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IIIMMIIItUIIIH: 111111111:, .mill ■ IIHIIIIIIHI IIIIHHilli: illlllltllltl KlliiMimm minimum 'iiiiliiiii iiiiillii iiiiiiiiiii: it i in 1 1 1 •mmjnmii urrif mil riMiiMMinif >• OH 1 ' ■ iiiiiiii i i Oi 'iiiiiii Wm , mum in i ii.'rniriii n* riJJJJJJJJJJJJIIIIJIJJIJIIJ,' : Illllllllf tfiffflfUil ' MIIIIMI'IIIIIIIIIIII Y.Y.7.Vi7,77,V.V.V.7i'.V.',7.7 1 ..'.'.V.V,V,' THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE ' ™ '' i *H»a* u y™~™ j / w SKETCHES OF THK HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART. VOLUME II. VOL. II. (I y u SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART. BY LORD LINDSAY. VOLUME II. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1847> Lss London Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHRISTIAN ART OF MODERN EUROPE. PERIOD I. ARCHITECTURE. PAGE I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 1 II. SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS, &c 41 III. NICCOLA PISANO AND HIS SCHOOL 99 IV. GIOTTO AND HIS SCHOOL "... 159 VOL. II. a 2 LETTER I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. In the preceding Letters, I have attempted to give you some idea of the Christian Art of Greece and Rome, the aged sovereigns of the elder world ; in these that follow, I shall do my best to show you how their heirs, the youthful Europeans, availed them- selves of the legacy, threw their own glowing life into the ideas and forms thus bequeathed to them, and either combined them afresh, or created new ones out of the riches of Nature and of their own Souls. I shall divide the ensuing Series into five grand divisions or periods, — the First, and of longest dura- tion, extending from the middle of the sixth to the middle of the fifteenth century, during which Spirit, or Christianity, ruled supreme, and found its chief expression in Architecture, — the Second, embracing the latter half of the fifteenth century, during which Christianity battled with the pride of Intellect and resuscitated paganism, while Sculpture was perfected B 2 4 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. in the struggle, — the Third, extending from the close of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury, which witnessed the results of the struggle, good and bad, in the successive triumphs of Spirit, Intel- lect, and Sense, Expression, Design, and Colouring, in Painting, the peculiar handmaid and exponent of Christianity, — the Fourth, expiring with the eighteenth century, signalised by the various attempts to regenerate Art through Sense and Intellect, Colour and Design, — and the Fifth and last, dating from the commencement of the present century, charac- terised by a similar revival- through Spirit, or Ex- pression, and a recurrence to first principles, to the Christianity and Nationality of Romano-Teutonic Europe. The rise and progress of Sculpture and Painting- will of course demand their due consideration under the first as under the later of these periods ; mean- while it is to the development and character of the Lombard and Pointed, or Gothic Architecture, both in Italy and the North, that I address myself in the present Letter. Section 1. Lombard Architecture, South and North of the Alps. I need not remind you that the freedom of the North, the civilization of the South, and the Chris- tianity of the East, are the three elements from the commixture of which the character and history of Europe spring, and that Italy was the field where Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 5 those elements first met, and began to amalga- mate.* The invasion of the Lombards, in 568, may be considered as the last preliminary step to this con- summation. They were a noble race, of pure morals, and bold, manly, generous and even romantic charac- ter, presenting the strongest possible contrast to the corrupt and degenerate Romans, whom they held per- sonally in utter contempt, and refused to mingle with on the familiar footing of their predecessors, the Goths. It was therefore from the Church rather than the natives of Rome and Italy that they derived their civilization, and to the Popes accordingly they paid a free but a zealous deference, which rendered them invaluable adherents in any course of policy the latter might find it expedient to pursue. The Papacy, at the commencement of the seventh century, was in a very different position from that in which Constantine had left her. In doctrine, in- deed, she was but little changed, for almost every peculiar dogma of Catholicism had been either openly asserted, or indirectly implied, before the close of the fourth century. But during the last three hundred years the seed of spiritual despotism, wrapt up in the acorn of the Nicene Church, had silently but rapidly shot up into a mighty tree, and before the death of the First Gregory not only had the theory been ma- tured and the principles laid down by which eccle- -i;i^tical supremacy was to be claimed and established [nfluentially, I mean, on the future; the civilization of the Visigoths in Spain \\;i-~ earlier, I >ui led to nothing. 6 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. over the Kings of the earth, but the minds of men had been prepared to acquiesce in the usurpation. An opportunity for asserting that supremacy was not long in presenting itself. The propriety of the adoration of images, an abuse at that time of almost universal prevalence in Chris- tendom, had been long agitated in the Greek Church. In 726, the Emperor Leo III. declared it unlawful by a special edict, which he followed up by an indis- criminate destruction of images throughout his East- ern dominions, calling at the same time on the Popes in Italy, his subject province, to follow his example of reformation. Gregory II., then occupant of the papal chair, refused obedience, and, finding his re- monstrances unattended to, proceeded — under the sanction of a decree subscribed by a synod of ninety- three Italian bishops, and backed by the ready swords of the Lombards — to excommunicate in one sweep- ing anathema, the whole body of the Iconoclasts, the Emperor himself not excepted, and to pronounceltaly politically independent of the Byzantine Empire. It was a step, before God and man alike, indefensible — at once schismatical and rebellious. But — from that hour a new star dawned on the horizon, infant Europe was separated from the womb, life awoke in her, the warm blood was sent thrilling through her veins, that impulse was communicated to which she owes her growth and development, her virtue and her glory — a crime was, in short, overruled by providence to the good of mankind. The results of the measure were not so irame- Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 7 diately apparent as might have been expected. The revolution was peaceably effected. Greece, after a short struggle, acquiesced in it, and long continued to retain her maritime dependencies, and even a nominal supremacy in the peninsula, the policy of the Popes leaving a shadow of power to the Empe- rors, after securing the substance to themselves. Under their rule in the South, and that of the Lombards North of the Apennines, and after the ex- tinction of the latter dynasty, under that of Charle- magne and his Carlovingian successors, Italy enjoyed repose and tranquillity till the middle of the ninth century, when a period of anarchy and misery ensued for a hundred and fifty years. It is from the settlement of the Lombards and the Iconoclast rupture therefore, and not from the reign of Charlemagne, that the life of Modern Europe, civil and ecclesiastical, properly dates,* and we find accordingly in the Lombard Architecture and Sculp- ture, the earliest voice and expression of that life — witnessed in the former by new combinations and a more ample development of the spirit of symbolism — in the latter by a profusion of imagery, remarkable even before the quarrel, but absolutely redundant after * See for the character of the Lombards, Gibbon, chap. 45, and for the Iconoclast rupture, chap. 49. — " La complete des Lombards," says Sismondi, " fut, en quelque sorte, pour l'ltalie, I'epoque de la renaissance des peuples. Des principautes inde- pendantes, des communautes, des republiques, connneneerent a se constitucr de toutes parts ; et un principe de vie fut rendu a cette contre'e, long-temps ensevelie dans un sommeil Ktliargique." — Hist, des Republ. Ital. torn, i, p. 9. 8 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. it. We will discuss these sculptures in a future let- ter ; meanwhile I shall describe as briefly as possible the principal characteristics of the new architecture, as exhibited in the Lombard Cathedral. These characteristics are of various origin, but easily discriminated. The three most prominent features, the eastern aspect of the sanctuary, the cru- ciform plan, and the soaring octagonal cupola, are borrowed from Byzantium, the latter in an improved form, the cross with a difference, the nave, or arm opposite the sanctuary, being lengthened so as to resemble the supposed shape of the actual instrument of suffering, and form what is now distinctively called the Latin Cross. The crypt and absis, or tribune, are retained from the Roman basilica, but the absis is generally pierced with windows, and the crypt is much loftier and more spacious, assuming almost the appearance of a subterranean church. The columns of the nave, no longer isolated, are clustered so as to form compound piers, massive and heavy — their ca- pitals either a rude imitation of the Corinthian, or, especially in the earlier structures, sculptured with grotesque imagery.* Triforia, or galleries for wo- men, frequently line the nave and transepts. The roof is of stone, and vaulted. The narthex, or por- tico, for excluded penitents, common alike to the Greek and Roman churches, and in them continued along the whole facade of entrance, is dispensed with * Sometimes indeed, but rarely, the insulated column of the early church is restored. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 9 altogether in the oldest Lombard ones,* and when afterwards resumed, in the eleventh century, was restricted to what we should now call Porches, over each door, consisting generally of little more than a canopy open at the sides, and supported by slender pillars, resting on sculptured monsters. Three doors admit from the western front ; these are generally covered with sculpture, which frequently extends in belts across the facade, and even along the sides of the building. Above the central door is usually seen, in the later Lombard churches, a S. Catherine's- wheel window. The roof slants at the sides, and ends in front, sometimes in a single pediment, some- times in three gables answering to the three doors ; while, in Lombardy at least, hundreds of slender pil- lars, of every form and device — those immediately adjacent to each other frequently interlaced in the true lover's knot, and all supporting round or tre- foliate arches — run along, in continuous galleries, under the eaves, as if for the purpose of supporting the roof — run up the pediment in front, are con- tinued along the side-walls and round the eastern absis, and finally engirdle the cupola. Sometimes the western front is absolutely covered with these galleries, rising tier above tier. Though introduced merely for ornament, and therefore on a vicious principle, these fairy-like colonnades win very much on one's affections. I may add to these general * A significant fact, and prophetic of the tendency and the destinies of* the Medo-Persian or Teutonic versus the Hindoo element of Europe. 1 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. features the occasional and rare one, seen to peculiar advantage in the cathedral of Cremona, of numerous slender towers, rising, like minarets, in every direc- tion, in front and behind, and giving the east end, especially, a marked resemblance to the mosques of the Mahometans. The Baptistery and the Campanile, or bell-tower, are in theory invariable adjuncts to the Lombard cathedral, although detached from it. I have already noticed these buildings, as well as the principal churches built by the Lombards in the old basilica form, under the head of Latin architecture. But I may remark, that the Lombards seem to have built them with peculiar zest, and to have had a keen eye for the picturesque in grouping them with the churches they belong to. I need scarcely add, that the round arch is exclu- sively employed in pure Lombard architecture.* To translate this new style into its symbolical language is a pleasurable task. The three doors and three gable ends signify the Trinity, the Catherine-wheel window (if I mistake not) the Unity, as concentrated in Christ, the Light of the Church, from whose Greek monogram its shape was probably adopted.f The monsters that support the pillars of the porch stand there as talismans to frighten away evil spirits. The crypt (as in older buildings) signifies the moral death of man, the cross * See, on the subject of the Lombard style, the twenty -second and following chapters of Mr. Hope's ' Historical Essay.' "I" Vide supra, torn, i, p. 103, note. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 1 1 the atonement, the cupola heaven ; and these three, taken in conjunction with the lengthened nave, ex- press, reconcile, and give their due and balanced prominence to the leading ideas of the Militant and Triumphant Church, respectively embodied in the architecture of Rome and Byzantium. Add to this, the symbolism of the Baptistery, and the Christian pilgrimage, from the Font to the Door of heaven, is complete.* * I have confined myself in the text to the popular symbolism, the broad outline, but there was a deeper and more abstruse theory current during' the early ages, and which has never perhaps been completely realised. I have nowhere seen it so fully and succinctly stated as by M. Alfred Maury in his ' Essai sur les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen-age,' p. 107 : — " Les eglises etaient tournees du cute de l'Orient, par allusion a la naissance du Sauveur. . . . Elles etaient placees sur des lieux eleves, comme embleme de la superiorite divine et comme l'intermediaire entre le ciel et la terre. (' Nostra? columbae domus simplex, etiam in editis semper et apertis et ad lucem.' Tertull. adv. Valent. c. 2.) Elles comprenaient quatres parties : le portique, la nef, le chocur et le sanctuaire, emblemes de la vie penitente, de la vie chretienne, de la vie sainte et de la vie celeste. En effet, a la porte se trouvaient les penitents, appeles audientes, ecoutant, et prostrati, prosternes, qui etaient etendus par terre, pendant qu'on faisait la priere sur eux, et qu'on faisait sortir avant l'offrande. Puis venaient les consistants, consistcntes, qui assistaient dans la nef au divin office, mais sans y participer, droit qui appartenait seulement aux participantes. Uambo ou chocur etait plus eleve que la nef, comme marquant un degre de vie plus parfait. C 'etait la que se placaient les clercs. L'eglise avait quatre portes, deux du cf>te de la nef, nominees speciosce portcc, symbole de la vie terrestre, et deux du cote de la nef, appelees porta; sanctce sym- bole de la vie celeste. Le sanctuaire, accessible au seul clerge, I'tuit si'pare du chocur par un chancel ou balustre, qui einpechait les laiques d'y entrer, et exprimait, d'une facon mystique, la barriere r Sanscrit ele mi ni. in the liitelleei of Europe. 22 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter 1. light, and the idea of tempering its glare by painted glass, — hence the unnumbered beauties, internal and externa], of groining, pendant, mullion-window, flying- buttress, pinnacle and spire — hence, in short, the life and animation, the vigour and freshness, the exulting consciousness of power, the nature-like luxuriance of tracery and ornament, that pervade the whole pile, and rouse the heart like the roar of a cataract swell- ing on the breeze amid the shades and sunshine of a forest And yet all this is the mere surface-shadow of a deeper meaning, — it was in Gothic Architecture that Christian Symbolism reached its consummation, ' or rather took up and re-expressed the faith and ex- pectations of the Church in a different and more spi- ritualized point of view. That which in Lombard Architecture is confined to the general outline, ex- tends in Gothic to the minutest details ; like each several fact in the Bible or in the Book of Nature, every window, every corbel, every cusp has its mys- tery ; it would require a volume to point out each minute particular, and in a thousand instances indi- vidual fancy must interpret what individual fancy first enigmatised. But the upward spring, the verti- cal tendency, is the key to the whole, — whether, as in the pyramids and obelisks of Egypt, it imply the natural yearning of the human heart to the " blest abodes " of an uncovenanted futurity — or faith, better assured, in the resurrection of the Redeemer and of the Church in his person — or the joyful anticipation of that continual up-springing approximation towards the Fount of Wisdom, the Divine Vision, which we are warranted to look forward to as the bliss of Eternity. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 23 Comparing, in fact, apart from enthusiasm, the two styles of Lombard and Pointed Architecture, they will strike you, I think, as the expression, re- spectively, of that alternate repose and activity which characterise the Christian life, exhibited in perfect harmony in Christ alone, who, on earth, spent his night in prayer to God, his day in doing good to man — in heaven, as we know by his own testimony, " worketh hitherto," conjointly with the Father — for ever, at the same time, reposing on the infinity of his wisdom and of his power. Each, then, of these styles has its peculiar significance, each is perfect in its way. The Lombard Architecture, with its hori- zontal lines, its circular arches and expanding cupola, soothes and calms one ; the Gothic, with its pointed arches, aspiring vaults and intricate tracery, rouses and excites — and why ? Because the one symbolises an infinity of Rest, the other of Action, in the adora- tion and service of God. And this consideration will enable us to advance a step farther: — The aim of the one style is definite, of the other indefinite ; we look up to the dome of heaven and calmly acquiesce in the abstract idea of infinity ; but we only realise the impossibility of conceiving it by the flight of imagina- tion from star to star, from firmament to firmament. Even so Lombard Architecture attained perfection, expressed its idea, accomplished its purpose — but Gothic never ; the Ideal is unapproachable.* * Perhaps men, were their sentiments analysed, would be found to prefer the Classic-Greek or the Gothic Architecture, according as their characteristics are purely Intellectual, or Con- 24 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. I have said nothing of the theory which accounts for the change of style by the necessity in a Northern templatively and Actively Spiritual, — and the mind capable of fully comprehending' the Gothic would, as a necessary conse- quence, (if unprejudiced,) appreciate the Greek more justly than the devotee of the Greek would appreciate the Gothic — inas- much as Spirit, in the fullest development of Human Nature, includes Intellect. — I subjoin, in illustration of the symbolism and the peculiar emotions born of Gothic Architecture, the " Lost Church" of the poet Uhland — founded, I apprehend, on an ancient tradition of the Sinaite peninsula : — " THE LOST CHURCH. " Oft in the forest far one hears A passing sound of distant bells, Nor legends old nor human wit Can tell us whence the music swells. From the Lost Church, 'tis thought, that soft Faint ringing cometh on the wind ; Once many pilgrims trod the path, But no one now the way can find. Not long since, deep into the wood I stray 'd, where path was none to see ; Weary of human wickedness, My heart to God yearn'd longingly. There, through the silent wilderness, Again I heard the sweet bells stealing, Ever, as higher yearn'd my heart, The nearer and the louder pealing. My spirit was so self-indrawn, My sense with sweetness rapt so high, That how those sounds within me wrought Remaineth yet a mystery. 1 t seem'd as if a hundred years Had laps'd while thus I had been dreaming — When, lo ! above the clouds a space Free opened out, in sunshine gleaming. The heaven was so darkly blue, The sun so full and glowing bright — And rose a minster's stately pile, Expanding in the golden light. Seemed the clouds resplendently, Like wings, to bear it up alway, And in the blessed depths of heaven It:- spired tower to melt aw.iv Lettir I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 25 climate of avoiding the dome and all flat surfaces, The bells' delicious harmony Down from the tower in quiverings flow'd, Yet drew not hand of man the strings, — They moved but to the Breath of God. As if upon my throbbing heart That self-same Breath its influence shed. So entered I that minster high With timorous joy and faltering tread. Words cannot paint what there-within Awoke my spirit's ecstasies ; The darkly-brilliant windows glow'd With martyrs' pious effigies ; Into a new and living world, Rich imag'd forth, I gaz'd abroad. A world of holy women and Of warriors of the host of God. Down at the altar low I knelt, Thrilling with awe and holy love — Heaven and its glorious mysteries Were pictur'd on the vault above. But when again I looked up, Roof, arch and pictur'd vault were gone — Full opened was the door of heaven, And every veil had been withdrawn." What then, in silent prayerful awe, Of majesty I saw reveal'd, — What heard of sound more blissful far Than aught to human ear unseal'd, Lies not within the might of words ; Yet whoso longeth for such good, Let him take heed unto the bells That ring in whispers through the wood." ■ Unintentionally, doubtless, Uh- ingly between the human soul and land has here used the word (veil) union with the Deity. — A similar by which the Sooffees of the East feeling is expressed in the beautiful express whatever intervenes oppos- lines, " Whatever passes as a cloud between The mental eye of faith and things unseen. Causing that brighter world to disappear, Or seem less lovely or its hopes less dear, This is our world, our idol, though it bear Affection's impress <»■ devotion's air." 26 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. where snow could lodge.* Nothing is more likely than that this matter-of-fact expediency suggested the change in the first instance, although if such was the case, it must be owned that Beauty lost no time in girding Utility with her cestus. But gazing rather more earnestly into the millstone, may we not recog- nise in the passage from Lombard to Gothic Archi- tecture, that transition from the Repose to the Acti- vity of the Imagination, coupled too with the first stirrings of Reason, which so remarkably character- ised the mind of Europe towards the close of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century, when the Crusaders, on the one hand, were crowding to Palestine, and the Schoolmen, on the other, were commencing their flight into the seventh heaven of theory and invention — those schoolmen, let me ob- serve, being almost to a man Teutons, or of Teutonic blood, (S. Thomas Aquinas himself not excepted,) and the prevalence of the Scholastic philosophy in Italy having been almost exactly correspondent, in duration and extent, with that of its sister, the Pointed Architecture in that country — both of them exotics, never thoroughly acclimated ? In their death, at least, they were not divided, each of them, as we shall find, having been superseded there nearly at the same moment, in the fifteenth century, when the new anti-papal Reasoning spirit, allying itself with Pagan- ism in its detestation of the corruptions of Imagina- tive Christianity, found its voice in the philosophy of Macchiavelli, and in the Modern-antique, or Cinque- * Hope's ' Plistorical Essay,' chap. 35. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 2/ cento, Architecture — from both of which, in theo- logy, morals, politics, literature and art, we are still suffering, even in our " ultima Thule " of Britain. — But I must rein in this devil of speculation. Pointed, or to resume the old conventional and prescriptive epithet, Gothic Architecture,* can only be profitably studied North of the Alps ; there only has it been duly developed, sympathetically and legi- timately, from its fundamental principle. This deve- lopment has been two-fold — Generic, reflecting the progress of the collective mind of Christian Teutonic Europe — Special, reflecting that of each individual nation, as modified in successive ages by its peculiar temperament and institutions. Hence, in Ecclesias- tical architecture, the various styles successively pre- valent in Germany, Flanders, France, England — those for instance, named Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular and Tudor, in our own island, f each * * See Dr. Whewell's defence of the epithet in his ' Archi- tectural Notes on German Churches,' p. 50. — ' Teutonic,' per- haps, in the restrictive sense of the term, would be at once the most comprehensive and exclusive designation ; the Italians have always so distinguished it,— as the ' Maniera Tedesca,' or ' Gotico-Tedesca.' But 'Gothic architecture' has become the classic, the prescriptive term, universally understood and ac- cepted by the many, and I should be loath to change it. •j" First discriminated and named by Mr. Rickman. And see Dr. Whewell's observations, ' Archit. Notes,' p. 50. — I cannot, however, refrain from referring to a nomenclature advocated by Mr. A. J. B. Hope, (' Ecclcsiologist,' torn, i, p. 192,) which certaiidy links Architecture with History much more agreeably. He proposes to name the successive styles of English archi- tected — Saxon, Early Norman, Late Norman, Early Planta- genet fKarly English), Middle Plantagenet (Decorated), Late 28 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. of them distinct, and yet akin to corresponding, though not always contemporary varieties in other countries, — hence in Civil, but more especially in Domestic architecture, the peculiar character observ- able in every old town in Flanders and Germany — in Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Cologne — Liibeck to the North, Innspruck to the South — and to name but one more, the most picturesque perhaps of all Teutonic cities, Nuremberg — each, like a faithful mirror, reflecting the aristocratic or democratic ten- dencies of the spot, yet all expressive of that leading idea, that watchword of the Teutonic race, Indivi- duality and Home, — whilst amid all this apparent confusion, this crossing and intermingling of the lines of life on the hand of art, the great channels of feel- ing and thought remain unclogged and prominent, the special ranges within the generic, the partial within the universal — the veins report themselves to the arteries, and the arteries to the heart, and that heart is still, as in the old Lombard day, Cologne — where the soul of Charlemagne himself seems to have in- spired the architect who conceived the stupendous idea of the Cathedral — still and ever, fragment though it be, the giant's step towards heaven in Gothic Architecture. But Architecture, as I said above, is symbolical, Sculpture and Painting are positive — dependent, that Plantagenet (Perpendicular), Tudor, and Stuart, including under the latter designation, the revival of Gothic Architecture under James I. and Charles I. The merit of scientific classi- fication of course remains with Mr. Rickman. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 29 is to say, on Form, on the possession and correct ap- preciation of the relics of the elder world, the marbles of Greece and Rome. These were to be found only in Italy. It was in Italy, therefore — yet not till Gothic Architecture had been introduced there from Germany — that Sculpture and Painting revived in earnest ; it was from Italy, consequently, that the great impulse was given to Sculpture North of the Alps, and through Sculpture, to Painting, — Italy, therefore, takes the precedence from henceforth in the history of art, and I shall accordingly devote the remainder of the present letter, and those immediately succeeding it, to the consideration of Gothic Archi- tecture as naturalised in Italy, and extending her wing of fosterage and protection over her new-born sisters, deferring that of the corresponding develop- ment of Sculpture and Painting in Germany, to the close of this First and peculiarly Spiritual Period of European Art.* ' On the question of pure Gothic Architecture let me refer to Mr. Hope's ' Historical Essay,' chap. 32, &c, and Dr. Whewell's ' Architectural Notes,' and also his ' History of the Inductive Sciences,' torn, i, pp. 343, sqq. The works also of Messrs. Rickman, Markland, Bloxam, Britton and Pugin on Gothic Architecture are well known and of great merit, the latter gentleman, especially, entering much more fully into its symbolism and principles as connected with religion. The ' Glossary of Architecture,' of which a new edition has just ap- peared, is also a mine of information. This latter work, how- ever, and numberless others recently published, tacitly pass over the early Roman, Byzantine and Lombard styles, and assume that Gothic and Christian Architecture are synonymous, and that the ancient Gothic churches of England are precisely in harmony with her existing formularies and faith. I much fear that Mr. I''i'_!in i< ri^ht — (hat it is "as utterly impossible l<> 30 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Lktter I. Section 3. — Gothic Architecture South of the Alps. It was not till the thirteenth century, long after acquiring the supremacy in Germany, France, and England, that the new style crossed the Alps. Its first appearance is in the conventual church of S. Francis, at Assisi, finished by a German architect in 1230, — beautiful in itself, and still more interest- square a Catholic building with the present rites as to mingle oil with water," — that " those who think merely to build chancels without reviving the ancient faith, will be miserably deceived in their expectation," — that " the study of ancient church archi- tecture " (in such an exclusive spirit) " is an admirable prepara- tion for the old faith," — and that " if the present revival of Catholic antiquity is suffered to proceed much farther, it will be seen that either the Common Prayer or the ancient models must be abandoned." Ecclesiastical Antiquities, pp. 130, 137, &c. — But what is the alternative ? the Meeting-house ? By no means. The Church of England is neither Catholic nor Protestant — she does not with the Catholics exalt Imagination and repudiate Reason, nor with the Protestants exalt Reason and repudiate Imagination, but includes them both, harmoniously opposed, within her constitution, so as to preserve the balance of truth, and point out the true ' Via Media ' between Superstition on the one hand and Scepticism on the other, thus approximating (in degree) to the Ideal of human nature, Christ Incarnate, of whom the Church is the Body and ought to be the Likeness and the Image. This then is the problem — England wants a new Archi- tecture, expressive of the epoch, of her Anglican faith and of the human mind as balanced in her development, as heir of the past and trustee for the future — a modification, it may be, of the Gothic, but not otherwise so than as the Gothic was a modifica- tion of the Lombard, the Lombard of the Byzantine and Roman, the Byzantine and Roman of the Classic Greek, the Classic Greek of the Egyptian. We have a right to expect this from the importance of the epoch, and I see no reason why the Man to create it, the Buschetto of the nineteenth century, may not be among us at this moment, although we know it not. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 31 ing as the cradle of Italian painting. It consists, properly speaking, of two churches, one above the other, — the Upper broad and spacious, preserving the usual form of the Latin cross, but free from side- chapels and from every incumbrance, and lighted by broad and lofty windows, cheerful and almost gay in its general appearance — the Lower, gloomy as the grave, which it is designed to imitate ; the nave is lined by chapels, dark and obscure like sepulchral recesses, the windows are small, the arches round and low, bending heavily over the shrine of S. Francis, situated in the centre of the transept, and below which again you may descend deeper still, to a sub- terraneous crypt, or excavation, in which his relics actually repose. Nowhere is the distinctive symbol- ism of the Lombard and Gothic Architecture more strikingly contrasted, and the whole scheme of deco- ration seems to have been planned in reference to it. — I shall have repeated opportunities of recurring to this, when speaking of the early painters of Pisa and Florence. I may add that the style of the Upper church has extended to the city which has grown up around the monastery ; pointed arches are to be seen everywhere, and the place has more of the look of the middle ages than (perhaps) any other in Italy. But setting aside this church at Assisi, and a few similar structures, (of which I may specify the Duomo at Milan, the Ducal Palace at Venice, and S. Gio- vanni a Carbonara at Naples, all built by German architects in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,) few buildings of any importance in Italy 32 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. present the pure unmingled Gothic of the North.* Classical influences, far less propitious to the sym- bolical than the positive in Art, still lingered there, and necessarily modified it. A new school of archi- tects arose during the latter half of the thirteenth century, and filled Italy with chur. 142, edit. Rfanni. Flor. 1767. n 2 36 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter L commemorative of the Swiss lanz-knechts, or guards of the Medici ; they form the most beautiful portico in Italy, and Michael Angelo, on being - consulted by Cosmo I. on the decorations of Florence, recom- mended him to extend them all round the piazza. But for the Gothic cornice, this lovely Loggia might have been cited as cue of the earliest specimens of the Cinquecento.* Another branch of the Pisan school had in the meanwhile settled at Siena, nowise behindhand in architectural enterprise during these stirring times. Like Pisa, her predecessor and ally in power, she had commenced her cathedral in the eleventh cen- tury, but it had been much longer in hand, and when completed, the facade proved unsatisfactory ; it was destroyed, and a new design was obtained from Giovanni Pisano in 1284 ; Lorenzo Maitani, a Sienese, but evidently of the Pisan school, completed it in 1290, and laid the foundations, that same year, of the equally celebrated Duomo at Orvieto, where * This loggia was begun between 1374, in which year the houses on which it stood had not been bought, and 1377, when it was in progress, as appears by documents cited by Niccolini, (the poet,) in his ' Elogio d' Andrea Orgagna,' Florence, 1816, p. xl.— The poet's estimate of its beauty is not exaggerated ; " Alia vista," he says, " di questo portico, il piu bello del mondo, rimane il core commosso, 1' occhio occupato e soddisfatto, 1' unita non vi produce la noia ; e quantunque nei pilastri decorati d' un ordine Corintio di barbara maniera, poco il nostro artefice si discosti dallo stile de' suoi contemporanei, pure le modinature, gli aggetti, gl' intagli son cosi bene adattati alia massa gene- rale, che ne risulta quell' armonica quiete per cui 1' anima soddis- fatta s' appaga." p. xxiv. Letter I. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTU1M:. 37 he settled definitively, in 1310, at the requisition of the inhabitants, whom he had provoked by his re- peated and prolonged absences.* His place at Siena was worthily supplied by the brothers Agostino and Agnolo, pupils of Giovanni Pisano, and then rapidly rising in reputation. They had been entrusted, in 1308, with the elevation of that noble pile the Pa- lazzo Pubblico, and were afterwards appointed public architects, in which capacity they served their country for many years, generally working together, though sometimes apart. They were distinguished as sculptors also, but it is as architects that they are thought of at Siena, where every street and almost every house in the older parts of the town recalls their memory — their peculiar and highly picturesque style having been followed by a crowd of nameless, or at least fameless, imitators, till drowned in the universal deluge of the Cinquecento.f These Tuscan-Gothic buildings are fine, unques- tionably, more especially those (and I wish to lay an emphasis on the distinction) which are Civil, not Ecclesiastical. As public palaces, nothing can be nobler, they bear the stamp of true grandeur ; but as churches, as Gothic churches at least, I can praise them only with a qualification ; they are far inferior 1 ' Storia del Duomo di Orvieto,' by the Abate Dellavalle, Rome, 4to., 1794, pp. 98, 248. t See Dellavalle's < Lettere Sanesi,' Rome, 3 torn. 4to., 1786, torn, ii, pp. 1 68 sqtj. — and passim.—For the character of this work sec a note to Section Third of the following letter. 38 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. to their Northern prototypes — the leading idea of the Pointed Architecture is not only never carried out, but seems never even to have been compre- hended; S. Croce, S. Maria Novella, are essentially Lombard edifices, the pointed arch occurring as if by chance, the vertical principle snubbed (as it were) whenever it attempts to assert its natural tendency. And were anything wanting to prove how completely the spirit of the active, arrowy Gothic has been mis- apprehended, it would be enough to remark that in their most admired structures, in their earliest and latest efforts, in S. Antonio of Padua and in the Duomos of Florence, Siena, and Orvieto, Niccola Pisano and his followers wed fire with water, in uniting the pointed arch to the cupola. The conse- quence is inevitable under such circumstances — the more august member gives the tone of feeling, and sub- ordinates that of less importance, and the pointed arch accordingly either escapes notice altogether, or, if too obtrusive, annoys one by suggesting the semblance of a fop perpetually interrupting the meditations of a phi- losopher.* The very perpetuation, more especially at Florence, of the alternate horizontal courses of black and white marble, the cherished legacy of the * I know not whether an appeal to the Campanile of Giotto would not be more effectual than argument on this subject. According to the original plan, it was to be surmounted by a spire, a hundred and fifty feet high ; let the reader stand before it, and ask himself whether, with Michael Scott at his elbow or Aladdin's lamp in his hand, he would supply the deficiency ? I think not. Its spirit is thoroughly Lombard. Letter!. LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 39 Pisan Buschetto, neutralises the vertical principle of Gothic architecture.