi. 1.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 23 green meadows, while the golden ground is striped with jjurple clouds. The figures are all noble and dignified, especially the Christ, whofee ideal youthfulness scarcely recurs after that time. They have, however, lost much of their original character by modern restorations. In the drapery there is much that is conventional, especially in the mode of shading, though a certain truthfulness still prevails. Uj)on the perpendicular wall of the apsis appear two large ceremonial representations upon a gold ground, which, as the almost sole surviving specimens of the higher style of secular subjects, are of great interest, and, as ex- amples of costume, quite invaluable. The picture on the left represents the relation in which the Emperor Justinian stood to the church — the figures as large as life. In splendid attire, laden with the diadem and with a purple and gold- embroidered mantle, fastened with an enormous fibula, is seen the Emperor, advancing, bearing a golden bowl. To his left are Archbishop Maximian and two priests, and he is attended by three courtiers and the Imperial Guard (sec woodcut). The opposite picture, represents the Empress Theodora, surrounded by gorgeously attired women and attendants, in the act of entering the church. The Empress is also clad in tho dark violet (purple) imperial mantle, on the edge of which, embroidered in gold, are seen the three Kings with their gifts, and from her diadem hangs a whole cascade of beads and jewels. A chamberlain before her is drawing back a richly embroidered curtain, so as to exhibit the entrance-court of a church, indicated as such by its cleansing fountain. Justinian and Theodora are distin- guished by bright glories — a homage which the artii)t of that time could scarcely withhold, since he evidently knew no other form of flattery. Of somewhat inferior execution are the mosaics of the lofty quadrangular space before the aj)sis, representing the Old Testament symbols of the sacrifice of the mass and the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with vine tendrils and birds on a blue ground above them. The execution is partially rude and superficial, and the drawing is inferior io the works in the apsis, although, in this respect, it still 24 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. excels that of tlae following century. In the delineation of animals — for example in the liou of St. Mark — a sound feeling for nature is still evinced. In many parts the land- scape background is elevated in a very remarkable manner, consisting of steep steps of rocks covered with verdure ; an evident attempt to imitate nature. Unfortunately nothing more is preserved of the mosaics of the cupola and the rest of the church. The next specimens to be considered are the mosaics in S. Apollinare Nuovo, formerly the Basilica of Theodoric the Great, which, in all probability, were executed cbiefly be- tween the years 553 and 566, and are also perfectly unique in their way, though the principal portions, the apsis and arch of triumph, have been restored. But the upper walls of the centre aisle still sparkle, from the arches up to the roof, with their original and very rich mosaic decorations. Two friezes, next above the arch, contain long proces- sions upon a gold ground, which, belonging as they do, to the very last days of ancient art, remind us curiously of the Panathenaic procession upon the Parthenon at Athens. On the right are the martyrs and the confessors, advancing solemnly from the city of Eavenna, which is here signified by a representation of the magnificent palace of the Ostro-. gothic kings, with its upper and lower arcade and corner towers and domes. Palm-trees divide the single figures. All are clad in light-coloured garments, with, crowns in their hands. Their countenances are reduced to a few spirited lines, though still tolerably true to nature. The execution is careful, as is also the gradation of the tints. At the end of the procession, and as the goal of it, appears Christ upon a throne, the four archangels around Him — noble, solemn figures, in no respect inferior either in style or execution to those in the apsis of S. Vitale. On the left side of the church (that which was occupied by the women) is a similarly arranged procession of female martyrs and confessors ad- vancing from the suburb of Classis, recognised by its harbours and fortifications. At the head of the procession are the Three Kings adoring the Virgin and Infant Christ. Upon a throne, surmounted by four angels, appears the Madonna, who takes her place at this early period only in an Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 25 historical sense. She is depicted as a matron of middle age ; a veil upon hur head is encircled by a nimbus, which is of later introduction. Upon her lap is seated the child fully clothed. Of the subject of the Three Kings the greater portion has been restored, but a spiritedly expressed and active action is still discernible, as well as the splendid barbaric costume, with its richly bordered doublet, short silken mantle, and nether garments of tiger-skin. Here, as in the opposite frieze, the last portion of the subject is best treated. Further up, between the windows, are single figures of the apostles and saints standing in niches, with birds and vases between them. Quite above, and over the windows, on a very small scale, are the Miracles of our Lord. All these mosaics have been so much restored that little of their original character remains. We may next mention the mosaics in the chapel of thfl' archiepiscopal palace at Eavenna, which, although possibly belonging to an earlier age, yet in style remind us more of the latter end of the sixth century. Upon a blue ground are sets of seven medallions, with the representations of the youthful Christ, of the apostles, and of several saints. The centre of the gold-grounded dome is occupied by a larger medallion with the monogram of Christ, upheld by four simple and graceful angel figures. In the four inter- mediate spaces are the winged emblems of the Evangelists, bearing the richly decorated books of the Gospel. The mosaics in this chapel have also greatly suffered from restorations — the tesserae or vitrified cubes being in many parts replaced by painted plaster. Next in order to these come the mosaics of the time of Justinian preserved in Constantinople, in the church of St. Sophia, some portions of which appear to belong to the middle of the sixth century, and others to a later date. The whitewash, with which these mosaics had been covered since the transformation of the church into a mosque, having been some years ago temporarily removed, the opportunity was seized to copy their chief remains.* * See Salzenberg, ' Altchristliche Baudenkmale in Konstantinope!.* D JG EAKLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Cuap. I. Wc Lave hitlierto only considei-ed the more important of the still existing works of the fifth and sixth centuries,* but, according both to tradition and analogy, those which are lost must have been incomparably more splendid, more extensive, and grander in plan. All that remains for us now is to mention a few specimens, the date of which is uncertain, but which may be probably assigned to this period. In the Church of S. Piidentiana at Eome, for instance, there is a large apsis mosaic, too much restored at different times for the date to be now determinable. It belonged originally, per- haps, even to the fourth century, at all events not to the time of Pope Hadrian I. (a.d. 772-785), or of Hadrian III. (a.d. 884-885), as is the common opinion; for even if the building itself be proved to be of more recent date, still this work at least must have been copied from one much older. The centre represents Christ enthroned, between SS. Peter and Paul, and the two female saints, Praxedis and Pudentiana. Below is seen a row of eight male half-length figures in antique drapery (portraits, per- haps, of the founders), which are not placed singly side by side, but overlap each other like double profiles on a coin. Behind these figures is an arcade with a roof and glittering buildings over it. Above in the heavens, which are represented by purple gold-edged clouds, are the four signs of the Evangelists, and, in the centre, a richly decorated gold cross. The architectural background, the perspective arrangement of the figures, their very broad and free treatment (so far as they are not the work of the modern restorer), indicate, if we are not mistaken, the Constantinian period of art, though we are judging from what is perhaps only a copy, and at all events from a more than usually disfigured work. In the circular church of S. Tcodoro, also in Eome, a figure of Christ with saints, upon a gold ground, has been preserved in the end tribune. This work is probably not earlier than * It must be borne in mind that every existing ancient mosaic has been necessarily subjected to repairs and restorations — the latter always in the character of the restorer's own time ; so that no entire reliance can be placed on the evidence of their details. Chap. I.] THE LATER ROMAN STYLE. 27 the seventli century, and is chiefly interesting to lis here as one of the earliest specimens of the copying of the old mosaics. Christ is represented in a violet robe, witli long light hair and short beard, ^Yith an expression of great benignity. He is seated in the act of benediction upon a blue starred globe, with a long sceptre in His left hand. St. Peter, on the right, is leading St. Theodore, and St. Paul, on the left, another youthful saint — both presenting their crowns upon their richly embroidered mantles as an offering to Christ. The figiu-es of SS. Peter and Theodore are here exact copies of those in the corresponding subject in SS. Cosma e Damiano, while the younger saint, with his eyes humbly cast down, is probably a new creation. From what older, and perhaps demolished picture the representation of the Christ is taken we know not. The execution is good, the shading careful, and even the nude portions are here depicted with tolerable spirit; only in the unmeaning character of the drapery is the deep decline of art apparent. The mosaics upon the arch of triumph in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, near Eome (towards the inner church), bear the positive dates of a.d. 578, 590, but have been so restored and disfigured that, to all appearance, they belong to a later period. They represent Christ upon the globe of the world, surrounded by five saints, and Pope Pelagius II., the foimder of the building. Finally, we may here notice the mosaics in the octagon side-chapel of S. Lorenzo in Milan, where Christ, with the apostles in white garments, and a pastoral scene in a very ancient pre-Byzantine style of art (if we are not mistaken), decorate the semidomes of two large niches. Next in importance to the art of mosaics must be con- sidered that of miniature-painting, by means of which the books employed both in the service of the church and for purposes of private devotion, as also many of a worldly im- port, were adorned with more or less of pictorial splendour. With the reverential feeling of the times, it was usual to decorate the contents as well as the exterior of the Scrip- tures in the most gorgeous manner — a fashion which com- menced, doubtless, with the copies of the classic authors D 2 28 EAKLY CHEISTIAN ART. [Chap. I. which needed the assistance of pictorial illustration to explain those usages and costumes that had passed away with the glory of the ancient world. In this class of art the range of subjects is far more extensive than in that of the catacomb or mosaic pictures; and some of the earliest specimens of miniature-painting present to us once more the antique mode of composition in such grandeur and variety that we can only the more regret the treasures of this kind which have perished. To those still preserved belongs the Book of Joshua in the Library of the Vatican. This is a parchment roll of more than thirty feet long, entirely covered with historical scenes ; according to an inscription upon it, not of earlier date than the seventh or eighth century, but doubtless coj)ied from some work of the best early Christian time. This interesting specimen has the apj^ear- ance of a carefully but boldly and freely drawn sketch, executed in few colours, and differing greatly from the highly finished splendour of later Byzantine miniatures. There is a spirit in the composition, a beauty in some of the motives, and a richness of invention in the whole, which assign to this work the highest place among the properly historical representations of early Christian times. Costume and weapons are here still perfectly antique. Joshua is always distinguished by the nimbus, as are also the fine symbolical female forms, with sceptres and mural crowns, which represent the besieged and conquered cities ; for the whole landscape is expressed by symbols, such as mountain and river deities, &c. In the battle scenes the wildest action is often most happily portrayed, though the artist, of course, shows little knowledge either of perspective or of the relative proportion of the figures. The copyist of the later period is discernible, almost solely, by his obvious ignorance of the drawing of joints and extremities. In this respect the cele- brated Virgil of the Vatican, No. 3225, as an original work of the fourth or fifth century, apj)ears to greater advantage, though, in composition, it does not equal the Book of Joshua. The colours, where they are not so rubbed away as to exhibit the drawing beneath, are light in tint, and have considerable body. The shading is slight, and, as yet, not too minute. Chap. I.] THE LATEK KOMAN STYLE. 29 The drawing displays a superabundance of motives from tlie antique, tliough, in the action of the figures, it is already very inanimate. Of the same early period, but much more defective in drawing, is the Book of Genesis in the Imperial Library at Vienna. In the Ambrosian Library at Milan fifty-eight miniatures have been preserved — frag- ments of a manuscript Homer. These also date from the fourth or fifth century, and in the broad, solid manner in which the colours are applied, as well as in the treatment of the drapery, have quite the antique look. At the same time the details are still more weak and unskilful in execution, and the composition not only scattered as in the Vatican Virgil, but either confused or monotonous.* A Vatican Terence of the ninth century is, perhaps, the very rude copy of an excellent work of classic times. Besides these we find beautiful single figures and compositions of early Christian and antique feeling scattered in various separate manuscripts even in the later middle ages, showing that, in the gradual decline of the powers of invention, it became a matter of convenience to copy what already existed. As early as after the conquest of Italy by the Longo- bards, but principally after the seventh century, there occurs a division in the schools of painting. Those artists who persevere exclusively in the old track may be observed to sink into barbaric ignorance of form, while, on the other hand, for mosaics and all higher kinds of decorative work, the style and materials of Byzantine art, which we shall consider in the next chapter, come more and more into vogue. Thus the more important Italian works of the seventh and succeeding centuries are found to follow the Byzantine style, while the lesser class of works, such as miniatures and a few surviving sculp- tures, seem (occasionally at least) to run wild in a total licence of style which may be designated as Longobardian. The miniatures consist of rudely daubed outlines filled up * ' Iliadis fragmenta cum Picturis, &c., edente Aug. Majo, &c.,' Milan, 1819. — Fifty-eight outline drawings, much i-estored by some feeble modern hand. 30 EAKLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. with patches of colour.* As specimens of the sculptural school we may cite the relief on a door of the church oi S. Fidele at Como, with the subject of Habakkuk carried by angels by the hair of his head, in these short, thick-set figures, with their coarse, heavy countenances and extre- mities, it would be difficult to recognise even the faintest trace of ancient art. Nevertheless we are fully conscious that in these apparently formless productions of conven- tionality, as opposed to the more legitimate Byzantine rigidity, there lay a germ of freedom from which, later, a new school of development was to spring. CHAPTER II. THE BYZANTINE STTLE.f The commencement of the Byzantine school is generally placed at an earlier period than that of the fifth century which we here assign to it. The reasons which lead us to differ in this respect have been already alluded to. Up to the beginning of the seventh century art appears to us, as far as Eoman civilization still existed, to be essentially one and the same in the east and the west, and therefore entitled to no other name than that of late Eoman or early Christian. If, as early as the fifth and sixth cen- turies, the foundations of that school which, later, developed itself more especially into the art of the Eastern Empire, are discernible, we must not, on that account, assume for it, at that time, the appellation of Byzantine, but rather designate it only as that late Eoman style which, wherever * For information on the Longobardian style, see Von Rumohr's ' Ital. Forschungen,' vol. !., p. 186, where a catalogue of the few adducible speci- mens is given, consisting of the remains of the Frescoes in the Crypt of the Cathedral at Assisi, and in the subterranean chapel of SS. Nazzaro e Celso at Verona (where a glory and Biblical scenes are rudely painted upon a white ground), several manuscripts, &c. f Byzantine or Creek (Christian) art— for the terms are identical — is the ofi'spring of the Eastern Church, influenced originally by ancient Greek art. Chap. XL] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 31 the Eoman element was not too tboroiiglily amalgamated with the Gothic, was common to the whole ancient world. It was not until after the middle of the seventh century that this state of things broke up. Under the Emperor Justinian the Eastern Empire acquired that form which it retained in the following centuries ; while, in an intellectual sense, it is from that period also that the Byzantine element may be said to have attained its full development. In Italy, on the other hand, this was precisely the period of the deepest decline of art. After having surrendered up her mildest rulers, the Ostrogoths, to the armies of Justinian, and submitted herself to the Eastern dominion, she was next invaded by the Longobards, who brought about the most singular division of the country. For while the great mass of the centre of the land fell to the invaders, the important coast regions, including the largest cities, and all the islands, remained in possession of the Byzantines. This, therefore, was the time for this portion of the territory, perpetually threatened as it was by the Longobards, to attach itself more closely to the protecting power of Byzantium. Now also the period had arrived when the decline both of art and civilization may be considered to have so increased that an influence from without had become indispensable. Therefore it is that for that univers;il style of art which, in the seventh century, prevailed alike in Eome and in Naples, in Apulia and Cala- bria and in Sicily, in Kavenna and the Pentapolis and in the rising city of Venice, and even partially in Genoa — differ- ing as it does from the previous late Eoman school — we righty assume the title of Byzantine. The victories of Charlemagne had, later, no power to destroy or interrupt the deeply founded connection between the schools of Italy and Constantinople, while Lower Italy and that city which was hei eafter to play such a conspicuous part in the history of art, namely Venice, remained inaccessible to his attacks. The diffusion of the Byzantine style may be conjectu- rally accounted for in various ways. There is no doubt that from the great school of Constantinople many a Greek artist emigrated into Italy. At that time the 32 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II, Eastern capital aboiiniled unquestionably in workshops whence the provinces were supplied with innumerable works of every kind, from a statue or painting, to the capital of a pillar. The monasteries of Constantinople and Thessalonica, and those of Mount Athos, may be regarded as the great central ateliers of painting ; while, on the other hand, it is certain that many an artist from the West pursued his studies in the chief places of artistic activity in the East. In this way there ensued in Italy every grade of relationship with Byzantine art, from the directest school connexion, to the merest superficial in- fluence. Finally, we shall endeavour to show that the Byzantine style, in connexion with the state of civilization at that time, was precisely the most easily communicable in outward forms which the history of art, in the higher civilized nations, has ever known. So much so, that works executed at third hand, for instance, by the Western scholars of a Western master — who had been perhaps but for a short time the pupil of some emigrated Grcelc artist — differ in no great degree from the original models in Constantinople itself. The indisputable advantages which Byzantium possessed over the Western countries, in point of art, consisted in its freedom from all barbarian invasion, in its traditions of ancient art, and in that tendency to neatness and elegance of execution, such as the luxury of a great capital de- manded, which went hand in hand with these advantages. It matters not how widely the modes of composition differed from those of antiquity — how little there was in common between the heavy monotonous varnished colours of this school, and the light, graceful colouring of the old Eoman works — it was still of the greatest importance that there should have been one spot in the world where artistic ac- tivity on a large scale never faltered ; just as it was im- portant, in a political seuse, for the earlier middle ages of the West to have always possessed, in the Byzantine government, an undisturbed normal form for tlieir authority in times of emergency. But we must remember that no art is nourished by tradition and colossal undertakings alona Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. Jf^ Her proper existence can only be supplied from those thou- sand moral sources which we comprehend in the widest sense by the term " national life ; " and in Byzantium these sources were either greatly troubled or entirely sealed. The worn-out forms of the old world are here found, to use a hackneyed but most suitable illustration, embalmed like mummies for the wonder of posterity. The monarchs who sat upon the throne, surrounded with oriental pomp and splendour, were, for the most part, either cruel despots or cowards. The courtiers around them concealed beneath the disguise of the most abject servility a disposition to per- petual intrigue and sanguinary conspiracy. With this state of things among the higher classes, the condition of the enslaved people, at least in the capital, stood in consistent relation. It is significant that the public games were their highest object of interest, and that the same people in whom every political idea was extinguished, could yet bring about a great general insurrection by their party zeal for this or that division of the racers in the Hippodrome. In other respects, oriental luxury and sensuality, and Roman thirst of gain, usurped, between them, all the interests of life. Science had degenerated to a system of dry compila- tion — all literary activity was dead, and all national life unknown. Even Christianity, which, precisely at that time, was laying the foundations for the future unity of Europe among the Teutonic races, was to be traced in the Empire of the East only by its perversions. Dogmatical disputes upon the absolutely Incomprehensible not only extended from the clergy, to the court and government, which it involved in the fiercest contests, but served also for an object of pastime and dispute to the common people, with whom, even in better times, the passion for argument had become second nature ; while, wherever real piety showed itself, it was obstructed by monkish austerity, or cruel intolerance. The most important political event of Byzan- tine times (next to the wars with= the Persians, Saracens, and Hungarians), namely, the controversy about images, is connected with the fanaticism which four centuries of dis- putes had nourished into full growth. The origin and 34 EARLY CHKISTIAN ART. [Cuap. IL history of, tliis controversy are well known. The reproach of idol worship, which Jew and Mahometan had alike cask upon the richly decorated Christian service, and the hope of converting both the Israelite and the infidel, had suggested to the Emperor Leo the Isaurian the idea of doing away with pictures altogether. His coercive measures for this purpose began in the year 730, and a struggle ensued which lasted for above a century — the whole State and all the interests belonging to it, foreign though most of them were to the question, being involved in the dispute. The triumph of the image partisans was first decided by the tumultuous Synod of 842, though even this was only ephemeral, inas- much as the practice of painting and that of flat relief were ultimately alone retained, while the long-languishing art of pure sculpture was entirely condemned. No visible disadvantage to the cause of art is traceable, however, to this period of struggle, during which not only profane painting, but religious painting also, thanks to many an obstinate monk, continued to be practised. Still, it may be here and there remarked that the last relics of freedom and nature disappeared from Byzantine works at this time, and that they now first assume that hieratical stiffness of type which seems to bid defiance equally to the heresy which opposed them, and to the image-proscribing tenets of Islamism. With this is further connected the fact that at this time (the eighth and ninth centuries) the represen- tation of the Passion of our Lord, and of the Martyrdoms of the Saints, first obtained in the Byzantine Schools.* It must be borne in mind that artists themselves had fallen martyrs to the cause in the fury of the struggle ; and that the Church also now stood firm enough to be able to exhibit the image of the suffering as well as of the triumphant Saviour. An ecclesiastical decision, ten years prior to the question of images, shows that in respect of the Passion a particular change in religious sentiment had arisen. The * Though, as early as the fourth century, Bishop Asterius of Amasia mentions a picture of the martyrdom of St. Euphemia, yet this must be considered as an accidental exception, which in a time, as it were, of artistic fermentation, will not be considered strange. Ecclesiastical art had doubt- less nothingr to do with it. Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 35 Council of Constantinople in tlie year 692 (generally de- nominated the Quiuisext Council) had decided that the direct human representation of the Saviour was to be preferred to the symbolical, namely, to that of the Lamb, hitherto adopted ; a decision to which the whole world of art was expected to conform. This was a formal declaration of the extinction of that allegorical taste which had been proper to the earliest Christian age, and of the transition from the symbolical to the historical. The speedy introduction of Crucifixion pictures was a necessary conseipence, for the redeeming office of the Saviour could now be hardly otherwise expressed. Besides, the Council expressly speaks of " Him who bore the sins of the world," by which the representation of His Passion, if not positively of His Crucifixion, was indicated. Soon after this, in the year 730, Pope Gregory II., in his letter to Leo the Isaurian, makes mention of the various scenes of the Passion, iraOijixuTa, as feasible and praiseworthy subjects for the walls of churches. What still remained wanting to direct the new school was supplied by the already mentioned modes of thought which the image-question had developed. In order more rightly to estimate the Byzantine style within the limits we have prescribed to ourselves, we must once more give a glance at the events we have been recording. Ancient art, ali-eady in the third century deep in decline and stripped of its old subjects and animated with the new spirit which a new religion supplied, had still so much vitality left, from the fourth to the sixth century, as to create new types of art, in which the element of the sublimo can be as little denied as in the older Greek forms — utterly inferior as they are in other respects. It was not only during the most wretched period of despotism, but in the midst also of that misery occasioned by the irruption ol the northern races, that this new tendency had been de- veloped, and had found in tlie material of mosaic a brilliant and suitable mode of representation. Eeplete with quiet dignity, appropriate in action, with a solemn flow of drapery, and gigantic in size, the figures thus expressed look down upon us from their altar tribunes with a fascination, both of an 36 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. historic and gesthetic nature, which the unprejudiced spec- tator can hardly resist. Nevertheless, at the same period, the art of dramatic historical painting, even the very power of depicting the movements of life, had sunk into utter ohlivion, showing that the study of nature had ceased, as in every epoch of decline, to be regarded either as the source or auxiliary of artistic inspiration. It is curious to remark how one portion of the figure after the other now becomes rigid—the joints, the extremities, and at last even the countenance, which assumes a morose stricken expression. The step is, as it were, arrested, the garments are loaded with inexpressive folds, the art of decoration degenerates even in the midst of apparently the greatest wealth of ornament, and the gold ground, which we have seen in the Eavenna mosaics of the sixth century sup- planting the blue, now extinguishes all the finer sense of colour, and substitutes for it a false gaudiness. • It was the Byzantine school which first brought art to this state of prostration, and then, accompanied as it was by a highly developed but merely technical skill, kept her stationary there for many a long century.* From the totally superficial and defective representation of the human form observable in these works, it is evident that the Byzantine artist now rested satisfied with a mere conventional type, from which all semblance of reality was banished. The figures are long and meagre, the action stiff and angular, hands and feet attenuated and powerless. At the same time a singular pretension to correctness of an- atomy forms a more odious contrast to the departure from nature in all other respects. Figures, in which no one limb is rightly disposed, have still, as far as the form is seen, the full complement of ribs in the body, and a most un- necessary display of muscle in the arms. How utterly all power had departed from this school is shown by the most abject restriction to quietness of attitude ; and where the slightest action is attempted, be it only a single step, the * We allude here, and in the following pages, only to the original works of the Byzantine school, not to the copies of older and better works which are occasionally mistaken for them. Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 37 figure appears to be stumbling on level ground. Sometimes the eartli beneath their feet is entirely omitted, so that the figures are relieved upon their gold ground as if in the air, unless the painter may have added a little footstool or pedestal. In many cases, instead of living forms we seem to have half-animated corpses before us — an impression which the sight of the head only increases. Here we see at the first glance that a new relation has arisen between the painter and his picture. In the late Eoman works which we have hitherto been considering, however closely the conventional type of the Church might confine the painter, still his efforts to express the elevated, and even the beautiful bespeak a certain freedom of action; here, the very object of art was changed in character. The Byzantine artist was generally a monk, and as such opposed to the usual enjoyments of life. His art partakes of the same feeling, inasmuch as he substitutes that which had become his individual ideal for that which is universal in human nature. Hence the dryness and meagreness of his figures, and, still more so, the gloomy moroseness of his counte- nances. The large, ill-shaped eyes stare straight forward ; a deep, unhappy line, in which ill-humour seems to have taken up its permanent abode, extends from brow to brow, beneath the bald and heavily wrinkled forehead. The nose has the broad ridge of the antique still left above, but is narrow and thin below, the nostrils corresponding with the deep lines on each side of them. The mouth is small and neatly formed, but the somewhat protruded lower lip is in character with the melancholy of the whole picture. As long as such representations refer only to grey-headed saints and ecclesiastics, they may be tolerated — that is, when the countenance does not become absolutely heartless and malicious ; but when the introduction of a kind of smirk is intended to convey the idea of a youthful countenance, the only difterence being a somewhat less elongated face with the omission 'of a few wrinkles, and the shortening of beard and moustache, this type becomes intolerable. Even the Virgin, to whose countenance the meagreness of asce- ticism was hardly applicable, here assumes a thoroughly 38 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. peevish expression, and was certainly never represented under so unattractive an aspect. Altogether these heads leave us totally unmoved : not only because, with all their deeply wrinkled gravity, they appear utterly incapable of any exer- tion of moral will, or energy of love or hatred, but en[ually of any depth of thought. Draperies and figures agree per- fectly together ; nevertheless, in the form of the person and in the chief lines of the dress, a spark of antique feeling is still discernible. The artistic arrangement of drapery which was common towards the end of the sixth century seems from that time to have been arrested. But though the Byzantine artist never bestowed a thought in the execu- tion of these portions, or rather was incapable of approacliing the slightest reality of form, yet, as, according to the fashion of the time, the masses had to be filled up with an accu- mulation of detail, there arose the absurdest complication of breaks, and bends, and parallel folds, all executed with the greatest neatness, and brought out with the utmost heighten- ing of gold. Where the subject, however, admitted of no traditional arrangement of drapery, as for instance in the richly embroidered and jewel-studded costume of Byzantine fiishion, all attempt at any artistic form ceases, and the garment, with all its gorgeous ornament, lies flat and without a fold, as if glued upon a wooden figure.* It is unnecessary to remind the reader that these defects did not suddenly arise, but crept gradually in. In the eleventh century they were at their height, and, in the stiff conventionalities of later works, we are often reminded of Chinese art. Under such a complication of adverse circumstances we have no right to look for any independence of composition. Whenever we are surprised, as, for instance, in the mosaics, with ingenious and symmetrical arrangements, and as in miniatures, with fine and animated composition, and with the antiq[ue personification of scenery and abstract objects, we may safely give all the praise to a foregoing * See D'Agincourt's very instructive miniature of the twelfth century, plate 58, where the Emperor Alexius Comnenus I., attired in just such a formless and smoothly spread dress, is standing before the representation of the triumphant Saviour, whose drapery is treated after the antique, and is doubtless imitated from some older work. CHAr.II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 39 period. An art wliich no longer created a single animated figure, but was content to borrow a wretchedly disfigured antique motive at tenth hand — that had so accustomed it- self to a deathlike stillness of form that it dared not even attempt the variety of a profile — was ill adapted to venture on new ground. Where this was indispensable, as, for instance, in the martyr subjects, which are not found in any older works, its thorough jjowerlessuess is shown. The ceremonial and procession subjects, consisting of mere stationary figures, proved an easy task : as, for example, the representation of eight persons, all with a repetition of the same attitude, lying in the dust before an emperor; or a Synod, showing the patriarchs seated with the emperor in a circle, surrounded by numerous ecclesiastics, while a vanquished heretic lies prostrate on the floor. But this is not the realisation of historical painting, and even in the newly introduced subjects of martyrdom and the crucifixion a regular decline of art is obvious, which, in the person of the Saviour, may be said to be symbolically expressed. The first known Byzantine representation of the crucifixion ('ninth century) depicts Him in an upright position, and with outstretched arms, triumphant even in death. The later pictures show Him with closed eyes and sunken form, as if the relaxed limbs had no longer the power to sustain the body, which is hanging swayed towards the right side. But in this degenerate art older as well as newer subjects were condemned to endless repetition. In a closer exami- nation of Byzantine works in the mass, we arrive at the strange fact that the old types were not only, as in antique art and in the art of the middle ages in western Europe, reproduced in fresh forms, but that one painter abso- lutely copied from another in the most slavish manner. Exactly the same forms, position, action, and expression, in precisely the same arrangement, recur, for instance, in tlie mosaics of St. Mark at Venice, in the Constantinopolitan miniatures, and in the frescoes of Greek monasteries; thus showing, beyond all question, the worn-out state of the ground we are treading. Not that the blame rests solely with the artists ; the Church, inasmuch as she openly as- 40 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. sumed the direction and control of art, rendered such a state of tilings necessary. In one of the arguments adduced by an advocate for images in the second Nicene Council,* a.d. 787, it is clearly said, " it is not the invention (e^ev'peo-t?) of the painter which creates the picture, but an inviolable law, a tradition (^Oea-fioOea-La Kai TrapaSocris) of the Catholic Church. It is not the painters but the holy fathers who have to invent and to dictate. To them manifestly belongs the composition (Stara^ts), to the painter only the execution {rix^r})" If, therefore, the Church had once decided upon the most fitting representation of any sacred subject, there existed no grounds for ever departing from it; and, in point of fact, that Greek painters, including those in the Eussian Church, to this day scrupulously submit themselves to this principle. It must, however, be remembered that no church would have ventured to dictate to a really living art, and that the deadness of the Byzantine school was as much the cause as the effect of such ecclesiastical interference. The system of copying had begun long before the Church inter- j)osed its laws. Fortunately for art, the holy fathers did not, after 787, altogether prescribe any new mode of representa- tion, but permitted the copying of those older compositions which had been sanctified by custom. Thus it frequently happened that excellent inventions of the Constantiniau, Theodosian, and Justinian times have been preserved, and that of course with more or less truth and beauty, according to the proximity in which the copyist stood to the original ; copies at fifth and sixth hand being only true to the original in general arrangement, and in detail strictly Byzantine. Even when the artist has to compose afresh he always adheres, in the single figures, to these perpetually recurring types, so that only the arrangement, and here and there the attitude (the latter often wretched enough), are altered. Byzantine art, in short, had degenerated into a mere luxuri- ously conducted handicraft, and precisely on that account did it admit of that incredible ease of imitation with which * Printed in the Acts of this Council (Conciliorum coUectin rcgia maxima. Paris, 1714, vol. iv., col. 360), which also contain many interesting fact* connected with the history of art. Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 41 we sliall become better acquainted in its later stages. It was altogether a superficial mechanical art, the subjects for which had, once for all, been definitely fixed ; and ultimately the capacity of the artist was only regulated by the number and quality of tracings which lie had been able to procure from the works of his predecessors. This handicraft continued to be pursued with care and industry till into the thirteenth century. We do this art no injustice in regarding, for instance, the treatment of colour it displays — which, considering the circumstances, was excellent — also as a mechanical merit ; for as far as imitation of nature is concerned there is as little reality intended in colouring as in drawing, and the highest possible value that can be assigned to it is of a decorative kind. In respect of colouring also, as well as of drawing, we must take care not to confound the copy witli the original : for instance, not to extol the colouring of some excellent miniatures of the time of the Macedonian emperors as that of the Byzantine school, inasmuch as the better part of that quality, as well as of the drawing and invention, belongs to the best late Eoman period. Not but what the feeling for colour, generally speaking, was longer preserved than that of drawing ; and, especially in the mode of ap- plying the pigments, there is a skill and precision observ- able, which, considering the otherwise absolute deadness of the art, is marvellous. Even the colouring materials in the miniatures appear to be selected and supplied with chemical knowledge. Over the outline which the pencil had traced a lively unbroken colour was usually laid, and then lights, shadows, and folds inserted, with darker and lighter tints, and at last, generally, with delicate hatchings. It is sig- nificant of the totally unplastic feeling of that time tliat the gradations were produced by mere strokes, without any breadth of shadow. The eifect, ^^owever, is always par- ticularly neat. A decided mannci. is earliest traceable in the treatment of the flesh tones, wnich are at first of an orange colour, and then of a dark brick-red ; and finally, with their well-known green shadows and rosy lights, re- mind us of rouged, but already half-decomposed bodies. 42 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. Thus, in proportion as the antique models receded from view, the colouring became cruder and more motley, and the outlines more apparent, while after the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders, a.d. 1204, by which the wealth and luxury of this city was greatly undermined, there is a totally careless sketchiness of treatment. Long before that time an unfortunate vehicle of a gummy description seems to have come into use, which soon dulled the colours. The backgrounds, the nimbuses, and, after the eleventh century, the high lights also, consist generally of gold, which is laid on solidly and unsparingly. And, as if the precious metal could not be sufficiently brought into requisition, the garments of imperial or holy personages are often entirely of gold materials, with splendid embroideries. That use of gold which might be supposed to be applicable to the subject itself, as in the representation of the glory of Heaven, is not to be taken into account here, for in Byzantine art a gold ground was used for every possible occasion. For, as we have said before, it is the nature of a sunken art to endeavour to make amends for its inca- pacity for all original composition by the splendour of its materials.* The haggard, morose figures, with their brick- red or olive-coloured flesh tones, look, as may be supposed, only the more wretched on this account. A trace of re- maining vigour, perhaps the only change which deserves the name of an improvement, was developed in the depart- ment of decoration. To this period we are indebted for the most splendid arabesques of mixed foliage and animals, rich architectural fancies in margins for manuscripts or pictures, and such-like ; almost all executed with the utmost care and neatness. At the same time the more natural, and therefore the more consistent, antique mode of decora- tion is here lost in a certain calligraphic conventionality, which, however, does not exclude a perfectly intelligent mode of treatment. In this respect Byzantium served as a model * The excessive luxury in othei- respects, in churches and palaces, with which this school of painting was associated, may be gathered from Hurler's ' Geschichte Innocenz III.,' vol. i., under the title ' ein Gang darck ConstantinojfcL' Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 43 to tbe image-hating Saracenic art, and pTobably received many an impulse from her iu return.* As regards the only earlier Byzantine painting of a monumental kind — namely, mosaic work — but few specimens have been preserved in the East, and of these we have only very defective notices. There is, however, reason to conclude that the splendour of the Justinian time was often equalled, if not surpassed. The palatial edifices of the Emperor Theophilus (829-842) sparkled with the richest ornaments. Cinnamus also informs us that, even three centuries later, the palace-walls of the richer courtiers were decorated with the deeds of ancient heroes, and with battle and hunting subjects, in which the valour of the reigning monarch in conflict with enemies or wild beasts was made duly prominent ; though one high functionary, by way of exception, ventured in this manner to commemorate the victories of his country's arch foe, the Sultan of Iconium. These mosaics having all disappeared, we are, meanwhile, virtually reduced to the Italian mosaics of the seventh century, which are by no means to be ranked as thorough specimens of the Byzantine style. We are, therefore, left to decide here and there upon the degree of Byzantine influence very much according to our own judg- ment. Whether and how far the prevailing modes of thought in Italy were favourable to its intrusion, are questions which must be left to their own merits. The common fundamental features of these works can only be estimated by the chrono- logical analysis we have already pursued. Standing upon the boundary-line between the earlier and later styles, we may now mention some mosaics in Eome of the seventh century, in which, although we are made aware of the existence of a novel element, no distinction can well be drawn between the decline of the former and * The Saracens borrowed from Byxantium the materials of mosaic work, the Arabic name of which, fsefysa, is evidently from the Greek ^Tjcpwcris. When, at the commencement of the eighth century, peace was concluded between Byzantium and the Caliph Walid, this latter potentate stipulated for a certain quantity of fsefysa for the decoration of the new mosque at Damascus. In tiie middle of the tenth century, also, the Emperor Komanus II. sent the Caliph Abderrhaman III. the materials for the mosaics of the Kibla in the mosque at Cordova, which still exist. E 2 44 £ARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. tlie rise of the latter. The most considerable specimeus are the mosaics in the tribune of S. Agnese fuori le mura, A.D. 625-638. In the subject itself, connected as it is with the gradual alterations in the Church service, we find a significant deviation from the general rule. Instead of the figure of Christ appears that of S. Agnese standing between the Popes Symmachus and Honorius I., the re- storers of the Church ; while the indication of the Godhead is confined to a hand protruding from the heavens and placing a crown upon the head of the saint. The execution, in contradistinction to the usual neatness of the Byzantine school, is here, as in most of the later Eoman mosaics, rude and even poor; a circumstance which is not to be wondered at, for Eome stood to Byzantium in the relation of a provincial town, and had much fallen in the world even in the external means of art. The middle tones are at last entirely omitted (in the draperies they appear to have been inserted later), the tesserse are larger and no longer fit closely together. More significant still than this rudeness of outward material is the want of intrinsic feeling which is evident in the three figures with their straight folds, only represented by dark stripes, their stifi", deathlike attitudes, and the staring Byzantine pomp of the saint's garments. The already highly conventional heads consist only of a few strokes ; the red cheeks of S. Agnese are mere heavy blotches ; the floor, it is true, has not quite vanished from under the feet of the figures, but it is re- duced to the smallest indication. The ground, as in almost all succeeding mosaics, is of gold. Still plainer indications of the Byzantine style are seen in the very extensive mo- saics in the Oratorio di S. Venanzio, a side chajjel of the Baptistery to the Lateran, a.d. 640-642. In the altar apsis, between eight saints, appears the Virgin standing with outstretched arms. Above are half-length figures of Christ and two angels rising out of gaudy clouds. On the walls, on each side of the apsis, are four saints, and above, between the three windows, the signs of the Evangelists and of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Christ and the angels are depicted rudely, but still with dignity and freedom, and Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 45 remind us, in their tolerably flowing forms, of the period of the 6th century. On the other hand, the sixteen saints, all standing motionless one beside another, as well as the Virgin (who appears for the first time thus positively as their centre), are totally Byzantine. In their garments also the folds and shadows are indicated by a mere stripe of dark conventional colour, and even in the chief motives there is a want of intelligence of which the foregoing century affords no example. Similar in style, and almost contem- porary in date (a.d. 642-649), are the mosaics of the small altar apsis of S. Stefano Eotondo, upon the Coelian Hill, in which a brilliantly decorated cross is represented between the two standing figures of SS. Primus and Felicianus. On the upper end of the cross (very tastefully introduced) appears a small head of Christ with a nimbus, over which the hand of the Father is extended in benediction. A single figure in mosaic exists as an altar-piece in S. Pietro in Vincoli. It is intended for St. Sebastian, and was vowed to the church by Pope Agathon, on occasion of the plague in 680, and was doubtless executed soon after this date. As a solitary specimen of this kind it is very remarkable. There is no analogy between this figure and the usual youthful type of St. Sebastian subsequently adopted. On the contrary, the saint is represented here as an old man with white hair and beard, carrying the crown of martyrdom in his hand, and draped from head to foot in true Byzantine style. In his countenance there is still some life and dignity. The more careful shading also of the drapery shows that, in a work intended to be so much exposed to the gaze of the pious, more pains was bestowed than usual ; nevertheless the figure, upon the whole, is very inanimate. The ground is blue. To this period (probably from 671 to 677) belong the last mosaic decorations of importance at Kavenna, viz., those in the splendid basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe ; which, now that the history of art has sustained an irreparable injury in the destruction by fire of S. Paolo fuori le mura at Rome, alone give us any idea of the manner in which whole rows of pictures? and symbols in mosaics were em- 46 EAKLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. U. ployed to ornament the interior of churclies. In the semi- dome of the apsis is a head of Christ in the centre, with half- length figures of Moses and Elijah. Further helow stands St. ApoUinaris, his arms raised in benediction, surrounded by fifteen sheep. On the lower walls appear four Eavenna bishops, and on each side are two larger pictures of the sacri- fices of Abel, Melchisedek, and Abraham, and, but little in character with the foregoing, the " Granting of the Privileges" to the Church of Eavenna. In all these works the drawing is in every way inferior to those of the sixth century ; the execution, however, is very careful, with more middle tones than usual, the four bishops excepted, who are rudely and sketchily treated. These mosaics, though doubtless executed within the shadow of the exarchal residence, are less en- titled to the term " Byzantine " than the Eoman works we have just described. The influence of Byzantium may be considered to have been here restricted to the arrangement alone; especially as we find a mere saint occupying the central place which had hitherto been assigned to Christ, while the presence of the Saviour is only, as in S. Stefano Eotondo at Eome, indicated by the cross. The two side pictures of the lower wall merit a closer examination, especially the three sacrifices, which are here combined in one really spirited composition, and in point of execution are decidedly the best. In respect, however, both of building and painting, Ea- venna, after the fall of the Ostrogoths, had greatly declined. A provincial city of tlie Eastern Empire had, under any circumstances, no very brilliant history in those times. In addition to this, the perpetual attacks of the Longobards had robbed the Exarchate of successive portions of territory, till in the year 782 the splendid suburb, Classis, was con- quered and laid waste. Earthquakes also did their part to destroy what other evils spared, and, at the present day, with the exception of the fine and solitary church of S. ApoUi- naris every trace of Classis has disappeared. Finally, after the Franks had snatched the Exarchate from the hand of the Longobards and made it over to the papal chair, art in Eavenna confined itself to a few solitary decorations and Chap. 11] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 47 to repairs, and to this latter circumstance solely is this half- deserted town indebted for the preservation of some early treasures of art of the middle-ages such as the whole world cannot furnisii elsewhere. How far the wars and disastrous events of the eighth century had any influence upon art at Rome, it is difficult to decide, since of the numerous treasures that are recorded by different writers scarcely anything has survived. The only specimen is a little fragment belonging to the old church of St. Peter, a.d. 705, now in the sacristy of S. Maria in Cosmedin — an Adoration of the three Kings — which, though of a barbaric negligence in execution, dis- plays a good antique feeling for composition. When, in Byzantium, ecclesiastical art was attacked by the sword, the monasteries of Eome granted an asylum to whole bands of Byzantine painters. Nevertheless, scarcely any influence from this circumstance is to be perceived. We find, in the still existing Roman mosaics, an interval of almost a century, and resume them only after the pacification of the country under Pope Leo III. (a.d. 795-816). This pontificate, so important also in other respects, is distinguished by numerous church repairs and new erections, on which occasion the application of mosaics is frequently mentioned. Unfortunately the apsis mosaic of the Leonine Triclin- ium in the Lateran, so important as being the last relic of the great historical subjects in this building, has suf- fered so severely in the attempt made in the last century to transfer it to the outer walls of the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum, that we must content ourselves with a copy in mosaic, which, with the exception of a few somewhat modernized heads, almost replaces the ancient original. Within the tribune, upon a gold ground, stands the Saviour in act of benediction, the eleven apostles in white robes around Him; the four rivers of Paradise gushing forth at His feet. The figures, in their stiff, yet infirm attitudes, and still more in the unmeaning disposition of the drapery, display a decided Byzantine influence. Here we first per- ceive a totally conventional distribution of the masses of the drapery, which, though loaded with meaningless folds 4? EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. K. marked by bluish strokes of colour, only adheres to the shape of the figure. On the walls next the tribune we find those celebrated pictures of deep political and ecclesiastical significance, which are of immeasurably higher historical value than the ceremonial pictures of the Imperial Palace at Constantinople. On the left appears the Saviour enthroned, with the kneeling figure of St. Sylvester before Him, to whom He is giving the keys, while He extends a banner to Constantine the Great. On the right is St. Peter, en- throned, in the act of bestowing the stola upon Pope Leo III. and a banner upon Charlemagne, in sign of in- vestiture. In both the last-named kneeling figures which are represented in profile, a species of likeness is aimed at, only that Charlemagne has bee;i caricatured in the attempt. Of the same period is the altar apsis in the church of SS. Nereo e Achilleo. The figures are small, and have been greatly restored, but are still remarkable in intention. All the mosaics of later date than those containing the history of Christ upon the arch of Triumph in the church of S. Maria Maggiore, represent almost without exception, apo- calyptic subjects, and the symbols of the Evangelists. Here, however, the decoration of this portion is again of an historical nature. The transfigured Saviour is in the centre between Moses and Elijah, with SS. Nereo and Achilleo kneeling on either side; further on the left the Annunciation, and on the right the Virgin and Child, ac- companied by an angel. The pontificate of Paschal I., which succeeded that of Leo III. (a.d. 817-824), though short in time, was rich in mosaic works, owing doubtless to the free exercise of art which the maintenance of peace permitted. For auy positive advance these were not the times ; and as we trace in the apparently flourishing school of Carlovingian art only the tardy echo of the antique, so do we perceive in the Eoman works of this period only a deeper decline into Byzantine deformity. Whether there then existed in Eome a branch school of mosaic workers from Constantinople, and how far this school may have been acted upon from the parent nursery, we do not pre- sume to decide. The most splendid and extensive works Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 49 of that pontificate were doubtless the mosaics in S. Prassedo on the Esquiline Hill. At all events, more have been pre- served in this church than in any other; viz., those on the arch of Triumph, on the arch of the tribune, and within the tribune itself, and the entire decorations of the chapel of one side aisle. The subjects on the arches are, as usual, taken from the Apocalypse. Over the arch of Triumph is the Saviour between two angels. On each side of Him are a row of saints offering Him their triumphal crowns. Four angels are standing at the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, inviting the concourse to enter, who are clad in white robes, with palm-branches in their hands. Upon the arch of the tribune is the Lamb, surrounded with the seven candlesticks, four angels, and the symbols of the Evangelists. On each side of the arch are the four-and-twenty elders, advancing to cast their crowns before the Lamb. In the semi-dome Christ occupies the centre. On either side of him are St. Peter and St. Paul, SS. Praxedis and Pudentiana, S. Zeno, and Pope Paschal, the founder, with a square nimbus,* carrying the model of a church. Further below are the thirteen lambs as usual (see woodcut). The figures are on a small scale, and, owing to the increasing rudeness of execution, have a somewhat barbaric effect. The folds of the draperies are only dark strokes ; the faces consist chiefly of three coarse lines. Altogether we perceive that the Byzantine art of that time relied upon the multitude of its figures for effect, and more and more avoided those single colossal forms which it was neither able to animate with feeling, nor to fill up with truth of detail. Of the same period are the mosaics of the Church of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, which in rudeness and multiplicity of figures, correspond pretty much with those we have just described; and similar in style are those in and above the tribune of S. Maria della Navicella, also called S. Maria in Domnica, upon the Coelian Hill. Within the tribune appear the Virgin and Child seated on a throne with angels ranged in regular rows on each side ; and, at her feet, with unspeakable stiffness of limb, the kneeling figure of Pope Paschal L Upon the * The square nimbus is conjectured to indicate one living at the time. 50 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. walls of the tribune is the Saviour in a nimbus, with two angels and the twelve apostles on either hand, and further below, on a much larger scale, two prophets, who appear to point towards Him. The most remarkable thing here is the rich foliage decoration. Besides the wreaths of flowers (otherwise not a rare feature) which are growing out of two vessels at the edge of the dome, the floor beneath the figures is also decorated with flowers — a graceful species of ornament seldom aimed at in the moroseness of Byzantine art. From this point the decline into utter barbarism is rapid. The mosaics of S. Marco at Eome, executed under Pope Gregory IV. (a.d. 827-844), with all their splendour, exhibit the utmost poverty of expression. Above the tribune, in circular compartments, is the portrait of Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists, and further below, St. Peter and St. Paul (or two prophets) with scrolls. Within the tribune, beneath a hand extended with a wreath, is the standing figure of Christ with an open book, and, on either side, five angels and Pope Gregory IV. Further on, but still belong- ing to the dome, are the thirteen lambs, forming a second and quite uneven circle round the figures. The execution is here especially rude, and of true Byzantine rigidity, while, as if the artist knew that his long lean figures were any- thing but secure upon their feet, he has given them each a separate little pedestal. The lines of the drapery are chiefly straight and parallel, while, with all this rudeness, a certain play of colour has been contrived by the introduction of high lights. The greatly restored tribune mosaics of S. Francesca Eomana (probably executed in 858-867, during the pon- tificate of Nicholas I.) complete the group of these Eoman- Byzantine works. By this time it had become apparent that such figures as the art of that day was alone able to produce could have no possible relation to each other, and therefore no longer constitute a composition ; the artist accordingly separated the Madonna on the throne and the foui* saints with uplifted hands, by graceful arcades. The ground, as in most of the foregoing mosaics, is gold ; the glories blue. The faces, of course, consist only of feeble lines — the checks of red Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 51 blotches; the folds merely dark strokes. Nevertheless, a certain flow and fulness in the forms, and a few accessories (for instance, the excliange of a crown uj^on the Virgin's liead for the invariable Byzantine veil), seem to indicate that we have not to do here so much with the decline of Byzantine art as with a Northern, and probably Prankish, influence. At the same time, if we compare together all authentic works of the time, we cannot assign this mosaic to the thirteenth century. Of the later works of the ninth century nothing more remains at Eome. In Aquileja, there still exist it would appear, the mosaics which Gisela, the daughter of Louis the Pious, presented to the church. They contain (what is most remarkable for that time) a crucifixion, the Virgin, St. George, the portrait of Gisela, and various allegorical figm-es. The Cathedral of Capua also possesses mosaics of that period, presented by Bishop Hugo. After the close of the ninth century mosaic art seems to have almost ceased in Italy, For seventy years that unhappy countr}'- had been distracted by ceaseless broils, in many instances scarcely less detrimental to its well-being than the inroads of the northern tribes. Eome especially was the sport of the most terrible factions. Peace was re- stored by force of arms under the Othos ; but the deep wounds which all intellectual and artistic enterprise had sustained did not readily heal again. Wherever, after this, art endeavoured to raise her head, the help of Byzantium was called into requisition. For example, when Abbot De- siderius of Monte Casino (afterwards Pope Victor III.) rebuilt the church of his monastery, he was compelled to hire mosaic-workers from Constantinople, who instructed several pupils in the art. Meanwhile the republic of Venice, which had grown up under the nominal protection of Byzantium, had, in the general distraction of the country, remained undisturbed. This state became the thriving mart for the empires of the East and West ; and even after all political connection with Byzantium had ceased, the active commerce which was maintained became a constant bond nf union. In point of 52 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II. art, however, Venice, up to tlie thirteenth century, may be considered almost exclusively a Byzantine colony, inasmuch as her painters adhered entirely to Greek models. Her architecture partook equally of Oriental and Occidental elements, and only her sculpture retained a positive Western character, because this alone, in the condemnation which Byzantium had passed on all the higher plastic forms of art, could derive no assistance from that city. The Venetian mosaics especially we may regard as an almost sufficient indemnification for those of the Eastern Empire which have been lost to posterity, since the characters of undisturbed Byzantine descent are much more legible in them than, for instance, in those Eoman works just described. The earliest existing specimen of this kind was the mosaic formerly in the church of St. Cyprian in the island of Murano, which was completed in the year 882, representing a Christ with the Virgin between arch- angels.* With incomparably more force, however, is the Byzantine tj-pe rejiresented in the church of Si. Mark, founded a.d. 976, the earliest wall and cupola pictures of which go back at least to the eleventh, and perhaps even to the tenth century. After the transfer of the body of St. Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria to Venice, the inhabitants of the Venetian territory adopted the winged lion for their symbol, and regarded the sacred remains as the pledge of their prosperity. It behoved them, therefore, to decorate the church honoured as the resting-place of the saint with all the splendour which the wealth of a thriving commercial city could bestow. The gorgeous luxury of the mere materials of the edifice, to supply which Ihe whole empire of the East was ransacked, is well known. The floor and the walls, half way up, were paneled with the most costly marbles, while the rest of the interior — upper walls, waggon roofs, and cupolas, comprising a surface of more than forty thousand square feet — was covered with mosaics on a gold ground; a gigantic work, which even all the wealth of Venice spent * This mosaic, which was removed when the church was demolished, is now in the Friedenskirche at Potsdam. Chap, n.] THE BYZANTIXE STYLE. 53 six centuries iu patching together. Every style of art, therefore, which necessarily flourished during this period, do^\Ti to the lowest maunerisra of the school of Tintoretto, has been perpetuated in this edifice. Here alone do we obtain any idea of the wealth of mosaics which existed in the State buildings of ancient Constantinople. In four arched recesses of the fagade, appears, by way as it were of introduction, the history of the translation of the sacred remains. In a fifth (in the centre) and in tlie semicircular tei-minations of the upper walls, is the history of Christ ; subjects from which, of modern execution, have taken the place of older works with the exception of one (the last to the spectator's left). The atrium contains, as we often observe in the porches of Gothic churches, the history of the old covenant from the Creation to the time of Moses ; and in a portion of it, which has been converted into a chapel and baptistery, the history of St. Mark, and a multitude of curious symbolical subjects, referring to the mystery of baptism. The interior of the edifice forms the figure of a cross, with five cupolas, each of which rests on four wide massive arches. Eows of pillars, with galleries half way up the church, divide these from the principal cruciform space. In point of artistic worth, the earliest mosaics of St. Mark's (included principally in the ftigade, vestibule, centre and left cupola, and the contiguous waggon roofs) are such as to require only a brief notice. If, in the Eoman mosaics of the time of Pope Paschal I., some trace of freedom and life was still discernible, here, on the contrary, we perceive in all those subjects which are not the obvious copies of older works an utter extinction of all freedom oi form. The figures are, throughout, lifeless shadows, looking as if they would fall asunder with the slightest movement. Every step — the merest stretching forth of a hand — threatens to overset them, while, by the omission of the ground under their feet, the last remnant of stability seems removed. Of the grand and solemn types of mosaic art of the fifth and sixth century, only the meagre and contracted outlines are left. Christ Himself, a symbol, as it were, 54 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II of tlie decrepit theology of Byzantium, appears here in likeness of an old man, with white hair and beard. On the other hand, the execution is delicate and careful, at least in those portions which are near the eye. The vitrified cubes are small and well fitted, and delicate hatchings of gold and other light colours gleam among the stiffness of the drapery.* Another group of Occidental-Byzantine mosaics exists in Lower Italy and Sicily, of the time of the Normans. Of the three races which contended in the eleventh century for the jjossession of this territory — the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans — the first alone possessed a developed school of painting, which the Normans, as conquerors, adopted from them ; though in the arts of architecture and sculpture they pursued their own course. Even in the earliest Norman specimen that has been preserved, namely, the Cathedral of Salerno, founded by Eobert Guiscard, a.d. 1080, this state of things is illustrated in the most remarkable way. The building is of the Norman style of architecture, mingled (as far as it is not constructed of ancient materials stolen from Pfestum) with evidences of a Saracenic influence. The more important sculptures are, it is true, not of a very animated character, but round and soft, in the style of the Western School. Indeed, only the mosaics (an altar apsis on the right, and a door lunette) and the brazen central gate — the flat silver inlaid figures of which belong to the department of drawing, and not to that of sculpture — are, in spite of the Latin inscriptions, essentially Byzantine. The mosaics on the altar apsis represent St. Mark seated, with the book of the Gospels, upon the throne ; next to him the standing figures of four saints ; above, a winged Christ, in a crimson robe, bearing a long sceptre and a globe ; all in the stiff but neat style of the earliest Venetian mosaics. The same may be said of the half-length figure of St. Matthew in the door lunette. The most splendid specimens, however, of this Norman-Byzantine art are the mosaics in * For a complete monography of St. Mark's and coloured representa- tions of its princi])al mosaics, see the magnificent work, ' La Basilica di San Marco in Venezi:),' published by Ougania at Venice. Chap, n.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 55 tho Cathedral of Monreale, near Palermo (after the year 1174), where the centre apsis contains an unusually colossal half-length figure of Christ. In the space around it is a crowd of saints ; in the arms of the transept the histories of St. Peter and St. Paul ; and finally, in the nave, a long row of Biblical events. As this edifice was very rapidly completed, more than a hundred artists were req[uired for the execution of these mosaics, a number which, without the existence of an old and long-established school in Sicily, could hardly have been supj)lied.* Of somewhat earlier date is the no less splendid decoration of the walls of the chapel of King Roger in Palermo (after 1140), and the mosaics of several other churches; such as S. Maria dell' Ammi- raglio, and the Cathedral of Cefalu (the last especially remarkable). The hunting-room of King Eoger I. in Palermo (about 1100), with the somewhat heraldic-shaped animals and ornaments upon a gold ground, reminds us of the probably similar decorations of the Hall of State, called the Margarita, erected in Constantinople a.d. 829-842, by the Emperor Theophilus, which, with the other numerous palaces of this potentate, have disappeared. In treating of the miniatures of the Byzantine school, we may safely curtail our remarks, since a number of excellent descriptions and satisfactory illustrations already exist,! to which it will be easy to refer our readers ; also, more especially, because the best miniatures of the Byzantine time do not actually belong to the Byzantine school, but are copies of earlier Eoman works, and as such have been in some measure already described. Thus, for instance, tha most celebrated Codices of the time of the Macedonian Emperors, now in the National Library at Paris, are copies and facsimiles of the best Eomano-Christian works. The finest and most important miniatures, forty-seven in number, are contained in a codex of sermons by St. Gregory Nazianzeu. * The illustrations of all these mosaics, by the Duke of Serradifalco (del Duomo di Monreale, &c.), appear, without exception, to be coloured iu a modern style. t See principally Waagen's ' Kunstwerke und Kiinstler in Paris,' p. 201, and the illustrations in D'Agincourt's ' Histoire de I'Art,' many of which are taken from tracings. F 56 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. [Cuap. II. Here we find the martyrs, the monarclis, and otlier dis- tinguished personages of a late period, represented in the style of the ninth century; while the otlier subjects— re- petitious of the charming compositions of the fifth and sixth centuries — represent the principal events from the creation of the world to the time of St. Gregory. More interesting still, from its numerous personifications of natural imagery and abstract qualities, in the manner of the antique, is a Psaltery of the tenth century,* of which it may be truly said that " in no other Greek manuscript has the ancient mode of conception been so purely preserved."f Here may be seen, under the form of a sublime-looking female, " Melody " leaning on tbe shoulder of the youthful and beautiful David. On one side lies the "Mountain," an allegorical male figure in a green robe crowned with a wreath. Farther on is David killing a lion, while " Strength," a youthful female figure, is inciting him to deeds of valour. Again, at the scene of his anointing, " Clemency " is hovering over him. At his encounter with Goliatb, " Vainglory " is seen fleeing behind the giant, while " Strength " is stationed behind David. When portrayed as a monarch, "Wisdom" and "Prophecy" encompass him; when as a penitent sinner, " Eepentance " is above him. In similar manner, under the symbols of antiquely-conceived male and female figures, are represented "Night," "The Desert," " The Bottomless Pit," " The Eed Sea," " Mount Sinai," &c., shewing a semi-heathenish worship of nature, and of abstract ideas, of which the tenth century of itself was totally incapable. On the same principle we might attribute a much earlier original still to the rudely executed, but powerfully con- ceived miniatures of " The Christian Topogiaj)hy " of the * See illustrations in 'History of Our Lord in Art,' pp. 203-205. f Waagen, from whom we borrow these words, does not strictly declare these miniatures to be copies of older works, but admits that " in motives, forms, costume, and arrangement of drapery, they have qnite an antique look ; " and remarks furtlier, " that the mode of laying on tJie colours, althongh broad and full in the antique style, yet is by no means to be compared to the feeling for composition displayed in these works." He allows also that the beautiful composition of the Isaiah must have had "a very early original." Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 57 Cosmas (now in the Vatican), belonging to the ninth century, where the Eiver Jordan appears as a male figure with an urn, were we not corrected in our supposition by the figure of a female with succinct drapery and flying veil, which represents " Dancing." On the other hand, the so- called Vatican Menologium,* with its 430 splendid minia- tures on a gold ground (executed for the Emperor Basil, the conqueror of the Bulgarians, a.d. 989-1025), is essentially a work of that period, and decidedly one of the best known. Eight artists, whose names recur from time to time, decorated the separate days of this most costly of all calendars (ex- tending, however, only to the half of the year) with scenes, from the life of Christ, the saints, and the history of the Church — the latter in the form of Synods.f In the Biblical scenes, traces of earlier motives occur, | but the martyrdoms of the Saints are really the compositions of the tenth century and, horrible as many of them are, they do that century great credit : for though, in the single figures, we discern a great want of life, vet the composition is upon the whole well understood, and here and there very animated. The saints are seen suffering martyrdom in various ways — dragged to death by horses, burnt in the red-hot effigy of a bull, crucified, drowned, scourged to death, torn by wild btasts in the amphitheatre, suspended by the feet, and so on ; by which a tolerably correct understanding of action is shown, though all idea of anatomy is lost. The drapery and heads are throughout stiff and conventional, and the nude somewhat meagre, and moreover disfigured by an ugly brick-red colour — the result perhaps of an improper vehicle, which has also lowered the colours. Far inferior to these miniatures are those of the Dogmatica Panoplia, in tlie Vatican, executed for Alexis Comnenus (a.d. 1081-1118), which are only remarkable tor stitf, gold embroidered gar- * See ' Menologium GriBcum,' 3 vols. •f The tracings from the above in D'Agincourt's 'Histoii'e de I'Art ' are somewhat modernised in detail, and not quite trustworthy. X It is remarkable that single subjects from the Menologium are repeated in the mosaics of the cathedral of IMonreale — probably because this work contained old compositious which had become common property >a Byzantine art V 2 58 EAELY CHRISTIAN ART. [Chap. II ments, and weak, decrepit heads. On the other hand, a collection of sermons for the Feast of the Virgin (in the Vatican), belonging to the twelfth century, in which the initials consist chiefly of the figures of animals, contains excellent compositions, not only of an early character, but also of the character belonging to that century, and is remarkable for great beauty of decorative ornament. Another important manuscript of the time of the Comneni — the Klimax of Johannes Klimakus (in the Vatican), exhibits in small, highly delicate, and clearly drawn compositions on a gold ground, the well-known allegory of the Virtues as the steps leading to Heaven, and of the Vices as those which lead to Hell. It is interesting here to observe the new treatment of the frequently recurring personifications of these abstract subjects, which were formerly characterised by form and attribute, and generally represented looking on in silent dignity, while here they appear only as small male and female figures, explained by marginal inscriptions — the bad qualities, however, being represented as negroes. The actions are mostly expressed in a very awkward manner, according to some prescribed system. With the thirteenth century an irretrievable decline in technical power and invention ensued. The already elon- gated forms became moro attenuated, the drawing utterly feeble, the colours gay and gaudy, and the whole execution one mere painted scrawl. The symbols of abstract objects — the last relics of antique art — appear more rarely ; and when they do, are clad, not in the old ideal costume, but in the fashion of the period. Justice and Mercy, for instance, are seen in the gorgeous apparel of the imperial daughters of Byzantium, while portraits of the time of the Palaeologi con- sist of meagre heads, and of a mass of ornament intended to represent a robe. Of the panel pictures of the Byzantine school much the same may be said as of the miniatures, only that j^ositive dates are here wanting ; while, from the stationary monotony of art and its types for so many centuries, no conclusion as to time can be obtained. It is true that, previous to the controversy concerning images, countless pictures of this Chap. II.] THE BYZANTINE STYLE. 59 kind had been executed for the purposes of private devotion — chiefly in eastern monasteries — but it must be remembered that, in spite of the solid nature of the ground or pre- paration, the wood itself would have decayed in the lapse of a thousand years. The innumerable Byzantine pictures of Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints, now found in Italy,* are almost entirely the manufacture of the later periods of Eastern art, and many are still more recent. Another especial department of Byzantine workmanship consists in those gorgeous enamels upon gold, the style of which is, of course, intimately allied with that of the fore- going pictures. The Eeijublic of Venice, for instance, ordered for St. Mark's the most costly altar-piece that Constantinople could furnish, and which is still preserved in that church. It consists of a number of delicate gold plates, upon which Christ and the Saints, with Biblical scenes, and the Life of St. Mark, are represented in an enamel of the richest and deepest colours. There being no knowledge of gradation of tints (which is perceptible in all enamels of mediaeval times), the lights and shadows are expressed by gold hatchings, which it requires a micro- scopic eye to trace. The style is of the highest delicacy of execution. The present decorative framework, perhaps even the order of the subjects, belongs to the later Middle Ages. An art sunk into the mere outward form of a life- less tradition was, in the highest degree, fitted to be the employment of a rude people in whom, notwithstanding their deficiency of all artistic instinct, there lay the seeds of a remarkable manual skilfulness. That which had now become a merely mechanical art, was met by a purely mechanical feeling. The intercourse carried on by Byzan- tium, not only with the West, but with the Sclavonic North, especially after the ninth century, had led to the * A very instructive collection of such pictures, as well as many of an old Italian kind, are in the Museo Cristiano in the Vatican. The most important is a Byzantine picture of the ninth century, brought into Italy bv means of the painter Squarcione. It represents the death of St. Ephraim, with monks and suffering poor around. In the background are various scenes from the life of that anchorite, not without some expression of individual variety. The artist's name was Emanuel Tzanfurnari. 60 AET OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [Chap. III. disseuiination of Byzantine Christianity, culture, and art in those countries — qualities which seem the more easily combined when we remember that the Byzantine monks were generally artists as well as missionaries: while, on the other hand (at least among the Kussians), all that was gaudy and brilliant in the Byzantine worship, especially its multitude of pictures, was precisely that which most assisted in their conversion. Thus it was that the Bul- garians, a remnant of the Huns on the Lower Danube, adopted both the Christianity and the art of the Byzan- tines ; and the little we know of Bulgarian painting shows both Byzantine style and motives, only transplanted into a savage soil.* CHAPTEE III. ART OF THE MIDDLE AGES. THK ROMANESQUE STYLE. Italian art in the eleventh century was divided between the native and the Byzantine styles — the one as utterly rude as the other was deeply sunk. Upon the whole, however, the Byzantine had the ascendancy. But after the close of the eleventh centur}-, that epoch of national prosperity dawned upon distracted Italy, which sooner or later, never fails to infuse into art a fresh and higher life. The Eoman Church arose from a long-continued state of degradation, for which she was herself partly accountable, to be mistress of the West. She reinstated Rome as the centre of the world, and restored to the Italians a sense of national existence. At the same time a new social element, consisting of the free townships which had maintained their rights success- fully against all aggression, was called into being in Upper and Lower Italy. Slowly, but unmistakably, we now trace the rise of a new and independent style in art, which, by * See D'Agincourt, plate 61, for au idea of the Bulgariau miniatures of the fonrteeuth century, in a Codex in the Vatican. Armenian art, judging from miniatures of the same and of an earlier period, was also derived from Byzantine models. Chap. III.] THE EOMANESQUE STYLE. 61 the thirteenth century, had assumed a greater decision of character. The progress of particular departments of this dcvcloi)mcnt is, however, entirely hidden from us. Wc only perceive that earlier or later, according to the local condi- tions of each district, the Byzantine style and the old native Longobardian became amalgamated into a new whole— first one, and then another constituent feature predominating, but always governed and impelled forward by the same new tendency. The Byzantine style was, at that time, so utterly sapless and withered, even in its native land, that it could as little resist as rival the innovating principle, though individual painters occasionally made the attempt. Piece by piece it gradually crumbled away ; features, extremities, drapery, composition, and action underwent a gradual, and often very irregular transformation. And here the term '' Eomanesque " becomes applicable, for now it was that in Italy the metamorphosis of the antique tradition into the spirit of the newly created nationality first took place. The epoch of Byzantine art in that country may be said to have borne the character of an intermediate school only, intro- duced and uijheld by external circumstances. This we may justly assume from the evidence of Italian sculpture, which, even in the eleventh century, with all its rudeness and bai'barity, still agrees in princijde with the Gothic Roman- esque. Even the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, though it was the means of pouring into Italy a number of Byzantine artists and works of art, occurred too late to arrest the change. Contemporary with the same works in which the influence of these emigrants from the East is supposed to be discernible, arose others in which a very considerable progress in the new tendency may be discovered, and much earlier even than this may be traced, at all events, the first germs of a purely Western Italian mode of conception. Upon the whole, it must be admitted that the Italian examples of the eleventh and twelfth centuries fall short of those of the same period in the North, which, consider- ing the confusion of all the political relations of Italy, and the comparative prosperity of the countries on the 62 ART OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [Chap. TIL otlier side of the Alps, need not surprise us. But at the same time we should do wrong to form our judgment from a few manuscripts which are here made the criterion of comparison, and which, as works of an inferior kind, can lead to no strict conclusions. In the prime of a period of art, manuscripts may perhaps be admitted as safe evidence, but not so in the time of its decay ; for, dependent as this species of decoration necessarily is, it cannot always enlist the best artistic resources in its service. One of the old manuscripts from which the art of this period has been estimated exists in the library of the Vatican. It contains a poem by one Donizo, in praise of the celebrated Countess Matilda of Tuscany, and is deco- rated with rudely coloured pen-drawings, of an historical nature, of the latter end of the eleventh century.* The outlines here are in the highest degree feeble and un- certain, the colouring utterly rude and blotty ; the expres- sion of the artist's intention, however, though confined to simple and awkward actions, not so entirely despicable. Somewhat better are the miniatures of a so-called " Exultet," partly of liturgical, partly of symbolical import.f in the Barberini Palace at Eome. Though form and arrangement are here essentially of the stiff symmetrical order, yet the details throughout are of the native Italian character, and thus, though in the highest degree rude, they are not dry and inanimate, like those of the Byzantine school. As partaking of both styles, we may also mention the wall-paintings, with the date 1011 (?), in the church of S. Urbano at Eome, generally designated " 11 Tempio della Caffarella." | These represent the Passion, a glorified Christ, and the legend of St. Urbanus, chiefly in a relief-like, and in some instances very tolerably conceived arrangement, which indubitably places them upon a par with many con- temporary Northern works. The immoderate length and * See D'Agiucourt, plate 66 ; and, for notices of some Italian miniature of the ninth and tenth centuries, Waagen's • Kunstw. und Kiinstler in Paris,' pp. 260 and 267. t See D'Agincourt, plate .53. t Ibid., plate 94. These wall-paintings are now scarcely discernible. Chap. III.] THE KOMANESQUE STYLE. 