Portrait

379S

Portrait

saccio (1401-^8) made this a regular prac-
tice, perhaps finding real faces easier than
fancy ones; most of the great fifteenth-cen-
tury masters did likewise, us Filippo Lippi,
Bcnozzo Gozzoli, and above all Ghirkmdajo
(144(1-94), whose frescoes arc a gallery of
Florentine aristocracy. Paul Veronese (1528-
88) continued the practice.

The separate individual portrait, compris-
ing the picture's sole interest, certainly fur-
nished commissions at least by the early i4th
century. Tt was greatly forwarded by the
new oil paints which also made printing pos-
sible, their invention credited to the Flemish
Van Eycks, Hubert and Jan. The latter (r.
1390-1440) was a wonderful portrait artist,

pictures as mere sketchy suggestions. The
German school is next in time. Its foremost
name is Hans Holbein (1497-1543), who
went to England in 1526, and became court
painter to Henry vm. The Dutch school in
average merit stands perhaps at the very
head. The first great name is Frans Hals
(1580-1666), who showed amazing skill in
that most difficult form, the huge portrait
groups so favored in Holland, whose mem-
bers often clubbed on Chares for cost of in-
clusion. Van der Heist (1613-70) was an-
otber master in this kind. But the chief
name, and one of the greatest of all time, is
Rembrandt (1606-69); lie and Velasquez
are perhaps the supremo portraitists of the

Compositc Portraits.
Left, Ten members of a club; Right, 49 members of college rla^s.

the greatest in the Flemish school before or
with Van Dyck.

Nearly contemporary was the Italian por-
traitist Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400-66). But the
first great pioneer of advance on the art side
was Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), whose
treatment of shade gave his figures a new
effect of roundness; his work is very scant,
however, the most famous the Mona Lisa.
Raphael (1483-1520) is a still greater name;
but chief of all was Titian (i477-?i576),
who also gave more attention to portraits
than either. Even he has other claims to re-
membrance. Of almost pure portrait artists,
with little note beyond, the first important
name is G. B. Moroni (1525-78). All these
painted all parts with equal care: the first
innovator was the vehement idea-ridden Tin-
toretto (1518-94), the founder of 'impres-
sionism/ who deliberately left parts of his

world. After Holbein, ihe. greatest was the
Fleming Van Dyck (150.0.-1641), the most
influential artist ever in England, and some
of his influence ill. His direct successors were
Germans, Peter Lely and Godfrey Knellcr;
clever craftsmen without genius. Suddenly,
a century ufter Van DyckV death, there arose
a splendid native school headed by three
great painters, contemporaries practically
through life: Joshua Reynolds (1723-92),
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88), and
George Romney (r734-1802). The most
powerful direct inheritor of Reynolds' style
was Henry Raeburn (1756-1823)? unfortu-
nately scant of training, provincial, and with
some bad conventions; the most popular
was Thomas Lawrence, whose name does not
grow.

The great reformer of English portraiture
was John Millais (1829-96), who entirely dis-