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A     CONCISE 

HISTORY    OF    PAINTING. 


A.  CONCISE 

HISTOEY  OF  PAINTING; 


BY  MRS.    CHARLES  HEATON, 

AUTHOB  OF  "  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  LIFE  OF 
A13BECHT  DiJBEB  OF  NURNBERa." 


NEW  EDITION  REVISED 


COSMO    MONKHOUSE.  ...mnviu 

mm  0^  ^^^^^^^^ 

LONDON : 

GEORGE  BELL  &  SONS,  YORK  ST.,  CO  VENT  GARDEN, 

NEW  YORK:  112,  FOURTH  AVENUE. 

1893. 


HiSlOhE  I 


"7  3g 


CHISWICK  I«KS§t-|C.',^K^T<l\NOHAM  AND  (iO.J.  TOOKS  COURT, 


PREFACE  TO  THE  PRESENT  EDITION. 

IN  the  fifteen  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  late 
Mrs.  Charles  Heaton's  "  Concise  History  of  Painting  " 
was  pubHshed,  the  labours  of  art- scholars  have  been  very 
extensive  and  searching,  and  the  mode  and  temper  of  art 
criticism  have  greatly  changed.  Nevertheless,  this  book, 
as  it  left  the  hand  of  its  authoress,  remains  still  the  most 
readable  and  comprehensive  of  all  short  histories  of 
Painting. 

It  has  been  my  aim  in  the  present  edition  not  to  impair 
its  precious  quality  of  read^bleness,  and  to  increase  its 
comprehensiveness  by  adding  notices  of  many  artists  whose 
exclusion  would,  at  the  present  date,  mar  its  value  as  a 
text-book.  To  effect  the  latter  object  without  forfeiting 
the  title  of  "  concise,"  it  has  been  necessary  to  reduce  the 
original  text  by  the  excision  of  such  passages  as  appeared 
redundant  or  least  valuable. 

Otherwise  the  present  edition  differs  from  the  first 
mainly  in  the  following  respects.  Dates  and  other  matters 
of  fact  have  been  revised  throughout.  The  notices  of  Claude 
and  the  Poussins  have  been  transferred  from  the  Italian 
to  the  French  School.  These  and  the  notices  of  several 
other  painters  have  been  re-written,  and  notes  through- 
out the  book  have  been  added.  The  chapter  on  "  The  Last 
Efforts  and  Extinction  of  Painting  in  Italy  "  (Book  iv., 
chap.  5)  has  been  re- written,  and  a  concluding  note  on  the 
English  School,  and  Chronological  lists  of  the  painters  of 
each  country  have  been  added.  With  the  exceptions  of 
the  chapter,  note,  and  lists  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
sentence,  and  of  alterations  of  date  and  other  slight  changes, 
all  new  or  re- written  matter  will  be  found  included  within 
square  brackets  [     ]. 


37405S 


VI         PEEPACE  TO  THE  PRESENT  EDITION. 

These  brackets  are  the  limits  of  my  responsibility  in 
matters  of  opinion,  but  not  in  matters  of  fact.  How  heavy 
the  latter  responsibility  is,  and  what  labour  it  entails, 
only  those  who  have  been  engaged  in  a  similar  task  can 
appreciate,  for  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there  is 
hardly  a  fact  or  a  date  in  the  History  of  European  Art 
before  the  seventeenth  century  which  has  been  left  un- 
turned during  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  a  great  number 
of  them  have  been  the  subject  of  warm  dispute  between 
the  "very  latest  authorities."  The  approximate  accuracy 
which  comes  of  consulting  these  "  doctors,"  and  weighing 
probabilities  when  they  differ,  is  all  I  can  hope  to  have 
achieved,  and  while  I  am  writing  perhaps  Dr.  Eichter  is 
recording  the  discovery  of  Schongauer's  tombstone,  and 
Signer  Morelli  is  proving  that  Masaccio  was  living  in 
1431. 

It  only  remains  to  record  my  thanks  for  the  valuable 
assistance  rendered  to  me  throughout  the  book  by  Miss 
Annie  Evans,  especially  in  the  last  chapter  of  Painting  in 
Italy,  which  was  entirely  re-written  by  her,  and  in  the 
chapters  on  Painting  in  the  Netherlands. 

Cosmo  Monkhoxjse. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION. 


THE  more  general  exhibition  of  works  of  art  and  the 
increased  habit  of  travelling  in  our  age,  have  assisted 
in  spreading  a  taste  for  art  which  was  formerly  conj&ned  to 
the  very  few.  With  this  wider  taste,  the  desire  has  natu- 
rally arisen  for  wider  knowledge ;  for  it  is  at  once  the  diffi- 
culty and  the  advantage  of  art,  that  a  certain  amount  of 
culture  is  necessary  for  its  true  enjoyment ;  the  difficulty, 
because  the  means  and  the  capacity  for  culture  are  wanting 
to  many,  and  the  advantage,  because  such  culture  is  in  it- 
self a  valuable  mental  training. 

But  even  now,  notwithstanding  this  growth  of  interest 
in  art,  it  is  painful  in  walking  through  a  G-allery  to  mark 
the  utter  want  of  appreciation  with  which  the  majority  of 
visitors  gaze  at  the  pictures,  and  at  the  same  time  to  think 
of  the  keen  intellectual  and  even  emotional  pleasure  those 
pictures  are  capable  of  yielding.  This  lack  of  appreciation 
is  generally  the  result  of  want  of  knowledge,  and  disap- 
pears as  soon  as  something  is  known  of  the  painters  whose 
names  appear  on  the  picture  frames.  "  Even  in  the  highest 
works  of  art,"  says  Carlyle,  "  our  interest,  as  the  critics 
complain,  is  too  apt  to  be  strongly,  or  even  mainly  of  a 
biographic  sort.  In  the  art,  we  can  nowise  forget  the 
artists." 

And  yet  art-history,  which  is  so  important  a  portion  of 
art-culture,  is  almost  the  only  history  entirely  untaught  in 
our  schools.  Surely  such  teaching  is  needed,  for  the  stern 
pursuit  of  science,  to  which  an  age  that  calls  itself  practical 
incites  its  children,  tends,  if  unrelieved  by  the  cultivation 
of  aesthetic  tastes,  to  blind  us  to  much  that  is  great  and 
beautiful  in  our  lives. 

This  book  is  written  in  the  hope  that  it  may  help  some 


Till  PREFACE    TO    THE    FIRST    EDITION. 

few  in  learning  to  enjoy  good  art.  Its  arrangement  is  very 
simple.  The  art  of  each  country  occupies  a  separate  book, 
most  of  the  books  being  again  divided  into  chapters  de- 
voted to  different  schools  and  periods.  The  pictures  men- 
tioned as  examples  of  each  master's  work  are  chosen,  as 
far  as  possible,  from  such  as  are  easily  accessible  to  the 
English  student;  in  particular  those  of  the  National 
Gallery  are  quoted  whenever  they  are  suitable. 

The  classification  according  to  schools  has  been  simplified 
as  much  as  i3ossible,  and  many  obscure  and  even  some 
well-known  masters  have  been  omitted  to  avoid  confusing 
the  reader  with  too  long  a  string  of  names.  Those,  how- 
ever, who  desire  fuller  information  will  find  references  in 
every  chapter  to  more  important  works  that  may  be  pro- 
fitably studied  by  the  advanced  student :  this,  it  must  be 
remembered,  is  only  intended  as  an  introduction  to  the 
subject. 

M.  M.  H. 

Lessness  Heath,  Kent. 
October,  1872. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 
BOOK  I. 

EGYPTIAN  AND  ASIATIC  PAINTING. 

PAGE 

A  WAKENING  of  the  Artistic  impulse.  The  idea  of  the  Deity 
-**■  first  clothed  in  visible  form.  The  Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron 
Ages.  Egypt :  antiquity  of  Egyptian  Painting.  Paintings  in  the 
Tombs.  Representation  of  the  Last  Judgment.  The  Book  of  the 
Dead.  Egyptian  painting  only  hieroglyphic  writing.  One  fixed 
type  in  every  age.  Dead  and  not  Living  Art.  The  Pictorial  Art 
of  other  early  Eastern  civilizations 1 

BOOK  II. 

CLASSIC  PAINTING. 

The  Greek  Religion  a  pure  Nature  Worship.  The  Greek  Ideal. 
Exaltation  of  the  physical  side  of  human  nature.  Painting  later 
than  Sculpture  in  becoming  an  independent  art.  First  age  of 
Greek  Painting.  Poltgnotos  "  the  painter  of  noble  characters." 
Second  Age.  Aiollodoros.  Zeuxis.  ArErxES,  the  hero- 
painter  of  antiquity.  Rapid  fall  of  Greek  Art.  Rhiiparographia. 
Etruscan  Painting  a  branch  of  Greek,  but  with  distinctive  charac- 
teristics. No  independent  Roman  Art.  The  Graeco-Roman  School. 
Landscape  under  the  Empire.  Pompeian  Decoi-ation.  Degenera- 
tion of  Classic  Art 8 

BOOK  III. 

EARLY  CHRISTIAN  PAINTING. 

Use  of  Symbols  to  express  Divine  things.  The  Paintings  in  the 
Catacombs.  Classico-Christian  School.  The  By/antine  type  of 
Christ  unlike  the  Greek  ideal  of  the  Godlike.  Byzantine  Art  as 
stationary  as  Egyptian.  Degradation  of  Art  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury. A  new  epoch  commencing  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
Nicola  Pisano.  Cimahle.  The  Church  of  St.  Francis  at 
Assissi .21 


X  TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 

BOOK  IV. 

PAINTING    IN    ITALY 

Chapter  I.— The  Rise. 

PAGE 

The  Revival  of  Art  accomplished  by  Giotto  :  return  to  Nature 
for  Instruction ;  Giotto  in  Rome ;  iiis  frescoes  in  the  Church  of 
the  Arena,  Padua;  his  works  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Croce, 
Florence;  at  Naples;  the  Campanile.  The  Giotteschi.  The 
Campo  Santo  at  Pisa.  Orcagna.  The  Sienese  School — dis- 
tinguished for  its  dreamy  Relij^ious  Sentiment       ....      33 

Chapter  II. — The  Development. 

The  Fifteenth  Century  an  Age  of  Progress.  The  artists  of  this 
age  prepared  the  way  for  the  artists  of  the  next.  Lorenzo  Ghi- 
UERTi :  the  Ghiberti  gates  mark  a  new  era  in  the  progress  of  art ; 
perspective  first  studied.  Uccello  and  Piero  deixa  Fran- 
CESCA.  The  Revival  of  learning  ;  its  effects  on  art.  Masaccio  : 
his  manly  classic  naturalism.  Fra  Angelico  :  his  feminine 
purism.  Fra  Filippo  Lippi — Inti-oduced  the  element  of  sensuous 
beauty  into  his  paintings.  Botticelli.  Filippino  Lippi. 
Ghirlandajo.  Mantegna.  Luca  Signorell.  The  Renaissance 
triumphant  in  Rome  and  Florence.  Umbrian  School — preserved 
a  religious  sentiment;  devoloped  from  the  Sienese.  Perugino. 
Francia — both  religious  painters.  Contemporary  Veronese  and 
Milanese  painters 49 

Chapter  III. — The  Blooming  Time. 

Leonardo  da  Vinci  the  representative  artist  of  the  sixteenth 
century :  his  versatility ;  the  Last  Supper ;  letter  to  Ludovico 
Sforza ;  established  at  Milan ;  his  female  portraits  ;  rivalry  with 
Michael  Angelo  ;  goes  to  France  ;  death ;  great  excellence  of  his 
pupils.  The  later  Milanese  School.  LuiNi,  Solario,  Ferrari. 
Bartolommeo:  purity  and  religious  sentiment  of  his  works. 
Raphael  :  pupil  of  Perugino  ;  goes  to  Florence ;  Umbrian, 
Florentine,  and  Roman  periods ;  invited  to  Rome  by  Julius  II  j 
his  frescoes  in  the  Vatican  ;  the  Cartoons  ;  the  Ideal  in  Art ;  the 
San  Sisto  Madonna.  Michael  Angelo  :  his  genius  recognized 
by  Lorenzo  de'  Medici ;  goes  to  Rome  in  1596 ;  returns  to  Florence 
and  executes  the  David  and  the  Cartoon  of  Pisa ;  begins  to  work 
on  the  Mausoleum  of  J  ulius  II. ;  takes  flight  in  anger  to  Florence  j 
compelled  to  return  to  Rome;  his  frescoes  in  the  Sistine  Chapel; 
takes  part  in  the  resistance  of  Florence  to  the  Medici ;  executes 
the  tombs  of  the  Medici ;  his  sardonic  melancholy  ;  the  Last  Judg- 
ment a  pagan  rather  than  a  Christian  conception ;  death:  the  painful 
distortions  of  his  followers ;  the  followers  of  Raphael  and  Michael 
Angelo — Sebas  riANO  del  Piomho.  Giulio  Romano,  Painters 
in  Ferrara,  Dosso  Dossi,  and  Garofalo.  Andrea  del  Sarto 
an  independent  master.   Rapid  decline  and  fall  of  Italian  Painting      86 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  XI 

Chapter  IV. — School  of  Venice. 

PAoe 
Venetian  Painting  later  than  Florentine  in  development.  Early 
Venetians.  School  of  Murano.  The  Vivarini.  Crivelli.  Anto- 
NELLA  DA  Messina  tcaches  the  Flemish  method  of  Oil-painting. 
The  Bellini.  Giovanni  Bellini  :  moral  qualities  of  his  ai-t 
separate  him  from  the  School  that  lie  founded.  Giorgione  :  his 
Heroic  Ideal ;  poetical  style.  Titian  :  his  unfathomable  colour  ; 
the  Nude  again  glorified  ;  the  "  Assumption  of  the  Virgin ; " 
magnificence  of  Titian's  Life ;  intei-view  with  Charles  V. ;  his 
Portraits — pages  of  History.  Schools  of  Brescia,  Cremona,  and 
Vicenza.  Moretto,  Moroni,  Montagna.  Tintoretto:  his 
furious  style.  Painters  of  Verona.  Veronese  :  sought  to  ex- 
press the  Pomp  and  Pageantry  of  Earth  ;  his  gorgeous  style  and 
colouring;  the  Marriage  of  Cana.  Bassano  a  genre  painter. 
CORREGGio  :  his  understanding  of  chiaroscuro  ;  sensuous  beauty 
of  his  painting ;  the  Cupola  at  Parma.  His  Mythological  Nudities. 
Parmigiano — too  graceful 142 

Chapter  V. — Last  Efforts  and  Extinction. 

Eclecticism.  Exceptions  to  the  general  decadence.  The  Car- 
RACCi :  their  Eclectic  sonnet ;  their  individuality ;  Annibale's 
frescoes ;  his  landscape.  Domenichino  :  sensational  religious 
pictures.  Guido  Reni  :  his  feeling  for  beauty  of  line ;  the  por- 
trait of  Beatrice  Cenci ;  poverty  of  his  later  works.  Gdercino  : 
the  colourist  of  the  Bologna  school.  Other  eclectic  schools.  The 
Naturalistic  represented  nature  without  selection;  opposed 
lights  and  shades. ^-^aravaggio  :  his  fierce  power  ;  his  influence 
upon  genre  paintmg  of  Northern  Eui'ope ;  his  popularity  and 
rivalry  with  the  Bolognese;  his  restless  life;  his  pupils.  The 
Neapolitan  school.  Si'agnoletto  :  his  ferocious  style ;  his  style 
essentially  Spanish  ;  his  painting  of  the  nude  ;  his  followers.  Fal- 
cone, the  "  oracle  of  battles."  Salvator  Rosa  :  his  ideal  land- 
scapes; his  pupils.  Giordano  one  of  the  Macchinisti  :  final 
extinction  of  Italian  art  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Canaletto. 
Rome  as  an  art  centre .     181 


BOOK  V. 

PAINTING  IN  SPAIN 

Spanish  masters  but  little  known.  Early  Spanish  painters.  In- 
fluence of  Italian  art  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Flemish  influence 
at  Barcelona.  Luis  de  Morales  :  asceticism  of  Spanish  art ; 
power  of  the  Inquisition  j  no  free  development  possible.  J  uan  de 
LAB  KoELAS:  his  style  founded  on  that  of  Tintoretto.  Ecclesias- 
tical element  in  Spanish  painting.  Pacheco  :  his  "  Arte  de  Pin- 
tui*a."    Alonso  Cano  :  the  third  greatest  artist  of  Spain.    Zur- 


Xii  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

PAGK 
BARAN  :  the  painter  of  Monks.  Vklasquez  :  educated  in  Pa- 
checo's  Academy ;  called  to  Madrid  ;  becomes  Court  Painter  to 
Philip  IV.;  the  dignity  of  his  portraits.  Murillo  :  iX)or  in 
his  youth ;  kindly  received  by  Velasquez  at  Madrid ;  returns  to 
Seville ;  decorates  the  cloisters  of  San  Francisco  ;  the  emotional 
character  of  his  works ;  the  Immaculate  Conception  his  favourite 
subject ;  his  biblical-genre  style.  Fall  of  Spanish  art.  Goya's 
caprices.    Modern  "  Bric-k-Brac "  School 199 


BOOK  VI. 

PAINTING  IN  GERMANY. 

Chapter  I. — The  Catholic  Period. 

Gothic  architecture  an  expression  of  the  mediaeval  mind :  its 
ideal  beauty.  School  of  Bohemia.  Schloss  Karlstein.  School 
OP  NiJRNBERG.  School  of  Cologne.  Meister  Wilhelm  and 
Meister  Stei-han.  Influence  of  the  Flemish  School.  The 
Master  of  the  Lyversberg  Passion  and  other  unknown  Masters. 
German  Art  casts  off  the  traditions  of  Rome 231 

Chapter  II. — The  Reformation  Period. 

Martin  Schonoauer.  The  Fantastic  Spu'it  of  German  Art. 
Wohlgemuth  :  the  unequal  works  that  pass  with  his  name.  Al- 
BRECHT  Dl;rer  :  the  German  character  reflected  in  his  works ; 
his  visit  to  Venice ;  the  Four  Apostles  ;  portraits  of  himself;  his 
pupils ;  the  Little  Masters.  Hans  Burgkmair.  Hans  Holbein  : 
recent  Biographies ;  the  "  Meier  Madonna  ;"  Holbein  in  England  ; 
Court  Painter  to  Henry  VIII. ;  number  of  portraits  wrongfully 
attributed  to  him ;  his  Dance  of  Death.  Lucas  Cranach  :  his 
Art  thoroughly  National;  his  Female  Portraits;  "Crucifixion" 
at  Weimar ;  best  known  by  his  Engravings ;  German  Italianisers. 
Denner  :  his  laborious  finish.  Raphael  Mengs  :  his  lofty  aims 
and  cold  eclecticism.  Revival  of  German  Art  in  the  pygsent  cen- 
tury. The  Munich  School.  Its  Monumental  works. /^he  genre 
School  of  Dusseldorf.     K.  F.  Lessing  ;  modern  German  painters.     241 


BOOK  vn. 

PAINTING  IN  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Chapter  I. — The  School  of  Bruges. 

Eai'ly  Art  of  the  Netherlands.  Melchior  Broederlain. 
New  Impulse  given  to  Art  by  the  Van  Eycks.  The  invention  of 
Oil-painting;  some  method  known  before  the  fifteenth  century; 
Vasari's  account  of  the  Van  Eyck  invention ;  in  what  it  consisted. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XUl 

PAGE 
HnBEBT  VAN  Eyck.  Jan  van  Eyck  :  Court  Painter  and  Valet 
de  Chambre  to  Philippe  le  Bon ;  goes  to  Portugal ;  the  Mystic 
Lamb;  altar-piece  at  Madrid;  pictures  in  England  ;  "Mobiliza- 
tion "  of  Painting ;  followers  of  Van  Eyck.  Rogier  Vander 
Weyden.  Memling  :  his  poetical  style  and  refined  colour. 
Gerard  David  :  his  works  at  Bruges.  Dierick  Boots  :  his  paint- 
ings for  the  Town  Hall  of  Loiivain,  now  in  the  Brussels  Gallery   .     268 

Chapter  II. — The  School  of  Antwerp. — Early  School 
OF  Holland. 

School  of  Antwerp:  how  distinguished  from  the  School  of 
Bruges;  Quentin  Ma ssys  its  founder;  the  Entombment  of  the 
Antwerp  Gallery;  his  tendency  to  caricature  ;  his  money-pieces. 
Mabuse  :  led  the  way  to  Italy.  Van  Orley.  The  Antwerp 
Italianisers.  The  three  Bredghels.  Portrait  painters.  Land- 
scape painters.  Early  school  of  Holland.  Lucas  van  Leyden  : 
his  whimsical  fancy ;  known  by  his  engravings  more  than  by  his 
paintings  ;  his  style  the  uniting  link  between  the  art  of  the  Nether- 
lands and  that  of  Germany -297 

Chapter  III. — Flemish  School  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century, 

The  religious  spirit  of  early  art  utterly  dead.  A  new  school 
founded  by  Rubkns  :  the  Descent  from  the  Cross  of  Antwerp 
Cathedral ;  visit  to  Spain  and  England ;  absence  of  the  spiritual 
in  his  works ;  his  paintings  at  Munich.  Anthony  Vandyck  : 
his  aristocratic  portraits  ;  goes  to  England;  portraits  of  Charles  I. 
and  his  Court.  Grayer  :  more  appreciated  in  his  own  day  than 
in  ours.  Animal  painters.  Tenters  :  more  allied  by  his  style  to 
the  Dutch  School  than  to  that  of  Rubens  ;  vulgar  realism  of  his 
religious  subjects ;  facile  execution ;  admirable  pourti'ayals  of 
peasant  life.    Modern  Belgian  painters :  Gallait,  Leys  .         .        .    315 

Chapter  IV. — The  Dutch  School. 

Rembrandt  :  his  powerful  light  and  shade ;  his  ideality  ;  his 
biographers — their  mistakes ;  the  true  facts  of  his  life  only  recently 
discovered ;  the  Night  Watch  ;  the  Anatomy  Lesson ;  his  land- 
scapes. Contemporaries  and  precursors  of  Rembrandt.  Frans 
Hals.  Van  der  Helst.  Followers  of  Rembrandt.  The  Little 
Masters  of  Holland.  Vermeer.  De  Hoogh.  Gerard  Dou, 
the  genius  of  littleness.  Terburo  :  his  love  of  white  satin.  Jan 
Steen.  Brauwer  Oslade.  The  Cattle  Painters  of  Holland  : 
Paul  Potter.  The  Landscape  Painters :  Cuyp.  The  Sea  Paintei-s : 
Vandevelde.  Want  of  mind  in  Dutch  Paintings.  Dutch  Italia- 
nisers. Berchem.  Karl  du  Jardin.  Both.  Adrian  Vander 
Werff.  Kitchen  Pieces.  Death  of  Dutch  art,  preceded  by  the 
fall  of  Dutch  freedom.     Modern  Dutch  School      .... 


360 


XIT  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

BOOK  YIIL 

PAINTING  IN  FRANCE. 

FAQB 

Illuminators  and  glass-painters  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Early 
painters.  Jean  Fouuqet.  Jehan  Cousin.  The  Fontainbleau 
School.  National  art  in  the  Le  Nains,  Callot,  and  Valentin. 
P0U88IN  :  his  classical  taste.  Claude  :  his  landscapes.  Le 
Brun:  the  representative  painter  of  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV. 
Watteau  :  artificiality  of  his  works,  Boucher  :  the  painter  of 
"  Dubarrydom."  "'^reuch  genre.  Chardin.  Greuze.  David  : 
the  revolution  he  accomplished;  the  worship  of  heathen  anti- 
(luity ;  his  exaggei'ated  classicism  j  cold  colour ;  no  lasting  in- 
fluence ;  re-action.  Gericault  :  the  Raft  of  the  Medusa.  Ingres. 
Ary  Scheffer  :  his  commonplace  ideas.  The  Romantic  School. 
Delacroix.  Horace  Vernet.  Paul  Delaroche.  The 
Modern  French  Landscape  School.  Huet.  Corot.  Millet. 
Rousseau 358 


BOOK  IX. 

PAINTING  IN  ENGLAND. 

Long  delayed  birth  of  art  in  this  country.  English  painting  of 
recent  growth.  Painters  before  Hogarth.  Hogarth  :  the  first 
original  genius  amongst  English  painters ;  his  pictorial  dramas ; 
his  path  between  the  sublime  and  the  grotesque.  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds:  the  ideality  of  his  portraits.  Thomas  Gainsborough  : 
first  painted  English  landscape;  "High  Art;"  its  unfortunate 
votaries.  David  Wilkie  :  greatest  painter  of  familiar  life  of  the 
English  School.  Mulready.  Etty.  Turner  :  his  three  styles 
or  periods ;  his  ideal  founded  on  the  real ;  in  his  art,  as  in  his  life, 
a  mystery.  The  English  School  pre-eminent  in  landscape.  Pro- 
mise of  the  present  day.  Concluding  note :  landscape  art  in  Eng- 
land. Water-colour.  Crome.  The  Norwich  School.  Blake. 
The  Pre-Raphaelites.    D.  G.  Rossetti 385 

Chronological  Lisis 429 

Index ••...,    459 


BOOK  I. 
EGYPTIAN   AND   ASIATIC   PAINTING. 


THE  daughter  of  Dibutades,  a  potter  of  Corinth,  whilst 
bidding  farewell  one  evening  to  her  lover,  was  struck 
by  the  distinctness  of  his  shadow  cast  by  the  light  of  a 
lamp  on  the  plaster  wall  of  her  dwelling.  The  idea  oc- 
curred to  her  to  preserve  the  image  of  her  beloved  by 
tracing  with  a  pointed  implement  at  hand,  the  outline  of 
his  figure  on  the  wall ;  and  when  her  father  the  potter 
came  home,  he,  appreciating  the  importance  of  her  work, 
rude  though  it  was,  cut  the  plaster  out  within  the  drawing 
she  had  thus  accomplished,  took  a  cast  in  clay  from  it,  and 
baked  it  with  his  other  pottery. 

Such  is  the  well-known  Greek  tradition,  assigning  a 
simultaneous  origin  to  the  graphic  and  plastic  arts,  and 
claiming  both  as  of  Greek  invention. 

But  unfortunately  for  the  truth  of  this  pretty  story, 
these  arts  were  known  and  practised  long  before  even  the 
original  Pelasgians  had  settled  in  Greece  ;  indeed,  it  seems 
certain  that  they  were  merely  transmitted  to  Greece  from 
Egypt,  in  which  country  they  had  been  long  cultivated  before 
they  were  acquired  by  any  of  the  Indo-European  nations. 

We  must,  however,  look  still  further  back  than  Egypt 
if  we  would  discover  the  first  dawnings  of  the  artistic  idea 
in  the  human  mind.  An  impulse  towards  expression  by 
means  of  art  is  felt  at  a  very  early  period  of  human  de- 
velopment. One  of  the  first  steps  in  the  civilization  of  the 
savage  is  his  attempt  to  improve  and  to  ornament  the  rude 
weapons  and  utensils  of  his  daily  life,  and  to  clothe  his 
idea  of  the  Deity  with  a  definite  and  visible  form.     This 


2  HIJiTpEY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK  I. 

form,  it  is  true,  is  at  first  monstrous  and  distorted,  but  it 
implies  a  progress  beyond  mere  fetishism,  the  first  stage, 
probably,  of  religious  belief.  "  When  men  are  emerging 
from  fetishism  they  carve  matter  into  the  form  of  an  in- 
telligent being,  and  then  only  attribute  to  it  a  Divine 
character."  ^ 

Amongst  the  remains  that  have  been  discovered  in 
various  countries  of  Europe,  belonging  to  those  early  pre- 
historic periods,  called  by  archaeologists  respectively  the 
Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron  Ages,  many  vessels,  utensils, 
metals,  and  ornaments  have  been  found  engraved  with  rich 
and  delicate  tracery,  and  remarkable  for  their  graceful 
shape  and  elegant  proportion,  provmg  that  there  must  have 
been  a  distinct  recognition  of  artistic  beauty  and  fitness 
even  at  that  early  period.  These  belong,  certainly,  more 
especially  to  the  bronze  age ;  for  the  rough  earthenware 
vessels  and  flint  arrow  heads  of  the  stone  age  cannot 
strictly  be  reckoned  as  works  of  art ;  but  even  the  poor 
stone  man  hewing  his  square  coffin  may  have  been  moved 
to  give  a  greater  finish  and  merit  to  his  work,  in  obedience 
to  an  impulse,  unrecognized,  no  doubt,  towards  artistic 
perfection.^ 

No  statues  or  idols  have  as  yet  been  discovered  amongst 
these  remains,  so  that  it  would  seem  that  the  stage  of 
idolatrous  belief  had  not  yet  been  reached  by  our  pre- 
historic ancestors  any  more  than  by  some  of  the  savages  of 
the  present  day. 

Looking  onward  from  these  dimly  seen  ages,  whose  exis- 
tence is  only  revealed  to  us  by  means  of  such  works  as  have 
been  mentioned,  we  come  next  upon  the  gigantic  monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  which  stand  at  the  beginning  of  history, 
as  if  to  mark  the  boundaries  of  our  knowledge.  Before 
them  everything  is  vague  and  mythical,  but  after  their 
erection  we  are  enabled  to  proceed  upon  something  like 
historical  data,  and  to  reckon  the  succession  of  centuries 
and  dynasties. 

^  Lecky,  "  History  of  Eationalism,"  vol.  i. 

'  Sir  John  Lubbock,  "  Pre-historic  Times  and  the  Origin  of  Civihza- 
tion."  [The  Palaeolithic  man  had  a  wonderful  artistic  gift ;  see  "  Early 
Man  in  Britain,"  by  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins,  and  the  sketches  of  animals 
on  bits  of  bone  pi'eserved  in  the  British  Museum.] 


BOOK   I.]         EGYPTIAN    AND   ASIATIC    PAINTING.  8 

But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  pyramids,  whilst  they 
thus  form  the  starting  point  of  history,  point  back  also  to 
long  ages  of  endeavour,  before  the  wonderful  knowledge 
^nd  skill  displayed  in  their  construction  could  have  been 
attained.  It  is  strange,  perhaps,  that  no  archaic  remains 
of  Egyptian  art  have  ever  been  discovered ;  no  traces  of 
the  rude  and  simple  efforts  of  an  early  people.  But  so  it 
is.  Everything  in  Egypt,  at  the  moment  we  first  catch 
sight  of  it,  seems  to  have  been  long  established  on  the 
same  basis  that  we  find  enduring  until  the  end  of  its 
history. 

Even  the  origin  of  painting,  the  youngest  bom  of  the 
three  sister  arts,  dates  back  beyond  our  knowledge.  It  is 
impossible  to  say  when  the  Egyptians  first  practised  it,  but 
the  paintings  in  the  tombs,  many  of  which  are  referred  to 
the  fourth  and  fifth  dynasties,  that  is  to  say,  to  a  period 
not  less  than  2,400  years  before  our  era,  or  upwards  of 
4,000  years  ago,  reveal  an  art  already  far  advanced  beyond 
infancy.  Pliny,  indeed,  tells  us  that  the  Egyptians  boasted 
of  having  been  masters  of  painting  for  more  than  six  thou- 
sand years  before  it  was  acquired  by  the  G-reeks,  and  pos- 
sibly this  was  not  such  a  "  vain  boast,"  as  he  imagined.^ 

Painting,  it  seems  probable,  was  first  appHed  to  the 
<iolouring  of  statues  and  reliefs,  which  practice  may  again 
have  arisen  from  the  custom  amongst  many  savages  of 
•colouring  the  living  body,  as  our  ancestors,  the  ancient 
Britons,  are  known  to  have  done.  The  Ethiopians  were 
accustomed  to  paint  their  warriors  and  nobles  half  with 
gypsum  and  half  with  minium,^  and  it  is  possible  that  the 
early  Egyptians  had  the  same  practice.  But  when  we  first 
meet  with  painting  amongst  them,  it  is  already  applied  to 
ilat  wall  surfaces,  and  is  employed  to  represent  much  the 
same  subjects  as  in  after  times. 

The  earliest  paintings  that  have  been  brought  to  light 
in  Egypt  are  those  in  the  tombs  around  the  pyramids, 
supposed  to  be  those  of  individuals  living  in  the  reigns  of 
the  founders  of  the  pyramids  and  their  immediate  suc- 
cessors. Next  come  those  of  the  sepulchral  grottoes  of 
Beni  Hassan,  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  which  afford  a  variety 

^  riiny,  "  Hist.  Nat." 

'  Pliny,  xxxiii.  36.     Herodotus,  vii.  69. 


4  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    I. 

of  representations  of  private  life.  From  these  and  similar 
works  in  other  places,  much  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
manners  and  habits  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  is  derived. 
Scenes  of  husbandry,  such  as  ploughing,  reaping,  gather- 
ing and  pressing  the  grapes ;  beating  hemp ;  the  various 
trades  of  carpenter,  boat-builder,  potter,  leather-cutter^ 
glass-blower,  and  others ;  scenes  of  fashionable  life,  amongst 
which  a  favourite  one  is  the  reception  of  guests  at  a 
banquet;  hunting-parties,  duck  catching,  and  fishing, 
everything  that  is  killed  being  in  each  case  registered  by  a 
scribe;  wrestling  exercises,  comprising  games  of  various 
kinds  ;  dancing  ;  musical  entertainments,  the  instruments 
being  principally  harps,  lyres,  guitars,  drums,  and  tam- 
bourines; funeral  processions,  chariots  and  articles  of 
furniture  belonging  to  the  deceased,  are  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal subjects  that  occur  on  the  walls  of  these  tombs, ^  But 
the  subject  most  frequently  met  with  is  a  representation  of 
the  Last  Judgment,  where  the  deeds  of  the  deceased,  typi- 
fied by  a  heart  or  the  fimeral  vase  containing  it,  are 
weighed  in  a  balance  by  Anubis  and  Horus  against  a  figure 
of  Thmei  (Truth)  placed  in  the  opposite  scale,  a  symbolism 
that  reminds  one  forcibly  of  the  mediaeval  representations 
of  the  same  subject,  in  which  St.  Michael,  in  like  manner, 
weighs  the  souls  of  the  departed  in  his  balance ;  but  it  is. 
remarkable,  that  in  the  Egyptian  symbolism  we  have  not 
the  detailed  representation  of  the  tortures  of  the  wicked 
that  the  mediaeval  artist  delighted  to  depict.  Only  Cer- 
berus, the  guardian  of  the  Hall  of  Justice,  crouches  before 
Osiris,  the  Supreme  Judge,  to  prevent  any  from  entering 
his  presence  who  have  been  found  wanting  in  the  balance 
against  Truth.  Eorty-two  assessors  of  the  dead,  or 
avengers  of  crime,  also  are  represented  assisting  at  the 
trial  as  witnesses  for  and  against  the  deceased. 

The  transport  of  the  body  after  death  over  the  sacred 
lake  in  a  boat,  is  another  subject  often  met  with,  and  was 
no  doubt  the  origin  of  the  river  Styx  and  the  feriy-boat  of 
Charon,  of  G-reek  symbolism.  Sacrifices  to  the  dead  some- 
times occur. 

Besides  these  wall-paintings  in  the  tombs,  we  have  the 

^  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  "  Popular  Account  of  the  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians," vol.  i. 


BOOK    I.]  EGYPTIAN   AND   ASIATIC    PAINTING.  6 

paintings  on  the  cloths  and  cases  of  mummies,  and  those 
on  the  papyrus  rolls, — the  illuminated  manuscripts  of 
Egypt, — all  of  which  help  us  to  form  an  estimate  of 
Egyptian  painting. 

Amongst  these  latter  have  been  found  several  rolls  taken 
from  mummy-cases,  which  appear  to  be  transcripts  of 
different  chapters  of  some  very  ancient  sacred  book  called 
^'  The  Book  or  Litany  of  the  Dead,"  ^  each  roll  having  a 
symbolic  picture  at  the  end  which  has  helped  materially 
in  the  deciphering  of  the  text. 

The  paintings  of  the  mummy-cases  are  often  excellent 
specimens  of  Egyptian  art.  They  are  mostly  of  much 
later  date  than  the  tomb-paintings  above  described,  and  in 
some  of  them  we  recognise  a  distinct  attempt  at  portrai- 
ture of  the  person  embalmed.  The  earliest  portrait  on 
record,  however,  is  one  mentioned  by  Herodotus  as  having 
been  sent  by  Amasis,  king  of  Egypt,  to  the  G-reeks  at 
"Cyrene,  about  600  b.c.  This  portrait  was  not  improbably 
j^ainted  upon  panel  (wood)  in  the  manner  of  portraits  of 
later  times  ;  for  the  art  of  painting  upon  panel,  as  proved 
by  some  of  the  works  at  Beni  Hassan,  was  known  to  the 
Egyptians  2,000  years  before  our  era.^ 

But  although  the  Egyptians  were  thus  acquainted  with 
several  methods  of  painting  at  an  extraordinarily  early 
date,  painting  never  rose  with  them  to  any  true  im- 
portance. Their  painting,  in  fact,  was  at  best  httle  more 
than  hieroglyphic  writing,  setting  forth  a  symbol  for  the 
thing,  and  not  an  image  of  it,  as  conceived  by  the  artist. 
We  do  not  find  in  any  Egyptian  work  of  art  a  free  expres- 
sion of  the  artist's  own  mind.  No  scope,  indeed,  was 
allowed  for  individual  talent  by  the  rigid  rules  laid  down 
by  the  governing  priesthood,  who  regulated  the  mode  of 
art  representation  as  it  regulated  everything  else  in  the 
<!Ountry,  and  allowed  of  no  innovation  on  the  orthodox  and 
established  type.      In  other  countries  we  see  art  rising, 

^  The  best  preserved  copy  of  this  Ritual,  or  Egyptian  Service  for  the 
Dead,  is  now  in  the  Museum  at  Turin.  It  has  been  translated  into 
Enghsh  by  Dr.  Birch,  and  into  French  by  M.  Rouge,  "  Revue  Aruh6)- 
logiqiie."  There  ai-e  some  portions  of  Papyri  with  extracts  from  it  in 
the  British  Museum. 

^  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians." 


6  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [cOOK   I. 

flourishing,  and  declining ;  but  in  Egypt  we  see  no- 
development  and  no  decline.^  One  fixed  type  meets  us  in 
every  age  and  under  each  succeeding  dynasty,  until  we 
grow  utterly  weary  of  the  everlasting  sameness,  and  are 
inclined  to  believe  that  the  interminable  stereotyped  forms 
were  the  work,  not  of  artists,  but  of  slaves.  And  this  to 
a  great  extent  was  the  case.  The  pyramids  and  the  other 
gigantic  works  of  Egyptian  architecture  would  have  been 
impossible  achievements  except  under  a  despotic  system 
that  took  no  count  of  the  individual  man,  but  reckoned  its. 
workmen  in  masses.  The  intelligent  mind  of  the  work- 
man, as  revealed  to  us  for  instance  in  a  mediaeval  cathe- 
dral, is  nowhere  apparent  in  them ;  and  without  this  ex- 
pression of  independent  thought,  art  soon  becomes 
paralysed,  and  repeats,  as  we  find  in  Egypt  and  most 
oriental  nations,  and  as  we  shall  afterwards  find  in  Byzan- 
tine work,  the  same  fixed  type  for  centuries.  It  is  dead, 
and  not  living  art. 

There  are  several  Egyptian  paintings  of  great  interest 
preserved  amongst  the  numerous  other  remains  of  Egyptian 
art  in  the  British  Museum.  Unfortunately,  the  originally 
brilhant  colours  of  these  have  faded,  and  many  of  them 
are  now  fast  decaying ;  but  when  first  discovered,  such  at 
least  as  had  not  been  exposed  to  the  influence  of  the 
atmosphere,  their  colours  were  as  bright  and  pure  as  when 
they  were  first  painted.  Red,  yellow,  green  and  blue, 
with  black  and  white,^  were  the  colours  employed.  These 
were  applied  singly,  so  that  no  variety  of  tint  was  pro- 
duced. Different  colours  were  used  for  different  things, 
but  almost  invariably  the  same  colour  for  the  same  thing. 
Thus  men  and  women  were  usually  red,^  the  men  several 
shades  darker  than  the  women,  water  blue,  birds  blue  and 
green,  and  so  on. 

The  Egyptian  Court  at  the  Crystal  Palace  affords  the 
student  an  excellent  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
Egyptians  covered  their  buildings  with  painting.  They 
painted  their  walls,  they  painted  their  roofs,  their  pillars, 

[^  This  is  only  comparatively  true,  see  "  History  of  Painting,"  by 
Wi)ltraann  and  Woermann,  edited  by  Sidney  Colvin,  toI.  i.  p.  415.] 
['  And  brown.] 
P  Reddish-brown.] 


BOOK   I.]         EGYPTIAN   AND   ASIATIC    PAINTING.  7 

their  obelisks,  their  bas-reliefs,^  and  their  sphinxes.  Even 
granite  was  painted  except  when  its  surface  was  so  polished 
as  to  have  sufficient  colour  of  itself. 

Painting  on  glass,  on  terra  cotta,  and  on  metal,  was 
also  practised  by  the  Egyptians. 

[Notwithstanding,  however,  the  number  and  vastness  of 
Egyptian  works  of  art,  the  effect  of  which  was  increased 
by  colour,  the  art  of  "  painting,"  as  we  understand  it,  was 
never  practised  by  this  nation,  nor  as  far  as  we  know,  by 
any  nation  before  that  of  ancient  Greece.  For  this  reason 
the  arts  of  the  great  nations  of  Mesopotamia — Chaldaea,  and 
Assyria,  with  all  the  wonders  that  have  been  unearthed  at 
Babylon  and  Nineveh,  require  but  a  passing  notice  here, 
nor  is  there  any  sufficient  reason  to  dwell  upon  the  pictorial 
art  of  other  early  Eastern  civilizations,  Persian,  Indian, 
Hebrew,  Phoenician,  or  Chinese,  while  that  of  Japan  has 
been  recently  proved  to  be  no  older  than  that  of  modern 
Europe.  Those  who  wish  to  pursue  inquiries  upon  these 
subjects  are  referred  to  the  works  of  Rawlinson,  Layard, 
Place,  Botta  and  Flandrin,  Lenormant,  Oppert,  Perrot  and 
Chipiez,  and  William  Anderson.] 

'  The  Egyptian  reliefs  are  rarely  bas-reliefs,  properly  speaking,  being 
merely  figures  rising  from  a  slightly  depressed  surface,  usually  coloured. 
They  were  called,  koilanaglyphi, — bas-relief  a  en  creiix. 


BOOK  11. 
CLASSIC   PAINTING. 

THE  Grreek  religion  was  a  pure  nature  wors"hip.  Tlie 
mystic  element  that  we  have  seen  prevailing  so  largely 
in  the  religions  and  art  of  the  Eastern  nations  was  banished 
as  far  as  possible  by  the  clear  and  active  Greek  mind, 
which  did  not  strive  to  express  its  idea  of  the  Deity  by 
means  of  symbols  and  fantastic  forms,  but  clothed  it  with 
a  definite  human  shape. 

Homer  had  indeed  represented  the  gods  as  beings  like 
ourselves,  endowed  with  human  passions  and  sensibilities, 
moved  by  anger,  jealousy,  revenge ;  sorrowing,  rejoicing, 
even  suffering  as  we  do.  Here,  then,  in  the  national  reli- 
gion, the  Greek  artist  found  a  true  basis  for  a  naturalistic 
art,  and  instead  of  the  monstrous  gods  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  with  heads  of  animals  and  wings  of  birds  on 
human  bodies,  or  with  human  heads  on  animal  bodies,  he 
fashioned  the  gods  that  he  conceived  in  his  own  image — 

"  And  then  most  godlike,  being  most  a  man." 

This  ideal  of  the  perfectly  harmonious  man  in  the  free 
exercise  of  all  his  physical  and  mental  powers  was  in  truth 
the  highest  ideal  of  Greek  life  as  well  as  of  Greek  art. 
No  nation  ever  exalted  to  such  an  extent  the  physical  side 
of  human  nature,  nor  paid  so  much  attention  to  the  educa- 
tion of  the  body,  which  it  esteemed  fully  as  important  as 
that  of  the  mind.  And  no  people  ever  worshipped  beauty 
as  the  Greeks  did.  They  honoured  the  fortunate  possessor 
of  a  beautiful  form  and  face,  without  reference  to  any 
mental  quality,  and  even  instituted  prizes  at  various  public 


BOOK    II,]  CLASSIC    PAINTING.  9 

f.stivals  to  be  bestowed  on  whoever  was  decided  to  bear  the 
palm  of  beauty.^ 

The  artists  were  commonly  the  judges  on  these  occasions, 
and  here  and  at  the  gymnasium  had  unbounded  opportu- 
nities of  studying  the  human  form  in  its  most  beautiful 
developments.  An  accurate  knowledge  of  the  human  body 
in  movement  and  repose  thus  formed  the  basis  of  Greek 
plastic  art,  but  from  this  study  of  the  individual  human 
body  the  Greek  artist  gradually  rose  to  the  conception  of  a 
lofty  ideal  form,  uniting  the  beauties  of  various  individuals, 
but  transcending  each  by  the  perfection  and  harmony  of 
the  whole.  The  noblest  Greek  statues  are  never  mere 
portrait-like  representations  of  athletic  youths  or  beautiful 
women,  but  they  are  the  visible  expression  of  the  idea  or 
mental  image,  which  by  the  imagination  of  the  artist  had 
been  built  up  from  many  simpler  impressions  in  his  mind. 

In  this  ideal  beauty  ^  lay  the  overwhelming  superiority 
of  Greek  art  over  Egyptian.  The  Egyptian  artist  never 
rose  to  the  conception  of  an  idea.  When  not  employed  in 
copying  as  accurately  as  he  knew  how  the  scenes  of  actual 
life  around  him,  he  worked  from  a  type  set  before  him  by 
previous  ages,  and  this  he  never  developed  into  new  forms. 
But  no  sooner  was  this  type  transplanted  into  Greece,  than, 
uncontrolled  by  priestly  despotism,  it  took  different  form 
in  each  artist's  mind,  and  a  glorious  art  was  produced 
which  expanded  in  intellect  and  beauty  with  the  nation 
that  created  it.  The  material  body  of  this  art  was  doubt- 
less received  from  Egypt,  but  to  the  Greek  belongs  the 
glory  of  having  first  endowed  that  body  with  intellectual 
life,  and  of  having  raised  it  from  being  the  slave  of  priests 
and  despots  to  be  the  interpreter  to  mankind  of  some  of  the 

^  "  At  the  festival  of  the  Philesian  Apollo  a  prize  for  the  most  ex- 
quisite kiss  was  conferred  on  the  youthful." — J.  Winckelmann.  Gcs- 
chichte  der  Kuiist  des  Alterthums. 

'  The  Ideal  in  art  is  not  necessarily  le  beau  ideal,  to  which  many 
seem  to  limit  it.  We  may  have  ideal  ugliness  as  well  as  ideal  beauty, 
but  the  Greeks,  the  greatest  idealists  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  in 
their  worship  of  the  beautiful  tolerated  no  deformity  or  ugliness.  They 
even  represented  the  Fates  and  Furies  as  young  and  beautiful  virgins, 
and  from  them  the  word  ideal  in  art  is  generally  used  to  signify  an 
ideal  of  beauty  and  harmony,  rather  than  of  ugliness  and  deformity, 
lor  explanations  of  the  terms  Real  and  Ideal,  see  note,  infra. 


10  HISTORY   OF   PAINTIXG.  [bOOK    II. 

noblest  thoughts  and  aspirations  of  the  human  mind.  The 
divine  Pallas  Athene  of  the  Parthenon,  and  the  Zeus 
Olympios  at  Elis,  were  not  merely,  one  may  well  believe, 
the  expression  of  the  mind  of  the  one  man  Pheidias  alone, 
but  rather  the  sum  of  the  thoughts  of  a  whole  people  con- 
cerning its  gods,  imaged  in  the  mind  and  chiselled  into 
visible  form  bj  its  greatest  artist.  "  If  the  gods  had  made 
their  appearance  in  life,"  says  Aristotle,  "  all  others  would 
have  looked  like  slaves  beside  them,  as  the  barbarians  be- 
side the  Greek,"  and  this  is  what  we  insignificant  modems 
really  look  beside  even  the  mutilated  remains  of  the  greatest 
of  the  Greek  sculptures. 

The  period  of  the  highest  development  of  Greek  art  came 
after  the  ever-memorable  victories  over  the  Persians,  when 
not  only  Darius  and  Xerxes  were  defeated,  but  the  ancient 
despotism  of  the  East  received  its  first  blow  from  young 
European  liberty.  It  was  after  Marathon,  Thermopylae, 
and  Salamis,  when  Athens  was  being  rebuilt  under  Pericles, 
that  the  Parthenon,  the  Erechtheion,  and  the  temple  of 
Theseus  arose,  and  Pheidias  and  his  contemporaries  called 
into  life  a  world  of  marble  forms  of  imperishable  beauty. 

Painting  was  much  later  than  sculpture  in  becoming  an 
independent  art  in  Greece.  At  first,  as  we  have  seen  it  in 
Egypt,  it  was  chiefly  employed  in  colouring  statues  and 
reliefs  of  clay  or  wood.  Homer  does  not  allude  to  it  except, 
indeed,  by  his  simile  of  the  "  red-cheeked  ships ; "  but  no 
doubt  some  rude  kind  of  painting  was  practised,  especially 
at  Corinth,  "  the  city  of  potters,"  from  a  very  early  time  ; 
but  it  seems  to  have  been  principally  applied  to  vase- 
painting.^ 

It  was  not,  indeed,  until  sculpture  had  reached  its  highest 
perfection,  that  Greek  painting  assumed  any  great  impor- 
tance. We  hear,  it  is  true,  of  several  early  masters,  such 
as  Cleanthes  and  Cleophantos  of  Corinth,  Telephanes 
of  Sicyon,  Eumaros  of  Athens,  famed  by  Pliny  as  having 
been  the  first  to  distinguish  the  figures  of  men  and  women, 
and  CiMON  of  Cleonse,  who  seems  to  have  made  a  conside- 
rable advance  on  preceding  methods  ;  but  the  first  painter 
af  any  great  renown  was  Polygnotos  of  Thasos,  who  was 

^  Muller,  "  ArchaologtC  rkr  Kunst." 


BOOK    II.]  CLASSIC   PAINTIXG.  11 . 

called  to  Athens  about  the  year  462  b.  c,  by  Cimon,  the 
son  of  Miltiades,  and  was  there  employed  in  adorning 
several  of  the  public  buildings  with  paintings.  His  style 
was  exceedingly  simple,  only  coloured  outlines  on  a  coloured 
ground,  without  shade,  without  perspective,  in  sculpture- 
like relief ;  yet  such  was  his  power  of  expression,  that  it. 
was  said  of  his  Polyxene,  that  "  the  whole  Trojan  war  lay 
in  her  eyelids."  Aristotle  also  speaks  of  him  as  "the 
painter  of  noble  characters."  His  most  famous  works  were 
in  the  Leschd,  or  public  open  hall  at  Delphi,  where  he  re- 
presented the  taking  of  Troy  and  the  visit  of  Odysseus  to 
Hades  in  large  wall  paintings.  These  paintings  are  so 
minutely  described  by  Pausanias,  who  saw  them  six  hun- 
dred years  after  their  execution,  that  not  a  few  artists  and 
scholars  have  attempted  to  reproduce  them  from  his 
description.^ 

Unhappily,  no  remains  have  been  found  either  of  these 
or  of  any  of  the  other  great  works  of  Grreek  painting 
whereby  to  judge  of  their  merit.  We  only  know  that  the 
critical  Greeks,  whose  refined  and  cultivated  taste  was  not 
easily  satisfied,  bestowed  as  many  praises  on  their  painters 
as  on  their  sculptors  ;  and  as  the  surpassing  excellence  of 
their  sculpture  is  universally  acknowledged,  it  is  naturally 
inferred  that  their  painting  did  not  fall  far  below  it  in 
beauty.^  Moreover,  from  the  relics  of  inferior  works,  such 
as  the  lovely  vase-paintings  found  in  every  museum,  and 
the  wall- decorations  of  Pompeii  and  other  places,  that 
have  been  preserved,  and  which  must  be  considered  the 
work  of  the  artisan  rather  than  of  the  artist,  we  are 
enabled  to  form  some  slight  notion  of  the  grandeur  and 
beauty  of  the  greatest  creations  of  Greek  iminting;  al- 
though, alas,  not  one  remains. 

Mythical  legends  and  mythological  and  heroic  histories 
were  the  usual  subjects  of  the  early  Greek  painters,  the 

[^  "Woltmann  and  Woermann,  English  translation,  vol.  i.,  p.  41,  and 
note.] 

[^  It  did  not,  however,  in  the  school  of  Polytjnotos  get  beyond  the 
tinting  of  an  outline  design,  knew  nothing  of  chiaroscm-o  or  perspective, 
had  a  flat  monochrome  background,  and  represented  natural  objects 
such  as  trees  and  water  symbolically.  Much  improvement  in  these 
res]  ects  were  due  to  Agatharchos  of  Samos,  who  was  firat  of  all  a  scene- 
painter.] 


tl2  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   II. 

representation  of  the  gods  being  left  more  especially  to  the 
sculptors.  Poljgnotos  seems  to  have  worked  in  an  earnest 
ireligious  spirit. 

MicoN  of  Athens,  distinguished  for  his  painting  of 
horses  ; '  Dionysios  of  Colophon,  who  seems  to  have  given 
a  more  portrait-like  character  to  his  figures  than  Poly- 
gnotos,  Aristotle  having  recorded  that  he  "  painted  men  as 
they  were ;  "  Pan^nos  of  Athens,  and  several  other 
painters  of  lesser  note,  belong  with  Polygnotos  to  the 
earlier  and  severer  development  of  G-reek  painting,  which 
took  place  about  600  b.c.  **  We  see,"  says  Liibke,^  "  in 
this  epoch,  painting  applied  to  great  monumental  objects, 
simply  and  strictly  directed  to  the  representation  of  heroic 
events  and  to  the  spiritual  and  thoughtful  element  they 
contain;  yet  still  far  from  realistic  perfection — aiming 
rather  at  simple  grandeur,  worth,  and  solemnity,  than  at 
sweetness  and  variety.  In  sober  severity  of  execution  it 
consequently  appears  allied  with  the  works  of  Christian 
art  in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  but  in  the  delicacy  of  its 
forms,  and  in  the  delineation  of  various  expressions  of  the 
mind,  it  is  indisputably  superior  to  it." 

The  second  age  of  Greek  painting  was  ushered  in  by 
-Apollodoros  of  Athens,  who  lived  about  a  generation 
later  than  Polygnotos,  and  was  the  first  to  study  the 
various  phenomena  of  light  and  shade.  For  this  reason 
he  had  the  name  of  the  Shadower,  or  Shadow-painter, 
given  to  him. 

But  the  most  celebrated  painter  of  this  time  was  the 
famous  Zetjxis  of  Heracleia,  born  about  450  b.c.  With 
him  painting  attained  to  a  marvellous  expression  of 
sensuous  beauty,  and  to  a  perfection  of  illusory  effect  that 
was  almost  complete.^  His  chief  charms  lay  in  the 
soft  grace  and  delicate  expression  that  he  gave,  especially 
to  his  female  figures,  and  in  a  dramatic  power  of  expres- 
sion that  has  never  perhaps  been  equalled.      One  of  his 

^  A  celebrated  judge  of  horseflesh  could  find,  it  is  said,  no  other  fault 
-with  Micon's  horses  than  that  he  had  painted  eyelashes  to  their  under 
-eyelids,  which  horses  have  not. 

2  Liibke's  "  History  of  Art,"  trans,  by  F.  E.  Bunnett,  1868. 

^  As,  for  example,  the  story  of  the  grapes,  at  which  the  birds  came 
•and  pecked;  and  the  curtain  painted  by  his  x'ival  Parrhasios  which 
deceived  even  Zeuxis  himself. 


BOOK   II.]  CLASSIC   PAINTING.  1$' 

most  extolled  works  was  the  Centaur  family,  so  minutely 
described  by  Lucian,  in  which  he  succeeded  in  blending  the 
human  and  animal  nature  so  intimately,  that  "it  wa& 
impossible  to  discern  where  the  one  ceased  and  the  other 
began."  His  Helen,  painted  for  a  temple  of  Hera  at 
Croton  also,  for  which  the  people  of  Croton  allowed  him 
to  select  five  of  their  noblest  and  most  beautiful  maidens 
for  models,  was  one  of  the  most  famous  pictures  of  the 
ancient  world,  Zeuxis,  it  is  said,  exhibited  this  picture  to- 
the  public,  charging  so  much  a  head  for  seeing  it,  after  the 
manner  of  modern  exhibitions. 

Penelope  bemoaning  Odysseus,  the  infant  Heracles  strang- 
ling the  serpents,  Menelaos  mourning  for  Agamemnon, 
Zeus  on  the  throne  surrounded  by  gods,  are  among  other- 
subjects  chosen  by  him  for  representation.  He  frequently 
invented  the  subject  of  his  pictures  himself,  and  even 
when  he  did  not,  he  always,  we  are  told,  represented  it 
in  some  new  and  striking  manner,  setting  it,  in  fact,  in 
the  light  of  his  own  mind.  The  life-like  character  of  his 
painting  is  well  exempHfied  by  the  absurd  story  that  he 
died  of  laughing  at  the  portrait  of  an  old  woman  which  he 
had  painted. 

Parehasios  of  Ephesos  was  a  formidable  rival  even  to 
Zeuxis.  He  styled  himself  indeed  the  prince  of  painters, 
and  boasted  of  descent  from  Apollo.  According  to  Pliny 
he  was  the  first  to  study  the  rules  of  proportion,  and  he 
came  very  near  Zeuxis  in  his  power  of  depicting  passion 
and  feeling.  An  allegorical  painting  by  him  of  the  Attic 
State  or  Demos,  wherein  he  set  forth  all  its  good  and  evil 
qualities,  is  especially  celebrated. 

Both  Zeuxis  and  Parrhasios  belonged  to  what  is  usually 
called  the  Ionic  school  of  painting,  but  they  and  their 
followers  may  be  more  conveniently  classed  under  the 
general  name  of  the  Asiatic  school ;  for  after  the  troubles 
of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  art  no  longer  found  a  home  at 
Athens,  which  had  been  the  chief  seat  of  the  previous  or- 
Attic  school,  but  made  its  resting  place  in  the  cities  of 
Asia  Minor,  especially  in  Ephesos. 

An  opposed  school  to  the  Ionic  or  Asiatic  was  that  of 
Sicyon,  of  which  the  principal  representatives  are  Timan- 
THES  of  Cythnos,  distinguished  for  his  inventive  faculty 


14  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    II. 

and  his  expression  of  passion  and  emotion ;  ^  Eupompos, 
the  founder  of  the  Sicyonic  school ;  Melanthios,  one  of 
its  most  thoughtful  artists  ;  Euphranor,  a  painter  of  gods 
and  heroes  ;  and  Pausias,  distinguished  for  his  foreshorten- 
ing, and  his  painting  of  ceilings,^  and  for  his  encaustic 
painting,  which  method  was  likewise  practised  by  Aris- 
teides  ""  of  Thebes. 

Uniting  the  sensuous  beauty  and  rich  colouring  of  the 
Ionic  school  with  the  severer  intellectual  qualities  of  the 
Sicyonic,  we  next  come  to  the  great  Apelles  of  Cos,  the 
hero-painter  of  the  ancient,  as  Raphael  of  the  modern 
world.  (Painted  probably  between  350  and  310  b.c.)  As 
with  Zeuxis,  grace  and  beauty  formed  the  distinguishing 
charms  of  his  works,  but  he  seems  more  than  any  other 
painter,  except  perhaps  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  to  have  united 
and  harmonized  in  himself  all  the  various  gifts  and  facul- 
ties of  the  artist  nature.^  It  was  this  marvellous  harmony 
doubtless  that  rendered  his  celebrated  Venus  Anadyomene 
so  perfect.  The  goddess  was  represented  rising  from  the 
sea,  wringing  the  water  from  her  hair,  which  fell  in  a  veil- 
ing shower  around  her  lovely  form.  There  was  nothing 
more  than  the  single  figure  of  the  goddess,  but  the  ancients 
seem  to  have  lost  themselves  in  admiration  of  it^  Ovid 
even  declared  that  but  for  this  picture  Venus  would  for . 
ever  have  remained  hidden  beneath  her  native  :waters.* 

'  His  famous  picture  of  the  Sacrifice  of  Iphigeneia,  in  which  he  ex- 
-pressed  the  overwhelming  grief  of  Agamemnon  by  hiding  his  face  from 
view,  has  given  rise  to  more  criticism  than  any  other  painting  ever 
evoked ;  and  "  the  trick,"  as  Sir  Joshua  Eeynolds  calls  it,  of  Timanthes, 
has  been  i-epeatedly  copied  by  lesser  men,  who  forgot  that  what  in  him 
may  be  esteemed  an  evidence  of  latent  power,  became  with  them  an 
■evidence  of  actual  weakness.  A  wall-painting,  probably  derived  from 
this  great  work,  has  been  preserved  at  Pompeii. 

^  "  He  introduced  the  decorative  ceiling  paintings,  afterwards  common, 
consisting  of  single  figures,  flowers,  and  arabesques." — Muller,  Archdo- 
logie  der  Kunst. 

P  Euphranor  and  Aristeides  his  master  are  now  generally  classed  in 
a  third  Greek  school  of  the  fourth  century  b.c,  called  the  Theban- 
Attic] 

*  It  was  originally  painted  for  the  Temple  of  Asclepios  at  Cos,  but 
was  subsequently  carried  to  Rome  by  Augustus,  who  remitted  a  hundred 
talents  of  tribute,  imposed  upon  the  island,  in  consideration  of  it.  It 
was  in  a  decaying  state  as  early  as  the  time  of  Kero,  but  no  artist 
Tentured  to  restore  it. 


BOOK    II.]  CLASSIC    PAINTING.  16 

Besides  heroic  and  mythological  subjects,  Apelles 
l>aiuted  many  portraits,  one  in  particular  of  Alexander  of 
Macedon,  to  whom  he  was,  as  we  should  call  it,  court 
painter.  The  great  king  was  represented  in  the  character 
of  Jupiter,  with  the  thunderbolt  in  his  hand  ;  which  hand, 
Pliny  records,  stood  out  in  a  wonderful  manner  from  the 
picture.  Alexander  admired  Apelles'  style  so  much  that 
he  would  not  be  painted  by  any  other  master,  and  was 
wont  to  say  that  "  there  were  two  Alexanders,  one  the  un- 
conquered  son  of  Philip,  and  the  other  the  unrivalled 
work  of  Apelles."  He  paid  the  painter,  we  are  told,  as 
much  as  twenty  talents  (about  <£5,000)  for  this  portrait. 
Perhaps  in  this  instance  something  was  paid  for  the  flattery 
of  being  represented  as  Jupiter,  as  well  as  the  likeness, 
still  it  is  in  other  cases  astonishing  to  read  of  the  enormous 
sums  that  Greek  artists  received  for  their  works,  and  of 
the  sumptuous  style  in  which  many  of  them  lived  and 
dressed.  Zeuxis  made  presents  of  his  pictures  in  his  later 
life  because  their  price  could  not  be  estimated.^  ApoUo- 
doros  wore  a  lofty  tiara  after  the  Persian  fashion,  and 
Parrhasios  rivalled  both  him  and  Zeuxis  in  the  ostentation 
I  of  wealth.  Apelles  possibly  led  a  simpler  life,  at  all  events 
he  was  famed  for  his  industry,  and  to  him  is  referred  the 
origin  of  the  proverb  "  Nulla  dies  sine  linea." 

Protogenes  was  the  contemporary  and  friend  of  Apelles, 
and  owed  to  his  friend's  generous  nature,  which  raised 
him  above  every  low  feeling  of  jealousy,  the  recognition  of 
his  talents.  He  was  chiefly  praised  for  the  elaborate 
detail  and  minute  finish  of  his  works.  His  most  celebrated 
picture — that  of  the  Rhodian  hero  lalysos  and  Ms  dog,  is 
said  to  have  transfixed  Apelles  with  admiration. 

Theon  of  Samos,  also  of  the  same  epoch,  is  ranked 
sometimes  among  the  great  painters  of  Greece. 

But  with  Apelles,  Greek  painting  reached  its  highest 
point  of  perfection.  After  this  short  blooming  time,  the 
inevitable  decay  began,  and  when  once  it  began  it  pro- 
ceeded with  such  fearful  rapidity,  that  soon  representa- 
tions of  barbers*  shops,  cobblers'  stalls,  and  similar  genre 
-subjects,  as  well  as  caricatures  of  mythological  histories, 

*  Pliny,  XXXV.  36. 


16  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOZ   I: 

and  worts  of  a  still  more  reprehensible  and  sensual  cha 
racter,  were  the  chief  productions  of  the  art  that  ha 
formerly  delighted  in  setting  forth  the  deeds  of  gods  an 
heroes.  Even  before  the  age  of  Alexander,  Greek  paintin; 
had  declined  from  its  early  epic  grandeur;  it  was  no  longe 
regarded  as  an  embodiment  of  the  religious  ideas  of  th. 
people,  but  it  was  still  an  embodiment  of  their  ideas  o 
beauty,  and  its  greatest  perfection  was  thus  attained 
After  the  Alexandrian  period,  however,  neither  religioi 
nor  beauty  were  much  desired,  for  such  was  the  depravity 
of  the  public  taste,  that  the  low-life  pictures  that  th( 
masters  of  that  time  produced  were  more  esteemed  thai 
the  great  creations  of  earlier  times. 

Greek  art  rose  and  fell,  in  truth,  with  Greek  freedom 
Its  noblest  development  was  in  the  time  immediately  fol 
lowing  the  Persian  wars,  when  Greek  life  had  been  straine( 
to  its  highest  pitch  of  heroism ;  its  greatest  beauty  wai 
reached  when  intellectual  culture  and  philosophic  inquir 
had  taken  the  place  of  simple  faith,  and  the  Beautiful  wai 
worshipped  as  the  Good ;  and  its  fall  came  when  luxur 
and  sensuality  had  done  their  work,  and  the  Greece  tha 
had  so  nobly  defeated  Persia  could  offer  no  resistance  t< 
the  arms  and  power  of  Rome. 

The  last  painters  of  Greece  were  genre  painters,  and  s< 
numerous  were  they  that  the  Greeks  invented  a  name  fo: 
their  style  of  art.  They  called  it  "  Rhuparographia,' 
which  in  its  literal  signification  is  dirt  painting. 

Etruscan  Painting  can  only  be  regarded  as  a  brand 
of  Greek,  but  it  developed  several  peculiar  characteristics 
The  plastic  genius  of  the  Greeks,  which,  to  a  certain  exten 
dominated  even  in  their  paintings,  was  not  so  conspicuou 
with  the  Etruscans ;  instead  of  sculpturesque  relief  the; 
sought  after  picturesque  effect,  and  painting  was  earl; 
cultivated  by  them  in  preference  to  sculpture.  Still,  how 
ever,  no  Etruscan  painters  ever  attained  to  the  celebrity  o 
the  Greek  artists,  nor  have  the  names  of  any  been  handec 
down  to  us.  On  the  other  hand,  a  few  remains  of  Etrus 
can  wall  paintings  have  been  discovered  in  subterraneai 
passages,  and  such  like  places,  which  give  us  a  genera 
idea  of  their  style  of  art.     These  wall  paintings  generally 


BOOK  II.]  CLASSIC    PAINTING.  17 

represent  scenes  from  ordinary  life  in  simple  coloured 
outline,  but  a  frequent  subject,  as  in  Egypt,  is  the  destiny 
of  the  soul  after  death.  In  many  respects,  indeed,  Etrus- 
can painting  seems  to  have  adhered  more  faithfully  to  its 
Egyptian  parentage  than  Greek.  One  singular  cha- 
racteristic of  it  is  that  green  trees,  or  branches  of  trees, 
sometimes  with  birds  on  them,  are  usually  placed  between 
the  separate  figures,  in  order,  it  would  appear,  to  divide 
the  picture  into  compartments. 

EoMAN  Painting. — Eome  accepted  her  art  from  Greece 
with  more  subservience  than  the  Oriental  nations  had 
shown  towards  Egypt.  She  did  not  invent  one  new  type 
nor  conceive  one  new  idea.  The  practical  sense  of  the 
Romans  urged  them,  it  is  true,  at  an  early  period,  towards 
the  construction  of  mihtary  roads,  fine  aqueducts,  strong 
bridges,  and  other  useful  works  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity ;  but  when  they  turned  their  attention  to  artistic 
works  they  were  content  to  imitate  the  style  of  other 
countries,  Etruria  first  and  then  Greece.  The  Eomans,  in 
fact,  utterly  lacked  that  artistic  faculty  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  Greeks  possessed  in  so  high  a  degree.  With  the 
latter,  every  citizen  was  an  amateur  and  critic,  a  lover  and 
a  judge  of  art,  and  had  as  much  national  pride  in  the 
production  of  a  master- work  as  in  the  conquest  of  a  town ; 
but  the  encouragement  of  art  with  the  Romans  seems  to 
have  been  more  a  matter  of  ostentation  than  of  love,  or 
rather,  they  loved  it  as  a  means  of  displaying  their  mag- 
nificence, not  from  any  true  vocation  to  its  service. 

The  name  of  no  Roman-born  artist  of  any  extraordinary 
merit  has  been  preserved.  There  were,  in  fact,  but  few 
Roman  artists,  for  with  an  understanding,  perhaps,  of 
their  own  deficiencies,  the  masters  of  the  world  left  all 
their  great  artistic  undertakings  to  the  Greeks,  who,  espe- 
cially after  the  degradation  of  their  own  country,  flocked 
to  Rome  in  great  numbers,  and  vied  with  one  another  in 
executing  grand  and  beautiful  works  for  their  conquerors. 

A  Graeco-Roman  school  was  thus  founded  which  in 
architecture  and  sculpture,  at  all  events,  has  achieved  a 
lasting  fame.  Under  conditions  of  dependence  and  national 
slavery  the  Greek  artists  in  Rome  tried  hard  to  revive  the 

c 


18  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  II. 

glory  of  the  former  days  of  their  plastic  art,  and  although 
this  was  impossible,  the  free  spirit  of  that  art  having  de- 
parted, yet  they  succeeded  in  producing  works  of  such 
grandeur  and  beauty  that  they  have  remained  the  admira- 
tion of  all  succeeding  ages. 

In  painting,  the  Grraeco-Roman  school  was  of  less  im- 
portance than  in  sculpture,  but  on  the  other  hand  the 
Eomans  themselves  evinced  a  greater  capacity  for  painting 
than  for  the  other  arts.  Even  as  early  as  the  days  of  the 
Republic,  Fabius  Pictor  is  mentioned  as  having  painted 
the  temple  of  Salus  (about  300  B.C.)  in  a  masterly  manner.^ 
The  Poet  Pacuvius  also  painted  the  Temple  of  Hercules 
(200  B.C.).  But  in  the  time  of  the  emperors  painting  had 
sunk  from  the  service  of  the  gods  to  be  the  mere  slave  of 
wealth  and  luxury.  Under  Caesar,  it  is  true,  it  had  a 
short  period  of  revival,  Timomachus  of  Byzantium  being 
extolled  as  a  painter  of  passion,  comparable  to  those  of 
the  palmy  days  of  G-reek  art ;  but  he  must  be  regarded 
rather  as  one  of  the  last  of  the  distinguished  masters  of  the 
native  Greek  school,  than  as  belonging  to  the  Graeco- 
Roman.  It  is  not  recorded  that  he  was  ever  at  Rome.^ 
Pliny  regards  painting  in  the  age  of  Vespasian  as  an  art 
fast  dying  out.  With  the  exception  of  portrait-painting, 
for  which  there  was  a  constantly  increasing  demand, 
nothing  beyond  mere  decorative  works  seems  to  have  been 
produced,  and  even  portraiture,  which  when  nobly  con- 
ceived is  one  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  art,^  fell  to 
such  follies  as  representing  the  Emperor  Nero  120  feet 
high,  and  executing  likenesses  inlaid  in  silver,  and  even  in 
pearls  and  precious  stones,  the  richness  of  the  material 
being  evidently  esteemed  more  than  the  art.  A  woman 
artist  named  Laia  or  Lala  of  Cyzicus  was  especially 
famous  for  her  portraits. 

^  Liry,  x.  1.     Pliny,  xxxv.  7. 

^  His  Ajax  and  Medea,  a  picture  greatly  celebrated  in  epigrams,  was 
purchased  by  Julius  Caesar  for  eighty  talents,  and  dedicated  in  the 
Temple  of  Venus  Genetrix.  It  is  doubtfnl,  however,  whether  the 
painter  was  alive  at  this  time;  more  probably  it  was  purchased  from 
the  Cyzicans. 

^  "  The  highest  thing  that  art  can  do  is  to  set  l)efore  you  the  true 
image  of  a  noble  himian  being.  It  has  never  done  more  than  this,  and 
it  ought  not  to  do  less." — Ruskin,  Lectures  on  Art. 


BOOK  II.]  CLASSIC    PAINTING.  W 

Landscape  painting  was  also  practised  under  the  em- 
pire, but  only,  it  would  seem,  for  decorative  purposes.  A 
painter  named  Ludius,  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  "  invented 
this  charming  art,"  Pliny  tells  us,  for  the  decoration  of 
walls,  "  upon  which  he  scattered  country-houses,  porticoes, 
shrubs,  thickets,  forests,  hills,  ponds,  rivers,  and  banks,  in 
a  word,  all  that  the  fancy  of  any  one  could  desire." 

We  have,  however,  a  better  means  of  judging  of  the 
nature  of  these  wall  decorations  than  from  Pliny's  account. 
The  paintings  that  have  been  discovered  at  Pompeii  and 
Herculaneum  and  a  few  other  places,  although  undoubtedly 
the  work  of  inferior  artists,  in  an  age  when  art  was  greatly 
degraded,  yet  possess  such  a  wonderful  charm  in  their 
correct  design,  their  perfectly  harmonious  colour,  and  their 
easy  classic  grace,  that  we  are  enabled  to  form  some  notion 
of  the  perfection  that  painting  must  have  attained  in  the 
palmy  days  of  G-reek  art,  when  we  reflect  that  even  in  the 
time  of  its  degeneracy,  and  in  a  foreign  country,  it  was 
enabled  to  produce  works  such  as  these.  It  is  true  that 
these  paintings  are  often  copies  and  imitations  of  older 
Greek  works,  so  that  the  conception  can  scarcely  be 
reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  age  in  which  they  were  painted, 
but  their  execution,  harmony  of  colour,  and  graceful  archi- 
tectural effect,  are  qualities  peculiarly  their  own.  They  were 
mostly  painted  in  tempera  on  a  coloured  ground,  generally  a 
deep  red  or  a  soft  yellow.  The  subjects  chosen  were  usually 
from  the  mystic  history  of  Greece,  but  perhaps  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  the  representations  are  the  figures  floating, 
as  it  were,  above  the  earth,  of  gods,  dancing  girls,  genii, 
and  fluttering  winged  forms,  interspersed  generally  with 
garlands  and  other  floral  decorations.  Nothing  indeed  can 
well  be  conceived  of  greater  elegance  and  beauty  than 
many  of  these  Pompeian  decorations,  and  yet  this  art 
lacked  all  the  qualities  that  constitute  noble  intellectual 
work. 

During  the  whole  of  the  Graeco-Roman  period  we  must 
indeed  regard  art,  in  spite  of  its  many  lovely  productions, 
as  becoming  more  and  more  degenerate,  until  at  last,  about 
the  time  of  the  Christian  era,  it  sank  into  a  state  of  utter 
exhaustion.  The  old  classic  life  was  at  an  end,  with  all  its 
physical  and  intellectual  beauty  and  moral  deformity,  the 


20  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [eOOK  II. 

old  forms  of  belief  were  no  longer  credible,  the  old  gods  had 
fallen  from  Olympus ;  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  there- 
fore that  the  conditions  that  had  produced  classic  art 
having  ceased,  the  art  itself  should  likewise  die  out.  A 
new  religion  was  needed  to  express  the  new  ideas  of  the 
Deity  that  were  gradually  gaining  possession  of  men's 
minds,  and  a  new  art  was  needed  to  embody  these  ideas. 
This  religion  and  this  art  were  found  in  Christianity. 


BOOK  III. 
EARLY   CHRISTIAN   PAINTING. 


CHRISTIANITY,  in  its  first  noble  protest  against  the 
idolatry  of  the  world,  wholly  rejected  art  from  its 
service  ;  it  even  shrank  from  it  in  horror  as  having  proved 
so  efficient  an  embodiment  of  the  pagan  religion.  The 
commandment,  "Thou  shalt  not  make  to  thyself  any 
graven  image,"  was  still  binding  on  the  Jewish  converts, 
and  their  Gentile  brethren  although  educated  in  the  wor- 
ship of  visible  forms,  when  they  first  attained  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  one  true  and  invisible  God,  turned  to  Him 
in  the  spirit  without  the  aid  of  any  material  representations 
such  as  the  old  religion  had  supplied  them  with  by  means 
of  art. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  imitating  the  bold  naturalism  of 
the  Greeks,  the  early  Christians  adopted  the  use  of  symbols 
to  express  Divine  things. 

At  first  these  symbols  were  extremely  simple,  being,  in 
fact,  merely  a  mode  of  hieroglyphic  writing  such  as  we  have 
seen  practised  in  Egypt.  Thus,  the  Cross  and  the  mono- 
gram of  Christ  cemposed  of  the  Greek  letters,  X  P,  gene- 
rally in  the  form  \p  signified  redemption  by  Christ's  suffer- 
ing. The  lamb  and  the  wine  were  the  hieroglyphs  for 
Christ  himself,  as  also  the  fish,  from  the  Greek  word  for 
it,  ichthus,  1X0Y2,  containing  the  initial  letters  of  the 
name  of  Christ,  and  the  words  that  signify  his  divine  mis- 
sion (Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  Saviour).^  The  ship  sym- 
bolized the  Church,  the  dove  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  with 'the 

^  The  fish  denotes  ns  well,  sometimes,  the  regenerating  water  of 
baptism. 


22  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK  III. 

olive-branch,  peace ;  the  cock,  watchfulness ;  the  anchor, 
hope ;  the  phcenix  and  peacock,  eternity ;  the  palm-branch, 
victory  ;  and  so  on  through  a  great  number  of  outward 
signs  used  to  denote  spiritual  ideas. 

But  after  a  time,  when  the  Christians  had  ceased  to  be 
a  persecuted  minority,  and  were  rising  into  power  in  the 
state,  declining  at  the  same  time  from  the  purity  of  their 
early  faith,  these  simple  signs  failed  to  satisfy  their  artistic 
instincts.  The  Church  also,  there  being  now  less  danger  of 
lapse  into  idolatry,  began  to  perceive  the  value  of  art  in 
embodying  its  ideas  and  teaching  its  doctrines.  It  took, 
therefore,  such  degenerate  Classic  art  as  it  found  at  hand, 
fostered  it,  and  turned  it  to  Christian  purposes  ;  for  the 
broad  line  of  demarcation  drawn  by  many  historians  be- 
tween Pagan  and  Christian  art  did  not  exist  in  these  first 
centuries  of  Christianity.  The  first  Christian  artists  were 
probably  converted  pagan  artists,  or  had  learnt  from  pagan 
teachers,  and  naturally  their  work  as  Christians  bore  the 
impress  of  their  previous  modes  of  thought.  This  is  espe- 
cially seen  in  the  Catacomb  paintings. 

But  although  the  outward  forms  of  Pagan  art  were  thus 
transmitted  to  Christian,  the  spirit  of  the  one  was  wholly 
different  from  that  of  the  other.  The  ideal  of  the  Christian 
was  indeed  totally  unlike  that  of  the  Greek  ;  and  this  diffe- 
rent ideal  gradually  developed  a  new  art.  For  a  time,  how- 
ever, it  almost  seemed  as  if  the  Christian  ideal  would  lack 
original  expression,  and  that  in  the  domain  of  art,  if  in  no 
other,  the  spirit  of  Greece  and  Eome  would  retain  its  hold 
even  over  the  followers  of  Christ. 

The  paintings  in  the  Catacombs  at  Eome  and  Naples, 
the  earliest  examples  of  Christian  painting  of  which  we 
have  any  knowledge,  are  conceived  completely  in  the  spirit 
of  antique  art,  and  in  all  cases  we  find  a  classical  treatment 
of  Christian  subjects  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  early 
Christian  school  at  Rome. 

Christ,  under  the  figure  of  Orpheus  taming  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  forest  by  the  sound  of  his  lyre  ;  ^  Christ  as 
the  good  shepherd;  a  beautiful  beardless  youth  in  a  short 
shepherd's   garb   carrying  the   recovered   lamb   over  his 

^  Christ  is  depicted  under  this  figure  no  less  than  three  times  in  the 
Catacomb  of  St.  Cah'xtus. 


BOOK  III.]  EARLY    CHRISTIAN    PAINTING.  23 

shoulders  ;  Christ  as  the  teacher,  with  disciples  in  antique 
garb  on  either  side  of  him,  and  a  gracefully  conventional 
vine,  with  winged  boys  or  genii  gathering  the  grapes,  filling 
up  the  tympanum  of  the  arch.  Noah  in  the  ark,  Daniel  in 
the  lions'  den,  Moses  striking  the  rock,  and  Elijah  ascend- 
ing to  heaven  in  a  chariot  resembling  that  of  Apollo,  are 
some  amongst  the  many  paintings  in  the  Catacombs  in 
which  the  direct  influence  of  classic  models  is  clearly 
apparent. 

The  meaning  of  all  these  subjects  was  still  no  doubt 
entirely  figurative.  Thus,  Elijah  is  supposed  to  have 
typified  the  resurrection  of  the  body ;  Moses  striking  the 
rock,  the  living  water  of  the  Gospel,  and  Orpheus  probably 
its  attractive  power — but  it  is  clear  that  in  this  pictorial 
and  figurative  language,  there  was  already  an  immense 
advance  upon  the  earlier  system  of  signs  and  hieroglyphs. 
There  was  only  one  step  more,  in  fact,  to  the  actual  repre- 
sentation of  the  idea  itself,  and  the  disuse  of  symbolism 
altogether,  and  accordingly  we  find  that  at  the  Council  of 
Constantinople,  in  the  year  692,  the  substitution  of  the 
human  figure  of  Christ  for  his  figurative  representation, 
was  permitted  to  the  Christian  artist.^  From  this  time 
there  was  manifested  by  the  artist  a  constantly  increasing 
tendency  to  represent  directly  the  object  of  worship,  and 
soon  to  the  image  thus  established,  there  began  to  be 
attached  a  pecuHar  sanctity.  It  became,  in  fact,  an  object 
of  worship.^ 

The  traditional  head  of  Christ  with  which  everyone  is 
familiar,  we  owe  to  Byzantium  rather  than  to  Rome,  al- 
though the  first  time  we  meet  with  it  is  in  the  Catacombs.^ 
All  the  efforts  of  the  Emperor  Constantine  to  revive  in  his 
new  capital — 

"  The  glory  that  was  Greece, 
And  the  grandeur  that  was  Kome,* 

proved  in  the  end  as  unavailing  as  those  of  Julian  to  rein- 
state the  old  religion.     "  The  Galilean  had  conquered,"  as 

1  Earlier  than  this,  by  the  Council  of  Ephesus,  in  a.d.  431,  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  Virgin  was  to  be  represented  by  art  had  likewise 
been  defined. 

^  Lecky,  "  History  of  Rationalism,"  vol.  i. 

'  See  article  in  "  Quarterly  lieview,"  Oct.  1667,  "  Portraits  of  Christ." 


24  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  III. 

Julian  is  said  to  have  acknowledged  on  his  death-bed,  and 
classic  art  fell  with  the  religion  that  it  had  embodied. 
Henceforward  a  new  idea  found  expression  in  the  art  as 
well  as  in  the  life  of  mankind,  and  a  Christian  type  was 
founded  by  the  Byzantine  monks  '■  that  gradually  developed 
from  the  rigid  staring  sorrow  of  the  Christs  and  Madonnas 
of  Byzantine  art  to  the  tender  love  of  Leonardo,  and  the 
holy  purity  of  Eaphael.  The  whole  teaching  of  Christianity 
as  distinguished  from  Paganism  lies,  one  may  almost  say, 
within  the  Byzantine  conception  of  Christ.  It  is  the  Man 
of  Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief ;  the  Saviour,  who 
suffered  death  for  his  people ;  the  Redeemer,  who  paid  the 
penalties  of  our  sins,  who  is  here  represented,  and  not  any 
G-od  of  Greek  mythology.  Nothing  indeed  can  well  be 
more  unlike  the  Greek  ideal  of  the  godlike.  Sorrow  and 
suffering  were  never,  except  in  rare  instances,  made  pro- 
minent in  Greek  art,  and  even  in  these  instances  they  were 
idealized ;  but  in  Byzantine  art  their  expression  is  one  of 
its  chief  characteristics.  All  Christian  art,  in  fact,  is  sad 
and  incomplete,  producing  in  us  a  sense  of  some  deep 
underlying  mystery,  whereas  Greek  art  is  always  complete, 
harmonious,  and  well-defined.  Beauty  even  was  not  a 
necessary  element  in  the  Christian  ideal ;  one  party  in  the 
Church  indeed  went  as  far  as  to  propose  that  the  outward 
form  of  Christ  should  be  depicted  by  art  in  as  repulsive  a 
manner  as  possible,  in  accordance  with  the  prophet's  words, 
"  He  hath  no  form  nor  beauty  that  we  should  desire  him." 
Happily,  in  the  controversy  that  took  place  on  this  point, 
the  fathers  who  contended  for  the  personal  comeliness  of 
Christ,  gained  the  day,  and  Adrian  I.  decreed  in  the  eighth 
century  that  he  should  be  represented  under  as  beautiful  a 
form  as  art  could  bestow. 

The  type  being  once  founded,  endless  repetitions  of  it 
were  soon  produced,  and  jDictures  and  images  multiplied  to 
such  an  extent  in  a  church  that  had  begun  by  condemning 
their  use,  that  the  Iconoclasts,  whose  work  of  destruction 
began  in  the  year  728  and  was  continued  until  the  follow- 
ing century,  found  ample  employment  in  casting  down  the 
images  and   destroying  the  pictorial    representations   of 

^  It  is  at  all  events  in  their  works,  and  not  in  those  of  the  early  Cata- 
comb artists,  that  the  spirit  of  Christian  art  first  becomes  apparent. 


BOOK  III.J  EARLY   CHRISTIAN    PAINTING.  25 

sacred   persons  which  had  been  set  up  in  almost  every 
church  both  in  the  east  and  the  west. 

This  extraordinary  multipUcation  of  pictures  did  not, 
however,  by  any  means  imply  a  taste  for  art  among  the 
early  fathers  and  children  of  the  Christian  church.  On 
the  contrary,  artistic  merit  for  its  own  sake  was  the  last 
thing  required  in  these  works. ^  Almost  all  the  artists 
were,  as  before  said,  monks,  shut  into  their  convents,  and 
pursuing  their  j^eacef  ul  avocations,  whilst  the  wild  chaos 
that  succeeded  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient  world  was 
gradually  becoming  moulded  into  the  new  forms  of  the 
modern  world.  Their  chief  aim  seems  to  have  been  to  copy 
as  closely  as  possible  the  type  that  had  been  set  before 
them  as  exi)ressive  of  religious  ideas,  and  from  this  type 
they  never  deviated.  Progressive  development  was  thus 
rendered  impossible,  and  Byzantine  art  became  as  stationary 
in  its  character  as  Egyptian.  Melancholy  Christs,  with 
large  ill-shaped  eyes,  looking  forth  into  space  and  seeing 
nothing ;  Madonnas,  with  a  deep  olive  green  complexion, 
suggesting  a  bilious  temperament ;  ^  infant  Saviours,  whose 
attenuated  limbs  and  old-looking  faces,  would  seem  to 
speak  of  the  most  direful  effects  of  starvation ;  saints  with 
distorted  arms  and  legs,  and  emaciated  to  a  degree  that 
even  S.  Simeon  Stylites  might  envy ;  these  are  the  well- 
known  features  of  Byzantine  painting.  Nor  are  such  fea- 
tures to  be  wondered  at  when  we  consider  the  asceticism 
to  wliich  this  curious  ideal  of  the  Byzantines  owed  its  birth. 
How  could  a  poor  half- starved  monk  who  considered  that 
the  mortification  of  his  body  was  his  primary  duty,  under- 

[^  The  author  in  these  and  the  following  remarks  is  evidently  thinking 
of  the  Byzantine  pictures  of  comparative!  j  late  date,  and  is  leaving  out 
of  account  (see  note  4,  on  p.  27)  the  grand  mosaics  of  the  fourth, 
fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  centuries.  These  possessed  great  artistic  merit, 
especially  of  a  decorative  kindj  and,  therefoi-e,  for  its  own  sake.  It 
must  also  be  remembered  that  it  is  to  Byzantine  artists  that  we  owe  the 
dramatic  conception  of  the  leading  events  of  the  Bible  narratives  <»f  buth 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  which  formed  the  basis  of  Italian  religious 
design  from  Giotto  to  Kaphael.] 

[^  The  "  green  complexions  "  so  common  in  old  paintings  do  not  repre- 
sent the  oi'iginal  appearance  of  the  faces  when  painted,  but  are  caused 
by  the  green  ground  upon  which  it  was  accustomed  to  lay  the  flesh-tints 
predominating  either  by  chemical  action,  or  by  the  removal  of  the  glazes 
by  over  cleaning.] 


26  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  III. 

stand  humanity  in  its  broad,  natural,  and  healthy  charac- 
teristics. The  art  of  these  men  was  necessarily  as  restrained 
as  their  lives,  prej  ing  on  its  own  forms  for  generation  after 
generation.  This  asceticism,  however,  was  not  altogether 
an  evil.  The  Greeks,  we  must  remember,  had  fallen  at  last 
into  base  sensuality  by  their  glorification  of  the  human 
body.  To  represent  the  naked  body  in  all  its  strength  and 
beauty  had  been  the  highest  aim  of  their  art,  but  the 
Christians  regarded  the  body  as  a  temj)tation  to  evil,  and 
sought  on  all  occasions  to  mortify  and  subdue  its  passions 
and  desires.  Their  aim,  in  direct  contrast  to  that  of  the 
Greeks,  was  to  subjugate  the  animal  nature  of  man,  and 
thereby,  as  they  imagined,  exalt  his  spiritual  nature,  and 
this  aim  is  manifestly  attained  by  their  art. 

Those  solemn  dark-visaged  Madonnas,  weird  Infants, 
and  long-Hinbed  lean  saints  have  often  a  mysterious  super- 
natural life  that  awes  us  more  than  the  natural  and  earthly 
beauty  of  more  perfect  works,  and  in  time  Christian  artists 
arose  who  developed  the  ascetic  type  created  at  Byzantium 
into  the  highest  forms  of  spiritual  beauty.  But  before  de- 
veloping. Christian  art  sank  to  a  very  low  ebb. 

But  with  the  thirteenth  century  a  new  epoch  commenced 
in  the  intellectual  history  of  Europe.  Modern  painting 
dates  its  birth  from  this  century  ;  but  in  modern  Europe, 
as  in  ancient  Greece,  we  find  that  sculpture  preceded  it  in 
artistic  development. 

Nicola  Pisano  (born  about  the  beginning  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  worked  until  1280)  was  undoubtedly  the 
first  who  gave  expression  in  art  to  the  forward  movement 
of  his  age,  for,  casting  aside  the  traditions  of  Byzantine  art, 
he  turned  back  to  the  antique  for  inspiration,  and  formed 
by  its  teachings  a  new  and  nobly  classic  style.  Eor  it  was 
not  that  he  copied  antique  forms  in  the  manner  of  the 
early  Catacomb  artists,  who  did  so  because  at  that  time 
they  had  no  others  to  copy,  and  were  not  original  enough 
to  invent,  but  that,  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  antique 
sculpture,  he  attained  to  a  feeling  for  form  such  as  no  pre- 
vious Christian  artist  had  ever  manifested.  This  is  es- 
pecially visible  in  his  celebrated  pulpit  (completed  1260) 
in  the  baptistery  at  Pisa,^  where  many  of  the  rehefs,  es- 
^  A  cast  from  this  pulpit  is  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 


BOOK  III.]  EARLY   CHRISTIAN    PAINTING.  27" 

])ecially  the  one  representing  the  Last  Judgment,  show  a 
knowledge  of  the  human  form,  which,  although  imperfect 
enough  compared  with  Greek  knowledge,  or  even  with  that 
to  which  Christian  artists  afterwards  attained,  is  yet  sur- 
prising when  we  consider  the  early  days  of  art  in  which 
he  worked.  But,  as  Lord  Lindsay  says,^  he  was  "the 
bright  harbinger  of  the  morning."  He  did  not,  it  is- 
true,  go  like  Griotto  straight  to  nature  for  instruction,  but 
he  did  the  next  best  thing — he  studied  the  Grreek  expres- 
sion of  her  beauty,^  and  gave  the  first  shake  to  the  hitherto 
immobile  Byzantine  type. 

Byzantine  art,^  indeed,  it  soon  became  evident,  was. 
awakening  from  the  long  sleep  of  the  dark  ages,  and  be- 
ginning to  manifest  signs  of  life. 

The  CosMATi,  a  family  of  mosaic  artist  at  Eome,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  worked  in  a  much  freer 
spirit  than  their  predecessors  ;  and  at  Venice,  also,  many  of 
the  magnificent  mosaics  of  St.  Mark's,  supposed  to  have 
been  executed  about  this  time,  show  a  distinct  impulse 
towards  nature. 

But  more  especially  in  Tuscany,  the  ancient  Etruria, 
which  was  to  witness  the  full  glory  of  the  revival,  these 
first  stirrings  of  a  new  life  in  art  were  early  apparent.. 

Andrea  Tafi,  "  Painter  of  Florence,"  (still  living  in 
1320),  the  earliest  artist  to  whom  Vasari  accords  a  separate 
biography,  executed  many  works  in  mosaic  which  were 
greatly  admired,  and  was  considered  **  an  excellent,  nay,  a 
divine  artist  by  his  contemporaries."  Mosaic  workers 
were  then,  we  must  remember,  fully  entitled  to  be  ranked 
as  artists,  for  they  generally  worked  from  their  own  de- 
signs, and  did  not,  as  in  later  times,  simply  copy  pictures. 

The  Byzantines  excelled  all  others  in  this  rich  style  of 
work,  which  was,  in  fact,  extremely  well  suited  for  the 
mas:nificent  ornamentation  of  their  churches.* 


^  "  Sketches  of  the  History  of  Christian  Art,"  vol.  ii. 

P  Not  directly  from  Greek  work.  His  models  were  probably  bas- 
reliefs  on  Eoman  sarcophagi.] 

P  Or  rather,  perhaps,  Italian  art  under  fresh  Byzantine  influence.] 

^  It  was  likewise  practised  by  the  early  Christian  artists  at  Rume  as 
early  as  the  fourth  century ;  indeed,  although  the  limits  of  this  work 
would  not  allow  me  to  dwell  upon  them,  the  remarkable  mosaics  at 


28  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  III. 

Gaddo  Gaddi  (still  living  1333),  was  another  mosaicist 
of  Florence  of  considerable  merit  for  his  time.  Both 
he  and  Andrea  Tafi  were  contemporaries  and  friends  of 
Cimabue,  but  they  did  not  attain  to  the  same  degree  of 
fame,  although  they  also  had  the  advantage  of  the  "  sub- 
tilty  of  the  Florentine  nature,  which  is  wont  to  produce 
fine  and  ingenious  spu'its." 

Besides  Andrea  Tafi,  G-addo  Gaddi,  and  a  few  other 
mosaicists,  there  were  several  fresco  painters  deserving  of 
mention,  who  lived  before  or  were  contemporary  with 
Cimabue.  Not  only  in  Florence,  but  in  Pisa,  and  also  in 
Siena  and  Arezzo,  schools  of  art  existed  at  an  early  date. 
Siena  seemed  indeed,  at  first,  as  if  it  would  rival  Florence 
in  its  achievements,  but  the  Sienese  school  produced  no 
Giotto,  that  is  to  say,  no  artist  quite  great  enough  to  free 
it  from  Byzantine  bondage.  It  continued,  therefore,  long 
after  the  Florentine  school  had  put  it  forth ;  its  new  gained 
energies  still  perpetuating  the  old  forms,  although  it  in- 
fused into  them  a  wonderful  grace  and  tenderness. 

GuiDo  of  Siena,  supposed  to  be  the  painter  of  a  large 
Madonna  and  Child,  in  the  church  of  S.  Domenico,  at 
Siena,  was  the  predecessor  of  Duccio,  Ugolino,  Simone 
Martini,  and  other  artists  of  the  Sienese  school  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  Madonna  of  S.  Domenico,  by 
Guido  of  Siena,  is  superior  to  Cimabue' s  celebrated  work ; 
but  there  seems  to  be  some  doubt  as  to  whether  Guido  was 
really  the  painter  of  it.^ 

GiUNTA  of  Pisa,  although  contemporary  with  and  work- 
ing in  the  same  city  as  the  great  Nicola,  was  not  influenced 
by  him  in  any  degree.  His  reputed  works  are  entirely 
Byzantine  in  style. 

Another  doleful  Byzantine  of  this  date  is  Maegaritone 
of  Arezzo,  bom  1216,  died  1293.  A  specimen  of  this 
I)ainter's  work  was  added  in  1857  to  the  National  Gallery, 
and  will  enable  students  to  judge  of  his  curious  style.     It 

Rome  and  Ravenna  afford  as  good  an  evidence  of  the  classic  proclivities 
of  the  early  Roman  school  as  the  paintings  in  the  Catacombs. 

^  It  is  engraved  in  the  handbooks  of  Kugler,  and  Crowe  and  Caval- 
caselle.  The  latter  critics  consider  it  to  be  the  work  of  a  later  artist. 
[The  date  it  bears  (1221)  is  nuw  proved  to  be  a  forgery,  it  was  probably 
painted  1281.] 


BOOK  III.]  EARLY    CHRISTIAN    PAINTING.  29 

is  said  to  be  "  a  characteristic  "  work,  and  is  mentioned  by 
Vasari,  who  praises  its  small  figures,  which  he  says  are 
executed  "with  more  grace  and  finished  with  greater  deli- 
cacy "  than  the  larger  ones.  G-race  seems  to  us  a  curious 
word  to  apply  to  such  a  work,  yet  Margaritone  was  not 
more  rigid  than  most  of  his  brother  artists,  and  was 
accounted  an  excellent  painter  in  his  day.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, can  be  more  unlike  nature  than  the  grim  Madonna  of 
the  National  Gallery,  and  the  weird  starved  Child  in  her 
arms. 

Giovanni  Cimabue,  born  at  Florence  in  1240,  ends  the 
long  Byzantine  succession  in  Italy,  which  had  continued 
uninterrupted  from  the  time  of  Constantino  until  the 
thirteenth  century.^  In  him,  **  the  spirit  of  the  years  to 
come "  is  decidedly  manifest ;  but  he  never  entirely  suc- 
ceeded in  casting  ofE  the  hereditary  Byzantine  asceticism, 
although,  in  his  later  years,  he  attained  to  much  [greater 
freedom  of  drawing,  and  even,  in  some  of  his  works,  to 
something  like  a  natural  expression.  Whether  this 
was  owing  to  the  influence  of  his  great  pupil  Giotto,  or 
whether  he  himself  had  a  dawning  perception  that  nature 
was  more  likely  to  be  right  than  tradition,  it  is  difiicult  to 
say :  but  at  all  events,  the  progress  in  his  art  is  so  distinct, 

^  Strange  to  say,  this  succession  is  still  continued  in  Greece  up  to  the 
present  day.  M.  Didron,  the  French  traveller  and  archaeologist,  actually 
saw  a  monk-painter  of  Mount  Athos,  in  1839,  pursuing  exactly  the 
same  method,  and  working  from  exactly  the  same  types  as  his  early 
Christian  forefathers.  Mount  Athos,  which  was  formerly  called  the 
Holy  Mount,  and  is  still  "  a  perfect  warren  of  monasteries,"  is  the  prin- 
cipal school  from  which  issue  the  saint  pictures  of  the  Greek  church. 
No  revolutionary  ideas  have  ever  disturbed  the  traditions  of  this  holy 
school.  Nature  has  never  ventured  to  intrude  on  its  sacred  ground, 
and  anything  like  invention  is  regarded  as  sacrilege.  ;M.  Didron  found, 
in  fact,  in  the  bands  of  the  monks  a  manuscript  which  had  been  com- 
piled in  the  fifteenth  century  from  older  treatises,  in  which  not  only  the 
whole  technical  process  of  Byzantine  painting  is  described,  but  likewise 
the  rules  to  be  adopted  in  the  treatment  of  sacred  subjects  are  rigidly 
laid  down.  This  manuscript,  which  has  been  published  by  M.  Didron, 
under  the  title  of"  Manuel  d'Iconographie  Chretienne,"  is  the  sole  text- 
book of  these  wonderful  modem  painters,  who  faithfully  reproduce  not 
only  the  same  type  of  beauty,  but  even  the  very  same  folds  of  drapery 
as  their  early  Byzantine  predecessors.  [M.  Didron's  book  has  been 
translated  into  English,  and  published  in  Bohn's  Library  under  the  title 
of  "  Christian  Iconography  "  (Bell  and  Son^.l 


so  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK  III. 

that  most  writers  place  him  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
epoch,  and  Vasari  extols  him  as  having  given  "  the  first 
light  to  the  art  of  painting."  So  much  praise  has  indeed 
been  accorded  to  Cimabue,  and  Yasari's  enthusiasm  is  so 
■catching,  that  we  can  scarcely  help  believing  that  he  was  a 
great  artist ;  yet  it  must  be  owned,  that  when  we  come  to 
study  his  works,  they  produce  a  feeling  of  disappointment, 
and  when  we  compare  his  feeble  efforts  at  naturalism  with 
the  noble  achievements  of  Griotto,  we  can  scarcely  avoid 
thrusting  him  back  amongst  his  Byzantine  predecessors, 
rather  than  setting  him  forward  as  the  father  of  such  a 
great  race  as  the  Italian  painters. 

But  the  Florentines  of  that  time  were  more  than  satis- 
fied with  the  achievements  of  their  high-born  artist,  and 
stiff  and  melancholy  as  his  Madonnas  appear  to  us,  they 
were  then  reckoned  marvels  of  grace  and  beauty,  and 
awoke  the  warmest  feelings  of  love  and  devotion  in  simple 
pious  minds.  One  of  these  Madonnas,  Vasari  tell  us,  was 
carried  in  solemn-procession  with  the  sound  of  trumpets, 
and  other  festal  demonstrations  from  the  house  of  Cimabue 
to  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  Novella,  the  people  shouting 
with  joy  on  the  occasion. 

This  colossal  Madonna,  the  largest  that  had  as  yet  been 
attempted  by  art,  still  exists,  and,  strange  to  say,  in  the 
same  church — namely,  S.  Maria  Novella — for  which  it  was 
originally  painted.  There  is  no  doubt  of  its  authenticity, 
:and  therefore  it  is  fair  to  take  it  as  a  standard  of  his  at- 
tainments. The  Virgin,  alas  !  is  incorrigibly  doleful,  but 
there  is  a  soft  human  expression  in  her  countenance  dif- 
ferent to  the  hard  staring  grief  of  preceding  artists.  The 
Child,  also,  has  come  to  life,  and  stretches  out  his  little 
^rm  in  quite  a  natural  manner.  Still,  however,  in  spite  of 
these  merits,  the  Byzantine  type  is  faithfully  preserved. 
The  hands  of  both  Virgin  and  Child  are  painfully  thin  and 
•unnatural,  and  the  angels  surrounding  the  chair  have  all 
got  stiff  necks,  notwithstanding  that  there  is  a  slight  in- 
tention of  motion  apparent  in  their  attitudes.  The  features 
are  in  all  cases  traditional,  but  pleasantly  softened. 

Another  and  earher  Madonna  in  the  Florentine  Academy 
is  much  more  Byzantine  in  character  than  this.  The 
Maria  Novella  Virgin  is  indeed  always  considered  his  most 


BOOK  III.]  EARLY    CHRISTIAN    PAINTING.  31 

advanced  work,^  and  it  is  certainly  a  most  imi^ressive  picture. 
Not  only  its  large  size  and  majestic  aspect,  but  likewise  its 
solemn  religious  feeling,  produce  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  beholder ;  indeed,  whatever  artistic  qualities  Byzantine 
works  may  lack,  a  fervent  religious  belief  is  always  ap- 
parent in  them.  For  this  reason,  no  doubt,  they  were 
more  effective  in  exciting  the  emotions  of  the  pious,  which 
we  must  remember  was  their  chief  aim,  than  the  more 
beautiful  and  realistic  productions  of  later  times. ^ 

It  is  always  pictures  of  this  class  that  gain  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  miracle-working.  We  never  find  a  Madonna, 
by  any  great  Italian  painter,  winking  her  eyes  or  healing 
the  sick. 

Besides  his  Madonnas,  Cimabue  was  no  doubt  the  master 
who  executed  many  of  the  earlier  wall  paintings  in  the 
Church  of  S.  Francis,  at  Assisi.  This  church  has  a  peculiar 
interest  in  the  history  of  art,  for  the  whole  progress  of 
painting  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  may 
be  studied  on  its  walls.  It  was  built  during  the  first  half 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  worship  of  S.  Francis, 
the  patron  saint  of  poverty,  had  grown  to  be  second  only 
in  importance  to  that  of  Christ.  It  is  remarkable  as  con- 
sisting of  two  churches  built  one  over  the  other,  the  lower 
containing  the  remains  of  the  saint,  whilst  the  upper  was 
devoted  to  the  service  of  his  order.  Both  the  upper  and 
lower  church  were  adorned  with  paintings,  and  all  the 
artists  of  note  of  that  time  were  summoned  by  the  monks 
of  Assisi  to  execute  these  works.'     The  church  formed  in 

'  It  is  engraved  in  Kugler's  Handbook,  in  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle's 
History,  and  in  Woltmann  and  Woermann. 

^  It  is  related  of  one  of  the  later  Italian  painters  that  although  he 
painted  beautiful  Madonnas  himself,  and  had  those  of  Raphael  and  other 
great  masters  constantly  before  his  eyes,  he  always  preferred  to  say  his 
prayers  to  an  ugly  little  olive-coloured  Virgin  of  the  Byzantine  school ; 
and  this  feeling  is  quite  comprehensible. 

^  It  is  impossible  in  the  limits  of  this  work  to  give  any  idea  of  these 
marvellous  series  of  paintings.  In  the  upper  church  alone  in  three  lines 
along  the  walls  of  the  nave  were  depicted,  1.  The  History  of  the  Jews, 
from  the  Creation  to  the  finding  of  Benjamin's  cup,  in  sixteen  frescoes ; 
2.  The  History  of  Christ,  from  the  Annunciation  to  the  Descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  in  twenty  frescoes ;  and  3.  The  History  and  Miracles  of 
S.  Francis,  in  twenty-eight  frescoes.  The  roof,  the  transept,  and  the 
portals  were  likewise  painted. 


32  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK  III. 

fact  a  vast  history  book  for  the  unlearned,  wherein  all 
might  read,  without  the  help  of  letters,  the  events  recorded 
in  the  Bible,  and  the  legendary  history  of  their  saints.  It 
is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  educational  value  of  such 
works  as  these  before  the  introduction  of  printing. 

The  frescoes  at  Assisi  were  not  executed  all  at  one  time,, 
nor,  as  before  said,  by  one  hand.  They  were  probably 
begun  before  Cimabue,  but  he  no  doubt  had  the  entire 
superintendence  of  them  in  his  day,  although  assisted  in 
the  actual  work  by  other  artists.  Giotto  seems  to  have 
worked  at  Assisi  at  two  different  periods — first,  when  still 
young,  and  under  the  influence  of  Cimabue,  and  lastly  in 
the  fulness  of  his  fame,  when  he  executed  the  latter  scenes 
in  the  history  of  S.  Francis,  and  the  noble  allegories  illus- 
trating the  vows  of  the  Franciscan  order — namely.  Poverty, 
Chastity,  and  Obedience,  in  the  Lower  or  Sepulchral 
Church. 

Many  of  the  paintings  thought  to  be  by  Cimabue,  are  so 
obliterated  that  it  is  impossible  to  judge  of  them  ;  a  few, 
however,  remain,  one  of  the  best  preserved  being,  the 
Betrayal  of  Christ,  belonging  to  a  series  representing  the 
Passion.  The  Christ  in  this  remarkable  work  is  of  the 
Byzantine  type — the  bullet-shaped  head,  the  staring  eyes, 
the  totally  expressionless  countenance,  and  the  little  tufts 
of  hair  coming  down  on  to  the  forehead,  being  all  faith- 
fully repeated  from  the  earliest  portraits,  but  several  of 
the  Roman  guards  betray  an  unwonted  amount  of  anima- 
tion, and  an  individual  character  is  perceptible  in  many  of 
the  heads. ^ 

Here  then  was  a  considerable  advance  made  upon  tra- 
ditionary art,  and  it  is  further  stated  that  Cimabue 
actually  painted  a  head  of  S.  Francis  "  after  nature." 
This  could  not  mean  from  S.  Francis  himself,  who  died  in 
1226,  but  from  a  living  model  instead  of  a  traditional  type. 

The  increasing  light  of  the  centuries  was  in  fact  every 
year  revealing  new  truths  to  artists  as  well  as  to  othei' 
men,  and  gradually  to  the  early  morning  time  of  Cimabue 
succeeded  the  full  noonday  of  art  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

^  The  Madonna  in  the  National  Gallery,  although  supposed  to  be 
genuine,  is  too  much  injured  by  time  and  retouching  for  it  to  be  taken 
as  a  fair  sample  of  his  work. 


BOOK  IV. 
PAINTING    IN    ITALY. 

Chapter  I. 

THE   EISE. 

Giotto — The  Giotteschi — Orcagna — The  Sienese  School. 

WITH  Giotto,  the  revival  of  art  was  finally  and  fully 
accomplished,  and  a  noble  Christian  school  founded. 
He  was  in  truth  the  first  master  of  real  creative  genius 
that  Christianity  had  as  yet  produced,  and  the  impulse 
given  by  him  was  transmitted  through  succeeding  cen- 
turies, until  the  highest  perfection  of  Christian  art  was 
reached. 

The  romantic  story  of  his  life  has  been  often  told.  The 
son  of  a  simple  husbandman  ^  of  Tuscany,  named  Bondone, 
Giotto  (1266-1337)  spent  his  early  years  in  tending  his 
father's  flocks,  and  might  possibly  have  remained  a  shepherd 
to  the  end  of  his  days,  had  not  the  famous  artist  Cimabue, 
as  he  was  riding  one  day  along  the  valley  of  Vespignano, 
chanced  to  notice  the  youthful  shepherd-boy  intently  occu- 
pied in  drawing  one  of  his  sheep  upon  a  smooth  piece  of 
rock,  with  no  better  instrument  than  a  slightly  pointed 
stone.  Struck  with  the  truthfulness  of  the  drawing,  Cimabue 
asked  him  whether  he  would  not  like  to  be  an  artist,  and 
receiving   a   joyful  assent,   and  the  father's   permission 

[^  From  documents  recently  discovered  it  would  appear  that  Bondone 
was  of  good  family  and  a  man  of  some  property.] 

D 


34  HISTOEY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

being  gained,  he  took  Giotto  back  with  him  to  Florence, 
and  instructed  him  in  all  the  mechanical  methods  of 
painting.^ 

Such  instruction  was  no  doubt  very  valuable,  and  al- 
though Cimabue's  "  name  is  now  eclipsed,"  ^  we  must  not 
forget  that  Giotto  doubtless  owed  much  to  his  prompt 
recognition  and  training  ;  still,  it  is  evident  from  the  first 
that  he  had  a  wiser  and  greater  teacher  than  even  the 
father  of  painting,  no  other,  indeed,  than  Nature  herself, 
from  whom,  as  we  know,  he  had  received  his  earhest  les- 
sons on  the  hillside,  and  whose  guidance  he  never  after- 
wards forsook. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  surprising  that  the  worn-out  traditions 
of  ascetic  art  should  have  failed  to  satisfy  this  young 
artist,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  watch  the  sun  rise  on 
the  hills  of  Yespignano,  who  had  drawn  the  flowers  of  the 
valley,  and  had  studied  the  forms  of  real  living  sheep,  so 
unlike  those  of  the  twelve  holy  sheep  of  Byzantine  paint- 
ing. His  genius  could  not  work  in  such  fetters,  therefore 
he  boldly  broke  through  them,  and  by  his  daring  naturahsn 
effected  a  total  change  in  the  art  of  his  time. 

It  is  evident  how  much  this  return  to  nature  was  needed 
by  the  admiration  that  Giotto's  innovations  excited  amon^ 
his  contemporaries.  The  feeblest  attempt  to  represeni 
anything  like  passion  or  emotion  was  then  esteemed  a 
marvel,  and  for  two  hundred  years,  Vasari  affirms,  such  a 
thing  as  drawing  living  persons  from  nature  had  not  been 
attempted.^ 

[^  This  is  Vasari's  account.  According  to  another,  by  an  anonymous 
commentator  on  Dante  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Giotto  was 
placed  with  a  wool  merchant  at  Florence  before  he  was  apprenticed  to 
Cimabue.] 

^  "  Credette  Cimabue  nella  Pittura 
Tener  lo  campo,  ed  ora  ha  Giotto  il  grido  j 
Sicche  la  fama  di  colui  oscura." 

"  Cimabue  thought 
To  lord  it  over  painting's  field ;  and  now, 
The  cry  is  Giotto's,  and  his  name  eclipsed." 

Dante,  Purg.,  xi.  93. 

[^  Vasari  adds,  "  Or,  if  some  had  attempted,  it  was  not  by  any 
means  with  the  success  of  Giotto."] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  35 

It  is  difficult  to  trace  Giotto's  development,  for  so  many 
of  yhis  works  have  perished  by  time  and  neglect,  that  we 
waiit  the  links  that  would  connect  the  boy-shepherd  pupil 
of  jfche  Byzantine  Cimabue  with  the  great  inaugurator  of 
modern  painting.  Some  of  his  earliest  works  were  exe- 
cuted, we  are  told,  in  the  Abbey  (Badia)  of  Florence,  but 
none  of  these  remain.  Vasari  celebrates  an  Annunciation 
among  them  as  having  given  an  expression  of  fear  and 
astonishment  to  the  Virgin. 

In  1298,  Giotto  was  invited  to  Rome  by  Boniface  VHI.,^ 
where  he  executed,  besides  other  works,  the  celebrated 
Mosaic  of  the  Navicella  for  S.  Peter's.  This  mosaic  is 
still  to  be  seen  in  the  portico  of  S.  Peter's,  although  so 
greatly  altered  and  restored  that  it  is  doubtful  whether 
any  of  Giotto's  original  work  remains.  It  represents  alle- 
gorically  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  under  the  similitude 
of  a  little  ship  (Navicella) — manned  by  the  Apostles  driven 
on  a  stormy  sea,  with  the  winds  in  the  form  of  demons 
blowing  upon  it.  Christ  walks  on  the  waves  and  saves 
Peter  from  sinking. 

After  a  short  period  in  Rome,  Giotto  probably  returned 
to  Florence,  which  he  appears  to  have  made  his  head- 
quarters. He  could  never,  however,  have  stayed  for  any 
long  time  together  at  one  place,  for  we  find  him  travelling 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Italy,  visiting 
Padua,  Verona,  Ravenna,  Assisi,  Milan,  and  Naples,  doing 
his  work,  and  earning  his  wages  wherever  he  went.     In 

'  His  visit  to  Rome  was  the  occasion  of  a  joke  which  has  been  per- 
petuated even  to  the  present  day.  Boniface  VIII.  desiring  to  know 
what  manner  of  artist  Giotto  was,  before  he  took  him  into  his  service, 
sent  one  of  his  courtiers  to  Florence  to  visit  him,  and  to  gain,  if  possible, 
some  proof  of  his  skill.  The  courtier  accordingly  appeared  one  morning 
at  Giotto's  bottcga,oT  workshop,  and  asked  him  for  a  drawing  to  send  to 
his  Holiness.  Whereupon  "  Giotto,  who  was  very  courteous,  took  a 
sheet  of  paper  and  a  pencil  dipped  in  red  colour  ;  then  resting  his  elbow 
on  his  side,  to  form  a  sort  of  compass,  with  one  turn  of  his  hand  he 
drew  a  circle  so  perfect  and  exact  that  it  was  a  marvel  to  behold.  This 
done,  he  turned  to  the  courtier,  saying,  *  Here  is  your  drawing.' "  The 
courtier  seems  to  have  thought  that  Giotto  was  fooling  him;  but  the 
l*ope  was  easily  convinced,  by  the  roundness  of  the  O,  of  the  greatness 
of  Giotto's  skill,  and  the  feat  gave  rise  to  the  saying,  "  Piu  tondo  che 
rO  di  Giotto"  (Rounder  than  the  O  of  Giotto),  the  point  of  which  lies 
in  the  word  tondo  signifying  dulness  of  intellect  as  well  as  a  circle. 


36  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

fact,  Giotto,  says  Ruskin,^  "  like  all  the  great  painters  of 
the  period,  was  merely  a  travelling  decorator  of  walls  at  so 
much  a  day,  having  at  Florence  a  bottega  or  workshop,  for 
the  production  and  sale  of  small  tempera  pictures."  This 
"  travelling  decorator  of  walls,"  had,  however,  a  creative 
genius  of  the  highest  order,  and  the  walls  he  painted  were 
not  filled  with  grim  Madonnas,  ascetic  saints,  and  instruc- 
tive Scripture  histories  as  heretofore,  but  were  made  alive 
with  human  thought  and  human  emotion  ;  his  whole  art 
was  a  "  protest  of  vitality  against  mortality,  of  spirit 
against  letter,  and  of  truth  against  tradition."  In  the 
frescoes  of  the  Church  of  the  Arena  at  Padua  his  powers 
were  first  brought  into  full  play,  and  scope  given  for  the 
inventive  and  dramatic  qualities  of  his  art. 

The  Scrovigni  chapel  in  the  Church  of  the  Arena,  at 
Padua,  was  built  in  1303,  by  Enrico  Scrovigno,  a  noble 
citizen  of  Padua,^  who  employed  Giotto  to  adorn  it  with 
paintings.  In  a  series  of  thirty-eight  magnificent  frescoes 
the  lives  of  the  Virgin  and  of  her  Son  are  unfolded  in  a 
triple  course  along  the  walls,  many  of  the  old  incidents 
being  rendered  in  a  new  manner.  Beneath  the  lines  of 
these  frescoes  are  placed  thoughtfully  conceived  allegorical 
figures  of  the  antagonistic  virtues  and  vices.  The  Last 
Judgment  is  depicted  above  the  arch  of  the  entrance,  and 
the  Annunciate  Virgin,  to  whom  the  chapel  was  dedicated, 
above  another  arch.  The  chapel  forms,  in  fact,  one  lovely 
painted  poem,  which,  in  its  first  beauty,  must  have  been 
almost  worthy  to  rank  with  the  written  one  of  Dante. 
Dante  himself,  indeed,  it  is  possible,  may  have  had  some 
share  in  its  production,  even  beyond  the  influence  that  his 
mind  always  exercised  over  Giotto  ;  for  we  know  that  he 
visited  Giotto  whilst  he  was  working  at  Padua,^  and  it  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  he  would  have  aided  his  friend 
with  many  suggestions  and  imaginations.     Several  of  the 

^  "  Giotto  and  his  Works  at  Padua,"  Printed  for  the  Arundel 
Society. 

^  With  the  money  that  his  father  had  accumulated  by  means  of  an 
avarice  that  handed  him  down  to  posterity  in  the  seventh  circle  of  the 
'•  Inferno." 

5  Benvenuto  da  Imola,  "  Antiquitates  Ital."  [The  date  of  Dante'* 
visit  to  Padua  was  1306.] 


EOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  37 

subjects,  at  all  events,  have  a  certain  Dantesque  expres- 
sion, and  many  of  the  allegorical  figures  are  conceived  in 
the  style  of  the  poet.  Amongst  them  may  be  mentioned 
Justice,  a  noble  female  figure,  who  holds  the  discs  of  her 
balance  evenly  poised  in  her  hands,  whilst  Industry  in  one 
scale,  working  at  an  anvil,  is  crowned  by  an  angel,  and  the 
execution  of  a  criminal  takes  place  in  the  other.  Prudence 
has  two  faces,  one  old  and  the  other  young,  looking  behind 
and  before ;  she  holds  a  mirror  and  a  pair  of  compasses  in 
her  hand.  Faith  plants  her  cross  upon  a  prostrate  idol. 
Unbelief — the  contrasted  vice — is  fastened,  by  means  of  a 
chain  round  his  neck,  to  an  idol  that  he  holds  in  his  hand, 
tind  which  is  gradually  drawing  him  towards  the  flames  of 
hell,  springing  up  in  his  future  path.  A  grave  spirit  above 
tries  to  counsel,  but  in  vain,  for  the  ears  of  Unbelief  are 
tied  down  by  the  strings  of  his  helmet-like  cap.  Several 
other  of  these  allegories  evince  a  similar  fertile  and  poetical 
imagination,  and  if  he  owed  something  of  the  conception 
of  this  work  to  Dante,  the  thoughtful  execution  of  it  was 
entirely  his  own.  His  forms  are  dignified  and  graceful, 
his  drawing  free,  the  folds  of  the  draperies  simple  and 
flowing,  in  strong  contrast  to  the  stiffness  and  complexity 
of  Byzantine  draperies,  and  the  expression  of  the  faces 
varied  and  emotional.  "  The  personages  who  are  in  grief 
look  melancholy,  and  those  who  are  joyous  look  gay,"  says 
tin  old  writer  (quoted  by  Mrs.  Jameson)  in  a  tone  of  ad- 
miring surprise. 

From  Padua,  when  the  painting  of  the  Scrovigni  chapel 
was  finished,  Giotto  returned  to  Florence,  where  he  painted 
no  less  than  four  family  chapels  in  the  newly-built  church 
•of  Santa  Croce.  All  these  frescoes  had  disappeared  under 
the  barbarous  hand  of  the  whitewasher,  but  those  in  the 
Bardi  and  Peruzzi  chapels  have  been  partially  recovered. 

In  1841  what  remained  of  the  celebrated  fresco  of  the 
Dance  of  the  daughter  of  Herodias,  in  the  Peruzzi  chapel, 
was  brought  to  light,  and  after  this  the  whole  chapel  was 
restored,  and  a  grand  series  of  frescoes,  illustrating  the 
lives  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  and  St.  John  the  Evangelist 
revealed.  In  the  Bardi  chapel  a  set  of  frescoes,  illustrating 
the  history  of  St.  Francis,  were  disclosed  in  1853.  Like  those 
in  the  Peruzzi  chapel,  they  have  suffered  much  from  bad 


38  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

"  restoration."  The  subject  is  the  same  as  in  the  twenty- 
eight  frescoes  of  Assisi/  but  the  treatment  is  somewhat 
different. 

The  Death  of  St.  Francis,  in  the  Bardi  chapel,  became  a 
standard  type  for  the  representation  of  this  event  with 
succeeding  artists.  Ghirlandaio,  in  the  fifteenth  century,, 
copied  Griotto's  composition  almost  exactly,  only  he  left  out 
the  ascending  spirit  of  the  saint,  which  in  Giotto's  concep- 
tion is  carried  by  angels  to  glory. 

[The  church  of  Santa  Croce  also  contains  the  celebrated 
Baroncelli  altar-piece,  one  of  the  few  existing  panel  pic- 
tures by  Giotto.  It  is  composed  of  five  panels,  and  repre- 
sents the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  with  the  angelic  choir, 
and  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  saints  in  glory.] 

Like  Dante,  Giotto  was  devoted  to  the  Franciscan 
order  ;  ^  indeed  the  two  powerful  orders  of  Dominicans  and 
Franciscans  at  that  time  divided  the  genius  of  the  wholo 
world  between  them.  Giotto,  as  we  have  seen,  probably 
worked  at  the  great  church  of  St.  Francis,  at  Assisi,  in  his 
youth,  but  whatever  doubt  there  may  still  be  about  the 
masters  of  the  upper  church,  there  can  be  little  about  the 
painter  of  the  Lower  or  Sepulchral  Church,  for  here  the 
magnificent  allegorical  representations  of  the  vows  of  the 
Franciscan  order — Poverty,  Chastity,  and  Obedience — and 
St.  Francis  in  Glory,  a  rich  composition,  painted  in  the 
fourth  compartment  of  the  vaulted  roof,  reveal  Giotto  in 
the  full  exercise  of  his  powers. 

Although  an  important  series  of  frescoes  at  Naples  has 
been  attributed  to  Giotto,  it  has  at  the  same  time  been 
doubted  by  many  critics  whether  he  was  ever  in  that  city. 
The  recent  researches  of  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  have, 
however,  brought  to  hght  a  document  which  certainly 
proves  that  Giotto  was  in  Naples  in  the  year  1333,  but 
whether  he  executed  the  well-known  "  Seven  Sacraments 
of  the  Church,"  in  the  Incoronata,  is  still  open  to  doubt.^ 

^  See  p.  30,  note. 

^  A  satirical  poem,  however,  still  exists,  ascribed  to  him,  entitled,  "A 
Canzone  on  Poverty.-'  But  if  he  ridiculed  the  Bride  of  St.  Francis  ia 
his  verse,  he  certainly  exalted  her  in  kis  art. 

[^  The  cliapel  was  not  founded  till  1352.  There  are  no  existing: 
Works  of  Giotto  at  Naples.] 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING   IN   ITALY.  39 

His  last  work  in  Florence  was  not  as  a  painter,  but  as 
an  architect.^  In  1334  he  was  appointed  by  the  Kepublic 
to  superintend  the  works  of  S.  Maria  del  Fiore,  and  it 
was  from  his  design  that  the  beautiful  bell-tower  arose 
which — 

"  Soars  up  in  gold  its  full  fifty  braccia, 
Completing  Florence  as  Florence  Italy." 

Several  amusing  stories  are  related  of  Giotto,  which  show 
him  to  have  been  a  man  of  genial  humour,  happy  disposi- 
tion, and  well  skilled  in  repartee.  He  married  in  the  first 
years  of  the  century,  Ciuta  di  Lapo  di  Pelo,  and  had  six 
children,  who  seem  to  have  been  remarkable  only  for  their 
ugliness.^ 

Giotto  was  favoured  with  very  intelligent  pupils,  who 
spread  his  teaching  far  and  wide,  and  diffused  the  "  new 
method,"  as  his  style  was  called,  throughout  most  of  the 
schools  of  Italy.  In  one  sense,  indeed,  all  the  great 
painters  of  the  modem  world  may  be  said  to  be  followers 
of  Giotto,  for  he  was  the  earliest  pioneer  to  that  vast  king- 
dom of  Nature  from  which  succeeding  artists  have  drawn 
their  noblest  inspirations;  but  the  term  is  more  con- 
veniently limited  to  his  immediate  successors,  "  The  Giot- 
TEscHi,"  as  they  are  generally  styled. 

Foremost  amongst  these  stands  the  name  of  Taddeo 
Gaddi  '  (b.  1300,  living  in  1366),  the  son  of  Gaddo  Gaddi, 

[^  He  was  also  a  sculptor.  Of  the  basreliefs  on  his  Campanile,  all 
of  those  in  the  lowest  range  are  supposed  to  be  more  or  less  after  his 
designs ;  two  of  them  (Sculpture  and  Architecture)  were  executed  by 
him,  the  rest  were  cut  \gf  Andrea  Pisano  and  Luca  della  Robbia  after 
his  death.  They  are  remarkable  for  their  vigour  and  simplicity,  and  for 
the  illustration  of  ideas  by  subjects  taken  from  real  life.  He  also  made 
designs  for  the  bronze  door  of  the  Baptistery  at  Florence,  which  was 
afterwards  executed  by  Andrea  Pisano.] 

^  The  single  fragment  of  a  painting  that  represents  Giotto  in  our 
National  Collection,  was  saved  with  a  few  other  pieces,  when  the  church 
of  the  Carmine,  in  Florence,  was  burnt  down  in  177 1.  A  knowledge  of 
some  of  the  frescoes  in  this  church  has  been  preserved  by  the  means  of 
the  drawings  Thomas  Patch  had  previously  made  of  them. 

3  Rumohr,  "  Italienische  Forschungen."  [His  principal  wall  painting 
is  in  the  Bai'oncelli  chapel  of  Santa  Croce,  Florence.  There  is  an  ahar- 
piece  by  him  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  and  another  in  the  gallery  at  Siena, 
and  remains  of  wall  paintings  in  S.  Francesco  at  Pisa.] 


40  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING,  [cOOK    IV. 

and  the  godson  of  Giotto,  and  for  a  long  time  his  pupil 
and  fellow-worker.  His  son  ^gnolo  ^  was  likewise  a 
painter,  thus  carrying  on  the  calling  to  the  third  genera- 
tion. Taddeo  Gaddi  was  an  architect  as  well  as  i)ainter,- 
and  was  on  the  Council  of  Works  of  S.  Maria  del  Fiore 
after  Giotto's  death.'  Giottino  (1324-1396),  or  the  Httle 
Giotto,  is  the  name  given  to  a  master  whose  real  name  is 
not  very  certain.  Yasari  calls  him  Tommaso  di  Stefano, 
[and  says  that  he  greatly  improved  on  the  manner  of 
Giotto.'] 

Stefano  (1301  P-1350),  supposed  to  be  the  father  of 
Giottino,  is  extolled  by  Vasari  as  having  left  Giotto  him- 
self far  behind,  but  [we  have  no  certain  information  about 
the  works  of  himself  or  his  son].  He  was  called  II  Scimia 
della  Natura — the  ape  of  nature — by  his  contemporaries. 
Puccio  Capanna,  Buonamico  Christofani,  called  Buf- 
FALMAcco,  Calandrino,  and  several  other  Giotteschi  are 
known  by  name,  to  whom  few  if  any  works  can  with  any 
certainty  be  attributed;  on  the  other  hand,  numerous 
works  exist  which  can  only  be  assigned  arbitrarily  to 
painters  of  the  fourteenth  century  working  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Giotto.* 

This  influence  extended  far  beyond  his  immediate  school. 
The  effects  of  the  revival  that  he  had  inaugurated  were 
felt  all  over  Italy,  and  even  architects,  sculptors,  and 
mosaists  became  impregnated  with  his  teaching  as  well  as 
those  artists  whom  we  more  directly  recognize  as  his  fol- 

[^  His  most  important  frescoes  are  in  the  Cathedral  at  Prato,  and 
Santa  Croce,  Florence.] 

[•^  There  are  three  works  of  his  school  in  the  National  Gallery.  He 
was  the  master  of  Jacopo  Lakdini  da  Casentino  (1310?-1393)5  by 
whom  there  is  an  altar-piece  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  580),  and 
GiovANKi  da  Milako,  a  few  works  by  whom  still  exist  at  Prato  and 
Florence,  which  justify  Vasari's  opinion  of  his  merits.] 

[^  The  most  important  of  the  few  works  usually  attributed  to  Giottino 
are  some  frescoes  representino^  scenes  from  the  legend  of  Constantine,  in 
the  chapel  of  S.  Sylvester  in  Santa  Croce,  Florence  ;  but  these,  as  well 
as  two  frescoes  of  the  Birth  and  Crucifixion  of  Christ,  are  now  supposed 
to  be  by  INIaso,  a  celebrated  pupil  of  Giotto,  who  was  confused  with 
Giottino  by  Vasari.] 

[^  The  name  of  a  forgotten  pupil  of  Giotto,  Bernardo  di  Daddo 
(painted  1320-1347)  has  recently  been  resuscitated.  He  painted  the 
Madonna  of  Urcagna's  Shrine  in  Or  San  Michelej  Florence.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  41 

lowers.  Especially  at  Pisa,  where  the  revival  was  begun 
even  before  his  time,  bj  Niccola  Pisano,  we  see  how  com- 
pletely Giotto  ruled  the  art  of  the  fourteenth  centurv. 
Andeea  Pisano,^  a  sculptor  of  high  excellence,  who  carried 
on  the  revival  began  by  Niccola,  was  a  pupil  of  Griotto,  and 
worked  completely  in  his  spirit,  as  did  also  his  son  Nino 
Pisano. 

Pisa,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  was  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  school  of  sculpture  in  all  Italy,  but,  strange  to  say, 
she  produced  no  great  native  painter. 

Yet  we  have  at  Pisa  some  of  the  most  remarkable 
painted  works  in  the  world,  the  far-famed  frescoes  of  the 
Campo  Santo. 

"  There  are  few  places  in  the  world,"  writes  W.  B.  Scott,^ 
"  likely  to  make  a  deeper  impression  on  the  traveller  than 
the  Campo  Santo  of  Pisa.  .  .  .  Singleness  of  aim,  simpli- 
city of  execution,  and  the  absence  of  small  things,  make 
one  feel  stronger  and  breathe  freer  than  in  a  modern  exhi- 
bition." This  cemetery  was  founded  at  the  close  of  the 
tweKth  century,  by  the  Archbishop  Ubaldo,  who  is  said  to 
have  brought  home  fifty-three  vessels  laden  with  earth 
from  Palestine,  and  to  have  formed  with  it  the  Campo 
Santo,  so  that  the  bodies  of  the  departed  Pisans  might 
rest  in  holy  ground.  A  cloister  was  built  ^  round  the  sacred 
burial-place,  and  during  the  two  following  centuries 
numerous  artists  were  employed  by  the  Pisans  to  adorn  it 
with  paintings.  Like  the  Church  of  S.  Francis  at  Assisi, 
the  Campo  Santo  thus  contains  a  grand  pictorial  history 
of  early  Italian  art ;  indeed,  were  there  no  other  remains 
of  the  works  of  the  artists  of  the  fourteenth  century^  we 
should  be  able  to  form  a  very  good  idea  of  their  style  and 
capabihties  from  these  two  places  alone.  A  painter  named 
Datus  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  earliest  artist  of  the 
Campo  Santo,"*  but  what  he  executed  is  not  now  discover- 
able :  other  painters,  some  of  whose  names  are  mentioned 

[^  Andrea  di  Ugolino,  of  Pontedera,  commonly  called  Andrea  Pisano, 
was  also  a  pupil  and  assistant  of  Giovanni  Pisano,  the  son  of  JSiecoIa.] 

■■*  "  Half- hour  I^ec;turcs  on  the  Fine  Arts." 

[^  By  Giovanni  Pisano  between  1278  and  1283.] 

*  He  is  considered  by  Forster  to  be  the  same  as  Deodati  Orlandi  of 
Lucca.     See  "Kunstblatt,"  1833. 


42  HISTOET    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

in  the  records  of  tlie  Duomo  di  Pisa,  succeeded,  but  it  was 
not  until  late  in  the  fourteenth  century  that  any  important 
work  was  undertaken.  The  frescoes  illustrating  the  trials 
of  Job  were  then  produced,  probably  by  an  artist  named 
Francesco  da  Volterra,^  who,  although  not  a  Pisan  by 
birth,  had  been  long  settled  in  Pisa  in  1370,  when  we  find 
a  record  of  payment  being  made  to  him  for  work  in  the 
Campo  Santo.  In  the  Trials  of  Job  a  certain  dignity  of 
thought  elevates  into  poetry  the  quaint  realistic  treatment 
of  the  subject,  and  the  religious  earnestness  of  the  painter 
always  impresses  the  mind  of  the  beholder.  These  works 
were  long  attributed  to  Giotto,  and  his  spirit  undoubtedly 
animates  them,  but  it  is  nearly  certain  that  they  are  by  a 
disciple  and  not  by  the  master  himself,  who  does  not  seem 
ever  to  have  worked  at  Pisa.^ 

Another  seemingly  earlier  series  of  frescoes  represents 
the  Passion  of  Christ  and  the  subsequent  scenes  of  his 
history.  These  works  have  been  ascribed  to  Buffalmacco, 
but  without  any  real  evidence  ;  on  the  other  hand,  Pietro 
di  Puccio  is  known  to  have  executed  the  scenes  from 
Genesis,  and  Spinello  Aretino  and  Andrea  da  Firenze 
illustrated  the  lives  of  several  saints.^ 

But  the  most  remarkable  frescoes  at  the  Campo  Santo 
are  those  erroneously  attributed  by  Vasari  to  the  Floren- 
tine artist  Andrea  Orcagna,  or  more  correctly  Arcagnolo, 
son  of  the  goldsmith  Cione  (about  1308-1368).  Orcagna 
was  undoubtedly  an  artist  of  powerful  original  genius  ; 
and  for  this  reason  he  cannot  be,  strictly  speaking,  classed 
with  the  Giotteschi,  who,  although  many  of  them  were 
good  painters,  were  all  directly  dependent  on  Giotto  for 
their  inspiration.     Orcagna,  on  the  other  hand,  although 

\}  There  is  now  no  doubt  about  this.  They  were  painted  by  Fran- 
cesco between  1370  and  1372.] 

^  The  earliest  paintings  in  the  Campo  Santo  are  now  almost  all 
ruined  and  obliterated  by  time,  damp,  and  neglect.  Of  this  history  of 
Job  only  a  few  ghastly  fragments  remain  visible  at  all,  and  the  same 
with  many  of  the  other  frescoes ;  but  fortunately  the  memory  of  these 
weird  frescoes  is  preserved  in  Lasinio's  "  Pitture  del  Campo  Santo,"  and 
there  are  outlines  of  them  in  several  works  on  Italian  Art. 

[3  The  scenes  from  the  legends  of  SS.  Ephysius  and  Hippolytus  were 
executed  by  Spinello,  those  from  the  legend  of  S.  Ranieri  by  Andrea  da 
Firenze  and  Antonio  Veneziano.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  4S 

he  owed  much  to  Giotto,  had  his  own  thoughts  and  ex- 
pressed them  in  his  own  style. 

The  two  frescoes  that  Vasari  attributes  to  him  in  the 
Campo  Santo  are  the  well-known  Triumph  of  Death  and 
The  Last  Judgment.  These  works  are  evidently  by  an 
artist  of  considerable  merit  and  of  an  imaginative  turn  of 
mind,  but  whether  this  artist  was  Orcagna  or  not,  it  is. 
difficult  to  determine  in  the  absence  of  all  external  evidence 
excei)t  Vasari' s  statement.^ 

The  Triumph  of  Death  was  probably  meant  to  set  forth 
the  advantages  of  an  ascetic  Hfe.  On  the  right,  Death,  a 
fearful  harpy-like  woman,  descends  swinging  a  scythe  in 
her  hand  upon  a  company  of  gay  ladies  and  cavaliers  who 
are  listening  to  the  songs  of  a  troubadour.  On  the  left,  a 
merry  hunting  party  is  stopped  on  its  way  by  an  old 
hermit  (S.  Macarius),  who  points  to  three  corpses  lying  by 
the  road-side,  as  a  memento  mori.  The  careless  party  do 
not,  however,  seem  much  concerned,  only  one  fashionable 
young  gentleman  holds  his  nose,  as  if  the  smell  of  mor- 
tality were  too  much  for  him.  Other  hermits  are  seen  in 
the  background,  and  a  heap  of  dead  bodies  lies  in  front, 
from  which  the  souls,  rising  in  the  form  of  new-bom 
babes,  are  received  by  angels  or  devils  according  to  their 
appointed  destination. 

The  Last  Judgment  is  a  grand  conception  of  this  oft- 
repeated  theme,  and  its  composition  has  often  been  adopted 
by  succeeding  painters.  Even  Michael  Angelo  did  not  dis- 
dain in  his  celebrated  version  of  the  subject  to  take  ideas 
from  the  earlier  master.  A  severe  dignified  treatment  dis- 
tinguishes this  fresco  from  the  extravagant  representations 
we  so  often  meet  with  in  early  art.  There  is  nothing 
trivial,  no  exaggerated  horror,  and  a  singular  absence  of 
that  element  which  for  want  of  a  better  word  we  call  fan- 
tastic or  grotesque. 

Li  a  third  fresco  representing  Hell,  this  element,  how- 

^  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  and  Forster  decide  in  the  negative,  from 
internal  evidence,  but  in  the  present  ruined  state  of  these  frescoes,  it  ia 
next  to  impossible  that  any  critics  should  be  able  to  detei-mine  the  point 
with  certainty.  [C.  and  C.  and  other  authorities  now  ascribe  these 
frescoes  to  the  brothers  Pietro  and  Ambrogio  Lorenzetti.  Vide  Sienesc 
School,  p.  47.] 


44  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

ever,  largely  prevails.  Hell  is  depicted  as  a  huge  cauldron 
divided  into  four  parts,  all  full  of  devils  and  the  souls  they 
are  tormenting.  Satan,  a  monstrous  giant  with  flames 
issuing  from  his  hair  and  from  all  parts  of  his  body,  ap- 
pears to  gloat  in  savage  delight  over  the  work  he  has 
accomplished. 

Such  are  Orcagna's  reputed  works  in  the  Campo  Santo, 
the  most  important,  perhaps,  of  all  the  frescoes  there,  but 
still  far  below  his  undoubted  paintings  of  the  same  sub- 
jects in  the  Strozzi  chapel  of  S.  Maria  Novella  in  Florence. 
These  latter  frescoes  are  the  work  of  an  artist  "  who  had 
profited  so  well  by  the  teaching  of  Giotto,  that  he  was  en- 
abled in  his  turn  to  become  a  teacher  to  his  successors. 
His  simple,  dignified  forms,  his  graceful  female  heads,  his 
self-restraint,  and  his  excellent  execution,  entitle  him, 
indeed,  to  rank  far  above  the  other  followers  of  Giotto."  ^ 

There  is  a  large  altar-piece  by  Orcagna  in  the  National 
Gallery,  which  Wornum  points  out  as  "  thoroughly  illus- 
trating the  character  of  the  great  altar  decorations  of  the 
period,  architecturally  and  aesthetically,  as  to  the  conven- 
tional religious  style  of  pictorial  representation."  There 
was  still,  we  must  remember,  very  little  room  for  the  artist's 
own  invention  in  these  grand  religious  displays ;  for  al- 
though the  bold  innovations  of  Giotto  had  given  a  blow  to 
traditional  forms,  still  it  could  not  be  expected  that  the 
Church  should  at  once  give  up  the  direction  of  her  artists, 
a,nd  they  were,  for  a  long  time  to  come,  content  to  express 
her  teaching  with  siinj)le  undoubting  belief  in  its  truth. 

Orcagna  was  one  of  the  architects  of  the  magnificent 
■church  of  Or  San  Michele  at  Orvieto.  Francesco  Traini 
was  his  pupil. 

Spinello  di  Luca  Spinelli,  called  Aretino,  about 
1333-1410,  before  mentioned  as  one  of  the  artists  of  the 
Campo  Santo,  is  principally  known  by  his  Fall  of  the  Eebel 
Angels,  a  fresco  in  the  church  of  S.  Maria  degli  Angeli,  at 
Arezzo.  Vasari  relates  that  Lucifer  was  highly  affronted 
at  his  portrait  in  this  picture,  and  appeared  to  the  artist  in 
the  form  under  which  he  had  represented  him,  and  de- 
manded to  know  why  he  had  made  him  so  ugly.     Si^inello 

*  Crowe  and  C  vr.ljaselle. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  45 

never  recovered  from  the  friglit  of  this  dream,  but  "  fell 
into  a  dispirited  condition,  with  eyes  from  which  all  intel- 
lifT^ence  had  departed."  The  original  fresco  has  now  en- 
tirely disappeared,  but  many  drawings  and  engravings  of 
it  exist.  The  fantastic  element  largely  prevails  in  it.. 
[Spinello  was  a  pupil  of  Jacopo  da  Casentino.  His  Death 
of  S.  Benedict,  in  S.  Miniato,  Florence,  his  best  preserved 
work,  shows  a  mixture  of  Sienese  feeling  with  the  vigorous 
manner  of  Giotto.  There  is  a  picture  ascribed  to  him  in 
the  National  Gallery  (No.  581),  and  three  fragments  of 
frescoes  (No.  1216).] 

[Signs  of  Giotto's  influence  in  the  fourteenth  century  are 
visible  in  many  places  in  Italy,  but  it  is  at  Padua  that  the 
signs  are  most  marked.  Here  worked  together  two  artists 
of  much  power  and  originality,  Altichiero  da  Zevio  of 
Verona  and  Jacopo  d'Avanzo.  Theirmost  important  works 
are  a  series  of  paintmgs  in  the  chapel  of  S.  Felice,  in  the 
church  of  S.  Antony  at  Padua,  and  another  in  the  con- 
tiguous but  independent  chapel  of  S.  George.  These  were 
executed  probably  between  1375  and  1380.  A  contem- 
porary of  theirs  was  Giusto  di  Giovanni  de'  Menabuoi  of 
Florence,  called  Justus  of  Padua  (about  1330-1400),  who 
was  a  follower  of  Giotto  of  some  originality.  His  small 
triptych  in  the  National  Gallery,  dated  1367  (No.  701),  is  the 
most  perfect  example  we  possess  of  a  follower  of  Giotto.] 

The  Sienese  School.  While  the  followers  of  Giotto  at 
Florence  and  Pisa  were  thus  successfully  pursuing  the 
course  that  their  master  had  pointed  out,  the  painters  of 
Siena  were  steadily  infusing  life,  grace,  and  beauty  into^ 
the  rigid  Byzantine  forms. 

The  Sienese  masters  are  chiefly  distinguished  by  a- 
dreamy  religious  sentiment,  which  gives  a  pecuhar  melan- 
choly beauty  to  their  works.  Their  school  never  produced 
any  great  genius  like  Giotto,  but  it  went  on  from  one 
master  to  another,  gradually  softening  and  improving  the 
old  types,  until  the  hard  staring  grief  of  the  earlier  masters 
became  holy  pensive  sorrow  in  the  later  ones ;  indeed,  the- 
holy  beauty  of  Fra  Bartolommeo,  Perugino,  and  Raphael, 
was  but  the  perfection  of  what  these  early  Sienese  masters, 
attempted. 


46  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

Duccio  Di  BuoNiNSEGNA  (about  1260-1340),  was  con- 
temporary with  Ciinabue  and  Giotto.  [His  principal  work 
was  a  very  large  altar-piece  for  the  Cathedral  of  Siena, 
where  the  greater  portion  of  it  is  still  preserved.  It  was 
painted  on  both  sides  of  the  panels,  but  has  been  sawn  in 
two,  so  that  back  and  front  are  now  detached.  In  the 
centre  of  the  front  are  the  Madonna  and  Child,  surrounded 
by  twenty  angels  and  six  saints,  and  four  patrons  of  the 
-city  on  their  knees  ;  on  the  back  were  twenty-six  scenes  from 
the  Passion.  In  addition  were  predellas  on  both  sides,  and 
other  pictures  which  ornamented  the  top,  eighteen  in  all, 
-all  of  which  still  exist.  This  altar-piece  was  honoured  as 
Cimabue's  Madonna  had  been  at  Florence,  and  carried  in 
triumph  from  the  artist's  studio  to  the  church.  Duccio 
had  more  sense  of  natural  grace  and  gentle  sentiment  than 
•Cimabue.  The  three  works  in  the  National  Gallery  (Nos. 
566,  1139,  and  1140)  show  personal  observation  of  natural 
form,  sweetness  of  expression,  animation  in  the  action  of 
the  figures,  a  feeling  for  beauty  of  line  in  the  drapery,  and 
:a  careful  skill  in  execution  far  in  advance  of  any  of  his 
predecessors.  In  No.  1140,  Christ  Healing  the  Blind,  great 
advance  is  shown  by  a  street  scene  replacing  the  usual 
gold  background.] 

[Ugolino  da  Siena,  of  whose  life  nothing  is  known, 
worked  in  Florence,  where  he  painted  an  altar-piece  for  the 
church  of  Santa  Croce.  Two  portions  of  its  predella  are  now 
in  the  National  Gallery  (Nos.  1188  and  1189),  and  show  his 
execution  to  have  been  even  more  elaborate  than  Duccio' s, 
whilst  the  same  germs  of  naturalism  and  tender  sentiment 
are  visible.  Segna  di  Buonaventura  was  a  pupil  of 
Duccio.  There  is  a  Crucifixion  bv  him  in  the  National 
Gallery  (No.  567).] 

[Of  NiccoLO  BuoNACORSO,  another  early  Sienese  painter 
•of  the  fourteenth  century,  of  whom  nothing  is  kno\vn,  the 
National  Gallery  possesses  an  interesting  Marriage  of  the 
Virgin  (No.  1109). 

But  perhaps  the  greatest  Sienese  painter  of  the  fourteenth 
.century  was  Simone  Martini,  often  called  Simone  Memmi 
(1284-1344),  from  following  an  error  of  Yasari,  who  took 
him  for  the  brother,  instead  of  the  brother-in-law,  of  Lippo 
Memmi,  his  fellow-worker.   He  holds  the  same  place  in  the 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  47 

iSchool  of  Siena  that  Giotto  holds  in  the  School  of  Florence, 
and  his  genius  seems  to  have  been  quite  as  independent.  His 
<;hief  work  at  Siena  is  a  fresco  in  the  Pubhc  Palace  cover- 
ing a  whole  side  of  the  Council  Chamber.  It  was  com- 
pleted in  1315.  It  represents  the  Virgin  enthroned,  with 
the  Child  standing  on  her  knee,  surrounded  by  thirty  saints 
and  angels.  The  Virgin,  with  delicate  oval  face,  is  full  of 
sweetness  and  dignity,  the  angels  are  lovely,  and  the  arch- 
angels noble.  On  the  opposite  wall  is  a  spirited  equestrian 
portrait  of  the  famous  warrior,  Guidoriccio  Fogliani. 
Simone  also  painted  at  Assisi,  Naples,  Orvieto,  Pisa,  and 
Eome.  The  frescoes  in  the  lower  church  at  Assisi  (attri- 
buted by  Vasari  to  Puccio  Capanna)  are  the  work  of  Simone. 
In  1339  he  painted  at  Avignon,  in  the  cathedral  and  in  the 
pontifical  palace,  in  both  of  which  portions  of  his  work 
still  exist.  A  picture  dated  1342  (when  Simone  was  at 
Avignon),  in  the  Liverpool  Institute,  is  a  charming  small 
example  of  the  master,  representing  the  youthful  Christ's 
return  to  his  parents.  His  mother  receives  him  with  an 
expression  of  gentle  reproach.  The  conception  of  the  scene 
is  thoroughly  natural  and  original.  Another  panel  of  the 
same  period  is  in  the  Museum  at  Antwerp.]  Petrarch 
celebrated  Simone  in  two  of  his  sonnets,  in  return,  Vasari 
says,  for  the  painter  having  portrayed  the  image  of  his 
Laura,  "  beautiful  as  he  could  imagine  or  desire." 

Lippo  Memmi  (died  1356),  the  brother-in-law  of  Simone, 
aided  him  in  his  works,  and  completed  those  he  left  un- 
finished. [There  is  a  picture  of  the  Madonna  and  Child, 
signed  by  him,  in  the  Royal  Museum,  Berlin.] 

[PiETRO  and  Ambrogio  di  Lorenzo,  known  as  the 
LoRENZETTi,  wcre  painting  at  the  same  time  as  Simone, 
and  the  latter  is  considered  by  many  to  be  a  greater  artist 
than  Martini.  His  type  of  female  beauty  was  more  clas- 
sical and  less  sentimental,  his  conceptions  more  forcible  and 
manly.  The  greatness  of  his  manner  is  still  perceptible  in 
the  vast  frescoes  representing  allegories  of  Good  and  Bad 
Government  in  the  Sala  del  Nove  of  the  Public  Palace  at 
Siena  (1339).  Amongst  the  numerous  figures  that  of 
Peace  is  specially  celebrated  for  its  natural  grace  and  clas- 
sical style.  A  full  account  of  this  elaborate  and  monu- 
mental work  (now  in  a  sad  state  of  decay)  will  be  found  in 


48  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Woltman  and  Woerman's  "  History  of  Painting,"  Part  I.^ 
Book  II.,  sec.  3,  cap.  5  (Kegan  Paul,  1880).  Of  Am- 
brogio's  pa.nel  pictures  there  are  existing  a  Presentation  in 
the  Temple  in  the  Academy  at  Florence,  and  an  Annuncia- 
tion, and  some  small  pictures,  in  the  Academy  at  Siena. 
A  fine  and  genuine  fragment  of  one  of  his  frescoes  is  in  the 
National  Gallery  (No.  1147).  Pietro  often  worked  with 
Ambrogio,  and  to  the  two  brothers  are  now  ascribed  the 
Last  Judgment  and  the  Triumph  of  Death,  in  the  Campo 
Santo,  formerly  ascribed  to  Orcagna.^  According  to  Vasari, 
Pietro  was  also  the  author  of  another  fresco  in  the  Campo 
Santo,  representing  Hermit  Life,  or  the  Fathers  in  the 
Desert.  Of  Pietro' s  pictures  on  panel  the  finest  is  a  Birth 
of  the  Virgin,  in  the  Sacristy  of  the  Cathedral  at  Siena 
(1342).  There  are  others  at  Siena,  Florence,  and  Arezzo; 
and  to  our  National  Collection  has  lately  been  added  a 
small  panel  legendary  in  subject  (No.  1113).] 

[The  splendid  promise  of  Sienese  art  shown  in  the  works 
of  Martini  and  the  Lorenzetti  was  never  fulfilled.  Severe 
dearth,  followed  by  the  plague  in  1348,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  fatal  to  both  the  Lorenzetti,  reduced  the  state  to 
beggary  and  carried  off  three-fourths  of  the  population.^] 

[Taddeo  di  Bartolo  (1362-1422)  was  the  best  artist  of 
the  decadence.  His  principal  work,  frescoes  from  the  life 
of  the  Virgin  in  the  chapel  of  the  Public  Palace  at  Siena, 
are  fine  in  composition,  expression,  and  colour.] 

Antonio  Veneziano  ^  is  spoken  of  by  Vasari  as  a  Vene- 
tian, but  is  considered  by  Lanzi  and  other  historians  to 
have  been  a  Florentine  by  birth.  He  executed  some  of  the 
frescoes  of  the  Campo  Santo  in  1386-87,^  and  seems  to  have 
united  the  Sienese  and  Florentine  styles  with  happy  effect. 
He  was  "  no  less  expert  as  a  physician  than  excellent  as  a 
painter,"  Vasari  tells  us,  but  Vasari's  statements  about  this 
painter  require  to  be  received  with  caution,  as  many  of 
them  have  been  found  to  be  utterly  wrong. 

Gherardo  Starnino  ^  (born  about  1354)  was  a  pupil  of 

^  See  page  43. 

[2  Bevir's  "  Guide  to  Siena."] 

['  Neither  Antonio  nor  Starnino  belongs  to  the  Sienese  School.  They 
worked  in  the  traditions  of  Giotto.] 
*  See  note  to  p.  42. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN   ITALY.  49 

Antonio  Veneziano.  Becoming  involved  in  one  of  the 
many  political  disturbances  of  Florence,  he  escaped  to 
Spain,  where  he  acquired  great  wealth  in  the  exercise  of 
his  calling,  and  likewise  learnt  from  the  Spaniards  "  to  be 
L^entle  and  courteous,"  a  lesson,  it  would  appear,  that  he 
stood  much  in  need  of.  Starnino  is  principally  important 
from  the  fact  that  Masolino  was  his  pupil,  a  name  which 
brings  us  to  the  fifteenth  century  in  Florentine  art,  and  to 
a  new  period  in  its  development. 

The  painters  mentioned  in  this  chapter  are  sometimes 
called  the  Trecentiati,  or  masters  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
The  next  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  the  Quattrocentisti,  or 
masters  of  the  fifteenth  century,  who  prepared  the  way 
for  the  great  masters  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Cinquo- 
centisti. 


Chapter  II. 
THE  DEVELOPMENT. 

MaSACCIO — FbA   AnGELICO — MaNTEGNA — LUCA    SiGNORELLI — 

Perugino — Fbakcia. 

THE  fifteenth  century  was  an  age  of  rapid  intellectual 
growth.  Everywhere  the  germs  that  had  been  planted 
in  the  two  preceding  centuries  started  into  vigorous  life, 
and  sent  forth  shoots  in  new  directions.  With  this  age, 
indeed,  the  history  of  the  modern  world  may  fairly  be  said 
to  begin,  for  with  the  knowledge  of  the  true  solar  system, 
the  discovery  of  America,  and  the  invention  of  printing, 
the  mitid  of  man  first  attained  its  enfranchisement  from 
ignorance  and  superstition.  Yet  in  all  paths  of  knowledge 
the  works  of  the  fifteenth  century  can  only  be  regarded  as 
the  preparation  for  those  of  the  sixteenth.  In  art  espe- 
cially this  was  the  case.  The  great  artists  of  this  age  were 
the  forerunners  of  the  still  greater  artists  of  the  next. 
Masaccio  and  Mantegna  prepared  the  way  for  Mich  a/el 
Angelo;  Fra  Angelico  and  Perugino  for  Raphael,  and 
Bellini  for  Titian. 


50  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK  IV. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  Florence,  so  soon  to  fall 
under  the  golden  yoke  of  the  Medici,  was  still  a  free  re- 
public, constantly  torn,  it  is  true,  by  the  struggles  of  her 
factions,  but  enjoying  a  large  amount  of  material  pros- 
perity. It  is  a  theory  with  many  writers  that  a  settled  and 
beneficent  government  is  necessary  to  material  and  intel- 
lectual progress,  but  the  growth  of  the  cities  of  Italy  in  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  gives  a  rude 
shake  to  this  opinion.  The  government  of  Florence,  for 
example,  may  be  compared  to  a  fiery  volcano  that  was  con- 
stantly emitting  smoke  and  flames,  and  from  which  every 
few  years  torrents  of  lava  burst  forth  and  desolated  the 
whole  city  ;  and  yet  we  not  only  find  commerce  prospering 
amidst  the  struggles  of  aristocratic  factions  and  the  fearful 
outbursts  of  popular  feeling,  but  we  also  find  the  restless 
intellectual  activity  of  the  Florentines  seeking  vent  in  the 
more  lasting  channels  of  literature,  science,  and  art. 

Florence,  the  city  of  the  Lily,  Florence  republican, 
Florence  oligarchical,  or  Florence  Medicean,  seems  indeed, 
under  whatever  form  of  government  she  chose,  to  have  still 
remained  the  loved  abode  of  the  arts.  In  architecture, 
sculpture,  and  painting  she  expressed  her  thoughts  with  a 
power  and  a  beauty  that  no  other  city  ever  before  had  done, 
except  indeed  Athens,  to  which  she  has  often  been  compared. 

The  history  of  Italian  art  now  limits  itself,  for  a  time, 
almost  exclusively  to  the  history  of  Florentine  art,  for  the 
schools  of  Siena  and  Pisa,  which  seemed  to  be  putting  forth 
their  energies  in  the  preceding  century,  had  no  develop- 
ment in  this.^  It  is  true  that  the  Venetian  School  arose 
during  this  period,  and  made  considerable  progress  under 
the  Bellini,  but  the  Venetian  School  in  its  aim  and  mode  of 
expression  is  so  totally  different  from  the  Florentine,  that 
it  will  be  best  to  consider  it  apart,  and  to  follow  the  line  of 

^  The  religious  feeling  of  the  Sienese  School  was,  however,  trans- 
mitted to  the  Umbrian.  [The  Sienese  painter,  Matteo  di  Giovanni  (b. 
about  1435,  d.  1495),  is  the  best  of  his  time,  and  although  his  work  is 
archaic  in  comparison  to  contempoi'ary  Florentine  painting,  it  possesses 
much  beauty  and  tenderness  of  feeling.  In  the  National  Gallery  there 
is  an  Assumption  (No.  1155)  by  him  and  an  Ecce  Homo  (No.  247),  and 
by  a  contemporary,  Benevenuto  da  Siena  (b.  1436,  living  1517),  a 
Madonna  and  Child  Enthroned  (No.  909),  which  is  a  good  example  of 
fifteenth  century  Sienese  work.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN   ITALY.  51 

Florentine  painters  through  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  unbroken. 

As  in  the  thirteenth  century  we  saw  sculpture  preceding 
painting  in  artistic  development,  so  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury we  again  find  a  sculptor  at  the  head  of  the  foi'ward 
movement  of  the  age.  Lorenzo  Ghiberti  occupies,  in 
fact,  the  same  position  with  regard  to  Masolino,  Masaccio, 
and  their  followers,  as  Niccola  Pisano  with  regard  to  Giotto 
and  the  Giotteschi.  Each  was  the  herald  of  progress,  and 
of  a  progress  that  was  to  be  achieved  by  painting  as  well 
as  by  their  own  plastic  art. 

The  celebrated  Ghiberti  gates  of  the  Baptistery  of  San 
Giovanni,  at  Florence,  of  which  Michael  Angelo  said  "  that 
they  were  worthy  to  be  the  gates  of  Paradise,"  were  begun 
by  Ghiberti  in  1402,^  when  he  was  not  quite  three-and- 
twenty,  and  were  only  finished  after  forty-two  years'  labour, 
labour  on  which  he  bestowed  "  the  greatest  diligence  and 
greatest  love  " — grandissima  diligenza  e  grandissimo  amore, 
as  he  himself  tells  us  in  his  Commentario  sulle  Arti,  the 
earliest  memoirs  we  have  relating  to  Italian  art.^ 

These  gates  may  be  taken  as  inaugurating  the  new  era 
in  the  progress  of  art,  for  the  scientific  principles  which 
were  now  for  the  first  time  applied  to  art  were  fully  carried 
out  in  them,  and  the  rules  of  perspective  intelligently 
obeyed. 

The  knowledge  of  perspective  seems  to  have  come  to  the 
early  painters  of  this  century  almost  as  a  new  revelation. 
Giotto,  indeed,  had  often  obeyed  its  rules,  but  we  may  pre- 
sume that  he  did  so  to  a  certain  extent  unconsciously,  for 
there  was  no  science  of  perspective  in  his  day. 

Now,  however,  when  mathematical  science  was  being 
pursued  with  untiring  energy  by  several  distinguished 
scholars,  the  painters  and  sculptors  of  the  age  seized  upon 
perspective  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm,  and  especially  it 
was  studied  with  indefatigable  zeal  by  a  band  of  young 
artists  who  worked  in  Lorenzo  Ghiberti' s  workshops. 

Foremost  amongst  these   devotees  to  perspective  was 

[^  Ghiberti  executed  the  Northern  Gates  of  the  Baptistery  about  this 
time,  if  not  earlier.  The  Eastern  Gates,  the  "  Gates  of  Paradise,"  were 
not  begun  till  1439,  and  were  unfinished  at  his  death  in  1456.] 

=*  Partly  printed  in  Cicognara,  "  Storia  della  Scultura,"  vol.  ii. 


52  HISTOEY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Paolo  Doni  (1396-7-1475),  caUed  Uccello,  from  his  fond- 
ness for  painting  birds,  who  nearly  went  mad  in  the  pur- 
suit of  his  favourite  study.  He  sacrificed  eveiy  other 
branch  of  his  art  to  this,  and  Yasari  relates  that  he  was  so 
engrossed  by  it,  that  when  implored  by  his  wife  to  take 
necessary  rest  and  sleep,  he  would  only  answer,  "  Oh !  what 
a  charming  thing  this  perspective  is  " — Oh !  che  dolce  cosa 
e  questa  prospettiva.  There  is  a  most  remarkable  battle- 
piece  by  Uccello  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  583),  in  which 
his  efforts  at  perspective  are  to  modern  eyes  somewhat 
amusing,  but  he  accomplished  good  work  in  his  time,  by 
which  succeeding  painters  greatly  profited. 

[PlERO  DELLA  FrANCESCA,  Or   PlERO   BORGHESE  (1423- 

1492),  whose  real  name  was  Piero  di  Benedetto,  although 
some  five-and- twenty  years  the  junior  of  Uccello,  and 
Umbrian  by  birth  and  sentiment,  approaches  Uccello  in  his 
professional  spirit,  and  belongs  intellectually  to  the  scien- 
tific school,  whose  centre  was  Florence.  Chiefly  employed 
in  religious  art,  he,  while  simple  and  reverent  in  composi- 
tion and  expression,  would  paint  saint.  Madonna,  or  angel, 
from  the  men  and  women  around  him.  He  was  an  earnest 
student  of  anatomy  and  perspective,  and  of  nature  gene- 
rally, and  endeavoured  to  substitute  for  traditional  modes 
of  representation  others  founded  upon  knowledge  and 
observation.  He  was  also  noted  as  a  2X)rtrait  painter,  and 
was  an  original  colourist  of  a  high  order.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  Italian  painters  in  oil.  His  finest  frescoes  are  at 
Arezzo,  and  at  his  native  city  of  Borgo  San  Sepolcro.  In 
the  National  Grallery  are  two  undoubted  works  of  his,  Nos. 
908  and  665.] 

Masolino  da  Panicale  ^  was  another  scientific  painter  of 
this  time,  but  he  did  not  study  perspective  so  much  as 
chiaroscuro  (light  and  shade),  which  likewise  had  hitherto 
been  but  little  understood.  Some  important  frescoes  by 
him  in  the  church  at  Castiglione  d'Olona  have  recently  ^ 
been  recovered  from  whitewash,  but  those  attributed  to 
him  in  the  Brancacci  chapel,  at  Florence,  are  now  con- 
sidered, on  strong  evidence,  not  to  be  his  work.^ 

[^  Now  supposed  to  be  identical  with  Tommaso,  son  of  Christofano  di 
Fino  of  Florence  (1383-1447  ?).]  P  About  forty  years  ago.] 

3  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle.     [See,  for  contrary  evidence,  "  Geschichte 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  53 

The  intellectual  spirit  of  the  age  is,  however,  most  clearly 
apimrent  in  Tommaso  di  Ser  Giovanni  di  Castel  San 
Giovanni  (1401-1428),  better  known  as  Masaccio,  a  name 
given  him,  it  is  said,  by  his  companions  in  boyhood  on  ac- 
count of  his  abstracted,  air  and  slovenly  appearance,  and 
which  has  remained  to  him  through  posterity.  Masaccio, 
or  "  Slovenly  Tom,"  ^  is  undoubtedly  the  representative 
painter  of  his  age,  as  Brunelleschi  is  the  representative 
architect,  and  Ghiberti  and  Donatello  the  representative 
sculi)tors. 

In  him  the  revival  of  ancient  learning,  to  which  the  great 
scholars  of  that  time  were  devoting  their  whole  attention, 
first  bore  fruit  in  painting.  The  scientific  principles  that 
all  the  other  artists  were  reaching  after  were  by  him 
attained,  and  we  have  an  intelligent  apj^lication  of  perspec- 
tive, a  boldness  of  foreshortening,  that  even  Paolo  Uccello 
never  reached,  a  masterly  modelling  of  the  nude,  an  effec- 
tive knowledge  of  chiaroscuro,  and  a  noble  naturalism 
which  never  descends  to  the  trivial.  The  spirit  of  classical 
antiquity  lives  again,  in  fact,  in  his  works,  but  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  such  as  we  have  seen  it  in  the  Giotteschi  and 
the  Sienese  painters,  and  as  we  shall  see  it  again  in  Fra 
Angelico,  and  several  other  religious  painters  contemporary 
with  Masaccio,  is  fast  dying  out. 

The  painters  of  the  fifteenth  century  may,  in  fact,  be 
divided  into  two  great  classes,  those  in  whom  reason,  and 
those  in  whom  faith  predominated:  those  who,  having 
studied  the  works  of  Greek  art,  became,  like  Masaccio, 
imbued  with  the  same  desires  as  the  artists  of  the  old 
world  ;  and  those  (chiefly  monks)  who  remained  attached 
to  the  Christian  school,  and  only  sought  to  express  the 
teachings  of  the  Roman  Church. 

Masaccio's  earliest  works  are  supposed  to  be  the  frescoes 

der  Italienischen  Kunst,"  by  Ernst  Forster ;  "Masaccio  og  den  Floren- 
tinske  Maleikonst  paa  haus  Tid,"  by  F.  G.  Knudtzon ;  "  Masaccio  und 
Masolino,"  by  Dr.  Thausing,  "  Zeitschrift  fiir  bildende  Kunst,"  May, 
1876,  and  Dr.  Itichter's  notes  to  Vasari,  forming  vol.  vi.  of  Vasarrs 
"  Lives  of  the  Painters"  (George  Bell  and  Sons,  1885),  pp.  49-50  ;  and 
for  an  able  summary  of  the  controversy  see  Woermann's  "  Masaccio  "  in 
"  Kunst  und  Kiinstlcr."] 

['  Masaccio  is  formed  of  Maso  (short  for  Tommaso)  and  "  accio,"  a  ter- 
mination of  contempt.] 


54  HISTORY    or    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

in  the  church  of  S.  Clemente/  at  Eome,  where  he  repre- 
sented various  scenes  from  the  life  of  S.  Catherine  [of 
Alexandria,  and  a  Crucifixion]  ;  but  those  by  which  he  is 
best  known  are  the  celebrated  paintings  of  the  Brancacci 
chapel,  in  the  church  of  the  Carmelites  at  Florence.  Here 
his  powers  had  full  room  for  their  exercise,  and  here  in  a 
noble  series  of  frescoes  illustrating  the  life  of  S.  Peter, 
he  clearly  proved  himself  the  first  artist  of  his  age.  He 
died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty -seven,  so  that  his  remark- 
able works  must  be  regarded,  not  as  the  matured  produc- 
tions of  a  long  course  of  study,  but  as  the  efforts  of  his 
youth.  His  naturalistic  style,  which  Rio  has  characterized 
as  "  naturalisme  classique,"  was  adopted  by  all  the  pro- 
gressive artists  of  his  own  age,  but  received  its  fullest 
development  in  the  succeeding  century.  There  is  scarcely 
any  term,  indeed,  that  more  nearly  expresses  the  grand 
style  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  of  Raphael  in  the  cartoons,, 
than  this  same  one  of  "  naturalisme  classique." 

There  is  a  vigorous  portrait,  stated  to  be  by  Masaccio, 
and  to  be  his  own  likeness,  in  the  National  Gallery ;  un- 
fortunately there  is  no  proof  of  this,  and  Wornum  and 
several  others  are  of  opinion  that  it  is  really  by  Filippino 
Lippi.^  Whoever  it  is,  and  whoever  it  is  by,  it  is  certainly 
a  most  masterly  work  of  the  age. 

Very  little  is  known  of  the  outward  circumstances  of 
Masaccio' s  life,  even  Vasari  relates  little  concerning  him, 
though  he  does  tell  us  that  it  was  not  from  any  vice  of 
disposition  he  acquired  the  nickname  Masaccio,  "  for  he 
was  goodness  itself,  so  ready  to  oblige  and  do  service  to 
others,  that  a  better  or  kinder  man  could  not  be  desired." 
Let  us  hope  Vasari  was  correct  in  this  estimate  of  his 
character  as  well  as  in  his  statement  of  the  date  of  his 
death,  which,  after  having  been  long  discredited,  is  now 
proved^  to  be  right  after  all. 

The  struggle  between  the  spirit  of  classic  G-reece  and 
the  spirit  of  Christian  Rome,  which,  dating  from  the  re- 

[^  Vasari  ascribes  them  to  Masaccio,  and  Crowe  and  CaA-alcaselle  and 
Woermann  accept  this  ascr'iption  ;  others  give  them  to  Masolino.  See- 
authorities  quoted  in  note  to  p.  52.] 

[^  No.  626.     Others  ascribe  it  to  Botticelli.] 

P  Scarcely  "  proved  "  yet.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  55 

vival  of  ancient  learning,  marked  not  only  the  literature, 
but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  art  of  this  period,  disturbed  not 
the  peaceful  mind  of  Gtiovanni  da  Fiesole,  called  Fra 
Angelico  (1387-1455).  Although  a  contemporary  of 
Masaccio,  and  the  other  intellectual  artists  of  this  time,  he 
belonged  in  feeling  entirely  to  the  preceding  century.  He 
remained,  therefore,  true  to  the  traditions  of  Catholic  art, 
but  he  infused  into  its  ascetic  types  a  holy  cheerfulness 
and  beauty  that  were  the  direct  expression  of  his  own 
happy  and  holy  life.  With  him,  to  paint  was  to  pray  ;  it 
was  the  expression  of  his  heart  to  his  Grod,  the  service  of  a 
child  to  its  Father.  He  lived  like  all  visionaries  in  a 
world  of  his  own,  more  peaceful  than  even  the  cloisters 
of  Fiesole,  and  peopled  with  holy  beings,  with  whom,  says 
a  monk  of  his  order,  "he  conversed,  wept,  and  prayed 
by  turns."  When  by  means  of  a  long  course  of  prayer 
and  fasting  he  had  gained  a  satisfactory  conception  of 
his  subject,  no  after  consideration  would  ever  induce 
him  to  alter  it.  His  ideal,  so  he  imagined,  had  been 
revealed  to  him  from  above,  and  not  built  up  in  his  own 
mind. 

Such  a  painter,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find,  missed  alto- 
gether the  intellectual  development  that  was  going  on 
around  him.  Shut  in  his  convent  away  from  the  tumults 
of  Florence,  he  took  no  heed  of  the  signs  of  the  times  in 
which  he  lived.  He  desired  inspiration  and  not  knowledge, 
and  the  restless  spirit  of  inquiry  which  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  men's  minds,  and  was  so  soon  to  trouble  even  the 
hearts  of  holy  monks,  never  suggested  any  doubts  to  his 
childlike  faith. 

Nowhere,  perhaps,  are  the  two  opposed  schools  of  Faith 
and  Reason  more  strongly  contrasted  than  in  his  works 
and  those  of  Masaccio. 

A  delicate  feminine  purism  charms  us  in  Fra  Angelico, 
and  a  strong  masculine  naturalism  in  Masaccio.  Each 
excels  in  exactly  the  qualities  in  which  the  other  is 
deficient. 

Vasari  tells  that  Fra  Angelico  began  his  artistic  career 
as  a  miniaturist,  and  even  in  his  larger  works  the  cramp- 
ing effects  of  this  style  of  painting  are  often  apparent. 
The   design,  though  graceful,  is  frequently  feeble,   and 


5G  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

there  is  a  total  absence  of  that  dignity  and  grandeur  that 
strikes  us  in  the  works  of  Masaccio.  Era  Angelico's 
knowledge  of  the  human  form  was  in  fact  extremely  de- 
fective ;  it  is  not  only  that  he  had  not  studied  it  anatomi- 
cally, as  the  artists  of  his  time  were  beginning  to  do,  but 
he  seems  to  have  been  utterly  unable  to  draw  a  vigorous 
human  being. 

Yet  Fra  Angelico's  works  possess  a  charm  that  defies 
criticism.  They  are  the  expressions  of  a  pure  and  lovely 
nature,  and  were  never  meant  to  be  subjected  to  the  bold 
sacrilegious  stare  of  the  critic,  who  coldly  comments  on 
their  incorrect  drawing  and  defective  anatomy,  but  does 
not  open  his  heart  to  their  mystical  loveliness.  Those 
exquisitely  beautiful  Virgins  and  female  Saints,  painted, 
not  as  some  common-sensible  critic  avers,  from  the  graceful 
maidens  of  Florence,  but  from  an  ideal  in  the  artist's 
mind,  revealed  to  him,  as  he  believed,  in  answer  to  prayer, 
can  only  be  appreciated  by  an  enthusiasm  resembling  that 
of  their  painter.  "  They  sink  into  the  heart,"  writes  Lord 
Lindsay,  who  undoubtedly  possesses  this  requisite  enthu- 
siasm, "  and  dwell  there  in  the  dim  but  holy  light  of 
memory,  in  association  with  looks  and  thoughts  too  sacred 
for  sunshine,  and  *  too  deep  for  tears.'  " 

One  of  the  most  important  and  best  known  of  Era 
Angelico's  Virgin  pictures  is  that  rich  composition,  the 
Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  in  the  Louvre.  Of  this  picture, 
which  was  originally  painted  for  the  Convent  Church  at 
Fiesole,  Vasari  speaks  in  tones  of  rapturous  admii'ation. 
"  One  is  convinced,"  he  says,  "  that  those  blessed  spirits 
can  look  no  otherwise  in  heaven  itself ;  or,  to  speak  under 
coiTection,  could  not  if  they  had  forms  appear  otherwise ; 
for  all  the  saints  male  and  female  assembled  here,  have 
not  only  life  and  expression,  most  delicately  and  truly 
rendered,  but  the  colouring  also  of  the  whole  work  would 
seem  to  have  been  given  by  the  hand  of  a  saint,  or  of  an 
angel  like  themselves." 

Still  more  beautiful,  though  not  so  rich  in  composition 
as  the  celebrated  Coronation  of  the  Louvre,  is  a  smaller 
picture  of  the  same  subject  in  the  Convent  of  S.  Marco,  in 
Florence,  a  convent  to  which  the  monks  of  Fiesole  re- 
moved in  1438,  at  the  invitation  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  who 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  67 

gave  it  Tip  for  their  use.  The  tender  dreamy  spirituality  of 
this  work  is  the  true  product  of  poetical  mysticism.^ 

Era  Angelico  was  the  chief  painter  of  the  Dominican 
order,  as  Giotto  was  of  the  Franciscan.  Giotto,  however, 
was  a  shrewd  man  of  the  world,  and  it  was  the  age  rather 
than  the  artist  which  is  reflected  in  the  religious  sentiment 
of  his  pictures,  but  Fra  Angelico  would  have  been  a  reli- 
gious artist  even  if  he  had  lived  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
for  it  is  the  individual  holiness  of  the  monk  that  is  breathed 
forth  in  his  works.  He  was  so  simple-minded,  we  are  told, 
that  he  refused  to  be  made  Archbishop  of  Florence, 
because  he  did  not  consider  himself  fit  for  so  great  a 
dignity,  and  once,  when  invited  to  breakfast  with  the  Pope, 
he  scrupled  to  eat  meat  of  which  his  holiness  was  partak- 
ing, because  although  he  had  the  Pope's  permission,  he 
had  not  that  of  his  own  spiritual  director. 

Besides  his  works  at  Fiesole  and  Florence,  Fra  Angelico 
executed  others  at  Orvieto  and  Rome.  In  the  latter  city 
he  painted  two  chapels  of  the  Vatican,  but  only  one  of 
them,  known  as  that  of  Nicholas  V.,  now  remains.  Here 
in  one  of  his  finest  series  of  frescoes,  he  has  represented 
scenes  from  the  histories  of  S.  Lawrence  and  S.  Stephen. 
Although  painted  after  he  had  attained  the  age  of  sixty, 
there  is  no  deterioration  perceptible  in  these  works.  Such 
a  mind  as  Fra  Angelico' s  could  indeed  never  grow  old. 
He  died  at  Rome,  at'  the  age  of  sixty-eight,  and  was  after- 
wards raised  to  the  ranks  of  the  beatified.  He  is  therefore 
called  by  Italians,  "  II  Beato  Angelico,"  a  title  only  one 
degree  below  that  of  saint.  The  Predella  of  the  Dominican 
altar-piece  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  663,  containing  266 
figures),  is  a  marvellous  piece  of  work,  and  affords  an  ex- 
cellent idea  of  his  style.^ 

Lorenzo,  usually  styled  Lorenzo  Monaco  (1370?- 
1425  ?),  a  monk  of  the  order  of  the  Camaldoles,  is  another 
religious  painter  who  was  not  in  the  least  influenced  by  the 
forward  impulse  given  to  painting  in  his  century.  He  be- 
longs, indeed,  even  in  date  to  the  very  beginning  of  the 
century,  before  this  impulse  was  really  felt.  He  adliered 
to  the  style  of  Taddeo  Gaddi,  says  Vasari,  but  Fra  Angelico 

*  It  has  been  engraved  in  outline  by  the  Arundel  Society. 
'  The  altar-piece  is  still  at  S.  Domenico,  Fiesole. 


58  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

seems  likewise  to  have  influenced  him.  The  side  wings  of 
an  altar-piece  in  the  National  Gallery,  representing  various 
saints,  Nos.  215  and  216,  are  supposed  to  be  wings  of  a 
known  altar-piece  by  him.^ 

Benozzo  G-ozzoli,  the  son  of  Lese  di  Sandro  (1420-1498), 
was  a  pupil  of  Fra  Angelico,  but  he  was  not  a  monk,  and 
regarded  life  from  a  less  ascetic  point  of  view.  His  works 
are  much  more  human  in  character  than  his  master's,  and 
although  he  remained  a  religious  painter,  it  is  evident  that 
the  naturalism,  and  even  the  classicism  of  Masaccio,  pro- 
duced a  greater  effect  upon  his  art  than  the  mysticism  of 
Angelico. 

In  1468  Gozzoli  was  called  to  Pisa,  where  he  was  em- 
ployed to  continue  the  work  that  the  artists  of  the  preced- 
ing century  had  so  nobly  begun  in  the  Campo  Santo,  but 
which  had  been  set  aside  for  a  long  period,  owing  to  the 
political  disturbances  and  ceaseless  misfortunes  of  that 
city.  Here,  in  a  series  of  twenty-four  frescoes,  he  set  forth 
in  a  dramatic  manner  the  whole  history  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, from  Noah  to  the  visit  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to 
Solomon.  "  The  endless  fertility  of  fancy  and  invention," 
says  Mrs.  Jameson,  "  displayed  in  these  compositions ;  the 
jjastoral  beauty  of  some  of  the  scenes,  the  Scriptural  sub- 
limity of  others  ;  the  hundreds  of  figures  introduced,  many 
of  them  portraits  of  his  own  time ;  the  dignity  and  beauty 
of  the  heads ;  the  exquisite  grace  of  some  of  the  figures, 
almost  equal  to  Raphael ;  the  ample  draperies,  the  gay 
rich  colours,  the  profusion  of  accessories,  as  buildings,  land- 
scapes, flowers,  animals,  and  the  care  and  exactness  with 
which  he  has  rendered  the  costume  of  that  time — render 
this  work  of  Benozzo  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  monu- 
ments of  the  fifteenth  century." 

These  frescoes  were  finished  after  sixteen  years  of  labour,^ 
in  1484.  G-ozzoli  is  the  first  among  the  Italian  painters 
who  seems  to  have  had  any  true  feeling  for  landscape.^ 

^  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle.  [One  of  the  few  works  known  to  be  his  is 
a  Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  found  in  an  abbey  of  his  order  at  Cerretto, 
near  Certaldo,  executed  in  1413.     It  is  now  in  the  Uffizi  at  Florence.] 

^  It  appears  that  he  contracted  to  paint  these  frescoes  at  the  rate  of 
three  a  year,  for  the  small  sum  of  ten  ducats  each,  about  equal  to  ^£'100 
at  the  present  day. 

[^  Masaccio  showed  a  truer  feeling,  and  Piero  della  Francesca  and 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  59 

His  landscape  backgrounds,  although  unfortunately  often 
filled  with  architectural  details,  show  a  real  appreciation  of 
the  beauty  of  the  earth,  and  an  honest  endeavour  to  express 
it.  The  Pisans,  it  appears,  were  so  delighted  with  his  work 
in  their  Campo  Santo,  that  they  presented  him  in  1478 
with  a  grand  tomb  there,  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  the 
advantage  of  resting  in  their  holy  ground.  The  date  of 
the  gift  of  this  tomb  has  long  been  supposed  to  have  been 
that  of  his  death,  but  he  hved  some  time  after  this  sugges- 
tive present.  [Of  the  many  other  works  executed  by 
Benozzo  at  Pisa  scarcely  any  remain,  but  the  little  chapel 
of  the  Medici  in  their  palace  at  Florence  is  covered  with  a 
finely-presei-ved  fresco  representing,  under  the  guise  of  the 
story  of  the  Magi,  a  magnificent  hunting-party,  in  which 
portraits  on  horseback  of  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  the 
Patriarch  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  several  of  the  Medici 
family,  from  Cosmo  Vecchio  to  the  young  Lorenzo,  are  in- 
troduced. At  San  Gemignano,  in  the  church  of  S.  Agos- 
tino,  there  is  a  series  of  beautiful  frescoes  by  his  hand,  re- 
presenting scenes  from  the  life  of  the  saint,  full  of  incidents 
of  real  life.  Many  of  these  are  well  preserved.]  Besides 
the  grand  altar-piece  by  Gozzoli  in  the  National  Gallery, 
there  is  a  very  quaint  little  picture  by  him,  assumed  to  re- 
present "  The  Rape  of  Helen."  There  is  certainly  not 
much  evidence  of  the  influence  of  classicism  in  his  render- 
ing of  this  classic  subject.  It  is  impossible  to  help  laughing 
at  the  grandly  attired  Helen,  who  sits  composedly  on  the 
back  of  Paris,  her  flowing  blue  dress  hiding  to  some  extent 
his  bright  green  coat,  but  not  his  ridiculously  slender  legs 
encased  in  scarlet  stockings.  Other  ladies  are  borne  off  by 
the  heroes  in  a  similar  manner. 

CosiMO  EossELLi  (1439-1507),  is  another  follower  of 
Era  Angelico,  who  is  deeply  tinged  with  the  naturalism 
of  the  opposed  school ;  in  fact  Masaccio,  having  by  far  the 
more  powerful  genius,  quickly  drew  into  his  lists  all  the 
rising  artists  of  the  time,  even  the  undoubted  pupils  of 
the  holy  mystic.  Artists  of  other  schools  continued  in 
many  cases  faithful  to  the  old  traditions  ;  but  after  Era 

other  artists  might  be  named  whose  feeling  was  as  sincere  as  that  of 
Gozzoli,  but  in  the  etfective  scenic  treatment  of  landscape  as  a  back- 
ground Gozzoli  made  a  great  advance.] 


€0  HISTORY    OF    PA.INTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Angelico,  we  do  not  find  any  other  Florentine  who  was 
not  influenced,  more  or  less,  bj  the  prevailing  naturalism 
of  the  age.  Not  even  monks,  as  we  shall  see,  escaped  the 
general  infection. 

Fra  Filippo  Lippi  (b.  about  1412,  d.  1469)  was  in  no  way 
allied  to  his  Dominican  brother,  Fra  Angelico.  No  greater 
contrast  can  indeed  be  afforded  than  between  the  charac- 
ters and  artistic  styles  of  these  two  contemporary  monks. 
Fra  Filippo  Lippi,  a  poor  orphan,  thrust  into  a  Carmelite 
convent  by  his  aunt  when  he  was  only  eight  years  old,  early 
made  it  apparent  that  if  he  had  no  vocation  for  a  holy  life, 
he  had  a  decided  vocation  for  art,  and  the  prior  of  the  con- 
vent, conceiving  that  an  artistic  brother  would  be  useful  to 
the  order,  gave  him  every  facility  for  practising  painting. 
The  young  artist  soon  made  such  progress  "  that  many," 
says  Yasari,  "  affirmed  that  the  spirit  of  Masaccio  had 
entered  into  the  body  of  Fra  Filippo."  ^  His  paintings, 
however,  seem  totally  wanting  in  that  calm  dignity  that 
distuiguishes  those  of  Masaccio ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  in- 
troduced a  new  element  into  them,  that  not  even  Masaccio 
had  arrived  at — the  element  of  sensuous  beauty.  It  is 
easy  to  understand  the  shock  that  Filippo's  daring  natura- 
lism— "un  naturalisme  gracieusement  scandaleux,"  Eio 
calls  it — must  have  given  to  pious  souls  accustomed  to  the 
set  formulae  of  religious  expression,  and  to  Fra  Angelico' s 
spiritual  beings.  Fra  Filippo's  virgins  are  by  no  means 
spiritual,^  but  painted  simply  from  the  most  beautiful 
faces  he  saw  around  him,  and  especially,  it  is  said,  from  the 
beautiful  Lucretia  Buti,^  a  young  novice  with  whom  he  fell 
in  love  as  he  was  painting  her  portrait  as  a  Madonna,  and 
whom  he  induced  to  run  away  with  him  from  her  convent. 
The  scandal  that  this  caused  was  great,  but  the  friendshii> 

\}  Masaccio  commenced  liis  frescoes  in  the  Carmine,  which  adjoined 
Lippi's  convent,  in  1421,  the  year  after  the  latter'sname  appears  on  the 
convent's  register,  and  Lippi's  first  frescoes,  now  destroyed,  were  painted 
on  the  walls  of  this  church.] 