63 leanness of the proportions, and the unmeaning character of the drapery, betray the Byzantine influence ; while, on the other hand, the comparative animation of the composition, and the speaking though clumsy action, give evidence of a power already considerably in advance of northern art. Drawing and artistic execution are in every way defective. We now trace the development of Italian art far more decidedly in some works of the twelfth century. The Basilica of S. Maria in Trastevere at Eome still possesses its mosaics of the time of Innocent II. and Eugenius III. (a.d. 1139-1153). On the fa9ade may be seen the Virgin upon the throne ; before her kneel two very diminutive figures representing the above-mentioned Popes, while on each side ten female saints are seen advancing, eight of whom are distinguished, as supposed martyrs, by their crowns, and basins with streaks of blood.* The very slender proportions and the mode in which portions of the drapery are loaded with ornamentSj though devoid of all folds, are relics of the Byzantine school, while the simplicity and comparative purity of style noticeable in the flowing arrangement of other parts show signs of Gothic feeling. The mosaics, however, within and around the tribune of the choir, are more important. Christ and the Virgin — ^here, for the first time, seen in this juxtaposition — are seated upon a magnificent throne, His arm laid ujion her shoulder. On either side of them are six saints with Pope Innocent ; below, on a blue ground, the thirteen lambs. Above the tribune are the usual symbols of the Evangelists with those of the Apocalypse ; and, on a larger scale, Isaiah and Jeremiah unfolding their scrolls, below each of whom are two genii extending a cloth filled with fruits, birds, and vessels almost in the spirit of later Pagan art. Here the release from the trammels of the Byzantine school is obviously far advanced ; and this may be considered as perhaps the first purely Western work of a higher order produced by Italian art. We are agreeably surprised * These female figures are also believed to represent the wise Virgiug bearing offerings. 64 ART OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [Chap. Ill, by free and original motives, and even by admirable attempts at individual character, wLile tbe conception of the two principal figures is perfectly new. The proportions are rather short than long ; the forms not angular, but soft and round; the robe of Christ especially is distinguished by great dignity and beauty of arrangement. The Proi^hets, in their animated, half-advancing position, exhibit also a totally new, however imperfect, idea of the principles of the human form. At the same time, the rudeness of the execution, the outspread form of the feet, and the unmeaning character of particular portions of the drapery, show how deep had been the decline from which art was now endeavouring to rise.* The tribime mosaics of the beautiful Basilica of S. Clemente in Eome, which also belong to the first half of the twelfth century, afford us the proof that painting here, as in the Eomanesque period of Gothic art, assumed, in its conformity with architecture, the character of a decora- tion. The semidome of the tribune, with a gold ground, is filled with the branches of a vine charmingly arranged, from the centre of which springs a crucifix with twelve doves. On either side of the cross are the Virgin and John the Baptist ; below, at the roots of the vine, are the four streams of Paradise, at which peacocks and stags are refreshing themselves ; upon and between the boughs are birds and small human figures, among them the four Fathers of the church. Below the semidome, as usual, are the thirteen lambs ; on the upper part of the wall a bust picture of Christ and the symbols of the Evangelists ; then on each side, seated contiguously, a saint and apostle ; and further below, on each side, a prophct.f In lieu of the Byzantine mode of crowding the spaces, without anj regard to architectural effect (as in S. Prassede), we observe here an agreeable simplicity of arrangement. The figures, * The Mosaics of S. Maria in Trastevere were completed in the 14th century hy Pieiro Cavallini, according to Vasari ; according to other writers by the Cvsmati. f The Apostles upon the wall of the choir tribune can, in their nresent state, only pass for the works of Giovcnalc da Orvieto. about 1400. Chap. 111.] THE KOMANESQUE STYLE. 65 in manner and proportion, reBemble those in S. Maria in Trastevere, and, like them, are of a thoroughly Western type. The four seated figures, especially, are distinguished by a lively character which we seek for in vain among the Eoman mosaics of a foregoing period. By the com- mencement of the thirteenth century — a period when tho Eoman church attained great power under Innocent III. — the influence of Byzantine tradition, as far as regards siuole works of art, seems to have been entii'ely overcome. In other respects slight indications of the old and ap- parently forgotten school of the East are traceable through the whole century. For example, the gigantic m.osaies of the choir tribune of S. Paolo fiiori le mura (greatly restored) are less free from Byzantine influence than tho works we have just described, though undertaken as late as 1216-1227, under Honorius III., and not completed till the close of that century. In the semidome is seen tlio Saviour enthroned between St. Peter, St. Luke, St. Paul, and St. Andrew, with the very diminutive figui-e of Hijuo- rius kneeling at His feet. Farther below, on the wall of the tribune, are the standing figures of the Apostles witli scrolls (containing the articles of the Apostolic Creed) and palm-trees. The heads and garments still disjilay much of Byzantine feebleness : the general proportions and the chief motives, however, indicate a pleasing return to the great models of early Christian date, which, altogether, had far more influence upon this period of reviving art than those of the remoter antique times. Instead of life- less masses of figures piled together, we are here refreshed with few and simple forms. At the same time it is possible that these mosaics may be merely the repetition of a former set occupying the same locality as early as the fourth century. The side chapel of the transept, called the Oratorio di S. Giuliano, contains numerous figures of saints, probably of the twelfth or thirteenth century, but greatly overpainted. A certain criterion, however, of the state of painting under Honorius III. may be formed from the wall pictures in the vestibule of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, near Kome, which are partly of legendary, partly of 66 PAINTING OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [Chap. III. historical import — for instance, the comratinion and coro- nation of the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Peter do Courtenay, 1217. In spite of original rudeness and re- peated overpaintings, we still perceive in many single figures a picturesque arrangement, an animated expression, and an attempt to indicate roundness of form which aj)pear to promise a speedy and higher development. Nevertheless, full eighty years elapsed before this de- velopment made any further progress. Even the contem- porary wall-paintings in the interior of the same church are smaller and incomparablj^ inferior ; and, as to the mosaic subjects in the frieze of the vestibule, they may fairly rank as among the rudest and most wretched specimens of this line of art that Eoma contains. Many other works of Eoman painting are more feeble and undeveloped than those of the period just before them. For instance, those in the Sylvester Chapel, near the church of the SS. Quattro Coronati at Eome, executed about 1245, exhibit an obvious retrograde movement. The figures are syste- matically arranged and placed together in true Byzantine fashion, so that the same intention repeats itself in the whole series. The heads also belong decidedly to the same school, though the mosaics in S. Maria in Trastevere seem already to have cast it off. The subjects of those in the Sylvester Chapel refer chiefly to the legends of the pope of that name. The mosaics also of two small recesses in S. Costanza, a church near Eome built by Alexander IV. (1254- 1261), one representing the Saviour with two Apostles and four sheep, the other the Saviour seated upon the globe of the world with palm-trees and with one Apostle, are very rudely executed, and scarcely equal, in composition, the mosaics of S. Clemente which are above a century earlier.* Here we must also mention the great mosaic in the fa9adG of the Duomo, or Cathedral, of Spoleto, representing the Saviour enthroned with the Virgin and St. John beside him. It is inscribed with the date 1267, and the name of the author, Solscrnus. It exhibits the usual Byzantine arrangement in all its grandeur. * See D'Agincourt, plate 101. Other fragments are described by Rumohr, vol. i., \\ 275. Chap. III.] THE ROMANESQUE STYLE. 67 The ancient Benedictine convent at Subiaco, called "II Sacro Speco," contains paintings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. St. Francis is known to have visited this con- vent in 1216, and a portrait of a Mendicant friar, inscribed with his name, is still visible there. If, as is asserted, a genuine portrait of the saint, it is curious as bearing no witness to the legend of the Stigmata, for no such marks are given. In the Italian manuscripts of this period a composition and construction are displayed which, however rude and careless, are still,* upon the whole, allied with those of the larger works of art. In Italy, as in the Empire of the East, the copying of earlier examples was usual, though pursued with less slavishness of manner, being treated more in the spirit of a free repetition. The miniatures belonging to a Virgil in the Vatican Library,f probably of the 13th century, consist appai'ently of freely transposed antique motives, in which it is difficult to distinguish the defects of the first hand from those of the second. Not only the general invention, but every detail in these miniatures of position, action, and drapery, and even the highly placed line of horizon, lead us directly back to the late Eomau style of art. The heads, also, have the antique breadth and youthfuluess ; all, however, seen under the disguise of a barbaric transformation. In Venice, where Byzantine painting had struck the deepest root, the struggle between ancient and modern art assumed a different character to that in Eome. We have here the strange spectacle of a bold mind, breaking at once, with one great work, through the trammels of tradition, while succeeding artists lapsed deeper than ever into the old forms. In the great mosaics of the cathedral of the neigh- bouring island of Torcello, belonging apparently to the 12th century,! and representing the Resurrection and Day * See D'Agincourt, plates 67 and 69 ; also Waageti's ' Kunstw. und Kiinstler in Paris,' pp. 260 and 267, regarding some Italian miniatures of the ninth and tenth centuries. t Marked No. 3867. See D'Agincourt, plate 63, J These mosaics, which cover the wall of one end of the churcn, over the principal entrance, are probably of an earlier date, 'i'hey have even been 68 AET OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [Chap. III. of Judgment, we already perceive a greater liveliness of conception and richness of thought. Incomparably more important, however, are the cupolas and lunettes of the vestibule of St. Mark's in Venice itself. In the mosaics (recently restored) of the waggon roof and semi-circular recesses of a portion of this vestibule, called the Cappella Zeno, we have the Life of St. Mark and a Madonna be- tween two Angels — works of the utmost Byzantine elegance and neatness, and excelling in a remarkable manner not only all contemporary but most preceding works. The gold lights of the drapery, the heads — in short, all the details — are executed with extraordinary care. It is striking how, in the still totally trammelled forms, a fresh Western spirit is perceptible ; action and position being more ani- mated, and concejition finer and larger, than in genuine Byzantine works. These mosaics, which constitute the transition to those nearest the three inner doors of the vesti- bule, may be adjudged to the thirteenth century. The latter represent in a rich succession of pictures, partly upon a white and partly upon a gold ground, the Bible history from the Creation of the world to the time of Moses, and are distributed in the shallow cupolas, in the lunettes, and in the soffits of the arches. The execution is careful, but by no means so delicate and fine as in the Cappella Zeno ; while on the other hand, the fresh and almost totally Western tendency of art bursts upon us here with such surprising richness, that we may regard these works as the finest productions of the Romanesque style. Innumerable new artistic motives are here expressed in forms which remind us occasionally of the Byzantine mode of concejitionj but still oftener of that of the early Christian period. In point of fact, however, we here see the manifestation of a new consciousness in art. The soft rounded forms, the flowing Irapery, tlie occasionally very exjiressive heads, and the freedom of action, evince not so much a return to early issigned to the 10th contiiry. The upper part is a iiiotlern restoration. There are other mosaics in the same church, in the sfimi-dome over tlie ligh altar and in a side chapel, which may le of later date. Chap. III.] THE EOMANESQUE STYLE. 69 tradition, as to an instinctive feeling for nature, and disjilay a character hitherto unknown in Venetian art. The his- torical occui-rences are distinctly and intelligibly expressed, the action and drawing being animated and clear. This remarkable example found at first, however, but few followers. Those mosaics in St. Mark's which are, with probability, attributed to the close of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, are incomparably more Byzantine and conventional, though, upon the whole, a some- what freer mode of conception is apparent in them. We allude here to the mosaics in the chapel which serves as a baptistery— also constituting a portion of this remarkable vestibule — and less for the style than for the subjects of the pictures, which, beside the history of the Baptist, contain a series of symbolical scenes and figures in relation to the rite of baptism.* In the works of the Lombard painters also we remark a decided movement at the commencement of the thirteenth century. Here, where perhaps Byzantine feeling never en- tirely obtained the mastery, an element of art is observable which often occurs in German-Romanesque works, namely a vehemence of dramatic representation. The most important are the wall-paintings in the Baptistery at Parma, particu- * In the art of Lower Italy, also, which in these times constituted a rival to that of Venice, the germ of a new development began to show itself about the commencement of the thirteenth century (or even earlier). i>f which, at present, we have no certain history. The Gallery at Naples contains a considerable number of late Byzantine pictures, some of which appear to confirm this fact, though, having no date or localitv upon them, they may perhaps have been gathered together from the most opposite parts of Italy. One school, however, that of Otranto, in Apulia, was accustomed to mark its pictures, at least, with the name of the place. These are mostly small miniature-like altar triptychs, &c., of thoroughly Byzantine treatment in colour and handling. The flesh is of a brick- colour; the draperies very dark ; the gradations of shadows hatched ; the lights thickly applied (seldom with gold). With all this, singular to say, we remark a certain breadth and feeling for composition as regards the human form. The drapery, in spite of the well-known Byzantine multi- ])licity of folds, shows a simjde and intelligent mode of arrangement. The heads also have so far departed from the Byzantine type as to display some liveliness of expression. But the most remarkable feature is the total absence of the gold ground, which is replaced either by a black ground or by a rich fantastic landscape, with a blue sky. For these combined reasons, however, it is utterly impossible to assign these works to the twelfth or even to the thirteenth century, as D'Agincourt persists in doing. 70 AET OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [Chap. UL larly those on the ceiling, which were executed probably about the year 1230. They are in three compartments : in the uppermost are the Apostles and the symbols of the Evangelists ; under them the Prophets, and other characters of the Old Testament. In the third row, between the windows, are twelve scenes from the life of John the Baptist, and two saints next each window and Christ descending into Limbo. In these we also find all the hardness of execution which characterises the Byzantine style, united with a powerful and lively colouring, and an impassioned vehemence in the action which is carried even to exaggeration. The figure of an angel, which is frequently repeated, seems scarcely to touch the ground, so rapid is the movement; the disciples going to meet John in the wilderness appear in the greatest haste ; the gestures of John while baptizing — those of the imploring sick — of the disciples when their master is taken prisoner — of the soldier who acts as executioner — all appear to be the pro- duction of a fancy which delighted in the most vehement and excited action. This energy manifests itself also in attitudes of repose, particularly in the noble dignity of Daniel and of the two prophets beside him. In these works we see the first violent efforts of a youthful and vigorous fancy, endeavouring to bend to its purposes the still lifeless form of art with which it had to deal. Belonging also to the thirteenth century, and to Rome and its neighbourhood, were the family of the Cosmati, who executed, as inscriptions testify, both mosaics and paintings in the Cathedral of Civita Castellana, at Subiaco, and in The best specimen — Christ in the Garden with the Magdalen — in the Museo Christiano in the Vatican (see D'Agincourt, plate 92), bears the inscription " Donatus Bizamanus pinxit in Hotranto." The same family name recurs frequently, — for instance, upon a Visitation of the Virgin (plate 93) which obviously belongs to the fifteenth century, though the colouring is still somewhat Byzantine. Upon the whole, we may conclude that the school of Otrano itself is not much older than the fifteenth century. Should it, however, be proved to be earlier than the period of the influence of the Flemish school upon the Neapolitans, the circumstance of the finished character of the landscape would justify a strict inquiry. Otranto pictures are not seldom seen In the market of art under eveiy possible denomiuatiou. Chap. III.] THE COSMATI STYLE. 71 the Cathedral of Anagni. To one of the same family, who lived iu the fourteenth century, belong various monuments ; sucji as that of Cardinal Gonsalvi in S. Maria Maggiore, and of Duraud, Bishop of Mende, in S. Maria sopra Minerva, both in Eomc; verified by inscriptions. The interesting mosaics of tlie tribune and arch of the tribune in S. Maria in Trastevere, in which a dawning sense of composition is perceptible, arc the work of the school of the Cusmati. It is believed that Pietro Cavallini, also a Eoman, was a scion of this family. He is recorded to have been the author of the choir tribune mosaics in S. Maria in Tras- tevere at Eome ; and of frescoes in the same church of which only vestiges survive. It is certain that he was iu the service of Eobert of Naples in 1308. He was thus contemporary with Giotto, whose designs he carried out in the mosaics of the facade of S. Paolo fuori le mura.* The foregoing suffices to show that the rise of media3val painting in Tuscany was no isolated circumstance, but that, on the contrary, the most opposite parts of Italy began at this time simultaneously to stir with new artistic life. We wish especially to call the reader's attention to this fact, because the more modern Italian writers on art, being chiefly Tuscans by birth, have been inclined to exaggerate the influence of Tuscan art upon the rest of Italy, great as that influence undoubtedly was. * The mosaics on the wall above the choir tribune of S. Paolo fuori le mura, and those on the inner side of the Arch of Triumph, may have been the production of a contemporary of Cavallini. They represent the Virgin and the Baptist on the one side, and SS. Peter and Paul on tlie other. At all events, the influence of the Gothic style, as modified by the Tuscan school, is already decided. 72 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. CHAPTER IV. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. There is little wonder that two centuries slioiild have elapsed between the first enfranchisement of art from Byzan- tine trammels, and its full development. When the artist ceased servilely to repeat traditional forms, his chief aim became the intelligible expression of the theme * he had to treat, not the manifestation of his own individual mind. If, in some instances — for example, in the Baptistery of Parma — he has represented an impassioned feeling, it may, when not derived from tradition, be proEOUuced to have pro- ceeded rather from external causes of excitement peculiar to the period., than from any inly-felt necessity to express his own character and feelings through the medium of the incident portrayed. I appears at first sight that such a distinction between the theme itself, and the manifestation of the individual mind in treating it, is inadmissible — that the repose of a work of art would be destroyed by such a disunion; and * The word theme (Gegenstaud) is preferred in this instance to the more obvious term subject, for reasons which it may be as well to state, for, though they relate to a distinction which is familiar to many, they may serve to throw some light on the views of the author which follow. In considering the productions of human genius, the Germans always carefully distinguish between the objects or materials on which the mind works, and the manifestation of the individual mind in treating them. The general term object, for the first, would be intelligible enough in our language; on the other hand, the word subject, which the Germans restrict to the observer, to the individual, is less appropriate in English without some explanation. In the German sense the subject is the human being, the object all that is without him. When the tone or tendencies of tlie individual mind very perceptibly modify the nature of the materials with which it has to deal, this is called a subjective mode of conception or treatment When, on the other hand, the character of the individual is comparatively passive, and that of the object chieHy apparent, this is called an objective mode. Hence, whenever this distinction is dwelt on, and whenever the adoption of this terminology is unavoidable, it is obvious that the word subject in its usual English meaning (as for instance in speaking of the subject of a picture) requires to be care- fully avoided. Where, however, the distinction alluded to is not immediately pvomirent, the word is employed in this translation in tlie usual sense,—' C. L. E. Chap. IV.] THE GOTHIC STYLE. 73 sucli in fact is tlie case. But out of this disunion a new and closer alliance was to arise. This separation and union have their foundation in the very essence of Christianity, which recognises no indepen- dent value in the outer world and its phenomena. In the first exercise of art among the Christians, no attempt was made to express what we now feel to be the exact truth. The forms then assumed were for long merely symbolical. But in the further development of Art, an arbitrary symbolization was no longer sufficient : the re- presentation itself was required to be at once symbol and meaning. For this purpose it became necessary that the creating artist should appear more definitely in his own individual character. It was from his consciousness only that this relation between the earthly form and the unearthly spirit could be made evident ; only when the representation was the result of original conception could the spiritual mean- ing be freely expressed. Thus the perfection of religious art was only to be at- tained by a due combination of the subjective and objective power : the subjective revealing the artist's individual cha- racter ; the objective his appropriation of external forms. And here, for many reasons, it was natural as well as necessary that the subjective tendency should take, at first, the lead. This new aim appears now united with a style of representation, the intellectual direction and order of which correspond strikingly with that of Northern art, and which, on that account, may be denominated Gothic. Certain indications even show that the North (where this style was developed half a century earlier) exercised influence upon the development of the same style in Italy. This may be con- cluded from Italian sculpture, which, somewhat sooner than painting, accepted the Gothic principle of form. Another means of influence was also, as we have suggested, con- tributed by the circumstance of Naples being governed by a noble French house. Regarded, however, in a broader light, we may consider this metamorphosis in style as one of native origin, founded on the same causes which led \ 74 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. to it in the North, and followed by analogous results. In this also we find the consummation of the purely me- difeval artistic life, and, generally speaking, of the Gothic spirit. Those essential features in which the Italian Gothic and the Northern Gothic style correspond, are less of an outward and material than of a moral nature. They are based upon a mode of conception which, disregarding the accidental, kept only the abstract and strictly essential in view ; that mode of conception, in short, which is generally characteristic of the feeling of the period. This is why, in some instances, Giotto and Wilhelm^ of Colog ne are seen to approach closeIy~together ; though, in other respects, the two schools are widely different ; one reason for ^hich may be traced in the better condition of wall space possessed by the Italian races. We now have to consider the next succeeding period of modern art, in which the subjective mode of conception pre- vails. Tuscany, that portion of Italy to which the greatest names of the preceding epoch had belonged, still maintains the first place during this new period. Two principal tendencies, or schools, may be now dis- tinguished in central Italy — one at Florence, the other at Siena. The difference between the two may be thus defined The Florentines, and the artists who were influenced by them, evince a peculiar quickness and vigour of thought. They throw themselves with a lively consciousness into the various and changeful scenes of life, and express the relation between the earthly and spiritual — between the objects of sight and those beyond it — in representations of a richly poetical and allegorical nature. The Sienese school, on the other hand, evinces rather a depth of feeling which does not require that richness of form, but, on the contrary, adheres (as far as the principle of Gothic art prevails) more to traditional forms, while it animates them with a genial warmth. The distinctive feature with the Florentines is their richness of thought and composition, and the aim at reality of character : the distinctive feature with the Sienese is the intense and heartfelt grace of their single figures. It must, however, be borne in mind Chap. IV.] EARLY TUSCAN PAINTINGS. 75 that this line of separation is decidedly visible in a few cases only, tliat it is frequently modified by external cir- cumstances, and that each of the tendencies in question exercises a reciprocal influence on the other. We shall first treat of the Florentine school. The origin of Tuscan painting is still very obscure, and modern investigation has served more to show the con- fusion which attends its history than to throw any positive light on it. It, however, appears certain, that Tuscany — namely, Pisa and Siena, as well as Florence — pursued, at th,e commencement of the thirteenth century, the By- zantine mode, and that there the old rude Western style had almost disappeared. At all events, no specimen exists which shows so decided a Western conception of form and composition as the mosaics of S. Maria in Trastevere, iu Eome (a.d, 1139-1153), or those in the vestibule of S. Mark's at Venice. We shall find, also, that the later Tuscan artists of the thirteenth century remained and con- tinued, in many external respects, far more dependent on the Byzantine school than those of contemporary date in Eome,, though they ^urpass these latter in thought and invention. This, therefore, is the question we have to treat — namely, what painter, or what local school within the dominion of the Byzantine influence, first began to show an independent feeling ? We head the list of the more remarkable works fitted to decide this question with the wall-paintings in the church of S. Pietro (or S. Bero) in Grado, upon the high road between Pisa and Leghorn, probably executed about 1200. Here, upon the upper walls of the middle aisle, are the histories of St. Peter and St. Paul, with the figures of angels at open, or half-closed, windows above them, and, in the spandrils of the arches, portraits of the Poj)es. The figures in the upper row display " the graceful meagreness" of Byzantine forms, though the arrange- ment is good and animated. Setting aside this some- what doubtful specimen, we next come to a picture on wood in the public gallery at Siena, dated 1216, repre- senting, in slight relief, Christ between the signs of the 76 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV Evangelists, and six scenes from the New Testament. It so happens, however, that this picture in no way belongs to the Byzantine school, but partakes, by way of exception, of the purely Italian style, the figures in barbaric drapery being short, with heavy outlines of a clearly-expressed, but rude character. We now trace the more authentic specimens with greater frequency, inasmuch as not only particular works are marked with name and date, but even particular masters determined by curious (though not always trustworthy) tradition — an advantage which is almost entirely wanted in contemporary German art. And first, an artist comes under our consideration, who, though perhaps not the most distinguished of his time, and still too much fettered by Byzantine mannerism to compare with the dramatic ani- mation of the wall-paintings in the Baptistery at Parma, or with the mosaics in the vestibule of S. Mark's, yet, in the comparative adherence to nature evinced by his works, far outsteps the bounds of Byzantine convention. The painter in question, Giunta da Pisa, lived, according to old chronicles, from 1202 to 1258, but little or nothing is known of his history. His name, with the date 1236, was inscribed on a picture of the Crucifixion, now lost, formerly preserved in S. Francesco at Assisi. Among the existing works ascribed to him (not, indeed, on sufficient grounds) may be particularly mentioned — besides a crucifix in S. Eanieri, and a picture with saints in the chapel of the Campo Santo, at Pisa — some wall-paintings nearly covered by repaint in the upper church of S. Francesco above mentioned, representing the ' Martyrdom of St. Peter,' and the ' Destruction of Simon Magus,' who is borne violently through the air by demons, and the decorations round the farthest window of the choir tribune. Action and expression are still feeble and fettered. Nevertheles?, we perceive a certain feeling for purer form and livelier colouring, which is foreign to the Byzantine artist of that late period. But an altar-piece, in the j^ublic gallery of Pisa, attri- buted to Giunta — a Christ between the Virgin and saints — is so rude as scarcely to deserve the name of art. The Chap. IV.] EARLY TUSCAN MOSAICS. 77 mosaics in the baptistery, or church of S. Giovanni, at Florence, in the arch of the quadrangular altar-tribune, bear an inscription designating the artist as a Franciscan monk by the name of Jacobus* with the date 1225. The subject is a circle of saintly personages, ranged round the Agnus Dei, and supported by four kneeling male figures in the spandrils of the arches. The architecturally disposed arrangement remind us of those early Christian models which here, as in other parts of Italy, exercised an in- fluence over the newly-awakening spirit of art. The mosaics, however, of the octagonal dome are by various hands, and of various periods. They are arranged in several concentric bands, the innermost containing groups of angels ; the second, subjects from Genesis ; the third, the life of Joseph ; the fourth, the life of Christ : and the fifth, that of John the Baptist. These bands are inter- rupted by an enthroned Christ of colossal size, and of Byzantine type, which, as well as the groups of angels, is supposed to be the work of the Florentine artist, Andrea Tafi, who, it is now known, was living in 1320, and was consequently a contemporary of Giotto.f It was the latter half of the thirteenth century which really developed the new tendency. Here, however, we must give a brief view of that renovation which marked the intellectual life of the time, the development of Tuscan art being only intelligible when considered in connection with it. The thirteenth century had commenced with the papacy of Innocent III., under whose great gifts and triumphant measures the See of Rome attained a power and splendour * This Jacobus has nothing to do with the monk Jacob of Turrita, or Jacobus Toriti, of whom more hereafter. t Andrea's name was Eicchi. He was inscribed in 1320 in the guild of the physicians and apothecaries, to which painters also belonged, as — "Andreas vocatus Tafus, dim Ricchi." It is probable, therefore, that Tafi was a nick-name, Vasari appears, as usual, to have i'allen into many errors in the life of this artist, placing his death, for instance, in the year 1294-. It is very doubtful whether he executed any mosaics in the Baptistery. See Sansoni's edition of Vasari's works, with notes and commentaries by Signor Gaetano Milanesi, the last and best edition of the Lives of the Aretine biographer, vol. i., p. 336, note. 78 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. unknown before. The highest feeling of religious enthu- siasm pervaded the country. The glowing devotion of St. Francis of Assisi inspired all hearts. How then could the debased and haggard forms of the Byzantine school have fulfilled the purposes of religious art at such a period '? Sooner or later a truer expression of feeling was sure to break the bonds by which it had been paralysed. Other moral tendencies, also of a contemporary date, contributed to the complete emancipation of art. At this period com- mences the true nationality of Italy, announced, among other signs, by the rise of a splendid literature in the vernacular tongue, and which, though it bore a very different fruit to that produced by the contemporary sj)irit of chivalry in the North, was equally pregnant with great results. One common impulse for the attainment of a higher ideal animated every department of civilization in the Western Empire, and in art, though only for a brief moment, ap- proached the form of the highest classical perfection. This was the case, in a few specimens of sculpture of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, though it is highly probable that the authors of them were devoid of all knowledge of the antique. The early works of the great sculptor Niccola Pisano (born about 1300) are strongly marked with this tendency, till, having himself come in contact with an antique example, he formed his style im- mediately upon it. Here, however, as in Germany and France, this free and elevated conception of form and character was destined soon to give way to a more con- ventional, and even to a mannered Gothic style, without having produced any obvious effect upon the department of painting. The immediate followers of Niccola Pisano de- parted at once from his example, while, in those paintings contemporary with and closely succeeding him, that higher cultivation of form which he aimed at is only very seldom to be traced. A Tuscan painter, who late in the thirteenth century still adhered unswervingly to the most decrepid Byzantine types, must, however, here be mentioned, as a higher place has been given to him in the history of art than MADONMA ENTHBOI^ED; by Cimabue, in S. Maria Novella at Florence. p. 79. Chap. IV.] CIMABCEn=- 79 he deserves — Margarito, or as Vasari calls him, Margari- tone da Arezzo. He is believed to have been born in 1216, and to have died in 1293.* He was employed by- Pope Urban IV. (died 1265) to decorate tho portico of the ancient Basilica of St. Peter at Eome, and was a sculptor and architect as well as a painter. He is only worthy of note here as being identified by several signed pictures — among them one of the rudest type in the National Gallery .f And now we must first consider that painter who is usually (though too exclusively) looked upon as the founder of modern Italian paintingj — we mean Giovanni or Cenni di Pepe, known as Gimabue,% who, according to Vasari, was born in the year 1240, and appears to have died soon after 1300. Among the works ascribed with the greatest probability to him are two large pictures of the Madonna in Florence. The earlier one, formerly in the church of S. Trinita, and now preserved in the Academy (with grand figures of prophets and patriarchs introduced in the lower partj, is still closely allied to the Byzantine style. The later picture is in the church of S. Maria Novella, in the south chaj)el of the transept. In it the Virgin is represented enthroned, with the Infant Christ seated on her lap. and three kneeling angels on each side of her. The frame is ornamented with small me J alliens * Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p 367, note. f Dr. Kichter (' Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 8), remarks on the statement of Vasari, Kugler, and other writers, that Margantone followed the Byzantine traditions: "I think nothing can be more contrary to the principles of Byzantine art than the style of Margaritone's picture (in the National Gallery). The arrangement of the composition, every detail of it, and even the execution, betray a class of workmanship which stands independent of traditions, and which is the direct offspring of the naive but barbarous taste prevalent in Italy previous to the Renaissance." J The series of the early pictures in the Uffizi at Florence is commenced by a Virgin and child on a gold ground, inscribed with the name of ^Andreas Rico di Candia,' who is stated to have died in 1105. It is a coai'se production of Byzantine type. The five earliest Florentine painters recorded in documents are: Rudico, 1066; Girolaino di 3Iorello, 1112; Marchisello, 1191; Fidanza, 1224; and Bartolomeo, 1236. In Cinuibue's lifetime twenty-one painter-masters, who were all teaching pupils, are mentioned in two documents of the years, 1282 and 1294-. Notes by Dr. J. P. Kichter in vol. vi., p. 1. of Vasari's lives in Bohn's Standard Library. § He signs himself in a document in the Archives of the Church of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, where he was living in 1272, 'Cimabove pictore de Florentia.' A 80 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. in which are introduced heads of saints, (see woodcut). This work, though, on the whole, still following the Byzantine arrangement, already employs it with artist- like freedom ; for the drawing is improved by the study of nature, and the execution, unlike the Byzantine manner, is modelled and round. The high lights and the folds of the drapery are, however, indicated with gold, as in the Byzantine mosaics. The infant Christ shows an approach to nature in action ; the colouring is truer, the ornamen- tation in better taste. Some of the medallions also are successful. Only relatively admirable as this art may be, it contains the germ of Florentine greatness which was established in the person of Giotto. It is said that this picture, when finished, was carried from the house of the artist to the church with pomp and rejoicing. Very similar in style to this work, and apparently by the same hand, is a colossal St. Peter, enthroned, with two angels, in the church of S. Simone, Florence, dated 1308. In the Ufiizi are two pictures attributed to Cimabue ; a St. Cecilia, surrounded by eight small subjects represent- ing incidents in her life— mentioned by Vasari — and a St. Bartholomew with foui" angels. The National Gallery and the Louvre also possess altar-pieces with the enthroned Madonna, similar to that in S. Maria Novella, assigned to him. If not actually by his hand, they are of his time and probably by his scholars, and will convey an adequate idea of the style and manner of his works. The greater part of the large mosaics which adorn the chief tribune of the Duomo at Pisa, representing the Saviour, of colossal size, with John the Baptist and the Madonna beside him, were executed, according to authentic documents, by Cimabue, towards the close of his life.* Here, however, in the figure of the Saviour, the artist seems to have been fettered by the prescribed types of the church, while in the figure of John the Baptist we already remark a more animarted conception of the head and a more natural action. / Tfi6 great talents of Cimabue are exhibited in fullest The figure of the Virgin is, however, by one Vincinus of Pistoja, Chap. IV.] OIMABUE. 81 development in the large wall-paintings ascribed to Lira in the upper church of S. Francesco at Assisi. The de- coration of this church must be regarded as one of the most important circumstances in the historical development of modern painting. The church itself is remarkable in the history of architecture, haviug been erected by foreign artists in the first half of the thirteenth century, in the Gothic style then foreign to Italy.* The disposition of the building is also peculiar, two churches of almost equal extent being built one over the other. The lower building formed originally the sepulchral church of St. Francis, the upper one alone was dedicated to the usual religious service of the monastery. The great veneration in which this church was held is evinced by the amount of i)aint- ings with which the walls were covered in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The new Order here appears in a remarkable way as the promoting cause of the new style of painting. So early even as during the lifetime of St. Francis (who died 1226), one of his monks, the Jacobus before mentioned, had executed the mosaics of the choir tribune in the Baptistery at Florence ; and in Assisi, for at least two generations, all the artists which the vicinity aiforded were employed by the monks to adorn this their Holy of Holies. First, Greek masters, and after them, as is supposed, Giunta da Pisa, executed consider- able works, of which, however, but little is now recog- nisable. Cmabue was summoned to continue the series. What he may have painted in the lower church no longer exists, the frescoes attributed to him being by some earlier and xmknown Italian painters ; but in the choir and transept of the upper are some highly interesting wall-paintings which, there is strong reason to believe, are by his hand. Among them are those on the vaulted roof of the nave,| which consists of five chief quadrangular compartments — the first, third, and fifth ornamented with figures, the second and fourth with * The architect was one Jacobus Alemanmts, a monk, who probably came from the shores of the Lake of Como, or from one of the valleys of the Lombard Alps, whose inhabitants were looked upon by the people of the plains as foreigners, or Germans. t It is, however, doubtful whether they are by Cimahue. 82 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. p;old stars on a blue ground. The first corapartraent, over the choir, contains the four Evangelists, which are, however, almost obliterated. In the triangular spaces of the third compartment, separated from each other by the ribs of the ■ arch, are medallions with figures of Christ, the Virgin, John the Baptist, and St. Francis. The character of these paintings is almost the same as in the altar-pictures at- tributed to him ; the countenance of the Virgin especially has a close resemblance to that of the Madonna of S. Maria Novella. The ornaments which surround these medallions are, however, more interesting than the medallions them- selves. In the lower corners of the triangles are repre- sented naked genii, bearing tasteful vases on their heads, out of which grow rich foliage and flowers. Other genii pluck the fruits or lurk in the calyxes of the flowers. In the free movements of these figures, and in the suc- cessful attempt (for such, as a first effort, it must be regarded) to express the modeling of the naked form, we recognise a decided and not unsatisfactory approach to the antique. One of the figures has, in its attitude, a striking resemblance to the genii of classic art, as we find them commonly represented, standing with a torch reversed on the sides of earcophagi. In the fifth com- partment are the four great Doctors of the Church. In them, however, some investigators recognise not the hand of Cimabue himself, but that of an imitator. Still more important are the paintings with which Cimabue, or other Tuscan painters partaking of his aim, adorned the upper part of the walls of the nave in a line with the windows. On the left, looking from the choir, is represented the history of the Creation and of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament ; on the right, the Birth and Passion of Christ. Of the works still existing, the best are, Joseph with his Brethren, the Marriage at Cana, the Betrayal of Christ, and the Descent from the Cross. They also show the influence of the Byzantine school; but its stiff, lifeless, and repulsive peculiarities are in some degree avoided. The artist has succeeded in expressing the action of a single passing moment in the grouping of o EH Chap. IV.] CIMABUE. 83 the masses, and in the attitudes and gestures of the in- dividual figures. It is true wo recognise in these works — as in the cui^ola paintings in the baptistery at Parma — the struggle to give to traditional form the expression of a living intention. In this instance, however, the impassioned movement of the figures is happily tempered by an air of grandeur and dignity ; but it is only to a certain extent that the artist has succeeded in carrying out this principle of animation. It is, in fact, only attained so far as it is necessary to the intelligible representation of a given event ; all that belongs to a closer imitation of Nature in her individual peculiarities, all that belongs to the conception of characteristic or graceful action, is still wanting. The type of the heads is alike throughout, the expression always conventional. Yet, notwithstanding all these defects, these works must be regarded as having been mainly instrumental in opening a new path to tlie free exercise of art. The lower jmrt oi the walls of the nave, under the windows, contains in twenty-eight compartments events from the life of the Saint to whom the church is dedi- cated. They are executed by different hands, and begin, in general composition, to exhibit the style of the fourteenth century. From the frequent recurrence of Byzantine cha- racteristics, it appears, however, probable that they were executed by scholars of Cimahue. We shall return to the most important. A general affinity with the style and aim of Cimahue is observable in some mosaics executed by contemporary artists — for example, in the mosaics of the tribunes of the churches of S. Giovanni in Laterano and S. Maria Maggiore in Eome, both inscribed with the name, Jacobus Toriti, and executed necessarily between the years 1287 and 1292 (see woodcuts). The first, in which the Franciscan monk Jacobus do Camerino assisted, is simpler in arrangement and less developed in form. Six saints and apostles, with whom appear the figures of St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua on a smaller scale, and in a bending position (emblematic of their recent canonisation), are advancing, 84 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. with their hands raised in adoration, towards a cross in the centre. Over them, in a glory of angels, is seen the nead of Christ, as preserved from the older tribune. Below are the river Jordan and the four rivers of Paradise, and on the wall of the tribune Christ witli the Apostles. The ground is gold. Here, though not traceable in the details of the forme, we recognise in the animated and inspired action a revival of that poetic intention which gives such grandeur to the mosaics of the fifth century. In every respect, however, the mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore, stand the highest, being surpassed by no contemporary work in dignity, grace, and decorative beauty of arrangement. In a blue gold-starred circle is seen Christ enthroned with the Virgin: on each side, on a gold ground, are adoring angels, Icneeling and flying, with St. Peter and St. Paul, the two St. Johns, St. Francis and St. Anthony advancing devoutly. The upper part is filled with graceful vine-branches, with symbolical animals among them. Below the circle is the Jordan with small river-gods, boats, and figures of men and animals. Further below are scenes from the life of Christ in animated arrangement (see woodcut). The central grouj), Christ enthroned with the Virgin, is especially" fine. While the Saviour places the crown on His mother's head, she lifts lip her hands with the expression both of adoration and of modest remonstrance. The forms are very pure and noble ; the execution careful, and very different from the Roman mosaics of the twelfth century. More decidedly still do we trace the new style in the mosaics by Giovanni Cosmato in the recesses of two monuments in S. Maria sopra Minerva, and in S. Maria Maggiore in Eome (about 1300). To a somewhat earlier time belong the mosaics from the uj)per part of the facade of the last-named church, in which, in two rows, enframed in architectural decorations, is Christ, in the act of benediction, with several saints above, and the legend of the founding of the church below ; both well-arranged compositions. An inscription gives the name of the otherwise unknown master, " PMlippus Busutti." This work was formerly ascribed to the Florentine mosaicist Gaddo Gadcli (died o H 2 CiiAP. IV.] GIOTTO. 85 1312), hy whom certain subjects in the dome of the Baptistery at Florence, an Assumption of the Virgin in the cathedral at Pisa, and a Coronation of the Virgin in the inner lunette of the chief portal of the cathedral at Florence, still exist. These last mosaics combine the most careful Byzantine treatment (for instance, delicate high lights in gold), with the fine and dignified conception of Cimahue, who was allied in friendship with the artist. On the other hand, the mosaics of the choir tribune of S. Miniato al Monte, above Florence, representing Christ and the Virgin (executed in 1297, if the inscription to that purport be rightly interpreted), show that there were painters living in the vicinity of Cimahue who adhered strictly to the Byzantine style, and in no way advanced beyond it. The original character of these mosaics has, however, been entirely de- stroyed by modern restorations. But jEe greatest of the Tuscan painters, and the one who exercised the most influence on the development of the art of painting, not only in his native land, but in the whole of Italy, is Giotto* He may be said to stand * The great revolution which Giotto effected, and the long-enduring influence of his example, have been recorded by every historian of art, Without any disposition to question his claims to fame, the only points on which these historians are not quite in accordance, are the definition of his style, and the nature and extent of the innovations he introduced. The allegorical tendency on which the author lays so much stress, re- markable as it is, is far from being an essential characteristic of Giotto, but might lather be traced to the accidental influence of his friendship with Dante, and to the spirit of the age. It may be observed generally that the habitual employment of allegory can only in strictness be said to characterise an epoch, not an individual ; for a system of conventional personification must of necessity be the gradual result of a general under- standing and common education. The formative arts which are imme- diately intelligible (inasmuch as they are imitative) would be the last to abandon this privilege for arbitrary forms, if those forms had not in some sort supplied the place of nature. To come to those qualities which appear to have been essentially original in Giotto, we observe that his invention is mainly distinguished from the earlier productions by the introduction of natural incidents and expressions, by an almost modern richness and depth of composition, by the dramatic interest of his groups, and by a general contempt for the formal and servile style of his pre- decessors. This last circumstance is partly to be explained (as Euniohr sufficiently proves iu an inquiry into the personal character of Giotto, ' Ital. Forsch.' ii., p. 5i>) by a total absence of the superstitious enthusiasm of the time. The minor peculiarities are in like manner all diametrically opposed to the preceding practice. The " spectral stare " of the early painters is changed to half-closed eyes, unnaturally long in shape, the 86 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. at the head of the didactic, or allegorical, style. He was the son of -one- Bondone, a poor labourer, and was born in a farmhouse at Colle in the Commune of Vespignauo, near Florence, in 1266.* According to a tradition preserved by Vasari he was originally a shepherd boy,t in which condition he was discovered by Cimabue drawing a sheep upon a slab of stone.J Struck with the child, then only ten years of age, Cimahue took him to Florence, and gave h'm instruction in the arts. But it is more probable thai, as an anonymous commentator on Dante of the end of the fourteenth century states, he was first apprenticed by his father to the wool trade, but showing a strong disposition for painting, was transferred to the ' bottega,' or shop, of Cimahue.^ All traces of his industry under this great teacher have perished, but it may be safely assumed that he laboured as a youth, as well as in early manhood, on the walls of tliat grand sanctuary of piety and art which arose after the death of St. Francis, At Assisi, therefore, in the celebrated church of S. Francesco — the cradle of Florentine art — and surrounded by the rudimental efforts of his predecessors, the young Giotto may be said to have worked out his apprentice- ship as a painter. It is here, among the frescoes of the lower series in the upper church, illustrating the life of St. dark colour of the Byzantines to a delicate and even pale carnation. It is unnecessary to anticipate the author's just remarks on other particulars. The pale colour of Giotto was the most unfortunate of his innovations, for it was adonted by the Florentines for more than a century after him. Leon Battista Alberti ('Delia Pittura e della Statua,' lib. ii.), even in the fifteenth century, appears to have regretted the prevalence of this taste, for he remarks that it would be well for Art if white paint were dearer than gems — C. L. E. * According to Vasari he was born in 1276 ; but see Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p. 370, note. f According to a document in the Florentine archives, his father appears to have been a blacksmith. I The earliest mention of this tradition occurs in tlie writings o{ Leonardo da Vi7ici, who says that " Giotto being born in the mountains and in a solitude inhabited only by goats and such beasts, and being guided by nature in his art, began by drawing on the rocks the movements of the goats of which he was the keeper." ' The Literary works of Leonardo da Vinci,' by J. P. Richter, vol. i., p. 332. § Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p. 371, note. The studio, or atelier, of the early Italian painters was known as their ' bottega,' or shop, because their pictures v/ere not only painted, but also exposed for sale in it — probably so as to be seen by passers-by. O ft CI Chap. IV.J GIOTTO. 87 Francis, that his hand is traced by the internal evidence of its dawning superiority. Of the frescoes now ascribed to him may be mentioned a man throwing his cloak on the ground for the Saint to tread on ; the death of the dissolute Lord of Celano ; the dead body of St. Francis on his pallet lamented by his brethren, while angels convey his soul to Heaven; the incredulity of Girolamo, a doctor of Assisi, who thrusts his hand into the wound in the Saint's side ; S. Chiara, with her nuns, embracing the body as ii rests at S. Damiano on the way to Assisi ; Pope Gregory IX. receiving in his sleep from the hands of St. Francis a flask containing blood from the wound in his side ; the Saint healing a wounded man (the action of the Doctor about to leave the apartment, showing that there is no hope, is significant of Giofto^s dramatic power) ; and lastly, St. Francis restoring to life a lady who had died before making confession.* But Giotto's more mature works, known as his by historical as well as by internal evidence, are those which adorn the lower church of Assisi. They consist of four triangular compartments in the . groined roof above the high altar (underneath which lie the remains of the saint), representing the three vows of the order, Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, and the glorification of St. Francis. In the first of these our Lord is seen uniting St. Francis in marriage to Poverty (see woodcut), who appears as a woman, surrounded by thorns. Christ, standing between them, joins their hands. In the foreground are two boys mocking her, and on each side are groups of angels as witnesses of the holy union. On the left, conducted by an angel, is a youth, who gives iiis garment to a poor man, after the example of the Saint. On the right stand the rich and the great, who are invited by an angel to ajiproachj but who, holding, one a falcon on his wrist, the others bags of money in their hands, turn scornfully away. The vow of Chastity is illustrated by a young female figure seated in a strong fortress, with angels * Most of these frescoes here named are engraved in Ottley's ' Early Florentine School.' Doubts are entertained as to the attribution of all those mentioned in the text to Giotto. 88 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV, doing her liomage. Below are groups consisting on one side of St. Francis welcoming tliree candidates for admission — a Monk, a Nun, and a Lay Brother ; in the centre of a youth- ful figure receiving baptism ; and on the other side of the Angel of Penitence driving away demons. The representation of Obedience is not so clear. The Angel ' Obedientia ' is seated within a temple, with the Angel ' Prudentia ' with a face looking backwards as well as for- wards on one side, and the Angel ' Humilitas ' on the other. In front is a centaur animal with the tail of a lion, and the hind-feet of a dog. On each side are groups of angels, and above the temple is St. Francis standing, with the hands of the Father shedding effulgence upon him, and an angel on each side holding the rules of the Order, In the fourth compaitment St. Francis in a deacon's robe enriched with gold,* is seen enthroned in glory (see woodcut), surrounded with angels dancing and singing, and playing on musical instruments. The hand of Giotto is also recognised in the frescoes in the southern transept of the lower church in the series illustrating the life of our Lord, and in those relating to the life of St. Francis. Among the former the Salutation and the Visitation are foremost in merit. Among the latter the restoration to life of a boy of the Spini family by St. Francis, though mutilated to make room for a music gallery, is full of expression. Next in sequence, judging according to his progress in art, are the works he executed in Rome, as it is believed, between 1298 and 1300. Cardinal Stefaueschi, nei^hew of Boniface VIII., is known to have been his patron there. The principal record of Giotto's labours is a mosaic exe- cuted for the ancient Basilica of St, Peter, and now preserved in the portico of the modern church, called the " Navicella," which Giotto is believed to have designed. This has been so extensively injured and repaired that it would be difficult to form any critical estimate of its author. A ship, in a rough sea, containing eleven of the Apostles, occupies the * He had remained a deacon from a feeling of humility, and had never been consecrated as a priest. > O OS o C5 4 3 i o Chap. IV.] GIOTTO. 91 In these respects Giotto is both the founder and com- pleter of his school. Certain sacred incidents have perhaps never been so happily expressed, as by him, though in the execution of details he is necessarily much behindhand. The Murder of the Innocents combines with moderate action the expression of the deepest terror and sorrow in the women, and of the most relentless malice in the execu- tioners. The Resurrection of Lazarus, also, considering the necessary limits of the time and style, may be pronounced a perfect work. Martha and an aged saint are holding the still 8wathed-up body, while Mary has already cast herself at the Saviour's feet, who is in the act of pronouncing the words of life. The subject of the Entombment, like- wise, has, in choice of motives, not been surpassed by any subsequent representation. The women seated on the ground, supporting the dead Saviour, are overwhelmed with grief, while in the St. John, with his arms raised and extended, the painter has preserved the antique gestui'e of sorrow. Other mourners form a fine group around. The Last Judgment, in its customary place above tho entrance-door, is conceived, as might be sujiposed, more in conformity with traditional treatment. The upper part shows signs of Giotto's original mind in the jjrocession of the Blessed. Among them are three figures in profile — the centre one, according to tradition, being the portrait of the painter. Enrico Scrovegno is also seen in purple dress and bonnet, kneeling before a group of three Angels, who , are presenting to him and a monk or priest the model of the chapel. The lower part of the right side embodies those hideous images encouraged by the Eomish church in the old ' Sacred Plays,' for which Dante is usually, but unjustly, supposed to be answerable. Giotto's labours in Padua also extended to the great church dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, known as "II Santo," where he adorned the chapter-house with incidents from the lives of that Saint, and of St. Francis. Portions of these frescoes have been destroyed by conflagrations, and the usual maltreatment and whitewash have obliterated what the devouring element spared. Parts of six figures in niches 92 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. supported on a painted cornice and separated by painted pilasters, dimly sliow the imperishable beauty of Giotto's forms. Two lunettes on the left of the entrance, are also partially discernible. The Annunciation in one of them exhibits, in the Virgin's expression of surprise and terror, a new conception of the subject. At Verona, according to Vasari, he is reported to have left woilks, but none survive to test the connoisseur. The same may be said of Ferrara, where, Vasari states, he also laboured, and of Eavenna, although a ceiling in the first chapel to the left in S. Giovanni Evangelista in the latter city, with the four Evangelists and the four Doctors of the church, has been attributed to his hand. We now return to Florence, where the church of S. Croce furnishes a gallery of Giotto's works, equally fitted to excite admiration for his industry as well as power. No less than five chapels — those of the families of the Peruzzi, the Bardi, the Giugni, the Tosinghi, and the Spinelli were decorated by him. The frescoes in the old Peruzzi chapel (or sacristy) illustrating the lives of the Baptist and of St. John the Evangelist were for a time concealed from sight. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, they are mentioned by a writer. In the middle of the eighteenth century, they were no longer visible. It was in that interval, therefore, that they underwent the common ingratitude towards so much that was valuable in Italian art. In 1841, the first attempts made to rescue these works from oblivion dis- covered the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias and the Ascension of the Evangelist ; but it was not till 1863 that the remainder were exposed to view. These wall-paintings, however injured and defaced, are pronounced the master- pieces of Giotto, justifying the enthusiastic admiration of early vi^riters, and so far lessening the repute of his followers, as showing how much more they owed to the great man than had been hitherto supposed. On the vaulting of the entrance-arch of the chapel are eight half-figures of prophets, and on the ceiling the signs of the Evangelists ; but the chief interest centres in the walls, one side being devoted to the Life of the Baptist, the other to that of Chap. IV.] GIOTTO. 93 John the Evangelist. In the first, the apparition of the angel to Zacharias engages our admiration. Giotto was seldom more classical in composition, or at the same time more true to the text of Scripture, than here. No subse- quent art has surpassed the expression of Zacliarias, or scarcely the form of the angel. The birth of the Baptist, with Zacharias writing the infant's name, is also rciiletc with beauties, among which may be particularised the grand antique pose of St. Elizabeth, the grace of the women at her bedside, and the attitude and drapery of the grave, dumb father. The Dance of Herodias' daughter, though little more than outlines are loft, unites, with all his grander qualities of arrangement, grouping and action, a closer imitation of nature and greater individuality of expression than he had before attained. Seldom, even in later times, have fitter action and features been rendered than those which characterise the viol- player as he plies his art, and W'atches the dancing Salome. Still finer are some of the scenes from the Life of the Evangelist, such as the Miracle of the Resurrection of Drusiana and the Ascension of St. John. The group round the grave express individual varieties of wonder and surprise which few painters have attempted. The Bardi Chapel has also in recent times been relieved from its veil of whitewash. Here the nature of the subjects — scenes from the Life of St. Francis — shows the prevalent enthusiasm for the Mendicant Order. Giotto found it a never-ending theme. These illustrations, which may be com- pared with those in the upper church at Assisi, occupy two of the walls in three coui'ses of frescoes. Some of them are grievously damaged, and, what is synonymous, restored ; but the intelligent observer of Giotto's works will soon perceive great beauties. The death-bed of the Saint still preserves its pre-eminence for perfection of arrangement and expression, even when compared with Ghirlandajo's grand fresco of the same scene painted at Florence a century and a half later. The frescoes by Giotto on the walls of the Giugni (now Riccardi) and Spinelli Chapels are still hid from view 94 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV indeed, those in the Spinelli Chapel are more than hidden, for they have been covered with paintings by a modern hand. The Coronation of the Virgin* attributed to him in the Baroncelli Chapel, in the same church, may next be men- tioned. It is on panel, with numerous attendant saints and angels, signed " Opus Magistri Jocti," f and probably painted in 1334. Like other early painters Giotto is not seen to so much advantage in a tempera picture (and this ore moreover, has been greatly defaced), as in wall-paintings covering a large space. Still, his characteristics will be found here as well as in the five figures of the lower compartment. The panels for the presses in the church of S. Croce, now preserved in the Florence Academy, also at one time attributed to Giotto, are now believed to be the work of an able pupil. The Crucifixes painted by Gioilo display another and not less characteristic form of his art — such works were the touchstone of the painter in the fourteenth century. Two still existing — the one in S. Marco, the other in the Gondi- Dini Chapel of the church of the Ognissanti, both at Florence — are probably by him. It is needful to know something of the abject and degraded form given to this subject in the latter Byzantine school, to perceive the extent to which he improved on the prevalent type. The figure of our Lord is comparatively youthful and erect, conveying the expression of suffering without exaggerated contortion. Giotto has adhered to the mediaeval type of the Pelican feeding her young, above the Saviour's head ; and the Virgin and St. John are on the right and left, at the extremities of the transverse beam of the cross. The skull that typifies Calvary is seen below. In the Gondi-Dini Crucifix, a medallion figure of the youthful Saviour in the act of blessing (a relic of the earlier Byzantine type) is substituted for the Pelican. * Outlines in D'Agincourt, pi. 114, Nos. 4 and 5. E. Forster, 'Beitrage,' pi. 4. t There is every reason to believe that this signature, and a similar signature on a picture attributed to Giotto in the Brera to be hereafter mentioned, are not genuine, and are of a later date than the pictures, which are works of inferior merit and scarcely worthy of the master. MARRIAGE OF LOUIS OF TARENTUM AND GIOVANNA OF NAPLES ; fresco attributed to Giotto, at Naples. p. 95. Chap. IV.] GIOTTO. 95 It is a|i historical fact * that Giotto was invited by King Robert ox Naples to practise bis art in that city in 1329 ; but the frescoes of the Seven Sacraments in the church of the Incoronata at Naples have been wrongly ascribed to his hand. The style of these works differs as much from that of the great master as it is inferior to it. This internal evidence is farther corroborated by the historical fact that the nuptials between Louis of Tarentum and Giovanna, Queen of Naples, represented in the Sacrament of Marriage (see woodcut), took place eleven years after his death, and that the building itself was not commenced until later still. No works by the painter are believed now to exist in Naples. Those once in the convent of S. Chiara and in the Castel Nuovo and Castel deir Uovo have perished. Returning from Naples, he executed frescoes in the Nunziata, at Gaeta, and also at Rimini : all have perished. Finally, he is found again at Florence, where, in 1334, he was appointed master of the works of S. Maria del Fiore (the cathedral), and architect of the walls of Florence and of the cities within the confines of the state. While engaged in this office, he designed the beautiful Campanile ; but documentary evidence proves that he only superintended the building of the lower part of it, the, remainder having been completed, on a different design, by Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti. He had no share in the erection of the facade of the church, commenced twenty years after his death. In these later years he visited Milan, by invitation of a Visconti, though the frequently devastated city affords no relic of his art, except a Virgin and Child, in the Brera, bearing the inscription of " Op. Magister Jocti de Flora."! The two wings of this picture are in the Gallery at Bologna. A ' St. Francis receiving the Stigmata,' painted for the church of S. Francesco at Pisa, and similarly signed, is in the Louvre. Another work by his hand, a half-figure of the Madonna with devotees kneeling on either side of her, and presented by their patron saints— dated 1334 — is in the Treasury of the * See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i., p. 317. t Of doubtful authenticity, and probably of the school. See not« in previous page. 96 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV Cathedral at Florence. An altar-piece undoubtedly by him, and one of his best panel-pictures— a Virgin and Child sur- rounded by angels— is in the Academy of Fine Arts there. There remain to be mentioned two works in Florence attributed to Giotto, but now proved to have been executed, probably by one of his pupils, after his death — the frescoes in the chapel of the Bargello, or Palace of the Podesta, and those in the church of the Carmine. In the former, from which the whitewash was removed some years ago, chiefly through the representations of the late Mr. Kirkup, an English painter resident in Florence, occurs the celebrated portrait of Dante, supposed to have been taken by Giotto from life (see woodcut). It would now appear that it was probably copied from one in an altar-piece by the master which existed in the chapel when the frescoes on the walls, destroyed by fire in the year 1332, were restored.* These frescoes, of which only traces remain, represented at one end of the chapel the ' Paradiso,' at the other, the ' Inferno ' — the side walls being covered by incidents from the lives of the Magdalen, and of St. Mary Egyptiaca. In the ' Paradiso ' the painter has introduced a procession of Florentine citizens, headed by a crowned youth, believed to be intended for Charles of Valois. In one of these citizens may be recognised the well-known features of Dante. His two companions are supposed to be Brunette Latini and Corso Donate. These portraits are mentioned by Vasari as the first successful attempt at portraiture after tbe revival of art. They have, indeed, a strong individual character. The head of Dante, injured before the whitewash was removed, has further suffered from injudicious repainting. In our woodcut it is given as originally found. The frescoes representing the Life of the Baptist, formerly in the chapel dedicated to that Saint in the church of the Carmine, but destroyed by fire in 1771 (of which two frag- ments — heads of Apostles — are in the National Gallery), are proved by documentary evidence to have been executed after 1850, and not consequently by Giotto. It is conjectured * See Commentary by Signor Gaetauo Milanese on the life of Oiotto in Sansoni's ed. of Vasari's Lives, vol. i. p. 413. PORTRAITS OP DANTE. CORSO DONATO, and BRUNETTO in the Chapel of the Poilesta at Florence. LATIN I p. m Chap. IV.] GIOTTO. 97 tbat tliey may have been the work of his pupil Taddeo Gaddi, or of Agnolo his son.* Giotto died at Florence in 1336, leaving unfinished the Campanile, or bell-tower, of the Cathedral, upon which he was engaged at the time — a monument of his genius as an architect and sculptor, as well as a painter — and before lie was able to execute a commission given to him by Pope Benedict XII. to decorate the papal Palace at Avignon.f If we now examine the style of Giotto, we remark, first, that the Byzantine manner is entirely abandoned. There appears a peculiar flexibility in the movements, which in some is carried even to an excess of elegance, and is particularly observable in the flowing and long-drawn folds of the drapery. This last peculiarity is characteristic of the whole period. It recurs continually as an established type, though modified by the peculiarities of the more eminent masters ; and, as an architectural influence is everywhere visible in the measured forms of the severe style of drapery, we may place the above-mentioned treatment in close con- nection with Gothic architecture, to the character of which it corresponds universally, and with which it rose and declined. In his heads, Giotto frequently exhibits a peculiar and not very beautiful type ; the eyes are generally long and narrow, and very close to each other. That sweetness and grace which, in Duccio's works, for example, appears to announce the approaching development of the highest ideality of form, was not one of Giotto's attributes. He, on the contrary, led the spirit of art in another direction. In these newly-invented representations, founded on no ancient tradition, beauty was less his object than the expres- sion of character. Here and there, however, we find very graceful heads in his pictures, and the whole composition is always beautifully disposed in its masses. Where the subject required, it is even treated in a peculiarly solemn, simple, and harmonious manner. For the first time, since the decline * Sansoni's V.isari, vol. i., p. 376, note. f Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p. 387, note. Vasari erroneously states that Giotto was compelled to follow Pope Clement V. to Avignon, and that he txecuted numerous works there and in other parts of France. 98 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. of ancient art, we observe a successful attempt at the regular arrangement of the subject in the space allotted. This Giotto has combined with the utmost animation of the whole. The execution of the details is, it must be con- fessed, generally sketchy, and, as it were, suggestive : completeness was perhaps less essentially allied to his peculiar views as an artist. The vehicle he employed with his colours was more fluid than that hitherto used ; it allowed a greater freedom of hand, and has also darkened but little with time. It is impossible to over-estimate the influence of Giotto's genius. He opened a fountain of Nature to the gifted generations who succeeded him in Italy, which permeated through the length and breadth of the land, spreading beauty and fertility in its course. At the same time there also followed, as in the nature of things, a stream of con- vention, in the shape of a multitude of now nameless Giottesque painters, which grew more feeble and lifeless till it expired. No Christian artist can perhaps be quoted who raised such a host of imitators, whose very names for the most part have been completely forgotten. Nor does paint- ing alone claim him as her reviver. The sculpture of the Kenaissance may be said to be in great measure his crea- tion. It was Giotto's designs for the bronze doors on the north side of the Baptistery at Florence, and for the subjects on the Campanile, executed by Andrea Pisano, which gave a fresh impulse to the art — an impulse which, springing from a painter, maintained with singular tenacity the picturesque character which is one broad distinction between Italian sculpture and the antique.* Those interested in the study of Giotto will find him nowhere more charac- teristically himself than in these designs. It would be interesting to trace how many of the motives admired in the works of later painters have descended from this great man. For instance, the pathetic action of the Virgin's extended hands in BapJiaeVs ' Spasimo,' was doubtless created by Giotto, though not, we believe, discernible in any of his * See 'Essay on Basso-rilievo,' First Series of 'Contributions to the Fina Arts,' by Sir C. L. Eastlake. Chap. IV.] TADDEO GADDl. 99 surviving works; but it appears among his followers — as in the fresco by Giottino, in S. Francesco, Assisi, of St. Nicholas Eestoriiig a Girl to her Parents, and in the fresco of the Procession to Calvary, in the sacristy of S. Croce, Florence — and is far too fine to have originated with them. The most important of Giotto's scholars was Tadcleo Gaddi son of Gaddo Gaddi. He was born in the year 1300, and was held at the baptismal font by Giotto. When asked, in his latter days, to name the greatest painter in Italy, he is said to have exclaimed, " Art has fallen very low since the death of Giotto." It is certain tliat he was unequal to carry on the development of painting, though he contributed to it much facility of hand and grace of form. Viewed in a general sense, he may be said to have returned upon his master's steps, instead of taking up where he loft otf. He even reverted, in some instances, to the traditions in art which Giotto's genius had discarded. In the ' Journey of the Wise men ' it is no longer a star, but a figure of the infant Saviour, which is seen to guide them. His figures are long and slender, showing that it was he who assisted Giotto in the southern transept of the Lower Church at Assisi. His extremities are short and coarse. Nevertheless, he occasionally shows a purity and artlessness of expression in historical subjects which recall the feeling of Giotto, and he appears in his best works as an interesting and accomplished painter. His chief works in fresco, representing the Life of the Virgin,* occupy two walls of the Baroncelli Chapel in S. Croce at Florence. On the lunette, on the side to the left of the entrance, is the Exj)ulsion of Joachim from the Temple, a subject divided by fine architecture into seven parts.f Four comi^artments below contain the Meeting of Joachim and Anna, the Birth of the Virgin, her Dedication and her Marriage. The wall opijosito the entrance is occupied by the Annunciation, the Salutation, the Angel appearing to the Shepherds, and the Adoration of the Magi. The female • See Lasinio's ' Old Florentine Masters,' pi. 14-17. I See Ottley's ' Florentine School,' pi. 26. 100 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. figures are strikingly graceful, and the general composition fine. In the Dedication, where the young Virgin is ascend- ing the steps, a man in profile, with a long beard, looking at her, is stated by Vasari to represent Gaddo Gaddi, the painter's father, and near him, also bearded, is Andrea Tafi. In the Marriage, the group of women in attendance is beautiful, especially one figure with a diadem, next the Virgin. That these frescoes are by the hand of Taddeo Gaddi is a fact stated by Vasari, and deriving confirmation from the character of certain panel-pictures, which bear a date and his name. One of these is an altar-piece, now in the Berlin Museum. Another, altar-piece, also signed and dated, representing the Virgin and Child with Angels, is in the sacristy of St. Peter's at Megognano, 3 miles S. E. of Poggibonsi. Taddeo Gaddi may be also studied in a number of panels which adorned the presses of the sacristy of the church of S. Croce, Florence, consisting of two series, the one, the History of the Saviour, the other, that of St. Francis, now iu the Florencs Academy. In the History of St. Francis he has repeated, more or less, the frescoes by Giotto in the Upper Church at Assisi. The other series is believed to be entirely the work of Taddeo. The finest panel in it is that representing the Transfiguration. Taddeo's frescoes in S. Croce, were more numerous even than those by Giotto. Excepting the above-mentioned in the Baroncelli Chapel, they have all perished. There is one however, remaining in what was formerly the great Refec- tory, which is assigned, on internal evidence, to Taddeo. This is a Last Snpper, hitherto attributed to Giotto, under a large Crucifixion and ' Stem of Jesse.' In the Crucifixion, Taddeo has retained, or returned to, the stereotyped j'orm, with the Saviour and the Disciples on one side of the table, and Judas sitting alone in front. The four side pictures from the lives of St. Francis and St. Louis bear indications of Taddeo's, less pleasing style. The manuscript of a Speculum in the Library of the Arsenal at Paris contains one hundred and sixty slightly coloured pen-drawings, which reveal the manner of Taddeo. Chap. IV.] AGNOLO GADDI. 101 They are remarkable for simplicity and dignity of com- position and for graceful motives.* The activity of Taddeo may be compared witli that of his master, though far fewer of his works survive. At Florence his frescoes in the convent and cloisters of S. Spirito, the altar-pieces in S. Stefano del Ponte Vecchio, the fres- coes and pictures in the church of the Servi, and the alle- gories in the tribunal of the Mercanzia, have all perished. He laboured also at Pisa, where a portion of a series exe- cuted in S. Francesco, in 1342, still remains — chiefly confined to the ceiling. He was afterwards called to Arezzo and the Casentino, and executed numerous works which have also disappeared. No records of him appear after 1366, about which time he is supposed to have died. He was buried in the cloisters of S. Croce. Taddeo left a son called Agnolo Gaddi whom he recom- mended, on his death-bed, to Giovanni da Milano for teaching in art, and to Jacoho di Casentino for guidance through the world. The year of Agnolo's birth is uncertain. He in- herited his father's powers, and also developed excellences to which Taddeo had not attained. He was more original and less grotesque ; his colouring is bright and transparent, and with a higher sense of relief than that of Taddeo. His best and probably earliest works are in the chapel of the Holy Girdle (del Sacro Cingolo) in the cathedral of Prato. They represent the legends of the Virgin's Life, including the story of the Girdle, which, dropped at her Assumption, was caught by St. Thomas. The expulsion of her father Joachim from the temple, the meeting of her parents, and her dedication, are well composed. Her marriage is one of the finest compositions of the Giottesque school. Agnolo still a Iheres, however, to the false and expressionless type of features. His works next in importance and in preservation are the series of the History of the Cross,f given in eight frescoes, * See Waagen's ' Kunstw. und Kiinstler in Paris,' p. 317. f The whole story is to be found in the Aurea Legenda. The following abridgment of this fable may serve as a specimen of the troubled sources from which the early painters derived their inspiration. Adam, being at the point of death, desires Seth to procure the oil of mercy (for the K 3 102 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. in the choir of S. Croce at Florence. One of the most striking of the subjects is that of the sick people lying on their beds, and drinking water from the pool of Bethesda. Another represents the Emperor Heraclius crowned, and with his suite, bearing the true Cross, vainly endeavour- ing to enter the gate of Jerusalem, which is miraculously walled up. The next shows Heraclius stripped to his shirt, and bare-footed, carrying the Cross on his shoulder, the gate, which was closed to his pride, being now opened to liis humility. Near him, and near the gate is, according to Vasari, the portrait of Agnolo himself, in a red hood and with a small beard. This head still exists ; but all these frescoes are much injured. Agnolo died in 1396, and was also buried within the majestic walls of S. Croce. He left sons, who did not follow their father's profession, but acquired great wealth as merchants. Among his pupils was Cennino di Drea Cemiini, better known for his treatise on painting — a work of much interest as showing the methods then practised by the followers of the art — than for his works as a painter. extreme unction) from the angels who guard Paradise. Selh, on applying for it, learns from the archangel 'Michael, that the oil can only be obtained after the lapse of ages (the period announced corresponding with the interval from the Fall to the Atonement). Seth receives from the angels, instead, a small branch of the tree of knowledge, and is told that, when it should bear fruit, Adam would recover. On his return he finds Adam dead, and plants the branch on his tomb. The sapling grew to a tree, which flourished till the time of Solomon, who had it hewn down for the purposes of building; the workmen, however, found such difficulty in adapting it, that it was thrown aside. It next served as a bridge over a lake. The Queen of Sheba (the type of the Gentiles), about to cross the bridge, sees in a vision the Saviour on the cross, and kneels in adoration. She informs Solomon that, when a certain One should be suspended on that tree, the fall of the Jewish nation would be near. Solomon, alarmed, buries the fatal wood deep in the earth ; the same spot, in process of time, becomes the pool of Bethesda. Immediately before the Crucifixion the tree rises, and floats on the surface of the water; it is then taken out, iind serves for the cross. (See the Aurea Legenda under the rubric De Inventione Sanctte Crucis.) The legend of the finding of the Cross by the Empress Helena is well known. The same story, with some slight variations, is the subject of a series of frescoes at Arezzo, by Fietro della Francesca. — C. L. E. (A fuller account of this legend, as connected witli art, is given in 'The History of Our Lord in Art,' vol. ii., p. 385.) Chap. IV,] GIOVANNI DA MILANO. 103 He migrated, after the death of his master, to Padua, whoro he wrote his treatise, married, and probably died.