■J Sim mM^ U'^Xf' PORTRAITS OF DANTE FROM GIOTTO TO RAFFAEL I Of this book, 1050 copies have been printed and the type distributed : 525 copies are reserved for America DANTE, AFTER THE MINIATURE IN A COPY OF LANDING'S COMMEDU, NOW IN THE BIBLIOTECA MAGLIABECHIANA, FLORENCE PORTRAITS OF DANTE FROM GIOTTO TO RAFFAEL : A CRITICAL STUDY, WITH A CONCISE ICONOGRAPHY, BY RICHARD THAYER^HOLBROOK : ILLUSTRATED AFTER THE ORIGINAL PORTRAITS ^CCLV."^ -^CCCX^^ LONDON : PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY LTD. BOSTON AND NEW YORK : HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCXI PREFACE IN a few words, written when all other parts of this book had passed irrevocably out of my control, I wish to make several emendations which observant readers may add to theirs. If some day another edition is published, it will be found, I hope, to have profited by all the valuable remarks that may have been made concerning this ; or, if not by all, at least by all that become known to me by courtesy or chance or search. EMENDATIONS Although the error which it contains is not vital, my statement of the steps by which the Torrigiani bust (it is not a mask) was transferred from private to public ownership (page 38) should have conformed exactly with the historical data in the footnote on page 39. I avail myself of this opportunity to mention by the way a very recent ' discovery ' described by Mr. P. G. Konody in The Illustrated hondon News {ox ^\A^ 1, 191 1 ; this ' discovery ' illustrates various affirmations of mine, but especially some of those on the manufacture of death-masks in chapter iv. In dealing with Giotto's Dante it behoved me to lay greater stress on the difference in colouring of Kirkup's original sketch (in his Co«i;fuw) and of the Arundel print or its immediate source; fortunately both the sketch and the print are now reproduced in fascimiles so accurate that experts in evidence may be able to account fully for the obvious discrepancy by comparing the two reproductions with each other and with the testimonies quoted in chapters ix, xiii, and xiv. On page 162 I overlooked an error which can now be corrected more easily and more briefly than it could be explained : Not red, b V S42363 ? PREFACE but green — and particularly the combination of red, white and green — was offensive to those who ruled Florence about 1 840. Finally, to the Descriptive Catalogue I would add, between Blake and Cabanel, the name of Boyer-Breton, a modern artist who, like two others there recorded, has imagined and depicted a Dante at the age of nine. The type, as shown by a Braun photo- graph, suggests the influence of Giotto's Dante. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Had it not seemed better to express my obligations only where they should indicate specifically what service was rendered, I could not do otherwise than end this Preface by inscribing here the names of all those who have contributed their time and their knowledge to help me often during the five years spent, amid other occupations, in the making of this book ; but I am indebted to the dead as well as to the living, to Boccaccio, the Villanis, and Bruni, to Kirkup, Welcker, Paur, and Kraus, not less than to Messrli, Toynbee, Vernon, Ricci, Rajna, Koch, and more than a s^Uie of others who have supplied me with facts or started inquiries, and helped to bring me happiness and light. To all I feel grateful, but I believe that each of my fellow- workers will value my gratitude most if he can be sure that some good use has been made of his learning and of his friendly service, and if he finds a specific acknowledgement. R. T. H. VI CONTENTS I PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS The documentary value of old portraits. The multitude of stock figures, fanciful Hkenesses, and frauds. The problem of authenticity. What evidence is required. Impressionism versus investigation* The criterion of style. The method followed in this book. Old facts and new. The points here at issue. Limitation of the research to a period ending about 1 5 1 2 with RafFael. Why later portraits are hereexammed. The order of exposition. The GioHto Dante. Lucas van Leyden's Dante. A Dante by Ghirlandajo .? Convivio Dante of 1521. Dante of 1529. Frequent inaccuracy of copies. Portraits m early printed editions, and their value. The illustrated MSS Dante's mterest in the art of illumination. Miniature portraits The Dante type. Macaulay's generalisation Pages 1-15 II THE WRITTEN SOURCES Boccaccio's testimony as to Dante's looks (about 1311-1321). Its worth. Dante describes himself.? His tendency to stoop- his self-neglect. Did Dante wear a beard ? Hypothesis of Dr Krauss and vague comment by Pietro di Dante. The colour of Dante's hair ; blond hair favoured in medieval times. Petrarca's delusive allusion to himself Bruni's statements. Dante's bearing. He grew austere and disdainful. Giovanni Villani's statement. An impression Dante made, as recorded by himself His apparel Pages 16-28 Vll CONTENTS III DANTE'S BONES An attempted auto da f eon Dante's bones. Their odysscy. The dis- covery of 1865. Dante's skeleton, and the light it throws on our re- search. The action of the Ravennese authorities. Welcker's keen remark as to the skull and the so-called mask Pages 29-35 IV THE TORRIGIANI 'DEATH-MASK' AND OTHER SO-CALLED DEATH-MASKS OF DANTE The Torrigiani mask long and widely supposed to be an authentic death-mask of Dante. Quotations from various authorities. This mask often used to test the value of other portraits. Its character. Eminent sculptors note how the features reveal recent death. Result of accepting tradition. Inauthenticity to be demonstrated. Death- masks in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Vasari's statement. Lack of evidence for Dante's time. Cennini's technical description of the art of making masks. What the mask itself tells. A false relic. Cinelli's story about Dante's head and the Duchess Sforza. Kirkup's statement as to various masks. Resemblance between the masks and Giotto's Dante. A brief onslaught. Opinion of C. E. Norton. Ricci on Kirkup's mask and on others. The essential character of all the plastic representations of Dante. Artistic death-effects by TuUio Lombardi. The Torrigiani mask, the miniature of the MS. Ric- cardiano 1040, and the Naples bust Pages 36-52 V THE EFFIGY ON DANTE'S TOMB AT RAVENNA Ordered by Bernardo Bembo and executed by Pietro Lombardi. Boxhorn's engraving. Dante depicted reading. Shelley's impres- sions. The portrait of 148 1. The mask again. Lombardi's Dante described. No portraits or effigies at Venice in Bembo's time Pages 53-56 viii CONTENTS VI THE BRONZE BUST OF DANTE AT NAPLES The Naples bronze bust truly Dantesque. Attributed to Donatello. The bust and the mask. The bust and the miniature in MS. Ric- cardiano 1040. Relations of all three. Summary of possible history of the bust and its offspring. General characterisation of the bust Pages 57-64 VII DANTE IN THE CODEX RICCARDIANUS 1040 Character and probable age of the miniature in the MS. Riccardiano 1040. Its apparent relation to the Naples bust. This portrait offi- cially offered in 1864-5 ^^ ^^^ most authentic likeness of Dante Pages 65-67 VIII DANTE IN THE CODEX PALATINUS 320 The portrait in the Codex Palatinus 320; assigned to fifteenth cen- tury, then to Giotto. The opinion of Kraus requires a long leap. This miniature was probably copied from the portrait by Giotto at some time after 1450. The hair a significant feature. Portrait 320 compared with 1040. Relations of both to Giotto's fresco, to the mask, and to the Naples bust Pages 68-72 IX GIOTTO'S DANTE: THE DISCOVERY Giotto's Dante discovered, July 21, 1840. Joy at the news. No one known to have precisely described the facts. The discoverers. Wilde and Washington Irving. Irving's account. Landor's account. Landor credits Bezzi. Kirkup's letter to Rossetti (September 1 2, 1 840) . Kirkup claims priority. Kirkup contradicted by Bezzi, who champions Wilde, though he acknowledges Kirkup's services. ix CONTENTS Value of following the controversy. Latilla defends Kirkup (i 848). Kirkup's letter to Cavalcaselle (shortly before May 1850). Dr. Bar- low speaks for Kirkup and Kirkup speaks for himself. He credits Bezzi with having drawn up a petition. Marini's scaffold, Bezzi returns to England (May 1840). The nail-hole in Dante's eye. Marini ' restores.' Kirkup bribes a gaoler. Kirkup tells Gabriele Rossetti about Marini's work (letter of September 14, 1841). Bezzi's statement as to Wilde, himself, and Kirkup, and his own negotiations, including his memorial to the Grand Duke. Kirkup tells Mrs. Gillum how he made his colour-sketch. Further testimony by Col. Gillum. Marini's disastrous methods ; the trestles ; the destroying of Dante's eye, and alteration of the original colours and drawing. Kirkup inveighs against official indifference, stinginess, and barbarous waste. Kirkup's indignant letter to William Rossetti (February 1868). Marini again. Kirkup states how he went to work, and damns Marini's lithography. His condemnation of the Marchese Nerli and his anxiety as to his own copy. He vouches for the accuracy of the Arundel print, speaks again of the hole made by Marini and of other deplorable circum- stances. What Marini really did to alter and spoil Giotto's portrait. The direct source of the Arundel print now preserved at Sudbury Hall. Kirkup's Convivio, containing his sketch, presented by Col. Gillum to a Florentine museum. Kirkup's ' only copy.' W. W. Vernon gives the sources of the Arundel print. Importance of Perseo Faltoni's drawing of the Giotto Dante. Comparison of this with Kirkup's work — the Arundel print. Honour due to both Kirkup and Faltoni Pages 73-103 X GIOTTO'S DANTE : THE FRESCOES IN THE MADDALENA CHAPEL The frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel, especially the Lucifer and the Paradise. Description of the Paradise. Dante's place in the fresco. Thode's description of the Paradise. His and other erroneous ideas as to the date of this work and as to the scene which it por- trays. Disagreement as to the date and authorship of the portrait of Dante. The problem in hand Pages 104—106 X CONTENTS XI DATE OF THE BARGELLO DANTE When was the Bargello Dante painted ? Diversity of opinions ; assumptions and conjectures. So early a date as 1300 a paradox. Dante banished, and threatened with dire punishment. His fierce girding at Florence. Further action against him. Florence makes an offer which Dante scorns. His attitude toward Florence in the Commedia. Bertrand du Pouget and the Papal Guelfs. Weakness of Crowe and Cavalcaselle's case. More positive evidence as to the date. Dante's colours ; the pomegranates or apples, and their sym- bolic significance. The Inferno and Purgatorio finished by 13 19. The futility of relying upon style to determine dates ; the importance of what is depicted. The Lucifer. Saint Venantius and the Podesta Fidesmini da Varano. Meaning of the inscription i^oc Opus &c. 1337 not necessarily a terminus ad quern. Giotto's death in 1336 does not preclude him. Giotto's Dante and the fire of 1332. The law as to pictures in public buildings. The necessity of further inquiry as to Giotto Pages 107-117 XII GIOTTO AND DANTE Guesswork as to Giotto's life related as fact. Were Giotto and Dante ever together ? Giotto's birthplace. The testimony of Andrea Lancia ; of Petrarca. Giotto joins a Florentine guild, 1 3 1 2. Giotto regarded as a citizen of Florence. Dates of birth and death. Possible friendship with Dante. Where might Giotto and Dante have met after 1 296 ? Giotto at Assisi ; at Rome ; at Padua. Giotto said to have frescoed both the Upper and the Lower Church at Assisi. Alleged portrait of Dante in the Chastity. Dante a Franciscan ? Artistic travesties. Another possible Dante at Assisi. Were Giotto and Dante together as friends at Rome in 1 300 .? Dante and Giotto at Padua. No Dante influence perceptible in the Arena Chapel. A Padua Dante ? Dante said to have had Giotto come to Ravenna. Dante dies, Giotto at Naples. He xi CONTENTS returns to Florence, is appointed Master and Governor of all works, and dies (1336). Further argument as to the date of his portrait of Dante Pages 11 8-1 32 XIII WAS THE AUTHOR OF THE BARGELLO PORTRAIT GIOTTO ? The true authorship of the Bargello Dante. Testimony of Ghiberti; of Filippo Villani. A fresco or a panel ? Antonio Pucci's quali- fications as a witness. His sonnet on Dante's portrait and the value thereof as evidence Pages 133—138 XIV FURTHER REMARKS ON GIOTTO'S DANTE Vasari on the Bargello portrait. Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. Misinterpretation of Giotto's fresco. Kirkup on the Dante portrait. Age and expression represented. Giotto's inten- tion and the source of his Dante, Giotto's accuracy. Character of Giotto's portrait as preserved in the Arundel print. Giotto's probable motive for portraying a youthful Dante. Dante's tribute to Giotto, and other evidences of Giotto's early fame. Documentary value of Giotto's portrait of Dante. Intellectual relations between Giotto and Dante. The Palazzo del Podesta in Giotto's time. Giotto's Dante, smeared with whitewash, disappears along with the other frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel and remains hidden for more than two hundred and sixty years. Recovered only to be destroyed. Is Marini's misdeed irreparable? Pages 139-150 XV DANTE IN SANTA CROCE Bruni's testimony and the two versions of a statement by Giannozzo Manetti. Antonio Billi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, The painter was Taddeo Gaddi, not Giotto. Ghiberti really confirmed by Vasari. Gaddi's knowledge of Dante and the probable date of his portrait. The source and character of Gaddi's Dante. Vasari's portrait of xii CONTENTS Dante and his responsibility for the loss of Gaddi's portrait. The possible importance of knowing something about Gaddi's Dante Pages 1 51-159 XVI A DANTE ATTRIBUTED TO ANDREA ORCAGNA Andrea Orcagna and his brother Nardo decorate the Strozzi Chapel. Andrea declared by Vasari to have been a great student of Dante. The Strozzi fresco of Hell based on Dante. A possible portrait of Dante in the Giudizio pointed out by Barlow and others. Dante and Beatrice both depicted ? Characteristics of this Dante and its probable date. Wherein it tallies with older evidence and with Boccaccio's words. Discrepancy of the lower lip. The source ot this portrait. Chiappelli's fantastic allegation Pages 160-165 XVII VARIOUS PORTRAITS KNOWN OR ALLEGED TO REPRESENT DANTE A fresco at Rimini believed by Ricci to contain a portrait of Dante. Lorenzetti's allegory of Peace at Siena. A portrait at Pisa. The Louvre Dante. Benozzo Gozzoli. Andrea dal Castagno paints a Dante at Legnaia. Comparison thereof with Michelino's Dante. Origin of Andrea dal Castagno's Dante and its resemblance to the Naples bust. Andrea did not use Giotto's Dante. His portrait now in Florence. Paolo Uccello. Ferrucci's Dante an absurdity Pages 1 66-17 1 XVIII DOMENICO DI MICHELINO'S DANTE IN THE DUOMO AT FLORENCE Domenico di Mich'elino's Dante and its lost prototype. The con- tract with Michelino (1465). Baldovinetti's model. Detailed de- scription of Michelino's painting. Origin of the Dante type adopted by Michelino. Barlow's assertion as to Marini's retouching of this portrait. For three and a half centuries English travellers have noted Michelino's Dante, generally attributing it to Orcagna xiii CONTENTS or Giotto. Fresh illustrations of the value of style and of tradition as criteria for determining authorship. No other portrait of Dante known to have hung in the Duomo between 1334 and 1421 Pages 172-18 1 XIX THE ORIGINAL OF RAFFAEL MORGHEN'S DANTE Thomas Carlyle's impression of Dante's physiognomy. The original of Morghen's Dante ' long since lost.' Its character recalls the portrait by Michelino. G. B. Dei's Dante and F. AUegrini's engraving of it. The Tofanelli-Morghen portrait. Origin, age, and character of the Yale Dante. Its known history. Notes on Morghen and Tofanelli Pages 182-186 XX SANDRO BOTTICELLI, THE LANDING COMMEDIA OF 1 48 1, AND LUC A SIGNORELLI'S DANTE IN THE DUOMO AT ORVIETO Botticelli's illustrations. Botticelli a student of Dante ; said to have painted and illustrated a Dante on parchment for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici. The general character of Botticelli's Dante illustrations. Diversity of types. Only ten of Botticelli's portraits, or thereabouts, can be called Dantesque. The sources. Botticelli at his best approaches Giotto and Michelino. Botticelli and Boccaccio. Botticelli and Orcagna. Dante in the Commedia of 1 48 1. Signorelli's Dante — the individual portrait and the tondi at Orvieto Pages 187-194 XXI RAFFAEL'S DANTE Why the biographies of RafFael are bulky. Raffael almost as shadowy a figure as Giotto. RafFael at Florence. He goes to Rome. The Stanze. His portraits of old and modern celebrities. The Camera della Segnatura a Hall of Fame and a Pantheon. RafFael's youthfulness ; his education ; his counsellors ; his veneration of xiv CONTENTS Dante. Dante in the Disputa. Dante in the Parnassus. The poetic band. Dante on Parnassus and Dante among the great spirits in his own vision. RafFael's source alleged to have been the Torrigiani mask. His possible acquaintance with the Naples bust. Raffael's significant colours. The Disputa and Giotto's Paradise in the Maddalena Chapel. The probable intention of Raffael in portraying Dante, and the three RafFael Dante types. The Albertina Dante and other preliminary sketches. Raffael's three portraits the product of learning as well as of artistic skill. Their historical value is wholly subordinate to that of the portrait by Giotto. Miscellaneous notes on Raffael and other painters, &c. Pages 195-203 APPENDICES I. The Marchese Torrigiani's statement concerning the Torrigiani mask of Dante. II. Note on the life and character of Seymour Kirkup and on his credibility as a witness. III. Note on the life and character of Antonio Marini. IV. The Maddalena Chapel according to a description made in 1865 by Luigi Passerini and Gaetano Milanesi. V. Note on the present condition of the frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel. VI. Final note on the Arundel print. VII. On the colour of Dante's hair Pages 207-18 A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF OTHER SUPPOSED LIKENESSES, ANCIENT AND MODERN Miscellaneous observations ; Portraits in manuscripts. Portraits in printed books. Free portrayals of Dante on plane surfaces. Plastic portraits Pages 219-243 BIBLIOGRAPHY Pages 245-252 INDEX Pages 253—263 XV ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES IN COLOUR Miniature in a copy of Landino's Commedia (Biblioteca Magliabechiana, Florence) cf. Text, page 191 Frontispiece Facing page Miniature in Illuminated MS. 1040 (Riccardiana Library, Florence) 66 Dante, from Giotto's Fresco in the Bargello, From the re- production published by the Arundel Society in 1859 76 Kirkup's Sketch of the Giotto Fresco, from his copy of the Convivio (now in the Museum of Historical Art,Florence) 90 Dante, after Andrea dal Castagno (Museo di Sant' Apollonia, Florence) 172 Dante and his Book, after Domenico di Michelino (The Duomo, Florence) 176 Dante^ after Luca Signorelli (The Duomo, Orvieto) 192 The Poets on Mount Parnassus, after RafFael (The Vatican, Rome) 194 PLATE IN PHOTOGRAVURE Medal, supposedly Florentine, late 15th or early i6th century TitU-page PLATES IN LINE Page Woodcut in the Giolito Commedia, Venice, 1555 6 An alleged Dante, attributed to Lucas van Leyden 7 Woodcuts in the Amoroso Convivio of 1521 and the Commedia of 1529 9 xvii ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES IN HALF-TONE Facing page The Profile sketch of Dante once ascribed to Domenico Ghirlandajo (Munich) lo A Drawing signed ' Luca Signorelli ' and marked ' Dante ' (Berlin) lo The Torrigiani Mask, front face, with frame (Bargello, Florence) 38 Comparative Views of the Torrigiani Mask (right and left profiles), and the Naples Bust (right profile) 46 Dante's Tomb, interior (Ravenna) 54 Lombardi's Low-Relief (from the Tomb, Ravenna) 56 Comparative Views of the Naples Bust (three-quarter front face, inclined), the Torrigiani Mask (three-quarter front face, inclined), and the Michelino Dante 58 The Palatine Miniature {Codex Palatinus 320) 68 Comparative Views of the Palatine Miniature, the Naples Bust (right profile, reversed), and the Riccardian Miniature (reversed) 70 Comparative Views of Kirkup's Tracing, the Torrigiani Mask (left profile), and the Riccardian Miniature (reversed) 82 Comparative Views of Kirkup's Tracing, the Palatine Miniature, and Faltoni's Drawing 86 Comparative Views of Kirkup's Tracing, the Arundel Print, and Marini's Restoration 98 Faltoni's Dante, from the fresco by Giotto in the Bargello (Berlin) 102 The Fresco of Paradise, after Giotto (Cappella Sta. Maria Maddalena, The Bargello, Florence) 104 The Allegory of Chastity, after Giotto (Lower Church, Assisi) 126 Dante with his Fellow Poets, after Vasari (Senior Common Room, Oriel College, Oxford) 154 Engraving after Vasari's portrait group, in the Galeries du Palais Royal 156 Supposed Dante in the Allegory of the Catholic Church (Spanish Chapel, Sta. Maria Novella, Florence) 158 xviii ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Supposed figure of Dante in the Last Judgement, by Andrea or Nardo Orcagna (Strozzi Chapel, Sta. Maria Novella, Florence) 1 62 Supposed figure of Dante by Ambrogio Lorenzetti {La Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena) 166 The Danti Antjgerio, by an unknown Italian painter (Louvre) 168 Supposed Dante, by an unknown painter (Museo Civico, Pisa) 168 Comparative Views of the Tofanelli-Morghen Dante and the Yale Dante 182 Comparative Views of the Yale Dante and the Uffizi Oil Painting 184 Botticelli's Illustrations to the Dknna Commed'ia (Berlin) — Inferno xxvi., Purgatorio, xviii., Paradiso, xxiii. 186 The same — Paradiso, v. 188 The same — Paradiso, iii., xxviii. 190 Sepia Sketch by Raffael (Albertina Library, Vienna) 196 Comparative Views of the Albertina Sketch (reversed), Kirkup's Tracing, and Dante from RafFael's Parnassus (reversed) 198 The '■Dispute' of the Sacrament, after RafFael (The Vatican, Rome) 200 Comparative Views of Kirkup's Tracing, the Disputa Dante, and the Naples Bust (right profile, reversed) 202 \The Naples Bust is reproduced from a photograph by Sommer i^ FigUo, and not {as stated on the Plate facing page yd) from a photograph by Alinari. The Albertina Sketch is reproduced from a photograph by A. Braun & Co."] XIX PORTRAITS OF DANTE PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS The documentary value of old portraits. The multitude of stock figures, fanciful likenesses, and frauds. The problem of authenticity. What evidence is required. Impressionism versus investigation. The criterion of style. The method followed in this book. Old facts and new. The points here at issue. Limitation of the research to a period ending about 15 12 with RafFael. Why later portraits are here examined. The order of exposition. The Giolito Dante. Lucas van Leyden's Dante. A Dante by Ghirlandajo ? Convivio Dante of 1521. Dante of 1529. Frequent inaccuracy of copies. Portraits in early printed editions, and their value. The illustrated MSS. Dante's interest in the art of illumination. Miniature portraits. The Dante type. Macaulay's generalisation WHEN a man's portrait has been painted it not infre- quently happens that he invites various persons to say whether they regard it as a likeness. As the man himself is still alive, the artist has not been obliged to invent even one feature, but has had many opportunities to study his subject and to catch, not some fleeting expression, but an every-day look, a familiar pose, something that seems to him characteristic, genuine, true to life. The circumstances in which the work was done are well known ; there can therefore be no doubt as to age and authenticity, and, if the artist's intention is not obvious, it may be ascertained. What, now, is the character of the views expressed ? One acquaintance sees ' no resemblance,' another is lukewarm, a third declares the resemblance ' perfect.' As for the person portrayed, he does not commit himself, and the artist main- tains a discreet though confident silence as to his own work. If, now, a good many years later, each of our three critics relates his A I PORTRAITS OF DANTE impression to a fourth person who has never seen the subject — that is, the artist's living source — but only the painting, this fourth person faces not a contemporary situation but an historical problem. What he can do, all he can do, is to weigh the opinions of his witnesses in the light of his knowledge of their powers of judg- ment and their veracity, testing both these by any other facts and statements he may discover, from whatever source they may be derived outside his own imagination. Our fourth person is not a witness but an inquirer and judge, whom we will suppose eager to establish the truth by means of the evidence he has in hand. Such is the present case. By purely historical methods, into whatsoever fields of inquiry they may lead us, we shall attempt to ascertain everything that can be ascertained with regard to the older portraits of Dante. If our results are worth anything, they will show us at least what is best ; we shall either draw a little nearer to the living man, or find that serious investigation makes every existing image join that immense horde of imaginary likenesses with which the artists and artisans of various periods have been willing to gratify the curiosity of hero- worshippers at the latters' expense. If competent witnesses had only survived, they would unquestionably be able to make disclosures which would startle the greatest experts, and set some of the most firmlv established pundits to revising statements hardly less dear to them than life itself.* * All portraits can be divided historically into two classes : (l) those done from life, whether well done or not, with all obvious copies ; (2) those done with the help of fancy, whether wholly fanciful or not. The second class includes many works fabri- cated with no intention to beguile or defraud, and all those made with such an intention. To this class belong all portraits of early medieval celebrities, and perhaps the majority of those alleged, or commonly supposed, to represent celebrities (and especially literary celebrities) who flourished between Dante's boyhood and the very end of the Renaissance — one might almost add, to the rise of photography, though even photographs can easily be made to lie. No end of illuminated MSS. and old books are embellished with false portraits of their real or supposed authors, and this holds true of separate paintings, engravings, &c. The less sceptical biographers of our most famous poet have wondered at the masklike stiffness and false proportions of the Droeshout engraving which ' B.I.' so skilfully plays with in the Folio of 1623. How, they ask, came our Shakespeare to have such a face ? And why, ask others, more sceptical, should this Droeshout engrav- ing bear no resemblance to the original bust on ' thy Stratford moniment,' seen about 1636 by Sir William Dugdale, and reproduced in his History of the Antiquities of IVarwickshire ? For a good answer see Mr. W. S. Booth's illustrated pamphlet, The Droeshout Portrait of William Shakespeare: an Experiment in Identification. Boston, 1911. This work shows how the genesis of a portrait can be scientifically demonstrated. 2 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS If competent witnesses had survived — and by ' competent wit- nesses ' I mean accurate observers, endowed with a strong memory, as well as with a compelling desire to tell the truth and nothing but the truth — it would be both entertaining and important to take their testimony as to many portraits which are regarded with interest or even with veneration. Could this be done, how many problems would melt away, leaving only the truth, or nothing ! How many riddles would be solved, and how many portraits would fail to stand the test ! Not the test of absolute likeness ; for what is that but the fancy of one who cannot tell the difference between paint and flesh, between movement and rest, between an image, in short, and a thing that breathes, changes expression, colour, attitude, and grows a little older from moment to moment ? — but, let us say, the test of unhesitating recognition, and therefore of authenticity, even though the witness's opinion might involve certain mental reserves, demurrals as to details, or other phases of disapprobation. What, I wonder, would become of a thousand celebrities whose person- alities seem to have been brought so close to us by the many artists who have ever been ready to gratify our desire to look upon the man himself, so to speak, and enable us to exclaim with all the joyful belief of Dante's pilgrim as he gazed upon the Veronica : * Or fu si fatta la sembianza vostra ? ' Or fu si fatta la sembianza vostra .«* How, indeed, did Dante look ? And how have his looks been perpetuated ? We are now squarely confronted by the inquiry as to what is spurious and what has claims to authenticity of some sort in the case of Dante, and, if we would clarify or solve a problem of this nature, there is only one sound method. That method is historical; it requires written documents at the very start, and never leaves them out of consideration. Quite recently a well-known art critic expressed the opinion that the fresco of Paradise in the Bargello at Florence, ' with the famous portrait said to be of Dante,' might be by Giotto ; as for the rest of the frescoes, they were too far gone to enable him to judge, though the little that remained showed clearly that Giotto had no hand in them. Why are we thus asked to accept an unsupported credo ? The authorship of this Paradise need not be guessed at ; as for the ' famous portrait said to be of 3 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Dante,' that, in reality, is only a caricature which the restorer Marini ] painted over the original portrait in 1841. By habitually regarding their own opinions as evidence most critics of the impressionistic school never acquire that impersonal tone which is sought by serious men of letters when dealing with questions of fact, and by all true scientists. Those writers who rely upon style as an adequate criterion for determining authorship rely upon their personal impressions ; their impressions vary ac- cording to their personality, and that is why they so commonly disagree when a respect for genuine evidence might either lead to the truth or demonstrate that the truth cannot be ascertained. Not that ' style ' — however mysterious and delusive — is utterly worthless as evidence ; for often two styles are as distinctly different as night and day ; but how are we to tell the right author's name with no other evidence ? And who is always wise enough to know that he is not being deceived by an ancient imitation or by a modern fraud ? How many pitfalls lie in the way of the impressionist will be shown abundantly in this book. Opposed to impressionism is historical method ; that is what I have here endeavoured to apply rigorously to the case of Dante. I have tried to present without bias all relevant evidence and to state my conclusions, never dis- guising a conjecture as a fact. The word doubtless, and all its mis- leading synonyms, so useful to those who, to disguise their surmises or to tell a more artistic story, feel bound to fill all the gaps between truth and truth, are therefore excluded, and every reader shall be free to make his own deductions. The problems discussed in the following pages are by no means new ; some of them have existed at least ever since Dante's death. But the evidence has never before been completely presented by any one author, nor by all together, and it has often been presented with so many errors and omissions as to befog what otherwise might have been clear and convincing. The reader of this book will not have to examine many pages to discover wherein they agree, and how much they disagree, with what has been written by my pre- decessors.* He will soon discover what is old and what is new, what has long been known and what is recent, or presented here * My obligations are specifically recorded in my text, notes, and Bibliography. Many cross-references to sources, &c., are given in particularly important cases, but the reader can make further comparisons by consulting the Index. 4 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS for the first time in a particular light. To have discovered any- thing really fresh is worth while, but it is also worth while to have stated all the evidence and every plausible argument bearing on the case in hand. That case — let me say once more — is to be treated as a purely historical problem ; we shall attempt to discover \ what the oldest authorities actually said and really meant by their statements about Dante's looks, and we shall consider all the oldest portraits, from Giotto's to Raffael's, with the one main purpose ot showing to what extent they can be trusted and what place they 1 properly hold in Dante iconography. The chief points at issue are their age, their authorship, and their value as iconographic documents. Incidentally, they will teach us something about Dante's fame, to which they are an important tribute. The period to be studied begins with Giotto and ends with Raffael. Thus we cover a period of about two hundred and twenty years, and consider every portrait that for some reason commands attention. Were we to examine all portraits the task would be endless and largely futile ; for even before Raffael's time there existed many fanciful portraits of Dante, portraits so remote from any credible representation or tradition that it would be mere pedantry to include them in this research. The truth is diluted and transformed by tradition, hence Giotto's i authority is worth more than Raffael's ; yet sometimes later works \ contain features which shed light upon older works or may even ' lead back to originals no longer known. That is one reason for not beginning and ending with Giotto. But it is also important to demonstrate, whenever possible, whether certain portraits which have been admired as independent likenesses of Dante are in reality anything more than copies or adaptations of known portraits with which they have never been carefully compared. Without having first investigated every clue, who can tell whether Raffael, for example, painted a fanciful Dante, or followed some model still extant, or a model now lost ? And who can be sure that the Torrigiani ' death-mask,* so long and so often proclaimed to be a true likeness of Dante's countenance, is not a fraud ? I might have proceeded even beyond Raffael, but with him and those before his time it seems to me that the inquiry will be thorough enough.* * Those who wish to go further may find sufficient data in the * Descriptive Catalogue of other supposed likenesses, ancient and modern,' following chap. xxi. 5 PORTRAITS OF DANTE If, now, we begin this inquiry not with Giotto, but reach him through things nearer to ourselves, then deal with more modern facts, the whole question, as I have discovered by the hard test of trying various methods, will be made clearer, and yet nothing de- pendent upon a chronological sequence need fall in an improper place. For me Giotto is the keystone ; remove him and everything else would become less secure. * V w ?ie V ^l^ A few portraits which do not fall within the scope of this book are for one reason or another worthy of at least a mention. Here, for example, is a medallion, evidently old, round which are the words ' Danthe II Divino Poeta.' The head is wreathed with laurel and the bust is clad in a toga whose many folds are gathered over the shoulder and fastened with a fibula, or clasp. This figure is prefixed to the rare and attractive Giolito edition of the Commedia (Venice, 1555). ' The resemblance it bears to Giotto's famous fresco, re- cently discovered on the walls of the old Bargello at Florence, is very striking.' So writes the Rev. James Ford in the preface to his translation of the Inferno (1865).* This writer says, not, ' Here is a portrait which strikingly re- sembles Dante ' — the final standard, and once living source — but in effect : ' This portrait strikingly resembles another and more authorita- tive portrait.'' The question which he raises is not historical, but * Pp. xvi.-xvii. (Ford reproduces the engraving of the Giolito edition). fONETTO DEL BOCCACCIO ■ IN LODE DI DANX.E. Dante Aligieri Ton , Mincrua orcora D'mtcIHgeDsa e d'artc ; eel cui higcgno L'cle^anza matcrha aggiimflr al frgno , Che li lien gran miracol di natura . L'aira mia fanialia {tronra e Ccura Parso il Taaareo , t pofl crlede regno E'l nobil mio uolumc feci drgno Pi icmporal c rpiriial leciura . Tierrnza gloriofa hcbbi |)«r madre ; /nzi tnatrigna , a mc pieiofo figlio , Colpa di Ijnguc Tcrlcratt e ladre . Kaurona fu mi' albcrgo ocl mio rfiglio ; F.t rlla ha il eorpo , c I'alma il rommo paJre , PtciTo cu' isuidia noo umce configlio . The Giolito Portrait PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS impressionistic, and can be discussed only upon that basis, though quasi-scientific methods (such, for example, as reducing the profiles to exactly the same size in order that one might be superimposed upon the other and that both faces might thus be easily compared) would help to form the impression. Removed from its setting, and stripped of its inscription, this engraving might pass without question for a portrait of some Roman emperor, and not be even An alleged Dante, attributed to Lucas van Leyden suspected of resembling Giotto's fresco in the Bargello. The test / would be easy to make. About 1823 Michelangelo Bovio of Verona owned a panel which he and Filippo Scolari believed to have been painted in 1518 by Lucas van Leyden, who, it was alleged, had intended it to represent Dante weeping at the news of the death of Henry VII. Whatever it may have been intended to represent, this nameless caricature need not arrest our attention, though a reproduction of it may prove what a given person could believe in 1823.* * The panel (oil) had previously belonged to Ascanio Molin of Venice. Its present 7 PORTRAITS OF DANTE In the Print Room of the Museum at Munich is a profile sketch, apparently of Dante, which came from the collection of Thomas Lawrence, its earlier history being wholly unknown.* Formerly this portrait was attributed to Masaccio (1401-1428), but in 1869 Prof. Ernst Forster ascribed it to Domenico Ghirlandajo (1449- 1494). Though fully aware of the hazardousness of attempts to determine the authorship of anonymous drawings by stylistic criteria, Forster believed that certain points could be established positively and negatively.-f- He declared this drawing to be un- questionably an original work by a fifteenth-century Florentine. Masaccio he could not accept, but would propose Domenico Ghirlandajo. He believed it to have been made ' after ' the death- mask, to which we shall come, and declared it was not an ' inven- tion.' A pure invention it probably is not, for the countenance is more or less Dantesque, and we may perhaps agree with Kraus that it is artistically akin to the Torrigiani mask (Forster's opinion), and to the Naples bust, a work which we shall study in its turn. ' Ghirlandajo's authorship,' says Kraus, ' I will not venture either to affirm or to deny.' J The rare edition of Dante's Amoroso Convivio published at Venice in 1521 has as its frontispiece a profile portrait of Dante, engraved on wood, I think, though not a few of the ' woodcuts ' of that period were really made from metal plates. Here, in the style of those days, the portrait has for its background a distant landscape — a plain traversed by a river, with a few houses far away, and behind them a low mountain. The laurel wreath, arranged without whereabouts I do not know. The reproduction here offered is taken from Delia plena e giusta intelligenxa della D'lvina Commedia : Ragtonamento, Padua, 1823. * Here reproduced from a photograph sent to me by Dr. Pallmann, Direktor der Kgl. Bayerisch. Graphischen Sammlung, Munich, to whom I owe the above statement as to Thomas Lawrence. t ' Zum Titelbilde.' Jahrbuch der Deutschen Dante-Gesellschaft for 1869, vol. ii., pp. vii.-viii. The reproduction therein offered as a frontispiece is said by Forster to be about half life-size. It measures 5.1 cm. from highest point of forehead to lowest point in nether line of chin — about 7.8 cm. total height. As for Masaccio, Melchior Missirini declared in 1830 that he painted a full-length portrait of Dante in one of the personages in the ' Martyrdom of St. Peter,' in the magnificent chapel of the Carmine, and, adds Missirini, ' besides having arrayed Dante in his costume as Prior, the skilful painter has imparted such authority to him that it seems as if the bystanders [in the picture], interrogating Dante's wisdom, thereby manifested their desire to acquiesce in his judgment.* Delle Memorie di Dante in Firenze, 1 830, p. 16. X Dante: sein Leben und sein IVerk, Berlin. 1S97, pp. 187-8. 8 S e « >^ o fib ^ o e c O 4^ •a c u IN N 6 c Q PORTRAITS OF DANTE dignity or grace, tends only to accentuate the crapulous expression of this face. The eyelid droops heavily over an eye which, like itself, is far too large and badly drawn. The mouth is sour ; the nose is aquiline, but falls in slightly, as if it had been broken, near the tip. The forehead recedes ; but the chin protrudes and the jaw is true to Boccaccio's description, though there is no droop or protrusion to the lower lip. The chest is abnormally full, not corpulent but distended, like that in the miniature in the Codice Palatino 320, to which this portrait is anatomically closely akin, though its precise source, if it had one, is not known. A bad copyist might have made this engraving either from the miniature in the MS. just named, or from that in the Codice Riccardiano 1040 ; in either case we should have to regard it as an adaptation.* Illustrations intended to embellish, and perhaps in some measure to explain, the printed text of the Commedia are to be found in the edition published, with Landino's commentary, at Florence in 148 1; ; but not until forty-eight years later (1529) did any engraver succeed j in supplying the Commedia with a portrait of Dante in conformity with what we must regard as the most trustworthy traditions. In | 1529 appeared the eleventh edition of Landino's text and com-; mentary of the Commedia. The large and relatively well-executed frontispiece of this volume is a woodcut of Dante -f- looking to our right (face inward), whereas the engraver of 1521 put his Dante under the title. Both these editions were published at Venice, and a . comparison of the two cuts indicates that the engraver of 1529 may i have followed to some extent the engraving of 1521 ; for they have I in common the laurel wreath, the abnormally protruding breast, the costume, particularly the earflaps, and, more vaguely similar, the whole profile, including the throat, and various lines of the face. The history of engraving affords for that and later periods many examples of works which can be demonstrated to be copies, yet are less exact ; the early engravings supposed or intended to repre- * ' The earliest engraved portrait of Dante in this [Cornell University] collection is a woodcut on the title-page of the 1521 edition of the Convito. It is characterised by strength of profile and [by] the introduction of landscape for a background. Similar in general outline is the inferior woodcut on the title-page of the 1529 edition of the Convito, but here Dante wears the vair tippet of a doctor of divinity.' Cornell Dante Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 583. The 1521 woodcut is twice reproduced in G. L. Passerini's pamphlet, Pel Ritratto di Dante, Florence, 1903. t Reproduced by G. L. Passerini, op. cit. p. 16. 10 ; \ . :.'^.- i ' -:■' ('-■~/ ^p^. t; V ' ,1 p:i V . . .^ws^?sS?^^^^^^^^H F^..'. „. , fSB.,! O z •. 7 f- :5 < < ts u a •-■ s - z 2! o z o . r- < Z C < Z S2 w =; o u. Q O « M S H ■ PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS sent John Milton show how widely mere copies may vary, and Italian engravers do not differ in this respect from those of other nations. Yet this cut has a feature worth noting — the protruding lower lip. 1 ' Raffael, it seems, had so represented Dante in his Disputa, painted ' between 1508 and 15 11, but the Commedia of 1529 is the earliest known printed book wherein it occurs in a cut. This feature is noted by Boccaccio, and Boccaccio's description of Dante's physi- cal attributes was adopted almost word for word by Landino in the preface to those earlier editions of which this is largely a copy. Possibly the engraver of 1529 had studied the Dante of the Z)z>/>«/d'/ it is far more likely that he had read the preface of the book which he was to supply with a portrait of its author.* Probably he then did his best to combine this detail with the features of the older woodcut, which offered him so convenient a portrait of Dante. Dante's face, his bust, and sometimes his whole figure, can be seen in other printed editions of his various works ; but if those portraits of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries about whose origin something is known, or which tally more or less closely with one another or with Boccaccio's description, have any authority — and we shall see that they have — then none of these engravings, whether they occur in the oldest, or in more recent editions of Dante's works, or in books about him, or elsewhere, is entitled to be ranked high among the evidences that really concern our case. They all came into existence some two centuries or more after Dante's death, and though one or two of them may be discovered some day to reproduce an ancient portrait now lost, we have at present no tes- timony as to the origin of even one. It is obvious that every known engraving of Dante must be either fanciful, or a mere copy, whether derived from a known source or from a model now lost. A complete collection would only illustrate how various engravers, • In a copy at Harvard University this woodcut measures 25.1 cent, in height by 16.5 in width over all. In the edition of 1596 (Venice) this cut is supplanted by another, differently and more skilfully drawn. Landino's Fita e costumi del poeta, borrowed from Boccaccio, appeared in his preface in 1481 and was reproduced in ten or more later editions till 1596. * C. Landino (1424-1504) premise questa vita alia ediz. della Div. Com., Firenze, Nicolo della Magna, 1481, che fu successivamente riprodotta una dozzina di volte fino al 1596.* I owe this quotation from Solerti's Vite dt Dante, &c., to Miss Mary Fowler, Curator of the Fiske Italian collections at Cornell University. For having enabled me to secure new photographs of various woodcuts, &c., in the original editions here mentioned, I am indebted to the courtesy of the Head Librarian, Mr. G. W. Harris. II PORTRAITS OF DANTE since 1481, approximately, have re-imagined and reshaped, or have simply copied, older portraits — when they have not relied wholly upon the powers of imagination. From a purely esthetic point of view the old illustrations of the Poet's journey through the afterworld are mostly valueless. Far from portraying a Dante, they do not even portray a truly interest- ing personality of any sort. Iconographically the early editions ot the Commedia (the other works were seldom illustrated) are below the level of many other popular or costly works printed between 1500, or thereabouts, and 1600, in Italy as well as in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and England.* From printed books with their engravings we may turn to the manuscripts with miniatures and other illuminations. Of the Com- media alone not less than eight hundred copies on parchment or on paper are preserved in European libraries and museums.-f' Of these a few are known to have been made within ten or fifteen years after Dante's death (i 32 1), but most of them came into existence between 1350 and 1500, and, according to the estimate of Kraus, not more ' than a tenth contain illustrations. How much is it to be regretted that, so far as is known, no great painter contemporary with Dante set himself the task of illuminating Dante's poem ! We know that the Poet was interested in this art ; for, on meeting Oderisid'Agobbio in Purgatory (and despite Dante's surprise we may be sure this meeting was in his plan), he addresses that worthy in such a way that his own knowledge of contemporary art, the art of illuminating manuscripts, is shrewdly revealed : ' Oh,' diss'io lui, ' non se' tu Oderisi, L'onor d'Agobbio, e I'onor di quell'arte Che alluminare chiamata e in Parisi ? ' * Frate,' diss'egli, ' piu ridon le carte Che pennelleggia Franco Bolognese : L'onore e tutto or suo, e mio in parte.' ' Oh ! ' I exclaim'd, ' Art thou not Oderigi ? art not thou * See F. X. Kraus, Dante : sein Leben und sein fTeri, Berlin, 1 897, ' Die Buchillus- tration der Commedia,' pp. 595-606. t Kraus, op. cit. p. 560, says 800 MSS ; so also Ludwig Volkmann. 12 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS Agobbio's glory, glory of that art Which they of Paris call the limner's skill ? * * Brother ! * said he, ' with tints, that gayer smile, Bolognian Franco's pencil lines the leaves. His all the honour now; my light obscured.'* Although French miniaturists had begun even before Dante's death (1321) to excel in realistic portraiture, all the earliest illustrations to the Conimedia thus far made known are both clumsy and fantastic. For example, a typical miniature in the MS. designated XX^. by Auvray, shows us Dante's desperate meeting with the Three Beasts, and in the background of this same miniature we see him speaking to a bearded and hoary Virgil ; but the nearer figure is wholly untrue to the best traditions and the other has only the large nose of later iconography.-f* This vague miniature is assigned to the end of the fourteenth century. About 1440 another miniaturist attempted to illustrate seventy-one scenes of the Inferno. His Dante is a man of thirty-five or forty years, clean-shaven, with a hard, tense, wrinkled, and wholly insignificant face of no particular Dantesque type. The source of these pictures, if it was not the artist's imagination, is * Purg., xi. 79-84. Gary's translation. t See F. X. Kraus, ' Die Illustration der Commedia : illustrirte Handschriften,' pp. 558-94. of Dante : setn Leben und sein Werk ; for this reference i?^ p. 562. See also Volkmann's Iconografia Dantesca, p. 37, and Lucien Auvray, Les Manuscrits de Dante des Bibliotheques de France, especially pp. 34, 41, 53-4, 58, 77, 79, 85, 1 19-26, 129, 132, 135-6, where the Ornementation of these various MSS., many of them containing portraits of Dante, is described. See furthermore Colomb de Batines, Bibliografia Dantesca {passim), and my ' Descriptive Catalogue ' [ad init.). With regard to two illustrated MSS. at the British Museum, designated respectively Egcrton 943 and Addit. 19,587, once supposed to be contemporary with Dante, Mr. J. A. Herbert obligingly wrote to me as follows : ' I have no doubt . . . that Egerton 943 belongs to the 2nd half of the 14th cent. ; and Add. 19,587 belongs in my opinion not only to the 2nd half, but to a late period in that 2nd half. . . .' The coarse miniatures in Egerton 943 are all in gold and colours. ' There is hardly any variation in the facial types, which are mostly of a repulsive ugliness ; so that though Dante may be said to have the same face always, so many other faces have it too that it cannot be regarded as having any iconographical significance or value. . . . Add. 19,587 has far greater artistic value. Its illustrations . . . are mostly in tinted outline. There is a distinct and well-preserved type for Dante, but it is probably imaginative : at all events, it is clearly not copied from any of the " characteristic " portraits which you name.' The opinion here expressed could be applied with but lew changes to many other MSS. containing alleged portraits of Dante. See my ' Descriptive Catalogue.' 13 PORTRAITS OF DANTE unknown, and they shed absolutely no light upon the problem with which we are concerned.* We might scrutinise many other manu- scripts, but in only two should we find the man we are seeking. We cannot welcome Dantes with pudgy expressionless faces, Dantes with a feeble jaw and receding chin, Dantes in feminine form with feminine faces. Protean Dantes ever assuming new yet never Dantesque shapes, Dantes which may originally have had positive identifying characteristics but which have faded beyond recognition or suffered disastrous mutilation. In a word, we must reject all portraits or portrayals which are faithless to the oldest and best tradi- tions that Giotto, Boccaccio, and other early painters and writers established to gratify the curiosity of others or to betoken their own interest in Dante's features, and (I might say) to guide us in our search. The real Dante, old or young — Com a sua vita fu di came cinto — we shall never see ; yet careful study will perhaps enable us to discover truth in the oldest portraits and to restore some of Dante's genuine features — the iiere fattezze — where they may have been disfigured or lost. The task is not unlike that of restoring the * original text ' of some old poem preserved only in faulty, moder- nised, or mutilated manuscripts. Fortunately the evidence is not meagre, if we bear in mind that Dante was neither a prince nor a prelate, but that during all the years of his fame he lived in exile, dependent in large measure, if not wholly, upon the bounty of various patrons. Yet Dante's ' true features,' if we can trust sincere evi- dence, were painted by the greatest artist of. his time. However inaccurate the portrait may be, it would be difficult to cite a parallel case of so early a date.-j- For of those medieval men who were great thinkers or great writers, without high rank in worldly matters, but few portraits (and those mostly fanciful) have come down to us ; medieval artists were more inclined to paint imaginary pictures of a religious sort, or to make portraits of wealthy personages who exer- cised worldly power. From these facts and reflections I turn to a statement by a writer whose brilliancy is seldom dimmed by those fogs in which the truth * See Camille Morel, Une Illustration de FEnfer de Dante ; LXXI miniatures du XV' siecle, Paris, 1896. The source is 'Ms. 2017 fonds italien,' at the Bibliotheque Nationale. The reproductions are not in colour. t 'Of all the portraits of the revival of art, there is none comparable in interest to this likeness of the supreme poet by the supreme artist of medieval Europe.' C. E. Norton, On the Original Portraits of Dante, 1865. H PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS is so often wrapped. Macaulay's ' Essay on Milton,' first published in 1825, contains these words on Dante: 'The gloom of his cha- racter discolours all the passions of men, and all the face of nature, and tinges with its own livid hue the flowers of Paradise and the glories of the eternal throne. All the portraits of him are singularly characteristic. No person can look on the features, noble even to ruggedness, the dark furrows of the cheek, the haggard and woeful stare of the eye, the sullen and contemptuous curve of the lip, and doubt that they belong to a man too proud and too sensitive to be happy.' Somewhere in his brilliant ' Evenings with a Reviewer ' Spedding observes that Macaulay attains a maximum of effect with a minimum of veracity. Spedding means habitually ; we shall see that his general estimate fits the present case. IS II THE WRITTEN SOURCES Boccaccio's testimony as to Dante's looks (about 1311-1321). Its worth. Dante describes himself? His tendency to stoop ; his self-neglect. Did Dante wear a beard ? Hypothesis of Dr. Krauss, and vague comment by Pietro di Dante. The colour of Dante's hair ; blond hair favoured in medieval times. Petrarca's delusive allusion to himself. Bruni's statements. Dante's bearing. He grew austere and disdainful. Giovanni Villani's statement. An impression Dante made, as recorded by himself. His apparel DANTE died at Ravenna in September 1321. About 1363 or 1364* Giovanni Boccaccio composed the first life of Dante in which his aspect is described. Boccaccio says : ' Our poet was of middle height, and in his later years he walked somewhat bent over, with a grave and gentle gait. He was clad always in most seemly attire, such as befitted his ripe years. His face was long, his nose aquiline, and his eyes rather big than small. His jaws were large, and his lower lip protruded. His complexion was dark, his hair and beard thick, black and curly, and his expression ever melancholy and thoughtful. And thus it happened one day in Verona, when the fame of his works had spread everywhere, and especially that part of his Commedia entitled the Inferno, and when he was known by sight to many . . . that as he was passing before a doorway where * Vita di Dante, edited by Macrl-Leone, Florence, 1888 ; see chap. vi. of this excellent edition ('Data della composizione della Fita'), especially pp. Ixxxiii.-lxxxix. The date 1363-4 is not absolutely certain. The English here oflfered is my own ; for other translations see J. R. Smith's The Earliest Lives of Dante, New York, 1904, and P. H. Wicksteed's Early Lives of Dante, London, 1904, pp. 53-54. The description of Dante in the Compendio, now believed by M. Barbi and others [Vita Nuova, ed. 1907, p. clxxv.) to be a revision by Boccaccio himself of his more extravagant Vita, is to all intents and purposes identical with that in the Vita. In the Compendio Dante is described merely as nelle spalle alquanto curvo, without mention of his age. See E. Rostagno's edition, Bologna, 1899, p. 33, § i6. 16 BOCCACCIO'S TESTIMONY several women were sitting, one of them said softly to the others, yet not so softly but that she was heard by him and by whoever was with him : " Do you see the man who visits Hell and comes back when he pleases, bringing news up here of those who are below ? " And one of the others naively answered : " Yes, you must be right. Don't you see how his beard is crisped from the heat and smoke down there ? " Hearing these words spoken behind him and knowing that they came of genuine belief, and being almost glad they held such an opinion, he [Dante] passed on.' * More suo, Boccaccio cannot resist the temptation to amplify his description with an anecdote (which, I may say in parenthesis, smacks of legend); yet that is no reason for supposing the rest untrue. On the contrary, we have valid grounds for believing this all too i brief description to be an accurate report of what Boccaccio could ' have heard from the lips of persons who had seen Dante in Verona, ' Ravenna, or elsewhere, between his exile and his death (1302-13 21). To be more precise, Boccaccio visited Ravenna in 1346 and 1353, | and there he appears to have interviewed a certain Ser Pier Giardino, j a notary whose existence has been doubted, though his name occurs in no less than thirteen documents. Pier Giardino had begun to ply his trade as early as May 18, 1 3 1 1 , and is variously recorded till 1 348 ; in 1 35 1 he had apparently ceased to live. From this man, who must ; many times have seen Dante, Boccaccio could have heard how Dante | looked ; but he could have conversed also with other persons who ' had seen or been acquainted with Dante. What we know of Boccaccio's character does not indicate that he could have been a mute incurious pilgrim in the city where his hero had passed from fame to immortality. His own words say clearly that Boccaccio was ; really eager to hear how Dante looked: witness his allusions to Ser 1 Dino Perini and, more striking still, to Andrea Poggi, ' from whom,' writes Boccaccio, ' having become very familiar with him, I often heard about the customs and ways of Dante.' -f- Why, then, should Boccaccio have described a fantastic Dante? And is it likely that he would have offered an erroneous description to his readers when the oldest of them could have said, ' Messer * f^ita, § 8 (' Fattezze usanze e costumi di Dante '), p. 43. t 5^^ Ricci, L' Ultima Rifugio di Danti J/ig/iieri, Milan, 1 89 1, pp. 209-17, and Macrl-Leone's introduction to his edition of Boccaccio's Hta, pp. cv.-cvi. ; also the Vita itself, § 14. B 17 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Giovanni, your words about Dante's looks are not true, for I saw Dante with my own eyes more than once' Or, ' From what my father once told me, I think that your account of Dante's features cannot be correct.' Not only is this to be borne in mind, but let me add that the little evidence supplied by the discovery of Dante's bones (i 865) in no wise invalidates Boccaccio's statement, but proves that Dante was indeed of middle height. Furthermore, Boccaccio's assertion that Dante had large jaws and an aquiline nose is borne out by the Bargello portrait; and this corroboration is worth something, for though Boccaccio may often have seen Giotto's fresco, he nowhere mentions it, and his description is obviously derived from another source.* Again, in his Comento, a series of lectures on the Commedta delivered at the church of S. Stefano della Badia in Florence in 1373, Boccaccio remarks on Andrea di Leone Poggi, a nephew of Dante, that the lines of his face were wonderfully like Dante's, also his stature, 'and he walked with a slight stoop, as Dante is said to have done.' -^ This attitude, which I take to have been characteristic of Dante's later years, is perhaps corroborated by the poet's description of himself in the Purgdtorio (xix. 40-42) : Seguendo lui [Virgilio] portava la mia fronte Come colui che I'ha di pensier carca, Che fa di se un mezzo arco di ponte. I followed, stooping low My forehead, as a man, o'ercharged with thought. Who bends him to the likeness of an arch -That midway spans the flood ; X or, more accurately, whose back is bent like a half arch of a bridge. The Bargello portrait indicates that Dante had this tendency to stoop before he reached the end of his youth, and it is plainly shown in the elderly figure attributed to Andrea or Nardo Orcagna.§ * To the Bargello fresco we shall return (pp. 73-150) ; neither Boccaccio nor Bruni mentions it. Note that both the fresco and Boccaccio give Dante a ' long ' face. t // Ctmmento alia Divina Commedta, Florence, 1844, vol. ii. p. 207, or Milanesi's edition, Florence, 1863, vol. ii. p. 129. On Inf. viii. i, speaking of Poggi, Boccaccio says : '. . . dal quale, essendo io suo dimestico divenuto,ioudii pii volte de' costumi e de' modi di Dante.' See the present book, p. 164. t Gary's translation. § On Orcagna's fresco, see chap. xvi. 18 ^> DANTE'S BEARD That Dante may at some time have otherwise neglected his personal appearance is indicated by Boccaccio's necessarily traditional account of the effect upon him of Beatrice's death (a.d. 1290). Boccaccio says, ' What for weeping and the grief his heart felt, and through lack of care of himself, he had become outwardly as it were a wild j thing to look upon : lean, bearded [Giotto's youthful Dante is j beardless], and quite transformed from his former self; so that not j only his friends, but whoever else saw him was moved to pity ; although he seldom showed himself to others than friends while this tearful state lasted.' * Whatever we may think of this passage as a whole, it is impossible to imagine Dante stout at any period ; his temperament was of the kind that makes nearly all men r lean, and when Dante says, ' If ever it happen that the sacred poem to which both heaven and earth have set their hand, so that for many years it hath made me leanj'-j- &c,, he must mean that he was lean indeed. Boccaccio has told us that after Beatrice's death Dante allowed ' his beard to grow. As is shown by his context, Boccaccio regarded this as a sign of self-neglect ; possibly, too, Boccaccio may have j habitually had in his mind's eye a beardless Dante. That, in fact, I is how Dante is depicted by the Bargello fresco and by all other portraits whose age and artistic qualities give them some claim to respect. Yet the Dante of Boccaccio's Fita wore a black and curly beard ; moreover, Dante seems to have worn a beard as early as , 1300, when he was thirty-five years old, unless we must regard certain words addressed to him by Beatrice in the Purgatorio as merely symbolical. In reproving Dante for various failings Beatrice says, ' The young bird awaits two or three [arrows] ; but before the eyes of the full-fledged, the net is spread in vain, the arrow shot.' Then follow these words : ' As children, ashamed, dumb, stand listening conscience-stricken and repentant : so I was standing. And she said, " Since through hearing thou art grieved, lift up thy beard, and thou shalt receive more grief in seeing." With less resistance is a sturdy oak uprooted by a native wind . . . than I raised up my chin at her command ; and when by the beard she asked me for my eyes, truly I caught the venom of the argument.' % * Vita, § 3. + Parad., xxv. I-3. X Norton, slightly revised. 19 PORTRAITS OF DANTE * Nuovo augelletto due o tre aspetta ; Ma, dinanzi dagli occhi de' pennuti, Rete si spiega indarno, o si saetta.' Quali i fanciuUi, vergognando, muti. Con gli occhi a terra, stannosi ascoltando, E se riconoscendo, e ripentuti ; Tal mi stav'io ; ed ella disse : ' Quando, Per udir, se' dolente, alza la barba ; E prenderai piu doglia, riguardando.* Con men di resistenza si dibarba Robusto cerro, o vero al nostral vento, O vero a quel della terra di larba, Ch'io non levai al suo comando il mento ; E quando, per la barba, il viso chiese, Ben conobbi il velen dell'argomento.* Dr. Ingo Krauss believes that in writing these lines Dante thought of himself as bearded. Very good; between 1 310, roughly speaking, and about 13 18 (pretty safe limits for the composition of this canto), Dante may have worn a beard, and he may have forgotten for the moment that he is describing himself as he looked in the year 1300, when he may have worn one (there are several such trivial slips — if this is a slip — in the Divina Commedia) ; on the other hand, the word 'beard ' [barba) may be here purely and simply a symbol of' maturity, of the age when we should be wary and not be led astray. The symbol may be anachronistic, or a mere figure of speech. But Dr. Krauss reminds us that when Dante spoke these words he had been wandering for nearly seven days through Hell and Purgatory, and that during this time he had had no leisure to give any care to his personal appearance (' auf sein Aeusseres irgendwelche Sorgfalt zu verwenden '). Dr. Krauss makes sure of his point by reminding us that Dante's realistic manner of observing and describing is well known ; hence, thinks he, it would not be inconceivable that Dante pictured himself as he was at that moment, when his chin, untouched by any razor, had allowed a beard to sprout (' Danach ware es nicht undenkbar, dass er sich vergegenwartigte, das von keinem Scheer- messer beriihrte Kinn habe den Bart sprossen lassen ').-)- For naivete * Purg., xxxi. 61-75. t In the Monatiberichte iiber Kunstwissenschaft und Kumthandel (Aug. 1 901). See Bibliography. 20 THE COLOUR OF DANTE'S HAIR this explanation rivals that offered by the woman of Verona ; no- where does Dante even intimate that he expects us to regard his imaginary journey as precisely analogous to the real journey of some traveller in the world above. His Commedia is not a diary of petty personalities, but a grandiose vision ; it is an account of what a great man might do and witness in a dream. From the interpretation offered by Dante's son Pietro * one might conjecture that in Pietro's opinion it was not Dante's custom to allow his beard to grow ; for, thinks Pietro, when a man leaves off his beard he must likewise leave off everything childish. To my mind Pietro's comment throws no light upon the question. If . j^'^*' Dante was like other men of his time and ours, sometimes he wore a ' beard, sometimes not. That is the conclusion to be drawn from the oldest portraits (which show no beard), from Boccaccio, who says that Dante wore a beard (meaning in his later years), and from in- numerable frescoes, panels, and miniatures of Dante's time, as well as from various literary documents. Filippo Villani, who lived from about 1 325 to 1406, confirms or repeats Boccaccio's statement that Dante's hair was black. -t* How, then, shall we account for Dante's own supposedly authentic assertion that his hair was once blond, or at all events inclined to be blond, or auburn, or of some more or less tawny or golden hue ? In an eclogue composed in 1 319, Dante asks his Bolognese acquaintance, Giovanni del Virgilio, the following question : * Nonne triumphales melius pexare capillos et patrio redeam si quando abscondere canos fronde sub inserta solitum flavescere Sarno ? ' This intricate Latin is thus translated by Messrs. Wicksteed andGard- ner: 'Were it not better done to trim my locks in triumph, and that I, who erst was auburn, should hide them, hoary now, under the * Petri Allegher'ii iuper Dantis ipsius genitoris Comoediam Commentarium, ed. by Nannucci, Florence, 1846, p. 519, Pietro says: 'Et intellexit auctor argumentum de barba elevanda, ut dixit : qua rasa, homo debet puerilia deponere cum ea, nam non ita postea excusatur. Et hoc voluit dicere Juvenalis, dicens : Quaedam cum prima resecantur crimina barba.' See Paur, * Dante's PortrSt,' Jahrhuch der Deutschen Dante-Geselhthaft, vol. ii. pp. 287-90. t Liber de erigine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civiius, ed. 1847, P* ^'* ^" also the present work, p. 133, note J. 21 PORTRAITS OF DANTE twined leaves when, if so be, I come again to my ancestral Sarnus ? ' * Puzzling verses ! But why insert a 'now '? Is not Dante merely foreseeing the white hair of that still distant time when he may have returned to Florence? The real enigma, however, lies in the third line — -fronde sub inserta solitumjiavescere Sarno. If the line is to be taken literally, either solitum is wrong zndjlavescere does not refer to Dante, ov Jiavescere meant to him something it is not known to have meant to the earlier Latinists — for instance, Virgil — whose style and vocabulary our poet seems to be imitating in this poem. Only by a physiological change so rare as to border on a freak of nature could Dante's hair have turned from fair to black. That in his youthful days it may have been brownish, dark auburn, or of some other hue less deep than black, or that it may have been more or less blond in patches is conceivable ; that it was ever truly blond or golden {Jiavus), or that it once tended or was wont to have a blond or yellowish tinge all over, except perhaps in his babyhood, is improbable.-f- So much for a literal interpretation. Let us now see what will result if we assume that solitum Jiavescere — the reading echoed by Giovanni del Virgilio — describes Dante as ' wont ' at some time to be blond, ruddy-haired, to have had dark hair with blond patches, or whatever the precise shade may have been ; why believe the expression literally true? Forty years ago Paur supposed the words Jiavescere and cams, as here employed by Dante, to be purely fanciful. Dante, thought Paur (and others have thought so too), was merely indulging in a style of description common in poetry of this sort. If we try to fit these epithets to him, we must try to fit others ; then we shall indeed be in difficulties. Though Paur offers no evidence, he and those who hold a like opinion seem to me to err wisely, if they err at all, in regarding * Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio, &c., London, 1902, See especially pp. 96 and 1 54-5. See also Parodi's review in the Giornale Dantesco, x. pp. 59-60 ; also my Appendix 'On the colour of Dante's hair' (p. 216), with discussion of G. Albini's interpretation. t Were it not for the apparent antithesis between canos, which I take to mean 'hoary,' ^ni Jiavescere, whose precise meaning lexicography has yet to establish so far as this passage is concerned, one would be tempted to read solito and construe it with Sarno ; for by Sarno Dante means Arno, as in three of his letters and in the De Vulgari Eloquentia, and solito flaveuere would properly enough describe a river wont to turn yellow in spring. But as we shall see in a moment, Giovanni Del Virgilio's reply shows plainly that this antithesis is what he understood. 22 THE COLOUR OF DANTE'S HAIR Dante's words as merely a conventional medieval manner of symbolising youth.* In his response, Giovanni del Virgilio almost echoes Dante : ' O si quando sacros iterum flavescere canos fonte tuo videas . . .' * O shouldst thou ever sec thy sacred hoary locks glow once again, mirrored in thine own stream, . . .' — so Giovanni's words are rendered by Messrs. Wicksteed and Gardner — and clearly Giovanni understznds J/avescere to go with Dante; hut Jiavescere (whatever it may mean) is merely Dante's word repeated, and canos offers no cor- roboration. In 1 3 1 9 Dante was but fifty-four years old, and though , hoary locks often come earlier than that, we have no evidence as to the alleged whiteness of Dante's hair except the ambiguous canos of a poem in which Dante figures as Tityrus — ambiguous because it can be understood to foretell how Dante will look when at last (if ever) he returns to Florence. A similar prophecy occurs toward the end of his Paradiso: Se mai continga che il poema sacro, Al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra, Si che m'ha fatto per piu anni macro, Vinca la crudelta che fuor mi serra Del bello ovil, dov' io dormii agnello Nimico ai lupi, che gli danno guerra; Con altra voce omai, con altro vello Ritornero poeta, ed in sul fonte Del mio battesmo prendero il cappello ; i" &c. — * In a letter dated Aug. lO, 1 910, Prof. E. K. Rand of Harvard, says to me : ' I heartily agree with your final conclusion that it is unwise to force too literal a meaning on either JIavescere or canos. I have often felt that even Horace's hair, which he calls praecanus, may have been as black as a rook's. Boethius too (when he got in prison) found his hair canus. I suspect a tradition.' Prof. Rand informs me that this is the only occurrence of flavescere in Dante's works and that flavus does not occur in them at all. He believes that a marked extravagance of expression in Dante's eclogue ' is intentionally mock-heroic, as befits the underlying satire in the choice of the eclogue form for an answer to Giovanni del Virgilio,' and he calls my attention to 'an example of such extravagance' in the lines on Mopsus, 31 fF. 'This fact,' he concludes, 'perhaps throws light on the meaning oi flavescere — at least, would still further disincline me to interpret it literally.' t In his study Delia varia fortuna di Dante (Opere, p. 148 — the volume is not numbered) Carducci interprets Nonne, &c. : ' A Firenze, dunque, a Firenze fia 23 PORTRAITS OF DANTE that is to say, if ever the sacred poem which has made mc lean from toil overcomes the cruelty of my foes at home, ' then with another voice, with other locks, shall I return as a poet,' — and the rest. In neither poem does Dante state that his hair is white — that is, that it was white in 13 19; or, rather, both passages tell plainly only what he expects it to be. Surely Boccaccio's statement is better evidence as to the colour of Dante's hair shortly before his death. The Italians are, and long have been, a dark-haired race, even , in Northern Italy ; yet their painters, from early times down to Fra j Angclico and Titian, were wont to favour blond in their idealis- | ing portraits of youth. So little poetry, really analogous to Dante's eclogues, survives, that it is doubtful whether any safe conclusions could be derived from poetry ; yet I can cite a witness who, though involuntarily, will perhaps enlighten us. In one of his Litterce Familiares (x. 3) Petrarca (i 304-74) would have us believe that he had grown grey before his time, that with the first growth of down the whiteness of age had so changed the colour of his hair that in his aspect the bloom of youth was seen mingled with an old man's gravity of mien. But when Brother Tommaso Martinelli violated Petrarca's sepulchre in 1630 there was found clinging to his skull a tuft of hair rather long, fine, curly, and red. ' If more than three centuries after his death [?], at the age of seventy, Petrarca's hair was still red, how. about the pretended whiteness of his youth ? ' The inquiry is made by Finzi ; * the answer is simple : Either the tuft seen by Martinelli was unlike most of Petrarca's hair, or it had undergone a change from white to red in the coffin, or Petrarca did not tell the truth. To return to Dante, we may sum up this question thus : Boccaccio, who was only eight years old when Dante died, en- deavoured, about 1346 or later, to ascertain various facts regarding Dante ; Boccaccio says that Dante's hair was curly and black. This assertion is apparently contradicted by Dante himself in a Latin eclogue, supposed to be genuine, and preserved in a MS. copied by Boccaccio himself, but dubious both as to grammar j meglio coprire della verde fronda i capelli canuti : erano biondi quand' ei ne partL' In Chrestien de Troyes' CUgh (about a.d. 1170) the auburn-haired Soredamors says, ' Aucune chose senefie, Ce que la premiere partie An mon non est de color d'or ; Car li meillor sont li plus sor.' Vss. 967-70. See also Appendix VII., p. 218. * G. Finzi, Petrarca, Florence, 1900, pp. 11-12. Martinelli opened Petrarca's coffin about 256 years after Petrarca's death. 24 DANTE'S BEARING and as to sense. Since the variants offer no help, one can only say, ' I do not know what Dante wrote, but iifavescere refers to Dante there is no good reason why we should accept it as literal truth.' We get no light cither from the portraits or from the discovery of Dante's bones.* In the year 1436-f- Lionardo Bruni of Arezzo finished a brief life of Dante with the intention of correcting and supplementing ' Boccaccio; for, says he, ' I felt that our sweet and gentle Boccaccio had written the life and habits of that sublime poet as though he were writing the Filocolo, the Filostrato, or the Fiammetta.