* The fact was, as I have already indeed shown, that the Italians, ever, as a nation, contemplative rather than dramatic, always sighed for the Roman arch and the Eastern dome, and when, during the early years of the fifteenth century, Brunellesco ap- peared in the field, with the rules of the old Roman art, and the genius which knew how to apply them, they eschewed the pointed arch and the vertical principle at once and for ever. Independently of the gradual dying away of the Christian and chivalric spirit throughout Europe — so visible in the gradually * My unfavourable opinion of ' Italian-Gothic' is chiefly based on what I conceive to be its confusion of ideas, its metaphysical untruth. In a scientific point of view, I doubt not its meriting the praise bestowed upon it by Professor Willis in his ' Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially of Italy,' (Cambr., Svo., 1835,) a standard book. — Yet Mr. Knight's dis- taste is expressed still more strongly than my own, and appa- rently both on the ground of symbolism and science. "In Italy," says that gentleman, "if the vertical principle was adopted, the horizontal principle was not discarded, and the latter was a constant check on the tendencies of the former. The Italian architects, obeying their employers, but obeying with reluctance, never acquainted themselves with the rules, the pro- portions and the arrangements, through which the Northern architects produced successful results. They worked at random, and consequently made mistakes. They consented to imitate, but they sought no more, and neither caught the spirit of the original, nor struck out new paths of their own. . . . Upon the whole the pointed style in Italy has always the appearance of an exotic plant, permit ted to live, and pleasing to a certain degree, but deficient in vigour, and never obtaining the height or the development at which it arrives on the Northern side of the Alps." — Architectural Antiquities, fyc, [ntrod. p. ix. 40 LOMBARD AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Letter I. lower and lower depression of the pointed arch — and independently too of the successive proscriptions of the Freemasons, to which I attach little importance, as they had outlived their usefulness — I cannot but think that an innate physical and intellectual distaste dictated the abandonment of Gothic Architecture in Italy. I have written this letter with much diffidence, and with the full consciousness that the study of a life would scarcely justify me in speaking on the sub- ject. But the little I have said is essential to my purpose of tracing Christian art in the origin and connection of its distinct departments — for it is a fact, that I hope to establish in the course of these Sketches, that Sculpture and Painting, both in the South and in the North, revived in strict alliance with Gothic Architecture — and that Painting, in par- ticular, reached perfection in Italy long indeed after the extinction of that style South of the Alps, but still in the succession of a line of artists, few but faithful, whose sympathies induced them to stand apart from the throng that followed in the triumph of the comparatively anti-Christian Cinquecento. I have sketched, in a word, a bold architectural back- ground ; I shall now proceed to introduce group after group till the picture of this opening period of Christian Art be complete. CHRISTIAN ART OF MODERN EUROPE. PERIOD I. ARCHITECTURE. Development of the Christian Element, Spirit — Lombard and Gothic, or Pointed Architecture — Rise of Sculpture and Painting — Expression. II. SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS, AND ITALICO- BYZANTINE REVIVALS IN SCULPTURE, MO- SAIC AND PAINTING, ANTERIOR TO THE ASCENDANCY OF NICCOLA PISANO. Sect. 1. Sculpture. Sect. 2. Mosaics. Sect. 3. Painting. LETTER II. SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS, AND HAIICO-BYZANTINE REVIVALS, IN SCULPTURE, MOSAIC AND PAINTING, ANTERIOR TO THE ASCENDANCY OF NICCOLA PISANO. From the conclusion of the preceding letter you will naturally expect an introduction in the present to Niccola Pisano, the parent of modern Sculpture and Painting, as developed in alliance with Gothic Ar- chitecture. But a transition period must first be noticed, during which the artists of Italy endea- voured to express the new life which stirred in their veins through the types and traditions, and in the style and spirit of the Menologion and the Dalma- tica, and in association, for the most part, with that elder Lombard Architecture, which maintained such close affinity and deep sympathy with that of Byzan- tium. These efforts were, with few exceptions, in- sulated, and however laudable in themselves, would merit little notice had the mind which conceived, expired in giving them birth. But such was not the ■ as.-, and the period in question may be not unaptly 44 SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS. Letter II. compared to that which usually intervenes in the life of a poet, between the hour when he first be- comes aware of his vocation, and that in which he walks abroad in the conscious might of originality — a period of Imitation, during which he endeavours to invest the bright images and daring thoughts that visit his solitude with the measure, cadence and peculiar phraseology of his most admired prede- cessors in song, — like a young eaglet gazing on the sun long ere its unfledged pinion enables it to rise from the ground. The productions of that imma- ture period are in later life looked back upon with a smile, yet to the critic and biographer they have their value as documents witnessing to the intellec- tual growth of their author. — It is under shelter of this analogy that I propose to devote the few follow- ing pages to a brief review of the Sculpture, Mosaics and Painting of Italy, immediately antecedent to the new and peculiarly original style introduced at Pisa, Siena and Florence during the latter half of the thirteenth century. Section 1. — Sculpture. The Sculpture of this period falls naturally into two subdivisions, strictly correspondent with the two periods, the earlier and the later, of Lombard Ar- chitecture. The earlier is the more original. It may be seen in full development on the facade of S. Michele at Pavia — rude indeed to a degree, but full of fire and a living record of the daring race that created it. The archangel trampling down the Letter II. SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS. 45 dragon appears over the central door, S. George similarly victorious, and Jonah vomited by the whale, over those to the right and left ; while in the jambs of the arches and in belts running along the walls, kindred subjects are sculptured in every direc- tion and without the least apparent connection — dragons, griffins, eagles, snakes, sphinxes, centaurs — the whole mythological menagerie which our ances- tors brought with them from their native Iran, — and these either fighting with each other or with Lom- bard warriors, or amicably interlaced with human figures, male and female, or grinning and ready to fly at you from the grey walls — interspersed with warriors breaking in horses or following the hounds, minstrels, and even tumblers, or at least, figures standing on their heads ; in short, the strong impress everywhere meets you of a wild and bold equestrian nation, glorying in war, delighting in horses and the chace, falconry, music and gymnastics — ever in mo- tion, never sitting still — credulous, too, of old wives' stories, and tenacious of whatever of marvellous and strange had arrested their fancy during their long pilgrimage from the East, — for zodiacs from Chal- dsea, and emblems of the stirring mythology of Scandinavia, constantly alternate, in these and similar productions, with the delineation of those pastimes or pursuits which their peculiar habits induced them to reiterate with such zest and frequency. But they are rude, most rude; do not mistake me, — I plead only that they are life-like, and speak with a tongue which those who love the Runic rhyme and the tra- 46 SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS. Letter II. ditions of the North, and feel kindred blood warm in their veins, will understand and give ear to.* Sculptures of similar character, though none, I * Mr. Knight notices " the very remarkable resemblance ex- isting between the portals of the Italian " (Lombard) " churches and the portals of the oldest churches of Norway. The monsters and the singular mode in which they are combined and interlaced, bear so great a similarity to each other in both places, that the coincidence can hardly be regarded as merely accidental," I shall have occasion hereafter to point out similar resemblances between the Italian-Lombard and the Norman churches in England. — For the sports of the Lombards see Gibbon, chap. 45. The ' Chase ' of merry England has its origin in the same remote antiquity, both countries apparently perpetuating in this respect the ancient manners of Iran, as described in the Cyropsedia. The beneficial influence of the Chase on our national character has scarcely as yet been adequately appreciated, but it was great, and this we owe to the Norman mixture, for as Somerville says (himself a Norman) in his charming poem, its mysteries as a science were hardly understood " till, from Neustria's coasts, Victorious William to more decent rules Subdued our Saxon fathers, taught to speak The proper dialect, with horn and voice To cheer the busy hound." — Boxing, on the other hand, the influence of which, in its rules of fair play, has been scarcely less beneficial than that of the Chase, would seem to be purely Saxon. Prize-fighting is to the one what battues are to the other — corruption and degradation — slaughterous, unmanly, and unworthy of that noble compound of Saxon and Norman, the Englishman. — Of the mystic animals introduced in these sculptures, the griffin is peculiarly Oriental, and may be seen to this day among the ruins of Persepolis. The eagle too is not of Roman but Scandinavian and Iranian ancestry, originally, it would appear, emblematic of the omni- vision of the Deity. As a commentary on this love of the monstrous and the marvellous, I may refer to the ' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus ' of Olaus Magnus, especially the edition with woodcuts, printed at Rome in 1555. Letter II. SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS. 47 think, so fiery and original, may be seen in other of the early Lombard churches, and in them too the character and habitual associations of the Lombards may be distinctly read. To the left of the doorway of S. Zenone at Verona, for instance, you may see two warriors charging with lances, and a figure run- ning another through with his sword, (appropriate decorations truly for the temple of the God of peace!)— and to the right, King Theodoric, (the Dietrich I fancy of the Hildebrand-lay and the Helden-buch,) on horseback, chasing the stag with his hounds, and bound, according to the inscription, to Hell, — a version probably, and a very early one, of that truly Teutonic legend, the wild Huntsman.* — We approximate to chivalry at the Duomo, where the door is guarded by rude statues of Roland and Oliver, paladins of Charlemagne, — the sword of the former inscribed with its redoubted name, Durin- darda.f * From another inscription the sculptures of this portal appear to be by artists named Nicholas and William. See the de- scription of S. Zenone in Murray's admirable Hand-book for Northern Italy. •f Dramatic representations, however, of sacred subjects are by no means excluded from the Sculpture of the Lombards, but they generally want that impress of national character which would redeem their rudeness. The most interesting display of these is to be seen at Milan in the palliotto, or shrine of S. Ambrose, executed by Wolfinus (Wolfing, probably, in the original German), who describes himself as a " magistcr faber," or master smith, a little before the middle of the ninth century. Having been prevented from seeing it when last at Milan, I must refer to (Jieoyz/fuo, S/oria delta Scultura, loin, i, p. l(i.'5, and Agincourt, Sculpture, pi. 2(>, and corresponding text. 48 SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS. Letter II. Another peculiarity of this first epoch of Lombard sculpture is the grotesque imagery introduced into the capitals of the columns, or piers, within the church, and exhibiting the same monsters, aerial, aquatic and terrestrial, that decorate the exterior walls ; this, however, was gradually disused, and in the later Lombard architecture the capitals are usually rude imitations of the Corinthian. In commencing the second millennium, we find an improvement in Sculpture, coincident with that in Architecture. Its first appearance is in the monsters which it now became the fashion to introduce in the porches of churches, for the pillars that supported their roofs to rest upon, — partly for ornament, and partly, as I said before, as talismans or guardians, to frighten away evil spirits. Griffins and lions, the former implying the union of the divine and human nature in the person of Christ, the latter the strength and watchfulness of the Church, appear most fre- quently in this position, couched and grasping in their paws, or talons, wolves, serpents and similar beasts of prey, typical of Satan. They are generally well executed, often admirably. Among the finest in this style are the two lions of the porch of S. Cyriaco at Ancona ; they are of red marble, and full of spirit and fire — most masterly, both in conception and execution ; the one grasps a ram, the other a large snake, which bites him, however, on the breast. Sometimes these monsters were set up on the roofs of cathedrals ; the bronze Hippogryph, once perched on the East end of that of Pisa, but now translated Letter II. SCULPTURE OF THE LOMBARDS. 49 to the Campo Santo, is an instance of this.* In process of time the different states of Italy adopted them as their crests, y and sculptured them at the doors of their town-halls and public buildings ; the fashion gradually spread over Europe, and is retained to this day in the supporters of the heraldic escut- cheons of kings and noblemen. Heraldry is, in fact, the last remnant of the ancient Symbolism, and a legitimate branch of Christian Art ; the griffins and unicorns, fesses and cheverons, the very tinctures or colours, are all symbolical, — each has its mystic meaning, singly and in combination, and thus every genuine old coat of arms preaches a lesson of chi- valric honour and Christian principle to those that inherit it, — truths little suspected now-a-days in our Heralds' Offices ! But with the exception of these mystic watchers, this Second period of Lombard Sculpture, or as I should now more correctly term it, this Sculpture of the Freemasons, was characterised by a gradual abandonment of the purely Teutonic element, the monstrous imagery of the earlier age, and a more studious imitation of Byzantine or ecclesiastical models. The point of transition may be fixed at Modena, where the chisel of Wiligelmus, (William,) * Theories innumerable have been broached regarding this creature, the Chimaera and puzzle of Pisa. See Morrona's • I'isa Illustrata,' torn, i, p. 320, ed. 8vo., and Cicognara, torn, i, p. 187. f The whole series are represented in mosaic on the pave- ment of the Cathedral at Siena to be noticed hereafter. VOL. II. B 50 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. an artist highly celebrated at the beginning of the twelfth century, has impartially illustrated the history of the ante-diluvian world, the passion of Our Lord, the legend of S. Gimignano, and, in one singular bas-relief, the exploits of Arthur of Britain — the grotesque being everywhere abandoned for the se- rious, yet the serious as yet unennobled by a purer design or loftier expression ; while the artist seems still to have sought for originality apart from the Byzantine compositions.* — A closer adherence to these is evinced in the vast bas-relief of the Last * The bas-relief representing King Arthur decorates a doorway near the Campanile. The story of S. Gimignano, bishop of Ravenna, will be found above a small door on the southern side of the Cathedral, opening into the nave. The scenes represented are, his journey to Constantinople — the storm that assailed his vessel after embarkation, and which, on being awakened, like our Saviour, he quieted by a command — his healing the daughter of the Emperor Jovian, for which he had been summoned from Ravenna — his reception from the Emperor of a rich chalice as an offering of gratitude — his interview with Attila, whom he saluted as the Scourge of God — and his funeral obsequies. I cannot say much for these sculptures. But those above and be- tween the three doors of the principal facade, are not void of merit, and the Sacrifice, especially, of Cain and Abel, to the right of the principal entrance, is remarkable for a figure with its hands tied behind its back, kneeling on one knee before our Saviour, possibly a personification of human nature bound with sin and corruption since the Fall. — Finally, in the chapel at the ex- tremity of the Southern nave, (lateral to the elevated choir,) are the series of subjects representing the Passion of Our Lord, very rude, but occasionally spirited, as in the groups representing Our Saviour waking the Apostles, and his Arraignment before Pilate — where his figure is expressive and dignified, although the face is very inferior. — For a specimen of Wiligelmus, see Cicog- nara, torn, i, tav. 7. Letter II. SCULPTURE. 51 Judgment executed a few years later on the facade of the Cathedral at Ferrara ; the execution is, how- ever, little, if at all, superior. But a decided re- vival, however faint, is perceptible in the sculptures of Biduino, over the door of the Baptistery at Pisa,* and though the bronze gate cast by his contemporary, the still more celebrated Bonanno, in 1130, for the Cathedral of Pisa, was destroyed by fire in the six- teenth century, a similar one, executed by that artist six years afterwards for that of Monreale, in Sicily, still exists, and, judging by the engravings in the folio of the Duca di Serradifalco and the 'Storia della Pittura Italiana ' of Rosini,f amply vindicates his improvement on the style of his predecessors. In composition, Bonanno adheres closely to the tradi- tional subjects of Byzantium, but intersperses a few of the Lombard monsters in the foliage and orna- ments. J * See Cicognara, torn, i, tav. 7. f See the work by the patriotic Duke, entitled ' Del Duomo
  • and <>. 74 SEMI-BYZANTINE Letter II. and Sculpture, that, from first to last, Pisa founds her peculiar praise and glory. — But a representative of his style, and possibly a scion of his school, long survived at Arezzo, in Margaritone, excellent as an architect and sculptor, but in painting distinguished only as the author of the hideous crucifix, now pre- served in the loggia, or cloistral passage between the Capitolo, or chapter-house, at S. Croce, in Florence, and historically interesting as having been sent by him as a present to the illustrious Ghibelline chief, Farinata degli Uberti.* Margaritone died at an advanced age, worn out, it is said, with chagrin and vexation at finding the taste changed, and the honours borne away from him by a younger generation,! — to wit, by him of whom I must now speak, the third and most distinguished of the great painters of this transitional period, Giovanni Cimabue. This illustrious man was born in 1240, of a noble Florentine family, otherwise named the Gualtieri. His turn for design evinced itself at a very early age. In the lack of native artists the Florentines had been compelled to invite a company of Greek painters to decorate the lower, or subterranean church of S. Maria Novella, belonging to the Domi- * Before November, 1266, when Farinata was dead, and pro- bably soon after the battle of Monte- Aperto, 1260.— He is described as ' Margaritus Pictor, Alius quondam Magnani,' in a deed of 1262. — Masselli 's ?iotes to Vasari. •j- See Vasari. But Margaritone had certainly abandoned the Byzantine style and risen to high and acknowledged excellence in Sculpture, under the influence of Niccola Pisano, so that lam rather incredulous of this melancholy ending. Letter H. PAINTING. 75 nicans ;* the works of these artists were an irresistible attraction to young Cimabue, who loitered beside * There are a great many ancient frescoes, woefully defaced, in the chapels and cells of this part of the monastery, but though traces of Byzantine influence are very visible, I do not think any of them of pure Greek origin. They seem to be, for the most part, of a school elder than that of Giotto, but contempo- rary with him or his immediate successors, and strongly influenced by them. This subterranean church should rather be described as three extensive corridors, two of which branch off from the third at right angles to it in opposite directions, but at unequal distances from the entrance. The entrance is through the arch- way opening on the Chiostro Verde, immediately to the right of that into the Cappella degli Spagnuoli. The existing paintings are confined to the central corridor, right in front as you enter, and to the chapels to the right and left of it, and at the ex- tremity, beyond a partition-wall opening with a wicket, which has been interposed in comparatively recent times. The follow- ing notes may assist inspection in a place so dark and gloomy : — To the left, on entering, a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child, and a female devotee kneeling, rude in execution, but graceful and dignified in conception : — Immediately beyond this, the door into the Stanza Mortuaria, in which there is an interesting early fresco of the Nativity, in which the child, just born, turns round its face to look at its mother, and one of the shepherds holds back his dog, who rises on his hind legs to bark at the angel, — some of the angels' heads are very like those in the large Ma- donna of Cimabue in the upper church ; the thatch of the shed and the leaves of the shrubs, &c, are very carefully finished : — Beyond this chamber, three chapels, to the right of the corridor, between the second and third of which is interposed the modern partition wall, above alluded to ; in the first, in the lunette of the right-hand wall, the Flagellation (apparently) of S. Antony in the tomb, and his Burial, very simple and beautiful ; in the second, on the front wall, to the left, the embrace of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem — her face young ;md beautiful, full of purity, sweetness and grace; an angel descending from heaven seems to introduce them, resting a hand mi the head of each, pressing them towards each other, like children, -ami to the right, the Birth of the Virgin — engraved 76 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. them, watching their progress, while his parents believed him conning his grammar in the adjacent school, kept for the instruction of the novices. His books too betrayed the usual symptoms of a newly awakened enthusiasm in the sketches of men, horses, houses, &c. with which their margins were disfigured, and before long his father found himself constrained to yield to an inclination so decided, and apprentice him to these foreign masters. He made rapid pro- gress and speedily surpassed them. But the influ- ence of this early Byzantine training was never effaced. His natural disposition, indeed, being to the grand and noble rather than the soft and refined, he had the less temptation to depart from the tradi- tional types and models, and we find him accord- ingly, throughout his career, attempting to re-create, re-inspire and re-ennoble, rather than depart from them. by Agincourt, Peinture, pi. 109, as a work of the Greek painters, instructors of Cimabue, whereas it is evidently much more recent ; — in the third, nothing- worth notice : a — And finally in the chapel at the very extremity of the corridor opposite the door of entrance from the Chiostro Verde — on the left wall, the death of S. Jerome and the vision of two young monks of S- Martin's monastery at Tours, who heard the voices and the singing when Our Saviour, with the heavenly host and the spirits of the just, come down to receive his soul at Bethlehem, — and on the right-hand wall the apparition of S. Jerome to S. Augustine, and another subject, but both these are almost effaced. a One of these chapels, dedicated ' Firenze Antica e Moderna,' torn, vi, to S. Martin, was painted by Gio- p. 340. Vasari, however, does not como da Casentino, according to the mention it in his life of that artist. Letter II. PAINTING. 77 His first great work was a Virgin and child, attended by angels, and seated on a lofty throne supported by three arches, under which appear the heads of four Apostles, very dignified, although the upper part of the picture, especially the Virgin, is quite Greek. This picture was executed for the S. Trinita, a church in Florence belonging to the monks of Vallombrosa, but it is now preserved in that trea- sury of primitive art, the gallery of the Academy. His next important painting was the crucifix, now in the sacristy of S. Croce, executed for the Francis- cans, the steady patrons of his subsequent career. The Guardiano, or Superior, of the monastery, who had given him the commission, was pleased with his performance ; and carried him to Pisa, where he painted for the church of S. Francesco, in that city, another Madonna, now in the gallery of the Louvre,* — the head is Byzantine, but full of dig- nity. These paintings established Cimabue's reputation, and soon afterwards, probably through the interven- tion of his friend the Guardiano, he received an in- vitation to Assisi, the head-quarters of the order, there to continue the decoration of the Upper church in fresco. He is supposed to have arrived there * Through the conquests of the French. Many of the early Italian paintings, not belonging to public galleries, were never restored ; they now fill the first of the upper halls of the Louvre Gallery. The original exposition-catalogues, as issued under the Empire, usually specify the spot where each picture came from. They do so in the present instance. 78 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. about the year 1265, towards the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth year of his age.* After Giunta's death, it would appear that no Italian artist had been deemed worthy of filling his place and completing the work. Cimabue, there- fore, found the roof and the walls of the nave a blank, ready for his pencil.f He commenced, as usual, by the roof, representing on the first of the groined vaults, the four Doctors of the Church, and on the third, the Saviour, the Virgin, the Baptist and S. Francis, — the Doctors full of dignity, but exactly resembling the Saints of the Menologion magnified — the Virgin and her companions noble in attitude and character, although still essentially Greek, — the Saviour, especially, has evidently been inspired by the mosaics. These vaults are in excel- lent preservation, the colours as brilliant nearly as when first laid on. £ But I cannot, alas ! say as * Notes to Vasari, Sienese edit., as quoted by Lanzi. f The frescoes of the nave of the Lower church are attributed to him by Vasari, conjointly with some Greek painters whom he found working there, — but there is small probability of this. They seem to have been executed previously to the middle of the thirteenth century, when the walls were broken through to make the chapels. They are noAv scarcely recognisable. One of the most remarkable is the Meeting of the Virgin and S. John after the Crucifixion, on the right-hand wall, — but I should hardly have made it out but for the assistance of a drawing, one of a series made about thirty years ago by Signor Mariani, an artist still, I believe, living at Assisi, and the engraver of some interesting architectural views and sections of the two churches, the upper and lower, of S. Francesco. J Each of the Doctors is represented at full length, sitting at his desk, studying the Scriptures, while Our Saviour appears Letter II. PAINTING. 79 much for the remaining - and more mature composi- tions. These, ranging along the nave in two dis- tinct rows on the opposite walls, have been ruthlessly retouched and are in many places entirely obli- terated. Those on the Southern wall represent the history of the Old Testament, those on the Northern that of the New, which is concluded on the Western wall, opposite the sanctuary, by the Ascension of Christ and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. The compositions are for the most part the traditional Byzantine ones, little varied from, but they are grandly given — the design is improved, the groups are well allied to, and discriminated from each other ; and in those compositions in which the painter has been forced to be entirely original, the same merits are observable. They form altogether a noble series, and I would mention the Building of the Ark, the Sacrifice of Abraham, the Betrayal of Our Lord, and the Pieta, or Lamentation over the dead body of Christ, as especially worthy of admira- tion.* above, inspiring him in their interpretation. See Dr. Franz Kiigler's interesting observation on the ornaments which sur- round these medallions, in which he recognises " a decided and not unsatisfactory approach to the antique." — Handbook of Painting in Italy, p. 34, — a very useful vademecunv It has been questioned of late years whether these are really works of Cimabue. Baron v. Kuinohr {Ital. Forsclitmr/ai, torn, ii, p. G7) inclines to attribute them to Spinello Aretino and Ids son Parri, Giottesque artists of the latter part of the fourteenth century. But, although it is possible that Spinello may have retouched them, the testimony of Vasari, and an un- broken tradition offive centuries, are not to be lightly questioned ; 80 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. After completing these frescoes Cimabue returned to Florence, to set the seal on his reputation by his celebrated Madonna, painted for the chapel of the Ruccellai family in S. Maria Novella, of the Domi- nicans. You will gaze on it with interest, if not with admiration, for, independently of pictorial merit, it is linked with history. Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, passing through Florence while he was en- gaged in painting it, was taken to see it at the artist's bottega, or studio — as it would now be termed, in a garden outside the Porta S. Piero ; rumour had been busy, but no one had as yet obtained a glimpse of it, — all Florence crowded in after him — nothing like it had till then been seen in Tuscany, and when finished, it was carried in solemn procession to the church, fol- lowed by the whole population, and with such triumph and rejoicings that the quarter where the painter dwelt obtained the name, which it has ever since re- tained, of Borgo Allegri.* Nor can I think that their position immediately above Giotto's life of S. Francis, (hereafter to be mentioned,) and which occupies the third and lowest range of compartments, proves their prior execution, and their style and character are precisely accordant with that of the undoubted works of Cimabue. In the Carita, at Assisi, a ruined church, crumbling to decay, might still be seen three years ago, a gigantic Madonna, painted in fresco, and attributed to Cimabue — very Greek, but majestic and dignified. It probably no longer exists. — In S. Bernardino, at Perugia, on the Piazza di S. Francesco, is a Crucifix, dated 1272, which Prof. Rosini believes to be by Cimabue, and probably painted about the time of his works at Assisi. — Storia, &c, torn, i, p. 192. * Vasari, on the authority of " certi ricordi di vecchi pittori." He had access to many documents of this description, which have since been lost. Letter II. PAINTING. 81 this enthusiasm was solely excited by a comparative superiority to contemporary art ; it has a character of its own, and, once seen, stands out from the crowd of Madonnas, individual and distinct. The type is still the Byzantine, intellectualised perhaps, yet nei- ther beautiful nor graceful, but there is a dignity and a majesty in her mien, and an expression of in- ward ponderings and sad anticipation rising from her heart to her eyes as they meet yours, which one can- not forget. The child too, blessing with his right hand, is full of the deity, and the first object in the picture, a propriety seldom lost sight of by the elder Christian painters. And the attendant angels, though as like as twins, have much grace and sweetness.* Cimabue died in 1302,f in the sixty-second year of his age, lamented throughout Italy as the most illustrious painter of his time. His portrait may be seen in one of the great frescoes of Simon di Memmo in the chapel of the Spaniards, the ancient Capitolo of S. Maria Novella. The sculptor Ghiberti, who has left us some interesting notices of the early ar- tists,^ describes him as a man of most fair presence, This picture still bangs in its original position, in the chapel at the extremity of the Southern transept. It is engraved in Agincourt, Peinture, pi 108, and in Rosini, tav. 4. Vasari says in 1300, but he appears to have been executing a mosaic, at Pisa, in 1302, (Ciampi, Notizie, fyc. p. 144,) and to have left it unfinished through death. — Cimabue painted in fresco at Padua in the church of the Carmelites, afterwards burnt; a head of S. John, cut from the ruin, was preserved in tli'' sixteenth century. See the ' Notizie d'Opere di Disegno, 1 &c. published bj Morelli, Bassaiio, 8vo, 1800, p. 17. \ The * Commentario,' printed by Cicognara at t lie close of vol. ii. a 82 ITALICO-HYZANTINE Letter II. (" di bellissima presenza,") and from the likeness in question it is easy to imagine his appearance — tall, thin and erect in person, with much of the look of a gentleman and of an old soldier, who has been the handsome, the gay, the admired, in his younger days. A commentator on Dante, contemporary with Giotto, describes him as noble in character, but haughty and proud, and one who, if a fault was hinted at in any of his works, or if he discovered a blemish in it him- self, would cast it aside at the instant, however deeply interested in it,* — a man, in short, who lived for fame and not for pelf, as all true artists would, were they not compelled too often, by the iron arm of need, to paint to live rather than live to paint. I may add (for everything respecting the man is in- teresting) that he lived in his own house, afterwards that of Giotto, in the Via del Cocomero, and that he was buried in the adjacent Duomo. And yet, before bidding farewell to Cimabue, I feel that I ought to apologise to the many writers who reckon him the father of the school of Florence — a dignity which cannot be conceded to him in pre- judice of Giotto. The simple state of the case is this ; — At a time when the traditions of Byzantium, venerable and noble, but insufficient in themselves for the regeneration of art, ruled paramount in Chris- tendom, Niccola Pisano introduced a new style of de- sign and composition, founded on nature and the an- the fourth chapter of the fourth book of his ' Storia della Scul- tura,' torn, ii, p. 99. * Quoted by Vasari, in the life of Cimabue. Letter II. PAINTING. 83 tique, properly checked by the requirements of Chris- tianity and of the life of the middle ages, retaining nothing from the Byzantines except the traditionary compositions which he held himself free to modify, improve or dispense with altogether at pleasure, with the licence of originality. This new principle was adopted by Giotto, a genius as original as Niccola himself, the sole distinguished pupil of Cimabue, and who struck out a style totally different from his mas- ter's and from the Byzantine, which his followers even considered it a demerit to resemble. Cimabue, therefore, exerted comparatively little or no influence on the Florentine school, and the fact (which may readily be allowed) that he improved in design under the influence of the new life imparted to art in gene- ral by Niccola Pisano, cannot countervail the cer- tainty that his inward spirit, and even his outward style continued to the last essentially — although in the loftiest sense — Byzantine, and that, if Fra Gia- como da. Turrita and Gaddo Gaddi rightly belong to this transitional period, Cimabue must, by all the laws of sound criticism, be classed under it also. — Jupiter, in fact, did not more thoroughly dethrone Saturn than Giotto supplanted Cimabue and the Byzantines — than the Dramatic superseded the Contemplative principle at Florence. The conquest was not, however, so immediate and complete as in the case of Niccola Pisano in Sculp- ture. An adherent of the elder school maintained his ground, like a little Emperor of Trebizond, for a 2 84 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. many years after Giotto's death, and if I am not mis- taken, perpetuated a Semi-Byzantine succession at Florence as late as the close of the fourteenth century. This was Bonamico di Cristofano, surnamed Buf- falmacco, a name better remembered now for eccen- tricity than genius, yet undeserving of that total neglect to which it is too generally abandoned. He was educated by Andrea Tafi, the mosaicist — not to his own department of art, but as a painter, and had formed his style and established his fame before the death of Cimabue and maturity of Giotto. His style, so far as we can judge of it by description and the few fragments which remain of his works, was founded on the Byzantine, with such additional improvement as talent and observation enabled him to infuse into it from other quarters. But his caprice and carelessness were at least equal to his genius, and carried away by the perilous gift of facility, he too generally trusted to copious invention, superficial grace and attractive colouring, to atone for inaccu- rate design, exaggerated action, and the introduction of figures in attitudes more or less comic, admirably calculated to raise a laugh, but utterly at variance with the solemn character of the subjects with which he intermingled them.* On the other hand he knew what was right and fitting, he was even learned in his * E. g., his representing the mothers biting and scratching in their rage and anguish during the Massacre of the Innocents, — S. Luke blowing his pen to make it give out the ink, — and the old man blowing his nose in the Crucifixion — in each instance as described by Vasari. Letter II. PAINTING. 85 art, "dottissimo," according to Ghiberti, "in tutta 1' arte," and when he chose to exert himself j when " he put his soul into his work," he excelled, says that writer, " every other painter of his time," — words to be taken with allowance, but which amply testify the respect accorded to him, even in the days of Cosmo de' Medici. I confess there is many a celebrated painter, the moiety of whose works I would freely sacrifice to win back from oblivion half a dozen frescoes of Buffal- macco. As it is, we have little to judge him by. Of his numerous works at Pisa, the sole unquestionable one that remains is the Crucifixion in the Campo Santo, an early work, yet a most singular one, — bold and original in composition and by no means ill exe- cuted, and especially remarkable for the varied action of the angels with which the sky is peopled ; one of them, among a group gathered round Our Saviour, receives the blood from his side in a golden chalice ; another, standing on the cross of the penitent thief, extricates his soul from his mouth, while a devil per- forms the like office for his companion in punish- ment, receiving it in his arms, and a brother fiend, armed with a whip, bends forward, grotesquely and exultingly, to welcome it to its new existence ; the angels who had been watching beside the one cross, fly away, wringing their hands in sorrow, while those attendant on the other rejoice over the good estate of the soul that has found grace even on the stroke of the twelfth hour. All of them are in communion with each other, sympathising with man. Some of 86 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. these ideas were adopted and frequently repeated by the Giotteschi and other early painters. The lower part of the composition is filled with warriors on horseback, the Virgin fainting, attended by the Maries, a group of Jews, women, children, &c, all expressive, though often caricatured. The faces are generally rather round and full, a peculiarity which attaches more or less to most Italian painters of Semi- Byzantine descent or sympathies. But this interest- ing fresco is a mere wreck, scarcely recognisable, it has been so repainted and injured.