* Giovanni da Milano, to whom Taddeo Gaddi eutrusted the instruction of his son Agnolo, was born at Caverzaio, a village near Como.f He was long an assistant to Taddeo. He also studied Sieiiese examj)les, and combines something of the warmth of the Sienese school, with that Florentine paleness of colour, which, we have seen, was an attribute of Giotto. Though incapable of advancing the art of composition, he contributed to the development of painting by a sweetness and earnestness of expression, and by a more faithful imitation of nature in form and drawing. His joint works with Taddeo at Arezzo have perished, and he is chiefly known by two panel-pictures. Of these an upright one, apparently once the centre of an altar piece, repre- senting the dead Saviour resting on the tomb, and mourned by the Virgin, the Magdalen, and St. John, is signed and dated 1365. f It is now in the Accademia at Florence. A more important work in the Gallery at Prato is an altar- piece, with the Virgin enthroned, four saints, and other smaller subjects ; also signed. Two fragments in the Uffizi, are also belived to be by his hand. They both comprise painted niches, with saints in couples, and medallions above, with scenes from the Creation ; and below, choirs of martyrs, apostles, patriarchs, and prophets. The frescoes in the Einuccini Chapel in the church of S. Croce, formerly, on Vasari's authority, assigned to Taddeo, are now pronounced to be the work of Giovanni da Milano. These scenes from the life of our Lord and of the Virgin — all greatly damaged — exhibit his improved command over the moveraeot of the human figure and his natural and realistic feeling. In the ' Magdalen Washing the Feet of * Sansoni's Vasan', vol. i., p. 644. The best edition of Ccnnino's Treatise on painting is that by Gaetano and Carlo Milanese, Florence, 1859. t He was also known as Giovanni da Conw. He was the sou of one Jacopo di Guido, and was matriculated in the Florentine 'Arte,' or Guild, of Physicians and Apothecaries on the 25th June, 1363. Sansoni'a Vasari, vol. vi., p. 572, nijte. X Engraved in the ' Galleria delle Belle Art.' 104 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. Christ,' the two Disciples, who suspend their eating to listen to the words of the Saviour, are peculiarly natural. The same may be said of the scene where Martha, in her desire for the help of Mary, points to the kitchen in the distance, where the cook and the fire are seen. The period of Giovanni da 3Iilano'a death is unknown, but he was admitted to the freedom of Florence in 1366. Of Stefano Fiorentino, whom Vasari places on a level with Taddeo Gaddi, nothing is known. In attempting, however imperfectly, to trace the school of Giotto, the historian of art is met by many difficulties. One of these consists in the familiar appellations given to paintei's during their lives, and of which contemporary notices have retained more records than of the baptismal name, and still more than of the so-called surname. And even these familiar appellations have, in some instances, been further familiar- ised, as with Orcagna, so corrupted from " Arcagnolo " — a term perhaps of endearment, perhaps connected with his art, the origin of which is lost. The painter Giottino, stated by Vasari to have been born in 1324, is one whose real name has eluded search ; the utmost believed to be known of him being his baptismal name, of Tommaso di Ste- fano, connected with that of his father, and further, the fact that certain frescoes in S. Spirito at Florence are stated by Ghiberti to have been the work of one Maso, the disciple of Giotto, and by Vasari, that of one Giottino, leaving the inference that Maso and Giottino were the same man.* These frescoes represent the life of S. Silvestro, as given in the Golden Legend. Their author is seen here in the same naturalistic path trodden by Giovanni da Milano, but with far higher feeling for composition and truth of detail. The same hand is recognised in the crypt chapel of the Strozzi near the Cappella degli Spaguuoli in S. Maria Novella, Florence ; * The confusion is cleared up by Signer Mihinesi (Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p. 622, note), v/ho shows that there were three painters whom Vasari has jumbled into one — Maso, sou of Banco, Giotto di Maestro Stefano, called Giottino, to distinguish him from his great namesake, and Tommaso di Stefano. This Giotto di Stefano, or Giottino, was employed iu Rome, with other Florentine artists, iu decorating the palace of the Pope in 1369. Ohap. IV.] SCHOLARS OF GIOTTO AND OTHERS. 105 in a fresco representing the expulsion of Walter do Briennc, on the staircase of the present Accademia Filarmonica in tho Via del Diluvio, Florence ; in a ' Pieta ' now in the Ufiizi ; and in the scenes of the acts of St. Nicliolas, in the Lower Church at Assisi, in the Cappella del Sacramento. All of these do honour to the school of Giotto, and exhibit the author, whoever he may be, as his most successful imitator. Tho fresco of St. Nicholas restoring a Girl to her Parents* shows the germ of the finest dramatic and realistic feeling. We pass over many other scholars and imitators of Giotto, as their works contributed nothing to the further progress of art : even of those above mentioned, none equalled their master in greatness of conception. We shall also, for tho present, disregard the numerous artists whose style was entirely transformed by Giotto's influence ; returning to them in due time when we notice the local schools. As one of Giotto's contemporaries, but neither a scholar nor follower of the master, may be mentioned Pietro Cavallini, the Roman, who flourished in the first half of the fourteenth century. His mosaics of the Life of tho Virgin on the wall of the choir tribune in S. Maria in Trastevere in Rome, have been preserved, and exhibit simple and, in part, excellent compositions of fine arrangement and careful execution. In 1309 he was at Naples, employed as a painter by King Charles IL No authentic pictures by him are known. The Florentine illuminator, Don Silvestro, a Camaldolcso monk (about 1350), may also be best mentioned here. It is true he is more known by Vasari's praise than by his own works, though a few miniatures cut out of a missal once belonging to the Convent degli Angeli (Florence) — formerly in the collection of Mr. Young Ottley, of London, and now in the Liverpool Institution — show that the illuminators of the school of Giotto were in no way behind the period in dignity and expression. One of the most imposing monuments of the early part of the fourteenth century, and in great measure identified with the school of Giotto, is the chapter-hall, called the * Engraved in Ottley's ' Florentine School,' pi. 25. 106 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. Cappella degii Spagnuoli, opening into the cloisters of the church of S. Maria Novella at Florence. This chapel was founded for the celebration of the tlien newly-instituted festival of the Corpus Christi by a rich Florentine citizen, Buonamico di Lapo Guidalotti, who died before the paint ings were completed. Hitherto, in accordance with Yasari's statement, the authorship of these frescoes has been divided between Taddeo Gaddi and Simone Martini, miscalled by him 3Iemmi. They may possibly owe their composition to the former, but they appear to have been executed by one Andrea, a Florentine.* On the altar wall opposite the entrance is the Passion of our Lord, here represented as that event upon which the Christian Church is especially founded, and the perpetual re- membrance of which the Corpus Christi Festival is intended to celebrate. The subjects are arranged above and on each side of a small apsis in a peculiar manner, being so contrived that the different movements and incidents are not sejiarated from each other. On the left is the procession to Calvary, coming out of the city, and winding round the hill. Windows and roofs are swarming with spectators. The Virgin, with the other women, is walking dejectedly behind the Saviour, who is turning round to her. Above on the hill, is the Crucifixion, with the women in a grandly treated group on one side. The Virgin is not represented fainting, but looking up at the Cross with a mixed expression of a aguish and resiguation. On the other side are horsemen, driving back the people, who fly in all directions ; among them is a figure in a yellow mantle, perhaps Ahasuerus. Underneath, on the right of the apsis, is the descent of Christ into Hell. The forms of the patriarchs, whom He has set free, are expressed grandly, and without any vehemence of impatience. The demons are lurking behind a door of rock, with every sign of fear. The subjects on the wall opposite, above and around the entrance, are almost obliterated. According to Vasari, * The date of the building would appear to exclude the supposition that Simone Martini could have bceu the author of any of these frescoes. See Sansoui's Vasari, vcl. i., p. 582, note. Chap. IV.] CAPPELLA DEGLI SPAGNUOLI. 107 they represent the life of St. Domiuic. The episode of the Saint preaching is still discernible, as well as that of the resuscitation of a damsel, who turns with gestures of amaze- ment to lier mother. The fresco which adorns the left wall of the chapel (from the entrance) contains an allegorical representation of the Wisdom of the Church. In the centre and upper part of the composition is St. Thomas Aquinas enthroned between the prophets and saints, foremost among whom are Daniel, St. Paul, Moses, and St. John the Evangelist. The splendour with which St. Thomas is here invested may be ascribed to the zeal with which he promoted the Corpus Christi festival, and to the circumstance of his recent canonization. Besides this, it was the object of the Dominican order, here in the gi-andest of their sacred edifices, so to represent the apotheosis of their favourite Saint as to rival that by which St. Francis of Assisi was usually honoured. In contradistinction to that Saint, who appears under the form of a mystical comparison with Christ, St. Thomas is here made to typify the dominion over this world's wisdom and knowledge. In other words, the teaching vocation of the Dominicans, as opposed to the contemplative vocation of the Franciscans, is here meant to be expressed. St. Thomas is seated in solemn tranquillity beneath a rich Gothic canopy, holding a book on which appears this Latin inscription from the Book of Wisdom (vii. 7, 8), " Wherefore I prajed, and understanding was given me: I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her." Angels hover above him ; on each side of him are five seats, occupied by prophets and evangelists. At his feet are three men with books, in crouching attitudes like vanquished slaves — repre- senting the most prominent heretics, Arius, Sabellius, and Averrhoes — while the Seven Virtues with their symbols hover over the scene. Beneath are seated fourteen female figures, personifying the Virtues and Sciences ; at the feet of each, a step lower, is a male figure — representing some person, 'irhether of early or later times, celebrated for excellence in 108 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. that particular virtue or science. Thus Grammar, with a globe ia her hand, and teaching three children, has Donatus, who excelled in that study, seated writing at her feet. Khetoric, holding a scroll, has Cicero below her ; Logic, with a serpent under her veil,* Zeno ; Music, Tubal Cain ; Astronomy, Atlas ; Geometry, Euclid ; Arithmetic, Abraham (?) ; Charity, St. Augustin ; Faith, Diouysius the Areopagite ; Hope, John of Damascus, a fine figure mending his pen; Prac- tical Theology, Boethius ; Speculative Theology, Peter Lombard ; Canon Law, Pope Clement V. ; Civil Law, Justinian. These figures were grievously repainted at a now distant period, to which must be attributed the three hands of Cicero. Profound reflection and enthusiastic in- spiration are happily expressed in each of these figures, giving them a certain stamp of grandeur and tranquillity. The intellectual head of Cicero, and the melancholy, con- templative countenance of Boethius, are both especially remarkable. On the triangular space of the groined roof, over these paintings, is represented the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the relation of which to the general subject is expressed in the inscription on the book which St. Thomas Aquinas holds. The scene occurs in an open gallery, while below, before the closed door, are standing a group of scofiiers. "While on the wall just described the Church is seen in tranquil study, the opposite wall is devoted to a repre- sentation of her external activity. In the lower part, to the left, is a large cathedral-like edifice, in the Italian Gothic style. It is, in fact, a representation of the cathedral of Florence, according to the original design, and is here to be understood as the symbol of the spiritual Church. Before it are seated a Pope and an Emperor, as the highest guardians of the Church, with ecclestiastical and temporal rulers near them, — solemn, dignified figures. Instead of the imperial globe, as customary, the Emperor is holding a death's head in his hard, as typical of the perishableness of all earthly power, when compared with that of the eternal * In Rosiui's engraving, a scorpion. See also his explanation of the figures. Chap. IV.3 CAPPELLA DEGLI SPAGNUOLI. 109 Church. On each side, groups of the Faithful stand and kneel. These groups consist partly of celebrated men and women of the time, partly of the poor and infirm. The community of the Faithful is also represented under the form of a flock of sheep feeding before the feet of the Pope, and guarded by two dogs. Further, to the right, is seen St. Dominic preaching against the heretics, and con- verting some of them. These are entreating pardon and burning their books. Near him the flock is again intro- duced, but in this instance it is attacked by wolves, while the dogs defend it. The dogs are all spotted black and white, thus alluding to the dress of the Dominicans * (Domini canes), to whom the defence of the Church especi- ally belongs. On the same side, higher in the jucture, are represented the joys and follies of the world, dances and the like, and then the conversion and repentance of men fettered in earthly pursuits. Above the church is seen the door which leads to heaven : St. Peter opens it to the Blessed, and permits them to enter Paradise, where Christ appears in glory with choirs of angels on either side. The treatment of the whole picture is extremely animated ; the costume, as was here required, is throughout that of the time, and in several of the heads there is a happy attempt at individuality. Many names of distinguished personages have been handed down, whose portraits are said to be in the picture.f The painting on the triangular space above represents the ship of the Church (the Navicella) on a stormy sea, the same composition which Giotto had executed in mosaic at Rome. We now turn to a place which is important above all others in the history of the art of the fourteenth century, namely, the Campo Santo, J or cemetery, of Pisa, a sjiace of about four hundred feet in length, and one hundred and * According to the legend, the mother of the Saint, before bis birth, dreamt that she brought forth a dog. •f The portrait traditionally known as that of Cimahue is that of a French cavalier, probably of Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens. X For representations of the frescoes, see C. Lasinio, 'Pitture a fresco del Campo Santo di Pisa,' and ' Pitture a fr. del Campo S. di I'isa,' disegnate da G. Rossi, ed incise dal Cav. G. P. Lasinio figlio. Compare Rosini's • Descrizione delle Pitture del Cam^o Santo di Pisa.' no THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. eighteen in width, enclosed by high walls, and surrounded on the inside with an arcade. On the oast side is a large chapel ; on the north, two smaller ones, and opposite to them on the south are the two entrances. The centre is said to have been filled with earth brought from the Holy Land in the beginning of the thirteenth century. The building was erected in the course of the same century, by Giovanni Pisano, son of the before-mentioned Niccola the sculptor. The whole of the interior walls, from top to bottom, were after- wards adorned with large frescoes. The east chapel was painted in the commencement of the fourteenth century ; of the works it contained, however, there are now no remains. The most ancient of the existing frescoes are those on the east wall, to the left on coming out of this chapel. They represent the Passion of Christ, his Eesurrection, his Appearance to the Disciples, and his Ascension. It appears that they were executed before the middle of the fourteenth century. A peculiarly grand and imaginative character pervades the representation of the Passion ; the others are serious and solemn, particularly where Christ ajDpears to the disciples and they touch his wounds. These pictures are rude in execution, and are, besides, much painted over — in some parts so much so that their original character has entirely disappeared. They are ascribed to a certain Buonamico Bufahnaco, v/hose existence though once doubted, is now confirmed by the discovery of his name, Buonamico Cristo- fani, in the register of the Florentine company of jiainters, in 1351. Whether he is really the author of these early works has, however, not been proved. The large pictures which follow on the south wall are more important. They belong to the middle of the same century, and are the work of a profound and imaginative artist, who has succeeded in representing his conception of Life and Death in a painted poem, full of the deepest meaning, yet requiring neither symbol nor allegory to express the ideas contained in it, and the more efiective from this direct union between the representation and its import. The mind of this artist rises indeed above Giotto, whose steps he followed, and might be compared to the poet of the Divina Commedia, g P4 o Chap. IV.] CAMPO SANTO, PISA. Ill were it not that the very subordinate degree of his technical skill places him far bolow the perfection of Dante's terza- rima. Orcagna has hitherto, on the authority of Vasari, been considered the author of these grand works ; but there are grounds for believing that they are by one Nardo (i.e. Bernardo) Daddi, whom we shall notice hereafter.* The first of these pictures is called the Triumph of Death (see woodcut). On the right is a festive company of ladies and cavaliers, who, by their falcons and dogs, appear to be returned from the chase. They sit under orange-trees, and are splendidly dressed ; rich carpets are spread at their feet. A troubadour and a singing-girl amuse them with flattering soncrs ; amorini flutter around them and wave their torches. All the pleasures and joys of earth are here united. On the left. Death approaches with rapid flight — a fearful-looking woman, with wild streaming hair, claws instead of nails, and large bat's-wings. Slie swings a scythe in her hand, and is on the point of mowing down the joyous company. A host of human corpses closely pressed together lie beneath her ; by their insignia they are almost all to be recognised as the former rulers of the world — kings, queens, cardinals, bishops, princes, warriors, &c. Their souls rise from them in the form of new-born infants ; angels and demons are ready to receive them. The souls of the Pious fold their hands in prayer ; those of the Condemned shrink back in horror. The angels are almost like gay butterflies in appearance ; the demons have tlie semblance of beasts of prey or of disgusting reptiles. They contend with each other for their victims : on the right, the angels ascend to heaven with those they have saved ; while the demons drag their prey to a fiery mountain, visible on the left, and hurl the souls down into the flames. Next to the corpses is a crowd of beggars and cripples, who with outstretched arms call upon Death to end their sorrows : but she heeds not tlieir prayer, and has already hastened away. A rock separates this scene from another, in which is a hunting party, descending the mountain by a hollow path. Here again are richly-attired * See Signer Milanesi's Commentary on the lives of Stefano Fiorentino and UgoUno of Siena, in vol. i. of Sansoni's Vasari, 112 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. princes and dames on horses splendidly caparisoned, and a train of horsemen with falcons and dogs. The path has led them to three open sepulchres in the left corner of the picture, in which lie the bodies of three princes, in different stages of decay. Close by, in extreme old age, and sup- ported on crutches, stands a monk,* who, turning to the princes, points to this bitter " memento mori." They speak apparently with indifference of the circumstance, and one of them holds his nose from the horrible smell. One queenly lady alone, deeply moved, rests her head on her hand, her graceful countenance full of sorrow. On the caountain heights are several hermits, who, in contrast to the followers of the joys of the world, have attained, in a life of con- templation and abstinence, the highest terna of human existence. One of them milks a doe, while squirrels play about him ; another sits and reads ; and a third looks down into the valley, where the remains of the mighty are mouldering away. Tradition relates that among the dis- tinguished personages in these pictures are portraits of some of the artist's contemporaries. The second representation is the Last Judgment (see woodcut). In the composition of this work a symmetrical and almost architectural severity prevails, which, however, produces a powerful general effect, and yet leaves room for varied and spirited motives in the detail. In the centre, above, sits Christ in an almond-shaped glory, raising, ac- cording to traditional usage. His outspread right hand to show His wound, and pointing with the other to the wound in His side, as signs of mercy to the rising Dead. The Virgin is seated in glory on the right of the Saviour. On either side sit the Fathers of the Old Testament, the Apostles and other Saints— severe, solemn, and dignified. Angels, holding the instruments of the Passion, hover over Christ and the Virgin. Under them is a group of angels, in the strictest symmetrical arrangement, who summon the dead * Intended for St. Macarius (see Vasari's life of Orcagna); the legend corresponding with the subject here described is quoted in Douce's ' Dance of Death.' The first part cf the allegory, with the peculiar female personification of Death, is evidently borrowed from Petrarch's ' Trionfo della Morte,' c I 6 g ? Chap. IV.] CAMPO SANTO, TISA. 113 from their graves ; two blow the trumpets, a third partly conceals his face in his drapery, apparently shuddering at the awful spectacle — a most impressive and grandly con- ceived figure. Lower down is the earth, where men are rising from their graves — armed angels directing them to the right and left. Here are seen Solomon, who seems doubtful to which side he should turn ; a hypocritical monk, whom an angel draws back by the hair from the host of the Blessed ; and a youth in secular costume, whom another angel leads away from the Condemned to the oppo- site groups. The Blessed and the Condemned rise on both sides ; the gestures of the latter show all the torments of despair, the flames of hell rage around them, and demons already seize them by the drapery. It is said that there are many portraits of the painter's contemporaries among the Blessed and Condenmed, but no circumstantial traditions regarding them have reached us. The attitudes of Christ and the Virgin w ere afterwards borrowed by Michael Angela, in his celebrated Last Judgment, at Rome ; but notwithstand- ing the perfection of his forms, he stands far below the dignified grandeur of the earlier master. Later painters have also taken this arrangement of the patriarchs and apostles as their model, particularly Fra Bartolomeo and Baphael. The third representation, directly succeeding the fore- going and forming, as it were, part of the same subject, is the Inferno. In this composition, imagination degenerates into the monstrous. Hell is represented as divided into four compartments rising one above the other, in the old form prescribed by the Eoman church before Dante was born. In the midst sits Satan, a hideous monster— himself a fiery furnace — out of whose body flames issue in different places, in which sinners are consumed. Beside him, in the different compartments, serpents and demons torment the Condemned. The Inferno is inferior in execution to the rest of the picture, which may be attributed to the fact that it was extensively restored as early as 1379 by one Cecco cli Piero. The whole lower part of it was further badly painted over in the sixteenth century.* * See Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p. 600, note. 114 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. Next to the picture of Hell it appears tliat the painter, whoever he was, had intended to paint a Paradise (probably- like that in the Strozzi chapel), as the termination of a grand cycle. This design, however, was not executed. In its place is the Life of the Hermits in the Wilderness of the Thebais, which may be considered as a continuation of the scene of the Hermits in the Triumph of Death. It is a well-filled picture, composed of a number of single groups, in which the calm life of contemplation is represented in the most varied manner. Its author is believed to be the Sienese Pietro Lorenzetti, misnamed by Vasari Pietro Laurati. In front flows the Nile ; a number of hermits are seen on its banks, who are still subjected to earthly occupations ; they catch fish, hew wood, carry burthens to the city, etc. Higher up, in the mountain, where the hermits dwell in caves and chapels, they are more and more estranged from the concerns of the world. But the Tempter follows the spirit of man even into the wilderness. In various forms, sometimes frightful, sometimes alluring, he seeks to divert the pious from their holy employments. He appears but twice in his well-known serpent foi-m, and is generally disguised as a disputing philosopher, a seducing woman, etc., but is always to be recognised by his claw feet. Asa whole, this composition is constructed in the ancient form such as we find, for instance, in Byzantine art) — several series of representations rising above each other, the upper and more distant being of equal size with the lower. The picture thus fails, as a matter of course, in perspective and general effect ; but as the artist makes no pretension to this kind of excellence, the spectator is unconscious of the defect. The single representations, on the other hand, are executed with much grace and feeling. The fresco of the hermits adjoins the first entrance to the Campo Santo. Between it and the second are repre- sented the story of S. Eaniero, the patron Saint of Pisa, and that of SS. Efeso and Potito. Each story consists of six compartments — three occupying the upper, and three the lower half of the wall. Alter having been for centuries ascribed to Simone Martini (miscalled Memmi), whose name, Chap. IV.] CAMPO SANTO, PISA. 115 like that of Giotto, has been attached to numerous works of forgotten parentage, it has been ascertained by a receipt of payment, dated 1377, that the three upper pictures of the legend of S. Eaniero were the work of Andrea da Florentia, tbe author, as we have seen, of the frescoes in the Cappella dcgli Spagnuoli, the three lower that of Antonio da Venezia, about the year 1386. These last frescoes show a far higher feeling for beauty and precision of form than those above them, which have, however, suffered much from time and repainting. The histories of SS. Efeso and Potito on the south wall (the lower half being almost entirely obliterated) were painted by Spinello Aretino in 1391. The story of S. Efeso occupies the upper portion. The Saint, a Pagan by birth, is seen before the Emperor Diocletian, who promotes him to a high command against the Christians, when the Lord appears to him, and forbids the enterj)rise. Efeso, accordingly, turns his arms against the unconverted Sardi- nians, receiving a banner of victory (here inscribed with the arms of Pisa) from the Archangel Michael, who, with his angels, accompanies him to the fight. Subsequently, the Saint appears as a captive before the Pagan Pr^tor of Sardinia, and is condemned to the flames. He escapes them by a miracle, and is finally decapitated. The records of the Campo Santo prove that Spinellc completed these works in March 1392 (according to present reckoning in 1393). The history of Job (see woodcut) occupies a third part of the south wall at the eastern end. After the usual ascrip- tion to Giotto, this portion is now, from the evidence of records, known to be the work of one Francesco da Volterra, a Giottesque painter long settled in Pisa, and possibly identical with Francesco di Maestro Giotto, whose name is inserted in the Florentine guild in 1341. He commenced it on the 4th August, 1371. The story is painted in a double course, divided into six large compartments, now greatly cut into by the Algarotti monument, and shows a grand and animated treatment. The series begins from the top, near the western entrance, with the subject of Job 116 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. feasting with his friends and feeding the poor, while shep- herds and herds are grouped around. One of the most striking of the subjects is that of Satan — a horned monster with the wings of a bat and hoofs of an ox — pleading before the Almighty (see woodcut). Injured and restored as all this series is, it is evident that the master possessed no small power of expression, and a facility for imitating the appearances of nature and the forms of animals. The west wall exhibits only inferior works of a later time. On the north wall are subjects from the Creation to the Deluge, ascribed formerly to Buffalmaco, but now known to be the work of one Pietro, son of Puccio of Orvieto.* These paintings, executed in the last ten years of the fourteenth century, represent the First Person of the Trinity, bearing the Globe of the World ; the Creation of Man ; the Fall and its consequences; the Death of Abel, and of Cain ; and the Deluge. They evince a serious feeling in holy subjects, but, at the same time, a cheerful, natural treatment of the circimistances of life, and are remarkable for technical merits, particularly for an harmonious arrangement of colour. A Coronation of the Virgin, on the same wall, over the door of the second chapel, is also by this artist. Little more than the design is now visible, in which, however, a grand and enthusiastic character is still to be recognised.f Political circumstances hindered the progress of the works in the Campo Santo. It was not till the second half of the fifteenth century that the embellishments were continued when the whole north wall, with the exception of the portion occupied by Pietro di Puccio, was embellished with twenty- one large and splendid frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli, executed between the year 1469 and 1485. They form a continua- tion both in situation and subject of the works of Pietro, * Some of these, as usual, are apocryphal ; for example, the Death of Cain. t The name of Pietro di Puccio da Orvieto represents an epoch in the technical history of painting. His works, above mentioned, in the Campo Santo of Pisa, are considered, on good grounds, to be the earliest examples v{ fresco-painting, properly so called. See E. Forster, ' Beitrage,' p. 220. For a description of the imperfect fresco-painting previously, and perhaps anciently in use, see Eastlake's ' Materials for a History of Oil Paintinc,' 1847, p. 142. SCENE FROM THE HISTORY t)F JOB : a fresco iu the Campo Santo at Pisa, by Francesco da Voltcrra. p. 116. Chap. IV.J ORCAGNA. 117 and represent the history of the Old Testament from the time of Noah to the visit of the queen of Sheba, in a thronged and overflowing series. We shall reach Benozzo Gozzoli in the chronological progress of art. Not the least important or numerous class of artists in the foui-teenth century were the goldsmiths, whose works adorned the altars of churches and the banquctting tables of princes and wealthy citizens. But it is in the nature of things that articles in gold and silver should elude pre- servation. The Florentines were bankers to the majority of Eui'opean princes ; yet even at Florence the amount of money in circulation fell occasionally far below the demand, so that in all great enterprises of war or piety the melting or pawning of plate and jewellery was the common resource. Thus it is that but few specimens of the goldsmith's art have descended to us, and nothing remains to represent the skill of the Florentine goldsmith Cicne except the silver altar-table of the Baptistery of S. Giovanni, in the execution of which he took a part. This done was the father of several sons who all worked as architects, sculptors, or painters. Tho most eminent was Andrea, known in his time as L' Arcagnuolo — a name afterwards corrupted to that of Orgagna or Orcagna. He was probably bom in 1308, and died in 1386. Orcagna is believed not to have known Giotto, whose mantle seems to have fallen more directly on him than on any of the great master's pupils. This is not so much intended as indicating any identity of style, as the posses- sion of those conditions which tended to the general progress of art. Like Giotto, Orcagna was at once a painter, a sculptor, and an architect — tradition also makes him a poet. While upholding the great Giottesque maxims of truth and simplicity, he introduced that softer religious sentiment which found its culminating point in Fra Angelico. From the school of Florence he derived his sterner qualities ; fi'om that of Siena the tenderness which tempered them. According to Vasari, Orcagna received his teaching in sculpture from Andrea Pisano da Pontedera, who exccutecl works in bronze and marble from Giotto'B 1 18 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. designs — an assertion which the tabernacle in Or San Michele corroborates. Thus through him Orcagna may be said to have been inspired by Giotto in that art. His im- mediate master in painting was probably his elder brother, Nardo Clone. The choir of 8. Maria Novella, in Florence, was originally decorated with frescoes by Orcagna. No record of their date remains, except the tradition that they were damaged by a storm in 1358. A century later their disfigured remains were covered by Ghirlandajo's great work, the Histories of the Madonna and of the Baptist, in which that master is believed to have introduced some of Orcagna's incidents. The date of Orcagna's frescoes in the Strozzi chapel, in the same church, is equally imcertain. He painted on its walls the Last Judgment and the Paradiso ; his brother, the Inferno. The Last Judgment has the usual traditional arrangement, but the figure of our Lord shows so far an advance in the liberty of art that it is not confined within the limits of an aureole ; while in the figures of the angels he even attempted foreshortenings which place him at the highest level attainable without the knowledge of perspec- tive. In the group of female dancers, though little more than outlines remain, may be traced the germ of those graceful figures which charm us in Fra Angelico's concep- tions of the Blessed. What remains of the ' Paradiso ' is full of interest for the student of dawning art. The two angels at the foot of the throne, playing on musical instruments, are especially grand and graceful. These two frescoes are much defaced by damp and restorations, and the ' Inferno ' has been completely repainted. It is surmised that these works were completed previous to 1354, which is the date of the contract for Orcagna's altar-piece in the same chapel. By this contract, preserved in the Strozzi family, the painter engages to finish the picture in a year and eight months. The picture is signed, and dated 1357, proving that he did not fulfil that condi- tion. It consists of five compartments, with a predella in three divisions. The principal subject is our Lord enthroned within a glory of seraphim and cherubim, giving tho gospels OnAP.IV.] ORCAGNA. 1 H' to St. Thomas Aquinas on the right, and the keys to St. Peter on the left. Like all the early great painters Orcagna is seen to more advantage in his frescoes than in his panel paintings. His hand is again recognised in a picture, with a predella, which hangs on the first pilaster on the left on entering the northern portal of the Cathedral at Florence, and represents S. Zenobio, the patron saint of the city enthroned, with SS. Cresccnzio and Eugcnio kneeling at his side. Another picture in the Medici chapel in S. Croce is of the same class. It is in four compartments, with the figures of the Fathers of the Latin chui'ch. Two pictures in the same chapel, and others, scattered in Florentine churches, are also possibly by him. An altar-piece ascribed to Orcagna, formerly in S. Piero Maggiore, in Florence, is now in the National Gallery. Most of the painter s characteristics are traced in its numerous parts, and, not least, the feeling which culminated in Fra Angelico ; but there is no proof that it is by him. Orcagna's fame as a sculptor rests upon the tabernacle of Or San Michele. The bas-reliefs on this monument may be said to be the finest produced in the fom-teenth century. That representing the Assumption of the Virgin is especially remarkable for a vigour of character which points to the vicinity of the sculpture on the Campanile and on the bronze gates of the Baptistery. The tabernacle in all its parts was designed by Orcagna, and the light and graceful proportions of the stone- work, and even the beauty of the bronze railing, all combine to attest his varied powers, and also his sense of a whole. The inscription shows that it was completed in 1359. Orcagna was employed as an architect in the works of the Duomo at Florence, and in those of the cathedral at Orvicto, on the fa5ade of which he also executed a mosaic. It is now known that he was not the builder of the cele- brated Loggia in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, usually known by his name.* Lionardo, or (by contraction) Nardo, Clone was Andrea's * The Architects of this fine building were Bcnci di Cione and Simone di Francesco Talenh. 120 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. elder brother, and probably his teacher. He may have assisted Andrea in executing the frescoes in the Strozzi chapel and in the choir of S. Maria Novella ; according to Ghiberti he was the author of those woiks. Bernardo, or Nardo, Daddi or di Daddo, who has been confounded with Nardo done, was born towards the end of the thirteenth century, and died in 1350. There exist by him a Holy Family and two Saints in the chui-ch of the Ognissanti, a triptych in the Accademia, Florence, signed Bernardus de Florentia, and two panels in the Siena public Gallery. As we have already stated, he was probably the author of the fine frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa, representing the Triumph of Death, the Paradise, and the Inferno, attributed to Orcagna. If so, he takes a very high rank among the followers of Giotto, as a painter of a poetic imagination and of great skill in his art.* Francesco Traini is stated by Vasari to have been a scholar of Orcagna, and it appears certain that he worked in that master's " bottega." The only works by him pre- served at this time are two altar-pieces at Pisa — the one, St. Thomas Aquinas triumphing over the heretics, in the church of St. Catherine, the other the history of St. Dome- nick, in the Academy cf Arts. The latter especially shows a painter of merit, with more of the Sienese than of the Florentine feeling. This altar-piece was completed in 1346. Puccio Cajoanna is a name which Yasari designates as that of a pupil and fellow-labourer of Giotto, and whose signature, " Puccio da Fiorenza," he reports to have been inscribed on a crucifix in S. Domenico at Pistoia. That he is not a mere name is proved by evidence v/hich, in the case of many an Italian painter, stands in lieu of a baptismal register — namely, by the entry of his admission into the Florentine guild, in 1349, Wall-paintings, repre- senting incidents in the lives of St. Louis and other saints, in the church of S. Francesco, and adjoining chapter-house, at Pistoia, are attributed to him, and are not without merit. Incidents from the life of our Lord, hitherto ascribed to • See in Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., Commentary on the Jives of Sie/ano Fiorentino and Ugolino of Siena. Chap. IV.] JACOPO DA CASENTINO. 121 Puccio, in the lower churcli of Assisi, are now claimed for Giotto himself, and scenes from the lives of the Magdalen, and St. Mary of Egypt, evidently by a pupil of Giotto and therefore possibly by Puccio, have been assigned to Buffalmaco. The removal of whitewash may bring to light works of more positive identity, meanwhile Puccio, with other reputed scholars of Giotto, such as Guglielmo da Forli, Ottaviano, and Pace da Faenza, furnish no sufficient materials for present study. On the other hand, works of a common Giottesque type at Forli and near Faenza are now identified by records as belonging to painters hitherto unmentioned in history — to a certain Baldassare da ForU,* to Pietro da Bimini, and others too insignificant to dwell upon. Jacopo Landini di Qasentino has been mentioned as sharing with Giovanni da Milano in the education of Agnolo Gaddi, but while Giovanni da Milano may be classed among those who led up to Masaccio and Fra Angelico, the successors of Jacopo di Casentino represent in some measure the decline of the school of Giotto. Jacopo, born at Prato Vecchio about 1310, became acquainted with Taddeo Gaddi when that painter was engaged in decorating a chapel in the chm-ch of Sasso della Yernia, in the Casentino, and followed him to Florence. There he is recorded to have worked on the walls and ceiling of Or San Michele, and on three taber- nacles. - The vestiges seen in Or San Michele show a weak and coarse Giottesque hand. In Arezzo also relics of him are found of the same tmattractive character. A panel which he painted for a " tabernacolo " in the " Mercato Vecchio," Florence, has been transferred to the adjoining oratory of St. Thomas. The most interesting specimen of his hand is the altar-piece with the life of John the Evangelist, now in the National Gallery, where the coarseness of colour and absence of all grace and feeling are redeemed by a certain energy of action, as seen in the predella. The fact also that the Guild of Painters at Florence was founded by Jacopo da Casentino, in 1349, shows an energetic character in other respects. This is fui-ther attested by Vasari's statement that he was employed in Arezzo in 1354 to restore a conduit, ♦ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i., p. 376-385. 122 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [CnAr. IV. originally erected by the Eomans, on which occasion he built the fountain, called the Fonte Guinizelli. He is also celebrated for one scholar who redeems the decline of his school, namely, Spinello Aretino, who represents the spirit of Giotto at the close of the fourteenth century better than any other painter of the time. Jacojjo died at 80 years of age about 1390. Spinello Aretino, the son of Luca Spinelli, belonged to a family of goldsmiths and jewellers, who, leaving their native place, Arezzo, settled in Florence.* He was born about 1333, and was probably the pupil of Jacopo di Casentino, He may be studied in the sacristy of S. Miniato, above Florence, in the Life of St. Benedict ; in the Campo Santo at Pisa, in the histories of SS. Efeso and Potito ; and in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, in the principal events of the life of Pope Alexander III. As is the case with most of the early Florentine painters, he is seen to greater advantage in his frescoes than in his panel pictures. Like Orcagna, he combined the Sienesc with the Florentine element, while in feeling for fine action and composition and in breadth of drapery he followed in the steps of Giotto. He lived a long and active life, of which but few dates have been preserved. In Florence, he painted frescoes in the choir of S. Maria Maggiore, in two chapels of the Carmine, and in other churches, all of which have perished. In the Casentino and Arezzo he also undertook extensive works. The figures of SS. James and Philip, on an altar in S. Domenico, at Arezzo, are fine specimens of his powers. A fresco in S. Maria degli Angeli, in the same town, in which he represented the Fall of Lucifer and the rebellious Angels, with the Archangel Michael combating the seven -headed dragon, and Christ enthroned in glory above (see woodcut), is chiefly associated with his name. The church was destroyed some years ago, and the only part of the fresco preserved are the heads of the Archangel and six angels behind him, transferred to canvas.f The story — related by Vasari, and since repeated and handed down by every historian of art — of Spinello'a * Sansoni's Vasari, vol. i., p. 677, note. t Presented by Sir Henry Layard to the National Gallery. 60 u W Ph M o H S M Chap. IV.] SPINELLO AND HiS FOLLOWERS. 123 having died of fright from an ajiparition of Lucifer himself, who called him to accoimt for painting him in this fresco in too hideous a form, is now overturned by the fact that the painter lived many years after the reputed vision. In the pharmacy attached to S. Maria Novella at Florence, in a room called the ' Stanza delle Acque ' are frescoes illustrative of the Passion, proved to have been executed by Spinello in 1405, and probably his last work. They show the extensive employment of pupils. He died in March 1410 at the age of about seventy- seven years. A picture in the National Gallery representing three saints is attributed to him. His son and scholar, Parri Spinelli (1387-1452), was a painter of whose art, though it will not reward research, there are abundant relics at Arezzo and elsewhere. More frescoes, unfortimately, have been preserved in Italy calculated to throw light on inferior painters than on those of a higher class. Niccolo di Pietro Gerini was also a scholar of Spinello. There are examples of this diligent, and in some respects, meritorious painter at Pisa and at Prato. In 1391 he decorated with frescoes the chapter-house of S. Bonaventura adjoining the church of S. Francesco, Pisa, which are still well preserved, and are interesting in the history of art as marking the transition between the styles of the fom-teeuth and fifteenth centiu-ies. His last work at Pisa bears date 1401. His son, Lorenzo di Niccolo, was a weak edition of his father. He has left an altar-piece with predella — the Coronation of the Virgin and Adoration of the Magi — in S. Domenico at Cortona, given to that church, according to an inscription on it, by Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici, for the souls of themselves and their progenitors, and dated 1440. This art, such as it was, was taken up by the family of the Bicci, consisting of three generations — Lorenzo di Bicci, Bicci di Lorenzo, and Nero di Bicci (the last dying in 148G), — who repeated the types of Gioito in forms of prolific mediocrity. A retrospect of the Florentine school exhibits to us the genius of its founder, Giotto, in its true greatness. We have now advanced more than a century since Giotto's first ap- M 2 124 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. pearance as a painter, and even his greatest followers, Orcagna and Spinello, have not essentially progressed beyond the limits which he reached. His mode of viewing life — his conception of forms — pervades their works ; and great and rich as these works may be, they are only an addi- tional testimony to the influence which Giotto exercised over this period. All that is new in the productions of his successors is chiefly confined to that beauty of heads and mildness of expression which begins with the Gaddi, and finds its highest development in Orcagna's Paradise. In other masters it already degenerates into insipidity. This aim, however, in no way affects the spirit of the school, nor diminishes the characteristic and dramatic animation for which it is distinguished. Among those painters who belong to the Florentine school, but who added to the realism of Giotto an intensity of expression and an idealism not hitherto attempted, yet still adhering, in essential points, to the types of the fourteenth century, the most eminent were Don Lorenzo Monaco, and Fra Angelico. The first was a Camaldolese monk belonging to the convent of the Angeli at Florence. He was born at Siena* about 1370, and probably received his first artistic education as a miniaturist. A picture in the cathedral at Empoli, dated 1404, long attributed to Gentile da Fahriano, is now believed to be by Don Lorenzo. An altar-piece by him, formerly in the abbey of Cerreto, and now in the Ufiizi, signed and dated 1413, represents, on a gold ground, the Coronation of the Virgin, and a crowd of angels, saints, patriarchs and other holy personages — in all nearly one hundred figures. It retains much of its original charm, although it has been grievously over-cleaned and repainted. Its predella consists of six subjects — the Birth of Christ, tlie Adoration of the Magi, and four incidents from the life of St. Benedict. The execution is very careful, and the colouring clear and harmonious, but the nude very defective, * In a document recently discoverd he is called 'don Lorenzo dipintorc dn Sicnn.' His origin may account for the Sieuese influence which has been traced in his works — Sansoni's Vasari vol. ix. appendix by Signor Milauesi, p. 252. Chap. IV.j FRA ANGELICO. 125 and tlie drapery slight and conventional. In tlie landscape backgrounds, also, and in the more real and natural conception of the subjects, we see a compliance with the style of the fifteenth century, though the principal picture still retains the old and solemn arrangement of a more ideal school. An Annunciation in S. Trinita at Florence exhibits, it is true, that widely adopted form of composition which had almost become a type of the subject, but departs from it in the soft mode of execution, and in the tender and mild expres- sion of the heads. The pictures of the predella are similar in conception and subject. The other painter and monk to whom we have referred is one whose name is suggestive of the holiest ideas and gentlest forms of religious art. Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, surnamed the Angelico, and a ' Beato,' or ' Beatified ' Monk, of the Dominican Order, was born in 1387 at Vecchio, a village in the territory of Mugello, not far from CoUe, the birthplace of Giotto. His baptismal name was Guido, which he changed for Giovanni on taking the cowl, in 1408, at Fiesole. The convent into which he entered was only founded in 1406 and was soon involved in religious disj)utes which di-ove the' monks and novices first to Foligno, and then to Cortona, whence they returned to Fiesole in 1418. No record remains of Fra Angelico's instructor, and it may be assumed that he had passed his apprenticeship in art under a miniaturist before joining the Dominican Order. In considering the art of this great master it is apparent that an unvarying principle guided his career from fii-st to last. An intensity of religious feeling, imprecedented in this form of expression before or since, inspired his pencil. Lessons in faith, and examj)les in holiness were always his aim, and he sought to invest the forms in which these were given with the utmost beauty and purity. The most delicate and cheerful coloiu's, like spring flowers, are selected for the draperies, and a profusion of golden ornaments lavished over the work — every auxiliary within the range of his art being employed to give fresh charms to thtise sacred subjects. With a deep respect for j)rescriptive authority, he adheres scrupulously to traditional types, and ventures on none of 126 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. tlie innovations already becoming familiar in Florentine art. His personal sanctity is recorded to have been entirely consistent witb tbe tenor of liis art, and tbe odour of it must have lingered tenaciously in Florence when Vasari, more tban a bundi'ed years later, drew bis picture in wotds rarely bestowed on man : " The life of this really angelic father was devoted to the service of God, the benefit of the world and duty towards his neighbour. . . He shunned the worldly in all things, and during his piu'o and simple life was such a friend to the poor that I think his soul must be now in heaven. He painted incessantly, but would never lay his hand to any but a sacred subject. He might have had wealth but he scorned it, saying that true riches were to be found in content. He might have ruled over many, but would not, saying that obedience was easier, and less liable to error. He might have enjoyed dignities, but disdained them, aifirming that the only dignity he sought was to avoid hell and gain heaven. He was wont to say that the practice of art required repose and holy thoughts, and that he who would depict the acts of Christ must learn to live with Christ." He is said never to have commenced his work without prayer, and to have been frequently interruj)ted by tears while representing the sufferings of the Redeemer. Fra Angelica's fii'st efforts are believed to have been in the illumination of religious books, and the exquisite finish, and clear, sweet colour, as well as the flatness of his style, point to this early practice. But in truth the language ol his art was suited to his aim, and though he had faults, too easily seen and criticized, yet his style is entitled to that definition which characterizes excellence in what- ever stage or form of art, viz., that it suggests no want. Fewer defects would have derogated from his sj)ecial beauties. In hia ovsti path he was as extraordinary a painter as ever lived. Such scientific qualities as breadth of light and shade, rapidity of movement, and accuracy of anatomy were not given to or sought by him. He is, therefore, timid and weak in all determined action and defective in knowledge of the human structure ; but that finer science, Chai>. IV] FRA ANGELICO. 127 most calculated to assist his spiritual aim — the science of the varieties of tlie huinan expression — lie may bo said to have been the first to feel and to develop. Nor does he essentially fail in any of the great principles of art, for while pre-eminently the father of expression, he also excels equally in harmony of lines in composition and of colour, and in beauty of drapery. There is a certain affinity between his works and those of Lorenzo Monaco, who has been conjectiu'ed to have con- tributed to the Frate's education, and in form and technical process they resemble to some extent those of Masolino da Panicale, his contemporary. The intensely subjective cha- racter of Fra Angelicas art points, however, to no exclusive master or school. The earliest works of the master were executed in Cortona. Such as were in the form of frescoes perished by the hands of the French with the convent walls they adorned. Movable altar-jpieces, however, still remain there in the churches of S. Domenico and the Gesii. The Virgin and Child enthroned, with four saints and two angels on each side, and nimierous medallion subjects in the architectural frame, is in the former; a large picture of the Annimcia- tion, a subject peculiarly congenial to his feelings, and often repeated by him, in the latter. In the Annimciation the landscape, with the expulsion of Adam and Eve in the upper left corner, is amongst the best existing works of the painter. A long predella in seven compartments, also in the Gesu — with the life of the Virgin^ — is full of his most refined characteristics. These works, and another pre- della series of the Life of St. Dominick in the same chm-ch, were doubtless executed in Cortona before 1418. To the same period belongs the pictiu-e of the Madonna and Saints, formerly in S. Domenico in Perugia, in which the figui*e of St. Dominick is especially fine. The names of the saints are inscribed in their glories, a retention of an earlier practice. All the parts of this altar-piece — including two circular medallions of the Annunciation, of great beauty — altogether twenty-one in number, are now in the public Gallery of the town. 128 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. No chronology of the Frate's works after his return to Fiesole has yet been ascertained. The date, however, of one of his best known altar-pieces, the Virgin and Child sur- rounded by twelve angels — two of them in attitudes of praise, the others playing on musical instruments — now in the Uffizi, has been discovered. It was executed for the company of the " Linaiuoli " in 1433, and with its jDredella and wing pictures forms, perhaps, the most exquisite work by his hand. It is supposed that the eight panel pictm-es containing thirty-five subjects which once ornamented the presses of the Annunziata, and are now in the Florence Academy, were executed at Fiesole. They represent the life of Christ. The accompanying woodcuts give a fair idea of four of the subjects. In the Judas receiving the Money, the master's power over expression, even of an evil kind, is too delicate to bear translation. But this series has been atrociously injured, and several of the panels are evidently not by his hand. The Academy also contains the Descent from the Cross, one of those pictures of which a writer,* speaking of Fra Angelica, says " They make us forget that they are art." The expressions and actions of the numerous figm-es are the most appropriate, and therefore touching, with which painting has invested this subject. The Gothic Italian frame is richly studded Vith small bust and full-length figures of saints, — among which those of SS. Peter and Paul may be instanced. The Last Judgment was a subject to which the master especially devoted himself. There are several examples of it. Two are in the Florence Academy ; one in the Corsini Palace, Eome ; another, only partly by his hand, in the Berlin Museiun, and a second in the same collection, formerly in that of Cardinal Fesch, and subsequently in that of Lord Dudley, which is considered the finest, f No painter has * ' Leben und Werke des Fia Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole. Mit 22 Abbildungeu.' Von Pr. Ernst Foister. Regensburg, 1859. t Oi> tlie previous vicissitudes and acknowledged merits of this picture, see Speth, 'Die Kunst in Italien,' 1819, vol. i., p. 214, note; and vol. iii., p. 133. A sixth Last Judgment, of small dimensions, discovered by Sir C. L. Eastlake at Ravenna, was lost at sea in 1860. A^riEr^GiA *m^immF^ THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT ; by Angelico da Fiesolc, a panel c < miiartment in the Florence Academy, formei'ly in the SS. Annunziata. p. 128. ^^~JA':X- f.,..l;--'^ JODAS RECJEIVIXG THE MONEY. / ^.##1 * ^ *j, A.e "i\i; v.. CaRIST'S ENTRY INTO .TERUS\1.EH[ ; liy Angelico da Fiesole. Panel compartmeuts in the Florence Academy, formerly iu the SS. Aununziata. 1>. 128 rXCEVlRCO CONC'I'Fli:] XPAP.ILT FlLIVM-VOCASr NOMIN tlVseMANVL. VSA.VI.C eCCECONClPlESINVTQaOtPARIESFIUVMLVOCABISNOMENEFIHESVM LVCC.I.C THE ANNUNCIATION ; by Angelico da Fiesole. A panel compartment in tlie Florence Academy, formerly in SS. Annunziata. I). 12a Chap. IV.j FRA ANGELICO. 129 been so fitted to cope with this great theme ; whether we consider the dignity of the Judge and of the Celestial hierarchy with which tradition has invested the scene, or the conception of that ineffable bliss, which is foresliadowed as much as told in the countenances and actions of the Blessed. Genuine " airs from Heaven " pervade that happy side where angels lead the long-tried denizens of earth — chiefly poor friars — in harmonious measures; one angel even gracefully jocund, as it heads the dance with arm gently a-kimbo. Nor are the still human conditions of the Eedeemed omitted. Nowhere has a painter so touch- ingly illustrated the moui-ner's watchword "meet again." The first glance of the rising Dead falls on those near and dear who have gone before, and greeting looks and gentle caresses do all that pious art may do to reconcile the ajiparent mystery of ardent hiunan hearts and spiritual con- ditions. As for the horrors of the other side, more re- pugnant of necessity to the true painter than even to the spectator, Fva Angelico only obeyed the prescriptive ideas of the Roman Church. It is questionable, however, whether he profaned his hand by taking any part in their execu- tion ; they were probably, as with Orcagna and others, the work of a subordinate. We must say a few more words upon the subject of Fra Angelico s angels, which are the purest type to which imagination has consented. By no other hand are these beings of another sphere depicted so genuinely as the gentle guardians of man. Whether seen, as described, in the Last Judgment, or surrounding the Lord in glory, as in the predella in the National Gallery, or singly, as in the TJffizi picture before mentioned, or isolated, as in two exquisite little panels in the Turin Gallery, they have invariably what may be called an angelic propriety and individuality which take the feelings captive. The works with which Fra Angelico decorated S. Dome- nico at Fiesole may be sui)posed to have been executed while the Order remained there, viz. between 1418 and 1436. An altar-piece with the Virgin and Child, and foui* male saints is still ic that church. It has been cruelly damaged and 130 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. restored. The predella formerly attached to it — Christ in Glory, surrounded with angels, prophets, saints and martyrs — is now one of the chief ornaments of the National Gallery, Vasari declared it to be so beautiful that he could never tire to look at it. The figure of our Lord is, however, a sjjecimen of the paralysis which befel the pious master's hand when dealing with a subject beyond all human conception. It is like a vacuum in the pictui-e, offering nothing for the imagi- nation to fasten on. The ' Coronation of the Virgin ' (see woodcut) now in the Louvre was painted for the same church. This was among the pictures abstracted by the French. It was so little valued equally by plunderers and pltmdered that the Tuscan Government grudged the expense of its restoration to Florence, and the French Government banished it to the Garde-Kobe, where it was ticketed as a " coloured drawing." It is now acknowledged to be one of the prizes of the Louvre collection. But we must follow the master to his convent of S. Marco in Florence, where the Order were finally installed in 1436, and where the mind of the artist is best understood in works in fresco which remain in the positions for which they were designed. This Convent, now converted into a National monument, is a very museum of Fra Angelico — cloisters, refectory, chapter-house, guest-room, corridors, stairs, and not less than nineteen or twenty cells, bear witness to a skill and leisure alike obsolete. Only the most remarkable can be mentioned ; the Annunciation, a scene divided into two by a centre column, with an arched arcade and garden, in an upper corridor ; the Crucifixion, w ith St. Dominick embracing the cross, on the wall opposite the entrance to the church ; St. Peter Martyr with finger on lips expressing the obligation of silence, in a lunette over the door leading to the sacristy ; the Pilgrims at Emmaus — two Dominicans detaining the Savioiu" imder the garb of a pilgrim — over a door where j)ilgrims of old were welcomed ; and the large Crucifixion, with the three Crosses, and twenty-five figures of saints and prophets below representing the Adora- tion of the Cross, surroimded with an arched framework with medallions containing heads of the chief members of CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN AND MIRACLES OF ST. DOMINICK ; a iiictui'c by Angelico ila Fiesole, in the Louvre. p. 130. Chap. IV.] FRA ANGELICO. 131 tlic Order, in the CLaptcr-Iiouse. In .acldition to these and many more, are the touching and edifying compositions with which a long succession of lonely monks have consorted, one in each humble cell. Prominent among them are the Transfiguration, with our Lord's arms extended horizontally ; the Agony in the Garden, with the Disciples sleeping, but with the Maries (with a feeling no other painter has had for them) seen within a room, praying ; the Bearing of the Cross, with St. Dominick and the Virgin attending ; Christ being nailed to the cross, a reminiscence of an earlier age, and never so ideally given ; and finally, two magnificent scenes, the Coro- nation of the Virgin and the Adoration of the Kings — the last, in one of the cells supposed to have been built for the use of Cosmo de' Medici, who contributed munificently to the erection of the convent. These frescoes were, till a comparatively recent time, subjected to the utmost neglect and injury, and several now serve little more than to illustrate the fact that the feeling which flowed from the mind of the saintly monk clings indelibly even to the faintest shadow of his original work. Others have even been destroyed to make room for later painters of legendary subjects.* A similar fate befel the frescoes executed by the master in the transept of the church of S. Maria Novella, which were seen and described by Vasari, but have since been destroyed. This church, however, retains three reliquaries which represent on a small scale the very quintessence of Fra Angelico's powers of expression and coloiu-. In 1445 our artist, by invitation of Pope Eugenius IV. undertook a jom-ney to Eome, where he painted the chapel of the Sacrament in the Vatican, afterwards demolished by Paul III. The death of Eugenius seems to have set the painter free to repair to Orvieto, where he executed in the chapel of the Madonna di S. Brizio — in the cathedral — three triangular compartments containing the Saviour with angels, saints and prophets, intended for the upper part of a Last Judgment. Benozzo GozzoJi, of whom we shall speak further was his pupil here, and the work was completed by L^ica * In the execution of some of these works Fra Angelico was evidently assisted by an inferior hand. K 2 132 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. IV. Signorelli. In 1447, the master was recalled to Eome, where Nicholas V. emj)loyed him to decorate the chaj)el in the Vatican that bears that Pope's name, with the lives of SS. Stephen and Lawrence.* This chapel was for centuries con- signed to oblivion, so that Bottari, in the last century, the door not being discoverable, made his entrance by a window. Here the story of the two Saints is seen in a series on three of the walls, that of St. Stephen occupying the upper coui'se. Oui" woodcuts give examples of two of the subjects. A Descent from the Cross by the master, above the altar, is still covered with whitewash. These remarkable frescoes evince a dramatic power and a skill in composition and drawing hardly shown by the master before, and prove that in his Gist year he was in the vigour of his art. Fra Angelico died at Eome in 1455, and was buried in the church of the Minerva, where his recumbent effigy, with an epitaph, may still be seen.f In technical proceeding he may be said to close the Giottesque period.^ * Copied and published by the Arundel Society. f His epitaph, wiiich is in Latin, may be thus rendered '* Let me not be praised that I was another Apelles, But that I gave all gains to the children of Christ, Some works are for Earth, others for Heaven : Th? flower of Etruria's cities bore me, Giovanni." X To Fra Aagelico's brother Fra Benedetto, also of the Dominican order, have been attributed some of the illuminations of the choral books in St. Mark's, and in the Duomo, Florence, which, however, ai'e now proved to have been the joint work of Zanobi di Benedetto Strozzi and Filippo di 3Iatteo Torrclli. Fra Benedetto was not an artist. He died in 1448, having been for three years Superior of the Dominicans of Fiesole. ST. STEPIiEX PEEACHING : a. fresco by Angelito da Ficsolo, in tho Vatican (.'hapcl of Nicolas V. p. 133. ST LAWRENCE ; a fresco by Augelico da i'ieeole, in the Vatican Chapel of Nicolas V. p. 132. CuAi-. v.] FLORENCE IN THE 15TH CENTURY. 133 CHAPTER V. THE FLORENTINK SCHOOL (continued^.* Flouence in tlie fifteenth centuiy rose to the zenitli of her power, when, under the auspices of the enlightened family of the Medici, the intellectual as well as material interests of the republic attained their highest sj)lendom'. Poetry and philosophy, architectui'e and sculpture, advanced with the art of painting towards the same perfection. A few Florentine artists, who mark the transition from the old to the new manner, fii-st invite attention at the beginning of the centuiy. They unite with the still prevailing tyj^c some indications of modeling, a more correct delineation of form, an increasing study of nature, and a sense of the true science of perspective. It has been pointed out by a discerning critic, the late Baron Eumohr, who especially studied the Florentine school, that three main tendencies may be traced in it during the * In the previous editions of this work, in which the history of painting in Italy is divided into periods of development, the following observations precede the account of the Tuscan schools in the fifteenth century ; "In the first period of reviving art, toward the end of the fifteenth cen- tury, it was the aim of the artist to represent the sacred subjects which had been handed down from an earlier age in a lively and impressive manner, and to enlarge the range of such representations ia the same spirit. In the second period, bis own mind and feelings came forth in free and self-productive energy; he had become conscious of his own powers, of his own privileges ; but, for the perfection of art one element was still wanting — the correct delineation of form, guided by the study of nature. "The attainment of this element characterizes the third period, extend- ing from the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century. The progress that had been made toward its acquisition during the two former periods had been very limited, as regards essentials. The imitation of nature, with a true and artless conception of characteristic moments and circumstances, had been successfully attempted in general respects only. A familiar acquaintance with the laws of form in its various appearances, extending to all its minutest details, was still retarded by the prevailing modes of representation, fettered as they were by prescribed types. The third period is the asra of the emancipation of art in its extei^nal re- lations, as the preceding periods had been of its internal life. In this instance again, the persevering consistency, and even exclusive predilec- tion, with which the new aim was followed up, were calculated to produce peculiar and important results." — Vol. i. p. 215, ed. of 1884. 134: THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL- [Chap. V. course of the fifteenth century. " The predominating natural- ism of the Florentines," he remarks, " branched out in two opposite directions : action, movement, the expression of intense and strong passions became the inheritance of the school of Fra Filippo ; realistic probability, and correctness in hitting off the characteristics of individual things, were the aim of a school which began, I believe, with Cosimo Bosselli, although it shot far ahead of even his latest achieve- ments. A third division of the Florentine school was directly produced by the efforts of sculptors." * To the first group there belong, in chronological order, Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Francesco Pesellino, Sandra Botticelli, and Filippino Lippi and his school. To the second : Benozzo Gozzoli, Alesso Baldovinetti, Cosimo Bosselli, Domenico Ghirlandajo, and his brother-in-law Mainardi. And to the third : Antonio and Piero del Pollajuolo, Andrea del VerroccMo, and his scholars Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi.\ We shall notice each of these painters and their various followers in their tm-n, but, before doing so, we must refer to four masters, the contemporaries of some of them, who hold, however, a position apart from them : Andrea del Castagno, Paolo TJccello, Belli, and Bomenico Veneziano. Andrea del Castagno was born in 1390, and died, probably of the plague, in 1457. The son of a peasant, and an orphan from tender years, he tended the flock of a cousin at Castagno, where, meeting an itinerant painter, he began to trace rude figures on walls. He atti-acted the attention of Bernadetto de' Medici, who sent him to Florence. Of the commencement of his career as a painter little is known, except that he suffered great poverty. His works display a rude and coarse energy, and an independent and original spirit, but are seldom attractive either in form or colour. * This extract is taken from tlie English translation, by Mrs. Louise M. Richter, of Signor Morelli's * Italian Masters in German Galleries,' p. 341. In referring to this work hereafter we sbftll simply quote the author's name. t Morelli's 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 341 Chap, v.] ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO. 135 Tliey arc exceedingly rare. Besides his frescoes on the wall of a cell in the suppressed convent of the Angeli, repre- senting Christ crucified, his Last Supper in the Eefectory of the Convent of S. Apollonia, and his ' St. Jerome doing Penance ' in the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Ai-ts, all at Florence, there are few pictures to be found there now that can, with any certainty, be traced to this rough but vigor- ous master.* A predella pictui-e representing the crucified Saviour between the Virgin and St. John, in the National Gallery, attributed to him, although small in size, is im- pressive from its grand and solemn character. That he was versed in the true principles of art is shown in the powerful and energetic portrait-heads of poets, warriors, and various mythic and historical personages which once decorated a room in the Villa Pandolfini at Legnaia, near Florence, and which, transferred to canvas, are now in the Museo Nazionale in that city. Andrea del Castagno must also take his place as one who studied the.._nudei however impleasingly he rendered it. He is recorded as having painted the gibbeted leaders of the Albizzi and Peruzzi conspiracy on the walls of the Podesta in 1435, whence he earned the name of Andrea degli Impiccati. An equestrian portrait of Niccolo da Tolentin o — in chiaroscuro imitation of sculpture — in the Cathedi-al of FlorengeT^is also lals work, butl.'as been almost entirely repainted. He assisted too in the decoration of the Portinari Chapel in S. Maria Nuova (Florence), This connects Andrea dal Castagno with an unjust accusation, repeated for centuries, and only recently dispi'oved. According to Vasari, Domenico Veneziano laboured simultaneously with Andrea in that same chapel, and by his possession of the secret of oil- painting so excited the jealousy of Andrea, that he waylaid and foully murdered him. The refutation of this story is simply supplied by the registers of their respective deaths, which prove that the victim outlived his murderer nearly five years ; and, as a fui'ther example of Vasari's reckless inacciu'acy, it may be added that, far from having painted * Morelli's 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 205. 136 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL [Chap. V Bimultaneously in the Portinari Chapel, six years intervened between the end of Domenico's labours and the commencement of Andrea's* Andrea's last work was a ' cenacolo ' in the Eefectory of the Hospital of Sta. Maria Nuova. He died in 1457, and was buried in the church of S. Maria dei Servi (Florence). Paolo di Dono, called Paolo — Uccdto from his love of painting birds (1397-1475), shares with Pietro della I'ran- ccsca, of whom we shall have hereafter to speak, the credit of having been the founder of linear perspective. He xuay, indeed7"1iave"l5ecn the^first^tcTapply^pf actically those laws of perspective which Pietro defined theoretically and scientifically. Paolo Uccello was iivst apprenticed tg^ Lorenz o Ghiberti, the sculptor, from whom he probably derived the somewhat sculptm-esque character of his works in their hardness of line, and the first maxims of foreshortening. We are not informed who taught him painting ; but he may possibly have studied under Pisanello. It is known from contemporary documents that when still yoimg he went to Venice, and was employed there in 1425 to execute in mosaic a figure of St. Peter on the fa9ade of the church of S. Mark. In 1486 the " operaj," or superintendents, of the fabric of the Duomo at Florence commissioned him to paint in fresco the equestrian portrait of the famous English Captain, Sir John Hawkwood — or Giovanni Acuto, as he is known to the Florentines — which still exists trans- ferred to canvas in the interior of that edifice. Vasari records four pictm-es of battles on panels by him, which belonged to the Bartolini family in the via Gualfonda at Florence. Three of these have been preserved — one in the Uffizi, in very bad condition ; a second in the Louvre ; and the third and finest in the National Gallery, conjectured, but very doubtfully, to represent the battle of Sant' Egidio (141G), in which Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Eimini, and his nephew Galeazzo, were taken prisoners by Braccio di Montone, Lord of Perugia. This last is a work interesting more for its novel attempts than for its success, showing * Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii., p. 681, note ; aud Commeutary ou the lives of A. del Castagno and Domenico Veneziano, id. p. 683. o 'u -"I D p EH Chap, v.] PAOLO UCCP]LLO — DELLI. 137 mucli truth of action and movement, and one of the earliest aims at strong foreshortenings. The head of a young warrior is of considerable beauty, and in its sharply-defined and medal-like outline recalls Pisanello. His fresco works, the Creation of the World and History of Noah, in the cloisters of S. Maria Novella, at Florence, though ruined by weather and neglect, so that where not absolutely defaced they offer nothing more than greenish under-paintings, are full of natm-alistic incidents.* The scene of the Deluge (see woodcut) is comparatively best preserved, and shows that he had carefully studied the nude, which he was one of the fii'st of the Florentine painters to attempt. Here his mastery over perspective appears in unmistakable excellence, and two foreshortened figiu'es show his pleasure in that novel art. The fury of the wind is also finely expressed. He adheres to tradition in showing not only the dove re- turning to the ark, where Noah welcomes it, but the raven " which returned not " feeding on one of the floating bodies. The Sacrifice of Noah (see woodcut) in another compartment is remarkable for the foreshortened figure of the Almighty descending with the head from the spectator, which was a startling innovation. It is believed that these frescoes were executed about 1446-8. He is known to have journeyed to Urbino in 1468, and was still living in Florence in 1469. Paolo Uccello took great pleasure in the delineation of armour and costume, and studied animals with success — a taste which he may have acquired from Pisanello. He was buried in S. Maria Novella. • Daniello, or, by contraction, JDello Delli, bom about 1404, commenced his artistic career like Vccello, with whom he is associated in friendship, by the study of sculpture ; but his reputation was principally founded upon his ability in painting, with small figures, mythological and historical subjects on " Cassoni," or large wooden chests, used for various purposes and specially on the occasion of marriages to hold the wedding garments. Although many such " Cassoni " * Some of these frescoes are apparently by a much inferior painter. Two, the Deluge and the Drunkenness of Noah, are the most worthy ol Paolo Uccello's hand. 138 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. are show-n as his work, it is more than doubtful whether any of them are rightly attributed to him. His father having betrayed a castle of which he was the guardian into the hands of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, who was at war with the Florentine Republic, was condemned to death, and fled in 1424 to Siena, taking his son with him. There they remained for three years, and then removed to Venice, where Dello continued to practise the art of painting, and succeeded in having himself inscribed on the register of the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries in Florence. But being unable to reappear in his native city on account of his father's condemnation, and desirous of pushing his fortunes, he went to Spain, where he lived for several years, working both as sculptor and painter in the service of the Kings of Aragon and Castile, by whom he was raised to the dignity of knighthood. Through their intercession he is said to have been allowed to return to Florence in 1446 ; but he went back to Spain three years later, and died there about 1464. According to Vasari, he painted in the cloisters of S. Maria Novella (Florence) with Paolo Uccello, who has portrayed him under the figure of Shem in ' the Drunkenness of Noah.' * No works by Dello are known to exist. Of Bomenico Veneziano, hitherto so tmhappily connected historically with Andrea dal Castagno, neither date of birth, birthplace, nor mode of education are known. It is possible that he belonged to a Venetian family, for a record of 1439-40 t describes him as " Maestro Domenicho di Barto- lomeo da Venezia," and on an altar-piece in the IJfBzi, representing the Virgin and Child enthroned and four saints, he inscribes " Opus Dominici de Venetiis " ; but his works belie any connection ^vith Venetian art. He is first heard of at Peruf^ia, where he appears connected with the fortunes of the Medici. He painted next in Florence, in the Portinari Chapel before mentioned, between the years 1439 and 1445, the records of which show that his apprentice was Pietro della Francesca, and his assistant Bicci di Lorenzo. The works * See Milanesi's ' Commentary on the life of De/lo,' in Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii., p. 155. t See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. iii., p. 315, Chap. V.J MASOLINO. 139 he executed there no longer exist, and the only surviving specimens of his art are a pleasing but feeble altar-piece, in tempera, formerly in S. Lucia de' Bardi, and now in the Uffizi, and a transferred fresco, originally on a tabernacle on the Canto de' Carnesecchi, (Florence), exposed to wind and weather for centuries, and now existing in detached pieces ; namely, the Virgin and Child, formerly in the possession of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, and two heads of saints, showing considerable power and vigorous modeling, but greatly repainted, in the National Gallery,* Although the little we possess by his hand gives no evidence of his having been an oil painter, there are documents to prove that in executing some wall-paintings in the church of S. Egidio, Florence, he made free use of linseed oil.f The picture in S. Lucia shows the mingled influence of Fra Angelico and of Andrea dal Castagno. Domenico Veneziano died in Florence, in 1461. We will now notice those painters who belong to the first group in the threefold division of the Tuscan school to which we have referred. First among them in point of date, and, at the same time, for the important part he plays in the development of art, is Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini, known as Masolino da Panicale from the place of his birth. He was born in 1383, and probably owed his first instruction in painting to Stamina, a Florentine painter mentioned by Vasari, of whom little is known. He may also have studied, as Vasari states, under Lorenzo GMberti, as he was a sculptor and architect as well as a painter. Documents recently discovered prove that he was sent to Hungary in his youth by Filippo Scolari, known as Pippo Spano, probably to paint in some churches or chapels in that country.]: On his return to Italy, he appears to have * Signer Morelli ascribes the frescoes of SS. Francis and John the Baptist in the Church of S. Croce, Florence, attributed to Andrea del Castagno, to Domenico Veneziano. Ital. Masters, etc., p. 205, note. ■}• See Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii., p. 564, note ; and Signer Milanesi's ' Commentary on the life of Domenico Veneziano,' id. p. 685. X Filippo Scolari was a Florentine, who, having been banished fi'om his native city by the democracy, took refuge in Hungary, and rose to be Governor of Croatia. The name of Spano, by which he became known, is 9 corruption of his Croatian title of Gespan (Ban). Z 140 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. entered into the service of Cardinal Branda Castiglione, who employed him to decorate with frescoes a chapel in S. Clemente at Rome, and a church and Baptistery at Casti- glione d' Olona, a small town between Saronno and Varese, near Milan. It is not known upon which of these works he was first engaged. Those at Castiglione d' Olona, where he has inscribed his name, (masolinvs de florentia pinsit) may have been commenced about 1426. They were probably not completed until 1437. In the interval he may have been to Eome. His frescoes in the chui-ch of Castiglione d' Olona, the first he executed there, siu-round the high altar, and represent the history of the Virgin. In tenderness of expression and simple grace of outline, they show an affinity to, if not the actual influence of his contemporary, Fra Angelica. In the Baptistery, which contains the last of his works executed at Castiglione, he re- presented the history of the Baptist. These frescoes indicate a careful study of nature, especially in the heads and ex- tremities, though the type of composition is still that of the fourteenth century. He has, however, little regard for the traditional costume of Scriptural personages, and clothes them in cape and turbans, and the tight-fitting dresses of the period, which somewhat detract from the solemnity of character suitable to the subjects (see woodcut). Art, at this time, was in a transition state, and realistic features were beginning to be attempted which weakened that unity of composition which had been the great characteristic of Giotto and Orcagna. There is reason to believe that the Rculptiu-es which adorn the church at Castiglione d' Olona are likewise by Masolino, and that he was also concerned in the construction of the edifice.* The frescoes in a chapel in the church of S. Clemente at Rome, which have generally been attributed to Masaccio, are now recognised as the work of 3Iasolino.'\ They are proved to be so by their identity in style and execution with * The frescoes at Castiglione d' Olona have been carefully copied for the Arundel Society. t Tliey are rightly attributed to him by that acute observer and critic Dr. Burckhardt, in his ' Cicerone,' English ed. p. 59. E-i 23 o a2 ST. CATHERINE ; a fresco by Masolino, in S. Clemente, Rome. p. 141. Chap. V.] MASOLINO. 141 those at Castiglione d' Olona, by the peculiar type of the figures common to both, and by the fact that they were executed for the Cardinal Branda Castiglione, in whose em- ployment we have seen that he was, and whose arms are on the walls of the chapel. They were probably painted in 1421-22, and represent incidents in the lives of St. Clement and St. Catherine of Alexandi-ia. Though they have succumbed to the common lot of injiuy and rej^aint, they still preserve characteristics which tell a hand of re- markable power. Correct drawing and perspective are already visible in them, and a certain sense of atmosj)here, as in the manner in which the figure of St. Catherine is seen detached from that of the enthroned Maxentius (see woodcut). But the fame of Masolino is chiefly founded upon his share in the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the church of the Caimine at Florence — which may be considered as the most important works in jiainting executed dm-ing the fifteenth century, and as holding the same place in the history of art in that ccntmy as the frescoes of Giotto in the Arena Chapel at Padua hold in the fourteenth. They gave the first impulse to the dramatic and naturalistic style which reached its culminating point in Mapliael and his contemporaries. Attempts have been made of late years to disprove, upon critical grounds, Vasari's statement that Masolino commenced this series of frescoes, which was con- tinued by Masaccio, and completed by Filifpino Lippi. The discovery of his name on the wall-paintings of Castiglione d' Olona has been sufficient to set this question at rest, if such evidence were required. The same hand that executed those works can be traced in three of the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel. The spandrils of the ceiling were also by him ; but they were rej)ainted at a subsequent period, and nothing now remains of the originals. We defer a descrip- tion of these frescoes until we have spoken of Masaccio. Masolino is believed to have died about the year 1440. No existing picture, or altar-piece, can with confidence be attributed to him except one in the Naples Museum, repre- eenting a Bishop laying the foimdation stone of a church 142 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. there ascribed to Gentile da Fabriano. Otherwise lie is only known by the works we have described.* Masaccio, or, from his birthplace, Tommaso da S. Gio- vanni, a town between Florence and Arezzo, is almost less known than MasoUno, of whom he is believed to have been the scholar. He was born in 1401, eighteen years after his master, and died at least twelve years before him. In 1424 he was em-olled in the Florentine Guild of Painters. The frescoes that MasoUno had undertaken in the Brancacci Chapel having been left xmfinished, Masaccio was engaged to complete them, and in the wall-paintings he has left there he has worked out those higher principles of composition, the votaries of which appear but seldom. He may, indeed, be said to have grasped all those true maxims of art which his contemporaries were variously aiming at, and to have codified and defined them for the benefit of succeeding generations. It is on this account that Yasari declares him to be the founder of the " modern school " of painting.f Before we consider the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel more closely, an inspection of the subjoined plan, showing the relative position of these works, may facilitate the explanation of the several paintings on the walls and two projecting pilasters of the chapel. These were the works which were the means of intro- ducing a new and marked improvement in the history of art, and which, for a long period, even to the time of Bapliael, formed the school of the painters of Florence. We observe that in this instance the aim of the artist is not so much to seize and represent correctly a particular event, nor to manifest his own feelings through the medium of * One Tommaso di Cristofauo was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, in October 1447. It has been conjectured that he was the painter MasoUno. For the new facts relating to MasoUno, see Milanesi's notes to his life in Sansoni's Vasari, vol ii. t Leonardo da Vinci wrote of him : " After the time of Giotto the art of painting declined again, because every one imitated the pictures that were already done ; thus it went on . . . until Tomaso of Florence, nick- named Masaccio, showed by his perfect works how those who take for their standard anyone but nature — the mistress of all masters — weary themselves in vain." ' The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci.' J. P. Richter v. 1, p. 332. Chap. V.] THE BKANCACCI CHAPEL. 143 the forms and expressions with which he has to deal. For the first time, his aim is the study of form for itself, the study of the external conformation of man. With such an aim is identified a feeling which, in beauty, sees and preserves the expression of proportion ; and in repose or motion, the expression of an harmonious development of the powers of the human frame. In these works, therefore, for the first time, we find a well-grounded and graceful delinca- )a Ground-plan of the Chapel. 1 ,.- 2 7 8 t (>~ 3 4 Altar. ■0^ 9 10 o 6 6 11 12 ini. a. Wall A. Wall B. WaU C. Pil. c 1. Expulsion from Paradise (by Masaccw). 2. The Tribute-money (by Masaccio). 3. Preaching of Peter (by Masolino). 