^ Never- i theless Bruni often copies Boccaccio, as in the following words : i 'He was a man of great refinement; of medium height, and of a pleasant but deeply serious face.' % ' Of a pleasant but deeply serious face ' — serious Dante must have appeared indeed, unless his bearing belied his works. Boccaccio says that ' he rarely spoke unless questioned, and then thoughtfully, and in a voice suited to the matter whereof he treated.' § This description is borne out by the ideal figures in the meadow of the Noble Castle within the Seven Walls, by which Dante symbolises the Seven Virtues, or possibly learning and wisdom — the Seven Arts : ' People were there with eyes slow and grave, of great authority in their looks ; they spake seldom, and with soft voices.' || I have said ' borne out ' ; * In opposition to Paur and Parodi, Pasquale Papa maintains that Dante's words — ahuondere canos fronde sub inserta soittum Jiavescere — are to be taken literally and do not exemplify a supposed medieval convention of making shepherds, and men in general, blond, save exceptionally. Dante, thinks Papa, never sacrificed to this conventionalism, and if he makes Azzo d'Este and Manfred blond, he did so because of their Germanic origin. Prof. Papa believes the eclogue to mean that Dante, in his youth, was fair (hiondo), or had light-chestnut hair. Ste Appendix VII. It would be an error to suppose that Dante's hair was ever really white {canos) ; in 1319 Dante did not know that he should die so soon (1321), and that he was therefore not to reach the age (70) which constitutes for him a complete life. See Par. xxv. 7-8. For Papa's article see G'tornale Dantesco, an. xi. quad, i (1902), note 2, pp. 6-7 : * I ritratti di Dante in S. M. N. ' In the GiornaU Dantesco for 1 906, quad. 6, Giuseppe Barone discourses on ' I capelli c la barba nella " Divina Commedia." ' I find nothing in the article relevant to our iconographic problem. t See p. 151, note t. X Vita di Dante, Solerti's ed., p. 104. (I have here used Smith's translation.) § Vita, ed. by Macri-Leone, § 8 (' Fattezze usanze e costumi di Dante '). Boccac- cio's description was copied almost word for word by Filippo Villani about 1382 in his Liber de origine civitatis Flor entice et eiusdem famosis civihus, ed. Florence, 1847, ?• ^i- As to Villani's statements see the present book, p. 134, note *. I Inf. IV. 1 12-4.. Cf. Purg. VI. 61-6. 25 PORTRAITS OF DANTE it is pretty evident that Boccaccio drew upon these words, feeling, as others must, that ,jhey reveal characteristics of Dante himself Boccaccio tells us aJ(^o that Dante delighted in being alone . . . ' to the end that his meditations might not be disturbed.' This, too, our biographer could have derived from his hero's own words. If the Vita Nuova does not belie its author's character, in his i youth Dante was openly emotional, expansive, a lover of many, , hostile towards none, inclined to seek refuge in himself, but no misanthrope ; dignified, but not austere or stern — and something of all this went into Giotto's portrait ; but experience changed him. He came to know that evil often conquers, that bad men are exalted and good men debased ; he was sent into exile on a slanderous charge which he had not the power to resist, and only a few years after that ' prayer-book of love,' his Vita Nuova, had been completed, he began his struggle with evil unsympathetic men and with poverty. The scorn that he constantly felt, for it is constantly present in the Commedia, must have showed itself in his face ; he heca.mt tht a/ma sdegfjosa, one of the most scornful great men that history records. This is the Dante that most of us see in our mind's eye, though no artist showed the power to make this trait visible till some unknown sculptor modelled the Naples bust, perhaps two centuries after Dante's death ; yet Dante's neighbour, the chronicler Giovanni , Villani, must have known the expression, though he attributes it to learning rather than to the deeper and truer cause. ' This Dante,' says Villani, ' because of his knowledge, was somewhat haughty and reserved and disdainful, and after the fashion of a philosopher, care- less of graces and not easy in his converse with laymen ; but because of the lofty virtues and knowledge and worth of so great a citizen, it seems fitting to confer lasting memory upon him in this our chronicle, although, indeed, his noble works, left to us in writing, are the true testimony to him, and are an honourable report to our city.'* ' Somewhat haughty and disdainful, and after the fashion of a philosopher, careless of graces and not easy in his converse with laymen ' — such is the oldest testimony bearing upon Dante's character and bearing; yet Villani may merely have recorded what most men thought, rather than a personal observation ; for he may * Cronica ix., § 136. (The accurate translation given above is borrovvfed from Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine, trunshttd by Rose E. Selfe, edited by Philip H. Wicksteed, London, 1896, p. 450.) 26 DANTE DESCRIBES HIMSELF never have seen Dante between the beginning of his exile (1302) I and his death. If this is merely the report of a current impression, the words ' careless of graces ' may have a true explanation in that ' passage of the Convivio where Dante describes himself in exile — one of the few passages wherein he has seen fit to speak of himself, the ' only passage in which he mentions his own appearance unmistak- ably, though his words are vague — perhaps we can read between the lines : ' Since it was the pleasure of the citizens of the fairest and most renowned daughter of Rome, Florence, to cast me out from her beloved bosom (wherein I was born and brought up to the climax of my life, and wherein I long with all my heart, with their good leave, to repose my wearied spirit, and to end the days allotted to me), wandering as a stranger through almost every region to which our language reaches, I have gone about as a beggar, showing against my will the wound of fortune, which is often wont to be imputed unjustly to the fault of him who is stricken. Verily I have been a ship without sails and without rudder, driven to divers harbours and shores by the dry wind which blows from pinching poverty. And I have appeared vile in the eyes of many, who, perhaps from some report of me, had imagined me in a different guise ; in the sight of whom not only has my person been rendered contemptible, but every work of mine, already done or yet to do, has become of less account.'* It may be that this man of only middle height, somewhat stooping, and bearing the marks of outward defeat, betrays here (however unconsciously) the grief of great men who feel that their souls are worthy of nobler bodies than nature has given them, and who suffer when men of commoner mould, but given to idealising, find them not of heroic size and noble, like their works, but 'vile'; yet we cannot know what Dante really means; perhaps it was rather the lack of suitable apparel and of the means to uphold his dignity, to be independent, a commanding guest, and not a shabby wayfarer, that caused him this bitter regret. Yet, a little further on, Dante paraphrases Virgil's Jama crescit eundo — ' acquista grandezza per andare ' — and observes that ' whoever wishes may see that the image generated by fame alone is always greater, whatever it may be, than is the imagined thing in its true state.' From the philosophising context it seems as if we must * Convivio, i. 3. The above translation is by Paget Toynbee ; see In the Footprints of Dantey London, 1907, p. 287. 27 PORTRAITS OF DANTE apply Dante's word vile to himself as a whole, both man and raiment, and by vile he seems to mean ' of little account.' For us, who shall never see Dante as he appeared to those men of the early fourteenth century, the poet is likely to remain as they had imagined him — not less imposing than his works.* * In the Jahrbuch of the German Dante Society for 1869, p. 288, will be found an 1 anonymous poem of uncertain date in which Boccaccio's description is versified, quite as Giovanni Villani's obituary notice of Dante was versified by Antonio Pucci [see p. 135); but this poem adds nothing to Boccaccio except, perhaps, that Dante had cigli umidi, whatever that may mean — the context does not explain it. I will add a note on Dante's dress. In the Inferno (xvi. 8-9) Dante is thus addressed by a fellow Florentine : * Sostati tu, che all'abito ne sembri Essere alcun di nostra terra prava.' ' Stop, thou who by thy garb seemest to be some one from our wicked city.' This means that Dante wore, during his imaginary journey, the costume of a Florentine. But what costume ? Filippo Villani says : ' Vestitu honesto sed perpolito,' and adds • that Dante often went about ' tobario contentus ' — this, at any rate, is the reading in the codice barbenniano, according to A. Solerti {Le F'tte, &c., 1904, p. 88), and Solerti offers no variant from the Ashburnham autograph MS. {See Du Cange under tapar- dum, &c.) By these two phrases I understand that Dante was accustomed to dress modestly but neatly, and that he often wore a long coat which reached almost to his ankles. So he was portrayed by Giotto, who arrayed the poet and scholar almost precisely like other laymen shown in the same fresco. The chances are that Dante dressed like other Florentines of his time and station. Contemporary miniatures and frescoes show men in short coats, tight hose, and doublets ; others in long coats. In Florence extremely rich apparel (not approved by Dante) was worn by many persons of high rank and by not a few wealthy, or at least lavish, citizens. 28 Ill DANTE'S BONES An attempted auto da f{ on Dante's bones. Their odyssey. The discovery of 1865. Dante's skeleton, and the light it throws on our research. The action of the Ravennese authorities. Welclcer's keen remark as to the skull and the so-called mask IN the said year 1321, in the month of July, Dante Alighieri, of Florence, died in the city of Ravenna, in Romagna, having returned from an embassy to Venice in the service of the lords of Polenta, with whom he was then living ; and in Ravenna, before the door of the chief church, he was buried with great honour, in the garb of a poet and of a great philosopher. He died in exile from the commonwealth of Florence, at the age of about fifty-six years.' * So wrote Giovanni Villani in his chronicle, apparently before any one had attempted to disturb the poet's bones. But Dante had hardly been laid away, yet not to rest, when Cardinal du Pouget, inflamed like other ecclesiastics by De Monarchia, a treatise in which Dante argues against the pretensions of the Church to hold temporal power, burnt this treatise and would gladly have performed an aw/o iiafe on Dante's bones. •!■ The cardinal failed, and Dante's remains continued to lie ' in the entrance to the church of St. Francis, to * Cronica, ix. § 136 (p. 448 of the translation by Selfe and Wicksteed, London, 1896). In reality Dante died on the 13th or 14th of September, 1321. See Ricci U Ultimo Rifugio, p. 157. t Boccaccio's f^ita (Macri-Leone), § 16 : ' Questo libro piu anni dopo la morte dello autore [about 1329] fu dannato da messer Beltrando cardinal del Poggetto e legato del papa nelle parti di Lombardia, sedente Giovanni papa XXII.' Boccaccio explains how a quarrel over the authority of friar Piero della Corvara caused Dante's treatise to be brought into prominence, whereupon the Cardinal, 'avuto il soprascritto libro, quello in publico, siccome cose eretiche contenente, danno al fuoco. E'l simi- gliante si sforzava di fare dell'ossa dell'autore a eterna infamia e confusione della sua memoria, se a cio non si fosse opposto un valoroso e nobile cavaliere fiorentino, il cui nome fu Pino della Tosa,' &c. Cf, Ricci, U Ultimo Rifugio, pp. 187-94. 29 PORTRAITS OF DANTE the left of the small door,' under a portico, though, as time went on, the poet's sepulchre was allowed to fall almost into ruin.* At some time during the sixteenth century, being protected neither by watchmen nor by a threatening epitaph, Dante's bones were removed from the original coffin, a large marble sarcophagus,-]" and carried away ; but why ? and whither ? It is not in the threat of Cardinal du Pouget, says Ricci, that we are to seek the reason why Dante's bones were removed from the sepulchre and laid away, first within the [Franciscan] convent, then in a wall of Braccioforte. As Florence had caused the poet to wander in exile during the last nineteen years of his life, so, in her attempts to recover his remains she only disturbed their rest. As early as December 22, 1396, the Republic had sought them from Ravenna, but Ravenna had cer- tainly answered no. Florence would gladly have honoured herself with something more than portraits of Dante, or a cenotaph, and she repeated her request through the Medicean Academy (1519). She even appealed to a pope, Leo X., who seized an unseemly opportunity to grant her request. The Ravennese authorities had resisted an unjust papal tax, whereupon the pope drove them and their followers out of Ravenna, thus allowing emissaries from Florence to use trickery and force in an attempt to carry out their purpose. ' Thus, while Ravenna was left without her natural rulers, and perhaps at a late hour of night,' an attempt was made to rob the sepulchre ; but when the marble slab had been lifted, * nothing remained save a few fragments of bones and a few withered leaves of laurel.' J In 1483 Dante's skeleton was still in the sarcophagus ; by 1520 it had disappeared. When were the bones removed ? ' A passage from Carlo Maria Nardi and a sonnet recently edited by Alvisi answer this question.' We know that their first migration took place between 15 15 and 1519 ; for our purpose the date matters little ; but we must quote Nardi. Having given the gist of the petition to Pope Leo, Nardi comments : ' But this much wished- for transferral was not effected, because two delegates from the Academy . . . [who had gone to see the tomb] . . . found Dante neither in soul nor in body, and they believed that as in life he had * Ricci, U Ultimo Rifugio, pp. 268, 27 1-2. t Hid. pp. 308-9. t Ibid. pp. 329, 337. 30 THE DISCOVERY OF 1865 both in soul and in body made a pilgrimage through Hell, Purga- tory, and Paradise, so in death both in soul and in body he must have been received into one of those repositories.' * What had happened was that the Franciscans, fearing to lose their relic and Ravenna's, had bored through a wall against which lay the sarcophagus, and with some tool had withdrawn, one by one, the precious bones, except a few parts discovered long afterward ; but the jaw-bone, most important of all, was allowed to get lost. It seems that from time to time the friars were wont to inspect their treasure, wherever they had it concealed ; yet no outsider knew the hiding-place, and it was not till 1865, about 350 years after the first stealthy removal, that the relic came to light. On May 27, 1 865, while some masons were at work about Brac- cioforte, room had to be made for a pump, cramped by a certain wall. This, one of the workmen began to cut away, when suddenly his pickaxe struck wood, which gave forth a hollow sound. The head mason, inquisitive as to his find, proceeded carefully. A moment later the front plank of the box so long hidden and lost fell forward, and with it a few bones. Upon the plank was seen this inscrip- tion : — Dantis ossa denuper revisa die -^^ J unit 1677, meaning, appar- ently, ' Dante's bones revisited anew, 3 June, 1 677.' The bones were hastily removed to the Poet's former resting- place in the neighbouring little mausoleum. Ravenna soon heard the news and immediately a crowd flocked to the scene. Professors Puglioli and Bertozzi examined the bones (June 7), which they reported to be in good preservation. The parts lacking were : the lower jaw, the upper teeth, a right wristjoint, the top joint of the backbone, a rib, the two ulnce (forearm bones), all the bones of the hands save the two large bones and the uncinate bone, the tip of the backbone (coccyx), the right calfbone [Jibuld), the right astragalus (first bone below the tibia, or anklebone, in front), three cuneiform bones of the right foot (bones on top of the foot between the ankle and the toes), except two cuboids (hingelike bones between the heelbone and small toe), six bones of the toes, and five bones of the metatarsus (a part just behind the toes).-t* * Ricci, UUltimo Rifugio, pp. 338-9 ; see also Toynbee, Dante Alighieri : his Life and Works, London, 1910, pp. 109-18. t Relaxione delta Commissione governativa eletta a verificare il fatto del ritrovamento 31 PORTRAITS OF DANTE The loss of the jawbone alone forces us to do without what was p apparently the most characteristic feature of Dante's face, save I possibly the nose, and prevents our verifying Boccaccio's descrip- I tion (except the detail as to Dante's height) and Giotto's fresco. ' Various writers have regretted that the authorities of Ravenna 1 did not let photographs be taken as well as measurements, and even ' a cast ; it would then have become possible to compare various lines of the skull, especially, with divers portraits, including Giotto's. The authenticity of the Torrigiani mask could then have been settled almost at a glance ; * for if the mask differed essentially from the skull, its champions would be obliged either to yield without further ado, or to offer the hypothesis that the skull was derived from their mask ; whereas their opponents could cut short their own arguments thus : ' Your mask is not like the skull ; pray make your choice ! ' Or, ' There is indeed a striking similarity, and the few differences we see may be due to facts very easily explained ; but how do you know that during one of its migrations this skull did not serve as a model for the sculptor who made your mask ? Can you not imagine some one of those friars, the artist among his brethren, quietly modelling a likeness of Dante's skull before it had once more to be returned to its ambulant resting-place ? ' Scientific methods did not govern the final inspection of i! Dante's bones.-f- No skilled craniologist was invited to make H delle ossa di Dante in Ravenna, dated Ravenna, June 12, 1865, published in Florence, 1865. See also Ricci, L'Ultimo Rifugio, especially pp. 341, 358-60. * And by the CowzOTm/aTJir apparently it was (iJ^/az/W, p. 17); but this examination was hasty and their own measurements and description do not bear them out. In his Dante, &c., London, 1910, p. 118, Mr. Toynbee makes this note : ' A cast ] of the skeleton as it lay in state, and the wooden coffin in which the remains were i placed in 1677, are preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Ravenna.' Ricci 1 mentions only ' due calchi e una riproduzione della pretesa maschera dantesca ' (italics mine). If, during the few hours that the skeleton remained visible, a cast was made from it, why is not this occurrence mentioned by any contemporary familiar with the facts ? Why do various writers expressly regret that no cast of the skeleton was made ? 1 not even a drawing ? nothing but measurements ? A ' death-mask ' made from an 1 incomplete skull might be valuable, but I venture to doubt that we have any such 1 record of Dante. See Ricci, op. cit. p. 372, and the next note following this. t Save for the accidental discovery already described there would probably have been no official endeavour of any sort to discover or examine Dante's bones. For evidence on this point see Paolo Gaddi's petition in his pamphlet Intorno al cranio d\ Dante, &c., and the curt response of the Municipio di Ravenna (July 18, 1864), pp. 7-8. Of the subsequent occurrences Gaddi writes : ' Se cosl bella occasione si fosse offerta alia Francia, all' Inghilterra, alia Germania, all' America, quelle ossa non sarebbcro 32 DANTE'S SKULL observations and records, and the measurements actually taken are not only inadequate in number, but not wholly above suspicion, if Dr. Welcker is right. That they were ' faulty and imperfect ' was plainly stated by Dr. Giustiniano Nicolucci in his concise letter of February i, 1866, to the French anthropologist Dr. F. Pruner-Bey. Nevertheless, depending upon the government commission's report. Dr. Nicolucci made certain observations which are here offered in translation, or abridged : The skull was found to be slightly oval, but somewhat broader than is usual at the back or occiput ; the forehead was spacious and rose in a plane vertical with the face [just as we shall see it in Giotto's portrait, and not as it appears in the so-called mask] ; the superciliary arches [by which I under- stand broivs^ were moderately prominent, while the hollows (sinuses) were not much developed, and the frontal protuberances were greater than in most skulls. Especially noticeable was a longitudinal prominence in the middle upper part of the frontal bone, and another prominence, smaller and elliptical, on the tem- poral crest [ridge] of the frontal bone. Very prominent, furthermore, were the parietal tuberosities, but, wrote Dr. Nicolucci, ' the skull displays in this part a notable lack of symmetry, inasmuch as the left parietal protuberance is more prominent than the right, which, again, lies further back, owing no doubt to an early synostosis of the suture, on account of which the right parietal has become united with the occipital bone. This suture has disappeared, whereas the others are all visible, perhaps more than they ordinarily are at that age [about 56]. By the sagittal suture, along the edges of the parietal bones, are two elevations, which run together from the top of the head to the occipital angle. Although the skull is dolichocephalic, the occipi- tal prominences are but slight, and there is not much rise to the small bone that lies between. Moderate is the development of the maxillary sinuses [hollows of the jawbone], to judge by the slight- ness of the projection of the malar tuberosities.' In plain English, Dante's cheekbones were not prominent, hence Dr. Nicolucci infers that he had not what we sometimes call a ' lantern jaw.' ridiscese nella tomba senzaessere prima state in mille modi illustrate, e con disegni, e con fotografie, e coUa plastica, e col marmo, e col bronzo, e cogli scritti " — whereas the official Relaxione is strong only on the purely historical side, not in its anatomy. Op. c 33 PORTRAITS OF DANTE VARIOUS DIMENSIONS OF DANTE'S SKULL. millimetres Horizontal circumference ........ 525. Diameter from front to back ....... 178 Diameter from side to side ........ 140 Vertical height .......... 140 Length of curve over top of head from one earhole to the other . 310 Distance from one earhole to the other measured over the brows . 293 Curve over occipital protuberance, from ear to ear, as before . . 225 Cephalic index, or ratio of the breadth of the skull to its length, 78.65 Faulty though it was, the Report supplies other items of some interest. We are enabled, for instance, to ascertain Dante's ap- proximate height. The length of the skeleton was 1.55 metres. Allowing for shrinkage through loss of cartilage, &c., we may estimate that at fifty-six years Dante was about five feet five and one half inches tall (1.67 m.) when he stood erect. This corrobo- rates Boccaccio's assertion, and Boccaccio is one of those biographers who need corroboration.* As Welcker has remarked, measurements (and they are so diffi- cult to get accurately) do not enable us to see a skull. Nor have we any good reason to trust implicitly the measurements recorded. The Relazione (p. 17) gives 124 millimetres as the width of the ocular region. Dr. Welcker does not believe so great a width would be found in thousands of skulls, and Dante was of middle height (' una statura media ' — Relazione, p. 15). Welcker even de- clares that if one modelled following the measurements in the Re- lazione one would get ' a colossal bust.' -f- It has been said that no photograph was made of Dante's re- mains. This is not literally true : One photograph was made by * Set Ricci, UUltimo Rifugio, especially pp. 358-60. t Hermann Welcker, ' Der Schadel Dantes ' (jahrhuch der Deutschen Dante-Gesell- schaft, vol. i. pp. 35 fF.). See also Welcker's letter to Dr. J. Barnard Davis (really an English version of his German article) and the Cornell Dante Catalogue under'Welcker'; also Karl Witte's essay, ' Dante's remains at Ravenna,' in Essays on Dante, London, 1 898. According to Heinrich Brockhaus, who happened to be in Ravenna in May 1865, | and made some notes (published by Witte), the excitement caused by the discovery of Frate Antonio Santi's chest {cf. p. 31) was prodigious ; for 'although it now seemed pretty certain that the real urn could contain nothing — for the newly discovered bones formed almost a complete skeleton, — yet the fact had still to be explicitly proved, in order to establish the genuineness of the discovery. . . But the urn was indeed empty. Only three small bones [?], missing in the skeleton, were found there, together with a few laurel leaves and a little bone-dust. I myself saw enough to be convinced that 34 DANTE'S SKULL stealth, but from too far away to afford trustworthy evidence ; iir fact this portrait is quite worthless : it shows nothing but a few j persons looking through an iron gate at a tiny skeleton enclosed in glass,* We must therefore fall back upon the measurements, and wait until that reverence which leaves the dead alone shall again have waived its claims and allowed ourselves or our descendants to add one more item to our knowledge of Dante. Meanwhile, whoever is interested in cranial statistics will find those of Dante in Ricci's careful book.-f- there was nothing else in the urn, and there can be no further doubt that the lately discovered bones were really Dante's. Fra Santi had done his work well.' Witte states that this friar was born in 1644, that he appears as Chancellor after 1672, as Guardian of the Convent after 1700, and that he died in 1700. The inscription DANTIS OSS A ame Fre Antonio Santi hie posita Afio 1677 die xvi OCTOBRIS, on the side of the chest, in the same hand that wrote the other inscription {see p. 31), indicates to whom we should be most grateful for the preservation of Dante's bones. * Shown to best advantage in the reproduction which serves as a frontispiece to vol. iii. of the Jahrbuch, 1871, ' Nach einer nicht veroffentlichten Originalphotographie.* t U Ultimo Rifugio, p. 361 flF. On the attitude of the Ravennese authorities vide ibid.y p. 372, note 2. 35 IV THE TORRIGIANI 'DEATH-MASK' AND OTHER SO-CALLED DEATH-MASKS OF DANTE The Torrigiani mask long and widely supposed to be an authentic death-mask of Dante. Quotations from various authorities. This mask often used to test the value of other portraits. Its character. Eminent sculptors note hov/ the features reveal recent death. Result of accepting tradition. Inauthenticity to be demonstrated. Death-masks in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Vasari's statement. Lack of evidence for Dante's time. Cennini's technical description of the art of making masks. What the mask itself tells. A false relic. Cinelli's story about Dante's head and the Duchess Sforza. Kirkup's statement as to various masks. Resemblance between the masks and Giotto's Dante. A brief onslaught. Opinion of C. E. Norton. Ricci on Kirkup's mask and on others. The essential character of all the plastic representations of Dante. Artistic death effects by Tullio Lombard i. The Torrigiani mask, the miniature of the MS. Riccardiano 1040, and the Naples bust IN the Bargello Museum at Florence may be seen an effigy which has long been called ' the death-mask of Dante.* Theodor Paur, who believed this work to be an authentic death-mask, ingeniously, but erroneously, surmised that Guido Novello da Polenta, intending to erect in Dante's honour a splendid sepulchre,* would naturally have followed the custom of his time by setting over it a portrait of the deceased ; and, says Paur, ' without doubt the death-mask [Torrigiani's] was made from the corpse for this purpose.' -f- Only two years later, Maria Francesca Rossetti spoke as follows : ' The authenticity of this death-mask was lately confirmed * Paur refers to Boccaccio, who says {f^ita, § 6) : ' [Guido] fece uno ornate e lungo sermone ; disposto, se lo stato e la vita fossero durati, di si egregia sepoltura onorarlo, che se mai alcuno altro suo merito non lo avesse memorevole renduto a' futuri, quella I'avrebbe fatto.' Guido died without having realised this plan. t See the Jahrbuch der Deutschen Dante-Gesellschaji, 1869, pp. 278 ft. for this reference and for Paur's whole article on ' Dante's Portrat ' (pp. 261-330) ' Without doubt' is an expression used to win credence for a statement which its user himself doubts. 36 DECLARATIONS OF FAITH in a singular manner [by the discovery of Dante's bones in 1865]. . . . The mask was found to correspond in many important parts to the head of the skeleton. . . . Without committing themselves > to the science of phrenology, the learned examiners record the following observations on the skull : Very noticeable are the osseous regions connected with the organs of poetry,' &c.* Fama crescit eundo. 'As to these [namely, Dante's features], we are left in no doubt, since it is known that a cast was made in plaster from his face after death which still exists, and from which many copies have been taken. The existence of such an authentic and unerring record as this renders us independent of the verbal descriptions of biographers. By it, as we may say, ' he being dead, yet speaketh,' and as we reverently look upon it, we may exclaim with enthusias- tic confidence — if we may be pardoned for thus using his own words, which have a more solemn import in the original — " Or fu si fatta la sembianza vostra." ' Dante imagines these words to be spoken as a question by some pilgrim who has journeyed to Rome from far-away Croatia and beholds the Veronica, that handkerchief which received, and kept, the true image of the Saviour's face as he walked to Calvary. -f* The learned writer whose words I have quoted seems to be not less con- vinced than Dante's pilgrim. The eyelids of the death-mask are- half open, which is curious; ' but,' continues this writer, 'they may have been partially closed after [Dante's] death, and moreover, there is an evident drooping of the lids, and relaxation of the muscles of the face (especially on the left side), which a medical friend pointed out to me, and described as probably the result of slight paralysis. I may add that the same friend assured me that, speaking as a medical man, he had not the slightest doubt whatever that the mask was actually taken from a dead man's face, and if so, there can certainly be no doubt that that dead face was indeed that of Dante. It may also be added that when his bones were discovered in so singular and ■ unexpected a manner in 1865, all the measurements of the skull made by professional surgeons were found to correspond exactly with * See A Shadow of DantCy 1871, p. 31, note i. See the Relaxione della Commissione governativa, p. 19. t Paradise xxxi. 103-8 ; see also Vita Nuova xi., where Dante tells how crowds of pilgrims went to Rome to see this true image. 37 PORTRAITS OF DANTE those of the mask which had been brought from Florence for the purpose of making the comparison.' * On affaiblit toujours tout ce qu'on exagere. Among many others who have sworn by this mask are Crowe and Cavalcaselle. In all editions of their history it is regarded as genuine ; they even use it to show that Giotto's portrait is accurate, and that is a logical procedure if their premise is correct. •!• But let us examine this mask, study its history, as well as various other relevant matters, and see whether it is really a true image of Dante's face. If it is genuine, a death-mask, and not a fanciful work by some innocent sculptor or some forger, it should serve as a standard for appraising the worth of all other portraits of Dante. So, in fact, it has been employed by various authorities since it first came to light till the present year, and in no end of books it is reproduced or men- tioned as an authentic death-mask. y This effigy once belonged to Carbone Maria del Nero (1735). In 1840, as a bequest to Ottavia Guadagni, widow of Carbone del Nero, it had passed into the hands of her brother, Pietro Torrigiani, who bequeathed it to the Uffizi Galleries, to which it was delivered in 1865 by Luigi Torrigiani. It is made of tinted plaster, resembling terra cotta. The cap and coat are red ; the eartabs and vest, or undergarment, are light green. Thus we find it corresponding in two important respects to the fresco by Giotto and the canvas by * Edw. Moore, Dante and his Early Biographers, 1889, pp. 124-5. Dr. Moore refers to Nicolucci's letter, // cranio di Dante, especially as confirming Boccaccio's statement respecting the cheekbones. Boccaccio does not mention the cheekbones. Dr. Nicolucci explicitly regrets the inaccuracy of his information : '. . . a me duole grandemente che le notizie che io intendo darvi sul cranio sieno monche ed imperfette.' Op. cit., p. 4. The official Commissioners confidence in the Torrigiani mask is expressed in the Relazione, p. 17. t A History of Painting, Sec, vol. ii. (1903) p. 56. The editor, Mr. Langton Douglas, mentions Signor Corrado Ricci in his preface ; but Mr. Douglas's acquaintance with Signor Ricci's work does not seem to have influenced Mr. Douglas's notes on the * death-mask.' The late J. A. Symonds both suspected and believed in the ' mask ' ; for under the frontispiece to his Introduction to the Study of Dante he wrote : 'This mask of Dante's face was given to me at Florence in 1863 by the late Baron Kirkup [see Appendix II.], who believed in its genuineness.' But the scepticism here shown did not last ; see pp. 92 ff. ed. 1893. I refer the reader also to Seymour Kirkup's statement : * In the beautiful fresco portrait of Dante on the wall of the Cappella del Podesti here, , a treasure which has recently been discovered, we can see the same features precisely as in the Torrigiani bust, but with the softer, happier expression of the age of twenty-five.' See chap. xiv. p. 141. Kirkup's faith was not very firm : see p. 40, end of note t. 38 ,) 3 > > THK TOKKKIIANI MASK, FRONT FACE. i Hargelio, Florence) DECLARATIONS OF FAITH Domenico di Michelino. It is framed in a medallion, round the edge of which runs this unquestionably modern inscription : EFFIGIE DI DANTE ALIGHIERI DALLA MASCHERA FORMATA SUL DI LUI CADAVERE IN RAVENNA L'ANNO 1321 ; that is to say, ' Effigy of Dante Alighieri, from the mask formed on his corpse at Ravenna in 132 1.' Underneath is an inscription recording the brief story of the gift of 'this portrait-in-relief of Dante Alighieri, which is believed actually to have been cast from the mould made on the corpse.' * Whoever [ composed the older (though modern) inscription plainly declares, • not that this effigy is a death-mask, taken from a cast made on Dante's own body — that it obviously is not — but that it hfrom the mask, that is, a copy. I shall try to show that it is not a copy, and that no death-mask of Dante ever existed. Like the Naples bust, which it suspiciously resembles, this so- i called mask is a foundling ; its origin is for us to establish, and chiefly by means of comparisons ; for we have little or no external evidence concerning it explicitly except what Charles Lyell tells us in a note on the frontispiece to his translation of Dante's Canzoniere (i 842). ' The drawing,' writes Lyell, ' was made from a mask pre- | sented to me by Professor Rossetti, who received it from Florence as a cast from the bust of Dante in the Palazzo del Nero, which has descended by inheritance to the Marchese Torrigiani. There is a family tradition that the bust was formed from a cast taken after death from the head of Dante at Ravenna, 1 321. It has been examined by eminent sculptors and painters, both Italian and English, who see so many traits of the expression natural to the features immediately after death, as to afford convincing evidence of the probable truth of the above tradition. The bust is fixed in a square wooden frame, and suspended against the wall of a lower room in the palace. By favour of the Marchese Torrigiani an artist was * Though I have examined this ' mask ' myself, I will again refer the reader to Ricci's valuable hook, U Ultimo Rijiigto di Dante Alighieri, 1891, especially pp. 278-85. The inscription under the Torrigiani mask reads thus : ' II marchese Carlo Torrigiani con testamento olografo donava alia citti di Firenze questo ritratto in rilievo che vuolsi fatto veramente su la forma tolta dal cadavere. E il marchese Luigi lo consegnava sollecito a queste Reali Gallerie nell' anno MDCCCLXV.' For this transcription I am indebted to the present Director of the Museo Nazionale, Signer Giovanni Poggi, whom I thank also for other courtesies. 39 PORTRAITS OF DANTE permitted to make three drawings of the bust, a full face, profile, and three quarters.' * * Convincing proof of the probable truth of a tradition ' — that is a strange expression. But what is the tradition worth ?-f and what value can we set upon the impressions of the eminent sculptors and painters whom Lyell mentions 1 The tradition suffices to betray the origin of the inscription written around the bust, but has no value as .evidence ; were such traditions to be accepted as truth, we should have to believe in the authenticity of no end of demonstrably apocryphal and wholly discredited portraits and other relics. As for the impressions of the eminent sculptors and painters, they are nothing more than the mental reactions of men who had no accurate information by which to judge ; a later generation of critics is differently impressed. Fortunately we are not compelled to rely upon mere impressions, whether old or new, for history affords enough evidence to show that this effigy cannot even be a copy of a mask formed on Dante's face either before or after death. The art of making masks from human features was known in antiquity ; they are often found with mummies, and were made, more or less crudely, out of thin sheets of gold in ancient Greece. But Pliny, so far as I know, is the earliest writer now known by whom the origin of making death-masks with plaster (apparently the only accurate method, at all events the only method now followed)iis recorded. Pliny says that Lysistratus of Sikyon, brother of Lysippus, was the first who ever made a likeness in plaster of the human features from the features themselves and remodelled it after pouring wax into the mould.."}; So says Pliny in his Natural History, * See The Poems of the f^ita Nuova and Convito, &c., pp. xiv.-xxv., London, 1842, and Paget Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, 1909, vol. ii. p. 643. t In a written statement to Lyell Quly 8, 1840) the Marchese Torrigiani declares that Carbone Maria del Nero, * in order to preserve the memory of so rare and singular a treasure, an heirloom of his very noble family, caused it to be set in this medallion, and decorated, in 1735.' For the full statement Jir^ Appendix L' That [Arundel] print,' says Kirkup in a letter to Barlow, April 29, 1868, ' is the only likeness left which is certain. The mask may be, but it is not cited in its time.' Kirkup means that had the mask undoubtedly existed in 1321, we shouldexpect writers of that time to mention it. 5^^ H. C. Barlow, On the Vernon Dante, London, 1870, pp. 37-38. X Hist. Nat., XXXV. 44 : 'Hominis autem imaginem gypso e facie ipsa primus omnium expressit ceraque in eam formam gypsi infusa emendare instituit Lysistratus Sicyonius, frater Lysippi dequo diximus.' The art historians known to me have little or nothing to say about death-masks, and this passage from Pliny, notwithstanding its importance, seems to have escaped their notice. 40 VASARI ON MASKS a work widely read and often quoted in the time of Dante.* But this art seems to have been lost, or to have ceased to be practised, long before Dante's death. It is not mentioned in the Schedula of the monk Theophilus, a technical treatise for artists, believed to have been composed in the twelfth century ; nor in any other treatise, so far as I am aware, till a century after Dante's death. Vasari says that Margaritone (i.e. Margarito) of Arezzo (1216?— 1293 ?) used plaster (gesso) in modelling various works of art, and we know that he was not the first to do so ; -f- but Vasari records no maker of death-masks till he comes to Andrea del Verrocchio (1435— / 1488). This artist, says Vasari, knew how to vtyak.^ gesso out of a certain soft stone to be found near Volterra and Siena, and thus he was wont to make casts of natural things, in order to hold them before his eyes and imitate them ; i.e. hands, feet, knees, legs, arms, and upper bodies or stumps (torsi). 'Later, in his time, they began to model the heads of dead persons, at little cost ; so that [now— about 1 545] one may see in every house in Florence, over mantel- pieces, doors, windows, and entablatures, no end of such portraits, so well made and so natural that they seem alive. And ever since this custom has been kept up, and is a great convenience through enabling us to have portraits of many who have been set up among the historical figures (storie) of Duke Cosimo's palace. And for this we are greatly indebted to the skill (yirtii) of Andrea, who was among the first to put it in practice.' % On this statement Bottari notes that Andrea was among the first, 1 but not the first, and calls attention to Brunelleschi's effigy in Santa j Maria del Fiore, so made when Andrea was but fourteen years old. I We shall see, however, that the making of plaster death-masks was accurately described by Cennino Cennini at an earlier date. But ! there is no evidence that this art was either understood or practised ; in Dante's time. If it had been, the chroniclers and writers of treatises would probably mention it ; but they are silent. So far as I can ascertain, not even one effigy contemporary with Dante bears any evidence of having a death-mask as its source or of being * On Purg. xi. 95, Benvenuto da Imola says : ' Ista ars pingendi et sculpendi habuit olim mirabiliores artifices apud graecos et latinos, ut patet per Plinium in naturali historia.' t See Milanesi's Vasari, vol. i. pp. 359-67, especially p. 365 and note i on P- 365- X Vol. iii. pp. 372-3 ; for Bottari's note see ibid., p. 373. 41 PORTRAITS OF DANTE a death-mask itself. The museums have no authentic specimens for that period ; so far as I am aware, no mention of what would have been an extraordinary and notable occurrence has ever been quoted from literary works of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Cennino Cennini is, in fact, the earliest writer, known to have had some understanding of this art, who describes it — a century after Dante's death. Cennini was born about 1372 ; about 1380 he became a pupil of Agnolo (or Angiolo) Gaddi ; he associated himself with the last Giottists, remaining twelve years under Gaddi, the customary period for an apprentice. The date of his death is unknown ; but his treatise seems to have been composed after 1400, possibly at Padua, and harks back to 'Greek,' that is, to Byzantine, manuals, though its source is not known.* In chapter clxxxii. Cennini tells ' How to take a cast of the face of a man or woman,' and his description seems too precise not to have been derived from experience, though we have no evidence that the making of death-masks had really begun until after 1400. I shall quote Cennini's directions, for they may serve, now or later, to throw some light upon the question under consideration. ' Would you take a cast of the face of a man or woman, of whatever rank ? Then adopt this method : Let a young man, or woman, or an old man come to you, and let the beard be shaved. . . . Then with a large minever brush anoint the face with some oil of roses, or other sweet-smelling oil ; put on the head a cap or hood, and provide a band, about a span wide and as long as from one shoulder to the other, going round the head over the cap, and sew the edge of it round the cap {berrettd) from one ear to the other. Put into the hole of each ear a piece of cotton, and having drawn the edge of the said band tight, sew it to the end of the collar and give a half-turn in the middle of the shoulder, and turn it to the buttons in front. Do the same to the other shoulder, then unite * The Art of the Old Masters as told by Cennino Cennini in 1437 [?]. How they ground and mixed their Colours, painted their Pictures and Miniatures, &c. Newly translated by Christina Herringham, London and New York, 1897. (The translator mentions Ernst Berger's Beitrage zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Maltechnik, pt. iii., wherein Berger enumerates various old art treatises.) See also Das Buck von der Kunst oder Tractat der Malerei des Cennino Cennini da Colle di Valdelsa, transl. with Introd., Notes, &c., by Albert Ilg, new edition, Vienna, 1888. Other editions exist. On Cennino Cennini see also the present book, p. 156. 42 THE MAKING OF MASKS the ends of the band. Having done this, place the man or woman flat on a carpet, a table, or large board. Get a hoop of iron of the width of one or two fingers, with some teeth above like a saw. Put this hoop, which is to be two or three fingers longer than the face, round the face of the person ; let it be held by your associate, suspended away from the face, that it may not touch the person. Take the band and turn it round and round, putting the end of it which had not been sewn into the teeth of the hoop, then fastening it between the flesh and the hoop, so that the hoop shall be beyond the band, and leave about the width of two fingers or less between the band and the flesh, according to the thickness you wish the casting to be, for I tell you this is where you have to throw the plaster in.' In chapter clxxxiii. Cennini describes how to enable a person to breathe when a cast is being taken from his face. You must have a goldsmith make two small tubes of brass or silver and have them fit the nostrils exactly ; but this does not concern us. In chapter clxxxiv. he says (I abridge and quote) : ' The person from whose face the cast is to be made lies down, holding the tubes in his or her hands. You then have near you some Bolognese gesso or volterrano, burnt, fresh, and well-sifted. You have near you a basin of tepid water in which you mix the gesso just enough ; then you pour the mixture over the face equally ; but keep the eyes to cover last of all the face. Make him keep his mouth and eyes closed ; not squeezed tight, which is not necessary, but as if he slept, and when the space is filled up to a finger's-breadth above the nose, let it remain quiet a little while till it is ready. And bear in mind, that if the person from whom you are taking a mould is of high rank, as a lord, a king, a pope, an emperor, you must mix the gesso with tepid rosewater ; and for other persons any spring, well, or river water, tepid, suffices.'* Cennini goes on to say how, by cutting, the dried plaster may be removed, and how it may serve as a mould into which to pour other plaster. The shell is then gently broken away, and ' thus you will have the effigy or physiognomy or cast of that great lord. [This statement indicates clearly that it was not common to make * Translated by C. J. Herringham, op. cit., pp. 169-72. Wherein ordinary ^«m (sulphate of lime, or gypsum) diflfered from volterrano I do not know. See Vasari's statement, supra, p. 41. 43 PORTRAITS OF DANTE such casts from ordinary persons.] And know that once you have got such a mould, you can cast from it with copper, metal [sic], bronze, gold, silver, lead, and indeed with any metal you wish. But get capable masters [skilled workmen] who understand founding and casting.' In chapter clxxxv. Cennini describes how to make a mould of the whole figure of a man or woman, or animal, and how to cast; with chapter clxxxix. he ends his treatise; it is highly probable, therefore, that this matter was added to what Cennini had taken from earlier technical books. Wc may now return to the Torrigiani mask. If, in the face of all this external evidence that death-masks were not made in Dante's time, we are still asked to believe that the Torrigiani bust is either an original death-mask or a copy, let us see what story is told by the work itself. Examine any collection containing true death-masks, like that at.Princeton University ; then scrutinise this effigy, so often and by such high authorities declared to represent Dante's features as they looked shortly after his death in 1321. What do we find ? ' Not the fine, stiff, straight furrows on the eyebrows and temples, but the evident furrow of the sculptor's stecca [modelling tool]; no closure of the eyelids, or mark of lashes, but a full wide-open eye ; no standing out of the jaws under and about the wasted lips [to be expected in this case], but the free, elegant, delicate line of a skilful modeller.' * ' Then, too, how can one suppose that in the real death-mask the eartabs were also delineated ? How can one suppose that the artist spread the plaster or clay over the cloth of the cap ? Lastly, how can one imagine that an object so precious, nay sacred, as the imprint of the very face of the poet, remained unknown to all the artists and to all the historians flourishing during almost two centuries, and, although in plaster, was preserved for more than five hundred years ? ' Yet these things, so obvious, so simple, were not thought of or not frankly stated by the many who have written about the "mask"; and the learned men who made the report on the dis- covery of the bones of Dante [1865] compared it with the head of the skeleton of the divine poet. Furthermore, the well-known sculptor, Lorenzo Bartolini, found in the relaxation of the muscles and in the * Let us bear in mind, however, that the Torrigiani effigy is not alleged to be * the original death-mask,' but a copy. See p. 39. 44 THE MASK AND THE SKULL eyes unequally closed " clear indications of recent death " ! But we must hasten to observe that, not daring to declare that it was a true mask, because indeed he saw the impossibility of it, he added that the cast might also come " from some old bust modelled from the mask taken at first hand from the face of the poet," and Cappi entertained his [Bartolini's] doubt.' * This is not all. If a death-mask is genuine, it will have exactly the same shape as the head from which it was taken wherever the skin lies thin and relatively taut over the skull. It does so over the forehead ; yet, according to the official report, Dante's skull showed a forehead vertical with the face. Look at the so-called mask. The forehead slants backward. Therefore, even if both skull and mask are characterised by a certain asymmetry which Welcker notes as an evidence in favour of the existence of an original mask, here is a discrepancy not easily to be explained away; in fact, it cannot be explained away at all if the mask is a genuine mask, and if it is a mere adaptation it is in no sense worthy of trust. Again, not only must the shape be similar, but the dimensions must of course correspond. I will now quote Dr. Welcker : 'The dimensions of the mask must everywhere be greater — at any rate, in changing relations, according to the varying strength and thick- ness (Stdrke) of the soft parts which cover the bones in various portions of the face. Always, however, the dimervsions of the mask must be greater ; smaller dimensions can here not occur. Measure- ments of the mask are not to be found in the Relazione ; however, the Relazione records a number of figures obtained from the skull found in the chest. Let us compare these with the dimensions which are taken from the mask. ' [a) Vertical diameter, from the root of the nose to the lower end of the juncture of both jawbones (in other words, to the be- ginning of the middle incisors — that is, to the middle of the upper lip) : on the skull, according to the statement of the Relazione^ 85 millimetres. On the mask I find now, between the said dimen- sional points, which are not easy to miss, at most 66 millimetres. * Ricci, U Ultimo Rifugio, pp. 279-80. Nearly all this translation is by Mr. T. W. Koch. Hand-List of framed reproductions of pictures and portraits (at Cornell University), Ithaca, N.Y., 19CX), pp. 3-4. The left eye of the Torrigiani mask, seen from the side, has an expression suggestive of ' recent death ; ' the right eye has not. 45 PORTRAITS OF DANTE The dimension found on the skull is therefore far too great; compasses opened 85 millimetres, and describing a circle from the root of the nose on the mask, reach a finger s breadth under the aperture of the mouth. ' {b) Horizontal diameter through the mid region of the two zygomatic bones [processes of the cheek bones]. On the skull, 107 millimetres; on the mask, 115. That is an increase which might easily be due to the soft parts of that region. ' (f) Horizontal diameter between the two zygomatic arches. On the skull, 135 millimetres; on the mask, at most 134. Com- passes opened to a width of 135 millimetres nowhere touch any part of the region of the cheeks. ' {d) Distance between the outer edges of the eye sockets. On the skull, according to the Relazione, 1 24 millimetres. On the mask I find only 106. Compasses opened on a line that crosses the orbits reached far backward to the flat spaces of the temples. [Here Welcker notes how difficult it would be to go astray as to this measurement.] ' Other cranial measurements given in the 'Relazione (particularly those of the brainpan proper) are hardly suited for comparison with the dimensions of the mask. As a result of our comparisons, I feel warranted in affirming that : Either the mask is not genuine — at any rate, it is not the '■'■death-mask" of Dante — or the dimensions in the Re- lazione are not the dimensions of Dante's skull.'* ' Let us now suppose,' continues Welcker, ' that the mask is really the death-mask, even though artistically restored ; we should not expect in it any trimming or diminution, but, on the contrary, fillings up of parts deeply sunk in — in other words, an enlargement of this or that part of the face. Quite the reverse ! The distance between the zygomatic arches (under c in the above statement) is smaller on the mask than the corresponding dimension of the bare skull, and the dimensions mentioned under a and d (length of the upper face and breadth of the ocular region) are on the skull so extraordinarily greater that one would have to assume that the mask, if genuine, is nevertheless a reduced representation of the natural size. But how should any one have come to copy the mask otherwise than true to its natural size ? Again, the dimension under b would have to be lessened; yet in this diameter the mask is bigger than the skull.' Were we to use the 1 24 millimetres given * Cf, the statement which begins on p. 37 {supra) and ends on p. 38. 46 X o CINELLI'S STORY by the Relazione as the dimension across the ocular region, and model with this measurement as a basis, as Welcker says, we should get a ' colossal bust.' * If this evidence and these arguments are valid, the Torrigiani * death-mask ' must be regarded as one of those false relics which in course of time are bound to accumulate about the shrines of heroes and poets as well as of saints. Its age is of course unknown. m * * * * * In a letter to Charles Lyell, dated Florence, February 27, 1842, Seymour Kirkup quotes a story which indicates, either that some one was untruthful, or that Dante's head did not accompany his body in its odyssey.-f* Kirkup says: ' Having met with a curious and unknown anecdote of a bust of Dante, I send you the following extract, which will interest you, as it probably relates to the one of which you have a cast. [From Kirkup's ' mould ' of the Torrigiani bust.] It is from an inedited and autograph MS. in the Maglia- bechian Library, No. IX., by Giovanni Cinelli [born at Florence in 1623, died in 1706], a celebrated antiquarian and physician, who published Le Bellezze di Firenze, in 1 677. The title of this MS., in four volumes, is La Toscana letterata ovvero Istoria degli Scrittori Fiorentm.% At page 325 begins the life of Dante. At page 340 he proceeds thus [I translate] : ' He [Dante] was buried with due honour by the citizens of Ravenna . . . with funeral obsequies and a sepulchre, to which they added a beautiful epitaph by Giovanni del Virgilio, to be read on that sculptured work. His head was afterward taken out of the sepulchre by order of the Archbishop of Ravenna [?Pier Donato Cesi, who came to Ravenna in 1555] and given to Giambologna, a famous sculptor [1524-1608], from whose hands, along with all the other curious things in small models and other materials, it passed * Welcker, Der Schadel Dante's, pp. 37-42. Welcker had never gone into the history of death-masks, of which in fact very little is known even now, but he thought the Torrigiani mask too artistic to be genuine and surmised that it had been modelled from a true death-mask. He suggests that the original of the mask was perhaps a work executed in Dante's advanced age and that the mask was made up from that, whereas Giotto's picture shows Dante young — between twenty-eight and thirty years of age. t Ste chap. iii. of the present book. X See The Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito, 1842, pp. xvii.-xviii., and Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, London, 1909, vol. ii. pp. 643-5. 47 PORTRAITS OF DANTE into the possession of Pietro Tacca [died 1640], his pupil and heir. And this explains how one day, as he was showing to the Duchess Sforza, among other pretty things and oddities, the head of Dante, she, with an imperious gesture, snatched it away and saw fit to carry it off, depriving at one and the same time Tacca and the city of so dear a treasure, to the great sorrow of this Pietro, as I have been often told by Lodovico Salvetti, his pupil, and an eye-witness of this act. ' This head was not very large in front, but constructed with a very great delicacy in the bones, and from the forehead back to the part called occiput, where the lamboid suture ends, it was very long. I mean it was not round like most heads [?], but oval — a manifest proof of the profound memory of this excellent poet — and because of its beauties it was often used as a pattern in drawing by Tacca's young men. The duchess, however, having put it in a green scarf, carried it away with her own hands, and God knows in whose possession and where so precious a thing may be now.' From Cinelli, who for obscurity of style and for credulity quite matches our John Aubrey, I turn again to Kirkup : ' The Marchese Torrigiani's bust of Dante is ascertained to be plaster coloured, and not terra-cotta as was supposed. The process of colouring may be the cause of the obliteration of the finer markings of the face observable in the mask from which your lithograph is taken, and of the smoother, fleshier, and more feminine appearance in the three drawings of Vito d'Ancona, which were made for you. The mask which you have is from the mould in my possession, which I procured from the Cavalier Bartolini,the chief sculptor here, as a cast from the Torrigiani terra-cotta [sic]. There is a third cast which belonged to Ricci the sculptor, who made the Dante monu- ment in Santa Croce. Ricci's heirs lent it to Fabris, who made use of it for the obverse of his medal of Dante. There are material, though slight, differences in all the three, and perhaps they are from different moulds ; yet they all have the same peculiarities, which belong to nature and are not artistic* For instance, the eyes are neither closed nor open ; the left eye is rather more closed than the right one. They are all three the same size, of life, with the same cap, the same lock of hair, all the same very natural wrinkles and veins, where not effaced, and they are all three fine heads, and much beyond any sculptor of those early times, and I think of any time, * Note how Kirkup deludes himself as to the origin of these various masks. 48 GIOVANNI BOLOGNA'S 'ORIGINAL' for they seem nature, only modified by accident, such as warping^ shrinking, scraping, &c., perhaps retouching in some parts. May not Giovanni Bologna's be the original of all, cast on the real face, and removed from the monument at Ravenna when Cardinal Bembo put up the marble one ? In the beautiful fresco portrait of Dante, by Giotto, on the wall of the Cap[p]ella del Podesta here, a treasure which has been recently recovered, we see the same features pre- cisely as in the Torrigiani bust, but with the softer, happier expression of the age of about twenty-five.' * Cinelli's words show, I think, that he had in mind, not a sculp- tured head, but the real head of Dante, Dante's skull. -f- Kirkup '■ supposes that Giovanni Bologna [Giambologna] had ' the original of all, cast on the real face, and removed from the monument at Ravenna when Cardinal Bembo put up the marble one.' Amid such conjectures one might flounder interminably. To a willing- ness to believe almost anything that falls in with one's impressions, add a confident independence of historical documents and of the labour involved in sifting a little truth out of much chaff, and we have, I think, a formula so often used as to make all historical re- search a formidable task. We have no evidence that death-masks i were made in Dante's time; therefore we have none that one was made of Dante ; we have no evidence that any likeness of the poet could be seen on or in his tomb till Pietro Lombardi decorated it with a profile bust in low-relief in 1483 ; the story about Dante's' head is a legend it it refers to his skull, for Dante had only one skull, which was not removed by an Archbishop and presented to Giam- bologna ; nor is there any evidence that a bust resembling Torri- giani's ever stood in Dante's tomb at Ravenna. Writing of Kirkup's 'death-mask' about 1865, the late Prof, C. E. Norton said : ' It was plainly taken as a cast from a face after death. It has none of the characteristics which a fictitious and imaginative representation of the sort would be likely to present. It bears no trace of being a work of skilful and deceptive art. The difference in the fall of the two half-closed eyelids, the * Lyell, The Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito, 1842, pp. xviii.-xix., and Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, London, 1909, vol. ii. pp. 643-5. t Ricci seems not to have suspected this (see L' Ultimo Rifitgio, pp. 281-2), though he says (p. 282, bottom) : ' La certezza infine che si trattava d'una testa intera e non d'una maschera, ci distoglie dal pensare che possa essere [la testa posseduta da Gio. Bologna] alcuna delle maschere o alcuno dei busti che oggi conosciamo.' D 49 PORTRAITS OF DANTE difference between the sides of the face, the slight deflection in the line of the nose, the droop of the corners of the mouth, and other delicate, but none the less convincing indications, combine to show that in all probability it was taken from nature. The countenance, moreover, and expression, are worthy of Dante ;'...* ' Baron Kirkup's mask,' writes Ricci, ' and that of the Torrigiani, further- more the one that served whoever wrought the bronze bust pre- served in the Museum at Naples, all come from one and the same model, and in their turn have given rise to many others ; for instance, the one owned by Lyell, the three — two of plaster and one of marble — to be seen in the Record Office and in the Classe Library at Ravenna, and many others. In fact, they have in common the same dimensions of the whole and of the parts, the little tuft of hair that emerges from under the hood, the hair on the temples with the identical marks, and the eartabs of the cap. An identical derivation is therefore sure, and if some very slight variations are to be perceived in some masks, we must not forget that that unquestionably arises from the fact that they come from reproductions and from copies executed in clay, bronze, and marble. '•!■ Notwithstanding its artistic merit, Kirkup's ' death-mask ' has no other historical value than that of proving how easily critics who rely upon their personal impressions can be deluded into seeing whatever their temperaments and their culture are likely to create in moments of imaginative activity. It can safely be said that all the thousands of plastic representations of Dante now known go back to some belated attempt to figure the poet more tangibly, to make him more completely visible ; we have no evidence that any sculptural effigy of Dante existed till one hundred and sixty-two years after his death. J * On the Original Portraits of Dante (privately printed), 1865, pp. 14-15. t UTJltimo Rifugio, pp. 280-I. t The cast owned by the sculptor Ricci was utilised by him for his statue of Dante in Santa Croce and ' eventually . . . passed into the hands of Kirkup. One of the masks in the possession of Kirkup was presented by him to the Oxford Dante Society, in whose custody it now remains.' {See Toynbee, Dante in English Literature, 1909, especially vol. ii. p. 644, note 2. The pages devoted to Lyell and Kirkup offer information of much importance to the present investigation.) See also Ricci's text and notes, where are given various details of interest to Dante students ; but it is needless to pursue further in this work the history of Dante ' death-masks.' Kirkup's can be seen in Lyell's translation of Dante's Canxoniere, 1842, in Ricci, 50 THE AUTHOR TULLIO LOMBARDI ? If Cinelli's story is not a legend, it must refer to an effigy of Dante's head. Here we find ground to walk on. If the ' arch- bishop ' was Pier Donato Cesi, he it was, in all probability, who took the (sculptured) head of Dante from the sepulchre and gave it to Gian Bologna. The time in which this occurred (1555, or a little later), the place from which it was taken, and various artistic criteria, lead Signor Corrado Ricci to believe that this head ; was the work of Tullio Lombardi. It is said to have been in the Poet's tomb, but it is not mentioned by any of the writers who described the tomb before the rebuilding and embellishment of 1483. In that year, or a little earlier, Bernardo Bembo entrusted' this work to the architect and sculptor, Pietro Lombardi, who was constantly helped by his sons Tullio and Antonio. The Torrigiani mask, thinks Ricci, reproduces the Dante sculptured on a slab in the tomb by Pietro Lombardi. But further : Tullio Lombardi was again at work in Ravenna early in the sixteenth century, and there he sculptured the statue of Guido Guidarelli and the head of an unknown man, supposed to be Gaston de Foix, who was killed in 1512. In these two works Ricci and other experts believe they find the same workmanship as in the Torrigiani mask. Tullio, we learn, especially liked to portray heads of corpses. The head of Guidarelli, says Ricci, is of wonderful beauty ; ' less beautiful, yet noteworthy, is that taken for Gaston [de Foix].' To Ricci and his fellow experts it seemed that the three masks (so-called) had in common the careful anatomical study, the subtle adjustment of the lips, the demarcation of the nostrils, the swelling of the eyes. And we are asked to note particularly that the brows do not quite com- plete their arch, but ' end at its summit to make room for a swelling of the skin at the glabella and on the zygomatic process.' * From these ingenious inferences I turn to a brief comparison of the Torrigiani mask and the large miniature in the Riccardian \ Codex 1 040. Not only are the two profiles markedly similar, but i other features agree so closely as to suggest that the one must be a , p. 280 (profile and side-face), 1891, in F. X. Kraus, Dante, &c., 1897, p. 185 ; also in an Album (containing many other beautiful Dante drawings by Kirkup) at the University of Pennsylvania (call number : 858 D U Kir), and is splendidly reproduced in Lord Vernon's Album, vol. iii. of his Inferno, 1865, p. 43, both front face and profile. * See Ricci, U Ultimo Ri/iigio, pp. 281-5, and his index, under 'Bembo, Bernardo.' 51 PORTRAITS OF DANTE copy of the other. They have in common the narrow fringes of hair over the forehead and by the eartabs ; they share also the strong jaw, the prominent cheekbones, and a noticeable pouching of the skin just over the eye.* The similarity of so many charac- teristic features, intended originaWy to be those of the same man, can hardly be due to chance. To be sure, there are certain important differences. For example, the lines of the miniature are hard and angular, giving an impression of wood rather than of flesh ; again the wrinkles, barely perceptible on the mask, are not part of the skin, but lie stiffly on its surface. The upper lip of the miniature looks almost like a wedge entering the mouth ; the lips of the mask are much longer and protrude. Note, too, how skilfully the nose of the mask has been flattened and thrust downward, from the bridge to the tip, as if crushed by the weight of a wet plaster mould. But if the maker of this ' death-mask ' was so clever as to take this precaution, why did he not take others ? — that is a puzzle, not less than the rest. The miniature, to my thinking, has a sharp, acrid, almost repellent, expression, in which nobility of character and greatness of mind are by no means obvious ; the mask reveals the hand of an artist, or of a good modeller who, though he may have failed to forge a wholly plausible ' death-mask,' was at least skilful enough to impart — at least, to the left profile — the ex- pression of recent death. If, now, despite their manifest variations, the mask and the miniature have so many characteristic features in common, must we not conclude that the mask was modelled from the miniature ? or, as is also possible, that the miniature was made from the mask ? I think not ; but to justify this opinion, I must turn to the bronze bust now preserved in the Museum at Naples, halting for a moment on the way to study the effigy in Dante's tomb at Ravenna. * Note also the similarity of the caps, particularly on the right side. Since the problem of tracing by ' internal ' evidence the genesis of a copied portrait must depend for its solution upon the doctrine of chances (as applied in identification by thumb- prints, or in the Bertillon system), a cap, or any other component element which is not obviously commonplace, may have just as much importance as facial lines. 52 THE EFFIGY ON DANTE'S TOMB AT RAVENNA Ordered by Bernardo Bembo and executed by Pietro Lombardi. Boxhorn's engraving. Dante depicted reading. Shelley's impressions. The portrait of 1481. The mask again. Lombardi's Dante described. No portraits or effigies at Venice in Bembo's time HAD Guido Novello not been driven into exile soon after Dante's death (September 13—14, 1321), he would probably have honoured his poet guest with a splendid sepulchre ; * but fate ruled that Dante's body should remain in the original sarcophagus, in which Guido had had it placed provisionally, till the days of its secret peregrina- tions.-f- The sarcophagus may have borne at first no inscription save the Poet's name ; but shortly after Boccaccio's second or third visit to Ravenna, in 1353, the sarcophagus was cleansed and there were soon graven the two epitaphs, lURA MONARCHI^E and INCLITA FAMA, still to be seen. Yet it was not till 1483 that Guido's loyal intention was carried out. In that year, working under the orders and in the pay of Bernardo Bembo, father of the famous humanist, Pietro Lombardi, architect and sculptor, helped by his sons TuUio and Antonio, finished building and adorning the long-neglected sepulchre. Whether the old tomb had contained a portrait of Dante is not known, but it is believed that Bembo intended to enrich his gift with an effigy of Dante, that such an effigy was cut in marble by Pietro Lombardi, and that the Dante now visible is Lombardi's. Can this be true ? Can the present effigy in low-relief have been * See p. 36 and the footnote. f See pp. 29-31, and Corrado Ricci, L'U/timo Rifugh di Dante A/ighieri, Milan, 1891, pp. 247-77, *^^ 33^ ff- The best account of Dante's final vicissitudes is given in this richly documented and judicious book, with a full bibliography. / 5/ PORTRAITS OF DANTE put there by Lombardi ? Or have we here a mysterious substitu- tion, such as occurred at Stratford-on-Avon after Dugdale's time ? Whether we look at an engraving in Boxhorn's Monumenta Illus- trium Virorum (1638) * or at either of two other old engravings, respectively of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, both re- produced by Signor Ricci, we are confronted by various discrepan- cies which should arouse suspicions as to the age and authorship of the present effigy of Dante. All these engravings display a tomb far less sleek and sumptuous than the one now visible ; evidently, therefore, this tomb has undergone more or less radical alterations — a fact already made known. -f- The present sarcophagus stands where it stood three centuries and more ago, and various other important details, such as the signature of Pietro Lombardi, carved on a slab behind and above the sarcophagus to the right, agree ; but how came Boxhorn's engraving to represent a free, complete bust, standing in a plain niche, whereas the present effigy is cut in low-relief on a slab in a niche or recess which is by no means plain ? If this low-relief was really the work of Pietro Lombardi, why should this engraving represent a bust, unless a bust was what the engraver saw ? .j: Or shall we attribute the discrepancy merely to a lack of skill ? The obvious answer is this : Either Boxhorn's engraving is inaccurate, or the low-relief now visible is not the work of Pietro Lombardi but was fabricated, possibly in some ' restoration,' at least one hundred and fifty years after his time. Comparing the engravings with the low-relief, we note a general resemblance : the pose is similar, and all these figures (Boxhorn's would suffice) represent the poet reading at a lectern, with his profile toward us. If the physiognomies differ more or less, and they do, the difference can reasonably be attributed to lack of skill ; the truth is that all three engravings are in most respects clumsy and crude. Nevertheless, a bust is not a low-relief. * Cur a ac studio Marci Zuerii Boxhornii, Amsterdam, 1638. Pages 40-43 of this work are devoted to Dante ; unfortunately the Elogium of Dante contains no valuable information, but the plates reproduce the tomb (with what accuracy, it would be hard to say), and the inscriptions lURA MONARCHIC, EXIGUA TUMULI, and Anno Sal., &c. t See p. 30. On various restorations made after Bembo's time, see Ricci, op. cit.y pp. 289 ffi % The seventeenth-century engraving, as reproduced by Ricci, may represent either a low-relief or a bust ; that of the eighteenth century appears to represent the present effigy. 54 DANTE S TOMIJ. (Kavfnna) THE EFFIGY AT RAVENNA Whatever the right explanation may be, upon a large slab ot Istrian marble behind and above the sarcophagus we now see an effigy of Dante in low-relief. He is crowned with the traditional laurel wreath and wears a tailed cap not unlike that painted by Domenico di Michelino. He stands with his breast turned almost toward us, bending slightly toward his book, whereas Boxhorn (possibly through sheer clumsiness) represents him leaning steeply backward, as if he had recoiled at something astounding or repel- lent in his book. His right hand rests upon an open volume at his side, while some other work, open on the lectern before him, holds him absorbed, his head inclined slightly forward, with the profile toward us. His left arm is propped on the lectern, and his chin rests somewhat awkwardly in his left palm. In a letter addressed to his wife, and dated ' Ravenna, Wednesday [15 August, 1 821],' the poet Shelley thus records his impressions of Dante's tomb and of the effigy attributed toPietroLombardi: ' I have seen Dante's tomb, and worshipped the sacred spot. The building and its accessories are comparatively modern, but the urn itself, and the tablet of marble, with the portrait in relief, are evidently of equal antiquity with his death. The countenance has all the marks of having been taken from his own; the lines are strongly marked, far more than the portraits, which, however, it resembles ; except, indeed, the eye, which is half closed, and reminded me of Pacchiani \il diavolo Pacchiani, a Pisan chemist]. It was probably taken after death.'* What model or models Pietro followed is not known ; yet both the engraving of 1638 and our low-relief are in their general effect more or less Dantesque ; we may class this effigy in a category which it is convenient to call the reading Dantes ; good examples of this category are offered by a few portraits (mostly fantastic) put at the beginning of certain MSS. of the Commedia, by the handsome miniature in that parchment copy of his edition (1481) which Cristoforo Landino presented to the Republic of Florence, and by Signorelli's painting at Orvieto. Lacaita, whose words I will trans- late, says : ' This low-relief in marble under the little dome at the back of the Chapel . . . represents Dante in the act of studying, and it is believed to have been taken from the mask formed on the face • The whole letter is reprinted in Ingpen's Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley. London, 1909, vol. ii. pp. 902-4. 55 PORTRAITS OF DANTE of the deceased poet, or from one of those frescoes which Giotto made in the Church of St. Francis at Ravenna.' * As for that famous mask, in which an older generation so unsuspectingly believed, and of which many writers who enjoy authority still speak as ' the death-mask of Dante,' enough has been said. Had this effigy been forced to rely for recognition upon its face alone, without laurel or label, or explanatory setting, or any illusive tradition, it might ultimately have been recognised as akin, in its profile, to the i Torrigiani ' mask ' and the Naples bust — for those who are skilled in such matters the test would be easy to make. As for Giotto, if ' he ever painted a Dante at Ravenna, the portrait no longer exists. ' And as for Pietro Lombardi's low-relief, if it in truth is his, either he was not well informed in Dante iconography, or he had not the skill to carry out the best design that he had managed to shape in his imagination. It is well to bear in mind that this architect, like his patron, Bernardo Bembo, came from Venice, and probably they were not familiar with the three portraits which we know to have been visible at that time in Florence, to wit, Giotto's, Taddeo Gaddi's, and the portrait on canvas by Domenico di Michelino. To these three — all painted between 1334 and 1465 — we might add a portrait, supposedly of Dante, executed about 1350 in Santa Maria Novella by Andrea or Nardo Orcagna, and the portrait by Andrea dal Castagno formerly at Legnaia. Venice, so far as I am aware, had no pictures or effigies of Dante till after Bernardo Bembo's time.-f- * See Lord Vernon's Album (vol. iii. of his Inferno, 1 865) for a beautiful engraving of the Ravenna Dante (p. 49), with brief explanatory text ; see also Ricci, U Ultimo Rifugio, especially pp. 256, 293, and 300. t See UUltimo Rifugio, pp. 247-77. Curiously enough, Ravenna, the city ot Dante's last years (he seems to have gone there a good while before 1319 — see Ricci, especially pp. 68-71), now offers no really old portrait of Dante ; the figure in the fresco at Santa Maria in Porto, favoured by Ricci {op. cit., pp. 287-9), seems very dubious. 56 LOMBARDTS LOW RELIEF. (From the Tomb^ Ravenna) VI THE BRONZE BUST OF DANTE AT NAPLES The Naples bronze bust truly Dantesque. Attributed to Donatello. The bust and the mask. The bust and the miniature in MS. Riccardiano 1040. Rela- tions of all three. Summary of possible history of the bust and its offspring. General characterisation of the bust AMONG persons of well-developed taste who are not particularly influenced by questions of authenticity, this bust * seems to have won more favour than any other possible likeness of Dante. It is in truth nobly Dantesque. Every line reveals a skilled workman who had somehow absorbed the grandeur of Dante's works and who must have taken pains to divine a man consistent not only with the character of the Dante revealed to us in the Commedia and De Monorchia^ but with all that seemed to him most credible in the older iconographic tradition. Here, too, is the protruding lower lip mentioned by Boccaccio, just perceptible — for the first time, I think, among all the plastic presentments of Dante. The face is grim, and seems to reveal a certain melancholy, as well as some- thing of that scorn which characterises the poet in his later works. Yet this expression does not dominate the face : what comes forth more surely than any other trait is power of mind and will. A weak man, a man of ordinary intelligence, could not have a mien so self-confident, so firm. We sometimes encounter strong-willed, clear-minded, talented men whose features seem to belie all these * ' Appartenne gia al Museo Farnesiano di Parma, e ora [1865] si conserva nel R. Museo di Napoli.' Espoiizione Dantesca in Firenze, Florence, 1 865, p. 3. In vol. xiv. of the Real Museo Borbonico catalogue, Naples, 1852, will be found a double reproduction of the bust (front and profile) and some four pages of letterpress by Guglielmo Bechi, who surmises on passably good grounds that the bust was one of many artistic objects which Margherita d' Austria brought to the Farnesi, and which passed thence to the Bourbons, reigning at Naples. 