[^  This  is  not  true  of  his  earlier  works.  See  Woermann  in  "  Kunst 
and  Kiinstler."  In  the  National  Gallery  are  two  exquisite  examples  of 
the  master  painted  for  Cosmo  de'  Medici  (Nos.  666  and  667),  full  of  re- 
verence and  spiritual  expression.] 

P  In  1461,  Pope  Pius  II.,  at  the  instance  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  granted 
him  a  dispensation,  thereby  recognizing  them  as  a  married  couple.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  61 

of  Cosmo  de'  Medici  shielded  the  monk-painter  from  the 
consequences  of  his  sacrilegious  deed,  and  he  continued  to 
live  with  Lucretia,  and  to  make  her  serve  as  a  model  for 
his  Madonnas,  without,  it  would  seem,  drawing  down  upon 
himself  the  thunders  of  the  Church,  as  he  assuredly  would 
have  done  had  he  not  been  the  favourite  painter  of  the 
Medici,  who  only  laughed  at  his  error. ^ 

Fra  Filippo's  principal  works  are  in  the  Duomo  at  Prato, 
where  in  a  series  of  frescoes  he  set  forth  the  lives  of  S. 
John  the  Baptist  and  S.  Stephen.  "  These  works,"  says 
Kugler,  "  are  full  of  character,  and  sometimes  show  a 
humorous  conception  of  life ;  the  artist  has  even  intro- 
duced sharpers  and  low  characters  painted  from  nature, 
though  it  must  be  confessed,  not  always  in  the  appropriate 
place.  The  compositions,  considered  generally,  display 
feeling,  and  an  impetuous  ardent  mind.  It  is  worthy  of 
observation  that  the  drapery  now  also  underwent  a  trans- 
formation consistent  with  the  realizing  tendency  of  the  time. 
Not  only  is  the  costume  of  the  day  introduced  into  the 
most  sacred  scenes,  so  that  the  angels  themselves  appear  in 
the  gay  Florentine  garb,  but  even  the  ideal  drapery  of  the 
Virgin  and  of  the  First  Person  of  the  Trinity  is  treated  in  a 
realistic  style,  and  that  without  any  particular  skill  to* 
recommend  it." 

If  this  realism  of  Fra  Filippo's  shocked  a  few  consei-va- 
tive  and  pious  minds,  it  is  evident  that  it  pleased  the  great 
majority  of  his  contemporaries,  for  he  was  not  only  the 
favourite  painter  of  the  Medicis,  but  received  commissions 
from  many  religious  houses,  and  was  greatly  esteemed  as 
a  painter  of  altar-pieces.  His  Madonnas  were  most  in  de- 
mand, Madonnas  whose  human  sensuous  beauty  now 
attracted  more  admiration  than  the  ideal  spiritual  beauty 
(which  was  sometimes,  it  must  be  admitted,  remarkably 
like  human  ugliness)  of  the  earlier  religious  painters. 

But,  said  Fra  Filippo — 

"  If  you  get  simple  beauty  and  nought  else, 
You  get  about  the  best  thing  God  invents."  * 

^  In  a  letter  written  by  Giovanni  de*  Medici,  in  ^lay,  1458,  he  says: 
"  E  eosi  dello  errore  di  Fra  Filippo  n'aviamo  riso  un  pezzo  "  (And  so 
we  laughed  a  little  at  Fra  Filippo's  error).     Gaye,  "  Carteggio." 

^  Robert  Browning,  "  Men  and  Women," 


62  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOZ    IV. 

And  so  he  painted  the  beauty  he  saw  around  him,  nor 
strained  his  eyes  after  an  ideal  that  was  not  revealed  to  his 
oominonj)lace  nature.  The  difference  between  him  and  Fra 
Angelico  lies  perhaps  in  this,  that  Fra  Angelico  as  an 
ascetic  painter  and  religious  purist,  and  follower  in  spirit, 
if  not  wholly  in  type,  of  the  Byzantines,  desired  to  paint 
only  just  so  much  of  body  as  would  make  soul  tangible, 
whereas  Fra  Filippo  delighted  in  making  the  body  excellent, 
careless  perhaps  whether  the  soul  shone  through  it  or  not. 

Fra  Filippo' s  personal  history  as  given  by  Vasari  reads 
more  like  a  romance  than  genuine  fact,  yet  recent  investi- 
gation does  not  seem  to  have  done  much  to  disprove  its 
substantial  accuracy.  He  died  whilst  executing  some 
frescoes  in  the  choir  of  the  cathedral  at  Spoleto,  in  1469. 
Vasari  states  that  it  was  thought  by  some  that  he  was 
poisoned  by  the  relations  of  his  mistress,  but  this  seems 
improbable,  as  his  death  did  not  occur  until  many  years 
after  the  scandal  that  her  abduction  had  caused.  He  had 
a  son  by  her,  who  was  twelve  years  old  at  the  time  of 
his  father's  death,  and  was  afterwards  distinguished  as 
Filippino  Lippi. 

Such  were  the  painters,  and  such  was  the  development 
of  art  during  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In  the 
latter  half  of  the  century  the  Renaissance,  both  in  litera- 
ture and  art,  was  triumphantly  established  in  Florence, 
under  the  rule  of  the  Medici,  who  had  been  from  the  first 
the  devoted  admirers  of  classic  learning  and  ancient  art. 

Cosmo  de'  Medici,  the  patron  of  Paolo  Uccello  and  Fra 
Filippo,  died  in  1464,  but  his  son  Piero,  in  spite  of  strong 
opposition,  succeeded  him  in  the  government.  At  Piero' s 
death,  which  happened  in  a  few  years,  his  two  young  sons 
Giuliano  and  Lorenzo,  known  as  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent, 
became  rulers  of  Florence,  the  freedom  of  the  republic  now 
existing  only  in  name.  "  But,"  says  Hallam,  *'  if  the 
people's  wish  to  resign  their  freedom  gives  a  title  to  accept 
the  governmeut  of  a  country,  the  Medici  were  no  usurpers. 
That  family  never  lost  the  affections  of  the  populace." 

The  name  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  calls  up  the  re- 
membrance of  a  grand  constellation  of  scholars,  politicians, 
poets,  historians,  architects,  sculptors,  and  painters  of 
which  he  was  the  central  star,  although,  perhaps,  of  less 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  63 

real  magnitude  than  many  of  the  others.  It  is  only  with 
the  painters  that  we  have  here  to  do,  but  it  is  as  well  to 
remember  that  the  achievements  of  art  at  this  time  were 
but  one  part  of  the  general  achievements  of  the  human 
intellect. 

Besides  the  internal  development  that  art  was  under- 
going at  this  period,  two  especial  inventions  of  man's 
genius  gave  it  a  strong  external  impulse — namely,  the  in- 
vention of  engraving,  whereby  works  of  art  were  multiplied 
and  diffused  abroad,  and  the  invention  of  oil  painting, 
which  greatly  added  to  the  beauty  and  durability  of  paint- 
ings. The  latter  invention  was  made  in  Flanders  by  the 
famous  brothers  Van  Eyck,^  but  the  process  was  quickly 
introduced  into  Italy,  and  was  at  once  practised  by  all  the 
great  painters  of  the  time,  for  whereas  in  the  first  half  of 
the  fifteenth  century  we  have  no  Italian  oil  painting,  in  the 
latter  half  we  find  that  mode  even  more  general  than  fresco 
and  tempera. 

Engraving  on  copper  it  is  now  tolerably  certain  was  an 
Italian  invention,  and  due,  as  Vasari  states,  to  a  goldsmith 
of  Florence  named  Maso  Finiguerra.  At  all  events  the 
famous  Pax,  the  oldest  ^  copper  engraving  known  to  exist, 
is  by  Finiguerra,  and  is  dated  1452.  Wood  engraving  is 
of  earlier  date,  and  is  undoubtedly  of  G-erman  origin.  Both 
modes  were  employed  by  German  artists,  and  aided  greatly 
in  disseminating  a  knowledge  of  northern  art  in  Italy. 

[Sandro  Filipepi,  called  Botticelli,  after  the  goldsmith 
to  whom  he  was  apprenticed  (1446-1510),  was  the  most 
celebrated  pupil  of  Fra  Filippo.  He  also  worked  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Pollaiuoli,  goldsmiths,  sculptors,  and  painters, 
and  the  influence  of  plastic  art  in  his  work  is  visible  in  the 
strong  definition  of  his  forms.  He  was  of  an  ardent  and 
imaginative  temperament,  and  his  best  work  is  marked  by 
a  poetic  fire  peculiar  to  himself,  sometimes  restrained,  as 
in  the  faces  of  his  brooding  Madonnas,  sometimes  breaking 
out  into  fantastic  ecstasy,  as  in  the  remarkable  picture  of 
the  Nativity  (No.  1034)  in  the  National  Gallery.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  artists  who  delighted  to  paint  scenes  from  clas- 

[^  Rather  perfected  than  invented.] 

['  No  longer  regarded  as  the  oldest.  See  Duplessis,  "  Ilistoire  de  la 
Gravure."] 


64  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

sical  mythology,  and  though  his  ideal  of  beauty  was  very- 
different  from  that  of  the  Greeks,  it  has  a  strange  fantastic 
charm  of  its  own  which,  combined  with  the  vigour  of  his 
fancy,  has  made  his  works  specially  attractive  to  the  pre- 
sent generation.  He  was  perhaps  the  first  illustrator  of  a 
modem  work  of  imagination,  illustrating  both  Dante  and 
Boccaccio,  and  was  perhaps  one  of  the  first  engravers  on 
metal.^  His  most  important  frescoes  are  in  the  Sistine 
Chapel  at  Rome,  where  he  was  summoned  by  the  Pope  in 
1481,  and  appointed,  according  to  Yasari,  to  superintend 
the  pictorial  decoration  of  the  chapel.  Besides  numerous 
frescoes  of  the  Popes,  he  executed  two  of  the  series  from  the 
life  of  Moses,  and  one  from  the  life  of  Christ.  The  other 
jDainters  were  Signorelli,  Perugino,  Eosselli,  and  Ghirlan- 
daio.  Amongst  the  finest  of  his  religious  pictures  are  the 
Coronation  of  the  Virgin  in  the  Academy  at  Florence,  and  the 
Adoration  of  the  Magi  in  the  Uffizi ;  of  his  works  of  poetry 
and  allegory,  the  Birth  of  Venus  in  the  Ufiizi,  the  Spring 
in  the  Academy,  Florence,  and  the  little  exquisitely  finished 
Calumny  in  the  Uffizi,  are  perhaps  the  most  celebrated. 
He  is  well  represented  in  the  National  Gallery,  but  there 
is  so  much  dispute  as  to  which  of  the  pictures  there  can  be 
properly  ascribed  to  him  that  we  shall  only  mention  the  great 
Assumption  of  the  Virgin  (No.  1126),  the  Virgin  and  Child 
(No.  275),  thoroughly  representative  in  the  expression  of  the 
Virgin,  though  by  some  considered  to  be  a  "  school "  pic- 
ture, the  Mars  and  Venus  (No.  915),  and  the  Nativity  already 
mentioned.  The  two  beautiful  Adorations  (Nos.  592  and 
1033)  have  been  variously  ascribed  by  different  authorities, 
but  according  to  Morelli  and  others  are  the  work  of  Botticelli. 
They  are  given  to  Filippino  Lippi  in  the  catalogue.  (See 
Dr.  Richter's  "  Italian  Art  in  the  National  Gallery.")] 

Filippino  Lippi  (1460-1504),  the  son  of  Fra  Filippo,  and 
the  pupil  of  Botticelli,  was  undoubtedly  an  artist  of  great 
power.  He  added  to  his  father's  bold  naturalism  a  dra- 
matic talent  in  composition,  which  places  his  works  above 
the  mere  realisms  of  Fra  Filippo,  and  renders  him  worthy 

[^  The  designs  of  the  Florentine  edition  of  Dante,  1481 ,  are  ascribed  to 
him,  and  a  copy  of  Dante  with  original  drawings  by  him  of  great  imagi- 
native force,  was  purchased  by  the  German  Government  from  the  Ash- 
burnham  collection.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  65 

to  be  placed  next  to  Masaccio  in  tlie  line  of  progress.  He 
continued  the  frescoes  that  Masaccio  had  left  unfinished  in 
the  Brancacci  chapel  of  the  Carmine ;  and  of  him,  far  more 
truly  than  of  Fra  Filippo,  it  might  be  said  that  "  the  spirit 
of  Masaccio  dwelt  in  his  body."  The  figure  of  the  naked 
boy  in  the  Raising  of  the  King's  Son,  has  been  praised  as 
not  inferior  in  any  respect  to  Masaccio,*  and  the  sleeping 
guard  also,  in  Peter  delivered  from  Prison,  has  a  forcible 
reality  -which  at  the  same  time  is  far  removed  from  vulgar 
imitation  of  human  nature.  Another  series  of  frescoes  was 
undertaken  by  Filippino  in  the  Strozzi  chapel  of  S.  Maria 
Novella,  where  he  set  forth  the  histories  of  S.  John  and 
S.  Philip.  The  most  remarkable  painting  of  this  series 
has  for  its  subject  the  Resuscitation  of  Drusiana  ^  by  the 
Apostle  S.  John,  wherein  the  painter's  dramatic  powers  are 
exhibited  in  their  highest  degree. 

The  expression  of  returning  life  in  the  face  of  the  reviv- 
ing Drusiana  is  very  fine,  but  S.  John  scarcely  realizes  one's 
idea  of  the  loved  disciple  of  Christ,  and  the  fright  evinced 
by  the  bystanders  somewhat  disturbs  the  solemnity  of  the 
scene.  Too  often,  indeed,  the  solemn  grandeur  of  Filip- 
pino's  central  idea  is  marred  by  the  introduction  into  his 
pictures  of  trivial  accessories  that  disturb  the  mind  of  the 
spectator  without  adding  to  the  general  imj^ression.  He 
delighted  in  architectural  details,  especially  in  that  archi- 
tecture of  the  Renaissance  which  was  now  everywhere 
triumphant  in  Italy.  Besides  this,  he  had  imbibed  in 
Rome,  where  he  had  painted  a  chapel  for  Cardinal  Caraffa, 
a  taste  for  the  antique  remains  of  the  capital,  and  we  often 
find  ruined  classical  buildings  introduced  into  his  pictures. 
He  frequently  introduced  the  portraits  of  his  contempo- 
raries into  his  works.  Altogether  we  may  safely  say  of 
Filippino  that  although  he  missed  the  simple  classic  gran- 
deur of  Masaccio,  his  works  display  a  richness  of  composi- 
tion, an  effective  colouring,  and  a  dramatic  skill  that  the 

f  ^  This  picture  was  commenced  by  Masaccio,  and  Filippino  may  have 
had  Masacctio's  sketches  to  guide  him  ;  but  the  opposite  large  fresco  of 
the  trial  and  crucifixion  of  S.  Peter  is  entirely  by  Filippino,  and  his 
greatest  work.] 

2  See  Legend  of  Drusiana,  given  in  Mrs.  Jameson's  "  Sacred  and 
Legendary  Art." 


66  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

earlier  master  never  attained.  The  picture  of  the  Virgin 
and  Child  with  S.  Jerome  and  S.  Dominic,  in  the  National 
Collection  (No.  293),  is  an  undoubted  work  of  FiHppino's. 

Another  pupil  of  Fra  Filippo's  was  Francesco  di  Ste- 
FANO,  called  Pesellino  (1422-1457).  He  has  been  con- 
fused with  his  grandfather  Gitjliano  d'Arrigo  Pesello 
(bom  in  1367),  who  is  said  by  Vasari  to  have  been  clever 
in  the  delineation  of  animals.  Pesellino  painted  so  well 
that  his  works  are  often  mistaken  for  Gozzoli's  and  those 
of  Pollaiuolo.  A  Trinity  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  727) 
is  a  fine  specimen  of  the  most  skilful  work  of  the  time. 

But  the  painter  upon  whom  the  spirit  of  the  Eenais- 
sance  took  the  strongest  hold,  was  Domenico  Carrado 
DI  BiGORDi,  called  Ghirlandaio,^  or  the  Garland-maker 
(1449-1494),  a  name  given  him,  says  Vasari,  because  he  was 
the  first  to  invent  the  beautiful  silver  bands  or  garlands 
that  the  Florentine  maidens  of  that  day  wore  on  their 
heads.  This  statement  cannot  be  quite  correct,  for  the 
Florentine  maidens  wore  these  ornaments  long  before  this 
date,  but  he  may  very  likely  have  added  to  the  beauty  of 
their  design,  or  the  name  may  simply  have  clung  to  him 
from  his  having  first  practised  art  in  the  workshop  of 
his  father,  who  was  a  broker  and  goldsmith  of  Florence. 
Much  in  Ghirlandaio's  style  tends  to  show  that  he  was 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  modelling,  whether 
he  was  brought  up  as  a  goldsmith  or  not. 

His  draperies  have  a  peculiarly  sculpturesque  character, 
and  his  forms  have  a  hardness  and  want  of  flexibility  as 
though  he  were  limited  in  painting  by  the  same  restraints 
as  in  the  plastic  art.  "  Without  adding  anything  specially 
to  the  total  amount  of  experience  acquired  by  the  efforts  of 
successive  searchers,  he  garnered  the  whole  of  it  within 
himseK  and  combined  it  in  support  and  illustration  of  the 
great  maxims  which  he  had  already  treasured  up,  and 
thus  conduced  to  the  perfection  of  the  masculine  art  of 
Florence,  which  culminated,  at  last,  by  the  joint  energy  and 
genius  of  himself,  Fra  Bartolommeo,  Raphael,  and  Michael 
Angelo." ' 

^  Pronounced  Grillandaio  by  the  Florentines.     [He  was  a  pupil  of 
AlessD  Baldovinetti  and  master  of  Michael  Angelo.] 
'  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  67 

One  of  his  finest  series  of  frescoes  (completed  1485)  is  in 
the  chapel  of  the  Sassetti  in  the  S.  Trinita,  at  Florence, 
where  he  has  set  forth  the  life  of  S.  Francis.  The  progress 
of  art,  and  the  different  conceptions  of  the  same  subject  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  are  made  strikingly 
manifest  by  comparing  the  history  of  S.  Francis  as  con- 
ceived by  G-iotto  in  the  church  of  Assisi,  and  as  conceived 
by  Ghirlandaio  in  the  church  of  S.  Trinita.  In  the  latter 
the  art  has,  it  is  true,  progressed,  the  laws  of  perspective 
are  understood,  the  composition  is  more  dramatic,  the 
pride  of  Renaissance  architecture  is  fully  displayed,  and 
the  skill  of  the  painter  made  manifest,  but  we  look  in  vain 
for  the  noble  thought  and  singleness  of  aim  of  G-iotto,  and 
the  reverent  forgetfulness  of  the  art  in  the  subject  of  the 
art,  which  characterizes  the  earlier  Christian  painters. 

The  Death  of  S.  Francis  is  one  of  the  finest  subjects  of 
the  Sassetti  series.  In  it  he  has  adhered  to  a  great  extent 
to  the  traditional  mode  of  representation  of  this  scene,  as 
established  by  Giotto,  but  it  is  not  without  significance 
that  in  the  faithless  fifteenth  century,  the  glorious  ascent 
of  the  spirit  of  the  saint,  which  forms  one  of  the  most 
striking  episodes  in  G-iotto' s  rendering,  is  left  out.  One  of 
the  attendants  round  the  dead  saint's  bier,  however,  looks 
up  in  surprise,  as  though  he  saw  something  more  than 
Renaissance  friezes  and  capitals.  The  distant  landscape 
seen  through  the  pillars  of  the  building  is  very  beautiful. 
Ghirlandaio,  as  was  his  wont  in  all  his  works,  has  intro- 
duced the  portraits  of  several  distinguished  Florentines 
into  this  fresco,  and  a  bishop,  no  doubt  a  portrait,  who  is 
standing  chanting  litanies  at  the  head  of  the  bier,  wears 
spectacles,  which  at  that  time  had  been  only  recently  in- 
vented. But  in  spite  of  this  little  touch  of  realism,  there 
is  a  grandeur  and  elevation  of  sentiment  in  this  work  that 
lifts  it  entirely  out  of  the  region  of  the  common-place. 
Layard,  who  has  given  an  interesting  description  of  the 
Sassetti  frescoes,^  says  of  the  death  of  S.  Francis,  that  it 
is  "  one  of  those  works  of  the  fifteenth  century  which  is 
especially  characteristic  of  an  epoch  in  the  history  of 
painting,  when  the  imitation  of  nature  was  no  longer  con- 

'  In  his  "Domenico  Ghirlandajo."    Printed  for  the  Arundel  Society. 


68  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IT. 

trolled  by  the  conventional  and  religions  spirit  which  had 
distinguished  the  fourteenth  century,  and  had  not  yet 
yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  Academies,  who  took  their 
models  from  the  stagnant  pools  of  artificial  life,  and  not 
from  the  fresh  and  living  springs  of  nature.  In  the  works 
of  the  painters  of  this  period,  and  especially  in  those  of 
Masaccio,  Ghirlandaio  and  the  two  Lippi,  we  have  the 
source  from  which  Raphael  and  the  greatest  masters  of 
the  golden  age  of  painting  drew  some  of  their  noblest  in- 
spirations, when  they  combined  with  the  strictest  imitation 
of  nature  the  most  poetical  and  elevated  treatment  of  it, 
and  before  they  felt  the  influence  of  the  new  and  evil  taste 
gathering  around  them." 

Another  great  series  of  frescoes  (completed  1490)  was 
executed  by  Ghirlandaio  in  the  choir  of  S.  Maria  Novella, 
where  the  paintings  of  Andrea  Orcagna  had  already  fallen 
into  decay.  Here  he  depicted  on  one  wall  the  life  of 
S.  John  the  Baptist,  and  on  the  other,  incidents  from 
the  life  of  the  Virgin.  The  most  celebrated  fresco  of  the 
latter  series  represents  the  birth  of  the  Virgin,  a  scene 
into  which  he  has  introduced  the  portrait  of  Grinevra  de* 
Benci,  a  celebrated  Florentine  beauty  of  that  time,  who, 
attired  in  the  magnificent  dress  of  a  fashionable  Florentine 
lady,  advances  to  pay  a  visit  of  congratulation  to  Anna, 
the  mother  of  the  newborn  Virgin. 

Besides  these  and  some  other  important  frescoes  in  the 
Vespucci  chapel  of  the  Ognisanti  (painted  1480),  in  one  of 
which,  now  unfortunately  destroyed,  he  depicted  the  cele- 
brated Amerigo  Vespucci,  who  first  sailed  to  the  West 
Indies,  and  gave  his  name  to  a  continent,  Ghirlandaio 
painted  altar-pieces  for  numerous  churches  in  Italy.^  His 
industry,  indeed,  was  indefatigable,  and  he  is  said  to  have 
advised  his  pupils  to  paint  everything  that  was  offered  to 
them,  even  if  it  were  only  '*  for  a  lady's  petticoat  pan- 
niers."    He  worked  in  mosaic  also  with  his  two  brothers 

[^  He  also  painted  numerous  other  frescoes.  The  finest  existing  ia 
The  Calling  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and  Andrew,  in  the  Sistine  chapel 
at  Eome,  but  there  are  some  interesting  ones  at  San  Gemignano,  in 
which  he  was  assisted  by  his  brother-in-law,  jVIainardi.  His  most  im- 
portant altar-pieces  are  in  S.  Spirito,  the  Uffizi,  the  church  of  the 
Innocenti,  and  the  Academy,  Florence  ;  that  once  in  the  choir  of  S. 
Maria  Novella  is  half  at  Berlin  and  half  at  Munich.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  69 

David  and  Benedetto,  and  was  wont  to  declare  that  the  art 
of  mosaic  was  eternal,  whilst  that  of  painting  was  fleeting. 

[By  his  son  Eidolfo  del  Ghirlandaio  (1483-1561) 
we  have  a  work  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1143).  He 
studied  under  his  uncle  David,  and  in  later  life  became  an 
imitator  of  his  friend  Eaphael.] 

Antonio  Pollaiuolo  (1429-1498)  was  a  sculptor  and 
goldsmith  more  than  a  painter ;  still  he  has  left  us  suffi- 
cient examples  of  his  painting  to  prove  that  he  did  not, 
€ven  in  this  art,  miss  the  development  of  the  period  in 
which  he  lived,  and  decidedly,  in  his  plastic  works,  he 
carried  on  that  development  to  a  considerable  extent. 

His  master-work  in  pictorial  art  is  the  Martyrdom  of 
S.  Sebastian,  No.  292  in  the  National  Gallery,  painted  for 
the  Pucci  chapel  in  the  church  of  San  Sebastiano  de'  Servi, 
at  Florence.^  "  This  painting,"  says  Vasari,  "  has  been 
more  extolled  than  any  other  ever  executed  by  Antonio." 
It  is,  however,  unpleasantly  hard  and  obtrusively  anatomi- 
•cal.  Pollaiuolo  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  artist  who 
studied  anatomy  by  means  of  dissection,  and  one  of  his 
aims  in  this  picture  seems  to  have  been  to  display  his 
knowledge  of  muscular  action.  He  was  an  engraver  as 
well  as  goldsmith,  sculptor,  and  painter. 

PiERO  Di  CosiMo  (born  about  1462,  died  1521),  an 
eccentric  and  fanciful  artist  of  this  time,  was  scarcely  as 
important  a  painter  as  those  before  mentioned.  There  is, 
however,  a  most  charming  picture  by  him,  the  Death  of 
Procris,  in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  698.  The  tender 
■dreamy  melancholy  of  the  landscape,  the  surprised  grief  of 
the  simple-natured  faun,  and  the  pathos  that  is  thrown  into 
the  whole  scene,  reveal  an  artist  of  true  poetic  feeling. 
Piero  was  a  pupil  of  Cosimo  Rosselli,  but  his  works  differ 
greatly  in  character  from  those  of  his  master.  He  usually 
painted  fantastic  subjects  from  pagan  mythology.* 

['  Painted  in  oils  ;  remarkable  for  its  fine  landscape  and  sombre 
liarmony  of  colour.  The  likeness  of  the  pathetic  figure  of  the  saint  to 
that  sculptured  by  Civitale  at  Lucca  has  been  pointed  out.  Antonio  was 
•often  assisted  by  his  brother  riERO  (1441,  d.  before  1496),  who  had 
studied  under  Andrea  dal  Castagno,  and  whose  only  signed  work  is  a 
•Coronation  of  the  Virgin  at  S.  Gemignano.] 

'  George  Eliot  has  introduced  Piero  di  Cosimo  into  '*  Romola." 


70  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

We  must  now  turn  from  Florence  for  a  time  and  look 
to  Padua  for  the  next  great  artist  of  this  age.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Padua  was  at  this  time  one  of  the  most  con- 
siderable in  Europe,  and  the  revival  of  ancient  learning 
was  carried  on  there  by  a  great  number  of  scholars.  The 
classical  taste  thus  created  soon  communicated  itself  to 
the  art  schools,  and  the  study  of  the  antique  was  prose- 
cuted with  as  much  eagerness  as  at  Florence.  Especially 
was  this  the  case  in  the  school  of  Francesco  Squarcione 
(1394-1474),  a  master  not  so  much  remarkable  for  the 
works  he  himself  accomplished,  as  for  the  numerous  dis- 
ciples who  issued  from  his  classic  school,  and  who  spread 
his  principles  in  all  parts  of  Italy.^ 

The  most  important  of  all  these  scholars  was  Andrea 
Mantegna  (1431-1506).  Mantegna  perhaps  is  the  most 
pagan  of  all  the  pagan  painters  of  his  age,  yet  his  religious 
pictures  have  such  a  forcible  reality,  that  they  affect  us 
more  powerfully  than  the  weak  spiritualisnib  of  many  of 
the  religious  painters  of  the  Christian  school. 

Squarcione  was  the  first  to  perceive  Mantegna' s  powers,, 
and  taking  him,  as  Cimabue  did  Giotto,  from  his  calling 
as  a  shepherd-boy,  he  had  him  instructed  in  art  and 
adopted  him  as  his  foster-child.^  Whatever  teaching  the 
school  of  Squarcione  afforded,  it  is  evident  that  Mantegna 
soon  supplemented  it  by  the  study  of  such  Florentine  art 
as  came  within  his  reach  at  Padua.  Especially  he  seems 
to  have  been  influenced  by  the  works  of  Donatello.  So 
deeply,  indeed,  was  he  imbued  with  a  feeling  for  sculpture, 
that  too  often  his  figures  have  the  coldness  and  rigidity  of 
marble,  and  many  of  his  designs  seem  as  though  intended 
for  bas-reliefs.^  Squarcione,  when  he  quarrelled  with 
Mantegna,  severely  criticised  this  peculiarity,  saying  that 
he  should  have  coloured  his  figures  white  in  order  to  com- 
plete  the  effect,*  and   Mantegna  himself   saw  and  to   a 

^  In  the  course  of  his  career  he  taught  no  less  than  137  pupils,  and 
won  the  title  of  the  Father  of  painters. 

^  He  was  thus  registered  in  the  Paduan  Guild,  Xov.  6,  1441. 

P  There  are  three  works  of  this  kind  in  the  National  Gallery  (Nos.  902^ 
1125,  and  1145).] 

[*  This  is  what  Yasari  says  ;  but,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  such  a  re- 
proof would  come  badly  from  Squarcione's  mouth,  for  it  was  Mantegna^ 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING  IN    ITALY.  71 

certain  extent  remedied  this  fault,  for  although  he  always 
made  form  his  principal  study,  and  kept  his  tones  of 
colour  at  a  low  pitch,  yet  in  his  later  works  the  colouring 
is  thoroughly  harmonious  and  well  balanced,  and  therefore 
does  not  produce  snch  a  chilling  effect.^ 

Mantegna,  however,  was  never  in  any  sense  a  colourist ; 
and  this  is  strange,  considering  that  he  was  intimately 
associated  with  the  Bellini  family,  and  might  be  supposed 
to  be  acquainted  with  Griovanni's  method.*  It  was  this 
association  with  the  Bellini  and  marriage  with  Niccolosia, 
the  daughter  of  Jacopo  Bellini,  that  divided,  so  Yasari  says, 
Mantegna  from  his  foster-father  and  master,  Squarcione ; 
the  Bellini  belonging  to  the  rival,  or  Florentine  faction  in 
Padua,  with  which  Mantegna  henceforward  united  himself. 

The  most  important  of  Mantegna's  early  works  are  some 
frescoes  setting  forth  the  history  of  S.  James  in  the  chapel 
of  the  Eremitani  at  Padua,  a  chapel  which  occupies  the 
same  position  with  regard  to  Paduan  art  as  the  Brancacci 
with  regard  to  Florentine.  It  was  Squarcione  who  received 
the  commission  to  decorate  this  chapel,  but,  as  was  usual 
with  this  master,  he  did  not  work  there  himself,  but  em- 
ployed his  pupils,  several  of  whom,  besides  Mantegna, 
executed  important  works  there. 

In  1459  Mantegna  entered  the  service  of  Ludovico 
Gonzaga,  Margrave  of  Mantua,'  from  whom  he  received  a 
pension  of  seventy-five  lire  a  month,  equal  to  about  <£30  a 
year  of  our  money,*  at  that  time  a  considerable  salary  for  an 
artist.  After  this,  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  time  at 
Mantua,  but  in  1488-90  he  was  called  to  Rome  for  a  time, 
where  he  executed  some  frescoes  for  Innocent  VIII.  in  the 
Vatican,  that  were  afterwards  destroyed. 

who  animated  the  cold  sculpturesque  style  taught  by  Squarcione  with 
real  life.] 

[^  The  National  Gallery  possesses  a  beautiful  painting  of  the  Virgin 
and  Child  enthroned,  with  S.  John  the  Baptist  and  the  Magdalen 
(No.  274).  In  this  the  colour,  though  subdued,  is  varied  and  harmonious.] 

[^  They  painted  so  much  alike  at  first,  that  some  of  Bellini's  early 
works  have  been  attributed  to  Mantegna.] 

[•'  He  had  previously  painted  the  magnificent  altar-piece  at  S.  Zeno, 
Verona,  the  greatest  of  his  works  in  his  earlier  or  Paduan  style.] 

[^  He  had  also  a  dwelling  assigned  to  him,  with  corn  and  wood  and  a 
barge.] 


72  HISTORY  OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

One  of  his  most  famous  works  is  the  celebrated  Triumph 
of  Julius  Caesar,  now  at  Hampton  Court.  It  consists  of 
nine  water-colour  drawings,  each  nine  feet  square,  originallj 
executed  for  a  saloon  in  a  palace  of  Ludovico  Gronzaga.^ 
They  exhibit  the  powers  of  the  artist  in  their  highest  exer- 
cise, "  In  their  present  faded  and  dilapidated  condition," 
writes  Mrs.  Jameson,  "hurried  and  uninformed  visitors 
will  probably  pass  them  over  with  a  cursory  glance,  yet,  if 
we  except  the  cartoons  of  Raphael,^  Hampton  Court  con- 
tains nothing  so  curious  and  valuable  as  this  old  frieze  of 
Andrea  Mantegna,  which,  notwithstanding  the  frailty  of 
the  material  on  which  it  is  executed,  has  now  existed  for 
three  hundred  and  sixty- seven  years,^  and  having  been 
frequently  engraved,  is  celebrated  all  over  Europe." 

The  great  Madonna  della  Yittoria  of  the  Louvre  is 
another  of  Mantegna' s  important  works.  It  was  painted 
in  commemoration  of  a  victory  of  the  Marquis  of  Mantua 
over  the  retreating  army  of  Charles  VIII.  of  France  after 
his  unfortunate  invasion  of  Italy. 

Like  so  many  of  the  fifteenth  century  artists,  Mantegna 
excelled,  not  in  one  branch  of  art  alone,  but  in  several. 
He  was  a  sculptor,  architect,  and  engraver,  and  likewise  we 
are  told  a  poet.  "  He  found  great  pleasure,"  says  Vasari, 
*'  in  engraving  on  copper,"  and  indeed  his  style  is  better 
suited  for  engraving  than  painting.  He  did  not,  however, 
begin  to  engrave  until  late  in  life,  but  there  are  a  good 
number  of  prints  by  his  hand  in  existence,  although,  of 
course,  not  nearly  so  many  as  are  attributed  to  him :  they 
are  among  the  earliest  examples  of  engraving  in  Italy. 

[Another  interesting  but  very  inferior  pupil  of  Squarcione 
was  Geegoeio  Schiavone,  by  whom  there  are  two  pictures, 
Nos.  630  and  904,  in  the  National  Gallery. 

Cosmo  TuRA  (1420  P-1498)  was  the  first  master  of  im- 
portance in  the  school  of  Ferrara.  The  examples  in  the 
National  Gallery  are  more  distinguished  for  a  hard  and 

^  They  were  sold  by  one  of  the  descendants  of  the  Marquis  to  our 
Charles  I.,  and  came  to  England  with  other  pictures  bought  by  him 
from  the  Gonzaga  family.  "NVhen  the  Parliament  disposed  of  the  Rojal 
Collection,  Mantegna's  "Triumph"  was  sold  for  ^"IjOOO. 

'  Now  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 

^  This  was  written  in  1845. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  73 

somewhat  coarse  vigour  than  for  beauty  of  form  or  concep- 
tion, but  (No.  773)  S.  Jerome  in  the  Wilderness  is  a  master- 
piece of  severe  art. 

Melozzo  da  Forli  (1438-1494)  is  an  artist  of  whom 
little  is  known,  and  very  little  remains  of  his  work.  But 
it  is  certain  that  he  was  a  master  of  considerable  power, 
celebrated  for  his  fine  foreshortening  and  skill  in  perspec- 
tive. A  fresco  transferred  to  canvas,  now  in  the  Vatican, 
representing  the  installation  of  Platina  (Bartolommeo 
Sacchi)  as  Prefect  of  Sixtus  IV.,  is  the  finest  existing 
example  of  his  art,  and  almost  the  only  one  which  is  of  un- 
doubted authenticity.  Melozzo  worked  at  the  decoration 
of  the  Duke  of  Urbino's  palace  in  1470-80,  and  the  National 
Gallery  possesses  two  pictures  ascribed  to  him — (No.  755) 
Rhetoric  and  (No.  756)  Music — and  said  to  have  been 
executed  for  that  purpose. 

He  and  Mantegna  are  both  credited  with  being  among 
the  first  to  master  the  difficulty  of  representing  figures  and 
architecture  as  seen  from  below,  an  ai*t  brought  to  perfec- 
tion by  Michael  Angelo  in  the  Sistine  Chapel.] 

But  far  more  than  Melozzo,  Luca  d'Egidio  di  Ventura, 
called  SiGNORELLi  DA  CoRTONA  (1441-1523),  may  be  called 
the  Michael  Angelo  of  the  fifteenth  century.  He  aimed  at 
what  none  but  Michael  Angelo  ever  attained,  but  his  aim 
came  so  near  attainment,  that  even  Michael  Angelo' s  inde- 
pendent genius  was  obliged  to  f  oUow  obediently  in  the  path 
in  which  he  had  led  the  way.  Strength  of  intellect  is  the 
quality  predominant  in  Signorelli's  works,  as  in  those  of 
his  great  follower,  and  his  daring  foreshortening  and 
powerful  naked  forms  are  but  the  expressions  of  a  mind 
delighting  to  put  forth  its  strength.  He  [was  the  pupil  of 
Piero  della  Francesca,  and]  one  of  the  early  painters  of  the 
Sistine  chapel  of  the  Vatican.^  His  frescoes  there  repre- 
sent scenes  from  the  history  of  Moses.  But  his  genius  was 
called  forth  to  its  highest  exercise,  not  in  the  Sistine 
frescoes,  but  in  the  decoration  of  the  Cathedral  at  Orvieto, 
a  work  that  had  been  begun  by  Fra  Angelico,  but  never 
finished.  "  Seldom,"  says  Liibke,^  "  have  such  contrasts 
been  combined  in  the  execution  of  the  same  work  in  so  cir- 

[*  See  account  of  Bottictlli,  p.  6r.] 
*  "  History  of  Art,"  \o\.  ii. 


74  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

cumscribed  a  space.  Beneath  the  pure  and  blessed  figures 
of  Fiesole,  which  look  down  from  the  vaulted  ceiling,  the 
powerful  creations  of  Signorelli  cover  the  walls  like  a  race 
of  mighty  beings  struggling  against  the  imiversal  annihila- 
tion. The  demon-like  and  gloomy  representation  of  Anti- 
christ, the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead,  Hell  and  Paradise, 
are  all  the  productions  of  his  hand.  In  the  Resurrection 
he  evidences  his  correct  knowledge  of  the  human  form  in 
a  number  of  naked  figures,  who  appear  in  the  most  diffe- 
rent attitudes  in  bold  foreshortening.  The  representation 
of  the  condemned  is  especially  rich  in  powerful  touches, 
the  horror  of  those  struck  by  the  avenging  lightning  from 
heaven  is  well  depicted."  Different,  indeed,  from  the 
mystic  beauty  of  Fra  Angelico,  who  excelled  in  Paradises 
only,  and  was  very  weak  in  his  rendering  of  the  horrors  of 
Hell.  Several  of  the  figures  in  Luca's  Last  Judgment,, 
judging  at  least  from  engravings,  are  as  powerful  as  any 
of  Michael  Angelo's ;  indeed,  the  great  master  borrowed 
many  ideas  from  his  predecessor,  or  rather  contemporary, 
for  the  two  artists  were  working  in  the  same  period, 
although  the  one  so  long  outHved  the  other.  Luca  Sig- 
norelH's  works  may  be  taken  as  the  farthest  expressions  in 
painting  of  the  knowledge  of  the  fifteenth  century.^ 

Masaccio  had  opened  the  century  with  his  simple  classic 
naturalism,  which  set  forth  the  human  form  with  a  certain 
dignity  under  given  conditions,  but  was  not  yet  perfect  in 
a  knowledge  of  the  nude,  Luca  Signorelli  closed  it  with  a 
knowledge  of  form  inferior  only  to  that  of  Michael  Angelo. 

The  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  is  perhaps  the  most 
brilliant  era  in  the  history  of  Florence.  Under  the  splendid 
rule  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  every  branch  of  human 
knowledge  was  cultivated  with  an  enthusiasm  that  has  no 
precedent  in  history ;  and  art  especially,  under  his  direct 
personal  superintendence,  was  stimulated  to  ever  greater 
achievements. 

The  Renaissance  in  Rome,  as  well  as  in  Florence,  was 
completely  triumphant,  being  especially  manifest  in  grand 

[^  His  picture  of  the  Circumcision  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1128) 
affords  an  example  of  his  bold  conception  and  mastery  of  the  human 
figure.  The  Nativity  (No.  1 133)  is  inferior ;  he  was  unsuccessful  in 
rendering  the  expression  of  tender  sentiment.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  75 

architectural  works  in  which  the  severe  classicism  that  at 
first  marked  the  revival  was  already  giving  place  to  a  more 
luxuriant  and  decorative  style. 

But  notwithstanding  the  outward  magnificence  of  Italy 
at  this  period,  and  especially  of  Florence  under  the  Medi- 
cean  government,  the  whole  fabric  of  Italian  society  was 
utterly  rotten,  and  the  utmost  moral  foulness  existed  side 
by  side  with  the  highest  intellectual  culture  and  the 
greatest  refinement  of  manners  that  had  as  yet  been  at- 
tained. 

Already,  indeed,  the  great  Savonarola  was  warning  his 
loved  city  of  the  doom  that  would  assuredly  overtake  her 
in  her  wickedness,  and  although  his  voice  was  too  weak  to 
stem  the  torrent  of  her  iniquity,  yet  his  words  bore  fruit 
in  the  lives  of  many  thoughtful  men,  and  his  teaching  exer- 
cised a  powerful  influence  over  the  art  of  his  time.  The 
Renaissance,  it  is  true,  still  went  on  pursuing  its  victorious 
course,  but  a  reaction  against  it  now  set  in,  and  the  spiri- 
tual, or  Christian  school,  which  had  languished  since  the 
time  of  Era  Angelico,  assumed  a  new  and  deeper  signifi- 
cance. 

The  early  school  of  Siena,  which  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury numbered  several  excellent  masters,  missed  as  we 
have  seen  the  development  that  Florentine  art  underwent 
in  the  fifteenth.  It  had  never,  in  fact,  the  vigorous  manly 
qualities  of  its  rival,  and  its  tenderness  was  apt  to  dege- 
nerate into  weakness,  and  its  grace  into  affectation.  Its 
deep  religious  sentiment  and  its  mystic  spirituality  were 
destined  however  to  find  a  lasting  expression  in  the  works 
of  the  favourite  painter  of  Christianity,  for  although 
Raphael  is  not  generally  reckoned  as  a  master  of  the 
Sienese  school,  yet  the  tJmbrian  school,  from  which  he 
gained  all  the  spiritual  qualities  of  his  art,  grew  naturally 
out  of  the  Sienese,  as  the  Sienese  out  of  the  Byzantine ; 
the  ugly  and  ascetic  ideal  of  Byzantium  gradually  deve- 
loping into  the  lovely,  and  at  the  same  time  spii'itual  ideal 
of  Perugino  and  Raphael.  The  TJmbrian  painters,  like 
Fra  Angelico  and  the  early  religious  painters  before  the 
revival,  strove  above  all  things  to  express  the  mystic  beauty 
of  the  Christian  soul,  but  they  clothed  this  beautiful  soul 
in  a  fitting  garment  of  flesh.     Their  art  in  fact  was  no 


76  HISTORY   OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

longer  ascetic,  but  was  the  expression  of  the  purest  and 
holiest  aspirations  of  the  Christian  life. 

This  grand  development  of  religious  art  occurred,  as  be- 
fore stated,  at  the  very  time  when  the  worship  of  the  an- 
tique was  at  its  height,  and  the  Eenaissance  was  in  its  full 
glory,  but,  as  we  might  expect,  it  was  not  in  intellectual 
Florence  that  this  development  was  first  made  manifest, 
but  in  a  place  farther  removed  from  the  effects  of  that  re- 
Tival  of  classic  learning,  which  both  for  good  and  for  evil 
had  so  powerfully  affected  the  culture  of  the  age. 

TJmbria,  a  country  district  of  the  Upper  Tiber,  had  been 
from  an  early  period  the  chosen  seat  of  mysticism.  It  was 
here  that  S.  Francis,  the  favourite  saint  of  the  middle  ages, 
was  born,  and  here  at  Assisi  was  the  most  celebrated  con- 
vent and  church  of  his  order.  It  is  not  so  much  to  be 
wondered  at  therefore  that  the  simple  inhabitants  of  the 
quiet  valleys  of  the  Tiber,  who  were  thus  placed,  as  it  were, 
in  direct  personal  intercourse  with  their  miracle-working 
«aint,  should  have  maintained  a  more  fervent  religious 
belief  than  their  rationalistic  neighbours.^ 

In  art,  at  all  events,  we  find  that  they  preserved  tradi- 
tional types  long  after  other  schools  had  adopted  natura- 
listic ones,  and  whilst  Florentine  art  reflected  that  strong 
•desire  for  knowledge  that  was  one  of  the  most  marked  ten- 
dencies of  the  age,  Umbrian  art  reflected  that  mystical  de- 
Totion  which,  as  evinced  by  the  lives  of  so  many  ecstatic 
visionaries,  was  another  and  an  opposite  tendency.  The 
Umbrian  conception  of  human  life  also  was  totally  diffe- 
rent from  the  Florentine.  The  keen-eyed  Florentines  re- 
garded life  ever  from  a  cheerful  point  of  view,  and  like  the 
Greeks  strove  to  drive  mysticism  and  sadness  away  from 
their  lives  and  their  art,  but  the  Umbrian  character  was 
less  vivacious,  and  that  deep  religious  enthusiasm,  which 
was  awakened  only  at  times  of  excitement  in  the  Floren- 
tines, was  with  them  a  normal  characteristic. 

NiccoLO  DA  FuLiGNO,  Called  by  Vasari  Niccolo 
Alunno  (painting  between  1458  and  1499),  is  the  first 
master  in  whom  the  distinct  Umbrian  characteristics  be- 

[^  Piero  della  Francesca,  Melozzo  da  Forli,  and  Luca  Signorelli  be- 
long to  the  Umbrian  school,  though  they  shared  the  science  of  the 
Florentine.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  77 

come  apparent.^  His  works  have  a  dreamj  religious  feel- 
ing closely  allied  to  the  Sienese  school,  but  expressed  in 
purer  and  brighter  colour,  and  with  more  natural  beauty.^ 

But  PiETEO  Vanntjcci  (1446-1524),  better  known  as  II 
Peruqino,  from  the  place  where  he  principally  worked,, 
is  beyond  all  others  the  representative  master  of  the* 
Umbrian  school. 

Pietro's  father,  Christofano  Vannucci,  although  poor,, 
was  not  of  low  condition,  as  Vasari  implies,  but  he  had 
several  children  for  whom,  no  doubt,  it  was  difficult  to  pro- 
vide, and  at  nine  years  of  age  Pietro  was  sent  to  Perugia, 
and  articled  ("  given  as  a  shop-drudge,"  says  Yasari)  to  a 
painter  in  that  city.^  But  he  soon  found  "  that  Florence 
was  the  place  above  all  others  wherein  men  attain  to  per- 
fection in  all  the  arts,  but  more  especially  in  painting."  To 
Florence,  accordingly,  he  went,  where  the  greatest  artists 
were  then  working.  He  is  said  to  have  studied  under 
Andrea  Verrocchio,  the  master  of  Leonardo.*  After  acquir- 
ing a  considerable  reputation  in  Florence,  he  was  called  to 

[*  Gentile  da  Fabriano  (see  Venetian  School)  was  an  Umbrian  and  had 
Umbrian  characteristics.  So  had  Lorenzo  di  San  Severing  (early 
fifteenth  century),  by  a  descendant  of  whom  there  is  a  fine  altar-piece  in 
the  National  Gallery  (No.  249).] 

[^  He  is  supposed  by  Morelli  ("  Italian  Masters  in  German  Galleries  ") 
to  have  been  a  pupil  of  Benozzo  Gozzoli.  An  altar-piece  in  the  National 
Gallery  (No.  1107)  of  the  Crucifixion  and  other  scenes  from  the  life  of 
Christ  is  violent  in  expression  of  intense  grief.  The  landscapes  show  study 
of  nature  remarkable  for  the  time.  Morelli  says  :  "  In  his  later  works, 
when  left  to  himself,  Niccolo  da  Foligno  always  betrays  that  tendency  to 
exaggeration  which  marks  the  inhabitant  of  a  provincial  town."  By 
Niccolo's  contemporary  Fiorenzo  di  Lorenzo  there  is  a  fine  altar-piece 
in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1103),  which  shows  the  influence  of  Benozzo 
Gozzoli.] 

^  Frobably  Benedetto  Buonfigli,  a  painter  of  some  reputation  in 
Perugia.  [He  early  acted  as  assistant  to  Piero  della  Francesca  at 
Arezzo.  Niccolo  da  Fuligno  and  several  other  artists  are  also  allotted  to 
him  as  masters.] 

*  Andrea  Verrocchio  (1435-1488)  is  best  known  as  a  sculptor;  he 
was  besides  a  painter,  a  goldsmith,  and  a  musician.  His  grand  equestrian 
statue  of  Bartolommeo  Coleoni  at  Venice  bears  witness  to  his  skill  as  a 
modeller.  His  painting  of  the  Baptism  of  Christ,  at  the  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts  in  Florence,  is  the  only  known  authenticated  work  in  that 
branch  of  art.  As  a  teacher,  Verrocchio  ranks  very  high;  at  his  school 
in  Florence,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Perugino  (perhaps),  and  his  favourite- 
Lorenzo  di  Credi  studied  under  his  direction.] 


78  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Rome,  where  lie  executed  the  frescoes  before  mentioned  in 
the  Sistine  chaj^el.  The  greater  part  of  these  were  de- 
stroyed to  make  room  for  the  Last  Judgment  of  Michael 
Angelo ;  but  in  one  that  remains,  the  DeHvery  of  the  Keys 
to  S.  Peter,  there  is  a  stronger  affinity  to  the  Florentine 
style  than  in  any  other  of  his  works.  It  would  have  been 
difficult,  indeed,  for  any  painter  residing  at  that  time  in 
Florence  to  have  remained  uninfluenced  by  the  grand  and 
noble  works  that  he  saw  going  on  around  him.  After- 
wards, however,  when  Perugino  returned  to  Perugia,  he  fell 
back  into  his  Umbrian  manner,  only  he  added  to  the  religious 
sentiment  of  that  school  a  more  perfect  mode  of  execution 
and  a  pure  beauty  of  colour  such  as  no  Italian  painter  had 
^ver  before  attained.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  painters 
on  the  south  of  the  Alps  who  adopted  the  Flemish  method 
of  oil  painting,  and  his  success  in  it  was  almost  as  great  as 
that  of  his  Flemish  contemporaries. 

His  school  at  Perugia  was  one  of  the  most  celebrated  in 
Italy,  numerous  students  from  all  parts  being  attracted 
to  it  to  learn  the  secret  of  the  rich  oil  colouring  of  the 
master.  None  of  his  scholars,  however,  except  perhaps 
Raphael,  attained  anything  like  the  deep  purity  of  Peru- 
gino's  colour.  He  and  Francia  are,  indeed,  distinguished 
beyond  many  of  their  greater  contemporaries  for  this  one 
quality. 

Michael  Angelo  is  said  to  have  spoken  with  much  con- 
tempt of  Perugino,  calling  the  soft  Umbrian,  indeed,  a 
"  dunce  in  art "  {goffo  nelV  arte),  for  which  insulting  ex- 
pression Perugino  summoned  him  before  a  magistrate,  but 
got,  as  one  might  suppose,  nothing  but  ridicule  by  his 
action.  The  style  of  these  two  painters  was  so  essentially 
different,  that  it  was  no  doubt  difficult  for  them  to  arrive 
at  a  just  appreciation  of  each  other's  art.  Perugino  was 
quite  as  bitter  about  Michael  Angelo,  whose  fame  was  now 
growing  so  much  greater  than  his  own.  Towards  others 
also  he  seems  to  have  acted  in  a  quarrelsome  manner,  and 
the  records  of  Florence  prove  that  once,  in  company  with 
a  man  of  most  violent  character,  he  actually  laid  wait  in  a 
dark  street  to  attack  and  beat  with  staves  someone  to 
whom  he  owed  a  grudge.^  Vasari  also  tells  us  that  "  he 
^  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  vol.  iii.,  p.  184. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  79 

was  an  irreligious  man,  and  could  never  be  made  to  believe 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  nay,  most  obstinately  did 
he  reject  all  good  counsel  with  words  suited  to  the  stub- 
bornness of  his  marble-hard  brain."  It  was,  therefore,  not 
from  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  his  own  nature,  as  was 
the  case  with  Fra  Angelico,  that  the  exalted  devotion  of 
his  works  was  derived,  but  it  must  be  taken  as  an  expres- 
sion of  the  school  to  which  he  belonged  rather  than  as  the 
individual  expression  of  the  painter's  own  mind.  Peru- 
gino,  indeed,  gives  a  rude  shake  to  the  theory  that  the  art 
of  the  painter  is  an  accurate  exponent  of  his  ethical  state.^ 
It  is  so  in  many  instances  undoubtedly ;  but  here  we  have 
a  violent-tempered  and  low-minded  man  producing  some  of 
the  holiest  works  that  art  has  ever  accomplished. 

All  English  students  know,  or  ought  to  know,  Perugino's 
lovely  altar-piece  in  the  National  G-allery  (No.  288),  origi- 
nally painted  for  the  Certosa,  or  Carthusian  convent  at 
Pavia  (about  the  year  1504  or  1505).*  It  is  perhaps  my 
love  and  admiration  for  this  work  that  make  me  rank  Peru- 
gino  so  high  as  a  Christian  painter ;  for  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  too  many  of  his  works  fall  very  short  of  expec- 
tations founded  on  this  Certosa  Madonna.  Several  critics 
account  for  the  exalted  beauty  and  purity  of  this  work  by 
assuming  that  Eaphael  aided  in  its  execution.  "It  is 
RaphaeUzed  throughout,"  says  Eumohr,  and  Passavant 
also  speaks  of  the  "  Eaphaelesque  feeling  which  pervades 
every  part."  But  it  seems  more  just  to  speak  of  Raphael's 
early  works  as  Peruginized,  than  of  Perugino's  as  Raphae- 
Uzed. No  doubt  master  and  pupil  had  to  some  extent  a 
reciprocal  influence;  but  the  tender  and  pure  sentiment 
of  Raphael's  Madonnas  was  a  quahty  derived  entirely 
from  tJmbria,  and  one  in  which  Perugino  had  previously 
excelled. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  Raphael  assisted  in  the 
execution  of  this  work,  but  to  assume  that,  because  the 
sentiment  of  it  is  pure  and  holy,  that  therefore  it  must 
have  emanated  from  Raphael,  is  unfair  to  the  older  master, 
in  most  of  whose  other  works  the  same  holy  feeling  is 

^  See  Ruskin's  "  Lectures  on  Art,"  "  Relation  of  Art  to  Morals." 
^  There  are  several  reproductions  of  this  picture  by  Perugino's  own 
hand,  but  none  come  up  to  our  English  original. 


80  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

manifested.  In  beauty  and  brilliancy  of  colour  it  far  sur- 
passes Raphael,  who  never  reached  to  real  greatness  of 
colour,  whereas  Perugino  is,  even  in  this  particular,  worthy 
to  be  placed  side  by  side  with  Bellini,  the  founder  of  the 
Venetian  colour  school. 

[Besides  this  masterpiece  the  National  Gallery  contains 
an  interesting  early  Virginand  Child  (No.  181),  and  a  large 
but  rather  conventional  Virgin  and  Child  with  S.  Jerome 
and  S.  Francis  (No.  1075).  There  are  important  frescoes  by 
him  at  Perugia  and  at  his  birthplace,  Castello  (now  Citta) 
delle  Pieve.  Of  his  oil  pictures.  Madonnas  in  the  Vatican 
and  the  Louvre,  at  Bologna  and  Vienna,  a  Deposition  in 
the  Pitti,  an  Agony  and  Crucifixion  in  the  Academy, 
Florence,  are  among  the  best.  His  Marriage  of  the  Virgin, 
on  which  Eaphael  modelled  his  Sposalizio,  is  at  Caen,  and 
at  Lyons  is  the  Ascension  of  Christ,  formerly  part  of  the 
altar-piece  in  S.  Pietro  Maggiore,  in  Perugia.^] 

[Of  Perugino' s  pupils,  Lo  Spagna,  properly  named  Gio- 
vanni di  Pietro,  after  his  master,  was,  excepting  Raphael, 
the  most  worthy.  A  Spaniard  by  birth,  he  became  a  citizen 
of  Spoleto.  His  best  work  was  painted  at  Assisi  in  1516,  in 
the  manner  of  Raphael's  early  works.  He  died  before  1530. 
His  fine  picture  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1032),  The 
Agony  in  the  Garden,  is  a  free  rendering  of  one  by  Peru- 
gino in  the  Academy  at  Florence.  Another  pupil  of  Peru- 
gino, GiANNicoLO  DI  Paolo  Manni,  is  represented  in  the 
National  Gallery  by  an  Annunciation,  No.  404.] 

Bernardino  di  Betto,  called  Pinturicchio  (bom  1454, 
died  1518),  [is  the  most  important  follower  of  Perugino 
who  cannot  be  called  a  pupil.  He  was  an  accomplished 
artist,  though  hedidnot  reach  Perugino' s  depth  of]  religious 
feeling,  nor  his  beauty  of  colour.  [His  types  are  more 
varied,  and  sometimes  very  beautiful.]  He  worked  for  a 
long  period  under  Perugino,  with  whom  he  entered  into  a 
sort  of  artistic  partnership,  he  receiving  a  third  part  of  the 
gains  of  their  joint  labours.  His  principal  works  are  at 
Siena,  where  he  decorated  with  frescoes  the  great  Piccolo- 
mini  library.     [These  frescoes  are  almost  as  fresh  as  when 

*  This  altar-piece  was  taken  away  by  the  French.  The  central  portion 
is  now  in  the  Museum  at  Lyons,  and  is  painfully  restored.  The  other 
parts  are  scattered  in  different  towns  in  France  and  Italy. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  81 

painted,  and  the  best  preserved  works  of  the  kind  in  the 
world.  The  great  beauty  of  some  drawings  still  extant  of 
their  designs  have  induced  the  supposition  that  Eaphael 
had  a  large  share  in  their  design,  but  there  is  now  no 
doubt  that  the  drawings  are  by  Pinturicchio.  A  specimen 
of  his  later  fresco  work  is  in  the  National  Gallery  (No. 
911),  being  a  portion  of  the  History  of  Penelope,  painted 
on  a  wall  for  Pandolfo  Petrucci  of  Siena  after  1507. 
Pinturicchio  was  especially  noted  for  his  landscape  back- 
grounds.^] 

Francesco  Eaibolini,  called  Francia  (1450-1517),  is 
so  closely  allied  in  sentiment,  expression,  and  colour  to 
Perugino,  that,  although  he  belongs  in  point  of  birth  and 
education  to  the  early  school  of  Bologna,  he  seems  naturally 
to  rank  in  his  art  with  the  Umbrian  painter. 

He  was  originally  a  goldsmith  and  worker  in  niello,  and 
adopted  the  name  of  Francia  out  of  love,  it  is  said,  for  a 
master  of  that  name  to  whom  he  was  apprenticed.  It  was 
not  until  he  was  nearly  forty  years  of  age,  according  to 
Vasari,  that  he  turned  his  attention  to  painting,  being 
stimulated  thereto  by  his  acquaintance  "  with  Andrea 
Mantegna  and  many  other  painters  who  had  attained  to 
riches  and  honours  by  means  of  their  art." 

The  same  fervent  religious  exaltation  that  marks  the 
works  of  the  Umbrian  school  is  apparent  in  those  of  Francia, 
but  whereas  the  Umbrian  painters,  Perugino  especially,  are 
apt  to  fall  into  the  old  Byzantine  melancholy,  Francia  is 
ever  cheerful  and  contented.  His  mind  seems  untroubled 
even  whilst  painting  a  Pieta,  and  his  sorrow  is  full  of 
hope.* 

^  Vasari,  who  is  fond  of  making  his  artists  die  of  grief  or  "  vexation," 
tells  an  absurd  story  about  the  cause  of  Pinturicchio's  death.  He  was 
working,  he  tells  us,  one  day  in  a  room  in  a  convent,  in  which  there  was 
an  old  chest.  Finding  this  in  his  way,  he  insisted  on  its  removal ;  but 
when  the  monks  came  to  take  it  away,  one  of  the  sides  broke,  and  it  was 
found  to  be  full  of  gold.  "  This  discovery  so  vexed  Pinturicchio,  and  he 
took  the  good  fortune  of  those  poor  friars  so  much  to  heart,  and  so 
grievously  did  this  oppress  him,  that  not  being  able  to  get  it  out  of  his 
thoughts,  he  finally  died  of  vexation.''  [Another  version  is  that  his  wife 
deserted  him,  and  that  he  died  of  neglect  and  starvation.] 

*  A  "  Pieta"  is  the  name  given  by  Italians  to  a  composition  repre- 
senting the  dead  body  of  Christ  moiu-ned  over  by  the  Virgin,  or  other 
holy  women,  or  disciples. 

a 


82  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

This  agrees  with  his  character  as  drawn  by  Vasari,  who 
says  "  that  he  kept  all  around  him  in  good  humour,  and 
had  the  gift  of  dissipating  the  heavy  thoughts  of  the  most 
melancholy  by  the  charms  of  his  conversation."  Francia, 
as  well  as  Perugino,  excelled  in  the  new  process  of  oil- 
painting,  and  his  colours  have  a  depth  and  beauty  that 
exceed  all  the  Florentine  masters  of  his  time.  Colour,  an 
important  element  in  rehgious  art,  was  never  satisfactorily 
attained  by  any  of  the  scientific  painters  of  Florence,  who 
made  form  their  exclusive  study.  Francia  painted  in 
fresco  as  well  as  oils :  his  most  important  wall-painting  is 
a  large  fresco  of  Judith  and  Holof ernes  m  the  palace  of  his 
friend  Griovanni  Bentivoglio.  Scenes  from  the  history  of 
S.  Cecilia  were  also  executed  by  him  in  a  beautiful  series  of 
wall-paintings  in  the  church  of  S.  Cecilia  in  Bologna,  but 
it  was  in  oils  that  he  attained  his  greatest  celebrity,  and  the 
influence  of  the  Venetian  school  is  clearly  apparent  in  his 
deep  warm  colouring. 

Francia' s  Madonnas  are  to  be  found  in  most  galleries  on 
the  Continent,  but  he  was  so  well  imitated  by  several  pupils, 
especially  by  his  son  and  nephew,  that  it  is  often  difficult  to 
decide  whether  the  paintings  ascribed  to  him  are  really  the 
work  of  his  hands.  There  is  a  perfectly  lovely  Madonna 
at  Munich,  about  which  there  can  be  but  Httle  doubt.  It 
is  a  so-called  "  Madonna  in  a  Rose  garden."  Tlie  Virgin 
sinks  on  her  knees  in  loving  adoration  of  her  child,  who 
lies  before  her  on  a  plot  of  grass  surrounded  by  a  hedge  of 
roses. 

The  quiet  peaceful  beauty  and  depth  of  feeling  in  Fran- 
cia's  works  were  never  reached  by  any  of  his  pupils.  The 
ablest  of  them,  Lorenzo  Costa  of  Ferrara,  however,  came 
very  near  to  his  master  in  style  and  colour.^ 

The  two  beautiful  paintings  by  Francia  in  the  National 
G-allery,  the  Virgin  and  S.  Anna,  and  Saints,  No.  179,  and 
the  Pieta,  180,  originally  formed  one  altar-piece. 

'  P  Lorenzo  Costa  (1460-1535),  of  Ferrara,  is  thought  by  Morelli  to 
have  been  rather  the  leader  than  the  follower  in  painting  of  Francia,  but 
he  was  ten  years  the  junior  of  the  latter  ;  at  all  events  he  was  an  artist 
of  much  originality.  He  is  said  to  have  studied  under  Gozzoli  at 
Florence.  He  afterwards  worked  with  Francia  at  Bologna.  Tliere  is  a 
specimen  of  his  religious  art  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  629).] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  83 

Shortly  before  Francia's  death,  Eaphael  gave  into  his 
friend's  charge  his  celebrated  painting  of  S.  Cecilia,  destined 
for  the  same  church  of  S.  Cecilia  at  Bologna  which  Francia 
himself  had  formerly  decorated  with  frescoes.  Francia  re- 
ceived this  picture,  we  are  told,  with  the  greatest  dehght, 
and  took  care  to  see  that  it  was  properly  placed.  He 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  had  the  fullest  appreciation  of 
Raphael's  genius,  and  in  a  sonnet  he  wrote  to  him  after 
receiving  the  promised  portrait,  he  calls  him  the  painter  of 
painters. 

"  Tu  solo  il  Pittor  sei  de'  Pittore." 

It  is  therefore  absurd  to  suppose,  as  Vasari  does,  that  his 
death  was  caused  by  grief  at  seeing  himself,  in  this  picture 
of  S.  Cecilia,  so  far  outstripped  by  his  youthful  rival.  He 
seems,  as  we  have  seen,  to  have  cordially  admitted  Raphael's 
superiority  long  before  seeing  the  S.  Cecilia,  and  as  he  was 
nearly  seventy  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  death,  other 
causes  than  jealousy,  we  may  hope,  were  in  operation. 

With  Francia,  whose  death,  according  to  a  document 
discovered  by  J.  A.  Calvi,  took  place  on  the  6th  of  January, 
1517,  this  chapter  may  fitly  close.  The  progressive  art  of 
the  fifteenth  century  had  now  reached  its  highest  point  of 
development — Renaissance  art  in  Ghirlandaio,  Mantegna, 
and  Luca  Signorelli,  and  religious  art  in  Perugino  and 
Francia.  The  art  of  the  sixteenth  century  is  not  progres- 
sive. It  reaches  perfection  all  at  once  in  the  works  of 
several  painters,  has  a  short  flowering  season,  and  then, 
alas !  according  to  the  universal  law,  falls  into  decay.  Its 
history  and  laws  must  be  studied  in  another  chapter. 

[There  are  a  few  more  painters  who  should  be  mentioned 
in  this  chapter  of  Development.  Two  artists  of  Florence, 
Andrea  del  Castagno  (1390-1457),  and  Domenico 
Veneziano  (died  1461),  are  supposed  to  have  been 
among  the  first  in  Italy  to  practise  painting  in  oils.  Few 
of  their  works  now  exist,  but  there  is  a  small  crucifixion 
in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  1138,  ascribed  to  Andrea, 
and  three  works  in  fresco  by  Veneziano,  two  heads  of 
Saints,  and  a  Madonna  and  Child,  Nos.  766,  767,  and 
1215.  Two  artists  of  Ferrara,  named  Eecole  Grandi, 
must  not  be  confused.     The  earher  Ercole  di  Roberti 


84  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

(died  before  1513)  shows  strong  Mantegnesque  feelings 
the  other,  Ercole  di  Giulto  (died  1531),  was  a  pupil 
of  Lorenzo  Costa.  There  are  two  works,  probably  by 
Ercole  di  Roberti,  in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  1217, 
which  is  ascribed  to  him  in  the  Catalogue,  and  No.  1127,  a 
little  picture  of  The  Last  Supper,  which  has  recently  been 
ascribed  to  him  by  Mr.  Walter  Armstrong. 

ViTTORE  PisANO,  Called  PisANELLO  (1380-1450)  was 
probably  the  pupil  of  Altichiero  (see  p.  45),  and  was  the 
greatest  Veronese  artist  of  the  early  fifteenth  century.  Ho 
is  best  known  now  as  the  greatest  of  ItaHan  medallists, 
but  his  reputation  when  alive  was  great  as  a  painter,  and 
it  is  sustained  by  the  remains  of  his  wall  paintings  at 
Verona,  and  his  skill  as  a  draughtsman  of  animals  is 
attested  by  drawings  in  the  Louvre.  Of  his  rare  easel 
paintings,  the  National  Gallery  possesses  one  (No.  776)^ 
S.  Anthony  and  S.  George  in  conversation.  In  the  same 
Gallery  are  also  specimens  of  Bono  of  Ferrara,  and 
Giovanni  Oriolo,  pupils  of  Pisanello,  of  Domenico- 
MoRONE  (b.  1442),  Francesco  Morone  (1473-1529),  and 
of  LiBERALE  DA  Verona  (1451-1536).^ 

An  important  painter  of  this  period  was  Vincenzo^ 
FoppA  (first  dated  work  1458,  died  1492),  a  native  of 
Brescia,  and  the  founder  of  the  Lombard  School.  He  is- 
supposed  to  have  been  a  fellow- student  of  Mantegna  in 
the  school  of  Squarcione,  and  his  works  are  remarkable  for 
the  study  of  nature  and  the  antique,  and  for  knowledge  of 
perspective.  Most  of  his  frescoes  have  perished,  but  one 
of  S.  Sebastian  in  the  Brera,  attests  his  claim  to  be  the 
greatest  artist  of  the  Lombard  School  before  the  coming  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  to  Milan.  Other  works  in  fresco  and 
easel  pictures  by  Foppa  exist  at  Brescia,  Milan,  and  other 
places  in  Northern  Italy.  In  the  National  Gallery  the 
picture  ascribed  to  Bramantino,  No.  729,  is  now  considered 
to  be  by  Foppa.  The  principal  pupils  of  Foppa  were  the 
Brescian  Ferramolo  (the  Master  of  Moretto),  Bernar- 
dino Jacobi  (called  Buttinone),  Bernardino  Martini 
(called  Zenale),  Bernardino  de'  Conti,  and  AMBROOia 
DA  FossANO  (called  Borgognone).     All  of  these,  except 

^  For  other  Veronese  painters,  see  p.  45  and  p.  173. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  85 

Ferrainolo,  belonged  to  the  earlier  Milanese  school.  The 
most  important  of  these  pupils  was  Ambrogio  Boegog- 
NONE  (painted  from  1485  to  1522),  an  artist  remarkable 
for  the  unaffected  sweetness  of  his  Madonnas  and  female 
saints,  and  the  realistic  power  of  his  male  figures.  There 
are  early  frescoes  and  altar-pieces  by  him  in  the  Certosa  of 
Pavia,  of  which  the  Crucifixion  of  1490  (an  altar-piece)  is 
considered  the  finest.  There  are  many  works  of  his  at 
Milan  and  other  places  in  North  Italy.  He  is  represented 
by  two  pictures  in  the  Berlin  G-allery,  and  four  in  the 
National  G-allery.  Of  the  latter  the  finest  is  The  Marriage 
of  S.  Catherine,  No.  298.  Borgognone  was  one  of  the 
yery  few  Milanese  painters  of  his  time  in  whose  works  the 
influence  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  is  not  felt.  His  originality 
was  not  affected  by  the  genius,  nor  his  technique  by  the 
example  and  precept  of  that  great  artist. 

Another  artist  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning 
of  the  sixtenth  century,  who  was  influenced  by  Foppa,  was 
Bartolommeo  Suardi  (called  Bramantino).  He  after- 
wards studied  under  Bramante,  the  great  architect  (but 
also  before  he  left  Milan,  a  painter),  and  went  with  the 
latter  to  Rome,  where  he  painted  some  pictures  in  the 
stanze  of  the  Vatican,  subsequently  removed  to  make 
room  for  those  of  Raphael.  He  returned  to  Milan  and 
founded  a  school  there.  The  influence  of  the  old  Milanese 
School  is  also  seen  in  the  works  of  Girolamo  Giovenone 
and  Macrino  d'Alba,  which  can  be  best  studied  at 
Turin.  There  are  two  groups  of  saints  by  the  latter  artist 
in  the  National  Gallery,  Nos.  1200  and  1201.] 


86  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV» 

Chapter  III. 

THE  BLOOMINa  TIME. 

Leonardo  da  Vikci — Eaphael — Michael  Angelo. 


LEONAEDO  DA  VINCI,  rather  than  Raphael,  Michael 
Angelo,  or  Titian,  may  he  taken  as  the  representative 
artist  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

In  point  of  date  it  is  true  he  helongs  to  the  fifteenth 
more  than  to  the  sixteenth  century ;  but  whilst  thrusting 
his  contemporaries,  Perugino  and  Francia,  back  amongst 
the  quattrocentisti,^  we  naturally  place  Leonardo  forward 
in  that  brilliant  period  when  the  lovely  flower  of  Italian 
art,  that  we  have  watched  gradually  expanding  through 
two  centuries,  at  last  bloomed  in  its  fullest  and  final  per- 
fection. 

In  him  the  two  lines  of  artistic  descent,  tracing  from 
classic  Eome  and  Christian  Byzantium,  meet.  We  cannot 
say  of  his  art  that  it  is  either  pagan  or  Christian,  realistic 
or  ideal,  intellectual  or  spiritual.  It  is  simply  the  perfect 
art  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  All  the  various  elements  that 
we  have  seen  striving  for  mastery  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  are  blended  by  him  into  one  harmonious, 
whole.  Thus  his  style  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  eclectic ;  but 
nothing  can  well  be  more  unlike  the  forced  egotistic  eclec- 
ticism of  the  later  schools  than  Leonardo's  unconscious 
assimilation  of  all  that  is  excellent  in  the  works  of  his 
predecessors. 

This  "  truly  admirable  and  divinely  endowed  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,"  ^  as  Vasari  calls  him,  was  the  illegitimate  son  of 
a  notary  of  Florence,  and  was  born  at  Vinci,  in  the  Val 

^  Perugino  lived  farther  into  the  sixteenth  century  than  Leonardo^ 
and  Francia  nearly  as  far. 

^  Vasari  is  rapturous  in  his  praise  of  this  master.  *'  Whatever  he  did," 
he  says,  "  bore  an  impress  of  harmony,  truthfulness,  goodness,  sweet- 
ness, and  grace,  wherein  no  other  man  could  ever  equal  him." 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  87 

d'Amo,  below  Florence,  in  1452.  His  genius  was  marvel- 
lously precocious,  and  his  bent  towards  art  so  early  appa- 
rent, that  bis  father,  struck  by  some  remarkable  designs 
that  he  had  made  at  a  very  young  age,  placed  him  with 
Andrea  Verrocchio^  to  study  painting  The  pupil  soon 
ecUpsed  the  master,  who  "  took  this  so  much  to  heart,  that 
a  mere  child  should  do  better  than  he  had  done,  that  he 
would  never  touch  colours  more,"  but  continued  to  work  in 
marble,  and  also  to  execute  those  exquisite  little  works  in 
metal  for  which  he  was  greatly  celebrated,  although  unfor- 
tunately but  few  of  them  now  exist.^ 

[He  was  entered  in  the  Red-book  of  the  Painters'  Guild 
of  Florence  m  1472,  and  in  1476  is  still  mentioned  as 
Verrocchio's  assistant. 

In  1478  he  was  commissioned  by  the  Signoria  to  paint  a 
picture  for  the  chapel  of  S.  Bernard  in  the  Palazzo 
Pubblico  at  Florence,  and  two  years  later  the  monks  of 
S  Donato  in  Scopeto  ordered  him  to  paint  them  an  altar- 
piece.  The  former  commission  was  never  executed.  For 
the  second,  the  half- finished  Adoration  of  the  Magi  in  the 
Uffizi  was  probably  commenced. 

From  this  time  until  1487  we  have  no  record  of  Leo- 
nardo's work  or  whereabouts.  In  1487  he  was  in  Milan, 
employed  on  the  cathedral  there.  In  the  meantime  it  is 
thought  he  must  have  spent  some  time  in  the  East,  as 
engineer  in  the  service  of  the  Sultan  of  Cairo.] 

Nothing  exceeded  the  powers  of  Verrocchio's  astounding 
pupil.  Not  only  was  he  the  greatest  painter  and  sculptor 
of  his  day  (for  Raphael's  and  Michael  Angelo's  stars  had 
as  yet  scarcely  risen),  but  he  likewise  ranks  as  one  of  the' 
earliest  leaders  in  science.  Mathematics,  geometry,  phy- 
sics, chemistry,  astronomy,  geology,  botany,  were  all  studied 
by  him  with  an  ardent  love  of  knowledge  that  would  not 
allow  him  to  rest  content  with  mere  superficial  acquire- 
ments, but  led  him  to  search  out  the  secrets  of  nature  for 
himself.  His  scientific  theories  are  often  strangely  in  ad- 
vance of  the  knowledge  of  his  time ;  indeed,  many  of  his 
treatises  reveal  a  dim  insight  into  natural  phenomena 
which  have  only  been  understood  rightly  at  the  present 

^  Before  mentioned  as  the  master  of  Perugino. 
*  Kio,  "  Leonard  da  Vinci  et  son  Ecole." 


88  HISTOEY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

day.  "The  discoveries,"  says  Hallam/  "which  made 
G-alileo,  and  Kepler,  and  Maestlin,  and  Maurolycus,  and 
Castelli,  and  other  names,  illustrious,  the  system  of  Coper- 
nicus, the  very  theories  of  recent  geologists,  are  anticipated 
by  Da  Vinci  within  the  compass  of  a  few  pages,  not  per- 
haps in  the  most  precise  language  or  on  the  most  conclu- 
sive reasoning,  but  so  as  to  strike  us  with  something  like 
the  awe  of  preternatural  knowledge.  In  an  age  of  so  much 
dogmatism  he  first  laid  down  the  grand  principle  of  Bacon, 
that  experiment  and  observation  must  be  the  guides  to  just 
theory  in  the  investigation  of  nature." 

Nor  did  he  rest  content  with  "  just  theory"  alone.  He 
applied  his  scientific  knowledge  to  several  branches  of 
practical  and  mechanical  science,  and  carried  out  engineer- 
ing works  that  were  a  triumph  of  human  skill.  In  a  letter 
hereafter  quoted,  he  boasts,  indeed,  that  he  could  invent 
machines,  build  fortresses,  construct  bridges,  and  "  equal 
any  other  as  regards  architectural  works." 

More  especially,  however,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
those  sciences  that  bear  upon  art,  and  in  his  celebrated 
treatise  on  painting  has  left  us  a  most  valuable  record  of 
his  investigations.  Anatomy  he  made  a  profound  study ; 
perspective  likewise  engaged  his  attention,  and  even 
geology  and  botany  were  attacked  by  him  with  fruitful 
results.^  In  fact,  there  is  scarcely  any  branch  of  natural 
science  to  which  he  did  not  contribute  some  pregnant 
thought. 

In  the  lighter  accomplishments  of  society  he  was  no  less 
distinguished.  The  charm  of  his  conversation  was  such, 
'we  are  told,  that  all  were  fascinated  who  heard  it,  and  his 
rare  beauty  of  face  and  dignity  of  form  seemed  to  be  only 
a  fitting  setting  for  the  beauty  and  dignity  of  his  intellect. 
He  was  a  poet  and  a  skilful  musician,  and  used  to  play  on 
a  kind  of  lyre  invented  by  himself,  often  improvising  both 
words  and  music.  Added  to  these  versatile  mental  powers, 
he  possessed  physical  ones  no  less  remarkable.  His 
strength  was  prodigious,  and  he  excelled  in  all  manly  exer- 

^  "  Literature  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  vol.  i. 

^  In  the  latter  scieuce  it  appears  that  he  anticipated  the  discovery  of 
certain  botanical  laws  with  which  botanists  of  a  much  later  age  have 
until  recently  been  accredited.     See  "Nature,"  May  19,  1870. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  89 

cises,  especially  in  horsemanship,  of  which  he   was   an 
accomplished  master. 

Such  was  this  "divinely  endowed"  Leonardo,  of  whom 
it  might  fitly  be  said  that  his  was — 

"  A  life  that  all  the  muses  deck'd 
With  gifts  of  grace,  that  might  express 
All-comprehensive  tenderness, 
All-subtilizing  intellect." 

Of  the  works  of  this  great  master  but  few  and  faint 
reUcs  now  remain — rehcs  whose  sweet  lingering  beauty  only 
makes  us  mourn  the  more  for  that  which  is  lost. 

His  Last  Supper,  which  ranks,  perhaps,  as  the  best 
known  and  most  famous  picture  in  all  the  world,  and  which 
may  be  taken  as  the  highest  expression  of  Christian  art,  is 
now  a  hopeless  ruin.  Only  the  dim  outline  of  a  few  of  the 
heads  can  still  be  traced  of  the  original  work,  and  yet  by 
means  of  copies  and  engravings,  which  have  found  their 
way  alike  into  the  poorest  cottages  and  the  richest  palaces, 
it  is  known  to  almost  every  Christian  child.  And  often  as 
we  see  it,  in  coarse  woodcut  or  in  Eaphael  Morghen's  noble 
engraving,  it  ever  speaks  to  us  with  some  new  significance, 
so  unfathomable  is  its  solemn  beauty. 

Endless  criticisms  have  been  written  upon  it.  Fuseli, 
lecturing  on  the  celebrated  copy  belonging  to  the  Eoyal 
Academy,  says,  "  The  face  of  the  Saviour  is  an  abyss  of 
thought,  and  broods  over  the  immense  revolution  in  the 
economy  of  mankind  which  throngs  inwardly  on  his 
absorbed  eye,  as  the  spirit  creative  in  the  beginning  over 
the  water's  darksome  wave,  undisturbed  and  quiet.  It 
could  not  be  lost  in  the  copy  before  us ;  how  could  its 
subUme  conception  escape  those  who  saw  the  original?  .  .  . 
I  am  not  afraid  of  being  under  the  necessity  of  retracting 
what  I  am  going  to  advance,  that  neither  during  the 
splendid  period  immediately  subsequent  to  Leonardo,  nor 
in  those  which  succeeded,  to  our  own  time,  has  a  face  of 
the  Redeemer  been  produced  which,  I  will  not  say  equalled, 
but  approached  the  sublimity  of  Leonardo's  conception, 
and  in  quiet  and  simple  features  of  humanity  embodied 
divine,  or,  what  is  the  same,  incomprehensible  and  infinite 
powers." 


90  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

And  yet  this  divine  face  is  but  the  perfect  development 
of  the  type  founded  at  Byzantium.  We  have  the  same 
cast  of  features,  the  same  oval  face  and  melancholy  expres- 
sion ;  but  instead  of  the  hard  staring  ugliness  and  crude 
art  of  the  early  Christian  artist,  we  have  the  deepest  soul- 
beauty  expressed  by  an  art  that  has  reached  its  final 
perfection.  Of  all  the  representations  of  Christ,  none  has 
ever  satisfied  the  heart  like  this,  for  we  find  in  it  at  the 
same  time  divine  intelligence  and  yearning  human  love. 

There  is  a  strange  contrast  m  this  solemn  "  brooding  " 
head  of  the  Saviour  to  the  dramatic  rendering  of  the  other 
characters  in  the  scene ;  for  Leonardo  has  not  treated  the 
subject  according  to  the  set  tradition  that  other  painters 
had  followed,  but  has  given  it  a  deeply  tragic  significance. 
Each  one  of  the  disciples  is  moved  in  a  diiferent  manner 
by  the  Master's  fearful  words :  "  One  of  you  shall  betray 
Me,"  so  that  their  different  characters  mount,  as  it  were, 
to  the  surface,  and  can  be  easily  read  on  their  countenances. 
Only  the  Master  himself  sits  unmoved  and  calm  in  the 
storm  of  feeling  around  him. 

The  Last  Supper  was  painted  on  the  wall  of  the  refec- 
tory of  the  convent  of  S.  Maria  delle  Grazie,  at  Milan.  It 
was  painted  in  oils,  a  more  perishable  process  for  wall 
painting  than  fresco,  but  still  it  is  more  from  neglect  and 
barbarous  ill-usage  that  it  has  perished  than  from  natural 
decay.  ^ 

It  was  [probably  not  before  1485]  that  Leonardo  esta- 
bhshed  himself  at  Milan,  having  been  summoned  there  by 

'  No  picture  has  ever  suffered  more  shameful  ill-treatment.  Its  first 
injury  arose  from  an  inundation  in  the  hail  in  which  it  was  painted, 
when  it  remained  for  some  time  under  water.  Then  a  door  was  cut  by 
some  unfeeling  Prior  right  through  its  lower  centre,  destroying  the  feet 
of  the  Christ ;  next  it  was  given  up  to  two  misei'able  bunglers,  named 
Belotti  and  Mazza,  who  added  insult  to  the  injury  that  it  had  already 
received,  by  completely  painting  it  over  by  way  of  restoration ;  and 
finally,  when  Napoleon  entered  Italy,  his  generals,  in  spite,  it  seems,  of 
his  orders  to  the  contrary,  used  the  refectory  of  S.  Maria  delle  Grazie 
for  a  stable,  and  aftex-wards  for  a  magazine  for  hay.  Now,  when  only 
the  mouldering  relics  of  the  work  remain,  the  greatest  care  is  taken  to 
preserve  them.  "  But  even  now,"  says  Liibke,  who  seems  to  have  seen 
the  picture  quite  recently,  "  the  gleam  of  its  former  beauty  is  so  inde- 
structible that  the  effect  of  the  original  still  surpasses  that  produced  by 
Eaphael  Morghen's  engraving." 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTIXG   IN    ITALY.  91 

Ludovico  Sforza,  then  the  Regent,  and  soon  after  the 
usurping  Duke  of  Milan. 

Vasari  implies  that  he  was  onlj  invited  by  the  Duke  on 
account  of  his  musical  and  social  powers,  and  "  because  he 
was  one  of  the  best  improvisator!  of  his  time,"  but  the 
letter  happily  is  still  extant  in  which  he  offers  his  services 
to  the  Duke,  and  proves  that  he  had  quite  other  ideas  than 
of  improvising  verses  and  "  amusing  "  his  patron.^ 

The  equestrian  statue  of  Francesco  Sforza,  the  father  of 

^  This  remarkable  letter  begins  by  offering  to  make  known  to  Ludo- 
vico various  engineering  secrets  that  he  thmks  will  be  useful  in  war. 
'•  Having  seen,"  he  says,  "  and  sufficiently  considered  the  works  of  all 
those  who  repute  themselves  to  be  masters  and  inventors  of  instruments 
for  war,  and  found  that  the  form  and  operation  of  these  works  are  in  no 
way  different  from  those  in  common  use,  I  permit  myself  without  seek- 
ing to  detract  from  the  merit  of  any  other,  to  make  known  to  your  ex- 
cellency the  secrets  I  have  discovered,  at  the  same  time  offering  with 
fitting  opportunity,  and  at  your  good  pleasure,  to  perform  all  those 
things  which,  for  the  present,  I  will  but  briefly  note  below. 

"  1.  I  have  a  method  of  constructing  very  light  and  portable  bridges 
to  be  used  in  pursuing  of,  or  retreat  from,  the  enemy,  with  others  of  a 
stronger  sort,  proof  against  fire  or  force,  and  easy  to  fix  or  remove.  I 
have  also  means  for  burning  and  destroying  those  of  the  enemy. 

"  2.  For  the  service  of  sieges  I  am  prepared  to  remove  the  water  from 
the  ditches,  and  to  make  an  infinite  variety  of  fascines,  scaling  ladders, 
etc.,  with  engines  of  other  kinds  proper  to  the  purposes  of  a  siege. 

"  3.  If  the  height  of  the  defences  or  the  strength  of  the  position 
should  be  such  that  the  place  cannot  be  effectually  bombarded,  I  have 
other  means  whereby  any  fortress  may  be  destroyed,  provided  it  be  not 
founded  on  stone. 

"  4.  I  have  also  most  convenient  and  portable  bombs,  proper  for 
throwing  showers  of  small  missiles,  and  with  the  smoke  thei'eof  causing 
great  terror  to  the  enemy  to  his  imminent  loss  and  confusion. 

"  5.  By  means  of  excavations  made  without  noise,  and  forming  tor- 
tuous and  narrow  ways,  I  have  means  of  reaching  any  given  .  .  (point?), 
even  though  it  be  necessary  to  pass  beneath  ditches  or  under  a  river. 

"  6.  I  can  also  construct  covered  waggons,  secure  and  indestructible, 
which,  entering  among  the  enemy,  will  break  the  strongest  bodies  of 
)nen ;  and  behind  these  the  infautry  can  follow  in  safety  and  without 
imi^diment. 

"  7.  I  can,  if  needful,  also  make  bombs,  mortars,  and  field-pieces  of 
beautiful  and  useful  shape,  entirely  different  from  those  in  common  use. 

'•  8.  Where  the  use  of  bombs  is  not  practicable,  lean  make  cross-bows, 
mangonels,  and  balist£e,  and  other  machines  of  extraordinary  efficiency, 
and  quite  out  of  the  common  way.  lu  fine,  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
case  demand,  I  can  prepare  engines  of  offence  for  all  purposes. 

"  9.  In  case  of  the  conflict  having  to  be  maintained  at  sea,  I  have 
methods  for  making  numerous  instruments  offensive  and  defensive,  with 


'92  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Ludovico,  wliicli  in  the  letter  given  below  Leonardo  pro- 
fesses his  willingness  to  undertake,  was  actually  modelled 
by  him  in  the  most  perfect  manner,  but  owing  either  to  its 
^colossal  size,  which  necessitated  a  vast  amount  of  metal,^  or 
some  other  cause,  it  was  never  cast  in  bronze,  and  the  clay 
model,  which  had  excited  the  utmost  enthusiasm,  was 
wantonly  destroyed  by  the  French  when  they  took  Milan 
in  1499.  Only  the  anatomical  studies  which  Leonardo 
made  for  this  great  work  are  now  in  existence. 

One  of  his  celebrated  female  portraits,  that  in  the  Louvre, 
known  by  the  title  of  La  belle  Ferroniere,  was  likewise 
executed  during  his  residence  at  Milan.  It  is  supposed  to 
represent  Lucrezia  Crivelli,  a  mistress  of  Ludovico  Sforza.'^ 

The  other  famous  portrait  of  the  Louvre  is  the  enchant- 
ing Mona  Lisa,  the  wife  of  his  Florentine  friend  Francesco 
del  Giocondo.  "Who  that  has  seen  Mona  Lisa  smile," 
says  an  enthusiastic  critic,  "  can  ever  forget  her  ?  "  "  It 
fascinates  and  absorbs  me,"  says  another.^  "  I  go  to  it, 
in  spite  of  myself,  as  the  bird  is  drawn  to  the  serpent." 

vessels  that  shall  resist  the  force  of  the  most  powerful  bombs.  I  can  also 
make  powders  or  vapours  for  the  offence  of  the  enemy. 

"  10.  In  time  of  peace  I  believe  that  I  could  equal  any  other  ;  as  re- 
gards works  in  architecture,  I  can  prepare  designs  for  buildings  whether 
public  or  private,  and  also  conduct  water  from  one  place  to  another. 

"Furthermore,  I  can  execute  works  in  sculpture,  marble,  bronze,  or 
terra  cotta.  In  painting  I  can  do  what  may  be  done  as  well  as  any 
other,  be  he  who  he  may. 

"  I  can  likewise  undertake  the  execution  of  the  bronze  horse,  which  is 
a  monument  that  will  be  to  the  perpetual  glory  and  immortal  honour  of 
my  lord  your  father  of  happy  memory,  and  of  the  illustrious  house  of 
Sforza. 

"  And  if  any  of  the  above-named  things  shall  seem  to  any  man  im- 
possible and  impracticable,  I  am  perfectly  ready  to  make  trial  of  them 
in  your  excellency's  park,  or  in  whatever  other  place  you  shall  be 
pleased  to  command.  Commending  myself  to  your  service  with  all 
possible  humility." 

^  Computed  at  100,000  lbs.  weight. 

^  This  is  by  no  means  proved,  and  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  have  re- 
cently brought  forward  evidence  to  show  that  Leonardo  did  not  return 
•direct  to  Florence  from  Milan,  but  passed  some  time  in  other  cities,  and 
ithat  whilst  in  Venice  in  1500  he  delivered  a  portrait  of  Isabelle  d'Este, 
Duchess  of  Mantua,  to  the  agents  of  the  Gonzagas.  Is  this  La  belle 
Ferroniere  ?  See  "  Academy,"  "  Two  lost  years  in  the  life  of  Leonardo 
-da  Vinci,"  vol.  i.,  page  123. 

^  Michelet,  "La  Renaissance." 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN   ITALY.  9^' 

Excelling  thus  in  depicting  the  charm  of  female  beauty, 
it  is  natural  that  he  should  have  painted  the  most  exquisite 
Madonna  pictures.  Unfortunately,  there  are  not  many  of 
these  in  existence.  That  known  as  La  Vierge  au  Bas-relief 
is  a  lovely  conception  that  has  been  often  repeated,  but 
the  original  is  usually  thought  to  be  in  England,  in  the 
possession  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick.^ 

La  Vierge  aux  Rochers  also,  where  the  Virgin  and  Child, 
the  little  S.  John  and  an  angel,  are  seated  in  a  rocky  cleft 
by  the  seashore,  is  to  be  found  both  in  the  Louvre  and  in 
the  gallery  of  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,^  but  although  both  claim 
to  be  original,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  either  of  them  is- 
really  by  his  hand. 

The  truth  is  that  Leonardo  conceived  much  more  than 
he  executed.  His  fertile  mind  was  perpetually  throwing 
out  great  ideas,  but  owing  to  the  perfection  he  aimed  at  he 
worked  but  slowly,^  and  he  often,  in  the  excitement  of  new 
creations  of  his  genius,  allowed  the  old  to  remain  unfinished, 
or  to  be  finished  by  his  pupils.  It  is  partly  owing,  no 
doubt,  to  this  prodigality  of  his  mind  that  the  works  of  his 
pupils  and  followers  approach  so  closely  to  those  of  the 
master.  It  is  not  merely  his  manner  which  his  disciples 
caught,  as  is  the  case  in  most  schools,  but  it  is  his  spirit 
that  animates  their  works. 

In  1499,  after  Milan  had  submitted  to  the  French,  and 
his  patron  Ludovico  Sforza,  defeated  in  battle,  had  been, 
taken  prisoner  by  the  enemy,  Leonardo  [spent  some  sixteen 
years  in  working  for  different  princes  in  various  parts  of 
Italy,  settling  in  Florence  from  1503  to  1506]. 

The  first  work  that  he  executed  after  his  return  to 
Florence  was  the  chalk  drawing  of  the  Holy  Family,  called 
the  Cartoon  of  S.  Anna,*  which  was  publicly  exhibited  in 
Florence  after  it  was  finished.  Old  and  young,  men  and 
women,  flocked  to  see  it. 

[^  Now  in  possession  of  Lord  Monson,  and  ascribed  by  some  critics  to 
Cesare  da  Sesto.  It  was  exhibited  at  the  Koyal  Academy  (Old  Masters) 
in  1885.] 

^  [Now  in  the  National  Gallery.  There  is  a  large  early  copy  in  the 
Naples  Gallery.] 

■'  He  took  four  years,  it  is  said,  to  paint  the  !Mona  Lisa. 

*  This,  as  Avell  as  Marco  d'Oggione's  invaluable  copy  of  the  Last 
Slipper,  is  now  in  the  safe  keeping  of  the  Koyal  Academy,  and  is  in  a. 


•94  niSTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

After  this,  and  when  his  fame  was  at  its  height,  he  was 
■chosen  by  the  Council  of  Florence  to  prepare  a  cartoon  for 
the  decoration  of  one  of  the  walls  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,^ 
the  other  wall  being  assigned  to  Michael  Angelo.  With 
this  commission  began  the  rivalry  of  these  two  great  artists. 
Leonardo  chose  for  his  subject  the  victory  of  the  Floren- 
tines over  Nicolo  Picinnino  in  1440,  whilst  Michael  Angelo 
chose  an  incident  from  the  Pisan  campaigns,  and  repre- 
sented some  Florentine  soldiers  surprised  by  the  enemy 
whilst  bathing.  Both  cartoons  have  now  perished,  but  the 
memory  of  Leonardo's  is  preserved  in  a  powerful  group, 
that  Rubens  copied  from  it,  of  four  horsemen  fighting  for 
a  standard,  whilst  a  small  copy  exists  to  show  the  strength 
of  Michael  Angelo's  conception. 

Two  more  opposite  natures  than  those  of  Leonardo  and 
Michael  Angelo  could  perhaps  scarcely  be  found.  The  rich, 
generous,  handsome  Leonardo,  with  his  trains  of  servants 
a,nd  studs  of  horses,  living  in  the  most  extravagant  manner, 
and  attracting  everyone,  rich  and  poor,  by  the  spell  of  his 
manners  and  conversation ;  and  the  proud,  repellant, 
bitter-tongued  Michael  Angelo,  whose  real  heart  lay  too 
deep  for  men  to  discover,  and  whose  solitary  soul  found 
expression  only  in  his  works  and  not  in  his  words. 

G-reat  was  the  excitement  and  interest  in  art-lovmg 
Florence,  when  the  rival  cartoons  of  these  two  men  were 
■exposed  to  view,  and  every  artist  ranked  himself  with  one 
or  the  other  master.  Raphael  appeared  in  Florence  about 
this  time,  drawn  there  perhaps  by  the  news  of  this  very 
contest,  and  the  influence  of  Leonardo  was  soon  perceptible 
in  his  art. 

[Leonardo  returned  to  Milan  in  1506,  where  he  entered 
the  service  of  Louis  XII.  He  paid  visits  to  Florence  from 
time  to  time,  and  in  1514,  at  the  invitation  of  Leo  X.,  he  ac- 
companied Griuliano  de'  Medici  to  Rome.]  He  was  kindly 
received  by  Leo,  and  commissions  were  given  to  him,  but 
from  some  cause  he  did  not  stay  long.  Either  he  was 
offended  by  a  remark  of  the  Pope,  who,  on  hearing  that  he 

remarkably  good  state  of  preservation.     [The  cartoon  was  for  an  altar- 
piece  commissioned  by  the  Servite  brethren.  Leonardo  afterwards  ceded 
"this  commission  to  Filippino  Lippi.] 
[^  This  cartoon  was  finished  in  1505.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  95 

Tvas  distilling  oils  for  the  varnishing  of  a  picture  before  he 
had  begun  to  paint  it,  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  Alas  the 
while !  this  man  will  assuredly  do  nothing  at  all,  since  he 
IS  thinking  of  the  end  before  he  has  made  a  beginning,"  or 
else  he  who  had  been  first  in  Milan,  found  it  difficult  to 
share  his  honours  with  Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael,  who 
already  held  the  field  in  Rome. 

However  this  may  be,  he  left  Rome  and  joined  the  bril- 
liant French  king,  Francis  I.,  at  Pavia,  and  [in  1516]  re- 
turned with  him  to  France.  Honours  and  commissions 
were  showered  upon  him  by  Francis  I.,  but  his  health  and 
spirits  seemed  to  fail  from  the  moment  he  entered  France. 
After  five  years  of  languor  and  exhaustion,  during  which 
he  was  unable  to  accomplish  any  of  the  great  works  he  had 
undertaken,  he  died  on  May  2,  1519,  breathing  his  last, 
not  in  the  arms  of  the  French  king,  as  Vasari  and  tradition 
relate,  but  probably  as  a  reconciled  child  in  the  arms  of 
Mother  Church,  from  whom  in  life  he  appears  to  have 
strayed  away. 

Leonardo's  pupils  and  followers  have  a  rare  excellence, 
which  must  in  part  be  attributed  to  the  master.  There  is 
no  man  amongst  them  of  distinct  original  thought,  but  the 
purity  and  beauty  of  the  language  that  they  learnt  in 
Leonardo's  school  enables  them  to  express  their  ideas  with 
a  poetical  grace  that  is  very  charming,  even  though  the 
ideas  themselves  seldom  rise  to  greatness. 

[Of  his  pupils  Andrea  SALA,or  Salaino  (died  after  1519), 
and  Francesco  Melzi  (1493-1568)  httle  is  known  ex- 
cept that  they  were  friends  as  well  as  scholars  of  Leonardo. 
Melzi  went  with  Leonardo  to  France,  and  inherited  his 
drawings,  MSS.,  &c.  Salaino  is  mentioned  in  his  will. 
Marco  d'Oggione  (1470-1549)  and  Giovanni  Antonio 
Beltraffio  (1467-1516)  are  better  known  by  their 
works.  Marco  painted  the  fine  copy  of  Leonardo's  Last 
Supper  which  belongs  to  the  Royal  Academy,  and  there 
are  several  paintings  by  him  in  the  Brera  at  Milan.  Bel- 
traffio was  a  more  original  master,  and  first  studied  under 
Foppa  and  Civerchio.  He  afterwards  lived  and  worked 
with  Leonardo.  He  was  of  noble  family,  and  his  pictures 
are  remarkable  for  their  careful  modelling,  their  refine- 
ment, and  sweet,  but  unaffected  expression.     There  is  a 


96  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

beautiful  Madonna  and  Child  by  this  artist  in  the  National 
Gallery,  a  portrait  at  Chatsworth,  and  other  fine  examples 
of  his  art  at  Berhn,  Pesth,  Milan,  &c.  Cesare  da  Sesto 
(born  between  1475  and  1480,  died  1524,)  was  another  ac- 
complished painter  of  tender  sentiment  peculiar  to  himself, 
who  felt  Leonardo's  influence  strongly,  but  he  was  after- 
wards influenced  by  Raphael.  Most  of  his  known  pictures 
are  at  Milan,  but  there  are  examples  of  his  art  at  St. 
Petersburg,  Vienna,  and  Naples.] 

[Bernardino  Luini,  or  di  Ltjvino  (bom  between  1475 
and  1480,  died  after  1533),  Andrea  Solario  (born  about 
1460,  died  1530),  Gtatjdenzio  Ferrari  (bom  about  1481, 
died  about  1545),  though  belonging  to  the  late  Milanese 
school  as  influenced  by  Leonardo,  were  not  his  pupils.  The 
reputation  of  Luini  has  suffered  much  from  the  similarity  of 
his  works  to  those  of  Leonardo ;  even  now  many  of  his  pic- 
tures pass  for  the  works  of  Da  Vinci,  and  his  individuality  is 
still  under-estimated.  It  was  not  till  1500,  when  he  was 
already  a  master  in  his  art,  that  he  came  to  Milan,  and 
Leonardo  had  at  that  time  left  the  city,  not  to  return  to  it 
till  1506.  He  no  doubt  felt  strongly  the  effect  of  Leo- 
nardo's work  which  he  saw,  and  the  principles  of  his 
teaching  which  were  active  at  Milan,  for  Leonardo  had 
been  Director  of  the  Academy  at  Milan  since  1485,  and 
many  of  his  treatises  appear  to  have  been  written  for  the 
instruction  of  his  pupils  there.  He  also  executed  a  copy 
of  The  Last  Supper  (now  lost)  for  Francis  I.  But  of 
Leonardo's  personal  guidance  he  must  have  known  little 
or  nothing.  It  is  from  1510  to  1520  that  the  influence  of 
Leonardo  is  paramount  in  his  works,  but  there  was  a 
period  before  unaffected  by  it,  a  period  after  in  which  his 
individuality  emancipated  itself.  To  the  last  period 
belong  his  finest  works,  like  the  fresco  of  the  enthroned 
Madonna  in  the  Brera,  the  frescoes  in  the  church  at 
Saronno,  and  S.  Maria  degli  Angeli  at  Lugano.  To  the 
Leonardesque  period  belongs  the  Christ  disputing  with 
the  Doctors  in  the  National  Gallery,  which  was  long 
attributed  to  Leonardo.  In  colour  bright  and  beautiful,, 
he  was  always  original,  and  if  he  did  not  possess  the 
subtlety  and  profundity  of  Leonardo,  in  the  purity  of  reli- 
gious sentiment  and  the  perception  of  a  tender  loveliness 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING  IN  ITALY.  97 

he  was  scarcely  surpassed  by  any  master.  Of  his  early 
■works,  perhaps  the  most  famous  is  the  fresco  of  the  Body 
of  S.  Catherine  borne  by  Angels,  now  in  the  Brera,  but 
once  with  many  others  on  the  walls  of  the  Casa  la  Pelluca, 
near  Monza ;  the  finest  of  the  last  period,  the  Crucifixion  in 
the  church  at  Lugano.  It  is  only  at  Milan  and  in  its 
neighbourhood  that  the  artist  can  be  fully  studied.  The 
Brera  contains  a  number  of  his  frescoes,  and  three  easel 
pictures,  including  a  lovely  Madonna  with  the  Eoses ; 
in  the  Poldi-Pezzoli  collection  are  the  beautiful  Tobit  and 
the  Angel,  and  Marriage  of  S.  Catherine,  and  in  the 
Ambrosiana  a  fresco  of  the  Flagellation. 

Gatjdenzio  Ferrari  was  a  Piedmontese  by  birth,  who 
is  said  to  have  studied  under  Griovenone,  Luini,  Leonardo, 
Perugino,  and  Eaphael,  but  it  is  probable  that  he  received 
the  influence  of  Leonardo  through  Luini,  and  of  Eaphael 
through  engravings.  His  best  works  are  marked  by  a  pure 
and  elevated  religious  sentiment,  brilliant,  but  gaudy 
colouring.  According  to  Woermann  "he  ranks  high 
among  the  second-rate  painters  of  his  time  ;  he  is  inven- 
tive, energetic,  dramatic ;  what  he  lacks  is  balance  of 
mind,  and  when  he  most  strives  after  ideal  and  simple 
treatment,  he  too  often  sinks  into  bathos,  or  verges  on 
extravagance."  There  are  fine  frescoes  by  him  at  Varello, 
Vercelli,  Saronno,  and  Milan.  At  Turin  are  some  small 
early  easel  pictures,  and  some  grand  cartoons  at  the 
Brera,  besides  frescoes  a  late  Martyrdom  of  S.  Catherine. 
Of  his  beautiful  altar-pieces  at  Arona,  Novara,  and 
Canobbio,  the  last  is  considered  the  finest.  One  of  his 
pupils  was  Bernardino  Lanini,  by  whom  there  is  a  very 
beautiful  Holy  Family  in  the  National  O-allery  (No.  700). 

Andrea  Solario  was  born  probably  at  Milan  about  1460, 
and  died  after  1515.  He  was  strongly  influenced  by  Leo- 
nardo, and  it  is  the  opinion  of  Signor  Morelli  that  no 
Lombard  painter  comes  so  near  Leonardo  as  he.  The 
same  writer  thinks  the  influence  of  Bramantino  may  be 
seen  in  an  early  Madonna  in  the  Brera,  and  that  probably 
the  superb  modelling  of  his  heads  is  due  to  the  schooling 
of  his  brother  Christopher,  a  sculptor.  He  went  to  Venice 
in  1490  and  perhaps  afterwards,  and  the  influence  of 
Giovanni  Bellini  and  Antonella  da  Messina  is  evident  in 


98  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

the  fine  Portrait  of  a  Yenetian  Senator  (No.  923)  in  the 
National  G-allerj.  To  the  period  after  his  return  to  Milan 
belongs  the  other  fine  example  of  Solario  in  the  same  col- 
lection— the  portrait  of  his  friend  Gio.  Christophoro 
Longono  (No.  734),  which  is  dated  1505.  He  was  afterwards 
employed  to  decorate  a  chapel  at  the  castle  at  Gaillon, 
now  destroyed.  In  the  Louvre  are  several  of  his  works,  in- 
cluding the  famous  Yierge  au  coussin  vert.  In  the  Poldi- 
Pezzoli  collection  at  Milan  are  a  wonderfully  modelled 
Head  of  Christ,  and  a  Eiposo,  dated  1515,  his  latest 
signed  picture.  There  is  an  altar-piece  in  the  Brera,  and 
another  at  the  Certoza  at  Pavia,  which  he  left  unfinished. 
Leonardo's  influence  extended  also  to  Siena.  The  cele- 
brated painter  of  the  Sienese  school,  Giovanni  Antonio 
Bazzi,  called  Sodoma  (1477-1549),  was  bom  at  Yercelli, 
and  studied  under  Leonardo.  He  worked  at  Siena  from 
1501  to  1507,  when  he  went  with  Agostino  Chigi  to 
Eome,  where  Julius  II.  commissioned  him  to  paint  the 
Stanza  della  Segnatura.  His  frescoes,  with  the  exception 
of  the  ceiling,  were  destroyed  to  make  room  for  those  of 
Eaphael,  who  painted  his  portrait  close  to  his  own  in  the 
School  of  Athens.  In  1510  he  was  again  at  Siena,  and 
to  this  time  belongs  the  fine  but  ruined  Flagellation, 
painted  for  S.  Francesco,  and  now  in  the  gallery  of  Siena. 
He  afterwards  returned  to  Eome,  and  painted  the  beauti- 
ful Marriage  of  Alexander  and  Eoxana,  and  other  fres- 
coes in  the  Chigi  bedroom  in  the  Farnesina.  He  was 
knighted  by  the  Pope  for  a  picture  of  Lucretia,  now  lost. 
After  1515  he  worked  principally  in  Siena,  though  between 
1518  and  1525  he  appears  to  have  visited  many  other 
places.  In  1525  he  executed  the  decorations  in  the  chapel 
of  S.  Catherine,  in  the  church  of  S.  Domenico  at  Siena, 
perhaps  his  finest  works,  in  which  he  shows  himself 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  classical  sj^irit  of  the  Eenais- 
sance  and  a  master  of  expression.  Another  work,  in 
which  saintlike  ecstasy  of  feeling  and  beauty  of  form  are 
combined  in  an  exceptional  degree,  is  the  banner  now  in 
the  Uffizi,  painted  on  one  side  with  the  Yirgin  and  Saints, 
and  on  the  other  with  S.  Sebastian.  The  latter  is  rightly 
considered  by  Woermann  as  one  of  the  finest  figures  in 
the  whole  range  of  Christian  art.     It  is  impossible  here  to 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  99 

enumerate  more  of  the  very  numerous  works  of  this  prolific 
master,  whose  rank  is  on  a  level  only  lower  than  the  highest. 
They  are  chiefly  at  Siena.  The  National  G-aUery  possesses 
one  genuine  but  unimportant  example  of  Bazzi  (No.  1144). 
His  principal  pupils  were  G-iacomo  Pacchiarotti  (1474- 
1540)  and  Gtirolamo  della  Pacchia  (b.  1477).  By  the 
latter  there  is  a  Madonna  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  246). 
Under  his  influence,  as  well  as  that  of  Pinturicchio  and 
Eaphael,  came  also  Baldassare  Peruzzi  (1481-1537), 
an  architect,  decorator,  and  painter  second  to  few  of  his 
time.  His  work  is  chiefly  to  be  studied  at  Rome,  and  at 
and  near  Siena.  There  is  a  fine  drawing  of  the  Adoration 
of  the  Kings  by  him  in  the  National  G-allery  (No.  167).^ 
Domenico  di  Jacopo  di  Pace,  called  Beccafumi  and  Meca- 
rhio  (b.  about  1486,  d.  1551),  was  also  a  pupil  of  Sodoma. 
He  also  studied  under  Eaphael  and  Michael  Angelo.  He 
was  an  able  but  conventional  artist,  and  a  skilful  deco- 
rator. The  designs  from  sacred  history  inlaid  in  the 
marble  pavement  of  the  cathedral,  some  frescoes  in  S.  Ber- 
nardino, and  a  ceiling  in  the  Palazzo  PubbHco,  at  Siena, 
are  his  principal  works.] 

Lorenzo  di  Credi  (1459-1537),  a  Florentine  artist  and 
the  fellow-pupil  of  Leonardo  and  Perugino,  in  the  school 
of  Yerrocchio,  owed  much  to  the  former.  The  best 
example  of  his  work  is  in  the  Louvre.  The  two  Madonna 
pictures  in  the  National  Gallery,  Nos.  593  and  648,  are 
strained  in  expression,  because  he  seems  in  them  to  be 
striving  after  ease  and  grace,  but  has  not  quite  got  rid  of 
the  old  religious  formality. 

Lorenzo  di  Credi  was  one  of  the  band  of  artists  in 
Florence  who  were  moved  by  the  words  of  Savonarola, 
who  was  at  that  time  thundering  forth  his  eloquence 
against  Florence.  But  foremost  among  the  painters  who 
went  to  hear  the  Florentine  Jeremiah,  was  a  young  man 
called  by  his  Tuscan  associates  Baccio  della  Porta, 
because  he  lived  with  his  mother  near  one  of  the  gates  of 
the  city,''  but  who  is  better  known  to  posterity  by  the  title 

\}  The  painting  from  this  drawing,  also  in  the  National  Gallery,  No. 
218,  is  not  by  Peruzzi.  The  three  kings  are  portraits  of  Titian,  Raphael, 
and  Michael  Angelo.] 

^  His  family  name  was  Bartolommeo  di  Pagholo  del  Fattorino. 


100  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

of  Era  Bartolommeo  (1475-1517).  The  mind  of  Bar- 
tolommeo,  in  the  impressionable  season  of  youthful  aspi- 
ration, was  completely  subjected  to  the  influence  of 
Savonarola,  and  when,  in  the  Lent  of  1495,  the  words  of 
the  preacher  excited  the  Piagnoni,  as  his  followers  were 
called,  to  fanatic  extremes,  he,  as  well  as  other  young 
artists,  threw  all  the  drawings  and  studies  he  had  made 
from  the  antique  upon  one  of  those  "  pyramids  of  vani- 
ties "  which  were  lighted  by  the  excited  Piagnoni,  and 
which,  unfortunately,  burned  up  many  things  besides, 
rouge-pots,  false  hair,  playing-cards,  and  other  even  less 
reputable  "  anathema." 

Bartolommeo,  however,  though  thus  renouncing  profane 
studies,  still  pursued  his  art ;  but  happening  to  be  in  the 
convent  of  San  Marco  when  it  was  besieged  by  the  mob, 
and  Savonarola  dragged  forth,  his  mind  was  so  completely 
unhinged  by  the  fearful  scenes  that  then  occurred,  and  by 
the  subsequent  martyrdom  of  Savonarola,  that  after  that 
event  he  took  the  vows  of  a  monk  and  entered  the  Do- 
minican order,  entirely  abandoning  painting,  and  leaving 
his  friend  Albertinelli  [who  had  been  his  comrade  in  the 
workshop  of  Cosimo  Eoselli]  to  finish  all  the  works  he  had 
in  hand. 

Mariotto  Albertinelli  (1474-1515),  although  the 
intimate  friend  and  assistant  of  Fra  Bartolommeo,  was  a 
manof  a  totally  different  stamp  of  mind.  In  politics,  as  in. 
everything  else,  these  two  artists  took  opposite  sides, 
Albertinelli  being  an  adherent  of  the  Medici  and  a  scoffer 
at  Savonarola  and  his  mission.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  this 
contrast  in  their  characters  and  opinions,  he  and  Fra  Bar- 
tolommeo seem  to  have  been  much  attached,  and  when, 
after  spending  four  years  in  religious  melancholy  in  the 
convent  he  had  entered,  Bartolommeo  again  began  to 
paint,  he  summoned  his  old  associate,  Albertinelli,  to 
work  with  him  in  the  monastery,  and  the  layman  and 
the  monk  entered,  as  it  were,  into  partnership,^  the  monas- 
tery dividing  the  profits  with  Albertinelli.  [There  is  a 
small  picture  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  645)  by  Alberti- 
nelli.] 

^  Ci'owe  and  Cavalcaselle,  vol.  iii. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   W    ITALY.  101 

Fra  Bartolonimeo's  principal  Subjects  are  Madonnas, 
generally  surrounded  by  cherubs  or  boy  angels  of  ex- 
quisite beauty.  In  the  pure  loveliness  of  his  Madonna 
pictures,  indeed,  not  even  Eaphael  or  Leonardo  excel  him. 
He  evinces  in  them  the  tenderness  of  feeling  and  the 
mystic  devotion  of  his  predecessor,  Fra  Angelico,  and  the 
same  spiritual  beauty  illumines  the  features  of  his  Virgins ; 
but  Fra  Bartolommeo  is  a  far  greater  artist  than  the  holy 
Angelico.  To  beauty  of  soul  he  added  the  dignity  of 
human  life,  and  his  pictures  are  not  mere  expressions  of 
asceticism  or  religious  ecstasy,  but  the  calm  and  thoughtful 
expressions  of  a  sincere  but  not  fanatic  belief  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Christianity.  He  is  the  only  monk-painter  (unless 
we  reckon  Fra  Filippo)  who  comprehended  humanity  in 
its  broader  characteristics,  and  did  not  confine  his  sym- 
pathies within  the  convent  walls.  His  genius  was,  in 
truth,  too  large  for  any  such  curtailment,  and  although  in 
the  horror  of  his  mind  at  the  wickedness  of  the  city  that 
had  put  its  noblest  teacher  to  death,  he  sought  refuge  from 
the  impending  woe  in  a  religious  life,  he  was  yet  in  heart 
and  soul  an  artist,  and  only,  we  are  told,  regained  his 
cheerfulness  when  he  regained  his  brush. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  sympathy  with  the  world  outside 
his  pictures  have  the  same  holy  purity  and  deep  religious 
sentiment  as  those  of  the  TJmbrian  school.  He  never 
shocks  by  "  un  naturalisme  gracieusement  scandaleux,"  like 
Fra  Filippo,  but  gives  to  his  naturalism  a  solemn  religious 
dignity.  It  is  the  sentiment  of  Umbria,  in  fact,  expressed 
by  the  developed  art  of  Florence,  and  thus  it  is  that  we 
find  many  points  of  similarity  between  the  Madonnas  of 
Bartolommeo  and  those  of  Raphael. 

Raphael,  indeed,  whose  receptive  mind  received  impres- 
sions from  every  artist  with  whom  he  associated,  gained 
much  from  his  intercourse  with  Fra  Bartolommeo.  On 
his  arrival  in  Florence  in  1504,  he  entered  into  a  cordial 
friendship  with  Bartolommeo,  and  received  from  him 
many  valuable  hints  on  the  management  of  drapery, 
learning  also  the  secret  of  his  pure  and  harmonious  colour ; 
for,  like  Perugino  and  Francia,  Bartolommeo  was  a  good 
colourist.^  . .  \r  ^^^^^ 

The  great  influence  of  Bartolommeo  oyer  Raplia^^  smkinjiy^^ 

Of 


-!*:«v^^- 


102  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

The  good  Frate,  on  the  other  hand,  also  learned  much 
from  his  youthful  rival,  who  seems  to  have  excited  him  to- 
fresh  efforts,  and  so  have  re-awakened  in  his  mind  the 
desire  for  fame ;  at  all  events,  from  this  time  his  art,  long 
dormant,  budded  anew. 

A  visit  to  Rome  proved  likewise  fertile  of  results,  for 
although  whilst  he  was  there  he  was  so  overpowered,  we 
are  told,  by  the  great  works  that  Michael  Angelo  and 
Eaphael  had  already  achieved,  that  he  returned  to 
Florence  leaving  Eaphael  to  finish  two  grand  figures  of 
SS.  Peter  and  Paul  that  he  had  designed  with  a  majesty 
that  Eaphael  alone  could  have  equalled,  yet  on  his  return 
to  his  native  city  he  showed  that  this  visit  to  the  capital 
had  borne  fruit  in  his  mind,  even  though  he  had  not  been 
able  to  accomplish  any  great  work  whilst  there.  For,  over- 
coming his  Piagnoni  prejudice  against  the  nude,  he  now 
executed  a  large  undraped  S.  Sebastian  (under  the  in- 
fluence, no  doubt,  of  Michael  Angelo),  which  was  so  truth- 
ful and  beautiful  that  the  poor  monks  found  it  necessary 
to  remove  it  from  their  church,  fearing  that  it  might  give 
rise  "  to  the  sin  of  light  and  evil  thoughts." 

But  the  greatest  work  that  he  accomplished  at  this  time^ 
indeed  the  master-work  of  his  art,  is  the  celebrated 
Madonna  della  Misericordia,  in  the  church  of  S.  Eomano,. 
at  Lucca. ^  The  Virgin  in  all  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and 
with  the  solemn  dignity  that  Bartolommeo  has  always 
given  her,  stands  with  her  arms  outstretched  and  her  eyes 
uplifted  to  her  son,  whom  she  beholds  in  glory.  At  her 
feet  kneel  groups  of  suppHants  who  look  to  her,  as  she  to 
her  son,  beseeching  her  to  shelter  them  from  his  wrath. 
There  are  forty-four  heads  in  all  in  this  picture,  and  many 
of  them  of  wonderful  grace  and  beauty. 

The  Madonna  Enthroned,  of  the  Louvre,  was  painted 
for  Bartolommeo' s  own  convent  of  S.  Marco,  but  was^ 
afterwards  sent  as  a  present  to  Francis  I.  We  have  un- 
fortunately no  example  of  Fra  Bartolommeo  in  the  National 
Collection  ;  his  pictures,  indeed,  are  rare  out  of  Italy,  but  in 

evinced  in  the  only  work  that  he  executed  at  this  period  in  Florence — 
the  Baldachino  Madonna — which  might  well  be  mistaken  for  a  work  o£" 
Bartolommeo's. 

[^  Now  in  the  public  gallery  at  Lucca.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  103 

the  collection  of  Lord  Cowper,  at  Panshanger,  there  is  a 
lovely  Holy  Family,  one  of  his  most  exquisite  productions. 
He  worked  principally  in  oils,  and  his  colouring  has  a 
purity  and  soft  harmony  almost  equal  to  Leonardo.  He 
executed  a  few  works,  however,  in  fresco,  of  one  of  which, 
the  Last  Judgment,  in  the  Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Novella, 
at  Florence,  there  are  still  faint  relics :  all  the  others  have 
perished. 

We  now  come  to  the  two  most  famous  names  in  the 
history  of  art.  By  some  singular  affinity  the  names  of 
Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael  always  rise  in  our  minds  to- 
gether when  we  think  of  Italian  art,  and  yet,  perhaps,  two 
artists  more  diverse  in  their  tendencies  can  scarcely  be 
found.  The  two  opposed  schools  that  we  have  seen  uniting 
in  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  separated  again  in  these  two  men. 
In  their  works  the  full-blown  flower  of  Christian  art,  and 
the  full-blown  flower  of  pagan  art,  bloomed  for  a  short 
moment  side  by  side  before  falling  into  decay. 

All  that  the  artists  of  progress  from  the  time  of 
Masaccio  had  been  aiming  at,  was  attained  by  Michael 
Angelo  : — Masaccio,  Ghirlandaio,  Mantegna,  Luca  Signo- 
relli,  Michael  Angelo, — the  line  is  complete.  It  is  pre- 
sided over  by  the  classic  spirit  of  antiquity.  It  delights  in 
form,  life,  movement,  as  the  expression  of  human  power. 
It  seizes  on  the  nude  human  body  as  the  best  means  of 
displaying  its  knowledge  and  skill.  It  studies  perspective, 
anatomy,  geometry,  and  turns  these  sciences  to  use  in  bold 
foreshortening,  in  correct  disposition  of  muscles,  and  im- 
posing architectural  displays,  but  above  all  it  glories  in 
its  intellectual  strength,  and  achieves  feats  of  daring  that 
no  other  school  ever  attempted. 

The  other  line  begins  with  the  Byzantine  painters,  and 
continues  through  Fra  Angelico,  Francia,  Perugino,  Bar- 
tolommeo,  until  it  culminates  in  Raphael.  It  strives  to 
express  not  so  much  the  triumph  of  man's  intellect  as  the 
subjugation  of  that  intellect  to  his  higher  spiritual  nature. 
It  exalts  not  reason  but  faith,  and  yearns  after  a  spiritual 
beauty  of  which  it  catches  now  and  then  an  image,  an 
idea.  It  is  by  no  means  so  daring  as  its  worldly  rival,  it 
seldom  soars  to  the  sublime,  its  conquests  are  over  the 


104  HISTOEY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

heart  and  not  over  tlie  intellect.  The  spirit  of  Christianity 
dwells  with  it,  and  its  loveliness  is  that  of  the  soul  and  not 
of  the  mere  physical  being  of  man. 

Raphael,  it  is  true,  as  his  mind  and  art  developed, 
broke  more  and  more  away  from  the  restraints  that  the 
school  to  which  at  first  he  belonged  imposed  uj^on  his  art, 
but  even  at  the  last,  when  deeply  imbued  with  the 
paganism  of  Eome,  he  never  wholly  forgot  his  early 
training,  and  he  therefore  remains,  above  all  others,  the 
beloved  painter  of  Christianity. 

Raphael  Santi  (1483-1520)  was  born  on  the  6th  of 
April,  1483,  in  the  elegant  city  of  Urbino,  where  the  Santi 
family  had  for  some  time  been  settled.  His  father,  Gio- 
vanni Santi,  (d.  1494),  was  an  XJmbrian  painter  of  some 
little  reputation,  and  must  likewise  have  been  a'  man  of 
cultivated  taste,  for  a  long  poem  of  his  still  exists  written 
in  terza  rima,  celebrating  the  deeds  and  virtues  of  his 
patron,  Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  Duke  of  Urbino,  which, 
although  tedious  to  modem  readers,  is  well-stored  with  the 
learning  of  his  time.^ 

Of  the  young  Raphael's  early  productions  nothing  is 
known  for  certain,  although  much  is  imagined  by  his  bio- 
graphers. There  seems  no  reason  for  doubting,  however, 
that,  his  father  being  an  artist,  he  learnt  to  paint  as  soon 
as  he  learnt  anything.  At  nine  years  of  age  he  accom- 
panied his  father  to  Cagli,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
assisted  him  in  the  execution  of  a  fresco  that  still  exists  in 
the  church  of  S.  Domenico.^ 

A  beautiful  boy  angel  in  this  fresco  is  said  by  tradition 
to  be  the  portrait  of  the  child  Raphael,  and  Passavant  con- 
jectures likewise,  that  a  Madonna  and  Child  in  Santi's 
house  at  Urbino,  are  portraits  of  Rai3hael  and  his  mother 
Magia  Ciarla,  who  died  when  he  was  but  a  child.  In  1494, 
his  father  died  also,  and  Raphael,  whose  inclination  to- 

'  This  poem,  or  rliyming  chronicle,  a  class  of  production  in  great 
favour  in  the  middle  ages,  is  principally  interesting  to  us  from  the  num- 
ber of  artists  whom  he  mentions  in  it.  It  will  be  found  quoted  several 
times  in  this  volume.  [There  is  a  Madonna  by  Giovanni  Santi  in  the 
National  Gallery  (No.  751).— Ed.] 

^  "  Giovanni  Sanzio  and  his  fresco  at  Cagli,"  by  A.  Layard.  Printed 
for  the  Arundel  Society. 


BOOK    IV,]  PAIXTING    IN    ITALY.  105 

wards  art  was  now  decided,  was  placed  by  his  uncles,  when 
he  was  twelve  years  of  age,  in  the  school  of  Perngino,  the 
most  celebrated  painter  in  Umbria/  Here  the  quick  genius 
of  the  boy  soon  caught  the  style  of  the  master,  and  before 
long  even  excelled  him  in  that  dreamy  poetic  sentiment 
which  is  the  chief  charm  of  Perugino's  art.  He  was  thus,  as 
it  were,  steeped  in  Umbrian  sentiment  from  the  beginning. 

Eaphael's  early  works,  indeed,  resemble  so  closely  those 
of  Perugino,  that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  them,  espe- 
cially as  we  know  that  the  master  was  wont  to  employ  the 
pupil  on  works  for  which  he  had  received  the  commission ; 
still,  as  before  said,  it  seems  more  likely  that  Raphael  imi- 
tated Perugino,  than  that  Perugino  in  the  height  of  his 
fame  adopted  the  style  of  his  rising  pupil,  as  some  have 
supposed.  Raphael  had  at  all  times  a  curious  talent  for 
imitation ;  curious,  that  is,  considering  the  undoubted  origi- 
nality of  his  mind.  He  could  never  come  within  the  sphere 
of  any  great  artist  or  great  work  of  art  without  the  in- 
fluence being  at  once  perceptible  in  his  works.  It  was  not 
perhaps  so  much  that  he  imitated,  as  that  he  assimilated 
the  style  of  any  artist  whom  he  admired,  and  carried  it  to 
perfection  ;  and  thus  it  was  with  Perugino — the  most  per- 
fect expression  of  his  art  is  by  Raphael. 

It  is  said  that  the  first  independent  commission  Raphael 
received  was  for  one  of  the  great  religious  banners  to  be 
carried  in  procession.^  This  banner  is  still  preserved  at 
Citta  da  Castello,  as  well  as  some  others  of  his  early  paint- 
ings in  Perugia,  but  his  most  celebrated  work  of  this  period, 
the  Sposalizio,  or  Marriage  of  the  Virgin,  so  well  known  by 
means  of  Longhi's  fine  engraving,  is  now  at  Milan.  It  is 
one  of  the  noblest  pictures  of  the  Umbrian  school.  A 
Crucifixion,  in  Lord  Dudley's  collection  in  London,  entirely 
resembling  Perugino,  a  Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  in  the 
Vatican,  and  several  Madonna  pictures  of  deep  sentiment, 
also  belong  to  this  early  epoch. 

[^  It  is  now  supposed  that  Raphael  studied  under  Timoteo  Viti  at 
Urbino  before  he  entered  Perugino's  school,  and  the  date  when  he  be- 
came a  scholar  of  Perugino  is  disputed.  (See  Morelli's  *'  Italian  Mas- 
ters," Woltmann  and  Woermann's  "  History  of  Painting,"  &c.)] 

"  Rio,  "  De  I'Art  Chretien,"  Ecole  Ombrienne.  Speciality  de  la 
banniere.    [This  is  now  disputed.] 


106  HISTORY   OP   PAINTING.  [BOOK   IV. 

In  the  autumn  of  1504,  when  he  was  twentj-one  years 
of  age,  Raphael,  a  youth  already  "  known  to  fame,"  quitted 
the  school  of  Perugino,  whose  teachings  he  had  exhausted, 
and  repaired  to  Florence ;  attracted  there,  no  doubt,  by  the 
report  of  the  mighty  works  that  Leonardo  and  Michael 
Angelo  were  executing  in  that  city.  "  When,"  says  Yasari, 
"  he  first  saw  Leonardo's  works,  he  stood  before  them  per- 
fectly amazed  and  astonished.  They  pleased  him  at  once 
better  than  all  he  had  seen  before,  and  he  felt  therefore 
impelled  to  a  deeper  study  of  them."  The  effects  of  this 
study  were  soon  visible. 

Raphael's  life  and  art  divides  itself  naturally  into  three 
distinct  epochs  and  styles.  The  Umhrian,  already  noticed, 
when  he  was  under  the  influence  of  Perugino  ;  the  Floren- 
tine, upon  which  he  now  entered,  and  to  the  forming  of 
which,  not  only  Leonardo,  but  likewise  Era  Bartolommeo, 
greatly  contributed  ;  and  the  Roman,  when  he  had  felt  the 
power  and  had  studied  the  works  of  his  great  rival,  Michael 
Angelo. 

But  although  we  talk  of  Raphael's  early,  late,  and  middle 
manner,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  draw  any  harsh  lines  of 
demarcation  between  them.  He  did  not  suddenly,  as  some 
writers  would  lead  us  to  suppose,  change  his  whole  mode 
of  thought  and  style  of  painting,  and  never  revert  to  the 
old  style  that  he  had  dropped ;  on  the  contrary,  in  some  of 
his  late  Roman  works  we  find  the  purest  TJmbriaD  senti- 
ment expressed  with  all  the  power  of  his  developed  lan- 
guage, and  the  beauty  of  the  works  of  the  Florentine  period 
lies  chiefly  in  this,  that  whilst  adopting  the  cheerful  grace 
of  Leonardo,  and  the  freedom  of  drawing  of  the  Pagan 
school,  he  nevertheless  retained  the  purity  and  tender  de- 
votional feeling  of  the  Umbrian  school,  in  which  he  had 
first  been  educated. 

His  Umbrian  education,  in  fact,  was  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  him  as  a  Christian  painter,  but  he  had  now  gained 
from  it  all  it  could  give,  and  on  beholding  the  more  vigorous 
art  of  Florence,  he  at  once  felt  that  here  alone  could  his 
genius  have  free  and  full  development.  He  did  not,  however, 
stay  long  at  Florence  at  this  time,  being  obliged,  in  the 
spring  of  1505,  to  return  to  Perugia,  where  he  had  under- 
taken several  important  commissions,  but  the  effect  that 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  107 

the  study  of  the  great  masters  of  Florence  had  produced 
on  his  mind  was  immediately  apparent  in  his  art.  In  his 
beautiful  Madonna  del  Granduca,  now  in  the  Palazzo  Pitti 
at  Florence,  the  only  work  of  importance  that  he  executed 
during  his  short  visit,  he  so  completely  assimilated  the 
style  of  Leonardo,  that  the  picture  might  almost  be  taken 
for  one  by  that  master,  were  it  not  for  the  peculiar 
Raphaelesque  spirit  that  looks  forth  from  the  eyes  of  the 
Madonna.  It  is  a  simple  work,  only  a  three-quarter  stand- 
ing figure  of  the  Virgin  with  the  Child  held  on  her  arm, 
but  it  has  the  charm  of  a  deeply  felt  and  thoughtful  poem, 
for  in  this,  as  well  as  in  his  subsequent  and  more  famous 
Madonnas,  there  is  the  expression  of  intellect  as  well  as  of 
holiness.  This  intellectual  power  he  put  forth  first  at  this 
time.  In  all  Perugino's  Madonnas  we  have  tender,  simple- 
minded,  pure-hearted  women,  but  although  they  have 
loving  souls,  they  have  no  powers  of  mind ;  they  might  be 
capable  of  ecstatic  devotion,  but  not  of  logical  reasoning ; 
but  from  this  time  Eaphael's  Madonnas  think  as  well  as 
feeh  TJmbrian  faith  is  united  in  them  with  Florentine 
reason,  and  thus  they  have  a  far  wider  and  nobler  life  than 
the  merely  spiritual  beings  of  Fra  Angelico's  and  Peru- 
gino's imagination. 

On  his  return  to  Perugia,  Eaphael  executed  his  first 
fresco,  a  painting  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  the  church  of  San 
Severo.  This  work,  it  is  said,  is  strongly  reminiscent  of 
Fra  Bartolommeo's  fresco  in  Santa  Maria  Novella ;  but 
Raphael  afterwards  carried  out  the  same  composition  in 
the  fulness  of  his  power  in  his  celebrated  Disputa  del  Sac- 
ramento, and  thus  made  it  his  own  for  ever.  Several 
altar-pieces  were  likewise  executed  at  this  time,  among 
which  may  be  mentioned  the  Madonna  and  Child  with  the 
Baptist  and  S.  Nicholas  di  Bari,  now  known  as  the  Blen- 
heim Madonna,  from  its  being  in  the  possession  of  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  at  Blenheim  House.^ 

But  it  is  evident  that  Raphael,  having  once  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  achievements  of  Florence,  was  anxious 
to  return  to  that  stirring  and  art-loving  capital,  and  accor- 
dingly, neglecting  a   commission  he   had  received  from 

[*  The  "  Ansidei  Madonna,"  now  in  the  National  Gallery.] 


108  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

tlie  nuns  of  Monte  Luce,  who  desired  an  altar-piece  by 
"the  best  painter,"  we  find  him  at  the  close  of  1506 
again  in  Florence,  after  having  made,  probably,  a  short 
visit  to  Bologna,  where  he  gained  the  friendship  of 
Francia.^ 

His  stay  in  Florence,  however,  was  again  not  destined  to 
be  long,  although  he  seems  to  have  gone  there  with  the  in- 
tention of  settling,  and  the  development  of  his  art  under 
Florentine  influences  was  steadily  progressing.  Some  of 
his  most  lovely  and  famous  Madonnas  were  executed  at 
this  period,  and  evince  the  fullest  comprehension  of  the 
aims  of  the  Florentine  school. 

The  Madonna  del  Cardellino  (with  the  goldfinch),  in 
the  Ufiizi  at  Florence,  the  Madonna  with  the  Palm-tree,  in 
the  Bridgwater  Gallery,  the  Madonna  in  the  Meadow,  at 
Vienna,  the  Madonna  of  the  Tempi  family,  at  Munich,  the 
Holy  Family  of  the  House  of  Canigiani,  also  at  Munich, 
the  Madonna  with  the  Pink,  and  the  famous  Belle  Jar- 
diniere, of  the  Louvre,  as  well  as  several  others  less  known, 
are  all  considered  to  have  been  painted  at  Florence  before 
he  had  attained  the  age  of  five-and-twenty. 

The  noble  S.  Catherine,  of  the  National  Gallery,^  be- 
longs also  to  this  Florentine  time.  It  is  curious  to  note  in 
this  figure  how  the  mysticism  and  sentiment  of  the  Um- 
brian  school  is  subordinate  to  the  more  intellectual  ideal 
that  Raphael  is  now  reaching  after.  The  saint  is  no  mere 
ecstatic  devotee,  but  a  noble  intellectual  woman,  raised 
above  the  commonplace  by  the  holy  enthusiasm  that  carries 
her  thoughts  beyond  the  earth,  as  she  feels  the  ray  of 
heavenly  light  descending  upon  her. 

But  the  work  above  all  others  that  most  strikingly  re- 
veals his  study  and  comprehension  of  the  progressive 
Florentine  masters  is  the  Entombment,  of  the  Palazzo 
Borghese  at  Eome.  Here  his  dramatic  powers,  afterwards 
so  strongly  called  forth  in  the  cartoons,  and  in  the  paint- 
ings of  the  Vatican,  are  first  displayed.  The  vehemence 
of  action  in  the  figures  who  bear  the  body  of  Christ  to  the 
tomb,  as  contrasted  with  the  lifeless  body  they  carry,  is 
£nely  expressed,  and  the  design  is  more  studied  than  any 

^  Passavant,  "  Rafael  von  Urbino." 

*  Formerly  in  the  Aldobrandini  Gallery  at  Rome. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  109^' 

he  had  as  yet  accomplished  ;  yet,  somehow,  we  miss  in  this- 
work  the  true  Kaphael  charm.  At  the  most,  it  can  only 
be  considered  a  feeble  imitation  of  Michael  Angelo,  whose- 
cartoon  of  Pisa  was  being  exhibited  in  Florence  at  the  time 
he  prepared  the  cartoon  for  it.* 

It  was  not  Florence,  however,  that  was  destined  to  be- 
the  theatre  of  Raphael's  greatest  triumphs.  About  the 
middle  of  1508,  after  he  had  spent  about  a  year  and  a  half 
at  Florence,  during  which  time  he  had  achieved  a  sur- 
prising amount  of  work,  he  was  called  to  Eome  by  that 
extraordinary  old  pope,  Julius  11.,  who,  although  he  had 
Bramante  and  Michael  Angelo  already  in  his  service,  could 
not  rest  content  without  securing  also  the  rising  genius  of 
Raphael  to  decorate  his  magnificent  palace  of  the  Vatican, 
which  Bramante  had  now  reconstructed  with  unsurpassed 
skill,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time.  Buildings 
and  other  works  of  art  rose,  indeed,  as  if  by  magic  in  the 
Rome  of  Julius  II.,  for  such  was  this  pope's  impatience  to 
see  the  great  works  that  he  had  planned  completed  before 
his  death,  that  he  left  those  he  employed  no  peace  until 
they  executed  his  commissions. 

Papal  Rome,  at  the  time  when  Raphael  entered  it  at  the- 
age  of  five  and  twenty,  was  at  the  height  of  its  temporal 
power,  but  the  spirit  of  Christianity  had  long  been  chased 
from  its  splendid  palaces,  and  instead,  the  spirit  of 
paganism  reigned  suj^reme  in  the  art  of  its  artists  as  well 
as  in  the  lives  of  its  popes. 

The  glorification  of  the  power  of  Rome,  both  in  its  tem- 
poral and  spiritual  extension,  was  probably  the  idea  of 
Raphael  in  those  world-famous  frescoes  in  the  Vatican 
that  he  was  now  called  upon  to  execute.  Never  did 
youthful  genius  receive  such  a  stimulus  before,  and  never 
did  it  rise  more  adequate  to  the  task.  Three  chambers  in 
a  large  saloon,  now  known  by  the  name  of  the  Stanze  of 

'  The  studies  that  still  exist  for  this  work  prove  that  it  was  the  con- 
scious intention  of  Kaphael  to  emulate  the  great  artists  then  at  work  in 
Florence  in  their  own  style  of  art.  "  Nine  drawings,"  says  Eastlake, 
"  of  different  arrangements  for  the  subject,  or  particular  portions,  are  in 
the  Lawrence  Collection.  Another,  still  differently  composed,  is  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Rogers,  and  seven  or  eight  more  exist  in  various  col- 
lections on  the  Continent." 


110  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOZ    IV. 

Raphael,  were  covered  by  him,  ceilings  and  walls,  with 
paintings. 

In  the  first  chamber — Camera  della  Segnatura — is  sym- 
bolized the  power  of  Intellect.  Theology,  Poetry,  Philo- 
sophy, and  Jurisprudence,  the  highest  pursuits  of  the  culti- 
vated mind,  are  represented  by  noble  allegorical  figures  on 
the  ceiling.  Beneath  Theology,  on  the  walls  of  the  cham- 
ber, is  the  great  exj)ression  of  the  power  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  known  as  La  Disputa.  The  upper  part  of  this  fresco 
represents  the  Church  Triumphant,  with  Christ  in  glory. 
Rays  of  light  glorifying  angelic  forms,  beam  down  on  the 
Son,  the  Virgin,  and  S.  John.  The  Dove  of  the  Spirit  flies 
beneath,  shedding  rays  downwards  on  the  altar  in  the  lower 
portion.  Above,  in  the  midst  of  the  glory,  is  the  grand 
figure  of  the  Father,  represented  according  to  the  tradition 
of  earlier  painters.  The  lower  half  of  this  subject  shows 
the  fathers,  bishops,  and  doctors  of  the  Church  grouped 
on  either  side  of  an  altar  bearing  the  Host,  or  mystical 
embodiment  of  Christ  on  earth.  The  liveliest  action  is 
displayed  by  these  figures,  who  seem  to  be  arguing  (hence 
the  name,  La  Disputa,)  about  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church. 

But  it  is  in  vain  to  attempt  to  describe  the  varied 
character  of  this  remarkable  composition.  "  Here,"  says 
Liibke,  "with  incomparable  power  and  depth  of  charac- 
terization, we  find  lively  action,  enthusiastic  belief,  and  pro- 
found investigation,  fervent  devotion,  dispute,  and  doubt. 
The  picture  stands  at  the  head  of  all  religious  symbolic 
painting,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  is  full  of  true  life  and 
enchanting  beauty.  The  execution  exhibits  careful  finish, 
even  in  the  smallest  details  ;  the  colouring  is  charming, 
clear,  and  fresh."  There  has  been  much  controversy  con- 
cerning the  meaning  of  this  work,  and  different  interpreta- 
tions have  been  given  of  it ;  ^  but  there  seems  little  doubt 
that  Christian  theology,  as  ojjposed  to  pagan  philosophy, 
was  in  his  mind  when  he  executed  La  Disputa  and  the 
School  of  Athens,  which  occupies  the  opposite  wall.  The 
Disputa,  however,  need  not  be  limited  to  any  particular 

^  Grimm,  whose  criticisms  are  remarkable  for  their  philosophic  insight, 
agrees  with  Vasari  regarding  the  general  meaning  both  of  La  Disputa 
and  the  School  of  Athens. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  Ill 

•allegory,  but  may  be  taken,  as  Mrs.  Jameson  remarks,  to 
represent  "  the  whole  system  of  Eevelation,  like  a  grand 
j)oem  combining  heaven  and  earth." 

The  School  of  Athens,  as  the  well-known  fresco  is  called 
that  was  placed  by  Raphael  beneath  the  symbolical  figure 
of  Philosophy,  is  a  no  less  marvellous  production,  embody- 
ing, as  it  does,  the  whole  spirit  of  classical  antiquity. 

The  Church  of  Rome,  after  having  tried  hard  to  shut  out 
the  knowledge  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  had  ended  by 
taking  the  Greek  philosopher  into  her  service,  and  it  was, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  dangerous  to  deny  the  induc- 
tions of  Aristotle  as  the  authority  of  the  Church.  The 
Platonian  philosophy  had  also  found  enthusiastic  admirers, 
not  only  at  the  court  of  the  Medici  at  Florence,  but  like- 
wise at  Rome ;  but,  in  spite  of  the  endeavours  of  Marsilius 
Ficinus  and  the  Platonic  Academy,  in  which  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici  took  such  interest,  it  never  took  so  strong  a  hold  as 
the  Aristotelian  on  the  mind  of  Europe  in  the  middle  ages. 
Aristotle,  in  fact,  after  having  been  long  looked  upon  with 
suspicion,  had  become  the  orthodox  teacher  of  scientific 
truths,  and,  therefore,  it  was  quite  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  Rome,  at  that  time,  that  Raphael  placed  the  two 
greatest  teachers  of  the  ancient  world,  surrounded  by  the 
other  philosophers  of  antiquity,  in  juxtaposition  to  the 
great  teachers  of  the  Christian  world,  who,  as  intimated 
by  the  heavenly  vision  above,  had  truths  made  known  to 
them  by  revelation,  that  the  science  of  Greece  and  Rome 
had  been  imable  to  reach. 

The  third  fresco.  Poetry,  represents  Apollo  with  the 
Muses,  on  the  heights  of  Parnassus,  with  the  poets  of  the 
ancient  and  modern  world  ranged  on  either  side. 

The  fourth.  Law  or  Jurisprudence,  painted,  like  the 
Poetry,  above  and  on  each  side  of  a  window,  represents 
Gregory  XI.  dispensing  ecclesiastical  justice,  whilst  at  the 
other  side  Justinian  delivers  his  famous  pandects  to  Tri- 
bonianus.  Above  are  the  symbolical  figures  of  Prudence, 
Fortitude,  and  Temperance.  This  is  the  least  important 
of  these  subjects,  and  the  personification  of  the  virtues  is 
much  the  same  as  we  have  seen  in  early  art. 

Li  the  next  stanza — Stanza  of  Heliodorus — the  frescoes 
are  more  directly  historical  in  character,  but  they  have  all 


112  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

reference  to  the  power  of  the  Church  and  the  overthrow  of 
her  enemies,  both  by  her  temporal  and  spiritual  power. 
Thus  Julius  II.  is  introduced  into  the  expulsion  of  Helio- 
dorus  from  the  Temple,  the  underlying  meaning  of  which 
work  probably  was  the  triumph  that  the  warlike  old  pope 
Julius  and  the  papal  party  had  gained  over  the  enemies  of 
the  Papacy,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  the  fate  that 
would  surely  overtake  those  who  endeavoured  to  place 
some  boundaries  to  stop  the  ever-growing  pretensions  of 
the  Roman  See. 

The  Mass  of  Bolsena,  at  which  Julius  is  likewise  present, 
although  the  reputed  miracle  occurred  some  centuries  be- 
fore his  time,  is  in  like  manner  aimed  at  the  unbelievers  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  who  were  already  troubling  the 
Mother  Church  with  difficult  questions,  and  from  amongst 
whom  Luther  was  soon  to  arise  to  shake  the  very  founda- 
tions of  her  power.  But  meanwhile  Julius,  in  the  inter- 
vals of  his  wars  with  France  and  struggles  with  his  car- 
dinals, was  inciting  his  artists  to  ever  greater  achievements. 
Michael  Angelo  was  painting  in  the  Sistine  chapel,  whilst 
Raphael  was  working  in  the  Vatican,  and  often  the  old 
Pope  looked  in  upon  one  or  the  other,  and  bade  them 
make  haste.  Raphael,  of  course,  was  his  favourite — he 
was  the  favourite  of  all  men — and  he  seems  always  to  have 
given  his  patron  smooth  answers,  whereas  Michael  Angelo 
often  irritated  him  by  the  rough  truth  of  his  speeches. 

Great  must  have  been  the  satisfaction  of  Julius  11.  when 
he  looked  round  upon  the  works  that  his  commands  had 
incited  the  two  greatest  artists  of  his  age  to  produce.  But 
whilst  planning  still  greater  achievements,  he  died  in  1513, 
at  a  great  age,  his  energy  and  intellect  undiminished  to  the 
last.  We  seem  to  know  the  man  from  Raphael's  magnificent 
portrait.  His  shrewd  understanding  looks  forth  from  the 
small  piercing  eyes,  and  his  inflexible  will  is  set  in  the  firmly 
compressed  mouth.  A  grand  old  man,  who  subjugates  us 
even  now,  as  we  look  at  him  with  his  fine  snow-white  beard 
falling  on  to  his  velvet  cape,  and  with  his  great  ruby  ring 
flashing  from  his  finger  as  he  grasps  the  arm  of  his  chair.  ^ 

^  One  of  the  uumerous  repetitions  of  this  portrait,  of  which  Passavant 
enumerates  nine,  is  in  the  National  Gallery.  The  original  is  considered 
to  be  that  of  the  Pitti  Palace,  at  Florence. 


BOOK  IV.]         PAINTING  IN  ITALY.  113 

At  the  time  of  the  painting  of  this  portrait  (1511), 
Raphael's  reputation  was  already  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  artist,  not  even  excepting  Michael  Angelo,  who  seems 
to  have  felt  some  bitterness  at  the  astounding  success  of  his 
youthful  rival.  Much  has  been  said  of  the  jealousy  exist- 
ing between  these  two  artists ;  but  we  may  hope  that  it 
was  more  the  foolish  party-spirit  of  their  followers  and 
scholars  that  produced  this  impression  than  any  unworthy 
feeling  in  the  minds  of  the  men  themselves.  Vasari,  in- 
deed, although  a  most  partial  adherent  to  his  master, 
Michael  Angelo,  bears  the  warmest  testimony  to  the 
amiable  character  of  Eaphael.  "  Among  all  his  rare  gifts," 
he  says,  "  I  consider  one  to  be  so  wonderful,  that  it  fills  me 
with  amazement :  that,  namely,  with  which  nature  has  in- 
vested him — the  power  to  awaken  that  feeling  in  our  circle 
which  is  at  variance  with  the  nature  of  painters ;  for  all, 
not  only  the  lesser  artists,  but  even  those  who  claimed  to 
be  great,  were  of  one  mind  as  soon  as  they  worked  in 
Raphael's  presence.  All  ill-humour  disappeared  when 
they  saw  him  ;  every  low,  common  thought  was  banished 
from  the  mind.  Such  harmony  has  never  reigned  but  in 
the  time  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  cause  of  this  was  that 
they  felt  themselves  overcome  by  his  kindliness,  by  his  art, 
and  still  more  by  his  noble  nature." 

The  charm  of  this  **  noble  nature  "  extended  itself  not 
only  over  the  artists,  but  likewise  over  the  great  and 
powerful  nobles  in  Rome.  Popes,  cardinals,  and  princes 
sought  his  fascinating  society,  and  commissions  for  paint- 
ings flocked  in  upon  him  so  fast,  that  he  was  obliged  to 
leave  the  execution  of  his  frescoes  for  the  most  part  to  his 
pupils,  he  himself  only  preparing  the  cartoons.  Fortu- 
nately the  death  of  Julius  II.  did  not  at  all  interfere  with 
the  work  which  was  going  on  in  the  Vatican  ;  for  Leo  X., 
who  succeeded  him,  encouraged  art  and  learning  with  still 
greater  intelligence  than  Julius,  and  immediately  extended 
his  patronage  to  Raphael.  No  break,  therefore,  occurred 
in  the  plan  that  the  old  pope  had  proposed ;  only  in  honour 
of  the  new  pope,  Raphael's  two  next  frescoes,  the  Delivery 
of  S.  Peter  from  Prison  and  the  Vision  of  Attila,  had 
direct  reference  to  the  personal  history  of  Leo;  the  De- 
liverance of  St.  Peter  referring  to  the  Cardinal  de'  Medici's 


114  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

escape  from  prison  after  the  battle  of  Ravenna,  and  tlie 
Attila  being  suggested  by  the  retreat  of  the  French  from 
Italy  in  the  same  year. 

In  the  third  chamber  of  the  Vatican — Stanza  dell'  In- 
cendio — begun  about  1515,  Eaphael  represented  an  event 
that  had  taken  place  in  the  ninth  century :  a  fire  in  the 
Borgo  Yecchio,  which  had  been  miraculously  extinguished 
by  the  intercession  of  Pope  Leo  IV.  The  influence  of 
Michael  Angelo  in  the  terrified  and  vigorous  naked  figures 
in  this  work  is  very  apparent,  but  the  wonderful  dramatic 
power  of  it  was  given  by  Raphael  alone,  and  although 
the  work  was  doubtless  executed  in  great  part  by  his 
scholars,  it  must  be  ranked  as  one  of  his  finest  composi- 
tions.^ 

The  frescoes  of  the  Sala  di  Constantino,  as  the  large 
hall  is  called,  can  scarcely  be  reckoned  as  Raphael's  work, 
though  Raphael's  mind  is  visible  in  them.  They  were 
executed  after  his  death  by  his  scholars  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Giulio  Romano,  from  drawings  previously  pre- 
pared by  the  master.  They  represent  events  from  the 
history  of  the  Emperor  Constantine,  the  first  Christian 
emperor  and  the  founder  of  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Church.  The  glorification  of  the  power  of  Rome  is  thus, 
it  is  evident,  the  underlying  meaning  of  all  the  works  of 
the  Vatican. 

Besides  these  works  in  the  rooms  of  the  Vatican,  Raphael 
executed  others  in  the  Loggie  or  open  galleries  round  the 
old  court  of  S.  Damasus.  These  Loggie  were  begun  by 
Bramante  under  Julius  II.,  but  were  afterwards  finished 
by  Raphael,  "  and  if,"  says  Kugler,  "  we  consider  the 
harmonious  combination  of  architecture,  modelling,  and 
painting  displayed  in  these  Loggie — all  the  production  of 
one  mind — there  is  no  place  in  Rome  which  gives  so  high 
an  idea  of  the  cultivated  taste  and  feeling  for  beauty  which 
existed  in  the  age  of  Leo  X."     And  there  is  no  place,  also, 

^  Eastlake  points  out  in  his  notes  to  Kugler's  "  Handbook  '*  that  it  is 
not  a  storm,  as  is  generally  supposed,  that  agitates  the  draperies  of 
the  figures  bearing  vessels  of  water  in  the  iresco,  but  that  Eaphael 
probably  intended  to  express  the  rush  of  air  always  observable  in  tne 
vicinity  of  a  conflagration.  If  this  is  the  case,  it  proves  that  he  must 
have  been,  like  Leonardo,  an  observant  student  of  natural  phenomena. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  115 

that  reveals  more  fully  the  growth  of  the  pagan  element  in 
Raphael's  mind.  Even  in  the  subjects  from  Scripture 
historv,  known  as  Raphael's  Bible,  the  feeling  for  classical 
antiquity  is  strongly  displayed/  and  in  the  various  ara- 
besques and  ornamental  festoons,  we  have  all  the  cheerful 
variety  and  beauty  of  the  old  classic  time.  Unfortunately 
these  works  have  now  fallen  into  a  sad  state  of  decay,  and 
only  a  shadow  of  their  original  beauty  remains.  They 
were  executed,  no  doubt,  entirely  by  his  pupils  ;  but,  as  in 
all  the  works  executed  by  his  pupils  during  his  lifetime, 
the  thought  of  the  master  as  well  as  his  style  of  expression 
is  thoroughly  apparent. 

Among  Raphael's  other  famous  works  of  the  Roman 
period  are  the  Cartoons  so  well  known  to  English  students. 
Leo  X.,  wishing  still  further  to  decorate  the  Sistine  chapel, 
where  Michael  Angelo  had  already  produced  his  mighty 
Prophets  and  Sibyls,  as  well  as  the  History  of  Creation,  on 
the  ceiling,  desired  that  the  walls  should  be  hung  with 
tapestry  woven  in  the  famed  looms  of  Arras,  in  Flanders. 
Raphael  was  accordingly  called  on  to  prepare  the  designs 
or  cartoons  for  the  weavers,  and  the  seven  grand  works 
that  now  hang  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum,^  tell  us 
sufficiently  how  he  fulfilled  his  task. 

There  were  originally  ten  of  these  cartoons,  and  an 
eleventh  intended  for  an  altar-piece,  representing  the  Coro- 
nation of  the  Virgin,  but  only  seven  now  remain,^  and,  in- 
deed, it  is  wonderful  that  any  should  remain,  considering 
the  various  vicissitudes  and  shameful  ill-treatment  to  which 
they  have  been  subjected.* 

The  original  tapestries,  ten  in  number,  now  hang  in  the 

^  The  three  angels,  for  instance,  appearing  to  Abraham  are  noble 
graceful  forms  belonging  to  Greek  art,  as  different  as  possible  from  the 
pensive  Umbrian  types  of  his  earlier  works. 

*  Formerly  at  Hampton  Court. 

3  *'  Notes  on  Raphael's  Cartoons  now  in  the  South  Kensington 
Museum,"  by  Charles  Kuland. 

*  In  the  first  instance  they  were  cut  into  narrow  slips  by  the  weavers 
of  Arras,  so  as  to  adapt  them  to  their  looms,  no  greater  care  being  taken 
of  them  than  of  any  ordinary  pattern.  As  early  as  1630  four  of  them 
appear  to  have  been  lost,  for  at  that  date  Rubens  informed  Charles  I.  of 
the  existence  of  the  remaining  seven,  and  soon  afterwards  the  King 
scoured  them  at  a  considerable  expense  (*'  magno  pretio  ")  for  himself. 


116  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Vatican,  but  they  are  greatly  injured  and  badly  restored, 
and  so  faded  that  the  effect  of  the  colouring  is  quite  lost. 
This  makes  the  cartoons  all  the  more  valuable,  for  in  them 
Raphael's  genius  still  stands  forth  in  all  its  surprising 
power.  The  Miraculous  Draught  of  Fishes,  indeed,  is 
admitted  by  almost  all  authorities  to  bear  the  direct- 
evidence  of  Raphael's  own  hand  having  been  at  work  upon 
it,  and  many  of  the  grand  figures  and  expressive  counte- 
nances in  the  other  cartoons,  such  as  the  Lame  Man  at  the 
Beautiful  Gate  of  the  Temple,  and  the  Christ,  S.  Peter^ 
and  S.  John  in  the  Charge  to  Peter,  were  doubtless  painted 
by  him  ;  though  for  the  most  part  we  must  suppose  that 
the  execution  of  these  large  cartoons  from  the  small  draw- 
ings that  Raphael  in  the  first  instance  made  for  them,  was 
left  to  his  pupils.  Fortunately  these  pupils  were  them- 
selves excellent  painters — men,  indeed,  who  would  have 
made  an  independent  position  at  any  other  time  and 
under  any  other  master,  but  who  were  fully  content  to- 
rank  themselves  under  Raphael,  seeking  only  to  catch  the 
ideas  that  he  scattered  amongst  them,  without  adding 
much  of  their  own.  After  his  death  they  all  fell  more  or 
less  into  mannerism  and  weakness,  and  finally  into  utter 
vapidity,  but  while  the  master  lived,  his  spirit,  as  Yasari 
says,  seems  to  have  been  infused  into  all  around  him,  and 

When  the  collection  of  Charles  I.  was  sold,  the  Commissioners  valued 
the  cartoons  at  d£300,  but  Cromwell  appears  to  have  prevented  the  actual 
sale  of  them,  a  good  deed  that  ought  to  reckon  against  the  many  acts  of 
vandalism  attributed  on  very  slight  foundations  to  the  great  Protector. 
Far  less  creditable  was  the  conduct  of  Charles  II.,  who  actually  sold 
them  to  Barillon,  the  Minister  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  purchase  being  all  but 
concluded,  when  they  were  again  preserved  to  England,  this  time  by 
Lord  Danby,  who  entreated  Charles  II.  not  to  part  with  such  inestimable 
treasures.  All  this  time  they  remained  in  the  same  condition  in  which 
they  had  been  left  by  the  weavers ;  and,  strange  to  say,  it  was  Dutch. 
William  III.,  who  is  not  generally  credited  with  a  taste  for  art,  who  had 
all  the  slips  reunited,  and  laid  down  upon  canvas  under  the  direction  of 
the  painter  William  Cook,  and  then  had  them  placed  in  the  gallery  at 
Hampton,  which  was  especially  erected  for  their  reception  by  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren.  From  thence  they  were  removed  to  London,  and  then  to 
Windsor,  but  were  returned  to  Hampton  Court  in  1814.  In  1865  they 
were  lent  by  the  Queen  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  thus  bringing 
them  within  the  easy  reach  of  students  and  sightseers,  to  whom  it  is  to 
be  hoped  they  will  prove  an  important  means  of  art  education.  No  on& 
can  study  these  cartoons  of  Eaphael  without  having  his  ideas  enlarged. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN   ITALY.  117 

to  *'  have  made  them  of  one  mind."  It  is  amazing,  also, 
however  much  work  we  allow  to  have  been  executed  by 
liis  pupils,  and  this  is  probably  less  than  many  critics 
imagine,  to  find  how  much  remains  that  could  only  have 
been  accomplished  by  himself.  His  industry  must  have 
been  unflagging,  and  amidst  all  the  pleasures  and  dissipa- 
tions of  the  gay  Roman  Ufe  into  which  he  was  thrown,  he 
seems  to  have  ever  remained  devoted  to  his  art,  a  fact 
which  in  itself  would  go  far  to  prove,  were  there  no  others, 
that  Vasari's  insinuations  respecting  the  immoral  life  of 
the  brilliant  young  artist  were  unfounded,  or  at  all  events 
went  beyond  the  truth. 

The  love  of  Eaphael,  as  expressed  in  several  sonnets 
found  scribbled  on  the  back  of  some  of  his  sketches  for  La 
Disj^uta,  seems  rather  the  natural  expression  of  a  sensitive 
youthful  heart,  than  of  an  "overwhelming  passion,"  to 
which  Wolzogen  attributes  it.  The  beloved  one  of  Eaphael, 
according  to  Passavant,  was  named  Margarita,  and  it  is  her 
j^ortrait,  probably,  that  is  so  well  known  to  the  world  by 
the  title  of  "La  Fomarina,"  a  name  acquired  from  some 
vague  and  utterly  unfounded  story  about  her  having  been 
a  baker's  daughter.  This  wonderful  portrait  ^  has  called 
forth  endless  criticisms.  "  It  has  about  it,"  says  Grimm, 
*'  in  a  high  degree,  the  character  of  mysterious  unfathom- 
ableness."  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason  why  it  affects  diffe- 
rent minds  with  such  different  emotions.  Each  one  reads 
his  own  thoughts  into  those  large  bold  black  eyes,  but 
what  were  the  thoughts  or  passions  of  the  woman's  soul 
that  lay  beneath  them  none  can  now  tell.  To  me,  the  por- 
trait is  repellant,  I  turn  away  from  it  with  dislike,  but 
Orimm  a^ers,  "we  like  to  contemplate  it  again  and  again." 
Certainly  as  regards  the  skill  of  the  artist,  it  is  one  of 
Eaphael' s  finest  works,  and  this,  no  doubt,  has  led  to  the 
supposition  that  it  could  only  have  been  the  magician  Love 
that  prompted  his  hand  to  such  an  achievement. 

After  the  death  of  Bramante,  Eaphael  was  appointed 
iircliitect  of  S.  Peter's,  a  position  which  seems  to  have 
afforded  him  great  satisfaction,  though  one  would  have 

*  Now  in  the  Barberini  Palace  at  Rome.  Passavant  considers  that 
tho  lovely  woman's  portrait  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  at  Florence,  represents 
tlic  same  individual,  call  her  the  Fomarina  or  by  what  name  you  will. 


118  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  IV. 

supposed,  considering  the  multitude  of  works  with  which 
he  was  then  occupied,  that  one  more,  and  such  an  one, 
would  have  completely  overwhelmed  him.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, seemed  too  vast  for  his  genius  and  industry.  "  With 
respect  to  my  residence  in  Eome,"  he  writes  to  his  uncle 
Ciarla,  who  had  been  one  of  his  guardians  in  his  youth, 
and  for  whom  he  always  evinced  a  great  affection,  "  my 
love  for  the  building  of  S.  Peter's  would  always  prevent 
my  remaining  anywhere  but  here,  for  I  am  now  in  Bra- 
mante's  place.  But  what  city  in  the  world  is  more  glorious 
tlian  Rome?  What  undertaking  more  noble  than  S. 
Peter's  ?  Por  this  is  the  first  temple  in  the  world,  and  the 
greatest  building  ever  seen ;  it  will  cost  more  than  a  mil- 
lion of  money."  And  again,  in  the  same  letter,  he  says, 
"  100  ducats  are  more  worth  having  here  (all  things  con- 
sidered) than  200  in  Urbino." 

One  sees  by  this  how  deeply  he  had  become  impregnated 
with  the  prevailing  Roman  taste.  More  and  more,  indeed, 
in  his  frescoes  and  grand  decorative  works  do  we  see  the 
spirit  of  Paganism  at  work.  The  mania  for  works  of  clas- 
sical antiquity  then  at  its  height,  under  the  Medicean 
Pope,  had  taken  hold  of  the  Christian  artist  and  led  him 
far  away  from  his  early  faith,  but  whilst  executing  Cupids, 
Yenuses,  and  Psyches  in  the  Farnesina,  and  even  surpassing 
the  beauty  of  Greece  in  the  flowing  grace,  serene  dignity 
and  infinite  variety  of  his  forms,  he  yet,  in  his  Madonna 
pictures,  which  throughout  his  life  he  never  ceased  to  paint, 
remained  true  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart  to  the  old  Um- 
brian  sentiments  which  had  inspired  his  first  works.  It 
may  be,  that  sometimes,  like  other  painters  of  his  time,  he 
painted  his  mistress  as  a  Madonna,  but  even  when  he  did 
this,  it  was  not  the  mere  earthly  woman  that  he  painted, 
but  the  glorified  image  of  her  that  he  had  called  up  in  his 
mind,  and  which  with  marvellous  truth  and  skill  he  was 
able  to  transfer  to  his  canvas.  This,  I  think,  is  what  we 
mean  when  we  talk  of  the  ideal  beauty  of  Raphael's  crea- 
tions. It  is  a  totally  different  ideal  from  that  of  the  old 
Grreek  artist,^  whose  aim  it  had  been  to  reach  the  Godhke 
through  the  perfection  of  the  physical  nature  of  the  man. 

^  See  page  9. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  ]  19 

The  image  that  presented  itself  to  the  Greek  mind  was  of 
a  glorious  and  perfect  animal,  free  in  the  exercise  of  all  his 
jDowers,  but  the  image  that  rose  before  the  Christian  artist 
was  of  a  spiritual  essence  imprisoned  in  the  animal  body, 
but  often,  shining  through  it  and  making  itself  dimly  visible 
to  those  who  had  eyes  to  perceive  it.  This,  as  I  have  said 
before,  was  what  the  early  Christian  painters  strove  to  ex- 
press, but  none  before  Raphael,  not  even  Era  Bartolommeo, 
to  whom  a  lovely  idea  or  mental  image  was  likewise  visible, 
was  able  to  express  it  with  such  entire  beauty  and  truth. 
Raphael's  Madonnas  have  a  mysterious  soul-beauty,  such 
as  no  other  painter  has  ever  been  able  to  give  to  his  con- 
ceptions of  the  Virgin-mother.  It  is  not  their  loveliness  of 
face  or  grace  of  attitude,  or  even  their  loving  maternity, 
that  gives  them  their  peculiar  charm,  but  it  is  the  indwell- 
ing spirit,  and  this  is  even  more  apparent  in  his  represen- 
tations of  the  Christ-child.  The  Infant  Saviour  is  not  the 
mere  representation  of  a  beautiful  boy.  A  marvellous  pre- 
science lies  in  his  mind  beneath  the  tender  innocence  of 
childhood.  Coleridge  has  remarked  this;  he  says,  "The 
Infant  that  Raphael's  Madonna  holds  in  her  arms  cannot 
be  guessed  of  any  particular  age ;  it  is  Humanity  in  in- 
fancy. The  *  Babe  in  the  Manger '  in  a  Dutch  painting  is 
the  facsimile  of  some  newborn  bantling ;  it  is  just  like  the 
little  rabbits  we  fathers  have  all  seen,  with  some  dismay  at 
first  burst."  ^ 

No  doubt  Raphael  had  gained  something  of  this  from 
the  Platonian  philosophy  so  eagerly  studied  by  many  of 
the  cultivated  men  at  the  Medicean  court,  with  whom  he 
was  thrown  into  constant  intercourse.  In  writing  to  his 
friend,  the  distinguished  Count  Castiglione,  he  makes  use 
of  an  expression  which  has  been  often  quoted.  "  To  paint 
a  beautiful  individual,"  he  says,  "I  should  want  to  see 
several  beauties,  with  this  condition,  that  your  lordship 
should  be  with  me  to  select  the  best ;  as  there  is,  how- 
ever, a  lack  both  of  discriminating  judges  and  beautiful 
women,  I  make  use  of  a  certain  idea  (certa  idea)  that  presents 
itself  to  my  mind.  Whether  this  has  any  excellence  as  re- 
gards the  art,  I  do  not  know ;  I  labour  strenuously  to  at- 

^  Coleridge's  "  Table-Talk." 


120  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

tain  it."  Thus  Plato  taught,  that  the  fleeting  phenomena 
of  this  world  are  only  faint  shadows  of  eternal  truth — 
images  of  true  existences — that  there  is  a  certain  abstract 
Beauty,  Goodness,  and  so  forth,  beneath  the  visible  forms 
revealed  to  our  senses,  or,  as  Spenser  has  it : 

"  That  Beautie  is  not  as  fond  men  misdeeme, 
An  outward  shew  of  things  that  only  secme," 

but  rather  that  "  wondrous  pateme  "  of  which  every  earthly 
thing  partakes,  but 

"  Whose  face  and  feature  doth  so  much  excell 
All  earthly  sence,  that  none  the  same  may  tell." 

The  more  nearly  the  image  or  idea  in  the  painter's  mind 
approaches  to  this  "  wondrous  paterne,"  the  more  truly 
he  represents  the  ideal  of  perfect  beauty;  therefore  the 
superior  beauty  of  Raphael's  conceptions  seems  to  lie,  not 
in  any  radical  difference  between  his  mode  of  conception 
and  that  of  other  ideal  painters,  both  before  and  after 
him,  but  in  the  nearer  approach  of  the  image  that  pre- 
sented itself  to  his  mind  to  abstract  beauty.^ 

Many  of  his  most  beautiful  Madonna  pictures  belong  to 

^  The  words  Eeal  and  Ideal  are  used  so  loosely,  and  with  so  many 
variations  of  meaning,  that  it  will  be  as  well  to  define,  as  nearly  as  may 
be,  the  sense  in  which  they  are  used  here.  The  mind  may  be  compared 
to  a  book,  written  from  minute  to  minute,  and  constantly  illustrated  by 
fresh  pictures.  Of  these  pictures  some  are  merely  the  images  of  the 
perceptions  of  Sense,  while  others  are  images  formed  by  aid  of  the 
Imagination  and  Eeason.  Shutting  our  eyes,  we  call  up  in  endless 
number  images  of  objects  we  saw  the  minute  before,  yesterday,  or  years 
ago.  These  ai"e  images  of  sense,  and  when  an  artist  reproduces  them 
on  canvas  or  in  marble,  he  is  properly  called  a  realist.  The  merit  of  an 
artist,  as  a  realist,  depends  first  on  the  truth  and  depth  of  his  observa- 
tion— the  extent  to  which  he  sees  into  nature — and  the  accuracy  of  his 
memory;  secondly,  on  his  mechanical  skill;  and,  thirdly,  on  his  judg- 
ment in  selecting  scenes  worthy  of  his  brush  or  chisel. 

But  there  are  mental  pictures  of  a  different  kind,  often  as  vivid  as 
those  of  perception,  and  like  them  capable  of  objective  reproduction. 
They  are  the  products,  the  records,  of  the  thoughts  and  imaginings  of 
the  individual  mind.  Looking  at  a  ruined  castle,  we  all  know  how  easy 
it  is  to  restore  its  walls  and  battlements,  and  to  people  its  court  with  the 
knights  and  ladies  of  a  feudal  age.  In  like  manner  we  all  find  that  we 
cannot  read  a  book  of  "  Paradise  Lost "  without  building  up  an  almost 
visible  representation  of  the  scene  in  our  minds.  The  artist  who  paints 
from  these  creations  of  his  mind,  these  ideal  images,  is  an  idealist. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  121 

the  later  Roman  period — easel  pictures  and  altar-pieces 
executed  in  the  intervals  of  his  vast  monumental  works. 
The  Holy  Family,  known  by  the  name  of  The  Pearl,  the 
treasure  of  the  Madrid  Grallery  ^ ;  the  magnificent  Madonna 
di  Fuligno,  painted  in  1511,  now  in  the  Vatican ;  the  ever- 
lovely  S.  Cecilia,  of  which  Francia  took  charge  ;  ^  the  well- 
known  Madonna  della  Sedia,  painted  in  1516,  now  in  the 
Pitti  Palace  at  Florence ;  the  Madonna  del  Pesce  at  Madrid; 
the  Holy  Family  of  the  Louvre ;  the  Madonna  of  the  Aldo- 
brandini  family,  now  called  the  Grarvagh  Eaphael,  in  the 
National  Gallery,  and  numerous  other  Madonnas,  many  of 
which  were  doubtless  executed  by  his  pupils,  are  all  re- 
ferred to  the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  when  the  sentiment 
he  had  gained  from  IJmbria  was  expressed  with  the  in- 
tellectual knowledge  of  Florence  and  the  calm  power  of 
Eome. 

Last  and  greatest  of  all  his  Madonnas  is  the  world- 
famed  Madonna  di  San  Sisto,  the  glory  of  the  Dresden 
Gallery.  Constantly  as  we  see  reproductions  of  this  mar- 
vellous work,  it  ever  gleams  upon  us,  even  in  an  engraving 
or  photograph,  like  some  vision  of  heavenly  beauty.  Sur- 
rounded by  a  glory  of  exquisite  angel-heads,  the  Virgin 
stands  in  simple  majesty  on  the  clouds,  with  the  Child 
enthroned  upon  her  arm.  She  looks  forth  into  infinity 
with   no   shade   of   sorrow  on   her   countenance  such  as 

Of  course  the  merit  of  the  idealist  may  vary  within  wider  limits  than 
that  of  the  realist.  His  creations  may  be  commonplace,  disgusting,  or 
monstrous,  or  they  may  be  original  and  sublime  ;  and  whatever  the  value 
of  his  ideas,  the  qualities  of  skill,  judgment,  and  insight  into  nature  are 
as  necessary  to  him  as  to  the  realist.  It  may  be  added  that  scarcely  any, 
if  any,  painter  can  be  reckoned  as  a  pure  realist  or  a  pure  idealist. 

He  who,  instead  of  drawing  the  images  of  sense  or  imagination  from 
his  own  mind,  is  content  to  borrow  the  work  of  others,  is  properly  called 
a  copyist.  In  one  sense,  however,  the  pure  realist  may  be  said  to  be  a 
copyist,  but  then  he  is  a  copyist  of  nature. 

This  was  formerly  in  the  collection  of  our  Charles  I.,  and  w^as 
bought  at  the  sale  of  his  pictures  by  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  who  is  said  to 
have  exclaimed  on  seeing  it,  "  This  is  my  pearl."  Hence  arose  its 
name. 

=»  Goethe  wrote  of  this  picture,  "He,"  that  is  Raphael,  "always 
achieves  exactly  what  others  would  wish  to  achieve,  and  I  will  not  say 
more  regarding  this  painting  than  that  it  is  by  him.  There  are  five 
saints  side  by  side  whose  existence  is  so  perfect  that  we  wish  the  picture 
could  endure  for  ever  until  we  also  are  ready  to  depart." 


122  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK  IV. 

Raphael  lias  sometimes  cast  into  his  representations  of  her 
as  the  earthly  mother,  but  as  if  now  beholding  the  mean- 
ing of  those  things  she  had  "  pondered  in  her  heart "  on 
earth.  The  Child  also  has  a  supernatural  beauty  that  we 
can  only  express  by  the  word  divine.  "It  is,"  writes 
Liibke,  "  as  if  Raphael  had  wished  to  combine  in  this  in- 
comparable creation  his  deepest  thoughts,  his  most  sub- 
lime ideas,  and  his  most  perfect  beauty,  that  it  might  be, 
and  might  remain  the  highest  production  of  all  religious 
art."  S.  Sixtus  and  S.  Barbara  on  either  side  of  this 
picture  are  meant  as  offering  the  love  and  worship  of  the 
holy  Catholic  Church.^ 

The  San  Sisto  Madonna  was  painted  about  1518,  when 
the  painter's  brilliant  but  short  summer-life  was  drawing 
towards  its  close.  To  the  same  time  belong  two  other 
grand  altar-pieces,  in  which  his  dramatic  powers  are  more 
fully  displayed,  namely,  Lo  Spasimo  di  Sicilia,  or  Christ 
bearing  the  Cross,  now  at  Madrid,  and  the  Transfigura- 
tion, painted  in  rivalry  with  Sebastian  del  Piombo,  which 
was  still  unfinished  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and  was 
placed  as  a  fitting  memorial  at  the  head  of  his  bier,  whilst 
his  body  lay  in  state  in  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  della 
Rotonda.  He  died  in  1520,  on  his  birthday,  the  6th  of 
April,  after  a  short  illness  caused  by  cold  followed  by  fever. 
He  was  never  m  arried,  but  was  betrothed  for  some  time  to  a 
niece  of  the  Cardinal  Bibiena.  She  however  died  before 
him.  It  seems  certain  that  she  was  not  the  beloved  one  of 
the  sonnets,  for  in  a  letter  to  his  uncle  he  speaks  of  the 
Bibiena  alliance  as  if  it  were  a  mere  matter  of  business. 

The  sorrow  caused  by  Raphael's  death  was  felt  by  all 
classes  of  society  in  Rome.  "  No  eye,"  says  Vasari,  "  was 
tearless  at  his  burial,"  and  Count  Castiglione  wrote  to  his 
mother  some  months  afterwards,  "  I  am  well,  but  I  cannot 
fancy  myself  in  Rome  now  that  my  poor  dear  Raphael  is 
no  longer  here." 

His  delicate  beauty,  as  we  see  it  in  the  portrait  supposed 
to  be  his  own,  must  have  gone  far  to  win  men's  hearts ; 

•  Eastlake  remarks  that  S.  Sixtus  in  this  picture,  as  well  as  S. 
Francis  in  the  Madonna  di  Fuligno,  points  out  of  the  picture,  as  if  inter- 
ceding for  the  spectator.  He  is  not  presenting  a  votary  to  the  Madonna. 
— "  Contributions  to  the  Literature  of  the  Fine  Arts." 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  12S 

but  he  preserved  their  love  by  the  goodness  of  his  nature 
and  the  fascinating  charm  of  his  society. 

"  All  he  had  loved  and  moulded  into  thought 
From  shape,  and  time,  aud  odour,  and  sweet  sound 
Lamented  Adonais." 

On  the  6th  of  March,  1475,  Michael  Angelo^  Buona- 
KOTTi  was  born  at  Castel  Caprese,  near  Florence,  of  which 
small  fortified  town  his  father,  Ludovico  Buonarotti,  was 
the  podesta,  or  governor.  On  his  parents'  return  to 
Florence  he  was  put  out  to  nurse  with  the  wife  of  a  stone- 
mason, thereby  imbibing,  as  he  was  wont  in  jest  to  assert, 
his  love  for  his  profession  with  his  nurse's  milk.  His  taste 
for  art  being  at  all  events  unmistakably  declared  at  an 
early  age,  his  father  in  1488,  when  Michael  Angelo  was 
only  thirteen,  bound  him  for  three  years  to  the  masters- 
Domenico  and  David  G-hirlandaii. 

Domenico  Ghirlandaio  was  at  this  time  employed  on  his 
frescoes  in  the  choir  of  S.  Maria  Novella,  so  that  his  young 
pupil  found  himself  at  once  in  the  midst  of  great  under- 
takings. His  progress  was  soon  so  remarkable  that  his 
master,  on  seeing  a  drawing  of  some  scaffolding,  with  men 
working  on  it,  that  Michael  Angelo  had  executed,  exclaimed 
in  surprise,  "  This  boy  knows  more  than  I  do  !  "  "  Stand- 
ing in  amaze,"  adds  Yasari,  "  at  the  originality  and  novelty 
of  manner  which  the  judgment  imparted  to  him  by  heaven- 
had  enabled  a  mere  child  to  exhibit." 

His  first  attempt  at  painting,  according  to  Vasari,  was  a 
copy  of  the  celebrated  plate  of  Martin  Schongauer,  the 
Temptation  of  S.  Anthony,^  which  he  reproduced  in  colours, 
and  on  a  larger  scale  than  the  original.  This  gained  him 
great  credit,  and,  although  copied  from  the  German  en- 
graver, he  doubtless  threw  somewhat  of  his  own  mind  into- 
it.  We  are  told  he  studied  attentively  the  fish  exposed  in 
the  market  at  Florence,  in  order  thoroughly  to  compre- 
hend the  fishy  nature  of  Schongauer' s  devils. 

His  genius,  however,  in  spite  of  his  early  education  as  a 
painter,  turned  naturally  towards  the  plastic  art,  in  which 

'  More  correctly  Michel  Agnolo,  but  the  ordinary  form  is  generally^ 
usod. 
^  See  Book  VI.,  Chap.  L 


124  HISTOET    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK  IV. 

his  love  of  form  could  more  freely  be  exercised  ;  but  the 
sight  of  the  treasures  of  classic  art  in  the  famous  gardens 
of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  seems  first  to  have  given  him  a 
powerful  impulse  towards  sculpture. 

These  gardens  formed  a  sort  of  art-nursery  for  the 
young  artists  of  Florence,  and  Lorenzo  himself  took 
especial  interest  in  the  development  of  any  youths  among 
them  whom  he  perceived  to  possess  talent.  Thus  it  was 
that  Michael  Angelo  fell  under  his  observation.  Passing 
one  day  along  the  garden  he  noticed  the  young  sculptor  as 
he  was  copying  the  antique  mask  of  a  faun,  one  of  the 
statues  in  the  garden.  He  had  not,  however,  copied  the 
original  implicitly,  but  had  given  his  representation  a 
wide-open  mouth,  in  which  the  teeth  could  be  seen.  "  Thou 
shouldst  have  remembered,"  remarked  Lorenzo,  "  that  old 
folks  never  retain  all  their  teeth — some  of  them  are  always 
wanting."  The  hint  was  taken,  and  the  next  time  Lorenzo 
passed  that  way  he  found  that  one  of  the  faun's  teeth  had 
been  knocked  out  and  the  gum  filed  away  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  look  as  if  it  had  dropped  out  naturally.^ 

Prompt  to  remunerate  genius  as  well  as  to  recognize  it, 
Lorenzo  immediately  took  Michael  Angelo  into  his  own 
house,  making  arrangements  with  his  father,  upon  whom 
he  bestowed  a  small  post  in  the  Customs,  that  his  son 
should  be  given  up  entirely  to  his  care.  Thus  the  early 
artistic  life  of  Michael  Angelo  bloomed  under  the  sunny 
skies  and  amidst  the  refined  splendour  of  the  court  of  the 
Medici.  Every  day  there  was  a  grand  public  banquet  in 
the  palace,  at  which  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  the  poli- 
tician, the  philosopher,  the  poet,  the  rewarder  of  genius, 
and  the  destroyer  of  the  virtue  and  freedom  of  Florence, 
sat  at  the  head  of  the  table,  the  place  at  his  right  hand 
being  free  to  whoever  should  come  first,  regardless  of  rank. 
Thus  it  sometimes  happened  that  Michael  Angelo  sat  next 
his  patron,  who  always  showed  him  great  favour,  and  once 
"  presented  him,  for  his  gratification,  with  a  violet-coloured 
mantle." 

But  these  prosperous  times  were  not  of  long  duration. 


^  [What  is  believed  to  be  this  mask,  or  a  copy  of  it,  is  in  the  Uffiz 
and  there  is  no  tooth  missing.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  125" 

In  1492  Lorenzo  died,  and  althougli  his  son  Piero  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  government  of  Florence,  it  soon  became 
evident  to  everyone  that  the  overthrow  of  the  Medici  was. 
near  at  hand.  Michael  Angelo,  like  many  other  of  their 
adherents,  left  the  city  before  the  storm  broke,  and  retired 
to  Bologna,  where  Piero  himself  was  soon  after  obliged  to- 
take  refuge. 

After  passing  a  year  in  Bologna  under  the  protection  of 
the  noble  and  generous  family  of  the  Aldovrandi,  Michael 
Angelo  returned  to  Florence,  where  Savonarola  was  utter- 
ing his  warnings  and  exhorting  his  fellow-citizens  to  re- 
pentance. He  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  adherents  of 
the  Florentine  prophet,  but  he  could  scarcely  have  been 
such  a  devoted  disciple  as  Bartolommeo  and  several  other 
well-known  artists,  for  in  the  midst  of  the  wild  religious 
excitement  of  the  Lent  of  1496,^  when  statues  of  pagan 
gods  and  other  antique  relics  were  especial  objects  of  ab- 
horrence, and  when,  as  we  have  seen,  Fra  Bartolommeo- 
threw  all  his  drawings  from  the  nude,  as  "  vanities,"  upon 
the  fanatical  bonfire  Hghted  by  the  Piagnoni,  he  executed 
a  small  figure  of  Cupid  of  such  classic  beauty  that  he  was 
advised  to  keep  it  under  groimd  for  a  time,  until  it  had 
assumed  a  weather-worn  and  ancient  look,  and  then  to 
pass  it  off  as  a  genuine  antique.  This  was  done,  and  the 
Cupid  was  bought  as  an  antique  by  the  Cardinal  San 
Giorgio,  who  afterwards,  on  fin^g  out  that  it  was  really 
the  work  of  a  young  Florentine  sculptor,  instead  of  resent- 
ing the  cheat,  immediately  invited  Michael  Angelo  to 
Kome. 

It  was  in  June,  1496,  when  he  was  just  one-and-twenty, 
that  Michael  Angelo  entered  the  capital,  which  was  hence- 
forward to  be  the  chief  theatre  of  his  labours,  his  con- 
tentions, and  his  triumphs.  His  fame  was  not  at  this 
time  so  great  as  that  of  Raphael  when  he  also  came  ta 
Rome,  at  about  the  same  age,  twelve  years  later. 

Michael  Angelo' s  genius  was  slower  in  development  than 
that  of  Raphael,  whose  fertile  imagination  and  industrious 
hand  produced  numberless  beautiful  works  almost  in  his 
boyhood.  Michael  Angelo  had  done  but  little  at  this  time^ 

p  Michael  Angelo's  Cupid  was  executed  in  1496.] 