4. Peter Baptizing (by Masaccio). 5. Healing of the Cripple at the Beautiful Gate, and Cure of Petronill.i (by Masolino). 6. The Fall of Adam and Eve (by Masolino). 7. Peter in Prison (by FiUppino Lippi). Resuscitation of the King's Son (partly by Masaccio and partly by FiUppino Lippi).* Peter and John Healing the Cripple (by Masaccio). Peter and John Distributing Alms (by Masaccio). Martyrdom of Peter (by Filippino Lippi). Liberation of Peter (by FiUppino Lippi).f 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. * The group of five figures nearly in the centre, and another group of ten figures with the naked youth kneeling, are by Filippino Lippi — the remainder by Masaccio. The difference of manner in the two masters is at once apparent. t These works, so often referred to by the historians of art, have been variously described. The Tribute-money, No. 2, has been improperly de- 144 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. tion of the nude, whicli, though still somewhat constrained in the figures of Adam and Eve by Masaccio (see woodcut), exhibits itself in successful mastery in the Youth preparing for baptism also by him (see woodcut) ; so well, in short, in both, that the first were copied by Baj^liael for the Loggia of the Vatican, while the last, according to tradition, formed an epoch in the history of Florentine art. The art of raising the figui'es from the flat surface, the modeling of the forms, hitherto only faintly indicated, here begins to give the effect of actual life. In this respect, again, these pictiu'es exhibit at once a beginning and a successful progress, for in the Tribute Money (see woodcut), also by Masaccio, many parts are hard and stiff, and the strongest light is not placed in the centre, but at the edge of the figures ; while in the Resuscitation of the Boy (see woodcut), especially in the parts executed by Filippino Lippi, the figures appear in per- fect reality before the spectator. IVForeover, we find a style of drapery freed fi'om the habitual type-like manner of the earlier periods, and dependent only on the form underneath, at the same time expressing dignity of movement by broad masses and grand lines. Lastly, we remark a peculiar style of composition, which in the Resuscitation of the Boy, nominated the 'Calling of Andrew and Peter.' No. 9, called by Kugler Peter and John Healing, &c. (one of the subjects of No. 5), is more pro- bably intended for the Sick and Deformed Cured by the Shadow of Peter (Acts V, 15), here accompanied by John. No. 10 is sometimes called the Ananias ; a dead figure lies at the feet of the apostles. No. 8 is sometimes erroneously called Eutychus Restored to Life (Acts xx. 9); the subject is also incorrectly named by Kugler. The apocryphal incident re- presented is the following : — Simon Magus had challenged Peter and Paul to restore a dead person to life ; the sorcerer first attempted this, and failed (the skulls and bones placed on the ground are part of the machinery of tne incantation). The apostles raise tlie youth. (See the ' Aurea Legenda,' chap. 44, and the 'Historia Apostolica ' of Abdias, where the youth is merely described as " adolescens nobilis propinquus Ciesaris.") The bearded figure lifting both hands, behind the kneeling Apostle, is probably intended for Simon Magus. Four of these compositions (Nos. 2, 5, 8, and 11) are almost double subjects. In No. 2, different moments of the same event are represented ; No. 5 contains two subjects, as above described ; in a portion of No. 8 the homage or dulia to St. Peter is represented, and in No. 11 the subject of Peter and Paul accused before Nero of despising the idols (sometimes improperly called Paul before Felix) occupies nearly half the space: in the background Paul is also seen led to martyrdom. C. L. E.) THR FALL ; by Masolino. THE EXPULSION OF ADAM AND EVE; Frescos in the Church of S M. del Carmine, Florence. by Masaccio. p. 144. ST. PETEK BAPTIZING; A fresco Ijy Masaccio, ir. the Church of S. M. dc! (Jarminc, Florence. p. 144. a S t5 O H o 6-1 o 02 D ^ ■a o o &^ 3 p 2 Chap. V.] MASACCIO. 145 exhibits a powerful fecliug for truth and individuality of character. The event itself includes few persons, A large number of spectators arc disposed around, ^vho, not takirifT a very lively interest in what is passiiig, merely present a pictm-e of earnest, serious manliood ; in each figm-e we read a worthy ftilfilmeut of the occupations and duties of life. The high poetic completeness of which this circumscribed and seemingly subordinate aim in composition is capable, will be found very remarkably displayed in the works of a later Florentine, Domenico Ghirlandajo. In these great works, especially in the ' Tribute Money, Masaccio, departing from the conventional mode of repre- senting landscape, is claimed to be the fii-st among Italian painters to attempt to imitate natui'e in the forms of hills, mountains, and clouds which he introduced into the back- grounds of his pictures.* Among the commissions recorded to have been undertaken by Masaccio during the progi-ess of the Brancacci Chapel, was a fresco in the chm-ch of the Carmine, representing a procession of figures on occasion of the consecration of tbe building. Portraits of Brunelleschi, Donatella, A[asolino, Felice Brancacci, and other artists and patrons, are described to have been among them. This fresco has been long under whitewash. A portion of such a subject has, however, been brought to light in the cloisters, which is pronounced to be by the hand of Masaccio. Another work in the church of S. Maria Novella, long covered by a worthless altar-piece by Vasari, has also been disclosed. It represents the Trinity, with Christ on the Cross, and the Virgin and St. John, with a male and female donor on each side. Having been sawed from the place where it belonged — always a most perilous operation — and moved to the wall close to the entrance, it has suffered greatly. The portraits of the donors, however, are imperishably fine, and strongly resemble in treatment the heads in the fresco of the ' Tribute Money ' in the Brancacci Chapel. * See remarks on the subject in Gilbert's ' Landscape in Art,' p. 191. But it is doubtful whether he was not forest:illed by J/ot.w/mo, to whom the landscape at S. Clemente (Home), mentioned by Mr. Gilbert (p. 193), is to be attributed, and not to Masaccio. 146 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V Masaccio appears to have left Florence, for some un- explained reason, before he had completed the fresco of the " Eesuscitation of the King's Son " in the Brancacci Chapel. He died at Eome about 1428, at the early age of twenty- six years. With the exception of the frescoes we have described, no works by him are known to exist. Of the two fine portraits in the TJffizi bearing his name, one is probably by Filippino Lippi, to whom, or to Sandro Botti- celli may also be attributed the head of a young man in a red cap in the National Gallery, at one time ascribed to Masaccio, and now to an unknown painter of the Florentine school of the fifteenth centiu-y. But three small pictures in the Berlin Museum — the Adoration of the Magi, the beheading of St. John the Baptist, and the crucifixion of St. Peter — are attributed to him, and may perhaps be accepted as genuine.* It is not known that Masaccio had any scholars. The Carmelite friar, Fra Filippo Lippi, some years his junior, has been surmised to have been taught by him ; but the instruction would seem rather to have proceeded from Masaccio' & works. Fra Filippo was born about (?) 1412. He was placed, when about eight years old, in the convent of the Carmine at Florence, and after passing six years in the service of the monks, who gave him his education, entered upon his novitiate, and in a year was admitted into the Order, on the 8th June, 1421. Although Vasari's account of the romantic career of Fra Filippo — his stay in Ancona, his capture by Barbary pirates at that place, and his residence at Naples, where he landed on returning from captivity — is probably a mere tissue of fables, docu- mentary evidence corroborates the biographer's reference to the scandalous life of the friar. From records recently discovered, it appears that in 1450 Fra Filippo, having refused to pay a simi of forty golden florins which one of his pupils claimed from him, they were both brought before the Archiepiscopal Court of Florence. As the one affirmed, and the other denied t'i>e debt, they were * For the most recent discoveries relating to Masaccio, see Milanesi's notes to the life of the painter in Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii. Chap, v.] FRA FILIPPO LIPPI. 147 thrown into prison and subjected to torture, when Fra Filippo confessed that he had forged the receipt which he had produced in proof of the payment of the money. Ho was, in consequence, deprived of his office of Eector of the church of San Quirico at Legnaja, near Florence. He appealed against this sentence to Pope Calixtus III., who confirmed it by a brief of the 15th July, 1455, in which Fra Filippo is accused of having committed " nimierous and abominable wickednesses " (pliu-ima et nefanda scelcra), which seems to show that his reputation was none of the best. In 145 G, however, we find him chaplain of the convent of mms of S. Margherita at Prato. Having been commissioned by the Abbess to paint the picture for the high altar of the chui'ch,* and desirous of having a model for the head of the Virgin, he succeeded in inducing her to allow a beautiful nun, named Lucrezia Buti, whom he had casually seen when at work in the convent, to sit to him. He profited of an opj)ortunity when her companion, who was ordered to accompany her, was absent, to persuade her to elope with him, and carried her off to his house dui-ing the celebration of the annual religious ceremony of the Sacra Cintola. Subsequently foiu- other nuns escaped from the same convent — one of them, Lucrezia's sister Spinetta, also taking refuge in the house of Fra Filippo. They appear to have remained for two years at liberty, when they were persuaded to re-enter the monastery. But shortly afterwards the two sisters again fled, and retui-ned to the friar. Cosimo de' Medici, who was the friend and protector of Fra Filippo, then interceded for him with Poj)e Pius the II., who absolved him and Lucrezia Buti from their vows, and they were legitimately married. She had in the meanwhile given birth to a son — the painter, Filippino Lippi, of whom we shall hereafter speak — and a daughter named Alessandi'a. Fra Filippo died in 1469 at Spoleto, where he had been engaged to adorn ^ith frescoes the choir of the Cathedral, and where his tomb still exists, erected by Lorenzo de' Medici, with an epitaph written by Politiau. There is no reason to believe that he was poisoned * This picture, in an injured state, is now iu the Louvre 148 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. by tlie relatives of the niin whom he had seduced, as stated by the too credulous Vasari.* We may now turn to his art. The style of Fra Filippo is peculiarly his own, both in form and colouring. The type of his heads is short, with wide jaws, and a solemn, yet youthful expression, which is very pleasing. His colour is golden and broad, and his draj)ery finely cast and of fascinatingly broken tones. His figures are less grand in conception than those of Masaccio, although in his youthful works the modeling of the heads and the shape of the hands recall that master ; and his whole treatment is devoid of the ideal, but he compensates for this deficiency by a reality of human feeling which is sometimes tender and graceful, though as often rude, and even boisterous in expression. His angels especially are like great, high-spirited boys. These peculiarities, which lean to the side of cormnon nature, combined with a stately form of composition, render his style very attractive. Fra Filijypo's most important works are the frescoes in the choir of the Duomo at Prato.f On the left wall he repre- sented the History of St. Stephen, in several compartments, one over the other ; on the right that of St. John the Baptist ; and on the wall where the window is, several figui'es of Saints. The fascinating powers of the Frate are especially seen here in the history of the Baptist, where a peculiar sense of reality is combined with the utmost grace of lines. The birth of the Baptist with the fine figure of St. Elizabeth on the bed ; the farewell between the young boy and his parents on his departure for the desert ; and the dancing of Salome, with the group of two whispering women in the right corner, are all worthy of close attention. On the opposite side, the body of St. Stephen stretched on a bier — bewailed by two women who sit right and left in front, * The documents relating to the life of Fra Filippo which prove the facts above stated have been collected by Signor Milanesi. See his notes to Fra Filippo^s life in Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii, ; and his commentary on the life of FiUppino Lippi, vol. iii. t ' Delle Future di Fra Filippo Lijjpi nel coro della Cattedrale di Prato, e de' loro restauri, relaziona compilata dal C. F. B. (Canonico Baldanzi.) Prato, 1835.' See ' Kunstbl.', 1836, No. 90. Some of these frescoes have been copied for, and publislied by, the Arundel Society. Chap, v.] FRA FILIPPO LIPPI. 149 and surrounded by fine male figures — portraits of the time — (see woodcut), is very remarkable.* An altar-piece in tbe Refectory of S. Domenico at Prato — the Nativity, with the Virgin and St. Joseph adoring the infant Christ, and SS. George and Dominic, and shepherds and angels — was one of the chefs-d'oeuvre of the master, but is now much defaced. Another altar-picture, the Assumption of the Madonna, who drops her girdle for St. Thomas, for- merly in S. Margherita, is now in the Communal Gallery of the same town. It is probably the picture, in which he is said to have portrayed, in the Virgin, Lucrezia Buti. Of the works which he executed in 1434 in the ' Santo ' at Padua nothing remains. At Spoleto he adorned the choir of the Cathedi-al with frescoes, representing the Annunciation, Nativity, and Death of the Virgin in the lower row, and her Coronation sur- rounded with angels and saints above. These do eminent justice to the painter of the frescoes at Prato, and display heads of fine study and character, and excellent drapery. Too much has been restored by a very indiiferent hand. The Frate did not live to finish this work, which was completed by his scholar, Fra Diamante. Fra Filippo''& panel pictures are tolerably numerous, and when once his peculiar manner is known, he will rarely be mistaken. A large pictui'e in the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, with the painter's portrait in the right hand corner, is full of his beauties and his defects. A smaller work in the corridor of the Uflfizi represents the Madonna with an elaborate head- * Signer Morelli observes of these works : "These magnificent paint- ings were begun in 1456, and completed in 1464. They were, therefore, executed about the s-ime time as the equally celebrated wall-paintings by Jfantegna in the Cappella degli Eremitani at Padua. Whoever would learn to know the aspirations and artistic power of that period in its highest utterances, has only to study these two wall-paintings, and then compare the work of the Florentine with that of the Paduan. What captivates us most of all in the representations of these two masters is the character in their art. If we are carried away by Fra Filippo's grandeur of conception and his pure dramatic vividness, we are enthralled, on the other hand, by Mantegna's greater fullness of expression and his perfect execution. Both works are amongst the highest that tifteenth century art Drought forth in Italy." * Italian Masters in German Galleries,' p. 71. 150 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. dress of transparent naaterlal, with folded hands, adoring the Infant Christ, who is held up to her by two laughing hoy- angels. The grand picture in the Louvre of the Virgin standing and holding the Child, with numerous figures, was i)ainted when the master was only twenty-six, by which we see how early his peculiar style in expression and colour was developed. In the Berlin Gallery he is well represented by a ' Virgin adoring the Child,' — one of his favourite subjects. The National Gallery possesses two very interesting lunette * pictures by him, remarkable for their rich colouring and refinement — one represents, the Annunciation, the other St. John the Baptist, and six other saints. The Vision of St. Bernard, in the same collection, is also an authentic work by his hand, painted for the palace of the Signoria, Florence. Vasari mentions among the scholars and assistants of Fra Filippo, Fra Diamante and Jacopo del Sellajo. The first, who was born about 1430, at Terranova, near Florence, had been placed, when a boy, in the convent of the Carmelites at Prato, and had entered the Order, when Fra Filippo, seeing his inclination for painting, took him as a pupil and as his assistant in executing the frescoes on which he was then engaged. Fra Diamante, as we have seen, accompanied his master to Spoleto, and completed the works there which the Frate, on his death, had left unfinished. He afterwards painted numerous frescoes in the church of the Carmine at Prato, all of which have perished. He is believed to have been amongst the painters employed in decorating the * The altar decoration was sometimes composed of a variety of subjects ; the chief picture was often surmounted by a lunette, — a smaller, some- times rectanoular, but more frequently semicircubir picture ; the flat frame was generally painted with arabesques and with heads or single figures ; lastly, the basement or step (gradino, predella) resting on the altar was adorned with small pictures, generally three or five in number. Some- times the principal picture had doors, which could be closed upon it ; these doors or wings were painted inside and out, and on the inside com- monly contained the portraits of the donors, who thus knelt on each side of the principal subject. The last form and treatment, less common in Italy, are almost universal in the early Flemish and German altar-pieces. A picture with one door, and consequently consisting of two panels, is called a Diptych ; with two doors (or three panels), a Triptych ; and with many, a Polyptych. Chap. V.] PESELLINO. 151 Vatican for Pope Sixtus IV.; but the frescoes which he may have executed here were destroyed to make way for works by greater men.* It appears that, at one time of his life, Fra Diamante fell under the censure of his order for some offence, and was thrown into prison at Florence, whence he was liberated by the intercession of the Patriarch of the city at the instance of the Commune of Prato. One or two pictures in private collections at Prato are doubtfully attributed to him. To Jacopo del Sellajo (born 1442) may be ascribed a ' Pieta ' in the Berlin Museum, passing unler the name of Ghirlandajo, and an altar-piece in the sacristy of the chui'ch of S. Frediano, near Florence. He died in 1493. t There were two painters called Pesello — grandfather and grandson:}: — as regards Avhom much confusion has existed, chiefly owing to the errors of Vasari. The elder, whose real name was Gmliano, was the son of Arrigo di Giuocolo Giuochi, and was born in 1367. Under whom he learnt his art is not known. No certain work by him is left. A much repainted pictui'e in the Uffizi, representing the Adoration of the Magi, once ascribed to him, is now assigned to Cosimo BosselU.^ Pesello was also au architect, and took jiart in the competi- tion for the erection of the Cupola of the Duomo at Florence. He died in 1446 at the age of seventy-nine years. His grandson, whose Christian name was Francesco, was called Pesellino, to distinguish him from his grandfather. He was born about 1422, and died in 1457. His mother, the widow of a painter named Sfefano, placed him with Giuliano Pesello, from whom he learnt the rudiments of his art — passing later into the school of Fra F'dlppo Lippi, who may be con- sidered as his true master. He subsequently opened a " bottega," or work-shop, in Florence, with one Piero di Lorenzo, in conjunction with whom he painted a ' Trinita ' for * Signer Milanesi, misled by a document stating that Fra Diamante had painted Christ delivering the Keys to St. Petei", in the Vatican, has come to the conclusion that the great fresco of that subject by Pietro Ferwjino is the work of that very second-rate painter. Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii., p. 641. t For these two painters, see Milanesi's 'Commentary on the life of Fra Filippo Lippi.' Sansoni's Vasari, vol. ii. X Or according to some, -uncle and nephew. § Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 34:3. 162 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL [Chap. V. the cliurcli of that name at Pistoja, whicli gave rise to a law- suit between them. He died at the early age of thirty-five in 1457, leaving a widow and several children in penury. Pesellino is entitled to one of the highest places in the ranks of the Florentine school of the fifteenth century. His works are distinguished by lively grace, and by beautiful and truthful expression, and are rare and much esteemed. His masterpiece is the above-mentioned ' Trinita ' in the National Gallery — part of an altarpiece.* The Father, seated on clouds, and surrounded by Cherubim and Seraphim, supports tlie crucified Saviour, over whose head hovers the Dove of the Holy Spirit. On each side of the cross was the figure of a Saint. These figures detached from the panel, are, it is believed, in private possession in England. The head of the I'irst Person in this work is without exception the most remarkable production in painting of the period at which it was executed. Three compartments of a predella by Pesellino are in the Accademia, FJorence, a fourth being in the Louvre. They are full of beauty and refined sentiment. Another equally beautiful predella picture, probably his earliest known work, v/ith the legend of St. Nicholas, is in the Casa Buonarroti at Florence. Pesellino was frequently employed in decorating Cassoni. Two j)ictui-es, once forming part of a wooden chest of this kind, are in the Palazzo Torrigiani at Florence, there ascribed to Benozzo Gozzoli. They are well-preserved and first-rate works, combining beauty of male and female figures with the pomp and splendour of architecture and costume. He has introduced into them a variety of animals. The choice collection of Signer Morelli at Milan contains three works by this rare master. The most important is a Cassone picture ■with the story of Griselda (from Boccaccio) in three scenes — the departure of the Prince to seek his bride ; his meeting with Griselda at the fountain ; and his marriage with her when she is presented to him divested of her clothing. The story is told with channing naivete, and, at the same time, with much dramatic effect. A second Cassone picture — a yoimg * Signer Morelli attributes the greater part, if not the whole, of this altar-piece, to Piero di Lorenzo. ! Chap, v.] BOTTICELLI. 153 man brought up for judgment — is of equal merit, and recalls his master, Fra Filipjpo Lippi. The third, a St. Jerome, evidently a work of the painter's youth and mentioned by Vasari as having been in the convent of S. Giorgio, Florence, is still more reminiscent — especially in the colour- of the Frate. Two small and very characteristic pictures by Pesellino are in the Doria-Pamphili Gallery, Eome. No signed work by him has yet been discovered. He is reported by Vasari to have excelled in the representation of animals.* One of the most distinguished of Fra Filippo Lippi& scholars was Alessandro, or Sandro Filipepe, known as Botti- celli, whose genius has only of late years been fully appre- ciated. He was born in 1447, and died in 1510 — consequently not at the age of seventy-eight years, as stated by Vasari — and was first apprenticed to a goldsmith. He appeared at a time, and was in a position, to take advantage of those efforts for the development of art which sculptors and painters had equally exerted; but a strong individuality takes the lead of all other characteristics in his works. In vehemence and impetuosity of action, combined occasion- ally with great grandeur, he stands alone. He especially developed a power of movement, often finer in attempt than in performance, and a passionate imagination in expres- sion which render him the most dramatic painter of the school. What may be called the Titanic force of some of his creations allies him to Luca Signorelli, and to Michael Angela. He strove after an ideal beauty, but remained chained to a type of head, always recui-ring and recognisable from afar, which he reproduced occasionally in a most lovely manner.f Sandro Botticelli was peculiarly qualified to illustrate the mythological and allegorical tendencies which the revival of classic literature developed in Italy during the fifteenth centui-y. The imagination readily con- sents to the creations of his hand in this line. His Venus, borne upon the sea and driven to the shore by the Winds — a vehemently intertwined group of wonderful power — in tho * For data relative to Pesello and Pesellino, see Milanesi's Commentary on their lives in Sausoui's Vasari, vol. iii. t Burckhardt, ' Cicerone,' p. 62. 154 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. Uffizi, is an example of this class. Also the Allegory of Spring in the Florence Academy, a singularly poetical and graceful composition. But his chef-d'oeuvre in the representa- tion of Allegory, as well as the choicest specimen of his passionate poetry, is the picture in the Uffizi called ' The Calumny of Apelles,' after Lucian's description of a picture of that subject by Apelles (see woodcut). Few painters have succeeded in making every part of a work so tribu- tary to the leading idea. The very statues in the niches are enlisted in the service. Such a picture as this is a far iuster revelation of the violence and fiery spirit predominant in Florence than any which the literature of the time has bequeathed. A picture by Botticelli, in the possession of Signer Morelli, representing, in six scenes, the story of Virginia, is of the same intensely dramatic character in the expression and action of the numerous figures introduced. Sandra's treatment of religious subjects partakes almost equally of the vehemence of his character. In his Coronation of the Virgin, in the Florence Academy, the angels dancing above are wild with the excitement of celestial rapture, some of which is communicated even to the foui" hmnan Saints standing below. A still more poetic embodiment of angelic intensity of feeling is seen in the grand Coronation of the Virgin,* and in the truly exquisite picture of the Nativity, both in the National Gallery. An opposite example of the excitement of despair may be instanced in a ' Pieta ' in the Munich Gallery, where the Maries around the body of the Saviour are frantic with grief. Amonw the most important monimients of Botticelli s art are his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, executed previous to I484.t In the attraction offered by Michael Angelo's ceiling these grand works have been much overlooked. The history of Moses, given in a series of incidents in one picture, teems with his exuberant power, and displays great grandeur of * Doubts are entertained as to whether this picture is by Botticelli's own hand, or whether it was executed by a pupil from a cartoon by the master, ttt- • -1,1^0 i, t This chapel was built under the ausi)ices of Sixtus IV., in I47.i, by liaccio Pintelli, a Florentine architect; its length is nearly 150 feet, and its breadth one-third of that extent : it has two entrances, a principal r'w*^ V ^-^\ 1 VS-ii— 'i- m c Chap. V.] BOTTICELLI. 155 landscape (see woodcut). The two other frescoes are the Temptation of Christ and the Story of Korah. Sandro painted also twenty-eight figures of Popes between the windows. The master's command over portraiture \\as also remark- able, for to this category must be assigned his Adoration of one opposite the altar, and a small one in the comer to the right of the altar, leading to the Pope's apartments. The larger portion of the chapel, which is deroted to the church service, is divided from the rest by a balustrade. The principal entablature, at a considerable height from the pavement, forms a narrow gallery, protected by an iron railing, round three sides of the chapel : the end wall, where Michael Aiigeio's Last Judgment is, is, of course, unbroken. Between this gallery and the springing of the vaulted roof are the windows, six on each side ; on the wall opposite the altar are two paintel windows to correspond. The space under the windows is divided horizontally into two portions ; the lower is merely painted with imitations of hangings, the upper contains the subjects from the life of Moses and Christ. A description of these may not be out of place here. On the end wall, over and on each side of the altar, were three frescoes by Perujino, all afterwards destroyed to make room for the Last Judgment by Michael Angela. The subject over the altar was the Assumption of the Virgin, — in this Pope Sistus IV. was introduced, kneeling: on tlie left of this was JMo-^es in the Bulrushes; on the right, Christ in the Manger ; the other paintings still exist, more or less well preserved. Six subjects are on each of the side walls, and two on each side of the principal entrance. The subjects from the life of Moses on the left are all intended, like the first-named, to have a typical reference to the corresponding representations on the right, from the life of Christ. The order and relation are as follows : — 1. Moses and Zipporah on their way to Egypt; the Circumcision of their Son (Exod. iv. 24), attributed to Luca Signorelli. 1. The Baptism of Christ, attributed to Ferugino [both probably by Pinturicchio]. 2. Moses Overcoming the Egyptian, and again, Driving away the Shepherds who hindered the Daughters of Jethro from Drawing Water (Exod. ii. 11, 17) [^Saniro Botticelli]. 2. The Temptation, or Christ Overcoming the Power of Satan [Sandro Botticelli']. 3. Moses and the Israelites after the Passage of the Red Sea ICosimo Posselli]. 3. The Calling of various Apostles (Peter, Andrew, James and John) from the Lake of Gennesareth [JDomenico Glurlandajo]. 4. Moses giving the Commandments from the Mount \Cosim.o Bosselli]. 4. Christ Preaching on the Mount {_Cosimo Bosselli]. 5. The Punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who aspired, uncalled, to the priesthood (Numb. xvi. 31) [Sandro Botticelli]. 5. The Sacrament of Holy Orders, or Christ giving the Keys to Peter [Perugino]. 6. Moses before his Death giving his Last Commands to Joshua [Pinturicchio], 6. The Last Supper [Cosimo Bosselii]. 7.. Michael, Victorious over Satan, bears away the Body of Moses (Jude 9) [Cecchino Salviati]. 7. The Resurrection [Domenico Ghirlandajo]. The two last-named pictures on each side of the principal entrance were materially injured by the sinking of the architrave, and weie afterwards badly repaired. Many of these compositions contain more than one moment of time, and all are remarkable for the crowds of portrait-like spectators, in imitation of Masaccio. The best are those by Sandro, the Moses and Zipporah (now ascribed to Pinturicchio'), and the' Holy Ordeis 156 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. the Magi, executed for the Medici, now in the Uifizi, in which the aged Cosimo kneels before the Virgin, while various members of the family of utmost individuality and dignity, the heads nobly modeled against a light ground, appear as spectators of the scene. A portrait of Giuliano de' Medici, the father of Pope Clement VII., in the collection of Signer Morelli, is a very fine likeness of an ugly man — who, however, somewhat resembled his brother Lorenzo. There is a " replica " or copy of it in the Berlin Gallery. The so-called ' Bella Simonetta ' in the Pitti is neither that beautiful mistress of Giuliano, nor is it by Botticelli* The portrait of a medallist in the UflSzi (No. 1154), called the portrait of Pico della Mirandola, is an excellent example of the master."]" Pictures attributed to Botticelli are to be found in many collections — especially circular panels, known as " tondi," mostly representing the Virgin and Child and Angels. Many of them are either " bottega " productions — that is, coming out of his atelier — or by followers ; some are altogether spurious. Among his most successful imitators was his pupil. Biagio, whose v.orks frequently j)ass for those of his master. Genuine works by Sandro can generally be recognised by the transparency of the colouring, as well as by that grand and tragic expression which his imitators only caricatured. His circular pictures are supposed to lieloug to his earliest time. In them his angels, like those of Fra Filippo, take the form of grand masculine youths — more refined and noble in character than the boisterous conceptions of his master. In a fine example in the Uffizi (see woodcut) they are believed to represent some youthful members of the Medici family. Among the most characteristic and beautiful by Perugino. Cosimo Rosselli, knowing the taste of the Pope, covered his paintings with gold (even the lights on the figures are sometimes thus heightened), and, to the dismay of the other painters, his Holiness expressed liimself best pleased with Cosimo's performances. See Taja, ' Descrizione del Vaticano;' and Plattuer and Bunsen, 'Beschreibung der Stadt Rom.'— C. L. E. * The portrait of Simonetta mentioned by Vasari is in the collection of the Due d'Auniale, inscribed "Simonetta Januensis Vespuccia." t The portrait of a young man in the National Gallery, at one time ascribed to Ifasaccio (No. 626), may be by S. Botticelli. MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH ANGELS; by S Botticelli, in the Gallery of the Uffizi at Florence. p, 156. Chap, v.] BOTTICELLI. 157 of his Holy Families may be mentioned the one in the Gallery of the Ambrogian library at Milan. In a " tondo " by him in the National Gallery, the Virgin, an Angel, and the little St. John are of great beauty ; but the clumsy and ill-drawn Infant Christ is not worthy of his hand. The three exquisite Cassone pictures in the Torregiani Palace (Florence), the fourth of the series having been sold, repre- senting the History of Esther, which were formerly attributed to Filippino Lippi, are now assigned to Botticelli. Signor Morelli possesses an Ecce Homo, or head of Christ, by the master, of the most touching and powerful esj)ression, and almost Flemish in the extreme minuteness and beauty of the details, and the brilliant transparency of its colour. Botticelli was one of the first of the Florentine painters to attempt to represent the nude female figure of the size of life, or nearly so. Although his drawing is generally correct, there is an absence of modeling, and the colour is pale and lifeless. But many such figures attributed to him are school-pictures — as the Venus reclining with Cupid in the National Gallery, and the Venus in that of Berlin. The Mars and Venus in the National Collection is, however, an excellent example of his skill in this class of subjects. It is frequently difficult to distinguish between the works of Botticelli and those of his fellow-pupil, Filippino Lippi. For instance, the two pictures in the National Gallery, botli representing the Adoration of the Magi, and a Communion of St. Jerome— a perfect gem — in the Capponi Palace at Florence, of which there is a copy passing for the original in the Balbi Palace at Genoa, attributed to Lippi, are pronounced by Signor Morelli to be by Botticelli* As also the noteworthy little pictm-e of St. Augustin in his study in the TJffizi, similarly ascribed to Fra Filippo Lippi. We must not omit to mention, in conclusion, the illus- trations, by this great and original genius, of Dante's 'Divina Commedia,' contained in the priceless volume formerly in the possession of Lord Ashburnham, which the * ' Italian Masters,' &c., p. 236. 158 ' THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. British Government refused to purcliase and allowed to pasa into the Museum of Berlin.* Filippino Lippi was, as we have already mentioned, the son of Fra Filippo Lippi, by Lucrczia Buti, a nun whom the Friar had induced to elope with him from her convent,! and whom he afterwards married. Filippino was born in 1457. His first teacher was probably his father, who, however, died when he was still young. His artistic education was then continued by Fra Diamante. His mother, however, finding that he could learn but little from this painter, sent him to Florence to the school of Sandro Botticelli, the master of greatest repute of the day. The pupil showed so great an aptitude for his art that his works were soon confounded with those of his teacher. Botticelli, however, shows a more impetuous and vigorous character than Filippino, whose works display a more gentle sentiment and a higher grace and standard of beauty. These qualities are pre-eminently shown in one of his early works, the Vision of St. Bernard, in the church of the Badia at Florence, commissioned in 1480, when he was about twenty-three years of age, but which was probably painted somewhat later. The subject is the Virgin appearing to St. Bernard. Above the Saint's head is seen the inscription, " Substine ct abstine." The time is evening ; the landscape lighted up by the setting sun ; the sky bright and clear. The Saint is seated writing in the open air, outside the walls of his convent, which is seen in the distance. He is surprised by the apparition of the Virgin, a figure of ineffable charm. She is accompanied by a train of angels of the most exquisite beauty. In his astonishment the Saint is about to drop the pen from his hand. This work, although one of the earliest, is one of the finest of the master. Nowhere has the realising tendency * These drawings- mostly, if not all, by the hand of the master — have been published in facsimile at Berlin. t AH doubts on this subject have been completely removed by the discovery of confirmatory documentary evidence, and especially oftlie will of Filippino, who leaves an annual provision of corn, wine, oil, and other necessaries to his beloved mother Lucrezia, daughter of Francesco Buti. Sansoni's Vasari, vol. iii., p. 469, note, and see ante p. 147. Chap, v.] FILIPPINO LIPPI. 169 translated lieaveiily personages into earthly forms of more charming character.* Filippino's large altar-pieces show his complete command over the arts of colouring and composition. His ' Adoration of the Kings,' in the Uffizi, consists of no less than thirty figures, all contributing to the effect of the whole, and developing the several branches of progress in the Florentine school. Another large picture, the Marriage of St. Catherine, and four Saints, signed and dated 1501, in S. Domenico, Bologna, has suffered from restoration, and the shadows have become somewhat black and heavy ; but it is a grand work ■with finely drawn heads and figures of a noble character, especially that of St. Sebastian. Conspicuous for beauty are the figures of six little angels, two-and-two, on the varying heights of the entablature, each holding a lighted candela- brum. The Madonna and Child, with SS. Jerome and Francis, in the National Gallery, is a very characteristic work of the master, although less rich and transparent in colour than usual. The heads are especially fine. Filippino's small pictures are very precious in character. Of fine quality, and of much refinement, are two panels in the Manfredini collection in the Seminario, Venice— Christ and the woman of Samaria, and a ' Noli me tangere.' A St. Francis in ecstasy, surrounded by angels, in the National Gallery, is a specimen of his minute execution.f Among other picttu-es by Filipjpino, may be mentioned a Virgin enthroned, with four saints, in the Uffizi ; an Adora- tion in the same Gallery ; a " tondo " in the Corsini Palace (Florence) — possessing the beautiful sentiment and colour of the Badia altar-piece, and probably painted about the same time ; and the Crucified Saviour, with the Virgin and St. Francis, in the Berlin Museum, remarkable for the expression of the figui-es. Filippino had many imitators > whose works in collections not unfrequently pass for those of the master. But it is in his fi-escoes that Filippino appears as ono * This beautiful picture has been reproduced in chromo-lithography by the Arundel Society. t It is doubtful whether this picture is by Filippino's own hand. 160 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. of tlie greatest historical painters of his time. Among his best and most finished are those in the Brancacci Chapel, to ■which we have already referred. In them he successfully approaches the seriousness and genuine truth of Masaccio, although he does not equal him in simplicity and repose. In point of beauty of conception and action, the King's son just raised from death is not, however, inferior to that great painter's figures (see woodcut p 144), and for naive reality the same may be said of the sleeping guards in the ' Peter Delivered from Prison.' St. Paul addi-essing St. Peter in prison is a very noble figui'e, from which BapJiael borrowed, with some modifications, that of St. Paul in his fresco of the Apostle preaching at Athens in the Vatican (see woodcut). The martyrdom of St. Peter (see woodcut) also shows some of Lippi's finest qualities. In 1489 Filippino executed the frescoes in the Cappella Carafa in S. Maria sopra Minerva (Rome), which, according to the intention of the founder. Cardinal Olivieri Carafa, represent the Glorification of the Madonna, and that of St. Thomas Aquinas. The latter subject occupies the right wall. Instead of the large symbolical compositions with which the fourteenth century decorated the chapel of the Spagnuoli at Florence, we here see a consistently sustained hmxian interest, after the manner of the new tendency. St. Thomas appears enthroned, with the four cardinal virtues, under a rich archi- tecture decorated with cherub forms. His feet rest upon a prostrate heretic ; several spectators are looking down from a gallery above. The most remarkable figui-es, howevei', are those of the teachers of false doctrine on each side of him in the foreground, who display the most varied expressions of shame, grief, and mortification. Among them is Sabellius in a red mantle, the grey-headed Arius, and two richly-clad boys. The Ecstasy of St. Thomas in the lunette above is of inferior value.* The altar-piece contains an Annunciation, in which St. Thomas is presenting the kneeling figure of Cardinal Carafa to the Virgin, who, though in prayer, is stealing a glance at the angel entering on the other side. * These (me and interesting frescoes were barbarously restored and repainted in 1874. ST. PAUL ADDRESSING ST. PETER IN PRISON ; From a fresco by ¥i\mmxo Lippi, in the Ci.nnii.e, Florence. p 160. a El P4 C o Q ci <: Chap. V.] FIIJPPINO LIPPI. 161 A lifted curtain shows a shelf of books and writing materials. On the wall beside and above the altar is the Assumption (now greatly over-painted). The Disciples looking upwards from the open grave are in excellent action, but appear less animated with devotion than with astonishment at the miracle. Having returned to Florence, Filippino completed the histories of the Apostles John and Philip upon the side walls of the Strozzi Chapel, in S. Maria Novella, which he had received the commission to paint in 1487. These are greatly marred by injury and over-painting. Here he dis- tinguishes himself as a painter of emotions, of di'amatic action, and of real life, omitting, it is true, the higher ecclesiastical meaning. The Resuscitation of Drusiana b^'' St. John is, however, one of his highest efforts.* The Apostle is pointing upwards with his right hand, while his left touches Drusiana, who, with the most marvellous expression of returning life, is raising herself upon the bier. The bearers are fleeing in terror, but a number of graceful female figures remain in trembling attention, their frightened childi-en clinging to their knees. Scarcely less excellent is the Apostle Philip exorcising the Dragon. The priests of the heathen temple are advancing resent- fully down the steps, while the Apostle, with a grand gestui'e, exorcises the monster in the foreground. On the right, collected round the body of the King's son, whom the dragon has killed, is a finely expressed group of corn-tiers. On the left are standing other persons shuddering at the monster, and holding their hands before their faces at its pestilential breath. The figures are executed with peculiar energy and ease. The w^omen are beautiful, the men dignified, and the forms throughout full of life. The di-apery only is somewhat mannered and conventional. The rich ornamental details which Filippino has introduced into his frescoes in the Carafa and Strozzi Chai^els— in the architectm-e and other accessories — wei'e the result of his study of Roman anti- quities, which interested the painters of the fifteenth century more on account of their decorative character than on any princii^le of antique form. * See Mrs. Jameson's ' Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art,' vol. i., p. 138. R 162 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. Filijppino died in 1504, and was buried in the cliurcli of S. Michele Bisdomini in Florence. Baffaello, the son of one Bartolomraeo, called Baffaellino del Garho, from the street in which he had his shop, or atelier, may be noticed in this place as a scholar of Filippino Lippi, under whose name hia works not xmfrequently pass. He was born in 1466, and died in 1524. In his earlier productions there is a peculiar charm, and a tenderness of feeling which nearly resembles Lorenzo di Credi, but ex- pressed more gracefully. In the Berlin Museum there are two excellent works by him — of the five formerly attributed to him, three are by Filippino Lippi. We give a woodcut of one of the two — a Virgin and Child with two Angels, remarkable for the qualities we have mentioned. A fine altar-piece by him is in the church of S. Spirito, Florence. The di-amatic power which characterises the two Lippi and Ghirlandajo, displays itself in his ' Eesurrection,' in the Florence Academy, especially in the figures of the four guards, which are, however, somewhat extravagant in gesture and expression. The Coronation of the Virgin in the Louvre, a much injured picture, is not a favourable example of the master. Some of his later works are to be seen on the ceiling of the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the church of the Minerva, Eome, the walls of which, as we have seen, were painted by his master. A " tondo " with the Virgin and Child and Angels, by Baffaellino, was in the collection of the late Mr. William Graham (London). Baffaellino del Garho must not be confounded with two other contemporary painters whose names were Baffaello, and who, curiously enough, were both sons of a Bartolommeo. By one of them, Baffaello de" Carli, there is an altar-piece, dated 1502, of Peruginesque character and some merit, in the Corsini Palace, Florence. By Baffaello de! Capponi there is an altar-piece, signed and dated 1500, in the collection of the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova, Florence — a Virgin and Child with two saints, and portraits of the donor and his wife. He was a very inferior painter to del Garho. He also appears to have been a pupil of Filippino Lippi.* * See ' La Cappella dci Principi Corsini in S. Spirito e un quadro di MADUXNA AND ANGELS; tondu by KaffacUiiio del Uarbo, in tin.- Museum at lierliii. p. m-2 n 2 Chap, v.] BENOZZO GOZZOLI. 163 We now come to the second group of painters of the Florentine school, " in which realistic probability and correctness in hitting off the characteristics of individual things was the principal aim." One of the most eminent and original of those who' belonged to it was Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, known as Benozzo Gozzoli. He was the sou of a small peasant landholder in the Commune of the Badia of Settimo near Florence, and was born in 1420. lake other distinguished painters of those times, he began life as a worker in metal, and his name is found amongst the artificers who assisted Ghiberti in making the renowned gates for the Baptistery at Florence. Abandoning this branch of art, he entered the school of Fra Angelica, and, with other pupils, followed his master to Eome. He appears to have been employed there in painting frescoes in the Cesarini Chapel in the chiu-ch of the Araceli, and, sub- sequently, with the Frate, in decorating the chapel in the Vatican. In 1447 he accompanied his master to Orvieto, where, as we have already stated, he worked under Fra Angelica in painting the vault of the chapel of the Madonna di S. Brizio in the Cathedral ; the frescoes in three of the compartments being attributed to the pupil's hand. These, and others of his early works, are entirely in the manner of his master. But later he presents the greatest contrast to Fra Angelico, for of all the Florentine painters, he is precisely the one who seems to have been first smitten with the beauty of the natui-al world and its various appearances. His pictures overflow with the delighted sense of this beauty. He was the first to create rich landscape backgroimds, with cities, villas, and trees, rivers and richly- cultivated valleys, bold rocks and hills — treated, however, in a more or less conventional manner, and wanting in that true poetic feeling for nature which distinguishes the works of Piero di Cosimo. He enlivens his landscapes most agreeably with animals of all kinds, such as dogs, hares, and deer, and with large and small birds, which are introduced Raffaello tie' Carli,' and ' Catalogo della Galleria dd Principi Corsiiii (1880), by Ulderigo Medici ; ,-v ^-.«r M. fe ,-■.-' '''V 0:,-0 'f '■^^^^^rr. '11 ■w rlfi'u!;' ^^^/J'^r .-*^ '^PS^i-sS — '('« l/fl Xi' li": Chap, v.] COSIMO KOSSELLl. 167 entirely disappeared. The frescoes, and an Annuncia- tion on panel, in the Portogallo Chapel in the church of S. Miniato, above Florence, are better preserved, and are among his best works. They are wrongly ascribed to Piero del Pollajuolo.* A much injured picture by Baldo- vinetti — a Virgin and Child with six saints — is in the Uffizi. He was a painter of inferior merit, and his works are weak and dry, with angular draperies. His portrait painted in fresco, now in the possession of Signer Morelli, was removed from the wall of the choir of the church of S. Trinitii, Florence, when the frescoes that he executed there were destroyed in the last centuiy. He worked in mosaic, and, according to Vasari, taught the art to Domenico Ghir- landajo. He died in 1499. Another Florentine employed under Sandro Botticelli on the walls of the Sistine Chapel was Cosimo Bosselli, whose family for three generations had followed the profession of the arts. He was born in 1439, and became assistant to Neri de' Bicci, a master not calculated to develop talent. His best work is a large fresco f in a very dark chapel in S. Ambrogio, at Florence, painted in 1486 ; it represents the removal of a miraculous sacramental cup from the church to the bishop's palace. Here, as already remarked in the instance of Masaccio, the greater part of the com- position consists of mere spectators ; among w horn we find pleasing female and dignified male figures. The costiune, which is that of the time, is finished with remarkable precision. There is also a good fresco by him, with strong energetic heads, in the vestibule of the church of the Annunziata, Florence, representing the vision of S. Philip Benizzi — the first of the series completed by Andrea del Sarto. Among BosseWs best pictui-es may be mentioned a Coronation of the Virgin, in S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, at Florence, and an excellent altar-piece in S. Ambrogio — the Assumption of the Madonna, with angels and sainis at her feet. Of his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the Sermon on the Moimt (see woodcut) is the most successful. The * Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 351, note. t Enoraved in Lasinio's Collection from the old Florentine mastera. 168 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. landscape, and perhaps other parts, are by his pupil, Piero di Cosimo. The three others, the Passage of the Eed Sea, Moses Delivering the Tables of the Law, and the Last Supper, are tame and devoid of interest. He died in 1507. His will contradicts Vasari's assertion that the pursuit of alchemy had ruined him, for it proves him to have been in good circumstances. Piero di Cosimo, a painter not sufficiently appreciated, but of striking originality, and of a strong individual character (b. 1462, d. 1521), was the scholar of Cosimo BosselU, after whom he was called. Although he lived till 1521, and may in the latter part of his life have been influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, in his style of conception he belongs to the fifteenth century, and may, therefore, be properly noticed here. His principal works are in Florence. The marriage of St. Catherine, an altar-piece executed by him for the church of the Foundling Hospital (Innocenti), and now in the board-room of that Institution, is an excel- lent Avork with finely modeled, expressive heads, and a beautiful landscape background, subdued, but rich, in colour. The expression of the Virgin tenderly looking upon the Child on her knee, who is turning to St. Catherine, is especially chai-ming. The ' Conception,' with six saints, in the Uffizi, " is remarkably solid in composition and character, and really a model picture of the school." * A striking and very original representation of the Virgin and Child in the Louvre, known as the ' Vierge au pigeon ' (No. 497), has been attributed to him ; as also a fine " tondo," with a holy family, in the Dresden Gallery, there assigned to Luca Si(jnorelli, and a similar " tondo " in the Borghese Gallery, Eome, attributed to Baphael. Piero di Cosimo is described as a man of strange habits, fonder of mythological than of theological subjects. Of the former there are three pictiires in the Uffizi, with the history of Perseus, full of fancy and of the brightest coloiu-— the best of the three being the delivery of Andromeda, with a delightful landscape. His death of Procris in the National Gallery is perhaps the most beautiful of his works, and has * Burckhardt's * Cicerone,' p. 64. Chai-.V.] DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO. 169 an idyllic character of indescribable cliarm. A somewhat similar but inferior work — a recumbent Venus playing with Cupid and a sleeping Mars — is in the Berlin Museum. He excelled in landscape, which he was the first of the Florentine painters to treat with a true, and at tlie same time poetic, feeling for nature, giving it prominence in his pictures. We have already mentioned him as the author of the landscape bachground in Cosimo Bossellts fresco of the Sermon on the Mount in the Sistine Chapel. Piero di Cosimo also enjoyed considerable reputation as a portrait painter. The fine portrait of a warrior, believed to be the Florentine General, Francesco Ferrucci, in the National Gallery (there attributed to Lorenzo Costa), is by him.* In the gallery at the Hague that of Francesco da San Gallo is by his hand. He was the inventor of the strange masque called the " Triumph of Death," which became the fashion in the Carnival at Florence. He painted chiefly in tempera, obtaining in that material an extraordinary brilliancy, as well as transparency, of colour. We have next to notice a painter whose name is one of the great landmarks in the history of Florentine art, and who carried to perfection what 3IasoUno and Masaccio had conceived and begim. Domenico Bigordi, called Ghirlandajo,^ was born in 1449. His father was a silk-broker. In a document preserved in the Archives at Florence he describes himself as such, and states that he has two sons, Domenico and Davide, who, although painters by profession, were working with a goldsmith and jeweller. Their master probably manufactured the garlands which were so much in favour with the Florentine women, and the young men coming from his shop w ere consequently called " del Ghir- landajo."! Domenico early showed his talent for painting in * See Signer Frizzoni, who has restored to Piero di Cosimo pictures passing under other names iu various collections, in • L' Arte Italiana nella Galleria Nazionale di Londra,' p. 10, &c. ■f In the re2;istry of his death he is named 'Domenicho di Tommaso di Churrado Bighordi, called del Grillandajo,' — for Ghirlandajo, iu the Florentine dialect. X This account of Ghirlandajd's parentage was communicated to the editor by Signor Milancsi, the sub-director of the Florentine Archives and the learned author of the notes in the last edition of Vasari's I-iv-s. It has 170 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. the striking likenesses he drew of the passers-by, whilst with the goldsmith. His first teacher was either Cosimo Bosselli or Alcsso Baldovinetti. The direction which Art had now taken was carried to a perfection of a peculiar kind by Domenico GMrlandajo. The aim of the artist in this instance was no longer external form for itself, no longer a beautiful and true imitation of the circumstances of nature in the abstract. It was a predilection for particular forms, for particular circumstances, and especially for grand and important relations of life ; for the glory and dignity of his native city, which, as we have before remarked, had attained at that time the zenith of her greatness. Tha portrait, in the largest signification of the word, is the prominent characteristic in the productions of Ghirlandajo. Thus, above all, we find the motive — which in earlier masters appeared more the result of accidental observation — in him completely and consistently followed out. He introduced portraits of contemporaries into his historical representations, thus raising to them an honourable memorial ; not, however, portraying them as the holy personages themselves, as was the practice among the painters of the Netherlands, and in Germany. Simple and tranquil, in the costume of their time, they stand by, as spectators, or rather witnesses, of the holy incident represented, and frequently occupy the principal places in the picture. They are generally arranged somewhat symmetrically in detached groups, thus giving to the whole a peculiarly solemn efiect. In their relation to the actual subject of the picture they may be compared with the chorus of the Greek tragedy. GMrlandajo, again, usually places the scene of the sacred event in the domestic and citizen life of the time, and introduces, with the real costume of the spectators, the architecture of Florence in the richest display and in complete perspective, without degenerating into those fantastic combinations which we find in Benozzo Gozzoli. The saints also retain their well-known ideal drapery, not without reminiscences of the style of the hitherto been assumed that his father was a goldsmith and manufacturet of garlands, and that hence his name. ^^ )' \ (^ ■^ Mf 0. Chap, v.] DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO. 171 foiirteentli century. A third element is, moreover, apparent in GMrlandajo's works, derived from a particular study of antique motives of a light and animated kind, and especially of antique drapery. This study is to be traced in accessory female figiu'es. In the execution of the details a certain degree of severity is still observable, especially in the out- lines ; it can scarcely, however, bo called a defect. The forms are perfectly well imitated, and the peculiarities of nature successfully caught. In the technical management of fresco Ghirlandajo exhibits an unsurpassed finish, and worked in it with extraordinary facility. He is said to have ex- pressed a wish that he might be allowed to paint in fresco the whole of the walls which enclosed the city of Florence. In 1475, when twenty-six years of age, Domenico Ghir- landajo was invited to Eome, with his brother Davide, to paint in the Sistine Chapel and in the Library of the Vatican. He must at that time have already acquired con- siderable reputation in his native city to have obtained this commission ; but none of the works which he executed in Florence before this date are now known.* The subject allotted to him in the Sistine Chapel was the ' Calling of Peter and Andrew,' and he may be said, by the general advance of the qualities of composition and expression, to take precedence of his fellow -labourers on the same walls (see woodcut). The influence of Masaccio is evident in the arrangement of the figures and in the noble individuality of each head, many of which represent portraits of con- temporaries who contemplate the scene with solemn interest, and are introduced to give richness and reality to the com- position, not as actors in the event. The Eesurrection, which Ghirlandajo painted to the right of the entrance, has been so greatly injured and so badly repainted that it can scarcely now be considered his work. He seems to have done but little in the Vatican Library, his paintings theio being completed by his brother Davide. He appears also to * Domenico GMrlandajo's employment in the Sistine Chapel has hitherto been assigned to a later date ; but Signer Milanesi has now shown that it was in 1475. (See his note in Sansoni's Vasari, vol. iii., p. 209.) We are indebted to this gentleman for the arrangement in the text in tJieir chronological order of other works by the painter. S 2 172 THE FLOKENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. have been employed at Rome in decorating in fresco the space above the tomb of the Tornabuoni family in the church of the Minerva. In 1476-77 we find him ag^in in Tuscany, at Passignano — where he painted a Last Supper — and else- where. In 1480 he undertook the frescoes in the Ves- pucci chapel in the Oguissanti at Florence, where the portrait of Amerigo Vespucci is reported to have been intro- duced, and which were covered with whitewash in 1616. Two other works by him, however, bearing this date, are preserved in the same chui'ch and in the adjoining convent. The subject of the one — St. Jerome, a fresco on the left of the nave — is a grand and severe figure seated at a desk, and surrounded with a variety of objects of still life, from a Florence flask to his cardinal's hat (see woodcut). The other work is a Last Supper in the Eefectory, treated in the traditional form with Judas seated alone on the nearer side of the table.* An effort at that variety of expression which culminated in Leonardo da Vinci, is here seen. But these works are far from displaying the excellence he afterwards attained. Domenico is next studied in the frescoes of the Sala del Orologio, since called the Sala dei Gigli, in the Palazzo Vecchio, began in 1481, and finished in 1485. They consist of a grand and very elaborate design in the renaissance or revived classic style, with the figure of S. Zenobio, a patron saint of Florence, enthroned, with two other Saints, all larger than life. In the background are seen the Duomo, the Campanile, and the Baptistery. Two lions in chiarosciu'O bear the armorial standards of the city. Above, also in chiaroscuro, are six single figures of ilhistrious characters from Roman history, and a lunette with the Virgin and Child of a beauty and grace seldom seen in Ghirlandajo's Holy Families. The whole composition is strictly architectural and decorative.| This is one of the wall-paintings still surviving in a hall which the chief painters of the day, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, and Perugino contributed to adorn. • Published in cliromo-lithography by the Arundel Society. t .See ' Domenico Ghjrlandajo,' by the eilitor, printed for the Arundel Society. ST. JEKU.ME; a fitsco hy l>. GbirlauJajo, iu tlic Oguissauti, Floieuue. p. 17a. e o C ts E-i Chap, v.] DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO. 173 At tlie close of 1485 GMrlandajo completed tlie frescoes rejiresentiiig tlie history of St. Francis, in tlie Sassetti cLaj^el in the church of the Trinita (Florence) — works in which all his varied powers attained niatiirity. In the abundant incidents and characters which this subject afforded, tlie noblest realism combined with inimitable dignity supplies the place of the ideal. GMrlandajo in fresco, as Mozart in music, is always within the range of human sympathies ; both masters elevating their art to its highest exercise by means of exquisite feeling and profound science. Here again contem- porary portraits appear : that of Lorenzo de' Medici, with others, in the subject of St. Francis j)resenting his rules to Pope Honorius III. ; the master's own, in cap and mantle, in the picture of the Miracle of a Child of the Spini Family restored to life. Both these frescoes are of the utmost beauty ; and the last-mentioned contains one of those groups of high-born women, redolent with staid modesty, in which GMrlandajo stands unrivalled. But the fresco of the death of the Saint is the most remarkable of the series. The simple, solemn arrangement of the whole ; the artless, unaffected dignity of the single figures ; the noble, manly expression of sorrowing sympathy ; the perfection of the execution ; combine to place this jjicture among the most exquisite examples of Italian art.* Our woodcut tells the tale better than any description. A writer dwelling on the intense grief of the brethren environing the body, and on the more sober sorrow of those farther off. calls attention to the satire conveyed in the figures of the Bishop and his attendants, who are cold and indifferent to what is passing while they mechanically repeat the prayers for the occasion.f For the * GMrlandajo' s paintings in S. Trinita and S. Maria Novella are en- S^raved in Lasinio's collection of the works of early Florentine masters. The fresco of the death of the Saint, with two of the principal heads of the size of the original, have been produced in chromo-lithogiaphy by the Arundel Society. t Notice of GMrlandajo hj the Editor, published by the Arundel Society. While admiring the simplicity and nature displayed in the Death of St. Francis, the writer points out that the composition is strictly imitated fiom one of the same subject by Giotto. This may be seen in the Bardi chapel of S. Croce, recently freed from its whitewash. Not only the general arrangement is the same, but the groups, right and left, are literally repeated, though with greater life and truth. This 174 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. rest, the paintings in this chapel are not all of equal merit ; in those on the left wall particularly the assistance of scholars is very evident. Ghirlandajo had scarcely completed this great undertaking when he was engaged to cover the choir of S. Maria Novella with a new series of frescoes in place of the damaged works, already mentioned, by Orcagna. The very wealth and perfection with which he endowed these since-neglected walls forbid all attempt at description. The chief subjects are from the life of the Virgin and that of the Baptist, rendered in every form of beauty, dignity, and expression. The most interesting of the series are those in the lower courses nearest the eye. Our woodcut gives an idea of the graceful nature of the groups and of the grandeur of the background in the Birth of the Virgin. This great work was executed for the Tornabuoni and Tornaquinci families, and no less than twenty-one portraits, including that of the beautiful Ginevra de' Benci, with several from the Medici, Sassetti, and other families, are introduced. It was completed in 1490 and is inscribed with his family name Bigordi. Whilst executing these frescoes in S. Maria Novella, he painted in 1487, in the chapel of S. Fina, in the collegiate church of S. Gemignano, the death of the Saint, a work of great beauty worthy of his hand. In the decoration of this chapel he was assisted by his brother-in-law, Bastiano Mainardi. The peculiar beauties of Ghirlandajo s style are not so much developed in his easel pictui-es, which cannot, in general, lay claim to equal merit with his frescoes. He disturbs us frequently in them by a certain gaudiness, and especially by an inharmonious red. Among them, however, we find some very distinguished exceptions, especially at Florence. In the church of the Innocent! (attached to the Foundling Hospital) is a beautiful Adoration of the Kings, dated 1488, in which appear some excellent heads from nature, especially among the accessory figures, and a charming adoption of a successful type is as old as the Greek sculptors, and only reflects honour on the artist who could openly clothe a great forerunner's ideas in the garb of a more advanced art. Chap. V.] DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO. 175 landscape background. It has been over-cleaned and, the glazings having been removed, looks raw. Another Adoration (a circular picture) of the preceding year is in the gallery of the Uffizi. Two admirable pictui-es by him are in the Florentine Academy, both remarkable for very sweet and graceful Madonnas. The one, of the year 1485, is the well-known Adoration of the Shepherds, where an antique sarcophagus serves as a crib. An excellent Visitation, 1491, is in the Louvre; a Madonna in a nimbus, with four Saints and a kneeling St. Jerome of especial grandeur of form and expression, in the Berlin Museum. An altar-j)iece in the Sacristy of the Duomo at Lucca is another very fine example of the master. It represents the Virgin and Child with several saints, and has a beautiful predella, divided into seven compartments, with niunerous small figures. The head of an old man with a bottle-nose in the Louvre is a clever, though far from attractive portrait, showing his skill in that branch of his art. He is not represented in the National Gallery. Ghirlandajo was a very able worker in mosaic. An Annunciation which he executed in this material in a lunette over one of the entrances to the Duomo at Florence, is, from the skilful arrangement of the tesserai and the brilliancy of its colours, one of the finest sjjecimens of the art. He was wont to declare that true painting for eternity was mosaic. The death of Ghirlandajo from the plague occurred in 1494. He was bui-ied in the church of S. Maria Novella, in which his finest works serve for his monument. His brothers, Davide and Benedetto, imitated his manner and assisted him in his labours. The former, as we have seen, was with him at Rome, when he was painting in the Sistine chapel. By Benedetto there is a very indifiereut picture — Christ on the way to Calvary — in the Louvre. It is probable that many inferior paintings in public and private galleries attributed to the master are by one of the brothers. Bastiano Mainardi, who died in 1513, if not equal to his brother-in-law in the management of colour and in modeling, is peculiarly happy in his delicate conception of 176 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. character, as seen in the figures of various saints which he executed. His best works are those in the chapel of S. Fina, to which we have already referred. Others are to be found in the churches of S. Gemignano (his birthplace) and in that of S. Croce and others at Florence. There is a Virgin and Child by him in the Louvre. Francesco Granacci (1477-1543), also one of the scholars of Domenico GMrlandajo, unites with his master's style a lighter grace, without, however, attaining the same life and energy. There are good works by him in the Pitti and Uffizi Galleries at Florence ; and in the Academy of Fine Arts, where a series of small pictures, representing the Martyrdom of S. Apollonia, may be particularly noted. Others are in the Berlin Museum. An altar-piece by him, representing St. Thomas receiving the girdle of the Virgin, painted for the Eucellai family, was in the possession of the late Earl Somers. At a later time Granacci inclined more to the manner of his great contemporary, Michael Angela Buonarroti, who, as well as Domenico''^ son, Bidolfo Gliirlandajo, belongs to a succeeding period. Pictures by various masters of this school are in the transept of S. Spirito at Florence. We now turn to the third division of the Florentine school, directly produced by the influence and efforts of the sculptors. We have seen that the representation of the nude had been more particularly attempted by Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno ; and there is no doubt that the develoj)ment of this power was materially assisted by the practice of the plastic arts which in Italy considerably preceded that of painting. This was a time when individuals dealt often in a plui'ality of arts — that of the goldsmith, the bronze-caster, the sculptor, and the painter being in many instances carried on together. It may be doubted, considering the length of art and brevity of life, whether this practice was beneficial ; but there is no question that the accuracy of modeling required in plastic workmanship acted favourably on certain painters. The brothers Pollajiioli — Antonio and Pietro — were artists of this multiform class, born severally in 1429 and ? 1443. Their father was a goldsmith, and Antonio was apprenticed to him, and became eminent in an art which, in a luxurious Chap, v.] THE POLLAJUOLI. 177 and wealthy age, included every form of costly ornament, equally in relief and in the round, in gold, silver, and bronze, from a lady's jewel to the design for a crucifix or an altar chasse. He is even recorded to have rivalled Maso Finigiierra in niello-work. In these forms Antonio soon showed great mastery over design, with a deeper study of anatomy than had hitherto characterised this class of work- manship, and became the first draughtsman of his time. The brothers are recorded by Vasari as the first artists who practised dissection, while their knowledge of the recently- discovered examples of antique sculpture is also evident. In the form of pictorial art they display accordingly these combined influences. This is seen in the small pictures in the Uffizi — Hercules strangling Antaeus, and overcoming the Hydra — in which a severe simplicity and the angularity incidental to a worker in metals are obvious. In considering these pictorial efibrts, it is difiicult to distinguish one brother from the other. Pietro is known to have been the scholar of Andrea del Castagno ; * Antonio would seem (in painting) to have been self-taught, but was by far the most gifted artist of the two. Their style partakes of the nature ol l^lastic imitation, abounding in ornament and architecture, with much gaiety of colour. The figure of Prudence, originally one of the Virtues painted by Pietro Pollajuolo for the Mercatanzia (at Florence), and the thi-ee male Saints executed by the two brothers, for S. Miniato al Monte, now in the Uffizi, are illustrations of their style. An extreme example of the influence of the jeweller's art is the Annunciation at Berlin, where an exuberance of orna- ment produces the effect of a piece of tarsia. But the chief distinction of the PollajuoU is that they first departed from the use of tempera — the vehicle of all the painters we have hitherto described — and first availed themselves of oil mediums. The chef-d'oeuvre of the brothers is the large Martyrdom of St. Sebastian in the National Gallery, where * Signer Morelli believes that Alesso Baldovinetti may have been his first master. For an analysis of the manner of the PollajuoU, and an account of theiv works, see ' Italian Masters in German Galleries,' p. 351- 353. 178 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V the fine treatment of the archers and the minute rendering of the backgroimd seem to unite the Italian and Flemish manner (see woodcut). This picture has been considered one of the first in Italy painted in oil ; but, however removed from tempera, the real character of the vehicle used in this altar-piece is still uncertain, being, at all events, not that of the Van Eychs. Pietro PoUajuolo has left his only- signed work— a Coronation of the Virgin — in the Pieve of S. Gemignano. Pietro died before 1496 ; Antonio in 1498. There is a fine portrait of Antonio by himself in the Torregiani collection at Florence. The coui'se of Andrea VeroccMo, born in Florence, 1435, resembles that of the Pollajuoli. According to Vasari he was " a goldsmith, a teacher of perspective, a sculptor, a carver, a painter, and a musician ;" a catalogue of gifts which link him with Leonardo da Vinci. His Colleoni monument at Venice places him on a higher pedestal than the Pollajuoli attained, showing a combination of science and art worthy to be carried forward by his great scholar. The drawings attributed to VeroccMo are difficult to distinguish from those of Lorenzo di Credi and Leonardo da Vinci, but the style, at all events, was original in VeroccMo. He appears to have made a large nimiber of designs for others to execute. As a painter, the same difficulty occurs to define what was really by his hand. The only certain example is the well- known Baptism in the Accademia at Florence (see woodcut), the foremost angel in which is recorded to have been painted after VeroccMo's design by Leonardo da Vinci. An altar- piece attributed to him— a Virgin and Child with Saints, said to be the one painted for the Church of S. Domenico, mentioned by Vasari — was sold some years ago at Florence, and is in private possession in Scotland. VeroccMo died in 1488, leaving unfinished the equestrian statue of Colleoni. There are two pictures in the National Gallery, assigned there to Antonio PoUajuolo but which are more probably the work of an excellen painter coming from the atelier of VeroccMo, who has not yet been identified with any well- known master of the time. One of these pictures, at one time attributed to GMrlandajo, is the Virgin adoring the MAKTYRDOJM OF ST. SEBASTIAN; by Antonio nnd Pietro PoUajuolo, National Gallery. p. 178. T 15APTISM OF CHRIST ; by Andrea del Veroccliio, in the Accademia, Florence. p. ITS T 2 Chap, v.] LORENZO DI CREDI. 179 Infant Christ, and two Angels — a work of tlie most attrac- tive character from its careful finish, its rich ami trans- parent colour, and its great beauty of expression. The minute execution of the details, especially in the ornaments, would aj)ijear to denote the hand of an artist who had practised the goldsmith's or jeweller's art. The second picture, evidently by the same master as the one just de- scribed, represents the Angel with Tobias (No. 781). By this unknown, but very able j)ainter, other pictui-es, recog- nisable by their peculiar style, are to be fomid under different names in various collections. Lorenzo Sciarpclloni, commonly called Lorenzo di Credi — whose family name appears to have been Barducci — was born in 14:59 and died in 1637. He was apprenticed to Veroccliio* who counted among his puj)ils Leonardo da Vinci and Pieiro Perugino. His subjects are generally limited to Holy Families, with gentle and contemplative Saints, and fine architectural backgrounds. His pictures are much esteemed and sought after by connoisseurs ; but spurious examples passing under his name are not uncommon. One of his most important works is the Virgin and Child enthroned, with SS. Julian and Nicholas, in the Louvre— of great simplicity, with finely modeled heads of striking expression. Another of similar importance, and of his early youth — a Virgin and Child with the Baptist and S. Zeuone — is in the Pappa-Galla chapel in the Duomo at Pistoja. Two attractive pictui-es by him — each a Nativity— are in the Ufiizi. The Berlin Museum is rich in his works. St. Mary Egyptica, worn and aged, to whom an angel is bringing the sacred cup, in that Gallery, is an instance of his rare departure from the circle of tranquil Madonnas. A small picture in the Louvre — Chi-ist appearing to Mary Magdalen — is re- markable for beauty of colour and refined sentiment. A ' Nativity,' with the Virgin and two angels adoring the Infant Christ and other figures, in the Florence Academy, * Lorenzo di Credi, Vihosc full name was " Lorenzo d' Andrea d'Oderijo Barducci," is sometimes stated to have been apprenticed to a goldsmith of the name of Clone. The explanation is that Ciotie was the patronymic of his mastei- Verocchio, who was a goldsmith as well as a painter. 180 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. is a good examj)le of the master ; but with an indifferent ]andscaj)e back-ground (see woodcut). Lorenzo fJi Credi is a painter in oil of light and cheerful colours, and of exquisite execution and finish. He is said by Vasari to have set his palette with numerous and most caieful gradations of tints, and to have used a separate brush for each. The clearness of his colours corroborates the story. The type of his Virgins is gentle and unmeaning, and his children are too often taken from an ungraceful model, with large body, short neck, puffy limbs, and double chin. He was a follower of Savonarola, and was noted for his pure and affectionate nature and for his integrity. Much stress has been laid ui)on his friendshii) for Leonardo da Vinci; but authentic documents speak more of his attach- ment for Verocchio, of whom he was the trusted friend, and whose much-restored portrait in the Uffizi he may have painted. On his master's absence in Venice for the pm'pose of modelling the famous Colleoni equestrian statue, Lorenzo took charge of his atelier, with all its contents; and on VeroceJiio's death in that city — from over-fatigue, as it is reported — hastened thither and brought back his remains. Verocchio appointed Lorenzo in his will to complete the statue ujion which he was engaged at the time of his death. Early pictures by Lorenzo di Credi have been attributed to Leonardo, as one in the Borghese Gallery, which was even described by Vasari as a work by Da Vinci ; but the later-fonned tyj)es of each are perfectly distinct.* He never approached the dignity and grandeur of that great master. His w'orks are numerous and monotonous. Being a jjainter of minute finish, he filled his smaller works — such as the beautiful examples in the Uffizi — better than those on a larger scale. He is not adequately represented in the two jnctures attributed to him in the National Gallery. Giovanni Antonio Sogliani (1492-1544) was the scholar and imitator of Lorenzo di Credi. He was a painter of but small originality, and frequently imitated Fra Bartohmmeo, * On the other hand, ;in Annunciation in the Louvre (No. 158), a small jiicture of great beauty attributed to Lorenzo di Credi, has been assigned bj Signor Morelii to Leonardo. ''%^->ifcfe,4AVfe-;:»-^ifeF:i;mmt THE NATI\ITY ; ;iu altar-piece by Lorenzo di Crcdi, in the Academy of Arts at Florence. p. 180. Chap. V.] LUOA SIGNOKELLI. 181 as in an altar-piece of the Miraculous Conception, with numerous Saints, in the collection of pictures from the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, at Florence. In the series of subjects behind the high-altar in the Duomo at Pisa ho worked with Andrea del Sarto and Bazzi, and an altar-piece in the same church commenced by Andrea was finished by him. At Florence there are several of his Madonnas of a pleasing character in the Academy of Fine Arts, and a St. Catherine inscribed with his Christian name in the Torr giani collectiou. The improvement in modeling and di-a wing contingent on the study of anatomy and practice of sculptiu'e, brings us to another great name in the Tusctin school, associated with a daring vigour, and sometimes an ungenial coarseness, over- stej)ping the bounds of nature. Luca Signorelii, otherwise called Luca da Cortona, whose proper name is Luca d' Egidio di Ventura., was born at Cortona — it is believed in 14:41 — and was apprenticed to Pietro della Franccsca. Little is known of his early life. He is recorded to have painted in Cortona in 1470, in Arezzo in 1472, and in Citta di Castello in 1474. In 1484 he was again in Cortona — where he made his home, and which still retains a few of his works in churches and private houses. A Deposition from the Cross and a Last Supper are in the Cathedi'al of that town. These are both fine examjiles, especially the Deposi- tion, which has a grace and a grand style of colouring, anticij)ating Sebastian del Piomho in this respect, as he also sometimes anticipated Michael Angela in energy and grandeiu- of composition. In the ' Confraternita of S. Niccolo ' there is an altar-piece with an Entombment on one side and the Virgin and Child and Saints on the other by him. A fresco by Luca in the same building was imcovered some years ago from whitewash. From Cortona Luca Signorelii doubtless sujiplied several of the neighboui-ing cities with his works, which are still found in Citta di Castello, Urbino, Borgo S. Sepolcro, and Perugia. In the public Gallery of the first-named town is a fine Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, with mmaerous figures, one of which, an archer, was copied by llapliael in u 182 THE FLOJIENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. drawing now at Lille, and by PinturiccJiio. The altar-piece by him in the chapel of S. Onofrio, in the cathedral of Perugia (painted in 1484) — a Madonna enthroned with Saints, and an angel playing on a musical instrument — combines in some portions a very harsh naturalism, as in the figure of S. Onofrio, and very defective drawing, as in the angel, with a rich glow of colour. In the public Gallery of Perugia there is also an early work by him, the Virgin in glory with Saints and angels, in a very damaged condition, but showing a strong, vigorous hand and much beauty in parts, as in the St. Sebastian and some of the angels. He also laboured at Siena, decorating the Pctrucci Palace with frescoes of profane subjects, both mythological and historical;* and, assisted by his pupil Girolamo Genga, executed in the Convent of Mont' Oliveto, near that city, the grand series of frescoes illustrating the life of St. Benedict, which are full of his energy and fancy, though now too much injured to be done justice to. In Volterra important altar-pieces by his hand still remain. One in the church of S. Francesco — the Virgin and Child enthroned, with SS. Augustin and Jerome seated below — is signed and dated 1491. An Annunciation in the Duomo is in better preservation and finely coloured. One of SignoreUis finest works is an altar-piece now in the pi'.blic Gallery of Arezzo. It represents the Virgin in Glory with numerous Saints beneath, among them David playing on the harp — a figure grandly conceived and full of inspiration. The heads are finely modeled, and some are of great beauty. The kneeling figure of the Donor, one Gamorino, is an excellent portrait. A holy Bishop raises a glass vase, from which, although broken, the blood of the Eucharist does not flow — the Child, holds in one of its hands the piece of broken glass. A Crucifixion, in the Florence Academy, attributed to Signorelli is more probably by a scholar from a cartoon by * One of these frescoes, representiug the Triumph of Chastity, trans- ferred to canvas, is ia the National Gallery. It is, however, more probably by Girolamo Gcnga, who worked with Luca Signorelli at Sieua, than by the master himself. Chap, v.] LUCA SIGNOEELLI. 18S him — althongh somewliat cold in colour, it is Avondcifully grand and imjiressivc and full of energy. The droojnng head of the Saviour is majestic, and, at the same time, decjily pathetic. The action of the despairing Magdalen at the foot of the Cross is finely conceived, and true to nature. But Signorellts chief fame rests on his frescoes at Orvieto, where, by a strange destiny, he was appointed to continue the labours of a painter the furthest possible opjiosed to himself in manner and character. The authorities of the cathedral of Orvieto, after waiting nine years for Perugino, at length engaged Luca SignorelU to carry on the fresco of the Last Judgment in the chapel of S. Brizio which Fra Angelico had commenced.* The j)ious Frate had executed the solemn and quiescent part of the composition — namely, the figure of our Lord, and the attendant hierarchy of Saints and angels — and Benozzo Gozzoli had painted the apostles and martyrs. It was now reserved for the fiery Luca to add the great di'amatic scene below, including the history of Antichrist.f He therefore completed the work, not, it is * Eugravings in Delia Valle, " Storia del Duomo d' Orvieto," Jionia, 1791 Ottley, pi. 52 to 54. f The usual Biblical and theological subjects which appear to have been authorized during the middle ages were adopted by the great paiuters, with no other change than that of superior treatment. These illustrations existed originally in illuminated MSS. ; and when wood- engraving was invented, the same subjects, and sometimes precisely the same designs, were repeated. The wild mystery called the History of Antichrist may perhaps be less early ; ov, being probably of Byzantine origin, may have been less known among the Italian and German painters than the usual Scriptural and legendary subjects. The block-book, ' Der Entkrist,' printed about 1470, was not however the first that added this series of representations to those in general use, since a similar work, the 'Historia Sancti Johannis Evaugelista2, ejusque visiones Apocalyptica;,' appeared more than twenty years earlier. Licca SignorelU appears to have adopted his general inventions at Orvieto (the frescoes were begun in 1499) from these or similar sources. A sulRcieut proof may be found in the fact that the remarkable fable of the beheading of Elijah and Enoch in both the illustrations alluded to (apparently suggested by a passage in the Apocalypse, xi. 7) also occurs in Signorelli's principal fresco, and this is but one among many points of resemblance. The German author, or artist, constantly refers to a ' Compendium Theologite ' (" davon steht audi geschrieben in dem Buch Compendio Theologie "), a book or MS. probably in the hands of most monks of the fifteenth century. See also the rubric ' De Adventu Domini,' in the Aurea Legenda. — C. L. E. The most im- portant of Signorelli's frescoes at Orvieto — the ' Resurrection ' — has beeu copied for the Arundel Society. 