57 PORTRAITS OF DANTE gifts ; but certain traits of physiognomy have come to be regarded as clues to character, and though nature often deals shabbily with the best of men by giving them paradoxically weak or ugly faces ; nevertheless, faces in which we at once see strength, alertness, and beauty, seldom turn out to hide weakness, stupidity, and vice. With no identifying laurel or letters, the Naples bronze would still betoken power or greatness ; and it harmonises with the ideal of Dante's character which forms itself in our imaginations after careful study of his more personal works. The forehead, nose, mouth, and chin, the very set of the head, all make this a masterful face. Passion is there too, and, I think we may add, vivacity of interest coupled with certainty of purpose. ' Sen- suality ' (if Dante was sensual),* and tenderness, a characteristic which he began with and kept through all his known existence, despite his anger and indignation, are less apparent in this bust than in Giotto's youthful Dante ; perhaps these elements of character failed to impress our unknown sculptor. But of this I feel sure : our present ignoto has succeeded in imparting to this bust an expression of genius as well as of power in the more physical sense, and first among all the later artists who have attempted to portray Dante, he has put unmistakable signs of life into the face. Thus, at least one hundred years, more probably about two centuries, after his death, Dante is in a sense re-created in the medium that best symbolises his character, that is^ bronze. -f- If the specimens of Italian sculpture which we know to have been executed between the years 1300 and 1350 are safe criteria, no sculptor of Dante's time, or near it, could have made this mas- terpiece. It no more resembles the attempts of medieval sculptors to portray human figures than the paintings of RafFael or Titian resemble those of Giotto. Dante lived at least a century too early to be depicted with what all but some rare connoisseurs would call strict accuracy — I mean anatomical correctness of outline, however seen, and of surface, two feats which include the apprehension of character at a given moment. Notwithstanding Boccaccio's eulogy * I refer the reader to F. X. Kraus, Dante: sein Leben und sein Werk, pp. 142-3, and to D'Ovidio's study, ' Se possa il Fiore essere di Dante Alighieri,' in Nuovi Studi Danteschiy pp. 567-600. See also p. 145 of this book. t Cf. Dr. Ingo Krauss. 58 \l 9 9 H z < a o X u u I a: a! O H 3 -! THE NAPLES BUST of Master Giotto,* I doubt that it would be possible to mention any Italian work of art, plastic or graphic, from the fifth century to the middle of the fourteenth, in which we, with eyes better trained than those of Boccaccio, do not recognise a certain deadness not characteristic of the most admired specimens of ancient art or of painting and sculpture when they were beginning to ' rediscover man ' in the early years of the fifteenth century. However that f may be, the art of Giotto's period (about 1265 to 1336) did not j create realistic portraiture, anatomically accurate and impressively ' lifelike, in the sense now given to these words. This Naples bust has been attributed to Donatello (i 386-1468); but it is not signed, nor has any mark or note been found that might reveal the name of its author. Yet to whoever compares it with the Torrigiani ' mask,' or with Kirkup's, the resemblance will be at once obvious. Not only are the profiles almost identical, \ but the modelling is suspiciously similar throughout. There is the ! same arrangement of the eartabs, the same two fringes of hair, the same band to the cap, almost the same collar and the same lapels, J with the same opening to show the vest at the throat. Wherein ] do they essentially differ .? In the shape and expression of the lips, j in the shape of the cap, and (slightly) in the expression of the face. ' The lower lip of the bust conforms with Boccaccio's description, ' even though this significant feature is but faintly indicated ; • but make the upper lip of the ' mask ' like that of the bust and you will see wherein the main difference lies. Finally, these two works differ in that the one purports to be a ' death-mask,' whereas the other stands sincerely for what it is. What was the primary source of this bronze — the source wholly j outside its creator's imagination ? That it is closely akin to the • ' mask ' is evident, for the two works are in fact all but identical ' where they have anything essential in common. But is one of them * Decameron, vi. 5. ' The other, whose name was Giotto, was of so excellent a wit that, let Nature, mother of all, operant ever by continual revolution of the heavens, fashion what she would, he with his style and pen and pencil would depict its like on such wise that it shewed not as its like, but rather as the thing itself, insomuch that the visual sense of men did often err in regard thereof, mistaking for real that which was but painted.' (J. M. Rigg's translation, London, 1905.) Filippo Villani, possibly echoing Boccaccio, is equally lavish in his praises of Giotto's ability to produce the illusion of life. 5«Frey's edition of the text in his Libra di Antonio Billi, 1892, p. 74. Ghiberti eulogises Giotto as an innovator and as a versatile genius, skilled in all the arts. See Second Commentary, chap. i. 59 PORTRAITS OF DANTE a copy of the other ? and, if so, which is the copy ? However we may attempt to solve the first of these three questions, I think the second and third can be reasonably answered. If we compare the bronze bust with the Riccardian miniature,* t we shall see that the physiognomies are strikingly similar and that the caps are almost identical. The miniature is harshly drawn and ' crudely modelled, but its tell-tale lines are those of the bust. When both face in the same direction, the two caps are seen to be alike not only in their proportions and outlines, but in the very folds ; there is even an analogous puff at the top. It is to be noted, also, that the miniature shows the protruding lower lip, though less than the bust. Furthermore, bust and miniature are cut off by a hori- zontal line passing through corresponding points, and the costumes are alike in their cuts. As for the name (DANTE), that the sculptor had of course to put where he could ; so he cast it across the breast. He may have added -f- a laurel wreath now lost, though its former presence is shown by the large holes in the band round the cap. All these points of resemblance cannot reasonably be laid to chance, and the primary source of the bust (even if there were 1 intermediary copies) may therefore be the Riccardian miniature, [ unless we are to assume that the miniaturist copied the bronze, or j its source, or some close analogue, choosing the profile view, omit- ! ting the laurel wreath, and removing the word DANTE to a more conspicuous place. However fanciful this hypothesis may seem, it is worth consideration. As Dr. Krauss has already observed, the harshness of the miniature — the stiffness of its modelling and the crudity of various lines, as on the forehead and neck — points to a plastic source ; I will add, to something cast. The specific source, it seems to me, was ' in truth our bust, and the close mechanical resemblance of these \ two works leads me to believe that the derivation was direct ; in a i word, that the Riccardian miniature was drawn by an artist, or, , more properly, by an artisan, who had this very Naples bust — or one like it — before his eyes, and who attempted to copy it, or who adapted it according to his talent and to suit his purpose. * See the List of Illustrations. t He must have ' added ' the wreath, if the miniature was his source. Cf. pp. 65-67 and 71-72. 60 THE NAPLES BUST What, now, is the primary source of this bust ? Possibly the Palatine miniature 320, to which we shall come in a moment, is the source, whether the derivation be immediate or not. The bust and the two miniatures have too much in common to be inde- pendent of one another — and here let us bear in mind that all posthumous portraits must be either copies, derivatives, or fanciful. The similarity of the Naples bust to the Riccardian miniature, or vice versa, is in fact so great, so mechanical in its character, that I cannot believe they were derived collaterally — that is, independently — from any common source. Now, if we note that the Riccardian miniature faces to the right — a left-handed and therefore an unusual way of drawing an isolated profile — whereas the Palatine miniature faces to the left — (the bust could of course be turned in either direction) — and if we add to this the characteristics already com- pared or mentioned, it seems to me that we should turn from the Naples bust to the Palatine miniature. Different though these are in various respects, they differ no more than do Raffael's three portraits and less than many of the drawings by Botticelli, though both Raffael and Botticelli intended to portray the same individual, ' each in a definite period of that individual's life. But my argument is forcing me to deal over-minutely with two works which have not yet been described ; so we may now return for a moment to the bust and the mask. As to the relation between these there need be little doubt. The bust can hardly have been copied from the mask, because the bust shares with the Riccardian miniature certain important features which the mask wholly lacks ; the mask was probably copied from the bust, or from some nearly identical work, because it shows almost exactly the same modelling as the bust, whereas this model- ling is but crudely indicated by the miniature and only for the profile. It is possible, of course, that the mask and the bust owe their nearly identical modelling to having been derived, not one from the other, but both from the same source ; yet this is merely a possibility, worth mentioning as a reasonable hypothesis and as an admission which logic compels us to make. If my argument as thus far stated is correct, the history of the Torrigiani mask, the Riccardian miniature, and the Naples bust may be surmised, summarised, and expanded as follows : At some time after the year 1450 or thereabouts — for that is the earliest period 61 \ PORTRAITS OF DANTE to which any one of these works can be reasonably assigned — an unknown but highly gifted sculptor, familiar with Dante's character as revealed in the Commedia, or in other works which could afford him similar conclusions, found in the Giotto type, perhaps in Giotto's fresco itself, more probably in the Palatine miniature or some close analogue, a model by whose help he wrought the Naples bust — a proceeding frequently recorded in the annals of sculpture, for there exist no end of busts and statues fabricated from purely graphic sources. If this artist used the Riccardian miniature, which seems to be the very reverse of what happened, he not only did away with its metallic hardness but surpassed it in other respects ; for he knew how to impart to his work those subtle touches which produce a strikingly characteristic expression and the illusion of life ; never- theless, he remained true to his source by not radically altering the type. If, on the other hand, he used the Palatine miniature, he got rid of its somewhat austerely sheepish, staring expression, and other- wise made a more plausible portrait, a more pleasing work of art. In its interpretation of character this bust conforms more closely with Giotto's portrait than does the Riccardian miniature, and it may be more nearly related to the Palatine portrait — that is by - direct descent. It also harmonises with Boccaccio's oft-repeated description, and with the ideal that most lovers of Dante are likely to build out of their study of his works. Whether our unknown sculptor actually used the Palatine portrait, or some other work like it, what he had to do (and just therein he displayed his genius) was to imagine a whole head from one side of a face, and to create, without really abandoning the type of his model, a countenance full of life and revealing those many interesting and characteristic features which we find in the bust, thus fulfilling in great measure his obvious wish to make a noble ideal likeness of a man whom he found too crudely portrayed in a miniature which nevertheless pre- served a credible tradition. Many noble and lifelike busts of men who could not have been accurately portrayed by any contemporary prove that this was not an impossible task. But the bust itself proves this last contention ; for we know that it is largely an ideal 1 portrait made four or five generations, or more, after Dante's | death. Later, if I mistake not — that is, well after 1450 — either the author of this bronze, or, more probably, some other unknown 62 THE NAPLES BUST sculptor, possibly TuUio Lombardi,* used it, or some closely analo- gous work, to invent a ' death-mask. ' — namely Torrigiani's — which many persons still believe to be an authentic cast from a mould formed on Dante's own features as he lay dead at Ravenna in September 1321. If TuUio Lombardi made this bust (and we have no evidence that he did), he deserves to rank with the great sculptors of that epoch ; if he invented only the so-called death-mask and intended to have it pass as such, we may record him as an impostor not sufficiently familiar with the details of that art to make the deception at least internally complete. The truth is that no one knows who made any one of these works, nor when they were made ; they must therefore be received as foundlings and be studied in that light. Of their history we know almost nothing, yet we know at least enough to prove that Dante's likeness must be sought in other works. I believe, to conclude, that the Torrigiani mask and the , Riccardian miniature were both derived directly from the Naples ' bust, that the Naples bust was derived from the Palatine miniature, , or one like it, and that the Palatine miniature leads us straight to Giotto. My reasons for holding this belief will be further developed when we come to the chapters on these works. The Naples bust represents our poet at the age of about fifty ■ years, when his experiences of a rich and all too bitter life were nearly : ended. The Riccardian miniature likewise denotes about that age, but its expression lacks both subtlety and grandeur. In a word, the- miniature seems to me to reveal little of Dante's later history, where- as in the firm, sad face of the bust I find my conception of his fully matured character and the impression of his later experiences amply ' recorded, I will risk advancing still further into that field of criti- cism where impressions are easier than demonstrations. The sensi- ■ tiveness that made Dante suffisr, the sternness, dignity, and pride, the , alma sdegnosa, all these seem to be present in the face of this bust, and possibly something of that passion and power of vision which i made the poet in the philosopher and observer of life. As Giotto's painting was once the most artistic, and probably ; the most faithful portrait of Dante in his early manhood, when his j conflict with wickedness and misfortunes had hardly begun ; so this bronze bust is, I think, the most artistic and characteristic portrait \ of him in his maturity. It was made by a sculptor who loyally ' * Set Ricci, UUltimo Rifiigio, pp. 283-5, and this book, pp. 50-51. 63 PORTRAITS OF DANTE adopted a credible iconographic tradition, and who through his work itself offers good evidence that he had studied Dante. The real Dante was possibly very different from our sculptor's portrait, but we can at least believe that in his last years he may have had a face like this.* * According to F. X. Kraus, the best copies of the Naples bust can be had of Del Nero, 99, Via del Babbuino, Rome, and of Rohricht, Piazza di Spagna, Ronne. A photograph, tinted to imitate the original metal, can be had of the Berlin Photographische Gesellschaft. For other reproductions see the Cornell Dante Catalogue, vol. ii. p. 580. One of the best derivatives of the Naples bust is signed A. Carri. This bronze measures 3.6 cent, from end of chin to tip of nose, and 4.6 from tip of nose to cheek bone. Eyes dow^ncast, expression bitter. All important lines — profile, cheekbones, mouth, lines from nostrils, lips and modelling of cheeks and forehead — show imitation of Naples bust. This work has also a laurel wreath, somewhat like that borrowed by R. Morghen. For a fine characterisation of the Naples bust I will refer the reader to the late C. E. Norton, On the Original Portraits of Dante, 1865, p. 15. 64 VII DANTE IN THE CODEX RICCARDIANUS 1040 Character and probable age of the miniature in the MS. Riccardiano 1040. Its apparent relation to the Naples bust. This portrait officially offered in 1864-5 ^ the most authentic likeness of Dante THIS portrait, which, for reasons already given,* may be a copy of the Naples bust, is a large coloured drawing on a very dark background. It fills the whole inner side of a parchment guard which serves as a cover to a paper MS. (Riccardiano 1040) assigned by Signor S. Morpurgo to the middle of the fifteenth century. -f* This MS. contains twenty-eight poems from Dante's Canzoniere, with others by Bindo Bonichi and Mariotto Davanzati, but nothing that might clearly reveal its precise age and origin. Nor have we any * 5*^ pp. 60-62. t See F. X. Kraus, Dante, Sec, pp. 184-5, ^'^^ S. Morpurgo, / Manoscritti della R. Biblioteca Riccardiana, Rome, 1893, vol. i. p. 35, No. 1040. MS. Riccard. 1040 measures 295 by 200 mm. and contains 63 leaves, of which Nos. 28, 29, and the last seven vi^ere left blank. ' The initials of ff. 2, 30, and 54, are gilded and adorned with fancy borders ; the others are simply coloured. At the foot of f. 2 is a crown, held up by two angels, between whom are the arms of the Migliorati (?), while on the two sides are the initials P. L. On the recto of f. i, that is, on the front side of the parchment guard, written in capitals, perhaps by the copyist of the codex himself, is this inscription: " This book belongs ... to lacopo di Pagolo ," but the first name [indicated by the , . . ] has been completely rubbed off. At the top of f. 2 : " Cosmi Venturi Floren- tini, n. 26." ' In no case, says Morpurgo, does this MS. go further back than about 1450 ; the miniature, thinks this expert, may have been added a little later with the arms above indicated, which are of a very different make from the decorations of the initials. This portrait has often been reproduced, but never with its original colouring till now. I am indebted to Signor Guido Biagi for various bits of useful information, and thanks are due also to Professor Pio Rajna for examining the Riccardian miniature in my behalf, with results which corroborate what is stated above, and for informing me that Professor Paolo D'Ancona ' is now printing a powerful work on our miniature.' Professor D'Ancona's conclusions are not known to me, but they will be accessible to the readers of this book. E 65 "\ PORTRAITS OF DANTE clue to the painter's name, though that of a certain Marius Buriesi, of whom nothing is known, is signed under the four Latin verses beneath the portrait.* These verses, written in a fifteenth-century hand, are worth noting, for they suspiciously resemble those which some anonymous epigraphist supplied for Michelino's portrait (i465).-f- Our present miniature seems slightly more modern than the MS. to which it makes so luxurious a frontispiece. The verses are as follows : Qui cecinit Celos: etqui Stigiamq. palude [m] Umbrarum penas: limina Cecha docens [?] Ecce vides vatem : levis membrana superbum Continet: hunctantum: parca delere nequit [?].:{: ' The bard who sang of Heaven, of the Stygian marsh, and of the penalties suffered by the Shades, and told of Hell's dark gates — lo, here he is: A smooth parchment holds him in his pride ; this man, so great was he. Fate hath no power to blot him out.' Such appears to be the meaning of these lines, though their Latin is ambiguous ; but the apparent connection between the two inscrip- tions may be due purely to chance, for the initial words are a fairly common formula in epitaphs to poets. Here Dante's head is painted about half life-size, or, to be more accurate, it measures 14 centimetres in height (about 5.6 inches), and faces to the right. He is represented in the familiar cap, almost exactly like that of the Naples bust, very similar to that of the miniature in the MS. Palatino 320, and of about the same style as that painted by Giotto. The white flaps of the coif, and the white 1 eartabs, are conspicuous and must be noted as important character- I istics. As has been shown, § the whole head-gear of this portrait, except the flaps behind the ears (which are hidden), indicates with I an almost mechanical certainty that this miniature is a copy or ' derivative of the Naples bust, unless the contrary is the case. ' * Gargano Gargani {Giornale del Centenario, Aug. lo, 1864, p. 153) reads 'Marius Bruciens ' instead of ' Marius Buriesi,' and seems to ascribe the portrait and epigram to Mario Equicola who, he thinks, would carry us back to the year 1521. I give his opinion for what it may be worth. f See p. 178. X The ends of the last three lines are not clear : perhaps this reading is not right as to docens and delere ; but Gargano Gargani's morere vetat {Giornale del Centenarioy Aug. 10, 1864, p. 153) is as wrong as his coe urn for Celos. § See suprOy pp. 60-62. 66 HEAD OF DANTK (After the illuminatioi in M.S. 1040, RiccarJiana Library^ Florence) •• • • » • • • • • • • • • THE RICCARDIAN MINIATURE In 1864, having been chosen to name the most authentic por- trait of Dante, Gaetano Milanesi (the editor of Vasari), and Luigi Passerini submitted to the Minister of Public Instruction two reports which may be regarded as among the most paradoxical pro- ductions in the history of Dante's posthumous fortunes. Having erroneously assumed that Giotto's portrait of Dante was painted before 1332, and that it must therefore have been destroyed by a conflagration which devastated a large part of the Palazzo del / Podesta in February of that year, they concluded that the portrait discovered in the Maddalena Chapel in 1840 was the work of Giotto's disciple Taddeo Gaddi, ' the favourite and the most skilful among his disciples.'* Now we are offered not even a scrap of proof that Taddeo Gaddi was Giotto's favourite (// piii amato tra i suot discepoli) ; but if Taddeo was the most skilful of Giotto's disciples, why did Milanesi and Passerini reject theportrait which they supposed to have been painted by him (within a few years of Dante's death), and select an anonymous miniature which they themselves declared to have been executed in the fifteenth century ? Their decision aroused passionate opposition (no wonder !), and it has not been approved by a later generation. These two critics offered their personal fancies instead of a careful investigation. ' This portrait,' say they, meaning the Riccardian miniature . . . ' represents the poet, according to his characteristic features [how could they know?] at the age of somewhat more than forty years, without those exaggerations of later artists who give Dante the profile of an old hag, caricaturing the nose and the prominence of the lower lip and chin. It is such, in a word, that in our opinion it should have the preference over all others, in case the head to be engraved on a medal were to be in profile, as seems most reasonable. '-f- * See the Giornale del Centenario for July 1864, p. 134. t Ibid., col. 2. From their second report (Feb. 10, 1865)11 is evident that the first was challenged by men of authority ; but a little pamphlet by Vito Beltrani (whose name was revealed by D'Ancona) showed up most forcibly the illogical and whimsical character of the Milanesi-Passerini decision. See also G. Gargani in Giornale del Centenario, Ang, 10, 1864, pp. 15 1-4, and Sept. 20, 1864, pp. 184-6. The sculptor Dupr6 {see p. 69) took this miniature for a work by Giotto. Ibid., p. 1 93 (also p. 303). 67 VIII DANTE IN THE CODEX PALATINUS 320 The portrait in the Codex Palatinus 320 ; assigned to fifteenth century, then to Giotto. The opinion of Kraus requires a long leap. This miniature was probably copied from the portrait by Giotto at some time after 1450. The hair a significant feature. Portrait 320 compared with 1040. Relations of both to Giotto's fresco, to the mask, and to the Naples bust A PARCHMENT manuscript of unknown origin, now designated Codice Palatino 320, and preserved at the National Library in Florence contains a portrait done with a quill and water-colour, and across the top we read DANTES A ALLIGHERIUS A FLORENTINUS. This portrait occurs on a page 0.25 m. high and 0.155 '^* wide — i.e. about 9.5 by 5.5 inches. The length of the face, from the point where the hair begins to the lower edge of the chin, is about four inches.* In 1853 Francesco Palermo assigned this manuscript to the fif- teenth century, and characterised the miniature as follows : ' Portrait of Dante, done with a quill in water-colour extremely well ; and we believe it must be a copy of a portrait from life, since it shows the same features as appear in Giotto's, save that they are those of a man in the fulness of his manhood, and the expression comes out strongly felt and full of life, a thing which is lacking in the ordinary portraits, taken, as is known, from the [death-] mask.'-f * This miniature is reproduced by Kraus, who devotes to it pp. 175, 177-8, or his Dante. Kraus gives at some length the opinions of F. Palermo {1853), Buonajuti, Livy and Dupr6 (i860), Bartoli (1888), and Negroni (1888) ; to the opinion of Kraus himself, as well as to those of Dr. Ingo Krauss and Passerini, I shall come shortly. This miniature is well reproduced by Alinari. t F. VaXe.tmo, Manoscritti Palatini di Firenxe, Florence, 1853, "^^^^ '-P- 539- "^^^ MS. Pal. 320 is thus described in Esposizione Dantesca in Firenze, Florence, 1865 (p. 45, No. 70) : ' Bel codice del sec. xv. AUe carte numerate precedono alcune pergamene che contengono : (a) Ritratto di Dante, di profile, meta del veto contornato 68 > , , ) J » > J ' 5 » , a » » ' THE PALATINE MINIATURE. (Coi/ex Palaihms 320.) THE PALATINE MINIATURE Whatever may be the source or sources of the ' ordinary por- traits,' they are not known to have been taken from the ' mask ' ; but we shall see how Palermo's impression changed. ' In the second volume of his catalogue he goes over to the verdict of three artists (Buonajuti, Livy, and Dupre the great sculptor), who assigned the manuscript to the fourteenth century, and regarded the drawing as a work by Giotto himself.'* Here we come to impressionistic extravagance expressed with official solemnity : ' It has pleased Heaven that we should discover his true likeness [Dante's] at a mature age in a Palatine Codex, executed by Giotto, by the mightiest of artists, who had painted the poet as a youth in the Chapel of the Potesta. A discovery recognised by the experts, and in particular by the distinguished Professors Buonajuti, Livy, and Dupre, who, on April 19, 1859, made this declaration : We the undersigned, having examined the marvellous portrait, done with quill and water- colour, of Dante Alighieri, executed in the fourteenth century, and to be found in the codex 312 [sic] of the Biblioteca Palatina, have recognised : first, that it is done from life, and represents the poet in his majestic virility ; second, that the author cannot have been any other than Giotto ; for not only does it show his own manner in drawing, but also the excellence of such a work could not be attributed to any other artist of that epoch.' -f- In their first report (July 9, 1864) Milanesi and Passerini assigned this MS. to the fifteenth century,! ^"^ thought little ot a penna e dolcemente acquarellato,' &c. This MS., ' tutto membranaceo e di pergamena assai bella' (Rajna), contains other small portraits of Dante in illustrations of scenes in the Divina Commedia, with the text. * Kraus, Dante, p. 177. t Palermo, Op. cit., vol. ii. (i860), pp. vi.-vii. The text reads thus : 'e piaciuto al Cielo che la sua genuina sembianza, di eta matura, avessimo discoperto in un codice Palatino, eseguita da Giotto ; dal sommo artista, che avea dipinto il Poeta giovane, nella cappella del Potest^. Scoperta riconosciuta dagl' intendenti : e in ispecie da'tre egregi professori, Buonajuti, Livy, e Dupr^ ; i quali, il di 19 Aprile 1859, fecero questa dichiarazione. " Noi sottoscritti, avendo esaminato il ritratto maraviglioso, a penna e acquerello, di Dante Alighieri, eseguito nel secol xiv, e che si ritrova nel codice 312 [sic'] della Biblioteca Palatina, abbiamo riconosciuto : prima, ch'esso h ritratto dal vero, che rappresenta il Poeta nella sua maestosa viriliti. Secondo, che I'autore non i possibile sia stato altri che Giotto : tra perch^ vi si trova appunto il suo modo proprio nel disegnare, e perch^ I'eccellenza di un tal lavoro, non potrcbbe essere attribuita a niun altro artista di quell' et^." ' J In 1864 Cavalcaselle said of this miniature: 'Credo essere eseguito sulla fine del 1300, poich^ vi si riscontrano quelle caratteristiche e quel modo che veggonsi nelle prime figure dipinte da Agnolo Gaddi.' Giornale del Centenarioy Nov. 1864, P- 231. 69 PORTRAITS OF DANTE the miniature (possibly because they had set their hearts on that in the Riccardian MS.). In 1888 Bartoli also assigned the MS. Pala- tine 320 to the fifteenth century. After that, interest in this portrait dwindled ; but in 1897 F. X. Kraus came forth as its faithful champion. He said: 'The truth is that the pen-drawing of the Palatinus is, next to the Bargello picture [in the Palazzo del Pode- sta], far and away the most important picture of Dante that we possess. It repeats essentially the same type, with the broad, soft, one might almost say feminine cheek, the noble arched forehead; but certain features, the nose, the brows, the wrinkles rising above the nose, the more severe mouth {der schdrfere Mund), the more prominent chin, point not merely to a more advanced age (about the forties), but appear also as proofs that, as Dupre and his two col- leagues saw quite correctly, here the work was done from life. The Bargello picture, created from memory [see pp. 142—4], offers a far more idealised head ; the picture of the Palatinus is unques- tionably much more individual : it betrays that it was done from nature, and I do not hesitate to declare it the most precious docu- ment for our estimate of how Dante looked. That it is by Giotto's hand is not beyond the range of possibility. The age of the manu- script is open to doubt. Since such experts in paleography as Milanesi and Bartoli ascribe it to the fifteenth century, it would be rash to stand responsible for the fourteenth ; yet I cannot assert that I am convinced that those critics are right. If the manuscript were really of the fifteenth century, it would be necessary, inasmuch as the miniature can hardly be separated from the text, to regard the miniature as a copy of an original belonging to the first half of the fourteenth century, as Palermo originally did. Technique and style incline one to assign this pen-drawing at any rate to the fourteenth rather than to the fifteenth century.' * In his conclusion Kraus makes a very long leap : no force ot logic obliges us to regard this miniature as a copy of an original belonging to the first half of the fourteenth century. If by Giotto's own hand, it must have been done before January 1336 (O.F.S.), the month of Giotto's death ; if a copy, it may have been executed at almost any time after that {me judice^ at least a century later) until about the year 1500, to offer a very rough estimate. When the doctors disagree, who shall decide ! * Kraus, DantCy p. 177. The miniature was inserted (see next note). 70 ^K ^^^^Bm^- '" ^^^Bf^l \ THE PALATINE MINIATURE Whatever the true date may be, we need not remain in the dark as to the origin of this portrait : it is all but certain either that it was actually drawn from the Bargello portrait, or from one closely akin thereto — with the help of Boccaccio's description ; * for, if a tracing of Kirkup's sketch or of Faltoni's, both made before Marini had ruined Giotto's Dante, be laid over the miniature, the two pro- files will be seen to be almost identical, and other lines show a similarity not to be mistaken. Both figures face to our left, both show just a little of the right eye, both have a certain stoop (though this is greater in the miniature), and there is the same shape of neck; even the lapels of the coat, and the collar, are almost identical. The essential difference lies in the miniature's greater squareness of jaw, in its abnormally developed breast,-f- and in the additional years and (possibly) cares visible in this somewhat heavy face. If the minia- turist was really Giotto, why did he caricature the normal figure of his fresco with this incredible breast ? Why, too, did he so exagge- rate the Adam's apple .? Having compared the miniature Palatino 320 with Giotto's por- trait, from which I believe it to have been derived, I will turn back for a moment to compare it once more with the Riccardian minia- ture. If we study the profiles of these two portraits, we shall see that they are strikingly similar ; in fact, from the tip of the nose to the top of the forehead they are almost identical. Other features make their kinship more patent: the eyes have nearly the same size and shape, and a similar look; the Palatine drawing has curly hair and shows a tuft behind the neck — two features which the Riccardian portrait lacks, but both have the fringes on the forehead and behind the temple ; finally, each headdress has a fold or two at the top and falls in the same kind of tail, and over each figure is the name * Note the curly hair and see p. 1 6. See also a review by C. von Fabriczy (' Neue Dantelitteratur') in the. Zeitschrift fur hildende Kunst for February 1899, pp. 115-21, especially pp. 11 5-16. In a letter dated January 29, 191 1, Professor Pio Rajna told me that in his opinion the author of this miniature made a sketch at the Bargello (necessarily before the whitewash was applied — see chap, xiv.) and based his drawing on that. 1 am glad to have my independent conjecture thus corroborated. According to Professor Rajna, the MS. belongs well along in the fifteenth century, and the miniature of Dante was added a good while later, so that the history of the Riccardian MS. and miniature is thus repeated. t A feature absent from the Naples bust and the Riccardian miniature, but conspicuously present in the woodcut of the Amoroso Convivio, 1521. See p. 9. 71 PORTRAITS OF DANTE DANTE. That one of these miniatures must therefore have been directly derived from the other is not my conclusion, for I see still more numerous resemblances w^hen I compare the Palatine minia- ture with the Naples bust ; that is, the Riccardian miniature shares with the Palatine no significant feature which is not also visible in the bust, and lacks a few which the bust and the Palatine have in common, as, for example, the slightly greater similarity of physiog- nomy and expression, the strings which continue the eartabs, and the lapels so plainly to be seen on each coat. Although we have no conclusive evidence that the Palatine miniature is the older of these two drawings, the character of the MSS. in which they occur does not indicate that such is not the fact; furthermore, it is not probable that the miniature which is more like Giotto's fresco is a derivative of that which is less like it. In my opinion we may venture this pedigree : Giotto's portrait I Palatino 320 (.?) I The Naples bust The Torrigiani mask Riccardiano 1040 Numerous modern portraits This genealogical tree is based necessarily almost entirely upon inferences derived from comparisons guided by what little is known as to the age and origin of the works now studied. Their true relations, could they be securely established, might be found to differ in some respects, or in all, from the hypothetical relations which I have here offered as the most likely, not as something proved ' beyond the peradventure of a reasonable doubt.' Whether Giotto's portrait is directly or indirectly the source of any of these later works, and whether or not they are genetically related to one another, I leave to others to judge, and pass on to Giotto. 72 IX GIOTTO'S DANTE : THE DISCOVERY Giotto's Dante discovered, July 21, 1840. Joy at the news. No one known to have precisely described the facts. The discoverers. Wilde and Washington Irving. Irving's account. Landor's account. Landor credits Bezzi. Kirkup's letter to Rossetti (September 12, 1840). Kirkup claims priority. Kirkup con- tradicted by Bezzi, who champions Wilde, though he acknowledges Kirkup's services. Value of following the controversy. Latilla defends Kirkup (1848). Kirkup's letter to Cavalcaselle (shortly before May 1850). Dr. Barlow speaks for Kirkup and Kirkup speaks for himself. He credits Bezzi with having drawn up a petition. Marini's scaffold. Bezzi returns to England (May 1840). The nail-hole in Dante's eye. Marini ' restores.' Kirkup bribes a gaoler. Kirkup tells Gabriele Rossetti about Marini's work (letter of September 14, 1841). Bezzi's statement as to Wilde, himself, and Kirkup, and his own negotiations, including his Memorial to the Grand Duke. Kirkup tells Mrs, Gillum how he made his colour-sketch. Further testimony by Col. Gillum. Marini's disastrous methods ; the trestles ; the destroying of Dante's eye, and alteration of the original colours and drawing. Kirkup inveighs against official indifference, stinginess, and barbarous waste. Kirkup's indignant letter to William Rossetti (February 1868). Marini again. Kirkup states how he went to work, and damns Marini's lithography. His condemnation of the Marchese Nerii and his anxiety as to his own copy. He vouches for the accuracyof the Arundel print, speaks again of the hole made by Marini and of other deplorable circumstances. What Marini really did to alter and spoil Giotto's portrait. The direct source of the Arundel print now preserved at Sudbury Hall. Kirkup's Convivio, containing his sketch, presented by Col. Gillum to a Florentine Museum, Kirkup's ' only copy.' W. W, Vernon gives the sources of the Arundel print. Importance of Persed Faltoni's drawing of the Giotto Dante. Comparison of this with Kirkup's work — the Arundel print. Honour due to both Kirkup and Faltoni ON July 21, 1840, the portrait of Dante ascribed to Giotto, by Antonio Pucci and again by Vasari, to whom it was still visible more than two centuries later (about 1560) was cleansed at last of the coat of whitewash under which it had long lain hidden, and the discovery became known throughout Florence. ' You remember,' writes Vito Beltrani, 73 PORTRAITS OF DANTE ' the universal rejoicing when, reclaimed from barbarous havoc, it once more came to light.'* And Lord Lindsay relates that ' the enthusiasm of the Florentines on the announcement of the discovery resembled that of their ancestors when Borgo Allegri received its name from the rejoicings in sympathy with Cimabue. " L'abbiamo, il nostro poeta ! " was the universal cry, and for days afterward the Bargello was thronged with a continuous succession of pilgrim visitors.'-f* i Giuseppe Giusti acclaimed the discovery in a poem of twenty-six eight-line stanzas, and it is likely that obscurer poets versified their impressions of the event ; yet no writer, so far as I am aware, essayed to put down in plain prose a full statement of the essential facts. Those that can be gleaned from various documents I shall try to gather here, leaving every reader to judge for himself as to their validity. Several persons are alleged by themselves or others to have been the prime movers, or to have had a hand in the recovery of this portrait of Dante in the Maddalena Chapel of the Bargello or Palazzo del Podesta, but, in order to state what is known with all possible brevity, I shall pass in silence the ineffectual desires and projects of men like Domenico Moreni,."}; Melchior Missirini,§ or Luigi Scotti, and come at once to Richard Henry Wilde, an * In an anonymous pamphlet addressed to Milanesi and Passerini, who had recently decided in an official report that the Bargello portrait could not be by Giotto. See // ritratto di Dante (by Beltrani, whose name was revealed by D'Ancona), Florence, 1865, t See Christian Art, 2nd. ed. London, 1886, vol. ii. p. 11 (quoted by T. W. Koch in his ' Dante in America,' 1896, p. 33 — Annual Report of the Dante Society and separately printed). The first edition of Lord Lindsay's book appeared in 1847; he apparently got his information as an eye-witness. X Moreni makes the following note in his edition of Filelfo's (worthless) Vita Dantis Aligherii, Florentice, 1 828, pp. 1 23-4 (I translate): 'Our painter Signor Luigi Scotti has seen and examined that Chapel, and having discerned there some unmistakable traces of painting, he with his already well-known patience would not be disinclined, were he so ordered, to recover that painting, and with it the Portrait of our immortal Poet, . . .' § Writing in 1 830, Missirini says, ' And because this Chapel was long ago turned into a larder, it came about that inadvertently, by some subaltern who could not know the singular worth of those paintings, the portraits [of Brunetto Latini, Corso Donati, and Dante] were covered with whitewash ; not so, however, that we need despair of that veil's ever being removed [if this be attempted] with diligence and skill.' Missirini records the intention of Moreni to bring it to light, and he is glad to call in Scotti to aid. Delle Memorie di Dante in Firenze (2nd ed.), 1830, pp. 16-17. The double frontispiece of the third edition (1832) consists of two portraits by Antonio Marini, drawn in 1831. One is a purely fanciful Beatrice — all Beatrices are purely 74 IRVING'S ACCOUNT American of Irish birth (1789), who was taken to the United States in his boyhood, made a fortune, and withdrew from business, to the end, 'it seems, that he might have leisure for study. In 1835 he betook himself to Italy, and there he spent six years, mostly in Florence. Wilde narrated, or intended to narrate, his share in the discovery of the Bargello fresco, but his account was to appear in an appendix to his Life and Times of Dante, and this appendix either never was written or has been lost. What it would have contained may be conjectured. ' All that he says of the matter in the body of his work is that " the circumstances attending the recovery of the fresco, which have been differently related, according to the self- love of every narrator, are thought worthy of preservation as matters of history, and have therefore been embodied in the appendix." ' * But various other writers have spoken with some fulness of Wilde's share in this exploit. First among them, I believe, is Washington Irving, whose account (signed ' G. C) appeared in the Knickerbocker for October 1841, and must therefore have been written within a year after the event described. According to Irving, Wilde first heard of the Giotto fresco through Carlo Liverati,"!* ' an artist of considerable merit, and especially well versed in the antiquities of Florence ' ; but Domenico Moreni's note was what opened for Wilde a ' new vein of inquiry, which Wilde followed up with his usual energy and sagacity.' To summarise Irving's narrative : As ' a foreigner from a new world, Wilde feared to approach the Florentine government, but found a zealous and enthusiastic coadjutor in Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi, a Piedmontese refugee, . . . Signor Bezzi partook deeply of the enthusiasm of his countrymen for the memory of Dante, and sympathised with Mr. Wilde in his eagerness to retrieve if possible the lost portrait.' Various influential persons were enlisted in the enterprise, a petition was drawn up, ' and being warmly countenanced by Count Nerli and other functionaries, met with more prompt success than had been anticipated. Signor Marini, a skilful artist J [in reality he fanciful — the other is Dante Alighieri. They have no iconographic value and are not works of art. * T. W. Koch, ' Dante in America,' p. 31. t The artist y/d& Carlo Ernesto Liverati. See Rossetti Papers (index), London, '903- X The earlier editions of Cesare Guasti's biographical sketch of Antonio Marini 7S PORTRAITS OF DANTE was a botcher and a vandal], who had succeeded in similar operations, was employed to remove the whitewash by a process of his own, by which any fresco painting that might exist beneath would be protected from injury. He set to work patiently and cautiously [how cautiously we shall see anon]. In a short time he met with evidence of the existence of the fresco. From under the coat of whitewash the head of an angel gradually made its appearance, and was pronounced to be by the pencil of Giotto. ' The enterprise was now prosecuted with increased ardor. Several months were expended on the task, and three sides of the chapel wall were uncovered ; they were all [?] painted in fresco by Giotto, with the history of the Magdalen, exhibiting her con- version, her penance, and her beatification.' (This, too, is inaccurate, and shows that Irving's account is not absolutely to be trusted.) 'At length,' he continues, 'on the uncovering of the fourth wall, the undertaking was crowned with complete success. A number of historical figures were brought to light, and among them the undoubted likeness of Dante.'* Irving's sincerity we know, but he has a flatteringly false idea of the restorer Marini, nor can I vouch for the authenticity of his sources ; in a word, his narrative does not suffice either to show how the discovery was made or to whose efforts it was mainly due. Wc shall learn something more from a letter by Landor, published in the Examiner on August i6, 1840, only four weeks after the event in question occurred. -)- As Landor had left Italy in 1835, his in- formation must have been supplied by some correspondent in close touch with the proceedings at Florence. Landor says : ' A grand discovery has been made at Florence of some frescoes by Giotto. They exist in a lumber-room, formerly the chapel of the Palazzo del Podesta, which became the residence of the Duke of Athens when he took possession of the republic. It was after- wards converted into a prison, and called the Bargello. In the year preceding the exile of Dante, the portrait of that poet was painted on the walls of this chapel, together with Brunetto Latini, (1862) are followed by a catalogue of Marini's various works. See Guasti's Opere, vol. ii. p. 79. * From Irving's account it is not clear whether he got his information at first or at second hand ; probably his informant was Wilde. t This letter to the Examiner is apparently the narrative cited by Bezzi in the Athenaum for Feb. 5, 1848. See p. 79. 76 , . • J » , > ' >S . , • ', ) \ > > » .s DANTK, FROM GIOTTO S FRFSCO IN THE BARGKLLO From the reproduction published hy the Arundel Society in 1859 • •••_♦• » • •••/•• • • • • */ • w • LANDOR'S ACCOUNT Corso Donati, and other illustrious citizens of the Florentine commonwealth. [To this oft-repeated error we shall be able to give a lasting quietus !] Several coats of whitewash had covered them over, so that not a vestige was perceptible. The first who proposed to bring them into light again was the Canonico Moreni, a very distinguished antiquarian, now advanced in years.* Cioni, professor of chemistry, discovered a mode of removing the lime and plaster, without injuring in the slightest degree the solid intonaco underneath. But, as the modern artists of Italy, and particularly the Florentines, entertain small reverence for their ancient prede- cessors, not even the majesty of Giotto was recognised by them ; and Moreni found very few voices to second him in his application to the authorities. At last, after twenty more years, Mr. Aubrey Bezzi, a gentleman no less intelligent than zealous in everything that relates either to the arts or to letters, presented, in the month of May 1839, his first petition to resuscitate the most illustrious of the Italians, their earliest great painter and their greatest poet. Several months elapsed ; at last an answer, an evasive one, was given. It stated that " the Grand Duke would not be advised to undertake the restoration of the fresco, without ascertaining before- hand the exact cost ; and that his dignity prevented him from profiting by Mr. Aubrey Bezzi's offer of incurring the whole expense." • To overcome this difficulty, Mr. Aubrey Bezzi sent in another memorial, offering to accomplish the undertaking for two hundred and Mty francesconi, or dollars, which the Grand Duke might reim- burse when the operation was completed. After a delay of many additional months, he obtained a decree, appointing him a com- missioner, with two others, and limiting the expense to two hun- dred and fifty dollars ; which moderate sum has actually sufficed. The figures are unimpaired. In one compartment is a Holy Family, with an angel, which those who have seen it, and are capable of estimating it, represent as of great beauty. It was offered by the Authorities to Mr. Aubrey Bezzi, who declined to mar the unity of the work by removing any part of it. • There are artists to whom the recovery of a painting by Giotto will be uninteresting : there are others, and some persons not artists, who will receive the intelligence of it with the same enthusiasm as of a hymn by Homer. To such, and such only, is this discovery * See p. 74 [supra), note %. 77 PORTRAITS OF DANTE announced. We now possess, what was wanting until now, a sure original portrait of Dante : and we, and our descendants all over the world, must own ourselves indebted for it to the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Aubrey Bezzi.' I now turn to a letter from Seymour Kirkup (1788— 1880) to Gabriel Rossetti.* This letter, written at Florence on September 1 2, 1 840, is as follows : ' I have delayed writing in the hopes of sending you a sketch which will interest you, but I have hitherto been disappointed. We have made a discovery of an original portrait of Dante in fresco by Giotto ! Although I was a magna pars in this under- taking, the Jacks in Office have not allowed me yet to make a copy. Sono tanto gelosi, most likely afraid I should publish it, and prevent some friends of their own reaping all the profit they hope from that speculation. ' I was the person who first mentioned to Sig. Bezzi, a Piedmon- tese and friend of Carlo Eastlake's, the existence of the portrait under the whitewash of three centuries. We were joined by an American [Wilde], and we three undertook at our expense to employ a restorer [Marini] to uncover the walls of the old chapel in the palace of the Podesta in search of the portrait mentioned by F. Villani, Filelfo,L. Aretino, Vasari, Cinellij&c.-f Nothing but the constancy and talent of Sig. Bezzi could have overcome the'numberless obstacles and refusals we met with. He wrote and spoke with the persuasions of an advocate, and persevered with the obstinacy and activity of an Englishman (which I believe he now is)..|. He alone was the cause of success. We should have had no chance without him. At last, after uncovering enough of three walls to ascertain it was not there, the Government took the task into their own hands, on our terms, with the same restorer, and in the fifth wall they have succeeded. The number of walls is six, for the chapel has been divided in two (magazines of wine, oil, bread, &c,, for the prisoners). ' The precise date of the painting is not known. The poet looks about 28 — very handsome — un Apollo coUe fattezze di Dante.' * See Gabriele Rossetti : A Versified Autobiography ; ed. by W. M. Rossetti, London, 1901, pp. 145-6. I avail myself of this opportunity to thank Mr. Rossetti for his permission to reproduce the various passages here and elsewhere quoted firom the work named in this note. t See my Index, under each of these names ; ' L, Aretino' under 'Bruni.' X ' Bezzi had spent many years as an exile in England.' (Toynbee.) 78 KIRKUP AND LATILLA As the rest of this letter is here irrelevant, further light must be sought in other documents. In the Athenceum for December 25, 1847, an anonymous writer (really Latilla) maintained that the discovery was due to Kirkup, and Kirkup more than once claimed that honour, or most of it, for himself; but in the Athenaum for February 5, 1848, Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi declared the claim by Kirkup to be contradicted by- the narratives published by Eastlake (in his notes to Kuglers Hand- book of Painting), by Landor, Jameson, &c., and he says, 'It was originally and principally at the suggestion and by encouragement of Mr. Wilde — well known for his researches in the history of Italy — that I set about the somewhat difficult undertaking, in which many had failed — among others, the antiquarian Moreni at the end of the last century. Mr. Kirkup offered to contribute most liberally to the expenses that might be necessary, first to get at the paintings, and then to have them restored ; but ultimately the Grand Duke appointed a commission to carry out the works, and assigned a sum which proved more than sufficient.' We must follow a little further a controversy which, though it cannot settle to our complete satisfaction the question of priority in this discovery, nor establish who was in reality the most efficient of those concerned, may nevertheless clarify the problem to some degree and at the same time afford valuable information as to how the recovery was accomplished — only to be marred by an act for which there can be no atonement. In the Athenceum for May 6, 1848, Latilla declares, on the authority of Kirkup, that it was Kirkup himself who first proposed the work of cleansing to Bezzi, ' who entered warmly into the subject, and took much trouble in drawing up memorials to the government. This,' continues Latilla, ' is confirmed by authorities here well acquainted with the particulars, — all agreeing in acknow- ledging Mr. Kirkup as the first mover, and Mr. Bezzi as the active manager.' In the Spectator iov May 1 1, 1850, an anonymous writer cham- pions Kirkup and attacks Bezzi, printing a long letter which appears to be the editor's composite version of an inaccurate anonymous translation * of two letters by Seymour Kirkup, written in Italian * For Cavalcaselle's correction of various errors in this anonymous translation, see p. 82, note *. I could not find the original letters. 79 PORTRAITS OF DANTE and addressed to Cavalcaselle. As Cavalcaselle soon published various corrections, which will be quoted, this somewhat garbled letter may here be entered in evidence, even though some of the matter in it has already appeared and will appear again. KIRKUP TO CAVALCASELLE ' My dear Sir — Signor de Tivoli has communicated to me your letter, and I agree with you in the matter of Signor Bezzi. These are the facts. I told him at my house of the existence of that portrait, and he voluntarily united himself with me for the necessary expenses and steps to rediscover it. He had not heard of the existence of that portrait, as he then confessed. The day after he came to propose the junction of another person of my acquaintance for this object. This was Mr. Wilde, an American, whom I accepted with pleasure as our associate in the affair. Having found the restorator most acceptable to the government, a compact was made with him, Signor Marini, to pay him 240 franceschini whether the picture were found or not under the whitewash. ' Bezzi, as an Italian and advocate, undertook to write the neces- sary petitions ; and in this part he did more than we others did. Permission obtained, we were nevertheless forbidden [to enter into the matter] many times with various pretexts ; and we, believing that the reason was our quality of foreigners, prayed two Florentine friends to lend their name, securing them against any sacrifice, all the expenses remaining at our charge. This succeeded, and we begun the work. I remember that the first time that I passed to the Ba[r]gello to see it, I found Marini on a scaffold, the two beams of which were rested in two large holes made in the wall as large as his head. If Dante had been under that part it would have been all finished. I scolded him, and the platforms afterwards in other parts were unattached and without danger. Bezzi after this proposed to introduce other associates ; and as it was a lightening of the expenses, that is 80 for each of us three, I was only too contented. I do not know how many were introduced by Bezzi ; but a few days afterwards there came a new prohibition, and the room was closed. Govern- ment, believing that the search interested the nation, took it upon itself, on our own conditions with Marini. Nevertheless nothing was done ; and here Bezzi made a new petition, either that the 80 KIRKUP TO CAVALCASELLE thing should be done or that we should be allowed to do it. Marini was then permitted to return to the work on account of Government, and at that point Bezzi returned to England. It was some months afterwards that I heard that Marini had found certain figures, and soon afterwards the discovery of Dante himself. I went among the first to see it. What a pity ! the eye of the beautiful profile was wanting. There was a hole an inch deep or an inch and a half. Marini said it was a nail. It did precisely seem the damage of a nail drawn out ; and so I suspect it was done instead of cutting off the nail. But I have no proofs of that. This hole remained for a year, notwith- standing that I prayed that it might be filled up, because all who mounted upon the scaffold put their fingers into it, and I feared it would crumble more. Afterwards it was restored on the occasion ot the congress of scientific philosophers, and I saw Marini under the direction of the Minister of Public Works who was by his side. He filled the hole, and made a new eye, too little and ill-designed, and then he retouched the whole face and clothes, to the great damage of the expression and character. As usual, the likeness of the face, and the three colours in which Dante was dressed, the same with those of Beatrice, those of young Italy, white, green, and red, stand no more ; the green is turned to chocolate colour ; moreover the form of the^ cap is lost and confounded. ' I desired to make a drawing to send it to my best friend Signor :* it was denied to me by the keepers, and I went to the gallery to speak to one of the inspectors to have permission. He answered me, that too many persons were jealous, and it was not decided to whom it would be permitted to publish it. I asked no more. Per- haps if I had asked of a minister or director I should have been more fortunate, as they had on more than one occasion shown me polite- ness. But I obtained the means to be shut up in the prison for a morning ; and not only did I make a drawing, but a tracing also, and with the two I then made a facsimile sufficiently careful. Luckily it was before the rifacimento. I have sent one to . Returning to Signor Bezzi : hearing of the success from my two friends, men of letters, he made an announcement of his triumph, without even so much as mentioning my name. He had said adieu to me at Florence with his usual affectation of cordiality, where he shook hands as though he would have dislocated my shoulder ; and I was surprised * Presumably Gabriele Rossetti. F 8l PORTRAITS OF DANTE at so barefaced an egotism without motive for resentment. I had never published a single boast on this subject. Some friends of mine have answered him without having known it. Somebody had paid him with his own money, — attributing all to me without naming him. I had published nothing : the truth is sufficiently known, and I do not want to lose my time with a mere charlatan. There are some in all nations ; and at this moment I wish to be silent in all that may act against the Italians, too unfortunate and betrayed both within and without. 'The truth is, that Bezzi undertook all the labours of the petitions. We should not have done it so much in rule ; but without him we might have employed an Italian to do it. There are advo- cates enough in Florence possessing the abilities of Signor Bezzi ; nevertheless I accorded to him the whole merit of that labour, although it was fruitless. After the prayer had been more than once accorded, they had been forbidden ; but that, I believe, was not his fault.' * * Compare Cavalcaselle to the Spectator, July 13, 1850, p. 664. Cavalcaselle un- systematically corrects this letter as follows : ' I feel . . . obliged here to rectify three errors committed in the translation. The first is, " returning to Mr. Bezzi, hearing of the success ^«OT my two friends " ; instead of which, Mr. Kirkup says in his letter, " hear- ing of the success, he (Bezzi) went (egli and6 da) to two of my friends and announced to them his triumph," &c. There is a great deal of difference between the two. Secondly, Mr. Kirkup says, " Marini was then permitted to return to the work on account of the Government ; and at that time Bezzi returned to England." It was some months afterwards that " he heard," not " / hea^d " (" sentl " e non " io sentii,") that Marini had found certain figures, and soon afterwards the discovery of Dante him- self." This correction destroys a point which Mr. Aubrey Bezzi makes one of the principal arguments to show how little Mr. Kirkup was concerned. The third arises out of this passage, "spoiled by the prisons constructed " ; an error which, for the love of truth, we will do what Signor Bezzi does not think it his duty to do, that is, to correct it. It lies in the laudatory inscription on the portrait at Colnaghi's. Signor Kirkup states, " there were no constructed prisons there [sic] ; first it was a chapel, then a dispensa or larder ; we, however, found it full of Indian corn, herbs, bread, salumi," &c. ; which shows at least that Mr. Kirkup was one of the first to enter in the place where the portrait was. Moreover, he says expressly, " I went among the first to see it." ' Here are further discrepancies. Cavalcaselle 'rectifies' passages which are not in the published letter. The truth appears to be that Cavalcaselle received two letters from Kirkup, that he ' consigned both letters to the same gentleman, who . . . [mis- leadingly] translated part of the letters,' that this part was then published as one composite letter, very ill translated, in the Spectator, and that Cavalcaselle used the translator's MS. in making his rectifications ; for in the Spectator there is not a word as to ' constructed prisons,' ' Indian corn,' &c. This incident throws some light upon the ways of Caval- caselle. He tells the editor of the Spectator (July 13, 1850) : ' Those [original] letters 82 j;'. o X H j: '^^' a: H a. KIRKUP TO BARLOW Kirkup is again championed, this time by Dr. Barlow, in a letter dated June 29 and printed in the Athenaum for July 4, 1857. Here Dr. Barlow erroneously affirms that ' Mr. Kirkup's claims to the honour of the discovery are now acknowledged by all who are acquainted with this interesting portrait,' and Dr. Barlow pro- ceeds to quote from a letter written to him by Kirkup, under date of February 9, 1857 : ' The history of the Bargello portrait,' says Kirkup,* is this : ' I had returned from S. Croce, where I had been seeking that portrait mentioned by Vasari, and which I found had been destroyed by him, and much besides, for his own baroque altars. -j- ' My books were on my table, and I had a visit from a piedmontese refugee named Bezzi, who had brought me a letter from Eastlake. I told him of my disappointment, but added, that there was one hope yet, the chapel of the /»<«/. del podestd which had been whitewashed. He seemed so interested that I proposed our joining to get it recovered ; his joy made me ask if he had ever heard of it, and he said he had not ; I showed him my authorities, [F.] Villani, Filelfo, Vassari \sic\ &c. The next day he called to ask if I had any objection to admit Mr. Wilde, an American friend of mine and his, to join us in the undertaking, and I agreed to it. 'The editor of Filelfo, the Abbate Moreni, had mentioned a Sig. Scotto [Scotti] who was willing to undertake the job. We found him too engaged and too old ; and he recommended Sig. Marini, with whom we made an agreement for 240 scudi, to clear [off] the whitewash of the chapel, whether he found Dante or no. Bezzi drew up our petition (being an Italian) and it was granted after some hesitation, and Marini went to work. He made two holes in the wall to hold two beams for his scaffold. Luckily Dante was not there, or he would have been destroyed. I was obliged to threaten not to pay him if he made any more holes. He was impertinent, but made no more, and used trussels \sic\. After he had worked some weeks the government stopped us. They were afraid we should make some claim to it and carry it away, or they were ashamed of [in Italian, by Kirkup], Sir, are still at your disposal in regard to the facts.' Apparently, not only Cavalcaselle, but also the anonymous intermediary and the editor, all contri- buted to the confusion here evident. * See the long ' Note on the Life and Character of Seymour Kirkup, and on his ■Credibility as a Witness ' (Appendix II., pp. 208-11). I quote from Kirkup's MS. t See pp. 139-40 and chap. xv. 83 PORTRAITS OF DANTE foreigners doing what was their duty ; and we could only prevail on them to do it on our terms, which they did.' (As we have have already learned, the Duke wished to defray the costs and to have the work carried on by workmen under government employ.) ' And now,' writes Barlow, ' the fair city of Florence was living in anxious expectation of a real vision of Dante's person, such as he had been seen upwards of five liundred years ago, when, in the lover's day of early manhood, he appeared " the observed of all observers" among the most accomplished and bravest of her sons. At length the vision came : Dante was brought to light, but only again to disappear, and make his loss more felt.' We must now return to the narrative of Seymour Kirkup. 'Sig. Bezzi went back to England [in May 1 840], and some- time afterwards I heard that Marini had found Dante. I went to see, and found a large hole where the eye had been. What a pity, said I. 'Era un chiodo, he replied [" It was a nail "]. How could he tell ? He had drawn it out instead of cutting it, and had brought away a bit of the wall, about 3 inches by 2, which went on crumbling away by the wiseacres putting their fingers in. Oh, c'e una buga ! [" Oh, there's a hole ! "] After a year they employed Marini to fill it, and paint a new eye, which he did too small, and too near the nose, and then touched up the rest of the face to match it, to the great loss of likeness and colour. He likewise changed the form and colour of the cap[p]uccio ; and as Dante was dressed in red, green and white, the colours of Beatrice in the Purgatorio and of the giovane Italia of present times,* the green was changed to chocolate-colour ; and so it remains, till some one shall be allowed to take off his mealy tempera paint, by applying a wet cloth. The original fresco seemed as hard as an enamel, and the colour like Guido and as good. They would not allow me to make a drawing from it, but I bribed the gaoler of the prison to lock me up for a morning and I made both a drawing and a tracing before the repaint, and I copied it and sent * Let me quote these lines : II verde, la speme tant' anni pasciuta ; II rcj5o, la gioia d'averla compiuta ; II bianco, la fede fraterna d'amor. (In Dante's time, as now, these three colours symbolised the three theological virtues. Faith (white), Hope (green), and Charity (red). How and why they became the colours of modern Italy is another matter.) 84 KIRKUP TO ROSSETTI it to Rossetti, who was so pleased that he dedicated his great work in five volumes to me.'* The expression ' mealy tempera,' used in this letter, indicates a slip of memory on Kirkup's part, or a change of opinion, as we shall see from the following words, written to Gabriele Rossetti from Florence in a letter dated September 14, 1841. Speaking of his own sketch of the Bargello portrait, Kirkup says : ' Since I drew it, I have had the mortification to see the original retouched, and its beauty destroyed. You will perceive that the eye is wanting. A deep hole in the wall was found exactly on the spot, as if done on purpose. It was necessary to fill it that it might not extend further : not content, they ordered Sig. Marini to paint the eye on it, and he has daubed over the face in many parts, to the ruin of its expression and character. -f- It is now 15 years older, a mean, pinched expression, and an effeminate character, compared to what it was. It is not quite so bad as the lithography I send you,:|: but not far from it. When it was done, I asked a young man, his assistant, if it was done with colours in tempera, and he assured me, with a boast, that it was in bon fresco. If so, Dante is gone for good. But I have still hopes that he spoke only of the eye, and many of my friends think it can only be accomplished on the old and hard painting by some distemper-colour of glue, size, or egg ; and, if so, a damp cloth fixed on it for half-an-hour will bring it all away without injuring the original fresco. I mean to take my time, and perhaps some day I may restore Dante to himself a second time. I had the principal part in the late discovery. '§ Somewhat later Kirkup caused a number of engravings to be made from his sketch ; on some of these, says Dr. Koch, ' he styled himself the first promoter of the discovery, and on others the * Kirkup's whole statement {' buga ' and all !) is here quoted from the MS. copy, in his own hand, now preserved at the University College Library, London — a bit ot information for which I must thank the Librarian, Mr. R. W. Chambers. The version printed by Barlow differs slightly from Kirkup's MS. t See further, especially pp. 91-93 and 97-99. J Earlier in this letter, Kirkup says of three sketches : ' No. 3. A lithography by the painter and restorer Marini, who uncovered the painting. This is made on a tracing by myself.' [So Marini must have known what Kirkup had done, though he may not have been aware how Kirkup had done it.] I shall return to these three sketches, and to the rest of this letter. § Gabriele Rossetti: A Versified Autobiography i ed. by W, M. Rossetti, 1901, pp. 147-9. 85 PORTRAITS OF DANTE discoverer ot the portrait.' If, through the documents available, I can read something of Kirkup's character accurately, in his more egotistical moments he was wont to be over-expansive in his own behalf; at other times he measured his share in the undertaking justly, as in his first letter to Rossetti (September 12, 1840). But a few more documents will perhaps make the truth a little clearer and thus enable us to understand better not only the part taken by Kirkup, but what is more important, the nature of the events as a whole that marked the discovery of Giotto's Dante. ' It was Mr. Wylde,' wrote Aubrey Bezzi in 1850,* ' and not Mr. Kirkup who first spoke to me of this buried treasure. . . . Mr. Wylde put Moreni's note before me, and suggested and urged, that being an Italian by birth, though not a Florentine, and having lived many years in England and among the English, I had it in my power to bring two modes of influence to bear upon the research ; and that such being the case I ought to undertake it. My thoughts immediately turned to Mr. Kirkup, an artist who had abandoned his art to devote himself entirely to antiquarian pursuits, with whom I was well acquainted, and who, having lived for many years in Florence (I believe fifteen), would weigh the value of Moreni's testimony on this matter, and effectually assist me in every way if I took it in hand. So I called upon him, either the same day or the next ; and I found that he, like most other people, had read the passage in Vasari's life of Giotto in which it is explicitly said that the portrait of Dante had been painted with others in the Palazzo del Podesta, and was to be seen at the time the historian [Vasari] was writing [shortly before 1 550] ; but that he had not read or had not put any confidence in the note of the Florentine edition of Vasari published in 1832-38, in which it is stated that the Palazzo del Podesta had now become a prison — the Bargello ; that the chapel had been turned into a dispensa [larder] (it was more like a coal-hole where the rags and much of the filth of the prison was deposited) ; that the walls of this fWja, exhibited nothing but a dirty coating, and that Moreni speaks of the painting in some unpublished work.' At this point in his letter Bezzi says that the existence of * Spectator, May 25, 1850. (In rejoinder to the anonymous writer whose attack on Bezzi and defence of Kirkup appeared in the number of May 1 1.) See also Athenaum for Feb. 5, 1848, where Bezzi credits Wilde with having started him on his campaign. (I have endeavoured invariably to quote my originals without altering them in any respect ; hence ' Wilde ' is here spelled ' Wylde.') 86 g < X H a, a: ► « • - • - BEZZI ON KIRKUP Giotto's portrait was known to every shop-boy in Florence, and he continues thus (quoting at least two mistranslations) : ' That Mr. Kirkup took no active part in this matter at any time, is quite proved by two admissions I find in the letter of your correspondent. He first says, " I remember that the first time I passed to the Bargello to see it, I found Marini on a scaffold," &c. The fact is, that several months had elapsed between the first pre- sentation of the memorial and the erection of the scaffold, during which Mr. Kirkup admits that he never thought of visiting the place, whilst I spent hours and hours there, under not very pleasant cir- cumstances, and had detected raised aureolas and other evidences of old fresco. But he continues : " Marini was permitted to return to the work on account of the Government ; and at that point Bezzi returned to England. It was some months after-wards that I heard Marini had found certain figures^ and soon afterwards the discovery of Dante himself" [sic).^ These two passages sufficiently show the nature of Mr. Kirkup's labours, and how far he was really eager in the pursuit of this object, both during the time when I was most deeply engaged in it, and also for " some months " after I had quitted Florence. But to resume : Mr. Kirkup, however ignorant, or culpably negligent, or a little of both, he might previously have been on the subject, yet when I brought it before him, he at once admitted its importance, and made a liberal offer of money, if any should be required, to carry out the experiment. Thus encouraged by Mr. Wylde and by Mr. Kirkup, I sought and found among English, American, and Italian friends and acquaintances, many that were ready to assist the plan. Then it was that I drew up a memorial to the Grand Duke ; not because I am an " advocate," as your corre- spondent is pleased to call me, for that is not the case, but simply because, having taken pains to organize the means of working out the common object, the cooperators thought that I could best represent what this common object was. In the memorial, I stated that, accord- ing to what Vasari, Moreni, and others had written, it was just possible that a treasure was lying hidden under the dirty coatings of the walls of the dispensa in the Bargello ; that a society was already formed for the purpose of seeking with all care for this treasure ; that all expenses would be gladly borne by the society ; that should anything be found, we would either leave the paintings untouched, * Bezzi errs, though through no fault of his. See the long note on p. 82. 87 PORTRAITS OF DANTE or have them removed at our expense to the gallery of the Uffici, and that we begged of the Grand Duke the necessary sanction to begin our operations. The answer was favourable, and I was referred to Marchese Nerli, and to the Director of the Academy, to make the necessary arrangements. Then the real difficulties began : first, I was put off on account of the precautions that were to be taken in working in a prison ; then, the Director was ill, or unavoidably engaged, or absent ; I found, in short, that the object was to tire me out, and that I had to contend with the same power that had defeated Moreni and my other predecessors in the attempt. This battle continued for many months. I have already spoken too much of my share in the pursuit of this object, and I will not enter into further details — some of them ludicrous — of this contention ; but I will say explicitly, that, besides his encouragement, and his repeated offisrs of money (which were not accepted because money was not wanted, at least not to any amount, and what was wanted I furnished myself), Mr. Kirkup did not offisr me any assistance. At this stage of the business, I met indeed with a most valuable ally, without whom I believe I should have been beaten ; and that was Paolo Feroni,* a Florentine nobleman and artist, to whom I have before expressed and now repeat my best acknowledgments. At the end of this long contention against obstacles which often eluded my grasp, the Grand Duke, in consequence of a second memorial I presented to him, issued a decree appointing a commission to carry out the proposed experiments. This commission was composed of two members I had myself proposed, viz., the sculptor Bartolini, and the Marchese Feroni, of myself, of the Direttore of the Edifizi Pubblici, Marchese Nerli, and of the Direttore of the Accademia delle Arti, the two latter ex-officio : further the decree declines the proposed voluntary subscriptions, and places at the disposal of the Commissioners a sum of money which proved more than sufficient to cover all the expenses of the restoration of the fresco. The Commissioners employed the painter Marini, and the happy result of his carefulness and ability is now before the world.' Although Marini had completely painted over and destroyed Giotto's Dante nine years before these words were published, Bezzi's statement seems to me candid, generous, and convincing in so far as his main contentions are concerned. He desires to pay Kirkup * The right form is Ferroni. My original has ' Feroni.' 