126  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

but  sucli  works  as  he  had  executed  showed  already  the 
power  and  intellectual  greatness  of  his  mind.  Power  and 
intellect,  these  are  the  two  characteristics  that  mark  his 
works.  He  awes  us  by  his  grand  ideas  ;  often  our  minds 
can  scarcely  reach  up  to  his  meaning,  yet  when,  after  deep 
study,  we  do  at  last  attain  to  it,  we  are  forced  to  o^vn  that 
no  master  ever  had  greater  thoughts,  or  expressed  them  in 
greater  language.  The  language  was  gained,  it  is  true, 
from  ancient  G-reece  and  Rome ;  but  he  made  it  his  own, 
as  every  great  original  genius  does,  by  expressing  his  own 
thoughts  in  it ;  he  did  not  weakly  copy  classic  art,  but  the 
same  spirit  as  had  formerly  animated  the  old  Grreek  sculp- 
tors took  possession  of  him,  and  led  him  on  to  similar 
achievements.  For  Michael  Angelo's  ideal  is  essentially  a 
pagan  ideal.  He  derives  his  artistic  descent,  not,  like 
Raphael,  from  Christian  Byzantium,  but  from  pagan 
Rome.  It  is  not,  that  is  to  say,  the  spiritual  and  moral 
nature  of  man  that  he  seeks  to  represent,  but  his  physical 
and  intellectual  nature,  his  strength  and  his  reason. 
Therefore  it  is  that  he  delights  in  the  nude,  as  the  best 
means  of  displaying  man's  physical  power  and  beauty. 
He  studied  anatomy,  we  are  told,  for  twelve  years,  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  human  form  was  profound,  yet  we  find 
him  often  violating  the  rules  of  proportion,  exaggerating 
size,  placing  figures  in  impossible  positions  or  constrained 
attitudes,  if  so  be  that  they  were  thus  wanted  to  carry  out 
his  idea.  For,  equally  as  much  as  Raphael,  Michael 
Angelo  painted  and  chiselled  his  forms  in  accordance  with 
a  certain  image  that  presented  itself  to  his  mind.  In  spite 
of  his  deep  study  of  nature,  he  is  not  a  great  naturalist, 
but  the  greatest  of  ideahsts.  His  men  and  women,  his 
prophets  and  sibyls,  are  not  transcripts  of  common  nature, 
any  more  than  Raphael's  Madonnas,  but  are  his  own  crea- 
tions, and  live  their  powerful  life  by  virtue  of  the  mighty 
spirit  he  has  breathed  into  them. 

The  first  important  work  that  he  executed  at  Rome  was 
the  statue  of  Bacchus,  now  in  the  Bargello,  at  Florence. 
Critics  disagree  greatly  in  their  judgment  of  this  work, 
some  considering  it  the  perfection  of  manly  beauty,  and 
others,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Shelley,  calling  it 
""nothing  but  a  detestable  representation  of  a  drunken  man." 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  127 

His  famous  Pieta,  however,  a  noble  marble  group  repre- 
senting the  Madonna  mourning  over  the  dead  body  of  her 
Son,  executed  about  the  same  time,  at  once  raised  him  to 
the  position  of  the  first  sculptor  in  Italy.  ^ 

After  acquiring  great  fame  for  this  work  in  Eome,  he 
again  returned  in  1500  to  Florence,  where  the  storm  had 
broken  in  his  absence,  and  had  kindled  the  faggots  in  the 
market-place  for  the  martyrdom  of  Savonarola  and  his 
companions.  How  Michael  Angelo  was  affected  by  this 
does  not  appear,  but  in  his  old  age  he  still  remembered  the 
mighty  voice  of  the  preacher  whom  he  had  heard  in  his 
youth,  and  it  is  impossible,  as  Grimm  says,  to  avoid  the 
thought,  that  the  sufferings  and  death  of  such  a  man 
"  were  not  without  their  influence  upon  the  creative  mind 
of  the  painter." 

The  greatest  work  that  he  executed  at  this  time  was  his 
colossal  statue  of  David,  which  still  stands  in  front  of  the 
Palazzo  Vecchio,  at  Florence,  and  is  hewn  out  of  a  single 
block.^ 

Soon  after  the  triumphant  erection  of  the  David,  in 
1504,  Michael  Angelo  received  the  order  for  the  painting  of 
one  wall  of  the  Palazzo  Vecchio,  the  cartoon  for  the  other 
wall  having  been  already  prepared  by  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
who  had  returned  to  Florence  about  the  same  time  as  him- 
self. The  subject  of  this  work,  Florentine  soldiers  sur- 
prised whilst  bathing  in  the  Arno,  has  been  already  men- 
tioned,^ as  well  as  the  rivalry  that  arose  out  of  it  between 
Leonardo  and  himself.  Before  he  could  finish  even  the 
■cartoon  for  this  work,  he  was  summoned  to  Eome  in  great 
haste  by  Julius  11. ,  who  hearing  that  Michael  Angelo  was 
the  greatest  sculptor  in  Italy,  at  once  felt  a  desire  to  secure 
his  services  for  the  execution  of  a  colossal  monument  which 
he  desired  to  have  erected  for  himseK  in  S.  Peter's. 
Michael  Angelo's  design  for  this  monument  greatly  de- 
lighted the  Pope,  and  he  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Car- 
rara forthwith  to  arrange  about  the  transmission  of  the 
marble  for  its  execution. 

Whilst  he  was  gone,  however,  Bramante,  who  was  then 

[^  Now  in  S.  Peter's.] 

["  Now  removed  to  the  Academy.] 

^  Page  92. 


128  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

the  architect  of  S.  Peter's,  and  who  appears  to  have  always 
opposed  Michael  Angelo,  did  his  utmost  to  dissuade  the 
Pope  from  the  idea  of  this  mausoleum,  suggesting  that  it 
was  an  evil  omen  to  build  himself  a  tomb  in  his  lifetime ; 
so  that  when  Michael  Angelo  returned,  he  found  the  ar- 
dour of  Julius  for  this  Undertaking  considerably  abated, 
and,  when  the  marble  finally  arrived  in  Rome,  he  could  not 
obtain  the  money  to  pay  the  marble  cutters.^ 

In  terrible  anger  at  this,  and  also  at  not  being  able  to 
gain  admittance  to  his  Holiness,  who  had  before  been  so 
gracious  to  him,  he  suddenly  took  flight  from  Rome,^  and 
rode  without  ceasing  until  he  was  upon  Florentine  terri- 
tory. "  If  you  require  me  in  future,"  he  said  in  a  letter 
he  left  for  the  Pope,  "  you  can  seek  me  elsewhere  than  in 
Eome."  He  must  have  been  a  brave  man  who  could  thus 
defy  the  power  of  Julius  II.  Messengers  were  sent  after 
him,  who  commanded,  entreated,  threatened,  implored  in 
vain.  He  would  not  return,  maintaining  that  he  was  re- 
leased from  his  engagement  respecting  the  mausoleum,  by 
Julius  neglecting  to  fulfil  his  part  of  the  contract,  and  that 
he  had  no  wish  to  execute  any  other  commissions  in  Eome. 

At  last,  Julius  wrote  to  the  Signiory  of  Florence,  re- 
questing that  his  refractory  artist  should  be  sent  back  to 
him,  but  promising  that  he  should  go  "  free  and  untouched," 
for  "  we  entertain  no  anger  against  him,  knowing  the  habit 
and  humour  of  men  of  this  sort."  Julius,  in  fact,  did  not 
care  to  offend  the  man  whom  he  recognized  as  the  greatest 
genius  in  his  capital. 

Still,  however,  Michael  Angelo  refused  to  trust  these 
fair  promises,  and  it  was  not  until  Soderini,  who  was 
then  Gronfalonier,  or  chief  magistrate  of  Florence,  sent  for 
him  and  told  him  plainly  that  he  would  not  go  to  war 
with  the  Pope  on  his  account,  that  he  returned  to  his  alle- 
giance. 

After  executing  a  large  bronze  statue  of  the  Pope  at 
Bologna,  where  Julius  was  then  residing,^  he  obediently 

*  Grimm,  "  Life  of  Michael  Angelo." 

[2  In  1506.] 

[^  In  1507.]  The  greater  part  of  the  letters  of  Michael  Angelo  to  his 
family  in  Florence,  during  his  stay  at  Bologna,  are  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  129 

took  up  his  residence  in  Eome,  where,  instead  of  being  al- 
lowed to  finish  the  mausoleum  as  he  desired,  he  found  that 
Julius  was  now  bent  on  employing  him  as  a  painter,  and 
that  the  work  allotted  to  him  was  no  less  than  the  decora- 
tion with  frescoes  of  the  whole  vaulted  roof  of  the  Sistine 
chapel.  The  task  presented  many  difficulties.  He  had 
never  before  worked  in  colour,^  and  it  was  difficult  to  get 
artists  to  assist  him.  But  Julius  overruled  all  objections, 
and,  in  the  end,  the  Sistine  chapel  was  covered  with  those 
marvellous  frescoes  which  have  been  the  wonder  and  admi- 
ration of  all  succeeding  ages.  "Words  are  utterly  inade- 
quate to  convey  any  idea  of  the  profound  thought  and  ma- 
jestic utterance  of  Michael  Angelo  in  these  works,  and 
space  will  not  permit  of  any  detailed  description  of  their 
subjects  being  entered  on  here.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  in 
one  comprehensive  poem  he  sets  forth  the  history  of  crea- 
tion as  told  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  the  various  deli- 
verances of  the  people  of  Israel,  expressed  by  the  Brazen 
Serpent,  Gohath,  Esther,  and  Judith.  The  Creation  of 
Light,  wherein  the  Father,  upborne  as  it  were  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind,  and  surrounded  by  spirits,  divides  the  light 
from  the  darkness,  and  sets  the  sun  and  moon  for  lights 
in  the  firmament  of  heaven,  and  the  Creation  of  Adam, 
are  especially  remarkable  for  their  solemn  grandeur  of 
conception. 

In  the  triangular  compartments  of  the  vault  are  placed 
those  figures  of  the  Prophets  and  Sibyls,  with  which  his 
name  is  for  ever  associated.  These  idealizations  have  all  an 
underlying  reference  to  the  subject  of  the  world's  redemption 
by  Christ.  They  signify  the  waiting  and  longing  of  the 
world  for  his  advent,  as  do  also  the  groups  of  the  ancestors 
of  Mary. 

JuUus  n.,  as  usual,  was  extremely  impatient  to  see  the 
work  he  had  commissioned  finished ;  but  as  Michael  An- 
gelo worked  almost  without  assistance  (for  he  found  the 
few  painters  who  adhered  to  him  unable  to  carry  out  his 
ideas),  his  frescoes  in  the  Sistine  naturally  did  not  progress 

[^  Never  at  least  on  a  very  important  composition  of  his  own,  but  he 
had  been  the  assistant  of  Ghirlandaio,  and  the  Holy  Family  in  the 
UflSzi  is  supposed  to  have  been  painted  about  1503.  The  unfinished 
picture  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  809)  belongs  to  a  still  earlier  date.] 

K 


130  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

SO  fast  as  those  of  Eaphael  in  the  Vatican,  who  was  helped 
by  a  number  of  first-rate  scholars.  One  day,  it  is  related, 
Julius  came  to  him,  and  demanded  to  know  when  he 
would  have  finished.  "When  I  can,"  replied  Michael 
Angelo.  "  When  thou  canst  ! "  thundered  the  fiery  old 
pope.  "  Hast  thou  a  mind  that  I  should  have  thee  thrown 
from  this  scaffolding  ?  " 

Michael  Angelo  dared  not  brave  the  lion's  anger  any 
further,  and  accordingly  allowed  the  scaffolding,  which  he 
had  constructed  on  a  peculiar  plan  of  his  own,  to  be  taken 
down,  and  on  All  Saints'  Day,  1509,  the  whole  of  Rome 
crowded  to  the  chapel,  the  pope  first,  "who,  indeed,  had 
not  patience  to  wait  until  the  dust  caused  by  removing  the 
scaffolding  had  subsided."  ^ 

When  Leo  X.  succeeded  to  the  papal  throne,  Raphael, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  the  favoured  artist.  Michael  Angelo 
himself  desired  nothing  more  than  to  be  permitted  to  work 
on  at  the  mausoleum  of  Julius  II.,  for  which  he  had  already 
executed  his  great  figure  of  Moses,  and  he  even  went  on 
with  this  mausoleum  on  his  own  account,  without  receiving 
payment ;  but  hindrances  were  constantly  thrown  in  his 
way,  and  at  last  he  was  sent  to  Florence  to  superintend 
the  building  of  the  facade  of  San  Lorenzo,  and  to  execute 
the  sculptures  for  it.  This  was  a  most  important  commis- 
sion ;  but  he  contrived  to  quarrel  with  the  pope,  and  also 
with  the  people  of  Carrara  about  the  marble,  and  in  the 
end  nothing  was  accomplished.  Indeed,  the  ten  years  of 
Leo's  pontificate  seem  to  have  been  wellnigh  lost  years  in 
Michael  Angelo' s  life. 

In  1527  occurred  the  fearful  sack  of  Rome  under  the 
Constable  de  Bourbon.  Michael  Angelo,  more  fortunate 
than  many  artists,  was  at  Florence  during  the  dreadful 
days  succeeding  the  siege,  when  the  hideous  moral  foulness 
of  the  holy  city  was  being  purged  by  those  retributive 
scavengers,  Grerman  soldiery,  pestilence,  and  famine.  Some 
years  afterwards,  however,  when  Clement  "VTI.,  with  the 
aid  of  the  imperial  cannon,  gave  the  final  blow  to  the  free- 
dom of  Florence,  or  rather,  when  the  city  which  fire  and 
famine  had  been  unable  to   subdue,   was  treacherously 

[^  The  whole  ceiling  was  not  finished  till  about  three  years  after  this.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  131 

yielded  to  the  Medici,  Michael  Angelo  was  in  great  danger, 
for  he  had  taken  an  important  part  in  the  defence  of  the 
■city  against  his  early  patrons.  He  remained  for  a  time 
<;oncealed ;  but  Clement  VII.,  who  seems  to  have  recognized 
the  advantage  of  having  such  a  man  in  his  service,  pro- 
mised him  not  only  perfect  security,  but  a  continuance  of 
the  commission  he  had  received  from  Leo  for  the  sculp- 
tures of  San  Lorenzo.  He  accordingly  came  forth  from 
his  hiding-place,  and  worked  with  such  "  morbid  haste," 
that  in  a  few  months  he  had  achieved  the  four  great  re- 
cumbent figures  of  Night,  Morning,  Dawn,  and  Twilight 
on  the  tombs  of  Lorenzo  and  Giuliano  de'  Medici,  which 
are  considered  by  many  critics  to  be  his  greatest  works  in 
flculpture. 

In  reply  to  some  verses  affixed  to  the  statue  of  Night, 
alluding  to  the  figure  as  "  sleeping,"  Michael  Angelo  made 
"  Night "  answer,  with  gloomy  bitterness,  "  Sleep  is  dear 
to  me,  and  still  more  that  I  am  of  stone,  so  long  as  dis- 
honour and  shame  last  among  us.  The  happiest  fate  is  to 
see,  to  hear  nothing  ;  for  this  reason  waken  me  not :  I  pray 
you  speak  gently."  ^ 

"We  see  in  these  verses  something  of  the  bitterness  of 
feeling  in  which  Michael  Angelo  was  wont  to  indulge.  No 
doubt  pohtical  events  contributed  much  to  foster  his  some- 
what sardonic  melancholy ;  but,  besides  outward  events,  a 
•deep  personal  grief  seems  at  some  time  of  his  life  to  have 
been  laid  on  his  heart.  We  have  no  hint  as  to  the  nature 
of  this  grief,  only,  in  a  profoundly  sorrowful  poem  on  the 
death  of  his  father,  he  tells  us  that,  although  yielding  to 
reason's  teaching,  he  hides  his  pain,  yet — 

"  That  greater  torment  springs  from  the  restraint." 

Hopeless  love  is  imagined  by  several  of  his  biographers 
to  be  dimly  shadowed  forth  in  his  sonnets ;  but  with  the 
■exception  of  the  noble  Princess  Vittoria  Colonna,  whose 
sympathetic  friendship  cheered  his  later  life,  no  woman's 
name  is  in  any  way  associated  with  his. 

'  "  Grate  m'  e'l  sonno,  e  piu  lesser  di  sasso 
Mcntre  che  '1  danno  e  la  vergogna  dura ; 
Non  veder,  non  sentir  m'  e  gran  ventura ; 
Pero  non  mi  destar,  deh  I  parla  basso." 


132  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

He  dwelt  alone,  a  gloomy,  self-centred  man,  with  tliouglits 
too  great  sometimes  for  utterance,  but  Condivi  and  Vasari, 
and  others  who  knew  him  best,  testify  to  the  real  goodness, 
of  heart  of  the  bitter-tongued  old  man,  and  many  kind 
deeds  are  recorded  of  him.  His  style  of  living,  very  diffe- 
rent from  that  of  Leonardo  and  Eaphael,  was  almost  ascetic- 
in  its  abstinence.  "  Rich  as  I  am,"  he  once  said  to  Con- 
divi,^ "  I  have  always  lived  as  a  poor  man."  Yet  he  was 
never  a  miser,  but  contributed  freely  to  the  support  of  hia 
relations,  many  of  whom  seem  to  have  needed  his  help. 

Before  the  Medicean  chapel  of  San  Lorenzo  could  bo 
completed,  Clement  VII.  died,  and  Paul  III.,  who  succeeded, 
not  being  a  Medicean  pope,  was  desirous  that  Michael  An- 
gelo  should  leave  the  works  he  had  begun  for  that  family, 
and  undertake  others  for  him.  Michael  Angelo,  also,  was 
anxious  to  leave  Florence,  over  which  Alessandro  de' 
Medici  now  reigned  as  duke,  and  accordingly,  in  1534,  he 
came  back  to  Eome,  where,  at  the  pope's  request,  he  was 
again  obliged  to  lay  aside  sculpture  for  painting. 

The  Last  Judgment,  the  work  which  Michael  Angelo 
now  undertook,  to  complete  the  decoration  of  the  Sistine 
chapel,  has  suffered  more  fatally  from  time,  neglect,  and 
injury,  than  any  other  of  his  works.  The  paintings  on  the 
roof,  it  is  true,  are  faded  by  time,  and  blackened  by  dirt 
and  clouds  of  incense- smoke.  Large  cracks  also  run  across 
them,  and  the  rain  has  oozed  through  in  many  places,  but 
in  their  inaccessible  position  they  have  at  least  been  safe 
from  the  ravaging  hand  of  man.  Not  so  the  Last  Judgment, 
which  has  been  subjected  to  every  species  of  ill-treatment, 
but  has  received  its  most  fatal  injury  from  the  purism  of 
a  later  pope,  who,  offended  with  the  nakedness  of  Michael 
Angelo' s  figures,  had  most  of  them  painted  over  with  gaudy 
drapery. 

It  is  now,  indeed,  easier  to  form  a  correct  idea  of  this 
work  by  means  of  good  engravings,  and  the  sketches  of 
many  of  the  groups  which  still  exist  in  various  museums, 
than  from  the  painting  itself ;  yet,  perhaps,  no  work  of 
the  master  more  fully  expresses  his  great  creative  genius. 

*  Ascanio  Condivi  was  a  pupil  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  lived  in  his 
house.  He  published  a  biography  of  him  about  the  same  time  as 
Vasari. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  133 

All  traditionarj  types  for  the  representation  of  this  event 
were  thrown  aside  by  him.  We  are  struck  at  once,  in  look- 
ing at  it,  at  the  immense  difference  that  lies  between  his 
conception  of  the  scene,  and  that  of  Orcagna,  Era  Angelico, 
and  other  religious  painters.  The  grotesque  element  which, 
to  a  certain  extent,  was  apparent  in  the  works  of  these  men, 
is  no  longer  at  work  here.  All  is  terrible,  is  sublime; 
Christ  is  no  longer  the  Eedeemer,  but  the  Avenging  Judge, 
with  whom  even  the  Virgin  dares  not  now  intercede. 
Fear,  rage,  and  despair  are  the  prevailing  emotions.  It  is 
truly  the  "  Dies  irse "  of  the  old  hymn,  the  joys  of  the 
blessed  being  entirely  lost  sight  of  in  the  convulsive 
struggles  of  the  damned,  who  in  every  attitude  of  fore- 
shortening are  thrust  by  avenging  angels,  and  drawn  by 
devils,  down  to  hell.  But  although  this  idea  of  a  day  of 
wrath  is  pre-eminently  a  Christian  one  ;  one,  indeed,  upon 
which  the  theologians  of  the  middle  ages  especially  loved 
to  dwell,  Michael  Angelo  has  conceived  the  scene  in  a 
wholly  pagan  spirit.  These  are  not  companies  of  the 
faithful,  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb ;  these  are 
not  worshippers  of  the  Beast  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  but 
rather  "  some  antique  race  of  Titans  and  Giants  dashed 
into  the  abyss  by  the  Thunderer  Jupiter."  It  is  a  tragic 
l^oem,  such  as  ^schylus'or  Euripides  might  have  sung,  but 
not  such  as  we  read  in  the  Revelation  of  S.  John  the 
Divine. 

This  was  Michael  Angelo' s  last  work  in  painting.  In 
1547  he  was  appointed  by  Paul  III.  chief  architect  of  S. 
Peter's,  an  office  which  he  undertook  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two  "  for  nothing  but  the  honour  of  God."  From  his 
plan  was  raised  the  great  dome  of  S.  Peter's,  and  the 
whole  of  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  occupied  with  this 
building. 

Almost  all  his  poems  ^  express  a  weary  longing  for  the 

^  These  poems  have  been  translated  into  English,  and  published  in  a 
small  volume,  entitled  '•  Michael  Angelo  a  Poet,"  by  John  Edward  Tay- 
lor. Many  of  them  arg  given  in  Herman  Grimm's  "  Life  of  Michael 
Angelo."  They  are  mostly  deeply  melancholy  in  sentiment,  and  have 
great  poetical  beauty.  Wordsworth  also  has  translated  several  of  his 
sonnets.  [Mr.  J.  A.  Symonds'  "  Sonnets  of  Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti 
nnd  Toramaso  Campanella,"  published  in  1878,  contains  the  first  trans. 
Jations  into  English  of  the  sonnets  of  Michael  Angelo  from  a  pure  text.] 


134  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IT. 

release  of  his  soul  from  its  prison-house,,  but  it  was  not 
until  he  had  reached  his  ninetieth  year  that  the  Angel  of 
Death  brought  him  the  desired  rest. 

He  died  at  Rome  on  the  17th  of  February,  1564.  His 
body  was  carried  to  Florence  by  his  own  desire  to  be  buried,, 
although  he  had  been  a  voluntary  exile  for  thirty  years 
from  his  native  city. 

Much  false  enthusiasm  is  often  expressed  regarding 
Michael  Angelo's  art.  People  know  that  he  is  a  great 
artist,  and  therefore  they  feel  bound  to  admire  his  works,, 
but  the  truth  is  that  it  needs  a  severe  course  of  artistic 
training  before  the  true  greatness  of  his  style  can  be  arrived 
at.  He  never  appeals  to  the  popular  taste.  Leonardo  and 
Raphael  all  can  appreciate;  even  the  uneducated  mind 
feels  their  charm,  if  it  does  not  understand  their  merits^ 
but  I  might  almost  say  that  it  requires  an  artist  fully  to- 
appreciate  Michael  Angelo's  surpassing  greatness. 

The  National  Grallery  made,  in  1868,  an  important  acqui- 
sition in  the  unfinished  picture  by  Michael  Angelo,  of  tha 
Entombment  of  Christ,  No.  790.  Even  in  its  unfinished 
state  it  reveals  the  power  of  the  master's  hand,^  There  is 
also  one  of  the  several  repetitions  of  the  so-called  Dream  of 
Michael  Angelo  in  the  National  Collection,  No.  8,  probably 
executed  by  Sebastian  del  Piombo. 

Sebastiano  Luciani,  called  del  Piombo,  from  his 
clerical  ofB.ce  at  the  papal  court  of  Keeper  of  the  Leaden 
Seals  (1485-1547),  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  of  Michael 
Angelo's  assistants.  He  was  a  Venetian  by  birth,  and 
learnt  the  secret  of  Venetian  colour  in  the  schools  of 
Bellini  and  Giorgione.  On  coming  to  Eome  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  was  employed  by 
him  to  colour  some  of  his  designs.  The  soft  brilliancy 
of  his  tones,  a  quality  gained  from  Giorgione,  was  much 
admired  in  Rome,  where  Venetian  art  was  but  little 
known,  and,  when  furnished  with  designs  by  Michael 
Angelo,  he  was  held  by  many  to  be  no  mean  rival  to 
Raphael.     It  is  asserted,  indeed,  that  Michael  Angelo,  too 

[^  The  National  Gallery  also  contains  (No,  809)  another  fine  un- 
finished picture  by  Michael  Angelo,  The  Madonna  and  Infant  Christy 
S.  John  the  Baptist  and  Angels,  purchased  from  Lord  Taunton's, 
executors  in  1870.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTINa   IN   ITALY.  135 

disdainful  himself  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  popu- 
lar Raphael,  yet  pushed  the  Venetian  forward,  and  helped 
him  in  his  art  to  the  end  that  Raphael  might  be  distanced. 
If  this  were  so,  the  attempt  was  a  signal  failure,  although 
Sebastiano's  works  have  many  qualities  that  Raphael's  do 
not  possess.  His  colouring  is  forcible,  and  his  composition 
effective.  We  have  also  some  very  fine  portraits  by  him.^ 
The  Raising  of  Lazarus,  the  well-known  picture  of  the 
National  Gallery,  is  considered  to  be  his  greatest  work.  It 
was  painted  in  direct  rivalry  with  Raphael,  and  was  exhi- 
bited at  the  same  time  as  the  Transfiguration  in  the  hall  of 
the  Consistory  at  Rome.  Michael  Angelo  most  likely  pre- 
pared the  cartoon  for  this  work,  and  undoubtedly  drew  the 
grand  figure  of  Lazarus.^ 

Jacopo  Carucci,  or  da  Pontormo  (1494-1557),  a 
scholar  of  Andrea  del  Sarto,  likewise  painted  from  Michael 
Angelo's  designs,  but  with  less  powerful  colour  than  Sebas- 
tiano.  His  portraits,  as  with  so  many  inferior  masters, 
are  far  better  than  his  composed  works.  There  is  a  good 
portrait  of  a  boy  by  him  in  the  National  Collection.^ 

Marcello  Venusti  (about  1515-1580)  was  an  imitator 
of  Michael  Angelo  and  of  Sebastian  del  Piombo.* 

Daniele  Ricciarelli,  or  da  Volterra  (bom  about 
1509,  died  1566),  is  more  original,  but  his  originality  is 
unpleasant.  He  exaggerates  Michael  Angelo's  peculiari- 
ties ;  treads  on  the  dangerous  heights  of  sublimity,  and, 
not  possessing  his  master's  calm  power,  is  apt  to  slip 
down  to  the  ridiculous.  His  principal  work  is  the  Descent 
from  the  Cross,  in  the  Church  of  the  Trinita  de'  Monti, 
at  Rome. 

The  other  followers  of  Michael  Angelo  fell  more  and 
more  into  painful  mannerism  and  exaggerated  anatomical 

['  Modem  criticism  assigns  to  Sebastian  the  so-called  Fornarina  at 
the  Uffizi,  formerly  attributed  to  Raphael.] 

P  It  is  now  known  that  Michael  Angelo  was  absent  in  Florence  at  the 
completion  and  during  the  progress  of  this  painting  ;  it  is  scarcely  pro- 
bable that  he  furnished  more  than  the  merest  sketches  for  it.] 

['  This  portrait  is  ascribed  by  Dr.  J.  P.  Richter  to  Bronzino,  but  a 
picture  of  Joseph  and  his  kindred  (No.  1131)  is  an  undoubted  example 
of  Pontormo.] 

[*  There  is  a  picture  of  Christ  driving  out  the  Traders  from  the 
Temple,  by  Venusti,  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1194). 


136  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

displays.  They  produced  immense  paintings  with  nude 
figures  in  every  variety  of  attitude,  but  instead  of  the  grand 
ideal  of  Michael  Angelo,  which  was  based  on  a  profound 
knowledge  of  the  real,  we  have  in  them  feeble  imitations, 
which  strive  to  reach  the  ideal  by  despising  the  real.  Even 
such  qualities  as  bold  drawing  and  correct  anatomy  are 
wanting  in  these  masters,  to  say  nothing  of  mind,  which  is 
entirely  absent.  Their  colouring  also  is  cold  and  untruth- 
ful in  the  extreme ;  in  fact,  their  art  scarcely  possesses  one 
attractive  feature.  The  reason  of  this,  perhaps,  was  that 
Michael  Angelo' s  style  was  altogether  too  great  for  any 
lesser  artist  to  attain.  He  could  express  his  ideas  in  power- 
ful language,  because  his  ideas  were  powerful,  but  when 
weaker  men  strove  to  make  use  of  that  language  to  express 
trivial  ideas,  the  language  itself  became  absurd. 

The  two  brothers,  Taddeo  and  Federigo  Zuccaeo,  are 
perhaps  the  best  illustrations  of  the  great  fall  from  Michael 
Angelo  to  his  followers. 

Giorgio  Vasari  (1512-1574)  was  another  instance  of  a 
tasteless  painter,  who  strove  hard  to  attain  his  master's 
"  grand  style,"  but  failed  most  deplorably.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, had  he  been  a  greater  painter  (I  do  not  mean  a 
larger  one,  he  seems  to  have  covered  acres  of  canvas), 
he  might  not  have  left  us  his  delightful  biographies, 
which  amply  atone  for  all  his  deficiencies.  Federigo  Zuccaro 
was  likewise  an  author,  but  his  written  works  are  said  to 
be  as  empty  and  inflated  as  his  painted  ones.^ 

Raphael's  pupils  and  followers  approach  nearer  to  their 
master  than  Michael  Angelo's.  During  Eaphael's  lifetime, 
indeed,  and  whilst  his  influence  was  still  strong,  many  of 
them  produced  works  which  are  almost  equal  to  his  in 
beauty  and  grace,  but  very  soon  they  fell  into  mannerism 
and  weakness,  and  their  later  works  are  sadly  degenerate 
in  sentiment  from  those  of  the  earlier  time.  The  prevail- 
ing paganism  of  the  age,  by  which  as  we  have  seen  even 
Raphael  was  influenced  in  his  later  time,  reaches  its  height, 
perhaps,  in  the  works  of  his  most  celebrated  pupil,  Giulio 
Pippi,  called  GiTJLio  Eomano  (1498-1546).* 

^  His  principal  work  is  a  philosophical  treatise  on  art,  "  L'idea  ds' 
Sciiltori,  Pittnri  e  Architetti." 

[2  He  was  left  executor  to  Eaphael  and  heir  to  his  designs.] 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING  IN  ITALY.  137 

Giulio  Romano  was  an  artist  of  great  talent,  and  of  con- 
siderable fertility  of  invention.  During  Raphael's  lifetime 
he  copied  liis  style  so  closely,  that  it  requires  a  good  judge 
to  tell  the  work  of  the  pupil  from  that  of  the  master,  and 
in  the  frescoes  of  the  Sala  di  Constantino  also,  which  he 
executed  after  Raphael's  death  from  his  drawings,  the  same 
close  resemblance  to  Raphael's  style  is  apparent.  But  very 
soon  after  this  he  broke  loose  from  the  restraint  that 
Raphael's  pure  style  had  imposed  upon  him,  and  indulged 
in  the  riotous  imaginations  of  his  own  mind.  His  taste 
became,  indeed,  utterly  depraved,  and  his  classicism  fol- 
lowed not  the  severe  art  of  ancient  Grreece,  but  the  debased 
art  of  the  Roman  period,  the  art  of  Pompeii  and  Hercu- 
laneum. 

In  1524,  he  was  summoned  to  Mantua,  by  the  Marquis 
Federigo  Gonzaga,  in  whose  service  he  passed  the  rest  of 
his  life,  directing  works  in  architecture  as  well  as  painting. 
In  the  frescoes  of  the  Palazzo  del  Te  that  he  built  and  de- 
corated for  his  patron,  his  unbridled  style  is  more  fully 
displayed  than  in  any  other  of  his  works.  These  frescoes 
are  often,  it  may  be  admitted,  powerful  in  conception  and 
rich  in  invention,  but  there  is  a  coarseness  of  mind  appa- 
rent in  them  that  it  is  peculiarly  unpleasant  to  find  in  the 
pupil  of  the  refined  Raphael.  Eastlake  speaks  of  many  of 
these  frescoes  as  being  "  decidedly  bad,"  and  "  uselessly  in- 
decorous," and  in  others,  such  as  the  well-known  Overthrow 
of  the  Giants,  the  style  of  Michael  Angelo  is  carried  to  an 
immoderate  excess.  His  simpler  decorative  works  are 
much  more  pleasing.  They  have  generally  a  charming 
antique  grace  and  beauty. 

But,  in  spite  of  this  antique  grace,  Giulio  Romano  did 
more  to  hasten  the  fall  of  art,  which  proceeded  with 
terrible  swiftness  after  the  death  of  Raphael,  than  any 
other  artist,  for  he  had  an  immense  number  of  scholars 
and  assistants,^  all  of  whom  copied  the  vicious  qualities 
of  his  art,  rather  than  its  excellences,  and,  without  his 
faculty  of  invention,  attempted  similar  flights  of  pagan 
fancy  with  miserable  results.     Pbimaticcio  (1504-1570) 

[^  One  of  these  was  Rinaldo  Mantovano,  to  whom,  and  not  to  Giulio 
K'linano,  Messrs.  Crowo  and  Cavalcaselle  ascribe  Nos.  643  and  644  in 
the  National  Gallery.] 


138  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOZ   IV. 

has  the  glorj  of  having  imported  Giulio's  style  into 
France,  where  he  decorated  the  palace  of  Fontainebleau  for 
Francis  I. 

[We  have  spoken  in  a  former  chapter  of  the  early 
painters  of  Ferrara.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  principal  painters  of  that  school  were  Dosso 
Dossi  and  G-arofalo.  Dosso  Dossi,  whose  real  name 
was  Giovanni  Niccolo  di  Lutero  (1479-1542),  studied 
Tinder  Lorenzo  Costa,  and  his  essentially  Ferrarese  style 
was  in  some  degree  influenced  by  the  Venetians.  His 
most  important  works  are  at  Modena  and  at  Ferrara, 
where  he  was  court-painter  to  Alfonso  d'Este.  Two  are 
at  Hampton  Court,  and  a  small  Adoration  of  the  Magi  in 
the  National  Gallery  (No.  640)  is  a  good  example  of  his 
vivid  colouring  and  original  conception.  No.  82  at  the 
Liverpool  Institution  is  ascribed  to  Dosso.  Benvenuto 
Tisio,  called  from  his  birthplace  Garofalo  (1481-1559),  is 
a  less  original  artist  than  Dosso.  He  spent  his  life  in  many 
cities  of  North  Italy,  and  at  one  time  visited  Eome,  where 
he  was  not  unaffected  by  the  school  of  Eaphael.  He 
painted  a  great  deal  and  mostly  religious  subjects.  Four 
of  his  works  are  in  the  National  Gallery.  No.  671,  The 
Madonna  Enthroned,  is  a  fine  example  of  his  large  altar- 
pieces.  No.  669  in  the  National  Gallery  is  ascribed  to 
Giovanni  Battista  Benvenuti,  called  L'Ortolano  (about 
1500-1525),  a  contemporary  of  Garofalo's,  about  whom 
nothing  is  known.  Ludovico  Mazzolino  (1481,  died  about 
1528-30)  was  a  Ferrarese  of  Garofalo's  time  who  painted 
mostly  religious  subjects  upon  a  small  scale,  of  which  there 
are  two  fair  examples  in  the  National  Gallery.] 

There  yet  remains  to  notice  one  other  artist,  a  Florentine,, 
who  was  not  a  scholar  of  Leonardo,  Eaphael,  or  Michael 
Angelo,  but  who  maintained,  like  Fra  Bartolommeo,  an  in- 
dependent position,  while  all  lesser  men  were  irresistibly 
attracted  into  the  schools  of  one  or  other  of  these  three 
great  masters.  This  artist  was  Andrea  del  Sarto,  or 
more  correctly  Andrea  d' Angelo  (1486-1531).  He  was  the 
son,  as  his  cognomen  implies,  of  a  tailor,  and  received  his 
earliest  education  in  art  from  the  eccentric  old  Piero  di 
Cosimo. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand   why  Andrea   del   Sarto- 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  139' 

does  not  rank  with  the  very  greatest  masters  of  his  time ; 
in  many  respects  he  was  their  equal,  and  yet  in  the  bril- 
liant constellation  of  painters  that  rose  and  set  in  Italy  in. 
the  sixteenth  century,  he  can  only  be  reckoned  as  a  star  of 
the  second  magnitude.  Such  a  classification  affords  a 
strong  proof  of  the  surpassing  greatness  of  those  few 
masters  whose  names  shine  so  brightly  in  art  history,  that 
beside  them  even  that  of  Andrea  del  Sarto,  "  the  Fault- 
less Painter,"  grows  pale.^ 

His  works  have  many  of  the  elements  that  usually  con- 
stitute greatness.  His  drawing  is  masterly,  his  modelling 
perfect,  his  style  dignified,  and,  above  all,  his  colouring 
lovely  and  harmonious ;  in  this  latter  quality,  indeed,  he- 
exceeds  nearly  every  master  of  the  Florentine  school,  and 
approaches  closely  to  the  excellence  of  Correggio  and  the 
Venetians.  What  is  it,  then,  that  is  wanting  in  his  art, 
for  all  feel  that  there  is  something  wanting,  although 
unable  to  define  exactly  what  that  something  is  ?  Mrs. 
Jameson  says,  that  "he  would  have  been  a  far  greater 
artist,  had  he  been  a  better  man,"  ^  but  this  confoimding 
the  moral  state  of  the  man  with  the  artistic  expression  of 
the  artist,  is  somewhat  dangerous,  although  sanctioned  by 
Ruskin. 

The  truth  probably  is,  that  Andrea  was  an  artist  of  ex- 
traordinary talent,  but  of  very  little  real  genius.  It  is  in- 
spiration that  is  lacking  in  his  works,  that  mysterious 
breath  of  the  spirit  breathed  in  and  breathed  forth  again 
in  words  or  visible  images,  that  we  dimly  perceive  in  all 
those  works  of  man's  genius  that  we  truly  call  inspired. 

Andrea  del  Sarto' s  was,  after  all,  but  the  "  low-pulsed 
forth-right  craftsman's  hand,"  and  therefore  his  perfect 
art  does  not  touch  our  hearts  like  that  of  Fra  Bar- 
tolommeo,  who  occupies  about  the  same  position  with 
regard  to  the  great  masters  of  the  century  as  Andrea  del 
Sarto.  Fra  Bartolommeo  spoke  from  his  heart.  He  was 
moved  by  the  spirit,  so  to  speak,  to  express  his  pure  and 
holy  thoughts  in  beautiful  language,  and  the  ideal  that 
presented  itself  to  his  mind,  and  from  which  he,  equally 

^  Vasari  states  that  he  was  called  even  in  his  own  time,  "  Andrea, 
senza  errori." 

^  *'  Early  Italian  Painters." 


140  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING,  [bOOK   IV 

with  Raphael,  worked,  approached  almost  as  closely  as 
Raphael's  to  that  abstract  beauty  after  which  they  botl] 
longed.  Andrea  del  Sarto  had  no  such  longing :  he  was 
content  with  the  loveliness  of  earth.  This  he  could  under- 
stand and  imitate  in  its  fullest  perfection,  and  therefore 
he  troubled  himself  but  little  about  the  "  wondrous  pa- 
terne "  laid  up  in  heaven.  Many  of  his  Madonnas  have 
greater  beauty,  strictly  speaking,  than  those  of  Bartolom- 
meo,  or  even  of  Raphael ;  but  we  miss  in  them  that  mys- 
terious spiritual  loveliness  that  gives  the  latter  their  chief 
charm,  and,  at  the  side  of  a  Madonna  and  Child  by  either 
of  these  painters,  one  by  Andrea  del  Sarto  looks  coarse 
and  vulgar. 

Most  people  know  something  of  the  sad  history  of 
Andrea's  life.  How  he  was  married  [in  1513]  to  a  beautiful 
but  faithless  woman,  who  exercised  a  sort  of  fatal  fascina- 
tion over  him ;  how  he  was  invited  to  France  by  Francis  I., 
where  he  executed  a  number  of  works  for  the  king  and  his 
court,  especially  the  splendid  picture  of  Charity,  in  the 
Louvre  (1518)  ;  but  how,  after  having  pledged  himself  to 
execute  many  commissions,  he  returned  to  Florence  at  the 
sohcitations  of  his  wife,  and  not  only  thought  no  more  of 
his  promises  to  Francis  and  his  nobles,  but  [it  is  said] 
even  used  the  money  with  which  the  French  king  had 
entrusted  him  to  purchase  works  of  art  in  Italy,  for  his 
own  purposes.  This  breach  of  trust  does  not  seem  to 
have  met  with  any  direct  punishment,  [for  he  was  highly 
esteemed  in  Florence,  and  was  kept  fully  employed  till  his 
death.  ^] 

Besides  his  easel-pictures — Madonnas,  Holy  Families, 
and  similar  subjects  for  altar-pieces — Andrea  executed 
several  important  series  of  frescoes.  Those  in  the  SS. 
Annunziata  at  Florence  are  the  most  celebrated.  He 
seems  to  have  painted  here  at  three  distinct  periods ;  fii'st, 
when  he  painted  a  series  of  five  frescoes,  setting  forth  the 
history  of  Filippo  Benozzi ;  ^  next,  when  he  executed  the 
Adoration  of  the  Kings  and  the  Birth  of  the  Virgin,  a 

^  His  supposed  state  of  mind  at  this  time  is  set  forth  in  Robert 
IBrowning's  di-amatic  poem, "  Andrea  del  Sarto,"  in  "  Men  and  Women." 

[2  The  founder  of  the  Order  of  the  Servites,  to  whom  the  church 
belonged.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  141 

composition  of  great  dignity,  and  beautiful  in  colour,  and, 
lastly,  when  he  executed  his  famous  Madonna  del  Sacco  ^ 
in  the  lunette  above  the  entrance  to  the  court  of  the- 
convent.  A  Last  Supper,  painted  in  the  refectory  of  the- 
convent  of  S.  Salvi,  is  also  spoken  of  as  being  a  very 
grandly  composed  work.^ 

It  is  by  his  oil-paintings,  however,  that  Andrea  is  best 
known.  These  are  to  be  met  with  in  almost  every  gallery, 
and  although  no  doubt  many  ascribed  to  him  are  not 
genuine,  still,  considering  the  shortness  of  his  life  (he  died 
at  the  age  of  forty-two),  he  must  have  executed  a  great 
amount  of  work.  In  all  his  representations  of  the  Virgin 
we  have  the  same  type  of  beauty ;  indeed,  it  is  said  that 
he  was  so  completely  absorbed  by  his  wife,  the  lovely 
Lucretia,  that  unconsciously,  as  well  as  consciously,  he  re- 
produced her  features  in  every  woman  he  painted,  whether 
Virgin,  saint,  or  goddess.^ 

The  portrait  in  the  National  Gallery,  said  to  be  his  own 
likeness,  is  extremely  interesting.  There  is  a  sad,  weary 
look  in  the  face  which,  knowing  as  we  do  the  artist's  his- 
tory, becomes  wonderfully  expressive.  Mrs.  Jameson  also^ 
speaks  of  another  portrait  in  Lord  Cowper's  collection  at 
Panshanger,*  in  which  she  notices  the  same  melancholy  ex- 
pression of  countenance.  "  One  might  fancy,"  she  says,, 
"  that  he  had  been  writing  to  his  wife." 

The  Holy  Family,  No.  17  of  the  National  Gallery,  is  not 
a  good  example  of  his  work,  if  indeed  it  be  his  work. 

[One  of  the  best  of  Andrea's  scholars,  and  his  constant 
assistant  in  his  frescoes,  was  Francesco  di  Cristopano 
BiGi,  commonly  called  Francia  Bigio  (1482-1525),  who,, 
after  studying  under  Albertinelli,  worked  with  Andrea  del 
Sarto.     Many  of  his  portraits,  sometimes  signed  F.  B.,  are 

^  So  called  because  Joseph  is  represented  leaning  on  a  sack. 

[»  Painted  1526-27.] 

3  We  must  not  forget  that  the  belief  regarding  the  infidelity  and  over- 
bearing  temper  of  Lucretia  del  Fede  rests  entirely  on  Vasari's  evidence, 
who  was  in  his  youth  apprenticed  to  Andrea  del  Sarto,  and  who,  as  well 
as  his  fellow-apprentices,  had  much  to  suffer  from  the  lady's  violent 
temper.  It  is  quite  possible,  therefore,  that  he  may  have  been  prejudiced 
against  her. 

[*  Lent  to  the  Royal  Academy  Winter  Exhibition  in  1881.  It  is- 
doubtful  whether  it  be  a  portrait  of  the  artist.] 


142  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

variously  ascribed,  to  Del  Sarto,  to  Raphael,  and  to  Sebastian 
del  Piombo.  There  is  a  portrait  in  Del  Sarto' s  manner  in 
the  National  G-allery  (No.  1035),  which,  though  darkened, 
is  an  excellent  example  of  Bigio. 

Other  disciples  or  fellow-workers  with  Andrea  were 
Pontormo,  already  mentioned  ;  G-io.  Battista  di  Jacopo, 
called  II  Eosso  (1494-1541),  who  worked  principally  in 
Prance,  and  was  painter  to  Prancis  I.  before  Primaticcio. 
In  his  later  works  he  was  an  imitator  of  Michael  Angelo ; 
DoMENico  PuLiGO  (1492-1527),  and  Prancesco  d'Uber- 
TiNO,  called  Bacchiaca  (1494-1557),  a  pupil  of  Perugino, 
by  whom  there  are  two  pictures  of  the  History  of  Joseph 
in  the  National  Gallery,  Nos.  1218  and  1219]. 

The  blooming  time  of  Italian  art  in  Florence  and  Eonie, 
even  before  the  death  of  Michael  Angelo,  who  survived,  so 
to  speak,  his  age,  drew  to  its  close.  Before  the  death  of 
Raphael,  indeed,  symptoms  of  decay  had  begun  to  show 
themselves,  and  these  increased  so  rapidly,  that  by  the  end 
of  the  century  the  art  of  Leonardo,  Raphael,  and  Michael 
Angelo  lay  dead  in  the  dust.  These  artists  had  no  suc- 
cessors. It  seemed  as  though  they  had  reached  the  per- 
fection of  art,  and  from  them  only  decline  was  possible. 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  North  of  Italy,  and  watch  the 
flower  of  Italian  art  unfolding,  blooming,  and  declining  in 
•a  similar  manner  there. 


Chapter  IV. 
SCHOOL  OF  VENICE. 

The  Bellini — Giorgione — Titian— Tintoretto — Paolo 
Veronese — Correggio. 

VENETIAN  painting  was  considerably  later  than  Flo- 
rentine in  its  development.  The  influence  of  G-iotto 
was,  indeed,  less  felt  in  Venice  than  almost  any  other  city 
of  Italy,  and  the  Byzantine  style,  or  "  Greek  manner,"  as 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  143 

Vasari  calls  it,  continued  in  favour  until  far  into  the  fifteenth 
■century;  such  artists  as  Jacobello  del  Fiore,  Negeo- 
PONTE,  DoNATO,  and  GiAMBONO,  although  called  some- 
times early  Venetians,  being,  strictly  speaking,  only  Veneto- 
Byzantine  painters. 

It  was  not,  in  fact,  until  Antonello  da  Messina  (living 
probably  from  about  1444  to  1493)  introduced  into  Italy  the 
Flemish  method  of  oil-painting  that  he  had  learnt  in  the 
school  of  the  Van  Eycks,  that  the  true  colour  school  of 
Venice  can  be  said  to  have  been  really  founded. 

Before  this  time,  however,  there  were  several  painters 
working  in  Venice  who  claim  some  mention.  Especially 
in  the  island  of  Murano,  separate  from  Venice  by  a  narrow 
channel,  a  school  of  painting  seems  to  have  been  established 
from  the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth  century.  [It  was 
here  that  a  painter  who  signed  himself  sometimes  Johannes 
Alamanus,  and  sometimes  Johannes  da  Murano,  worked 
together  with  Antonio  Vivabini  da  Murano  for  some  years 
after  1440.  Some  have  traced  a  G-erman  influence  in  their 
joint  work,  but  it  is  rather  that  of  Gentile  da  Fabriano 
that  is  evident  in  the  finest  work  of  the  two  masters,  an 
Enthroned  Madonna  in  the  Venice  Academy,  dated  1446, 
and  in  Antonio's  Adoration  of  the  Kings  in  the  Berlin 
Museum.  Antonio  afterwards  worked  in  Venice  with  his 
younger  brother,  Bartolommeo  Vivarini.  Of  the  numerous 
altar-pieces  with  which  Antonio,  first  with  Johannes  and 
afterwards  with  his  brother,  decorated  the  churches  in 
Venice  and  the  neighbourhood,  most  are  dilapidated.  An 
altar-piece  by  the  brothers  in  the  Pinacoteca  at  Bologna  is 
dated  1450.  When  they  worked  alone,  Bartolommeo 
showed  the  greater  independence.  He  adopted  much  of 
the  style  of  the  school  of  Padua,  aimed  at  greater  natu- 
ralism, and  decorated  his  pictures  with  gay  flowers  and 
coloured  marbles.  His  latest  works  are  dated  1499.  An- 
tonio died  in  1470.  In  the  National  Gallery  he  is  repre- 
sented by  a  picture  of  SS.  Peter  and  Jerome  (No.  768), 
and  Bartolommeo  by  a  Virgin  and  Child  with  S.  Paul  and 
S.  Jerome  (No.  284).  A  younger  member  of  the  Vivarini 
family,  Luigi  or  Alvise  (died  before  1503),  made  advances 
beyond  his  master  Bartolommeo.  The  Enthroned  Mary 
with   the  Child  and  Saints,  at   Berlin,  is  considered  by 


144  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV 

Morelli  ("Italian  Masters")  to  be  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  productions  of  Venetian  art  in  the  fifteenth  cen 
tury.] 

Carlo  Crivelli  (working  as  late  as  1495)  is  said  bj 
Ridolfo  to  have  been  a  pupil  of  Jacobello  del  Fiore,  [and  b^ 
others  to  have  learnt  from  Bartolommeo  Vivarini;  but 
indeed,  he  also  was  very  strongly  influenced  by  the  schoo! 
of  Squarcione  at  Padua.]  He  is  well  represented  in  th( 
National  Collection,  which  contains  no  less  than  eight  oi 
his  works,  including  a  magnificent  altar-piece  in  thirteer 
compartments,  formerly  in  the  Church  of  S.  Domenico,  a1 
Ascoli.^  The  Enthroned  Madonna  between  S.  Francis  and 
S.  Sebastian,  No.  807,  is  far  beyond  his  usual  level  oi 
merit.^  It  is  dated  1491,  and  was  therefore  painted  at  a 
time  when  several  of  the  great  painters  of  Venice  were 
working  around  him.  He  always,  however,  adhered  to  the 
hard  quattrocentisti  style,  and  belongs,  therefore,  by  his 
art,  to  an  earlier  date  than  that  at  which  he  painted. 
He  remained  faithful,  also,  to  the  old  tempera  method, 
whereas  all  the  other  painters  of  Venice  were  then  using 
oils. 

The  brilhancy  and  richness  of  oil-painting  seem  from  the 
first  to  have  been  peculiarly  attractive  to  the  Venetian  taste, 
and  no  sooner  was  the  secret  of  Van  Eyck's  invention 
known  in  Italy  that  his  method  was  almost  universally 
adopted.  Antonello,  a  painter  of  Messina,  has  the  reputa- 
tion, as  before  stated,  of  having  first  taught  the  Venetians 
the  Flemish  method,  which  evidently,  by  the  enthusiasm 
which  it  excited,  was  an  immense  improvement  on  all  that 
had  preceded  it.^ 

Vasari  gives  a  most  graphic  and  interesting  account  of 
Antonello' s  proceedings,  only,  unfortunately,  as  is  usual 
with  the  old  chronicler,  he  has  blundered  in  his  facts,  from 
his  easy  habit  of  setting  down  every  anecdote  that  was  re- 
lated to  him,  without  taking  the  trouble  to  verify  it. 

^  In  the  collection  of  the  Earl  of  Dudley  there  are  also  a  number  of 
paintings  by  him. 

[^  The  National  Gallery  is  richer  than  any  other  gallery  in  the  works 
of  this  highly  accomplished,  fantastic,  and  elaborate  master.  The  An- 
nunciation, No.  739,  is  by  some  considered  his  finest  work.] 

3  For  the  history  of  Van  Ejck's  invention,  see  Book  VII.,  Chap.  I. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  145 

Antonello,  he  says,  "  a  man  of  lively  genius,  of  much 
sagacity,  and  of  considerable  experience  in  his  calling," 
having  heard  of  a  picture  that  Alfonso,  king  of  Naples, 
had  received  from  Flanders  painted  in  oils  by  Jan  Van 
Eyck,  obtained  leave  to  see  it,  and  was  so  forcibly  im- 
pressed by  the  vivacity,  beauty,  and  harmony  of  its  colour- 
ing, that,  laying  aside  all  other  business,  he  at  once  re- 
paired to  Flanders,  where  he  sought  the  acquaintance  of 
Jan  Van  Eyck,  and  learnt  from  him,  apparently  without 
any  jealous  difficulty  being  thrown  in  his  way,  the  whole 
secret  of  his  process.^ 

Returning  first  to  Messina,  but  soon  after  settling  in 
Venice,  it  soon  became  known  that  he  had  brought  the 
Flemish  secret  back  with  him,  and  his  society  was  greatly 
courted,  not  only  by  artists,  but  by  "  the  magnificent 
nobles  of  Venice,  by  whom  he  was  much  beloved  and 
amicably  treated."  [Of  his  three  works  in  the  National 
Gallery,  the  earliest,  the  Salvator  Mundi,  No.  673,  is  in  oil, 
Flemish  in  style,  and  of  comparatively  feeble  execution. 
It  is  dated  1465,  and  is  the  earliest  dated  picture  by  him 
that  is  known.  The  Crucifixion  (No.  1,166)  is  equally 
Flemish  in  its  minute  detail  and  carefully  executed  land- 
scape. The  portrait  of  a  young  man,  supposed  to  be  the 
painter  himself  (No.  1,141),  is  far  more  Venetian  in  colour, 
and  is  besides  a  marvel  of  firm  modelling  and  realistic 
characterization,  showing  as  complete  a  mastery  over  the 
materials  as  the  great  Flemings  themselves  possessed.] 
Antonello  da  Messina  is  essentially  Flemish  in  his  style. 
It  is  difficult,  indeed,  to  tell  his  paintings  from  those  of  the 
Bruges  school.  His  outlines  are  even  harder  than  those  of 
Rogier  Vander  Weyden,  and  his  details  are  as  minute  and 
carefully  worked.  The  landscapes  in  his  religious  subjects 
are  often  predominant,  and  although  not  always  Flemish 
views  have  entirely  the  Flemish  character.  His  colouring 
is  solemn  and  powerful,  but  scarcely  equal  to  that  of  the 

[*  For  the  controversy  on  this  subject  see  especially  Morelli  ("  Italian 
Painters"),  pp.  376-390.  Jan  Van  Eyck  probably  died  before  Anto- 
nello was  born.  There  were  several  Flemings  in  Italy  from  whom 
Antonello  might  have  learnt  their  method  of  oil-painting.  Antonello  was 
in  Venice  in  1473,  probably  before,  and  this  is  the  nearest  date  we  can 
fix  for  the  introduction  of  the  oil  method  into  Venice.] 

L 


146  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

school  in  which  he  had  learnt.  One  of  his  finest  works  is 
in  the  Antwerp  Academy — a  Crucifixion  with  a  distant 
and  detailed  landscape.  There  is  also  a  fine  portrait,  said 
to  be  of  himself,  in  the  same  gallery.  [Belonging  to  1475, 
and  showing  Venetian  influence,  are  a  portrait  in  the  Louvre 
and  a  Crucifixion  at  Antwerp,  both  fine  examples  of  the 
master.  A  splendid  portrait  in  the  Berlin  Museum  (No. 
18)  bears  the  latest  date  (1478)  of  any  picture  by  him,  and 
is  quite  Venetian.] 

Beyond  all  other  early  Venetians,  however,  the  Bellini 
are  the  representatives  of  Venetian  art  at  this  time,  and 
must  be  reckoned  as  the  founders  of  its  true  greatness. 

Jacopo  Bellini  (bom  about  1400,  died  about  1464), 
the  father  of  the  more  renowned  Grentile  and  Giovanni,  was 
a  pupil  of  G-ENTiLE  DA  Fabriano,^  an  Umbrian  master  of 
the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  who  resided  for 
some  time  at  Venice,  and  appears  to  have  exercised  a  con- 
siderable influence  over  early  Venetian  art.  His  style 
somewhat  resembles  that  of  Fra  Angelico,  but,  not  being  a 
monk,  his  ideas  were  less  cramped,  and  his  view  of  human 
life  broader.  Not  only  Jacopo,  but  likewise  several  of  the 
Muranese  painters  studied  under  him.  But  although  the 
effects  of  his  teaching  are  often  discernible,  it  was  after  all 
from  the  Paduan  school  that  the  Bellini  received  their 
early  training.  Jacopo  Bellini  was  evidently  much  attached 
to  his  master  Gentile,  whom  he  followed  to  Florence  ^  (in 
1422),  and  after  whom  he  named  his  eldest  son,  but  such 
of  his  works  as  remain  reveal  for  the  most  part  a  decided 
leaning  towards  Paduan  art,  as  expressed  in  the  works  of 
his  son-in-law  Mantegna,  whose  influence  became  still  more 
apparent  in  the  early  art  of  his  sons.  Mantegna,  in  fact, 
was  too  powerful  a  genius  for  any  less  original  minds  to 
come  in  contact  with  him  without  receiving  deep  impres- 
sions, and  accordingly  we  find  that  the  Bellini,  both  father 
and  sons,  who  were,  as  we  have  seen,  intimately  associated 

[^  The  picture  by  which  he  is  best  known  is  in  the  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts  at  Florence,  an  Adoration  of  the  Kings,  signed,  and  dated  1423. 
Little  else  of  his  works  remains.] 

^  The  records  of  Florence  bear  evidence  that  Jacopo  was  once  prose- 
cuted and  ordered  to  do  penance  for  having  beaten  someone  who  had 
insulted  Gentile. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  147 

both  in  relationship  and  art  with  Mantegna  at  Padua, 
where  they  long  resided,  brought  back  to  Venice  when  they 
returned  there  many  of  the  characteristics  of  his  style. 
Jacopo  Bellini  is  perhaps  more  important  as  the  father  and 
teacher  of  Gentile  and  Giovanni  than  as  an  independent 
master,  but  he  is  spoken  of  by  Vasari  as  having  been  held 
in  high  repute  in  his  day.  Unfortunately,  scarcely  one 
authentic  painting  by  him  is  preserved.^ 

[There  are  two  pictures  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  signed 
by  Jacopo,  one  in  the  Accademia,  the  other  in  the  collec- 
tion of  Count  Tadini  at  Lovere ;  one  of  the  Crucifixion, 
signed,  at  Verona.  An  engraving  of  a  Crucifixion  by  Paul 
Veronese  reproduces  a  fresco  by  Jacopo  Bellini,  formerly  in 
the  Cathedral  at  Verona.] 

Gentile  Bellini  (about  1426-1507)  probably  excelled 
his  father  as  much  as  he,  in  turn,  was  excelled  by  his 
younger  brother  Giovanni.  This,  we  are  told,  was  what 
the  good  father  desired,  who  "  encouraged  his  sons,  con- 
stantly telling  them  that  he  desired  to  see  them  do  as  did 
the  Florentines,  who  were  perpetually  striving  among 
themselves  to  carry  off  the  palm  of  distinction  by  out- 
stripping each  other,  that  so  he  would  have  Giovanni 
surpass  himself,  whilst  Gentile  should  vanquish  them 
both."^ 

It  was,  however,  Giovanni  who  "  vanquished  them  both," 
but  Gentile  also  accomplished  excellent  work  in  his  day. 
Both  brothers  were  highly  esteemed  in  Venice,  and  in  1474 
Gentile  was  honoured  by  the  government  with  a  commis- 
sion to  decorate  the  Great  Hall  of  Council  of  the  Ducal 
Palace  with  frescoes,  representing  events  of  Venetian  his- 
tory. Gentile  da  Fabriano  had  before  this  executed  some 
frescoes  in  this  Hall,  but  it  appears  that  they  had  already 
fallen  into  decay  when  his  godchild  Gentile  Bellini  was 
appointed  to  "  renew  and  restore  them." 

He  was  interrupted  in  this  work  by  an  appointment  in 

^  A  most  valuable  volume  of  sketches,  however,  now  safely  treasured 
in  the  British  Museum,  tells  us  probably  more  of  his  mode  of  design 
than  more  finished  works  might  do.  It  is  by  these  sketches  that  Man- 
tegna's  inHuence  is  revealed,  many  of  them  being  completely  in  his 
«tyle. 

'■'  Vasari. 


148  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

1479  to  go  to  Constantinople,  whither  he  was  sent  by  the 
Doge,  in  compliance  with  a  request  of  the  Sultan  that  the 
Venetians  would  supply  him  with  a  good  painter ; — for  the 
Venetians,  who  had  been  regarded  as  the  outposts  of  Chris- 
tianity, had,  after  the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  the 
Turks,  with  their  ever  keen  desire  for  profit,  entered  into 
friendly  commercial  relations  with  their  infidel  neighbours ;. 
— and  Gentile,  when  he  arrived  at  Constantinople,  was  re- 
ceived with  great  honour.  He  painted  whilst  there  the 
admirable  portrait  of  the  wily  old  Sultan  Mehemet  11.,^ 
and  the  portraits,  it  is  said,  of  several  ladies  of  his  harem. 
The  large  painting  in  the  Louvre  also,  representing  the 
reception  of  the  Venetian  Embassy  at  Constantinople,  was 
doubtless  composed  if  not  painted  on  the  spot.  But  Gen- 
tile did  not  stay  long  at  Constantinople,^  for  in  the  follow- 
ing year  we  find  him  again  in  Venice,  and  at  work  on  the 
frescoes  of  the  Council  Hall,  which  his  brother  Giovanni 
had  been  commissioned  to  continue  in  his  absence. 

The  two  brothers  now  worked  together,  and  accomplished 
some  great  works,  all  of  which,  however^  perished  by  fire  in 
1577. 

The  most  important  works  that  now  remain  by  Gentile,, 
are  the  pictures  in  the  academy  at  Venice,  representing  the 
Miracles  of  the  Cross.  In  one,  a  fragment  of  the  true 
Cross,  borne  in  solemn  procession,  effects  a  miraculous 
cure,  and  in  the  other  the  same  fragment,  having  fallen  into 

^  Now  in  the  possession  of  Sir  A.  H.  Layard. 

^  A  remarkabJe  but  doubtful  story  is  told  by  Ridolfi,  in  his  "  Mara- 
viglie  deir  Arte,"  concerning  the  reason  of  Gentile's  hasty  return  to- 
Venice. 

Gentile  had  presented  the  Sultan,  so  Eidolfi  relates,  with  a  painting- 
of  S.  John  the  Baptist's  head  on  a  charger.  His  Majesty  was  much, 
pleased  with  the  subject,  but  criticised  the  drawing  of  the  neck,  which, 
he  said,  projected  too  much  from  the  decapitated  head.  The  painter 
seemed  doubtful ;  so  by  way  of  showing  him  the  natural  appearance  in 
such  cases,  he  ordered  a  slave  to  be  brought  in,  whose  head  he  instantly 
had  struck  off,  thereby  forcibly  proving  the  correctness  of  his  know- 
ledge. Gentile  after  this,  fearing  that  perhaps  some  day  he  might  be 
recjuired  in  like  manner  to  illustrate  a  despot's  lessons  in  anatomy,  made- 
all  the  haste  he  could  back  to  Venice.  It  seems  more  probable,  however, 
that  Mehemet's  death,  which  happened  in  1480,  was  the  cause  of  his 
return.  Vasari,  who  mentions  Gentile's  voyage,  does  not  relate  this- 
story. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  149 

the  canal,  can  only  be  recovered  by  the  hands  of  the  pious 
brother  Andrea  Vendramin.^ 

S.  Mark  preaching  at  Alexandria,  in  the  Brera  at  Milan, 
is  also  one  of  his  principal  works.  It  was  left  unfinished 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1607.  Gentile  never  attained 
to  the  same  development  as  Griovanni,  but  his  paintings  are 
remarkable  for  their  scientific  perspective  and  general  truth- 
fulness to  nature.^ 

We  must  turn  to  the  younger  but  greater  brother,  to 
find  the  true  founder  of  the  Venetian  school. 

The  name  of  Giovanni  Bellini  (born  about  1428,  died 
1516)  stands  at  the  head  of  that  great  cluster  of  painters, 
who,  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  illumined  the 
dark  walls  of  the  churches  and  palaces  of  Venice  with  a 
glorious  revelation  of  colour  to  which  no  previous  masters 
had  ever  attained. 

Yet,  in  the  first  instance,  as  before  said,  Giovanni  as 
well  as  Gentile  was  much  influenced  by  Mantegna,  whose 
chief  characteristic  was,  as  we  have  seen,  form  and  not 
colour.  We  have  two  examples  of  his  early  style  in  the 
National  Gallery,  the  Virgin  and  Child,  No.  280,^  which  is 
cold  and  brown  in  colour,  and  the  Agony  in  the  Garden, 
No.  726,  which  is  so  thoroughly  Mantegnesque  in  style,  that 
it  was  formerly  ascribed  to  Mantegna. 

It  was  not,  indeed,  until  after  he  had  adopted  the  new 
method  of  oil-painting,  that  the  original  qualities  of  his 
genius  became  apparent.  His  greatest  works  all  belong  to 
the  later  period  of  his  life,  for,  unlike  most  painters,  his  art 
knew  no  stand-point,  but  went  on  progressing  even  in  his 
great  old  age,  when,  in  fact,  he  still  continued  learning  from 
the  pupils  he  had  formed. 

When  Gentile  was  chosen  by  the  state  to  go  to  Constan- 
tinople, Giovanni  was  not  only  appointed  to  carry  on  the 
great  works  in  the  Hall  of  Council,  but  also  to  fill  the 

^  There  is  an  engraving  of  this  latter  subject  in  Crowe  and  Caval- 
-caselle's  "  Hist,  of  Painting  in  North  Italy." 

*  Tlie  L-iuvre  possesses  two  heads  that  are  portraits,  it  is  asserted,  of 
Gentile  and  Giovanni,  ])ainted  by  the  former.  He  was  evidently  a  good 
portrait  painter.  [The  Head  of  S.  Peter  Martyr  in  the  National 
Gallery  (No.  808)  is  ascribed  to  Gentile  by  Morelli.] 

['  This  is  not  considered  an  eai'ly  picture  by  Dr.  Richter  ("'  Italian 
Art  in  the  National  Gallery  ").] 


150  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV» 

office  of  Senseria,  one  of  the  duties  of  which  was  to  paint 
the  portrait  of  each  successive  doge,  and  introduce  it  into 
a  frieze  round  the  hall.  He  painted  in  his  time  a  great 
many  doges,  one  of  them  being  the  Doge  Leonardo  Lore- 
dano,^  of  which  there  is  an  admirable  repUca  in  the 
National  Gallery,  No.  189. 

With  him,  the  custom  of  portrait-painting  became  ex- 
ceedingly popular  in  Venice.  Hitherto,  distinguished 
patrons  of  art  had  been  content  to  have  their  portraits 
introduced  incidentally  into  an  historic  subject,  or  to  be 
represented  as  donors  in  a  votive  family  altar-piece ;  but 
now  it  became  the  fashion  for  every  person  of  distinction 
to  sit  for  his  portrait,  and  Venetian  palaces  became  filled 
with  the  likenesses  of  their  owners,  often  painted  by  the 
greatest  masters.  Bellini's  portraits  are  distinguished 
from  those  of  Titian  and  the  later  Venetians  by  a  harder 
outline,  and  perhaps  less  power  of  characterisation ;  but 
there  is  a  dignity  and  thoughtful  repose  in  them,  as  well 
as  in  his  other  works,  that  in  some  degree  make  up  for  the 
full  glowing  life  and  energy  of  his  successors. 

He  remained,  in  fact,  to  the  end,  a  religious  painter,  and 
to  a  certain  extent  his  ideal  was  the  ascetic  ideal  of  all 
religious  painters,  only,  as  we  have  seen  with  Perugino  and 
Era  Bartolommeo,  the  ascetic  type  developed  with  him 
into  one  of  sweet  and  solemn  human  beauty,  a  beauty 
entirely  different  from  the  sensuous  life  and  passion  of  the 
worldly  painters  of  Venice  who  came  after  him. 

The  stirring  events  of  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  events 
which  produced  a  powerful  effect  on  the  minds  of  his 
younger  contemporaries,  had  but  httle  influence  over  their 
patriarch,  who  was  already  sixty  years  of  age  when  the 
powerful  league  of  Cambray  overwhelmed  the  Venetian 
states  with  calamity.  Venice  alone,  protected  by  her 
waters,  was  spared  the  invasion  of  the  terrible  G-ermans ;, 
and  her  children,  with  a  heroism  almost  beyond  their 
strength,  rose  equal  to  the  crisis,  and  finally  threw  off  the^ 
yoke  of  their  conquerors.  The  exaltation  of  the  national 
character  that  such  struggles  for  life  and  liberty  usually 
produce,  maintained  Venice,  it  is  true,  for  a  short  time  at 

[1  Doge  from  1501  to  1521.'| 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  151 

a  high  pitch  of  greatness,  hut  the  decline  of  her  power  had 
begun,  and  the  hideous  moral  corruption  that  existed 
beneath  her  splendid  exterior  could  not  be  arrested  by 
individual  acts  of  self-sacrifice  and  heroism.  Her  fall, 
in  fact,  was  already  decreed,  and  before  the  line  of  her 
painters  was  extinct  she  was  already  tottering  on  her 
foundations. 

Bellini  lived  to  see  peace  restored  to  his  country,  but 
died  in  the  same  year  that  the  treaty  of  Noyon  ended  the 
disastrous  wars  that  had  called  forth  her  fortitude  and 
valour.  No  decrease  of  power  is  shown  even  in  his  latest 
works,  many  of  which  were  painted  after  he  had  attained 
the  age  of  eighty,  and  in  warmth  and  splendour  of  colour, 
many  of  them  rival  even  Titian. 

The  moral  qualities  of  his  art,  however,  separate  him 
completely  from  the  school  of  which  he  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  founder,  "  There  is  no  religion,"  says 
Ruskin,  "  in  any  work  of  Titian's ;  there  is  not  even  the 
smallest  evidence  of  religious  temper  or  sympathies,  either 
in  himself  or  in  those  for  whom  he  painted ;  and  this  is 
not  merely  because  John  Bellini  was  a  religious  man  and 
Titian  was  not.  Titian  and  Bellini  are  each  true  repre- 
sentatives of  the  school  of  painters  contemporary  with 
them,  and  the  difference  in  their  artistic  feeling  is  a 
consequence,  not  so  much  of  difference  in  their  own 
natural  characters  as  in  their  early  education.  Bellini  was 
brought  up  in  faith,  Titian  in  formalism.  Between  the 
years  of  their  births,  the  vital  religion  of  Venice  had  ex- 
pired." ^ 

One  of  Bellini's  greatest  works  is  the  Christ  at  Emmaus, 
a  large  altar-piece  in  the  Church  of  S.  Salvatore  at  Venice. 
The  discijjles  here  are  men  of  noble  dignified  bearing,  of  a 
race  not  yet  quite  extinct  in  Venice.  The  divine  figure  of 
the  Master,  conceived  at  the  moment  of  his  disciples' 
recognition,  awes  us  by  its  solemn  grandeur  and  thought- 
fulness.  With  the  strange  incongruity  that  we  so  often  find 
in  the  pictures  of  this  time,  and  particularly  of  this  school, 
Giovanni,  besides  the  disciples  and  their  Divine  Com- 
panion, has  introduced  a  Venetian  senator  and  a  man  in  a 
Turkish  dress  into  the  scene. 

'  Ruskin,  "  Stones  of  Venice,"  vol.  i. 


152  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Euskin  accords  liigh  praise  to  Bellini's  landscapes,  one 
of  which  in  particular — namely,  that  forming  the  back- 
ground to  the  S.  Jerome  in  the  Church  of  S.  Crisostomo 
at  Venice,  he  recommends  to  the  study  of  the  young  artist 
as  "  a  nearly  faultless  guide."  The  saint  in  this  grand 
work  (painted  by  Bellini  in  his  eighty- seven th  ^  year, 
1513)  is  seated  amongst  rocks  studying  in  a  book.  In  the 
foreground  are  S.  Augustine  and  S.  Christopher,  the 
latter  looking  up  lovingly  to  the  beautiful  Child,  who 
grasps  his  short  curly  hair.  The  masterly  power  and  deep 
beauty  of  colour,  as  well  as  the  religious  feeling  of  this 
work,  are  worthy  of  almost  any  master  of  the  time.  There 
are  several  excellent  examples  of  Bellini  in  England,  among 
which  may  be  mentioned  the  celebrated  Bacchanal,  with 
the  landscajDO  by  Titian,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Duke 
of  Northumberland.^ 

Venice,  whatever  other  crimes  she  may  have  been  guilty 
of,  cannot  be  accused  of  having  neglected  her  painters. 
Giovanni  Bellini,  especially,  was  revered  by  all,  and  his 
society  courted  by  the  highest  in  the  state,  as  well  as  by 
most  of  the  painters,  men  of  letters,  and  collectors  of  the 
time.  Ariosto  has  celebrated  him  in  his  verse,  and  the 
celebrated  Pietro  Bembo  wrote  rapturous  sonnets  upon  liis 
portrait  of  his  mistress.  Albrecht  Diirer  also,  who  visited 
Venice  in  1507,  speaks  of  him  in  one  of  his  letters  as 
"  very  old,  but  the  best  painter  of  them  all." 

His  influence  was  undoubtedly  great  over  the  art  of  his 
time  in  Venice,  but  it  scarcely  extended  beyond,  and  al- 
though several  of  his  pupils  preserved  for  a  period  some- 
what of  his  religious  feeling,  yet  very  soon,  in  the  worldly 
current  that  was  now  setting  in,  his  spiritually  ascetic 
ideal  was  lost  to  view,  and  in  its  place  was  set  up  the  sen- 
suous ideal  that  we  have  seen  as  the  latest  development  of 
G-reek  art. 

As  in  artistic  Greece,  in  fact,  aesthetic  perfection  had 
become  in  Christian  Europe  the  sole  thing  that  was  looked 
for  in  a  painting.  Its  moral  and  religious  teaching  were 
now  unheeded,  or  rather  it  no  longer  existed,  for  when 
religion  was  no  longer  in  demand,  artists  naturally  left  it 

P  More  probably  eighty-fifth.] 

[*  Painted  1514,  or  two  years  before  the  painter's  death.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  153 

out  of  their  works.  Thus  it  happened  that  Italian  art  in 
the  sixteenth  century  became  wholly  secular  in  its  tone, 
and  that  henceforward  we  do  not  find  an  expression  of 
rehgious  faith  in  paintings,  but  simply  an  expression  of 
the  highest  worldly  beauty.  Not  that  religious  subjects 
were  by  any  means  set  aside  by  artists.  On  the  contrary, 
they  went  on  painting  virgins,  saints,  martyrdoms,  and 
other  Catholic  themes  for  a  century  to  come,  as  well  as 
their  beautiful  mistresses,  large-limbed  goddesses,  and  las- 
civious gods  ;  but  as  Euskin  has  so  well  pointed  out,  their 
faith  had  become  carnal,  and  they  chose  a  religious  subject, 
not  Hke  the  earlier  Christian  painters,  for  the  purpose  of 
touching  men's  hearts,  but  for  the  purpose  of  pleasing 
men's  eyes:  arraying  their  mistresses  in  splendid  attire, 
and  painting  them  as  Madonnas  or  goddesses,  according  as 
it  suited  their  purpose,  caring  only  for  the  exhibition  of 
their  own  marvellous  powers.  But  it  must  be  owned  that 
this  pagan  spirit  in  art  was  immensely  favourable  to  its 
development.  Painting,  as  we  have  seen,  whilst  under  the 
control  of  the  Church,  remained  almost  stationary,  and 
was  cramped  and  somewhat  feeble  in  expression,  but 
gradually  as  it  threw  aside  its  first  ascetic  garb  it  bloomed 
into  fresh  beauty,  until  with  these  worldly  painters  of 
Venice,  by  whom  Christian  asceticism  was  entirely  forgotten, 
it  assumed  its  highest  perfection.  Never  were  there  such 
painters,  considered  only  as  painters,  as  these  of  Venice  in 
the  sixteenth  century, 

Poremost  of  these  great  masters  stands  the  brilliant 
Giorgione,  but  before  considering  his  work  it  v,dll  be  as 
weU  to  glance  at  a  few  other  artists  of  less  original  genius, 
who  also  belonged  to  the  school  of  BelHni.  Many  of  these 
men  were  very  good  artists,  but  in  the  superlative  excel- 
lence that  marks  this  period,  their  works  are  apt  to  be 
slighted,  or,  as  frequently  happens,  attributed  to  greater 
names. 

ViTTOEE  Cabpaccio  (painter  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
fifteenth  and  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century)  was 
a  follower  of  Gentile  rather  than  of  Giovanni  Bellini. 
There  are  several  large  historical  paintings  by  him  in  the 
academy  at  Venice,  of  much  the  same  character  as  those 
by  Gentile. 


154  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOZ   IV. 

[He  is  supposed  to  have  studied  with  Luigi  Vivarini. 
His  works  are  distinguished  by  their  grand  architectural 
backgrounds,  and  the  careful  painting  of  elaborate  detail, 
freedom  of  composition,  and  rich  purity  of  colour.  The 
History  of  S.  Ursula,  and  other  large  works,  in  the  academy 
and  elsewhere  at  Venice,  afford  interesting  illustrations  of 
the  costumes  of  the  East  and  of  old  Venice.  A  votive 
picture  in  the  National  Grallery  (No.  750)  testifies  to  his 
powers  as  a  colourist,  and  to  his  likeness  to  the  BelHni  in 
design,  and  there  are  good  examples  of  the  master  at  Paris, 
Berlin,  Stuttgart,  and  Milan.] 

GriovANNi  Mansueti,  Lazzaro  Sebastiani,  and  Marco 
Marziale  may  likewise  be  ranked  as  followers  of  Grentile. 
Of  Marziale  there  are  two  good  examples  in  the  National 
Gallery,  Nos.  803  and  804.  Gtiovanni  Battista  or  Cima 
DA  CoNEGLiANO  (painted  1489-1517),  on  the  other  hand, 
owes  his  excellence  entirely  to  his  study  of  G-iovanni,  and 
belongs  therefore  to  the  true  Venetian  school.  In  beauty  of 
colour  and  serene  dignity  of  expression,  he  often,  indeed, 
rivals  his  master.  His  finest  works  are  two  Madonnas  with 
Saints,  in  the  Gallery  of  Parma.  There  are  two  charming 
Madonnas  with  landscape  backgrounds  by  him  in  the 
National  Collection  [and  a  finely-finished  small  S.  Jerome], 
but  the  larger  picture  of  the  Incredulity  of  S.  Thomas  is  stiff 
in  treatment  and  cold  in  feeling.  [He  painted  as  back- 
grounds to  nearly  all  his  pictures  the  hills  and  towers  of  his 
native  Conegliano.  Cima's  works  largely  influenced  the  art 
of  his  native  province,  Friuli,  where  his  most  important 
follower  was  Martino  of  Udine,  called  Pellegrino  da  San 
Daniele,  who,  however,  later  on  studied  in  Venice,  and 
successfully  adopted  some  of  the  grand  characteristics  of 
Venetian  art.  Pellegrino's  frescoes  in  the  church  of  St. 
Anthony  (executed  1498-1522),  in  San  Daniele,  approach 
in  merit  the  works  of  Pordenone  and  of  Giorgione.  The 
large  altar-piece  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  778)  is  a  good 
specimen  of  his  style  when  Venetian  influence  began  to 
soften  his  Cimaesque  hardnesss  of  outline,  and  to  illumine 
his  Friulian  dryness  of  tone.  He  died  in  1547.  Worthy  of 
mention  is  his  contemporary,  Girolamo  da  Treviso,  son 
of  Pier  Maria  Peimacchi  (also  a  painter),  bom  at  Treviso  in 
1497.  An  imitator  of  Pordenone  and  of  Giorgione,  his  best 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING  IN  ITALY.  155 

work  was,  however,  painted  at  Bologna,  under  the  influence 
of  the  followers  of  Raphael,  and  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  the  National  Gallery  (No.  623).  About  1538  Girolamo 
entered  the  service  of  Henry  VIII.  of  England,  as  architect 
and  engineer,  and  he  was  killed  at  the  siege  of  Boulogne  in 
1544.] 

Both  Andrea  Previtali,  bom  about  1480,  died  1528),. 
and  Vincenzo  di  Biagio,  known  as  Catena  (still  living  in 
1531),  have  suffered  somewhat  from  their  too  near  ap- 
proach to  the  excellence  of  G-iovanni  Bellini,  many  of  their 
best  works  having  been  attributed  to  him.  There  is  a. 
small  but  good  example  of  Previtali  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery, No.  695.  Catena  was  likewise  greatly  influenced  in 
his  later  life  by  Giorgione,  but  he  never  entirely  deserted 
the  traditions  of  religious  art.  The  Warrior  adoring  the 
Infant  Christ,  No.  234,  of  the  National  Gallery,  formerly 
ascribed  to  Giorgione,  but  now  catalogued  as  of  the  school 
of  Giovanni  Bellini,  is  considered  by  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle 
to  be  by  Catena,  and  one  of  the  most  important  of  hi& 
works,  illustrating  the  latest  and  Giorgionesque  phase  of 
his  imitative  career.  The  admirable  S.  Jerome  in  his 
Study,  No.  694,  these  critics  likewise  suggest  may  be  by 
him. 

Marco  Basaiti,  Pietro  Francesco  Bissolo,  Fran- 
cesco Rizo  DA  Santa  Croce,^  and  several  other  lesser 
painters  among  the  "  Bellinesques,"  as  they  are  called,  are 
distinguished  by  much  the  same  characteristics  ;  that  is  to 
say,  they  are  all  harmonious  and  powerful  in  colour,  solemn 
and  dignified  in  expression,  and  truly  religious  in  feeling. 
It  is  this  latter  quality  that  most  effectually  separates  them 
from  the  next  group  of  painters  whom  we  have  to  consider, 
and  in  whom,  as  before  said,  the  religious  element  entirely 
disappears. 

[Basaiti  began  his  career  as  assistant  to  Luigi  Yivarini, 
and  later  on  assisted  Giovanni  Bellini.  A  beautiful  speci- 
men of  his  style  is  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  281),  St. 

[*  GiROLAMO  DA  Santa  Croce  assisted  Francesco,  and  painted  in  the- 
years  1520-49.  There  are  two  pictures  of  Saints  in  the  National 
Gallery  by  him  (Nos.  632  and  633).  Another  little-known  follower  of 
the  Bellinis,  Bartolommeo  Veneziano  (painted  1505-30),  is  repre- 
sented by  a  portrait  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  287).] 


156  HISTOEY   OF  PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Jerome  reading,  and  still  more  beautiful  is  the  Virgin  and 
•Ohild,  No.  599. 

There  is  a  portrait  ascribed  to  Bissolo  in  the  National 
•Gallery,  No.  631.] 

Giorgio  Barbarelli,  called  Giorgione,  because  of  the 
greatness  of  his  stature  (born  before  1477,  died  1511),  is 
reckoned  bj  Ruskin  as  one  of  the  "  seven  supreme  colourists 
of  the  world,"  ^  and  truly  from  what  tradition  tells  us  of 
his  pictures,  they  must  in  their  first  beauty  have  been 
miracles  of  glowing  loveliness.  Unhappily,  his  greatest 
works  were  executed  in  fresco  on  the  walls  of  the  palaces 
at  Venice,  and  even  in  Vasari's  time  were  already  falling 
into  decay.  Now,  effaced  by  time,  and  the  salt  damps  of 
the  lagoon,  scarcely  a  trace  of  them  exists. 

Bom  at  Castelf  ranco,in  the  province  of  Treviso,  Giorgione 
<;ame  to  Venice  at  an  early  age,  and  entered  the  school  of 
the  Bellini,  where  he  and  Titian,  who  was  his  fellow  student, 
soon  asserted  their  superiority,  and  became,  so  to  speak, 
•the  masters  of  the  master,  for  undoubtedly  Bellini's  genius 
in  his  later  years  was  stimulated  to  ever  nobler  exertions 
by  the  works  of  his  great  pupils.  Their  influence  over 
each  other  is  still  more  apparent,  although  their  minds 
were  of  a  different  stamp,  and  their  view  of  human  life 
-dissimilar. 

For  Giorgione,  above  all  things  is  a  poet.  His  concep- 
tions, even  of  biblical  or  historical  scenes,  are  never  com- 
monplace, but  surprise  us  by  the  introduction  of  some 
unknown  and  romantic  element.  They  are  tinged  with  the 
peculiar  colour  of  his  mind,  as  well  as  with  that  of  his  brush, 
and  thus  have  a  mysterious  charm  that  is  lacking  in 
Titian,  and  other  masters  of  the  school,  who  are  for  the 
most  part  essentially  objective  in  their  style. 

One  of  his  earlier  works  was  a  Madonna  altar-piece  for 
the  church  of  his  native  town  Castelf  ranco,  a  painting  that 
has  happily  escaped  the  fate  of  so  many  of  his  works.^ 
The  Madonna  is  here  represented  between  S.  Liberale  and 

^  The  other  six  being  Titian,  Veronese,  Tintoret,  Correggio,  Rey- 
nolds, and  Turner. 

2  Vasari  tell  us  that  in  his  youth  he  painted  many  Madonnas, 
but  only  this  and  two  or  three  others  of  doubtful  authenticity  now 
a*emain. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  157" 

S.  Francis,  and  the  sketch  for  the  noble  young  figure  of 
S.  Liberale  is  now  in  the  National  Gallery.' 

Giorgione's  skill  in  fresco-painting  was  first  put  forth, 
it  is  said,  on  the  front  of  his  own  house,  which  he  adorned 
with  beautiful  frescoes.  After  this,  in  1504,  he  was  com- 
missioned conjointly  with  Titian,  to  paint  the  exterior  of 
the  Fondaco  de'  Tedeschi,  or  Hall  of  Exchange  of  the 
German  merchants  in  Venice.  Vasari  gives  but  a  vague- 
account  of  the  great  works  which  the  two  rival  young 
artists  here  executed,  the  significance  of  whose  meaning 
seems  to  have  been  lost,  even  when  he  saw  them.  "  I,  for 
my  part,"  he  says,  "  have  never  been  able  to  understand 
what  they  mean,  nor  could  I  find  any  one  who  could 
explain  them  to  me."  They  probably  formed  some  poetical 
allegory,  the  key  to  which,  once  lost,  could  not  be  ref  ound.^ 
Many  of  Giorgione's  works  are  thus  allegorical,  and  puzzle 
us  to  decij)her  their  meaning.  [One  of  these  is  the  un- 
doubtedly genuine  picture  of  three  philosophers  in  an  open 
landscape,  in  the  Imperial  Gallery  at  Vienna,  and  known 
by  the  name  of  the  Three  Eastern  Sages.  It  has  also  been 
called  the  Astronomers,  or  Chaldean  Sages.  Another 
thoroughly  authenticated  picture  is  that  called  the  Family 
of  Giorgione,  in  the  Giovanelli  Palace  at  Venice,  described 
by  the  Anonymus  of  Morelli^  as  "  the  landscape  (on  canvas) 
with  the  storm,  the  gipsy  woman,  and  the  soldier." 

These  are  the  three  works  of  Giorgione  now  existing 
the  authenticity  of  which  is  indisputable. 

The  following  pictures  are  also  ascribed  to  him  by  Signor 
Morelli  ("Italian  Masters"):  two  early  works — the  Moses- 
with  the  Burning  Bush  (No.  621),  and  Judgment  of  Solo- 
mon (No.  630)— and  the  Knight  of  Malta  (No.  622)— all  in. 
the  TTffizi ;  Christ  bearing  the  Cross,  belonging  to  Countess 
Loschi  at  Viceuza ;  Madonna  and  Child,  with  S.  Anthony 
and  S.  Koch  (No.  418),  in  Madrid  Museum,  and  ascribed. 
to  Pordenone  by  the  catalogue;  the  small  Daphne  and 

^  A  Knight  in  Armour  (No.  269).  It  is  said  by  some  that  in  this 
figure  the  painter  drew  his  own  portrait,  by  others  that  the  warrior 
saint  was  a  portrait  of  Matteo  Costanzo,  a  promising  young  soldier  of 
the  Republic,  who  met  with  an  early  death. 

^  These  frescoes  are  now  wholly  obliterated. 

'  [See  Nolizia  d'Opere  di  disegno  publicata  e  illustrata  da  D.  Jacopo- 
Morelli  ed :  Gustave  Frizzoni.    Bologna,  1774.] 


158  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

Apollo,  in  the  Seminario  Vescovileat  Venice;  Three  Stages 
of  Life,  in  the  Pitti  (No.  157),  ascribed  to  Lorenzo  Lotto 
in  the  catalogue ;  the  Concert,  in  the  Louvre ;  a  picture  of 
two  Young  Men  in  a  Landscape,  in  the  Esterhazy  G-allery 
at  Pesth,  supposed  by  Signor  Morelli  to  be  a  fragment  of 
a  picture  of  the  Birth  of  Paris,  which  is  mentioned  by  the 
Anonymus  of  Morelli;  and  the  Sleeping  Venus  (No.  262), 
m  the  Dresden  Gallery,  till  lately  described  in  the  catalogue 
as  "  a  copy  of  Titian,  probably  by  Sasso  Ferrato."  All 
these  are  now  generally  accepted  as  genuine  works  of 
Giorgione,  and  of  all  Signor  Morelli's  discoveries  that  of 
the  Sleeping  Venus  must  rank  as  the  most  remarkable.  It 
is  in  very  bad  condition,  but  if  properly  restored  would,  in 
the  opinion  of  Signor  Morelli,  and  not  only  of  Signor 
Morelli,  rank  among  the  most  precious  gems,  not  only  of 
the  Dresden,  but  of  all  galleries  in  the  world.  It  is  en- 
graved in  Sir  H.  Layard's  new  edition  of  Kugler.  Messrs. 
Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  doubt  the  Concert  (a  pastoral 
picture)  in  the  Louvre,  but  believe  in  the  Concert  in  the 
Uffizi.  As  to  the  more  or  less  doubtful  pictures  the 
reader  is  referred  to  Morelli's  "  Italian  Painters,"  Wolt- 
mann  and  Woermann's  "  History  of  Painting,"  and  Sir  H. 
Layard's  new  edition  of  Kugler,  in  all  of  which  books  they 
will  find  a  summary  of  recent  controversy,  besides  refe- 
rences to  other  authorities.  The  Concert  of  the  Pitti  is  an 
exquisite  picture,  and  whether  by  Giorgione  or  not  quite 
justifies  the  following  description.]  Here  are  simply  three 
half-length  figures,  probably  portraits,  standing  together, 
one  of  whom,  an  Augustine  monk,  touches  the  keys  of  an 
harpsichord  with  his  fingers,  looking  round  the  while  to 
one  of  his  companions  as  if  to  ask  him  some  question. 
Nothing  can  well  be  more  simple,  and  yet  so  fully  is  the 
genius  of  the  painter  shown  in  the  work,  and  so  subtle  and 
harmonious  is  its  varied  colour,  that  we  at  once  recognise  it 
as  one  of  the  master- works  of  that  wonderful  age. 

The  Concert  of  the  Louvre  is  a  pastoral  idyll,  wherein  are 
set  shepherds  and  scantily  attired  nymphs,  who  have  evidently 
merely  cast  aside  their  clothing  in  order  to  give  the  painter 
an  opportunity  of  displaying  the  richness  of  his  carnations. 
Several  such  idyllic  scenes  were,  no  doubt,  painted  by 
Giorgione,  but  he  is  by  no  means  responsible  for  all  that 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  159 

are  now  attributed  to  him.  If  we  wonder  at  the  rarity  of 
his  undisputed  works,  we  must  remember  his  life  only 
reckoned  thirty-three  years,  and  he  does  not  appear  to 
have  been,  like  Eaphael,  a  remarkably  industrious  painter. 

Eidolfi  tells  us  that  he  died  of  a  broken  heart,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  unfaithfulness  of  his  mistress,  who  deserted 
him  for  his  friend,  Morto  da  Feltre.  Vasari  also  speaks 
of  his  fondness  for  "  love-passages,"  and  hints  at  a  similar 
cause  for  his  death  to  that  which  he  carelessly  assigns  for 
Kaphael's.  It  is,  however,  tolerably  certain  that,  whether 
broken-hearted  or  not,  Giorgione  died  of  the  plague  in 
1511.  But  even  though  the  broken  heart  be  a  poetical 
fiction,  it  seems  not  improbable  that  at  some  period  a 
shadow  of  sorrow  crossed  the  painter's  brilliant  life,  for 
even  in  his  gayest  subjects,  there  is  often  an  underlying 
element  of  sadness  and  mystery — a  "  prophecy  of  sorrow," 
as  Mrs.  Jameson  calls  it — that  is  very  different  to  the  clear, 
defined  expression  of  the  enjoyment  of  human  life  that  we 
find  in  Titian  and  other  masters  of  this  school. 

Of  the  masters  who  were  influenced  by  Giorgione 
(he  had  no  direct  pupils),  Sebastiano  del  Piombo,  before 
mentioned  as  having  gone  to  Rome,  where  he  became  a 
follower  of  Michael  Angelo,  is  undoubtedly  the  most 
important. 

A  more  powerful  master  of  this  time,  whose  style  was 
likewise  formed  to  a  certain  extent  upon  that  of  Palma 
Vecchio  and  Giorgione,  was  Giovanni  Antonio  da  Por- 
DENONE  (1483-1539),  a  painter  who  is  thought  by  some  to 
have  rivalled  even  Titian  in  the  glow  of  his  colouring  and 
the  beauty  of  his  flesh-painting.  His  pictures  are  generally 
of  large  size  and  spirited  treatment. 

David  with  the  head  of  Goliath,  the  Daughter  of  Hero- 
dias  with  the  head  of  S.  John  the  Baptist,  and  Judith 
with  the  head  of  Holof ernes,  are  among  the  subjects  he 
has  chosen.  His  principal  frescoes  are  in  the  Church  of  the 
Madonna  di  Campagna,  at  Piacenza.^ 

Two  pictures  at  Burleigh  House,  the  Finding  of  Moses 

'  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  "  History  of  Painting  in  North  Italy." 
[Other  important  works  of  this  highly  dramatic  and  decorative  painter 
are  in  the  church  of  Salvatore  at  Colalto,  the  cathedrals  at  Treviso  and 
Cremona,  in  the  Doria  Palace  at  Genoa,  &c.] 


160  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

and  the  Adoration  of  the  Kings,  are  assigned  to  Pordenone 
by  Dr.  Waagen,  but  besides  these,  which  are  doubtful, 
there  are  few  examples  of  his  work  in  England.  The  Apostle 
in  the  National  G-allery,  No.  272,  if  genuine,  is  not  a 
fortunate  specimen  of  his  powerful  and  colossal  style. 

Bernabdino  Licinio  (painted  1624-1541),  a  relation  of 
Pordenone's,  and  several  other  lesser  artists  cojjied  and 
carried  on  this  style.  [To  Licinio  may  be  attributed  a 
large  number  of  the  portraits  ascribed  in  galleries  to 
Pordenone,  of  which  the  so-called  Family  of  Pordenone 
at  Hampton  Court,  No.  152,  is  an  example.] 

Another  master  who  came  very  near  to  the  highest  point 
of  Venetian  greatness,  but  who  just  fell  below  the  surpass- 
ing excellence  of  Giorgione  and  Titian,  was  Jacopo  Palma 
(bom  probably  about  1480,  died  1528),  or  Palma  Vecchio,. 
as  he  was  called,  to  distinguish  him  from  a  younger  painter, 
his  nephew  of  the  same  name. 

Although  influenced,  like  almost  every  master  of  his 
time,  by  the  seductive  Griorgione,  he  yet  preserved  a 
thoroughly  independent  position.  His  pictures  have  not 
indeed  the  coarse  power  of  Pordenone's,  but  they  have  a 
soft  sensuous  beauty,  never  falling  into  sensuality,  which  is 
peculiarly  attractive.  Strange  to  say,  although  tempted, 
one  might  suppose,  by  his  exquisite  perception  of  female 
loveliness,  we  have  scarcely  any  mythological  subjects  by 
his  hand ;  ^  no  naked  goddesses  or  nymphs.  He  simply 
painted  the  daughters  of  Venice  in  their  own  splendid  and 
voluptuous  beauty,  without  ideaUsing  them  or  spiritualising 
them  in  the  least.  The  enchanting  Graces  of  the  Dresden 
Gallery,  so  well  known  by  engravings,  and  considered  to  be 
the  daughters  ^  of  the  master,  exhibit  his  powers  in  their 
highest  perfection.  The  magnificent  female  portrait,  known 
as  La  Bella  di  Tiziano,  in  the  Sciarra  Gallery  at  Eome, 
though  ascribed  to  Titian,  is  now  generally  supposed  to  be 
by  him.  His  Madonnas  and  Saints  are  of  the  same  ripe 
type  of  human  beauty  as  his  female  portraits. 

His  most  important  religious  work  is  the  altar-piece  of 

^  There  is  a  Venus  at  Dresden,  but  it  is  not  certain  that  it  is  authentic. 
[It  is  not  doubted  now.  The  Dresden  Gallery  has  four  or  five  good 
examples  of  this  fine  painter.] 

[2  Palma  had  a  niece  named  Magdalena,  but  had  no  daughters.] 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  161 

the  chapel  of  the  Bombardiers  in  the  church  of  S.  Maria 
Formosa,  where  S.  Barbara  is  represented  as  a  magnificent 
heroine,  not  unlike  the  proudest  of  the  three  sisters  in  the 
Dresden  Gallerj. 

[A  contemporary  of  Palma's,  and  probably  a  fellow 
student  of  his  under  Griovanni  Bellini,  was  Lorenzo  Lotto, 
who  was  bom  at  Treviso  about  1480,  and  died  about  1558. 
His  chief  works  are  at  Bergamo  and  Venice,  at  both  of  which 
places  he  resided  many  years.  Those  at  Bergamo  resemble 
Correggio  in  grace  and  chiaroscuro,  those  in  Venice  are 
Titianesque.  His  early  works  show  the  influence  of  Bellini. 
Though  various  in  style,  and  much  affected  by  other  artists, 
he  was  a  painter  of  originaHty  and  skill,  a  fine  colourist, 
and  though  not  rising  to  the  highest  rank,  an  artist  of  an 
importance  that  has  been  only  lately  recognised.  The 
splendour  of  his  best  work,  as  a  religious  painter,  can  only 
be  seen  in  Italy,  but  there  are  examples  of  it  in  the 
Louvre,  St.  Petersburg,  Vienna,  Madrid,  and  the  Bridg- 
water Gallery.  There  are  two  of  his  pictures  in  the 
National  Gallery,  the  fine  Portraits  of  Agostino  and  Niccolo 
della  Torre,  No.  699,  and  A  Family  Group,  No.  1047,  and 
at  Hampton  Court  there  is  A  Portrait,  No.  114,  till  lately 
ascribed  to  Correggio.] 

[Giovanni  Busi  Cariani  (painted  1508-1541),  was 
another  painter  of  this  period  whose  claims  to  notice  have 
been  recently  advocated  by  Messrs.  Crowe  and  Cavalcasselle. 
He  was  a  close  imitator  of  Palma  and  of  Lotto,  and  some 
of  his  works  are  ascribed  to  Bellini  and  to  Giorgione.  Most 
of  his  works  are  at  Bergamo.] 

We  now  come  to  the  greatest  of  the  Venetians,  the 
greatest  painter  perhaps,  considered  only  as  a  painter,  of 
all  time;  for  whilst  Leonardo,  Kaphael,  and  Michael 
Angelo  claim  our  reverence  as  artists,  and  by  the  beauty 
and  nobility  of  the  ideas  that  they  set  forth  in  their  works. 
Titian  calls  forth  our  admiration  by  the  magnificence  of 
his  language  alone,  independently  of  the  thoughts  ex- 
pressed in  it.  He  remains,  therefore,  the  supreme  painter 
— master  of  the  art  of  laying  colour — of  Italy,  and  after 
his  day,  painters  could  desire  nothing  more  than  "  the 
drawing  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  the  colouring  of  Titian." 

TiziANO  Vecellio  (born  at  Pieve,  in  the  province  of 


162  HISTORY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

Cadore,  in  the  Friuli.  in  1477,  died  at  Venice,  1576), 
entered  the  school  of  Griovanni  Bellini  shortly  after  Grior- 
gione,  and  quickly  deserted  the  religious  traditions  of  the 
teacher  to  follow  the  more  brilliant  and  daring  style  of  his 
fellow  student,  who  had  already  achieved  success.  Titian's 
early  works  so  closely  resemble  those  of  G-iorgione,  that 
critics  often  disagree  as  to  the  master  to  whom  they  be- 
long ;  indeed,  had  G-iorgione  lived  to  the  same  ripe  age  as 
Titian,  it  would  probably  have  been  difficult  to  tell  which 
was  the  greater  master  of  the  two,  but  Giorgione's  early 
death  left  Titian  to  pursue  the  road  to  perfection  without  a 
rival. 

The  frescoes  already  mentioned,  that  he  executed  with 
Giorgione,  on  the  outside  of  the  Fondaco  de'  Tedeschi, 
brought  him  early  fame,  but  caused,  so  Vasari  states,  a 
jealous  feeling  in  Giorgione' s  mind,  which  separated  the 
two  friends.  After  Giorgione's  death,  Titian  continued 
these  frescoes  alone,  but  all  have  now  unfortunately 
perished. 

In  1514,  he  was  invited  by  Alfonso  I.,  Duke  of  Ferrara, 
to  his  brilliant  court,  where  he  formed  a  lasting  friendship 
with  Ariosto,  who  has  celebrated  him  in  his  immortal  poem. 
From  this  time  forth,  indeed,  his  life  was  one  continued 
series  of  triumphs.  Popes,  kings,  and  emperors  vied  with 
each  other  in  showing  him  honour,  and  poets  and  philoso- 
phers were  proud  to  reckon  him  their  friend.  "  The  Friend 
of  Titian,  and  the  Scourge  of  Princes,"  was,  in  fact,  a  title 
that  the  worthless  but  clever  Aretino  bestowed  upon  him- 
self. 

For  his  patron,  the  Duke  of  Ferrara,  Titian  painted  two 
of  the  most  celebrated  of  his  early  works,  namely,  the 
Tribute  Money  (Cristo  della  Moneta),  of  which  the  original 
is  in  the  Dresden  Gallery,^  and  the  Bacchus  and  Ariadne 
of  our  National  Collection,  which  has  been  justly  extolled 
as  one  of  his  finest  works.^ 

Besides  this,  and  several  allegorical  compositions,  one  of 

^  There  are  numerous  repetitions  of  this  famous  piece,  all  going  by  the 
mme  of  Titian. 

^  It  was  pointed  out  to  young  students  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  as  a 
wonderful  example  of  harmony  of  colour.    Discourse  VIII. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING  IN    ITALY.  163 

-wliich,  a  Sacrifice  to  the  Goddess  of  Fertility,  afterwards 
supplied  Rubens  with  ideas,  he  likewise  executed  at  this 
period  the  well-known  picture  in  the  Louvre,  to  which  the 
title  of  Titian  and  his  Mistress  has  been  given,  but  which 
is  more  probably  the  portraits  of  Alfonso  and  his  second 
wife  Laura.  ^ 

On  his  return  to  Venice,  about  the  year  1516,  Titian  was 
appointed  to  continue  the  works  of  the  Hall  of  Council,  and 
also  to  the  office  of  Senseria,  which  Bellini's  death  at  this 
time  left  vacant.  His  period  of  highest  excellence  begins 
about  this  date. 

His  powers  were  now  fully  developed,  and  his  colouring 
became,  as  Kugler  says,  "  the  expression  of  life  itself." 
Nothing,  in  fact,  in  painting,  transcends  its  deep  glory  of 
gold  and  purple,  and  its  glow  of  light  and  heat :  it  is  as 
-unfathomable  as  the  life  it  expresses.  The  beauty  and 
significance  of  colour  had,  as  we  have  seen,  for  a  long  time 
been  revealing  itself  to  the  minds  of  the  Venetians.  Bellini 
had  expressed  himself  in  pure  and  tender  tones,  Giorgione's 
poetic  nature  revealed  itself  in  more  striking  and  brilliant 
•chords.  Pordenone  had  struck  the  keys  with  coarse  power, 
and  Palm  a  Vecchio  with  mild  sweetness ;  but  it  was  re- 
served for  Titian  to  bring  out  the  full  harmonies  of  the 
whole  gamut  of  colour.  This  he  played  upon  as  no  master 
ever  before  or  since  has  done,  producing  no  startling  effects, 
no  vivid  surprises,  but  simply  the  life-tones  of  nature, 
especially  as  seen  pulsating  in  the  naked  human  form. 

It  was  beauty  only,  not  religion,  that  was  now  demanded 
of  painters,  and  sensuous — indeed,  I  might  say  sensual — 
beauty  was  naturally  better  understood  and  appreciated  in 
a  city  like  Venice,  where  vice  and  immorahty  reigned  im- 
checked,^  than  that  higher  spiritual  beauty  after  which 
the  early  religious  painters  strove. 

The  nude  accordingly  rose  into  favour.  Michael  Angelo 
•gave  it  its  most  scientific,  Titian  its  most  sensuous  expres- 
sion. Like  the  Greek  painters,  he  sought  to  represent 
human  life  in  its  full  enjoyment  and  animal  perfection. 
Even  his  Madonnas  have  no  existence  above  this  earth, 

*  His  first  wife  was  the  notorious  Lucrezia  Borgia. 
-  Roger  Ascham  has  recorded  that  he  saw  more  crime  and  infamy 
in  eight  days  in  Venice,  than  he  had  seen  in  all  his  life  in  England. 


164  DISTORT    OF    PAINTING.  [eOOK    IV. 

and  his  Venuses  are  simply  splendid  women,  whose  love- 
liness is  enhanced  by  the  subtle  charms  of  the  artist's 
colouring. 

**  The  Venetian  mind,"  says  Euskin,  "  and  Titian's  espe-^ 
cially,  as  the  central  type  of  it,  was  wholly  realist,  universal, 
and  manly.  In  this  breadth  and  realism  the  painter  saw 
that  sensual  passion  in  man  was  not  only  a  fact,  but  a 
divine  fact.  The  human  creature,  though  the  highest  of 
the  animals,  was  nevertheless  a  perfect  animal,  and  his 
happiness,  health,  and  nobleness  depended  on  the  due 
power  of  every  animal  passion,  as  well  as  the  cultivation  of 
every  spiritual  tendency ." 

The  magnificent  picture  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin,, 
now  in  the  academy  at  Venice,  was  painted  by  Titian,  in 
1516,  for  an  altar-piece  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  de*" 
Frari,  and  exhibits  the  full  grandeur  of  his  developed 
style.^  The  powerful  figure  of  the  Virgin  is  caught  up,  as. 
it  were,  into  the  sky,  where  an  angel,  directed  by  the- 
Father,  waits  to  place  the  crown  upon  her  head.  Charming 
groups  of  youthful  boy  angels  surround  her,  whilst  below 
the  amazed  apostles  who  watch  her  upward  flight  exhibit, 
the  most  varied  emotions  and  longings.  It  is  truly  a  work 
of  the  utmost  beauty  of  effect  and  colour,  and  amazes  us- 
by  its  wonderful  life  and  energy ;  but  compare  this  Assump- 
tion with  the  Madonna  di  San  Sisto  of  Raphael,  and  we  at 
once  perceive  the  difference  between  religious  and  worldly 
art,  between  spiritual  and  sensual  beauty.  The  truest  ex- 
cellence in  art  is  only  reached  by  uniting  these  two,  but 
this  has  been  seldom  attained,  never  perhaps  wholly,  except 
by  Leonardo. 

In  1530  Titian  was  invited  by  the  Cardinal  Ippolito  de*^ 
Medici  to  Bologna,  where  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  and 
Clement  VII.  were  then  holding  a  conference.  Here  in 
1532  he  painted  his  first  portrait  of  the  Emperor,  repre- 
senting him  on  horseback,  in  complete  armour,  and  also  a 

^  The  brothers  of  Santa  Maria,  it  is  said,  were  at  first  somewhat 
scandalised  by  the  bold  beauty  and  life  of  their  altar-piece,  used  as  they 
had  been  to  the  calm  conventionalities  of  religious  art,  but  they  decided 
to  keep  their  pictm-e  when  they  were  offered  a  much  larger  sum  than 
they  had  given  for  it  by  one  of  the  ministers  of  Charles  V.  [Painted  in 
1518,  Woermann.] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  165 

fine  one  of  Clement  VII.,  which  now  forms  part  of  the 
Bridgewater  collection.  From  Bologna  he  proceeded  to 
Mantua,  where  he  executed  several  commissions  for  Fede- 
rigo  G-onzaga.  In  1545  he  likewise  went  to  Eome  during 
the  pontificate  of  Paul  III.,  of  whom  he  has  left  two  por- 
traits. 

Whilst  at  Eome  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Michael 
Angelo,  and  of  Michael  Angelo's  biographer,  Vasari,  who 
has  left  on  record  the  great  Florentine's  judgment  of  the 
great  Venetian.  "  Now  it  chanced,"  writes  Vasari,  "  that 
Michelagnolo  and  Vasari  going  one  day  to  see  Titian,  in 
the  Belvedere,  beheld  a  picture  which  he  had  just  then 
finished,  of  a  nude  figure  of  Danae,  with  Jupiter  trans- 
formed into  a  shower  of  gold  in  her  lap.  Many  of  those 
present  began  to  praise  the  work  highly,  as  people  do  when 
the  artist  stands  by,  and  Buonaroti,  talking  of  Titian's 
ivork  when  all  had  left  the  place,  declared  that  the  manner 
;and  colouring  of  that  artist  pleased  him  greatly,  but  that 
it  was  a  pity  that  the  Venetians  did  not  study  drawing 
more,  *  for  if,'  he  added,  '  this  artist  had  been  aided  by  art 
^nd  a  knowledge  of  design,  as  he  is  by  nature,  he  would 
have  produced  works  which  none  could  surpass.' " 

Of  Titian's  domestic  life  httle  is  known ;  he  appears  to 
liave  been  married  about  1512,  but  to  have  lost  his  wife 
l)efore  1530.  He  had  three  children — a  profligate  and 
worthless  son,  named  Pomponio ;  Orazio  Vecellio,  a  portrait- 
painter  ;  and  a  daughter  named  Lavinia,  who  still  lives  for 
lis  in  the  magnificent  portraits  that  her  father  has  left  of 
her  under  various  impersonations.  One  of  the  finest  of 
these  is  that  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  where  the  splendidly- 
.attired  girl  is  holding  up  a  plate  of  fruit. 

The  magnificence  of  Titian's  style  of  life  in  Venice  was 
more  that  of  a  prince  than  an  artist.  He  assembled  around 
him  the  most  brilliant  and  intellectual  society,  and  reckoned 
amongst  his  friends,  not  only  the  poet  Ariosto,  the  liber- 
tine wit  Aretino,  and  the  sculptor  Sansovino,  but  most  of 
the  distinguished  artists  and  men  of  letters  of  his  day,  who 
used  frequently  to  meet  at  his  house.  One  of  these  friends, 
in  a  letter  quoted  by  Ticozzi,  gives  a  description  of  a  de- 
lightful festival,  "Ferrare  Agosto,"  held  to  usher  in  August, 
■which  was  celebrated  in  Titian's  garden,  and  at  which  the 


166  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOZ  IV. 

charms  of  wit,  teauty,  music,  and  wine  were  united  in  their 
highest  perfection. 

He  was  already  seventy-three  years  of  age  when  his  last 
interview  took  place  with  Charles  V.  at  Augsburg.  Aretino 
has  described  the  scene  that  took  place,  when  it  was  known 
that  Titian  was  about  to  depart  from  Venice.  **  It  was," 
he  says,  "  the  most  flattering  testimony  to  his  excellence  to 
behold,  as  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the  divine  painter  was 
sent  for,  the  crowds  of  people  running  to  obtain,  if  possible, 
the  productions  of  his  art ;  and  how  they  endeavoured  to- 
purchase  the  pictures,  great  and  small,  and  everything  that 
was  in  the  house,  at  any  price ;  for  everybody  seems  as- 
sured that  his  august  majesty  will  so  treat  his  Apelles,  that 
he  will  no  longer  condescend  to  exercise  his  pencil  except  to- 
oblige  him."  The  painter,  in  fact,  was  at  that  time  almost 
as  great  a  man  as  the  Emperor,  who,  according  to  the  well- 
known  story,  picked  up  his  pencil,  and  rephed  to  his  apolo- 
gies by  affirming  that  "  a  Titian  was  worthy  of  being  served 
by  a  Csesar." 

Although  Titian  was  an  old  man  at  this  time  of  triumph,, 
he  had  still  many  long  years  of  life  before  him,  and  some 
even  of  his  greatest  works  were  painted  after  this  date ;  it 
was  not,  indeed,  until  after  he  had  attained  his  ninetieth 
year  that  his  hand  lost  its  accustomed  power.  Even  then, 
his  princely  mode  of  life  was  maintained,  for  we  learn  that 
when  Henry  III.  passed  through  Venice  he  was  magni- 
ficently entertained  by  Titian  at  his  own  house,  and  that  on. 
the  departure  of  the  royal  guest  his  munificent  host  pre- 
sented him  with  all  the  pictures  that  had  called  forth  his. 
admiration.  Vasari,  who  visited  Venice  in  1566,  relates 
that  he  found  the  patriarch  still  with  pencils  in  his  hand 
and  painting  busily,  and  "  great  pleasure  had  Vasari  in. 
beholding  his  works,  and  in  conversation  with  the  master." 
Finally,  this  marvellously  prolonged  and  successful  life 
came  to  a  close  in  1576,  when  Titian,  in  the  hundredth 
year  of  his  age,  fell  a  victim  to  the  plague  that  broke  out 
in  that  year.  His  son  Orazio  died  of  the  same  disease 
during  the  same  outbreak.  Such  was  the  universal  terror 
that  prevailed  at  this  time,  that  even  burial  in  the  churches 
was  denied  to  those  who  died  of  the  plague  ;  but  this  pre- 
caution  was   set  aside  in  the  case   of   Titian,  who  wa& 


BOOK  IV.]  PAINTING  IN  ITALY.  167 

honourably  interred  in  the  church  of  the  Frari,  for  which 
he  had  so  long  before  painted  his  famous  Assumption. 

As  a  portrait  painter  Titian  stands  unrivalled,  perhaps, 
in  all  ages.  His  portraits  are  pages  of  history,  and  he  has 
the  merit  that  so  few  historians  possess,  of  seizing  all  that 
is  most  important  and  significant  in  the  characters  of  his 
sitters,  and  leaving  out  all  that  is  trivial  or  meaningless. 
He  has  left  us  portraits  of  many  of  the  most  celebrated 
men  of  his  time.  The  Emperor  Charles  V.,  whom  he 
painted  several  times,  his  son  Philip  II.,  the  Duke  of  Alva, 
Francis  I.  of  France,  the  Constable  de  Bourbon,  Caesar 
Borgia,  Ippolito  de'  Medici,  all  the  Doges  of  his  time 
(whom  he  painted  by  virtue  of  his  office),  three  Popes, 
namely,  Clement  VII.,  Paul  III.,  and  Paul  IV.,  as  well  as 
his  friends  Aretino,  Ariosto,  and  Sansovino,  and  many 
other  men  of  almost  equal  note,  are  all  revealed  to  us  by 
his  master  power;  they  live,  so  to  speak,  on  his  canvas. 
And  last,  not  least,  there  are  the  portraits  of  himself. 
These  always  represent  him  in  his  old  age,  but  in  the 
searching  eyes  which  shine  from  beneath  the  massive  fore- 
head and  wrinkled  brows,  the  intense,  vigorous  life,  and 
wonderful  intellect  of  the  old  giant  are  seen  even  to  the  last. 

No  estimate  of  Titian's  art  would  be  sufficient  without 
mentioning  the  marvellous  beauty  of  his  landscapes.  Like 
Giorgione,  he  made  his  landscape  backgrounds  of  great 
importance,  and  has  thrown  into  them  a  more  poetical 
expression  than  we  usually  find  in  his  works.  The  land- 
scape of  the  S.  Peter  Martyr,  for  instance,  immensely 
enhances  the  solemn  effect  produced  by  that  powerful 
work.^  The  borders  of  the  dark  wood,  the  tall  trees  bend- 
ing above  in  the  wind,  whilst  through  their  interlaced 
boughs  the  light  of  Heaven  streams  down  on  the  mur- 
dered man,  the  distant  hills  and  the  purple  banks  of 
evening  cloud,  are  all  in  poetic  harmony  with  the  awful 
scene  that  is  being  enacted  amidst  their  solemn  beauty ; 
and  in  the  landscapes  of  many  other  of  his  works,  also,  the 
same  poetic  feeling  is  manifest. 

'  Unfortunately  this  work,  one  of  Titian's  most  celebrated  paintings, 
was  destroyed  by  tire  in  1867  in  the  church  of  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo. 
All  critics  agreed  in  placing  it  amongst  the  highest  productions  of  his 
art. 


168  HISTORY   OF    PAINTIXG.  [bOOK  IV. 

It  would  be  impossible  Here  to  enumerate  even  the  most 
famous  of  Titian's  famous  works.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
they  may  be  found  in  almost  eveiy  important  gallery — 
that  the  Louvre  contains  no  less  than  eighteen  examples, 
including  the  noble  Crowning  with  Thorns,  formerly  at 
Milan ;  the  Entombment,  a  replica  of  that  in  the  Man- 
frini  Palace  ;  and  the  Jupiter  and  Antiope,  known  as  the 
"Venus  del  Pardo" — that  the  Dresden  Gallery  has  not 
only  the  Tribute  Money,  but  a  charming  Holy  Family 
with  saints,  and  a  Venus  crowned  by  Love,  of  exquisite 
beauty  of  flesh,  and  several  other  lesser  works — that 
Munich  has  seven  paintings,  principally  portraits — Vienna, 
the  great  Ecce  Homo,  several  portraits,  and  other  small 
works — Madrid,  most  of  the  master-pieces  painted  for 
Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.,  including  the  Diana  and  Cal- 
listo,  of  which  there  is  a  good  copy  in  the  Bridgewater 
Gallery — and  that  the  National  collection,  besides  the 
Bacchus  and  Ariadne,  and  the  Madonna  with  S.  John  the 
Baptist  and  S.  Catherine,  examples  of  his  earher  period, 
has  the  splendid  portrait  of  Ariosto,  equal  in  character 
and  colour  to  almost  any  portrait  by  his  hand.  The 
Bridgewater  Gallery  likewise  contains  one  of  his  celebrated 
Venuses. 

Although  Titian  had  few  real  pupils,  not  having,  as 
Vasari  tells  us,  "  the  disposition  to  instruct  disciples,  even 
though  encouraged  thereto  by  their  patience  and  good 
conduct,"  yet,  as  might  be  expected,  he  had  a  great  number 
of  followers,  who  all  more  or  less  successfully  adopted  his 
style  and  colouring,  and  produced  works  whose  rare  excel- 
lence can  only  be  attributed  to  his  powerful  and  beneficial 
influence.  In  no  other  school,  except  perhaps  that  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  do  the  works  of  the  lesser  men  ap- 
proach so  near  to  the  greatness  of  the  master. 

Amongst  those  painters  who  were  more  immediately 
under  Titian's  influence  may  be  mentioned  Paris  Bor- 
DONE  (1500-1570),  who,  in  the  exquisite  beauty  and  warm 
hfe  of  his  flesh-painting,  often  equals  Titian  himself.  His 
female  portraits,  of  which  there  is  a  magnificent  examj^le 
in  the  National  Gallery,^  are  splendid  representations  of 

[^  (No.  674.)  The  gallery  also  contains  another  fine  e.^:ample  of  this 
master, "  Daphnis  and  Chloe  "  (No.  637).] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  169 

the  proud,  passionate,  golden-haired,  voluptuous  beauties 
of  Venice. 

BoNiFAzio  DA  Verona  the  elder  ^  (about  1491-1540) 
confined  himself  almost  entirely  to  religious  subjects. 
[There  is  a  picture  by  him  in  the  National  Gallery,  No. 
1202.] 

[Certain  artists  of  Brescia,  though  influenced  by  the 
^reat  painters  of  Padua  and  Venice,  retained  sufficient  in- 
dependence of  style  to  be  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
artists  of  North  Italy.  A  simpler  naturalism,  a  key  of 
colour  inclined  to  silver  rather  than  gold,  prevails  through 
their  more  distinctive  works. 

One  of  these  was  Gtian  Gironimo  Savoldo,  of  Brescia 
(died  after  1548),  who  studied  at  Florence  and  Venice. 
His  most  important  work  is  in  the  Brera.  At  Berlin  is  a 
Venetian  Lady  or  S.  Magdalen,  of  which  a  replica  is  in 
the  National  Gallery.] 

Better  known  is  Alessandro  Bonvicino,  of  Brescia, 
called  II  Moretto  (born  in  1498,  died  about  1556).  He 
likewise  eschewed  worldly  themes  for  his  art,  and  although 
undoubtedly  owing  much  of  his  excellence  of  colouring  to 
the  study  of  Titian,  he  managed  to  maintain  a  distinct 
originality.  [His  great  genius  can  only  be  thoroughly 
studied  in  the  churches  of  Brescia.  But  there  are  a  few 
good  examples  of  his  work  in  the  public  galleries  of 
Europe.  At  Milan  and  Venice,  at  Paris  and  St.  Peters- 
burg, he  is  well  represented.]  The  Stadel  Museum  at 
Frankfort  possesses  a  magnificent  symbolic  altar-piece  by 
him,  representing  the  four  Latin  Fathers  and  other  sup- 
porters of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  around  the  throne  of 
the  Madonna.  The  National  Gallery  also  has  a  grand 
altar-piece,  representing  the  Vision  of  S.  Bernard,  No. 
625,  another  with  the  birth  of  the  Virgin  and  two 
Saints,  No.  1165,  and  two  fine  portraits,  Nos.  299,  and 
1025.] 

[GiROLAMo  RoMANiNO  (about  1485  to  about  1566), 
though  not  equal  to  Moretto,  was  also  a  great  artist. 
His  colouring  is  warm  and  Giorgionesque  in  his  early 

['  There  were  two  Bonifazios  called  Veronese,  and  one  Bonifazio 
Veneziano.    The  elder  Bonifazio  Veronese  was  the  best  painter  of  the 
f      three.] 


170  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

works,  and  is  always  rich  and  harmonious.  He  is  also 
fine  in  composition,  but  often  faulty  in  drawing.  His 
greatest  works  are  at  Brescia.  In  the  National  Gallery  is 
a  large  composite  altar-piece  of  great  beauty.  No.  29.] 

G-iAMBATTisTA  MoRONi  (about  1510-1578),  studied 
under  II  Moretto.  His  chief  excellence  lay  in  portraiture, 
in  which  he  surpassed  almost  every  master  of  the  period, 
and  all  the  Venetians  were  great  in  this  particular  line  of 
art.  [His  portrait  of  a  tailor  in  the  National  Gallery, 
No.  697,  is  a  masterpiece  of  simple  naturalism,  and  his 
other  portraits  there,  Nos.  742  and  1022,  are  little  inferior 
to  it. 

Although  not  belonging  to  this  group  of  Brescian 
artists,  it  was  near  Brescia  that  another  painter  of 
dignity,  simplicity,  and  originality  was  born.  This  was 
Bartolommeo  Montagna,  the  great  master  of  Vicenza, 
where  he  worked  from  about  1484  till  1517.  Of  his 
numerous  works,  the  best  is  the  altar-piece  with  the 
Madonna,  enthroned  now  in  the  Brera,  Milan,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Signor  Morelli,  shows  the  influence  of  Car- 
paccio.  The  half-length  of  the  Madonna  and  Child  (No. 
1098)  in  the  National  Gallery  is  accounted  genuine,  but 
not  No.  802. 

Two  painters  of  the  Milanese  school,  the  brothers  Alber- 
tino  (died  before  1529)  and  Martino  Piazza,  of  Lodi, 
may  be  mentioned  here.  There  is  a  fine  example  of 
Martino' s  work  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1152),  a  S. 
John  the  Baptist  in  a  cave,  beyond  which  are  seen  snow- 
capped mountains  of  great  beauty. 

Francesco  Tacconi  (painted  1464-1490)  and  Boccacio 
BoccACCiNO  (1460,  died  about  1518),  two  painters  of  Cre- 
mona, are  also  represented  in  the  National  Gallery ;  and  by 
Altobello  Melone,  a  pupil  of  Eomanino,  who  worked 
chiefly  at  Cremona,  there  is  a  remarkable  picture  of 
Christ  and  his  disciples  going  to  Emmaus,  No.  753.] 

The  germ  of  sensual  evil  that,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
planted  by  Giorgione  and  Titian,  and  grew  with  Paris 
Bordone,  was  more  fully  developed  in  the  meretricious  art 
of  Andrea  Schiavone,  whose  simpering  and  affected 
beauties,  so  perfectly  conscious  of  their  nakedness,  contrast 
painfully  with  the  calm,  splendid  goddesses  of  Titian,  who 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  171 

stand  clothed  in  their  own  serene  majesty  and  womanly 
beauty/ 

The  drawing  of  Michael  Angelo,  with  the  colouring  of 
Titian,  was  the  aspiring  motto  of  Jacopo  Robusti,  known 
as  II  Tintoretto,  from  the  circumstance  of  his  father 
having  been  a  dyer  by  trade  (born  1518,  died  1594). 
Whether  he  ever  attained  to  this  much-desired  union  of 
the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  two  greatest  masters  is 
a  question  that  is  much  disputed  by  critics,  some  asserting 
that  his  daring  art  really  reached  the  heights  it  was  ever 
seeking  to  climb,  and  others  that  his  genius 

"  But  to  sink  the  deeper  rose  the  higher." 

Both  are  perhaps  in  part  correct  in  their  judgment,  for  no 
master's  works  were  ever  so  unequal  in  their  merit,  or  at 
all  events,  no  master  ever  had  such  unequal  works  attri- 
buted to  him.  This  inequality,  though  increased  to  us,  no 
doubt,  by  works  wrongly  ascribed,  must,  however,  have 
existed  to  some  extent  in  the  painter  himself,  for  we  find 
that  the  Venetians  were  accustomed  to  say  that  "  he  had 
three  pencils — one  of  gold,  one  of  silver,  and  a  third  of 
iron."  From  his  rapid  mode  of  painting  he  acquired  the 
name  of  II  Furioso.  Covering  walls  and  ceilings  with  the 
boldest  designs  in  less  time  than  the  mere  decorator  would 
have  spent  over  the  work,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
execution  of  some  of  these  wonderful  paintmgs  was  as 
rough  and  mechanical  as  that  of  the  decorator,  whose 
mode  of  proceeding  he  imitated.  Much  of  his  painting,, 
indeed,  could  have  been  nothing  more  than  the  bold  deco- 
ration of  a  skilful  journeyman. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  several  works  by  him  in 
which  the  highest  artistic  excellence,  not  only  of  conception 
and  composition,  but  likewise  of  execution,  is  reached.  The 
celebrated  Miracle  of  S.  Mark,  now  in  the  academy  at 
Venice,  wherein  the  saint,  a  powerful-bodied  man,  descends 
head  downwards  from  Heaven  to  rescue  a  Christian  slave 
from  his  executioners,  is  a  painting  that  is  astounding,, 
alike  by  its  boldness  of  design,  its  marvellous  effects  of 

'  Andrea  Schiavone  must  not  be  confounded  with  another  painter  of 
the  name,  Gregorio  Schiavoxe,  the  pupil  of  Squarcione,  v.  page  72. 


.172  HISTOET    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

light  and  shade,  and  its  powerful  colouring.  "  C'est  un 
■oeuvre  de  coloriste,"  says  Charles  Blanc,  "  qu'aucune  autre 
meme  a  Venise  ne  ferait  pftlir." 

The  same,  possibly,  might  once  have  been  said  of  his 
Paradise,  a  gigantic  oil  painting  seventy -four  feet  long  by 
thirty  feet  high,  in  the  Ducal  Palace,  which  was  executed 
"by  Tintoretto  when  he  was  seventy-six  years  of  age  (assisted 
only  by  his  son  Domenico),  in  the  incredibly  short  space  of 
three  or  four  years.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  former 
beauty  of  this  enormous  work,  it  has  now  completely  dis- 
appeared, and  nothing  is  left  but  an  inextricable  mass  of 
<jonfusion. 

Sacred  subjects  were  treated  by  Tintoretto  with  a  coarse 
realism  entirely  opposed  to  the  feeling  and  dignity  of 
religious  art.  He  even  degraded  the  mystery  of  the  Last 
Supper  into  a  scene  of  vulgar  carousal,  and  travestied  the 
Last  Judgment  until,  as  Vasari  says,  notwithstanding  the 
power  displayed  in  it,  "  it  had  all  the  appearance  of  having 
been  painted  as  a  jest."  Mythological  subjects  were  more 
suited  to  his  bold  style,  and  his  rendering  of  these  was 
often  gracefully  antique. 

Like  Titian,  he  lived  to  a  great  age,  and  painted  with 
vigour  to  the  last.  His  fine  portraits  are  now  about  the 
best  specimens  of  his  art  that  remain ;  for  unfortunately 
but  few  of  his  great  works  have  escaped  destruction.  The 
paintings  assigned  to  him  in  galleries  are  very  seldom 
genuine.  There  is  a  fine  etching  by  him  (the  only  one 
he  is  known  to  have  executed)  of  the  Doge  Paschalis 
Oiconia. 

[The  National  G-allery  contains  two  works  by  Tintoretto 
— S.  G-eorge  and  the  Dragon  (No.  16),  a  fine  examj^le 
of  the  master's  force  and  colour,  and  Christ  washing  the 
feet  of  His  Disciples,  No.  1130]. 

Besides  his  son  Domenico,  Tintoretto  had  a  daughter, 
a  portrait  painter,  known  as  Tintoretta.  He  had  very 
few  followers  ;  his  son,  a  German  named  Jacob  Eotten- 
HAMMEE,  and  Antonio  Vasitacchi,  called  Aliense,  were 
indeed  about  the  only  masters  who  attemj^ted  to  imitate 
liis  outrageous  style. 

Paolo  Cagliaei,  usually  known  as  Paolo  Veeonese 
^orn  1528,  died  1588),  was,  as  his  name  implies,  a  native 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  173' 

of  Verona.  The  Veronese  school  had  for  some  time  past 
been  rising  into  note,'  and  even  in  the  fifteenth  century 
had  produced  such  men  as  Francesco  Bonsigngei,^ 
Francesco  Caroto,^  Francesco  Morone,*  Girolamo 
DAI  LiBRi,'  Paolo  Morando,"  who,  in  Vasari's  opinion, 
had  he  lived,  would  have  acquired  an  immense  reputation, 
Girolamo  Mocetto,  who  principally  devoted  himself  to 
copper  engraving,  Giolfino,  Torbido,  and  several  others 
of  lesser  merit.  Many  of  these  Veronese  masters  had  studied 
at  Padua,  and  all,  it  would  seem,  were  more  or  less  in- 
fluenced by  Mantegna's  art.  The  Veronese  school,  in  fact, 
was  not  much  more  than  a  branch  of  the  Paduan  until  it 
culminated  in  Paolo  Veronese,  who  drew  it  at  once  to  Venice- 
He  is,  indeed,  a  Venetian  painter  in  every  characteristic,  and 
as  Giovanni  Bellini  begins  the  ascending  arc  of  Venetian 
colour,  so  Paolo  Veronese  ends  it,  bringing  it  back  to 
earth  to  have  its  rich  beauty  trailed  in  the  dust  by  suc- 
ceeding masters. 

Veronese  went  to  Venice  in  1555,  having  studied  pre- 
viously under  Antonio  Badile,  his  uncle,  a  painter  of  some 
reputation  in  Verona.  He  does  not,  however,  appear  to 
have  attracted  much  attention  in  Venice  at  first,  for  we 
find  an  author  of  the  period  regretting  that  there  were  no 
rising  young  painters  to  carry  on  the  glories  of  Titian's 
art,  and  Vasari  accords  him  but  a  sHght  notice,  having 
evidently  no  notion  of  the  fame  he  was  afterwards  to 
acquire. 

[^  For  earlier  painters  of  Verona,  see  pp.  45  and  84.] 

[^  (1455-1519)  pupil  of  Mantegna.  A  fine  head  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery, No.  736.] 

[^  (1470-1546)  pupil  of  Liberale  and  Mantep;na,  called  "  The  Proteus 
of  Veronese  art"  from  his  various  styles.     Principal  works  at  \'erona.] 

[*  (1473-1529).  Finest  works  at  Organo.  Examples  in  the  Brera, 
Berlin  Museum,  and  National  Gallery,  No.  2S5.] 

['  (1474-1556).  Painted  with  Francesco  Morone.  Principal  works 
at  Verona.  Represented  in  National  Gallery  by  a  richly -coloured  and 
characteristic  picture,  No,  748.] 

[•^  (1486-1622).  The  greatest  of  these  forerunners  of  Paul  Veronese. 
There  are  two  beautiful  pictures  by  this  refined  master  in  the  National 
Gallery,  No.  735  and  777.] 

[^  Titian  recommended  him  to  assist  in  the  decollation  of  the  Council 
Hall  of  the  Doge's  palace  (destroyed  by  fire  in  1579),  for  which  work  he- 
received  a  gold  chain  from  the  Senate.] 


174  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

His  first  important  work  still  existing  is  that  executed 
for  the  church  of  San  Sebastiano,  where  he  depicted  on  the 
•ceiling  some  gorgeous  scenes  from  the  history  of  Esther. 
These  paintings  attracted  so  much  admiration,  that  the 
monks  engaged  him  for  further  work,  and  their  church 
was  soon  decorated  with  three  large  paintings,  representing 
the  Martyrdom  of  S.  Sebastian.  In  the  first,  where  the 
:saint  is  j^roceeding  to  the  place  of  martyrdom  with  his 
fellow- sufferers,  Marcus  and  Marcellinus,  the  most  tumul- 
tuous life  and  excitement  prevail,  people  crowding  forward, 
climbing  on  to  balustrades,  and  clinging  to  jjillars,  in  order 
to  get  a  better  view  of  the  scene  of  execution.  The  other 
two,  in  which  the  saint  is  stretched  on  the  rack,  and 
pierced  with  arrows,  are  quieter  in  composition,  and  must 
therefore  have  been  less  to  the  artist's  taste. 

For  what  Paolo  Veronese  sought  above  all  things 
to  express,  was  the  pomp  and  splendour  of  earthly  pa- 
geantry, the  riches  of  this  life,  the  vain-glory  of  mortal 
man.  There  is  no  hint  in  any  one  of  his  works]  of  a  belief 
in  any  higher  life  than  that  of  the  beautiful  Venetian  city 
in  which  he  dwelt. 

Quite  naturally,  therefore,  he  brings  down  his  Madon- 
nas, Saints,  and  most  sacred  characters  to  dwell  -with  him, 
in  this  same  splendid  Venetian  world,  with  its  magnificent 
Renaissance  halls,  its  gorgeous  costumes,  and  festive  cele- 
brations. He  has  no  notion  of  anything  more  to  be  de- 
sired than  such  happiness,  and  accordingly  he  seeks  to 
solace  the  pale  martyrs,  whom  early  art  had  represented  in 
mystic  beatitude,  by  bringing  them  home  to  his  own  house 
in  Venice,  where,  clothed  in  rich  apparel,  they  receive  the 
homage  of  his  equally  richly-attired  wife  and  children,  as 
in  the  well-known  picture  in  the  Dresden  Gallery. 

But  strange  and  incongruous  as  such  a  mode  of  repre- 
senting sacred  characters  appears  to  us,  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily betoken  any  irreverence  in  the  mind  of  the  painter. 
Religion  in  Venice,  even  in  the  sixteenth  century,  was 
m.ore  a  part  of  everyday  life  than  it  is  with  us  English  at 
the  present  day,  who  j)ut  it  aside  as  something  to  be  at- 
tended to  on  Sundays  and  solemn  moments,  and  deem  it 
irreverent  for  it  to  be  introduced  into  our  domestic  con- 
cerns or  mercantile  transactions.    But  with  the  Venetians, 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN   ITALY.  175 

the  saints  were  regarded  as  a  real  power  in  the  state,  to  be 
<?ntreated,  propitiated,  or  even,  it  may  be,  cheated  on 
occasion,  but  not  as  yet,  at  all  events,  to  be  shoved  aside  as 
useless  and  incapable. 

Paolo  Veronese  accordingly  saw  no  more  harm  in  intro- 
ducing his  Saviour  at  a  lavish  tumultuous  Venetian  ban- 
quet, than  he  did  in  introducing  Eleanor  of  Austria, 
Charles  V.,  Erancis  I.,  Queen  Mary  of  England,  the  Sultan 
Achmet  II.,  all  of  whom,  as  well  as  the  most  famous 
painters  then  working  in  Venice,  he  has  represented  as 
present  at  the  Marriage  of  Cana. 

This  celebrated  picture  is  so  well  known,  that  it  needs 
no  description.  Every  one  has  formed  some  idea  of  the 
painter's  gorgeous  style  and  colouring  from  it,  and  no 
better  example,  perhaps,  could  have  been  taken.  It  was 
originally  painted  for  the  refectory  of  the  Convent  of 
S.  Griorgio  Maggiore,  but  now  hangs  in  the  Louvre. 

Almost  comparable  to  the  Marriage  of  Cana,  in  point  of 
size,  though  perhaps  not  in  general  effect,  is  the  Feast  of 
the  Levite,  of  the  Venetian  Academy.  The  Supper  at 
Emmaus,  was  likewise  a  favourite  subject  with  tliis  master. 
In  one  of  his  representations  of  it,  that,  namely,  in  the 
Louvre,  he  has  introduced  himself  and  his  family  into  the 
solemn  scene  ;  two  of  his  little  girls  play  with  a  large  dog, 
at  the  very  feet  of  the  Saviour. 

Besides  his  festal  banqueting  scenes,^  his  Adorations  of 
the  Magi,  and  his  grand  altar-pieces,  generally  representing 
some  stirring  biblical  or  legendary  history,  Paolo  Veronese 
has  likewise  painted  a  great  number  of  mythological  sub- 
jects, with  great  splendour  of  colouring,  but  without  much 
taste. 

He  is  wonderfully  well  represented  in  the  National  Gal- 

*  His  fondness  for  these  is  amusingly  illustrated  by  a  memorandum 
that,  according  to  liidolfi,  was  found  at  the  back  of  one  of  his  drawings. 
"  If  ever  I  have  time,"  it  states,  "  I  will  represent  a  sumptuous  repast  in 
a  superb  gallery,  at  which  the  Virgin,  the  Saviour,  and  Joseph  shall  be 
present,  served  by  the  richest  cortege  of  angels  that  it  is  possible  to 
imagine,  who  shall  offer  to  them,  on  plates  of  silver  and  gold,  the  most 
exquisite  viands,  and  an  abundance  of  superb  fruits.  Others  shall  be 
occupied  in  presenting  to  them,  in  transparent  crystal  and  gold  cups, 
precious  liqueurs,  to  sliow  the  zeal  with  which  happy  spirits  serve  their 
Lord." 


176  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [eOOK    IV. 

lery,  where  tliere  is  not  only  his  important  hut  unin- 
teresting Family  of  Darius,  but  one  of  his  Adorations,  a 
splendidly  coloured  Consecration  of  St.  Nicholas  [and  the 
beautiful  Vision  of  S.  Helena].  A  study  for  the  Eape  of 
Europa,  which  subject  he  painted  several  times,  is  also  in 
the  Gallery. 

He  died  in  Venice  shortly  before  Tintoretto,  and  a  few 
years  after  Titian.  His  brother  Benedetto,  his  son  Carlo,. 
and  a  painter  named  Battista  Zelotti,^  were  his  principal 
followers.  They  signed  themselves  collectively  as  his  heirs, 
completed  his  unfinished  works,  and  executed  others  in  a» 
similar  style,  but  without  his  power,  imagination  and 
colouring. 

With  Veronese  and  Tintoretto  the  glory  of  the  great 
colour  school  of  Venice  departed ;  but  before  tracing  its  fall, 
there  remains  to  be  noticed  one  other  master,  who  like 
Titian  and  Veronese,  went  to  nature  for  instruction,  but 
who,  unlike  these  masters,  who  only  delighted  in  her  glory 
of  purple,  crimson,  and  gold,  loved  her  in  her  most  homely 
garb.  Instead  of  kings  and  queens,  splendid  architecture 
and  rich  banquets,  Jacopo  da  Ponte,  called  Bassano,  from 
his  native  town  (1510-1592),  painted  peasants,  beggars, 
cottages,  cattle,  poultry,  and  even  the  pots  and  pans  that 
were  afterwards  such  favourite  subjects  of  the  Dutch  still- 
life  painters.  In  fact,  he  drew  the  dignified  art  of  Venice 
down  to  mere  genre-painting,  and  without  any  attempt  at 
ideality,  simply  imitated  the  ordinary  types  he  saw  around 
him.  Thus,  whether  he  represented  a  saint  or  a  peasant 
girl,  it  was  all  the  same,  one  model  did  for  both,  or  for  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  if  the  occasion  required  it.  But  yet  his 
execution  is  so  clever,  and  his  colouring  so  radiant,  that  his 
simple  scenes  of  country  life  are  not  unworthy  to  be  placed 
beside  Veronese's  elaborate  representations  of  pompous  city 
life.  In  truth,  there  is  not  much  difference  between  the 
aims  of  these  two  masters,  different  at  first  sight  as  their 
styles  appear.  Veronese,  it  is  true,  surrounded  his  sacred 
characters  with  all  the  attributes  of  wealth  and  dignity, 
and  Bassano  placed  them  not  unfrequently  amidst  the  ac- 

[^  Born  at  Verona  about  1532,  d.  1592.  There  is  a  portrait  of  a  lady 
in  a  green  dress  in  the  National  Gallery  which  is  doubtfully  ascribed  to 
this  master.] 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  177 

companiments  of  poverty,  but  they  each  brought  them 
down  to  earth,  and  made  them  of  the  earth,  earthy. 

The  Good  Samaritan,  No.  277,  of  the  National  Gallery, 
is  a  very  fine  example  of  Bassano's  style  and  gem-like 
colouring. 

Bassano  had  four  sons,  all  of  whom  he  brought  up  as 
painters,  and  who,  after  his  death,  inundated  the  markets 
with  pictures  of  familiar  life,  all  cast,  as  it  were,  in  the 
same  mould. 

There  yet  remains  one  great  master  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury who  stands  alone,  as  it  were,  amidst  the  painters  of 
histime,^  but  who,  by  the  sensuous  character  of  his  art,  is 
more  nearly  allied  to  the  school  of  Venice  than  to  the 
severer  intellectual  schools  of  Padua  or  Florence,  or  to  the 
religious  school  of  TJmbria.  This  master  is  Antonio  Al- 
LEORi  DA  CoRREGGio  (bom  1494,  died  1534).  "  If,"  says 
Herman  Grimm,*  "  we  were  to  imagine  streams  issuing  from 
the  minds  of  Eaphael,  Michael  Angelo,  Leonardo,  and  Titian, 
meeting  together  to  form  a  new  mind,  Correggio  would  be 
produced."  And  yet  his  genius  is  original,  and  even  pecu- 
liar in  character,  and  his  style — his  eigenart,  as  the  Ger- 
mans call  it — is  thoroughly  individual.  Educated  in  one 
of  the  schools  of  Lombardy,  where  Leonardo's  influence 
was  predominant,  he  owed  more  to  him,  undoubtedly,  than 
to  any  other  master ;  but  the  exquisite  grace  that  but  gives 
an  additional  charm  to  Leonardo's  works,  becomes  in  those 
of  Correggio  a  principal  feature.  The  intellectual  qualities 
of  Leonardo's  art  also  disappear,  and  the  sensuous  are 
exaggerated. 

But  what  above  all  else  distinguishes  Correggio  from 
every  other  painter,  is  his  wonderful  understanding  of 
chiaroscuro, — his  delicate  perception  of  the  minutest  gra- 
dations of  light  and  shade.  Here  he  is  without  a  rival. 
He  has  no  lofty  ideal,  no  deep  thoughts  to  express ;  but  his 
works  diffuse  such  a  marvellous  atmosphere  of  light  and 
joy,  that  we  forget  altogether  to  criticise  them,  so  pene- 
trated are  we  by  their  beauty.  His  figures  seem  to  live  in 
the  serene  happiness  of  a  golden  age,  unstained  by  sin  or 


^  Vasari  calls  him  "  pittore  singularissimo." 
»  '•  Life  of  Michael  Angelo,"  vol.  ii. 


178  HISTORY   OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

sorrow.  They  are  literally  bathed  in  soft  dreamy  bliss  as 
they— 

"  Lie  reclined 
On  the  hills  like  gods  together,  careless  of  mankind." 

or  are  filled,  as  it  were,  with  passionate  rhythmical  move- 
ment. 

His  father  was  a  merchant  of  good  position  in  Correggio, 
and  destined  his  son  for  a  learned  career,  but  he  early 
showed  a  taste  for  painting,  which  was  probably  cultivated 
by  his  uncle  Lorenzo  Allegri,  a  painter  of  Correggio,  other- 
wise unknown  to  fame. 

In  1514,  when  he  was  only  twenty  years  of  age,  he  had 
already  executed  the  large  altar-piece  of  the  Madonna  with 
Saints,  in  the  Dresden  Gallery.  This  was  painted  for  the 
Franciscan  convent  at  Correggio,  for  the  sum  of  100  ducats, 
equal  to  about  £15  of  our  money.^ 

In  1518  he  was  called  to  Parma,  where  more  important 
and  profitable  work  awaited  him.  His  first  achievement 
here  was  the  painting  of  the  hall  of  the  Nunnery  of  S. 
Paolo,  which  the  abbess,  who  must  have  been  deeply  tinc- 
tured with  the  classical  taste  of  the  age,  chose  to  have 
decorated,  not,  as  was  customary,  with  sacred  or  legendary 
histories,  but  with  scenes  from  Pagan  mythology.  The 
Virgin  Diana,  the  Three  Grraces,  and  the  Fates,  all,  no 
doubt,  bearing  some  allusion  to  the  high  vocation  of  the 
virgin  life  of  the  cloister,  were  accordingly  painted  in  fresco 
on  the  walls  by  Correggio  with  consummate  elegance,  the 
vault  being  conceived  after  the  manner  of  classic  painting, 
as  a  vine  arbour,  with  enchanting  little  genii  peeping 
through  its  openings. 

After  this  he  received  a  commission  to  paint  the  cupola 
of  S.  Giovanni,  at  Parma.  This  work,  begun  in  1520, 
represents  the  Ascension  of  Christ,  who  soars  to  heaven, 
watched  by  the  twelve  apostles,  and  is  remarkable  chiefly 
for  its  powerful  foreshortening.  Two  years  later,  when 
his  love  of  foreshortening  had  developed  into  a  strong 
passion,  he  undertook  the  great  dome  of  the  cathedral, 
which  he  covered  with  a  multitude  of  figures  foreshortened 
in  every  possible  and  impossible  attitude. 

^  He  received  the  last  payment  for  it  in  April,  1515. 


:B00K   IV.]  PAINTING   IN   ITALY.  179 

In  the  principal  group,  the  ascending  Virgin  is  borne 
on  the  clouds  in  triumph  by  the  angelic  host,  whilst  Christ, 
^  violently  foreshortened  figure,  precipitates  Himself  from 
heaven  to  meet  her.  Such  is  the  rapturous  scene  that  fills 
the  centre  of  the  dome ;  lower  stand  the  apostles  gazing 
into  the  heaven  of  light  that  is  opened  above  them.  It  is 
unquestionably  a  work  of  boundless  power  and  skill,  but 
unfortunately  the  effect  on  the  mind  of  the  spectator  is  too 
bewildering  for  him  to  form  any  just  appreciation  of  its 
merits ;  and  as,  in  consequence  of  its  excessive  display  of 
foreshortening,  more  limbs  than  bodies  are  seen  when  it  is 
looked  at  from  below,  the  painter,  even  in  his  life-time, 
was  not  inaptly  accused  of  having  painted  a  **  ragout  of 
frogs  " — only  the  legs  of  frogs,  as  is  well-known,  being  used 
in  cookery. 

Although  these  marvellous  frescoes  will  always  excite 
"the  admiration  of  the  critic,  it  is  nevertheless  by  his 
smaller  easel  pictures  that  Correggio  is  best  known,  and 
most  truly  to  be  appreciated.  The  soft  beauty  and  tender 
grace  of  many  of  these  is  beyond  compare ;  and  the  magic 
of  light  shed  over  them  transports  us,  as  it  were,  into  a 
more  radiant  world.  Take,  for  instance,  the  celebrated 
S.  Jerome,  or  the  Day,  of  the  Parma  Gallery,  where  the 
figures  seem  literally  enveloped  in  an  atmosphere  of  light, 
or  the  not  less  famous  Notte,  at  Dresden,  in  which  the 
mystic  light  emanating  from  the  body  of  the  divine  Child 
glorifies  the  entire  scene,  the  corporeal  forms  of  the  angels 
iSeing  almost  lost  to  view  in  its  effulgence. 

The  Marriage  of  S.  Catherine  was  a  subject  frequently 
painted  by  Correggio,  but  never,  perhaps,  with  such  ex- 
quisite grace  and  sentiment  as  in  the  well-known  picture 
in  the  Louvre.  The  Magdalen,  also,  was  one  of  his 
favourite  heroines,  doubtless  because  he  could  bestow  upon 
this  type  of  frail  but  loving  womanhood  all  the  charms 
of  sensuous  beauty.  The  magnificent  Magdalen  of  the 
S.  Jerome  is  characterized  by  Wilkie  as  being,  "for 
•colour,  character,  and  expression,  the  perfection,  not  only 
of  Correggio,  but  of  painting." 

More  suitable,  perhaps,  to  Correggio's  "picturesque 
sensuality,"  are  his  mythological  nudities,  in  which  he  has 
4ittained  to  a  charming  expression  of  love  and  physical 


180  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

beauty.  Leda  with  the  Swan,  in  a  wooded  landscape  with 
her  bathing  companions,  in  the  Berlin  Gallery ;  the 
Jupiter  and  Antiope  of  the  Louvre;  the  Ganymede  at 
Vienna  ;  the  Danae  in  the  Borghese  Palace  at  Rome ;  and 
the  Education  of  Cupid  in  our  National  Collection,  No.  10, 
are  among  the  most  famous  of  these  mythological  subjects. 
He  has  reached  in  them,  perhaps,  the  utmost  development 
of  sensuous  life  that  could  be  gained  without  falling  intO' 
base  sensuality.^ 

Correggio  formed  a  few  scholars,  but  none  of  much  note, 
except  Peancesco  Mazzuola,  called  II  Parmigianc 
(1503-1540),  and  even  he  merely  caught  his  master's  super- 
ficial manner,  which  he  exaggerated  to  a  disagreeable 
excess,  without  acquiring  the  serene  beauty  of  his  style.^ 
Instead  of  going  to  nature  for  instruction,  Parmigiano- 
tried  to  improve  nature  by  clothing  her  in  an  elegant  garb 
of  his  own  fashioning,  and  thus  doubtless  arose  the  aifec- 
tation  and  unnatural  straining  after  effect  that  we  notice 
in  his  works. 

The  Vision  of  S.  Jerome,  in  the  National  Gallery,  is  a. 
very  good  example  of  his  style.  As  usual,  grace  is  exagge- 
rated by  Parmigiano  in  this  picture,  and  its  greatest  fault 
is  its  too  great  elegance. 

No  painter  of  any  merit  succeeded  to  Parmigiano  at. 
Parma;  but  Federigo  Baroccio  (1528-1612),  who  is 
usually  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  Koman  school,  was 
formed  quite  as  much  by  the  study  of  Correggio  as  of 
Raphael,  and  his  works  evince  much  the  same  affectation 
as  those  of  Parmigiano.^  Both  masters  belong,  in  fact,  by 
their  art,  to  the  period  of  decline,  although  the  decline  is. 
not  so  visible  in  their  works  as  in  those  of  many  of  their 
contemporaries,  and  most  of  their  successors.  They  may  be 


[^  In  the  National  Gallery  are  also  the  exquisite  little  Holy  Family 
known  as  La  Vierge  au  Panier,  No.  23 ;  the  Ecce  Homo,  No.  15^ 
which  recent  criticism  has  again  restored  to  the  master ;  and  a  replica,  or 
more  probably  a  copy,  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  Agony  in  the  Garden, 
No.  76.] 

[^  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  actually  worked  with  Correggio. — W. 
and  W.] 

[^  One  of  his  best  pictures,  known  as  Madonna  del  Gatto,  is  in  the- 
National  Gallery  (No.  29).] 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  181 

•said,  in  fact,  together  with  Eaphael's  more  immediate 
scholars,  already  noticed,  to  have  somewhat  broken  the  fall 
of  Italian  art  as  it  descended  from  the  greatest  heights 
to  the  lowest  degradation. 


Chaptee  V. 
LAST  EFFOETS  AND  EXTINCTION. 

Eevival  of  Art — Eclecticism— The  Carracci — Gdido  Reni — 
Caravaggio— Spagnoletto— Salvator  Rosa. 

TOWAEDS  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  was 
a  reaction  in  the  article  world  against  the  "frothy 
pathos  and  empty  daring  of  the  mannerists,"  the  merely 
superficial  copyists  of  the  great  painters  of  the  beginning 
of  the  century ;  a  reaction  in  favour  of  a  deeper  study  of 
all  preceding  works  of  art  and  of  nature  itself ;  and,  as  the 
result,  the  schools  of  art  known  as  the  Eclectic  arose. 

At  the  head  of  this  movement  for  simpHcity  and  truth 
stood  LoDOvico  Cabeacci,  of  Bologna,  and  to  him  belongs 
the  credit  of  having  given  Italian  art  a  fresh  and  powerful 
impulse  at  a  time  when  stagnation  seemed  imminent. 

In  Venice  the  glories  of  "Kntoretto  and  Veronese  blinded 
their  contemporaries  to  the  symptoms  of  decay  in  their 
works,  and  the  positive  decline  in  those  of  their  followers. 
"Throughout  the  rest  of  Italy  painting  was  at  a  low  ebb, 
but  three  artists  at  least  formed  exceptions  to  the  general 
decadence,  or  were  only  partially  affected  by  it,  viz., 
Bronzing  at  Florence,  Lanini  at  Milan,  and  Baeroccio, 
who  has  been  already  mentioned,  at  Eome.  Angelo 
Bronzing  (1502-1572),  the  friend  of  Vasari,  and  a  pupil 
of  Pontormo,  painted  some  good  portraits  and  frescoes  in 
Florence.  His  fine  feeling  for  form  is  sometimes  marred 
by  affectation.  The  allegory  in  the  National  Gallery  (No. 
<551)  is  one  of  his  best  works.  A  follower  of  Gaudenzio 
Ferrari,  Bernardino   Lanini   (1508-1578),  in  his  later 


182  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

style  approaches  that  of  Luini,  though  his  sentiment  is 
exaggerated,  and  his  colouring  faulty.  In  his  altar-piece 
in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1700),  the  head  of  the  Mag- 
dalen is  an  example  of  the  Luiniesque  sweetness  of  expres- 
sion often  attained  by  him.  Gio.  Paolo  Lomazzo,  author 
of  the  Trattato  della  Pittura  (1584),  was  one  of  the  best  of 
Lanini's  scholars.  At  Bologna  the  manneristi  Prospeeo 
FoNTANA  (1512-1518),  DoMENico  TiBALDi  (bom  in  1540), 
and  Bartolomeo  Passerotti  (about  1540-1595),  were  not 
wholly  unworthy  the  esteem  in  which  they  were  held  by 
their  fellow-citizens.  In  Bologna  the  new  school  was 
founded. 

LoDOvico  Carracci  (1555-1619),  the  son  of  a  master- 
butcher,  disappointed  his  master,  Fontana,  it  is  said,  by 
his  lack  of  facility.  This  want  determined  the  young 
painter  to  a  course  of  strenuous  endeavour  and  untiring^ 
study.  During  his  wander jahre  as  journeyman-painter,. 
Lodovico  visited  the  cities  of  the  north  and  central  Italy, 
diligently  studying  in  each  the  peculiar  excellences  of  the- 
great  masters  of  his  art.  In  Venice  he  made  acquaint- 
ance with  Tintoretto,  and  was  particularly  attracted  by 
the  Venetian  mastery  of  technic,  and  by  Correggio's  chiaro- 
scuro. Keturning  in  1578  to  Bologna,  Lodovico  entered 
the  guild  of  painters,  and  inspiring  his  two  cousins  in  the 
second  degree,  Agostino  (1557-1602),  and  Annibale 
Carracci  (1560-1609),  with  a  like  ambition  for  hard  work 
and  thoroughness  of  knowledge,  he  sent  them  on  their 
travels  at  the  expiration  of  their  apprenticeships.  In 
1582  the  brothers  returned  to  Bologna,  and  there,  with 
Lodovico,  and  under  his  direction,  were  engaged  in  seve- 
ral public  works  which  brought  them  much  credit,  despite 
the  jealous  opposition  all  three  met  with  from  many  of  the 
manneristi. 

Having  formulated  those  principles  of  art  which  to  this; 
day  form  the  basis  of  all  art  instruction,  Lodovico  opened 
his  academy  at  Bologna  in  1589.  This  "  Accademia  degli 
Incamminati,"  i.e.,  academy  of  those  who  are  on  the  right 
road,^  boldly  professed  to  teach  painting  on  a  scientific 
system,  which,  besides  drawing  from  the  antique  and  the 

^  Woermann,  "  Geschichte  der  Malerei,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  118. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN   ITALY.  183 

life,  included  practical  anatomy,  dissection,  and  lectures 
on  theory.  In  spite  of  the  antagonism  of  the  older  schools, 
the  academy  soon  became  the  most  important  of  the  time 
in  Italy,  artists  from  all  parts  of  the  country  being  attracted 
to  it  by  the  fame  of  Lodovico's  teaching,  and  the  success 
of  his  pupils. 

The  eclectic  principles  of  this  school  are  set  forth  in  the 
well-known  sonnet  addressed  by  Agostino  to  Nicolo  dell' 
Abbati,^  wherein  the  artist  who  desires  to  be  a  good  painter 
is  recommended  to  acquire  "  the  design  of  Rome,  Venetian 
shade  and  action,  the  dignified  colouring  of  Lombardy,  the 
terrible  manner  of  Michael  Angelo,  Titian's  iruth  to  na. 
ture,  the  pure  and  sovereign  style  of  Correggio,  Raphael's 
true  symmetry,  the  decorum  and  fundamental  know- 
ledge of  Tibaldi,^  the  invention  of  the  learned  Primati- 
cus,  and  a  little  of  Parmigiano's  grace,  but  without  so 
much  study  and  so  much  toil  let  him  apply  himself  to 
imitate  the  works  our  Nicolino  (dell'  Abbati)  has  left  us 
here." ' 

The  Carracci  themselves  were  far  greater  artists  than 
the  four  painters  last  named  in  their  sonnet,  and  it  is 
only  in  their  earlier  works  that  the  patchwork  practice 
possible  from  a  too  literal  adherence  to  the  eclectic  principle 

^  NicoLO  dell' Abbati  (1512-1571)ofModena,  a  follower  of  Raphael, 
whose  Nativity,  in  the  Leoni  Palace,  and  other  works,  brought  him  a 
high  reputation  in  Bologna,  assisted  Primaticcio  at  Fontainebleau  after 
1552. 

'  Pellegrino  Tibaldi  (1527-1596)  achieved  a  great  reputation  as  an 
architect  and  painter,  his  conventional  style  was  greatly  admired.  He 
was  invited  to  Spain  by  Philip  II. 

•  "  Chi  farsi  un  buon  pittorcerca,  e  desia, 
II  disegno  di  Roma  abbia  alia  mano, 
La  mossa  coll'  ombra  Veneziano 
E  il  degno  colorir  di  Lombardia 
Di  Michelangiol  la  terribil  via, 
II  vero  natural  di  Tiziano, 
Del  Correggio  lo  stil  puro  e  sovrano 
E  di  un  Ratfael  la  giusta  simmetria 
Del  Tibaldi  il  decoro,  e  il  fondamento, 
Del  dotto  Primaticcio  I'inventare 
E  un  po  di  grazia  del  Parmigianino, 

Ma  senza  tanti  studi,  e  tanto  stento,  Vt^^^Uv 

Si  ponga  I'opre  solo  ad  imitare  ^      ^^^     Vvi\,\\"' 


Che  qui  lasciocci  il  Dostro  Niccoli^o." 


l^\  ^^  " 


:N\t^'^ 


0' 


tv^ 


184  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

is  visible.  The  individuality  of  the  Carracci  asserted  itself 
in  their  maturer  work,  and  the  vigorous  personality  and 
naturalistic  tendency  of  Annibale  made  themselves  felt 
even  in  the  early  frescoes  of  the  Fava  Palace  at  Bologna, 
where  Annibale  was  accused  of  forsaking  the  classic  ideal 
so  far  as  to  paint  in  figures  taken  direct  from  street  models. 
The  triumph  of  the  eclectics  is  to  be  seen  in  the  great  hall 
of  the  Farnese  palace  at  Rome,  which  Lodovico  was  called 
upon  to  decorate  in  1597.  He,  however,  made  over  the 
work  to  his  two  cousins.  Agostino,  after  designing  much 
of  the  decoration,  and  executing  several  of  the  finest  paint- 
ings, was  induced  by  disagreements  with  his  brother  to 
retire  to  Parma  (about  1600),  where  he  died  two  years 
later.  Two  of  Agostino' s  cartoons,  the  Triumph  of  G-alatea 
and  Cephalus  and  Aurora,  are  to  be  seen  in  the  l!^ational 
Gallery, 

The  Farnese  frescoes  were  finished  by  Annibale  and  his 
pupils,  Domenichino  and  others,  in  1607  or  1608.  Un- 
rivalled in  perfection  of  technique,  monumental  in  grandeur 
of  composition  and  harmony  of  style,  these  frescoes  of  sub- 
jects from  the  heathen  mythology  are  set  in  richly  decora- 
tive designs  in  monochrome  of  fruit,  flowers,  caryatids, 
etc.,  in  keeping  with  the  over-laden  style  of  the  sixteenth 
century  Italian  architecture.  Annibale' s  vigorous  Triumph 
of  Bacchus  became  the  model  for  the  many  compositions 
of  that  theme  painted  during  the  next  hundred  years.^ 

Lodovico  Carracci  who  occupies  more  the  position  of  a 
teacher  than  a  painter,  has  executed  works  remarkable  for 
their  severe  drawing,  and  despite  heaviness,  for  much  indi- 
vidual beauty  and  pathetic  sentiment.  A  not  very  favour- 
able example  is  in  the  National  Gallery.  His  cultivated 
mind  and  accurate  taste  exercised  a  beneficent  influence 
over  the  art  of  his  time,  and  the  impress  of  his  teaching 
endured  for  nearly  a  century  after  his  death. 

Agostino's  varied  accomplishments^  and  highly  de- 
veloped critical  faculty  were  of  service  to  the  academy, 
whilst  his  amiable  social  quahties   and  intercourse  with 

•  For  a  detailed  criticism  of  the  Farnese  frescoes,  and  the  ascription  of 
the  parts  to  the  Carracci  and  their  pupils  respectively,  see  "Woermann. 
Also  Janitschek  in  Dohmc's  "  Kunst  u,  Kiinstler." 

2  Malvasia,  "  Felsina  Pittrice,"  vol.  i.,  p.  266. 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING   IN   ITALY.  185 

men  of  letters  and  of  science  of  the  University  of  Bologna 
assisted  the  school  to  hold  its  own  against  old  and  new 
rivals.  His  colour  is  fresher  than  Lodovico's.  Amongst 
his  rare  easel  pictures  is  a  landscape  at  Berlin,  but  he  is 
best  known  by  his  engravings  on  copper.^ 

In  technique  and  in  versatility  of  talent  Annibale  is  equal 
to  the  other  two  Carracci ;  in  vigour  and  originaHty  of  con- 
ception he  far  surpasses  both.  In  his  earlier  works,  whilst 
under  the  influence  of  his  master,  Lodovico,  he  is  strongly 
reminiscent  of  Correggio,  and  sometimes  of  the  Venetians. 
Examples  of  these  manners  are  No.  9  and  the  sorely  abraded 
No.  88  in  the  National  G-allery.  Later  on,  Annibale's 
individuality  asserted  itself,  and  his  leaning  to  naturalism 
is  observable  in  the  genre-like  conception  of  some  of  his 
small  religious  easel  pictures,  and  in  the  few  pieces  of 
actual  genre  by  his  hand.  Amongst  these  last,  II  Masca- 
tone,  in  the  Uffizi,  and  the  Greedy  Eater,  of  the  Colonna 
Palace  at  Rome,  show  some  sense  of  humour.  His  portraits 
of  the  Carracci  family  seated  in  a  butcher's  shop  (Christ's 
College,  Oxford)  is  the  coarsest  and  most  realistic  work  of 
his  hand.  Amongst  his  drawings  at  the  British  Museum 
are  several  which,  for  their  realism,  might  belong  to  that 
new  school  of  "  naturalisti "  which  sprang  up  beside 
successful  eclecticism,  and  largely  re-acted  upon  it. 
Amongst  Annibale's  finest  religious  pictures  are  the  Three 
Marys  at  Castle  Howard,  and  S.  Eochus  in  the  Dresden 
Gallery. 

Annibale  Carracci  was  the  first  Italian  master  who 
practised  landscape  for  its  own  sake,  and  made  it  a  separate 
branch  of  art.  The  great  Venetians  had  all  manifested  a 
deep  feeling  for  landscape  beauty,  and  Titian's  landscapes 
especially  are  among  the  finest  that  have  ever  been  painted ; 
but  they  never  ventured  upon  them  except  as  a  setting  for 
their  figures,  whereas  Annibale,  without  any  true  feeling 
for  landscape,  made  it  a  chief  study,  and  founded  the 
school  of  conventional  landscape,  which  was  afterwards 
more  fully  developed  by  Claude  and  Poussin.     The  two 

^  Agostino  left  a  son  Antonio,  a  promising  painter,  who  died  young, 
by  whom  there  is  a  painting  in  the  Louvre.  Paolo,  brother  of  Ludovico, 
and  Francesco  Carracci,  nephew  of  Agostino,  were  also  painters  in 
Bologna. 


186  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

landscapes  in  the  National  Gallery  by  him  are  obscured 
by  dirt.  In  the  same  gallery  are  two  little  poetical  mytho- 
logical paintings ;  one,  Pan  and  Apollo,  possesses  an  idyllic 
charm  lacking  in  his  larger  mythological  compositions, 
which  are  often  cold  and  heavy.  These,  and  the  small 
Pan  and  Bacchante  in  the  TJffizi,  are  forerunners  of  Nicolas 
Poussin's  joyous  crews  of  nymphs  and  satyrs,  if  less  redo- 
lent of  animal  spirits  and  sylvan  abandon. 

Disappointed  with  the  payment  of  only  500  scudi  for 
his  great  work  in  the  Farnese,  Annibale  left  the  execution 
of  the  greater  part  of  his  next  work  in  the  chapel  of  S. 
Griacomo  degli  Spagnuoli  to  his  pupil  Albani.  In  1609  he 
went  to  Naples,  where  the  jealous  persecution  of  the  local 
painters  is  said  to  have  added  to  his  vexation  of  body  and 
spirit,  so  that  he  returned  to  Rome,  where  he  died  of 
malaria,  some  said  of  poison,  that  same  year.^ 

It  was  in  the  school  of  the  Carracci  that  the  practice  of 
painting  on  copper  and  on  slate  became  common,  though 
Sebastian  del  Piombo  had  experimented  upon  marble, 
slate,  and  other  stones. 

Several  of  the  numerous  pupils  of  the  Carracci,  or 
painters  formed  in  their  school — Gruido,  Albani,  Domeni- 
chino,  Lanfranco,  and  Gruercino — attained  to  almost  equal 
distinction  with  the  masters,  striking  oiat  for  themselves 
side  paths  from  the  "  right  road  "  of  the  eclectics. 

DoMENico  Zampieri,  better  known  as  Domenichino 
(1581-1641),  is,  for  example,  held  by  many  to  be  superior 
to  Annibale ;  but  although  his  works  are  charged  with 
more  sensation  and  livelier  sentiment,  he  has  a  less  power- 
ful individuality.  His  most  important  painting  is  the  Com- 
munion of  S.  Jerome,  reproduced  in  most  works  on  Italian 
art,  and  esteemed  by  the  critics  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
by  whom  these  later  Italian  masters  were  so  greatly  exalted, 
as  the  greatest  altar-piece  in  Eome,  with  the  exception 
of  Raphael's  Transfiguration.  At  the  age  of  fourteen 
Domenichino  deserted  the  school  of  the  rough  Fleming, 
Denis  Calvert,  in  Bologna,  for  that  of  the  suave  and  cul- 
tured Carracci  family.  An  earnest  and  industrious  scholar, 
he  assisted  Annibale  in  the  Farnese  frescoes  at  Eome,  and 

^  Janitschek,  "  Kunst  u.  Kiinstler." 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  187" 

at  one  time  rivalled  the  popular  G-uido  there.  He  executed 
many  important  religious  series  in  fresco  in  Rome,  Bologna,,, 
and  'finally  in  Naples,  where,  emboldened  by  special  pro- 
tection, he  braved  the  threats  of  the  jealous  Neapolitan 
painters  for  ten  years.  At  the  end  of  this  time  he  died 
suddenly.    His  wife  asserted  that  he  was  poisoned. 

One  of  the  most  pleasing  of  his  easel  pictures  is  the 
Diana  Hunting,  of  the  Borghese  Gallery,  Rome,  distin- 
guished for  its  life-like  modelling  of  the  nude  and  lively 
colour.^  He  decorated  the  Villa  Ludovisi  with  landscapes 
in  fresco,  but  his  landscapes  in  oil  are  usually  small,  like 
the  bright  little  S.  George  and  the  Dragon,  and  the  softer 
Tobias  with  the  Angel,  in  the  National  Gallery. 

Domenichino,  though  not  so  facile  as  Guido,  supplied  a 
large  number  of  the  Pietas  and  Matres  Dolorosae  display- 
ing passionate  grief,  for  which  Lodovico  Carracci  had  set 
the  fashion.  Energetic,  if  sometimes  rather  heavy  of 
hand,  he  depicted  with  effect  harrowing  martyrdoms — 
pictures  which  were  demanded  by  the  taste  of  the  time. 
Tor  the  Church  of  Rome,  from  which,  as  we  have  seen,  art 
had  become  alienated  in  the  sixteenth  century,  had  once 
more,  after  the  deep  wounds  she  had  received  from 
Rationalism  and  Protestantism,  taken  her  early  handmaid 
into  her  service ;  but  she  now  no  longer  demanded  from 
her  the  calm  devotional  productions  of  the  early  time,  but 
admitted  passionate  and  sensational  pictures  into  her 
churches,  seeking  to  satisfy  with  such  drugs  the  emotional 
cravings  of  her  children. 

Francesco  Albani  (1578-1660)  and  Guido  Reni  also 
forsook  the  school  of  Calvert  for  that  of  the  Carracci. 
They  worked  together  in  Rome  until  the  jealousy  of  the 
usually  amiable  Guido  drove  Albani  to  abandon  the  decora- 
tions in  the  Quirinal.'  Albani  then  worked  with  Domeni- 
chino at  Bassano,  and  again  in  Rome  for  Annibale.  With 
neither  of  these  latter  had  his  art  much  in  common  ;  his 
religious  works  are  eminently  superficial  and  dry,  but  in 
his  more  numerous  and  popular  paintings  of  pseudo- 
classical  allegories  and  myths  he  attained  his  ideal  of 
classic  prettiness,  and  displayed  a  finely-decorative  taste^ 

^  Woermann,  p.  160. 

^  See  Woermann,  vol.  iii.,  p.  144. 


188  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV. 

His  arcli  baby-angels  and  naive  cupids,  gracefully  set  in 
artificial  landscapes,  sometimes  rival  in  cbarm  tbe  Pompeian 
wall-decorations  of  the  Roman  decadence.  Whilst  he 
painted  "  amorini "  and  "  putti,"  for  which  his  own  children 
were  the  models,  Giovanni  Battista  Mola  (1616-1662) 
and  some  others  painted  in  most  of  his  landscape  back- 
grounds. His  allegory  of  The  Four  Elements,  of  which 
there  are  replicas  in  the  Borghese  Gallery  at  Rome,  are 
amongst  his  best  works. 

Another  eclectic  whose  work  was  purely  decorative,  but 
devoid  of  any  other  aim  than  the  exhibition  of  his  super- 
ficial skill,  was  Giovanni  Lanfranco  (1580-1647).  A 
native  of  Parma,  he  imitated  Correggio,  and  outdid  him  in 
daring  foreshortening,  attaining  great  fame  as  a  painter 
of  cupolas  and  ceilings.  The  chief  of  his  tumultuous 
compositions  are  in  the  church  of  S.  Andrea  della  Valle  at 
Rome.  One  of  the  most  popular  painters  of  his  school,  he 
long  held  his  own  against  the  inimical  party  at  Naples. 

GuiDO  Reni  (1575-1642)  was  the  greatest  of  the  Car- 
racci  pupils,  and  in  his  study  of  the  antique  became  more 
thoroughly  imbued  with  classic  feeling  for  beauty  of  line 
than  any  other.  He  early  attained  to  a  masterly  ease  of 
execution  and  great  popularity,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three,  in  a  composition,  carried  off  the  palm  from  Master 
Lodovico  himself.  In  Rome,  in  1605,  he  was  for  a  short 
time  attracted  to  the  powerful  and  original  style  of  Cara- 
vaggio.^  Under  that  influence  he  painted  the  Crucifixion 
of  S.  Peter,  in  the  Vatican,  and  a  few  other  altar-pieces  ;  ^ 
but  his  feeling  for  the  beautiful  and  his  refined,  if  some- 
times weak  idealism,  formed  a  style  of  his  own, — a  strong 
•contrast  to  the  coarse  realism  of  Caravaggio,  to  whom,  as 
•to  every  other  painter  of  note  in  Rome,  he  soon  proved  a 
formidable  rival  in  popular  favour. 

Paul  v.,  ambitious  of  making  his  pontificate  as  illustrious 
in  the  history  of  art  as  that  of  Julius  II.  or  Leo  X.,  with 
'Guido  for  his  Raphael,  employed  the  painter  to  execute 
decorations  for  the  Quirinal  and  other  private  chapels  for 
liim,  works  which  Guido  executed  with  much  taste  and 

^  See  Malvasia,  "  Felsina  Pittrice,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  13. 
*  An  example  is  the  piece  of  biblical  genre  in  the  National  Gallery, 
2so.  193. 


f:^ 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  189^ 

skill.  His  frescoes  and  light  decorative  paintings  of  clas- 
sical subjects  are  superior  to  his  altar-pieces  and  semi- 
religious  sentimental  easel  pictures.  His  masterpiece, 
Phoebus  and  Aurora  with  the  Hours/  painted  in  the  garden- 
house  of  the  Rospigliosi  Palace  at  Rome,  in  1609,  is  "a. 
work  unequalled  in  the  seventeenth  century  for  nobility  of 
line  and  poetry  of  colour."  His  colouring  was,  in  his- 
middle  period,  light  and  smooth,  with  a  golden  tone,  which 
in  later  years  he  changed  for  a  silvery  one.  To  his  best 
period  belong  the  Christ  Crowned  with  Thorns,  of  the* 
Dresden  Gallery,  and  the  beautiful  portrait  in  the  Barbe- 
rini  Palace  traditionally  described  as  Beatrice  Cenci,  the 
face  of  which  is  touched  with  a  melancholy  congenial  to 
the  painter's  own  disjjosition.  This  face  and  that  of  the 
classic  Niobe  seem  to  have  furnished  the  model  for 
Guido's  popular  weeping  Madonnas  and  Magdalens.  There 
are  eight  of  his  works  in  the  National  Gallery,  fairly  exem- 
plifying his  different  manners.  In  1612  Guido  left  Kome 
to  settle  in  Bologna,  but  after  ten  years  there  his  attempts 
to  get  work  again  in  Rome  and  in  Naples  were  defeated  in 
both  places  by  the  intrigues  of  professional  jealousy. 
Guido  therefore  returned  to  Bologna,  where,  after 
Lodovico's  death,  he  became  the  honoured  head  of  the 
Academy. 

A  generous  nature,  but  melancholy  and  mysogynistic,  he 
was  in  his  latter  years  reduced  to  want  by  gambling,  his 
only  vice  ;  and,  trading  upon  his  name,  he  produced  a  large 
number  of  vapid  repetitions  of  carelessly-executed,  poorly- 
coloured  heads,  and  half-lengths  of  affectedly  sentimental 
saints  and  sybils,  which  have  done  much  to  militate  against 
his  earlier  reputation. 

As  head  of  the  school  of  Bologna  he  was  succeeded  by 
.Giovanni  Francesco  Barbieei,  known  from  a  squint  as 
GuERCiNO  (1590-1666),  who,  although  not  of  the  Carracci. 
school,  studied  much  after  the  Carracci  method,  and  in  his 
travels  fell  especially  under  Venetian  influence.  Guercino 
is  considered  the  finest  colourist  of  the  school  or  of  his 
time,  and  his  fresco  of  Fame,  painted  on  a  ceiling  in  the 
Villa  Ludovisi,   eclipses   Guido's  Aurora  in  richness   of 

»  Engraved  by  Raphael  Morghen, 


190  HISTOET    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

•colour  as  mucli  as  it  falls  below  that  work  in  beauty  of 
line  and  composition.  The  colouring  of  his  earlier  period 
was,  however,  often  strong  and  crude,  with  heavy  shadows, 
imitated  from  Caravaggio;  later  on,  when  settled  in 
Bologna,  like  G-uido,  he  adopted  a  more  silvery  tone  and  a 
softer  style.  There  is  a  good  example  in  the  National 
Gallery,  but  his  great  work  in  his  first  manner  is  the 
immense  altar-piece  of  S.  Petronilla  in  the  Capitol  at 
Eome.  The  British  Museum  possesses  a  good  collection 
of  his  drawings. 

LiONELLO  Spada  (1576-1622),  is  one  of  the  less-known 
pupils  of  the  Carracci,  who,  for  a  time  the  pupil  and 
famihar  friend  of  Caravaggio,  united  some  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  eclectics  and  the  naturalisti  with  consider- 
able power. 

Of  the  noble  efforts  of  the  Carracci,  their  own  works  and 
those  of  their  immediate  followers  were  the  only  worthy 
result.  The  eclectic  schools  founded  in  imitation  of  the 
Accademia  degli  Incamminati  at  Cremona,  under  G-iulio 
Campi  (1500-1572),  and  at  Milan  under  Ercole  Peo- 
CACCiNi  (1596-1676),  produced  no  great  works.  Through- 
out Italy  a  number  of  mediocre  talents  devoted  themselves 
to  the  painting  of  decorations  then  in  vogue  in  the  palaces 
of  the  nobility.  Landscape,  still  life,  and  all  branches  of  the 
art  were  drawn  into  this  service  and  developed  character- 
istics accordingly.  The  better-known  of  these  painters  were 
G-iovANNi  CuRTi,  called  n  Dentone  (about  1570-1631); 
PiETRO  Paulo  Bonzi  (died  between  1623  and  1644),  sur- 
named  II  Gobbo  de'  Frutti;  Gio.  Battista  Viola  (1576- 
1622),  the  first  to  practice  landscape  exclusively;  Gio. 
Prancesco  Grimaldi  (1606-1680);  and  Agostino  Tassi 
(1566-1642),  the  teacher  of  Claude  Gelee  of  Lorraine,  at 
Bome.  In  Florence,  Matted  Eoselli  (15 78-1680),  formed 
numerous  scholars.  His  Triumph  of  David,  in  the  Pitti 
Palace,  may  rank  with  the  Judith  by  Cristofano  Allori 
(1577-1621)  for  beauty  and  animation.  Allori,  the  grand- 
nephew  of  Bronzino,  was  one  of  the  best  artists  of  his  time. 
There  is  a  portrait  by  him  in  the  National  Gallery.  The 
most  distinguished  of  Eoselli's  pupils  was  Carlo  Dolci 
(1616-1686),  who  has,  by  a  large  number  of  half-lengths 
and  heads   of   saints  in   languishing    ecstacy,   smoothly 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  191 

painted  and  poorly  coloured,  gained  a  reputation  for  a 
sickly  affectation  of  which  he  is  not  often  guilty.  Many 
of  the  inferior  works  attributed  to  him  are  by  his  daughter 
Agnese  and  other  copyists.  The  best  type  of  religious 
sentiment  is  the  S.  Cecilia  in  the  Dresden  Gallery.  There 
are  many  of  his  works  in  English  collections,  though  but 
•one  poor  example  in  the  National  Gallery.  His  art,  so 
popular  in  its  day,  was  determined  by  the  Catholic  revival, 
in  which  intemperate  zeal  and  fervent  sentiment  took  the 
place  of  piety,  and  Dolci  excelled  in  the  gentler  quality. 
Another  popular  painter  was  Pieteo  Fbancesco  Mola 
•(1612-1668),  a  scholar  of  Albani,  by  whom  there  are  two 
small  paintings  in  the  National  Gallery.  Pietro  Berre- 
tini,  of  Cortona  (1596-1669),  was  the  leader  of  the  "mac- 
chinisti "  in  Eome  and  Florence,  where  he  manufactured 
huge  sprawling  decorative  frescoes,  light  in  colour  and 
tone,  superficial  and  incorrect,  but  facile  in  form.  He  had 
a  large  number  of  followers.  His  landscape  at  Devon- 
shire House  is  a  rich  composition,  though  cold  and  dull  in 
•colour.  In  Perugia  Gio.  Battista  Salvi,  called  Sasso- 
FERRATO  (1605-1685),  copied  Perugino  and  Raphael,  and 
studied  in  Rome  with  Domenichino.  He  executed  a  large 
number  of  Madonna  pictures,  smooth  and  sentimental, 
but  imbued  with  some  of  the  pious  feeling  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  There  are  two  of  these  pictures  in  the  National 
Gallery.  His  most  original  work  is  the  Madonna  with 
the  Rosary  in  S.  Sabina  at  Rome.  Carlo  Maratta 
<1625-1713),  called  the  last  of  the  Romans,  followed 
neither  of  the  rival  schools  of  the  day,  but  went  direct  to 
the  study  of  Raphael.  His  numerous  works  are  pure  in 
form  but  devoid  of  style.  He  restored  the  Stanzi  of 
Raphael  in  the  Vatican  with  much  skill  and  self-control. 
There  is  a  portrait  by  him  in  the  National  Gallery. 

The  Venetians,  though  not  insensible  to  the  Bolognese 
revival  of  art,  retained  in  the  seventeenth  century  the  chief 
characteristics  of  their  school.  Principal  amongst  them 
were  Jacopo  Palma,  "  II  Giovine  "  (1544-1628),  a  grand- 
nephew  of  Palma  Vecchio,  and  Alessandro  Varotari,  of 
Padua  (1596-1650),  called  II  Padovanino.  Two  of  the 
latter's  works,  of  some  dignity  of  colouring,  are  in  the 
National  Gallery ;  Palma's  works  are  mostly  at  Venice. 


192  HISTOKY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IV» 

A  second  phase  in  tlie  sixteenth  century  revival  of  art 
is  that  of  Naturalism,  which  grew  alongside  and  rivalled 
in  its  abiding  inJfluence  the  Eclecticism  of  the  CaiTacci. 
The  naturalisti  professed  to  throw  off  all  tradition,  and  to 
paint  Nature  as  they  saw  her,  relying  for  pictorial  effect 
upon  the  force  of  their  chiaroscuro,  the  boldness  of  their 
technique,  and  the  individuality  with  which  they  sought  to 
endow  their  figures. 

Michelangelo  Merisi,^  or  Amerighi,  called  from  his 
birthplace,  near  Bergamo,  Caravaggio  (1569-1609),  was 
the  chief  of  the  naturalisti,  who  abode  chiefly  in  Rome  and 
in  Naples.  His  vigorous  art  induced  many  imitators, 
penetrated  the  very  heart  of  eclecticism,  and  imparted 
essential  impulse  to  the  gre?ire  painting  of  northern  Europe.^ 
The  first  Italian  painter  to  make  genre  painting  his  prin- 
cipal practice,  his  forcible  style  and  the  novelty  of  such 
subjects  as  his  life-size,  half-length  groups  of  the  Youth 
and  the  Eortune-teller  (in  the  Capitol),  the  Cardsharpers 
(in  the  Sciarra  Palace),  and  the  Musicians  (Lord  Ashbum- 
ham,  London),  took  the  Roman  art-world  by  storm. 
Coarser  in  subject  and  in  conception  than  the  few  elegant 
genre  pieces  by  Titian  or  G-iorgione,  their  boldness  and 
originahty  of  chiaroscuro  and  colour,  their  absolute  realism 
and  occasional  vulgarity,  stood  out  in  strong  relief  against 
the  classic  ideal  of  the  Eclectics.  Caravaggio  spent  his 
early  life  in  Milan  and  in  Venice,  where  he  painted  por-- 
trait,  genre,  and  decorations  for  a  liveHhood.  On  coming 
to  Rome  he  worked  for  a  short  time  in  the  school  of  the 
Cavahere  d'Arpino,  with  whose  feeble  mannerism  the 
original  genius  and  rugged,  violent  nature  of  the  young 
northerner  could  ill  accord.  Popular  favour  soon  made 
Caravaggio  the  rival  of  the  Bolognese  artists,  and  party 
feeling  caused  ill  words  and  deeds  between  the  two  factions 
of  the  realists  and  idealists  of  the  day.  In  his  earlier 
works  the  colouring  is  of  an  agreeable  golden  tone,  remi- 
niscent of  the  Venetians ;  but  as  the  influence  of  his  Vene- 
tian sojourn  passed  away,  he  exaggerated  his  Lombard 

^  Woermann. 

