ANIMAL LIFE IN
:irAi-lAN PAINTING

o

JOHNA.SEAVERNS

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ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN
PAINTING

THE VISION OF ST. EUSTACE

BY PISANELLO

Xationai, Gai,i.ki;v

ANIMAL LIFE IN
ITALIAN PAINTING

BY

WILLIAM NORTON HOWE, M.A

LONDON

GEORGE ALLEN & COMPANY, LTD.

44 & 45 RATHBONE PLACE

1912

[All rights reserved]

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson 6^ Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

To

©. H.

PREFACE

I OWE to Mr. Bernhard Berenson the suggestion which
led me to make the notes which are the foundation of
this book.

In the chapter on the Rudiments of Connoisseurship
in the second series of his Study and Criticism of
Italian Art, after speaking of the characteristic features
in the painting of human beings by which authorship
may be determined, he says : " We turn to the animals
that the painters of the Renaissance habitually intro-
duced into pictures, the horse, the ox, the ass, and
more rarely birds. They need not long detain us,
because in questions of detail all that we have found
to apply to the human figure can easily be made to
apply by the reader to the various animals. I must,
however, remind him that animals were rarely petted
and therefore rarely observed in the Renaissance.
Vasari, for instance, gets into a fury of contempt when
describing Sodoma's devotion to pet birds and horses."

Having from my schooldays been accustomed to

keep animals and birds, to sketch them and to look

vii

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

for them in painting, I had a general recollection which
would not quite square with the statement that they
were rarely petted and therefore rarely observed in the
Renaissance.

To test this recollection I began to make a detailed
examination of the Italian pictures in the National
Gallery, a work which, extended to other galleries as
opportunity allowed, has afforded me many interesting
hours from time to time since. As a result my first
impressions were more than confirmed.

My present aim, however, is a more modest one
than to controvert the statement of Mr. Berenson, to
whose discernment and wide knowledge all students of
Italian painting to-day owe so much, and to whom my
own indebtedness is abundantly evidenced throughout
these pages. It is rather to utilise his hint in such
a way as to help the general reader to a better appre-
ciation of a side of the painter's thought and work
which is often passed over, but from which a good
deal may be learnt.

These notes are not intended for the specialist, either
in art or zoology ; their aim is to stimulate inquiry
rather than to add to the knowledge of a necessarily
small expert class. They have been put together in the
hope that they may be useful to lovers of nature in
opening an avenue to the painter's mind, as well as to

viii

PREFACE

lovers of art in helping towards that truer observation
of nature which is a result and justification, if not an
aim, of painting. They do not attempt to deal with
higher aesthetic problems ; their intention will be ful-
filled if they lead to a more sympathetic contact between
the reader and the painter.

My own experience in accompanying artistically
untrained people round the National Gallery has
been that it is often the loving painting of nature, of
flower, animal, or bird — for example, Titian's Bacchus
and Ariadne, or Giovanni Bellini's Peter Martyr —
which first makes this contact. When it is once made,
the painter has his chance of saying what is in his
mind with some hope of response. "It takes two to
speak truth," says Thoreau, "one to speak and another
to hear," and the same principle applies in the case
of truth pictorially presented.

Many of the descriptions of pictures in current
books, even in those by competent critics, are strangely
inaccurate when they come to deal with che life of
nature depicted in them, I can hardly hope that in
attempting to cover so wide a field I have myself in
every case interpreted the painter aright. I have
generally backed my own judgment, but I have to
thank Dr. Sherwill Dawe for reading the MS. and
for the benefit of his knowledge and advice in several

ix

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

doubtful instances. To Mr. Charles S. Lodge also I
am greatly indebted for his careful criticism of the
later proof-sheets.

The references are as far as possible to books which
are easily accessible, and to translations rather than
to the original texts. In cases where the translations
are my own I have, however, given references to the
originals.

It is obvious that the examples given might have
been almost indefinitely extended, and in every large
gallery the reader may find additional material for
study.

CONTENTS

PACK

vii

Preface

List of Illustrations xiii

Chapter I. Some Influences in the Direction of Animal

Painting i

II. Florence: From the Beginnings to Uccello io

III. Florence : Filippo Lippi to Bronzing . . 30

IV. Siena ......... 49

V. Ferrara 56

VI. Umbria 60

VII. Venice : Pisanello to Cima da Conegliano . 66

VIII. Venice : Crivelli to Veronese ... 84

IX. Padua 100

X. Lombardy 106

APPENDIX A

Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes, and Insects represented

BY the Italian Painters 115

APPENDIX B

Paintings in the National Gallery suggested for Study 121

Bibliography 125

Illustrations 129

Index 227

xi

ILLUSTRATIONS

IN COLOUR

PiSANELLO :

" The Vision of St. Eustace." National Gallery . Frontispiece

Titian : facing page

" The Daughter of Roberto Strozzi." Berlin ... 90

MaRGARITONE : I'AGE

" Virgin and Child, with scenes from the lives of the Saints "

(detail). National Gallery 131

Giotto :

"Joachim returning to the Sheepfolds." Padua, Arena

Chapel 133

" St. Francis preaching to the Birds." Assisi . . -135

Gentile da Fabriano :

" The Adoration of the Magi." Florence, Academy . -137

FiLiPPO Lippi (?) :

" The Nativity." Louvre i39

GozzoLi :

"The Journey of the Magi" (detail). Florence, Riccardi

Palace Mi

"The Journey of the Magi" (detail). Florence, Riccardi

Palace M3

xiii

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Botticelli :

"The Adoration of the Magi." National Gallery
Leonardo da Vinci :

Study of Cats. Windsor

PlERO DI CosiMo :

"The Death of Procris." National Gallery
Andrea del Sarto :

*' The Tribute to Caesar." Poggio a Cajano
Bronzing :

" Garzia de' Medici." Florence, Uffizi
Lorenzetti :

" The Triumph of Death." Pisa, Campo Santo .

Peruzzi (after) : *

"The Adoration of the Magi." National Gallery

Dosso Dossi :

" Circe." Mr. R. H. Benson ....

Pinturicchio :

" Susanna." Vatican, Borgia Apartment .

Umbrian School :

" The Story of Griselda " (detail). National Gallery

Raphael :

"The Miraculous Draught of Fishes." South Kensington

Museum 165

Pisanello :

Study of Rams. Louvre ....... 167

Study of Deer. Louvre
Study of Monkeys. Louvre
" An Este Princess." Louvre

"St. George and the Princess." Verona, S. Anastasia

xiv

PAGE

161
163

169

173
175

ILLUSTRATIONS

Follower of Pisanello : p^^g

" The Adoration of the Magi." Berlin . . . .177
Jacopo Bellini :

Study of Cheetahs. British Museum 179

Gentile Bellini :

"The Preaching of St. Mark at Alexandria." Milan, Brera 181
Gentile Bellini (School) :

" The Reception of the Ambassadors." Louvre. . . 183
Giovanni Bellini :

" The Death of St. Peter Martyr " (detail). National Gallery 185
Antonello da Messina :

" St. Jerome in his Study." National Gallery . . . 187
Carpaccio :

"St. Jerome and the Lion." Venice, S. Giorgio degli

Schiavoni ......... 189

" St. Jerome in his Study." Venice, S. Giorgio degli

Schiavoni . . . . . . . . .191

"St. George" (detail). Venice, S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni. 193

"The Visitation." Venice, Correr Museum . . . 195
Cima da Conegliano :

"The Sleeping Endymion." Parma ..... 197
Crivelli :

"The Beato Ferretti." National Gallery .... 199

" Virgin and Child." Lord Northbrook .... 201
Basaiti :