* — BufFalmacco's later works, at Assisi and elsewhere, have entirely perished, f a fate that some of them had already un- * The composition has some resemblance to the Crucifixion by Giunta in the upper church of Assisi. It is engraved by Signor Carlo Lasinio, the father, in the magnificent collection of en- gravings of the Campo Santo, published originally in 1812 — primarily, I believe, through the advocacy and interest of Pro- fessor Rosini, the historian of Italian art. f The life of the Magdalen, in one of the chapels of the Lower Church at Assisi, attributed to Buffalmacco, is certainly Giottesque, and appears to be by Giottino. — At Florence, how- ever, in the gallery of the Academy, a picture is attributed to him, which may possibly be his, — at all events it is a very inte- resting specimen of the school to which he belonged. It was painted and set up, in the year 1312, over the tomb of the Abbess S. Umilta, (a rich, noble and beautiful damsel of Faenza, foundress of the ' donne di Faenza,' or ' Monache Vallombrosane,' a distinct branch or rule of the Benedictine order,) in the church of her nunnery at Florence, dedicated to S. John the Evangelist, but now destroyed, the name sur- viving in that of the castle ' di S. Giovanni,' usually known as the ' fortezza di basso,' which extends over the site. — The arrangement of the picture is (mite in the Greek style, — the Saint is represented at full length in her nun's dress in the centre, and her story is told in small lateral compartments. In Letter II. PAINTING. &7 dergone in Vasari's time, who attributes their decay to his use of a peculiar species of paonazzo, or purple, the First and highest, beginning from the left, she is seen con- verting her suitor, a kinsman of the Emperor Frederick II., to the faith of virginity. In the Second is represented the illness of the husband whom her guardians had compelled her to marry, which resulted in his acquiescence in her wish to take the veil, and ultimately, in his assuming the cowl himself, which in the Third compartment he receives from the bishop, while his (late) wife kneels behind, in prayer. In the Fourth is represented the miracle by which the obedience that obtained her name, 'Humi- lity,' (Umilta,) was honoured by God. Although of high birth, she had never been taught to read ; the nuns one day playfully bade her go and read to them as they dined ; she bent her head submissively, and went up to the desk, and opening the book, the words presented themselves to her, " Despise not the works of the Lord, for they are all true and just," — she read them aloud, and then, lifting up her eyes, pronounced a discourse so lofty and thrilling on the text in question, that first they won- dered, and presently not an eye remained dry throughout the refectory. And still greater was their surprise when, on exa- mining the book that lay before her, not a word was to be found there of what her mouth had uttered. — The Fifth compartment represents her escape from the convent by the assistance of an angel of the Lord, and her miraculous passage of the river Lamone by walking on the water, her object being to reach the desert and live there in penitence and apart, in imitation of the ancient Anchorets. Being detained, however, shortly afterwards, in an honourable captivity, by a relation who opposed her pur- pose, she healed by the sign of the cross a young monk whose leg the doctors were about to amputate, and who had besought her interposition, as represented in compartment Sixth, in conse- quence of which her kinsman relinquished his opposition, and a cell was built for her adjoining the church of S. Apollinare, near Faenza, belonging to the monastery of the youth she had healed, in which she might live, professing the rule of the Bene- dictines, and furnished with two little windows, the one opening into the church, for the reception of the Sacrament, the other for the introduction of food. She is seen kneeling Inside it, in the background of compartment Seventh. Her example induced many other women to build cells round the monastery, and by 88 ITALIC0-BYZANT1NE Letter II. mixed with salt, which ate into and corroded them. The ultimate and universal prevalence of the Giot- the bishop's desire, confirmed by an apparition of Our Saviour, they were soon afterwards put under her care, and a monastery was built, into which, twelve years after entering her cell, she was formally inducted by the bishop. Some time after this, accompanied by three of her nuns, and at the command of S. John the Evangelist, she walked barefoot to Florence, with the view of establishing another nunnery there; they are seen on their journey in the background of the compartment last mentioned. In the Eighth, the new nunnery is seen in the progress of erection, — she follows a mule laden with stones for the building, which, though past eighty, she daily gathered with her own hands in the Mugnone, the streamlet that flows past Florence, under sunny Fiesole. The Ninth compartment is lost. The Tenth represents her resuscitation of a dead child ; it had been entrusted to a poor country-woman to nurse, but fell ill, and she was bringing it to Florence for medical aid, when it died in her arms ; she met S. Umilta, and besought her assistance ; a little chapel, dedicated to S. John the Evangelist, stood by ; Umilta took the child and laid it before the image, and making the sign of the cross over the body with a lighted taper, the child revived. Finally, in the Eleventh compartment, is represented the appa- rition of S. Umilta, while yet alive, to two nuns who lived as anchorets in the Apennine, but had fallen from their first love, warning them to repent, —and in the Twelfth, her death, aged about a century, in 1310, or rather, the funeral service per- formed over her remains. See, for this history, the ' Breve Raccolto della Vita, Miracoli e Culto di Sant' Umilta,' &c. Fior. 4to, 1722. — These little compositions are painted on a gold ground and very highly finished ; the landscape, trees, architecture, &c, resemble those of the Menologion, and the whole style is Byzantine, but the figures are much superior, and frequently have considerable expression. The colouring tends towards a greyish green, very usual in productions of the Italico- Byzantine schools. — When the monastery of S. John was de- stroyed in 1529, the picture was removed, along with the body of the saint, to that of S. Salvi, but the latter also being now deserted, it has been lodged, after careful restoration, in the Academy. — I own I am inclined to believe it a genuine work of Buffalmacco, more especially as, according to Vasari, his earliest Lbtteb II. PAINTING. 89 tesque taste may have also in many instances doomed them to premature destruction. In every way, therefore, Time's tooth has been busy with his fame, and a mere skeleton, a very ghost of a reputation is all that remains to Buffal- macco. It is, in truth, in the thin airy atmosphere of the Italian novelists, that his name will survive after every vestige of his works has vanished. From boyhood to hoary age, his pranks and practical jokes were the laugh of Florence, as his conversational flow of fun and humour were the life of Maso del Saggio's shop, the Wits' Coffee-house of the time.* But wit and wisdom are seldom mates, and the ashes left by the crackling thorns of folly press hea- vily on the head on which retribution lays them. It so fared with Buffalmacco. A merry wag, a careless spendthrift, living for the day without a thought of the morrow, and (as the phrase is) nobody's enemy but his own, he drained the cup of pleasure to the employment had been in decorating 1 the church of these ' monache diFaenza' in fresco. It maybe noted too that the Mugnone is the scene of one of the best of the practical jokes which Buffulmacco and Bruno played on Calandrino, as related by Boccaccio, and the probability naturally suggests itself that they may, all three, have worked there together. The interest of this picture as one of the very few surviving relics of the early Semi- Byzantine school of Florence — ancestral, as I believe it, to Orcagna and Fra Angelico da Fiesole, with whose works not a few resemblances may be here detected — will excuse the length of this notice. * The witticism.-, recorded by Boccaccio are dull enough, the practical jokes excellent, — and so !<><> are those inserted in his Life by Vasari, from the novels of Sacchetti. 90 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. lees and found misery at the bottom, dying, at the age of seventy-eight,* a beggar in the Misericordia, without a paul in his pocket to buy a coffin for his corpse or a mass for his soul — the type and mirror of a whole class of artists whose follies and vagaries throw discredit on genius, while a certain kindliness of heart renders it impossible not to pity while we blame them. One only of his pupils, Giovanni da Ponte, is recorded as such ; he was a prodigal and a man of pleasure, and died in wretchedness like himself, f Bruno, the accomplice, and Calandrino, the victim of his practical jokes, as recorded by Boccaccio, both of them painters, though mere daubers, unquestion- ably belonged to the same school, and, if not his own, may probably have been his fellow-pupils under Andrea Tafi.J These would be but ignoble repre- sentatives of the Semi-Byzantine succession at Flo- rence ; but, strange to say, I think it not improbable that the Orcagna family derive their pedigree as artists from the same original stock, — and that thus the sublime author of the 'Triumph of Death,' and his pupil, the mystic Traini, and even, possibly, the * In 1340, according to Vasari. But Baldinucci says his name is inserted as alive in 1351, in an ancient book of the Com- pany of the Painters. Notizie, &c, torn, ii, p. 27. •\ Vasari. | A picture by Bruno, preserved in the Academy of Pisa, is engraved by Rosini, tav. 12. It bears a strong resemblance (in its inferiority) to the style of Orcagna. Compare for instance the female figures with the mother attempting to rescue her daughter from the Demons' grasp in the Last Judgment of the Campo Santo. Letter II. PAINTING. 91 half-sainted Beato Angelico da Fiesole, walk in the same procession with him. But these are names of which we shall treat more fully and reverently here- after.* There were yet two or three Italico-Byzantine revivals, similar to and contemporary with those of Siena and Florence, which ought to be mentioned, before concluding- this letter. Tomaso de' Stefani effected an improvement of this description at Naples, but the frescoes executed by him in the chapel of the Minutoli in the Duomo are, I fear, no longer visible. Workmen were already whitewashing the upper walls of the chapel when I visited it in the spring of 1842, and it is not likely that the compositions to the right and left of the altar-tomb, which escaped retouching through the intercession of De' Dominici a century ago, have now been spared. f The frescoes, though sadly in- jured, were well worth preserving \ ease, freedom, and even grace made amends for harsh outlines, * It may be remarked, that in Ghiberti's ' Commentario ' he enumerates the painters in three distinct groups, commencing with Giotto and his pupils, riominatim, as such — then proceeding to Imtfalmacco, (or, as he calls him, Bonamico,) Pietro Caval- liui uiiil Orcagna, evidently considering them a distinct school, independent of Giotto — and lastly, to the painters of Siena. — In the Canipo Santo, moreover, the works of Orcagna immediately succeed those of Bufialmacco. t See the ' Vite de' Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Napole- tani,' by Bernardo de' Dominici, torn, i, p. 11.— I shall speak of the character of this work in treating of the school of Niccola i'i ano. 92 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. abrupt shadow, and much inequality of execution. But as the work of Tomaso, the brother of Pietro, who sculptured the altar-tomb, and the friend of Masaccio who built the cathedral, each in his depart- ment the parent of art at Naples, they should have been held sacred. Tomaso left a pupil, Filippo Te- sauro, the master of Messer Sim one, whom I shall hereafter mention as a proselyte to the school of Giotto.* The frescoes of the Baptistery at Parma have a far better chance of preservation, and indeed rank among the most remarkable productions of the thir- teenth century. They were executed by Bertolino of Piacenza and Niccold of Reggio, shortly after 1260, in the youth of Cimabue, and fill three of the concentric circles of the cupola, — the highest repre- senting the Apostles and Evangelists, (three of the latter, S. Mark, S. Luke and S. John being por- trayed, like Egyptian deities, with the heads of their respective symbols, the lion, ox and eagle ;) the se- cond, Our Saviour, the Virgin and the prophets ; the third, the history of S. John the Baptist.'] They * Of Tesauro some frescoes, representing the life of the Beato Niccola, existed at the beginning of last century in a lunette in the chapel of S. Maria del Principio in the church of S. Restituta, now enclosed in the cathedral of S. Gennaro — but they have been whitewashed. Z)e' Dominici, torn, i, p. 30. — A Madonna and child, in the Incoronata, over the first altar to the right, on entering the church, struck me as the most pleasing among the various works ascribed to Messer Simone. The expression is very sweet, and the style is peculiar, evidently before any Giottesque influence. f The series commences in the first compartment to the right Letter II. PAINTING. 93 are in excellent preservation, and very nearly as fresh as when first painted. In general style, they are decidedly Byzantine, imitated from the mosaics, — the very colouring, clear and brilliant, reminds one of them •, several of the compositions are the tradi- tional ones, yet varied with boldness and originality, while a life and animation pervade the whole series, to which I scarcely remember any contemporary parallel. I cannot say what succession these painters left, but from the peculiar colouring and other cir- cumstances I strongly suspect an ancestral relation between them and the primitive and interesting school of Bologna.* of the central, or Western door, as you face it from within, standing at the font. The Second, Sixth and Tenth compart- ments represent S. Ambrose and S. Augustine, S. Gregory and S. Jerome, S. Martin and S. Sylvester ; the remainder are as follows: — 1. The Annunciation to Zacharias ; 3. The Birth of S. John ; 4. An Angel leading him, while a child, into the wilderness ; 5. S. John preaching ; 7. S. John baptizing ; 8. Pointing out Our Saviour to his disciples ; 9. Baptizing Our Saviour; 11. Before Herod; 12. Led to prison, while, to the right, Ins two disciples are seen carrying his message to Christ ; 13. Our Saviour performing miracles of mercy in presence of John's disciples, in reply to Ins message ; 14. The two dis- ciples relating to John what they had seen; 15. John's decapi- tation, and 16. Herod's feast, and the head brought in on a charger. — Some of the frescoes, I may observe, on the lower walls of the Baptistery, though very inferior, are curious as works (apparently) of the earlier pale-colouring school of Northern Italy, after undergoing the influence of the Giotteschi. 1 The merits of which must be reserved for discussion hereafter, as the influence of Niccola Pisano became paramount ultimately, even in the case of Vitale, Lippo Dalmasio, and others, whose earlier works belong to the same class as the Madonna of Orsanmichele, and evince a (dose affinity to the semi-Byzantine style. 94 ITALICO-BYZANTINE Letter II. In the North of Lombardv we find fewer and in- decisive traces of revival — at least in the Byzantine spirit. The old Roman school indeed, or what I have ventured to consider such, revived, especially at Cremona, where some very curious frescoes, of the middle of the fourteenth century, by Polidoro Casella, quite unlike either the Giottesque or the Byzantine manner, still exist on the vaults of the two aisles of the Cathedral.* Such too may be seen at Verona, in the frescoes that line the choir of S. Zenone, but there the Byzantine and Giottesque influences balance, if not encroach upon it.f Gua- riento, moreover, of Padua, an artist to be mentioned with high praise among the Giotteschi, and even Squarcione, the father of the classic school of Lom- bardy, would appear to have sprung originally from the same Roman family. At Venice, on the contrary, ever, as you may remember, sympathetic with the East, a decided, though transient Italico-Byzantine revival took place as late as the middle of the fourteenth century, in the persons of Paolo Veneziano, Niccolo Semite- * The compositions are chiefly from the patriarchal history. The colouring and drapery are very peculiar, some of the figures are distinguished by a naivete and simplicity which occasionally rises towards dignity, but upon the whole they are inferior, and even below par in point of mechanical excellence. Rosini has engraved two of them, torn, ii, facing p. 147. f The Baptism of Our Saviour and the Resurrection of Lazarus seem to be the oldest. There is a rather spirited one of S. George killing the dragon, the dragon's tail curling round the horse's leg. These are on the Southern wall of the pres- bytery. Letter II. PAINTING. 95 colo, and Lorenzo, of whom the two former, but especially Niccolo, attempted to infuse the contem- porary improvements of central Italy into their distinct traditionary style, while the latter, after a similar effort, abandoned it altogether. Paolo painted the outer case of the Pala d' Oro, in the treasury of S. Mark's, and specimens of the works of Niccolo and Lorenzo may be seen in the interesting museum of the Venetian Academy.* * A large altar-piece, in a great number of compartments, of which the central, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, is much superior to the rest, is the most important work of Semite- colo. The only compositions worth notice are that of S. Francis renouncing his father in the market-place at Assisi, the third of the upper row, adapted apparently from a composition by Giotto at Assisi, — and the Last Judgment, in which one of the angels attendant on Our Saviour holds forth a scroll of the sun, moon, stars, &c, as if about to roll it up, while below, to the left, one vast tomb, surrounded by trees, appears to enshrine the spirits of the just, and fire descends as usual from the throne to consume the wicked, to the right of the picture. This is purely a revival, an Italianization of the Byzantine style, and as such the picture is very curious. In the robes of Our Saviour and the Virgin the lights are done in gold, in the trictrac manner, so common with the Byzantines. Blue rays, shaped like the blade of a sword, descend from the circlet symbolical of heaven, when the interference of Deity is expressed. Something very like this occurs in the paintings of Tintoretto at Venice and even in the Annunciation by Titian on the staircase of the Confreria di S. Kocco, one of the many reminiscences of Byzantium in his early works. Four other of Niccolo's pictures, one of them signed ' Nicholeto Simetecolo de Venetia,' another dated 1367 — and representing S. Sebastian reproving the Emperors Maxiinian and Diocletian, his being shot at, his martyrdom, beaten to deatli witli clubs, and Ins burial — are preserved in the Libreria del Duomo, at Padua. The Burial is the best, it is well grouped, the colouring neither very warm nor very pale, the expression lame. They are 96 ITALICO-BYZANTINE PAINTING. Letter II. It would prolong this sketch unnecessarily to notice the traces of these Semi-Byzantine revivals discoverable long after the direct succession had in each several district failed, and the influence of Nic- cola Pisano become predominant in Italy — at Siena longer than at Florence, at Bologna longer than at Siena, at Venice longer than at Bologna ; while in Western Lombardy, and at Asti, in particular, as late as the pontificate of Leo X., artists might be found, descendants apparently in the direct line from the original Roman school, who perpetuated many of the worst peculiarities of the Byzantine school in the style of the worst contemporaries of the Meno- logion.* highly finished. — Lorenzo is an artist of far higher merit. The earliest of his works would appear to be the immense picture in compartments, formerly in S. Antonio di Castello, now in the Academy at Venice. The Byzantine influence is still visible in it, but in his later works in the same gallery it wholly disap- pears. His colouring is soft and warm, betraying, if I mistake not, the influence of the early German school of Cologne. — We shall have repeated occasion, hereafter, to notice the influence of Byzantium, long lingering, and perpetually reappearing and asserting itself in the development of art at Venice. * See for example a picture by Ambrose of Asti, dated 1514, in the Academy of Pisa, and more especially the compositions on the gradino. The picture nevertheless displays points of origi- nality and merit. In the central compartment Mary Magdalen pours the ointment over Our Saviour's head, which I never saw elsewhere, and his conversation with her. (as identified with Mary, the sister of Lazarus,) on the gradino, though rude, is full of feeling. ' S. Orsola, regina di Bretagna' is represented in the compartment to the right, with her Vision, the Voyage of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, and her Martyrdom, on the gradino,— and to the left we behold ' S. Uaria di Barcalone,' Letter II. PAINTING. 97 I should have brought this letter more speedily to a close, had I not wished you to appreciate the Sculpture and Painting of Italy in all their varied relations, nor would the "bright chambers of the East" have revealed Niccola Pisano sooner for my shaking the hour-glass. There is a freshness too in the half-hour's walk immediately before sun-rise, which insensibly begets a brisker step and a more discursive lip than may be maintained in the heat of the day, when the mouth is parched and the foot drags hea- vily onward. " Absit omen !" but to a pedestrian like yourself this similitude may serve possibly as a Janus-faced apology. (Barcelona,) a really beautiful figure, with her exposure to the flames, and her decollation, below ; a hand, as if from heaven, holds the sword that has despatched her, and her soul flies up to heaven in the shape of a little white bird. The rocks in the background are exactly like those of the Menologion, to which the whole composition bears a singular resemblance. — This picture belongs to a class whose interest, like that of S. Umilta, is of a documentary description — rude indeed, and of little worth in themselves, but valuable as witnesses in the history of art. \oi,. II. 11 CHRISTIAN ART OF MODERN EUROPE. PERIOD I. ARCHITECTURE. Development of the Christian Element, Spirit — Lombard and Gothic, or Pointed Architecture — Rise of Sculpture and Painting — Expression. III. NICCOLA PISANO AND HIS SCHOOL— RISE AND RESTORATION OF SCULPTURE, IN CONNEXION WITH GOTHIC ARCHITEC- TURE — PREPARATION FOR GHIBERTI AND DONATELLO. Sect. 1. Pisa — Niccola and Giovanni Pisano. Sect. 2. Florence — Andrea Pisano and Orcagna. Sect. 3. Siena. Sect. 4. Naples. II 2 LETTER III. NICCOLA PISANO AND HIS SCHOOL. RISE AND RESTORATION OF SCULPTURE, IN CON- NEXION WITH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE — PRE- PARATION FOR GHIBERTI AND DONATELLO. Section 1. Pisa — Niccola and Giovanni Pisano. In comparing the advent of Niccola Pisano to that of the sun at his rising, I am conscious of no exag- geration ; on the contrary, it is the only simile by which I can hope to give you an adequate impression of his brilliancy and power relatively to the age in which he flourished. Those sons of Erebus, the American Indians, fresh from their traditional sub- terranean world, and gazing for the first time on the gradual dawning of day in the East, could not have been more dazzled, more astounded when the sun actually appeared, than the popes and podestas, friars and freemasons must have been in the thir- teenth century, when from among the Biduinos, Bonannos and Antelamis of the twelfth, Niccola emerged in his glory, sovereign and supreme, a fount of light, diffusing warmth and radiance over Chris- tendom. It might be too much to parallel him in LIB! ■ UNIVERSITY Of CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE 102 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. actual genius with Dante and Shakspeare ; they stand alone and unapproachable, each on his distinct pinnacle of the temple of Christian song, — and yet neither of them can boast such extent and durability of influence, for whatever of highest excellence has been achieved in Sculpture and Painting, not in Italy only but throughout Europe, has been in obe- dience to the impulse he primarily gave, and in fol- lowing up the principle which he first struck out. — I write this, fearless of contradiction, for you will not, I am sure, misunderstand me as proposing Nic- cola's men and women as models for an academy ; I think and speak of the immortal spirit, not of bones and muscles, — though even in that point of view he merits no small respect. But to descend to specifica- tion : — Niccola's peculiar praise is this, — that, in practice at least, if not in theory, he first established the prin- ciple that the study of nature, corrected by the ideal of the antique, and animated by the spirit of Chris- tianity, personal and social, can alone lead to excel- lence in art, each of the three elements of human nature — Matter, Mind and Spirit — being thus brought into union and co-operation in the service of God, in due relative harmony and subordination. I cannot over-estimate the importance of this principle ; it was on this that, consciously or unconsciously, Nic- cola himself worked, — it has been by following it that Donatello and Ghiberti, Leonard, Raphael and Michael Angelo have risen to glory. The Sienese school and the Florentine, minds contemplative and Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 103 dramatic, are alike beholden to it for whatever suc- cess has attended their efforts. Like a treble-stranded rope, it drags after it the triumphal car of Christian Art. But if either of the strands be broken, if either of the three elements be pursued disjointedly from the other two, the result is, in each respective case, grossness, pedantry or weakness, —the exclusive imi- tation of Nature produces a Caravaggio, a Rubens, a Rembrandt — that of the Antique, a Pellegrino di Tibaldo and a David, — and though there be a native chastity and taste in religion, which restrains those who worship it too abstractedly from Intellect and Sense, from running into such extremes, it cannot at least supply that mechanical apparatus which will enable them to soar, — such devotees must be content to gaze up into heaven, like angels cropt of their wings. I might cite many instances of this, — even Raphael occasionally offends the eye by inaccuracy of design. — The principle, you see, is simple enough ; I may recur to it hereafter, when the unconscious accumulation of examples shall have enabled you to appreciate its universal application. We will now proceed to inquire how Niccola Pisano struck it out, and what he has left behind him to justify these ob- servations. Of the date of Niccola's birth no record, I believe, exists ; it probably took place about the beginning of the thirteenth century.* Nor is there any certainty This m. i\ be gathered from an inscription on the fountain 104 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. as to his first instructor in art; it may have been Bonanno, but the discrepancy of age is great between them. His earlier years appear to have been de- voted to Architecture, — I have elsewhere estimated his claims to distinction as the introducer of the style usually termed Tuscan or Italian Gothic. His improvement in Sculpture is attributable, in the first instance, to the study of an ancient sarco- phagus, brought from Greece by the ships of Pisa in the eleventh century, and which, after having stood beside the door of the Duomo for many centuries as the tomb of the Countess Beatrice, mother of the celebrated Matilda, has been recently removed to the Campo Santo. The front is sculptured in bas- relief, in two compartments, the one representing Hippolytus rejecting the suit of Phaedra, the other his departure for the chace, — such at least is the most plausible interpretation. The sculpture, if not super-excellent, is substantially good, and the benefit derived from it by Niccola is perceptible on the slightest examination of his works. Other remains of Perugia, dating between the years 1274, when the fountain was begun, and 1277, when Niccola was dead, and in which in- scription he is described as being then in his seventy-fourth year. Memorie Istor. intorno all' Area di S. Domenico, by the Mar- chese Virgilio Davia, 1842, p. 34. — He is designed in the re- cords of Pisa, ' Magister Nichole quondam Petri de Senis Ser Blasii Pisani,' — the son, that is to say, of Peter of Siena, the son of Ser Blasius, or Biagio, of Pisa, — from which Ciampi infers, that his father may have been born at Siena, while his grandfather lived there as Podesta, or in some honourable office, and that neither of these, his progenitors, were artists. Notizic T>ic(Iite, &c. p. .'55. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 105 of antiquity are preserved at Pisa, which he may have also studied, but this was the classic well from which he drew those waters which became wine when poured into the hallowing chalice of Christianity.* — I need scarcely add that the mere presence of such models would have availed little, had not nature en- dowed him with the quick eye and the intuitive apprehension of genius, together with a purity of taste which taught him how to select, how to modify and how to reinspire the germs of excellence thus presented to him. His earliest work is probably the Deposition, over the left-hand door of the facade of the Cathedral at Lucca, sculptured in 1233. Several years, appa- rently, elapsed before he resumed the chisel, f but having once done so, he seems to have worked on, continuously, for a lengthened period, during which he executed the three great works on which his re- putation rests, — the pulpits, namely, of the Bap- tisterv at Pisa and of the Cathedral at Siena, and the ' Area,' or shrine, of S. Domenic, for the church of that Saint at Bologna. The first of these was finished in 1260, as appears by the inscription; the contract for the second was drawn up in 1266, — and, from the date of the translation of S. Domenic's * The sarcophagus is engraved by the younger Lasinio, in the ' Monumenti Sepolcrali della Toscana,' Flor., folio, 1819, lav. 41. — For illustrations of Niccola's study of the antique, sec Cicognara, torn, i, tav. 13 and 15. | Except the Deposition, and the Area di S. Domenico, Vasari mentions no sculptures by Niccola, prior to tin pulpit of Pisa, lint a greal number of works in architecture. 106 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. remains, there is reason to believe that the inter- vening years were dedicated to the preparation of the receptacle in which they were to be deposited,* unquestionably the most original and important work that he has bequeathed to us. Each of these monuments is worthy of a minute examination. The Pulpit of Pisa is perhaps the most elegant in Italy. It is of white marble, six-sided, and sup- ported by seven Corinthian pillars, six corresponding to the angles of the hexagon, and resting alternately on the ground and on the backs of lions, the seventh considerably thicker and in the centre, resting on a whole clump of human figures and monsters. The bas-reliefs are five in number. The first represents the Nativity, the traditional Byzantine composition, very slightly varied ; the reclining figure of the Vir- gin, originally imitated from the ancient statues, but long devoid of grace and beauty, is here restored to not a little of its pristine character ; and to show his skill in the delineation of nature, even in the lower grades of animal life, Niccola has introduced, among the attendant sheep, a goat scratching its ear, with admirable effect, — an attempt that he has repeated, with the like success, on the pulpit of Siena. The second compartment, the Adoration of the Kings, is perhaps the best of the series, admirable in * Davia, Memorie Istoriche, &c, p. 42 ; Bosini, Storia, &c, torn, i, p. 165. — According to Vasari, the Area was sculptured in 1225 ; Count Carlo Malvasia, the historian of Bolognese art, was the first to remark the absurdity of this, S. Domenic having only been canonised in 1 234. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 107 composition, calm and quiet, the kings full of majesty, the younger of the three already a little idealised, while the Virgin is the dignified mother of Christ; it was not till afterwards that the idea of virginity prevailed over that of maternity, or rather that artists attempted to blend the two in their delinea- tions of the maiden mother of Nazareth. The three horses also, behind the kings, are full of spirit. The Presentation in the Temple, and the Cruci- fixion, (including the Deposition,) follow, — and lastly, the final Judgment — a most remarkable com- position, full of attempts, wonderful for the time, to delineate the naked and emulate the antique. Throughout the series the composition is clear and intelligible, the gesture calm and noble, the expres- sion true and unexaggerated, the drapery dignified and free ; and, if a fault is to be found, it is, that the heads are generally somewhat too large in proportion to the bodies, a failing incidental to all early efforts of the kind. I cannot sufficiently regret the destruction of the gates of Bonanno, for their proximity would have been the surest witness to Niccola's merit. As it is, we may well wonder — to give more appropriate application to an expression Vasari uses with regard to Ciinabue — " come in tante tenebre potesse veder Niccola tanto lume." * * This pulpit is engraved, as ,i whole, in Agincourt, 8c/- lure, pi. 82, and the Nativity and (lie Adoration of the Kings may lie seen in plates 14 and 12 of the first volume of Cicognara. 108 NtCCOLA PISANO Letter III. The 'Area di S. Domenico' is a work of greater extent than the one I have just described, — rich to a degree in general design, yet singularly sober and simple in execution, and altogether a most satisfac- tory performance. Its prominent features are the six large bas-reliefs, delineating the principal events in the legend of S. Domenic, disposed, two behind, one at each extre- mity, and two in front, between which last is fixed a small statue of the Virgin, crowned, and holding the infant Saviour in an attitude which almost every one of his successors has imitated during the following century, none however equalling the original. The face has a sweet expression, though somewhat round and unideal,* but the attitude and drapery are full of grace and elegance. A small statue of Our Sa- viour occupies the correspondent position at the back of the Area, and the four Doctors of the Church are sculptured at the angles. The operculum, or lid, was added about two hundred years afterwards. The series of bas-reliefs begins and ends at the back, running round from left to right. The subjects are briefly as follows : — i. The Papal confirmation of the rule of the Do- minican order. — S. Domenic, a Spaniard, of the illus- trious Gothic house of Guzman, having formed the scheme of a new religious fraternity, expressly de- voted to the defence of the faith against heresy, * The features seem, as a general rule, to be more full and round in proportion as the Semi-Byzantine influence prevails in European art. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 109 applied to the Pope for his sanction, but unsuccess- fully; the following night his Holiness beheld, in a dream, the church of the Lateran giving way, and the Saint propping it with his shoulders ; the warning was obvious, and the confirmation was accordingly granted. Each step in the march of this important event is represented in a distinct group in this com- partment. ii. The appearance of the Apostles Peter and Paul to S. Domenic, while praying in St. Peter's, — S. Peter presented him with a staff, S. Paul with a book, bidding him go forth and preach to Christen- dom. — This is a very beautiful composition ; attitude, expression, drapery are alike commendable. To the right S. Domenic is seen sending forth the friars preachers (" fratres predicatores ") on their mission to mankind. in. S. Domenic praying for the restoration to life of the young Napoleon, nephew of the Cardinal Ste- fano, who had been thrown from his horse and killed, as seen in the foreground ; his mother kneels behind, joining in the prayer. — The horse is excellent, the figures are singularly free from stiffness and true to nature, some of them even graceful. iv. S. Domenic's doctrine tested by fire. — After preaching against the Albigenses, he had written out his argument and delivered it to one of his antago- nists, who showing it to his companions as they stood round the fire, they determined to submit it to that ordeal •, the scroll was thrice thrown in, and thrice leapt out unburnt. 110 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. v. The miracle of the loaves. — The brethren, forty in number, assembled one day for dinner, but nothing was producible from the buttery except a single loaf of bread ; S. Domenic was dividing it among them, when two beautiful youths entered the refectory with baskets full of loaves which they distributed to the fraternity, and then immediately disappeared.* — The legend is here most happily told ; the forty monks are reduced to six, the angels pour the loaves (crossed sacramental wafers) into S. Dominic's lap, who dis- tributes them to his brethren. The composition is extremely simple, the angel youths singularly grace- ful, and the friars have that peculiar type of counte- nance which is not merely conventional in art, but may still be seen in every monastery, as if produced in obedience to some law of nature attendant on the profession of celibacy. vi. and lastly, the Profession of the youthful dea- con, Reginald. — He fell suddenly ill when on the eve of entering the order ; his life was despaired of; S. Domenic interceded for him with the Virgin, who appeared to him the following night, when on the point of death, accompanied by two lovely maidens, anointed him with a salve of marvellous virtue, ac- companying the unction with words of mystery and power, and promised him complete recovery within three days, showing him at the same moment a pat- tern of the Dominican robe as she willed it to be * A miracle resembling this is told by Ruffinus of the Abbot Apollonius, Rosweyde, Vita' Patrum, p. 463. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 1 1 1 worn thenceforward, varied from the fashion previ- ously in use ; three days afterwards, he received it from the Saint's hands, in perfect health, as the Vir- gin had foretold. — These incidents are represented with singular grace and beauty in this concluding composition. With the exception of the Adoration of the Kings on the pulpit at Pisa, I know nothing by Niccola Pisano equal to these bas-reliefs. Felicity of com- position, truth of expression, ease, dignity and grace of attitude, noble draperies, together with the nega- tive but emphatic merit of perfect propriety, are their prevailing characteristics ; while the whole are finished with unsurpassed minuteness and delicacy. And you will recollect too that these compositions are wholly Niccola's own, — he had no traditional types to guide and assist him; the whole is a new coinage, clear and sharp, from the mint of his own genius. Altogether, the ' Area di S. Domenico ' is a marvel of beauty, a shrine of pure and Christian feel- ing, which you will pilgrimise to with deeper reve- rence every time you revisit Bologna.* A much shorter notice will suffice for the last great work of Niccola, the Pulpit of Siena. The subjects are the same as at Pisa, with the substitution of the Flight into Egypt and the Massacre of the Innocents for the Presentation, and the enlargement of the con- * The bas-reliefs above described are engraved in three large sheets, to accompany the essay of the Marchese V. Davia, above cited. Sec also Cieogn.ua. torn, i, tav. 8,9, 10. 112 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. eluding composition, the Last Judgment. The Na- tivity and Adoration of the Kings are little changed ; the Massacre and Crucifixion are injured by the cari- cature of grief, and the same censure may be passed, though in a less degree, on the Judgment, in which the Byzantine traditional composition has been fol- lowed so far as space permitted. But the boldness and daring displayed in the naked figures, twisted and contorted into every imaginable attitude, are wonderful, and evince the skill with which Niccola drew at once on the antique and on nature, flinging himself on truth where beauty failed him, — for the Laocoon was still entombed under the ruined baths of Caracalla. The chief fault is the confusion, which is great, and in this respect, if I mistake not, Niccola sins throughout the series. The eye is vexed by the mass of figures and looks away for relief, and this is perhaps the reason why the Caryatides, which front the pillars, please one so much. I should say that this pulpit betrayed a decadence on the part of Niccola, did it not appear by the con- tract for its execution that his scholars, Lapo and Arnolfo, and his son Giovanni, were then working under him ; to them probably the weaker portions are attributable. The terms of remuneration are curious; Niccola was to have eight soldi a-day, his scholars six a-piece, and his son four.* I have little more to add respecting this wonder- * See Dellavalle's ' Lettere Sanesi,' torn, i, p. 179. — For en- gravings of the bas-reliefs see Cicognara, torn, i, tav. 8, 13, 14. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 113 fill man. His latter days were spent in repose at Pisa, but the precise year of his death is uncertain ; Vasari fixes it in 12/5, — it could not have been much later.