^  See  Rembrandt's  etching  after  the  Interior,  with  St.  Anne  winding 
yarn,  and  the  Virgin  sewing,  in  the  Spada  Palace,  Rome,  by  Caravaggio, 
and  Vouet  and  Valentin  in  the  French  school. 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING   IN    ITALY.  193 

heritage  of  strong  modelling  into  the  glaring  lights  and 
black  shadows,  which  gained  for  him  and  his  followers  the 
name  of  Tenebrosi.  Amongst  his  earlier  works,  besides 
those  already  enumerated,  may  be  mentioned  the  Flight 
into  Egypt,  in  the  Doria  Palace,  by  some  attributed  to 
Saraceni.  His  charming  Girl  with  a  Lute,  in  the  Liechten- 
stein Gallery,  Vienna,  is  the  most  refined  of  his  genre 
pieces,  and  "  the  veritable  ancestress  of  all  similar  subjects, 
even  those  much  smaller  ones  painted  by  the  Netherlanders 
during  the  seventeenth  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,"  the  Ter  Borchs,  the  De  Hooghs,  and  the 
Brekelenkams  of  Holland.  In  his  Cardsharpers  the  con- 
trast of  low  cunning  with  simplicity  is  painted  with  con- 
siderable sharpness  of  characterisation.  Of  the  numerous 
religious  subjects  in  his  second  manner,  an  altar-piece  of 
the  Calling  of  S.  Matthew  was  rejected  as  too  vulgar  for 
a  religious  edifice  ;  it  is  now  in  the  Berlin  Museum.  Such 
another  is  the  Supper  at  Emmaus  in  the  National  Gallery, 
a  gipsy-like  group,  in  which  a  roast  fowl  is  a  prominent 
part  of  the  composition.  In  his  masterpiece  in  the  Vatican, 
the  Burial  of  Christ,  the  powerful  portrayal  of  violent 
grief  redeems  the  coarse  types  and  heavy  grouping  from 
any  such  reproach.  The  Musical  Party,  at  Devonshire 
House,  is  an  example  of  genre  in  his  second  manner.  His 
naturalism  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  portraiture,  of 
which  the  Grand  Master  of  Malta,  in  the  Louvre,  and  a 
portrait  of  himself  in  the  Uffizi  at  Florence,  are  excellent 
specimens. 

In  the  year  1606,  Caravaggio,  charged  with  homicide, 
fled  to  Naples.  It  is  said  that  similar  causes  had  driven 
him  successively  from  Milan  and  from  Venice.  In  Naples, 
where  he  took  the  lead  amongst  the  local  artists,  he  did 
not  live  long  in  peace,  and  was  compelled  to  flee  to  Malta, 
whence  he  subsequently  fled  to  Sicily  and  thence  to  Naples 
again,  driven  from  one  place  to  the  other  by  the  quarrels 
and  consequent  differences  with  the  authorities  in  which 
his  violent  temper  embroiled  him.  Nevertheless,  he  en- 
joyed high  favour  in  each  of  his  resting-places,  and  left  in 
each  a  large  number  of  paintings.  In  Naples,  in  1609,  he 
sought  permission  to  return  to  Rome  ;  and  at  last  receiving 
the  Papal  pardon,  fled  in  an  open  boat  from  Naples,  but 

o 


194  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

landing,  was  arrested  upon  Neapolitan  territory,  lost  his 
boat  and  belongings,  fell  ill,  and  died  at  the  age  of  forty, 
alone  and  ill-tended,  at  Porto  d'Ercole.  His  powerful  in- 
dividuality attracted  lesser  talents  wherever  he  went, 
though  his  irregular  life  helj^ed  to  prevent  his  forming  a 
school.  Spada,  already  mentioned,  followed  his  master  to 
Malta  and  in  Sicily,  and  the  SiHcian,  Mario  Menniti 
(1577-1640),  was  his  pupil. 

His  followers,  Bartolommeo  Manfredi  (about  1580- 
1617),  Carlo  Saraceni  (1585-1625)  and  Angelo  Caro- 
SELLi  (1585-1653),  imitated  him  so  closely  that  their  works 
are  often  scarcely  distinguishable  from  Caravaggio's. 

Caravaggio's  influence  was  felt  in  Naples,  but  he  cannot 
be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  Neapolitan  school.  His 
dark  and  rugged  conceptions  had,  however,  much  affinity 
with  the  gloomy  character  of  Neapolitan  art,  and  with 
that  love  of  strong  effect,  to  the  neglect  of  detail  and  back- 
ground, which  it  had  assimilated  together  with  the  rich 
dark  colouring  of  the  Spaniards,  who  had  long  been  poli- 
tically and  socially  dominant  in  Naples.  The  veritable 
head  of  this  Hispano-Neapohtan  school  was  the  greater 
painter,  Jusepe  Eibera  (1588-1656),  called  Lo  Spagno- 
letto,  who,  after  studying  under  the  Eibaltas  in  Valencia, 
came  at  an  early  age  to  the  Spanish  vice-kingdom  of 
Naples.  Eibera  travelled  for  a  time  in  North  Italy,  rest- 
ing at  Eome  and  Parma,  but  his  studies  there  seem  not  in 
any  marked  degree  to  have  affected  his  art,  which  was 
essentially  Spanish  in  feeling  and  colour.  Eibera  has  been 
reputed  the  pupil  of  Caravaggio,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  two  painters  ever  came  into  personal  contact. 
Eibera  was  but  twenty-one  years  of  age  when  the  Lombard 
master  died,  but  he  quickly  took  up  the  position  of  the 
first  painter  in  Naples,  formed  many  puj^ils,  and  was  recog- 
nized as  the  head  of  the  anti-Carracci  faction,  some 
members  of  which,  by  dint  of  violent  threats  and  even 
deeds,  succeeded  in  preventing  several  of  the  Bolognese 
school  from  practising  their  art  in  Naples.  Under  the 
patronage  of  the  Viceroy  Eibera  painted  the  greater  num- 
ber of  his  pictures  for  the  Spanish  market,  supplying  the 
churches  with  saints  in  ecstasy  and  martyrdoms,  such 
as  the   celebrated  and   oft-repeated  S.  Bartholomew,  of 


BOOK   IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  195 

which  the  finest  example  is  in  the  Prado  Gallery,  Madrid. 
A  master  of  technique,  he  painted  the  nude  with  a  fire 
and  life  unequalled  in  his  century,  his  broad,  melting 
touch  invested  his  Marys  and  Magdalens  with  a  soft 
golden  glow,  whilst  his  sombre  shadows  enhanced  the 
horror  of  his  scenes  of  martyrdom — scenes  which  drew 
upon  him  the  one-sided  criticism  of  Byron : —  < 

"  Spagnoletto  tainted 
His  brush  with  all  the  blood  of  all  the  sainted." 

In  these  he  pictured  individual  passions,  the  exaltation 
of  the  rapt  martyr,  the  brutal  triumph  of  the  executioner, 
with  a  demoniac  power  of  reahsm  which  strongly  appealed 
to  the  already-mentioned  sensational  religious  taste  of  the 
time.  The  S.  Mary  of  Egypt,  at  Madrid  and  at  Dresden, 
exemplify  his  aesthetic  side,  his  mastery  of  the  brush 
and  beauty  of  expression.  The  two  pictures  by  him  in 
the  National  Gallery  are  not  of  first  rank.  He  painted  a 
few  mythological  subjects  in  the  same  taste  as  his  religious 
ones,  viz.,  the  Ixion  and  the  Prometheus  at  Madrid,  and  a 
number  of  life-size  half-lengths  of  philosophers,  profane 
pendants  to  his  hermits  and  apostles ;  there  are  several  at 
Vienna,  at  Naples  a  Silenus,  and  there  is  a  curious  Homer 
as  a  Fiddler  at  Turin.  Eibera  was  an  excellent  en- 
graver. 

The  most  talented  of  Eibera's  scholars  was  Massimo 
Stanzioni  (1585-1656).  After  sojourning  in  Eome  and 
studying  Guido  he  became  an  important  painter  in  Naples, 
where  most  of  his  works  are  to  be  seen.  He  blended  the 
mild  beauty  of  Guido  with  the  force  of  his  Neapolitan 
style.  His  Pieta,  in  the  monastery  of  San  Martino,  Burck- 
hardt  calls  **  one  of  the  most  beautiful  productions  of  the 
seventeenth  century,"  despite  its  imperfect  state  of  pre- 
sirvation.  Stanzioni's  friend,  Andrea  Vaccaro  (1598- 
ItiTO),  began  by  imitating  Caravaggio,  but  influenced  by 
."^tanzioni,  later  formed  his  own  style  by  a  union  of  Bolog- 
111  so  form  and  composition  and  the  "genuine  Neapolitan 
i<»ne-painting,  dark  and  passionate,  but  harmonious.'* 
AN'orks  by  Vaccaro  are  frequent  in  Neapolitan  churches, 
and  there  is  one  in  the  Dresden  Gallery. 

The  knight  of  Malta,  Fra  Mattia  Preti  (1613-1699), of 


196  HISTORY  OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV. 

Calabria,  called  II  Calabrese,  earned  a  great  reputation 
in  Rome,  Naples,  and  Malta.  Of  his  numerous  religious 
paintings,  the  chief  is  the  Incredulity  of  S.  Thomas,  in 
Naples  Museum. 

Ribera's  scholar,  Aniello  Falcone  (1600-1665),  called 
the  "  Oracle  of  Battles,"  founded  the  school  of  landscape  and 
battle-painting  in  Naples.  Being  concerned  in  the  revolt 
of  Masaniello,  in  which  he  led  his  friends  and  his  pupils, 
banded  together  under  the  name  of  the  "  Compagnia  della 
Morte,"  he  fled  to  Paris.  There  his  biblical  and  historical 
battle-pieces  made  him  famous.  The  few  pictures  as- 
cribed to  him  are  doubtful,  and  only  one  engraving 
(Bartsch,  No.  18)  is  signed.  Michelangelo  Cerquozzi 
(1602-1660)  painted  battles  and  genre  in  Naples  and  in 
Rome,  where  he  adopted  something  of  the  Netherlandish 
manner.  The  greatest  painter  of  the  Neapolitan  school 
was  the  scholar  of  Aniello,  Salvator  Rosa  (1615-1673). 
An  excellent  poet,  satirist,  and  musician,  and  a  spirited 
engraver  in  the  manner  of  Ribera,  Salvator  stands  in  the 
first  rank  as  a  painter  of  ideal  landscape  and  of  battle- 
scenes,  in  which,  like  the  one  in  the  Louvre,  landscape 
forms  an  important  part  of  the  composition,  harmonizing 
in  its  wild  or  gloomy  features  with  the  fiery  groups  of 
struggling  human  and  equine  forms.  His  best  landscapes 
are  in  the  TJffizi  and  in  the  Pitti,  but  there  are  two  fine 
examples  in  the  National  Gallery.  The  larger  of  the  two,. 
Mercury  and  the  Dishonest  Woodman,  is  considerably 
darkened  by  time,  but  it  is  of  gloomy  character,  with 
heavy  masses  of  foliage,  and  characteristically  Neapolitan 
sombre  colouring  and  effect.  His  colouring  is  always  cool ; 
and  the  beauty  of  his  compositions  depends,  not  on  line,  but 
on  effect,  and  on  that  complete  expression  of  mood  to 
which  every  natural  detail  contributed  when  amalgamated 
by  his  highly- wrought  imagination  into  an  ideal  romantic 
scene.  In  his  youth  he  wandered  much  alone  in  the 
mountainous  regions  of  the  Abruzzi,  and  studied  coast 
scenery  from  an  open  rowing-boat  off  the  shores  of  south 
Italy.  From  the  sketches  thus  taken  he  patched  together 
little  landscapes,  and  thereby  gained  a  living.  These  soon 
attracted  attention :  Lanf  ranco  patronized  him,  and  he  was 
introduced  into  the  school  of  Ribera  to  study  figures.    His 


BOOK    IV.]  PAINTING    IN    ITALY.  197 

liistorical  and  religious  pictures  bear  the  impress  of  these 
studies.  A  group  of  soldiers  in  the  Dulwich  Grallery, 
much  blackened  by  time,  is  drawn  with  great  force.  Sal- 
vator  left  Eibera  to  paint  battles  under  Aniello  Falcone  ;  ^ 
but  his  peculiar  genius  for  landscape  was  self-taught,  and 
his  keen  eye  for  the  j^icturesque  discovered  his  material  in 
nature  itself — in  the  i3recipices  and  waterfalls,  gloomy  caves, 
rained  castles,  ambushed  banditti,  and  belated  travellers  of 
the  Abruzzi.  He  painted  a  few  sunnier  and  simpler 
harbour  scenes  in  a  manner  betraying  the  influence  of 
Claude.  Salvator  spent  many  years  between  Naples  and 
Rome,  where  he  consorted  with  the  young  Italy  of  his 
time — free-thinkers  and  satirists  of  church  and  state ;  and 
he  is  said  to  have  made  one  of  Aniello' s  Compagnia 
della  Morte  in  1647.  He  spent  nine  years  at  the  grand 
ducal  court  of  Florence,  much  courted  and  honoured,  but 
lived  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  at  Rome,  where  his 
industry  brought  him  riches  and  his  art  made  him  friends 
in  honourable  society. 

Salvator's  three  pupils,  Bartolommeo  Torreggiani, 
Marzio  Masturzio,  and  Giovanni  Gthisolfi  (about  1623- 
1680),  imitated  him  closely,  without  equaUing  him.  A 
more  important  painter  was  Domenico  Gtargiulo  (1612- 
1679),  called  Micco  Spadaro,  the  friend  and  companion 
of  Salvator  in  the  school  of  Aniello.  His  frescoes  in  Naples 
Museum  are  slight  and  decorative  in  style,  but  he  is  famed 
as  a  battle  and  landscape  painter.  His  small  easel  pictures, 
somewhat  dull  in  colour,  record  the  revolt  of  Masaniello, 
the  plague  at  Naples,  an  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  and  other 
interesting  local  events. 

A  successor  to  the  popularity  and  to  the  mannerism  of 
Pietro  Berrettini  of  Cortona  was  the  brilliantly-gifted  but 
eminently  superficial  painter  Luca  Giordano  (1632-1705), 
esteemed  the  marvel  of  his  age  for  the  rapidity  with  which 
he  covered  with  frescoes  vast  ceilings,  domes,  and  walls 
in  Florence,  Naples,  Rome,  Venice,  and  finally  in  the 
Escurial,  whither  he  was  invited  by  the  King  of  Spain. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  Ribera,  and  painted  completely  in  that 
master's  style  in  his  early  years,  but  later  attached  himself 

^  See  Dominici,  "  Vite  dei  Pittori,"  &c.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  435. 


198  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IV, 

to  Cortona  at  Florence,  and  adopted  his  flowing,  decorative 
manner,  always,  however,  retaining  some  traces  of  his 
Neapohtan  richer  colouring,  and,  here  and  there,  more 
powerful  drawing.  His  great  talents  otherwise  directed 
might  have  made  him  something  better,  but  his  wonderful 
facility  of  hand  gained  him  the  name  of  Fa  Presto,  and 
made  him  the  chief  of  the  machinisti,  as  the  popular 
quick-painting  decorators  came  to  be  called. 

The  effects  of  the  revival  of  art  of  the  Carracci  and  the 
naturalisti  died  away  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  art 
stood  at  a  low  level  throughout  Italy.  The  only  painters 
worthy  of  mention  are  Venetians. 

Antonio  Canale  (1697-1768),  called  Canaletto,  painted 
with  considerable  skill  and  accuracy  the  palaces  and  canals 
of  Venice,  generally  in  a  cold  and  formal  manner,  with 
a  dead  colouring.  He  visited  England,  and  painted 
views  of  London,  One  of  Eton  College,  dated  1746,  is 
in  the  National  Gallery,  where  there  is  also  a  fine  View 
in  Venice  (No.  127),  of  a  much  freer  composition, 
warmer  in  colouring,  and  with  a  sense  of  atmosphere  and 
life  absent  in  his  grand  Regatta  on  the  Grand  Canal  (No. 
938)  in  the  same  gallery.  The  figures  in  his  pictures 
were  sometimes  painted  by  Giovanni  Battista  Tiepolo 
(1696-1770),  well  known  as  a  fresco  painter  in  Venice  and 
at  Madrid.  There  are  two  oil  sketches  by  him  in  the 
National  Gallery.  Another  architectural  painter,  Fran- 
cesco GuARDi  (1712-1793),  painted  in  a  similar  style  to 
Canaletto,  but  with  more  colour  and  less  truthfulness  of 
detail.  There  are  two  clever  little  pictures  by  him  in  the 
National  Gallery.  Pieteo  Longhi  (1702-1762)  painted 
genre  and  portraits,  of  which  there  are  examples  in  the 
National  Gallery. 

For  want  of  space,  the  flower  and  still-life  painters,  and 
the  few  followers  of  Eaphael  Mengs  and  of  David  at  Rome, 
must  remain  unnoticed.  Rome  still  remained  the  great 
art  centre,  but  it  is  of  the  art  of  the  dead  rather  than  that  of 
the  living.  The  modern  Venetian  school  is  composed  mainly 
of  foreigners;  and  although  Italy  has  shared  to  some 
extent  in  the  modern  revival  of  art,  she  still  remains  far 
behind  the  more  northern  nations. 


BOOK  V. 
PAINTING    IN    SPAIN. 

Eakly  Spanish  Painters — Alonso  Cano — Zurbaran— 
Velasquez — Mdbillo. 

THE  acquaintance  of  most  persons  with  Spanish  art  is 
limited  to  the  names  and  works  of  two  or  three  pre- 
eminent masters.  When  they  have  enumerated  Velasquez, 
Murillo,  Zurbaran,  and,  perhaps,  Alonso  Cano,  they  find 
their  knowledge  nearly  exhausted,  and  are  unable  to  fill 
up  the  list.  Nor  is  this  much  to  be  wondered  at,  for  in 
truth  these  are  the  only  Spanish  painters  whose  works  are 
to  be  met  with  in  any  number  out  of  Spain ;  and  as  com- 
paratively few  students  have  the  opportunity  of  studying 
Spanish  painting  in  its  native  home,  their  knowledge  of  it 
must  necessarily  be  limited  to  those  few  painters  whose 
popularity  and  high  excellence  have  induced  the  plunder 
and  acquisition  of  their  works  by  foreign  nations.  This 
would  be  the  more  to  be  regretted,  but  that  from  all 
accounts  the  greater  number  of  the  masters  whose  works 
Spain  shrouds  in  her  dark  churches  and  neglected  museums 
are  not  worthy  of  a  much  better  fate.  The  general  igno- 
rance that  prevails  concerning  the  Spanish  painters  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  may,  after  all,  be  better 
for  their  reputation  than  if  their  feeble  asceticisms  were 
dragged  forth  into  the  glaring  light  of  modern  criticism 
and  art  exhibitions. 

The  painters  of  the  seventeenth  century  whose  works 
have  penetrated  more  or  less  into  foreign  countries  are,  we 
may  feel  pretty  sure,  the  greatest  artists  whom  Spain  has 
produced ;  indeed,  by  many  -writers  on  the  subject,  the 
history  of  Spanish  painting  is  not  reckoned  to  begin  until 
the  period  when  these  men  flourished. 


200  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   V. 

But  although  Spain  produced  no  Giotto  to  give  a  free 
and  natural  development  to  the  Byzantine  style,  and  al- 
though for  a  long  time  Spanish  art  seemed  entirely  depen- 
dent upon  Italian  teaching,  yet  there  were  several  early 
Spanish  masters  whose  names  and  characteristics  it  is  de- 
sirable for  the  student  to  know. 

[For  our  scanty  knowledge  of  the  early  history  of 
Spanish  painting  we  were  until  lately  dependent  upon 
Stirling's  "  Annals  of  Painting  in  Spain,"  Head's  "  Hand- 
book of  the  Spanish  School,"  and  Ford's  "  Handbook  for 
Travellers  in  Spain."  For  further  information  we  are 
mainly  indebted  to  the  learned  Professor  Woermann,  the 
results  of  whose  individual  research  in  the  Peninsula  are 
embodied  in  the  Spanish  section  of  Messrs.  Woltmann  and 
Woermann' s  admirable  "  History  of  Painting."] 

The  Moors,  in  their  invasion  of  Spain  in  the  eighth 
century,  seem,  in  their  barbaric  fury,  to  have  destroyed 
nearly  all  works  of  early  Christian  art  that  we  may  sup- 
pose existed  there  at  that  time.  A  few  faint  relics  of 
previous  artistic  work  remained,^  however,  when  the  Ma- 
liomedan  power  was  at  last  broken,  sufficient  to  indicate 
that  in  the  early  centuries  of  Christianity  the  universal 
Byzantine  style  i^revailed  in  Spain  as  in  the  other  coun- 
tries of  Christian  Europe. 

Under  Mahomedan  inspiration  magnificent  architectural 
and  decorative  works,  such  as  the  Alhambra,  were  executed, 
but  no  pictures  [if  we  except  the  remarkable  paintings  on 
leather  in  the  Hall  of  Council  at  Granada,  representing 
ten  Moors  seated  in  council.  They  are  apparently  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  time  of  the  Moorish  decadence]. "^ 

Strange  to  say,  the  first  Spanish  painter  of  whom  we 
have  any  record  is  met  with  in  England,  where,  in  1253, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  we  find  that  one  Petkus  de 
HisPANiA  was  ordered  to  repair  "  the  painting  in  the 
king's  oratory,  near  his  bed,"  and  received  "  sixpence  a  day 
for  his  wages  in  the  king's  service."  ^ 

^  Such,  for  instance,  as  the  paintings  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  at 
CordoA-a,  spoken  of  by  Pablo  de  Cespedes  as  still  existing,  though  much 
decayed  in  his  time.     Dictionary  of  Cean  Bermudez. 

'■^  Washburn's  ''  Early  Spanish  Masters." 

^  Gage  Rokewood,  "  Account  of  the  Painted  Chamber  at  "West- 
minster," qiioted  in  Head's  "  Handbook  of  the  Spanish  Schools." 


BOOK  v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  201 

The  name  of  Eodeigo  Esteban  is  likewise  on  record  as 
having  been  painter  to  King  Sancho  IV.  in  the  years  1291 
and  1292.  And  Cean  Bennudez  mentions  the  names  of 
live-and-twenty  Sj^anish  painters  who  worked  before  1500, 
consequently  before  the  conquest  of  Granada  and  final 
overthrow  of  the  Moorish  kingdoms,  which  took  place  in 
1492. 

After  this  date,  when  Catholic  Spain  was  gradually 
rising  in  power  and  tyranny,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  the 
arts  would  be  cultivated.  Indeed,  the  magnificent  cathe- 
drals that  arose  about  and  before  this  period,  prove  that 
the  Grothic  impulse  was  felt  in  Spain  quite  as  fully  as  in 
Italy  and  the  North.  Still,  however,  no  Sj^anish  painter 
of  any  great  merit  seems  to  have  arisen,  and  for  the  most 
part  foreigners  were  employed  upon  all  important  works. 
Vasari  mentions  two  Florentine  artists  who,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century,  were  treated  with  great  dis- 
tinction in  Spain.  One  of  these  was  G-herardo  Stamina, 
who,  as  we  have  seen,  improved  in  his  manners  as  well  as 
his  art  during  his  residence  in  Spain,'  and  the  other  was 
Dello  Delli,^  a  sculptor  in  terra-cotta  as  well  as  a  painter, 
who,  although  it  would  appear  but  slightly  esteemed  in 
artistic  Florence,  achieved  a  great  reputation  in  Spain, 
where  he  was  knighted  by  Juan  11.  of  Castile.  Other 
Itahan  masters  seem  likewise  to  have  been  employed;  and 
the  close  union  of  Spain  with  the  Netherlands  caused 
many  Flemish  artists  ^  to  come  over,  so  that  perhaps 
native  talent  had   scarcely  a  fair   chance   of  assertion.' 

'  See  page  48. 

[2  Delli  was  still  living  in  Spain  in  1455.] 

[3  John  Van  Eyck  visited  Spain,  and  Petrus  Christusand  Eogior  Van 
der  Wejden  painted  some  of  their  most  important  works  for  Spanish 
churches.    (VVoermann.)] 

[*  What  there  was  seems  to  have  been  a  mixture  of  Flemish  and 
Italian  styles,  but  the  Flemish  style  predominated.  At  Barcelona,  one 
of  the  seats  of  Provencal  culture,  intercourse  with  the  French  and 
Flemish  artists  was  maintained,  and  the  Flemish  method  of  oil  painting 
was  established  in  Spain  earlier  than  in  Italy.  A  small  oil  painting  by 
Ludovico  Dalmau  (1445),  from  its  manner,  according  to  MM.  Crowe  and 
Cavalcaselle,  might  have  come  out  of  Van  Eyck's  workshop.  At  Sala- 
manca Gallegos  painted  in  Flemish  manner.  Pedro  of  Cordova  (1475) 
painted  in  the  style  of  Petrus  Cristus,  and  Pedro  Merzal  worked  in  like 
fashion  at  Seville.     There  is  reason  to  think  that  many  works  in  old 


202  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK  V. 

There  are,  however,  a  goodly  number  of  Spanish  painters 
whose  names  are  known  to  ns,  belonging  to  the  fifteenth 
and  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.  The  most  im- 
portant of  these  are  Juan  Sanchez  de  Castro,  Pedro- 
Fernandez  DE  G-uadelupe,  Juan  Nunez  and  Gonzalo 
Diaz,  of  Seville,  Garcia  del  Barco  and  Juan  Rodriguez, 
of  Castile,  and  Juan  Alfon,  Pedro  Berruguete  and 
Antonio  del  Eincon,  of  Toledo.  But  as  almost  all  the 
works  of  these  masters  have  perished  under  the  influence 
of  time  and  neglect,^  it  is  nearly  impossible  to  judge  of 
their  merits. 

The  influence  of  Italian  art  became  more  predominant 
towards  the  middle  and  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

Nearly  all  the  Spanish  masters  of  this  time  studied  in 
Italy,  and,  like  the  Flemish  Italianisers  of  the  same  period, 
fell  into  a  weak  imitation  of  the  great  masters.  Thus  we 
have  Spanish  Eaphaels,  Spanish  Michael  Angelos,  Spanish 
Titians,  and,  above  all,  Spanish  Caravaggios,  but  no  master 
of  powerful  original  genius. 

From  this  general  Italianisation  in  the  sixteenth  century^ 
one  painter  must,  however,  be  excepted.  Luis  de  Morales, 
called  by  his  countrymen  "  El  Divino,"  on  account  of  the 
ascetic  piety  of  his  works  (about  1510-1586),  was  in  feeling 
a  genuine  Spaniard,  and  in  style,  also,-  owed  but  little  to 
Italy.  His  works,  more,  perhaps,  than  those  of  any  other 
Spanish  painter  (although  all  Spanish  painters  were  more 
or  less  under  the  same  influences),  exemplify  the  narrowing 
effects  of  Eoman  Catholic  teaching  upon  the  intellect.  We 
find  in  them,  indeed,  as  in  the  older  Byzantine  works, 

churches  and  museums,  ascribed  to  Flemings,  are  really  by  Spanish 
imitators.] 

^  Most  of  those  which  still  exist  are  described  in  Ford's  "  Handbook 
for  Travellers  in  Spain." 

[By  Juan  Sanchez  de  Castro  there  is  a  colossal  St.  Christopher 
(1484)  in  the  church  of  S.  Julian,  Seville;  by  Juan  Nuiiez,  his  pupil 
(living  1507),  a  Pieta  in  a  chapel  of  the  cathedral  at  Seville  (engraved  in 
Woermann) ;  by  Pedro  Fernandez  an  altar-piece  in  the  same  cathedral ; 
by  Pedro  Berruguete  (d.  about  1500),  part  of  an  altar-piece  at  Avila, 
finished  by  Santos  Cruz  and  Juan  de  Borgona  (l495-15o3).  At  the 
South  Kensington  Museum  there  is  a  remarkable  old  Spanish  altar-piece 
f>f  the  fifteenth  century  from  Valencia,  repi'esenting  the  history  of  S. 
George.] 


BOOK    v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  205 

merely  an  expression  of  asceticism,  and  of  an  asceticism 
that  was  no  longer  inspired  by  lofty  ideas,  as  in  the  first 
ages  of  Christianity,  when  the  ascetic  life  was  often  adopted 
as  a  personal  protest  against  the  foul  immorality  of  the 
heathen  world,  but  was  the  result  of  an  abject  and  slavish 
state  of  fear  and  superstition. 

The  Inquisition,  in  truth,  exercised  its  tyrannic  power 
over  the  art  of  Spain,  as  well  as  over  every  other  province 
of  man's  intellect;  and  in  such  a  manner,  that  no  free 
development  was  possible.  Everywhere  the  individual 
thought  of  the  artist  was  curbed,  and  his  mode  of  repre- 
sentation limited  by  the  rules  prescribed  for  his  guidance 
by  holy  church.  In  Italy  at  this  time,  as  we  have  seen, 
art  was  no  longer  in  the  service  of  the  church,  but  claimed 
to  be  judged  entirely  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view  ;  but 
it  was  very  different  in  Spain,  where  assthetic  considera- 
tions were  but  little  regarded  in  comparison  with  an 
orthodox  expression  of  belief,  and  where  the  Inquisition 
decided  upon  what  was  orthodox  and  what  was  heretical, 
and  even  appointed  an  official  inspector  to  examine  pictures 
for  this  purpose. 

Luis  de  Morales  had  certainly  no  need  of  the  supervision 
of  the  holy  office,  for  his  works  are  the  very  type  of  bigoted 
and  dismal  asceticism.  A  deep  religious  enthusiasm,  it  is 
true,  animates  them  ;  but  it  is  the  enthusiasm  of  a  melan- 
choly fanatic,  rather  than  of  a  hopeful  Christian.  Madonna 
dolorosas  and  Ecce  Homos  were  his  favourite  subjects,  de- 
picted in  the  passionate  delirium  of  grief,  or  in  exhausted 
despair.  He  seems,  so  far  as  one  can  discover  from  descrip- 
tions and  catalogues,  to  have  rarely  indulged  in  more 
cheerful  themes,  but  alternated  between  these,  Crucifixions, 
Descents  from  the  Cross,  and  Pietus. 

His  works,  it  is  needless  to  say,  are  rarely  to  be  met 
^vith  out  of  Spain.^ 

Amongst  the  other  masters  of  this  time,  which  is  usually 
reckoned  as  the  middle  period  of  Spanish  art,  may  be 
mentioned  Alonso  Bereuguete  (about  1480-1561),  who- 

^  Even  in  Spain  it  is  very  difficult  to  study  them,  for  like  those  of 
most  other  Spanish  masters  of  this  date,  they  are  scattered  in  remote 
churches  and  convents,  to  which  the  traveller  seldom  penetrates.  There 
are  six  paintings  by  him,  however,  in  the  Koyal  Gallery  at  Madrid. 


'204  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  V. 

was  one  of  the  first  to  import  Italian  Renaissance  into 
Spain.  He  had  studied  in  the  studio  of  Michael  Angelo, 
and,  like,  that  master,  was  an  architect  and  sculptor  as  well 
as  a  painter.  Several  of  his  architectural  works  remain, 
but  the  only  paintings  now  to  be  identified  are  eight  pic- 
tures of  the  Passion  in  the  College  of  Santiago  at  Sala- 
manca. He  also  studied  with  Andrea  del  Sarto,  and  re- 
turned to  Valladolid  from  Italy  in  1520. 

Pedro  Campana  (Pieter  de  Kempeneer)  was  born  at 
Brussels,  1503.  He  went  to  Bologna  and  Rome  in  1530,  and 
;after  studying  in  Italy,  settled  in  Seville  sometime  before 
1548,  which  date  is  upon  his  great  Descent  from  the  Cross,^  a 
picture  showing  Flemish  rather  than  Italian  power  of 
'execution  and  expression.^  His  talents' were  higbly  honoured 
in  Spain,  Murillo  was  a  great  admirer  of  this  master.  He 
used  sometimes,  we  are  told,  to  stand  for  hours  before  Cam- 
pana's  master-work,  the  Descent  from  the  Cross,  now  in  the 
-cathedral  at  Seville,  and  once  replied  to  someone  who  asked 
him  why  he  stayed  so  long,  "  I  am  waiting  till  these  holy 
men  have  taken  our  Lord  down."  He  likewise  desired  to 
be  buried  in  front  of  this  altar-piece.  Its  power  must  cer- 
tainly have  been  remarkable,  for  Pacheco  tells  us  that  he 
was  afraid  to  remain  alone  with  it  in  the  gloomy  chapel, 
where  it  originally  hung,  in  the  church  of  Santa  Cruz, 

Alonzo  Sanchez  Coello  (1515-1590),  supposed  by 
;Some  to  have  been  a  Portuguese,  and  called  by  PhiHp  II,, 
to  whom  he  was  painter  in  ordinary,  "  his  Portuguese 
Titian."  [His  portraits  resemble  those  of  Antonio  Moro, 
with  whom  Coello  journeyed  to  Lisbon  in  1552.  His  best 
j)upil  was  Pantoja  de  la  Cruz  (1551-1609),  a  good  por- 
traitist, with  a  "  thin  and  precise,  but  masterly  execution." 
There  are  three  portraits  by  Coello  in  the  Museum  of 
Brussels,  and  one  of  Philip  II.  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery.] 

Pedro  Machtjca,  Pernando  Yanez,  GtAspar  Becerra, 
Luis  de  Vargas,  who  introduced  oil  painting  into  Seville 
(1502-1568),  and  Vicente  Juanes  (1507-1579),  the  head 
of  the  school  of  Valencia,  belong  to  the  schools  of  Rome 
and  Florence  in  their  decadence  after  the  death  of  Raphael. 

['  "  La  peinture  riamande,"  p.  180  (A.  Wauters).] 
[^  "  Geschichte  der  Malerei,"  p.  39  (K.  Woermann).] 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  205" 

Those  now  about  to  be  considered  were  more  especially 
imder  the  influence  of  the  great  masters  of  Venice,  Titian, 
as  we  might  naturally  expect,  considering  the  great  number 
of  his  works  in  Spain,  even  if  he  were  never  there  himself, 
being  the  chief  model  of  their  style. 

Juan  Fernandez  Navarrete,  surnamed  El  Mudo,  or 
the  Dumb  (1526-1579),  worked,  it  is  said,  in  Titian's 
studio,  where  he  acquired  something  of  that  master's  rich 
colouring.  He  was  one  of  the  painters  of  Philip  II.'s 
magnificent  palace  of  the  Escurial,  upon  the  decoration  of 
which  that  gloomy  bigot  employed  all  the  artistic  talent 
he  could  gain  over  to  his  service.  There  is  a  small  picture 
by  Navarrete  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Landsdowne,  at 
Bo  wood. 

DoMENico  Theotocopuli  (1548-1625),  known  as  Ii^ 
Greco,  although,  as  it  would  seem,  a  Greek  by  birth,  i& 
usually  reckoned  as  a  Spanish  painter.  His  style  seems 
to  have  been  essentially  Venetian,  and  he  attained  to  very 
high  excellence  in  colour.  Like  many  painters  who  mado 
colour  their  chief  study,  he  underrated  Michael  Angelo,  of 
whom  he  is  reported  to  have  said  that  he  was  "  a  good  sort 
of  man,  but  did  not  know  how  to  paint."  ^ 

Luis  Tristan  and  Juan  Bautisti  Matno,  who  became 
a  Dominican  monk,  and  Pedro  Orrente,  called  "  the  Spanish 
Bassano,"  were  pupils  of  El  Greco. 

Juan  de  las  Roelas  (about  1558-1625)  was  one  of  the 
most  important  of  the  sixteenth  century  Spanish  masters. 
His  style,  it  would  appear,  must  have  been  founded  upon 
that  of  Tintoretto,  his  works  having  sometimes  been  mis- 
taken for  those  of  the  gorgeous  Italian ;  but  he  has  decided 
original  talent,  and  his  works  are  spoken  of  by  critics  in 
terms  of  high  praise.  Unfortunately  "  it  is  at  Seville,  and 
Seville  alone,  hat  this  master  can  be  properly  appreciated."  '^ 
One  of  his  principal  works  is  a  grand  painting  of  Sant  lago 
riding  over  the  moors  at  the  battle  of  Clavigo,  in  the 
cathedral  at  Seville. 

Roelas  was  loudly  condemned  by  Pacheco,  who,  as  we 
shall  see,  held  the  office  of  Inspector  of  Paintings  for  the 

•  Pacheco,  "  Arte  de  la  Pintura."    [There  is  a  S.  Jerome  by  II  Greco 
in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  1122).] 
»  Head,  "  Handbook  of  the  Spanish  School." 


206  HISTOBY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  V. 

Inquisition,  for  having  in  a  picture  of  the  Nativity  repre- 
sented the  Christ-child  naked.  "How  dare  artists,"  he 
exclaims,  in  virtuous  indignation,  "  paint  him  thus, — even 
if  the  Holy  Scriptures  did  not  tell  us  so  [that  he  was 
wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes],  no  one  could  presume  so 
little  prudence  and  so  little  compassion  in  his  most  holy 
Mother  as  to  imagine  that  she  would  expose  her  Child  in 
such  a  rigorous  season,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  to 
the  inclemency  of  the  weather." 

This  amusing  piece  of  prudery  is  but  a  sample  of  the 
sort  of  criticism  to  which  all  Spanish  art  was  exposed,  and 
to  which,  strange  to  say,  all  Spanish  painters  appear  to 
have  submitted;  for  although  I  have  spoken  of  the 
Italianisation  of  Sj^anish  art  at  this  period,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  this  Italianisation  extended  only  over 
the  style  and  execution  of  the  Spanish  masters,  and  not  by 
any  means  over  their  choice  of  subjects  or  mode  of  repre- 
senting them. 

The  license  that  characterises  Itahan  art  in  the  sixteenth 
century  was  never  admitted  into  Spanish.  No  naked 
Venuses,  no  frail  nymphs,  were  allowed  to  seduce  mankind 
by  their  charms,  and  the  saints  and  other  holy  personages 
were  so  rigorously  draped  that  it  was  considered  highly 
indecorous  to  permit  the  Virgin's  naked  feet  to  be  seen.^ 
Such  an  improi)riety  was,  in  fact,  "  corrected  "  by  the  Holy 
Inquisition,  and  not  even  Murillo  dared  to  commit  it.  In 
his  Immaculate  Conceptions  the  feet  are  always  hidden. 

In  spite,  therefore,  of  the  Italian  education  of  most  of 
the  Spanish  masters,  and  of  the  Italian  taste  that  every- 
where prevailed,  the  religious,  or  rather,  perhaps,  the 
ecclesiastical  element  predominated  at  this  time  far  more 
in  Spanish  art  than  in  the  contemporaneous  art  of  any 
other  country.  Several  of  the  masters  that  have  been  men- 
tioned were  men  of  the  most  fervent  and  orthodox  piety, 
and  superstitious  to  such  a  degree  as  to  believe  in  their 
own  pictures  being  inspired  and  miracle-working.     Luis 

*  Carducho  points  out  the  want  of  truth  as  well  as  the  want  of  de- 
cency in  those  painters  who  have  represented  the  Virgin  unshod,  inas- 
much, he  says,  that  it  is  certain  our  Blessed  Lady  wore  shoes,  "  the 
much  venerated  relic  of  one  of  them  being  still  preserved  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Burgos." 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  207 

•de  Vargas,  for  instance,  was  almost  an  ascetic  in  life,  and 
used,  we  are  told,  to  lie  in  a  cofl&n  some  hours  every  day- 
considering  his  latter  end.  Vicente  Joanes,  a  thorough 
Italianiser,  yet  produced  a  picture  of  the  Virgin  that  had 
the  reputation  of  being  miracle-working,^  and  which  he 
beheved  to  have  been  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream.  He 
never  began  a  religious  work  without  taking  the  sacrament 
and  confessing.  Becerra,  likewise,  although  an  admirer  of 
Michael  Angelo  and  a  diligent  student  of  anatomy,  was 
the  sculptor  of  "the  portentous  image  of  our  Lady  of 
Solitude,"  which,  draped  in  widow's  weeds,  worked  miracles 
in  a  convent  in  Madrid  "  to  the  great  gain  of  her  masters,"  ^ 
until  her  solitude  was  disturbed  by  the  French  during  the 
war  of  independence,  since  which  time  she  has  disappeared. 
In  truth,  the  pagan  and  rational  spirit  that  we  have 
seen  in  Italy  triumphing  over  the  spirit  of  asceticism  that 
in  earlier  times  animated  Christian  art,  never  gained  any 
real  hold  over  the  Spanish  intellect,  which  was  always 
more  or  less  faithful  to  the  national  religion.  Nor  had 
art  in  Spain  any  such  incentives  to  throw  off  the  discipline 
of  Kome  as  in  Italy,  where  the  revival  of  the  classic  learn- 
ing, and  the  discovery  of  the  beautiful  remains  of  the 
antique  world,  brought  to  an  end  the  long  night  of  me- 
diaevalism,  and  caused  "  the  spirit  of  ancient  Greece  to 
arise  from  the  tomb,  and  the  fabric  of  superstition  to 
crumble  and  totter  at  her  touch."  * 


^  It  has  been  ab^ady  remarked  that  most  miraculous  pictures  are'bad 
works  of  art. 

'  Palomino  de  Castro  y  Velasco.  Palomino  was  the  Vasari  of  Spain. 
Besides  his  learned  and  dull  disquisitions  on  the  art  of  painting,  he 
wrote  the  earliest  biographies  of  the  Spanish  painters,  which  formed  the 
foundation  for  the  great  work  of  Cean  Bermudez  and  all  subsequent 
historians.  Like  Vasari,  he  was  fearfully  inaccurate  and  careless  con- 
cerning dates,  and  his  statements  need  the  most  careful  verification.  He 
was  also  very  superstitious,  and  believed  with  the  fullest  faith  in  the 
miraculous  origin  of  many  of  the  works  (such  as  our  Lady  of  Solitude) 
that  he  describes.  The  biographical  portion  of  his  great  work,  the 
"  Museum  Pictorium,"  has  been  translated  into  English,  with  the  title, 
"  An  Account  of  the  Lives  and  "Works  of  the  most  eminent  Spanish 
Painters,  Sculptors,  and  Architects."  London,  1739.  He  was  himself 
a  painter,  but  his  reputation  is  greater  as  an  historian  than  as  an  artist. 
lie  was  born  in  1653. 

^  Lecky,  **  Hist,  of  Rationalism,"  vol.  i. 


208  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   V. 

In  Spain,  on  the  contrary,  the  effects  of  the  revival  of 
learning  where  felt  less,  perhaps,  than  in  any  other  country 
of  Europe.  Classic  art  was  scarcely  known,  and  "  the  fabric 
of  superstition"  was  upheld  by  a  strong  and  tyrannic 
arm. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  therefore,  that  the  Church, 
which  effectually  crushed  every  effort  at  free  thought  and 
philosophic  enquiry  in  every  other  direction,  should  have 
forbidden  it  also  in  painting :  it  is  only  remarkable  that 
under  such  despotic  supervision  the  great  painters  that 
Spain  undoubtedly  produced  should  have  been  developed. 

Roelas,  who  was  a  licentiate  of  holy  orders,  and  there- 
fore often  styled  El  Clerigo  Eoelas,  was  one  of  the  earliest 
masters  of  the  school  of  Seville,  a  school  which  afterwards, 
as  we  shall  see,  rose  to  the  highest  importance.  He  was 
excellent  as  a  portrait  painter,  and  "  no  one,"  says  Ford, 
"  ever  painted  the  sleek  grimalkin  Jesuit  like  Eoelas." 

Pablo  de  Cespedes,  of  Cordova  (1538-1608),  was  an- 
other distinguished  master  of  the  early  school  of  Seville  ; 
he  is  earlier  in  date,  in  fact,  than  Eoelas.  Pacheco  calls 
him  "  a  great  imitator  of  the  beautiful  manner  of  Correggio, 
and  one  of  the  best  colourists  in  Spain."  He  was  also 
admired  for  his  masterly  chiaroscuro.  He  enjoyed  a  lite- 
rary as  well  as  an  artistic  reputation,  being  known  as  a 
learned  linguist  and  scholar,  and  a  philosophical  writer  on 
art.^  But  few,  unfortunately,  either  of  his  painted  or 
plastic  works  remain.  (He  was  a  sculptor  and  architect 
as.  well  as  painter).  Even  his  grand  painting  of  the  Last 
Supper  in  the  cathedral  of  Cordova,  considered  his  master- 
work,  has  been  suffered  to  fall  into  decay.^ 

[Feancesco  Collantes,  of  Madrid    (1599-1656)  was 

^  His  treatises  on  art  were  published  by  Cean  Bermudez,  in  an  appen- 
dix to  the  fifth  volume  of  his  "  Dictionary."  They  comprise  "  A  Com- 
parison between  the  Ancient  and  Modern  Arts  of  Painting  and  Sculp- 
ture, a  Poem  on  Painting,  a  Letter  on  the  Ancient  Methods  of  Painting, 
and  an  Essay  on  the  Temple  of  Solomon."  Stirling  has  translated  a  few 
verses  of  his  poem  on  painting. 

2  Ford,  "  Handbook  for  Travellers  in  Spain."  [Now  in  Seville  Mu- 
seum. There  is  an  Ascension  of  the  Virgin  in  the  Museum  S.  Fer- 
nando, Madrid,  in  which,  according  to  Woermann,  little  trace  of  beau- 
tiful colouring  remains,  though  it  is  well  drawn,  and  the  faces  are  of 
noble  type.] 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN   SPAIN.  209 

celebrated  for  liis  landscapes,  some  of  the  best  in  the 
Spanish  school.     There  is  one  in  the  Louvre.] 

Feancisco  Ribalta  (about  1551-1628)  was  a  painter 
of  Valencia,  to  whose  name  a  romantic  history  is  attached. 
He  fell  in  love,  we  are  told,  like  many  other  apprentices, 
with  his  master's  daughter,  and  the  father  being  of  course 
unpropitious,  he  went  away  to  Italy  to  improve  himself  in 
art,  the  young  lady  promising  meanwhile  to  remain  faith- 
ful. On  his  return,  after  an  absence  of  some  years,  he 
sought  out  his  beloved  one,  but  instead  of  spending  his 
time  in  fruitless  love-making,  he  entered  the  old  studio, 
and  the  obdurate  father  being  from  home,  boldly  finished 
a  sketch  that  was  standing  on  an  easel,  and  left  it  there  as 
a  silent  witness  of  his  visit,  his  faithful  love,  and  his  im- 
proved powers  as  an  artist.  When  the  father  returned  he 
was  astonished  at  the  excellence  of  the  work,  and  exclaimed 
to  his  delighted  daughter,  "  If  this  man  were  your  lover, 
you  should  marry  him  with  my  full  consent,  but  not  that 
poor  bungler,  Eibalta."  Thus  Ribalta  won  his  wife  and 
fame  at  the  same  time,  for  this  story  soon  spread  abroad, 
and  others  besides  his  father-in-law  admitted  his  talents, 
and  gave  him  commissions. 

The  altar-piece  in  the  chapel  of  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford,  Christ  bearing  the  Cross,  is  considered  by  Ford  to 
be  by  him,  and  to  be  a  grand  example  of  his  style.  It  was 
formerly  attributed  to  Morales,  but  there  seems  no  real 
ground  for  so  attributing  it,  any  more  than  for  assigning 
it  to  Lodovico  Carracci  or  other  eclectics,  as  some  writers 
have  done.  Ford  describes  Eibalta's  style  as  being  a  com- 
bination of  that  of  Domenichino  and  Sebastiano  del  Piombo, 
so  that  it  is  likely  that  his  work  might  easily  pass  for  that 
of  an  Italian  master.^ 

Ribalta's  chief  works  are  in  the  College  of  Corpus 
Christi,  at  Valencia,  which  Ford  describes  as  "  a  museum 
of  Ribaltas."  2 

'  Tlie  Magdalen  altar-piece  was  brought  from  Spain  in  1702  by  the 
last  Duke  of  Ormonde,  and  there  seems  but  very  little  reason  to  doubt 
that  it  is  really  Spanish. 

P  Notwithstanding  his  Italian  education,  Ribalta's  later  works  are 
"thoroughly  Spanish  in  feeling  and  style,  worthy  in  colour,  Jind  freedom 
from  the  archaisms  of  the  transition  masters,  to  be  classed  with  the  jjreat 

P 


210  HISTORY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   V. 

GuiSEPPE  DE  EiBEEA  (born  at  Valencia,  1588,  died  at 
Naples,  1656),  already  mentioned  amongst  Italian  masters, 
is  said  to  have  been  in  the  first  instance  a  pupil  of  Ribalta, 
but  he  went  early  to  Italy,  where  he  was  known  as  Lo 
Spagnoletto,  by  which  designation  he  is  likewise  best 
known  at  the  present  day.  There  are  a  good  number  of 
works  by  him  in  Spain,  but  he  may  be  better  studied  in 
other  countries.  [There  are  two  works  of  his  in  the  National 
Gallery.] 

Juan  de  Ribalta  (1597-1628),  the  son  of  Francisco, 
died  in  the  same  year  as  his  father,  but  not  before  he  had 
achieved  an  almost  equal  success  as  an  artist.  The  paint- 
ings in  the  Madrid  G-allery  bearing  the  name  of  Ribalta 
are  now  considered  to  be  the  works  of  Juan,  which  con- 
noisseurs find  very  difficult  to  distinguish  from  those  of 
Francisco. 

Jacinto  Gteronimo  de  Espinosa  (1600-1680),  studied 
under  Ribalta  and  afterwards  in  Italy.  "  No  painter,'* 
says  Stirling,  "  was  ever  more  industrious  or  more  popular, 
and  few  more  prolific  or  more  pious,"  The  greater  number 
of  his  works  are  now  in  the  Museum  at  Valencia. 

The  name  of  Francisco  Pacheco  (1571-1654),  has 
been  already  mentioned  several  times.  It  is  in  truth  a 
celebrated  name  in  the  history  of  Si)anish  art,  but  its 
owner  is  best  known  to  fame,  not  by  any  great  achievements 
of  his  own,  but,  like  the  Paduan  Squarcione,  by  the  great- 
ness of  one  of  the  pupils  who  emanated  from  his  school, 
and  by  the  influence  that  he  exerted  over  the  art  of  his 
time.  His  work  upon  painting,  before  quoted,^  is  charac- 
terised by  Stirling  as  "  pompous,  prolix,  and  wearisome,'* 
and  such  we  may  surmise  the  author  likewise  to  have 
been  :  but  his  book  was  not  written  until  he  was,  accordirisr 
to  his  own  account,  seventy  years  of  age,  when  a  little 
dogmatism  may  be  permitted  to  man.  The  book  is  divided 
into  three  parts,  treating  of  the  history,  theory,  and  prac- 
tice of  art,  and  in  it  he  lays  down  especial  rules  for  the 
guidance  of  artists  in  painting  religious  subjects,  rules  to 
which  no  doubt  his  official  position  as  Commissioner  of  the 

ones  of  the  seventeenth  century.     (Woermann,  and  '*  Catalogo  de  los 
cuadros  del  Museo  del  Prado  de  INIadrid.")] 

^  ''Arte  de  Pintura,  su  Antigiiedady  Grandezas."    Seville,  1649. 


BOOK  v.]  PAINTING  IN  SPAIN.  211 

Holy  Inquisition  gave  peculiar  authority.  Thus  he  gives 
the  young  painter  "  salutary  counsel "  concerning  the 
painting  of  the  nude  figure,  of  which  he  recommends  that 
"  the  face  and  hands  should  be  painted  from  nature,  with 
the  requisite  beauty  and  variety,  after  women  of  good 
character ;  in  which,"  he  graciously  admits,  "  in  my  opinion, 
there  is  no  danger."  "  But  with  regard  to  the  other  parts," 
be  says,  "  I  would  avail  myself  of  good  pictures,  engravings, 
models,  ancient  and  modem  statues,  and  the  excellent 
designs  of  Albert  Diirer,  so  that  I  might  choose  what  was 
most  graceful  and  best  composed  without  running  into 
danger."  Caring  little,  evidently,  for  the  danger  that 
Diirer  and  other  heretics  must  have  run  in  preparing  these 
excellent  designs.  He  likewise  gives  in  structions  concerning 
the  proper  mode  of  representing  the  Virgin  in  her  various 
characters,  and  the  traditional  mode  of  representing  certain 
Saints.  In  the  Last  Judgment  the  nakedness  of  the  risen 
souls  greatly  perplexes  his  mind,  it  being  correct  from  an 
aesthetic  point  of  view,  but  inadmissible  from  an  orthodox. 
He  gets  over  the  difficulty  by  saying  that  "  as  angels  with- 
out wings  are  not  known  to  us,  and  our  eyes  do  not  allow 
us  to  see  the  saints  without  clothes,  as  we  shall  do  here- 
after, therefore  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  to  paint  them 
BO  is  improper." 

With  such  restrictions  as  these  it  is  wonderful  that 
Spanish  painters  should  have  ever  achieved  anything  be- 
yond the  most  narrow  and  conventional  works,  for  most 
of  them  abided  by  Pacheco's  authoritative  injunctions, 
apparently  as  much  from  their  own  sense  of  propriety  as 
from  any  fear  of  the  Inquisition.  Velasquez,  it  is  true, 
once  painted  a  naked  Venus,*  but  it  was  for  a  private 
patron,  and  was  doubtless  not  allowed  to  imperil  the  souls 
of  the  orthodox.  And  then  Velasquez  was  the  son-in-law 
of  Pacheco !  No  other  Spanish  painter  would  have  dared 
to  have  done  so. 

Pacheco's  greatest  triumph  in  his  later  years  seems  to 
have  been  in  the  genius  and  success  of  his  pupil  and  son- 
in-law,  Velasquez,  whom  he  accompanied  to  Madrid  in 
1623,  and  whose  brilliant  career  shed  upon  his  master  a 

1  Stirling's  "  Annals,"  p.  685. 


212  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   V. 

sort  of  reflected  glory.  But  few  of  Pacheco's  pictures  now 
remain.  Such  as  there  are,  are  said  to  be  painted  in  the 
hard  manner  of  early  art,  and  to  show  no  original  talent. 

Francisco  de  Herrera  el  Viejo  (1576-1656),  the 
rival  of  Pacheco  in  the  school  of  Seville,  was  in  all  things 
the  very  opposite  of  that  learned,  gentlemanly,  but  some- 
what incapable  master.  His  manners  were  as  coarse  and 
his  temper  as  violent  as  the  execution  of  his  pictures.  He 
flung  his  paints  on  his  canvas  in  a  rage,  and  worked  up  his 
vigorous  sketches  in  a  passion.  He  beat  and  drove  away 
his  pupils  [Velasquez  and  Alonso  Cano  were  pupils  of 
his],  ill-treated  his  son,  who  robbed  him  and  fled  to  Eome, 
was  accused  of  coining,  and  in  general  behaved  in  an 
utterly  reckless  and  disreputable  manner.  At  the  same 
time  his  art  is  bold,  truthful,  and  original,  qualities  entirely 
lacking  in  Pacheco's  learned  productions.  [He  painted 
much  in  fresco  and  engraved  on  copper.]  His  principal 
work  is  a  picture  of  S.  Hermengild,  now  in  the  Museum 
at  Seville.  This  picture,  it  is  said,  obtained  his  pardon 
when  he  was  charged  with  coining  ;  for  Philip  lY.  happened 
to  see  it  at  Seville,  and  inquiring  for  the  painter,  extended 
him  his  forgiveness,  with  the  admonition,  however,  that 
such  powers  as  his  ought  never  to  be  abused.  [There  is  a 
Saint  Basil  dictating  his  Doctrine  by  him  in  the  Louvre.] 

Herrera  el  Mozo  (or  the  younger)  (1622-1685),  the 
son  of  the  elder  Herrara,  fled  to  Eome,  as  before  stated,  to 
escape  from  his  father's  ill-usage,  and  became  known  there 
as  a  painter  of  still-life  subjects,  or,  as  the  Spaniards  call 
them,  Bodegones.  Especially  he  was  noted  in  Italy  for  his 
painting  of  fish,  by  which  he  acquired  the  title  of  il  Spag-  , 
nuolo  del  Pesci,  but  on  his  return  to  Seville  at  the  death  i 
of  his  father  he  adopted  a  more  ambitious  style,  and 
executed  large  altar-pieces — Saints,  Virgins,  and  even  Im- 
maculate Conceptions,  the  favourite  theme  of  Spanish  art 
at  this  time.  He  was,  it  is  recorded,  a  man  of  an  envious, 
satirical  nature,  and  was  especially  jealous  of  Murillo,  of 
whom  he  was  a  contemporary  in  Seville,  and  whose  fame 
far  eclipsed  his  own.  For  this  reason,  it  is  said,  he  removed 
to  Madrid  in  1661,  and  was  soon  after  appointed  painter 
to  Philip  IV. 

EsTEBAN  March  (end  of  sixteenth  century — 1660)  was 


BOOK    v.]  PAINTING    IN    SPAIN.  2V6 

a  painter  of  the  same  violent  stamp  as  Herrara.  He  only 
painted  when  he  had  lashed  himself  into  a  fury ;  but  as 
his  principal  subjects  were  battle-pieces,  his  furious  moods 
were  not,  perhaps,  inappropriate ;  at  all  events,  by  dint  of 
breaking  heads  and  furniture  he  succeeded  in  producing 
many  bold  and  spirited  representations  of  battle-fields. 

Alonso  Gang  (1601-1667)  [pupil  of  Pacheco]  was  an- 
other violent-tempered  artist  of  this  period,  but  he  did 
not,  like  Herrara  and  March,  carry  his  violence  into  his 
manner  of  painting,  for  his  pictures,  although  vigorous  in 
design,  are  soft  and  rich  in  colouring,  tender  in  sentiment, 
and  careful  in  execution,  with  none  of  the  broad,  dashing 
effects  and  contrasts  that  so  many  Spanish  masters  loved 
to  produce.  Alonso  Cano  was,  in  truth,  a  painter  of  strong 
original  genius,  and  ranks  next  to  Velasquez  and  Murillo 
as  the  third  greatest  artist  of  Spain. 

Like  Berruguete  and  several  of  the  artists  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  he  was  proficient  in  the  three  arts  of  architecture, 
sculpture,  and  painting,  and  for  this  reason,  it  may  be 
supposed,  he  obtained  the  title  of  the  Spanish  Michael 
Angelo,  for  in  no  other  respect  can  he  be  said  to  resemble 
the  great  Italian. 

His  coloured  retablos  and  small  carved  statues  are  highly 
praised  by  Ford,  and  Stirling  speaks  of  one  of  his  Madonnas, 
**^vith  deep  blue  eyes  and  mild  melancholy  grace,"  as 
"  one  of  the  most  beautiful  pieces  of  the  coloured  carving 
of  Spain." 

His  paintings,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  admirable 
portraits,  are  exclusively  religious,  and  full  of  sentiment 
and  pathos  ;  the  tender  grace  of  many  of  his  Virgins  sur- 
passes even  that  of  Murillo. 

In  1637  Cano  had  to  escape  from  Seville  in  consequence 
of  a  duel  with  another  painter,  in  which  he  severely  wounded 
his  adversary.  He  settled  at  Madrid,  where  Velasquez 
shielded  him  from  the  consequences  of  his  act.  Soon, 
however,  he  fell  into  far  greater  trouble,  being  accused, 
whether  justly  or  not  it  seems  now  impossible  to  determine, 
of  the  murder  of  his  wife,  who  was  found  stabbed  in  her 
bed  with  fifteen  wounds  upon  her.  Suspicion,  by  some 
means,  fell  upon  the  husband,  in  spite  of  contradictory 
circumstances,  and  without  waiting  for  a  trial  he  fled  from 


214  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    V. 

Madrid  and  took  refuge  in  a  Franciscan  convent  of  Valencia, 
where  he  remained  for  some  time,  and  painted  several  re- 
markable works  for  the  Franciscan  friars.  At  last  he 
ventured  to  return  to  Madrid ;  but  the  suspicion  against 
him  had  not  been  forgotten,  and  he  was  seized  and  put  to 
the  torture  as  a  means  of  discovering  the  truth.  By  the 
especial  favour  of  Philip  lY.  his  right  hand,  on  account  of 
its  skill,  was  exempted  from  ligatures,^  and  "  as  he  passed 
through  the  ordeal  without  uttering  a  cry,  he  was  set  at 
liberty  with  a  character  judicially  spotless." 

Nor  did  this  exciting  little  episode  in  his  history  interfere 
in  the  least  degree  with  the  success  of  his  future  career. 
It  would  seem  that  the  charges  brought  against  him  could 
not  have  been  very  generally  believed,  for  he  was  still 
patronized,  not  only  by  the  Court,  but  also  by  the  Church, 
and  was  even  permitted  to  occupy  the  stall  of  a  minor 
canon  in  the  cathedral  of  Granada,  with  the  permission  of 
exchanging  its  religious  duties  for  those  of  superintending 
the  works  going  on  in  the  cathedral,  and  adorning  it  with 
paintings.  Cano,  however,  by  the  violence  of  his  conduct, 
managed  to  offend  a  high  functionary  of  Granada,  who,  by 
his  influence,  caused  him  to  be  deprived  of  this  benefice, 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  neglected  to  take  orders  within 
the  specified  time.  Upon  this  he  appealed  to  the  ever- 
accessible  Philip  rV.,  and  obtained  from  him  a  chaplaincy 
which  entitled  him  to  full  orders,  whereupon  he  returned 
in  triumph  to  Granada,  and,  without  oi^position,  again 
took  possession  of  his  benefice,  armed  with  a  Paj^al  dis- 
pensation from  the  duties  of  saying  mass.  He  never, 
however,  forgave  the  chapter  for  the  attempt  to  dispossess 
him,  nor  would  he  ever  afterwards  execute  any  work  for 
the  cathedral. 

The  stories  that  are  told  of  Cano's  eccentric  and  im- 
pulsive conduct  prove  him  to  have  been  a  most  singular 
man.  Although  very  violent  towards  those  who  offended 
him,  he  was  full  of  kindly  feeling,  and  exceedingly  cha- 
ritable to  the  poor.  His  purse  was  always  open  to  the 
widow  and  orphan,  and  often,  when  he  had  no  money  to 
bestow,  he  would  execute  some  rough  sketch  and  give  that 

^  Philip  IV.  was,  as  we  have  seen,  always  ready  to  befriend  an 
artist. 


BOOK    v.]  PAINTING    IN    SPAIN.  215 

to  the  claimant  of  his  charity,  telling  him  where  to  obtain 
money  for  it.^  He  had  the  strongest  aversion  to  Jews, 
and  deemed  himseK  so  contaminated  if  by  chance  a  child 
of  Israel  brushed  against  him  in  the  street,  that  he  would 
never  afterwards  put  on  the  garment  that  was  thus  ren- 
dered unclean.  Once  he  found  one  of  the  obnoxious  tribe 
in  his  house,  which  obliged  him  to  repave  the  floor  upon 
which  the  poor  hawker,  who  had  hoped  to  make  a  bargain 
with  his  housekeeper,  had  walked.  The  shoes  in  which  he 
himself  had  trodden  in  the  Jew's  footsteps  were  likewise 
cast  away.  Nay,  so  great  was  his  prejudice  against  the 
Chosen  Race,  that  he  positively  refused  when  dying  to 
receive  the  Sacrament  from  the  hands  of  a  priest  whom  he 
found  was  accustomed  to  administer  it  to  Jews  condemned 
by  the  Inquisition. 

Francisco  de  Zurbaran  (1598,  about  1662)  [pupil  of 
Roelus],  is  pre-eminently  the  painter  of  monks.  His  pic- 
tures of  dark,  lean  ascetics  are  to  be  met  with  in  almost 
every  gallery,  and  produce  an  unpleasant  shudder  as  we 
look  at  them,  so  powerful  is  their  ghastly  effect.  It  would 
not,  we  feel,  be  safe  to  remain  alone  in  a  dark  church  with 
one  of  those  unearthly  Franciscans,  for  fear  the  dismal 
fanatic  should  step  out  of  his  frame  and  find  it  his  duty 
to  apply  the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition  for  the  good  of 
our  souls. 

In  his  strong  contrasts,  and  powerful  effects  of  Ught  and 
shade,  Zurbaran  evidently  imitated  the  style  of  Caravaggio 
— indeed,  he  has  been  called  the  Caravaggio  of  Spain — but 
he  applied  his  art  almost  exclusively  to  religious  subjects, 
and  has  left  us  none  of  those  coarse  dramatic  representa- 
tions of  low  and  evil  life  in  which  the  Italian  took  especial 
delight. 

The  fashionable  Zurbaran,  "painter  to  the  king,"  was 
in  truth  more  of  a  gentleman  than  Caravaggio,  and,  being 
a  Spaniard,  he  was  also  necessarily  more  under  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Church  of  Rome ;  otherwise,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  his  works  bear  a  strong  similarity  to  those 
of  the  chief  of  the  Tenebrosi,  and  he  may  be  reckoned  as 
one  of  that  school. 

*  **  Palomino,"  torn.  iii. 


216  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   V. 

Zurbaran  did  not,  however,  always  choose  the  dark 
monkish  subjects  for  which  he  is  most  famed.  Occasionally 
he  painted  female  saints,  with  charms  reminiscent,  Stirhng 
imagines,  of  the  reigning  beauties  of  Seville,  with  "the 
rouge  of  good  society  "  on  their  cheeks.  His  Virgins  are 
rare,  but  there  is  one  very  pleasing  Holy  Family  at 
Stafford  House,  which  contrasts  remarkably  with  his 
gloomy  saints  in  the  same  collection. 

His  most  important  work  is  a  grand  allegorical  com- 
position known  as  the  S.  Thomas  Aquinas,  originally 
painted  for  the  college  of  that  saint,  but  now  hanging  in 
the  museum  at  Seville.  Like  Eaphael's  Disputa,  it  re- 
presents the  Holy  Trinity  in  the  opening  Heaven  above, 
whilst  on  the  earth  beneath,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  and 
the  Archbishop  Diego  de  Deza,  attended  by  a  train  of 
ecclesiastics,  kneel  in  adoration.  Midway  between  heaven 
and  earth,  the  four  doctors  of  the  Latin  Church  sit  on 
cloudy  thrones ;  but  S.  Thomas  Aquinas  is  leaving  them 
and  rising  to  join  the  glorious  company  above,  amongst 
whom  S.  Paul  and  S.  Dominic  are  conspicuous.  This 
picture  is  much  praised  by  critics,  who  speak  of  its  effective 
colouring,  magnificent  draperies,  and  admirable  atmo- 
spheric depth.  It  is  considered,  indeed,  one  of  the  finest 
productions  of  Spanish  art,  and  equal  to  any  Italian  work 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  figures  in  it  are  some- 
what larger  than  life. 

The  Louvre  formerly  catalogued  no  less  than  ninety- two 
pictures  assigned  to  Zurbaran.^  There  is  a  picture  by 
Zurbaran,  of  a  Franciscan  Monk,  in  the  National  G-allery, 
No.  230. 

We  now  come  to  the  two  greatest  and  best-known  names 
in  Spanish  art — Velasquez  and  Murillo — painters  whose 
genius,  whilst  shedding  its  fullest  light  upon  their  own 
native  land,  has  yet  thrown  many  rays  across  to  us  in 
foreign  countries. 

Diego  Rodriguez  de  Silva  y  Velasquez  (bom  at 
Seville  in  1599,  died  at  Madrid,  1660)  was  the  first  of 
these  two  Spanish  stars  to  arise  above  the  horizon  of  the 

['  This  large  collection  of  Zurbarans  has  been  dispersed.  There  are 
only  three  in  the  catalogue  now,  and  these  all  came  from  the  collection 
of  Napoleon  III,] 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  217 

seventeenth  century.  He  was  of  gentle  bir1;h,  and  boasted 
of  long  illustrious  descent,  but  his  parents  do  not  appear 
to  have  been  rich.  They  gave  their  son,  however,  "the 
best  scholastic  education  that  Seville  afforded ; "  but, 
although  he  made  satisfactory  progress  with  his  other 
studies,  his  predilection  for  art  was  early  apparent,  and 
his  father  wisely  acceded  to  his  desire  to  become  a  painter. 
His  first  studies  were  made  in  the  school  of  Herrara  the 
elder,  but  that  master's  brutal  manners  soon  disgusted  his 
gentle  pupil,  and  he  renounced  his  teaching  for  that  of  the 
more  gentlemanly  Pacheco,  whose  school  at  Seville  was 
then  largely  attended.  Here,  however,  he  quickly  found 
that  nature  was  a  better  instructor  than  the  learned  and 
theoretical  Pacheco,  who  could  teach,  it  is  true,  the  rules 
and  precepts  of  the  ancients,  but  was  himself  incapable  of 
expressing  the  varied  aspects  of  nature.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  like  all  great  naturalists,  to  study  real  life  in  its 
common  and  ordinary  phases,  and  not  as  reflected  in  the 
works  of  any  master,  however  great ;  and  for  this  purpose, 
says  Pacheco,  "  he  kept  a  peasant  lad  as  an  apprentice, 
who  served  him  for  a  study  in  different  actions  and  pos- 
tures, sometimes  crying,  sometimes  laughing,  till  he  had 
grappled  with  every  difficulty  of  expression ;  and  from  him 
he  executed  an  infinite  variety  of  heads  in  charcoal  and 
chalk  on  blue  paper,  by  which  he  arrived  at  certainty  in 
taking  likenesses,"  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
future  fame.  He  likewise  seems,  at  this  time,  to  have 
been  attracted  towards  the  picturesque  scenes  of  low  street- 
life,  which,  when  not  employed  upon  exalted  rehgious 
themes,  Murillo  and  several  other  Spanish  painters  were 
fond  of  choosing  for  their  subjects.  One  of  his  early 
works  of  this  class  is  the  celebrated  Water  Carrier  of 
Seville,  a  most  powerful  and  skilful  work.  This  picture, 
which  is  mentioned  by  Cean  Bermudez,  Palomino,  and 
others,  is  now  one  of  the  trophies  at  Apsley  House,  having 
been  presented  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  by  Ferdinand 
VII.  at  the  termination  of  the  Peninsular  war.^ 

*  It  had  previously  been  stolen  by  King  Joseph  when  he  found  it 
necessary  to  Hy  from  Madrid,  but  was  retaken  in  his  carriage,  together 
with  a  quantity  of  similarly  appropriated  Bourbon  plate,  after  thedel^at 
at  Vittoria, 


218  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   T. 

After  five  years  spent  in  Pacheco's  "  academy  of  good 
taste,"  Velasquez  married  his  master's  daughter,  Dona 
Juana,  "  moved  thereto,"  says  her  father,  "  by  her  virtue, 
beauty,  and  good  qualities,  and  his  trust  in  his  own  great 
natural  genius."  Pacheco,  who,  says  Stirling,  "  had  some- 
thing of  the  tendencies  of  a  Bos  well,"  was  intensely  proud 
of  his  great  pupil  and  son-in-law,  whose  abilities  he  at  all 
events  has  the  merit  of  having  early  discerned ;  and  when, 
soon  after  his  marriage,  he  was  invited  by  the  Minister 
Olivarez  to  the  Court  at  Madrid,  and  the  connoisseur-king, 
Philip  lY.,  sat  to  him  for  his  likeness,  the  happy  master's 
and  father-in-law's  delight  and  triumph  broke  forth  in  a 
wonderful  sonnet,  in  which,  whilst  calling  the  royal  patron 
a  "  greater  Alexander,"  he  promises  Velasquez  "  the  praise 
of  old  Apelles." 

Velasquez's  fortune  was,  in  truth,  made  from  this  mo- 
ment. The  king  was  so  delighted  with  his  portrait,  which 
represented  him  in  armour  and  on  horseback,  that  he  de- 
termined never  to  be  painted  by  any  other  master,  and 
Velasquez  was,  accordingly,  in  1623,  appointed  his  Painter- 
in-ordinary,  with  a  monthly  salary  in  addition  to  the  pay- 
ment of  his  works ;  moreover,  the  attendance  of  the  royal 
physician,  surgeon,  and  apothecary  was  granted  him,  as 
well  as  the  sum  of  300  ducats  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
his  family's  removal  to  Madrid. 

From  this  time  forth  his  chief  employment  lay  in  painting 
the  royal  family  of  Spain  in  every  variety  of  attitude  and 
attire.  Innumerable  are  his  portraits  of  Philip  IV.,  who, 
if  he  never  sat  to  any  one  else,^  must  have  wearied  him- 
self, one  would  think,  in  sitting  to  his  favourite  master. 
"VVe  have  portraits  of  him  on  horseback,  at  his  prayers,  in 
gold  and  steel  armour,  in  sporting  costume,  in  shooting 
dress  with  dog  and  gun,  in  black  robes,  in  crimson  and 
ermine,  in  youth,  in  middle  age,  and  advanced  life ;  por- 
traits— bust-length,  full-length,  Hfe-size,  and  mere  heads ; 
altogether,  Stirling  in  his  catalogue  enumerates  no  less 
than  twenty-four.^     The  chief  minister,  the  Count  Duke 

^  Stirling  affii'ms  that  he  only  depai'ted  from  this  resolution  in  favour 
of  Rubens  and  Grayer. 

[^  In  Mr.  Curtis's  catalogue  of  the  works  of  Velasquez  and  Murillo, 
thirty-four  portraits  by  Velasquez  of  Philip  IV.  ai-e  described,  besides 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  219 

Olivarez,  to  whom  Velasquez  owed  his  first  introduction  at 
court,  was  likewise  many  times  painted  by  him,  as  well  as 
the  two  Queens  of  PhiHp  IV.  and  all  the  small  infants 
and  infantas  of  Spain,  especially  the  Infant  Balthazar 
Carlos,  whom  he  painted  several  times  as  a  boy  upon  his 

All  these  portraits  are  characterised  by  a  certain  dignity 
and  courtly  ease  that  no  other  painter,  except  perhaps 
Titian  or  Vandyck,  has  infused  into  his  works  of  this  kind 
without  sacrificing  truth  to  nature.  Velasquez  never  makes 
this  sacrifice;  he  is  as  faithful  in  painting  a  king  as  a 
peasant ;  and  yet  we  feel  at  once,  without  the  help  of  dress 
and  insignias,  that  the  one  is  a  monarch  and  the  other  a 
boor,  so  admirably  has  he  expressed  the  "  divinity  that 
doth  hedge  a  king,"  and  which  is  in  some  degree  reflected 
on  all  his  surroundings. 

Although  most  exclusively  occupied  with  portraits  of 
princes,  he  occasionally  found  time  to  devote  to  less  exalted 
subjects,  as,  for  instance,  in  1624,^  when  he  produced  his 
celebrated  painting  of  Los  Borrachos,  or  the  Topers,  now 
in  the  Eoyal  G-allery  at  Madrid,  which  represents  a  coarse, 
brutish  Bacchus  surrounded  by  eight  boon  companions  of 
the  low  Spanish  type,  all  in  various  stages  of  inebriation. 
One  drunken  ruflSan  (they  are  all  of  a  singularly  villanous 
cast  of  countenance,  and  look  capable  of  perpetrating  any 
crimes)  kneels  before  the  half- naked  representative  of 
Bacchus,  and  receives  with  mock  gravity  a  crown  of  vine- 
leaves  on  his  rough,  and  one  may  presume,  dirty  head. 
This  picture  is  said  to  be  wonderful  in  its  force  of  cha- 
racter and  strength  of  colouring ;  its  humour  also  is  praised ; 
still  it  must  be  owned  that  m  the  engraving  ^  it  does  not 
make  a  favourable  impression.  It  is  not  merely  that  the 
subject  is  unpleasant,  but  that  it  is  treated  in  a  coldly 
sarcastic  rather  than  a  genial  spirit.      There  is  no   re- 

sixteen  doubtful  ones,  and  twelve  of  Olivarez,  besides  four  doubtful 

ones.] 

['  This  date  is  doubtful  (see  Curtis).     It  was  paid  for  in  1629.] 

■■'  It  has  been  engraved  by  Cannona,  and  etched  by  Goya,  and  a 

smaller  plate  of  it  may  be  found  in  Stirling,  and  several  works  on 

Spanish  art.     The  original  sketch  for  it  is  in  the  possession  of  Lord 

lleytesbury,  in  Wiltshire. 


220  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOZ   V. 

deeming  touch  of  kindly  feeling,  such  as  we  often  see,  for 
instance,  in  Tenier's  drunkards,  in  any  of  these  thirsty 
rascals ;  they  are  unmitigated  scoundrels,  whether  drunk 
or  sober. 

A  picture  of  a  different  class  is  the  great  historical  com- 
position representing  the  Surrender  of  Breda,  wherein  the 
Marquis  of  Spinola  receives  the  keys  of  Breda  from  Prince 
Justin  of  Nassau,  a  work  especially  noteworthy  for  the 
number  of  fine  portraits  that  it  contains. 

The  painting  known  as  Las  Meninas,  or  the  Maids  of 
Honour,  is  likewise  one  of  his  most  esteemed  works ;  in- 
deed, it  is  often  reckoned  his  masterpiece.  It  depicts 
Velasquez  himself  in  his  studio  painting  [the  united  por- 
traits of  Philip  IV.  and  his  wife  Mariana,  which  are  seen 
reflected  in  a  mirror.  There  are  nine  figures  in  the  picture], 
including  the  little  Infanta  Margarita  Maria  and  her 
Meninas,  or  maids  of  honour.  It  was  not  painted  until 
1656,  when  the  prosperous  career  of  the  artist  was  near  its 
close  ;  and  tradition  relates  that  the  red  cross  of  Santiago, 
which  is  conspicuous  on  the  breast  of  the  painter,  was 
painted  there  by  Philip  IV.,  who,  coming  one  day  to  see 
how  the  picture  progressed,  remarked  that  there  was  but 
one  thing  wanting  in  it,  and,  taking  up  the  brush,  gra- 
ciously painted  the  insignia  of  the  great  Spanish  order 
upon  the  portrait  of  Velasquez.^ 

Like  most  other  Spanish  painters,  Velasquez  spent  some 
time  in  Italy,  but  he  did  not  go  there  until  1629.  His 
style  was  then  thoroughly  formed,  and  he  appears  to  have 
studied  and  profited  by  the  works  of  the  great  Italians 
without  any  sacrifice  to  his  own  originality.  On  his  return 
to  Madrid  he  was  made  Aposentador-mayor  of  the  king's 
household,  an  important  and  lucrative  office,  but  the  duties 
of  which,  unfortunately,  drew  away  much  of  his  time  from 
painting.^ 

In  1660  took  place  the  celebrated  conference  on  the  Isle 
of  Pheasants,  between  the  kings  of  France  and  Spain, 
which,  following  the  treaty  of  the  Pyrenees,  was  meant  to 
ratify  a  lasting  peace  between  the  two  crowns,  which  was 

[■  Velasquez  was  not  made  a  knight  of  Santiago  till  1659,  or  three 
years  after  the  picture  was  painted.] 

[■^  In  1648  he  again  visited  Italy  to  buy  pictures  for  the  king  of  Spain.] 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  221 

further  cemented  on  this  occasion  by  the  marriage  of  the 
Infanta  Maria  Teresa  with  Louis  XIV.  Velasquez,  in 
virtue  of  the  office  that  he  held  of  Aposentador,  was  bound 
to  provide  for  the  entertainment  and  lodging  of  the  huge 
cavalcade  that  escorted  the  king  and  the  bride  ^  to  meet 
the  French  monarch.  He  likewise  played  an  important 
part  in  the  august  ceremonials  and  festivities  that  took 
place  on  the  occasion,  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  excite- 
ment and  worry  that  he  thereby  underwent  was  too  much 
for  him,  for  immediately  on  his  return  to  Madrid  he  fell 
ill,  and,  in  spite  of  the  attendance  of  the  royal  physicians, 
breathed  his  last  on  the  6th  of  August,  1660,  in  the  sixty- 
first  year  of  his  age.  His  wife,  Juana  Pacheco,  followed 
him  in  a  week  to  the  grave. 

The  family  picture,  now  in  the  gallery  at  Vienna,  in 
which  Velasquez  has  depicted  himself  and  his  wife  sur- 
rounded by  their  children,  is  one  of  the  most  masterly  of 
his  works.  The  painter  Mazo,  who  married  Velasquez's 
eldest  daughter,  is  included  in  the  family  group,  and  a 
portrait  of  Philip  IV.,  hanging  on  the  wall,  and  a  full- 
length  likeness  of  the  Queen,  on  the  easel  before  which 
Velasquez  is  standing,  serve  to  connect  the  painter,  even 
in  this  pleasant  representation  of  his  domestic  life,  with 
his  royal  patrons.'* 

It  is,  of  course,  as  a  portrait  painter  that  Velasquez  is 
chiefly  famous.  His  detractors,  indeed,  were  wont  to  say 
that  he  could  paint  nothing  but  heads,  as  if  this  were  not 
enough.  He  has  certainly  left  but  few  religious  pictures, 
and  such  as  there  are  by  him  cannot  rank  among  his  best 
works ;  ^  but  his  powers  were  so  versatile,  that  it  is  evident 
that,  had  he  chosen,  he  might  have  excelled  in  any  branch 
of  his  art.     His  landscapes  are  uniformly  good,  and  have, 

*  "  Three  thousand  five  hundred  mules,  eighty-two  horses,  seventy 
coaches  and  seventy  baggage-wagons,  accompanied  the  royal  party  from 
Madrid  to  the  place  of  rendezvous.  The  procession  was  six  leagues  in 
length,  and  the  van  had  reached  the  first  day's  halting-place  before  the 
rear  had  issued  from  the  gates  of  Madrid."    (Stirling.) 

'  [See,  however,  Curtis,  "  Velasquez  and  Murillo,"  p.  16,  who  suggests 
that  this  picture  is  not  by  Velasquez  but  by  Maso,  and  that  it  represents 
not  the  family  of  Velasquez,  but  that  of  Maso,  or  one  of  his  friends  or 
patrons.] 

'  Except,  perhaps,  a  Crucifixion,  in  the  Nunnery  of  San  Flacido, 


222  HISTORY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK    V. 

as  Wilkie  remarks,  "  the  very  soul  and  spirit  of  nature." 
The  landscape,  for  instance,  in  the  Boar-hunt,  in  the 
National  Gallery,  No.  197,  is  by  far  the  best  portion  of 
the  picture.^  Of  the  Adoration  assigned  to  him,  in  the 
same  gallery,  nothing  can  be  said  but  that  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  it  is  not  genuine.^  It  is  nothing  more  than  a 
vulgar  imitation  of  the  vulgar  Eibera;  but  the  picture 
recently  acquired  from  the  Pourtalcs  Collection,  and  known 
as  El  Orlando  Muerto,  the  Dead  Orlando,  No.  741,  is 
undoubtedly,  whether  by  Velasquez  or  not,  a  most  power- 
ful and  striking  work.  [There  are  also  two  splendid 
portraits  of  Philip  IV.,  a  bust,  No.  745,  and  a  full-length. 
No.  1129  ;  and  Sir  John  Savile  Lumley  has  recently  pre- 
sented to  the  gallery  the  celebrated  picture  of  Christ  at 
the  Column,  No.  1148.] 

[Velasquez  is  represented  in  the  Louvre  by  a  portrait, 
the  Infanta  Maria  Margarita,  and  a  small  group  of  thirteen 
portraits,  known  as  the  Conversation  of  Velasquez,  in  which 
the  artist  and  Murillo  are  said  to  be  introduced.  There 
are  two  or  three  other  portraits  of  doubtful  authenticity 
there.] 

Baetolome  Esteban  Murillo,  the  second  famous 
painter  of  the  Spanish  school,  was  born  at  Seville,  or  at 
least  was  baptized  in  that  city,  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1618.^  Like  Velasquez,  he  received  his  early  education  in 
his  native  city,  in  the  already  well-established  school  of 
Seville,  where  Juan  del  Castillo,  who  was  also  the  master 
of  Alonso  Cano,  gave  him  his  first  instruction.  He  im- 
proved so  rapidly  that  he  soon  rivalled  his  master,  but 
not  being,  like  Velasquez,  of  noble  birth,  and  his  parents 

which  is  engraved  in  Stirling's  "  Annals,"  and  is  spoken  of  by  him  as 
one  of  Velasquez's  noblest  works,  and  as  proving  that,  "  although  from 
choice  his  pencil  dealt  chiefly  on  subjects  of  the  earth,  it  could  rise  to  the 
height  of  the  loftiest  theme." 

[^  Some  of  the  figures  in  this  picture  were  restored  or  put  in  by  Lance, 
but  the  figures  and  dogs  on  the  left  are  masterly.] 

[^  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  this  is  an  early  work  of  "Velasquez.  ] 
^  The  registry  of  his  baptism  was  discovered  by  Count  Aguila,  which 
disproved  Palomino's  statement  that  he  was  born  in  1613,  atPilas.  [The 
custom  was  to  baptise  on  the  day  after  birth,  and  therefore  he  was  pro- 
bably born  on  December  31,  1617.] 


BOOK  v.]  PAINTING  IN  SPAIN.  223 

being  dead,  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  study  in  order  to 
earn  his  daily  bread  by  executing  rough  and  hasty  works, 
that  he  himself  sold  in  the  street  or  the  market-place  for 
a  few  reals  to  such  purchasers  as  he  could  find/ 

Having  managed  to  gain  a  little  money  by  such  works 
as  these,  and  by  others  that  he  sold  to  the  American 
traders  for  exportation — figures  of  Saints  and  Virgin  pic- 
tures that  were  greatly  in  demand  in  the  Spanish  American 
states — he  determined  to  proceed  to  Italy,  and  there  im- 
prove himself  by  studying  the  works  of  the  great  Italians. 
On  his  way,  however,  he  stopped  at  Madrid,  where  he 
sought  out  his  celebrated  fellow- townsman  Velasquez,  who 
had  already  achieved  fame  and  fortune,  and  asked  his 
advice.  Velasquez,  who  seems  to  have  had  no  mean 
jealousy  of  other  artists,  received  the  poor  friendless  youth 
very  kindly,  lodged  him  at  his  own  house,  and  gained  per- 
mission for  him  to  study  in  the  Eoyal  Galleries.  He 
counselled  him,  moreover,  to  wait  a  little  while  before 
going  to  Italy,  and  accordingly  Murillo  spent  the  summer 
of  1642,  while  Velasquez  was  absent  with  the  court  at 
Arragon,  in  studying  and  copying  the  works  of  Vandyck, 
Spagnoletto,  and  Velasquez  at  Madrid.  On  his  return, 
Velasquez  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  progress  his  protege 
had  made ;  and  in  the  following  year,  when  he  had  already 
produced  works  of  very  high  merit,  he  offered  him  every 
assistance  to  enable  him  to  prosecute  his  studies  at  Eome. 

But  Murillo' s  desire  for  Italy  had  now  weakened,  and  in 
spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  Velasquez,  after  three  years 
spent  at  Madrid,  he  returned  early  in  1645  to  Seville, 
where  he  remained  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  refusing,  it 
is  said,  the  invitations  to  court  that  came  to  him  in  his  old 
age. 

Immediately  on  his  return  to  Seville,  he  accepted  a  com- 
mission from  the  friars  of  San  Francisco  to  decorate  their 

>  "  In  ^lurillo's  time,"  says  Stirling,  "  these  street  artists  mustered  in 
prsat  numbers.  Their  works  were  sometimes  executed  in  the  open  air, 
and  they  always  kept  brushes  and  colours  at  hand,  ready  to  make  any 
alteration  on  the  si)ot  that  customers  might  suggest,  such  as  changing  a 
S.  Onophrius,  bristly  as  the  fretful  porcupine,  into  S.  Christopher  Uie 
Ferryman,  or  Our  Lady  of  Carmel  into  S.  Antliony  of  Tadua." 


224  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK    V. 

cloisters  with  eleven  large  paintings,^  a  commission,  it  is 
said,  that  was  not  given  him  without  much  misgiving  on 
the  part  of  the  friars,  who  doubted  the  young  and  unknown 
artist's  competency  for  so  great  an  undertaking,  although 
they  were  too  poor,  or  too  parsimonious,  to  pay  the  sum 
that  a  more  famed  master  would  have  required.  The  way 
in  which  Murillo  executed  this  work  soon,  however,  con- 
vinced the  Franciscan  friars  that  they  had  made  a  mo&t 
fortunate  choice,  and  the  fame  of  his  paintings  spreading 
abroad,  all  Seville  hastened  to  the  convent  to  see  them,  and 
were  forced  to  acknowledge  that  the  poor  youth,  whom 
they  had  formerly  known  as  selHng  rude  daubs  in  the 
market-place,  had  developed  into  one  of  the  greatest  masters 
of  Spain. 

From  this  moment  his  success  was  assured:  commis- 
sions flocked  in  upon  him  without  end,  and  in  1648  his 
position  ^  was  such  as  to  enable  him  to  marry  a  lady  of 
property,  and  to  maintain  a  comfortable  establishment  at 
Seville,  where  his  house  became  the  resort  of  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  of  the  city.  For  the  cathedral  he 
next  painted  several  large  pictures  representing  various 
legends  of  saints,  especially  one  of  S,  Anthony  of  Padua, 
which  is  celebrated  as  one  of  his  most  admirable  works, 
and  which  still,  wonderful  to  say,  having  escaped  the 
rapacity  of  Soult,  hangs  in  its  place  in  the  baptistery  of 
the  cathedral.^ 

Before  the  execution  of  these  works,  Murillo  had  changed 
his  early  style  of  painting,  a  style  designated  by  critics  as 
his  cold  (Jrio)  manner,  in  which  many  of  his  beggar-boys 

^  The  cloisters  of  San  Francisco  were  burnt  in  1810,  but  most  of 
Murillo's  paintings  had  before  this  been  carried  off  by  Marshal  Soult. 
One  of  the  finest  of  the  series,  the  Death  of  Sta.  Clara,  wherein  the 
Virgin,  attended  by  a  train  of  beautiful  maidens,  bears  a  shining  robe  of 
immortality  for  the  dying  saint,  passed  into  the  Aguado  collection,  and 
from  thence  into  England.  It  was  exhibited  by  Earl  Dudley  in  the 
collection  of  Old  Masters,  at  the  Royal  Academy,  in  1871.  [Another 
S.  Diego  of  Alcula  is  in  the  Louvi'e.  For  list  of  these  pictures  and  their 
present  possessors,  see  Curtis's  '*  Velasquez  and  Murillo,"  p.  225.] 
P  The  name  was  Dona  Beatriz  de  Cabrera  y  Sotomayor.] 
P  The  largest  of  all  Murillo's  paintings.  Painted  1656.  On  5th 
November,  1874,  the  figure  of  S.  Anthony  was  cut  out  of  this  picture, 
and  stolen.  In  January  following  it  was  recovered  in  New  York,  but 
slightly  damaged.] 


BOOK   v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  225 

and  other  scenes  of  street-life  are  painted,  for  a  wanner  and 
more  transparent  colouring,  witli  softer  outlines  and  fuller 
forms.  This  second  or  warm  (calido)  style  is  more  univer- 
eallv  admired. 

The  friendless  youth  who  had  sought  the  patronage  of 
Velasquez  in  1642,  was  now  universally  acknowledged  as 
the  caposcuolo  or  head  of  the  famous  school  of  Seville ;  and 
although  Juan  Valdes  and  the  younger  Herrera,  who  were 
painting  at  the  same  time  in  Seville,  fondly  considered 
themselves  his  rivals,  he  had  in  truth  no  real  rival  in 
Spanish  art,  except  Velasquez ;  and  in  the  present  day,  if 
popularity  be  any  test,  Murillo  is  far  more  widely  known 
and  appreciated  than  even  Velasquez.^  The  passionate 
religious  enthusiasm  of  the  Spanish  nature  finds  its  highest 
expression  in  his  works,  in  which  the  harsh  asceticism  of 
the  earlier  masters  is  softened  by  a  loving  tender  senti- 
ment, that  renders  them  peculiarly  well  adapted  to  appeal 
to  the  hearts  and  awaken  the  devotions  of  a  race  whose 
religion  teaches  the  cultivation  of  faith  at  the  sacrifice  of 
reason. 

Murillo,  in  truth,  may  be  taken  as  the  representative  in 
art  of  the  spirit  of  faith  and  unquestioning  obedience 
which,  in  spite  of  the  shock  of  the  Eeformation,  still  con- 
tinued to  hold  its  ground  in  Catholic  Spain,  even  in  the 
seventeenth  century ;  just  as  Diirer  represents  the  inquiring 
and  doubting  spirit  of  Protestant  Germany ;  and  Michael 
Angelo,  and  Titian,  the  rationalistic  spirit  of  paganized 
Italy.  The  sensuous  element  also  largely  prevails  in 
Murillo's  works,  and  colour  forms  their  chief  attraction ; 
nor  does  this  in  any  way  detract  from  their  tender  devo- 
tional character,  for  the  Catholic  religion,  especially  at  the 
time  of  re-action  against  encroaching  Protestantism  that 
set  in  in  the  seventeenth  century,  sought,  by  dazzling  the 
senses,  and  by  moving  appeals  to  the  emotional  side  of 
human  nature,  to  regain  the  hold  it  had  lost  on  the  human 
intellect.  The  effective  art  of  the  Carracci,  of  Guido,  and 
Domenichino,  and  of  many  of  the  Naturalisti  and  Tene- 
brosi,  was  an  expression  of  the  same  endeavour;  but  it 

*  [This  is  still  true,  but  the  appreciation  of  Velasjuez  has  spread 
greatly  since  this  was  written.] 


226  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   V. 

is  most  clearly  apparent  in  the  art  of  Murillo  and  Zurba- 
ran,  in  which  unreasoning  faith  sometimes  rises  to  the 
heights  of  religious  ecstasy. 

His  well-known  picture  of  the  Immaculate  Conception, 
in  the  Louvre,  aspires  to  express  this  state  of  heavenly 
rapture.  Whether  it  does  so  or  not  is  a  question  that  per- 
haps the  cold  northern  intellect  is  incapable  of  determining, 
but,  compared  with  the  mysterious  holy  beauty  of  Eaphael's 
San  Sisto  Madonna,  or  the  powerful  magnificence  of  Titian's 
Assumption,  this  much-admired  work  apj^ears  like  a  mere 
theatrical  display  of  religious  sentimentality. 

In  many  other  of  Murillo's  religious  subjects  the  senti- 
ment is  similarly  overstrained,  whilst,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  many  of  them  we  have  only  a  commonplace  realism,  as, 
for  instance,  in  his  smaller  Madonnas,  who  are  merely 
Spanish  peasants  with  their  infants  in  their  arms,  without 
any  effort  at  idealization.  Many  of  his  biblical  histories,  also, 
do  not  rank  beyond  genre  painting,  so  completely  are  they 
brought  to  the  level  of  the  Spanish  life  he  saw  around  him.^ 

It  was  this  picturesque  Spanish  life,  in  its  poorest  and 
most  disreputable  aspects,  that,  as  we  know,  first  attracted 
his  attention.  His  pictures  of  ragged,  dirty  urchins,  laugh- 
ing, stealing,  eating,  and  playing  cards,  are  as  well  known 
as  his  more  exalted  religious  conceptions,  and  strike  us  by 
their  keen  observation  and  powerful  dehneation  of  youth- 
ful rascaldom ;  indeed,  had  Murillo  chanced  to  live  in  Pro- 
testant Holland  in  the  seventeenth  century  instead  of  in 
SjDain,  he  would  probably  have  ranked  as  one  of  the 
humourous  class  of  Dutch  genre  painters,  instead  of  beiag 
the  favourite  painter  of  Inquisitorial  Spain,  for  it  was  more 
the  influences  of  country  and  education  that  made  him  a 
devotee  than  any  natural  disposition. 

Of  all  his  great  series  of  paintings,  those  executed  for 
the  hospital  of  the  Holy  Charity  at  Seville  are  generally 
reckoned  the  finest.  He  painted  no  less  than  eleven  great 
canvases  for  the  church  of  this  hospital,  but  only  three 

^  Such,  for  instance,  as  the  series  exhibited  in  1871  of  the  Old  Mas- 
ters, at  the  Eojal  Academy,  from  the  life  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  which, 
but  for  the  title,  might  have  been  taken  for  scenes  from  some  Spanish 
novel,  being  nothing  more  than  clever  delineations  of  the  career  of  a 
spendthrift  Spanish  youth. 


BOOK  v.]  PAINTING   IN    SPAIN.  227 

Qow  remain  in  their  original  places,  the  others  having  been, 
IS  was  so  often  the  fate  of  Murillo's  pictures,  carried  off  by 
Marshal  Soult,  and  otherwise  dispersed.  Two  are  now  in 
Stafford  House,  in  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Suther- 
land, and  are  undoubtedly  splendid  examples  of  his  large 
liistorical  mode  of  composition,  or,  as  it  might  perhaps  be 
called,  of  his  biblical-genre  style.  The  first  of  these  great 
paintings  represents  Abraham  receiving  the  Angels — the 
patriarch  advancing  from  the  door  of  his  tent  to  welcome 
his  heavenly  visitors.  The  other  depicts  with  impressive 
force  and  reality  the  Prodigal's  Eeturn.  The  centre  group 
of  the  repentant  son  locked  in  his  father's  arms,  in  this 
latter  work,  is  especially  powerful  and  pathetic,  and  the 
management  of  the  colour  in  both  is  most  excellent,  and 
reveals  the  painter  at  his  best  period. 

Murillo  was  the  founder  of  the  Academy  of  Painting  in 
Seville,  the  first  that  had  ever  been  established  in  Spain, 
but  he  was  only  its  president  for  one  year,  namely,  in 
1660.  He  died  in  1682,  at  the  age  of  sixty-four,  from  the 
consequences  of  a  fall  from  some  scaffolding  whilst  paint- 
ing the  Marriage  of  S.  Catherine  in  the  church  of  the 
Capuchin  friars  at  Cadiz. 

Although  his  industry  must  have  been  remarkable,  he 
does  not  appear,  after  a  life  devoted  to  art,  to  have  amassed 
any  fortune  but  at  his  death.^ 

Like  Giotto,  Murillo  is  pre-eminently  the  painter  of  the 
Franciscan  order.  His  first  important  commission  was 
given  him,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  Capuchin  friars  of 
Seville,  for  whom  he  executed  many  other  works.  He  has 
frequently  represented  the  legends  of  S.  Prancis,  and  often 
depicts  his  holy  personages  in  the  Franciscan  dress. 
Murillo's  works  are  better  known  abroad  than  those  of  any 
other  Spanish  painter,  the  Spanish  war  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries  having  effectually  dispersed  them. 
Marshal  Soult,  indeed,  has  been  undoubtedly  a  most  active 
agent  in  disseminating  a  knowledge  of  Murillo  throughout 
the  civilized  world,  for  the  pictures  that  he  acquired 
("  stole  "  is  the  word  that  Stirling  uses)  during  the  Spanish 

'  Palomino.  [The  amount  of  property  he  loft  is  very  uncertain,  but 
he  left  some.  See  his  will,  often  printed ;  an  English  translation  is  given 
by  Curtis.] 


228  HI8T0BT   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK  V. 

war,  and  sold  for  enormous  prices  in  his  famous  auction- 
rooms,  are  to  be  found  in  most  public  galleries. 

The  Louvre  naturally  possesses  a  large  number  of  Soult's 
acquisitions  ;  and  it  has  other  Murillos,  acquired  in  a  less 
questionable  manner.^  The  Pinakothek  at  Munich  has 
several  excellent  paintings  of  his  early  time,  of  beggar 
boys  and  similar  subjects.  Dresden  has  a  fine  religious 
picture,  S.  E-oderic  receiving  the  Crown  of  Martyrdom,  and 
a  Virgin  and  Child  [and  one  of  S.  Juan  de  Dios]. 

In  England,  the  Dulwich  Gallery,  especially,  boasts  of 
some  fine  Murillos,  the  well-known  Spanish  Mower  Girl 
being  one  amongst  them.  The  National  Gallery  has  only 
three  paintings,  but  these  are  excellent  examples  of  his 
various  styles,  the  Spanish  Beggar  Boy  (No.  74)  being  one 
of  his  early,  and  the  Holy  Family  (No.  13)  one  of  his  latest 
works,  whilst  the  S.  John  and  the  Lamb  (No.  176)  be- 
longs to  his  middle  and  best  period.  This  subject  was 
frequently  treated  by  Murillo,  who  painted  children  with 
graceful  naivete.^ 

His  most  frequent  theme,  however,  was  the  favourite 
Spanish  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the 
Virgin,  which  was  established  by  the  Church,  and  received 
by  the  Spanish  people  with  the  most  enthusiastic  joy  in  his 
time.  Almost  all  Spanish  painters  have  found  in  this 
Catholic  mystery  a  fruitful  source  of  inspiration,  but 
Murillo,  above  all,  is  known  in  Spain  as  el  pintor  de  la 
Concepcion,  the  painter,  jpar  excellence,  of  the  Sinless  Virgin. 
His  two  finest  paintings  of  this  subject  are  at  Seville  and 
Madrid,  although  the  Conception  of  the  Louvre  is  more 
universally  known. 

With  Velasquez  and  Murillo  Spanish  painting  reached 
its  highest  perfection.  Immediately  after  their  deaths  it 
fell  even  below  the  standard  that  it  had  attained  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  soon  became,  like  everything  else  in 
Spain  at  this  sad  period,  utterly  corrupt,  feeble,  and 
worthless. 

[^  Ten  altogether  ;  only  a  few  were  in  the  Soult  collection,  and  these 
were  purchased  by  the  state  or  Xapoleon  III.] 

^  A  picture  called  the  Good  Shepherd,  of  a  young  and  beautiful  boy 
looking  up  to  heaven  in  a  rapture,  once  formed  a  companion  to  the  S. 
John  of  the  National  Gallery.  It  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Roths- 
child family. 


BOOK    v.]  PAINTIXa    IN    SPAIN.  229 

Juan  de  Yaldes  Leal  (1630-1691)  continued  for  a  few 
years,  it  is  true,  after  the  death  of  Murillo,  to  uphold  the 
famed  school  of  Seville,  but  the  glory  of  that  school  had 
departed,  and  soon  it  sunk  into  mere  academic  mediocrity. 
Several  painters  might  be  mentioned,  who,  like  the  Italian 
machinists,  executed  vast  decorative  works  with  marvellous 
rapidity,  but  no  painter  of  any  real  power  or  originality 
arose  [until  the  advent  of  Don  Francisco  Groya  y  Lucientes. 
This  very  original  artist  was  born  in  1746,  and  studied  at 
Saragoza  under  Luxan  Martinez.  He  was  in  Italy  at  the 
same  time  as  Louis  David,  and  enjoyed  the  friendship  of 
that  painter.  Groya's  fame  for  originality  rests  chiefly  upon 
his  etchings  and  engravings  in  aquatint,  especially  the 
three  series  of  Scenes  from  the  French  Invasion,  The  Bull- 
ring, and  the  brutally  cynical  Caprices,  illustrating 
national  traits  and  incidents.  These  spirited  satirical 
conceptions  are  executed  with  a  powerful  chiaroscuro, 
which,  in  part,  conceals  the  hasty,  faulty  drawing,  and  in- 
vests with  force  a  vivacity  of  imagination  not  exempt  from 
a  tendency  to  caricature.  His  works  are  full  of  the  revolu- 
tionary spirit,  the  fiendish  hatred  of  priestcraft,  and  the 
licentiousness  which  distinguished  the  man  and  made  his 
life  a  reckless  one — ever  embroiled  politically  and  socially. 
G-oya  was  essentially  a  national  painter.  His  portraits  of  the 
family  of  Charles  IV.  and  others  are  in  Madrid,  and  there 
are  numerous  religious  subjects  by  him  in  the  churches  of 
Spain.  In  the  Louvre  there  are  two  portraits  (Nos.  534 
and  535)  of  the  French  Ambassador  Guillemardet  and  of 
a  young  Spanish  girl.     Goya  died  in  1828. 

The  few  Spanish  painters  of  merit  since  that  time  belong, 
in  manner,  to  the  French  school  rather  than  to  the  Spanish. 
Distinguished  above  all  is  the  brilliant  genre  painter, 
Mariano  (Jose-Maria  Bernardo)  Fortuny.*  Bom  in  1838, 
he  made  himself  a  European  reputation  before  his  early 
death  in  1874.  His  marvellous  dexterity  of  hand,  audacious 
management  of  light  and  colour,  combined  with  fine  finish 
and  vivacity,  despite  the  multiplicity  of  detail,  induced 
many  followers,  and  founded  what  has  been  termed  the 
h-ic-d-hrac  school.     Fortuny  studied  at  Barcelona  and  in 

['  "  Les  Artistes  Celebres ;  Foi'tuny."     Par  Charles  Yriarte.] 


230  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  V. 

Rome,  but  his  journey  to  Moscow  in  General  Prim's  train 
in  1859  furnished  material  for,  and  determined  the  direc- 
tion of,  his  art.  His  best  works  are  La  Yicaria  (the 
Spanish  wedding),  Choosing  a  Model,  the  Bibliophiles, 
the  Barocchi,  and  the  Executions  in  the  Alhambra,  in  all  of 
which  the  charm  rests  in  the  picturesqueness  of  the  subject 
and  its  brilliant  execution ;  his  work  lacks  higher  qualities, 
but  is  complete  in  itself.  His  brother-in-law,  Madrazo,  is 
the  most  gifted  of  his  followers.] 


BOOK  VI. 
PAINTING  IN   GERMANY. 

Chapter  I. 

THE  CATHOLIC  PERIOD. 

School  of  Cologne — Meister  Wilhelm — Meisteb  Stephan. 

THE  rosy  dawn  of  German  art  began,"  says  F.  Von 
ScUegel,^  "with.  Wilhelm  of  Cologne,"  but  even  if  the 
roseate  hues  of  the  dawning  are  first  perceptible  in  his 
works,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  grey  morning  of  art 
had  broken  over  the  land  long  before  his  time. 

We  have  no  evidence,  it  is  true,  of  any  national  Teutonic 
art  before  the  Christian  era,  the  remains  of  such  buildings 
of  an  earlier  date  as  exist  in  Germany,  France,  and  other 
northern  countries,  being  (with  the  exception  of  the 
Druidical  circles)  distinctly  of  Roman  construction.  But 
when  the  Germanic  nations  had  thrown  off  the  yoke  of 
Rome,  and  when  the  chaos  that  succeeded  the  overthrow  of 
the  ancient  world  had  subsided  into  something  like  order, 
the  newly-founded  kingdoms  began  to  evince  their  inde- 
pendence in  their  art,  as  well  as  in  their  noble  national 
ix)etry,  which  arose  about  the  same  period. 

Gothic  architecture,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  petri- 
licd  expression  of  the  religious  aspirations,  the  poetry  and 
the  idealism  of  the  mediaeval  mind,  had  its  rise  in  France 

^  '^  Gemahlde-beschreibungen  aus  Paris  und  den  Niederlanden.** 


232  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VI. 

about  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  from  this  date 
we  may  trace  a  continued  development  in  the  art,  not 
only  of  Italy  (though  by  the  influence  of  G-iotto,  that 
country,  of  course,  took  the  lead  in  painting),  but  likewise 
of  less  favoured  lands.  In  France,  G-ermany,  England, 
the  Netherlands  and  Spain,  Gothic  architecture  bloomed 
into  a  more  delicate  and  ideal  beauty  than  even  in  Italy ; 
and  although,  by  breaking  up  the  extensive  wall-surfaces 
that  the  Romanesque  style  had  afforded  for  painting  it 
hindered  to  a  certain  extent  the  free  exercise  of  the  painter's 
art,  it  nevertheless  burst  the  fetters  which  Byzantine 
tradition  had  hitherto  imposed,  and  gave  a  new  direction 
to  his  thoughts. 

For  a  time,  it  is  true,  the  German  painter  hesitated  to 
obey  this  impulse,  and,  as  the  miniatures  and  the  illumi- 
nated manuscripts  (the  only  works  that  we  have  in  paint- 
ing of  the  early  Gothic  period)  show,  remained  under 
Byzantine  influence  ;  but  even  in  very  early  northern  illu- 
minations an  independent  spirit  is  often  visible,  which 
finds  its  outlet  in  grotesque  shapes,  fantastic  animals,  and 
other  quaint  devices. 

Painting  on  glass  was  carried  to  the  greatest  perfection 
in  this  age  by  northern  artists,  as  the  exquisite  beauty  of 
the  old  painted  glass  in  many  of  our  Gothic  cathedrals 
abundantly  testifies;  still,  the  restraint  that  the  mosaic- 
like character  of  glass-painting  necessarily  imposed  con- 
trasted unfavourably  with  the  freedom  that  fresco  painting 
offered  to  the  Italian  artist.^ 

The  earliest  wall-paintings  of  which  we  find  any  men- 
tion in  German  history  are  some  said  to  have  been  exe- 
cuted for  Queen  Theodolinda  in  the  sixth  century,  and 
to  have  represented  the  Victories  of  the  Lombards,  but  of 
these,  as  well  as  of  the  more  important  paintings  with 
which  Charlemagne  decorated  his  church  and  castle  at 
Upper  Ingelheim,  we  have  only  the  historical  record,  none 
of  them  now  existing. 

A  few  traces  of  early  German  wall-painting  still  remain, 

*  Even  after  the  Gothic  style  was  fully  adopted  in  Italy,  care  was 
taken  to  leave  spaces  for  fresco  decoration  ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
church  of  S.  Francis  at  Assissi,  built  between  1228  and  1253,  by  a 
German  master  named  Jacob. 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING   IN    GEEMANY.  233 

however,  in  various  places,  which  reveal  considerable  feel- 
ing for  grace  and  simple  beauty.^ 

More  particularly  in  the  early  art  of  Bohemia  this  feel 
ing  becomes  manifest. 

The  School  op  Bohemia  is  about  the  earliest  school  of 
painting  that  arose  in  G-ermany.  It  dates  from  the  begin 
ing  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but  chiefly  flourished  in  the 
timeof  the  Emperor  Charles  lY.  (1348-1378),  who  employed 
several  native  artists  in  the  decoration  of  his  castle  and 
church  at  Karlstein,  near  Prague.  The  names  of  three  of 
these  artists,  namely,  Theodorich  of  Prague,  Nicolaus 
Wurmser,  and  one  Kunz,  have  been  handed  down  tons,  but 
it  is  impossible  now  to  assign  to  them  their  respective  work. 

The  School  of  Nxjrnberg,  during  the  early  G-othic 
period,  was  a  school  of  sculpture  rather  than  of  painting. 
It  produced  the  most  exquisite  carved  and  chiselled  works, 
works  which  more  than  rival  those  of  Italy  of  the  same 
time  in  their  rich  fancy,  deep  f eehng,  and  original  thought, 
if  not  in  their  classic  spirit ;  but  for  a  long  time  painting 
remained  entirely  subordinate,  and  was  only  used  to 
heighten  the  effect  of  bas-reliefs,  statues,  and  wooden 
carvings.^ 

The  preference  for  those  richly-carved  and  coloured 
wooden  altar-pieces,  of  which  we  still  find  so  many  speci- 
mens in  German  churches,  had,  indeed,  at  this  time,  a 
somewhat  depressing  influence  on  the  development  of 
German  painting.  The  colouring  of  these  altar-shrines, 
which  were  entirely  filled  with  small  figures  in  magnificent 
gilded  and  damasked  drapery,  standing  in  relief  from  a 
gold  ground,  was  often  the  only  employment  that  even  a 
skilful  German  master  could  find.^ 

*  The  paintings  in  the  apse  of  the  church  at  Brauweiler,  of  which 
there  are  copies  in  the  Wallraf  Museum  at  Cologne,  those  once  at 
Ramersdorf,  near  Bonn,  and  the  important  bibhcal  series  in  the  monas- 
tery church  at  Wifenhauscn,  may  especially  be  mentioned,  as  well  as 
some  paintings  at  Cologne,  Hildesheim,  and  Brunswick. 

*  "  Nurnbergs  Kunstleben  in  seinen  Denkmalen  dargestellt."  K.  von 
Rettberg,  1854. 

^  The  so-called  Rosenkranztafcl,  or  representation  of  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, in  the  Burg  at  Niirnberg,  is  a  splendid  example  of  this  kind  of 
work,  still  one  perceives  in  it  the  limitations  under  which  the  artist  must 
have  worked. 


234  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK  VI, 

This  was  especially  the  case  at  Niimberg,  where,  as 
before  said,  sculpture  was  long  predominant.  We  find, 
however,  a  few  early  paintings  in  Niirnberg,  such  as  the 
celebrated  Imhof  altar-piece,  executed  about  1418-1422,  and 
the  beautiful  Virgin  with  Cherubs,  in  the  Lorenz  Kirche, 
that  prove  that  the  Niirnberg  masters,  even  in  painting, 
were  not  behind  the  other  early  schools  of  Grermany  in 
artistic  development.  The  Imhof  altar-piece,  indeed,  is 
remarkable  for  its  tender  sentiment,  graceful  forms,  digni- 
fied expression,  and  beauty  of  colour.  Its  centre  compart- 
ment represents  the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin.  The  name 
of  its  painter  is  unknown. 

In  SuABiA,  also,  German  art  appears  to  have  developed 
at  an  early  date  ;  but  here,  as  at  Niirnberg,  it  was  sculp- 
ture that  was  principally  practised.^ 

In  the  more  celebrated  and  better-known  School  op 
Cologne,  on  the  other  hand,  painting,  although  un- 
doubtedly preceded  by  architecture  and  sculpture,  rose  at 
a  very  early  date  to  separate  importance.  As  early  as  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  Wolfram  von  Eschen- 
bach,  in  his  famous  romance  of  "  Percival,"  in  describing 
the  beauty  of  his  knight,  declares  that — 

"  From  Koln  nor  from  Maestricht 
No  limner  could  excel  him." 

proving  that  even  at  that  date  Cologne  was  celebrated  for 
its  "  limners." 

Cologne,  indeed,  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  occupied 
a  foremost  position  amongst  the  cities  of  G-ermany,  and  a 
constant  communication  was  kept  up  between  her  and 
Italy.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  to  suppose  that  Italian 
and  Byzantine  artists  travelling  northward  would  have 
settled  by  preference  in  the  city  that  had  most  direct  inter- 
course with  the  south.  By  such  artists,  doubtless,  paint- 
ing was  first  taught  and  practised  in  Cologne,  and  their 
scholars  formed  what  has  been  called  the  Byzantine- 
Rhenish  or  Byzantine-Eomantic  School,  the  principal 
seat  of  which  was  in  Cologne. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  Byzantine-Eomantic  school 

*  C.  Heideloff,  "  Die  Kunst  des  Mittelalters  in  Schwaben." 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  235 

is  a  deep-seated  devotional  sentiment.  The  harsh  asceti- 
cism of  Byzantium  is  softened  to  a  tender  spiritual  beauty 
and  childlike  purity  of  expression,  such  as  only  Fra  An- 
gelico  and  one  or  two  of  the  Italian  purists  ever  attained. 
Added  to  these  spiritual  graces,  if  so  they  may  be  called, 
we  find  in  the  early  Cologne  masters  a  true  feeling  for 
form,  a  dignified  grace,  a  delicate  and  soft  execution,  and 
a  sweet  harmonious  blending  of  colour;  and  although 
their  works  lack  the  accurate  drawing  and  powerful 
colouring  of  the  great  school  of  the  Van  Eycks,  many  of 
them  possess  a  wonderful  charm  of  their  own. 

The  first  of  the  **  limners  "  of  Cologne,  of  whom  we  gain 
any  real  sight,  is  that  patriarch  of  German  art,  Meister 
WiLHELM  OF  Cologne  (painting  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century).^ 

According  to  some  historians,  Meister  Wilhelm  was 
bom  at  Herle,  but  he  appears  to  have  settled  at  Cologne 
about  the  year  1358,  and  to  have  formed  there  a  large 
school.  Unfortunately  but  few  of  his  productions  survive, 
or  at  least  can  be  identified.  A  Madonna  and  Child  in  the 
Wallraf  Museum  at  Cologne,  however,  which  is  still  ascribed 
to  him,  evinces  the  before-mentioned  characteristics  of  his 
school  in  a  remarkable  degree.  On  the  countenance  of  the 
Virgin  there  is  an  expression  of  the  most  heavenly  purity 
and  peace.  No  earthly  emotions  disturb  her  holy  con- 
templation, as,  with  the  God-child  in  her  arms,  she  gazes 
forth  from  the  gold  background  which  surrounds  her.  A 
pure  harmony  of  colour  adds  to  the  singular  beauty  of 
this  old  work.* 

But  the  fame  of  Meister  Wilhelm  has  of  late  years 
paled  before  the  superior  merits  of  another  master  of  the 
Cologne  school,  Meister  Stephan,  or  Stephan  Lochner, 
who  was,  perhaps,  one  of  Wilhelm' s  pupils,  and  flourished 
in  the  first-half  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

*  So  called  on  the  authority  of  the  "  Limburg  Chronicle,"  which 
mentions  him  as  "  ein  berumbt  Maler  in  Colin  des  gleichens  nit  ware  in 
der  Christenheit  j  er  malet  einen  wie  er  lebte.  Sein  Name  war  Wil- 
helraus." 

[*  Also  ascribed  to  him — St.  Veronica,  National  Gallery  ;  the  Life  of 
Christ,  St.  John's  Chapel,  Cologne  Cathedral.  Belonging  to  his  school — 
Madonna  and  Child  adored,  and  Scenes  from  the  Life  of  Christ  and  the 
Virgin,  both  in  Berlin  Museum.] 


236  HISTOEY    OP   PAINTINa.  [bOOK  VI. 

The  name  of  Meister  Stephan  was  first  made  known  to 
critics  by  an  entry  in  the  "Journal  of  Albrecht  Diirer," 
which  states  :  "  Item.  I  have  paid  two  silver  pennies  to 
have  the  picture  opened  which  Meister  Stephan  painted  at 
Cologne."  This  picture  was  the  great  "  Dom-bild,"  as  it  is 
called,  an  altar-piece  still  preserved  in  the  cathedral  of 
Cologne,  which,  until  this  entry  was  noticed,  had  always 
been  attributed  to  Meister  Wilhelm ;  but  when,  in  addition 
to  Diirer's  assertion,  the  name  of  a  painter,  Stephan  Lochner, 
or  Loethener,  was  actually  discovered  by  M.  Merlo  in  some 
old  registers  of  the  years  1442  and  1448  in  Cologne,^  the 
evidence  seemed  strong  in  his  favour.  Some  writers,  how- 
ever, even  now  hold  to  the  opinion  that  Meister  Wilhelm 
was  the  real  painter  of  the  Dom-bild. 

The  fame  of  being  the  painter  of  such  a  picture  as  the 
Dom-bild,  the  crowning  work  of  the  Cologne  school,  is 
truly  worth  contending  for,  it  being  one  of  the  noblest 
and  most  beautiful  works  of  early  religious  art.  The 
spiritual  ideal  is  never  for  a  moment  forgotten  in  it,  but 
the  figures  are  more  strongly  modelled,  and  have  a  greater 
naturalistic  freedom  than  in  most  other  productions  of 
this  school.^  The  realism  blended  with  mysticism  that 
produced  the  Mystic  Xamb  of  S.  Bavon,  at  Ghent,  of 
Hubert  and  Jan  Van  Eyck,  produced,  in  fact,  likewise 
this  earlier  work  of  G-erman  art,  which,  in  many  respects, 
may  be  compared  to  the  masterwork  of  the  Van  Eycks. 

It  is  divided  into  three  compartments,  the  centre  repre- 
senting the  Adoration  of  the  Kings,  whilst  on  the  wangs 
are  S.  Ursula  and  her  Virgins,  and  S.  Gereon  and  his  men- 
at-arms,  the  figures  being  all  painted  on  a  gold  background, 
with  a  depth  and  beauty  of  colour  which  almost  equals 
Flemish  oil  painting  in  effect,  although  it  seems  to  be 
painted  in  tempera  on  wood.  The  dark-green  foreground, 
studded  with  flowers  in  the  Flemish  manner,  is  most  care- 
fully worked  out  and  extremely  beautiful ;  but  we  scarcely 

'  The  entries  in  these  registers  show  that  Stephen  Lochner  was  a 
native  of  Constance,  but  owned  a  house  in  Cologne,  and  served  in  two 
different  years  in  the  town  council.  Merlo,  "  Die  Meister  der  Altcbln- 
ischen  Schule."     Coin,  1852. 

[■■'  Intercourse  between  Cologne  and  the  Netherlands  was  frequent  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  the  influence  of  the  Flemish 
realism  strongly  marked.] 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING   IN    GERMANY.  237 

notice  details  in  looking  for  the  first  time  at  this  work,  so 
impressive  is  the  mild  majesty  of  the  enthroned  Virgin, 
the  deep  reverence  and  love  of  the  noble  old  king  kneeling 
before  the  Child,  and  the  tender  beauty  and  innocence  of 
S.  Ursula  and  her  companions.  On  the  outside  of  the 
wings,  as  was  customary  in  these  altar-pieces,  the  Virgin 
and  the  Annunciating  Angel  are  depicted.  These  figures 
also  have  an  exquisite  tenderness  of  sentiment  and  deep 
spirituality. 

Another  highly-finished  and  beautifully  conceived  work 
of  the  early  Cologne  school  is  the  Madonna  in  the  Rose 
Arbour,  Madonna  in  der  Bosenlaube,  now  in  the  Wallraf 
Museum  in  Cologne.  There  seems  but  little  doubt  that 
this  is  by  the  same  master  as  the  Dom-bild,  for  the  same 
majesty,  united  with  childlike  simplicity  and  purity  of 
character,  distinguishes  the  Virgin,  who  seems  to  breathe  a 
different  air  from  the  foggy  atmosphere  which  surrounds 
our  poor  human  life.  In  execution,  also,  this  small  picture 
is  very  similar  to  the  large  altar-piece  of  the  cathedral.^ 

A  Last  Judgment,  conceived  with  great  dramatic  power, 
but  with  very  little  knowledge  of  form,  and  in  that  quaint, 
almost  comic  spirit  of  symbolism  that  usually  prevails  in 
early  representations  of  this  subject,  has  also,  but  not 
without  dispute,  been  ascribed  to  Meister  Stephan.^  There 
are  many  other  curious  works  of  the  same  school  in  the 
Wallraff  collection,  which  is  peculiarly  rich  in  works  of 
early  G-erman  art.  There  are  also  many  scattered  in  old 
German  churches,  but  space  will  not  permit  of  any  more 
being  mentioned  here,  except  an  altar-piece  at  Jiefenbronn 
in  Swabia,  painted  in  1431  by  Lucas  Moser,  which  displays 
a  national  tendency  united  with  the  ecclesiastical  forms  of 
l)reviou8  years. 

Before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  influence  of 
the  Flemish  school  was  powerfully  exerted  over  the  masters 
of  Cologne.     Their  spiritual  idealism  gave  way  before  the 

*  The  learned  editor  of  the  Walh*af  Museum  Catalogue,  Herr  Niessen, 
has  written  two  sonnets  in  praise  of  this  highly-prized  work,  which  forms 
one  of  the  "jewels  "  of  the  Cologne  school.  The  uninstructed  observer 
might,  it  is  true,  easily  pass  it  by  as  "  one  of  those  ugly  Byzantine 
things,"  but  a  little  study  reveals  its  deep  feeling  and  beauty. 

[^  There  is  a  picture  ascribed  to  this  artist  in  the  National  Gallery 
(No.  705).] 


238  HISTORY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK  VI. 

noble  realism  and  better  technical  methods  of  the  Van 
Eycks,  and  most  of  the  G-erman  painters  .of  this  time  be- 
long to  the  school  of  Eogier  van  der  Weyden  rather  than 
to  that  of  Meister  Stephan.  The  influence  of  Flemish 
realism  is  especially  apparent  in  the  works  of  a  German 
master  who  was  formerly,  but  erroneously,  called  Israel 
Van  Meckenen,^  but  who  is  now  usually  styled  after  his 
principal  work,  The  Master  of  the  Lyversberg  Passion 
(about  1463-1480).  The  Lyversberg  Passion^  is  in  eight 
compartments,  representing  the  scenes  of  the  passion  of 
Christ.  There  is  not  the  elevated  feeling  in  the  conception 
of  this  work  that  marks  the  creations  of  the  earlier  Cologne 
masters,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  far  greater  power 
of  expression  and  knowledge  of  form,  and  much  richer 
colour.  Technical  execution  was,  in  fact,  greatly  advanced 
by  this  painter,  and  a  more  natural  life  infused  into  the 
old  types,  but  the  pure  religious  feeling  of  the  Cologne 
school  is  only  now  and  then  apparent  in  his  pictures. 
There  are  several  works  ascribed  to  this  master  in  the 
cabinets  of  the  Munich  Grallery,  and  there  is  also  one,  a 
Presentation  in  the  Temple,  in  our  National  Grallery. 

Another  anonymous  painter  of  this  time  is  The  Master 
OF  THE  Death  of  the  Virgin.  He  is  unfortunately  but 
little  known,  and  consequently  but  little  spoken  of,  even  by 
G-erman  critics ;  but  the  one  certain  work  by  which  he  is 
known,  the  Death  of  the  Virgin,  and  its  side  wings,  repre- 
senting the  Family  of  the  Donor  (the  male  portion  under 
the  protection  of  S.  G-eorge  and  S.  Nicasius,  and  the  female 
portion  under  S.  Christina  and  S.  G-udula),  is  a  painting 
worthy  of  being  classed  with  many  of  the  most  extolled 
works  of  the  school  of  Bruges.  It  has  all  the  power  and 
colour  of  Eogier  Van  Weyden,  while  in  the  peaceful  beauty 
of  the  Virgin,  who  lies  dying  on  the  bed,  there  is  a  touch  of 
the  ideality  of  Meister  Stephan.  The  scene  is  laid  in  a 
chamber  wherein  all  the  Apostles  are  assembled,  as  is 
usual  in  representations  of  this  kind.     S.  Jolm  supports 

^  On  the  supposition  that  he  was  identical  with  the  goldsmith  and 
engraver  of  that  name,  who  worked  in  Cologne  about  the  same  date. 

^  So  called  because  it  was  formerly  in  the  possession  of  Herr  Lyvers- 
berg. From  him  it  passed  to  Frau  Baumeister,  and  was  gained,  in  1864- 
by  the  Eichartz-gift,  for  the  Cologne  Museum. 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  239 

the  dying  Virgin,  and  S.  Peter,  in  full  pontifical  robes, 
kneels  by  her  side  reading  prayers.  All  the  rich  details 
that  the  Bruges  masters  loved  to  introduce  into  their  works 
are  present  here :  on  a  footstool  in  the  foreground  lies  a 
rosary  and  an  incense  pot ;  a  mirror  hangs  on  the  wall, 
and  also  a  small  painted  altar-piece,  in  which  one  can 
distinguish  that  the  middle  compartment  represents  the 
creation  of  Eve,  and  the  wings  the  figures  of  Moses  and 
Aaron. 

There  are  two  repetitions  of  this  work,  one  in  the 
Pinakothek  at  Munich,  and  the  other,  slightly  varied,  in 
the  Cologne  Museum.^ 

[These  pictures  are  probably  by  a  pupil  of  Jan  Joost  op 
Calcar,  who  in  1505-1508  painted  the  wings  of  a  large 
carved  altar-piece  at  Calcar,  near  Cleves,  in  realistic  style, 
with  traces  of  Renaissance  forms  characteristic  of  the  amal- 
gamated schools  of  Flanders  and  Cologne.  Jan  Joost  bought 
the  freedom  of  Calcar,  and  was  probably  a  Dutchman. 
Some  of  his  family  dwelt  at  Harlem,  where  he  married, 
and  died  in  1519.^  The  painter  of  the  Annunciation  in  the 
cloister  of  Santa  Maria  di  Castello  at  Genoa,  Justus  de 
Allamagna  (1451),  belonged  to  this  early  school  of  Cologne 
influenced  by  Flemish  tradition.] 

Far  less  Flemish  in  style  is  a  Westphalian  painter  who 
executed  some  works  in  the  Benedictine  Abbey  of  Liesbom, 
about  the  year  1465,  and  who  from  these  has  received  the 
designation  of  the  Meister  von  Liesborn.  Two  portions 
of  the  great  altar-piece  of  Liesbom  have  found  their  way, 
after  various  vicissitudes,  into  our  National  collection,  and 
will  serve  to  give  English  students  some  notion  of  the 
character  and  execution  of  these  early  German  masters ; 
but  it  is  only  in  German  galleries,  especially  at  Munich, 
that  their  works  can  be  properly  studied. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  majesty  and  sweetness 
of  Meister  Stephan,  or  the  powerful  realism  of  the  master 
of  the  Death  of  the  Virgin,  was  reached  by  all  or  even 
many  of  the  German  masters  of  this  time.     A  large  pro- 

*  As  an  example  of  the  realistic  detail  of  this  picture,  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  a  corner  of  the  rich  carpet,  in  one  of  the  wings,  is  positively 
painted  on  the  frame,  as  if  it  hung  over  it. 

['  Woltmann  and  Woorman,  "  Geschichte  der  Malerei,"  bk.  ii.] 


240  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI. 

portion  of  them  continued,  even  after  the  revival  that  art 
had  experienced  in  Italy  and  the  Netherlands,  to  work  on 
in  the  old  Byzantine  trammels ;  and,  indeed,  we  find,  even 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  after  the  free  schools  of  Upper 
Grermany  had  attained  to  a  noble  national  development, 
that  the  Byzantine  type  was,  in  many  instances,  still  per- 
petuated in  the  Lower  Rhine  schools. 

Bartolomatjs  Bruyn  (1493-1556),  a  Cologne  master 
living  at  the  same  time  as  Diirer,  in  another  way  also 
utterly  missed  the  development  of  the  stirring  reformation 
age.  His  early  works  are  somewhat  allied  in  style  to  those 
of  the  master  of  the  Death  of  the  Virgin,  whose  pupil  he  is 
said  to  have  been,  but  in  his  later  ones  an  Italian  influence 
is  perceptible,  which  wholly  undermines  their  genuine 
character. 

The  spiritual  life  of  the  Byzantine-Romantic  school  had 
by  this  time,  in  fact,  completely  died  away.  That  unques- 
tioning obedience  to  the  Church  of  Rome  which  had  been, 
perhaps,  a  salutary  discipline  in  the  art  as  well  as  the  life 
of  the  Euroi^ean  nations  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity, 
was  felt  in  Germany  sooner  than  elsewhere  as  a  galling 
restraint  by  the  enquiring  minds  of  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  Reason  asserted  her  claims,  and  the 
Teutonic  intellect,  now  advanced  beyond  childhood,  listened 
to  her  voice,  and  was  the  first  to  break  the  chains  where- 
with Rome  still  sought  to  bind  the  nations  to  her  foot- 
stool. 

In  Italy,  when  under  the  Medici  the  spirit  of  progress 
and  rationalism  prevailed,  art,  as  we  have  seen,  turned  for 
inspiration  to  the  classic  works  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and 
sought  knowledge  in  ancient  writers  and  beauty  in  antique 
forms;  but  German  art,  in  casting  off  the  traditions  of 
Catholic  Rome,  did  not,  like  Italy,  receive  the  teaching 
and  adopt  the  language  of  Pagan  Rome,  but  immediately 
set  to  work  to  express  German  thought  in  honest  German 
language. 

It  is  in  its  national  character  and  its  intellectual  and 
moral  dignity  that  the  real  worth  of  German  art  Hes  at  this 
date,  and  not  in  classic  grace  or  sensuous  beauty. 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING   IN    GEEMANT.  241 

Chapter  II. 

THE  EEFOEMATION  PERIOD. 

Schools  of  Upper  Germany — Durer — Holbein. 

OF  what  may  appropriately  be  called  the  Reformation 
School  of  Germany,  Albrecht  Durer  and  Hans  Hol- 
bein the  Younger  were  the  two  chief  masters ;  but  before 
their  time,  before  even  the  time  of  Luther,  we  find  an  artist 
who  in  no  way  swerved  from  his  obedience  to  Rome,  but  in 
whose  works,  nevertheless,  we  first  become  dimly  aware  of 
the  new  thoughts  and  ideas  which  took  distinct  shape  in  the 
art  of  his  successors. 

This  artist  was  Martin  Schongauer,  or  Schon,  so 
called  on  account  of  the  beauty,  not  of  his  person,  but  of 
his  art.  [Born  at  Colmar  about  1450,  the  son  of  a  gold- 
smith, Caspar  Schongauer,  he  died  there  in  1488.]  Like 
the  master  of  the  Lyversberg  Passion,  the  master  of  the 
Death  of  the  Virgin,  Frederick  Herlin,^  and  several  other 
German  masters  of  this  time,  Schongauer  appears  to  have 
learnt  the  secret  of  colouring  in  the  school  of  Rogier  van 
der  Weyden ;  but  while  assimilating  all  that  was  important 
in  the  Flemish  mode  of  painting,  he  wholly  preserved  his 
German  tone  of  thought,  and  expressed  his  ideas  with  an 
originality  of  genius  which  at  once  distinguishes  him  from 
the  subservient  followers  of  the  Van  Eycks,  both  in  Ger- 
many and  Flanders. 

His  paintings,  unfortunately,  are  extremely  rare,  and 
such  as  are  certainly  known  to  be  by  him  are  mostly  at 
Colmar,  where  he  appears  to  have  long  resided,  and  to  have 
formed  a  large  school.'* 

A  Virgin  and  Child,  which  forms  the  altar-piece  in  the 
church  of  S.  Martin,  at  Colmar,  is  his  most  important 

'  A  Swabian  master  (records  1449-1499)  who  studied  at  Bruges,  and 
imported  the  Van  Eyck  method  into  Swabia. 

[«  No  picture  can  with  absolute  certainty  be  ascribed  to  Schongauer. 
The  Virgin  in  the  Rose  Garden,  in  S.  Martin's,  Colmar,  a  small  Holy 
Family  in  the  Pinakothek  at  Munich,  and  another  in  the  Imperial  Gal- 
lery at  Vienna,  are  amongst  the  least  doubtful.] 

R 


242  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  VI. 

painting.  It  is  spoken  of  by  critics  as  being  exceedingly- 
graceful,  and  purely  religious  in  exj)ression,  the  flesh  tones 
clear  and  warm,  and  the  execution  highly  finished.  The 
Virgin  is  seated  on  a  low  wall  with  the  Child  in  her  lap ; 
behind  her  is  a  trellis  of  roses,  in  which  birds  are  nestling. 
Two  wings  of  an  altar-piece,  in  the  museum  at  Colmar, 
are  also  said  to  have  a  spiritual  beauty  resembling  that  of 
Perugino.^ 

But  it  is  in  his  engravings  that  Martin  Schongauer's 
individuality  of  mind  is  most  fully  displayed,  and  these, 
happily,  are  less  difl&cult  of  access  than  his  painted 
works. ^ 

From  these  we  learn  that  he  had  a  far  truer  appreciation 
of  beauty  than  most  German  masters.  We  cannot  predi- 
cate of  one  of  Diirer's  Virgins  that  she  will  be  graceful  of 
form  and  beautiful  of  face,  but  we  almost  can  of  one  of 
Martin  Schon's.  In  the  refined  beauty  of  his  female 
figures,  indeed,  he  approaches  very  near  to  Perugino  and 
Raphael,  only  the  ideal  that  presented  itself  to  his  mind 
was  a  G-erman  and  not  an  Italian  ideal.  A  deep  religious 
sentiment  pervades  his  works  ;  but  now  and  then,  instead 
of  the  traditional  mode  of  treatment  of  a  sacred  subject, 
we  have  it  set  forth  with  wonderful  force  and  life,  as, 
for  instance,  in  the  powerful  engraving  of  Christ  sinking 
beneath  the  weight  of  the  Cross  on  the  way  to  Calvary,"' 
in  which  the  motley  mediaeval  German  life  is  marvel- 
lously contrasted  with  the  grand  figure  of  the  sinking 
Saviour.  To  modern  taste,  the  exaggerated  hate  of  the 
executioners,  who  urge  on  the  Weary  One  with  blows  and 
cuts  with  a  rope,  is,  it  is  true,  repulsive,  but  this  exaggera- 
tion of  suffering  and  evil  is  too  often  met  with  in  German 
art ;  even  Albrecht  Diirer  is  by  no  means  free  from  it. 

But  what  more  especially  places  Martin  Schon  forward  : 

[^  These  are  now  considered  to  be  copies  by  pupils  after  parts  of 
engravings.] 

»  The  British  Museum  possesses  a  very  fine  collection  of  his  prints, 
but  as  none  of  them  are  publicly  exhibited,  they  are  but  little  known  ex- 
cept to  students  and  collectors.  Any  one,  however,  desirous  of  seeing 
them,  may  do  so  by  obtaining  a  ticket  for  the  Print  Room,  where  also 
one  of  the  finest  collections  of  Albrecht  Diirer's  engraved  works  may  be 
studied. 

^  Bartsch,  "  Le  Peintre  Graveur,"  No.  21. 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING   IN    GERMANY.  243 

as  the  predecessor  of  Diirer,  and  the  founder  of  the  Refor- 
mation School  of  German  art,  is  the  weird,  or  as  writers 
on  art  usually  call  it,  fantastic  spirit  that  occasionally 
breaks  forth  in  his  works.  Even  in  the  early  religious 
times,  when  the  obedient  artist  strove  faithfully  to  express 
the  teachings  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  this  spirit,  which  we 
fail  to  find  in  Italian  or  even  in  Flemish  art,  is  occasionally 
visible  in  the  works  of  the  German  artist.  In  early  Ger- 
man manuscripts,  for  instance,  often  in  the  midst  of 
Byzantine  Madonnas  and  ascetic  saints,  we  come  suddenly 
across  some  strange  fantastic  monster,  whose  features  bear 
a  much  stronger  resemblance  to  the  creatures  met  with  in 
the  eddas  and  sagas  of  the  North,  than  to  the  orthodox 
devils  of  Christian  legend. 

It  was,  perhaps,  a  lingering  remembrance  and  affection 
for  the  old  Northern  Mythology,  with  its  ice-giants,  its 
world-encircling  serpent,  and  its  poetical  impersonations 
of  the  powers  of  nature,  that  gave  birth  to  this  strange 
element  in  German  art. 

Only  by  degrees  did  the  old  religion  lose  its  hold,  and 
even  now,  in  the  deeply  rooted  love  of  nature,  in  the  weird 
legends  and  romantic  poetry  of  the  Germans,  we  still  find 
traces  of  its  spirit.  In  the  art  of  the  sixteenth  century 
this  spirit  assumed  a  strange  prominence.  In  the  School 
of  Cologne  it  was,  as  we  have  seen,  lost  to  view  in  the  de- 
votion of  the  painter  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  We  find  no 
trace  of  it  in  Meister  Stephan.  The  Last  Judgment,  for 
instance,  of  the  Cologne  Museum,  although  quaint  and 
even  caricatured  in  style,  has  nothing  weird  about  it,  no- 
thing hinted  at,  that  is,  that  our  senses  are  unable  to 
apprehend;  on  the  contrary,  everything  is  expressed  in  the 
plainest  matter-of-fact  manner. 

But  the  fantastic  or  weird  spirit  in  art  loves  to  dwell 
in  the  twilight  land  of  romance.  It  shrouds  its  meaning 
in  curiously  distorted  forms  ;  it  delights  in  the  grotesque, 
but  gives  it  a  poetical  rather  than  a  comic  expression  ;  it 
hides  its  meaning  from  common  sense,  but  reveals  it  to 
children ;  it  puzzles  the  wise  and  delights  the  foolish ;  it 
is  at  once  playful  and  serious,  earnest  and  merry,  truthful 
and  romancing ;  it  is  neither  theological  nor  rationalistic, 
spiritual  nor  intellectual;  it  is   reviled  by  all  exclusive 


244  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VI. 

lovers  of  classic  beauty  and  Italian  idealism,  but  Albreclit 
Diirer  lias  expressed  some  of  his  greatest  ideas  by  means 
of  it. 

A  most  striking  instance  of  the  fantastic  treatment  of  a 
legendary  subject  may  be  found  in  Martin  Schon's  cele- 
brated print  of  S.  Anthony  tormented  by  demons.  This, 
it  is  said,  so  drew  the  admiration  of  Michael  Angelo  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career  that  he  copied  it  in  oils,  and  truly 
it  is  a  most  wonderful  work.  The  saint,  who  is  pulled  up 
into  the  air  by  his  fiendish  tormentors,  has  a  look  of  holy 
resignation  that  forms  an  effective  contrast  to  the  imj^ish 
spite  and  fury  of  the  creatures  that  surround  him.  One 
a-miable  female  devil  with  bony  arms,  from  which  spring 
fishes'  fins  by  way  of  hanging  sleeves,  and  with  the  wings 
of  a  flying  fish  springing  from  her  shoulders,  lugs  out  the 
few  remaining  locks  that  the  saint  has  on  his  head.  An- 
other, of  a  goatish  nature,  beats  him  over  the  head  with  a 
club,  whilst  another  with  a  fish's  head  and  bristles  sticking 
out  all  over  him  like  the  quills  of  a  porcupine,  and  a  long 
snout  like  a  trumpet,  assails  him  with  a  similar  instru- 
ment. Others  claw  at  his  arms,  his  clothes,  and  his  feet, 
and  persecute  him  in  every  conceivable  manner,  he  re- 
maining passive  and  submissive  to  all  their  ill-treatment. 
These  tricksy  fishy  fiends  are  very  different  to  the  devils 
of  the  bottomless  pit  of  Roman  Catholic  imagination.  In 
Spinello  Aretino's  Fall  of  Lucifer,  and  a  few  other  repre- 
sentations of  hell  of  the  Early  Italian  School,  we  have,  it 
is  true,  a  somewhat  fantastic  treatment  of  the  subject ;  but; 
for  the  most  part  the  awful  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of 
punishment  had  taken  too  great  a  hold  of  men's  minds  to 
permit  of  the  conception  of  the  devil  in  any  other  than  a 
spirit  of  grim  reality.  The  mouth  of  hell  was  no  mere 
figure  of  speech,  but  the  literal  open  jaws  of  a  monster 
who  sought  to  devour  men  body  and  soul,  and  the  devils 
of  religious  art  were  not  mere  creatures  of  the  imagination, 
but  were  regarded  as  direct  emissaries  from  Satan,  from 
whose  clutches  the  soul  could  only  escape  by  good  deeds  and 
an  orthodox  belief.  S.  Anthony's  tormentors  are,  how- 
ever,  evidently  only  phantasmal,  and  are  symbolical 
perhaps  of  the  animal  desires  and  passions  that  this  saiiil 
so   successfully  resisted,   for  these    persecutors   have, 


BOOK    VI.]  PAINTING   IN    GERMANY.  245 

is  plain,  no  victory  over  his  soul,  however  much  they  may 
afflict  his  poor  body. 

Several  other  fantastic  subjects  have  been  treated  by 
Martin  Schon  with  good  effect,  and  we  have  also  several 
engravings  from  scenes  of  common  life,  genre  pictures  they 
may  almost  be  called,  which  betray  a  slight  sense  of 
humour,  another  element  hitherto  unknown  in  German 
art,  but  for  the  most  part  he  adhered  to  religious  subjects, 
treating  them  in  a  thoroughly  German  manner.^ 

His  engravings  were  widely  known  and  esteemed  in  Italy 
even  in  his  own  day.  He  was  called  by  the  Italians  II  Bel 
Martino,  and  by  Vasari,  Martin  d'Ollanda.  He  appears  to 
have  been  a  friend  of  Perugino's  and  to  have  exchanged 
drawings  with  him,  as  Albrecht  Diirer  did  afterwards  with 
Raphael. 

Bartolomaus  Zeitblom  (records  1484-1517),  belongs, 
Uke  Martin  Schongauer,  to  the  Swabian  School.  [He  was 
probably  a  scholar  of  Hans  Schiichlein,  of  Ulm,  his  father- 
in-law,  who  assisted  Zeitblom  in  an  altarpiece.]  He  did 
not  attain  to  the  same  free  artistic  development  as  Martin 
Schon,  but  his  paintings  have  great  spiritual  beauty  and 
tenderness  of  sentiment.  His  colour  also  is  pure  and  soft, 
more  like  fresco  than  oil  painting.  Two  paintings  by  him, 
S.  George  holding  the  white  banner  of  Holiness,  and  S. 
Anthony  with  the  Staff,  are  in  a  cabinet  of  the  Pinakothek, 
and  there  is  a  Veronica  in  the  BerUn  Gallery,  but  most  of 

^  The  painting  of  the  Death  of  the  Virgin  (No.  658)  of  the  National 
Gallery  is  ascribed  in  the  catalogue  to  Martin  Schongauer ;  and  J^r. 
Waagen  also  speaks  of  it  in  Kugler's  "  Handbook,"  as  being  one  of  his 
earliest  works,  executed  whilst  under  the  immediate  influence  of  KogiiT 
Vander  Weyden.  But  Martin  Schongauer,  so  far  as  we  know,  never  at 
any  pei-iod  entirely  adopted  the  Flemish  manner.  All  his  engraved 
works,  at  all  events,  are  thoroughly  Gennan  in  feeling,  and  his  paintings 
also  are  said  to  have  a  distinct  German  individuality.  The  Death  of  the 
Virgin,  on  the  other  hand,  is  thoroughly  Flemish  in  its  realism,  execu- 
tion, and  colouring.  It  is  worthy,  in  truth,  not  only  of  a  pupil  of  Van- 
der Weyden,  but  of  Vander  Weyden  or  even  Van  Eyck  himself.  If  >i 
German  work  at  all,  is  it  not  more  likely  to  be  by  the  before-mentioned 
Master  of  the  Death  of  the  Virgin,  who  in  all  essential  points  was  a 
Flemish  master,  rather  than  by  the  entirely  national  Schongauer  ? 

In  many  respects,  indeed,  the  picture  of  the  National  Gallery  bt  ars  a 
striking  resemblance  to  the  rendering  of  the  same  subject  by  this  n  aster 
in  the  Munich  and  Cologne  Galleries.  E\en  the  type  of  several  of  iLe 
brads  is  the  same. 


246  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOE.   VI. 

his  works  are  in  the  Galleiy  at  Stuttgard,  though  some  are 
scattered  in  the  churches  of  Swabia.  '  He  never,  like  Schon, 
indulged  in  a  fantastic  imagination,  but  was  purely  a 
religious  painter  with  no  sympathy  for  the  Reformation 
movement. 

Martin  Schapfner  (Hving  1499-1535),  was  a  master 
of  the  same  school  as  Zeitblom,  but  somewhat  later  in  date. 
His  art  at  first  was  German  in  feeling,  bearing  much 
affinity  to  Zeitblom' s,  but  in  his  later  life  he  yielded  to  the 
influence  of  Italy,  to  the  great  improvement  of  his  style, 
say  those  critics  who  only  acknowledge  merit  in  German 
art  when  it  is  imitative  of  Italian.  There  are  six  paintings 
by  Schaffner  at  Munich,  all  of  them  excellent  works,  but 
falling  far  below  the  standard  of  the  great  age  of  German 
art  in  which  he  lived. 

The  Niirnberg,  or,  to  speak  more  widely,  the  Franconian 
School  of  this  time,  as  represented  by  Michael  Wohlge- 
muth (1434-1519),  had  not  even  yet  attained  to  the  deve- 
lopment in  painting  that  it  had  reached  in  plastic  art.  The 
paintings  that  pass  with  Wohlgemuth' s  name  are  widely 
unequal  in  merit,  some  being  wretched  daubs,  and  others 
showing  true  dignity  of  thought  united  with  much  tender- 
ness and  sweetness  of  feeling.  But  if  we  only  receive  the 
best  as  being  really  the  work  of  the  master,  we  begin  to 
perceive  that  he  was  not  altogether  the  miserable  mercenary 
j)icture-maker  that  the  weary  tourist  is  apt  to  think  him, 
after  having  been  shown  countless  ugly  wooden  altar- 
pieces  in  German  churches,  and  having  been  positively 
assured  that  they  all  were  by  Michael  Wohlgemuth.  Un- 
fortunately he  allowed  his  school  to  degenerate  into  a  huge 
manufactory  of  altarpieces,  in  which  not  only  paintings 
were  executed,  but  likewise  ma.ny  of  the  remarkable  wooden 
bas-reliefs,  for  which,  as  before  stated,  the  Niirnberg  School 
was  early  famous,  were  coloured.^  The  painting  of  these 
wooden  carvings  was  necessarily  left  to  workmen  rather 

^  Wood-cutting  also,  we  know,  went  on  in  "Wohlgemuth's  manufac- 
tory. The  cuts  for  the  celebrated  "  Niirnberg  Chronicle,"  which  was 
published  in  1493,  under  the  superintendence  of  Michael  Wohlgemuth 
and  Wilhelm  Pleydenwurf,  were,  we  may  suppose,  executed  under  his 
supervision.  These  do  not,  certainly,  increase  his  reputation,  for  they 
are  in  general  badly  designed  and  worse  executed.  [He  is  credited  with 
the  cupper  engravings  signed  V^.,vide  "  Life  of  Albert  Diirer/'Tbausing.] 


jj  HOOK   VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  247 

than  to  artists,  indeed,  with  the  exception  of  Albrecht 
Diirer,  no  artist  of  any  note  is  known  to  have  issued  from 
Wohlgemuth' s  school.^ 

Amongst  Wohlgemuth' s  most  important  and  best  authen- 
ticated works  is  a  large  altarpiece  in  numerous  compart- 
ments, representing  the  Life  and  Sufferings  of  Christ,  in 
the  Marien  Kirche,  at  Zwickau.^ 

We  find  also  several  paintings  by  him  in  different  churches 
in  Niirnberg ;  four  wings  of  an  altarpiece  in  the  Moritz- 
Kapelle  representing  four  female  saints  of  great  dignity 
and  sweetness,  and  a  great  altarpiece,  broken  into  parts, 
setting  forth  the  various  scenes  of  the  Passion,  now  in  the 
Pinakothek  at  Munich.  The  outlines  in  these  works  are 
extremely  hard  and  draughtsmanlike,  the  drapery  is  broken 
into  angular  folds,  and  the  colouring  is  often  crude  and  in- 
harmonious. They  are,  in  fact,  entirely  harsh  and  Grerman 
in  style,  unsoftened  by  that  feeling  for  ideal  beauty  which 
is  apparent  in  the  works  of  Martin  Schongauer,  Bartolo- 
miius  Zeitblom,  and  other  artists  of  the  Swabian  School. 
The  Franconian  School,  indeed,  never  attained,  even  with 
Diirer,  to  the  softness  of  outline  and  harmony  of  colour 
that  marks  the  Swabian,  but  there  is  a  force  and  indivi- 
duality of  character  about  most  of  Wohlgemuth' s  works 
that  raises  them  above  the  mere  dull  efforts  of  mechanical 
skill,  although  too  often  it  must  be  owned  this  force  is 
expended  on  harsh  and  unpleasant  types.  Only  now  and 
then,  as  in  the  four  saints  of  the  Moritz-Kapelle,  does  he 
attain  to  anything  like  beauty  of  form  and  feature. 

"  It  was  a  fatal  destiny  for  the  development  of  German 
art,"  says  Liibke,  after  greatly  depreciating  Wohlgemuth 
and  his  school,'  "  that  from  this  very  teacher  and  this  very 
school  that  artist  was  to  proceed,  who,  in  depth  of  genius, 
in  creative  richness  of  fancy,  in  extensive  power  of  thought, 
and  in  moral  energy  and  earnest  striving  must  be  called  the 
first  of  all  German  masters.     Albrecht  Diirer,  as  regards 

*  Albrecht  Diirer,  in  his  autobiographical  sketch,  speaks  of  his  fellow- 
apprentices  at  Wohlgemuth's  as  knechten,  and  says  that  he  had  much  to 
suffer  from  them. 

*  J.  G.  Quandt,  "  Die  Gemalde  des  Michael  Wohlgemuth  in  der 
Frauenkirche  zu  Zwickau." 

»  «  Hist,  of  Art,"  vol.  ii. 


248  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VI. 

artistic  gifts,  need  fear  no  comparison  with  any  master  in 
the  world,  not  even  with  Eaphael  and  Michael  Angelo. 
Notwithstanding,  in  all  that  concerns  the  true  means  of 
expressing  art,  the  clothing  of  the  idea  in  the  garment  * 
the  exquisite  form,  he  lies  so  deeply  fettered  within  th' 
bonds  of  his  own  limited  world,  that  he  rarely  rises  to  the 
same  height  of  thought  and  expression." 

Such  criticism  is  true,  perhaps,  and  yet  had  Durer  had 
the  Italian  training  that  so  many  of  his  critics  have  desired 
for  him,  we  might  not  have  had  another  Michael  Angelo  or 
Raphael,  while  we  certainly  should  have  missed  an  Albrecht 
Diirer. 

We  must  accept  his  art,  if  we  would  truly  appreciate  it, 
as  it  is,  and  not  be  perpetually  lamenting  over  the  want  of 
those  elements  which  it  does  not  possess.  We  do  not  find 
in  it  the  classic  conception  of  the  nobility  and  beauty  of 
man's  physical  life,  nor  the  spiritual  ideal  of  the  early 
religious  painters  ;  we  do  not  find  the  tender,  holy  charm 
of  Raphael,  the  sublime  dignity  of  Michael  Angelo,  nor  the 
glorious  sensuous  life  of  Titian ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  find  in  it  the  Grerman  character  reflected  in  all  its  lights 
and  shades,  in  its  intellectual  aspirations,  its  restless  striv- 
ings, its  fantastic  imaginings,  and,  above  all,  in  its  genuine 
moral  worth. 

He  is,  in  truth,  pre-eminently  the  representative  artist  of 
the  Fatherland. 

Albrecht  Dxjrer  (born  at  Niirnberg,  1471,  died  1528) 
was  the  son  of  a  working  goldsmith,  and  himself  worked, 
for  some  time,  at  his  father's  trade  ;  but,  "  his  inclination 
carrying  him  more  towards  painting  than  to  goldsmith's 
work,"  his  father  bound  him  apprentice  to  Michael  Wohl- 
gemuth, with  whom  he  served  for  three  years.  To  these 
student  years  (Lehrjahre)  succeeded  four  years  of  travel 
(Wanderjahre),  of  which,  unfortunately,  we  have  no  record. 
On  his  return  he  settled  in  his  native  town  as  a  painter, 
and  married  Agnes  Frey,  with  whom  it  is  supposed  he 
lived  very  unhappily.^ 

'  Willibald  Pirkhcimer,  in  a  letter  written  some  time  after  Diirer"s 
death,  tells  his  correspondent  that  Agnes  Frov  by  her  fretful  temper 
and  bitter  tongue  worried  her  husband  to  death.  On  the  other  hand 
Agnes  Frey  has  of  late  years  found  several  vindicators  who  attribute 


BOOK   VI.]  PAINTINO   IN    OEBMANT.  249 

In  1505  Burer  undertook  a  journey  on  horseback  to  the 
North  of  Italy,  and  was  kindly  received  by  the  painters  of 
Venice.  Especially  Giovanni  Bellini,  whom  Diirer  calls 
"  the  best  painter  of  them  all,"  noticed  the  German  artist, 
and  highly  praised  his  work. 

This  visit  to  Venice  formed  a  bright  episode  in  Diirer's 
restrained  work-a-day  hfe.  *'  I  wish  you  were  here,"  he 
writes  to  Pirkheimer,  from  Venice.  "  There  are  so  many 
pleasant  companions  amongst  the  Walschen  "  (an  old  Ger- 
man term  for  Italians)  "  that  it  does  one's  heart  good  to  be 
with  them:  learned  men,  good  lute-players,  pipers,  con- 
noisseurs in  art, — all  very  noble-minded,  upright,  vii-tuous 
people,  who  bestow  on  me  much  honour  and  friendship." 
And  in  another  letter  he  says,  "  Here  I  am  a  gentleman, 
whilst  at  home  I  am  only  a  parasite.  Oh,  how  I  shall 
freeze  after  this  sunshine  !  " 

Yet  at  the  end  of  1506  he  returned  to  Niimberg,  re- 
fusing an  offer  of  200  ducats  a  year  that  had  been  made 
him  by  the  Venetian  Government  if  he  would  settle  at 
Venice. 

Whilst  at  Venice  he  executed  a  great  altar-piece  for  the 
guild  of  German  merchants,  which,  he  tells  us,  effectually 
silenced  the  jealous  assertion  of  the  Venetians,  that 
"  although  he  was  a  good  engraver,  he  did  not  know  how 
to  colour."  This  painting — the  Feast  of  the  Eose-garlands 
— is  now  preserved  in  the  monastery  of  Strahof,  near 
Prague.  It  represents  the  Virgin  with  a  Pope,  an  Em- 
peror (Maximilian),  numerous  saints  and  knights,  and 
various  members  of  the  German  guild  kneeling  before  her, 
and  receiving  crowns  of  roses  from  her  hands,  or  those  of 
the  Child.  S.  Domenic,  the  founder  of  the  feast,  stands 
to  the  right,  and  also  crowns  with  roses  a  monk  of  his 
order. 

In  this  painting  we  see  that  Diirer  had  greatly  overcome 
the  hard  and  unlovely  manner  gained  from  Wohlgemuth, 
which  characterizes  his  earlier  works,  and  yet  it  is  strange 
to  notice  how  very  little  influence  Italian  art  had  over  him. 
"  The  Venetians,"  he  says,  "  abuse  my  style,  and  say  that 
it  is  not  after  the  antique,"  and  their  criticism  was  true 

Pirkheimer's  ii^urious  expressions  to  malice.      See  '*  Zeitsclirift  tiir 
bildende  Kunste,"  1869. 


250  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VI. 

enough.  Nothing  can  well  be  less  antique  than  his  strongly 
marked  individuality  and  genuinely  national  mode  of  ex- 
pression. Even  in  the  Madonna  of  the  Rose-garlands, 
which  ranks  as  one  of  his  most  beautiful  and  poetical 
works,  and  which  was  painted  while  under  the  immediate 
influence  of  the  works  of  the  great  masters  of  Venice,  we 
find  no  trace  of  imitation  of  their  style,  nor  adoption  of 
their  ideas.  On  his  return  from  Venice,  it  is  true,  he  exe- 
cuted two  large  single  figures  of  Adam  and  Eve,^  which, 
perhaps,  might  have  been  intended  to  rival  the  nude  dis- 
plays of  Italian  art ;  but,  if  so,  this  was  but  a  solitary  and 
probably  conscious  effort,  and  did  not  in  the  least  affect  the 
thorough  independence  of  his  genius. 

To  the  period  immediately  following  his  return  from 
Venice  belong  some  of  the  finest  and  most  original  of  his 
works.  His  powers  had  now  reached  their  full  perfection, 
and  from  this  time  until  the  journey  to  the  Netherlands  in 
1520,  may  be  reckoned  the  most  productive  period  of  his 
life — the  blooming  time  of  his  art.  Before  this — namely, 
in  1498 — he  had  already  published  the  powerful  woodcuts 
of  the  Apocalypse,  in  which  the  mystic  and  fantastic  spirit 
before  spoken  of  as  lingering  in  German  art,  first  assumed 
distinct  shape.  These  woodcuts  are,  moreover,  important 
as  marking  a  period  in  the  history  of  wood- engraving,  they 
being  far  superior  not  only  in  design,  but  also  in  execution, 
to  anything  that  had  previously  appeared.^ 

In  1511  he  followed  up  the  success  of  his  Apocalypse 
series  by  another  magnificent  set  of  large  cuts  known  as 
the  Great  Passion ;  a  set  of  thirty- seven  smaller  ones, 
called  the  Little  Passion,  and  the  series  of  the  Life  of  the 
Virgin. 

To  the  same  fertile  year  belongs  also  the  great  painting 
of  the  Adoration  of  the  Trinity  now  in  the  Belvedere  at 
Vienna,  which  is  usually  considered  to  be  his  finest  painted 
work.  In  this,  God  the  Eather  throned  on  the  double 
rainbow  holds  forth  for  the  love  and  adoration  of  the 
Christian  church,  the  form  of  his  crucified  Son,  while  the 
Dove   of  the   Spirit   hovers   above.     Two   bands   of   the 

^  Now  in  the  Royal  Gallery  at  Madrid.     Passavant,  "  Christliche 
Kunst  in  Spanien."     See  also  an  article  in  "  Kunstblatt,"  1853. 
^  Jackson  and  Chatto,  "  History  of  Wood  Engraving.'* 


BOOK    VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  251 

glorified  elect  approach  on  either  side,  the  female  saints 
being  led  by  the  Virgin  Mary,  who,  it  is  significant  to 
notice,  has  not  the  same  prominent  position  accorded  to 
her  here  as  is  usual  in  Catholic  art.  Below,  but  still  caught 
up  into  the  air  with  Christ,  are  the  various  classes  and 
conditions  of  men — emperor,  pope,  monk,  peasant,  knight, 
and  burgher,  all  expressing  the  same  incomprehensible 
faith,  and  worshipping  the  mystic  Trinity  in  unity. 

Another  of  his  greatest  religious  paintings  represented 
the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin.  It  was  painted  for  the 
Frankfort  merchant  Jacob  Heller,  and  several  of  Diirer's 
letters  respecting  it  are  preserved,  but  unfortunately  the 
picture  itself  perished  by  fire  in  1674  An  excellent  copy 
of  it,  however,  still  hangs  in  the  old  Town  Gallery  at 
Frankfort,  It  must  have  been  a  grand  work.  But  the 
masterwork  of  Diirer's  art  is  undoubtedly  found  in  the 
Four  Apostles  of  the  Pinakothek  at  Munich.  So  strikingly 
contrasted  are  the  characters  of  the  Apostles  S.  John  and 
S.  Peter,  S.  Paul  and  S.  Mark,  that  it  has  been  supposed 
that  Diirer  meant  to  symbolize  the  Four  Temperaments 
by  them,  but  there  is  nothing  beyond  this  forcible  indi- 
viduahsation  of  character,  and  a  vague  statement  of  Neu- 
dorffer's,  whereon  to  found  such  a  theory.  In  these  noble 
figures,  which  are  the  size  of  life,  Diirer  has  thoroughly 
overcome  all  the  hardness  and  mannerism  of  his  early 
style,  and  has  attained  to  a  simple  grandeur  of  expression 
and  deep  harmony  of  colour  that  may  bear  comparison 
with  almost  any  Italian  work  of  his  time.  Without  ex- 
aggeration, or  mannerism,  or  Germanism,  or  Italianism, 
he  has  set  forth  with  all  the  power  of  his  great  intellect 
his  conception  of  the  Four  Teachers  of  pure  Christian  doc- 
trine before  that  doctrine  had  been  corrupted  by  the  tra- 
ditions, superstitions,  and  vain  ceremonies  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  Kugler  calls  these  pictures  "  the  first  complete 
work  of  art  produced  by  Protestantism,"  and  it  is  possible 
that  Diirer  may  have  remembered  some  of  his  conversations 
with  Melancthon  when  he  painted  them,  but  it  is  not 
Protestantism  or  Catholicism,  or  any  other  "ism,"  that 
they  express,  but  the  artist's  own  individual  thought  on 
the  subject,  unbound  by  any  creed  whatever,  and  free 
from  the  dogmas  of  any  Church.     They  were  executed  in 


252  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI. 

1526,  two  years  before  his  death,  and  as  if  with  a  con- 
sciousness that  this  was  the  final  expression  of  his  art,  he 
refused  to  sell  these  works,  but  presented  them  as  "a 
remembrance  to  his  native  town."  ^ 

But  it  is  less  by  his  paintings  than  by  his  engraved 
works  that  Diirer  is  known  to  the  world.  His  paintings, 
even  if  we  reckon  all  that  are  attributed  to  him,  are  but 
few  and  scattered,  and  none  of  them,  except  perhaps  the 
Apostles,  are  equal  in  dignity  of  form  or  harmony  of 
colour  to  the  works  of  the  great  Italians  of  his  time,  but 
his  engravings  are  fantastic  poems  of  which  we  never 
grow  weary,  for  there  is  a  sense  of  mystery  in  them  that 
exerts  a  powerful  fascination  over  the  mind.  Everyone 
knows  the  celebrated  print  of  The  Knight,  Death,  and  the 
Devil :  each  time  we  see  it  we  regard  it  with  fresh  interest, 
and,  although  we  may  not  be  poets  like  Fouque,  who 
founded  upon  it  his  wild  and  romantic  tale  of  Sintram, 
yet  we  cannot  help  constructing  some  theory  to  explain  its 
strange  charm.  To  how  many  theories,  likewise,  has  that 
weird  conception  called  Melancholia  given  rise.  The  grand 
winged  woman,  sitting  brooding  in  darkness  of  mind  over 
the  hidden  mysteries  of  nature,  while  the  insufficient  in- 
struments of  human  science  lie  scattered  around — symbols 
of  man's  futile  endeavours  to  reach  heavenly  wisdom.  In 
the  Coat  of  Arms,  with  the  Death's  Head  also,  a  less 
known  engraving,  and  many  other  of  his  prints,  the  same 
sense  of  mystery  prevails. 

"It  is  the  suggestion  of  this  unknown  something  in 
art,"  writes  E.  S.  Dallas,^  "that  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
signalizing  as  in  a  peculiar  sense  poetical,"  and  it  is  this 
"  unknown  something  "  that  gives  a  poetic  charm  to  Diirer' s 
works,  although  his  forms  are  often  harsh  and  ugly,  and 
the  mental  image  from  which  he  worked  had  none  of  the 
spiritual  beauty  that  Eaphael  loved  to  dwell  upon. 

Of  the  execution  of  his  engravings  no  praise  can  be  too 
great.    They  are  often  perfect  miracles  of  dehcacy  and  finish. 

^  Only  copies  now  hang  in  the  Eath-haus  of  Niirnberg,  the  originals 
having  been  given  up  by  the  Eath,  or  Town  Council,  to  the  Elector 
Maximilian  in  the  seventeenth  centui'y.  They  are  now  in  the  first  Saal 
of  the  Pinakothek  at  Munich. 

»  The'*  Gay  Science." 


BOOK   VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  253 

In  1520  Albrecht  Durer,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  un- 
dertook a  journey  to  the  Netherlands,  probably  with  a 
view  of  gaining  from  the  newly  elected  Emperor,  Charles  V. , 
an  acknowledgment  or  ratification  *  of  the  debt  due  to  him 
from  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  and  also  a  continuance  of 
his  position  as  court-painter.  The  journal  that  he  kept 
during  this  tour  has  been  preserved,^  and  gives  many 
interesting  details  of  artist-life  at  that  period.  Everywhere 
he  was  received  with  high  honour  and  cordial  esteem,  and 
his  visit  appears  to  have  afforded  him  the  greatest  satis- 
faction. At  Antwerp  the  Guild  of  Painters  gave  a  grand 
banquet  in  his  honour,  at  which,  he  tells  us,  "  they  spared 
no  expense."  "  When  I  was  going  in  to  the  dinner,"  he 
says,  "  all  the  people  formed  in  a  line  on  two  sides  for  me 
to  pass  through,  as  though  I  had  been  a  great  lord.  When 
I  was  seated  at  table  there  came  a  messenger  from  the 
Senate  at  Antwerp,  who  presented  me  with  four  tankards 
of  wine  in  the  name  of  the  Senators  (Baths  herrn),  and  he 
said  that  they  desired  to  honour  me  with  this,  and  that 
I  should  have  their  goodwill.  Then  I  said  that  I  gave  them 
my  humble  thanks  and  offered  them  my  humble  service." 

These  marks  of  respect  from  foreigners  were,  perhaps, 
the  more  pleasing  to  Diirer,  as  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  held  in  any  high  honour  in  his  native  town.  At  all 
events,  in  writing  once  to  the  Rath  of  Niimberg  he  told 
his  noble  lords  that  for  thirty  years  during  which  he  had 
worked  in  the  town  he  had  never  received  so  much  as  600 
florins  of  Niimberg  money,  although  both  at  Venice  and 
Antwerp  he  had  been  offered  a  munificent  sum  if  he  would 
remain  in  those  cities ;  in  another  place,  also,  he  speaks  of 
his  circumstances  as  "  lamentable  and  shameful."  Ger- 
many, indeed,  had  at  this  time  no  munificent  patrons  of 
art  such  as  those  we  have  seen  in  Italy,  to  give  worthy 
employment  to  her  artists.  Holbein,  as  we  know,  was 
forced  to  come  to  England  to  seek  his  fortune,  and  Diirer 
once  wrote,  "  Henceforth  I  shall  stick  to  my  engraving. 
If  I  had  done  so  before  I  should  be  richer  by  1,000  florins 
than  I  am  at  the  present  day." 

'  *'  Confirmatio,"  Diirer  calls  it. 

^  It  has  been  translated  into  English  by  W.  B.  Scott  and  by  myself  in 
our  lives  of  Albrecht  Diirer. 


254  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI. 

But,  altliough  he  had  but  few  patrons,  Diirer  was  the 
friend  of  many  of  the  most  distmguished  men  of  his 
time. 

Melancthon,  the  most  liberal-minded  reformer  of  his 
age,  had  the  truest  regard  for  him.  "  I  grieve,"  he  wrote, 
at  Diirer's  death,  "for  Germany,  deprived  of  such  a  man 
and  such  an  artist,"  and  again  he  records,  "  His  least  merit 
was  his  art."  Luther,  also,  appears  to  have  been  person- 
ally known  to  him,  and  from  an  outburst  of  feeling  in  his 
journal  on  the  occasion  of  Luther's  supposed  captivity,  it 
is  evident  how  deeply  Diirer  sympathized  with  the  reform- 
ing spirit  that  Luther  had  evoked,  although  it  is  not  certain 
that  he  ever  entirely  withdrew  from  communion  with  the 
Church  of  Rome.  For  Erasmus,  with  whom  he  became 
acquainted  in  the  Netherlands,  he  had  less  respect,  but  he 
has  given  us  a  most  characteristic  portrait  of  him,  as  well 
as  of  Melancthon. 

Like  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Diirer  was  not  limited  to  one 
mode  of  expression.  He  was  an  architect  and  sculptor  as 
well  as  a  painter  and  engraver.  He  was  likewise  the 
author  of  several  scientific  treatises,  one  in  particular,  on 
human  proportion,  which  was  for  a  long  time  the  received 
text-book  on  the  subject,  and  was  translated  into  several 
languages.^ 

The  portraits  he  has  left  us  of  himself,  more  especially 
the  well-known  one  of  the  Munich  Grallery,  show  us  a 
noble  thoughtful  countenance,  with  large  melancholy  eyes, 
far-seeing,  and  yet  full  of  human  sympathy.  The  hair 
parted  in  the  middle,  flows  down  in  rich  curls  on  to  the 
shoulders,  as  in  the  usual  portraits  of  Christ.^  The  hand 
holding  the  fur  collar  of  the  coat,  is  exquisitely  formed. 
Altogether  we  recognize,  as  Camerarius  says,  that  "  nature 
had  given  him  a  form  well  suited  to  the  beautiful  spirit 
which  it  held  within." 

Diirer  had  a  considerable  number  of  pupils  and  followers, 
but  most  of  them  are  better  known  as  engravers  than  as 

^  The  greater  part  of  the  manuscript  and  drawings  for  this  work  are 
now  preserved  in  the  British  Museum. 

*■*  The  likeness  of  the  Munich  porti'ait  of  Durer  to  the  typical  head  of 
Christ  has  been  often  I'emarked.  It  has  likewise  something  of  the 
character  of  the  Greek  Zeus. 


BOOK    VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  255 

painters.  The  term  "  Little  Masters,"  which  is  often  made 
to  include  the  whole  following  of  Diirer,  is  more  correctly 
limited  to  seven  artists,  all  of  whom  worked  during  some 
part  of  their  lives  in  Niimberg  under  Diirer,  or  under  his 
immediate  influence.  These  artists  were  :  Heineich  Al- 
DEGREVER  (bom  1502,  living  1555)  ;  A.  Altdorfer  (bom 
about  1JJ80,  died  1538);  Bartel  Beham,  1502-40;  H. 
Sebald  Beham,  1500-50 ;  G-eorge  Pensz  (died  1550) ; 
Jacob  Bin k  (died  about  1569) ;  Hans  Brosamer.^ 

These  are  called  the  "Little  Masters,"  or  "the  Little 
Masters  of  Niirnberg,"  on  account  of  the  small  size  of 
their  prints,  few  of  which  measure  more  than  three  or  four 
inches  across,  some  being  much  smaller.  Their  painted 
works  are,  for  the  most  part,  extremely  rare,  and  not  re- 
markable for  any  particular  excellence.'^  Of  Hans  Sebald 
Beham,  for  instance,  only  one  authentic  painting  is  known,' 
and  scarcely  more  of  any  of  the  others,  but  their  prints  are 
often  met  with,  and  are  highly  prized  by  connoisseurs. 
Beham's  cuts,  etchings,  and  engravings  alone  amount  to 
about  four  hundred.''  They  are  wonderfully  skilful  in 
workmanship,  and  show  a  fertile  invention,  only  unfortu- 
nately they  are  often  coarse,  indeed,  indecent,  in  subject,  a 
fault  into  which  many  of  these  little  masters  fell,  although 
their  master,  Durer,  was  singularly  free  from  it.  An 
Italian  sentiment  prevails  in  the  later  works  of  several  of 
them.  As  Diirer' s  influence  faded  they  became  less  German 
and  less  truthful. 

Standing  somewhat  apart  from  the  Niirnberg  School,  or 
taking,  as  Kugler  says,  "  a  happy  half-way  position," 
between  it  and  the  Swabian,  is  Matthias  &Rt7NEWALD 
(about  1460-1530).  Though  hard  in  outline,  like  almost 
all  German  painters,  he  had  a  truer  perception  of  beauty 
than  was  common  with  his  contemporaries,  and  his  colour- 
ing is  especially  rich  and  harmonious.     His  principal  work 

1  W.  B.  Scott,  "  Life  of  Albert  Durer." 

[*  Those  of  Altdorfer  are  remarkable  for  their  landscape  backgrounds, 
which  rival  contemporary  Flemish  work.  He  was  the  first  Gorman  to 
subordinate  figure  to  landscape.  V.  "  Kugler's  Handbook,"  edited  by 
Crowe.] 

•  A  series  of  scenes  from  the  life  of  David  f«)rming  a  square  table 
divided  into  four  triangles.     It  is  now  in  the  Louvre. 

*  Wornum, 


256  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI. 

is  a  large  altar-piece  in  the  Municli  Gullery,  of  which  the 
centre  subject  represents  S.  Erasmus  converting  S.  Maurice, 
and  the  side  wings  the  figures  of  various  saints. 

Hans  Balding  G-rien  (1476-1545),  is  principally  known 
by  his  woodcuts,  of  which  Bartsch  mentions  fifty-nine,  but 
he  was  likewise  the  painter  of  a  grand  altar-piece  in  tli 
Cathedral  of  Freiburg,  and  several  other  works. ^     He  wa 
a  close  imitator  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  but  it  is  not  knowt 
whether  he  ever  studied  in  his  school. 

Hans  Schaufelin  (1490-1539),  on  the  other  hand,  is 
known  to  have  been  Diirer's  favourite  pupil.  His  works 
are  often  attributed  to  his  master. 

Hans  Suess,  of  Kulmbach,  and  Hans  Springinklee, 
must  also  be  mentioned  as  Diirer's  immediate  scholars. 

Next  to  the  grey  old  town  of  Niirnberg  we  find  the 
equally  ancient  city  of  Augsburg,  a  central  point  of  G-erman 
art  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Here,  for  two  or  three 
generations,  the  families  of  Burgkmair  and  Holbein  put 
forth  their  artistic  skill,  until  their  efforts  culminated  in 
the  works  of  Hans  Holbein  the  younger,  as  he  is  called,  to 
distinguish  him  from  his  father,  a  master  who  stands  next 
to  Diirer  in  the  annals  of  German  art. 

[Hans  Burgkmair,  the  elder  (1473-1531),  called  the 
Diirer  of  Augsburg,  the  son  of  Thoman  Burgkmair,  re- 
sembles the  elder  Holbein  in  his  realistic  aim  and  disregard 
of  beauty.  In  his  earlier  works  the  drawing  is  very  in- 
correct, but  he  was  a  skilled  miniaturist,  and,  according  to 
Waagen,  the  first,  with  Altdorfer,  to  work  out  the  detail 
of  his  landscape  backgrounds  after  nature.  One  of  his 
best-known  works  is  a  Holy  Family,  in  the  Belvedere  at 
Vienna  (painted  1529),  in  which  he  introduced  the  portrait 
of  himself  and  his  wife.  The  wife  holds  a  mirror,  in 
which,  instead  of  a  true  reflection,  death's  heads  grin  at 
them  (Woltmann  and  Woerman).  His  fame,  however, 
principally  rests  on  his  designs  for  woodcuts,  some  of 
which  show  astonishing  vigour  and  imagination,  as  his 
terrible  Death  Choking  a  Warrior  ;  but  for  the  full  variety 
of  his  power  we  must  examine  his  illustrations  of  the  Life 
of  Emperor  Maximilian  (Weisskunig).] 

^  Schreiber, "  Das  Munster  zu  Freiburg."  [^More  than  fifty  of  his  paint- 
ings have  been  catalogued.    Vide  Woermann, "  Geschichte  der  Malerei."] 


BOOK   VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  257 

Hans  Holbein,  the  younger  and  greater  painter  of  the 
name  was  bom  at  Augsburg,  in  1497.  His  father  (1464- 
1524),  was  an  artist  of  considerable  merit,  by  whom  there 
are  a  number  of  paintings  in  the  Munich  Gallery,  as  well 
as  several  at  Augsburg. 

His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Thomaii,  and  sister  of 
Hans  Burgkmair,  so  that  on  both  sides  he  may  claim  an 
artistic  descent.  His  uncle  also,  Sigmund  Holbein  (died 
1540),  was  a  painter.  An  excellent,  though  stiff,  portrait 
of  a  Lady,  with  an  extraordinary  white  linen  cap,  on  which 
a  fly  has  settled,  in  the  National  Gallery  is  ascribed  to  him. 
Hans  Holbein,  the  younger,  therefore,  was  born,  so  to 
speak,  into  an  art  atmosphere  in  which  the  hereditary 
talent  that  he  soon  showed  for  painting  was  carefully 
developed  and  fostered.  Among  his  earliest  works,  are 
supposed  to  be  the  two  portraits  at  Hampton  Court,  known 
as  the  painter's  father  and  mother,  and  also  four  panels  of 
an  altar-piece  in  the  Gallery  of  Augsburg,  dated  1512.^ 

In  1515,  he  left  Augsburg,  and  set  up  for  himself  at 
Basel,  where  he  achieved  so  great  a  reputation,  that  he 
was  employed  by  the  town-council  in  1521-22,  to  paint  in 
fresco,  the  council-chamber  of  the  new  Eathhaus.  Unfor- 
tunately, most  of  these  frescoes  have  been  utterly  destroyed 
by  damp,  only  a  few  detached  fragments  being  now  pre- 
served in  the  museum  at  Basel,  but  by  the  sketches  and 
copies  that  remain  of  them,  they  must  have  been  power- 
fully designed  works.  They  set  forth,  as  was  usual  in  the 
decorations  of  council- chambers,  the  virtue  of  justice, 
especially  illustrated  by  examples  in  ancient  and  biblical 
history. 

Eight  scenes  of  the  Passion,  executed  about  the  same 
period,  and  ten  scenes  of  the  Passion  drawn  in  Indian 
ink,  manifest  still  more  strikingly  his  dramatic  power  and 
masterly  drawing.^ 

But  by  far  the  greatest  work  of  Holbein's  early  or  Basel 
period  is  the  celebrated  votive  picture  known  as  the  Meier 
Madonna,  executed  for  the  Burgomaster  Jacob  Meier  of 
Basel,  and  representing  him  and  his  family  kneeling  before 

['  Now  restored  to  the  elder  Hans,  long  deprived  of  credit  in  order  to 
augment  that  of  his  son. — Woltmann.] 
'  Likewise  in  the  Museum  at  Basel. 


258  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  VI. 

the  Virgin.  Two  repetitions  of  it  are  known  to  exist,  one 
in  the  Royal  Palace  at  Darmstadt,  and  the  other  the  well- 
known  Holbein  Madonna  of  the  Dresden  Grallery.^  It  is 
one  of  the  noblest  works  of  which  G-erman  art  can  boast : 
earnest  in  thought,  powerful  in  characterisation,  dignified 
in  conception,  pure  and  holy  in  sentiment,  and  of  a  solemn 
beauty  unmarked  by  the  hardness  of  the  German  style, 
and  yet  withal  intensely  G-erman  in  expression. 

Another  Holbein  Madonna,  recently  discovered  in  a 
private  collection  at  Solothurm,^  is  praised  in  high  terms 
by  Liibke.  It  represents  the  Virgin  enthroned  between 
the  German  saints,  Ursus  and  Martinus,  and  is  dated 
1522,  and  belongs,  therefore,  also  to  the  Basel  period. 

In  1526  Holbein,  either  because  he  failed  in  obtaining 
a  sufficient  reward  for  his  labours  in  Basel,  or  from  some 
other  cause,  quitted  that  city  and  came  over  to  England, 
leaving  his  wife  and  child  behind  him.  He  brought  with 
him  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Erasmus,  with  whom  he 
had  probably  become  acquainted  at  the  house  of  the  cele- 
brated printer,  Frobenius,  at  Basel,  to  Sir  Thomas  More, 
who  received  him  most  kindly,  and  lodged  him  in  his  own 
house  at  Chelsea. 

In  1528  he  returned  to  Basel,  in  order,  it  would  appear, 
to  finish  his  paintings  in  the  Eathhaus  (1530),  but  in  1532 
he  was  back  again  in  England.  England,  indeed,  at  that 
time,  offered  a  far  wider  and  richer  field  for  his  art  than 
the  impoverished  cities  of  G-ermany.  The  Court  of 
Henry  VIII.  was  then  about  the  most  magnificent  in 
Europe,  and  as  there  were  no  English  painters  attached 
to  it,  it  is  not  strange  to  find  that  Holbein  was  soon  in- 
stalled as  court  painter,  or  "  servant  of  the  king's  majesty," 
with  a  salary  of  .£30  per  annum,  besides  rooms  in  the 
palace.  The  oft-repeated  reply  of  Henry  VIII.  to  the 
noble  earl  who  complained  that  Holbein  had  kicked  him 
down  stairs,  illustrates,  whether  the  story  be  true  or  not, 
the  estimation  in  which  the  painter  was  held  at  the  court 
of  the  bluff  Tudor.     "  I  can,  if  I  please,  make  seven  lords 


[^  The  picture  at  Darmstadt  is  now  acknowledged  to  be  the  original, 
and  the  picture  at  Dresden  is  generally  admitted  to  be  a  copy  by  another 
hand.] 

l^  Kuw  in  the  museum  of  Solothurra.] 


BOOK  VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  259 

out  of  seven  ploughmen,  but  I  cannot  make  one  Holbein  even 
out  of  seven  lords  ;  "  and  no  one  but  a  Holbein,  the  saga- 
cious monarch  was  aware,  could  have  executed  those  incom- 
parable portraits  of  himself  and  his  courtiers  which  even 
now,  when  we  look  at  them,  carry  us  back  to  tLe  days  of 
Wolsey  and  Cranmer,  More  and  Erasmus,  and  give  us  a 
more  vivid  idea  of  the  men  who  surrounded  the  second 
Tudor,  than  we  gain  even  from  the  portrayals  of  Froude. 

It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  numerous  portraits 
that  Holbein  executed  in  England.  He  confined  himself, 
indeed,  almost  entirely  to  portraiture  during  his  English 
time,  but  he  threw  into  his  portraits  a  grandeur  of  thought 
and  a  freedom  of  expression  that  added  to  their  noble  sim- 
plicity and  truth,  raises  them  at  once  into  the  highest  his- 
torical works. 

Although  Holbein's  portraits  and  religious  subjects  are 
characterized  by  a  broad  and  simple  treatment,  and  a  rigid 
regard  for  truth,  yet  it  is  evident  from  some  others  of  his 
works  that  he  did  not  altogether  escape  the  fantastic  spirit 
which  was  prevalent  in  German  art  in  his  time.  This  is 
especially  manifest  in  his  famous  Dance  of  Death,  most 
likely  executed  during  the  Basel  period,  but  not  pubHshed 
until  1538,  at  Lyons. 

The  enormous  popularity  of  these  death -dances,  and 
similar  subjects  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  is, 
indeed,  in  itself  a  striking  proof  of  the  deep  hold  that  this 
fantastic  mode  of  viewing  even  the  most  solemn  subjects 
had  taken  on  the  imaginations  of  the  people.  Tragedy 
takes  the  form  of  burlesque,  but  the  skeleton  is  none  the 
less  appalling  because  it  cuts  capers  and  grins.  Nothing, 
indeed,  can  be  more  weird  than  Holbein's  conceptions  of 
this  terrible  dance,  in  which  popes,  kings,  emperors,  lovely 
women,  children,  warriors,  priests,  and  peasants,  are 
obliged  to  bear  part.  No  one  is  too  high  or  too  low  for 
Death  to  claim  as  a  partner,  except,  indeed,  the  poor  leper 
Lazarus,  who  vainly  implores  Death  to  lend  him  a  helping 
hand.  Holbein  employed  wood-engraving  for  this  series 
of  designs  ;  but  it  is  conjectured  by  some  writers  that  he 
likewise  painted  a  Dance  of  Death  in  fresco  either  at  Basel 
or  in  the  Palace  of  Whitehall  in  London.^ 

'  See  *'  Hans  Holbein's  Dance  of  Death.     A  concise  History  of  the 


260  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI. 

Besides  the  numerous  portraits  by  Holbein  in  England, 
there  are  also  a  great  many  of  his  drawings  in  this  coun- 
try. The  collection  at  Windsor  Castle  is  especially  rich 
and  noteworthy,  and  there  are  some  fine  specimens  in  the 
British  Museum.' 

It  has  always  been  known  that  Holbein  died  of  the  plague 
in  London,  but  it  has  not  been  proved  until  recently  that  it 
was  the  plague  of  1543  to  which  he  fell  a  victim.  He  died 
some  time  between  the  7th  of  October  (on  which  day  he 
made  his  will)  and  the  29th  of  November,  1543.^ 

The  number  of  portraits  resembling  Holbein's  in  style, 
that  are  found  both  in  public  and  private  galleries,  would 
lead  to  the  belief  that  he  had  a  goodly  number  of  followers 
and  imitators ;  but,  strange  to  say,  but  few  of  these  can, 
with  any  certainty,  be  identified.  Amongst  them  were 
Christoph  Amberger  (1490-about  1563),  and  Nicolas 
Manuel,  generally  called  Deutsch  (1484-1531),  a  Swiss 
painter,  poet,  and  reformer. 

A  more  important  and  independent  master  is  Lucas 
Cranach  (1472-1553).  Like  Diirer,  Cranach's  mind  ap- 
pears to  have  been  deeply  stirred  by  the  great  religious 
movement  going  on  around  him.  He  early  embraced  tli' 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and  was  the  intimate  friend 
of  Luther  and  Melancthon. 

In  1493  Cranach  accompanied  Frederick  the  Wise,  Elector 
of  Saxony,  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  on  his  return  was  ap- 
pointed court  painter  to  the  Electoral  House  of  Saxony,  an 
office  that  he  held  under  three  successive  electors,  the  last 
being  the  noble  Frederick  the  Magnanimous,  to  whom 
Cranach  was  so  much  attached  that  he  preferred  sharing 
that  unfortunate  prince's  five  years  captivity  after  the  battle 
of  Miihlberg  to  accompanying  the  victorious  Charles  V.  to 
the  Netherlands.  He  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  at 
Wittenberg,  where  it  appears  he  kept  an  apothecary's  shop, 

Origin  and  subsequent  Development  of  the  Subject,"  by  N<x)l  Hum- 
phreys,    liondon,  1868. 