184 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V. true, in tlie sense in whicli Fra Anrjclko had begun it, but witb a grandeur which, excepting Leonardo da Vinci, no master partaking of the realistic tendency of the fifteenth century has sui-passed. On the two side walls are repre- sented the history of Antichrist, with figures full of character, the Eesurrection, Hell, and Paradise ; on either side of the entrance, the end of the world— the sun and moon darkened, the stars falling from the sky, the temples overturned, and mankind destroyed by fire. The rising of the Blessed and of the Wicked complete the series. All these compositions are replete with meaning, action, and expression. In those representing the Eesurrection, Hell, and Paradise, he has introduced a vast number of naked figures. A severe, but perfect and noble, drawing of the nude is observable in these Avorks; and a number of positions in the figures, never attempted in art before, are introduced with careful study and success (see woodcuts). "With the highest develop- ment also of plastic power, the anxious striving for mere anatomical correctness is no longer apparent, but gives place to a peculiar grandeur and elevation stamped alike on scenes of tranquillity and beatitude, and on representa- tions of vehement and fantastic action. We are in every way reminded of the style of Michael Angela, of whom Luca was the immediate predecessor, if not the contemporary. Here is the same subordination of the merely accidental to the living majesty of the pm-ely human form, only, it is true, not conceived with Michael Angela's almost superhuman grandeiu'. In di-apery also Luca exhibits elevated feeling, and in his single figures a happy imitation of the antique. The lower part of the walls is occupied with " tondi " repre- senting, in chiaroscuro, scenes from Dante's ' Divina Com- media,' and mythological subjects accompanied by portraits of those poets who have described the Lower Eegions, such as Hesiod and Virgil (in reference to the Sixth Book of the ^neid), Claudius (in reference to the Eape of Proser- pine), and Dante. They are surrounded by the most exquisite arabesque decorations, partly painted by his own hand, and partly by his pupils. In them he has shown himself a master of the decorative art. Figures from Luca Sigiiorelli's fresco of HELL, iu tlie Duomu, Orvieto. V. :84. /s?;;i THE ■' F0LMINATI." DESTRL'CTIOX OF THE WICKED ; part of a fresco by Luca Sigiiorelli in the Duomo of Orvioto. p. 184 THE PARADISE ; a fresco by Luca Siguorelli, in the Diiomo of Orvietto. 1>. 184. Chap. V.] LUCA SIGNORELLI. 185 Luca Signorelli thus inaugui-ated a new phase in the science which Paolo Uccello had practised, and led the way to the more perfect daring of Micliael Angelo. He may be con- sidered a painter strictly of the nude, always po^v■erful in anatomy and action, square and unselect in form, and aca- demical in character. It was natural that a painter of this class should find congenial subjects in the ancient literatui-e then so ardently studied in Florence, and which, as we have seen, he applied in the Petrucci Palace at Siena. A very much restored and overpainted picture, signed with his name, representing the School of Pan (see woodcut), in the Berlin Museum, shows how ardently he availed himself of the liberty which such subjects gave for the representation of the nude. The allegorical part of the pictui-e is imintelligible. In 1497 Luca Signorelli was connnissioned to paint the frescoes already mentioned in the cloister of the convent of Mont' Oliveto di Chiusuri, on the road from Siena to Rome. Although these works, which are still preserved, are inferior in importance to those he executed in the cathedral of Orvieto, they are not unworthy of his hand and show the power and vigour' of his mind. The deco- ration of the cloister was completed at a later period by Bazzi. The wall-jminting of the Journey of Moses in the Sistine chai:)el, formerly attributed to him, is certainly not his work,* and is now believed to be by Pinturicchio. The History of Moses is, however, by Signorelli. Pictures by Luca Signorelli are rare to the north of the Alps. The National Gallery has been fortunate enough to acquire two capital works by him — a ' Circmncision,' in which the Child is believed to have been painted by Bazzi (Sodoma),'\ and a ' Nativity ' (both signed), which are highly characteristic of his manner, and contain some fine heads. In the Berlin Musemn, in addition to the before-mentioned picture of the school of Pan, are two excellent wings of * Morelli's, p. 268. Burckhardt, who saw that tliis fresco could not be by Signorelli to whom it was assigned, had conjectured that it might be by Perugino. Cicerone,' p. 70. t Vasari says that Bazzi painted the Child in a fresco by Signorelli; but he appears to have been mistaken in this, as in many other instances. 186 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. [Chap. V an altar-piece, with figures of different Saints. Here Luca is seen in the strong contrasts observable in his art — in the caricatured head of the St. Jerome, and in the fine cxj)res- sion, in the manner of the Umbrian School, of the Magdalen. In addition to his larger Michael- Angelesquc peculiarities Luca may be known by the squareness of his forms in joints and extremities, by his somewhat dark and heavy tone, and by his landscape backgrounds. The master died in 1.5i23. A powerful head of an old man, such as it may be well supposed was that of the painter of the Orvieto frescoes, in the Torrigiani collection at Florence, is' said to be his portrait by himself. Another portrait in fi'esco, also believed to be by his own hand, is preserved in the small public Museum at Orvieto. The last great period of Italian miniature-painting is connected with the school of the GMrlandai. It represented no longer that feeling of devotion which exacted the utmost splendom* in the decoration of the Holy Scriptures, but rather a habit of sumptuous luxiuy, and a desire for the artistic enhancement of every object of daily life. In the gorgeous border decorations, and in the architecture of the backgroimds, now occur little genii with garlands of flowers, and figures of the gods, &c., in the most gorgeous style of antique ornament. Besides the family of the Medici, and the nimaerous ecclesiastical bodies, it was Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary, who principally patronised the Florentine miniature-painters. The best among the works still existing are attributable to one Gherardo of Florence, who had been originally ap- pointed by Lorenzo the Magnificent to decorate the cathedral with mosaics, and, for that purj)Ose, had been brought into connection with Domenico GMrlandajo. His miniatm-es com- bine the style of that master, with an incredible splendour and delicacy of execution, which, in the Bible of Mathias Corvinus (about 1490), now in the Library of the Vatican, seems to have reached the utmost possible perfection. Various books illuminated by Gherardo are said to be in the archives of the parish hosjiital of St. Gilio, in Florence ; a missal of 1494 is in the Laurentian Library ; an illu- Altar-piece by Guido da t^ieua. iii the Church of ti. Domeuicu, Siena. p. IB". Chap. VI.] GUIDO DA SIENA. 187 minated missal, also executed for the King of Hungary by anotlier Florentine, Attavante by name, is in the library of the Dukes of Burgimdy at Brussels ; a breviary belonging to the Bishop of Graan is in the Royal Library at Paris. These works are quite in the style of the Ghirlandai, and are executed in the highest decorative taste. The Urbino Bible, also in the Vatican, 1478, is obviously by some Florentine hand. In the Lauientiana Library at Florence, there are still several manuscripts of classic authors, said to have been executed by order of Lorenzo the Magnificent, containing but few miniatures, properly speaking, but on the other hand a mass of beautiful and delicate decorations.* CHAPTER VI THE SIENESE SCHOOL. In the church of S. Domenico at Siena there is an altar- piece representing the Virgin and Child, closely resembling in technical treatment and in the conception of the subject, the celebrated picture by Cimdbue in the church of S. Maria Novella at Florence. In style it is, however, strictly Byzan- tine, yet not without dignity and a peculiar naivete in the attitude of the principal figiu-e, and in the round, graceful head of the Child (see woodcut). It has been j)artly restored and painted over ; but in the angels in the upper spandrils the old execution is quite visible. An inscription upon this altar-piece states it to have been jjainted by one Guido de Senis in the year 1221. Relying upon this date, the Sienese have disputed the claim of their ancient rivals, the Florentines, to have been the regenerators of Italian art. But it is now proved that the numerals have been tampered with, and that * In the former editions of this work Don Bai'tolommeo delta Gatta was mentioned among these Florentine miniature-painters. Signer Milanesi has shown that although Vasari has given the life of a painter of thia name, he had in reality no existence ; consequently the works attributed to him at Arezzo and elsewhere are apocryphal. See in Sansonl's ed. of Vasari's works, Signor Milanesi's ' Commentary on the Life of D(m Barto- lommeo,' vol. iii. 188 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI. tlie picture was really painted in 1281, and consequently after Cimahue had founded his school and had established his rej)utation at Florence.* Several panels in the public Gallery of Siena are doubtfully assigned to this Guido. An altar-piece in the public Gallery of Perugia is inscribed with the name of Vigor oso da Siena, and the date of 1280. It is less rude and conventional than the contemporary works of Margaritone. But the true founder of the Sieuese school was Duccio di Buoninsegna, a painter who holds a high position in the annals of early Italian art. He was the son of a Sienese citizen, and was born before Giotto, probably in 1260, but died apparently some years later than his famous Florentine contemporary. He was the first great painter in Siena, and though influenced strongly by Byzantine examples, he in- fused into them a grace peculiar to himself, and which continued to be the characteristic of the Sienese school. Some of his conceptions of sacred subjects, in which he has retained the choicest traditional forms, may be said never to have been surpassed. In 1308 he undertook the execution of a large panel pictiu'e, 14 feet wide by 7 feet high, repre- senting the Virgin and Child enthroned, with ntunerous saints and angels, and with four bishops kneeling in front. This work, richly covered with ornaments in gold, was completed in 1310, and carried in pomp, like that by Cimahue, from the studio of the painter to the Cathedi'al of Siena. There it still remains, though dismembered of parts,, and sawn into two panels ; for the back as well as the front was equally the field of Duccio's labours, in a series of twenty-six scenes from the Life of our Lord.j This series are for Duccio what the chapel of the Arena at Padua is for Giotto, bearing the impress of a vigorous reform in art, and, embodying principles of dramatic action and expression which may be said to have been adopted by several generations * See Sansoui's Vasari, vol. i., p. 472, note, and p. 655, note. The inscrip- tion contains the following playful verse : "Me Guido de Senis diebus depin.xit amoenis Quern Christus lenis nuUis velil angere poenis.' t Published in outline by Dr. E. Braun, Rome, 1847. « « CIIRISTS ENTRY JNTO JERUSALEM; Coiniiartmciit from a large altar-piece liy Duocio of Siena. 11. 189. I a Chap. VI.] DUCCIO DA SIENA. 189 of liis followers. The figures are about nine inches high, and the series commences with the Entry into Jerusalem (see wooclcxit) — a composition of great animation, partaking of the character of a miniature. St. Peter denying our Lord, and Christ before Pilate, are also scenes of peculiar interest. The Crucifixion, which occupies a larger space in the centre, is remarkable for the angels which, according to early usage, surround the upper part of the cross, and by their dramatic gestures of sorrow convoy in the most touching and natural manner the fact that the Great Sacrifice was consummated. But the composition most illustrative of classic tradition, and of Duccio's application of it, is that of the Angel at the Sepulchre with the three Maries approaching (see woodcut). A work by Duccio, a Crucifixion, with other subjects, second only to the altar-jjiece at Siena, is in the collection of the late Prince Consort. A Virgin and Child with angels between St. Dominick and a female Saint, and two panels from an altar-piece, by him are in the Museum of the Cathedral at Siena ; and a small triptych with the Madonna and Infant Christ in the centre, and St. Domenick, and St. Catherine on the doors — a work of much beau.ty — and an Annunciation, and Christ healing the blind, in the National Gallery, In the Florence Academy a signed altar-piece by Duccio, is a good example of his soft, transparent colouring. Duccio' B career closes in 1339, after which no record has been discovered of him, while pictures described as by his hand have either perished, or been so entirely modernized as not to be identified. His characteristics, which the Sienese school more especially retained, were a certain grace and sweetness, a gay light colouring devoid of relief, and a feel- ing for elaborate ornament which degenerated into mere mechanical labour. Ugolino da Siena came from a family of painters. His name is attached to an altar-piece executed in the beginning of the fourteenth centiuy for S. Croce at Florence. This picture passed, after customary vicissitudes, into the Ottley collection, since disj)ersed, and portions of it are now in the National Gallery. The style of these portions forms a 190 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI. transition from the severer forms of Duccio to the softer feeling of Simone Martini. Ugolino died in 1349. Modern research has brought to light several other Ugolinos belonging to Siena. An Ugolino di Pietro painted there in 1324. Ugolino Vieri, a goldsmith, executed the silver shrine, ' del Santo Corporale in the Cathedral at Orvieto. But the one best known is Ugolino di Prete Uario, who painted the frescoes in the chapel of the S. Corporale in the same cathedral, which are signed, " Ugolinus pictor de Urbe veteris" (Orvieto), and dated 1364. In 1378 he also decorated, with the aid of other artists, the walls of the tribune and choir behind the high altar. All these works have been deprived of much of their original character by modern restoration. They are, however, interesting as showing the naturalistic tendency of their author, who has introduced various trivial incidents, such as a dog and a cat about to fly at each other, in the fresco of the Angel appearing to St. Anna ; a dog on its hind legs stealing the meat from a table, in that of the Birth of the Virgin, &c.* Segna di Buonaventura is the name of another early Sienese painter, a follower of Duccio, who adhered to the older forms without infusing into them sufficient life and originality to advance the cause of art. A picture, signed " Hoc opus pinxit Segna Senensis," in the church of Castiglione Fiorentino, not far from Arezzo, forms the principal specimen of the master. It rej)resents the Virgin and Child, with saints and angels, and four donors, the names being inscribed under each figure. Mona (Madonna) Vanna is on the left ; behind, her husband, Goro di Fino ; Mona Miglia on the right ; behind, Fino di Bonajimcta. Another inscribed picture by the master — his name being on the sword of St. Paul — is in the Sienese Academy. A Crucifixion is in the National Gallery. He painted between 1305 and 1326. One Niccolb di Segna has a signed picture of a Cruci- fixion in the Academy at Siena but he assmnes no further * The whitewash has recently been removed from some frescoes in tlie church of S. Domonico, Orvieto, dated 1330. Considering the period of their execution, they are not without merit m drawing, colour, and composition. The name of their author has not been ascertained. Chap. VI.] SIMONE MAETINI. 191 importance. By Niccolo Buonacorso, a Sienese liainter of tlie foiirfceenth century, of whose life nothing is known, there is a picture representing the marriage of the Virgin in the National Gallery. Second to Duccio, as heading the school of Siena, is Simone Martini or di Martino, born at Siena, (?) 1283. He married the daughter of &a»Memmi di Filipuccio, a painter, father of Lijypo Memmi — facts supposed to account for the name Blemmi, by which he is generally known, given him by so easily satisfied an investigator as Vasari. Nor are there any grounds for believing that he was Giotto's pupil, for which there exists no evidence either in the life or style of Simone, who was a strictly Sienese painter, formed on the manner developed by Duccio. It is woirthy of remark, that while the fame of Giotto is enshrined in the verse of Dante, that of Simone Martini receives the same tribute fi'om Petrarch,* who further pays homage to both the great painters in his letters. " I have known two painters," he writes, " talented both, and excellent, Giotto of Florence, whose fame amongst the moderns is great, and Simone of Siena." f A large and elaborate fresco in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena is known, by a partly obliterated inscrij)tion, to have been executed by Simone Martini in 1315. Under an ample and richly ornamented Baldachino, supported by eight apostles, the Virgin seated on a throne sustains the Child erect upon her knee. Four kneeling angels offer her vases of flowers, and the four patron Saints of Siena also kneel before her. Around the throne are grouped numerous angels and saints. The whole is framed by a border containing armorial bearings, in which the black and white shield of Siena is conspicuous, and medallions with half-length figures of saints holding scrolls, on which are inscriptions in praise of the Virgin. Immediately beneath the throne, also in * See 'Rime di Fr. Petrarca,' vol. i., p. 57. Milan, 1834, 12mo. Sonnets 49, 50. Notwithstanding his friendsliip for Simone, Petrarch eeems to have had a still higher admiration for Giotto ; this appears from the terms in which he bequeaths a woriv by that painter, as a valued possession, to Francesco Vecchio di Carrara, the soverei£;n of Padua. t ' Opera,' vol. ii., p. 725. Epist. 17, lib. v. X 192 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI. medallions, are seen an aged veiled woman, and a crowned maiden, one representing the old law, the other the new — the fii-st with the Decalogue, the other with the seven sacraments. Poetical legends, charming from their sim- plicity, in praise of good government, are further inscribed on the fresco.* The character of this imposing work shows that aim at grace and tenderness in the female heads which in the Sienese school was strongly contrasted with the gravity of the male heads. The action of the kneeling figures is good, the colour of the flesh warm and transparent. The execution is minute and careful, like a magnified minia- ture and the composition lacks the fine distribution of the Florentine school. Six years after its completion, eight of the heads required to be cut out and repainted, and this operation was executed by Simone himself. Many years later, in 1328, Simone painted, in the Sala del Consiglio, the equestrian figure of a military commander, which shows his power in the conception of a portrait. These are the only frescoes by him now preserved in his native city, one he executed on the Duomo and two on the Spedale having perished. -^ "~ ^ Of his panel pictures the earliest of note and the most important was painted by him, in 1320, for the high altar of the church of S. Caterina at Pisa. Portions of it are now in the Pisa Academy. Under the central group of the Virgin and Child is his signature, " Symon de Senis." The graceful and tender type of this painter, as opposed to the masculine vigour of Giotto, is peculiarly remarkable in tnis worK. Another signed picture, of about the same time, was executed for S. Domenico at Orvieto, and is now in the " Fabbrica " or Museum of the cathedral. It represents Trasmundo, Bishop of Savona, kneeling before the Virgin with attendant Saints. This was one of the few archaic pictui-es which made a journey to Paris, and was retiu-ned at the Peace. Another altar-piece, unsigned, is ascribed to the master, in the same collection. Simone is known * See Signer Milanesi's ' Commentary on the Life of Simone Martini.' Sansoni's ed. of Vasari, vol. i. Chap. VI.] SIMONE MARTINI. 193 also as the author of a much-injured picture in S. Lorenzo Maggiore at Naples, with St. Louis, Archbishop of Toulouse, crowning his kneeling brother, Eobert of Naples. But it is at Assisi that Siraone must be studied, in his frescoes, where he comes into immediate comparison with Giotto. Those in the chapel of S. Martino in the church of S. Francesco, executed for Cardinal Gentile, are now, on internal evidence, entirely assigned to his hand althougli attributed by Vasari to Puccio Capanna. Li the vaiilting of the arch by which the chapel is entered are eight saints in niches. The subjects commence on the left of the entrance in a double coui'se, and represent the history of St. Martin ; beginning with the episode of the Saint on horseback cutting off part of his garment for a beggar, and ending with his death and obsequies. These works are fine in intention, especially that of the Saint leaning his head on his hand, while a figm*e kneels before him. Above the door is seen Cardinal Gentile in frock and cowl, his cardinal's hat on a balustrade behind him. He is being raised by St. Martin from his kneeling position. Li the portrait character, and simple action of these two figiu-es Simone is seen to more advan- tage than in the greater comj)lication of the other subjects. His clear and transparent colouring is especially distinctive of the Sienese school of painting. Li 1333, Simone completed for the altar of S. Ansano, in the Duomo at Siena, the Annimciation, now preserved, though much injured, in the Uffizi. The Virgin is very tender and beautiful in expression and movement. Li the inscription, which gives the date, the name of Lippo Memmi, his brother- in-law, is added to his own.* As two hands are not dis- cernible in this picture, it is supposed that the ornamental gilded portions were the work of Lippo. It has been seen that the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisaj hitherto attributed to Simone, are by another and far inferior hand. They are shewn by records to have been conmienced thirty years after Simone's death. His alleged participation in the Cappella degli Spagnuoli, in S. Maria * It is inscribed '' Simoni. Martini . et . Lippus . Memmi . de . Seuis . me . pinxerunt.' .K 2 194 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI. Novella, Florence, is now equally disproved. He lived cMefly at Siena, and is known to have acquired competence by his successful industry. In 1339 he was induced to transfer his residence, with his wife and brother Donato, who was his assistant, to the Papal Court at Avignon. According to Vasari this removal was attributable to PandoKo Malatesta, who sent the painter to that city expressly to paint the j)ortrait of Petrarch. Simone, at all events, enjoyed the friendship of the poet at Avignon, and is recorded to have painted the portrait of Laura in a fresco of St. George and the Dragon, once in the portico of the Cathedral, but now no longer existing. Some much-injured frescoes still remain- ing \n the Cathedral, and in a hall and two chapels of the palace were long ascribed to Giotto ; but they show the mixed mildness, grace, affectation, and careful, flat execution, with a total lack of perspective, which characterize the works of Simone.* A small panel picture with his name and the date, 1342, is in the Liverpool Institution. It represents Christ foimd in the Temple, when the Virgin addresses the youthful Saviour with the words, " Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." The heads are of touching expres- sion, and the execution as delicate as the period was capable of. The figures are, however, shorter than was usual with Simone Martini.'\ (See woodcut.) In conclusion, if it be true that he painted miniatiu'es from Petrarch's sonnets, as some infer, his manner is believed to be recognised in a MS. Virgil in the Ambrosian Librarj'^ at Milan.:]: He died at Avignon in 1344. Lippo Memmi laboured in the same " Bottega " with his brother-in-law, Simone. He also executed works at S. Gemignano, the chief of which is a gigantic fresco in the Palazzo del Podesta, in imitation of that by Simone at Siena, representing the Virgin and Child enthroned under * For a descri lotion of the subjects see Delia V^alle, ' Lettere Senesi,' vol. ii., p. 94. t In the Crypt of St. Peter's at Rome (the so-called Grotto Vaticane) is an altar-picture in the chapel of S. JIaria del Portico (a half-length Wadonna) attributed to Simone. t Engraved in Rosini, plate 16. o«n«^owwonoo>T ottoeattvoaatoatooao^noovo oeppwopooowrtow* CHRIST FOUND IN THE TEMPLE ; a picture by Sinioue Martiui, in the Koyal Institution, Liverpool. p. Ifl-L y^^M^^S^M O a Chap. VI.] PIETRO LORENZETTI. 195 a canopy, with saints on eacli side, and the kneeling figure of the donor, Mino dei Tolomei. It is inscribed with his name and the date, 1317. It has the further interest ol having been restored by Benozzo Gozzoli, who has also, in a corner to the right, inscribed his name and the date, 1467. This work partakes of the manner of Simone 3Iartini in the flatness and absence of relief, and in the patient labour bestowed on the dresses (see woodcut). The choral books of the Collegiate Church at S. Gemignano contain miniatures probably by Lipjpo's hand. He painted also at Orvieto, where a large picture in the chapel of the S. Corj)orale, representing the Virgin protecting with the folds of her mantle a kneeling devotee and a number of suppliants, bears a Latin inscription with his name, to the pui-port that " Lippo, native of the pleasant Siena, painted us." Accord- ing to Vasari, Lippo Memmi died in 1356. Two pictures in the Berlin museum ascribed to Simone Martini are believed to be by Lippo. Barna was a painter of Sienese extraction and style, by whom some greatly damaged frescoes at Arezzo and S Gemignano still remain — those at the latter place represent- ing the life of our Lord. Barna is supposed to have been killed by a fall from a scaffold in 1381. The date is, however, disputed. Luca di Thome, whose name with the date 1366, is inscribed on a Crucifixion in the Academy at Pisa and in the gallery at Siena, is believed to have been a pupil of Barna. The reader need not be troubled with conjectures regard- ing the names and histories of other Sienese painters who have left works of no merit or importance. Pietro Lorenzettl, sometimes called Pietro Laurati, some- times Laurentii or di Lorenzo, was the eldest brother of the Sienese painter, better known than himseK, Amhrogio Loren- zetti. He was probably born towards the close of the thirteenth century — contemporarily with Simone Martini — ' for he is recorded to have laboured in Siena on a picture, no longer existing, called ' La Tavola dei Nove,' as early as 1305. His earliest known signed altar-piece is dated 1328. It is a Madonna, almost life-size, with four angels, between 196 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI. SS. Antliony and Nicholas, in tlie little cLiurch of S. Ansano, outside the Pispini Gate of Siena. This picture, with two fragments in the Siena Academy, and eight small panels in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican, show a painter of an energy rivalling the Florentine school. A great work exe- cuted by Pietro in 1335 in conjimction, according to a recorded signature, with his brother Amhrogio, in a hospital, at Siena, representing the Marriage of the Virgin, existed up to the year 1720. A picture inscribed " Petrus Laurentii de Senis," dated 1340, is in the Uffizi. Another, in better preservation, signed but not dated — an altar-piece in compartments with pinnacles — is in the toAvn-gallery of Arezzo, and is a fa.ir specimen of his feeling for light and shade, and energy of line. As respects that originality and power which overleaps conventions, Pietro Lorenzetti is most characteristically seen in a series of frescoes in the north transept of the lower church of S. Francesco at Assisi, which occupy the side and end walls, and the ceiling. They represent the history of oiu- Lord, beginning with His entry into Jerusalem. The strong individuality of these frescoes ; the realistic episodes, such as in the Last Supper ; the vehemence, frequently the ugliness, of the motives — though otherwise bearing evidence of a Sienese character — all combine to assign these works to Pietro Lorenzetti, which hitherto, on Vasari's authority, have been given to Pietro CavaUini. The works in the Campo Santo already described (p. 114.), including the fresco of the Hermits on the south wall, now known to be by him, but long attributed to Orcagna, with more grand efforts of dramatic force, are the crowning evidences of Pietro's genius. In the Hermit fresco especially his feeling for nature in the actions both of men and animals is of a high order. He resided chiefly in Siena, and it is surmised that the plague of 1348 ended his life as weU as that of his brother. Of this great painter, Amhrogio Lorenzetti, but little is known. Neither the date of his birth or death have been ascertained. The first record of his life belongs to the year 1324. Among his earliest productions were the frescoes Chap. VI.] AMBROGIO LORENZETTI. 197 representing the life of a Saint which covered one side of a cloister in S. Francesco at Siena, executed in 1331. The only remains of them are two fragments recovered from white- wash, and moved from the wall into the second chapel of the same church.* Little more than the outlines are seen, which give no real estimate of the master's powers. Other works of an important character, recorded as by his hand, both in Siena and Cortona, no longer exist. Two small predella panels in the Uffizi are all that remain of an altar-piece representing the legend of St. Nicholas, which is knovvn to have borne his signature and the date 1332. From 1338 to 1340, Amhrogio Lorenzetti was engaged on his chief work, which happily still exists. This consists of three vast frescoes in the " Sala dei Novo e della Pace," in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, which represent by rather complicated allegories, assisted by inscriptions, the results of good and bad Government. The first of the three is mutilated by a door which cuts into the right corner. Here, an enthroned and crowned white-bearded man, clotlied in robes of black and white (the colour's of the city) holding a sceptre in one hand and a shield in the other, symbolizes the Government of Siena. Peace, Fortitude, and Prudence, sit on one side of him, Magnanimity, Temperance, and Justice, on the other. Above, hover Faith, Charity, and Hope. A line of figures representing the twenty-fom- Counsellors, and evidently of a portrait character, are connected by a rope which is held by the enthi'oned personage on one hand, and on the other by a noble figure of Concord, who is again connected by the rope with Justice bearing the scales, and with other allegorical forms above her. On either side of the throne are warriors in armoui* with spears. To the right a kneeling man presents a tower to '• Good Govern- ment," and behind him are captives with their arras bound. The graceful figure of Peace, her foot on a helmet and shield, is believed to have been taken from an ancient statue discovered near Siena — a supposition justified by the classic * The heads of four nuns from one of these frescoes are in the Nationa/ Gallery. 198 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI. beauty of the di'apery. This fresco bears the inscription " Ambrosius Laiu'entii bic pinxit utrinque." (See woodcut.) On the second wall are represented the results of good Government — on one side, in the city, on the other, in the open country. Siena is seen with her towered Palaces and her Duorao. Her shops are filled with artizans occupied in their various callings. In her midst is a nuptial pro- cession, with the bride on a white palfrey, followed by her pages, and by dancing girls. Outside the city walls are cultivated hills and farmhouses, with men sowing and reaping. A youth on horseback is accompanied by his falconer and other attendants, and himtsmen with nets and cross-bows are engaged in the chase. All indicates prosperity and peace, and a graceful genius flying by the entrance tower of the city is inscribed " Securitas." On the third wall are the signs of bad Government, with Tyranny pre-eminent, treading on Justice, and surrounded by all the evil passions which bad governors entail. This representation of the effects of bad Government is assisted by numerous inscriptions, but the fresco is too much ruined to reward study.* These frescoes, viewed as a whole, place the art of Amhrogio on a high level for his time. In 1342, he completed the jucture of the Presentation in the Temple, now in the Accademia at Florence, but so much injured and restored that the signature aud date have become the most interesting part of it. Bartolo di Maestro Fredi is the name of a Sienese painter v/ho executed works in S. Agostino at S. Gemignano, the remains of which have lately emerged from whitewash, and have been almost destroyed by restoration. A Descent from the Cross by him exists in the sacristy of S. Francesco at Montalcino. It bears the remains of an inscription giving his name and the date, 1382. There is also a ' Presentation in the Temple,' in the Louvre, attributed to him. Andrea Vanni is another Sienese — born 1332 — who worked with the last named, and stands much upon a par with him in the rude and tasteless imitation of the comparatively great * A full description of these frescoes will be found in the Commentary on Ambrogio Lorcnzetfi'fi Life in the Ist vol. of Sansoni's Vasari. H O Chap. VI.1 TADDEO DI BARTOLO. l'J9 masters wlio preceded them. A remnant of a fresco by him is in the chai)el of St. Catherine in S. Domenico at Siena. Vanni is known as the correspondent and adorer of this Dominican Nim. Eecent researches have elicited more records of his life than of his art ; the man being, as it appears, equally uninteresting in each. Martina di Bartolommeo, also a Sienese, is known by frescoes in the desecrated church of St. John the Bai)tist at Cascina, near Pisa. They rej)resent the Crucifixion and the life of the Saint, and are dated 1398. Other signed works by him exist in the Hospital of S. Chiara and of the Foundlings at Pisa. He died in 1434. By Niccolb da Biionaccorso, who painted in Siena in the second half of the 14th century, there is a picture, representing the Marriage of the Virgin, in the National Gallery, signed and dated 1387. He died in 1388. Taddeo di Bartolo, born about 1363, was a painter who supported the Sienese school by his energy and ability, though he did not raise it above the standard of the Lorenzetti- The earliest example of his art is an altar-piece — the Virgin and Child enthroned, \a ith a glory of seraphim— painted for the church of S. Paolo at Pisa, signed and dated. 1390. In 1395 he completed an altar-piece of the Virgin and Child and saints for the Sardi and Campigli Chapel in S. Fran- cesco also at Pisa, and in 1397 painted the walls of the same chapel for one Donna Datuccia, the representative of the Sardi family. These frescoes are chiefly dedicated to the life of the IVFadonna, and though much injured and colour- less, show sj)irit and originality. In the Visit of the Apostles to the Virgin — a legendary event recorded to have happened at her death — the figures aroimd her, and those who are descending miraculously through the air, are full of animation and fine action (see woodcut). After these labours at Pisa, Taddeo is foimd at Siena, where from 1400 to 1401 he undertook considerable works in the Palazzo Pubblico, which have perished. But nine out of twelve small panels by him, illustrating the sentences of the Creed, still exist in the ' Opera ' of the Duomo. Thej' are interesting for their animation and fine drajjoiy. Like most !> 200 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap VI. l^ainters of all times, lie filled a small space with better success than a large one. Taddeo laboured also about this time at Montalcino and at S. Gemignano. In the Palazzo Pubblico of the latter place are two altar-pieces by him, originally painted for the Cathedral. In 1403 he was working at Perugia, where he executed a Virgin and Child with two angels and St. Bernard — signed and dated — and a Descent of the Holy Ghost, also signed, and of the same date, both in the public Gallery of that city. These works belong to Taddeo & prime. They are remarkable for their soft and tender coloxuung, and the expression of the heads ; but have been much rejDaintcd. In 1406 he was engaged by his fellow townspeople in Siena to repaint the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, and was authorized to destroy all paintings j)reviously existing there. It is known that he was bound to execute the commission within a few weeks. The works are, nevertheless, imposing in character, though much injured and restored. They represent, like those in the church of S. Francesco at Pisa, the Life of the Madonna. A deep sincerity of feeling pervades these frescoes, especially that of the Deatli of the Virgin, where Christ, attended by Seraphs, descends and takes her by the hand, while He receives her soul in the form of an infant. The chapel is unfortunately very dark, so that a favoui'able day is necessary to do any justice to these works. Seven years later Taddeo painted a hall annexed to the chapel with the heroes, statesmen, and writers of antiquity, standing in niches, in illustration of the qualities supposed to preside over the administration of Justice in the Sala del Consiglio, to which this hall led. On the capital of one of the arches inside the chapel is an inscription with the name of Bartolo, and the respective dates — 1407 and 1414 — of each portion of the work. Meanwhile he had laboured at Volterra, where a large altar-piece in a Gothic frame, consisting of numerous subjects all on a gilt ground, still exists in the Duomo. It bears the following inscription : — " Taddeus Bartolus de Senis, j^inxit hoc. 1411." The expressions of the Madonna and Child and of all the Saints are verv fine and solemn. CiiAi. VI.] DOMENICO Di JIAUTOLO. There is little in public galleries tliat can bo with cec- tainty ascribed to Taddeo. and although he is reported to have painted at Arezzo and at Padua, nothing existing in either place can be identified as his. He died in 1422. The mode of conception proper to the Sienese school, as seen in the chief painters described, may be characterized as remarkable for depth of feeling rather than for originality of composition. The expression of giace and tenderness was even exaggerated to affectation, while in the overladen orna- ment and antiquated motives the school adhered to traditions of Byzantine art. With Taddeo di Bartolo the fourteenth century may be said to close. Painters of very secondary rank, such as Gregorio Cecchl, of Lucca, adopted son of Taddeo di Bartolo ; Turini Vanni, by whom an inscribed picture, with cliunsy and expressionless figures, exists in the Louvre ; Jacopo di Micltele, known by the name of Gera, and others of still less note, appear in the Academies of Siena and Pisa as feeble imitators of Taddeo di Bartolo. Pisa had no school of painting of her own ; such painters as she produced, or employed, belonged almost exclusively to those of Siena or Florence. Her sole title to a place in the chronology of art is derived from her early sculptors. Bomenico di Bartolo, erroneously called the nephew of Taddeo di Bartolo, but who appears to have been um-elated to him — his real name being Bomenico Bartolo Ghezzo da Asciano — belongs to the Sienese school of the fifteenth centiu'y. In a few inscribed and dated panels — one of 1433, in the Academy of Siena, another of 1438, in tlio public gallery at Perugia — he appears as a weak and imattractive painter, deficient in colour, balance and perspective. His name is given to a number of works of the same tasteless type found in public and private collections. He is known to have covered the walls of the Sacristy of the Duomo at Siena with frescoes, no longer existing, and he is still seen in the much injured " Works of Mercy " in the Hospital of S. Maria della Scala in the same city, most of which were completed in 1 444. They are heavy and tasteless productions, chiefly illustrating the total decline of all excellence in art. ^■ '2 202 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI The history of the republic of Siena in the fifteenth century was not favourable to the development of art, and while the painters were as numerous as they were mechanical, no great man arose to shake off the trammels of traditional errors. Lorenzo di Pictro was a contemporary of Domenico cli Bartolo. He practised almost all branches of the arts, and exhibits a type of decrepitude in his figures and faces which may account for the name of VeccMetfa given him by his con- temijoraries. There are remains of frescoes by him in the Palazzo Pubblico and in the Sacristy of the Hospital, at Siena, and a Virgin and Child and Saints on panel, signed and dated 14G6, in the Uffizi. Two statues by him are in the Loggia della Mercanzia, and a bronze Christ by his hand, dated 14G6, adorns the high altar of the Spedale (Siena). These, his last works, sufficiently show the low place he occupies. Vecchietta was also an architect and engineer, known for his designs and models of fortresses, a fact hardly compatible with any but the most mechanical habits of art. This versatility of power, or, more truly, variety of handicraft, belonged to those periods when art, however grandly represented by a few gifted men, was scarcely more than a trade with various branches, in all of which the apprentice was expected to be equally well versed. There can be no doubt that this much overpraised readiness to undertake any work that came within the range of the bottega, or workshop, contributed, in inferior hands, to keep art at a low level, and even in the persons of the most gifted, mterfered with their productiveness. Stefano di Giovanni, more known as Sassetta, takes us back to an earlier time in Sienese art. He belongs to the fourteenth century, and his art ^vould be hardly worthy of record, for he was little better than a tame repeater of worn- out types, did he not lead to men of more note. His principal scholar was Ansano, or, by contraction, Sano, di Pietro Mencio — born 1406, died 1481 — who, had he not been so overpoweringly prolific, might have taken a higher place, for while his frescoes are as flat and tapestry-like as those of Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, he improved on the types of his predecessors in the softness of his expressions, ^^Sfatj opvs-M/vTEi-DE ::e'ni:;-'McccclT)'vilit WT. BARBARA, Saints and Angels; au altar-piece by Matteo ila Siena, in the Church uf S. Dcmeuico at Sieua. p. 20a CiiAi'. VI.] MATTEO DA SIENA. 203 .and is unrivalled in the delicacy of his patterns and glories. Nevertheless, the name of the ' Angelico da Sieua ' usually given him is only relatively true in his position as com- pared with the works of some of his contemporaries. A fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin in a room on the ground floor of the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, inscribed with his name and the date 1415, is_ the most important of his works. There are no less than forty-seven pictures by him in the Sienese Academy, among them an Assumjition of the Virgin, the most successful, dated 1479, and a Madonna and Saints, inscribed " Opus Sani Pietri de Senis, 1443." His works are scattered over the Sienese territory, and are to be found in most public and private collections in England and on the continent. Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo, called Matteo da Siena — born about 1435 — was considered the best Sienese painter of his time. In the absence, however, of the higher science of art, for which the religious sentiment pervading the Sienese school supplied, as time progressed, an increasingly inadequate substitute, he falls immeasurably short of his Florentine contemporaries. The expressions of his figures are solemn and sweet, with j)ale and delicate colour ; his female saints are pleasing ; and his delineation of the Infant Saviour may be called beautiful. The altar-piece at Siena, called the ' Madonna della Neve,' a legendary subject, exe- cuted for the brotherhood of that name, is an interesting- example of his art, inscribed with his name and the date of 1477. The Virgin and Child, both fine in character, are seen surrounded by angels bearing vases filled with snow, while others higher up are making snowballs. SS. Peter and Jerome are below, standing ; SS. Lorenzo (fine in character) and Catherine of Siena, kneeling. The pavement is in good perspective ; the action of the Madonna, and of some of the angels very pleasing. In the predella is the subject of the snow falling in August. A later picture by him, of the same year, of St. Barbara, with her tower, enthroned with attendant angels, and SS. Catherine and Magdalen standing (see woodcut), is in the church of S. Domenico (Siena). 204 THE SIENESE SCHOOL. [Chap. VI This painter is, however, most known, though not most favourably, by his pictures of the Murder of the Innocents — a subject which he repeated several times. One is over the altar of a chapel in S. Agostino, and a second in the Concezione, Siena ; a third in the Naples Museum, The two first mentioned are different comj)ositions. This class of subject lay entirely beyond his powers : the actions are violent and ill-understood, and the expressions grimacing, though that of Herod is successfully cruel, whilst his size is exaggerated according to traditionary practice. The lunette in the Concezione picture is one of those quiet compositions which do justice to his merits. One of Matteo's best works — if not his best — is now in the National Gallery. It represents the Assumption of the Virgin, and St. Thomas receiving her falling girdle. She is surrounded by angels in flowing garments of flowered silk or brocade, singing and playing on musical instruments — beautiful figures with a variety of naive and tender ex- pressions. This picture displays all the most characteristic qualities of the Sienese school of the fifteenth century — its warm, delicate, and transparent colouring, its graceful out- line, its religious sentiment, and its somewhat miniatm-e-like execution. Matteo was the last of that series of iminters who developed the art of Dttccto — adhering to the traditions of the school of which that great master was the founder. He died in 1495. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, more distinguished however as an architect and engineer than as a painter, deserves a passing notice. He was born at Siena in 1439, and died in 150G. There are two altar-pieces by him of slight merit in the Siena Academy — one a Nativity, inscribed with his name, the other a Coronation of the Virgin.* Neroccio di Barlolommeo Landi was a contemporary of Francesco di Giorgio, and like him an architect as well as a painter. Several pictures by him are in the Siena Academy. In the same collection are works by Guidoccio Cozzarelli, (a pupil of Matteo di Giovanni) Benvenuto di Giovanni, (by whom * Vasari's statoment that he was the arcliitect of Duke Federiga Feltro's Walaec at U^rbiuo is proved to be erroneous Chap VI.] FUNGAI AND OTHERS. 205 there is a picture in the National Gallery) Girolamo di Ben- venuto, and other Sicncse artists, which show the condition of the Sienese school during the fifteenth century, and are conse- quently deserving of study although of little intrinsic merit. The school of Siena which, before its decline in the first half of the fifteenth centuiy, had acted upon the Umbrian, received an impulse back again from that school, which, with other influences, led to its partial revival about the beginning of the sixteenth centui-y. Its sweetness, insipidity, and mechanical tendency have been set forth in these pages. In its later phase it remained true to itself, never throwing off the trammels of its local character, though showing the influence of the general development of art in the great centres of Italy, and the impress of individual painters. Sienese artists also travelled to foreign parts, yet no infusion of foreign elements ever entirely sufficed to destroy the Sienese type. Bernardino Fangai is one of these painters who, in flatness, nbsence of chiaroscuro, and use of gilding, partakes of the school. But he is rather pleasing in his children and angels, where he is influenced by Periigino ; also in his landscapes, which, though pectiliar in their faint blue dis- tance, recal Piaturicchio. His tyj)e of the Madonna is in- sipid, and his male beads dry and poor. A characteristic of the master is the heaviness of his hands at the fingers' 3nds. The Coronation of the Virgin in the church of the Madonna di Fonte Giusta, Siena, is an average example of the painter. He is also represented by numerous pictures in the Sienese Academy. He died in 1516. Giacomo di Bartolommeo PaccMarotto, born 1474, died 1540, is another painter of mixed character, more or less grafted on the Sienese stock. More is known of his life, which was a troubled one, than of his works. An Ascension in the church of the Carmine, Siena, as well as several pic- tures in the Academy, are attributed to him. He is not only confounded by historians with Girolamo del Pacchia, but the similarity of their art has assisted to keep up the mistake. Girolamo del Pacchia, born 1477, is known to have studied in Florence and Rome, and the works believed to be his 206 THE UIMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. bear a strong Eapliaelesque, and even Florentine, impress. They are chiefly found in and near Siena. The Coronation of the Virgin, in the church of S. Spirito, is an example of his tendency towards the Raphaelesque school. The Madonna and Child between SS. Paul and Bernard, in the Sienese Academy, partakes of the character of Mariotto Alhertinelli, and even of that of Fra Bartolommeo, which effectually conceals the Sienese type. In 1618, Del PaccMa took part with Beccafumi and Bazzi in the frescoes in S. Bernardino, Siena. We give a specimen in our woodcut, showing that mixed character which precluded the formation of a consistent style. He also contributed three frescoes to the church of S. Caterina, illustrating the story of St. Catherine of Siena, Avho is represented journeying to Monte Pulciano to visit S. Agnese. The third of the series, with the dead body of S. Agnese, is the most remarkable. The Virgin and Child in the National Gallery, an agree- able picture with Sienese characteristics, at one time given to PaccMarotto, is now assigned to Del PaccMa. Andrea Piccinelli del Bresciano, commonly called Brescia- nino, his father having come from Brescia, is another name of this Sienese period — about 1520 — to whom an altar-piece in the Sienese Academy, and a Holy Family in the Munich Gallery (1075), are assigned. After this time a new tendency appeared in Sienese art in the works of Giananionio Bazzi, commonly called 11 Sodoma, who stands on a far higher level, and will be de- scribed fui'ther on. CHAPTER VII. THE DMBRIAN SCHOOL. The early Umbrian school maybe divided into two branches —that which was established at Gubbio, Fabriano, San Severino, and the neighbouring towns, and that vv'hich flourislicd in Perugia, Urbino, and the surrounding coimtry. It was especially the latter tliatmay be said to have taken its rise from Sienese examples. Prettiness and a tendency to Chap. VII.] ODERISI — PAT.MERUCCI. 207 affectation are its characteristics, whicli, by their dcveloj)ment at Urbino and Perugia, were destined to contribute to the greatness of Bnpliacl. A smiling gaiety gives a charm to the productions of this school which bear, at the same time, the careful finish and flat brilliancy of miniatures. In Umbria the practice of painting no doubt dates, as in other parts of Italy, from the remotest times. But the first Umbrian painter whose name has come down to us is one Oderigo, or Oderisi, who is mentioned by Dante in his ' Purgatorio,' as the foremost miniaturist of his day.* The Poet couples with him his scholar Franco Bolognese. Con- temporary documents prove that Oderisi was the son of one Guide of Gubbio, and that in 1268 and 1271 he was living at Bologna, where he painted, in the latter year, in fifteen days, no less than eighty-two miniatures, " in good azure blue," in an Antiphonary, for which he was paid thirty Bolognese soldi. He is believed to have gone to Eome in 1295, and to have died there in 1299. There, according to Vasari, he made the acquaintance of Giotto. Some miniatures in the missals in the archives of the Canons of S. Peter's are supposed to be by his hand.f Amona the scholars of Oderisi was Guido Palmcrucci, whom his fellow-citizens of Gubbio claim as the founder of the Umbrian school. He was born about 1280, and died in 1345. No easel pictures by him are known to exist ; but remains of wall-paintings attributed to him are still found in his native city— such as a Madonna and Child, with an aged Gonfaloniere (chief magistrate) kneeling before her, and several saints, in the upj)er chapel of the Palazzo del Commune, an important example of this school of the first half of the fourteenth century. A head of S. Anthony, said to be by him — tlie only remains of a sacred subject — is * 0, disse lui, non se' tu Oderisi L'onor d'Agobbio, e I'onor di quell' arte Che alluminare h chiamata in Parisi? Frate, diss' egli, piii ridon le carte Che pennelleggia Franco Bolognpse ; L' onor h tutto or sue, e mio in parte. '■ Furgatcrio' Canto XI. t See Sansoni's Vasari, v. i. p. 385, note. 208 THE UMBUIAN SCHOOL. [Cuai- VII seen on an outer wall of the church of S. Maria del Laici. Chiido's pupil, Martino Nelli, was a painter of no great merit, judging from the fragments of wall-paintings ascribed to him which still exist at Gubbio. In his son, Ottaviano di Martino Nelli, the Gubhian branch of the Umbrian school attained its culminating point. A wall-painting by this master of the Virgin and Child, with saints and angels l)laying on musical instruments, and a donor and his son kneeling before her, signed and dated 1403, is preserved in the church of S. Maria Nuova, Gubbio. It is a gay mixture of unsubstantial figures, with graceful heads, on a blue diapered ground, like a magnified miniature (sec woodcut). He is known to have changed his residence to Urbino in 1420. In 1424 he executed in the Trinci Palace, now the municipal offces, at Foliguo, a series of frescoes representing the Life of the Virgin. His powers were mediocre, and though tradition asserts that Gentile da Fahriano worked on some occasions with him, yet no surviving picture by Ottaviano Nelli is of a class to corroborate this idea. Nothing is known of him sifter 1444 — about which time he probably died, leaving many local scholars, by whom there are damaged pictures in the churches and public buildings of Gubbio, but none of whom rose to any eminence. By the end of the fifteenth century the Gubbian school was absorbed into that which Pietro Vanned had founded at Perugia.* The neighboiu'ing town of San Severino also had its local school of i^ainters. The brothers Giacomo and Lorenzo da Sanseverino lived at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries. A totally ruined ' Marriage of St. Catherine,' belonging to the Cistercians of S. Severino. bears an inscription which shows Lorenzo to have been twenty six years of age in 1400. Sixteen years later, in company with his brother, he decorated the walls of the Oratory of S. Giovanni Battista, at Urbino, with frescoes representing the history of the Baptist, which, seen as a whole, create a striking impression, though, with the excep- * See " the Madonna and Saints painted in fresco by Ottaviano Nelli,' by the Editor. Arundel Society, 1857. m^^^rmi Chap. VII] GENTILE DA FABRIANO. 209 tion of some graceful heads, there is liitle merit iu the composition.* A second Lorenzo da San Severino, who flourished later, belonged to the same family, and was probably a nephew, of the elder painter of the same name. Two examples of his art, the one in the Sacristy of a chui-ch at Pausola, near Macerata, the other a fresco in the collegiate church of Sarnano, are dated respectively 1481 and 1483. An altar- piece by the master, a ' Marriage of St. Catherine,' a very interesting work, is in the National Gallery. On it he signs himself "Laurentins II.," apparently meaning Lorenzo the second. A picture is recorded to have been painted by him as late as 1496. We now turn, to Fabriano, where we are met by a Tuscan iKfluence in the person of Gritto da Fabriano, now identified as Allegretto Nuzi, who appears on the register of painters at Florence in 1346. His earliest known work is in the ' Museo Cristiano ' of the Vatican — a small altar- piece, with the Virgin and Child and numerous attendant figures, signed and dated 1365. An altar-piece in the Sacristy of the Cathedral at Macerata, dated 1369, and other works believed to be by him, show the connection between the schools of Gubbio and Fabriano, which leads up to the superior art of Gnitile da Fabriano. Allegretto is supposed to have died about 1365. But the school of Fabriano attained its celebrity, not so much through Allegretto as through his eminent pupil Gentile di Niccolo di Giovanni Massi, better known as Gentile da Fabriano, who was probably born in that Umbrian town between 1360 and 1370. Of his first master there is no record. As, according to Vasari, he painted in his youth at Gubbio, it has been ccnjectured that he received instruction from Ottaviano Nelli ; but a comparison of dates will show that such could not have been the case. His manner has an affinity with that of Fra Angelico, * Signer Morelli observes of these frescoes : " in these paintings wii beo-in to meet with portraits of men and women full of life and expression; but even here we look in vain for that languishing character so distinctive of the school of Foligno and that of Perugino." 'Italian Masters,' &c., p. 255. 2 210 THE UINIBRIAN SCHOOL. [Ciiai-. VH. though on the one hand he has not the deep devotional feeling of that master, while on the other he excels him in a freer conception of the ordinary events of life. Michael Angela is reported by Vasari to have said of Gentile, "aveva la mano simile al nome." Fra Angelica and Gentile are like two brothers, both highly gifted by nature, both full of the most refined and amiable feelings ; but the one became a monk, the other a knight. We compare the pictures of Gentile to the poems of the Minnesingers : they seem to breathe the joys of spring ; they have an air of inexpressible serenity, clouded by no doubt, no anxiety. A childlike delight in splendour and gold ornaments, which in his pictures are both embossed and incised, pervades all his works.* Of Gentile's life not much is known. His first patron was Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Brescia and Ber- gamo, for whom he decorated a chapel, probably about the year 1419. He next removed to Venice, where he spent some years in company with the Veronese painter, Pisanello, adorning the great hall of the Ducal Palace with frescoes from the life of Barbarossa, and with other works ; all of which have perished. His labours in the Ducal Palace are supposed to have terminated before 1422. A solitary Virgin and Child in the Venetian Academy bears his name, but is heavily overpainted, and its attri- bution is open to doubt. His residence at Venice is marked by the fact that Jacoho Bellini there entered his atelier as a scholar, which led to a friendship between them, and after Jacoho married Gentile held his first child at the baptismal font. Tiie year in which Gentile settled at Florence is approximately defined by his entry into the Guild of the Barber Surgeons in 1422. In 1423 his signed and dated picture, the Adoration of the Kings, in the Accademia, Florence, by which he is now princi- pally known, was executed for the church of the Trinita. * The gold decorations of Gcntilr, like those of most of his contem- poraries, are sometimes laid on so thickly as to be in relief — a practice consistent with the nature of such decoration : for as no kind of modelling in light and shade is possible in gold, the effect of such could only be f. VII. of this rare painter, the Baptism of our Lord, in the National Gallery. Here the figure of our Lord, with the finely-foreshortened feet, the grand bearing of the three angels, traditionally present, the careful anatomy of a figure in the background, stripping himself for the rite, the wind- ing of the stream, the rendering of its argillaceous bed, and the correct perspective of the reflections, all show the strong realism combined, with the accurate knowledge of a powerfully subjective mind.* The picture has been too much injured to retain more than the preparation of the colours. The type of female heads peculiar to this master, with their high projecting foreheads, does not appear in this work, except slightly in the angels. It is a class of feature which, in its extreme character, partakes of the African ; with broad, face, wide nostrils, meeting eyebrows, and thick lips. But seen in a modified form, as in his Madonnas, with hair concealed, and finely-draped head, there is a certain grandeur and solemnity in this type. Also, however lacking in conventional beauty of face, his Saints and angels com- mand admiration by singular dignity and appropriateness of character. According to Vasari, Domenico Veneziano and. Pietro della Francesca also laboured together in the Sacristy of the Santa Casa at Loreto, though the only works which now adorn its walls are those of Luca Signorelli, Pietrd's pupil. The same authority states that he was called to Rome in the time of Nicholas V., and painted tvvo frescoes in the Vatican, afterwards destroyed to make room for Raphael.^ At all events it is certain that he was engaged by Sigismund Malatesta to adorn the newly-erected church of S. Fran- cesco at Rimini, in 1451, Here, in the ' Cai^pella dellc * "The peculiar construction of his landscape backgrounds," in this and other works, " with steep mountains of an uncommon t3'pe, is the more remarkable, because they are the starting-point of all the later achieve- ments in realistic landscape-painting." Richter 'Italian Art in the National Gallery,' p. 16. t It is surmised that Pietro dclla Francesca^s Vision of Const antine, one of the frescoes thus destroyed, suggested the remarkable effect of light in Raphael's Deliverance of St. Peter, which was e.xecuted in its place. ' Literature of the Fine Arts — Life of Raphael,' by Sir C. L. Eastlake, 2nd edition, p. 196. Chap. VII.] PIETRO DELLA FRANCESCA. 217 Reliquic,' lie left a remarkable fresco, now partially effaced. It represents Malatesta himself kneeling before S. Sigis- mondo. Two dogs, black and white, accompany their master. Above is a large medallion, containing a view of the Castle of Rimini. The portrait of Malatesta has great simplicity and an air of truth. The hands are fine, and the propor- tion of the figures to the architecture, which is most elegant in design, are characteristic of the master. On the lower border of a painted fi-amework in purest classic style, is the inscription, " Pietri de Burgo opus, 1451." The frescoes representing the story of Constantino and of the True Cross, which he painted in the church of S. Francesco at Arezzo, gave occasion for the display of all the qualities which have been mentioned as forming his style. The movement and life in the compositions, the variety in the expressions of the numerous figm-es, their energy of action, and the grand treatment of the draperies, are all equally remarkable. The landscape in the subject of Constantino following Maxentius, whose horse is struggling up the bank of a stream into which his rider has plunged in his flight, is excellent for the period. The Vision of Constantino, who is sleeping in his tent whilst an angel, skilfully foreshortened, is seen descending from on high, is remarkable for the novel and admirable efiect of light.* The Virgin in the Annunciation, a pendant to tiie last, is of grand character. Pietro della Francesca has introduced a variety of costumes, especially those of high-born ladies of his time, into these works. He shows himself a complete master of the process of fresco in the certainty of his touch, rapidity of execution, and clear luminous colouring. These frescoes, although much injured, have fortunately not suffered from restoration. A single figure of the Magdalen, near the door of the Sacristy of the Duomo of Arezzo, is a grand and noble figure, but too short in its proportions — a defect not uncommon in the w^orks of the master. A fresco in the local art Museum at Borgo S. Sepolcro (formerly the Monte di Pieta), representing the Saviom- rising from His tomb, and * So much so that a preparatory drawing for this subject, once in tii? Lawrence collection, was long attributed to Correggio. 218 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [GiiAr. VH the sleeping guards, is declared by Vasari to be the best of his works. It is a most solemn and impressive treatment of the subject.* Pietro della Francesca was also invited to Ferrara where he took part in the decoration of the fechifanoia Palace, to which we shall have to refer when we come to treat of the Ferrarese School ; but no traces of the works which lie may have executed there are now to be found. Of the existing pictures by Pietro dclla Francesca, the following may be mentionerl. A grand altar-piece in tho Brera, representing the "Virgin and Child enthroned, with Federigo of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, in full armour, kneeling before her, and four angels and various saints ai'ound her (see illustration) — a work full of interest and beauty is now assigned to him, but may have been in part executed by Fra Carnevali.f An altar-piece in the church of the Misericordia at Borgo S. Sepolcro, represents the Virgin spreading her robe over several saints, and j)ortraits of various contemporary personages, and has a predella containing Christ on the Mount of Olives, His Flagellation, and other subjects — a work of great sweetness and simplicity. A ' Nativity,' an unfinished, and much-injured picture in which the head of the Virgin is of much beauty, and almost Flemish in character, is in the National Gallery.J The Public Gallery at Perugia and the Academy at Venice also contain works by the master. Another phase of the master must be cited — seen in a small diptych in the Uffizi. It contains portraits of Duke Federigo and his wife, Battista Sforza, in profile, executed with the utmost precision of drawing and minuteness and softness of method, and remarkable for the beauty of the landscape backgrounds, in which he displays his knowledge * Most of these frescoes have been copied for the Arundel Society. f At any rate, it appears to have been painted in Pietro dclla Francesca'& studin. + This interesting picture, which had been greatly over painted, has been recently restored with great success to its original condition before the repaint, by Mr. William Dyer. It is more than doubtful whether the two portraits in the National Gallery, attributed to Pietro della Francesca, are by him. Altar-piece by Pietro ik-Ua Francesca, or Fra Caraevali, in tlic Brera, Milan. p. 218. Chap. VII.] MELOZZO DA FORLI. 219 of aerial perspective. On tlie obverse is a representation of each personage seated in a triumphal car, with various allegorical figiu'es, and allusions which now defy explana- tion (see woodcut). This work is a landmark in the pro- gress of art, which here unites itself with the minute reality of Antonello da Messina, and through him with the equally minute, but less poetically conceived productions of the Flemish school. In the Sacristy of the Cathedral at Urbino is a small picture of the ' Flagellation ' by Pietro, which shows the same miniature-like execution. Pietro della Francesca died blind on the 12th October, 1492, and was biu-ied in the Badia, now the Cathedral, in his native place. Bartolommeo Corradini, known as Fra Carnevali, is be- lieved to have been a scholar — he was certainly an imitator — of Pietro della Francesca. He was probably born early in the first half of the fifteenth century, entered the Domenican Order, and is believed to have died about 1488. So little is known of his life and career, that even his existence has been questioned. Only two pictures, in addition to the altar-piece in the Brera just described, are doubtfully attri- buted to him — a St. Michael trampling on the dragon, with the monster's head in his hand, in the National Gallery ; and the full-length figure of St. Thomas Aquinas, or some other Domenican Saint, in the Poldi-Pezzoli collection at Milan, of the same character, and evidently by the same hand. But a painter of far greater importance, whose name has been connected with that of Pietro della Francesca, is Melozzo da Forli, of the family of the Ambrosi, who was born at Forli in 1438, and died there in 1494. Little is known of his history, and few of his works remain to us, but such as are preserved are sufficient to show that he was one of those men of genius, and of original minds, who form an epoch in the history of art. Like other great artists of his time, he was an architect as well as a painter and was famous for his skill in perspective. Giovanni Santi, the father of Bajphael, extols him in his rhymed ' Cronaca ' aa " Melozzo a me si caro, che in prospettiva Ha steso tanto il passo." 2 A 220 THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. He probably acquired the rudiments of both architecture and painting at Urbino like his fellow-citizen, and perhaps fellow-student, Bramante. There is no record of his master but it has been surmised that he owed part of his artistic education to Pietro della Francesca. Besides a certain affinity in style, and in the science of art between them, there are circumstances in their lives, in spite of difference of age, common to both. The first records of 3Ielozzo begin at Rome under Sixtus IV., who erected the Sistine Chapel, re- paired the church of the SS. Apostoli, and restored the Library of the Vatican, then under the guardianship of the learned Platina. These events occurred between 1475-80. The last mentioned was commemorated by a fresco executed by Melozzo, long an ornament of the wall, but subsequently transferred (to its great damage) to canvas, and now hung in a dark place between windows in the Vatican Picture Gallery. It represents Sixtus IV. enthroned, with Platina kneeling before him, and attended by two cardinals and two other figures.* This work was long attributed to Pietro della Francesca, and the fine proportion of the figures in space, and the graceful architecture, all point to a worthy repre- sentative of the great Umbrian master. In the tribune of the church of the SS. Apostoli, Melozzo rej)resented the Ascension of our Lord, surrounded with angels and cherubim. This is one of the most grand and daring feats of foreshortening that art has bequeathed, and may be considered as the first illustration of that science which Mantegna and Correggio further developed. The church, or the tribune part, was destroyed in 1711, but the figure of Chi'ist was sawn from the wall, and transferred to the staircase of the Quirinal Palace, where, though much damaged, it still exists.f The upper parts of figures of angels playing on musical instruments are preserved in the Sacristy of St. Peter's — grand and beautiful youthful figures, with abundant flowing hair. (See illustrations.)! Sixtus IV. founded the Academy of St. Luke, where, * Published by the Arundel Society in chromo-lithography. f Engraved in Ottley's 'Italian School of Design,' pi. 45, and in D'Agincourt, pi. 142. X Published in chromo-lithography by the Arundel Society. ANGEL ; by Melozzo da Forli, iu the Sacristy of St. Peter's, Rome. p. 220. #rf A w ANGEL; by Jlelozzo da Forli, in the Sacristy of St. Peter's. Rome. p. 2'20. Chap. VII.] MARCO PALMEZZANO. 221 foremost among the first autograph inscriptions, is that of " Melotius pic. j)a." (pictor papalis). In Forli itself Melozzo is represented by a work of a very exceptional class, called the " Pesta Pepe " or " Pound the Pepper," * being a fresco originally painted for a sign over a grocer's shop, representing a figure in violent exertion, wielding with both hands a heavy pestle over a huge mortar. Here again he has foreshortened the figure as if seen from below. It is now in the Collegio at Forli. Melozzo was emj)loyed to decorate the library of the Palace of the Duke of Urbino with pictures representing the seven liberal Arts.f Three of these have been pre- served, but are much repainted. Two are in the National Gallery and one in the Berlin Museum. The two in the former collection represent Khefcoric, a female figure enthroned, presenting a book to a man kneeling before her; and Music, a similar female figure, giving a closed volume to a young man richly dressed, and pointing to a portable organ. Another picture of the same class, and most probably by him, but also much injured and restored, and containing a portrait of the unmistakable Federigo, is nbw in Her Majesty's possession at Windsor. Although considerable doubt has been entertained as to the authorship of these interesting pictures, there is no good reason why they should not be attributed to Melozzo.% The vault of the Sacristy of the Treasury of the Church of Loreto is painted by Melozzo. Marco Pahnezzano, or " Marcus de Melotius" as he also signs himself5§ was the pupil of Bondinello of Eavenna and of * Engraved in Rosini's ' Storia della Pittura Italiana,' vol. iii., p. 167. f The imaginary portraits of celebrated historical characters, which once decorated the Palace of Urbino, and thirteen of which are now in the Louvre, the remainder being in the Palazzo Barberini at Rome, at one time attributed to Melo^.zo, are now generally believed to be by a Flemish painter — possibly from caitoons by that master. Copies of ten of them on a small scale, supposed by some to be by Eaphael, were in the so-called ' RapltaeVsi sketch-book,' and are now in the Venice Academy. X Signor Morelli ('Italian Masters,' &c., p. 249) unhesitatingly ascribes them to Melozzo, and mentions a fiftli, in the Barberini Palace at Rome. There are frescoes by Melozzo in the church of Sta. Maria at Loreto. § His name appears to have been Marco Valeria Morolini ; see Archivic Storico dell 'Arte. v. 1, p. 293. 222 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL [Chap. VH. Melozzo da Forli, and having occasionally adopted this latter master's name ajipended to his own, has been, in his finest works, mistaken for him. His additional signature " Pictoi Foroliviensis," shows that he was a native of Forli. Hb was born about 1456. He followed his master, and is even believed to have gone beyond him, in the study of geometry, and in the working of architectural plans. To this may perhaps be imputed the hardness and dryness which, with some exceptions, characterise his works. He appears as a fresco painter in the chapel of S. Biagio in S. Girolamo at Forli — the ceiling of which exhibits that power of foreshortening, and taste and fancy in architectural forms and decorations, which he inherited from Melozzo, though in other respects he remains far inferior to him. His panel-pictures, all in oil, are numerous, and bear witness to a life of great activity. His chef-d'oeuvre is an altar-piece in the chapel of the ' Orfanotrofio delle Femmine ' at the Michelline at Faenza, completed by the painter in the year 1500. It represents a Virgin and Child on a throne with an opening in the lower part, through which figures and a landscape are seen; a Saint on horseback and St. Michael are on the left of her ; and on the right St. Anthony grasping the hand of St. Jerome. This work is finely executed, with carefully-drawn hands, and with all the master's skill in elaborate and tasteful architecture. Another fine and strongly-coloured work, St. Anthony en- throned with the Baptist and St. Sebastian, the pig below, and with the master's usual gilt and arabesqued pilasters, is in the church of the Carmine at Forli. A favourite subject with Marco Palmezzano, is our Lord bearing His Cross, of which the finest example was exhibited at Manchester in 1857. His works are too numerous to specify, and many a hitherto anonymous or misnamed picture has been identified as his. They abotmd in the churches at Forli, and in the Pinacoteca of that place, where his own portrait, by himself, signed and dated 1536, is also preserved, showing an aged white-haired and robust man. The ' Deposition in the Tomb,' in the National Gallery, is not to be classed among the best of his productions, almost all of which are signed. The date of his death is unknown. Chap. VII.] GIOVANNI SANZIO. 223 Another name associated with Pietro della Francesca is that of the celebrated architect Bramante, of whom he is doubtfully assumed to have beeu the master. Donato Bra- mante was probably born between 1436 and 1438, and died at Kome in 1514. He was a painter, as well as an architect ; but it was in the latter capacity that he obtained his renown. His works in painting were chiefly applied to the embellish- ment of the edifices which he constructed. There are some much-damaged frescoes by him in the Casa Prinetti, and on the facade of Casa Silvestri in the Corso Porta Venezia, both at Milan. In a chapel of the abbey of Chiaravalle, near the city, there is a painting in tempera by him representing Christ bound to a pillar, wrongly ascribed to Bramantmo, his pupil. He appears to have worked at Milan from 1474 to 1499,* Vasari reports him to have been an engraver*, as well as a painter, and there is an engraving inscribed with his name, of which one of the only two existing impressions is in the British Museum. But it has been questioned whether it is by his own hand, or taken from a drawing by him. Giovanni Santi, or Sanzio,^ was one of those who derived light from the brilliant galaxy of talent collected in TJrbino by Duke Federigo, including Pietro della Francesca, Luca Signorelli, and Melozzo, and to the splendour of which he, in his turn, contributed. As the father of Bapliael, he has always been an object of interest to art historians ; but he has hardly received the credit due to himself His family sufi'ered in their ancestral property by a raid from the ferocious Sigismund Malatesta, which caused them to remove from the hill-town of Colbordolo to Urbino in 1466, at which time Giovanni was a boy. His instructor in art is not re- corded, but the fact that Pietro della Francesca, on being in- vited to Urbino in 1469, lodged in his house, is a sign that he was already associated with the profession. He may possibly have had Melozzo for his master. Giovanni was * Morelli's 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 249, note, and p. 415. t For G. Santi, see ' Elogio storico di Giovanni Santi, pittore e poeta,' Urbino, 1822, Passavaut, ' Rafael von Urbino und seiu Vater Giovanni Santi,' Leipzig, 1839. vol. i., p. 11, and Prof. Aug. Schmarsow in Geiger's ' Vierteljahrschrift,' 11, 1987. 224 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VH. also known for his love of polite literature — a taste easily fostered at the Court of Urbino ; and a curious chronicle in rhyme, celebrating the acts of Duke Federigo, preserved in the Vatican, has attracted notice as a contemporary record of the principal painters, not only in Urbino and the sur- rounding territory, but in all parts of Italy. The affectionate terms in which he eulogises Pietro della Francesca and Melozzo, as already quoted, show the friendship he maintained with them. Mantegna receives one of his highest tributes ; and as it is known that he was more than once at Mantua, it may be assumed that he became personally acquainted with that great painter as well as with his works. The correct- ness of Giovanni Sant€s judgment is being more and more ratified as the knowledge of the old masters increases. His style is simple and serious, and of conscientious finish ; a quiet gentleness characterises his heads, and especially those of children, in the loveliness of which he shows himseK the true forerunner of his great son. He partakes of the cha- racter of the painters around him, and even shows Man- tegnesque tendencies, but he fails in force and depth, and his colouring has a peculiar light leaden tone, deficient in warmth. His outlines are also frequently hard. His earlier pictures are generally found in the March of Ancona. For instance, a pleasing but not thoroughly studied ' Visitation of the Virgin,' in S. Maria Nuova at Fano ; a Madonna with four Saints, of a freer grace and grander cast of drapery, in the hospital church of S. Croce at the same place ; a so- called ' Madonna del Popolo,' protecting the faithful with her mantle, with a lively, individual, and even almost humorous head, in the hospital oratory at Montefiore ; and a Madonna with four Saints, of a serious and mild character, dated 148^', in the Pieve at Gradara, not far from Pesaro. An Annunciation of his early time, harsh in drawing and colour, and of no great merit, is in the Brera at Milan. A Madonna enthroned, with SS. Thomas Aquinas, Jerome, Catherine, and Thomas the Apostle, and the donor, of unequal style, and in some respects strictly in a Manteguesque manner, is in the Berlin Museum. Giovanni's most developed pictures are, however, chiefly MADONNA WITH SAINTS ; an altar-i)iece by Giovanni Santi, at Montefiorentino. p. 225. Chap. VII.j GIOVANNI SANZIO. 225 those which were executed in Urbino ; for example, a St. Sebastian and archers — the latter in vigorous and successful foreshortening, and one of whom reappears in the figure break- ing his rod, in Baphael's " Sposalizio " — with figures of the donors, is in the oratory of St. Sebastian ; a Madonna with Saints of almost Florentine character, of the year 1489, is at Montefiorentino, not far from Urbania (see woodcut) ; another of his chief pictures, and of the same year, is in S. Francesco at Urbino — a Madonna with Saints and donors (these latter not the portraits of his own family, as is currently believed), with two side pictures of Saints, whose drapery clearly points to Mantegna and others. Finally, he is seen in his highest beauty in a fresco in the church of the Dominicans at Cagli, of the year 1492, representing a Madonna enthroned, with Angels and Saints, with the Eesurrection and the First Person of the Trinity, surrounded by cherubs, in a lunette above. His drawing is here not only fuller and more animated, and his colour- ing fresher, than in his other works, but in the expression and action of some of the figures he foreshadows the grace, and even the strength, of his son Raphael* The fresco of the Madonna in Giovanni's own house at TJrbino, which has enjoyed the reputation of being Baphael's earliest work, is now acknowledged to be by the hand of his father. Giovanni Santi's easel pictures are much inferior to his wall-paintings, and it is difficult to tmderstand how the same hand should have executed the great fresco at Cagli, and the works attributed to him in various collections — such, for instance, as the Madonna and Child in the JSTational Gallery.f * See ' Giovanni Sanzio and his fresco at Cagli,' by the Editor ; Arundel Society, 1859. This fresco has been reproduced in chromo-litho- graphy by the Society. t Signor Minghetti, ' Raffaello,' p. 7, note, gives the following list of the principal existing works of G. Santi: the Madonna and Child and Saints, in the church of the convent of Montefiorentino ; the Visitation, in the church of S. Maria, and the Virgin and Child with Saints, in that of S. Croce, Fano : the Virgin, Saints ami three devotees, in the Hospital at Montefiore ; the Virgin and four Saints in the Pieve, Gradara; a St. Jerome, in the church of St. Bartolo, Pesaro ; the Annunciation, in the Brera ; a St. Sebastian, in the Oi'atory of St. Sebastian, and a Virgin and Child with Saints, in S. Fran- cesco, Urbino ; frescoes at Cagli ; and the Virgin and Child with Saints, ii) the Berlin Museum. 226 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VIL The teacliing, or influence, of Pietro della Francesca is shown in Giovanni Sa7iti'8 correct foreshortenings and per- spective. He worked in that mixed vehicle, very different to pure tempera, and yet not, properly speaking, oil, which in the hands of the Pollajuoli had formed a transition between the two. He died in 1494, and was buried in the chui-ch of S. Francesco at Urbino. We must here briefly record the names of a few painters who dot the remoter places of the Umbrian Apennines, and who, however second-rate, yet contribute to those numerous currents of art which irrigated the centre of Italy. Taking up the stream from S. Severino, we come to Camerino, which claims two painters, Giovanni Boccati, and Girolamo di Gio- vanni, generally believed to be his son. By the first there is a signed altar-piece, a gay and attractive, but much over- painted work, dated 1447, with predella, in the public gallery at Perugia. The Virgin and Child are seen, enthroned between two angels and surroimded with seraphim, imder an arbour of flowers and leafy branches. SS. Domenick and Francis, accompanied by the four Fathers of the Latin Church, each present to her a kneeling brother of their re- spective Orders. A peculiar feature presents itself in the dog held in a leash by the Infant Christ, and licking his hand. A Madoima and Child in the Poldi-Pezzoli collec- tion, Milan, is another good example of this master. By Girolamo di Giovanni, of Camerino, there is a picture signed and dated 1473, at Monte S. Martino near Fermo — the Madonna and Child, with angels, between SS. Thomas and Cyprian. It shows the influence of the Vivarini which extended along the sea-board of the Marches. From Camerino the distance is short, northward, to Gualdo Tadino, on the eastern slope of the Apennines, to which place belongs Maiteo da Gualdo, who shows an affinity to Boccati, and whose profuse patterns, ornaments, positive colours, and affectation of grace bespeak the poorer charac- teristics of the Umbrian school. Eeminiscences of the manner of Benozzo. Gozzoli also appear in Matteo, accounted for by the fact that a signed fresco by him, dated 1468 — an enthroned Madonna with angels and Saints and the Annun- Chap. VII.] NICC0l6 DA FOLIGNO. 227 ciation above — occupies a wall in tlie churcli of SS. Antonio e Jacopo at Assisi, in a chapel decorated with frescoes by Benozzo'B assistant, Pietro Antonio. Matteo is seen again in a signed fresco at S. Maria della Circa at Sigillo, on the hills outside Gubbio, representing the Virgin and Child. This master also introduces the same strange feature ob- served in the picture by Boccati, already noticed, for in the Annimciation at Assisi a dog accompanies the Virgin, and at SigiLlo, the Infant holds a dog in its arms.* Bartolommeo di Tommaso of Foligno, who laboured at the beginning of the fifteenth century, displays much the same Umbrian types in a picture in the church of S. Salvador in that town. Pietro Antonio, above alluded to, belongs also to Foligno. He is known to have studied under Benozzo Gozzoli, and frescoes attributed to him repeat not only the forms of his master but even, in some cases, his mode of representation. The Winds, for instance, in Giotto's Navicella, which Benozzo had seen and perhaps copied at Eome, are imitated in a chapel called S. Maria in Campis, a short distance from Foligno on the way to Spoleto. This painter leads us to his contemporary and fellow- townsman, Niccolo da Foligno, who signs himself " Nicolaus Fulginas," or " Fulginatus," and is erroneously called by Vasari Niccolo Alunno'\ — born about 1430. He may be charac- terised as uniting such feeling belonging to Fra Angelica as Benozzo Gozzoli (of whom he was probably the pupil) could transmit, with a native Umbrian tendency; two styles which had a natural affinity. Niccolo gave more expression to the gentle type of Madonna and angels hitherto aimed at in this part of Italy, and in his male figures he has an earnestness of * Another Gualdo, a bad imitator of Luca Signorelli, who signs " Ber- nardus Hieronimi Gualden pingebat," is seen in a picture at Asinaluuga — the Madonna with a club driving away the demon from a woman with a child. t In some Latin verses inscribed on an altar-piece by him in the church of S. Niccol5, Foligno, he is called Nicolaus Alumnus Fulginioe. I.e., brought up at, or a native of Foligno. Hence Vasari's mistake. Se€ Sansoni's Vasari, 'Life of Pinturicchio,' vol. iii. ; notes pp. 508 and 509. 228 THE UMBKIAN SCHOOL. [Chap-VH. expression, accompanied by greater fullness and sturdiness than is found in succeeding Umbrian painters. In bis delineations of St. Francis, wbicb are frequent, we remark a peculiar enthusiasm ; but bis representations of suffering are violent and exaggerated, and not unfrequently even gro- tesque. His earliest known work — a Madonna with angels and saints, (1458) — is preserved upon the bigb altar of tbe Franciscan cburcb at La Deruta, between Perugia and Todi. An Annunciation, of tbe year 1466, in tbe public gallery at Perugia, is an interesting picture ascribed to bim, severe and solemn, tbougb full of grace and feeling.* Above, is tbe First Person of tbe Trinity, among cberubim ; below, are Saints in prayer witb tbe donor and other figures. Tbe head of one of the angels is of great beauty. A Virgin and Child with Angels in the Brera is an example of his tender manner, without exaggeration or grotesqueness. Other altar- pieces by bim are in the church of the Castle of S. Severino (1468), and in S. Francesco at Gualdo (1471). Another, similar to the last named, in the sacristy of tbe principal church at Nocera (not far from Foligno), belongs to the finest works of this master. Tbe chief compartments of an altar- piece by him are in S. Niccolo, the church of tbe Augustins, at Foligno (1492) ; they include a Nativity, witb the Eesurrection above and Saints on each side. Tbe predella, containing scenes from the Passion, of highly animated and dramatic character, amounting almost to caricature, is now in theLouvre — the picture having been carried oif by the French, and only parts of it returned. Frescoes by Niccolo are also preserved in S. Maria fuori la Porta at Foligno ; they are much injured, however, and are of no high merit. Fragments still exist of the picture by him, originally belonging to the high altar in the cathedral at Assisi. They represent a Pieta, witb two angels, Avho, according to Vasari, weep so naturally that a better artist could hardly have been more successful. His last known production, the altar-piece in S. Angelo at La Bastia, not far from Perugia (1499), * It has also been attributed to another Umbrian painter, Bartolommeo Caporale, by whom there is a picture in the church of Castiglione del Laso on the lake of Perugia. Chap. VII.] BENEDETTO BONFIGLI. 