* He was buried in the Campo Santo. — Of his personal character we, alas ! know nothing ; even Shakspeare is less a stranger to us. But that it was noble, simple and consistent, and free from the petty foibles that too frequently beset genius, may be fairly presumed from the works he has left behind him, and from the eloquent silence of tradition. A word only in conclusion. I have said enough perhaps of Niccola's influence on Art in a general point of view, but I wish to impress it upon you that it was special, direct and peremptory from the very first, — that, in Sculpture, it was felt in the vaults of S. Denis and in the remotest forests of Germany, before the close of the thirteenth century, — and that, in Painting, the schools of Giotto, of Siena and of Bologna, spring immediately from the pulpits of Pisa and Siena, and the Ark of S. Domenic, in distinct * A paper is extant, dated 10 September, 1277, by which King Charles of Naples grants to the town of Perugia the services of Arnolfo, disciple of Niccola, in order to finish the fountain in the Piazza, abandoned by Giovanni through his sudden journey to Pisa. Davia, Memorie, &c, p. 34. — Now Vasari mentions that after completing the fountain (which it seems from the preceding notice was left unfinished), Giovanni departed for Pisa, in order to see his father, who was old and unwell, and that through his delay at Florence, his father in the meantime died. Both King Charles and Vasari evidently speak of the same journey, and this (•(•incidence of testimony may be considered to fix the death of Niccola in 1 27(>, or the begin- ning of 1 -?77. VOL. II. I 114 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. streams, like the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra from the central peaks of Himalaya. It is true that the characters of these schools (I allude especially to the Giottesque and Sienese) are different, — that while the Giottesque is Dramatic chiefly, the expression of that Activity of the Imagi- nation which produced the Gothic architecture, the Sienese (including the later but kindred school of Umbria) is Contemplative, the expression of its Re- pose, sympathetic with the East, and previously de- veloped in Lombard architecture. Nevertheless, both, as schools, originate from Niccola Pisano, — neither could have started on its career without the impulse he gave — to the Dramatic by his historical compositions, to the Contemplative by his Madonna at Bologna, and the individual heads and figures scattered among his works — to both, by that master principle of Christian art which he had thought out and revealed, and within which, in fact, they both lay comprehended, in embryo, like heaven and earth within Brahma's egg. — Not that either line, the Dra- matic or Contemplative, was pursued exclusively of the other — not that Giotto and the Florentines did not paint as many Madonnas as the Sienese, nor that the Sienese did not produce a Duccio and a Simon di Mem mo, but the current tendencies of the two schools set in respectively to these two poles, — and when either produced an artist of opposite sympa- thies, and of genius too masculine to compromise its originality, we shall generally find him in alliance with the rival school, and his pupils either dying out Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 1 15 altogether after him, or returning to the banner from which their master had separated himself in the first instance. But this will be more clear hereafter. All I contend for at present is, that every school, contemplative and dramatic, must trace its pedigree to Niccola Pisano in the first instance. We will now make acquaintance with the pupils of this great patriarch of art. Three were mentioned a page or two back. Of Lapo nothing certain remains ; of Arnolfo, the Gothic ciborium, or tabernacle, at S. Paolo fuori le mura, at Rome, is the most important memorial ; but the date recorded on it (1285) being subsequent to that of his settlement as architect at Florence, I fancy it must have been finished by his " famulus," or ap- prentice, ' Pietro,' whose name is associated with his own in the inscription.* This Pietro is supposed to have been one of the Cosmati family, who have exe- cuted several monuments at Rome, in the Pisan style, usually filling the field above the sarcophagus with mosaic-work, for which, as you may remember, they were celebrated, as the heirs of Fra Giacomo da Turrita. Of Giovanni Pisano, son of Niccola and his heir in reputation, the third, and apparently youngest, of his fellow-workmen on the pulpit of Siena, I will speak anon, after doing justice to a pupil, or at least an imitator, far more able than either Lapo or Ar- Tliis labernaele is en-raved in Agincourtj Sculpture^ pi. 2'.]. i '2 116 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. nolfo, and who, I have little doubt, would have sur- passed all his contemporaries had the light shone upon him in earlier life. This was Margaritone, mentioned in the preceding letter as painter of the hideous crucifix presented to Farinata degli Uberti between 1260 and 1266. Margaritone had been afterwards employed at Rome by Urban IV. in painting S. Peter's, but he there exchanged the brush for the chisel, on what occasion or after whose ex- ample we are not told, although Vasari intimates that his first sculptures were " alia Greca," or in the Byzantine taste, — from which, however, he adds, he purified himself after becoming acquainted with the works of Arnolfo and other sculptors of the Tuscan school. He subsequently settled at his na- tive town, Arezzo, where, on the death of Gregory X, in 1275, he was chosen to sculpture his tomb, still preserved in the Cathedral, — the sole surviving relic of his skill, and a work of such excellence, that, re- membering his productions in painting, it would be difficult to credit him with such an offspring, were not the paternity indisputable. The pope slumbers on his sarcophagus, elevated on three pillars,— the whole overshadowed by a Gothic-arched canopy sup- ported by two lateral columns, topped with pinnacles, — the simplest form of a design attributable probably to Niccola Pisano in the first instance, and which, as a generic type, distinguishes all the tombs sculptured by his school — the only material deficiency here being that of the two angels who are usually intro- duced withdrawing a curtain supposed to have con- Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 11/ cealed the body.* — The effigy, in the present in- stance, is excellent, the drapery good ; the sculptures on the sarcophagus, representing (in medallions shaped like the vesica piscis) the lamb carrying the cross, between four Apostles, half figures, precisely in the style of the Greek mosaics, at once remind one of Margaritone's original Byzantine prepossessions, and show how completely he had emancipated him- self from the rigidity and formalism of his earlier style.f Whether he would have succeeded in com- position is a different question, but these heads strike me as freer, more dignified and more graceful than anything I have seen by the far more celebrated * The general type was still preserved during the Second or Cinquecento period of Italian sculpture, the pointed of course being exchanged for the round-headed or classic arch. Singu- larly enough, the arrangement of the sarcophagus, effigy, &c. in these later monuments strikingly resembles that in the tombs of Palmyra, in the most ancient and best preserved of which, that (namely) of Manama, erected a. d. 103, his statue (now de- stroyed) lay in a reclining posture, at the extremity of the tomb between two pillars half-embedded in the wall ; these pillars supporting a sarcophagus covered with an embroidered cushion, on which the figure was represented a second time stretched out as a corpse — thus portraying him both in life and death, exactly as in the grand Gothic tombs, presently to be mentioned, at Naples. These identical results from common principles are very curious, and instances equally startling might be cited ; at Petra, for instance, the broken pediments, intermediate urns, and general corrupt style of Bernini and Boromini, are anticipated in the excavations named El Khasne and El Deir, — the latter, especially, might be mistaken for a work of the seventeenth century. See the prints in Count Leon de Laborde'e work on Arabia Petraea. t This tomb is engraved in the ' Monumenti Sepolcrali della Toscana,' tav. 39. 118 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. Giovanni Pisano — to whom we must now do homage with that deference which the respectable heir of an Alfred or a Charlemagne is rightfully entitled to as his successor. Giovanni was, in truth, a man of far inferior genius to his father. His forte lay in invention, but it was copious rather than select, and in investing his ideas with forms, he was too apt to borrow them in the first instance from the pulpits of Pisa and Siena, and reissue them, starved and emaciated, as if from a be- leaguered city. He profited little by the antique, either in form or spirit, and Nature shrank from his embrace. He is often sadly deficient in taste and propriety ; his figures are not seldom ignoble in form and feature, and uncertain in action, and in compo- sitions on a large scale fall into inextricable con- fusion. The wand, in short, which, waved by the father, commands the services of superior agencies, few in number, who work his will with calmness and dignity, brings up for the son a crowd of inferior spirits, who do indeed what he bids them, but grum- blingly, and with a jostling and bustle utterly devoid of dignity. — Nevertheless there are exceptions to these censures, and when he fairly takes pains, he acquits himself well ; if he cannot breathe in the rare and lofty atmosphere where his father disports him- self, he comes gracefully enough down on parting company with him, like an aeronaut with his para- chute. I do not indeed think that Giovanni ever did himself justice ; he needed the stimulus of compe- tition ; it was not merely the prestige of his father's Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 119 lame, — there was literally no one to run against him ; he walked the course, and still, I think, enjoys a reputation superior to his merits, like certain beauties of last century, whose portraits clearly prove that their vaunted charms were relative merely to the general plainness of their contemporaries. Consi- dered as an architect, indeed, he merits far higher praise. His earliest work in Sculpture was the fountain of Perugia, begun by himself and completed by Ar- nolfo, — a beautiful and graceful structure, and co- vered with allegorical figures, much injured but of great merit, and in the design of which he is sup- posed to have been assisted by Niccola.* Returning to Pisa, on his father's death, he was received with pride by his fellow-citizens, and appointed architect of the Campo Santo, which was built after his de- signs between the years 1278 and 1283. After this he visited Naples at the invitation of Charles I., of Anjou, to build a castle and a church, but the follow- ing year, leaving their prosecution to the care of the architect Masaccio, he returned, through Siena, to Tuscany, and settled for a time at Arezzo, where he sculptured the marble shrine of S. Donato for the Cathedral, a work exceeding the ' Area di S. Donie- nico' in magnificence, but far below it in every other quality. The composition, indeed, of the bas-reliefs is often good, but the execution is very rude, even * See Davia's ' Memorie,' &c, p. 38.— An interesting work descriptive of this fountain has been published bySignorVer- miglioli, the biographer ofPerugino and Pinturieehio, 120 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. in those portions which can with least likelihood be imputed to his assistants.* He sins even against propriety in the Death of the Virgin, (one of the larger compartments,) where S. John is represented puffing at his censer, which is about to go out, with distended cheeks, and in an attitude worthy of Buf- falmacco or Bassano. This shrine of S. Donato is by many considered Giovanni's finest work, but I cannot give it the pre- ference to the bas-reliefs on the faceiata of the Duomo at Orvieto, by many ascribed to his father, though erroneously so, as is evident from their com- parative imperfection in design, from the frequent emaciation of the figures, and from an almost uni- form deficiency of that grace which plays like a breeze of spring round his father's steps. Yet they have high merit of another sort; the tale of creation and of the loss of Eden, with its first-fruits, the fra- tricide of Cain, is ably told and well contrasted with the Judgment, in which the Byzantine composition reappears in all its essential details; the naked figures are sometimes extremely good, but grief and passion are sadly caricatured, and the Satan is con- temptible. The happiest innovation (anticipated indeed in the mosaics of Venice) is the introduction of two angels attendant on Our Lord throughout the work of Creation and his subsequent intercourse with * Several of these, according to Vasari, were Germans, who worked under him rather for instruction than gain, and who were afterwards employed at Orvieto, and in S. Peter's at Home, under Pope Boniface VI II. Letter III. \ND HIS SCHOOL. 121 man ; their floating attitude may have suggested to Ghiberti his exquisite amplification of this idea on the 'Gate of Paradise,' the portal of the Baptistery of Florence.* The remaining sculptures of the facciata are ad- mittedly the work of Goro, Agostino and Agnolo, and other of Giovanni's Sienese pupils ; they are not of transcendant merit. Giovanni had returned to Tuscany before 1297, with the object, it is said, of examining the works of architecture and painting with which Arnolfo and Giotto were then decorating Florence. He does not however appear to have worked there. His last * That these bas-reliefs are by Niccola Pisano is against all probability, as he died before September, 1277, and the cathe- dral was not commenced till 1290. On the other hand, they are much superior to the adjacent sculptures by Goro, Agostino, and Agnolo, and Giovanni was the only sculptor, then living, capable of executing them ; we may safely therefore pronounce them his, — while, that they were early works, would appear from the consideration that the style of the pulpit at Pistoja, which occupied him from 1297 to 1301, is much inferior, and that between the completion of the shrine at Arezzo and the commencement of the said pulpit, a space of time intervenes, unoccupied by any extant or recorded work, and which might well have been devoted to the execution of the bas-reliefs in question, — in confirmation of which, Vasari, although attributing them to Xiccola, intimates a visit of Giovanni to Orvieto shortly after his residence at Arezzo. We may conclude, therefore, that they were begun in, or shortly after, 1290, nearly at the same moment with the cathedral they were intended to adorn. Possibly Niccola's designs may have been followed by Giovanni ; his spirit, at all events, presided over his son's chisel. They have been engraved, although inaccurately, in the folio atlas accompanying the history of the Duomo by Dellavalle. Sec also ( 'icognara, torn, i, tav. 17. 122 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. great works were the pulpit of the Cathedral at Pistoja, finished in 1301 after four years' labour, and that of the Cathedral at Pisa, now taken to pieces ; both of them are inferior to his earlier efforts, alike in originality and execution. The latter, begun in 1302 and finished in 1311, was suspended for a year or two, on the death of Pope Benedict XI., in 1304, when he was chosen to execute his mausoleum for the church of S. Domenico, at Perugia, — a work in which he was much more successful.'* — Giovanni died in a good old age, but in what year is uncer- tain; Vasari says in 1320, but he elsewhere con- tradicts himself. He was buried in his father's tomb in the Campo Santo, under the arcades himself had reared, according to a graceful usage which has ever since obtained in Italy, of burying the children of art in the principal scenes of their genius and their fame. After Giovanni's death the Pisan school split into two principal branches, that of Florence, which held an undisputed pre-eminence till the death of Or- cagna, and that of Siena, originally far inferior, but which took the lead during the latter years of the fourteenth century, and only yielded it to Ghiberti and Donatello at the beginning of the fifteenth. The Neapolitan school must also be reckoned as a branch of the Pisan, tracing its origin to Giovanni, and pos- sibly even higher ; it is interesting from its isolation, This tomb is engraved in Cicognara, torn, i, tav. 21. —It stands in the north transept. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 123 and from its partial descent from the German archi- tects who flourished at Naples in the thirteenth century. I shall speak of each of these three branches in succession, merely premising that of the less distinguished pupils of Giovanni the only one worth mentioning (and for his good fortune rather than his merit) was Giovanni di Balduccio, of Pisa, lie was invited to Milan by the Signor, Azzo Vis- conti, and spent many years in his service, and a specimen of his talents may be seen in the shrine of S. Peter Martyr in the church of S. Eustorgio, ex- cuted in 1333 and the six following years, and in which the legend of the Saint is represented in a series of bas-reliefs, very rude indeed but life-like, and in some of the allegorical figures not undeserv- ing of praise* The succession of this sculptor seems to have endured for several generations in Western Lombardy, and the magnificent tomb of Can- Signore della Scala, at Verona, is a witness to their merit, although it be of an architectural rather than sculptural character, the bas-reliefs being very infe- rior, when closely inspected.^ * See Agincourt, Sculpture, pi. 34. The story begins at the back of the shrine with the preaching of the saint in the piazza of Milan, his visiting the sick and giving speech to the dumb, and is continued through his martyrdom, and the translation of his body, to his funeral ceremony, and his appearance in succour to mariners in a storm, the two latter subjects being represented in front . t The sculptor of tins tomb was Boninus a Compigliono, or Da Campione, one of a whole family of scarpellini, stone- cutters or carvers, mechanics rather than artists, like; I hose of Fiesole, yel evidently men of taste if nol of genius, ami who 124 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. Section 2. Florence — Andrea Pisano and Orcagna. We now enter upon a new period in the history of Italian sculpture, correspondent with the lives of Andrea Pisano, the ablest scholar of Giovanni, and of the one great pupil of Andrea, the still more cele- brated Orcagna. Hitherto, you may have observed, neither Gio- vanni nor Niccola had been employed at Florence, while every neighbouring city had been vieing for their services. Political hostility would only par- tially account for such apathy, but one's surprise ceases on recollecting that Florence was the last of the three Tuscan republics to take the lead in po- litics, and that she was only commencing her grand works of architecture when Pisa and Siena were completing theirs. Once, however, entered on the field of art, she cultivated it with an industry and talent which made speedy and ample amends, to herself and Italy, for former neglect. At the period of which I speak, Arnolfo had been for several years in her employ as public architect, and at his death in 1300, S. Maria del Fiore, the new Cathedral, was considerably advanced towards completion. Giotto, a young man, but already the acknowledged prince of painting, and of a genius which qualified him to excel had flourished in the Milanese, on the district from which they derived their name, between the lakes of Como and Lugano, since the close of the twelfth century. See Cicognara, torn, i, pp. 371, 221, &c. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 125 indifferently in either of the three sister arts, and thoroughly to appreciate the relation they bear to each other, was appointed to design the facade in the richest Gothic magnificence — pinnacle and niche, statue and bas-relief; his drawings were approved of, but sculptors being scarce at Florence, and no one appearing capable of suitably executing them in marble, Andrea, already favourably known by some figures at Pisa, was summoned for the purpose, then in the thirty-first year of his age. He set to work immediately on the facade, and his first productions, the statues of Boniface VIII. between S. Peter and S. Paul, and some prophets, gave so much satisfac- tion that he seems to have been indefinitely engaged as sculptor-general to the city, to execute whatever works of importance might thenceforward be needed in his peculiar walk of art. From this time he adopted Florence as his country, and dwelt there for the remainder of his days, the object of universal respect and admiration. Andrea's merit was indeed very great ; his works, compared with those of Giovanni and Niccola Pi- sano, exhibit a progress in design, grace, composition and mechanical execution, at first sight unaccount- able — a chasm yawns between them, deep and broad, over which the younger artist seems to have leapt at a bound, — the stream that sank into the earth at Pisa emerges a river at Florence. The solution of the mystery lies in the peculiar plasticity of Andrea's genius, and the ascendancy acquired over it by Giotto, although a younger man, from the first mo- 126 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. ment they came into contact. Giotto had learnt from the works of Niccola the grand principle of Christian art, imperfectly apprehended by Giovanni and his other pupils, and by following up which he had in the natural course of things improved upon his pro- totype. He now repaid to Sculpture, in the person of Andrea, the sum of improvement in which he stood her debtor in that of Niccola, — so far, that is to say, as the treasury of Andrea's mind was capable of taking it in, for it would be an error to suppose that Andrea profited by Giotto in the same inde- pendent manner or degree that Giotto profited by Niccola ; Andrea's was not a mind of strong indivi- duality ; he became completely Giottesque in thought and style, and as Giotto and he continued intimate friends through life, the impression never wore off, — most fortunate, indeed, that it was so, for the welfare of Sculpture in general, and for that of the buildings in decorating which the friends worked in concert, to wit, the Duorao and its dependencies, to which, after this necessary digression, I now return. After finishing the prophets, Andrea sculptured various other statues for the facade, but how shall I tell you that this facade, so rich, so beautiful, exists no longer ? — It was taken down towards the close of the fourteenth century, when two-thirds finished, to be replaced by another more magnificent, but which was demolished, in its turn, in the sixteenth, to be renewed no more except by the flat, meaningless, blank wall, that repels the eye at present. Of the component parts of Andrea's original structure, the Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 12/ greater portion has long been destroyed ; sonic of the statues (whether by a happier or less enviable doom) lie scattered in holes and corners throughout Flo- rence, and the four Doctors of the Church, in parti- cular, may still be seen at the foot of the ascent to Poggio Imperiale, metamorphosed into poets, and christened Homer, Virgil, Dante and Petrarch.* Happily, Andrea's most important work, the bronze door of the Baptistery, still exists, and with every prospect of preservation. It is adorned with bas- reliefs from the history of S. John, with allegorical figures of virtues and heads of prophets, all most beautiful, — the historical compositions distinguished by simplicity and purity of feeling and design, the allegorical virtues perhaps still more expressive, and full of poetry in their symbols and attitudes ; the whole series is executed with a delicacy of workman- ship till then unknown in bronze, a precision yet softness of touch resembling that of a skilful per- former on the piano-forte. Andrea was occupied upon it for nine years, from 1330 to 1339, and when finished, fixed in its place, and exposed to view, the public enthusiasm exceeded all bounds; the Signoria, with unexampled condescension, visited it in state, accompanied by the ambassadors of Naples and Sicily, and bestowed on the fortunate artist the honour and privilege of citizenship, seldom accorded to foreigners unless of lofty rank or exalted merit. The * See Foster's '• Beitrage,' &c.,p. 152. — The prospect is held forth this year ( IS \.'>) of a restoration of* the facade in the spirit of the fourteenth century. 128 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. door remained in its original position — facing the Cathedral — till superseded in that post of honour by the ' Gate of Paradise,' cast by Ghiberti. It was then transferred to the Southern entrance of the Bap- tistery, facing the Misericordia.* While occupied on this great work, Andrea found time to carve, in white marble, the tabernacle, or ciborium, for the interior of the building ; it was de- stroyed about a century ago, and replaced by the tawdry accumulation of cloud and tinsel that dis- graces the spot at present. A fragment or two serve now as balustrades to the altar of the little chapel of S. Ansano, below Fiesole, having been removed thither by the late antiquarian Canon Bandini, along with many other ejected sculptures and paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Lastly, Andrea sculptured the greater number of the bas-reliefs which range round the basement of the Campanile,— admirably executed, but of which, as the composition of Giotto, I shall postpone speaking to a future moment. Whether the three statues niched higher up in the Campanile, facing the South, were also after Giotto's design, I cannot say. From this extreme point of Andrea's career we may glance back to the door of the Baptistery with a fairer chance than we could otherwise expect of forming a reasonable opinion on the disputed point, whether the design of its bas-reliefs be his own or * The bas-reliefs of this door have been engraved most beau- tifully by the younger Lasinio, in the thin folio entitled ' Le tre porte del Battistero di S. Giovanni di Firenze,' 1821. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 129 Giotto's. On the one hand Vasari asserts that Giotto had made a " bellissimo disegno " for the door, and a still older authority, the biographer of Bru- nellesco, who wrote about 1471, refers to his having done so as an admitted fact, and still more speci- fically, speaking of the " quadri delle porte che v' erano, di bronzo, che v' e la storia del Santo Giovanni, che si feciono per maestri forestieri nel secolo passato, benche '1 disegno delle figure, che si feciono di cera, fusse di Giotto dipintore :" * On the other, Vasari's own testimony to Andrea's fertility of invention, as himself possessing a series of illustra- tions by his hand of the whole book of the Apo- calypse, — and the supposed indignity that Andrea must have felt in executing the designs of another artist, are urged in favour of their originality — argu- ments, of which the latter is nullified by the indis- putable fact that two out of his three great works he did so execute, while the former, if allowed its full value, merely proves him a most accomplished imi- tator, the compositions in question being thoroughly Giottesque, — for, in truth, his genius had taken the hue of Giotto's more completely than ever chamelion took that of the leaf he fed upon. I cannot there- fore think such presumptive pleading entitled to be heard against the positive testimony of Vasari and his predecessor. Andrea's plasticity extended, I fear, from his * Printed at the close of Baklinucci's life of Brunellesco, ed. Flor., 1812, ]». 149. VOL. II. K 130 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. genius to his moral character. It is painful to find the guest of Florence, who had not merely enjoyed the love of her citizens but been inscribed among their number and promoted to the highest offices of the state, lending himself, at the close of his life, to the schemes of her tyrant, Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, and fortifying the public palace and the walls of the city against her liberties.* He survived the Duke's expulsion two years, dying in 1345, in his seventy-sixth year. Andrea Pisano left two sons, both of them sculp- tors, but one only worthy of mention — Nino, sur- named, like his father, Pisano, but who, having been his assistant through life, has left few original works. The most remarkable are in the little chapel of the Spina at Pisa, — three statues, of the Virgin and child, attended to the right and left by S. Peter and S. Paul, (in one of whom he has represented his father Andrea, whose face seems to have been dis- figured by an enormous wen,) and a bas-relief of the Virgin suckling the infant Jesus, very coarse and vulgar, but remarkable for a delicacy and waxen smoothness of workmanship unequalled in his age except by his fellow-pupil — so often mentioned al- ready, and to be noticed more specially hereafter, under his highest character, as a painter — the illus- trious Orcagna, — whose tabernacle in the Orsanmi- chele may be reckoned, with the gate of S. Giovanni * The duke would not employ Taddeo Gaddi, being a native Florentine. Vasari. — The contrast is not much in Andrea's favour. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 131 and the shrine of S. Domenico, as the third among the precious relics of the Pisan school. During the early half of the fourteenth century, the Madonna, painted by Ugolino of Siena, and attached to a pilaster in the loggia of Orsanmichele, as mentioned in the preceding letter, had acquired the character of a miraculous image, — crowds re- sorted to it for devotion, and it was determined to convert the loggia into a chapel by filling up the arches with a continuous wall. This was done under the superintendance of Taddeo Gaddi, and a Com- pany, or association, was at the same time formed in honour of the Madonna of Orsanmichele, — it speedily rose into the highest veneration for charity and bene- volence. At this juncture, the great plague of 1348 rolled down on Italy, — Florence suffered fearfully ; citizens without number, pest-stricken themselves, after seeing their whole families die before them, be- queathed their all to the Company for distribution to the poor in honour of the Virgin ; the offerings of gratitude, after the plague had ceased, were also con- siderable, and the total sum thus accumulated was found, on final computation, to amount to more than three hundred thousand florins. The captains of the Company resolved to expend a portion of this trea- sure in erecting a tabernacle or shrine for the picture to which it had been offered, and which should ex- ceed all others in magnificence. They entrusted the execution to Orcagna, who completed it in 1359, after ten years' labour, having sculptured all the bas- rclicf- ;iimI figures himself, while the mere archi- K 2 132 NICCOLA PISANO Letter III. tectural details and accessories were executed with equal care by subordinate artists, under his own eye and direction. # And there it stands ! — lost, indeed, in that chapel- like church, from which one longs to transport it to the choir of some vast cathedral — but fresh in virgin beauty after five centuries, the jewel of Italy, com- plete and perfect in every way — for it will reward the minutest examination. It stands isolated — the history of the Virgin is represented in nine bas- reliefs, two adorning each face of the basement, and the ninth, much larger, covering the back of the tabernacle, immediately behind the Madonna ; one of the three Theological Virtues is interposed be- tween each couple of bas-reliefs, on the Western, Northern, and Southern faces respectively, the cor- responding space at the East end, immediately below the large bas-relief, being occupied by a small door : — while, laterally, in the angles of each several pier that supports the roof, five small figures are sculp- tured, a Cardinal Virtue, in each instance, occupying the centre, attended, to the right and left, by a virtue of sister significance, and by two apostles, holding scrolls of prophecy or gospel — each series of five having reference apparently to the peculiar merits exemplified by the Virgin at the successive periods of her history, as commemorated in the bas-reliefs, — the series of these bas-reliefs beginning with her birth, * See Vasari and Baldinucci, in their respective lives of Orcagna. Letter III. AND HIS SCHOOL. 1 '. Sat. 2, 2, quoted by Sillig, VOL. II. N 178 GIOTTO Letter IV. his conversation overflowed with humour and sparkled with repartee ; no man told a story with more point or elegance ; his manner was kindness and courtesy itself— and when we are informed, in addition to this, that he was a man thoroughly "dabbene," with- out a shadow of envy, and no less excellent a Chris- tian than a painter, we cannot wonder that he should have been popular everywhere and loved by every one, and have even become, dissimilar as were the broad outlines of their respective characters, the per- sonal friend of the lovers of Beatrice and of Laura, Much of this intellectual and moral character is per- ceptible in the bust of Giotto, erected to his memory by Lorenzo de' Medici, in the Duomo. He appears there with a full cheek, under-jawed, with compressed lips, ready apparently to break into a smile, — the general cast of the features firm and decided, yet full of fun. But no doubt the general ugliness has been softened down in this more recent version of his lineaments. I may close this first period of Giotto's career with two events of importance in his life, and which cer- tainly preceded his first expedition to Lombardy, — his attainment of the full rank of Magister, or master in his craft # — a title which, Boccaccio tells us, he * A picture of the Virgin and child, attended by S. Peter and S. Paul, and the archangels Michael and Gabriel, painted for Bologna, originally in several compartments, now divided be- tween that town and Milan, and inscribed ' Opus Magistri Jocti Florent.,' is so strongly marked with the characteristics of Giotto's style, (the eye elongated to caricature, the dignified but Letter I \ AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 1/9 ever, out of his extreme modesty, declined to use *• — and his marriage to Ciuta di Lapo,f a lady of whose character and personal appearance nothing is known, except that her beauty, if she possessed any, failed to neutralise the evil influence of his own uncome- liness on the outward mould of their mutual pro- geny; his children were (at least in infancy) little lumps of deformity, as hideous as himself.^ harsh features, the pale colouring, &c.,) that, but for the epithet 1 Magister,' I should consider it one of his earliest works. This picture may have been painted on his road to Padua. Longhi, in his republication of Malvasia's Guide to Bologna, tells us that Giotto was eight months there, painting this picture, — II Passegyiere Disingannato, p. 363, edit. 1782. — He does not give any authority. See Forster's observations, Beitrage, &c., p. 143. * " Giotto, .meritamente una delle luci della Fiorentina gloria dir si puote ; e tanto piu, quanto con maggiore umilta, Maestro degli altri in cio vivendo, quella acquisto, sempre rifiu- tando d' esser chiamato Maestro. II quale titolo da lui tanto piu in lui risplendeva, quanto con maggior disidero da quegli che men sapevano di lui o da' suoi discepoli era cupidamente usur- pato." Gioni. vi, nov. 5. — Giotto signs himself ' Magister' in the Madonna mentioned in the preceding note, probably an early work. But in the S. Francis, once at Pisa, now in Paris, and certainly (see a note to Section fourth, infra,) a later picture, the inscription is simply, ' Opus Jocti.' In the legal papers cited by Baldinucci, Giotto, even during his life-time, is fre- quently designed, simply, ' Gioctus Pictor.' f She was a Florentine lady, according to documents cited by Baldinucci, torn, i, p. 133, and they had several little children living while Giotto was painting at Padua ; see supra, p. 177, note. % This appears from the story told by Benvenuto of Imola, already cited. For particulars respecting Giotto's children, see his Life by Baldinucci. n2 180 GIOTTO Letter IV. Section 2. — Second Period — Giotto's first visit to Lombardy. We may now accompany Giotto on his visit to Lombardy in and about the year 1306. He has been well described as pilgrimising over Italy, scat- tering in every district the seeds of art, destined to flourish and bear fruit long after he had himself passed away from the scene.* * If the frescoes at Ravenna, attributed to Giotto, be really his, I have little doubt they were executed immediately subse- quent to the Madonna of Bologna, and previous to the chapel of the Arena presently to be mentioned. They merit notice, whether attributable to the master's hand or not. In S. Gio- vanni della Sagra, the four Evangelists on the vault of the fourth chapel to the left are the only vestige of Giottesque workmanship, — they have been sadly injured by restoration. The frescoes of S. Chiara 1 was unable to see, the church being- suppressed, and the key in the custody of a man who, during the whole period of my stay, was absent at the Pineta, that limbo of all thing-s mislaid or out of mind at Ravenna. But those of S. Maria in porto fuori are more accessible.* According to tradi- tion, the whole church was painted by Giotto, but time and white-wash have been busily at work, and the frescoes of the presbytery and of the chapel of S. Matthew, at the extremity of the Southern nave, are the only ones that repay a minute exa- mination. — In the former series, the history of the Virgin is ■abridged into six compartments, of which the Massacre of the Innocents, and her own Death are the most remarkable, the former for much invention and merit in the composition, the latter for the characteristic attitudes of the Apostles and the a Vasari mentions as works of Bernhard, author of the life of Giotto Giotto at Ravenna, " alcune storie in in the ' Biographie Universelle,' fresco intorno alia chiesa (di S. Fran- " Une seule des peintures qu'il exe- cesco), che sono ragionevoli," — and cuta alors a St. Francois subsiste in S. Giovanni Evangelista, " una encore ; elle se voit sur un des murs cappella a fresco." — According to M. exterieurs." Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 181 The great object of this expedition was to paint in fresco the chapel of the Arena at Padua, a most beauty of the Virgin's face, and for the singularity, that the Saviour receiving his mother's soul in his arms is represented with the youthful face of the Catacombs and the ancient mosaics, the first and the last time, so far as I am aware, that Giotto (if the author) has adopted this idea. Other Byzantine reminis- cences also occur here. The Massacre is broken by a pointed- arched niche, within which Our Saviour is represented adminis- tering the Eucharist, presenting the wafer to S. Peter with his right hand, and the cup to S. Paul with the left, a composition strongly resembling that on the ' Dalmatica di S. Leone.' And a Martyrdom, in the chapel at the extremity of the Northern nave, is completely the traditional composition of the Meno- logion. — But the frescoes in the chapel of S. Matthew, though much injured, are the most interesting. The First represents his call to the Apostolate, — he is seated, a young man of a pleasing countenance, and wearing the same red falling cap worn by Dante in the chapel of the Bargello ; he appears about to rise up and follow Our Saviour — an admirable figure, full of dignity, who turns away, signing to him most expressively. In the Second compartment, he is seen healing a multitude of sick and infirm people at the capital of Ethiopia, where, according to the legend, he preached the gospel after the dispersion of the Apostles ; the attitudes and expression of the decrepid band are excellent. In the Third, almost destroyed, a large dragon is still visible, couching before him, — two magicians, we are told, then tyrannised over the country, and came to interrupt his preaching, each accompanied by his dragon, spitting fire from its mouth and nostrils ; S. Matthew went forth to meet them, and making the sign of the cross, the monsters sank into slumber at his feet. Of the remaining compartments, the best preserved is the Sixth, representing the baptism of the young King and Queen, the crown of his ministry ; both are in white, the King in front, the Queen, with braided hair and her hands meekly crossed, behind him. The two last compartments, the Seventh and Eighth, probably represented the Apostle's martyrdom thirty-five years afterwards, during which interval lie had acted as bishop of the Church of Ethiopia; the lower compartment is quite effaced, -in the Lunette above it, angels are seen wafting 1 82 GIOTTO Letter IV. interesting little building, which I must recommend to your warmest admiration and love.