'  For  a  history  of  Holbein's  works  in  England,  see  Waagen's  "  Trea 
sures  of  Art  in  Great  Britain,"  as  well  as  Wornum's  biography. 

^  There  is  no  picture  by  Holbein  in  the  National  Gallery,  an  omission 
that  is  i-emarkable  considering  that  the  greater  part  of  his  works  are  in 
this  country. 


BOOK    VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  261 

called  the  "  Adler,"  at  the  south-west  corner  of  the  market- 
place/ He  was  a  man  of  high  mark  in  the  town,  and  was 
twice  elected  to  the  of&ce  of  Burgomaster.  On  returning 
from  his  attendance  on  the  Elector  during  that  prince's 
imprisonment,  an  imprisonment  that  he  greatly  enlivened 
bv  his  art  and  cheerful  society,  Cranach,  then  an  old  man, 
retired  to  Weimar,  where  he  died  at  the  age  of  eighty.  A 
medal  was  struck  in  his  honour,  with  his  portrait  on  one 
side,  and  on  the  other  his  crest,  a  dragon  with  a  crown  on 
its  head,  a  well-known  mark  on  his  pictures  and  prints. 

Cranach' s  art  is  thoroughly  national.  He  delights  in 
quaint  invention,  and  sometimes  even  indulges  in  caricature. 
His  pictures  have  a  cheerfulness  of  character,  and  a  certain 
naive  childhke  grace  that  seems  like  the  unconscious  ex- 
pression of  the  happy  disposition  of  the  artist.  They  do 
not  affect  us  in  the  same  way  as  those  of  Albrecht  Diirer, 
for  there  is  no  sense  of  mystery  in  them.  The  mind  of 
Cranach  is  as  clear  as  that  of  Diirer  is  dark  to  human  sight. 
Even  his  allegories,  although  original  in  treatment,  are  of 
the  most  obvious  kind. 

The  Fountain  of  Youth,  for  example,  a  painting  in  the 
Berlin  Gallery,  is  amusing  in  its  realism.  A  number  of 
ugly  old  women  are  dragged  through  a  barren  land  down 
to  the  large  decorative  fountain  that  fills  the  middle  of  the 
picture,  and  after  playing  about  its  waters,  turn  out  as 
frolicsome  young  maidens,  in  the  beautiful  country  that 
lies  on  the  other  side. 

He  excelled  in  the  delineation  of  birds  and  animals,  and 
was  especially  fond  of  hunting  scenes.  The  border  drawings 
by  him,  in  what  is  known  as  Albrecht  Diirer' s  Prayer 
Book,*  are  admirable  examples  of  his  skill  in  these  subjects. 

^  This  "  Cranachhaus  "  has  unfortunately  been  recently  destroyed  by 
fire.  "  Academy,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  494.  [He  also  set  up  a  printing  press  and 
had  a  school  for  every  kind  of  painting,  both  art  and  trade  work.  His 
sons  continued  in  the  same  way  for  some  years  after  him.  The  most 
important  of  these  was  Ldcas  Cranach  the  todnoer  (1515-1586), 
who  finished  his  father's  altar-piece  at  Weimar,  and  left  numerous  works, 
many  of  which  have  been  mistaken  for  those  of  his  father.  Examples 
of  his  art  exist  at  Wittenberg,  Dresden,  Leipsig,  Vienna,  and  other 
places.] 

'  Preserved  in  the  Munich  Town  Library,  and  lithographed  by 
Strixner. 


262  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  VI. 

His  mytliological  pieces  are  far  less  pleasing,  often, 
indeed,  appearing  like  Grerman  burlesques  on  classic  form 
and  beauty.  His  portraits,  on  the  other  hand,  are  power- 
fully conceived,  and  he  has  left  us  portraits  of  many  of  the 
most  noteworthy  men  of  his  time.  His  female  portraits 
have  especially  a  peculiar  charm.  There  is  a  wonderful 
portrait  by  him  of  a  young  girl,  in  the  National  G-allery 
(No.  291),  which  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  his  style. 
Although  so  richly  dressed,  and  loaded  with  ornament,  the 
little  girl  herself  is  exquisitely  sweet  and  unaffected,  and 
smiles  so  pleasantly  at  us  from  out  her  magnificent  trappings, 
that  we  fall  in  love  with  her  on  the  spot.^ 

Of  Cranach's  large  religious  works,  a  Crucifixion,  an 
altar-piece  in  a  church  at  Weimar,  is  perhaps  the  most 
important.  The  blood  from  the  wounded  side  of  Christ  is 
represented  as  pouring  on  to  the  head  of  the  painter,  who 
stands  beneath  the  cross  with  his  friends  Luther  and 
Melancthon,  the  latter  in  the  character  of  S.  John  the 
Baptist  directing  the  attention  of  the  other  two  to  the 
G-reat  Sacrifice. 

It  is  by  his  engravings  that  Cranach  is  best  known.  He 
executed  a  vast  number  of  these,  both  on  wood  and  copper,'' 
and  his  execution  was  so  rapid  as  to  gain  him  the  title  of 
"  celerrimus  pictor  "  on  his  tombstone.  Heller  enumerates 
eight  hundred  of  his  prints. 

After  Diirer,  Holbein,  and  Cranach,  G-erman  art  fell 
from  its  high  independent  position  to  a  mere  mannered 
imitation  of  Itahan.  As  in  Flanders  at  the  same  period, 
the  honest  national  mode  of  expression  was  entirely  de- 
serted by  the  G-erman  artists  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  that  "  frantic  pilgrimage  to  Italy,"  as  Fuseli  calls 
it,  set  in,  which  ended  in  the  utter  degradation  of  all 
northern  art. 

Amongst  the  G-erman  Italianisers,  Heineich  Goltzius 
(1558-1617),  "whose  name,"  says  Eastlake,  "is  synonymous 
with  the  falsest  exaggeration,"  is  one  of  the  cleverest,  and 

'  The  painter's  crest,  the  crowned  dragon  before-mentioned,  may  be 
seen  in  the  left-hand  corner  of  this  picture. 

[2  Only  a  few  on  copper.] 

[•''  Cranach  has  been  the  subject  of  much  research  in  recent  years,  and 
there  is  a  very  full  account  of  his  works  in  Woltmann  and  Woermann.j 


J500K    VI.]  PAINTING   IN    GERMANY.  263 

at   the  same   time,   most   offensive.     He  struggled  after 
Michael  Angelo  in  distorted  dreams. 

JoHANN  RoTTENHAMMER  (1564-1623)  also,  is  another 
artist  who  was  afflicted  with  the  Italian  fever.  He  chiefly 
imitated  the  Venetians,  never,  however,  attaining  to  any- 
thing approaching  their  colour.^ 

Adam  Elzheimer  (1578-1620)  is  slightly  more  original. 
He  is  mostly  distinguished  by  his  moonlight  and  torchlight 
effects,  and  his  small  landscapes.^ 

Joachim  von  Sandrart  (1606-1688)  was  also  a  painter 
of  some  note  at  this  time,  although  posterity  forgets  his 
great  historical  paintings,  and  remembers  him  only  as  the 
industrious  compiler  of  one  of  the  first  histories  of  Teutonic 
art.^ 

The  name  of  Balthasar  Denner  (1685-1749)  has  become 
almost  proverbial  for  minute  and  laborious  detail ;  detail 
sought  for  its  own  sake,  and  not  made  subordinate  to  any 
great  end.  Old  men's  and  old  women's  heads  were  his 
favourite  subjects,  of  which  he  painted  every  little  hair 
and  wrinkle  with  marvellous  skiU  and  accuracy,  and  yet, 
strange  to  say,  failed  in  producing,  as  the  great  portrait- 
painters  did  with  haK  the  labour,  a  truthful  and  powerful 
likeness. 

The  triviality  of  Denner,  contrasts  strongly  with  the 
lofty  aims  of  Raphael  Mengs  (1728-1774),  who,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  under  the  influence  of  Winckelman, 
the  first  modern  expounder  of  the  meaning  of  G-reek  art, 
attempted  to  revive  the  severe  spirit  of  classic  art,  and 
to  return  to  a  purely  ideal  conception  of  human  nature. 
He  only  succeeded,  however,  in  attaining  to  a  cold,  lifeless 
eclecticism,  for  although  his  drawing  was  correct,  his  forms 
ideal,  and  his  style  classic,  he  lacked  the  inspiration  neces- 
sary to  the  production  of  aU  truly  great  creative  works. 

Christian  Dietrich  (1712-1774),  was  in  like  manner 
an  eclectic;  whilst  Asmus  Carstens  (1754-1798),  adhered 
in  his  severe  and  noble  drawings,  which  have  more  the 

['  There  is  a  small  picture  by  Rottenhammer  in  the  National  Gallery, 
Pan  and  Syrinx,  No.  569.] 

['  Represented  in  the  National  Gallery  by  the  Martyrdom  of  S. 
Lawrence,  No.  1014.] 

'  "  Teutsche  Academie,"  Niirnberg,  1675,  fol. 


264  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VI. 

character  of  plastic  than  of  pictorial  works,  to  the  lofty 
teachings  of  antique  art. 

But  the  classic  spirit  of  G-reece,  though  always  wor- 
shipped by  the  few,  has  never  effected  any  lasting  hold  on 
the  sympathies  of  the  many,  and  the  attempted  revivals 
of  antique  art  in  modem  times  have  generally  resulted  in 
a  reahstic  or  a  religious  re-action.  This  was  the  case  in 
Germany. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  a  new  and 
powerful  impulse  was  given  to  German  art  by  a  few  youth- 
ful and  aspiring  artists  who  were  at  that  time  pursuing 
their  studies  at  Rome,  and  who  almost  simultaneously  be- 
came animated  with  the  desire  of  reviving  not  so  much  the 
material  form,  as  the  true  Christian  spirit  of  early  religious 
art.  Renouncing  the  vain  worship  of  sensuous  beauty,  and 
rebelling  against  the  cold  formalisms  of  academies,  these 
artists  sought  once  more  to  awaken  that  feeling  for  spiritual 
beauty  which  had  formerly  inspired  Italian  art,  but  which 
had  now  long  lain  dormant.  Passing  by  the  great  masters 
of  the  Renaissance,  they  turned  back,  therefore,  like  the 
English  Pre-Raphaelites,  to  the  early  religious  painters  of 
Italy  for  guidance  in  the  ways  of  truth,  and  endeavoured 
to  found  a  new  Christian  school  of  painting  on  the  old 
basis  of  faith  and  devotion. 

Foremost  in  this  movement  stand  the  names  of  Peter 
VON  Cornelius  (1783-1867),  Friedrich  Overbeck  (1789- 
1869),  Philipp  Veit  (1793-1877),  Wilhelm  Schadow 
(1789-1862),  Julius  Schnorr  (1794-1872),  and  Joseph 
FiJHRicH  (1800-1876). 

A  favourable  opportunity  was  soon  afforded  to  these 
artists  for  expressing  their  principles,  by  the  Prussian 
Consul  Bartholdi,  who  in  1816  had  a  room  in  the  Casa 
Zuccari,  at  Rome,  decorated  with  frescoes  representing  the 
history  of  Joseph. 

[Upon  this  followed  the  Dante  and  Ariosto  series  of 
frescoes  in  the  Villa  Massimi,  and  a  lunette  in  the  Vatican, 
but  the  "  Roman  Brotherhood,"  of  which  Overbeck  was  the 
founder,  and  Cornelius,  by  virtue  of  his  wider  range  of 
thought  and  artistic  power,  the  leader,  was  soon  scattered. 
Many  of  "  the  brothers  "  had  joined  the  Romish  Church. 
Of  these,  Overbeck  and  Veit,  Hke  the  fourteenth  century 


BOOK   VI.]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  265 

masters  whom  they  copied,  limited  their  art  afterwards  to 
the  mere  expression  of  Catholic  asceticism/  Schadow 
followed  his  bent  towards  oil-painting  and  colour,  aban- 
doned fresco,  and  later  on,  as  head  of  the  Diisseldorf 
Academy,  fostered  the  reactionary  tendency  towards  genre 
and  the  lower  style  of  art,  against  which  Cornelius  fought 
strenuously  all  his  life. 

Cornelius,  whose  lofty  ideal  linked  the  pious  classicism 
of  Carstens  to  the  pious  romanticism  of  the  Overbeck 
circle,  accomplished,  with  the  aid  of  Schnorr,^  Yeit,  and 
others,  several  vast  series  of  frescoes  at  Munich,  works  of 
wide  symbolic  significance,^  grand  composition,  and  mag- 
nificent drawing,  but  inharmonious  in  colour,  and  often 
lacking  unity  of  conception.  Cornehus  emphasized  the 
intellectual  in  art,  and  attempted  the  didactic  at  the 
expense  of  the  aesthetic.^] 

G-erman  enthusiasm  saw  in  these  ambitious  compositions 
the  inauguration  of  a  new  and  glorious  epoch  in  G-erman 
art.  These  were  the  flowers  to  which  the  hard  buds  of 
early  G-erman  art  had  expanded;'  [but  in  spite  of  the 
inventive  faculty  and  feeling  for  spiritual  beauty  of  what 
is  now  called  the  elder  Munich  School,  its  work  leaves  us 
cold,  the  execution  falling  far  short  of  the  endeavour.  It 
pleases  most  in  black  and  white,  and  Cornelius'  cartoons 
for  the  projected  Campo  Santo  in  Berlin  are  the  best 
work  he  has  left  us.     It  influenced  German  art  of  the  first 

[^  The  best  works  of  the  so-called  "  Naasarenes "  are  Overbeck's 
Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  Cologne  Cathedral;  Schnorr's  Marriage  at 
Cana,  private  collection,  England;  andNiike's  St. Elizabeth,  Naumberg 
Cathedral.  Vide  "Geschichte  der  Kunst  in  XIX.  Jahrhundert." 
Seemann,  1881.] 

[2  Schnorr,  perhaps  the  finest  draughtsman  of  the  group,  designed 
glass  windows  for  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  London,  of  which  the  original 
cartoons  are  in  Dresden  Museum.] 

^  Especially  in  those  of  the  Ludwigskirche,  where,  as  in  the  Sistine 
Chapel  by  Michael  Angelo,  the  whole  plan  of  the  Christian  Redemption, 
from  the  creation  of  the  world  to  the  Last  Judgment,  is  set  forth  by 
him. 

[*  Vide  Veit,  Valentin,  Dohme's  "  Kunst  u.  Kiinstler  des  XIX.  Jahr- 
hunderts."] 

^  Goethe  is  said  to  have  remarked,  when  asked  his  opinion  of  the 
collection  of  the  brothers  Boisser^e,  not  then  incorporated  with  the 
Munich  Gallery,  *'  I  certainly  see  the  buds,  but  where  are  the  flowers  ?  " 


266  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI. 

half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  developed  various 
talents,  but  was  soon  combated  by  a  reaction  in  favour 
of  colour  and  realistic  detail. 

WiLHELM  VON  Katjlbach  (1805-1874),  Cornelius'  most 
distinguished  pupil,  advanced  a  step  towards  the  realistic 
art  of  to-day  (Battle  of  the  Huns,  1834),  but  in  his  great 
historical  efforts  (the  wall-paintings  on  the  staircase  of 
Berhn  Museum,  1847-1863)  he  shows  poverty  of  form  and 
conventionality  in  composition ;  his  fancy  disports  itself  in 
less  exalted  regions  than  Cornelius',  and  he  has  often  no 
greater  aim  than  mere  pictorial  effect.  Kaulbach  was  in- 
fluenced by  the  melodramatic  style  of  the  Belgians,  Biefve, 
Wappers,  and  Grallait,  whilst  the  careful  and  realistic  his- 
toric detail  and  rich  colour  of  their  countryman  Hendrik 
Leys  helped  to  form  Karl  Friedrich  Lessing  (1808- 
1880).  The  Diisseldorf  School  had  felt  the  influence  of 
David  Wilkie.  KarlHdbner's  (1814-1879)  genre -pictuTes 
treated  political  and  social  questions  (The  G-ame-laws),  but 
Lessing  struck  out  a  new  path  in  historic  art  by  his 
brilliant  and  characteristic  pictures  of  the  pre-Ref  ormation 
period  (Hussite  Conventicle,  1836,  Berlin  Nat.  G-al.,  No. 
208).  Following  him  to  some  extent,  Adolf  Menzel 
(bom  in  1815)  has,  in  his  truthful  dehneations  of 
Frederick  the  G-reat  and  his  times,  touched  a  chord  more 
strictly  national,  with  great  originahty  and  power  of  exe- 
cution. LiTDwio  Knatjs  (1829-1882),  the  painter  of  peasant- 
life  and  portrait,  is  remarkable  for  clever  characteriza- 
tion and  facile  technique  (Kinderfest,  Berhn  Nat.  G-al.,  No. 
169). 

Into  landscape  Josef  Anton  Koch  (1768-1839)  intro- 
duced the  historic  element  (Macbeth  and  the  Witches, 
Insbruck).  His  pupil,  Karl  Eottmann  (1798-1850)  exe- 
cuted in  fresco  a  series  of  twenty-eight  Italian  landscapes 
for  King  Ludwig  of  Bavaria.  His  works  are  distinguished 
for  their  delicate  observation  of  nature  and  breadth  of 
style.  Lessing  also  distinguished  himself  in  romantic  land- 
scape. The  original  and  essentially  national  genius  of 
MoRiTZ  VON  ScHwiNDT  (1804-1871)  found  expression  in  his 
poetic,  fantastic  water-colour  illustrations  of  fairy  and 
folk  lore  (Melusine,  The  Seven  Eavens,  1858).  He  also 
took  part  in  some  of  the  great  decorative  works  in  fresco 


BOOK    VI,]  PAINTING    IN    GERMANY.  267 

(Vienna  Opera-House,  &c.),  and  designed  the  glass  windows 
for  Glasgow  Cathedral  (1860).  Ludwig  Eichter  (bom 
in  1803),  an  original  and  humorous  illustrator  upon  wood 
and  copper  of  great  inventive  powers,  has  found  many 
followers. 

The  modern  Schools  of  Diisseldorf  and  Munich  are 
principally  distinguished  for  careful  and  clever  genre 
painting.  The  realistic  style  and  daring  technique  of  Karl 
PiLOTY  (1826-1886),  "  a  modern  Caravaggio,"  have  helped 
to  form  artists  such  as  Hans  Makart  (1840-1884),  Franz 
Defregger,  Gabriel  Max,  and  Michael  Munkacsy. 
In  landscape  the  names  of  Edtjard  Schleich  (1812-1874) 
and  the  Achenbachs  are  pre-eminent.] 


BOOK  vn. 

PAINTING  IN  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

Chapter    I. 

THE   SCHOOL  OF  BRUGES. 

The  Van  Etcks— Rogier  Vander  Wkyden— Memlino. 

THE  foolish  theory,  wMcli  found  at  one  time  a  wide 
acceptance,  that  the  growth  of  art  in  a  country  was  a 
question  of  climate,  and  that  the  sunny  skies  and  balmy 
air  of  Greece  and  Italy  were  especially  favourable  in- 
fluences for  its  development,  receives  a  decided  contradic- 
tion by  the  fact,  that  art  developed  in  Germany  and  in  the 
foggy  Netherlands  nearly  at  the  same  time  as  in  cloudless 
Italy.  The  truth  is,  that  the  connoisseurs  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, by  whom  this  theory  was  started,  knew  very  little  of 
the  early  art  of  the  Netherlands  and  Germany,  and  what 
little  they  did  know  they  despised.  It  was  the  fashion 
then  to  speak  contemptuously  of  everything  that  was  not 
"  antique,^*  or  "  after  the  antique,"  and  the  pseudo- classic 
pictures  of  the  later  ItaHan  painters  found  more  admirers 
than  the  honest  efforts  of  more  homely  men. 

Of  the  early  Christian  painters  of  the  Netherlands  we 
have  but  few  records,  [and  in  those  a  Roman  origin  is 
traceable.  The  Byzantine  conception  of  art  lost  some  of 
its  immutable  character  in  the  process  of  transmission  to 
the  Netherlands  by  way  of  Italy  and  Germany,  and 
Flemish  miniatures  of  the  tenth,   eleventh,  and  twelfth 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  269 

centuries,  although  composed  in  Byzantine  form,  and 
rudely  executed,  afford  indications  of  an  independent 
spirit.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  returning  Crusaders, 
and  the  Greek  marriage  of  the  German  Emperor  Otho,  tu^ 
helped  to  spread  a  new  influx  of  Greek  teaching  over  the 
west  of  Europe.  This,  however,  came  too  late  to  check 
the  national  reaUstic  tendency  already  beginning  to  deve- 
lope  in  the  Low  Countries.  An  example  of  the  dawning 
spirit  of  the  Eenaissance  is  seen  in  the  paintings  of  the 
Chasse  or  Reliquary  of  S.  Odile,  executed  at  Liege  in 
1292,  now  at  the  convent  of  Huy.']  \/ 

But,  dating  from  the  thirteenth  century,  a  gradual  im-  ^ 
provement  took  place  in  the  art  of  the  Netherlands,  as  well 
as  of  Italy,  and  even  before  the  time  of  the  Van  Eycks 
there  were  several  Flemish  artists,  whose  works  manifest  a 
decided  advance  on  the  old  estabhshed  modes  of  represen- 
tation. Melchior  Broederlain,  a  Flemish  artist  of  the 
period  immediately  preceding  the  Van  Eycks,  seems  to 
have  had  a  dawning  perception  of  natural  grace  and  beauty, 
judging,  that  is,  from  two  altar-wings  painted  by  him,  which 
are  still  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  Dijon  (1398).  The 
paintings  on  this  altax-chest  are  remarkable  for  their  soft 
and  delicate  beauty,  and  several  of  the  figures  have  distinct 
individuahty  of  character.  The  influence  of  the  Cologne 
school  is,  indeed,  clearly  visible  in  this  work.  Broederlain, 
however,  in  spite  of  his  greater  merit,  must  be  classed,  like 
Cimabue,  with  the  last  of  the  old  rather  than  with  the  first 
of  the  new  school  of  painting  in  Flanders. 

The  new  impulse  that  was  given  to  art  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  given  by  the  two  Flemish 
l)rothers,  Hubert  and  Jan  Van  Eyck.  The  great  success 
of  these  masters,  it  has  been  asserted,  was  wholly  owing  to 
their  invention  of  a  better  medium  for  painting — to  their 
discovery,  as  it  has  been  called,  of  the  secret  of  oil-painting ; 
but  no  one  who  has  studied  the  works  of  Jan  Van  Eyck, 
can  doubt  that  the  real  secret  of  his  admirable  painting  lay, 
not  in  the  mechanical  medium  he  used,  but  in  the  genius 
of  the  man  who  used  it. 

It  is  difficult,  in  fact,  to  determine  in  what  this  invention 

['    Vide  ''  Le  Beffroi,"  W.  J.  Weale.] 


270  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

of  oil-painting,  with  which  the  Yan  Eycks  are  credited, 
really  consisted,  for  it  is  certain  that  the  idea  of  mixing 
oil  with  solid  colours  was  no  new  one  in  their  time.  In 
the  treatises  of  Eraclius  and  Theophilus,  written  at  the 
end  of  the  twelfth,  or  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
we  find  a  process  of  oil-painting  distinctly  described ;  wal- 
nut oil,  it  is  proved,  was  used  as  a  varnish  as  early  as  the 
fifth  century,  and  linseed  oil  for  the  same  purpose  in  the 
eighth.^  Statues  and  bas-rehefs,  also,  were  constantly 
painted  with  oil  colours  in  the  Netherlands,  long  previous 
to  the  fifteenth  century,  and  large  quantities  of  oil  were 
supplied  to  the  painters  by  their  patrons,  in  order  that 
they  might  produce  "  de  pointure  de  bonnes  couleurs  a 
ole,"  as  a  document  relating  to  the  erection  of  the  tomb 
of  John  III.,  Duke  of  Brabant,  in  1341,  expressly  stipu- 
lates.'^ 

But  although  undoubtedly  some  process  of  painting  in 
oils  was  in  use  before  the  Van  Eyck  method,  it  is  neverthe- 
less clear  that  the  process  they  invented  must  have  supplied 
a  want  that  had  been  long  felt  by  painters,  for  it  was  at 
once  enthusiastically  welcomed  and  adopted  by  all  to 
whom  it  was  made  known.  The  greatest  anxiety  was 
evinced  by  the  artists  of  Italy,  as  well  as  by  those  of  the 
Netherlands,  to  gain  possession  of  the  secret,  and  many 
stories  are  told  of  the  furtive  maimer  in  which  this  was 
sometimes  accomplished.  The  Flemish  brothers  seem,  in 
fact,  to  have  solved  a  problem  that  had  long  been  vexing 
painters'  brains.  This  is  Yasari's  account  of  the  matter  : 
"  It  happened,"  he  says,  "  when  matters  stood  at  this  pass, 
that  Griovanni  da  Bruggia  [Jan  Yan  Eyck]  working  in 
Flanders,  and  much  esteemed  in  those  parts  for  the  great 
skill  which  he  had  acquired  in  his  calling,  set  himself  to 
try  different  sorts  of  colours,  and  being  a  man  who  de- 
lighted in  alchemy,  he  laboured  much  in  the  preparation 
of  various  oils  for  varnishes  and  other  things,  as  is  the 
manner  of  men  of  inventive  minds  such  as  he  was.  Now 
it  happened  upon  a  time,  that  after  having  given  extreme 
labour  to  the  completion  of  a  certain  picture,  and  with 
great  diligence  brought  it  to  a  successful  issue,  he  gave  it 

^  Sir  Charles  Eastlake,  "  Materials  for  the  History  of  Oil  Painting." 
■^  Preserved  in  the  Archives  Municipales  de  Bruges. 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  271 

the  varnish  and  set  it  to  dry  in  the  sun,  as  is  the  custom. 
But  whether,  because  the  heat  was  too  violent,  or  that  the 
wood  was  badly  joined,  or  insufficiently  seasoned,  the  picture 
jT^ave  way  at  the  joinings,  opening  in  a  very  deplorable 
manner.  Thereupon  Giovanni,  perceiving  the  mischief 
done  to  his  work  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  determined  to 
proceed  in  such  a  manner  that  the  same  thing  should  never 
again  injure  his  work  in  like  manner ;  and  as  he  was  no 
less  embarrassed  by  his  varnishes  than  by  the  process  of 
tempera  painting,  he  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  discovery 
of  some  sort  of  varnish  that  would  dry  in  the  shadow,  to 
the  end  that  he  need  not  expose  his  pictures  to  the  sun. 
Accordingly,  after  having  made  many  experiments  on  sub- 
stances pure  and  mixed,  he  finally  discovered  that  linseed 
oil  and  oil  of  nuts  dried  more  readily  than  any  others  of 
all  that  he  had  tried.  Having  boiled  these  oils,  therefore, 
with  other  mixtures,  he  thus  obtained  the  varnish  which 
he,  or  rather  all  the  painters  of  the  world,  had  so  long  de- 
sired. He  made  experiments  with  many  other  substances, 
but  finally  decided  that  mixing  the  colours  with  these  oils 
gave  a  degree  of  firmness  to  the  work,  which  not  only 
secured  it  against  all  injury  from  water  when  once  dried, 
but  also  imparted  so  much  life  to  the  colours,  that  they 
exhibited  a  sufficient  lustre  in  themselves  without  the 
aid  of  varnish ;  and  what  appeared  to  him  more  extra- 
ordinary than  all  besides  was,  that  the  colours  thus 
treated  were  much  more  easily  blent  and  united  than  when 
in  tempera." 

Here,  then,  was  the  solution  of  the  problem.  First,  a 
varnish  that  was  drying  without  being  dark,  and,  secondly, 
a  liquid  and  colourless  medium  that  could  be  mixed  with 
the  colours,  and  so  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  using  the 
old  coloured  varnish  at  all. 

Vasari's  graphic  description  of  Jan  Van  Eyck's  proceed- 
ings is,  no  doubt,  substantially  correct,  though  he  sums  up 
in  a  few  words  what  was  probably  the  result  of  many 
years'  experiments.  Moreover,  he  attributes  the  whole 
merit  of  the  invention  to  Jan,  the  younger  brother,  Hubert's 
name  being  scarcely  known  in  Italy,  whereas  Jan's  works 
were  enthusiastically  admired. 

It  is  reasonable,  however,  to  suppose  that  Hubert,  who 


272  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

was,  it  would  appear,  twenty  years  older  than  Jan,'  and 
who  "  instructed  his  young  brother  in  drawing,  painting, 
and  chemistry,"^  began  the  researches  which  led  to  such 
happy  results.  At  the  date  which  Yasari  and  Yan  Mander 
give  for  the  discovery  of  oil-painting  by  Hubert  (1410), 
Jan  could  only  have  been  a  pupil  working  in  his  brother's 
school,  and  although  he  might  have  carried  out  the  experi- 
ments, it  seems  more  probable  that  the  master  of  the  school 
began  and  directed  them.  But  the  fame  of  Hubert  has 
been  eclipsed  for  centuries  by  the  greater  glory  that  sur- 
rounds the  name  of  Jan.  In  the  rhyming  chronicle  of 
G-iovanni  Santi,  Jan  is  spoken  of  as  "  II  Gran  Jannes,"  but 
no  allusion  is  made  to  Hubert ;  yet,  judging  from  the  one 
certain  specimen  of  his  work  that  remains  to  us  in  the 
altar-piece  of  S.  Bavon,  at  Ghent,  he  must  have  been  a 
truly  great  painter.^ 

This  altar-piece  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  produc- 
tions of  Flemish  art.  It  represents  the  Adoration  of  the 
Mystic  Lamb  (Eev.  vii.  9),  and  depicts  the  company  of  the 
faithful,  "a  great  multitude  which  no  man  could  number," 
coming  up  from  all  nations,  kindreds,  and  people,  to  wor- 
ship the  Lamb  that  was  slain. 

The  upper  portion  only  of  this  great  altar-piece  was 
painted  by  Hubert,*  the  central  part  and  side  wings  being 
the  work  of  Jan,  who  finished  the  picture  after  his  brother's 
death.  The  three  large  figures  of  the  Father,  Mary,  and 
S.  John,  of  the  upper  central  division  are,  however,  quite 
sufficient  to  testify  to  Hubert's  genius.  They  have  the 
same   solemn   majesty  and  religious  exaltation  that   the 

[^  There  is  really  nothing  to  prove  what  was  the  difference  of  age 
between  the  brothers.] 
2  Van  Mander. 
^  The  inscription  on  this  painting  is  as  follows : — 

"  Pictor  Hubertus  e  eyck,  maior  quo  nemo  repertus 
Incepit  pond  us  qe  Jonannes  arte  secundus 
Frater  perfecit,  Judoci  Vyd  prece  fretft. 
Vers  V  SeXta  Mai  Vos  CoLLo  Cat  aCta  tVerl." 

The  last  line  of  this  inscription  contains  what  is  termed  a  chronogram, 
the  Roman  capitals  added  together  making  the  date  1432,  in  which  year 
the  picture  was  hung  in  S.  Bavon. 

[*  Recent  authorities  differ  widely  in  opinion  as  to  the  share  taken  by 
Hubert  in  this  altar-piece.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  273 

Bjzantine-Roinantic  painters  infused  into  their  representa- 
tions of  sacred  characters ;  indeed,  the  whole  treatment  oi 
these  figures  closely  resembles  that  of  the  Cologne  School, 
but  there  is  an  original  power  and  a  noble  realism  in 
Hubert's  work  that  lifts  him  far  above  these  masters,  and 
places  him  at  the  head  of  the  school  of  Bruges.  He  was 
truly  the  Patriarch  of  Flemish  painting,  and  whether  he 
invented  oil-painting  or  not,  he  was  undoubtedly  a  com- 
plete master  of  the  method;  for  no  work  of  the  school 
surpasses  the  splendid  solemn  colouring  and  detailed 
execution  of  his  three  figures  in  this  altar-piece.^ 

Little  is  known  of  his  life.  It  is  supposed  that  he  was 
born  at  Maaseyck,  in  the  Duchy  of  Limburg,  in  the  year 
1366.  He  entered  the  guild  of  painters  at  Grhent  in  1421, 
and  died  there  on  September  18, 1426.  He  was  buried  in 
S.  Bavon  in  the  vault  of  his  patron,  Jodicus  Vydt,  who 
had  commissioned  him  to  paint  the  great  altar-piece  that 
he  left  unfinished.  Except  his  epitaph,^  which  gives  us  a 
curious  insight  into  the  character  of  the  man  and  of  the 
age  in  which  he  lived,  we  have  no  further  record  of  Hubert 
Van  Eyck.  Even  his  arm,  which  was  severed  from  his  body, 
and  preserved  as  a  relic  in  the  Cathedral  of  S.  Bavon  until 
the  sixteenth  century,  has  disappeared.* 

Of  the  life  of  Jan  Van  Eyck  there  exists  much  more 

^  Besides  the  three  central  figures,  the  panels  of  Adam  and  Eve,  now 
in  the  Brussels  Gallery,  have  been  attributed  to  him.  These  figures 
exhibit  a  wonderful  knowledge  of  anatomy  for  the  time  at  which  they 
were  painted. 

2  The  following  is  a  translation  of  it  from  Van  Mander : — 

*'  Take  warning  from  me,  ye  who  walk  over  me  :  I  was  as  you  are, 
but  am  now  buried  beneath  you.  Thus  it  appears  that  neitlier  art  nor 
medicine  availed  me.  Ai*t,  honour,  wisdom,  power,  I'iches,  are  not  spared 
when  death  arrives. 

"  Hubert  Van  Eyck  I  was  once  named,  now  I  am  food  for  worms. 
Formerly  highly  honoured  in  painting,  this  was  shortly  turned  t(» 
nought. 

"  In  was  in  the  year  of  the  Ix)rd  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
twenty-six,  on  tlie  18th  of  September,  that  death  put  an  end  to  my  pain. 
IVay  to  G(k1  fur  me,  ye  who  love  Art,  that  I  may  attain  to  His  sight. 
Flee  sin,  turn  to  the  best,  for  you  must  follow  me  at  last." 

-'  Two  figures  in  one  of  tlie  wings  of  the  Mystic  Lamb  of  S.  Bavon 
have  been  ])ointed  out  by  Van  Vaernewyck  and  Van  Mander  as  por- 
traits of  Hul)ert  and  Jan  Van  Eyck.  There  looks  ijuite  twenty  yeai's' 
difference  of  age  in  these  poitraits. 

T 


274  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 


personal  detail.  He  was  born  at  Maaseyck  between  tlif 
years  1381  and  1390.  His  first  patron  was  the  infamous 
John  of  Bavaria,  the  warlike  Bishop  of  Liege,  surname^ , 
from  his  cruelty  to  his  own  subjects,  Jean  Sans  Pitie.  On 
his  death-bed,  this  stormy  prelate  recommended  Jan  Van 
Eyck,  "his  painter  and  varlet  de  chambre,"  to  the  magnifi- 
cent PhiHppe  le  Bon,  Duke  of  Burgundy. 

"Des  ce  moment,"  says  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,  in  his 
"Histoire  de  Flandre,"  "I'art  place  sur  un  theatre  plus 
eleve  partageavis  avis  de  toutes  les  nations  de  I'Europe  la 
domination  et  I'influence  que  la  maison  de  Bourgognc 
exercait  sans  contestation  dans  I'ordre  politique." 

Philippe  le  Bon  was  in  truth  the  most  powerful,  though 
not  the  most  warlike,  prince  of  this  powerful  house,  as  is 
shown,  perhaps,  more  by  the  fact  that  he  was  able  to  rule 
his  own  turbulent  subjects,  than  by  his  being  able  to  set  up 
an  English  or  a  French  king  in  France  at  will. 

The  Flemish  towns  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies were  in  almost  constant  rebellion  against  their 
lords ;  but  in  them,  in  the  history  of  the  middle  ages,  we 
meet  for  the  first  time  with  a  middle  class  grown  rich  by 
trade. 

The  same  problem,  in  fact,  meets  us  as  in  Florence,  where 
likewise  we  find  commerce  flourishing,  and  the  arts  culti- 
vated amid  the  fiercest  internal  dissensions. 

Of  all  the  rich  and  rebellious  towns  of  Flanders,  Bruges, 
in  the  time  of  the  Van  Eycks,  was  the  richest  and  the 
most  flourishing.  Bold  Grhent,  alas !  had  suffered  bitterly 
for  its  presumption :  its  walls  were  destroyed,  and  many  of 
its  municipal  privileges  taken  away.  Lille  and  Ypres  had 
no  ports  such  as  Bruges  possessed  in  Sluys,  and  never  rose 
to  the  same  political  and  commercial  importance.  Bruges, 
in  fact,  was  at  this  time  a  depot  for  all  the  world.  Sjmin, 
Italy,  England,  the  countries  of  Africa,  Asia,  and,  when 
discovered,  America,  sent  their  produce  to  her  markets  to 
be  exchanged  for  grain,  cattle,  and  the  rich  woollen  stuffs 
that  were  the  chief  source  of  her  industry  and  wealth. 
This  prosperous  commercial  city  was,  moreover,  the 
favourite  residence  of  the  good  Duke  Philippe,  who  more 
frequently  held  his  court  there  than  in  any  other  of  his 
domains.     Could  there  be  more  favourable  conditions  for 


BOOK    VII,]       PAINTINO   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  275 

the  development  of  the  fine  arts  ?  A  prosperous  city,  with 
a  wealthy  bourgeois  class,  and  a  magnificent  court,  ruled 
over  by  a  despotic  monarch,^  who  loved  art  for  its  own  sake 
as  well  as  from  motives  of  ostentation. 

It  was  to  this  city  and  this  court  that  Jan  Van  Eyck 
came,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  accredited 
by  the  recommendation  of  Jean  Sans  Pitie,  who  not  only 
left  his  painter,  but  likewise  his  dominions,  to  Philippe  le 
Bon.  Philippe,  who  possibly  might  have  known  Jan  at 
Liege,  and  who,  at  all  events,  was  well  acquainted  with  his 
merits,  received  him  with  much  kindness,  and  in  1425  ap- 
pointed him  to  be  his  "  varlet  de  chambre."  This  was  no 
menial  office,  as  the  term  would  seem  to  us  to  imply,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  one  of  great  trust  and  importance,  and 
implied  personal  service  to  the  duke.  The  courtiers,  indeed, 
complain  that  the  duke  often  took  council  of  his  varlets, 
"  et  s'en  indignaient  nobles  hommes,"  *  but  the  varlets,  if 
not  noble,  were  at  least  of  honourable  birth,  and  their 
counsels  were  probably  of  as  much  worth  as  those  of 
courtiers  who  shaved  their  heads  for  love  of  their  sovereign, 
"  pour  I'amour  de  lui,"  as  De  la  Marche  says. 

Each  varlet,  we  find,^  had  two  horses  and  a  varlet  in 
livery  at  his  service,  the  difference  between  a  varlet  de 
chambre  to  the  duke,  and  a  varlet  a  livree,  a  domestic 
servant,  being  here  clearly  distinguished. 

The  salary  of  Jan  Van  Eyck  as  painter  and  varlet  was 
fixed  at  100  livres  parisis,*  and  the  duke's  treasurers  were 
exhorted  to  be  regular  in  their  payment  of  that  sum  half 

'  The  despotism  of  this  Court  is  amusingly  illustrated  by  a  little  in- 
ciflent  related  by  the  chronicler  Olivier  de  la  Marche.  Once  le  bon  Due 
Philippe  had  an  illness,  and  the  doctors  deemed  it  advisable  to  shave  his 
head.  In  order  not  to  appear  singular,  he  ordered  all  his  courtiers  to 
shave  their  heads  also,  and  more  than  five  hundred  did  so. 

'  Chronicles  de  Chastelain.     Buchon. 

'  De  Laborde  "  Les  Dues  de  Bourgogne." 

'  "  A  Johan  de  Heik  jadis  pointre  et  varlet  de  chambre  de  feu  M.  S. 
le  due  Jehan  de  Bayviere,  lequel  M.  D.  S.  pour  I'abilit^  et  souffisance 
que  par  la  relacion  de  plusieurs  de  ses  gens  il  avait  oy  et  meismes  savait 
et  cognoissoit  estre  de  fait  de  pointure  en  la  personne  dudit  Jehan  de 
'It'ik  .  .  .  et  afin  qu'il  soit  tenu  d'ouvrer  pour  lui  de  painture,  toutes  les 
tc)is  qu'il  lui  plaira,  lui  a  ordonn6  prendre  et  avoir  de  lui  sur  sa  recette 
gi'Derale  de  Flandres  la  somme  de  C.  livres  p.  monnoie  de  Flandres." — 
Dk  Laborde. 


276  HISTOET    OF    PAINTINQ.  [bOOK    VII. 

yearly.  This  exhortation  was  evidently  necessary,  for 
twice  Philippe  had  to  write  to  his  "  trusty  and  well-beloved 
people  of  accounts,"  reprimanding  them  for  having  been 
negligent  in  this  particular,  and  ordering  that  the  pension 
"  of  our  well-beloved  Jan  Van  Eyck "  should  be  paid 
"  without  delay,  cunctation,  variation,  or  difficulty," 

Over  and  above  this  fixed  pension,  Jan  was  paid  by  the 
Duke  for  various  missions  and  "  secret  journeys  "  that  he 
undertook  for  him.  What  these  secret  journeys  were 
about,  we  are  not  told :  "  no  more  need  be  declared  about 
it,"  says  the  record  of  one  of  them. 

In  1428  he  was  employed  on  more  open  and  important 
service.  Philippe,  who  had  already  lost  two  wives,  desired 
again  to  enter  into  matrimony,  and  being  pleased  with  the 
description  he  had  received  of  Isabel  of  Portugal,  he  sent 
an  embassy  to  that  country  to  negotiate  a  marriage.  With 
his  ambassadors,  Hue  de  Lannoy,  and  the  Sire  de  Eoubaix, 
he  associated  his  painter,  who  was  to  paint  the  portrait  of 
the  young  princess,  and  to  send  it  home  at  once  to  Flanders, 
for  Philippe  to  judge  of,  we  may  presume,  before  finally 
committing  himself  to  the  alliance.  The  ship  in  which 
the  embassy  from  Bruges  sailed,  was  driven  by  reason  of 
bad  weather  to  put  into  three  English  ports,  Sandwich, 
Plymouth,  and  Falmouth,  on  her  outward  voyage,  so  that 
it  is  probable  England  had  the  honour  of  a  visit  from  the 
great  Flemish  painter.  Finally,  however,  Portugal  was 
reached  in  safety,  December  18,  1428,  and  Jan  Van  Eyck 
obtained  sittings  from  the  lovely  Isabel,  and  sent  her 
portrait  painted  "  bien  au  vif  "  to  her  suitor.  After  having 
thus  accomplished  his  commission,  he  went  on  a  pleasure 
tour  through  Portugal,  and  some  parts  of  Spain,  returning 
to  Lisbon  the  following  July,  when  the  portrait  and  the 
negotiations  having  proved  successful,  the  marriage  of 
Philippe  of  Burgundy  and  Isabel  of  Portugal,  was  celebrated 
by  proxy  with  great  splendour,  the  feasts  and  rejoicings  on 
the  occasion  lasting  until  September,  when  the  youthful 
bride  at  last  set  sail  for  her  husband's  dominions. 

The  expedition  on  its  return  was  even  less  fortunate 
than  on  its  outward  voyage.  The  ships  were  scattered  hy 
the  winds,  and  the  one  bearing  the  bride  was  obliged  to 
2jut  into  Plymouth  for  shelter,  so  that  she  did  not  reach 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS,  277 

Bruges  until  Christmas  day,  1429.  The  splendour  of  her 
entry  into  Bruges,  is  described  by  several  chroniclers  ;  the 
celebrated  order  of  the  Golden  Fleece  was  founded  by 
Philippe  on  this  occasion,  and  nothing  was  wanting  to  con- 
vince the  Portuguese  and  their  Infanta  of  the  wealth  and 
magnificence  of  the  Burgundian  Duke  and  his  Flemish 
town. 

But  it  is  with  the  Duke's  painter,  and  not  with  his  bride, 
that  we  have  here  to  do,  and  the  only  record  that  we  find 
of  him  amid  these  gay  proceedings  is,  that  he  received  one 
hundred  and  fifty  livres  in  payment  for  the  portrait  of 
Isabel  and  *'his  confidential  service."  The  journey  to 
Portugal,  however,  could  not  have  failed  to  have  exercised 
a  considerable  influence  over  his  art.  How  invaluable 
would  now  be  the  sketches  he  doubtless  made  in  that 
pleasant  trip  through  Spain,  but  unhappily  not  one  is 
known  to  exist,  and  the  only  paintings  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge,  as  executed  at  this  time  are,  the  portrait 
already  mentioned  of  Isabel  of  Portugal,  and  another 
mentioned  in  an  old  inventory,  by  the  title  of  "  La  Belle 
Portugalaise." 

We  have,  however,  in  many  of  his  paintings  ghmpses  of 
palm  and  orange  trees,  evidently  reminiscences  of  a  sunnier 
land  than  Flanders. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  Portugal  Jan  purchased  a 
house  in  Bruges,  where  he  continued  to  reside  until  his 
death.  He  probably  married  about  the  same  time,  but 
the  first  notice  we  have  of  this  event  having  taken  place  is 
in  June,  1434,  when  we  find  that  the  Duke  stood  godfather 
to  the  painter's  infant  daughter,  presenting  on  the  occasion 
with  his  usual  profuse  magnificence,  no  less  than  six  silver 
cups.^ 

The  Duke  also  used  frequently  to  visit  Jan  in  his  work- 
shop, and  on  such  occasions  was  wont  to  distribute  all  the 
silver  he  had  in  his  pocket  amongst  the  apprentices. 
Indeed,  all  the  records  we  have  of  the  relations  of  Philippe 

'  It  is  to  the  preservation  of  the  receipt  for  the  payment  of  these  six 
cups  to  Jehan  rantin,  a  goldsmith  of  Bruges,  that  we  are  indebted  for 
the  above  information.  It  is  strange  that  almost  all  the  knowledge  we 
have  of  Jan  Van  Eyck's  life  should  be  from  records  of  money  paid  to 
him  or  for  him. 


278  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

le  Bon  and  his  varlet  painter  tend  to  prove  that  there  was 
a  cordial  intimacy  between  them. 

The  altar-piece  of  the  Mystic  Lamb,  began,  as  before 
stated,  by  Hubert,  was  not  finished  by  Jan  until  1432,  six 
years  after  the  death  of  his  brother,  when  it  was  at  last 
placed,  in  the  presence  of  an  admiring  multitude,  in  its 
position  in  the  chapel  of  the  Yydt  family  in  S.  Bavon, 
where  the  two  central  divisions  still  remain/ 

Hubert's  work  on  this  painting  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, but  Jan's  work  still  remains  to  be  spoken  of,  de- 
scribed it  can  scarcely  be,  for  its  marvellous  fulness  of  de- 
tail baffles  description.  In  the  centre  compartment,  the 
Lamb  of  Grod,  the  Mystic  Lamb  of  Eevelation,  stands  on 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  the  blood  pouring  from  his 
wounded  side.  Above  hovers  the  Dove  of  the  Spirit,  and 
angels  •  bearing  the  instruments  of  the  passion,  kneel 
around.  The  Fountain  of  living  water  springs  up  in  front, 
with  a  significant  little  stream  running  from  it  to  purify 
the  world.  The  hosts  of  the  redeemed  occupy  the  fore- 
ground, whilst  farther  back  are  choirs  of  holy  maidens, 

*  The  fate  of  this  celebrated  picture  has  been  curiously  varied.  A 
predella,  representing  the  tortures  of  the  damned,  disappeared  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Van  Mander.  It  was  said  to  have  been  painted  in  tem- 
pera, and  to  have  been  washed  out.  The  picture  itself  narrowly  escaped 
the  fanaticism  of  the  Protestant  Iconoclasts  in  1566,  and  it  was  also 
nearly  destroyed  by  fire  in  1641.  After  this,  Joseph  of  Austria,  ex- 
pressing his  sense  of  the  impropriety  of  the  naked  figui'es  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  the  altarpiece  was  closed  for  a  period  from  the  public  gaze.  Next 
it  was  carried  off  as  a  prize  to  France  in  the  Napoleon  wars,  and  placed 
in  the  Louvre,  where  F.  von  Schlegel  saw  it  in  1802-1804.  At  the 
peace  it  was  restored  to  Ghent  and  again  placed  in  S.  Bavon ;  but  from 
some  unaccountable  reason  the  wings  were  not  joined  to  the  central 
parts,  but  remained  in  a  cellar,  where  they  were  found  by  an  undiscri- 
minating  priest,  who  sold  them  to  M.  Nieuwenhuys,  the  art-connoisseur, 
for  next  to  nothing.  An  action  was  brought  for  their  recovery,  but  it 
failed,  and  M.  Nieuwenhuys  disposed  of  them  to  Mr.  Solly,  an  English 
connoisseur,  for  X*4,000.  He,  in  his  turn,  sold  them  to  the  late  King  of 
Prussia,  and  they  are  now  in  the  Gallery  of  Bei'lin. 

The  offending  panels  of  Adam  and  Eve,  the  work  of  Hubert,  mean- 
while still  remained  in  the  cellar,  but  at  last  a  truer  appreciation  of 
works  of  art  having  arisen,  they  were  in  1860  placed  in  the  Gallery  at 
Brussels. 

The  central  portion  and  two  side  wings  of  the  Mystic  Lamb  have 
been  recently  published  by  the  Arundel  Society  as  chrome-lithographs. 
It  is  also  engraved  in  several  works  on  art. 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  279 

saints,  and  martyrs.  In  the  distance  are  tlie  towers  of  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  the  colours  of  the  landscape  graduat- 
ing from  green  into  deep  blue. 

On  the  wings  on  either  side,  bands  of  men  and  women 
press  forward  to  the  one  central  point.  Soldiers  of  Christ, 
holy  hermits,  bold  crusaders,  martyred  maidens,  all  coming 
up  to  worship  the  Lamb  that  was  slain,  one  common  feel- 
ing of  love  and  adoration  filling  their  hearts.  The  Mystic 
Lamb  may,  indeed,  truly  be  compared  to  some  grand  old 
hymn  of  praise  divided  into  separate  verses,  each  verse 
being  complete  in  itself,  yet  forming,  when  regarded  as  a 
whole,  one  harmonious  strain  of  melody. 

Of  the  technical  qualities  of  this  work,  no  praise  can  be 
too  great.  The  inventors  of  the  new  method  of  oil-paint- 
ing seem  at  once  to  have  carried  it  to  perfection,  and  no 
after- work  of  their  school  exhibits  a  more  thorough  mas- 
tery over  the  mechanical  medium,  or  a  more  complete 
understanding  of  the  harmony  of  colour  than  this.  The 
landscape,  both  in  the  centre  and  the  wings  is  delicately 
and  faithfully  painted,  every  soft  blade  of  glass,  every 
flower  is  depicted  with  loving  care,  but  we  have  not  the 
exaggeration  of  minute  accuracy,  such  as  we  find  in  some 
of  the  Van  Eyck  landscapes,  those  for  instance  seen  through 
a  window  or  a  door,  when  a  microscope  is  often  needed  to 
appreciate  the  details. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  at  length  on  this  picture,  partly  be- 
cause it  is  a  representative  work  of  the  Van  Eycks  and 
their  school,  and  likewise  because  the  copies  and  reproduc- 
tions of  it  are  accessible  to  every  Enghsh  student.  These 
will  aid  him  in  forming  some  idea  of  the  marvellous  rich- 
ness of  its  composition,  even  though  he  should  not  be  able 
to  visit  G-hent  and  Berlin,  where  only  its  glorious  harmony 
of  colour,  and  its  perfect  execution  can  be  appreciated. 

Religious  symbohsm,  deeply  devout  feeling  expressed  in 
a  decidedly  realistic  manner,  solemn  beauty  and  power  of 
colour,  and  perfect  mastery  of  execution,  these  are  the  chief 
distinguishing  features  of  early  Flemish  art,  and  these  are 
seen  in  their  full  development  in  the  Mystic  Lamb. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  altar-piece  of  St.  Bavon  stands 
that  of  the  Santa  Trinita  Museum  at  Madrid,  representing 
the  Triumph  of  the  Catholic  Church.     This  powerful  work 


280  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

has  only  recently  been  attributed  to  Yan  Eyck,  and  there 
IS  only  internal  evidence  to  show  that  it  is  by  his  hand ; 
but  it  bears,  according  to  the  critics  who  have  examined  it, 
50  strong  a  resemblance  in  its  composition  and  painting  to 
the  Mystic  Lamb,  that  there  seems  very  little  reason  to 
doubt  that  it  was  really  painted  by  Jan  or  by  Hubert  Van 
Eyck.  Passavant,  who  was  the  first  to  make  known  its 
merits,^  ascribes  it  to  Hubert,  but  later  critics  are  more  in 
favour  of  Jan. 

There  is  but  one  specimen  of  Jan  Van  Eyck's  work  in 
the  Louvre,  but  that  is  a  most  charming  one.  The  picture 
is  usually  styled  the  Virgin  and  the  Donor,^  and  represents 
the  Chancellor  EoUin  kneeling  before  the  Virgin  and  Child 
with  a  missal  in  his  hand.  An  angel  with  gorgeous  wings 
places  a  crown  on  the  Virgin's  head.  The  landscape  back- 
ground, seen  through  three  arcades,  has  been  supposed  to 
represent  Jerusalem ;  but  if  so,  the  holy  city,  in  its  towers, 
spires,  and  bridges,  has  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  an  old 
Flemish  town.  A  chain  of  snow-clad  mountains  in  the 
ethereal  distance  alone  gives  it  an  ideal  character.^  The 
delicacy  of  finish  and  minuteness  of  detail  of  the  work  are 
wonderful.  There  are  said  to  be  two  thousand  figures 
in  it. 

The  Virgin  and  S.  Donat  (also  called  the  Pala  Madonna, 
from  its  having  been  painted  for  C-eorge  Van  der  Paele, 
Canon  of  S.  Donat),  in  the  Bruges  Academy,^  is  chiefly 
distinguished  by  the  noble  figure  of  S.  Donat.  In  the 
same  gallery  there  is  an  excellent  portrait,  by  Jan  Van 
Eyck,  of  his  wife,  painted  in  1439,  when  she  was  thirty- 
three  years  of  age. 

S.  Barbara,  in  a  landscape  with  a  large  tower  (her 
emblem)  rising  up  behind  her,  is  a  most  interesting 
though  unfinished  work.     Only  the  sky  is  coloured,  but 

^  Passavant  "  Die  Christliche  Kunst  in  Spanien,"  1853.  There  is  a 
detailed  description  of  this  work  in  "  Early  Flemish  Painters,"  page  92, 
et  seq.  Passavant  and  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  imagine  that  two  of"  the 
figures  who  look  on  at  the  overthrow  of  the  Jewish  and  the  triumph  of 
the  Christian  Church,  are  portraits  of  Hubert  and  Jan  [not  by  either  of 
the  Van  Eycks  according  to  Woermann  and  others]. 

2  Louvre  Catalogue,  No.  162. 

^  Some  say  the  town  represented  is  Lyons. 

*  There  is  a  copy  of  this  painting  in  the  Antwerp  Gallery. 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE   NETHERLANDS.  281 

the  drawing  in  every  part  is  complete,  and  the  admirable 
care  with  which  this  drawing  is  done,  shows  how  patiently 
the  master  worked.     It  is  in  the  Antwerp  Academy. 

The  Van  Eycks  in  the  National  Gallery  are  of  un- 
doubted authenticity,  and  the  nation  is  truly  fortunate  in 
possessing  such  excellent  specimens  of  a  master  whose 
genuine  works  are  exceedingly  rare,  although  his  name  is 
often  found  in  catalogues.  The  solemn  Lady  and  Gentle- 
man with  joined  Hands  (Ko.  186)  is  a  marvellous  piece  of 
painting.  Every  object  in  the  room  is  faithfully  depicted, 
even  to  the  ten  compartments  in  the  frame  of  the  mirror, 
representing  the  Passion  of  Christ,  and  the  brass  chande- 
Her,  with  the  candle  still  burning,  is  a  miracle  of  execution. 
And  not  only  are  the  things  in  the  room  thus  minutely 
painted,  but  we  even  get  a  glimpse  of  things  outside,  by 
reason  of  the  reflections  in  the  mirror,  which  have  been 
studied  with  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  incidence 
and  reflection. 

The  merits  of  this  surprising  work  do  not,  however,  lie 
merely  in  this  minute  rendering  of  detail  which  Gerard 
Dow  and  many  of  the  Dutch  genre  painters  likewise  accom- 
plished. Its  colouring  is  well  nigh  perfect,  and  the  quaint 
figures  of  the  man  and  woman  (considered  to  be  portraits 
of  Jean  Arnolfini  and  his  wife)  have  a  real  personal  interest 
such  as  the  Dutch  painters  never  infused  into  their  works. 
The  puritanical  couple,  supposed  to  be  newly  married,  are 
in  state  costume,  and  the  lady  wears  her  wedding-ring  half 
way  up  the  finger.  The  perfect  state  of  preservation  of 
this  remarkable  painting  is  not  the  least  wonderful  thing 
about  it,  considering  that  it  was  painted  more  than  four 
hundred  years  ago.^ 

The  Turbaned  Portrait  (No.  222)  is  another  excellent 
example  of  the  master's  firm  execution  and  powerful  colour. 
It  is  signed  on  the  frame,  and  bears  the  date  1433,  and 
above  is  Jan  Van  Eyck's  motto,  "  Als  ixh  Xan  "  (als  ich 
kan),  which  seems  to  be  a  portion  of  an  old  Flemish  pro- 
verb, "  As  I  can,  not  as  I  will."  This  motto  is  found  on 
many  of  his  works. 

The  other  National  Gallery  portrait  (No.  290)  is  inscribed 

^  For  the  interesting  histoi'y  attached  to  it,  see  Wornum's  "  Cutu- 
loirue." 


282  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

Timotheos  in  G-reek  characters,  and  underneath  it  the  words 
"  Leal  Souvenir,"  and  the  painter's  signature,  and  the 
date  1432. 

There  are  also  several  good  Van  Ejcks  in  England  in 
private  hands.  Especially  may  be  mentioned  a  small 
Madonna  and  Child,  belonging  to  Weld  Blundell,  Esq.,  at 
Ince  Hall  (called  the  Ince  Madonna),  and  another  in  the 
possession  of  the  Marquis  of  Exeter  at  Burleigh,  which  is 
said  to  be  even  more  minute  in  detail  and  finish  than  the 
Eollin  Madonna  in  the  Louvre.^ 

The  date  of  Jan  Van  Ejck's  death  was  for  a  long  time 
as  uncertain  as  that  of  his  birth,  but  it  is  now  proved  that 
he  died  at  Bruges  on  the  9th  of  July,  1440.'"^  The  last 
record  of  him  in  the  ducal  accounts  is  a  payment  to  the 
church  and  convent  of  Maaseyck  in  1448-1449,  in  order 
that  "  Lyennie,  danghter  of  Jan  Van  Eyck,"  might  enter 
the  convent. 

Margaret  Van  Eyck,  the  sister  of  Hubert  and  Jan,  was 
likewise  a  painter.  "  She  devoted  herself  to  art,"  says  Van 
Mander,  "  preserving  her  maidenhood  through  life."  She 
died  shortly  after  Hubert.  We  often  meet  with  pictures 
with  her  name  in  galleries,  but  none  of  them  are  proved  to 
be  by  her.  The  name  of  Lambert  Van  Eyck  also,  a  third 
brother,  occurs  in  the  ducal  records. 

The  founders  of  the  School  of  Bruges  were  undoubtedly 
its  greatest  masters.  Flemish  art  did  not  rise  with  the 
Van  Eycks,  and  then  proceed  to  a  culminating  point  of 
greatness,  as  we  have  traced  it  in  Italy  from  G-iotto  to 
Michael  Angelo  and  Eaphael ;  but  rising  nearly  a  century 
later  than  Italian  art,  early  Flemish  art  may  be  said  to  have 
had  its  rise,  development,  blooming  time,  and  in  some 
degree  its  fall,  all  within  the  lifetime  of  one  master. 

But  although  no  after  painters  of  the  school  ever  excelled 
the  Van  Eycks  in  noble  conception,  colour,  or  execution, 
there  were,  nevertheless,  many  excellent  masters  among 
their  scholars  and  followers. 

^  [Other  works  of  Van  Eyck  in  England  are,  "  The  Consecration  of 
Thomas  a  Becket  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,"  painted  1431,  at 
Chatsworth,  Mr.  Beresford  Hope's  Madonna,  and  Lord  Heytesbury's 
*'  S.  Francis,"  a  replica  of  a  picture  at  Turin.] 

^  Weale,  "  Notes  sur  Jan  Van  Eyck." 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  283 

A  knowledge  of  the  new  method  of  oil-painting  had  now 
spread,  in  spite  of  the  endeavour  of  the  Flemish  guilds  to 
keep  the  process  a  secret,  not  only  through  Flanders,  but 
also  in  Italy,  where  it  was  at  once  warmly  adopted, 
especially,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  early  Venetians. 

It  soon,  indeed,  produced  a  complete  revolution  in  the 
mode  of  painting,  and  whereas,  before  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  we  have  only  a  few  pictures  painted  in 
oils  by  the  Van  Eycks  and  their  pupils,  after  that  century 
we  barely  meet  with  one  painted  in  any  other  way.^  "Ce 
n'est  pas,"  says  Paul  Mantz,  "  dans  I'histoire  un  mediocre 
evenement  que  cette  mobilisation  de  la  peinture,  qui  va 
dcsormais,  comme  bientot  le  livre  imprime  courir  de  main 
en  main,  traverser  les  mers,  penetrer  dans  les  maisons  qui 
jusqu  alors  lui  etaient  fermees,  et  apporter  a  tous  un 
enseignement,  une  consolation,  une  lumiere." 

This  "mobilization"  of  painting  had  another  good 
effect :  it  aided  in  the  liberation  of  art  from  the  exclusive 
service  of  the  Church.  If  these  pious  old  Flemish  painters 
could  have  foreseen  such  a  result  as  this  they  would,  per- 
haps, have  kept  to  the  previous  methods  of  fresco  and  tem- 
pera, and  have  exercised  their  skill  on  the  walls  of  churches 
and  convents,  like  their  Italian  predecessors,  rather  than 
on  those  small  panels  and  canvases  which  have  come  even- 
tually to  adorn  rich  men's  houses  and  public  galleries.  • 

But  although  the  powers  of  the  first  oil-painters  were 
solely  employed  on  reHgious  subjects  or  portraits,  their 
successors  selected  more  worldly  themes,  and  painted  for 
other  purposes  than  rehgious  instruction  and  church  deco- 
ration, until  at  length,  in  the  Dutch  genre  painters,  their 
true  successors  in  point  of  execution  and  finish,  we  have  an 
entirely  worldly  school,  painting  low  life,  genre  subjects, 
and  foolish  conversation  pieces,  as  they  are  called,  for  rich 
patrons. 

^  The  earliest  oil-painting  on  record  is  probably  a  Head  of  Christ, 
exhibited  to  the  painters  of  Antwerp  in  1420  by  Jan  Van  Eyck.  This 
picture  spread  the  fame  of  the  new  method.  A  Madonna,  by  Petrus 
Cristus,  in  the  Stiidel  Museum  at  Frankfort,  dated  1417,  was  for  a  long 
time  pointed  out  as  the  earliest  picture  painted  by  this  method,  but  it 
seems  now  tolerably  certain  that  the  date  on  this  work  has  been  falsified 
by  the  restorer,  and  that  it  really  was  1447.  Vide  an  article  in  "  Le 
Beffroi,"  vol.  i.,  page  235,  and  "  Catalogue  of  the  Stadel  Museum." 


284  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI I. 

The  followers  of  the  Van  Eycks  of  the  School  of  Bruges 
had  still,  however,  the  same  rehgious  sentiment  as  their 
masters,  and  expressed  it  in  similar  realistic  language.  The 
spirit  of  doubt  had  not  yet  stirred  their  reverent  minds, 
and  they  went  on  painting  Virgins,  Infants,  Saints, 
Martyrs,  representations  of  heaven  and  hell.  Annuncia- 
tions, and  Crucifixions,  with  fervid  belief  in  the  teaching  of 
the  Church. 

Among  the  earliest  of  these  scholars  may  be  men- 
tioned,— 

Petrus  Cristus  [born  at  Baerle,  near  Grhent,  bought 
ftie  freedom  of  the  city  of  Bruges  in  1444,  and  was  still 
fiving  in  1472.  His  religious  pictures  resembled  those  of 
Van  Eyck.  His  earliest  dated  work  (1446)  is  a  portrait  of 
Edward  Grimstone,  ambassador  to  the  Court  of  Burgundy, 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Verulam.  The  cele- 
brated S.  Eloysius  selling  a  Eiug  to  a  Young  Couple,  in 
the  Oppenheim  Collection  at  Cologne,  has  been  quoted  as 
the  earliest  example  of  genre,  but  it  is  probably  a  votive 
picture,  although  it  shows  the  ever  increasing  realistic 
tendency  of  the  School  of  Bruges.  There  are  genuine 
works  by  Cristus  at  St.  Petersburg,  Berlin,  and  Turin]. 

G-ERARD  Vander  Meire  is  ouly  a  name  in  Elemish  art, 
for  none  of  the  pictures  attributed  to  him  can  be  satisfac- 
torily authenticated,  and  nothing  is  known  of  his  life  but 
a  slight  mention  of  him  by  Van  Mander,  who  says  he 
lived  at  Ghent,  and  the  praise  of  one  of  his  paintings  by 
Sanderus. 

Htjgo  Vander  Goes  [said  to  be  a  native  of  Zealand, 
was  settled  in  Ghent],  and  already  a  distinguished  painter 
in  [1465-1466],  when  he  was  employed  at  the  marriage  of 
Charles  the  Bold  to  Margaret  of  York  to  produce  the 
"pleasant  devices"  and  "histories"  that  were  set  forth  in 
the  streets  on  that  occasion.  He  likewise  had  the  super- 
intendence of  the  "  entremetz  "  ^  at  the  ducal  banquet. 

'  By  this  word  Olivier  de  la  Marche,  who  has  given  a  detailed  account 
of  these  wonders,  signifies  huge  whales  that  cast  up  dancing  mermaids 
and  mermen  out  of  their  mouths,  lions  and  dromedaries  who  made 
pretty  speeches  to  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  and  a  wonderful  pasty 
containing  twenty-eight  men  inside  it,  who  all  played  on  different 
instruments. 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  285 

But  although  Hugo  did  not  disdain  to  receive  fourteen 
sous  a  day  for  work  of  this  kind,  he  was  nevertheless  a 
master  of  great  ability,  and  several  beautiful  paintings  still 
remain  by  his  hand.  [He  was  dean  of  the  guild  of 
S.  Luke  in  Ghent  in  1473-4-5.] 

Of  these  the  most  important  is,  perhaps,  the  altar-piece 
of  Santa  Maria  Nuova  in  Florence,^  painted  for  the  rich 
family  of  the  Portinari,  a  member  of  which,  Tommaso 
Portinari,  was  agent  for  the  Medici  at  this  time  in  Bruges, 
and  by  this  means  doubtless  became  acquainted  with 
Hugo.  In  this  altar-piece,  a  Nativity,  he  has  represented 
rays  of  light  emanating  from  the  Child,  and  hghting  the 
scene,  as  in  the  well-known  "Notte"  of  Correggio. 

Another  painting  by  him,  much  praised  by  old  writers, 
was  the  meeting  of  David  and  Abigail,  an  unusual  subject, 
Flemish  painters  seldom  choosing  their  themes  from  the 
Old  Testament.  Under  the  guise  of  Abigail,  it  is  said,  the 
artist  depicted  a  young  lady  with  whom  he  was  desperately 
in  love,  the  David  being  his  own  portrait. 

Lucas  Van  Here,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  wrote  a  sonnet 
on  this  picture,  in  which  Abigail  and  her  fair  attendants 
approve  of  the  manner  in  which  the  painter  has  represented 
them.  They  can  do  everything  but  speak,  "  an  uncommon 
fault  in  our  sex,"  they  are  made  to  remark.^ 

But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  Hugo  Vander  Groes  did  not 
prosper  in  his  love  for  his  Abigail,  for  we  find  that  he 
entered  the  Augustine  Convent,  of  Rooden  Clooster,  near 
Brussels,  where  [he  continued  to  exercise  his  art,  troubled 
at  intervals  by  fits  of  insanity,  until  his  death  in  1482.] 

Of  Justus  of  G-hent  little  more  is  known  than  of 
Vander  Meire.  [His  one  known  work,  The  Last  Supper, 
was  ordered  by  the  brotherhood  of  Corpus  Christi  at 
TJrbino  in  1468,  and  was  completed  in  1474.  The  picture 
was  paid  for  by  a  subscription,  in  which  the  reigning  Duke 
Pederigo  di  Montefeltro  took  part.  This  important  work 
is  ten  feet  square,  and  the  largest  painting  known  of  the 
early  Flemish  school.  The  portraits  of  the  Duke  and  of 
Caterino  Zeno,  a  Venetian  agent  on  a  mission  from  Persia, 

^  This  work  is  still  in  the  church  for  which  it  was  originally  painted, 
but  removed  from  the  altar.     It  is  in  a  wonderful  state  of  preservation. 
'^  "  Les  Peintres  Bourgeois."     Alfi*ed  Michiels. 


286  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

are  introduced.  It  is  a  question  whether  Justus  changed 
his  style  sufficiently  to  have  painted  the  panels  of  the 
Duke's  library  at  Urbino,  now  presei-ved  at  Eome  and  in 
the  Louvre.] 

RoQiER  Yander  Weyden  [called  Eogier  de  la  Pasture 
in  his  native  town,  and  Ruggieri  da  Bruggia  by  Vasari, 
was  born  at  Tournay  between  the  years  1398  and  1400. 
He  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  of  Van  Eyck's  contem- 
poraries. He  was  founder  of  a  school  which  exercised 
paramount  influence  on  the  later  painters  of  Germany  and 
the  Netherlands. 

Whilst  Jan  Yan  Eyck  was  serving  the  court  of  Burgundy, 
and  executing  royal  commissions  for  other  work  than 
painting  royal  portraits  and  altar-pieces,  his  humbler  rival 
was  studying  the  art  of  painting  in  the  else  unknown 
workshop  of  Robert  Campin,  painter  of  panel  and  banner, 
and  tinter  of  statuary,  in  Tournay.  Roger,  already  a 
married  man,  and  father  of  one  child,  apprenticed  himself 
to  Campin  in  1426,  when  he  was  not  less  than  twenty-six 
or  twenty- seven  years  of  age.  After  five  years  and  five 
months  study  with  Camj^in,  he  took  his  freedom  of  the 
guild  of  S.  Luke  at  Tournay,  and  soon  afterwards  migrated 
with  his  family  to  Brussels,  of  which  city  his  wife,  Eliza- 
beth Groffaerts,  was  a  native.  The  master  painter  obtained 
the  freedom  of  Brussels,  and  we  find  him  in  April,  1435, 
established  in  that  city,  now  possessing  additional  impor- 
tance from  the  residence  there  of  the  court  of  Burgundy, 
and  before  the  month  of  May,  1466,  he  had  been  there] 
appointed  to  the  office  of  town  painter.  About  the  same 
date  he  received  a  commission  from  the  municipality  to 
adorn  the  [partially- completed]  town-hall  with  paintings, 
and  executed  for  this  purpose  four  large  paintings,  setting 
forth  the  virtues  of  justice  and  truth.  The  legend  of 
Herli-enbald  the  Magnificent,  a  just  judge  of  Brussels,  in 
the  eleventh  century,  who  cut  off  his  beloved  nephew's 
head  with  his  own  hand  rather  than  allow  an  invasion  of 
the  law ;  the  Emperor  Trajan  halting  at  the  head  of  his 
army  to  hear  the  complaint  of  a  poor  widow ;  Pope  Gregory 
contemplating  the  remains  of  Trajan,  namely,  his  tongue 
which  "  never  told  a  lie  "  ; — were  the  themes  chosen  by- 
the  painter,  and  his  paintings  were  for  more  than  two 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  287 

centuries  the  glory  of  Brussels,  no  traveller  passing  through 
the  city  without  paying  a  visit  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville  to 
behold  them.  It  is  supposed  that  they  were  destroyed  by 
the  French  when  they  besieged  Brussels  in  1695,  but  the 
painter's  compositions  are  not  entirely  lost,  for,  frequently 
rei)roduced  in  tapestry  at  the  time,  in  that  form  they  exist 
still  at  the  Cathedral  of  Berne,  where  are  preserved  three 
magnificent  pieces  of  arras  taken  by  the  Swiss  from  the 
Burgundian  tents  at  Morat  and  Granson  in  1476.^ 

Nothing  is  known  of  Koger's  early  life,  but  the  celerity 
with  which  he  attained  such  perfection  in  his  art  as  to 
induce  the  magistrate  of  Brussels  to  appoint  him  painter 
in  ordinary  (pourtraictenr)  to  that  city,  seems  to  imply 
some  previous  artistic  education.  It  is  most  probable, 
judging  from  his  manner,  that  he  had  attained  skill  in 
tinting  the  statuary,  for  which  Tournay  was  noted,  before 
entering  upon  his  five  years'  apprenticeship  to  painting  in 
Campin's  workshop.  Such  work  was  done  later  on  in  his 
own  workshop  in  Brussels,  if  not  actually  by  his  own 
hand,  for  in  1439  he  was  paid  for  tinting  a  sculptured 
altar-piece  which  Philip  the  Good  presented  to  a  church  in 
the  city.] 

The  Chancellor  Rollin,  for  whom  Jan  Van  Eyck  painted 
the  Madonna  in  the  Louvre,  was  likewise  a  patron  of 
Rogier  Vander  Weyden.  In  1443  this  noble  man  founded 
a  hospital  at  Beaune,  in  Burgundy,  and  employed  Yander 
Weyden  to  i3aint  its  altar-piece.  This  work  is  usually 
reckoned  his  masterpiece,  and  is  the  largest  work  of  the 
early  Flemish  school  extant.^  It  represents  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, and  different  scenes  of  that  great  event  are  depicted 
on  the  numerous  panels  that  make  up  the  whole.  In  the 
centre  the  Saviour  is  seated  on  a  rainbow,  with  his  feet 
resting  on  the  earth,  whilst  beneath  him  stands  the  Arch- 
angel Michael  weighing  the  souls  of  men  in  his  balance. 
The  Resurrection  of  the  Just  on  one  side,  and  of  the 
Wicked  on  the  other,  forms  the  subject  of  the  side  panels, 
the  just  taking  their  way  to  the  portal  of  heaven,  a  gothic 
door-way  on  the  extreme   right ;   while  the   wicked  are 

['  Pinchart,  "  R.  Vander  "Weyden  et  les  Tapisseries  de  Berne."] 
[•  Eighteen  feet  broad,  and  seven  to  eight  feet  high.     In  nine  panels. 
Vide  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  "  Early  Flemish  Painters."] 


238  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

thrown,  on  the  extreme  left,  into  the  flames  of  hell,  where 
their  bodies  are  seen  suffering  hideous  contortion  and  agony. 

On  the  outer  panels  of  this  altar-piece  are  two  noble 
figures  of  S.  Sebastian  and  S.  Anthony,  as  well  as  the 
tneeling  figures  of  the  donor,  Rollin,  and  his  wife,  painted 
with  all  the  faithful  reality  of  early  Flemish  art.^ 

An  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  in  the  Pinakothek,  at  Munich, 
is  another  of  Yander  Weyden's  grand  compositions.  The 
foremost  of  the  Magi,  who  kneels,  kissing  the  hand  of  the 
Infant  Saviour,  is  said  to  be  a  portrait  of  Philippe  le  Bon. 
A  Flemish  town,  with  its  quaint  streets,  towers,  spires,  and 
houses,  forms  the  background  of  the  holy  scene.  [A  work 
that  became  as  popular  as  the  townhall  pictures,  to  judge 
by  the  number  of  repetitions  of  it  extant,  is  a  large  com  • 
position  painted  in  1440  for  a  church  without  the  walls  of 
Louvain,  The  Descent  from  the  Cross, ^  now  in  the  Museum 
at  Madrid  (No.  1,046),  whither  it  was  sent  by  Mary  of 
Hungary.^  This  picture  exhibits  pre-eminently  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  Vander  Weyden's  art,  intense  religious 
feeling,  with  the  sorrowful  side  of  religious  history  ex- 
pressed in  dramatic  gesture  and  expression,  often  exagge- 
rated to  contortion.  A  member  of  the  Painters'  G-uilds  of 
Tournay,  Brussels,  Louvain,  and  Bruges,  engaged  in  the 
service  of  citizens  rather  than  of  princes,  Yander  Weyden 
was  not  uninfluenced  by  the  popular  taste  of  the  time,  which 
was  stirred  by  a  zeal  for  moral  reform  that  laid  the  first 
seeds  for  the  great  Puritan  outbreak  of  the  next  century.] 

The  most  charming  of  his  works  in  the  Pinakothek,  a 
picture  of  S.  Luke  painting  the  Yirgin,  was  for  a  long  time 
attributed  to  Jan  Yan  Eyck;  and  truly  the  noble  and 
thoughtful  figure  of  S.  Luke  might  have  been  painted  by 
Jan  Yan  Eyck  at  his  period  of  highest  attainment.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  expressive  portrait  figures  in  Flemish  art, 
and  loses  none  of  its  merit  from  its  having  evidently  been 
painted  from  some  holy  pensive  brother  of  Yander  Wey- 
den's acquaintance.  We  can  imagine  Fra  Angelico  with 
an  expression  such  as  this.  The  landscape  background  is 
remarkably  like  that  of  the  Eollin  Yirgin  and  Child  in  the 

^  An  outline  illustration  of  this  altai'-piece  is  given  in  Kugler  and 
Waagen's  Handbook.     German,  Flemish,  and  Dutch  Schools. 
'^  [  Fi(k  Forster's  '•'  Denkmiiler." j  ^  [IbicL] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  289 

Louvre;  Vander  Weyden  [may],  indeed,  have  had  that 
work  in  his  remembrance  when  he  painted  it.  The  colour 
is  soft,  lovely,  and  of  pure  harmony,  resembling  Jan's 
brilliant  notes,  rather  than  the  deeper  chords  of  Hubert ; 
its  hard  outlines,  angular  draperies,  and  meagre  Child, 
however,  proclaim  it  the  work  of  the  pupil  rather  than  the 
master. 

Vander  Weyden  was,  probably,  the  first  Flemish  painter 
who  journeyed  to  Italy,  a  journey  which  his  successors,  as 
we  shall  see,  rarely  undertook  without  bad  results  ;  it  does 
not  seem,  however,  to  have  produced  any  perceptible  change 
in  his  style  of  painting.  He  was  at  Rome  in  the  year  of 
Jubilee,  1450  [having  first  visited  Ferrara,  where  he  painted, 
early  in  1449,  a  triptych,  of  which  a  portion  now  hangs  in 
the  Uffizi  at  Florence,  containing  a  portrait  of  Lionel 
d'Este.  A  picture  in  the  Staedel,  Frankfort  (66),  painted 
for  Cosmo  de  Medici  about  this  time,  seems  to  point  to  a 
stay  in  Florence  during  Roger's  Italian  sojourn,  but  the 
constant  commercial  intercourse  between  Italy  and  Flanders 
had  already  spread  the  fame  of  Flemish  art  in  the  Penin- 
sula, and  a  picture  at  Bologna  appears  to  have  been  painted 
for  the  Duke  of  Milan  before  this  date.]  ^  He  died  on  the 
16th  of  June,  1464,  and  was  buried  in  the  Church  of  S. 
Gudule,  as  the  register  of  burials  states,  "  before  S.  Cathe- 
rine's altar,  under  a  blue  stone."  ^  [Of  his  three  sons,  Pieteb, 
a  painter  (1437-1514  ?),  had  a  son,  Goswin  (1465-1538),  a 
painter  also,  whose  son  Roger  is  called  Roger  Vander 
Weyden  the  Younger.  No  known  works  of  these  three 
painters  exist,  though  there  are  several  admirable  paintings 
in  the  National  Gallery  ascribed  to  Roger  the  Younger, 
who  died  between  1537  and  1543.] 

Hans  Memling,  Memlinc,  or  Memmelinghe  (died 
1494),  was  probably  the  pupil  of  Rogier  Vander  Weyden 
[before  settling  in  Bruges  in  1477-78.]  His  works  have 
less  force  of  mind  than  those  of  Vander  Weyden,  but  more 
beauty  and  grace.  Grace  and  beauty,  with  great  tender- 
ness of  feeling,  are  the  qualities  he  added  to  the  school  of 

^  [  ride  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  "  Lives  of  Flemish  Painters,"  p.  207, 
et  seq.] 

^  Van  Mander  says  lie  was  the  first  artist  who  painted  on  fixed 
canvas,  instead  of  on  panels,  for  the  decoration  of  rooms. 

U 


290  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

Bruges.  His  outlines  are  softer,  his  draperies  more  flow- 
ing, and  liis  Virgins  mucli  more  beautiful  than  those  of  his 
sup230sed  master ;  he  was,  in  fact,  to  some  extent,  an  ideal 
l^ainter,  whereas  Van  Eyck  and  Vander  Weyden  were 
faithful  realists.  The  place  and  time  of  his  birth  have  not 
yet  been  satisfactorily  ascertained,  and  we  have  little  in- 
formation about  his  life.  But  what  history  has  neglected 
to  tell  us  is  partly  made  up  by  tradition,  which  relates  that 
after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Nancy,  in  which  the  proud 
hopes  of  Charles  the  Bold  were  finally  crushed,  a  poor, 
wayworn  soldier  found  his  way  back  to  Bruges,  and  fell, 
sinking  from  exhaustion,  at  the  gates  of  the  Hospital  of 
St.  John,  where  he  was  taken  in  by  the  brethren,  and 
nursed  back  to  health  and  strength.  On  his  recovery  he 
asked  for  paints  and  brushes,  and  left,  as  a  lasting  memo- 
rial of  his  gratitude,  the  figure  of  the  Sibyl  Zambeth  on 
the  walls  of  the  Hospital.  Unfortunately,  a  few  stem 
facts  contradict  this  pretty  story.  It  is  unlikely  that 
Memling  was  ever  a  soldier,  and  the  Sibyl  Zambeth,  [dated 
1480,  is  the  portrait  of  Maria  Moreel,  second  daughter  of 
William  Moreel,  the  sturdy  burgomaster  of  Bruges  in 
1478  and  until  1483,  and  of  his  wife  Barbara  Ylaender- 
berch,  whose  portraits,  painted  at  the  same  time  and  in 
the  same  manner  (not  Memling's  best),  were  formerly  with 
the  Sybil  in  the  hospital  of  S.  Julian,  and  are  now  in  the 
Brussels  Museum.  He  was,  moreover,  a  comfortable  citizen 
at  this  time,  married,  with  three  children ;  he  had  property 
in  houses,  which  ranked  him  amongst  the  "notables"  of 
the  city.  An  old  writer,  Yan  Yaernewyck,  calls  Memling 
"  Duytschen  Hans,"  and  it  is  possible  that  he  was  one  of 
the  many  strangers  who  came  to  learn  in  the  Flemish 
schools,  and  adopted  a  country  so  favourable  to  his  pro- 
fession].^ 

The  Hospital  of  St.  John  possesses,  besides  the  Sibyl, 
three  other  of  Memling's  finest  works,  namely,  the  Marriage 
of  the  Yirgin,  the  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  and  the  lovely 
paintings  of  the  Chasse  or  Ryve  of  St.  Ursula. 

This  last  work  was  [finished  the  24th  October  of  the 
year  1489],  and  Passavant  has  discovered  from  some  docu- 

1  [\V.  H.  J   Weale,  '•'  Bcffrui,"  ii.] 


BOOK    VII. J       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  291 

ments  in  the  hospital,^  that  in  1480  Memling  made  two 
journeys  to  Cologne,  the  place  of  S.  Ursula's  martyrdom, 
the  funds  for  these  journeys  being  supplied  by  Adrian 
Reims,  the  superior  of  the  Hospital  of  S.  John,  who  com- 
missioned him  to  adorn  the  shrine.  The  influence  of  these 
journeys  to  Cologne  is  clearly  visible  in  this  work.  Rhine- 
land  views,  evidently  painted  from  nature,  form  the  land- 
scape backgrounds  of  the  various  scenes  in  the  life  of  the 
saint,  who  is  represented  with  her  attendant  virgins.  These 
are  eleven,  or  eleven  thousand,  in  number,  according  to  the 
faith  of  the  narrator  of  the  legend.  Memling,  for  obvious 
reasons,  chose  the  smaller  number,  and  told  the  pathetic 
history  of  the  British  princess  and  martyr  in  an  exquisite 
series  of  little  painted  poems  on  her  shrine.  The  shrine 
itself,  a  rich  gothic  ark,  is  only  about  four  feet  in  length, 
so  that  Memling's  paintings  on  it  are  little  more  than 
miniatures,  but  they  are  painted  with  such  feeling  and 
delicacy,  and  the  colour  is  so  soft  and  lovely,  that  they 
rank  among  the  most  important  of  his  works. 

One  of  his  few  faults  was  representing  too  many  incidents 

in  one  painting.     He  sought  to  give  dramatic  effect  by 

crowding  a  number  of  acts  into  one  scene,  but  by  this 

means  often  marred  the  unity  of  his  conceptions.     This 

defect  of  judgment  is  especially  visible  in  a  picture  in  the 

Pinakothek   at  Munich,   called  the    Seven    Joys  of    the 

Virgin.     Here  the  central  idea  of  the  woman  whom  "  all 

generations  shall  call  blessed,"  is  lost  in  the  maze  of  detail 

with  which  the  painter  has  surrounded  her  history.     The 

Bye  gets  fatigued  in  contemplating  this  picture,  and  the 

tnind  refuses  to  follow  the  artist's  meaning.     Yet,  taken 

separately,  each  little  incident  in  the  drama  has  an  interest 

[)f  its  own,  and  each  is  so  perfectly  painted,  that  it  seems 

angrateful  to  grumble  at  the  artist  for  having  given  us  too 

oauch  of  such  exquisite  work. 

Memling's  Madonnas  have  a  wonderful  charm;   they 

'  li]>proach,  in  fact,  more  nearly  to  ideal  beauty  than  those 

)f  any  other  Flemish  master,  for  the  later  masters  who 

itrained  after  the  Italian  ideal  missed  it,  from  the  very 

jtrain  they  put  forth,  whilst  Memling  attained  to  it  by  his 

)wn  inherently  poetical  nature. 

»  *'  Kunst-blatt,"  1813. 


292  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

The  Virgin,  with  the  donor  and  S.  George  (No.  686),  of 
the  National  Collection,  is  a  lovely  example  of  his  manner 
in  this  class  of  subjects.  The  calm  evening  landscape  is 
especially  beautiful. 

There  are  more  paintings  in  existence  by  Memling  than 
by  any  other  master  of  the  School  of  Bruges.  Kathgeber, 
indeed,  enumerates  a  hundred,  but  many  of  these  are 
doubtful.  On  the  other  hand,  many  that  he  does  not 
enumerate,  probably  belong  to  him. 

He  appears  [after  1477]  to  have  resided  principally  at 
Bruges,  and  possessed  a  house  there  in  the  Rue  S.  George, 
so  he  could  not  have  been  so  poor  as  tradition  has  made 
bim  out.  In  fact,  he  was  in  his  later  life  a  man  of  pro- 
perty [owning  three  houses,  and  ground  beside],  and  in 
1480  he  contributed  to  a  loan  raised  for  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  in  Bruges.  He  died  in  [the  first  quarter  of 
1494]. 

[The  most  important  follower  of  Memling  was  Gerard 
(or  Gheeraert)  David,  bom  at  Oudewater,  in  Holland, 
about  the  year  1460.  In  1483  he  was  settled  in  Bi-uges, 
where  he  resided,  an  honoured  citizen  and  industrious 
painter,  until  his  death  in  1623.  In  1488,  after  the  execu- 
tion of  the  unjust  judges  of  Bruges,  their  successors, 
minded  like  the  magistrates  of  Brussels  and  of  Louvain 
before  them,  to  keep  the  honour  of  their  office  in  lively  re- 
membrance, commissioned  Gerard  David  to  paint  two  pic- 
tures for  their  council  chamber,  the  subject — viz..  The 
Judgment  of  Cambyses  and  The  Flaying  of  the  Venal 
Judge  Sissamnes — being  duly  chosen  from  Herodotus. 
Completed  in  1498,  they  are  now  in  the  Academy  at 
Bruges.  "  They  are  painted  vigorously  in  brownish  tone, 
and  with  admirable  finish."  The  Baptism  of  Christ  in  the 
same  gallery,  until  lately  attributed  to  Memling,  was 
painted  in  1508  for  a  Bruges  magistrate,  Jean  de  Trompes, 
and  is  remarkable  for  its  brilliant  and  truthful  execution 
and  minute  accuracy  of  detail.  The  landscape  background 
is  particularly  beautiful,  distinguished  by  truthful  per- 
spective and  delicate  aerial  gradations,  that  have  earned 
him  the  name  of  father  of  landscape.  His  influence  is 
plainly  seen  in  the  works  of  Patinir  and  Henrick  Metten 
Bles,  the  first  to  subordinate  figures  to  landscape.    There  is 


BOOK    VII,]       PAIXTINO    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  293 

a  very  fine  picture  by  him  in  the  National  Gallery  (No. 
1045). 

Gerard  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Illuminators  and 
Printers,  as  well  as  dean  of  the  Painters'  Guild  of  Bruges. 
Van  Mander  speaks  of  his  excellent  illuminations.  Some 
of  the  miniatures  in  the  Grimani  MS.  at  Venice  are  attri- 
buted to  him,  and  two  miniatures  in  Bruges  Academy 
testify  to  his  skill.  Gerard  was  a  faithful  son  of  the 
Church ;  he  worked  gratis  for  the  nuns  of  the  Carmelite 
convent  of  Sion,  and  presented  them  with  the  high  altar- 
piece  of  the  Virgin  with  Female  Saints,  now  at  Eouen,  in 
which  two  of  the  faces  are  said  to  be  "  the  most  beautiful 
that  the  Flemish  School  has  realized." 

A  school  of  painting  seems  to  have  existed  at  an  early 
date  at  Haarlem,  founded  by  Albert  Van  Oudewater,  a 
contemporary  of  Rogier  Van  der  Weyden.  The  paintings 
of  this  master  were  conspicuous,  it  is  said,  for  the  excel- 
lence of  their  landscape,  but  none  of  them  remain. 

Gheerardt  of  Sint  Jans  or  of  Haarlem  was  a  pupil  of 
Oudewater' s,  according  to  Van  Mander,  and  several  pic- 
tures are  assigned  to  him  by  critics — two  wings  of  an  altar- 
piece  in  the  Belvedere  at  Vienna  (Nos.  58  and  60) — with 
seeming  good  reason.^  It  is  sought  to  identify  him  with 
Gerard  David,  of  Oudewater. 

Van  Mander  praises  highly  the  landscape  backgrounds 
of  Albert  and  of  his  pupil,  "Httle  Gheerardt,"  or  "  Gerrit;" 
the  latter,  he  says,  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  and 
lived  with  the  knights  hospitallers  of  S.  John,  though  not  of 
their  order.  He  gives  no  date.  The  pictures  ascribed  to 
Gheerardt  are  so  Flemish  in  style — seeming  to  have  derived 
their  inspiration  from  Bruges — that  they,  with  later  pro- 
ductions of  Dutchmen  working  in  the  schools  of  Louvain 
and  Antwerp,  must  be  reckoned  with  the  work  of  Flemings, 
as  totally  apart  from  the  later  Dutch  School  proper. 

DiERicK  Bouts,  formerly  confounded  with  the  Louvain 
family  of  painters,  the  Stuerbouts,  was  born  at  Haarlem, 
in  1399  or  1400.  He  appears  to  have  established  himself 
at  Louvain  about  1442,  residing  there  until  his  death,  on 
the  6th  of  May,  1475.     In  1448  the  Town  Hall  of  Louvain 

•  [Vide  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  *' Early  Flemish  Fainter.s,'  and 
Ilyman's  "  Livre  des  Feiutres  de  Van  Mander."] 


294  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

was  "begun  building.  For  some  years  previously,  and  until 
sixteen  years  later,  when  that  marvel  of  Gothic  ornament 
was  completed,  the  ancient  capital  of  Brabant  teemed  with 
active  artistic  life  and  endeavour.  The  great  master, 
Eoger  van  der  Weyden,  had  painted  there  in  1440-1443,  and 
maybe  that  Dierick  Bouts  came  to  see  the  master's  work,  if 
not  to  study  in  his  workshop.  The  imposing  dignity  and 
gravity  of  l)ierick's  creations  are  allied  to  the  earnest 
melancholy  of  Van  der  Weyden' s,  though  a  thicker  impasto, 
and  greater  mastery  over  the  oil-medium,  as  well  as  a 
certain  delicacy  of  the  female  faces  in  Bouts'  works,  have, 
in  the  absence  of  positive  knowledge,  caused  them  to  be 
ascribed  to  Memling,  rather  than  to  him  who  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  master  of  both  artists.  In  1466-1468  Dierick 
painted  for  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  a  trip- 
tych of  the  Last  Supper,  in  the  background  of  which  he  has 
represented  himself  as  servant,  and  four  other  onlookers, 
which  are,  according  to  recent  investigations,  portraits  of 
the  "  vmders,"  or  counsellors  of  the  corporation — portraits 
which  "  remind  us  of  the  models  of  John  van  Eyck,"  ^  and 
still  more  of  those  of  Quentin  Massys.  This  triptych  still 
hangs  in  the  chapel  in  St.  Peter's,  for  which  it  was  painted; 
but  of  the  four  panels  that  formed  the  wings,  two — The 
Meeting  of  Abraham  and  Melchisedek  and  The  G-athering 
of  Manna — are  at  Munich,  the  other  two — Elijah  in  the 
Desert  and  The  Feast  of  the  Passover — are  in  the  Berlin 
Museum.  The  grouping  of  The  Last  Supper  is  original ; 
the  faces  exhibit  a  studied  variety  of  expression.  The 
Christ  is  of  pleasing  and  refined  type,  the  whole  painted 
with  a  conscientious,  reverent  dignity  that  is  altogether 
characteristic  of  Bouts,  animated  by  a  force  rather  moral 
than  religious.  The  colouring  is  powerful  and  harmonious, 
but,  with  all  minuteness  of  execution,  lacks  the  tender 
delicacy  of  Memling' s.  The  Martyrdom  of  S.  Erasmus  in 
the  same  chapel  was  probably  painted  before  1466,  and  is 
a  less  disagreeable  picture  than  the  subject  would  promise. 
The  figure  of  S.  Bernard  upon  one  wing  is  very  fine,  and 
the  background  of  the  centre  panel  shows  the  one  tower  of 
S.  Peter's,  and  the  vanes  of  the  Town  Hall  of  Louvain,  and 

*  [Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  295 

beyond  them  the  hills  of  the  Kesselberg  and  Roeselberg, 
where  Bouts  possessed  a  farm  and  vineyards.  In  1468 
Bouts  is  mentioned  as  "  pourtraicteur  de  la  ville,"  and,  as 
town-painter,  he  received  yearly  a  cloth  coat,  and  money 
for  the  lining  thereof.  He  completed  his  first  commission 
for  the  Town  Hall — a  triptych  of  the  Last  Judgment  (now 
lost) — in  1473,  and,  for  the  further  decoration  of  the 
council  chamber,  was  ordered  to  paint  four  large  panels 
similar  in  meaning  to  those  that  Van  der  Weyden  had 
executed  in  the  Town  HaU  of  Brussels.  A  learned  man 
received  six  florins  for  selecting  a  subject  illustrating 
Truth  and  Justice.  The  subject  chosen  was  the  apocryphal 
legend  of  Otho  III.]  The  Empress  of  Otho,  actuated  by 
the  same  motives  as  Potiphar's  wife,  procured  not  only  the 
imprisonment,  but  the  execution  of  an  innocent  Joseph  of 
the  court,  but  Joseph's  wife,  satisfied  of  the  virtue  of  her 
husband,  appeared  before  the  Emperor  with  the  murdered 
man's  head  in  her  hand,  and  proved  her  innocence  by 
undergoing  safely  the  ordeal  of  fire,  whereupon  the  guilty 
Empress  was  condemned  to  the  flames  by  her  husband. 

[Dierick  did  not,  however,  live  to  fulfil  his  contract,  two 
panels  only  (now  in  the  Brussels  Museum)  being  completed 
at  his  death.  Hugo  Yander  Goes  was  sent  for  from  his 
cloister  near  Brussels,  to  decide  upon  the  value  of  the 
work  done,  and  he  adjudged  the  heirs  three  hundred  and 
six  out  of  the  five  hundred  crowns  agreed  upon.  Dierick, 
despite  the  respect  in  which  his  art  was  held,  did  not  make 
a  fortune.  He  owed  his  comfortable  house  and  gardens, 
vineyards  and  farms  to  his  wife,  Catherine  Metten  Gelde, 
upon  whose  death  he  married  a  well-to-do  widow  in 
1473. 

His  two  daughters  had  become  nuns,  and  his  two  sons, 
Dierick  and  Albert,  were  both  painters.^  Amongst  the 
notable  contemporaries  of  Bouts  in  Louvain  was  Hubert 
Stuerbottt,  whose  name  long  caused  confusion  to  be 
made  l^etween  the  two  painters.  Hubert  came  of  an  in- 
dustrious Louvain  family  of  artistic  workmen,  who  turned 
their  hands  to  every  kind  of  decorative  work,  from  altar- 

['  It  is  to  the  researches  of  Mr.  Van  Even  and  M.  "Wauters  that  we 
owe  the  small  amount  of  information  abodt  Dierick  Bouts  that  has  been 
rescued  from  oblivion.] 


296  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [BOOK   VII. 

pieces  and  chasuble  patterns,  to  weather-vanes  and  Last 
Judgments  for  the  cemetery  gateway.  A  work  showing  a 
popular  realistic  tendency  was  a  series  of  250  Biblical 
compositions  for  bas-reliefs  on  the  bases  of  niches  on  the 
Town  Hall  front,  to  be  executed  by  a  sculptor,  Beyart. 
These  designs,  roughly  as  they  are  executed,  show  a  truth- 
ful picture  of  the  life,  conditions,  and  costumes  of  the 
time. 

G-erard  David  continued  active  in  Bruges,  but]  most  of 
the  rising  artists  of  the  time  deserted  the  school  of  Bruges, 
and  went  over  to  the  more  powerful  school  of  Antwerp, 
which  was  now  becoming  important,  and  which,  owing  its 
origin  to  the  [Schools  of  Louvain,  Brussels,  and  Tournail, 
developed  in  a  totally  different  manner  to  that  of  Bruges. 

[Jean  Peevost,  who  came  from  Mons  to  Bruges  in 
1494,  remained  there  until  his  death  in  1529.  Visiting 
Antwerp,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Albert  Diirer, 
whom  he  afterwards  entertained  at  Bruges  in  1521.  In 
1525  he  was  commissioned  to  paint  for  the  council  chamber 
of  the  magistrature  the  striking  picture  of  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, now  in  the  Academy  of  Bruges.  On  the  curious 
background  of  sea  and  sandy  shore  groups  are  embarking 
on  ships  of  various  size,  conducted  by  angels,  or  driven  by 
demons  of  grotesque  hideousness.  These  and  the  con- 
demned already  suffering  in  the  flames,  as  Mr.  Weale 
says,  "rival  the  inventions  of  Callot  or  Breughel"  in  comic 
horror.  A  chariot  full  of  ecclesiastics  led  to  torture  was 
painted  over  in  1550  by  Pieter  Pourbus,  by  command  of 
the  magistrates,  probably  piously  mindful  of  existing 
ecclesiastical  powers. 

Jerome  van  Aeken,  of  Bois-le-Duc,  from  which  place 
he  took  the  surname  Bos  or  Bosch  (died  1518),  is  an  artist 
delighting  in  weird  and  grotesque  effects,  ghostly  and  de- 
moniacal subjects,  and  may  in  these  be  regarded  as  the 
forerunner  of  Breughel;  but  in  other  respects  he  bears 
more  resemblance  to  Lucas  Yan  Leyden.  The  Last  Judg- 
ment, Temptation  of  S.  Antony,  and  Fall  of  the  Damned 
are  favourite  subjects  for  his  wild  imagination  and  fan- 
tastic treatment.  M.  Wauters  mentions  several  "  pictures 
of  very  Flemish  merry-makings,  precursors  of  the  tavern 
scenes  of  Brauwer  and  Jan  Steen,"  and  praises  his  Adora- 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN   THE    NETHERLANDS.  297 

tion  of  the  Mas^  now  at  Madrid.  No  details  of  his  life  are 
known,  but  he  furnished  in  1493  designs  for  glass  windows 
at  Bois-le-Duc] 


Chaptee  II. 
THE    SCHOOL   OF    ANTWEEP. 

EARLY   SCHOOL  OF  HOLLAND. 
QuENTiN  Massts — Mabuse — LucAS  Van  Leyden. 

ALTHOUG-H  it  is  now  certain  that  Qitentin  Massys 
was  born  at  Louvain  in  the  year  1466/  he  must  never- 
theless be  reckoned  as  the  founder  of  the  School  of  Ant- 
werp, rather  than  as  an  outcome  of  the  old  school  of 
Louvain,  in  which  Dierick  Bouts  was  the  only  man  who 
rose  to  any  importance.  [The  School  of  Antwerp,  on  the 
other  hand,  united  the  Van  Eyck  methods  of  colouring  and 
execution  with  the  qualities  of  Vander  Wey den's  art,  but 
was  animated  by  a  totally  different  spirit  to  that  of  Bruges 
or  Toumay,  and  had  a  far  wider  aim  than  either.] 

Quentin  Massys'    works,   especially,   are   distinguished 

*  Antwerp  long  contended  with  Louvain  for  the  honour  of  Quentin 
Massys'  birth,  but  in  1861  a  manuscript  work  of  the  learned  Louvain 
doctor,  Jean  Molanus,  was  published,  which  corroborated  Guicciardini 
and  other  writers  in  their  statement  that  he  was  born  at  Louvain,  and  in 
his  early  life  exercised  the  trade  of  a  blacksmith  with  much  talent  in  his 
native  town. 

The  name  of  Metsys  occurs  in  the  town  registry  of  Louvain ;  but  this 
does  not  prove  much,  as  it  likewise  occurs  frequently  in  the  Antwerp 
registries.  Especially  in  the  archives  of  Notre  Dame,  at  Antwerp, 
there  is  mention  made  of  a  certain  Jean  Metsys,  a  blacksmith,  who 
executed  several  works  in  iron  for  the  church.  This  might  have  been  a 
brother  of  Quentin's,  and  the  beautiful  iron  tracery  ascribed  to  the 
painter  might  have  been  the  work  of  this  Jean.  He  must  likewise  have 
been  a  clock-maker,  for  one  of  the  entries  records  eighteen  esculins  as 
having  been  paid  to  him  annually  for  keeping  the  clock  of  St.  Jaques  in 
order  {Van  der  clocken  te  stellen).  Vide  "Catalogue  of  the  Antwerp^  ftntt\\ 
Museum  "  [and  "  Ancienne  Ecole  de  Louvain,"     E.  Van  EvenX-      P  \\  \\  uV- *^ 


f>AE^'^ 


0? 


av 


298  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

from  those  of  the  immediate  followers  of  Van  Eyck,  not 
only  by  a  greater  boldness  of  style  and  dramatic  effect,  but 
also  by  the  independence  of  his  genius,  which  stamped  with 
originality  everything  he  undertook.  [He  is  said  to  have 
learnt  painting  from  one  Master  Eoger,  of  Lou  vain,  of 
whom  no  further  record  is  known.  His  father,  Josse 
Massys,  an  ironworker  and  clockmaker,  was  settled  in  Lou- 
vain  in  1459,  but  probably  came  originally  from  Antwerp. 
Quentin's  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  citizen  of  Lou  vain.] 
According  to  the  well-known  story,  Quentin  Massys  for- 
sook his  first  calling  of  blacksmith  from  love  of  a  painter's 
daughter.  Her  father  had  refused  to  bestow  her  hand  on 
any  but  a  member  of  his  own  profession.  So  the  gallant 
young  blacksmith  of  Louvain  turned  painter,  and  won  his 
bride,  and  a  noble  fame  into  the  bargain.  Thus,  as  tradi- 
tion relates,  and  a  tablet  set  up  to  his  memory  in  the 
cathedral  records : — 

"  Connubialis  amor  de  Mulcibre  fecit  Apellem." 

[The  date  of  his  marriage  has  not  been  ascertained, 
nor  whether  Alyt  Tuylt  was  of  Antwerp  or  Louvain 
parentage ;  but  it]  is  pleasant  to  find  that  this  j)retty  little 
narration,  which  has  been  long  doubted  by  critics,  is  in  the 
main  really  true,  so  many  similar  stories  about  painters 
having  vanished  beneath  the  stern  analysis  to  which  recent 
investigators  have  submitted  the  statements  of  the  older 
art  historians. 

[Up  to  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  Quentin  worked  as 
journeyman  in  the  smithy  still  kept  by  his  widowed 
mother,  Catherine  Massys.^  In  the  year  1491,  the  latter 
declared  her  children's  majority,  and  Quentin]  was  re- 
ceived into  the  Brotherhood  of  S.  Luke,  at  Antwerp,  as  a 
free-master  "  franc-maitre,^^  but  he  must  at  that  time  have 
been  a  painter  of  some  note,  for  a  few  years  only  after  his 
reception  a  medal  was  struck  in  his  honour.  [He  did  not 
take  up  permanent  residence  in  Antwerp  until  three  years 
later,  in  1494,  when  a  division  of  the  maternal  family  pro- 
perty was  made,  and  Quentin,  with  his  mother,  grand- 

['  According  to  the  vague  orthography  of  the  time  Quentin's  name  is 
spelled  variously  in  the  records  of  the  time,  and  by  himself  and  his 
children,  MassJ^'s,  ^Masys,  Mase5's,  Matsyss,  and  Metsys.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  299 

mother,  younger  brother,  and  only  sister,  went  to  Antwerp, 
leaving  his  elder  brother,  Josse,  established  in  the  family 
liouse  and  smithy  in  the  Rue  Chateau,  Louvain.  Quentin 
was  received  with  honours  in  the  flourishing  city  of  the 
Schelde.  Pupils  flocked  to  him,  his  school  became  a  large 
one,]  and  attracted  painters  to  Antwerp  from  all  the  towns 
of  the  Netherlands,  in  the  same  way  as  they  had  before 
been  attracted  to  Bruges  [and  Louvain]. 

We  can  readily  believe  Van  Mander  when  he  tells  us 
that  Massys,  besides  being  a  painter  and  a  good  musician, 
had  a  great  love  of  letters,  for  we  know  that  he  numbered 
amongst  his  friends  such  men  as  Erasmus,  Sir  Thomas 
More,  and  Petrus  Egidius\  How  interesting  it  would  now 
be  if  we  could  learn  something  of  his  intercourse  with  these 
men.  Diirer  records  in  his  journal  that  he  went  "to 
Meister  Quintine's  house,"  but  does  not  gives  us  any  in- 
formation about  its  master.  [Quentin  lived  for  many 
years  in  the  Rue  des  Tanneurs,  and  by  his  industry  acquired 
two  other  houses  ;  in  one  of  these  he  afterwards  lived,  de- 
corating the  doorway  with  a  coloured  figure  of  S.  Quentin, 
and  in  1528  he  painted  one  of  the  rooms  in  fresco,  a  gallery 
of  musicians  with  flutes,  in  colour,  and  all  round  the  columns 
foliage  and  sporting  amoretti  in  grisaille.] 

The  great  altar-piece  of  the  Entombment,  now  in  the 
Antwerp  Gallery,  is  usually  reckoned  his  master- work. 
This  picture  was  painted  in  1508,  in  the  full  vigour  of  the 
artist's  powers,  and  exhibits  in  a  striking  manner  the  in- 
dependent characteristics  of  his  genius.  Instead  of  the 
delicate  miniature  painting  of  Memling,  we  here  have 
figures  nearly  the  size  of  life,  painted  with  a  power  and 
reality  that  forcibly  impress  the  mind  of  the  beholder.' 

A  strange  element  of  grotesque  humour  and  tendency  to 
caricature  crops  up  in  many  of  Massys'  works.  It  is  diffe- 
rent to  the  fantastic  spirit  of  early  German  art,  but  corre- 
sponds somewhat  with  the  love  of  the  grotesque  evinced  by 
the  early  Norman  sculptors.     Often  in  an  earnest  impres- 

'  [The  portraits  of  Erasmus  and  Egidius,  Quentin  painted  upon  a  panel 
as  a  diptych,  as  a  present  from  Erasmus  to  More.] 

*  [In  their  solemnity  and  dignity  presenting  some  characteristics  of 
])iHrick  IJouts's  work,  which  Quentin  must  have  had  full  opportunity-  of 
studying  from  his  earliest  childhood  in  Louvain.] 


300  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

sive  representation  by  him  of  a  solemn  event  we  are  moved 
to  a  smile  by  some  incongruous  bead  or  feature. 

The  Entombment  of  Christ  was  painted  by  Massys  as  an 
altarpiece  for  the  chapel  of  the  Gruild  of  Antwerp  Joiners 
in  the  Cathderal.  He  was  to  receive  in  payment  for  it  300 
florins,  equal  to  about  .£25,  but  even  this  small  sum  was 
not  to  be  paid  all  at  once,  but  in  three  parts,  and  was  after- 
wards commuted  into  a  payment  of  the  interest  to  two  of 
his  children.  The  Joiners,  however,  knew  how  to  prize 
their  altar-piece,  for  we  find  that  they  refused  enormous 
sums  for  it  from  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  and  Elizabeth  of 
England,  both  of  whom  coveted  its  possession.  However, 
becoming  poorer,  they  sold  it  in  1580  to  the  magistracy  of 
Antwerp  for  1500  florins,  and,  after  various  changes  of 
place,  it  has  now  found  its  proper  position  in  the  Antwerp 
Grallery. 

Besides  his  religious  paintings,  Quentin  Massys  was 
celebrated  for  what  may  be  called  his  money-pieces.  A 
great  many  pictures  of  this  class  that  pass  with  his  name 
were  really  painted  by  his  son,  and  by  other  copyists  of  his 
style ;  and  his  admirable  representations  of  subjects  of  this 
kind  evidently  induced  a  taste  for  them  amongst  wealthy 
purchasers,  and  led  to  the  frequent  repetitions  that  we 
meet  with  of  "  Quentin  Massys'  Misers."  The  Banker  and 
his  Wife  in  the  Louvre,  and  the  so-called  Misers  of 
Windsor  Castle,  are  the  most  noteworthy  examples  of  this 
class.  ^ 

His  half-length  figures  of  Christ  and  the  Virgin  seem 
also  to  have  been  greatly  esteemed,  for  we  usually  find 
several  repetitions  of  them.  The  Salvator  Mundl  and 
Virgin  Mary  (No.  295),  of  the  National  Gallery,  is  pro- 
bably a  copy,  but  may  stand  as  an  example  of  these  power- 
fully conceived  figures.  His  female  faces  are  seldom  beau- 
tiful ;  in  many  cases,  indeed,  they  are  positively  ugly.  His 
outlines  are  hard,  and  his  colouring  lacks  the  refined 
beauty  of  the  Bruges  masters. 

In  the  Ufiizi  G-allery  at  Florence  there  is  a  portrait  (1 
Quentin  Massys  and  his  second  wife,  Catherine  Heyens. 
dated  1520.     His  first  wife,  the  painter's  daughter,  Ade- 

\}  The  latter  is  now  ascribed  to  Marinus  of  Romevswalen,  as  is  also 
a  bimilar  picture  in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  944.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  301 

laide  Van  Tuylt,  died  in  1507,  and  in  1508  he  married 
again.  He  had  six  children  by  his  first  wife,  and  seven  by 
his  second.  [Of  his  seven  sons  Jan  is  said  to  have  painted 
in  liis  father's  style,  and  small  works  by  his  hand  were 
"  esteemed  like  precious  jewels,"  but  signed  works  of  his 
that  remain  are  powerfully  drawn,  large  compositions  in 
Florentine  style.  (Brussels  and  Antwerp.)  A  younger 
son,  Cornelius,  was  also  a  painter.]  Another  Quentin 
Massys,  probably  a  grandson,  is  mentioned  as  having  been 
received  into  the  Antwerp  Guild  in  1574  as  " fiU  de 
maitre." 

Quentin  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  dying  in  1530.  His 
successors  very  soon  departed  from  his  vigorous  style  of 
painting,  and  fell  into  weakness  and  imitation. 

[The  most  powerful  and  original  of  these  was  Marinus 
Claeszoon  of  Romerswalen  in  Zealand  (1497,  died 
after  1566).  He  painted  chiefly  "  money  pieces,"  variations 
upon  the  theme  given  by  Quentin  Massys  in  his  Miser  of 
the  Louvre,  and  so  thoroughly  in  that  master's  manner, 
that  all  such  panels  were  ascribed  to  the  latter  or  his  son 
Jan  until  the  recent  discovery  of  Marinus'  dated  signature 
upon  some  of  the  best  of  them.  Marinus  was  concerned 
in  the  iconoclastic  riots  in  Middleburgh  in  1566. 

Jan  Sanders,  surnamed  Van  Hemessen,  from  the  place 
of  his  birth,  worked  in  Antwerp  from  1524  to  1548.  An 
imitator  of  Quentin  Massys,  Itahan  influence  is  discernible 
in  some  of  his  works,  but  his  manner  is  coarse,  his  colour- 
ing hard  and  brown,  and  his  types  exaggerated.  His 
daughter  Catherine  painted  in  the  service  of  Mary  of 
Hungary  in  Spain.] 

Jan  GrossAERT,  or  Mabuse,  as  he  is  called  from  the  place 
of  his  birth,  Maubefge  (bom  about  1470),^  was  the  first 
flemish  painter  who  felt  the  influence  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance. It  cannot  be  much  wondered  at  that  the  quiet 
realistic  painters  of  Flanders  should  have  been  dazzled  by 
T  he  glory  of  the  art  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  Italy,  and 
that  they  should  have  deserted  their  old  traditions  and 
teachers   to   follow   such  masters   as  Leonardo,   Michael 

'  Some  writers  derive  tliis  name  form  a  Latin  word  Mabimtis,  signi- 
fying the  bourgeois  of  a  Flemish  town,  but  this  interpi*etation  seems  far- 
fetched. 


302  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

Angelo,  and  Raphael ;  but  by  so  doing,  they  undermined 
the  homely  national  structure  of  Flemish  art,  and  did  not 
succeed  in  building  up  in  its  place  either  an  Italian  palace 
or  a  classic  temple. 

It  would  seem  probable  that  Mabuse  studied   in  the 
school  of  Quentin  Massys,  but  we  have  no  information 
about  his  early  life.     His  early  pictures,  however,  are  all 
painted  in  the  old  Flemish  manner,  and  have  a  power  of 
colour,  and  mastery  of  execution  that  no  master  of  his 
school,  not  even  Quentin  Massys  has  excelled.     He  was 
undoubtedly  a  great  Flemish  painter,  but  unfortunately  he 
tried  to  be  a  great  Italian  painter,  and  in  this  he  failed 
miserably.    A  journey  to  Italy  ruined  him,  as  it  has  ruined 
so  many  good  national  painters  since.     This  journey  was 
undertaken  about  the  year  1513,  in  the  suite  of  his  patron 
the  prelate,  Philippe  of  Burgundy,  natural  son  of  Philippe 
le  Bon,  who  being  sent  by  the  Em23eror  Maximilian  on  a 
mission  to  the  Pope,  took  Mabuse  with  him,  and  employed 
him  in  copying  the  remains  of  ancient  art  in  Eome.     He 
likewise  spent  much  time  in  studying  the  works  of  Leonardo 
ind  Michael  Angelo.  What  better  training,  it  will  be  said, 
could  a  young  artist  have  ?     None,  if  his  mind  is  strong 
ind  original  enough  to  stand  it,  and  if  he  is  wise  enough  to 
turn  afterwards  to  nature  as  his  guide,  and  to  drink  in  her 
teachings  from   the   fountain   head,  and  not  as  filtered 
through  other  minds.   But  Mabuse  was  not  a  young  artist 
when  he  went  to  Italy,  and  he  had  a  national  and  individual 
style  of  his  own  at  the  time,  which  he  gave  up  to  adopt 
that  of  the  Italians.  On  returning  to  Flanders,  he  indulged 
in  allegory,  mythology,  and  the  nude,  departing  utterly 
from  the  old  Flemish  realism   and  propriety.     He  was, 
however,  too  good  a  painter  for  his  representations  of  such 
subjects,  even   as  Jupiter   and   Danae,  or   Neptune   and 
Amphitrite,  to  be  utterly  worthless.     [On  his  return  from 
Italy,  he  resided  at  Utrecht,  painting  and  teaching,  still 
under  the  protection  of  Philippe  of  Burgundy.] 

Two  pictures  in  the  Antwerp  Museum,  the  Four  Maries 
returning  from  the  tomb  of  Christ,  and  the  Upright  Judges, 
may  be  taken  as  examples  of  his  first  or  Flemish  manner, 
while  a  magnificent  triptych  at  Brussels,  of  Christ  in  the 
house  of  Simon,  weakly  resembling  one  of  the  gorgeous 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  303 

banqueting  scenes  of  Paolo  Veronese,  is  a  good  specimen  of 
Ids  Italian  style. 

The  Munich  Gallery  also  affords  students  an  excellent 
opportunity  of  judging  of  his  two  styles,  a  noble  figure  of 
the  Archangel  Michael,  protecting  a  solemn  Flemish  donor 
(the  side  wing  of  an  altar-piece),  standing  for  his  native 
art,  and  Danae  in  the  G-olden  Shower,  and  a  beautiful 
Virgin  and  Child,  for  his  borrowed  style.  This  last,  how- 
ever, is  a  most  charming  work,  nearly  approaching  the 
Italian  masters  in  grace  and  beauty.  It  represents,  it  is 
said,  the  wife  and  son  of  the  Marquis  Van  Veeren,  who  was 
IMabuse's  ^  great  patron  after  the  death  of  Philippe  of 
Burgundy. 

It  appears  probable  that  Van  Mander  was  correct  in 
saying  that  Mabuse  was  in  England  at  some  period  of  his 
life,  but  strange  to  say  no  record  of  his  stay  here  can  be 
found.  The  admirable  painting  by  him  at  Hampton  Court, 
of  three  children,  long  imagined  to  be  the  children  of 
Henry  VIII.,  led  to  the  supposition  that  he  was  in  this 
country  during  the  reign  of  that  monarch,  but  that  evidence 
was  upset  by  the  discovery  that  the  portraits  were  those  of 
the  children  of  Christian  II.,  King  of  Denmark.  They  are 
described  in  an  inventory  of  the  pictures  of  Henry  VIII. 
as  "  a  table  with  the  pictures  of  the  three  children  of  the 
Kynge  of  Denmarke,  with  a  curteyne  of  white  and  yellowe 
sarcenette  paned  together."  ^ 

'  An  amusing  story  is  told  of  Mabuse  whilst  in  the  service  of  this 
nobleman,  which  certainly,  if  true,  corroborates  the  careless,  jovial 
character  usually  ascribed  to  him.  The  Emperor  Charles  V.  was  ex- 
pected to  visit  the  marquis,  and  in  order  to  do  honour  to  his  imperial 
visitor,  Van  Vet-ren  ordered  all  the  officei*s  of  his  household  to  be  clothed 
in  white  damask  for  the  occasion.  When  the  tailor  came  with  the 
damask  to  measure  the  painter,  the  latter  begged  to  be  intrusted  witli 
tlie  stuff  to  make  up  in  his  own  fashion.  Having  thus  gained  possession 
of  the  costly  material,  he  at  once  proceeded  to  sell  it,  spending  the  price 
he  received  at  the  nearest  tavern.  When  the  day  arrived,  however, 
Mabuse  appeared  with  the  rest  in  a  dazzling  white  robe,  the  splendour  of 
which  amazed  all  beholdei's,  and  finally  drew  the  notice  of  the  empenn* 
himself,  who  requested  the  wearer  to  approach  nearer,  in  order  that  he 
might  examine  its  peculiar  texture.  Only  then  was  it  found  out  to  be 
made  of  pajjcr,  painted  by  Mabuse  to  imitate  damask.  This  ingenious 
trick  caused  the  emperor  more  amusement,  we  are  told,  than  any  of  the 
other  efforts  made  to  entertain  him. 

^  This  picture  is  reckoned  the  earliest  of  his  authentic  works. 


804  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [BOOK   VII. 

Mabuse  died  at  Antwerp,  in  1532,  and  not  in  the  prison 
of  Middleburg,  as  is  stated  by  his  early  biographers ;  [he 
left,  moreover,  ample  provision  for  his  wife  and  children. 
One  of  his  finest  pictures,  The  Adoration  of  the  King,  is  at 
Castle  Howard]. 

[Jean  Bellegambe,  of  Douai,  was  closely  allied  to  G-os- 
saert  in  art.  His  altar-piece,  The  Adoration  of  the  Trinity, 
now  in  Notre  Dame  of  Douai,  was  painted  in  1520,  for  the 
Monastery  of  Anchin.  It  is  rich  in  colouring,  of  sumptuous 
design,  but  flabby  in  execution,  a  characteristic  work  of 
this  transition  period.  His  son  and  grandson  were  painters. 
Lancelot  Blondeel's  works  are  distinguished  for  their 
richly  gilt  architectural  backgrounds.  Mason,  architect, 
and  engineer,  he  frequently  signed  a  trowel  beside  his 
name.  He  designed  the  chimney-mantel  of  the  Franc  de 
Bruges,  and  in  1550,  together  with  Jan  Scorel,  he  restored 
Jan  van  Eyck's  Agnus  Dei.  Born  at  Poperinghe  in  1496, 
he  lived  much  at  Bruges,  and  died  in  1561.^  Jan  Mostert, 
bom  in  1474  at  Haarlem,  was,  however,  a  thoroughly 
Flemish  painter,  and  spent  some  eighteen  years  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Margaret  of  Austria,  painting  all  the  principal  per- 
sonages of  her  court.  His  delicately  beautiful  landscape 
backgrounds  are  praised,^  but  none  of  the  works  ascribed 
to  him  are  authenticated.  He  died  in  1555  or  1556.  Pieter 
PoRBUS,  the  elder,  who,  coming  from  Grouda,  settled  in 
Bruges  in  1540,  painted  sacred  subjects  in  the  old  Flemish 
manner,  though  with  some  traces  of  renaissance  in  the 
accessories.  His  Adoration  of  the  Magi  in  Notre  Dame,  at 
Bruges,  is  very  beautiful,  and  of  delicate  execution  and 
colouring,  less  powerful  than  his  portraits.  He  died 
1584.] 

Bernard  Yan  Orley,  or  Bernard  Yan  Brussel  (about 
1490-1542),  was  one  of  a  family  of  artists,  likewise  a  leader 
in  the  unfortunate  revolution  which  overthrew  the  Yan 
Eyck  succession,  and  set  up  a  foreign  rule  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Mabuse  seems  at  times  to  have  felt  some  compunc- 
tion for  his  desertion  of  the  national  school,  and  he  always 
remained  faithful  to  it  in  strength  of  colour  and  careful 

[^  Wauters,  "  La  Peinture  Flamande."] 

I'  Hy man's  '•'  Le  Livre  des  reintres  de  Van  Mander,"  and  Havard, 
"  La  peintiu'e  Hollandaise."] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  305 

execution  ;  but  Yan  Orley  carefully  threw  over  all  the  old 
Flemish  traditions,  and,  although  he  still  painted  religious 
subjects,  painted  them  with  lukewarm  faith  and  feeble 
interest.  His  colouring,  also,  is  sadly  degenerate  from  that 
of  Van  Eyck,  Vander  Weyden,  and  Quentin  Massys.  It  is 
cold  and  yet  gaudy,  with  grating  discords  in  it  that  are  all 
the  more  painful  after  the  deep  harmonies  of  his  predeces- 
sors. The  superficial  brilliancy  of  some  of  his  paintings,  it 
is  supposed,  was  gained  by  painting  on  a  gold  ground,  but 
even  by  this  means  he  never  arrived  at  the  beauty  of  colour 
that  was  inherent  in  the  older  Flemish  masters.  He 
studied  form,  it  is  true,  far  more  than  the  Bruges  masters, 
and  his  drawing  is  generally  skilful,  but  he  had  no  innate 
feeling  for  the  beauty  of  form,  and  only  gained  it  by  work- 
ing under  Raphael,  whose  manner  he  imitated  as  success- 
fully, perhaps,  as  many  of  the  Italian  mannerists. 

He  and  Michael  Coxcien  superintended  the  manufacture 
in  the  Netherlands  of  the  tapestries  from  the  Raphael  car- 
toons, and  it  must  be  owned  that  with  such  works  as  these 
constantly  before  them,  it  would  have  needed  powerfully 
original  minds  to  resist  the  influence  of  the  great  master. "^ 
We  can  scarcely  wonder,  indeed,  at  feeble  painters  who 
never  felt  the  promptings  of  independent  genius,  prostrat- 
ing themselves  utterly  before  the  spirit  of  Raphael.  Such 
men  must  have  some  one  to  bow  before  and  imitate.  It  is 
only  given  to  a  great  master  now  and  then  to  create  and 
originate;  the  rest  can  only  follow  in  the  path  he  has 
marked  out. 

Some  followers,  however,  as  we  have  seen  in  Italian  art, 
imbibe  the  spirit  of  the  creating  master,  and  although 
keeping  within  his  path,  walk  farther  and  see  wider  views 
than  he ;  whilst  others  step  servilely  in  his  footsteps, 
imitating  his  manner,  but  not  guided  by  his  spirit. 

The  "  Italianisers  of  Antwerp  "  were  of  the  latter  class. 
They  understood  nothing  of  the  soul  of  Italian  art ;  they 
had  no  feeling  for  beauty,  no  true  comprehension  of  form, 
and  their  attempts  to  express  these  qualities  in  their  works 

P  Miintz  says  of  his  tapestries  in  the  Louvre,  "  Les  belles  chasses  de 
Guyx," — "They  are  historic  documents,  the  toix>graphy  is  of  prodigious 
exactitude,  reproducing  tvpes,  costumes,  portraits,  and  backgrounds  of 
the  forest  where  Charles  V.  hunted."] 

Z 


306  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   YII. 

were  pitiably  unsuccessful,  and  wliat  is  worse,  were  made  at 
the  sacrifice  of  their  own  national  qualities  of  colour  and 
execution. 

Diirer  met  Van  Orley  at  Brussels,  at  the  court  of  Mar- 
garet the  Eegent  of  the  Netherlands,  and  records  that 
*'  Maister  Bernhart "  invited  him  to  such  a  "  costly  meal  as 
could  not  be  paid  for  with  ten  florins ! " 

Michael  Coxcien,  or  Van  Coxcten  (1499-1592),  was 
the  pupil  of  Van  Orley,  and  imitated  his  master's  imita- 
tions. He  has  been  styled  "  the  Flemish  Raphael  "  by  his 
admirers,  but  we  might  more  appropriately  use  the  title  in 
Bcoff.  He  is,  in  fact,  Raphael  many  times  diluted,  and 
with  a  slight  addition  of  Flemish  vulgarity  in  the  weak 
liquid. 

Perhaps  the  best,  certainly  the  most  pleasing  work  he 
ever  accomplished  was  a  copy  of  the  Mystic  Lamb  of  St. 
Bavon,  which  he  executed  for  his  patron,  Philip  II.  of 
Spain.  It  took  him  two  years  to  paint,  and  was  very  faith- 
fully rendered. 

Michael  Coxcien  was  the  son  of  a  painter  of  the  same 
name,  but  of  whose  works  nothing  is  known,  and  was  bom 
at  Malines.  His  son,  Raphael  Coxcien,  was  admitted  into 
the  Antwerp  G-uild  in  1585. 

Jan  Schoreel  ^  (bom  at  Schoorl,  in  Holland,  1495,  died 
1562)  [was  apprenticed,  in  1509,  to  William  Comeliszoon 
at  Haarlem.  Whilst  working  for  this  master,  he  spent  his 
leisure  in  zealous  study  of  nature  in  the  woods  without  the 
town.  At  the  close  of  three  years,  he  wandered  as  journey- 
man to  Amsterdam,  where  he  worked  under  the  genial 
painter  Jacob  Corneliszoon,  of  Oost-Zaandam,  thence  to 
Utrecht,  where  Mabuse  taught  him,  and  probably  in- 
duced him  to  undertake  the  journey  to  Italy.  Schoreel 
travelled  by  way  of  Cologne,  Spiers,  Strasburg,  and  Basle, 
working  in  each  city  as  painter,  architect,  or  engineer.  He 
stayed  at  Nuremberg  to  greet  Albert  Diirer,  and  arrived  in 
Venice  when  Titian  was  in  the  height  of  his  glory.  He  was 
here  induced  to  join  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  where  he 
entered  the  brotherhood  of  Knights  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
The  portraits  he  painted  of  tliis  fraternity  are  to  be  seen  at 

[^  Also  called  Scorel  or  Schoorl.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING  IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  307 

Haarlem  and  Utrecht,  and,  with  others,  show  him  a  worthy 
master  of  Antonio  Moro.  Jle  was  at  Rhodes  in  1520,  made 
the  tour  of  Italy,  and  arriving  in  Rome,  was  induced  tc 
settle  there  by  Adrian  VI.,  who]  made  him  overseer  of  the 
art  treasures  of  the  Vatican  ;  but  on  the  death  of  Adrian 
he  returned  to  his  own  country,  and  was  made  prebend  of 
the  church  of  St.  Mary  in  Utrecht,  in  which  town  he  re- 
sided until  his  death. 

[A  more  original  painter  than  Van  Orley,  or  Coxcien,  his 
colouring  is  more  vigorous  ;  some  of  his  portraits  have  been 
attributed  to  Holbein.  His  finest  work  is  the  recently  dis- 
covered altar-piece  of  Obervellach,  in  Styria,  painted  in 
1520.^  He  should  be  more  j^roperly  included  in  the  early 
Dutch  school.] 

He  is  said  to  have  been  a  most  accomplished  man,  to 
have  spoken  five  different  languages,  and  to  have  been  a 
poet  and  musician  as  well  as  a  painter. 

The  painting  (No.  720)  of  the  National  Gallery,  the  Re- 
pose in  Egypt,  with  St.  Joseph  offering  a  plate  of  fruit  to 
the  Saviour,  is  ascribed  to  him. 

His  earUer  works,  which  are  more  German  in  style,  often 
pass  by  the  name  of  Diirer. 

Lambert  Lombard  (1505-1566),  was  another  artist  who 
was  ruined  by  an  early  visit  to  Italy.  He  went  thither  in 
1540  in  the  suite  of  Cardinal  Pole,  and  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Andrea  del  Sarto. 

Lambert  Lombard,  more  than  any  other,  perhaps,  spread 
this  Italian  taste  far  and  wide  in  the  Netherlands.  He  had 
a  large  school  in  Liege.^ 

Frans  van  Vriendt,  called  Frans  Floris  (1517-18- 
1570),  was  the  most  notable  of  Lambert  Lombard's  scholars, 
and  propagated  the  teachings  of  his  master  to  an  alarming 
extent.  He  had,  it  is  said  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty  scholars  in  his  school  at  Antwerp,  but  we  do  not 
find  one  great  artist  proceeding  from  this  extensive  school. 

'  [  Fide  Justi's  article  in  the  Jahrbuch  der  Konigliche  Kunstsamm- 
lungen.     1881.] 

^  A  life  of  Lambert  Lombard  was  wTitten  by  Dominicus  Lampsonius, 
one  of  his  scholars.  It  does  not,  however,  give  us  much  information. 
[Works  of  his  are  said  to  exist  in  private  collections  at  Libge.  No  others 
aro  authentic.  His  style  may  be  judged  of  by  his  drawings,  which  are 
signed  and  dated.     Vuie  Wauters'  *•  La  peinture  Flamande."] 


303  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII, 

Frans  Floris  acquired  great  riches  bj  Lis  facile  painting, 
and  was  fond  of  displaying  them.  He  built  himself,  we 
are  told,  a  magnificent  house  in  Antwerp,  painting  the 
facade  with  an  allegory  of  the  fine  arts.  Poetry,  Labour, 
Experience,  Industry,  and  Skill  being  represented  by  sym- 
bolical figures. 

The  fall  of  the  Angels,  in  the  Antwerp  Gallery,  is  gene- 
rally reckoned  his  master- work. 

Amongst  later  masters  of  this  school  the  three  Breughels, 
known  respectively  as  Peasant  Breughel  ^  (1530-69),  Heli, 
Breughel  (1564-1638),  and  Velvet  Breughel  (1568- 
1625),  from  the  class  of  subjects  they  painted,  may  be  distin- 
guished. There  was  a  certain  amount  of  original  talent  in 
each  of  these  three  painters,  and  their  paintings  are  often 
full  of  clever  invention.  Jan,  or  Velvet  Breughel,  in  par- 
ticular, was  a  painter  of  considerable  dexterity,  and  his 
curious  representations  of  fantastic  and  demoniacal  subjects 
are  amusing,  at  all  events,  which  is  a  merit  that  the  dreary- 
mythological  canvases  and  religious  genre  pictures  of  his 
contemporaries  do  not  possess.  [Whilst  his  landscape  back- 
grounds  to  some  of  Rubens'  pictures  are  of  excellent  execu- 
tion and  brilliant  colour.] 

From  the  solemn  religious  realism  of  the  masters  of 
Bruges,  Flemish  art  had,  indeed,  fallen  when  it  could  ex- 
press religious  events  with  a  vulgarity  equal  to  that  of 
Teniers  and  the  painters  of  his  school,  but  without  any  of 
his  redeeming  power  and  execution. 

The  portrait  painters  of  this  time  were,  as  we  often  find 
it  to  be  the  case  when  art  is  degenerate,  far  better  masters 
than  the  subject  painters.  Indeed,  the  latter,  when  they 
painted  portraits,  often  produced  excellent  works.  It  was 
their  taste  that  was  depraved,  not  their  skill  of  hand  that 
had  departed,  and  taste  was  less  needed  in  portraits  than 
in  mythologies  and  biblical  histories. 

[The  portrait  painters  were  for  many  years  the  bidwark 
of  the  national  art  against  foreign  influences. 

Distinguished  jn  this  branch  of  art  were  Frans  Porbtjs 
the  Elder  (1540-84),  a  pupil  of  his  father,  Pieter  Porbus, 

\}  Peasant  Breughel  was  a  good  colourist,  and  his  pictures  of 
national  gatherings,  snow  scenes,  &c.,  are  well  executed  and  replete  with 
vigdur  and  fancy,  though  coarse  in  expression,] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  309 

and  of  Frans  Moris,  a  fine  colourist.  His  son,  Frans  the 
Younger  (1570-1622),  -was  employed  chiefly  at  the  court  of 
France,  and  was  scarcely  his  father's  equal.  Martin  Vos 
or  De  Vos  (1513-1603),  was  considered  the  best  of  Floris' 
puj^ils.  Nicholas  Neuchatel  (at  Antwerp,  1539,  at  Mons, 
1540,  and  at  Nuremberg  before  1561)  painted  the  fine  por- 
trait of  a  Mathematician  and  his  Son,  No.  124  in  the 
Munich  Gallery.  Adrien  Thomas  Key,  of  Breda  (1544- 
90?),  painted  the  triptych  in  the  Antwerp  Museum  (Nos. 
228-9-30-1),  with  the  magnificent  portraits  of  the  Schmidt 
family  on  the  wings.  Frans  Francken  the  Elder  (1544- 
1616),  and  GrORTZius  G-eldorp,  of  Louvain.  (1533?),  were 
noted.] 

Sir  Antonij  Moro  (1518-1588),  is  the  best  known  of 
these  portrait  painters,  especially  in  England,  to  which 
country  he  was  sent  by  the  Emperor  Charles  Y.  to  take  the 
portrait  of  Queen  Mary,  his  son  Philip's  betrothed  wife. 
Perhaps  it  was  this  portrait  that  first  gave  Philip  such  a 
distaste  for  his  unhappy  English  wife.  Mary,  however, 
with  her  love  of  everything  belonging  to  her  unkind  hus- 
band, retained  Moro  as  her  court  painter,  and  he  appears 
to  have  remained  in  England  until  her  death,  when  he  re- 
turned with  Philip  to  Spain.  He  finally  settled  in  Brussels 
imder  the  protection  of  the  Duke  of  Alva,  [as  did  likewise 
a  pupil  of  Lambert  Lombard,  William  Key,  of  Breda 
(1520-68),  much  esteemed  for  his  portraits.  That  of  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  in  Brussels  Museum,  is  assigned  to"  him. 
"Whilst  painting  it,  he  overheard  the  order  for  the  execution 
of  Counts  Egmont  and  Hoorn.  The  shock  was  so  great  that 
the  painter  went  home  and  died  the  next  day,  so  it  is  said.] 
JoAS  Yan  Cleve,  of  Antwerp  [(flourished  1530-50),  called 
The  Mad,]  is  another  and  an  earlier  Flemish  portait  painter 
who  settled  for  a  time  in  England.  Holbein  gets  the  credit  or 
discredit  of  many  of  Cleve's  portraits.  [Those  of  himself 
and  his  wife  at  Windsor  Castle  are  amongst  his  best  works.] 

Landscape  painting  was  another  branch  of  the  art  in 
which  several  of  the  painters  of  Antwerp  excelled.  Joachim 
DE  Patinir  (who  matriculated  in  the  Antwerp  Painters' 
Ouild  in  1515,  and  died  in  1524)  is  the  first  master,  either 
Italian  or  Flemish,  who  treated  landscape  purely  for  its 
own  sake,  and  not  merely  as  a  background  to  his  figures. 


310  HISTOKY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

With  him  the  figures  are  usually  subservient  to  the  land- 
scape, as  with  the  later  of  the  great  landscape  painters ; 
but  we  always  have  figures,  and  the  landscape  is  supposed 
to  be  only  the  scene  of  the  event.  He  was  fantastic  in  his 
treatment  even  of  sea  and  mountain,  and  delighted  in 
jagged  rocks,  whose  formation  it  would  be  difficult  for 
geologists  to  decide.  The  Landscape  (No.  717),  of  the 
National  Collection,  is  a  fair  example  of  his  style.  The 
little  imp  stealing  the  poor  Evangelist's  ink  is  a  charac- 
teristic piece  of  northern  grotesque  humour.  [Patinir  was 
probably  a  pupil  of  Gerard  David.] 

Herri  de  Bles,  or  Henrik  Metten  Bles,  that  is,  with 
the  forelock,  was  a  scholar  of  Patinir' s,  and  painted  similar 
scenes.  He  is  called  Civetta  by  the  Italians,  from  his 
having  placed  an  owl  as  a  mark  on  his  works.  [He  was 
born  at  Dinant,  and  died  at  Liege  about  1550. 

To  Lucas  G-assel,  of  Helmont,  who  lived  at  Brussels, 
and  died  there  about  1560,  many  works  formerly  ascribed 
to  Bles  and  Breughel  (Peasant)  are  now  restored.  A  strong 
national  and  individual  character  is  shown  in  his  rare  pic- 
tures of  men  working  in  mines,  at  forges,  <fec.,  amid  the 
picturesque  scenery  of  his  native  Pays  de  Liege.  His  fan- 
tastic forms  are  sometimes  borrowed  from  Lucas  of  Ley- 
den  ;  his  colouring  is  dark  and  coarse.] 

Matthew  (1556-80)  and  Paul  Bril  (1556-1626)  begin 
the  line  of  modern  landscape  painters.  Their  works,  or 
rather  those  of  Paul,  for  Matthew's  are  scarcely  known, 
are  dreary  and  uninteresting,  but  they  set  the  fashion,  so  to 
speak,  for  landscape  amongst  the  Italians  of  their  time, 
and  Paul  Bril  may  be  considered  the  forerunner  of  Claude 
and  Poussin  in  landscape  art. 

Early  School  of  Holland. 

But  whilst  the  direct  artistic  descendants  of  the  Van 
Eycks  were  thus  wasting  their  powers  in  attempted  rivalry 
with  the  Italians,  there  were  a  few  early  Dutch  masters 
who  preserved  for  a  longer  time  their  national  style  and 
individual  originality  of  mind.  The  school  of  painting  at 
Haarlem,  founded  by  Albert  Yan  Ouwater,^  has  already 
^  See  p.  292. 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE   NETHERLANDS.  3li 

been  mentioned.  A  tendency  towards  caricature,  such  as 
we  have  already  observed  in  Quentin  Massys,  a  grotesque 
humour,  and  a  strange  fantastic  treatment  even  of  sacred 
subjects,  an  element  derived  probably  from  Germany,  dis- 
tinguish these  early  Dutch  painters  from  their  Flemish 
brethren  and  their  Dutch  descendants.  The  early  school 
of  Holland  is,  indeed,  so  totally  separate  in  style  and  aim 
from  the  later  Dutch  schools,  that  for  that  reason  it  seems 
better  to  consider  it  here  under  Flemish  art,  to  which  it  is 
at  all  events  allied  in  point  of  date,  than  to  refer  it  to 
Dutch  art,  with  which  it  has  nothing  in  common. 

CoRNELis  Engelbrechtsen  (1468-1533)  is  the  earliest 
master  of  Holland  of  whom  we  have  any  authentic  record. 
His  father  was  a  wood-engraver,  and  Cornells,  who  had 
probably  studied  at  Bruges,  introduced  the  oil  method  into 
Leyden.  The  greater  number  of  his  works  were  destroyed 
by  the  iconoclasts,  but  a  few  remain  that  are  thought  to  be 
genuine,  the  most  important  being  a  triptych  in  the  town- 
hall  at  Leyden.^  [His  three  sons  were  painters,  and  with 
Lucas  Jacobz.  were  his  pupils,  viz.,  Cornelis  Cornelisz., 
Pieter  Cornelisz.  (surnamed  Kiinst),  a  glass-painter, 
and  Lucas  (surnamed  Kok).]  An  earlier  master  than 
Cornelis,  mentioned  by  some  writers  by  the  name  of 
Gerard  of  St.  John,  or  Gerard  van  Haarlem,  has  been 
already  mentioned,  page  292.  [Jan  Mandyn,  of  Haarlem, 
died  at  Antwerp  in  1520.  He  painted  fantastical  subjects 
in  the  style  of  Bosch.  His  pupil,  Pieter  Aartzen,  called 
LangePier  (1507-72-3),  wasEchevin  of  Amsterdam,  and 
painted  chiefly  kitchens.  No.  153,  in  Brussels  Museum,  a 
handsome  cook-maid  with  a  page,  nearly  life-size,  is  an 
original  and  vigorous  composition  of  rich  and  sober  colour- 
ing, somewhat  hard  in  outline.  His  son,  Aart  Pieterz. 
(1541-1603),  was  a  still-life  painter.  Jacob  Cornelis- 
zooN,  of  Oost-Zaandam,  is  an  important  painter  of  the 
transition  period,  but  is  chiefly  known  as  an  engraver.  In 
manner  he  resembles  Cornells  Engelbrechtsen.  He  painted 
between  the  years  1506-1530.  Nothing  of  his  life  is  known 
but  that  he  resided  at  Amsterdam,  and  was  the  master  of 
Jan  Schoreel.    His  brother,  Buys  Cornelisz.,  and  his  son, 

p  Engraved  in  outline  in  Taurel's  "  L'Art  Chretien,"  1,  xii.] 


312  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

Dirk  Jacobz,  (1493-1567),  were  painters.     By  the  latt*- 
are   three   corporation  pictures    at    Amsterdam.      Jac*- 
Cornelisz'.  chief  work  is  a  fine  Nativity,  dated  1512,  nri 
at  Naples.^     Two  portraits  in  the  National  Gallery  (N 
657),  are  ascribed  to  him.]     But  the  best  known  and  mo- 
characteristic  artist  of  this  school  is  Luc  Jacobz.,  the  eel- 
brated  Lucas  Van  Letden  (1494-1533),  whose  rare  ei 
gravings    are    amongst   the   most    coveted    treasures    < 
connoisseurs.      His  genius  must   have   been   remarkabjv 
precocious  in  its  develojDment,  for,  before  he  was  twelvt- 
years  of  age  he  was  already  known  as  a  painter  and  en- 
graver, and  also,  it  is  said,  as  a  wood  carver,^  and  amongst 
his  early  works  are  reckoned  the  curious  engraving  of  the 
Temj^tation  of  S.  Anthony,  and  nine  circular  prints  of  the 
scenes  of  the  Passion,  executed  with  extreme  care  and  finish. 
He  is  now  far  better  known  by  his  engravings  than  his 
paintings,  the  latter  being  extremely  rare,  and  for  the  most 
part  in  out-of-the-way  places,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  form 
an  opinion  about  them.     His  largest  known  work  in  paint- 
ing is  a  Last  Judgment,  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at  Ley  den, 
which  Kugler  speaks  of  as  following  the  traditional  mode 
of  representing  this  subject.     There  is  also  a  woodcut  in 
Kugler's   "  Handbook "   of  a  Card  Party,  of  which  the 
original  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke.    The 
Antwerp  Gallery  has  several  paintings  ascribed  to  him,  and 
there  are  two  at  Munich,  a  well-executed  Madonna  and 
Child  and  Mary  Magdalen,  and  a  Circumcision  of  Christ,  a 
small  painting  on  copj^er,  where  Joseph  is  allowed   the 
honour  of  holding  the  Child,  the  Virgin  and  S.  Anna  beini^- 
only  spectators.^ 

But  it  is  in  his  prints  that  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
his  genius  are  most  strikingly  manifested.     Here  his  wild 

P  Engraved  in  outline  in  Forster's  "  Deukmaler  der  bildenden  Kiinste," 
xi.  A  catalogue  of  Jac.  Cornelisz'  works  has  recently  been  compiled  by 
I)r,  Seheibler,  of  Bonn  ] 

^  The  celebrated  print  of  the  Monk  Sergius  killed  by  Mahomet,  is 
dated  1508,  and  must,  therefore,  have  been  executed  when  Lucas  was 
only  fourteen.  Before  this,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  he  had  painted  a  St. 
Hubert  in  tempera,  which  had  been  paid  for  by  a  citizen  of  Leyden  with 
twelve  gold  pieces — one  for  each  year  of  his  age. 

^  Kugler  does  not  seem  to  be  aware  of  this  painting.  It  is  the  most 
characteristic  work  ascribed  to  him  that  I  have  seen. 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHEELANDS.  313 

fancy  lias  full  play,  and  he  treats  not  only  the  fantastic 
legends  of  the  Clmrch  of  Rome,  but  also  the  events  of 
biblical  history,  in  a  spirit  of  grotesque  realism  that  shocks 
minds  accustomed  only  to  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  Italy, 
or  to  the  pious  realism  of  the  Bruges  masters.  There 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  a  sort  of  squint  in  his  mental 
vision,  which  prevented  him  from  seeing  things  in  their 
natural  positions,  and  led  him  to  all  kinds  of  whimsical 
effects.  "  His  works,"  says  Schlegel,^  "  are  sometimes  like 
those  of  a  highly  intellectual  but  sickly  child,  and  some- 
times like  those  of  a  wonderful  but  premature  old  age." 
This  may  be  accounted  for  in  part  by  the  circumstances  of 
his  life.  His  genius  was,  as  we  have  seen,  very  premature 
in  development,  and  it  was  also  premature  in  decline.  For 
the  last  six  years  of  his  life  (and  he  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-nine)  he  was  a  prey  to  some  mysterious  disease, 
which  clouded  his  brilliant  life  with  pain  and  melancholy. 
Such  works  as  he  then  executed  were  done  on  a  bed  of 
sickness.^ 

Before  this,  however,  his  career  had  been  splendid 
enough.  Van  Mander  accuses  him  of  an  extravagant  love 
of  show  and  state,  and,  judging  by  the  account  that  has 
been  handed  down  of  his  jovial  tour  through  the  Nether- 
lands, it  would  seem  not  without  reason.  Seated  in  a 
beautifully  painted  barge  beneath  a  rich  canopy,  he  rowed, 
we  are  told,  along  the  canals  of  Holland  in  almost  oriental 
state  to  visit  his  brother  artists.  Arrived  at  Middleberg, 
he  invited  them  all  to  a  grand  banquet,  at  which  he  ap- 
peared in  **  a  gorgeous  robe  of  yellow  silk  that  shone  like 
gold."  But  this  time  he  was  quite  obscured  by  Mabuse, 
who,  not  to  be  outdone  by  the  Dutch  artist,  had  come  to  the 
banquet  in  a  robe  of  real  cloth  of  gold,  not  a  paper  one  on 
this  occasion. 

Bartsch  enumerates  no  less  than  174  engravings  by  his 
liand.  Many  of  these  are  extremely  rare.  Of  his  famous 
Eulenspiegel,  for  instance,  not  above  four  or  five  original 
impressions  are  now  extant,  and  these  fetch,  of  course, 


^  Gemahlde  Beschreibungpn  aus  Paris  und  den  Niederlanden. 
■^  The  small  engraving  of  Pallas  is  said  to  have  been  his  last  work, 
and  to  have  been  ou  his  bed  when  he  died. 


314  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VI  J. 

enormous  sums,^  although  it  is  far  from  being  the  "best  <  .f 
his   prints.     The   Dance   of  the   Magdalen,   Esther  aiwl 
Ahasuerus,  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  the  Adoration  of 
Kings,  are  the  subjects  of  other  celebrated  engravings 
him. 

[There  remain  a  few  more  names  to  be  mentioned  whi<  li 
belong  to  Dutch  art  as  it  was  before  casting  off  the  yoke  (  f 
foreign  masters,  and  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church,  tlit' 
national  life  found  expression  in  its  famous  painters  of 
portait  and  genre,  and  the  real  Dutch  School  began.  Juu 
Schoreel  has  already  been  mentioned,  and  his  pupil  Sir 
Antonio  Moro.  Another  of  his  pupils  was  Martin  Yuu 
Yeen,  or  Heemskerk  (1494-1574),  a  forcible  but  extrava- 
gant painter,  who  studied  Michel  Angelo  in  Italy,  aii<l 
afterwards  settled  at  Haarlem,  where  (as  at  Brussels  aii<I 
other  places)  some  of  his  works  are  preserved.  Otli»r 
painters  who  adopted  an  Italianised  style  were  Corndi.s 
Comelisz  of  Haarlem  (1562-1638),  Abraham  Bloemacrt 
(1565-1647),  Pieter  Lastman  (b.  1562),  Dirk  and  Woutt-r 
Crabeth,  the  painters  of  the  famous  windows  at  Gouda, 
and  Gerard  Honthorst  (1592-1662).  More  interesting  are 
the  names  of  Hubert  (1526-83)  and  Hendrik  Goltsius,  the 
latter  (1558-1616)  specially  celebrated  as  an  engraver ;  Jan 
Vredeman  de  Yries  (b.  1527),  and  Hendrik  van  Steenwick, 
his  pupil  (1550-1604),  celebrated  painters  of  architecture  ; 
and  Hendrik  Yroom  (1556-1640),  the  first  Dutch  sea- 
painter.] 

•  Diirer  mentions,  in  his  Journal,  that  he  bought  a  print  of  the 
Eulenspiegel  for  a  sum  equivalent  to  a  few  pence  of  our  money. 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  315 


Chapter  III. 

FLEMISH   SCHOOL   OF   THE   SEVENTEENTH 
CENTUEY. 

KuBENS — Vandyke — Teniers. 

WE  have  watched  the  religious  spirit  of  early  Flemish 
art  gradually  dying  away  in  the  bold  light  of 
Rationalism  and  Renaissance,  and  have  seen  the  suc- 
cessors of  the  Van  Eycks  fall  into  an  ostentatious  imitation 
of  Italian  art,  for  which  they  had  no  real  taste  or  sym- 
pathy, so  that  their  works  became  at  length  utterly  devoid 
of  good  sense  and  honest  feeling. 

It  was  time  that  a  new  school  should  be  founded,  and 
that  art  should  return  once  more  to  nature  for  instruction. 

Peter  Paul  Rubens  (1577-1640),  was  the  master  who 
accomplished  this  revolution,  and  again  raised  Flemish  art 
to  a  high  pinnacle  of  greatness.  He  never,  it  is  true,  at- 
tempted to  revive  the  religious  spirit  that  had  animated 
the  early  Flemish  masters.  That  was  now  utterly  dead,  or 
at  all  events  had  no  place  in  Rubens'  art ;  not  that  he  was 
in  any  respect  an  irreligious  man,  like  many  who  have, 
nevertheless,  painted  deeply  devout  pictures ;  on  the  con- 
trary, we  know  that  in  private  life  he  was  upright  and 
charitable,  performing  all  the  moral  and  social  duties  of 
life  with  the  utmost  propriety,  but  there  is  not  the  slightest 
trace  in  his  works  of  any  spiritual  emotion  ;  his  mind  was 
never  clouded  by  doubt,  carried  away  by  enthusiasm,  nor 
troubled  by  the  mystery  of  life.  His  hfe,  in  truth,  had 
no  mystery  in  it,  but  was  one  continued  course  of  success 
and  worldly  prosperity,  and  his  art  reflects  its  ease  and 
full  enjoyment. 

Rubens  was  bom  at  Siegen,  a  town  of  Westphalia,  on 
the  day  of  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul,  June  29th,  1577.  A  year 
after  his  birth,  his  parents,  who  had  been  driven  from  the 
Netherlands  by  the  religious  disturbances  of  that  time. 


316  HISTORY    OP    PAINTING.  [bOOK  VII. 

settled  in  Cologne,  where  the  young  Eubens  was  brought 
up  until  he  was  ten  years  old,  when,  upon  the  death  of  his 
father,  his  mother  returned  to  Antwerp.  Here,  as  he 
shoAved  a  marked  predilection  for  painting,  he  was  placed, 
after  some  preliminary  instruction  by  Tobie  Van  Haecht 
and  Adam  Van  Noort,  with  a  master  of  note  in  his 
time,  Otto  yan  Veen,  called  Otto  V^nius,  whose  gaudy 
and  yet  cold  colouring  offers  a  singular  contrast  to  that 
of  his  celebrated  pupil.  Van  Veen,  although  his  art 
does  not  rise  beyond  that  of  the  Italian  Macchinisti,  was 
a  man  of  great  cultivation  and  learning,  and  his  pupil 
probably  acquired  from  him  knowledge  more  valuable 
than  his  style  in  art,  which,  indeed,  he  never  seems  to 
have  adopted. 

Rubens  was  made  free  of  the  Antwerp  GTuild"  ia  1598, 
and  in  1600  went  to  Italy,  where  the  colouring  of  the 
Venetians  failed  not  to  produce  a  great  impression  upon 
his  art.  His  gorgeous  style  and  colouring  are,  in  fact, 
directly  founded  on  those  of  Paolo  Veronese,  who  beyond 
all  other  Italians  seems  most  immediately  to  have  in- 
fluenced him.  But  unlike  the  other  Netherland  painters 
of  his  time,  he  profited  by  his  Italian  studies  without 
sacrificing  his  own  individuality ;  what  he  took  from  the 
Italians,  he  quickly  assimilated  and  made  his  own,  his 
powerful  originality  preventing  his  ever  being  an  imitator. 

In  Italy,  he  entered  the  service  of  Vincenzio  G-onzaga, 
Duke  of  Mantua,  who  not  only  employed  him  as  a  painter, 
but  likewise,  it  is  said,  entrusted  him  with  a  secret  mis- 
sion to  Philip  III.  of  Spain. 

On  his  return  from  SjDain,  he  appears  to  have  passed, 
some  time  in  Eome,  where  Michael  Angelo's  works  doubt- 
less contributed  to  his  rich  stores  of  knowledge,  and  per- 
haps first  led  him  to  attempt  that  bold  dramatic  action 
which  so  peculiarly  marks  his  works.^  In  1608  he  re- 
turned to  Antwerp,  being  summoned  from  Eome  by  the 
death  of  his  mother,  and  from  henceforth  although  he 
made  frequent  journeys  abroad,  both  for  pleasure  and  on 
diplomatic  missions,  he  made  that  city  his  home. 

['  He  went  to  Genoa  also.  His  copies  from  Titian,  Correggio,  Leo- 
nardo da  Vinci,  Mantegna,  and  others,  show  that  he  visited  Venice  and 
other  places  in  Italy.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  317 

A  rich  pension  and  the  appointment  of  Court  painter 
given  him  the  year  after  his  return  by  Albert  and  Isabella 
the  Regents  of  the  Netherlands,  bound  him,  in  fact,  "  by 
a  chain  of  gold,"  says  one  of  his  biographers,^  to  his 
country,  although  he  often  longed  for  the  blue  skies  and 
soft  breezes  of  Italy.  He  stipulated,  however,  that  he 
should  not  be  obliged  to  reside  at  Brussels,  the  seat  of  the 
Court,  but  built  himself  a  magnificent  house  in  the  Italian 
style  at  Antwerp,  where  he  soon  attracted  a  large  school, 
and  was  universally  acknowledged  as  the  greatest  master  of 
his  time. 

The  building  of  his  grand  Italian  mansion  was  the  occa- 
sion, it  is  said,  of  the  production  of  one  of  his  most 
famous  works.  Owing  to  some  dispute  with  the  company 
of  arquebusiers  about  a  piece  of  their  ground  upon  which 
he  had  encroached  in  his  building,  he  agreed  as  a  com- 
pensation to  paint  them  a  picture  of  St.  Christopher,  the 
patron  saint  of  their  company.  But  with  his  usual  muni- 
ficence he  was  not  content  with  painting  the  single  figure 
of  the  saint,  which  was  all  that  was  demanded  from  him ; 
but,  as  illustrating  the  name  of  the  saint, — Christopher  or 
the  Christ-hearing,  he  represented  all  those  who  had  ever 
borne  Christ  in  their  arms,  from  the  aged  St.  Simeon,  who 
first  held  the  Infant  Saviour  in  the  Temple,  to  the  disciples 
who  took  down  his  body  from  the  cross. ^ 

The  famous  Descent  from  the  Cross,  of  Antwerp  Cathe- 
dral, which  is  usually  reckoned  Rubens'  greatest  work, 
formed  the  centre  subject  of  this  grand  altar-piece,  and 
whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  conception  and  sentiment 
of  this  picture,  certainly,  for  vigorous  colour  and  effective 
chiaroscuro,  it  stands  unequalled.  Opie,  alluding  to  the 
bold  manner  in  which  Rubens  has  drawn  attention  to  the 
body  of  Christ,  by  placing  a  white  cloth  behind  it,  calls  it 
an  effect  "that  no  man  less  daring  than  Rubens  would 

^  Philip  Eubens,  his  nephew. 

^  The  Arquebusiers,  it  is  said,  failed  at  first  to  appreciate  the  liberal 
interpretation  that  Rubens  had  given  to  the  old  legend,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  paint  the  veritable  St.  Christopher  on  one  of  the  wings.  Then, 
at  last,  they  deigned  to  be  pleased ;  and  well  they  might  be,  for  they 
had  gained  in  exchange  for  a  few  feet  of  ground  "  a  miracle  of  art,  of 
■which  it  would  now  be  difficult  to  compute  the  value  either  in  money  or 
land." 


318  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

have  attempted,  and  no  man  less  consummate  as  a  colourist 
•would  have  executed  with  success." 

And  yet,  with  all  these  artistic  merits,  the  Antwerp 
,_I)escent  from  the  Cross  produces  an  unpleasant  impression 
on  the  mind.  It  appeals,  in  fact,  to  the  eye,  and  not  to 
the  mind,  and  still  less  to  the  heart.  Mrs.  Jameson  has 
well  described  it  as  "  an  earthly  tragedy,  and  not  a  divine 
mystery."  It  is  nothing  more  than  the  execution  of  a 
common  criminal,  with  all  its  unpleasant  details ;  but  the 
terribly  realistic  scene  serves  to  set  forth  the  marvellous 
power  and  skill  of  the  master  who  painted  it,  and  whilst 
looking  on  it  we  can  do  nothing  but  admire  this.  We  can 
in  no  wise  "  forget  the  artist  in  the  art,"  for  it  is  the 
artist's  daring  effects  that  we  are  principally  occupied 
with.  But  when  we  turn  away  from  Rubens'  master- work 
the  mind  refuses  to  dwell  upon  it  with  satisfaction,  and 
the  eye  being  no  longer  dazzled  by  its  colouring,  we  turn 
to  think  of  some  simpler,  less  clever,  but  more  deeply  felt 
rendering  of  an  earlier  master. 

Such  a  work,  however,  could  not  fail  to  increase  the 
€ver-growing  renown  of  the  master,  and,  while  puj)ils 
flocked  to  his  studio,  sovereigns  and  princes  vied  with  one 
another  to  show  him  favour.  No  j)ainter,  except  perhaps 
Titian,  was  ever  so  courted  by  Fortune. 

But  it  was  not  only  to  his  artistic  abilities  that  Rubens 
owed  his  high  position,  he  was  likewise  a  most  successful 
diplomatist,  and  although  we  may  regret  that  his  time 
should  have  been  taken  up  with  affairs  of  state,  the  Infanta 
Isabella,  when,  at  the  death  of  her  husband,  she  was  left 
alone  in  the  government  of  the  Netherlands,  found  him  a 
valuable  councillor. 

In  1628  he  undoubtedly  went  to  Spain  on  state  busi- 
ness, and  met  with  a  most  flattering  recei^tion  at  the  Court 
of  Madrid.  The  great  beauty  of  his  j^erson,  the  amiability 
of  his  character,  and  the  courtly  grace  of  his  manners, 
seem,  indeed,  to  have  fascinated  all  classes. 

In  England,  likewise,  where  he  was  sent  in  the  follow- 
ing year  to  negotiate  a  peace  with  Charles  I.,  he  was 
eminently  successful.  No  better  ambassador,  could,  per- 
haps, have  been  sent  to  the  refined  and  art-loving  Stuart 
king  than  a  man  like  Rubens,  who  united  in  a  singular 


JOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  319 

legree  the  most  captivating  social  qualities  with  the  intel- 
ect  and  tact  of  a  statesman,  and  the  genius  of  a  great 
irtist.  At  all  events,  he  managed,  either  by  his  eloquence 
IS  a  painter  or  a  diplomatist,  to  persuade  Charles  I.  into  a 
Teaty  of  peace  that  was  highly  advantageous  for  Spain, 
iiid,  of  course,  equally  disadvantageous  for  England ;  but 
I!liarles  was  so  well  satisfied,  that  before  the  painter- 
mibassador's  departure  from  England  he  bestowed  on  him 
the  honour  of  knighthood,  presenting  him  on  the  occasion 
with  his  own  sword,  and  hanging  a  magnificent  chain 
round  his  neck,  which  Rubens  ever  afterwards  wore  in  re- 
membrance of  the  English  monarch. 

Whilst  in  England  he  executed  several  great  paintings. 
One  of  these,  an  allegory  of  JPeace  and  War,  as  it  is  called, 
now  in  the  National  Gallery,  was  artfully  presented  by  the 
painter  to  Charles  I.  in  support  of  the  pacific  views  that  he 
was  forwarding.  The  ceiling  at  Whitehall,  and  numerous 
portraits  of  his  royal  and  noble  friends,  were  likewise  the 
fruits  of  his  stay  in  Englaud. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  Antwerp,  in  1630,  Eubens 
married  a  second  time  ;  his  first  wife,  Isabella  Brandt, 
having  died  in  1626,  leaving  him  two  sons.  His  second 
choice  fell  upon  Helene  Fourment,  a  beautiful  girl  of  six- 
teen, belonging  to  one  of  the  wealthiest  families  in  Ant- 
werp. He  has  left  us  several  portraits  of  his  wives,  and 
Helene  Fourment,  especially,  served  him  as  a  model  in 
many  of  his  pictures.  Two  celebrated  portraits  of  her  are 
at  Blenheim.  In  one  the  painter  is  represented  walking 
with  her  in  a  flower-garden,  she  gxiiding  a  child  in  leading 
strings,  a  picture  that  Dr.  Waagen  pronounces  to  be  one  of 
the  most  perfect  family  pieces  in  the  world.  Even  Euskin, 
who  characterizes  Eubens  as  "a  healthy,  worthy,  kind- 
hearted,  courtly-phrased  animal,  without  any  clearly  per- 
ceptible traces  of  a  soul,"  acknowledges  an  exception  when 
he  paints  his  children. 

The  physical,  or  as  Euskin  calls  it,  healthy  animal  life  of 
Eubens,  as  distinguished  from  all  intellectual  qualities,  is 
in  truth  the  chief  characteristic  of  his  style.  He  is  a  mag- 
nificent animal,  like  one  of  the  lordly  lions  he  was  so  fond 
of  painting,  but  he  has  no  sympathy  with  the  intellectual 
<  rnvings,  or  spiritual  aspirations  of  humanity.    Pale  saints 


320  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

and  martyrs,  with  the  "  soul  shining  through  the  flesh  it 
frays,"  were  not  to  his  taste ;  no  fear  of  his  trying  *'  t<y 
paint  soul,"  without  "minding  arms  and  legs."  The  arms 
and  legs  were  the  very  things  for  his  purpose.  There  was 
healthy  animal  life,  warm  colour,  and  effective  light  and 
shade  in  a  big  naked  Flemish  beauty,  whereas  the  soul,  that 
people  talked  about,  was  a  poor  vaporous  evanescent  thing 
that  Avould  admit  of  no  gorgeous  artistic  effects,  and  might, 
perhaps,  draw  off  the  attention  of  the  spectator  from  the 
glorious  colouring  and  dexterous  execution  of  the  painter. 
Coleridge,  whose  casual  remarks  on  pictures  and  painters 
are  always  suggestive,  notices  this :  **  So  long,"  he  says, 
"  as  Rubens  confines  himself  to  space  and  outward  figure 
— to  the  mere  animal  man  with  animal  passions — he  is,  I 
may  say,  a  god  amongst  painters.  His  satyrs,  Silenuses, 
lions,  tigers,  and  dogs  are  almost  godlike ;  but  the  moment 
he  attempts  anything  involving  or  presuming  the  spiritual, 
his  gods  and  goddesses,  his  nymphs  and  heroes  become 
beasts,  absolute  unmitigated  beasts." 

This  absence  of  the  spiritual  strikes  us,  especially,  in  his 
grand  tragical  and  dramatic  scenes,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  Taking  Down  from  the  Cross  before  mentioned,  the 
Crucifixion  of  the  Antwerp  G-allery,  and  the  Crucifixion  of 
S.  Peter,  at  Cologne.  Not  the  slightest  emotion  seems  to 
have  been  felt  by  the  painter  in  painting  these  moving 
themes,  and  none,  therefore,  is  produced  in  the  mind  of 
the  beholder. 

But  if  we  set  aside  this  strange  want  of  comprehension 
of  man's  higher  intellectual  nature,  no  master  was  ever, 
perhaps,  more  perfect  in  his  art  than  Eubens.  "  He  is  the 
best  workman  with  his  tools,"  says  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds, 
"  that  ever  managed  a  pencil,"  ^  and  not  only  as  a  work- 
man, but  likewise  as  an  inventive  genius  of  the  highest 
order;  a  perfect  master  of  composition,  and  a  colourist 
who  ranks  next  after  the  great  Venetians,  he  stands  pre- 
eminent. However  much,  indeed,  we  may  dislike  his  works 
at  first  sight,  or  after  a  superficial  study,  we  generally  end, 
as  Mrs.  Jameson  has  pointed  out,  "by  standing  before 
them  in  ecstasy  and  wonder."      Unfortunately   English) 

^  The  whole  of  Sir  Joshua's  "  Fifth  Discourse  "  is  devoted  to  Kubens. 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE   NETHERLANDS.  321 

students  often  form  an  opinion  of  his  style  from  the  speci- 
mens we  have  of  it  in  this  country,  and  more  especially 
from  those  in  the  National  Collection,  which,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  fine  landscape  (No.  66),^  are  scarcely  adequate 
examples  of  his  masterly  skill.  The  truth  is,  his  powers 
have  no  room  for  display  in  his  smaller  works,  and  it  is 
only  in  such  a  gallery  as  that  of  Munich,  where  there  is  a 
whole  Saal  as  well  as  a  cabinet  devoted  to  his  enormous 
works,  that  we  can  form  any  just  appreciation  of  his  genius. 
There,  in  such  works  as  the  Battle  of  the  Amazons,  the 
Last  Judgment,  the  Lion-hunt,  the  Rape  of  the  Daughters 
of  Leucippus,  and  the  marvellous  smaller  picture  of  the 
Fall  of  the  Damned,  we  see  him  in  the  full  exercise  of  his 
strength,  and  are  overpowered  with  wonder  and  admiration. 
There  is  a  sense  of  rapid  movement  in  the  glorious  confu- 
sion of  the  last-named  picture,  for  instance,  which  no  other 
painter  has  ever  fully  expressed.  We  have  had  numerous 
falls  of  the  damned,  expulsions  of  rebel  angels,  &c.,  but 
none  ever  fell  Hke  those  of  Rubens,  with  rushing  tumul- 
tuous movement,  so  that  we  seem  to  feel  them  actually 
tumbling  headlong  upon  us.  In  the  Battle  of  the  Amazons, 
likewise,  the  powerful  action  carries  us  along^  with  it  into 
the  midst  of  the  fearful  struggle. 

Like  all  great  masters,  Rubens  excelled  as  a  portrait 
painter.  His  portraits  of  his  wives  have  been  already 
mentioned ;  but  besides  these,  and  his  portraits  of  himself 
and  children,  he  painted  many  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  his  time. 

His  versatile  genius  is  likewise  apparent  in  his  landscapes. 
*  Peter  Paul  Rubens  alone,"  says  Coleridge,  "  handles  the 
every-day  ingredients  of  all  common  landscapes  as  they  are 
handled  in  nature ;  he  throws  them  into  a  vast  and  magni- 
cent  whole,  consisting  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  all  things 
therein,"  which  means  in  more  prosaic  criticism,  that  his 
landscapes  are  remarkable  for  their  breadth,  and  masterly 
distribution  of  light  and  shade. 

Rubens  has  suffered,  like  so  many  other  masters,  by 
having  too  many  pictures  attributed  to  him.  In  spite  of 
what  we  are  told  of  his  marvellous  rapidity  of  execution, 

^  And  the  celebrated  and  most  beautiful  portrait,  known  as  the 
**  Chapeuu  do  Foil,"  the  glory  of  the  lately  added  Peel  Collection. 

T 


322  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

we  cannot  suppose  that  more  than  a  very  small  proportion 
of  the  thousands  of  pictures  which  now  bear  his  name  were 
really  painted  by  him.  He  had  a  large  school,  and  reckoned 
in  it  such  pupils  as  Yandyck,  Teniers,  Jordaens,  and  the 
great  animal  painter,  Snyders ;  it  is  not,  therefore,  much 
to  be  wondered  at  that  even  in  his  life-time  he  left  many 
of  his  designs  to  be  executed  by  his  scholars,  and  that 
many  of  the  pictures  issuing  from  his  atelier  were  scarcely 
touched  by  the  master.  This,  we  may  suppose,  was  the 
case  with  the  large  series  of  paintings  in  the  Louvre, 
representing  in  allegorical  style  the  history  of  Marie  de 
Medici.  The  sketches  for  these  pictures  at  Munich  are 
far  preferable  to  the  pictures  themselves,  in  which,  pro- 
bably, only  a  few  of  the  portraits  are  the  actual  work  of 
Eubens. 

Anthony  Vandyck  (1599-1641)  may  be  called  the  Velas- 
quez of  Flanders,  both  artists  being  especially  noted  for 
the  dignified  air  and  courtly  elegance  of  their  aristocratic 
portraits.  No  vulgar  or  common-place  character  can  be 
found  amongst  their  sitters;  all  are  courtly  gentlemen, 
gallant  soldiers,  and  delicate  ladies,  or  are  transmuted  into 
such  by  the  painter's  refined  taste,  which,  whilst  preserving 
to  the  full  the  individuality  of  the  likeness,  surrounded  it, 
as  it  were,  with  the  perfumed  atmosphere  of  courts. 

Vandyck  entered  the  school  of  Eubens,  at  Antwerp,  at 
the  age  of  fifteen,  having  studied  for  five  years  previously 
under  Van  Balen,  and  his  abilities  being  soon  apparent,  he 
received  every  assistance  from  his  generous  master,^  who 
always  sought  to  further  his  pupils*  interest,  even  when  he 
was,  as  in  Vandyck's  case,  in  danger  of  rivalry. 

Before  his  twentieth  birthday  he  was  admitted  into  the 
Antwerp  Guild  of  Painters,  thus  becoming  a  master  himself 
whilst  still  working  under  a  master.     [He  paid  a  short  visit 

^  A  story  is  told  of  the  manner  in  which  Eubens  fii-st  became  aware  of 
his  pupil's  skill.  One  day,  while  the  former  was  painting  his  great 
Descent  from  the  Cross,  Vandyck,  and  some  other  students  who  were 
furtively  examining  the  picture  in  the  master's  absence,  managed  to  fall 
against  it  and  rub  an  ai"m,  that  Kubens  had  just  painted,  out  of  the  com- 
position. Vandyck  undertook  to  paint  the  arm  again,  hoping  that 
Eubens  might  not  discover  the  mischief;  and  truly, -^hen  he  returned  to 
work  the  following  day,  he  remarked,  "  This  arr  was  not  the  worst 
thing  I  did  yesterday." 


BOOK  VII.]       PAINTING   IN   THE   NETHERLANDS.  323 

to  London  in  1620,  and  the  following  year  went  to  Italy. 
He  visited  G-enoa,  Eome,  Florence,  Venice,  Turin,  and 
Palermo,  and  returned  to  Genoa,  where  he  stayed  two 
years],  and  where  many  works  by  him  may  still  be  found. 
In  1625,  however,  he  must  have  been  again  in  Antwerp, 
for  an  agent  of  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  writing  at  the  close  of 
that  year  to  his  lord  from  Antwerp,  says : — "  Vandyck  is 
here  with  Rubens,  and  his  works  are  beginning  to  be  as 
much  esteemed  as  those  of  his  master." 

A  fine  altar-piece  representing  S.  Augustine  in  ecstasy 
supported  by  angels,  and  accompanied  by  S.  Monica  and  a 
monk,  painted  soon  after  his  return  from  Italy,  for  the 
Church  of  the  Augustines  in  Antwerp,  added  to  his  already 
achieved  reputation,  and  several  other  subjects  of  the  same 
class,  such  as  the  Crucifixion,  of  Mechlin  Cathedral,  and 
the  Elevation  of  the  Cross,  painted  for  the  Church  of 
Notre  Dame  at  Courtray,  prove  that  had  he  not  devoted 
his  talent  especially  to  portraiture  he  would  have  been 
equally  successful  as  a  painter  of  religious  history.  His 
paintings,  however,  entirely  lack  the  impetuous  life  and 
fire  of  Rubens,  and  he  never  attained  to  anything  approach- 
ing his  master's  brilliant  display  of  colour. 

But  it  is  as  a  portrait  painter  that  Vandyck  has  acquired 
his  almost  unrivalled  fame.  A  magnificent  series  of  por- 
traits of  all  the  distinguished  painters  of  his  day,  executed 
soon  after  his  return  from  Italy,  proved  that  this  was  his 
true  vocation  ;  and  from  this  time  he  gave  himself  up 
almost  entirely  to  this  branch  of  his  art,  even  his  historic 
and  ideal  characters  always  being  more  or  less  of  an  indivi- 
dual or  portrait-like  character. 

In  the  year  1627  Vandyck  came  over  to  England,  pro- 
bably moved  to  do  so  by  the  flattering  reception  that 
Rubens  had  recently  experienced  in  this  country,  but 
Charles  I.  seems  to  have  been  unaware  at  this  time  of  Van- 
dyck's  fame  as  an  artist,  and  his  visit  created  no  sensation. 
In  much  disgust  he  returned  to  Antwerp,  but  no  sooner 
had  he  gone,  than  Charles  I.  found  out  what  a  treasure  he 
had  suffered  to  escape  him,  and  in  all  haste  sent  a  personal 
invitation  to  him  to  return.  Accordingly,  in  1632,  he 
a»:^ain  came  ove^  and  this  time  had  no  cause  to  complain 
of  his  receptioii.     Charles   I.,  delighted  to  have  such  a 


324  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

painter  in  his  service,  gave  him  at  once  a  salary  of  .£200  a 
year,  besides  raising  him  to  the  dignity  of  knighthood. 

Sir  Anthony  Vandyck  was,  in  fact,  courted  and  flattered 
to  a  dangerous  extent  by  the  king  and  his  proud  aristocracy, 
who  were  indulging  in  their  dignified  ease  at  this  time, 
unmindful  of  the  troubles  that  were  so  soon  to  overtake 
them. 

Vandyck' s  portraits  of  Charles  and  his  nobles  reveal  to 
us  much  concerning  those  troubled  times.  We  understand 
in  looking  at  them,  how  impossible  it  must  have  seemed  to 
those  grand  self-satisfied  gentlemen  to  abate  anything  of 
their  aristocratic  privilege.  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides 
managed,  however,  to  enforce  the  lesson. 

One  of  Vandyck's  most  beautiful  female  portraits  is  that 
of  Lady  Yenetia,  wife  of  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  now  in 
Windsor  Castle.  "  It  will  be  next  to  impossible,"  writes 
Hazlitt,  "  to  perform  an  unbecoming  action  with  that  por- 
trait hanging  in  the  room."  It  is  truly  a  lovely  represen- 
tation of  refined  womanhood,  and  the  mysterious  history 
and  death  of  the  original,^  heighten  the  interest  that  all 
must  feel  in  regarding  the  charming  hkeness. 

In  the  National  Collection  both  the  subject  paintings  by 
him  are  merely  copies  from  Eubens,  and  the  fine  bold  head 
usually  called  that  of  Grevartius,  but  more  likely  a  portrait 
of  Cornelius  Vander  Greest,'^  is  considered  by  Wornum  and 
several  other  critics  to  be  really  by  Eubens.  It  has  cer- 
tainly none  of  Vandyck's  characteristics. 

Vandyck  died  in  London,  in  his  forty-third  year,  and  in 
spite  of  his  extravagant  style  of  living,  left  a  large  amount 
of  property  behind  him. 

[Amongst  the  contemporaries  of  Eubens  who  are  in- 
fluenced by  him,  although  neither  his  pupils  nor  imitators, 
Crayer  and  Jordaens  are  the  most  important,  whilst  Theo- 
dore EoMBOUTS,  Abraham  Janssens,  and  Gterard  Seg- 
HERS,  are  worthy  of  mention.  The  three  last  named,  inspired 

^  The  Lady  Venetia  is  said  to  have  been  poisoned  by  her  husband, 
who  passionately  loved  her,  by  means  of  a  potion  that  he  had  himself 
prepared  and  administered  to  her  for  the  purpose  of  heightening  her 
beauty.  Calumny  was  also  busy  with  the  fair  fame  of  this  noted  beauty, 
and  in  allusion  to  this,  the  emblems  of  defeated  slander  lie  around  her  in 
Vandyck's  celebrated  picture. 

2  See  "  Catalogue  of  the  National  Gallery." 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  325 

by  tlie  dramatic  sombreness  of  Caravaggio,  painted  largely 
and  robustly,  and  with  the  same  false,  exaggerated  chiaros- 
curo, before  they  fell  under  the  influence  of  Rubens. 
^Yliereas]  G-aspard  de  Grayer  (1582-1669),  the  friend  of 
Rubens,  but  not  one  of  his  followers,  belongs  in  style  more 
to  the  preceding  school  of  Flemish  art,  that,  namely,  inter- 
mediate between  the  early  religious  schools  of  Flanders 
and  the  florid  school,  as  it  has  been  called,  of  Rubens,  and 
is  somewhat  cold  in  colouring  and  conventional  in  style. 

Yet  it  is  said  that  Rubens  was  his  warm  admirer,  and 
exclaimed  once  enthusiastically,  on  seeing  one  of  his  pic- 
tures, "  Grayer !  Grayer !  no  one  will  ever  surpass  you,"  so 
different  is  the  judgment  of  one  age  to  that  of  another. 
Grayer  was  one  of  the  Flemish  painters  who  found  exten- 
sive patronage  in  Spain,  where  he  resided  for  some  time. 
His  works  are  now  mostly  in  the  Museums  at  Ghent  [and 
Brussels,  and  in' the  churches  of  Belgium.  A  very  beauti- 
ful painting,  warm  in  colour,  and  with  a  tenderness  of 
sentiment  that  reminds  one  of  Murillo,  is  in  the  Town  Hall 
of  Louvain]. 

Jacob  Jordaens  (1593-1678)  resembled  Rubens  in  his 
coarsest  style.  His  pictures  are  generally  vulgar  in  con- 
ception and  glaring  in  colour,  for  he  aimed  at  the  splendour 
of  Rubens'  colouring  without  always  attaining  its  brilliant 
harmonies.  Jordaens  was,  however,  a  clever  and  powerful 
painter.  Some  of  his  portraits  are  very  fine.  He  suffers 
by  having  many  of  his  good  pictures  attributed  to  Rubens. 

Frans  Snyders  (1579-1657),  as  an  animal  painter,  is 
almost  equal  to  Rubens,  to  whom  he  was  long  an  assistant. 
His  wild  beasts  are  truly  marvellous.  They  are  usually 
depicted  by  him  when  their  ferocious  instincts  have  been 
called  forth  by  the  most  angry  passions ;  hunts,  and  fights 
with  lions,  tigers,  and  such-like  creatures  being  his  favou- 
rite subjects.  He  likewise  painted  flowers  and  vegetables 
with  extreme  skill,  and  was  often  the  painter  of  these 
accessories  as  well  as  of  the  animals  in  Rubens'  pictures. 

[Jan  Fyt  (1609-1661)  was  a  productive  painter  C|f 
animals,  hunting,  fighting,  or  dead.  If  scarcely  distin- 
guished by  such  vigorous  action,  his  work  often  surpasses 
that  of  Snyders'  in  effects  of  light  and  beauty  and  truth  of 
plumage  and  fur  painting.     The  Eagle's  Repast  at  Ant- 


326  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

werp  is  liis  best  work.  He  was  also  a  good  water-colour 
painter.^] 

Of  the  followers  of  Vandyck  the  best  known,  in  England, 
at  all  events,  is  the  celebrated  painter  of  the  beauties  of  the 
Court  of  Charles  II.,  Peter  van  der  Faes,  better  known 
as  Sir  Peter  Lely  (1618-1680).  His  portraits  are  grace- 
ful and  pretty,  but  they  are  far  more  artificial  than  those 
of  Vandyck,  and  have  not  his  excellence  of  colour.  The 
general  meretricious  tone  of  the  Court  of  Charles  II.  is,  in 
fact,  reflected  in  them. 

George  Jamesone  (1586-1644),  called  the  "Scottish 
Vandyck,"  and  William  Dobson  (1610-1646),  two  of  the 
earliest  of  our  native  artists,  may  also  be  reckoned  as  fol- 
lowers of  Vandyck. 

[Cornelius  de  Vos  (1585-1651),  as  a  portrait  painter, 
was  unsurpassed  by  any  but  Vandyck  or  Rubens.  Witness 
the  Family  Portraits  in  the  Brussels  Museum.  Gonzales 
CoQUES  (1614-1684),  of  Antwerp,  is  called,  and  with  jus- 
tice, the  miniature  Vandyck.  His  works  are  sufficiently 
rare,  and  to  be  found  mostly  in  England.  In  the  National 
Gallery  are  good  examples  (No.  821) — A  Family  Group  in 
a  Garden,  and  the  five  half-length  figures  representing  the 
Five  Senses  (Nos.  1114  to  1118).  He  seldom  painted  the 
backgrounds  or  accessories  of  his  pictures  himself.] 

Entirely  different  from  Rubens  and  Vandyck,  both  in 
style  and  in  the  class  of  subjects  he  chose  for  representa- 
tion, is  the  third  great  master  of  the  Flemish  School  of 
painting  in  the  seventeenth  century,  David  Teniers  the 
Younger  (1610-1694). 

Although,  undoubtedly,  greatly  influenced  by  Eubens, 
even  if  he  were  not  one  of  his  scholars,  he  had  none  of  that 
master's  dashing  magnificence.  His  strong  preference  for 
small  genre  subjects,  instead  of  mythological  and  historical 
scenes,  separates  him  still  more  from  a  painter  like  Eubens, 
who  felt  his  activities  cramped  unless  he  had  a  large  arena 
allowed  him  for  their  display.  Teniers,  in  truth,  belongs 
by  his  style  to  the  Dutch  genre  school  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  rather  than  to  the  Flemish  school  of  that  time,  as 
represented   by  Eubens   and   his   cliief  followers.     Like 

['  Biirfjer,  "  Musees  d'Hollande."] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  327 

Adrian  Brauwer,  Frans  Hals,  Adrian  Van  Ostade,  and 
several  other  Dutch  masters  of  the  same  stamp,  he  de- 
lighted in  representations  of  peasant  and  tavern  life,  and 
exercised  his  marvellous  skill  in  the  delineation  of  drink- 
ing bouts,  merry-makings,  village  fairs,  peasant  weddings, 
guard  rooms,  markets,  rustic  feasts,  dances,  and  other 
similar  subjects. 

Alchemy,  also,  which  was  a  favourite  pursuit  in  his 
time,  attracted  his  observation,  and  his  representations  of 
the  victims  to  the  search  for  the  philosopher's  stone  are 
amongst  his  cleverest  productions.  He  was  likewise  fond 
of  wizards,  witches,  and  incantation  scenes,  to  which  he 
gave  a  humourous  rather  than  a  weird  effect.  His  comic 
imps  and  demons  are  conceived  in  a  totally  different  spirit 
from  that  which  produced  the  grotesque  realism  of  early 
religious  art,  or  the  fantastic  conceptions  of  Grerman  art. 
They  have  nothing  supernatural  about  them,  but  are 
simply  the  offspring  of  the  painter's  humorous  imagination, 
having  no  reality  to  his  mind.  In  his  well-known  Tempta- 
tion of  S.  Anthony,  for  instance,  in  the  Louvre,  a  subject 
of  grim  earnest  with  earlier  masters,  the  whole  affair  is 
treated  as  a  kind  of  joke.  Such  devils  as  these  could  never 
inspire  horror  or  fear ;  one  frightful  little  imp  is  positively 
smoking  a  pipe. 

In  the  picture  of  the  same  subject  in  the  Berlin  Gallery 
the  tempting  fiend  takes  the  shape   of  a   ripe   Flemish 
beauty,  and  here  also  the  various  impish  creatures,  fight- , 
ing  and  screaming  in  the  air,  have  an  unmistakably  comic 
character.^ 

Little  is  known  of  the  personal  history  of  Teniers,  but  it 
would  seem  that  although,  perhaps,  not  quite  such  a  fine 
gentleman  as  Eubens  or  Vandyck,  he  held  a  high  position 
in  society,  and  that  his  acquaintance  was  courted  by  men 
of  rank  and  distinction. 

He  learnt  painting  under  his  father,  David  Teniers  the 
Elder  (1582-1649),  an  artist  of  repute,  and  was  admitted 
into  the  Antwerp  Guild  as  early  as  1632-1633. 

His  chief  patron  was  the  Aj-chduke  Leopold  William,  . 
Eegent  of  the  Netherlands,  by  whom  he  was  appointed 

*  The  same  may  be  remarked  in  a  picture  in  the  Peel  Collection,  an 
Incantation  Scene,  recently  added  to  the  National  Gallery. 