88 KIRKUFS GREAT SERVICE full honour ' for having assisted materially in the recovery,' but he indignantly insists upon being credited with his own share, which was to obtain permission to bring the recovery about. That, surely, was an exploit for which Bezzi deserves to be gratefully remembered. Only those who have struggled for months with ignorance, indifference, and chicanery, in order to do a good work worth doing, or those whose sympathies are as keen as their ima- ginations, can fully appreciate the magnitude of Bezzi's task. Thus, even though Professor Alessandro D'Ancona, who knew Kirkup, called him in 1868 ' the discoverer of the portrait of Dante in the Chapel of the Potesta,'* and though in 1870 he speaks of him as ' il buon vecchio del cav. Seymour Kirkup,' i^ the evidence now before us indicates that others had better claims to rank as the prime movers in the actual discovery and in the laborious and annoying negotiations that preceded it. But to Kirkup we must ever be grateful for having forestalled the destroyer Marini by making careful drawings of Giotto's Dante before the features and dress had been irreparably ' restored.' How Kirkup performed this service is stated in an account which he wrote for his friend Mrs. Gillum, in 1873. By Mrs. Gillum this account was recently communicated to Mr. Paget Toynbee, who quotes it in the latest edition of his well-documented life of Dante.. I Kirkup's statement is as follows : ' I went to the Bargello Chapel, along with others of the public, and I had that book (the Convivio) and some colours in my pocket. * ' Cogliamo volentieri I'occasione di ringraziar pubblicamente I'onorevol sig. Cav. Seymour Kirkup — lo scopritore del ritratto di Dante nella cappella del Potesti — della gentile comunicazione ch'egli ha voluto farci di un bel codice contenente molte ignote rime del Pucci ' {In Lode di Dante, 1868, p. xiii.). Lord Vernon credits Kirkup with having given to Bezzi and Wilde the information which enabled them to make the discovery. See vol. iii. of the ' Vernon Dante ' (1865), p. 33. See also H. C. Barlow's pamphlet, On the Vernon Dante, London, 1870, pp. 37-38. In a letter to Dr. Barlow, March 18, 1857, Kirkup remarks : ' It was the government which carried on what we had begun, and succeeded, and paid Marini. We three foreigners [Bezzi, Wilde, Kirkup] began it, and gave it up unwillingly to the government. If it had been left to me, it should not have been spoiled by repainting it, but I had no control, and my associates had left Florence before it was found.' In a letter of May 27, 1857, Kirkup says : ' I saw Marini restoring the eye under the direction and instruction of Sig. Nerli, the minister of public works, whom I saw sitting by him and teaching him.' See On the Vernon Dante, pp. 37-38. t Una poesia ed una prosa di Antonio Pucci, &c., Bologna, 1870, p. 5. X Published in October 1910. See Mr. Toynbee's footnote to p. 134. 89 V PORTRAITS OF DANTE For a while I managed to draw, holding the book within my wide felt hat, but by and by the man in charge of the room came up to me and said : " You know, Signor Barone,* the Grand Duke does not allow any copying." I answered : " I am making some notes," and went on with the work. After a time the man came again and said : " It is late, Signor Barone, time for me to lock up and go to my dinner. Every one but yourself is gone." — "You can go. You may lock me in to finish my notes." As soon as I was alone, I wheeled up the stage which had been left by the work- men who removed the plaster, mounted it, and took a tracing on thin paper, so as to obtain the exact outline and precise size. I then replaced the stage, and took up my drawing again quite comfortably. So my " notes " were finished before my gaoler returned from dinner.* In an Extract from the Reminiscences of Baron Seymour Kirkup, made known to me by the Hon. William Warren Vernon, Kirkup's account is enriched with further details due to Colonel Gillum, who enjoyed Kirkup's acquaintance, not only in 1857, but also from 1872 to 1875. Again and again Kirkup talked to him about the Bargello portrait, and often showed him the little sketch inside the parchment cover of the Convivio. According to Colonel Gillum, after Kirkup had made the tracing by stealth he returned to colour his sketch and to put in some shades ; ' at a third visit he coloured it, at a fourth he finished it.' From his tracing, ' and from the coloured drawing in the Convivio [now preserved at the Museum of Historical Art (the Bargello) in Florence], he made the drawing for Lord Vernon which was reproduced [in 1859] by the Arundel Society.' 'I (Colonel Gillum) bought the Convivio with the drawing (Lot 1 199) at the sale of Kirkup's Library in December, 1 871, with the handwriting : " Dipinto da Giotto nel Palazzo del Podesta scoperto il 21 di Luglio 1840." ' Marini began with the end wall where the large window is. He drove two large beams into the wall, but this having been forbidden by Kirkup, trestles {cavalletti) were used. Crowds flocked to the chapel when it was known that the frescoes were discovered. After * An anachronism. Kirkup ' assumed the title (through a misunderstanding) after being created by King Victor Emmanuel, on the restoration of the Italian kingdom, a "CavalierediSS. Maurizio e Lazzaro." ' (Toynbee). Thiswasini86i. See^. i49,notet. 90 •- > » 9 * >' s a * » i'»->, P' KIRKUFS SKETCH [OF THE GIOTTO KRKSCOJ FROM HIS COPY OF THfc "CONVIVIO,' NOW IN THE MUSEUM OF HISTORICAL ART, FLORENCE V 0« • ••• •••••* • ^ • • ■ t « KIRKUP AND COLONEL GILLUM about six months, government took the work up which [sic] Kirkup had begun, paying Marini 40 scudi. When first the hole which destroyed the eye* was seen, Marini said it was a nail [cf. p. 94]. It may have been put in by some prisoner to hang things on. At first it was small, but Kirkup declared that fingers were put in, with the remark "ve un buco" [also reported, " Oh c'e una buga /"]. It became widened, and the plaster crumbled away. Kirkup was refused re-admission. Marini wished to make and engrave a copy of the fresco. The vest of the original was green, but authority — troppo gelosa — for political reasons, would not allow the red, white and green (the Italian national colours) to remain, and ordered Marini to alter the dress into a chocolate colour, as had been done to Michelino's picture [1465] in the Duomo. The new eye is too small and too near the nose. The nose of the restoration is too aquiline, and the face altogether different. Giotto's fresco might now [?] be restored by carefully applying a wet cloth [to the ' mealy tempera ' ? — or to the ' bon fresco '] and probing carefully. Three pomegranates in Dante's right hand denote the three Kingdoms. [This is not what they denote. See Inf. xvi. 61, and Purg. xxvii. 1 1 5-71.] There is a crown on the top of the pomegranate i^'- porno coronato "). One day Kirkup told me the pomegranates were there when he made the sketch ; but as his object was to draw the face, he did not draw them, and Marini destroyed them.' Further my original says : ' In a letter to Colonel Gillum dated November 21, 1874, Seymour Kirkup writes again: . . . "Rossetti's coment [j/'c] is at Vieusseux's (Library) you say. There ought to be his Amor Platonico, for it was I who gave it him, and he mistook the meaning of the title which is not a good one. The work is admirable — 5 volumes (i 842). He dedicated it to me for finding Giotto's fresco. Is there no chance of recovering that ? They will not try. They have owned they are afraid of the expense ? A little water is all that is wanted, applied with caution and delicacy — it ought not to cost more than 10 dollars. But they are such thieves and impostors.-f- Soon there will be no one alive who ever * It is instructive to note how Sig. G. Franciosi interpreted the expression of the false eye painted by Marini. See 'Dante e RafFaello' in Nuova Raccolta di Scritti Danteschi, 1891, p. 89. Equally amusing examples are given by Theodor Paur (' Dante's Portrat,' p. 307). Notwithstanding its glaring crudity, Marini's ' restoration * has often been taken for Giotto's work, and has been reproduced as such. t Except for the sentence first noted, and the signature, both of which were in 91 PORTRAITS OF DANTE saw the original, Tou know from my sketch how different it was in 1840 to the present daub — and the Arundel tracing is a facsimile. ' "Three ministers of public instruction have promised me, have accepted three proofs, of the Arundel print, and have done nothing, tho' millions have been squandered on bridges, streets, promenades, and stables. What other city could boast such monuments as these few treasures of Dante ? The ignorant fools will neither preserve them nor let others do it. Think if we had such memorials of Shakespeare, what care would be taken to save them ! " Yours most sincerely, " (Signed) Seymour Kirkup." ' As each of the persons here involved is entitled to a complete statement of all that is relevant to his case, I will now quote from a letter to which my attention was called by Mr. W. M. Rossetti, by whose permission it is here reprinted, in part, from the Rossetti Papers, published in 1903 (p. 343) : 'BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI ' Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. ' 14 February 1868. ' My dear Rossetti, — Your idea is an excellent one — a Bio- graphy of your Father, besides an Essay on his Beatrice. His life was sufficiently adventurous to be very interesting to the general public, besides his great discoveries in the philosophy of literature, of the Middle Ages in general and Dante in particular. . . . There are plenty of Italians who would be glad enough — Pasquale Villari the original quoted to me by Mr. Vernon, I quote all this as it stands in the latest edition of his Readings on the Paradiso, vol. i., London, 1909, pp. liv-lviii. As to the ' pomegranates ' Kirkup had this to say (in a letter addressed to Gabriele Rossetti, and dated Florence, February 5, 1843) : . . . 'The three pomegranates in Giotto's fresco are so uncertain in their appearance, from injury and time, that I was doubtful about them, but a word from you decides the question in my mind. They are chipped and much obliterated ; and, from their seeming a sort of double outline, and no shade or colour but the yellow drapery on which they are painted, I took them for an embroidery on the breast of the Barone. Some remains of fingers and stalk, however, had led the Florentines to consider them as me/ograni, and they were puzzling their brains to find a meaning.' 92 KIRKUP TO WILLIAM ROSSETTI of Naples, Alessandro d'Ancona of Pisa, P. G. Maggi of Milan, all friends of mine. * I know but little of the Florentines, and that little is not in their favour — duplicity and vanity. They were always reckoned great diplomats. They were the enemies of Dante, and are still, for they have destroyed all the monuments of his memory that re- mained in Florence when I first came here forty-four years ago. What might still be saved are disgracefully neglected and falling to ruin. After their fulsome and ignorant vulgar enthusiasm for the commemoration, they have returned to their wonted indifference, and even to persecution. Their ignorant antiquarians have en- deavoured to make out that Giotto's portrait is spurious — but their grounds are so absurd that they are unworthy refutation. Still, the ignorant join in the hue and cry : and so far indeed they are right, for the present repainted portrait has not a line left of Giotto's beautiful fresco, as you may see by the correct tracing of it published by the Arundel Society. It is now epuiseznd. the edition all sold,many hundreds ; and I have lately made another tracing from that, and sent it to the A[rundel] Society on their promise to publish a new edition of it, which I hope soon to see. It is not a fancy drawing of mine. I have preserved the original talc on which it was traced, and my drawing (made at the same time) of the shading of the light and shade of the face, from both of which I executed the exact likeness published by the Society, after the original fresco had been again lost sight of and degraded, deturpato, by an ignorant and un- principled dauber named Marini. The whole history of that misfortune would make a good " opuscolo delle sventure di un anti- quarior It might induce the government to try and remove the coat of detestable ugliness with which the beautiful original is covered and again concealed. It might be all recovered. The eye of course is gone ; for the beast made a great hole by pulling out a nail instead of cutting it. . . . '* ' Adieu, my dear Rossetti ; with old affection, ever yours, ' Seymour Kirkup.' * Among the Rossetti Papers (pp. 248-52) is another Kirkup letter with a curious story about a dream that came to his little daughters. The story is worth quoting because it shows how much Kirkup must have lived in Dante : ' After many manifes- tations not connected with this subject, on the 15th April, 1866, both Bibi andOlimpia saw Dante in their sleep with the four usual spirits. He is very handsome and younger than formerly ; a wreath on his head (the green which B[ibi] had seen before) ; his hair 93 PORTRAITS OF DANTE None of the evidence known to me conclusively proves that Marini was ' unprincipled,' as Kirkup here states ; but that he was an ignorant dauber is a charge which must be sustained. Cesare Guasti admits that Marini was dull, timid, devoid of literary cul- ture ; he acknowledges also that Marini's workmanship was ' some- what weak,' and yet he regards him not only as an artist of note but as the chief restorer of his time. ' Our Marini led the worthy troop of restorers and easily kept his lead ; for no one perchance knew better than he how to do what in restorations is of capital importance — to engraft something new upon the old. Such was the judgement of many, and I confirm it.' From this indefensible opinion — indefensible, though Guasti defends it — I pass to what he says of Marini's treatment of Giotto's Dante. Marini had been called in 1 840 to cleanse of their white- wash the frescoes which adorned the chapel of the Palace of the Podesta. . . . ' After many fruitless attempts, at last on July 16* he [Marini] wrote to an illustrious fellow-citizen : " I believe I have discovered the portrait of Dante. It would probably have been one of the most beautiful heads, had it been better preserved ; yet it may turn out well with a little restoration. For the time being I am not talking about it to any one. I wish it first to be cleansed of all the whitewash over it. The head is in profile, much less exaggerated than what' we have known hitherto. He [Dante] holds a book in one hand and in the other a flower, so faded away that one cannot tell what flower it is." And on the 24th : " No doubt falls upon the portrait of Dante ; every one is talking about it ; every one wishes to see that great man's likeness. The whole profile is well preserved, except the eye, where there is a nail-hole. [So Marini did not make the hole himself ?] Yes- terday I was at the Grand Duke's and he was very happy over the discovery. Every one is excited over this matter, but the jesult will be what it has been for other things of this nature — that is, to be forgotten." But,' continues Guasti, ' such was not the case ; black, his cap under his arm. He said, unasked, that it was he who influenced the xninister and King for my knighthood and Barony. He promised to help me in getting his portrait by Giotto restored once more.' This is not all. See the long ' Note on the Life and Character of Seymour Kirkup, and on his Credibility as a Witness ' (Appendix II., pp. 208-11). * Cf. p. 73. Apparently it took Marini about five days to get the whitewash off this head of Dante. 94 KIRKUP'S GIFT TO ROSSETTI journalists, grave writers, talented poets, spread the tidings, per- petuated the memory of the event.' * Regarding repetition as less perilous than obscurity, I will ven- ture to make a few more quotations bearing upon the discovery of Giotto's portrait, upon Kirkup's reproductions, upon Marini's restoration, and upon the sketch due to Count Perseo Faltoni, whose name deserves a high place instead of neglect. In his letter dated Florence, September 14, 1 84 1 ,•!• and addressed to Gabriele Rossetti, Kirkup wrote : ' By the time you receive this, I hope that the portrait of Dante, for you, will be in London. ' The gentleman who has taken charge of it was in such haste to leave the country (from the consequences of a fatal duel) that I had not an opportunity for writing. ' You will receive, in fact, three portraits. They are as follows : ' No. I. A drawing in chalk, on light-brown paper, of the face as large as the original. I had intended to write a memorandum on it, but in my hurry it was forgotten. Perhaps you would have the kind- ness to add it, if you think it worth while, viz. : ' " Drawn by S. K., and traced with talc, on the original fresco by Giotto ; discovered in the Chapel of the Palazzo del Podesta, Florence, on the 21st July 1840, before it was retouched." 'No. 2. A small sketch in water-colours, giving the colours of the dress, and the heads supposed to be of Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. ' No. 3. A lithography by the painter and restorer Marini, who uncovered the painting. This is made on a tracing by himself, j: * Cesare Guasti, Opere, vol. ii. pp. 79-91, especially pp. 84-85, where Guasti quotes Marini's two letters (translated above). See the long ' Note on the Life and Character of Antonio Marini ' (Appendix III. pp. 211-2). t Already quoted in part on p. 85. X Having learnt from Mr. W. M. Rossetti that his father might have given these three works to Charles Lyell (a friend of Kirkup), I wrote to the latter's grandson, Sir Leonard Lyell of Kinnordy, Kirriemuir, Scotland, who responded as follows, in a letter dated August 12, 1910 : 'I do not possess the drawings referred to and know nothing of their whereabouts. I have three drawings on boards of the Torrigiani bust — made in 1840 by an artist, Ancona, for my grandfather. You will find some description of them in the volume. Poems of the Vita Nuova, &c., translated by C. Lyell," published by C. F. Molini in London in 1842.' Of the 'three portraits' described above, No. 1 appears to have resembled the immediate source of the Arundel print ; No. 2 would supplement Kirkup's Convivio sketch. 95 PORTRAITS OF DANTE ' I thought it useful to send you these in order to give you a better idea of this very interesting discovery — Dante, under thirty years of age. With respect to No. i, it is fixed w^ith glue- water, and will not rub out with common usage. The only thing it is liable to is the cracking or bending of the paper, which sometimes in a face alters the expression. ' The lithography * I send you is exceedingly unlike and incor- rect, although a tracing. In shading and finishing he [Marini] has totally lost and changed the outline, if he ever had it. It is vulgar, old, and effeminate — the contrary in every respect to the original. The Florentines of to-day cannot draw, nor even trace. Think of what such a hand would do, if allowed to paint over it ! and that has been the case. It is a misfortune when the direction of the fine arts is in the hands of an ignorant man [the Marchese Nerli], chosen only for his Nobility ! Our Direttore with his cleaners has been the ruin of paintings in the Galleries, since I have been here, to the value of ^60,000 or ^80,000 sterling — and the money is the least part of the loss. When I mentioned to you that my drawing was a secret, I only meant that, if known here that I obtained access to make a tracing by bribery, it would compromise those who assisted me. You are welcome to show it to whom you please, and do whatever you wish with it. But I recommend you not to give it away, for it is the only * No. 3 is probably the source of a portrait exhibited in London, ' with the avowed purpose of engraving,' before May 11, 1850. That portrait bore the following inscription: 'Portrait of Dante Alighieri, painted by Giotto in 1300 in the chapel of the Praetorium at Florence. This monument, spoiled by the prisons constructed and by various layers of white which had taken it from the eyes of the worshippers of patriotic things, was re-established on June 21 [sic] in 1840, by the labour of a meritorious society, of which the promoter was Signer Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi. ' Praise to the good Italian, whose sojourn in ultramontane countries has not taken away the love of his own. ' The painter Marini was charged with this work.' ' The student of Italian records,' comments the Spectator, ' will easily recognize the free and easy style of these complimentary exercitations.* But, 'the value of the record is somewhat explained away by the following letter from Mr. Kirkup to Signor Cavalcasella [sic], an Italian friend in London. For the perfect candour and honourable feeling of the writer we can vouch.' Spectator, May 11, 1850, p. 452. In the Spectator for May 25 Bezzi denied the ugly innuendo above quoted, declaring that ' no man could be guilty of the absurdity of allowing the laudatory inscription at the back, whether it be deserved or not, to be published.' Note what Cavalcaselle says in his letter of July 13, 1850, with regard to the above-mentioned portrait at Colnaghi's {supra, p. 82, note *). 96 KIRKUP TO COLONEL GILLUM copy * that has been made to my knowledge before the fresco was retouched, except the miserable lithography which I send ; and, if so bad a copy was produced by the help of tracing, and from the original in its pure state, nothing very good is to be expected in future. The eye in the said lithography was, of course, added by the copier. You will perceive by my drawing that the outline (the eyelash) remained, which was fortunate, as it gives the exact situation of the feature.' -f In a letter dated Leghorn, October 31, 1873, Kirkup said to Colonel Gillum : 'The [Arundel] print is really a fine work of art, both for its beauty and its great correctness, for which I can answer. There is nothing [in it] of my own. I refused to restore the eye which Mr. Marini destroyed by pulling out a nail, and I left the hole as I found it at the time as a pledge of the authenticity of the rest. ... As for Dante's beautiful portrait by Giotto, I believe a damp cloth would remove the daubing under which it has been concealed for 33 years J to the disgrace of the Florentines, who now pretend, in their ignorance of art and history, that the original is not by Giotto, without a shadow of proof, the mere assertion of ignorant fools. I daresay there are not many alive who saw it in the short time it was visible, before it was so badly repainted by a wretched dauber [Marini], who was sent away from Pisa for his incapacity, and obtained his job from the favour of Cavalier Montalvo, who has ruined most of the best works in the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi, which were in the most perfect * Kirkup must here employ the expression * only copy ' generically. The work in question is apparently the first of the three named above. See p. lOO on Kirkup's * on/y copy.' t Gabriele Rossetti : A Verbified Autobiography^ &c., pp. 1 47-9. ' About the same time,' writes Toynbee, ' Kirkup wrote an interesting account (in Italian) of the discovery of the portrait to G. B. Cavalcaselle ; a corrected translation of which appeared in the Spectator for May 11, 1850.' Already quoted in full ; see pp. 80-82. In Dante Gabriel Rossetti : His Family-Letters^ London, 1895, vol. i. p. 65, occurs the following statement by Mr. W. M. Rossetti as to Kirkup : ' He made at once a good full-sized coloured drawing of this invaluable portrait (now, sad to say, no longer in a perfectly authentic state), and sent the drawing as a present to my father ; from him it came to my brother, and was only disposed of in the sale of his effects which followed his death in 1882. The receipt of this portrait probably put the mind and feelings of Dante Rossetti as much en rapport with the Florentine poet as any incident which had preceded it ; but even so he did not take any immediate steps for acquainting himself with the poems.' X Nearer 32 years. See p. 84. G 97 PORTRAITS OF DANTE condition. He also had a hand in destroying all the monuments of Dante in Florence . . .' * To return to Marini. If he was foolish enough to dig holes in frescoed walls, thereby necessarily demolishing some parts of what he had been engaged to rescue, he would not have surpassed himself in pulling out a nail with which some less responsible vandal had unwittingly pierced the eye of Giotto's Dante. Possibly Marini may have originally intended merely to paint over the new plaster, used to plug the hole -f- — his motives we cannot fathom, nor can we determine his intentions — but what we can be sure of is that having ruined the eye, or having allowed it to be ruined, he began to paint over the whole figure, perhaps for the sake of harmony ; and if Paur and Barlow are right, it was at the behest of the government then in power that he ' altered the forbidden green of the nether garment to a chocolate hue, so that the Poet no longer wears the three colours of Beatrice in the Purgatorio' (xxx. 31-33). Sopra candido vel cinta d'uliva Donna m'apparve, sotto verde manto, Vestita di color di fiamma viva. (That is, when Beatrice thus reappeared to Dante, she wore a white veil, over which was an olive wreath, and the garment under her green mantle was red like a bright flame.) ' Not only did Marini trust to luck in making a new eye, * writes Paur, ' but blundered further in several parts of the clothing. Thus he took certain dirt spots on the head dress for folds, and made out of them such a cap as never was seen ; for he cocked up the rear purse-like portion, and converted it into an independent body fastened to the cowl.' If Crowe and Cavalcaselle are right, ' the seam which now unites the bag to the rest of the bonnet never existed before, and * This Leghorn letter was given by Col. Gillum to the Hon. W. W. Vernon, who sent me a copy. It is now printed in full in Mr. Vernon's Readings on the Paradise, vol. i., pp. Ivi.-lvii. (1909). t Marini's statement in the letter quoted by Guasti {supra, p. 91), warrants suspicion. It is unlikely that an innocent man of ordinary intelligence would have employed such non-committal words — ' The whole profile is well preserved, except where there is a nail-hole.' Let us bear in mind that Marini was in charge of the work from the beginning. 98 *>**', >>, p i^^^^^^^^-v ■ ■■■■ ^^(^^^^^^^ w / y ^f/ ^^ if ^ \ id ^^^^^^ X a, -1 K Q Z X < if ...3<^^»*^ kSi^/- -v.*" J -■'"''' ^"" 1 lyay 1^^ ,# r :|i W^^ k K^^^H < mi Hjl P KIRKUP'S ORIGINAL DRAWING is a mere fancy of the restorer, who at the same time has falsified the outline by raising the point of the hood.' Furthermore these writers state, without dating their observations, that ' the scraper, in removing the whitewash, took out the colour of a portion at the back of the head and of the pendent part, which may now be seen gashed by the razor ; but here and there a red spot by chance remains, even in the pendent portion, showing that the bonnet was red all over,' whereas the coif or undercap was white. If Kirkup has not erred, when he made his coloured drawing, all the original headdress, save the red band, was whitish or light grey ; but Marini changed this too.* ' As for the rest of the costume, in which the poet was painted by Giotto, it consists,' write Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ' of a white undercap, [and of] a red vest [i.e., coat] fastened at the neck with a lace, turned over on the breast and relieved at the chin by a strip of white collar. Beneath the vest at the bosom a green undercoat appears.' A few more words relating to the discovery, and what fol- lowed ; then I shall pass on to the frescoes attributed to Giotto. In Lord Vernon s^/ium we read that the Bargello fresco, 'having remained so long hidden and forgotten, was at last sought and discovered through the agency of Messrs. Bezzi and Wilde in 1840, following the hints given them by Seymour Kirkup -f- on the basis of the statements left about it by [Filippo] Villani and Vasari. .j: An original drawing by Kirkup — that is, ' the drawing made for . Lord Vernon by Kirkup from his tracing and from his coloured sketch in the copy of the Convivio,' — is now at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire.§ Kirkup's copy of the Convivio, containing his coloured sketch, was sent by Col. Gillum on April 3, 1908, to Prof. Villari, ' to be deposited as a gift ... in the Museum of Historical Art in the Bargello, the most fitting place for this interesting record.' || * See Paur, ' Dante's Portrat,' yahrbuch der Deutschen Dante-Geulhchaft, vol. ii. p. 305. See also A History of Painting, &c., vol. ii. (1903), pp. 56-57. t See this book, pp. 80, 83, ff. passim. X See the Album, p. 33 ; also pp. 37 and 38. § In the right hand lower corner of this drawing is an inscription apparently in Kirkup's handwriting : ' Drawn from the Original (by Giotto) by Seymour Kirkup, the first promoter of the discovery, & traced on the Fresco in the palace of the Podesti in Florence before the painting was retouched.' II See Readings on the Paradiso, London, 1909, vol. i. pp. lii.-lx. (' Giotto's portrait of Dante in the Bargello '). The frontispiece to vol. i. of Mr. Vernon's Readings on the Purgatorio, London, 1907, is a reproduction in colour of the original drawing at 99 PORTRAITS OF DANTE It is now displayed in the former chapel, near the glaring figure which Marini painted upon Giotto's Dante. Beneath it, in Italian, is this inscription : ' Painted by Giotto in the Palace of the Podesta; discovered on the 21st of July, 1840,' and an inscription on a card declares it to be ' A copy of the portrait of Dante, executed at the time of the discovery by the painter Seymour Kirkup ; gift of Colonel Gillum.' — ' Copia del ritratto di Dante eseguita al momento della scoperta dal pittore Seymour Kirkup, dono del Colonnello Gillum.'* In reality, '■ al momento'' here means, after Marini (or a helper) had pulled out the nail, but before he had done his worst. If Kirkup sent his ' only copy ' of his drawing to Gabriele Rossetti, and did so after the original fresco had been ruined by Marini, what was the drawing made for Lord Vernon ? The answer seems to be this : ' Kirkup thought of himself as the only person who had made a copy of the fresco before it was ' restored.' To his mind either that copy, or any one of a dozen more or less like it that he may have made, would be also the ' only copy.* It is only the image that Kirkup is thinking of. There is no good reason for doubting that Kirkup did make a tracing of the fresco, that he made a smaller coloured sketch of the fresco in his Corrvivio, and that from his combination of these two we have the precious Arundel print. In April 1908, I received from the Hon. William Warren Vernon, himself a lifelong and highly esteemed Dante scholar, the following corroboration of this statement : ' The drawing that Kirkup did for my Father [Lord Vernon] was done from his own tracing on the original fresco (before it had been defaced) and from his coloured small copy done in the parch- ment cover of his Convivto. From my Father's drawing the Arundel reproduction was made.'-j- Sudbury Hall ; this reproduction is not quite so bright as the Arundel print and is of course much smaller — dimensions : 13.4 cm. high by 9.9. * The little drawing is now displayed by itself, so that it may be inspected to greater advantage. Its dimensions are 5^ by 3|- inches, or 14 by 9 cm. t The Arundel print (whereon the discovery is wrongly dated 1841) appeared in 1859 ; copies of it can be seen at the Library of Congress, at the Public Library of Boston, at the Metropolitan Museum, &c., and in various European collections. It can be had of Quaritch and of other dealers for about £^, or less. This print, the various drawings from which it was made, and Faltoni's sketch are by far the most precious pictorial records of Dante. In a letter dated August 14, 19 10, Mr. Vernon tells me that the large photograph of Kirkup's drawing of Giotto's Dante, which is the 100 FALTONI'S COPY The Arundel print, the colour-sketch in Kirkup's Convivioy and the coloured drawing at Sudbury Hall, are fortunately not our only records of the fresco before Marini's restoration. On March 31, 1868, Karl Witte received a solicited letter from Kirkup, dated at Florence.* The honour of discovering the Bargello portrait had been assigned to Count Perseo Faltoni ; Faltoni's drawing (so the story went) had been withheld for the sake of Marini till after Marini's death. Kirkup wrote to Witte that during his forty-four years in Florence he had never heard of a Faltoni. Others in Florence knew of a sculptor so named, but were not aware that he had had anything to do with the Bargello Dante. Nevertheless Faltoni must have had a hand in the occurrences at the Bargello ; for he too has left us an admirable sketch of Giotto's portrait before restoration. As Kirkup certainly did not copy Faltoni's drawing, and as Faltoni could not have copied Kirkup's original drawing without Kirkup's knowledge, nor have used the Arundel print fifteen years before it was published (for Faltoni's drawing is dated 1840 and, according to Paur, had in 1868 been a long while in the Print Room at Berlin, to which it had been turned over by the Emperor William), either Faltoni was secretly favoured, or he too must have contrived by bribery or stealth to make a drawing of the Bargello Dante. Faltoni's draw- ing, says Paur, ' is not in colours, but chiaroscuro ; only the visible strip of the nether garment and the leaf edges of the book are green.' Such is the case ; but to Faltoni's drawing we shall return. Notwithstanding the opinion of Dr. Ingo Krauss,-)- the Arundel print or, rather, the original from which it was made,;|: and Fal- toni's drawing are so similar to each other as to prove (unless we are to allow for a miracle) that both faithfully reproduce most of the essential lines and, to a certain degree, the modelling of Giotto's frontispiece of vol. iii. of the 'Vernon Dante,' was '■taken by myself, more than fifty years ago, in my Father's lifetime, from the original drawing at Sudbury Hall.' And he adds : ' That is an accurate rendering of the portrait at Sudbury,' See Appendix VI., p. 215 ('Final Note on the Arundel Print'). * See Paur, 'Dante's PortrMt' (the long note on pp. 301-2). t Krauss says that although these two drawings are the only relatively authentic documents of the Bargello Dante, their value is but limited (!), and illogically concludes that neither can be an absolutely true copy. Monatsberkhte for 1901, p. 491. See Kirkup's statement, p. 93. % And this original, rather than the print, which is sometimes faded, should be used in comparison, even though they are generally almost identical. lOI PORTRAITS OF DANTE portrait before Marini's ' restoration.' (i) Kirkup's drawing does not end at a point exactly the same distance from a point vertically over it in the collar or from any other corresponding spot ; did it so end, one would have cause to suspect that Faltoni must somehow have contrived to copy Kirkup ; though such an agreement might be due to chance ; (2) Kirkup preserves all the original colours,* whereas Faltoni preserves only the green strips already noted ; (3) Kirkup gives a slightly different outline to the ' pomegranates ' and is rightly less definite as to their stems ; Faltoni's stems look touched up ; (4) Faltoni indicates what may have been a dimple at the corner of the mouth ; Kirkup does not ; (5) in Kirkup's drawing the forehead slants backward a little more and describes a gently indented curve ; (6) Kirkup makes the lips a little more positive and imparts to them more of the form known as ' Cupid's bow,' whereas Faltoni has drawn the lips relatively rather thin, flat, and less youthful ; (7) Kirkup makes the chin seem more promi- nent and (8) gives the whole head a look of being swung a little further forward, whereas Faltoni lets it rest more heavily on what is in each case a somewhat bulky neck ; -j- (9) in Faltoni's drawing the hand is half effaced by a white smooch as if the fresco had sw^trc6. further damage when he copied it ; unless Kirkup unjusti- fiably made up this feature for purely artistic purposes (and we have evidence that he did not), this detail perhaps enables us to date Kirkup's preliminary sketches as earlier than the one sketch by Faltoni now under examination ; (10) Faltoni makes the horizon- tal line of the chin somewhat concave, whereas Kirkup's line is convex; (11) whatever Giotto's fresco may have shown before Marini ' restored ' it, Kirkup omits a certain little button in the angle where lapel and collar meet, but, on the other hand, (12) he gives more ' shape ' to the shoulder of the coat, and again he differs from Faltoni as to the lay of the book and (13) as to the lines and shading of the cap. Finally, ( 1 4) the two drawings have not exactly the same expression ; but this is a matter so complex and subtle that it must be merely noticed and passed. Were Faltoni known to have * Note, however, Kirkup's description in his letter to Rossetti (Sept. 12, 1840), quoted at p. 141. t This is the only feature in which Giotto's portrait represents something anatomically abnormal ; one would expect the diagonal line of the throat to meet the chin a good half-inch further back, both in the original fresco and in the Arundel print. Note the probable situation of the nape of the neck. I OS Schtvartz. FALTONIS DANTK, KROM THE FRESCO BY (JIOTTO IN THE BARGELLO, FLORENCE. (Berlin) < f • e V KIRKUP AND FALTONI copied Kirkup, or vice versa, a careful eye would still be able to dis- cover divergences, however slight. Now, if Kirkup and Faltoni differ in outline, even though it be little, which is to be trusted ? Apparently Faltoni made no tracing ; we know that Kirkup did. Whoever may have been the prime mover, or the most efficient agent, in the recovery of Giotto's Dante, the names of Seymour Kirkup and of Perseo Faltoni * deserve to be ever remembered and honoured ; but for them, the only portrait having any demonstrable claims to be regarded as a probable likeness of the greatest Italian poet would have been lost beyond recall. -f- * Of Faltoni's drawing F. X. Kraus says, ' Eine andere, um ein Weniges abweichende Copie nahm der Graf Perseo Faltoni vor der Restauration, bei welcher er, wie es scheint, Marini's Gehulfe war. Diese zweite Nachbildung nach dem Original, welche auch einen selbststSndigen Werth hat, gelangte dutch Schenkung Kaiser Wilhelms in das Berliner Kupferstichcabinet.' {Dante : sein Leben und sein ff^eri, iSgjjp. 167. 5^^ also Paur, 'Dante's Portrat,' pp. 301-2.) Kraus remarks in a note {op. cit. p. 167, note 4) that Faltoni's drawing differs from Kirkup's especially about the mouth, and gives somewhat more of the destroyed eye toward the left. He adds that Witte had received from Faltoni a repetition of the Berlin copy. Faltoni's drawing, which is still to be seen in the Print Room at the Berlin Museum, is hand- somely reproduced by Kraus (in a brown tone) facing p. 166. The best reproduction of the Arundel print to be found in any book published before 191 1 is given by Kraus, facing p. 161 of his Dante. For further information as to Faltoni's drawing see pp. 143-4- t In the sixth appendix to his ^«Va di Dante, p. 632, ed. 1844, Melchior Missirini, who lays vague claim to having set on foot the search for the Bargello Dante, lauds Marini not only as an excellent painter but as a man skilled in the artistic restoration of works of the trecento and quattrocento. Missirini tells us that after some trials Marini succeeded by means of his chemical preparations in finding not only that Giotto had painted Dante, but had embellished the whole chapel with historical frescoes. Hereupon there was great excitement in Florence, and everybody hastened to admire the likeness of the Father of the Italian language and Italian poetry. Missirini states that the chapel had been made into a two-storeyed room ; he does not mention the discoverers of the portrait. 103 X GIOTTO'S DANTE : THE FRESCOES IN THE MADDALENA CHAPEL The frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel, especially the Lucifer and the Paradise. Description of the Paradise. Dante's place in the fresco. Thode's description of the Paradise. His and other erroneous ideas as to the date of this work and as to the scene which it portrays. Disagreement as to the date and authorship . of the portrait of Dante. The problem in hand THE Magdalen's Chapel in the Bargello or Palazzo del Podesta,* at Florence, is a rectangular room with a waggon roof about sixty feet above the floor, which is some thirty-six feet long by twenty-six wide. This room is lighted by two tall narrow windows in the left wall, facing north, and by another similar window in the middle of the end wall, facing east. It is entered by a door in the west wall. Over the Gothic arch of this entrance is a fresco of Hell, with a Lucifer inspired by Dante's description, still visible though almost faded out. Besides a fresco representing Paradise, and other frescoes to which we shall return, the east end wall was once characterised by an altar which apparently reached well beyond the sides of the window above it. Upon the right, or inner wall, are some eight scenes from the life of Maria Magdalena, now almost obliterated ; other pictures, * For various relevant details in the history of this building, now the Museo Nazionale, see my Index, under ' Palazzo del Podesta.' In vol. i. of his La Toscane au Moyen Age^ Paris, 1870, Georges Rohault de Fleury offers sixteen splendid archi- tectural plates, with plans of the whole building ; but of the Maddalena Chapel he shows only the entrance wall (pi. xi.), and does not attempt to reproduce the frescoes thereon. Crowe and Cavalcaselle devote pp. 49-50 of their History of Painting in Italy, &c., vol. ii., 1 903 ed., to the Maddalena Chapel ; their description is not wholly accurate — for instance, where they speak of the right wall read lefi, and for left read right — but it is pretty full ; to their errors as to Giotto and Dante we shall return. H. Thode's Giotto, 1899, contains valuable data but consists chiefly of its author's impressions. See the present book, Appendix IV. and Appendix V., pp. 213-5. 104 KKESCO OF PARADISE. (Cafieila Sta. Maria Maddalena^ The BargetlOy Florence) THE MADDALENA CHAPEL pertaining to the life of Maria Aegyptiaca, are the principal decora- tions of the flat spaces opposite ; but we must note a figure of St. Venantius, with an important inscription, between the two windows in the long outer wall. About 1840, to judge by Kir- kup's sketch,* some of the many frescoes in this chapel may have still shown a good deal of their original freshness ; but by 1865 they were mostly quite faded and in a deplorable state of mutilation, though many lines revealed, as now, the shapes of certain figures. What concerns us most are the frescoes on the end walls, and especially those on the altar wall. Dim though it is, the figure of Lucifer gives us an important clue. The whole Paradise must also be considered, and fortunately we can study it in an engraving facing page 33 of Lord Vtrnon^ Album and followed by explanatory text. This engraving was made by Lasinio from a drawing by Seymour Kirkup, to whom we owe not only the Arundel print, but other precious records of Giotto's Dante. So far as I am aware, there exists no other accessible reproduction of the large fresco of Paradise in this chapel, and probably none could be made, for since 1840 the colours have so faded that the design can hardly be discerned. -f- Over the highly ornate Gothic window which divides this fresco into halves is God or the Saviour, with a globe (the world) at his feet. Figures of cherubim round about him in the clouds, but lower, are also effaced. Below these, on each side, are many figures of saints, the men mostly above the women. They wear halos and are therefore, of course, to be thought of as represented among the Blest when the fresco was painted. Below them, represented as standing on an imaginary floor, are some two score figures, mostly men, without halos ; they are there- fore represented as alive. The Dante is opposite our right hand as we face the window. He is the second erect figure in the foreground and is shown life-size, from head to foot. Facing Dante, and corresponding symmetrically to a figure kneeling at Dante's side, is a kneeling Podesta, beneath whom one sees the escutcheon of Tedice de' Fieschi, who held that ofiice in 1358-9 ; but this escutcheon is known to have been painted over the original fresco ; hence the original fresco is of earlier date. * See chap, ix., especially pp. 89-90, chap, xiv., p. 141, and Index, under ' Kirkup.* t. Dimensions : 25.5 cent, by 18.3 (actual drawing). See List of Illustrations. 105 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Thode * describes this scene as follows (I translate) : ' The composition contains above, over the window, Christ sitting in a mandorla [or almond-shaped architectural ornament], amidst Sera- phim and Apostles ; lower, arranged in troops on the right and left, are the Saints. At the very bottom, standing in groups, dressed in the costumes of that time, are the beholders of heavenly splendour. At the head of the two processions moving toward the middle, slightly separated from the middle, there stands on the left a man in a long red garment lined with white ; on the right an elegant youth in richly draped apparel, with a pointed cap on his head. . . . Before each kneels a figure — the one on the left representing perhaps an ecclesiastic, the other a layman. The elegant youth is followed by three men in citizen's dress, standing close together ; the foremost is Dante, clad in a red coat and a red cowl, with a book under his left arm, and in his right hand, apparently, a branch with flowers or fruit upon it.' Thode concludes that Giotto here painted Dante from life about 1301, which is preposterous, and that in this scene we have a memorial of the Peace of Acquasparta, which is extremely dubious, ' In spite of a very pleasant fable,' writes Mr. Edmund Gardner,-}' * it is absolutely certain that this is not a contemporary portrait of Dante (although it may be regarded as an authentic likeness to some extent) and was not painted by Giotto ; the frescoes were executed by some later follower of Giotto (possibly by Taddeo Gaddi, who painted the lost portraits of Dante and Guido Cavalcanti in Santa Croce) after 1345.' The thesis here restated by Mr. Gardner was launched about half a century ago, and then arose a controversy which has been fought over ever since by many vigorous partisans, who have some- times been more eager to win a victory for their affirmations than to search for all the evidence, and to offisr only such arguments as that evidence warrants, whatever conclusions may be overthrown or maintained. * Giotto, pp. 71-72 ; see also Thode's reproduction, op. at., p. 54. Cf. Appendix IV. and Appendix V., pp. 213-4 of the present book, for further information as to the frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel. t The Story 0/ Florence, p. 222 ; see also pp. 67, 93, and chap. xiii. of the present book. 106 XI DATE OF THE BARGELLO DANTE Whenwasthe Bargello Dantepainted? Diversity of opinions; assumptions and conjectures. So earlya date as 1300 a paradox. Dante banished, and threatened with dire punishment. His fierce girding at Florence. Further action against him. Florence makes an offer which Dante scorns. His attitude toward Florence in the Commedia. Bertrand du Pouget and the Papal Guelfs. Weak- ness of Crowe and Cavalcaselle's case. More positive evidence as to the date. Dante's colours ; the pomegranates or apples, and their symbolic significance. "The Inferno znd Purgatorio finished by 1 3 19. The futility of relying upon style to determine dates; the importance of what is depicted. The Lucifer. Saint Venantius and the Podesti Fidesmini da Varano. Meaning of the inscription Hoc Opus &c. 1337 not necessarily a terminus ad quern. Giotto's death in 1336 does not preclude him. Giotto's Dante and the fire of 1332. The law as to pictures in public buildings. The necessity of further inquiry as to Giotto THE Arundel print* and Faltoni's drawing, -f- wholly- independent of each other, yet almost identical, and showing therefore how the Bargello portrait looked in 1840, before it was 'restored,' represent Dante as still young, apparently between twenty-five and thirty years of age. Thus we come to the period of his Vita Nuova (about 1292). But when was the portrait really painted ? This question, as we shall see, is of cardinal importance ; yet there is an amazing discrepancy in the answers that various historians have offered. Some say, before Dante's banishment ; others range from 1 302 to 1 345, or even later, almost a generation after Dante's death. In their confused account of the Bargello portrait Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle say : ' It was . . . about this time [1300], and no doubt previous to April 1302, that Giotto laboured in the chapel of the Podesta or Bargello of Florence, and painted on one of the walls an incident illustrating the memorable feud of the "Blacks" and * See Index, under ' Arundel print.' t See pp. 101-3 and Index, under 'Faltoni.' 107 PORTRAITS OF DANTE " Whites." Neither the lessons which the pictures of this chapel were intended to convey, nor the presence in one of them of Dante, were sufficient to save the building from desecration.' * What are only assumptions and conjectures are here set down with a confidence which should be accorded only to demonstrable facts, and authority is given to a misstatement which has been copied and perpetuated by many other writers. The assertion that Giotto painted the Bargello portrait of Dante about 1300, or before 1302, were it based on any historical evidence, would be still a paradox. In 1302 and thereabouts the Whites and Blacks were furiously at odds. On January 27, 1301-2, Cante de' Gabrielli of Agobbio, the Podesta then in power, pronounced against Dante and others a sentence of hateful rigour. Dante and those involved with him were charged with contumacy in failing to answer a summons, with pecuniary malversation in office, with having conspired against Pope Boniface and against the admission into Florence of the Pope's representative, Charles of Valois, as well as against the tranquillity of Florence and of the Guelfs. For these offences Dante, and his fellow victims of Guelfic and papal ferocity, were to pay a fine of 5000 florins, to restore the moneys they were alleged to have illegally exacted, ' payment to be made within three days of the promulga- tion of the sentence ; in default of which all their goods [were] to be forfeited and destroyed ; [and] in addition to this the delinquents [so reads the decree] are sentenced to banishment from Tuscany for two years, and to be forever debarred from office in the common- wealth of Florence, their names to that end being recorded in the book of the Statutes of the People, as Peculators and Malversators in office.'-f- Two months later, March 10, 1302, Dante's foes launched a still severer sentence : ' Should any of the aforesaid at any * A History of Painting in Italy, vol. ii. (1903) p. 49. (In his Iconografia Dantesca, 1897, p. 9, L. Volkmann implies that Giotto painted this Dante in 1300.) Crowe and Cavalcaselle's error as to the date is repeated by P6rat6 in A. Michel's Histoire de rArt, vol. ii. pp. 788-90 and p. 816. According to Julia M. Cartwright (Mrs. Ady), '. . . after his [Dante's] return to Florence [1300], Giotto introduced Dante's portrait, robed in red and holding his book in his hand, in an altarpiece of Paradise [see pp. 134-5],' &c., but what we see now, thinks this writer, is a copy made by one of Giotto's pupils. See The Painters of Florence, 1902, p. 20. Many like statements could be quoted. t For the original documents see Del Lungo, DelF Esilio di Dante, pp. 97-103, and Toynbee, A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the fVorks of Dante, pp. 190-3. 108 THE DATE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE time come into the power of the said commonwealth, he shall be burnt to death.' To suppose that a portrait honouring Dante, as Giotto's does, could have escaped the fury of these fanatical partisans, who were wont to destroy the very dwellings of their victims, and to include everything that concerned them in such a vengeance, is to suppose in- deed. No document is offered ; we are expected to swallow this sicut hostiam without an atom of evidence. We are asked to believe that Giotto is known to have decorated the Maddalena Chapel before April 1302 ; that he illustrated an identifiable incident ; that he intended to convey lessons, though we do not learn what these lessons were ; we are expected to believe that Dante was regarded as a national hero, worthy already of official commemoration, though the Vita Nuova was thus far perhaps his only title to fame ; and, finally, we are expected to believe that this portrait, which, like the Lucifer near it, plainly shows the influence of the Commeciia,\\2idi been painted years before the Commedia was even fairly begun, and that it could remain unscathed in full view of the public, in a building controlled by Dante's foes, through more than twelve years during which he and they exchanged messages of scorn and hatred. Let us consider some well-documented facts. In 1302 Dante left Florence, an exile, banished by his political adversaries, who were also his personal foes ; and though he often longed to return to tht dolce nido, to the once sweet nest, he and his enemies remained bitterly hostile to the last. In 1 3 1 1 he wrote a letter headed, ' Dante Alighieri, a Florentine and unjustly an exile, to the very wicked Florentines within the city ' [Dantes Allagherius Florentinus, et exul immeritus, scelestissimis Florentinis intrinsecus) , thus smiting all Florence, and Florence responded by expressly excluding him from the pardon granted to other exiles.* On November 6, 1 3 1 5, he was again condemned, and if captured was to be beheaded ; his sons were included in the condemnation. i- A year later. Count Guido of BattifoUe, King Robert's vicar in Florence, proclaimed an amnesty which would have allowed Dante and other exiles to return, provided they would submit to a fine and to a degrading penance in the Bapistery — // mio bel San Giovanni. The offer met with Dante's * Riforma di Messer Baldo £ Aguglione, Sept. 2, 131 1. t Contra Dantem Adhegherii et film (for full text see Toynbee, Dante Dictionary, P- 193)- 109 PORTRAITS OF DANTE scorn : ' Is this the glorious recall of Dante Alighieri to his native city, after the miseries of nearly fifteen years of exile ? . . . No ! this is not the way for me to return to my country. If another can be found that does not derogate from the fame and honour of Dante, that will I take with no lagging steps. But if by no such way Florence may be entered, then will I enter Florence never. What ! can I not under any sky meditate on the most precious truths, with- out first rendering myself inglorious, nay ignominious, in the eyes of the people and city of Florence ? At least bread will not fail me ! ' * In 1 3 19, as we know from a Latin eclogue -f- addressed to Dante by Giovanni del Virgilio — at all events, by 1 322 — the Commedia was known, and one may imagine how the ferocious invectives with which the Inferno abounds must have fanned to a fresh blaze the anger of his enemies in Florence. Two years later, the chronicler Giovanni Villani, though his politics were not Dante's, records with sympathy the Poet's death, affirming that he had been banished for no other fault than because he belonged to the Whites, ' albeit he was a Guelf ;' and Villani's kindly, reverent words may indicate that the nobler spirits, like himself, were already tempering their views ; yet, in March 1 329, Cardinal Bertrand du Pouget, the Pope's legate in Lombardy, manifested the hatred of the papal Guelfs by ordering that Dante's De Monarchia should be burnt, and it is prob- able that he would likewise have gladly consigned Dante's bones in auto d'.ay? to lasting infamy, though not because he had ever had any personal encounter with Dante.."]: In the face of all this, and of other evidence which they forget or ignore, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, as well as others, would have us believe that Giotto was invited or allowed to portray Dante, conspicuously, before April 1302, in the Palazzo del Podesta, where a Cante de' Gabrielli was soon to hold sway, and that his portrait could remain there unharmed for at least seventeen years while other fierce haters of Dante were in power, and while Dante was lashing wicked Florence. Even were there no good reason for thinking * Epiitola ix. 3-4 ; cf. Toynbee in his In the Footprints of Dante, London, 1907, pp. 378-9. A passage which for brevity I have had to omit, is not more conciliatory than the words here quoted. t Commonly believed to be genuine. See Toynbee, Dante Alighieri : his Life and Works, London, 1910, pp. 252-3. t Ricci, U Ultimo Rifugio, pp. 187-94. I 10 THE DATE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE that just before 1302 Giotto was at work in Rome or elsewhere, neither between 1302 and 13 19, nor earlier, did he paint the Bar- gcUo Dante, unless the evidence now before us, and other evidence of a positive character, presently to be offered, is meaningless.* What then is the approximate date of Giotto's Dante ? The portrait itself supplies part of the evidence. The three colours of Dante's dress were originally white, green, and red. These are the three colours worn by Beatrice when she appears to Dante in Purgatory : Cosi, dentro una nuvola di fiori, Che dalle mani angeliche saliva, E ricadeva in giu dentro e di fuori, Sopra candido vel cinta d'uliva. Donna m'apparve, sotto verde manto^ Vestita di color dijiamma viva. ' Thus within a cloud of flowers, which from the angelic hands was ascending, and falling down again within and without, a lady, with olive wreath above a white veil, appeared to me, robed with the colour of living flame beneath a green mantle.' -f- In his right hand the Dante of our portrait once held a bough bearing apparently three pomegranates or apples.:]: In Hell Dante says to lacopo Rusticucci : Lascio lo fele, e vo pei dolci pomi, Promessi a me per lo verace duca. ' I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits promised me by my veracious leader.' § The gall that he is leaving is the bitterness of Hell, or of evil ; * Boccaccio's invective [rimprovero) in his Trattateho indicates not that Florence was still positively hostile to Dante in or about 1364, but rather that she had not yet made the amends which Boccaccio believed due to his idol. A similar, though less violent rebuke was administered about 100 years later by Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421- 1498) in his still unpublished Trattato contro la ingratitudine^ Sec. (Cod. Magliab. C. XV. d. viii., n. 1442). lacopo di Dante is known to have been in Florence in .1332. See Ricci, L' Ultimo Rifugio, p. 194. Dante had not yet been rehabilitated even in 1342. Pietro di Dante witnessed a protocol by a Florentine notary, Jan. 21, 1323, (O. F. S.), G. Gargani, Delia Casa di Dante, Florence, 1865, p. 40. t Purg. XXX. 28-33 ; rf- P- 84, note*, and p. 98. X See the footnote on p. 92 ; also my Index, under ' Pomegranates.' § Inf. xvi. 61-62 {cf. Purg. xxvii. 11 5-7). Ill PORTRAITS OF DANTE the sweet fruits are the joys of purification and of bliss awaiting him in Purgatory and Paradise. Thus Giotto put into his portrait of Dante four symbols which he took from the Commedia^ and these enable us to arrive at a date. We know that the Inferno was completed after April 20, 13 14, because of an allusion to the death of Clement V. {Inf. xix. 76—87); we know also that it was completed not later than 1 3 1 9, for it is referred to as finished in the poems exchanged between Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio. Therein, too, the Purgatorio is spoken of as finished. It is most unlikely that Dante finished the Purgatorio before the Inferno,^ and it is also most unlikely that Giotto had read before 1 3 1 9 these verses describing Beatrice's apparel, or that he painted these four striking features of the Bargello portrait, as well as that Dantesque Lucifer,-f- by chance. Like other medieval painters, Giotto was accustomed to follow tradition, or the authority of written documents,;|: and therefore he would have been far more likely to borrow these details from the Commedia than to invent them or go to some less authoritative source. The three colours worn by Beatrice were given her by Dante : they are the colours of her champion ; hence, I think, their presence, along with the apples or pomegranates, in Giotto's portrait. Can we corroborate and advance this date with other evidence ? I think we can, and that some of the evidence is offered in Venturi's words : 'Dante being dead [1321], and his memory having already assumed gigantic proportions, the great citizen enters the choir of the Blest, in the Palazzo del Podesta at Florence. He could not be painted living, among the dead, as has been believed : let us remember that Enrico Scrovegni at Padua stands in the foreground, not among the elect, nor on the path by which they ascend to Heaven. Giotto was rigorously logical [?], and he could not have represented, as has been maintained, the citizen as Prior [Dante was Prior in 1300 and 1 301], nor before his banishment ; for the style, so far as can be judged by those damaged coats of plaster [queiguasti * See Parodi, La data della composizione e le teorie politiche deW Inferno e del Purgatorio di Dante, Perugia, 1905 ; also Toynbee, Dante Alighieri, 1910, p. 198. t This attribution is based on Ghiberti's statement. The Lucifer is not in- dispensable. X Compare this, from the Maxima Biblioteca Patrum, xxvii. 325 : ' Non est imaginum structurapictorum inventio,sedecclesiaecatholicaeprobatalegislatio et traditio.' I think Giotto would have followed tradition in painting Dante where and as he did. I 12 THE DATE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE intonachi\ in that ruin of the great work, belongs to the artist's maturity.'* The words ' for the style,' &c., seem an illogical explanation, and how hazardous it is to use ' style ' as a means of determining the age and authorship of old paintings in general, and of the Bar- gello frescoes in particular, is amply demonstrated by the critics who do so ; for several such critics, among them Milanesi and Passerini,-f- have even denied that Giotto painted this fresco, while others, among them Crowe and Cavalcaselle, declare for Giotto but assign the work to a much earlier date, viz., about 1300.."]: The critics who are accustomed to use ' style ' or ' manner ' as a sufficient criterion for deciding whether or not a work is authentic, when it was done, whether the lower part, the ears, the hands, or what not, may be due to a disciple or a restorer, or be ' the work of a later hand,' &c., must forever disagree. The opinion of one day is modified, retracted, denied a day later. Thus we find ourselves in a maze of conjectures, and connoisseurs who rely upon their im- pressions not only are constantly contradicting one another, but contradict themselves, often giving worse reasons for their later opinions than for their first. Without the slightest evidence Orcagna was once declared to have executed the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa ; later a document reveals that another man was paid for the job. Orcagna was till recently the accepted author of Michelino's Dante. Some critics, relying mostly upon assump- tions and impressions, would make Giotto the author of a whole series of frescoes at Assisi ; others assign just a few to him; others say that in all probability nothing there really shows his hand § — * A. Venturi, Btoria delV arte italiana, 1907, vol. v. pp. 437-9. (One reason for admiring this work is that the author of it does not neglect real historical evidence — documents.) t According to their Lettera (July 9, 1864), Giotto's fresco must have been destroyed by fire in 1332 ; the present fresco they assigned to his pupil TaddeoGaddi. On stylistic and historical grounds Carl Frey maintains that the Bargello frescoes vv^ere done after Giotto's return from Naples in 1330 [Loggia dei Lanzi, pp. 56-58). X See f«^ra, pp. 107-8. § In the Rassegna dt Arte for March 1908, Mr. Bernhard Berenson says: 'Mi sembra inoltre possibile che I'affresco del Paradiso col famoso ritratto detto di Dante del Bargello in Firenze possa essere di lui [Giotto]. Gli altri dipinti giotteschi nel medesimo luogo sono troppo rovinati per permettere un giudizio circa al loro autore, sebbene il poco che ne resta dimostri chiaramente che Giotto non vi mise mane' Mr. Berenson does not mention Antonio Pucci, F. Villani, Ghiberti, Giannozzo Manetti, Landino, Billi, and Marini. See chapters ix.-xiii. H H3 PORTRAITS OF DANTE ' seeing the hand of Giotto ' (a phrase which well describes the methods of the clairvoyants who are so numerous in the fields of art and letters) is extremely delusive. Gather all the writings of the critics who regard their personal impressions as demonstrating some- thing about Giotto or any other old painter, and you will find, I believe, that they leave you as bewildered as a man who has trusted Jack-o' Lanterns. Even when the mystery called style shall have been brought within the scope of scientific inquiry, our primary sources of knowledge as to the age and authorship of ancient works of art, such as Giotto's, must still be written evidence in the shape of allusions, signatures on the works themselves (if genuine !), or on other works having exclusively the same peculiar marks ; or we must find this evidence in contemporary archives or in other contempo- rary, or nearly contemporary, documents. Such knowledge may be increased by internal evidence ; for paintings, like books, may reveal something definite as to their origin through what they portray. By what is depicted, and not by ' style ' or ' manner,' the frescoes of the Maddalena Chapel afford another important clue as to their earliest possible date. Before the Commedia appeared, Giotto had portrayed Hell and Heaven at Padua, but there he had drawn upon other visions. In the Maddalena Chapel he, or one of his fellow- workers or followers, depicted over the Gothic arch of the entrance a Lucifer which corresponds with unmistakable precision to Dante's three-headed Emperor of the Dolorous Kingdom {Inf. xxxiv., 28—67).* Thus we have the fruits in Dante's hand, the colours of his dress, the Lucifer, and the fierce hatred of Dante's foes, all bidding us seek a date still later than 1 3 1 9. Can we determine it ? Various testimonies, to be offered here and in the two chapters following this, supply a credible answer. Upon a small and inconspicuous surface, between the two windows in the left wall of the chapel, one can still see a figure of the martyr Venantius, with a fragmentary inscription. -f* A false pla- card, or cartello, deciphered by Cavalcaselle, read Venantii gustos o. Ni. ; eleven lines lower stood a date, variously read (a.no.d.ni. * See my Dante and the Animal Kingdom, p. 75, and F. X. Kraus, Dante : sein Leben und sein IVerk, p. 172. (Kraus ascribes this Lucifer to Giotto and compares it with Dante's.) t See Paur, ' Dante's PortrSt,' p. 321 ; also Cavalcaselle in Giornale del Centenario, No. 29, Nov. 20, 1864, pp. 229-31 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting, &c., vol. ii. (1903), p. 50, and Kraus, Dante, Sec, p. 170. 114 THE DATE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE Mccc. XXX. . . . ; or dni. m.ccc.xxx.) but easily completed ; for below, in large, decorative Latin uncials, over the whole width of the s.pace, and within the socle, were the following words : HOC. OPUS. FACTUM. FVIT. TEMPORE. POTESTARIE MAGNIFICI. ET. POTENTIS. MILITIS. DOMINI. FIDES- MINI. DE. VARANO. CIVIS. CAMERINENSIS. HONORA- BILIS. POTESTATIS.*— that is, in brief: 'This work was done when Fidesmini da Varano was Podesta.' The Florentine archives reveal that Fidesmini di Messer Rodolfo da Varano was Podesta from July i, 1336, to January 1337 (or 1338 according to modern reckoning). -f- Venantius was a martyr of Camerino, and the heraldic writer Litta states that an ancestor of this Fidesmini, and of his kinsman Gentile Bernardo (Podesta in 131 1, the year of Dante's letter 'to the very wicked Florentines ') claimed to have been present at the martyrdom of this saint. .{: In 1864 and again in 1878 Milanesi maintained that the inscription could not properly have been limited to the insignificant figure of Saint Venantius,§ which, he insisted, would have been described with a ' banc imaginem,' or '■ Jiguram^ fecit fieri ' — or some such phrase || ; but in interpreting ' hoc opus factum fuit ' to mean that the whole work of frescoing the Maddalena Chapel was begun and completed in 1337, Milanesi first neglected, then ignored, the convincing analogue cited against his ' hoc opus ' theory by Theodor Paur. The frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa are proved by the Pisan archives to have been executed little by little by various artists during a period of some two hundred years {ca. 1300— ca. 1500). 'Among the pictures on the north wall are stories from Genesis, executed in 1 390 and later by Pietro di Puccio of Orvieto \not by " Orcagna "], who received a ten-month payment for them in 1391. Besides these, on the same wall, is a Crowning of the Virgin, underneath which is the inscription : " HOC OPUS factum fuit tempore egregii et circumspecti viri domini Parasonis Grassi venerabilis Pisanorum civis, operarii operae Ste. Mariae * See Milanesi's Fasari, vol. i. p. 419 (Commentario alia vita di Giotto). t Cavalcaselle, GiornaU del Centenario, Nov. 20, 1 864 ; Milanesi, Fasari, vol. i. pp. 419-21 ; Villari, I primi due secoli della storia di Firenze, 1905, pp. 283-4. X Paur, 'Dante's PortrSt,' pp. 321-2 ; Cavalcaselle {cf. note t). § Fasari, vol. i. pp. 419-21, and Paur, op. cit. pp. 322-3. i Cf. the inscription on Dante's tomb at Ravenna : ' OP. PETRI LOMBARDI.' "5 PORTRAITS OF DANTE majoris," and bearing upon this a document in the archives of the Duomo records that " Magister Pierus de Urbeveteri olim Pucci pictor" had received from " Domino Operario Parasone Grasso," named in the inscription as the votary of the picture, so and so much money " pro pictura ystorie virginis coronate in Campo santo." ' This case appears to be exactly analogous to that offered in the Palazzo del Podesta : ' HOC OPUS ' may designate only one small part of a series of frescoes existing side by side and devoid of any further inscriptions.* Therefore, the figure of Saint Venan- tius, with its date, does not necessarily give us either the true date, or the latest possible date, of the neighbouring fresco — the Paradiso — with its portrait of Dante. That date must be sought in other documents. That Giotto died on the 8th of January, 1336 (N. S. 1337), does not preclude him ; what we may reasonably assume is that when he had finished his work in the Chapel, his apprentices, or other fellow-workmen, completed the decorations, and evidence elsewhere presented indicates that one of them then inscribed the date 1337, &c., under the figure of San Venanzio, painted in honour of the reigning Podesta. The arms of Tcdice de' Fieschi, Podesta from October 31, 1358, till about a year later, were painted in tempera over the original fresco, and prove merely that the original fresco was painted before that time. Some writers who admit the Maddalena frescoes to be due to Giotto have alleged that they must have been destroyed by a fire recorded by Villani for the year 1332. But Villani distinctly says what parts were burned, and he does not mention the Chapel.-f- * Paur, op. cit., pp. 323-4, and E. Forster, Ueber die alteren Wandgem&lde im Campo Santo xu Pisa, Leipzig, 1835, pp. 126, 129. t Villani says : ' . . . e arse tutto il tetto del vecchio palazzo e le due parti del nuovo dalle prime volte in sii. Per la qual cosa si ordin6 per lo comune che si rifacesse tutto in volte infino a' tetti.' Cronica, x, 182 (See remarks by Kraus, Dante, p. 171). Carl Frey says that the damage w^as repaired through the agency of Neri di Fioravante and Benci di Cione, and that * afterward Giotto decorated the Chapel of the Podesti with representations of Paradise and Hell, as well as with stories from the lives of Maria Aegyptiaca and Maria Magdalena.' Frey believes the Bargello frescoes were executed after 1334, and that the chapel was finished by his helpers after his death. Loggia dei Lanzi, 1885, pp. 57-58. In both MSS. of // Libra di Antonio Billi, ed. by Frey, Berlin, 1892, pp. 6 and 7, Giotto's work in the Palazzo del Podesti at Florence is recorded as if the author supposed it followed Giotto's work at Naples. The fire broke out Feb. 28, 1332. ti6 THE DATE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE If, as Villani says, the building had to be made over throughout in volte infino a /f/// (whatever this phrase may mean), it is reasonable to suppose that so important a work was begun and ended soon after the Comune had so decreed, and this would be an evidence in addition to one about to be offered that the Maddalena Chapel was not frescoed till a year or more after 1332.* It has been alleged, finally, that a law of June 20, 1329, would have led to the destruction of the Bargello portrait. This law -f- forbade all pictorial decorations in public buildings, explicitly mentioning the Palazzo del Podesta, and ordered all those then existing to be destroyed, except such pictures as were of a religious or historical character, specifying the kinds. Even if Giotto's frescoes were imperilled by this law, the figure of St. Venantius and the inscription prove that the Chapel of the Magdalen was not harmed. However, Giotto's frescoes were not only historical (in the medieval sense, at least) but religious, and Dante's figure was painted almost among the saints. This brings us to Giotto. What I have thus far assumed, namely that it was he who made the Bargello portrait, I shall now endeavour to prove. If through the mass of legends and misstate- ments that have been accumulated round about him we can arrive at something true and relevant, we shall learn when, within a year or two, he painted Dante's portrait, and in what relations he may have stood to Dante. It will be no profitless undertaking if we can make sure that the greatest of medieval poets was in truth portrayed by the greatest painter of his time, and thus add some- thing to the store of demonstrated facts. * There exists no evidence that the Maddalena Chapel was damaged by fire or otherwise till at least 240 years after Giotto's death. For the argument advanced hy V. Beltrani against the allegations of Milanesi and Passerini, see his // ritratto di Dante, 1865, pp. 6-8. See also Crowe and Cavalcaselle, J History cf Painting, &c., vol. ii. p. 51, note 4. t Gaye, Carteggio inedito, vol. i., Florence, 1839, Appendix 2, pp. 473-4- 117 XII GIOTTO AND DANTE Guesswork as to Giotto's life related as fact. Were Giotto and Dante ever together? Giotto's birthplace. The testimony of Andrea Lancia ; ofPetrarca. Giotto joins a Florentine guild, 1 3 1 2. Giotto regarded as a citizen of Florence, Dates of birth and death. Possible friendship with Dante. Where might Giotto and Dante have met after 1296 ? Giotto at Assisi ; at Rome ; at Padua. Giotto said to have frescoed both the Upper and the Lower Church at Assisi. Alleged portrait of Dante in the Chastity. Dante a Franciscan ? Artistic travesties. Another possible Dante at Assisi. Were Giotto and Dante together as friends at Rome in 1 300 ? Dante and Giotto at Padua. No Dante influence perceptible in the Arena Chapel. A Padua Dante ? Dante said to have had Giotto come to Ravenna. Dante dies. Giotto at Naples. He returns to Florence, is appointed Master and Governor of all works, and dies (1336). Further argument as to the date of his portrait of Dante SPEAKING of Giotto, the Rev. Mr. Ragg remarks that ' the stories of his childhood and the facts and details of his life- work are too well known to call for exhaustive repetition.' * The truth is that in his oldest, as well as in his latest biographers, an accurate account of Giotto's life will be sought in vain. No competent historian has ever attempted to gather and subject to severe scrutiny all the few documents at present known. In general, documents are either cited at random or not at all, and one is left free to guess where they may be found if they really exist. Far too many arguments arc based on stylistic criteria ; these, necessarily, have no value unless we can be certain that such and such works, at any rate, are authentic and capable of being dated. Of the various legends or untrustworthy traditions which have passed, unquestioned, into numerous modern ' lives ' of Giotto, one or two may be relevantly quoted. For example : ' Dante and Giotto remained friends to the end of their lives. When Giotto * Dante and his Italy , London, 1907, p. 292. 118 GIOTTO A FLORENTINE came through Ferrara on his return from Verona, and Dante heard in Ravenna that he was so near him, he succeeded in having him called to Ravenna.' * Those who regard Benvenuto Cellini as a historian are free to believe that Dante and Giotto were together in France, and especially in Paris.-f- Now if stories like these are fanciful, have we any valid evidence that Giotto and Dante were friends, or that Giotto could at any time have sketched Dante from life ? We know that Dante spent most of his life in Florence until he was banished (1302), and that thenceforward he wandered over almost all Italy ; X if Villani is right, he even reached Paris. How about Giotto ? Giotto was born, it seems, at Colle in the Comune of Vespi- gnano,§ and the oldest authorities call him a Florentine. He is so called by the author of the Ottimo Comento, who professes to have known Dante, and who composed his commentary about 1334, at all events, not later than 1341. This writer, possibly Andrea Lancia Notar Fiorentino, i.e. Andrea Lancia, notary, of Florence, commenting on Purgatorio xi. 94, says : ' Giotto was and is su- preme above all painters known to man : and he is of that same city of Florence, and his works bear him witness in Rome, Naples, Venice, and Padua, and many other parts of the world.' || Gio- vanni Villani, himself a Florentine and a contemporary, speaks of him as ' Giotto our fellow-citizen, the soveran master of painting in his time, who drew every figure and gesture most true to * Hermann Grimm, Leben Michelangelo's, 5th ed. Hanover, 1 879, vol. i. p. 22. t Vita, ed. by O. Bacci, p. 289 : ' Perch^ Dante a tempo di Giotto dipintore furno insieme in Francia e maggiormente a Parigi.' (Cellini wrote this about 1559; he may have heard it long before that.) X See Convivioy i. 3. § See R. Davidsohn, 'Die Heimat Giotto's,' in Repertorium fUr Kunstwissenschaft, 1 897, pp. 374-7 ; Jodoco del Badia (' La patria e la casa di Giotto,' in La Nazione for April 1893) thinks it unlikiely that Giotto was born in the Mugello, as stated by Vasari, though Giotto's family came from there. From published and unpublished documents, Badia shows that Giotto's father was Bondone, a smith, of the Popolo di Santa Maria Novella di Firenze. Giotto came to own a house there, ' fuori della porta dell' AUoro.' In a note to p. 370, vol. i. of his Vasari, Milanesi says many documents testify that Giotto was born at Colle in the Comune of Vespignano, but does not name the documents. ' All the early evidence tends to show that Vasari's account of Giotto's early years is pure fiction.' Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting, vol. ii. (1903), p. 29, note *i. 11 ' Fu, ed e, Giotto in tra li pintori, che li uomini conoscono, il pii supremo, ed h della medesima citti di Firenze, e le sue opere il testimoniano a Roma, a Napoli, a Vinegia, a Padova, e in pii parti del mondo.' (On this commentary see Witte's Essays en Dante, London, 1898, pp. 353-66.) 119 PORTRAITS- OF DANTE life.' * And Petrarca writes (of course as a reminiscence of his youth) : 'Two painters I have known, skilled but not handsome, Giotto, a citizen of Florence, whose fame among moderns is enor- mous, and Simone of Siena. 'f In 1312a Riccuccio Pucci gave money to keep a lamp burning before a crucifix by the excellent painter, Giotto Bondone, ' who belongs to the said parish of Santa Maria Novella [in Florence].' .■]: In 1 3 1 2 Giotto was enrolled in the guild of physicians and apothecaries. § The chronicler Ricobaldi, or his continuer, calls our painter ' Zotus eximius pictor Florentinus,' || That Giotto was a Florentine is repeated by the anonymous com- mentator who composed certain Glosses on Dante,^ by Benvenuto da Imola,** and by other nearly contemporary writers too numerous to be mentioned. There is therefore no good reason to doubt that Giotto was regarded during his life as a citizen of Florence ; yet from 1296, when, apparently, he began to work at Assisi,-f-f- and 1298, when he was unquestionably in Rome, he was constantly employed in other cities, though it is impossible to determine precisely how often and how long he was absent. When was Giotto born? Vasari says, in i2y6,X% If this is true, Giotto must have revealed his genius even earlier than Raffael ; for in 1296, if Alfonso Chacon does not err, Giotto went to Assisi, and in 1298 he was already working on the famous Navicella mosaic in Rome.§§ Antonio Pucci, born in Florence about 1 300, adding a detail to Villani's chronicle, says that Giotto died in 1336, aged seventy : * . . . ' Giotto nostro cittadino, il piu sovrano maestro stato in dipintura che si trovasse al suo tempo, e quegli che piii trasse ogni figura e atti al naturale ; . . .* Cronica, xi. 12. t ' Atque (ut a veteribus ad nova, ab externis ad nostra transgrediar) duos ego novi pictores egregios nee formosos, loctum, florentinum civem, cuius inter modernos fama ingens est, et Simonem Senensem.' Lit.fam. v. 17. % See Milanesi's Fasari, vol. i. p. 394, note 4. § Frey, Loggia dei Lanzi, p. 72. Dante belonged to this same guild (till 1302). Op. cit. p. 317. II In column 255 A of Ricobaldi Ferrarensis Compilatio Chronologica Sive alterius anonymi Scriptoris Compilatio chronologica. Usque ad annum MCCCXII Producta {See Muratori). f Chiose sopra Dante, Lord Vernon's edition, 1846, pp. 349-50. •• On Purgatorio xi. 94. +t See pp. 122-3. XX Milanesi's edition, vol. i. p. 370. §§ S^^ pp. 123, 127-8. 120 THE DATE OF GIOTTO'S BIRTH Nel trentasei, si come piacque a Dio, Giotto mori d'eta di settant' anni, . . .* If this is true, Giotto was born only a year after Dante. And why should we doubt Pucci ? He made it his business to record pre- cisely such facts as this ; he took pains to record this fact ; he was probably in Florence when Giotto died there (1336) ; he tells in what church Giotto was buried, and we may safely surmise that he saw Giotto's epitaph ; he is a careful chronicler. Vasari was a very careless writer ; he lived two centuries later ; he may easily have confused settanta and sessanta.-\- Finally, it is hard enough to be- lieve that Pope Boniface invited a youth of twenty-two to make important decorations at St. Peter's, and still harder to believe that a twenty-year old youth was entrusted with any of the frescoes at Assisi ; nor is it likely that Dante would (even fictitiously) have regarded Giotto as having obscured the fame of his master Cimabue as early as 1300, had Giotto been then only twenty- four years old.:}: In his comment on Dante's eulogy of Giotto, Benvenuto da Imola says : ' Note here, reader, that our poet rightly commends Giotto, because of the city [that both came from], because of his worth, and because of their intimacy.' Now Benvenuto was not born till at least fifteen years after Dante's death ; or to put it other- wise, he was not born till the death of Giotto ; nor is it^known that he was ever in Florence till 1373, when he became acquainted with Boccaccio, then lecturing publicly on Dante ; § yet Benvenuto's commentary reveals so judicious a mind that this statement should not be slighted. If by ratione familiaritatis Benvenuto means inti- * Pucci, Centiloquio, canto 85, collated by Cesare Guasti ; see his Santa Maria de^ Fiore, 1887, p. 62. On Pucci's worth as an authority, see p. 135 of this book. t In what appears to be a late addition to the Lihro di Antonio Billi — the addition may have been borrowed from Vasari himself — Vasari's date is offered : ' [Giotto] nacque a Vespignano di uno contadino I'anno 1276.' X Of course Dante's praise of Giotto {Purg. xi.) is put into the mouth of Oderisi d'Agobbio, and is feigned to be uttered in April 1300 ; it is possible, however, that Dante's mind was influenced by the vogue that Giotto had acquired after that time, perhaps, even as late as 1318. Yet Dante seldom forgets his fictitious date. § On Purg. XI. 94, Benvenuto says : ' Et hie, nota, lector, quod poeta noster merito facit commendationem Giotti, ratione civitatis, ratione virtutis, ratione familiari- tatis. De isto namque Giotto faciunt mentionem et laudem alii duo poetae florentini, scilicet Petrarcha et Boccatius, qui scribit. . . .' See Paget Tonybee's interesting and well-documented chapter on Benvenuto in Dante Studies and Researches (1902), «specially pp. 216-23. 121 PORTRAITS OF DANTE macy, or friendship, he is apparently the first writer to record such a relation between Giotto and Dante. Nevertheless, that these two must at some time have been at least acquainted is supported by various bits of evidence : (i) each had spent a good part of his youth in the same city [ratione civitatis)^ Florence; (2) Dante early showed a practical interest in art, as is proved by a passage in the Vita Nuova, wherein he describes how one day (after 1 290) he sat drawing angels on certain tablets ; (3) Giotto's portrait of Dante himself, and there is no good reason to suppose that Giotto borrowed this sketch from some other artist. Now Giotto portrayed Dante as not more than thirty years of age at most ; this would carry us back to 1295 at the latest. Until 1296, approximately, and even between 1296 and 1302, Giotto may have had a hundred chances to sketch the youthful poet and to become his friend. It seems to me improbable that Giotto, born so near to Florence, passed his learning years in other cities, that he never entered her artistic circles during his youth, that he never came into contact with Dante in a city where painting and poetry were so closely allied and where artists of both kinds are known to have had a sympathy in each other's creations. Yet no document among those thus far discovered records Giotto as present in Florence till 1 3 1 2 ; nor have we any evidence that Giotto and Dante were acquainted at any period, except in the portrait itself, and in what is said by Benvenuto da Imola half a century after Dante's death.* By 1 296, if a statement presently to be quoted is valid — by 1 298 at the very latest — Giotto had begun to rove from city to city, like other artists of those days. In the Annals of the Franciscans, an immense compilation from archives, books, and traditions, Luke Wadding (i588-i657),-f- a chronicler of this Order, quotes from the Spanish ecclesiastical historian, Alfonso Chacon (1540-1599),!. the following statement, derived from Chacons Vitce Gestaque omnia Ponti- * In both MSS. of the Lihro di Antonio Billi Dante and Giotto are declared to have been together in Naples, and the Strozzi version even affirms that Giotto had Dante's advice in painting the Apocalypse in Santa Chiara ; but unless Giotto twice worked in Naples, it is not likely that he worked there at all till after Dante's death. The Strozzi MS. reads as follows : ' Ando poi a Napoli [after he had left Rome] et dipinse nell' Incoronata et in Santa Chiara I'Apocalipse ; dicesj con I'aiuto di Dante, ilquale sendo esule ui capito sconosciuto.' Frey's edition, 1892, p. 6. t Born in Ireland, died at Rome. See Annales Minorum, vol. i. pp. iv. and cliv. t Chac6n, in Latin, Ciaconius, was born at Baeza and died at Rome. He is said to have had a rich library and was celebrated as an antiquary. 122 CHACON ON GIOTTO Jicum Romanorum a D. Petro usque ad Clementem VIII. Cardinaliumque, &c., Rome, 1601— 1602. (Chacon is speaking of Giovanni Minio de Muro, Governor of the Franciscans from 1296 to 13 12, and a cardinal.) After he had been called to Rome by Nicholas IV. and had been appointed Reader of the Holy Palace, Giovanni was chosen Governor General of the Order, at Anagni, Boniface being present (1296). 'Giotto of Florence, a renowned painter of his period, he took to Assisi [italics mine] and had thirty-two stories of St. Francis executed by his [.?] graceful hand. Having returned to Rome, he received into the Order St. Louis, first-born son of King Charles,' &c.* From the context it is obvious that this prince became a Franciscan some short while before his death, August 1 9, 1298. Now in what documents Chacon found the evidence for this statement about Giotto I cannot say ; but it is not likely that he invented it, nor is it probable that he was merely imparting chrono- logical precision to the somewhat vague affirmation made by Vasari, namely, that Giotto was called to Assisi by Fra Giovanni ; for called might mean that Giotto went to Assisi at any time between 1296, the year of Giovanni's appointment, and 13 12, the year of his death. -j- Both versions of the Book of Antonio Billi corroborate this chronology ; for both state that Giotto began to acquire fame through the great painting done in the Church of St. Francis at Assisi, begun by Cimabue, and both immediately add that afterward he went to Rome, painted the Tribuna in St. Peter's, made the Navicella (' St. Peter's Skiff,' a mosaic), &c. j: As for Vasari, how came he to know * The passage that concerns us reads as follows : ' Ejus [Joannis de Muro] creationem & merita ita describit Ciacon : M agister frater Joannes Minius de Muro . . . Sec. Hie in sacra Theologia Doctor eximiusfuit : aitquandiu in Coenohio Murri vixit, quod Tuba Miraculorum ab historicis ejus Religionis vocatur, tandem Romae a Nicolao IV. accersitus, sacri Palatii Lector constituitur ; inde Anagniae, praesente Bonifacio VIII. Genera/is Minister eligitur in locum Raymundi mortui XIV. in Ordine Praefecti. Jottum Florentinum, clarum sui aevi pictorem, Assisium duxit, ac triginta duas historias heati Francisci eleganti penicillo exprimi curavit. Roman reversus, beatum Ludovicum filium Regis Caroli primogenitum ad Ordinem bf Religionem recepit, &c. Annates, vol. vi. p. 9. t Annates, vol. v. (1773), p. 348, sec. viii. : ' Hoc anno [1296] in ipsis feriis sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli . . . electus est in quartum decimum Ministrum Generalem frater Joannes de Muro Provinciae Marchiae Anconitanae, vir prudens et doctus,' &c. At p. 200, sec. X., is the record of Giovanni's death. These dates {1296 and 1312) are corroborated in the Saggio di Bibliografia, &c., of Fra Marcellino da Civezza, M. O., Prato, 1879, p. 228. X It Libro di Antonio Bilti, ed. by Carl Frey, pp. 6 and 7. 123 PORTRAITS OF DANTE the name of Giovanni de Muro ? Giovanni de Muro died just two hundred years before Vasari was born. If either Chacon or Billi is accurate, Giotto went to Assisi earlier than is ordinarily supposed, but neither implies that he was there at no later time, and if analogies derived from the better documented biographies of other medieval painters are worth anything, Giotto may have gone to Assisi more than once to superintend or com- plete the work that he is said to have begun in 1296. Until the archives at Assisi, and any other documents that might bear upon this question, shall have been thoroughly examined, the safest course seems to be to admit that we can offer no earlier date than 1298, when Giotto was already sufficiently well known to be engaged in important work for Boniface at Rome. Not long after 1300 (about 1303 ?) he began to decorate the Arena Chapel at Padua. The chronicler Michele Savonarola (ca. 1 385-1464), writing in 1446 or thereabouts, declares that the worthiness or splendour {dignitas) of Padua so impressed Giotto that he spent there the greatest part of his life.* This assertion should be taken with a grain of salt ; for we have pretty good evidence that Giotto's Paduan work was completed by March 25, i305.-t- If, now, we are to believe both the Annales and Ghiberti, Giotto decorated at Assisi not only the Upper but the Lower Church, a labour which he could hardly have performed in two years. Thus it is probable that he visited Assisi twice, the second time after 1305. This, in fact, is what Baldinucci would have us believe, and though Baldinucci drew upon Vasari, he had access to other documents now lost. I will quote what he says in his life of Giotto : ' He was then called to Assisi by Fra Giovanni della Marca, at that time general of the Franciscans, to finish the work * ' Et primum in sede locabo Zotum Florentinum, qui primus ex antiquis et musaicis figuris modernas mirum in modum configuravit ; cuius in arte tanta fuit prestantia, ut et aliorum et usque modo princeps habitus sit. Hie magnificam amplamque nobilium de Scrovineis Cappellam suis cum digitis magno cum pretio pinxit, ubi novi et veteris Testa- ment! imagines velut viventes apparent, Capitulumque Antonii nostri etiam sic ornavit, ut ad hec loca et visendas figuras pictorum advenarum non parvus sit confluxus. Et tantum dignitas civitatis eum commovit, ut maximam sue vite partem in ea comsumma- verit, et ut in sic post se relictis gloriosis figuris ea in civitate semper viveret.' Lihellus de Magnificis Ornamentis Regie Civitatis Padue, ed. by A. Segarizzi and printed in Muratori, R. It. Sc, xxiv. p. 44, edit. 1902. t A. Moschetti, The Scrovegni Chapel, Sec. pp. 19-25 of Cook's translation, Alinari, Florence, 1 907. 124 GIOTTO AT ASSISI begun by his master [Cimabue].' If Baldinucci is right, Giotto stopped on his way to work at Arezzo (which region Dante appears to have quitted for Verona, about 1303) ; then, continues Baldi- nucci, he proceeded to Assisi, where he painted thirty-two scenes in the Upper Church, sixteen on each side. These frescoes, though damaged and much faded, may still be seen ; but if we turn to the critics who regard style or manner as an adequate criterion for deter- mining authorship, we shall find some of the thirty-two frescoes attributed to Giotto, others to various painters ; while some con- noisseurs deny that Giotto did any of them. When these doctors disagree, the layman must also doubt. According to Baldinucci, Giotto worked first in the Upper, then in the Lower Church, ' where on the walls by the main [high] altar, above, he painted several imaginary scenes, not less novel than they were devout, to symbolise the many and rare virtues of the Saint.' In one of these pictures, writes this author, Giotto 'made a portrait of himself, very true to life {fece il ritratto di se stesso molto al vrvo).' Here Baldinucci follows Vasari almost word for word.* But where is that lifelike portrait ? Both Petrarca and Benvenuto da Imola go out of their way to mention Giotto's ugliness ; yet no ' portrait ' in these frescoes is downright ugly, unless Giotto dis- guised himself as an imp. But I turn to Lorenzo Ghiberti. Writing about 1450, a century before Vasari, Ghiberti says that Giotto ' painted in the church at Assisi, belonging to the Franciscan order, nearly all the lower part.' -f- This statement is repeated, or corroborated, and enlarged by Vasari, who says that Giotto painted ' the ceilings at the sides of the high altar, and all four angles of the vault above, where is the body of St. Francis, . . . with fanciful and lovely inventions.' The four great frescoes are allegories of Obedience, Chastity, Poverty, and the Glorifica- tion of St. Francis. In the second fresco ' is Chastity, who stand- ing upon a mighty rock will not be won over by realms nor crowns, nor by the palms that some [angels] offer her. At her feet is * See Baldinucci, Notixie de' Professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, vol. iv. of Baldi- nucci's Opere, containing the life of Giotto (vol. iv. vs^as published in 1681). Ghiberti had said this : ' Dipinse nella chiesa di Asciesi, nell' ordine de' Frati Minori, quasi tutta la parte di sotto. Dipinse a Santa Maria degli Angeli in Asciesi,' &c. (Vasari is more specific than Ghiberti.) See Secondo Commentario in Le Monnier's Fasari, vol. i. pp. xviii-xix. t Secondo Commentario^ as above, pp. xviii-xix. See the preceding note. PORTRAITS OF DANTE Cleanliness, washing naked persons; and Strength is leading people to wash and be clean.' Then, to be brief, we see Penitence, in the lower right hand corner, driving away a winged Love, and causing Uncleanliness to be shunned. Vasari does not say what is portrayed in the left hand corner ; but there may be seen a figure which some observers have taken for Dante. This figure is clad like a Franciscan, though the cowl resembles those worn by laymen, as, for instance, by Dante in the Maddalena Chapel. Now the commentator Francesco da Buti (i 324-1406),* in his note on Inferno xvi. 106-23, where Dante girds himself with a cord before descending on the monster Gerion, observes that ' this cord which he had girt on signifies that he was a Lesser Brother [that is, a Franciscan] ; but he did not join this order in his youth.' Buti thinks the Ounce (' panther ') of Inferno i. ' signifies Lust, which the author thought to bind with the vow of the religion of St. Francis.' Again, commenting on the verse Tosto convien, &c. {Inf. xvi. 123), Buti says that St. Francis wished his friars to wear the cord in token of obligation. ' And this cord, for him who wears it with his soul as well as outwardly, is a sign of true religion; but for him who wears it unwillingly, or leaves it as Dante did, it is a manifestation of hypocrisy,' &c.-f- Yet Mestica gives good reasons why Dante could hardly have become a Franciscan friar, and as to this figure, by Cristofani so positively declared to be Dante, Mestica does not deny that it may be, though he does deny that it proves Dante to have been a Franciscan, and he recalls some of the endless examples of persons portrayed in costumes not rightly theirs. ' If Giotto,' says he, ' portrayed his friend [Dante] in Fran- ciscan garb, it would be as reasonable to infer therefrom that Alighieri was a Franciscan as that Perugino and Bramante, depicted by RafFael in his Scuola d'Atene in the dress of ancient Greeks, were themselves ancient Greeks.' % Basil de Selincourt declares that its look of age excludes this figure from being Dante, ' as has sometimes been supposed.' § The * Scartazzini, Prolegominiy pp. 528-9. t See Buti's commentary, Pisa, 1858-60, vol. i. pp. 438-9. X In the Nuova Antologia for May i, 1881 ('San Francesco, Dante e Giotto'). Of this well-documented and important article, see especially pp. 20 and 28-32. § See his Giotto, p. 66. Both Selincourt (facing p. 66) and F. Mason Perkins (Giotto, facing p. 64) reproduce this portrait. Neither of these works shows much research. Paul Schubring (' Die Fresken im QuerschiiF der Unterkirche in Assisi,' in 126 I GIOTTO AND DANTE AT ROME truth is that although these four frescoes may be by Giotto, as Ghiberti says, we do not know when they were painted, nor what man or story the figure in question was intended to portray. A portrait in Giotto's (?) or Gaddi's (?) Miracle of St. Francis^ at Assisi, is worth at least a conjecture. This work * belongs, apparently, to the early years of the fourteenth century, and the figure in question has approximately the features of the Bargello portrait, though the similarity is not striking, and more or less resembles the supposed Dante by Orcagna. And here, from possibilities and doubts — all that Assisi can offer — I turn to Rome, In 1 298 Pope Boniface VIII. was already preparing for the great Jubilee of 1300, and probably at his bidding, Cardinal Gaetano Stefaneschi, his nephew, entrusted the making of the great Navicella mosaic to Giotto. -f For him, too, Giotto executed a panel costing eight hundred gold florins; furthermore, he is believed to have painted a portrait of Boniface, still extant ; other works he may have done about the same time, and it is highly improbable that he could have left Rome until 1 30 1 or later. Possibly Crowe and Cavalcaselle are right in saying that ' Dante had occasion to cultivate Giotto's acquaintance at the Jubilee [of 1 300] in Rome,' — an affirmation borne out, though vaguely, by Dante's vivid description of the two streams of pilgrims passing each other on the bridge by St. Peter's. These writers surmise also that Repertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft, 1899, pp. 1-12), adds nothing to our purpose. Two articles by Fra Egidio Maria Giusto, M.C. in Rassegna a' Arte for May and June 1909, contain valuable documents. This writer regards the figure in the Chastity allegory as Dante (June article, p. 99). This fresco itself is ofiFered in a carbon photograph (No. ^593 ; length about two feet) by Anderson, Rome. * Alinari photograph ; reproduced by Dr. I. Krauss in Monatsherichte iiber Kunst- wissenschaft, &c., Feb. 1 902, p. 53 ff. t In the Martirologio, fol. 83, archives of St. Peter's {see Cancellieri, De secretariis veteris basilicae vaticanae, Romae, 1768, vol. ii. p. 863), we read that the cardinal ' . . . Naviculam S. Petri de anno 1298 eleganti musaico faciendam curavit per manus locti celeberrimi pictoris, pro quo opere 2220 florenos persolvit, ut ex libro antique bene- factorum fol. 87 [83 ?] sub his verbis [not relevant] . . . Tabulam depictam de manu locti super eius sacrosanctum altare donavit, quae octingentos auri florenos constitit.' (Here follows a statement showing that it was he who had Giotto execute the Navicella, for which Giotto was paid 2200 {sic) florins.) Quoted by M. G. Zimmermann, Giotto und die Kunst Italiens im Mittelalter, 1899, p. 389. See also // Libro di Antonio Billi, ed. by Carl Frey, Berlin, 1892, p. 4 (Strozzi MS.). 127 PORTRAITS OF DANTE * during the short period which intervened between his return to Florence and his embassy to Pope Boniface VIII. this acquaintance might have matured into friendship.' Now it is not improbable that Dante went to Rome as a pilgrim in 1300, and it is almost certain that he went thither as an ambassador to Pope Boniface in October 1 301 ;* but are we to suppose that he began then to ' culti- vate Giotto's acquaintance,' and that upon his second visit ' this acquaintance might have matured into friendship ' ? It is far more likely that whatever acquaintance existed had begun in Florence years before, though it may have been continued in the Florentine circle at Rome. We may now follow Giotto to Padua, wherever he and Dante may have been shortly after 1301. From a legal document still preserved there, it has been con- cluded that Dante was at Padua on August 27, 1 3o6,-f- but how long he stayed, or when he arrived, we do not know. The document con- tains these words : Fuit e testimoniis Dantinus de Alighieriis qui nunc habitat Patavii, in contracta Sancti Laurentii. The Dantino of the Ali- ghieri here mentioned as a witness, and as a resident of the ward of St. Laurence, may be our Dante ; for such diminutives were lavishly and loosely applied in those days ; yet the tradition that Dante used to watch Giotto as he worked in the Arena Chapel must remain a tradition. Giotto's decorations there were begun after 1303, when this building was begun, and are so numerous and extensive that they must have kept him busy for two or three years ; but they bear no mark of Dante's influence. Giotto's Last Judgement at Padua is not Dantesque ; on the contrary, it agrees far more closely with other literary descriptions of Hell, for example the De Babilonia infernali of Fra Giacomino, and still more St. Patrick's Purgatory^ a work then widely read. ' The only contemporary portraits appar- ently introduced by Giotto among the Elect,' writes Moschetti, 'are those of Scrovegni [founder of the chapel] and himself [.?]. Tradition has recognised a portrait of Dante in the second figure of the first row of the upper group, whose lower face is buried in his gorget. . . . We must in fairness admit, however, that this Padua * See I. del Lungo's edition, Dino Compagni e la sua Cronica, bk. ii. sec. 25. t See Annual Report of the Dante Society (Cambridge, Mass.), 1892. In June 1302 Dante was in the neighbourhood of Arezzo ; in 1303 he seems to have visited Foril ; soon after this he was probably a guest of Bartolommeo della Scala at Verona, but for how long is not known. 128 GIOTTO AT RAVENNA head bears a curious resemblance to the one in Orcagna's hast 'Judge- ment in Santa Maria Novella, which Chiappelli suggested, and persists in viewing as a true portrait of Dante.' Moschetti con- siders it highly improbable that Giotto would have put Dante among the highest saints, with a halo round his head. For my part, I see a more Dantesque type in the portrait of Scrovegni.* From 1306 till 1329 Giotto's movements continue to be vague, even in the confident mind of Vasari. We know that in 13 12 he joined the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries, to which Dante had belonged some ten years before, and we also know that in 13 12 he was living in Florence ; but whether this sojourn lasted weeks, months, or years, we do not know.-f- Ricci believes that we should by no means reject the information or tradition reported by Vasari, who tells us how Dante, having heard that Giotto was at Ferrara, contrived to have him come to Ravenna, where Dante was then living in exile, and had him paint historical scenes (no longer extant) in San Francesco for the lords of Polenta. The church of San * Moschetti, The Scrovegni Chapel, &c., pp. 19-25. See also Venturi, Storia delF arte italiana, vol. v. pp. 447-9. (Thewhole fresco is shown byAlinari, photo. No. 19375; Scrovegni in detail, No. 19377.) In his comment on Purg. xi. 94, Benvenuto da Imola says that when Giotto was painting in the Arena Chapel, in his youth, Dante came up, was received with honour by Giotto, and being asked how it was that Giotto, who could paint such beautiful children, had such ugly ones himself, Giotto responded : ' Quia pingo de die, sed fingo de nocte.' But Benvenuto points out that this joke can be read in Macrobius ! However, ' it greatly pleased Dante.' The chronicler Ricobaldi (see supra, p. 120) says that what Giotto was in art 'is witnessed by his work in the churches of the Franciscans at Assisi, Rimini, Padua, and by what he painted in the Palace of the Count at Padua and in the Church of the Arena at Padua.' This is all. It is inserted between the statement that Pope Clement V. (1305-14), 'Confirmavit Henricum Imperatorem . . . coronavit eum in Urbe' (June 29, 1 31 2) and a record of the destruction, &c. of Pistoia by Florentines and Luccans(i3o6). Ricobaldi died in 131 3 (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A History, &c., vol. ii. p. 75). The Lihellus de magnificis ornamentis regie civitatis Padue, by Michele Savonarola, whom Moschetti erroneously declares to have been a contemporary of Giotto, contains these words : ' Cappella magna picturis Zoti [ = ' of Giotto '] pictorum principis orna- tissima, que tribus sacerdotibus in dies et horas santificatur.' See Segarizzi's edition, (1902), p. 50. Lorenzo Ghiberti says in his Second Commentary that the whole Arena Church was decorated by Giotto's hand, but Ghiberti gives no date. If this is true, and we have other evidence that it is, Giotto must have have spent more than two solid years in Padua, to judge by what Cennino Cennini says as to the time required for such work. See p. 143, note *. t P. 120, supra. (Giotto painted a figure of St. Louis of Toulouse in the Bardi Chapel at Santa Croce, on the window wall. Louis was not canonised till 131 7 ; hence this fresco was executed after that. See Frey, Loggia dei Lanxi, p. 72.) I 129 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Giovanni Evangelista, says Ricci, still contains pictures by Giotto. But Ravenna possesses no ancient portrait of Dante.* From Ravenna, says Vasari, Giotto went to Urbino; then re- turned to Florence, by way of Arezzo; but in 1322, ' his very close friend Dante ' having, to Giotto's great sorrow, died in the preceding year, he went to Lucca. How Dante's death at Ravenna in 1321 caused Giotto to move from Florence to Lucca in 1322, Vasari does not explain, but he goes on to say that during another stay in Florence Giotto was urged by King Robert to come to Naples.-f- There he painted in Santa Chiara, a church finished in 1 328, many stories from the Old and New Testaments. ' And the stories of the Apocalypse,' says Vasari, ' which he painted in the said chapels [of Santa Chiara] were, so they say, imagined by Dante. . . . and even though at this time Dante was dead, they may have talked together about these things, as friends are often wont to.' ;]; Whichever of the many works ascribed to him at Naples Giotto really painted, at some time not very long before 1334 he returned to Florence, and now he emerges from the darkness of the obscure, half-legendary accounts of his life, into the clear light. On April 12, 1334, there was passed in the Council of Florence the following resolution (I abridge, rendering two or three some- what obscure phrases as well as I am able) : ' Desiring that the works now under way, or to be undertaken, in the City of Florence for the Comune of Florence, may proceed in a manner meet and fit, and whereas this can not be duly and perfectly accomplished unless a skilled and famous man be set over them, and inasmuch as it is said that in the whole world there is none more competent in these and other works than Master Giotto Bondone of Florence, and inasmuch as he should be accepted in his * See Ricci, UUltimo Rifugio, pp. 93-94, and Vasari, with Milanesi's notes, vol. i. pp. 388-91 ; also Venturi, Storia deW arte italiana, vol. v. pp. 437-9. t Charles Perkins says : ' Giotto fut appel6 k Naples par le roi Robert en 1329. Leroi I'attacha a son service par un d6cret du 21 Janvier 1330.' Ghiherti et son Ecole, p. 115, note 3. Perkins does not state the whereabouts of this document ; presumably it is preserved in archives at Naples. X Compare Vasari's account with Ghiberti's. Among other things Ghiberti says that Giotto painted the Apocalypse scenes, so it is said, ' with the help of Dante, who, being of Florence, came thither unknown ' — that is, I suppose, Dante was not re- cognised in Naples. See Ghiberti's Secondo Commentario, also the note by Venturi, Steria deir arte italiana, vol. v. p. 448, and // Libra di Antonio Bii/i, Carl Frey's edition, pp. 6-7. 130 GIOTTO'S LAST DAYS homeland as a great master, in order that he may have opportunity to sojourn long therein, from which sojourn very many will profit by his knowledge and learning, and no ordinary glory redound to the aforenamed City; therefore [the members of the councill have provided, ordained, and decreed that the Priors of the Guilds, and the Standard-bearer of the Department of Justice, concurrently with the Twelve Counsellors, shall be empowered and allowed to choose and depute the said Master Giotto as Master and Governor of all works, not only in the church of Santa Reparata [the present Duomol, but also to oversee the building and completion of the Walls of the City of Florence, and the Fortifications of that City, and other works of the said Comune.'*- ^ In this document we have the earliest date at which Giotto is likely to have begun work on the Maddalena Chapel, viz. after April 12, 1334 t I turn now to ViUani's account of Giotto's last activities and of his death : fnnni".'^^ 7^^^^' ^' ^"^^ °" ^^^ '^'^ of July, they began to lay the foundations for the new bell-tower of Santa Reparata, alongside the r 1 ^ T^. °" '^' ^'^^^^ °f St. John.' Having described the splendour of this ceremony, Villani adds : ' and as head and overseer of the said work at Santa Reparata the Comune chose Master Giotto, our fellow-citizen, the sovran master of painting in frlTr/ ',^\"^^" who drew every figure and gesture most true to hfe, and the Comune gave him a salary as a remuneration tor his worth and goodness. And this Master Giotto, having serv7l r.^V^'!;.f°\ °"'' ^°"^""^ ^^d ^^"' ^^^ tl^ither to serve the Lord of Milan), departed this life on the 8th day of January, 1336, and was buried by the Comune in Santa Reparata witn great honour. ."]; ^ of the eSutbn Jl!5n f 'J^ D^' ^^°"^35o years after Giotto's death. The tex Guastifn his J^' 1'''^ from the Pr.^^„.„,, xxvi. 84, is also quoted in flill by Cesare dated April if ^nd 1?7,i T '^'°"""' '^'^' P' ^^' § ''■ '^^^ ^«°'"^-" "^ English of the inll,/^' ^?tr F""" /^"""^ suggestions as to the rendering into S of^Ha/vi" U^^l'^ri^y ! '^"■" *^'^'" ""'"''°" ' ^"^ ^^'''''' '« P-f- E- K. I hetetTsrto?ecord\^'T'r''^"A'''.7 respected evidence in discussing this problem, the Bar3o onrfr.. • ^'■^"f'.A- V^"t"". ^nd Carl Frey, all of whom think tha SL;/- ^;i IZ'ilJ^- '1|^"'f '^ '" 'he last two or three years of Giotto's life. See X Cromca, xi. cap. 12. Villani perished of the plague in 1348. PORTRAITS OF DANTE Nel trentasei, si come piacque a Dio, Giotto mori d'eta di settant' anni, E'n quella chiesa poi si seppellio. If the evidence given is valid, if w^e are not to believe that Giotto's portrait of Dante w^as painted years before the Commedia appeared, though it reveals the influence of the Commedia, if the desire of Dante's whilom fellow-citizens to burn him alive and to behead not only him, but his sons, means anything — however the date 1337 under the figure of St. Venantius is to be interpreted — the Bargello portrait was painted between May 1334, and July 1336, according to the old reckoning, that is, at least thirteen years after Dante's death. But was this portrait painted by Giotto ? That, indeed, has thus far been assumed, not proved. 132 XIII WAS THE AUTHOR OF THE BARGELLO PORTRAIT GIOTTO ? The true authorship of the Bargello Dante. Testimony of Ghiberti; of Filippo Villani. A fresco or a panel ? Antonio Pucci's qualifications as a witness. His sonnet on Dante's portrait and the value thereof as evidence ACCORDING to Lorenzo Ghiberti (i 378-1455,)* whose Commentaries show some critical tendencies, Giotto ' painted in the Palazzo del Podesta at Florence. There he did the Comune, showing how it was robbed, and the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen. '-j^ Here, then, whatever may have befallen the robbery fresco, we have the testimony of a witness who took pains to familiarise himself with the artistic history of Florence. That Ghiberti fails even to mention the Bargello Dante will astonish no mind accustomed to read the haphazard records left by medieval writers ; the important facts are that Ghiberti ascribes the frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel to Giotto and that he does not speak of Dante. So far as I am aware, the first writer to record a portrait of Dante by Giotto in this chapel is Filippo Villani {ca. 1^2 ^-ca. 1405), a nephew of the chronicler Giovanni Villani (died 1 348) and a son of Matteo Villani, who continued Giovanni's chronicle till the year of his death (1363), when it was continued by Filippo. To this writer we owe a compilation which has survived with the following title : Lii>er de Origine civitatis Florentiae et ejusdem famosis civibus, or. Book concerning Florence and her Famous Citizens,'^, composed mainly in 1381-2. * See the Second Commentary, chap. xvi. (Both commentaries are believed to have been composed after 1452.) t Ghiberti's words are : * . . dipinse nel palagio del podesta di Firenze : dentro fece el Comune come era rubato ella [ = e la] cappella di Santa Maria Maddalena ' (Le Monnier text, 1 846, p. xix.). On the lost fresco see Morpurgo, Un affresco perduto nel pala%-z.o del Podesth di Firenze, Carnesecchi, Florence, 1897. t On this work and its author see a well-documented study by Giovanni Cal6, PORTRAITS OF DANTE Filippo Villanisays that 'with the help of mirrors, Giotto painted himself and his contemporary Dante on an altar panel in the chapel of the Palazzo del Podesta.' ' Pinxit insuper speculorum suffragio semetipsum sibique contemporaneum dantem in tabula altaris capelle palatii potestatis.' The Italian version of this statement affirms that Giotto painted in his city, with the help of mirrors, and where all might see the work, himself and his contemporary Dante Alighieri the Poet, in the chapel of the Palazzo del Podesta, on the wall — ' Dipinse [Giotto] etiando a pubblico spettacolo nella citta sua con ajuto di spocchi \sic\ se medesimo & il contemporaneo suo dante alighieri poeta nella cappella del palagio del podesta nel muro.' * Here we get what is obviously a correction : the Latin records a tavola or panel ; the Italian, a fresco. The panel, if it ever existed, has disappeared ; but it is pretty evident that Villani blundered, having simultaneously in mind a picture of Dante by Giotto in the Maddalena Chapel and a panel somewhere else — perhaps in Santa Croce. Similar errors were made by Antonio Manetti, or by whoever made the Italian version here quoted, and by Vasari.-j" If the panel recorded in Villani's Latin text really contained a Filippo Fillant e il suo Liber de origine, &c., Rocca S. Casciano, 1904, especially pp. 11, 58, 63, 66-69, 81-85, and 175-205. See also the note following this. * Both the Latin and the Italian above quoted stand as transcribed for me by the Librarian of the Laurenziana, Commendatore Guido Biagi, from MSS. Cod. Ashb. 942, f. 36% and Plut. 61, 41, f. 68". S*'^ Mazzuchelli's text, p. Ixxxi. The italics are of course mine. A letter from Coluccio Salutati to Villani indicates that Villani's book was finished about 1 38 1-2. See the Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati ; ed. by Novati, in Fonti per la storia d* Italia, 1893, p. 47. See also La Giovinezza di Coluccio Salutati, p. 11, and G. Calo, Filippo Villani, pp. 81-85. The Italian version, or volgarizzamento, was first published by Mazzuchelli at Brescia in 1747. Mazzuchelli could not find the Latin original which he believed must have existed and the Ashburnham MS., in Villani's own hand, was in fact not published till a century later. See C. Frey's text from the Ashburnham MS., Berlin, 1892. [De Cimahue, Giotto, Maso, Stephano et Taddeo Pic- toribus, pp. 73-75.) In 1868 Theodor Paur argued that the oldest Italian version was made not later than 1406 by Villani himself, and he believed that the correction nei muro for in tabula could be ascribed to Villani. But Calo offers pretty good evidence that the translator was Antonio Manetti and that he composed his version of the second part, that which concerns us, in 1466. The oldest known form of the volgarizzamento is in Manetti's handwriting and is full of changes and corrections which indicate the work of a translator and revamper — not that of a mere scribe. Cal6, «/>. cit., pp. 185- 205, and Paur, ' Dante's PortrSt,' pp. 312-15, not consulted by Cal6. t See pp. 154-6. ANTONIO PUCCI portrait of Dante by Giotto, either the Maddalena Chapel was blessed with two Giotto portraits of Dante, or the fresco must have been executed by some other hand,* But even the evidence thus far adduced does not indicate that such was the case, and now it is time to hear the most important witness for Giotto — Antonio Pucci, town crier of Florence. The credibility of any witness depends so largely upon what we know of his life, that certain facts in Pucci's career must be con- sidered. Manni believes him to have been born about 1300, and affirms that he was the trombetta del comune, or trumpeter of the Comune of Florence.-f* We know that he composed serventesi on thePodestas; that he was a public singing herald and chronicler. A common minstrel he certainly was not, but he is said to have sung or recited his verses in the squares of Florence. To Pucci Florence was especially dear, and in Florence he perhaps loved most the Old Market, which seemed to him, as Carducci, says, 'la piu bella piazza, anzi la piu bella cosa del mondo.' For his fellow-citizens Pucci was both an historian and a journalist, and, to use D'Ancona's words, Pucci had no reason for being loath to lead such a life, in the democratic society of fourteenth-century Florence. Then every- thing was done in the streets; there the joys and griefs of a few were made known to all. Part of Pucci's vocation was to keep well- informed ; he had in truth a special bent for setting down familiar, every-day facts, such as are not recorded by the ordinary chroniclers. 'The facts narrated in rime by Pucci belong entirely, or almost entirely, to the history of Florence,' but are therefore of wide bearing and interest. In his Centiloquio he puts whole chapters of Giovanni Villani into rime, yet ever and anon adds something of his own. Such is the case in his rimed life of Dante, who was not less dear to him than Florence, and in the sonnet now to be quoted he speaks wholly for himself. I offer here the original and a close translation : * An inventory dated 1382 mentions ' Una tavola dipinta che sta in sull' altare' ; so I read in various works, including Milanesi's f^asari (vol. i. p. 415). What does this prove ? t Domenico Maria Manni's life of Pucci {Notizie di Antonio Pucci. Antico versi- Hcatore fiorentino) can be read in Le Veglie Piacevoli ovvero Notizie de" piii bizzarri e giocondi uomini toscani, &cc., Florence, 1815, vol. v. pp. 114-36. Manni seems to have con- sulted documents now lost or not known. Cf. D'Ancona e Bacci, Manuale, vol. i. (1904), pp. 545-53. PORTRAITS OF DANTE Questo che veste di color sanguigno, Posto seguente alle merite sante,* Dipinse Giotto in figura di Dante, Che di parole fe' si bell' ordigno. E come par nell' abito benigno, Cosi nel mondo fu con tutte quante Quelle virtu, che onoran chi davante Le porta con afFetto nello scrigno.-f Diritto paragon fu di sentenze : Col braccio manco avvinchia la scrittura Perche signoreggio molte scienze. E'l suo parlar fu con tanta misura, Che 'ncorono la citta di Firenze Di pregio, onde fama ancor le dura. Perfetto di fattezze e qui dipinto, Com' a sua vita fu di came cinto.."]: ' This man in the crimson dress, § who comes after the holy figures, Giotto painted in the form of Dante, who made so lovely a texture of words. And, as in his bearing he has a kindly look, so in the world he lived with all those virtues that honour him who bears them forward with devotion f. ... He was a true paragon || for wise * D'Ancona interprets : ' Allt sante immagini, che nel dipinto della Cappella del Bargello a Firenze precedono il gruppo ov' h Dante.' t A figure of speech here omitted {' nello scrigno ') seems to be that the virtues are carried before one like precious relics in a reliquary. Whatever Pucci may mean, this is a detail which does not concern us. See Du Cange, under Scrinium. t First published by D'Ancona, In Lode di Dante, Pisa, 1868, from a MS. owned by Seymour Kirkup. See also D'Ancona and Bacci's Manuale,vo\. i. (1904), pp. 545- 53, for life, texts, bibliography, &c. See also La Lettura for March 1901, containing D'Ancona's ' II vero ritratto giottesco di Dante,' p. 206. A certain Fisione by a Florentine of the Alberti family, composed after April 8, 1341 (for it mentions the crowning of Petrarca) corroborates Pucci thus : E I'un di lor portava per suo segno In mano un arboscel di dolci pomi. L'altro [Petrarca] d'all6r corona ave' palese. See Paur, 'Dante's Portrait,' p. 328. § In chap. 148 of his Trattato (' How to colour a dead man, his hair and beard ') Cennino Cennini says : ' Then mark the outlines with dark sinopia, mixed with a little black, which is called " sanguigno," ' &c. Sanguigno seems to have meant * blood- coloured,' as the etymology of the word implies. {See Herringham's translation in Bibliography.) II Apparently Pucci means, ' a true touch-stone,' ' a standard.' See New English Dictionary, under ' Paragon.' 136 PUCCrS SONNET sayings. With his left arm he clasps the book * because he was lord of many sciences. And his speech was so well measured that he crowned the city of Florence with an esteem which still gives her fame. True to his features here he is painted, just as he was alive in the flesh.' Whoever reads this sonnet carefully may share my impression that it was composed either in the Maddalena Chapel, or elsewhere, while the vision of Giotto's fresco was still fresh in Pucci's imagina- tion. Every detail noted by Pucci exactly corresponds to the original portrait. Dante in truth ' comes after the holy figures ;' for we see him standing just below the saints. He was clad, I think, in darkened crimson, Cennini's sanguigno, still fairly preserved, it seems, when Kirkup made his coloured sketch. Under his left arm Dante in- deed clasps a book [la scritturd)* and his bearing was once neither severe nor hard, but kind. To repeat Professor D'Ancona's words, this sonnet ' settles for good and all — at any rate for those who do not cling obstinately to an opinion having no valid basis — the question as to the true author of that portrait of Dante which is admired [alas, no longer admired by any one who knows !] in the Chapel of the Podesta.' -j- What likeli- hood is there that Pucci's testimony is null and void, that this Dante is not by Giotto, that Pucci was describing some other portrait of Dante ? Pucci was writing as early as 1 342 ; % his career covers all the years during which any artist could have painted the portrait by him ascribed to Giotto. Unless my arguments as to the date of this work are worthless, it must have been executed when Pucci was a grown man ; he could have seen Giotto at work upon it, and could have questioned not only Giotto, but scores of men older than himself, as to the looks of his beloved Dante. * Pucci calls G. Villani's Cronica ' la scrittura '; therefore in his time this word was by no means exclusively applied to the Bible, as has been maintained. 8ee D'Ancona's In Lode di Dante, p. 3, first line. (It was common for medieval writers to refer thus to their source ; cf. the Old French formula si com{e) dit Pescrit.) t D'Ancona published Pucci's sonnet in 1868 ; ten years later Milanesi published the first volume of his ^ajar/, and there repeated his old arguments against Giotto, w/V^ out even mentioning Pucci's sonnet. See his Fasari, vol. i. pp. 413-22. t Kirkup's MS. begins thus : ' MCCCXLII a dl 28 di Maggio, Antonio Pucci, considerando che messer Malatesta, capitano di guerra a Lucca pe' fiorentini, era stato quaranta dl a oste, e non aveva fatto nulla, e ragionandosi di far pace co' Pisa, e a cui piaciea e a cui non, e specialmente parendone male a lui, ne fe' il presente Sermintese, e disse cosl.' See Sermintese storico di Antonio Pucci, Sic. Livorno. Cot Tipi di Francesco f^igo, 1876. ^^7 PORTRAITS OF DANTE If Manni and D'Ancona do not err, Pucci was born about 1300,- two years before Dante's departure for good and all from Florence ; he had already entered the service of Florence as bellringer, or bell- founder (his father's trade), about 1334, and soon afterward became town trumpeter or herald, dying on October 13, 1388.* It is there- fore highly improbable that he ever saw Dante, and his praise of Giotto for having portrayed Dante's features perfectly, just as he was in life, must merely echo the opinions of older men who could still remember the Poet's looks thirty or forty years after their last sight of him in Florence.-f- * In his Santa Maria del Fiore, 1887, Cesare Guasti quotes archives in which an Antonio Pucci is mentioned as active in 1380 and 1381 ; see Nos. 318 and 327. See the Rassegna Bibliografica for April, May, June, 1909, with a severe review by G. Lazzeri of Ferruccio Ferri's plagiarising biography of Antonio Pucci, p. 89, note i. Lazzeri gives abundant documentary evidence. t Anent the words posto seguente alle merite sante, D'Ancona says they could not very well agree with the opinion of those who maintain that Dante was painted on a panel rather on the wall, and he also remarks that the colour of Dante's dress was really sanguigno before the restoration of 1841. See In Lode di Dante, pp. vi.-ix. I can give further, though it seems to me superfluous, evidence corroborating Pucci about 1500. The Strozzi MS. of // Libra di Antonio Billi reads as follows under ' Giotto di Bondone ' : ' Giotto fu suo discepolo [di Cimabue] et coetaneo di Dante Alinghierj et ritrasse la figura sua nella capella del Podesta a riscontro all' altare, da man destra, allatoal cominciamento della finestra a capo all' altare.' See Carl Frey's edition, p. 4, also p. 6. In the f^ita et costumi del poeta prefixed to the edition of the Divina Commedia published by Landino in 1481, and repeated in successive editions, we read : ' La sua effigie resta anchora di mano di Giotto suo coetaneo et in sancta croce et nella capella del podesta.' Although it may have been borrowed from Giannozzo Manetti {see further p. 152) this statement is important; for, being a Florentine, Landino would not have been likely to make it had he not believed it to be true. 138 XIV FURTHER REMARKS ON GIOTTO'S DANTE Vasari on the Bargello portrait. Corso Donati and Brunette Latini. Mis- interpretation of Giotto's fresco. Kirkup on the Dante portrait. Age and ex- pression represented. Giotto's intention and the source of his Dante. Giotto's accuracy. Character of Giotto's portrait as preserved in the Arundel print. Giotto's probable motive for portraying a youthful Dante. Dante's tribute to Giotto, and other evidences of Giotto's early fame. Documentary value of Giotto's portrait of Dante. Intellectual relations betwreen Giotto and Dante. The Palazzo del Podesta in Giotto's time. Giotto's Dante, smeared with whitewash, disappears along with the other frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel and remains hidden for more than two hundred and sixty years. Recovered only to be destroyed. Is Marini's misdeed irreparable ? VASARI declares that Giotto not only equalled his master Cimabue, but became so good an imitator of nature that he completely banished that clumsy Greek (?>., Byzantine) manner, and brought the good art of paint- ing again to life, introducing the skilful portraiture of living persons, which for two hundred years had not been practised. And, he continues, amongst others, in the Chapel of the Palazzo del Podesta in Florence, as still can be seen (about 1568), 'he drew the likeness of Dante Alighieri, his contemporary and very great friend [.?], and not less famous as a poet than Giotto was in the same time as a painter.* ... In the same chapel is the portrait, likewise by his hand, of Ser Brunetto Latini [12 10-1290 ?], master of Dante, and Messer Corso Donati, a great citizen of those times.' -f- * As to the friendship between Dante and Giotto see pp. n8, 121, 127. Possibly Vasari had read Benvenuto da Imolaand Filippo Villani ; perhaps he drew his inference from Purgatorio xi. 94-95. t Milanesi's Fasari, vol. i. p. 372. According to Waetzholdt, Die Kunst des Portrats, Leipzig, 1909, genuine portraiture began in Italy with the memories of St. Francis ; but individualising began with Giotto {op. cit. p. 17). Is it not true, rather, that portraiture and individualising arose together ? PORTRAITS OF DANTE Vasari offers no voucher for any of these statements, and there is no reason to suppose that he endeavoured to find out the truth. Here, as elsewhere, he is merely surmising, or he is repeating a belief of his time, a belief for which no evidence exists except as to Dante. That Giotto even meant to portray Brunetto is extremely improbable, and that any other figure was intended to represent Corso Donati is next to impossible. Brunetto must have been at least seventy-five years old when Giotto began his artistic career, and when these personages round about Dante were actually painted, Brunetto had been dead for almost half a century. Even had Vasari stated which figures he took for Brunetto and Corso, we should still have to regard either his statement or the portraits themselves as purely fanciful.*" To be brief, the only figure in this whole fresco whom we can identify is Dante. At his side stands a king, and by him kneels some other important personage, possibly some Prior or Podesta. The whole group may represent the chief actors in some historical event or gathering ; yet what scene this Bargello fresco was intended to portray no one has ever been able to ascertain. Assuredly it does not commemorate the so-called Peace of Acqua- sparta; for upon his first visit to Florence, in June 1300, this papal peacemaker was assailed in his palace, the Vescovado, and late in September he had to quit Florence, ' leaving the city under interdict and excommunication'; in December 1301, sent once more by the Pope (Dante's arch-enemy Boniface) to second Charles of Valois, the Cardinal of Acquasparta again attempted to reconcile the Blacks and Whites, but failed, and once more left Florence under interdict, ' not without first having got 1 100 florins, allowed him on February 26, 1302, as a reward for his fruitless work.' -f- The assumption that the fresco portrays this cardinal's activity is probably based on Vasari's statement that one of the figures in it represents Corso Donati ; '^ but, as we have seen, Vasari dubs another figure ' Brunetto Latini,' who died about 1290. * Various portraits and statues of Brunetto Latini and Corso Donati exist, but they are not authentic. As for Brunetto, what artist could have painted a true likeness ? Certainly not Cimabue. t See Pasquale Villari, Storia d'l Firenze, 1905, pp. 447-8, also pp. 457-8 (Villari gives his sources). Crowe and Cavalcaselle affirm without evidence that this scene illustrates an incident in the memorable feud of the Blacks and Whites. Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 49. t See Toynbee, Dante Dictionary^ under ' Corso Donati.' 140 THE AGE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE Whatever event or events the lov^er part of this fresco was intended to commemorate, there stands Dante at the age of not more than thirty, portrayed as an author, among other distinguished citizens whose identity has not been established. In his letter of September 1 2, 1 840 — not two months after the discovery of the Bargello portrait — Kirkup tells Rossetti* that 'the precise date of the painting is not known ' ; but he adds : ' The poet looks about 28 — very handsome — un Apollo colle fattezze di Dante [an Apollo with the features of Dante] . The expression and character are worthy of the subject, and much beyond what I had expected from Giotto. Raphael might own it with honour. Add to which it is not the mask of a corpse of 56 — a ruin — but a fine, noble image of the hero of Campaldino, the Lover of Beatrice. The costume very interest- ing — no beard or even a lock of hair. A white cap, over which a white capuccio, lined with dark red, showing the edge turned back. A parchment book under his arm, perhaps the Vita Nuova. It is in a group of many others — one seems Charles II. of Naples. Brunetto Latini and Corso Donati are mentioned by the old authors,' In a letter dated September 14, 1841 (also to Rossetti), Kirkup calls the portrait ' Dante, under 30 years of age.' And in another (to Charles Lyell), dated February 27, 1842, he says : 'In the beautiful fresco portrait of Dante, by Giotto, on the wall of the Cap[p]ella del Podesta here, a treasure which has been recently recovered, we see the same features precisely as in the Torrigiani bust, but with the softer, happier expression of the age of about twenty-five.' -f- Thus Kirkup's impressions waver from twenty-five to thirty ; to his fancy, this is the lover of Beatrice, and the book — Pucci's la scrittura — is perhaps the Vita Nuova, in which that love first comes to light. Here, indeed, Dante is represented as peaceful, happy (perhaps), and young; and yet I do not believe that in paint- ing this portrait Giotto was guided by a simple motive or by a single, more or less exclusive, intention. The face takes us back to Dante's youth, to 1295 or earlier, to days when he and Giotto may occa- sionally have been together in Florence ; yet we have seen that the portrait must have been painted some forty years later, when the * Gabriele Rossetti: A Versified Autobiography ; ed. by W. M. Rossetti, 1901, pp. 145-6. Part of this letter I have already quoted ; see^^. 78. + See The Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito of Dante Alighieri, Translated by Charles Lyell, 1842, p. xix. See also supra, pp. 47-49. 141 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Vita Nuova may still have been read, but when Dante was thought of chiefly as a great citizen of Florence and as the author of the Commedia, as the man who had seen Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven before his death. The Lucifer described in the Commedia is depicted near him ; his own costume contains the three colours, and no others, worn by Beatrice in Purgatory when he first beheld her after her death ; the pomegranates, apples, or whatever they may be, are the dolci pomi, the sweet fruits he was going to seek. So here in Giotto's picture we have Dante at the age of twenty-five or thirty, but bear- ing the symbols of five or ten years later. As for the book, Giotto's intention is not known : that Dante was a famous author would explain and justify its presence ; it may have been meant to repre- sent the Vita Nuova or the Commedia, or everything he ever wrote. Let us not try to narrow and immobilise the artist's imagination, nor wonder that he mingled things of one period with those of another; for innumerable medieval painters, including Giotto, have put into one and the same picture events separated not merely by moments but by centuries. Why did Giotto portray Dante as still youthful ? Several explanations occur to me : I will give them for what they are worth. In his Convivio (iv. 23) Dante tells us that life is like unto an arch. ' Where the highest point of this arch is, would be difficult to say . . . ; it is between the thirtieth and the fortieth year. And I believe that in perfect natures it would be in the thirty-fifth year.' This, therefore, was the year which he chose for his journey through the three realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. In popular fancy ' Dante ' meant the great poet who had described those three realms. And the ' writing ' — la scrittura — which, as Pucci says, the poet clasps, may be regarded, I think, as a symbol of the greatest and, then as now, the best known of Dante's works, rather than as a mere emblem of Dante's chief vocation. The pomegranates or apples, certainly, recall only the Commedia. It Giotto painted Dante as being thirty years of age, or less, he did so, I believe, because he was working from a sketch made in Dante's youth and did not try to age the poet's face. Thus Giotto could easily harmonise the reality he knew and had preserved with the story told in the Commedia, erring only a little toward excessive youth. The very fact that Giotto chose to paint so young a Dante, 142 THE SOURCE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE whereas almost every other painter has represented him as an elderly- man, as the man who has accomplished all his work, is strong evidence that Giotto had indeed made a sketch of Dante when Dante was young, and it is reasonable to suppose that he preferred to use this sketch rather than his uncertain notions of an older Dante, of a Dante whom he may never have seen, at any rate, when he could make a likeness, between 1296, or thereabouts, and 1321, the year of Dante's death.* If Giotto had no original sketch to work from, he must have relied upon his memory ; yet this alternative has several more points against it : (i) Giovanni Villani's assertion that Giotto painted truer to life than any other artist of his time, and the universal admiration which lasted from Giotto's own days down to those of Ghiberti and Vasari — Boccaccio writes that Giotto created the illusion of reality itself ; (2) our own knowledge that several of the human figures by Giotto's hand are true to human anatomy, whether they are or are not accurate portraits of the persons whom they may have been intended to represent ; (3) Antonio Pucci's testimony as to the accuracy of Giotto's Dante — ' perfect in features here he is painted, just as in his lifetime he was in the flesh ' — Perfetto di fattezze e qui dipinto, Com' a sua vita fu di carne cinto.-j^ (4) Finally, Giotto's portrait, as preserved by Kirkup and Faltoni,J * The portraits in medieval sketches were necessarily done from sketches. Cennino Cennini, who traces his method of fresco-painting back to Giotto, describes that art at some length in chap. 67 of his Trattato, and there, among other things, he says : ' Let us suppose that you can paint in one day the head only of a young male or female saint, such as that of our most holy Lady.' Obviously the work was slow, if it went at this rate, and Giotto would have needed at least five or six months to paint the Paradiso alone, if he did all the important work himself. As to the sketch which he must have had for his fresco portrait of Dante absolutely nothing is known, though something can be reasonably surmised. The question of resemblance has been dealt with already. See particularly chap. xiii. t What Crowe and Cavalcaselle say of G. Villani and Pucci contains several blunders and misapprehensions. According to them, ' The poet Antonio Pucci, born at Florence in 1300 [?], turned Villani's MS. [!] into verse, calling it the Centiloquio.^ Their recent editor, Mr. Douglas, reprints Pucci's sonnet with no less than nine errors. See A History of Painting, &c., vol. ii. (1903) pp. 50-51 ; for the correct form see supra^ p. 136- X The dimensions of Faltoni's drawing, now preserved in the Kupferstichkabinet at Berlin, are 56.5 by 45 centimetres. An inscription on it, as read by Dr. E. Bock, Curator, and myself, is as follows : ' Dante Alighieri fatto dall' originale (esistente nel H3 PORTRAITS OF DANTE is in harmony with all extant written descriptions of Dante's features, though they are few and brief. Before Marini (or one of his assistants) had wrenched out the eye, daubed on new colours, and reshaped various lines, it showed the tall brow, the large eye, the prominent aquiline nose and powerful jaw recorded by the writers already quoted.* To be sure, they mention that Dante's lower lip somewhat protruded, and this characteristic (just visible in the Riccardian miniature, in the Naples bust, and perceptible in the Dante of RafFael's Disputa) is absent both from Faltoni's sketch and Kirkup's ; but the old written descriptions were derived from reports concerning the Dante of 1320, or thereabouts, not the Dante of 1295 or 1290. In twenty-five years or more the lips often change their shape or pose ; if a man has been constantly affected by grief, anger, and indignation, as Dante was, t;hey seldom keep the smooth and even lines of normal youth, but sag, or become tense and drawn, or show other changes, and old age alone often suffices to bring about new conformations. As seen in the faithful Arundel print,-t Giotto's Dante is beautiful, not merely because the face expresses nobility of cha- racter, gentleness, intelligence, frankness, poise, a little of that Palazzo del Bargello) prima che fosse restaurato [.] questo abbonfresco \sic] ritorno alia Luce, merce il Benigno [!] rescitto \sic] di S. A. L. e. r. [?] il Granduca LeopoldoII. = Giotto Dipinge [dipinse] P. Faltoni fece nel 1840 epoca in cui fu ritrovato questo superbo ritratto.' In English : ' Dante Alighieri, made from the original (in the Palace of the Bargello) before it was restored. This fresco returned to the light thanks to the gracious decree of his Highness the Grand Duke Leopold IL =Giotto painted it. P. Faltoni made [this drawing] in 1840, the epoch in which this superb portrait was discovered.' Is this handwriting Faltoni's ? If so, what must one conclude as to his education and as to his attitude toward the Grand Duke ? Dr. Bock informs me that 'the Faltoni drawing is a black brush drawing on brown-coloured paper, heightened with white.' He adds that ' the small stripe 01 the underdress, which you see in front, is green (brush).' I may add that the leaf edges of the book are also green and that the scratch which runs backward from the eye is in the original, and is therefore reproduced. * See supra, pp. i6fF. Before Marini's 'restoration' the distance from the highest visible part of the face in the original fresco, to a point on the chin line exactly under it was 16.5 centimetres (6| inches) — that is, about life-size. See p. 99 and Lord Vernon's J Ihum, vol. iii. of "his Inferno, where on p. 38 occurs this statement: 'La Tav. iii. riproduce la testa, della grandezza del dipinto, lucidata dal Kirkup prima degli anzidetti restaur! ' ; &c. — that is : ' Plate III. reproduces the head with the dimensions of Giotto's painting, traced by Kirkup before the restorations.' t See my 'Final note on the Arundel Print,' Appendix VI^ p. 215 j also my Index, under ' Arundel print.' 144 GIOTTO'S CHARACTERISATION subdued passionateness and sensuality* without which no man is truly in every sense a man, and strength, but also because of a certain shapeliness and flower-like freshness to be seen sometimes in the countenances of persons having none of these qualities. No other old portrait of Dante produces this effect. -f- To be sure, every other, of those worth considering, represents Dante as past his prime, or old ; yet, partly fanciful though all these other portraits may be, they and the statements of the oldest biographers, to which we may perhaps add Dante's own painful words in the Convhio (i. 3) lead me to think that Giotto more or less idealised the poet's face.."}: However that may be, this figure seems to reveal something of that love which Dante had once felt for all {yita Nuova, § xi.), or his gaze into the bliss of Paradise, and nothing of the fierce indignation or the bitter griefs that harrowed him so often from the year of his exile to that of his death, though the capacity to suffer violently seems to be there, in the nose and chin and mouth. It would have been an error in policy had- Giotto attempted to put into Dante's face an expression of scorn, anger, or of any other rankling passion ; for, granting that Giotto had the skill to do this, in so doing he would too soon and too truthfully have reminded the Florentines of those stinging scenes in which Dante had revealed many of their dead but tortured kinsmen to the world's unfriendly glance, and of those vivid and fit damnations with which he had immortalised many of their fellow-citizens in token of his ill-esteem. If his indignation at their perversity and wickedness was often recorded in the Commedia, there it was recorded enough. Whatever Giotto may have been inclined to do, whatever he may have been able to do, he was wise or well-advised when he depicted * See the admirable note by Edward Hutton in his Giovanni Boccaccio, London, 1910, pp. 259-60 ; see also F. D'Ovidio, Nuovi Studi Danteschi, 1907, pp. 567-600. t And Hermann Grimm rightly observes that ' no artist could draw more richly the bare outline of such a face,' though he saw all this through the perverting paint of Marini's restoration. Leben Michelangelo's, 5th ed., Hanover, 1879, vol. i. p. 22. % A feature which Giotto apparently did not idealise, but either drew badly or with a realism which cannot be verified, is the neck. As has been pointed out, the neck meets the chin so far out as to make the chin abnormally short. If Giotto's drawing is accurate Dante must have had an excessively developed larynx or an unusual growth of skin above the Adam's apple. In most men, if their portraits were made in this position, this organ would stand out prominently ; here it is not even visible. Other profiles which Giotto painted do not show this trait — certainly not as in Dante's case. It was therefore not a mere idiosyncrasy of the artist. PORTRAITS OF DANTE Dante just as he did. The portrait itself does not represent the Dante that most of us know or fancy — that is the Naples bust ;* but Giotto's fresco has far greater claims to be regarded as an authentic likeness than any other known portrait. On the first ledge of Purgatory Dante meets the illuminator Oderisi d'Agobbio, who is there atoning for his pride ; but Dante's first thought is of Oderisi's art : '" Oh," said I to him, " art thou not Oderisi, the honour of Agobbio, and the honour of that art which in Paris is called illumination ? " ' But Oderisi turns the praise to Franco of Bologna, then utters these words : ' "Oh vain glory of human powers ! how little lasts the green upon the top [how brief 'S fame] if it be not followed by dull ages. Cimabue thought he ^eld the field in painting, and now Giotto has the cry, so that Cimabue's fame is obscured." ' O vana gloria delle umane posse. Com' poco verde in su la cima dura, Se non e giunta dall' etati grosse ! Credette Cimabue, nclla pintura, Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido, Si chc la fama di colui e oscura. Although these lines are feigned to have been spoken in 1300, when Giotto was about thirty-four years old, they cannot have been composed till ten or more years later, and may therefore be taken as Dante's mature recognition of Giotto's fame. Other contem- poraries — Giovanni Villani, the head men of Florence who ranked him so high in 1334, and a while later Petrarca, who was proud to own a madonna by Giotto -f- — note both his fame and his skill. We- have seen too how Boccaccio, prone to sonorous exaggerations, ascribed to Giotto the power to deceive the visual sense of men.:[. If we of a later date compare the men and women known to have been painted by Giotto with the portraits painted by a Holbein, a Frans Hals, a Rembrandt, an Ingres, we must instantly recognise which aie, and can be demonstrated, truer to life. Yet even now, after six centuries during which Giotto's colours have been fading, losing their sharpness, their bright presentation of tones (so well preserved in contemporary illuminated manuscripts), losing many features * And, in Italy, the Marini 'restoration.' t See Vasari's quotation (Milanesi, vol. i. pp. 401-2). t Supra, p. 59. 146 GIOTTO'S TRIBUTE TO DANTE entirely, including delicate details so necessary to good portraiture, so that nearly all have turned almost to a monotone and some have left but a trace, and though ignorant restorers have aided the havoc of time, we can still recognise here and there unmistakable signs of power and truthfulness.* Dante's tribute to Giotto was just, and Giotto honoured Dante with the best that his hand could do. The words that follow Oderisi's indicate that Dante meant to offer Giotto unmistakably as the greatest painter, and himself, I think, as the greatest poet, of the dawning fourteenth century. But the Bargello frescoes are the only evidence that either drew upon the other. Dante and Giotto were not interdependent. On the con- trary, ' the art of Dante and the art of Giotto have not the affinity better, the necessary correlation — which was once believed to exist between them ; they are as it were two towers standing apart, and similar only in the loftiness of the walls, which defy time.'f Dante took from Giotto only the privilege of recording Giotto's fame ; Giotto is known to have taken from Dante only the Lucifer in the Maddalena Chapel, and that precious image of the Poet himself, executed during the last two years of Giotto's life. What better evidence that these two men lived almost ever, if not ever apart, when each was creating ! Let me sum up in a few words several important facts con- cerning the origin of Giotto's portrait of Dante, its later history, and its ultimate fate. The Palazzo del Podesta existed and had a tower as early as ^293-4;-! but we have no evidence that the Maddalena Chapel con- tained any frescoes till Giotto began to work there between April * In a letter to myself, a German art critic, whose name I need not divulge, says : ' Both of the drawings by Kirkup and Faltoni seem to be very little authentic • they show too distinctly in their weak and sentimental lines the sweetish style of their own epoch.' I have already shown (chap. xi. p. 107) why an opinion of this sort is lallacious. t Adolfo Venturi, < Dante e Giotto,' in the Nuova Antotogia for February 16 1900, p. 663. • ' "^ t Writing of the year 1250, Giovanni Villani says : 'Per questo modo s'ordinA il pnmo Popolo vecchio in Firenze, & per pii fortezza del Popolo ordinarono, & comin- ciarono a fare il Palaggio 11 quale h hoggi del Podesti dietro alia Badia in su la Piazza di han Pulinare, cio^ quello di pietre concie con la torre : che prima non havea Palaggio di Comune m Firenze, anzi stava la signoria hora in una parte, & hora in altra.' Cronica VI. 39, in Muratori. See also Del Lungo, Dim Compagni e la sua cronica, vol i part 2' p. 1078, also vol. ii. pp. 445 and 460. ' H7 PORTRAITS OF DANTE 1334, and January 1336 (Old Florentine Style).* At some time between these dates and 1388 at the latest, Antonio Pucci wrote the sonnet which is for us so precious a record ; a half-century or so later Ghiberti noted in his commentary that Giotto painted the Maddalena Chapel. But the Florentines of Vasari's time and later cared little for Giotto, and it is not likely that they cherished his portrait of Dante. ' In 1 574 the Podesta and the judges of the Ruota moved into the old castle of Altafronte, which Cosimo I. some twenty years before had bought from the family of the Castellani, and the captain of the city, or head of the police, called the Bargello, took up his abode in the Palazzo del Podesta. The fine building was barbarously maltreated. The arcades of the courtyard and of the beautiful loggia were walled up, and turned into cells, and three floors, each containing many cells, were put into the magnificent hall. The same was done in the chapel, where the frescoes disappeared under many coats of whitewash ; the lower floor, being next to the kitchen, was turned into a pantry \dispensd\ and above were cells. The very name of the palace was lost, for henceforth it took the name of its new inmate, and was known as the Bargello.'-f- Thus, after Vasari's life of Giotto had been published (1550 and 1568) and probably in 1574, Giotto's frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel, including his portrait of Dante, were hidden under coats of whitewash which for some two hundred and sixty-six years pre- served them more or less from the ruining influences of moisture, dust, smoke, and the ravages of vandals and restorers. During these- two and a half centuries various readers of Ghiberti and Vasari must have been aware that Giotto's frescoes lay under the coats of white- wash, yet no energetic and intelligent efforts were made to rescue * In those days the Florentines reckoned their year from the Incarnation {ab incarnatione domint), that is from March 25. According to this method March 24, 1300 would be for us March 24, 1301. t Janet Ross, Florentine Palaces, London, 1905, p. 232. This writer used G. B. Uccelli's book, // Palaz%o del Podesti, 1865, Uccelli drew upon the Cmnica di Firenxe d'l Donato Velluti : Dall' Anno MCCC. in circa fino al MCCCLXX. In Firenze, Presso Domenico Maria Manni, 1731. At p. 143 of this work we read how on July 26, 1343 a mob of the Donati burned the door of the Palazzo del Podesti, looted the building, set fire to the Camera del Comune, which continued to burn for four days, and stole everything in the said room ; but the Maddalena Chapel is not mentioned. Obviously this room was not burnt or otherwise much damaged by the Donati, one of various good reasons being that the dated inscription {see pp. 114-5, 214) was not harmed and that the frescoes show no marks of fire or of a marauding mob. 148 THE FATE OF GIOTTO'S DANTE them until 1840 ; but then, as we have seen, before Kirkup and Faltoni had made their sketches, Marini, or an assistant, wrenched one of Dante's eyes from its socket, and a little while later, in obedience to the bigoted authorities then ruling Florence, with Nerli to ' teach ' him, and misguided by his own ignorance and de- pravity of taste, this Marini finished the ruining work, which he had begun, by repainting Giotto's portrait, so altering the original lines and colours that the Bargello Dante of to-day is no longer Giotto's Dante but a monument to the bigotry, stupidity, and bad taste of 1840—41. The only extant copies of the original portrait, both eyeless, were made by bribery * and stealth. -f- These copies will * At all events, in the case of Kirkup. See chap, ix., especially pp. 81, 96. t There is little reason to suppose that Faltoni received official permission to make his sketch, or that he could do openly what a recognised participant in the work, namely Kirkup, had to do by dint of bribery and behind closed doors. * Fortunately,' writes D'Ancona, ' he who has been and is still the target for so many accusations, had taken care in time to reproduce the genuine picture by Giotto ; but the Arundel Society's print was so scantily diffused in Italy that the portrait continued to be reproduced according to the restoration.' {La Lettura, ' II vero ritratto giottesco di Dante,' March 1901, p. 209). The Dante that one sees on the publications of the Societi Dantesca Italiana is Kirkup's Dante with the eye ' restored ' ; but Marini's daub rather than the Arundel print or Faltoni's drawing, has been employed as a frontispiece to various editions of the Divina Commedia published since 1840, and has been widely popularised by coloured reproductions, &c. See my Descriptive Catalogue {ad init.). For further information as to the regrettable disregard or ignorance of the Arundel print and acceptation of Marini's ' restoration ' (with its false eye) as a genuine work, see also Theodor Paur, ' Dante's PortrSt,' p. 307. And here Kirkup must be quoted once more. In a letter to William Rossetti, dated Florence, Jan. 15, 1 870, he exclaims : ' Wonders will never cease ! The King has now given me the Order of the Corona d'ltalia. It is the second order of the kingdom, civil and military, as the Bath is of England. The first is that of the Annunziata, for the Royal Family, foreign sovereigns, &c. I was recommended by the Prime Minister, Menabrea, whom I never saw ; and to him by the M[inister] of Public Instruction Bargoni, whom I likewise never saw. But the Secretary-General, Villari, is a very dear friend of mine of long standing, though he is a young man. He was one evening admiring the Arundel portrait of Dante at my house ; and I gave it him, to induce him to get the fresco [Giotto's] restored by removing the horrid daub that covers it. I asked him to persuade the Minister of P[ublic] I[nstruction], whose department it is, and I gave him another print for himself to give him, as an inducement ; and I suppose he gave it to him in my name. But, instead of reviving Dante, he obtained the cross for me, and sent it to me with the diploma and a very handsome letter, written entirely by his own hand ; and a beautiful hand it is, much better than the Secretary's. It is a perfect surprise, and Dante seems to care more for me than for the portrait. He was with me a few days before, and we asked him to inspire the M[inister] to get the portrait restored. Bargoni is now out — and there is no further prospect at present (and so is Menabrea), unless Dante can stimulate the new Minister.' 