* the soul to heaven. — The colouring throughout these frescoes is very white and pale, the length of the eyes is exaggerated, the drawing not very good, and the expression caricatured whenever strong emotion is represented, — these are faults common to the early Giottesque school, and more particularly to that section of it which seems to have belonged originally to the traditional Roman one ; on the other hand, the boldness of invention, the expression, the attitudes and gesticulation, are merits charac- teristic of Giotto, — while the Byzantine reminiscences, at least as numerous in proportion as in the frescoes of the chapel of the Arena, taken in connection with the general superiority of the latter, might have argued their proximate but prior execution, were it not that the backgrounds in the frescoes of the tribune are filled with architecture instead of the typical altar of the Byzantine mosaics, constantly introduced at Padua. — I should not, in fact, be surprised if these frescoes of Ravenna were by the author of the life of the Beata Michelina (now white-washed) in the cloister of S. Francesco at Rimini, described with such rapture by Yasari as among the best works of Giotto, but cer- tainly not his, as the Beata died as late as 1356. — "Who this artist was, I know not ; possibly the Bitinus whose picture of S. Julian, representing the Saint, at full length, in the midst, with his history in small compartments around him — a work of much merit, dated 1408 — is preserved in the chapel of S. Giuliano at Rimini. ( a ) — But the Giotteschi were very numerous in those days in Romagna. * In the anonymous ' Notizia d' Opere di disegno,' written in a The small compartments repre- away of the cliffs, and sailing, guided sent, 1. The prefect of Cilicia ex- by angels, over the sea; 7 and 8. horting Julian to sacrifice ; 2. The The Voyage of the Sarcophagus ; 8. same exhorting Julian's mother to Its arrival on the shore of the terri- persuade him to do so ; 3. S. Julian tory of Rimini ; 9. The attempt of thrown into the sea in a sack full of the people to drag the sarcophagus serpents ; 4. His burial on a cliff of to the cathedral of Rimini by buffa- the island of Proconnesus or Mar- loes, who cannot move it ; 10. The mara, where the body had been prayers, &c. of the clergy, consequent thrown up; 5. Destroyed; (J. Hissar- on this; 11. The buffaloes drawing cophagus (shaped like those of Ra- it to the cathedral, attended by the venna) dislodged by the crumbling bishop and priests ; 12. The opening Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 183 It was erected by Enrico Scrovegno, son of the Reginald of that name, placed by Dante in hell for avarice and usury. The date of its structure and that of its decoration by Giotto are fixed by un- usually clear evidence, the former in 1303 by an in- scription,* and the latter in 1306, or thereabouts, by a concurrence of circumstances : — Dante's name ap- pears as a witness to a deed, dated at Padua in 1306 ;f the walls could scarcely have been dry and ready for the painter before that year, or at soonest, before. 1305 ; Giotto, according to Benvenuto of Imola, the commentator on Dante, was " adhuc satis juvenis," when he painted there, — and in 1306, if born in 12/6, he would be exactly thirty; we may assume that year therefore as the central date of the frescoes in question, — which derive moreover a pe- culiar interest from the belief entertained that Enrico the sixteenth century and edited by Morelli, (Bassano, 8vo, 1800,) Cimabue is said to have painted in the church of the Carmine at Padua. If tins (as most probably would be the case) was towards the close of his life, Giotto may have worked under him, and have thus been already known at Padua. Pos- sibly even Cimabue might have been on his journey to Padua, through Bologna, when he first met with Giotto at Vespignano. * See Morelli's Notes on the Anonymous Nolizia, p. 146. f Morelli (Nutizia, §c), p. 146,— who refers to the < Novelle Lettere Florentine,' 1748, col. 361. — Dante quitted Padua the same year, and was present at the conclusion of a treaty at Luni on the 6th October. of the sarcophagus by the bishop, ing is pleasing. But the picture is and discovery of the body of S. Ju- in a sad state of neglect and ruin, li.in incorrupt within it. These sub- and covered with cobwebs. — Bitinus jects are well composed,— there is a left a pupil styled, in l4f><;, 'Ma- good deal of expression and much gister Antonius Pictor quondam Mag. naivete in the figureSj ;md the colour- Bictini Pictorisde Arimino.' Lami, 184 GIOTTO Letter IV. belonged to the fraternity of the ' Cavalieri di Santa Maria,' instituted about the beginning of the thir- teenth century in order to promote the veneration of the Madonna,* and that the chapel in question was built, partly at least, at their expence, and for their joint worship.f It certainly adds to the plau- sibility of this theory, that nowhere (save in the Duomo of Orvieto) is the legendary history of the Virgin told with such minuteness. The heart must indeed be cold to the charms of youthful art that can enter this little sanctuary with- out a glow of delight. From the roof, with its sky of ultramarine, powdered with stars and interspersed with medallions containing the heads of Our Saviour, the Virgin and the Apostles, to the mock pannelling of the nave, below the windows, the whole is com- pletely covered with frescoes, in excellent preserva- tion, and all more or less painted by Giotto's own hand, except six in the tribune, which however have apparently been executed from his cartoons.^ With * They subsequently degenerated, and were styled the ' Frati Godenti,' for their luxury and vice. See Giov. Villani's brief notice of the order, lib. vii, cap. 13._, •f See the interesting work of the Marchese P. E. Selvatico, ' Sulla Cappellina degli Scrovegni nelP Arena di Padova, e sui Freschi di Giotto in essa dipinti,' Padua, 8vo, 1836, p. 13." — The theory mentioned in the text was started by Federici in his ' Storia dei Cavalieri Godenti.' \ This, I think, may be inferred from the same peculiar eye and the same type of the female bust and visage prevailing in a A ' Description of the Chapel of tive engravings, was privately print- the Annunciata dell' Arena, or Gi- ed by the late Lady Callcott in 1835, otto's chapel, at Padua,' with illustra- and has recently been published. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 185 the exception of these, the whole seem to have been designed and painted de suite. Forty-four com- partments, carrying the history of the Virgin and Our Saviour from the repulse of S. Joachim to Mary's Coronation in heaven, line the nave, the triumphal arch, and the choir ; a Christ in glory fills the lunette above the triumphal arch j* the Last Judgment covers the whole entrance-wall, and the Theological and Cardinal Virtues, with their anta- gonist Vices, most ingeniously allegorised, face each other, to the right and left, below the windows of the nave. Such is the general arrangement, — I shall briefly enumerate them seriatim, to assist examina- tion on the spot, referring you to my preliminary Memoranda for the detailed legend of the Madonna. South Wall — Highest Row — Beginning from the Triumphal Arch. i. S. Joachim repelled by the High Priest. — The both. — The six frescoes were painted by Taddeo di Bartolo, a Sienese by birth, but Giottesco by adoption, invited for the pur- pose, according to Vasari, by the elder Francesco da Carrara. Vasari has however confounded this Taddeo di Bartolo with his celebrated namesake, hereafter to be mentioned under the Sienese school. * Can this be the fresco alluded to by Ghiberti in his brief notice of the chapel ? " Dipense nella Chiesa cioe tutta e di sua mano della Rena di Padova e di sua uiano una gloria mondana," — And to which Vasari seems to refer, speaking of Giotto's works subsequent to the foundation of the Campanile, — " Ap- presso andato di nuovo a Padoa, oltre a molte altre cose e cappelle eh' egli vi dipinse, fece nel luogo dell' Arena, (his first an. I oidy notice of the place,) una Gloria mondana, che gli arreco molto onore e utile." 186 GIOTTO Letter IV. temple is represented by an altar under a ciborium, as in the Byzantine paintings and mosaics ; this ob- tains throughout the series. It here stands within a marble cancellum, at the further end of which is an ambo or reading-desk ; a priest sits within the screen, confessing a young man who kneels at his feet, and in front of it the High Priest Issachar is seen thrust- ing away Joachim. ii. S. Joachim's retreat to his Shepherds in the wilderness. He advances, a very noble dignified figure, with drooping head and clasped hands, lost in his uncomfortable thoughts and heedless of his dog who runs up barking to welcome him ; two of the shepherds, standing in front of their hut and among their flock, gaze earnestly at him, as if uncertain what to do. in. The Annunciation to S. Anna. — While pray- ing in her chamber, disquieted at the absence of her husband. iv. The Annunciation to S. Joachim. — He has just sacrificed a lamb on an altar, elevated on a high mound in the centre of the composition ; the hand of God issues from heaven, as in Byzantine art, in token of acceptance ; Joachim kneels before the altar on his hands and knees, but looks towards Gabriel, a majestic figure, who communicates his message in the attitude and holding the same sceptre with which he is usually represented in the mosaics. v. An angel appearing to Joachim in a dream. — I do not know to what incident this refers ; the scene is still in the wilderness. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 187 vi. The Embrace of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. — A composition fre- quently reiterated, in its main outline, by the scho- lars of Giotto. North Wall — Highest Row. vii. The Nativity of the Virgin. — The traditional composition. viii. The Dedication of the Virgin. — The germ of a composition, afterwards beautifully developed, but here imperfect and deficient in grace. The temple, as usual, is represented by an altar and an ambo ; the Virgin is a dwarf woman instead of a child, — the delineation of childhood was one of the latest triumphs of art. ik. S. Joseph and the youths of the house of Da- vid presenting their rods to the High Priest. x. The Suitors kneeling before the altar on which their rods are laid, silently expecting the miracle, — their attitudes varied and most expressive ; full of feeling and simplicity. xi. The Marriage of the Virgin and S. Joseph. — The High Priest, standing in front of the altar, joins their hands; behind the Virgin stand her brides- maids, behind 8. Joseph the unsuccessful suitors, one of whom steps forward to strike him, and another breaks his rod on his knee. Joseph bears his own rod, on the flower of which the Holy Spirit rests in the semblance of a dove. These ideas, with more or less variation, became traditional in the Giottesque school, and indeed in Italian art. 188 GIOTTO Letter IV. xii. The Virgin conducted by S. Joseph home. — Some of the female friends that accompany the pro- cession are graceful in form and beautiful in feature. On either side of the Triumphal Arch. xiii., and xiv. The Annunciation. — The Virgin kneeling on one knee, Gabriel on both ; a rich archi- tectural background. xv. (Immediately beneath No. xiv.) The Visita- tion. — Very expressive, especially the S. Elizabeth. South Wall — Middle Row. xvi. The Nativity of Our Lord. — The Byzantine composition ; Giotto greatly improved upon this afterwards. xvii. The Adoration of the Kings. — The Virgin seated under the manger-shed, attended to the right and left by S. Joseph and an angel, — her face sweet, though she is too matronly in form ; the camels and attendants appear at the left extremity ; the Kings advance to pay their homage ; the eldest kneels to kiss Our Saviour's feet; the star, with a tail like a comet, rests over the shed. xvin. The Presentation of Our Saviour in the Temple. — The altar stands in the back-ground, but the High Priest does not appear; Simeon holds the child, who stretches his arms towards Mary, impa- tient to return to her ; Anna, holding a scroll, stands behind Simeon, and an angel descends above her. xix. The Flight into Egypt, — an angel floating before them, pointing out the way. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 189 xx. The Murder of the Innocents. — A heap of slaughtered infants lies in the midst; the mothers and soldiers struggle in groups around it, while Herod looks on from a projecting balcony to the left. — A very affecting composition, the heads so full of in- tense agony that the caricature of grief scarcely of- fends one; three principal figures arrest the eye — a mother whose child has been torn from her and is being stabbed before her face, — another, in agony, clasping her child to her breast and trying to pull it away from a soldier who holds it by the leg, and has upraised his sword to pierce it, — and a third, to the left, clasping her hands, half-turning away, but still lingeringly gazing on her dead infant lying on the heap. North Wall — Middle Row. xxi. The Dispute in the Temple. — Our Saviour seated under the central arch of a spacious circular hall — the Doctors in two rows — Joseph and Mary coining in, to the left. Strictly symmetrical. xxii. Our Saviour's Baptism. — Strictly the Byzan- tine composition. xxiii. The Marriage at Cana of Galilee. — A very remarkable composition, and the first in which Giotto has indulged his turn for satirical humour. The table, a triclinium, is spread in an open court; the Virgin sits nearly in the centre, Our Saviour at the extremity to the left; the married pair and an Apostle are placed between them. Our Saviour is in the act of commanding a youth to pour out and bear to the governor of the feast, who stands to the 190 GIOTTO Letter IV. right, between the table and a row of amphoras filled with the newly made wine — a broad-faced, bald- headed personage, with an enormous paunch, his head thrown back in the act of tossing off the con- tents of a fiascone ; the Virgin looks towards him, holding up her hands as if to say, " Mark !" — while one of the attendants, standing beside him, expresses in his looks astonishment at the miracle. xxiv. The Resurrection of Lazarus. — Our Saviour stands to the left, in front of two or three of his dis- ciples, his countenance beautiful, his attitude noble, his right hand held up with the gesture at once of command and blessing ; at his feet kneel Mary and Martha, side by side ; to the right, in front of the cave, stands Lazarus between two Apostles, swathed up, pale and cadaverous, hardly yet alive ; the look- ers-on do not hold their noses, as in later repetitions of the subject, but they have wrapt their robes tightly over the lower part of their faces. — A most dramatic and touching composition, modified and improved from that, elsewhere mentioned, on the Byzantine ' Calendario ' of the Baptistery of Florence, and after- wards repeated by Giotto, with further improvements, in the chapel of Bargello. xxv. Our Saviour's Triumphal Entry into Jerusa- lem. — Bearing some resemblance to the older Byzan- tine and Latin compositions, which never however were, strictly speaking, traditional ; but they are here infinitely improved upon. xxvi. Our Saviour casting the money-changers out of the Temple. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 191 Triumphal Arch — Left Wall. xxvii. The bargain of Judas. — The Devil stands behind him, resting his hand on his back, as if im- pelling him to the crime. Judas is drest in yellow or saffron, the colour of treachery, constantly appro- priated to him in ancient art. South an Wall — Loivest Row. xxvni. The Last Supper. — The Apostles are seated, front and back, at table, Our Saviour at the left end, John leaning on his breast, Judas and Our Saviour putting their hands into the dish at the same moment. xxix. Our Saviour washing the Apostles' feet. — At the moment of answering Peter's expostulation, — the composition excellent. xxx. Judas' kiss. — The two heads admirably con- trasted, — his coarse, vulgar, sensual, devilish, Our Saviour's mildly reproachful. S. Peter, to the left, armed with a large knife, cuts off the ear of Malchus, who submits to the operation with singular placidity. — Not well composed, but with much character in the individual figures and heads. xxxi. Our Saviour .before Caiaphas. xxxii. Our Saviour mocked by the soldiers. — An admirable fresco, full of dramatic expression ; the gesticulation is most singular, and derived probably from the ' mimica,' or language of the hand, tradi- tional in Italy. xxxiii. Our Saviour carrying his cross, — he turns 192 GIOTTO Letter IV. round to look at his mother, who is rudely thrust back by the multitude. Northern Wall — Lowest Row. xxxiv. The Crucifixion. — The Byzantine compo- sition, in all its details, even to the suppeditaneum, or support for the feet, and the separate nails, which Giotto afterwards reduced to one ; but with the addi- tion of the Magdalen kneeling at the foot of the cross. The Virgin is represented fainting to the left, the soldiers disputing about the seamless robe to the right, — a number of angels in the air catching the blood, wringing their hands, &c. xxxv. The Pieta, or Lamentation previous to the Burial. — The Byzantine composition, amplified and admirable. The body rests on the knees of the Vir- gin, who clasps the neck with her arms and bends forward to give it the last caress, her face disfigured by intense sorrow ; Mary Magdalen supports the feet, Mary, sister of Lazarus, on the further side, clasps the hands, — Martha and the women from Galilee stand in bitter grief to the left; two figures in green and yellow drapery, their faces muffled up and invi- sible, sit with their backs towards the spectator, most impressive in their silent immobility ; while S. John, who seems to have just returned to the mourning group, leans forward as if addressing the Virgin, pointing upwards to heaven with his right hand, and with his left to Nicodemus and Nathanael, standing at the right extremity of the compartment, as if say- ing, " All is now ready " — for the interment A Lettish IV AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 193 crowd of angels, wiping their eyes and wringing their hands, float in the air. xxxvi. The Resurrection. — To the left, the empty tomb, with the two angels seated on it, and pointing as if to say, " He is not here, but is risen ;" the guards sleeping in front — good attempts at foreshort- ening; to the right, the 'Noli me tangere,' — Mary kneeling in her red robe of love, and stretching out her hands as one would to a spirit; the head is very beautiful and sweet, but not equal to that (of later date, as I suppose) in the chapel of the Bargello. xxxvii. The Ascension. — A composition of ex- treme beauty, although perhaps rather too symme- trical. Our Saviour has taken his flight from the Mount of Olives ; he is seen in profile, standing on a cloud, bending forwards, his hands outstretched, and his face raised, rushing as it were upwards to meet his Father, — two choirs of angels accompany his ascent. The Apostles kneel below, in two groups, to the right and left, and in pairs, one space — that of Judas — being vacant ; the left row is headed by the Virgin ; two angels float between the groups, sway- ing divergingly one from the other, and each point- ing upwards and appearing to say, " This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts i., 11, 12. xxxviii. The descent of the Holy Spirit. — The Byzantine composition. VOL. II. O 194 GIOTTO Letter IV. Choir—North Wall. xxxix. Gabriel appearing to the Virgin, and offer- ing her the palm-branch from Paradise, in token of her approaching death. — Much injured and scarcely recognisable. xl. The Virgin's dying interview with S. John. — She is sitting up in bed, and John kneels before her, weeping and leaning his head on her lap. Our Sa- viour hovers in the air above them, and, outside the building, three of the Apostles are seen approaching, guided by a floating angel. xli. The Death of the Virgin, surrounded by the Apostles. — The Byzantine composition, slightly mo- dified ; the angels have just given her soul into the arms of Christ, who presses it to his bosom. Choir — South Wall. xlii. The Funeral Procession, — the bier borne by the Apostles, S. John in front as chief mourner, and carrying the palm-branch, — the High Priest's arm withered, as he attempts to overthrow the bier. xliii. The Assumption of the Virgin, — rising to heaven, attended by angels, the tomb below, and the Apostles, fallen to the ground to the right and left, veiling their faces or looking up after her. xliv. The Coronation of the Virgin by Our Sa- viour. Lunette above the Triumphal Arch. xlv. Our Saviour in glory, seated on his throne, and attended by angels to the right and left. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI, L95 Entrance Wall. xlvi. The Last Judgment. — A very remarkable fresco. The general outline is that of the traditional Byzantine composition. Our Saviour, a majestic figure, seated within the vesica piscis, (the sky above him filled with a countless host of angels, holding the banner of the cross, the column, &c. — others at his feet blowing the trumpet — and the Apostles ranged by six and six to his right and left,) extends his open palm towards the elect, the back of his hand towards the reprobate ; the former are arranged in companies, each escorted by an angel, kings, queens, monks, seculars, &c. ; some of their heads are beautiful. Lowest of all, to the left of the fresco, the graves dis- charge the " dead in Christ," the souls, as usual, re- presented as children, but (unintentionally of course) with full-grown heads. The Inferno occupies the whole right side of the composition. It is connected with the earth by a bridge or natural arch, out of which issue the spirits of the condemned. Satan sits in the midst, munching sinners, and around him the retributive punishments of the condemned, and, in some instances, the offences which provoked them, are represented with the most daring freedom. — Be- tween the Inferno and the elect, directly beneath Our Saviour, the Cross is supported in the air by two angels ; who hold up the transverse arm, while the lower end is sustained by a small figure, of the size of a child, who walks with it downwards from the mountain which forms the boundary of Hell. 2 196 GIOTTO Letter IV. Lower down, and to the left, a kneeling figure, pro- bably Enrico Scrovegno, accompanied by a monk, holds up the model of the chapel towards three Saints, of whom the central one seems to be addressing him. This group is very beautiful. Below the Windows of the Nave. xlvii. Fourteen single figures representing the Theological and Cardinal Virtues, and their opposite Vices, in chiaroscuro : — 1. Hope. — A youthful fe- male figure, winged, soaring upwards towards a crown of- fered her by an angel. 2. Charity. — A middle-aged woman, dressed in a single robe, crowned with a wreath of flowers, three flames of fire lambent round her head, — holding a dish of fruit with one hand, and receiving with the other a purse from the hand of God, and standing on bags of money. 3. Faith. — A matronly fi- gure, crowned with a mitre, her robe tattered, in token of ' evangelical poverty," the keys of heaven hanging from her girdle — holding the Creed in one hand and trampling upon idols. 4. Justice. — Seated on a Go- thic throne, and adjusting the •scales of a balance suspended 1. Despair. — She has hanged herself, at the instigation of the Devil. 2. Envy. — An old woman, standing in flames, with the ear and the horns of Satan — a snake issuing from her mouth which turns round and bites her ; she clutches a purse with her left hand, and stretches out her right like a claw. 3. Infidelity. — A man, (how just the satire !) standing tot- teringly beside a fire, typical of heresy or hell, and support- ing in his right hand a female figure, (Idolatry?) who holds a tree in her right hand and a cord (the emblem of subjec- tion) in her left, the cord being passed round his neck. 4. Injustice. — A giant, (so figured in proportion to the trees and shrubs in front of Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 197 before her — a little angel, bending from the one scale, otters a crown to a just man ; an executioner, in the opposite scale, armed with a sword, be- heads an oppressor. Scenes of hunting, dancing, &c. are re- presented in a small composi- tion below, indicating that the enjoyment of life is the fruit of the equal enforcement of law. 5. Temperance. — Her mouth bridled, and holding a sword, which she has bound round with thongs so tightly that it cannot be unsheathed, at least till they are unwound. 6. Fortitude. — Robed in a lion's skin, and half sheltered behind a shield bearing the de- vice of a lion, and bristled with spear-heads and with a broken arrow, — but with sword in hand, watching her opportunity to strike. 7. Prudence. — Double-vi- saged, the head which looks backward apparently that of Socrates ; seated at a reading desk, gazing into a mirror, — and holding in her right hand a pair of compasses. him,) seated under the battle- mented portal of his castle ; his hands armed with talons — hold- ing a sword and a long rake like those with which they pull drift-wood out of the rivers in Italy. Below, in a small com- partment, similar to the one on the opposite wall, a lady is dis- mounted from her horse and stripped by robbers. 5. Anger. — A woman gazing upwards in fury, and tearing open her breast. 6. Inconstancy. — Whirling round and round upon the wheel of Fortune, the wind bellying her robe above her head. 7. Folly- — A man in an In- dian dress, looking upwards, with a club raised as if about to strike, reminding one of Horace's lines, " Coeluiu ipsuui petiinus stultitia," &c. These frescoes of the Arena form a most import- ant document in the history of Giotto's mind, exhi- biting all his peculiar merits, although in a state as yet of immature development. They are full of fancy and invention ; the composition is almost always ad- mirable, although sometimes too studiously symme- trical; the figures are few and characteristic, each 198 GIOTTO Letter IV. speaking for itself, the impersonation of a distinct idea, and most dramatically grouped and contrasted ; the attitudes are appropriate, easy, and natural, the action and gesticulation singularly vivid ; the expres- sion is excellent, except when impassioned grief in- duces caricature, — devoted to the study of Nature as she is, Giotto had not yet learnt that it is suppressed feeling which affects one most. The head of Our Saviour is beautiful throughout, • that of the Virgin not so good ; she is modest, but not very graceful or celestial, — it was long before he succeeded in his Virgins, — they are much too matronly, but, among the accessory figures, graceful female forms occasion- ally appear, foreshadowing those of his later works at Florence and Naples, yet they are always clumsy about the waist and bust, and most of them are un- der-jawed, which certainly detracts from the sweet- ness of the female countenance. His delineation of the naked is excellent, as compared with the works of his predecessors, but far unequal to what he at- tained in his later years, — the drapery, on the con- trary, is noble, majestic and statuesque ; the colour- ing is still pale and weak, — it was long ere he im- proved in this point ; the landscape displays little or no amendment upon the Byzantine ; the architecture, that of the fourteenth century, is to the figures that people it in the proportion of dolls' houses to the children that play with them, — an absurdity long un- thinkingly acquiesced in, from its occurrence in the classic bas-reliefs from which it had been traditionally derived, — and, finally, the lineal perspective is very Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 199 fair, and in three of the compositions, numbers ix., x. and xi., an excellent effect is produced by the in- ' traduction of the same back-ground with varied dra- matis personam reminding one of Retszch's illustra- tions of Faust. The animals too are always excel- lent, full of spirit and character. The most striking peculiarity, however, in these frescoes, as contrasted with Giotto's later works, lies in the reverence which he appears still to have enter- tained for the ancient Byzantine compositions, and for the traditions of the elder Christian art ; the former he seems to have wisely refrained from ma- terially altering, in the consciousness that his wings were not as yet fully grown •, the latter appear to have clung to him involuntarily, as the language of the school from which he drew his earliest instruc- tion. These traditionary reminiscences link us with the ' Navicella di S. Piero,' as his attempts at fore- shortening, his introduction, however inappropriate, of the " arbiter bibendi " at the feast of Cana, and most especially his new and most successful essay in allegory, do with his maturer efforts in the same varied styles of thought and execution at Assisi. It is not difficult, gazing on these silent but elo- quent walls, to repeople them with the group once, as we know — five hundred years ago — assembled within them, — Giotto intent upon his work, his wife Ciuta admiring his progress, and Dante, with ab- stracted eye, alternately conversing with his friend and watching the gambols of the children playing on the <:r,iss before the door. It is generally affirmed 200 GIOTTO Letter IV. that Dante, during this visit, inspired Giotto with his taste for allegory, and that the Virtues and Vices of the Arena were the first fruits of their intercourse ; it is possible certainly, but I doubt it, — allegory was the universal language of the time, as we have seen in the history of the Pisan school. I may add in conclusion, that these frescoes of the Arena had the most signal influence on the develop- ment of the later Giotteschi in Padua and its neigh- bourhood, and that their merits and defects may be traced in the works of Giotto's successors there as late as the close of the fourteenth century. Whether the 'Sala del Capitolo' of the Cathedral, and the other works executed by Giotto at Padua, were painted during this first or on a later visit, I cannot say, as every vestige of them has disappeared.* Section 3. Third Period, — Giotto's works at Assist. A third period in Giotto's career is marked by his engagements at Assisi,t where twenty-eight large * Ghiberti says, " Dipinse in Padova ne' Frati Minori," — that is, in the church of the Santo, or S. Antonio, a church of the Franciscans. Vasari says he painted " una cappella bellis- sima" in the Santo, by mistake probably for the Capitolo, which, according to Savonarola, ( Commentariolus dc Laudibus Patavii, ap. Muratori, Ital. Her. Scriptores, torn, xxiv, col. 1170,) was painted by Giotto. f According to Vasari, Giotto was invited to Assisi by Fra Muro della Marca, General of the Franciscans, — but this cannot be ; at least he cannot have worked at Assisi during his gene- ralate, since Fra Muro, elected in the middle of 1296, only ruled the order till 1302, and died at Avignon in 1312, — and from Letter IV. A.ND THE GIOTTESCHI. 201 frescoes in the Upper church, and five in the Lower, attest the variety of his powers and his continued progress to excellence. The genuineness of the former series has been disputed, but the testimony of Vasari and of tradition is explicit,* and considering their merit, and the invariable rule of the Generals of the Franciscan order to reserve their commissions for the very best artists, and to give none to medio- crity, the marvel would be — not that Giotto should, but that he should not have painted them. More- over, they are completely in his style, not merely of execution, but of thought and invention ; all his pe- culiar characteristics are there ; the humour, espe- cially, which first peeps out in the Arena, is still further indulged in ; the foreshortenings are more numerous, while the Byzantine reminiscences have in great measure disappeared. I see no sufficient cause, therefore, for questioning their authenticity. Giunta, as you may recollect, had painted the Giotto's age and his engagements at Rome, Florence and Padua, all ascertained by fixed dates, it is evident he could not have worked at Assisi till after his return from Padua. * Ghiberti's few words, " Dipinse nella chiesa di Asciesi nelP online de' Frati Minori quasi tutta la parte di sotto," leave one dubious as to the locality referred to. According to Vasari, Cimabue commenced the life of S. Francis, (" vi fece alcune cose,") but was summoned away, and Giotto finished it ; but in the life of Giotto he attributes the whole series to him. This last statement appears to me the most trustworthy. — That the last and best of the series are Giotto's there can be little reason- able doubt. And if so, who but Giotto could have painted the earlier? The manner is not that of Cimabue, but llie Giot- tesque. 202 GIOTTO Letter IV. tribune and transepts of the Upper church, — Cima- bue the upper and the middle row of compartments on either side of the nave, and the corresponding space at the West end ; a third space, the lowest, immediately below the string-course, had remained a blank ever since Cimabue's departure. This space was now assigned to Giotto, who filled it with a series of compositions descriptive of the life and miracles of S. Francis — which I proceed to enumerate seriatim, prefacing each, as in the case of the ' Area di S. Domenico,' with a slight notice of the event it is intended to commemorate, — having purposely omitted the lives of both these Saints in my intro- ductory Memoranda. I shall draw these notices from the life of S. Francis written by the Seraphic Doctor, S. Bonaventura, General and reformer of the order, as a popular manual of Christian holiness, and which Giotto unquestionably used as his text-book in composing the frescoes. I need only add, that the series begins at the Eastern, and is carried round, from left to right, to the Western extremity of the nave. i. The Salutation. — S. Francis was born at Assisi in 1182, the son of one Pietro Bernardone, a rich cloth-merchant, who wished to train him to his own profession, but disinclination first, and afterwards en- thusiastic devotion indisposed him to his father's wishes. Soon after his repentance a Simpleton, meeting him in the market-place of Assisi, took off his robe and spread it on the ground for him to walk over, prophesying that he was worthy of all honour, as one destined to greatness and to the veneration of Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 203 the faithful throughout the universe. It is curious to meet with the Oriental reverence for fatuity at the very threshold of the legend.* — The church repre- sented in the fresco, although with five columns instead of six, is intended for that of the Minerva, still existing, in the piazza of Assisi, originally a heathen temple. ii. S. Francis giving his cloak to the poor officer. — Poverty, you are aware, as one of the Goddesses of Asceticism, had from the earliest ages been ele- vated to the rank of a Christian virtue. S. Francis worshipped her from the first with a sort of chivalric enthusiasm, styling her ' Lady Poverty,' his mother, his mistress, and his spouse. Shortly after the Salu- tation, and while he was meditating on its import, he met an officer of noble birth but poor and in want of necessary raiment; he took off his own cloak, and gave it him.f — This scene is represented in the valley below Assisi ; Francis is on horseback, — both figures are good and expressive. '' " Vir valde simplex, (ut creclitur, eruditus a Deo,)" is Bona- ventura's description of ttie simpleton. i>. 16 sqq. 206 GIOTTO Letter IV. so in later times from the many angelic visitations with which he was favoured. Miracles now began to be performed by his person. A native of Spoleto, afflicted with a dreadful cancer in his face, which neither medicine nor prayer had as yet removed, meeting him, and offering to kiss his feet, was antici- pated by the Saint, who kissed his mouth, and the cancer was immediately healed.* — Soon afterwards, * From this time miracles were frequently performed by or in favour of S. Francis, either parodies on those of Our Saviour and the Apostles, or else repetitions of those recorded by earlier hagiographers. When ill and in pain, he blessed water and it became wine, — preaching to the people, and stepping into a boat in order to avoid the press, it pushed off of itself, and he taught from it, and it then returned spontaneously to the shore, — devils were cast out by his word, — cures were wrought by contact with his person, or even with anything he had touched, — cattle, dying of a plague, were restored by being sprinkled with water in which his feet and hands had been washed, &c. &c. See the Life, passim, — Sometimes the biographer runs into absurdity from attempting to prove too much. A man had been judicially condemned for theft, and his eyes plucked out ; invoking S. Francis, and declaring his innocence, within three days he re- ceived new eyes, rather smaller indeed than those he had been deprived of, but not less clear of vision. Vita, p. 171. — And similarly, in the case of a poor woman at Assisi, a stone left by accident on the pulpit, had fallen on her and crushed her head ; she had constantly commended herself to S. Francis, — they covered her with a cloth till the sermon should be finished, when lo ! she arose quite well, without a vestige of injury,— and whereas she had till then been subject to continual headache, she never had a return of it afterwards. Ibid. p. 154. Both these miracles indeed were performed after the Saint's death. ( a ) — a I may as well subjoin the attesta- rected and executed the sentence,) tion to the former miracle, as given " juramento ad hoc adstrictus coram by Bonaventura : — " Hujus autem Domino Jacobo, Abbate S. Clemen- stupendi miracuii testis f'uit praeno- tis ; auctoritate Domini Jacobi Epis- minatus miles Otlio," (who had di- copi Tyburtini, de ipso miraculo in- LettebIV. and THE GIOTTESCIII. '207 hearing Our Saviour's charge to the Apostles, "Possess neither gold nor silver," &c, read in the church, he abandoned the secular dress he had hitherto worn, and adopted the costume which, in its essentials, has been retained till now by his spiritual posterity. Various devotees associated themselves with him as their ghostly director, and became the germ of the order afterwards known by his name. About this time, on a certain day, while lamenting in solitude his past delinquencies, he received, by the Many instances are also recorded of his prophetic foresight, his reading the heart, his knowledge of the past and future, &c. " Adeo etiam in ipso claruit spiritus prophetise, ut et praevideret futura et cordium contueretur occulta, absentia quoque velut praesentia cerneret, et se praesertim absentibus mirabiliter exhi- beret." Vita., p. 99 sqq. — Instances of this are common also in the Oriental mysticism, and powers closely akin are claimed by many Christian sectarians. Parallel instances to many of these legends might be cited even from the lives of the Cameronian ministers and martyrs, the heroes of the ' Free Church.' No- thing is more certain, however startling, than that the Came- ronian, the Methodist, the Quaker, the Mendicant monk, the Dervise and the Yoghi are all embarked in the same boat and under the same flag — or rather in an army of canoes privily built of wood pilfered from the Ark, and in which they have escaped from her — too often to sail out of sight and beyond re- turn or recall from Noah. quirente. Testis etiam extitit ejus- tribus, affirmavit se dudum, adhuc dem niiraculi Frater Guillermus saxiularem existantem, vidisse eum Romanus, a patre Hieronyino Gene- habentem oculos, et postmodiini acta rali Ministro Ordinis Fratrum Mi- exsecutionis injuriam patientem; ac norum, ad veritatem dieendam, quam se excrccati oculos in terrain projectos circa hoc noverat, pracepto et ex- curiose cum baculo revolvisse ; et communicationis sententia obligatus. postmodiini, virtute divina, eundem (,)iii taliter adstrictus, coram pluribus uovse lucis receptis oculis, vidci.tem Ministris Provincialibus ejusdem clarissime, conspexisse." — Vita, p. Ordinis, el aliis magni meriti Pra- 171. 208 GIOTTO Letter IV. sudden inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the assurance of the plenary remission of them all ; and, rapt above himself, and absorbed as it were in light, the destiny of himself and his order was brightly revealed to him.* vi. The Vision of Pope Innocent III. — The number of S. Francis's votaries having increased to twelve, he wrote a rule of life for them, and jour- nied to Rome to obtain the papal confirmation. Innocent III., who then filled the throne of the Vatican, refused to concede it, till warned of God the following night in a dream, in which he saw S. Francis (as in the parallel instance of S. Domenic) supporting with his back the church of S. John Lateran, which was ready to fall. He confirmed the rule accordingly.-^ — This is a very beautiful fresco ; the head of S. Francis, looking up to heaven, as if for aid, is beautiful ; and so is that of one of the attendants by the Pope's bedside, who has dropped his head on his arm, overcome with sleep. vu. The Confirmation of the more extended rule by Honorius 1 1 1. J — S. Francis, accompanied by two companions, was led by the Spirit up a certain mountain, where, fasting on bread and water, he wrote as the Spirit dictated. After his return, his vicar having lost the manuscript, he reascended the mountain, and received the same over again by a second revelation. This occurred a few days only before his reception of the Stigmata ; it is misplaced * Vita, p. 25. t Vita , P- 2 9- X Vita > P- 40 - Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 209 here. — The Pope on his throne, surrounded by the cardinals, presents the scroll to S. Francis, who re- ceives it on his knees, — the heads of the attendant monks are very characteristic ; Giotto has caught the monastic type of countenance admirably. vni. S. Francis in the Chariot of Fire. — After his return to Assisi, on the night before a certain Sunday on which he was to preach, he had gone apart from the brethren to pray, but at midnight, while some were awake, others sleeping, a fiery chariot was seen to enter by the door of the house, and drive thrice round the court; a globe of light, bright as the sun and dazzling the stars, rested upon it, which they knew by supernatural illumination, (while each man's heart and conscience lay open, naked and revealed, to his neighbour,) to be the spirit of S. Francis, pre- sent among them but parted from the body — irradi- ated with the light and inflamed with the love of heaven, and thus shown to them by God, transfigured, in order that, like true Israelites, they should follow after him who, like another Elias, was made unto them by God both chariot and charioteer.