229 is of inferior value. Many other of his works are found dispersed in the March of Ancona. Almost all those we have mentioned, according to the early, though at that time almost obsolete usage, consisted of several parts. One of his best pictui-es is a well-preserved triptych in the National Gallery with the Crucifixion in the centre, and four subjects, relating to the death of our Lord on the side wings. The colour is exceedingly bright and almost raw. There is deep feeling in the expressions, but with some of the painter's usual exaggeration. The " motive " in S. Francis turning his back to the spectator, and vehemently embracing the Cross, is finely conceived. Christ rising from the Tomb on one of the side wings recaUs Pietro della Francesca's fresco at Borgo San Sepolcro. A pleasing Madonna, a whole- length figure on a gold ground, in the Berlin Museum is ascribed to Niccolo. He attempted foreshortenings, and drew minutely and carefully. Without attributing to him much power and influence, and admitting that he is too often coarse, vulgar, and exaggerated, he yet held a place destined to be raised to the level of true beauty by Perugino. He is thus in a measure connected with the ultimate culmina- tion of Mapliael. He must have died after 1499. One of the earliest masters who brought the school of Perugia into notice was Benedetto Bonfigli. In the absence of all records regarding the early life of this painter, his alleged connection with Perugino receives no corroboration, nor does the character of his art supply the deficiency. He approaches in some respects the character of Pietro della Francesca, and in others that of Gentile da Fabriano and Benozzo Gozzoli. The frescoes in the Palazzo del Consiglio at Perugia (in the antechamber of the Delegates, now part of the public gallery), begun in 1454, are the earliest record of his art. They represent the legends of St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Ercolano. Though of no great merit in action or form, the heads are generally natural and expressive, but coarsely executed. In those of the women we already see the type which was subsequently adopted and developed by Perugino. The architectural back- grounds, chiefly views of Perugia with its town-hall as it 230 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII still exists (see woodcut), are correct in perspective and delicately executed. Bonjigli has a certain TJmbrian grace and sweetness of colour, with a love of detail almost akin to Flemish art, and his angels, usually wearing garlands of roses, have a charm of their own. His Madonnas have a very gentle, tender air and expression, recalling those of Fra Angelico, and have long light hair — the type being always strictly TJmbrian. His best work, an Adoration of the Kings in the public gallery at Perugia, is ostensibly of the year 1460. A Madonna with Saints, in the same collection, and two paintings on wood — Angels with the Instriunents of the Passion — belong to his more pleasing productions. On the other hand the figures in a picture of Chi'ist in Glory, and one representing the Acts of S. Bernardino, in the chapel of the brotherhood of that name, painted after 1461 (probably as a banner for processions), are stiff, hard, and portrait-like. The same may be said of a Madonna with a Dead Christ, and SS. Girolamo and Leonardo, of the year 1469, in S. Pietro de' Cassinensi. The date of his will, 1496, is the only clue to the approximate time of Bonfigli's death. The last-mentioned master is connected with a somewhat younger painter, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, who, in picturesque arrangement and application of his subject, and in certain refinements in the conception of his forms, is decidedly in advance of him, and to whom a high rank must be assigned ill the TJmbrian school. He was born between 1440 and 1445, and died at an advanced age in 1522. He probably learnt his art from Benozzo Gozzoli — he certainly experienced the in- fluence of the Florentine master. Amongst his most pleasing creations is a series of eight pictures, now in the public gallery of Perugia, representing events in the life of S. Bernardino of Siena, in which he displays vivacity, grace, and a rich imagination. One of these panels bears the date of 1473.* In the sacristy of S. Francesco de' Conventuali, at Perugia, are two pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul, inscribed with the name of the artist and the year 1487, which are very careful in execution and in excellent j)re- * Careful copies of these interesting pictures have been made for the Arundel Society. 2 B 2 Chap. VU.] PIETRO PERUGINO. 231 servation ; also the upper portion of a large semicircular picture, representing the Madonna and Child, and two ador- ing angels. A graceful Madonna with Angels, in fresco, by him is in the Palazzo del Consiglio (over the door of the Sala del Cadasto Nuovo) ; another is in a side chapel of S. Agostino. An ' Adoration of the Magi ' in the public gallery, Perugia, formerly ascribed to Periigino, is by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. In the National Gallery is a fine triptych by him — the Virgin and Child, with Saints and angels ; and in the Stadel Institute, Frankfort, a small but beautiful picture, also of the Madonna and Child, with Saints. ^' Fiorenzo' h drawing is always vigorous and sure, but he is apt to make the upper part of the body too long. His landscape back- grounds recall those of Benozzo Gozzoli. They are finely con- structed, with exquisite feeling, and enlivened by rivers and towns. The clouds in them are very characteristic from their sharply illumined edges." * There were several painters at Perugia of the family of Caporale. The best known is Benedetto, whose real name was Giovan Battista, by whom there are several pictui-es of little interest in the public gallery of that town. We now come to the greatest name associated with Perugia — Pietro Vannucci della Pieve (" de Castro plebis "), so called from his birthplace, Castello della Pieve, or more commonly, Pietro Periigino, from his residence at Perugia. He was born in 1446 or 1447. His first master was probably Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. He subsequently received instruction from Pietro della Francesca. It is known that he acted as assistant to this master at Arezzo. About the year 1475, Perugino appears in Florence, studying under VeroccMo with Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi. To this time Giovanni Santi refers in his chronicle : "Due glovln par d'etate e par d'amoie Leonardo da Vinci e'i Ferusino Pier della Pieve ch'h un divin pittore." It is knowTi that Perugino, inspired doubtless by Pietro della Francesca, was versed in the study of perspective, and * Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 263. 232 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VU. ho and Leonardo da Vinci arc named together for proficiency in that science by a contemporary writer. There is no doubt also that they studied the mysteries of the then new art of oil-painting together. This art Perugino was among the first to bring to perfection ; at the same time he excelled in the use of tempera. A circular pictm-e in the Louvre — a youthful work by him, showing the influence of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo — is a beautiful specimen of this method. The dates of Peruginds earlier works are difficult to define. Many small pictures exist, particixlarly in Florence, evidently executed before he had experienced the influence of the "Florentine school. They display some characteristic pecu- liarities, but belong decidedly to his earlier style. A circular picture of this kind — a Madonna with two adoring angels — is in the Museum of Berlin. A picture of the Crucifixion, with Saints, in the church of La Calza at Florence, reminds us of Luca SignorelU. About the year 1480 Perugino was summoned to Eome by Sixtus IV., in order to contribute his share to the decorations of the Sistine Chapel, where he was the only artist employed not a Florentine. Some of these works were afterwards destroyed to make room for Michael Angela's ' Last Judgment;' but that still remaining — Christ delivering the Keys to Peter (see woodcut) — is decidedly in the Flo- rentine manner in the composition, in the arrangement of the numerous groups of spectators, and in the drapery. It is, perhaps, the finest in this respect of all his works. We pass over other productions of this period. After Perugino had thus passed through the schools, he returned to his own first manner. If his early works indi- cate the prevailing tone of his mind and feelings, and if the eSect of study appears to predominate in those which foUow, the period in which he returned to his natural taste, embodying with it that force and clearness which his in- termediate study had taught, is necessarily the greatest and most interesting epoch of the artist's life. It was at this time he acquired that grace and softness, that tender en- thusiastic earnestness, which give so great a charm to his pictures ; and if they sometimes leave mnch to be wished Chap. VII.] PIETRO PERUGINO. 233 in force and variety of character, the heads — especially those depicting youth and ardent expression — are of surpassing beauty. In the colouring, again, both of the flesh and drapery, in the warm, bright skies, aud in the well-managed gradations of his landscapes, he had great and varied merit. Altogether these works are proofs, not only of the highest point of attainment in this school, but also evidences of its intrinsic defects. Perugino, it would seem, intentionally avoided the higher department of di-amatic historical painting, and all the other painters of the Perugian school (with the exception of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Pinturiccliio and JRaphael) remain in this respect considerably behind the Florentines. In accounting for this we must remember the comparative ignorance of anatomical action which prevailed in this school, and its restriction to a few and ever-repeated positions. The hitherto unexampled intensity of Perugino's otherwise monotonous expression, though it made amends for other absent qualities, yet became, in course of time, a source of faiKng in itself, by degenerating freq[uently into mere mannerism. Where a number of his pictures are seen together, the upcast eye and the expression of semi-woeful ecstasy soon pall upon the spectator. There is something characteristic also of Perugino in those rich and sparkling decorations of his robes and di-apery, which, in a more positive mode of viewing real life, would have taken a more subordinate position. The figures of angels, so numerous in his pictures, and which in the Florentine and Paduan school of the fifteenth century appear as powerful youths, generally half nude, are here represented, according to the early taste, draped, of no sex, and frequently of super- natural purity and beauty. His best works were executed between 1490 and 1505. The following are among the most celebrated. An altar-piece painted for the church of S. Domenico at Fiesole, dated 1493, representing the Madonna and Child enthroned, with theBaptist ~aSd St. Sebastian" standing beside them, now in the CFffizi — remarkableTor the ^ery _refined character and expression of the Virgin ; one with the" same date, somewhat similar ^n subject, in the picture gallery at Vienna ; and a Madonna with two Saints, 234 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap.A^IT. SS. Augustin and James, dated 1494, in the clim-ch of S. Agostino at Cremona. In 1495, the execution, or completion, of three splendid works show not only the perfection of his powers, but the rapidity of his hand. They are, the Pieta in the Pitti, formerly in S. Chiara, a work much injured by neglect, but still preserving features hardly surpassed even by his great scholar, and containing many heads of exquisitely pathetic expression ; * the enthroned Madonna aud Child surrounded by the patron Saints of Perugia, painted for and formerly in the Cappella del Magistrate in that city, and now, after having been taken to Paris, in the gallery of the Vatican ; f and the Ascension, painted for S. Pietro at Perugia, and now in the gallery at Lyons. The last mentioned picture formed part of an altar-piece in several compartments, which was also taken to Paris by the French, but now exists piecemeal in various galleries. The centre was presented by Pius VII. to the people of Lyons ; the lunette is in S. Germain I'Auxerrois at Paris. \ Three Saints in the Vatican, and five more in S. Pietro, Perugia, are from the pilasters forming the sides of the picture. The predella is in the Museimi at Eouen. In 1496 Pietro painted the ' Sposalizio,' or Marriage of the Virgin, once in the Duomo at Perugia, and now in the Museum of Caen in Normandy — a treatment of the subject subsequently adopted by Eaphael (see woodcut, p. 475). In 1497 he exe- cuted another excellent work — an altar-piece for the church of S. Maria Nuova at Fano, with the Virgin and Saints in the centre, an Entombment in the upper lunette, and in the predella five beautiful pictures from the life of the Virgin. From the year 1493 to the middle of 1498, Perugino was only at brief and rare intervals at Perugia, and appears to have been residing in diflerent parts of the Peninsula. In 1494, and again in 1496, we find him at Venice ; but no traces ol any works that he may have executed there remain.^ * A sketch for this picture is in the UfTizi collection of drawings. t See a curious aud amusing account of this picture given by Marotti io •Lettere pittoriche Perugine,' pp. 146-152. X Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 287. THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN ; an altar-piece by Pietro Perugino. in tlie ]\Iuseiun of Caen. ]). 234. Chap. VII.] PIETKO PERUGINO. 235 The picture of the Madonna and Cliild, round whom kneel six figures, while angels hover above, painted in 1498 for the Confraternity " dclla Consolazione " in Perugia, is in S. Domenico in that city. About the same time he painted the altax^piece called the ' Family of St. Anna,' formerly in the chui-ch of S. Maria de' Fossi at Perugia, and now in the Museum at Marseilles.* The greixj^ wgrk. by Perugino — the series of frescoes in the Sala del Cambio at Perugia — was completed about 1500, They bear the same relation to the master's fame as those in the Vatican do to that of Bapliael. For the ceiling of the Audience Hall he made a rich design — which is however, supposed to have been actually painted by his pupilSjf — with Apollo in his chariot drawn by four horses, in the centre. Around him are the presiding deities of the planets, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and Luna, with the signs of the Zodiac on their chariot wheels. They are enframed in arabesques, which exhibit the fine taste in decoration peculiar to the Umbrian school. On the walls of the same hall, and by his own hand, are the Nativity and Transfiguration, with the First Person of the Trinity presiding above ; the Virtues and classic heroes on the left ; the Prophets and the Sybils on the right. In these frescoes Perugino is seen in great perfection of colour, di-avving, and drapery. The master's own portrait is on one of the pilasters which divide the subjects ; and on an opposite pilaster the date of 1500. The rapidity of Perugino'fi labour is seen in another work of the same date (1500) — the Vallombrosa Assump- * Copies of the two children (SS. James Major and Simon) in this picture on a gold ground are in the sacristy of S. Pietro Martire, Perugia, and are said to be by Raphael, Signor Morelli, however, attributes them to Giannicola Manni. t Signor Cavalcaselle has surmised the assistance in it oi Raphael, then between sixteen and seventeen years of age. But according to Signor Rossi ('Storia Critica del Cambio di Perugia,' vol. ii. of the Giornale di Erudizione Artistica) documents show that Perugino's assistants in this work were a certain Giovanni di Francesco, known as Fantasia, a native of Perugia, and one Roberto, called by Vasari Montevarchi, from the place of his birth. There is no reason whatever to believe that Raphael had any share in it. It was almost finished when he arrived at Perugia and entered Ferugino's atelier. 236 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. tioQ, now in the Academy of Fine Arts at Florence. The Madonna and the four Saints in this picture are among his finest creations. The Commission for the chef-d'aeuvre of the master, the altar-piece from the Certosa near Pavia, now in the National Gallery, representing the Virgin adoring the Infant Christ in the centre, with the Archangel Michael on one side, and Rai^hael and Tobias on the other, was given in 1496, but the picture itself was probably not executed until 1500. It is a production the more worthy of note, if it be true, as Vasari says, that it was painted at the period when Michael Angela ridiculed the style of Perugino as " absurd and antiquated." In one sense, however, this work may be viewed as one of the highest specimens of the reticence and intensity of expression proper to the Quattro-centisti. In 1502 Perugino executed the Resurrection of our Lord (see woodcut) for the church of S. FrancescOjT'erugia. It is now in the Vatican, where it possesses a double interest as being believed to have been paitly the work of Raphael.* To the years 1504-1505 belong the wall-paintings at Citta della Pieve, and at Panicale. That at Citta della Pieve, in the church of S. Maria de' Bianchi, represents the Adoration of the Magi with munerous figures (see woodcut). It has beautiful parts, for instance, the Virgin and Child, though with all the master's weaknesses.f That at Panicale, in the church of S. Sebastian, representing the Martyrdom of the Saint, is a work of symmetrical composi- tion and delicate tones, but chiefly characteristic as being apparently painted on a dry wall in the method called " secco.'' It is dated 1505, and is in excellent preservation.! * Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle pronounce this assistance to consist more in a general working out of the whole picture upon Perugino's outlines, than in the execution of any particular figure. Signoi- Morelli, however, considers the picture to be by Lo Spagna from a cartoon by Perugino. The same composition is seen in a predella picture in the Munich Gallery ascribed to Raphael ; but also in Signer Morelli's opinion by Lo Spagna. ' Ital. Masters,' pp. 79 and 314. t Sir C. L. Eastlake remarks on this fresco, " The graceful and senti- mental old men are generally failures in Perugino. In youth his attitudes and airs are more appropriate, in women and children quite so." % See ' Martyrdom of S. Sebastian,' by the Editor. Arundel Society, 1856. It has been reproduced in chromo-lithography by the Society. THE RESIRRECTION; attributea to Pietro Perugino. in the gallfiy of the Vatican. p. 23G. •3 OS a 'So 3 a H o o El o a Chat. VII.] PIETRO PERUGINO. 237 It is sui^posed that Perugino removed in 1506 from Florence to Perugia, where he produced the fine work, the Madonna and Child between SS. Jerome and Francis, now in the National Gallery — remarkable for its delicate golden tone, and for the expression he has given to the heads. Hence he was summoned about 1507, by Julius II. to Rome, where, after working in the Vatican on the walls of the Camera dell' Iiiceudio, he was supplanted by his young scholar Raphael, who, however, preserved four medallions by him on the ceiling with representations of the First Person of the Trinity. Perugino failed when he attempted to represent action or movement. A signal instance of this may be seen in his ' Transligiu'atiou ' in the public gallery of Perugia, in which the attitudes of the wonder-struck Apostles are most awk- wardly rendered. In an allegorical picture in the Louvre, the ' Combat between Love and Chastity,' he show s himself inferior in this respect, as well as in imagination, and as a colourist, to Manfegna and Lorenzo Costa, whose companion pictiu'cs are hung in the same room.* On Perugino's final retui-n to Perugia, he gave himself up, like many painters of the time, to a mere mechanical dexterity, and worked principally for gain. He erected a large studio, in which several scholars were employed to execute com- missions from his designs. He thus amassed a considerable fortune, but at the expense of his art, becoming even weak in his colouring, which had constituted so great a part of his merit. En his later works, therefore, of which there are many in the chui'ches of Perugia and in foreign galleries, the greatest uniformity and repetition of design prevail, with consider- able inequality of execution, according as more or less gifted scholars were emj)loyed. His last works are strikingly feeble ; the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, of the year 1518, in S. Francesco de' Conventuali, Perugia, may be mentioned as * Among Perugino's best pictures to the north of the Alps may be mentioned the Virgin appearing to S. Bernard in the Munich Gallery, an admirable work, erroneously attributed by Vasari to Raffaelllno del Garbo. The small and beautiful picture—' Apollo and Marsias ' — formerly belong- ing to the late Jlr. Jlorris Moore, but now in the Louvre, once attributed to Eaphael, is now, by competent authorities, ascribed to Perugino. •2 c -2 238 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. fin exarajDle. Altogether, with the exception of the Cambio , frescoes, this city possesses rather the inferior than the better specimens of the master. His later works are also scattered about the adjacent places. He executed frescoes as late as 1523 at Fontignano, where he died of the plague in that year. Perugino's chief quality is his fine luminous colour, with a certain sentimental grace which pervades his school. But he is often tame and conventional, and his upturned heads, a favourite feature in his pictures, are ill foreshortened and frequently out of drawing. Of portraits by him wo may mention that in the Uffizi of one Francesco, an engraver of gems, long supposed to be the painter's own. Bernardo PinfuriccMo, the son of Benedetto (Betto) Biagio, was born at Perugia in 1454. He w as called after his father, di Betto or Betti ; from the lowness of his stature, Pintu- ricchio, or Plntoriccio, the little painter ; and sometimes, from his deafness, " il SordicJiio." Properly speaking, he is the historical painter of the Umbrian school, and in some respects, a more gifted artist than Perugino, who in his earlier and more realistic Florentine type he greatly re- sembles. According to his conventional treatment of the department of expression, it would appear that he only superficially adopted the feeling of his colleague, without being really imbued with it. His chief peculiarity is seen in his varied conception of character, in which he marks the transition from the Umbrian school to that founded by Baphael — the so-called Eoman — showing the decay of that spiritualism which especially distinguishes the former. A less brilliant and subtle colourist than Perugino — less tender and religious in sentiment — he displays greater dramatic vigour and imity in his works.* Pinturicchio's first master was probably Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, * See 'The frescoes by Bernardo Pinturicchlo in the collegiate church of 6. Maria Maggiore at Spello,' by the Editor, Arundel Society, 1858. Signer Morclli says of Pinturicchio, of whose works he has made a special study, " if, in representing serious religious subjects, he does not come up to Perugino as regards proportions, finish, and filling of space, if his forms are not so noble, and the expression of religious sentiment not so deep as in Pietro; yet, on the other hand, Pinturicchio is, to my mind, less conscious, A-;- V^-^'-X ,.k ^^y--' ',:'i /vV'.v--, ,-v. VrRGIN, CHILI), ANGELS AND DONOR; by rmturicchio. iu the Sacristy of the Duomo of S. Sevorino p. 239. Chap. VII.] PINTURICCHIO. 239 to whom liis early works show an afifinity.* He prohably joined Perugino upon that painter's return from FlorencGj and became his assistant, and even the director of his atelier, or workshop. He came to imitate Perugino b manner so successfully that some of his pictures have passed under the name of that master. To about this period of his career may be attributed the charming altar-piece in the sacristy of the cathedral of S. Severino — representing the Virgin and Child, with two angels and a kneeling donor, which has all the delicate grace and reiinement of Perugino without his aifectation (see woodcut). In 1479, when in his twenty- fifth year, we find him at Eome honoured by commissions from Cardinal della Eovere. From 1480 to 1484 he was employed with Pemjino in decorating the walls of the Sistine Chapel, and Signer Morelli attributes to his hand two of the celebrated frescoes in that building — the Baptism of Christ, hitherto ascribed to Perugino, and the Journey of Moses, assigned to Luca SignorelU.^ Both, blackened and obscured by the smoke of incense and tapers, have had to undergo repeated cleaning and restoration, so that in their present state but little of their original colour remains. Whilst Pinturicchio was engaged on these works, or after he had completed them, between 1483 and 1485, ho painted for his patron, Cardinal della Eovere, and other Eoman dignitaries, the frescoes representing the histories of the Virgin and of St. Jerome, and other subjects, in three chapels and on the vault of the choir in the chui'ch of S. Maria del Popolo — which attest the skill to which he had attained. Probably in consequence of the reputation which he acquired more fresh and racy thau Perugino, and does not so often fatigue ns by monotony, and that conventional sweetness, which, especially in the productions of his last twenty years, makes Pietro positively wearisome." ' Italian Masters,' &c., p. 284. * Signer Morelli (' Italian Masters,' &c., p. 264) finds this affinity in a picture representing the Crucified Saviour between SS. Jerome and Christopher ia the Borghese Gallery, Rome, there ascribed to Carlo Crivelli, which he considers an early work by Pinturi'cchio. He also points out certain peculiarities in the manner of Pmiuriicc/i/o which are characteristic of Fiorenzo, t For the grounds of this opinion we must refer our readers to the work of this accomplished critic : ' Italian Masters in German Galleries.' pp. 265-269. 240 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. from the execution of these works, lie was employed by Innocent VIII. and Alexander VI. in decorating parts of the Castle of S. Angelo, and six Halls which the latter- Pontiff had added to the Vatican, known as the " Appartamento Borgia." His frescoes in the Castle have perished ; but those in five of the Vatican rooms have been preserved, those in the sixth having been destroyed by Leo X. to make room for Giovanni da JJdine and Perino del Vaga. In this grand series of wall-paintings Pinturicchio shows himself a perfect master of mural decoration. These interesting compositions, mostly religious subjects, are full of life and movement, and the arabesques which frame them, and cover the ceiling, are of exquisite beauty.* A " cartellino " in the fourth room is inscribed with the date of 1494. He was also commissioned by Innocent VIIT. to paint on the walls of the Belvidere now called the Museo Clementino, views of Italian cities " in the Flemish manner" — now almost obliterated. Among the best works by the master to be found at Rome are the frescoes in the Buffulini Chapel, in the church of S. Maria Araceli, representing the history of S. Bernardino of Siena — somewhat slight and hard in execution, but full of expression and individual life.f The four Evangelists are painted in this style on the vaulted ceiling, each with those conventional allusions — for example, St. John looking at his pen to see whether it be sharp enough — which recur so frequently in Pinturicchio. In these wall-paintings there is much that recalls Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, especially in the somewhat disj)roportionate length of the figures — as in the subject of the Investiture of the Saint — and, at the same time, Perugino — as in the background with the temple in that of the Saint's death. The backgrounds, as others by the master, are of great variety and beauty — with trees of different kinds, such as cypresses, and palms, and buildings and rocks — proving Pinttu-icchio to have had a true feeling * The fine suite of apartments which contain these frescoes was long almost entirely closed to the public, and Pinturicchitjs frescoes have consequently only been recently known and appreciated. An excellent copy of one of them has been made tor the Arundel Society. t Copies of some of these frescoes have also been made for the Arundel Society. Chap. VII.] PINTURICCHIO. 241 for landscape.* Other frescoes of uncertain date and mnch injured must be added to the master's works at Eomc^as those in the ceiling of the sacristy of the church of S. Cecilia in Trastevere. Those in the church of S. Croce in Gerusa- lemme attributed to him are more probably by a scholar or imitator. During his labours in Eome, in 1491-2, PinturiccMo was called to Orvieto to contribute to the decorations of the Cathedral ; but whatever he executed there has been so neglected or injured that, were it not for documentary evidence, it might be doubted whether he had painted there at all. In 1496 he left Eome for Perugia. The first work upon which he was engaged there was an altar-piece in several compartments, executed for the church of S. Anna, and now in the public gallery. In this picture, perhaps the most beautiful that he ever painted, the character and the ex- pression of the heads are conceived and rendered with the deepest feeling. The Annunciation, in two small compart- ments, is of exquisite charm. In 1500, Pint'uriccMo, then in his forty-sixth year com- menced a series of frescoes in the collegiate church at Spello. These important works, though long forgotten and in no way exempted from the common maltreatment once common to all art in Italy, have at all events not suffered the tender mercies of restoration, and are now rescued from oblivion by the labours of the Arundel Society. They consist of three subjects — the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Dispute with the Doctors. In the Annunciation — a composition with rich architecture — is seen, as if suspended from the wall, and beneath the shelf on which volumes are lying, the portrait of the painter with his signature, and between a string of beads, which hangs from the frame, are a palette and brush. On a pilaster in the same fresco is the date, 1501. The heads here are of a very different type to Perugino's —some of them very beautiful, and of a more delicate oval. The Nativity is the least successful of llie * Signer Movelli says that "as an imaginative landscape painter Pinturiachio surpasses almost all of his contemporaries," 'Italian Masters, &c.,* p. 285. 242 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. tliree, being scattered in comjDOsition ; but the singing angels have all Perugino's grace. The ' Christ Disputing with the Doctors ' has much dignity and individuality, and is charac- teristic of the place held by the painter between Perugino and Baphael. On the left, in a group of figures, is the portrait of the Prior Trojolo Baglioni, at whose expense the frescoes were executed. He is in a long black robe, and attended by a priest with a purse in his hand. In the background is one of those polygonal domed buildings, in- tended to typify the Temple of Jerusalem, and probably originally designed by Bramante, introduced by Perugino in ' Christ's Charge to Peter ' in the Sistine Chai)el, and again in his ' Sj)Osalizio ' at Caen ; by Bapliael in his ' Sposalizio ' in the Brera ; and by many other painters of the period in their compositions. The master was next engaged (1504) on what remains his most important monument, the decorations of the celebrated library attached to the Cathedral at Siena. They include a series of ten historical subjects from the life of Enea Silvio Piccolomini — Pope Pius II.* (see woodcut). In some of (hese frescoes PinturiccMo is supposed to have been assisted, or to have been furnished with designs, by the youthful Baphael. This sui^position, which is unsuj)ported by any trustworthy evidence, is founded upon three drawings attributed to the latter mastei', but now proved to be by PinturiccMo, who bound himself by a contract to execute the whole with his own hand."!" This great work which, from the profusion and beauty of its arabesques and archi- tectural ornaments, is perhaps the most perfect example existing of this class of internal decoration, after having been interrupted by many minor undertakings, was completed in 1507. The master's last known work is a beautiful cabinet picture, ' the Procession to Calvary,' now in the Casa Bor- romeo at Milan, painted in 1513, in which year his life * Engraved in the"RaccoIta delle piii celebri pitture esisteuti nella citta di Siena," Florence, 1825 ; and by the Arundel Society, with a general view of the chapel in chromo-lithographyo + See Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p.' :i28,-&c ^NEAS PICCOLOMINI GOING TO THE COUNCIL OF BASLE a fresco by Piuturicchio. in the Library at Siena. p. i42. GiiAr. VII.] TEEUGINO'S SCHOLAKS. 243 came to a tragic conclusion ; for it is reported that, at a time when he was ill, his wife ran away with a lover, and left him to die of neglect and starvation. Vasari was, for some unexplained reason, unjust to this painter, and wrote disparagingly of his character and of his works. It is only of late that the great merits of PinturiccMo have been recog- nised. "What those merits were is sufficiently proved by the numerous drawings by him in public and private collections, which are still ascribed to Baphael and Perugino.* Tliat he was held in high esteem by his fellow-citizens is shown by his having been elected, in 1501, Decemvir of Perugia in the place of Pietro Perugino. Pintmicchio never mastered the use of oil ; but remained true to the system of tempera. Pictures by him are rare to the north of the Alps. He is badly represented in the National Gallery, the works there attributed to him being of doubtful authenticity.! The feeble fresco, transferred to canvas, of the return of Penelope (No. 911) is more probably by a scholai', perhaps by Girolamo Genga. The Berlin Museum contains a reliquary with excellent paintings of the early time of the master, representing St. Augustin with SS. Benedict and Bernard. One of PinturiccMo' & ablest scholars was Matteo Balducci, born between 1480 and 1490 at Fontignano near Perugia. He was probably the principal assistant of his master in the frescoes of the Piccolomini Library at Siena, and to him Signer Morelli attributes the fine portrait of a young man, with long brown hair and black cap, in the Berlin Museum (No. 245a), there ascribed doubtfully to Francia- higio.'l Another name which has been included among the as- sistants of Perugino and the companions of Ecqihael is that * Sio-imr Morelli has sliown how nmny drawings attributed to these masters in public and private collections are unquestionably by Pintu- ricchio, and has done full justice to the painter in his ' Italian Masters in German Galleries.' t See Frizzoni, ' I'Arte Italiana nella Galleria Nazionale di Londra, J). 23. X 'Italian Masters,' &c., p. 349. This Matteo Balducci must not be confounded with another painter, Matteo di Giuliano di Lorenzadi Balduccio, Ukewise from Fontignano, a pupil of Bazzi. 24-4 THE UMBKIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VH. of Andrea Allovisi, known as I'lngegno. The Sybils in the lower church of Assisi, usually quoted as his work, arc much later in date, and are j)ossibly, like other frescoes there, by Adone Doni. Various pictures, more or less weak, of a Pcruginesque class — such as a fresco of a Virgin and Child and two Saints in the ' Confraternita ' of the Madonna della Luce at Perugia — bear his name, though in no instance founded on signature or other certain data. A ' Virgin and Child ' in the National Gallery, signed A. A. P. (? Andreas Alovisus pinxit) is attributed to him. Next to JRaphael, the most distinguished of Perugino's followers is Giovanni di Fietro, called Lo Spagna, Avho also probably commenced his artistic career in the studio of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. His father may have been a Spaniard, or he himself may have been in Spain, and hence his name ; but there is no evidence of his having been born in that country. There is no record of his birth, or of the period when he joined Ferugino. His style is a mixture of the Pcruginesque and early Eaphaelesqiie, which alternately predominate, and are always carried out with conscientious finish and delicacy. Uj)on the whole, he shows the greatest affinity to Ferugino, whose influence is seen strongly impressed on frescoes j^aiuted by him as late as 1526-27. One of Lo Spagna's earliest works, though undated, is a Nativity executed for a Convent at Todi and now in the Vatican. In 1507 he is proved to have undertaken a Coronation of the Virgin for the church of the Eiformati in the same town. He repeated in 1522 the same subject, and in most respects the same composition, for the Franciscans of S. Martino at Trevi, now in the public gallery of that town. An Assumj)tion in the mortuary chapel of their convent is one of his finest works. Of great excellence also is an Entombment in the church of the Madonna delle Lagrime near Trevi. Two canvases in the same church contain single figures of St, 'Catherine of Alexandria, and of St. Cecilia, finely drawn, especially the head and hands of St. Catherine, and show- ing the influence of Itaphael. Zo Spagna'H best picture, painted 1516, is in the chapel of S. Stefaiio, in S. Francesco 2 D lM^m^:'^'^^^^^M^£^ The so-called "Ancajani Raphael," attiibuteil to Lo Spagua iu the Berlin Museum. p. 245. Chap. VII.] TEIIUGINO'S SCHOLARS. 245 at Assisi, rej)resentiiig the Madonna enthroned, with three Saints on each side. These are grand and sovei*e figures, but full of genuine feeling and purity, and remarlfablo for grace and nobleness. That which is so attractive in the early pictures of Baphael is here followed out in the happiest manner. In the " Stanza di S. Francesco," in the choir of the church of the Angeli, near Assisi, he painted a number of portraits of Saints, chiefly of the Franciscan Order, in varied action, and iu fine drawing and colom*. Lo Spagna principally resided at Spoleto, where he has left numerovi.; frescoes with scenes from the life of St. James in a church dedicated to the Saint between that town and Foligno. Some of the latest of these show great feebleness. Evidences of his industry appear in frescoed churches at Eggi and at Gavelli, near Spoleto ; the Coronation of the Virgin being the subject most in demand from his hand. His death occurred before 1530. Various pictures which formerly bore the name of Baphael are now ascribed to Lo Spagna. Among them, the ' Agony in the Garden,' in the National GaUery (No. 1032) ; a Virgin and Child in Lord North- brook's collection ; the so-called ' Acajani Eaphael ' in the Berlin Musemn (see woodcut) ; some predella pictures in the Munich Gallery ; and the frescoes from the ' Magliana ' near Rome transferred to canvas — one now in the Louvre, and the remainder in the Museum of the Capitol.* The name of Jacopo Siculo appears as a follower of Lo Spagna, of whom he was the son-in-law. A signed picturi by him of a Raphaelesque character, dated 1538, is in the church of S. Mamigliano at Spoleto. Another scholar of Perugino, or more probably of Pinturic- cliio, whose influence he shows, Eusebio da S. Giorgio, some- times emulates Lo Spagna in the imitation of BapliaeVs, early works. Signor Jlorelli had ascribed to him the painted standard preserved at Citta di Castello as one of the first productions of that great master.| The Adoration of the * The ' Resurrection ' in the Vatican, assigned to Perugino, may be by Lo Spagna. See ante, p. 236, note. For some notes relating to this painter, see Archivio Storico dell' 'Arte, Fas. 3 (1888) p. 80. t 'Italian Masters,' p. 317, note, but see p. 417 note. 2 D 2 246 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. Kings in the public gallery, Perugia, by him, dated 1505 or 1506, is powerfully conceived. Two other pictures also by him in the same gallery, dated respectively 1508 and 1509, are very Kaphaelesque in character. His two frescoes in the cloisters of S. Damiano at Assisi — an Annunciation, and St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (1507) — are finely understood and full of life and grand effect. His best work is the altar-piece in the Franciscan church at Matellica, signed and dated 1512. It is imbued with the study of Mafliael — for instance, in the little Baptist seated in the centre below. The heads and extremities of all the figures are admirable in drawing, modeling, and colour. The predella j)icture shows a combination of Raphael, Perugino and Pinturiccliio. No later works by Eusebio are known, though he lived considerably beyond that time. Thd other scholars of Perugino and Pinturicchio, with whose works the churches of Perugia and the neighbouring country overflow, imitated their manner without, however, rivalling them in feeling or power of colouring. Among them may be mentioned the following : Giannicola Manni — by whom there is an altar-piece in the public gallery at Perugia, altogether Peruginesque in character, represent- ing Christ in glory between the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, with nimierous Saints ranged below. Other pictures by him are in the same collection. But his principal work is the decoration of the chapel of the Cambio at Perugia, the hall of which contains the frescoes of Perugino already described. In it he shows himself a brilliant colourist, and, in the elegant and fanciful arabesques, an artist of much imagination. "Whilst engaged on this work, he went to Florence. He completed it on his return to his native place with frescoes in the style oi Andrea del Sarto. Giannicola and Eusehio da S. Giorgio may, with Balducci, have assisted Pinturicchio in decorating the Piccolomini Library at Siena. Tiberio d'Assisi painted some frescoes inscribed with his name in the church of the Angcli near Assisi. Gerino da Pistoja, to whom has been attributed the fresco of the Last Supper in the refectory of the suppressed convent of S. < CiiAr. VII.] PERUGINO'S IMITATORS. 247 Onofrio, at Florence, once ascribed to RajjJtael * (see wood- cut), was a scholar and assistant of Pinturicchio. In the suppressed Convent of S. Lucchese, near Poggibonsi, are two frescoes by him representing the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. His name and the date of 1502 are on a ' Madonna del Soccorso ' — the Virgin saving a child from the Evil Spirit while the mother kneels in prayer — in the chm'ch of S. Agostino at Borgo S. Sepolcro. But the picture is too poor to serve as an example. His last known work is a Virgin am] Child and Saints in the Uffizi, dated 1529. Not unsuccessfu\ imitators oi Perugino and Francia were the two brothers Zaga- nelli of Cotignola (pupils of Eondinello), and Anlonio Pirri. The works of this painter, which are rare, sometimes pass for those of the master. In the Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery (Milan) there are two pictures by him — a St. Sebastian inscribed with his name, and the meeting of the Virgin and St, Elisabeth, also signed. By Giovanni Battista da Faenza, called Bertucci, there is a signed altar-piece in four compartments, dated 1506, in the Faenza Gallery. It has much merit, especially in the profile of the little St. John. Like Marco Palmezzano, he was fond of introducing gilt architecture and arabesques into his back- grounds. Berto di Giovanni, Francesco Melanzio, Sinihaldo Ibi,^ Giovanni Battista Caporali (by whom there are several pictures in the Pinacoteca at Perugia, in which he appears as a coarse imitator of Bonfigli), Pompeo Cocchi (by whom there is an altar-piece in the Duomo, Perugia), and Berto di Giovanni were all Umbriau artists of very secondary merit. Works by most of these painters may be found in the towns and villages of the upper valley of the Tiber. But the Perugiau branch of the Umbrian school may be best studied in the interesting and well arranged public gallery of Perugia, where works by the various scholars of Perugino, Piniuriccliio, and Bapliael, taken from churches and public institutions, have been collected. It only remains for us to mention Girolamc Genga, who was born at Urbino, and, according to Vasari, first studied * Sigrior Morelli is, however, of ojiiiiion that this fresco is Ijv Oiannicola Manni. f He may generally be recognised by his type of the Madonna, witli long and bvuad plaits of hair on either side of her face. 248 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VII. under Luca Signorelli, and then passed into the school of Ferugino as his assistant. He soon, however, departed from the manner of that master, and invented the extravagant and fantastical style for which he is principally known. A large altar-piece by him in the Brera, representing the Virgin ■ and Child with the Fathers of the Church and numerous Saints, surrounded by angels scattering flowers, is a very characteristic example of this style and approaches to cari- cature. He is also seen in many works at Siena, where he laboured for some time. With all his extravagance he appears to have been a man of much ability, who, through his strong will, exercised considerable influence over his con- temporaries. He was also an architect. He died in 1551. Adone JDoni at first followed the same general Umbiian style, but afterwards adopted that of the so-called Eoman school formed by Baphael. A graceful ' Adoration of the Kings ' in his first manner is in S. Pietro at Perugia.* Domenico di Paris Alfani, and his son Orazio, are of the same class. Domcnico's name was associated in friendship with the youthful Bapliael at Perugia, and the letter to him from the great master, with a sketch of the Borghese Entombment at the back, is preserved in the V/icar Collection at Lille. He and his son Orazio both equally copied the designs of Bapliael, Andrea del Sarto and others. The Madonna and Child by Domenico, in our woodcut, strongly recalls the Orleans Baphael in the late Mr. Eoger's collection. In their later works, in which it is difiicult to distinguish father from son, the influence of i7 Bosso Fiorentino, who fled to Perugia at the sack of Eome, is discernible. The two are found working together on a Crucifixion, with SS. Jerome and ApoUonia, as late as 1533, in which year Domenico is believed to have died. A graceful and highly finished Holy Family in the tribune of the Ufiizi, hitherto attributed to Orazio Alfani, is now given to Bidolfo Ghirlandajo.'\ Lastly, we find among Perugino's scholars the Florentine * Adone Doiii painted some Sybils in S. Francesco at Assisi, late in the sixteentli century. It has been sometimes erroneously asserted that Raphael imitated them ; but they were executed Ions: after the great artist's death. t ilorelli's 'lialiiin Masters, &c.,' p. 348, note. HOLY FAMILY; by Ilouienico ili Paris Alfaiii 1>. 24«, Chap. VIII.] THE NEAPOLITAN PAINTERS. 249 Francesco Ubertini, surnamed U Bacchiacca, (1494-1557)who deserves special notice. His pictures, whicli are rare, generally contain many figures, and show fancy aiid elegance of design. An excellent example — at one time strangely attributed to Albert Biirer ! — is in the collection of Prince Giovanelli at Venice. It represents Moses striking the rock, and has many graceful groups with minutely executed details of much taste. A predella in three compartments by him in the Ufiizi, representing the history of St. Acasius, is very highly finished, with many excellent heads, and in a very pleasing tone of colour. Two of his best works, according to Vasari, representing scenes from the history of Joseph, formerly at Corsham, are in the National Gallery. He had a brother named Baccio Vhertini, also a scholar of Peru(jino, by whom there is a ' Crucifixion ' in the same gallery. Bocco Zoppo, whose peculiar hardness reminds us of his namesake Marco Zoppo, although he belonged to an entirely difterent school, was also a pupil of Perugino. An Adoration of the Shepherds, inscribed with Bocco' s name, is in the Berlin Museum. Long after the death of Perugino until the latter half of the sixteenth century, the painters of Perugia imitated his manner and clung to his modes of conception, when the intrusion of a few artists of naturalistic tendency at once put an end to these feeble remains of a once great and admirable aim. CHAPTER VIII. THE SO-CALLED NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. The patriotism of Neapolitan writers on art has induced them to claim for their country a distinct and original school of painting, and to protest against the neglect with which it has been treated by Vasari and others who have dealt with the history of art in Italy.* To support this * De Dominici, 'Vite de' Pittori, Scultori ed Avchitetti Napolitani,' &c. Signer Frizzoni, in his able essay ' Napoli ne' suoi rappoiti coll' Arte det Rinascimento,' published in the 'Archivio Storico Italiano,' 4th series, vols. i. and ii. for the year 1878, has treated this subject exhaustively, and has proved that from first to last there was no true Neapolitan school of painting. 250 SO-CALLED NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. [Chap. YIH. claim they have not hesitated to assign works to artists who appear to have had no existence, and to falsify dates. It can, however, be proved that there was no indigenous school of painting reflecting the character and genius of the Neapolitan people, and showing a decided individuality and progressive development, like those of Tuscany or Umbria, or of Northern Italy. With few exceptions, every artist who laboured in the Neapolitan territories, from the earliest to the latest times, was either of foreign origin, or Avas the scholar or the imitator of a foreign master, or under his influence.* Thus 3Ientano, who is re- corded to have painted in the beginning of the fourteenth century (1305), in the Monastery of Monte Vergine near Avellino, not far from Naples, an altar-piece famed for a legend connected with the Madonna's head, came from Arezzo in Tuscany. Traces may have existed in Southern Italy of the art of the various races which overran that part of the Peninsula and Sicily — of the Lombards, the Arabs, and the Normans ; but the fact that Giotto was invited to Naples by King Robert, in 1330, proves that at tliat time no native painter capable of undertaking works of importance was to be found there. That he exercised a certain influence in the Neapolitan territory is evident ; but there, as in other parts of Italy, he bequeathed his art to inferior men who followed the letter more than the spirit of the great master. The fourteenth century was there characterised by no works of note. An immediate connection with the style of Giotto is only recognisable in the illumination of a manuscript in the British Musemn,f executed by order of King Eobert, the same monarch who invited Giotto to Naples. The illumina- tions are of a symbolical import, and agree with the school of Giotto in the mode of expressing allegorical subjects. We see, for instance, the figures of the seven liberal Arts kneeling before Pegasus, beneath whose hoof gushes forth the fount of song ; while Italy, as a weeping female, is standing before the king. The careful execution of this work reminds us so much of Giotto, th.it his personal influence may almost bo * For the so-called school of Otranto, see note, p. 69. f See Wa.agen, ' Kunstw. und Kunstler in England,' vol. i., p. 149, CuAi'.VIIL] EARLY PAINTERS AT NAPLES. 261 inferred. The emotions arc clearly expressed, the actions unusually lively and speaking. Of especial beauty is the piece in which seven angels are binding the demons. Here we see the happiest aim at grandeur, dignity, and beauty. Great obscurity prevails as to the early Neapolitan painters. Pictures belonging to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries attributed to native artists are to be found in the churches of Naples, and in the department of the Museum in that city specially reserved for the so-called Neapolitan school ; but they show for the most part so decided a Flemish influence that it can scarcely be doubted that they are the productions of Flemish painters, or of men who had learnt their art from them. Among such works may be mentioned the full-length figure of the Domenican St. Vincent Ferrer, surrounded by a number of small panels representing legends connected with him, in the church of S. Pietro Martire ; St. Francis presenting the rules of his Order to his followers in that of S. Lorenzo ; and others in that of S. Domenico. All these, from their coloiu'ing, their minute finish and their technical execution, apj)ear to be of Flemish origin. A picture in the public gallery representing St. Jerome extract- ing a thorn from the paw of his lion, long passing for the masterpiece of an early mythical Neapolitan painter called Colantonio del Fiore, is now ascribed to the school of Borjer Van der Weyden. Others in the same collection attributed to one Simone Papa have the same decidedly Flemish character — as a St. Michael weighing souls between two kneeling donors attended by their patron Saints, in which the figure of the Archangel is apparently taken from Memlince, ' Last Judgment ' at Dantzig. Such jjictures as do not show this foreign influence are of so rude a character that they do not deserve notice. A work formerly ascribed to Simone Napolitano, in the church of S. Lorenzo Maggioro, is now proved, by an in- scription which it bears, to be by a Sienese painter who was probably established in Naples. At the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries Pintu- ricchio and Perugino painted altar-pieces for the churches of Montoliveto and S. Gennaro (Naples), which still exist — 252 SO-CALLED NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. [Chap. VIII. that by the former (the Assumption) is now in the Naples Museum. From that time the Umbrian influence is percep- tible in Neapolitan art — as in the frescoes in the cloisters of the church of S. Sevcrino attributed to Antovlo Solario, called Lo Zingaro, a painter of whom Neapolitan writers on art loudly boast. His history as given by them, and repeated by later Italian authors, is one series of the marvellous in fact, and inconsistent in date. His alleged marriage with the daughter of another apparently imaginary painter, Colantonio del Fiore, is not confirmed by any trust- worthy record. The pictures assigned to him at Naples and elsewhere are too diverse in period and style to have come from the same hand, and some are identified by modern connoisseurship as the productions of later painters. Not a single authentic worlc by him is known. In the Leuchten- berg Gallery at St. Petersburg he is confounded with his namesake, Andrea Solario of Milan, and in the Munich Gallery two figures of St. Ambrose and St. Louis, also of the Lombard school, pass under his name. The frescoes in the cloisters of the church of S. Severino, at Naples, which are supposed to be his principal work, as far as they can be judged in their present much and barbarously repainted condition, appear to be by a scholar or imitator of Pintn- riccMo. They consist of twenty large pictiires from the history of St. Benedict, simple and clever compositions, with no very grand type of heads, but of delicate modeling and good coloui'ing. Their landscape backgrounds show their connection with PinturiccMo and the Umbrian school. Among Lo Zingaro's scholars are classed by Neapolitan writers two half-brothers, Pietro and Ippolito DonzeUi, the one born 1451, the other 1455, who are stated to have assisted him in some of the frescoes in the cloisters of S. Severino. But it is now ascertained that they received their art education in Florence, where Ippolito served his apprenticeship to Nero de' Bicci. Various panels in the Naples Museum are assigned to them, but, as with those attributed to Lo Zingaro, they are all too diverse in style to be the work of the same artists. Silvestro de' Buoni, Giovanni Ammanato, and others, are believed of still less importance. CuAP. IX.] THE VERONESE TAINTERS. 253 Cola dclV Antnlricc, or Filotesio, or Fislotesi, is a dry painter reputed of Neapolitan origin, who laboured chiefly in Ascoli and its vicinity. His pictures are signed, and their dates extend from 1512 to 1543.* He was also an architect. In Sicily, also, the style of Giotto found entrance, and led to further development. This is proved by the miniatures which adorn the deed of the foundation of the Order of the Holy Ghost, 1352, now in the National Library at Paris. Though the proportions are long and meagre, the heads are animated, the actions significant and graceful, and the artist's feeling is dolicate. CHAPTER IX. THE VEllONESE SCHOOL. In Ui)per or North Italy, as in Tuscany, a new tendency in art commenced with the fourteenth century. Coeval with the forms of the Gothic style, we now observe the expression of the feelings, and more or less animation of the figui-es, and a totally new and dramatic mode of treatment. The first appearance of these novelties in art may be considered as local and independent developments. Soon, however, the influence of Giotto began to act upon them, compelling the schools of Upper Italy to efforts on which the impress of his mind is clearly exhibited. We will commence our notice of these schools by that of Verona, the one which appears to have exercised the most influence in the north of the Peninsula, and whose develop- ment can be most satisfactorily traced until it attained to its culminating point in Paul Veronese. Although it may, at times, have experienced foreign influence — such, for instance, as that of Mantegna — it maintained to the last its individuality, and the same types and characteristics may be traced in the works of its successive masters. Like other Italian cities, Verona possessed, from a very * A Virgin enthroned with the Child, :md three Saints, by him, belonging to Col. Stirling, is signed " De Philoteschis escellens Cola JIagister Pictor Amatricius nobile pinxit opus," and dated 1512. 254 TPIE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. early period, and before the revival of the arts in the thirteenth century, artists who decorated churches and public buildings with rude wall-paintings. Such early works are still to be seen in the ancient church of S. Zeno. They have no particular character or style to distinguish them from other productions of the period of a similar kind. The earliest known work signed by its author is an altar-piece in the public gallery, representing the Trinity, the Corona- tion of the Virgin and various Saints, bearing the inscription "Opus Turoni, 1360." Paintings probably by the same hand are to be found in several public edifices in Verona.* The influence of Giotto which contributed, as we have seen, so greatly to the development of the art of painting throughout the Italian Peninsula, is not traceable in the existing works of Veronese painters until we come to those of Aldichiero, or Altichiero da Zeoio, so called from his birthplace, and Jacopo d'Avanzo, a native of Verona, who flourished in the second half of the fourteenth century.f " Altichiero, who was probably born about 1330, aj)pears to have died before the end of the century. He painted, according to Vasari, the great hall of the Palace of the Signoria in Verona with episodes from the siege of Jerusalem as described by Josephus, and was employed, in company with his fellow-citizen D'Avanzo, in decorating other public buildings and churches, in which remains of their work may still be found — as in S. Anastasia. The two having been invited to Padua, they began there together, in 1376, the decorations of the chapel of S. Felice in S. Antonio, and in 1377 those of the chapel of S. Giorgio adjoining that church. They were both, no doubt, inspired by Giotto's wondei-ful works in the Arena, or Scrovegno, chapel. They were not, however, as it has been assumed, his scholars or followers, but preserved their distinctive Veronese character with a brighter and more lively colouring, and more ample foi-ms than those of the Florentine master. * Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have given a list of them in their ' History of Painting in North Italy,' vol. i., p. 449, note, and ' History of Painting in Icaly,' vol. ii., pp. 231 and 232. t D'Avanzo of Verona must not be confounded with Jacopo d^Avanzo of Bologna, nor with Jacobus of Verona, painters of very inferior merit. Chap. IX.] ALTICHIERO. 255 The respective claims of Altichiero and d'Avanzo to the highest place, and the right adjustment of their share in these remarkable works, are debated points. As respects the chapel of S. Felice, formerly S. Jacobo, it appears from existing docimients that the payments for the Avall-paintings there were made to the former, who probably executed the greater part of them, as well as those in the chapel of S. Giorgio, and who was certainly a far better painter than d' Avanzo, judging by the worlcs of the latter, signed with his name, in the Church of S. Michele (Padua). Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle are justified in declaring that it is not an exaggeration to say that the chapel of S. Felice is the noblest monument of the pictorial art of the fourteenth century in North Italy, and that its frescoes contribute to assign a high place in the history of art to the painters of Verona.* They have unfortunately suffered much from restoration. This chapel contains a series of frescoes, representing scenes from the legends of St. James the elder, and, in three divisions on the principal wall, a Crucifixion, all arranged in a peculiar manner, resulting from the form of the architecture. The first seven pictures appear to be by the hand of Altichiero. They are compositions full of life and expression, of powerful and decided drawing, and rich in characteristic " motives." Giotto's dramatic mode of conception is adopted here with much spirit. In that pictui-e, for instance, where St. James is instructing those who have been led away by the magicians, the various scenes of the listening crowd, of the plotting magicians, and of the final destruction of these latter by fiends, are combined in the most masterly manner. In the next scene the Saint is advancing with the utmost energy to anathematise the fiends, while the Jews are seen conspiring together to effect his overthrow. And thus the narrative continues to unfold itself with a clearness, a decision, and a plastic completeness, surpassed by no examples of the school of Giotto. The fourth picture — the landing of the body of St. James on the Spanish coast — is especially fine. The body of the Saint is ♦ ' History of Painting in Italy,' vol. li., p. 237. 2 B 256 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. laid upon a stone on the sea-shore, in front of a castle, while every action of the attendants bespeaks the deepest respect and sympathy. An angel is holding the rudder of the vessel (see woodcut). In these works the painter has succeeded in the most difficult artistic efforts ; in that, for instance, of representing a knight plunged in a river and attempting in vain to climb the high bank, with many others of the same kind. "While Altichiero, on the one hand, adhered still more than Giotto to the general appearances of life and character, and indulged to a greater extent in the habit of individual- ising, d'Avanzo, on the other, remarkable as he was for a decided similarity to the style of Altichiero, exhibited that totally new direction of thought which soon led to a thorough transformation of the school which Giotto had formed. This transition is analogous in its natiu'e with that which we per- ceive in the contemporary school of Cologne, though as- cribable to totally different causes. Every figure, considered separately, which had hitherto, under a generalised aspect, only taken its place as part of a whole, was now recognised as possessing an independent interest. It is remarkable to observe how the predilection for individuality of character now began to keep pace with the attention to the general conception of the subject, and perhaps, in some respects, outstripped it. This is immediately apparent in the picture, where the body of St. James is being carried into the castle of the Countess Lupa.* Here the actions and gestui-es of the people crowding round the vehicle are given with the utmost minuteness of detail. The other pictures are less distinct and successful in composition, and also, in part, over-painted. The large Crucifixion, in three compartments divided by pillars, on the othef hand, afforded the artist ample field for the exhibition of his peculiar gifts ; and we here trace new and animated " motives," easy movements and positions, soft and beautiful forms, and above all, a thorough carrying out of these qualities into the minutest details. We observe, moreover, an admirable understanding of cha- * Kov the legend of St. James the Elder see Mrs. Jameson's < Sacred and Legendary Art,' 1848, vol. i., p. 208. THE LANDING OP THE BODY OF ST. JAMES ; fresco by Altichiero, in the Cappella S. Felice in S. Antonio, Padua. p. 256. 9 V O CnAP. IX.] ALTICHTEEO. • 257 racter, especially in the expression of sorrow and anxiety. The general conception is not particularly grand or poetical, owing perhaps to the unfavourable form of the spaces. One novel feature is the group of spectators returning from thd Crucifixion. The frescoes of the Chapel of S. Giorgio * consist of twenty-four large pictures, representing the youthful history of Christ, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Crucifixion, and the legends of St. George, St. Lucy, and St. Catherine. Formerly the roof was also decorated with the figures of the Prophets. AlticMero's portion in this series is contra- dictorily described by the various authorities, and cannot be pronounced upon with any certainty. j" The principal part, however, may be attributed to him. Upon the whole, we may consider AlticMero to have been the first among his contemporaries for fulness of dramatic power, though he aimed less than they at scenes of violent action. Giotto and his followers looked uj)on the surface of their pictures as a field requiring to be filled with the utmost possible variety of life. As the higher understanding of landscape and architecture — that is to say, the artistic completeness of the subject to be represented by means of outer accessories — was beyond their power, they instinctively endeavoured to supply it by accompanying the chief personage with a numerous retinue of figures, who, by their interest in the incident, helped to explain it. AlticMero and d'Avanzo's understanding of landscape and perspective is far more matured. At the same time they retain the Giottesque mode of conception, but animate it afresh with a depth and variety of character peculiar to themselves. In their compositions most crowded with figures, the principal idea — the moment of action — is always clearly and forcibly developed ; in this tney were assisted by a gift of expression and a knowledge * These frescoes, which for more than a century had been covered with dust and consigned to oblivion, were brought to light, in 1837, by Dr. E. Forster, who, assisted by the proper authorities, cleaned and restored them. See ' Wandgemiilde der S. Georgen Kapelle zu Padua,' by Dr. E. Forster, with 14 plates. Berlin, 1841. f Vasari's authority on this subject (see his Life of Vittore Carpaccio) is not entitled to the least respect. Among other mistakes, he makes out Altichiero and Zevio {^ Seheto') to be two different painters. 258 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. of form such as no painter had ever previously combined. The picture of the Crucifixion (on th,e altar-wall) is superior in every respect to that in the chapel of S. Felice, dis- playing in its separate groups a modification of the various modes by which a participation in the principal event is usually expressed, such as scarcely any other Crucifixion picture exhibits. The head of the dead Saviour is especially fine. In it the painter has aimed far more to give the expression of divinity than that of the languor of death. Among the pictures on the entrance wall, the Adoration of the Kings is the composition most distinguished as com- bining the greatest richness with the discreetest regularity. In the Flight into Egypt, the smiling countenance of the Virgin, with the Child looking gaily upwards, has a peculiar charm. Here, as in the same subject by Giotto, the scene is enlivened by several other figures. The legendary subjects on the side-wall contain also a perfect treasury of new and animated features. The baptism of the heathen king combines again the greatest fulness with the clearest unity (see woodcut). The Saint is baptizing the monarch, while his family kneel around with an expression of eager expec- tation. Fresh spectators are hurrying to the spot, and even a couple of childi-en are trying to find a space behind a pillar where they can witness the scene. In the succeeding pictm-es, St. George forms an excellent contrast to the magician, his persecutor, who stands lui'king by, while the Saint, with a cheerful countenance, empties the cup of poison. The subject of his martyrdom is also admirably given. "J'he Saint lies in prayer, extended upon the ^^'heel, the iron bars of which have just been broken by two angels to the terror of all present, in whom the varieties of expression are powerfully given (see woodcut). The scene takes place in the court-yard of a palace. The four pictures containing the legends of this Saint are in a bad state of preservation, and were probably executed by some assistant, though the invention may be AlticMero's. The finest is the parting between two philosophers condemned to death. On the other hand, the pictures which represent the history of St. Lucy are well preserved and of the highest order. The second ST. GEORGE BAPTISING A HEATHEN KING ; fresco t)y Aiticliicro, in St. George's Chapel, Padua. p. 25& 3^ r7^ ^--^-- ''~ 5 5 p5 o C5 &^ 00 O o « Chap. IX.] ALTICHIERO. 259 of them represents the miracle of several soldiers and six oxen trying in vain to move the Saint from her place. Here the singularity of the subject is forgotten in the great merits of the mode of representation. The Saint is standing looking up to heaven in the attitude of the grandest repose, surrounded by a crowd of excited spectators, some of whom are appealing to the praetor, while the others exhibit the greatest alarm and perplexity of mind. In both these cycles of pictm-es the subject did not allow the master the exercise of that grandeur of allegorically expressed thought which inspired Giotto and Orcagna in their highest productions. Nor is the painter to be compared with either of those in higher poetical conception, in power, elevation, and fiJness of idea. On the other hand, he equals them in unity and roundness of composition, and sui-passes them and every other contemporary in all that belongs to picturesque completeness ; and this in so remarkable a degree that he must ever be considered a most extraordinary painter for the fourteenth century, and as one forming an early transition to the style of the fifteenth. He it was who (with Fra Angelico) first arrested the forms of special expression without departing far from the general and the ideal on the one hand, or degenerating into portraiture on the other. Devotion, resignation, wonder, and terror he expresses with equal perfection, and that not only by the play of the features, but by the whole attitude — by the hands and the position of the knees. In the expression of malice only he has not been successful, as we see in the Crucifixion in the chapel of S. Felice ; not that he degenerates into caricatiu-e, like other masters of the time, but subsides rather into something un- meaning and insipid. The heads of his holy personages are one and all of a grand style of beauty ; and if, in respect of knowledge of the human form, and in the disposing of drapery, he made no particular progress, the century is, at all events, indebted to him for that power of modeling and gradation of tones which may be considered as his second great excellence, and which Altichiero alone in those times so developed. For though it was not till several years later that Masaccio defined the true principles of these qualities in art, yet, by a 260 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. happy empiricism, Altichiero brought the thing itseK to light, while the other followers of Giotto continued to be satisfied with a mere general indication. Endowed with this power of individuality, and assisted with his improved modes of art, this painter now advanced a step which places him far beyond all his predecessors. In his works are seen the first attempts at optical illusion, and this is the important point at which he was joined by the later Paduan school of Squarcione and Mantegna. This, it is evident, had long been the object of his thoughts and efforts. In the Crucifixion, in the chapel of S. Felice, and in many of the pictures we have named, we recognise partial attempts and experiments in this department. The last picture, however, in the history of St. Lucy of Syracuse is the first in which he attained any great result, and this alone would have served to throw off the forms of the Giotto school, had the efforts of Altichiero been followed by those of any immediate successors. The picture contains, like many others of his, a double representation of the subject. In the vestibule of the church, behind, we see the mortally wounded saint in the act of receiving the Host, while in the foreground the body lies upon a decorated bier, surrounded by sorrowing men and women. Here the di-awing is not only more correct, the colouring finer and more lively, and the execu- tion more finished than in the other pictures, but the power of individualizing is carried fui-ther. The architectural perspective, also, which, in his other productions, is treated with more cai*e than in any other contemporary work, is here brought to a certain completeness ; the figures are rightly softened according to their degrees of distance, and those standing behind are divided from those in front by a slight tint of air. Other works by Altichiero, in which perhaps his new tendency may have been more fully developed, have now perished ; for instance, two symbolical triumphal processions in the palace of La Scala at Verona, and some " Sposalizj " in the house of Count Serego, also at Verona, which are reported to have been full of contemporary costumes and portraits. But some wall-paintings of great beauty which Chap. IX.] VITTORE PISANO. 261 may without hesitation be ascribed to his hand are to be seen in the Cavalli Chapel in the Church of S. An astasia (Verona). According to the anonymous author of a notice of pictures and other works of art existing in Northern Italy in the sixteenth centiuy,* AlticMero painted the portrait of Petrarch in the ' Sala dei Giganti,' in the ancient Palazzo del Cajiitanio at Padua, traces of which still exist. Of the contemporaries of these two painters, a certain Martini painted the frescoes sui-rounding the pulpit in the church of S. Fermo Maggiore, (Verona) and one Pietvo Paolo de' Capelli, who calls himself a Veronese, executed in the church of S. Zenone (Verona) a votive fresco of the Virgin, with the donor presented to her by his patron saints. A Veronese painter, of far greater excellence, was Vittore Pisano, usually known as Pisanello. He was born in the village of S. Vigilio, near the Lake of Garda, in 1380. No credit whatever can be given to Vasari's statement that he learnt his art from Andrea del Castagno. He was probably the pupil of AlticMero, whose influence is clearly perceptible in his style. Of his works in painting, however, few remain and his fame rests mainly upon his skill as a medallist. Of the numerous frescoes which he executed in Verona only two exist — an Annunciation over a tomb in the church of S. Fermo Maggiore, inscribed w ith his name, and a fresco on the arch of the Pellegrini Chapel in S. Anastasia, representing St. George wath numerous figures, and horses and dogs, at too great a height to be properly examined.f They show him to be a painter of much elegance and refinement. His easel j)ictures are extremely rare. In the National Gallery is a small inscribed work by him, from the Costabili Gallery (Ferrara), presented by Lady Eastlake — the Virgin and Child in glory appearing to St. Anthony and St. George. This picture displays the hand of an undoubtedly great * ' Notizia d' opere di Disegno pubblicata ed illustrata, da D. Jacopo Morclli,' p. 78, known as the 'Anonimo.' See the last edition published, with valuable notes, by Signor Frizzoni. Bologna, 1884. t It has been copied for the Arundel Society. 262 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. TX, artist, witli a fine feeling for colour, and with that careful modeKng aad severe drawing in the beads of the Saints, especially in that of St. George, proper to a medallist. The same qualities are seen in the frescoes above mentioned. Another picture by the master — a St. Eustace, with his stag, and a variety of animals — executed with extreme minute- ness, is in the collection of Lord Ashburnham. A portrait by Pisanello of Leonello d'Este, for whom the picture in the National Gallery is believed to have been executed, and whose head he represented on a well-known medal, is in the collection of Signor Morelli, at Milan. It is painted with much mastery, and with very carefully and minutely executed details.* Pisanello was invited to Venice by the Signory about the year 1421, and was employed there with Gentile da Fabriano in decorating the Ducal Palace. A fresco he painted in the Hall of the Great Council was afterwards replaced by a picture on canvas by Luigi Vivarini. No traces of his works in the city are known to exist. There is, however, reason to believe that his presence there, with that of Gentile, exercised no inconsiderable influence upon Jacopo Bellini and other painters of the Venetian school, such as Giamhono and Antonio Vivarini.'\ He was also employed at Ferrara and Pavia, and in Rome, where he completed works left unfinished by Gentile da Fabriano ; but all that he painted in those cities has perished. The style of Pisanello, as far as may be judged from his existing works, partakes of the tenderness and grace of his fellow-labourer. Gentile da Fabriano, but display much greater vigour and force. He had that predilection for in- troducing animals and birds into his pictures J which cha- racterises the Veronese painters, and may be considered a legacy of the school of miniaturists who specially flourished in Verona. Like most of his contemporaries, he was also * A " tondo " in the Berlin Museum, representing the Adoration of the Kings, attributed to Pisanello, is more probably by a Florentine i);unter — possibly Dello Belli. t * Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 357. % Excellent examples of his skill in representing them may be seen in the collection of drawings in the Louvre, Chap. IX.] DOMENICO MORONE. 263 fond of employing embossed and gilt ornaments to give richness to his pictui-es. lie ajipears to have died in 1455 or 1456. Stefano da Zevio, born in 1393, was probably a scholar of Pisanello. Frescoes by him in Verona —over a side door of S. Eufemia, and on the fa9ade of a palace in the Corso Porta Vescovo (the latter inscribed with his name) —show warmth of colouring combined with some grace and expressive heads ; but he was a feeble and mannered painter. Easel pictures by him are the Virgin and Child in a bower of roses, and a Virgin and Child and St. Catherine, both in the Verona Public Gallery, there ascribed to Pisanello ; one in the Colonna Palace at Eome, attributed to Gentile da Fahriano ; and an Adoration of the Magi in the Brera, inscribed with his name and the date of 1435. He was fond of introducing a peacock into his pictures, by which they may be generally recognised. Giovanni Oriolo, although probably by birth a Ferrarese, was evidently a pupil of Pisanello. A portrait of Leonello d'Este, of agreeable character and colour, in the National Gallery, is inscribed with his name. Giovanni Badile, Girolamo and Francesco Benaglio and CeccMno, by uhom there is an altar-piece in the Cathedi-al of Trent, were Veronese painters of little merit, and their works are chiefly interesting as showing the distinctive character and continuity of the Veronese school. There is a signed picture by Badile in the public gallery of Verona, and a large altar-piece by Francesco Benaglio in the church of San Bernardino, inscribed with his name, with an archi- tectiiral background and festoons of fruit and flowers, such as painters of the school were fond of introducing into their pictures. Domenico Morone, called Pellacane (dog-skinner), because his father was a tanner, was born at Verona in 1442. Little is known of him. It has been surmised that he was the author of the frescoes in the refectory of the Convent of S. Bernardino. More authentic works by him are some frescoes in the Church of the same name, described by Vasarij and still partly preserved, but much altered by 264 THE VEKONESB SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. repainting and restoration.* His son and pupil Francesco Morone (born 1473, died 1529), was one of the most pleasing and characteristic of the painters of the Veronese school of this period. His best work is an altar-piece, representing the Crucified Saviour between the Virgin and St. John, inscribed with his name and the date 1498, in the Church of S. Bernardino. It has fine expressive heads, well disposed draperies, and an excellent landscape background— showing the influence he exercised on Cavazzola, a painter of whom we shall have to speak hereafter. Another work of the master, in the Verona Public Gallery, is the Virgin and St. John the Baptist with the Almighty above. He is also seen in an altar-piece on canvas — a Virgin and Child with two Saints and two angels (signed and dated 1503) — in the church of S. Maria in Organo (Verona), and in a similar work in the Brera (Milan). The National Gallery possesses an un- important, but characteristic, picture by him — a Virgin and Child ; and the Berlin Museum a much injui-ed one. He excelled as a painter in fresco, as he has shown in the decoration of the sacristy of the church of S. Maria in Organo (Verona), in which he has introduced haK-length figures of popes, monks, and nuns of the Olivetan Order. A charming specimen of his warm rich colouring, and delicate and graceful sentiment was, until recently, to be seen in a fi-esco of the Virgin and Child and Saints, on the facade of a house near the Ponte delle Navi at Verona, dated 1515, which added much to the picturesque beauty of the site. It has unfortunately been transferred to canvas, suffering irre- parably in the process, and by clumsy restoration, and is now, a mere wreck, in the public gallery (see woodcut). A more vigorous and more original painter than Francesco Morone, but ^vith less grace and simplicity, is Liberate, born at Verona in 1451. He was brought up as a miniaturist, and * A signed picture by Domenico Morone, representing a combat between the Gonzagas and the Bonacorsi, belongs to Signer Fochessato of Mantua. It has been much overpainted and is in very bad condition. Two small panel pictures obtained by the National Gallery from Dr. Richter, supposed to represent a tournament and other fetes given on the occasion of the marriage of Francesco Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua, with Isabella of Este, are better preserved and are of much interest. MADONNA AND SAINTS; a fresco by Francesco Moronc, formerly near the Ponte ilelle Navi at Verona I). -'ti4 Chap. IX.] FRANCESCO MORONE. 265 left Verona at any early ago to practise that art in the Con- vent of Mont' Olivcto near Siena. Miniatures by him of singular beauty are preserved in the Cathedrals of Siena and Chiusi. Subseq[uently returning to his native city, he devoted himself to oil-painting. One of his best works is the Martyr- dom of St. Sebastian in the Brera, in which he has introduced an interesting architectiu^al background with Venetian palaces on a canal, gondolas, and numerous small figures, designed with much spirit and minuteness. The body of the Saint is well modeled, and his expression finely conceived. Liberal&s hand is also seen at Verona in tha churches of S. Anastasia and S. Fermo Maggiore, in the Duomo and in the chapel of the Episcopal Palace (in three beautiful predella jnctures), and in a very interesting and spirited cassone picture belong- ing to Herr Habich of Cassel, deposited in the public gallery of that town. In consec^uence of his bold and vigorous style, his works are occasionally attributed to Mantegna — as, for instance, three scenes from the lives of SS. Anthony and Louis in the Doria Palace at Eome, youthful works, probably of the year 1470.* This great master may have exercised some influence upon Liberale as he did upon all his contem- poraries in Northern Italy ; but in colour and sentiment and in his types, Liberale remained, to the last, a thorough Vero- nese. Like Mantegna at Padua, and Antonio del Pollajuolo at Florence, he followed the same taste, and all three, each in his own school, brilliantly represent, in Signer Morelli's words, " that period in which it was the chief aim of art to seize and depict cJiaracter, or those attributes in the external appear- ance of men and things, which flow out of the inner mental life." t He was fond of introducing dogs and other animals into his pictures — a characteristic of the school — whilst the minuteness of his details show his early practice as a miniaturist. Francesco Bonsignori (erroneously called by Vasari 3Ion- signori), also known as Francesco da Verona, was born in that city in 1455, and died in 1519. He probably was a * Attributed by Ci'owe and Cavalcaselle to Pai-entino. f 'Italian blasters, &c.,' p. 192. 266 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. pupil of Liberate, and had also, at one time, studied under Luigi Vivarini at Venice, but late in his career went to Mantua, where he came under the influence of Mantegna, of whom, however, h.o cannot be called the pupil. He excelled in most departments of painting, including portraiture, of which a very fine and characteristic example is in the National Gallery, inscribed with his name and the date of 1487 — the head of an elderly man, which, for vigorous execution and strong individuality, is not inferior to the best examples of the contemporary Florentine school. It is executed in delicate but forcible tempera. In the public gallery of Verona are three pictures by him, not devoid of grandeur, but unattractive — one dated 1483, and a large altar-piece of the Madonna enthroned with Saints, with a fine profile portrait of the lady for whom it was painted, formerly in the church of S. Fermo Maggiore — inscribed with his name and the date of 1484. But the best specimen of his work in bis native city is the altar-piece in the church of S. Bernardino (signed, and dated 1488), painted before he went to Mantua, showing bow, in his early period, he in all respects followed the traditions and manner of the Veronese school. It represents the enthroned Virgin, a very grand and noble figure, with SS. Jerome and Liberale, and two little angels playing on musical instruments, beneath — a picture which shows rather the influence of Giovanni Bellini and his Venetian contemporaries than that of Mantegna. His later works have been frequently ascribed to Mantegna ; for instance, the two pictures in the Brera — SS. Bernardino and Louis, exhibiting the monogram of the name of Christ, now assigned to its true author ; and S. Bernardino between angels (No. 163), now given to the Veronese school. The present Editor possesses an excellent specimen of the master's smaller altar-pieces, a Virgin and Child with four Saints, in which a very strong Mantegnesque character is discernible, both in the coloui-ing and in the nobly- conceived heads.* * A portrait in the Sciarra collection, Rome, believed to be that of Lodovico Gonznga, and attributed to Mantegna, is, according to Signer Mnrelli, by Bonsignori, the signature and date upon it being forgeries. Chap. IX.] GIOLFINO AND CAROTTO. 267 Giovanni Maria Falconetto (1458-1534) was rather a decorator of architecture than a painter. In his architectural designs, formed upon ancient classic models, he appears to have been a follower of Melozzo da Forll. Some frescoes in the Duomo of Verona, inscribed with his name and the date, 1503, are his best works. Others by him of some merit may be seen in the churches of S. Fermo, S. Pietro Martirc, and S. Anastasia, and on the fagades of houses in the same city. His pictures, which are few, are w'eak and exaggerated in character, as the "Augustus and the Sybil " in the Verona Gallery, in which he makes a free use of gilding and em- bossments. The Assumption of the Virgin, in the Berlin Gallery, doubtfully attributed to him, is not his work. There were two Veronese painters of the name of Giolfino, both probably coming from the studio of Liberale — Niccolo, and his brother Paolo. The former, born about 1465, is the better known of the two ; but his works are rare. They bear date from 1486 to 1518. His figures unite a peculiar grandeur with an expression of engaging tenderness. His colouring is sometimes rich and powerful, but often dark and heavy in the shadows. One of his best works is a large, but much injured, altar-piece in the chui-ch of S. Anastasia (Verona), representing Christ in glory with SS. George and Erasmus beneath, finely conceived and freely drawn, with well modtlcd heads ; but the background, with figui-es and buildings, is cold and hard, and very unequal to the rest. He is seen in the National Gallery in two portions of the lower part of an altar-piece, with portraits of the Giusti family of Verona, chiefly interesting for costume. Eemains of frescoes by him may be found in several churches of his native city. There were also two Veronese painters of the name of Carotio. The most eminent of the two was Giovanni Francesco or Gianfrancesco (born 1470, died 1546), who is less known than he ought to be, and whose works out of Verona are rare. In the churches and public gallery of that city there are, however, ample materials from which we can judge of his merits. He was apprenticed to Liberale. His types and mode of treatment and colouring are strictly 268 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. Veronese, like those of his master and of Francesco Morone, although he may have been, to a certain extent, under the influence of Mantegna* His best existing work is an altar- piece in the church of S. Fcrmo Maggiore (Verona), repre- senting the Virgin and Child and St. Anne in glory, with four Saints beneath, signed and dated 1528. It is grandly con- ceived, and powerful in colour, giving the impression that he had seen, and been influenced by, the works of Bernardino Luini ; the Madonna is a beautiful woman with a tender and gentle expression ; the Child less pleasing ; the heads of SS. Eock and John are especially fine. Other good works by him are in the public gallery of Verona, such as the Virgin and Saints adoring the Infant Christ (No. 272), in which the influence of Francesco Morone is very apparent, and a Virgin enthroned between two Saints. In the same collection a picture, representing the three Archangels, is of the earlier time of the master, painted probably about 1512. The figures are weakly drawn, and the colour wants power ; but the landscape backgroimd — a distant town and hills, with a sunset effect — is poetically conceived and of considerable beauty. His last known w^ork is the S. Orsola in the church of S. Giorgio (Verona), dated 1545, and painted consequently when he was seventy-five years of age. There are pictures by Carotto in the Stadel Institute (Frank- fort), in the Galleries of Dresden and Modena, and in the collections of Signor Morelli (a Judgment of Solomon), of Lady Eastlake, and others.f Wall-paintings by him are seen in the Spolverini Chai)el in S. Eufemia (Verona), repre- senting the story of Tobias, in which the compositions are skilfully balanced, the personages natm-al in movement and expression, and the colouring especially entitled to com- mendation. if Like his fellow-countrymen, Liberale and Morone, he decorated with frescoes the exteriors of palaces, remains of which may still be seen in Verona, The warm * 'Morelli's 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 103, note. t The portrait of Isabella, Marchioness of Mantua, in the Uffizi, there attributed to Mantcgna, may be an early work by Giovanni Francesco Carotto. X Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ' History of Painting in North Italy,' vol. i., p. 483. CHRIST TAKEN T)I)\\N FROM TIIK CROSS; an altnr i.i.v.' in tlu' C'liuivli of Malcisine, by Uirohmin dni I.ilpii, p. !i69 Chap. IX.] GIROLAMO DAI LLBRI. 