149 PORTRAITS OF DANTE preserve Giotto's likeness of Dante for many ages, but can the en- lightened Florentines of our time ever repair the injury done in 1 840 ? Can Marini's caricature be lifted from the original form of Dante ? An Italian authority, late Conservator of the National Museum of the Bargello, has forestalled my question : ' Not long hence only a shapeless blot will be seen where once shone the thoughtful life-like image of Dante in his youth.' 150 XV DANTE IN SANTA CROCK Bruni's testimony and the two versions of a statement by Giannozzo Manetti. Antonio Billi and Lorenzo Ghiberti. The painter was Taddeo Gaddi, not Giotto. Ghiberti really confirmed by Vasari. Gaddi's knowledge of Dante and the probable date of his portrait. The source and character of Gaddi's Dante. Vasari'sportrait of Dante and his responsibility for the loss of Gaddi's portrait. The possible importance of knowing something about Gaddi's Dante IN the year 1436 Lionardo Bruni of Arezzo (1369—14.44), secretary of state for the Republic of Florence in 1410, and again from 1427 to 1444, completed a Life of Dante in which he makes substantially the following statement : ' His own likeness is to be seen in the church of Santa Croce, about the middle of the church, on the left hand as you go toward the great altar, extremely well executed with natural proportions by a finished painter of his time.' * But here are what seem to be Bruni's own words : ' L'effigie sua propria si vede nella chiesa di Santa Croce, quasi a mezzo della chiesa, dalla mano sinistra andando verso I'altare maggiore, ed e ritratta al naturale ottimamente per dipintore per- fetto del tempo suo.' i"* Rightly or wrongly, Bruni seems to have regarded this portrait (now lost) as the work of a contemporary of Dante ; but he had either forgotten, or had never ascertained the artist's name. Pre- cisely what Bruni means by al naturale I do not know ; this * P. H. Wicksteed translates al naturale by 'life size.' See The Early Lives of Dante, 1904, p, 130. J. R. Smith interprets : 'a most faithful painting,' &c. See The Earliest Lives of Dante (Yale Studies in English), New York, 1901, p. 90. t The text varies a little. The Redi copy reads: di quel tempo. In 1883 the American Dante Society reprinted Cinelli's text (167 1, 1672), which is reprinted also in Solerti's Le Fife, &c., Milan [1904], pp. 97-108. Cinelli 1672 has this explicit : * Finita la Vita di Dante Aldighieri, e di messer Francesco Petrarca, fatta per messer Lionardo Aretino I'Anno MCCCCXXXVL, nella citt^ di Firenze del mese di Maggio.' PORTRAITS OF DANTE expression is often employed by Vasari and other old writers in various senses — in a lifelike manner, naturally, true to life ; occa- sionally it even seems to imply the use of a model ; but miscella- neous examples from other authors cannot be properly cited to settle the meaning in Bruni, though it is plain enough that Bruni had no criterion to judge by except Giotto's fresco, or other por- traits, and written or oral tradition. Bruni's Life was composed about one hundred and fifteen years after Dante's death. We know nothing of Bruni's competence as an art critic, but it is worth noting that he regarded the Santa Croce portrait as a highly, meritorious work. I pass now to Giannozzo Manetti, a Florentine humanist who lived from 1396 to 1459.* From Boccaccio, Filippo Villani, and Bruni this writer compiled a nearly worthless Life of Dante • yet he makes at least one statement which must not be ignored. Of this statement we have two versions, — one in a manuscript edited by Granata (1838), the other in a manuscript edited by Mehus (1747). Granata's text reads thus : Ceterum eius [that is, Dante's] effigies in basilica sancte crucis in parietibus [sic] extat ea forma qua revera \cf Bruni's al naturale^ in vita fuit ab Optimo quodam eius temporis pictore egregie depicta. . . . This means, I suppose : ' Furthermore, his likeness may be seen upon the walls \sic\ of, Santa Croce, true to life, remarkably well painted by a certain excellent painter of that time.' The MS. followed by Mehus offers some interesting variants : Ceterum eius effigies et in basilica sanctae crucis et in capella pretoris urbani utrobique in parietibus extat ea ^orma qua revera in vita fuit a Giotto quodam optimo eius temporis pictore egregie depicta. This seems to mean : ' Furthermore, his likeness may be seen both in the church of Santa Croce and in the chapel of the Podesta, in each on the walls, true to life, remarkably well painted by a certain Giotto, an excellent painter of that time.' -f- * See the remarks by D. Mauro Granata Cassinese, Un antico manoscritto latino che contiene le vite del Dante, del Petrarca, del Boccaccio . . . volgarizzato da Don Mauro Granata, Messina, 1838, p. vi. For the passage above quoted see ibid., pp. 54-55. See also Solerti, Le Fite, &c., pp. 139-40, and the Commentario della Vita di Messer Giannozzo Manetti, scritto da Vespasiano Bisticci, published in the Collezione di Opere inedite rare, &c., Turin, 1862. t Mehus, Specimen, 1747, p. xvi. It is important to note that in 1481 Cristoforo Landino repeated this form almost word for word. See p. 138. See also Solerti's Le Fite,p.igo. The above transcript from Cod. Laur. Plut. 63, No. 30, fol. 112 verso, I owe to Signor Guido Biagi. GIOTTO ? OR GADDI ? The relation of these two manuscripts is not clear. Possibly the Mehus amends and amplifies the Granata; possibly the Granataisa careless copy of the Mehus; possibly each independently garbles a source now lost. The epithet 'a certain' [quodam), applied to Giotto, is curious. Perhaps it was kept simply because the scribe responsible for the Mehus manuscript neglected to cut it out. This puzzle I cannot unravel ; yet, whatever may be the answer, the Mehus text obviously mentions a portrait of Dante in the Palazzo del Podesta, also one in Santa Croce, and attributes both to Giotto.* A century later Vasari was guilty of a like confusion, and this con- fusion may be thus explained : Both to Vasari and to Manetti (or to the scribe responsible for the Mehus manuscript) Giotto's portrait in the Palazzo del Podesta was more familiar than the portrait in Santa Croce ; or rather, both portraits were known to each, but Giotto's name was more familiar, and by being so was at the wrong time uppermost. Giotto did not paint both portraits ; he painted only that in the palace of the Podesta. Who, then, painted that in Santa Croce ? This question is answered by two old authorities, the one, either a certain Antonio Billi who wrote between 1516 and 1530, roughly speaking, or, more probably, a somewhat older writer whom he quotes ; -f- the other, that Lorenzo Ghiberti whose bronze doors, still adorning Dante's bel San Giovanni^ Michelangelo declared worthy of serving as the portals of Paradise. The first, of whose statements we have two versions, tells us that ' Taddeo Gaddi . . . painted in the church of Santa Croce, in the middle of the church, the miracle of the lad that was brought back to life. ' And there,' he continues, ' is the figure of Dante Alinghieri, where are three figures, true to nature, in a group, and his [Dante's] is the middle one. They are standing.' % Before * The official Committee, appointed to name the most authoritative portrait Oi Dante, solved to its own satisfaction the meaning of the passage from Mehus by omitting a comma after _/«//, and interpreted to this eiFect : Dante's likeness is to be seen in both places, painted by some artist or other after an original by Giotto now lost. Cf. Paur, 'Dante's Portrat,' pp. 315-6. t See Frey's Awertimento to his edition of // Lihro di Antonio Billi. X 'Taddeo Gaddj, il quale dipinse nella Mercatantia dj Firenze sopra il banco, nelquale luogo disse essere discepolo di Giotto il gran' maestro, dipinse nella chiesa di Santa Croce circa al mezo il miraculo del fanciuUo resuscitato. Doue e la figura di Dante Alinghierj, doue sono tre figure al naturale insieme ; et la sua h quelladel mezo. Sono ritte.' So reads the longer version (Strozzi) ; the shorter (Petrei) is as follows : PORTRAITS OF DANTE going further, let us note that according to this authority, Dante stood between two other figures, all three forming a group analogous to the trio in the Maddalena Chapel. It is important to bear in mind also that Billi declares Gaddi to have been a disciple of Giotto, to whom he attributes four chapels in Santa Croce, as well as a signed panel in the Baroncelli Chapel.* The Baroncelli Chapel Billi (Petrei MS.) assigns to Gaddi. To Taddeo Gaddi, and not to Giotto, this portrait is thus ascribed by Lorenzo Ghiberti (i 378-1455) : 'Taddeo Gaddi made in the church of the Franciscans [Santa Croce] a miracle of St. Francis.' In this ' miracle,' says Lorenzo, Gaddi portrayed the fall of a lad from a balcony ; then (in the medieval manner) this same lad stretched out on the ground with his mother and many other women weeping about him ; then his resuscitation by St. Francis. ' This story,' continues Ghiberti, ' was made with so much learning and art, and so much genius, that in my time I have never seen any- thing painted with such perfection. Therein, drawn as they were in life, are Giotto and Dante, and the master who painted it — that is, Taddeo.' (' In essa e tratto del naturale Giotto e Dante, e'l maestro che la dipinse, cioe Taddeo.') -j" Ghiberti's testimony is confirmed by Vasari, though in one passage Vasari slips into a careless contradiction of what in another passage is stated with care. Both require quoting. ' Taddeo Gaddi dipigniendo nella Mercanzia, disse essere stato disciepolo di Giotto ; et dipinse nella chiesa di Santa t [Croce] circha al mezzo della chiesa il miracolo del fanciullo risuscitato, doue e la fiura di Dante Aldinghieri, che ui sono tre figure al naturale insieme.' II Librodi Antonio. Billi, ed. by Carl Frey, Berlin, 1892, pp. 8 and 9. See also p. 56 of the same book. * Op. cit., pp. 8 and 9, and pp. 6 and 7. t See the Le Monnier edition of Ghiberti's Second Commentary, p. xx. A smaller painting of this scene by Taddeo Gaddi is now preserved in the Museum at Berlin (Dr. Ingo Krauss cites the Kgl. Mus. Berlin, Beschreib. Ferzeichnis der Gemalde, Bode, Berlin, 1898), but this painting lacks the Dante. See Krauss, Monatsberichte, Sec, Jan. 1902, p. 4, and the reproduction. It is pretty evident that Vasari, who is known to have drawn largely upon Ghiberti's Commentary, though he notes its defects (Milanesi's Fasari, vol. ii. p. 247), either read carelessly, or carelessly reports, Ghiberti's statement {supra). Messrs. Crowe and Caval- caselle increase the confusion. Attributing to Giotto the Dante once visible in Santa Croce, they say : . . . This portrait ' was so well known in Vasari's time that when Michael Angelo's funeral service was celebrated in San Lorenzo, and the church was hung with pictures illustrating Florentine art, one of the canvases represented Giotto holding a portrait of Dante on panel, after the original by him [Giotto] at Santa Croce.' Vol. ii. p. 52. DANTE WITH HfS FELLOW POETS, (Oriel College^ Oxford : hy kind permission of the Provosi and Fellotvs) TADDEO GADDI'S DANTE In describing the obsequies of Michelangelo (1564) Vasari tells how various famous artists were there represented, each by some characteristic work. To the left of the catafalque in San Lorenzo ' were those who have been illustrious in these arts, from the time of Cimabue down. Hence Giotto was to be recognised by a panel [tavoletta] upon which was seen Dante as a young man, as he is represented in the Santa Croce portrait by that same Giotto.' * Had this Santa Croce portrait really been by Giotto, Vasari would perhaps have mentioned it among Giotto's works in his life of Giotto ; however that may be, Vasari elsewhere attributes it to Taddeo Gaddi ; namely, in his life of Gaddi. There he tells us that ' under the partition which divides the church, on the left hand, over the crucifix of Donato, he [Gaddi] painted in fresco [therefore not on panel] a story of St. Francis, a miracle that he performed in resuscitating a little boy who had been killed by fall- ing from a balcony, [the saint] appearing in mid-air. And in this story,' continues Vasari, ' he portrayed Giotto his master, the poet Dante, and Guido Cavalcanti ; others say, himself.' -f- This, I think, was the original of the Santa Croce portrait mentioned by Vasari in his description of the funeral of Michelangelo, where he ascribes it to Giotto. Had Taddeo Gaddi ever seen Dante .^ If so, is it likely that he sketched him, or that he remembered his features vividly enough to delineate them with more or less accuracy at least ten years after Dante's death ? In a word, what was the probable source of the Santa Croce portrait, now lost, save in so far as it may have been handed down by copyists ? Taddeo Gaddi, son of Gaddo Gaddi, and a Florentine, was born, it seems, shortly after 1300 and died in or about 1366.:!; Cennino * * Onde vi si conosceva Giotto a una tavoletta, in cui si vedeva il ritratto di Dante giovanetto, nella maniera che in Santa Croce si vede essere stato da esso Giotto dipinto.' Milanesi's ^«jflr/, vol. vii. p. 307. Perhaps the panel was a copy of the fresco. t ' E sotto il tramezzo che divide la chiesa, a man sinistra sopra il Crocifisso di Donato, dipinse a fresco una storia di San Francesco, d'un miracolo che fece nel risuscitar un putto che era morto cadendo da un verone, coll' apparire in aria. Ed in questa storia ritrasse Giotto suo maestro, Dante poeta e Guido Cavalcanti : altri dicono %k stesso.' Milanesi's Vasari, vol. i. pp. 573-4. Compare this with what is said by Bruni, Billi, and Ghiberti. X See Milanesi's Vasari, vol. i. pp. 571 fF., also the life of Gaddo Gaddi, ibid., pp. 345-57. Vasari's statements are confusing and his chronology dubious. Ghiberti ^S5 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Cennini says that Taddeo was baptized |by Giotto, meaning that he was Giotto's godson, and Cennini also says that Taddeo was Giotto's disciple for four and twenty years.* If this is true, Taddeo must have worked under Giotto between about 13 12 and 1336, the year of Giotto's death. The pictorial decoration of the Baron- celli Chapel, which alone concerns us, was begun on December 24, 1332, and was completed on August 7, i338.-f- Most of this work, it appears, was done by Gaddi, though Giotto had a hand in it and probably superintended his disciple : we know that Giotto had been chosen in April 1334, to direct various works undertaken about this time, and that he died in January 1336 (Old Florentine Style). As we have learnt, near the middle of the church, on a partition (pre- sumably the ' screen which of old separated the nave from the choir'), Taddeo depicted the miracle performed by St. Francis in resurrecting a boy (of the Spini family) who had fallen from a bal- cony. And there, according to the authorities already quoted, he portrayed three figures, Dante, Giotto, and himself (.?) Giotto and himself Taddeo could of course have done from life ; but Dante had then been dead for at least thirteen years. What, then, is more likely than that Taddeo simply availed himself of Giotto's portrait in the Palazzo del Podesta ? Is it probable that Taddeo would have slighted his master by using as his model some other portrait ? Even if he did not begin this composition till after Giotto's death (1336), is it probable that he chose to follow what to him as to ourselves must have been a less authoritative source ? The Palazzo del Po- desta was close at hand and Giotto's portrait could be easily copied. Another circumstance indicates that Taddeo availed himself of Giotto's Dante. Vasari says that Taddeo's picture represented Dante as a youth, though he names the wrong painter because his mind was preoccupied by Giotto. And so it was that Giotto had depicted Dante in the Maddalena chapel — as a youth. This con- says that Taddeo, whom he lavishly praises, was a disciple of Giotto. See Ghiberti's Secondo Commentario. (Ghiberti is regrettably laconic.) For other documents giving dates in Taddeo's life, see Cesare Guasti, Santa Maria del Fiore, 1887, pp. 83, 167, 178. Taddeo was still alive on Aug. 26, 1366. * ' Cennino di Drea Cennini da Valdelsa fui inrormato in sulla detta arte da Agnolo Gaddi da Firenze, mio maestro, il quale imparo la detta arte da Taddeo suo padre, el quale fu battezzato da Giotto, e fu suo discepolo anni ventiquattro . . .' &c. Trattato della pittura, chap. i. (a statement confirmed in chap. Ixvii.). See also supra, p. 42. t Venturi, Storia delP arte italiana, vol. v. (1907), pp. 531 fF. ; also Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 127, note i (ed. 1903). 156 i :| i '■''.'.■• '■/■' (j'^c Ar ca/f'/yr /^// (/'fMUi t^('^//ra//.i !■•.{■(> J. J'. ■YXiiiA'.XV l)K GK()U<;Kfi VA.SAIil. - I'u..l, II I'oiirr . I>i.-.l.i ,1.' I.. (:„■„/,„„/, .'/I..,., .('„„■ ,(■ c'./.v. ./ (,!„/.•„. , v/.;. ■ ,...«//■• .A. ,, ,•-,/?/■,,„. £'',■/„,, ./„.,..,«/,,„.■ r.M .;„ /.y„.V/.- ,/^ .,.>.,, , J m. .■/..::.■ /i,„ .;„ /.,„/,: «„ /.■ (W.-ri.'.,/ „. . ,,'/,-,.■ /:„/„«. „■,.„„'. ,.y^/.,/„;, ,/ .i.;,, k/ -i ■ '/■/.■„.. .,, . ■•, ./,„-'.'. (.^ „-, ■ KNGRAVING AFTKK VASAKI'.S IJANTK. VASARI'S DANTE elusion, if correct, answers my other questions ; for if Taddeo ever set eyes on Dante at an age when he could remember the poet's features, he saw him as an elderly man, not as a youth.* Shortly after his return to Florence, in 1544, Vasari made a picture containing portraits of Dante, Petrarca, Guido Cavalcanti, Boccaccio, Cino da Pistoia, and Guittone d'Arezzo, carefully copied (so he says) from the ancient heads of these men, though from what ancient heads he does not say. Vasari's original passed during his lifetime, and perhaps immediately, into the possession of Luca Martini, and was reproduced before 1 568 in many copies. -f- Later, but when I cannot say, either one of these copies, or possibly the original, was acquired by one of the Dukes of Orleans and in 1786, or perhaps a little earlier, was handsomely engraved by Cathelin and Mondet, whose engraving (reversed) appeared in the second volume of a work called Galeries du Palais Royal, Paris, 1786-9. The original used by these two engravers was an oil-painting on wood, measuring three feet and eleven inches in height by four feet in width (of course according to the French standard of that time). Over the fire-place in the Senior Common Room at Oriel College, Oxford, hangs another exemplar having, it seems, almost exactly the same dimensions (four feet and one inch from top to bottom by four feet one and one-half inches across) . This painting, which claims to be Vasari's original work, was formerly in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna, and was lent to Charles of Lorraine by his sister-in-law, Maria Theresa, when he was appointed Viceroy of the Low Countries (1744). After his death (1780) 'it was most * Venturi says that Taddeo presents himself for the first time in 1327, 'intent upon painting in Santa Croce . . .' &c. See Venturi's Storia delP arte itaiiana, vol. v. (1907), p. 525. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (vol. ii. p. 124) also give this early date ; but we have proof that the Baroncelli chapel was not begun to be built till 1332 and that it was not finished till 1338. See Sansoni edition of Vasari, vol. i, p. 573. Carl Frey gives good reasons for thinking that Giotto's frescoes in Santa Croce were made after his return from Naples (about 1330 ?), viz., between 1332 and 1336 {Loggia dei Lanzi, p. 73). On what he believes to be distinctly Dantesque influence in The Triumph of St. Thomas, Spanish Chapel, supposed to have been painted by Taddeo Gaddi between 1320 and 1360, see F. X. Kraus, Dante : sein Lehen, Sec, p. 656. t [Nel 1544] 'fui forzato tornarmene a Fiorenza ; dove feci alcuni quadri, e fra gli altri uno, in cui era Dante, Petrarca, Guido Cavalcanti, il Boccaccio, Cino da Pistoia, e Guittone d'Arezzo; il quale fu poi di Luca Martini, cavato dalle teste antiche loro accura- tamente : del quale ne sono state fatte molte copie.' See Milanesi's Vasari, vol. vii. pp. 673-4. Milanesi notes that ' Una di queste [copie] esisteva nella galleria del Duca d'Orleans.' How could Milanesi know whether this was a copy ? ^S7 PORTRAITS OF DANTE improperly sold, at Brussels, and came to London, where it was bought in 1790 by James Clutterbuck Smith, a member of Oriel College, by whom it was in that year presented to the College. . . . It is in beautiful condition. . . .' This painting corresponds in almost every detail to Cathelin and Mondet's engraving ; therefore, either it was the source thereof (which is improbable) or the two originals were virtually identical. The Provost of Oriel, Dr. C. L. Shadwell, has a copy measuring sixteen and one-half inches in each direction. Both the College and the Provost possess an engraved ' key ' (also reversed) by Hiros. Cock, of unknown date, according to which ' the figures from left to right, are Guido Cavalcanti, Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Angela Poliziano [1454-94], and Marsilio Ficino [1433-99].' * This list, let us note, substitutes Poliziano and Ficino for Cino da Pistoia and Guittone d'Arezzo, who are given by Vasari ; but this dis- agreement concerns us only in so far as it may perhaps mean that Vasari possibly portrayed the two humanists under fanciful names. In Vasari's picture we see Dante seated at a table laden with books, globes, &c. His head is shown in profile and he is earnestly consulting a book held high in his left hand, while with his right hand he is pointing incomprehensibly to something not visible. Notwithstanding Vasari's statement that he carefully followed ^««f«/ heads in drawing these figures, it is obvious that he did not copy Giotto's portrait ; for Vasari's Dante not only is fifteen or twenty years older in appearance than Giotto's, but has an essentially different expression ; if, on the other hand, Vasari copied Gaddi's Dante ' carefully,' that we have ; but the chances are that in reality Vasari used, for his Dante at any rate, another and a more modern ource — namely, the portrait which Luca Signorelli painted at Orvieto about 1 500 — and that he made up a new group of his own.-f- * For most of this statement concerning the Oriel College portraits I am indebted to Dr. Paget Toynbee. According to the Dictionnaire Historique, Cock was born at Antwerp in 1 5 10, and died there in 1 570. He is described as 'peintre, graveur a la pointe et au burin et marchand d'estampes.' + If Vasari availed himself of Taddeo's group, he kept only Dante. Vasari's obvious modernisations arouse distrust, and his habitual inaccuracy makes me suspect that his claim to have copied those ancient heads carefully [accuratamente) is not conclusive evidence that he did. As possible evidence of Taddeo Gaddi's ability to paint life-like portraits, I will mention those of Simone Memmi (front face), Cimabue (profile), Giotto (profile), and 158 SUPPOSED DANTE IN THE AI.I.ECORV OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. (Spanish Chapel, Sta. Maria Novel/a, Florence) VASARI DESTROYS GADDFS DANTE Note the similarity of profile and of expression ; note also the angle at which each of these two heads is turned, and mark how each of these two Dantes holds his book. Apparently Vasari had not visited Orvieto just before 1544, but it would have been easy enough for him to inform himself, or he may have drawn upon a common source. Perhaps the most striking evidence of Vasari's lack of the historical instinct is that he did not copy the portrait by Giotto ; that was the most ancient head of Dante that he could have copied, and he professes an ardent admiration for Giotto. For the loss of Taddeo Gaddi's Dante Vasari himself must be held responsible. In 1566, acting under the orders of Cosimo I., or by his permission, and with a zeal which is revealed by his own words, he destroyed the screen which for some two hundred and fifty years had shown to Florentines the features of Giotto, of Dante, and probably of Taddeo himself, painted with sufficient skill to excite the admiration of Lorenzo Ghiberti and to have afforded us, perhaps, a valuable document ; for though most of Taddeo's authentic extant work proves him a careless draughtsman, a crude colourist, and far inferior to Giotto in the perception and portrayal of character, here and there one sees among his human figures a face or an attitude which seem near enough to life, as we see it, to warrant the belief that the loss of his Dante is really a loss — not because this portrait possibly reflected an independent recollection or sketch of the poet, but because it was probably a passably good copy of some more authentic likeness, in all likelihood of that by his master Giotto.* If the documents here quoted, and a discussion in which I have endeavoured to interpret them without disguising my frequent surmises as facts, have any value, it is that they may serve to shed a little light into one of the darkest corners of Dante iconography. By learning something about the possible character and the fate of Taddeo's lost portrait we come a little nearer to Dante.-f himself (full front face), in the Cappella degli Spagnuoli {see last note), copied in outline by Lord Leighton in 1853 and reproduced in Mrs. Russell Barrington's book, The Lifcy Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, London and New York, 1906. * 8ee Filippo Mois6, Santa Croce, Florence, 1815, pp. 122-4. Moise offers docu- mentary evidence. See also Vasari's autobiography, chap. xlix. (in Milanesi's edition, vol. vii., pp. 7 1 1-2). t A figure in Gaddi's (?) Allegoria della Religione CattoUca, in the Cappella degli Spa- gnuoli, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, might be regarded as a reminiscence of Dante. The figure referred to is the last on our right hand as we face the picture. It represents a scribe writing. Type : aquiline nose and strong chin. Age about 40-50. XVI THE DANTE ATTRIBUTED TO ANDREA ORCAGNA Andrea Orcagnaandhis brother Nardo decorate the Strozzi Chapel. Andrea declared by Vasari to have been a great student of Dante. The Strozzi fresco of Hell based on Dante. A possible portrait of Dante in the Giudizio pointed out by Barlow and others. Dante and Beatrice both depicted? Characteristics of this Dante and its probable date. Wherein it tallies with older evidence and with Boccaccio's words. Discrepancy of the lower lip. The source of this portrait. Chiappelli's fantastic allegation ANDREA ORCAGNA was born in Florence some six years or more after Dante had become an exile and a wanderer (1302) ;* it is therefore unlikely that this artist ever saw Dante ; nor is it at all credible that having barely reached his teens Andrea was privileged to sketch the poet at Ravenna, though he often drew from life and in later years enlivened various frescoes with portraits of living celebrities — Castruccio, Lord of Lucca, Uguccione della Faggiuola of Arezzo, Pope Clement VL, Master Dino del Garbo, author of several works on medicine, and other persons, including perhaps Petrarca, though Vasari is vague and such identifications are uncertain. With the help of his elder brother Nardo (so Vasari says), Andrea succeeded so well at painting that Nardo took him to decorate the Ricci Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, at Florence. This work was soon ruined by a leaky roof ; but in the same church Andrea is said to have decorated with scenes of the Last Judgement, * Vasari, vol. i. pp. 593 fF. Andrea and Nardo become known to us not earlier than 1344 (Frey, Loggia, p. loi). Andrea was enrolled in the Arte de' Medici e Speziali about 1353 (jb.), but this does not prove when he was born. Cf. date of Giotto's enrolment (1312), p. 120. For various dates in Andrea's active life see Guasti, Santa Maria del Fim-e, pp. lOO-i, 159, 168, &c. See also Fumi, // Duomo di Orvieto, 1 891, pp. 105 ff. Andrea was capomaestro at Orvieto from about the beginning of 1359 to about September 1362. 160 A DANTE BY ORCAGNA ? Paradise and Hell, the walls of the Strozzi Chapel, still helped by Nardo,* In this chapel, ' to which one goes up by a stone stairway, he depicted upon one wall the glory of Paradise, with all the saints, and with various raiments and headdresses of those times ; upon the other wall he did Hell, with the pits, centres,-i^ and other things described by Dante, of whom he was a great student.' '^ Among the figures in this crowded Hell Dante and Virgil, if they were ever there, can no longer be discerned ; but in the Giudizio, or Last Judgement may be seen a face which apparently was in- tended to represent Dante. ' It is on the upper portion of the wall on the left side of the window : Dante is there represented as an elderly man, bowed down by grief, and in the act of prayer. Mr. Kirkup confirmed my observations on this figure, and pointed it out to Lord Vernon, who, I believed \sic\, had a drawing of it taken for his illustrations of the " Divina Commedia." ' § So wrote Dr. H. C. Barlow in a letter to the Athenaum,]\i\y \, 1857 ; but (he tells us) 'this portrait was discovered by myself in 1845,' and it was in 1845, apparently, that Seymour Kirkup con- firmed Barlow's observations. Dr. Barlow does not say that he was the first to discover this portrait, whatever he may have believed, nor was he, for it had been observed and noted as early as 1832 by Melchior Missirini,|| and others had still earlier felt that this figure * But see Rev. J. Wood Brown's volume on Santa Maria Novella^ igo2, p. 128. Ghiberti apparently attributes the Strozzi Chapel work to Nardo. Ghiberti says that Andrea Orcagna made the Cappella Maggiore in Santa Maria Novella ; ' e moltissime altre cose dipinse in detta chiesa. . . . Ebbe tre fratelli : I'uno fue Nardo [il quale] ne' Frati Predicatori fece la capella dello Inferno, che fece fare la famiglia degli Strozzi. Segul tanto quanto scrisse Dante in detto inferno ; h bellissima opra, condotta con grande diligenza,' &c. (Le Monnier, Fasari, vol. i. p. xxiii.). But in the mysterious Libr/i di Antonio Billi, already quoted, the Strozzi chapel is attributed to Andrea and no mention is made of Nardo. 5^^ Frey's edition, pp. 12 and 13. On p. 1 3, that is, in the Petrei version, we read : ' Dipinse la cappella delli Strozi et la tauola in detta chiesa et messelo [il messo del comune] nello inferno.' t Cerchi would be more accurate than Vasari's centri. X Orcagna's fresco is called the first accurate picture of Dante's Hell. § The drawings by Chambers may be seen in Morel's Les plus anciennes traductions fran^aises de la Divine Comidie, Paris, 1897 ' '/• Pasquale Papa, ' I ritratti di Dante a S. Maria Novella,' extr. from Giornale Dantesco, xi. I, 1903, p. 9, col. 2. II DelP Amore di Dante Alighieri e del ritratto di Beatrice Portinari, Sec, Florence, 1832, pp. 32-33 ; see also Pasquale Papa in Giornale Dantesco, quadd. iii.-iv. 1904. Perhaps it is to Missirini that we owe the discovery of the Beatrice (?) in Orcagna's Giudizio. ' Beatrice fu identificata con quella meravigliosa figura femminile, in veste L 161 PORTRAITS OF DANTE •was Dante. It is therefore interesting to note that the primacy was claimed by Mr. Jacques Mesnil in August 1900,* and that in 1901 Dr. Ingo Krauss ascribed the honour to Volkmann.-f* The Orcagna portrait, painted (if Vasari can be trusted) about thirty years after Dante's death (1321)4. shows our poet (?) § among the Elect, gazing upward with wide-open eyes fastened upon God his Creator, and amid the women is a figure who may have been intended for his Beatrice. She is dressed in blue with a blue veil, and ner hands, like Dante's, are joined in prayer ; h-cr face, more youthful than the poet's, conveys a greater ecstasy. Taken together, this Dante and this Beatrice, if such they are, recall more than one of Dante's descriptions of his approach toward God, but especially that in the last canto of his divine poem, and Vasari's statement that Andrea w^as studiosissimo of Dante seems to be confirmed. Dante's figure, visible from the waist up, is clad in a pink lucco (originally red ?), a kind of loose-fitting tunic worn in those days by persons of various ranks and occupations. Pink, or red, was once the colour of Dante's coat in Giotto's portrait and also in that by Domenico Michelino, altered in spots to a less offensive hue by restorers willing, or obliged, to comply with the bigotry of their epoch [ca. 1840). The headdress is a plaited close-fitting hood, or cappuccio, a characteristic feature not only in Giotto's portrait, in the miniature of Codex Palatinus 320 and in that of the Riccardian manuscript, but repeated also in other ancient presentments of Dante, No other figure in Orcagna's fresco wears a head-covering like this. Orcagna's Dante (if this is Dante) stands forth almost by itself in next to the highest row of the Blest. Above him are five figures of superhuman size representing, apparently, the four Evangelists and Mary ; below and beside him are other worthies whose identity is e velo azzurro, atteggiata ad estasi insieme e a preghiera, che viene avanti nel primo piano, a destra, dal gruppo delle donne elette ' (Pasquale Papa). * Zeitschrift fur hildende Kunst for 1900, pp. 256-9. Mesnil says : ' MerkwUrdi- gerweise scheint dieses [Orcagna Bild] bis jetzt den Augen der Forscher voUkommen entgangen zu sein, trotzdem es sich in Florenz, inmitten einer der wichtigsten Fresken des Trecento in einer Kirche befindet, die von alien aufgesucht wird.' The author of this asseveration emphasises the thoroughness of his search for earlier discoverers. t See Das Portrait Dantes, Berlin, 1 90 1, pp. 43-44. t J. Wood Browfn {Santa Maria Novella, 1902, p. 134) thinks Tommaso Strozzi caused Andrea ' to adorn the chapel with the frescoes of the last things which are still visible there' about 1340. No evidence is offered. § The reader will be lenient if this (?) is not repeated. 162 SUPPOSED FKJURE OF DANTE IN THE LAST JUDGEMENT AITKIHUTED TO ANDREA 0RCA(;NA. {Strozzi Chapel^ Sta. Maria Xo7'vlla, Florence) •: ••• • • • •• • • •: • I •'• • ••• • A DANTE BY ORCAGNA ? unknown, though it has been surmised that the portly cleric just behind him is Petrarca. Now Petrarca was still alive in 1 374, some six years after Orcagna's death, and at least twenty years after the Giudizio had been completed ; how, then, could Orcagna have put him among the Blest ? My answer would be, Why not ? The figure is not labeled, and the painters, of Orcagna's time, as well as of other periods, were accustomed to use whatever models they saw fit to use when they were painting historical or legendary scenes, often depicting themselves, their friends, or contemporaries of note, in various guises. Vasari and other art historians give numerous examples of this custom. It is therefore quite possible that Orcagna painted Petrarca among the Blest some twenty years or more before Petrarca's death (i 374), and that this figure indeed por- trays this celebrity is borne out by its resemblance to the miniature shown by De Nolhac from a manuscript in the Biblioteca Ambro- siana at Milan,* and to a portrait reproduced and described by Ratti in igoS.-f- Possibly Orcagna intended to heighten the interest of his fresco by depicting, close to one another, both Dante and Petrarca, in the order of their epochs or of the rank they may have held in his imagination. J If Vasari's chronology is correct, Orcagna's Giudizio was com- pleted before 1357, possibly between 1350 and I354.§ By 1350 Giotto's portrait had been visible for some thirteen years, and Taddeo Gaddi had finished his Dante (now lost) at Santa Croce ; other likenesses, too, or would-be likenesses, may then have ex- isted; but the source of Orcagna's Dante is not known. In 1336, when Andrea Orcagna was about thirty years old and his brother Nardo a few years older, Giotto died and was buried in the church * De Nolhac reproduced this miniature photographically in the Gazette des Beaux- Arts, vol. XXV. pp. 292 fF. {1900). In the Ambrosiana portrait Petrarca is shown side by side with Galeazzo Visconti (?). ' La minuscola tavoletta dell' Ambrosiana,' says Ratti, ' mostra chiaramente di aver subito i danni del tempo, massime pel ritratto di Gian Galeazzo, che per6 la fotografia ha reso ancora abbastanza riconoscibile ; ben sembra rispondere meglio all' idea d'un dipinto a chiaro e scuro, e per poco non mi fa I'efFetto di cancellare le cancellature del codice Bossiano di Pavia.' See note t, below. t See Rassegna £ Arte for January 1908, A. Ratti, 'Ancora un nuovo ritratto di Francesco Petrarca' (pp. 6-7). X Inserting a portrait of Petrarca among the Blest while he was still alive, especially if the likeness was not unmistakable and no identity could then be established, is a very different matter from the situation dealt with on pp. 107 fF. § Cf. Pasquale Papa, / ritratti di Dante in Santa Maria Novella (offprint from Giornale Dantesco, anno xi. quad, i.), Florence, 1903, p. 3, note 2 in col. i. 163 PORTRAITS OF DANTE of Santa Reparata with honour, having recently helped to embellish Florence ; it is therefore incredible that the Orcagnas, also Floren- tines, did not know both Giotto's portrait of Dante, then not more than three years old, and Dante's praise of Giotto ; the Orcagna portrait shows, however, not the Bargello Dante grown old, but rather, let me say, the father of Dante. There is a family resem- blance, a community of profile, something, in a word, that justified Barlow and others after him in taking this figure for Dante. Whatever its origin, Andrea's or Nardo's Dante tallies in various important features with the type of man described by Boccaccio. Like all other ancient portraits of Dante which have any icono-' graphic value, this figure is beardless ; but we see the large eye, the long face, the aquiline nose, the heavy jaw, and the stoop that seems to have been characteristic of Dante in his later years. This is the andatura alquanto curva — the somewhat stooping gait — mentioned by Boccaccio in his Vita and alluded to again in his Commento (ca. 1373) where, speaking of Dante's nephew, Andrea Poggi, who lived vcv Florence, Boccaccio says : ' In the lineaments of his face he marvellously resembled Dante, as well as in his stature, and likewise he walked somewhat bent over, as it is said Dante used to do,'* and the face of Orcagna's Dante seems also ' melancholy and thoughtful,' though this expression may be due mostly to the attitude of prayer. But how shall we account for the lips ? Boccaccio says that the lower lip protruded ; in Orcagna's picture it is the upper lip that protrudes. When a man's head is bent back, the lower jaw has a slight tendency to recede, and the lower lip is therefore drawn back, but only a little, certainly never so much as in this portrait. Perhaps Orcagna's memory had failed him ; perhaps this is after all not Dante ; perhaps we may attribute the discrepancy to one of the innumerable restorers who for the last five hundred years have been ignorantly altering Italy's old works of art.-f- Of these three con- * On Inf. viii. i : {' . . . e meravigliosamente nelle lineature del viso somiglio Dante, e ancora nella statura della persona, e cosl andava un poco gobbo, come Dante si dice che facea '). See p. 1 8, note t. t In the chapter on ' Andrea detto I'Orcagna,' in // Libra di Antonio Billi (Strozzi MS,), we read : ' Andrea di Cione, detto I'Orcagnia. Costuj dipinse la cappella maggiore in Santa Maria Nouella, guasta dal Ghirlandaio, della quale trasse molte belle cose. Dipinse la cappella delli Strozi et [la] tauola in detta chiesa,' &c. The Petrei MS. reads : ' Andrea di Cione, detto I'Orgagnia, dipinse la cappella maggiore di Santa Maria Nouella, che le guasto a nostri di il Grillandaio et ne trasse di molte belle cose. Guardisi al messo del comune. Dipinse la cappella delli Strozi,' &c. Frey's ed. 164 ORCAGNA'S MODEL jectures the third seems to me the least plausible ; for ' restorers,' like scribes, usually normalise extraordinary features and tend to make them commonplace. It is worthy of note that in the sketch by Chambers {ca. 1840) the lips of Orcagna's Dante meet almost evenly, though the lower very slightly recedes. In Giotto's portrait (as copied by Faltoni and Kirkup before Marini's restoration) the lips are normal, but Giotto may have forgotten or effaced a charac- teristic which was probably more pronounced in Dante's last years than in his youth. Orcagna's model cannot have been Dante ; he must therefore have availed himself of a fresco, panel, or miniature ; or, as Professor Papa suggests, he may have employedfor his model that AndreaPoggi who is said by Boccaccio to have wondrously resembled Dante ; for Poggi and Orcagna were not only contemporaries but fellow-citizens, and Orcagna's Dante tallies more closely with Boccaccio's descrip- tion of Dante and with his observation as to Poggi than with any other possible source now known.* Orcagna is not mentioned among the ' famous citizens ' described by Filippo Villani, nor, so far as I can ascertain, does any contemporary or old authority credit him with a portrait of Dante ; but that this prominent and highly individualised figure in his Giudizio was intended to represent Dante, that Dante whose Hell is so obviously portrayed in the neighbouring fresco and of whose works Andrea Orcagna ' was a great student,' seems to me evident, though we have no external testimony to show that such was the case.'^- pp. 12-13. See Cavalcaselle in the Spectator (on 'restorations'), July 13, 1850, p. 664. * See pp. 18 and 164, note *. t In the Marzocco for Dec. 28, 1902, Prof. A. Chiappelli declared his belief that a certain head in Orcagna's Paradho (S. Maria N.) represents Dante. Chiappelli's candidate has not been warmly greeted by the well-informed. He has, in fact, been ably disqualified by Prof. Pasquale Papa, who, per contra^ champions Barlow {Giorn. Dant. anno xi. quad. i. 1902 ; printed separately by Olschki, Florence, 1903), and by Count G. L. Passerini (in a pamphlet containing reproductions of several well-known Dante portraits, pub. by Olschki, Florence, 1903). In July 1903, the Westminster Review published a contribution by Karl Blind called ' Discovery of New Dante Portraits,' reproducing Chiappelli's figure, and Barlow's, from Alinari photographs. This is a mere rehash of old mistakes mildly flavoured with a report of Chiappelli's article. Orcagna may have avenged Dante by depicting Cecco d'Ascoli among the damned in his Hell at Santa Croce [see Giosue Carducci's essay ' Delia varia fortuna di Dante,' p. 176), but in // Lihro di Antonio Billi (Strozzi MS.) we read that Orcagna painted * I'inferno nella chiesa di Santa [Croce] col paradise, nelquale ritrasse Guardj, messo del comune, con uno giglio in su ia berretta, perche lo pegnoro.' See Frey's ed. p. 12. 165 XVII VARIOUS PORTRAITS KNOV^N OR ALLEGED TO REPRESENT DANTE A fresco at Rimini believed by Ricci to contain a portrait of Dante. Lorenzetti's allegory of Peace at Siena. A portrait at Pisa. The Louvre Dante. Benozzo Gozzoli. Andrea dal Castagno paints a Dante at Legnaia. Compari- son thereof with Michelino's Dante. Origin of Andrea dal Castagno's Dante and its resemblance to the Naples bust. Andrea did not use Giotto's Dante. His portrait now in Florence. Paolo Uccello. Ferrucci's Dante an absurdity IN the church of Santa Maria in Porto, near Ravenna, are certain frescoes attributed to Pietro and Giuliano of Rimini,- who were employed there about the time when Dante was living in Ravenna. A figure in one of these frescoes is regarded favourably by Signor Corrado Ricci, who says : ' Only the figure described by us really repeats the traditional physiognomy of Dante, recommended by the ancient biographers and by the ancient paintings and sculptures.'* The evidence offered in support of this assertion must speak for itself. In the bearded man at our left, with both hands raised, I see nothing that tallies with any of the oldest portraits; nor do I see a single feature which agrees with Boccaccio's description. Further- more, we have no evidence that this portrait, or any other old painting at Ravenna, was meant for Dante or taken for Dante until all too modern a time. A more probable attempt to portray Dante may be seen in one of three spacious frescoes at Siena. In 1337 Ambrogio Lorenzetti re- ceived from the Signoria dei Nove Governatori an order to decorate, in the Palazzo Pubblico, the room now known as la Sola della Face, * Ricci, L' Ultimo Rifiigio, pp. 286-9 ; Alinari photograph 18249. ^^- ^- K^f^uss says: 'FUr dieses Bildnis liegt nicht nur kein Uberzeugender Beweis vor, es scheint nicht einmal recht glaubhaft,' See Das Portrait Dantes (not illustrated), Berlin, 1901, p. 42. 166 j4 mbrt)i;io Loreusettu SUPPOSKD KI(;URE OF DANTE. THIRD FKiUKE KKOM KIGHT OF THIS DETAII.. (Z,rt Sala delta Pace, Palazzo Ptthblico, Siena) ,• e • « *> o A PORTRAIT BY LORENZETTI which contains his elaborate allegory of Good Government, finished by 1339. In 1518, and again in 1521, these frescoes underwent some restoration, but // Buon Governo is still clear enough to afford safe study of the many portraits which it contains — portraits of twenty-four celebrities who had deserved honour from their country. The figure supposed to represent Dante is the eleventh from the middle, right under the allegorical figure of Peace [PAX). 'This figure,' writes Dr. Krauss, ' is shown in profile, and has a youthful head with dark fiery eyes.' And he sees in it the characteristics of the Dante type, even going so far as to find its source in Giotto's portrait. Such, indeed, may have been its origin if it is true that Lorenzetti was associated with Giotto in Florence about 1334 to 1336.* I have not seen Lorenzetti's frescoes at Siena since 1894, and should therefore not be warranted in attempting a comparison. Pisa, too, possesses at least one portrait supposed to represent Dante. The history of this painting, now preserved at the Museo Civico, is unknown, and it is cautiously attributed to an ignoto of the fifteenth century. The laurel wreath betokens that this is a poet ; but only the lower lip indicates that we may be looking at a presentment of Dante rather than of Boccaccio or some other poet known to fame ; the rest of the face fails to tally with the features depicted by Giotto or with any other portrait.-f What shall we say of the Danti Antigerio preserved at the Louvre ? This work obviously purports to represent Dante. Here, in fact, are the traditional cap, with the white eartabs and the laurel * Corrado Ricci, // Palazxo Puhblico di Siena, Sec, Bergamo, 1904, p. 15 and pp. 19-20 for illustrations (photos, by Lombardi). Carl Frey cites documentary evidence that Lorenzetti was in Florence about 1332, and that he was personally acquainted with Giotto. Frey surmises that Lorenzetti had A. Orcagna as a pupil. Lorenzetti (' Ambruogio di Lorenzo da Siena') had returned to Siena in 1335, a year before Giotto's death. If the figure in his P-^X which is similar to the Bargello portrait was inspired by that portrait, we can offer one more item to the evidence offered in chap. xi. In comparing the two figures not only physiognomy, stature, attitude, and costume, but also the colour-scheme should be considered. For various relevant docu- ments concerning Lorenzetti see Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, vol. ii. (1827), pp. 103-8. See also Langton Douglas, History of Siena, London, 1902, pp. 370-5, Carl Frey, Loggia dei Lanzi, p. 104, and I. Krauss, Das Portrait Dantes, I90i,p. 43. According to Ferrazzi {Encic. i. 393), this identification of the figure in question was pointed out by Ranalli in his Storia delle belle arti in Italia, vol. i. p. 87. F. X. Kraus traces the figure of PAX to Dante's verses in the Paradiso (xxx. 31). Sec Dante: sein Leben, &c., p. 651. t Alinari, No, 9874. 167 PORTRAITS OF DANTE wreath ; but the nose is the only feature having a possible con- nexion with the most authentic tradition. The eyes are almost abnormally small, the lips are insignificant, and the jaw is not Dante's. The coat is mainly a dark, reddish brown ; the cap is red ; the flesh tints are of a yellowish brown, with red reflected lights. This por- trait is ascribed to an Italian painter [Ecole Italienne), but its history zn6. provenance are unknown, though it is believed to belong to the end of the fifteenth century. Notwithstanding its age, we are here further from Giotto's fresco, further from Dante, in spirit and in truth, than when we stand before that dramatic and wholly modern picture in which Eugene Delacroix shows ' Dante et Virgile, con- duits par Phlegias, traversant le lac qui entoure les murailles de la ville infernale de Dite.' * About 1865, Mr. Morris Moore, of London, affirmed that he owned a Dante portrait by Raffael, inspired by Giotto. This Morris Moore Dante, if Gioachino Berthier's frontispiece reproduction of it can be trusted, is twin brother or son to the Dante of the Louvre ; but has a still more sickly, untidy look, and if RafFael had anything to do with the original reproduced by this editor, the evidences of his genius have been carefully licked out.-j- In my opinion, Moore's Dante can be set down as a feeble copy of the unprepossessing oil portrait at the Louvre. Benozzo Gozzoli's picture (1452) can be passed by as a carica- ture or a ruin; but to Andrea dal Castagno (1390— 1457) we owe a Dante whose importance has been overlooked. In a villa at Legnaia, near Florence, owned in Andrea's time by the Carducci, in Vasari's by the Pandolfini, Andrea was commis- sioned to paint the portraits of famous men — three warriors and three learned poets — and three illustrious women. These figures, now exhibited each by itself on three walls of the Museo di S. Apol- lonia, once stood side by side in niches, each clad according to his or her rank. First of the men, labeled, like all the rest, came a bold and almost truculent representation of Filippo Scolari, known as Pippo Spano ; then came Dominus Farinata de TJbertis sue patrie * The Dant't Antigerio is reproduced from a photograph by Adolphe Braun & Co. For various facts concerning this Danti (and Delacroix's painting) I am indebted to Miss Eunice Schenclc and to Prof. G. Foug^res. t See Berthier's Inferno, Friburgo in Isvizzera, 1892. According to Berthier, Moore's Dante formerly belonged to Cardinal Bembo, and 'now [1892] belongs to the heirs of Mr. Morris Moore.' 168 «•»••" ••• ^ ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO liberator^ who died about one year before Dante's birth ; then Niccolo Acciajuoli ; then the Stbilla Cumana que prophetavit adven- tum Christi; over a door, midway in the wall, was a half-figure of Queen Esther ; then came Thomir, who was followed by Dantes De Alegieris Floretini {sic), with Petrarca and Boccaccio at his side. Andrea painted these figures of heroic size — about 2.3 metres in height.* As in Giotto's fresco, so in this painting by Andrea dal Castagno, Dante is still Questo che veste di color sanguigno — Cennini's sanguigno. His sleeves have been tinted blue, presumably by some misguided restorer. The cap, dark crimson, with a pouch-like tail, is fastened on with a mazzocchio — the curiously shaped band of fur divided into flat oblong sections, like those of a cork life-saving belt — a style of headdress which is said to have gone out of fashion in Boccaccio's time.-i" The mazzocchio is adorned with miniver or vair, with white lappets ; % the book is bound in green. Thus Andrea repeats dis- * In a brief article on ' Andrea dal Castagno ' [Burlington Magazine for 1 907, vol. vii. pp. 66-69 and 222-3) Herbert P. Home gives reasons for his belief that Andrea was born about 1410 and shows that he was assisted by Alesso Baldovinetti about 1454' In his Andrea del Castagno : Inaugural-Dissertation (not illustrated), Berlin, August 1900, Dr. Wolfram Waldschmidt cites the Florentine tax-rolls, wherein Andrea regis- tered himself, as proof that Andrea was born in I390. The painter's father was Bartolommeo di Simone, a labourer at S. Andrea a Linari in the Contado of Florence. Vasari says that he came from a hamlet called Castagno ; thence, presumably, the sur- name Andrea dal,del,da,OT i^/'Castagno (I have adopted the form used by Vasari). Accord- ing to Waldschmidt, Andrea died August 19, 1457, as shown by the Libro de^ morti tenuto aair arte de" medici e specially or ' Register of deceased [members] kept by the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries,' a guild to which Dante belonged before his exile, and which had long been the guild for artists. Upon stylistic grounds Waldschmidt thinks the Legnaia paintings belong to ' the turning point ' in Andrea's career, but he does not attempt to set a date. These paintings, according to Vasari, were painted for Pandolfo Pandolfini at Legnaia ; yet Vasari also says that Andrea ' lavoro . . . in casa de' Carducci, oggi dei Pandolfini, alcuni uomini famosi, parte immaginati e parte ritratti di naturale,' naming Filippo Spano degli Scolari, Dante, Petrarca, &c. This error arose from the fact that the Carducci had owned the villa at Legnaia before it was sold to the Pandolfini. Photographs of the nine portraits can be had of G. Brogi, Florence. Emil SchaefFer's article ' Ueber Andrea del Castagno's " uomini famosi " ' [Reper- toriumfUr Kunstwissenschaft, 1902, especially pp. 170-2) confirmed my impression as to the resemblance between the Castagno Dante and Michelino's. t See the ^ocaholario della Crusca, under mazzocchio and gota. X See Milanesi's Vasari, vol. ii. pp. 667-89 (especially note 4, p. 670), These paintings, on canvas, are said to have been removed from the villa at Legnaia to the Uffizi not long before 1865 (see Giornale del Centenario, No. 29). Our colour-plate indicates where Andrea's Dante has been retouched. 169 PORTRAITS OF DANTE tinctly Giotto's principal colours, and he may have been influenced to that extent by the portrait in the Maddalena Chapel. It would be idle to seek a genetic relation in colour-schemes, unless they ■clearly present some unusual combination such as this. Although Andrea dal Castagno's Dante may have been more or less ' restored,' it seems to preserve its original character sufficiently to afford a safe basis of comparison with other portraits. What I wish to emphasise first is its superficial resemblance to Domenico di Michelino's portrait. The costume, except the mazzocchio is almost identical, and the two figures differ but little in their pose. Both are looking off to the left at the same angle, and both have a didactic air. Michelino's Dante is holding out his Commedia, in his left hand, so that all may know his greatest work, while with his right hand he seems to be corroborating his story with the visible evidence that rises behind him to the right ; Andrea's Dante is also teacher-like in his bearing, and he too is holding an open book. But the resemblance does not end there. The heads have similar proportions, and were the expression of Andrea's Dante not quite so sinister and fierce (characteristics by which this painter was well known in his own time, or at least in Vasari's), and were the lines, especially those of the nose and mouth, somewhat less sharp, the resemblance would be still more apparent. Now, if Vasari is right, Andrea dal Castagno worked both in Santa Croce and in Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) ; it is therefore credible that he knew Taddeo Gaddi's Dante,* and that the model which Alesso Baldo- vinetti (who had been an assistant to Andrea) gave to Domenico di Michelino about 1465 was either executed by Andrea dal Cas- tagno or bore some genetic relation to the present work, which may be merely an adaptation of the original portrait of Dante in Santa Maria del Fiore (about 1430 and later). f That Andrea copied Michelino is of course impossible. Here is another curious fact : If a cast of the Naples bust be turned so as to show the same angle as Andrea's portrait, it will be * Vasari says that Don Lorenzo {ca. I370?-I425?) painted in the Ardinghelli chapel of Santa Triniti, at Florence, life-like portraits (?) of Dante and Petrarca {' fece di naturale il ritratto,' &c.). Milanesi's Fasariy vol. ii. p. 20. Vasari's statement was possibly derived from // Libra di Antonio Billi. See Frey's edition, p. 1 8. These portraits were probably visible to Andrea dal Castagno. They no longer exist. Lorenzo belonged to the school of Taddeo Gaddi. t See chap, xviii. 170 ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO seen that the two profiles and various other lines are almost alike. Not only this, but we observe the same proportions in nearly all parts of the two faces, and approximately the same modelling of forehead, cheekbones, cheeks, jawbone, nose and chin ; even the tuft of hair between the forehead and eartab is there ; but the ear of the bust is hidden. Even if these observations are correct, it does not follow that the modeller of the Naples bust must have availed himself of An- drea's portrait, either for a few details, or for the many which I have here noted. Vasari says nothing as to the source of Andrea's Dante, nor does he even guess when it was painted ; we have no means of establishing the date, yet it is not likely that so pretentious a series of portraits was executed in its author's early youth. The most probable period lies between 1435 and 1457, the year of this artist's death. During these years Andrea seems to have been working mainly in Florence. There he could see both Gaddi's and Giotto's portraits of Dante, then hardly a century old ; but appa- rently he was not inspired by Giotto's, except, perhaps, in so far as his colour-scheme is concerned, nor is it likely that he used the Riccardian miniature, for this miniature belongs to a somewhat later time.* * Paolo Uccello (1397 .''-1475 ?) is thought by Johanna de Jongh to have painted a Dante in his fresco of the Deluge at the Chiostro Verde of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. This writer's candidate is reproduced in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for '903> P- 2^Z~7 ('he wrhole fresco and the head of the supposed Dante). It has long been customary to find ' a new Dante ' ; but these discoveries are rarely accompanied by evidence of any sort. Such is the case with a head championed by Giovanni Sauro in 1842 ; nor have Dantists welcomed the type defended by L. C. Ferrucci — a ' brutta testa di villano,' to quote Ricci, who reproduces a profile engraving of the bust that led Ferrucci astray. Giornale del Centenaria, No. 18 (1864) and No. 36 (1865) ; also L' Ultimo Rifhgio, p. 286. 171 XVIII DOMENICO DI MICHELINO'S DANTE IN THE DUOMO AT FLORENCE Domenico di Michelino's Dante and its lost prototype. The contract with Michelino (1465). Baldovinetti's model. Detailed description of Michelino's painting. Origin of the Dante type adopted by Michelino. Barlow's assertion as to Marini's retouching of this portrait. Forthreeanda halfcenturiesEnglish travellers have noted Michelino's Dante, generally attributing it to Orcagna or Giotto. Fresh illustrations of the value of style and of tradition as criteria for determining authorship. No other portrait of Dante known to have hung in the Duomo between 1334 and 1421 APPARENTLY after the year 141 3, and probably not long before 1430, Brother Antonio Neri, of the order of the Conventual Franciscans, caused a portrait of Dante to be . painted for Santa Maria del Fiore (il Duomo), and under this portrait he wrote, or caused to be written, thirteen Italian verses. About 1465 this portrait gave way to a new one by Domenico di Michelino, and has itself disappeared ; but the verses were preserved by Bartolommeo CefFoni, with the following note : ' These 1 3 verses, given above [I give them below], are those that are painted and written on the painting of Dante in Santa Liperata, or Santa Maria del Fiore, where Dante is being [publicly] read at present by Master Antonio a Franciscan brother (1430). The said Master Antonio caused the said painting to be made to remind the citizens that they have Dante's bones brought to Florence [from Ravenna], and have honour done him, as he deserves, and in a worthy place.' * * See MS. Riccardiano 1036 a. c. 180 recto. See also C. Ricci, UUltimo Rifugioy pp. 330 ff., especially pp. 330-1. The verses, which, though very obscure, have enough documentary value to warrant their being quoted, run thus : [i] Z« Mono Onorate I'altissimo poeta ch' h nostro, e tiellosi Ravenna, perchi di lui non k chi n' abbia pieta. 17a DANTE, AFTKR ANDRKA DAL CASTAGNO (Fr.'sco. Florence : Museo d'l Sant' Af>olloma) • • « • • ( • • * • - * • DOMENICO DI MICHELINO The older portrait, now lost, was still preserved in the eighteenth century in the Opera of the Duomo. It was on canvas and repre- sented Dante standing in a street of Florence, and above him Bru- nellesco's dome, not yet crowned by its lantern. At a gate of the city stood an old man, facing outward, with a scroll upon which were the verses in question.* Brief though this description is, it throws some light upon the painting by Michelino ; but, as is seldom the case in Dante iconography, we have the following contemporary documents showing how Michelino came to paint a Dante, precisely when he did so, how much he was paid, what was thought of his finished work, and other details of some importance : MCCCCLXV. January 30. ' They [to wit, the Operai of the Duomo] entrusted to Domenico di Michelino, the painter, personally and with his consent, ... a figure in the form and guise of the poet Dante, which he is to paint and to colour with good colours, with gold in the ornamentations, as shown by the model supplied by Alesso -j^ Baldovinetti, the painter ; and he is to paint it on linen and complete it wholly at his own cost; and it shall be put in the place where the chapel is, in Santa Maria del Fiore; he is to be paid for his work 100 pounds [/ire], and must have finished it within six months. And after the said work is done, it must be examined by the authorities [operai] then in office to determine whether it is worth the price, 100 pounds, above men- tioned.' [2] Dante Se r alto posse che dispone il tutto, Fiorenza, volse che ti fosse luce, perchi tua crazia in ver' di me non luce, che del tuo ventre so' maturo frutto ? [3] // Fecchio O lasso vecchio, o me, quanto h chupito la tua virtu si alta, esser famata, per dengnio sengnio nel fiorente sito, ch^ or da' cieli vegho nunziata mia giusta vollia en cielo redimito, ch' ancora in marmo la fari traslata. * See Del Balzo, Poesie di milU autori, vol. iii. p. 420, and notes, t Not ' Alessio.' PORTRAITS OF DANTE June 19. ' Having considered a contract made with Domenico di Miche- lino, the painter, for a figure in the form of the poet Dante, to be put in the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in that place where there is still a figure of the said poet, which [later] figure was entrusted to him, and inasmuch as the said figure has been found to be completed to perfection, and even more [!], according to the model given him, and in order that the price of this figure may be paid without any reserve, the said figure has been caused to be appraised by the said Alesso and Neri di Bicci, both painters, chosen and deputed to make the said appraisal, and inasmuch as their report has been duly examined, . . . the truth is this, that the said Domenico has made the said figure according to the said model, . . . and has added . , . many things beyond what he had to do, which are very difficult and not in the [original] design, and he has done them to adorn and embellish the said figure and painting, which have cost him great tediousness, expense, and difficulty. Having seen and considered all the things aforesaid, they deliberated whether he might receive twenty pounds [/ire] in addition to the one hundred stipulated. And after once more seeing and considering that it was valued by the said appraisers at a higher price than had been allowed him, . . . they declared that he be given ... in all the sum of 155 pounds.'* These two documents prove that Domenico di Michelino must have begun this picture after January i, 1465, and have finished it within four and a half months. The date (Old Style) indicates that the cathedral authorities thus commemorated the two hundredth anniversary of Dante's birth. The price finally paid — 155 h're — would nowadays amount to far more than that sum. Baldovinetti's model appears to have been lost, but the few words which we still have as to the older picture indicate that it influenced Baldovinetti's design, or, what is more to the point, it influenced Michelino, whatever sources he may have also drawn upon for his elaborate and more or less symbolical portrait of Dante. * These two documents, found in the Stanziamenti delP Opera, were printed by Dr. Giovanni Gaye in his Carteggio ined'tto d'artisii dei secoli xiv. xv. xvi. &c., vol. ii. pp. v.-vi., Florence, 1840. Gaye omitted what he regarded as unimportant. The documents are obscure enough to render any translation more or less suspicious ; but they can , easily be consulted in Gaye. See also Lord Vernon's Album which contains an engraving by Lasinio of Michelino's picture (vol. iii. facing p. 51). DOMENICO DI MICHELINO By Michelino Dante is represented standing almost in the middle of the foreground, an open space behind which we see something of the poet's after-world as well as parts of Florence. In his left hand he holds an open copy of the Commedia ; with his right he seems to be gently calling attention to the gate of Hell, behind him in the middle distance. In the background stands the Mountain of Pur- gatory with the Earthly Paradise at its top, while at the poet's left^ stretching away behind him, we see various well-known Florentine buildings — the Cerchio (a high battlemented wall), and behind this, the dome of Santa Reparata, then the tower of the Palazzo della Signoria, a side of the Campanile, and other towers. Domenico di Michelino represented Dante clad in a long red cloak, falling in straight folds to his ankles; an undergarment with tight sleeves, originally green, now thinly tinted with blue, is visible from the wrists to the elbows ; the upper arms are concealed by the broad sleeves of the cloak ; the cloak has lapels closely resembling those in Giotto's portrait and not unlike those of the miniature in^ the Codex Palatinus 320. The headdress is a kind of hood, red like the vest and cloak, and wreathed with laurel so that the shape of the hood is not obvious, but it seems to resemble a round and somewhat loose cap of pretty even depth rather than the toboggan cap — as we might call such a headdress now — to be seen in Giotto's fresco, in the miniature just mentioned, and in that of the Riccardian manu- script 1040, as well as in some other old presentments of Dante. The earflaps are white as in Giotto's portrait and in the Riccardian. miniature, and form an acute angle at the jawbone (in Giotto's drawing this angle is obtuse), Michelino represents Dante as about fifty-five years of age, with a melancholy, somewhat wasted, and rather heavy face. The nose is large and aquiline, the eyes are not strikingly big, but the brow is wide and the cheekbones stand out prominently above the in- dented jawbone and rather sunken cheeks. The lips are continued at the corners by rounded furrows. The chin is powerful, but as the face is not in profile we cannot determine whether the chin protrudes or not. There is no visible droop to the lower lip, nor can- we tell the colour of the hair, for it is completely concealed. Michelino could, of course, have read Boccaccio's description ; yet this portrait offers no evidence that he did. He could also have studied the Bargello portrait or the one at Santa Croce, and for the I7f ■!»'»PW"W'""^'P" PORTRAITS OF DANTE costume, at least, he may have used either of these to some extent ; but Michelino's Dante shows a front face, three quarters full, and was probably derived (through Baldovinetti's model ?) from a front- face portrait now lost. As a type, it seems to be akin, though vaguely, to three well-known presentments — Giotto's fresco, for pose and attire (including the colours) ; the miniature Codex Pala- tinus 320, for maturity and heaviness of expression ; the Naples bust, for the heavy cheekbones and the wreath.* The cap, with its tail hanging down behind to the right, instead of straight down behind, does not recall other portraits. -f- The Naples bust may not have existed in 1465 ; but Michelino assuredly had at his disposal Giotto's fresco, Taddeo Gaddi's group in Santa Croce, Orcagna's fresco (which he certainly did not use to any appreciable extent), Boccaccio's description, the old painting in Santa Maria del Fiore, Baldovinetti's model, Andrea dal Castagno's portrait, and probably various other sources. Precisely what model, source, or sources, influenced Michelino (and Baldovinetti) we do not know. The most plausible prototype now extant is the portrait by" Andrea dal Castagno. Various striking similarities — not only in the whole make up of each figure, but in several important details -I have already pointed out. + -1- * * Seventeen years after Giotto's portrait had been discovered — only to be almost immediately ruined by the restorer Marini — Dr. H. C. Barlow published in the Athenceum (July 4, 1857) a letter wherein * Dr. Ingo Krauss thinks that for the front face of his Dante Michelino drew upon the Naples bust. If this is true, this bronze must have been cast as early as 1464. See pp. 58-59 and 61-63, supra. t As Michelino did not let the tail hangover the right shoulder by chance, what was his intention ? Did he mean to represent Dante as one of those arronzinati cappuccetti whose descendants sent young Benvenuto Cellini to ' Coventry ' some fifty years later ? The arronzinati cappuccetti were so called because they wore their caps with the tail adjusted in a particular manner and (?) were zealous followers of Savonarola or of his sect. Speaking of the Florentine fashion of dressing, after 15 12, Varchi says that the becchetto (or tail) of the cappuccio (hood) was allowed to hang over the right shoulder or was wound round the neck &c. (' si ripiega in sulla spalla destra e bene spesso s'avvolge al collo,' &c. — Storia, ix. 47). Notwithstanding Varchi, this fashion appears to have been a distinguishing mark of the piagnoni (else Cellini's epithet would be pointless), and I may add that it probably arose before Savonarola had appeared upon the scene — namely, by 1465. Michelino's picture is full of symbols. X See chap. xvii. p. 172. 176 * • > ) ^^^^^SHB I'^^l ■ ■1/ ^^^^^Tc3^^^^iH|^^^^^^^H IBi m^^H ii w ^ ' " ^^^^^^^^^B S£ "*~!«mmF^^^^^^| 5< .■^- 4H *-f. "^^ ^ ' *?" ^^^H Imhhii HMlMHflflflHJl 1 ■.3 ■ ' "i ^ IHk 3^" 'JM 1 ^hb^ k 'V ^iBiu 1 — _,^HttM| |. ; '^li^^iS H hk ■ ''^1 1 'i Bf ■ ^CmB 1 ^ 1 PRP 1 ^^ft y^ '^^fl i§ ^j[^^ 'J ^^M Wm ,W'^ 1 B, .»» . - JjyJBWFv J ^^^1 ^B / '^ fi H^L.f^ MB[ jHwit jiB ^^^H ^B ^^BuS^.^^r'.'.^l ^H| <» :^^^^^ 11 Bhh H ^fl 1 |K| ;' ., i»tl-. ., ..,^^^B ^H ^^^^^ 1 ^H ^^^H|| p P '' '^'^ H ^^^1 i B 'N^B ^1 ^^^^1 g 1 ^^H K X tt. - t- 3 Q ■«• ,«,«« DOMENICO DI MICHELINO he mingles a just reproach with valuable information. ' It would seem,' he says, ' that green is a very odious colour in the eyes of Tuscan authorities : they make war upon it everywhere, not only in the Chapel of the Bargello, but also in the Duomo of Florence, a place of all places where one might expect it would be safe from harm ; but no, Dante must have no green about him — there must not even be the symbohc colour of hope — the green is ordered to be changed into blue, and very blue indeed this colour looks the same transforming hand effected the alteration in both places.' Thus it is clear that Michelino's portrait represented Dante in a costume containing red, green, and white, the symbolic colours chosen, as it seems, by Giotto when he painted Dante in the Palazzo del Podesta. The green was tinted with blue by Marini (about 1840), and possibly he made other alterations, though Michelino's portrait is on the whole one of those that have suffered least from the ravages of time and from the meddling bigotry or ignorance of those to whom every old effigy of Dante should have been especially dear.* ^ For more than three centuries English travellers have noticed on their way through Florence Michelino's portrait of Dante, and their remarks, which have been gathered by Mr. Paget Toynbee in his work called Dante in English Literature,-f tell us something about its history. The first is William Barker, who copied with some mistakes the inscription still to be seen along the bottom of Michelino's painting. This was about 1554. About 1660 Richard Lassels wrote down in his Voyage of Italy the following record : 'In the Cathedral of Florence ... you see the Statues of divers Saints who have been Arch-bishops of this Town ; and the TomSes of divers famous men ; as oiMarsilius Ficinus the Platonick Christian Philosopher: * An excellent engraving of Michelino's picture (not signed) is contained in an Album owned by the University of Pennsylvania, No. 858 D/U Kir. Dimensions • width 17 7 cent, by 13 4 height ; height of Dante figure 9 cent. Photographs may be had of various art dealers. A large coloured reproduction in the handsome and extremely accurate series called the Medici Prints was published by the Medici Society or JLondon in 191 o. -^ t In these two large volumes it seems as if Mr. Toynbee had allowed nothing to escape that concerns Dante's fame in Great Britain. Here once more I wish to acknowledge my obligations to this careful, learned, and ever-enlightening student of Dante. The quotations bearing on Michelino's picture can all be easily found by consulting Mr, Toynbee's index, s.v. ' Domenico di Michelino.' M lyj PORTRAITS OF DANTE of Dante the Florentine Poet, whose true Picture is yet to be seen here in a red gown. . . .' In 1 673 the naturalist John Ray noted in a book o£ Observations that besides Sir John Hawkwood's portrait in the Duomo one might also see ' a painted table hung up in memory of Dante, the famous Italian poet, who was native of this city, but lived in exile and was buried at Ravenna.' The next interesting record may be read in a work published by the portrait-painter Jonathan Richardson in 1722 : 'Florence. — The Dome. Sancta Maria del Fiore. . . . There are many Statues and paintings in this Church. I was particularly pleased with Dante's Picture done by Andr. Orgagna; he is reading, and walking in the Fields by his own House [?], a View oi Florence at a distance; extremely well preserv'd, and of a lively Colouring. I believe this is the most Authentic Portrait of that Poet, and has entirely the same Face as the drawing my Father has.' Orcagna continued to be named as the author of this painting until Gaye published the documents proving it to have been done by Michelino ; what drawing Richardson's father had is not known. Giotto's fresco was of course unknown to Richardson, who mentions only the work by Michelino and the Dante of RafFael's Parnassus. In Some Observations made in travelling through France, Italy, &c., in the years MDCC XX., MDCCXXI., and MDCCXXII. (London, 1730), that Edward Wright who has handed Dante down as a kleptomaniac uses words curiously like Richardson's, but Wright can be credited with having quoted the lines at the bottom of the portrait almost correctly and with having offered a pretty accurate translation : ' Florence. — In the church is likewise Dante's picture by Andrea Orgagna, walking in the fields and reading : with this epigraph, in lines far unequal to those they speak of. ^ui caelum cecinit, mediumq ; imumtj ; tribunal, Lustravitq ; animo cuncta poeta sua, Doctus adest Dantes, sua quern Florentia saepe Sensit consiliis ac pietate patrem Nil potuit tanto mors saeva nocere poetae, ^uem vivum virtus, carmen, imago facit. ■78 Behold the poet, who in lofty verse Heav'n, hell, and purgatory did rehearse; DOMENICO DI MICHELINO The learned Dante ! whose capacious soul Survey'd the universe, and knew the whole. To his own Florence he a father prov'd, Honour'd for counsel, for religion lov'd.' Death could not hurt so great a bard as he. Who lives in virtue, verse, and effigy.' \ This Latin epigraph has a feature worth noting : it begins with almost exactly the same words as the epigraph under the miniature o the Riccardian manuscript 1040 : here we read, ^ui caelum cecinit, etc , there we find, ^ui cectntt celos et qui stigiamque paludem. The den t ty of the first three words to chance ? Passerini thinks that in drawing this portrait Michelino must have had before his eyes in q.n?^ p Baldovinetti's model, but also the hnes of the fresco •ud e ^°''^ miniature just mentioned.* Let the reader /Wv^W f 7'! ?'"'' ^'..?^'^" '^^""'^^^ ^" ^^^ Observations on Italy andtts Inhabttants Written in French by two Swedish Gentlemen Translated tnto Engltsh by Thos. Nugent (1769) : ' Florence-One of the walls along the sides of the nafe of the Cathedrl exhibks the portraits of warriors, and that of Dante by Giotto [read AfheM which XeCT;^^ whose talents occasio'ned that^ne reflexioil whjch the poet has introduced in the eleventh canto of his Pur- O vana gloria dell' humane posse, &c. FlJ'^^'\^°"''^[v°^. ^^"'^ ^' ^" ^^'"^g^ ^hi<^h the republic of bn she'd' II ^Tl^f'^'^ ^f^ '' '^^ "^'^'^y °^-^ -ho'm it hai banished, and who died in exile. The decree even ordered, that out of the public money should be erected to him, in the cathedral etin luogo honoratoun marmoreo, et artijiciosamente sculto sepulchroconguel ^'-^"jesegmchelopotesserorendereornatissimoM,^^nL.om^^^^ prezios^Vram^t™ti^fu^^^^^^^^ Olschk^ Florence, 1903. ' Verao^ente t Note the controlling spell of Giotto's mere name ; cf. p. 153. 179 PORTRAITS OF DANTE able place, a marble tomb, of a fine sculpture, and with statues and emblems, so as to render it a very ornamental piece !" This we are informed of by Landini in his prolegomena on Dante's poem, where he strongly urges the execution of the decree in every point.' * In 1753 John Northall notes that near an equestrian picture of Sir John Hawkwood is that of ' Dante Alighieri, walking in the fields before his house, with a book in his hand.' And in 1796 Benjamin Hobhouse, in a note made some ten years earlier, says that ' On the [cathedral] walls is an indifferent, but very extraordinary picture of Dante, surrounded by the purgatory and hell, of which he sings in his poem.' In March 1789, Mariana Starke wrote from Florence as follows : ' Near the door of the Cathedral leading to the Via de' Servi is an antique portrait of Dante, the Father of Italian poetry, whose tomb, however, is at Ravenna, where he died in exile. This portrait is by Andrea Orcagna \sic\ ; and so highly do the Florentines venerate the memory of Dante, that the place where he often used to sit in the Piazza del Duomo is carefully marked by a white stone [the legendary Sasso di Dante^.