* — The vision is well represented in Giotto's fresco : the sleeping monks are admirable, and the attempts at foreshortening not bad. ix. The Seats prepared in heaven for S. Francis and his Order. — A large and richly ornamented chair and two small ones on either side of it appear in the sky; a monk kneels in the left corner of the * Vita, p. 33. VOL. II. !• 210 GIOTTO Letter IV. foreground, whose attention an angel, floating in the air, directs to S. Francis, kneeling in prayer before the altar. — This legend is not mentioned by S. Bo- naventura.* x. S. Francis exorcising Arezzo. — Visiting that town, then distracted with civil strife, and perceiving, from his lodging in the suburb, the demons who stirred it up, dancing exultingly in the air above the walls, he sent Brother Sylvester, a man of dove-like simplicity, as his herald to bid them depart. Syl- vester, pausing at the gate of the city, summoned them in a loud voice, — " In the name of the omni- potent God, and by the command of his servant, Francis, go out hence, every one of you !" And immediately the devils dispersed, and the city re- turned to peace and propriety.f — An excellent com- position ; S. Francis himself kneels in prayer in the left corner ; Sylvester stands before the city in an attitude of noble command. Both figures are ad- mirable. xi. S. Francis before the Soldan. — Burning with the desire of martyrdom, "desiderio Martyrii fla- grans," (like the whole series of Christian mystics from S. Antony to John Wesley,) S. Francis made three unsuccessful attempts to attain it by visiting Paynim countries and preaching Christ ; the first time, he was defeated by contrary winds, the second by illness, the third, more fortunate, he reached * There is a somewhat similar legend in the ' Vite de' SS. Padri,' lib. iii, cap. 84. t Vita, p. 58. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 211 Svria, was taken prisoner and brought before the Soldan, to whom he proclaimed the faith, and de- sired that the Moslem priests and himself might test the truth of their respective creeds by passing through the ordeal of fire.* The Soldan declined the offer, but was pleased with his zeal and dismissed him un- injured, and he returned to Europe.f xii. S. Francis in Ecstasy. — Represented as seen one night by the brethren, praying, elevated from the ground, his hands extended like the cross, and surrounded by a shining cloud.^; The Saviour bends towards him from heaven, symbolised by the segment of a circle, as in early Roman and Byzantine art. xiii. The Mystery, or Dumb-Show, of the Na- tivity. — Three years before his death, S. Francis made a theatrical representation (like those still in use in Italy) of the Nativity, and preached in front of it. A certain officer affirmed that he saw, sleep- ing in the manger, a beautiful boy, to wit Our Saviour, who awoke on S. Francis's embracing him.§ — The show takes place outside of the church ; the ox and ass by the side of the manger are repre- sented of the same size as the child, a liberty fre- quently taken with proportion by Giotto and the early painters. Three of the monks, in the back- ground, yawning, are excellent. * Of Buddhistieal or Sbamanistic origin, and extremely ancient. It was thus that the Abbot Comprete offered to dis- prove the errors of the Manicheans. Rosweyde, Vita Patrum, p. 36. f Vita, p. ST. i Vita, p. 9:5. * Vita, p. 96. P 2 212 GIOTTO Letter IV. xiv. The Miraculous Spring. — S. Francis and his monks, taking a journey over a desert mountain, where there was no water, in the heat of the summer, and their lay attendant being quite exhausted with thirst and fatigue, S. Francis dismounted from his ass, and kneeling down, prayed till he knew that he was heard, and then bade the man go to a certain rock where he should find living water, at that mo- ment produced from the stone by Christ. There was no spring there before, says Bonaventura, and no one has been ever able to find one there since* — The figure of the attendant, leaning on his breast and drinking, is deservedly praised by Vasari. xv. S. Francis preaching to the Birds, —who stand on the ground or perch on the trees around him in mute attention.— Another of the Orientalisms of early Christianity. He had a passionate love for animals, whom he used to call his brothers and sisters, and the sympathy was mutual. Various anecdotes are told by S. Bonaventura in illustration of this, and of his indignation at any injury inflicted on them. One morning a sheep produced a lamb — at night a sow ate it up; "Alas!" cried he, "brother lambkin, innocent creature, true image of Christ to man ! cursed be the impious wretch who hath thus maltreated thee !" The sow began to sicken imme- diately, and in three days died.— A sheep having been presented to him at S. Maria degli Angeli, he * Vita, p. 68. — Nearly the same story is told of 8. Antony, in his life by S. Athanasius, Opera, torn, ii, p. 83f>, edit. Bene- dict. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 213 admonished it to pay due attention to its religious duties ; it came to church ever afterwards, and regu- larly fell on its knees at the elevation of the host. But these are individual instances only, — when he walked in the fields, the sheep would throng round and gaze up in his face ; hares and rabbits, when pre- sented to him, nestled to his bosom ; and the fish, when he ventured on their element, followed him to the shore. On one occasion, when passing by the lagunes of Venice, where vast numbers of birds were singing, he said to his companion, " Our sisters, the birds, are praising their Creator ; let us too join," — and began the canonical hours •, but the noise being too great, he desired them to be silent, — they imme- diately ceased, and would not begin again till he gave them permission. — The subject of the present fresco is thus related by Bonaventura : — " Drawing- nigh to Bevagno, he came to a certain place where a vast multitude of birds of different kinds were ga- thered together, whom seeing, the man of God ran hastily to the spot, and saluting them as if they had been his fellows in reason, (while they all turned and bent their heads in attentive expectation,) he admo- nished them, saying, ' Brother birds ! greatly are ye bound to praise your Creator, who clotheth you with feathers, and giveth you wings to fly with, and a pure air to breathe in, and who careth for you who have so little care for yourselves.' While he thus spake, the little birds, marvellously commovcd, began to * Vita, i>. 7:>. 214 GIOTTO Letter IV. spread their wings, stretch forward their necks and open their beaks, attentively gazing upon him. And he, glowing in the spirit, passed through the midst of them, and even touched them with his robe, yet not one stirred from his place, until the man of God gave them leave, when, with his blessing, and at the sign of the cross, they all flew away. These things saw his companions, who waited for him on the road. To whom returning, the simple and pure-minded man began greatly to blame himself for having never hitherto preached to the birds."* xvi. The Death of the young Count at Celanum. — One among many instances in which the spirit of prophecy spake through S. Francis. Pressed to dine with a devout officer, and spiritually apprised of the approaching death of his host during the mental prayer he offered up before sitting down to table, he * Vita, p. 110. — I cannot refrain from adding one more of these legends, as a Christian pendant to the Maraptfojut v ere, t£tti£,, of Anacreon. " A grass-hopper (cicada) was wont to sit and sing on a fig-tree beside the cell of the man of God at S. Maria de Portiuncula," (afterwards S. M. degli Angeli,) " and oft-times by her singing excited him to the praise of God. And on a certain day, on being called by him, she flew upon his hand, as if admonished thereto by heaven. And Francis saying to her, ' Sing, my sister ! and praise the Lord thy Creator,' she began immediately to sing, nor ceased till at the father's com- mand she flew back to her proper place. And she remained eight days there, coming and singing and departing day by day according to his behest. At length the man of God said to his companions, ' Let us dismiss our sister ; enough that she has cheered us with her song, and excited us to the praise of God these eight days.' And so, being licensed, she immediately flew away, and never more was seen there." Vita, p. 78. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 215 drew him aside and exhorted him to immediate con- fession, warning- him that his end drew near, and that God had given him this opportunity of making his shrift in guerdon of his hospitality towards the poor of Christ. The Count confessed himself and set his house in order, and then took his place at the entertainment, but sank down and expired on the spot.* — A very interesting fresco ; the young Count lies on the ground, his sister embracing his neck, his mother kneeling at his feet and tearing her cheeks, his brother clasping his hands and bending over him in mute sorrow, the guests weeping behind, S. Francis and his attendants looking on from behind the din- ner-table. The story is feelingly told, although the grief runs into caricature. xvii. S. Francis preaching before the Pope and Cardinals — all seated, in varied and appropriate atti- tudes, under a magnificent Gothic loggia. — I do not know to what particular event this records. Nor does the almost effaced inscription appear to imply more than that what others acquired by learning, S. Francis had by intuition, a mystic dogma fully recognised in the West from the days of S. Antony and S. Martin. j - * Vita, p. 100. t " Ad tantain autem mentis serenitatem, indefessum orationis stadium, cum continua exercitatione virtutum, Virum Dei per- duxerat ; ut quamvis non babuerit Sacrarum Litterarum peritiam per doctrinam, aeternaj tamen lucis irradiatus fulgoribus Scrip- turarum profunda miro intellectus scrutaretur acmnine. Pene- trabal enim ab omni labe purum ingenium niysteriorum ab- scondita, el ul>i magistralia scientia foris stat, affectus infcroibal amantis." Vita, p. 99. 216 GIOTTO Letter IV. xviii. The Apparition of S. Francis at Aries. — S. Antony of Padua was preaching at a general chapter of the order held at Aries in 1224, when S. Francis appeared in the midst, his arms extended, and in the attitude of benediction.* An excellent fresco, the attitudes, expression and air of the monks most commendable. xix. S. Francis receiving the Stigmata. — Long before this period, his body had been reduced by fasting, self-torture and austerities of the most dreadful description, to a mere mass of disease ; his eyes were wasted by constant weeping, the " gift of tears," so coveted by the ascetics, and one of the indices to their physical temperament ; his stomach and liver and nervous system were utterly destroyed ; but the unquenchable spirit still bore up, and his seraphic ardours were more vivid than ever.| He was re- siding in this condition at the rock of Laverna, in the recesses of the Apennine, about two years before * Vita, p. 58. | It is curious and affecting, in the lives of the ascetic Saints, to meet with passages where the whisperings of truth and common sense, and even sometimes of natural and holy affection, are mis- deemed suggestions of the devil, and revenged as such by the scourge, or self-inflictions still more horrible. " One night, while at prayer," says Bonaventura, " the devil called to him thrice, and said, that there was no sinner to whom, if converted from sin, God would not show indulgence, but that whoever killed himself with unmeasured penance would find no mercy throughout eternity. But immediately," proceeds the narrative, " he knew the ancient enemy, &c." — S. Francis used to call his body, ' Brother Ass,' and say it was to be subdued, and its spirit broken down, like its brutal prototype. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 217 his death, when on a certain morning, while in an ecstasy of prayer, the Saviour appeared to him, with his arms extended as on the cross, between the wings of a seraph, descending from heaven ; pity passed through his heart like a sword, and a supernatural sympathy visibly and indelibly imprinted the wounds of the Crucified upon his person, on his feet, hands and sides. After this infliction his hands acquired a peculiar and restorative warmth and virtue. " The heads of the nails," says S. Bonaven- tura, "were round and black, their points oblong, twisted and as it were bent back, rising above the flesh. The wound in the side had the appearance of a red cicatrice, which frequently emitted blood."* * Vita, pp. 119, sqq.' — S. Bonaventura's words, describing the Stigmata, are as follows : — " Statimque namque in manibus ejus et pedibus apparere coeperunt signa clavorum : quemadraodum paul6 ante in effigie ilia viri Crncifixi conspexerat. Manns enim et pedes, in ipso medio, clavis confixae videbantur : clavorum capitibus in interiori parte manuum et superior! pedum appa- rentibus, et eortim acuminibus existentibus ex adverse Erantque clavorum capita in manibus et pedibus rotunda et nigra : ipsa vero acumina oblonga, retorta et quasi repercussa, quae de ipsa came surgentia, carnem reliquam excedebant. Dexterum quoque latus, quasi lancea transfixum, rubra, cicatrice obductum erat : quod saepe sanguinem sacrum effundens, tunicara et femoralia re- spergebat." — And, describing the appearance of his body after deatli: — '' Erat autem similitudo clavorum nigra quasi ferrum : vulnus autem lateris rubeum, et ad orbicularitatem quandam carnis contractione red uc turn, rosa tanquam pulcherrima vide- Imtur. Caro vero ipsins reliqua, quae prius tarn ex inrirmitate quam ex natura, ad nigredinem declinabat, candore uimio re- nitescens, illius secundae stolae pulchritudinem prsetendebat. Membra ipsius adeo mollia et tractabilia se prsebebant palpanti- l)us, in, conversa viderentur in teneritudinem puerilis eetatis el 218 GIOTTO Letter IV. — It seems almost doubtful whether the expressions of the biographer imply real nails or the appearance only. But that the wounds actually existed during S. Francis's life there can be no question,* although Catholics and Protestants, and such as view the Christianity of the middle ages with Oriental eyeSj will account for their infliction very differently. But the question of religious ecstasy (apart from stigma- tisation) is not one for summary dismissal under the plea of imposture ; the whole subject ought to be carefully investigated in a scientific point of view, — this very ' Life of S. Francis,' for instance, as written by Bonaventura, would furnish most curious data for such a purpose.f Nor, even were all these miracles admitted as fact, would they tell in favour of Catho- licism, for the exhibition of such, whether real or pretended, in support of doctrines inimical to those of S. Paul, is~ an express mark of spiritual apostacy revealed for our guidance by that Apostle. The Estaticas, &c. of the Tyrol and elsewhere, are quibusdam cernerentur evidentibus signis innocentia? decorata. Cum igitur in candidissima carne clavi nigrescerent ; plaga vero lateris, ut vernans roseus flos rubuit ; mirandum non est si tarn formosa et miraculosa varietas jucunditatem et admirationem contuentibus ingerebat." Vita, p. 135. * " Summus etiam Pontifex Dominus Alexander (IV.) cum populo prsedicaret, coram multis fratribus et me ipso affirmavit se, dum Sanctus viveret, stigmata ilia sacra suis oculis con- spexisse." Vita, p. 124. ■j- M. Alfred Maury, author of the ' Essai sur les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen-age,' is occupied upon a work on the subject of Stigmatisation. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 219 thus the strongest possible Scriptural argument against Popery, as the non-pretension to miracles is in favour — I will not say, of Protestantism, narrowed and crippled as the word has been in recent contro- versy — but of the Church of England. If real, they are permitted as a trial of our faith, — for it will eventually, I am confident, become an established maxim, that as witnesses of God to the true Church, wherever she exists, miracles diminish or increase in proportion to the development of intellect and the powers of abstraction. — But to return to Assisi and proceed to xx. The Death of S. Francis. — Two years had elapsed since receiving the stigmata ; he had long been unable to walk on account of the excrescence of the nails in his feet ; his strength too was completely gone, and he was removed, a mere living corpse, to S. Maria degli Angeli. He caused himself to be laid naked on the ground in the secret hope that he might once more, in that dying hour, become the object of charity. A brother, whom he had chosen as his superior, in order to keep his obedience in exercise, divined the wish, and bringing a robe and cord, presented them to him as to the ' pauper of Christ,' commanding him, by his vow of obedience, to accept them as alms. Thus S. Francis rejoiced greatly, and gave God thanks that even to the last he had kept inviolate his plighted faith to his be- loved Lady Poverty. He then, crossing his arms, blessed his children, taking leave of them, and ex- borting them to patience, poverty and faith in the 220 GIOTTO Letter IV. holy Roman Church. " And thus, at length, all mysteries having been accomplished in him, and his most holy soul being freed from the flesh and ab- sorbed into the abyss of the light of God, (in abyssum divinee claritatis absorpta,) the blessed man fell asleep in the Lord."* — Peaceful and still is the parting scene, as depicted by Giotto. He is stretched out dead, surrounded by monks and priests with censers and candles, — his soul carried up by angels to heaven. The composition is copious and beautiful, but the compartment, like most of those which follow, the last and best, alas ! of the series, has been sadly injured by damp. xxi. The Dying Friar. — A brother of the order, lying on his death-bed, saw the spirit of S. Francis rising to heaven, and springing forward, cried, " Tarry, father ! I come with thee," and fell back dead.f — Almost effaced. xxn. The Scepticism of Jerome. — The people of Assisi being admitted to see and kiss the stigmata, one Jerome, sceptical like S. Thomas, audaciously touched and moved the nails ; the hands, feet and side shrunk and contracted as if with pain.| — He is represented kneeling and touching the side, the dead brow frowning with anguish ; the monks and priests stand round with candles, &c. xxin. The Lament at S. Damiano. — The crowd, bearing the body to Assisi, with boughs of trees, * Vita, pp. 130, sqq. f This legend is not told by Bonaventura. t Vita, p. 13(5. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 221 torches and hymns, halted at the church of S. Da- miano, where S. Clara and her nuns, of the third order instituted bv S. Francis, then resided, and yielded it to be seen and kissed by them.* — Modified from the Byzantine Pieta, and full of deep and sweet feeling. Restraint is lost in their distress, the gen- tlemen present are unthought of; they are all un- veiled, some of them beautiful. S. Clara leans over, embracing the body, another kisses his hand, others gaze from behind, all in sorrow, but no longer cari- catured, deep but subdued. xxiv. S. Francis's Canonisation. — Almost de- stroyed. If, as appears probable, that ceremony is represented here, and not the temporary burial in S. Giorgio, it is misplaced, having been preceded by the Vision, which forms the subject of the following fresco : — xxv. The Vision of Pope Gregory IX. — He he- sitated, before canonising S. Francis, doubting the celestial infliction of the stigmata. S. Francis ap- peared to him in a vision, and with a severe counte- nance reproving his unbelief, opened his robe and exposing the wound in his side, filled a vial with the blood that flowed from it, and gave it to the Pope, who awoke and found it in his hand.f — Admirably composed and full of expression; the involuntary action of the Pope's arm is excellent. These sleep- ing figures of Giotto, and this in particular, remind one of the vYpparition of S. Cecilia to Pope Pascal, * Vita, ]>. 137. f Vita t p. 141. 222 GIOTTO Letter IV. the old Greek fresco in the church of that Saint at Rome. xxvi. The Cure of the Catalonian. — He had been mortally wounded by robbers, — his wounds stunk, he had been given over by the physician ; invoking S. Francis, the Saint entered from the window, touched his wounds with the stigmatised hands, and healed him* — Most expressive ; the physician stands at the foot of the bed, about to take his leave, shrug- ging his shoulders in reply to the entreaties of the friends who urge his stay ; while S. Francis, in his friar's robe, and attended by two angels, performs the cure. xxvu. The Confession after Death. — A woman of Monte Marino, near Benevento, had died unshriven, but having been devoted to S. Francis, her spirit was permitted, through his intercession, to return and reanimate the body while she confessed and re- ceived absolution.^ — No less beautiful than the pre- ceding compartment ; the woman, ghastly and white, sits up in her bed, confessing to the trembling priest, whose attendants stand at the foot, and the weeping relatives at the head, their grief a little caricatured ; an angel hovers above her, awaiting the final release of the soul, while a devil, disappointed, flies away. S. Francis's intercession, and Our Saviour extending his right hand towards him in acceptance, are repre- sented in the upper corner to the right. xxviii. S. Francis the Vindicator of Innocence, — * Vita, p. 143. t Vita, p. 147. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 223 in the case of a Bishop, his devotee, who had been falsely accused of heresy.* — Admirably composed, and full of expression and character-, the Bishop's Cathedral is seen to the left, the prison to the right ; in the midst he kneels praying ; a priest behind him holds the crosier of which he has been deprived, the gaoler steps forward with the manacles, the guards that have brought him deliver him to his custody. Above, S. Francis is seen floating in the sky, and interceding for him. The preceding details, read apart from the frescoes on which they are a commentary, may have appeared rather tedious, but you will find them, I trust, useful on the spot, in examining them. You ought also to be familiar with the spirit as well as the historical outline of the legend. But to complete the series, to sum up the moral of the whole, we must descend from the Upper to the Lower church, and examine the four large and most beautiful compositions which adorn the groined vault that bends over the tomb of S. Francis. The subjects were probably suggested by a vision recorded as follows by S. Bonaventura. " Journeying to Siena, in a broad plain between Campiglia and S. Quirico, S. Francis was encountered by three maidens in poor raiment, and exactly resembling each other in age and appearance, who saluted him Rather different from Bonaventura's version of the story, for w Inch sec Vita % |>. 163. 224 GIOTTO Letter IV. with the words, ' Welcome, Lady Poverty !' and sud- denly disappeared. The brethren not irrationally concluded that this apparition imported some mys- tery pertaining to S. Francis, and that by the three poor maidens were signified Chastity, Obedience, and Poverty, the beauty and sum of Evangelical Per- fection, all of which shone with equal and consummate lustre in the man of God, although he preferred to glory in the privilege of Poverty." # Each step in the Ascetic ladder is accordingly here celebrated in a distinct compartment, and their triumph and glo- rification by that of S. Francis in the fourth and concluding one, which fills the place of honour, towards the East. They are compositions of extreme interest, both as works of art, and as illustrating the Christianity of the cloister. We will begin with the First, or Northern compartment, inscribed, in Gothic letters, ^ancta ©astttass. From the centre of a fortress, situated on a rock and defended by battlements and palisadoes, rises a lofty tower, within which, through a window, appears Chastity, as a young maiden, praying, while two angels, floating in the air, present to her, the one a palm-branch, the other a volume, probably the Bible. — In the foreground, outside and in front of the fortress, is represented the rite of Christian * Vita, p. 65. — A very pretty picture of this Vision, in the possession of Count Demidoff, is engraved in Rosini, Storia, fyc. tav. 25. Lettish IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 225 baptism. A youth is half immersed in the font; the angel ' Purity' pours the water on his head, ' Fortitude' dries him; a third holds his garments; a fourth, leaning over the palisadoes, offers him from within the fortress the banner of the cross. On either side of this group, as if ready to defend the castle against a world in arms, stands a warrior with hand on sword and shield on arm — the one shield bearing, as its device, a royal, the other an imperial crown, from which these personages are supposed to represent the Emperor S. Henry and Boleslaus King of Poland, both of whom are said to have united virginity with marriage. — In the angle to the left, S. Francis welcomes three men who ascend the hill, ambitious of leading the ' angelical life ;' in that to the right, ' Penance,' winged, but in an anchoret's robe, and accompanied by various figures armed with scourge, staff, and cross, drives the World, the Flesh, and the Devil down the precipice of hell ; Satan, fallen backwards, is just disappearing, — Cupid, a lean scarecrow, with bow, quiver and fillet, and feet ending in claws, looks ruefully round as he is pushed down the declivity ; and the World, (for it would seem to be such rather than Death,) in the shape of a skeleton, more in the background, is about to follow. This fresco needs little comment. I need not remind you that the Chastity thus commended is that which brands our wives and mothers with a slur — nor dwell on the melancholy consequences to human virtue and happiness entailed by the fatal and most vol.. 11. * Q 226 GIOTTO Letter IV. unscriptural restriction of the idea and the term to Virginity and Celibacy, — a delusion of most ancient date, and inherited alike by the Mystics of the East and the West, the Buddhists and the Gnostics, — the latter of whom, more especially, referred the origin of sin to the creation of matter, the creation of matter to the Evil Principle — and identified that Evil Prin- ciple with Jehovah! — S.Francis shared to the full in the agonies of the early ascetics,* — it is a subject that can but be alluded to — May God in his mercy shield us from such horrors in England ! The Second of these Evangelical virtues is allego- rised in the compartment opposite to the preceding, inscribed, £>amta ®&efctentia. Under the columned loggia, or porch, of a church, and in front of the crucifix, Obedience, represented by an angel robed in black, and placing the finger of his left hand on his mouth, passes the yoke over the head of a Franciscan monk kneeling at his feet, who also assists in the operation ; two others accompany him, to whom an angel seems to say, ' Follow his example ! ' Obedience is supported on his right hand by Prudence, on his left by Humility. Angels kneel to the right and left, one of whom, to the right, appears to repulse a Centaur, standing without the porch, whose hind feet, ending in claws, betray Satan under his character of Pride. On the roof of * Vita, p. 43. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 227 the loggia, attended to the right and left by two kneeling angels, stands in his monastic robe S. Francis, above whose head the two hands of the Deity appear from heaven, dropping (apparently) the knotted cord of the Franciscans. The sense entertained of this virtue by S. Francis cannot be better illustrated than by his own com- parison of the true Son of Obedience to a dead body.* He followed out the theory unflinchingly himself, to a complete crushing of all self-respect and individu- ality. To this end, as I have already intimated, he required that a ruler or guardian should be placed over him, to whose will he might be entirely subject as a slave to his master. And hence, moreover, his selection of the title ' Fratres Minores,' for his new fraternity. — But not a doubt can rest on his own genuine humility and sincerity in his creed. It is evinced by one of the most pleasing anecdotes in his life. The Bishop of Imola had refused him leave to preach there, and with harshness, saying, " It suf- ficeth, brother, that I preach to my own people." S. Francis bent his head and departed, but presently * " Cum vero vice quadam qusereretur ab eo, quis esset venis obediens judicandus, corporis niortui similitudinem pro exeinplo proposuit. Tolle, inquit, corpus exaninie, et ubi placuerit pone : \i
  • r rather been left in the rear by his contemporaries. 304 GIOTTO Letter IV. tinction between painters attracted to the art by the " animo gentile " of natural predisposition, (to whom he peculiarly addresses himself,) and those whose love of gain is their sole inspiration — that Love, Fear, Obedience and Perseverance ought to be the Cardinal virtues of the artist, to be worn as a robe of grace and honour in the presence of the master under whom he places himself, — that his master should be the best living artist, — that he should divide his alle- giance with no one else, — that he should continually copy from his works, as well as from the living models of nature,* confident that, unless his intellect be gross indeed, he will thus acquire something at least of his master's manner, while if Nature has en- dowed him with a " punta di fantasia," a spark of genius, he will ultimately create a new and original one, the hand and mind naturally refusing to gather thorns after spending their prime in culling roses. — During this period of discipline, proceeds Cennino, his life should be regular and temperate, like that of students in theology or philosophy, — his food light and taken twice only in the day, and with little wine, — his walks solitary, unless a congenial soul be his companion, — and he should abstain from violent ex- ercises, such as hurling the stone, the bar of iron, &c, which render the hand heavy and sluggish in respond- ing to the mind, as well as from sensual indulgences of the grosser kind, which render it " lighter, fleeter and more ungovernable than the leaf before the wind." * He says nothing of the antique. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 305 He prolongs the period of discipleship to thirteen years, — the first, "da piccino," to be spent in draw- ing, so as to acquire some general preliminary notions of correct proportion ; the next six, in mas- tering the pure mechanism of the craft, the grinding and mixing of colours, the preparation of glues, the art of taking casts, of preparing the plaister for pic- tures in tempera, of laying on gold for the back- grounds, and engraining them, &c. ; and the remain- ing six, in the study of design — thenceforth to be his first object and unremitted pursuit, day and night, fast and feast-dav. The remainder of the work- — with the exception of a chapter of advice to the young ladies of Tus- cany, not to use medicated waters for the skin, but to be content with the unadulterated dew of nature — is purely technical and beyond the mere amateur, but to the artist-student it must be most interesting. It concludes with a prayer to God, the Virgin, S. John, S. Luke, &c, for grace and fortitude to sup- port in patience the burden of the sorrow of this world, and for those who read his work, grace to understand and memory to profit by it, " so that by the sweat of their brow they may live in peace and maintain their families in this life present, and finally obtain everlasting glory in the life to come, " per in- finita sa^cula saeculorum, Amen ! " — expressions on which a painful light is thrown by the final colophon or epigraph, dated from the Stinche, the prison lor debl at Florence, in 1437, exactly a century after VOL. II. \ 306 GIOTTO Letter IV. the death of Giotto.* — Superseded in his profession by artists of the new school, and unable or unwilling to accommodate his practice to theirs with the facility of his contemporaries, poverty doubtless whitened his hair and dug his grave, though powerless to deprive him of that modesty, integrity, resignation, manly cheerfulness and unobtrusive piety, which cradles, as in a casket of cedar and gold, the " Trat- tato della Pittura," — this dying legacy of the man who, in his amiable but blind idolatry of the past, might be fitly styled the Last of the Giotteschi. Section 3. — School of Tadcleo Gaddi — inferior branch, Florence and Tuscany, descended through Giacomo da Casentino. We have still, however, to trace the fortunes of the contemporary Tuscan branch of the school of Taddeo Gaddi, which derives from Giacomo da Casentino. Its chief claim to our respect consists in having pro- duced Spinello Spinelli, one of the most remarkable painters of the fourteenth century. It is, in truth, the senior and direct line of the Giottesque succes- sion in Tuscany, but in the genealogy of art, like * The ' Trattato della Pittura ' was published for the first time, with valuable notes, but from an incorrect transcript a by the Cav. Gius. Tambroni, Rome, 8vo, 1821. It has just been translated into English, with illustrations, by Mrs. Merrifield, The original MS. is preserved in the Laurentian library at Florence. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 307 that of Scripture, it will often be found that the heirship of the promise passes over the head of the elder to settle on that of the younger and more de- serving brother.* Little is known of Giacomo's history. He was a native of Prato Veechio, a town in the Casentino, and, according to Vasari, was placed under Taddeo Gaddi by the Guardiano, or superior, of the Fran- ciscan convent at Laverna, while the latter was working there. In 1349, when the Company of painters was organised at Florence, Giacomo was appointed one of the two councillors, and employed to paint the altar-piece of the chapel. But of all his works, some prophets on the square columns of the Orsanmichele, probably painted several years earlier, and soon after the conversion of the Loggia into a church by his master Taddeo, have alone been pre- served, and very weak and feeble they are, both in expression, colouring and design. He painted much in his latter years in the Casentino and at Arezzo, and died, after attaining the age of four-score, at his birth-place, Prato Vecchio.f Of far higher genius was Spinello, a native of Arezzo, but the son of an exiled Ghibelline of Flo- rence. He was placed under Giacomo during a I suspect that both Angelo Gaddi and his succession derive their descent, partially, from the elder Roman school, so often spoken of. This would account inter alia for their peculiarly pale colouring. ■\ Vasari. — The painter Bernardo Daddi also belongs to the -nine class. x 2 308 GIOTTO Letter IV. residence of the latter at Arezzo, and £oon surpassed him. The works of Margaritone also seem to have made a strong impression on him ; various paintings, productions apparently of his younger days, strongly resemble those of his venerable predecessor, and certain Byzantine peculiarities, which he retained through life, were probably thus inherited. After attaining considerable reputation in his native city and its neighbourhood, Spinello repaired to Florence, where his Ghibelline descent proved no hindrance to his success ; he was much employed there, but all his works have been destroyed except the frescoes in the sacristy of S. Miniato, and a por- tion of those executed for Leo degli Acciajuoli in the monastery of S. Maria Novella. The former, according to Vasari, were painted shortly after 1361 for the Abbot, a native of Arezzo, and probably the patron who originally invited him to Florence. They represent, in sixteen compartments, the life of S. Benedict, besides the four Evangelists on the ceiling, each distinguished by his symbolic attendant looking up at him ; these Evangelists are full of fire and dignity, equal to the best of the frescoes on the walls, and much superior to the worst, which last, therefore, (the ceiling being always painted first,) I conclude to be by another hand, although there is much ge- neral resemblance in the style. To this inferior painter I should attribute the first eight, the eleventh and twelfth of the series, and the ninth and tenth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth, only, to Spinello. These latter frescoes are extremely Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 309 good, the composition is for the most part highly expressive, the S. Benedict very dignified, and the monkish character is given throughout with admirable truth and fidelity, while it is wonderful how he has contrived to vary and contrast the shades of flesh- colour and of white, the prevailing hue of the Bene- dictine dress, so as to avoid monotony. Totila's visit of humiliation to S. Benedict is perhaps the most striking composition ; he throws himself on his knees before the Saint, who rises from his seat, under the porch of his monastery, to receive him. Both figures are admirable, and the conception of this scene is superior to that which I shall hereafter have to describe in the very interesting life of S. Benedict by the Neapolitan Zingaro. This and the concluding subject, the Death of S. Benedict, Spi- nello, on taking the brush from his (presumed) coadjutor, reserved for the space below the two first frescoes of the series, on the wall facing the door of entrance into the sacristy, in order that they might enjoy the full light pouring in from the window to the left. The ninth subject therefore in the histo- rical series must be sought for beneath the third, painted on the right-hand wall, as you enter.* The subjects are, very briefly, as follows : — 1. (Beginning with tlie upper row on the wall opposite the entrance,) the de- parture of S. Benedict and his nurse for the wilderness, — he is usually represented as a mere child in the frescoes thai represent, this incident; 2. The restoration of the broken sieve; 3. S. Benedict's reception of the monastic habit from Romanus, and the devil throwing a stone at the bell communicating with his cave ; l. The Appearance of Our Saviour to the priest, and the 310 GIOTTO Letter IV. Of the frescoes at S. Maria Novella, the sole relics are a series representing the Passion of Our Lord, on the walls of the ' Stanza delle Acque,' a small chapel or oratory, now no longer used as such, and attached to the ' Farmacia' of the monastery. The traditional compositions are adhered to very closely — in the Crucifixion, for instance, the feet of Our Saviour rest on a suppeditaneum, as in the oldest Byzantine paintings — but there is expression and feeling in the treatment ; the most original subject is Our Saviour's discourse to his Apostles, all standing up, after the Last Supper, in the lunette on the right wall. It does not appear in what year Spinello returned to Arezzo, but he was working there in 1383, and it was probably about that time that he painted the Annunciation in S. Francesco, one of his few works not in fresco.* It is a very beautiful picture, the Easter-feast of the latter with S. Benedict ; 5. S. Benedict's penance, rolling himself among thorns ; 6. S. Benedict detecting the poisoned wine-cup ; 7. S. Benedict quitting the monastery ; 8. S. Benedict receiving Maurus and Placidus from their parents, as his disciples ; 9. (the first in chronological order of the lower row, beginning on the right-hand wall, under No. 3 — •) The Re- covery of the monk who had been crushed under the wall of the new monastery; 10. The young monk drawn by the devil out of the church; 11. S. Benedict recovering the head of the bill- hook ; 12. Placidus rescuing Maurus from drowning at the com- mand of S. Benedict; 13. S. Benedict detecting the devil seated on the stone that the builders of the new monastery could not lift; 14. The pseudo-Totila detected by S. Benedict ; 15. Totila's visit to S. Benedict; 16. The death of S. Benedict, and the vision to the two monks of S. Benedict's pathway to heaven. * It will be found in the nave, over the fifth altar on the right hand. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 311 composition probably that of Cavallini, the style re- minding- one not a little of Fra Angelico ; the Virgin is very graceful and sweet, and this picture comes nearer than any other of his surviving works to Vasari's description of his manner in painting- such subjects, always, he says, imparting to them " an indescribable something of holiness and divinity, which induces reverence from man," — a success at- tained by few or none of the purely dramatic artists. Spinello was by this time an elderly man and longed for tranquillity, but the civil dissensions of those days involved young and old alike in the whirlpool ; the feuds between the Guelphs and Ghi- bellines burst out again at Arezzo, — the demons of faction resumed their wild dance over the city, and no S. Francis appeared to lay them in the Red Sea. Spinello therefore removed with his family to Flo- rence, where he had many friends and relations. He had spent some time there, working but little, and for recreation rather than emolument, when he re- ceived an invitation to paint in the Campo Santo at Pisa, whither he removed his tent accordingly, pro- bably id 1388 or 1389, just as Antonio Veneziano was bringing his works there to a termination. Three only of the six frescoes executed by Spi- nello on this occasion, remain, and in a sadly injured conditio!!. They represent the history of S. Ephesus. The appearance of Our Saviour to him on his expe- dition against the Christians, as general of Diocle- sian, in the first large compartment, and bis battle with the Pagans of Sardinia in the second, arc full 312 GIOTTO Letter IV. of fire and spirit, both men and horses are energetic and daring to a degree, although frequently uncouth from the very novelty of the groups and attitudes which the artist has attempted to delineate. The colouring is extremely good, with something of a Sienese tinge, unnoticeable in his early works at Florence, where the pale tints of Giacomo da Casen- tino and his school prevail, but which is perceptible also, if I mistake not, though in a less degree, in his last great series of frescoes, at Siena. Indeed, on analysing one's impressions, one is conscious of a latent but decided inward sympathy between Spi- nello and the Semi-Byzantine schools, independent of those external resemblances already alluded to ; and this may account for what may indeed be consi- dered a marvel, the employment of a Giottesco by the Sienese, as well as for the preference accorded him by the conservators of the Campo Santo. These frescoes were finished before the 31st of March, 1392, the date of his receipt for the payment, as engrossed in the books of the ' Opera del Duomo.'* Spinello had begun working in the church of S. Francesco at Pisa, when the commotions consequent on the murder of Pietro Gambacorti, Signor of the city, in October, that same year, again constrained him to remove. Pie went back to Florence, and after remaining a year there, returned once more to Arezzo, anxious to spend the remnant of his days * Ciampi, Notizie Inedite, fyc, p. 192.— They are described minutely in the ' Descrizione' by Professor Rosini, and are en- graved in the ' Pitture a fresco del Campo Santo,' &c, 1812. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 313 (being then in his seventy-seventh year) in his native town. He was received with open arms, and re- sided there, except during his visit to Siena, for the remainder of his life, caressed and honoured bv every one. He had accumulated wealth, but his enthusiasm for art, increasing with his years, gave him no repose, and he may be said to have died with the brush in his hand. He was in his ninetieth year when invited to Siena to paint the ' Sala della Balia' in the Palazzo Pubblico. The decoration of this chamber had been in the first instance entrusted to Fra Martino di Bar- toloinmeo, a native artist, who painted the emblema- tical virtues on the groined ceiling ; but towards the close of 1407, the work was taken out of his hands and made over to Spinello, who completed it with the assistance of his son Parri, an artist of merit, though unequal to his father.* The frescoes repre- sent the great struggle between the Papacy and the Empire, under the Popes Adrian IV. and Alex- ander III., and Frederick III., surnamed Barba- rossa, — and have a peculiar interest as the earliest existing type of those cycles of historical composition, in which the events are selected less from their indi- vidual picturesqueness than from their illustration of some grand principle or problem in the progress of society, and this in combination and as tending to a catastrophe. See the commission aa printed by Dellavalle in the ' Lettere Sanesi,' i<>in. ii, p, 2;>'.>. 314 GIOTTO Letter IV. The chamber is parted into two divisions by a transverse arch, the sides of which are painted as well as the walls ; each division is lighted by a win- dow to the left ; the series commences on the wall immediately to the right on entering, opposite the first window, and is carried round to the wall on the other side of the arch, similarly opposite the second. The drama opens with the Coronation of Pope Adrian in 1154, and his Investiture of Barbarossa with the sword of empire, the following year, at Rome. This is followed, in the first lunette on the entrance wall, by the Quarrel of Barbarossa and Adrian in 1157, which Spinello has, with daring freedom, re- presented as personal instead of distant and episto- lary, — it is perhaps the most dramatic composition in the whole series ; the Pope, seated on his throne, turns contemptuously to a Cardinal on his left, as if appealing to him in his altercation with the Emperor, who stands before him, clenching his fist, turning in- dignantly away as about to leave his presence ; the Cardinals expostulate with the Pope — his own fol- lowers fume with passion behind the Emperor — no- thing can be more graphic. Next to this follows the storming of the Area Romana in the siege of Milan the following year, 1158, — and the series is thence- forth continued round and round through a number of scenes, several of which it would require repeated visits, and a minute comparison with the history of the times, to interpret. One, however, the large fresco on the lower part of the entrance wall, though somewhat out of its place, depicts the well known Letter IV. A.ND THE GIOTTESCHI. 315 sea-tight between the Venetians and the Imperialists in the port of Ancona in 1174, — a perfect mass of confusion, but full of curious detail, it appears at first sight the work of a different hand ; but Spinello, as is proved by a clause in the original contract, was engaged to paint it strictly according to a design pre- viously submitted to him* — Opposite to this, at the extremity of the room, is represented in a com- partment of corresponding magnitude the famous Triumphal Entry of Alexander III. into Venice, after his reconciliation with, or rather victory over Barbarossa. The Pope rides first, the Emperor walks beside him, holding his bridle, two Cardinals and a long train follow behind the Pope, his gallies are seen in the distance, and a number of the citizens meet and welcome them, — it is a noble cavalcade, and reminds one of that of Orcagna in his Triumph of Death in the Campo Santo, the Lombard love for horses descending like an heir-loom through the whole line of Ghibelline or Semi-Byzantine art. These frescoes are full of spirit and fire ; the inci- dents (so far as I have been able to make them out) are judiciously selected ; the composition is excel- lent — few figures, but well chosen, the characters of pope, emperor, cardinal and soldier admirably dis- criminated. Painted at a period when the echoes of the recent conflict were yet lingering among the Alps, when Pope and Caesar were still the representatives respectively of the Classic and Teutonic, the Imagi- native and Reasoning, the Ecclesiastical and the Civil * See the commission, referred i<> in the preceding note. 316 GIOTTO Letter IV. elements of Europe, there is a truth and reality, a vivid nowness (as it were) in the successive delinea- tions, in which later works of a similar nature are deficient. — And lastly, while it is impossible not to admire the skilful distribution of the subjects as a whole, it is not a little curious to observe here, as at S. Miniato previously, Spinello's unscrupulous dis- regard for date and precedency when a deviation is expedient to secure the best situations for his favourite subjects. The personal humiliation which is said to have preceded the Emperor's reconciliation with Pope Alexander is thus represented immediately to the right of the large fresco just described, — occupying consequently the last compartment in the series, in- stead of its correcter position, the penultimate. — In this fresco Barbarossa is seen lying on his back before the Pope, seated among his Cardinals. The Pope does not, however, place his foot on his neck. The fact that Alexander III. was a native of Siena accounts probably for the choice of his life as the sub- ject of the series, as well as for the support accorded him by the Sienese, at variance with their Ghibelline principles, throughout the contest.* * I subjoin a list of these frescoes, prefixing an asterisk to those of which the interpretation appears to me tolerably clear. Wall opposite the first window. * Lunette: — Coronation of a Pope by two Cardinals, — that of Adrian IV. in 1154? * Compartment below: — The Investiture of Barbarossa, 1155. Entrance- Wall. * First lunette : — The Quarrel between Barbarossa and Adrian, 1157. Lettish IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 317 After completing this last and most important work, Spinello, then probably in his ninety-second * Second lunette : — The Capture of the Area Romana at the first siege of Milan, 1158. * Compartment below : — The Sea-fight between the Venetians and Imperialists, in the port of Ancona, 1174. Chronologically misplaced. Over the First Window. Lunette : — The Emperor seated below the throne of a Pope, and receiving a letter from a messenger — the Pope holds up his hands in astonishment. On (he Arch— fronting the door. First Lunette : — Coronation of a Pope by two Cardinals — that of Alexander III. in 1159? — The tiara however is different from that represented in the first compartment of the series, as if this were an Anti-pope. Second Lunette: — A person in bed, an ecclesiastic apparently and perhaps dying, to the left ; to the right, a number of pil- grims before a monk, seated reading, — one of them kisses the hem of his garment. On the Arch — opposite side. First Lunette : — Cardinals and laymen sitting and standing around a Pope who discourses to them. Perhaps the Council of Pavia, held under the Anti-pope Victor III., the creature of Frederick, and which excommunicated Alexander, -— or the counter-assembly under Alexander which excommunicated the Emperor. Second Lunette: — Three bishops in prison, and one being burnt, — unless the mitre in the latter instance be merely the peculiar cap worn by heretics at the stake. The name of Arnold of Brescia naturally occurs to one, but I do not see how he can be represented here. Three bishops consecrated the Anti-pope Victor, but I am not aware of their having been imprisoned, or of any heretic having been burnt at that time. 1 Over the Second Window. * Lunette : — The Emperor's Submission,— kneeling before the ■ These lour lunettes are interpretable in more than one manner, but too loosely to give satisfaction. 318 GIOTTO Letter IV. or ninety-third year, but as active and indefatigable as ever, returned to Arezzo, and immediately com- menced another extensive work, the facade of the great altar in the church of S. Agnolo, or the Arch- angel Michael : the subject was the defeat of the rebel angels ; the composition, embracing heaven and chaos, was divided into three great masses ; God the Father sat enthroned on the summit, in the centre Michael engaged in personal conflict with Satan, " that old serpent," the seven-headed dragon of the Apocalypse, while the angel host precipitated his demon proselytes over the ramparts of heaven into the lower world, in Pope, uncrowned,- and his hands crossed on his breast, 1175 or 1176. Wall opposite the door. * First Lunette : — The Emperor kneeling before the Pope, expostulating apparently, the Pope blessing him, but gesticu- lating at the same time in reply. — Apparently their reconcilia- tion. Second Lunette : — Destroyed. Compartment beloio : — Triumphal Entry of Alexander III. into Venice, 1177. Wall opposite the Second Window. * Lunette : — The building of a town — to the left, the Pope consecrates a bishop. Apparently the building of Alessandria by the Lombard League, and its erection into a bishopric by Pope Alexander, in 1168. But if so, it is chronologically mis- placed. * Compartment beloiv : — The Emperor stretched on his back before the Pope, who is seated amongst his Cardinals. Misplaced like the preceding. These frescoes ought to be engraved, with a commentary ; they comprise, as Baron von Rumohr remarks, " the whole eccle- siastical, civil and military life of the age." Ital. Forschmigen, torn, ii, p. 229. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCIII. 319 which, lowest of all, Satan was a second time repre- sented in his new shape, horribly transformed, re- clining on a rock, the monarch of the dreary region.* But the work was never completed, — the aged paint- er's imagination had been too highly excited ; the Satan of his waking visited his nightly dreams, fiercely demanding why he had done him such foul wrong in painting him so hideous ; Spinello awoke, but speechless with terror; the shaking of his whole frame roused his wife, who did her utmost to reassure him, but it was all in vain, he slept no more ; the ghastly phantom had mastered his fancy, his eyes were fixed from thenceforth in a round, dilated spec- tral stare, and he died of the fright shortly afterwards. When last at Arezzo, I made anxious search after this memorable fresco. The church has long since been desecrated, but part of it, including the altar- wall, still exists, partitioned and commuted into a contadina's cottage, and known by the name of ' Casa de' Diavoli.' Some remnants of the fresco are just traceable on the wall of the good woman's bed-room, and in the dark passage beneath it; in the former several of the angels, with their fiery swords striking down the devils, are full of spirit and even grace, and Luca Signorelli has evidently remembered them while painting at Orvieto ; in the passage, the head of Lucifer is barely discernible. Perishing and almost indistinguishable as they are, these last efforts of Spi- nello's pencil struck nie alike with wonder at the case * This fresco luis been engraved by Lasinio. 320 GIOTTO Letter IV. and freedom of his touch, and with regret that a mo- nument so interesting should have been consigned to utter neglect and decay. Spinello's memory is still honoured at Arezzo, where he was much lamented, as a man of noble and energetic character, in practical as well as imaginative life. His self-devotedness as one of the fraternity of the Misericordia in attending the sick during the plague of 1383, is mentioned by Vasari, but inci- dentally only, — such heroism was too common for specific praise. He died probably in 1409 or 1410, and was succeeded by his most distinguished disciple, Lorenzo di Bicci, in the representation of the school of Giacomo da Casentino. Lorenzo was born at Florence, probably about the middle of the century. His history is obscure in many respects, but there is little reason to doubt his having been pupil of Spinello, while he figures as a painter in legal documents as early as 1375.* He found a kind patron in Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the ancestor of that illustrious house ; but the frescoes he painted in the original palace of the Medici have perished along with it. His only remaining works are the full-length figures of Saints painted by him in the chapels of the Duomo, and the two frescoes to the right and left of the door of the church of S. Egidio, belonging to the hospital of S. Maria Nuova, founded by Folco * Baldinucci, torn, ii, p. 200, edit. Manni. Lettkk IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI, 321 Portinari, the father of Dante's Beatrice ; they re- present the consecration of the church by Martin V. in 1420, and are pleasing- in composition and colour- ing, but otherwise common-place and weak. Lorenzo lived many years afterwards, but I am ignorant of the precise date of his death. Few painters of his time enjoyed a higher reputation, or less deserved it; without entering into their spirit, he knew how to profit by the external improvements of Masolino and Masaccio, and to adapt them to his own Giot- tesque style ; and thus — without originality, without earnestness, without depth either of thought or feel- ing — a ready invention, correct but tame design, and pleasing, plausible colouring, rendered him the Luca Giordano of his day — a comparison which his ex- treme rapidity of execution would of itself justify ; " Io fb un Santo e vengo," was his reply to a com- panion who summoned him to dinner, and the phrase became proverbial. And all this while Cennino starved. — It would be unjust not to add that the comparison with Giordano holds good in courtesy and moral worth, as in other respects. Lorenzo was the last ostensible representative of this secondary branch of Taddeo Gaddi's school in Tuscany. His son Neri, a painter of no great merit, and who survived till late in the fifteenth century, could no longer be considered a Giottesco, and his pupil, Marco da Montepulciano, who painted after his designs the life of S. Benedict in the cloister of the monastery of Mount Olivet at Arezzo, is un- worthy of the very name; his frescoes are contemp- VOL. n. "> 322 GIOTTO Letter IV. tible, — utterly devoid of dignity or grace; execrable is the only fitting epithet for them. But the Giottesque succession was, as usual, pro- pagated in corners long after the two main branches had expired in Tuscany ; as late even as the close of the fifteenth century, a Florentine priest imitated the style of the fourteenth — Petrus Franciscus, au- thor of an altarpiece in the church of S. Augustine at S. Gimignano.* Section 4. — School of Taddeo Gaddi in Lombard?/. We have not even yet, however, exhausted the me- rits of the Giotteschi. It was reserved for the artists of Lombardy to embody that ideal of Christian chivalry which the republican atmosphere of Tuscany could inspire neither to poet nor painter — to carry composition to the highest excellence it attained prior to the commencement of the fifteenth century, and to take the first step made by the school of Giotto towards the correct delineation of landscape, an improvement, indeed, in which, as we shall here- after see, they had been anticipated by the Sienese and Semi-Bvzantine or Ghibelline succession, so closely akin to that of Germany and the North. We have still to deal with the succession of Taddeo Gaddi, probably through the intervention of his favourite pupil, Giovanni da Milano. * Immediately to the left on entering. It is dated 1494. Lettkr IV. AND THE GIOTTESCIII. 323 I noticed in a preceding letter the ancient, original Roman school still surviving in the North of Italy in the fourteenth century, and of which numerous frescoes, feeble in design and pale and whitish in colouring, still exist in the choir of S. Zenone at Verona. Of this school Guariento (as also there mentioned) appears to have become chief about the middle of the century — a man of singular genius and originality, but of whose personal history little or nothing is ascertained, not even the place of his birth — he is usually styled ' Padovano,' or of Padua, but as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was doubted whether he belonged to that city or to Verona. Like Cavallini, he had formed a decided style of his own long before undergoing the influence of Giotto. He worked over all Lombardy. At Venice, in 1365, he painted the Paradise in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, a vast fresco, still existing, but concealed by the enormous oil-painting of Tin- toretto, representing the same subject* The War of Spoleto in the same hall, so rapturously described by the Paduan writer, Savonarola,^ that one thinks with ten-fold regret of the fire of 1576, which de- * The Coronation of the Virgin by Our Saviour appears to have been the central group. Over one of the doors of the ball lie painted the story of S. 1'aul, the proto-hermit, and S. Antony breaking the loaf, in order to symbolise the union and brotherly kindness of the citizens of Venice. See Ridolfi's 'Maraviglie dell 1 Arte, ovvero le Vite degl' Illustri Pittori Veneti e dello Stato,' Venez. 2 torn. 8vo, 1048. t See his ' Commentariolus de laudibus Patavii,' in Muratori's ' Rerum [tal. Scriptores,' torn, xxiv, col. 110*). Y 1 324 GIOTTO Letter IV. stroyed it, along with so many other noble works, was also by his hand. At Padua he executed frescoes innumerable, none of which survive except the small compositions painted in chiaroscuro in the choir of the Eremitani, beneath some frescoes from the history of S. James and S. Philip, which have been totally destroyed by retouching ; the small ones, on the contrary, having till lately been at once concealed and protected by a line of wooden stalls, are in perfect preservation. They represent the Seven Planets, as the system was then reckoned — Luna, Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, together with five subjects from the Passion and Resurrection of Our Saviour, intervening between Terra and Mars. The Deity or genius of each planet is attended by allegorical figures to the right and left, and distinguished by his peculiar signs of the zodiac* An allegory of human life appears to run through the series, Luna, with her accessary figures, betokening infancy — Mercury, the period of education, male and female — Venus, her peculiar spring of love — Terra, the supremacy of the Pope on earth, as ruler of the Church — Mars, the passions of man which check her beneficent influence — Jupiter the autumn of life, devoted to reflection and devotion — and Saturn, the contemplative still- ness of old age. The figures are full of spirit and * They are minutely explained by the Cav. Giuseppe Bossi, in a long and ingenious letter printed in the Appendix to the ' Lettere Pittoriche ' of Bottari, as edited by Ticozzi, Milan, duod. 1825, torn. viii. p. 441. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 325 fancy, and some of them even elegant, although they want the precision of design and ease of the Giot- teschi.* I know no other works of Guariento except a Crucifix, and an Annunciation or Conception of the Virgin, at Bassano. The latter, a fresco, outside of the Municipality, an old Dominican convent, has been much repainted, but is noticeable for its singu- larity of composition, God the Father appearing in the sky, within a circle symbolical of heaven, and holding the Dove in his hands, while Our Saviour descends from them, in the shape of an infant and on a ray of light, towards the Virgin. This modi- fication of the ancient composition, and which fre- quently occurs in Italian paintings of the fifteenth century, is evidently a resuscitation of the old Valen- tinian or Gnostic doctrine, which maintained that Our Saviour passed through the Virgin like water through a pipe, partaking in no respect of her substance, but bringing his body — or that which appeared to be such, a mere phantom or apparition — with him from heaven. The Crucifix, a painting in tempera, on wood, now preserved in the little Museum at Bassano, is very Giottesque; the arms of Our Saviour are much emaciated, but there is peculiar softness in the ncsh and transparency in the drapery; a devotee kneels at the foot, in small. It is signed with the painter's name, ' Garientus pinxit.'f ( me of them, the Mars, lias been engraved by Rosini, Storia, fyc, torn. ii. p. 21 1. t Turoni, a contemporary of Guariento, and of whom some 326 GIOTTO Letter IV. Guariento was certainly dead in 137S, in which year Giusto Menabuoi, a native of Florence, but surnamed Padovano, from the citizenship having been bestowed upon him by his patron, the celebrated Francesco da Carrara, had succeeded to his supre- macy among the artists of Lombardy. It is by no means clear who his master was, — he certainly inherited from Guariento a taste for rich architectural back-grounds, but his style is thoroughly Giottesque, his colouring is rich and glowing, and it is impossible not to think of Giovanni da Milano as the most likely person to have instructed him, more especially as there occur certain very marked coinci- dences between his frescoes in the Baptistery at Padua, presently to be mentioned, and those of Giovanni at Assisi. — But we are entering on very dubious ground, a swamp of uncertainty, with critics couching like alligators on either side of a path which it is by no means easy to distinguish, — it behoves us therefore to walk warily — to take good heed to our steps. There are four great works of the Giotteschi at Padua — the frescoes of the Baptistery, close to the Cathedral, and those of three chapels— that, namely, of S. Philip and S. James, that of S. Felice, and that of S. George — the two former belonging to the remarkable pictures are preserved at Verona, appears to have sprung likewise from the original Roman succession, — as well as Pisanello, whose works are shown there, and who seems to have been also influenced by the style of the painter Giusto, presently to be mentioned. This Pisanello, I suspect, must be distinguished from a later and more celebrated artist of that name. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 327 church of S. Antony, and the latter attached and contiguous to it. All of these series are anterior in date to the close of the fourteenth century, — all, by style and colouring, belong to Taddeo Gaddi's suc- cession, — all show the most marked and minute coincidences, in feeling and execution. So far is clear. — But whom they are by, individually, is diffi- cult to ascertain, — the evidence is copious, but most contradictory and confused. The oldest authority, Savonarola, who wrote in 1440, ascribes the Bap- tistery to Giusto Padovano, the chapel of S. Felice to Jacopo di Avanzo of Bologna, and that of S. George to Aldichieri of Verona ; painters of whom I may observe, that Aldichieri is absolutely un- known, except by foreign information, to the historians of Verona,* — that Jacopo di Avanzo, if identical with the Jacobus hereafter to be mentioned under the school of Bologna, must have completely aban- doned his national manner, while a writer of the sixteenth century expresses an uncertainty whether he was a native of Bologna, Padua, or Verona, — Maftei confesses that no record whatever of Aldigieri (as the name is sometimes written) exists at Verona, and that liis name is only known to him through the 'Italia Illnstrata' of Flavio Biondo, — a writer born at Forli in 1388, and who died in 1 463. Verona Illustrate part iii, col. 152, edit. 1732. — Moschini indeed mentions an ' Aldighieri del q. [quondam] Domenico da Verona,' as occurring in the records of Padua under 1382; but he classes him with the " pit tori de' quali non >i conoscono lavori." DelV Origine e delle Vicende delta Pit- tura in Padova, 8vo, 1826, p. 9. — This is probably the artist referred i<> by Savonarola, &c. He may have been a native of Padua, although <>f Veronese parentage. 328 GIOTTO Letter IV. s that Giusto alone stands distinct and recognised by all parties as the great painter of the day, — that the frescoes of the chapel of S. Philip and S. James, unnoticed by Savonarola, being unanimously ascribed to him by all other authorities, and these frescoes being evidently by the same hand as those of the Baptistery, we may conclude Savonarola correct in ascribing the latter to Giusto, — and that it is difficult not to push the argument still further ; my own im- pression at least, after repeated examinations, was, that if not entirely by one hand, one mind at least reigned paramount throughout the four series, and that from the uncertainty as to Jacopo and Aldichieri, and the credit due to Giusto as the painter of the Baptistery, it would be safest to attribute that mind to him alone — in short, to give him the credit of the whole.* — But this is a question which no mere * The early authorities respecting these frescoes are, 1. Sa- vonarola, the eulogist of Padua cited above, and who wrote in 1440 ; 2. Girolamo Campagnuola, nearly his contemporary, a painter, pupil of Squarcione, and who, in a Latin letter to Niccolo Leonico Tomeo, now lost, gave notices of several old painters employed by the Carraras ; 3. Andrea Riccio, the ar- chitect and sculptor, who flourished at the commencement of the sixteenth century ; 4. The anonymous author of the ' Notizie d' Opere di Disegno ' existing in Lombardy c. 1537, edited by Morelli, Bassano, 8vo, 1800, and who constantly quotes Riccio and Campagnuola,— and 5. Vasari, who also refers to Campag- nuola. Savonarola's words (which are evidently entitled to much de- ference) are as follows: — " Pictores. . .duos famosos Civitas nostra habuit, Guarientum scilicet, et Jus turn. Quorum fama adhuc ex mirandis gloriosisque picturis prseclarissima est. Gua- rientus autem . . .Dominii Veneti Praetorium, quod Sala Major nominatur, . .depinxit, &c. . .Pinxit autem Justus locum amplis- Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 329 amateur can decide ; the uncertainty of authorship cannot diminish the interest of works of art, and simum quern Patavi Baptisterium vocant. . .Novum et Vetus Teatamentum maximo etiam cum ornatu figuratur. Et animo concepi his pictoribus [domesticis] eos addere [externos] illustres et famosos, quorum gloriosa fama ex his, quae in Urbe nostra re- liquerunt, magna sui ex parte floruit. Et primum in sede locabo Zotum Florentinum, [Giotto,] &c. . .Secundam sedem Jacobo Avantii Bononiensi dabimus, qui magnificorum Marchionum de Lupis admirandam Cappellam veluti viventibus figuris ornavit. Tertiam vero Alticherio Veronensi, qui Templieulum Georgii Sancti Nobilium de Lupis, templo Antonii propinquum, maximo cum artificio decora vit. Postremo Stephano Ferrariemi" &c. Commentarioltts, 8fc., ap. Muratori, torn, xxiv, col. 1169-70. The ' Anonimo,' edited by Morelli, says of the chapel of S. Felice, (originally of S. James the Greater,) — " Fu dipinta da Jacomo Davanzo Padoano, ovver Veronese, ovver, come dicono alcuui, Bolognese, e da Altichiero Veronese; e fu nel 1376, come appar ivi in un sasso ; e par tutta d' una mano ; e molto eccellente. Anzi la parte a man manca intrando par d' un' altra mano, e men buona. a Fu dedicata da M. Bonifacio di Lupi da Parma, Cavalier e Marchese de Serana, el qual e sepolto ivi, e morse nel 1388." Notizie, &c, p. 5 : — Of the chapel of S. Giorgio, — " Fu dipinta da Jacomo Davanzo Padoano, e da Altichiero Veronese, come scrive el Campagnuola. El Rizzo [Riccio] vole che solo Altichiero vi dipingesse. . .Fu fatta far da M. Kaimondo di Lupi da Parma, Marchese de Sorana e Cavalier, l'anno 1377." Ibid. p. 6: — Of the chapel of S. Luca, — "La dipinse Giusto de nazione Fiorentino, come scrive el Campag- nuola ; ma Andrea Rizzo [Riccio] lo fa Padoano. E dicono che questo istesso dipinse el Battisterio in Padoa. E nondimeno ivi si legge sopra la porta, che va nell' inclaustro, ' Opus Joannis et Antonii de Padua.' Talche essendo in vero una istessa maniera, piii veramente si potra dire che questa cappella sii de mano delli detti Giovanni e Antonio Padoani. L' anno 1382, come appar i\i in un sasso, fu dedicata a S. Jacomo e S. Felippo. . .da M. ' This sentence appears to have fered from the writer, and to have been originally a marginal note been erroneously copied into the or gloss I)}- gome one who dif- text. 330 GIOTTO Letter IV. assuming no more therefore than that the frescoes in the chapels of S. Felice and S. George are, like Renier M. Conte e M. Manfredin de' Conti Padoani oriundi da Zenoa." Ibid. p. 6: — Of the Baptistery, — " Fu dipinta segondo el Campagnuola e el Rizzo, da Giusto ; altri la attribuiscono ad Altichiero. Le pitture di dentro sono molto diverse da quelle di fuori. Ma dentro, sopra la porta che va nell' inclaustro, se legge, ' Opus Joannis et Antonii de Padua.' E di sopra v' erano quattro versi ora spegazzati : credo contenevano memoria delli Signori de Carrara, che aveano f'atto far quella opera. Pero li Signori Veneziani fecero levar la memoria de quelli Signori quanto piu poteano." Ibid. p. 19. While, according to Vasari, Jacopo Avanzi, " pittore Bo- lognese," together with "Aldigieri da Zevio," and " Sebeto da Verona," " dipinse in Padova la cappella di S. Giorgio .. .se- condo che per lo testamento era stato lasciato dai Marchesi di Carrara. La parte di sopra dipinse Jacopo Avanzi, di sotto Aldigeri alcune storie di S. Luca ed un Cenacolo, e Sebeto vi dipinse storie di S. Giovanni." — On which it may be observed, that Sebeto is a corruption, apparently, of Zevio ; that he and Aldigieri are one and the same person, — and that no Cenacolo or life of S. John are to be seen in the chapel in question ; he probably means the life of S. George." — Giusto, according to the same authority, " fece nella cappella di S. Giovanni Battista non solo alcune storie del Vecchio e Nuovo Testamento, ma an- cora le rivelazioni dell' Apocalisse di S. Giovanni Evangelista ; e nella parte di sopra fece in un paradiso, con belle considera- zioni, molti cori d' angeli, ed altri ornamenti." — To which he subjoins, — " Nella chiesa di S. Antonio lavoro a fresco la cap- pella di S. Luca." See the Vita di Vittore Scarpaccia, or Car- paccio. — Vasari says nothing of Giovanni and Antonio of Padua. To which may be added, that, as regards the Baptistery, it appears from an inscription discovered some years ago, that the The names Giorgio and Gio- information, and the misprinting by vanni (especially if abbreviated) typographers of authors' copy or might easily be mistaken for each manuscript, is a fruitful source of other in ancient writing. The mis- error in ancient works like that of reading by authors of manuscript Vasari. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 331 those of Giusto, purely Giottesque and by the school of Taddeo Gaddi, I shall content myself with point- ing out a few of the most remarkable compositions in each series, beginning with those of earliest ex- ecution, those namely attributed to Giusto, in the Baptistery. This Baptistery is a quadrangular building, sur- mounted as usual by a cupola, — characteristic without and beautiful within, where the eye roves delighted over a perfect garden of frescoes, the whole building, brother and son of Giusto were buried in it, (31oschini, Delia Origine &c, p. 10,) — an argument in favour of his having worked there, — that Moschini thinks that Giovanni and Antonio painted the outside, Giusto the interior (Ibid, p, 11,) a sup- position which appears to overlook the testimony of the Anonimo as to the position of the inscription commemorative of Giovanni and Antonio, — that Rosini suggests that the inscription men- tioning Giovanni and Antonio regarded only that side of the in- terior where it was fixed, i. e. the wall opposite the entrance, (Storia, &c, torn, ii, p. 218,) — to which it may be answered that the style is too uniform throughout for such an explanation, that the frescoes of the chapel of S. Felice were popularly ascribed to Giusto, prior to the publication of the Anonimo, {Moschini, Guida par Padova,\i. 12,) although Rossetti indeed had previously ascribed them to Jacopo, on the authority of Savonarola, in his ' Descrizione delle Pitture, &c. di Padova,' 1780, — and that Rosini thinks (from the recollection of the paintings, presumed his, in the Madonna di Mezzaratta at Bo- logna) that Jacopo di Avanzo did not paint in S. Giorgio. I shall not attempt to harmonise these authorities, a distin- guished German critic, Dr. Ernst Filrster, being engaged on a work on the subject of Jacopo di Avanzo, which will in all pro- bability settle the question. I will only repeat my remark, that certain minute and singular coincidences are common to the four ries, arguing at leas! close connexion and intercourse between their respectii e authors. 332 GIOTTO Letter IV. cupola, walls and chancel, having been completely covered with them by the munificence of Fina Buzza- carina, wife of Francesco da Carrara, and who died in 1378. They are full of originality, perceptible even in the traditional compositions, which are ad- hered to in outline, wherever they occur ; and Giusto has evidently kept his eye continually fixed on the works of Giotto in the chapel of the Arena, and on those of the Greek mosaicists at Venice. The Gloria on the cupola is the first instance, I believe, of the style of composition subsequently adopted by Correggio and later painters, but origi- nally, as in the present instance, imitated from the mosaics. Our Saviour, blessing with his right hand and holding the open book, inscribed " Ego sum A et Q" &c, in his left, stands in the centre, within a circle of light, and below him, in a vesica piscis, the Virgin, erect, with her hands raised in prayer, as at S. Mark's and in the Duomo of Murano. To their right and left sit, in different attitudes, and with their distinctive emblems, the Saints of God, male and female, five rows deep, in a vast circle ; the effect is singularly brilliant, and reminds one of Dante's comparison of the church in heaven to a snow-white rose. The lower circuit of the cupola is filled with the history of the book of Genesis, which ends abruptly with the Concealment of Joseph in the well, Giusto (like the mosaicists in the porch of S. Mark's) having miscalculated his space. Some of the subjects are disposed in regular compartments, but the greater number follow each other uninter- Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCIII 333 ruptedly, and are distributed in front and in the background alternately, without distinct partition. The series begins, immediately opposite the door and beneath the Virgin, with the Creation of the Earth — a round ball surrounded with the signs of the zodiac — by the Almighty, seated on the golden sphere. Among the subjects that follow, you will observe the Death of Cain in the thicket ; the Angel at the gate of Paradise giving Seth the branch of the Tree of Life, and Seth planting it (apparently) on his father's breast; Nimrod, of gigantic stature, di- recting the building of the Tower of Babel, an im- mense pile, rising in degrees like a pyramid, and the Destruction of Sodom, in which a large bird's-eye view is given of the city, as in other of these different Giottesque series at Padua. Dropping your eye, the History of John the Bap- tist is represented on the southern wall, and that of the Virgin and Our Saviour on the western and northern, and on the Triumphal Arch. I may cite, among these, the Annunciation as very beautiful, — conscious of a tendency to make the female form clumsy, Giusto usually arrays his Virgins in a long, falling, blue robe, which gives them much grace and majesty ; the Massacre of the Innocents 5 the Mar- riage at Cana in Galilee — in which the obsequious gestures of the attendants receiving Our Saviour's orders are probably the reflection of the manners of the time in Lombardy; the Resurrection of Lazarus — modified from Giotto's in the Arena ; the Betrayal — in which the background of the composition is 334 GIOTTO Letter IV. filled with soldiers and Pharisees, their features re- spectively harsh and austere, — here and there, sad to behold ! a gloried head — even S. John's, but he looks sorrowfully back — is seen making its way through the crowd, in accordance with the testimony of truth, " they all forsook him and fled ;" the Pro- cession to Calvary — Simon carrying the cross, al- though Our Saviour rests his hand on it, to express his willingness to bear it, — and the Crucifixion — the Byzantine composition, in its fullest extent, with the addition of the emblematical pelican immediately above Our Saviour. The cupoletta of the chancel represents the De- scent of the Holy Spirit, the traditional composition, as depicted in mosaic at S. Mark's ; and the walls of this little recess are completely lined with about forty small subjects, entirely taken from the Apoca- lypse, and treated with the most fearless originality ; one of them is delightfully quaint and naive — the four angels kneeling on the four corners of the earth, . and forcibly compressing with both hands the mouths of the four winds, represented as .ZEolus' heads ; in spite, however, of their utmost efforts, they cannot prevent great blasts escaping, and you almost hear the spluttering and fizzing that is going on. Other of these compositions are very grand, and the painter has combined, added, and taken away with singular felicity. The lunette above the altar represents God the Father within a vesica piscis, the lamb lying in his bosom, the four beasts keeping watch around the throne, the lamp burning in front, the twenty-four Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCITl. 335 elders, to the right and left, offering - their crowns, and angels in front adoring. The four horsemen are represented in the four pennacchi or pendentives of the cupola, — the Vision is then continued round the walls and under the arches, the subjects being- most skilfully adapted to the different spaces that were to be covered ; the seven trumpets, for instance, are carried from the suffit of the small transverse arch to the left hand on entering the chancel, all round it, to the suffit of the corresponding transverse arch to the right hand, — similarly, and with exquisite propriety, the seven last vials are disposed on the suffit of the triumphal arch of entrance, symbolical of death. It is the most complete and comprehensive illustration of the Apocalypse ever attempted in painting, and, rude as it undoubtedly is in detail, there are hints here by which a painter desirous of taking a lofty flight might profit much. The altar-piece, on looking closely into it, appears to be by the same painter as the frescoes, and is well worth examination.