"The Madonna of the Meadow." National Gallery . . 203

School of GlORGIONE :

" An Unknown Subject." National Gallery . . . 205
Titian :

" Bacchus and Ariadne." National Gallery . . . 207

XV

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Lorenzo Lotto : ' page

" The Triumph of Chastity " (detail). Rome, Rospigliosi

Gallery ......... 209

"St. Lucy" (part). Jesi, The Library . . . .211

" Portrait of a Woman." Bergamo 213

Cariani :

" The Seamstress Madonna." Rome, Corsini Gallery . 215

Veronese :

*'St. Mary Magdalene in the house of Simon." Turin . 217
Mantegna :

"The Agony in the Garden" (detail). National Gallery . 219

LuiNi :

" The Adoration of the Magi." Como Cathedral . .221

BOLTRAFFIO (?) :

" Portrait of a Woman." Cracow, Czartoryski Gallery . 223
SODOMA :

"Portrait of Himself" (detail). Monte Oliveto. . . 225

XVI

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN
PAINTING

CHAPTER I

SOME INFLUENCES IN THE DIRECTION OF
ANIMAL PAINTING

In considering how far animals were petted and
observed by the painters of the Italian Renaissance
it is the pictures themselves which will chiefly concern
us. But it will also be necessary to quote from such
contemporary writings as bear upon the inquiry. Parti-
cularly and constantly the memories of the opinionated
and inaccurate but quite indispensable Giorgio Vasari
must be drawn upon. " Vasari is an ass," said Ruskin,
" with good things in his panniers " ; and when the
painters come to be considered in detail, full weight
will have to be given to what he records.

Undoubtedly he does show, in certain cases, a con-
tempt for naturalist studies, but it is not safe to assume
without further investigation that this contempt is an
expression of the mind of the Renaissance. It seems
more reasonable to take the fact of his having so often

A

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

to mention and condemn the enthusiasm of a painter
for animals as an indication that such enthusiasm
existed, even sometimes to an exaggerated degree.

Certainly the Italians did not set out to paint
animals in the spirit of Landseer. We shall not find
A Distijiguished Member of the Humane Society, Redcap,
or Dignity and l772pudence — paintings in which some
phase of the life of civilised or humanised animals is
the sole object of the picture.

We shall not even find, with rare exceptions, that
they form the main or specialised study of the artist and
condition all his work, as in the case of Hondecoeter,
Troyon, Paul Potter, J. M. Swan, or Briton Riviere. It
is rather in the work of such an artist as Millais
that we can find a comparison.^ A curiosity about
nature and a love of it, constantly at the back of the
mind, breaks in and will not be denied, whatever the
subject.

Three lines of influence seem to be traceable, either
alone or in combination, in almost every painting we
shall examine.

First, the very quaint writer, or group of writers,

^ Ruskin, in a letter to Mr. Oswald Crawford, spoke of his " power of
animal painting" as "wholly unrivalled in its kind." Millais' dogs and
cats, birds and lizards, are painted with genuine understanding of their
nature, as well as with sure knowledge of form and texture. See M. H,
Spielmann, Millais and his Works, 1898.

2

SOME INFLUENCES

who went by the name of Physiologus or " Naturalist."
The book was probably compiled by an Alexandrian
Greek, was translated into Latin, and in its many
versions and variants became the basis of the Schemes
of the Universe which were so characteristic of the
unifying mind of the thirteenth century. It dealt with
the nature and properties of all known and some
unknown creatures from a moral and highly imaginative
point of view. The eagle renewing its youth and the
parental devotion of the pelican are instances of
symbolism which come from Physiologus, and which
were then received as sober facts of natural history.

In the period of the systematising of knowledge which
came in with the thirteenth century men were seized
with a passion for grasping the universe as a whole,
exploring or at least tabulating every part of it and
bringing it into logical relation with the rest. Indeed
they were set upon such a synthesis as, with an equip-
ment of more exact knowledge, we are making for
to-day.

We see this worked out in stone on the Cathedrals
of Chartres and Amiens : it is written in such books
as the Speculum of Vincent of Beauvais, the De
Animalibus of Albertus Magnus, the works of our
English Bartholomew, or of Brunetto Latini. All
these dealt largely with animals, their nature and

3

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

mystic meanings, and the lore contained in them was
part of the inheritance of the later Middle Ages, and
persists into the Renaissance itself^

The apparently purposeless introduction of some
animal into a picture may often be explained by
reference to this branch of literature. This is so even
at a late period, when no one would have thought of
going direct to Physiologus for a subject. Its influence
remained in the mental equipment of the painter, or
of those who planned the scheme of the painting. Nor
was this influence only literary ; a pictorial link may
frequently be traced from the illustrations of the Biblia
Pauperum, the Bestiaries, and the Speculum in its various
forms.

The second motive is the life and teaching of
St. Francis of Assisi. To him the unity of life was
an inspiring revelation ; everything that lived was a
sharer with him of the life of the Holy Spirit, the Giver
of Life, and so came into comradeship with him.^ Both
the birds and the wolves were part of his family circle.

^ The Speculum was published as late as 1612 by the Benedictines
of Douai. See G. G. Coulton, A Mediaval Garner, 1910, p. 12.

^ " He would remain in contemplation before a flower, an insect, or a
bird, and regarded them with no dilettante or egoistic pleasure ; he was
interested that the plant should have its sun, the bird its nest ; that the
humblest manifestations of creative force should have the happiness to
which they are entitled." — Barine in Revue des Deux Mondcs, April 1891.
Quoted in W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism, 1899.

4

SOME INFLUENCES

We read of his desire that the Emperor should
order orrain to be scattered on the roads on Christmas
Day, so that the birds might rejoice with men at the
Nativity ; of the nests he made for the doves ; of his
persuasive method with the chattering swallows which
disturbed his sermon ; how he compared the modest
sister lark with the Religious. " Perfectly sure that he
himself was a spiritual being, he thought it at least
possible that birds might be spiritual beings also,
incarnate like himself in mortal flesh ; and saw no
degradation to the dignity of human nature in claiming
kindred lovingly with creatures so beautiful, so wonder-
ful, who (as he fancied in his old-fashioned way) praised
God in the forest even as angels did in Heaven."^

He provided for the wolf of Gubbio, so that it
might be won from bloodshed by having its wants
supplied from house to house. To the astonishment
of the fishermen on the lake of Rieti he put back
into the water the tench which had been given to
him. The leveret and the pheasant came to place
themselves under his protection. Even the frozen bees
accepted warmth and food at his hands, and the cicada
and the earthworm experienced his care.

That St. Francis influenced the thought of his own
generation, both profoundly and widely, and that he

^ Charles Kingsley, Prose Idylls, 1889, p. 23.
5

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

left a mark upon the imagination of the succeeding
ones, cannot be doubted. This was bound to have
its effect upon art as the expression of man's spirit,
even apart from the natural impulse to record his
teaching and miracles, and its depth and extent in this
case must certainly be allowed for.

" It seems at the first glance," wrote Renan, " that
the dream of Francis of Assisi ought to have put an
end to all art and all noble life. But, strange as it is,
ce sordide jnendiant was the father of Italian Art." ^

It is to be observed, however, that as the Order
came under direction and its essential spirit decayed,
the love of animals came to be considered dangerous,
and to be discouraged or forbidden. -

*' I have seen," says Salimbene, "in mine own Order
certain lectors of excellent learning and great sanctity
who had yet some foul blemish {nierditatem) which
caused others to judge lightly of them. For they love
to play with a cat or a whelp or with some small fowl,
but not as the blessed Francis was wont to play with
a pheasant and a cicada, rejoicing the while in the

^ Ernest Renan, Nouvelles etudes d'hisioire Religieuse, Paris, 1884, p. 337.