328  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  VII. 

court  painter  and  groom  of  the  chambers.  He  had  like- 
wise the  superintendence  of  the  Palace  Picture  Galleries. 

He  seems  to  have  realized,  like  most  of  the  painters  of 
his  time,  a  large  fortune  by  his  art,  and  his  country  seat, 
between  Antwerp  and  Mechlin,  was  a  favourite  pesort  of 
his  friends,  amongst  whom  he  ranked  many  of  the  Spanish 
and  Flemish  nobility;  no  stranger  of  distinction,  it  is  said, 
ever  came  to  Antwerp  or  Mechlin  without  paying  the  dis- 
tinguished artist  a  visit. 

His  fame  was  equally  great  abroad,  and  commissions 
poured  in  upon  him  from  all  quarters,  the  Queen  Christina 
of  Sweden,  Philip  lY.  of  Spain,  and  other  crowned  heads 
seeking  specimens  of  his  skill. 

His  industry  and  wonderful  facility  in  painting,  added 
to  his  long  life,  enabled  him  to  accomplish  a  vast  amount 
of  work.  "The  pursuit  of  his  art,"  says  Smith, ^  "was 
rendered  by  long  practice  an  agreeable  amusement,  which 
he  could  follow  with  the  same  freedom  and  success  in  the 
midst  of  company  as  when  alone.  Thus,  whilst  he  con- 
duced to  the  entertainment  of  his  visitors,  he  added  at  the 
same  time  to  his  own  wealth."  ^ 

The  execution  of  many  of  his  paintings  is,  it  is  true,  very 
slight,  but  others  are  most  carefully  elaborated,  and  for 
freedom  of  touch,  vigorous  colouring,  effective  chiaroscuro, 
and  perfect  skill  of  hand,  they  are  all  well-nigh  unrivalled. 
His  finest  works  are  those  of  his  middle  period,  ranging 
from  1640  to  1660,  and  are  usually  to  be  distinguished  by 
a  luminous  golden  or  a  cool  silvery  tone.  In  his  last  years 
his  hand  lost  much  of  its  power,  and  his  colouring  became 
brown  and  heavy.  He  continued  painting,  however,  until 
called  away  from  his  easel  at  the  age  of  eighty-four. 

His  religious  subjects,  or  rather  the  subjects  to  which 
he  has  given  a  religious  title,  are  the  most  unpleasing  of 
all  his  works,  the  most  sacred  characters  being  conceived 
under  the  same  vulgar  forms  as  his  boors  and  drunken 
peasants.     Such  subjects  as  Christ  crowned  with  Thorns, 

'   "  Catalogue  Eaisonne." 

^  He  is  reported  to  have  said  that  it  would  take  a  gallery  two  leagues 
in  length  to  contain  all  his  works.  Smith  enumerates  900,  and  other 
collections  make  up  the  number  to  1,100.  It  is  absui-d,  however,  to  sup- 
pose all  these  to  be  genuine. 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  329 

Christ  Buffeted,  and  Peter  denying  Christ,  are  degraded, 
for  instance,  into  vulgar  and  almost  repulsive  scenes  of 
low  life.  He  was,  in  fact,  totally  wanting  in  that  elevation 
of  feeling  that  marks  all  the  great  Italian  masters.  In 
landscape  he  is  often  excellent. 

Teniers  had  many  pupils  and  imitators,  several  of  whom, 
it  is  said,  paid  him  the  compliment  of  signing  his  name  on 
their  works ;  but  none  of  them  have  any  original  talent, 
and  they  need  not,  therefore,  detain  us  here. 

After  Teniers  the  Flemish  school  sank  into  utter  in- 
significance, such  Flemish  painters  as  still  possessed  any 
merit  becoming  absorbed  in  the  allied  Dutch  school,  which, 
in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  assumed  a  para- 
mount importance. 

[At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  French  classi- 
cal revival  produced  but  a  pale  and  insignificant  reflection 
in  the  Netherlands,  which  were  then  distracted  by  the 
Napoleonic  wars ;  but  a  revival  of  art  followed  upon  peace 
being  re-established.  The  direction  of  this  revival  was 
largely  determined  by  the  teachings  of  Guillaume 
Herreyns  (1743-1827),  who  inculcated  a  return  to  the 
study  of  the  great  works  of  the  older  Flemish  schools  in 
place  of  the  dry  classicisms  of  the  academies. 

Stirred  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Belgian  struggle  for 
independence,  Flemish,  or  rather  Belgic,  painters  turned 
to  their  own  political  history  for  inspiration,  and  to  the 
school  of  Rubens  for  models.  The  boldly  melodramatic 
works  of  GusTAVE  Wappers  (1803-1874),  Edouard  de 
BiEPVE  (1808-1882),  and  Louis  Gallait  (1810-1887), 
were  painted  with  a  care,  skill,  and,  above  all,  with  a 
depth  of  colour  unknown  to  the  classic  schools,  and  were 
hailed  as  a  new  revelation  by  half  Europe,  when  Wappers' 
'*  The  burgomaster  Vander  Werff  offering  his  life  to  the 
citizens  of  Leyden,"  was  exhibited  in  1830  at  Brussels. 
Tlie  colouring  of  these  masters  is  rather  gaudy  than  rich, 
their  groujHng  artificial,  and  their  effects  are  forced  (e.g.. 
The  Abdication  of  Charles  V.,  by  GaUait,  Brussels  Museum). 
They,  however,  opened  the  way  for  the  practice  of  historic 
'  re,  and  for  the  supremacy  of  colour  over  form.    A  more 

-ting  reputation  was  gained  by  (Jean-Auquste)  Henri 
1,i:ys  (1816-1869),  who,  in  his  studies  of  the  life  of  the 


330  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

mediaeval  Netherlands,  closely  copied  the  methods  and 
styles  of  Quentyn  Massys  and  of  Peasant  Breughel.  In 
attaining  their  excellence  of  colour  and  manipulation,  he 
did  not  avoid  faults  due  to  their  deficient  knowledge,  such 
as  stiffness  of  movement  and  false  perspective;  but  his 
original  and  strongly  realistic  conceptions  are  expressed 
with  much  feeling,  truth,  and  dignity,  and  slight  archaisms 
scarcely  detract  from  their  effect  (Luther  Singing  in  the 
Streets  of  Eisenach ;  The  Promenade  without  the  Walls, 
&c.).  Small  genre  pictures  of  Leys'  early  period,  bear 
strong  evidence  of  his  profitable  studies  of  Eembrandt 
and  De  Hooghe.  Leys'  best  pupil  is  Laurens  Alma- 
Tadema,  a  Prison  by  birth,  and  a  naturalized  Englishman. 
The  genre  scenes  of  J.  B.  Madou  (1796-1877)  deserve 
mention  (The  Spoil- Sport,  Itinerant  Musicians,  Brussels 
Museum).  The  animal  painters,  Eugene  Yeebgeckhoven 
(1798-1881),  Joseph  Stevens  (b.  1820),  the  architectural 
painters,  J.  B.  Van  Moer  (1819-1885)  and  Francois 
Stroobant  (b.  1819),  the  landscapists,  Theodore  Four- 
Mois  (1814-1871)  and  Fr.  Lamoriniere  (b.  1828),  the 
historical  painters,  Ch.  Verlat  (b.  1824)  and  Emile 
Watjters  (b.  1846)  (The  Madness  of  H.  Van  der  Goes, 
Brussels),  are  eminently  national  artists  attaining  a  high 
standard  of  merit.  Alfred  Stevens  (b.  1828)  is  like  the 
majority  of  younger  Belgian  painters,  indebted  to  the 
modern  French  school  for  inspiration  and  practice.] 


Chapter  IV. 
THE  DUTCH   SCHOOL. 

Rembrandt — Gerard  Dou — Paul  Potter— Curr— 

Vandervelde. 

AT  the  head  of  the  Dutch  School  of  painting  in  the 
seventeenth  century  stands  the  great  name  of  Eem- 
brandt van  Eyn.  It  is  strange  that  while  the  painters  of 
the  seventeenth  century  in  Italy  had  drifted,  as  we  have 


OOK   VII."]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  331 

een,  into  vapid  ideality,  or  repulsive  naturalism,  two  such 
^eat  original  masters  as  Rubens  and  Rembrandt  should 
ave  arisen  in  the  Netherlands.  Rembrandt,  especially,  is 
ntirely  individual  in  his  style ;  Rubens,  no  doubt,  borrowed 
omething  from  the  Venetians,  particularly  from  Paolo 
Veronese ;  but  Italian  teaching,  indeed  any  kind  of  teaeh- 
ng,  was  completely  set  at  nought  by  Rembrandt.  He 
ormed  himself,  and  had  no  other  models  than  the  common 
orms  of  nature  around  him.  Yet  how  different  are  his 
vorks  to  those  of  the  Italian  Naturalisti.  Dealing  with 
he  same  powers  of  light  and  darkness  as  Caravaggio,  he 
las  expressed  them  in  a  totally  different  language.  Com- 
)are  a  picture  by  Rembrandt  with  one  by  the  Italian 
hiaroscurist,  and  you  will  find  in  the  one  the  subtle 
5oetry  of  light  and  shade,  in  the  other  the  mere  broad 
triking  effects. 

Rembrandt  in  fact,  though  so  unlike  the  ideal  painters 
f  Italy,  was  an  idealist,  too,  in  his  own  way,  for  in  his 
nind  the  commonest  objects  of  everyday  hfe  were  trans- 
'ormed  into  poetical  images  by  the  mystic  light  in  which 
be  placed  them.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  once,  when  asked 
iow  he  could  endure  to  paint  the  ugly  cocked  hats  and 
bonnets  of  his  time,  replied,  "  They  have  all  lights  and 
shadows,"  and  thus  it  was  with  Rembrandt.  Mrs.  Jameson 
tias  called  him  "  The  King  of  Shadows." 

"  Earth-born 
And  sky-engcndeied — son  of  mysteries." 

He  may  also  be  compared  to  some  powerful  wizard. 
Compelling  nature  to  yield  to  him  the  secrets  of  her  dark 
caverns,  and  mysterious  effects,  and  noting  them  down 
with  brush  or  etching  needle  in  the  book  of  magic  we  call 
his  works. 

Rembrandt  Hermanszoon  van  Ryn  (son  of  Herman 
of  the  Rhine),  was  bom  at  Leyden  in  1607.  His  father 
was  in  easy  circumstances,  and  at  his  death  left  a  consider- 
able property  to  Rembrandt  and  his  six  brothers  and  sisters. 
Rembrandt  was  educated  at  the  Latin  School  at  Leyden, 
but  as  he  early  showed  a  far  greater  taste  for  art  than  for 
learning,  his  father  refrained  from  sending  him  to  the 
University  as  he  had  intended,  and  placed  him  under  a 


332  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

master  named  Isaakszoon  van  Swanenberg  to  study 
painting.  After  three  years  with  him  he  was  sent  to 
Amsterdam  to  study  with  Pieter  Lastman,  a  painter  "^ 
some  reputation  in  his  day.  Jacob  Pinas  is  likewise  > 
to  have  been  his  teacher,  but  his  course  of  study  with  thc.^c 
masters  could  not  have  been  long,  for  in  [1628  he  was  in 
Leyden  again,  and  teaching  G-erard  Dou.  His  earhest 
works  are  dated  1627,  and  in]  1630,  when  he  was  only 
twenty-two,  we  find  that  he  had  set  up  for  himself  at 
Amsterdam,  and  had  gained  much  notice  by  the  originality 
of  his  style.  Four  years  afterwards,  namely  in  1635,  he 
married  Saskia  Uilenberg,  a  young  lady  belonging  to  a 
noble  Friesland  family,  and  possessed  of  a  good  fortune, 
which  at  her  death,  in  1642,  she  left  to  Eembrandt  in  trust 
for  their  only  son  Titus. 

Why,  in  the  face  of  these  facts,  it  should  have  been 
always  asserted  that  Eembrandt  married  a  low  peasant 
girl  of  Eansdorp,  it  is  difficult  to  understand,  unless  the 
facts  were  invented  to  suit  the  preconceived  theory  of  Eem- 
brandt being  a  vulgar  sot,  whom  no  lady  would  have 
married.  But  we  not  only  find  that  the  rich  and  beautiful 
Saskia  chose  him  for  a  husband,  but  that  some  of  the  most 
learned  and  polished  men  in  Amsterdam  sought  his  society, 
and  valued  his  friendship.  The  Burgomaster,  Jan  Six,  and 
the  celebrated  professor,  Nikolaus  Tulp,  depicted  in  the 
Anatomy  Lesson,  were  his  intimate  friends,  and  the  staid 
Dutch  poet,  Decker,  wrote  a  sonnet  in  his  praise.  Eem- 
brandt has  likewise  been  stigmatised  as  a  miser,  and 
numerous  absurd  anecdotes  are  related  in  proof  of  his 
supposed  avaricious  habits.  These  appear  to  rest  upon 
the  same  amount  of  evidence  as  the  other  stories  concern- 
ing him,  all  the  facts  that  have  been  gained  tending  to 
prove  that  he  lived  in  good  style  in  Amsterdam,  and  sjDent 
his  money  freely,  especially  in  the  purchase  of  art-treasures, 
of  which  he  had  a  large  collection.  In  1656,  however,  he 
became  a  bankrupt,  and  all  his  valuable  pictures,  drawings, 
and  other  works  of  art,  as  well  as  his  household  effects, 
were  sold  under  a  judicial  execution.^ 

^  The  interesting  catalogue  of  this  sale  has  been  discovered  and 
printed.  It  shows  that  Kembrandt  did  not  despise  the  works  of  classical 
and  Ital  a  i  art,  although  he  never  tried  to  imitate  them. 


OOK  VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHEELAND8.  333 

After  this  trouble,  which  was,  probably,  caused  more  by- 
he  financial  difficulties  of  the  times  than  by  any  fault  of 
lis  own,  Kembrandt  seems  to  have  led  a  very  secluded  life 
n  Amsterdam,  devoted  entirely  to  his  art.  The  time  and 
lace  of  his  death  were  for  a  long  time  unknown  to  his 
)iographers,  but  Dr.  Scheltema  has  at  last  satisfactorily 
)roved,  from  the  registry  of  his  burial,  that  he  died  on  the 
^th  of  October,  1669,  at  Amsterdam,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Westerkerk  of  that  city.  Beneath  this  registry  is  a  state- 
nent  to  the  effect  that  "  Catherina  Van  Wyck,  the  widow, 
las  declared  that  she  has  no  means  of  proving  that  her 
liildren  had  anything  to  inherit  from  their  father,"  so  that 
t  is  clear  that  Eembrandt  must  have  married  again  after 
he  death  of  Saskia,  but  when  is  not  known. ^ 

Thus  much,  or  rather  thus  little,  has  been  gained  by 
ililigent  research  concerning  the  outer  life  of  the  great 
painter-engraver,  but  unfortunately  entries  of  births  and 
deaths,  and  such-like  facts,  valuable  enough  in  their  way, 
give  us  no  insight  into  the  inner  life  and  real  heart  of  the 
man  whose  doings  they  record.  How  pleasant  it  would  be 
to  have  some  personal  record  of  the  great  Dutch  artist's 
mode  of  life  in  Amsterdam — some  fragment  of  a  diary,  or 
letter  to  Saskia,  giving  us  a  glimpse  of  his  thoughts  and 
his  feelings — but  not  one  scrap  of  writing  of  his  has  been 
preserved;  nor  amongst  all  his  pupils  did  one  think  it 
worth  while  to  set  down  his  master's  words,  or  record  any 
traits  of  his  character. 

But  let  us  not  complain.  Have  we  not  hip  works  ?  And 
are  not  these  the  true  index  to  the  mind  of  the  artist? 
Happily  there  is  no  lack  of  them;  we  find  pictures  by 
Eembrandt  in  almost  every  gallery,  and  their  individuality 
of  style  is  so  marked  that  even  the  careless  lounger  soon 
gets  to  know  them,  and  is  able  to  afiirm  "  there  is  a  Rem- 
brandt "  without  reference  to  the  catalogue.  Powerful 
contrasts  of  light  and  shade,  intense  gloom  lit  up  by  a 
single  concentrated  beam  of  light,  making  "  darkness 
visible,"  these  are  the  chief  effects  that  Kembrandt  sought 
after,  and  reproduced.     He  never  looked  at  nature  in  her 

*  "  Redevoering  over  het  Leven  en  de  Verdiensten  Van  Kembrandt 
Van  Ryn,"  translated  into  French  in  1859  by  W.  Burger,  and  into  Eng- 
lish by  me  in  1867. 


334  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

soft  twilight  moods,  but  loved  to  set  lier  noon-day  and  Im  r 
night  in  sudden  fierce  opposition.  It  is  only  by  degi' 
and  sometimes  after  long  contemplation,  that  objects  da  ._ 
on  our  view  out  of  his  great  masses  of  warm  shadow,  for  at 
first,  as  in  nature,  our  eyes  are  too  dazzled  with  the  glcrv 
of  the  light  to  see  clearly. 

This  is  especially  the  case  with  that  marvellous  pict  111*3 
at  Amsterdam,  known  by  the  name  of  "  the  Night-watch," 
the  most  celebrated,  perhaps,  of  all  his  works.  What  this 
picture  is  meant  to  represent  no  one  has  been  able  to  define. 
The  scene  is  a  daylight  one,  although,  for  some  unac- 
countable reason,  called  the  Night-watch,  and  apparently 
depicts  a  company  of  arquebussiers  going  forth  to  shoot  at 
a  mark.  A  young  girl  in  strange  festal  attire  is  in  the 
midst  of  them  with  a  cock,  supposed  to  be  meant  as  a 
prize  for  the  victor,  attached  to  her  belt.  Such  is  the 
literal  prosaic  interpretation  of  this  painting  ;  but  whoever 
has  eyes  to  see  it,  will  perceive  that  this  extraordinary  pro- 
duction is  lifted  far  above  the  prosaic  by  the  golden  radiance 
that  falls  upon  it.  We  know  not,  indeed,  the  meaning  of 
the  picture,  but  we  feel  in  looking  at  it  that  we  are  in  the 
presence  not  of  the  vulgar  portray er  of  Dutch  marksmen, 
but  of  the  "  King  of  Shadows,"  and  Prince  of  Light.^  The 
Night-watch  was  executed  in  1642,  in  the  full  maturity  of 
the  artist's  powers  ;  but  ten  years  before  this  he  had  already 
achieved  a  high  position  amongst  artists  by  his  powerful 
Anatomy  Lesson,  a  picture  now  at  the  Hague,  in  which  all 
the  peculiar  characteristics  of  his  style  are  strikingly  dis- 
played. 

The  paintings  in  the  National  Gallery  are  sufficient  to 
give  the  English  student  a  very  good  notion  of  the  extent 
and  the  limits  of  Eembrandt's  j^owers.  He  had  not  the 
slightest  feeling  for  form ;  indeed,  as  Fuseli  remarks,  he 
•often  falls  into  "  portentous  deformity,"  his  design  is  care- 
less, his  subjects  vulgar,  his  accessories  trivial,  and  his 
draperies  the  very  reverse  of  antique.  And  even  his  faculty 
of  vision  was  as  concentrated  as  the  light  in  his  pictures. 
It  fell  only  on  certain  objects,  and  enveloped  all  else  in 

*  A  small  copy  of  the  Night-watch  is  in  the  National  Gallery.  The 
Teduced  copy,  however,  does  not  in  any  way  reproduce  the  striking 
•effect  of  the  original. 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING   IN   THE   NETHERLANDS.  335 

gloom.  Yet  withiu  the  focus  of  his  powers  no  man  has 
ever  produced  such  astounding  results,  and  when  we  find 
that  his  paintings  amount  to  six  hundred,  and  his  etchings 
to  four  hundred,^  we  are  lost  in  amazement,  no  less  at  the 
originality  than  at  the  rapidity  of  his  work. 

Many  of  his  works,  both  painted  and  etched,  are  por- 
traits, and  if  we  accept  Ruskin's  dictum  that  "  the  highest 
thing  art  can  do  is  to  set  before  you  the  true  image  of  a 
noble  human  being,"  then,  surely,  Eembrandt  has  done 
the  very  highest  of  which  art  is  capable.  Every  one  knows 
his  old  men's  and  old  women's  heads,  in  which  not  only  every 
wrinkle  and  every  shade  is  faithfully  depicted,  but  every  care, 
ovcry  sorrow,  and  every  joy  of  the  sitter's  life  is  expressed ; 
his  i)ortraits,  in  fact,  like  Titian's  and  all  truly  great  por- 
traits, are,  strictly  speaking,  biographies,  and  we  learn  more 
of  those  impassable,  shrewd  old  Dutchmen  from  them  than 
from  many  elaborate  histories. 

His  landscapes  express  the  poetry  of  northern  scenery, 
for  the  north  has  a  poetry  of  its  own,  however  much  the 
worshippers  of  Claude's  sunny  skies  may  despise  it.  But 
study  Rembrandt's  well-known  etching  of  the  Three  Trees 
for  half  an  hour  in  silence,  and  the  poetry  of  the  flat  dull 
Netherland  landscape  will  da^vn  even  on  minds  educated 
to  behold  no  beauty  out  of  Italy.  His  etched  landscapes, 
in  fact  his  etchings  generally,  reveal  the  peculiarity  of  his 
genius  still  more  strikingly  than  his  paintings.  They 
were  not  only  conceived,  but  executed  in  a  manner  of  his 
own,  the  secret  of  which  no  one  has  since  been  able  to 
discover. 

His  prints  are  now  the  prized  treasures  of  collectors, 
and  fabulous  sums  are  given  for  early  impressions.^ 

Dutch  art  may  almost  be  said  to  begin  and  end  within 
the  lifetime  of  Rembrandt,  at  all  events,  before  the  end  of 
the  century  we  find  it  dying  out  amongst  painters  of  cab- 
bages and  poultiy,  pots  and  pans.  There  is  no  succession 
of  painters  in  Holland  like  we  have  seen  in  Italy,  and 
Flanders,  and  Germany,  but  they  all  crowd  close  together 
in  one  short  northern  summer,  and  then  disappear.     Rem- 

'  Wornum.  ' 

'-'  There  is  a  splendid  collection  of  them  in  the  British  Musenm, 


336  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII, 

brandt,  however,  must  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the 
Dutch  school,  though  several  of  its  masters  were  born 
before  him,  and  seem  to  have  been  but  little  under  his 
influence. 

[The  greatest  of  these  was  Frans  Hals  (1584-1666),  < 
of  the  most  masterly  painters  of  all  time.  To  him  wc 
shall  return,  but  Rembrandt  had  other  precursors  as  a 
portrait  painter  whose  works  were  of  a  high  class.  The 
most  important  of  these  were  Michael  van  Mierevelt 
(1568-1641),  Paulus  Moreelse  (1571-1638),  Jan  van 
Ravesteyn  (1580-1665),  and  Thomas  de  Keyzer  (1597- 
1679),  remarkable  for  their  vigorous  interpretation  and 
firm  touch,  fine  colour  and  realistic  characterization. 
Van  Ravesteyn  was  the  first  to  paint  those  large  groups  of 
counsellors,  or  governors  of  hospitals,  confraternities,  &c., 
called  "  regenten-stuk "  or  "  doelen-stuk,"  of  which  so 
many  are  to  be  seen  in  Dutch  galleries,  and  in  painting 
which  Rembrandt,  and  Franz  Hals,  and  Van  der  Heist 
displayed  such  excellence  in  different  ways. 

Of  Rembrandt's  numerous  pupils  the  most  important 
as  portrait  and  historical  painters  were  Ferdinand  Bol 
(1611-1681),  and]  Govert  Flinck  (1615-1660). 

[The  early  portraits  of  Bol  are  masterly  works  worthy  of 
his  great  instructor.  There  are  several  in  the  Louvre,  but 
his  greatest  work  of  this  class  is  the  Meeting  of  Regents, 
in  the  Leprozenhuis  at  Amsterdam.  After  about  1660  he 
deserted  Rembrandt  and  portrait  for  Rubens  and  allegory, 
and  both  his  taste  and  painting  became  deteriorated. 

GovERT  Flinck  was  second  only  to  Bol  in  his  re- 
ceptiveness  and  power  of  reproducing  in  his  master's 
spirit.  His  success  was  such  that  his  works  of  the  first 
ten  years  were  often  mistaken  for  those  of  Rembrandt. 
One  of  his  finest  pictures  is  The  Blessing  of  Isaac  (1638), 
at  Amsterdam.  His  later  works  are  more  Flemish  in  style 
and  inferior,  but  he  always  preserved  vigour  and  technical 
skill. 

Another  pupil  of  Rembrandt,  celebrated  for  portrait  and 
historical  pictures,  was  Carel  Fabritius,  bom,  probably, 
at  Haarlem,  in  1624,  after  studying  under  Rembrandt  at 
Amsterdam,  settled  in  1649  at  Delft,  where  he  was  killed 
in  1654  by  the  explosion  of  a  powder  magazine.     Dying  so 


pooK   VII.J       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  337 

oimg  he  left  but  few  works ;  but  those  are  so  excellent  that 
hej  have  remained  until  lately  hidden  under  the  name  of 
lis  teacher.  A  portrait,  with  signature,  is  in  the  Museum 
)f  Rotterdam  (No.  86),  and  a  picture  of  a  Goldfinch  in 
he  Lacroix  collection,  Paris,  signed  C.  Fabritius,  1654 ; 
liese  and  The  Beheading  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  at 
Amsterdam,  are  almost  the  only  known  works  of  his.] 

Perhaps  the  most  sedulous  imitator  of  his  master's 
nanner  was  Gerbeandt  van  den  Eeckbout  (1621-1674), 
who  borrowed  whole  compositions  from  him.  His  pictures 
ire  often  mistaken  for  Rembrandts,  e.g.,  the  fine  Christ 
Blessing  Little  Children,  in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  757, 
fvhich  was  bought  for  a  Eembrandt,  and  long  passed  under 
lis  name  in  the  catalogue.] 

Jan  Lievens,  bom  in  the  same  year  as  Rembrandt,  and 
aid  to  have  been  a  fellow  pupil  with  him  under  Pieter 
Lastmann,  has  also  many  of  the  peculiarities  of  Rem- 
brandt's mode  of  treatment.^ 

[But  a  finer  and  more  original  painter  than  either  was] 
Nicolas  Maas  (1632-1693),  [who,  though  unmistakably  the 
pupil  of  Rembrandt,  developed  a  style  of  much  individua- 
lity in  colour,  handling,  and  sentiment.]  His  rare  genre 
pictures  have  not  the  triviality  of  the  other  genre  painters 
of  this  date,  but  evince  true  sentiment,  and  his  kindly, 
homely,  domestic  subjects  are  pleasant  little  tales  of  old 
Dutch  life.  [Of  this  the  three  pictures  in  the  National 
Gallery  (Nos.  153,  159,  207)  afford  excellent  examples. 
His  larger  works.  Young  Girl  at  her  Window,  at  Amster- 
dam, and  An  Old  Woman  Spinning,  are  Rembrandtesque 
in  their  powerful,  ample  touch  and  clever  characterization. 
He  visited  Antwerp  whilst  still  young,  and  the  long  string 
of  flabbily  painted,  commonplace  portraits  ascribed  to  him 
and  painted  subsequently  to  that  date,  present  a  marked 
contrast  to  his  first  works.] 

[The  life  of  Jan  Victoor,  Victors,  or  Fictoors,  is  yet 
to  be  written.  He  was  born  about  1620  and  died  after  the 
year  1662.  His  earUest  work  is  Haman  before  Esther, 
1632,  now  in  the  Brunswick  Museum.     His  honest,  solid 

['  There  is  a  portrait  in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  1095,  ascribed  to 
Lievens.] 


338  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

painting  partakes  of  Rembrandt's  manner  and  power.  His 
genre  subjects,  The  Dentist,  1654,  and  The  Pork  But<rher, 
1648,  both  in  the  Van  der  Hoop  collection,  Amsterdam, 
are  of  much  merit.  Two  other  pupils  of  Rembrandt,  Gerard 
Don  and  Philip  de  Koninck,  belong  to  the  genre  and  land- 
scape groups  of  Dutch  painters,  but  before  we  come  to 
these  attention  must  be  drawn  to  the  two  greatest  rivals 
of  Rembrandt  as  a  portrait  painter.  One  of  these,  Frans 
Hals  (1584-1666),  Rembrandt's  senior  bv  more  than 
twenty  years,  was  not  indeed  a  rival  of  his  while  alive,  nor 
does  the  art  of  the  one  artist  appear  to  have  in  the  least 
affected  the  other.  He  lived  his  life  at  Haarlem  (though 
he  was  born  at  Malines),  where  he  painted  the  famous 
Beresteyn  portraits  (now  in  the  Louvre),  and  where  may 
now  be  seen  his  greatest  work,  grand  portrait  compositions 
of  the  Archers  of  S.  George  and  S.  Adrien,  and  the  Regents 
of  the  hospitals  for  old  men  and  women ;  works  which,  of 
their  class,  are  unequalled  in  the  world.  For  vigour  of 
drawing,  strong  presentation  of  character,  boldness  and 
success  of  colour,  and  extraordinary  freedom  of  execution, 
it  is  only  such  portrait  painters  as  Rubens,  Vandyck,  Rem- 
brandt, and  Velasquez  that  can  be  compared  to  him.  He 
is  represented,  but  not  very  well,  by  a  "  Portrait  of  a 
Woman,"  No.  1021,  in  the  National  Gallery.  If  an  auda- 
cious vivacity  is  the  characteristic  of  Frans  Hals,  calmness 
and  care  are  the  notes  of  the  art  of  Bartholomeus  van  der 
Helst  (1630-1670).  In  technical  knowledge  and  dexterity 
ne  is  scarcely  surpassed  by  any  artist ;  his  command  over 
nis  materials  was  complete.  Without  any  over-elaboration, 
or  the  slightest  trace  of  difficulty,  he  could  represent  all 
objects  with  an  amazing  truthfulness  both  of  general  aspect 
and  detail.  It  is  perhaps  the  great  accuracy  and  ease  with 
which  he  wielded  his  great  gifts  that  give  them  an  air  of 
cold  perfection,  which  does  not  attract  all  in  the  same 
measure  as  the  more  fervid  imagination  and  more  vivacious 
handling  of  Frans  Hals,  but  to  others  his  Banquet  of  the 
Civic  Guard  on  the  occasion  of  the  Peace  of  Munster  (at 
Amsterdam)  appears  the  most  masterly  painting  of  its  kind 
in  the  world.  In  balance  of  composition,  perfection  of  exe- 
cution, and  perfect  characterization  of  each  of  its  twenty- 
five  life-size  figures,  it  has  indeed  few  rivals.     There  is  o.. 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  339 

portrait  of  a  lady  by  him  in  the  National  Gallery,  No. 
140.] 

[Van  der  Heist  left  no  pupils  of  note,  and  Hals  few. 
The  latter' s  son,  Frans  Hals  the  Younger,  imitated  his 
father.  A  clever  sketch  of  Two  singing  Boys,  in  the  manner 
of  the  elder  Hals,  is  in  the  Arenberg  Gallery  at  Brussels, 
and  the  Portrait  of  a  Man  (No.  183),  in  the  Stildel,  Frank- 
fort, is  by  Frans  Hals  the  younger.] 

[Dirk  Hals,  brother  of  the  elder  Frans,  who  died  at 
Haarlem  in  1656,  painted  genre  in  the  same  style  as  Pala- 
niedes.  There  is  a  good  example  of  Dirk  in  the  National 
Gallery  (No.  1074).] 

[Of  the  Dutch  painters  who  specially  devoted  themselves 
to  the  painting  of  scenes  of  every  day  life  or  genre,  many 
were  more  or  less  influenced  by  Rembrandt.  Maas  has  al- 
ready been  mentioned,  and  there  are  two  other  artists  who 
merit  some  separate  treatment  because  of  their  splendid 
colour,  their  unusually  broad  and  brilliant  effects  of  light, 
and  a  certain  large  simplicity  of  manner.  They  were  also 
distinct  from  the  place  of  their  residence,  viz.  Delft,  and 
the  fact  that  they  are  both  thought  to  have  been  affected 
l)y  the  example  of  Carel  Fabritius,  the  pupil  of  Eembrandt. 
These  were  Peter  de  Hoogh  (or  Hooch),  born  at  Rotter- 
dam (1632-1681),  and  Jan  van  der  Meer  (or  Vermeer), 
who,  to  distinguish  him  from  other  painters  of  the  same 
name  belonging  to  Haarlem,  is  generally  called  Vermeer  of 
Delft.  The  former  is  specially  celebrated  for  his  broad  and 
luminous  effects  of  sunlight  in  interiors  and  courtyards, 
reflected  from  the  surfaces  of  bricks  and  marble  polished 
floors  and  furniture,  painted  doors  and  shutters,  and  pene- 
trating through  semi-transparent  blinds  and  curtains,  and 
also  for  his  brilliant  and  harmonious  colour.  The  latter's 
works  have  much  similarity  to  those  of  De  Hoogh,  and 
have  been  confused  with  them  till  a  few  years  ago,  but  his 
scale  of  colour  is  different,  he  is  less  partial  to  red,  prefer- 
ing  contrasts  of  blue  and  gold  in  his  costumes,  and  he  has 
a  peculiar  broken  touch,  and  a  vibrating  quality  in  his  light 
which  is  quite  his  own.  England  was  the  first  country  to 
recognize  De  Hoogh' s  particular  merits  and  is  particu- 
larly rich  in  his  works.  There  are  fine  examples  in  the 
Queen's  Collection,  and  there  are  three  of  first-rate  quality 


340  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

in  the  National  Gallery,  Nos.  794,  834  and  835.  By  Ver- 
meer  of  Delft,  only  about  thirty  works  are  known ;  the 
most  celebrated  are  The  Reader,  in  the  Van  der  Hoop 
Museum,  The  Milkwoman,  and  Street  in  Delft,  in  the  Six 
Gallery  at  Amsterdam ;  the  marvellously  luminous  View 
of  Delft,  at  the  Hague  Museum,  the  Girl  with  a  Drinking 
Glass,  at  Brunswick,  and  the  Girl  at  an  Oj^en  Window 
(long  ascribed  to  De  Hoogh)  at  Dresden.] 

Next  come  a  set  of  painters  who  might  with  some  cor- 
rectness be  called  The  Little  Masters  of  Holland,  not  only 
from  the  usually  small  size  of  their  works,  but  likewise 
from  the  smallness  of  the  ideas  set  forth  in  them. 

Gerard  Dow,  or  more  correctly  Dou  (1610-1675-80),  is 
the  chief  of  this  school.  He  is,  in  truth,  the  very  genius 
of  littleness.  Nothing  is  too  minute  for  his  patience  and 
finish.  "  If  none  knew  like  Eembrandt,"  writes  Leslie, 
**  how  to  give  importance  to  a  trifle,  Gerard  Dow,  on  the 
other  hand,  turned  the  most  important  things  into  trifles," 
or  rather,  he  never  painted  anything  but  trifles.  The  elabo- 
ration and  perfection  of  his  detail  is  something  astounding. 

We  can  form  some  idea  of  the  way  in  which  he  worked 
from  an  instance  related  by  Sandrart,  who  says,  that  once 
when  he  and  Pieter  de  Laar  went  to  see  one  of  Gerard 
Don's  pictures,  and  were  praising  the  admirable  painting 
of  a  broomstick,  the  artist  informed  them  that  "  he  had 
three  days'  more  work  to  do  upon  it ! " 

Such  was  the  work  of  these  little  masters.  It  consisted 
principally  in  painting  broomsticks,  but  in  painting  them 
with  such  marvellous  skill  and  truthfulness,  that  we  are 
obliged  to  own  that  broomsticks  were  never  so  painted  before. 

Gerard  Dou  worked  for  three  years,  we  are  told,  in 
Rembrandt's  school,  and  no  doubt  acquired  his  accurate 
knowledge  of  chiaroscuro  there,  but  he  cannot,  strictly 
speaking,  be  classed  as  a  follower  of  Rembrandt,  for  he 
struck  out  the  "  little  "  line  for  himself,  and  was  faithfully 
followed  in  it  by  several  pupils  and  imitators. 

He  painted  portraits  with  great  skill,  only  it  is  said  that 
he  so  wearied  his  sitters  by  the  time  he  required,^  that  he 
got  but  few  to  sit  to  him.     He  took  his  own  portrait,  how- 

*  He  once  kept  a  distinguished  Dutch  lady  posed  for  five  days  whilst 
he  was  painting  one  of  her  hands. 


JJOOK    VIT.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHEELANDS.  341 

ever,  many  times.  One  excellent  portrait  of  himself  "wlien 
he  was  quite  a  young  man  is  in  the  Bridgewater  Gallery  ; 
another,  with  a  fiddle,  admirably  finished,  and  well  known, 
is  in  the  Dresden  Gallery  ;  another  is  in  the  Louvre ;  and 
another  in  our  National  Collection. 

Perhaps  the  most  celebrated  of  all  his  works  is  the 
painting  known  as  La  Femme  Hydropique,  in  the  Louvre. 
A  lady  of  middle  age,  and,  apparently,  the  prey  to  a  dread- 
ful disease,  leans  back  on  a  chair  by  a  window,  her  daughter 
kneeling  beside  her  in  hopeless  grief.  A  physician  stands 
by  examining  the  contents  of  a  bottle,  on  which,  possibly, 
his  verdict  of  life  or  death  depends.  Every  accessory  is, 
of  course,  painted  with  the  minutest  accuracy.  This  is  the 
only  picture  that  I  remember  having  seen  by  Gerard  Dou 
in  which  anything  like  human  emotion,  even  in  a  slight 
degree,  is  expressed.^ 

Dentistry  was  a  favourite  subject  of  his  art.  He  has 
given  us  several  painfully  faithful  records  of  tooth  ex- 
traction. Hermits  were  likewise  depicted  by  him,  but 
without  the  slightest  religious  feeling. 

But,  for  the  most  part,  the  subjects  he  chose  have  such 
designations  as  these.  An  old  woman  scraping  a  carrot,  a 
yoimg  woman  cleaning  a  saucepan,  a  woman  and  a  boy 
surrounded  by  apples,  pears,  carrots,  and  red  cabbages,  a 
Liirl  chopping  onions  ;  not  very  exalted  themes  for  art,  nor 
( alculated  to  awaken  any  deep  sentiment  in  the  mind  of 
the  beholder,  but  better,  nevertheless,  than  the  feeble 
ideality,  the  sham  sentiment,  the  gods  and  naked  goddesses, 
and  the  senseless  allegories  of  the  Flemish  Italianisers  and 
later  Italians.^ 

"  The  Prince  of  his  scholars,"  as  Gerard  Dou  called  him, 
was  Frans  Mieris  (1G35-1681).  He,  indeed,  excelled  even 
liis  master  in  the  minutiae  of  his  painting,  and  nothing  can 
1  )0  more  perfect  in  their  small  way  than  some  of  his  little 
<  al)inet  pictures.^   This  class  of  Dutch  genre  painters  seem, 

'  The  decided  emotion  displayed  by  his  dentist's  patients  ought,  per- 
haps, to  be  excepted. 

[^  There  are  eleven  pictures  by  this  wonderful  executant  in  the 
ry)uvre,  two  at  the  Hague,  of  which  one  is  the  celebrated  Young 
'i'ailoress,  and  several  in  the  Museum  at  Amsterdam.] 

['  A  different  opinion  has  been  expressed  by  M.  Havard.  He  writes  : 
"  If  he  (Mieris)  succeeded  in  proving  himself  by  the  elegance  of  his 


342  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

in  fact,  to  have  had  every  faculty  of  great  artists  except 
one — mind.  Their  language  was  excellent,  but  they  ex- 
pressed by  it  only  the  most  trivial  thoughts.  Good  Dutch 
housewives  bargaining  for  poultry  in  the  market-place,  or 
plucking  their  winged  purchases  in  the  kitchen;  stolid 
boors  drinking  outside  or  inside  a  tavern ;  buxom  damsels 
in  rich  satin  dresses  talking  to  foolish  cavaliers,  or  having 
music  lessons,  or  sitting  for  their  portraits,  or  partaking 
of  elegant  refreshments  offered  by  little  footboys  on  silver 
salvers ;  children  blowing  soap-bubbles ;  such  were  the 
favourite  themes  of  these  men,  nor  did  they  care,  even  in 
these,  to  look  below  the  mere  surface  of  the  life  they  re- 
presented. Even  a  boy  blowing  soap-bubbles,  or  a  house- 
wife purchasing  a  fowl,  we  may  find  fraught  with  interest 
if  the  painter  has  entered  into  the  joyous  heart  of  the  boy, 
or  the  frugal  soul  of  the  housewife ;  but  most  of  the  Dutch 
genre  painters  (there  were  several  exceptions)  cared  nothing 
for  the  underlying  sentiment  of  their  subject ;  all  they 
desired  was  to  represent  the  thing  they  saw,  they  felt  no- 
thing, so  they  could  not  tell  us  what  they  felt. 

The  cheerful  character  of  their  works  is  another  of  their 
distinguishing  features.  We  never  find  anything  like 
gloom  in  a  Dutch  genre  painter.  Life  to  him  was  simply 
a  time  to  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  to  maiTy  and  be  given 
in  marriage,  to  lay  up  com  in  barns,  and,  in  fact,  to  make 
the  most  of  present  enjoyment,  it  being  quite  uncertain 
what  comes  next. 

Frans  Van  Mieris  has  this  happy  carelessness  to  the 
full.  His  pictures  are  full  of  good  humour  and  self-satis- 
faction, and  we  have  in  them,  at  all  events,  a  most  skilful 
delineation  of  furniture  and  ornamental  accessories.  "The 
quality  of  his  stuffs,"  says  a  critic  appreciative  of  this  kind 
of  work,  "  is  distinctly  defined,  and  no  representation  can 
surpass  in  truth  the  beauty  of  his  silks,  satins  and  velvets.'* 
[His  son  Willem  and  grandson  Frans  the  Younger,  painted 
the  same  subjects,  but  their  minutiae  is  much  drier.  Both 
Frans  Van  Mieris  and  his  son  Willem  are  represented  in 
the  National  Gallery,  Nos.  840  and  841.] 

poses,  and  the  arrangement  of  his  figures,  the  distinguished  disciple  of 
Gerai'd  Dow,  his  hght  and  shade  and  execution  were  always  far  inferior 
to  his  master's." — Havard,  "  The  Dutch  School  of  Fainting."] 


BOOK   VII,]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  343 

But  by  far  the  greatest  painter  of  silks,  satins,  and 
velvets,  was  Gerard  Terburg  ^  (1608-1681).  Terburg  is 
pre-eminently  the  painter  of  white  satin!  His  noblest 
aspiration  reached  no  farther  than  the  glossy  folds  of  a 
lady's  rich  dress,  but  these  he  reproduced  with  a  compre- 
hension of  their  soft  texture,  and  an  appreciation  of  the 
degrees  of  light  and  shade  that  fell  upon  them,  that  (one 
is  almost  relieved  to  find)  have  never  been  equalled  in  art. 

Careful  execution  and  delicate  finish,  it  will  be  said, 
were  the  very  qualities  so  highly  praised  in  the  early 
Flemish  painters,  and  this  is  true.  No  one  ever  finished 
more  minutely  than  Van  Eyck,  not  even  one  of  the  little 
masters  of  Holland.  But  the  early  masters  finished  their 
work  because  they  delighted  in  it,  and  loved  to  make  it  as 
perfect  in  every  little  particular  as  possible.  They  thought 
their  thought  first,  and  then  set  it  forth  with  the  utmost 
skill  of  hand  they  possessed,  but  the  Dutchmen  seem  to 
have  had  no  thought  to  express.  All  they  cared  for  was  to 
display  their  skill.  They  worked  with  their  hands,  in  fact, 
and  not  with  their  minds,  and  so  after  admiring  satin 
dresses,  rich  goblets,  brocaded  curtains,  and  splendid  fur- 
niture for  a  time,  one  grows  unutterably  weary  of  these 
"  conversation  pieces,"  as  they  are  called.  Gerard  Terburg 
is  about  the  most  vacuous  artist  of  them  all.  Take  the 
description  as  given  by  Smith,^  of  any  one  of  his  paintings, 
luid  we  shall  find  that  it  always  resolves  itself  into  a 
description  of  the  dress  of  the  performing  puppets  of  the 
piece.  No.  8,  for  instance,  styled  in  the  catalogue,  the 
Glass  of  Lemonade,  represents  '*  a  company  of  two  ladies 
and  a  gentleman  in  a  handsome  apartment,  the  elder  lady 
is  standing  with  her  hand  on  the  shoulder  of  the  other, 
AN  ho  is  seated  with  a  glass  of  lemonade  in  her  hand,  which 
a  cavalier  sitting  opposite  to  her  is  stirring  with  a  silver 
knife"  (this  is  the  thrilling  incident  that  gives  its  name 
to  the  picture,  but  now  we  come  to  the  important  part), 
"  the  latter  lady  is  dressed  in  a  yellow  velvet  negligee  bor- 
dered with  ermine,  a  white  satin  petticoat  trimmed  with 
gold,  and  wears  a  black  hood  tied  under  her  chin ;  a  stool 
(  overed  with  red  velvet,  on  which  is  a  dog,  stands  on  the 

'  OrTerBorch. 

*  Smith,  "  Catalogue  Raisonne  of  the  Flemish  and  Dutch  Painters." 


34)4  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

left,  and  on  the  opposite  side  are  a  monkey  and  a  taLIo 
with  a  bottle  and  basin  on  it." 

The  celebrated  picture  at  Amsterdam,  known  as  "  Con- 
seil  Paternelle,"  and  of  which  there  is  an  admirable  repe- 
tition in  the  Bridge  water  Gallery  is  of  the  same  class.  It 
means  nothing  more  than  the  supremely  skilful  painting 
of  white  satin,  not  a  trace  of  anything  approaching  human 
emotion  being  visible  in  it.'" 

Gabriel  Metsu  (1640,  living  in  1669),  the  friend  of 
Jan  Steen,  is  a  painter  of  exactly  the  same  taste.  "His 
subjects  generally,"  says  a  commentator,^  "are  of  the 
genteel  and  decorous  order,"  but  he  was  not  so  uniformly 
"genteel"  as  Terburg,  and  often  painted  the  market  and 
kitchen  scenes  of  more  homely  life :  occasionally,  indeed, 
we  have  a  slight  touch  of  humour  in  his  works.^ 

Gaspar  Netscher,  Pieter  van  Slingelandt,  Gode- 
FRiED  ScHALKEN,  and  scvcral  other  inferior  painters  whose 
names  it  is  needless  to  enumerate,  all  belong  to  the  same 
class,  and  were  mostly  followers  of  Gerard  Dou  or  Gerard 
Terburg,  these  being  the  two  leading  masters  of  the  little 
school  of  Dutch  genre  painters.  [Other  lesser  genre  painters 
of  the  Dutch  school  were  the  Molenaers,  the  Palamedes, 
Dirk  Stoop,  Pieter  Codde,  Cornelius  Bega,  Cornelis 
DusART,  Quirting  Brekelenkam,  Sorgh,  and  Adrien 
DE  Pape.  The  National  Gallery  j)ossesses  examples  of  the 
last  two]  .* 

Jan   Steen    (1626-1679)    is   the    one    original  genius 

[^  The  National  Gallery  contains  one  of  Terburg's  most  celebrated 
works,  The  Peace  of  Munster,  (896),  and  a  first-rate  example  of  his 
elegSLXit  ffe7ire  pieces.  The  Guitar  Lesson  (864).  Terburg  is  distinguished 
as  a  painter  of  "  society."  He  travelled  much,  and  when  in  Spain  learnt 
something  of  the  grand  style  of  Velasquez.  He  was  a  fine  portrait 
painter  and  colorist,  a  most  accomplished  painter,  and  stands  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  "  little  masters  "  of  Holland.] 

^  Stanley,  "  Synopsis  of  the  Flemish  and  Dutch  Schools." 

[3  There  are  three  fine  examples  of  Gabriel  Metsu  in  the  National 
Gallery  (838,  839,  and  970.)  Metsu  ranks  with  Terburg  among  the 
gi*eat  "  little  "  masters  of  Holland.  The  Music  Lesson  (8;39),  is  excep- 
tionally fine  in  colour  and  workmanship.] 

[^  All  these  painters,  as  well  as  Mieris,  were  inferior  to  Metsu,  Dow, 
Terburg,  Maas,  De  Hoogh,  and  Vermeer,  as  well  as  many  of  the  painters 
who  follow.  There  are  thi-ee  examples  of  Netscher  and  four  of  Scballcen 
in  the  National  Gallery.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  345 

amongst  the  Dutcli  genre  painters.  He  is  a  thoroughly 
sympathetic  artist,  and  enters  into  the  broad  fun  of  the 
scenes  he  depicts  with  keen  appreciation  and  enjoyment. 
In  the  obvious  moral  lessons  he  sometimes  enforces  (in 
such  pictures,  for  instance,  as  the  Effects  of  Intemperance), 
he  somewhat  resembles  Hogarth ;  but  he  has  none  of  the 
stern  purpose  of  the  English  moralist ;  on  the  contrary, 
he  is  essentially  a  laughing  philosopher,  and  remains  on 
friendly  terms  with  the  devil  even  whilst  painting  his 
cloven  feet. 

The  character  of  Jan  Steen,  as  drawn  by  his  earlier 
biographers,  is  that  of  a  jolly,  careless  Bacchus,  a  sort  of 
Falstaff  amongst  artists,  who  led  a  rollicking  drunken  life 
amidst  a  chosen  band  of  boon  companions,  many  of  them 
younger  artists,  whom  he  had  seduced  from  respectability 
by  his  evil  example.  Such  was  the  old-fashioned  notion 
of  Jan  Steen' s  character,  but  much  of  this  has  been  changed 
by  his  modern  biographers.  One  of  them,^  indeed,  endea- 
vours to  show  that  he  led  a  sober  and  industrious  life,  and 
was,  in  fact,  an  exemplary  domestic  character.  Certainly, 
when  we  consider  the  amount  of  work  he  accomplished,^ 
we  cannot  suppose  that  he  was  the  drunken  old  reprobate 
that  his  early  biographers  have  depicted.  Still,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  he  was  a  pattern  of  sobriety ;  his  jolly- 
looking  portraits  so  often  painted  by  himself  in  his  pictures 
seem  to  deny  the  imputation. 

[The  son  of  a  brewer  of  Leyden,  Jan  Steen  studied 
under  Knuffer  at  Utrecht.  He  then  spent  some  time 
under  Van  Goyen  at  the  Hague.  He  married  his  master's 
daughter  in  1649,  and  set  up  a  brewery  at  Delft,  in  which 
he  failed,  and  in  1661  went  to  live  at  Haarlem.  His  wife, 
Margaret  van  Goyen,  died  in  1673,  and  he  soon  after 
married  a  widow.  In  Haarlem  he  associated  with  the 
Ostades.] 

In  one  of  Jan  Steen's  most  celebrated  pictures  he  has 
set  forth  the  pleasures  of  oyster-eating.  The  painting  is 
called,  it  is  true,  a  Representation  of  Human  Life,  but  it 
is  really  nothing  more  than  a  large  oyster  party.  About 
twenty  persons  of  different  ages,  varying  from  infancy  to 

'  M.  T.  Van  Westrheene,  "  Jan  Steon."    La  Haye.     1856. 
'  He  has  left  us  upwards  of  three  hundred  pictures. 


346  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII, 

old  age,  are  engaged  simply  in  opening  and  eating  oysters. 
The  subject  is  raised  above  vulgarity  by  its  vs^hiinsical  con- 
trasts, its  humorous  expression,  its  eifective  chiaroscuro, 
and  its  wonderful  execution.  It  is  now  in  the  Gallery  at 
the  Hague.  The  Effects  of  Intemperance,  before  mentioned, 
is  hkewise  a  remarkable  work.  In  it  the  artist  has  positively 
introduced  portraits  of  himself  and  his  wife,  as  pointing 
the  moral  of  the  scene.  Both  are  depicted  in  drunken 
slumber  after  the  enjoyments  of  a  feast.  The  confusion 
that  reigns  round  them  is  supreme.  One  of  the  children, 
who  are  playing  about,  is  picking  the  pocket  of  her  uncon- 
scious mother,  another  is  smashing  wine-glasses,  a  dog 
upon  the  table  is  devouring  the  remains  of  a  pasty,  a 
monkey  has  possessed  himself  of  some  parchment  deeds, 
whilst  a  servant  in  the  background  is  stealing  some  money 
bags,  and  a  cat  knocks  down  the  china.^ 

Adrian  Brauwer  (1606-1638)  is  a  painter  of  great 
merit,  though  his  works  are  usually  coarse  in  expression, 
and  betray  innate  vulgarity  of  mind.  The  stories  told  of 
the  early  poverty  of  this  artist,  and  his  ill-treatment  by 
Frans  Hals,  rest  upon  very  doubtful  evidence.  [Bom  at 
Audenaerde,  he  studied  under  Hals  at  Haarlem,  and  in  1631 
established  himself  at  Antwerp  in  the  house  of  his  friend 
and  pupil,  Josse  Craesbeek  (then  a  baker),  under  t^e 
patronage  of  Eubens  and  the  Prince  of  Arenberg.  He  is 
said  to  have  sojourned  previously  in  Paris.]  He  mostly 
painted  peasant  scenes  [many  of  which  have  been  ascribed 
to  Teniers,  the  Molenaers,  or  the  Ostades,  though  his 
best  works  are  broader  in  treatment,  cooler  in  tone,  and 
exhibit  a  refined  delicacy  of  colour  and  exquisite  trans- 
parency of  shadow,  scarcely  attained  by  any  other  master.] 

Adrian  van  Ostade,  born  in  1610  at  Haarlem,  died 
there  in  1685.  The  son  of  a  weaver,  he  learned  painting 
under  Frans  Hals.  He  painted  scenes  from  peasant  life, 
but  chose  the  serious  side  of  that  life,  and  represented  his 
peasants  in  all  the  stern  reality  of  suffering,  poverty,  and 
want.  His  children  are  always  the  most  melancholy  speci- 
mens of  aged  childhood,  with  a  premature  expression  of 

[*  A  highly  finished  "  conversation  piece,"  a  lady  taking  a  lesson  on 
the  hai'psiohord,  is  the  only  specimen  of  Jan  Steen's  skill  in  the  National 
Gallery  (No.  856).] 


BOOK   VII.]      PAINTING   IN    THE   NETHERLANDS.  347 

anxiety,  such  as  we  often  see,  alas  !  in  the  forced  childish 
growth  of  a  London  alley. 

Charles  Blanc  characterizes  Ostade  as  "  un  Eembrandt 
familier  et  un  Teniers  serieux,"  and  it  is  true  that  he  does 
unite,  to  a  certain  extent,  several  of  the  quahties  of  these 
masters  ;  in  the  management  of  light  and  shade,  especially, 
he  gained  much  from  Rembrandt.^ 

Isaac  van  Ostade  (1621-1649)  was  a  younger  brother 
and  scholar  of  Adrian.  His  peasant  scenes  are  more  cheer- 
ful, but  not  nearly  so  excellent  as  those  of  his  brother.^ 

Several  inferior  painters  of  the  same  class  of  subjects, 
and  a  few  more  dreary  mechanical  artists,  who  chose  mili- 
tary scenes  for  their  art,  close  the  line  of  Dutch  genre 
painters. 

The  Landscape  Painters  of  Holland  have  met  with 
unbounded  praise,  or  unbounded  abuse,  according  to  the 
particular  views  that  their  critics  happened  to  hold.  They 
seem  to  have  been,  on  the  whole,  patient  honest  men,  who 
painted  faithfully  the  nature  they  saw  around  them,  not 
attempting  to  give  it  a  poetic  charm  or  ideal  character 
that  they  did  not  comprehend.  Far  wiser  in  this  than  those 
poor  feeble  Flemings  who  vainly  tried  to  imagine  classic 
ruins  and  Italian  skies,  or  than  several  Dutch  masters  of 
this   time,   who,   despising  the   flat   fields  of   their   own 

^  [M.  Havard  writes  of  this  admirable  artist,  "  Ostade,  like  his  friend 
Braiiwer,  made  a  speciality  of  popular  and  peasant  scenes.  Taverns, 
village  inns,  hostelries,  and  rustic  scenes,  constantly  supplied  subjects 
for  his  brush ;  but  he  did  not,  like  Brauwer,  represent  drinking-bouts, 
fights,  and  adventures  in  low  life.  His  '  Vagabonds'  are  honest  people 
devoting  themselves  to  gaiety,  singing  and  drinking,  and  professing  an 
especial  liking  for  the  games  of  skittles  and  bowls ;  for  the  most  part, 
however,  they  are  worthy  fathers  of  families,  detesting  brawls,  drinking 
only  to  a  moderate  extent,  rather  affectionate  than  quaiTelsome,  rarely 
beating  their  wives,  and  never  whipping  their  children  ;  and  if  they  are 
always  laughing,  it  is  '  because  to  laugh  is  the  privilege  of  man.'  As  a 
matter  of  fact  Ostade's  figures  are  not  always  laugiiing,  nor  always 
serious.  He  painted  men  as  he  found  them,  with  a  singular  sympathy 
for  their  joys  as  well  as  their  sorrows,  for  the  young  as  well  as  the  old. 
His  few  pictures  from  sacred  history  are  full  of  true  reverence,  though 
the  figures  are  those  of  Dutchmen,  and  the  scenery  that  of  Holland." 
There  is  one  example  of  A.  van  Ostade  in  the  National  Gallery,  846, 
The  Alchymist.] 

[■■*  This  artist  is  well  represented  in  the  National  Gallery  by  four 
pictures,  including  a  fine  Portrait  of  a  Boy,  1137.] 


348  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

country,  sought  for  inspiration  not  from  Italian  nature, 
but  from  Italian  art,  and  became  mere  imitators  of  third- 
rate  Italian  artists. 

Jan  van  Goyen  (1596-1666),  and  Jan  Wynants  (1600, 
living  in  1679),  are  important,  not  so  much  from  their 
own  merits — though  they  are  not  artists  to  be  overlooked — 
as  from  their  having  been  the  first  painters  of  genuine 
Dutch  landscape,  a  line  in  which  they  were  followed  by 
several  greater  men/  These  may  be  divided  into  painters 
of  landscape  with  cattle,  and  painters  of  landscape  without 
cattle.  [Van  Goyen's  numerous  views  of  rivers  and  canals 
are  distinguished  for  their  breadth  and  simplicity.  He 
painted  very  lightly  in  sober  browns  and  greys,  varying 
from  pale  red  to  pale  green,  and  showed  a  delicate  feeling 
for  light  and  colour.  Amongst  his  jDupils  were  Simon  de 
Ylieger  and  Nicholas  Coelebier,  of  Haarlem.  Of  the 
latter  nothing  else  is  knoAvn  except  that  he  cojjied  Van 
Goyen' s  manner,  but  with  a  somewhat  heavier  touch. 
Simon  de  Vlieger  (1612-1660)  followed  also  Willem  van 
de  Velde.  His  later  works  are  more  varied  in  colour  than 
Van  Goyen' s.  Of  Jan  Wynants,  of  Haarlem,  little  is 
known.  His  clear,  bright  landscapes  are  truthful  in  draw- 
ing, delicate  in  aerial  perspective,  are  minuter  in  detail,  and 
more  romantic  in  feeling  than  those  of  Van  Goyen.  The 
charming  little  figures  introduced  were  mostly  by  Adrian 
van  de  Velde,  Lingelbach,  Barent  Gael,  Held  Stockade, 
and  others.  In  the  National  Gallery  are  five  examples  of 
Wynants.  There  also  are  two  fine  works  by  Philip  de 
KoNiNCK  (1619-1689),  of  Amsterdam,  who  was  one  of 
Kembrandt's  best  pupils.  His  landscapes  are  generally 
panoramic  in  their  character.  The  larger  of  those  in  the 
National  Gallery  (No.  836)  shows  a  vast  expanse  of  flat 
country,  with  a  small  town  in  the  middle^  ground.  The 
wide  view  stretches  back,  plane  upon  plane,  under  a  beauti- 
ful sky  of  rolling  clouds,  the  whole  great  space  full  of  air 
and  life.     One  of  his  most  celebrated  works  is  the  Mouth 

P  With  these  founders  of  modern  faithful  landscape  painting  should 
be  associated  Pieter  de  Moltn  (1600-1654),  whose  works  are  rare, 
(there  are  examples  in  the  Brunswick  Gallery,  in  the  Louvre,  and  at 
Berlin),  and  Solomon  van  Eutsdael  (1600-1670),  by  whom  there  is  a 
fine  picture  of  "  The  Halt  at  an  Inn,"  in  the  Museum  at  Amsterdam.] 


EOOK   VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE    NETHEELANDS.  349 

of  a  Dutch  River  in  the  Arenberg  G-allery  (Brussels), 
which  in  its  rendering  of  the  vast  expanse  of  sky,  is  esjDC- 
cially  reminiscent  of  Eembrandt's  broadly-drawn  topo- 
graphical pieces.] 

Paul  Potter  (1625-1654)  is  pre-eminently  the  painter 
of  the  herd.  He  has  been  called  the  Raphael  of  animal 
painting,  but  this  title  is  singularly  inappropriate,  for  he 
did  not  in  any  way  idealize  bovine  beauty.  His  genius  was 
very  early  developed.  At  the  age  of  fourteen,  we  are  told,^ 
his  paintings  already  ranked  with  those  of  famed  and  ex- 
I)erienced  masters,  and  they  have  gone  on  increasing  in 
market  value  ever  since.^ 

Paul  Potter's  most  celebrated  work  is  the  Young  Bull  of 
the  Hague,  painted  when  he  was  only  twenty-two.  It  cer- 
tainly is  a  wonderful  painting  as  regards  size  and  fidelity 
to  nature,  but  it  has  only  the  merits  that  a  huge  photo- 
graph might  possess.  Far  pleasanter  are  some  of  his 
smaller  pictures,^  for  instance,  one  in  the  same  gallery,  re- 
presenting a  cow  admiring  her  reflection  in  a  clear,  broad 
pool  of  water.  In  the  Grosvenor  Gallery,  in  London,  also, 
there  is  a  charming  specimen  of  his  smaller  productions. 
Merely  a  few  cows  and  sheep  grazing  in  the  meadows  of  a 
dairy  farm,  but  painted  with  a  full  comprehension  of  the 
peaceful  features  of  the  scene,  and  with  beautiful  effects 
of  golden  light  falling  on  the  flat  meadows  and  reposing 
cattle. 

Paul  Potter,  it  is  said,  took  the  greatest  pains  to  make 
himself  acquainted  with  the  character  of  the  animals  he 
loved  to  paint,  and  never  went  out  without  observing  and 
recording  some  significant  trait  or  action  of  ox,  cow,  or 
sheep.  He  seems,  in  fact,  to  have  entered  into  the  heart  of 
his  kine,  if  such  could  be,  so  thorough  is  his  understanding 
of  their  natures. 

Paul  Potter'engraved  a  few  plates.  Bartsch  enumerates 
eighteen,  which  he  says,  "  font  les  dclices  de  tous  les  con- 
noisseurs." 

^  Descamps,  "  Vie  des  Peintres." 

'■'  A  painting  of  Four  Oxen  in  a  Meadow,  orijrinally  sold  for  £25,  was 
boufjht  by  the  Emperor  of  liussia,  in  1815,  for  £2,800. 

^  [There  are  two  fine  ones  in  the  National  Gallery,  Nos.  649  and 
1009.] 


350  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

Albert  Cuyp  (1605,  about  1691),  of  Dordrecht,  is  not 
merely  a  cattle  painter,  like  Paul  Potter,  although  he  loved 
to  introduce  cattle  into  his  landscapes.  With  the  latter, 
the  landscape  (always  carefully  and  faithfully  painted) 
simply  forms  the  background  to  his  cattle ;  whereas,  with 
Cuyp,  the  cattle  are  but  one  of  the  varied  features  of  the 
scene.  He  has  been  called  the  Dutch  Claude,  and  truly  the 
great  difference  between  the  landscapes  of  these  two 
painters  lies  in  the  different  latitudes  in  which  they 
painted.  They  each  loved  the  misty  air  of  the  hot  noon- 
day and  the  golden  glow  of  the  afternoon  sun ;  but  Cuyp's 
sun  rose  and  set  over  the  low  fields  and  ditches  of  Holland, 
whilst  Claude's  gilded  the  mountains  or  sunk  into  the  blue 
lakes  of  Italy.  The  country  round  Dortrecht,  the  river 
Maas,  with  its  broad  expanse  of  water,  its  boats,  its  ship- 
ping, and  the  cattle  that  grazed  on  its  banks,  offered  him 
quite  sufficient  subjects  for  his  art,  for  did  not  the  golden 
sun  shine  on  the  river  and  its  belongings,  and  sometimes 
even,  when  the  river  was  frozen,  on  its  clear  sheet  of  ice  ? 
True,  it  was  a  Dutch  sun ;  but  was  not  its  light  sufficient 
to  gladden  a  patriotic  painter's  heart,  and  to  enable  him  to 
reproduce  its  effects  on  his  canvas  ?  We  find  the  answer 
in  Cuyp's  pictures.  No  painter  has  ever  expressed  the 
peculiar  warm,  misty  air  of  a  summer's  afternoon  with 
greater  truth. 

The  English  were  the  first  to  see  the  merits  of  Cuyp's 
works,  and  about  nine-tenths  of  them  are  in  this  country.^ 

The  Dulwich  G-allery  contains  no  less  than  eighteen 
Cuyps:  nowhere,  perhaps,  can  he  be  studied  to  greater 
advantage  [and  there  are  eight  in  the  National  Gallery]. 
Some  of  his  finest  paintings  are,  however,  in  private  hands 
in  this  country. 

[Aaart  van  der  Neer  (1619-1683)  was  another  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  Dutch  landscape  painters,  particularly 

^  They  were  formerly  but  little  esteemed  by  the  Dutch,  and  conse- 
quently, sold  for  absurdly  small  sums,  until  English  dealers  and  con- 
noisseurs raised  their  value.  Kugler  says  that  he  was  told  by  a  Dutch 
connoisseur  that  in  past  times,  when  a  picture  found  no  bidder  at  a  sale, 
the  auctioneer  would  throw  in  a  little  Cuyp  to  tempt  a  purchaser ;  and 
Smith  affirms  "  that  down  to  the  year  1750,  there  is  no  instance  of  a 
painting  by  his  hand  selling  for  more  than  thirty  florins,  or  something 
less  than  three  pounds  sterling." 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN    THB    NETHEELANDS.  351 

famous  for  his  moonlight  scenes.  There  are  four  of  his 
works  in  the  National  Gallery,  in  one  of  which  the  figures 
were  painted  by  Cuyp.] 

Philip  Woitw^erman  (1619-1668)  is  a  painter  who  has 
had  an  immense  reputation  in  his  time,  but  his  day  seems 
now  to  have  past.^  Ruskin  derides  him  most  unmerci- 
fully, and  several  other  critics  have  followed  his  example. 
His  pictures  are,  perhaps,  the  most  curious  compounds  of 
incongruous  ingredients  that  have  ever  been  painted.  He 
arranges  the  features  of  a  landscape  according  to  a  pattern 
of  his  own,  and  then  sets  in  it  cavaliers,  horses,  dogs,  cattle, 
hunting  parties,  military  skirmishes,  blacksmith's  forges, 
village  inns,  or  classic  temples  as  it  suits  him,  very  often, 
indeed,  he  treats  us  to  two  or  three  of  these  episodes  in  the 
same  landscape  or  **  nonsense  picture,"  as  this  sort  of  works 
has  been  appropriately  called. 

We  should  remember,  however,  in  criticizing  Wouwer- 
man,  that  probably  only  about  one  eighth  part  of  the  pic- 
tures assigned  to  him  are  really  by  his  hand.  No  artist, 
except  perhaps  Holbein,  has  suffered  more  in  this  respect 
than  Wouwerman.^ 

As  a  rule  every  Dutch  painting  that  has  a  white  horse 
in  it  is  set  down  to  him,  he  having  been  ajjparently  as  fond 
of  white  horses  as  Terburg  of  white  satin ;  but  Pieter  and 
Jan  Wouwerman,  his  brothers,  painted  similar  subjects, 
and  many  of  the  white  horses  may  be  theirs.  Jan  van 
HuGTENBURG,  also,  is  another  painter  whose  works  Wor- 
num  considers  have  been  taken  by  dealers  to  swell  their 
lists  of  Wouwermans.^ 

Jacob  Ruysdael,  or  Van  Euisdael  *  (about  1625-1682), 
is  a  genuine  painter  of  landscape — of  landsca^^e  pure  and 
simple,  without  accessories  of  cattle  or  horses.     His  land- 

'  [Not  quite  yet.  His  peculiar  skill  in  the  rpndering  of  certain  atmo- 
spl.eric  effects,  the  charm  of  his  colour,  and  beauty  of  his  drawing,  still 
make  him  a  favourite  painter  with  artists  and  connoisseurs,  and  fine 
examples  of  his  art  are  always  likely  to  command  high  prices.] 

^  Wornum,  whose  authority  in  such  matters  as  this  is  unquestionable, 
says  that,  instead  of  the  eight  or  nine  hundred  pictures  given  to 
>Vouverman  by  experts,  ninety  is  a  number  nearer  the  truth. 

^  [There  are  eight  pictures  by  Wouverman,  and  one  by  Ilugtenburg 
in  the  National  Gallery.] 

*  [Nephew  of  Salomon  van  Ruysdael.] 


352  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

scapes  are  somewhat  melanclioly  in  character,  deep  pools 
overshadowed  by  trees,  water-mills,  waterfalls,  and  ever- 
clouded  skies,  but  their  melancholy  is  tinged  with  poetry, 
and  seldom  becomes  oppressive.  He  was  fond  of  dark 
masses  of  foliage,  and  thus  the  prevailing  colour  of  his 
works  is  dark  green.  [The  romantic  character  of  his 
scenes,  so  different  from  his  own  surroundings,  is  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  many  of  his  pictures  were  painted  from 
Van  Everdingen's  sketches  of  Norwegian  scenery.  There 
are  twelve  of  his  pictures  in  the  National  Grallery].  Ruys- 
dael's  etchings  are  excellent. 

MiNDERHOUT  HoBBEMA  (1638-1709)  is  supposcd  to  have 
been  a  pupil  of  Ruysdael,  or  possibly  of  Salomon  Euysdael, 
Jacob's  brother,  who  was  likewise  an  artist.  He  painted 
very  much  in  the  same  style  as  Ruysdael,  and  chose  the 
same  subjects — green  trees,  water,  and  clouds,  witli  beauti- 
ful effects  of  light  falling  upon  them,  but  his  works  give 
evidence  of  a  more  cheerful  mind  than  Ruysdael' s.  He 
often  painted  nature,  it  is  true,  in  her  melancholy  mood, 
but  he  did  not  infuse  any  subjective  gloom  into  his  scenes, 
as  Ruysdael  and  several  of  our  English  landscape  painters 
have  done.  Generally,  however,  he  chose  happy  sunny 
scenes.  Hobbema's  works  are  rare,  and  enormous  sums 
have  been  given  for  them.^ 

Antoni  Waterloo  (bom  at  Lille  about  1630,  living 
in  1661)  is  an  artist  who  is  known  by  his  admirable 
etchings  more  than  by  his  paintings,  [which  are  charac- 
terized as  forming  a  link  between  the  realistic  style  of 
Hobbema  and  Ruysdael,  and  the  Italianizers  of  Dutch 
landscape] .  The  one  example  of  his  painting  that  I  re- 
member, greatly  resembles  Hobbema  in  style.  It  is  in  the 
Munich  G-allery. 

Abraham  Verboom,  Conrad  Decker,  A.  Rontbouts, 
Albert  Van  Everdingen,  a  painter  of  Norwegian  scenes, 
Jan  Looten,^  Jan  Van  Hagen,  and  several  more,  were  all 

[^  The  National  Gallery  possesses  several  fine  works  by  this  painter, 
including  the  famous  Avenue,  Middelharnis.  No  artist  had  a  greater 
influence  on  Constable,  Crowe,  and  other  landscape  painters  of  the 
English  school,] 

2  [This  artist  worked  much  in  England.  There  is  a  picture  by  him 
in  the  National  Gallery,  No.  901.] 


BOOK   VII.]       PAINTING   IN   THE    NETHERLANDS.  353 

followers  of  Ruysdael  and  Hobbema,  or  at  all  events  painted 
the  same  scenes  in  the  same  manner,  but  with  inferior 
merit. 

Next  come  the  Sea  Painters  of  Holland,  the  Be  Euyters 
and  Yan  Tromps  of  the  palette. 

"WiLLEM  Vandevelde  THE  YouNGER  (1633,  died  in 
Greenwich,  1707),  stands  first  amongst  these  heroes,  al- 
though his  father,  Willem  Vandevelde  the  Elder,  was 
a  much  esteemed  painter  in  his  day,  especially  in  England, 
where  he  had  a  pension  granted  him  by  Charles  II.,  of 
<£100  a  year,  "for  taking  and  making  draughts  of  sea 
fights."  The  same  pension  was  afterwards  given  to  his 
son,  who  in  a  true  cosmopolitan  spirit  painted  first  (when 
he  was  in  Holland),  the  victories  of  the  Dutch  over  the 
English,  and  afterwards  (when  he  came  to  England),  the 
victories  of  the  English  over  the  Dutch.  He  has  given  us 
the  sea  in  most  of  its  moods  ;  storm  and  calm,  wind  and 
rain,  dashing  waves  and  gentle  ripples,  but  although  he 
expressed  what  he  saw  faithfully  enough,  and  although  his 
vision  was  by  no  means  limited,  yet  his  works  are  strangely 
uninteresting.^ 

LuDOLF  Backhtttsen  (1631-1708).  Charles  Blanc  cha- 
racterizes the  difference  between  Vandevelde's  seas  and 
Backhuy sen's  by  saying  that  "  Backhuysen  makes  us  fear 
the  sea  whilst  Vandevelde  makes  us  love  it."  Some  minds, 
therefore,  it  is  evident,  must  be  affected  by  Backhuysen' s 
leaden  skies  and  opaque  seas,  for  here  we  have  an  excellent 
critic  praising  them  for  the  very  qualities  in  which  to  others 
they  seem  lacking,  showing  how  the  same  work  may  pro- 
duce a  totally  different  effect  on  different  minds.  Back- 
huysen was  a  painter  of  ships,  even  more  than  of  seas  ;  he 
had,  indeed,  a  practical  knowledge  of  all  nautical  matters, 
and  is  said  to  have  made  constructive  drawings  of  ships 
for  Peter  the  Great.  The  two  pictures  by  him  in  the 
National  Gallery  are  of  Dutch  shipping." 

'  [There  are  no  less  than  fourteen  examples  of  this  fine  painter  in  the 
National  Gallery.  He  is  called  by  M.  Havard,  "not  only  the  greatest 
marine  painter  of  the  Dutch  School,  but  also  one  of  the  greatest  in  the 
whole  world.''] 

^  [There  are  now  •  six  examples  of  Backhuysen   in  the   National 
Gallery,  including  a  view,  Off  the  Mouth  of  the  Thames.] 
A  A 


354  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VII. 

Jan  Van  der  Capelle,^  and  Jan  Dubbels,  whose 
works  are  frequently  made  to  pass  for  Backhuysen's,^  the 
German  Johann  Lingelbach,'  who  principally  painted 
harbours  and  quays,  with  their  rich  artistic  agglome- 
rations, and  several  others,  whose  names  may  be  found 
in  dictionaries,  belong  to  the  marine  painters  of  this 
time. 

Nicolas  Berchem,^  Karel  dtj  jARDiN,^,and  Jan  Both,' 
are  all  three  painters  of  high  reputation ;  but,  although 
undoubted  Dutchmen  by  birth  and  natural  tastes,  they 
can  scarcely  be  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  Dutch  School. 
It  was  not  merely  that  they  painted  Italian  landscapes 
instead  of  Dutch  ones ;  this  they  could  have  done,  and  yet 
have  remained  true  to  their  own  nationahty.  We  do  not 
call  John  Phillip  a  Spanish  painter  because  he  painted 
Spanish  scenes,  nor  Turner  an  Italian  because  of  his  bril- 
liant skies,  but  the  Italianisers  of  Flanders  and  Holland 
only  painted  Italian  nature  as  they  saw  it  in  Italian  pic- 
tures, not  as  they  saw  it  for  themselves.  It  was  the  art  of 
Italy,  and  not  the  nature  that  they  imitated,  and  so  they 
produced  a  bastard  style  of  painting  which  neither  the 
Netherlands  nor  Italy  can  own.  This  style  is  the  more  to 
be  deplored,  as  these  masters  were  really  excellent  painters, 
who  might  have  produced  charming  works  had  they  but 
retained  their  nationality. 

Several  masters  of  inferior  merit  followed  to  the  south 
these  three  leading  ones.  Their  landscapes  usually  are 
sprinkled  over  with  classic  temples  and  pastoral  figures, 
and  are  utterly  vacuous,  having  lost  the  true  Dutch  merits 
of  effective  colouring  and  careful  execution. 

Adrian  Yander  Werff  (1659-1722)  is  about  the  worst 
instance  of  Dutch  Italianisation.  He  was  not  a  landscape 
painter,  but  dealt  with  mythological  and  biblical  subjects, 
and  especially  delighted  in  the  nude,  of  which,  however,  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  had  any  real  knowledge,  his  flesh 

^  [A  fine  painter  of  shipping  and  calm  water,  and  luminous  skies 
with  trailing  clouds.  Five  pictures  by  him  are  in  the  National 
Gallery.] 

2  Smith, '-'Catalogue  Raisonn^." 

'  [All  these  painters,  as  well  as  Adriann  van  .de  Velde,  who  be- 
longs to  the  same  class,  can  be  studied  at  the  National  Gallery.] 


BOOK    VII.]       PAINTING    IN    THE   NETHERLANDS.  355 

being  thorouglilj  bloodless  and  smooth,  resembling  ivorj 
more  than  anything  else.  At  the  Pinakothek,  at  Munich, 
there  is  a  whole  cabinet  devoted  to  this  painter's  works, 
besides  others  scattered  through  the  gallery.  Many  of 
these,  it  is  true,  have  great  elegance  and  beauty.  His 
female  figures,  in  particular,  are  often  pretty,  and  exhibit 
animation  and  inteUigence.  He  had  also  considerable 
power  of  invention,  and  thought  is  by  no  means  wanting 
in  his  paintings.  Several  of  his  genre  pictures,  with 
biblical  names,  such,  for  instance,  as  Sarah  bringing 
Hagar  to  Abraham,  have  decidedly  attractive  features, 
and  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  to  find  that  "  they  were  so 
highly  admired  by  princes  and  men  of  fortune,  that  he 
found  it  impossible  to  execute  all  the  commissions  given 
to  him." 

While  one  class  of  Dutch  painters  was  thus  seeking  to 
ennoble  and  beautify  the  honest  bourgeois  art  of  Holland 
by  the  introduction  of  a  foreign  element,  another  class  was 
dragging  the  native  style  down  to  utter  worthlessness  by 
employing  it  on  the  meanest  and  most  trivial  subjects. 
The  Dutch  painters  of  fruit,  flowers,  still  life,  and  crockery, 
form  a  large  group  by  themselves,  amongst  which  are 
several  meritorious  masters. 

WiLLEM  Kalf's  kitchen  pieces  are  unequalled  in  their 
way ;  Jan  Weenix  bestows  on  his  dead  game  an  execution 
worthy,  at  least,  to  have  been  expended  on  living  birds ; 
and  Van  Htjysum  offers  us  fruit  that  makes  our  mouths 
water. ^    But  the  low  qualities  of  illusion  and  laborious 

^  [Melchior  de  Hondecoeter,  th^painter  of  living  birds  and  other 
animals  (1636-1695),  Jan  tan  Os  (1744-1808),  the  most  distinguished 
flower-painter  of  his  time,  and  Jacobus  Walsoappelle  (living  1675), 
are,  as  well  as  Van  Huysum  and  Weenix,  represented  in  the  National 
Gallery,  which  by  the  purchase  of  the  Peel  Collection  and  the  bequest 
of  Mr.  Wynn  Ellis,  has  become  (since  this  book  was  first  published)  re- 
markably rich  in  fine  specimens  of  the  Dutch  School.  Besides  the 
painters  already  mentioned,  the  following  are  represented  in  Trafalgar 
o<luare:  Dirk  van  Delen,  an  architectural  painter,  apupilofFransHals; 
Jan  Hackaert,  landscape-painter ;  Jan  van  dbr  Hetde,  a  painter 
of  architecture  and  landscape  (1637-1712);  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  the 
portrait-painter  (1646-1723) ;  Otho  Marcellis,  still  life  painter  (1613- 
1 673) ;  Egbert  van  der  Poel,  painter  of  landscape  and  architecture  (died 
about  1690) ;  Cobnklis  van  Poelenburoh,  chiefly  painted  figures  fur 
landscape  painters  (1586-1667);  Pibteb  Potter  (born  1595),  father  of 


356  H18TOJBY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    VII. 

finish  are  all  tliat  are  to  be  found  in  these  painters,  and 
■with  the  lower  artists  of  the  group  even  good  execution  is 
wanting. 

True  art  was,  in  fact,  killed  by  these  still-life  painters 
of  Holland  in  the  same  way  as  it  was  killed  in  Greece  by 
the  same  class  of  artists. 

In  each  case  the  loss  of  political  freedom  preceded  the 
fall  and  death  of  art. 

[The  modem  school  of  Dutch  painters  owes  much  to  the 
naturalistic  section  of  the  modem  French  school,  but  it  is 
quite  national  in  its  subjects,  delighting  chiefly  in  recording 
the  "  simple  annals  of  the  poor  "  of  Holland,  of  the  pea- 
sants, the  fishermen,  and  the  inmates  of  its  numerous 
charitable  institutions,  and  seldom,  even  in  landscape  or 
sea-pieces,  straying  beyond  its  level  fields  and  sandy  shores. 
Its  tone,  both  of  colour  and  sentiment,  is  somewhat  sad. 
"While  it  aims,  like  the  old  masters  of  Holland,  at  truth  of 
light  and  air,  its  tints  are  more  sombre  and  its  touch  more 
vague;  and  while  it  concerns  itself  mainly,  as  they  did, 
with  the  current  of  daily  life,  its  view  of  humanity  is  nearly 
always  tinged  with  pathetic  thought,  and  has  nothing  of 
the  humour  of  Teniers  and  Jan  Steen. 

The  chief  master  of  this  modem  school  is  Josef  Israels 
(b.  1824),  an  admirable  craftsman  and  colourist  whose 
works,  although  unequal  in  force  and  variety  to  those  of 
the  Frenchman  Millet,  are  truthfully  touched  with  the 
pathos  of  labour  and  poverty.  Among  his  best  followers 
are  Aetz,  Blommers,  and  Neuhuys.  Johannes  Bosboom 
excels  in  effects  of  light  in  interiors  of  cottage  or  cathedral ; 
JoH.  Barth.  Yongkind  and  Hendrich  Willem  Mesdag 
in  sea-pieces ;  Anton  Mauve  (1838)  and  Willem  Maris 
in  landscapes  and  cattle.  Jacobus  Maris,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  three  brothers,  paints  the  streets  and  quays 
of  Holland  in  a  singularly  broad  and  effective  manner,  and 
the  youngest,  Matthew,  has  a  peculiar  romantic  imagina- 
tion of  his  own. 

Paul  Potter,  landscape  painter ;  Uoklandt  Savert  (1576-1639),  land- 
scape and  animal  painter  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Rudolph  II.  at 
Prague;  Willem  van  der  Vliet  (1584-1642),  portrait  painter ;  Jan 
WiLS,  landscape  painter,  master  of  Berchem,  and  Emanuel  de  Wittb, 
painter  of  interiors  (1607-1692).] 


BOOK  VII.]       PAINTING  IN    THE    NETHERLANDS.  357 

Differing  from  most  of  the  modem  school  of  Holland  in 
the  gaiety  of  his  colour  and  the  cheerfulness  of  his  temper 
is  C.  BisscHOF,  who  paints  scenes  from  the  lives  of  the 
handsome,  well-to-do,  picturesque  Frisian  peasantry  with 
singular  breadth  and  skill.] 


book:  vni. 

\\fi^  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE. 

Earlt  Painteks — David — Gericault — Hobacb  Verket — 
Paul  Delaroche. 

FRENCH  writers  claim  an  early  origia  for  the  practice 
of  painting  in  France.  They  say  that  from  the  time 
of  Charlemagne  it  was  the  custom  to  cover  churches  and 
monasteries  with  paintings,^  but  unfortunately  none  of 
these  mural  paintings  remain,  nor  have  we  anything  but  a 
vague  traditionary  account  of  them.  In  the  art  of  illuminat- 
ing, however,  it  is  certain  that  the  French  masters  greatly 
excelled,  and  in  this  branch  of  art,  as  well  as  in  glass- 
painting,  the  French  School  occupies  an  important  position 
as  early  as  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.' 

One  of  the  earliest  of  the  French  "  peintres  et  enlrnni- 
neurs  "  whom  we  find  mentioned  by  name  is  Jean  Fouqttet 
(1415-1485),  Court  painter  to  Louis  XI.,  by  whom  several 
manuscripts,  that  are  still  preserved,  are  iUuminated  with 
great  taste  and  skill.^ 

'  Emeric  David,  "  Histoire  de  la  Peinture  au  Mojen  Age.* 
^  A  Psalter,  said  to  have  been  executed  for  S.  Louis,  is  still  preserred 
in  the  Library  of  Paris,  containing  numerous  beautifully  coloured 
miniatures,  representing  scenes  from  the  Old  Testament,  on  a  gold 
ground,  and  set  in  a  rich  Gothic  framework.  [Mural  paintings  in  France 
of  the  twelfth  century  exist  at  Liget,  Poitiers,  and  Poitou,  and  examples 
of  glass  painting  in  the  same  century  at  Le  Mans,  Angers,  St.  Denis, 
Chartres,  and  Venddme.  Of  mural  paintings  of  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth centuries  there  are  a  few  vestiges,  as  at  the  Cathedral  of  Toumus 
and  elsewhere.  For  further  information  respecting  early  French  paint* 
ing  (wall,  panel,  miniatures,  &c.),  the  reader  is  referred  to  Woltmana 
and  Woermann's  "  History  of  Painting."] 
^  Especially  may  be  mentioned  a  French  translation  of  Josephus,  con- 


BOOK    VIII.]  PAINTING   IN    FRANCE.  359 

Tradition  ascribes  to  the  unfortunate  King  Ren^  op 
Anjou  (1408-1480)  several  paintings  in  the  Flemish  style 
preserved  in  the  Cathedral  at  Aix,  and  at  Villeneuve,  near 
Avignon,  and  also  a  picture  representing  the  Preaching  of 
Mary  Magdalen,  now  in  the  Cluny  Museum,  at  Paris ;  but 
there  seems  to  be  no  ground  beyond  mere  sentiment  for 
accrediting  the  royal  painter  with  these  works,  which 
were  more  probably  executed  by  some  unknown  Flemish 
master.^ 

The  influence  of  the  Van  Eycks  is  distinctly  perceptible 
in  the  art  of  the  three  Clouets,  the  younger  of  whom, 
Francois  Clotjet,  usually  called  Janet  (about  1510-1572), 
was  greatly  distinguished  as  a  miniature  portrait  painter, 
and  has  left  us  likenesses  of  many  of  the  royal  family  of 
France  of  his  time.  Several  of  his  portraits,  according  to 
Womum,  are  ascribed  to  Holbein." 

But  by  far  the  most  important  and  most  independent  of 
the  early  painters  of  France,  is  the  architect,  sculptor, 
painter,  and  writer  on  human  proportion  and  perspective, 
Jehan  Cousin  (born  at  Soucy,  near  Sens,  1501,  and  died 
1589).  Cousin's  best-known  work  is  a  hard  and  detailed  Last 
Judgment,  in  the  Louvre,  that  has  been  engraved  in  twelve 
plates  by  P.  de  Jode.  The  Louvre  painting  is  in  oil  colours, 
but  the  original  composition  occupied  a  large  glass  window 
in  the  Church  of  S.  Eomain,  at  Sens,  which  was  destroyed 
in  1792. 

Cousin  seems  to  have  been  originally  a  painter  of  glass, 

taining,  as  we  are  told  in  a  notice  at  the  end  of  the  manuscript,  "  Douze 

Jrstories.  Les  troy  premieres  de  I'enlumineur  du  Due  Jean  de  Berry,  e( 
es  neuf  de  la  main  du  bon  paintre  et  enlumineur  du  Roy  Loys  XI. 
Jehan  Fouquet  natif  de  Tours."  This  MS.  is  likewise  to  be  found  in  the 
Library  of  Paris.  [Some  of  his  finest  miniatures  are  in  the  Brentano 
Collection  at  Frankfort,  where  is  also  one  of  the  two  known  panels 
painted  by  him.     The  other  is  in  the  Museum  at  Antwerp.] 

*  [The  Burning  Bush  altar-piece  at  Aix  is  now  known  to  hare  been 
painted  by  Nicolas  Froment,  of  Avignon,  in  1475-1476.  A  tryptych  of 
the  Raising  of  Lazarus  in  the  Uffizi  at  Florence  bears  his  name,  and  the 
date  1461.     Both  are  in  Flemish  style.] 

'  For  recent  information  concerning  the  Clouets,  see  "La  Renaissance 
des  Arts  a  la  Cour  de  France,"  by  the  Comte  de  Laborde,  [Schnasse's 
"  Geschichte  der  bildende  Kunsle,"  and  Lady  Dilke's  "  Renaissance  in 
France."  There  are  two  portraits  ascribed  to  Fran9oi8  Clouet  in  the 
National  Gallery.] 


360  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOE   VIII. 

at  all  events,  some  of  his  greatest  works  were  executed  iu 
this  perishable  material.  Sculpture  also  occupied  a  great 
part  of  his  time,  and  he  achieved  some  noble  plastic  works,^ 
so  that  it  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at  that  we  have  few 
veritable  paintings  by  his  hand.  Such  as  exist,  however 
(they  are  mostly  miniatures),  show  him  to  have  been  an 
artist  of  great  ability ;  ^  indeed,  says  one  of  his  critics,' 
"there  are  traces  everywhere  in  Cousin's  work  that  he 
was  a  man  both  thoughtful  and  of  a  culture  far  deeper 
than  was  common  to  the  peintre  ymagier  of  his  day." 

Of  what  is  called  the  Fontainebleatj  School,  estab- 
lished under  Italian  influence,  by  II  Primaticcio,  Nicolo 
DEL  Abbate,  and  II  Eosso  (Maitre  Eoux),  all  three  Italian 
painters  who  worked  for  Erancis  I.,  Httle  need  be  said, 
except  that  it  successfully  absorbed  any  native  talent  that 
might  have  existed  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  gave  it  a  degenerate  Italian  expression.  For 
it  was  not  the  art  of  the  great  masters  of  Italy,  that  the 
Fontainebleau  artists*  set  up  for  worship  and  imitation, 
but  the  violent  art  of  Giulio  Eomano,  Perino  del  Vaga, 
and  other  unrestrained  mannerists.  "  C'etait  jeter  I'ecole 
Pran9aise,"  says  Yiardot,  "  des  son  berceau,  dans  la  de- 
cadence anticipee  ou  semblait  se  mourir  I'art  italien."  ^ 

[The  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  France, 
though  marked  by  the  prevalence  of  Italian  influence  in 
art,  yet  produced  a  few  artists  who  escaped  almost  entirely 

^  His  monument  to  Admiral  Chabot  is  especially  remarkable,  and  a 
little  ivory  statuette  of  S.  Sebastian,  in  the  Cluny  Collection,  is  gi-eatly 
esteemed  by  critics. 

^  M.  Firmin-Didot,  in  the  "  Gazette  des  Beaux  Arts  "  for  November, 
1871,  claims  for  Cousin  eight  miniatures  in  a  "  Livre  d'Heures"  of 
which  he  has  recently  become  possessed.  M.  Firmin-Didot  is  preparing 
a  work  on  Jehan  Cousin,  which  will  probably  elucidate  many  points  of 
dispute  in  his  history.  [Since  published,  "Etude  sur  Jean  Cousin," 
Paris,  1872.  See  also  his  "  Recueil  des  oeuvres  choisies  de  J.  Cousin,'* 
Paris,  1873.  Lady  Dilke's  "Renaissance  in  France,"  and  "  L'Art," 
Oct.  and  Nov.,  1882.] 

3  E.  F.  S.  Pattison,  "  The  Portfolio,"  No.  13. 

[*  The  most  celebrated  French  artists  who  worked  at  Fontainebleau 
were  Toussaint  Dubreuil  (died  1604)  and  Martin  Freminet  (1567- 
1619).  Ambroise  Dubois  (1543-1614)  was  another  of  the  school,  but 
he  was  by  birth  a  Fleming.] 

*  "  Merveilles  de  la  Peinture."    L'Ecole  Fran^aise. 


BOOK    VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE.  361 

from  the  traditions  of  the  school  of  Fontainebleau.  Fore- 
most amongst  these  were  the  brothers  Le  Nain,  whose 
fame  has  till  recently  been  neglected  even  by  their  coun- 
trymen. Of  the  three  brothers  Le  Nain,  the  earliest  genre 
painters  of  France,  Antoine  (1568-1648),  Louis,  called 
the  Eoman  (1593-1648),  and  Mathieu  (1607-1677),  the 
eldest  was  the  most  distinguished.  Mathieu  painted  por- 
traits as  well  as  still-life  and  genre,  like  his  brothers. 
Their  subjects  had  more  affinity  with  the  Flemish  School 
than  with  the  fashionable  Italian  Schools  of  their  day; 
their  sombreness  of  colour  and  expression  is  allied  to  the 
Spanish  manner.  Equally  apart  stands  one  who,  although 
not  great  as  a  painter,  was  endowed  with  great  original 
talent  as  a  depicter  of  the  life  of  his  day.  This  artist  was 
Jacques  Callot  (1593-1635),  known  chiefly  by  his  spirited 
etchings  of  vagabonds  and  soldiers,  of  festivals  and  battles, 
humorous,  fantastic,  satirical,  and  tragic  by  turn.  His 
Miseres  de  la  Gruerre,  one  of  his  best-known  series  of  en- 
gravings, depicts  with  great  power,  freedom,  and  ghastly 
humour  the  adventurous  military  life  of  the  time  of 
Louis  XIII.,  and  the  terrible  ravages  of  his  dear  province 
of  Lorraine.  These  artists,  the  Le  Nains  and  Callot,  were 
distinctively  French  and  individual  in  their  work,  and 
although  more  humble  in  their  aims,  and  of  less  learning 
and  accomplishment  as  painters,  deserve  to  be  considered 
apart  from  the  great  school  of  Italianized  and  semi-classi- 
cal art  which  reached  its  zenith  in  the  reign  of  Louis 
Quatorze.] 

Simon  Vouet  (1590-1649)  [the  first  of  these]  is  some- 
times spoken  of  as  the  restorer  of  French  art,  but  the 
most  that  he  did  was  to  substitute  the  imitation  of  the 
eclectics  for  that  of  the  mannerists.  [He  studied  under 
Caravaggio  and  Guido,  and  was  employed  by  Louis  XIII. 
and  Richelieu.  His  masterpiece  is  the  Presentation  in  the 
Temple,  now  in  the  Louvre.  He  was  the  Master  of  Le 
Sueur,  Le  Brun,  and  Laurent  de  la  ffire.] 

[Vouet's  principal  rival  was  Jacques  Blanchard  (1600- 
1638),  the  first  French  artist  to  attempt  the  Venetian  style 
of  colour,  from  which  he  earned  the  title  of  the  French 
Titian. 

Valentin  (1600-1634),  on  the  other  hand,  followed 


362  HISTORT    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK  VIIT. 

Caravaggio.  He  is  sometimes  erroneously  called  Moise 
Valentin,  but  Valentin  was  his  Christian  name,  and  his 
surname  is  unknown.  He  was  forcible  and  realistic  in  his 
painting,  and  took  many  of  his  subjects  from  real  life. 
In  the  Vatican  is  his  Martyrdom  of  SS.  Processus  and 
Martianus,  and  in  the  Louvre  are  a  Susannah,  two  Con- 
certs, and  the  Fortune  Teller,  besides  some  other  genre 
and  Scripture  subjects. 

But  a  greater  artist  than  any  of  these  was  Nicolas 
PoussiN  (1694-1665),  born  at  Andelys  in  Normandy.  He 
is  often  named  as  the  greatest  painter  of  the  French 
School,  and  in  certain  qualities,  such  as  learned  drawing 
and  composition,  stately  and  classic  style,  and  intellectual 
vigour,  he  is  scarcely  surpassed.  He  obtained  some  in- 
struction at  Andelys  from  Quentin  Varin,  and  at  Paris 
from  Ferdinand  d'EUe  and  I'AUemand,  artists  whose  names 
chiefly  survive  in  connection  with  their  pupil,  but  it  was 
not  till  his  arrival  in  Rome  that  his  genius  was  developed. 
After  two  efforts,  ineffectual  through  his  poverty,  he 
reached  Rome  in  1624,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Poet 
Marino,  who  died  shortly  afterwards  and  left  him  in  great 
poverty.  In  spite  of  all  difficulties,  he  pursued  a  long 
course  of  study,  attracted  at  first  chiefly  by  the  works  of 
Giulio  Romano  and  Titian,  and  afterwards  by  Bolognese 
masters,  especially  Domenichino,  but  it  was  his  devotion 
to  the  antique  which  finally  gave  the  cachet  to  his  paintings. 
An  eclectic  of  the  eclectics,  his  individuality  showed  itself 
by  its  rejection  of  luxury  in  colour,  and  of  sentiment  in 
expression,  preferring  dignity  of  form  and  the  embodiment 
of  thought.  Learned,  noble,  correct,  his  pictures  appeal  to 
the  reason  rather  than  the  senses,  and  fairly  justify  Fuseli's 
saying  that  he  painted  bas-reliefs. 

One  of  Poussin's  earliest  patrons  in  Italy  was  the  Car- 
dinal Barberini,  for  whom  he  painted  the  Death  of  Q-er- 
manicus,  the  Taking  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  and  perhaps  a 
fijie  Bacchanalian  scene  (full  of  spirit  and  frolic),  now 
No.  42  in  the  National  Gallery,  and  another  was  the 
Cavaliere  del  Posso,  for  whom  he  painted  a  series  of  Seven 
Sacraments,  now  at  Belvoir.  These  and  a  similar  series 
in  the  Bridgewater  Gallery  are  considered  among  his  best 
works.     He  attained  fame  at  Rome,  and  there  married 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING   IN  PEANCE.  363 

Anna  Maria  Dughet,  the  sister  of  Gaspar  Dughet  (better 
known  as  Gaspar  Poussin),  the  landscape  painter. 

In  1640  he,  on  the  invitation  of  Louis  XIII.,  went  with 
his  brother-in-law  to  Paris,  was  appointed  first  painter  to 
the  king  (although  Vouet  held  the  same  appointment),  and 
executed  several  large  works  for  the  king  and  Cardinal 
Eichelieu,  but  the  position  of  court  painter  was  uncon- 
genial to  his  simple  tastes,  his  employment  in  decorative 
work  (designs  for  tapestrj,  furniture,  &c.),  was  distasteful 
to  him,  and  Vouet  intrigued  against  him.  So,  in  1642,  he 
obtained  permission  to  visit  Rome,  and  as  both  the  king 
and  Richelieu  died  soon  after,  he  considered  himself  ab- 
solved from  his  promise  to  return.  At  Rome  he  remained 
working  industriously,  and  surrounded  with  friends  and 
admirers,  till  1665,  when  (on  the  19th  of  November)  he 
died  and  was  buried  in  San  Lorenzo,  in  Lucina. 

Though  Poussin' s  art  was  based  on  the  art  of  Italy  an- 
cient and  modem,  and  though  he  lived  most  of  his  life  in 
Italy,  he  was  yet  a  Frenchman,  and  his  works  have  had 
influence  mainly  upon  the  French  School,  from  his  day  even 
to  the  present.  The  peculiar  classic  note  which  he  touched 
was  not  Italian  but  French,  and  vibrates  strongly  still  in 
French  art,  though  not  so  strongly  since  the  days  of  David, 
to  whom  the  saying  that  he  painted  bas-reliefs,  would 
apply  perhaps  even  more  truly  than  to  Poussin.  The  quality 
of  his  colour,  cold  and  not  afraid  of  violent  contrast,  the 
absence  of  sentiment,  the  insensibility  to  scenes  of  revolting 
horror,  as  instanced  by  such  pictures  as  the  Plague  among 
the  Philistines  (No.  105  in  the  National  Gallery  *),  and  ifie 
Martyrdom  of  S.  Erasmus,  in  the  Vatican,  the  correctness 
of  his  drawing,  the  dominance  of  theory  and  thought  over 
impulse  and  passion,  are  still  characteristics  of  a  large  sec- 
tion of  modem  French  art.  Yet,  though  his  work  was 
esteemed  in  his  lifetime  in  France  as  well  as  Italy,  he  stood 
aloof  from  the  crowd  of  French  artists  whose  individuality 
was  absorbed  in  the  service  of  the  court.  He  cared  not 
for  the  patronage  of  Louis  XIII.,  and  did  not  help  to 
swell  the  triumph  of  Louis  XIV.  Perhaps  for  this  reason 
his  art  is  more  profoimdly  French  than  it  would  have 

^  A  replica  of  a  picture  in  the  LouTre,  painted  1630,  once  in  the  po*- 
B<'8sion  of  Cardinal  Kichelieu. 


364  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII. 

been  if  he  had  yielded  more  to  the  prevailing  current  of 
his  time. 

Though  principally  celebrated  as  a  painter  of  figure  com- 
positions (including  every  class  of  subject  from  allegory  to 
genre),  Poussin  deserves  special  mention  as  a  painter,  if 
not  the  founder  of  what  is  called  "  classical  landscape.'* 
His  landscapes  belong  principally  to  the  latter  part  of  his 
career,  and  are  distinguished  by  their  fine  scenic  qualities 
— the  arrangement  of  forms  of  tree,  cloud,  temple  and  river, 
to  present  an  imposing  and  beautiful  prospect  fitted  for 
the  arena  of  some  great  significant  or  poetical  action.  It 
was  the  dramatic  landscape  of  Titian  advanced  to  a  genre 
of  its  own,  always  in  harmony  with  the  figures  which  were 
its  supposed  motive  but  dominating  them.  This  style  of 
landscape  was  to  be  developed  by  Gaspar  Dughet  and  Sal- 
vator  Eosa,  and  more  than  all  b^  Claude,  and  to  have  a 
potent  influence  even  upon  Turner  and  Corot,  and  many 
artists  now  alive. 

The  Louvre  (as  is  right)  contains  the  finest  collection  of 
the  works  of  Poussin.  These  pictures  (about  forty  in  number) 
show  all  the  various  phases  of  his  genius,  and  include 
what  is  generally  considered  his  masterpiece,  Les  Vergers 
d'Arcadie,  which  represents  three  shepherds  with  long 
staves  and  a  beautiful  girl  in  classic  dress,  assembled  be- 
fore a  tomb  in  the  open  country  and  shaded  by  trees.  One 
bends  and  traces  with  his  finger  the  inscription  et  in 
Arcadia  ego.  The  elegance  of  the  forms  and  of  the  com- 
position, the  charm  of  gesture  and  attitude,  so  reticent,  and 
yet  so  eloquent  of  the  thought  bom  of  the  incident,  dis- 
tinguish the  picture  among  a  thousand,  as  the  perfect 
embodiment  of  a  beautiful  idea. 

We  are  fortunate  in  possessing  some  capital  works  of 
this  master.  Besides  the  fine  Bacchanalian  Festival  already 
mentioned,  the  National  G-allery  possesses  a  Bacchanalian 
Dance  (No.  62)  yet  finer,  and  several  other  pictures,  includ- 
ing one  of  his  landscapes  "with  figures"  (No.  40),  and 
there  are  a  large  number  of  fine  Poussins  scattered  in 
private  collections  in  England  in  addition  to  those  already 
mentioned. 

In  many  respects  the  career  of  Claude  G-ell^e,  gene- 
rally called  Claude  Lorrain  (1600-1682),  was  like  that  of 


BOOK   Vni.]  PAINTING   IN    FRANCE.  365 

Poussin.  He,  too,  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Rome,  devoted 
solely  to  his  art,  the  art  of  landscape  painting,  which  he 
developed  to  a  beauty  unknown  before.  His  landscape 
was  not  unlike  that  of  Poussin,  the  classical,  well-ordered 
landscape  built  up  of  beautiful  parts  into  a  beautiful  whole, 
and  suffused  with  a  poetical  sentiment,  pastoral,  idyllic, 
historic,  mythological,  in  turn ;  but  he  owed  his  great  fame 
then  and  now  not  only  to  his  elegant  sentiment  and  talent 
for  composition,  but  to  his  ardent  study  of  nature  and 
power  as  a  colourist.  No  one  before  him  had  painted  sun- 
light and  air  as  he  painted  them,  no  one  since  has  excelled 
him  in  painting  those  atmospheric  effects  in  which  he  par- 
ticularly delighted,  calm  sunny  effects  of  morning,  noon, 
and  eve  with  light  clouds  floating  in  a  fair  blue  sky.  It 
was  the  scenery  of  Italy  as  reflected  in  his  imagination 
which  he  painted,  decorated  with  bridge  and  castle,  or  the 
seaport  with  rippling  waves  laughing  in  the  sun  and  framed 
with  stately  buildings.  He  did  not  conquer  the  whole  do- 
main of  landscape  painting,  there  is  much  of  convention  in 
his  forms,  of  traditional  artifice  in  his  composition,  and  his 
ideal  was  scenic,  other  modes  he  left  for  others  to  invent, 
many  truths,  subtle  and  beautiful,  he  left  unrecorded — his 
genius  was  not  so  universal  nor  his  observation  so  wide  as 
those  of  Turner — but  what  he  did  he  did  beautifully,  and 
there  is  perhaps  no  landscape  painter  who  so  completely 
fulfilled  his  aims  as  Claude.  His  art  was  so  perfect  in  its 
kind  that  it  remained  the  model  for  all  schools  (except  the 
Dutch)  until  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  and 
excited  more  than  any  other  the  rivalry  of  Turner.  His 
works  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  museums  of  Europe,  six- 
teen of  them  are  in  the  Louvre,  and  eleven  in  the  National 
Gallery,  which  comprise  the  famous  "  Bouillon  "  Claudes, 
painted  for  the  Duke  de  Bouillon  in  1648,  representing  the 
Embarkation  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  the  equally 
famous  Marriage  of  Isaac  and  Rebecca  (Nos.  12  and  14). 

Second  only  to  Claude  as  a  painter  of  classical  landscape 
of  this  time  was  Gaspar  Dughet  (1613-1675),  who  took 
the  name  of  his  brother-in-law  Poussin,  by  whose  art  he 
was  much  inspired.  His  works  are  more  conventional  and 
heavier  in  colour  than  those  of  Claude,  nor  did  he  reach 
the  same  skill  in  the  rendering  of  sunlight  and  atmosphere, 


866  HISTORY   OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII, 

but  he  had  his  individuality,  preferring  compositions  of 
grandeur  and  terror,  and  effects  of  wind  and  storm.  There 
are  several  fine  specimens  of  his  art  in  the  National 
Gallery. 

A  greater  contrast  in  aim  and  feeling  to  these  voluntary 
exiles  from  their  native  country  could  scarcely  be  found 
than  EusTACHE  le  Sueur  (1617-1655),  who  spent  in  Paris 
the  whole  of  his  short  life,  and  devoted  himself  to  Christian 
art.  He  was  called  the  *'  French  Raphael,"  and  his  pic- 
tures, especially  S.  Paul  preaching  at  Ephesus,  in  the 
Louvre,  recall  well-known  designs  by  the  great  Italian.  He 
was  a  pupil  of  Vouet,  but  his  pictures  are  unlike  those  of 
any  other  French  artist  of  his  time ;  fervour  and  purity  of 
religious  feeling  permeate  his  work  and  place  it  by  itself  in 
the  French  School.  It  was  not  very  powerful,  but  it  was 
eminently  graceful,  sweet,  and  sincere.] 

His  principal  achievement  is  the  well-known  series  of 
twenty-eight  scenes  from  the  Life  of  S.  Bruno,  in  the  Louvre. 

[Sebastien  Bourdon  (1616-1671),  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  French  Academy  of  Painting  and  Sculp- 
ture in  1648.  He  was  painter  to  the  Queen  of  Sweden. 
His  greatest  work  was  the  series  in  the  house  of  M.  de 
Bretonvilliers,  The  History  of  Phaeton.  A  number  of  his 
works  are  to  be  seen  at  the  Louvre.] 

Charles  Le  Brun  (1619-1690),  has  the  glory  of  being 
the  representative  painter  of  the  court  of  Louis  XIV. 

"  Au  si^cle  de  Louis,  I'heureux  sort  te  fit  naitre, 
II  lui  faillait  un  peintre,  il  te  faillait  un  maitre."  * 

"  His  pictures,"  writes  Sir  Edmund  Head,  "  give  us  the 
genuine  spirit  of  his  master.  Their  qualities  bear  the  same 
relation  to  true  and  simple  grandeur  in  art  as  Louis  XIV., 
when  he  made  war  in  his  coach-and-six,  bore  as  a  general 
to  Julius  Caesar.  All  is  ostentation  and  struggle  for  effect, 
joined  with  considerable  technical  excellence  and  little 
genuine  feeling.  Their  scale  is  gigantic,  and  the  impres- 
sion produced  by  them  is  like  that  of  a  scene  at  the  opera." 

The  Louvre  overflows  with  his  works,  the  principal  being 
the  large  series  of  the  Victories  of  Alexander,  intended,  no 

^  Quinault. 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING   IN    FEANCE.  367 

doubt,  to  bear  flattering  allusion  to  those  of  the  Grand 
Monarque. 

Jean  Joitvenet  (1644-1717)  was  the  worthy  pupil  and 
successor  of  Le  Brun.  Nothing  can  be  more  artificial  than 
his  scenic  displays.  Even  his  rehgious  pictures  might  have 
been  painted  for  the  decorations  of  a  theatre,  so  exaggerated 
is  their  dramatic  character. 

PiERBE  Mignard,  Claude  Lef^vee,  and  Hyacinthe 
EiGAUD,*  the  latter  of  whom  gained,  one  would  imagine  out 
of  raillery,  the  title  of  the  "  French  Vandyck,"  were  the 
portrait  painters  of  the  age,  and  have  left  us  likenesses  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and  the  ladies  and  gentleman  of  his  court, 
under  every  aspect,  except  that  of  truth, 

[Philippe  de  Champaigne,  a  Fleming  by  birth  (1602- 
1674),  was  the  portrait  painter  of  the  Port-Eoyalists.  His 
sober  manner  and  austere  character  give  him  a  place  apart 
from  his  contemporaries,  A  good  example  of  his  work  is 
the  portrait  of  Cardinal  Richelieu  in  three  positions,  in  the 
National  Gallery  (No.  798)]. 

Antoine  Watteau  (1684-1721),  brings  us  down  to  the 
still  falser  age  of  Louis  Quinze.^  Watteau  would  probably 
have  been  a  truthful  and  excellent  genre  painter  at  any 
other  period,  but  he  was  infected  with  the  silly  affectations 
of  his  time,  and  yielded  to  the  fashions  set  hj  petita-maitres 
and  petit-maitr esses.  His  pictures  are  graceful  representa- 
tions of  the  artificial  society  of  a  dissolute  court,  which 
amused  itself  by  playing  at  pastoral  simplicity  and  Arca- 
dian innocence.  "  His  shepherdesses,  nay,  his  very  sheep," 
says  Horace  Walpole,  "  are  coquettes."  They  are  in  truth 
but  playing  the  part  of  rusticity,  and  are  decked  out  for  it, 
as  we  see  such  characters  at  the  theatre  in  becoming  hats, 
ribands,  muslins,  and  graces.  The  coquetry  of  these  Arca- 
dian n3rmphs  is,  however,  so  charming,  there  is  such  an 
easy,  careless  grace  about  them  that  we  cannot  help  being 
fascinated  by  their  artful  wiles.  In  truth,  if  we  accept  the 
subjects  as  being  worthy  of  representation  at  all,  no  painter 
ever  represented  them  more   charmingly  than  Watteau, 

['  There  is  a  good  specimen  of  I\ip;aud'8  style  in  the  fine  portrait  of 
Cardinal  Fleury  in  the  National  Gallery  (No.  903).] 

['  He  lived  five  years  after  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  dyinj^  then  at 
the  age  of  thirty-seven.] 


368  HISTORY    OF    PAINTINO.  [bOOK   VIII. 

whose  style  we  must  be  careful  not  to  confound  with  that 
of  his  imitators,  Lancret/  Pater,  Yan  Loo,  Natoire,  and 
others,  painters  of  fetes  galantes,  fetes  champetres,  and 
foolish,  wanton  so-called  "  pastorals." 

The  lowest  depths  of  degradation  were  perhaps  reached 
by  Francois  Boucher,  "Le  peintre  des  Graces"  (1704- 
1770),  whom  Head  characterizes  as  pre-eminently  the 
painter  of  what  Carlyle  has  called  " Dubarrydom."  "I 
know  not  what  to  say  of  this  man,"  writes  Diderot.^  **  The 
debasement  of  taste,  colour,  composition,  expression,  and 

drawing,  has  followed  step  by  step  on  that  of  morals 

I  am  bold  enough  to  say  that  this  artist,  in  truth,  knows 
not  what  grace  is ;  that  he  has  never  known  what  truth  is ; 
that  all  ideas  of  delicacy,  purity,  innocence,  or  simplicity, 
have  become  entirely  strange  to  him.  I  am  bold  enough 
to  say  that  he  has  never,  for  one  moment,  seen  nature,  at 
least,  not  that  nature  which  is  such  as  to  interest  my  feel- 
ings or  yours,  or  the  feeling  of  any  decent  child,  or  woman 
of  sensibility."  ^ 

Art  and  morals  alike  were,  in  truth,  at  their  lowest  ebb 
at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  a  time  "  when  the 
social  system  having  all  fallen  into  rottenness,  rain-holes, 
and  noisome  decay,  the  shivering  natives  resolved  to  cheer 
their  dull  abode  by  the  questionable  step  of  setting  it  on 
fire." ' 

[Of  the  pupils  of  Boucher  the  most  accomplished  was 
Jean  Honore  Fragonard  (1732-1806),  of  whose  graceful 
and  vivacious  art  there  is  not  much  to  say  from  the  higher 
intellectual  and  moral  point  of  view,  but  modern  criticism 
has  adopted  the  kindlier,  if  not  wiser  standard  of  circum- 
stance, and  does  not  see  fit  to  condemn  artists  of  acknow- 
ledged accomplishment  and  originality,  because  they  reflect 
too  faithfully  the  imperfections  of  the  society  into  which 
they  were  bom.     Those  who  wish  to  know  what  can  be 

\}  Wo  have  no  specimen  of  Watteau's  art  in  the  National  Gallery, 
but  Lancret's  four  little  pictures,  "  The  Ages  of  Man,"  are  fairly  good 
examples  of  the  school  (Nos.  101-104).] 

2  Translated  and  quoted  by  Head  in  his  "  Handbook  of  the  French 
School." 

[^  There  is  one  small  example  of  Boucher  in  the  National  Gallery 
(No.  1090).] 

*  Thomas  Carlyle,  "  Essaj  on  Diderot.'' 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FEANCli.  369 

said  in  praise  of  the  artists  of  the  Louis'  are  referred  to 
such  works  as  Genevay's  "  Le  Style  Louis  XIV.,"  Andre 
Michel's  "  Fran9ois  Boucher,"  Goncourt's  "L'Art  auXVlfl" 
Siecle,"  PaulMantz's  "Fran9ois  Boucher,"  Dohme's  "Kunst 
und  Kiinstler,"  and  Wedmore's  "  Masterpieces  of  Genre 
Painting."] 

[But  all  French  painters  were  not  led  away  by  the  affected 
fashions  of  the  court.  Jean  Baptiste  Chardin  (1699- 
1779),  would  appear  to  protest  against  them  as  strongly  as 
he  could  by  his  simplicity,  humility,  and  truth,  painting 
only  such  things  as  he  saw  with  a  masterly  fidelity  akin  to 
the  greater  little  masters  of  the  Dutch  School.  Not  for 
him  the  fete  champetre,  with  its  gallants  and  fine  ladies,  its 
clipt  alleys  and  artificial  flowers,  but  the  cottage  interior, 
with  its  maiden  sweeping  the  floor,  its  wooden  pails  and 
brass  pans,  or,  if,  as  he  often  preferred,  "  still  life  "  was  his 
subject,  real  flowers  and  fruit,  modelled  with  a  solidity, 
and  painted  with  a  breadth  which  command  our  admiration 
to-day.  Perfect  truth  and  sincerity  rather  than  the  most 
captivating  artifice,  regard  for  humanity  rather  than  fashion, 
for  the  honest  hard-working  poor  rather  than  the  rich  and 
luxurious  idler,  such  are  the  characteristics  of  this  true 
painter. 

Something  like  a  similar  protest,  though  not  perhaps  so 
whole-hearted,  was  made  by  the  art  of  Jean  Baptiste 
Greuze  (1725-1805).  He  did  not  paint  the  court  or  the 
cabin,  but  he  painted  a  class  still  more  rarely  chosen  by 
French  painters — the  bourgeoisie.  He  has  been  called  by 
Diderot  "  the  first  who  thought  of  introducing  morality 
into  art,"  a  saying  true,  perhaps,  of  French  art,  but  not  of 
English,  for  Greuze  was  many  years  the  junior  of  Hogarth. 
Of  his  "moralities"  (known  well  enough  by  engravings), 
some  based  on  Diderot's  dramas,  the  Louvre  contains  euch 
scenes  as  L'accordee  de  village  (a  group  assembled  to  sign 
a  marriage  contract) ,  Le  malediction  paternelle  (a  father 
cursing  an  erring  son),  and  Le  fils  puni  (a  sequel  to  the 
malediction,  in  which  the  son  returns  to  see  his  father  dead 
upon  his  bed).  More  celebrated  is  La  cruche  cassee,  but 
in  this  and  other  pictures  of  similar  double  entendre,  the 
conception  is  too  artificial,  the  little  sinners  are  too  childish 
and  pretty  and  pitiful  to  point  a  severe  moral.     It  is  in  his 

B  B 


370  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII,] 

pictures  of  pretty  children  and  yonng  girls  that  he  is  most! 
attractive.  These  have  a  charm  of  their  own,  sometimes 
quite  pure  and  unaffected,  and  his  light,  a  delicate  colour, 
if  not  quite  natural,  is  sweet  and  pleasant.  Some  of  these 
are  in  the  National  G-allery.] 

Claude- Joseph  Yernet,  also  (1714-1 789), the  painter  of 
seapieces  and  ideal  landscapes,  although  employed  by  Louis 
XV.,  cannot  be  reckoned  as  one  of  that  monarch's  painters. 
His  landscapes,  it  is  true,  without  aspiring  to  be  poetiral, 
are  too  often  false  to  nature ;  but  they  have  not  the  artifi- 
ciality of  the  other  works  of  French  art  at  this  time.  So 
far  as  his  knowledge  went,  he  painted  his  marines  in  a  con- 
scientious spirit.  A  whole  salle  is  devoted  to  his  works  in 
the  Louvre,  mostly  views  of  the  seaports  and  harbours  of 
the  coast  of  France. 

It  is  Joseph-Marie  Yien  (1716-1809)  who  is  usually 
regarded  as  having  given  the  first  impulse  towards  the 
revolution  that  now  took  place  in  French  art,  but  as  Yien 
himself  said,  if  he  "  half  opened  the  door  it  was  his  pupil 
David  who  threw  it  open  wide,"  and  accomplished  the 
revolution  that  he  had  only  desired.  Yien,  in  truth,  was 
but  a  feeble  history-painter,  and  his  works  are  meritorious 
only  in  consideration  of  the  time  at  which  they  were  painted, 
but  Jacques  Louis  David  (1748-1825),  whether  we  regard 
him  as  the  product  of  his  age  or  as  one  of  its  directing 
forces,  was  uudoubtedly  a  man  of  powerful  individuality, 
and  one  who  exercised  a  vast  influence,  not  only  over  the 
art  of  his  countrymen,  but  over  the  whole  art  of  his  time,    i 

The  son  of  a  tradesman  of  Paris,  David  received  his  first  1 
instruction  in  art  in  the  base  school  of  Boucher,  who  was  ] 
related  to  his  mother,  but  was  soon,  by  Boucher's  advice, 
transferred  to  that  of  Yien,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
proud  of  his  pupil.     Yien,  however,  had  probably  little 
share  in  the  formation  of  David's  style,  the  severe  classicism 
of  which  appears  to  have  been  gained  at  Rome,  whither  he 
accompanied  Yien  on  the  latter' s  appointment  as  director 
there  (1774)  and  where  the  discoveries  at Herculaneum  and' 
Pompeii  had  re-awakened  an  enthusiasm  for  ancient  art. 
Winckelmann's  influence,  also,  no  doubt,  contributed  to 
form  David,  as  it  had  Eaphael  Mengs,  and  several  other 
classicists  of  that  time.     Indeed,  it  is  not  surprising  that. 


BOOK    VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE.  371 

seeing  the  universal  degradation  into  which  art  in  all 
countries  had  fallen  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
reformers  should  have  arisen  who  tried  to  revive  it  by  a 
return  to  the  simple,  pure,  and  noble  style  of  the  Greeks. 
But  not  so  could  a  true  and  lasting  reformation  be  accom- 
plished. 

"  A  new  life,"  says  F.  von  Schlegel,  "  can  spring  only 
from  the  depths  of  a  new  love,  and  it  is  vain  to  imagine 
that  lofty  art,  like  a  draught  of  medicine,  may  be  obtained 
by  the  mingling  of  various  ingredients." 

No  "new  love"  animated  the  soul  of  the  republican 
painter ;  only  a  blind  worship  of  heathen  antiquity.  A 
worship  made  manifest,  not  only  in  his  art,  but  in  his 
stirring  political  life.  Indeed,  when  the  gods  of  Greece 
and  Rome  were  once  more  set  up  in  a  Christian  capital, 
and  the  severe  republican  heroes  of  an  early  civilization 
became  the  idols  of  the  hour ;  when  men  dressed  in  pseudo- 
classic  costume  and  talked  in  pseudo-classic  language,  it  is 
not  surprising  to  find  the  representative  painter  of  the  age 
animated  by  the  same  classic  spirit. 

One  of  his  earhest  pictures,  the  Oath  of  the  Horatii, 
painted  at  Rome,  in  1784,  for  Louis  XVI.,  already  showed 
his  classic  style  and  republican  tendencies.  This  painting, 
which  is  now  in  the  Louvre,  evoked  universal  admiration 
in  its  day.  Its  grand  and  heroic  character,  in  truth, 
formed  a  powerful  contrast  to  the  indecent  affectations 
that  French  art  had  produced  during  the  previous  reign. 

Ne  semble-t-il  pas,"  says  Charles  Blanc,  "  que  des  mig- 
nardises  •  de  Dorat  Ton  passe  tout  a  coup  a  la  cadence 
majestueuse  de  Comeille." 

His  second  great  republican  picture  represents  L.  Junius 
Brutus,  to  whom  the  lictors  are  bringing  back  the  bodies 
of  the  two  sons  whom  he  had  condemned  to  death.  Brutus 
himself  is  seated  in  the  shade  of  the  great  statue  of  Rome, 

}king  solace,  as  it  were,  in  his  paternal  grief,  in  the 
thought  of  the  duty  that  he  owed  to  his  country. 

The  Sabine  Women  is  another  of  David's  most  famous 
compositions.  It  was  painted  after  the  five  months  follow- 
ing the  ninth  thermidor  that  the  painter  passed  in  prison 

['  A  word  derived  from  Mignard  the  painter.] 


372  HISTORY   OF  PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII. 

as  the  friend  of  Robespierre  and  Saint-Just,  and  alluded, 
it  is  said,  to  the  heroic  efforts  that  his  wife  made  to  save 
him  from  the  fate  that  had  overtaken  his  associates. 

Napoleon  I.,  quick  in  recognizing  talent,  was  too  wise  to 
overlook  that  of  David,  and  under  the  Empire  he  held  as 
important  a  position  as  under  the  Republic. 

His  exaggerated  dramatic  classicism  became,  however, 
still  more  pronounced,  and  degenerated  more  and  more 
into  mannerism.  It  nevertheless  continued  to  rule  the 
taste  of  his  country  until  the  affectation  of  antique  severity 
became  as  unpleasant  as  that  of  pastoral  simplicity. 
Napoleon,  in  truth,  placed  art,  like  every  thing  else,  under 
military  discipline.  "  L'art  fut  enregimente,  caserne,  mis 
au  pas  militaire.  Toutes  ses  oeuvres,  depuis  le  tableau 
d'histoire  jusqu'au  meuble  d'ebenisterie,  comme  toutes 
celles  de  la  litterature ;  depuis  le  poeme  epique  jusqu'au 
couplet  de  romance  re9urent  un  mot  d'ordre,  une  consigne, 
j'allais  dire  un  uniforme,  qui  s'appelle  style  de  I'empire."  ^ 

David's  portraits  are  usually  excellent,  the  faults  of  his 
style  being  less  observable  in  them  than  in  his  more 
dramatic  compositions.  There  is  a  portrait  in  the  Louvre 
of  himself  when  young,  as  well  as  several  other  effective 
likenesses  ;  in  particular  that  of  Pope  Pius  VII.,  a  life-like 
copy  from  nature.^ 

In  the  technical  part  of  his  art  David  is  very  deficient,' 
and  his  pictures  have  suff!ered  much  from  time.  His  colour 
is  usually  cold,  monotonous,  and  brickdusty,  defects  that 
became  exaggerated  in  his  followers. 

In  truth  the  style  of  David  and  his  school,  founded  upon 
the  study  of  the  pagan  antique,  confounds,  as  a  style  thus 
founded  is  almost  sure  to  do,  the  distinctive  excellences  of 
painting  and  sculpture.  The  figures,  even  in  David's 
paintings,  and  still  more  in  those  of  many  of  his  pupils, 
are  cold,  hard,  and  soulless — marble  statues,  rather  than 
human  beings  in  whom  the  warm  life-blood  still  flows. 

Such  a  style  as  this  could  never  take  any  lasting  hold, 
however   great  its   influence   in   its   time.     It  wanted   a 

^  Louis  Viarditt,  "  Les  Merveilles  de  la  Peinture."    Ecole  Fran9ai8e. 
['  Perhaps  his  most  beautiful  and  most  celebrated  portrait  is  that  of 
Mdme.  Recamier,  recently  placed  in  the  Salon  Carre  in  the  Louvre.] 
'  [He  was  an  admirable  draughtsman.] 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE.  373 

national  basis,  and  although  its  severe  simplicity  was  a 
noble  re-action  against  the  falseness  and  triviality  of  the 
previous  age,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  a  re-action,  in  its 
turn,  setting  in  against  it. 

Even  amongst  David's  scholars  this  re-action  began.  A 
few  of  them,  it  is  true,  continued  and  exaggerated  his 
peculiarities,  but  he  must  certainly  have  been  an  excellent 
teacher,  since  most  of  his  followers  developed  their  own 
natural  tendencies  with  great  freedom. 

The  painters  over  whom  his  influence  was  most  powerful, 
but  in  whose  works  we  find  a  certain  strain  after  effect, 
that  is  not  so  visible  in  the  calmer  productions  of  the 
master,  are — 

Jean-G-ermain  Drouais  (1763-1788),  the  painter  of 
Marius  a  Minturnes,  piercing  with  his  lightning  glance 
the  Cimbrian  slave,  who  comes  to  kill  him  in  prison,  a 
celebrated  work  in  the  Louvre.^ 

Anne-Louis  Gtirodet  de  Eoucy  Trioson  (1767-1824), 
best  known  by  his  convulsive  and  melo-dramatic  picture, 
A  Scene  from  the  Deluge,  which  in  1810  carried  off  the 
prize  from  David.  The  defects  of  the  school  are  more 
painfully  apparent,  perhaps,  in  this  picture  than  in  any 
other  belonging  to  it.  It  is  a  representative  work  of  its 
land.  The  Burial  of  Atala,  the  other  great  picture  of 
Girodet's  in  the  Louvre,  though  cold  and  lifeless,  is  far 
more  pleasing. 

Pierre-Narcisse  Guerin  (1774-1833)  adhered  strictly 
to  the  theatrical  antique,  and  fell  into  an  affectation  of 
style,  called  by  the  Germans  styliairen,  that  is  peculiarly 
disagreeable.^ 

GuiLLAUME  GuiLLON  -  LethiJjre  (1760-1832),  whose 
enormous  paintings,  the  Death  of  Virginia,  and  Brutus 
witnessing  the  Execution  of  his  Sons,  take  up  so  much 
space  in  the  Louvre  ;  and  Francois  Gerard,  the  painter 
of  the  Entry  of  Henry  IV.  into  Paris,  an  historical  picture 
that  is  free  from  the  theatrical  affectation  that  marks  most 
of  the  historical  subjects  of  his  contemporaries,  end  the 

[•  It  should  be  remembered  that  Drouais  died  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
five,  after  completing  this  and  one  or  two  other  works  of  great  promise 
and  force.] 

['  Gu^rin  was  the  master  of  G^ricault,  Delacroix  and  Ary  Scheffer.J 


374  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII. 

direct  artistic  line  of  David,  although,  as  before  said,  his 
influence  was  so  powerful  that  it  extended  over  the  schools 
of  other  countries  besides  his  own. 

The  next  group,  it  can  scarcely  be  called  a  school,  of 
French  painters  that  claims  our  attention,  was  formed  of 
masters,  many  of  whom  were  David's  immediate  pupils. 
In  spite  of  the  total  change  of  style  that  was  effected  after 
the  downfall  of  the  empire,  no  new  master  arose  of  suffi- 
cient power  and  originality  to  impress  his  individual  mark 
as  David  had  done  upon  the  art  of  his  age.  No  new  ideal 
was  set  up,  but  each  master  contrived  to  introduce  some 
new  and  striking  element  into  the  classic  school  in  which 
he  had  received  his  education,  until  we  find  its  character 
completely  changed. 

Antoine-Jean  GtROS  (Baron)  (1771-1835)  was  one  of 
the  first  to  abandon  classical  and  mythological  scenes,  and 
to  choose  for  his  subjects  events  of  contemporaneous  his- 
tory. He  painted  in  strong  coarse  characters,  with  forcible 
colours,  so  that  both  in  expression  and  colour  his  works 
contrast  with  those  of  the  more  rigid  adherents  to  David's 
style.' 

Pierre-Paul  Prtid'hon  (1758-1823)  once  more  returned 
for  inspiration  to  the  Christian  religion,  which  had  been 
so  long  dethroned  in  France.  His  most  celebrated  work, 
however,  is  not  chosen  immediately  from  a  sacred  source, 
but  represents  Divine  Justice  and  Yerngeance  pursuing 
Crime.     The  allegoiy  is  powerfully  conceived. 

There  is  still  a  lingering  feeling  for  the  antique  manifest 
in  this  work,  but  in  others,  more  especially  in  his  Catholic 
subjects,  such  as  the  Assumption  of  the  Virgin,  in  the 
Louvre,  we  find  that  sort  of  poetical  graceful  sentiment 
that  has  gained  for  this  master  the  title  of  the  French 
Correggio.^ 

[^  He  was  the  first  of  the  Romanticists,  leading  the  way  from  the 
classic  convention  to  self-expression  and  realism.  He  was  the  first  in 
France  to  paint  battle-scenes  with  soldiers  in  their  proper  uniforms. 
His  scenes  from  the  campaigns  of  Napoleon  are  full  of  life  and  vigour. 
His  '*  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.  visiting  the  Church  of  St.  Denis  "  was 
a  notable  attempt  to  realize  a  scene  from  modern  (but  past)  history  in  the 
costumes  of  the  period.  ] 

[^  This  likeness  to  Correggio,  especially  in  his  mysterious  chiaroscuro 
and  softness  of  contour,  is  found  equally  in  his  mythological  and  alle- 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE.  375 

The  master,  however,  who  departed  most  widely  from 
the  teaching  of  David,  and  who  may,  in  fact,  be  said  to 
have  almost  overthrown  his  school,  was  Jean-Louis 
Geeicault  (1791-1824).  "  Gericault,"  says  Viardot,  "  se 
revelait  a  I'epoque  oil  la  liberte  litteraire  renaissait  avec  la 
liberte  politique,  ou  la  societe  tout  entiere  marchait  au 
progres  par  I'independance.  L'exemple  de  Gericault  venant 
avec  la  force  de  I'a-propos  suffit  pour  entrainer  Tart  Fran- 
9aiB  dans  ce  mouvement  general  de  I'esprit  humain." 

ITo where,  indeed,  has  art  reflected  more  faithfully  the 
character  of  the  age,  even  in  each  fluctuation  of  political 
opinion,  than  in  France. 

Under  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  it  assumed  a  vain- 
glorious tawdry  pomp;  we  have  noted  its  falsity  and. 
affectations,  its  airs  and  graces,  and  finally  its  drivelling 
indecent  idiocy.  Under  the  Republic  it  became  severely 
and  heroically  virtuous.  Correct  in  form,  but  cold  in 
feeling,  drawing  its  inspiration  from  a  past  age  rather 
than  from  the  living  present,  seeking  to  put  new  wine,  in 
fact,  into  old  bottles,  and  to  clothe  the  modem  Revolu- 
tionism in  the  toga  of  Roman  Republicanism.  Under  the 
Empire,  it  assumed  for  a  time  a  military  aspect,  and  glory 
became  its  theme ;  but  after  the  restoration,  when  France 
may  be  said  to  have  been  under  no  dominant  influence, 
but  to  have  vaguely  followed  her  own  sweet  will,  we  find 
her  painters  doing  much  the  same.  No  particular  school 
was  formed,  but  each  painter,  as  in  England,  followed  the 
bent  of  his  own  genius.^ 

Gericault,  who  at  first  pursued  art  merely  as  an  amateur, 
and  whose  early  subjects  were  mostly  sketches  of  horses, 
had  imdoubtedly  a  strong  original  talent.     Unfortunately, 

gorical  paintings,  which  are  characterized  by  an  exquisite  grace  and 
tenderness  almost  unique  iu  the  Jbrench  School.] 

^  Alfred  de  Musset,  in  1836,  wrote  as  follows:  "Le  Salon  au  premier 
coup-d'cBil  offre  un  aspect  si  vari6  et  se  compose  d'^l^mens  si  divers,  qu'il 
est  diflScile  en  commencant  de  rien  dire  sur  son  ensemble.  De  quoi 
est-on  d'abord  frapp6?  rien  d'homogbne,  point  de  pensee  commune,  point 
d'^coles,  point  de  families  ;  aucun  lien  entre  les  artistes,  ni  dans  le  choix 
de  leurs  sujets  ni  dans  la  forme.  Chaque  peintre  se  presente  isol6  et 
non-seulement  chaque  peintre  mais  parfois  mSme  chaque  tableau  du 
mdme  peintre.  Les  toiles  expo^ees  en  public  n'ont  le  plus  souvent  ni 
m^res  ni  sceurs." — Bevuc  ies  deux  Mondes, 


376  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII. 

he  died  at  the  outset  of  his  career,  before  his  powers 
were  fully  developed,  but  in  his  one  great  picture,  the 
Eaft  of  the  Medusa  (1819),  we  have  a  striking  proof  of 
his  highly  dramatic  invention.  The  scene  is  depicted  in  all 
its  terrible  reality.  It  is  not  the  rapturous  hope  of  de- 
liverance that  animates  this  crew  of  dead  and  dying  men, 
although  the  moment  chosen  for  representation  is  that  in 
which  a  sail  appears  on  the  horizon;  to  too  many  deli- 
verance comes  too  late,  and  the  rest  with  few  exceptions 
seem  deadened  by  despair.  It  is,  in  truth,  a  fearful  pic- 
ture, and  one  turns  from  it  with  a  sort  of  sickening  dis- 
gust. There  is  no  denying  the  power  of  the  painter,  but 
one  cannot  help  wishing  it  had  been  displayed  on  a  less 
painful  subject.^ 

Leopold  Robert  (1794-1835),  a  Swiss  by  birth,  sought 
inspiration  in  Italy,  where,  however,  he  studied  not  the 
great  masters  of  painting,  but  the  character,  habits,  and 
customs  of  the  people  of  the  country,  which  he  reproduced 
in  a  sort  of  poetical  or  picturesque  garb  in  his  works. 
The  most  celebrated  of  these  is  "  Les  Moissonneurs  "  of  the 
Eoman  Campagna,  in  the  Louvre. 

Amongst  the  followers  of  David,  the  one,  perhaps,  who 
most  truly  inherited  his  spirit  without,  however,  copying 
his  manner,  was  Jean-Atjguste-Domenique  Ingres  (1780- 
1867).  Ingres  adhered  strictly  to  the  classic  mode  of  ex- 
pression, but  unlike  the  painters  of  David's  school,  he 
refused  to  sacrifice  the  singleness  of  his  ideal  to  an  exag- 
gerated theatrical  display.  His  works  are  distinguished  by 
a  simplicity  and  purity  of  form,  and  a  lofty  serious  tone  of 
thought  that  raise  them  far  above  the  classicisms  of  the 
more  immediate  followers  of  David.* 

['  This  "  epoch-making  "  picture,  with  its  treatment  of  a  tragic  event 
in  a  bold,  realistic  manner,  gave  the  death-blow  to  the  School  of  David. 
It  was  the  subject  of  the  most  violent  attacks ;  but  it  triumphed,  and 
founded  the  Romantic  School.] 

[2  Ingres  was  the  antithesis  of  Delacroix,  calm  instead  of  passionate, 
a  draughtsman  more  than  a  colourist,  seeking  above  all  things  for 
purity  of  form,  perfection  of  execution,  and  classic  style.  These  aims 
he  preserved  throughout  his  long  life,  althoughi  he  was  much  affected  by 
the  works  of  Raphael,  and  was  always  an  ardent  student  of  nature.  His 
famous  figure  of  "  La  Source,"  finished  in  his  old  age,  is  a  remarkable 
union  of  natural  grace  and  academical  design.    Among  his  most  famous 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE.  3^7 

Art  Scheffer  (1795-1858),  Dutch  by  birth,  but  French 
by  education,  is  pre-eminently  the  painter  of  modem  de- 
votional sentiment.  He  has  been  called,  like  Raphael, 
"  the  poet-painter  of  Christianity,"  but  his  Christianity,  as 
well  as  his  art,  seems  to  want  the  muscle  necessary  for 
vigorous  life.  His  works  are  well-known  from  engravings; 
his  numerous  sacred  and  poetical  heroines,  all  wrapped,  as 
it  were,  in  a  mystic  veil  of  poetry,  under  which  we  are  at 
first  inclined  to  believe  there  lies  a  depth  of  earnest  thought, 
but  which  at  last  we  find  is  only  thrown  over  them  to 
shroud  the  most  commonplace  ideas. 

Eugene  Delacroix  (1798-1863)  may  be  reckoned  as 
the  successful  follower  of  G-ericault.^  He  delighted,  hke 
him,  in  scenes  of  passion  and  terror,  such  as  the  Massacre 
of  Scio,  the  Murder  of  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  from  Quentin 
Durward,  and  the  Shipwreck,  from  Don  Juan.  He  was, 
like  most  of  the  masters  of  the  French  school  at  this  time, 
a  brilliant  colourist,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  much  of 
his  time  was  taken  up  in  great  decorative  works,^  wherein 
his  peculiar  qualities  were  somewhat  restrained  from  their 
free  exercise. 

Alexandre-Gabriel  Decamps  (1803-1860)  is  chiefly 
known  by  his  admirable  oriental  scenes,  which  he  illustrated 
with  wonderful  effects  of  light  and  shade.' 

pictures  are  CEdipus  and  the  Sphinx,  the  Apotheosis  of  Homer,  Strato- 
nice,  S.  Symphorion,  and  La  Source.  Some  of  his  portraits  are  extremely 
fine.] 

^  [He  is  often  called  the  first  Romanticist,  and  he  was  certainly  the 
most  powerful  leader  of  the  revolt  against  the  old  semi-classical  half- 
sculpturesque  school.  (See  note  on  last  page.)  He  was  above  all  things 
a  painter,  and  a  dramatic  painter,  in  whose  hand  colour  became  an 
engine  for  the  expression  of  emotion.  His  ardent  imagination  preferred 
action  and  character  to  repose  and  beauty,  and  was  most  congenially 
employed  in  painting  scenes  suggested  to  it  by  poets  like  Dante  and  Byron. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  of  modern  artists  whose  imagination  was  fed  by 
a  visit  to  what  is  somewhat  loosely  called  "  The  East."  He  accompanied 
M.  de  Mornay,  the  Ambassador,  to  Morocco,  and  some  of  his  finest 
pictures  are  *'  Oriental "  in  subject.  Delacroix  is  esteemed  by  many  as 
the  most  independent  and  creative  talent  of  the  modern  school.] 

"  Such  as  those  in  the  Chambre  des  D<5put63,  the  Apollo  Gallery  of 
the  Louvre,  and  the  Church  of  S.  Sulpice. 

['  Decamps  deserves  special  noticeas.perhaps,  the  first  of  the  modem 
school  of  French  landscape  who  thoroughly  abandoned  convention,  and 
learned  to  see  nature  with  his  own  eyes,  and  paint  what  he  saw.    lie 


*67S  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   VIII. 

In  Horace  Vernet  (1789-1863),  the  grandson  of  Claude- 
Joseph,  and  the  son  of  Carle  Vernet,  the  talent  of  the 
Vernet  family  seems  to  have  culminated. 

His  artistic  abilities  were  early  remarkable,  he  having 
been  able,  it  is  said,  to  support  himself  by  means  of  his 
art,  from  the  time  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  He  exhi- 
bited also,  at  the  Louvre,  before  he  was  one-and-twenty. 
In  1814,  he  was  decorated  by  Napoleon  I.  with  the  Cross 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  on  account  of  his  gallant  be- 
haviour at  the  Barriere  de  Clichy,  a  noble  defence  of  which 
he  has  left  us  a  record  in  one  of  his  most  famous  painted 
works.  His  knowledge  of  military  matters  was  indeed 
thoroughly  practical,  he  having  served  as  a  soldier  in  his 
time,  and  having  evidently  made  good  use  of  that  time  in 
observing  the  various  manoeuvres  of  war,  which  he  after- 
wards reproduced  with  marvellous  truth  on  his  canvas. 
"  He  commonly,"  says  Womum,  "  painted  alia  priTna,  as 
the  Italians  express  it,  that  is  without  retouching,  and 
often  even  without  any  previous  preparation  on  the  canvas ; 
yet  there  is  a  perfect  unity  in  the  general  effect  of  his  works." 
He  was  in  truth,  one  of  the  most  facile  and  prolific  of  modem 
painters,  and  his  popularity  in  France  is  almost  abounded. 
Everywhere  we  meet  with  his  huge  battle  scenes,  painted 
with  the  utmost  dexterity  and  cleverness,  and  with  a 
rapidity  that  is  really  amazing. 

Paul  Delaroche  (1797-1856)  stands  side  by  side  with 
Horace  Vernet  in  the  story  of  the  immediate  past.  The 
fame  of  these  painters  is  still  too  recent  for  us  to  judge 
whether  or  not  it  will  prove  lasting,  but  Delaroche  has 
certainly  few  rivals  in  popularity  at  the  present  day.^  He 
is,  in  truth,  a  great  master,  although  his  high  dramatic 
power  occasionally  leads  him  to  overstep  the  bounds  of 
legitimate  drama,  and  to  verge  upon  the  melodramatic. 
His  conceptions  of  scenes  from  French  and  English  history 
are  unequalled  in  their  force  and  character,  although,  by 
the  devotees  of  what   the  English  painters  of  his  time 

was  also  the  first  to  paint  Oi'iental  scenes  in  a  genre  spirit,  entering 
thoroughly  into  the  character  of  the  people.     His  pictures  of  Turkish 
life  are  admirable,  especially  for  their  children.   He  was  also  an  original 
and  fine  colourist.] 
■    [^  This  is  no  longer  true. — 1888.] 


BOOK    VIII.]  PAINTING    IN    FRANCE.  379 

termed,  **  High  Art,"  they  are  condemned  as  not  treating 
the  subject  in  a  lofty  and  ideal  spirit,  but  rather  as  endea- 
vouring to  realise  it. 

His  only  monumental  work  is  the  celebrated  fresco  of 
the  "  Hemicycle,"  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  in  which  he 
has  represented  the  arts  of  all  countries  and  times.  This 
is  perhaps  one  of  the  best  efforts  in  fresco  of  the  French 
school,  but  it  will  not  bear  comparison  with  his  oil-paint- 
ins?s,  which  in  their  forcible  and  brilliant  colour,  striking 
effects  of  light  and  shade,  and  great  technical  skill,  carry 
off  the  palm  from  all  his  compeers. 

Such  pictures,  indeed,  as  the  Death  of  the  Duke  de 
Guise,  the  Execution  of  Lady  Jane  G-rey,  Cromwell  regard- 
ing the  dead  body  of  Charles  I.,  Napoleon  at  Fontainebleau, 
the  Condemnation  of  Marie  Antoinette,  Strafford,  the 
Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Eicheheu  and  Cinq-Mars,  etc., 
are  sufficient  to  support  even  such  a  reputation  as  that  of 
Paul  Delaroche. 

[The  fame  of  Delaroche  has  certainly  not  increased  since 
the  year  (1873)  in  which  the  foregoing  words  were  first 
published,  and  in  speaking  of  those  who  have  died  since, 
and  of  one  or  two  more  who  died  before  that  date,  but 
were  omitted  in  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  it  will  be 
well  not  to  be  too  confident  that  their  reputations  will 
always  remain  at  their  present  level.  Nevertheless  it  is 
hard  to  think  that  the  names  of  Theodore  Rousseau,  Jean- 
Fran9ois  Millet,  and  Camille  Corot,  will  hereafter  be  less 
honoured  than  they  are  now. 

It  is  difficult  among  the  crowd  of  celebrated  French 
artists  to  determine  in  a  "  concise  "  history  what  names  to 
omit,  but  space  may  at  least  be  afforded  to  mention  those 
of  Jean-Baptiste  Regnault  (1754-1829),  the  painter  of 
the  Education  of  Achilles  and  the  Three  Graces,  in  the 
Louvre ;  and  Xavier  Sigalon  (1788-1837),  the  painter  of 
the  terrible  Locusta  trying  on  a  Slave  the  Poison  destined 
for  Britannicus.  Both  these  painters  may  be  considered  as 
forerunners  of  Delacroix  and  the  Roman  tic  school .  To  go  still 
farther  back  the  bold  flower-pieces  of  Jean-Baptiste  Mon- 
NOYEB  (1634-1699),  and  the  spirited  animals  of  Francois 
Desportes  (1661-1743),  and  Jean-Baptiste  Oudry  (1686- 
1755),  deserve  a  word,  nor  should  the  name  of  Nicolas  de 


380  HISTORY    OP   PAINTING.  [bOOK  VIII. 

Laroilli^re  (1656-1746)  be  omitted  from  the  roll  of  the 
greater  portrait  painters  of  France,  nor  that  of  Maurice 
QuENTiN  DE  Latour  (1704-1788),  the  great  master  of 
crayon.  Charming  in  their  way  also  are  the  portraits  of 
Madame  Louise  Elizabeth  Vigee  le  Brun  (1755-1842), 
as  all  visitors  to  the  Louvre  will  know. 

On  the  work  of  all  these  artists  the  verdict  has  long  been 
passed,  though  when  we  recall  the  many  cases  in  which 
such  verdicts  on  much  earlier  artists  have  been  revised  in 
our  day,  we  may  well  doubt  whether  our  opinions,  even 
with  regard  to  these,  will  be  ratified  by  our  sons.     Never- 
theless these  artists  belong  to  an  old  order  of  things,  and 
not  to  the  great  artistic  movement  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
which  is  still,  as  it  were,  in  mid  course.     This  movement 
is,  in  a  word,  the  liberation  of  the  artist.     Not  church,  nor 
state,  nor  tradition,  nor  convention,  nor  Academy,  now 
hampers,  or  needs  hamper  the  full  expression  of  the  artist's 
individuality.     He  stands  face  to  face  with  nature  and 
humanity,  and  may  paint  them  as  he  wills.     No  nation 
has  done  greater  service  in  this  emancipation  than  the 
French — an  emancipation  which  is  only  a  sequel  to  the 
great  emancipation  in  the  domains  of  philosophy,  society 
and  literature,  for  which  that  nation  has  struck  the  most 
vehement  blows.     Here  our  concern  is  only  with  painting, 
but  we  can  scarcely  comprehend  the  spirit  and  progress  of 
French  painting  in  the  nineteenth  century  unless  we  re- 
cognize it  as  the  natural  result  of  the  French  revolution. 
The  same  forces  operated  in  England,  but  in  art  gently,  as 
by  natural  development ;  in  France  they  operated  in  art  as 
in  politics — by  revolution.     Hogarth  came  and  went  with- 
out agitating  greatly  the  world — i.e.,  the  world  of  art — 
scarcely  considered  seriously  as  a  painter.     Sir  Joshua  and 
Gainsborough  inaugurated  a  new  school  of  portrait  and 
landscape.  Cozens  and  Girtin,  Turner  and  Constable,  rose 
like  stars  unheard  and  almost  unseen,  but  Gericault  and 
Delacroix  exploded  like  bombs  in  the  artistic  air  of  Paris. 
It  was  a  war  of  ideas,  a  storming  of  the  Academy.     And 
the  victory  was  with  the  rebels,  though  unacknowledged 
perhaps  even  to-day,  and  though  they  did  not  get  what 
they  sought,  and  did  not  thoroughly  appreciate  what  they 
were  fighting  for,  nor  in  what  their  victory  consisted.     The 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING   IN    FRANCE.  381 

Academy  still  remains,  the  "  classic  convocation  "  is  not 
killed  nor  likely  to  be ;  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  Dela- 
croix and  the  rest  of  them,  are  not  models  of  imitation. 
What  they  did  was  simply  to  make  the  painter  a  free  man, 
as  conventional  or  unconventional,  as  classic  or  romantic,  as 
ideal  or  realistic,  as  Christian  or  Pagan,  as  moral  or  as  im- 
moral, as  affected  or  sincere,  as  he  pleased.  The  rush  was  to 
truth,  or  at  least  to  sincerity.  It  began  with  the  stripping 
off  of  classic  costumes  from  modern  warriors,  as  in  the 
pictures  of  Gros,  in  the  faithful  representation  of  imagina- 
tive ideas,  as  in  Delacroix,  and  ended  in  revealing  the 
pictorial  interest  and  beauty  of  ordinary  nature  and 
humanity.  These — nature  and  humanity — were  the  key- 
notes of  the  movement,  and  if  landscape  was  the  last 
branch  of  pictorial  art  to  which  the  revolution  extended, 
in  no  other  has  it  been  more  searching  and  complete. 

As  French  critics  themselves  have  often  and  generously 
admitted,  the  modern  school  of  French  landscape  was 
greatly  aided  in  its  development  by  the  example  of  English 
artists.  The  influence  of  Bonington  (resident  in  France) 
was  considerable,  but  that  of  Constable  was  still  greater. 
Some  movement  away  from  the  traditions  of  Poussin  and 
Claude  in  the  direction  of  a  more  faithful  and  familiar 
treatment  of  landscape — a  more  personal  expression  of  the 
sympathy  between  the  individual  and  the  natural  world 
on  which  he  lived  had  already  been  started,  especially  by 
Paul  Huet  (1804-1869),  but  it  was  not  fairly  launched  till 
the  appearance  at  the  Salon  of  1824  of  the  Haywain  (now  in 
the  National  Gallery)  and  some  other  pictures  by  Constable. 
They  produced  as  great  a  revolution  as  the  Shipwreck  of 
Gericault,  and  had  an  immediate  effect  on  the  art  of 
Delacroix  and  Decamps,  but  it  was  not  till  the  appearance 
of  Th]^odore  Eousseau  (1812-1867)  that  the  modem 
French  school  of  landscape  can  be  said  to  have  been 
founded.  He  first  showed  the  originality  of  his  genius 
by  a  View  in  Auvergne  at  the  Salon  of  1831,  and  he  went 
on  steadily  increasing  in  power  till  his  masterpiece  of  1867, 
a  View  of  the  Alps  taken  from  La  Faucile.  His  aim  was 
simple — to  express  with  all  his  might  the  beauty  and  power 
of  Nature  without  the  aid  of  any  external  sentiment  to 
give  interest  to  his  pictures.   Nature  and  Rousseau  were  the 


382  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOX    VTII. 

only  factors  in  his  art.  Gifted  with  remarkable  sympathy 
with  the  various  aspects  and  effects  of  nature,  and  with 
unusual  skill  and  resource  in  expressing  them,  he  painted 
forest  and  open  country,  mountain  and  plain,  with  equal 
success,  and  he  could  be  simply  lyric  or  grandly  dramatic 
with  the  same  facility.  He  was  a  fine  draughtsman, 
drawing  trees  with  special  skill,  a  striking  and  often 
splendid  colourist,  and  in  the  variety  and  force  of  his 
effects  of  light  and  air  he  has  few  rivals.  In  so  various  a 
mind  it  is  not  easy  to  discover  the  prevalent  inclination, 
but  it  was,  perhaps,  the  infinite  strength  and  grandeur  of 
nature  which  impressed  him  most.  His  giant  oaks  are 
realized  with  an  extraordinary  sense  of  their  bulk,  the 
vast  complexity  of  their  structure,  the  weight  of  their 
boughs,  and  the  lightness  of  their  foliage ;  they  are  round, 
too,  and  hollow,  giving  a  true  impression  of  the  space  they 
occupy ;  his  clouds  also  are  grand,  and  in  his  stormy  sun- 
sets seem  bursting  with  lurid  light. 

A  greater  contrast  to  the  temper  of  his  art  could  scarcely 
be  found  than  in  the  works  of  Camille  Corot  (1796-1873), 
and  yet  both  sought  to  give  faithfully  their  most  valuable 
impressions  of  nature,  and  both  regarded  light  as  the  essence 
of  landscape  art.  But  as  they  had  no  longer  to  be  bound 
by  convention  or  fashion,  each  followed  his  own  indivi- 
duality, and  Corot' s  led  him  to  prefer  the  poetic  suggestive- 
ness  of  nature  rather  than  the  realization  of  her  forms, 
the  pearly  haze  of  morning  air  to  the  strength  of  the  noon- 
day sun,  and  perfect  harmony  of  tone  to  strength  or  bright- 
ness of  colour.  Eousseau  tried  to  express  the  moods  of 
nature,  Corot  employed  nature  to  express  his  own.  He 
was  the  pupil  of  Bertin,  an  historical  landscape-painter, 
and  of  Michallon,  who  began  his  artistic  career  in  the 
same  line,  and  to  the  last  the  old  school  of  landscape  had 
a  hold  upon  his  imagination,  guiding  his  composition, 
and  peopling  his  landscapes  with  nymphs.  But  for  all 
that  he  was  a  modern,  discarding  conventional  forms  and 
tricks  of  handling,  and  expressing  his  own  ideas  in  their 
natural  language.  But  his  nature  was  poetical,  and  he 
translated  nature  into  a  dream-world  of  his  own — a  grey 
world  of  pale  skies  and  misty  foliage,  full  of  grace,  ten- 
der feeling,  fine  taste  and  style,  taking,  as  it  were,  only 


BOOK   VIII.]  PAINTING  IN    FRANCE.  383 

what  was  good  of  classic,  romantic,  and  realistic  art,  and 
blending  them  altogether  to  express  his  own  charming  in- 
dividuality. 

The  names  of  Rousseau  and  Millet  are  associated  with 
that  of  Barbizon,  a  little  village  on  the  skirts  of  the  Forest 
of  Fontainebleau,  where  the  two  artists  long  resided. 
They  were  the  leaders  of  the  new  Fontainebleau  School, 
which  differs  as  much  from  that  of  Primaticcio  and  Rosso 
as  the  palace  from  the  forest.  Jean-Francois  Millet 
(1815-1875),  the  son  of  a  peasant,  was  bom  at  G-ruchy,  a 
little  hamlet  on  the  shores  of  La  Hogue.  He  was  a  pupil 
of  Delaroche,  and  began  by  painting  pictures  of  the  nude, 
sensuous  in  feeling,  and  rich  in  colour,  but  in  1849  he  left 
Paris  for  Barbizon,  and  settled  to  his  real  work  in  life  as 
what  has  been  well  termed  "the  epic  painter  of  rusticity."  ' 
Thus  his  training  was  something  like  that  of  Corot's,  and 
he,  too,  combined  in  a  remarkable  degree  classic  dignity  of 
style  with  modern  veracity  of  feeling.  Never  has  humanity 
been  treated  in  art  so  strictly  in  relation  to  its  natural 
surroundings.  The  soil  and  the  tiller  of  the  soil,  this 
was  his  theme,  and  he  painted  the  sower  and  the  gleaner, 
the  shepherdess  and  the  woodman,  just  as  any  day  they 
might  be  seen  at  their  work,  in  the  very  clothes  they  wore, 
and  in  the  very  fields  in  which  they  laboured.  They  and 
nature  are  one  in  his  pictures,  the  expression  of  one  great 
idea,  the  result  of  one  great  force.  He  raised  them  to  epic 
grandeur,  not  by  forcing  them  into  heroic  attitudes,  or 
inspiring  them  with  an  artificial  sentiment,  but  by  seizing 
the  moment  when  the  ordinary  action  of  the  trained 
labourer  becomes  really  grand,  by  seeking  his  sentiment 
within  and  not  without  his  subject,  and  faithfully  recording 
the  patience  and  solemnity  which  labour  engraves  upon 
the  peasant's  face.  His  life  is  a  story  of  neglected  genius, 
but  he  had  but  to  die  to  be  famous.  His  pictures,  the 
Angelus  and  the  Sower,  are,  perhaps,  now  the  most  cele- 
brated of  all  in  modem  art,  and  even  his  etchings  have  risen 
to  extraordinary  value. 

With  these  artists  is  associated  the  name  of  their  friend, 
Narcisse-Viroilio  Diaz  de  la  Pena  (1808-1876),  Spanish 

[*  W.  E.  Henley,  in  the  Memorial  Catalogue  of  the  French  and 
Dutch  Loan  Collection,  Edinburgh  International  Exhibition,  1886.] 


384  HISTORY   OF   PAINTING.  [bOOZ   VIII. 

by  parentage,  French  by  birth,  whose  works  are  charac- 
terized by  their  je welly  colour  and  romantic  fantasy.  Not 
so  true  to  nature  as  Rousseau,  nor  so  great  and  profound 
an  artist,  the  work  of  Diaz  has  a  charm,  almost  a  glamour, 
of  its  own. 

Other  notable  leaders  in  the  modem  French  school  of 
landscape  who  have  died  in  recent  years  are  Constant 
Teoyon  (1816-1865)  and  Charles  Francois  Daubignt 
(1817-1878),  and  with  these  should  be  mentioned  the  name 
of  Jules  Dupre  (born  1811  and  still  living). 

In  other  branches  of  art  the  French  school  has  sustained 
severe  losses  by  the  deaths  of  Eugene  Fromentin  (1820- 
1876),  the  refined  and  poetical  painter  of  Arab  life,  and  one 
of  the  finest  of  modern  critics,  of  Henri  Eegnault  (1843- 
1871),  the  daring  and  accomplished  painter  of  the  Execu- 
tion in  the  Alhambra,  and  the  portrait  of  General  Prim ; 
of  Gustave  Courbet  (1819-1877),  celebrated  for  the  bold- 
ness with  which  he  pushed  realism  to  an  extreme,  especially 
in  his  famous  Funeral  at  Ornans,  but  in  spite  of  all  his 
eccentricity  of  opinion  and  want  of  taste,  a  painter  of  un- 
usual power ;  of  Edouard  Fr^ire  (1819-1886),  the  painter 
of  child-life  and  the  poor  ;  of  Gustave  Dor^  (1832-1882), 
the  illustrator  of  a  thousand  books,  the  painter  of  Christ 
leaving  the  Praetorium,  and  many  another  popular  and 
striking  picture,  the  most  prolific  pictorial  genius,  perhaps, 
that  ever  lived,  and  lastly,  of  Edouard  Manet  (1833-1883), 
the  founder  of  the  impressionist  school ;  of  Jules  Bastien- 
Lepage  (1848-1884),  painter  of  history,  genre,  and  portrait, 
a  leader  of  the  modern  reahsts,  whose  early  death  cut  oflc 
a  career  of  singular  promise.] 


BOOK  IX. 
PAINTING     IN     ENGLAND. 

Hogarth — Ketnolds — Wilkie — Turner. 

ENGLISH  Painting  is  a  thing  of  recent  growth.  Its 
history  belongs  to  the  present  day,  and  is  therefore 
necessarily  incomplete.  We  knew  not  in  truth  whether 
English  art  has  as  yet  reached  its  blooming  time,  or, 
whether,  as  many  signs  lead  us  to  hope,  a  still  higher  de- 
velopment awaits  it  in  the  future.  Certain  it  is  that  some 
of  the  greatest  painters  that  England  has  produced  are 
now  living  and  working  amongst  us,  and  although  in  the 
storm  of  contemporary  criticism  it  is  difficult  to  foretel  the 
calm  verdict  of  posterity,  we  may  yet  venture  to  believe 
that  in  future  histories  of  art  the  English  School  of  Paint- 
ing will  not  hold  the  unimportant  position  that  has  hitherto 
been  assigned  to  it.^ 

The  long-delayed  birth  of  [pictorial]  art  in  this  coimtry 
is  a  circumstance  that  has  been  often  commented  upon  but 
never  satisfactorily  explained.  It  is  curious,  no  doubt, 
that  art  should  have  flourished  at  an  early  date  not  only 
in  Italy,  where  congenial  conditions  may  be  supposed,  but 
in  the  unpropitious  Netherlands,  with  a  climate  and  com- 

['  This  belief  has  already  been  fully  justified.  The  great  German 
^'History  of  Painting,'*  commenced  by  Woltman  and  Woermatm,  and 
continued  since  Dr.  Woltmann's  death  by  Dr.  Woermann  alone,  does 
honour  to  the  English  School.  So  also  does  the  collection  of  studies  of 
artists  of  all  schools,  called  "  Kunst  and  Kunstler,"  edited  by  Dr. 
Di>leme.  In  France  more  than  one  work  has  been  specially  devoted  to 
the  English  School.  The  best  known  of  these  is  M.  Chesneau's  "  La 
Peinture  Anglaise,"  of  which  a  translation  into  English  has  been  pub- 
lished by  Messrs.  Cassell  and  Co.] 

c  c 


386  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOH    IX. 

mercial  interests  akin  to  our  own,  and  yet  should  have 
entirely  lacked  an  original  development  in  England  until 
as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Yet  so  it 
was.  All  the  various  schools  of  Italy,  Spain,  Flanders, 
G-ermany,  and  Holland,  had  bloomed  and  decayed,  and  the 
French  School  had  attained  a  considerable  development 
before  a  national  school  of  English  painting  was  so  much 
as  founded.  So  long,  indeed,  was  the  artistic  impulse  in 
making  itself  felt  in  this  country  that  Messrs.  Redgrave 
have  given  to  their  comprehensive  history  of  English 
painting  the  limited  title  of  "  A  Century  of  Painters  of 
the  English  School ;  "  ^  all  the  best  of  our  English  artists, 
with  the  exception  of  those  still  living,  who  do  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  their  work  being  included  within  this 
period,  which  extends  from  the  time  of  Hogarth  to  the 
middle  of  the  present  century. 

But  although  our  national  English  art  can  only  be  said 
to  begin  with  Hogarth,  there  were  a  few  English  portrait- 
painters  before  his  time  who  claim  a  passing  notice. 

Henry  YIII.,  in  imitation  no  doubt  of  his  rivals 
Charles  V.  and  Francis  I„  was  very  desirous  of  being  con- 
sidered a  patron  of  the  fine  arts.  He  invited  several  great 
Italian  painters,  including  Eaphael,  over  to  England,  and 
a  few  lesser  Italian  masters,  probably  pupils  of  Eaphael, 
really  consented  to  exile  themselves  for  a  time  from  the 
land  of  taste  and  culture,  and  to  accept  the  munificent 
patronage  of  the  barbarian  Goth,  as  they  doubtless  con- 
sidered our  sturdy  Tudor  king.  The  German  Holbein, 
however,  was  by  far  the  greatest  master  ^whom  Henry's 
munificence  attracted  to  this  country.  He,  as  we  have  seen, 
found  in  England  a  second  home,  and  his  influence  was 
deep  and  lasting  on  his  successors.  Many  inferior  English 
painters  imitated  their  great  German  teacher,  but  although 

^  "  A  Century  of  Painters  of  the  English  School,  with  Critical 
Notices  of  their  Works,  and  an  Account  of  the  Progress  of  Art  in 
England,"  by  Richard  and  Samuel  Eedgrave.  2  vols.  London,  1866. 
This  is  the  only  history  of  English  art  that  we  as  yet  possess  ;  Horace 
Walpole's  amusing  "  Anecdotes  of  Painting  in  England"  being  for  the 
most  part  confined  to  foreign  artists,  Holbein,  the  Vandervelds,  and 
others,  who  enjoyed  English  patronage.  It  affords  to  students  a  trust- 
worthy, and  at  the  same  time,  most  interesting  guide  to  an  acquaintance 
with  the  style  and  works  of  our  English  masters. 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  387 

numerous  spurious  Holbeins  have  been  handed  down  to 
us,  the  names  of  none  of  these  painters  have  been  pre- 
served, and  it  is  not  until  we  come  to  Elizabeth's  reign 
that  we  meet  with  our  first  noteworthy  English  portrait- 
painter,  Nicholas  Hilliard  (1547-1619),  of  whom  Dr. 
Donne  wrote — 

"  An  hand  or  eye 
By  Hilliard  dx-awn  is  worth  a  historye 
By  a  worst  painter  made." 

Many  of  Hilliard*  s  miniatures  (he  was  strictly  a  miniature- 
painter)  are  still  in  existence,^  and  are  highly  prized 
by  connoisseurs,  more,  possibly,  on  account  of  their  rarity 
and  curiosity  than  from  their  intrinsic  merit  as  works  of 
art. 

Isaac  Oliver  (1555-1617),  another  miniaturist  of 
Elizabeth's  and  James  I.'s  reigns,  probably  a  pupil  of 
Milliard's,  likewise  achieved  a  considerable  reputation,  and 
his  son,  Peter  Oliver  (1594-1654),  and  a  painter  named 
John  Hoskins  (died  1664),  carried  on  the  same  branch 
of  art  with  ability  and  great  success  in  the  following 
reigns.^ 

Charles  I.  had  evidently  a  true  love  and  taste  for  art, 
but  although  he  honoured  and  employed  Eubens  and  Tan- 
dy ck  and  made  a  splendid  collection  of  the  works  of  Italian 
masters,  his  patronage  failed  to  produce  one  good  English 
painter,  unless  we  reckon  as  such  William  Dobson  (1610- 
1646),  before  mentioned  as  having  gained  the  title  of  the 
English  Vandyck,  a  master  of  feeble  origiuality,  but  of 
some  facility  in  portraiture  ;  and  George  Jamesone  (1586- 
1644),  his  Scotch  contemporary,  many  of  whose  portraits 
reveal  considerable  power  and  skill. 

^  Several  were'  exhibited  in  the  first  National  Portrait  Gallery,  in 
18G6. 

^  [There  has  been,  indeed,  an  unbroken  succession  of  fine  miniature 
painters,  English  by  birth,  from  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  our 
own, — an  English  "School,"  indeed,  in  this  particular  branch  of  art, 
more  continuous  than,  perhaps,  that  of  any  other  nation.  For  accounts 
of  all  the  principal  English  miniaturists  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Propert's  "  History  of  Miniature  Art."  Macmillan,  1887.  One  name 
in  addition  to  those  in  the  text  must,  however,  be  mentioned  here — that 
of  Samuel  Cooper  (1609-1672),  the  Vandyck  in  little,  who  painted 
Cromwell  and  the  srreat  men  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Restoration. 1 


388  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

Egbert  Walker  (died  1660),  Cromwell's  painter,  who 
was  not  allowed  to  idealize  his  master's  pimply  visage,  but 
was  directed  to  "  paint  the  warts  and  bumps,"  comes  next, 
and  after  him  two  or  three  imitators  and  copyists,  whose 
names  need  not  be  particularized. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  II.  the  Vanderveldes,  Sir  Peter 
Lely,  and  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller  were  the  favoured  masters, 
and  the  few  miserable  painters  whom  England  then  pro- 
duced assiduously  copied  the  manner  of  these  much  be- 
lauded foreigners ;  ^  of  the  two  latter,  that  is  to  say,  for 
even  an  imitation  of  the  honest  painting  of  Willem  Van- 
dervelde  was  beyond  the  reach  of  that  dissolute  and  effete 
age. 

Allegory  now  became  the  fashion,  and  the  Italian  Verrio 
being  invited  over  to  England,  walls,  ceilings  and  stair- 
cases were  soon  covered  by  him,  and  in  imitation  of  him, 
with  the  most  unmeaning  classical  and  so-called  historical 
subjects,  wherein  real  historical  characters,  in  wonderful 
costume,  were  represented  with  the  attributes  of  gods,  sur- 
rounded by  impersonated  virtues ;  and  gods  and  goddesses, 
shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  swains  and  nymphs  disported 
themselves  in  foolish  wantonness  over  acres  of  canvas. 

"  No  reign,"  says  Horace  Walpole,  "  since  the  arts  have 
been  in  any  estimation,  produced  fewer  works  that  will 
deserve  the  attention  of  posterity  "  than  that  of  George  I. 

One  master  of  this  time,  however,  Jonathan  Richard- 
son (1665-1745)  deserves  mention  not  so  much  on  account 
of  his  painted  works,  although  these  were  somewhat  above 
the  average  mediocrity  of  his  contemporaries,  but  because 
of  his  common- sensible  art-criticisms  which  may  still  be 
read  with  profit,  although  their  shrewd  practicality  con- 
trasts remarkably  with  the  ethico-aesthetical  criticism 
aimed  at  in  the  present  day.^ 

^  [An  exception  to  the  **  miserable"  painters,  was  Joseph  Michakl 
Wright  (d.  1700)  a  pupil  of  Jamesone.  His  fine  portrait  of  Thomas 
Hobbes,  the  philosopher,  when  an  old  man,  is  in  the  National  Portrait 
Oallery,  And  another  was  John  Rilet  [1646-1691),  Court  painter  to 
William  and  Mary  ;  he  also  painted  Charles  II.  and  James  II.  There 
Are  portraits  by  him  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery  of  Bishop  Burnet, 
James  II.,  Lord  William  Russell,  and  Waller.] 

*  His  works  are,  "  The  Theory  of  Painting,"  "  An  Essay  on  the  Art 
of  Criticism  so  far  as  it  relates  to  Painting,''  and  "  An  Argument  in  be- 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  389 

Charles  Jebvas,  now  chiefly  known  by  Pope's  eulogistic 
epistle,  Thomas  Hudson,  a  fashionable  painter  of  heads,^ 
Francis  Hayman,  the  recorder  of  the  old  splendour  of 
Vauxhall,  Francis  Cotes,  Allan  Eamsat  [the  author  of 
"  The  Gentle  Shepherd  "],  and  Sir  James  Thornhill,  the 
father-in-law  of  Hogarth,  end  this  line  of  mediocrities,^ 
and  bring  us  down  to  the  date  when,  for  the  first  time,  a 
great  and  original  genius  arose  amongst  English  painters. 

William  Hogarth  (1697-1764)  was  the  son  of  a 
Westmoreland  schoolmaster  who  had  settled  in  London 
as  a  corrector  of  the  press,  and  lived,  we  are  told,  "  chiefly 
by  his  pen."  Not  being  desirous  that  his  son  should  live 
by  the  same  precarious  instrument,  he  early  apprenticed 
him  to  a  silver-plate  engraver,  one  Ellis  Gamble,  who  kej^t 
a  shop  in  Cranbome  Alley .^  Here  the  boy,  who  when  at 
school  had  adorned  his  exercises  with  artistic  ornament 
rather  than  with  the  graces  of  composition,  first  learnt  the 
use  of  the  graver,  and  soon  grew  ambitious  to  apply  it  to 
nobler  purposes  than  the  engraving  of  initials  and  heraldic 
devices  on  spoons  and  tankards.  Accordingly,  in  1718, 
when  his  apprentice  years  were  over,  we  find  him  engraving 
copper  plates  for  booksellers,  plates  which  often  sold  for 

half  of  the  Science  of  a  Connoisseur,"  published  together,  in  one  small 
quaint  volume,  by  his  son,  in  1773.  [In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 
are  portraits  by  Kichardson  of  Anne  Oldfield,  Pope,  Prior,  Steele,  Lord 
Chancellor  Talbot,  and  Vertue.] 

^  He  could  not,  it  is  said,  even  paint  the  draperies  necessary  to 
clothe  his  vacuities.     [See  note  to  page  393.] 

[^  With  the  exceptions  of  Jervas  and  Thornhill,  the  painters  named 
in  this  paragraph  were  junior  to  Hogarth,  and  Francis  Cotes  (1725-1770) 
was  a  fine  portrait  painter,  whose  reputation  has  lately  been  raised 
above  the  mediocrities.  In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery  there  are 
portraits  of  Queen  Caroline,  Pope,  and  Martha  Blount ;  the  Duchess  of 
Queensbury,  and  Dean  Swift,  by  Jervas  (1675-1735);  of  Handel, 
Edward  Willes,  and  Matthew  Prior  (the  last,  after  Richardson),  by 
Hudson  (1701-1779);  of  the  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  Queen  Charlotte, 
George  III.,  Lord  Mansfield,  and  Dr.  Mead,  by  Kamsay  (1709-1784) ; 
and  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole  and  himself  by  Havman  (1718-1776).  Sir 
James  Thornhill  was  the  decorator  of  St.  PauFs  Cathedral  and  Green- 
wich  Hospital,  and  his  compositions,  if  not  works  of  genius,  were  at 
least  grandiose  and  effective,  and  fulfilled  their  purpose  of  decoration 
better  than  those  of  any  English  artist  since  his  time.] 

[^  It  was  in  accordance  with  his  own  wishes  that  Hogarth  was 
apprenticed  to  Gamble.] 


390  HISTORY   OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

little  more  tlian  the  mere  worth  of  the  copper.^  At  the 
same  time  he  studied  drawing  from  the  life  in  an  academy 
in  St.  Martin's  Lane,  but  it  was  not  till  after  his  runaway 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Sir  James  Thornhill,  Ser- 
jeant Painter  to  the  King,  that  took  place  in  1729,  that  he 
appeared  before  the  public  as  a  painter. 

In  1734  the  prints  of  his  first  great  series  of  paintings, 
the  Harlot's  Progress,  were  issued,  and  were  quickly  fol- 
lowed by  the  Rake's  Progress,  in  1735,  and  the  still  more 
celebrated  Marriage  a  la  Mode,  in  1745.  These  works  had 
a  great  success,  but  the  engravings  of  them,  executed  by 
Hogarth  himself,  were,  it  would  seem,  more  appreciated 
than  the  paintings,  which  sold  for  ridiculously  small 
sums.^ 

This  is  not  so  surprising,  for  although  his  painting  is  of 
high  excellence,  the  colouring  true  and  forcible,  and  the 
execution  careful,  yet  it  is  by  his  dramatic  power  of  com- 
position, a  power  that  makes  itself  felt  as  strongly  in  the 
colourless  engraving  as  in  the  painted  work,  that  he  mostly 
ai^peals  to  the  heart  of  mankind.  His  pictures,  in  truth, 
are  not  so  much  painted  as  they  are  written  with  the 
brush,  in  strong  plain  characters,  conveying  often  terrible 
meanings.  "  Other  pictures,"  says  Charles  Lamb,  "  we 
look  at ;  his  prints,  we  read."  His  moral  lessons  are 
obvious,  but  they  are  forcible,  his  humour  is  deep  and  his 
satire  keen  and  unsparing.  He  holds  no  truce  with  the 
devil,  but  shows  up  him  and  his  children  in  a  more  fearful 
form  than  was  ever  depicted  by  the  grotesque  mediseval 
imagination. 

His  social  dramas  often  rise  to  the  height  of  the  most 
terrible  tragedies,  even  their  laughter  is  akin  to  tears,  and 

[^  We  have  no  information  as  to  what  price  was  paid  for  his  early 
engravings,  many  of  which  were  shop-bills,  book-plates,  and  such  small 
work.  These,  and  the  book  illustrations,  as  for  Mottraye's  Travels 
and  Hudibras,  were,  in  all  probability,  commissions  at  a  low  scale  of 
payment,  but  the  notion  that  he  executed  plates  on  speculation,  and  sold 
ihem  for  the  weight  of  the  copper,  or  little  more,  rests  on  a  doubtful 
statement  by  Nichols.] 

[^  The  sums  were,  Harlot's  Progress,  £88  45. ;  Rake's  Progress, 
£184  16s. ;  Marriage  a  la  Mode,  £126.  The  price  of  the  prints  was 
very  moderate.  Harlot's  Pi-ogress,  £1  Is.  ;  Rake's  Progress,  £2  2s.  j 
and  Marriage  a  la  Mode  £1  lis.  6d.  the  set. 


BOOK    IX.J  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  391 

whilst  our  lips  are  moved  to  a  smile,  we  feel  pitj  or  indig- 
nation in  our  hearts. 

His  characters  are  mostly  drawn  from  the  foolish  or 
depraved  classes  of  society,  his  mission  being  to  lash  folly 
and  to  brand  vice,  and  such  fearful  pictures  has  he  left  us 
of  the  dissolute  manners  of  his  age,  that  we  can  scarcely 
believe  that  the  stately,  highborn  gentlemen,  and  graceful, 
refined  ladies  that  we  meet  with  on  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds* 
canvases,  lived  at  the  same  time  with  the  sinful  and  mise- 
rable wretches  whose  downward  careers  are  so  forcibly 
portrayed  by  his  great  contemporary. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  enter  upon  any  description  of 
Hogarth's  numerous  works.  Fortunately  they  are  so  well- 
known  that  a  description  of  them  is  but  little  needed. 
Even  on  the  Continent,  where  English  art  has  not  as  yet 
made  much  advance,  we  find  his  prints  widely  disseminated, 
and  in  Germany,  especially,  his  genius  has  called  forth 
much  discriminative  criticism  and  admiration.  English 
students  have  an  excellent  opportunity  of  studying  his  art 
in  its  highest  manifestation  in  the  great  Marriage  a  la 
Mode  series  which  forms  part  of  the  National  CoUection. 
Here,  in  this  great  pictorial  drama,  the  author  is  seen  at 
once  as  a  painter — a  master  of  the  art  of  laying  colour — a 
satirist,  a  moralist,  and  a  great  teacher  of  mankind. 

Few  can  turn  away  unmoved  from  the  contemplation  of 
this  tragic  history,  for  although  its  many  shafts  of  sarcasm, 
flying  about  in  all  directions,  distract  our  attention  for  a 
time,  we  cannot  help  being  in  the  end  deeply  affected  by 
the  terrible  truths  it  conveys,  truths  set  before  us,  it  is 
true,  in  strong,  even  coarse  language,  but  by  this  very 
reason,  perhaps,  piercing  our  indifference  in  a  manner  that 
no  elegant  allegory  of  virtue  and  vice,  or  wisdom  and  folly, 
could  ever  have  done.  It  is  the  same  in  his  other  great 
tragedies  of  human  life.  Their  incongruities,  their  adinix- 
ture  of  the  terrible  and  the  ridiculous  may  at  first  study 
excite  our  perceptions  of  the  ludicrous;  but  as  Charles 
Lamb  truly  remarks,  **  when  we  have  sacrificed  the  first 
emotion  to  levity,  a  very  different  frame  of  mind  succeeds." 

He  himself  tells  us  that  he  deliberately  chose  the  path 
in  art  that  lay  "  between  the  sublime  and  the  grotesque," 
and  in  this  wide  region  he  has  achieved  an  unparalleled 


392  HISTORY   OP    PATNTINO.  [bOOK    IX. 

success.  Occasionally,  indeed,  lie  steps  beyond  it,  and  in 
the  terrible  earnestness  of  passion  attains  almost  to  the 
height  of  the  sublime ;  but  more  often,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  falls  into  caricature,  from  his  having,  as  it  would  seem, 
an  especial  attraction  towards  the  grotesque  and  whimsical 
forms  of  the  human  face. 

As  a  portrait  painter  (he  supported  himself  for  some 
years  at  the  beginning  of  his  career  by  painting  portraits), 
he  was  observant,  faithful,  and  unflattering,  painting  his 
sitters  simply  as  they  sat  before  him,  without  idealization. 
His  portrait  of  his  own  honest  self,  in  nightcap,  and  with 
his  dog,  that  of  Captain  Coram,  in  the  Foundling  Hospital, 
and  that  of  his  bright-faced,  daring  httle  wife,^  recently 
exhibited  among  the  "  Old  Masters,"  at  the  Royal  Academy, 
are  excellent  examples  of  his  skill. 

Occasionally  he  tried  his  powers  in  the  high  historical 
style,  then  in  vogue,  but  although  his  efforts  in  this  line  of 
art  are  by  no  means  such  unmitigated  failures  as  they  have 
often  been  represented  to  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  powerful 
bent  of  his  genius  was  towards  such  scenes  as  the  March 
to  rinchley,  Southwark  Fair,  Beer  Street,  the  terrible 
Grin  Lane,  the  Election  Series,  the  Idle  and  Industrious 
Apprentices,  the  Enraged  Musician,  the  Distressed  Poet, 
and  the  three  great  series  before  mentioned. 

Towards  the  close  of  his  career,  Hogarth  appeared  as  a 
writer  on  art.  His  "  Analysis  of  Beauty  "  was  written, 
probably,  to  combat  the  false  taste  of  his  age  in  matters 
of  art,  a  taste  that  he  never  lost  an  opportunity  of 
ridiculing,'^  and  which  his  own  honest  original  work  did 
more  than  anything  else  to  counteract. 

But  although  Hogarth  was  thus  the  first  English  painter 

[^  Portraits  by  Hogarth  of  bis  wife,  were  exhibited  at  the  Boyal 
Academy  in  1872,  1873,  and  1876.  The  last,  which  now  belongs  to 
Mr.  H.  B.  Mildmay,  was  at  the  Grosvenor  Gallery  Winter  Exhibition 
this  year  (1888),  together  with  twenty-four  other  pictures  by  Hogarth, 
including  the  fine  group  of  David  Garrick  and  his  wife,  and  many  other 
portraits.  Several  interesting  pictures  by  Hogarth  have  recently  been 
added  to  the  National  Gallery,] 

^  Asj  for  instance,  in  the  first  picture  of  the  Marriage  a  la  Mode 
series,  wherein  the  walls  of  the  apartment  in  which  the  bargaining  of 
birth  against  money  takes  place,  are  covered  with  grandiose  works  by 
"the  black  masters,"  as  Hogarth  called  them,  and  the  ceiling  is 
ludicrously  decorated  with  a  painting  of  the  Passage  of  the  Eed  Sea. 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  393 

to  break  through  the  conventions  of  tradition  and  imita- 
tion, and  to  establish  a  genuine  and  national  style  of  art  in 
England,  he  had  no  followers,  strictly  speaking ;  no 
scholars,  that  is,  who  taught  and  carried  on  his  own 
peculiar  mode  of  expression. 

He  is  the  founder  of  English  painting  only  in  the  sense 
of  having  been  the  first  great  original  English  master,  and 
not  as  having  been  the  typical  master  of  a  particular 
school,  as  we  have  seen  with  the  various  masters  of  schools 
in  Italy.  In  truth,  when  we  consider  it,  there  is,  as 
foreigners  assert,^  no  such  thing  as  an  English  school  of 
painting,  or  has  not  been  until  quite  recently ;  ^  for  each 
English  painter  has  apparently  had  too  much  individuality 
of  mind  to  be  able  to  take  up  the  art  of  his  predecessor  or 
teacher,  and  to  carry  it  to  a  still  further  point  of  perfection. 
Thus  it  happens  that  individual  effort  and  genius  have 
accompHshed  much  in  our  country,  but  that  there  has  been 
no  progressive  development  such  as  we  see  in  the  school  ^ 
of  Venice,  for  example,  from  Bellini  to  Titian,  or  in 
Florence  from  Giotto  to  Michael  Angelo. 

Whether  this  individual  independence  of  English  pain- 
ters is  a  thing  to  be  lamented  is  difficult  to  decide.  On 
the  one  hand  it  certainly  strengthens  original  talent,  but 
on  the  other  it  gives  wider  scope  to  unguided  and  mis- 
guided impulses  which  the  erratic  artists  themselves  too 

•  "  Les  Anglais,"  says  Viardot,  "  ont  port6  jnsque  dans  I'art,  leur  loi 
de  Vhabeas  corpus,  cette  liberie  de  la  personne  dont  ils  se  montrent  juste- 
ment  si  fiers  et  si  jaloux." 

[^  "  The  first  exhibition  of  English  painters  in  France  took  place  in 
the  Avenue  Montaigne  in  1855.  For  the  French,  it  was  a  revelation  of 
a  style  and  a  school,  of  the  existence  of  which  they  had  hitherto  had  no 
idea." — The  English  School  of  Painting,  translated  from  the  French  of 
Ernest  Chesneau.     Cassell  and  Co.,  1885.] 

[^  The  word  **  School "  is  used  in  various  senses.  We  talk  of  the 
School  of  a  particular  painter  like  Titian,  the  School  of  a  country  like 
Holland,  the  Schtiol,  of  a  place  like  Florence,  the  School  of  an  idea,  like 
the  Eclectic  School,  and  the  School  of  a  genre,  like  the  landscape  School. 
All  of  these  are,  I  think,  represented  in  the  history  of  English  Art. 
There  is  the  English  School  generally,  the  School  of  Norwich,  the 
School  of  "High  Art"  as  it  was  called,  or  more  recently  the  Pre- 
Kaphaelite  and  the  realistic  Schools,  and  certainly  the  landscape  School. 
These  have  not  been  without  progressive  development,  or  united  en- 
deavour. May  we  not  also  speak  of  the  School  of  Turner,  or  David 
Cox,  or  Rossetti  ?] 


394  HiSTOEY  or  painting.  [book  IX. 

often  mistake  for  inspirations — inspirations  that  would, 
probably,  have  been  beneficially  curbed  by  a  little  wise 
training.  At  all  events,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  we  find 
no  united  endeavour,  like  that  which  marks  a  school,' 
amongst  English  painters  until  the  middle  of  the  present 
century,  when  the  little  band  of  reformers  known  as  the 
Pre-Eaphaelites  first  formed  themselves  into  a  brotherhood, 
or,  as  it  is  now  appropriately  styled,  the  Pre-Raphaelite 
School,  wherein  we  have  for  the  first  time  certain  binding 
principles  distinguishing  English  art. 