269 and well-blended colouring of Garotto forms a peculiar contrast to the severe style of his drawing. Giovanni Carotto, the brother of Gianfranccsco, was an excellent colourist. Works by him are to be seen at Verona in the Duomo and Baptistry and in the choir of the Church of S. Paolo. A drawing by him in the Albertina (Vienna), shews that he was a pupil of Liherale* He was an engraver as well as a painter. Girolamo dai Libri (1474- ? 1556) was, like Liherale, educated for a miniaturist by his father Francesco, who excelled in that art, and was consequently known as " dai Libri " from the choral books which he illuminated. He was a painter of a playful fancy, and loved to introduce into his pictures festoons of flowers and fruit, trees of rich green foliage bearing lemons and oranges, and angels singing and ])laying on musical instruments. He was a true Veronese in his feeling for colour, which in his works is always rich and gay. In his backgrounds are frequently seen distant views of his native city, with her castellated hills and blue mountains. His earliest known work — ' Christ taken down from the Cross ' — is in the church of Malcesine, on the Lake of Garda, painted when he was only sixteen, and showing the signs of a youthful hand (see woodcut). Another work of his early time is in the church of S. Anastasia (Verona), there ascribed to Francesco 3Iorone. His masterpiece is probably the tine altar-pictui-e in the church of S. Tommaso (Verona), erroneously ascribed to Francesco Carotto, representing SS. Sebastian, Eock, and Job. It has the characteristics of the Veronese school as seen in Liberale, and especially in Fran- cesco Morons, whose manner Girolamo imitated in his later works, as in a much damaged Madonna and Child in the Berlin Museum, and in a beautiful altar-piece in the church of S. Giorgio Maggiore (Verona). The master is also seen to great advantage in the public gallery of Vt rona, which contains some of his best works. The National Gallery possesses an interesting and characteristic, but somewhat over-restored, pictui'e by him, representing the Virgin sitting * ' Moielli's * Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 39.*?, note. 270 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. [Chap. IX. in the lap of her mother, and holding the Infant Christ on her knees, with three singing angels beneath — a lemon- tree and a rocky landscape forming the background. But the greatest painter that the Veronese school pro- duced before Paolo Cagliari, and one of the most remarkable that Italy can boast, is Paolo Morando, commonly known as Cavazzola.* He was born in 1486, and died young in 1522, when his powers were attaining to their full develop- ment and maturity. His fellow-countrymen proudly style him " the Veronese BapJiaelj" and liken him, not without reason, to that great painter for his genius and his early death. He was probably the scholar of Domenico Morone ; he certainly formed himself upon the works of that master. In one of his early productions, executed when he was nineteen years of age — a fresco representing the Baptism of Christ, formerly in the church of SS. Nazzaro and Celso, but now in the public gallery of Verona, transferred to canvas and ruined in the process — we find a close imitation of Morone, especially in the heads of the attendant angels. Cavazzola infused a higher life, and a fine system of colouring into the Veronese school, making thus a great advance upon his contemporaries, and preparing the way for Paul Veronese, whilst still, to a certain extent, in his con- ceptions and mode of treatment, following the traditions of the fifteenth ceutuiy. He is seen to great advantage in a series of five subjects from the Passion in the Verona Gallery — almost the last instance in which this subject is treated with the passionate earnestness of the early, but with the technical skill of the modern, masters. Of this scries the most remarkable is the Deposition of Christ from the Cross (see illustration). Of this picture Sir Charles Eastlake, no mean judge, observes that it is " admirable in all respects ; good drawing, characters and drapery forcible and true, colour and expressions remarkably true and un- affected." I It may indeed be classed among the master- pieces of painting contained in the rich public collections of Italy, and can scarcely fail to produce, from its truth * He was the son of Taddeo (Javazzola di Jacobo di Morando. •f See previous edition of this work, vol. ii., p. 304. t^->- ..'^ w 1^ \- CHKIST TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS ; by Cavazzola. iu the Piililic (iallery of Verona. p. 270. Chap. IX.] CAVAZZOLA AND MICHELE. 271 to Nature, its peculiar and original colouring, and the vivid represeutatiou of grief in the figures siu'rounding the dead Saviour, a powerful impression upon those who see tlie uorks of this master for the first time in his native city, where, with few exceptions, they are alone to be found. In this pictui'e Cavazzola shows himself an excellent landscai^e painter. The background wdth a view of Verona recalls the best works of Canaletto* His latest picture, painted shortly before his death, is the Virgin in glory with Saints, also in the Verona Gallery. This splendid work, and the series of the Passion just mentioned, are composed and executed according to the highest standards of Art, and may be reckoned as the finest productions of the Veronese school in the early part of the sixteenth century. Cavazzola is the more interesting as partaking, as we have indicated, both as to period and age, of the same conditions with Hapliacl, while his art exhibits a maturity developed outwardly under totally ditferent cir- cumstances. He shows, as Doctor Bui'ckhardt has justly observed, " a marvellous transition from the realism of the fifteenth centmy to the noble fi-ee character of the sixteenth ; not to an empty idealism." j The National Gallery, more fortunate than other collec- tions outside of Verona, possesses two pictui'es by this master — a Holy Family, and St. Eock with the Angel — both inscribed with his name, and both very character- istic examples of his manner. The St. Eock is especially deserving of notice from its fine expression and colouring. Cavazzola was an excellent portrait-painter, and his heads are always drawn with great power, and are full of cha- racter and expression. They generally pass under other names, and are consequently but little known. There is one, rightly attributed to him, in the Dresden Gallery. Michele da Verona is a little-known painter, who, like Cavazzola and Francesco Morone, came from the school of Domenico Morone. He was the assistant and imitator of * This fine picture has been reproduced in chromo-lithogi-aphy by the Arundel Society. t ' The Cicerone.' English translation, p. 172. 272 THE VEEONESE SCHOOL. [Cuap. IX. Cavazzola, and Ms works are sometimes diflBcult to dis- tinguisli from those of that master, to whom, however, he was far inferior in graceful and noble drawing. Thus, the fine altar-piece in S. Anastasia (Verona), with St. Paul between St. Dionysins the Areopagite and the Magdalen, and four heads of saints of fine character in the public gallery, both ascribed to Cavazzola, are by Michele. By him also are a Crucifixion, dated 1500, in S. Stefano, Milan; another, dated 1505, in S. Maria in Vanzo, Padua, and an interesting picture in the National Gallery, repre- senting the meeting of Coriolanus with his wife and mother. Wall-paintings by his hand in S. Chiara (Verona) are signed and dated 1509. Signer Morelli attributes to him the fine portrait of a knight with his page, in the Uffizi, ascribed to Giorgione. Another scholar of Liberate was Francesco Torhido, called il Moro. He was born at Verona in 1486, and died there in 153G. In his profile likeness, drawn in red chalk, in the collection of Clirist Church, Oxford, he is represented with Moor-like lips and hair, whence probably his nick- name. A remarkable portrait, inscribed with his name, of a young man with a rose in his hand in the Mimich Gallery, is one of his early works, and shows the influence of his master. A much-damaged picture by him in the Verona Gallery, probably also an early work, — a Virgin and Child, with angels and a donor — , is a nobly conceived subject, showing no inconsiderable power. In a later altar- piece in S. Fermo Maggiore — a Madonna and Child in the clouds, surrounded by angels, with the Archangel Eajjhael and the young Tobias below — he has introduced a poetical landscape which recalls that great colourist, the elder Boni- fazio, his fellow-countryman. There are also altar-pieces by liim in the church of S. Zeno (Verona), in the cathedral of Sale, and in the church of Limone, on the Lake of Garda, there ascribed to Moretto, Torhido excelled as a portrait-painter, and several fine examples of his skill in this department of his art are found in public and private collections, frequently imder names of better-known but not more able artists. In the latter part of his life he fell under Chap. IX.] VERONESE PAINTERS. 273 the influence of Giulio Momano, and the so-called Eoman school, with what deplorable result may be seen in his weak and mannered frescoes in the apsis and waggon-roof over the high altar in the Duomo of Verona. GiamhaUista del Moro, also called il Moro, was Torhido's scholar, and is sometimes confounded vdih. him. His pic- tures are impassioned but exaggerated. Domenico del Biccio, called Brusasorci (the Eatburner) (1494-1567), is little known out of Verona, although a painter of considerable merit who must have exercised some influence over Paul Veronese. He also came from the school of Liberate. An altar-piece in the church of S. Eufemia — the Virgin and Saints — is one of his best works. His great fresco on the walls of the principal Hall of the Palazzo Eidolfi (Verona), representing the meeting of Charles V. and Pope Clement VII. at Bologna (in Feb. 1530), is very cleverly executed, and very bright in colour. He is seen to great advantage in the decorations of a fine hall in the Archiepiscopal Palace at Verona, on the walls of which is a series of portraits of bishops and other ecclesiastics, and of landscapes divided by pilasters. Several altar-pieces in the churches of Verona, remarkable for their good colouring, are by his son and pupil, Felice del Biccio. A pleasing Holy Family, in the Louvre,* and an inferior picture in the Brera — Christ descending into Limbo — are attributed to him. Paolo Farinato (b. 1522, d. 1606), whose pictures can generally be recognised by a snail which he introduces into them as his mark, though not always free from exag- geration, is clever and powerful, and pleasing from his truth of imitation. There are some good frescoes by him in the choir of SS. Nazzaro e Celso (Verona), and a drawing in the Louvre, representing a man and his son ascribed to Paul Veronese.^ Antonio Badile, the uncle and teacher of Paul Veronese, and a painter of no great merit, forms the last link between the early masters of the Veronese school and that groat * This is a cop}' from Paul Veronese. t Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 223. 274 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. painter to whom we shall more fully refer when we come to treat of the Venetian school, to which he properly belongs, although his early Veronese education is traceable even in his latest works. A picture in the Verona Gallery — two Angels placing the Dead Christ in the tomb — dated 1556, a large altar-piece, signed, in the church of SS. Nazzaro e Celso (Verona), and a ' Presentation ' in the Turin Gallery, by Antonio Badile, show the connection between the master and the scholar, especially in the treatment of architecture, and, at the same time, the influence upon him of Carotto and Girolamo dai Libri. We have thus traced the Veronese school of painting from the thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century. No school in Italy, except the Florentine, shows so regular and uninterrupted a development, and none is consequently more deserving of the attention of the student who seeks in Art a phase of the human intellect, influenced by local and special circumstances. Nowhere can this school be better studied than in the public gallery and churches of Verona. CHAPTER X. THE PADUAN SCHOOL. At Padua a group of painters flourished in the fourteenth century, who, if they were neither the scholars nor the followers of Giotto, received their inspiration from him. With the exception of the Tuscan cities, none in Italy possess such excellent wall-pictui-es of that period.* The city was, at that time, governed by the Carraras, a race distinguished for their love of art, though the principal means of its encouragement may be traced to the chm-ch containing the body of St. Anthony, for the decoration of which the highest artistic powers were called into re- quisition. It must bo admitted that the older school of Padua v/as essentialiv an offset from the Florentine. If Giotto * For the early Paduan painters, see 'Archivio Veneto,' vol. 7, p. 327; vol. 8 p. 117 ; and vol. 10, p. 81. CiiAi>. X] EARLY TADUAN PAINTERS. 275 be the great leader at Florence, he must also be con- sidered tlic same here, where he is represented by one of his grandest works —the frescoes in the chapel of the Arena. It is very doubtful whether iijion the completion of those frescoes after 1303 he left any immediate scholars in Padua. The fact that the Veronese Aliichiero and (rAvanzo, of whom we have already spoken, were invited to that city to decorate with frescoes i.s churches and public buildings appears to show that Padua had thea no native or local school of painting. The history of Paduan art is silent from that time till the period of Gitisto di Giovanni, or Justus of Padua as he is usually called, who was, however, a Florentine by birth, of the Menabuoi family who settled in that city. An authentic pictui-e signed by him, a triptych in the National Gallery, bears the date of 1367. It is a small altar-piece with wings ; the centre containing the Coronation of the Virgin, with angels and saints ; the inner side of the wings, the Annun- ciation, Nativity, and Crucifixion, the outer, the history of the Virgin to the time of her marriage with Joseph. The whole indicates a follower of Taddeo Gaddi, whose style of conception is here united with great softness of forms, powerful shadows, and a fuller arrangement of drapery. Other works hitherto ascribed to Giusto have been now assigned to two painters called Giocanni and Antonio da Pad ova. Nothing certain, however', is known of them, and the question whether the frescoes in the baptistery of t)ie Cathedral at Padua (founded in 1380, by Fina Buzzacarina), and those in St. Luke's Chapel in the church of S. Antonio, founded about 1382, were the joint work of the three, or executed by Giusto alone, must remain open. As regards the baptistery, the symbolic arrangement of subjects usual in edifices dedicated to this rite is seen here in great perfection. In the cupola we i)erceive Christ and the Virgin, with five circles round them consisting of cherubs, angels with musical instruments, patriarchs and apostles, prophets and martyrs, the Fathers of the Church, and lastly a mimerous body of saints. In a lower circle beneath the cupola, are represented the events of the Old Testament to the time of Joseph ; in the z r, 276 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. penclentives of the cupola the four Evangelists ; and finally, upon the walls of the church, in several pictures, the histories of Christ and of the Baptist, with various fantastic subjects from the Apocalypse. But the painter or painters were not equal to the undertaking, and in point of picturesque composi- tion, animation of single figures, drawing, and character, we may reckon this work as one of the most inferior attempted by Giotto's followers. The paintings in the chapel of St. Luke (a canonised monk) are better — chiefly referring to the legends of this saint and of the Apostles James the Less and Philip. At all events, however rude in point of artistic feeling, they contain many good and lively " motives," and that consistent distribution of light and shade which also pervades the frescoes of the baptistery. In the Crucifixion of St. Philip near Hierapolis, for example, there is a well- understood group of plebeian assailants, who, with some figures better clad, are throwing stones. A third work, formerly ascribed to Giusto, which has perished, deserves mention for the subject's sake — the frescoes of a chapel in the church of the Eremitani, which represented the Liberal Arts under the figures of those individuals distinguished for them, and the Vices, by a series of portraits of those noted for their practice ; ending with a circle of pious Augustin monks. Giusto is believed to have died in 1400. There is no evidence to show that Altichiero and d'Avanzo exercised any influence upon their fellow-painters. Hubert van EycJc, who in 1377 was still a boy, and Masaccio, who at that time was not born, were left subsequently to redis- cover those secrets in art which the two Veronese had already practised. Least of all were they imitated or studied by the Paduans themselves. We need quote only two large works of the beginning of the fifteenth century which repeat the style of Giotto in the most vapid manner. One of these consists in the series of frescoes which adorn the walls of the colossal hall, or " Sala della Eagione," at Padua. Formerly, the invention of this work was assigned to the celebrated magician, Pietro di Abano, and the execution to Giotto ; now, however, there is reason to believe that the whole was painted after 1420, and by a certain Giovanni Miretto. It Ohap. X.] EARLY PADUAN PAINTERS. 277 is one of the most difficult works of art existing to explain. Nothing but a correct knowledge of the astrological systems of the fifteenth century could fui'nish the key, and much even under these circumstances, must remain for ever incom- prehensible. Here we find the influence of the stars upon the seasons and upon the affairs of men symbolized in a row of nearly 400 pictures, side by side, or one above the other, and in no way divided into any definite order of arrangement. Various human achievements and events are thus treated, from their very nature, in the true genre manner, although the mode of representation adheres strictly to the style of Giotto. Besides the allegorically personified months, planets, &c., there are the Apostles, and the Virtues, a colossal St. Mark, and many other figures.* The forms are throughout general and insipid, and even the better figures, as for example the Apostles, are mere repetitions of well-known types. Every part also has been repeatedly restored and painted over. The second work alluded to are the wall-paintings in the choir of the church of the Eremitani, believed to have been executed between 1330 and 1336 by Guariento, a native of Padua, who laboured and spent much of his time in Venice. Chi-ist is here represented as the Judge of the World, with the Apostles, in groups of three, on each side ; then the Fathers of the Chiu-ch, the Prophets, the histories of the Apostles Philip and James the Less, and foiu* subjects from the legends of the Augustin Order, with many others, all of inferior artistic value, and most of them painted over. The best preserved are the figures of the planets in chiaroscuro along the walls below, which here, as in the " Sala della Ragione," are connected with the affairs of human life in some inexplicable way. At Venice Guariento painted, in the great Council Hall of the Ducal Palace, a Last Judgment, which was destroyed by fire and replaced by the great picture of the same subject by Tintoret. A Crucifixion by Guariento exists in the Pinacoteca at Bassano, with his name and a long inscription. He is * For a further account of these strange pictures, which we cannot enter upon at greater length, see E. Forster. ' Kunstbl.', 1838, No. 15. 2 G 2 278 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X- supposed to have flourislied as early as 1316, and to have been buried at Padua in S. Bernardino. The later or true Paduan school differed, in the study of the human form, very materially in its development from that of other schools in the north of Italy. In Padua the influence of antique sculpture producing an aim at ideal beauty, and combined with a close and realistic imitation of nature, raised a school of remarkable power and cha- racter. This tendency may be comj)ared with that already spoken of as existing among the contemporaries of the celebrated sculptor Niccola Pisano ; but it is more decided in the Paduan school of the fifteenth century, which shovvs little impress of Byzantine or even Giottesque influence. This school has consequently the merit of having been chiefly instrumental in introducing the rich results of an earlier, long-forgotten excellence in art — the remains of antique sculpture — to modern practice, and of having led the way in applying them. We shall seek, however, in vain for a deeper comprehension of the idealising princij^le of classic art. What the Paduans borrowed from the antique was limited at first to mere outward decoration, and subsequently to the desire for the utmost possible plastic representation of form. This tendency was also doubtless furthered by the works of Donatello existing in Padua — the bronze bas-reliefs in the Santo, and the equestrian statue of Gattamelata. In truth the peculiarity of this school consists in a style of conception and treatment more plastic than pictorial. The forms are severely and sharply defined, and the di-apery shows the outlines of the body by clinging to the figiu-e. The general arrangement more frequently resembles that of basso- rilievo than of rounded groups. The accessories display in like manner a special attention to antique models, par- ticularly in the architectiu'e and ornaments. The imitation of antique embellishments also is very perceptible in the fre- (lucnt introduction of festoons of fruit in the pictures of this school. It is worthy of remark how the study of antique sculpture, combined with the naturalising tendency of the day, led to an exaggerated sharpness in the outline of the forms, which sometimes bordered on excess. In the drapery Chap. X.] SQUAROIONE. 279 the same imitation led to the use of a multitude of small sharp, oblique folds, which break the large flowing lines, and sometimes even injure the efl'ect of the leading forms. Francesco Squarcione may be regarded as the foimder of this later Paduan school. He was born in 1394, and died in 1474. He was bred to the calling of an embroiderer — one of no small importance at that period, and closely allied to the practice of painting. He is stated to have travelled in Italy and Greece, and to have collected specimens, and made drawings from objects, of ancient art. On his return to Padua he opened a school, richly furnished with models and casts from the antique, which soon became famous and largely frequented, and which may boast of having had the Bellini and Mantegna among its scholars. Squarcione was but an indifferent painter ; but he was a first-rate teacher, especially of linear perspective, the elements of which he may have acquired from the Florentine Paolo Uccello, who is known to have worked at Padua in the first half of the fifteentli century. That he exercised some influence over contem- porary painters of Northern Italy, is shown by their habit of introducing into their pictures classic buildings and archi- tectural ornaments and details. By means of an extensive staff of able pupils and assistants, among whom was the illustrious Mantegna, he executed commissions of various kinds, ranging from designs for altar cloths and tarsia or intarsiatura* to the grand works of the Eremitani Chapel, Padua. Although he appears to have painted much, the only geniiine work by him known to exist is the much injured and repainted altar-piece in several compartments in the public gallery of Padua, with St. Jerome in the centre and various Saints on either side — a rude, ill-drawn, and ill-coloui'ed work, only distinguished by an antique delicacy of execution. The Virgin and Child attributed to him in the Berlin Museum is now believed to be a spurious picture with a forged signature.! * Designs formed by inlnying woods of various colours — chiefly seen in the stalls of the choirs of churches in Italy. t See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 'History of Painting in North Italy,' vol.i., p. 229, &c., for a list of works attributed to Squarcione. 280 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X The list of Sqnarcione'B scholars includes names we mxist allude to here — such as Niccolo Pizzolo, Bono Ferrarese, Ansuino of Forli, and Marco Zoppo — who are believed to have all assisted in the frescoes of the Eremitani Chapel, the great work undertaken by Squarcione, and finished about 1459-60. Of these artists Pizzolo is considered to have been the foremost. He is believed to have served under DonateUo in the church of S. Antonio, Padua. According to Vasari, he executed the subject of the First Person of the Trinity among Saints in the semidome of the Eremitani Chapel, and the Assumption of the Virgin supported by cherubs, on the apsis below. In this latter work we perceive a marked affinity to Mantegna, whom he preceded by many years in age, and who is stated to have been influenced in early youth by Pizzolo's example. Pizzolo is recorded by Vasari to have perished, while yet young, in a street brawl. Bono Ferrarese, obviously a native of Ferrara, has signed his name " Opus Boni " to the St. Christopher with the Infant Christ on his shoulder in the upper course of frescoes on the right wall of the chapel. Little is known of him. A small picture in the National Gallery — a St. Jerome in a landscape — bears witness to his having been a pupil of Pisano, being signed " Bonus Ferariensis Pisani Disipuhis." Ansuino of Forli, like Pizzolo, is altogether Squarciou- esque in character. He executed the fresco of St. Christopher siuTounded by his votaries, in the Eremitani, signed with his name. In the Correr Museum (Venice), there is an interesting portrait of a man in profile inscribed with the initials A. F. P., which have been interpreted doubtfullj' ' Ansuinus, Froliviensis pinxit.' Little also is known of him except that he laboured with Fra Filippo Lipfi in the chapel of the Podesta, Padua. Marco Zoppo describes himself on some of his pictures as a disciple of Squarcione, whom he imitated and even caricatured. He was by birth a Bolgnese, and probably studied under Cosimo Turn ; but he passed the greater part of his life at Venice. In one of his best works— an altar- piece in the sacristy of the chui'ch of the " Spagnuoli " at Bologna, representing the Virgin and various Saints, in- Chap. X.] GREGORIO SCIIIAVONE. 281 scribed" Opera del Zoppo da Bologna,"' the influence of Tura is very apparent. It is doubtful whether he took any part in decorating the chapel in the Eremitaiii. In a characteristic picture by him, signed " Opera del Zoppo," formerly in the Manfrin collection and now in that of Lord Wimborne at Canford, representing the Virgin and Child, and half- naked boys playing on musical instruments, the head of the Virgin is finely conceived and the details executed with careful minuteness. A picture of the Madonna enthroned, in the Berlin Museum, also bears his signature with the date of 1471. Its large size adds to the grotesqueness of its character. Several of his works are in the church of S. Francesco at Pesaro. The picture in the National Gallery, of St. Vincenzo Ferrer, at one time attributed to him, is now proved to be by Cossa. On the other hand, ' the Christ placed in the Tomb,' in the same collection, ascribed to Cosimo Tura, is more probably a work of Zoppo. Another scholar of Squarcione, and a fellow-pupil of Mantegna,'b'a.t who does not appear in the Eremitani Chapel, is Gregorio Schiavone, a Dalmatian, or Sclavonian, as his name indicates. There are two pictui-es by him in the National Gallery : one a Virgin and Child enthroned with various Saints, signed " opus Sclavoni disipuli Squarcionis," and a second — a Virgin and Infant Christ — in which, after the manner of Mantegna and the painters of the Veronese school, he has introduced festoons of fruit and flowers. A Virgin and Child, in the Berlin Museum, has a similar signature. The profile of a man, on parchment, executed with the utmost delicacy of line, also signed by him, is in private possession at Paris. Signer Morelli attributes to him the small picture in the Bori'omeo Palace on the Lago Maggiore, with a forged cartellino * containing the name of Buttinone, a Lombard painter. Other workmen in the same widely extended " Bottega " were Dario and Glrolamo, both natives of the Venetian town * This woi-J, in frequent use in the notice of the Xorth Italian schools, is given to the representation of a piece of paper, as if affixed to some part of the picture, containing the name of the painter, and frequently that of his master, together \yith the date of the execution of the woik. 282 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. of Treviso, but who entered the school of Sqiiarcione, and the Canozzi known as Lorenzo and Cristoforo da Landinara. Dario, who was a very poor painter, as may be seen from his signed altar-piece in the public Gallery of Bassano, was chiefly employed in decorating house-fronts in Treviso and the neighbouring towns, of which remains still exist. The Girolamo da Treviso above mentioned must not be confounded with a later painter of the same name. Like Dario, he was principally engaged in painting the exterior of houses in the Venetian territory ; but there is an altar- piece by him in the Cathedral of his native town, painted in 1487, which is not without merit, although with the hard, grotesque forms of 3Iarco Zoppo. The Canozzi are best known for their designs for tarsia. Jacopo Montagnana is a Paduan who laboured in the Gattamelata Chapel in the " Santo," Padua. He also painted classic subjects in fresco in the town hall of Belluno, which have perished, but of which engravings exist, showing spirited compositions and interesting architectural backgrounds (see woodcut). His signature and the date of 1495 are seen in the greatly ruined decorations of an old chapel in the Episcopal Palace, Padua. Montagnana is classed by Yasari among the pupils of Giovanni Bellini, and a large altar-piece, represent- ing the Assumption of the Virgin, and numerous figures of Saints, in the possession of Signer Guggenheim of Venice shows the infl.uence of that master. We now come to Andrea Mantegna, the greatest of the Padiians, and one whose strength and genius made themselves felt in almost every school of Italian art, and pre-eminently in those to the North of the Apennines.* He was the son of one Biagio, a respectable citizen of Padua, and was born * Signer Morelli ('Italian Masters, in German Galleries,' p. 102) makes the following remarks as to the influence oi Manteqna. "This epoch of art (from the middle of the 15th to the early part of the 16th century) in Northern Italy is commonly called by art-historians the Mantegnesque, and I have no objection to tlie epithet, so long as it implies that in Andrea Mantegna the period fonnd its highest expression. But if it is at all meant to suggest that the representatives of the same period in the other schools of the Po really imitated Mantegna, or were directly influenced and guided by him, then I resolutely protest against it as a sixperficial and shallow interpretation of art history." Chap. X.] ANDREA MANTEGNA. 283 at Vicenza in tlie year 1431 * He was regularly adopted by Squarcione in 1441, and married Niccolosa, the daughter of the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini, who came to Padua when Mantegna had already attained eminence. It is possible, as Messrs. Crowe aud Cavalcaselle suggest,-]- that the veteran Venetian master may have exercised influence over Mantegna by his advice and example, and that he may have been mainly instrumental in recommending his son-in-law the study of the models of Donatello and Paolo Uccello. But no painter more remarkable for originality, as well as for the highest qualities, of his art, than Mantegna ever lived. He combined an intensely realistic tendency with an ardent love of the antique, adding to them great powers of inven- tion, a solemn poetry of feeling, the grandest expression of passion, and a mastery of hand which is almost unique. Whoever has learned to relish this great master will never overlook a scrap by him ; for while his works sometimes show a certain austerity and harshness bordering on grimace, they have always a force and an energy of will which belong to no one else. In power of drawing the human figure, Mantegna is almost unrivalled, though his figures are occasionally too long. His hands and feet have the pre- cision of sculpture, and his powers of action range from tlie most vehement to the most tender. In the treatment of the human features, no problem was too difficult for him, and in the expression of uncontrolled emotion, such as his St. John roaring aloud with anguish in his etching of the ' Entombment ' — an attempt which in most hands would degenerate into a mere contortion — he preserves a dignity which redeems him from caricature. His drapery is always sculpturesque, and of the highest order of beauty of ar- rangement, sometimes clinging to the form in a multitude of minute folds, and finished in lights, half lights, shadows and reflections, with the most patient truth. Mantegna was ♦ According to a document recently discovered iu the Venice Archives, Mantegna was born at Vicenza and not at Padua as hitherto believed. It relates to a dispute between " Magistrum Franciscum Scorzono (Squarcione) pictorem de Padua et Andream Blasii Mentegna de Vincentia pictorem.'' Archivio Veneto, vol. sxix. Part I. (1883), pp. 191, 192. + ' History of Painting in North Italy,' vol, i., p. 115. 284 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. a tempera painter, of harmoniously broken tones. His draperies are frequently of shot colours and watered stuffs ; but with little attempt at those rich and deep effects which by the practice of oil his later Venetian contemporaries initiated. The chronological course of Mantegnd's laboiirs can be traced with some accuracy. He is said to have painted a Virgin and Child for the high altar of a chnrch in Padua when seventeen years of age ; but a lunette in the " Santo," dated 1452, is his earliest known work. Then follows the altar-piece in the Brera, in twelve compartments, with St. Luke writing at his desk in the centre, and Saints and a ' Pieta,' on gold grounds, grouped around him — known to have been painted for the church of S. Giustina, Padua, in 1454. This is already a decided specimen of his fine and peculiar qualities. St. Eufemia, a statue-like figure of exquisite drapery, with a sword in her breast (see wood- cut), and a portly Bishop in full canonicals, have all his scrupulous accm-acy of outline, and the details are rendered with a care and minuteness which no Flemish artist has exceeded. The chain-armoiu", and the city on a hill with numerous figures in the background, are no less carefully and minutely painted in the beautiful little picture of St. George in the Venice Academy. Another single figure of St. Eufemia in the Naples Museum, painted about the same time, is the earliest and perhaps grandest conception of ideal beauty ever attained by him. It is unfortunately much dark- ened, and has otherwise suffered. The fresco of the execu- tion of St. James, in the chapel of the Eremitani (Padua), belongs to about 1455 ; that of the martyrdom of St. Chris- topher, in the same chapel, to 1457 ; the portrait in the Berlin Gallery to 1464 ; the frescoes in the Ducal Palace at Mantua were executed between 1474 and 1484 ; the Hampton Coiu't cartoons, in 1492 ; and the ' Assumjition of the Virgin,' belonging to the Marchese Trivulzio at Milan, in 1497. By a study of these works we can trace the development of the genius of this great painter. The most important works of Mantegna's youth were the frescoes he executed in the Eremitani Chapel. Mantegna's S. EUFEMIA ; by Mantegna, Brera. p. 23i lUlMft(liJII»'li'liMlO ST. JAMES BLESSINHi A CONVf:RT ON HIS WAV TO XIARTYRDOM, by Mantogna. in the Chapel of the Eremitaiii at Padua. p 285. Chap.X.] ANDREA MANTEGNA. 285 hand is readily distinguishable in the histories of SS. James and Christopher. St. James baptizing, the same Saint before the Judge, and again blessing a Convert on his way to Martyrdom (see woodcut), and two of St. Christopher— the martyrdom of the giant Saint, and the removal of the body — are by him. In the subjects relating to St. James, the qualities and great range of Mantegna's art — stately and sculpturesque composiu-e, momentary action, and realistic detail and simplicity — are seen in marvellous combination. The figures are at once monumental and portrait-like ; the children which he has introduced, full of nature; the architecture and accessories of the grandest antique taste ; while the cobbled sole of the shoe of the convert who kneels before St. James with his back to the spectator, is only mentioned here as showing how well Mantegna could afford to give the most servile and accidental detail. In the pictui-e of St. Christopher bouad to a tree, and shot at by archers, the figure of the Saint is almost obliterated ; but one of the feet still remaining shows the severe anatomy which was familiar to the great master. The archers aim at the martyr from under a rich pergola of vines. At the window of a massive building, with antique rilievi and inscriptions, spectators apj)ear, one of whom, the judge, is wounded by an arrow miraculously diverted from its course. The dead body of the giant Saint, dragged away by ropes, is almost as much ruined, but nothing can obliterate the grand foreshortening of the figure, which is one of the most remarkable feats of modern art. In these frescoes Mantegna worked out many a problem of perspective, showing equally the, as yet, imperfect development of the art and the imtiring patience with which he tested it. Finally, the execution of these works exhibits a care and finish rarely before applied to fresco, and proves the energetic perseverance of the master.* To this period of exquisite finish belongs the altar-piece at S. Zeno (Verona), once over the high altar, but now * These frescoes have been removed from the walls and transferred to canvas ; little of tliem now remains. They have been copied for the Arundel Society. 2 H 286 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. placed ill tlie choir. It represents the Virgin and Cliild on a marble throne, with four grandly draped Saints on each side, in a classic portico, with festoons of fruit and coral overhanging. Eight infant angels, of the utmost beauty of form and execution, are playing and singing on each side of and below the throne. This picture, carried off to Paris by Napoleon, was restored to Verona without its fine pre- della, the centre-piece of which — the Crucifixion — remains one of the chief ornaments of the Louvre ; while the Christ in the Garden and the Ascension made their way to the Museum at Tours. The 'Agony in the Garden,' in Lord Northbroolc's collec- tion, formerly in the Fesch Gallery, belongs to this decade between 1450 and 1460. This is a marvellous combination of the fantastic and the realistic, with fine drawing, fore- shortening, and drapery in the figures of the sleeping apostles. A triptych, the centre part slightly concave, in the Tribune of the IJffizi — the Adoration of the Magi, the Circumcision and the Ascension — is another specimen of solemn grandeur of conception, combined with the minutest finish ; Mantegna'B finish being never mere labour, but simply the con- scientious satisfaction of the keenest eye and most intelligent hand. About 1470 Mantegna is believed to have entered the service of Lodovico Gonzaga, and to have removed from Padua to Mantua, where he chiefly resided for the rest of his life. Frescoes by him exist in this city, in a room of no great size, called the " Camera degli Sposi," in the old Ducal Palace, or Castello della Corte, representing domestic events in the Gonzaga family. These fine and interesting works were entirely repainted in 1846 by a German named Knoller. In 1876 Signer Cavanaghi, the skilful restorer of the Brera, was employed, under the direction of Signor Morelli, to remove the over-paint, and succeeded in recover- ing much of the original character and beauty of one of the frescoes. He was then rejilaced, by orders from Eome, by an ignorant picture cleaner, who, in his endeavouj-s to restore the remaining frescoes, did them irreparable damage and I" THE TKIUMPH OF JULIUS CESAR ; from ;i Cartoou li.v Andrea Mantegua at Hami)ton Court. 1> 287. THE TRIUMPH OF JULIUS CJESAK ; from a cartoon liy Andrea Mantegna, at Hampton Ooi p. 'JSV. TUK MAKCillS OF liONZA»;.\ AND HIS FAMILY ; ;i frcsro m tin OisU-Uo of l)V Anilrra ManUvnia. Mantua. Chap. X.] ANDRP:A MANTEGNA. 287 reduced tliem to tlieir present condition.* Notwithstanding the injury they have sustained by time, which has destroyed parts of them, aud by these " restorations," they still show Mantegnd'a never-failing mastery of drawing, the exquisite grace that he could impart to his figures, and his power of individualising his portraits. Lodovico Gonzaga, his wife Barbara, their children, friends and attendants, for the most part persons of common-place, if not downright ugly, physi- ognomies, are represented with life-like truth (see woodcut). The beautiful group of Angels holding up an inscription over the door is worthy of Baphael. The decoration of the ceiling, with chiaroscuro medallions of the Csesars, and mythological subjects on a gold ground, shows the most lively fancy. It simidates an elaborate dome, with a circular opening to the sky in the centre, surrounded by a balustrade over which ladies and children look down into the room. It is cele- brated as an example of foreshortening from which later masters derived inspiration. It was at Mantua that the master executed the series of nine canvases of large size, called the ' Triimaphs of Julius Cfesar,' now preserved in Hampton Court Palace in an irrecoverable state of dilapidation and repaint, but still retaining an imperishable character of grandeur (see woodcut). They represent a Eoman triumphal procession, with caj)tive men. women and children, tributes of oxen, sheep, elephants and other animals, carts laden with classic spoils, statues, busts breastplates, weapons, &c., many of which are known to have formed part of Mantegna's own collection. f These important works were executed as decorations for the theatre at Mantua. From Mantua Maiitegna was invited by Pope Innocent VIII. to Eome, where he remained two years, chiefly engaged on frescoes in the Chapel of the Belvedere in the Vatican, subsequently barbarously destroyed by Pope Pius IV. Smaller easel pictures scattered in various public and private galleries give opportunities of studying the master's excellencies. The following are especially noteworthy. A * It was this same restorer who repainted and destroyed Titian's frescoes in the Scuola del Santo at Padua. t A version, rather than a copy, by Rubens of part of the 'Triumph of Julius Ca;sar,' represented in one of our woodcuts, is in the National Gallery. 288 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. small ' Madonna and Child,' in the Uffizi of the tenderest beauty ; the ' Virgin with the Child standing on her lap, and SS. Joachim and Anna and the youthful Baptist,' formerly in the collection of Sir Charles Eastlake and now in the Dresden Gallery — a fine example of the master, painted on canvas, but, like most of his later works, injured by over-clean- ing ; a ' Man of Sorrows, with Angels,' iu the Copenhagen Gallery ; a marvellously foreshortened ' Dead Christ bewailed by the Maries,' in the Brera ; a ' Virgin and Child, with Angels,' also in the Brera, mentioned by Vasari as having been painted for an Abbot of Fiesole,* but formerly attributed to Giovanni Bellini — from which a thick coat of repaint has recently been removed, and which is now one of the gems of tbis fine collection ; a ' Virgin with tie Child asleep,' in the Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery, at Milan ; a ' Utadonna and Child with Saints,' in the Verona Public Gallery ; a similar subject in that of Turin ; a ' Madonna and Child,' i a that of Bergamo ; a ' Presentation,' in the Berlin Museum, in tempera, partly obliterated and what remains disfigured by restoration ; and lastly, two well-known pictures in the Louvre of allegorical import — ' An allegory of Parnassus,' and ' Wisdom victori- ous over the Vices ' — of the gayest coL luring and full of fancy and imagination. The National Gallery fortunately possesses more than one capital example of this great master. The ' Virgin and Child, enthroned, between St. John the Baptist and the Magdalen,' one of his finest and best preserved works, signed " Andreas Mantinea C.P.F."(civis patavinus fecit), belongs to his youthful period, and is excellent in its details and grand in the expression of the figures, which are admirably drawn. The ' Triumph of ScijHO,' a work of his later years, in chiaroscuro, painted for the Cornaro family of Venice, who boasted of their descent from the " gens Cornelia," is con- ceived in a grand classic spirit and nobly carried out (see woodcut). ' Samson and Delilah,' with a hedge of olive and lemon shrubs, and a vine trained round the trimk of a tree, ia remarkable for fine drawing and masterly executed details. The allegorical figures of Summer and Autumn attributed to * Sansoni's Vasari, vol. iii., p. 594. a o (—1 O w Chap. X.] BARTOLOMMEO MONTAGNA. 289 him, are ill-proportioned, and want expression and character. They are more probably by a scholar or imitator. Mantegna as an engraver takes an equally extraordinary rank in the records of art. His engravings embody, more exclusively even than his pictures, his knowledge and the unfaltering decision of his hand. Mantegna died in 1506, and was buried in the chapel of S. Giovanni in the church of S. Andrea at Mantua. His bust in bronze, a noble head — one of the finest productions of the great medalist Sperandio — was placed above his grave by his grandson, and two pictures attributed to him hang upon the walls neglected and nearly ruined by being exposed to dust and damp. One of them is certainly by his hand, and, damaged as it is, the great qualities of the painter may still be recognised, especially in the fine expression of the female heads. It rej)resents the Virgin holding the Child, who is blessing the infant St. John in the arms of St. Elisa- beth. Behind them are Joseph and Zacharias, and in the background fruit and leaves. Mantegnas two sons, Lodoiico and Francesco, were his scholars, and probably assisted him in some of his later works, in which a weaker hand than the master's may be detected. Little is known of them, except that by their conduct they did little credit to their father. Two pictures in the National Gallery, a ' Noli me tangere,' and a ' Ee- surrection of Our Lord,' are doubtfully attributed to Fran- cesco, of whom no authentic work is known to enable us to judge of his style. In connection with Padua must be noticed the neigh- bouring city of Vicenza, which, if it did not produce a school of painting boasts of several painters of eminence. The most remarkable of them was Bartolommeo Montagna, who was not, however, born in that city, but established himself there, and is consequently claimed as one of its citizens. He came from Orzinovi, between Brescia and Cremona. The date of his birth has not been ascertained but he began to be known as a painter as early as 1470. He appears to have received his first education at Venice, and the influence of Carpaccio aud the Bellini, rather than 290 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. [Chap. X. that of Mantegna, of whom he is generally supposed to have been a pupil or follower, may be recognised in his works. He may, in fact, be almost classed with the Venetians. He is entitled to a much higher place among the painters of the last part of the fifteenth century than that hitherto accorded to him. His art is distinct in cha- racter, witn a firm outline and a bold, sure hand ; his colour is low, but rich, bright and gemlike. He gives a grand, dignified expression and pose to his figures ; his draperies are generally arranged in broad folds, and his landscape backgrounds, although minute, frequently denote an original and poetical fancy. One of his finest works, showing in his treatment of the subject the Venetian influence, and a Mantegnesque grandeur, is his great altar-piece in the Brera, painted in 1499 (see vroodcut). It represents the Virgin and Child enthroned, below rich architecture, with SS. Andrew and Monica on one side, and SS. Ursula and Sigis- mond on the other; all very dignified and noble figures. Three Angels playing on musical instruments are seen seated on the steps of the throne below, as in pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Carpaccio. Other excellent works by him are in the public Gallery and the church of the Sta. Corona at Vicenza, and in the public Gallery of Bergamo. One of the painter's masterpieces, dated 1505, is the Madonna with the Dead Christ and Saints, in the " Santuario " of Monte Berico near Vicenza. A fine altar-piece signed by him — the Virgin and Child enthroned, with four Saints and two angels below — is in the " Seminario," Padua ; and a similar picture of great merit in the Certosa, Pavia.* In the choice collection of Signer Morelli (Milan), there is a small picture by Montagna, representing St. Jerome in meditation, with a landscape background of solemn poetic beauty, — mountains and buildings of Venetian architecture touched by the setting sun, and a golden sky in which are floating rosy cloudlets. Four figures of Saints by him in the church of SS. Nazzaro e Celso (Verona) are very noble and ' The present Editor possesses an excellent signed altar-piece by the master, representing St. John the Baptist between SS. Zeno and Catherine, from the Church of S. Ilarione, near Vicenza. A^IRGIX, CHILD, A,\D SAINTS ; an altar-piece bj- Bartolommeo Montagna in the Brera at Milau. p. 290. CuAP.X.] BUONCONSIGLIO. 291 gladly conceived figures.* In the National Gallery there is " a Virgin adoring the sleeping Child " by him (No. 1098) — a characteristic work of fine feeling. Another picture in the same collection (No. 802) attributed to him, is by an inferior painter — probably Speranza, Montagna died in 1523. His son, or according to some his brother, Benedetto was also a painter, but one of little merit, as may be seen by an altar-piece in the Brera signed by him, and dated 1528. He gained greater reputation by his engravings, and his works in that department are much prized. Giovanni Speranza, of whom no dates have been ascer- tained, was an imitator of Bartolommeo Montagna, and, like him, was influenced by the Venetians. There are pictures by him in the church of S. Giorgio at Velo (in the Province of Vicenza), in the public gallery of Vicenza, in the Brera,! and elsewhere. Francesco Verla, also a Vicentine, is seen in a signed picture in the Brera, dated 1511 ; but is scarcely worthy of mention. Marcello Fogolino has left some rather feeble works in Vicenza. A better Vicentine painter than either of the three last named was Giovanni Buonconsiglio, called il Marescalco. He studied in Venice, but imitated Montagna, to whom works by him are not unfrequently ascribed. They are, however, less vigorous in treatment than those of that master. One of his best is a signed altar-piece in S. Giacomo dall' Orio, Venice, representing St. Sebastian between SS. Lawrence and Eock, quite Venetian in character, both as to composi- tion and colour. A portion of another altar-piece formerly in the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano, with half figures of three Saints, inscribed with his name, is in the Venice Academy. In it he resembles Montagna, but is less forcible in colour. Other works by him are to be found at Venice and at Vicenza, (where an altar-piece in the church of S. Rocco is especially remarkable) and at Montagnana, but he is little known out of Italy. Some of his later works have an extreme warmth of tone. He was still living in Venice in 1530. ♦ Published iu Chromolithography by the Arundel Society. t No. 174, described in the Catalogue as by an unknown author. 2 I 292 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. CHAPTER XL THK VENETIAN SCHOOL. Venice may be said to have been, as regards Art, a Byzantine colony. Everything in this peculiar city bore so Oriental a character that it is easy to understand how her peoj)le adhered to that which the dawning taste of other parts of Italy had thrown off. Thus established and fed — for Venice continiied to keep up her relations with the East — she ofliered a strength of opposition to the new tendencies in art such as they had encountered in no other parts of Italy. From the middle of the foui'teenth century, however, the partial introduction of these innovations, though under different forms and combinations, could no longer be impeded. None of those grand allegorical subjects, none of those profoundly pensive poems with which the school of Oiotto decorated whole buildings, are to be foimd here. Even the historical representations are, in point of character, of inferior order, while the altar-pictures retain longer than elsewhere the gilt canopied compartments and divisions, and with them the tranquil position of single figures. The de- velopment which attended these beginnings, and the form of art which the school was subsequently to attain, was first manifested in the fifteenth century. We begin with one of the few works of a monumental character, namely, with the mosaics of the chapel of S. Isidore, in S. Mark's, executed 1350. The principal features of the Gothic style predominate here almost exclusively, though not accompanied either with the poetic grandeur or the solemn beauty of the better followers of Giotto ; on the contrary, they combine with careful execution an aw^kward and unimaginative form of composition. Further examples of this kind are to be found in the Venice Academy ; for instance, a large altar-piece in many compartments — the Coronation of the Virgin— by Niccolo Semitecolo, with four- teen scenes from the life of Christ (the centre picture by a Chap. XL] EARLY VENETIAN PAINTERS. 293 later hand), signed and dated 1351.* He is tlie first repre- sentative of tliis early school, though he shows but little of its dawning qualities. His productions correspond somewhat with those of Duccio, but without his excellence, while the gold hatchings, olive-brown comijlexions, and many a "motive" are still directly Byzantine. Another altar-piece by him, now divided, in the Chapter House of the cathedral at Padua, with the history of St. Sebastian, is dated 13G7. He had a brother named Donate, also a painter, and is known to have lived till 1400. It is a question whether Niccolb Semitecolo is not identical with another Niccolo by whom there is a pictui-e in the Venice Academy. The subject is a Madonna with the Child, and little angels playing on musical instruments, not without grace, especially in the smooth and almost Sienese drapery. The artist has given the place of his dwelling as well as his name in an inscription — " Niccolo, the son of Maestro Pietro, painter in Venice, residing at the entrance of the Paradise Bridge, painted this work in the year 1393," — thus showing the kind of artist life in a rich commercial city. Another altar-piece, with the Coronation of the Virgin in the centre, by Lorenzo Veneziano, is more indicative of the transition period. It bears the date 1357, f and though of a very severe style the heads have a soft expres- sion and the draperies fall in round and easy folds. A third altar-piece, formerly ascribed to Michele Onorio, now to Michele Mattei da Bologna (Lambertini), shows a further progress. The centre picture represents the Madonna with saints, the Crucifixion and the Evangelists above, and the history of St. Helena below. It is much more in the character of the time, with delicate folds, and a light carnation, which, however, still retains something of Byzantine greenness in the shadows. The coimtenances are delicate, but not of any character. The traditions of Byzantism, for obvious reasons, lingered in Venice long after their expulsion from other centres of * The centre piece was painted by one Stefano, who inscribes himself as Plebanus (? Piovano, or parish priest), of S. Agnese. It is dated 1380. t There are two pictures by him in the Venice Academy, dated 1357 and 1371. 2 I 2 294 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Cuap. XL progress and activity, while, on the other hand, the Giottesque element, which had found a home in the neighbouring Padua, seems, as we have before observed, never to have entered Venice. A tendency to depart from Byzantine forms and colouring may be traced in Venetian art from the first half of the fifteenth century. It is principally shown in a peculiar melting softness, not deficient in dignity and earnestness, which pervades the paintings of that time. The drapery is in those long and easy lines which we see in the Tuscan pictures of the foui'teenth century ; the colouring deep and transparent, the carnation usually soft and warm — almost an anticipation of the later excellence of the Venetian school. How the early Venetian school arrived at a higher state of development remains still uncertain. We do not here recognise the influence of the school of Giotto but rather the types of the Gothic style, especially in sculpture, which, as in Tuscany, preceded painting in development in Venice, gradually assuming a new character. In respect to the peculiarities of the school, we are tempted to regard them in connection with the social condition of Venice itself, There was something, perhaps, in the nature of a rich commercial aristocracy of the middle ages calculated to encoui'age that species of art which offered the most splen- dour and elegance to the eye ; and this also, if possible, in a portable form. Thus the domestic altar, or the votive picture, was preferred to those great and solemn works which contain a whole world of events and thoughts, but in a slighter form of execution. The contemporary Flemish paintings, under similar conditions, exhibit analogous results. The depth and transparency of separate colours observable in the early Venetian school had been long a distinguishing element in Byzantine paintings on wood, and may be, tlierefore, traceable to this source without our assuming an influence on the part of Padua, through the channel of Altichiero, or from the North through that of Johannes Alemannus (Giovanni da Muranoy We may first mention, as illustrating this tendency, the painters Francesco de Flor, or dal Fiore, and his son Jacobello. Chap. XI.J EARLY VENMIAN PAINTERS. 295 Of the former no authentic works can be cited ; of Jacobello, wlio was "• gastalclo," or head, of the guild of painters in Venice in 1415, there is an altar-piece, formerly in the Cathedral of Ceneda, and now in the Venice Academy, repre- senting the Coronation of the Virgin. It is a confused and scarcely intelligible composition, containing a large number of clumsily drawn figures, Angels playing on musical instruments in architectui-al niches, the Evangelists and a crowd of Prophets, Saints, and Martyrs, overcharged with gilding and gilt stucco in relief — showing this painter to have been equally deficient in skill and imagination. It has, however, lost much of its original character by re- paints. In the same gallery is another work by Jacobello in three parts — an allegorical figui-e of Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, inscribed " Jacohhellus de Flore pinxit, 1421 "—also much repainted. He probably died in 1439, the year in which his will is dated. Other painters of the same class and merit — such as Jacobello de Bonomo, by whom there is a picture dated 1385 in the chm*ch of S. Arcangelo near Eimini — worked at the same time as the de Flor at Venice. But that they were held in small esteem is proved by the fact that Gentile da Fahriano, and his distinguished fellow-labourer, the Veronese Vittor Pisano {Fisanello'), \\ere invited by the Eepublic, about 1420-21, to decorate with wall-paintings a hall in the Ducal Palace. The presence of these two eminent artists exercised a decided and immediate influence upon the Venetian school of painting, and gave it a new impulse. To their example, if not to their instruction, it owes its rapid development in Antonio da Negroponte, Michele Gianhono, and Antonio Vivarini, and the associates of the latter in the Island of Murauo. By Fra Antonio da Negroponte there exists a large altar-piece in the church of S. Francesco della Vigna (Venice), representing the Virgin and Child enthroned, with a rich architectiu'al background, Squarcionesque in character, with festoons of flowers and fruit, and much gilding — altogether a somewhat imposing work ; but its original character has probably been greatly changed by extensive modern restorations. 296 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. There were, there is every reason to believe, two iminters of the name of Michele Gianhono, probably father and son.* They were both employed in decorating with mosaics the chapel of the Madonna de' Mascoli, in S. Mark's, in which two hands are distinctly visible. To the elder, by whom there is an altar-piece in the Venice Academy, representing Christ and four Saints, dated 1456, belong the mosaics on the left side of the waggon-shaped roof representing the Birth and Presentation of the Virgin, which were probably commenced in 1430. They show the influence of Gentile da Fabriano, and the architectm-e of the buildings in the background is Venetian Gothic. The author inscribes his name upon them and calls himself a Venetian."]" The Mosaics on the opposite side, representing the Visitation and Death of the Virgin, which were finished according to existing records in 1490, evidently belong to a later period. The types of the figures, the sharp angular folds of the di-a- pery, and the introduction of classic architecture and details in the background, show that the author had studied in, or had been inspired by, the Paduan, or Squarcionesque, school. He is said to have been still living in 1505.^ The mosaics in this chaj)el are masterpieces. "Whilst this species of Art, on account of its inability to meet the highest artistic requirements of the time, had almost ceased in other parts of Italy, it was destined to attain here in S. Mark's one of its greatest triumphs. It is true that the higher architectural principle which formed the style of the older mosaics is here no longer observed — these being merely historical paintings of a very developed kind, trans- ferred into neat and fine mosaics ; but at the same time the order of the arrangement, the beauty and expression of the forms, the brilliant colours and the splendid archi- tectural backgrounds, which have the merit of being correct in porspective,§ raise this work not only above all the * Mr. Mundler first suspected that there were two painters of the name, father and son. See Burckhardt's 'Cicerone,' English translation, p. 15, note. t The inscription is " Michael Gianbono Yenetus fecit." j De Boni. ' Emporio Artistico.' § The technical execution is also of the highest perfection, and is not surpassed in any mosaics in St. ]\iark"s — or probably elsewhere. c o" /^ K Q ►J >-) a G 3 Chap. XL] THE VIVARINI. 297 other mosaics in the building, but assign to it a high place in the historical painting of the day. The more proper forerunners of Venetian Art belonged i to a school formed in the Island of Murano — the seat of' the glass manufactory, and once the resort of the wealthier Venetian citizens. Eemnants of mosaics, wall-paintings and altar-pieces in this and in the neighbouring islands attest the laboui's of obscm-e artists from an early time ; but the Murano school itself only commences with the first half of the fifteenth century. Its true founders are two painters who worked together and signed their names jointly, " Jo- hannes et Antonius de Miiriano." This signature appears on a large pictiu-e of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Venetian Academy, dated 1440— unfortimately so disfigiu'ed by modern restoration that little or nothing of its original character remains.* A few years later the same hands are seen "under the signature of " Johannes Alemannus et Antonius de Muriano," in a picture of the Madonna enthroned, with four angels supporting the baldacchino above her, four fathers of the church, and a rich architectural background, dated 1446, in the same Gallery (see woodcut). Of these two painters, Antonio, of the family of the Vivarini, was un- doubtedly a native of Murano, w-hilst Giovanni was, as he describes himself, a German. In the works of the first may be traced the influence of Gentile da Fahriano and Pisa- nello ; whilst the second is believed, upon apparently sufficient grounds, to have come from the school of Cologne, with which his mild type of face and his pale rosy coloxmng shows a decided affinity. The carefully and minutely finished gothic backgrounds and architecture, seen in some of their joint productions, have also a German character. In an altar-piece in fourteen compartments in the Brera, repre- senting the Virgin and Child, with a Benedictine monk kneeling before her, and numerous Saints, the two hands are, likewise, distinctly recognisable, and also in three altar- pieces in the Sacristy of the church of S. Zaccaria (Venice), * Signov Morelli is of opinion that this picture is a copy of one in the church of S. Pantaleone, to be hereafter mentioned, and that the signature is not genuine. 298 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Cuap. XI. signed by both painters. Two are dated 1443. The figiu-e of S. Sabina in one of them shows the Cologne influence ; whilst the heads of several male Saints have the diy and vigorous character of the Vivarini. In the third, dated 1444, we again recognise the influence of the Cologne school in the gentle expression and almost " sfumato " colouring of the Virgin in the centre compartment.* The two painters appear to have worked in partnership for about ten years, probably until 1450. To Giovanni, the German, alone may be ascribed a well-preserved fragment in the church of S. Filij)po, Padua ; to Antonio Vivarini, the Adoration of the Kings in the Berlin Gallery, a work of his youth, and probably executed before his connection with his German associate, and consequently showing no German influence, but in feeling and composition approach- ing Gentile da Fahriano, especially in the landscape back- ground, which is altogether in that painter's manner. In the National Gallery are four saints, also by Antonio Vivarini. In the church of S. Pantaleone (Venice), a large and greatly repainted altar-piece, representing the Coronation of the Virgin amidst numerous saints, prophets, and patriarchs, almost a repetition of the picture in the Academy, is inscribed with his name alone, and the date 1444.t It would appear from an altar-piece in the Gallery of Bologna, representing the Virgin and Child and Saints, dated 1450, that Antonio had then separated from his German fellow-workman, and had been joined by a younger brother, Bartolommeo Vivarini (the names of both are in- scribed on the picture), who possessed far superior powers. Antonio is known to have lived till 1470. An altar-piece signed with his name alone, and dated 14G4, is in the gallery of the Lateran. His works, and those of his school, abound in gilt stucco embossments and in gold decoration. Andrea da Murano, a feeble painter, by whom there is an altar-piece * But it must be observed that these works have been all more or less restored and much repainted. The deep, transparent colouring of these painters is the transition from the Byzantine colouring to that of Giovanni Bellini. t See uote in previous page. ST. AUUUSTIX ; by Uartuloiumeu Vivarini. p. 'jgi". Au altar-piece by Bai-tolommeo Vivarini, in the Naples Gallery. p. 299. Chap. XL] BARTOLOMMEO VIVAKINI. 299 in the Venice Academy, belonged probably to the Vivarhii family. He may have worked between 1450 and 1460. Quiricio da Murano, known by pictures of little importance, inscribed with his name, such as a Virgin and Child in the same gallery,* and a St. Lucy in the Pinacoteca at Eovigo, may have been a son of Giovanni, the German. He was certainly his pupil and imitator. The date of the earliest productions of Bartolommeo Vivarini is unknown ; his latest bears that of 1499, which is the only clue yet discovered as to the time of his death. After 1450, when he painted with his bmther Antonio the altar-piece to which we have already referred, he appears with few exceptions to have worked independently, and in a manner which, while exhibiting that dawning sense of colour from first to last distinctive of the Venetian school, partook more of dignity of form and severity of drawing. His works prove him to have been a man of an original and powerful mind. He imparts a stern grandeur to his figui'es, \Ahich is scarcely excelled even by Mantegna ; but his individualism leads him occasionally to exaggeration, and even to grotesqueness. His draperies, although some- what angular in the folds, are in general broad and well dis23osed. His colouring is rich and more powerful than that of his brother ; but he occasionally emj)loys, like him, gilt stucco embossments to heighten the effect of his pictures, and frequently painted on gold ground. One of his grandest and most characteristic works is the majestic figure of St. Augustin, enthroned, in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (Venice), dated 1473 | (see illustration). Scarcely inferior to it, and more brilliant in colour, are the two triptychs in the church of the Frari (Venice), one of them — the Virgin and Child, with Saints on either side — dated 1487. Our woodcut represents a fine altar-piece in the Naples Gallery, an earlier work painted in 14G5. All Bartolommeo' & known pictures are in tempera, in * The inscription on this picture, which is probably by Pietro da Messina, is not genuine. t This fine work (now deposited in the gnlleryof the Academy) appears to have been originally painted on a gold ground. It is in tempera. 300 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. which material he obtained almost the force and brilliancy of oil colour. Like most of the contemporary painters of Northern Italy, he came, to a certain extent, under the influence of the school of Squarcione — as shown by classic details and festoons of flowers and fruit in his backgrounds. Pictures by Bartolommeo are scattered in Venice, and are not rare in foreign collections, though many under his name are of a class which can only be attributable to his school. As a rule, when they are by his own hand they are inscribed " Bartolommeus Vivarinus, or de Muriano, fecit " (or " pinxit ") ; when they come from his " bottega," " factum per Bart, de Muriano." An altar-piece in numerous com- partments with the latter inscription, and the date of 1475, — a coarse and rude work, with none of his qualities — has recently been exposed in the Venice Academy, as an early picture by the master. Another instance may be mentioned — the ' Death of the Virgin ' — belonging to the late Mr. William Graham, grotesque in its exaggerated coarseness.* We now enter more closely into the characteristic qualities of the Venetian school, which unfolded itself in the second half of the fifteenth century, and which, together with the schools of Florence and Padua, contributed a third impor- tant power in the development of art. In the first two schools this was eifected by the study of form and the laws which govern its appearances — by drawing, modeling, chiaroscuro, &c. — while the colour was generally regarded as a subordinate quality. Among the Venetians, on the contrary, the element of colouring was considered all-im- portant ; and in this respect the school claims an unrivalled precedence."!" We have noticed that the earlier masters had * It is scarcely conceivable that this picture when in the collection of a well-kuown connoisseur passed for a work by Giotto ; the inscription having been tampered with so as to give the name of that painter. t "As the Venetian school is acknowledged to be the first in colour, it is often too hastily assumed that its character from first to last was gay and joyous. Even in colour this is only occasionally true of Paul Veronese. The general style of the Venetian altar-pieces is grave, and it is remark- able that, in expression, no school of Italy is more serious. The smiling expressions of Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, aad Raphael never occur in the Venetian Holy Families, and the pensiveness of mien and look in subjects of a lighter character is sometimes pathetic : the picture called theThree Ages, in the Stafford Gallery, is a remarkable example." — C. L. E- Chap. XI.] ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 301 already displayed an excellence in coloui-ing, particularly iu the flesh, unknown before their time, and that the residence of Gentile da Fahriano and Pisanello in Venice had doubtless left many scholars there imbued with their manner. We observe further (and to this point we shall retui'n) that, owing to the example of Antonello da Messina, the A^enetians were the first among the schools of Italy who practised oil-painting, the greater fluidity and transparency of which, compared with distemper, were highly favourable to their peculiar aim. In all that relates to drawing, arrangement, and orniiment, they leaned to the practice of the neighboui-ing school of Padua, but happily they avoided its exaggerated severity ; and even as regards the qualities they adopted, they held themselves perfectly independent whenever the original ap- plication or treatment was opposed to their own views. In general the predominant taste exhibits itself among the earlier Venetian artists more as a fondness for magnificence and sj)lendour ; a perfectly harmonious union of colour w as reserved for a later period. Historical compositions, properly so called, are rare in this school ; where they do cccur, the treatment differs from that of the Florentines and Paduans. In these a symmetrical arrangement of the whole — a measured distribution of the groups — predominates ; while the Venetians from the very first betray a certain leaning to what is called genre, inasmuch as the whole composition is more scattered. The accessories, particularly the landscape, assume greater importance. Pictures in the early manner, representing the Madonna enthroned, sui'rounded by Saints, jiarticularly abound. Up to the time of the Vivarini, later, therefore, than in other schools, the single figures of Saints were painted on gold grounds, and divided by framework. This practice now ceased, the subject was united in one pictiu-e, generally with an architectural background, and the " Santa Conversa- zione " now, properly speaking, first began. The Saints are no longer seen placed at equal distances and in tranquil atti- tudes ; contrast and variety are contrived. If one looks towards the Virgin, another reads in a book ; if one kneels another stands upright. The sky when acting as back- ground is generally kept liglit and clear, the more eff"ectually 2 K 302 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XL to relieve tlie riclily coloured figures. Such compositions are also frec^uently embellisliecl with pleasing accessories : sportive boy-angels singing and playing on instruments, or bearing festoons of flowers and fruit, give a graceful variety to the solemnity of these religious representations. There are other favourite accessories, such as splendid thrones, on which the Virgin is seated, and richly decorated tribimes, under which the Saints are seen assembled. Sometimes even the architectural forms of the frames are carried into the picture ; or the architecture of the church or chapel for which the painting was destined is imitated in perspective. We must now go back to the progenitor, equally in the flesh and in art, of that family to which especially Venetian art owes its greatness— the family of the Bellini. It is remarkable that the heads of the two rival races of early painters in Venice, Antonio da Murano and Jacopo Bellini owed their artistic development to the influence and teach- ings of Gentile da Fabriano. Jacopo Bellini was born in the first years of the fifteenth century — perhaps in 1400 — and was apprenticed in Venice to Gentile, whom he accompanied in 1422 to Florence, where he was condemned to prison for striking a Florentine youth, and only released on condition of performing public penance.* His surviving works are only seen in doubtful and very injured examples, and aft'ord scarcely any means of judging of his artistic cajiacity, or even ()f his manner. Two pictures of the Virgin and Child are signed with liis name — the one belonging to Count Tadini of Lovere, the other in the Venice Academy, the latter almost entirely re- painted. A large Cruci-fixion on canvas, also signed, formerly in the Archiepiscoj)al Palace, Verona, has been transferred to the public gallery of that city ; but reckless restorations have left few traces of the hand of the master. Of another crucifixion — a fresco which formerly existed in the Cathedral of Verona, but of which nothing remains — there is an en- graving (see woodcut) by one Paolo Veronese, who must not be confounded with his great namesake. But the chief * For a curious account of Jacopo's, conduct in this matter see note, ]>■ ]49, vol. ill. of Sansoui's ' Yasari.' THE CRUCIFIXION ; by Jacorio Bellini, once in the Catludrul uf Verouti. p. 3U'.>. K 2 Chap. XI.] JAOOPO BELLINI. 303 testimony on whicli Jacopo Bellini'^ fame rests is a book of drawings now in the British Museum, inscribed Avith his name and dated, Venice 1430. They are for the most part executed in pencil, with slight tintings, and are much faded and injured. They represent compositions of sacred and legendary subjects, with animals, classic objects, studies of architecture and costmnes of remarkable character ; some pointing back to Gentile da Fahriano, while others show that the conception of various motives and compositions adopted and repeated by Jacopo's successors in art, first originated with him. A still more remarkable volume of outline di'a wings in pen and ink, attributed to Jacopo Bellini, has recently been acquired by the Louvre. Among these drawings there are to be found compositions, and even entire figures, identical with those in the British Museum book ; but their powerful and masterly execution — which contrasts strongly with the more feeble sketches in that volume — seem to point to another and greater hand ; unless indeed, as appears not improbable, more than one artist from the school of Squarcione contributed to this most interesting and important collection. If, on the other hand, they are all by Jacopo Bellini, they have but little affinity with the pictures ascribed to him, which denote a painter whose execution of his subjects was much inferior to their con- ception, and woidd prove him to have been an artist scarcely inferior to Mantegna in vigoui", and to his son Giovanni in grace. Jacopo Bellini lived for some years at Padua, where, like other painters of his time, he was influenced by the teach- ings of Squarcione, as is apparent from the drawings by him to which we have referred. He worked there with his sons. Gentile and Giovanni, and his son-in-law Mantegna,* married to his daughter Nicccdosia. The date of his death is unknown, but it was jirobably about 1464. Gentile Bellini, the elder son of Jacopo, was bom about 1427, and died in 1507, having attained to the advanced * The ' Anonimo * mentions ii picture in Padua, no longer existing, on which was inscribed " .Tacobi Bellini Veneti patris ac Gentilis et Joannis, natorum opus MCCCCLX." — Ed. Frizzoai, p. 8. 304 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. awe of eighty years. lie received his education as a painter under his father at Padua, whence lie removed to Venice, where he was appointed to paint the shutters of the great organ of S. Mark's which are still preserved. He repre- sented upon them, in tempera, and of colossal size, SS. Mark, Theodore, Jerome, and Francis. Though showing the fetters of early feeling, these works, injured as they are, exhibit that comprehension of perspective, decision of di-aw- ing, and classical cast of drapery, derived from the Paduan school founded by Sqiiarcione. A greatly damaged picture by him in the Venice Academy, painted in 14G5, repre- senting the " beato " Lorenzo Giustiniani, the first patriarch of Venice, shows his power of giving character and indi- viduality to his figures. He soon obtained great reputation in his native city, and Avas employed in 1474 by the Government of the Eepublic to repair the frescoes by Gentile da Fahriano in the great Council Hall of the Doge's Palace. In 1479, Sultan Mehemet the Conqueror, indifferent to the law of his faith which forbids the representation of hiunan beings, having applied to the Signory for a good painter, Gentile, then considered the most distinguished Venetian artist of his day, was sent to Constantinople, where he remained for more than a year. The anecdote related b.y Eidolfi as to the cause of his departure from that city is well known. He showed the Sultan a picture which he had painted, representing Herodias' daughter with the head of John the Baptist. Mehemet criticised the bleeding head as not being true to nature, and in order to justify his criticism, ordered a slave to bo beheaded in the presence of the painter. Gentile thought it time to leave the service of such a master, and fled precipitately from his Capital. A portrait he painted of the Sultan himself, who, according to the inscription upon it, actually sat for it, was finished on the 25th November, 1480. It is now in the possession of the editor, and from it the well-known medal of the Sultan was probably executed by Gentile Bellini (see wood- cut). It appears, at one time, to have been in the collec- tion of portraits of remarkable men made by the celebrated Italian historian, Paolo Giovio. It represents a specimen oi TERROR M/13SS VtCTOfl rtCaOM SVLTfl*. WAHOW ETI RCSV/LTAT ARS WERrt CiENTiL'5 MLI TIS-AVRATI SCLI^r fJfllVH* SOATiUSfOV/i cymcTA^e OWCtT INPROPR ■AM PROPRIA 5IMUL0RC PORTRAIT OF SULTAN MEHEJIET . by Gentile Bellini, in the irossession of Sir A. H. Liiyard. 1>. 304. Chap. XL] GENTILE BELLINI. 305 exquisite and almost indestructible finish in the i)aintcd arabesques round the arch under which the profile of the Sultan appears, and in the embroidered and jewelled carpet in front of him. The head is painted witli great delicacy, and is evidently a true likeness, although it little agrees with the character of a great conqueror and of a firm and energetic ruler. In the inscription the painter styles himself "miles aui-atus," which proves the estimation in which he was lield, and the honours he received.* After his return from Constantinople he was in the habit of introducing into his pictures Tiu'hish and other oriental costumes, of which he appears to have made careful studies when there. Such studies are to be seen in the British ]Muscum in the figures of a man and woman in Turkish dress ; and in the library of Windsor Castle in a man in a turban, seated, of great beauty of di-apery. In an ' Adora- tion of the Magi,' in the possession of the editor — rich and forcible in colour, with a fine landscape background — he has introduced a niunber of figures in the costumes of the Janissaries and of Turks of various classes and ranks of the time, all correctly represented. Having again settled in Venice, he was employed by the Signory to execute, for the Council Hall in the Ducal Palace, several large pictures, representing incidents in Venetian history, which were highly praised by his contemporaries. They all perished in the great fire of 1577. The much-repainted pictui-e in the Brera, called ' The Sermon of St. Mark,' begun in 1506, and completed after Gentile's death by his brother Giovanni,'^ also contains numerous figures in oriental costumes, whilst the architectural background is evidently a reminiscence of the Mosques of Constantinople. In the crowd of listeners may be distinguished the two brothers — the elder clothed in gold br*)cade, wearing the collar of knighthood ; the younger opposite to him in a crimson robe. The ' Procession of the Corpus Domini in the Square of St. Mark's,' with the facade * Oq a medal he inscribes himself ' Geutilis Bellinus Venetus Eques Auratus comesque Palatinus.' t Gentile Bellini, by his will, bequfathed to his brother Giovanni the book of drawings by their father now in the British Museum on condition of his completing this picture- 306 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XL of tlie cliurch as it then was, and tlie ' Miracle by the Eelic of the True Cross ' (see woodcut), both in the Venice Academy, although greatly injured by the restorers, show his remarkable ability for treating historical subjects, his power of giving individuality of expression and action to the numerous figures he introduces into them, and of represent- ing with correctness elaborate architectural backgrounds.* Gentile was, no doubt, familiar M'ith portraiture. His por- trait of Sultan Mehemet has already been mentioned. One of an old man, conjectured to be the learned mathematician Mulattini, who instructed the brothers Bellini in perspective, is in the National Gallery. It fully justifies the fame that Gentile bad acquired as a painter of portraits, and shows him the forerunner of Titian. That of the Doge Foscari, in the Museo Civico (Venice), and that (f the Uogc Cristoforo More, now in the possession of the Earl of Eose- bery, are doubtfully pronounced to be by his handjf as also the profiles of two youths facing each other, in the University Gallery, Oxford. A more authentic, but much injured, portrait by him is that of Caterina Cornaro, in the public gallery of Pesth. The t^vo fine heads in the Salon Carre of the Louvre (No. 59), ascribed to him, arc unquestionably by another hand — either by Catena or Sissolo, or some other painter of the Venetian school. Authentic easel-pictures by Gentile are very rare. A Virgin and Child enthroned under a canopy, bearing his signature, biit much repainted, is in the collection of Lady Eastlake. The St. Peter Martyi-, in the National Gallery (No. 803), there ascribed to Giovanni, is more probably by Gentile, whose name has been fraudulently replaced in the " cartellino " by that of his brother. The fame of Giovanni Bellini has been sufficiently great to overshadow that of Gentile. Yet Gentile was a painter of very considerable merit, and but little inferior, in some respects, even to his distinguished brother, to whom he was * The picture in the Louvre, representing the reception at Cairo of the Venetian Ambassador Trevisan by Sultan Kansou Ghoury in 1512, formerly attributed to Gentile, was painted after his death by a scholar or imitator. + Thiy are both probably by one of the Vivarinis. Chap. XI.] GIOVANNI BELLINI. 307 said to be superior in the scientific knowledge of his art. Ho bad great refinement, was a fine colourist and di-augbts- man, and was endowed with a poetical imagination. His historical pictures have always great interest and beauty. In the careful and minute execution of graceful details, he was not sm-passed by any painter of his time. He had collected a number of antique sculptures, amongst them a Venus believed to be by Praxiteles, from which he studied. Unfortunately the greater number of his works have been so damaged through neglect, and by the ruthless hand of the modem restorer, that they retain but few of his great qualities, and give but a faint idea of his power as a colourist.