' In the visitation notes of Archbishop Eudes of Rouen for 1250, it is
recorded that the nuns of the Benedictine Convent of St. Sauveur at
Evreux " kept httle dogs, squirrels, and birds : we ordered that all such
things be removed." — Regis trum visitatiofium Archiepiscopi Rothojuagensis,
ed. Bonnin, Rouen, 1852, p. 'jy Quoted in H. O. Taylor, The Mediaval
Mind, 191 1, p. 479.

6

SOME INFLUENCES

Lord" — and Mr. Coulton says that "from the time of
the general chapter of Narbonne at least (1260) it was
a strict rule that no animal be kept, for any brother
or any convent, whether by the Order or by some
person in the Order's name, except cats and certain
birds for the removal of unclean things,"^

The third factor, less marked but well recognisable,
is the remembered and recovered literature and art
of ancient Rome and Greece. Virgil, the naturalistic
poet of the Georgics, had a place in the Commedia as
well as Francis. The Metamorphoses of Ovid and
the Idylls of Theocritus are painted out upon acres of
wall and panel. The Golden Age as imagined in the
Fourth Eclogue, when all creatures should live at peace,
and none should hurt nor destroy, struck a responsive
chord in men's hearts. We shall see some of the scope
which the illustration of ancient thought gave to the
painting of animals.

These three influences will be found working along-
side a general curiosity about nature and the varied
manifestations of animal life which had been stimulated
by the experiences of the Crusades, the Levant trade,
missionary expeditions, and voyages of discovery.- " A

' G. G. Coulton, Front St. Francis to Dante, 2nd ed., 1907, p. 90.

^ Marco Polo (1254-1324) gave to Europe a real knowledge of Asia and
its fauna, as well as much new information about that of Africa. A mere
list of the animals and birds mentioned by him, many of them being

7

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

significant proof of the widespread interest in natural
history," says Burckhardt, " is found in the zeal which
showed itself at an early period for the collection and
comparative study of plants and animals." ^

In reviewing the way in which animals were treated
by different painters, several methods might be adopted.
The pictures might be divided into sections according to
subject — religious, sporting, and mythological. They
might be grouped according to a strictly zoological
method ; or in chronological order. The second
method would be most convenient if the painter had
confined himself to one species in one picture, but in
many cases he did not, including instead a small
menagerie, and its advantages seemed to be neutralised

intelligently and carefully described, at once suggests the incentive his
book would be to a naturalistic temper — ape, monkey, lion, tiger, leopard,
cheetah, lynx, elephant, rhinoceros, camel, giraffe, buffalo, reindeer, fallow
deer, musk deer, roebuck, goat, yak, bear, wolf, fox, hare, ermine, marten,
marmot, ancoli?ii; peregrine falcon, gerfalcon, vulture, stork, swan, heron,
crane, crow, pheasant, partridge, quail.

Jordanus of Severac, the French Dominican, who with three Italian
Franciscans landed in India in 1321, describes the elephant, rhinoceros,
lynx, flying fox and squirrel, bandicoot, white mice, kite, peacocks, parrots
and other birds, crocodile and white ant. " The worthy friar appears as a
true zoologist, with a genuine if but half-awakened capacity for the study of
nature." — C. R. Beazley, The Dawn of Moder?! Geog7-aphy^ vol. iii. pp. 225-6.

Other Indian travellers had been John of Monte Corvino and Nicholas
of Pistoia (1291-2), and Ricold of Monte Croce (1242-1320) had covered in
his missionary itineraries a good deal of Asia.

^ Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Translation
by S. G. S. Middlemore, 1890, p. 292.

8

SOME INFLUENCES

by the necessity of continually referring back to the
same painting. So the old arrangement of Schools,
misleading though it tends to be, has been fallen back
upon. With Venice have been grouped Brescia, Ber-
gamo, and Verona ; with Ferrara, Bologna ; and with
Lombardy, Parma.

Animals painted with a merely symbolic or heraldic
intention have as a rule been excluded from consideration.
Thus the dove of the Annunciation and the symbols
of the Evangelists have not been noticed, although
St. Jerome's lion, which often gets greater naturalism
and freedom of treatment, has. In the same way
family badges, such as the Sforza eagle, the Borgia
bull, the Buffalini buffalo, or the Visconti serpent, are
not mentioned.

CHAPTER II

FLORENCE— THE BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

It is in Florence that painting begins to free itself from
agelong conventions, and to think of the living world
and desire to represent it as it is. There in the thir-
teenth century the spirit of observation and open-eyed
inquiry revived, and grew and extended until it cul-
minated in the untrammelled outlook of the sixteenth.
There we can trace traditional mysticism becoming modi-
fied and gradually giving way to realism. In order to
understand the Renaissance proper, in its relation to
nature and in its pictorial presentation of it, earlier
stages have to be taken into account.
Margaritone, Margaritone's Virgin and Child, with scenes from the
lives of the Saints (National Gallery), may be taken
as a standpoint from which to consider the later paint-
ing of nature. Here the traditional requirements of
Byzantine art are observed ; to some extent the things
represented are symbols. But Dr. Richter says that
Margaritone's pictures appear to him "to be drawn in
the wild and grotesque style prevalent in Italy during

10

1216-1293

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

the early Middle Ages." ^ At any rate this painting may
safely be taken as a representative of the latest pre-
Giottesque art.- For our present purpose one panel,
the uppermost on the left, is very suitable. Here is a
Nativity. The Child is in the manger under a shed.
The heads of an ass and a bright red cow appear above
the manger. On a hillside in the foreground is Joseph,
a sheep and a ram walking towards him : these are
small and mouselike, such as may be seen on the early
mosaics or in mediaeval illuminations. But there are
also two goats with long straight horns, not needed
for a correct traditional representation. These seem to
be studied for their own sake. One crawls with diffi-
culty up the almost precipitous slope ; the other stands
on its hind legs eating from the top of a small shrub, as
do its destructive descendants which to this day swarm
over the more mountainous parts of Italy. Can we
detect here a slight tremor among the dry bones ?

It must of course be remembered that there is no
period at which animals have not been represented with
more or less accuracy, and pleasure in the doing of it.
The cave man of the stone age scratches his rough

^ J. P. Richter, Lectures on the Natioftal Gallery, 1898, p. 11.

^ Ruskin, speaking of a Psalter of St. Louis, says, " He and his artists
are hardly out of their savage life yet, and have no notion of adorning the
Psalms other than by pictures of long-necked cranes, long-eared rabbits,
long-tailed lions, and red and white goblins putting their tongues out." —
Val UArno, 1890, § 60.

II

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

outline of a horse on a piece of bone. The walls of
the great palaces of Babylon and Assyria were covered
with animal forms often admirable in observation and
modelling ; the Egyptians, if usually in a more con-
ventional way, still left few creatures known to them
unrecorded. The Greeks on their painted vases and
in the figures of Tanagra show us many evidences of
their interest in animal life. There are representations
at Knossos and Mycenae which are extraordinarily life-
like. Roman and early mediseval mosaics tell the same
tale, and the naturalist is rife in the miniatures of the
Breviary, the Psalter, or the Book of the Hours.