Hogarth,  however,  if  he  did  not  found  a  school,^  at  least 
re-opened  the  obstructed  path  to  nature  for  his  contempo- 
raries and  successors,  and  down  this  cleared  path,  long 
hidden  by  a  growth  of  sham  sentiment  and  honest  inca- 
pacity, he  was  followed  more  or  less  intelhgently  by  all  the 
great  English  masters  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who, 
however,  instead  of  treading  directly  in  his  footsteps, 
turned  from  side  to  side  garnering  new  truths,  and  observ- 
ing fresh  beauties  which  each  recorded  in  his  own  peculiar 
language.^ 

Sir  Joshua  Eeynolds  (1723-1792),  the  second  great 
English  painter  who  rose  on  the  horizon  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  resembled  Hogarth  only  in  going  to  nature  for 
instruction,  and  casting  aside  the  affectations  of  Lely  and 
Kneller. 

He  was  born  at  Plympton,  in  Devonshire,  and  was  des- 
tined by  his  father  for  the  medical  profession.  But  from 
a  child,  "  out  of  pure  idleness,"  said  his  father,  he  was 
"  given  to  the  making  of  sketches ; "  and  the  reading  of 
Eichardson's  "  Theory  of  Painting,"  seems  to  have  decided 
him  to  become  a  painter.  Accordingly  after  some  oppo- 
sition, he  was  [in  1741]  apprenticed  to  Thomas  Hudson, 
one  of  the  most  incapable  of  the  incapable  imitators  of 
Kneller,  and  esteemed  himself  "very  fortunate  in  being 
under  such  a  master."  * 

^  See  note  3  on  p.  392. 

[^  A  list  of  Hogarth's  principal  paintings  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Austin 
Dobson's  *' Hogarth  "  in  "The  Great  Artists  "  series  (Sampson  Low), 
■which,  despite  its  conciseness,  is  by  far  the  most  accurate  and  complete 
account  of  this  master's  life  and  achievement  which  has  yet  been 
published.] 

p  Hudson's  incapacity  has  been  taken  too  much  for  granted,  because 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  395 

It  was  more  fortunate,  perhaps,  that  he  did  not  learn 
much  from  such  a  master,  nor  remain  with  him  long, 
for  after  two  years'  experience  in  Hudson's  studio,  we 
find  him  setting  up  for  himself  as  a  portrait  painter  in 
Devonport. 

In  1749,  by  the  kindness  of  Commodore  Keppel,  he  was 
enabled  to  go  to  Italy,  where  he  spent  altogether  three 
years,  visiting  Eome,  Florence,  Venice,  Padua,  and  Bologna, 
studying  the  works  and  modus  operandi  of  the  great  Italians, 
but  never  striving,  so  it  would  seem,  to  imitate  or  repro- 
duce their  peculiar  excellences.  Already,  in  fact,  the 
strength  of  originality  lay  within  him,  and  he  returned  to 
England  in  1752,  to  inaugurate  a  new  era  in  portrait 
j)ainting. 

His  success  was  soon  assured.  Portrait  painting,  as 
before  said,  had  always  been  the  prevailing  branch  of  art 
in  England,  not,  perhaps,  as  Hogarth  affirms,  because 
"  vanity  and  selfishness  are  the  ruling  passions "  here, 
more  than  elsewhere,  but  because  a  less  amount  of  skill 
was  necessary  to  paint  a  tolerably  faithful  likeness  (not  a 
real  living  portrait,  that  is  a  totally  different  thing),  than 
was  required  for  the  composition  of  even  a  small  genre 
painting.  English  painters  before  Hogarth  possessed 
none  of  the  skill  of  hand  of  the  Dutchmen.  They  were 
not  attracted  towards  scenes  of  homely  life,  they  had  no 
feeling  for  out-door  nature,  their  religion  excluded  the 
endless  repetition  of  Virgins,  Babes,  and  Saints,  in  which 
the  Italians  found  exercise  for  their  pencils,  and  nothing, 
therefore,  was  left  to  them  but  to  reproduce  as  best  they 
could  the  faces  of  the  sitters  who  came  to  them  "to  be 
taken."  This  desirable  object  is  achieved  for  all  in  the 
present  day  by  photography,  but  in  Sir  Joshua's  time,  it 
was  only,  we  must  remember,  the  rich  and  the  noble  who 
could  afford  to  have  their  features  handed  down  to  poste- 
rity by  the  painter's  art. 

he  employed  other  artists  to  paint  his  draperies,  but  this  has  been  done 
Ijy  all,  or  nearly  all,  successful  portrait  paintere.  The  same  drapery 
])iiinter,  Peter  Toms,  K.A.,  employed  by  Hudson,  was  also  employed 
by  Reynolds  and  by  Cotes,  and  Hudson,  if  he  had  no  great  genius, 
tould  paint  soundly,  and  the  fact  of  his  having  been  the  master  of  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  and  Joseph  Wright,  of  Derby,  should  count  for  some- 
thing in  his  favour.] 


396  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOZ   IX. 

Never  before  had  that  art  been  exercised  with  such 
delicate  perception  and  subtle  understanding,  as  it  was 
by  Sir  Joshua.  No  wonder  that  fair  women  and  stately- 
highborn  men  flocked  to  his  studio,  for  whilst  they  saw 
their  very  thoughts,  as  it  were,  revealed  on  his  canvas,  and 
their  individuality  fully  marked,  they  were  yet  lifted  by 
the  magic  of  his  art  far  above  the  region  of  the  common- 
place, into  a  realm  of  tender  poetry  and  grace.  For  the 
art  of  Reynolds  is  not  the  mere  mechanical  skill  of  repro- 
ducing the  exact  counterfeit  of  the  face  of  the  sitter,  as  it 
appeared  at  the  moment :  his  is  not  the  trivial  detail  of  a 
Denner,  that "  counted  the  hairs  and  mapped  the  wrinkles  '* 
in  a  man's  countenance.  Perceiving  how  "  much  subtler  is 
a  human  mind  than  the  outside  tissues  which  make  a  sort 
of  blazonry  or  clock-face  for  it,"  '  he 

*'  Poring  on  a  face 
Divinely  through  all  hindrance  finds  the  man 
Behind  it,  and  so  paints  him  that  his  face, 
The  shape  and  colour  of  a  mind  and  life, 
Lives  for  his  children  ever  at  its  best."  * 

"  There  is  a  look  of  distinction,"  says  one  of  his  recent 
critics,^  "  about  everything  he  does.  His  portraits  have  all 
the  *  hel  air,'  like  Henry  Esmond.  To  wander  througli  a 
gallery  of  them  is  to  wander  through  a  court  where  the 
manners  are  sweet  because  of  goodness,  and  graceful  with- 
out effort,  because  the  grace  is  inborn."  Yes,  the  grace 
and  the  goodness  too  were  truly  inborn,  for  they  were  in 
the  mind  of  the  painter  himself,  and  as  he  painted  all  his 
portraits  in  the  light  of  his  "  mind's  eye,"  and  not  in  the 
glaring  noon-day  of  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  surprisiiiu' 
that  we  find  in  them  a  certain  subjective  ideality,  whi^ 
heightens  their  charm,  while  it  is  never  allowed  to  int(  . 
fere  with  the  actual  truth  of  the  portraiture.  This  he 
never  sacrifices.  "  Considered  as  a  painter  of  individuality, 
in  the  human  form  and  mind,"  says  Kuskin,  **  I  think  him 
even  as  it  is,  the  prince  of  portrait  painters."  * 

The  same  great  authority  classes  him  also,  as  one  of  the 
"  seven  great  colourists  of  the  world,"  and  truly  whilst 

^  George  Eliot,  "  Middlemarch."  ^  Tennyson. 

"  Austin  Dobson.  ^  "  The  Two  Paths,"  Lect.  2. 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  397 

estimating  his  mental  and  moral  qualities,  we  must  by 
no  means  overlook  his  great  technical  skill.  He  was  a 
painter  to  the  heart's  core,  and  loved  his  colours  as  other 
men  love  theii-  children,  only  unfortunately  he  was  always 
experimenting  with  them,  seeking  new  pigments,  Venetian 
methods,  and  such  like,  and  thus  it  happens  that  many  of 
his  best  works  hare  now  utterly  faded,  or  have  become  the 
mere  shadows  of  their  former  selves. 

His  industry  must  have  been  surprising.  England 
literally  teems  with  his  works ;  besides  the  private  houses 
in  which  they  abound,  they  are  met  with  in  almost  every 
gallery  and  exhibition.  There  are  several  notable  ones  at 
South  Kensington  easily  accessible  to  the  student,  and 
many,  including  his  famous  Mrs.  Siddons  as  the  Tragic 
Muse,  have  been  recently  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy. 
He  is  pre-eminently  our  national  portrait  painter. 

Honours  were  not  wanting  in  the  equable  life  of  the 
amiable  Sir  Joshua.  In  1768  the  Royal  Academy  was 
founded,  and  he  was  unanimously  elected  its  first  Presi- 
dent. He  was  knighted  on  this  occasion,  and  on  the 
death  of  Allan  Ramsay,  became  Court  painter.  His 
*'  Discourses  on  Painting,"  delivered  at  the  Royal  Academy, 
contain  much  judicious  criticism  and  valuable  advice  to 
the  art  student ;  indeed  they  still  rank  as  one  of  the  most 
important  English  works  on  the  theory  of  art.  Their 
literary  merit  also  is  considerable. 

One  of  the  most  kindly  and  courteous  of  men,  Sir 
Joshua  was  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  he  reckoned 
amongst  his  friends  such  men  as  Johnson,  Goldsmith, 
Burke,  Garrick,  and  many  other  members  of  the  celebrated 
"  Literary  Club,"  of  which  he  himself  was  a  member.  All 
these  men  have  a  certain  tenderness  of  tone  in  speaking  of 
their  favourite  Sir  Joshua.  Dr.  Johnson  writes  to  him : 
*'  If  I  should  lose  you,  I  should  lose  almost  the  only  man 
whom  I  call  a  friend,"  and  Goldsmith,  as  we  know,  found 
it  impossible,  even  in  his  "  Retaliation,"  to  retaliate  with 
one  single  sarcasm  on  his  gentle  painter  friend/ 

^  "  Here  Reynolds  is  laid,  and  to  tell  you  my  mind. 
He  has  not  left  a  better  or  wiser  behind. 
His  pencil  was  striking,  resistless,  and  grand  ; 
His  manners  were  gentle,  complying,  and  bland. 


398  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOZ    IX. 

The  third  great  name  that  marts  the  rise  of  the  English 
school  of  painting  in  the  eighteenth  century  is  that  of 
Thomas  G-ainsboeouqh  (1727-1788).  [Born  at  Sudbury, 
in  Suffolk,  he  spent  some  four  years  in  London  under 
Hayman,  and  at  the  St.  Martin's  Lane  Academy.  He 
married  at  the  age  of  nineteen  and  returned  to  Ipswich. 
About  1758  he  settled  at  Bath,  where  his  portraits  gained 
him  a  name.  He  was  one  of  the  foundation  members  of 
the  Eoyal  Academy.]  Although  bearing  some  affinity  with 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  with  whom  he  is  often  compared, 
Grainsborough's  works  have  a  distinct  character  of  their 
own,  so  that  there  is  no  mistaking  them  for  those  of  his 
great  rival.  His  portraits  are  colder  in  colour  than  those 
of  Reynolds,  who  at  times  almost  rivalled  the  Venetians  in 
his  warm  magnificence,  but  they  are  never  inharmonious 
and  are  set  in  a  pure  atmosphere  of  silvery  light,  that  en- 
velopes them,  as  it  were,  in  a  soft  haze  of  dreamy  delight. 

It  was  for  his  portraits  that  Gainsborough  was  most 
esteemed  by  his  contemporaries,  his  landscapes  scarcely 
gaining  the  least  notice  in  his  own  day.  Connoisseurs  had 
not  then  learnt,  indeed,  to  appreciate  the  truthful  render- 
ing of  rural  English  scenery  and  scenes  of  country  life ; 
but  it  is  one  of  Grainsborough's  strongest  claims  on  the 
gratitude  of  posterity,  that  he  was  the  first  English  artist 
who  found  inspiration  in  the  beauty  of  his  o-wq  native 
land,  and  who  depicted  its  simple  features  with  loving 
truth. 

Like  the  genuine  Dutch  landscape  painters,  he  found 
beauty  enough  to  fill  his  heart  in  the  fields  and  woods  of 
home,  without  seeking  it  in  Roman  Campagnas,  blue  lakes, 
and  classical  ruins,  or,  as  so  many  Italianisers  have  done,  in 
Claude's  or  Salvator  Rosa's  pictures. 

Several  of  his  finest  landscapes  are  in  the  National 
Gallery,  where  also  may  be  seen  his  lovely  and  expressive 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  which,  although  inferior  in  power 

Still,  born  to  improve  us  in  every  part — 

His  pencil  our  faces,  his  manners  our  heart. 

To  coxcombs  averse,  yet  most  civilly  steering, 

When  they  juflged  without  skill  he  was  still  hard  of  hearing. 

When  they  talked  of  their  Kaffaelles,  Correggios,  and  stuff, 

He  shifted  his  trumpet,  and  only  took  snuif." 

Goldsmith,  Retaliation. 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN   ENGLAND.  8D& 

to  Eevnolds's  glorious  Tragic  Muse,  yet  exercises  over  us  a 
peculiar,  indefinable  charm. 

His  small  rustic  subjects,  also,  are  truly  delightful ; 
full  of  the  breath  of  country  air  and  country  simplicity, 
uncontaminated  by  railway  smoke  and  ignorant  of  steam 
ploughs. 

Many  of  these  smaller  works  are  distinguished  for  a 
wonderful  delicacy  of  execution,  and  in  spite  of  his  "  habit 
of  hatching,"  as  Reynolds  calls  it,  a  habit  gained,  no  doubt, 
from  his  early  education  under  an  engraver,  which  makes 
his  work  often  appear  slight  and  sketchy,  it  could  never 
have  been  carelessly  done,  for  however  easy  and  rapid  the 
execution,  it  never  fails  in  its  effect. 

George  Eomney^  (1734-1802)  achieved  in  his  lifetime  a 
fame  that  was  almost  equal  to  that  of  his  great  rivals, 
Reynolds  and  G-ainsborough,  but,  unfortunately,  posterity 
has  not,  as  in  their  cases,  seen  fit  to  confirm  the  flattering 
judgment  of  his  contemporaries.  "  Reynolds  and  Romney,'* 
writes  Lord  Thurlow,  "  divide  the  town.  I  am  of  the 
Romney  faction."  None  are  of  the  Romney  faction  now, 
and  even  the  real  cleverness  of  his  paintings  is  apt  to  be 
overlooked.  He  was  a  man  of  a  weak,  susceptible,  egotistic 
nature,  whose  faults  were  fostered  by  the  universal  flattery 
that  he  received,  especially  from  his  friend,  poet,  and  bio- 
grapher, Hayley,  who  was  also  the  friend  and  eulogist  of 
Cowper.  His  fitful  genius  would  not  submit  to  the  dry 
detail  of  work.  He  was  always  seeking  to  soar  to  heaven  by 
the  aid  of  fancy  alone,  but  his  works  somehow,  in  spite  of 
their  pretensions,  "  drop  groundwards,"  whilst  the  amiable, 
painstaking  Reynolds,  who  never  thought  about  his  genius, 
reached  the  heaven  which  Romney  attempted  to  scale. 

Romney  is  especially  famous  for  his  graceful  female 
heads. 

Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  (1769-1830)  succeeded  Sir  Joshua 
and  Romney  as  the  supremely  fashionable  portrait  painter 
of  his  age.  Wonderful  stories  are  told  of  his  precocious 
cleverness.  He  was  no  doubt  a  remarkable  child,  but  un- 
happily he  and  his  friends  mistook  his  early  facility  in 
taking  portraits  for  innate  genius,  and  considering  that 

'  [The  portraits  of  Komney  have  risen  very  greatly  in  public  estima- 
tion since  this  was  written.    See  concluding  note]. 


400  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

sucli  extraordinary  talents  needed  no  cultivation,  at  an  age 
when  most  young  artists  are  only  beginning  their  course  of 
study  he  was  launched  as  a  full-blown  portrait  painter  in 
Bath,  where  he  charged  a  guinea  and  a  guinea  and  a  half 
for  his  crayon  heads. 

Coming  up  to  London  in  1787,  he  was  admitted  a  student 
of  the  Royal  Academy,  where  his  remarkable  beauty  and 
his  facile  skill  created  such  a  sensation  that  the  students 
judged  that  "nothing  less  than  a  young  Raphael  had  sud- 
denly dropt  among  them." 

Nor  did  his  after  success  belie  his  flattering  reception  by 
the  London  world.  Never  was  painter  more  courted,  more 
flattered,  more  "  the  rage,"  than  the  inkeeper's  clever  son. 
Kings,  emperors,  and  popes  loaded  him  with  honours  and 
commissions,  and  fair  ladies  esteemed  themselves  happy  if 
only  they  were  allowed  to  simper  on  his  canvas.  But  in 
spite  of  his  unbounded  reputation  the  truth  remains  that 
this  dextereus  Sir  Thomas  was  by  no  means  a  heaven- 
inspired  genius,  but  only  a  clever  painter  of  Court  and 
fashion,  in  which  line  he  stands  perhaps  unrivalled. 

EicHARD  Wilson^  (1714-1782)  comes  next  in  date  to 
Hogarth  amongst  our  English  painters,  but  I  have  deferred 
speaking  of  him  until  after  the  great  triumvirate,  Hogarth, 
Reynolds,  and  G-ainsborough,  because  his  line  of  art  is  essen- 
tially different  from  theirs.  Not  even  with  G-ainsborough, 
who  likewise  made  landscape  his  study,  had  Wilson  the 
least  afiinity,  for  Wilson's  landscapes  were  not  painted  in 
the  misty  fields  of  England,  but  were  composed  under  the 
influence  of  Poussin,  Salvator  Rosa,  and  Claude.  He 
looked  at  nature,  it  is  true,  for  himself,  and  no  doubt 
imagined  that  he  was  faithfully  reproducing  what  he  saw 
before  him  ;  but  he  looked  at  her,  so  to  speak,  not  with  his 
own  untutored  eyes,  but  through  the  spectacles  with  which 
his  study  of  the  above-named  masters  had  provided  him, 
and  so  it  hai:)pened  that  he  could  only  perceive  in  nature 
the  truths  and  the  colours  that  he  had  before  learnt  to  see 
in  their  paintings. 

But  although  Wilson  has  not  contributed  one  truth  from 
his  own  unaided  observation  to  the  general  treasury,  we 
owe  him  some  gratitude  for  having  sacrificed  himself,  for  a 

\}  See  concluding  note,  p.  416.] 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  401 

sacrifice  it  truly  was,  to  that  long-neglected  branch  of  his 
art — landscape-painting.  He  began  life  as  a  portrait- 
painter,  and  achieved  some  success,  but  when  first  in  Italy 
he  was  moved  by  the  praises  of  Zuccarelli  and  Vemet  to 
devote  himself  to  landscape,  in  which  he  had  already  shown 
much  proficiency. 

But  landscape  painting  was  but  little  esteemed  at  that 
time  in  England.  The  general  taste  for  art  was  still  very 
low,  and  only  portrait  painting  was  in  any  sense  properly 
appreciated  and  rewarded.  At  all  events  Wilson's  land- 
scapes, although  admitted  to  be  the  best  that  his  country 
had  produced,  failed  to  please  the  popular  taste.  They 
would  not  sell,  and  the  painter  was  left  to  struggle  un- 
heeded with  poverty,  which  would  indeed  have  amounted 
to  absolute  want  had  he  not  obtained  the  small  post  of 
librarian  to  the  Royal  Academy,  by  means  of  which  he  just 
managed  to  maintain  himself.  Towards  the  close  of  his 
life  he  succeeded  to  a  small  property  in  Wales,  to  which  he 
retired  from  London,  where,  as  he  expressed  it,  he  had  found 
no  one  "  mad  enough  to  employ  a  landscape-painter." 

Such  was  the  experince  of  Richard  Wilson,  the  fore- 
runner of  Turner,  and  the  first  English  artist  who  ventured 
to  walk  in  what  has  since  become  a  national  and  well- 
trodden  path. 

A  few  foreign  artists  settled  in  England,  several  of 
whom  were  amongst  the  first  members  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  founded  as  before  mentioned  in  1768,  still  shared 
with  Englishmen  the  favour  and  patronage  of  the  public. 
Of  these  the  most  important  were  Giovanni  Cipriani,  an 
insipid  Italian  mannerist,  such  as  only  the  eighteenth 
century  could  have  produced,  and  Johann  Zopfany,  a 
German  of  considerable  ability  in  his  own  limited  path,  as 
is  evident  by  his  best-known  work,  the  Life  School  of  the 
Royal  Academy,  with  portraits  of  the  Academicians,  recently 
exhibited  in  the  Old  Masters  at  the  Royal  Academy ;  ^  and 

P  He  went  to  India  in  1783,  and  has  left  some  admirable  pictures  of 
Anglo-Indian  life,  such  as  Embassy  of  Hyder-Beck  to  Calcutta,  and  the 
Ti^er  Hunt,  well-known  by  en«;raving.  He  was  also  an  excellent 
painter  of  stage-scenes,  with  portraits  of  Garrick  and  other  celebrated 
actors  of  the  day.  Another  clever  painter  of  theatrical  portraits  was 
George  Clint,  the  engraver  11770-1854).] 

D  P 


402  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [eOOK   IX. 

the  mucli-extolled  Angelica  Kauffman,  the  "  fair  Angelica  " 
as  she  was  called,  who,  by  reason  of  her  womanhood,  her 
learning,  her  amiabihty,  and  the  interest  that  was  excited 
by  her  unfortunate  marriage,  attracted  a  far  larger  repu- 
tation than  was  really  her  due  as  an  artist.^  Francesco 
ZuccARELLi  and  Philip  de  Loutherbourg,  two  artificial 
painters  of  so-called  landscape,  were  more  successful  in 
hitting  the  popular  taste  than  poor  dreary  English  Wilson. 
Zuccarelli's  foolish  pastorals  were  especially  in  demand. 

If  great  aims  and  the  choice  of  great  themes  made  great 
painters,  then  the  next  group  of  English  artists  that 
claims  our  attention  might  truly  be  called  great,  but,  un- 
fortunately, most  of  these  artists  in  trying  to  fly  with  the 
mechanical  wings  of  an  Icarus,  dropt  like  that  unlucky 
hero  of  old,  into  the  sea,  whereas  they  might  probably,  had 
they  chosen  to  have  made  use  of  the  Hmbs  with  which 
nature  had  provided  them,  have  walked  safely  and  profit- 
ably on  common  ground.  But  they  were  all  deluded  by 
an  abstraction  that  they  called  "  High  Art."  They  had 
no  **  wondrous  patteme  "  of  divine  beauty  before  their 
eyes  like  the  ideal  painters  of  Italy ;  the  "  images  "  they 
beheld  were  of  this  earth,  and  exceedingly  common-place, 
but  none  the  less  they  strove  to  express  their  poor  little 
conceptions  in  the  lofty  language  of  the  great  masters,  a 
language  which  they  designated  as  high  art,  not  perceiving 
that  the  imitative  grandeur  of  the  language  only  served  to 
make  more  apparent  the  poorness  of  the  original  idea. 

Benjamin  West  (1738-1820),  the  successor  of  Sir 
Joshua  Eeynolds  in  the  presidency  of  the  Eoyal  Academy, 
was  an  American  by  birth,  and  a  Quaker  by  religion. 
Wonderful  stories  are  told  of  his  early  precocity;  "In- 
deed," says  a  biograj^her,  "had  he  been  a  greater  than 
Michael  Angelo,  more  mysterious  occurrences,  more  mys- 
tical warnings,  could  not  have  accumulated  around  him." 
In  truth,  it  would  seem,  that  here,  if  anywhere,  the  genius 

^  The  engravings  from  her  works  amount,  Wornum  tells  us,  to 
several  hundreds,  showing  her  vast  popularity  in  her  own  day,  whilst 
the  obscurity  into  which  these  engravings  have  fallen,  testify  to  the 
small  amount  of  value  set  upon  her  work  at  the  present  day.  [Again 
has  come  a  change  of  taste,  and  these  engravings  are  as  much  sought 
after  now  as  they  were  neglected  when  this  book  was  published.] 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  403 

must  have  been  inborn,  that  had  its  origin  amidst  a  society 
of  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  in  spite  of  the  original  adaptation  of  the 
cat's  tail  for  pur23oses  of  art,  this  young  Benjamin  had  no 
real  originality  of  mind. 

After  a  three  years'  study  in  Italy,  where  he  became 
imbued  with  the  traditions  of  Academic  art,  but  remained 
curiously  insensible  to  the  real  excellences,  especially  that 
of  colour,  of  the  old  masters,  he  came  to  England  in  1763, 
and  partly,  perhaps,  by  virtue  of  royal  patronage  (he  was 
George  the  Third's  favourite  painter),  soon  became  rich 
and  famous.  We  cannot  now  understand  the  enthusiasm 
that  his  tame  works  once  excited,  but  even  Leslie  tells  us 
that  when  he  first  came  to  London  he  thought  West  as 
great  a  painter  as  Eaphael. 

His  most  famous  picture,  however,  is  one  in  which  he 
deserted  for  once  the  path  of  high  art,  and  dared  to  repre- 
sent the  Death  of  Wolfe  as  a  scene  of  contemporary 
history,  with  the  figures  dressed  in  the  costume  of  the  day. 
Such  an  innovation  (for  hitherto  such  subjects  had  always 
been  set  forth  in  classical  guise  or  disguise),  called  forth 
much  criticism,  and  Barry  even  went  as  far  as  to  show  his 
contempt  for  this  modem  mode  of  treatment,  by  painting 
a  classical  death  of  Wolfe  with  no  costume  at  all. 

Unfortunately  he  did  not  follow  the  example  he  had  set, 
but  continued  to  paint  such  subjects  as  the  Departure  of 
Regulus  from  Rome,  The  Banishment  of  Cleombrotus, 
Orestes  and  Pylades,  Death  on  the  Pale  Horse,  and  high 
religious  themes,  of  his  feeble  rendering  of  which  we  have 
a  specimen  in  his  large  picture  of  Christ  Healing  the  Sick, 
in  the  National  .Gallery. 

An  artist  of  still  higher  aims  than  West  was  James 
Barry  (1741-1806),  the  son  of  a  coasting  trader  and  inn- 
keeper of  Cork.  Study  in  Italy,  for  which  his  countryman 
Burke  supplied  the  funds,  inspired  him  with  the  ambition 
to  revive  the  glory  of  classic  art,  and  mistaking  his  powers 
he  imagined  himself  fully  qualified  for  the  task.  On 
coming  to  London  in  1771,  he  exhibited  an  Adam  and  Eve, 
painted  whilst  in  Italy,  and  soon  after  a  Venus  rising  from 
the  Sea,  thus  by  his  subjects  at  once  entering  into  compe- 
tition with  the  greatest  masters.     But  although  elected  a 


404  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

member  of  the  Royal  Academy,  the  world  iii  general  failed 
to  recognize  his  self-asserted  genius,  and  he  was  left  almost 
to  starve  in  his  devotion  to  High  Art.  This  neglect  made 
him  bitter  in  spirit,  and  irritable  in  temper.  He  led  an 
unhappy,  quarrelsome  and  lonely  life,  but  a  noble  one  in  so 
far  that  he  never  for  the  sake  of  gain  deserted  the  high 
path  he  had  chosen.  He  was  supported  in  it,  doubtless, 
by  the  hope  of  future  fame,  but  even  that  poor  solace  has 
been  denied  to  him,  his  works  proving  to  us  even  more 
(dearly  than  to  his  contemporaries,  that  his  efforts  after 
grandeur  went  beyond  his  strength.  His  greatest  work, 
indeed  it  might  almost  be  said  his  only  work,  consists  of  a 
series  of  paintings  in  the  meeting  room  of  the  Society  of 
Arts  in  the  Adelphi,  setting  forth  in  six  classical  subjects, 
the  History  of  the  Civilization  of  Man.  Here  the  artist's 
lofty  aims,  classical  taste,  and  alas  !  weak  powers,  are  fully 
made  manifest. 

Henry  Fuseli  (1741-1825),  the  kindly-hearted,  but 
sharp-tongued  professor  of  painting  in  the  Eoyal  Academy, 
had  perhaps  more  originality  than  either  of  the  artists 
above-named,  but  his  genius  was  of  a  most  erratic  and  un- 
disciplined kind,  and  his  efforts  at  the  sublime  too  often 
resulted  in  the  ridiculous.  He  delighted  in  the  terrible  and 
the  weird  in  art,  but  his  weird  effects  remind  one  too  much 
of  the  sulphur  and  lime  lights  of  the  theatre  to  be  truly 
appalling.  Nevertheless,  he  had  a  decidedly  poetic  imagina- 
tion, and  had  he  been  content  with  less  ambitious  themes 
than  the  Bridging  of  Chaos,^  and  similar  subjects,  he 
might  have  left  us  many  pleasant  fanciful  pictures. 

James  Singleton  Copley  (1737-1815),  James  North- 
coTE  (1746-1831),  John  Opie  (1761-1807),  John  Hamil- 
TON  Mortimer  (1741-1779),   G-eorge  Henry   Harlow, 

^  The  Bridging  of  Chaos  was  one  of  the  subjects  of  the  Milton 
Gallery,  a  series  of  forty-eight  pictures  from  the  works  of  Milton,  all  by 
his  own  hand,  which  Fuseli  exhibited  to  an  unappreciative  public  in 
1800.  The  Boydell  Gallerj^,  promoted  by  Alderman  Bo^'dell  in  1786, 
was  an  exhibition  of  a  similar  kind,  only  Shakespeare  was  here  the  in- 
spiring poet.  Some  of  Fiiseli's  best  woi'ks  were  executed  for  this  cele- 
brated gallery,  to  which  West,  Barry,  Opie,  Northcote,  Romney,  Stot- 
hard,  and  many  oth-^rs  likewise  contributed.  The  engravings  from  this 
series  are  well  known,  but  the  works  themselves  are  scattered,  nor  is 
their  loss  much  to  be  regretted. 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND  405 

(1787-1819),  and  William  Hilton  (1786-1837),  all  devoted 
themselves  more  or  less  (several  made  money  by  portraiture 
as  well),  to  what  they  considered  historical  painting,  some- 
times, as  in  Copley's  Death  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  and 
The  Death  of  Major  Pierson,  representing  events  from  con- 
temporary English  history,  and  sometimes  choosing  scenes 
from  the  Bible,  the  poets,  and  the  history  of  past  times. 

David  Scott  of  Edinburgh  (1806-1849),  also  appren- 
ticed to  engraving,  was  largely  influenced  by  Blake's  works, 
and  was  successful  rather  as  a  designer  than  a  painter. 
Of  his  large  and  ambitious  paintings,  **  Vasco  di  Grama," 
his  latest  work,  now  at  Leith,  may  be  considered  as  the 
"  matured  expression  of  his  art." 

Benjamin  Robert  Hatdon  was  about  the  last  of  the 
self-constituted  martyrs  to  High  Art.  He  determined  that 
he  would  be  a  Raphael,  Titian  and  Michael  Angelo  in  one, 
"  or  die  in  the  trial,"  and  he  did  die  in  the  trial,  alas  !  by 
his  own  hand.  The  history  of  his  "  clamorous  frenzied  life, 
with  its  sound  and  fury,  its  strength  and  weakness,  its 
feverish  energy,  and  unsound  ambition,"  has  been  recorded 
up  to  its  last  hour  by  himself.  It  is  one  of  the  saddest  in 
the  annals  of  painting.^ 

In  contradistinction  to  Haydon  and  the  other  devotees 
to  High  Art,  stands  the  simple-minded  Scotchman,  David 
WiLKiE  (1785-1841),  who  at  the  outset  of  his  career, 
determined  "  to  work  hard,  because  he  was  not  a  genius." 

Wilkie  stands  next  after  Hogarth,  as  the  greatest  painter 
of  familiar  life  of  the  English  School ;  he  differs,  however, 
widely  from  the  great  moral  satirist,  not  only  in  the  class 
of  subjects  that  he  chose  for  representation,  but  likewise, 
in  the  emotions  that  his  art  calls  forth.  His  aim  is  not  so 
much  to  give  a  severe  warning  to  the  profligate,  to  hold  up 
vice  to  reprobation  and  folly  to  scorn,  as  it  is  to  claim  our 
compassion  for  the  unfortunate,  our  sympathy  in  the  joys 
and  sorrows  of  humble  life,  and  to  awaken  our  interest  in 

"  Things  we  have  passed 
Perhaps  a  hundred  times,  nor  cared  to  see." 

"Wilkie,"  says  Ruskin,  "becomes  popular  like  Scott, 

•  Autobiography  of  Robert  Haydon. 


406  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

because  he  tonclies  passions  which  all  feel  and  expresses 
truths  that  all  can  recognize."  His  pictures,  indeed,  ap- 
peal to  the  meanest  understandings,  and  have  no  need  of 
explanations  like  those  of  the  painters  above  mentioned, 
many  of  which  puzzle  the  unlearned  visitor  to  exhibitions 
exceedingly. 

Coming  up  to  London  when  he  was  scarcely  twenty  years 
of  age,  the  "  raw,  tall,  pale,  queer  Scotchman,"  as  Haydon 
called  him,  achieved  a  success  that  he  himself  described  as 
"  jest  wonderful,"  by  the  exhibition,  in  1806,  of  his  Village 
Politicians.  This  inimitable  work  was  speedily  followed  by 
the  Blind  Fiddler,  the  Eent-Day,  the  Village  Festival, 
Distraining  for  Rent,  the  Penny  Wedding,  Reading  the 
Will,  and  others  that  have  made  the  name  of  David  Wilkie 
a  household  word  in  many  homes. 

Late  in  his  career,  after  a  journey  to  Italy  and  Spain  (a 
journey  undertaken  in  search  of  health),  Wiikie  completely 
changed  his  style  of  painting,  and  instead  of  the  careful 
Dutch-like  execution  and  elaborate  finish  of  his  earlier 
time,  exhibited  works  remarkable  for  their  effective,  but 
slight  execution.  His  class  of  subjects  was  also  changed, 
and  instead  of  the  simple  scenes  of  humble  life  in  which  he 
formerly  took  delight,  we  find  him  choosing  the  more  am- 
bitious path  of  historical  painting.  In  this,  critics  mostly 
agree  that  he  was  unsuccessful,  but  the  pictures  that  he 
painted  in  this  latter  style  are  not  many. 

In  1840  he  undertook  a  journey  to  the  East,  with  the 
view,  it  would  seem,  of  painting  the  scenes  of  Scripture 
history  with  a  greater  truth  than  artists  had  hitherto 
thought  it  necessary  to  give,  but  he  died  at  sea  on  liis 
homeward  voyage,  before  realising  his  aim.^ 

William  Mulready  (1786-1863),  comes  next  after 
Wilkie  ^  in  his  natural  expression  of  the  scenes  of  familiar 
life,  but  he  deals  with  the  emotions  of  childhood  rather 
than  with  the  more  complex  passions  of  later  life.  His 
works  have  not  the  dramatic  force  of  Wilkie' s,  but  they 
are  especially  distinguished  by  their  excellent  drawing  (a 

^  His  burial  at  sea  forms  the  subject  of  a  fine  picture  by  Turner. 

[^  Some  other  ffenre  painters  seem  to  deserve  some  mention  here,  such 
as  Edward  Bird  (1762-1819).  Andrew  Geddes  (1789-1844)  and 
T.  S.  Good  (1789-1872).] 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  407 

quality  in  which  Wilkie  by  no  means  excelled)  and  harmo- 
nious coloiu".  Leslie,  Newton,  Egg,  and  many  other 
well-known  artists,  belong  to  a  large  class  of  genre  painters, 
that  chooses  its  subjects  rather  from  the  upper  than  the 
lower  grades  of  social  life,  and  especially  delights  to  illus- 
trate life  as  it  is  seen  reflected  in  the  pages  of  the  novel  or 
the  poem.  Even  when  dealing  with  history  these  painters 
still  treat  their  subject  in  a  genre-like  manner,  and  care 
little  for  the  classical  dignity  which  the  before  mentioned 
class  of  history  painters  strove  to  infuse  into  their  works. 
Like  the  Dutch  Terburg  these  artists  delight  in  rich  cos- 
tume and  splendid  accessories ;  but,  although  not  approach- 
ing the  Dutchman  in  execution,  their  works  are  seldom  so 
inane  and  trivial  as  his,  and  often  possess  a  strong  human 
interest,  as  is  apparent,  for  instance,  in  Egg's  Life  and 
Death  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  in  his  Past  and  Pre- 
sent, and  in  many  of  Leslie's  pleasant  illustrations  from 
Shakespeare,  Cervantes  and  Moliere. 

William  Etty  (1787-1849)  sought  to  rival  the  Vene- 
tians in  the  expression  of  sensuous  beauty.  "  Finding," 
he  says,  "  G-od's  most  glorious  work  to  be  woman,  that  all 
human  beauty  had  been  concentrated  in  her,  I  resolved  to 
dedicate  myself  to  painting,  not  the  draper's  or  milliner's 
work,  but  God's  most  glorious  work,  more  finely  than  had 
ever  been  done."  Whether  his  powers  were  equal  to  this 
task  is  a  question  upon  which  critics  disagree. 

Before  coming  to  the  greatest  name  in  the  annals  of 
English  painting,  it  will  be  well  to  note  the  rise  and  growth 
of  a  new  and  peculiarly  national  mode  of  painting.  "  In 
her  excellent  water-colour  painting,"  says  a  foreign  critic,^ 
"  England  has  reached  unsurpassable  perfection,"  and  yet 
the  earliest  artists  who  excelled  in  the  modern  use  of 
water-colour  do  not  date  back  further  than  the  middle  of 
the  past  century.  Water-colour  painting  had,  of  course, 
been  practised  long  before  this  time,  both  abroad  and  in 
England ;  indeed,  as  we  have  seen,  some  mode  of  water- 
colour  painting  was  known  and  used  by  missal  painters, 
and  miniaturists,  before  oil  painting  was  even  invented ; 
but  the  peculiar  beauty  and  enlargement  given  to  the  art 

*  Dr.  Liibke. 


408  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

in  England,  grew  not  so  much  out  of  the  methods  of  the 
early  illuminators,  as  out  of  the  humbler  work  of  the  topo- 
grapher, which  was  often  tinted  with  transparent  washes, 
to  indicate  local  colour. 

Our  first  water-colour  artists  were  in  truth  simple  topo- 
graphers, and  it  was  not  until  John  Cozens  (1752-1799) 
and  Thomas  G-irtin  (1775-1802)  elevated  the  art  bv  their 
more  picturesque  and  poetical  treatment  of  landscape,  that 
its  capabilities  were  fully  seen. 

Grirtin  was  the  worthy  forerunner  of  Turner  in  landscape 
art,  and  his  works  well  mark  the  progress  of  water-colour 
from  its  simple  and  useful  application  by  the  topographer 
to  its  noble  development  in  the  works  of  Turner. 

Joseph  Malloed  William  Turner  (1775-1851)  was 
the  son  of  a  hairdresser  and  barber,  of  Maiden  Lane, 
Covent  G-arden,  and  his  first  works  were  exhibited,  it  is 
said,  in  company  with  the  barbers'  blocks  that  decorated 
his  father's  shop- window.  His  love  of  nature,  in  spite  of 
his  birth  and  growth  in  the  very  heart  of  London,  must 
have  been  early  developed,  for  as  soon  as  he  was  old 
enough  to  be  trusted  out  alone  he  appears  to  have 
wandered  forth  into  the  country,  or  along  the  banks  of  his 
favourite  Thames,  noting  with  observant  mind  and  open 
sketch-book  the  varied  aspects  of  the  scenes  he  passed. 
At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  admitted  as  a  student  of  the 
Eoyal  Academy,  but  his  chief  employment  for  some  time 
was  in  washing  in  backgrounds  for  architects,  and  making 
topographical  drawings  for  engravers.  For  the  latter  pur- 
pose he  travelled,  we  are  told,  over  all  England,  "mostly 
on  foot,  twenty  to  twenty-five  miles  a  day,  with  his  bag- 
gage tied  up  in  a  handkerchief,  and  swinging  on  the  end 
of  his  stick." 

His  greatest  friend  at  this  time  was  Thomas  Girtin,  from 
whom,  probably,  he  acquired  his  knowledge  of  water- 
''' colours,  and  that  predilection  for  their  use  that  he  ever 
afterwards  retained.^  Almost  all  his  early  sketches  are  in 
water-colour,  and  even  in  his  later  oil-paintings  we  find 
him  constantly  endeavouring  to  produce  the  same  delicate 
effects  in  oil  as  those  he  had  obtained  in  the  more  trans- 

[^  It  is  impossible  to  say  from  whom  Turner  learnt  to  use  water* 
colours,  but  he  could  do  so  probably  long  before  he  met  Girtin.] 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  409 

parent  medium.  By  Girtin,  Turner  was  introduced  to  Dr. 
Munro,  of  the  Adelphi,  who  employed  both  the  young 
artists  to  sketch  for  him  at  the  price,  it  is  recorded,  of 
half-a-crown  and  their  supper  for  an  evening's  work. 

In  1799  Turner  was  elected  an  associate  of  the  Academy, 
and  in  1802  a  full  academician,  facts  that  go  far  to  prove 
that  even  if  "  Great  England  of  the  iron  heart"  remained, 
as  Ruskin  asserts,  for  a  long  time  unmindful  of  the 
greatest  of  her  painters,  his  genius  was  at  least  recognized 
by  his  brother  artists. 

In  his  early  style  Turner  no  doubt  adopted  much  from 
Wilson  and  Claude,  indeed,  he  often  seems  to  have  painted 
in  direct  rivalry  with  these  masters,^  but  his  originality  was 
too  intense  for  any  but  conscious  imitation,  and,  although 
he  availed  himself  of  the  results  of  the  labours  of  preceding 
artists,  he  nevertheless,  from  his  earliest  youth,  received 
his  sole  inspiration  from  nature.  "  None  before  Turner," 
writes  Turner's  great  expounder,  "had  lifted  the  veil  from 
the  face  of  nature ;  the  majesty  of  the  hills  and  forests  had 
received  no  interpretation,  and  the  clouds  passed  unre- 
corded from  the  face  of  the  heaven  they  adorned,  and  the 
earth  to  which  they  ministered." 

And  yet  his  art  did  not  lie  in  the  literal  transcription  of 
nature.  His  was  not  the  skill  to  count  the  blades  of 
grass,  and  reproduce,  without  variation,  the  exact  aspect  of 
the  scene  before  him.  No!  Every  scene  that  he  has 
represented  is  bathed,  so  to  speak,  in  the  mystic  poetry  of 
his  own  imagination.  He  painted  his  portrait  of  the  earth 
not  merely  as  it  appeared  to  him  at  any  one  given  moment, 
but  with  a  true  comprehension  of  all  its  past  history,  of 
the  earthquakes  that  had  shaken  it,  the  storm-winds  that 
had  swept  over  it,  and  the  loveliness  that  still  clung  to  it. 
He  has  revealed  to  us  this  loveliness  in  all  its  varying 
aspects — in  its  joy  and  in  its  sadness,  in  its  brightness  and 
its  gloom,  in  its  pensive  mood  and  in  its  fierce  madness,  ih 
its  love  and  in  its  hate,  but  the  portrait,  although  true  in 
the  highest  sense,  is  never  directly  copied  from  nature,' 

^  As,  for  instance,  in  the  two  famous  pictures  that  he  directed  should 
be  hung  between  the  two  Claudes  in  the  National  Gallery. 

'  "  Although  he  made  hundreds  of  studies  from  nature,"  says  Red- 
grave, '*  he  never  seems  to  have  painted  a  picture  out  of  doors." 


410  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

for  he  painted,  like  Raphael  and  all  great  idealists,  from 
an  image  or  ideal  in  his  own  mind.  But  this  ideal  was 
founded  on  the  closest  observation  and  study  of  the  real. 
Before  1800,  that  is  to  say,  before  he  was  five-and-twenty, 
the  subjects  of  his  exhibited  works  alone  ranged  over 
twenty-six  counties  of  England  and  Wales,^  showing  how 
much  he  must  have  travelled  and  the  constant  communion 
that  he  held  with  nature. 

The  Fifth  Plague  of  Egypt,  a  work  in  subject  and 
treatment  strongly  reminiscent  of  Wilson,  was  exhibited  by 
Turner  in  1800.^  This  was  quickly  followed  by  Calais 
Pier,  the  Garden  of  Hesperides,  and  the  grand  picture  of 
Jason,^  which  may  be  taken  as  the  finest  example  of  his 
first  style,  or,  as  Ruskin  calls  it,  his  student  time.* 

In  1815  this  early  style  culminated  in  the  well-known 
pictures.  Crossing  the  Brook,  and  Dido  Building  Carthage, 
and  from  this  time  until  1835  he  worked  in  what  is  called 
his  second  style,  pouring  forth  such  visions  of  earth's 
beauty  as  the  Bay  of  Baiae,  the  Ulysses  and  Polyphemus, 
Palestrina,  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage,  and  the  Golden 
Bough. 

To  his  third  style  or  period,  extending  from  1835  to 
1845,  and  distinguished,  according  to  Euskin,  by  *'  swift- 
ness of  handling,  tenderness  and  pensiveness  of  mind, 
exquisite  harmony  of  colour,  and  perpetual  reference  to 
nature  only,  issuing  in  the  rejection  of  precedents  and 
idealism,"  belong  the  magnificent  Phryne,  Ancient  and 
Modern  Italy,  and  above  all,  the  glorious  Fighting  Teme- 
raire,  but  still  it  must  be  admitted  that  several  of  the 
more  mystic  works  of  this  period  are  sufiiciently  impalpable 
to  give  rise  to  the  criticism  that  regards  them  simply  as 
the  evidences  of  a  noble  mind  o'erthrown.^ 

^  Eedgrave,  "  Century  of  English  Painters." 

^  His  first  exhibited  oil-painting  was  the  small  picture  of  Moonlight, 
a  studj  at  Millbank,  now  in  the  National  Collection,  which  was  sent  to 
the  Academy  in  1797.  Before  this  all  his  woi'ks  seem  to  have  been  in 
water-colour. 

^  Exhibited  at  the  British  Institution  in  1808. 

*  See  Buskin's  remarks  on  the  "  Jason  "  of  the  Liber  Studiorum,  a 
"  reminiscence"  of  this  picture.     "  Modern  Painters,"  vol.  ii.  p.  164. 

*  "  Je  ne  veiix  pas  chercher,"  says  Viardot,  "  d'autre  preuve  de  I'etat 
d'insanite  ou  11  a  termini  sa  vie."     Aytoun  also  remarks,  "  Far  be  it 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  411 

In  his  life  and  his  art  alike  Turner  remains  a  mystery.. 
His  greatness  and  his  littleness,  his  strength  and  his 
weakness,  constantly  perplex  us  by  their  contradictions. 
Even  his  very  speech  was  enigmatical,  and  his  lectures  and 
instructions  to  students  at  the  Academy  were  so  obscure 
as  to  be  unintelligible  to  most.  "  Rare  advice  it  was," 
says  Redgrave,  "  if  you  could  unriddle  it,  but  so  myste- 
riously given  or  expressed  that  it  was  hard  to  com- 
prehend." 

His  life  was  singularly  uneventful,  being  passed  wholly 
in  pursuit  of  his  art.  Solitary  and  self  concentred,  he 
dwelt  like  Rembrandt  apart  from  men,  in  the  world  of  his 
own  creations.  Death  found  him  at  last,  an  old  man  of 
seventy-six,  under  an  assumed  name,  in  a  small  lodging 
overlooking  the  river  he  had  loved  and  studied  from 
childhood. 

He  was  buried,  by  his  own  desire,  in  the  crypt  of  St. 
Paul's,  by  the  side  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  but  the  noblest 
monument  raised  to  his  memory,  is  the  five  volumes  of 
Modem  Painters,  the  author  of  which  tells  us  that  he  has 
"given  fifteen  years  of  his  life  to  ascertain  that  this 
Turner,  of  whom  you  have  known  so  little,  will  one  day 
take  his  place  beside  Shakespeare  and  Yerulam,  in  the 
annals  of  the  light  of  England." 

With  the  name  of  Turner,  this  slight  outline  of  the 
history  of  English  painting  may  fitly  end,  for  space  will 
not  permit  of  more  than  the  mention  of  the  simple  un- 
affected art  of  John  Constable  (1776-1837),  the  rustic 
life  depicted  by  William  Collins  (1788-1847),  the  verdure 
of  Thomas  Creswick  (1811-1869),  and  the  magnificent 
and  truthful  sea  painting  of  William  Clarkson  Stan- 
field  (1793-1867),  "the  leader  of  English  realists."  All 
these  painters  have  achieved  a  noble  success  in  the  long- 

from  me  to  decry  eccentricity ;  but  really,  when  a  gentleman  has  spread 
the  scrapings  of  his  palette  upon  a  milled  board,  and  deliberately  sat 
down  upon  it,  it  is  rather  a  cool  thing  to  send  it,  without  any  further 
preparation,  to  a  gallery  of  art,  under  the  title  of  '  Neapolitan  Girls 
siartled — Bathing  by  Moonlight.' "  Such  is  a  specimen  of  the  criticism 
ti)  which  Turner  is  frequently  subjected  by  less  enthusiastic  critics  than 
Jolin  Kuskin.  He  did  not  paint  to  be  understood  by  everybody  ;  indeed, 
judging  from  an  anecdote  related  of  him,  he  was  offended  if  told  that  any 
one  UDderstood  his  meaning. 


412  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

deserted  patli  of  landscape,  and  by  their  faithful  study, 
and  truthful  representation  of  nature  have  done  much  to 
destroy  that  false  taste  in  art  so  long  prevalent  in  England, 
which  preferred  pseudo-classic  "compositions"  to  the  honest 
expression  of  the  truths  of  nature. 

The  English  school  is  now  generally  acknowledged  to 
stand  pre-eminent  in  landscape  amongst  all  the  various 
schools  of  painting  of  the  present  day,  nor  need  it  fear  any 
decline,  whilst  it  can  still  produce  such  landscapes  as  many 
of  those  which  have  adorned  the  walls  of  the  Royal  Academy 
during  the  last  few  years.^ 

In  animal  painting  also,  under  the  veteran.  Sir  Edwin 
Landseer,'^  one  of  the  few  of  our  English  painters  who 
have  attained  European  celebrity,  the  English  school  takes 
the  lead. 

Domestic  genre,  as  it  may  be  called,  is,  however,  the 
prevailing  style  of  English  painting  at  the  present  day, 
and  it  cannot  much  be  wondered  at,  that  foreign  critics 
laugh  and  sneer  at  the  enormous  number  of  English 
artists,  who  draw  their  inspiration  solely  from  the  wells  of 
home  life,  and  represent  sentimental  lovers,  pretty  children 
and  happy  mothers  in  unending  sameness.  A  more  ideal 
style  has,  nevertheless,  lately  been  manifest  in  some  of  our 
greatest  painters,  and  whilst  we  still  have  such  men  as 
ilolman  Hunt,  Frederick  Leighton,^  John  Everett  Millais,* 
Dante  G-abriel  Eossetti,*  Frederick  Watts,  Philip  Calderon, 
F.  A.  Walker,^  and  James  Sant,  working  in  their  full 
strength  amongst  us,  there  is  no  need  to  fear  that  English 
painting  is  falling  into  decadence;  on  the  contrary,  we 
may  justly  hope  from  the  fresh  energy  that  it  has  recently 
put  forth,  that  a  nobler  and  fuller  development  awaits  it 
in  the  future. 

\}  This  is  still  more  true  now  (1888)  than  when  it  was  written.] 
[2  Died  1873.]  [  ^  Now  Sir  Frederick  Leighton,  Bart.] 

[*  Now  Sir  John  Everett  Millais,  Bart.]  [»  Died  1882.] 

f  Died  1875.] 


BOOK   IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  413 


CONCLUDING    NOTE. 

I  HAVE  thought  it  better  to  leave  this  short  summary 
of  the  history  of  the  English  School  with  little  altera- 
tion or  addition.  It  reflects  faithfully  the  author's  views 
as  to  the  painting  of  her  own  country,  and  also  represents 
the  relative  importance  which  the  English  School  bore  in 
public  estimation  to  those  of  other  countries,  at  the  time 
this  concise  history  was  first  published.  It  is  only  fifteen 
years  ago ;  but  since  then  the  School  as  a  whole  has  greatly 
increased  in  importance,  its  history  has  been  more  care- 
fully studied,  the  merits  of  its  different  artists  more  exactly 
examined,  and  in  many  cases  old  verdicts  have  been 
reversed.  How  this  has  all  been  brought  about  would 
take  too  long  to  tell ;  but  perhaps  the  main  source  of  our 
changes  of  opinion  has  been  the  more  frequent  opportunity 
of  studying  the  works  of  English  painters  which  has 
been  afforded  by  large  collections  of  pictures  lent  by  private 
owners. 

The  Winter  Exhibitions  at  the  Royal  Academy  and  the 
Orosvenor  Gallery,  and  the  local  exhibitions  at  Liverpool, 
Manchester,  Birmingham,  and  other  places,  sometimes  de- 
voted to  the  work  of  a  single  artist,  have  borne  fruitful 
results.  So  it  has  happened  that  some  painters  have  at- 
tracted attention  who  are  not  mentioned  in  this  book,  al- 
though not  aUve  when  it  was  published ;  and  others  have 
assumed  a  far  greater  importance  in  the  history  of  British 
art.  A  few  words  about  these  artists,  and  a  few  more 
about  others  who  have  died  since  1873,  are  necessary  to 
-complete  this  sketch  of  the  History  of  Painting  in  England. 
It  will  be  most  convenient  to  take  them  according  to 
■class.  First,  then,  of  the  portrait  painters,  Sir  Hknry 
Raeburn  (1756-1823)  owed  his  comparative  neglect  since 


414  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IX. 

his  death  to  the  fact  that  his  works  had  been  little  seen 
in  England,  for  he  lived  in  Edinburgh,  where  he  held 
much  the  same  position  as  Eeynolds  in  England,  and  his 
portraits  are  rare  on  this  side  of  the  Tweed.  In  his  day, 
however,  he  received  due  honour  from  English  artists. 
Reynolds  befriended  him.  He  was  a  constant  exhibitor  for 
many  years  at  the  Eoyal  Academy,  and  was  elected  an 
Associate  in  1813,  and  a  full  member  of  the  Academy  in 
1814.  He  was  knighted  by  Greorge  IV.  on  his  visit  to 
Edinburgh  in  1822,  and  afterwards  appointed  His  Majesty's 
Limner  for  Scotland.  In  1812  he  was  elected  President  of 
the  Society  of  Artists  in  Edinburgh.  The  characteristics 
of  his  art  are  the  strength  with  which  he  represented  the 
individuality  of  his  sitter,  and  his  broad,  masterly  handling. 
He  is  one  of  the  few  British  artists  represented  in  the 
Louvre,  and  a  fine  full-length  portrait  by  him  has  recently 
been  added  to  the  National  Gallery. 

It  was  not  till  the  large  collection  of  his  works  at  Derby 
in  1883  that  the  full  scope  of  the  art  of  Joseph  Wright, 
of  Derby  (1734-1797),  could  be  studied  by  the  present 
generation.  He,  too,  as  Raebum,  has  suffered  from  the 
confinement  of  his  works  to  the  region  of  their  production 
— in  and  about  his  native  town  of  Derby.  He  was,  how- 
ever, better  known  in  London  than  Eaebum  was,  on 
account  of  the  number  of  fine  mezzotint  engravings  by 
Valentine  G-reen,  W.  Pether,  J.  Raphael  Smith,  and  others 
v/hich,  popular  in  their  day,  still  linger  on  the  walls  of 
many  a  house  throughout  the  country.  His  large  portrait 
groups  seen  by  strong  artificial  light  are  the  most  powerful 
and  individual  of  his  works.  Perhaps  the  finest  of  all — 
A  Philosopher  Giving  a  Lecture  on  the  Air  Pump — is  in 
the  National  Gallery ;  but  of  similar  merit  are  The  Orrery 
and  The  Gladiator,  while  the  pathetic  picture  of  The  Dead 
Soldier,  engraved  in  line  by  J.  Heath,  was  perhaps  the 
most  popular  of  all.  The  Exhibition  at  Nottingham  showed 
that  he  deserved  a  higher  place  among  the  portrait  painters 
of  England  than  had  hitherto  been  allowed  to  him,  that 
his  groups  of  children  were  charmingly  natural,  his  repre- 
sentations of  men  and  women  characteristic  and  thought- 
ful, and  that  in  what  may  be  called  poetical  portraiture  few 
works  of  his  time  were  more  graceful  than  his  Edwin  (from 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  415 

Beattie's  "  Minstrel  ")  and  Maria  (from  Sterne).  In  his 
day  he  was  also  celebrated  as  a  landscape  painter,  espe- 
cially for  scenes  with  fireworks  and  conflagrations;  but, 
though  an  able  and  an  original  landscape  painter,  his 
reputation  in  this  line  has  not  been  sustained  at  its 
original  level.  There  are  two  or  three  portraits  by  Joseph 
Wright  in  the  National  Portrait  G-allery,  including  a 
singularly  fine  one  of  himself. 

Of  other  portrait  painters  of  what  may  now  be  called 
the  Old  School  the  names  of  John  Jackson  (1778-1831), 
John  Hoppner  (1759-1810),  Oeorge  Henry  Harlow 
(1787-1819),  and  Sir  William  Beechey  (1753-1839),  are 
perhaps  the  most  celebrated.  The  reputation  of  Hoppner, 
the  rival  of  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  has  much  increased 
within  the  last  few  years  ;  and  among  the  many  beautiful 
miniature  painters  of  the  last  and  present  century,  the 
exquisite  works  of  Richard  Cosway  (1740-1821)  are 
specially  prized. 

Portrait  painting  as  an  art  has  latterly  so  much  advanced 
in  general  estimation,  and  has  been  practised  with  such  re- 
markable power  by  artists  like  Watts,  Millais,  Ouless, 
Holl,  Herkomer,  and  other  living  painters,  that  the  por- 
traitists of  the  previous  generation  appear  to  us  to  com- 
pare unfavourably  with  both  their  predecessors  and  suc- 
cessors ;  but  the  names  of  H.  W.  Pickersgill  (1782-1875), 
of  A.  E.  Chalon  (1781-1860),  and  of  Sir  William 
BoxALL  (1800-1879)  at  least  deserve  to  be  recorded  here. 

In  the  English  School,  since  the  days  of  G-ainsborough, 
there  has  always  existed  a  class  of  rustic  genre  in  which 
English  country  and  English  country  life  has  been  de- 
picted—  sometiriies  prettily  and  sentimentally,  as  by 
Wheatley ;  sometimes  unaffectedly,  as  by  George  Mor- 
LAND  (1763-1804).  Notwithstanding  the  many  artists 
who  since  his  time  have  followed  in  his  footsteps,  he  may 
still  be  considered  as  the  master  of  this  genre;  and  his 
reputation,  though  somewhat  obscured  by  the  quantity  of 
loose  and  mannered  work  which  he  produced  in  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  when  he  became  the  victim  of  low  dissipa- 
tion, has  risen  to,  if  not  above,  the  level  which  it  reached 
in  his  life.  This  restoration  of  his  character  as  a  painter 
has  been  due  to  the  loan  exhibitions  which  have  disinterred 


416  HISTOKY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

from  private  houses  many  paintings  done  by  him  when  in 
the  full  possession  of  his  wonderful  powers.  His  works 
are  now  sought  after  for  their  fine  colour  and  masterly 
execution,  which  in  some  respects  have  not  been  excelled  or 
even  equalled  by  Teniers  and  other  masters  of  the  Dutch 
School,  on  which  his  art  was  founded.  In  the  unsophisti- 
cated portraiture  of  animals  of  the  farmyard,  horses,  pigs, 
sheep,  dogs,  rabbits,  &c.,  he  stands  in  the  first  rank ;  and 
his  farm  labourers,  his  cottagers,  and  their  wives,  daughters, 
and  children,  if  not  refined,  are  depicted  with  a  truth  that 
is  unimpeachable.  But  in  his  early  work  refinement  also 
is  seen,  not  only  in  execution,  but  in  feeling ;  and,  with  the 
exception  of  Hogarth,  perhaps  no  one  has  conceived  and 
told  a  story  in  a  series  of  pictures  better  than  Morland  has 
done  in  his  "progress"  of  Lsetitia,  well  known  by  the 
engravings  of  T.  Richmond.  The  pictui'es  were  exhibited 
at  the  Eoyal  Academy  in  the  winter  of  1881.  The 
influence  of  Morland  is  plainly  to  be  seen  in  the  pictures 
of  his  brother-in-law,  James  Ward  (1769-1859),  the  most 
robust  and  natural  of  our  animal  paiaters,  and  also  a 
landscape  painter  of  great  force  and  originality.  Both 
these  painters  were  finer  colourists  than  Landseer,  and 
their  art  was  more  simple,  their  animals  more  unsophisti- 
cated ;  but  in  elegance  and  humour  in  beauty  of  composi- 
tion, and  poetry  of  sentiment,  and  in  certain  dexterities  of 
handling,  they  fall  far  below  him.  This  unique  artist 
stands  in  a  class  by  himself  as  the  great  illustrator  of  the 
sympathy  between  the  brute  creation  and  humanity — now 
as  a  humorist  painting  some  canine  comedy,  now  as  a 
poet  showing  the  affinity  between  the  natures  and  fates  of 
animals  and  men  ;  but  his  works  are  too  well  known  to 
need  mention,  and  his  genius  too  great  to  do  justice  to  it 
here. 

It  is  the  pure  landscape  painters  of  England  in  whose 
favour  time  tells  most  clearly.  It  is  now  generally  recog- 
nized that  in  this  branch  of  art,  at  least,  the  English 
School  may  claim  to  lead  the  way  in  modem  art,  and  to 
have  founded  a  school  purely  native,  and  original  in  feeling 
and  in  colour.  Moreover,  the  great  share  in  which  the 
long-despised  water-colour  artists  have  had  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  school  is  beginning  to  be  estimated  at  its  true 


1300K   IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  417 

value.  The  school  began  with  Gainsborough  and  Wilson, 
and  owes  much  to  both.  Gainsborough's  art  was  founded 
on  the  Dutch  School ;  Wilson's  on  that  of  Claude.  Gains- 
borough developed  a  style  of  his  own,  and  was  the  first  to 
paint  lEnglish  scenery  and  English  rusticity  from  a  purely 
English  and  familiar  point  of  view ;  the  love  of  his  country 
and  of  his  county,  the  affection  for  home  and  its  surround- 
ings, were  exhibited  in  his  art  for  the  first  time,  and  this 
with  a  fine  sense  of  those  natural  beauties  which  affected 
him  most,  and  with  a  gentle  sentiment  which  was  pecu- 
liarly his  own.  These  virtues,  unappreciated  in  his  day, 
act  forcibly  in  his  favour  now.  On  the  other  hand,  what 
success  Wilson  had  in  his  day  (and  that  was  little),  was 
probably  due  in  great  measure  to  the  style  that  he  brought 
with  him  from  Italy,  and  his  regard  for  those  conventions 
which  were  then  considered  essential  to  raise  landscape  to 
the  level  of  fine  art.  As  time  went  on  these  conventions 
were  discredited,  and  he  was  looked  upon  as  little  better 
than  a  second-rate  imitator  of  Claude.  Now,  however,  the 
tables  are  turned  again ;  and  looking  upon  Wilson's  pic- 
tures with  eyes  that  have  seen  Claude  and  Cuyp  and  Gains- 
borough and  Turner,  Constable  and  Rousseau,  we  see  that 
Wilson  was  a  great  and  individual  artist.  We  admire  not 
only  his  skill  in  composition,  and  his  wonderful  painting 
of  atmosphere,  but  we  see  that  he  studied  nature  for  him- 
self, not  only  in  Italy,  but  in  England,  and  that  in  his 
finest  pictures — like  A  View  Between  Dolgelly  and  Bar- 
mouth (No.  94  in  the  Grosvenor  Gallery  Winter  Exhibition 
of  1888) — there  is  a  combination  of  fine  style,  fine  colour, 
poetical  feeling,  and  true  personal  observation  of  nature 
which  is  rare,  not  only  in  English  art,  but  in  the  art  of  the 
world. 

Wilson  has  always  been  appreciated  by  English  artists, 
and  despite  his  "  foreign "  style  and  his  adherence  to 
"  classical  convention  "  has  exercised  an  influence  on  all 
the  great  painters  of  the  purely  modem  and  English 
School  of  landscape  ;  on  the  water-colourists,  as  well  as 
the  oil  painters,  on  Paul  Sandby  and  Cozens,  on  Turner  and 
Constable,  on  George  Barret,  junior,  and  Henry  Dawson. 
No  greater  testimony  to  the  real  inherent  sound  and  great 
principles  of  his  art  could  be   adduced  than  this.     All 

£  £ 


418  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK    IX. 

fashions  of  a  period,  and  all  mannerisms  of  an  artist, 
thoiigh  they  may  obscure  a  fame  for  a  time  are  practically 
powerless  against  the  ultimate  reputation  of  a  great  artist. 
But  all  this  does  not  make  Wilson  a  "  modem ; "  he  be- 
longed in  heart  to  the  old  scenic  school.  The  first  full  note 
of  the  modem  familiar  school  was  struck  by  Constable, 
and  failed  almost  to  raise  an  echo,  at  least  for  a  time. 
But  almost  simultaneously  in  London  and  Norwich, 
there  arose  men  who  devoted  themselves  to  paint  England 
as  they  saw  it,  and  with  the  sentiment  it  naturally  inspired 
in  their  minds,  dispensing  more  or  less  with  preconceived 
ideals  of  landscape  and  traditional  formulcB  for  the  re- 
presentation of  natural  objects  and  effects.  It  was  in 
effect  a  revolution,  but  in  action  a  growth  of  new  ideas, 
seeding  naturally  anywhere  and  everywhere,  and  gradually 
supplanting  the  old.  Of  this  revolution  the  two  greatest 
spirits  were  undoubtedly  Turner  and  Constable.  The 
subject  of  Turner's  genius  is  too  great  to  enter  upon  in 
this  concluding  note,  especially  as  some  space  has  already 
been  devoted  to  it  in  the  original  work.  Of  John 
Constable  (1776-1837)  something  has  been  said  in  con- 
nection with  the  French  School  (see  page  380)  ;  but  a  few 
more  words  seem  necessary  to  give  him  his  due  impor- 
tance in  the  English  School — an  importance  which  had 
not  been  so  generally  recognised  when  this  book  was  first 
published. 

What  he  wanted  to  express  was  nothing  extraordinary, 
it  was  what  everybody  else  felt  more  or  less  who  loved 
"  the  country,"  but  no  other  painter  had  ever  expressed  it, 
and  he  had  to  invent  an  entirely  new  pictorial  vocabulary 
to  do  it.  As  I  have  written  elsewhere,^  if  his  genius  was 
nan-ow  it  was  eminently  sincere  and  original.  He  was  the 
first  to  paint  the  greenness  and  moisture  of  his  native 
country,  the  first  to  paint  the  noon  sunshine  with  its 
white  light  pouring  down  through  the  leaves,  and  spark- 
ling in  the  foliage  and  the  grass,  the  first  to  paint  truly 
the  sunshot  clouds  of  a  showery  sky,  and  to  represent  faith- 
fully the  colours  of  an  English  summer  landscape.  He 
was  the  founder  of  a  new  school  of  faithful  landscape,  and 

^  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  419 

though  he  was  neglected  by  his  countrymen  during  his 
life,  his  effect  upon  landscape  painting  in  England  has 
been  more  extensive  than  that  even  of  the  far  more  extra- 
ordinary and  comprehensive  genius  of  Turner.  He  was 
a  man  of  one  idea,  perhaps,  but  that  idea  was  a  great  and 
simple  one.  He  desired  to  be  natural,  and  he  was  success- 
ful, as  no  one  else  has  been,  in  throwing  off  all  tradition 
and  starting  afresh.  In  setting  this  example  he  has  been 
of  incalculable  service  to  modem  art,  especially  as  he  did 
not  make  the  mistake  of  neglecting  or  despising  the  work 
of  his  precursors  or  his  contemporaries,  for  no  man  studied 
more  carefully,  or  admired  more  heartily  throughout  his 
life  the  works  of  such  different  men  as  Claude  and 
Ruysdael,  Turner  and  Girtin. 

At  the  same  time  as  Grainsborough  was  painting  in 
Suffolk  and  at  Hampstead,  John  Crome  (1768-1821) 
was  founding  another  school  of  landscape  at  Norwich,  a 
small  and  short-lived  school — ^based  mainly  upon  Dutch 
art  in  method,  but  thoroughly  English  in  feeling.  If  he 
had  not  the  complete  originality  of  Constable,  and  did  not 
greatly  extend  the  scope  of  landscape,  Crome  used  his  own 
eyes,  and  expressed  his  own  love  of  his  local  scenery.  Thus 
his  art  was  manly  and  unaffected,  purely  personal  and 
national,  and  penetrated  with  feeling  for  the  beauty  which 
he  saw  in  the  nature  around  him.  A  fine  colourist  and 
painter  of  light  and  air,  and  with  the  exception  of  figures, 
an  excellent  draughtsman  of  all  natural  objects,  especially 
of  trees,  he  deserves  a  place  beside  G-ainsborough  and 
Constable  in  the  history  of  purely  English  landscape. 

Of  his  pupils  the  most  notable  were  James  Stark 
(1794-1859)  and  G-eorge  Vincent.  Of  Vincent  little  is 
known  except  that  he  exhibited  at  Norwich  and  London 
between  1811  and  1830,  when  he  disappeared.  Both  were 
accomplished  painters,  but  the  latter  was  the  more  original. 
His  picture  of  Greenwich  Hospital  may  be  said  to  be 
famous,  and  as  Messrs.  Redgrave  say,  **  he  had  powers 
which  show  he  might  have  rivalled  the  great  landscape 
painters  of  the  day." 

But  next  to  Crome,  John  Sell  Cotman  (1782-1842)  is 
the  greatest  name  in  the  Norwich  School,  though  his  time 
was  80  occupied  in  etching  architectural  plates  and   in 


420  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING  [bOOK    IX 

teaching,  tliat  lie  executed  few  works  in  oil,  and  never 
attained  to  a  great  position  as  a  painter.  Now,  however, 
his  pictures  and  drawings  are  much  esteemed  for  their 
broad  treatment  and  fine  colour.  Though  reckoned 
a,mongst  the  Norwich  School,  his  style  has  more  affinity  to 
those  of  G-irtin  and  Turner  than  to  that  of  Crome,  and 
though  he  painted  some  fine  pictures  in  oil,  he  is  more 
generally  known  as  a  painter  in  water-colour. 

The  water-colour  painters  who  are  but  mentioned  in  this 
history  are  now  regarded  not  only  as  the  founders  of  a 
perfectly  national  and  original  kind  of  painting,  but  as 
artists  who  have  had  a  very  large  share  in  the  formation 
of  the  English  school  of  painting,  especially  in  landscape. 
Turner  himself,  great  as  an  oil-painter,  is  considered  by 
many  as  a  still  greater  master  of  water-colour,  and  in  the 
winters  of  1886  and  1887  rooms  were  specially  set  apart 
at  the  Winter  Exhibitions  of  the  Eoyal  Academy  for  the 
water-colour  drawings  of  himself  alone.  The  school  of 
landscape  in  water-colour  began  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  the  first  artist  of  much  importance,  with  the  exception 
of  miniature  painters,  who  used  this  medium  was  Paul 
Sandby  (1725-1809),  who  employed  it  with  great  skill  for 
all  kinds  of  architectural,  topographical,  and  landscape 
drawing.  An  amateur  artist  named  William  Taverner 
(1703-1772),  had  preceded  him,  and  was  perhaps  the  first 
English  artist  who  employed  water-colour  for  pure  land- 
scape, but  Paul  Sandby  has  a  good  title  to  be  called  the 
father  of  water-colour  painting.  He  used  both  transparent 
and  opaque  (or  body)  colours.  The  use  of  water-colours 
down  to  the  end  of  the  last  century  was  mainly  confined 
to  architectural  and  topographical  drawings,  numbers  of 
which  were  required  for  the  engravings  of  illustrated 
works,  such  as  Byrne's  "Antiquities  of  Grreat  Britain," 
Whitaker's  "History  of  Eichmondshire,"  "Beauties  of 
England  and  Wales,"  and  periodicals hke  Walker's  "Itine- 
rant." These  drawings  were  either  in  simple  monochrome, 
or  in  monochrome  tinted  with  slight  washes  of  colour  like 
coloured  engravings.  Some  of  these  drawings  were  of  much 
beauty,  and  in  the  hands  of  John  Egbert  Cozens  (1752- 
1799),  one  of  the  most  poetical  of  landscape  artists,  the 
tinted  drawing   was  shown  to   be   capable   of  rendering 


BOOK   IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  421 

subtle  atmospheric  effects.  Though  Cozens  did  much  to 
raise  the  work  of  the  "  draughtsman  "  (as  the  early  water- 
colour  artist  was  called)  from  "tinting"  to  "painting," 
and  from  topography  to  fine  art,  it  was  reserved  for 
Thomas  G-irtin  (1775-1802)  to  complete  the  revolution, 
and  to  show  that  water-colours  could  be  the  rival,  and  in 
some  respects  the  superior  of  oil  in  rendering  every  aspect 
of  natural  scenery.  From  the  ranks  of  the  water-colourists 
sprang  some  of  the  noblest  and  most  poetical  of  our 
landscape  painters,  and  though  almost  to  the  present  day 
they  have  occupied  a  place  apart  and  inferior  in  public 
estimation,  and  none  of  them  has  by  virtue  of  his  painting 
in  water-colour  been  admitted  into  the  ranks  of  the  Royal 
Academy,  they  are  now  receiving  the  honour  which  is  their 
due.  They  formed  a  school  of  themselves,  the  only  Eng- 
lish school  which  is  thoroughly  national  and  original  in 
method,  in  feeling,  and  in  colour.  It  is  impossible  to  trace 
the  history  of  this  school  here,  or  to  do  more  than  mention 
the  names  of  its  most  important  members,  but  there  is  the 
less  reason  to  regret  this,  as  much  has  recently  been 
written  about  them,  and  is  being  written  now,  and  their 
reputation  is,  as  it  were,  still  fresh.  To  the  names  of  Paul 
Saudby,  John  Robert  Cozens,  Thomas  G-irtin,  J.  W.  M. 
Turner,  and  J.  S.  Cotman,  should  be  added  Thomas 
Hearnb  (1744-1817),  Henry  Edridge  (1769-1821), 
GrEORGE  Barret  the  younger  (1774-1842),  John  Varley 
(1778-1842),  Samuel  Prout  (1783-1852),  David  Cox 
(1783-1859),  Anthony  Vandyke  Copley  Fielding 
(1787-1855),  Peter  De  Wint  (1784-1849),  William 
Henry  Hunt  (1790-1864),  G-eorge  Cattermole  (1800- 
1868),  James  Holland  (1800-1870),  J.  F.  Lewis  (1805- 
1876),  Samuel  Palmer  (1805-1881).  There  are  many 
other  names  like  those  of  Rooker,  Alexander,  Christall, 
Hills,  Havell,  Daniell,  Richardson,  Robson,  Harding, 
down  to  such  late  men  as  Duncan  and  Dodgson,  who 
would  deserve  more  notice  in  a  history  of  the  water-colour 
school,  but  in  relation  to  English  art  generally,  the  names 
printed  in  capitals  are  the  most  important.  Heame 
perfected  the  tinted  drawing,  Edridge,  a  fine  miniaturist, 
was  a  beautiful  draughtsman  of  trees  and  architecture, 
being  perhaps  the  first  to  use  that   broken  picturesque 


422  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [eOOK   IX. 

touch,  which  was  carried  so  far  by  Samuel  Prout.  Barret, 
though  he  clung  to  the  "  classic  convention  "  in  composi- 
tion, is  one  of  the  finest  and  "purest "  colourists  and  in  the 
representation  of  the  liquid  transparent  quality  of  sunshine, 
unequalled  even  by  Turner.  Varley,  the  master  (practi- 
cally speaking)  of  many,  was  the  master  perhaps  of  all  in 
knowledge  of  his  craft.  But  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit 
of  English  nature  and  perfect  mastery  of  their  means  for 
interpreting  it  according  to  their  personal  feeling,  these 
artists  fall  short  of  Cox,  De  Wint  and  Copley  Fielding. 
They  all  belong  to  the  faithful  school  of  landscape,  record- 
ing what  they  saw  as  reflected  by  their  minds — what  we 
now  call  "  j)oetical  realists  " — separated  from  the  idealists 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  copyists  on  the  other — poets 
whose  feeling  is  suggested  by  and  inherent  in  their  sub- 
jects— realists  who  realize  only  so  much  of  nature  as 
expresses  their  sentiment.  Of  these  Cox  was  the  most 
profound  and  human  in  his  sympathy,  the  most  illumi- 
nated in  his  colour,  the  noblest  in  his  generalization.  He 
is  the  greatest  interpreter  of  Wales,  De  Wint  of  Lincoln- 
shire, with  its  flats  and  cornfields,  Fielding  of  Sussex 
downs  and  coast.  The  rest  were  all  of  them  colourists  of 
exceptional  gifts,  the  fruit  and  flowers  of  Hunt,  the 
romantic  scenes  of  chivalry  and  monastic  life  by  Catter- 
mole,  the  Venice  of  Holland,  the  eastern  scenes  of  Lewis, 
the  poetical  landscapes  of  Palmer,  are  all  for  true  artistic 
qualities  among  the  greatest  achievements  of  the  English 
school.  Some  of  these,  the  finest  of  our  water-colour 
painters,  such  as  Cox,  De  Wint,  Lewis  and  Holland,  were 
also  among  the  finest  of  our  painters  in  oil. 

A  special  word  should  also  be  given  to  two  other  men  of 
exceptional  gifts,  both  short-lived,  who  worked  with  equal 
skill  in  water  and  oil.  The  elder  of  these  was  Eichaed 
Parkes  Bonington  (1801-1828),  painter  of  coast  scenes 
and  historic  genre,  painter  also  of  Venice,  a  colourist  of 
exceptional  quality,  who  resided  principally  in  France,  and 
exerted  an  influence  on  the  French  school  scarcely  less 
than  that  of  Constable;  the  other  was  William  John 
MuLLER  (1812-1845),  who  made  a  series  of  masterly 
sketches  in  G-reece,  Egypt,  and  Lycia,  and  besides  his  oil- 
pictures  of  eastern  subjects,  produced  a  few  of  scenes  in  Eng- 


BOOK   IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  423 

land,  such  as  The  Baggage  Wagon  and  Eel- butts  at  Goring, 
which  are  among  the  masterpieces  of  the  English  School. 

Nor  must  the  list  of  the  greater  English  landscape  and 
sea  painters  close  without  enrolling  the  names  of  Sir 
Augustus  Wall  Callcott  (1779-1844),  Patrick  Nasmyth 
(17871831),  John  Linnell  (1792-1882),  E.  W.  Cooke 
(1811-1880),  Henry  Dawson  (1811-1878),  and  J.  E.  Oakes 
(1822-1887). 

The  strength  of  the  English  School  is  now  seen  to  lie  in 
portrait,  genre,  and  landscape.  The  fame  of  the  old  "  High 
Art "  school,  the  illustrators  of  Boydell's  "  Shakespere," 
and  others,  like  Hilton  and  Haydon,  has  declined,  for  their 
imagination  was  seldom  equal  to  its  theme;  their  ideal, 
based  upon  the  great  Italian  artists,  was  a  false  one,  and 
with  almost  the  sole  exception  of  Etty,  their  powers  as 
colourists  and  painters  of  the  nude  were  not  of  a  high 
order.  But  although  the  number  of  English  artists  who 
have  excelled  in  historical  and  poetical  painting  is  few,  the 
magnificent  mural  paintings  in  the  Houses  of  Parliament 
by  Daniel  Maclise  (1811-1870),  The  Meeting  of  Wel- 
lington and  Blucher,  and  the  Death  of  Nelson,  would  alone 
entitle  that  painter  to  a  honorable  name  in  the  history  not 
only  of  his  school  but  of  all  modern  art.  The  coldness 
and  hardness  of  his  colour  and  his  want  of  success  in  the 
representation  of  textures  are  of  comparatively  little  con- 
sequence in  such  works,  which  show  his  remarkable  quali- 
ties of  design  and  draughtsmanship  to  the  greatest  advan- 
tage. Maclise  was  a  versatile  artist,  and  a  man  of  intel- 
lect and  imagination ;  his  portraits  (humorously  character- 
istic but  not  caricatures)  of  the  early  contributors  to 
"  Eraser  "  are  masterpieces  of  their  kind ;  fancy  and  pathos 
mark  his  illustrations  to  Moore  and  Dickens,  and  many  of 
his  pictures  are  remarkable  for  dramatic  power.  Perhaps 
the  best  were  from  Shakespeare,  of  which  two  are  in  the 
National  Gallery,  The  Play  Scene  in  Hamlet,  and  Malvolio 
and  the  Countess. 

Of  other  historical  painters  of  the  century,  the  most  im- 
portant are  Sir  Charles  Locke  Eastlake  (1793-1865J, 
the  painter  of  Christ  Weeping  over  Jerusalem,  and  man  y 
other  tender  and  graceful  pictures ;  William  Dyce  (180  6- 
1864),  the  painter  of  the  frescoes  illustrating  the  liege  nd 


424  HISTORY    OF    PAINTING.  [bOOK   IX. 

of  King  Arthur  in  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  manj 
beautiful  religious  pictures  ;  E.  M.  Waed  (1816-1879),  the 
•well-known  painter  of  The  South  Sea  Bubble,  and  The 
Last  Sleep  of  Argyle ;  and  Paul  Falconer  Poole  (1810- 
1872),  the  painter  of  the  Vision  of  Ezekiel,  in  the  National 
Gallery,  and  many  other  works  poetical  both  in  figures  and 
landscape. 

If  the  ranks  of  our  historical  painters  are  thin,  those  of 
painters  of  high  spiritual  imagination  are  still  thinner,  but 
more  than  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago  the  sacred  fire  of 
creative  imagination  of  the  purest  kind  fell  upon  the  cradle 
of  William  Blake  (1757-1827),  He  was  an  engraver  by 
profession,  and  as  a  painter  only  would  scarce  need  men- 
tion here ;  but  his  power  as  a  designer  was  so  unique,  and 
his  sense  of  decorative  and  symbolical  colour  so  strong,  and 
moreover  his  genius  has  had  so  much  influence  upon  some 
painters  of  the  present  day  that  he  must  not  be  passed  by. 

Grifted  with  one  of  the  most  intense  spiritual  imagina- 
tions of  any  artist  of  any  time  or  country,  Blake  was  a 
visionary,  living  in  his  own  world  of  brain-born  images, 
which  were  as  palpable  to  him  as  those  of  the  world  of 
sense.  He  would  draw  portraits  of  men  and  women,  per- 
sonages of  history,  of  poetry,  as  though  they  were  sitting 
to  him  in  the  room.  His  wife,  or  William  the  Conqueror, 
or  the  ghost  of  a  flea  seemed  almost  equally  palpable  to 
him.  Much  of  his  work  we  can  admire  and  love  :  in  poetry, 
his  "  Songs  of  Innocence,"  and  his  "  Songs  of  Experience ; " 
in  design,  his  marvellous  illustrations  to  the  Book  of  Job, 
and  Blair's  G-rave.  His  drawing  of  the  figure  was  incor- 
rect, but  departure  from  the  normal  type  probably  helped 
much  in  the  expression  of  his  supernatural  conceptions, 
and  when  his  poems  are  most  obscure  the  designs  which 
accompany  them  are  always  highly  impressive,  and  often 
of  great  beauty  and  force  both  in  design  and  colour.  Mr. 
Swinburne  has  written  a  wonderfully  sympathetic  essay  on 
these  "  Prophetic  Books,"  and  those  who  cannot  follow  the 
eloquent  interpretation  of  one  poet  by  another  can  at  least 
admire  the  pictures  which  adorn  it.  The  plate  of  the 
Leviathan  is  a  marvellous  effort  of  the  imagination  in  colour 
as  well  as  in  form,  and  in  his  light  and  shade  he  is  equally 
unique  and  powerful.      His  angels  are  more   great  and 


BOOK   IX.]  PAINTING    IN    ENGLAND.  425 

glorious  beings  than  were  ever  imagined  before,  and  thej 
live  in  an  air  of  palpitating  light  which  no  other  artist  has 
been  able  to  suggest;  nor  is  the  "darkness  visible"  of 
Hell  less  wonderfully  suggested  in  others  of  his  plates 
and  pictures.  His  plan  of  engraving  text  decoration  and 
illustration  of  his  poems  together,  on  the  same  copper 
plate  (a  plan,  strangely  enough  not  uncommon  in  Japan, 
only  there  wood  takes  the  place  of  copper,)  is  unique  in  the 
history  of  European  art.  In  adopting  it  he  showed  a  strange 
and  true  decorative  gift.  The  impressions  from  these 
plates  were  coloured  by  him  and  his  wife,  in  water-colours. 
These  books,  for  which  he  could  find  few  purchasers  in  his 
life,  are  now  extremely  rare  and  valuable,  and  most  of  them 
have  been  reproduced.  He  also  made  many  drawings  in 
water-colour,  some  in  transparent  colour,  some  in  tempera, 
and  some  in  a  peculiar  manner  of  his  own  which  he  called 
fresco.  One  of  the  latter  was  his  design  for  the  Canter- 
bury Pilgrims  which  Lamb  preferred  to  Stothard's.  Some 
examples  of  his  drawings  are  in  the  British  Museum,  South 
Kensington  Museum,  and  the  National  G-aUery. 

We  have  had  no  other  artist  like  Blake  in  his  power  of 
rendering  in  line  and  colour  the  most  abstract  ideas,  and 
most  essential  emotions,  but  there  was  much  affinity  be- 
tween his  genius  and  that  of  Dante  G-abriel  Eossetti 
(1828-1882),  whose  mystic  imagination  has  exercised  so 
powerful  a  spell  over  many  of  the  painters  and  poets  of  the 
present  generation.  He  was  the  strongest  spirit  of  the 
band  of  young  artists  known  as  the  P.  E..  B.  or  Pre- 
Raphaelite  Brethren,  who  some  forty  years  ago  startled  the 
world  of  English  aH  by  their  revolution  against  the  com- 
monplaces and  affectations  of  current  art,  and  founded  a 
short  but  brilhant  school,  the  history  of  which  has  yet  to 
be  written  and  cannot  be  attempted  here.  Most  of  its 
members  and  adherents  are  still  living.  The  noble  prin- 
ciples upon  which  they  attempted  to  regenerate  art  found 
an  eloquent  champion  in  Mr.  Ruskin  ;  the  reasons  of  their 
comparative  failure  have  been  indicated  by  M.  Chesneau 
in  his  "  English  School  of  Painting."  The  greatest  painter 
among  them  (Sir  John  Millais)  has  long  left  their  *'  strait" 
path.  Mr.  Holman  Hunt  is  the  only  artist  of  power  who 
has  continued  to  carry  out  to  the  present  day  in  all  their 


426  HISTOEY    OF    PAINTING.  [eOOK   IX. 

integrity  the  ideas  of  the  Brotherhood.  To  him  still  the 
function  of  the  artist  is  that  of  a  priest  revealing  God's 
handiwork  in  his  universe,  the  religious  reahst  drawing 
everything  in  nature  down  to  the  smallest  detail,  and 
colouring  it  with  the  purest  and  brightest  colours,  and 
making  his  representations  of  the  most  poetical  or  most 
sacred  persons  faithful  images  of  living  persons.  Eossetti's 
personality  was  too  strong,  and  his  imagination  too  mystic 
to  be  confined  within  the  limits  of  any  bonds  but  those  of 
his  own  genius.  Like  Blake,  he  was  essentially  a  poet, 
living  in  a  world  of  his  own  fancy  which  expressed  itself 
(often  simultaneously)  both  in  words  and  pictured  image. 
The  mystery  of  human  fate  was  the  theme  of  both,  but 
whereas  Blake's  imagination  was  "  deadened,"  as  he  said, 
by  "natural  objects,"  these  were  necessary  to  the  quicken- 
ing of  Eossetti's.  His  original  gift  of  dramatic  design 
was  extraordinary,  and  his  early  drawings  in  pen  and  ink, 
and  water-colour,  despite  their  manifest  defects  in  execution, 
are  singular  for  the  vividness  and  freshness  with  which 
they  embody  the  conception  of  the  artist.  The  latter  are 
also  remarkable  for  the  decorative  beauty  of  their  colour, 
brilliant,  pure,  transparent,  mosaic-hke,  comparable  only 
to  stained  glass ;  indeed,  the  brilliant  patterning  of  gor- 
geous hues  (and  consequent  neglect  of  truth  of  light  and 
shade  and  atmosphere)  was  an  ideal  of  colour  which  marks 
no  less  his  later  and  larger  oil  pictures.  Poetry  and  legend, 
especially  Italian,  were  the  chief  sources  of  his  inspiration, 
but  the  few  religious  subjects  which  he  treated  in  his 
earlier  years  were  conceived  with  such  purity  and  refinement, 
and  with  so  fresh  and  simple  an  imagination,  that  they 
are  preferred  by  many  to  the  more  splendid  and  sensuous 
productions  of  his  later  years.  Among  the  former  are  The 
G-irlhood  of  the  Virgin,  and  The  Annunciation,  the  latter 
of  which  is  in  the  National  Gallery.  Of  the  poets  Dante 
was  his  chief  inspirer,  and  Dante's  Dream,  belonging  to 
the  Corporation  of  Liverpool,  was  his  largest,  and  is  by 
some  considered  as  his  finest  work.  The  Bride,  an  illus- 
tration of  the  Song  of  Solomon,  shows  his  skill  at  its  zenith, 
and  Monna  Yanna,  The  Blue  Bower,  and  Proserpine,  are 
also  among  his  most  powerful  presentations  of  strange 
female  beauty,  and  the  finest  examples  of  his  work  as  a 


BOOK    IX.]  PAINTING   IN    ENGLAND.  427 

coloTirist.  A  whole  literature  has  already  grown  up  around 
the  name  of  this  unique  artist,  and  many  additions  to  it 
are  promised.  Here  it  would  be  impossible,  as  well  as 
premature,  to  attempt  to  say  the  final  word,  but  one  thing 
at  least  is  certain,  and  that  is  that  he  stands  alone  in  the 
history  of  modem  painting,  though  his  influence  upon  it  is 
perceptible,  especially  in  the  work  of  Mr.  Burne  Jones. 

Of  a  less  strange,  and  perhaps  more  wholesome  genius, 
were  two  painters  whom  the  present  generation,  at  least, 
have  enrolled  amongst  the  greater  names  in  the  Enghsh 
School  —  Geoege  Hemming  Mason  (1818-1872)  and 
Feedekice:  Walker  (1840-1875) — both  painters  of  rustic 
life  as  seen  by  the  eyes  of  a  poet,  both  of  them  fine  colourists, 
and  seeking,  without  violation  to  truth,  to  select  beauty  of 
line  and  gesture,  and  to  make  their  pictures  breathe  some 
natural  sentiment,  noble,  pathetic,  or  sweet.  The  works 
of  these  artists  are  now  so  popular,  and  many  of  them, 
such  as  Mason's  Evening  Hymn  and  Harvest  Moon,  and 
Walker's  Plough  and  Harbour  of  Refuge,  are  so  widely 
known  from  the  famous  etchings  of  Mr.  Macbeth,  that  it  is 
not  necessary  to  say  more  about  them  now.  Another 
artist  who,  like  Walker,  began  as  a  book  illustrator,  and 
who  had  a  rarely  refined  imagination,  was  G-.  J.  Pinwell 
(1843-1875).  His  few  large  water-colour  drawings,  like 
The  Ehxir  of  Life,  and  two  scenes  from  the  Pied  Piper  of 
Hamelin,  show  that  he  was  also  a  true  colourist  with  a  real 
dramatic  gift.  He  also  has  been  immortalized  by  Mr. 
Macbeth. 

Although  this  concluding  note  has  run  to  imexpected 
and  misproportioned  length,  there  are  still  some  worthy 
artists  that  have  escaped  mention.  The  "  book  illustrators," 
as  a  class,  were  excluded  from  the  first  edition  of  this  work, 
probably  with  intention,  as  not  coming  within  the  histoiy  of 
"  Painting ;  "  but  some  of  them,  like  Robert  Smirke 
(1752-1845),  the  admirable  illustrator  of  "  Don  Quixote," 
was  a  painter  too,  so  also  was  Thomas  Stothard  (1755- 
1834),  one  of  the  most  fertile  and  graceful  of  designers,  and, 
as  may  be  seen  in  the  National  Gallery,  a  colourist  of  no 
mean  order ;  and  the  names  of  Leech,  Ceuikshank,  and 
Richard  Doyle  should  not  pass  without  any  record. 
Lastly,  let  me  not  forget  David  Roberts  (1796-1864),  an 


428  HISTORY    OF   PAINTING.  [bOOK   IX. 

exceptional  stilf  ul  and  picturesque  painter  of  architecture, 
well  known  for  his  celebrated  sketches  in  the  Holy  Land, 
and  John  Phillip  (1817-1867),  "  Spanish  Phillip"  as  he 
was  called  from  the  remarkable  beauty  and  fine  character 
of  his  pictures  of  Spanish  life.  Unlike  Wilkie,  his  change 
of  subject  from  Scotland  to  Spain  invigorated  and  deve- 
loped his  genius,  made  his  design  grander,  his  treatment 
broader,  his  colour  more  full  and  splendid.  He  was  one  of 
the  finest  painters  of  the  English  School,  and  his  master- 
piece, La  Grloria,  is  one  of  the  greatest  pictures  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

CM. 


CHROlSrOLOGICAL  LISTS  OF  PAINTERS. 

Note. — The  names  of  painters  not  mentioned  in  the  text  and  doubtful 
dates  are  printed  in  italics.  Dates  in  the  second  column  give  years  in 
which  the  painters  are  known  to  have  been  at  work  or  alive. 

I.     GREEK  AND  ROMAN  PAINTERS. 


Schuol. 

Date. 

Cleanthes 



Cleophantes 

— 

Telejihanes 

— 

Eumaros 

— 

Cimon  of  Cleonse 

\ 

Polyenotos  of  Thasos 
A^atharcos  of  Samos 
Micon  of  Athens 

Dionysos  of  Colophon 

Panajnos  of  Athens 

Apollodoros  of  Athens 

5th  centilry 

Zeuxis  of  Heracleia 

B.C. 

Parrhasios  of  Ephesos 

Greek 

Timanthes  of  Cythnos 
Eupompos 
Pamphilos 
Mclanthios 

Pausias 

/ 

Euphranor  of  Corinth 

\ 

Nicomachos  of  Thebes 

Aristeides  of  Thebes 

Nicias  of  Athens 

Apelles  of  Cos 

4th  century 

A  n  tiph  ilos  of  A  lexandria 

B.C. 

Protogenes  of  Rhodes 

Peiraiikos 

Theon  of  Samos 

Action  of  Alexandria 
Fabius  f*ictor 

J 

fl.  cir.  300  B.C. 

Gr^.co- 

ROMAN 

Pacuvius                                           1 

fl.  cir.  200  B.C. 

1  Timoniachus  of  Byzantium 
1  Laia,  or  Lala,  of  Cyzicus 

» 

fl.cir.  180-150  B.C. 

1  Ludius                                             I 

fl.  cir.  20  B.C. 

430 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS   OP   PAINTERS. 


n.    ITALIAN  PAINTEES. 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Arezzo 

Margharitone  of  Arezzo 

1216 

1293 

Umbria 

Oderisio  of  Guhhio  (miniaturist) 

1264-1299 



Rome 

Cosmati  (a  family  of  mosaicists) 

13th  cent. 



^ 

Pisa 

Giunta  of  Pisa 

13th  cent. 





Siena 

Guido  of  Siena 

1281 





Florence 

Tafi,  Andrea 

1320 





j> 

Cimabue,  Giovanni  Gualtieri 

1240 

1302 

)i 

Gaddi,  Gaddo 

1333 





Lucca 

Orlandi,  Deodati 

1288-1310 





Siena 

Duccio  di  Buoninsegna 

1260 

mo 

Florence 

Giotto  di  Bondone 

1266 

1337 

Rome 

Cavallini,  Pietro 

1308 



Padua 

Guariento 

1316-1365 





Umbria 

Palmerucci,  Guido 

1280 

1345 

Siena 

Segna  di  Buonaventura 

14th  cent. 

— 

)) 

Niccola  di  Segna 

1342 

— 

— 

} 

Ugolino 

14th  cent. 





> 

Martini,  Simone  (Memmi) 

1284 

1344 

i 

Memnii,  Lippo 

— 

1356 

5 

LORENZETTl 

— 

1348 

Bologna 

Vitale 

1320-1345 

— 

— 

Florence 

Daddo,  Bernardo  di 

1320-1347 

— 



jj 

Gaddi,  Taddeo 

1300 

1366 

)) 

Gaddi,  Agnolo 

Stefano  (u  Scimia  della  Natura 

14th  cent. 





>> 

■ 

ISOl 

1350 

jj 

Buftalmacco 

14th  cent. 

— 



Florence 

Orcagna,  Andrea  di  Cione 

130S 

1368 

)  J 

Traini,  Francesco 

1341 



Pisa 

Campanna,  Puceio 

14th  cent. 





Florence 

Calandrino 

14th  cent. 





)> 

Landini,  Jacopo,  of  Casentino 
Giovanm  da  Milano 

1310 

1390 

if 

14th  cent. 





Umbria 

Nuzi,  Allegretto 

1346-1385 



■ 

Siena 

Buonacorso,  Niccolo  di 

14th  cent. 





Venice 

Semitecolo,  Niccolo 

1351-1400 





Padua 

Francesco  Gentile  da  Fahriano 

14th  cent. 



_ 

)j 

Antonio  da  Fahriano 

14th  cent. 





Siena 

Bartolo  di  Maestro  Fredi 

1353-1410 

__ 



Venice 

Lorenzo  Veniziano 

1357-1379 





Florence 

Giottino 

1324 

1396 

Verona 

Turoni  of  Verona 

1360 





Orvieto 

Puceio,  Pietro  di 

1364 

— 

— 

Fl 

orence 

Justus  of  Padua 

1330 

1400 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


431 


School. 

• 

Birth. 

Death. 

Siena 

Thome,  Ltica  di 

1367 





Arezzo 

Aretino,  Spinello  di  Luca  Spinelli  d' 

1333 

1410 

Pisa 

Volterra,  Francesco  da 

1370-1372 

— 

— 

)> 

Simone  de'  Crocefissi 

1370 



— . 

Arezzo 

Bicci,  Lorenzo  di 

1370-1409 

— 

— 

;> 

Gerini,  Nicolo  di  Pietro 

14th  cent. 





Pisa 

AvANZi,  Giacomo  degli 

14th  cent. 



^ 

)> 

Vanni,  Turino 

14th  cent. 





Verona 

Altichiero  da  Zevio 

1375  1380 





Bologna 

Dalmasii,  Lippo 

1376-1410 

— 

— 

Florence 

Veniziano,  Antonio 

1386 

— 

— 

jj 

Andrea  da  Firenze 

1377 





,, 

Starnino,  Gherardo 

1354 



Padua 

Gentile  da  Fabriano 

1360 

1450 

Siena 

Bartolo,  Taddeo  di 

1362 

1422 

j> 

Cecchi,  Gregorio 

1400 

Venice 

Fiore,  Jacobello  del 

1400-1439 





»> 

Negroponte 

15th  cent. 





Umbria 

San  Severino,  Lorenzo  da  (the  elder)      1400 





Siena 

Martino  di  Bartolommeo 



1434 

Florence 

Pesello,  Giuliano  d'Arrigo 

1367 

>> 

Lorenzo,  Don  (II  Monaco) 

1370 

W5 

Umbrla. 

Ottaviano  di  Martino  Nelli 

1410-1434 





») 

Lorenzo,  Bicci  di 

1420 





Verona 

Pisanello  (Vittore  Pisano) 

1380 

14S5 

Naples 

Solario,  Antonio  da  (lo  Zingaro] 

1382 

1455 

Florence 

Masolino  da  Panicale 

1383 

1U7 

j> 

Angelico,  Fra  (Giovanni  da  Fiesole) 

1387 

1455 

Arezzo 

Parri  Spinelli 

1387 

1452 

Florence 

Castagno,  Andrea  del 

1390 

14^7 

Siena 

Stefano  di  Giovanni 

1450 

Padua 

Squarcione,  Francesco 

1394 

1474 

felENA 

Domenico  di  Bartolo 



1449 

»» 

Gianibono,  Michele 

1430-1470 



Florence 

Uccello  (Paolo  Doni) 

1396-7 

1475 

Venice 

Bellini,  Jacopo 

UOO 

1464 

Florence 

Massaccio  (Tommaso  di  Ser  Giovanni) 

1401 

1428 

Venice 

Donato 

1438-1466 

Florence 

Veniziano,  Domenico 

1438 



^i 

Venice 

Vivarini,  Giovanni 

1440-1447 



>> 

Vivarini,  Antonio 

1440-1470 





Ferrara 

Galasai,  Galasso 



1473 

Siena 

Pietro,  Sano  di 

1406 

1481 

>» 

Pietro,  Lorenzo  di  (Vecchietta) 

1410 

1480 

Umbria 

Gatta,  Bartolommeo  della 

UlO 

1491 

Florence 

LiPPi,  Fra  Lippo 

14ixi 

146» 

Cremona 

Oriolo,  Giovanni 

1449-1461 

Umbria 

Buonfigli,  Benedetto 

1450-1496 

_^ 

__ 

Venice 

Vivarini,  Bartolommeo 

1450-1499 

— 

— 

432 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


School. 

Birth, 

Death. 

Milan 

FOPPA,  Vincenzo 

' 

_ 

1492 

Cremona 

Bembo,  Bonifazio 

1455-1478 



Florence 

GozzoLi,  Benozzo 

1420 

1498 

Ferrara 

TuRA,  Cosimo 

WO 

1498 

}> 

Pesellino  (Francesco  di  Stefano) 

1422 

1457 

j> 

Baldovinetti,  Alesso 

1427 

1499 

5> 

Bono 

1461 



Umbria 

PiERO  Bella  Francesca 

1423 

1492 

>> 

Carnevali,  Fra 

15th  cent. 



Fuligno,  Niccolo  da 

1458-1499 





Venice 

Bellini,  Gentile 

1426 

1507 

jj 

Bellini,  Giovanni 

1428 

1516 

Cremona 

Tacconi,  Francesco 

1464-1490 





Venice 

Vivarini,  Alvisi,  or  Luigi 

1464-1503 





55 

Crivelli,  Carlo 

1468-1495 





Florence 

Pollaiuolo,  Antonio 

1429 

1498 

Padua 

Mantegna,  Andrea 

1431 

1506 

)) 

Zoppo,  Marco 
Schiavone,  Gregorio 

1471-1498 

— 



)5 

15th  cent. 

— 



Florence 

Verrochio,  Andrea 

14.32 

1488 

Ferrara 

Cossa,  Francesco 

14.30 

IJfSS 

55 

Grandi,  Ercole  (di  Roberti) 

1435 

1513 

55 

Grandi,  Ercole  (di  Giulio) 

— 

1531 

Siena 

Matteo  di  Giovanni 

lJi35 

1495 

Umbria 

Santi,  Giovanni 

1435 

1494 

Florence 

Diamante,  Fra 

1470 





jj 

Fiorenzo  di  Lorenzo 

1470-1479 





Siena 

Benvenuto  di  Giovanni 

1436 

1517 

Umbria 

Melozzo  da  Forli 

1438 

1494 

Florence 

Rosselli,  Cosimo                  y 
Mainardi,  Sebastiano        f 

1439 

1507 

55 

1513 

Siena 

Giorgio,  Francesco  di 

1439 

1506 

Florence 

Signorelli,  Luca 

1441 

1523 

55 

Pollaiuolo,  Piero 

1441 

U95 

Venice 

Messina,  Antonello  da 

1U4 

1493 

Ferrara 

Bianchi,  Francesco 

Wto 

1510 

55 

Estense,  Balcassare 

1483 



Umbria 

San  Severino,  Lorenzo  di  (the  younger) 

1480-1496 

— 

— 

5) 

Perugino,  Pietro  Vannucci 

1446 

1524 

Florence 

Botticelli,  Saadro  Filipepi 

1446 

1510 

55 

Ghirlandaio,  Domenico 

1449 

1494 

Verona 

Morone,  Domenico  (Pellacane) 

1442 

— 

Milan 

Buttinone,  Bernardino  Jacobi 

1484 

— 

— 

^^ 

Zenale,  Bernardo 



1526 

Ferrara 

Alvisi,  Andrea  (L'Ingegno) 

1484 





ViCENZA 

Montagna,  Bartolommeo 

1484-1517 





Venice 

Carpaccio,  Vittore 

im 

1520 

Bologna 

Francia  (Francesco  Raibolini) 

1450 

1517 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


433 


Birth.     Death. 


U86 
1486 
1486 


Liberale  da  Verona 

Bevilacqua,  Amhrogio 

Massone,  Giovanni 

Torbido,  Francesco  (II  More) 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da 

Pinturicchio  (Bernardino  di  Betto) 

Cima  (da  Conegliano)  1489-1517 

Papa,  Simone 

Bonsignori,  Francesco 

Basaiti,  Marco  1490-1520 

BoRGOGNONE,  Ambroffio  1490-1520 

Palmezzano,  Marco,  of  Forli 

Pietro  di  Domenico 

Santa  Croce,  Francisco  Rizo  da 


Marziale,  Marco 

Manni,  Giannicola  di  Paolo 

Mansueti,  Giovanni 

Sebastiani,  Lazzaro 

Credi,  Lorenzo  di 

Catena,  Vincenzo  di  Biado 

Civerchio,  Vincenzo  (of  Crema) 

Ferramola,  Fioravante 

Solario,  Andrea 

Costa,  Lorenzo 

LiPPi,  Filippino 

Fungai,  Bernardino 

Boccacciuo,  Boccaccio 

Piero  di  Cosimo 

Conti,  Bernardino  de* 

Pennacchi,  Pier  Maria 

Caselli,  Cristofero 

Pellegrino  da  San  Daniele 

Giolfino,  Niccolo 

Araldi 

Bissolo,  Pier  Francesco 

Alba,  Macrino  d' 

Michele  da  Verona 

Raft'aelino  del  Garbo 

Beltrattio,  Gio.  Ant. 

Spagna,  Giovanni  di  Pietro 

Granacci,  Francesco 

Viti,  Timoteo 

Salaino,  Andrea 

Oggione,  Marco  d' 

Mantegna,  Francesco 

Caroto,  Francesco 

Veniziano,  Bartolommeo 

Zaganclli,  Francesca 

F  F 


1492-1530 
1492-1507 
1493 
1494-1500 
15tli  cent. 

1495-1531 
1495-1540 
loth  cent. 


1496 
1498 
1499 


1500-1528 

1500 

1500-1508 


1503-1530 


1519 


1470-151: 


1505-1530 
1505-1518 


1451 


1452 
1454 


1455 
1455 


1456 
1457 


1459 


14j60 
1460 
1460 
1460 

1462 

1464 

1465 
1465 
1465 


1466 
1467 

1469 


1470 
1470 


1536 


1546 
1519 
1513 


1519 


1494 
1501 


1544 
1537 


1530 
1535 
1504 
1516 
1525 
1521 

1528 

1547 
1518 
1528 


1524 
1516 

1543 
1523 

1549 

1546 


434 


CHEONOLOGICAL    LISTS   OF    PAINTEE&. 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Bologna 

Bartucci,  Gianhattista                            1506 



_ 

Florence 

Bugiardini,  Giuliano 

1471 

1554 

Verona 

Morone,  Francesco 

1473 

1529 

)> 

Libri,  Girolamo  dai 

1474 

1556 

Siena 

Pacchiarotti,  Giacomo 

1474 

1540 

Florence 

Albertinelli,  Mariotto 

1474 

1515 

Venice 

Belli,  Marco                                           1511 

Milan 

Sesto,  Cesare  da 

U75- 

1480 

1524 

)> 

Luini,  Bernardino 

U75 

153S 

Florence 

Fra  Bartolommeo  (Baccio  della  Porta) 

1475 

1517 

)) 

MiCHAELANGELO  BUONAROTTI 

1475 

1564 

Padua 

Mantegna,  Carlo  del                     15th  cent. 

Siena 

SODOMA,  Gio.  Ant.  Bazzi,  il 

1477 

1549 

~  >» 

Pacchia,  Girolamo  della 

1477 

1521 

Venice 

GiORGiONE,  Giorgio  Barbarelli 

1511 

)) 

TiziANO,  Vecellio 

1477 

1576 

Ferrara 

Giovenone,  Girolamo                              1514 



Brescia 

Mocetto,  Girolamo                                  1514 





Ferrara 

Dosso  Dossi,  Gio.  Nic.  di  Lntero 

1479 

1542 

Verona 

Melone,  Altobello                          1515-1520 





Ferrara 

Palma,  Jacopo  (il  Vecchio) 

1480 

1528 

J  J 

Cariani,  Giovanni  Busi 

1480 

1541 

Bergamo 

Lotto,  Lorenzo 

1480 

1558 

)) 

Previtali,  Andrea 

1480 

1528 

Milan 

SienA 

Garofalo,  Benvenuto  Tisio 

1481 

1559 

Gaudenzio  Ferrari 

1481 

1545 

Peruzzi,  Baldassare 

1481 

1537 

Ferrara 

Mazzolino,  Ludovico 

1481 

1530 

Florence 

Bigi,  Francesco  (Francia  Bigio) 

1482 

1525 

Umbria 

Raffaelle  Santi 

1483 

1520 

Florence 

Ghirlandaio,  Ridolfo 

1483 

1561 

Venice 

PoRDENONE,  Gio.  Ant.  da 

1483 

1539 

>) 

Santa  Croce,  Giralamo  da             1520-1549 





Venice 

&  Rome 

LUCIANI,  SeBASTIANO  (DEL  PlOMBO) 

1485 

1547 

Siena 

Beccafumi,  Domenico 

I486 

1551 

Florence 

Sarto,  Andrea  d'  Angelo,  del 

1486 

1531 

Verona 

Morando,  Paolo  (Cavazzuola) 

1486 

1522 

ViCENZA 

Buonconsiglio,  Gio.  (il  Marescalco) 

— 

1530 

Brescia 

Romanino,  Girolamo 

1485 

1566 

Milan 

Piazza,  Albertino  (Toccagni) 



1529 

»» 

Piazza,  Martino  (of  Lodi) 

— 

— 

KOME 

Penni,  Gio.  Francesco  {11  Fattore) 

1488 

1528 

Venice 

Licinio,  Bernardino  (da  Pordenone) 

1524-1541 

— 

— 

Cremona 

Bembo,  Gianfrancesco                            1524 

— 

— 

Rome 

Imola,  Innocenza  Francucci  da 

1490 

1549 

ViSKONA 

Bonifazio  da  Verona  (the  elder) 

1491 

1540 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS   OP    PAINTERS. 


435 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Verona 

Bonifazio  da  Verona 

_ 

1543 

Florence 

Puligo,  Domenico 
Melzi,  Francesco 

1492 

1527 

Milan 

1493 

1568 

Florence 

Pontormo,  Jacopo  Carucci  da 

1494 

1557 

jj 

Jacopo,  Gio.  Batt.  di,  11  Rosso 
Baccniaca,  Francesco  d'Ubcrtino 

1494 

1541 

1494 

1557 

Parma 

Correggio,  Ant.  Allegri  da 

1494 

1534 

Rome 

Polidoro  Caldara  da  Caravaggio 
Bramantino  (Bartolommeo  de  Suardi)  1529 

1495 

1543 

Milan 

— 

— 

Florence 

Magna,  Cesare                                         1530 

— 

— 

Rome 

Treviso,  Girolamo  Pennacchi  da 

1497 

1544 

Brescia 

MOREI'TO,  Alessandro  Buonvicino,  il 

1498 

1556 

Rome 

Romano,  Giulio  Pippi  de'  Giannuzzi 

1498 

1546 

Florence 

Clovio,  Giulio  {miniaturist) 

1498 

1578 

Ferrara 

Ortolano,  Gio.  Batt.  Benvenuti 

1500 

1525 

Milan 

Piazza,  Calista,  da  Lodi 

1500 

1561 

Venice 

Bordone,  Paris 

1500 

1570 

Cremona 

Campi,  Giulio 

1500 

1572 

Rome 

Vaga,  Perino  del 

1500 

1547 

Ferrara 

Carpi,  Girolamo 

LuRovico  da  Parma                      16th  cent. 

1501 

1556 

Parma 



Mazzuola,  {three  brothers)             1 6th  cent. 

— 



Rome 

Mantovano,  Rinaldo                     1532-1534. 

— 



Florence 

Bronzino,  Angelo  di  Cosimo  di  Mariano 

1502 

1572 

Venice 

Stephan  (Hans  of  Calcar)                       1537 

— 



Brescia 

Savoldo,  Girolamo                         1540-1548 

— 

— 

Umhria 

Alfani,  Domenico  di  Paris 



1553 

Ravenna 

Longhi,  Luca 

1507 

1580 

Milan 

Lanini,  Bernardino 

1508 

1578 

Florence 

Volterra,  Daniele  Ricciarelli  da 

1509 

1556 

>> 

Rossi,  Francesco  de'  (dei  Salviati) 

1510 

1563 

Brescia 

Moroni,  Gio.  Batt. 

1510 

1578 

Venice 

Bassano,  Jacopo  da  Ponte 

1510 

1592 

Bologna 

Fontana,  Prospero 

1512 

1597 

Florence 

Vasari,  Giorgio 

1512 

1574 

I) 

Venusti,  Marcello 

1515 

15S0 

Florence 

Condivi,  Ascanio                                     1550 

_ 

Venice 

Tintoretto,  Jacopo  Robusti,  11 

1518 

1594 

Bologna 

Procaccini,  Ercole  (the  elder) 

1520 

1591 

Venice 

Schiavone,  Andrea  (Medulla  or  Medolla) 

1522 

1582 

Genoa 

Cambiaso,  Luca 

1527 

1585 

Bologna 

Tibaldi,  Pellegrino 

1527 

1596 

Venice 

Cagliari,  Paolo  (Veronese) 

1528 

1588 

j^ 

Baroccio,  Federigo 

1528 

1612 

Zuccaro,  Taddeo 

1529 

1566 

Florence 

Titi,  Santi  di 

1530 

1603 

Venice 

Zelotti,  Battista  Farinati 

15S2 

1592 

)t 

Farinati,  Paolo 

1606 

Parma 

Parmigiano,  Francesco  Maria  Mazzola 

— 

1592 

436 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OP    PAINTERS. 


School. 

Birth, 

Death. 

Venice 

Cagliari,  Bendetto 

_ 

1598 

i) 

Cagliari  Carlo 

— 

1596 

a 

CagliaH  Gabriele 

— 

1631 

»> 

Vasilacchi,  Antonio  [VAliense) 

— 

1629 

»> 

Allori,  Allessandro  {Bronzino) 

1535 

1607 

Cremona 

Anguisciola,  Sofonisba 
Lomazzo,  Gio.  Faolo 

1535 

1625 

Milan 

1538 

1590 

5> 

Figino,  Ainhrogio  (living  1595) 
Alfani,  Orazio 

— 

— 

Umbria 

— 

1583 

Bologna 

Passerotti,  Bart. 

1540 

1595 

>> 

Tibaldi,  Domenico 

1540 



Florence 

Zuccaro,  Federigo 

Pocetti,  Bernardino  Barhatelli 

1542 

1609 

jj 

1542 

1612 

Venice 

Palma,  Jacopo  (11  Giovine) 

1544 

1628 

J) 

Bonifazio  Veniziano                                 1579 





Ferrara 

Scarsello,  Ippolito  [ScarselUno) 
Fontana,  Lavinia 

1551 

1660 

Bologna 

1552 

1602 

J5 

Carracci,  Lodovico 

1555 

1619 

Genoa 

Sorri,  Pietro 

1556 

1622 

Bologna 

Carracci,  Agostino 

1557 

1602 

Milan 

Crespi,  Gio.  Batt. 

1557 

1633 

Corenzio,  Belisario 

1558 

16— 

Florence 

Carcli,  Lodovico  {il  Cigolo) 

1559 

1613 

Bologna 

Carracci,  Annibale 

1560 

1609 

Venice 

Tintoretta,  Marietta  Robusti 

1560 

1590 

jj 

Faccini,  Pietro 

1562 

1602 

Florence 

Gentileschi,  Orazio  Lomi  de 

1563 

1646 

jj 

Vanni,  Francesco 

1563 

1609 

Venice 

Rottenhammer,  Johannes 

1564 

1623 

Rome 

Tassi,  Agostino 

1566 

1642 

5) 

Arpino,  Guiseppe  Cesare,  il  Cavaliere  D' 
Merisi,  Michelangelo  (il  Caravaggio) 

1567 

1640 

LOMBARDY 

1569 

1609 

Bologna 

MassaH,  Lticio 

1569 

1633 

Ferrara 

Bononi,  Carlo 

1569 

1632 

Bologna 

Curti,  Gio.  (U  Dentone) 

1570 

1631 

>j 

Brizio,  Francesco 

1574 

1623 

» 

Reni,  Guido  (GuiDO) 

1575 

1642 

Donducci,  Andrea 

1575 

1655 

Florence 

Liqozzi,  Jacopo 

— 

1632 

Rome 

Viola,  Gio.  Batt. 

1576 

1622 

Naples 

Spada,  Lionello 

1576 

1622 

Siena 

Salimheni,  Ventura  {Cavaliere  BevUacgua) 

1613 

,, 

Manetti,  Rutilio 



1637 

Bologna 

Aloisi,  Baldassare 

1577 

1638 

)) 

Tiarini,  Allesandro 

1577 

1668 

j> 

Cavedone,  Giacomo 

1577 

1660 

Sicily 

Menniti,  Mario 

1577 

1640 

Florence 

Allori,  Cristofano 

1577 

1621 

Bologna 

Albani,  Francesco 

1578 

1660 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OP    PAINTERS. 


437 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Florence 

Masca^ni,  Donato 

1578 

1636 

^j 

Roselli,  Matteo 

1578 

1680 

Bologna 

Garbieri,  Lorenzo 

1580 

1654 

Naples 

Manfredi,  Bartolommeo 

1680 

1617 

KOME 

Schedone,  Bartolommeo 

1580 

1615 

Bologna 

Sementi,  Gio.  Giac. 

1580 



Lanfranco,  Giovanni 

1580 

1647 

a 

Zampieri,  Domenico  (DOMENICHINO) 

1581 

1641 

»» 

Badalocchio,  Sisto  {Sisto  Rosa) 

1581 

1647 

Genoa 

Strozzi,  Bernardo 

1581 

1644 

Verona 

Turchi,  Alessaiidro  (I'Orbetto) 

1582 

1648 

Bologna 

Carracci,  Antonio 

1583 

1618 

Naples 

Stanzioni,  Massimo 

1585 

1656 

Saraceni,  Carlo 

1585 

1625 

Caroselli,  Angelo 

Bonzi,  Pietro  Paulo                      17tli  cent. 

1585 

1653 

Bologna 





Gessi,  Francesco 

1588 

1647 

Naples 

RiBERA,  Guiseppe  (LO  SPAGNOLETTO) 

1588 

1656 

Rome 

Feti,  Domenico 

1589 

1624 

Barbieri,  Francesco  (IL  GUERCINO) 

1590 

1666 

Florence 

Gentileschi,  Artemisia 

1590 

1642 

Vicenza 

Ridolfi,  Carlo 

1594 

1658 

Bologna 

Carracci,  Francesco 

1595 

1622 

Milan 

Procaccini,  Ercole 

1596 

1676 

Venice 

Varotari,  Alessando  (il  Padovanino) 

1596 

1650 

Rome 

Berretini,  Pietro  (da  Cortona) 

1596 

1669 

Naples 

Vaccaro,  Andrea 

1598 

1670 

Carracciolo,  Gio.  Batt. 



1641 

Rome 

Sacchi,  Andrea 

1598 

1661 

Naples 

Falcone,  Aniello 

1600 

1665 

Bologna 

Colonna,  Angelo  Michele 

1600 

1685 

)) 

Canlassi,  Guido  {Cagnaccio) 

1601 

1681 

Naples 

Cerouozzi,  Michelangelo  (della  Battaglie) 
Barbieri,  Pietro  Ant. 

1602 

1660 

Bologna 

1603 

1649 

Sicily 

Novelli,  Pietro  {il  Morrealese) 

1603 

1677 

Rome 

Salvi,  Gio.  Batt.  (IL  Sassqferrato) 

1605 

1685 

^j 

Grimaldi,  Gio.  Francesco 

1606 

1680 

Florence 

Ricchi,  Pietro 

1606 

1675 

Bologna 

Metelli,  Agostino 

1609 

1660 

}> 

Siraniy  Gio.  Ant. 

1610 

1670 

)» 

Cantarini,  Simone 

1612 

1668 

Bologna 

Mola,  Pietro  Francesco 

1612 

1668 

Naples 

Garcjiulo,  Domenico  (Micco  Spadaro) 

1612 

1679 

Bologna 

Preti,  Fra  Mattia  (il  Cavaliere  Calabrese) 

1613 

1699 

Naples 

Rosa,  Salvator 

1615 

1673 

Bologna 

Mola,  Gio.  Batt 

1616 

1662 

Genoa 

Castiglione,  Gio.  Benvenuto 

1616 

1670 

Florence 

DoLCi,  Carlo 

1616 

1686 

}> 

Rom^nelli,  Gio.  Francesco 

1617 

1672 

438 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTEBS. 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Genoa 

Piola  Pelegro 

1617 

1640 

Bologna 

Torre,  Flaminio 



1661 

Naples 

Masturzio,  Marzio                              1630-60 



)) 

Canuti,  Maria 

1620 

1648 

)> 

Ghisolfi,  Gio. 

1623 

1680 

Home 

Maratta,  Carlo 

1625 

1713 

Bologna 

Cignani,  Count  Carlo 

1628 

1719 

Naples 

Giordano,  Luca  (Fa  Presto) 

1632 

1705 

Florence 

Ferri,  Ciro 

1634 

1687 

Bologna 

Sirani,  Elisahetta 

1638 

1665 

Naples 

Solimena,  Francesco  (I'Abbate  Ciccio) 

1657 

1747 

Bologna 

Bibiena,  Ferdinando 

1657 

1762 

Venice 

Ricci,  Sebastiano 

1660 

1734 

Bologna 

Crespi,  Guiseppe  Maria  (lo  Spagnuola) 
Pannini,  Paolo 

1665 

1747 

Rome 

1691 

1764 

Venice 

Tiepolo,  Gio.  Batt. 

1696 

1770 

Canale,  Antonio  (Canaletto) 

1697 

1768 

Longhi,  Pietro 

1702 

1762 

ZucharelU,  Francesm 

1702 

1793 

Guardi,  Francesco 

1712 

1793 

Bellotto,  Bernardo 

1720 

1780 

III.     SPANISH  PAIKTEES.' 


Petrus  de  Hispania 

1253 





Esteban,  Roderigo 

1291 





T0T,EP0 

Alfon,  Juan 

1418 





Barcelona 

Dalmau,  Ludovico 

1445 

__ 



Salamanca 

Gallegos,  Fernando 

15th  cent. 



«_ 

Seville 

Castro,  Juan  Sanchez  de 

1454-1485 





Cordova 

Pedro  of  Cordova 

1475 



__ 

>j 

Barca,  Garcia  del 

1476 



__ 

Seville 

Borgona,  Juan  de 

1495-1533 

— 



J  J 

Fernandez,  Alejo 

1505-1525 





Portugal 

Fernandez,  Vasco 

1506 



__ 

Seville 

Merzal,  Pedro 

15th  cent. 





jj 

Nunez,  Juan 

1507 





Toledo 

Rincon,  Antonio  del 

1446 

1500 

Castile 

Berruguete,  Pedro 

1600 

>> 

Berruguete,  Alonso 

im 

1561 

Seville 

Guadelupe,  Pedro  Fern,  de 

1527 

»> 

Vargas,  Luis  de 

1502 

1568 

>» 

Campafla,  Pedro  (Pieter  de 
Villoldo,  Juan  de 

Kempeneer) 

1503 

154S 

)) 



1551 

Akragon 

Yanez,  Hernando 

— 

1660 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


439 


School. 


Valencia 

Granada 

Portugal 

Toledo 

Castile 

Granada 

Madrid 

Toledo 

Seville 

Toledo 

>) 
Seville 
Valencia 
Castile 
Portugal 
Toledo 
Seville 
Madrid 
Toledo 
Seville 

Madrid 
Seville 
Madrid 
Toledo 
Valencia 

Seville 
Madrid 


Valencia 

Valencia 

Granada 

Seville 

Madrid 

Granada 

Madrid 
»» 

Seville 


Granada 
Seville 


Birth. 

Death. 

JUANES,  Vicente  Juan 

1507 

1579 

Machuca,  Pedro 

1548 

— 

— 

Olanda,  Francisco  de 

1549 

— 

— 

Morales,  Luis  de  (El  Divine) 

1510 

1586 

COELLO,  Alonso  Sanchez 

1515 

1590 

Becerra,  Caspar 

1520 

1570 

Navarete,  Juan  Fernandez  (El  Mudo) 

1526 

1579 

Velasco,  Luis  de 

15— 

1606 

Cespedes,  Pablo  de 

1538 

1608 

Theotocopuli,  Domenico  (El  Griego] 
Orrente,  Pedro 

1548 

1625 

1616 

— 

1644 

Vasquez,  Alonso                          1680-1610 

— 

■ — 

RiBALTA,  Francesco  de 

1551 

1628 

Cruz,  Pantoja  de  la 

1551 

1609 

Pereyra,  Vasco 

1588 

— 

— 

Prado,  Bias  del 

1690 

— 

— 

Roelas,  Juan  de  las 

1558 

1625 

Cuevas,  Pedro  de  las 

1568 

1635 

Mayno,  Fray  Juan  Bautista 
Pacheco,  Francesco 

1569 

1649 

1571 

1654 

Herrera,  Francesco  (El  Viejo) 

1576 

1656 

Caxes,  Eugenio 

1577 

1642 

Castillo,  Juan  del 

1584 

1640 

Carducho,  Vicente 

1585 

1638 

Tristan,  Luis 

1586 

1640 

RiBERA,  Guisenpe  de  (SpagnolettO) 

1588 

1656 

Ribalta,  Juan  de 

1597 

1628 

ZuRBARAN,  Francesco 

1598 

1662 

CoUantes,  Francesco 

1599 

1656 

Pereda,  Antonio 

1599 

1669 

Velasquez,  Don  Diego 

Mazo,  Juan  Bautista  Martinez  del 

1599 

1660 



1667 

March,  Estehan 



1660 

Espinosa^,  Jacinto  Geronimo  de 

1600 

1680 

Cano,  Alonso 

1601 

1667 

Castillo,  Antonio  del 

1603 

1667 

Pareja,  Juan  de 

1606 

1670 

Rizi,  Francesco 

1608 

1685 

Moya,  Pedro  de 

1610 

1666 

Bocanegra,  Pedro  Anastasto 



1688 

Toledo,  Juan  de  {El  Capitan) 
Carreflo  de  Miranda,  Juan 

1611 

1665 

1614 

1685 

Arellano,  Juan  de 

1614 

1676 

MuRiLLO,  Bartolom6  Esteban 

1618 

1682 

Iriarte,  Ignacig 

1620 

1685 

Herrera,  Francesco  (El  Mozo) 

1622 

1685 

Romero,  Juan  de  Sevilla 

1627 

1695 

Gomez,  Sebastian                        17th  cent.  I 

Vega,  Diego  Gonzalez  de  la 

1 

— 

— 

440 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF   PAINTERS. 


School.        1 

Birth. 

Death. 

Seville 

Valdes-Leal,  Juan  de 

16.S0 

1691 

Madrid 

Escalante,  Juan  Ant. 

1630 

1670 

Seville 

Osm-io,  Meneses 

1630 

1705 

Madrid 

Cerezo,  Matteo  de 

1635 

1675 

Coello,  Claudio 

1635 

1693 

Seville 

Villavicencis,  Don  Pedro  Nunez  de 

1635 

1700 

}f 

Palomnio  y  Velasquez,  Don  Antonio 
Marquez,  Estehan 

1653 

1655 

1720 

Tobar,  Alonso  Miguel 

1678 

1758 

Llorente,  Don  Bernardo  Gei^man  de 

1685 

1757 

Madrid 

Goya  y  Lucientes,  Don  Francesco 

1746 

1828 

>> 

FoRTUNY,  Mariano 

1838 

1874 

IV.    GEEMAN  PAINTEES. 


Bohemia 

Theodorich  of  Prague 

1348-1378 

)> 

Wurmser,  Nicolas 

1348-1378  ' 

j» 

Kunz 

1348-1378  ' 

Cologne 

Herle,  Meister  Wilhelm  -^ 

wn       1358  , 

Swabia 

Tieffenthal,  Hans 

1418-1433 

Cologne 

Moser,  Lucas 

1431 

>» 

Lochner,  Stephan  (Meister  Stephan) 

1442-1448 

Austria 

D.  Pfenning  [als  ich  cann) 

1449 

Swabia   * 

Herlin,"  Frederick 

1449-1499 

»> 

Justus  (de  Allamagna) 

1451 

Augsburg 

Kaltenhof,  Peter 

1457 

Swabia 

Fyoll,  Conrad 

1461-1476 

)» 

Iscnmann,  Caspar 

1462 

it 

Hirtz,  Hans 

Westphalia 

Master  of  Liesbom 

1465 

Cologne 

Master  of  the  Lyversberg  Passion 

1463-1480 

Austria 

Packer,  Michael  (of  Prauneck) 

1467-1481 

Swabia 

Schiichlein,  Hans 

1469 

Nuremberg 

Furtmeyer,  Perchthold  {miniatiirist) 

1470-1501 

Bavaria 

Mdchleskircher,  Gahrid 

1472-1479 

Nuremberg 

Pleydenwurff,  Wilhelm 

j> 

Traut,  Hans 

1477 

Swabia 

Zeitblom,  Bartolomdus 

1484-1517 

Switzerland 

Fries,  Hans 

1488-1518 

iy 

Herbst,  Hans 

1492-1500 

Swabia 

Schafl&ier,  Martin 

1499-1535 

Franconla 

Wohlgemuth,  Michael 

1434 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OP   PAINTEE8. 

441 

School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

SWABIA 

Schongauer,  Martin 

1450 

1488 

Nuremberg 

Springinklee,  Hans                           1500 
Griinewald,  Matthias 

— 



SWABIA 

1460 

1530 

Cristoferas,  Meister                 1500-1580 

,, 

Master  of  the  Death  of  the  Virgin 

— 

1519 

Calcar 

Jan  Joost  of  Calcar                 1505-1508 



1519 

Nuremberg 

Sues,  Hans  (of  Kulmbach)        1511-1518 

— 

Austria 

Striael,  Bci-nhard                             1520 
Holbein,  Hans  (the  elder) 

1460-1 

— 

Augsburg 

1464 

1524 

)) 

Holbein,  Sigmund 

1540 

Swabia 

Grien,  Hans  Balding  (of  Gmund) 

1476 

1545 

Nuremberg 

DURER,  AlBRECHT 

1471 

1528^ 

Saxony 

Cranach,  Lucas  (the  elder) 

1472 

1553 

AUGSBERG 

BuRGKMAiR,  Hans  (the  elder) 

1473 

1531 

Nuremberg 

Ostendorfer,  Michael               1519-1559 





Westphalia 

Dicnwegge,  Heinrich  and  Viktor     1521 





Nuremberg 

Altdorfer,  Albrecht 

1480 

1538 

Switzerland 

Manuel,  Nicolas  (Deutsch) 

1484 

1531 

Augsburg 

Amberger,  Christoph 

1490 

1563 

Nuremberg 

Diirer,  Hans                                     1530 

1490 



)> 

Schaufelin,  Hans  Leonhard 

1490 

1539 

)) 

Deig  Sebastian 

)) 

Feselen,  Melchior 



1538 

ff 

Eisner,  Jacob 



1546 

Switzerland 

Breu,  Georg 



1536 

Cologne 

Briiyn,  Bartolomaus 

1493 

1556 

Westphalia 

Ring,  Ludger  Zmn  {the  elder) 
Holbein,  Hans  (the  younger) 

1496 

1531 

Augsburg 

1497 

1543 

Switzerland 

Asper,  Hans 

1499 

1571 

Schleswig 

Raphon,  Johann,  of  Eimheck         1507 
Holbein,  Ambrose                             1519 



1528 

Augsburg 



Austria 

Dax,  Raul                                1526-1540 





Worms 

Wousam,  Anton                               1528 





Saxony 

Krodel,  Wolfgang                            1528 





if 

Krell,  Hans                              1533-1573 





Nuremberg 

Beham,  Hans  Sebald 

1500 

1550 

)> 

Pencz,  Georg 

1500 

1555 

f» 

Aldegrever,  Heinrich 

1502 

1565 

i» 

Beham,  Bartel 

1502 

1540 

11 

Bink,  Jacob 

1504 

1569 

Austria 

Seiseyiegger,  Jacob 

1505 

1567 

Nuremberg 

Glockenton,  Georg  {the  elder^  minia- 

turist) 



1515 

>> 

Glockenton,  Nicolaus 



1534 

Bavaria 

Mielich,  Hans 

1515 

1572 

Saxony 

Cranach,  Lucas  (the  younger) 

1515 

1586 

)) 

Cranach,  Johannes 



1536 

Saxony 

Roddelstedt,  Peter                  1540-1550 



Switzerland 

Stimmevt  Tobias 

1539 

1582 

442 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


School. 


Nuremberg 
Switzerland 
Bavaria 
Westphalia 

Bavaria 

Cologne 
Bavaria 
Italian- 
German 
Switzerland 
Bavaria 
Frankfort 
Nuremberg 
Frankfort 
Nuremberg 
Italian- 
German 
Hamburg 
Italian- 
German 


Italian- 
German 
Zurich 
Stuttgart 
Classico- 
Germanic 

Dresden 
Stuttgart 
Dusseldorf 
Munich 

Dortrecht 

Munich 

Dusseldorf 

Munich 

Nuremberg 


Dusseldorf 
Classico-  ) 
Germanic  \ 

Munich 

Dusseldorf 


Amman,  Jost 

Bock,  Hans  1560 

Bocksperger,  Hans  1560 

Bing^  Ludger  Zum  {the  younger) 

1562-1591 
Schiuartz,  Christoph 
Hoffmann,  Hans  1584 

Aachen,  Hans  von 
Heinz,  Joseph  1591-1609 

Goltzius,  Heinrich 

Maurer,  Christoph 
Rottenhammer,  Johann 
Uffenbach,  Philipp 
Lautensack,  Hans  Sehald 
Elzheimer,  Adam 
Sandrart,  Joachim  von 

Loth,  Carl,  of  Munich 

Denner,  Balthasar 

Dietrich,  Christian 

Tischbein,  Johann  Heinrich 

Mengs,  Anton  Raphael 

Gessner,  Salomon 
Hackert,  Joh.  Philipp 

Carstens,  Asmus  Jacob 

Koch,  Josef  Anton 

Friedrich,  Kaspar  D. 

Schick,  Gottlieb 

Kolhe,  Karl  Wilhelm 

Cornelius,  Peter  von 

Nake,  G.  Heinrich  (of  Dresden) 

Schotel,  J.  Christian 

Overbeck,  Friedrich 

Schadow,  WiUielm 

Hess,  Peter 

Klein,  Josef  Adam, 

Veit,  Philipp 

Schnorr,  Julius  (of  Carolsfeld) 

Begas,  Carl 

Genelli,  Bonaventura 

Preller,  Ludwig 
Rottmann,  Karl 
Fiihrich,  Joseph 
Schirmer,  Wilhelm 


Birth.     Deatl 


1539 

1550 
1552 

1558 

1558 
1564 
1565 

1578 
1606 

1632 

1685 

1712 

1722 

1728 

1734 
1737 

1754 

1768 
1776 
1776 
1781 
1783 
1786 
1787 
1789 
1789 
1792 
1792 
1793 
1794 
1794 

1798 

1804 
1798 
1800 
1802 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS   OF    PAINTERS. 

443 

School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

DUSSELDORF 

Biirkel,  Heinrich 

1802 

1869 

Richter,  Adrian  Ludwig 

1803 

— 

Munich 

Schwindt,  Moritz  von 

1804 

1871 

DiJ.SSELDORF 

Schrodter,  Adolf 
Moi-genstem,  Christian 

1805 

1875 

)i 

1805 

1862 

Munich 

Kaulbach,  Wilhelm  von 

1805 

1874 

DUSSELDORF 

Schimier,  Johann  W. 

1807 

1863 

„ 

Miiller,  M.  K.  F. 

1807 

1865 

Meyerheim,  Friedrich  Edvurd 

1808 

1879 

o 

Lessing,  Karl  Friedrich 

1808 

1880 

Vienna 

Frdhlich,  Ernst 

1810 

1882 

Munich 

Sfeinle,  Eduard 

1810 

— 

IJUSSELDORF 

Bendemann,  Eduard 

1811 

— 

Munich 

Scldeich,  Eduard 

1812 

1874 

DuSSELDORF 

Hiibner,  Karl 

1814 

1879 

„ 

Tidemand,  Adolf 

1814 

1876 

„ 

Bethel,  Alfred 

1816 

1859 

Dantzig 

Hildebrandt,  Eduard                  -  "" 

1818 

1868 

DuSSELDORF 

Camphausen,  Wilhelm 

1818 

1885 

Berlin 

Bichter,  Giistav  Karl  Licdwig 

1823 

1884 

Munich 

Piloty,  Karl 

1826 

1886 

)) 

Knaus,  Ludwig 

1829 

1882 

„ 

Feuerbach,  Anselm 

1829 

1880 

*t 

Makart,  Hans 

1840     1884 

V.    FLEMISH  PAINTiiJES. 

Bruges 

Hennequin,  or  Jehan  de  Bruges   1370-1377 
Hasselt,  Jehan  de                          1373-1386 

_ 



COURTRAI 

— 



YPRfe 

Broederlain,  Melchior                   1383-1409 

— 

— 

Ghent 

Van  Eyck,  Hubert 

1366 

1426 

Bruges 

Van  Eyck,  Jan 

1381- 
1390 

1440 

TOURNAI 

Campin,  Robert                            14th  cent. 

— 

— 

jj 

Weyden,  Roger  van  deb 

1399 

1464 

Ghent 

Martim,  Nabor                              1440-1449 





Bruges 

Cristus,  Petrus                         1444-1472 



— 

LOUVAIN 

Bouts,  Dierick 

1399- 
1400 

1475 

ff 

Stuerbout,  Hubert                        1447-1449 



— 

TOURNAI 

MarmioD,  Simon 

14£5 

1489 

Bruges 

Memling,  Hans 



1494 

Ghent 

Jodocus,  or  Justus  of  Ghent         1468-1474 



— 

>> 

Goes,  Hugo  van  der 



1482 

i> 

M< 

3ire,  Gerard  van  der                 15th  cent 

— 

— 

CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS    OP   PAINTERS. 


School. 

Birth. 

Death 

Bruges 

David,  Gerard  (Gheerardt) 

1460 

1525 

LOUVAIN 

Bouts,  Dierick  (the  younger) 

— 

149( 

jj 

Bouts,  Albert 

— 

154? 

Bruges 

Prevost,  Jan 

— 

152? 

Antwerp 

Massys,  Quentin 

1466 

153( 

J) 

Gossaert,  Jan  (Mabuse) 

1470 

153S 

Ghent 

Horehout,  or  Horembout,  Gerard 

1480 

154( 

DiNANT 

Bles,  Hendrik  Metten  (Herri  de  Bles) 

— 

155( 

Bruges 

Patinir,  Joachim 

— 

1524 

Antwerp 

Sanders,  Jan  (of  Hemessen)          1519-1555 

— 

— 

DOUAI 

Bellegambe,  Jean                                   1520 

— 

— 

Brussels 

Orley,  Bernard  van  (van  Brussel) 

1490 

1545 

Antwerp 

Veen,  Marten  van  (of  Heemskerck) 

1494 

1574 

Brussels 

Blondeel,  Lancelot 

1496 

1561 

Antwerp 

Komerswalen,  Marinus  Claeszoon  van 

1497 

156t 

Brussels 

Coxcien,  Michael  van 

1499 

1595 

Liege 

Gassel,  Lucas 

— 

156L 

Bruges 

Claessins,  Pieter  {the  elder) 

1500 

1576 

Brussels 

Vermeyen,  Jan  Comelizoon  {of  Haxtrlem) 

1500 

loot 

Antwerp 

Koch,  or  Coecke,  Pieter  {of  Alost) 

1502 

1551 

Liege 

Lombard,  Lambert 

1505 

1566 

Antwerp 

Aartzen,  Pieter  (Lange  Pier  of  Haarlem) 

1507 

1575 
1572 

157t 

)) 

Massys,  Jan 

1509 

) 

Massys,  Cornelis 

1511 

158C 

) 

Vriendt,  Fra,ns  van  (Frans  Floris) 

1517-8 

157C 

Vos,  Martin 

1513 

1605 

> 

Neuchatel,  Nicolas  (Lucidel)        1539-1584 

— 

— 

) 

Beukelaar,  Joachim                       1559-1575 

— 

— 

Cleve,  Joost,  or  Josse  van            1530-1550 

— 

— 

Noort,  Lambert  van 

1520 

157C 

, 

Key,  WiUem  (of  Breda) 

1520 

1568 

Bruges 

Straet,  Jan  van  der 

1523 

160c 

>» 

Claessins,  Pieter  {the  younger) 
Breughel,  Pieter  (Peasant  Breughel) 

— 

1615 

Antwerp 

— 

156S 

j^ 

Grimmer,  Jacob 

1526 

159C 

Malines 

Coxcien,  Raphael                                   1585 

— 

— 

Ghent 

Heere,  Lucas  de 

1534 

1584 

Antwerp 

Congnet,  Gillis 

1538 

159£ 

Vlerick,  Pieter  {of  Courtrai) 

1539 

1581 

)) 

Franchoys,  Paul 

1540 

1596 

)) 

Porbus,  Frans  (the  elder) 

1540 

1584 

>* 

Valckenborgh,  Luk  van 

1540 

162£ 

Pieter zoon,  Aart 

1541 

160c 

Francken,  Frans 

1544 

16ie 

Coninxloo,  Gillis  van 

1544 

160J, 

5J 

Key,  Adrian  Thomas  (of  Breda) 

1544 

159C 

Brussels 

Winghen,  Joost  van 
Hoefnagel,  Jons  {miniaturist) 

1544 

1601 

Ant^ 

verp 

1545 

im 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


445 


School. 

Birth 

Death. 

Antwerp 

Spranger,  Bartholomdiis 

1546 

1627 

J 

Calvaert,  Denis 

1548 

1619 

)) 

Witte,  Pieter  de  {Candida) 

1548 

1628 

Mander,  Karel  van 

1548 

1606 

Snellinck,  Jan 

1549 

1638 

Bril,  Matthew 

1556 

1580 

Bril,  Paul 

1556 

1626 

Veen,  Otto  van  (Vaenius) 

1558 

1629 

»» 

Geldorpy  Gortziiis  {of  Louvain) 

1558 

1616 
1618 
1632 

)) 

Balen,  Henri  van 

1560 

a 

Geeraerts,  Marcus  {Gerrard) 

1561 

1635 

}} 

Haecht,  Tobie  van  (Verhaegt) 

1561 

1631 

Noort,  Adam  van 

1562 

1641 

i> 

Breughel,  Pieter  the  younger  (Hell) 

1564 

1638 

Bloemart,  Abraham 

1565 

1647 

Janssens,  Abraham 

1567 

1632 

,, 

Breughel,  Jan  (Velvet) 

1568 

1625 

,, 

Porbus,  Frans  (the  younger) 

1570 

1622 

Brussels 

Alslool,  Denis  van                        16th  cent. 

— 

— 

Antwerp 

Neefs,  Pieter  the  elder) 

1570 

1651 

Backereel,  Gillis 

1572 



VrancXy  Sebastian 

1573 

1638 

Pepyn,  Marten 

1575 

1643 

Savery,  Roelandt 

1576 

1639 

Rubens,  Peter  Paul 

1577 

1640 

Vinckehoons,  David 

1578 

1629 

Snyders,  Franz 

1579 

1657 

Francken,  Frans  (the  younger) 

1581 

1642 

Teniers,  David  (the  elder) 

1582 

1649 

Grayer,  Gaspard  de 

1582 

1669 

Vos,  Cornelius  dk 

1585 

1651 

Grimmer,  Abel                                        1614 

Seghers,  Daniel  ^ 

1590 

1661 

Sallaert,  Antonij 

1590 

Soiittnan,  Pieter 

1591 

1697 

Crabeth,  Dirk  and  Wouter  (of  Gouda) 

1592 

1660 

Honthorst  Gerard  (Gherardo  de  la  Notte) 

1592 

1662 

JoRDAENS,  Jacob 

1593 

1678 

Snayers,  Pieter 

1593 

1663 

Fniitiers,  Philip                                     1631 

—        1666 

Schut,  Contelis 

1597  1    1656 

Pombauts,  Theodore 

1597      1637 

Van  Dyck,  Antonij,  Sir 

1599  1    1641 

Mol,  Pieter  van 

1599      1650 

Miel,  Jan 

1599      1664 

Conincky  David  de 

.  1599      1687 

Utrecht^  Adam  van 

1599 

1652 

446 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


School. 

Birth. 
1604 

Death. 

Antwerp 

fferp,  Gerard  van 

1677 

jj 

Vos,  Paul  de 

1604 

1678 

Brussels 

Heil,  Daniel  de 

1604 

1662 

Antwerp 

Molyn,  Pieter 

— 

1661 

jj 

Es,  Jacques  van 

1606 

1656 

f 

Diepenbeek,  Abraham  van 

1607 

1675 

y 

Quellin,  Erasmus 

1607 

1678 

t 

Thulden,  Theodore  van 

1607 

1676 

] 

t 

Craesbeek,  Josse  van 

1608 

16U 

Brouwer,  Adrian 

1606 

1638 

f 

Fyt,  Jan 

1609 

1661 

] 

t 

Lint,  Pieter  van 

1609 

1690 

f 

Teniers,  David  (the  younger) 

1610 

1694 

y 

Asselyn,  Jan 

1610 

1690 

y 

Byn,  Jan  van 
Bloot,  Pieter  de 

1610 

1678 

y 



1667 

y 

Wolfvoet,  Victor 

1612 

1652 

Byckaert,  Daniel 

1612 

1661 

Brussels 

Arthois,  Jacques  d' 
Boschaert,  Thomas  Willehorts 

1613 

1665 

Antwerp 

1613 

1656 

ft 

Flemalle,  Bertholet 

1614 

1675 

y 

CoQUEs,  Gonzales 

1614 

1684 

y 

Faes,  Pieter  van  der  (Sir  Peter  Lely) 

1618 

1680 

t 

Wallerant,  VaiUant 

1623 

1677 

y 

Duchdtel,  Frans 

1625 

1656 

y 

Siberechts,  Daniel 

1627 

16- 

Champaigne,  Philippe  de 
Meulen,  Antonij  Frans  van  der 

1631 

1681 

Brussels 

1634 

1690 

Bruges 

Oost,  Jacques  van  (the  younger) 
Lairesse,  Gerard  de 

1639 

1713 

LifiGE 

1640 

1711 

Antwerp 

Millet,  J.  F.  {Francisque) 

1642 

1680 

HicysTuans,  Cornelis 
Helmont,  Mathieu  van 

1648 

1727 

1653 

1719 

t 

Huysmans,  J.  B. 

1654 

9 

Bysbraeck,  Pieter 

Bloemen,  J.  Frans  van  [Orizonte) 

1655 

1729 

1658 

1748 

Janssens,  Victor  ffonorS 

1664 

1739 

La  Fabrique,  Nicolas 
Breydel,  Chevalier  Charles 

1669 

1733 

1677 

1744 

Herreyns,  Guillaume 

1743 

1827 

Brussels 

Marne,  Jean  Louis  de 

1744 

1829 

Antwerp 

Begemorter,  Bierre  van 

1755 

1830 

St 

Francois, 

1759 

1851 

»y 

Hilffel,  Victor 

1769 

1844 

ft 

Bree,  Matthieu  van 

1773 

1839 

tt 

Baelincx 

1781 

1839 

«> 

Navez,  Franqois 

1787 

1869 

ft 

Brakeleer,  Ferdinand  de 

1792 

1883 

»» 

Madou,  J.  B.  F.  de 

1796 

1877 

chronological  lists  of  painters. 

447 

School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Vntwerp 

Verboeckhoven,  Eugene 

1798 

1881 

)) 

Caisne,  Henri  de 

1799 

1852 

)l 

Wappers,  Gustave 

1803 

1874 

VMne,  Felise  La 
Wiertz,  Antoine  Louis 

1806 

1862 

Brussels 

1806 

1865 

Biefve,  Edouard  de 

1808 

1882 

)) 

GaUait,  Louis 

1810 

1887 

^.NTWERP 

Keyset,  Nicaise  de 

1813 

1887 

Founnois,  Theodor 

1814 

1871 

Leys,  Henri 

1815 

1869 

Moer,  J.  B.  van 

1819 

1885 

>> 

Lies,  Joseph 

1821 

1865 

VI.    DUTCH  PAINTEES. 

Taarlem 

Oudewater,  An)ert  van             1467-1480 

__ 



BOIS-LE-DUC 

Aeken,  Jerome  van  (Bos  or  Bosch) 

— 

1518 

Haarlem 

Mandyn,  Jan 

— 

1520 

Leyden 

Engelbrechtsen,  Cornelis 

1468 

1533 

Amsterdam 

Comeliszoon,  Jakob  (of  Oostzaandam) 

1506-1530 

— 

— 

Haarlem 

Mostaert,  Jan 

1474 

1555-6 

)) 

Comeliszoon,  Willem                          1509 

— 

_ 

Pinas,  Jan                                            1521 

— 

— 

Leyden 

Comeliszoon,  Pieter  (Kunst) 

1493 

1544 

Jakobzoon,  Dirk 

1493 

1567 

Lucas  van  Leyden 

1494 

1533 

1) 

Comeliszoon,  Lukas  (Kok) 

1495 

— 

Amsterdam 

ScHOREEL,  Jan 

1495 

1562 

Haarlem 

Steffcns,  Jan  {of  Calcar) 

1510 

1546 

GOUDA 

Porbus,  Pieter  (the  elder) 

1510 

1584 

Utrecht 

MoR,  Antony  (Sir  Antonio  Moro) 
Vries,  Jan  Vredeman  de 

1518 

1588. 

Amsterdam 

1527 

1604 

GoUDA 

Vischer,  Cornelis                                1572 

— 

— 

Amsterdam 

Ketel,  Cornelis 

1548 

I6O4. 

Steenwyck,  Hendrik  van 

1550 

1604 

^ 

Vroom,  Hendrik 

1556 

1640 

Haarlem 

Comeliszoon,  Comelis 

1562 

1638 

Leyden 

Lastman,  Pieter 

1562 

1649 

Utrecht 

Bloeniaert,  Abraham 

1565 

1647 

Leyden 

Schwanenl)erg,  Isaak  van 

16th  and  17th  cent. 

— 

— 

Delft 

MiEREVELT,  Nic.  Janz.  van 

1562 

1641 

Utrecht 

Heeni,  David  de 

1570 

1632 

448 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LISTS    OF    PAINTEES. 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Utrecht 

Moreelse,  Paul 

1571 

1638 

Dordrecht 

Cuyp,  Jacob  Gerritz 

Velde,  Esams  Vander                1610-1618 

1575 



Haarlem 

— 



Grebber,  Frans  Pierterz.  de                1610 

— 

1649 

)) 

Hoeckgeest,  Joachim                   1610-1626 

— 

— 

f  f 

Ravesteyn,  Jan  van 

1580 

1665 

)) 

Hals,  Frans 

1584 

1666 

if 

Vliet,  W.  van  der 

1584 

1642 

Amsterdam 

Pinas,  Jacob                                        1620 

— 

— 

Haarlem 

Hals,  Dirk 

— 

1656 

)} 

Poelenberg,  Cornells  van 

1586 

1667 

;) 

Bray,  Salomon 

1587 

1664 

J) 

Bi^ay,  Jan 

— 

1664 

Delft 

Venne,  Adrian  Vander 

1589 

1660 

Uytenbroeck,  Moses  van 
Mytens,  Daniel 

1590 



}) 

1590 

1656 

Ceiden,  Cornelis  J.  van 

1590 

1665 

J) 

Kierings,  Alexander 

1590 

1646 

Haarlem 

Verboom,  Abraham                    1630-1663 

— 

— 

Delft 

Heda,  Willem  Claeszoon 

1594 

1678 

Potter,  Pieter 

1595 



Janssens,  Cornelis 

?1595 

1665 

Haarlem 

Grebber,  Pieter  de                      1630-1649 



— 

Leyden 

GOYEN,  Jan  van 

1596 

1666 

Amsterdam 

Keyzer,  Thomas  de 

1597 

1679 

Haarlem 

Saenredan,  Pieter 

1597 

1666 

Verspronck,  Johannes 
Rombouts,  Theodore 

1597 

1662 

Antwerp 

1597 

1637 

Haarlem 

Verspronck,  Cornelis  Engelszoon 

1598 

— 

)9 

Avercamp,  Hendrik  van 

Velde,  WiUem  van  der  (the  elder)     1630 

1600 

1663 

Amsterdam 

— 

1693 

Utrecht 

Heem,  Jan  Davidzoon  de 

1600 

1674 

Haarlem 

Ruysdael,  Salomon 

1600 

1670 

^ 

Wynants,  Jan 

1600 

1679 

)> 

Molyn,  Pieter  (the  elder) 

1600 

1654 

)) 

Palamedes,  Anthonii 

1600 

1673 

Wils,  Jan                                              1635 

— 

— 

Delft 

Aelst,  Evert  van 

1602 

1648 

Utrecht 

Heem,  Jan  de 

1603 

1650 

Amsterdam 

Vlieger,  Simon  de 

1604- 
1612 

1660 

Haarlem 

Angel,  Philip                                       1639 

1665 

Amsterdam 

Vliet,  Hendrik 

1605 

— 

Dordrecht 

Cuyp,  Aalbert 

1605 

1691 

Haarlem 

Witte,  Emmanuel  de 

1607 

1692 

Everdingen,  Cesar  van 

1606 

1679 

Brauwer,  Adrian 

1606 

1638 

Leyden 

Rembrandt  van  Ryn 

1607 

1669 

Amsterdam 

Lievenz.  Jan 

1607 

— 

CHEONOLOaiCAL   LISTS   OF   PAINTEES. 


449 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Delft 

Palamedesz.  Palamedes 

1607 

1673 

)) 

Deelen,  Dirk  van 

1607 

1638 

Haarlem 

Hals,  Frans  (Franzoon)  (the  younger) 

1643 

— 

— 

)* 

Ter  Borch,  Gerard  (Terburg) 

1608 

1681 

tt 

Koning,  Salomon  de 

1609 

1674 

if 

Codde,  Pieter 

1610 

1658 

a 

Ostade,  Adrtax 

1610 

1685 

Leyden 

Dou,  Gerard 

1610 

1675 

Haarlem 

Asselyn,  Jan 

1610 

1660 

)) 

Stoop,  Dirk 

1610 

1680 

Utrecht 

Both,  Jan 

1610 



Haarlem 

Colebier,  Nicolas                      17th  cent. 





)) 

Heemskerk,  Egbert 

1610 

1680 

>> 

Wyck,  Thomas 

1610 

1671 

)> 

Molenaer,  Bartolomeus                      1640 



— 

)t 

Gael,  Barend 



— 

Bol,  Ferdinand 

1611 

1681 

Marcellis,  Otho 

1613 

1673 

it 

Bray,  Jacob 

— 

1697 

it 

Van  Loo,  Jacob  van 

1614 

1665 

if 

Helt-Stockade,  Nicolas 

1614 

1669 

^) 

Flinck,  Govaert 

1615 

1660 

Amsterdam 

Dubbels,  Hendrik                               1650 





Haarlem 

Wet,  Jan  de 

1617 



)) 

RomhoutSi  GUlis                                1662 





Amsterdam 

Neer,  Aart  van  der 

1619 

1683 

jj 

Ovens,  Jurian 

1619 

1678 

Haarlem 

Koninck,  PhiHp  de 

1619 

1689 

if 

WOUWERMANS,  PHILIP 

1619 

1668 

Delft 

Delft,  Jacob 

1619 

1661 

Victoor  or  Victors,  Jan 

1620 

1662 

Haarlem 

Bega,  Cornells 

16S0 

1664 

Delft 

Aelst,  Willem  van 

1620 

1679 

Haarlem 

Brekelenkamp,  Quiryn 
Berchem,  Nicnolas 

1620 

1668 

)) 

1620 

1683 

a 

Ostade,  Isaac 

1621 

1649 

Antwerp 

Sorgh,  Hendrik  Martenz.  Rokes 

1621 

1682 

jj 

Pape,  Adrian  de                                 1648 
Eckhout,  Gerbrandt  van  der 





Leyden 

1621 

1674 

Amsterdam 

Everdingen,  Aalbert  or  Allard  van 
Looten,  Jan 

1621 

1745 

Antnverp 

— 

1681 

Haarlem 

Tempel,  Abraham  Lammert  Jacobz.  van 

1622 

1672 

Delft 

Fabritius,  Carel 

1624 

1654 

Antwerp 

Merian,  Matthew  (the  younger) 

1625 

1687 

Haarlem 

Potter,  Paul 

1625 

1654 

a 

Dujardin,  Karel 

1625 

1678 

Ruysdael,  Jacob 

itfi-J 

1682 

150 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS    OF    PAINTERS. 


School. 

Birth. 

Death. 

Haarlem 

Lingelbach,  Jan  (of  Frankfort) 

1625 



fy 

Wouverman,  Pieter 

1626 

1683 

if 

Decker,  Cornells 



1678 

yt 

Steen,  Jan 

1626 

1679 

yy 

Rontbouts,  A.                            17th  cent. 





Dordrecht 

Hooffstraeten,  Samuel  van 
Berckheyden,  Job 

1627 

1678 

Haarlem 

1628 

1693 

J) 

Wouwerman,  Jan 

1629 

1666 

Amsterdam 

Kalf,  WiUem 

1630 

1693 

Haarlem 

Helst,  Bartolomeus  van  der 

1630 

1670 

Utrecht 

Heem,  Cornells  de 

1630 

1693 

Rotterdam 

Oosterwyck,  Maria  van            17th  cent. 



— 

Leiden 

Waterloo,  Anthonij 

1630 

1661 

Amsterdam 

Hackaert,  Jan                           17th  cent. 



— 

J, 

Backhuysen,  Ludolf 

1631 

1708 

Utrecht 

Mlgnon,  Abraham  (of  Frankfort) 

1669 

— 

— 

Dordrecht 

Maas,  Nicholas 

1632 

1693 

Haarlem 

Molenaar,  Jan  Mlense 



1685 

>» 

Walscapelle,  Jacobus 
Brakenburg,  Richard 

1675 

— 

— 

)) 

1687 

— 

— 

Delft 

Meer,  Jan  van  der  (Vermeer) 

1690 

1632 

— 

}> 

Peel,  Egbert  v.  d. 



1690 

»> 

Hooch,  Pieter  de  (De  Hoogh) 

1632 

1681 

Amsterdam 

Velde,  Willem  v.  d.  (the  younger) 

1633 

1707 

>) 

Moucheron,  Frederick 

1633 

1688 

Haarlem 

MiERis,  Frans  (the  elder) 

1635 

1681 

Hague 

Haagen,  Jan  van  der 

1635 

— 

Haarlem 

Velde,  Adrian  van  der 

1636 



Utrecht 

HONDEKOETER,  MeLCHIOE 

1636 

1695 

Amsterdam 

Heyden,  Jan  v.  d. 

1637 

1712 

it 

Hobbema,  Minderhout 

1638 

1709 

Haarlem 

Berckheyden,  Gerrlt 

1638 

1698 

)) 

Anraadf,  Pieter  van 

1674 

— 

— 

>> 

Netscher,  Gaspard 

1639 

— 

AMS'I'ERDAM 

Metsu,  Gabriel 

1640 

1669 

>>   '   Liege 

Lairesse,  Gerard  de 

1640 

— 

Haarlem 

Slingelandt,  Pieter  van 
Schalken,  Godefroid 

1640 

1691 

)) 

1643 

1706 

Amsterdam 

Neer,  Eglon  van  der 

1643 

1703 

Utrecht 

Weenix,  Jan 

1644 

1709 

Haarlem 

Capelle,  Jan  v.  d. 

1686 

1644 



Amsterdam 

Gelder,  Aart 

1645 



j> 

KneUer,  Godfrold  (Sir  Godfrey) 

1646 

1723 

}f 

Hugtenburg,  Jan  van 
Verkolje,  Nicholas 

1646 

1733 

Haarlem 

1650 

1693 

,, 

Molenaer,  Jan  Jakobzoon 

1654 

— 

Rotterdam 

Werff,  Adrian  van  der 

1659 

1722 

Haarlem 

Dusart,  Cornells 



f» 

Mieris,  Willem  van 

1662 

1747 

CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OF   PAINTERS. 


451 


School.          1 

Birth. 

Death. 

Amsterdam   Ruysch,  Rachel 

1664 

_^ 

Utrecht         Walkenburg,  Dirk 
HuVsuM,  Jan  van 

1675 

1721 

1682 

1750 

Haarlem        Miens,  Frans  van  (the  younger) 

1689 

1763 

Amsterdam    Witt,  Jacob  de 

1695 

1754 

jj 

Troost,  Comelis 

'1697 

1750 

,, 

Os,  Jan  van 

1744 

1808 

Modern 

Koekkoek,  Barend 

1803 

1862 

** 

Mauve,  Anton 

1838 

1888 

Vn.  FEENCH  PAINTEES. 


Ingohertus  {miniaturist) 
Colart  le  Voleur  [miniaturist) 

877 

— 

— 

15th  cent. 

— 

— 

B^nd,  Kin^of  Anjou 
Boulogne,  Hue  de  {miniaturist) 

1408 

1480 

1449 

— 

— 

Fouquet,  Jean 

1415 

1485 

Coustain,  Pierre  de  {miniaturist) 

1471 

— 

— 

Froment,  Nicolas  (of  Avignon) 

1461-1476 

— 

— 

Clouet,  Jehan  (Cloet  of  Brussels) 

1420 

— 

Clouet,  Jehan  or  Jehanet  (the  younger) 

1485 

1545 

Cousin,  Jean 

1501 

1589 

Clouet,  Fran(?ois  (Janet) 

1510 

1572 

Gourmont,  Jean  de 

1557 

— 

— 

Dubois,  Ambrose 

1543 

1614 

Frtminet,  Martin 

1567 

1619 

Le  Nain,  Antoine 

1568 

1648 

Dumoustier 

1575 

1646 

Vouet,  Simon 

1590 

1649 

Pcrrier,  Frangois 

1590 

1656 

Callot,  Jacques 

1593 

1635 

Le  Nain,  Louis  (Le  Romain) 

1593 

1648 

PoussiN,  Nicolas 

1594 

1665 

Stella,  Jacques 

1596 

1667 

Blanchard,  Jacques 

1600 

1638 

Gel£e,  Claude  (Lorraine)] 

1600 

1682 

Valentin, 

1600 

1634 

Chani|iaigne,  Philippe  de 

1602 

1674 

Corncdle,  Paris 

1603 

1664 

Mignard,  Pierre    ^Vitofo* 

1605 

166S 

Hire,  Laurent  de  la 

1606 

1656 

Le  Nain,  Matthieu 

1607 

1677 

Boullongne,  Louis  de 

1609 

1674 

Frcsnoy,  Charles  du 

1611 

1665 

i52 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OP  PAINTERS. 


Birth. 
1613 

Death. 

Dughet,  Gaspar  (Poussin) 

1675 

Testelin,  Louis 

1615 

1695 

Bourdon,  Sebastien 

1616 

1671 

Le  Sueur,  Eustache 

1617 

1655 

Le  Brun,  Charles 

1619 

1690 

Patel,  Pierre 

1620 

1676 

Courtois,  Jacques 

1621 

1676 

Le  Noir,  Nicolas 

1624 

1679 

Coypel,  Noel 
Lefevre,  Claude 

1628 

1707 

1633 

1675 

Monnoyer,  Jean  Bap. 

1634 

1699 

Fosse,  Charles  de  la 

1636 

1716 

Jouvenet,  Jean 

1644 

1717 

Corncille,  Michel 

1646 

1708 

Colombel,  Nicolas 

1646 

1717 

Parrocel,  Joseph 

1648 

1704 

Boullongne,  Bon 

1649 

1717 

Santerre,  J.  B. 

1650 

1717 

Boullongne,  Louis  de  {the  younger) 
Largilli^re,  Nicolas  de 

1654 

1733 

1656 

1746 

Rigaud,  Hyacintlie 

1659 

1743 

Coypel,  Antoine 

1661 

1722 

Desportes,  Francois 

1661 

1743 

Gillot,  Claude 

1673 

1722 

Baoux,  Jean 

1677 

1734 

Troy,  Jean  de 

1679 

1752 

Pesne,  Antoitie 

1683 

1757 

Watteau,  Antoine 

1684 

1721 

Van  Loo,  Jean  Bap. 

1684 

1745 

Naloire,  J.  M. 

1685 

1766 

Oudry,  J.  B. 

1686 

1755 

Moine,  Franqois  le 

1688 

1737 

Parrocel,  Charles 

1688 

1752 

Lancret,  Nicolas 

1690 

1743 

Pater,  J.  B. 

1695 

1736 

Tocque,  Louis 
Suhleijras,  Pierre 

1696 

1772 

1699 

1749 

Chardin,  Jean  Bap. 

1699 

1779 

Jeaurat,  Jean 

1699 

1789 

Boucher,  FRANgois 

1704 

1770 

Latour,  Maurice  Quentin 

1704 

1788 

Van  Loo,  Carle 

1705 

1765 

Vernet,  Claude  Joseph 

1714 

1789 

Vien,  Joseph  Marie 

1716 

1809 

Porte,  Poland  de  la 

1724 

1793 

Greuze,  Jean  Baptiste 

1725 

1805 

Casanova,  Francois 

1732 

1806 

Fragonard,  Jean  Honor^ 

1732 

1806 

David,  Jacques  Louis 

1748 

1825 

CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OP   PAINTEES. 


453 


Birth. 

Death. 

Regnault,  J.  B. 

1754 

1829 

Le  Brun,  Madame  Louise  Elizabeth  Vig^e 

1755 

1842 

Prad'hon,  Pierre  Paul 

1758 

1823 

Lethi^re,  Guillaume  Guillon- 

1760 

1832 

Drouais,  Jean  Louis 

1763 

1788 

Girodet  de  Roucy  Trioson,  Anne-Louia 

1767 

1824 

Isal>ey,  Jean  Bap. 

1767 

1855 

Gerard,  Francois 

1770 

1837 

Gros,  Antoine  Jean,  Baron 

1771 

1835 

Guerin,  P.  Narcisse,  Baron 

1774 

1833 

Granet,  Franqois  Mariiis 

1775 

1849 

Ingres,  Jean  Aug.  Dominiqub 

1780 

1867 

Watelet 

1780 

1866 

Poujol,  Abel  de 

1787 

1861 

Si«,^alon,  Xavier 

1788 

1837 

Vernet,  Horace 

1789 

1863 

G^RiCAULT,  Jean  Louis 

1791 

1824 

Charlety  Nicolas  Toussaint 

1792 

1845 

Robert,  Leopold 

1794 

1835 

Coaniet,  Lion 
Schefter,  Ary 

1794 

1880 

1795 

1858 

CoROT,  Camille 

1796 

1873 

Delaroche,  Paul 

1797 

1856 

Delacroix,  Ferd.  Victor  Eug£nb    - 

1798 

1863 

Roqueplan,  Camille 

1803 

1855 

Decamps,  Alex.  Gabriel 
Huet,  Paul 

1803 

1860 

1804 

1869 

Isabey,  Eugene  L.  G. 

1807 

1886 

Diaz  de  la  PeSa,  Narcisse  Virgilio 

1808 

1876 

Flandrin,  Hippolyte 

1809 

1864 

Marilhat,  Prosper 

1811 

1847 

Rousseau,  Pierre  Etienne  Theodore 

1812 

1867 

Millet,  Jean  FRANgpis 

1815 

1875 

Troyon,  Constant 

1816 

1865 

Daubigny,  Ch.  Fr. 

1817 

1878 

Courbet,  Gustave 

1819 

1877 

Frtjre,  Edouard 

1819 

188e 

Fromentin,  Eugene 

1820 

1876 

Dor^,  Gustave 

1832 

1882 

Manet,  Edouard 

1833 

1883 

Baatien-Lepage,  Jules 

1848 

1884 

454 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OP   PAINTERS. 


Vni.  ENGLISH  PAINTEKS. 


Birth. 

Death. 

-Billiard,  Nicholas 

1547 

1619 

—Oliver,  Isaac 

1555 

1617 

Jamesone,  George 

1586 

1644 

Oliver,  Peter 

1594 

1654 

Hoskius,  John 



1664 

Fuller^  Isaac 

1606 

1672 

Cooper,  Samuel 

1609 

1672 

Dobson,  William 

1610 

1646 

Stone,  Henry 

1616 

1653 

/tiely,  Sir  Peter  (Van  der  Faes) 

1617 

1680 

Walker,  Robert 

— 

1660 

Streater,  Robert 

1624 

1680 

Wright,  Joseph  Michael 

1625 

1700 

Anderton,  Henry 

1630 

1665 

Hecile,  Mary 

1632 

1697 

Flatnian,  Thomas 

1633 

1688 

Ril^,  John 
LKneller,  Sir  Godfrey 

1646 

1691 

1648 

1723 

Greenhill,  John 

1649 

1676 

Cross,  Lewis 



1724 

^iilichardson,  Jonathan 

1665 

1745 

Mohamy,  Peter 

1670 

1749 

Jervas,  Charles 

1675 

1735 

^Thornhill,  Sir  James 
"yAikman,  William 

1676 

1734 

1682 

1731 

Hogarth,  William 

1697 

1764 

Hudson,  Thomas                ^^ 
Wooton,  James 

1701 

1779 

17— 

1765 

Zuccarelli,  Francesco 

1701 

1788 

Taverner,  William 

1703 

1772 

Moser,  George  Michael 
Smith,  William  {of  Chichester) 

1704 

1783 

1707 

1764 

Hayman,  Francis 

1708 

1776 

Ramsay,  Allan 
Scott,  Samuel 

1709 

1784 

1710 

1772 

Smith,  Georqe  {of  Chichester) 
Wilson,  Ricnard 

1714 
1714 

1776 
1782 

SmUh,  John  {of  Chichester) 

1717 

1764 

Hone,  Nathaniel 

1718 

1784 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua 

1723 

1792 

Stubhs,  George 

1724 

1806 

Sandby,  Paul 

1725 

1809 

CHRONOLOaiCAI.   LISTS    OP   PAINTERS. 


455 


Cotes,  Francis 

Toms,  Peter 

Gainsborough,  Thomas 

Barret,  George,  Sen. 

Zoffany,  Johann 

Romney,  George 

Dance,  Natliayiiel 

Wright,  Joseph  (of  Derby) 

Martin^  David 

Copley,  J.  Singleton 

West,  Benjamin 

Cosway,  Richard 

Kauffman,  Angelica 

Pocock,  Nicholas 

Barry,  James 

Fuseli,  Henry 

Mortimer,  John  Hamilton 

Humphrey,  Ozias 

Rooker,  Michael  Angelo 

Allan,  David 

Moser,  Mary 

Hearne,  Thomas 

Northcote,  James 

Smith,  John  ( Waitoick) 

Wheatley,  Francis 

Kcinagle,  Philip 

Cozens,  John  Robert 

Smirke,  Robert 

Webber,  John 
Beechey,  Sir  WilL 
Beaumont,  Sir  Geo, 
Bewick,  Thomas 
Stothard,  Thomas 
Bone,  Henry 
Stuart,  Giloert 
Raebum,  Sir  Henry 
Bourgeois,  Sir  Francit 
Blake,  William 
Oilray,  James 
Jtowlandson,  Thomas 
Jbbetson^  Julius  Caesar 
Serres,  John  Thomas 
Hoppner,  John 
Booinson^  Hugh 
Opie,  John 
Bird,  Edward 
Morland,  George 
Woodforde,  Samuel 
Westall,  Richard 


Birth.     Death. 


1725 

1727 
1128 
1733 
1734 
1734 
1734 
1736 
1737 
1738 
1740 
1740 
1741 
1741 
1741 
1741 
1742 
1743 
1744 
1744 
1744 
1746 
1749 
1747 
1749 
1752 
1752 
1752 
1753 
1753 
1753 
1755 
1765 
1755 
1756 
1756 
1757 
1757 
1756 
1759 
1759 
1759 
1760 
1761 
1762 
1763 
1763 
I  1765 


1770 

1776 

1788 

1784 

1810 

1802 

1811 

1797 

1798 

1815 

1820 

1821 

1807 

1821 

1806 

1825 

1779 

1810 

1801 

1796 

1810 

1817 

1831 

1831 

1801 

1833 

1799 

1845 

1793 

1839 

1827 

1828 

1834 

1834 

1828 

1823 

1823 

1827 

1815 

1827 

1817 

1825 

1810 

1790 

1807 

1819 

1804 

1817 

1836 


456 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OF   PAINTEBS. 


Birth  . 

Death. 

Alexander,  William 

1767 

1816 

Cristall,  Joshua 

1767 

1847 

Crome,  John  (Old  Crome) 

1768 

1821 

Hills,  Kobert 

1769 

1844 

Daniell,  William 

1769 

1837 

Howard^  H. 

1769 

1847 

Ward,  James 

1769 

1859 

Barker,  Thomas  {of  Bath) 

1769 

1847 

Edridge,  Henry 

1769 

1821 

Oweut  William 

1769 

1825 

Shee,  Sir  Martin  Archer 

1769 

1850 

Lawrence,  Sir  Thomas 

1769 

1830 

Phillips,  Thomas 

1770 

1845 

Clint,  George 

1770 

1854 

Williams,  H.  W. 

1773 

1829 

Thomson,  Henry 

1773 

1843 

Barret,  George  (the  younger) 

1774 

1842 

Thirtle,  John 

1774 

1839 

Turner,  Jos.  Mallord  Wm. 

1775 

1851 

Hargreaves,  William 

1775 

1829 

GiRTIN,  'J'HOMAS 

1775 

1802 

Barker  Benjamin 

1776 

1838 

Constable,  John 

1776 

1837 

Chalon,  J.  J 

1777 

1854 

Jackson,  John 

1778 

1831 

Varley,  John 

1778 

1842 

Callcott,  Sir  Augustus  Wall 

1779 

1844 

Wilson,  Andrew 

1780 

1848 

Chalon,  A.  E. 

1781 

1860 

Havell,  William 

1782 

1857 

Cotman,  John  Sell 

1782 

1842 

Pickersgill,  H.  W 

1782 

1875 

Simpson,  John 

1782 

1847 

Allan,  Sir  William 

1782 

1850 

Wild,  G. 

1782 

1835 

Uwi')is,  Thomas 

1782 

1857 

Prout,  Samuel 

1783 

1852 

Cox,  David 

1783 

1859 

Kiehardson,  Th.  Miles 

1784 

1848 

De  Wint,  Peter 

1784 

1849 

Wilkie,  David 

1785 

1841 

Hilton,  William 

1786 

1837 

Fraser,  Alexander 

1786 

1865 

MuLREADY,  William 

1786 

1863 

Haydon,  B.  R. 

1786 

1846 

Jones,  George 

Nasmyth,  Patrick        ^     .  .^ 

1786 

1869 

1787 

1831 

Harlow,  G.  H.             ^i^- 
Etty,  WiUiam             'PC* 

1787 

1819 

1787 

1849 

CHEONOLOGICAL   LISTS   OP   PAINTERS. 

457 

Birth. 

Death. 

Fielding,  Antony  Vandyck  Copley 

1787 

1855 

Collins,  WUliam 

1788 

1847 

Good,  T.  S. 

1789 

1872 

Geddes,  Andrew 

1789 

1844 

Martin,  John 

1789 

1854 

Turner,  William  {of  Oxford) 

1789 

1862 

Robson,  Geo.  Fennel 

1790 

1833 

Gordon,  Sir  J.  Watson 

1790 

1865 

Hunt,  William  H. 

1790 

1864 

Linton,  William 

1791 

1876 

Cruikshank,  George 

1792 

1878 

Linnell,  John 

1792 

1882 

Briggs,  H.  P. 

Eastlake,  Sir  Chas.  Locke 

1792 

1844 

1793 

1865 

Danhy,  Francis 

1793 

1861 

Stanb'ield,  Wit.tjam  Clarkson 

1793 

1867 

Stark,  James 

1794 

1859 

Ladbroke,  Robert 

1842 

Leslie,  Chas.  Rob. 

1794 

1859 

Newton,  Gilbert  Stuart 

1794 

1845 

Ross,  Sir  William 

1794 

1860 

Herring,  J.  F. 

1795 

1865 

Roberts,  David 

1796 

1854 

Vincent,  George 

1796 

18S1 

Harding,  J.  D. 

1798 

1863 

Cat  term ole,  George 

1800 

1868 

Holland,  James 

1800 

1870 

Boxall,  Sir  Wm. 

1800 

1879 

Webster,  Thomas 

1800 

1886 

Bonington,  Rich.  Parkes 

1801 

1828 

Lance,  Geo. 

1802 

1864 

Landseer,  Sir  Edwin 

1802 

1873 

Chambers,  George 

1803 

1840 

Grant,  Sir  Francis 

1803 

1878 

Lewis,  J.  F. 

1805 

1876 

Palmer,  Samuel 

1805 

1881 

Scott  David 

1806 

1849 

Dyce,  William 

1806 

1864 

Duncan,  Wm. 

1807 

1845 

Poole,  P.  F. 

1810 

1872 

Creswick,  Thomas 

1811 

1869 

Macllse,  Daniel 

1811 

1870 

Dawson,  Henry 

1811 

1878 

Cooke,  E.  W. 

1811 

1880 

Dod<'son,  G.  H. 
Muller,  Wm.  John 

1811 

1880 

1812 

1845 

Elmore,  Alfred 

1815 

1881 

Egg,  A  L. 

1816 

186S 

Ward,  Ed.  Matt. 

1816 

1879 

468 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LISTS    OP    PAINTERS. 


Birth. 

Death. 

Phillip,  John 

1817 

1867 

Leech,  John 

1817 

1864 

Mason,  Geo.  Hemming 

1818 

1872 

Bough,  Samuel 

1822 

1878 

Oakes,  John  R. 

1822 

1887 

Doyle,  Richard 

1824 

1885 

Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel 

1828 

1882 

Walker,  Frederick  A. 

1840 

1875 

Pinwell,  George  L 

1843 

1875 

Lawsoriy  Cecil 

1851 

1882 

INDEX, 


Aachen,  Hans  von,  442. 

Aart  Pieterzoon,  311. 

Aartzen,  Pieter  311. 

Abbati,    Nicolo    (Abbati,   Nicolo 

dell'),  183,  360. 
Abdication  of  Charles  F.,  Gallait, 

329. 
Abraham  receiving  the  Angels,  Mu- 

rillo,  227. 
Abruzzi,  196. 
Academies,  the,  68, 
Academy,  the,  92,  261. 

Antwerp,  146,  281. 

Bologna,  182,  188,  189,  190. 

Bruges,  280,  289,  292,  293, 

296. 

Diisseldorf,  265. 

degli  Incamminati,  190. 

Florence,  48,  64,  68,  77,  80, 

127,  146. 
French,     of    Painting    and 

Sculpture,  366,  380,  381. 

Martin's  Lane,  S.,  390,  398. 

Milan,  96. 

The  Iteyal,  89,  93,  392,  397, 

398,   400,  401,    404,   408,    409, 

412,  414. 

Seville,  227. 

The  Winter  Exhibitions,  141, 

224,  226,  413,  416,  420. 
Venice,  143,  148,  153,  171, 

175. 
Achenbach,  267. 
AchmetlL,  175. 
Adam  and  Eve,  Diirer,  250. 

H.  Van  Eyck,  273,  278. 

Barry,  403. 


Adoration  of  the  Kings,  Fabriano, 
146;  Del  Sarto,  140;  Mabuse, 
304 ;  Peruzzi,  99  ;  Pordenone, 
160  ;  Van  Ley  den,  314  ;  Viva- 
rini,  143. 

Adoration  of  the  Magi,  Aeken,  296 ; 
Botticelli,  64  j  Dossi,  138 ;  Mem- 
ling,  290 ;  P.  Porbus,  304 ;  Van- 
der  Weyden,  288 ;  Veronese, 
175;  Vinci,  87. 

Adoration  of  the  Trinity,  Belle- 
gambe,  304 ;  Diirer,  250. 

Adoration  of  the  Mystic  Lamb,  Van 
Eycks,  272. 

Adorations,  Botticelli  or  Morelli, 
64 ;  Velasquez,  222. 

Adrian  L,  24. 

Adrian  VI.,  307. 

Aeken,  Jerome  van  (Bosch),  296, 
311. 

.Esthetics,  152. 

Action,  429. 

Agatharchos  of  Samos,  11, 

Ages  of  Man,  the,  Lancret,  368. 

Agntis  Dei,  J.  Van  Eyck,  304. 

Agony  in  the  Garden,  G.  Bellini, 
149;Correggio,180;  Spagna,80. 

Agony,  the,  Perugino,  80. 

Aguaido  collection,  224. 

Aguila,  Count,  222. 

Aikman,  Will.,  464. 

Air  Pump,  Wright,  414, 

Aix,  359. 

Ajax  and  Medea,  by  Timomachus, 
18. 

Alamannus,  Johannes  (daMurano), 
143. 


460 


INDEX. 


Alba,  Macrino  d',  85. 

Albani,  Francesco,  186,  187,  191. 

Albert,  Be  gent  of  Netherlands,  3 17. 

Albertinelli,  Mariotto,  100,  141. 

Albertino,  brothers,  170. 

Alchemy,  327. 

Alchymist,  the,  Ostade,  347. 

Aldegi'ever,  Heinrich,  255. 

Aldobrandini  Gallery,  108. 

family,  121. 

Aldovrandi  family,  125, 

Alexander,  421. 

Alexander  of  Macedon,  15. 

Alfani,  Domenico  di  Paris,  435. 

Alfani,  Orazio,  436. 

Alfon,  Juan,  202. 

Alhambra,  the,  200. 

Aliense,  L'.     See  Vasilacchi. 

Allamag;na,  Justus  da,  239. 

Allan,  David,  455. 

Allan,  Sir  Will.,  456. 

Allegri,  Antonio  (Correggio),  139, 
153,  156,  161,  177-80,  182, 183, 
185,  188,  285. 

Allegri,  Lorenzo,  178. 

Allemand,  362. 

Allori,  Allesandro,  190,  436. 

Allori,  CristofanOj  190. 

Alma-Tadema,  330. 

Aloisi,  Baldassare,  436. 

Alslool,  Denis  van,  445. 

Altar-pieceSy  Berruguete,  202 ; 
Broederlain,  269  ;  Crevelli,  144 ; 
Boni-bild  of  Cologne,  236 ;  Do- 
menichino,  186  ;  P.  Fernandez, 
202  ;  Ferrari,  97  ;  Fra  Angelico, 
57  ;  Grien,  256  ;  Griinewald, 
255;  Herrera  el  Mozo,  212; 
Holbein,  the  elder,  257  ;  the  Im- 
hqf,  234 ,  Lanini,  182  ;  Liesbom, 
239;  Lorenzo,  F.  di,  77;  Lo- 
renzo, M.,  58;  Lucas  Moser 
237  ;  of  Mantegna,  71;  Moretto, 
169  ;  Palma  Vecchio,  160;  Pel- 
legrino,  154  ;  Perugino,  79  ;  Ro- 
manino,  170 ;  Solario,  98 ;  Titian, 
164 ;  from  Valencia,  in  S.  K.  M., 
202  ;  H.  Van  der  Goes,  285  ; 
of  St.  Bavon,  Van  Eyck,  278-9  ; 
Van  Orley,  307  ;  Vivarini,  143 ; 
Wohlgemuth,  247. 


Altdorfer,  A.,  255,  256. 
Altichiero  da  Zevio,  45,  84. 
Alunno,  Niccolo,  of  Foligno.     See 

Fuligno. 
Alva,  Duke  of,  309. 
Amasis,  5. 

Amberger,  Christoph.,  260. 
Ambrosiana,  97. 
American  traders  in  art,  Spanish-, 

223. 
Amerighi.    Michelangelo    (Cara- 

vaggio).     See  Merisi. 
Amman,  Jost.,  442. 
Amsterdam,  306,   311,  312,   332, 

333,  336,  337,  338,  348. 
Amsterdam,  Leprozenhuis,  336. 
"  Analysis  of  Beauty,"  392. 
Anatomy  Lesson,  the,  Rembrandt, 

332,  334. 
Anatomy,  first  artist  to  study  by 

dissection,  69. 
Anchin,  monastery  of,  304. 
Ancie7it  and  Mod^em  Italy,  Turner, 

410. 
Andelys,  362. 
Anderton,  Henry  454. 
Andrea  da  Firenze,  42. 
Anecdotes  of  painting,  386. 
Angelico,    Fra    [II    Beato].     See 

Fiesole. 
Angelo,  Andrea  d*  (del  Sarto),  135, 

138-42,  204,  307. 
Angelo,  Michael.     &e  Buonarotti. 
Angelus,  Millet,  383. 
Angell,    Helena,    Cordelia,    Chr. 

L.,8. 
Angers,  358,  359. 
Anguisci,  359,  Sofonisba,  436. 
Aniello.     See  Rosa. 
Animal  painting,  325,  412. 
Annuciation,  the,  Ambrogio,  48 ; 

Crivelli,  144;    H.   Hunt,  426; 

Justus  de  Allamagna,  239  ;  Ma- 

nin,  80. 
Anraadt,  P.  van,  450. 
Ansidei  Madonna,  107. 
Antiphilos  of  Alexandria,  429. 
"  Antiquities  of  Great  Britain," 

420. 
Antony,  S.,  244. 
Antonio  Veniziano.   iS^geVeniziano. 


INDEX. 


461 


Antonelli.    See  Messina. 
Antwerp,  146,  253,  283,  296,  298, 

309,  311,323,325,337,346. 
School  of,  293,  296, 297, 307, 

310,316-17,369. 
Antwerp,  house  of  QuentinMassys, 

299. 

Frans  Floris,  308. 

Kuebens,  317. 

Apelles  of  Cos,  14. 

Apelles,  his  Venus  Anadyomene. 