* There is evidence that Titian, as a boy of nine years old, entered his studio. The proper head, however, of the Venetian school — and considering his varied powers, perhaps the greatest painter that Italy produced during the fifteenth century— was Gio- vanni Bellini, commonly known as GiamhelUno. He was bom in 1428, and died in 1516. By the union of large gifts and length of years he appropriated and combined the best qualities of contemporary painters and schools, and developed those excellencies, especially of colour, which constitute the transition from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centiuy. Unlike even the greatest masters of his time, who evince a certain monotony of conception and representation, or mannerism, he displayed the greatest variety. From his earliest to his latest known works, executed when he was approaching his ninetieth year, he shows continual development, and increasing knowledge and power. Although many, and probably the most important, of his works have perished, and many have been irretriev- ably injured, sufficient fruits of the industry of his pencil remain to revive a reputation which in his own time stood deservedly supreme. Giovanni Bellini did not veer between the common and the ideal, like Signnrelli; or between the quaintly realistic and solemnly sublime, like Mantegna ; * Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (' Life of Titian,' vol. i. p. 47) term Gentile Bellini " the most serious, the most scientific, and the most able artist of his day." 308 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Cuap. XI but he was endowed with profound and grandly balanced feeling, the expression of wliicli appeals to large and noble sympathies. That he was endowed with a highly poetical imagination, some of his works to which we shall have occasion to refer imquestionably prove.* Tempering the austerity of the Paduan school with a dignity and serenity peculiarly his own, he endowed his art with a character of moral beauty, which without actually spiritualising the things of this world, displays their noblest and most edi- fying side. Thus his figures, though animated with the utmost truth of nature, are utterly removed from the mean and the accidental.^ He represents a race of men of easy and coiu'teous dignity— a race not yet extinct in Venice. His Madonnas are pure and gentle beings imbued with a lofty grace and with the tenderest feelings. His Saints are grand and noble forms. His angels, hapj)y and cheerful boys in the full bloom of youth. In his representation of the Saviour he displays a moral power and grandeur seldom equalled in the history of art. In the expression of feeling — whether of grief, of pain, or of joy — he is never grotesque or exaggerated, even when fresh from the school of Squar- cione.l^. In his works Venetian colouring attained, if not its highest truth of natm^e, at all events its greatest intensity * As for instance the small cabinet pictures in the Contarini Collection in the Venice Academy ; the sacred allegory in the Uffizi, now erroneously attributed to Basaiti; the ' Bacchanal ' at Alnwick Castle, &c. f Signor Morelli has well observed of him that he "is serious an(? grave, graceful and strong, naive and simple, each in the right place, and when the subject demands it. His women and children, his old men and youths, are never the same, and seldom have a similar type or expression. During the period when it was the principal endeavour of art to pourtray character, Giamhellino is, after Mantegna, the greatest drawer of character in Northern Italy ; later on, when it became the princi])al task of art to represent emotions of the soul, he is second to none in rendering maternal love, piety, the artless gaiety of childhood, as also religious humility and holy fervour in men. Jlellini is never dramatic, yet his saints are all full of life, energy, and dignity." — • Italian Mastei's,* &c., p. 362. X Dr. Burckhardt (' Cicerone,' p. 83) observes of Bellini's great altar-pieces : '•The mere juxtaposition of the saintly figures, without deliuite emotion, or even distinct devotion, gives an effect of something superseusual by the harmonious union of so many free and beautiful chaiacters in a blessed state of existence. The wonderful angel> ou the ste])s of the throne with their singing, their lutes and violins, are but the outward symbol of this trulv musical meaning.' Si Chap. XL] GIOVANNI BELLINI. 309 and transparency. Of his powers as a draughtsman, and in composition, we sliould have had still better evidence if the great historical series of pictures in the Ducal Palace, destroyed by fire in 1577, on which he and his brothei Gentile were engaged, had been preserved to us. The artistic education of Giovanni Bellini and Maniegna was similar. If the former was not actually a student in the school of Squarcionc, like his brother-in-law, ho was undoubtedly, like him, under the direct influence of that able instructor in his Art. The early works of the two, painted in tempera, have so great a resemblance, that it is only by careful examination and criticism that they can be dis- tinguished. Thus the impressive picture by Giovanni Bellini in the National Gallery, ' Christ in the Garden with the sleeping Disciples,' was long attributed to Maniegna ; but a comparison with the picture of the same subject in Lord Northbrook's collection, an early work by the latter, will show the points of similitude and difference between the two painters — one of the differences being that sense of atmosiihere, dawning beauty of colour, and exquisite poetic feeling in the landscape, with its sunset effect, which espe- cially pertain to Giovanni Bellini. The ' Pieta ' in the Brera (see illustration), also of the painter's early manner, affords a further example. It was also long attributed to Maniegna, although inscribed with Giovanni Bellini's name. It is a work of profound and touching feeling with a passionate and truthful expression of grief in the head of the Virgin, which has never been exceeded in Italian art. Of the same striking character is a small picture entitled ' The Blood of the Eedcemer,' in the National Gallery. Of the other pictui-es of the early period of the master and of the same character, though less interesting, are a ' Pieta,' in the Town Hall of Eimini, and two small tempera panels ' Crucifixion,' and the ' Transfiguration ' in the Correr Museum at Venice — ascribed, as usual, to Maniegna. All these works show the artistic training and early influence of Giovanni's father and first teacher Jacopo. The colours in their landscape backgrounds, which usually represent a plain with rivulets, and fortified places in the caiddle dis- 310 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XL tance and mountains behind, were originally pale green in the foreground and dark green in the middle, but have become black through oxidation.* These various works embrace a considerable period, and show the development of Giovanni Bellini's powers previous to his adoption of the new oil vehicle. Othei* subjects of his early time, numerous repetitions of which by his imitators and scholars are attributed to him, are ' The Virgin and Child ' — one of which, in the Brera, is painted on a gold ground in the Byzantine manner, and probably for a Greek church ; and ' The Circumcision,' at Castle Howard, of which numerous copies by contem- porary and later painters, passing as originals, exist. The examples are too numerous to be particularised. Previous to the arrival of Antonello da Messina in Venice, Giovanni Bellini j^ractised tempera alone, bringing the pro- cess to the highest power of expression and force of colour. His last picture in this vehicle, painted in 1472, was a large altar-piece with the Virgin, Child and Saints, and singing boy-angels, recorded as one of his grandest efforts of composition. It belonged to the church of SS. Giovanni Paolo (Venice), where it shared the general admiration with Titians Peter Martyr, a,nd where it was involved in the same fate, being destroyed by fire in 18G7. A magnificent altar-piece — the ' Coronatitm of the Virgin ' — a vast structui'e, with pilasters and predella rich in small and spirited pictiu-es, shows his transition from tempera to the use of oil. It was executed for the church of S. Francesco at Pesaro, and it still remains in this town, much injured by the barbarity of the faithful, but still unrestored, and displaying Giovanni Bellini in some of his grandest and most varied forms. The picture of the Transfiguration, in the Naples Muscmn, is believed to be of this early oil period, and shows in its fine background of rich Italian landscape, with episodes of * " Mantcgna had not much feeling for lines in landscape, or for colour either; his landscape backgrounds generally represent a fortified place on a steep hill, with a winding path leading to it; sometimes, also, jagged masses of voci<." — Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 364. VIIinN. CHILD. AND SAINTS; an altar-Dieco by (Jiovaimi Bellini, iu the Academy of Arts at Venice. p. 311 Chap. XI.] GIOVANNI BELLINI. 311 figures and cattle, a most poetic feeling for outer nature — a feeling which we trace through many a work by this richly endowed painter. An altar-piece painted for S. Giobbe (Venice) and transferred to the public gallery — the Madonna and Child, with SS. Francis, Job, John the Baptist, Sebastian, Dominick, and Louis and three angels with musical instruments (see woodcut) — established his fame as an oil painter, and led to his employment by the Signory in the great historical decorations of the council hall, more than once mentioned as destroyed by fire in 1577. Giovanni Bellini supplied seven large works for this hall — a labour which engaged him for several years. He was also employed to paint the portrait of each successive Doge for a series which formed part of a frieze below the ceiling — also burnt, and subsequently replaced by later masters. To about 1484 belongs the beautiful but much repainted picture of the Madonna and Child between St. George and St. Paul — a masterpiece of breadth, drawing, and colour— now in the Venice Academy ; to about 1488 the Virgin and Child, with Saints and Angels in the sacristy of the Frari — one of his most delightful works. In 1488 he executed the fine picture in the church of S. Pietro Martire at Murano — 'the Doge Barbarigo kneeling before the Madonna, intro- duced by SS. Mark and Augustin' — much injiu-ed by repaint and restoration, yet preserving in the calm nobility of the sacred figures, in the grand individuality of the Doge, in the beauty of the cherubs, in the charm of the landscape with its rich vegetation and numerous birds, and in the wondrous atmosphere in which all move and breathe, the imperishable beauties of the master.* In 1505 the picture in S. Zaccaria was comjileted, in the glow and depth of colour of which the master, doubtless rather the inspirer than the imitator of his great juniors in this respect, leapt at once to a level with the * The editor had an opportunity of examining this fine pi(!ture when temporarily removed from its place in the church, where it can with difficulty be seen, to the municipal palace. Such parts as have not been repainted by the restorer — and they are unfortunately few — are of exquisite beauty ; for instance, the angel playing on a musical instrument to the right of the Madonna. 312 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XL highest qualities of Venetian art. This is a masterpiece of the class which Vasari calls "la maniera moderna" — the term first applied, and justly, to Leonardo da Vinci's ' Last Supper.'* It was immediately after, in February 1506, that Albert Dtirer, writing from Venice, said of the great old man, then just eighty, " he is very old, but still the best in paint- ing." In 1507 Giovanni, as we have seen, completed the great picture of St. Mark preaching, in the Brera, bequeathed to him by his brother Gentile. In 1510 he painted for the church of the S. Corona at Vicenza, and still preserved there, the glorious Baptism of Christ which is akin to Giorgione in glow of colour. To 1513 belongs the picture, in the church of S. Giovanni Crisostomo (Venice), of St. Jerome seated, with his book resting on the bent bough of a grand fig-tree, with SS. Augustin and Christopher standing — a work of the highest Bellinesque charm, though executed by a hand eighty-seven years old. We have already mentioned his power over landscaj)e, and the obvious love with which he introduced the face of Italian nature in his backgrounds, wherever there was place for it ; dwelling equally on the near minutia; of weeds and stones, and on the distant forms of hill and valley ; equally on the " fronde della Madonna," hanging, as the plant still hangs, from many a Venetian wall ; and on the distant sky and landscape which embody " the grace of a day that is gone." And to his latter years, as if then more free to indulge what peculiarly delighted his eye, belong two works, in which landscape plays the princijjal part. One of them is the signed picture, formerly in the late Sir Charles Eastlake's collection and presented by bis widow to the National Gallery, all Italian in masses of intricate wood and foliage, in plain, mountain, and buildings, and glowing, not under direct sunshine, but with the soft sutfusion of southern light. The other, a landscape with similar intricacy of wood, but with more prominent features of rock and castle, and with a rich feast of the Gods, of no * This picture was carried off by the French ar.d transferred to canvas at Paris, suffering greatly in the process. Subsequent restorations have added to the injury which it then received, and have dulled the original brilliancy and transparency of the c61our. a E-c •3 .9 w o Chap. XI.] GIOVANNI BELLINI. 313 very sober cliaracter, going on in the foreground (see woodcut). This work is dated 1514, and may be considered the last effort of the master's power. It was left incom- plete, and was finished by Titian, forming one of the series of fom* pictures of mingled figures and landscape, of which the ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' in the National Gallery, is another example. It passed from the Cammuccini Collection into the possession of the Duke of Northtmiberland, and is now at Alnwick Castle. It is not possible to assign any precise chronology to the numerous easel-pictures by Giovanni BeUini in public and private collections. Many of them are signed, but they are rarely dated. Among the most interesting and attractive of them may be specially mentioned, the small five panels with unexplained allegories in the Contarini Collection in the Venice Academy, once forming part of a cabinet, or other piece of furniture, and the sacred Allegory in the Uf&zi (No. 631), which in the new catalogue has been ignorantly attributed to Basaiti. The former are equally remarkable for the exquisite grace of the various figures, and for depth and richness of colouring, and poetic feeling— qualities vhich place them almost on a level with the finest productions of classic art ; the latter enables us to compare Giovanni Bellini as a colourist with Giorgione, whose fine picture of ' the Child Moses brought before Pharaoh,' hangs near it. Giovanni Bellini's pictures representing the Virgin and Child alone, or accompanied by Saints, are found in many galleries. Several are in the Venice Academy, all greatly injured by restoration ; one in the Brera is dated 1510, con- sequently painted in his old age ; others are in the National Gallery, the Stadel Institution, and in private collections, such as those of Lacly Eastlake, Signor Morelli (Milan), &c. Spurious works of this class ascribed to the master, but either weak school pictures or modern imitations, generally with false inscriptions, abound. The practised eye will have little difficulty in detecting them.* As a portrait painter Giovanni BeUini attained to the * The three pictures in the Sacristy of the churcli of the Redentore (Venice), and one in the church of the Scalzi, (a Virgin and Child,) generally 314 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI highest rank, and some of the most eminent men and women of his time appear to have heen among his sitters. Un- fortunately the greater number of his v.orks of this class have perished ; but the magnificent likeness of Doge Loredan, in the National Gallery, has been preserved to us, and is sufficient to show his marvellous skill in the imitation of nature, and his power as a draughtsman and colourist. The portrait of the Doge Agostino Barbarigo, introduced into the altar-piece in S. Pietro Martire (Murano) already mentioned, in its lifelike character is worthy of Titian. The portrait of Giovanni Bellini, said to be by himself, in the Ufiizi, is by an imitator of the master, jDrobably Hondinello* A notice of Antonello da Messina may appropriately be introduced here, for although he may have influenced and aided the full development of Giovanni Bellini & powers by making him acquainted with the technical use of oil as a mediimi, the great Venetian was already a man of middle age, verging upon fifty, and had established his fame as a painter before Antonello, much his junior in years, appeared at Venice. Moreover, although Giovanni Bellini may have thus learnt the new method, and may have been indebted to it for the increased beauty of his later works, and for his fame as a coloui'ist, yet to the influence which he exercised over Antonello the latter owes his reputation as a painter ; for it was only after his residence in Venice, when he had become acquainted with the masterpieces of the Venetian school, and especially those of the brothers Bellini, that he formed his style and produced those works which have gained for him his renown. admired ass works of tlie master, are not by him, ijut by pupils or imitators. The so-called Bellini in the Louvre (No. 61) has a forged signature, and is probably by his imitator Rondinello. It may be remarked that Giovanni Bellini never signed his name in cursive characters, and that in his genuine signature, which generally occurs in a " cartellino," or on a parapet, the second ' 1 ' in his name is almost invariably taller than the other. * The most authentic known portrait of Giovanni Bellini is the one to which we have already referred in the picture of St. Mark preaching at Alexandria, by his brother Gentib, in the Brera. He was then about eighty years old. — Morelli's ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 10, note. Chap. XI.] ANTONELLO DA MESSINA. 315 Of the history of Antonello da Messina little is known, but modern research and criticism have sufficed to throw more than doubt upon the facts concerning him related by Vasari. According to his biographer, he was born of a family of painters in Messina, and received in Sicily his early art education. But having seen a picture by Jan Van EycJc, which had been sent to King Alfonso I. of Naples, and impressed with the brilliancy and durability of the colours produced by an oil vehicle — a mode of painting then unknown in Italy — he determined to place himself under that master to learn the new art, and accordingly went to Flanders, where he remained for some years. As Jan Van Eyck died in 1441, and Antonello was in all probability born after that date, perhajis as late as 1447,* it has been conjectured that the Giovanni da Brugio, men- tioned by Vasari as his master, was Eans or John Memlinc, It is, however, more probable that Antonello was never in Flanders ; but acquired his knowledge of the use of oil as a vehicle in painting without leaying his native land, as there is no doubt that it was known in Italy in the early j)art of the fifteenth century.f Numerous pictm'es from Flanders, in which oil was employed, had been imported into Italy — especially into the kingdom of Naples — and even Flemish artists had practised there. Consequently it was not neces- sary for Antonello to resort to the Low Countries to learn a secret, which was really no secret at all. It may, there- fore, be suspected that Vasari's account of his visit to Giovanni da Briujia, supj)osed to be Jan Van Eyck, is a jmre invention of his own, or that in giving it he had been misled by his informants. In fact, his biography of Antonello appears to be a tissue of fables. Antonello's earliest works unquestionably show a Flemish influence ; but this influence may be attributed to his study of the works of Flemish painters, which he could find in Naples and in Sicily. As we have seen, there was no native school in that part of Italy, in which an artist coixld have formed himself, * See Milanesi's note in Sansoni's ' Vasari,' vol. ii. p. 568. t It is described in Cennino Cennini's Treatise on painting ; written in he year 1437. 316 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. and coTild have risen to any eminence without some such influence. That he only attained to his full artistic develop- ment, and executed works worthy of his reputation, after he had settled at Venice in 1473, and had seen the master- pieces of her great painters, we have already indicated. The earliest known picture by Antonello is the ' Salvator Mundi,' or a bust figure of Christ with the right hand raised in the act of blessing — a subject afterwards frequently treated in a precisely similar way by the Venetian painters — in the National Gallery, dated 1465, and consequently exe- cuted some years before he came to Venice. In the mode of treatment and in the red tone of its colour, peculiar to the Van EycJcs and their school, it has a Flemish character ; but it shows no direct influence either of Jan Van Ei/ck or of Meralinc. It is principally interesting and important as a production of the painter in his youth, when probably under twenty years of age. The " pentimenti," or altei-ations, which he made in it in the course of execution, and which are still visible, indicate the hand of an inexperienced artist. Several other heads of the Eedeemer by him in private collections, probably executed between 1465 and 1473, when he went to Venice, have the same Flemish character. Of the latter year there is a triptych by him in the University at Messina, representing the Virgin and Child and two Saints, which still shows the same influence, and by the weakness of the drawing and modeling proves that he was far from having yet attained anything like perfection in his art.* A change in his manner appears to have taken place as soon as he had seen the works of the Vivarini, the Bellini, and Carpaccio. Profiting by their example, he appears to have soon acquired reputation as a portrait painter, and to have been employed in that capacity by the Venetian patri- cians. In 1474 he painted the fine, but much damaged, portrait lately in the collection of the Duke of Hamilton, * It bears the date of 1473, and may consequently have been executed before his departure for Venice, or immediately after his arrival in that citv, and before he was influenced by the works of the Venetian painters. The subject is treated in the Flemish manner, with a profusion of gold ornaments. THE CRUCIFIXION ; by Antouello d;i Messiiia, iu the Antwerp Gallery. p. 317. CuAP. XI.] ANTONELLO DA MESSINA. 317 and in tlie following year the very striking portrait in the Salon Carre of the Luuvre, in which the abandonment of his first, or Flemish, manner and the influence exercised upon him by the Venetians, especially by Giovanni Bellini, arc very evident. In the latter i)icture, of surprising realism, liis power of giving expression to his heads — carried in this instance perhaps to excess in the stern and intensely- gazing eyes which give an almost ferocious character to the countenance — his skill as a draughtsman, and his fine feeling for colour, places him almost in the front rank among painters. Of the same year, 1475, is the ' Crucifixion ' in the Antwerji Gallery (see woodcut). This picture has nothing Flemish in the treatment ; the landscape and the finely conceived " motives " of the mourning figures recall Carjpaccio. Anto- nello aj)pears to have more than once repeated this subject, with various changes. On a small panel in the National Gallery, painted two years later (1477) the crucified thieves are omitted, and the attitudes of the Virgin and St. John are slightly modified, and perhaps even improved. In a third, now in the Corsini collection at Florence, the Crucified Saviour alone appears. The three are eqiially remarkable for minute finish ; those at Antwerp and in the National Gallery for their carefully executed backgrounds, and for the vehement, yet truthful, exj)ression of the figures. In the latter period of his career Antonello was principally occupied with the portraits which have rendered his name famous — at least, few works by him of any other class have been preserved. To it belong the fine portrait, probably of himself, not inferior in execution to the one in the Louvre, and perhaps more true to nature, in the National Gallery ; * the splendid portrait of a man crowned with laurel, con- jectured to be Mantegna, in the Municipal Museum at Milan ; one of great vigour in the collection of the Marquis Trivulzio, also at Milan (1476) ; one in the Borghese Gallery, Rome, attributed to Giovanni Bellini, and two * The inscription, which described it as the portrait of the painter himself, is said to have been sawn off by a former owner in order to fit the picture into a frame. 318 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI more specimens of extraordinary and quite Bellinesque colour in the Berlin Museum. In all these portraits we see the influence of the Venetian colourists, and especially of Giovanni Bellini. There remain to be mentioned, of his later time, the ' Christ bound to the Coliunn,' in the Venice Academy — an almost repulsive picture in which the agony of the suffer- ing Saviour is depicted with painful minuteness; and three pictures representing St. Sebastian, one in the Dresden Gallery, a second (much repainted) in the Stadel Institute at Frankfort, and a third, with a beautiful landscape back- ground, in the Bergamo Gallery. Antonello is believed to have died at Venice in 1493, at the age of forty-nine. As a colourist, Antonello has had few equals. In his conce2)tions he is vigorous and original. He sometimes gives an almost unnatural vehemence of expression to his portraits, although he never falls into grimace or caricature. This peculiar expression has been attributed to an exaggeration of the linear perspective of the eyes ; a tendency which is also in some instances shown by Albert Diirer. Of late years the great merits of Antonello have been recognised, and his works sought after by collectors. Consequently pictures by inferior painters who imitated his manner pass under his name. Among them works by Pietro da Messina, whose signature has been confounded with, and converted into, that of his more famous fellow-countryman. Pietro api)ears to have been established at Venice, and is a feeble imitator of Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano. A Madonna and Child by him in the church of S. Maria Formosa (Venice) is signed " Petrus Messaneus." A Virgin and Child, in the Berlin Gallery, with a forged signature of Antonello, is probably by the same hand; as also a St. Sebastian in the same collection with a similar forged "cartellino."* * ^ntone^/o always writes "Messaneus " with two s's; in this "cartel- lino" it has only one. For an able notice of Antonello and his works see Morelli's 'Italian Masters in German Galleries,' p. 376 et seq. This is the first writer who has given a full and consistent account of Aittonello'n life and works. Chap. XL] CAllPACCIO. 319 Salvadore d" Antonio is a name supposed to represent that of Antonello^s father. He was more probably his scholar. An interesting picture attributed to him in the church of S. Francesco d'Assisi at Messina — St. Francis receiving the stigmata — evidently of the close of the fifteenth centui'y, shows a study of Antonello and of the Venetian school. Of the pupils and followers of the Bellini, and of those contemporary Venetian painters who underwent their influ- ence, the most eminent were Yittore Carpaccio, in the Venetian dialect Scarpazo, and called by Vasari " Scarjoaccia," and Cima da Conegliano, both men of original powers and strong individuality. They are among those who mark the transition in Venetian art from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century, when the great colourists of the school carried it to its highest perfection. Of the two Carpaccio was the most original, and holds, perhaps, the higher place. Nothing positive is known as to the date, or place, of his birth ; but modern investigation appears to show that he was a native of Istria, bom at Capo dTstria. On his pictures he usually describes himself as a Venetian,* and Venetian writers assert that he came from an ancient family established in Venice, or in the neigh- bouring Island of Murano. His earliest known work is dated 1490, his latest 1522. Like the Bellini, he abandoned tempera for the new method in oil, with which vehicle his later pictures are painted. His conceptions incline to the ijenre, or romantic, style. As an historical painter he may be compared with Gentile Bellini, of whom he may have been a pupil, and from whom he probably derived his manner of treating historical subjects. The principal works of this class by the two painters, who were both employed in decorating the hall of the Gran Consiglio — Carpaccio having been appointed Gentile's assistant — hang side by side in the public gallery at Venice, and thus invite com- parison. Gentile was the more sober and dignified ; his rival the more imaginative, the more fertile in invention. Although Carpaccio is intensely realistic, he is never vulgar or commonplace. In the various orders and conditions of * On pictures painted for churches in Istria he signs himself " Victor, Charpatius (or Carpatius) Venetus." 320 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. men which he portrays, although always true to nature, he is never coarse or exaggerated, but gives, even to the com- monest and most homely characters, a certain dignity and ease. His women are distinguished for their grace and noble carriage. In his great historical pictures he successfully introduces the daily life of the Venetians of his time, and fills up the background with landscape, architecture, and various accessories, uniting them all with a powerful brush. He aims not only to represent single events, but a complete scene, introducing a number of subordinate incidents treated with the most lively fancy, numerous figures in •costimies of infinite variety, and the richest and most beauti- ful details. In these respects no painter has exceeded him. His most remarkable and important works of this class, combining these qualities, are the nine large pictures in the Venice Academy, representing the History of St. Ursula, and ending with the Saint in glory surrounded by her Virgins. They are masterly works, rich in all that gives value and grandeur to historical art. The rather monotonous history, which forms the groundwork of many of them, is throughout varied and elevated by a free style of grouping and by happy moral allusions. The colours, notwithstanding injudicious cleanings and restorations, still shine with the purest light. The variety of expression, always life-like, in the many figures, their beautiful and simple action, and the admirable dramatic representation of the different incidents connected with the story, give these pictures an inexpres- sible charm. The subject of the dream of the young Saint Ursula, in bed in her chamber, with her table and an open book upon it and her vase of flowers, has a pui-ity and simplicity quite unique.* In the picture of the Saint re- counting her dream to her father, and the Ambassadors, according to the legend, of the King of England asking her hand (see woodcut), the architectural details and back- ground are of great beauty, and the composition and grouping of the figures in every respect admirable. Another picture, much repainted, also in the Venice * According to the catalogue of the Academy, this picture beara th» date of 1475, but it should be 1495. si O m P3 THE PKESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE; an altariiiece by Vittore Caipaccio. in thv \\;nii;c Academy. p. 321. CHAr. XL] CARPACCIO. 321 Academy, — ' tlie Patriarch of Gracio casting out Evil Spirits by a Relic of the True Cross ' (one of a series of the history of the Cross j)ainted for the " Scuola " of S. Giovanni Evangolista) — furnishes interesting illustrations of the pic- tiu'esquo architecture and gorgeous costumes of old Venice. In it he has introduced the wooden bridge across the Grand Canal called " del Bagatin," which was replaced in 1591 by the present Eialto. In the same Gallery are two pictures which show his treatment of a strictly religious subject : a large altar-piece rej)resenting the presentation of the Infant Christ to Simeon (see woodcut), in which we see him as an imitator, or even rival, of Giovanni Bellini, with dignified and graceful figui-es, and three beautiful children playing on musical instrmnents beneath the principal group — the colour deprived of its original brightness and harmony by over- cleaning and restoration ; and the meeting of Anna with Joachim, and St. Louis of France and St. Ursula, dated 1515, with noble figures and of great brilliancy of colour. ' The Crucifixion of the ten thousand Martyrs on Mount Ararat,' also in the Academy, and of the same date, is a crowded composition and an unattractive picture. Between 1502 and 1511, Carpaccio painted a series of pictures of great interest and in many respects of much beauty — showing his versatility as an artist and his fine imagination — for the church, or chapel, of S. Giorgio dei Schiavoni, belonging to a brothcrliood founded for the relief of distressed Dalmatian seamen. They are still preserved in the place for which they were executed, but where they can with difficulty be seen owing to want of sufficient light. They have been exposed to ruthless restoration and repaint ; but they still show that charm of picturesque reality, that variety of exi^rcssion and action, and that wealth of rich and interesting accessories and of architectural details which are characteristic of the master. They rei)resent incidents in the lives of the three patron Saints of Dalmatia, SS. George, Tryphonius and Jerome.* * Mr. Ruskin gives ;m enthusiastic and poetical description of these worlcs in his ' St. Mark's Rest : The Shrine of the Slaves ;' 1st supplement Copies of some of them have been made for the Arundel Society, 322 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. For the " Scuola " of S. Stefano (Venice) he also executed a series of five pictures, illustrating the history of the Saint The first, the calling of St. Stephen, is in the Berlin Museum ; the second, the Saint preaching, a work of great glow and brilliancy, is in the Louvre ; the third, his dispute with the Doctors, in the Brera ; and the fourth, his Martyrdom, at Stuttgardt ; a fifth, the Saint between SS. Nicholas and Thomas Aquinas, is missing. A fine specimen of Carpaccio's powers is in the public Gallery at Ferrara : the Death of the Virgin, and the Apostles gathered roimd her, with a mass of light, and glowing architecture behind — his favourite background. Above the scene appears Christ receiving the soul of His mother. Another admirable example of the master, inscribed with his name and the date of 1514, is the great picture behind the high altar of the church of S. Vitale (Venice). It represents the Saint in full armour on horseback, with St. Valeria, his wife, and St. George on one side, and St. James and the Baptist on the other. On a balcony above a beautiful arcade, through the open arches of which is seen a charming land- scape, stand four Saints ; in the sky appear the Virgin and Child in glory. The National Gallery contains a votive picture by Carjjaccio — referring to the plague that had devastated Venice in 1478 —with the Madonna and Child enthroned, and the kneeling Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, presented to her by the Baptist and St. Christoi^her. It is not one of his most characteristic works, and docs not worthily represent him. The figures, nearly of life-size, are somewhat clumsy, and the colours, owing perhaps to overpaints, are deficient in trans- parency. Carpaccio was fond of introducing animals, such as dogs, and monkeys, and birds of various kinds, especially j^arrots of gay colours, into his pictures. We have an example in that of the two courtezans with their j^ets in the Correr Museum, which, interesting from the glimpse it gives into a phase of Venetian life, is a feeble work, extolled far beyond its merits by a modern writer on Art.* There is no prcof that * See Mr. Ruskin's 'St. Mark's Rest: The Shrine of the Slaves,' 1st Supplement, p. 38. He writes of this jncture : " I know no other which Chap. XL] CIMA DA CONEGLIANO. 323 the panels in the church of S. Alvise (Venice) are, as the same writer believes, early works by the master.* They are the rude productions of a very poor painter. Several vigorous portrait heads in ditFerent collections, somewhat in the style oiAntonello da Messina, are ascribed to Carpaccio. In his later time Carpaccio painted various altar-pieces for churches in Istria. They are mostly unworthy of his reputation, and may probably have been in part executed by his relative Benedetto, a weak and feeble painter, of whom there are several signed and dated works in the same Province. He died at Venice in 1522. Giovanni Battista Cima, called Oima da Conegliano from his birthplace, although a less original and fertile painter than Carpaccio, enjoys almost an equal reputation, and may be ranked among Giovanni Bellini's most prominent followers. Unlike Carpaccio, he seems to have limited himself almost entirely to the representation of strictly sacred subjects — such as the Holy Family and Saints. No historical pictm-es by him are known ; but he appears to have occasionally painted classical subjects. His male figures are characterised by »reat dignity and tranc[uillity in gesture and movement. His Madonnas are inanimate, but pleasing in expression and generally of one type. His colour, in his best works, is jewel-like, his execution careful and decided, his details, such as flowers, fruit, leaves, and variegated marbles, minute and true to nature, and his architectural backgrounds often very beautiful. In treatment of landscape he sometimes rivals Giovanni Bellini ; and his attachment to his birthplace is shown by his frequent introduction of the hills and towered walls of Conegliano. The date of his birth is un- known ; he is supposed to have died in 1517. He appears to have left his home in the Friuli territory at an early unites every nameable quality of painters' art in so intense a degree ; breadth with minuteness, brilliancy with quietness, decision with tenderness, colour with light and shade ; all that is faithfullest in Venice, severest in Florence, naturalest in England. Whatever de Hooghe could do in shade. Van Eyck in detail, Giorgione in mass, Titian in colour, Bewick and Landseer in animal life, is here at once ; and I know no other picture in the world which can be compareil to it." * Id. p. IS. 324 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. age, and probably placed himself among the scholars of Giovanni Bellini. There are even grounds for believing that he may at one time have sujierintended and directed the atelier of that great jiainter. The earliest date on Cimas known works is that of 1489. It is in tempera, and was executed for the church of S. Bartolommeo in Vicenza, and is now in the public gallery of that town. It represents the Virgin and Child under an arch with vine-leaves, and SS. Jerome and James. " Notwithstanding the early date, there is no evidence of unformed style. On the contrary, the draperies are equal to his best — that of the Baptist especially and the bluemantle of the Madonna. The architecture has also the precision of his later works. Some fruit trees in the open space above the heads of the Saints have the separate leaves drawn like Bellini's early works. The heads are all good — the Infant Christ's the least so, though not inferior to some of his mature works. The Baptist is altogether fine — action, drapery, head, hands, and feet." * By 1492, Cima had siu'mounted the difficulties of oil-paint- ing, as appears in the fine ' Pieta ' in the Venice Academy. The large and much repainted altar-piece in the Duomo at Conegliano belongs to the same time, and shows in every respect the influence of Bellini. The Madonna and Child are here seen enthroned on a grand architectural structure, with two boy-angels playing on musical instruments below, and three Saints standing — one female, two male — on each side. The 'Baptism,' in the church of S. Giovanni in Bragora (Venice), is known to have been painted in 1494. Cima here emulates, by a fine landscape of hill and water, the same subject by Giovanni Bellini in the church of the S. Corona, Vicenza ; the rock of Conegliano with its castellated towers being introduced. In the same church are two single figures — Constantino and St. Helena — in better condition than the great altar-piece, which has been badly restored and repainted. A ' Nativity,' in the church of the Carmine (Venice), with Tobias and the Angel, SS. Helena, Catherine, uud Joseph introducing the Shepherd S; has also a charming * Memoraudum by Sii* C. L. Eastlake. CuAP. XL] CIMA DA CONEGLIANO. 325 background, with a steep rock overhung with trees, and a rich evening-toned landscape with towns. Tobias and the Angel with two Saints, in the Venice Academy, though some- what injured, presents us with another beautiful landscape. But the whole charm of force and richness belonging to this master are especially embodied in two altar-pieces in the gallery at Panna, of which it is impossible to speak too enthusiastically. The one is a picture with an arched top — the Virgin holding the Child, who rests on the pedestal of a broken pilaster, with fine ruins of classic architecture behind, Conegliano in the distance, and a treatment of forc- groimd, with weeds, stones, and brown shadows, which is ex- quisite. SS. Michael and Andrew — the head of the latter strikingly vigorous and expressive — stand on each side of her. This work long bore the forged signature of Leonardo da Vinci, a parentage equally contradicted by the work itself, and superfluous to enhance its merits. The other altar- piece represents the Madonna and Child enthroned in an apsis with a semi-dome ornamented with mosaics on a gold ground. The Madonna's hand is stretched above the head of St. Damiau, who kneels in j^rayer, and the Child turns in benediction to St. Aj)ollonia ; at the sides are SS. Cosma, Paul, and Catherine, and the Baptist. A single angel, seated at the foot of the throne, looks up as he pauses in his music. The fine tone, harmony of colour, and expression of these works make it difiicult to say which of the two is the greater chef-d'oeuvre. In the same gallery are two small circular pictures by Cima, of classic feeling and very rich in colour, representing Endymion asleep and Aj)ollo and Pan. A large altar-piece (dated 1501), representing the ' Incre- dulity of St. Thomas,' is in the National Gallery. This fine work, when obtained from the hosjiital at Portogruario in the Friuli, was greatly disfigured by various rej)aints, and was otherwise in bad condition. Judicious cleaning and restoration * have brought out its fine qualities. The heads are highly expressive, and some of the figures, which arc numerous, of great dignity. Another rej)resentation of the same subject, but with only three figures (the painter having * By Mr. William Dyer. 326 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. introduced the Bishop St. Magnus standing behind the Saviour), is in the Academy at Venice (see woodcut), and is equally remarkable for its simple and solemn treatment, fine drawing and brilliant colouring. A work of somewhat ana- logous character in the Brera, representing SS. Peter Martyr, Augustin and Niccolo of Bari, with an Angel playing on the lute, is noticeable for the great beauty of the landscape and the fine modeling of the heads. In the church of the Madonna dell' Orto (Venice) is one of Cima's most charac- teristic pictures, St. John the Baptist and four Saints, in which he shows his deep feeling for nature and his fond- ness for introducing details of flowers and plants. Easel pictures by Ciina are found in most galleries, principally the Virgin and Child treated in Bellinesque fashion, and usually with pleasing backgroimds with castellated towns and villages on wooded hills and distant blue mountains.* They are not unfrequently attributed to Bellini, whose forged signature is sometimes added. He occasionally painted subjects on a very small scale, and with excessive minuteness, of which there is an excellent example in the ' St. Jerome in the Desert,' in the National Gallory. Pictures by inferior artists who imitated Cima frequently pass under his name in public and private collections. The name of Luigi, or, according to its Venetian foi-m, Alvise, Vivarini may here be introduced, for although he was the son of Bartolommo, and may have commenced his career in the school of Murano, he subsequently came under the influence of the Bellini, and may even have worked with Giovanni. He ranks high among the Venetian painters of the fifteenth century. A nobler character is evident in his productions, which partake less of the mere accidents of nature ; the excessive individuality of his pre- decessors having yielded to a higher and truer idea of life. Nothing is known of the date of his birth ; he is believed to have died in 1503. Pictures by him occur in various galleries, freqiiently attributed to other masters, as hitherto his merits as a painter have been scarcely recognised, and * A fine and well-preserved example of the master, a Virgin and Child with two Saints, on a black ground, is in the possession of the Editor. THE IXCREDULITV OF ST. THOMAS; an altar-piece, liy Cirai da Conegliano, in the Vuniee Academy p 326. 3 ■a a Z I— I -51 02 O Chap. XL] LUIGI VTVARINI. 327 names in greater repute have been substituted for his. A large altar-piece in the Berlin Museum — the Madonna en- throned and several saints, Avith a rich architectural back- ground—is not only his most important work, but has been esteemed by an eminent critic one of the most important productions of Venetian art of the fifteenth century.* In the Venice Academy there is an excellent signed altar-piece by him, dated 1480, representing a similar subject (see wood- cut). Several figures on panel, among which is a ' St. John the Baptist ' of great dignity of expression, are in the same gallery ; a striking figure of St. Anthony, of smaller size, but of similar quality, is in the Correr Museum. In the church of the Frari is a splendid altar-piece representing St. Ambrose, enthroned, and surrounded by Saints, left unfinished at his death and completed by Basaiti, his scholar and assistant. A large picture of Christ bearing the Cross, in the Sacristy of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, is entirely repainted and with a false inscription. Finally, in the church of S. Giovanni in Bragora, a ' Eesurrection ' with a calm simset sky by him is finely conceived. One of the three Madonna pictures in the sacristy of the church of the Eedentore, ascribed to Giovanni Bellini — the Virgin before a green hanging, with fruit on the parapet in front of her — is probably also by Alvise Vivarini. Historical documents prove that Alcise Vivarini was em- ployed by the Signory to furnish two of the historical pictures for the Hall of the Grand Council in the Ducal Palace. These shared the fate by fire of that fine series, to which the most famous painters of Venice had contributed. Several vigorous and life-like portraits in various collections in the manner of Giovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina, and attributed to them, may be by Alvise. One in the Casa Bonomi at Milan is inscribed with his name, and the date of 1497. He died in 1523. Giovanni Bellini formed a large number of followers, and the brightest glories of Venetian Art rose from his studio. In many of his later works he received that assistance from his scholars in which the training of all great schools has * Morelli, ' Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 360. 2 N 328 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI, consisted. Modern connoisseurship even aims to point out whose particular hands have lent their co-operation on the same picture. We shall now notice some of those followers and scholars from different parts of the Venetian territory, all more or less learning from and influencing each other, but all, directly or indirectly, looking up to Giovanni Bellini, and in some instances to his elder brother Gentile. The great names of Giorgione and Titian are reserved for another chapter. Vincenzo di Biagio, or, as he signs himself, Vicentius de Tarvisio, commonly called Catena, was a native of Treviso. His first master was probably his fellow-citizen, the elder Girolamo da Treviso ; but he finished his artistic education in the school of Giovanni Bellini. The year of his birth has not been ascertained ; he died in 1531 — in which year he made a will leaving legacies to a number of poor painters, and the greater part of his substance to the guild of his art. It is only since several works previously attri- buted to more famous masters have been recognised as works by Catena, that he has been given a first place among the followers of Giovanni Bellini. Two such pictures are in the National Gallery — the much admired ' St, Jerome in his Study ' (No. 694), ascribed to Giovanni Bellini, and dis- tinguished by its warm transparent tone ; and a ' AVarrior adoring the Infant Christ ' (No. 234), formerly given to Giorgione, and in the richness and glow of its colouring scarcely unworthy of that great master, who may have exercised some influence over Catena. Another Giorgion- esque work of the same class by Catena, the ' Virgin and Child, with SS. Anna and Joseph,' is in the Dresden Gallery, Avith a forged signature of Andrea del Sarto, and strangely attributed in the Catalogue to Sassoferato, after a drawing by Baphael! An altar-piece by the master in the church of S. Maria Materdomini (Venice), representing S. Cristina about to suffer martyrdom by drowning, with angels bearing up the mill-stone fastened round her neck, and the Saviour appearing above, although in bad condition is distinguished by delicate and refined colouring, by the naive and touching expression in the Angel's heads, and by a very pleasing land- «5eR- «vt CORONATION OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA ; altar-piece, by Pietro Francesco Bissolo. iu the Vcuico Academy p. 329. Chap, XI.] BISSOLO. 829 scape with ttie setting sun. It bears tlie date of 1520. Tlie Berlin Gallery possesses an excellent picture of the Virgin and Saints by him, freely and broadly treated, and there are several of his works of unequal merit in Venice and the Venetian territory ; in some of which, probably early efiforts, he appears as a feeble imitator of Giovanni Bellini. He was fond of introducing a partridge and a white poodle dog into his pictures, by which they may generally be recognised. Catena gained great reputation for his portraits, which Vasari describes as " marvellous." A fine one of Count Raymond Fugger is in the Berlin Museum. Another (signed), of an ecclesiastic, is in the Vienna Gallery. The two fine heads in the Salon Carre of the Louvre attributed to Gentile Bellini have been conjectured, as it has already been stated, to be from his brush. Pier Francesco Bissolo, or Bissuolo, bom, it is believed, like Catena, at Trcviso, was a conscientious but a second-rate j)upil of Giovanni Bellini. His pictm-es are frequently made to pass for those of his master — as one of the three much-admired Holy Families in the Sacristy of the church of the Eedcntore (Venice). An Annunciation in the Manfrin Gallery, in- scribed with his name, is so feeble iu every respect tliat it can only be an early work. A St. Justina, enthroned, with the Baptist and St. Catherine and the donor, the Canonico Novello,* in adoration before her, in the Duomo at Treviso, has some signs of Giorgionesque influence. His best work is probably the ' Coronation of St. Catherine of Siena ' — who receives from the Saviour a crown of thorns in exchange for her crown of gold — in the Venice Academy (see wood- cut). This picture, and the ' Eesurrection of Our Lord,' in the Berlin Musemn, are examples of the calm, gentle, religious spirit characteristic of this master. Another of the same character, but greatly repainted, the ' Transfigm-ation,' is in the church of S. Maria Materdomini (Venice). Easel pictures by Bissolo, representing the Virgin and Child and Saints, may be found in many collections ; some of the best are in the Venice Academy. There is a carefully painted * This ecclesiastic died in 1504. 330 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. j)ortrait of a Venetian lady doubtfully attributed to him in the National Gallery, but evidently by another hand. Marco Basaiti is also believed to have been a native of the Friuli.* He became a scholar of Alvise Vivarini, after that master had left the Muranese school. He was a painter of a certain severity and dignity, accomj^anied by a realistic dry- ness and stiffness of drapery, and a constantly recurring type of head. The first record about him occurs in 1503, when he appears as the assistant oi Alvise Vivarini. As already stated, the large altar- jpiece — the ' Enthronement of St. Ambrose ' — undertaken by that master for the church of the Frari at Venice, was interrupted by his illness, which terminated in death. He left it to Basaiti to comjilete. More Bellinesquc in style and feeling are his Dead Christ, with two Saints, in the Venice Academy, and a ' Pieta ' in the Berlin Museum. To 1510 belongs the ' Calling of the Sons of Zebedee,' and to the same time the ' Agony in the Garden,' with the hanging lamp and leafless tree seen against a solemn-toned evening sky — a picture of great earnestness in the person of the Saviour — both in the Venice Academy (see woodcut). The works of this master, when not signed, are, like those of Catena, difficult to distinguish from others of the same school and time. Many of them have been ascribed to Giovanni Bellini, by those whose interest it may have been to pass them off as productions of the great painter. He has thus received an indirect tribute of admiration which he does not deserve. The Assumption, in the church of S. Pietro Martire, Murano, with a fine landscape, is one of his best works, and quite Bellinesque in chai-acter. His power over landscape is also seen in a reversed repetition of the ' Sons of Zebedee ' — a far finer and rijjer work than that in the Venice Academy — in the Vienna gallery dated 1515, and in other pictures in the galleries of Verona and Bergamo. In a much-damaged picture of St. George and the Dragon, in the chiu'ch of S. Pietro di Castello (Venice), he aj)pears as a not unsuccessful imitator of Carpaccio. A St. Sebastian, in the sacristy of the Salute, is a good example of his palo * Vasari makes two painters out of Ilnsniti, Baaarini and Marco Bassiti. THE AGONY IN THK (iARDEN ; by Marco Busaiti, iii the Venice Academy. p. 330. Chap. XI.] LAZZARO DI SEBASTIANO. 331 and delicate manner, with a notable landscape background. The National Gallery possesses two \\orks by bim in the Bellinesque style — a Madonna and Cbild with a varied and interesting landscape background,* and a St. Jerome in the Desert, a small picture of exquisite execution. Of the latter subject Basaiti painted several variations. Pictm-cs by him arc to be found in many collections, generally signed ; when n((t so, they frequently pass under the name of Giovanni Bellini, and other contemporary painters. Ilis portraits, which are rare, are of superior merit ; that of a Venetian gentleman, life-sized, signed, and dated 1521 — the latest date found on his works— in the collection of Signer Morelli (Milan), is of the finest quality in colour and modeling. A portrait of a youth by him was in the possession of the late Mr. Edward Cheney in London. Nothing is known of the time of Basaiti's birth or death. Lazzaro di Sebastiano was also a scholar of Alvise Vivarini, and, like his master, came under the influence of Giovanni Bellini. It is conjectm-ed that he was a native of Padua, and that he received his first artistic education there. Nothing is known of the date of his birth nor of that of his death. He was a member of the College of S. Girolamo at Venice, where he aj)pears to have settled as early as 1470. A lunette in the Cathedral at Murano, representing the Virgin and Child, with S. Donato and the Baptist, Angels and the donor, is signed, and dated 1484 ; a Coro- nation of the Virgin, with SS. Bernard and Ursula, in the public Gallery of Bergamo, bears the date of 1490. He is seen in several pictures in the Venice Academy, notably in a large canvas representing the gift of a relic of the true Cross to the Brotherhood of S. Giovanni Evangelista, in which he appears as an imitator of Gentile Bellini, or Carpaccio. His works, which are rare, may be found else- where imder other names. He was an inditferent painter, wanting in originality of conception and weak in execution. Girolamo Moceto, who is better known as an engraver than as a painter, was also probably a scholar of Alvise Vivarini, * Signer Gustavo Frizzoni, Or competent authority, attributes this picture to Bissolo (' L'Arte Italiaua nella Galleiia Naziouale lii Londra,' p. 35). But we do not recognise the manner of that master in it. 332 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. and an assistant of Giovanni Bellini. Two pictures by liim, representing the ' Massacre of the Innocents,' are in the National Gallery. They are coarse and exaggerated in expression. A Madonna and Child, with Saints, in SS. Nazzaro e Celso, Verona ; a Madonna and Child, with care- fully rendered hands, in the Vicenza Musemn ; and a portrait of a boy, with whitish tints and leaden shy, in the Modena Gallery, all three signed, may be mentioned among his works. He was also the painter of the great window in SS. Giovanni e Paolo (Venice), which, although badly restored, still remains a magniiiceut work. He died in 1531. Giovanni Mansueti, born probably about 1450, was, like Lazzaro di Sehastiano, employed in decorating the walls of the great hall of the " Scuola," or brotherhood, of S. Giovanni Evangelista (Venice), with a series of pictures representing the legend of the true Cross, now in the Venice Academy, in which he appears as a scholar and imitator of Gentile Bellini (see woodcut). The best of them represents the friends of one Antonio Eiccio visiting him after his escape from shipwreck through a miracle worked by a relic of the Cross — attributed erroneously to Lazzaro. These works are chiefly interesting as illustrating Venetian costume and architectiu-e in the fifteenth century. 3Iansueti's figures are short, stumpy, and ill-drawn, and he lacks the variety of expression and action of Gentile Bellini, and the brilliancy of colour and fancy of Carpaccio, whom he sometimes imi- tates in the introduction of animals and birds of various kinds into his compositions. His fondness for Eastern costumes was probably derived from Gentile Bellini, whose sketches made at Constantinople he may have studied ; it has even been conjectured that he accompanied the master in his journey to that city. There is a signed picture by Mansueti in the Brera, representing St. Mark baptising St. Anianiis. If Benedetto Diana be, according to excellent authority, the painter of the fine picture of ' Christ at Emmaus,' in the church of S. Salvatore, Venice, still attributed in the guide- books to Giovanni Bellini, and by some connoisseurs to Carpaccio, he must have been an artist of no ordinary merit, and one who gradually, from an unpromising com- mencement of his artistic career, attained a high placo s =0 02 O o a a Eh (6 Chap. XL] MARCO MAKZIALE. 333 among the followers of the foiTacr master. A half-length figure, larger than life, of the Saviour in the act of blessing, signed with the painter's name, in private possession at Venice, although in a very damaged condition, has a grand and impressive character not unworthy of Giovanni Bellini, to whom, as to other Venetian masters of note, many works by Diana in sundry collections are ascribed.* A Virgin and Child with Saints, in the Venice Academy, is quite Belliu- esque in character, and is one of his best works. He was employed with the two Bellini and Alvise Vivarini in decorating the hall of the Ducal Palace. Marco 3Iarziale'\ also took some part in the works of the Doge's Palace, but probably only as a journeyman, or as an assistant of Giovanni Bellini, of whom he is believed to have been the pupil. The few works by him whicli are j)reserved, show the teaching of this master ; but, at the same time, in some cases a Geiman influence, for which it is difficult to account, and which gives to the painter a character of originality, not to say eccentricity. Of this latter class is the ' Christ at Emmaus,' in the Venice Academy, in which the heads are almost caricatures in the style of Granach, whilst the colour is Bellinesque— bright and transparent — and the details executed with great taste and care. Better and more important examples of his style, with much less of this peculiar German manner, are the two altar-pieces in the National Gallery, the best of his works, both signed, and respectively dated 1500 and 1507. The finest of the two, 'the Circumcision,' is remarkable for the brilliancy of its colour, especially in the rendering of rich stuffs, and its grand background, recalling one of the ancient gold mosaic semidomes in S. Mark's. 3Tarco Marziale appears to have painted but little, and his works are rare. Cristoforo Caselli was a scholar of Giovanni Bellini, and subsequently an imitator of Cima. Tlis works arc princi- pally to be found at Parma. A large altar-piece in the " Consorzio " there is inscribed with his name and the date * As in the Venice Academy, where pictures by Dlnnn are assigned to J'lorigerio and Catena. f He signs his name Martialis and Marc'alis 334 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. of 1490. It shows the influence of both those masters, and represents the Virgin and Child enthroned, amidst angels playing on musical instruments, — the Eternal surrounded by cherubs appearing above. On one side of her is the Baptist, on the other St. Ambrose. At the foot of the throne kneel in prayer several angels and two figures, probably the donors. In the Parma gallery are several pictures by him, and in the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista an altar-piece representing the Adoration of the Magi. He is seen at Venice in a picture in the sacristy of the Salute, and in the church of Almenno, near Bergamo. Among the Venetian followers of Giovanni Bellini of minor importance may be mentioned Viftor Bellini Belliniano, some- times known as Bellino Bellini, whose works are few and of small interest, except for their Venetian physiognomy. A much-injured ' Martyrdom of St. Mark,' inscribed with his name, and dated 1526, is in the Imperial Academy at Vienna, and a ' Coronation of the Virgin,' also signed, and dated 1524, in the church of Spinea near Mestre. Marco Belli, on a pictiire of little merit at Castle Howard, inscribes himself a pupil of Giovanni Bellini. A copy, or replica, of it is in the public Gallery of Eovigo. Pasqualind'H weak and insipid productions are sometimes foisted upon collectors as genuine works of his master, as are those of Andi-ea Busati whose only authentic picture (signed) is in the Pinacoteca at Vicenza — his name on that in the Venice Academy (pro- bably by Benedetto Diana) being a forgery. And, finally, Cordelle Aglii, * is a very colourless and feeble imitator of Giovanni Bellini. By him there is, in the collection of Lady Eastlake, a Marriage of St. Catherine, copied from a picture in the sacristy of the church of S. Giobbe at Venice, signed. and dated 1504 (see woodcut). A more important work by him is the spirited portrait of a young man with bushy hair in a black cap, on panel, with a skull on the reverse, in the Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery, Milan, inscribed with his initials.f * Judging from his name, "twists and needles,'' he, or his father, was probably a ])edlar. t The inscription is "ANDREAS c. a. DI. 10. B. P„" i.e., "Andreas Cordelle Aghi, discipulus loannis Bellini piuxit." i * Chap. XI.] FOLLOWERS OP BELLINL 335 Andrea Previtali, born about 1480, \\as a native of Bergaino, who appears to have placed himself at an early age in the school of Giovanni Bellini, of whom he was a conscientious and industrious pupil. Whilst following his profession in Venice, he signed his pictures " Andreas Ber- gomensis "; on his return to his birthplace, where he con- tinued to paint for some years, " Andreas Previtalus." This change of signature has led some writers on Art to assume that there were two painters of the name of Andrea. His works are not rare. They are distinguished by their clear, brilliant coloui-, and charming landscape backgrounds ; but are generally heavy and lifeless in conception. In the National Gallery there is a Madonna and Child by him, which shows his merits and his defects. A picture by Andrea in the Brera, — the ' Transfiguration,' — has a good landscape. His productions are chiefly to be met with in the churches of Bergamo ; one of the best is in that of S. Spirito, dated 1515, representing the Baptist on a pedestal between four Saints. He appears to have painted there from 1511, probably dying of the plague in 1525.* A Bartolommeo, whose family name is unknown, and who signs himself " Bartholomeus Venetus" and on a picture which belonged to the late Count Mai-tinengo at Venice, " Bartolommeo mezzo Yeneziano e mezzo Cremonese," was probably a native of Cremona, who studied in the school of the Bellini. Ho is chiefly known by his portraits ; that of a Count Lodovico Martinengo in the National Gallery, signed and dated 1530, shows him to have been a good colourist, influenced by Giorgione. There is a small Madomia and Child by him, signed and dated 1505, in the public Gallery of Bergamo. In the Dresden Gallery a Virgin and Child (No. 230), attributed to Giovanni Bellini, is probably by Bartolommeo, and imsigned pictures elsewhere, of which he is probably the author, pass under greater names.! Pier Maria Pennacchi, born in 1464, was, like several of his fellow-pupils in the school of the Bellini, a native of Treviso. In his early pictures he shows the influence of * Morelli's, 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 180 t Ibid. 138, &c. 336 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. Squarcione, wMch lie may liave derived from one of tlie followers of that celebrated teacher. They are so dry and angular in the folds of drapery, that they have been ascribed to German masters, and a Madonna and Child by him, in the Pinacoteca of Treviso, bears the forged monogram of Albert Diirer, and was long accepted as an authentic work by that great painter. Another early example of PennaccM of this character — a Dead Christ between Angels — is in the Berlin Museum. His later works are altogether Venetian and Bellinesque, as the Annunciation, in the church of S. Francesco della Vigna, and the Evangelists and Prophets, in the ceiling of that of the Miracoli, Venice ; the panels of the ceiling of the church of S. Maria degli Angeli, in the Island of Murano, on which are represented the Corona- tion of the Virgin and numerous half-length figures of Saints and other holy personages ; and some graceful Angels playing on musical instruments in the church of S. Pietro Martire in the same island. PennaccM is known to have painted as late as 1528. Of Girolamo da Treviso we have already spoken. Born within the Venetian territory, he properly belongs to the Paduan school, and must be included among the disciples of Squarcione, although in the altar-piece in the Cathedral of his native town, to which we have referred, he shows a Bellinesque influence. Of a later painter of the same name, the son of Gian Maria Pennachi, we shall speak when we come to notice the imitators of Giorgione. Morto da Feltre is another of those painters believed to be known imder more than one name. As early as the seventeenth century he was asserted by Cambruzzi, an historian of Feltre, to be identical with Pietro Luzzi da Feltre, commonly called Zarato, an assistant of Giorgione. Luzzi's parentage at Feltre, and birth there in 1474, are ascertained facts ; the removal of his father to Zara, where he long resided, accounting for his appellation as Zarato. Admitting therefore that the Morto da Feltre of Vasari and the Pietro da Feltre of Cambruzzi and also of Eidolfi the historian of Venetian painting, are one and the same — no signed pictures assisting to establish either their separate- Chap. XI.] MORTO DA FELTKE. 337 ness or identity— it would seem that the painter went to Eome in 1495, to Florence in 1506, and to Venice in 1508. Of tlie works by him in any of these cities none have been preserved. He is known to have laboured in his native Feltre in decorating the town-hall, and the chmch of S. Stefano — both restored after the destruction of the town by the Imperialists in 1515 — though scarcely any traces of those laboiu-s remain. An altar-piece, attributed doubt- fully to him, is in the church of the village of Villabrima, in the neighbom-liood. It is an arched panel with the Virgin and Child, and SS. George and Victor below (both in the picturesque costume of the sixteenth century), showing a character of art allied to that of Pellegrino da S. Daniele. A pictui-e in the church of S. Giorgio, near Feltre — a Madonna and Child, with SS. Valentine and Gregory — called of the school of Titian, is apparently by the same hand. Two houses in Feltre, the Palazzo Crico and the Casa Bartoldini, have remains of frescoes recorded to be by Pietro Lnzzi. They show a mixtm-e of styles compatible with the fact of the different centres of art ho had visited. A picture at Berlin, believed to be by Luzzi, has a forged inscription, which would introduce a third name — viz., " Laurentius Lucius Feltreu'^." Vasari states that Morto da Feltre perished in an engagement at Feltre. The confusion with regard to these painters, if there were more than one, has not been cleared up, and nothing really authentic is known of Morto. We may now describe those painters who, although not Venetians, or established in Venice, were still to a certain ex- tent under the influence of Giovanni Bellini, and his school. We will first tui-n to the Friuli * and the March of Treviso. Giovanni Martini, a native of Udine, and consequently sometimes called Giovanni da TJdine,^ was a pupil and some- * This province appears to have possessed local painters as early as the fourteenth century. An elaborate and curious fresco in the Church of Venzone, five miles from Gemona, may belong to that period ; and the facade of the cathedral of the latter place was at one time covered with frescoes of the life of St. Christopher, signed by one Majuta Nicolaus, which have been destroyed. t He is not to be confounded with a later painter of the same name, the assistant of Raphael. 338 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. what feeble imitator of Alvise Vivanni. A Madonna by him, dated 1498, in the Correr Museum (Venice), and a St. Mark, enthroned, of 1501, in the Duomo of Udine, are timid imitations of Cima. His chief work, representing St. Ursula and her Maidens, in the Brera (1507), though devoid of expression, is attractive in general air. The large altar- piece in the National Gallery attributed to Pellegnno da San Daniele, is more probably by Giovanni Martini. He was still working in 1534. 3Iartino da Udine, so called from the place of his birth, and known as Pellegrino da S. Daniele, must not be con- founded with Giovanni 3Iartini. He was the son of one Battista, a Dalmatian, who had settled as a painter at Udine. It is conjectured that Martino derived his appellation of Pellegrino, which is equivalent to " the stranger," from his foreign origin, while the adjunct of San Daniele came from the little Friulian to^vn in which his father resided, and in which Martino long worked as a painter. He was probably born between 1460 and 1470. In the contract for a picture still preserved at Osopo — a Virgin enthroned, and Saints, with a rich arehitectui-al background, and angels playing on musical instruments after the manner of Giovanni Bellini and Cima— ho is called " Maestro Martino dicto Pellegrino di Udine." In 1497, he commenced the decoration in fresco of the vaulting and walls of the choir in the church of S. Antonio at San Daniele, which, however, he did not complete until twenty-four years later. During this period Pellegrino, driven from the Friulian territory by the wars between the Venetians and the Emj)eror Maximilian, had resided at Venice and had visited other centres of art in Italy. He was thus enabled to study the works of great contemporary artists, and to improve his own manner. Whilst his early frescoes at San Daniele are those of a dry, unformed painter without technical skill and knowledge of the human form, his later works there show him to have become an eclectic painter, and an imitator, if not a rival, of the greatest masters of the Venetian school. Ho was so successful that to him are attributed works passing under the names of more than one of those masters — as, Chap. XL] PELLEGEINO DA S. DANIELE. 339 for instance, a Virgin and Child and Saints, in the Louvre (No. 38), ascribed to Gionjiune.* This development in Pelle- grinos manner is well seen in his later frescoes at S. Daniele, in which he appears as an imitator of Pordenone and of Bomanino, and even in some of his heads recalls Titian and Pahna Vecchio.'\ They include subjects from the life of Christ, and from the legends of St. Anthony, and single figures of Saints. They arc much damaged and have suffered greatly from restoration and repainting, but still produce a fine effect. Among the subjects dedicated to the life of St. Anthony, that of the Saint, enthroned, giving the benedic- tion to a number of worshippers — with noble individual portraits — is very imposing in action and character. Pellegrino's masterpiece, showing his boldness of hand acquired by long practice in fresco, is a large and im- l^ortant altar-piece in S. Maria de' Battisti, the church of the hospital, in the small town of Cividale, 10 m. from Udine. In this work he appears as an imitator of Palma Vecchio. It represents the Virgin and Child, enthroned, attended by four beautiful female Saints — the one reading on the right, and the corresponding Saint on the left with a rose, being esj)ecially fine. Below are S. Donato, the patron saint of Cividale, the Baptist, and an Angel seated playing the viol. Pellegrino died in 1547, over eighty years of age. He is a striking instance of an imitator of certain grand qualities in Venetian art, without the careful drawing and deeper feeling requisite to form a first-rate master. He has con- sequently acquired a far greater reputation than he deserves, for he was, in fact, a very mediocre painter. Among the many inferior contemporary painters which the Friulian territory produced, and whose w'orks are to be seen in its churches, we need only mention Sehastiano Florigerio of Conegliano, the son-in-law of Pellegrino, who, like his father-in-law, became an imitator of Pordenone The only known authentic pictures by him are an altar * Crowe and Cavalcaselle. ' History of Painting in North Italy,' vol. ii., p. 205. t Morelli's 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 21. 340 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Ouap. XI. piece of St. George slaying the Dragon, in a clnu-cli dedicated to the Saint at Udine — not wanting in a certain grandeur, and praised by Vasari for its vigorous treatment ; and two of little importance in the Venice Academy, of pale cold colouring. The local schools of Eavenna, Forli, and Eimini were also under the influence of the Bellini. Bondinello, who was probably born at Eavenna between 1450 and 1460, and was still living in 1500, studied in the school, and became one of the most industrious assistants, of Giovanni Bellini, whom he succeeded in imitating so well that his works frequently pass for those of his master, whose name is sometimes fraudulently inscribed, even by himself,* upon them— as in the case of the Virgin and Child and Saints, in the Louvre (No. 61), and another of the same character in the Doria Palace at Eome, In the latter Gallery there is also a signed picture — a Virgin and Child — by him. Signor Morelli ascribes to him, as we have seen, the portrait of Giovanni Bellini in the Uffizi.f He may, however, be readily distinguished from his master by the coldness of his colouring, the want of dignity in his figures, a certain feebleness of drawing, and his cottony clouds. Bondinello settled at Eavenna, where he established a school which produced Luca Longlii, Marco Pahnezzano, Marchesi, and others. A pictm-e by him in the Brera, not without con- siderable merit, represents St. John in Episcopal robes and bearing an incense burner, appearing to Galla Placidia in the temj)le dedicated by her to the Evangelist at Eavenna. Latanzio da Bimini, a native of that town, was also one of the assistants of Giovanni Bellini in the decoration of the Ducal Palace. Of his works little is known. Among the feebler followers of Giovanni Bellini, in the North of Italy, were the two painters Francesco Bizo and Girolamo, both called da Santa Croce, from a village near Bergamo, where they were born.J Francesco, the more im- portant of the two, was the elder, and may have been the * Morelli's • Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 9, note, t Ante, p. 314. X Francesco wns certinnly horn at Santa Croce; but Girolamo is only supposed to have been boi'u tliere Chap. XI.] GIKOLAMO DA SANTA CROCE. 341 father of Girolamo, but this is doubtful. He was probably bom in 1480, and must have settled at Venice and entered the studio of Giovanni Bellini when still very young. Although he consequently lived and worked in the zenith of Venetian glories, he partook but little of them. The earliest date known to exist on his pictures is that of 1504 — on an Annunciation, in the public Gallery of Bergamo, alto- gether Bellinesque in character. One of his best works (signed but not dated) is an Adoration of the Kings, in the Berlin Museum. In the Venice Academy there is a Christ and the Magdalen by the master, dated 1513 ; other works by him may be found in churches and galleries in the Province of Bergamo, at Venice, and in the Venetian territory. He was a pretentious painter, weak as a colourist and draughtsman, and lacking originality, being satisfied to copy and imitate his master and other Venetian painters. Girolamo da Santa Croce, the pupil of Francesco JRizo, was a thoroughly eclectic painter, devoid of taste and imagination, and his works pass imder various names, according to the different masters he imitated. He may generally be recognised by cold, insipid colouring, and by his elaborate landscape backgrounds — conventional in tone and treatment, with stiff round little trees set in rows, and a striped horizon. His works abound in the Venetian and Lombard provinces, in public and private collections. The earliest are to be seen in the public galleries of Bergamo aud Bassano. An altar-piece in the church of S. Silvestro, at Venice, signed, and dated 1520, representing St. Thomas Aquinas, enthroned, between St. Francis and the Baptist — much injured by modern restorations — is one of his most important works. Another altar-piece in the sacristy of the chuich of S. Martino in the Island of Burano, signed, and dated 1541, shows his continuous imitation of Giovanni Bellini and Cima. An Adoration of the Magi, a small picture, in the Manfrin Gallery (Venice), is a good example of his peculiar colouring and of his technical skill — the details and accessories being executed with a minute truthfulness more Flemish than Italian. A signed portrait by him in the 342 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI, Poldi-Pezzoli Gallery, Milan, shows him to have been suc- cessful in portraiture. There was a third painter in this family known as Pietro Paolo da Santa Croce, who worked to the end of the sixteenth centuiy, and was the pupil and imitator, perhaps the son, of Girolamo. Although Carlo Crivelli was of Venetian descent, and was always proud to style himself so on his pictures, he does not show the influence of the Venetian school.* He rather stands apart from it, with a manner strikingly original and entirely his own. The date of his birth is unknown, but is conjectured to be about 1430. His pictures date from 1468 to 1495. He appears to have studied in the school of Squarcione, whose influence is seen in his works, especially in the frequent introduction of fruit and flowers— in the representation of which he attained to great excellence — of beautiful festoons, and of details of classic architecture and ornament. He ultimately settled at Ascoli, and his numerous altar-pieces were principally executed for churches in that place and in the principal towns of the March of Ancona. He vas a master of strong individuality, and always shows himself passionately in earnest. He occupies ground in- cluding some of the rudest and most unattractive pictures in art, and yet bordering on others of the grandest cha- racter. With an exaggerated vehemence and grimace of type — not unfrequently, especially in his earlier works, ap- proaching the grotesque, yet never expressionless — he unites occasionally to great earnestness and dignity an Umbrian grace and even daintiness of expression. Some of his Madonnas especially are remarkable for their exquisite beauty and tenderness. He is essentially old-fashioned in his style, never abandoning the use of tempera, and rarely omitting the embossed gilt ornaments and the lavish use of gold in the details of his pictures, characteristic of the early Venetian masters. Unlike some of his great con- temporaries, he departed but little from his original manner, made no sensible progress, and was almost stationary * It is not certain that he was actually born at Venice. Had he been so, he would probably have described himself on his pictures as " de Venetiis," and not as " Venetus." Chap. XL] CARLO CRIVELLI. 343 and one-sided in his art. In his best works he approaches the fine drawing and dignity of form and expression of Mantegna, with a gorgeousness of coloui* in which he stands alone. He succeeded in obtaining from tempera the most brilliant effects and the utmost transparency of which the material is capable. With him it assumes almost the sub- stance and durability of enamel. Consequently his works have, for the most part, been preserved in perfect condition, resisting the ravages of time and the still more fatal hand of the restorer. It is these qualities, and his mai"vellous power of rendering details, such as fruit, flowers and birds, rich brocades and other textures, marbles, &c., which render the pictures of Carlo Crkelli, whatever their defects and exaggerations, so attractive to the connuisseui", and indeed to every one who has a genuine feeling for art. They are generally signed and dated. After he had received an order of Knighthood from Ferdinand II. of Naples, he adds " miles " to his name. Towards the end of his life he appears to have been promoted to a higher rank in the order, as on his latest works — such ;is the beautiful picture of the Virgin and Child, enthroned, in the Brera— he styles himself "eques laui-eatus."* Of two large and sumptuous altar-pieces at Ascoli — the one in the Cathedral, the other in the church of S. Domenico — the latter, dated 1476, shows CrivelU nearly in the full exercise of his powers. The greater part of his works have left the places for which they were executed, and have found their way into public and private collections. The Brc;ra and the National Gallery are both rich in specimens of the master, especially the latter, which exhibits every phase and scale of his art, from the small and tender pictui-e of the ' Dead Christ supported by Angels,' which recalls Mantegna, to the sumptuous altar-piece in numerous compartments, formerly in the Demidoflf collection. In the same Gallery the ' Annun- ciation ' (signed, and dated 1486) is a delightful example ot * On his earliest pictures he signs simply "Carolus Crivellus Venetus " (National Gallery No. 602) ; later, " Carolus Crivellus Venetus Allies " (id. No. 724). On his latest, the Madonna in the Brera, " bkarulus Crivellus Venetus eques laureatus." 344 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. the master's bright colouring, of his habit of representing, in the most pleasing way, elegant architecture and classic details, and of introducing interesting incidents and acces- sories into his pictures. We give a woodcut of an altar- piece in the Dudley Gallery, very characteristic of Crivelli, His latest date, 1493, is upon one of his grandest works in the Oggioni collection, now forming part of the Brera. Vittore Crivelli, the brother of Carlo, his imitator and doubtless his assistant, is an inferior painter, by whom there are several works in the Brera and elsewhere, some of them signed and dated— the earliest in 1481, the latest in 1490. There were other imitators of the master, whose style it was not difficult to caricature, such as Pietro Ale- manno, whose works are to be found in the chui'ches of Ascoli and the neighbom-hood.* We have yet to ment"ion another painter, who, although Venetian by birth, and to be reckoned among the followers of Giovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina, left his native country, and practised his art to the north of the Alps, modifying his manner, but still remaining under the influence of his early training — Jacopo de' Barhari, or di Barherino.^ He was probably born at Venice about 1450. German writers have maintained that he was by descent a German, his ancestors having come from Germany and settled in that city, where he was adopted into a patrician family, and assumed its name. But this is a mere conjecture in support of which there is no proof. The first part of his life was probably passed in Venice, or the neighbourhood ; but few of the works he executed remain there. Signer Morelli attributes to him two heralds, or warriors — noble life-sized figures in fresco, altogether Bellinesque in character — and the beautiful decorations in chiaroscui-o, forming part of the monument of Coimt Onigo, the work of the celebrated sculptor Tullio Lomhardo, in the church of S. Niccolo at Treviso.| To him are also ascribed, by the same writer * Crowe and Caralcaselle, ' History of Painting in North Italy,' vol. i^ J). 96 et seq. t He is thus called by the ' Anonimo ' ; see Frizzoni s ed., p. 197. J ' Italian Masters in German Galleries,' p. 145. THE VIKUIN, CHILD, AND SAINTS ; an ultar-piece by Carlo CiivcUi, at Dudley House. p. W-1. Chap. XL] JACOPO DE' BARBARI. 345 tlie frescoes on the exterior of a house in the Piazza della Cattedrale in that town, and those on the monument to the Venetian Admiral, Melchiore Trevisani, in the choir of the Frari, Venice.* Two portraits, one in the Vienna picture gallery of a young man in Venetian costume, the other, in a damaged condition, in the Pinacoteoa at Bergamo, if rightly attributed to him, are in his early manner, and show that he was under the influence, if ho was not an imitator, of Antonello da Messina.] He is supposed to have left Venice about the year 1490, and io have established himself at Nuremberg, where he became known as Jacob Walch — that is the " Wcdsche," or Italian. But he miist have returned for a time to Venice, as his great map or plan of that city, erroneously ascribed to Albert Diirer — the wooden blocks for uhich, cut by some German, are preserved in the Correr Museimi there — was not completed until 1500. In 1501 he was invited to Augs- burg by the Emperor Maximilian. At Nuremberg he became acquainted with Albert Diirer, upon whose artistic develop- ment he appears to have exercised the most direct influence.^ The great German master wrote of the " Walsche Jacob " as " a good and delightful painter," who had first described to him the measurements of the human body, and he accepted his canon of proportions for the human fonn, although he subsequently rejected it. Distinct traces of Jacujw's in- fluence upon him are seen in a small i)icture of the Virgin, of 1503, in the gallery at Vienna, and in an unfinished ' Salvator Muudi,' in private hands in that city. Later Jacojoo was employed with Mahuse in decorating with paint- ings the Castle of Zuyiborch, belonging to Count Philip, the natural son of Philip, Duke of Burgundy. He after- * Morelli's 'Italian Masters, &c.,' p. 147 t A small ])ictiire in Lord Northbrook's collection, representing St. Jerome in his stud}"-, at one time attributed to Vaii Eyck and subsequently to Jacopo de' Barbari, may be by Jacometto, a painter mentioned by the ' Aiionimo,' of whom nothing is known, but who appears to have imitated the Flemings. See Frizzoni's ed. of the ' Anonimo,' pp. 188, 189. % Thausing (' Life of Albert Diirer,' translated by F. A. Eaton : vol. i., p. 291), has even suggested that Diirer may have known Jacopo de' Harbart at Venice in 1494, and have worked in his studio there. But Signor Morelli questions this, ' Italian Masters,' &c., p. 149. 346 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. [Chap. XI. wards passed into tlie service of the Archducliess Margaret, Eegent of the Netherlands, who in 1511 granted him a yearly pension of a hundred livres. He probably died in 1515 or 1516. Hans von Kulmhach was his scholar. Among Jacopo de' Barhari's pictures in Germany may be mentioned a remarkable example ot still life, of the highest finish, in the Augsburg Gallery, bearing his name and the date 1501 ; a half-length figui-e of the Saviour, signed with his monogram, in the Weimar Museum ; and. a Christ v\ith the liand. extended in the act of blessing, and half-figures of SS. Catherine and Barbara (the side-wings of a triptych), in the Dresden Gallery. In the latter collection a ' Galatea standing on a Dolphin,' doiibtfuUy ascribed to Sandro Botti- celli, is now believed to be by Jacopo de' Barhari. But it is principally as an engraver that Jacopo is known. His works in this branch of art are of great beauty and rarity, and are recognised by his mark — a Caduceus — whence he is known as the " Master of the Caduceus." They are very soft and graceful in outline, and are for the most part Italian in manner, recalling Giovanni Bellini and the Lomhardi, the sculptors. Occasionally he shows traces of a German influence, but without losing his Venetian character. His figures in his engravings, as well as in his paintings, are distinguished by their half open mouths, perhaps imitated from antique sculpture, a slight fault in the position of the eyes, like a squint, and prominent upper eyelids.* * This notice of Jacopo de* Barhari is mainly derived from Thausin^'s excellent work already quoted ; and from Signor Morelli's ' Italian Masters in German Galleries * V This book is DUE on the last date stamped below NOV 7 laag T*ov 3 i9a» DEC .2 ^m rp *9 ^^myo ID-U^TD JAW 5 I94^v 'A JUN 1 1949 mi 12 JAN 1 B RECO NOV 2 1957^ i^tmk' 9/ / arm L-9-15m-ll,'27 ^^' ^-pECEIVED SEP 14 1983 UhC. UiPh UMl &. MAR 2- 188 L NOV 121983 ££8281371 BECDumr T 26 19:1} JUN 61980 AU6171998 J% UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIUTV AA 000 664 136 9 158 00884 6478 i^lt. LIBRARY