The animals of the Days of Creation on the west

front of Orvieto Cathedral, by followers of the Pisani,

illustrate a great advance in sculpture at this time.^

Ctmabue, It is with the name of Cimabue (Giovanni Cenni),

Margaritone's younger contemporary, that the awaken-

* "The fulness of feeling and the charm of poetry enter Western
Christian art in the thirteenth century. The beginning may be traced in
the Roman mosaics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. For example,
the mosaics in the apse of S. Maria in Trastevere (1140) and in the apse of
S. Clemente {c. 11 50) show a little poetic feeling which was not theological.
Yet these elements are still very faint. They become more pronounced in
Torriti's Coronation of the Virgin, in the apse of S. Maria Maggiore (1295),
and still more in the lovely mosaics depicting the Virgin's life in the lower
zone of the upper apse of S. Maria in Trastevere {c. 1290) by Cavallini.
One may say as to these mosaics, that the stags which drink of the waters
of life have become eager for them." — H. O. Taylor, The Classical Heritage
of the Middle Ages, 1901, p. 331, note.

12

1240-1302

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

ing in painting has been for centuries connected. " To
scientific criticism," say Crowe and Cavalcaselle, " Cima-
bue as an artist is an unknown person."^ However,
Vasari knew all about him as a personality, and says
that as a boy he filled his school-books with sketches of
men, horses, and other various fancies. But it is in his
pupil Giotto Bondone that we see the new spirit more Giotto,
distinctly. Very significant, even if unhistorical, is the ^276-1337
story how at ten years of age he was found by his future
master sitting on the hillside drawing, with a flint on
a flat stone, one of the sheep which he was tending.^
" He was not found," says Symonds, "beneath a church
roof tracing a mosaic, but on the open mountain, trying
to draw the portrait of the living thing committed to his
care." ^ While he goes direct to nature there is at the
same time a great economy of means : he does not intro-
duce natural objects unless they are vital to the story he
has to tell.

In the Allegories of St. Francis which he painted
in the lower church at Assisi,^ the centaur, symbol of
self-will, of riotous animal impulses, is to be noticed in

^ A History of Painting in Italy, ed. Langton Douglas, 1903, vol. i.

P- 193-

* Vasari, Lives of the Painters, ed. Blashfield and Hopkins, 1897, vol. i.
p. 49.

^ J. A. Symonds, The Re7iaissa7ice in Italy, 1897, vol. iii. p. 139.

* Mr. Berenson thinks that they are not from Giotto's own hand. —
A Sienese Painter of the Franciscaii Legend, 1909, p. 10, note.

13

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

the Obedience. The movement of the animal part,
which is of a composite nature, thrown back upon its
haunches, is vivid and lifeHke. With this may be
compared the startled horse in the illustrative scene
at the feet of Injustice (Padua, Arena Chapel). It
shies at the sight of the ruffians ill-treating the woman
and pulls against the man who is trying to lead it. In
another of the Allegories, the Marriage of Fj'ancis
with Poverty, a dog barks at Poverty, while children
stone her. At one side is a young man with falcon
on wrist, typifying the pleasures of sport which were
so hard to renounce for the simple life. The falcon
occurs again and again in Italian painting, and there
is abundant evidence that this only fairly represents
the general extravagance of the cult of sport and the
infatuation for sporting birds and dogs.

Dante has many references to the falcon, and
another thirteenth-century writer, Folgore da San
Geminiano, in a series of sonnets for the months, thus
enthusiastically hails September : —

" And in September, O what keen delight !

Falcons and astors, merlins, sparrow hawks ;

Decoy-birds that shall lure your game in flocks ;
And hounds with bells ; and gauntlets stout and tight ;
Wide pouches ; cross-bows shooting out of sight ;

Arblasts and javelins ; balls and ball-cases ;

All birds the best to fly at ; moulting these,

14

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

Those reared by hand ; with finches mean and slight ;
And for their chase, all birds the best to fly ;

And each to each of you be lavish still

In gifts ; and robbery find no gainsaying ;
And if you meet with travellers going by ;

Their purses from your purse's flow shall fill ;

And avarice be the only outcast thing." ^

Folgore's great contemporary and fellow-poet, the
Emperor Frederick II., in addition to being an enthu-
siastic sportsman, had some pretensions to a scientific
study of the natural history of birds. Falconry was his
great passion.

In the writings of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries it is frequently referred to as being one of
the main interests of the orentleman's life. One of
the North Italian playing cards formerly attributed to
Mantegna (British Museum Print Room) typifies the
gentleman, Zintilomo, by the falcon which he carries on
his gloved hand.

Hubertus Thomas Leodius, the annalist of Frederick
Palsgrave of the Rhine (afterwards the Elector Frederick
II., born 1483), describing a tour in Spain, says :
" King Ferdinand had a passion for this sport (falconry),
and was in the habit of taking out with him as many as
one hundred and twenty falconers and birds, of which
he himself handled always the greater part. Every

' In Rossetti, Early Italian Poets.

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

description of quarry — kites, herons, partridges, and what
not — was welcomed by him, and the more hawks were
flying at the same time the better he was pleased. . . .
There were always," adds Hubertus, "so many falcons
in the air, and so many swift hounds upon the ground,
that it was barely possible for any heron to escape ; and
they often captured more than a hundred birds." ^

" Clement V. protested in a bull against the intro-
duction of hounds and hawks into the sanctuary," says
Mr. Coulton, " and Gerson, a century later, complained
of the same practice : adding that such animals showed
no more respect for the sacred places than mere pro-
testant beasts. Yet, at the very time when Gerson was
thus complaining, the Mdnagier de Paris was advising
good folk to bring their hawks to church, that they
might thus grow used to crowds of men, and lose their
native shyness ; and the editor points out in a footnote
how certain canonries carried with them the express
right of bringing hawks into church." ^

It is easy, then, to see the significance of Giotto's
falcon here, and the reason of its frequent introduction
into later painting.

In the upper church Giotto painted, about the year
1300, eighteen scenes from the legend of the saint.

* Mrs. Henry Cust, Gentlemen Errant, I909) P- 256.
^ G. G. Coulton, From St. Fratids to Dante, 2nd ed., 1906, p. 339.

16

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

The picture of the Reception of the Stig^nata in the
Louvre has in the right-hand panel of the predella a
version on a small scale of the Preaching to the Birds
at Bevagna. The story is thus given by Bonaventura :
" When he drew near to Bevagna he came to a place
where a great multitude of birds of different kinds
were assembled together, which when they saw the
holy man came swiftly to the place and saluted him
as if they had the gift of reason. They all turned
towards him and welcomed him. Those which were
on the trees bowed their heads in an unaccustomed
manner, and all looked earnestly at him, until he went
to them and seriously admonished them to listen to the
word of the Lord. . . . While he spoke these and other
such words to them the birds rejoiced in a marvellous
manner, swelling their throats, spreading their wings,
opening their beaks, and looking at him with great
attention."

Such was the thought which Giotto so sympatheti-
cally interpreted: "You shall see things as they are,
and the least with the greatest, because God made
them." The upper part of the group has been badly
damaged, and some of the birds are half obliterated,
but the congregation seems to have included a gold-
finch, a chaffinch, jays, turtle-doves, thrushes, quails,
woodpeckers (green and spotted), a jackdaw, a great

17 B

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

tit, a hawfinch, and, well in the front row, a robin. ^
Ruskin says of the robin, "Quite the first thing that
strikes me about it, looking at it as a painter, is the
small effect it seems to have had on the minds of the
northern nations. I trace nothing of it definitely either
in the art or the literature of Greece or Italy." ^

A small smooth dog meets Joachim Returning to the
Sheepfolds (Padua, Arena Chapel), with every sign of
pleasure. The sheep here are very small, not coming
up to the calf of the leg, of the same type as those
of Margaritone, if rather better drawn. It might be
thought that Giotto had intentionally subordinated them
to the human figures, but the developed sheep to which
we are accustomed to-day is a much larger animal than
that of the Middle Ages. It has been calculated by
Thorold Rogers that the fleece of the English sheep of
the fourteenth century averaged i lb. 7f oz. in weight,
" but the unimproved sheep of the eighteenth century
gave nearly 5 lb. to the fleece. Hence the animal must
have been small, and I think I may certainly say that a

^ In spite of the wholesale slaughter of even the small song-birds,
Italy is still in parts rich in bird-life. The forest at La Verna where St.
Francis received the stigmata has been preserved, and M. Sabatier says,
*' As to the birds, it is enough to pass a day at the monastery to be amazed
at their number and variety. M. C. Beni has begun at Stia (in Casentino)
an ornithological collection which already includes more than 550 varieties."
— Life of St. Francis of Assisi, trans. L. S. Houghton, 1899, p. 289, note.