14. 
Apocalypse,  Diirer,  250. 
Apollodoros  of  Athens,  12,  15. 
Apostles,  Four,  Diirer,  251-52. 
Apotheosis  of  Homer,  Ingres,  377. 
Apsley  House,  217. 
Aquatinta,  229. 
Araldi,  433. 
Arcagnolo,    Andrea    Cione    (Or- 

cagna),  40,  42,  43,  44,  48,  68. 
Archd  uke  Leopold  William,  Regent 

of  the  Netherlands,  327. 
Archangel  Michael,  Mabuse,  303. 
Archers  of  S.  George,  338. 
Arellano,  Juan  de,  439. 
Arenberg,  Prince  of,  346. 
Aretino.     See  SpinellL 
Arezzo,  28,  48,  52. 
Ariosto,  152,  162,  165,  167,  168, 

264. 
Aristeidcs  of  Thebes,  14. 
Aristotle,  10,  11,  12,  111. 
Armstrong,  Walter,  84. 
Arnolfini,  jean,  281. 
Arona,  97. 

Arpino,  G.  C,  Cavalierc  d',  192. 
Arquebusiers  of  Antwerp,  317. 
Arragon,  223. 
Arras,  115. 
Art  and  morals,  79,  368. 

. under  the  Empire,  375. 

Art,  writers  on,  7. 

in  the  fifteenth  century,  49, 

53,  62,  83 

sixteenth  century,  83,  86. 

fall  of,  137. 

development  of,  63. 

Artz,  356. 

Arundel,  Esrl  of,  323.  I 

Society,  36,  57,  67,  104,  278. 


Ashburnham  MSS.,  64. 
Ashburnham,  Lord,  192. 
Ascension  of  the  Virgin,  Cespedes, 

208. 
Ascension  of  Christ,  Correggio,  ITSj 

Perugino,  80. 
Asceticism,     Christian,     26,    34, 

264. 
Ascham,  Roger,  163. 
Asclepios,  Temple  of,  14. 
Asiatic  school,  13. 
Asper,  Hans,  441, 
Asselyn,  Jan,  446. 
Assisi,  Church  of  S.  Francis  at, 

31,  38,  41,  47,  67,  76,  80,  232. 
Assyria,  art  of,  7. 
Assumption,  M.  di  Giovanni,  50. 
Assumption  of  the    Virgin,  Botti- 
celli, 64;  Prud'hon,  374;  Titian, 

164,  226, 
Astronomers    or   Chaldean   Sages j 

Giorgione,  167. 
Atmospheric     effects,    350,    365, 

407. 
Attic  school,  13. 
Attic  state  by  Parrhasios,  13. 
Audenarde,  346. 
Augsburg,  166  ;  a  central  point  of 

German  art,  256-57. 
Avanzo,  Jacopo  d',  46. 
Avenue    Middelharnis,    Hobbema, 

352. 
Avercamp,  H.  van,  448. 
Avignon,  47,  359. 
Ay  toun,  410-11. 

Babe  in  the  Manger ^  Dutch,  119. 
Babylon,  7. 

BaccJuxnal,  Bellini's,  152. 
Bacchanalian,  Poussin,  362,  364. 
Bacchus  and  Ariadne,  Titian,  162, 

168. 
Bacchus  statue,  M.  Angelo,  126. 
Bacchiaca.     See  Ubertini. 
Baccio  della  Porta.    See  Fattorine. 
Backhuysen,  Ludolf,  353,  354. 
Bacon,  88. 

Badalocchio,  Sisto,  437. 
Badia,  35. 

Badile,  Antonio,  1 73. 
Baerle,  284. 


INDEX. 


]age  Wagon,  Muller,  423, 
Baldovinetti,  Alesso,  66. 
Balen,  Henri  van,  322. 
Banker  and  wife,  Massys,  300. 
Banquet  of  the  Civic  Guards,  Heist, 

338. 
Baptism  of  Christ,  G.  David,  292 ; 

verrocchio,  77. 
Baptistery  at  Florence,  39,  51. 
Barbarelli,    Giorgio    (Giorgione), 

134,  153,  154,  155, 156-59,  160, 

162,  167,  170,  192. 
Barberini,  Cardinal,  362. 
Barbieri,  Gio.    Francesco,   Bom. 

(Guercino),  186,  189. 
Barbieri  Pietro  Ant.,  437. 
Barbizon,  383. 
Barcelona,  201,  229. 
Barco,  Garcia  del,  202. 
Bardi  Chapel,  37. 
Barillon,  116. 
Barker,  Benjamin,  456. 
Barker,  Thomas  (of  Bath),  456. 
Barocchi,  the,  Fortuny,  230. 
Barocio,  Federigo,  180. 
Baroncelli,  altar-piece,  38. 
Barret,  jun.,    George,  417,   421, 

422. 
Barriere  de  Clichy,  Vemet,  378. 
Barry,  James,  403-4. 
Barth,  J.,  356. 
Bartholdi,  264, 

Bartolommeo,  Fra.    See  Fattorine. 
Bartolommeo,  Martino  di,  431. 
Bartolo,  Domenico  di,  431. 
Bartolo  di  Maestro  Fredi,  430. 
Bartolo,  Taddeo,  48. 
Bartsch,  196,  242,  256,  313,  349. 
Bartucci,  Gio.  Batt.,  434. 
Basaiti,  Marco,  155. 
Basel,  257,  258. 
Basle,  306. 
Bassano.     See  Ponte. 
Bassano,  the  Spanish,  205. 
Bas-reliefs,  39,  233. 
Bastien-Lepage,  J.,  384. 
Bath,  398,  400. 
Battista.     See  Conegliano. 
Battle  of  the  Amazons,   Eubens, 

321. 
of  the  HunSf  Kaulbach,  266. 


Battle-pieces,  196,  197,  213,  347, 

351. 
Baumeister,  Frau,  238. 
Bavaria,  John  of,  274. 
Bay  of  BaicB,  Turner,  410. 
Bazzi,    Gio.    Ant.   (11    Sodoma), 

98,  99. 
Beale,  Mary,  454. 
Beaumont,  Sir  George,  455, 
Beaune,  hospital  of,  287. 
"Beauties  of  England  and  Wales," 

420. 
Beauty,  Greek  worship  of,  8. 
Becerra,  Caspar,  204,  207. 
Beccafumi,  Domenico  di  Jacopo  di 

Pace,  99. 
Beechey,  Sir  Wm.,  415. 
Beer  Street,  Hogarth,  392. 
Bega,  Cornelius,  344. 
Begas,  Carl,  442. 
Beham,  Bartel,  255. 
Beham,  Hans  Sebald,  255. 
Beheading    of   S.    John    Baptist, 

Fabritius,  337. 
Belgian  School,  266,  329. 
Belgian  struggle  for  independence, 

329. 
Belle  Jardiniere,  Raphael,  108. 
Bellegambe,  Jean,  304. 
Belli  Marco,  434. 
"  Bellinesques,"  155. 
Bellini,  Gentile,  146,  147. 
Bellini,  Giovanni,  49,  71,  80,  97, 

132,    146,   149,   151,   153,   155, 

161,  162,  173,  249,  393. 
Bellini,  Jacopo,  71,  146. 
Bellini     family,     71,     134,     146, 

156. 
Bellini,  Niccolosia,  71. 
Belotti,  90. 

Bellotto,  Bernardo,  438. 
Beltraffio,  Gio.  Ant.,  95. 
Belvedere,  165,  250,  256,  293. 
Belvoir,  362. 
Bembo,  Bonifazio,  432. 
Bembo,  Pietro,  152. 
Bendemann,  E.,  443. 
Benevenuto  da  Siena,  50. 
Beni  Hassan,  grottoes  of,  35. 
Benozzo,  Filippo,  140. 
Benozzo  Gozzoli.    See  Gozzoli. 


INDEX. 


468 


Bentivoglio,  Giovanni,  82. 
Benvenuti,  Gio.  Batt.  (I'Ortolano), 

138. 
Berchem,  Nicolas,  354,  356. 
Berime,  161. 
Berlin,  68,  85,  96,  154,  169, 185, 

265,  278,  284,  348. 
Bermudez,  Cean,  200,  201,  207, 

208,  217. 
Bernard  van  BrusseL     See  Orley. 
Berne,  287. 

Berreguete,  Alonso,  203. 
Berretini,  Pietro  (da  Cortona),  191, 

194,  197. 
Berruguete,  Pedro,  202,  213. 
Berlin,  382. 
Bet  to,  Bernardino  di  (Pinturicchio), 

80,  81,  99. 
Beukelaer,  Joachim,  444. 
Bevilacqua,  Ambrogio,  433. 
Bevir's  Guide  to  Siena,  48. 
Bewick,  T.,  455. 
Beyart,  296. 
Biagio,    Vincenzo     di     (Catena), 

155. 
Bibiena,  Cardinal,  122. 
Bibiena,  Ferdinando,  438. 
Bible,  Raphael's,  115. 
Biblical-genre,  205,  227. 
Bibliophiles,  Fortuny,  230. 
Bicci,  Lorenzo  de',  431. 
Biefve,  Edouard  de,  266,  329. 
Bigi,   Fr.   di  Cristofano   (Francia 

Bigio),  141. 
Bigordi,  Benedetto,  69. 
Bigordi,  David,  69,  123. 
Bigordi,    I>>menico    Carrado    di, 

38,  64,  66-9,  83,  101,  103,  123, 

129. 
Bink,  Jacob,  265. 
Bird,  Edward,  406. 
Birmingham,  413. 
Birth  (^  Paris,  Giorgione,  158. 
Birth  of  Venus,  Botticelli,  64. 
Birth  of  the  Virgin,  Ghirlandaio, 

68 ;     Pietro,    48  j     del    Sarto, 

140. 
Bisschoff,  Carl,  357. 
Bissolo,  P.  Francesco,  155. 
Blake,  William,  405,  424,  426. 
Blanc,  C,  172,  347,  353,  371. 


Blair's  "Grave,''  Blake,  424. 

Blanchard,  Jacques,  361. 

Blenheim,  107,  319. 

Bles,  Henrik  Metten,  292,  310. 

Blessing  of  Isaac,  Flinck,  336. 

Blind  Fiddler,  Wilkie,  406. 

Bloemaert,  Abraham,  314. 

Bloemen,  J.  v.  d.  (Orizonte), 
446. 

Blommers,  356. 

Blondeel,  Lancelot,  304. 

Bloot,  P.  van,  446. 

Blue  Bower,  Hoi.  Hunt,  426. 

Blundell,  Weld,  282. 

Boar  Hunt,  Velasquez,  222. 

Bocanegra,  Pedro  Ant.,  439. 

Boccaccio,  64. 

Boccaccio,  Boccaccino,  170. 

Bock,  Hans,  442. 

Bocksperger,  Hans,  442. 

Bodegones,  212. 

Bohemia,  school  of,  233. 

Bois-le-duc,  296. 

Boisser6e  Collection,  265. 

Bol,  Ferdinand,  336. 

Bologna,  80,  82,  83, 108, 125, 143, 
165,  182,  184,  185,  186,  189, 
191,  204,  289,  395. 

Pope  Julius  II.  at,  128. 

School  of,  81,  181. 

Titian  at,  164. 

Bologna  University,  185. 

Bolognese  artists,  192. 

Bou,  Philippe  le,  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, 274. 

Bondone,  Giotto,  29,  32,  33- 
39,  42,  43,  44,  46,  47,  51,  53, 
57,  67,  70,  142,  200,  227,  233, 
282,  393. 

Bone,  Henry,  455. 

Boniface  VIIL,  35. 

Bonifazio  da  Veneziano,  169. 

Bonifazio  da  Verona,  169. 

Bonington,  Richard  Parkes,  381, 
422. 

Bonn,  233. 

Bono,  of  Ferrara,  84. 

Bononi,  Carlo,  436. 

Bonsignori,  Francesco,  173. 

Bonvicino,  Alessandro  (H  Mo- 
retto),  169,  170. 


464 


INDEX. 


Bonzi,  P.  P.,  190. 
Book  of  the  Dead,  6. 
Book  of  Job,  Blake,  424. 
Book  illustrators,  427. 
Bordone,  Paris,  168, 170. 
Borghese,  Piero.     See  Francesco. 
Borgia,  Lucrezia,  163. 
Borgo  San  Sepolcro,  52. 

Vecchio,  fire  in  the,  114. 

Borgognone.     See  Fossano. 
Borgona,  Juan  de,  202. 
Bosboom,  Johannes,  356. 
Bosch.     See  Aeken. 
Boschaert,  T.  W.,  446. 
Boswell,  218. 
Both,  Jan,  354. 
Botticelli  (Sandro   Filipepi),    54, 

63. 
Boucher,  Francois,  368,  369,  370. 
Bough,  Samuel,  458. 
"Bouillon,"  Claude's,  365. 
Boulogne,  Hue  de,  451. 
Boulogne,  siege  of,  165. 
Boulongne,  L.,  452. 
Boullongne,  Bon,  452. 
Boullongne,  Louis  de,  451. 
Bourbon,     Constable    de,     sacks 

Rome,  130. 

plate,  217. 

Bourdon,  Sebastien,  366. 
Bourgeois,  Sir  Francis,  455. 
Bourguignon,  Le.     See  Courtois. 
Bouts,   Dierick,   293-5,   297;   his 

sons  Albert  and  Dierick,  295. 
Bouvin,  Louis,  Chr.  L.,  7. 
Bowood,  205. 
Boxall,  Sir  William,  415. 
Boydell's  Shakespeare,  404,  423. 
Brabant,  Duke  of,  270. 
Brakeleer,  Ferd.,  446. 
Bramante,    85,    109,    114,     117, 

127. 
Bramantino.     See  Suardi. 
Brancacci  Chapel,  54,  65,  71. 
Brandt,  Isabella,  319. 
Brauweiler,  church  of,  233. 
Brauwer,  Adrian,  296,  327,  346, 

347. 
Bray,  Jan,  448. 
Bray,  Salomon,  448. 
Breda,  309. 


Bree,  Mattbieu,  van,  446. 

Brekelenkam,  Quirying,  193,  344. 

Brentano  Collection,  359. 

Brera,  84,  95,  96-7,  98,  149,  169, 
170,  173. 

Brescia,  84, 169, 170. 

Bretonvilliers,  M.  de,  366. 

Breu,  Georg,  441. 

Breughel,  Hell,  308. 

Breughel,  Peasant,  308,  310,  330. 

Breughel,  Velvet,  296,  308. 

Breydel,  Chevalier  C,  446. 

Bric4-brac  School,  229. 

Bride,  Hoi.  Hunt,  426. 

Bridging  of  Chaos,  Fuseli,  404. 

Bridgwater  Gallery,  108, 161, 165, 
168. 

Briggs,  H.  P.,  457. 

Bril,  Matthew,  310. 

Bril,  Paul,  310. 

British  Institution,  410. 

British  Museum,  Egyptian  Papyri, 
5 ;  paintings  in,  6 ;  J.  Bellini's 
sketches,  147 ;  Print  Room,  242; 
A.  Diirer's  drawings  and  MSS., 
254;  Holbein's  drawings  in, 
260. 

British  Museum,  letters  of  Michael 
Angelo,  128. 

Brodie,  William,  Chr.  L.,  8. 

Broederlain,  Melchior,  269. 

Bronzino,  Allessandro.  See  AI- 
lori. 

Bronzino,  Angelo  di  Cosimo  di 
Mariano,  135,  181. 

Brosamer,  Hans,  255. 

Brotherhood  of  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment, 294. 

Browning,  Robert,  61,  140. 

Bruges,  241 ;  its  prosperity,  274, 
277,  282,  290,  292,  304. 

Franc  de,  304. 

Hospital  of  S.   John,  290, 

291. 

Magistrates  of,  292. 

Notre  Dame,  304. 

School  of,  145,  238,  268-97, 

304,311-13. 

Brun,  Charles  le,  361,  366,  367. 
Brun,  Mde.  L.  E.  V.  le,  380. 
Brunelleschi,  53. 


INDEX. 


465 


Brunswick,  233,  340. 

Brussels,  204,  285,  286,  287,  292, 
302,  309,  310,  314,  339. 

Hotel  dc  Ville,  287. 

Bnittis,  liethiere,  373. 

Bruyn,  Bartolomaus,  240. 

Buflfalmacco.     See  Cliristofani. 

BiUl-Iiinff,  the,  Goya,  229. 

Buonacorso,  Niccolo,  46. 

Buonarotti,  Ludovico,  123. 

Buonarotti,  Michael  Angelo,  43, 
49,  51,  54,  6G,  73,  74,77,78,86, 
87, 94, 95,  99,  101,  102, 103, 105, 
109,  112,  113,  114,  115,  123-34, 
142,  159,  161,  163,  1G5,  171, 
177,  180,  183,  204,  205,  207, 
225,  244,  248,  263,  282,  301, 
314,  316,  402. 

Buonarotti  and  Da  Vinci  con- 
trasted, 94 ;  and  Mich.  Angelo, 
126. 

and  Pope  Julius  II.,  127-8 ; 

frescoes  in  Sistine  Chapel,  129- 
30. 

sonnets  and  poems,  131, 133. 

pupils,  of,  135-6. 

Buonaventura,  Segna  di,  46. 

Buonfigli,  Benedetto,  77. 

Buoninsegna,  Duccio  di,  46. 

Buonvicino,  84. 

Biirckhardt,  195. 

Burger,  Musdes  d'HolIande,  326, 
333. 

Burgkmair,  Hans,  256,  257. 

Burgkmair,  Thoraan,  256,. 257. 

Burgos,  206. 

Burgundy,  274,  286-7. 

Burial  of  Atala,  Girodet,  373. 

Jlurial  of  Chrid,  Caravnggio,  193. 

Burke,  397.  403. 

Biirkel,  Heinrich,  443. 

Burleigh  House,  159. 

Burleigh,  Madonna,  282. 

Burne-Joncs,  E.,  427. 

Burning  Bmk,  N.  Froment,  359. 

But!,  Lucretia,  60. 

Buttinone.     See  Jacobi. 

I^yrne's  "  Antiquities,"  420. 

Byron,  195,  377. 

Byzantine  art,  stationary  cha- 
racter of,  25. 


Byzantine  conception  of  Christ, 
23,24. 

Byzantine-Rhenish,  or  Byzantine- 
Romantic  Art,  234,  240,  273. 

Byzantine  style,  6,  24,  25,  27,  29, 
62,  75,  81,  86,  90, 103, 142,  200, 
202,  232,  268. 

Cadiz,  227. 

Caen,  80. 

Cagli,  104. 

Cagliari,  Benedetto,  176. 

Cagliari,  Carlo,  176. 

Cagliari,  Gabriele,  436. 

Cagliari,  Paolo  (Paolo  Veronese), 

147,  163,  156,   172,   181,   303, 

316,  331. 
Cairo,  Sultan  of,  87. 
Caisne,  H.  de,  447. 
Calabrese.     See  Preti. 
Calaiji  Pier,  Turner,  410. 
Calandrino,  40. 
Calcar,  239. 
Calderon,  Philip,  412. 
Callcott,  Sir  Aug.  W.,  423. 
Calling  ofS.  Matthew^  Caravaggio, 

193. 
Callot,  Jacques,  296,  361. 
Calumny,  Botticelli,  64. 
Calvert,  Denis,  186,  187. 
Calvi,  J.  A.,  83. 
Caraaldoles,  Order  of,  57. 

Abbey  of,  58. 

Cambiaso,  Luca,  435. 
Cambray,  League  of,  150. 
Camerarius,  "^54. 
Campaila,  Pedro,  204. 
Campanella,  Tommaso,  133. 
Camphausen,  W.,  443. 
Cam  pi,  Giulio,  I'JO. 
Campin,  Robert,  286,  287. 
Camix)  Santo,  Frescoes  of  the,  41, 

48,  58,  59. 
Campo,   Santo,  Berlin,  projected, 

265. 
Canale,  Antonio  (Canaletto),  198. 
Canaletto.     See  Canale. 
Caniginni,  House  of,  108. 
Canlasai,  Guido,  437. 
Cano,   Alonso,  199,  212,  213-1, 

222. 


HH 


\i^ 


^ 


466 


INDEX. 


Canobbio,  97. 

Cantarini,  Simone,  437. 

Canterbury  Pilgrims,  Blake,  425. 

Canuti,  Maria,  438. 

Canvas,  first  painter  on  fixed,  289. 

Canzone  of  Poverty,  38. 

Capanna,  Puccio,  40,  47. 

Capelle,  Jan  van  de,  354. 

Caprices,  Goya,  229. 

Capuchin  Friars,  224,  227. 

Caracci,  Antonio  and  Paolo,  185. 

Caracciolo,  Giambattista,  437. 

Caraffa,  Cardinal,  65. 

Carava^gio.     See  Merisi. 

Cardi,  Lodovico,  436. 

Card  Party,  L.  v.  Ley  den,  312. 

Cardsharpers,  Caravaggio,  192, 
193. 

Carducho,  206. 

Cariani,  Giovanni  Busi,  161. 

Caricature,  261,  311. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  368. 

Carmona,  219. 

Carnevali,  Fra,  432. 

Carosselli,  Angelo,  194. 

Caroto,  Francesco,  173. 

Carpaccio,  Vittore,  153,  170. 

Carpi,  Girolamo,  435. 

Carracci,  Agostino,  182,  184. 

Carracci,  Annibale,  182  ;  his  son- 
net, 183,  184,  185. 

Carracci,  Antonio,  185. 

Carracci,  Francesco,  185. 

Carracci,  the,  190,  225. 

Carracci,  anti-,  faction,  194. 

Carracci,  Lodovico,  181,  182,  184, 
186,  187,  188,  209. 

Carracci,  Paolo,  185. 

Carracciolo,  G.  B.,  437. 

Carrafa,  Cardinal,  65. 

Carrara,  127,  130. 

Carreno  de  Miranda,  Juan,  439. 

Carstens,  Asmus,  263,  265. 

Cartoon  of  S.  Anne,  Vinci,  93. 

Cartoons  of  Raphael,  115;  their 
vicissitudes,  116. 

Cartoons,  93,  94,  115,  127,  184, 
305. 

Carucci,  Jacopo  (Da  Pontormo), 
135,  142,  181. 

Casa  la  Pelluca,  97. 


Casanova,  Frangois,  452. 

Caselli,  Cristofero,  433. 

Caseutino.     See  Gaudini. 

Castagno,  Andrea,  69,  83. 

Castel  Caprese,  123. 

Castel  franco,  156. 

Castelli,  88. 

Castello  delle  Pieve,  Citti,  which 
see. 

Castiglione,  Count,  119,  122. 

Castiglione,  Gio.  Ben.,  437. 

Castile,  202. 

Castillo,  Antonio  del,  439. 

Castillo,  Juan  del,  222. 

Casfle  Howard,  304. 

Castro,  Juan  Sanchez  de,  202. 

Catacombs,  painting  in  the,  22. 

Catena.     See  Biagio. 

Cathedral,  Aix,  359 ;  Antwerp, 
297,  317  ;  Berne,  287  ;  Bur- 
gos, 206;  Cologne,  235,  236, 
237,  265  ;  Cordova,  208 ;  Cre- 
mona, 159  ;  Florence,  39;  Frei- 
bui-g,  256;  Ghent,  273,  278; 
Granada,  214;  Louvain,  298; 
Mechlin,  323  ;  Milan,  87  ; 
Naumberg,  265  ;  Orvieto,  73  ; 
Parma,  178;  Pisa,  41;  Prato, 
40,  61;  Rome,  35,  117;  St. 
Paul's,  389,  41 1  ;  Seville,  202, 
204,  205,  224;  Spoleto,  62; 
Tournus,  358  ;  Treviso,  159  ; 
Verona,  147. 

Cathedrals,  painted  glass  in,  232  ; 
Glasgow,  267  ;  S.  Paul's,  265. 

Catholic  asceticism,  265. 

Catholicism  in  art,  55, 191, 251,264. 

Catholicism  versus  Protestantism 
in  art,  225. 

Cattermole,  G.,  421. 

Cattle-painters,  349,  350. 

Cavallini,  P.,  430. 

Cavedone,  Giacomo,  436. 

Caxes,  Eugenio,  439. 

Cecchi,  Gregorio,  431. 

Cephalus  and  Aurora,  A.  Carracci, 
184. 

Cerezo,  Matteo  de,  440. 

Cerquozzi,  Michaelangelo,  196. 

Cerretto,  Coronation  of  the  Virgin 
at,  58. 


INDEX. 


467 


Certosa  at  Pavia,  79,  85,  98. 
Cervantes,  illustration  of,  407. 
Cespedes,  Pablo  de,  200,  208. 
Ceulen,  Cornelis  J.  van,  448. 
Chabot,  Admiral,  360. 
Chaldea,  7. 
Chalon,  A,  E.,  41.5. 
Chambers,  George,  457. 
Champaigne,  Philippe  de,  367. 
Chapeau  de  Poll,  Rubens,  321. 
Characterisation  in  portrait,  338. 
Chardin,  J.  B.,369, 
Charity,  del  Sarto,  140. 
Charlemagne,  232,  234,  358. 
Charles  the  Bold,  284,  290. 
Charles  I..  72,  115,  121,  318,  323, 

324,  387. 
Charles  U.,  116,  326,  353,  388. 
Charles  IV.  of  Spain,  229. 
Charles  IV.,  Emperor,  233. 
Charles    V.,   Emperor,    66,    164, 

166,  168,    175,   216,  253,   260, 

301,303,  305,  309,  386. 
Charles  VIII.,  of  France,  72. 
Charlet,  Nicolas  Toussaint,  453. 
Chartres,  358. 
Chasse  of  S.  Odile,  269. 

of  S.  Ursicla,  Memling,  290. 

Chatsworth.  96,  282. 

Chelsea,  258. 

Chesneau,  M.  E.,  385,  393,  425. 

Chiaroscuro,  11,  12,  52,  53,  177, 

208,  215,   328,  331,  339,  340, 

352,  374. 
Chigi,  Agostino,  98. 
Ch  ilde  Harold:' s  Pilgrimage, Turner, 

410. 
Chinese  art,  7. 

Choosing  a  Model,  Fortuny,  230. 
Christ  and  Virgin,  Massy s,  300. 

at  Emmaus,  G.  Bellini,  151. 

atthe  Column,  Velasquez,  222. 

hearing  the  Cross,  Giorgione, 

157;    Kaphael,    122;    Kibalta, 

209. 

Betrayal,  Cimabue,  32. 

Blessing    little      Children, 

fk'ckbout,  3.J7. 

buffeted,  Teniers,  329. 

Crowned  with  Thorns,  Guido, 

189 ;  Teniers,  328. 


Christ  Disputing  the  Doctors,  Luini, 
96. 

driving    out    the     Traders, 

Venusti,  135. 

Early  figures  of,  22-25. 

going  to  EmTnaus,  Melone, 

170. 

healing  the  Blind,  Buonin- 

segna,  46. 

healing  the  Sick,  West,  403. 

in  the  house  of  Simon,  Mabuse, 

302. 
leaving  the  Pratorium,  Dor^, 

384. 

sinking    beneath   the    Cross, 

Schongauer,  242. 

washing  Disciples'  feet,  Tin- 
toretto, 172. 

weeping  over  Jerusalem,  East- 
lake,  423. 

Christ  College,  Oxford,  185. 

Christall,  421. 

Christian  art,  12,  21,22,  24,33, 
54,  90,  101,  103,  119,  200,  366, 
377. 

Christian  or  spiritual  school,  75, 
153. 

Christian  Redemption,  M.  Angelo, 
265. 

Chi'istiana  of  Sweden,  Queen,  328. 

Christofani,  Buonamico,  (Buffal- 
macco),  40,  42. 

Chronicles  de  Chastelain,  275. 

Church  of  Rome,  restraint  on  art, 
240,  243. 

Churches :  Arena,  at  Padua,  36  ; 
Brauweiler,  233;  Carmine,  39, 
60,  65 ;  Innocenti,  Florence,  68  ; 
Ognisanti,  Florence,  68  ;  Or  S. 
Michele,  Florence,  40;  Or  S. 
Michele,  Orvieto,  44 ;  S.  An- 
tony, Padua,  45  ;  San  Cleraente, 
Borne,  54;  S.  Maria  della  Ho- 
tonda,  Rome,  122  ;  S.  Croce,  37- 
40,  46 ;  S.  Domenico,  Siena,  28, 
98;  S.  Francis,  Assisi,  31,38. 
232  ;  S.  Francis,  Pisa,  39  ;  S. 
Maria  degli  Ann;e!i,  Arezzo,  44  ; 
S.  Mar.  del  Flore,  39,  40;  S. 
Mar.  Novella,  Florence,  30,  44. 
65,  68,  10.3,  107,  123,  285;  S, 


468 


INDEX. 


Miniato,  Florence,  45  ;  S.  Pietro 
Maggiore,  Perugia,  80 ;  S.  Se- 
bastian! del  Servi,  69,  174;  S. 
Spirito,  Florence,  68  ;  S.  Trinita, 
Florence,  67 ;  S,  Crisostomo, 
Venice,  152 ;  S.  Domenico, 
Ascoli,  144  ;  Convent,  Fiesole, 
56 ;  Incoronata,  Naples,  38 ; 
Notre  Dame,  Courtrky,  323 ; 
S.  Agostino,  San  Gemignano, 
59;  S.  Andrea  dellaValle,  Rome, 
188 ;  S.  Augustine,  Antwerp, 
323;  S.  Cecilia,  Bologna,  82, 
83  ;  SS.  Giovanni  e  Paolo,  167  ; 
S.  Gudule,  289  ;  S.  Julian,  Se- 
ville, 202  ;  Mad.  di  Campagna, 
Piacenza,  159  ;  S.  Maria  Angeli, 
Lugano,  96,  97 ;  S.  Maria 
de  Frari,  Venice,  164,  167 ; 
S.  Maria,  Formosa,  161 ;  S. 
Maria  Nuova,  Floi-ence,  285 ; 
S.  Martin,  Colmar,  241 ;  S. 
Mary,  Utrecht,  307  ;  S.  Peter, 
Cordova,  200 ;  S.  Eomano, 
Lucca,  102  ;  S.  Romain,  Sens, 
359  ;  S.  Dominica,  Cagli,  104  ; 
Salvatore,  Colalto,  159 ;  San 
Severo,  Perugia,  107  ;  Trinita 
de'  Monti,  Rome,  135;  Wien- 
hausen,  233. 

Ciarla,  118. 

Cicognara"  Storia  della  Scultura," 
51. 

Cignani,  Count  Carlo,  438. 

Cimabue,  Giovanni,  28,  29,  33-4, 
46,  70,  269. 

Cimon  of  Cleonae,  10. 

Cimon,  son  of  Miltiades,  11. 

Ciiiquocentisti,  49. 

Cipriani,  Giovanni,  401. 

Circumcision  of  Christ,  L.  v.  Ley- 
den,  312. 

Signorelli,  74. 

Citta,  80,  105. 

Civatale,  69. 

Civerchio,  95. 

Civetta,  310. 

Claessins,  Pieter,  the  elder,  and 
P.  C. ,  the  younger,  444. 

Claeszoon.     See  Marinus. 

Classical  Naturalism,  54. 


Classic  art,  70,  124, 184,  208,  362. 

Classicism,  French,  329,  370,  372. 

Michael-Angelo's,  126. 

Classico-Christian  painters,  22. 

Claude.     See  Gelee. 

Clavigo,  battle  of,  205. 

Cleanthes,  of  Corinth,  10. 

Clement  VIL,  130,  132,  164. 

Cleophantos,  of  Corinth,  10. 

Cleve,  Joas  van,  309. 

Climate  and  art,  268. 

Clint,  George,  401. 

Clouet,  Francois  (Janet),  359. 

Clouet,  Jehannet,  359. 

Clovio,  Giulio,  435. 

Cluny  Collection,  360. 

Coat  of  Arms,  BeatlUs  Head,  DUrer, 
252. 

Codde,  Pieter,  344. 

Coelebier,  Nicholas,  348. 

Coello,  Alonzo  Sanchez,  204. 

Coello,  Claudio,  440. 

Cogniet,  Leon,  453. 

Colart  le  Voleur,  451. 

Coleoni,  Bartol.,  Statue  by  Ver- 
rocchio,  77. 

Coleridge,  Tahle-Talk,  119,321. 

CoUantes,  Francisco,  208. 

Collections  of  Pictures  :  Arenberg, 
Brussels,  339,  348 ;  Bridge- 
water,  341-44,  362;  Dudley, 
105  ;  Brentano,  Frankfort,  358  ; 
Grosvenor,  349  ;  Peel,  355  ;  The 
Queen's,  339  ;   Wynn-Ellis,  355. 

College  of  Corpus  Christ  i,  Valencia, 
209. 

Santiago,  Salamanca,  204. 

Collins,  William,  411. 

Colmar,  241. 

Cologne,  233,  236,  237,  291,  307, 
316,  320. 

School  of,  234,  238,  243, 269, 

273. 

Wilhelm  of,  231,  235,  236. 

Colombel,  Nicolas,  452. 

Colonna,  Angelo  Michele,  437. 

Colonna,  Princess  Vittoria,  131. 

Colour,  Dutch,  339. 

Flemish,  305,  320,  328. 

Colour,  Florentine,  82. 

Coloured  carvings,  213,  233,  246. 


INDEX. 


469 


Coloured  Statuary,  270, 287. 

Colourists,  Seven  Great,  156. 

Venetian,  163. 

Communion  of  S.  Jerome ^  Domeni- 
chino,  186. 

Compagnia  della  morte,  196,  197. 

Concert,  Giorgione,  158}    Valen- 
tin, 362. 

Condivi,  Ascanio,  132. 

Conegliano,  Cima  da,  154. 

Congnet,  Gillis,  444. 

Coninck,  David  de,  445. 

Coninxloo,  Gillis,  444. 

Consecration  oj  S.  Nicholas,  Vero- 
nese, 176. 

Conseil  Paternelle,  Terburg,  344. 

Constable,   John,   352,  ."580,   381, 
411,  417,  418,  419,422. 

Constance,  236. 

Constantine,  Emperor,  23,  29 

Constantinople,  148, 149. 

Council  of,  23. 

Contemporaries  of  Kubens,  324. 
Contemporary  Belgic  art,  330. 

English  art,  330, 

French  art,  330. 

German  art,  267. 

Conti,  Bernardino,  84. 

Conversation^  Velasquez,  222 
Conver.satioii-pieces,  343. 
Cook,  William,  116. 
Cooke,  E.  W.,  423. 
Cooper,  Samuel,  387. 
Copernicus,  88. 
Copley,  J.  S.,404. 
Copyist,  definition  of  a,  121. 
Coques,  Gonzales,  326. 
Cordova,  200,  208. 
Cordova,  Pedro  of,  201. 
Corenzio,  Belisario,  436. 
Corinth,  1, 10. 
Cork,  403. 

Coronation  of  the   Virgin,  Diirer, 
251;    Botticelli,   64;    Era   An- 
gelieo,  56 ;  Overbeck,  265  ;  P. 
PoUaiuolo,  69 ;  liaphael,  105. 
Comeille,  Michel,  452. 

Paris,  451. 

Comeliszoon,  Buys,  31 1. 

Cornelis,  311,  314. 

Jacob,  306,  311,  312. 


Comeliszoon,  Lncas,  311. 

Pieter,  311. 

William,  306. 

Cornelius,   Peter   von,  264,   265, 

266. 
Corot,    Camille,    364,    379,    382, 

383. 
Correggio.     See  Allegri. 
Correggio,  178. 
Cortona,  198. 

Pietro  da.     See  Berrettini, 

Cosimo,  Piero  de,  69,  138. 

Cosmati,  the,  27. 

Cosmo  de'  Medici.     See  Medici. 

Costa,  Lorenzo,  82,  138. 

Costumes  of  old  Venice,  154. 

Cosway,  Richard,  415. 

Cotes,  Francis,  389,  396. 

Cotman,  J.  S.,  419-20,  421. 

Courbet,  Gustave,  384. 

Courtois,  Jacques,  452. 

Court  painters,  275,  317,  324,  328, 

358. 
Courtraye,  323. 
Cousin,  Jehan,  359,  360. 
Const ain.  Pierre,  451. 
Cowper,  Lord,  103,  141. 
Cowper,  399. 
Cox,  David,  421,  422. 
Coxcien,  Michael,  305,  306,  307. 
Coxcien,  Raphael,  306. 
Coypel,  Antoine,  452. 
Coypel,  Noel,  452. 
Cozens,  John,  380,  408,  417,  420, 

421. 
Crabeth,  Dirk  and  Wouter,  314. 
Cranach,  Lucas,  260-2. 
Cranach,  Lucas,  the  younger,  261. 
Cranach,  Johannes,  441. 
Cranborne  Alley,  389. 
Grayer,  Gaspard  de,  218,  324, 325. 
Credi,  Lorenzo  di,  77,  99. 
Cremona,  170,  190. 
Crespi,  Giuseppe  Maria,  438. 
Creswick,  Thomas,  411. 
Cristall,  Joshua,  421. 
Cristina  of  Sweden,  328. 
Cristus,  Petrus,  201,  284. 
Crivelli,  Carlo,  144. 
Crivelli,  Lucrezia,  92. 
Ci-oce,  Francisco  da  Santa,  155. 


470 


INDEX. 


Croce,  Girolamo  da  Santa,  155. 

Crome,  John,  419,  420. 

Cromwell,  388. 

and  Raphael  Cartoons,  116. 

his  Ironsides,  324. 

Cross,  Lewis,  454. 

Crossing  the  BrooJc,  Turner,  410. 

Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  28,  31, 
38,  43,  44,  52,  54,  58.  78,  92, 
100, 137,  149, 155, 158,  161, 201, 
280,  287,  289,  293,  295. 

Crowning  with  Thorns,  Titian,  168. 

Crucifixion,  the,  Antonello,  145, 
146;  J.  Bellini,  147;  Borgog- 
none,  85  ;  Cranach,  262  ;  Fu- 
ligno.  76  ;  Luini,  97  ;  Perugino, 
80 ;  Raphael,  105  ;  Rubens,  320 ; 
Van  Dyck,  323;  Velasquez, 
221; 

Crucifixion  ofS.  Peter,  Caravaggio, 
188  ;  Rubens,  320. 

Cruikshank,  George,  427. 

Crusaders,  269. 

Cruz,  Pantoja  de  la,  204. 

Santos,  202. 

Crystal  Palace,  Egyptian  Court,  6. 

Cuevas,  Pedro  de  las,  439. 

Cupid,  M.  Angelo,  125. 

Curti,  Gio,  190. 

Curtis'  Catalogue,  218,  219,  221, 
227. 

Cuyp,  Albert,  360,  351,  417. 

neglected  by  Dutch,  350 

Daddo,  Bernardo  di,  40. 

Dallas,  E.  S.,  252. 

Dalmasii,  Lippi,  431. 

Dalmau,  Ludovico,  201. 

Z)anae, Con-eggio,  180;  Titian,  165. 

• in  the  Golden  Shower,  Ma- 

buse,  303. 

Danby,  Francis,  457. 

Danby,  Lord,  116. 

Dance,  Nathaniel,  455. 

Dance  of  Death,  Holbein,  259. 

of  Herodias'  Daughter,  37. 

of  the  Magdalen,  L.  v.  Ley- 
den,  314. 

Daniell,  William,  421. 

Dante,  34,  36,  38,  64,  264,  377, 
426. 


Dante's  Dream,  Hoi.  Hunt,  426. 

Daphne  and  Apollo,  Giorgione,  157. 

Daphnes  and  Chloe,  Bordone,  168. 

Darmstadt,  258. 

Datus,  41. 

Daubigny,  C.  F.,  384. 

Daughter  of  Herodias,  Fordenone, 

159. 
David,  statue  by  M.  Angelo,  127. 
David  and  Abigail,  Hugo  van  der 

Goes,  285. 
David  with  Goliath^s  Head,  Por- 

denone,  159. 
David,  Emeric,  358. 
David,  Gerard,  292-93,  296,  310. 
David,  Jacques  Louis,  198,  229, 

363,  370-73. 
Dawkins,  Boyd,  2. 
Dawn,  sculpture  by   M.   Angelo, 

131. 
Dawson,  H.,  417,  423. 
Dax,  Paul,  441. 
Day,  the,  Correggio,  179. 
Dead  Orlando,  Velasquez,  222. 
Dead  Soldier,  the,  Wright,  414. 
Death-dances,  popularity  of,  in  the 

fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries, 

259. 
Death  Choking  a  Warrior,  Burgk- 

mair,  256. 
Death  of  Duke  of  Guise,  Delaroche, 

379. 

Earl  of   Chatham,   Copley, 

405. 

General  Wolfe,  West,  403. 

Gernianicus,  Poussin,  362. 

Major  Pierson,  Copley,  406. 

Nelson,  Maclise,  423. 

Procris,  Cosimo,  69. 

S.  Benedict,  Spinello,  45. 

S.  Clara,  Murillo,  224. 

S.  Francis,  Ghirlandaio,  67. 

the   Virgin,   unknown,   238  j 

M.  Schon,  245. 

Virginia,  Lethiere,  373. 

Decamps,  Gabriel,  377,  381. 
Decker,  Conrad,  352. 

sonnet  by,  332. 

Decorative  art,  99,  118,  137,  166, 

187,  189,  190. 
Defregger,  Franz,  267. 


INDEX. 


471 


Deig,  Hans,  441. 

Delacroix,  Eugene,  373,  376,  377, 

379,380,381. 
Delaroche,  Paul,  378,  383. 
Delen,  Dirk  van,  355. 
Delft,  336,  339,  345. 
Delivery  of  the  Keys  to  8.  Peter, 

Terrugino,  78. 
Delli  Dello,  201. 
Delphi,  paintings  at,  11. 
Denis,  S.,  358. 
Denner,  Balthasar,  263,  396. 
Dentist^  the,  Victoor,  338. 
Dentone.     See  Curti. 
Deodati  Orlandi,  41. 
Derby,  414. 
Descamps,  349. 
Descent  from  the  Cross,  Campana, 

204;  Ricciarelli,   135;  Rubens, 

317,  322  ;  Vander  Weyden,  288. 
Desportes,  Francois,  379. 
Deutsch,     See  Manuel. 
Development  of  art  in  Flanders, 

274. 

in  Germany,  232. 

in  Holland,  335. 

in  Italy,  49,  76. 

Deveria,  Eugene,  Chr.  L.,  7. 
Devonshire  House,  191. 
Diamante,  Fra,  432. 
Diana  and  Callisto,  Titian,  168. 
Diana     Hunting,      Domenichino, 

187. 
Diary  of  A.  Diirer,  253. 
Diaz,  Gonzalo,  202. 
Diaz  de  la  Fena,  n.v.,  383,  384. 
Dibutades,  1. 
Dickens,   illustrated    by   Maclise, 

423. 
Dictionary    of   Nat.    Biography, 

418. 
Diderot,  368,  369. 
Dido  building  Carthage,  Turner, 

410. 
Didron's    Christian     Iconograph, 

29. 
Diego  de  Deza,  Archbishop,  216. 
Diepenbeck,  Abraham  V.,  446. 
Dietrich,  Christian,  203. 
Digby,  Lady  V.,  324. 
Dgon,  269. 


Dilke,  Lady,  359. 

Dinant,  310. 

Dionysios  of  Colophon,  12. 

Diotisalvi,  Chr.  L.,2. 

"  Discourses  on  Fainting,"  397. 

Disputa  del  Sacremento,  Raphael, 

107,  216. 
Distressed  Poet,  Hogarth,  392. 
Divine  Justice  and  Crime,  Prud'- 

hon,  374. 
Dobson,  Austin,  394,  396. 
Dobson,  William,  326,  387. 
Dodgson,  421. 
Doelen-stuk.  336. 
Doges,  150,  172. 
Dohme's  Kunst  u.  Kiinstler,  369, 

385. 
Dolci,  Agnese,  191. 
Dolci,  Carlo,  190. 
Dombild,  the,  of  Cologne,  236. 
Dom-hild,  Stephan  Lochner,  236. 
Domenichino.     See  Zampieri. 
Domenico  di  Bartolo,  431. 
Domenico,  Pietro  di,  433. 
Dominican  order,  38,  57,  100. 
Dominici,  "Vile  dei  Pittori,"  197. 
Donatello,  53,  70. 
Donato,  143. 
Donducci,  Andrea,  436. 
Doni,  Paolo,  52,  62. 
Don  Quixote,  Smirke,  427, 
Donne,  Dr.,  387. 
Dore,  Gustave,  384. 
Dortrecht,  350. 
Dossi,  Dosso.     See  Lutero. 
Dou,  Gerard,  281,  332,  338,  340, 

344. 
Douai,  304. 
Doyle,  Richard,  427. 
Dream    of   M.    Angelo,    Piombo, 

134. 
Dresden,  340. 

Drouais,  Jean-Germain,  373. 
Druidic  circles,  231. 
••  Dubarrydom,"  368. 
Dubbels,  Jan,  354. 
Dubbels,  Heindrik.  449. 
Dubois,  Ambrose,  360. 
Dubreuil,  Toussaint,  360, 
Duccio,  28. 
Duch&tel,  Fr.,  446. 


472 


INDEX. 


J)udley,  Earl,  105,  144,  224. 
Dufresnoy.     See  Fresnoy. 
Dughet,  Anna  M,,  363. 
Dughet,  Gaspar  (Gaspar  Poussin), 

310,  363,  364,  365-66. 
Dulwich.     See  Galleries. 
Dumoustier,  451. 
Duncan,  421. 

Dunwegge,  H.  and  V.,  441. 
Duplessis,  "  Hist,  de  la  Gravure," 

63. 
Dupre,  Jules,  384. 
Diirer,  Albrecht,  152,   168,   211, 

225,  236,    240,    241,    242,  244, 

245,  247-54,  255,  256,  260,  261, 

262,  296,  299,  306,  307,  314. 

Hans,  441, 

Pupils  or  "  Little  Masters," 

255-56. 
Dusart  Cornelis,  344. 
Dusseldorf,  School,  the,  265,  266, 

267. 
Dutch  Claude,  350. 

fruit,   flower,  and   still   life 

school,  355. 

genre  painters,  226. 

interiors,  339. 

Italianisers,  347,  354. 

School,  330-57;  modern,  356. 

See  Holland. 

sea  painting,  465. 

Dyce,  Will.,  423. 

Eagles  Repast,  J.  Fyt,  325. 
Early    Christian  painters  of  the 
Netherlands,  268. 

Flemish    School,    279,   282, 

285,  287. 

Flemish  painters,  293. 

French  painters,  358. 

Italian  School,  244. 

School  of  Holland,  297. 

Spanish  painters,  199. 

Eastlake,  Sir  C.  L.,  109,  114,  122, 
137,  262,  270,  423. 

Eoce  Homo,  Correggio,  180  ;  Gio- 
vanni, 50;  Titian,  168. 

Ecclesiastical  element  in  Spanish 
art,  206. 

Eclecticism,  183,  192. 

Eclectic  Schools,  181,  190. 


Eddas  of  the  North,  243. 

Edinburgh,  414. 

Edridge,  H.,  421. 

Education  of  Achilles,  Regnault, 
379. 

Edtication  of  Cupid,  Correggio, 
180. 

Edwin,  Wright,  414. 

Eeekbout,  Gerbrandt  van  den,  337. 

Eel-butts  at  Goring,  MuUer,  423. 

Effects  of  Intemperance,  J.  Steen, 
345,  346. 

y^gg,  407. 

Egidius,  Pctrus,  299. 

Egmont,  Count,  309. 

Egypt,  1,  2,  3. 

mummy  cases,  5. 

tombs,  4. 

Egyptian  art  transmitted  to  Greece, 
1,  9. 

Eleanor  of  Austria,  175. 

Election  Series,  Hogarth,  392. 

Elements,  the  Four,  Mola,  188. 

Elevation  of  the  Cross,  Vandyck, 
323. 

Eliot,  George,  69. 

Elixir  of  Life,  Pin  well,  427. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  300,  387. 

Elle,  Ferdd.,  362. 

Ellis,  Wynn,  Collection,  355. 

Elmore,  Alf.,  457. 

Eisner,  Jac,  441. 

Elzheimer,  Adam.  263. 

Embarkation  rf  the  Q.  of  Sheba, 
Claude,  36L-. 

Embassy  of  Hydi^r.Bi'Cn,  in  Cal- 
cutta, Zoffany,  -±ul. 

Emotional  pictures  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  255. 

Emperor  Trajan,  Y&ndcT  Weyden, 
286. 

Engelbrechtsen,  Cornelis,  311. 

England,  232,  258  ;  long  delayed 
birth  of  art  in,  385  ;  foreign 
painters  in,  309,  318,  323,  339, 
353,  358,  386,  401. 

painting  in,  385-428. 

English  painters,  exhibited  in 
France,  393. 

Vandyck,  387. 

in  little,  387. 


INDEX. 


473 


Engraving,  copper,   63,  72,  173, 

185,  255,  311,  312,   349,  359, 

361. 

invention  of,  63. 

in  Germany,  242,  253,  262. 

metal,  63,  64. 

mezzotint,  414. 

wood,  63,  255,  262. 

Engraving      in      England,     389, 

390. 
Enraged  Musician,  Hogarth,  392. 
Enthroned      Madonna,      Crivelli, 

144. 
Enthroned  Mary,  Morelli,  144. 
Entombment,  M.  Angelo,  134  ;  Q. 

Massys,    299 ;    Kaphael,    108 ; 

Titian,  168. 
Entry  into  Bruges,  277,  284. 
Entry  of  Henry  IV.  into  Paris, 

Gerard,  373. 
Ephysius,  8.,  scenes  from  legends 

of,  Spinello,  42. 
Eraclius,  270. 

Erasmus,  254,  258,  259,  299. 
P>emitani  chapel,  71. 
Es,  Jacques  v.,  446. 
Escalante,  Juan  Ant.,  440. 
I^henbach,  Wolfram  von,  234. 
Escurial,  197,  205. 
Espinosa,   Jacinto   Geronimo    de, 

210. 
Este,  Alfonso  d',  138. 
Esteban,  Rodrigo,  201. 
Estense,  Bahiassare,  432. 
Esther  and  Ahasturus, L.  v.  Leyden , 

314. 
Etching,  229,  255,  335,  352. 
Ethiopian  paintings,  3. 
Eton  Coll.,  198. 
Etruscan  paintings,  16,  27. 
Etty,  William,  407,  423. 
Eulens2negely  L.  v.   Leyden,  313, 

314. 
Eumaros,  of  Athens,  10. 
Euphranor,  14. 
Eupom|K)S,  14. 
Even,  Ed.  van,  295,  297. 
Evening  Hymn,  Muson,  427. 
Everdingen,  Albert  van,  352. 
Execution  of  L.  Jane  drey,  Dela- 

roche,  37^- 


Executions  in  the  Alhamhra,  For- 

tuny,  230  ;  Kegnault,  384. 
Exeter,  Marq.  of,  282. 
Eycks,  the  van,  63,  143,  144,  235, 

236,  238,  241,  245,  269-84,  297, 

298,  314,  315,  359. 

Jan's  daughter  Lyennie,  282. 

discovery    of   oil-painting, 

270-72. 
Eyck,  Hubert  van,  268,  269,  271, 

*272,  273. 

his  epitaph,  273. 

Eyck,  Jan  van,  145,201,  268,  269, 

270,  271,  272,  273-84,  288,  290, 

293,294,310,343,359. 
Eyck,  Lambert  van,  282. 
Eyck,  Margaret  v.,  282. 


Fa  Presto.     See  Giordano. 
Fabius  Pictor,  18. 
Fabriano,  Antonio  da,  430. 
Fabriano,  Francesco   Gentile  da, 

430. 
Fabriano,    Gentile   da,    77,   143, 

146,  147. 
Fabrique,  Nicholas  La,  446. 
Fabritius,  Carel,  336,  339. 
Faccini,  Pietro,  436. 
Faes,  Peter  van  der  (Lely),  326, 

388,  394. 
Faith,  School  of,  53,  55. 
Falcone,  Aniello,  196,  197. 
Fall  of  the  Angels,  Frans  Floris, 

308. 

Damned,  Aeken,  296;  Ru- 
bens, 321. 

Rebel    Angels   or    Lucifer, 

Spinello,  44,  244. 

Family  of  Darius,  Veronese,  176. 
Family  of  Chiorgione,  Giorgione, 

157. 
Family  Group,  Coques,  326. 
Fantastic  spirit  in  art,  243,  326. 
Farnesina,  98,  118,  184,  186. 
"  Father  of  Paintei-s,"  70. 
Fattorine,   Fra    Bartolommeo    di 

Pagliolo  del,   46,   66,  99,   100, 

101,   103,    107,   119,    125,  138, 

139,  150. 
Feast  qf  the  Lcvite,  Veronese,  175. 


474 


INDEX. 


Feast  of  the  Rose  Garlands,  Diirer, 

249. 
Fede,  Lucretia  del,  141. 
Feeling  for  Form,  Florentine,  324. 
Feltre,  Morto  da,  158. 
Ferdinand  VII.,  217. 
Fernandez,  Pedro,  202. 
Ferramolo,  84,  85. 
Ferrara,  72,  82,  83,  162,  289. 
Alfonso  I.,   Duke  of,   162; 

and  his  wife,  163. 

School  of,  72,  138. 

Ferrari,  Gaudenzio,  96,  97, 181. 

Ferri,  Giro,  438. 

Feselen,  Hans,  441. 

Feti,  Domenico,  437. 

Fetishism,  first  stage  of  religious 

belief,  2. 
Feuerbach,  A.,  443. 
Ficinus,  Marsilius,  111. 
Fictoors.     See  Victoor. 
Fielding,  Antony  Vandyck  Cop- 
ley, 421,  422. 
Fiesole,   Giovanni   da    (Fra    An- 

gelico),  49,  53,  55-7,  58,  59,  60, 

62,  73,  74,  75,  79,  101,  103, 107, 

146,  235,  288. 
Fiesole,  altar-piece  of  S.  Domenico, 

57. 
Fifth  Flague  of  Egypt,  Turner, 

410. 
Fighting  Temeraire,  Turner,  410. 
Figino,  Ambrogio,  436. 
Filipepi,  Sandro  (Botticelli),  63-4. 
Filippo,  Fra.     See  Lippi. 
finding  of  Moses,  Poi-denone,  159. 
Finiguerra,  Maso,  63. 
Fino,  Tommaso  di  Cristofero.   See 

Panicale. 
Fiore,  Jacobello  del,  142,  144. 
Firmin-Didot,  360. 
Five  Senses,  G.  Coques,  326. 
Flagellation,  Luini,  97  ;  Sodoma, 

98. 
Flanders,  262,  274. 

School  of,  237,  282, 289,  386. 

School  of,  in  Spain,  201. 

Flandrin,  453. 

Flatman,  T.,  454. 

Flaying  of  the  Venal  Judge,  G. 

Davis,  292. 


Flemalle,  Bertholet,  446. 
Flemish  art,  282;  in  Italy,  289, 

308 ;  decline,  329. 

large  work,  285. 

fifteenth    century  influence, 

237. 
in  Spain,  201. 

Italianisers,      202,     302-5, 

314,341,  354. 

miniatures,  268,  293. 

School  of  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury, 315-30,  361. 

style,  145,  241. 

the.  Patriarch  of,  273. 

the,  Raphael,  306. 

Fleury,  Cardinal,  367. 

Flight  into  Egypt,  Caravaggio  or 
Saraceni,  193. 

Flinck,  Govert,  336. 

Florence,  27,  29,  30,  34,  35,  36, 
37,  39,  48,  50,  54,  55,  57,  70,  76, 
77,  78,  93,  95,  99, 101, 102, 105, 
106,  107,  108,  121,  123,  127, 
130,  132,  134,  140,  142,  146, 
169,  191,  197,  198,  289,  323, 
395. 

Bargello,  126. 

Baptistery  Gates,  51. 

Cathedral  of  S.  Maria  del 

Fiore,  39,  40. 

Convent  of  S.  Marco,  56. 

Painters'  Guild  of,  87. 

Palazzo  Publico,  87;  Palazzo 

Vecchio,  94,  127. 

Raphael  at,  108. 

Signiory  of,  128. 

Uffizi,  which  see. 

Government  of,  62,  74,  75. 

Florentine  art,  50,  76,  106. 

faction  in  Padua,  7 1. 

Jeremiah,  99. 

maiden  ornaments,  66. 

School,  139. 

victories   depicted,  94,   127 

[Vinci  and  M.  Angelo]. 
Floris,  Frans.     See  Vriendt. 
Fogliani,  Guidoriccio,  47. 
Followers  of  Vandyck,  326. 
Fontainebleau,    138,     183,     360, 

383. 
Fontana,  Lavinia.  436. 


INDEX. 


475 


Fontana,  Prospero,  182. 
Foppa,  Vinccnwi,  84,  85,  95. 
Ford's  Handbook,  200,  202,  208, 

213. 
Forli,  Melozzo  da,  73,  76. 
Fomarina,  La,  117. 
Forster,  Kunstblatt,  41,  53. 
Fiirster's  Deukmiiler,  288,  312. 
Fortwie   Teller,  Caravaggio,  192 ; 

Valentin,  362. 
Fortuny,  Jose  Mariano,  229. 
Fossano,  Ambrogio  (Borgognone), 

84,  85. 
Fosse,  Charles  de  la,  452. 
Foundling  Hospital,  392. 
Fountain     of     Youth,     Cranach, 

261. 
Fouque,  252. 
Fouqiiet,  Jean,  358. 
Four  Apostle,  Diirer,  251. 

Maries^  Mabuse,  302. 

Oxen  in  MeadowSy  F.  Potter, 

349. 
Fourment,  H^lene,  319. 
Fourmois,  Theodore,  330. 
Fra  Angelico.     See  Fiesole. 
Fra  Filippo.     See  Lippi. 
Fragonard,  J.  Honore,  368. 
France,  232,  309,  359. 

painting  in,  368-84. 

Francesca,    Piero    di     Benedetto 

della,  52,  58,  73,  76,  77. 
Franchoys,  Paul,  444. 
Francia.     See  Raibqiini. 
Francis  I.,  King,  95,  96,  102,  138, 

140,  142,  175,  360,  386.  " 
Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.  at  Ch.  of 

S.  Denis,  Gros,  374. 
Francis,  S,,  32,  37,  67,  76,  122. 

Giotto's  Death  of,  38. 

Franciscans,  Order  of,  38,  57,  215- 

16,  224,  227. 
Franciscan  Monk,  Zurbaran,  216. 
Francken,  Frans,  the  Elder,  309. 
Francken,   Frans,  the    Younger, 

444. 
Frangois,  446. 
Franconian  School,  247. 
"  Fraser,"  423. 
Fraser,  Alexander,  466. 
Frederick  the  Great,  266. 


Frederick  the  Magnanimous,  260, 
261. 

Frederick  the  Wise,  260. 

French  Correggio,  374. 

Raphael,  366. 

Vandyck,  367. 

School,  Modern,    329,   330, 

386,  422. 

Freminet,  Martin,  360, 

Frere,  Edouard,  384. 

Frescoes  at  Antwerp,  299 ;  Assisi, 
32  ;  Basel,  257  ;  Bologna,  83, 
184;  Brauweiler,  233;  Cagli, 
104;  Castiglione  d'Olona,  52; 
Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  379 ; 
Escurial,  197 ;  Florence,  67, 
140;   Germany,  232;  Lugano, 

96  ;  Mantua,  137  ;    Milan,  84, 

97  ;  Munich,  265;  Naples,  187, 
197  ;  Naumberg,  265  ;  Padua, 
71  ;  Parma,  178  ;  Perugia,  80, 
107  ;  Piacenza,  159  ;  Pisa,  41-4, 
58;  Prato,  61;  Rome,  54,  57, 
64,  68,  71,  73,  78,  98,  109-15, 
129,  137,  184,  186,  264;  San 
Gemignano,  59,  68 ;  S.  An- 
thony in  San  Daniele,  154; 
Saronno,  96  7  ;  Siena,  47,  48, 
81 ;  Spoleto,  62  ;  Varello,  97  j 
Vatican,  109, 129  ;  Venice,  147, 
166,  157,  162,  197  ;  Vienna, 
266 ;  Vercelli,  97. 

Fresnoy,  Charles  du,  451, 

Frey,  Agnes,  248. 

Friedrich,  Kaspar  D.,  442. 

Fries,  Hans,  440. 

Frisian  peasantry,  357, 

F>iuli,  154,  162. 

Froberius,  258. 

Frohlich,  Ernst,  443. 

Froment,  Nicolas,  359. 

Fromentin,  Eugene,  384. 

Froude,  269. 

Fruitiers,  Philipp,  446. 

Frutti,  II  Gobbo  d'.     See  Bonri. 

Fuhrich,  Joseph,  264. 

Fuligno,  Niccolo  da,  76,  77. 

Fuller,  Isaac,  454. 

Funeral  at  Ornans,  Courbet,  384. 

Fungai,  Bernardino,  433. 

Furtmeyer,  P.,  440. 


476 


INDEX. 


Fuseli,  H.,  89,  262,  362,  404. 
Fyoll,  Conrad,  440. 
Fyt,  Jan,  325. 

Gaddi,  Agnolo,  40. 

Gaddi,  Gaddo,  28,  39. 

Gaddi,  Taddeo,  39,  57. 

Gael,  Barend,  348. 

Gaillon,  castle  at,  98. 

Gainsborough,  Thomas,  380,  398- 
99,400,415,  417,  419. 

Galassi,  Galasso,  431. 

Galileo,  88. 

Gallait,  Louis,  266,  329. 

Gallegos,  Ferdinand,  201. 

Galleries  :  Aldobrandini,  108  ; 
Amsterdam,  340;  Antwerp,280, 
299,  301, 302, 308, 309,312,320; 
Arenberg,  349 ;  Augsburg,  257 ; 
Berlin,  85,  180,  245,  261,  266, 
278,  279,  327;  Borghese,  108, 
187,  188;  Bridgwater,  108,  161, 
164,  168,  341,  344,  362;  Bruns- 
wick, 340,  348;  Brussels,  273, 
301,  302,  309,  329;  Cologne, 
233,  245;  Dresden,  121,  158, 
160,  162,  168,174, 178,  180,185, 
189,  191,  195,  228,  240,  258, 
341;  Dulwich,  197,  228,  350; 
Esterhazy,  Pesth,  158  ;  Frank- 
fort, 251,  289,  339  ;  Grosvenor, 
349,  413,  417;  Hague,  346; 
Liechtenstein,  193  ;  Lucca,  102; 
Madrid,  121,  122, 195,  203,  210, 
2 19,  229, 250,  288,  297 ;  Munich, 
4,  7,  228,  238,  239,  245,  246, 
251,  254,  257,  265,  303,  309, 
322,  352;  Parma,  179;  Sciarra, 
160,  190  ;  Sid,  340;  Siena,  98  ; 
Stuttgard,  246;  Vienna,  157, 
221,  241,250,  256. 

Gamble,  Ellis,  389. 

Game  Laws,  the,  Hubner,  266. 

Ganymede,  Correggio,  180. 
Garbieri,  Lorenzo,  437. 

Garden  of  Hesperides,  Turner,  410. 
Gargiulo,  Domenico,  197. 
Garofalo.     See  Tisio. 
Garrick,  392,  397. 
Garvagh,  Raphael,  the,  121. 
Gassel,  Lucas,  310. 


Gatta,  Bartolommeo  della,  431, 
Gaye's  "Carteggio,"  61. 
Gay  Science,  Dallas,  252. 
Gedde&,  Andrew,  406. 
Geeraert,  Marcus,  445. 
Geest,  Corn,  v.  d.,  334. 
Gelde,  Catherine  Metten,  295. 
Geldorp,  Gortzius,  309. 
Gel^e,  Claude,  (Claude  Lorrain), 
185,  187,    188,    189,   190,    197, 
310,  335,   364,   365,   381,   398, 
400,  409,  417,  419. 
Genelli,  Buoneventura,  442. 
Genevay,  Style  Louis  XIV.,  369. 
Genoa,  323. 

Doria  Palace,  159. 

S.  Maria  di  Castello    clois- 
ters, 239,  316. 
Genre.     See  Painting,  Genre. 
Gentile.     See  Fabriano. 
Gentileschi,  Artemisia,  437. 
Gentileschi,  Orazio  Lomi  de,  436. 
George  I.,  388. 
George  III.,  403. 
George  Eliot,  396. 
Gerard,  Francois,  373. 
Gerard  of  S.  John.     See  Haarlem. 
Gericault,  Jean-Louis,  373,  375, 

377,  380. 
Gerini,  Nicolo  di  Pietro,  431. 
German  altar-pieces,  233. 

art.    National   character  of, 

240,  248,  264,  265,  266. 

burlesques,  262. 

engraving,  63,  242. 

Italianisers,  262. 

rise   of,  231,   258  ;    fall   of, 

262. 

wall-painting,  232. 

Germany,   painting    in,    231-267, 
268,  386. 

lack  of  art  patrons,  253. 

Upper,  free  schools  of,  240. 

Gerrit.      See  Gheeraerdt  of  Sint 

Jans. 
Gessi,  Francisco,  437. 
Gessner,  Salomon,  442. 
Gheerardt,  of  Sint  Jans,  293,  311. 
Ghent,  236, 272,  273, 274, 279, 284. 
Ghiberti  gates,  51. 
Ghiberti,  Lc^renzo,  51,  53. 


INDEX. 


477 


Ghirlandaio.     See  Bigordi,  Dom. 
Ghirlandaio,  Ridolfo  del,  69. 
Ghisolfi,  Giovanni,  197. 
Giambono,  143. 
Gillot,  Claude,  452. 
Gillray,  James,  455. 
Gin  Lane,  Hcjgarth,  392. 
Giocondo,  Francesco,  92, 
Giolfino,  173. 

Giordano,  Luca,  (Fa  Presto),  197. 
Giorgio,  Francesco  di,  432. 
Giorgione.     See  Barbarelli. 
Giotteschi,  the,  39,  40,  42,  51,  53. 
Giottino,  40. 
Giotto.     See  Bondone. 
Giovanni,  Matteo  di,  50. 
Giovanni  da  Milano,  66. 
Giovanni,  Stefano  di,  Chr.  L.,  2. 
Giovanni,  Tomasso  San.     See  Ma- 

saccio. 
Giovenone,  Girolamo,  85,  97. 
Girl  at  an  Open  Window,  Vermeer, 

340. 
with  a  Drinking -glass,  Ver- 
meer, 340. 

with  a  Lute,  Caravaggio,  193. 

Girlhood  of  the  Virgin,  Hoi.  Hunt, 

426. 
Girodct.     See  Trioson. 
Girtin,   Thomas,   380,   408,    409, 

419,  420,  421. 
Giunta,  of  Pisa,  28. 
Giusto  di  Gio.  del  Menabuoi,  45. 
Gladiator,  Wright,  414. 
Glass  of  Lemonade,  Terburg,  343. 
Glass-painting,  French,  358. 
Glass  window  designs,  265,  267, 

297,  359. 
Glockenton,  George,  441. 
Glockenton,  Nicholas,  441. 
Goes,  Hugo  Vander,  284,  295. 
Goethe,  121,265. 
Goffaerts,EIiz.,286. 
Goldsmith,  397,  398. 
Golden  Bough,  Turner,  410. 
Golden    Fleece,    Order    founded, 

277. 
Goldfinch,  C.  Fabritius,  337. 
Goltzius,  Heinrich,  2G2,  314. 
Goltzius,  Hubert,  314. 
Gomez,  Sebastian,  439. 


Goncourf s  L'Art  (XVIII.  Siecle), 

Gonzaga..    See  Mantua. 

Good  Samaritan,  Bassano,  177. 

Shepherd,  Murillo,  228. 

Good,T.  S.,406. 
Gordon,  Sir  J.  W.,  457. 
Gortzius,  Geldorp,  309. 
Gossaert,  Jan  (Mabuse),  301-304, 

306,  313. 

anecdote  of,  303. 

Gothic  Architecture,  232. 

Art,  201,231. 

Gouda,  304,  314. 

Gourmont,  Jean  de,  451. 

Goya,  219,  229. 

Goyen,  Jan  van,  345,  348. 

Goyen,  Marg.  van,  345. 

Gozzoli,  Benozzo,  58,  66,  77,  82. 

Graces,  P.  Vecchio,  160. 

Graeco-Roman  school,  17. 

Granacci,  Francisco,  433. 

Granada,  200,  214. 

Hall  of  the  Council  frescoes, 

200. 
Grandi,  Ercole  di  Giulio,  84. 
Grandi,  Ercole  di  Robert!,  83. 
Granet,  Fr.  Mar.,  453. 
Granson,  287. 
Grebber,  F.  P.  de,  448. 
Greco,  II.     See  Theotocopuli. 
Greece,  painting  in  Ancient,  7, 19. 
Greedy  Eater,  Carracci,  185. 
Greek  art,  fall  of,  16. 

contrasted,  24,  26,  53,  54. 

development  of,  10,  15,  268. 

ideal,  the,  9,  64,  118,  152, 

371. 

marriage  of  Otho,  269. 

meaning  of,  263-4. 

nature  worship,  8. 

traditional  origin,  1. 

transmitted  from  Egypt,  1,  9. 

transmitted  to  Rome,  17. 

Green,  Valentine,  414. 

"  Green   complexions,"  cause   of, 

25. 
Greenhill,  John,  454. 
Greenwich,  353. 

Hospital,  389. 

Hospital,  Vincent,  419. 

Gregory  XI.,  111. 


478 


INDEX. 


Greuze,  J.  B.,  369. 

Grien,  Hans  Balding,  256. 

Grimaldi,  F.,  190. 

Grimani  MS.,  293. 

Grimm,  110,  117,  127,  128,  133, 
177. 

Grimmer,  Abel,  445. 

Grimmer,  Jacoli,  444. 

Grisaille,  299. 

Gros,  Antoine  Jean,  374,  381. 

Grosvenor  Gallery,  349,  392. 

Grotesque,  The,  in  art,  299. 

Gruchy,  383. 

Griinewakl,  Matthias,  255. 

Guadelupe,  Ped.  Fr.  de,  202. 

Guardi,  Francisco,  198. 

Guariento,  430. 

Guercino.     See  Barbieri. 

Guerin,  Narcisse,  373. 

Guicciardini,  297. 

Guidi,  Tommaso.     See  Masaccio. 

Guido,  of  Bologna.     See  Reni. 

Guido,  of  Siena,  28. 

Guild  of  German  Merchants,  157, 
162,  249. 

Guild  of  Joiners,  Antwerp,  300. 

Guild,  Painters',  Antwerp,  253, 
301,  306,  309,  316,  322,  327 
Bologna,  182 ;  Bruges,  288 
Brussels,  288 ;  Florence,  87 
Ghent,  273  ;  '  Louvain,  288 
Padua,  70;  of  S.  Luke,  Ghent, 
285  ;  Tournay,  286,  288. 

Guitar     Lesson,     the,     Terburg, 
344. 


Haarlem,  239,  293,  304,  307,  310, 

314,   336,   838,  339,   345,  346, 

348. 
Haarlem,  Gerard  van  (St.  John, 

Gerard  of),  293,311. 
Hackaert,  Jan,  355. 
Hackert,  Johan  P.,  442. 
Haecht,  Tobie  van,  316. 
Hagen,  Jan  van,  352. 
Hague,  The,  334,  341 ,  345,  349. 
Hallam,  62,  88. 
Hals,  Frans,  327,  336,  338,  346, 

355. 
Hals,  Frans,  the  younger,  339 


Hals,  Dirk,  339. 

Halt  at  an  Inn,  RUysdael,  348. 

Haman    before    Esther,    Victoor, 

327. 
Hampstead,  419. 
Harbour  of  Refuge,  Walker,  427. 
Hampton  Court,  72,  115,  116, 138, 

160,  161,257,303. 
Harding,  J.  D.,  421. 
Hargreaves,  Will.,  456, 
HarloCs  Progress,  Hogarth,  390. 
Harlow,  G.  H.,  404,  415. 
Harvest  Moon,  Mason,  427. 
Hasselt,  Jehan  de,  443. 
Havard,  304,  341,  342,  347,  353. 
Havell,  William,  421. 
Hay  don,   Benjamin  Robert,   405, 

406,  423. 
Hayley,  399. 

Hayman,  Francis,  389,  398. 
Haij-wain,  Constable,  381. 
Hazlitt,  324. 

Head,  Sir  E.,  200-204,  366,  368. 
Head  of  Christ,  Solario,  98 ;  Van 

Eyck,  283. 
Hearne,  Thomas,  421. 
Heath,  J.,  414. 
Hebert,  489. 
Hebrews,  Art  of  the,  7. 
Heda,  Cornelis,  448. 
Heemskerk.     See  V.  Veen. 
Heideloff,  C,  234. 
Heil,  Daniel  de,  446. 
Heinz,  Joseph,  442. 
Helen,  by  Zeuxis,  13. 
Heller,  Jacob,  251. 
Helmont,  310. 
Helmont,  Matt,  van,  446. 
Heist,  Bart  Van  der,  336,  338. 
Hemessen.     See  Sanders. 
Hemicycle,  fresco,  Delaroche,  379. 
Henley,  W.  E.,  383. 
Hennequin  de  Bruges,  443. 
Henry  III.,  166,  200. 
Henry  VIII.,  155,  258,  303,  386. 
Herbst,  Hans,  440. 
Herculaneum,  19,  137,  370, 
Here,  Lucas  van,  285. 
Herkenbald,  Legend  of,  286. 
Herkenbald  the  Magnificent,  Van 

Weyden,286. 


INDEX. 


479 


Herkomer,  Hubert,  415. 

Herle,  Wilhelm   v.     See  Master 

Wilhelm. 
Herlin,  Friedrich,  241. 
Hermit  Life,  or  the  Father  in  the 

Desert,  Pietro,  48. 
Herp,  Gerard  van,  446. 
Herrera,  El  Mozo,  212,  225. 
Herrera,  Francisco  de,  el  Vicjo, 

212,213,217. 
Herrint^,  J.  F.,  457. 
Herreyns,  Guillaume,  329. 
Hess,  Peter,  442. 
Hej'^de,  J.,  v.  d.,  355. 
Heyens,  Catherine,  300. 
Heytesbury,  Lord,  219,  282. 
"High  Art,"  English  painters  of, 

402,    404,    405,   423;    French, 

379. 
Hildebrandt,  Ed.,  443. 
Hildesheim,  233. 
Hilliard,  Nicholas,  387. 
Hills,  R.,  421. 
Hilton,  W.,  405,  423. 
Hippolytus,  8.,  Scenes  from  Legend 

of,  Spinello,  42. 
Hire,  lliurent  de  la,  361. 
Hirtz,  Hans,  440. 
Hispania,  Pctrus  de,  200. 
Hispano-Neapolitan  Art,  194. 
Historic-painting,   266,  286,  292, 

405,  423. 
History  of  Civilization  of  Man, 

Barry,  404. 

Creation,  M.  Angelo,  115. 

Joseph,  d'Ubertino,  142. 

8.  Ursula,  Carpaccio,  154. 

Hobbema,  Minderhout,  352,  353. 

Ilobbes,  Th.,  388. 

Hoefnagel,  Joris,  444. 

Ht)eckgeest,  448. 

Hoffman,  H.,  442. 

Hogarth,  William,  345,  369,  380, 

386,  389-94,  395,  400,  406,  416. 
Holbein,  Ambrose,  441. 
Holbein,  Hans,  the  elder,  256,  257. 
Holbein,  Hans,  the  younger,  241, 

253,   257-260,    262,    307,    309, 

351,359. 
Holbein,  Sigmund,  257. 
Holl,  F.,  415. 


Holland,   Early    School   of,   297, 

310,314. 
Holland,  Paintuig  in,   293,   311, 

386. 
Holland,  James,  421,  422. 
Holy  Family,  Bartolommeo,  103; 

Burgkmair,  256 ;    Lanini,   97  ; 

M.  Angelo,  129  ;  Murillo,  228  ; 

Raphael,  108;  [The  Pearl],  121 ; 

del    Sarto,    141  ;    Schongauer, 

241  ;    Titian,    168 ;    Zurbaran, 

216. 
Holy  Land,  260,  428. 
Holy  Trinity,  Raphael,  107. 
Homer,  10. 

Homer  as  a  Fiddler,  Rubera,  195. 
Hondecoeter,  Melchior,  355. 
Hone,  Nat.,  454. 
Honthorst,  Gerard,  314. 
H{X)ghe,  Peter  de,  193,  330,  339, 

344. 
Hoorn,  Count,  309. 
Hope,  Mr.  Beresford,  282. 
Hoppner,  John,  415, 
Horebout  or  Horembout,  444. 
Hoskins,  John,  387. 
Hospital  of  Holy  Charity,  Seville, 

226. 
Hospital  of  St.  John,  Bruges,  290, 

291. 
Hotel  de  Ville,  Brussels,  287. 
Houbraken,  Arnold,  441. 
Houses  of  Parliament,  423. 
Howard,  Henry,  456. 
Hiibner,  Karl,  266. 
Hudibras,  390. 

Hudson,  Thoma.s,  389,  394,  395. 
Hue  de  Lannoy,  276. 
Huet,  Paul,  381. 
Hiiffel,  Victor,  446. 
Hugtenburg,  Jan  viin,  351. 
Humphreys,      Noel,      Holbein's 

Dance  of  Death,  260. 
Humphrey,  O.,  455. 
Hunt,  Holman,  412,  425. 
Hunt,  Wm.  H.,  421,422. 
Hussite  Conventicle,  Hubner,  266. 
Huy,  convent  of,  269. 
Huysmans.  Coruelis,  446. 
Huysum,  Van,  365. 
Hymans,  Henri,  293,  301. 


480 


INDEX. 


Inlysos,  15. 

Ibbetson,  Jul.  Caesar,  455. 
Ichthus,  Sj^mbol  for  Christ,  21. 
Iconoclasts,  The,  24,  75,  100,  301, 

311. 
Ideal,  The  Christian,  22,  24,  25, 

26,  76. 
Irleal  in  Art,  9. 
Idealism,  237. 

Ideal,  Italian,  244,  291,  313. 
Ideal  beauty,  120,  291. 

beauty  of  Raphael,  118. 

Idealist,  definition  of,  120. 
Idle  Apprentice,  Hogarth,  392. 
II  Furioso.     See  Kobusti. 
Illuminations,  358. 
Illuminatoi's  and  Printers,  Society 

of,  Bruges,  293. 
Illustrator,  first,  of  modern  books, 

64. 
Imhof  altar-piece,  234. 
Imitators  of  Rembrandt,  337. 
Immaculate   Conception,    Murillo, 

206,  226,228. 
Impressionists,  384. 
Incantation  Scene,  Teniers,  327. 
Ince,  Madonna,  282. 
Incredulity  of  S.  Thomas,  Battista, 

154;  II  Calabrese,  196. 
India,  art  of,  7  ;  Zoffany  in,  401. 
Individuality  of  style,  331,  337, 

364. 
Infanta,  Mai-garita  Maria,  220. 
Infanta,  Maria  Theresa,  221. 
Inferno,  Dante's,  36. 
Ingelheim,    Upper,    church    and 

castle,  232. 
Ingobertus,  451. 
Ingres,  J.  Aug.  Dom.,  376. 
Innocent  VIII.,  71. 
Innspruck,  266. 
Inquisition,  The,  202,  210. 

Inspector  of  paintings,  205. 

Inquisitorial  Spain,  226. 
Interior,  with  S.  .4w?«e,  Rembrandt, 

192. 
Invention  of  oil  painting.    See  Oil- 
painting. 
Ionic  School,  13. 
Iphigeneia,  14. 
Ipswich,  398. 


Iriarte,  Ignacio,  439. 

Isabel  of  Portugal,  276. 

Isabella,  Regent  of  Netherlands, 
317,  318. 

Isenmann,  Caspar,  440. 

Isle  of  Pheasants,  220. 

Israels,  Joseph,  356. 

Italian  perfection,  86  ;  art  in  six- 
teenth century,  153;  influence 
of,  202;  decadence,  361,  386; 
painters  in  Spain,  201,  206  ; 
Society,  75,  163;  School  of 
seventeenth  century,  361. 

Italy,  220,  223, 240,  268,  289,  323, 
354,  395. 

fifteenth  century  magnifi- 
cence, 75. 

painting  in,  33-198. 

Italianisation  of  Spanish  art,  206. 

DutcJi,  354. 

Italianisers  of  Antwei*p,  305. 

Dutch  landscape,  352. 

ItaHanisers,  398. 

"  Itinerant,"  420. 

Itinerant  Musicians,  Madou,  330. 

Ixion,  Ribera,  195. 


Jackson,  John,  415. 

Jackson  and  Chatto,  250. 

Jacob,  232. 

Jacobzoon,  Dirk,  312. 

Jacobzoon,  Luc  (Lucas  van  Ley- 
den),  296,  310,  312-14. 

Jacobi,  Bernardino,  84. 

Jacopo,  Gio.  Batt.  di,  il  Rosso 
142,  360,  383. 

James,  I.,  387. 

Jameson,  Mrs.,  58,  65,  72,  139, 
159,  318,  320,  331. 

Jamesone,  George,  326,  387,  388. 

Janet.     See  Clouet. 

Jauetchek,  184,  186. 

Janssens,  Abraham,  324. 

Janssens,  V.  H.,  446. 

Japanese,  Art  of  the,  7. 

Jardin,  Karel  du,  354. 

Jason,  Turner,  410. 

Jeaurat,  J.,  452. 

Jervas,  Charles,  389. 

Jerusalem,  280,  306. 

Jews,  215. 


Ka 
Ka 
Ka 
Kai 
Ka, 

Ken 
Kep 
Kepj 
Kess 

\ 
Key. 

Aierii 


INDEX. 


481 


Jiefenbronn  in  Swabia,  237. 
Joanes,  Vicente,  204,  207. 
Job^  Trials  oj,  Francesco,  42. 
Jode,  P.  de,  359. 
John  III.,  Duke  of  Brabant,  270. 
Johnson,  397. 
Jones,  G.,  456. 
Jongkind,  Joh.  Bart. 
Joost,  Jan,  239. 
Jordaens,  Jacob,  322,  324,  325. 
Joseph,  Pontormo,  135. 
Josepli  of  Austria,  278. 
Joseph,  King,  217. 
Josephus,  358. 
Jouvenet,  Jean,  367. 
|JuanII.  of  Castile,  201. 
Juanes,  Vicente,  204. 
Judgment  of  Cambyses,  G.  David, 

292. 
Judgment  of  Solomon,  Giorgione, 

157. 

Judith,  C.  Allori,  190. 
Judith  and  Holofernes,    Francia, 

82 ;  Pordenone,  159. 
Julian,  emperor,  23,  24. 
Julius  II.,  Pope,  98, 108,  112, 113, 

114,  127,  128,  129,  130,  188. 
Jupiter  and  Antiope,    Correggio, 

180. 

—  Danae,  Mabuse,  302. 
Justi,  Karl,  307. 
Justin  of  Nassau,  Prince,  220. 
Justus  of  Ghent,  285. 
Justus  of  Padua.     See  Giusto  di 

Giovanni. 


Kalf,  Willem,  355. 
Kaltenhof,  Peter,  440. 
Karlstein,  castle  of,  233. 
Kauffman,  Angelica,  402. 
Kaulbach,  Willielm  von,  266. 
Kempeneer.     See  Canipana. 
Kensington  Museum,  425. 
Kepler,  88. 

Keppcl,  Commodore,  395. 
Kesselberg  hills,  295. 
Key,  Adrian  Th.,  309. 
Key,  William,  309. 
Keyzer,  Th.  de,  336. 
Kierings,  Alex.,  448. 


Klein,  Jos.  A.,  442. 
Knaus,  Ludwig,  266. 
Kneller,  Sir  G.,  .355,  388,  394. 
Knight  of  Malta,  Giorgione,  157. 
Kniqht,  Death  and  Devil,  Diirer, 

252. 
Knights  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 

306. 
Knudtzon's  Masaccio,  53. 
Knuffer,  345. 
Koch,  Jos.  Anton.,  266. 
K(>ck,  Pieter,  444. 
Koekkoek,  B.,  451. 
Kolbe,  K.  W.,  442. 
Koninck,  Ph.  de,  338,  348. 
Krell,  Hans,  441. 
Krodell,  W.,  441. 
Kiigler's  Handbooks  of  Painting, 

28,  31,  61,  114,  163,  245,  255, 

257,  287,  312,  350. 
Kulmbach,  256. 
Kulmbach,  Hans  von,  345. 
Kiinstblatt,  290. 
Kiinst  u.  Kiinstler,  53,  60,  184. 
Kunz,  233. 


Laar,  Pieter  de,  340. 
Laborde,  De,  275,  359. 
Lacroix  Collection,  337. 
Ladbroke,  Robert,  467. 
Lady  and  Getiilcman,  Van  Eyck, 

281. 
LeetUia,  Morland,  416. 
La  Fcmme  Hydropiqiie,  Dou,  341. 
La  Gloria,  Phillip,  428. 
Laia  or  Lala  of  Cyzicus,  18. 
L'Allemand,  362. 
La  Source,  Ingres,  377. 
La    Viergc    au    bas-relief,   Vinci, 

93. 

aujc  RocherSf  Vinci,  93. 

Limb,  Chas.,  390,  391,  425. 
Lamoriniere,  Fr.,  330. 
Lampsonius,  Dom.,  307. 
L:ince,  Geo.,  222. 
Lancret,  Nicolas,  368. 
Landini,  Jacopo,  40. 
LaiuUcapc,  Patinir,  310. 
Landscape  painting,  19,    58,   59, 

145,    152,   167,   186,   188,   190, 


I  I 


482 


INDEX. 


196,  209,  221,  253,  255,  256, 
266,  304,  310,  335,  338,  348, 
360,  351,  353,  364. 

Landscape  painting  in  England, 
354,401,  408,  416,  418. 

in  Flanders,  292,  309. 

Heroic  School  of,  365. 

in  Holland,  347. 

Landseer,  Sir  Edwin,  412,  416. 

Lanfranco,  Giovanni,  186,  188, 
196. 

Lange  Pier.     Sec  Aartzen. 

Lanini,  Bernardino,  97,  181. 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  205. 

Lanzi,  48. 

Largiiliere,  Nicolas,  380. 

Lasinio,  Pitture  del  Campo  Santo, 
42. 

Last  Judgment,  4;  J.  Aeken,  296; 
Bartholommeo,  1 03 ;  Bout's, 
295  j  Cousin,  359  ;  L.  v.  Leyden, 
312;  Lorenzetti,  48;  M.  An- 
gelo's,  78,  132,  133;  Meister 
Stephen,  237,243  ;  in  the  Burg 
at  Niirnberg,  233 :  Orcagna, 
43,  133;  Prevost,  296;  Rubens, 
321;  Signorelli,  74  ;  Stuerbout, 
296;  Tintoretto,  172;  Vander 
Weyden's,  287. 

Lastman,  Pieter,  314,  332,  337. 

Last  Sleep  of  Argyle,  E.  M.  Ward, 
424. 

Last  SKjyper,  I).  Bouts,  294  ;  Ces- 
pedes,  208 ;  Ercole  di  Roberti, 
84;  Justus  of  Ghent,  285; 
D'Oggione,  95  ;  del  Sarto,  141 ; 
Tintoretto,  172;  Vinci,  89-90, 
93. 

Latour,  Maurice  Quentin  de,  380. 

Lautensac-k,  Hans  Sebald,  442. 

Lawrence  Collection,  109. 

Lawrence,  Sir  Thomas,  399-400, 
415. 

Lawson,  Cecil,  458. 

Layard,  A.,  104. 

Layard,  Sir  Henry,  67,  148, 
158. 

Leal,  Juan  de  Valdes,  225,  229. 

Le  Beffroi,  Weale,  269. 

Le  Brun.     See  Brun. 

Lecky,  2,  23,  207. 


.  366. 
Poussin, 


Leda  with  Swan,  Correggio,  180. 

Leech,  John,  427. 

Latevre,  Claude,  367. 

Legend    of  King    Arthur,    Dyce, 

423. 
Leighton,  Sir  F.,  412. 
Leipsig,  261. 
Leith,  405. 

Lcly,  Sir  Peter.     See  Faes. 
Le  Mans,  358. 
Lemoine.     See  Moine. 
Le  Nain,  Antoine,  Louis,  Mathieu, 

361. 
J^enoir.     See  Noir. 
Leo  IV.,  114. 
Leo   X.,   94,   113,  114,  115,  130, 

131,  188. 
Leonardo.     See  Vinci. 
Leslie,  C.  R.,  340,  403,  407. 
Les  Moissonneurs,  Robert,  376. 
Lessing,  K.  F.,  266. 
Le  Sueur,  Eustache,  361, 
Les    Vergers    d'Arcadie, 

364. 
Lettenhove,  K.  de,  274. 
Lethiere,  373. 
Letter  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  to 

Ludovico  Sforza,  91. 
Lewis,  J.  F.,  421,  422. 
Leyden,  311,  312,  331,  345. 
Leyden,  Lucas  van.  See  Jacobzoon. 
Leys,  Baron   Henri  J.    A.,  266, 

329. 
Liber  Studiorum  of  Turner,  410. 
Liberale  da  Verona,  84,  173. 
Library,  Paris,  359. 
Libri,  Girolamo  dai,  173. 
L'cinio,  Bernardino,  160. 
Liege,  269,  275,  307,  310. 

John,  Bishop  of,  274. 

Liesborn,  Meister  von,  239. 

Lievens,  Jan,  337. 

Life  and  Death  of  Duke  of  Bicck- 

ingham,  Egg,  407. 
Life  of  Christ,  Wilhelm  of  Cologne, 

235. 

Lavid,  Sebald,  255. 

S.  Bruno,  Le  Sueur,  366. 

the  Virgin,  Diirer,  250. 

Life  School  of  the  B.A.,  Zoffany, , 

401.  .  i 

1 


INDEX. 


483 


Liget,  358. 

Light  and  shade,  first  student  of, 

12.     Sec  al/io  Chiaroscuro. 
Ligozzi,  Jacopo,  436. 
LilJe,  274,  352. 
Limburg  (/hronicle,  235. 
Limner  for  Scotland,  414. 
Lincolnshire,  422. 
Lindsay's  "  Christian  Art,"  27, 66. 
Lingeibach,  Johann,  348,  354. 
Linnell,  John,  423. 
Lint,  PieUn-  van,  446. 
Linton,  William,  457. 
Lioti  Hunt,  Rubens,  321. 
Lippi,   Fra  Filippo,  60-2,  63,  68, 

101. 
Lippi,  Filippino,  54,  62,  64,68,  94. 
Lippn  J^alma.sii,  431. 
Lisbon,  204,  276. 
"  Literar}'  Club,"  397. 
Little  Masters,  255 ;  [of  Holland], 

340,  344. 
Liverpool  exhibitions,  413. 

Corporation,  426. 

Institute,  47,  138. 

Livy,  18. 

Llorente,  D.  Bernardo  German  de, 

440. 
Lochner,  Stephan,  235,  238,  239. 
Locusta  trying  Poison  on  a  Slave, 

Sigalon,  379. 
Lodi,  170. 

Lodovico  da  Parma,  435. 
Ijocihener.     See  Lochner. 
Loggie  of  S.   Damascus,  decora- 
tions of  the,  114,  115. 
Lomazzo,  Gio.  Paolo,  182. 
Lombard,  Lambert.     See  Suster- 

man. 
Ix)mbard  School,  84,  177. 
London,   198,  323,  324,  389,  400, 

408,  414,  418,  419. 
Loiighi,  Antonio.     iSV«  Veniziano. 
lionghi,  Luca,  435. 
Longhi,  Pietro,  198. 
Longhi's  engraving,  106. 
I^oten,  Jan,  352. 
Loredano,  Doge  Leonardo,  150. 
Lorenz  Kirche,  234. 
Lorcnzetti.     See    Lorenzo,    Amb. 
and  Piet. 


Lorenzo,  Ambrogio  di,  43,  47. 

Lorenzo,  Fiorenzo  di,  77. 

Lorenzo,  Monaco,  57-8. 

Lorenzo,  Pietro  di,  43,  47. 

Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  See 
Medici. 

Lorraine,  361. 

Ljrraine,  Claude.     See  G6\6e. 

Los  Borrachos,  Velasquez,  219. 

Loschi,  Countoss  of,  157. 

Loth,  Carl,  uf  Munich,  442. 

Lotto,  Lorenzo,  15S,  161. 

Louis  XI.,  35S. 

LiuisXIL,  of  Milan,  94. 

L)ui3  XIII.,  361,  363. 

L)ui3  XIV.,  94,  116,  221,  361, 
363,  366,  367,  375. 

L)uis  XV.,  367,  368,  370,  375. 

Louis  XVL,  371. 

Loutherbourg,  Ph.  de,  402. 

Louvain,  238,  292,  293,  297,  299, 
309. 

Chapel  of  S.  Peter's,  294. 

School  of,  293,  297. 

—  Town  Hall,  293-4,  295,  296, 
325. 

Louvre,  The,  56,  72,  80,  84,  92, 
93,  98,  99,  102,  108,  121,  140, 
146,  148,  149,  158,  161,  163, 
168,  175,  179,  180,  193,  196, 
209,  212,  216,  222,  224,  226, 
228,  229,  255,  280,  282,  286, 
289,  300,  322,  327,  338,  341, 
34S,  369,  361-64,  366,  367,  369, 
370-74,  376-80,  414. 

Lovere,  147. 

Low  Countries,  realistic  tendency, 
269. 

Ijower  Rhine  Schools,  240. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  2. 

Liibke's  ''  History  of  Art,"  12, 
73,  90,  110,  122,  247,  258,407. 

Lucca,  102. 

Lucian,  13. 

Luciani,  Sebastian  (del  Fiombu), 
122,  134-5,  142,  159,  186,  209. 

Lucientes.     iSee  Goya. 

Lucina,  363. 

Lucretia  del  Fede,'14L 

Lucretia,  Sodoma,  98. 
i    Ludius,  19. 


484 


INDEX. 


Ludovico  da  Parma,  435. 
Ludovisi,  Villa,  187,  189. 
Lufhvig,  King  of  Bavaria,  266. 
Ludwigskirche,  265. 
Lugano,  96,  97. 
Luini,  Bernardino,  99,  182. 
Lumley,  Sir  J.  Saville,  222. 
Lutero,  Gio.  Nic.  di  (Dosso  Dossi), 

138. 
Luther,  241,  254,  260,  262. 
Luther  sinking  in  Eisenach,  Leys, 

330. 
Luvino.     See  Luini. 
Lyons,  80,  259,  280. 
Lyversberg    Passion,    238.       See 

Meckenen. 

Maas,  Nicolas,  337,  339,  344. 

Maas,  Kiver,  350. 

Maaseyck,  273,  282. 

M abuse.     See  Gossaert. 

Macbeth,  1^..  427. 

Macbeth  and  Witches,  Koch,  266. 

Machinisti,  The,  198,  316. 

Machleskircher,  G.,  440. 

Machuca,  Pedro,  204. 

Machse,  Daniel,  423. 

Madness  of  H.  van  der  Goes,  235, 
330. 

Madonna,  Bartolommeo,  101 ; 
Battista,  154;  Credi,  99; 
Francia,  82  ;  Giorgione,  156  ; 
Holbein, 258;  Luini, 96;  Pacchi, 
99  ;  Perugino,  79,  80,  107 ; 
Petrus  Cristus,  283;  Raphael, 
105,  108,  118,  119,  121;  Santi, 
104,  Sarto,  140;  Solario,  97; 
Vecchio,  160. 

Madonna  Ansidei,  Raphael,  107  ; 
the  Meier,  Hans  Holbein,  257. 

Mado?mas,Borgognone,S5  ;  Botti- 
celli, 63  ;  Byzantine,  243  ;  Cano, 
213;  Guido,  189;  Lippi,  60,61; 
Memling,  291;  Murillo,  226; 
Ribera,  195  ;  Sassof'errato,  191  ; 
Titian,  163,  168;  Veronese, 
174;  Vinci,  93. 

Madonna  a^id  Child,  Beltraffio,  96  ; 
Gioi'gione,  157;  L.  v.  Leyden, 
312;  Memrai,  47;  Mantagna, 
72  J    Santi,  104;    J.  van  Eyck, 


282;  Veneziano,83;  Wihelmof 

Cologne,  235. 
Madonna  del  Gatto,  Baroecio,  180 ; 

del    Granduca,    Raphael  ;     del 

Pesee,  Raphael,  121 ;  del  Sedia, 

Raphael,  121. 
Madonna  della  Misericordie,  Bar- 
tolommeo, 102;  della  Vittoriay 

Mantagna,  72. 
Madonna  di  Fulgino,  Raphael,  121, 

122;  rfi-Saw/SVs^o,  Raphael,  121, 

122,  154.  226. 
Madomia  Enthroned,  Bartolommeo, 

102  ;  Garofalo,  138  ;  Mantagna, 

170  ;  Vivarini,  143. 
Madonna  in  Rose  Garden,  Francia, 

82;  tuith  the  Roses,  Luini,  97; 

in  Rose  Arbour,  Wallraf  Mus., 

237  ;  with  the  Rosary,  Sassofer- 

rato,  191. 
Madonna  with  Saints,  Correggio, 

178. 
Madou,  J.  B.  de,  330. 
Madrazo,  230. 
Madrid,   121,   161,  168,195,207, 

208,  211-13,  216-18,  221,  223, 

228,  229,  297. 
Maestlin,  88. 
Maestricht,  234. 
Magdalen  Coll.,  Oxford,  209. 
Magdalen,  Correggio,  179;  Guido, 

189. 
Magno,  Cesare,  435. 
Mahomedan  inspiration,  200. 
Maiden  Lane,  408.   See  Academy. 
Maids  of  Honour,  Velasquez,  220. 
Mainardi,  68. 
Makart,  Hans,  267. 
Malines.     See  Mechlin. 
Malta,  193,  196. 
Malvasia,  "  Felsina  Pittrice,"  184, 

188. 
Malvolio,  Maclise,  423. 
Manchester,  413. 
Mander,  Carel  van,  272,  273,  282 

284,  289,  293,  299,313. 
Mandyn,  Jan,  311. 
Manet,  Edouard,  384. 
Manet ti,  Rutilio,  436. 
Manfredi,  Bart.,  194. 
Manneristi,  181,  182,  305,  361. 


INDEX. 


485 


Manni,  Giannicolo  di  Paolo,  80. 
Mansiieti,  Giovanni,  l/»4. 
Mantegna,  Andrea,  49,  70-2,  73, 

81,  83,84,  103,  146,  149,  173. 
Mante<?na,  Cai-lo  del,  434. 

Francesco,  433. 

Mantovano,  Rinaldo,  137. 
Mantna,  71,  92,  i;}7,  165. 
Duchess  of,  92. 

Federigo     Gonzajja,    Duke 

of,  137,  165. 

Gunzaga,  Duke  of,  316. 

Gonzaga  family,  72,  92. 

Ludovico    Gonzaga,     Duke 

of,  71,  72. 

Vincenzio    Gonzaga,    Duke 

of,  316. 

Mantz,  Paul,  283,  369. 

Manuel,  Nicolas  (Deutsch),  260. 

Manufactory  of  altar-pieces,  246. 

Maratti,  Carlo,  191. 

Marcellis  Otho,  355. 

March,  Esteban,  212,  213. 

March  to  Finchley,  Hogarth,  392. 

Marche,  Olivier  de  la,  275,  284. 

Marcm  Brutus,  David,  371. 

Margaret  of  Austria,  304. 

Margaret,  Regent  of  the  Nether- 
lands, 306. 

Margaret  of  York,  284. 

Margaritone  of  Arezzo,  28. 

Maria,  Wright,  415. 

Marie  delle  Grazie,  Convent,  90. 

Marien  Kirche,  Zwickau,  247. 

Marihat,  Prosper,  453. 

Marino,  362. 

Marinus  of  Romerswalen,  301. 

Maris,  Jacob,  356. 

Maris,  Matthew,  356. 

Maris,  Willom,  356. 

Marius  a  Mintunics,  Drouais,  373. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  107. 

Marne,  J.  L.  de,  446. 

Marquez,  Esteban,  440. 

Marriage  ^  la  Mode^  Hogarth,  392, 

of  Alexander  am  Roxana, 

Sodoma,  98. 

■  of  Cana,  Schnorr,  265  ;  Ve- 
ronese, 175. 

• Isaac  and  Rebecca,  Claude, 

365. 


Marriage  of  8.  Catharine,  Borgog- 

none,  85  ;  Correggio,  179 ;  Luinl, 

97;  Murillo,  227. 
the  Virgin,  Buonacorso,  46  ; 

Memling,  290;    Perugino,  80  j 

Raphael,  105. 
Mars  and  Venus,  Botticelli,  64. 
Martin,  David,  455. 
Martin,  John,  457. 
Martinez,  Luxan,  229. 
Martin  d'Ollanda.  See  Schongauer. 
Martini,  Bernardino.     See  Zenale. 
Martini,  Simone.     See  Memmi. 
Martino  di  Bartolommeo,  431. 
Martino    da    Udine  (Pellegrino), 

154. 
Martins,  Nabor,  443. 
Martyrdom  ofSacco,  del  Sarto,  14 1 . 
Martyrdom  of   Savonarola,    100, 

127. 

of  S.  Catherine,  Ferrari,  97. 

of  S.  Erasmus,  D.  Bouts,  294 ; 

Poussin,  363. 
of  S.  Lawrence^  Elzheimer, 

263. 
SS.  Processus  and  Martianus, 

Valentin,  362. 
S.  Sebastian,  A.  Pollaiuolo, 

69 ;  Veronese,  174. 
Mary  of  Hungarv,  228,  301. 
Mary,  Queen,  175,  309. 
Margs,  Ribera,  195. 
Marziale,  Marco,  154. 
Masaccio,   49,  51,  53,  54,  65,  58, 

69,  60,  65,  68,74,  101,  103. 
Masaniello,  196. 
Mascagni,  Donaio,  437. 
Mascarone,  II,  Anni-Carracci,  185. 
Maso,  40. 

Masolino.     See  Panicale. 
Mason,  Geo.,  427. 
Massacre  of  Scio,  Delacroix,  377. 
Massari,  Lucio,  436. 
Massone,  Gio.,  433. 
Massys,  Cornelius,  Quentin,  and 

Jan,  301. 
Massys,  Catherine,  298. 
Massys,  Jusse,  298 ;  the  younger, 

299. 
Massys,  Queutin,   294,  297,  300, 

302,  311,  330.    See  also  MeUys. 


INDEX. 


ilaster  Cristoferus,  236. 

Master,  The,  of  the  Death  of  the 

Virgin,  238,  245. 
Master,  The,  of  the   Lyversberg 

Passion,  238. 
Master  Rogier  of  Louvain,  298. 
Mastiirzio,  Marzio,  197. 
Matres    Dolorosa,    Domenichino, 

187. 
Matteo  di  Giovanni,  50. 
Mauberge,  301. 
Maurer,  CHstoph.,  442. 
Maurolycus,  88. 
Mausoleum  of  Julius  II.,  129. 
Mauve,  Anton.,  356. 
Max,  Gabriel,  267. 
Maximilian,   Emperor,  249,  253, 

256,  292,  502. 
Maximilian,  Elector,  252. 
Mayno,  Juan  Bautisti,  205. 
Mazo,  221. 
Mazza,  90. 

Mazzolino,  Ludovico,  138. 
Mazzuola,     Francesco     (II    Par- 

migiano),  180,  183. 

(three  brothers,)  435. 

Mecarino.     See  Beccafumi. 
Mechlin,  306,  329,  338. 
Meckenen,  Isi'ael  van,  238. 
Mediaeval  German  life,  242. 
Medici,   the,  50,  61,  62,  100,  131, 

240,  285,  289. 
Medici,  Alessandro  do,  132. 
Medici  Chapel,  59,  61,  132. 
Medici,   Cosmo   de',    56,   60,    62, 

289. 
Medici,  Giovanni  de,  61. 
Medici,  Giuliano,  62,  131. 
Medici,   Ippolito,   Cardinal,    113, 

164. 
Medici,   Loj-enzo  de',  62,  74,  94, 

HI,  124. 
Medici,  Lorenzo,  gardens  of,  124; 

tomb  of,  131. 
Medici,  Marie  de',  322. 
Medici,  Piero  de',  62,  125. 
Medici  portraits,  Benozzo,  59. 
Medicean  Courts,  119. 

Pope,  132. 

Meer,  Jan  Van  der,  339,  344. 
Meeting  of  the  Regents,  Bol,  336. 


Meeting  rf  Wellington  and  Blucher, 

Maclise,  423. 
Meier,  Jacob,  257. 
Meire,  Gerard  van  der,  284,  285. 
Meister  Stephan  (Stephan  Loch- 

ner),  231,  235,  243. 
Meister  Wilhelm  of  Cologne,  231, 

235. 
Melancholia,  Diirer,  252. 
Melancthon,  251,  254,  260,  262. 
Melanthius,  14. 
Melone,  Altobello,  170. 
Melozzo,  da  Forli,  73,  76. 
Melusine,  Schwindt,  266. 
Melzi,  Francesco,  95. 
Memling,  Hans,  289-92,  294,  299. 
Memmi,  Lippo,  46,  47. 
Memmi,  Simone  (Simone  di  Mar- 

tino),  46,  48, 
Mengs,   Raphael.   198,   263,   370, 

375. 
Menniti,  Mario,  194. 
Menzel,  Adolf,  266. 
Mercury  and   Woodman,  Salvator 

Rosa,  196. 
Merian,  Matthew,  449. 
Merisi,    Michelangelo,    da    Cara- 

vaggio,    188,    190,  192-4,    195, 

215,  325,  331,361. 
Merlo,  236. 
Merzal,  Pedro,  201. 
Mesdag,  H.  W.,  356. 
Mesopotamia,  7. 
Messina,  Antonello   da,   97,  143, 

144,  145. 
Metelli,  Agost.,  437. 
Metsu,  Gabriel,  344. 
Metsjs,  Jean,  ironwork  by,  297. 
Metten  Gelde,  Catherine,  295. 
Meulen,  Ant.  Fr.  v.  d.,  446. 
Meyerheim,  F.  E.,  443. 
Michael  Angelo.     See  Buonarotti. 
Michallon,  382. 
Michel,  A.,  369. 
Michelet,  92. 
Michiels,  Alf.,285. 
Micon  of  Athens,  12. 
Middelburg,  301,  304,  313. 
Miel,  Jan,  445. 
Mielich,  Hans,  441. 
Mierevelt,  Michael  Van,  336. 


INDEX. 


487 


Mieris,  Frans,  341-2,  344. 

. Frans,  the  younger,  342. 

Mieris,  Willem,  342. 
Mignard,  Pierre,  367.  371. 
Milan,  84,  85,   87,  90,  93,  94,  95, 

96,  97,  98,   105,   134,  169,  190, 

192,  193.     Si-c  Brora. 

Duke  of,  91,  289. 

Milanese  School,  85,  170. 
Milano,  Giovanni  da,  40. 
Mildmay,  H.  B.,  392. 
MUkwoman,  Vermeer,  340. 
Millais,  Sir  John  Everett,  412,415, 

425. 
Millbank,  410. 

Millet,  Francois,  356,  379,  383. 
Milton  Gallery^  Fuseli,  404. 
Miniatures,  232,  320,  360,  387. 
Miniaturists,  55, 256, 268,290,292, 

293. 

English  School,  387, 421. 

Minutiae,  341. 

Miracle  of  S,  Mark,  Tintoretto, 

Miracles   of  the    Cross,    Gentile, 

148. 
Miseres  de  la  Guerre,  Callot,  361. 
Misers,  Massys,  300. 
Mocetto,  Girolamo,  173. 
Modena,  138,  183. 
"Modern  Painters,"  Buskin,  410, 

411. 
Modern    Schools — Belgian,    3£9  ; 

Dutch,     356;     English,     418; 

French,  384  ;  Munich,  267. 
Moer,  J.  B.  Van,  330. 
Moine,  Fr.  Le,  452. 
Moise.     See  Valentin,  362, 
Mol,  Pieter  van,  446. 
Mola,  G.  B.,  188. 
Mola,  P.  F.,  191. 
Molanus,  J.,  297. 
Molenaers,  The,  344,  346. 
Moliere,  illustrated,  407. 
Molyn,  Pieter  de,  348. 
Monaco.     See  Lorenzo. 
Mona  Lisa,  92,  93. 
Monamy,  Peter,  454. 
Money -pieces,  300,  301. 
Monk  Scrgius  killed  by  Mahomet, 

L.  V.  Leyden,  312. 
Monna  Vanna,  Hoi.  Hunt,  426. 


Monnoyer,  J.  B.,  379,  382. 
Mons,  296,  309. 
Monson,  Lord,  93. 
Montagna,  Bartolommeo,  170. 
]\IonteteItro,  Duke  F.  de,  285. 
Monte  Luce,  108. 
Moonlight  scenes,  351. 
Moonlight,  Turner,  410. 
Muore,  illustrated  by  Maelise,  423. 
Moors,  The,  in  Spain,  200,  201. 
Morales,  Luis  de  (El  Divino),  202-3, 

209. 
Morality  in  Art,  151,  369. 
Morando,  Paolo,  173. 
Morat,  Battle  of,  287. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  258,  259,  299. 
Moreel,  William,  290. 
Moreelse,  Paulus,  336. 
Morelli,  64,  77,  82,  97,  105,  144, 

145,  157,  170. 
Moreito.     See  Bonvicino. 
Morgenstern,  Chris.,  443. 
Morghen,  Raphael,  89,  90,  189. 
Morland,  Geo.,  415,  416. 
Moruay,  M.  de,  377. 
Morning,  sculpture,   by   M.   An- 

gelo,  131. 
Moro,  Sir  Antony,  204,  307,  309- 

10,  314. 
Moi'one,  Domenico,  84. 
Morone,  Francesco,  84,  173. 
Moroni,  Giambattista,  170, 
Mortimer,  J.  H.,  404. 
Mosaics   at    Home,    Venice,    and 

Kavenna,  27,  28. 
Mosaic  of  the  Navicella,  35. 

Ghirlandaio's  opinion  of,  69. 

Moscow,  230. 

Moser,  G.  M.,  454. 

Moser,  Lucas,  237. 

Moser,  Mai*y,  455. 

Moses,  statue  by  M.  Angelo,  130. 

a7ul  the  Burning  Bush,  Gior- 

gione.  157. 
Mostert,  Jan,  304. 
Mottraye's  Travels,  390. 
Moucheron,  F..  449. 
Mount  Athos,  School  of  Fainting 

of,  29. 
Mouth  of  a  Dutch  River,  Koninck, 

348. 


488 


INDEX. 


Moya,  Pedro,  439. 

Mozo,  El.     See  Herrera. 

Mudo,  El.     See  Navarrete. 

Muhlberg,  battle  of,  260. 

Muller's  Archtelogie  der  Kunst, 
10,  14. 

Muller,  M.  K.  F.,  443. 

Miiller,  Will.,  422. 

Mulready,  William,  406. 

Mummy-cases,  Paintings  on,  7. 

Munich,  68,82,  108,168,261,265, 
312,  o21,  322,355. 

See  Finakothek. 

Munich  School,  The,  264,  265, 
267. 

Munkacsy,  267. 

Munro,  Dr.,  409. 

Miintz,  305. 

Mural  paintings  in  France,  358. 

Murano.  See  Vivarini  and  Ala- 
manus. 

Murano,  island  of,  143. 

school  of,  1 43. 

• painters,  146. 

Murder  of  Bishop  of  H}ge,  Dela- 
croix, 377. 

Murillo,  Bartolome  Esteban,  199, 
204,  206,  212,  213,  216,  217, 
218,  222-28,  325. 

Museum  Pictorium,  207. 

Museums,  Amsterdam,  348  ;  Ant- 
werp, 47,  283,  297,  302,  309, 
359  ;  Basel,  257  ;  Berlin,  39,  47, 
143,  146,  165,  173,  193,  235, 
266,  294  ;  the  British,  2,  128, 
147,  185,  190,  254,  260,  335, 
425  —  Print  Room  at,  242  ; 
Brunswick,  337  ;  Brussels,  204, 
290,  295,  309,  325,  329,  330  j 
Cluny,  359  ;  Cologne,  233,  235, 
237,  238,  239  ;  Dijon,  269 ; 
Dresden,  265  ;  Frankfort,  169, 
283  ;  Ghent,  325 ;  Hague,  340  ; 
Lyons,  80;  Madrid,  157,  208, 
279;  Milan  {See  Brera  and 
Ambrosiana);  Naples,  196, 197; 
Rotterdam,  337 ;  Seville,  208, 
212,216;  Soluthurn,258;  South 
Kensington,  26,  72,  116,  116, 
202,  425  ;  Valencia,  210  ;  Van 
der  Hoop,  340. 


Music^  Melozzo,  73. 
Music  Lesson,  MetzH,  344. 
Mtisical  Party,  Caravaggio,  193. 
Mtisicians,  Caravaggio,  192. 
Musset,  AHred  do,  375. 
Mystic  Lamb,  the,   of  S.  Bavon, 
Van  Eyck,  236,  272,  278,  306. 
Mytens,  D.,  448. 
Mythology,  old  Northern,  243. 

Nain,  Antoine  Le,  361. 

Nain,  Louis  Le,  361. 

Nain,  Matthew  Le,  361. 

Nake,  Heinrich,  265. 

Nancy,  battle  of,  290. 

Naples,  47, 186, 189,  193,  195,  196, 
210  ;  the  Catacombs  at,  22  ;  gal- 
lery at,  93,  96,  197  ;  Giotto  at, 
38  ;  plague  at,  197  ;  school  of, 
194  ;  Viceroy  of,  194. 

Napoleon  I.,  90,  372,  374,  378. 

Napoleon  III.,  216,  228. 

Nasmyth,  Patrick,  423. 

National  characteristics  in  art,  243, 
250,  261,  302,  310,  348,  361, 
363. 

National  Gallery,  28,  32,  39,  40, 
44,  45,  46,  48,  50,  52, 54,  57,  58, 
59,  60,  63,  64, 66,  69,  70,  71,  72, 
73,77,  79,80,  81,82,83,84,85, 
93,  96,  97,  98,  99, 100,  104,  107, 
108,  112,  121,  129,  134,  135, 
137,  138,  141,  142,  144,  145, 
150,  154,  155,  156,  157,  161, 
162,  168,  169,  170,  172,  173, 
175,  176,  180,  181,  184,  185, 
186,  187,  188,  190,  191,  193, 
195,196,  198,216,222,  225,  228, 
237,238,239,245,257,260,263, 
281,  289,  293,  300,  307,  310, 
319,  321,  324,  326,  327,  334, 
335,  337,  338,  339,  340,  343, 
344,  346,  347,  348,  349,  350, 
351,  352,  353,  354,  355,  359, 
363,  364,  365,  366,  367,  368, 
370,  381,  391,  392,  398,  409, 
410,  414,  423,  424,  425,  426, 
427. 

National  Portrait  Gallery,  204, 
387,  388,  389,  415. 

Nativity,  Botticelli,  63 ;  J.  Cornel- 


INDEX. 


489 


iszoon,  312;  Roelas,  206;  Sig- 

norelli,  74, 
Natoire,  368. 

Naturalism  in  art,  184,  192, 
Naturalisti,  185,  198,  225,  331. 
Navarrete,  Juan    Fernandez  (El 

Mozo),  205. 
Navez,  Francois,  446. 
"Nnzarenes,^'  2G5. 
Neapolitan,  Schot)l,  194. 
Neer,  Aart  van  der,  350. 
Negroponte,  143. 
Neptune  and  Amphitrite,  Mabase, 

302. 
Netherlands,  201,  232,  236,  240, 

250,    253,    260,   269,  304,  312, 

317,  329,  335,  385. 
Netherlands,  Hegents  of,  306,  317. 
Netscher,  Gaspar,  344. 
Neuchatel,  Nicholas,  309. 
Neudoi-ifer,  251. 
Neuhuys,  356. 
Newlings,  Albert,  356. 
Newton,  Gilbert  Stuart,  407. 
New  York,  224. 
Nichols,  390. 
Nicias  of  Athens,  429. 
Nicola  of  Pisa,  28. 
Nicomachus  of  Thebes,  429. 
Niessen,  Herr,  237. 
Nieuwenhuys,  M.,  278. 
N^ht,  sculpture   by  M.    Angelo, 

131. 
Night  uatch,  Rembrandt,  334. 
Niobe,  Guido,  189. 
Noir,  Nicholas  Le,  452. 
Noort,  Adam  van,  316. 
Northcoie,  J.,  404. 
Northiiml)erland,  Duke  of,  152. 
Norwegian  scenery,  362. 
Norwich,  418  ;  school,  419,  420. 
Notte,Con'i'g^\o,  179. 
Nottinj^ham,  4 14. 
Novara,  97, 
Novelli,  Pietro,  437. 
Noyon,  ti-eaty  of,  151. 
Nude,  representation  of   the,  in 

art,  74,  102,  103,  136,  163,  195, 

250,  354,  383. 
Nunez,  Juan,  202. 
Nunnery  of  S.  Paolo,  178. 


Nuremberg,  306,  309. 
Nurnberg,  234,  247,  248,249,252, 
233,  255. 

Chronicle  of,  246. 

School  of,  233,  246,  255. 

Nuzi,  Allej;retto,  430. 

Oakes,  J.  R.,423. 

Oath  of  the  Horatii,  David,  371. 

Obervellach  altar-piece,  307. 

Oderisio  di  Gubbio,  430. 

O  di  Giotto,  35. 

Odile,  S.,  269. 

(Edipus  arid  the  Sphinx,  Ingres, 

377, 
Off  the  Mouth  of  the  Thames,  Back- 

huysen,  353. 
Oggione,  Marco  d',  93,  95. 
Ognisanti,  the,  68. 
Oil-painting,  52,  63,  78,  83,  143, 

144,    145,    149,   204,  207,    236, 

265,  269-71,  279,  283,  294,  311. 
Introduction    of,    in    Italy, 

145. 

invention  of,  269, 270. 

Old  Tcstajnent  frescoe,  Berrozza, 

58. 
Old  Woman  Spinning,  Maas,  337. 
Olivarez,  Duke  of,  2 18,  219. 
Oliver,  Isaac,  387. 
Oliver,  Peter,  387. 
Oostzaandam,  Jacob  of,  306. 
Opie,J.,  317,  404. 
Oppenheim  collection,  284. 
"  Oracle  of  Battles."   See  Falcone. 
Orcagna.     See  Arcagnolo. 
Organo,  173. 
Oriental  art,  12. 
Origin  of  painting,  1. 
Oriolo,  Giovanni,  84. 
Orizonte.     See  Van  Bloemen. 
Orlandi,  Deodati,  41, 
Orley,  Bernard  van  (Bernard  van 

Brussel),  304-6. 
Ormonde,  Duke  of,  209. 
Orrente,  Pedro,  205. 
Orrery,  the,  Wright,  414. 
Ortolano.     Sec  &nvenuti. 
Orvieto,  44,  47,  57,  73. 
Os,  J.  van,  355. 
Osorio,  Meneses,  440. 


490 


INDEX. 


Ostade,  Adrian  van,  327,346. 

Ostadn,  Isaac  van,  347. 

Ostendorter,  M.,44I. 

Otho,  Emperor,  269,  295. 

Otho  111.,  290. 

Ottaviano,  di  Martiiio  Nelli,  431. 

Oudewatcr,  292. 

Oudewater,  Albert  van,  293,  310. 

Oudry,  J.  B.,  379. 

Unless,  415. 

Our  Lady   of   Solitude,   Becerra, 

207. 
Overbeck,  Friedrich,  264. 
Overthrow  of  the  Giants,  Romano, 

137. 
Owen,  William,  456. 

Pacchia,  Girolamo  della,  99. 
Facc'hiarotti,  Giacomo,  99. 
racbec'o,  Francisco,  204,  20.5,  208, 
.   210-12,  217,218. 

his  work  on  painting,  210-11. 

Pacheco,  Juana  de,  204,  218,  221. 
Pacher,  Michael,  440. 
Pacuvius,  18. 

Padovanino.     Sec  Varotari. 
Padua,   143,   144,   147,   169,  173, 

395. 

• Giotto's  frescoes  at,  36,  46. 

Justus  of.     See  Justus. 

School  of,  70,  143,  146. 

University  of,  70. 

Paduan  Guild,  70. 

Paele,  G.  Van  der,  280. 

Paelincx,  446. 

Pa^an  and  Christian  art,  22,  103, 

106,  136. 
Paganism,  118,  153. 
Painter,  attributes  of  a  good,  183. 
Painting   on   glass,    7,  232,   297, 

369. 

of  allegory,  364. 

Biblical-genre,  205,  227. 

on  copper,  slate,  &c.,  186. 

on  metal,  7. 

in  Catacombs,  22. 

Early  Christian,  21. 

Egypt  and  Asia,  1,  3,  7. 

in  England,  386. 

Etruscan,  16. 

— —  flower,  356. 


Painting  in  France,  358. 

fresco.     See  h  resco. 

genre,  14,  176, 185,  192,  209, 

224,  226,  266,  281,  283,  284, 
308,  314,  326.  330,  337,  341, 
342,  355,  361,  362,  407,  412. 

in  Germany,  231-67. 

Graico- Roman,  17. 

Greek,  8. 

historical,  336. 

in  Italy,  .-33. 

in  oil.      See  Oil  painting. 

in  oil  by  Italians,  52,  63,  83. 

landscape.     See  Landscape. 

on  linen,  289. 

methods  of,  270. 

of  minutiae,  340,  341. 

modern,  26. 

in  the  Netherlands,  268,  310, 

330. 

of  Pastorals,  367,  368. 

Roman,  17. 

in  Spain,  199-230. 

symbolic,  21. 

on  terra  cotta,  7. 

texture,  341-5. 

on  wood,  etc.,  5. 

Palamedes,  339,  344. 
Pallas  Athene,  10. 
Palazzo  Barberini,  117,  189. 
Bargello,  126. 

Borghese,  108, 180. 

Colonna,  185. 

Doria,  193. 

Fava,  184. 

Farnese,  184. 

Pitti,  107,  117,  121,  190. 

Pubblico,  Florence,  87. 

Pubblico,  Siena,  47,  99. 

Rospigliosi,  189. 

Sciarra,  192. 

Spada,  192. 

del  Te,  137. 

Vecchio,  94,  127 

Venice,  147. 

Palaeolithic  art,  2. 
Palermo,  323. 
Palestrina,  Turner,  410. 
Pallas,  Lucas  v.  Leyden,  313. 
Palma,  Jacopo  (Palma  Vecchio), 
159,  160-1.  163. 


INDEX. 


491 


Falma,  niece  Afagdalcna,  160. 

Palma,  J.  (II  Giovine),  191. 

Palmer,  Samuel,  421,  422. 

Palmerucci,  Guido,  430. 

Palomino  He  Castro,  207,  216,217, 
222,  227. 

Pamphilos,  429. 

Fan  and  Apollo,  A.  Carracci,  186. 

Bacchante,  A.  Carracci,  186. 

Syrinx,  Rottenhammer,  263. 

Panaenos  of  Athens,  12. 

Panicale,  Masolino  da,  49,  51,  52, 
54. 

Pan  in  i,  Paolo,  438. 

Panshanger,  141. 

Pantin,  Jelian,  277. 

Papal  Rome,  109. 

Pape,  Adrian  de,  344. 

"  Paradise  Ix>st,"  120. 

Paradise,  Tintoretto,  172. 

Pareja,  Juan,  439. 

Paris,  154,  196.362,370,380,383. 

Parma,  154,  178,  184,  188,  194. 

Parmigiano.     Sec  Mazzuola. 

Parrhasios  of  Ephesos,  12,  13,  15. 

Parrocel,  Charles,  452. 

Parrocel,  Joseph,  452. 

Parthenon,  10. 

Passavant,  79,  104,  108,  112,  117, 
250,  280,  290. 

Passerotti,  Bart.,  182. 

Pfl5sio»,  <Ae,  I}erruguete,204;  Hol- 
bein, 257  ;  L.  V.  Leyden,  312. 

Passion  of  Christ,  42. 

Passions,  Diirer's  Great  and  Little, 
250. 

Past  and  Present,  Egg,  407, 

Patch,  Thomas,  39. 

Patel,  Pierre,  452. 

Pater,  368. 

Patinir,  Joachim  de,  292,  309, 

Pattison,  E.  F.  S.,  360. 

Paul  III.,  132,  133. 

Paul  v.,  188. 

Pausauias,  11. 

Pausias,  14. 

Pavia,  79,  95. 

Pax,  Finiguerra's,  63. 

Peace  and  War,  Kul)ens,  319. 

Peace  of  Nunster,  Terburg,  344. 

Peasant  Breughel.     See  Breughel. 


Pedro  of  Cordova,  201. 

Peel  Collection,  321,  327,  356. 

Peiraiikos,  429. 

Pelasgians,  1. 

I'cllegrino.     See  Martino. 

Pelo,  Ciuta  di  Lapo  di,  39. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  312. 

Pena,  N.  V.  D.  de  la,  .383,  384. 

Penelope,  History  of,  Pinturicchio, 

81. 
Peninsular  War,  217. 
Pennachi,  Girolamo,  154. 
Pennachi,  Pierre  Maria,  154. 
Penni,  Gio.  Fr,,  434. 
Pennsylvania,  403. 
Penny  Wedding,  Wilkie,  406. 
Pensz,  George,  255. 
Pepyn,  M.,  445. 

*'  Percival,"  by  Eschenbach,  234. 
Pereda,  Antonio,  439. 
Pericles,  10. 
Perrier,  F.,  451. 
Persians,  art  of  the,  7. 
Perspective,  first    knowledge    of, 

51,52. 
Perugia,  77,  78,  105,  107,  191. 
Perugino.     See  Vannucci. 
Peruzzi,  Baldassare,  99. 
Peruzzi  Chapel,  37. 
Pesellino,  Fr.  di  Stefano,  66. 
Pesello,  Giuliano  d'Arrigo,  66. 
Pesne,  Antoine,  452. 
Pesth,  96,  158. 

Peter  delivered  from  Prison,  Fil. 
Lippi,  65. 

Peter  denying  Christ,  Teniers,  329. 

Petersburg,  St.,  96,  161,  169, 
284. 

Peter  the  Great,  353. 

Pether,  W.,  414. 

Petrarch,  47. 

Petrucci,  Pandolfo,  81. 

Petrus  de  Hispania,  200, 

Pfenning,  D.,  440. 

Pheidias,  10. 

Philip  II.,  168,183,204,206,300, 
306,  309. 

Philip  III.,  316. 

Philip  IV.,  of  Spain,  121,  212  j 
portraits  of,  by  Velasquez,  &c. , 
214,  218,  220,  328. 


492 


INDEX. 


Philippe  le  Bon,  Dnke  of  Bur- 
gundy, 274,  275,  276,  287,288. 

Philippe  of  Burp;undy,  302. 

Phillip,  John,  428. 

Phillips,  Thomas,  456. 

Phoebus  and  Aurora  with  the  Hours, 
Guido,  189. 

Phoenician  art,  7. 

Phryne,  Turner,  410. 

Piacenza,  159. 

Piagnoni',  100,  102,  125. 

Piazza,  Albertino,  170. 

Piazza,  Calista,  435. 

Piazza,  Martino,  170. 

Picininno,  Nicolo,  94. 

Piccolomini  Library,  80. 

Pickersgill,  H.  W.,415. 

Pied  Piper  of  Haonelin,  Pinwell, 
427. 

Pieta,  Domenichino,  187;  Fi*ancia, 
81;    M.  Angelo,   127;    Nunez, 

.    202  ;  Stranzioni,  195. 

Pieterzoon,  Aart,  444. 

Pietro,  Lorenzo  di,  431. 

Pietro,  Sano  di,  431. 

Pilas,  222. 

Pieve,  161. 

Piloty,  Karl,  267. 

Pinacoteca,  143. 

Pinacothek,  228,  238,  241,  245, 
247,251,252,288,  291,355. 

Pinas,  Jacob,  332. 

Pinchart,Les  Tapisseries  de  Berne, 
287. 

Pinturicchio.  See  Bernardino  di 
Betto. 

Pinwell,  Geo.,  427. 

Piola,  Pelegro,  438. 

Piombo.     See  Luciani. 

Pippi,  Giulio  (Giulio  Romano), 
114,  136-7,  360,  362. 

Pirkheimer,  Willibald,  248. 

Pisa,  41,50. 

Campo  Santo  at,  41,  48,  58, 

59. 

cartoon  of,  109. 

Duomo  di,  42. 

pulpit  by  Pisano  at,  26. 

Pisan  campaigns,  94. 

Pisano,  Andrea.     See  Ugolino. 

Pisano,  Kicola,  26,  41,  51. 


Pisano,  Nino  and  Giovanni,  41. 

Pisano,  Vittore  (Pisanello),  84. 

Pitti,  the,  80,  196. 

Pius  II.,  Pope,  60. 

Pius  VII.,  Pope,  372. 

Plague    among    the     Philistines^ 

Poussin,  363. 
Plague,  the,  260. 

Platina,  Prefect  of  Sixtus  IV.,  73. 
Plato,  120. 

Platonian  philosophy,  119. 
Platonic  Academy,  111. 
Play   Scene   in    Hamlet^  Maclise, 

423. 
Pleydenwurff.  W.,  246. 
Pliny,  3,  10,  13,  15,  19. 
Plough,  Walker,  427. 
Plymouth,  276. 
Plympton,  394. 
Pocetti,  B.  B.,  436. 
Pocock,  Nicholas,  445. 
Poel,  Egbert,  v.d.,  355. 
Poelenburgli,  Cornells  v.,  355. 
Poems  by  Mich.  Angelo,  133. 
Poitiers,  358. 
Poitou,  358. 

Poldo-Pezzoli  collection,  98. 
Pole,  Cardinal,  307. 
Pollaiuolo,  Antonio,  63,  66,  69. 
Pollaiuolo,  Piero,  63,  69. 
Polygnotos  of  Thasos,  10. 

his  Polyxene,  11. 

Polyxene,  11. 

Pompeii,  art  of,  11,  19,  137,  188, 

370. 
Ponte,  Jacopo  da  (Bassano),  176, 

187. 
Pontormo.     See  Carucci. 
Poole,  P.  F.,  424. 
Pope,  Alex.,  389. 
Pope  Gregory  and  the  remains  of 

Trajan,  V.  der  Weyden,  286. 
Poperinghe,  304, 
Porbus,  Frans,  308. 
Porbus,  the  younger,  309. 
Porbus,  Pieter,  296,  308. 
Pordenone,  Giovanni  Antonio  da, 

154,  157,  159,  160,  163. 
Pork  Butcher,  the,  Victoor,  338. 
Porta,  Baccio  delia   (Fra   Barto- 

lommeo).     <Sbc  Fattorine. 


INDEX. 


493 


Porte,  Roland  de  la,  462. 

Portinari,  altar-piece,  Van  der 
Goes,  285. 

Portinari,  Tomraaso,  285. 

Porto  d'Ercole,  194. 

Port-Royal,  367. 

Portrait-painting,  Roman,  18. 

Portrait-painting  in  Venice,  150. 

Portraits:  Agostino,  161;  Alva, 
Duke  of,  167,  309;  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  68;  Andrea  del  Sarto, 
141;  Antonello,  145;  Archers 
of  S.  George  and  S.  Adrian, 
338  ;  Aretino,  167  ;  Ariosto, 
167,  168 ;  Arnolfini,  Jean  and 
Wife,  281  ;  Balthazar  Carlos, 
219;  Beatrice  Cenci,  189  ;  Bery- 
steyn,  338 ;  Bishop  IBurnet,  388 ; 
Blount,  Martha,  389;  Burgk- 
mair,  256  ;  by  Beltraffio,  96 ;  by 
Bissolo,  156;  by  Croce,  155; 
Carracci  family,  184  ;  Caesar 
Borgia,  167;  Charles  I.  and 
his  nobles,  324;  Charles  II.'s 
Court,  326;  Charles  II.,  328; 
Charles  IV.,  229;  Charles  V., 
167 ;  Charles  VII.,  164 ;  Chester- 
field, Earl  of,  389  ;  Christ,  23  ; 
Christian  II,  of  Denmark's  chil- 
dren, 303;  Cleve,  J.  van,  and 
wife,  309  ;  Constable  de  Bour- 
bon, 167;  Coram,  Capt.,  392; 
CostanzOjMatteo,  157 ;  Cranmer, 
259;  Cromwell,  387;  David, 
372;  Del  Sarto,  141:  Digby, 
Lady  Venetia,  324 ;  Doges  of 
Venice,  150, 167;  Dou,  Gerard, 
340 ;  Diirer,  254 ;  Egidiua,  299  ; 
Erasmus,  259,  299  ;  D'Este, 
Isabella,  92 ;  D'Este,  Lionel, 
289;  Eycks,  the  van,  273; 
wife  of,  280;  Family  portraits, 
326 ;  Fleury,  C^ardinal,  367  ; 
Francis  I.,  167;  Garrick,  David, 
401 ;  and  wife,  392 ;  George  III., 
389  ;  Gevurtius,  324  ;  Ginevra 
de  Benci,  68  ;  Girl,  by  Cranach, 
262  ;  Grand  Master  of  Malta, 
193  ;  Grimstone,  Edward,  284  ; 
Guillemardet,  French  Amb., 
229  ;    llandelj  389 ;    Hayman, 


389;  Helena  Fourment,  319; 
Henry  VIII.,  259  ;  Hobbes,  T., 
388 ;  Hogarth  and  wife,  392  ; 
Holbein's  parents,  257  ;  Infanta 
Margarita  Maria,  220,  222  ; 
Isabel  of  Portugal,  276,  277; 
James  II.,  388;  Julius  II.,  112; 
La  Bella  di  Teziano,  160;  La 
Belle  Ferroniere,  92  ;  Lady,  by 
S.  Holbein,  257  ;  Longono,  Gio. 
Chr.,  98 ;  M.  Angelo,  99 ;  Mans- 
field, Lord,  389 ;  Margarita, 
"  La  Fornarina,"  117,  135  ; 
Massys  and  wife,  300 ;  Mathe- 
matician and  Son,  309 ;  Mead, 
Dr.,  389  ;  Medici,  Ippolito  de, 
1 67  ;  Medici,  59  ;  Mona  Lisa 
Giocondo,  92  ;  More,  259  ; 
Moreel,  Maria,  290 ;  Moreel, 
William,  and  wife,  290;  Niccolo 
della  Torre,  161;  01ivarez,Duke 
of,  219;  Oldfield,  Anne,  389; 
Paul,  IV.,  165;  Philip  IL,  167, 
204  ;  Philip  IV.,  167,  218,  220, 
222  ;  Pope,  Alex.,  389 ;  Pope 
Pius  VII.,  372  ;  Pordenone 
family,  160;  Prim,  General, 
384;  Prior,  Mat.,  389;  Queen 
Caroline,  389;  Q.  Charlotte, 
389;  Queen  Mary,  309 ;  Queen 
of  Philip  IV.,  219, 220;  Queens- 
bury,  Duchess  of,  389  ;  Raphael, 
99, 104 ;  Recamier,  Mdme.,  372  j 
Regents  of  the  hospital,  338  j 
Richelieu,  Cardinal,  367  ; 
Rubens'  wives,  319;  Russell, 
Lord  Wm.,  388;  Sansovino, 
167  ;  Schmidt  family,  309  ;  Sid- 
dons,  as  the  Tragic  Muse,  Mrs., 
397;  Siddons,  Mrs.,398;  Steele, 
389  ;  Sultan  Mehemet  II.,  148  ; 
Swift,  Dean,  389  ;  Talbot,  Lord 
Chanc,  389;  Titian,  99,  167; 
Titian's  daughter,  165 ;  Van 
Veeren,  Marquis,  wife,  and  son, 
303;  Velasquez,  220;  family, 
221;  Venetian  Senator,  98; 
Veronese  and  family,  176; 
Vert  ue,  389;  Waller.  388;  Wal- 
pole.  Sir  R.,  389  ;  Willes,  Ed- 
ward, 389  ;  Wolsey,  259. 


494 


INDEX. 


Portraiture,   170,   193,    219,  262, 

266,    308,  321,  323,    336,   337, 

338,  344,  387-89,  395,  413. 
Portu<;al,  Jan  van  Kyck  in,  276. 
Posso,  Cavaliere  del.  362, 
Potter.  Paul,  349,  350,  356. 
Potter,  Pieter,  355. 
Poujol,  Abel  de,  453. 
Pourbus,  Pi(!ter,  296. 
Ponrtales  ('ol lection,  222. 
Poussin,  Gas{»ard.     See  Dughet. 
Poussin,  Nicolas.    185,   186,   310, 

362,  381,  400.' 
Prajjue,  233,  356. 
Prato,  frescoes  of  Lippi  in  Duomo, 

61. 
Prayei'-book,  Alb.  Diirer's,  261. 
Preach  171  g    of    Mary    Magdalen, 

King  keni,  359. 
Precocious  genius,  312,  349. 
Precursors  of  Rembrandt,  336. 
Preller,  Lndwig,  442. 
Pre-raphaelite  Brotherhood,  264, 

394,  425. 
Pre-Raphaelite  School,  393,  394. 
Presentation  in  the   Temple,  Am- 

brogio,    48 ;    Meckenen,    238  ; 

Vouet,  361. 
Preti,  Fra  Mattia,  195. 
Previtali,  Andrea,  155. 
Prevost,  Jean,  296. 
Primaticcio,    137,    142,   180,  183, 

3b0,  383. 
Prim,  General,  230, 
"  Prince  of  Light,"  334, 
Prints  by  Hogarth,  390. 

Lucas  V.  Leyden,  312-13. 

Procaccini,  Ercole,  190. 

Prodigal  Son,  Murillo,  226,  227; 

L.  V.  Leyden,  314. 
Promenade  without  the  Walls,  Leys, 

330. 
Prometheus,  Kibera,  195. 
Propert's  Hist,  of  Miniature  Art, 

387. 
"  Prophetic  Books,"  Blake,  424. 
Projyhcts  and  Sibgls,  M.   Angelo, 

115. 
Proportion,  first  to  study,  13 ;  A. 

Diirer,  human,  254. 
Proserpine,  Hoi.  Hunt,  426. 


Protestant  Iconoclasts,  278. 
Protestantism  in  art,  187,  251. 

and  Catholicism,  225. 

Protogenes,  16. 

Prout,  Samuel,  421,  422. 
Prud'hon,  374. 
Prussia,  King  of,  278. 
Pseudo-classicism,  268. 
Pucci,  chapel,  69. 
Puccio,  Pietro  di,  42. 
Puligo,  Domenico,  142. 
Pupils  of  Rembrandt,  336. 
Purism  in  art,  55. 
Pyramids,  the,  3. 
Pyrenees,  Treaty  of,  220. 

Quandt,  J.  G.,  247. 
Quattrocentisti,  49,  86,  144. 
Quirinal,  the,  187,  188. 

Raeburn,  Sir  Henry,  413. 

Baft  of  the   Mediisa,   G6ricault, 

376. 
Raibolini,  Francesco  (Francia),  78, 

81,   82,  83,  99,   101,  103,  108, 

121. 
Raising    of  the   King's    Son,    F. 

Lippi,  65. 

Lazarus,  Cousin,   359 ;    Del 

Piombo,  135. 

Hake's  Progress,  Hogarth,  390. 
Hamersdorf.  233. 
Ramsay,  Allan,  389,  397. 
Ranitri,  S.,  scenes  from,  Firenzjef 

42. 
Ransdorp,  332. 
Raoux,  Jean,  452. 
Rape  of  Europa,  Veronese,  176. 

Helen,  Benozzo,  59. 

Liicippus,  Rubens,  321. 

Raphael.     See  Santi, 

of  animal  painting,  349. 

Raphon,  Johann,  441. 
Rathgeber,  292. 
Rationalism,  187,  315. 
Ravenna,  mosaics  at,  28  ;  battle  of, 

114. 
Ravesteyn,  Jan  van,  336. 
Reader,  the,  Vermeer,  340. 
Reading  the  Will,  WUkie,  406. 


INDEX. 


495 


Real   and  ideal,  meaning  of   the 

terms,  120,  188,  320,  331. 
Ueasun,  school  of.  53,  55. 
Kedgrave,  K.  and  S.,  "  Century  of 

Painters,"   386,   409,  410,  411, 

419. 
Reformation,  225,  241,  260 
School    of   Germany,    241, 

2.34. 
Regatta  on  the  Grand  Canal,  Cana- 

letto,  198. 
Regemorter,  Pierre  van,  446. 
Regents,  meeting  of,  3o6,  338. 
of  the  Netherlands,  306,317, 

327. 
Regnault,  Henri,  384. 
Regnault,  J.  B.,  379. 
Reims,  Adrian,  291. 
Reinagle,  Philip,  455. 
Religion  in  art,  57,  79,  106,  288, 

305,  315. 

in  seventeenth  century,  187. 

in  art,  Venice,  174. 

Beliqtiary  of  S.  Odile.  269. 
Rembrandt.     See  Ryn,  Van. 
Renaissance  in  France,  Dilke,  360. 
the,  in  Italy,  62,  66,  67,  74, 

76,  83,  98,  204,  239,  264,  269, 

301,  315,  359. 
Ren6,  of  Aiyou,  359. 
Reni,   Guido   (Guido),    186,   187, 

188,  190,  195,225,361. 
Bent  Day,  VVilkie,  406. 
Bepose  in  Egypt^  Van  Orley,  307. 
Bepresentation  of  Human  Life,  J. 

Steen,  345. 
Republic  in  France,  375. 
"  Retaliation,"  397,  398. 
Rethel,  Alfred,  443. 
Rettberg,   "  Niirnberg's   Kunstle- 

ben,"  233. 
Revival  of  art,  191,  198,  264,  329. 

of  art  in  Germany.  457. 

of  learning,  53,  207. 

Reynolds,   Sir    Joshua,    14,    153, 

156,    162,    320,  331,  380,  391, 

394-97,  398,  599,  400,  402,  411, 

414. 
Rhetoric,  Melozzo,  73. 
Rhine  Schools,  Lttwer,  240. 
Rhodes,  307,  337. 


"  Rhuparographia"  (dirt  painting), 

16. 
Ribaltas,  the,  194. 
Ribalta,  Francisco,  208. 
Ribalta,  Juan  de,  210. 
Ribera,  Guiseppe  de  (Lo  Spagno- 

letto),  194,  197,  210,  222,  223. 
Ricchi,  Pietro,  437. 
Ricci,  Sebastian,  438. 
Ricciarelli,  Daniele  (J)a  Voltcrra). 

135. 
Richardson,  Jonathan,  388 ;   Art 

Criticisms,  388. 
Richardson,  T.  M.,  421. 
Richartz-gift,  238. 
Richelieu,  361,  363. 
Richmond,  T.,  415. 
Richter,  G.  K.  L.,443. 
Richter,  Dr.  J.  P.,  53,  64,  135. 
Richter,  Ludwig,  267. 
RidoIH,  Carlo,  437. 
Ridolfo,  144,  148,  159,  175. 
Rigaud,  Hyacinthe,  367. 
Riley,  John,  388. 
Rinjon,  Antonio  del,  202. 
King,  Ludger  Zum  (the  younger), 

442. 
Ring,  Zum,  441. 
Rio,  54,  60,  87,  101,  105. 
Riposo,  Solario,  98. 
Rizi,  Francesco,  439. 
Rizo,  Francesco,   da  Sta.  Croce, 

155. 
Robbia,  Luca  della,  39. 
Robert,  Leopold,  370. 
Roberts,  David,  427. 
Robespierre,  372. 
Robinson,  Hugh,  455. 
Rcbson,  Geo.  F.,  421. 
Robusti,  Domenico,  172. 
Robusti,  Jacopo   (II    I'intoretto), 

153,  156,  171-2,  176,   181,   182, 

205. 

his  daughter,  Tintoretta,  172. 

Roddelstedt,  I'eter,  441. 

Ro<lriguez,  Juan,  200. 

Roelas,  Juan  de  las,  205,  208,  216. 

Roeselberg  hills,  295. 

Rtiger  of  Louvain,  298. 

Rogers,  Mr.,  Collection,  109. 

Rokc wood-Gage,  200. 


496 


INDEX. 


Rollin,  Chancellor,  280,  282,  287, 
288. 

Roman  Brotherhood,  264. 

Roman   Catholic  Imagination    in 
Art,  244. 

Roman  Church,  53,  215,  240,  243, 
254,  283,  313. 

painting,  17. 

Romance  in  Art,  243. 

Romanelli,  Gio.  Fr.,  437. 

Romanesque  style,  232. 

Romanino,  Girolamo,  169,  170. 

Romano.     See  Giulio  Pippi. 

Romanticism  in  Belgium,  329. 

France,  374,  376. 

Germany,  266. 

Rombouts,  Gillis,  449. 

Rombouts,  Theodor.,  324. 

Rome,  22,  35,  47,  57,  71,  85,  86, 
94,  95,  98,  99,  102,  104,  108, 
109,  130,  132,  134,  135, 
142,  165,  186,  188,  191, 
194,  195,  197,  198,  204, 
223,  230,  264,  289,  302, 
362. 

Rome,  Borghese  Palace,  180. 

Capitol,  190,  192. 

Casa  Zuccari,  frescoes,  264. 

Claude  in,  190,  365. 

Leonardo  in,  94. 

Michelangelo    in,    125,   133, 

134. 

Poussin  in,  362. 

Raphael  in,  109. 

S.  Peter's,  35,  117,  118,  127, 

128,  133. 

S.  Sabina,  191. 

Titian  at  Belvedere,  165. 

Villa  Ludovisi,  187,  189. 

Villa  Massimi  frescoes,  264. 

Romero,  Juan,  de  Sevilla,  439. 

Romerswalien.     See  Marimus. 

Romney,  George,  399,  404. 

Romola,  69. 

Rontbouts,  A.,  352. 

Rooden  Clooster,  285. 

Rooker,  M.  A.,  421. 

Rosa,  Salvator,  196,  364,398,  400. 

Rosa,  Sisto.     See  Badalocchio. 

Rosselh,  Cosimo,  59,  64,  69,  100. 

Roselli,  Matteo,  190. 


138, 
193, 
212, 
307, 


Rossetti,  412,  425,  426. 

Rosenkranctafel,  233. 

Rosso,  II  (II  Maitre  Roux).     See 

Jacopo. 
Rothschild  family,  228. 
Rottenhammer,  Johann,  172,  263. 
Rotterdam,  339. 
Rottman,  Karl,  266. 
Roubaix,  Sire  de,  276. 
Rouen,  293. 
Rousseau,  Th.,  379,  381,  382,  383, 

384,  417. 
Rowlandson,  Thos.,  455. 
Rubens  and  Charles  I.,  319. 
Rubens,  Peter  Paul,  94,  115,  163, 

218,308,315-22,323,324,326, 

327,  329,  331,  336,  338,  387. 
Rubens,  Philip,  317. 
Rudolf  II.,  356. 
Rulaud,  C,  "  Notes  on  Raphael's 

Cartoons,"  115. 
Rumohr,  79. 
Ruskin,  18,  36,  79,  139,  151,  152, 

156,    164,  319,  335,   351,   396, 

405,  409,  410,  425. 
Russia,  Emperor  of,  349. 
Rustic  genre,  415. 
Ruysch,  Rachel,  451. 
Ruysdael,  Jacob,  351,  352,  419. 
Ruysdael,  Solomon,  348,  352. 
Ryckaert,  Daniel,  446. 
Ryn,  Jan  van,  446. 
Ryn,    Rembrandt     Hermanszoon 

van  (Rembrandt),   192,  330-36, 

337,   338,  339,   340,    347,   348, 

349,  410. 

his  son  Titus,  332. 

Rysbraeck,  P.,  446. 

Sabine  Women,  David's   Bape  of 

the,  371. 
Sacchi,  Andrea,  437. 
Sacchi,  Bartolommeo,  73. 
Sacrifice  to  Goddess  of  Fertility, 

Titian,  162. 
Sages  of  the  North,  243. 
S.  Anthony,  Schon,  244  j  of  Padita, 

Muriilo,  224. 
8.  Anthony  and  S.  George,  Piva- 

nello,  84. 
with  the  Staff,  Zeitblom,  245. 


497 


SS.  Annunziata,  frescoes  in,  140. 

S.  Augustine,  Vandycke,  323. 

S.  Barbara,  Veccbio,    161 ;    Van 

Eyck,  280. 
8.  Bartholomew,  Ribera,  194. 
S.  Basil  dictatiirg  his  Doctrine,  F. 

Herrera,  212. 
S.  Baron,  Ghent,  273. 
S.  Bernard  Chapel,  87. 
S.  Bernai'dino,  frescoes,  Peruzzi, 

99. 
S.  Catherine,  Raphael,  108;  body 

borne  by  Angels,  Luini,  97. 
8.  Cecilia,  Francia,  82 ;  Raphael, 

83,  121. 
8.  Christopher,  Castro,  202 ;  and 

Saints,  Ruebens,  317. 
S.  Denis,  368. 

S.  Diego  of  Alcula,  Murillo,  224. 
S.  Donato,  monks  of,  87. 
S.  Elizabeth,  Nake,  265. 
S.  Eloysius,  V.  Cristus,  284. 
8.  Francis,  Van  Eyck,  282. 
S.    Franciscan    cloisters,    Seville, 

224. 
8.   George  and  Dragon,  Domeni- 

chino,  187 ;  Tintoretto,  172. 

old  Spanish,  202. 

holding  Banner  of  Holiness, 

Zeitblom,  245. 
S.  Giacomo  degli  Spagnuoli,  186. 
S.  Giorgio  Ma«^giore,  175. 
8.  Criovanni,  Palma,  178. 
8.  Hcrmengild,  F.  Herrera,  212. 
8.  Hubert,  L.  v.  Leyden,  312. 
8.  James,  frescoes  of,  Mantegna, 

71. 
8.  Jerome,  Battisti,  154;  Bellini, 

162;  Correggio,  179  j  II  Greco, 

205. 
in  his  8ti(dy,  Catena,  155; 

i;»  Wilderness,  Tura,  73;  Read- 
ing, Basaiti,  155. 
8.  John  the  Baptist  and  8.  Stephen, 

Lippo,  61. 

and  Angels,  M.  Angelo,  134. 

in  a  Cave,  Martino  Piazza. 

8.  John  the  Baptist's  Head,  Gentile, 

148. 
iS.  John  and  the  Lamb,  Murillo, 

228. 


8.  Juan  de  Dios,  Murilte,  228. 

8.  Liberale,  Giorgione,  157. 

S.  Louis,  Psalter,  358. 

8.  Lxike  painting  the  Virgin,  Van- 

der  Weyden,  288. 
S.  Maria  delle  Grazie,  90. 
8.  Mark  at  Alexandria,  G.  Bellini, 

149. 
8.  Paul  at  Ephesus,  Le  Sueur,  366. 
8.  Peter,  scenes  in  life  of,  Masaccio, 

54. 
8.  Peter  and  8.  Paid,  Bartolommeo 

and  Raphael,  102. 

8.  Jerome,  A.  Vivarini,  143. 

-S^.  Peter  Martyr,  Titian,  167. 
Trial  and  Crucifixion,  Filip- 

pino,  65. 
8.  Petronilla,  Guercino,  190. 
8.  Rochus,  A.  Carracci,  186. 
8.  Rodericks  Crovm  of  Martyrdom, 

Murillo,  228. 
8.  Sebastian,  Bartolommeo,   102 ; 

Foppa,  84 ;    Sodoma,  98  ;   sta- 
tuette. Cousins,  360. 
8.  Sixtus,  Raphael,  122. 
^S".  Symphorion,  Ingres,  377. 
8.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Zurbaran,  2 1 6. 
8.  Veronica,  Wilheim  of  Cologne, 

235 :  Zeitblom,  24B. 
Saint-Just,  372. 
Saints,  G.  Croce,  155. 
Sala  di  Constantino,  frescoes,  114, 

137. 
Salaino,  Andrea,  95. 
Salamanca,  201,  204. 
Salimbeni,  Ventura,  436. 
Sallaert,  Anthony,  445, 
Salon  of  1824,  1831,  1867,  381. 
Salvator.     See  Rosa. 
Salvator  Mundi,  Antonello,  145; 

Massys,  300. 
Salvi,  Convent  of  S.,  141. 
Salvi,  Gio.  Batt.,  158,  191. 
SanchoIV.,  201. 
San  Daniele.     See  Martino. 
Sandby,  Paul,  417,420. 
Sanders,    Jan   (Hemessen),    301 ; 

Catherine,  301. 
Sanderus,  284. 

Sandrart,  Joachim  von,  263,  340. 
San  Gemignano,  59,  68,  69. 


K  K 


498 


INDEX. 


San  Giorgio,  Cardinal,  125. 

San  Lorenzo,  363. 

San  Marco  Convent,  100,  102. 

San  Martino,  195. 

San  Flacido,  Nunnery  of,  221. 

San  Severino,  Lorenzo  di,  77. 

San  Sisto,  the  Madonna  di,  121. 

Sansovino,  165. 

Santa  Croce,  F.  and  G.    See  Rizo. 

Sant  lago,  Roelas,  205. 

Sant,  James,  412. 

Santerre,  J.  B.,  452. 

Santi,  Giovanni,  104,  272. 

rhyming  chronicle,  104,  272. 

Santiago,  Order  of,  220. 

Santi,  KafTaello,  14,45,49,  54,  58, 
66,  68,  69,  72,  75,  78,  79,  80, 
81,  83,  85,  86,  87,  94,  95,  96, 
97,  98,  99,  101,  103,  104-23, 
125,  130,  132,  134,  135,  136, 
140,  142,  158,  161,  177,  183, 
186,  191,  204,  216,  242,  245, 
248,  252,  282,  301,  305,  376, 
377,  386,  403,  410. 

Santi,  Eaffaello,  pupils  of,  11 6, 136. 

his    mother  Magia    Ciarla, 

104. 

and  Perugino,  79. 

Frescoes  in  Stan  ze  of  Vatican, 

109-112. 

bis  character,  113  ;  his  love, 

117. 

and  Mich.  Angelo,  126. 

School  of,  138. 

Santos  Cruz,  202. 

Saraceni,  Carlo,  193,  194. 

Saragoza,  229. 

Sarah  bringing  Hagar  to  Abraham, 
WerfF,  354. 

Saronno  frescoes,  96,  97. 

Sarto,  Andrea  del.     See  Angelo. 

Sassetti  Chapel,  67. 

Sassoferrato.     See  Sah'i. 

Savery,  Roland,  356. 

Savoldo,  Gironimo,  169. 

Savonarola,  75,  99,  100,  125,  127. 

Saxony,  Electoral  House  of,  Court 
Painter,  260. 

Searselo,  Ippolito,  436. 

Scenes  from  the  French  Invasion, 
Goya,  229. 


Deltige,  Girodet,  373. 

Scenic  quality  of  French  art,  366, 
367. 

Schadow,  Wilhelm,  264,  265. 

SchafFner,  Martin,  246. 

Schalken,  Godefried,  344. 

Schaufelin,  Hans,  256. 

Schedone,  Bart.,  437. 

SchefFer,  Ary,  373,  377. 

Scheibler's  Catalogue,  312. 

Scheltema,  Dr.,  his  discourse  on 
Rembrandt  {note),  333. 

Schiavone,  Andrea,  170. 

Schiavone,  Gregorio,  72,  171. 

Schick,  Gotlieb,  442. 

Schirmer,  J.,  443. 

Schirmer,  W.,  442. 

Schlegel,  F.  von,  231,  313,  371. 

Schleich,  Ed.,  267. 

Schnorr,  Julius,  264,  265. 

Schongauer,  Caspar,  241. 

Schongauer,  Martin  (Schon),  123, 
241,  245,  247. 

Schools  of  art,  early,  28  ;  Athens, 
98  ;  Bohemia,  233  ;  Bologna, 
81  ;  Bruges,  268-97  ;  David, 
373-76  ;  Eclectic,  181  ;  English, 
385-412,  413  ;  Ferrara,  72  ; 
Florence,  177,  204,  393;  Fon- 
tainebleau,  183,  360,  361  ; 
Franconia,  246,  247  ;  Lombard, 
84,  177  ;  Milan,  85  ;  Murano, 
143;  Norwich,  419-20;  Niirn- 
berg,  233;  Padua,  70-72,  177; 
Perugia,  78  ;  Seville,  212  ; 
Sicyon,  13,  14 ;  Siena,  45,  50, 
75,  77  ;  Swabia,  245  ;  Umbria, 
75,  81,  101, 177  ;  Valencia,  204: 
Venice,  82,  142. 

Schools  of  painting,  definition  of, 
393. 

Schoreel,  Jan,  304,  306,  311,  313, 
314. 

Schotel,  J.  C,  442. 

Schreiber,  256. 

Schrodter,  Adolph,  443. 

Schiichlein,  Hans,  245. 

Schut,  Cornells,  445. 

Schwartz,  Christi.ph.,  442. 

Schwindt,  Moritz  von,  266. 

Science,  Leonardo  Da  Vinci  and,  87. 


INDEX. 


499 


Science,  in  art,  51,  163. 
Scopeto,  87. 
Scott,  David,  405. 
Scott,  Samuel,  454. 
Scott,  W.  Bell,  41,  253,  255. 
"  Scottish  Vandyck,"  326. 
Scrovigni  Chapel,  36. 
Scrovigno,  Enrico,  36. 
Sculpture,  50,  130,  133,  234,  359. 
Sea  painters  of  Holland,  314,  353. 
Sebastiani,  Lazzaro,  154. 
Secularity  and  testheticism  in  art, 

153. 
Seghers,  Gerard,  324. 
Segna,  Nicolo  di,  430. 
Seisenegger,  J.,  441. 
Sementi,  Gio.  Giacomo,  437. 
Semitecolo,  Nicolo,  430. 
Sens,  359. 
Sen'es,  J.  S. ,  455. 
Servites,  Order  of  the,  140. 
Sesto,  Cesare  da,  93,  96. 
Seven  Joys  of  the  Virgin,  Memling, 

291. 
Bcven  Ravens,  Schwindt,  266. 
Seven  Sacraments,  Poussin,  362. 
Seville,  201,  202,  201,  205,  208, 

212,  213,  216,  222,  226,  228. 

Academy  of  Painting  in,  227. 

School  of,  212,  217,  222,  225, 

229. 
Sforza,  Fran,  91. 
Sforza,  Lud.,91,  92,93. 
Shadows,  King  of,  331,  334. 
Shakespeare,  Illustrations  of,  404, 

407,  423. 

411. 

Shee,  Sir  Martin  Archer,  456. 

Shelley,  126. 

Shipwreck,  Delacroix,  377 ;  Gdri- 

cault,  381. 
Siberechts,  Dan.,  446. 
Sibyl  Zambeth,  .Memling,  290. 
Sicily,  193. 
Sicyon  School,  13,  14. 
Siddons,  Mrs.,  398. 
Sicgen,  315. 
Siena,  28,  39,  48,  50,  80,  98,  99. 

Cathedral,  46,  48. 

fresco  in  Palace,  47,  48. 

Sienese  School,  45,  50,  73,  77,  98. 


Sigalon,  Xavler,  379, 
Signorelli,  da  Cortona.     See  Ven- 
tura. 
Silenics,  Ribera,  195. 
Simone  dei  Crocefissi,  431. 
Simone  Memmi.     See  Murtino. 
Simpson,  .John,  456. 
Simson,  William,  Chr.  L.,  8. 
Sintram  of  Fouqu^,  252. 
Sirani,  Elisabetta,  438. 
Sirani,  Gio.  Antonio,  437. 
Sistine  Chapel,   64,   73,   89,  112, 

115,  129,  132. 
Six,  Jan,  332. 
Skill,  technical,  320. 
Sleeping  Venus,  Giorgione,  158. 
Slingelandt,  Peter  van,  344. 
Sluys,  274. 
Smirke,  Robert,  427. 
Smith,  George,  454. 
Smith,  John  (of  Chichester),  454. 
Smith,  John  (of  Warwick)  455. 
Smith,  J.  Raphael,  414. 
Smith,  William,  454. 
Smith's  Catalogue  Rai8onn6e,  328, 

343,  350,  354. 
Snavers,  Peter,  445. 
Sneilincic,  Jan,  445. 
Snyders,  Frans,  322,  325. 
Society  of  Artists  in  Edinburgh, 

414. 
Society  of  Arts,  Adelphi,  Subjects 

by  Barry,  404. 
Soderini,  Gonfalonier  of  Florence, 

128. 
Sodoma.     See  Bazzi. 
Solario,  Andrea,  42,  96.  97. 
Solario,  Christopher,  97. 
Solimena,  Francesco,  438. 
Solly,  Mr.,  278. 
Solothurm,  258, 
*'  Songs    of   Innocence"    and    of 

"Experience,"  424. 
Sonnet,  Carracci,  183. 
Sonnets,  Michael  Angelo's,  131, 

133, 

Decker,  332. 

Pacheco,  218. 

Raphael,  117. 

Sorgh,  Hendrik,  344, 
Sorri,  Pietro,  436. 


600 


INDEX. 


Soucy,  359. 

Soult,  Marshal,  224,  227. 

South  Kensington,  397. 

South  Sea  Bubble,   E.  M.   Ward, 

424. 
SoiithwarJc  Fair,  Hogarth,  392. 
Soutman,  Pieter,  445. 
Sower,  the,  Millet,  383. 
Spada,  Lionelio,  190,  194. 
Spadaro,  Micco.     See  Gargiulo. 
Spagna,  Giovanni  di  Pietro,  Ld, 

80. 
Spagnoletto,  Lo.     See  Ribera. 
Spain,  277,  318,  319,  325. 
Spanish  art,  200,  208,  225,  228. 

cathedrals,  201. 

Spanish  Italianisers,  202,  206. 

painters,  biographers  of",  207. 

restrictions  on,  211. 

Spanish     Beggar     Boy,    Murillo, 
228. 

Flower  Girl,  Murillo,  228. 

Wedding,  Portuny,  230. 

Spiers,  306, 

Spinelli,  Spinello   di   Luca  (Are- 

tino),    42,    44,    162,    165,    166, 

244. 
Spinola,  Marquis  of,  220. 
Spoil- Sport,  Madou,  330. 
Spoleto,  frescoes  at,  62. 

Lo  Spagna  in,  80. 

Sposalizio,  Raphael,  80,  105. 
Spranger,  Bart.,  445. 
Spring,  Botticelli,  64. 
Springinklee,  Hans,  256. 
Squarcione,  Prancesco,  70,  71,  84, 

144,  210. 
Stafford  House,  216,  227. 
Stanfield,  Clarkson,  411. 
Stanley's  Synopsis,  344. 
Stanza  della  Segnatura,  98,  Stanza 

of  Rapliael,  191. 
Stanzioni  Massimo,  195. 
Stark,  James,  419. 
St  amino,  Gherardo,  48,  201. 
Statuary,  tinting  of,  287. 
Steen,  Jan,  296,  344-6,  356. 
Steenwick,  H.  v.,  314. 
Stefano,  Fr.  di.     See  Pesellino. 
Stefano  (II  Sciraia  della  Katura), 

40. 


Stefano  di  Giovanni,  431. 

Stefano,  Tommaso  di.  See  Giottino. 

Steffens,  Jan,  of  Calcer,  447. 

Steinle,  Eduard,  443. 

Stella,  Jacques,  451. 

Stephan,  Meister.     See  Lochner. 

Stevens,  Alfred,  330. 

Stevens,  Joseph,  330. 

Still  Life,  Dutch  painters  of,  355. 

Stimmer,  Tobias,  441. 

Stirling,  Sir  W.    M.,  Annals  of 

painting    in    Spain,   200,   208, 

210,    211,  213,   216,   218,    219, 

221,222,  223,  227. 
Stockade,  Held,  348. 
Stone,  bronze,  and  iron  ages,  2. 
Stone,  Henry,  454. 
Stoop,  Dirk,  344. 

Stothard,Th()S.,  404,  424,425,  427. 
Straet,  Jan  van  der,  444. 
Strahof,  Monastery,  249. 
Strasburg,  306. 
Stratonice,  Ingres,  377. 
Sti-eater,  Robert,  454. 
Street  Artists  of  Seville,  quotation 

from  Stirling,  223. 
Street  in  Delft,  Vermeer,  340. 
Strigel,  Bernhard,  441. 
Strixner,  261. 
Strobant,  Prans,  330. 
Strozzi  Bernardo,  437. 
Strozzi  Chapel,  44,  65. 
Stuart,  G.,  455. 
Stubbs,  G.,  454. 
Stuerboat.     See  Bouts. 
Stuerbout,  Hubert,  295-96. 
Stuttgart,  154. 
Style,  Raphael's,  105. 
Suabia,  234,  237.  246. 
Suardi,  Bart.    (Bratnantina),    84, 

85,  97. 
Subleyras,  Pierre,  452. 
Sudbury,  398. 
Suftss.  Hans,  256. 
Suffolk,  419. 

Earl  of,  93. 

Sultan  of  Turkey,  1 48. 

decapitation  of  slave  to  prove 

a  theory,  148. 
Supper  at  Emniatcs,  Caravag;^io, 

193  :  Veronese,  175. 


INDEX. 


501 


Surrender   of   JBreda,  Velasquez, 
220. 

Susannah,  Valentin,  362. 

Sussex,  422. 

Susterman,  Lamprecht  (L,  Lom- 
bard), 307,  309. 

Sutlierland,  Duke  of,  227. 

Swabia,  241,  246. 

Swabian  School,  245,  247. 

Swanenberg,      Isaakszoon      van, 
332. 

Sweden,  Queen  of,  366. 

Swinburne,  424. 

Symbols,   Christian   use   of,   21 
disuse,  23. 

Syraonds,  J.  A.,  133. 

Tacconi,  Francisco,  170. 

Tadini,  Count,  147. 

Tafi,  Andrea,  27. 

Talcing    down    from     the    Cross, 

Rubens,  320. 
Taking  of  Jerusalem,  Poussin,  362. 
Tapestry,  115,  287,  303. 
Tassi,  Agostino,  190. 
Taunton,  Lord,  134. 
Taurel,  311. 
Taverner,  William,  420. 
Taylor,  J.  E.,  133. 
Telephanes  of  Sicyon,  10. 
Tempera-painting,     19,   63,    230, 

312. 
Tempi  family,  108. 
Temptation  of  S.  Anthony,  Aeken, 

296;  L.  V.  Leyden,312';  Schon- 

gauer,  123  ;  Teniers,  327. 
Tenebrosi,  The,  193,  215,  225. 
Teniers,  David,  the  elder,  327. 
Teniers,  David,  the  younger,  220, 

308,  322,  326-29,  346,  356,  386, 

416. 
Tennyson,  396. 
Ter  Borch.     See  Terburg. 
Terburg,  Gerard,  193,  343,  344, 

351,  407. 
Testelin,  Louis,  462. 
Teutonic    art,    231 ;    history   of, 

263. 
Teutsche  Acadanie,  263. 
Thames,  408. 
Thausing,  Dr.,  53,  246. 


Theban-Attic  school,  14. 

The  Apostle,  Pordenone,  1 60. 

The  East,  Delacroix,  377. 

Theodolinda,  Queen,  232. 

Theodorich  of  Prague,  233. 

Theon  of  Samos,  1 5. 

Theotocopuli,  Domenico,  205. 

Theophilus,  270. 

"Theory  of  Painting,"  388,  394. 

Thinle,  John,  456. 

Thomas  a  Becket,  Consecration  of. 

Van  Eyck,  282. 
Thome,  Luca  di,  431. 
Thomson,  Henry,  456. 
Thornhill,  Sir  James,  389,  390. 
Three  Eastern    Sages,    Giurgione, 

137. 
Three  Graces,  Regnault,  379. 
Three  Marys,  A.  Caracci,  185. 
Three  Stages  of  Life,  Giorgione, 

158. 
Three  Trees,  etched  by  Rembrandt, 

335. 
Thulden,  Theodore  van,  446. 
Thurlow,  Lord,  399. 
Tiarini,  Allesandro,  436. 
Tibaldi,  Domenico,  182. 
Tibaldi,  Pellcgrino,  183. 
Tiber,  valleys  of,  76. 
Ticozzi,  163. 
Tidemand,  Adolf,  443. 
Tietfenthal,  Hans,  Chr.  L.,  2. 
Tiepolo,  Gio.  Batt.,  198. 
Tiger  Hujit,  ZofPany,  401. 
Timanthes  of  Cy  thnos,  13. 
Timomaehus  of  Byzantium,  18. 
Timotheos,  Van  Eyck,  282. 
Tinting  Statuary,  421. 
Tintoretta,  172. 
Tintoretto.     See  Robust  i. 
Tisio,  Benvenuto,  Gai'ofalo,  138. 
Titian.     See  Vecellio. 
Tobar,  Alonso  Miguel,  440. 
Tobias    with  the  angel,   i.)omeni- 

chino,  187. 
Tohit  and  the  angel,  Luini,  97. 
Toc(|U^,  Louis,  452. 
Toledo,  Juan  de,  439. 
Toledo,  202. 
Toms,  Peter,  395. 
Topers,  the,  Velasquez,  210. 
K  2 


502 


INDEX. 


Torbido,  173. 

Torre,  Flaminio,  438. 

Torreggiani,  Bart.,  197. 

Toiirnay,  287. 

Tournay,  School  of,  286,  297. 

Tournus,  358. 

Town-Halls,  286,  292,296. 

Town-painter,  286,  295. 

Traini,  Francesco,  44. 

Trajan,  Emperor,  286. 

Transfiguration,  Kaphael,  122, 135, 

186. 
Trattato  della  Pittura,  182. 
Traut,  Hans,  440. 
Trecentisti,  Quattro-  and  Cinquo- 

centisti,  49. 
Trevi^o,  154,  161. 
Treviso,  Girolamo  da.     8tc  Pen- 

nacchi. 
Tribute  money,  Titian,  162,  168. 
Trinity,  Pesellino,  66. 
Trioson,  A.  L.  Girodet  de  Roucy, 

373. 
Triptych,    Engelbrechtsen,     311  ; 

Key,  309. 
Tristan,  Luis,  205. 
Triumph  of  Bacchus,  A.  Carracci, 
184. 

David,,  Roselli,  190. 

Death,  43,  48. ' 

Galatea,  Carracci,  184. 

Julius  C(esar,  Mantegna,  72. 

the    Catholic    Church,    Van 

Eyck,  279. 
Trompes,  Jean  de,  292. 
Troost,  451. 
Troy,  Jean  de,  452. 
Troyon,  Constant,  384. 
Truth  and  Justice,  D.  Bouts,  295. 
Tulp,  Nicolas,  332. 
Tura,  Cosimo,  72, 
Turhaned    Portrait,   Van    Eyck, 

281. 
Turchi,  Alessandro,  437. 
Turin,  85,  97,  284,  323. 
Turks,  148. 

Turner,  Joseph  Mallord  William, 

153,    156.    354,   a64,  365,  380, 

401,  406,  408-11,  417,  418,  419, 

420,421,  422. 

Turner,  William,  of  Oxford,  457. 


Turoni  of  Verona,  430. 
Tuscany,  27,  33. 
Tuylt,  Alyt,  298,301. 
Twilight,  sculpture  by  M.  Angelo, 

131. 
Two  Singing  Boys,  F.  Hals,  jun., 

339. 

Ubaldo,  Archbishop,  41. 
Ubertino,  Francesco,  142. 
Uccello,  Paolo.     See  Doni. 
UflFenbach,  Phillip,  442. 
Utfizi,    58,  64,   87,  98,   108,   124, 

129,    157,    158,   185,    186,  189, 

193,  196,  198,  289,300,359. 
Ugolino,  Andrea  di,  of  Pontedera, 

39,  41. 
I^golino  da  Siena,  28,  46. 
Uilenberg,  Saskia,  332. 
Ulm,  245. 
Ulysses  and  Polyphemus,  Tumor, 

410. 
Umbria,  76,  121. 

See  also  Assisi. 

School  of,  75,  76,  77,  81,  101, 

105. 
University  of  Padua,  70. 
Upright  Judges,  Mabuse,  302. 
Urbino,  73,  104,  118,  285,  286. 

Duke  of,  palace,  73,  104. 

Ursula,  S.,  237,291. 
Utrecht,  302,  306,  307,  345. 
Utrecht,  Adam  van,  445. 
Uwins,  Thomas,  456. 
Uytenbroeck,  Moses  van,  448. 

Vaccaro,  Andrea,  195. 
Vaernewyck,  van,  273,  290. 
Vaga,  Perino  del,  360. 
Valckenborgh,  Luk  van,  444. 
Valdes-Leal,  Juan  de,  225,  229. 
Val  d'Arno,  87. 

Valencia,  202,  204,  209,  210,  214. 
Valentin,  192,  265,  361. 
Valesio,  Gio.  Luigi,  Chr.  L.,  2. 
Valladolid,  204. 
Vander  Geest,  Cornel.,  324. 
Vander  Hoop  Collection,  338,  340. 
Vander  Werff  and  citizens  of  Ley' 

den,  Wappers,  329. 
Vandervelde,  Esaias,  448. 


INDEX. 


503 


VandeveWe,  Adrian,  348,  354. 
Vandevelde,    VVilletn,  the    elder, 

348,  353,  386,  388. 
Vandevelde,  Willem,  the  younger, 

353,  386,  388. 
Vandyck,     Anthony,    219,    223, 

322-24,  327,  338,  387. 
Van  Eyck,  Hubert.     See  Eyck. 
Van  Eyck,  Jan.     See  Eyck. 
Van  Lo.>,  368. 
Van  Orley.     Sec  Orley. 
Van  Wyck,  Catherine,  333. 
Vanni,  Francesco,  436. 
Vanni,  Turino,  431. 
Vannucci,   Pietro   (II   Perugino), 

45,  49,  64,  75,  77,  78,  80,  81, 82, 
83,  86,  97,  99,  101,  103,  105, 
142,  150,  242,245. 

—  and  liaphael,  79. 
Vannucci,  Cristofano.  77. 
Vannuchi,  Andrea  (Sarto,  Andrea 

del).     See  Angelo. 

Varello,  97. 

Vargas,  Luis  de,  204,  207. 

Varin,  Quentin,  362. 

Varlets,  275. 

Varley,  John,  421,422. 

^■amishes,  271. 

Varotari,  Alessandro,  191. 

Varstari,  Alessandro,  91. 

Vasco  di  Gama,  Scott,  4U5. 

Vasari,  Giorgio,  27,  29,  30,  187 ; 
his  account  of  the  invention  of 
oil-painting,  34,  35,  40,  42,  44, 

46,  48,  53,  54,  56,  56,  60,  62, 
64,  66,  70,  71,  72,  77,  78,  81, 
83,  86,  91,  96,  105,  110,  113, 
116,  117,  123,  132,  136,  139, 
141,  143,  144,  147,  148,  166, 
157,  158,  162,  165,  166,  172, 
173,201,  207,244,270,286. 

Vase-paintings,  11. 

Vasitacchi,      Antonio,      Aliense, 

172. 
Vatican,  73,  80.  85,  105,  108,  114, 

121,    188,    191,   193,  264,  362, 

363. 

—  Haphael's  frescoes  in,  Stanze 
of  the,  110,  191. 

V»vchio.     See  Palma. 
Veceliio,  Orario,  165,  166. 


Vecellio,  Tiziano  (Titian),  49, 150, 
151,  156,  157,  159,  160,  161-68, 
170,  173,  177,  182,  185,  192, 
205,  219,  225,  248,  306,  318, 
335,  361,  362,  364,  393. 

Vecellio,  his  son  Pomponio,  165; 
his  daughter  Lavinia,  165. 

Veen,  Martin  van,  314. 

Veen,  Otto  van  (Vaenius,  Otto), 
316. 

Veeren,  Marquis  van,  303. 

Vega,  ])iego  Gongalez  de  la,  439. 

Veit,  Phihpp,  264,  265. 

Velasquez,  Diego  Kudriguez  de 
Silvay,  199,209,211,212,213, 
214,  216-22,  218,  223,  225,228, 
338,  344. 

and  Order  of  Santiago,  220. 

Aposentador-mayor,  220. 

Velasquez  of  Flanders,  322. 

Vendome,  358. 

Vendramin,  Andrea,  149. 

Venetian  style,  182,  361. 

Venetian  Embassy^  Gentile,  148. 

Veneto-Byzantines,  143. 

Veneziano,  Antonio,  42,  48,  49. 

Veneziano,  Bartolommeo,  155. 

Veneziano,  Domenico,  83. 

Venice,  92,  97,  142,  143,  145,  150, 
156,  161,  163,  166,  169,  173, 
176,  191,  192,  193,  198,  249, 
293,  306,  316,  395. 

School  of,  50,  82,   134,  138, 

139,  142-81,  176,  191,  198,  316, 
393. 

mosaics  of  St.  Mark's,   27. 

Great  Hall  of  Council,  Ducal 

Palace,  147,  163,  173. 

Hall  of  Exchange,  or  Fon- 

daco  de'  Tedeschi,  157,  102. 

Giunvanelli  Palace,  157. 

Seminario  Vescoviie,  158. 

Senseria,  office  of,  163. 

Ducal  Palace,  172. 

Religion  in,  174. 

Diirer  in,  249,  253. 

Venne,  Adrian  Vander,  448. 
Ventura,  Luca  d'Egidio  di,   64, 

73,  76,  83,  101,  103. 
Venus,  Titian,  168. 
Crowned  by  Love^  Titian,  168. 


504 


INDEX. 


Venus,  del  Pardo,  Titian,  168, 

Rising  from  the  Sea,  Barry, 

403. 
Venus  Anadyomene,  14. 
Venusti,  Marcello,  135. 
VerbcBckhoven,  E.,  330. 
Verboom,  Abraham,  352. 
Vercelli,  97,  98. 
Verlat,  Charles,  330. 
Vermeer  of  Delft.     See  Meer. 
Vermejen,  Jan,  444. 
Vernet,  Carle,  378. 
Vernet,  Horace,  378. 
Vernet,  Joseph,  370,  401. 
Verona,  45,  84,  173. 

Liberale  da,  84. 

Cathedral  of,  147. 

School  of,  45,  85,  173. 

Veronese  Art,  the  Proteus  of,  1 73. 
Veronese,  Paolo.     See   Cagliari. 
Verrio,  388. 

Verrocchio,  Andrea,  77,  87,  99. 

Verulam,  Earl  of,  284,  411. 

Vespignano,  33,  34. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  68. 

Vespucci  Chapel,  68. 

Vesuvius,  Micco  Spadaro,  197. 

Viardot,  360,  372,  375,  393,  410. 

Vicenza,  157,  170. 

Victoor,  Jan,  337. 

Victories  of  Alexander,  Le  Brun, 

366. 
Victories  of  the  Lombards,  232. 
Viejo,  El.     See  Herrera,  F. 
Vicn,  Joseph  Marie,  370. 
Vienna,  80,  96,  108,  161,180,195, 

221,  261. 

See  also  Belvedere. 

Opera  House,  frescoes,  266-7. 

Vierge  au  coussin  vert,  Solario,  98. 

Viet,  Philipp,  264. 

View  between  Dolgelly  and  Bar- 
mouth, Wilson,  417. 

of  the  Alps,  T.  Rousseau,  381. 

ofAiivcrgneJT.  Ilousseau,381 . 

of  Delft,  Vermeer,  340. 

of  Venice,  Canaletto,  198. 

Vigee  Le  Brun,  Elizabeth,  380. 

Vigne  F^lise,  La,  447. 

Village  Festival,  Wilkie,  406: 
Politicians,  Wilkie,  406. 


Villaviccncis,   Don   Pedro  n.    de, 

440. 
Villeneuve,  359. 
Vincent,  George,  419. 
Vinci,  86. 
Vinci,  Leon  :  and   Mich.  Angelo 

contrasted,  94. 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  14, 77,  84,  85, 

86-95,  96,  97,  98,  99,  103,  105, 

107,   112,   114,    127,    132,    134. 

142,   161,    164,   168,    177,   254, 

301. 
letter  to  the  Duke  of  Milan, 

91. 
Vinckeboons,  David,  445. 
Viola,  Gio.  Batt.,  190. 
Virgin,  early  representation  of  the, 

23. 
of  Byzantine  school  preferred, 

31. 
Virgin  and  Child,   Basaiti,    155 ; 

G.  Bellini,  149  ;  J.  Bellini,  147  : 

Botticelli,   64  ;    Eilippino,   66  ; 

jVIabuse,    303;    Mui-illo,     228; 

Perugino,  80 ;  Schongauer,  241 ; 

B.  Vivarini,  143. 

Child  Enthroned,  Mantegna, 

71. 

female  saints,  G.David,  293. 

S.  Anna,  Francia,  82. 

S.  Donat,  Van  Eyck,  280. 

Saints,  Sodoma,  98. 

the  Donor,    ^Nlemling,    292  ; 

Van  Eyck,  280. 
in  the  Rose  Garden,  Schon- 

gauei*,  241. 
miracle    working,     Joanes, 

207. 
sewing,  Caravaggio,  192. 

with     Cherubs,     in     Lorenz 

Kirche,  234. 

Mary,  Massys,  300. 

Virgins,  Bartolommeo,  101  ;  Hem- 
ling,  290  ;  del  Sarto,  141  ;  Zur- 
baran,  216. 

Vision  of  EzeJciel,  Poole,  424 ;  of 
S.  Helena,  Verones'-  176;  of  S. 
Jerome,  Parmigiauj,  180. 

Vitale  of  Bologna,  430. 

Viti,  Timoteo,  105. 

Vittoria.  217. 


INDEX. 


505 


Vivarini,  Luigi,  154,  155. 
Vivarini,  The,  Antonio,  Bartolom- 

meo  and  Luigi,  143. 
Vlaenderberch,  Barbara,  290. 
Vlerick,  Pieter,  444. 
Vlieger,  Simon  de,  348. 
Vliet,  Willem  van  der,  366. 
Volterra,  Daniele   da.      See  Ric- 

ciarelli. 
Volterra,  Francesco  da,  42. 
Vos,  Cornelius  de,  326. 
Vos,  Martin  de,  309. 
Vos,  Paul  de,  446. 
Vouet,    Simon,     192,    361,    363, 

366. 
Vrancx,  Sebastian,  445. 
Vriendt,   Frans  van   (F.   Floris), 

307-8,  309. 
Vries,  Jan  Vredeman  de,  314. 
Vroom,  Hendrik,  314. 
Yydt,  family  chapel,  278. 
Yydt,  Jodicus,  273. 

Waagen,  Dr.,  160,  245,  256,  260, 

319. 
"Wales,  401,  422. 
AValkenberg,  Dirk,  451. 
Walker,  F.  VV.,  412,  427. 
Walker,  Robert,  388. 
Wallerant,  Vaillant,  446. 
Wall-paintings      in     Egypt,     4 ; 

France,  358  ;  Germany,  232. 
Walpole,  H.,  367.  386,  388. 
Wallraf  Museum.     See  Museums, 

Cologne. 
Walscappelle,  Jacobus,  355. 
Wappers,  Guslave,  266,  329. 
Ward,  E.  M.,  424. 
Ward,  J.,  416. 
Wiirrior    adoring    Infant    Christ, 

Catena,  155. 
AVarwick,  Earl  of,  93. 
Washburne's      "  Early     Spanish 

Painters,"  200. 
Wateiet,  4.')3. 

Water-carrier,  The,  Murillo,  217. 
Water-colour  painting  in  England, 

407,  416,420,421. 
Waterloo,  Antoni,  352. 
Watteau,  Antoine,  367,  368. 
Watts,  Frederickj  412,  415. 


Wauters,  A.,  Peinture  Flamande, 
204,  295,  296,  304,  307. 

Wauters,  E.,  330. 

Weale,  W.  H.  J.,"Le  Beffroi,"  269, 
282,  283,  290,  296. 

Webber,  John,  455. 

Webster,  Benjamin,  Clir.  L.,  8. 

Wedmore,  Fr.,  369. 

Weenix,  Jan,  355. 

Weimar,  261,  262. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  180,  217. 

Werff,  Adrian  Vandfr,  354. 

Werff,  Burgomaster  Vander,  329. 

West,  Benjamin,  402,  404. 

Westall,  Richard,  456. 

Westphalia,  239,  315. 

Westrheene,  M.  T.  van,  345. 

Weyden,  Goswin  and  Pieter  Van- 
der, 289. 

Weyden,  Roger  Vander,  the 
younger,  289. 

Weyden,  Rogier  Vander,  145, 201, 
238,  241,  245,  286-89,  290,  293, 
294,  295,  297. 

Wheatley,  Francis,  415. 

Whitaker's  "  Richmondshire,"  420. 

Whitehall,  259,  319. 

Wiertz,  Antoine-Louis,  447. 

Wild,  G.,  456. 

Wilhelm,  Master,  of  Cologne,  231, 
235,  236. 

Wilkie,  David,  179,  222,  266, 
405-7,  428. 

Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  4, 
6. 

William  and  Mary,  388. 

William  III.,  116. 

Williams,  H.  W.,  456. 

Willson,  Andrew,  456. 

Wils,  Jan,  356. 

Wilson,  Richard,  400,  402,  409, 
417,418. 

Winckelmann,  J.,  9,  263,  370. 

Windsor,  116. 

Windsor  Castle,  collection  of  Hol- 
bein's drawings  in,  260,  300, 
309,  324. 

Winghen,  Joost  van,  444. 

Wint,  Peter  de,  421,  422. 

Winter  Exhibitions  of  lioyal  Aca- 
demy, 413. 


60() 


INDEX. 


Witt,  Jacob  de,  451. 

Witte,  Emanuel  de,  356. 

Witte,  Pieter,  445. 

Wittenberg,  260,  261. 

Woermann's  Masaccio,  53,  54. 

Wohlgemuth,  Michael,  246,  248, 
249. 

Wolfvoet,  v.,  446. 

Woltmann  and  Woerman,  Hist,  of 
Painting,6, 11,  31,  48,60,97,98, 
105,  158,  182,  184,  187,  192, 
200,  204,  208,  210,  239,  256, 
257,  2G2,  280,  358,  385,  402. 

Wolzogen,  117. 

Wood-cuts,  Wohlgemuth,  246 ; 
Diirer,  250 ;  Grien,  256  5  Biirgk- 
mair,  256. 

Wood-engraving,  63,250,  252, 253, 
255,  256,259,  311. 

— —  History  of,  250. 

Woodforde,  Samuel,  455. 

Wooton,  James,  454. 

Wordsworth,  133. 

Wornum,  44,  54,  255,  260,  281, 
324,  335,  339,  351,  378. 

Wousam,  Anton,  441. 

Wouverman,  Pieter,  351. 

Wouverman,  Jan,  351. 

Wouverman,  Philip,  351. 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  116. 

Wright  of  Derby,  395,  414. 

Wright,  J.  Michael,  388. 

Wurmser,  NicxDlaus,  233. 

Wyck,  Catherine  van,  333. 

Wyck,  Th.,  449. 


Wynants,  Jan,  348. 

Yafifz,  Fernando,  204. 

Yongkind,  356. 

Youiig  Bull,  P.  Potter,  349. 

Young  Girl  at  her  Window,  Maas, 

337. 
Young  Tailorcss,  Dou,  341. 
Youth,  Caravaggio,  192. 
Ypres,  274. 
Yriarte,  Ch.,  229. 


Zaganelli,  Francisca,  433. 
Zampieri,     Domenico      (Domeni- 

chino),  184,  186,  191,  209,  225, 

362. 
Zeitblom,  Bartolomaus,  245,  246, 

247. 
Zelotti,  Battista,  176. 
Zenale,  Bernardini  Martini,  84. 
Zeno,  Caterino,  285. 
Zeus  Olympios,  10. 

254. 

Zeuxis  of  Heracleia,  12,  14,  15. 

his  Centaur,  13. 

Helen,  13. 

Zoffany,  Johann,  401. 
Zuccai-elli,    Francisco,   186,    209, 

401,  402. 
Zuccaro,  Federigo,  136. 
Zuccai'o,  Taddeo,  136. 
Zurbaran,  Francisco  de,  199,  215, 

226. 
Zwickau,  247. 


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