* * I need not enumerate the historical frescoes, which are easy of comprehension, but the compositions from the Apocalypse in the Chancel are more obscure, and though much injured, merit close examination. They may be divided into five series, the first comprising the Vision from its commencement to the opening of the fifth and sixth seals, and the binding of the winds; the Second, the seven trumpets; the Third, from the persecution of the woman by the dragon, to the commission of the angel to reap the earth, inclusive; the Fourth, the seven last vials, and the Fifth, from the Judgment of Babylon, to the con- clusion. I have already mentioned in the text the Descent of the Holy Ghost, so appropriately depicted on the cupola. Scries I. 336 GIOTTO Letter IV. Fewer words will suffice for the chapel of S. Philip and S. James the Less, in the church of S. Antonio, Series I. 1. Lunette on the left wall: — The Vision of S. John, in Pat- mos, of Our Saviour among the seven golden candlesticks. Rev. i, 10, sqq. 2. Lunette above the altar : — The Vision of God the Father, the Lamb, " as it had been slain," lying in his bosom, the four beasts, the elders offering their crowns, &c. Rev. iv, 1, sqq. 3. First pennacco, to the left : — The opening of the First Seal. Rev. vi, 2. 4. Second pennacco, to the left : — The Opening of the Second Seal. Rev. vi, 4. 5. Third pennacco, to the right, next the altar: — The open- ing of the Third Seal. Rev. vi, 5. 6. Fourth pennacco, to the right : — The Opening of the Fourth Seal. Rev. vi, 8. 7. 8, 9. Lunette on the right wall of the chancel, divided into three compartments, the first representing the Opening of the Fifth Seal, Rev. vi, 9 ; the second, the Opening of the Sixth Seal, the great Earthquake, the Sun turned into darkness and the Moon into blood, &c. Rev. vi. 12; the third, the Angel ascending from the East, and commanding the four angels to bind the four winds of the earth, Rev. vii, 1. Series II. 10. On the suffit of the small transverse arch to the left on entering the chancel :- — To the left, the First Angel sounding his trumpet ; to the right, the hail and fire, mingled with blood, descending on the earth. Rev. viii, 7, 8. 11. First upper compartment, in the same line, on the left wall of the chancel : — the Second Angel sounding; the burning mountain cast into the sea, when the " third part of the ships were destroyed." Rev. viii, 9. 1 2. Second upper compartment, fyc. — The Third Angel sound- ing ; the star falling from heaven on the fountains and rivers of waters. Rev. viii, 10. 13. Altar-wall, upper row, to the left of the altar: — the Fourth Angel sounding, the sun and moon smitten. Rev. viii, 12. 14. Altar-wall, fyc, to the right of the altar: — Fifth Angel Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 337 emphatically the 'Santo,' of Padua. The best of the series are the S. James thrown down from his sounding', a star fallen from heaven, its nether end a key, which has unlocked the pit and let out the locusts, Rev. ix, 1. 15. Inner jamb or side-wall of the window, in the same line, right wall of the chancel : — Apollyon (apparently) the King of the Locusts, on horseback, Rev. ix, 11. 16 and 17. Suffit of the window arch, to the left : — The Sixth Angel sounding, Rev. ix, 3 ; Ditto to the right, the four angels bound in the river Euphrates, Rev. ix, 14. 18. Right wall of the chancel, in the same line: — The Angel, standing on the sea and land, and swearing that there shall be time no longer, — and the other angel giving John the book to eat, Rev. x, 5-10. 19. Suffit of the small transverse arch to the right on entering the chancel: — To the right, the Temple or City of God, on the side of the heavenly Mount Zion, the two Witnesses ascending to heaven, the Hail-storm and the great Earthquake, Rev. xi, 11-13; to the left, the shower of hail and snow, Rev. xi, 15. Series III. 20. First compartment, middle roiv, left wall of the chancel : — The seven-headed Dragon attacking the woman with her child, Rev. xii, 1. 21. Second ditto: — War in heaven, the great Dragon cast out, &c. Rev. xii, 7. 22. Middle roio, altar-wall, to the left of the altar : — The seven-headed Beast, rising out of the sea, Rev. xiii, 1. 23. Middle row, altar-wall, to the right of the altar : — The Faithful within the City of God ; the Lamb, with a glory, ele- vated on an altar, as in the mosaics, Rev. xiv, 1. 24. Same line, inner side-wall of the window, to the left : — A goat rampant, emblematical of lubricity ; below, a hermit on his knees, Rev. xiv, 4. 25. Ditto, to the right : — The three Angels flying in the midst of heaven, Rev. xiv, 6, 7, 8. 26. Right-hand wall, middle row, same line : — Our Saviour holding the sickle, calm and majestic, Rev. xiv, 14, 15. 27. Sunn line, on the inner face of the smaller transverse arch in the right mi entering ih< chancel: — An angel floating VOL. II. 7. 338 GIOTTO Letter IV. pulpit in the piazza of Jerusalem, an excellent com- position ; and, on the opposite (the left-hand) wall, down from heaven and presenting a sickle to another angel who rises from behind an altar to receive it, Rev. xiv, 18. Series IV. 28. Suffit of the triumphal arch of entrance, beginning from the right as you face the altar : — in the centre, a Seraph holding the seven last vials of the wrath of God. 29. Ditto, to the right: — Several angels in a row, singing, Rev. xvi, 5-7. 30. Ditto, to the left : — The First Vial poured out on the Earth, Rev. xvi, 2. 31. Below No. 30:— the Second Vial, on the Sea, Rev. xvi, 3. 32. Below No. 31 : — the Third Vial, on the rivers and foun- tains of waters, Rev. xvi, 4. 33. Lowest to the left : — the Fourth Vial, on the Sun, Rev. xvi, 8. 34. Immediately below No. 29, to the right : — the Fifth Vial, on the seat of the Beast, represented as a Gothic chair, Rev. xvi, 10. 35. Below the preceding : — the Sixth Vial, on the Euphrates, Rev. xvi, 12. 36. Lowest, to the right : — the Seventh Vial poured out in the air, below it " the great city" divided into three parts, &c. Rev. xvi, 19. Series V. 37. First compartment, lower row, left ivall of the chancel: — the great Whore riding on the seven-headed monster, Rev. xvii, 3. 38. Second compartment : — the Whore lying drunken on the earth, Rev. xviii, 1. 39. Lower row, altar-wall, to the left of the altar : — The Beast lying on its back, dead ; behind it, a great mill-stone cast down from heaven into the sea by an angel, — a goat butting against it, Rev. xviii, 21. 40. Ditto, to the right of the altar : — Our Saviour on a white horse, followed by his company, Rev. xix, 1 1 . 41. Same line, inner side-wall of the ivindoiv, to the left:— Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 339 a miracle of S. Philip in Scythia, where he preached for twenty years after the dispersion of the Apostles. They brought him before the statue of Mars, and commanded him to offer sacrifice ; a dragon suddenly rushed down from under the base of the altar, and slew the son of the High Priest and the two tribunes who presided, and infected several of the bystanders with its poisonous breath ; the Apostle commanded them to throw down the idol and plant the cross in its place, promising that the dead should arise and the sick be made whole, and then, turning to the dragon, and bidding it depart into the wilderness without hurting any one, it went forth and was seen no more. — -Giusto has rendered the legend with much effect; the temple is a magnificent piece of architecture ; the idol rises conspicuous in the centre, on a high altar, and the sudden rush of the dragon The Angel standing in the Sun, and calling on the fowls of hea- ven, Bev. xix, 17. 42. Ditto, to the right : — The Angel chaining the Dragon, /'< r. xx, 1. 43. Same line, lower row, right-hand wall : — The New Je- rusalem, Rev. xxi, 10. 44. Inner face of the small transverse arch, to the right ha mi on entering the chancel: — S. John falling down to worship before the feet of the Angel, Rev. xxii, 9. The small compositions on the altar-piece are as follows, I. Zacharias in the temple; 2. The Visitation, (very sweet;) 3. The Birth of the Baptist ; 4. Zacharias naming him John ; 5. His circumcision ; 6. The Martyrdom of Zacharias ; 7. John, still a child, with his mother in the desert, where she is abonl to leave him ; 8. John preaching; 9. John sending his disciples to enquire of Jesus; 10. The Dance of the daughter of tlerodias; II. The Decollation of S. John ; 12. His Burial.-— This altar- piece oughl to be carefully cleaned. / 2 340 GIOTTO Letter IV. is admirably expressed. — Below this is represented the Crucifixion of S. Philip ; the composition reminds one of that in the Menologion, — he is crucified in a long shirt, and the executioners throw stones at him. A great crowd of spectators look on, figures full of dignity, well grouped and relieved ; the two cen- turions on horseback are portraits of Eccelino and Wido, descendants apparently of the celebrated family of Romano, once the tyrants of Padua. The landscape is a shade superior to that of the contem- porary Giotteschi in Tuscany. But these frescoes, as indeed those of the Baptistery likewise, have been very much retouched.* * The historical frescoes in this chapel are as follows : — From the Legend of S. James. Lunette above the left window of the tribune : — The first Council, at Jerusalem. Lunette above the right toindow : — Our Saviour appearing to S. James and giving him the Eucharist, the Apostle having vowed not to eat till the Saviour should have risen from the dead. Large lunette, right ivall of the chapel: — S. James thrown down from the pulpit, while preaching to the multitude. Large lunette, over the entrance wall, above the arch : — His martyrdom. Might hand wall, nearest to the altar of the lower row : — S. James releasing a merchant unjustly detained captive, by tilting to one side the tower in which he was confined, so that he crept out, as from under a bell, through the aperture thus effected.* 1 Same wall, nearest to the door : — His appearance to a pilgrim a This story is told also of S. itself down to the level of the ground, James the Less, but with the varia- so that he stepped off and went his tion, that S. James appeared to the way. See the ' Golden Legend ' of merchant, and leading him to the James de Voragine. summit of the tower, the tower bent Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 341 Those of the chapel, now known as that of S. Felice, represent the history of S. James the Greater, to whom it was originally dedicated by Bonifazio de' Lnpi, Marquis of Soragna, the descendant (accord- ing to tradition) of the Queen Lupa of the legend, as related among my notices of the Christian Mytho- logy. SeA^eral of the compositions have suffered much, but the story is traceable throughout. They are all, I think, by the same hand, although the pro- gress of improvement is evident. The same style of heads, grouping, relief, costume, architecture, and peculiar feeling, prevails here as in Giusto's acknow- ledged frescoes, and in those I have yet to speak of in the chapel of S. George ; but if by him, which I dare not affirm, they must be of prior execution.* who had lost his way, supplying him with food and guiding him to his destination. From the Legend of S. Philip. In tiro large compartments, one above the other, on the left- hand wall: — His detection of the dragon, as noticed in the text, and his Crucifixion. From the Legend of the Beato Luca. In the two lower compartments, to the right and left of the window of the tribune : — S. Antony's apparition to him, warning him of the machinations of Eccelino da Romano against the liberties of Padua, the town being seen in the background, a curious bird's-eye view, — and Luca obtaining from Our Saviour that those who seek benefits through his intercession shall obtain them. The subjects are as follows, — the series beginning on the first lunette on the left-hand wall as you enter the chapel : — 1. Interior and lateral porches of a magnificent building ; to the left, rlermogenes, the magician, .sends Philetes to dispute with S. James; in the centre, S .lames, in his pulpit, converts 342 GIOTTO Letter IV. A Crucifixion, which fills the three large compart- ments below the lunettes on the south wall, is very him ; to the right, Hermogenes, holding his magical book, sends his familiars to arrest the Apostle and Philetes ; in the right- hand corner, the devils address them, and complain of Hermo- genes. 2. Altar-wall, first lunette to the left .-—Hermogenes brought to S. James by the devils ; Philetes burning the magical books ; Hermogenes and Philetes seated conversing with S. James. 3. Middle lunette : — S. James healing the paralytic man on his road to execution, — and his Decapitation. 4. Third lunette : — Sea-shore in front of the castle of Queen Lupa, the empty boat beside it, an angel holding the rudder ; Hermogenes and Philetes lay the body on the stone, which shapes itself into a sarcophagus ; Queen Lupa, with her sister, looks down from the balcony of the castle. 5. Right-hand wall, to the left of the window: — Hermogenes and Philetes arrested by a soldier of the Spanish king. Much defaced. 6. Right ivall, to the right of the window : — Nothing dis- cernible but the iron bars denoting their imprisonment. 7. First of three lunettes on the wall that separates the chapel from the nave : — Their release from prison ; their pursuers drowned, — the horses struggling in the water are excellent. This and the succeeding compartments are certainly, I think, by the same painter as the rest. 8. Second lunette : — The sarcophagus drawn by the wild oxen into Queen Lupa's palace. In the background they seem to go down on their knees before Hermogenes and Philetes. 9. Third lunette : — Interior of Queen Lupa's palace ; she re- ceives baptism. 10. Left-hand wall, below No. 1. — Apparition of S. James, in a dream, to Don Eamiro I, King of Leon, and his delibera- tion thereupon with his Council, which led to 11. The defeat of the Saracens at Clavijo, a.d. 844, a S. James appearing above the broken arch in the back-ground. a When 70,000 infidels fell on the Spaniards." — Prescott's Hist, oj held. " From that time the name of Ferd. and Isabella, torn, i, p. 11. Sr Iago became the battle-cry of the Letter IV. AND THE G10TTESCHI. 343 beautiful ; the composition resembles that in the Baptistery, the colouring is very soft and pleasing, — many of the figures are singularly noble and graceful, both in attitude and drapery, I may notice espe- cially an old and young man in the compartment to the right, and one of the Maries, a very sweet creature, tenderly supporting the Virgin. But the finest works of the Paduan Giotteschi are in the chapel of S. George, said to have been built by another of the De' Lupi family, Messer Rai- mondo, in 1377. The frescoes on the entrance-wall are five, repre- senting the Annunciation, — the Nativity, a happy modification of the Byzantine composition, — the Adoration of the Kings, very simple, dignified, and noble, — the Presentation in the Temple, strongly resembling Giovanni da Milano's composition at Assisi, — and the Flight into Egypt, in which, as in the Adoration, and in the frescoes of the chapel of S. Philip and S. James, a large city is represented in the background. On the altar-wall the Crucifixion is again repeated, — the same general composition as in the chapel of S. Felice and the Baptistery, although neither of the three are exactly alike ; in this the soul of the peni- tent thief has flown up some distance before it per- ceives the expectant angel, — it stretches out its hand for support and assistance ; the group of the Virgin fainting, supported by the Maries, is very affecting, — behind them, clasping their hands in grief, stand S. John and the same lovely woman whom 1 noticed 344 GIOTTO Letter IV. in the similar composition in the chapel of S. Felice. Above the Crucifixion is represented the Coronation of the Virgin, seated beside Our Saviour on a rich architectural throne, angels crowding forward to the right and left, of whom the two foremost hold re- spectively the cup and the wafer, the sacramental gifts of God through the Church, thus typified by the Madonna. Turning to the right wall of the chapel, the four uppermost frescoes depict the history of S. Catherine : in the first, she refuses to offer sacrifice ; in the se- cond, she disputes with the Doctors ; in the third, she is saved from the wheel ; in the fourth, she receives martyrdom. The outlines of the compo- sitions, Byzantine doubtless in their origin, are nearly the same throughout as in the basreliefs of Masuccio at Naples. These frescoes have been much injured. Opposite to these, on the left wall, is represented, in two rows of compartments, the history of S. George — the series in which, as I remarked above, the spirit of Christian chivalry finds, for the first and almost for the last time, its voice in the painting of Italy, the compositions of Spinello, and those I shall hereafter have to notice as existing at Siena, admirable as they are in their way, being mere pa- geants of feudalism in comparison. These, there- fore, deserve emphatic praise, and a distinct though rapid enumeration. I have already related the legend in my introductory pages. Letter IV. \ND THE GIOTTESCHI. 345 Upper Roiv. i. The Conquest of the Dragon, — in the space in front of the city of King Zevius, the roofs and win- dows crowded with spectators. ii. The Baptism of King Zevius, — within the church built on his conversion, here represented of the richest Lombard architecture, a court in front and palaces (apparently) to the right and left. He kneels at the font, holding his crown in his hand, and receives the holy dew from the hand of S. George, who wears the white dress and long, pointed and plated shoes of a gentleman of the fourteenth century. Two ladies with their children look on from an arch to the right, and a third descends into the court from another to the left, the king's daughter probably, — an officer respectfully directs her atten- tion to the ceremony. Accessary figures are scat- tered, singly or in groups, throughout the compo- sition. in. This fresco has nothing to do with the history of the Saint ; it represents the Virgin and Child seated on a lofty architectural throne, and receiving the homage of the whole family of the Lupi, a noble and chivalrous company, kneeling, escorted by angels, and each re- spectively presented by his or her patron Saint. Lower Row. iv. S. George drinking the poison, — he stands in the court of the palace, a noble figure in a long yellow mantle, ereel and calm, the spectators 346 * GIOTTO Letter IV. watching him with astonishment; Dacian, the go- vernor, who had condemned him, looks down from the lower window of the palace, attended by his councillors. v. S. George stretched on the wheel, and the angels at his prayer destroying it with their swords and releasing him Through the windows of the two projecting towers of the palace, to the right and left, are seen the previous interview between the governor and the Saint, and the baptism of the aged Mag- nentius, after the rescue. vi. The fall of the temple of Apollo, crushing the priest and worshippers ; S. George kneels in front, and Dacian looks on from the palace-window to the left. vn. S. George's martyrdom, outside the city, — kneeling, the executioner with his sword upraised, awaiting the word of command, — an aged man stand- ing behind the Saint, seems to expostulate with him ; soldiers and horsemen fill the background. A com- position of very great merit.* Turning once more to the right-hand wall, we may conclude with the history of S. Lucia, painted in four compartments beneath that of S. Catherine. She was a virgin of Syracuse, betrothed to a brutal hus- band, who denounced her as a Christian to the Roman Consul, Paschasius, — this is admirably re- presented in the first compartment ; refusing to keep * The principal group of this composition is engraved in Ro- sini, tav. 40. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 347 silence, and asserting that the chaste are the temples of the Holy Ghost, the Consul commanded her to be dragged by oxen to the bagnio, as seen in the succeeding composition, but every effort failed to move her from the spot ; she was then exposed to a fire of pitch and rosin, but the flames would not harm her, till finally the sword of one of the Consul's satel- lites was permitted to release her, and she expired after receiving the Eucharist. These latter incidents are represented in the third and fourth compart- ments ; in the former she is seen thrice, — in the flames, praying but unhurt — under a central portico, naked, while the executioners pour boiling oil on her shoulders — and, finally, to the right, receiving the death-blow from the Consul's dagger, — she holds up her hands, shrinking a little back with natural terror, but prepared to die; in the concluding fresco, her body is exposed under the porch of a magnificent church, while the funeral ceremony is performed over her remains, and through a small window, of the second story, to the left, she is seen receiving the viaticum from the Bishop. I cannot express the pleasure these frescoes of S. Giorgio gave me, and which is still so vivid that I would fain caution you against expecting too much from my description. They are singularly dramatic ; every variety of character, Governor, Consul, Knight, Noble, Citizen, and Clown, is discriminated with a degree of truth that startles one; they are full of portraits, much more knightly and gentlemanlike than you see in the Florentine frescoes, — the prill- 348 GIOTTO Letter IV. cipal figures are uniformly characteristic, and the noblest in mien and look as well as the most con- spicuous in place ; feeling, simplicity, and good taste prevail throughout; the design is upon the whole excellent, save that the female form, as in the naked S. Lucia, is deficient in elegance ; the grouping and relief are admirable,— there are crowds of figures, but no confusion ; the colouring is soft and pleasing ; the backgrounds — occasionally of landscape, resem- bling that in the chapels previously described — are more usually of the most gorgeous and exquisite Lombard or Pointed architecture, — they would form on that account alone a most beautiful series of en- gravings. In short, I cannot but think that the author of these frescoes comes very near Masaccio in his peculiar merits, while in Christian feeling, inven- tion, and even in composition, he surpasses him. These are, in fact, the excellences which mark the man ; unlike many of the Giotteschi, he has a thou- sand ideas of his own, — and to justify my praise of his compositions, I need only give you a plain, un- varnished description of one of the best, the second in the series of S. Lucia's history : — The scene is the piazza in front of the Consul's palace ; Paschasius and his chief councillor are seated in a loggia, or window, overlooking it ; to- wards the left, stands S. Lucia, calm and sweet and dignified, her hands joined in prayer, and looking up to heaven, while three yoke of oxen, attached to her by a rope round her waist, are straining and stum- bling and falling on their knees and noses in their Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 349 efforts to drag her from the spot ; one man goads, another lashes them, a third endeavours to drag them forward by his own weak strength 5 her brutal hus- band, grasping her robe about the bosom, pulls her with all his force, — other figures behind are pushing her; and, in spite of all this, there she stands as unmoved and still as if communing with God in the midst of a desert — her whole figure and attitude, her utter, effortless, unresistent immobility forming the most marked contrast with the frenzied efforts of the oxen, and the rabid rage of her persecutors, — and yet, somehow or other, the efforts and the rage are expressed to the full to the mind, without being offensively violent to the eye. A little behind, stand a group of Christians, losing all thought of self in their sympathy with her ; one is praying, another points to her and looks up to the tyrant as if to say, " See here, how little the powers of darkness avail against the spouse of Christ," while the chief coun- cillor, standing beside him, points to the scene below, and seems to expostulate with him for fighting against God. The whole is in keeping, and still the figure of S. Lucia again and again attracts your eye in its calm loveliness. — I have little hesitation in ex- pressing my belief that none but a painter of the fourteenth century could have painted this fresco, none but a Giottesco, none but this artist of S. Giorgio, whether we name him Giusto, Jacopo di Avanzo, or Aldichieri. But the tide of feeling was on the turn, and taste, her handmaid, was changing too. He left no sue- 350 . GIOTTO Letter IV. cession worthy of the name. The style was intro- duced at Verona, where it appears in various frescoes and paintings, one or two perhaps by himself, the remainder by his scholars.* Of these Giacomo da Verona painted, in 1397, the church of S. Michele at Padua, where a few of his frescoes may still be seen, but they display little originality .f Out of this Veronese branch, or more probably, as I have * As, for instance, in the Annunciation on the triumphal arch at S. Zenone, and the Virgin and child receiving a whole family presented by their patron Saints, (as in the chapel of S. Giorgio,) on the Southern wall of the presbytery, dated mccclxxxx.., the vacant space having been originally filled by one or two additional numerals, which have been effaced,— a work of merit, but inferior to Giusto ; the Virgin wants his sweetness, the drapery falls in narrower folds, and the architec- ture, though rich, is less free and elegant. A Crucifix at the Western end of the Northern nave is much superior, the grief deep, but not caricatured — with these may be classed, the Virgin and child receiving a family of knights, above the tomb of a person who died in 1390, in S. Anastasia, and two or three others by the same hand in that church ; others too of a similar descrip- tion are scattered through Verona, and constantly occur under the arches of Gothic tombs of the Pisan type. Some of these are attributed to the Stefano of Verona, to whom certain of the frescoes of Padua are ascribed by Rosini and others, but who, judging by the dates of these, and their inferiority, must have been a mere student of them. He must not be confounded with Stefano da Zevio, a painter of later date, who appeal's to have belonged to the school of Squarcione. But traces of the Pa- duan Giotteschi are not exclusively found at Verona. Even Andrino Edresio of Pavia, a descendant of the original Roman school, and whose attitudes and style of composition resemble the Sienese rather than the Giottesque, betrays the influence of Padua in the rich architectural backgrounds of his frescoes. ■j" Rosini thinks he may have been the master of Squarcione, born in 1394. There is certainly no resemblance between them in style. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 35 1 surmised, out of the elder pale-colouring Roman school which it had superseded, arose the celebrated Squarcione, who, smitten by the love of the antique, and settling at Padua, became the father of the great classic school of Melozzo and Mantegna, which supplanted that of Giotto throughout Lombardy nearly at the same moment that the Giotteschi in Tuscany yielded to a similar influence in Masolino, Masaccio, and Uccello. It was a step of declension in both cases, a compromise of higher and more spiritual for lower and more technical excellences, yet necessary and prerequisite in order, in the first place, to secure a thorough mastery over the tools and materials of art, and secondly, to create that spirit of antagonism, out of which only, by the uni- versal law of nature, can spring perfection. The Giotteschi, however, were in every region peculiarly tenacious of life ; they found employment at Padua long after the star of their school had kissed the horizon. Their last works there are the frescoes of the vast hall in the Palazzo della Ragione, painted by Giovanni Miretto, assisted by a painter of Ferrara,* between the years 1423 and 144 l,f — three hundred and nineteen in number, representing the signs of the zodiac, the planets, the winds, winged and flying, — the four seasons, with their appropriate exercises and employments, — the constellations and the symbols of human temperament and disposition, as influenced by them, — the Apostles, according to * Anon. Morelli, p. 28. t Iio.si?ii t Storia, 4'c M torn, ii, p. 214. 352 GIOTTO Letter IV. the signs of the zodiac under which their festivals fall, &c. &c, all from Hyginus, and a most curious medley, but so much retouched that it is difficult to speak as to their original merit, which does not indeed appear to have been great. The subjects are supposed to correspond to those painted there in the thirteenth century, after the suggestion of the cele- brated sage, Pietro d'Abano.* Section 5. — Giotteschi of Umbria. A few words on the subject of the Giotteschi of Umbria, and their pride and glory, Gentile da Fa- briano — who occupies in Painting nearly the same intermediate rank between the two periods, that Giacomo della Quercia does in Sculpture — will close these lengthened yet imperfect notices. The influence of Giotto had penetrated that beau- tiful district early in the fourteenth century. Oderigi of Gubbio is said to have become his pupil, but none * The style, although Giottesque, has a mixture, a reminis- cence as it were, of that of Guariento. — The Coronation of the Virgin, in the centre of the entrance-wall, is very beautiful and evidently by a different and superior hand, possibly that of Giusto, whose style it strikingly resembles." Perhaps this end of the hall escaped the fire of 1520, after which the remaining designs were repainted. tt Rossetti tells us that " al dili- e l'asta perpendicolare delprimo T," gentissimo Sigiior Francesco Zanoni, &c. — Descrizione delle Fitture, Sfc che con tanta maestria le suddette di Padova, du. 1780, p. 289. Can it pitture risuscito, cominciando nell' have been the name of Giusto which anno 1762, riusci di scoprirvi sotto was thus discovered — and under the il nome di Giotto in questa forma : Coronation ? GI n TO ; mancandovi il primo O, Letteb IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. oO'S of his paintings are extant. Fabriano, however, was, towards the middle of the century, the seat of a Giottesque school, represented by Allegretto Nuzio, or da Fabriano, who had learnt at Florence •, his pictures, though weak, strongly resemble those of Gentile, who is supposed to have been originally his pupil.* In what year the latter was born is uncer- tain ; it is disputed also whether he was master or scholar of the celebrated Florentine, Fra Angelico, — I doubt his having been either one or the other ; much sympathy may doubtless be observed between them, but this might exist independently of such immediate intercourse. I suspect, rather, a con- nexion on Gentile's part with the Giotteschi of Padua and Verona. He visited Venice about 1418, and painted the sea-fight between the Doge Ziani and Otho, son of the Emperor Frederick, in the Sala del Gran Con- si glio, for which he was rewarded by a yearly pen- sion, and the privilege of wearing the robe or toga of a Venetian senator.f On this occasion, having formed an intimate friendship with the painter Giacomo Bellini, he stood god-father to his son Gentile, born in 1421, — the elder brother of Gio- vanni, the parent of that celebrated Venetian school which superseded the Paduan or Classic succession of Squarcione, and ultimately produced Giorgione and Titian. The rich colouring of the Bellini and One of them is engraved by Rosini, tav. 23. f Ridolfi, Vitc, Sfc. t toni. i, p. 23. VOL. II. 2 A 354 GIOTTO Letter IV. their pupils is frequently attributed to this com- merce of friendship between their ancestor and Gen- tile, but I think erroneously. The transalpine artists of Cologne and Flanders were noted for their bril- liant colouring in the fourteenth century ; many of them resided at Padua and Venice ; Lorenzo Vene- ziano rivalled their rich tints towards the close of the century, and I have little doubt that Gentile adopted them either from him or his Northern competitors, that the Bellini did the like in after years, and that the latter inherited nothing from Gentile except a kindly sympathy towards Umbria, predisposing them to alliance with the followers of Donatello rather than the less spiritual succession of Ghiberti. Be that, however, as it may, Gentile, without a doubt, stands indebted to the Flemish painters for that positive improvement in landscape, of which we have noticed the first faint dawnings among the Giotteschi in the frescoes of Padua. I would espe- cially refer to his Adoration of the Kings at Flo- rence, painted in 1423, after his return from Venice, a charming picture, the background of which, both in the principal composition and in the Flight into Egypt on the predella, accounts for the excellence of that in the large fresco of Masaccio in the Car- mine.* All Gentile's merits and demerits may be observed in this picture, — the elongated Giottesque eye, the vicious prodigality of gold (in imitation * The background in this picture strongly resembles that of Memling, the Flemish painter, in his ' Seven Joys of Mary,' at Munich. Letter IV AND THE GIOTTESCTII 355 probably of the Northern masters), and on the other hand, the richness of fancy which peoples his scenes with all that is gay and cheerful in nature, the neigh- ing of horses and baying of dogs, chivalric men and graceful women, contrasted with monkeys and dwarfs, the scoff and sport of the middle ages, — a tout- ensemble by which Michael Angelo's well-known cri- ticism, that Gentile had a style similar to his name, is fully justified. This picture is now in the Gallery of the Academy, but the colouring has much faded.* Gentile appears in this same year, 1423, at Or- vieto, with the sonorous appellation of 'Magister Magistrorum.' A Madonna and child, in fresco, is still shewn there as his, but it has been entirely re- painted. In 1425 he was again at Florence, that date having been inscribed on a painting in several com- partments, of which the four side-panels, represent- ing the Magdalen, the Baptist, S. Nicholas, and S, George, are still preserved in the church of S. Nic- cold.f The expression, especially of the Magdalen, is very sweet and pleasing. He probably went to Rome the following year, having been sent for by Pope Martin V., who died in 1431, to paint in S. Giovanni Laterano ; he died there after nearly finishing three frescoes, which were completed by Pisanello of Verona, who worked in 1 It is engraved in a beautiful scries of outlines after pictures in the Academy, at present in the course of publication at Florence. | Behind the altar. -c- .\ 356 GIOTTO Letter IV. competition with him,* — an artist of whom I shall have more to say hereafter. These frescoes have long since perished, but their influence, if I mistake not, is long afterwards perceptible — in the works of Pisanello himself, of Benozzo Gozzoli, who inherited much of his feeling and manner, and of Pinturicchio. It is a disputed point whether Masaccio worked at Rome contemporarily with him, — I think not, but they had ample opportunities of intercourse at Flo- rence ; he certainly resembles him in nothing save his landscape. All Gentile's frescoes have therefore perished, and it is impossible to duly estimate any ancient artist by his easel paintings. Fortunately, however, his chef-cVceuvre in distemper still exists — the large altar-piece which Raphael, in his early youth, is said to have visited Fabriano expressly to admire and study. It is now in the museum of the Brera at Milan, its compartments broken up and barba- rously dissevered, but all in excellent preservation. The Coronation of the Virgin occupied the centre, and full-length figures of the Magdalen and S. Jerome, S. Domenic and S. Francis, all walking on flowers, the side panels. The Coronation is pleas- ing, although rather dusky in colouring, and the heads are weak ; but the four Saints are much supe- rior, the Jerome especially, and the Magdalen — a lovely figure, sweet and graceful, pure and virginal, * Facius, de Viris illustribus, — a writer of the fifteenth century. Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 357 in her close-fitting purple robe, over which flows loosely a rich mantle of crimson lined with white down ; she bends gracefully forwards, holding her emblematic vase. Gentile left no pupils of note in Umbria or else- where, but an obscure succession of the Giotteschi survived, as usual, till late in the fifteenth century, and a Madonna, painted by a Gentile da Urbino in 1497, preserved in the sacristy of S. Agostino at Pesaro, bears still some resemblance to the style of his celebrated namesake. Nay, the long sleepy eye of Raphael's early Madonnas, more especially her of the Cardellino, may be legitimately traced to that object of his youthful admiration, Gentile's Corona- tion of the Virgin, which transmits it from Giotto. And the same peculiarity may be noticed, even sub- sequently to Raphael's death, in the works of Spagna, his fellow-pupil under Perugino. So subtle and etherial is the transmission of influence, in art as in morals, through succeeding generations. But I must draw to a conclusion. — Reviewing and summing up the preceding sketches of Giotto and his successors, we have seen the former adopting from Niccola Pisano, and giving its full value and expression to the fundamental principle of Christian Art, in the department of dramatic composition, — the latter, during the century subsequent to their master's death, devoting themselves to the culture of the garden which lie had marked out and enclosed, 358 GIOTTO Letter IV. each tending some peculiar tree or flower, and many of them contributing new ones, fresh acquisitions either of elegance or power, to the general stock — although it must be confessed that these contributions were very unequally appreciated. Neither the daring originality of Cavallini, for instance, nor the spiritu- alised expression of his Madonnas found many im- mediate imitators ; the Christian chivalry and hero- ism of the biographer of S. George and S. Lucia is unparalleled in painting south of the Apennines, — even his composition stands by itself, solitary and peculiar in its concentration and extent; while the union of religious feeling and glowing colouring which distinguishes the works of Don Lorenzo is shared only by Gentile da Fabriano among the Giotteschi. — On the other hand, the grace of Taddeo Gaddi and his son Angelo, — the design, foreshorten- ing, the technical resource and admirable delineation of nature of Stefano, — the majesty, beauty, and noble colouring of Maso or Giottino, — the elegance and naivete of Giovanni da Milano, — the copious and fluent composition of his successor at Assisi, — the fertile imagination and sympathy with all that is rich, beautiful, and characteristic in nature, of An- tonio Veneziano and Stamina, — the cyclic and philo- sophical spirit of Spinello, — the courtesy and the softened and more harmonious landscape of Gentile da Fabriano — were qualities infinitely more con- genial, the legitimate and cherished births of the dramatic principle, and hailed with rapture as such by contemporary artists in every individual instance, Letter IV. AND THE GIOTTESCHI. 359 each becoming at once consolidated into the general platform of improvement, on which Masolino, Ma- saccio, and Uccello first, and in due succession Be- nozzo Gozzoli, Filippo Lippi, Domenico del Ghir- landajo, Andrea del Sarto, Luca Signorelli, Leonard da Vinci, Raphael and Michael Angelo were des- tined to rear the stately theatre of Florentine and Dramatic Art. The Giotteschi, in a word, fulfilled their mission nobly, and had left little or nothing undone that the original impulse of their patriarch implied, and that the imperfect means of improvement within their reach allowed, when the influence of Ghiberti inter- vened to start them afresh, with a new name, new models, new aspirations, on a new and more vigorous though less elevated, less Christian career. We may part with them on " Soracte's ridge," as they flock towards Rome — the temple henceforth of their idol- atry — the Rome of the Caesars, not of the successors of S. Peter. END OF VOL. II LONDON : Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 231665 1 A, HhBh 11 M il it) (I i I .11 . / ». ■ mi j i ■ i u i .1 .1 1 17 ■ ;i- - ■:■•■:■ i mli\ '■ am WssL WH& KM fl$B mam ■ i 'run i . IIIIIH • Mill' - . ■ . ' I ' . ! t I 1 1 | | I I urn i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i > 1 1 'MM.'.'.'.'.M M.I I.Htffllflfl II M Iiuiiimimh ii'i'iVi'iViYi