- Lovers Meinic, 3rd ed., 1897, lecture i. § 17.

18

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

wether in good condition weighed a good deal less than
40 Ib."^ The ass occurs of necessity in the Flight
into Egypt and the "colt" also in the Entry into
Jerusalem. The shape of the head, the droop of the
neck from the shoulder, and the outward bulge of the
eye are well studied : Giotto knew and loved the
domestic animals.

In the Adoration of the Magi is a grotesque camel,
of which it can only be said that the painter has done
his best without a personal acquaintance with the animal.^
He succeeds again in those sculptures on the Campanile
at Florence, which are at least designed if not executed
by him. The puppy and the sheep in one, and the little
bear preparing to climb the tree in another, are admir-
able. "Brother Falcon" appears in an anonymous
fresco in San Francesco-al-Prato at Pistoia, Reception
of the Stigmata, and a wolf and a mule are in the
background. A charming group of interested birds,
much too big for the landscape, occurs in the top of
the fresco of St. Catherine by Buffalmacco (.'*) in the
lower church at x^ssisi. It includes a robin and a
wagtail.

In the National Gallery there are two panels of a

^ Six Centm-ies of Work and Wages, 1908, p. 80.

- The camel was traditional here. " St. Jerome saith that they came
upon dromedaries, which be beasts that may go as much in one day as an
horse in three days." — Caxton's first edition of the Golden Legend, 1483.

19

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Orcagfna, large altar-piece by Orcagna (Andrea di Cione I'Arcag-
c. 1308- 1368

nuolo), which represent the Nativity and the Adoration

of the Magi, subjects often ordered by church or con-
vent, the latter a favourite especially with naturalistic
painters. The ox and the ass, though not mentioned
in the gospels, are an almost essential part of a
Nativity or Adoration. Many of the religious paint-
ings derive their subject from the apocryphal gospels,
which were as well known through the agency of the
Legenda Aurea as the canonical gospels themselves.
It is the Pseudo-Matthcei Evangelium which supplies
the ox and ass. " On the third day after the birth of
the Lord, Mary left the cave and went into a stable and
placed the Child in the manger, and the ox and the ass
adored Him, Then was fulfilled what was said by Isaia
the prophet, saying, ' The ox knows his master and the
ass his lord's crib.' But these animals having Him in
the midst adored Him continually. Then was fulfilled
what was said by Abacuc the prophet, saying, ' In the
midst of two animals thou shalt be known.' " ^

They are definitely ordered for the Nativity in the
Hermeneia, or Byzantine guide to painting," and it must
be remembered that in what Mr. Berenson calls "that

^ Evangelia Apocrypha, ed. Constantinus de Tischendorf (Lipsise,
1876), chap. xiv. p. 80.

' Didron, Christian Iconography (Bohn, 1891), vol. ii. p. 300.

20

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

extraordinary revival of antique art which began at
Byzantium in the ninth and lasted on into the thirteenth
century " these accessories had become stereotyped ;
to the loss of personal thought and invention if to the
advantage of a steady and uniform tradition.

In the Nativity the sheep, lying in a row deliberately
composed for sleep, and the ox and ass sitting up on
their haunches smiling at the child, are undeniably gro-
tesque. There is, however, natural action in the dog,
who, with one paw raised, looks round to howl at the
angel in the sky. In the Ado7'ation there are camels
and also a nondescript and unpleasant creature, perhaps
a carnally minded dog, but as much like a badger as
anything, which slinks away as though it did not feel
comfortable in the company : "Oh come, I can't stand
this ; this is no place for me." The pose of the front
legs seems to express an uneasy self-consciousness.

Orcagna was Capo Maesti'o of the Cathedral of
Orvieto for about two years, under contract to paint,
carve, or work in mosaic. On September i6, 1360, he
siorned a contract to design and construct a mosaic for

o o

the west front of the cathedral. We are fortunate in
having what is probably a portion of this work so near
at hand as the South Kensington Museum, barbarous
though its removal may have been. It was formerly
over the right-hand portal, and represents the Birth of

21

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

the Virgin, another subject from the apocryphal gospel.
A maid brings in to the mother, who is lying in bed,
a fowl trussed on a dish. In the lower left-hand corner
are a dog and cat in attitudes of exaggerated defiance.
The dog is of a bulldog type, and with raised paw
barks at the cat, which spits at him, arching her back
and stiffening her tail ; uncomfortable visitors in any
sick-room one would think, let alone one with such sacred
associations ; but the Italian painters even until the
succeeding century had some of the Gothic sense of the
incongruous, and one can imagine how popular with the
vulgar such an open-air picture, seen above the every-
day life of the square, would be.

The conventional parrots which appear on the woven
hangings behind the bed may be noticed also on the
carpet in No. 581 in the National Gallery.

In the great Dominican fresco in the Spanish chapel
of Sta. Maria Novella, Florence, by Andrea da Firenze
(or somebody else), the monks are represented as dogs,
Domini Canes, hunting the heretics, who are painted
under the form of wolves. One wolf carries a lamb
over its shoulder, holding it by the neck ; another has
been got down by two dogs which have rescued a lamb
from its jaws. Under a grove of pomegranate trees
is a group of knights and ladies with falcons and lap-
dogs. In another painting in the same chapel, the

22

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

Descent of the Holy Ghost, there are three dogs, and if
their mystic purpose is, as Ruskin says, "to mark the
share of the lower animals in the gentleness given by
the outpouring of the spirit of Christ,"^ the influ-
ence of Francis may be seen again here.

Gentile da Fabriano's beautiful and elaborate Adora- Gentile da
tion of the Magi (Florence, Accademia), painted in 1423, fi^."^'!?)
set a fashion in processional pieces crowded with inci-
dent and full of observation of animal life. Here are
hunting dogs and leopards ; one, the head of which
only is seen, appears to be the true leopard, the
others are cheetahs. An ape and a monkey of the
Mangabey type snarl at each other from the humps of
camels, falcons seek their prey or perch on their master's
wrist.

Sacchetti, who had not then been dead for twenty-
five years, tells in the Novelle (No. 47) of a pet baboon
belonging to Bishop Guido of Arezzo. The Bishop
had commissioned Buffalmacco to decorate his chapel,
and all went well until one dinner-time, when the
baboon escaped, and finding the eggs which were used
as medium, smashed them into the colours and smeared
them in handfuls all over the newly painted wall.

It will be remembered that just about this time Bible
scenes such as this of the Adoration were actually being

^ Mornings in Florence, 3rd ed., 1899, p. 115.
23

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

represented in the streets and squares of the Italian
cities. They are frequently described by contemporary
writers, and we know a good deal about their method
and management. An interesting account is given in
Muratori of an earlier pageant of the year 1336 which
was performed on the feast of the Epiphany in Milan. ^
It describes how the whole story of the Wise Men was
dramatised, and how in their magnificent retinue were
"men leading along apes and baboons and all kinds of
outlandish beasts."