^ The jottings of Forsyth (18 13), Tom Moore (18 19), Cadell (1820), and Matthews (1820) merely prove that the picture still hung in the Duomo at that time. In 1 832 it caused Thomas Roscoe to reflect that Dante was honoured by no other monument in his native city, and on June 25, 1823, Lady Blessington made the falla- cious observation that ' the same people who banished the original [Dante], were afterwards proud to possess this likeness of him.' The Florentines of 1823 were by no means the same people as their ancestors of 1302, or of 1322, but they had not yet shown their pride in Dante by raising any suitable monument in his honour, nor had they carefully preserved those which they already possessed. Orcagna's portrait (if such it is) had been forgotten, Gaddi's had been destroyed, Giotto's lay hidden under a coat of whitewash from which, after the endeavours of various Florentines had been officially thwarted, it was rescued at last by the officially hampered effiDrts of an American, an Englishman, and of a Piedmontese refugee who had lived in England (i84o).'f' * Landino. The first edition of his text and commentary appeared in 1481. See Ricci, V Ultimo Rifugioy p. 332 and Landino on Inferno xxvii. 38. See also supra, p. 1 1, note *. t Wilde, Kirkup, and Aubrey Bezzi. See Index. 180 DOMENICO DI MICHELINO In 1842 Sir Francis Palgrave printed the following note in Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy: — 'Florence. — Near the side entrance door of the Cathedral, on the north wall, is the portrait of Dante, generally, but erroneously, attributed to Orcagna.* The poet is represented in a long red robe, the coun- tenance grave and beautiful, the head crowned with laurel : in features and costume it seems the pattern of the generally adopted idea of Dante, familiarised to us by Flaxman's designs. On the right hand are Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, briefly symbolised in small groups; on the left is Florence as enclosed within its turreted circle of walls.' As Palgrave does not mention Giotto's fresco, this note was probably made before July 1840. Lord Vernon's Album (volume iii. of his edition of the Inferno) reveals that Michelino's picture was still hanging in 1865 on the north wall, about the middle of the nave (where it may be seen now).-!* Thus for nearly four and a half centuries Michelino's Dante has been one of the sights of Florence, and during most of its recorded history has been attributed to Orcagna and even to Giotto — another example of the value of j/y^and of /r^dV/Zow as criteria for determin- ing authorship ! Of the painter Domenico di Michelino nothing is at present known, except that we owe to him this portrait of Dante. Vasari says that Michelino was a disciple of Frate Giovanni da Fiesole (Fra Angelico, 1 387-1455), that he painted an altar panel for San Zanobi, ' and many other paintings,' but Vasari does not mention Michelino's Dante, nor does he appear to have known any- thing about Michelino's life. * Gaye's documentary evidence may have been seen by Palgrave. See the Carteggio inedito, vol. ii. (1840), w^ith the author's observations (pp. vi.-vii.). t In La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata, a handsome volume published at Florence in 1820, among other beautiful architectural drawings, occurs a good line reproduction of Michelino's portrait {Tavola xxvii., Vine. Gozzini dis. Paolo Lasinio inc.'), about 8 inches high by 10 v/ide. The author says: 'Vogliamo terminare I'illustrazione del'a nostra Metropolitana, col descrivere e pubblicare un' antica Pittura la quale trovasi appesa alia parete interna della chiesa accanto alia seconda porta a mano sinistra. Rappresenta essa Dante Alighieri in toga rossa, vestito alia civile e coronato di Lauro, con una veduta della citta di Firenze,' &c. To judge by the documents published in Cesare Guasti's Santa Maria del Fiore, 1887, no Dante picture was to be seen in Santa Maria del Fiore between 1334 and July 24, 1 42 1, at which date the documents end. 181 XIX THE ORIGINAL OF RAFFAEL MORGHEN'S DANTE Thomas Carlyle's impression of Dante's physiognomy. The original of Morghen's Dante ' long since lost.' Its character recalls the portrait by Michelino. G. B. Dei's Dante and F. Allegrini's engraving of it. The Tofanelli-Morghen portrait. Origin, age, and character of the Yale Dante. Its known history. Notes on Morghen and Tofanelli TWO months before Giotto's portrait of Dante emerged from the coatings of whitewash under which it had lain hidden for more than ten generations, Thomas Carlyle delivered the following words in his lecture on ' The Hero as Poet,' May 1 2, 1 840 — he is speaking of Dante : ' It is five centuries since he ceased writing and living here. After all commentaries, the Book itself is mainly what we know of him. The Book ; — and one might add that portrait commonly attributed to Giotto, which, looking on it, you cannot help inclining to think genuine, whoever did it [italics mine]. To me it is a most touching face ; perhaps of all faces that I know, the most so. Lonely there, painted as on vacancy, with the simple laurel wound round it ; the deathless sorrow and pain, the known victory which is also deathless ; — significant of the whole history of Dante ! I think it is the mournfulest face that was ever painted from reality [.?] ; an altogether tragic, heart-affecting face. There is in it, as foundation of it, the softness, tenderness, gentle affection as of a child ; but all this is as if congealed into sharp contradiction, into abnegation, isolation, proud hopeless pain. A soft ethereal soul looking-out so stern, implacable, grim-trenchant, as from imprisonment of thick-ribbed ice ! Withal it is a silent pain too, a silent scornful one : the lip is curled in a kind of godlike disdain of the thing that is eating-out his heart, — as if it were withal a mean insignificant thing, as if he whom it had power to torture and strangle were stronger than it. The face of one wholly in protest, and lifelong 182 THE YALE DANTE unsurrendering battle, against the world. Affection all converted into indignation : an implacable indignation ; slow, equable, silent, like that of a god ! The eye too, it looks-out as if in a kind oi surprise, a kind of inquiry. Why was the world of such a sort ? This is Dante : so he looks, this " voice of ten silent centuries," and sings us " his mystic, unfathomable song." '* The work which occasioned this lyrical outburst — need it be said ? — was not Giotto's portrait, but presumably an engraving made not later than 1 795 by Raffael Mprghen-f- from a painting or drawing prepared for him by Stefano Tofanelli, who used as his model an oil painting on wood, and this portrait, 'which has long since been lost,'.| is now preserved, with many other precious examples of old Italian painting, in the Art Gallery of Yale University. It is an idealised portrait, about life-size, closely resembling in type the work by Domenico di Michelino. The features of the face are approxi- mately the same in their proportions and in their modelling ; the two faces are seen at nearly the same angle, though one looks to the right, the other to the left ; they have the same style of cap (though one is tailless) and the same kind of wreath ; they have the same eartabs, and each figure wears a coat entirely red, though pink would be a more accurate word to apply to the ignoto's portrait. Finally, each figure has a book, which Michelino's Dante holds with the letters outward. Tofanelli, or Morghen, modernised by closing the book ; otherwise there is no essential difference between thedraw- * Giotto's fresco, with Dante, was discovered July 21,1 840. See chap. ix. The text here used stands as in the critical edition by Archibald Mac-Mechan, Boston, 1901. t My authority is Mr. Paget Toynbee. See also Mr. F. N. Scott's interesting letter in the Nation, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1903, pp. 502-3. 'The Tofanelli [i.e. the Tofanelli-Morghen] engraving,' writes Mr. Scott, 'agrees in most respects withCarlyle's description. The simple laurel wreath is wound about the head. In the face one may see, if not exactly the traits depicted by Carlyle, at least what might have suggested such traits to a man of genius whose imagination was at white heat. Though it is supposed to derive from a painting by Tommaso Gentili, the Tofanelli portrait is not a work of great art. To at least one person [to at least two] the face is somewhat weazened, and seems on the verge of a whimper. It would be absurd to compare it for an instant with such awork as the Raphael portrait [I suppose Mr. Scott means that in the Parnassus] in the Vatican, to which Carlyle's description bears a close resemblance. But if Carlyle actually made use of Tofanelli's [i.e. Morghen's] engraving, this would not be the first time that genius has been touched to great issues by a minor work of art.' X See Dr. T, W. Koch's Hand-list, Ithaca, 1900, p. 5 (' 17 — Stefano Tofanelli. — Idealised portrait of Dante, wearing a wreath. Engraved by Raphael Morghen, Florence, 1795, after the original painting which has long since been lost '). 183 PORTRAITS OF DANTE ing of Morghen's copper plate and the original from which it was derived through Tofanelli's copy (now lost ?) ; and Tofanelli must have copied the Yale Dante, or another portrait almost exactly like it. Paur notwithstanding,* that portrait cannot have been an oil painting numbered 1207 and said by Paur to be in the room next to the Tribuna at the Uffizi in Florence. According to the label under it, this alleged original was once owned by the antiquary Giovanni Battista Dei and came to the Uffizi about 1750 (in reality after 1761). There it was put among small -j^ works attributed to the Tuscans and was declared to be a work of Perugino's school ; Paur thought that it far more probably belonged to the second half of the sixteenth century. In 1766, Giuseppe Allegrini published an engraving I of this work in vol. i. of his &r/i? di Ritratti d' Uomini Illustri Toscani, where it precedes a brief inaccurate life of Dante and has artistic comrades in unauthentic portraits of various other ancient celebrities, such as Brunetto Latini and Giotto. The engraving is only a little bit smaller than the painting. Neither shows hands or book ; furthermore the painting has two or three less laurel leaves than the engraving, though the engraving has only seventeen as against eighteen in the Yale portrait and twenty-one in Morghen's copy. The features of the Uffizi painting are said by Paur to have been artistically refined in AUegrini's en- graving, although pose and general expression are the same. Paur concludes that the Tofanelli-Morghen Dante is nothing but an adaptation [Nachbildung) of the oil painting in the Uffizi, with the body finished further down ; and with an idealising of the features. Thus, thinks Paur, the riddle is solved. It seems we now have a more accurate solution. The Yale Dante is either an extraordinarily clever copy of some old portrait, or it is itself old. It bears, however, various marks of - antiquity, and none of modern imitation or fraud. It is painted on a wooden panel which is evidently not modern, though it shows no cracks. As for colouring, the background, undergarment, and ear- tabs are now a very dark, ' invisible,' or non-committal green. The * In Jahrbuch der Deutschen Dante-Geselhchaft, vol. iii. (1871) pp. 529-30. t Paur gives its dimensions as follows : height, 25 cent. ; breadth, 17.3 — consider- ably under life size. % Under the engraving we read : 'Cavato da un quadro antico appresso il Sig". Gio. Batt'a Dei Antiquario di S. M. I. Gius. Zocchi del. Franc. Allegrini sc. 1761.' 184 ^^^^^^^^■^^■^ ^B^ ^^^^Hp^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^g H n < X H ■ • r •• • •' • THE YALE DANTE outer garment, which is sleeveless, and the cap were formerly more or less crimson (sanguigno), but they are now perceptibly faded and some portions are merely a dull pinkish white. These colours pro- duce the same effect of mellow maturity as characterises the works of Titian, for instance, or of painters belonging to an even earlier time. Furthermore — but here we tread on very unsafe ground — it might be hung among a dozen other paintings known to have been executed between, say, 1470 and 1600 without arousing the suspicion that it possibly belonged to a considerably later epoch. The lettering over it is another, though not trustworthy, indication of old age — DANTE ALIGIER CITTADIN FIORE[N]TINO POETA aCVTISSIMO ET DIVINO These letters were not added long after the work was done, but immediately. However, they shed no light on the true date : Dante had been called the Divino Poeta as early as 148 1 * ; Aligier, for the now firmly established Alighier or, rather, Alighieri, may have been employed even by an eighteenth-century painter, and the shape of the letters would not enable one to date them within eight centuries. Again, our only external evidence as to the history of this portrait is that it was bought by Mr. Jarves, who founded the Jarves collection, at Florence in 1864, soon after which year it was taken to America and has ever since hung in the gallery at Yale, though, so far as I am aware, no one has hitherto recognised in it the original of Raffael Morghen's well-known engraving of Dante. Were I to venture a guess, it would be that this painting is a slightly revised and simplified copy of the conspicuous portrait by Domenico di Michelino (1465), and that it was executed not long, probably not a hundred years, after that date. It cannot be regarded as authori- tative in any sense ; but it is interesting because it is the source of an engraving by a famous engraver, and because it is the oldest life-size portrait of Dante in the New World, so far as is known. -f" * The phrase 'poeta divino' is said by O. Zenatti to occur in the Riccardian MS. 1029, dated 1472 ; 'divino poeta' is believed to occur first in Landino's first edition 148 1 ; Coluccio Salutati calls Dante ' divinum prorsus virum ' in a letter of August i6, 1374. (For this note I am indebted to Dr. E. H. Wilkins of Harvard University.) t RafFael Morghen's engraving appears (probably for the first time) in a handsome edition of the Divina Commedia in three volumes, dated Parma Nel Regal Palazzo MDCCXCf^ cq" Tipi Bondoniani, It serves as a frontispiece to the first volume. 185 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Under it we read: Stefano Tofanelli delined Raffaello M or ghen incise in Firenze. Here the engraving measures from the tip of the lowest finger to the top of the forehead 16.5 cent. Probably the same plate was used for the edition of the Commedia published at Pisa in 1 804. Mr. Halsey's statement (' Engraved at Florence, 1 803 ') is therefore incorrect as far as the date is concerned. See Raphael Morghen's Engraved IVorks, wherein Mr. Halsey enumerates various forms of this engraving. But the error is really due to Palmerini, Morghen's contemporary and biographer. Palmerini's Life of Morghen appeared first in 1820 (3d ed. 1824). At p. 33 Palmerini says that towards the end of 1803, to fulfil a promise made to Dr. Giovanni Rosini, 'P. Professore di eloquenza Italiana nell' Universiti di Pisa, [Morghen] intaglio il Ritratto di Dante Alighieri dal disegno del Tofanelli, che unitamente a quelli del Petrarca, Tasso, ed Ariosto, . . . dovea servire per I'edizione magnifica in foglio di questi quattro padri della lingua e della poesia italiana, fatta in Pisa con la direzione letteraria del soprain- dicato Professore.' See Opere d" Intaglio del Cav. Raffaello Morghen raccolte ed illustrate da Niccolh Palmerini. In its various forms Morghen's engraving differs from the Yale Dante in several particulars : The engraving shows a slightly different and, to my mind, less significant and less interesting expression. In the engraving the laurel wreath has 21 leaves, in the painting 18. The engraving more or less effaces the Dantesque curve of the nose, and shows a hand holding a closed book. There is no inscription over the engraving, but the words 'Stefano Tofanelli delineo' and ' Raffeello Morghen incise in Firenze ' are put under it, with ' Dante Alighieri.' Tofanelli was born in 1755 ; he often worked for Morghen. Morghen was born at Portici, near Naples in June, 1761 ; about 1795 Ferdinand III. invited him to Florence where he died in April 1833. For brief lives of both see the Neues Allgemeines Kiinstlerlexiion, Munich. Morghen left a correspondence not generally known and, as Prof. Pio Rajna wrote to me (April 7, 191 1), 'If one could see the letters written by Morghen in 1795, it is not unlikely that one might come upon something relative to the portrait of Dante. I argue this,' continues Prof. Rajna, ' from finding that of works executed or under way Morghen discourses in the only letter on which I have set my eyes — that of 1814, to General Manfredini, his patron. This was printed, with a few others by " Illustrious Italians," in a small work per Nozze, issued in 1879 at Venice. Others must have assuredly seen the light. Where ? It would require time to ferret them out.' Were some clear statement by Morghen as to the primary source of his Dante to be found, possibly my argument for the Yale Dante might be overthrown ; considering the possibilities, I feel now that the assertions on pp. 183-4 are too positive, even though I believe them to be right. Signor P. N. Ferri, Curator of the Print Room at the Uffizi (who, I think, had not seen the Yale Dante), told Prof. Rajna that he believed the Uffizi portrait, once attributed to Alessandro Allori (i 536-1607), now assigned to the 'Tuscan School of the 17th C.,' to be the source of Morghen's engraving. The same gallery has another portrait of Dante by Cristoforo Papi (called L'Altissimo), who flourished about 1560. 186 w c A -.y- INFERNO XXVI. V W 11 \U I % 1 Kn;;v:^^ L . Mj W^^^ y/. *^^ •^ 1 1 f^ '■- rURGATORIO XVIII. PARADISO XXIII. XX SANDRO BOTTICELLI, THE LANDING COMMEDIA OF 148 1, AND LUCA SIGNORELLI'S DANTE IN THE DUOMO AT ORVIETO Botticelli's illustrations. Botticelli a student of Dante ; said to have painted and illustrated a Dante on parchment for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici . The general character of Botticelli's Dante illustrations. Diversity of types. Only ten of Botticelli's portraits, or thereabouts, can be called Dantesque. The sources. Botticelli at his best approaches Giotto and Michelino. Botticelli and Boccaccio. Botticelli and Orcagna. Dante in the Commedia of 1481. Signorelli's Dante — the individual portrait and the tondi at Orvieto NOT long before 1481, if Lippmann is right, Sandro Botticelli set to work upon a series of illustrations for the Dtvina Commedia which he is supposed to have completed shortly after his return from Rome. ' Being a person of subtle learning,' says Vasari, ' he composed a commentary on part of Dante, illustrated the Inferno, and had it printed. Upon this work he spent a great deal of time, and as he neglected his ordinary pursuits, he became involved in no end of complications.' * Whether this story is entirely true or not, it is certain that Botticelli studied the Commedia minutely ; to this his illustrations bear witness, even though very few of them have anything of the grandeur or of the impassioned earnestness and dramatic intensity of Dante's poem. According to an old writer whose name is unknown, Botticelli executed this work for a son of Pier Francesco de' Medici (born about 1456) : ' He painted and illustrated a Dante on parchment for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici ; it was accounted a most marvellous work.'-f- The whole series, which was once in the * See Milanesi's Vasari, vol. iii., p. 317. There exists no evidence that Botticelli ever printed such a book. t Ibid., note 3. 187 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Duke of Hamilton's collection, but was acquired by the Berlin Museum in 1882, consists, says Lippmann, 'of eighty-eight sheets of parchment, eighty-five of which are illustrated. They average about twelve inches in height by fourteen in width, and were bound together in boards, apparently in the eighteenth century, when the book was also furnished with an index by one Claudio Molini, an Italian bookseller in Paris. ' Soon after the acquisition of the volume by the Berlin Museum, it was discovered that there were eight drawings belonging to the same series in the Vatican Library, on seven sheets of parchment.' For various good reasons, which he gives at length,* Lippmann attributes these illustrations to Botticelli and includes them in his book, so that in all we have more than ninety drawings, presumably by Botticelli, devoted to the Commedia, and in nearly every one appears a portrait of Dante. ' The illuminated drawings in the Inferno,' thinks Lippmann, ' shew that it was first proposed to colour the illustrations, and that the attempt was made, perhaps at the wish of the patron. It was then, no doubt, decided that colouring was unsuitable, and the idea was abandoned. The master's final intention was, probably, to give his drawings their present character, that of a cycle of artistic sketches. ' A further question has been raised as to whether Botticelli himself coloured the sheets, or whether this was done by some professional illuminator. The works of the Italian miniaturists of that period are distinguished by great delicacy of execution and brilliance of tone. But in the Dante drawings the colour is dull and sombre, the general effect unpleasant and wanting in harmony. These very defects point to the conclusion, that Botticelli himself * See Zeichnungen von Sandra Botticelli %u Dante's Goettlicher Komcedie nach den Originalen im Kupferstichkabinet zu Berlin, &c., with an Erkldrende Beschreibung, Berlin, 1884-1887. This whole 'Explanatory Description' should be read ; the drawings are accurately reproduced in approximately their original size. The English version, which is much less elaborate, bears this title : Drawings by Sandro Botticelli for Dante'' s Divina Commedia. Reduced facsimiles ajier the originals in the Royal Museum, Berlin, and in the Vatican Library. With an Introduction and Commentary by F. Lipp- mann, London, 1896. (See especially pp. 13 ff.) See also L. Volkmann, Iconografia Dantesca, pp. 53-59, and Herbert P. Home, Alessandro Filipepi, commonly called Sandro Botticelli, &c., London, 1908, especially pp. 189-256. The scenes here reproduced were photographed for this book by Mr. Gustav Schwarz, Court Photographer, Berlin. I wish here to thank Dr. E. Bock for answering various inquiries as to Botticelli's drawings, and for other courtesies. 188 I'ARADISO V. »• »*« • • * e _• •1 •-. • BOTTICELLI'S DANTE laid on the colours. Unversed in the technique of painting upon parchment, he was unable to obtain a satisfactory result with his materials. A practised miniaturist would have handled them differently, and no doubt more successfully.' Botticelli portrayed, not one Dante, varying only in his momen- tary expressions and attitudes, but several Dantes, differing in age and in features which cannot be altered without loss of identity. Some are so small, or posed in such a manner, or so ineffectively drawn, that their features cannot be distinguished ; others leave us in doubt — O me, Agnel, come ti mutt 1 In a word, any good eye can see that Botticelli was not consistent in portraying Dante. In many of these scenes the Poet is represented by figures whose unity hardly comprises more than their beardlessness and a great similarity of dress. They show us almost any man — un homme quelconque. Change the costume a little, and these mere figure-heads might easily be mistaken for some other personage among the scores of men who have some part, great or small, among Botticelli's actors in Dante's epic drama. Others are not only remote from any reasonable Dante type, but they closely resemble some of the stock figures to be seen in pictures wherein Botticelli had no intention to portray Dante. The Dante in the illustration for Inferno xviii. is not less fantastic than the Virgil who stands at his side. In at least ten scenes, how- ever, the artist has produced a pretty consistent type in which we recognise features engraved in the memory by older and more authoritative works. The following illustrations seem to me to contain the most accurate portraits : (i) Inferno i. (middle figure), (2) Inferno xxvi. (whole figure), (3) Purgatorio ii., (4) Purgatorio xviii. (profile), (5) Purgatorio xix. (bowed profile), (6) Purgatorio xxviii. (left side, profile ; note the slightly aquiline nose), (7) Paradiso ii., (8) Paradiso iii. (outer figure, standing beside a Beatrice whom Botticelli alone could have created), (9) Paradiso v., (10) Paradiso xxviii. Of these ten figures, all but number 3 may, I think, be properly characterised as Dantesque. And if they are Dantesquc, the reason is that Botticelli had studied older portraits of Dante. What were his sources ? Certainly not the first illustrated edition of the Commedia ; nor is it likely that he drew upon any of the illuminated MSS. at present known, though he may have seen the 189 PORTRAITS OF DANTE splendid codex once owned by Duke Frederick of Urbino, now preserved at the Vatican, or others like it ; but we know that Botticelli could have got his start, his inspiration, enough lines to serve his purpose, in various portraits then existing in or near Florence. Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, one of the Orcagnas (?), Andrea dal Castagno, and Domenico di Michelino had painted Dante in conspicuous places, and Botticelli must have seen three of their por- traits scores of times ; but that he used any one of them is not obvious. His own presentments of Dante differ so much as to prove that if he could not consistently copy himself, he could not consistently have copied other painters. Some few of his drawings in which the Dante type is discernible differ more from the four or five in which it is clearly apparent than these latter differ, for instance, from Giotto's Dante. Botticelli's nearest approaches to Giotto show a Dante between thirty-five and forty-five years old, with the aquiline nose, firm lips, and prominent chin [see, for example, Paradiso ii., iii., and xxviii.) ; the headdress is more like that adopted by - Michelino, and in a few cases is adorned with a laurel wreath — a feature found in nearly all the later portraits. In a few of his drawings Botticelli emphasised the lower lip, making it droop or protrude {see, for instance. Inferno i., Paradiso ii., iii., iv., and especially Paradiso xxviii.) ; this detail he may have derived from- Boccaccio. The inclination to walk with something of a stoop — a feature plainly shown by Giotto and noticed by Boccaccio — is apparent in Botticelli only here and there (for example, Paradiso iii.). It may not be too far-fetched an observation if, finally, I call attention to the general similarity between the upgazing Dante in the left of Botticelli's illustration to Purgatorio xxiv. and the figure supposed to be Dante in the fresco by Andrea or Nardo Orcagna. Noting an affinity of style, Lippmann crosses over from Botti- celli's drawings to the plates in the edition of the C ommedia ^MhM^htd for Cristoforo Landino in 148 1 . ' The affinity between these plates and Botticelli's drawings,' writes Lippmann, 'is unmistakable.'* This affinity is not that of equal rivals ; for, as Mr. A. W. Pollard says, ' the plates in the 148 1 edition are at best rather unintelli- gent versions of excerpts from Botticelli's designs.'-f* * 5^^ Lippmann, op. cit., English edition, pp. 20-22. t See Cornell Dante Catalogue, vol. i. p. 4, and the works there cited ; also F. X. Kraus, Dante, Sec, p. 193. 190 ■ .■ ' - ■ ,>^ ^'■^ -r'^ :^-v.^v^> ^-^ c^^X y rV t$; -5>r M: (? i^ T^^' . s ^ =5 «r,e ■» •« THE LANDING COMMEDIA One feature of this edition particularly concerns us; that is the space which the printer (Nicolaus Lorenz) left to be filled by what- ever miniaturist any purchaser of this book might choose to employ. This space, measuring regularly about 7.2 centimetres in height by 6.5 in breadth, occurs at the upper left hand corner of the page on which the Inferno begins. On the right or outer side of it, in two vertical strings, are the letters [N]EL ME ZO DEL CA MI NO DI NO ST RA VI TA ; right below it comes the rest of the text. Here the artist was expected to design a large initial N, and pos- sibly to fill the N with a little portrait. One particularly splendid specimen shows a profile view. The poet is seen almost as if one were looking at him through a window. His form is visible to the waist. He is dressed in the gown so often seen, and wears a cap resembling that in Michelino's portrait and like that crowned with laurel. He is holding a literally radiant book opened outward. The type portrayed by this particular artist combines something of Boccaccio's description with a good deal of Giotto's fresco. Its main interest for us lies in the resemblance of certain features to corresponding features in the portrait by Signorelli. This copy,* printed on parchment, was presented to the Florentine Republic by Cristoforo Landino in or about 1481, and is now preserved at the Magliabechiana in Florence. -f- Another copy, at Harvard University, shows a gold N lacking the diagonal bar ; for this handsome initial also contains a portrait of Dante. On its inner side the pink frame on which this initial rests touches at both its outer corners a superb floral design which begins at the top of the page and falls gracefully to a point 26.5 centimetres beneath. About midway in this pendant is a kite-shaped gold shield with nine points bearing seven red balls — emblems of the Medici. On the pale blue background of the big initial, just to the right of this shield, is a portrait of Dante visible to the waist and showing the front face and left cheek. The poet is dressed in a scarlet gown with dull purple fur trimmings round the wrists of his pinkish sleeves which pass through slits in the gown, and the collar is of the same kind of fur. A bit of under- garment, seen beneath the right sleeve, is green, and green also is the book which the poet is holding in his left hand and to which * See F. X. Kraus, Z)fl«r^, &c., p. 193. 1200 copies were printed. Ihid.^ p. 519. t Colomb de Batines, Bibliografia Dantesca, pp. 42-43. 191 PORTRAITS OF DANTE he is pointing with his right. On the cap is a green wreath. The face is slightly raised as if to answer some tall inquirer's question as to the book. The type is vague, but recalls Michelino's portrait, though the physiognomy is less skilfully drawn and less interesting. Not from the Harvard specimen, which offers an apparently isolated type, but from the miniature in the parchment copy which Landino presented to Florence,* we may turn to a portrait at Orvieto. From the archives preserved there we learn that when the authorities of the Cathedral found Pietro Perugino unwilling or unable, to complete his decorations in the Cappella Nuova, or Chapel of St. Brizio, they turned to Luca Signorelli, otherwise known as Luca di Cortona, ' a painter of great renown in all Italy ' — Lucas de Cortona famosissimus pictor in tota Italia. By April 5, 1499, Luca had inspected the chapel and had expressed his willingness to finish it for 1 Bo-f- ducats. He worked with wonderful speed ; for between May 25 and November 25 he had completed half the vault, follow- ing a design left by Fra Angelico in 1447. For the other half (he was to do the whole) designs were lacking ; but some subjects were supplied by theologians, and these Luca developed, relying for the creation of others upon his own knowledge and imagination. His work won early approval, and he was soon commissioned to do the whole chapel according to aldesign presented, his pay to be 600 ducats. Within two years his paintings were done, and he had embellished the Cathedral with several masterpieces of portraiture and dramatic representation. More than once the Cathedral authorities stipulated that Signo- relli should do the principal work with his own hands, and the parts that he alone should execute are generally specified ; neverthe- less the archives themselves show how rash it is to declare Signo- relli without question the author of the Dante portrait at Orvieto.J * Though Colomb de Batines describes some thirty or more specimens of this edition he has little to say about portraits. Research would probably bring several to light, but whether one or two might turn out to be copies of Gaddi's or of any other more or less authoritative painting now lost is hard to say. f ^ee Luigi Fumi, // Duomo di Orvieto^ Rome, 1891, p. 374. This admirable book contains nearly everything we need to know about Signorelli's activity at Orvieto. See especially pp. 370-7 and, for documents, pp. 406-IO. J Doc. clvi. (April 5, 1499) • 'Item quod teneatur dictus magister Lucas et sic promisit pingere manu propria omnes figuras fiendas in dictis voltis, et maxime facies et omnia membra figurarum omnium a medio figure supra ; . . .' (Fumi, p. 407). 192 J , 3 , ■», ? > 1 3 > > J > 1 D^NTE, AFFER LUCA SIGNORF.LLI (Oyvieto : The Duomo. Fresco) SIGNORELLI'S DANTE That he painted that picture in which we see the poet studying two books in an open window is highly probable, both because it is not obviously different in style from the larger and more pretentious decorations (of which there need be less doubt), and because it seems to be comprised in the specifications. But nowhere in the archives is Dante mentioned, nor is there even a vague allusion to illustration (of his works. If the individual portrait can at most only be ascribed to Signo- relli, what shall we say of the eleven tondi^ or round frames, in which various scenes from the Purgatorio are portrayed ? In these Dante figures some twenty times, for here the painter, or painters, followed the medieval custom of depicting various consecutive episodes in a single unit of space ; but not one of these Dantes tallies with the type seen in the individual portrait, though they agree fairly well among themselves. This does not absolutely preclude Signorelli from being their author, but it does arouse grave doubt.* The tondi, how- ever, need not delay us : dress any one of these illustrative present- ments of the poet in ordinary garb, avoid tell-tale surroundings, and you will have no longer Dante, but merely a lay figure whom no good judge would ever have taken for Dante. Botticelli at his best is far truer to the type established by Giotto. But the individual portrait, convincingly ascribed to Signorelli, reveals a closer acquaintance with credible tradition. Notwithstanding its obvious inferiority to various other portraits (for instance, his own) which Signorelli painted in this same chapel — an inferiority due to its cruder anatomy and, perhaps, to damage or 'restoration ' — this figure is by no means a negligible item amid the earlier attempts to depict Dante. What source Signorelli used is not known. Possibly he had seen, or he may even have copied, the miniature in the particular copy of the 1 48 1 Commedia which Cristoforo Landino gave to the Floren- tine Republic. The headdresses and wreaths are substantially alike, the profiles are similar, especially as to the nose, mouth, and chin ; Doc. clx. (April 23, 1500), 'Imprimis proposuit picturam residui capelle nove pingende . . .' &c. Doc. clxi. (April 27, 1500) : ' Item che decto lavoro esso mastro Luca sia tenuto et debia fare et pegnere de sua mano, maxime le figure belle et honor ate conrespondenie alle figure della volta ad judicio de ogne bono maestro [italics mine].' Fumi, p. 409. * Cf. ¥ . X. Kraus, Luca Signorelli's Illustrationen zu Dante's Divina Commedia Freiburg, i.-B., 1892, with explanatory text. Kraus recognises the possibility that it may have been Girolamo Genga who painted the tondi. (See op. cit., p. 30). N 193 PORTRAITS OF DANTE and, finally, each figure is represented sitting in a window, or in an opening which may pass as such ; yet this last-named feature was perhaps common to all analogous copies of the 1481 Commedia. To Pietro Lombardi's low-relief at Ravenna (1483) Signorelli's Dante bears a resemblance which seems at least worth noting, Signorelli's Dante, if he was its author, was reproduced in 1887 by the Arundel Society, whose print reproduces the predominant colours of the original — purple set off by a green laurel wreath. The reproduction offered in this book, having been photographed direct from the original at Orvieto, gives the original tones more accurately, bringing out the yellow somewhat better and deepening the purple, showing also to what degree the original painting has withstood the wear of time. Thus seen, this portrait loses some of the ugly features visible in most of the reproductions, and though its value as a record of Dante's countenance is null, it marks a stage in our journey from Giotto to Raffael, from the first to the last worthy attempt, until the nineteenth century, to commemorate Dante's greatness by a visible tribute, / 194 ii'^n-U'^U'^'''' • • • •• • • . ••• • •-* XXI RAFFAEL'S DANTE Why the biographies of Raffael are bulky. Raftael almost as shadowy a figure as Giotto. Raffael at Florence. He goes to Rome. The Stanze. His portraits of old and modern celebrities. The Camera della Segnatura a Hall of Fame and aPantheon. Raffael's youthfulness ; his education; his counsellors ; his venera- tion of Dante. Dante in the Disputa. Dante in the Parnassus. The poetic band. Dante on Parnassus and Dante amongthe great spirits in his ownvision. Raffael's source alleged to have been the Torrigiani mask. His possible acquaint- ance with the Naples bust. Raffael's significant colours. The Disputa and Giotto's Paradise in the Maddalena Chapel. The probable intention of Raffael in portraying Dante, and the three Raffael Dante types. The Albertina Dante and other preliminary sketches. Raffael's three portraits the product of learning as well as of artistic skill. Their historical value is wholly subordinate to that of the portrait by Giotto. Miscellaneous notes on Raffael and other painters, &c THE chief lives of Raffael are bulky not because they tell us much that can be trusted about Raffael himself, but because they describe and criticise his works, seeking to trace their origin, to interpret their meaning, and to rank them justly among other paintings of those days, or to show how they are related to the culture of the Renaissance. Of Raffael's personality, of his education, of the books he read, of the men who taught or advised him, of his comings and goings, of the precise dates of most of his works, of his character and genius, except in so far as these may be surmised from his artistic creations, almost nothing is positively known. Raffael is almost as shadowy a figure as Giotto, and if we were to leave out all esthetic considerations, all conjectures, and abide strictly by documentary evidence, his whole life would have to be limited to a few fragments which would hardly fill four pages of the most admired biographies. We do not even know when he first went to Florence, though the date generally given is 1 504.* What seems * See Anton Springer, Raffael und Michelangelo, Leipzig, 1 895, vol. i. pp. 59, 309- 310, 328. This writer says : ' Nicht die Kargheit der Nachrichten allein liber PORTRAITS OF DANTE sure is that he was painting there in April 1 508, but that his influence was not very great ; for had it been, he would hardly have found it necessary to ask Simone Ciarla to get him a letter of recommendation to the Gonfaloniere of Florence.* If the letter to Francesco Francia is genuine, by September 1 508, RafFael was busy in Rome. Between this date, approximately, and 1520 he was at work in the Vatican, and there he executed various great frescoes, two of which contain portraits of Dante. Whatever may be the significance of the titles by which the chief of these magnificent pictures are known, we see here celebrities of Raffael's time and of earlier epochs, back to remote antiquity. Among those named by Vasari,'!' are Diogenes, Aristotle, Plato (in the Scuola d'Jtene), and with them Frederick II., Duke of Mantua, ' who was then at Rome,' also a figure ' said to be the architect Bramante,' and Raffael himself To these we may safely add Socrates, portrayed as we see him in ancient busts — good evidence that Raffael cared some- thing for history, that he did not devise his bygone celebrities purely out of his imagination. In the Parnasso Vasari sees Ovid, Virgil, Ennius, TibuUus, Catullus, Propertius and Homer, the Nine Muses, ' la dotta Safo, et il divinissimo Dante, il leggiadro Petrarca e lo amoroso Boccaccio, che vivi vivi sono,' who are truly alive. In the Disputa he mentions the four doctors of the church, Dominic, St. Francis, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Nicolo de Lira, Dante, Fra Girolamo Savonarola da Ferrara, and ' all the Christian theologians, and no end of portraits made from life ' [ed infiniti ritratti di naturale). But Dante, be it noted, is the only identifiable figure whom Raffael chose to introduce twice.:]: Dante might not have been so honoured under the rule of Boniface. The Camera della Segnatura is both a Hall of Fame and a Pan- theon. Here the great men of the earth are mingled with the Raffael's ausseres Leben hat bewirkt, dass alle neueren biographischen Arbeiten aberwiegend auf die Schilderung seiner Werke sich einschranken. Seit jeher haben diese den grosseren Reiz geilbt.' What documents there are Springer gives ; but see also Passavant, vol. i. pp. 71, 77, 91, and Quatremere de Quincy, Histoire de la vie. Sec, Paris, 1833, p. 430. On Raffael's five (?) letters see Springer, vol. i. p. 310. * Springer, vol. i. pp. 340-1. (This letter ends with the date April 2i, 1508, and with the signature * El vostro Raphaello dipintore in Fiorenza.') t Milanesi's Vasari, vol. vi. pp. 330 ff. % Kraus, however, affirms that Virgil figures in the Scuola ffAtene. See his Dante, &c., pp. 658-9. 196 » ' 1 » s > : SEPIA SKETCH BY RAFFAEI.. (Alhet-tina Library, Vienna) RAFFAEL'S DANTE inhabitants of Heaven, and the noblest gifts of the mind are symbo- lised in representatives whose glory is the light they have shed upon the paths of the arts and of science. Every scene contains some tribute to the higher refining powers of genius, and the whole is like an apotheosis of civilisation. We of four hundred years later might wish that Raffael had made in some cases a very different choice ot heroes to figure in this Pantheon, but all that we can do is to note and learn. When RafFael began these frescoes he was noj more than twenty- five years old, and most of this short period he must have spent learning the difficult art which by 1 508 had reached so high a plane of skill. The few writings which we can ascribe to RafFael do not indicate a familiarity with books, still less that he had even begun to unlearn his strongly dialectal speech. That he could have acquired in odd hours all the historical and mythological knowledge which his many paintings in the Vatican (and elsewhere) reveal, is beyond belief. Thus we are forced to conclude that RafFael had learned advisers, though who they were we do not know. Yet such men abounded at the court of Julius II., and it is as certain as undocu- mented probabilities ever are that they informed or counselled RafFael. Such, also, we know from many statements to have been the custom at that time, as well as earlier. But one definite influ- encer is clearly visible : that is, Petrarca. He was then universally read, both in his sonnets and in his Triumphs of Love and of Fame — the two Trionfi whose verbal praise of genius is renewed in these paintings by RafFael. Nor should we leave the artist's father out of account : his rimed chronicle already contains in embryo ideas which RafFael expressed so much more powerfully.* To RafFael, or to his advisers, Dante must have seemed to hold a supreme rank both as a philosopher and as a poet. Hence he, and he alone of all the great men whom we can identify among the thinkers and poets in these paintings, is doubly honoured, though among the poets he gets a higher place. In the Disputa we see him to our right, in the background almost, and he seems rapt in inscrut- able contemplation as he gazes toward the saints and doctors who surround the altar. Only his head and part of his breast are visible, but we recognise him by his profile, by his pinkish gown, and by the faded red cap, or camauro, with its green laurel wreath. Here * Springer, op. at., vol. i. pp. 202, 216. 197 PORTRAITS OF DANTE the jaw is undershot like a bulldog's, and the lower lip must fall bacic ; for otherwise it would protrude much too far, whereas now the lips almost meet. The face is bronzed and dusky ; the brow is knitted ; the eye is intense and sternly concentrated on nothing; the cheek sinks to where it is supported by the heavy jawbone, then comes a flabby fold reaching from throat to ear on the bull neck. But lay profile over profile and you will see that the Giotto type is preserved ; only Raffael's Dante is here a fierce old man. Old ? Yes, seventy or eighty years are about what this personage has lived, and they have left him grim and undeceived. This is the Dante who would have liked to see Capraia and Gorgona join to choke the Arno that its waters might drown all Pisa, and who could find no words too violent to damn his native city ; it is a man of blood and wrath : Ch'io il vidi uomo di sangue e di corrucci. Not a vestige of the sweetness manifested in the Vita Nuova, and so charmingly commemorated by Giotto, remains to soften and beautify this face. Such is Raffael's portrait of Dante the theo- logian, or the philosophic Dante. I can agree with Gruyer when he says that ' I'effort de I'intelligence a pour ainsi dire altere ce visage ' ; but I cannot agree with him when he adds : ' mais I'empreinte douloureuse dont il I'a marque est presque divine ' — this seems to me an exaggerated fallacy.* At the top of Parnassus sits Apollo, amid the Nine Muses, and on each side, from background to foreground, are seventeen figures of men and women — all poets, as is shown by the wreaths with which all are crowned. No document, not even a tradition, enables us to identify this whole poetic band ; but it is obvious that Raffael intended to portray various representative poets and poetesses from Apollo, first of all and inspirer of all, down to his own time, to the richest, most liberal days of the Renaissance. Petrarca's fame was then at its flood ; his Italian poems had been printed in scores of editions ; his imitators fairly swarmed in Italy, and were beginning to echo his verse in other countries. But Raffael almost hides him : we see hardly more than his face. He is standing in the extreme background to our right, between a slender tree and a bearded man who might be taken for Michelangelo, while a little nearer us, it * Gruyer, Raphael peintre de portraits^ vol. i. (l88l), pp. 148-50. 198 o a: O o •f, as H a. as ^ ^ ^^R i ^ ^© ^ < >5 RAFFAEL'S DANTE I mistake not, stands Ariosto,* who in fact had come to Rome late in May 1 510, on an embassy to Pope Julius. RafFael's Petrarca (if this be he) has the same features as a fifteenth-century miniature at the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence. Whom the nearer figures may represent I will not venture to surmise, though the identity of one or two might be established. Straight across from Pindar {^),'f to our left, reclines a graceful woman holding in her left hand a scroll on which is the word Sappho. This is the only figure that RafFael has not left wholly to the identifying powers of our knowledge or imagination. Close behind her stands a group of four poets — three men and a woman, among whom may be Boccaccio, though no face can be said to agree with the older portrait in the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria Novella. Just above this group we see a youthful scribe who is eagerly receiving the words of Blind Homer. Quegli e Omero poeta sovrano. To Homer's right, but just behind him, following a poet who can be no other than Virgil, is Dante, in a faded pink cap with faded pink earflaps, matching a robe which reveals a narrow strip of green undergarment at the neck — precisely as in the fresco by Giotto..]: Here Dante's eye seems to be resting upon Virgil's outstretched hand, and Virgil is looking back toward Dante as if to say, ' I am leading you to the God of all Poets, to Apollo.' Thus Raffael seems almost to have illustrated those verses in * For portraits of Ariosto iee Mr. Edmund Gardner's book, The King of Court Poets, London, 1906. t Who also resembles Ariosto. Mr. Andr6 P6rat6 identifies as follows : ' La charmante Imp^ria se nomme Sappho ; elle a rassemble, pr^s du trone de gazon oil elle s'accoude, Anacr&n, Alc^e, le grave Pdtrarque. Dante, toujours farouche, se tient i I'ecart. Arioste cause avec le jeune due d'Urbin, et voici Tdbaldeo, le cher ami de Raphael, et Sannazar, qui contemple avec respect Pindare, Horace et Virgile.' See A. Michel's Hhtoire de FArt, vol. iv., p. 344, Paris, 1909. X See chapters ix. and xiv. The first time Dante saw Beatrice she was dressed in crimson (janguigno). Vita Nova, § i. Nine years later he saw her again, clad in purest white {V. N. § 2), and a while later he had a vision wherein he beheld her wrapped in a crimson cloth. In Sestina i he sees her in green ; but only in Purgatory does she appear in red, white, and green, all at once, as Giotto pictured Dante. 5^^ my Index, under ' Dante ' (Dante's Colours). Dante's whole costume in the Parnassus is now somewhat paler than that in the Disputa. Each has been exposed to a not very strong light for just 400 years. Giotto's Dante had been exposed to the light for approximately 236 years when it was covered with whitewash (about 157O). The probability is that both Giotto and RafFael used blood-coloured pigment [sanguigno) and that RafFael followed Giotto's example. 199 \ PORTRAITS OF DANTE which Dante tells how he first beheld ' the school of those masters of most lofty song, which over the others like an eagle flies ' — Cosi vidi adunar la bella scuola Di quei signor dell'altissimo canto, Che sopra gli altri com' aquila vola.' Nor here upon the summit of Parnassus, where RafFael has honoured Dante by putting him alone of all modern poets close to Virgil and Homer, does the great visionary enjoy a less exalting scene than when he and his leader, coming forth from one side of the green meadow by the noble castle, entered ' an open space, luminous and high,' so that they could behold the great spirits, the spiriti magni, heroes and heroines, philosophers, scientists, and poets — a vision such as RafFael has realised here, if we look from Parnassus to the School of Athens and the Disputa del Sacramento. Thus, with his greater skill, with more knowledge of history, and with vaster imagination, RafFael paid to Dante a richer tribute than Giotto ; but Raffael is in every sense further from Dante. In 151 1, when, as we learn from the inscription beneath it, the Parnassus was completed, Dante had been dead for one hundred and ninety years ; hence RafFael had, like ourselves, to rely upon whatever pictures, busts and traditions he may have known and found most to his taste. It has been affirmed, not as a mere surmise, but as a fact, * that RafFael's model was the Torrigiani bust. For various reasons this surmise is not even probable. First, we have no good evidence that this so-called death-mask existed in Raffael's time ; but if it did, what likelihood is there that RafFael knew the owner in Florence, or wherever else this purely hypothetical person may have lived, and that he made a copy .? Between either of RafFael's portraits and the ' mask ' there is, I grant, a certain resemblance ; but this resemblance grows when we compare either portrait with the Naples bust. For either portrait, but especially that in the Disputa, shows virtually the same cap entire ; yet we observe also approximately the same curve of nose, the same kind of nostril, the same jaw, the same earflaps, and nothing that even suggests ' recent death.' That RafFael knew the Naples bust, or some other like it, is far more probable than that he ever even saw the so-called death- * By the late Charles Eliot Norton and others. See his Original Portraits of Dante (privately printed), Cambridge, 1865, p. 14. 200 '< J ^ ^ ^ RAFFAEL'S DANTE mask. I surmise, yet I only surmise, that for his sepia or brown ink sketch, now in the Albertina at Vienna,* RafFael did in reality use the Naples bronze, but without any intention of making it his Dante — note, for instance, the tuft of hair above the ear, not visible in the final work. On the other hand, the green garment, showing round the neck and through the opening at the breast of the Par- nassus portrait, indicates that RafFael was familiar with the colours chosen by Giotto. Other important facts are to be noted : The Dispute head is turned at exactly the same angle as that by Giotto and is also seen from the left side ; furthermore, Dante is here represented standing among various laymen and ecclesiastics of note, at the left side (our right) of an altar, over which is a tier of saints with God above them, holding a globe, almost precisely as in Giotto's fresco.f The altar which stood in the middle of Giotto's painting, dividing his notables into two groups, was real ; Raffael's altar is in his picture — that is no great difference. :|. But turn again to his Parnassus. There Dante's whole form is seen, with his right side toward us, and his face is turned a little further inward ; the bull neck of the Disputa now has normal proportions and both at nape and throat closely corresponds to Giotto's portrait. Not only that : there is the same stoop and curve to the back from the occiput downward, and ' with his left arm he clasps the book because he was lord of many sciences ' — Col braccio manco avvinchia la scrittura, Perche signoreggio molte scienze. Are so many coincidences due purely and simply to ' chance ' ? I think not. But if it is really true that Raffael left Florence with the Paradiso wall of the Maddalena Chapel so strongly imprinted * Photograph by Adolphe Braun & Co. The authenticity of this sketch has never, I think, been competently questioned ; but Dr. Josef Meder tells me that it is a rather old copy of the fresco. What evidence exists to justify this statement, I do not know ; whether true or not, it seems to make no difference in the present case. The dimensions of the sketch, given me by Dr. Meder, are : 33.6 by 15.5 cm. ; 'the paper,' says Dr. Meder, ' is white and old.' The sketch was formerly in the collections of Charles I., Prince de Ligne. t Some time before 1865 Mr. Morris Moore, of London, affirmed that he owned a Dante portrait executed by Raffael from the original by Giotto. This is highly improbable. See the present book, p. 168. % See chap. x. p. 104, and pp. 213-5 (description of the Maddalena Chapel). 201 PORTRAITS OF DANTE in his memory, why did he not copy Giotto's portrait of Dante more accurately ? For, as RafFael's presentments of other bygone celebrities show (for example, Socrates), he possessed the historical bent, and when he had no models he commonly disguised his con- temporaries as characters of an earlier time. My belief is that Raffael wished to typify an older Dante. He did in fact com- promise with his source by creating three Dantes which range in age between fifty and seventy years, and each offers some demons- trable variations from the others. The type in the Disputa repre- sents an old man, a man ten or fifteen years older than Dante was at his death ; this is the sage, the grim, austere, and disillusioned philosopher. Note his eye ; it seems to be penetrating the mys- teries of deep problems; it is the eye of an undeceivable and relent- less judge ; the chin and hard-set jaw add an effect of mastery and determination. The type in the Parnassus is at least ten or fifteen years younger ; the expression one of greater benignity ; we are nearer the Poet, nearer the type depicted by Giotto, and the various tell-tale details already mentioned — the shape of the neck and back, the colours of the costume, and the book, are witnesses whose testimony cannot easily be set aside as fantastic or far-fetched.* The Albertina sketch is thus, as it were, revised and corrected ; its heavy brows and half-aquiline, half-bulbous nose, have been modi- fied, brought back toward the Giotto type,i' and the book which its Dante clasps with both hands is now held under the left hand and forearm, as if Raffael had here, too, decided upon a closer approach to Giotto. For his frescoes in the Camera della Segnatura, as for other works still extant, Raffael made many sketches, of which a good number have survived. When or where these were made, or how many there were originally, no one can tell, for the sketches them- selves reveal only that Raffael made careful plans. But the Parnassus, if the inscription is right, was completed in 1 5 1 1 , and this must be * The Parnassus was reproduced in 1873 by the Arundel Society, whose coloured print No. 172 may be seen at the British Museum, at the Public Library of Boston, and in other collections. In this print RafFael's red robe and cap are purple ; the green undergarment is preserved. There exists also a handsome engraving by Giuseppe Marcucci, Regia Calcografia, Rome, 1873, No. 748 (The Library of Congress dis- plays a copy presented by the Italian government as a token of gratitude for the help offered to Messina after the earthquake of 1909). t In the Oxford sketch for the whole Parnassus Dante is incomplete. 202 D s to X } u < H 0. a: RAFFAEL'S DANTE the approximate date of the Disputa del Sacramento. Thus Raffael's two portraits fall within a period when he was doing what are commonly regarded as the earliest of his more learned works. All three portraits of Dante are products of learning as well as of artistic genius ; as likenesses they are merely divinations, grandiose, to be sure, but of no worth to those who would like to know how Dante looked at any period of his life. This we can learn only from Boccaccio and Giotto ; all other portraits are secondary, if they are not copies, and record not so much Dante's features as his fame.* * For a good description of the Camera della Segnatura^f^ Springer, vol. i. pp. 198- 261. As to restorations therein see Panzacchi, yita italiana nel cinquecento, pp. 482-3, an excellent interpretation of RafFael, though it throws little light on Rafiael's Dante. G. Franciosi's 'Dante e Raffaello,' in his Raccolta di Scritti Danteschi, 1891, merely compares the art of Dante and RafFael, with much garrulity of a mystical type ; and C. Tebaldi's article on * Dante e Raffaello ' {Giornale Dantesco, quad. ii. 1905, pp. 53- 56) need not enter our account. On Raffael's sketches for the Disputa see Springer, vol. i. pp. 219 ff, also 311. Only the Windsor sketch gives us the original forms of the earthly groups. According to Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael, vol. ii. p. 78, in the Oxford sketch of the three poets, Dante, Homer, and Virgil, ' Homer alone is complete as he appears in the fresco, and Virgil and Dante are models without the characteristics by which they were subsequently distinguished.' The Parnassus is described by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, pp. 79-86. About 148 1, according to Lippmann {Botticelli, Engl. ed. p. 9), Sixtus IV. invited Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, Cosimo Rosselli, and Pinturicchio to work in the Sistine Chapel. Possibly Raffael found some Dante material left by Botticelli. On the authenticity of Raffael's sketch-book, and on the work in Rome of Luca Signorelli, see Springer, vol. i. pp. 327 and 345, note 51. On Giovanni Santi's rimed chronicle (Vatican Library, MSS. Ottoboniani, No. 1305), see Passavant, Raphael d'Urhin et son Phe Giovanni Santi, Paris, i860, vol. i. pp. 32-33. At the very outset Giovanni finds himself astray in a dark wood, like Dante, whom in this feature he may have imitated. Passavant sees in Raffael's St. George a background recalling scenes in Dante. See op. cit., vol. i. p. 65. 203 APPENDICES 1. THE MARCHESE TORRIGIANI'S STATEMENT CONCERNING THE TORRIGIANI MASK OF DANTE II. NOTE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF SEYMOUR KIRKUP AND ON HIS CREDI- BILITY AS A WITNESS III. NOTE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ANTONIO MARINI IV. THE MADDALENA CHAPEL ACCORDING TO A DESCRIPTION MADE IN 1865 BY LUIGI PASSERINI AND GAETANO MILANESI V. NOTE ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FRESCOES IN THE MADDALENA CHAPEL VI. FINAL NOTE ON THE ARUNDEL PRINT VII. ON THE COLOUR OF DANTE'S HAIR DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX I THE MARCHESE TORRIGIANI'S STATEMENT CONCERNING THE TORRIGIANI MASK OF DANTE ' L'effigie propria di Dante Alighieri, cavata dalla maschera che li fu formata sul volto dopo la sua morte, seguita in Ravenna I'anno 1321. Carbone Maria del Nero, Barone di Porcigliano, per con- servare la memoria di cosi raro ed unico tesoro, antico retaggio di sua nobilissima famiglia, fece collocare in questa medaglia, ed ornare, I'anno 1735. ' Certifico, io sottoscritto, essere in mio possesso come parte del- I'ereditadi Ottavia Guadagni, mia sorella,'e moglie del Barone Carbone del Nero,discendente direttodel sopracitato Barone dello stesso nome, la medaglia in cui e situato, dentro cornice, il suddetto ritratto, di grandezza naturale, in alto rilievo, in gesso colorato. Dal qual ritratto sono stati ricavati [sic] le tre copie fatte sotto i miei occhi, per conto del Sigr. Lyell, dal disegnatore Vito d'Ancona. E certifico parimente che sul di dietro del quadro che racchiude la medaglia e situata [sic] un cartello, coUa sopracitata iscrizione stampata : e che intorno alia medaglia circolare sta scritto, in caratteri stampatelli, quanto appresso : ' E^gie di Dante Alighieri, Jell a maschera formata sul di luicada- vere, in Ravenna, Fanno 1321. ' Firenze. Palazzo Torrigiani, gia del Nero, sui Renai. 'Ildi 8 Luglio 1840. ' [Signed] Pietro Torrigiani.' This document, reprinted just as it stands in Lyell's book. The Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito, pp. xv.-xvi., proves only that Pietro Torrigiani believed the tradition that this effigy was a genuine 207 PORTRAITS OF DANTE death-mask of Dante, that he had some reason for declaring it to have been 'an heirloom 'of the Del Nero family, and that he believed it to have been framed, &c., as early as 1735, which, however, is a long while after 1321. Furthermore, it is important to know that the three copies made for Lyell were executed under the eyes of Pietro Torrigiani by Vito d'Ancona {see p. 48) and that the inscrip- tion round the ' mask ' was there at least as early as 1 840. II NOTE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF SEYMOUR KIRKUP AND ON HIS CREDI- BILITY AS A WITNESS Seymour Stocker Kirkup, son of an English jeweller and diamond merchant, went to Italy in 18 16, and there he remained till his death in 1880, aged 92. From 1824 to 1872 Kirkup lived in Florence, where he knew various Italians of note, and was a familiar figure in the English colony. Miss Wilde told Dr. T. W. Koch that she had often heard her father describe Kirkup as a ' clever but rather unscrupulous man, artistic and literary, but shallowly so.' This is the harshest of all opinions that I have found concerning him. Another American of greater fame, but rather given to emphasising the quaint, abnormal, or picturesque sides of character — I mean Nathaniel Hawthorne — paid a visit to Kirkup in 1858, and has recorded certain facts and impressions. '■August 1 2th. — We drove into town yesterday afternoon ... to call on Mr. Kirkup, an old Englishman who has resided a great many years in Florence. He is noted as an antiquarian, and has the reputation of being a necromancer, not undeservedly, as he is deeply interested in spirit-rappings, and holds converse, through a medium, with dead poets and emperors. He lives in an old house, formerly a residence of the Knights Templars hanging over the Arno, just as you come upon the Ponte Vecchio ; and, going up a dark staircase and knocking at a door on one side of the landing- place, we were received by Mr. Kirkup. He had had notice of our visit, and was prepared for it, being dressed in a blue frock-coat of rather an old fashion, with a velvet collar, and in a thin waist- coat and pantaloons fresh from the drawer ; looking very sprucely, 208 APPENDICES in short, and unlike his customary guise. . . . He is rather low of stature, with a pale, shrivelled face, and hair and beard perfectly white, and the hair of a particularly soft and silken texture. He has a high, thin nose, of the English aristocratic type ; his eyes have a queer, rather wild look, and the eyebrows are arched above them, so that he seems all the time to be seeing something that strikes him with surprise. I judged him to be a little crack-brained, chiefly on the strength of this expression.' Kirkup ushered his visitors into a library where he showed books of magic and the occult sciences, books to laugh at. ' What he really seemed to value . . . were some manuscripts of Dante. . . . Mr. Kirkup has also a plaster cast of Dante's face, which he believes to be the original one taken from his face after death ; and he has likewise his own accurate tracing from Giotto's fresco of Dante. . . . ' Dante has held frequent communications with Mr. Kirkup through a medium, the poet being described by the medium as wearing the same dress seen in the youthful portrait, but as bearing more resemblance to the cast taken from his dead face than to the picture from his youthful one.' . . . The greatest curiosity of all was a little four-year old girl, who ' frisked through those shadowy old chambers, among the dead people's trumpery, as gayly as a butterfly flits among flowers and sunshine.' This child's mother was a ' beautiful girl named Regina, whose portrait Mr. Kirkup showed us on the wall. I never saw a more beautiful and striking face claiming to be a real one. She was a Florentine, of low birth, and she lived with the old necromancer as his spiritual medium.' Kirkup had set great store by Regina's revelations, and after her death continued, through the little girl, to talk with her, with Dante, and with any other great spirit that might choose to visit him. All this Hawthorne learned in his brief visit, and somewhere he must have learnt also that ' Regina had a lover, and a sister who was very disreputable ' — we shall hear more of two of these charac- ters when we come to the testimony of Mr. Vernon. Kirkup is described with affection (and not as a necromancer) by Prof. Alessandro D'Ancona, one of the few of his still living acquaintances whose impressions are accessible. D'Ancona knew Kirkup in 1866 ; he remembers him as a ' little dried-up old man, a bit deaf, but ever lively and likeable — a true gentleman {tin vera o 209 PORTRAITS OF DANTE gentiluomo).' D'Ancona tells how Kirkup had been made a cavaliere upon the occasion of the six hundredth anniversary of Dante's birth by those who credited him with at least a share in the dis- covery of Giotto's portrait, and who did not regard him as a base usurper of praise that belonged to others. To D'Ancona, Kirkup jocularly related how he had come to be created a barone (he was in fact known as ' Baron Kirkup'), but I have elsewhere quoted Kirkup himself as to that. D'Ancona evidently inclines to award Kirkup chief place in the discovery, but makes no absolute decision, for he regards the puzzle as unsolvable. (See La Lettura for March 1901.) Mr. Vernon tells me that in his old age Kirkup ' had delusions as to the presence of spirits in his house, and all round him \see p. 93, note *) — in fact,' adds this judicious writer, ' he told me so him- self; but it was very well known that these delusions were wilfully created by two designing women, mother and daughter, who were his domestic servants. When I first knew him 68 years ago [1842], when I was eight years old, he had as clear and intelligent a mind as the most clever of his contemporaries, and he had as profound a knowledge of Dante as had any of the brilliant group of Dantists who used to assemble round my Father's table at Florence. . . .' In weighing this evidence, let us consider several other important facts. Notwithstanding certain inconsistencies and contradictions, due, perhaps, to slips of memory or to changes of mind, Kirkup's own letters and statements tell substantially the same story through a period of almost forty years, and all that can be said of him on the score of credulity cannot essentially lessen the credibility, and therefore the value of the testimony that really concerns us. No one who truly knew Kirkup ever charged him with being credulous during the years which immediately preceded and followed the discovery of Giotto's Dante. In 1840, and for a good while after- ward, he appears to have retained full possession of unusual mental powers. His career as a ' necromancer,' the delusions created for him by the artful Regina and continued by the bewitching little elf described by Hawthorne, began not earlier than 1853 or 1854 ; but there is no good reason to take them very seriously, whenever they began, for scores of men have diverted their fancies or sought comfort for their minds in similar performances without ceasing to be good witnesses of other occurrences generally regarded as less 210 APPENDICES absurd. Credulity may have definite limits ; it appears to have had them in Kirkup's case. I do not think his testimony is im- paired by his later hallucinations. Shallow he may have been, as well as sometimes forgetful, illogical, and hasty in hisjudgements — that our records show ; but his many sketches prove him a first-rate draughtsman, and it is evident that he was a loving and by no means commonplace student of Dante. The old ' necromancer ' to whom the Czar Alexander communicated (through Regina) that he had been poisoned, and who received from Dante a specimen of his handwriting, is merely a picturesque being who need not be detained in court while some attorney attempts to show how the condition of his brain in 1855 influenced his statements or actions in 1840, or biassed everything he said and wrote from that time on. For accounts of Kirkup (all extremely brief) see Hawthorne's Italian Note-books (already quoted). Col. Gillum's Reminiscences (quoted in this book from Mr. Vernon) ; the Rossetti Papers, 1862- 70 (1903); Dante Gabriel Rossetti : Family-Letters, wo\. ii. p. 324, (also pp. 329-30), London, 1895 '■> 'S'o/wf Reminiscences of William Michael Rossetti, 2 vols., London, 1906 (index); Ingpen, Letters of P. B. Shelley, London, 1909, vol. ii. p. 990 ; Trelawney, the Dic- tionary of National Biography, and the many documents quoted in this book. See also my Index, under Kirkup. Ill NOTE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ANTONIO MARINI Marini's life, as narrated by Guasti, may be interpreted and summed up in a few words. He was born at Prato in 1788. As his health was not sturdy, his parents sent him to a local school of architecture and drawing. Having won a scholarship at Prato, he went to the Academy at Florence and followed for a while the academic — that is, pseudo-classic — tendencies of that time. From a Pratese named Castagnoli he learned something about the art of fresco-painting, and thus passed several years till between 18 17 and 1 8 18, when he was commissioned to decorate the carriage of the Grand Duke. Soon afterwards he went at Prince Esterhazy's behest to work at Vienna whence he brought back to Tuscany the 211 PORTRAITS OF DANTE art of lithography, recently invented in Bavaria (?). About 1820 he began to give up pagan myths for domestic history, after Ger- mans like Gaye and Rumohr had taught the Italians that the artists of Dante's time were not barbarians, and had begun to establish by documents the chronology of early Italian art. Marini was among the vanguard of Italian artists. Through his cunning industry various frescoes by Giotto, Gaddi, Bicci, Gozzoli, Fra Filippo, and the Ghirlandajos, came to light. Then Marini gave back to his fatherland the youthful features of the Divine Poet (though we may add, parenthetically, that he soon took back his gift, covering it beneath a coat of paint more permanent by far than any white- wash). Now Marini became a romantic and swam in the tide that bore Manzoni and Pellico. His pictures were bought in France ; he was unanimously elected a member of the Florentine Academy of the Fine Arts (Sept. 10, 1843). Everywhere in Florence he was sought to fresco palaces — among them those of Gerini, Pucci, Guicciardini — also the Giunti Chapel in San Giuseppe, the Ghe- rardesca oratory at Careggi, the Pitti Palace. The cavaliere Ramirez di Montalvo, leader of the Academy, deemed Marini an able restorer and made use of him, but whenever Marini showed him something of his own, every laudation would end with the diminutive ' benino ! ' (' not half bad ! ') Montalvo was enmeshed by Michelangelo and his fatal school — that was why Marini did not die a cavaliere. Delaborde damned Marini with faint praise {Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. 15, 1853) ; yet Delaborde had seen only some of his Madonnas at the Louvre a few years before, in which Arnoux noted a certain thinness of drawing (' una certa ma- grezza di linee '), resulting from that study which (witness Vasari) dries up nature, especially when a man no longer youthful finds it necessary to make himself all over. Possibly various other writers have thrown more powerful lights upon the character and capacity of Antonio Marini {see chap, ix., passim^ and Index, under ' Marini '), but an intelligent friend like Guasti should be allowed to speak in his behalf Marini died Sept. 10, 186 1. His remains repose in the cloister of San Domenico in Prato. 21a APPENDICES IV THE MADDALENA CHAPEL ACCORDING TO A DE- SCRIPTION MADE IN 1865 BY LUIGI PASSERINI AND GAETANO MILANESI (The following passage is translated from a pamphlet entitled Del Ritratto di Dante Alighieri, &c., Florence 1865. Cf. Giornale del Centenario^ No. 29 (Nov. 7, 1864) and Paur, ' Dante's Portrat,' pp. 316-24.) ' On the main wall, divided through the middle by a great window, is represented Paradise, with three orders of figures, one above the other. In the highest tier are the cherubim; in the one next below are the saints, male and female ; in the lowest tier are many personages, varying in age, in raiment, and in expression. Near the window, to the right of the onlooker, represented in majesty is a crowned figure, and on the left another figure, likewise represented \.n majesty, clad in red and wearing a red hat. In the royal figure there is every reason to think we have an effigy ot Robert of Anjou King of Naples, and in that of a cardinal, Messer Bertrand du Pouget, since 1332 legate in Italy for Pope John XXII. and afterwards for Benedict XII. Not far from King Robert is Dante Alighieri, who, from the tint of his complexion, warmer and smoother than that of the other figures, is at once recognised as having been restored. Under the cardinal is the figure of the Potesta kneeling ; and under the king, another figure likewise kneel- ing, whose identity is no longer certain through the head having fallen off along with the plaster; but from the bearing and raiment, and, more still, from the violet colour of the dress, we recognise a churchman — possibly the Bishop of Florence. ' On the side wall to the right of the onlooker are depicted in two tiers some stories from the life of St. Mary Magdalen, which, after having been interrupted by the representation of Hell, over the door leading into the Chapel, continue further and end on the other wall to the left. In this wall are two great windows, separated from one another by a pilaster of no great width, upon which is depicted the figure of a martyred saint whom the Latin inscription, written below upon a label of make-believe stone, reveals as Saint 213 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Vcnantius. This inscription, which is badly damaged, is known from some words that have been made out, to be an invocation and prayer addressed to the Saint. In the last line one can read DNI. M. CCC. XXX. . . .—probably to be read M. CCC. XXX. VII. ' Somewhat beneath the said inscription, and precisely within the band that girds the socle, is another inscription running quite across the pilaster, written in bigger and more elegant letters, which inscription, without its abbreviations, reads as follows : HOC. OPVS. FACTVM. FVIT. TEMPORE. POTESTARIE. MAG- NIFICI. ET. POTENTIS. MILITIS. DOMINI. FIDESMINI. DE VARANO. CIVIS. CAMERINENSIS. HONORABILIS. POTEST ATIS. . . .