At the feast of St. John in Florence in 1454 the
whole scripture history was set out in processions and
interludes, lasting sixteen hours. As time went on
they took naturally the colour of Renaissance thought,
becoming mixed with pagan subjects. Thus in Perugia
in 1444, Eugenius IV. was entertained by a representa-
tion of the story of the Minotaur, the tragedy of
Iphigeneia, the Nativity, and the Ascension.^

This picture, and many of its class, owes a good

* ReriDH Italicarum Scriptores (Milan, 1728), tom. xii., col. 1017. Quoted
in Baldwin Brown, The Ft7ie Arts, 1891, p. jy.

- Salimbene gives us a vivid glimpse of a thirteenth-century scene.
Looking into a courtyard at Pisa, where he was begging with a certain lay-
brother, he heard music and saw under a spreading vine youths and
maidens beautifully dressed, with viols and lutes in their hands. " There
also were many leopards and other beasts from beyond the seas, whereon
we gazed long and gladly, as men love to see strange and fair sights." —
Quoted in Coulton, From St. Francis to Dante, p. 45.

24

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

deal to the Rapprezentazione. There it was that the
painter noticed how a monkey sat a horse, or a leopard
snarled as it looked round at the crowd.

In a Nativity (Florence, Accademia), the ass puts
one knee on the edge of the manger, the better to
see the Child Jesus. The legs of the ox as it lies
are well studied. In the Virgin and Child zvith Angels
(Rome, Palazzo Colonna) are a peacock and other
birds, and in the picture of the Virgin and Child on
a Throfte at Bergamo, attributed to him, a bird sits
on the Virgin's arm and allows itself quite happily
to be played with by the Divine Child.

The subject of the Ado7'atio7t is also painted by Fra
Fra Angelico, but how differently it is treated. All i-gf^j^;?!
he cares for is the essential action, the spiritual
significance of the scene. He is the angelical painter,
technically prepared by a sound training, but now dream-
ing in the peace of the monastery, painting the soul of
man in commune with the higher powers ; that is to say,
not a Renaissance type.

This is one of the few Adoration pictures in which
there are no animals. One feels that the good brother
would not have been comfortable studying in the zoo-
logical gardens, or in the crowd at a public pageant.
He only paints animals where, as in the Nativity
(Florence, San Marco), the ox and ass would be

25

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

demanded : their heads only appear looking towards
each other in a devotional manner over the manger ;
or as a symbol ; St. Agnes' lamb, for instance, in the
lovely Coronation of the Virgin (Louvre). But even
here it is no heraldic diagram. It looks up confidingly
to the saint for notice ; there is sympathy between saint
and symbol. He has, however, painted a camel in the
Buinalof SS. Cosmo and Damian (Florence, Accademia),
and camels' heads on the predella of the Madrid
Annunciation (Prado).

Ucceilo, Vasari has a great deal to say about Paolo di Dono,

1397-1475 called, from his love of birds, Ucceilo.

He states that this artist was too poor to keep
pets, as he would have liked, so " he had numbers of
painted birds, cats, and dogs in his house, with every
other animal of which he could get the portrait." The
fact, however, that Ucceilo lived in his own house
suggests that he was not quite so abjectly poor as
Vasari would have us suppose.

In the Battle of S. Bgidio, or of S. Romano as now
seems more probable (National Gallery), the perspective
and foreshortening of the horses has evidently been the
main interest, and the snub-nose mentioned by Mr.
Berenson is fully in evidence.^ They seem to share in

^ " Very rarely is the mere type so peculiar as to form a test of
authorship — indeed I make this category to fit into it at the very most

26

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

the fury of their riders ; the great teeth are bared, even
the gums exposed, as though they lusted to tear their
opponents to pieces. The fine description of the old
poet-naturalist who wrote the book of Job comes into
the mind : ** He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in
his strength ; he goeth on to meet the armed men. He
mocketh at fear and is not affrighted, neither turneth
he back from the sword . . . the quiver rattleth against
him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth
the ground with fierceness and rage." ^

There are no birds here ; his sense of the fitness of
things has not allowed him, however much he may have
been inclined to paint them, to place them amongst this
rout, "the thunder of the captains and the shouting."

The story of Noah gave scope to painters of this
naturalistic tendency. Vasari says that Uccello in his
rendering of the Deluge painted a raven tearing out
the eyes of a corpse,^ and in the Sacrifice of Noah he

three or four artists. Leonardo's horse has to my knowledge, particularly
in the structure of the head, never been so imitated as to have the least
chance of puzzling a scientific student of this master, although not quite
to the same degree as the horses' heads in Botticelli. Paolo Uccello's
snub-nosed quadrupeds are also peculiar to him, and Carpaccio's strange
hybrids belong to no one else." — Bernhard Berenson, The Study and
Criticism of Italian Art, vol. ii. p. 140.

^ Job xxxix. 21-26.

2 A bear and a man floating on some wreckage are making common
cause against a lion which wishes to join them. An old man is held on
the back of a buffalo by a woman.

27

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

painted the open ark in perspective, with ranges of
perches in the upper part, divided into regular rows
for the birds, of which various kinds are seen to fly
out in flocks. Sir Charles Holroyd says that the only
relics of his passion for birds "are to be found in the
cloister of Sta. Maria Novella, especially in the scene
that once represented the Deluge : unfortunately they
are very much decayed, but there may still be deciphered
individual details of great beauty worthy of the study
of the curious." ^

At Padua, Uccello fell into a mistake which recalls
vividly the empirical methods of the Middle Ages. He
was decorating the Arch of the Peruzzi in fresco, and
in the corners of the design he "placed one of the
four elements, accompanied by an appropriate animal.
To the earth, for example, he gave a mole, to the water
a fish, to the fire a salamander, and to the air the
chameleon, which lives on the air and can take every
colour. But as he had never seen a chameleon he
painted a camel, which he has made with wide open
mouth, swallowing the air, wherewith he fills his belly.
And herein was his simplicity certainly very great,
taking the mere resemblance of the camel's name as
a sufficient representation of or allusion to an animal

' The National Gallery, Ce7itral Italian Schools, p. xiii.
28

FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO

which is like a little dry lizard, while the camel is a
great ungainly beast." ^

In the house of the Medici he painted "several
pictures on canvas and in distemper representing
various animals, which he greatly delighted in, and
to the delineation of which he gave his most unwearied
attention."

He was a conscientious and interested but not a
great artist. Mr. Berenson says that he " suggests the
surveyor and topographer rather than the painter." -

1 Lives, vol. i. pp. 188-9.

"Sir John Mandeville," whose Travels were frequently published in Italy
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, had already written : "And there
ben also in that Contree manye Camles, that is a lytille Best as a Goot
that is wylde, and he lyvethe be the Eyr, and etethe nought ne drynkethe
nought at no tyme. And he chaungethe his colour oftentyme."

* The Central Italian Fai?iters of the ReJtaissance, 1909, p. 69. M.
Eugene Miintz is equally severe : " Le realisme de Paolo Uccello est le
realisme scientifique et sec par excellence, sans le gout qui distingue les
autres Florentins." — Histoire de V Art pendant la Retiaissance (Paris, i{
vol. i. p. 340.

29

CHAPTER III

FLORENCE— FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

Fiiippo The Nativity of the Louvre, officially attributed to

i4o6(?)-i469 Fra Fiiippo, and once thought by Milanesi to be the
picture ordered by the Convent at Prato, for which
Lucrezia Buti acted as model, is not now considered
to be from his hand. It is evidently the work of a
sound naturalist.