—the rest is lacking.' Though various paleographers in Florence (among them Professor Pio Rajna) have recently endeavoured to decipher these inscriptions in their entirety, their obliging efforts have resulted only in proving that during the last forty or fifty years the letters have continued to fade, many being now gone beyond recall ; yet the versions here given can be trusted, I think, whatever may be their bearing upon the facts. NOTE ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FRESCOES IN THE MADDALENA CHAPEL A friend in Florence obligingly supplies me with the following notes. They show that few changes have taken place since I made my latest observation : ' The Satan over the entrance door is very indistinct. One can still distinguish that he grasps a tiny human figure in his left hand, and I think that with his right hand he is catching at another, but it is so indistinct I cannot make it out. ' The fresco of Paradise. There is much of the fresco on the Altar wall which is quite distinct, the face of Dante, and the figure at his side, especially so. ' On the window wall two of the frescoes are quite distinct — St. Venantius (?) between the windows ; and to the right of this Herodias dancing. The fresco to the left is almost obliterated. ' The frescoes on the right wall from the Life of Mary Magdalen 214 APPENDICES are almost obliterated, (i) Magdalen at the Feast in the House of Levi. I can scarcely make out the faces, though the design is still clear. (2) The Raising of Lazarus. The Christ, and one of the women's figures are distinct. (3) No trace of this fresco remains. (4) The Maries at the Sepulchre. Only the Angel, one of the Maries, and a soldier lying by the tomb, are to be distinguished. (5) Christ and the Magdalen in the Garden. Only the Magdalen and a few trees are to be seen. Her face is very distinct. (6) Angel feeding the Magdalen in the Cave of Provence. Almost obliterated. (7) St. Maximin bringing her the Last Sacrament. Quite distinct. (8) Death of the Magdalen. Nearly all of this fresco is indistinct, but one can still see the Angels quite well. ' The prevailing colour in all these frescoes is a dusky red for the robes, and the background a dull, dark green.' Remark : The distinctness of Dante's figure is due, of course, to Marini's activity. See pp. 80 ff. and passim. As to No. 3 : ' The third compartment is a blank — the picture having been destroyed to make a doorway.' Athenaum^ Dec. 25, 1847, p. 1329. VI FINAL NOTE ON THE ARUNDEL PRINT To what has been said {see Index, under 'Arundel Print'), I will add the following information as to the Arundel print. My copy is about 16 inches in height by 12^ in width. From the top of the right eyebrow to the tip of the chin is about 4^ inches ; from the highest point of the forehead to the lowest part of the throat, 7^. The inscription under the figure is as follows : Dante Facsimile of a Portrait by Giotto discovered in 1841 [an error ; read 1 840] in the Bargello at Florence, ^rom a tracing by Seymour Kirkup, Esq., made previously to the restoration of the fresco, and now [1859] the property of the Rt. Honble. Lord Vernon. Vincent Brooks, Chromolith. Arundel Society, 24, Old Bond Street PORTRAITS OF DANTE F. X. Kraus's reproduction was used by Karl Federn as a frontispiece to Dante and his Times, 1902, where it is paler than most of the originals, and much smaller. The Arundel print was copied also for a frontispiece to Sibbald's Inferno, Edinburgh, 1884. Other copies exist. In an Album owned by the University or Pennsylvania (858 D U Kir), among many other drawings by Kirkup, mostly, if not all, engraved by Paolo Lasinio, I find, ' Ritratto di Dante AUighieri dipinto da Giotto nella Cappella del Potesta a Firenze, scoperto il 21 luglio 1840, copiato prima della restaurazione che fu fatta nel 1841. Seymour Kirkup disegno. Cav. Paolo Lasinio inc.' About 3^ inches in height. The same Album contains a full-size detail (face and neck). Lord Vernon's Album (see supra, p. 99) contains a full-size frontispiece. Accord- ing to Paur, ' Dante's Portrat,' pp. 304-5, ' When Lord Vernon, who did so much to promote Dante studies, saw it [namely Kirkup's final drawing] he was so delighted that the artist gladly presented it to him as a gift. Having returned to England, Lord Vernon kept it for many years at his estate in Derbyshire. Here it was seen by a Mr. Layard and other persons, who moved Lord Vernon to turn it over to the Arundel Society for publication. By the Arundel Society it was multiplied in a coloured print with won- derful beauty, with great delicacy of handling and with complete clearness of impression.' The reproduction offered in this book was made from a specimen in unusually good condition. VII ON THE COLOUR OF DANTE'S HAIR. According to Signor Giuseppe Albini {Dantis Eclogae, lohannis de Virgilio Carmen et Ecloga responsiva : Testo, Commento, Versione, &c., Florence, 1903), the oldest MS. of the Latin eclogues in which Dante possibly figures as a blond is in Boccaccio's own hand (Laurenziano, plut. xxix., cod. 8) and was probably executed in Boccaccio's youth. As to the authenticity of these poems Albini has no doubts ; the text he recognises to be more or less inaccurate, but his readings of the verses concerned are the same as those of Wicksteed and Gardner (see p. 21): 216 APPENDICES ' Nonne triumphales melius pexare capillos et patrio, redeam si quando, abscondere canos fronde sub inserta solitum flavescere Sarno ? ' And Giovanni del Virgilio's response : ' O si quando sacros iterum flavescere canos fonte tuo videas et ab ipsa Phyllide pexos quam visando tuas tegetes miraberis uvas ! ' In his commentary ((?/>. cit. pp. 36-37) Albini notes thatw^e are to supply a me agreeing with solitum. Flavescere he interprets broadly, as meaning, not to 'be blond' (' esser biondo'), but to * be hale and hearty, to have a youthful colour and vigour ' in contrast v\rith the sad withering of hoary old age (' esser florido, aver colore e vigor giovanile ' in contrapposto al mesto sfiorire della canizie). Giovanni del Virgilio's '^ iterum flavescere canos ^ he regards an an example which promptly confirms his opinion that Dante uses flavescere in a new, non-classic sense. Yet one must still wonder how locks that are hoary [canos] can ' once more ' possess the quality, or qualities, involved by Albini's inter- pretation o{ flavescere. As for the possible objection that this flavescere throws doubt upon Boccaccio's statement that Dante's hair and beard were thick, curly, and black, such an objection, thinks this editor, is ill-founded ; for even though Boccaccio were only the transcriber of the chief MS. which has preserved these eclogues, he knew them, and, if knowing them, he wrote as he did (in his Vita., § 8) it is clear that he did not understand ^(j-y^jf^r^ in a strictly literal sense. Though this seems probable, let us bear in mind that Boccaccio may not even have thought of this passage in the Latin eclogue when he wrote the description in his Vita. Albini's note ends thus : ' Ora Giovanni potea ben volere che il capo del gran poeta fiorisse di nuovo (non iuventa, questa volta, ma viridante coma) ma non gia aspettarsi che Dante, se dagli anni e piu dai dolori e dalle fatiche era fatto canuto, ritornasse biondo.' ' Now Giovanni may have indeed desired that the great poet's head should bloom again (not iuventa., this time, but viridante coma), but he certainly could not expect that Dante, if through years, and still more through sorrows and travails, he had grown white-haired, would once more become blond.' 217 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Since my note quoting Chrestien de Troyes' Cliges was printed (p. 24, first note), I have again run across a long series of similar passages quoted in the Theatre Frangais au Moyen Age, edition of 1877, pp. 58-59. The editors, Monmerque and Michel, introduce their quotations with the remark that ' Dans le moyen-age ni homme ni femme n'etait repute beau s'il n'avait les cheveux blonds,' &c. The writers quoted are nearly all French, and probably most of them wrote before Dante, yet I think that research would be almost certain to show that blondness was in vogue in Italy also, during the period in question. St. Anselm, an Italian, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, declares in his De Contemptu Mundi (written before 1109) that women dyed their hair blond: 'Arte quidcm videas nigros flavescere crines.' St. Anselm tn\Y>\oy% Jlavescere in the classic sense. 218 A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF OTHER SUPPOSED LIKENESSES, ANCIENT AND MODERN MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ; PORTRAITS IN MANUSCRIPTS ' "W" NNUMERABLE are the portraits of Dante, drawn or engraved, I painted or sculptured ; on paper or on canvas, on panel or wall ; in I plaster or in marble ; in ivory or gem ; in dark-and-light or in colours ; -A- in wood or in metal ; in fresco or oil ; in tempera or pastel ; entire figure or half, or only the face ; in low or in high relief. Batines in his Bibliografia and Ferrazzi in his Enciclopedia Dantesca, enumerate them at length. Hundreds of editions, Italian and foreign, original and translated, of the Divina Commedia and of the other works of Dante, are adorned with them ; from the artistic point of view some of them are extremely fine — suffice it to mention only what Raflaele Sanzio painted in the Vatican — but through an almost incredible freak of fortune, among all these portraits, the most authentic and genuine one is the least known.' * The portrait to which Carlo Negroni here alludes is neither the most authentic nor the least known, but his summary appears to include almost every possible form of graphic or plastic portrait and to offer a system of classification for nearly all the efforts, artistic or inartistic, credible or fantastic, that a thousand artists and artisans have made to portray the features of Dante. It has been stated, though no such statement could be proved, that no man has ever been so often portrayed as Dante ; what could be easily proved is that during the last six hundred years or so the Poet's features have been recorded or imagined in so many forms that merely those which have been catalogued fill scores of pages, often very closely printed, in various biblio- graphies which generally devote but little space to identifying types or to summarising historical facts and personal impressions. The more im- portant of such catalogues are mentioned in the Bibliography of this book ; • Del Ritratto di Dante Alighien : Memorta it Carlo Negroni. (A brief restatement, Milan, 1888, p. 7.) The portrait rechampioned by Negroni is the miniature in the MS. Riccardiano 1040 ; /// chap. vii. of the present worit. 219 PORTRAITS OF DANTE to repeat their data in toto would be futile — worse than that : it would force us to encumber a hundred or more pages with enumerations and descriptions of portraits which have no value, either artistic or historical. The purpose of this Descriptive List, or Catalogue Raisonni, is simply to tell something in as orderly a manner as possible about various notable or popular present- ments of Dante which did not fall within the scope of the chapters pre- ceding this. In 1897 appeared Ludwig Volkmann's /iro«o^ra_^ 5^ b, 56, 63, 64, 66 b. 'A description of the MS., with reproduction of one page, was published by the Palaeographical Society, series i., plate 248.' Volkmann would divide the MSS. of the Divina Commedia (the only old work in which we are likely to find portraits of Dante) into two classes. In the one we get decoration ; in the other, description. However, these two are occasionally well combined, as in the British MS. just mentioned, and in the richly embellished codex intended for the Duke of Urbino (Vatican, Urbinati No. 365). Most of the MSS. containing miniatures contain but few, and these are generally fanciful, even when the miniaturist was expected to put a portrait of Dante inside or near the great initial N with which the handsomer MSS. are almost sure to begin {Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita). In some MSS. miniatures occur only at the beginning of each cantica ; in these the N regularly contains a picture of Dante, commonly represented sitting at a desk, often holding a copy of the Commedia, precisely as in the Landino edition (148 1) and in Signorelli's portrait ; also we see Dante and Virgil in the selva oscura. The initial P of the Purgatorio (Per correr miglior acqua alza le vele) often shows Dante and Virgil in a sailboat approaching the Mountain of Purgatory, or viewing sinners in the flames that cleanse them ; whereas the initial L of the Paradiso {La gloria di colui che tutto move) generally displays a picture of Christ, or Dante and Beatrice (Volkmann, pp. 21-22). Other miniatures show Dante riding on the Centaur, or kneeling before Cato, or gazing in horror on the tortures of the damned, or dismayed by the Three Beasts, or lying asleep in an arm- chair with a book in his hand, or being led by Beatrice. Sometimes he figures several times in the same illustration, often without in the least maintaining his physical identity ; sometimes the figure which is meant to represent him is less Dantesque than others which are not so meant ; some- 222 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE times the artist depicts only one traditional feature, as in the Codex Laurentianus (Conv. sopp. Badia, No. 204, fol. 95), where he has a large nose, though he also wears a cap of the Giotto type. In the Codex Urb. No. 365 (Vatican) we again encounter the large-nosed Dante, drawn with consistency, but possessing little or no value for the inquirer who wishes to know how Dante really looked. This MS, carries us back to about 1476-1482 ; the type which it pretty consistently offers may have been known to Bernardino India a century later, though for Bernardino's present- ment Signorelli's portrait is a more probable prototype. MS. 1 102 at the Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, assigned by Volkmann to about 1350, is also illustrated with miniatures in which Dante himself is effectively depicted in various episodes of his journey ; but the type is fanciful, or must be so considered so long as Giotto holds the field and Boccaccio's description stands. With the few exceptions noted here, or in earlier chapters of this book, the MS. miniatures, so far as they have been made known, are to be appraised chiefly because of the place they hold in the history of illustration in general ; they show too many types, and these types are almost invariably too far from the most authentic sources, to warrant their being regarded as portraits of Dante in the more literal sense of that word. They are impor- tant, however, in that they carry us without a break down into the period of printed books ; engravers continued the work which the miniaturists had begun. Various copies of Landino's edition of the Commedia (148 1) contain both miniatures in colour and small engravings ; a little while later colour- work, then always done by hand, is abandoned, and we find only woodcuts or copperplate engravings of Dante himself or of scenes in his poem. The types depicted continue the metamorphosis of their many phases ; only in a very late period do the new craftsmen begin to reveal a scholarly desire to produce something authentic ; but they had then to rely upon something else than fanciful transformations of whatever type first pleased their fancy ; so study at last began to encroach upon intuition or caprice, and it is in the latest books that we find the most frequent attempts to portray the real Dante ; yet pure fancy still continued to play a large part, and does so even now, in spite of all that is to be trusted in the oldest tradition. PORTRAITS IN PRINTED BOOKS Some nineteen copperplate engravings of unknown authorship, though their characteristics plainly indicate their author's familiarity with Botticelli's drawings, are what remains of a series of illustrations planned for the Commedia of 1481. The Dante portraits in these occasionally present a fairly plausible type (see the excellent reproductions in Lippmann's Botticelli) ; but, as Dr. T. W. Koch has said, speaking of engravings, the Commedia of 223 PORTRAITS OF DANTE 1529 is 'the first edition to have a portrait of Dante worthy of the name.' A few other editions, chiefly of the Divina Commedia, may be mentioned : — 1 55 1 (G. Rouillio, Lyons). Frontispiece: ' Dantes Flo. Poe.' ; medallion (p. 8) with an ottava below it ; Dante in a hood with laurel wreath ; strong face, almost smiling, nose aquiline, even lips, heavy chin. — 1554 (Morando, Venice). Small oval portrait with verses below it ; ' Dante ' with laurel wreath, wavy nose, protruding chest ; type same as in Commedia of 1529. — 1555 (Giolito, Venice), already dealt with (p. 6). — 1564 (Landino and Vellutello, Venice). Portrait on title-page ; aquiline nose, even lips, strong chin, but rather weak in general effect ; more or less recalls the head attributed, without evidence, to Masaccio and Ghirlandajo see p. 8). — 1596 (Landino and Vellutello, Venice). Title-page portrait of ' Dante P.' Features : laurel wreath, aquiline nose, heavy jaw ; elderly ; type uncertain, possibly a very fanciful derivative from Commedia of 1529. — 1727 (Comino, Padua). Portrait: an engraving of the painting by Bernardino India, 1572: ' Dantes Alighierius. Ex pinacotheca Comitis Danielis Lisca Patricii pictus quondam a Bernardino India celebre pictore.' What has become of the original is apparently not known. Bernardino India was born at Verona in 1535. His Dante is akin to the miniature Rice. 1040 [see Index) ; the nose is extraordinarily hooked, the eye very large, the lips even, the chin average, the whole expression intense. Volk- mann thinks that this portrait dominated in the eighteenth century, whereas Morghen's {see p. 183) held sway till Giotto's was discovered. However that may be, these three and a few other well-known types (such as the Naples bust) recur in many nineteenth-century editions of the Commedia and have had some vogue as separate portraits. — 1757 (Zatta, Venice). Kraus says, ' Die Landschaft ist antikisirend, Dante gleicht einem rOmischen Monsignore am Hofe Benedicts XIV.' Type akin to that in MS. Urb. 365 (worthless). — 1795 (Parma). Engraving by R. Morghen {see Index). — 1 81 5 (Rome, 1815-7). ' Raf. Sanzio dip. L. Durantini dis.' (from Disputd). — 1817-9 (Florence, 'Edizione dell' Ancora'). Illustrated by L. Adamolli and F. Nenci, engraved by Lasinio, Maselli, and others. Special portrait : medallion vignette on title-pages of vols, i.-iii. Type : a pseudo-classic Dante, varying in physiognomy but occasionally more or less akin to Naples bust ; hard to define. — 1842 (Piatti, Florence). Portrait : engraving. ' Ritratto di Dante Alighieri dipinto da Giotto nella Cappella del Potesta a Firenze, scoperto il 21 luglio 1840, copiato prima della restaurazione che fu fatta nel 1 84 1 . Seymour Kirkup disegn6. Cav. Paolo Lasinio inc.' This edition, due to Lord Vernon, is probably the first to contain Giotto's Dante. — 1842-3 (Rolandi, Londra); Foscolo's edition. Engravings : ' Dante. ' ' Ritratto all' et^ di 25 anni, dipinto da Giotto verso il 1290 nella cappella del Potest^ a Firenze, scoperto il 21 luglio 1840. Seymour Kirkup disegno.' ' Dante ' by H. Robinson, after portrait in Paduan edition of 1822 (Koch). Apparently the second edition of the 224 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE Commedia to contain Giotto's Dante. Of at least two hundred and forty- Italian editions of the Commedia printed between the beginning of 1841 and 1899 (of which over two score contain portraits of Dante) less than half of those containing portraits reproduce, or purport to reproduce, Giotto's Dante ; two or three are pretty accurate (though no attempt is made to colour) ; three or four are frankly adaptations {i.e. nineteenth-century * Giottesque ') ; not less than twelve show Marini's ' restoration ' (though not offered as such), and most of these give this ' restoration ' reversed. Before 1899 hardly one Italian edition of the Commedia had accurately re- produced either Kirkup's drawing or Faltoni's (the latter having remained apparently unknown in Italy). Since 1899 Kirkup's drawing has occasionally been reproduced in Italian editions or in Italian books on Dante, yet Marini (reversed and otherwise) still holds the field in Italy, so that Dante's famous line might be revised so as to have Giotto's name substituted for Cimabue's and Marini's for Giotto's. — 1872. Frontispiece to Vita Nuova, by Vito D'Ancona (after Giotto). — 1879. Of the woodcuts made by Yan' Dargent for a new impression of the French translation by Artaud de Montor, ed. L. Moland, Kraus says, * Er hat aus Dante einen verzQckten franzOsischen Abb^ gemacht.' — 1902. In 1902 the Fratelli Alinari published an edition of the Commedia illustrated by many Italian artists. They produce or re- produce various types, the most frequent being perhaps the Naples bust. Of Dor6, Emler, Flaxman, Genelli, Kirkup, Scaramuzza, and of others whose illustrative portraits have enjoyed more less vogue, something will be said further on. This particular phase of Dante iconography may be terminated with the statement that only in a few cases have the artists who have attempted to illustrate the Commedia or other works by Dante striven to portray consistently a single truly plausible type ; in still fewer cases have they borne in mind that their art might rise high enough if its originality consisted mainly in the skilful variations that could be wrought with one old portrait for a basis. Giotto's youthful Dante (not derived from Marini's caricature, but from Kirkup and Faltoni), or the Naples bust, representing the older man, would furnish that basis. The more a modern portrait differs from these, and a few other old sources, the less is it Dantesque, whatever popularity it may enjoy, however highly it may be valued as a work of art. FREE PORTRAYALS OF DANTE ON PLANE SURFACES From Botticelli, whose many portraits of Dante have already been dis- cussed (chap. XX.), we are forced to leap over almost a century to reach the next illustrator whose work is still remembered ; but, as this chapter deals with modern portraits in general, whenever they happen to be more or less notable, our starting-point is Raffael {see chap, xxi.), and we shall examine P 225 PORTRAITS OF DANTE various paintings, drawings, engravings, &c., mentioning their authors in alphabetical order and devoting a few words, at least, to each. ANDREAE, KARL (1823-1904). About 1859 this artist produced a Dante based, apparently, on the miniature Riccard. 1040 or on the Naples bust. See Volkmann, p. 132. BEGAS, KARL (i 794-1 854). Begas visited Italy about 1 822-4. His Dante, dated Dec. 19, 1836, is not easy to classify ; Begas may have been influenced by the Torrigiani mask. BENDEMANN, EDUARD (181 1-89). Bendemann visited Italy in 1830. His Dante vaguely suggests the Naples bust. BERTINI, GIUSEPPE (1825-98). Dante consegna ilmanoscritto deWIn- ferno (1845) — * painting in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna at Milan, photo, by Brogi. The poet is represented handing a manuscript to a bald and aged friar at the top of a stairway near the entrance to a church (convent of the Eremitani at Corvo). Bertini seems to have used the profile by Bernardino India {q. v.). Another Dante portrait by Bertini (1852) is seen in a great window of coloured glass. Here Dante is represented sitting in a stall- chair, bent over a book. He is clad in a purplish lucco over which falls a scarlet cloak in wide folds. ' The head,' writes Ferrazzi, ' is covered with a white cappuccio . . . such as we see in the youthful portrait by Giotto. . . . The features too preserve in large measure this unique type. The lip evinces disdain, the nostrils are dilated with anger, and the great keen glance gleams in the shadow of the deep sockets,' &c., Encic. Dantesca, vol. i. 354-6. BIGIOLI,FILIPPO(i798-i878). Shortly before 186 1 Bigioli executed a series of huge paintings (4 metres by 6) illustrating scenes in the Commedia and portraying Dante with far more skill than has been shown by nearly all the many other artists who have essayed this task. Kraus (p. 640) mentions seventeen paintings, seven for the Inferno, eight for the Purgatorio, and two for the Paradiso, made for Romualdo Gentilucci who formed with them a Galleria Dantesca exhibited in the Palazzo Altieri at Rome, Feb. 7, 1 861. Whatever may have become of Bigioli's originals, he must have done not less than twenty-seven, for that number has been well reproduced in brown ink on post-cards by the Fototipia Alterocca, Terni. Bigioli seems to have shaped his type chiefly from the Naples bust and from RafFael's Disputa portrait, with little or no reference to Giotto. Bigioli's Dante looks on the whole ten years or so too old. Dante imagines his vision to have occurred when he was just thirty-five years of age. According to Ferrazzi, Bigioli's paintings were ' coloured by himself, by Prof. Chierici of Modena, by the renowned Vincenzo Paliotti of Naples, by Grandi, by Guerra, and by other distinguished artists.' BLAKE, WILLIAM (i 757-1 827). Poet and painter, friend of John Flaxman {q. v.) and of Haley. About 1820 John Linnel, 'himself still a struggling artist, commissioned [of Blake] a series of drawings for the 226 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE " Divine Comedy," to be also engraved. ... A hundred designs were sketched [94 of them in colour], some finished, but only seven engraved and published in 1827' — when Blake's vitality was declining. (5^^ the Dictionary of National Biography.^ If they are accurately reproduced in the specimens which I have seen, Blake's illustrations show no Dante of any plausible type. CABANEL, ALEXANDRE (1823-89). Poke florentin—z painting exhibited in 1861. The 'poet' (intended for Dante) is seated, much too affectedly, at one end of a stone bench in a garden, presumably reciting verses to a young girl (Beatrice ?) and a couple of young men who are posed at the other end. Cabanel's youthful Dante is in no sense Dantesque. This description of his picture is based upon an engraving signed ' Alex Cabanel ' and ' A. Huot ' (the engraver), published by Knoedler (not dated). Under the main engraving is a small engraving of Dante's head from Raphael's Disputa. CLOVIO, GIULIO (1498-1578), the 'piccolo e nuovo Michelagnolo ' (Vasari). See Volkmann, pp. 87-90. Clovio is alleged to have completed the illuminating of the MS. Urlj. 365, Vatican. COMTE, PIERRE CHARLES (1823-95), exhibited his painting Le Dante at the Salon of 1 8 7 8 . A party of aristocrats, with four or five musical instruments, sitting on the bank of a river, seem suddenly to have become aware of the presence of Dante in a forest (presumably the Pine Forest of Ravenna) on the other side. An interesting fact concerning this picture is that the main figure in it is so small and so vague that it was not really necessary for the artist to adopt any particular type. None is discernible. Photographed by Goupil & Cie. CORNELIUS, PETER VON (1783-1867). Cornelius went to Rome in 1 8 1 1 ; there he became the teacher or adviser of various other German artists who, sooner or later, portrayed or illustrated Dante. In 1 8 1 6 he produced a Dante more or less akin to Raphael's types and to the Naples bust. Cornelius also illustrated the Commedia with a few drawings used for frescoes on a ceiling of the Villa Massimi at Rome. See specimens of his Dante portraiture in Umrisse zu Dante's Paradies ; mit erkldrendem Texte von J. Dsltinger, Leipzig [1830], with nine plates, and Kraus, pp. 625-6, by whom Cornelius is ' starred.' COROT, J.-B. (i 796-1 875). Corot spent two years in Italy, mainly at Rome (1825-7). His Dante et Virgile, an oil-painting, was exhibited at the Salon of 1 859 ; it is now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass. Dante and Virgil are seen entering Hell. This Dante is thin-faced, with a hooked nose and very large eyes ; type not clearly traditional. Photo. by Braun, Clement & Cie. (now Adolphe Braun & Cie.). COURTOIS, GUSTAVE (1852- ), a pupil of^G6r6me, exhibited his Dante et Virgile aux Enfers in 1880. Dante in the Ice Hell. Disputa type. DELACROIX, EUGENE (i 798-1 863). Dante et Virgile conduits pat 227 PORTRAITS OF DANTE PhiigiaSy traversant le ac qui entoure les murailles de la ville infernale de Dite. This large oil-painting, now at the Louvre, is probably the work thus referred to in a letter dated April 15, 1821 (1822 ?), and addressed to Ch. Soulier : ' . . . je sors d'un travail de chien qui me prend tous mes instants depuis deux mois et demi. J'ai fait dans cet espace de temps un tableau assez considerable qui va figurer au Salon.' From his own words it is clear that Delacroix was ardently planning to visit Italy within a short time, but what had led him to choose this subject and to what extent he had studied Dante I do not know. The painting was duly exhibited in 1822 and immediately aroused a conflict between the Romantics and the Classicists, by whom it was respectively lauded and cried down. The ' vested interests ' (in this case the Classicists) succeeded for a while in forcing Delacroix to derive his income wholly from private collectors and in otherwise thwarting him ; but his victory came with that of the other Romantics. Delacroix's Barque de Dante (to use its popular name) is in fact Romantic, not only in theme but in drawing and pigments ; it may even be called the first great creation of that new school in France. The scene so dramatically illustrated by Delacroix occurs in the eighth canto of the Inferno. While Dante and Virgil are crossing the Stygian marsh, ferried by Phlegias, wrathful demon, their boat is grasped by one Filippo Argenti. According to Dante, Virgil thrust this accursed spirit back into the marsh ' among the other dogs ' ; according to Delacroix, Virgil stands in the middle of the boat, while Dante, recoiling toward him in horror or aversion, is standing, with his right hand raised, almost over Argenti, who with teeth and hands is fiercely clutching the stern. The type adopted or devised by Delacroix is hard to classify. He could not have used Giotto's portrait (discovered in 1 840), but may have been acquainted with some replica or drawing of the Naples bust, or with a copy of some other old portrait showing a correct costume and a plausible type. His Dante is rather too elderly (forty or more .''), and if the face could be stripped of all suggestive accessories and be thus put before even a learned jury for identification, I am not sure that they would immediately say, 'That is the face of Dante'; nevertheless the whole portrait is notable for its Dantesque energy and content. Delacroix's painting apparently influenced Dora's conception of the same scene, but Dor^ is somewhat truer to Dante's text. DORE, GU STAVE (1833-83). Dor6 was asked by Hachette & Cie. to illustrate Dante. He ' fell to with ardour and composed one after another 76 drawings to accompany a luxurious edition of the Inferno^ and 60 large pages for the Purgatorio and Paradiso. The book appeared in 1 861.' (Ren6 Delorme, Gustave Dori : Peintre, Sculp teur, Dessinateur et Graveur, Paris, 1879, p. 22). Dore's painting, Le Dante et Virgile sur Tetang glad (among the traitors to their country), was shown at the Salon of 186 1. Jerrold says : ' The immense canvas on which Dore set forth Dante and Virgil, in the awful gloom and desolation of the frozen circle of Hell, 228 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE where Virgil meets Ugolino [sic], was on too vast a scale.' He adds in a note that ' It now [1891] adorns a music hall in New York.' It had been exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. (Blanchard Jerrold, Life of Gustave Dori, London, 1891 ; on Dante see chap. vii. pp. 107-21.) Dor6's genius particularly suited him to illustrate the Inferno, and his conceptions, weird, terrible, and often full of poetic grandeur, are generally true to Dante's text ; and whatever may be said of their technical merits or defects, no other series of illustrations to Dante is so well known in so many countries. In most of these drawings Dante appears, and when his features are discernible they are consistently akin to the Naples bust. The head used as a frontispiece to the Inferno (woodcut, dated 1 8 60) exaggerates the severity of expression, imparting to the face contortions which seem to connote sourness and ill-borne disappointments, whatever character Dor6 may have meant to imply. Whether Dor6 knew or did not know Giotto's portrait, he does not show its influence. His Dante is always elderly (that is, well beyond thirty-five) and almost invariably wears the laurel wreath — a purely fictitious symbol, for Dante wore no laurel crown, so far as is known, till he lay in his coffin ; yet most illustrators of the Commedia have thus symbolised his chief vocation. See Kraus, p. 636, and Volkmann, pp. 137-9- ELLIOTT, JOHN (1858- ), an American painter of English birth, executed before 1897 his Dante in Exile. Type : Kirkup's mask. Copley print. EMLER, BONA VENTURA (1831-62). According to Volkmann, Emler chose Dante's three kingdoms as a subject for three comprehensive representations, allowing himself to be influenced by Signorelli, Rafiael and DUrer. Dante Alighierts Gnttliche KomSdie in Zeichnungen, nach den Originalcartons im Besitze des KSnigs Johann von Sachsen photographirt von H. Hanfstaengel (letterpress by Karl Witte), Dresden [1867]. FABRTS, DOMENICO (fl. 1840-2), mixed and remade various old portraits. See Volkmann, pp. 1 1 1—2. FEUERBACH,ANSELM (1829-80). About 1857 Feuerbach had begun to melt over Dante. The results of his emotions and of his studies were embodied in two paintings which concern us. Dante mit edlen Frauen in Ravenna, now in the Gallery at Karlsruhe, shows the poet walking with five fair ladies in a garden by a stream. One, Dante's daughter Beatrice, who was still living at Ravenna as a nun in 1350, is resting her head wistfully on his shoulder ; another, behind him, is about to crown him with a sprig of laurel. Feuerbach's Dante is the Naples bust, broadened across the face, and possibly more or less influenced by the type in Raffael's Disputa. In 1858 Feuerbach portrayed Dante's death (the Madonna appears to him in the form of Beatrice) ; about 1897 this work was in the possession of Herr Wesendonck, Berlin. Both Kraus and Volkmann regard the Feuerbach idyll as a masterpiece. 229 PORTRAITS OF DANTE FLANDRIN, JEAN HIPPOLYTE (1809-64), a pupil of Ingres. Dante aux Enfers (Lyons Museum), a painting, seems to have been executed in Italy, shortly before 1835 ; s°j too> his Dante dans le cercle des envieux (Lyons Museum). Type : not traditional. FLAXMAN, JOHN (i 755-1 826). La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri^ &c. Rome, 1793. Some iii outline drawings, engraved by Tommaso Piroli. These illustrations, which had in their time a vogue comparable to that of Dore's, seventy years later, are distinctly sculptural and pseudo-classic, bearing a close resemblance in treatment to Flaxman's slightly earlier illustrations to Homer, Hesiod, and jEschylos. They have nothing in common with the Middle Ages. When Flaxman's Dante is strongly characterised, it is generally a large-nosed type with a protruding lower lip and a forceful chin, possibly influenced by Raflfael's Disputa portrait, but hard to classify. According to Kraus, ' Flaxman's Dantetypus wird gelegentlich einmal einem modernen Stutzer verzweifelt ahnlich (zu Purg. 9).' Regarded from a purely modern point of view, Flaxman's Dante, like his other figures for the Divina Commedia, is constantly on the verge of caricature. Like Dor6, and like most of Dante's illustrators, Flaxman depicts too old a Dante — the Dante of the Commedia, portrayed as a witness of the scenes he describes, should be represented as of about thirty-five years of age. Cf. Volkmann, pp. 95-97, and Kraus, p. 624. FUERICH, JOSEPH RITTER VON (1800-76). In 1865 Farich produced a Dante resembling the Naples bust accentuated. GENELLI, BUONA VENTURA (i 798-1 868), visited Italy in 1820, became acquainted there with Koch and MoUer, executed 36 outline illus- trations to the Commedia, occasionally following the Naples bust for his type ; see, e.g., the drawing for Purg. ix. 19-30. Umrisse zu Dante's Gsttlicher KomSdie, unter Leitung des KUnstlers gestochen von H. Schutz. Neue Ausgabe mit erlUuterndem Textin deutscher,italienischer undfranzSsischer Sprache, herausgegeben von M. Jordan. Leipzig, 1867. 36 plates. GEROME, jean LEON (i 824-1 904). Voilh celui qui va en enfer etqui en revient—zn oil-painting illustrating the legend recorded as a fact by Boccaccio in his life of Dante (§ viii.). G^r6me's Dante is of the heavy elderly type portrayed by Raffael. Engraving by Levasseur, 1870, pub- lished by Goupil & Cie. GREINER, otto (stated in the latest edition of ff^er ist's ? to have been born in 1859), executed before 1895 a pastel now in the Stadtisches Museum at Leipzig. Dante (in red) stands on the left ; Virgil (in white), on the left; devils are hurtling in mad flight through the air. In 1896 Greiner made an etching which illustrates the quarrel of the Malebranche {Inf. xxii.). Dante, who is looking on (left profile), is obviously copied from one of the so-called masks, and is therefore represented as not less than forty-five or fifty years of age, though the scene which he is witnessing is imagined to have occurred in 1300. Otherwise the episode is powerfully 230 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE executed and leads to the hope that this artist may give further attention to Dante. 5ef Volkmann, plate 17, and pp. 158-9. The etching was done from a water-colour executed at Rome in 1895 and now in the museum at Leipzig. HAMMAN, EDOUARD JEAN CONRAD (1817-88), Belgian painter, a pupil of Nicaise de Keyser [q. 1;.). Le Dante h Ravenne. En le voyant passer les femmes se disaient : Voilh celui qui revient de VEnfer — an oil- painting (1859) ; engraving by P. AUais. Type: RafFaelesque. HESS, HEINRICH (i 798-1 863). About 1838 Hess produced a Dante vaguely akin to the group Parnassus Dante — ' mask ' — Naples bust. See Kraus, p. 634. The original painting, dated 1838, was in the collection of Philalethes (King John of Saxony) at Dresden. HOLIDAY, HENRY (1839- ). According to Who's Who (191 1), this painter was ' early impressed with imagination and beauty of Pre- Raphaelite pictures ; kindly received by Millais, Rossetti, and Holman Hunt.' He painted in 1859 Dante s First Meeting with Beatrice when a Child. This, apparently, is not the Dante and Beatrice stated in the same book to have been bought by the Corporation of Liverpool. The painting in the Walker Gallery represents Dante standing at a corner of what is now the Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence. With one hand to his heart, and with an expression of agitation, he has his eyes fastened upon two young ladies (aged about eighteen and twenty) who are coming toward him along Lun- g'Arno, followed by a maid of twelve or thirteen years whose function in the picture is not plain. Holiday's Dante is distinctly akin to Giotto's, with which he may have been acquainted by Rossetti. The scene here portrayed is presumably that which Dante describes in the f^tta Nuova, % 3 ; whereas the other work presumably portrays the meeting which occurred nine years earlier (in 1274), when Dante was nine years old and Beatrice was about at the beginning of her ninth year {Vita Nuova^ § 2). According to Dante, when he first saw Beatrice ' her dress . . . was of a most noble colour, a subdued and goodly crimson, girdled and adorned in such sort as best suited with her very tender age.' (Rossetti's translation.) Nine years later, * it happened that the same wonderful lady appeared to me dressed all in pure white, between two gentle ladies elder than she. And passing through a street, she turned her eyes thither where I stood sorely abashed : and by her unspeakable courtesy, which is now guerdoned in the Great Cycle [Heaven] she saluted me with so virtuous a bearing that I seemed then and there to behold the very limits of blessedness. The hour of her most sweet salutation was certainly the ninth of that day [early in the afternoon : about three o'clock ; but that depends upon the season],' &c. This has been often reproduced and is a favourite in English-speaking countries. About 1875 Mr. Holiday exhibited at the Royal Academy a ruU-face portrait of Dante, based on one of the ' masks ' ; reproduced in colour by Hanfstaengel. INDIA, BERNARDINO {c. 1535-c. 1590). This artist is said to 231 PORTRAITS OF DANTE have executed in 1572 a painting once in the collection of Count Daniel Lisca of Verona, where Bernardino is said to have been born. What has become of the original I do not know ; what is apparently the oldest extant copy is a copperplate engraving which serves as the frontispiece of the Commedia o( ijljy CominOyl'a.dua. : ' Dantes Alighierivs. Ex pinacotheca comitis Danielis Lisca, patricii veronensis, pictus quondam a Bernard[i]no India celebri pic[to]re. Mich. Angelus Cornale del. M. Heylbrouck sculp.' The type found or devised by Bernardino represents Dante with an extraordinarily hooked nose and with an abnormally big blazing eye. The head-gear is akin to that of the Naples bust and of the miniature Riccard. 1 040, from one of which, if not from some analogue, Bernardino may have drawn this profile portrait. Volkmann thinks that this work dominated in the eighteenth century, whilst Morghen's engraving held sway till Giotto's fresco was discovered. However that may be, these and a few other well- known types {e.g., the Naples bust) recur in a good many editions of the Commedia, or works on Dante, published in the nineteenth century. See Bertini, G. (above). IRVING, SIR HENRY (1838-1905). In 1903 this celebrated actor offered in Sardou's play a notably Dantesque living picture of Dante, being fitted for this part by a certain resemblance to the ' mask ' and to the Naples bust. A drawing of Irving in this r6le, by Charles Buchel, was reproduced in Harpers Weekly in November 1903 (pp. 170-3). Another drawing, from life, by Kate Rogers Nowell, was reproduced in the Critic (N.Y.C.), December 1 903 (p. 545), and these were by no means all. KEYSER, NICAISE DE (1813-87), Belgian painter. Dante at the Studio of Giotto — a painting shown at Antwerp in 1861. Dante stands with his right hand on Giotto's shoulder. Type (profile) more or less akin to Bargello portrait, but vague. KIRKUP, SEYMOUR (1788-1880). Besides having done more than any other man toward discovering and preserving (by his various sketches) Giotto's portrait of Dante, Kirkup left several drawings of other old portraits (all in outline) and a few illustrations to the Commedia, executed at various periods. All these, notwithstanding their smallness, give an impres- sion of immensity. Wherever Dante's features can be discerned, they are plainly derived from Giotto. Kirkup's sketches are preserved in the forms described in chapter ix. of this book, in vol. iii. of Lord Vernon's Inferno (1865), and in an undated Album which bears no title. KOCH, JOSEPH ANTON (1768-1839). Koch devoted a good part of his life to Dante and left a multitude of drawings in which Dante is portrayed, some of them in the library of the Akademie der bildenden Kunste at Vienna, others in the Secundogenitur-Bibliotek at Dresden ; still others were not long since in the possession of Freiherr von Marschall in Karlsruhe, in the Ferdinandeum at Innsbruck, and in the museum at Stuttgart. In Koch's drawings Dante is not less dramatically conceived 232 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE than the other characters whose actions he witnesses. The type portrayed by Koch shows familiarity with RafFael's portraits (which Koch must often have studied during his long sojourn in Rome), and possibly with the Naples bust. See Volkmann, pp. 100—4, ^" Berlin, 1901. See also a series of illustrated articles in the Monatsberichte iiber Kunstwissenschafl und Kunsthandel, IVIunich, 1901-02. I. 'Dantes Portrait in der litterarischen Ueberlieferung ' (Aug. 1901, pp. 455-58) : II. 'Dantes Portrait in der bildenden Kunst' (Sept. 1 90 1, pp. 490-95) ; 'Der Dantekopf in der zeitgenOssischen Kunst' (Jan. 1902, pp. 2—4 ; then pp. 53-54) : HI. 'Das Dantebild vom Beginn des Quattrocento,' &c. (1902, pp. 319-22). La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata. See Index. Landor, W. S. See Index. Lane, W. C. ' Note on the Portraits of Dante contained in this collec- tion ' [at Harvard University]. See The Dante Collections in the 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY Harvard College and Boston Public Libraries^ Cambridge, Mass., 1890. (The author deals with some twenty-five works or more, and with many reproductions or adaptations.) Lassels, Richard. See Index. Latilla, Eugenio. See Index. Lindsay, Lord. See Index. LipPMANN, F. Zeichnungen von Sandro Botticelli zu Dante's Goettlicher Komoedie nach den Originalen im K. Kupferstichkabinet %u Berlin, &c. Berlin, 18 84-1 8 87, with an Erkldrende Beschreibung vthich is followed by reproductions of the cuts in the 148 1 Commedia. All Botticelli's drawings for the Commedia were faithfully reproduced on unattached sheets for this work. They average about 32 centimetres high by 58 wide. See Index, under, ' Botticelli.' LocELLA, G. Dante in der deutschen Kunst ; 20 Handzeicknungen deutscher KUnstler zu Dante's Gsttlicher KomSdie nebst 4 Dante-Portraits; mit erlclutemdem Text. Dresden, 1890. LuNGo, I. DEL. Deir Esilio di Dante, Florence, 1881. Lyell, Charles. The Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito, London, 1842. See Index. Macau lay, T. B. See Index. MacrI-Leone. Vita di Dante (critical edition of Boccaccio's Trattatello), See Boccaccio. Manetti, Giannozzo. (i) Specimen . . . sive Vitae Dantis, Petrarchae, ac Boccaccii, . . . recensente L. Mehus, Florence, 1747. (2) Same in Mehus edition of F. Villani's Liber, &c,, 1847. (3) ^^ antico Manoscritto latino che contiene le vite di. Dante, &c., volgarizzato da d. M. Granata, . . . Messina, 1838. Manni, Domenico Maria. Notizie di Antonio Pucci, &c. See Index, under ' Manni.' Marcellino, Fra. See Index. Mazzuchelli, G. M. See Villani, F. Mehus, L. See Manetti. Mesnil, J. See Index. Mestica, G. * San Francesco, Dante e Giotto,' in Nuova Antologia for May and June 1 8 8 1 . Mi LAN ESI, Gaetano. See Vasari. MiLANESi, Gaetano, and Passerini, Luigi. (i) 'Lettera al Ministro della pubblica istruzione sul piix autentico ritratto di Dante.' (2) ' Del ritratto di Dante nella cappella del Potest^ in Firenze, attribuito a Giotto. Seconda memoria della commissione incaricata dal Ministero della pubblica istruzione delle ricerche sul piii autentico ritratto di Dante.' In Giornale del Centenario, 1 864-1 865, Nos. 17, 37, 38. {See also Negroni, Carlo.) (3) ' Del ritratto di Dante Alighieri che si vuole dipinto da Giotto nella cappella del Potesta di Firenze ; memoria 249 PORTRAITS OF DANTE presentata al Minlstro della pubblica istruzione in risposta alle opposi- zioni fatte al Rapporto intorno al piii autentico ritratto di Dante,' Florence, 1865. (Reproduced in Milanesi's edition of Vasari, vol. i. pp. 413 fF.) Michel, A. See Index. MissiRiNi, Melchior. Alcuni Scritti relativi a Dante Alighieri, Milan, 1844. Dell ^ Amore di Dante Alighieri e del ritratto di Beatrice Portinari, Florence, 1832. Delle Memorie di Dante in Firenze, &c., Florence, 1830. Moisfe, FiLippo. Santa Croce, Florence, 18 15. MooRE, Edward. Dante and his Early Biographers, London, 1890. See Dante Alighieri. Morel, Camille. Une Illustration de VEnfer de Dante : LXXI miniatures du XV' siecle, Paris, 1896. See Index, under, ' Morel.' Moreni, Domenico. See Index. MoscHETTi, R. The Scrovegni Chapel, &c. (Cook's translation), Florence, 1907. MuRATORi. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. See Ricobaldi, Savonarola, M., and Villani, G. Negroni, Carlo. Del ritratto di Dante Alighieri; memoria con documenti, Milan, 1888. (Negroni reprints joint reports by Milanesi and Passerini.) Neues Allgemeines Kiinstlerkxikon, Munich. See Index, under ' Morghen.' NicoLucci, GiusTiNiANo. II Cranio di Dante Alighieri, kttera . . . all'illustre antropologo Sig. Dr. F. Pruner-Bey, Parigi [Naples, 1866]. NoRTHALL, John. See Index. Norton, C. E. On the Original Portraits of Dante, Cambridge (Mass.), 1865. Nugent, Thomas. See Index. Ottimo Commento, 1827-29. See Index. Palermo, Fr. Manoscritti Palatini di Firenze, vol. i., Florence, 1853 ; vol. ii., i860. Palgrave, Sir Francis. See Index. Palmerini, Niccolo. See Index. Papa, Pasquale. ' I ritratti di Dante in Santa Maria Novella ' in Giornale Dantesco, 1902. See Index, under 'Papa, Pasquale.' Parodi, E. G. La data della composizione e le teorie politiche deW Inferno e del Purgatorio di Dante, Perugia, 1905. See Index, under * Parodi.' Passavant, J. D. Raphael dUrbin et son Pere Giovanni Santi, Paris, i860. Passerini, G. L. Pel ritratto di Dante, Florence, 1903. Passerini, Luigi. See Milanesi, G., and Passerini, L. Paur, Theodor. ' Dante's Portrat ' (in the Jahrbuch der Deutschen Dante- Gesellschaft for 1869, vol. ii.) PiRATi. See Index. Perkins, F. M. See Index. Petrarca, F. See Index. 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY Pucci, Antonio. Centi/oquio, canto 85, ed. by Cesare Guasti. See Guasti. Sonnet on Giotto's portrait of Dante, in D'Ancona's In Lode di Dante, Pisa, 1868. See D'Ancona, Alessandro, and Index, under 'Pucci.' Rambaldi, Benvenuto (da Imola). Comentum super Dantis Aldigheri^ Comoediam^ ed. by J. P. Lacaita for Lord Vernon, Florence, 1887. Rassegna d' Arte. See Index. Ratti, a. See Index. Ray, John. See Index. Relazione delta Commissione governativa eletta a verificare ilfatto del ritrovamento delle ossa di Dante in Ravenna, Florence, 1865. Repertorium fUr Kunstwissenschaft. See Index. Ricci, Corrado. U Ultimo Rtfugio di Dante Alighieri, Milan, 1 891. See also Index, under ' Ricci.' Richardson, Jonathan. See Index. RicoBALDi. See Index. Rossetti, Gabriele : A Versified Autobiography, ed. by W. M. Rossetti, London, 1901. Rossetti, Maria Francesca. A Shadow of Dante, London, 1871. Rossetti, W. M. (i) Dante Gabriel Rossetti, London, 1895 (contains brief notes on Kirkup). (2) The Rossetti Papers, 1862 to 1870, London, 1903, contain valuable letters from Kirkup and various statements about him. See Rossetti, Gabriele, and Index, under * Rossetti.' Rostagno, E. See Boccaccio. Sauro, Giovanni. 5^^ Index. Savonarola, M. See Index. ScHUBRiNG, P. See Index. Selfe, Rose, and Wicksteed, P. H. Selections from the First Nine books of the Croniche Fiorentine (of G. Villani), Westminster, 1896. Selincourt, B. de. See Index. Smith, J. R. The Earliest Lives of Dante, New York, 1904. Solerti, Angelo. Vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, &c., Milan, 1904. Springer, A. Raffael und Michelangelo, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1895. Spectator, The, London. See Index, under Spectator. Starke, Mariana. See Index. SupiNO, I. B. (For some time Conservatore del Museo Nazionale del Bargello.) ' II ritratto di Dante,' in Strenna Dantesca, Florence, 1902, pp. 51-55. (This writer explains that the Dante portrait which he shows is Kirkup's, the Arundel print. His article ends with these words : ' Una macchia informe si vedri solo fra non molto tempo coli dove rifulse la pensosa e verace imagine di Dante giovane.') Thode, H. Giotto, Bielefeld, 1899. ToYNBEE, Paget, (i) Dante in English Literature, 2 vols., London, 1909. (Reprints the original text of letters, &c., used in this work.) (2) A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the fVorks of Dante, PORTRAITS OF DANTE Oxford, 1899. (3) In the Footprints of Dante, London, 1907. (4) Dante Alighieri: his Life and Works, London, 19 10. See Index, under ' Toynbee.' University of Pennsylvania. Album, containing drawings by Kirkup, mostly relative to Dante. See Index, under ' Kirkup.' Vasari, Giorgio. Vite, &c., pub. by Le Monnier, Florence, 1 845 iF. ; ed. by G. Milanesi, Florence, 1878 fF. Venturi, a. Storia delVarte italiana, vol. v., Milan, 1907. See also an article on ' Dante e Giotto ' in the Nuova Antologia for Feb. 1 6, 1 900. Vernon, G. J. V. (Lord). Inferno, vol. iii. (Album), London, 1865. (This volume contains many valuable reproductions and various important statements bearing on Dante iconography.) Vernon, W. W. Readings on the Purgatorio, vol. i., and . . . Paradiso, vol. i., London, 1907 and 1909 ; also personal letters to myself. See Index, under ' Vernon, W. W.' ViLLANi, FiLipPo. Le Vite d'Uomini Illustri Fiorentini, ed. by Mazzuchelli, Venice, 1747, and Florence, 1826. Liber de [origine'] civitatis Florentine [et eiusdem] famosis civibus, ed. by G. C. Galletti, Florence, 1847. For Villani's chapter ' De Cimabue, Giocto, Maso, Stephano, et Taddeo pictoribus ' see Frey's edition oi 11 Libra di Antonio Billi, Berlin, 1892, PP- 73-74- ViLLANi, Giovanni. Cronica (in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores). The text of G. Villani's notice of Dante is given also in Angelo Solerti's Vite, &c., and in various editions of Villani's Cronica. Villari, Pasquale. Storia di Firenze, Florence, 1905. VoLKMANN, LuDWiG. Iconografia Dantesca, Leipzig, 1897. Wadding, Luke. First compiler of Annates Minorum. See Index, s.h.v. Welcker, Hermann. ' Der Schadel Dantes ' (in Jahrbuch der Deutschen Dante-Gesellschaft, vol. i.). Welcker's article reappeared in English in an open letter to J. B. Davis, Halle, July 30, 1866 (16 pp.). This letter is followed by remarks signed J. B. D. Wicksteed, P. H. Early Lives of Dante, L.ondon, ii)o^. 5^/? also Selfe, R. WicKSTEED, p. H. and Gardner, Edmund G. Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio, London, 1902. WiTTE, Karl. ' Die Todtenmaske, das florentiner Frescobildniss und die Kiste des Frate Santi ' in Jahrbuch der D. Dante-Gesellschaft, 1867. (A good article, though largely superseded.) Wright, Edward. See Index. 252 INDEX [This index is supplemented by the summaries at the beginning of the chapters. As the Descriptive Catalogue is arranged alphabetically it is referred to here only in important cases.] AcciAjuoLi, N., 169 Acquasparta, 106, 140 Age (date) of portraits, i, 5 Age represented by Giotto's Dante, 78, 84, 85, 107, 141-2 Albertina sketch, 201, 202 Albini, G., 22 *, 216-8 Alexander, Czar, 211 Allegoria della Religione Cattolica, fresco, i59t Allegrini, F., engraver, 184 J Allegrini, G., author, 184 Altafronte, castle, 148 Alvisi, E., 30 Amor Platonico, Rossetti's, 91 Amoroso Convivio of 1 52 1, 8 Ancona. See D'Ancona Andrea del Verrocchio, his casts, 41 Angelico, Fra Giovanni, 181, 192 Annales Minorum, 1 22, 123*, 1 23 t, 1 24 Annual Report of the Dante Society, 74 1, 128 t Annunziata, Order of the, 149 1 Anonymous poem on Dante's looks, 28 *, 136 t Anselm, St., 218 Apollo, Raffael's, 198, 199; 'Un Apollo coUe fattezze di Dante,' 78 Apples. See Pomegranates Ardinghelli Chapel, 170* Arena Chapel, 124, 128 Arezzo, 125 Ariosto portrayed, 199 Aristotle portrayed, 196 Arronzinati cappuccetti, 1 76 1 Arundel Print, 40 1, 90, 92, 93, 97, 100-3, 107. '44, 149 +> 215 Arundel Society, 93, 194, 202*, 216 Assisi, frescoes at, 121 ; Giotto at Assisi, 122-7 ' portrait of Dante at Assisi, 126 Athenaum, The, 79, 83, 161, 176, 21 5, 233 Athens, Duke of, 76 Aureolas, ' raised aureolas ' detected by Bezzi, 87 Authenticity, i, 3 Authorities on Dante's looks, 5 Authorship of portraits, 5 Auvray, L., 13 Babilonia, D^ B. infernal/, 128 Badia, Jodoco del, II9§ Baldinucci on Giotto, 124-5 Baldovinetti, A., 170, 173-4, 176, 179 Balzo, Del, 173* Bargello. See Palazzo del Podesti Bargoni, official, 149 1 Barker, William, 177 Barlow, H. C, on discovery and loss or Giotto's Dante, 83-84, 89 * ; on Orcagna's Dante, 161 ; on Michelino's Dante, 176-7 Baroncelli Chapel, 156, 157* Barone, G., 25 * Barrington, Mrs. R., 159 note Bartoli, A., on Palatine miniature, 70 Bartolini, Lorenzo, 48, 88 ; on Torrigiani mask, 44-45 Batines, C. de, 13 t, 191 t, 192 *, 219, 221 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Beard, Dante's, 19-21 Beatrice, 19, 20, 74 §, 81, 92, ill, 141, 162, 199, 231 Bechi, G., on Naples Bust, 57 * Beltrani, V., 67 t, 73-74 Bembo, Bernardo, 49, 51, 53 Benvenuto da Imola. See Rambaldi Berenson, B., ii3§ Berger, E., 42 * Berthier, G., 168 Bertozzi, Prof., 31 Bezzi, Giovanni Aubrey, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80,81,82,84, 86, 87,88,96* Biagi, Guido, 65 t, 134*, I52t Bibi, daughter of Kirkup, 93 * Bibliografia Dantesca, I3t, 219 Billi, Antonio, 121 1, 122*, 123, 127 t, iS^t, 153-4, 161*, 1641,165 t, 170* Bisticci, v.. Ill *, 152* Blessington, Lady, 180 Blind, K., 165 t Boccaccio, G., 10, 16-19, 25-26, 29 1, 58-59, 62, 71, III*, 143, 157, 158, 164-5, 169, 175, 199, 216 Bock, E., 143 J, 188* Boethius, 23 * ' Bon fresco,' 91 Bondone, father of Giotto, 1 19 § Bonichi, B., 65 Boniface VIII., 121, 123, 124, 127, 128, 196 Booth, W. S., 2 * Bottari, 41 Botticelli, 187-90, 203* Bovio, M., 7 Boxhorn, M. Z., 54-55 Braccioforte, 30-31 Bramante, 126, 196 British Museum MSS., 13 t, 222 Brockhaus, H., 34 1 Brown, J. W., 161 *, 162 t Brunelleschi, 41, 173 Bruni, Lionardo, 18*, 25, (called 'L. Aretino') 78 ; see also 151, 152 Buchel, C, artist, 232 Buon Governo, II, fresco, 167 Buonajuti, artist, 68 *, 69 Buriesi, M., 66 Burlington Magaxine, 1 69 * Buti, Fr. da, 126 Cadell, traveller, 180 Cal6,G., 1331,134* Camera della Segnatura, 196, 202 Campo Santo, at Pisa, and its frescoes, 1 1 5-6 Cancellieri, 127 * Cante de' Gabrielli, 108, no Cap. See Dante Cappella degli Spagnuoli, 158 1, 159 1 Carbone Maria del Nero, 38, 207 Carducci (family), 168, 169* Carducci, G., 23 t, 135, 165 t Carlyle, T., 182-3 Carmine, Chapel of the, 8 * Carri, A., sculptor, 64 * Cartwright, J. M., 108 * Castagno, A., dal, 168-71, 176 Castagnoli, artist, 211 Cathelin, engraver, 157 Cavalcanti, G., portrayed by T. Gaddi, 106, 155 ; by Vasari, 157 Cavalcaselle, G. B., 69 J, 79-82, 82 *, 96 * Cecco d'Ascoli, 165 t CeiFoni, B., 172 Cellini, B., 119, 176 t Cenriini, C, 41-44, 136 §, 143 *> 156 Centiloquio (by A. Pucci), 1 2 1*, 135 Cesi, Pier Donato, 47, 51 Chacon, A., 120, 122-3 Chambers, G. (?), 161 §, 165 Chambers, R. W., 85 * Charles of Lorraine, 157 Charles of Valois, 140 Charles I., Prince de Ligne, 201 * Chiappelli, A., 129, 165 t Chicanery and red tape, 88-89 Chiose sopra Dante, 120II Chrestien de Troyes, 24 note, and 218 Ciarla, Simonc, 196 Cimabue, 121, 139, 146, 158 1 Cinelli, G., 47-48, 78 Cino da Pistoia, 157, 158 Cione, chemist, 77 Cock, Hiros., 158 Colnaghi, picture dealer, 82 * Colour-schemes as clues, 167 * Colours. iS^^ Dante ComentOy Boccaccio's, 18, 164 Commedia of 1481, 190-2. See also Landino's Commedia INDEX Commedia of 1529, 10, II. See also Landino Commission appointed at instigation of Bezzi, 88 Compagni, Dino, 147 t Comparison of portraits, 7 Compendia, Boccaccio's, 16 * Congress of scientific philosophers, 81 Convivio, 142, 1 45 ; Kirkup's copy, 89-91, 99-101. See Amoroso Convivio Cornale, M. A., artist, 232 Cornell University, 10*, 11*. See Bibliography Cosimo I., 148, 159 Cosmi Venturi, 65 t Costume. iS^^ Dante Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 38, 98-99, 104 *, 107, no, 127, 143 t, 154 1, 203* D'Ancona, a., 67 1, 89, 93, 135, 136*, 1361, 137. 138,209-10 D'Ancona, Paolo, 65 t, 221 D'Ancona, Vito, referred to as ' an artist,' 39-40 ; see also 48, 95 %, 207- 8, and 225 Dante. His age in Giotto's portrait, 78, 107, 141-3 ; his bearing, 25-28 ; his bones, 29-35, 37, 172; his cap, 38, 44, 50, 59-60, 66, 71, 81, 98-99, 102, 126, 141, 162, 176, 176 1, 183, igi, 200; his colours, 81, 84, 91, 93*, III, 136-7, 141, 169, 175, 177, 199 1, 201; his costume, 28*, 38, 59-60, 71, 81, 91, 98-99, 102, 126, 141, 162, 175-6, 183, 191, 201 ; his eye (in Giotto's portrait), 81, 91 (see Nail-hole) ; his eyelash, 97 ; his hair, 16, 19-25, 71, 216-8 ; his ' head,' 47-49 ; his height, 16, 34 ; his neck (in Giotto's portrait), 145 j; his nose, 16, 18; his skull, 31-35, 44-51 ; his stoop, 164. (Other features will be found mentioned on many of the pages above noted.) Dante Aligier Cittadin Fiore\n'\tino, &c., Dante Gabriel Rossetti : His Family- Letters, 97 t Dante in English Literature, &c., see especially p. 177 Dante : sein Leben und sein Werk, 8 J, 220, and footnotes to pp. 12, 13, 58, 65, 68, 70, 103, 114, 116, 131, 167, 191, 196 Dantes De Alegieris Flore[n'\tini (sic), 169 Dantesque defined, 225 Danti Antigerio, 167-8 Davanzati, M., 65 Davidsohn, R., 119 § Davis, J. B., 34 t Death-masks, origin of, 40-44. See Torrigiani Dei, G. B., 184 Delaborde, art critic, 212 Delacroix, E., 168, 227 Delia plena e giusta intelligenza della D, C, Sec, 8 note Dictionnaire Historique, 158* Dino Compagni e la sua Cronica, 128 * Disputa, fresco, 196—8, 200-3 Divino Poet a, 185 Donatello, 59 Donati, Corso, 77, 95, 139-41 Dord, G. See Descriptive Catalogue, 228-9 ' Doubtless,' 4, 36 1 Douglas, L., 38 1, 143 t, 167 * D'Ovidio, F., 145* Droeshout. The Droeshout Portrait, Sec, 2* Dugdale, W., 2 *, 54 Dupr6, G., 67 t, 69, 241 Eastlake, Sir Chas,, 78, 79 Engravings of Dante, their value, 1 1 Esposizione Dantesca in Firenze, 57 *, 68 t Esterhazy, Prince, 211 Evidence, value of, 2 Examiner, The, 76 Extract from the Reminiscences of Baron Seymour Kirkup, 90 Eye. See Dante Fabriczy, C. von, 71 * Fabris, A., 48, 242 Faltoni, P., and his drawing, 71, 95, 101-3, 107, 143 t, 149 1 Farinata (degli Uberti), 168-9 Feroni. See Ferroni Ferrazzi, G. J., 167 *, 219, 221 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Ferri, F., 138* Ferroni, Paolo, 88 Ferrucci, 171* Ficino, M., 158, 177 Fidesmini da Varano, 115, 214 Filelfo, G. M., 78 Finzi, G., 24 Fire in Palazzo del PodestJ, 116-7, 148 1 Flaxman, J., 181, 230 Fleury, R. de, 104* Ford, Rev. Jas., 6 FSrster, E., 8, 116 * Forsyth, traveller, 180 Fougdres, G., i68-t- Fowler, M., 11*, 243 Francia, Francesco, 196 Franciosi, G., 91 *, 203 * Franco of Bologna, 12-13, ^4^ Frederick Duke of Urbino, 190, 199 1, 222 Frescoes, 143* Frey, C, 113 1, ii6t, 129 1, 131 1, 153+, 157 *» 160* Fumi, L., 160*, 192 t Gabrible RossETTi : A Versified Auto- biography, 78 *, 85 §, 97 t, 141 * Gaddi, A., 42 Gaddi, Paolo, 32 t Gaddi, Taddeo, 67, 106, 127, 153-7 158, 159 t, 170 Galeries du Palais Royal, 157 Galleria Dantesca, 226 Gardner, Edm., 21, 106, 199* Gargani, G., 66 *, 66 J, 67 1 Gaston de Foix, 51 Gaye, G., 174*, 212 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 163 *, 1 7 1* Genga, G., 193* Gentili, T., 183! Ghiberti, L., 124, 125, 129*, 130 J, 133, 148, 153-4, 161* Ghirlandajo, D., 8, 203* Giacomino, Fra, 128 Giambologna (Giovanni Bologna, Gian Bologna), 47, 49, 51 Giardino, Pier, 17 Gillum, Col., 90-92, 99 Gillum, Mrs., 89 256 Giolito portrait, 6 Giornale Dantesco, 22 *, 25 *, 163 §, 165 t, 203 * Giornale del Centenario, 66 *, 67 notes, 69!, ii4t, list, 213 Giotto. See chapters ix.-xiv., passim (pp. 73-150), and particularly the following pages: 3, 5, 6, 18, 32, 33, 59*, 67, 69-72, 93, "O, "2, 113, 116, 130-1, 146, 152-6, 158 1, 167, 179, 184, 199, 201, 224-5, and Descriptive Catalogue, passim Giovane Italia, 84 Giovanni Bologna. See Giambologna Giovanni Minio de Muro (Giovanna della Marca), 123-4 Giudizio, fresco by Orcagna, 16 1-3 Giusti, G., 74 Giusto, Fra E. M., 127, note Government of Tuscany and Giotto's Dante, 75, 77-84, 90-91 Gozzoli, B., 168 Granata, Don M., 152-3 Grimm, H., 119, 145 t Gruyer, F. A., 198 Guadagni, Ottavia, 38, 207 Guasti, C., 75 J, 94, 138*, 156 note, 160*, 181 t, 21 1-2 Guesswork, 3 Guidarelli, 51 Guido Novello, 36, 53 Guido of Battifolle, 109 Guittone d'Arezzo, portrayed by Vasari, 157, 158 Hair, Dante's, 16, 21-25, 71, 216-8 Halsey, F. R., 186 Hamilton, Duke of, 188 Handbook for Travellers, &c., 181 Harris, G. W., 1 1 * Harvard University, 11 *, 191 Hawkwood, Sir John, 178, 180 Hawthorne, N., 208-10 Henry VII. of Luxemburg, 7 Herbert, J. A., 13 1, 222 Herringham, C, 42 *, 43 * Heylbrouck, M., engraver, 232 Historia Naturalis (Pliny's), 40 Historical methods, 2-3 INDEX History of the Antiquities of Warwickshirey 2 *. See Dugdale Hobhouse, B., i8o Hoc opus, meaning of, 1 15-6 Holbein, H., 146 Homer, 199 Horace, 23*, 199 1 Home, H. P., 169*, 188* Hutton, Edward, 145 * ICONOGRAFIA DaNIESCA, I3t, I08 *, 188*, 220 Identification by portraits, 2*. Identifica- tion of personages in RafFael's frescoes, 196, 199 t Ilg, A., 42* Illustration de FEnfer de Dante, line, 14 * Illustrations in MSS., 12-14, 219-23; in printed books, 6-12, 223-5 Imperia, 199 1 Impressionistic criticism, 4. See Style India, B., 223, 224 Ingres, J.-A.-D., 146 Irving, W., his account of the discovery of Giotto's Dante, 75-76 Italian Note-books, Hawthorne's, 211 Jacopo di Pagolo, 65 t Jahrbuch der Deutschen Dante-Gesellschaft, 8 t, 21 *, 28 *, 34 t, 35 *, 36 t, 99 * Jameson and Wilde, 79 Jarves collection of paintings, 185 Jongh, Johanna de, 171 * Julius, Pope, 197, 199 KiRKUP on Torrigiani mask, 38 1, 40 t ; quotes Cineili, 47-48 ; his supposition as to Giambologna, 49 ; his mask, 50, 59 ; his sketch (or Arundel print) and Palatine miniature, 71 ; he writes to Gabriele Rossetti about the discovery of Giotto's fresco, praising Bezzi, 78 ; offers to contribute money toward re- covery and restoration, 79 ; his garbled letteis to Cavalcaselle, stating the 'facts' of the discovery and depreciating the work of Bezzi, 79-82 ; styles himself 'first promoter' and 'discoverer,' 85- 86, 91; D'Ancona calls him 'the discoverer,' 89 ; his character, 86, 208- II (Appendix II.); his title, 90, 93*, 149 1, 210 ; he bribes a gaoler, 81, 84, 96, 149 1 ; he hopes to 'restore Dante to himself a second time,' 85, 149 1; speaks of the nail-hole in Dante's eye, 81, 84, 93 ; writes to Barlow, 83-84 ; writes to G. Rossetti, 85 ; sends G. Rossetti three portraits, 95 ; tells Mrs. Gillum how he made his colour-sketch, 89-90 ; tells Barlow about govern- ment's interference and Marini's 'resto- ration,' 89*; his relations with Col. Gillum, 90-92 ; his Convivio sold, 90 ; his letter to W. M. Rossetti, 92 ; his ideas as to the Florentines, 93 ; his letter to Col. Gillum, 97 ; gives a coloured drawing to G. Rossetti, 97 t ; his tracing, 90, 93, 95, 100, 209 ; his original colour-sketch presented to a Florentine museum, 99-100 ; his drawing of fresco of Paradise in Mad- dalena Chapel, 105 ; Kirkup on Or- cagna's 'Dante,' 161 ; his Sudbury drawing, 99, 216 ; his credibility, 208- 1 1 (Appendix II.) ; his miscellaneous Dante drawings, 232 ; his MS. of Pucci, 136!, 137 t Knickerbocker (magazine), 75 Koch,T.W.,45\ 74 1, 75*, 85, ,83t, 208, and Descriptive Catalogue, /ian/w Kraus, F. X., 8, 12, 13!, 51 note, 58 *, 69*, 1°, iSit. 157* 167*, 190 1, 191 *, 193 *, 196 t, 220, 225, and De- scriptive Catalogue, passim Krauss, I., 20, 58 1, 60, loi, 127 *, 154 1, 162, 166*, 167 Kugler's hand-book, 79 Kunst des Portrats, Die, 139 1 Lacaita, G. F., 55-56 Lancia, Andrea, 119 Landini. See Landino's Commedia Landino's Commedia, 10, 11, 180, igo-2, 193,223. Landino on Giotto's Dante, 138 t Landor, W. S., on discovery of Giotto's Dante, 76-78, 79 R 257 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Lasinio, P., engraver, 105, 174*, 181 1, 216 Lassels, R., traveller, 177 Last Judgement, fresco at Padua, 128. See Giudizio Latilla, E., on Kirkup, 79 Latini, B., 76, 95, 139-41, 184 Lavir forbidding pictorial decorations, 117 Lawrence, Thos., 8 Layard, Mr. (friend of Lord Vernon), 216 Lazzeri, G., 138* Legnaia, paintings at, 168 Leo X., 30 Leopold II., Grand Duke of Tuscany, relations to Giotto's Dante, 77, 79, 87-88, 90, 94, 144 note, 211 Libellus de Magn'ifich Ornamentis, &c., 124*, 129* Liber de Origtne, &c., 133-4 Libra de' morti, &c., 169 * Life and Times of Dante Qay R. H. Wilde), Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 159 note Likeness, i ; imaginary likenesses, 2-3 Lindsay, Lord, 74 Lip, Dante's lower, 11, 16. See also my characterisations of the various portraits, passim Lippmann, F., 187-90, 203* Lithography (lithograph), 85, 95-97 Litta, P., heraldic writer, 115 Littera Familiares, Petrarca's, 24 Liverati, C. E., 75 Livi, Giovanni, on oldest portrait of Dante (?), 222 Livy, artist, on Palatine miniature, 69 Lombard], Pietro, author of a low-relief portrait of Dante, 49, 53-56, 194 Lombardi, TuUio, and the Torrigiani mask, 51 J T. L. and the Naples bust, 63 Lorenz, Nicolaus, printer, 191 Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, 166-7 Lorenzo, Don, alleged author of a lost portrait of Dante, 1 70 * Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici, 187 Louvre portrait of Dante, 167-8 Luca Signorelli\ Illustrationen, &c., 1 93 * 258 Lucas van Leyden, supposed author of an alleged portrait of Dante, 7 Lucco, a kind of garment, 162 Lucifer, fresco in Maddalena Chapel, 104, 109, 112, 114, 147, 214 Lyell, Sir Chas., 39-40, 47, 95 J, 141, 207-8 Lysistratus of Sikyon, 40 Macaulay, T. B., on ' all the portraits ' of Dante, 15 Mac-Mechan, A., 183* Macrl-Leone, 16*, 17 t Macrobius, 129 * Maddalena Chapel, 78, 104-6, 131-3, 147, 154, 201. See Palazzo del Podesti Maggi, P., friend of Kirkup, 93 Manetti, A., 134, 138 1, 152-3 Manetti, G., 152 Manni, D. M., 135 t Manuscripts containing portraits of Dante, 12-14, 220-3 Manuscrits de Dante, Sec, 13 t Marcellino, Fra, 1 23 1 Marcucci, G., engraver, 202 * Margaritone of Arezzo, 41 Maria Theresa, 157 Marini, Antonio, 4, 96*, 149; his por- traits of Dante and Beatrice, 74 §; engaged to rescue Giotto's frescoes in the Maddalena Chapel, 75-76 ; Kirkup, Bezzi, and Wilde undertake to employ him, 78 ; his scafFold, 80 ; 'scolded' by Kirkup, 80 ; finds ' certain figures,' 81 ; instructed how to 'restore,' 81, 89 * ; fills the hole in Dante's eye, makes a new eye, and retouches ' the whole face and clothes,' 81 ; re- commended by Scotti, 83 ; goes to work, his scafFold and ' trussels,* is ' impertinent,' 83 ; he ages Giotto's Dante fifteen years, 85 ; is 'ordered' to restore, 85 ; ruins expression and likeness, 84, 85 ; uses ' bon fresco,' 85 ; praised by Bezzi, 88 ; his trestles, 90 ; his operations described by Kirkup to Col. Gillum, 90-91 ; he wishes to copy and engrave Giotto's portrait, *' INDEX to alter colours of ; is alleged to have 91 ; is ' ordered ' Dante's dress, 91 destroyed the pomegranates (see Pome- granates), 91 ; 'an ignorant and un- principled dauber,' 93 ; his talent lauded by Guasti, 94; he js charged with pulling out a nail (see Nail-hole), 97 ; 'sent away from Pisa,' 97 ; his responsibility re Giotto's fresco, 98 ; his ' restoration ' described by Paur, and by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 98-99 ; ruiner of Giotto's Dante, 100 ; described by Missirini, 103; 'restores' Miche- lino's Dante, 177; his character and ability, 75 J, 21 1-2; his ' restoration ' reproduced in books, 225. See also Descriptive Catalogue, passim Martinelli, T., 24 Martini, Luca, 157 Martirologio, Sec, 127 t ' Martyrdom of St. Peter,' fresco, alleged to contain a portrait of Dante, 8 t Mary Magdalen, 213-5 Marzocco, 165 t Masaccio, painter, 8 Matthews, traveller, 180 Maxima Biblioteca Patrum, 1 1 2 t Afazzocchio, 169 Mazzuchelli, 134* 'Mealy tempera,' 85 Meder, Josef, 201 * Medicean Academy, 30 Medici emblems (escutcheon), 191 Medici Prints, 177 * Mehus, editor, 152-3 Memmi, S., 158 t Memorial, Bezzi's, to the Grand Duke, Memoriali, Bolognese, contain the oldest portrait of Dante (?), 222 Menabrea, Prime Minister, 149 t Mesnil, J., 162 Mestica, G., quoted, 126 Method (in iconography), 4 Metropolitana Fiorentina lllustrata, La, 181 t Michel, A., i99t Michelangelo, 198; his funeral, I54t, 155 Michelino, Domenico di, 172-181 ; also 162, 169-70, 183, 185, 240-1 ; Miche- lino's portrait ' restored,' 91 ; its epigraph, 66 Migliorati (family), 65 t Milanesi, G., 67, 69-70, 1 13, 115, 1 19§, 137 +, 213 Milton, John, variation of copied por- traits of, I I Miniatures in MSS., 12-14, 219-23; in Landino Commedia, 191 Miracle of St. Francis, 127, 1 54-5 Missirini, M., 8 t, 74, 103, 161 Moise, F., 159* Molin, Ascanio, 7 Molini, Claudio, 188 Monatsberichte iiber Kunstwissenschaft, Sec, 20 1, 127*. See Krauss, I. Mondet, engraver, 157 Monmerqu6 and Michel, 218 Montalvo, Cav. Ramirez di, 97, 212 Monumenta Illustrium Firorum, 54 Moore, Dr. Edward, 38 * Moore, Morris, 168, 201 1 Moore, T., 180 Morel, Camille, 14 *, 161 § Moreni, D., antiquary, 74, 77, 79, 83 Morghen, R., engraver, 182-6 Morpurgo, S., 65 t, 133 t Moschetti, A., 124 t, 128, 129 Munich, sketch at, 8 Murray's Handbook, 181 Museo di Sant' Apollonia, 168 Nail-hole in eye of Giotto's Dante, 81, 84, 85, 91, 93, 94, 97 Naples bust, 26, 39, 50, 57-64, 65, 72, 171, 200-I, 224, and Descriptive Cata- logue, passim Nardi, C. M., 30 Nation, The (New York), i83t Naturale (with al, di, del), its meaning, 15 1 Neck. See Dante Negroni, C, 219 Neri, Antonio, 172 Neri di Bicci, painter, 174 Nerli, Marchese, 81, 88, 89*, 96, 149 Nero, Carhone Maria del, 38, 40 1 ; Palazzo del Nero, 39 Neues Allgemeines KUnstlerlexikon, 1 86 259 PORTRAITS OF DANTE New Observations^ Sec, 179 Nicolucci, G., 33, 38 * Nolhac, P. de, 163 Northall, J., traveller, 180 Norton, C. E., 14 t, 49-50, 64 *, 200 * Nose. See Dante Notizie, &c., Baldinucci's, 125 * Novati, F., 134* Nowell, K. R., artist, 232 (under Irving) Nugent, Thos., 179 Observations, &c., Ray's, 178 Oderisi d'Agobbio, 12-13, '^i t, 146 Olimpia, daughter of Kirkup, 93 * On the Original Portraits of Dante, Norton, 14 t, 51 *, 64*, 200* On the Vernon Dante, Barlow, 89 * 'Only copy,' Kirkup's, 79*, 100 Orcagna, A. or N., 18, 113, 129, 160-5, 178, 180, i8i, 190 Oriel College, Oxford, 157-8. S« Vasari Orleans, Dukes of, 157 Orvieto, 192 Ottimo Comento, 1 19 Pacchiani, chemist, 55 Padua, Dante at, 128-9 Palatine miniature, 68-72 Palazzo del Podesti, 3, 67, 76, 83, 86, 104, 117, 133. 134, 147. 148, 152-3, Palermo, F., on Palatine miniature, 68-69 Palgrave, Sir F., 181 Palimann, H., 8 * Palmerini, N., 186 Pandolfini (family), 168, 169* Panel (in Maddalena Chapel), 134-5 ; in Santa Croce, 155 Panzacchi, E., 203 * Papa, Pasquale, 25 *, 161 §, 161 ||, 165 t Paradise, Giotto's fresco of, in Palazzo del Podesta, 1 04-6 Parnassus [Parnasso), 196, 198-200 Parodi, E. G., 22*, 25* Passavant, J. D., 196 note, 203 * Passerini, G. L., 10*, 165 t) 179, I79* Passerini, L., 67, 69 Passerini and Milanesi, 213. See Milanesi 260 Paur, T., 36, loi, 115-6, 134*, 153*, 184, 213, 216 Pax, fresco at Siena, 166-7 Pedigree of various portraits, 72 Pel Ritratto di Dante, 10 *, 179 * P^rat^, A., 199 1 Perini, Dino, 17 Perkins, Chas., i3ot Perkins, F. M., 126 § Perugino, 126, 192 Petrarca, 24, 120, 136 J, 157, 163, 169, 198-9 Photograph of Dante's skeleton, 34-35 Photography as evidence, 2* Phrenology, 37 Pietro di Dante, 2i Pindar, 199 Piroli, T., engraver, 230 (under Flaxman) Pisa portrait, 167 Plato, 196 Pliny on death-masks, 40 Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito, &c., 141 t Poggi, A. di Leone, 17, 18, 164-5 Poggi, Giovanni, 39 * Politian (Poliziano), 158 Pollard, A. W., 190 Pomegranates, 91, 92 note, io6. III, 142 Pomo coronato, 91 Portraits in general, 1-2 ; portraits of Dante almost innumerable, 5, 219 Portraiture revived by Giotto, 139 Pouget, Bertrand du, 29-30, 1 10, 213 Princeton University's collection of death- masks, 44 Pruner-Bey, F., 33 Pucci, A., 120, 121, 135-8 Puglioli, Prof., 31 Qui CAELUM CECINET, &C., I78-9 Quincy, Quatrem^re de, 196 note Raffael, s, II, 61, 126, 168, 183 1, 195-203, 219, and Descriptive Cata- logue, passim Ragg, A., 118 Rajna, Pio, 65 1, 71*, 186, 214, 243 (under Zocchi) INDEX Rambaldi, Benvenuto R. da Imola, 41 *, 1 2 1-2 Ranalli, historian, 167 * Rand, E. K., 23 *, 131 * Rassegna d'Arte, II3§, l63t Ratione farni/iaritatisy 121 Ratti, A., 163 Ravenna, effigy at, 53-56 ; Ravenna has no old portrait of Dante, 56 t, 130 Ray, J., traveller, 178 Readings, &c. 5^^ Vernon, W. W. Regina, Kirkup's servant, 209-11 Relatione, &c., 31 t, 32*, 34, 44-47 Rembrandt, 146 Repertorium fUr Kunstwissemchaft, 1 27 note, 169 * Resemblance, i ' Restoration ' by Marini of Giotto's Dante, 80-99, passim ; restorations in general, 164 Riccardian miniature, 51-52, 60-62, 63, ^r-4;. 71, 171 ■Ricci Chapel, 160 Ricci, Corrado, 17 t, 29 notes, 30*, 32 notes, 34*, 35*, 38 1, 39*, 44-45, 49 1, 50-51, 53 1, 56 1, 63*, not, III*, 129, 130*, 166, 167*, 171*, 172*, 180* Ricci, Stefano, 48, 242 Richardson, J., 178 Ricobaldi, chronicler, 120, 129* Robert of Anjou, 213 Roscoe, T., 180 Ross, Janet, 148 Rosselli, Cosimo, 203 * Rossetti, Dante, 97 t. See also Descrip- tive Catalogue, 236-8 Rossetti, Gabriele, 39, 78, 81 *, 85, 91 Rossetti, M. F., 36-37 Rossetti, W. M., 78 *, 92-93, 95 t, 97. 149 t, 236-7 Rossetti Papers, 92, 93 * Rostagno, E., 16* Rumohr, 167 *, 212 Rusticucci, lacopo, ill SaGGIO Dt BlBLtOGRAFIA, I23 t Saint Patrick's Purgatory, 128 Salutati, C, 134' Salvetti, L., 48 Sanguigno, I36§, 169, 199! Sannazzaro, 199 t Santa Croce, 48, 83, 1 5 1-9, passim Santa Maria del Fiore, 172, i8i t Santa Maria in Porto, 166 Santa Maria Novella, 160 Santi, Frate Antonio, 34-35 note Santi, Giovanni, father of Rafiael, 203 * Sappho, 199 Sasso di Dante, legendary stone, 180 Sauro, Giovanni, 171 * Savonarola, G., 176 t Savonarola, M., chronicler, 124, 129* ScafFold. See Trestles Scartazzini, G. A., 235 (under Pinelli) SchaefFer, E., 169* Schedula, art treatise, 41 Schenck, E., 168 t Schubring, P., 126 § Scolari, F., 7 Scolari, F. (Pippo Spano), i68 Scott, F. N., 183* Scotti, L., 74 t, 83 Scrittura, meaning of, 137* Scrovegni Chapel, 124 t Scrovegni, E., 112, 128, 129 Scuola d'Atene, 126, 196 Seconds Commentario,Gbiherti's,^g*, I25*, I25t, 130t, 133*, 156 note, 161* See Ghiberti Selincourt, B. de, 126 Sensuality, Dante's, 58, 145 Serie di Ritratti, &c., 184 Sforza, Duchess, purloins Dante's ' head,' 48 Shadwell, C. L., 158 Shakespeare, 2 *, 92 Shelley, P. B,, 55 Sihilla Cumana, 169 Signorelli, L., 158-9, 192-4, 203*, 223 Simone of Siena, 120 Smith, James Clutterbuck, 158 Smith, J. R., 16*, 151* Societi Dantesca Italiana, 149 t, 220 Solerti, A., 11 * Some Letters of P. B. Shelley, 211 Some Observations, &c., 178 Some Reminiscences, &c., 211 Spanish Chapel, I59t, 199 261 PORTRAITS OF DANTE Spectator, The, 79, 82*, 96*, 165 note Spedding, J., on Macaulay, 15 Springer, A., 195, 196*, 197 *, 203* Starke, M., 180 Stefaneschi, Gaetano, 127 Strozzi Chapel, 161 Style as a criterion for determining dates and authorship, 4, 11 3-4, 118, 125, 181, 1 82, and passim Sudbury Hall, portrait at, 90, 99, 100 1 Symonds, J. A., on ' mask ' of Dante, 38 t Tacca, Pietro, and Dante's ' head,' 48 Talc, used by Kirkup for his tracing, 95 Tebaldi, C, 203 * Tedice de' Fieschi, 105, 116 Tempera, colours in, 85 Thl&tre Frarifais au Moyen-Age, 218 Theophilus, a monk. See Schedula Thode, H., 106 Time, reckoning of time according to Old Florentine Style, 148 * Tischbein's Goethe (painting), 235 Tivoli, Signor de, 80 Tofanelli, S., 183-6 Tondi at Orvieto, 193 Torrigiani, Carlo, 39 * Torrigiani, Luigi, 39 * Torrigiani, Pietro, 38, 39, 207-8 Torrigiani ' mask,' 5, 8, 32, 36-52, 59, 68, 141, 200, and Descriptive Cata- logue, passim Toynbee, Paget, 28 *, 32 *, 50 J, 89, 90* io8t, I2i§, 158*177,1831, 223, 241, 243 Tracing, Kirkup's. See Kirkup Trelawney, J., 21 1 Trestles, Marini's, 80, 83, 90 Tribuna, room at Uffizi, 184 Tribuna, painted by Giotto, 123 Triumph of St. Thomas, fresco, 157 * UccELLi, G. B., i48t Uccello, Paolo, alleged to have painted a Dante, 171 * Uffizi portraits of Dante, 184, 186 Value of various Dante portraits, 5 Varchi, B., 176 t 262 Vasari, G., on death-masks, 41 ; on Giotto's Dante, 78, 139-40 ; his ' baroque altars,' 83 ; on date of Giotto's birth, 120-1 ; on Giotto's wanderings and work, 124-5, 129- 130 ; mentioned, 148; on Gaddi's Dante, which he also ascribes to Giotto, 154-5; his own Dante, 157-9; his lack of the historical sense, 159; on Orcagna, 160-3 ; on A. dal Castagno, 169*, 170-1 ; on Botticelli, 187 ; on RaiFael's Vatican frescoes, 196. See also 86, 170 *, 171, 212 Velluti, Donate, 148 t Venantius, St., 105, 114-S, 213-4 Venturi, A., 112,113*, 129*, 130*, 131 1, 147 t, 156 1, 157* Vernon, G. J. V. (Lord), 89 *, 99, 100, 105, 144*, 181, 224. See Biblio- graphy Vernon, W. W., 90-92, 98 *, 99 1|, 100, 100 t, 209-10. See Bibliography Verona, Dante at 16-17 Veronica, 3> 37 . . Vespasiano da Bisticci, 1 1 1 *, 152 * Villani, Filippo, 21, 28*, 29, 78, 133, 134, 165 Villani, Giovanni, 26, 29, iio, Il6t, "9> 131. 143. H7t Villani, Matteo, 133 Villari, Pasquale, 92, 99, 140 t, 149 t Virgil, 199 Virgilio, Giovanni del, 21-23, no, 216- 7 Visione, anonymous poem on Dante, 136 J yita di Dante, Boccaccio's, 16, 17*, 17 t, 19, 29 t, 36 *, III *. See Boccaccio Vita gestaque omnia, &C., 1 22-3 Vita Nuova, 141, 142, 145, 198, and passim Volkmann, L., I2t, I3t, 108*, 188*, 220-3, and Descriptive Catalogue, passim Voyage of Italy, by Lassels, 177 Wadding, Luke, compiler, 122 Waetzholdt, W., 139 t Waldschmidt, W., 169 * Welcker, H., 33, 34, 45-46 Westminster Review, 165 t INDEX Whitewash on Giotto's frescoes, 77, 78, Woodcut of 1521, 10 ; woodcuts in 83. 87, 94, 148 general, 8, 10 Wicksteed, P., 16*, 21, 26*, 151 * Wright, E., 178 Wilde, Miss (daughter of R. H. W.), 208 Yale Dante, 183-6 Wilde, R. H., 74-75, 76* 78, 79, 80, 83, 86, 87, 89 * Zeitschrifi fur bild Kunst, 162 * Wilkins, E. H., 185 * Zenatti, O., 185 * William, Emperor, loi, 103* Zimmermann, M. G., 127 1 Witte, K., 34 1, loi Zocchi, G., artist, 184! Printed by BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS Tavistock Street Covent Garden London THE COLOURED PLATES IN THIS WORK HAVE BEEN ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY HENRY STONE AND SON, LTD. BANBURY *• • • • • ».*•• • ^^^s^^^^^^^s^s^^^^^ The above picture of DANTE AND HIS BOOK, etc., painted by Domenico di Michelino, by com- mand of the Republic of Florence, in 1465, after a design by Alessio Baldovinetti [see also the Coloured Plate at page 176 within] is reproduced as MEDICI PRINT XXI, dimensions 20 by 25 inches — printed colour surface. Price $12. FOSTER BROS., 4 Park Square, Boston, Mass. ^^olCl •^-cmv"^ \ ,lJ ^^tix-i3l^_ 14 DAY USE RBTURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is'due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. 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