Besides the interested ox and ass, and the sheep and
dogs, there may be seen the common gecko of Southern
Europe. This is an incident probably due to Physio-
logus. **The lizard when it gets blind in its old age
creeps into the crevice of a wall looking towards the
east, and stretches out its head to the rising sun,
whose rays restore its sight. In like manner, O man,
thou who hast on the old garment, and the eyes of
whose heart are obscured, seek the wall of help, and
watch there until the sun of righteousness, which
the prophet calls the dayspring, rises with healing
power, and removes thy spiritual blindness."^

The fact is that the lizard is a light hibernator,
and will be brought out by strong sunshine even in

^ E. P. Evans, Ariiinal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture, 1896,
p. 94.

30

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

winter ; although the spring is the usual time for it
to be seen again running up and down the walls,
in and out of the crevices, in search of insects.

A beautiful little goldfinch sits, feet covered by its
feathers and head turned slightly to one side, on a
beam projecting from the wall. It will be hard to
find another so well painted amongst the many re-
presentations of this favourite of the Italian painters.

A peacock and a flying pheasant appear in an
Adoration belonging to Sir Frederick Cook.

There is a good peacock in the beautiful coloured Peseiiino,
drawing of the Nativity by Lippi's pupil Peseiiino
(Francesco Pesello) in the Louvre.^ In Lady Wan-
tage's collection are two Cassoni paintings of the story
of David, in which many animals, including a cheetah
and a bear, are represented.

With Benozzo Gozzoli, truly described by Vasari GozzoH,

1420-1497
as "very fertile in animals," we come back to the

Gentile tradition. In the great frescoes of the Journey

of the Magi (Florence, Palazzo Riccardi) there is the

same cavalcade, this time largely composed of camels,

though the principal figures are on horseback." A falcon

^ Mr. Berenson has an interesting note on this. See The Drawings
of the Florentine Paititers, 1903, vol. i. p. 35.

- The camels seem to be of the shaggy Bactrian species, but without
their full winter coat ; some are laden with packs, others have men riding
between their humps. A monkey is sitting on the back of one of the horses.

31

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

in the near foreground stands upon a dead hare which
it has partly disembowelled, or which the hunting leopard
has manofled.

The frescoes were ordered by Cosimo de' Medici.
His grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, whose portrait
appears as one of the kings, was an enthusiastic
lover of hawking. Angelo Poliziano, in a letter to
Clarice de' Medici about her husband, dated Pisa,
December i, 1475, can only find sporting gossip to
send home. " Lorenzo is well and in good spirits.
Yesterday, as there was but little wind, he went hawk-
ing ; but they had not much luck because the young
falcon belonging to Pilato, called the Mantuan, was
lost. This morning they went out again, but the wind
was not favourable, nevertheless we saw some fine
flights, and Maestro Giorgio flew his peregrine falcon,
which came back to the lure most obediently. Lorenzo
is quite in love with it. Of a truth he is not wrong,
for Maestro Giorgio says he never saw a handsomer
nor a better, and declares he will make of him the
finest falcon in the world. While we were in the
fields, Pilato came back from the river with his lost
falcon, so Lorenzo was doubly pleased. If I knew
what to write I should be glad ; but I can only give
you news of his hawking, as we do nought else in
the forenoon and the afternoon. This afternoon I

32

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

hear that on Monday Lorenzo intends to hunt roe
deer, and then to return at once to Florence."^

Here we see also dogs chasing deer up and down
the hillside ; one white hound, foreshortened, is run-
ning up a steep slope at a tremendous pace. The
foreshortened cow and mule watched by the shepherds
are faithfully rendered, with sure observation of their
bony structure. The dogs are eager and alert ; the
sheep and goats less successful, though still above the
average.

A wild-duck flies through the air pursued by another
bird, falcons chase smaller birds, another duck floats
in a small pond. In the Paradise, a peacock on a
trellis looks back at an angel who is holding out her
hand to it, a goldfinch is on the wall near to. In
or about a pool with shelving sides are two ducks,
a grouse, a goldfinch, a jay, two green parrots walk-
ing with heads close to the ground, and oiher birds.

The leopards which were observed in the Gentile
picture occur again. There they were, with one ex-
ception, the hunting leopard or cheetah, which is dis-
tinguished from the other leopards by the solid black
spots on the back, and by having longer legs than
any of the true cats. The one on the horse answers

^ Lives of the Early Medici as told in their correspondence. Trans, and
ed. Janet Ross, 1910, p. 177.

33 C

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

to this description, but that in the foreground, though
long in the leg, has a conventional pattern suggestive
of tapestry. This, however, may be only a little joke
on Gozzoli's part.

The cheetah or chita seems to be the animal
(lonza) mentioned by Dante in the beginning of the
Inferno, and translated "panther" by Gary —

" Scarce the ascent
Began, when lo ! a panther, nimble, light,
And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd."^

In a fresco by Andrea da Firenze (Pisa, Campo-
santo), two cheetahs sit up to St. Ranieri in the
attitude of the denizens of the Noah's arks of our
childhood, but with the bended knee of the human
suppliant. The scene is laid in Nazareth, and the
beasts are described in the inscription as lonze feroce?

In this picture of Gozzoli's it may be noticed that the
leopard's leash is tied round the keeper's right arm and
held in his left hand, so that by merely opening the
finders the straininof animal would be released.

In India at the present day they are usually carried
on a light cart, and kept blindfolded until their prey

^ Inferno, i. 28 —

" Una lonza leggiera e presto molto
Che di pel maculato era coperta."
* A. Venturi, Storin dell' Arte italiatia, vol. v. p. 812.

34

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

is in sight. On a medal by Pisanello a lynx is repre-
sented blindfolded. The Emperor Frederick II. in the
Art of Hunting, already mentioned, speaks of lynxes
as well as leopards and ferrets as being used in the
chase. ^ Probably the tradition of the animals he had
brought with him into Italy two hundred years before
still lingered. " Salimbene," says Mr. Coulton, "as he
played about the streets of Parma, saw the heralds of
the mighty host that Frederick was bringing to crush
the rebellious cities of Lombardy, * an elephant, with
many dromedaries, camels, and leopards, and all the
strange beasts and birds that the great Emperor loved
to have about him.' " ^

A comparison of Gozzoli's birds with those of Giotto
shows in what a different spirit they are painted. In
his St. Francis Preaching to the Birds (Montefalco),
amongst other birds can be seen the blackbird, dove,
wood-pigeon, and golden oriole, treated with more desire
to be naturalistically correct than to indicate any pious
sentiment. In the Vintage of Noah (Pisa, Campo Santo),
the sturdy thrush, legs apart listening for worms, is
troubled by no spiritual aspirations. The parrot or
popinjay, then becoming popular, and as a fashionable
pet almost rivalling the falcon, also appears.

^ Ars Venandi, i. cap. r.

- From St. Francis to Dante, p. 42.

35

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Hubertus tells us that the Archduke Philip when
travelling in Spain had all kinds of beasts and birds
presented to him. These included " a beautifully pro-
portioned ostrich, and a green parrot no bigger than
a sparrow, talking better than it is possible to believe." ^
But the parrot's natural aptitude must have made it
an acceptable pet from much earlier times. Two are
drawn in the sketch-book of Villard de Honnecourt
(middle of the thirteenth century),^ and to go back
to the beginning of the Christian era, in a wall-painting
at Pompeii one is shown wearing a collar and drawing
a biga which is driven by a grasshopper.

Pliny suggests that in Roman times some cruelty
was used in the training of a parrot. "It will duly salute
an emperor and pronounce the words it has heard
spoken ; it is rendered specially frolicsome under the
influence of wine. Its head is as hard as its beak, and
this, when it is being taught to talk, is beaten with a
rod of iron, for otherwise it is quite unconscious to
blows. " ^

In the Curse of Ham the sky is full of birds ; hawks
pursue doves, a peacock with outspread tail displays

^ Mrs. Henry Cust, Gentleme?i Errant^ p. 259.

* Salimbene tells of a parrot which, being carried away by a kite,
uttered the invocation dear to his mistress, Sancte Thoniay adjuva jue,
and was miraculously rescued. Quoted in Sabatier, Life of St. Francis
ofAssisi, p. 33.

* Natural history {S>oh\\ 1S55), bk. x. ch. 58.

36

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

himself on the roof of a portico, birds perch on the
well-head ; dogs are variously employed ; one has killed
a hare. In the middle stands a youth with falcon on
wrist. The peacock here looks safe amidst all this
hunting down of the weaker, but it appears to have
been a game-bird. Folgore da San Giminiano, already
quoted, has a sonnet which begins —

" And every Wednesday, as the swift days move,
Pheasant and peacock shooting out of doors
You'll have, and multitudes of hares to course."^

Gozzoli was fond of painting children and animals
together. In the fresco which represents the Building
of the Tower of Babel, there is a child holding a bird in
his left hand and making a cat (apparently, but the paint
is badly damaged at this point) sit up at his knee. The
collection of animals in the story of Noah by another
hand in the upper series may also be noticed.

There are some incongruous incidents in the series
of the Life of St. Augustine at San Gimignano. The
quietness and solemnity of the scene of the Death of
St. Monica is distinctly marred by the behaviour of one
small child who sets a very vicious-looking dog at
another. It appears to have the prospect of a very
satisfactory bite.

* Rossetti, Early Italian Poets.

37

1435-1^

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

His master, Fra Angelico, could nor possibly have
painted such an incident, though such incidents do
occur, most uncomfortably and disconcertingly, in real
life.

In S^. Augustine Teaching in Rome, an unabashed
dog, ears acock, occupies the central space on the marble
floor in front of the lecturer's stall. A curly dog appears
in the Departure of St. Augustine for Milan, walking
alongside the horse.
Verrocchio, Probably only one painting by Andrea Verrocchio

now survives. Like his more celebrated pupil Leonardo,
he spread his energies over various artistic efforts, and
is best known by the splendid equestrian statue of the
Condottiere Colleoni in Venice. But it is significant
that in his one undoubted remaining picture, the Baptism
of Christ (Florence, Accademia), a hawk flies across the
sky into a thicket.

It may be mentioned here that scientifically there
is a difference between the hawk and the falcon, the
one being short-winged and the other being long-
winded and havinor also a tooth or indentation in the
Upper mandible. In the common language of falconry,
however, the word " hawk " is used for both. This
will be noticed in most of the quotations, and the
terms are used in their popular sense throughout the
book.

38

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

An Adoration by Sandro Filipepi, called Botticelli Botticelli,
(Florence, Uffizi), has no processional movement, and the
peacock is the only life other than human represented.
The peacock's striking appearance and colour would
naturally win for it a place in painting, but its beauty
(and its voice) is made to point several excellent morals
in Physiologus.

A picture of the same subject in the National
Gallery, formerly attributed to Filippino Lippi, but
given by the best modern opinion to Botticelli, is of
more interest for our purpose. There is a playful little
monkey, chained to a belt round its waist, which stands
up affectionately to attract its owner's attention. Another
sits in a crouching attitude with folded arms, looking up
at the stirring scene. It is noticeable how most of the
animals — ox, ass, dog, as well as monkey — keenly
observant with head on side, help to focus the attention
upon the central group. There are rabbits at the foot
of a pillar, and deer are seen stampeding into a wood.

Botticelli was a careful observer of nature, as his
frescoes of the Life of Moses in the Sistine Chapel
especially show. " He lived," says Pater, "in a genera-
tion of naturalists, and he might have been a mere
naturalist amongst them. There are traces enough of
that alert sense of outward things which in the pic-
tures of that period fills the lawns with delicate living

39

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

creatures, and the hillsides with pools of water, and the
pools of water with flowering reeds." ^

There is a delightful little smooth dog being carried
rather uncomfortably by a boy in the picture of the
Exodus, and looking up with a half-peevish, half-resigned
expression. The rams at the well in one scene are full
of life, vigour, and movement, and the goats in another
are even frantic with impatience.

A swarm of hornets is issuing from the tree-trunk
near the head of the sleeping knight in Mars and Venus
(National Gallery). They are carelessly painted, and in
some cases the legs are on the wrong part of the body.

Of this school is the Tobias and the Atigel, also in
the National Gallery, which is now attributed to Botticini.
It is a subject frequently found in Italian painting.
The story is taken from the Apocrypha,- and is
briefly this : An unfortunate woman, named Sarah,
had been married seven times, but in each case her
husband had been strangled by an evil spirit. Tobias is
chosen to be the eighth, and the Archangel Raphael
conducts him to Media, accompanied by the young
man's dog. On the way Tobias goes to wash in the
Tigris, and a fish appears and attempts to swallow him,
but, by Raphael's suggestion, is landed and the liver

* The Renaissance, 1893, p. 56.
^ Tobit vi. 1-9.
40

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

and gall cut out, to be used as a charm against the
strangling spirit. They then cook and eat the fish, and
proceed on their journey. It is at this point that the
painter usually steps in. But in spite of the fish having
been cooked and eaten, it is always represented as being
carried in the hand of the youth. Here a red line down
the under side of the fish, which is painted with the
minutest realism, shows that the disembowelling has
taken place. Neither here nor elsewhere is it of a size to
attempt to swallow Tobias with much hope of success.

The white Bolognese dog has been lightly painted
in, as an afterthought, over the bushes and road of the
background. Morelli ascribes this painting to Piero
del Pollajuolo, and thinks that the dog was probably a
pet of the brothers Pollajuolo.

Alesso Baldovinetti is notable for his own love of
painting birds and animals, and for the naturalistic
influence he must have exerted upon the art of his
pupil Ghirlandajo. Vasari mentions the snake on the
wall in the fresco of the Nativity in the portico of the
Annunziata at Florence.

Domenico Bigordi, called from his work on the Ghirlandajo,
jewelled coronals worn by the Florentine maidens del ^449-i494
Ghirlandajo, shares with his contemporary Pinturicchio
the habit of painting the wild-duck and the pursuing
hawk in the skies of his frescoes.

41

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

The incident appears in the Stigmatisation of St.
Francis (Florence, S. Trinita, Capella Sassetti), where
there is also a frightened hind. The same birds are
in the Call of the First Disciples (Rome, Sistine
Chapel), where there is also a bee-eater, and in a Last
Supper, in the refectory of the Ognissanti (Florence),
which he painted in 1480. In another on the same
plan at S. Marco, which may be entirely, and is cer-
tainly in part, by a pupil, in addition to the birds in
the sky, a cat sits by our Lord, and a peacock is in
one of the windows and a dove in the other. The ox
and ass and lamb in the Adoration of the Shepherds
(Florence, Accademia) are uncommonly good. There
is a goldfinch in the foreground.
Leonardo da With Leonardo da Vinci comes the noontide
i4«-imo hour of the Renaissance itself. " More than any
other artist who has ever lived," says Symonds
** (except perhaps his great predecessor Leo Battista
Alberti), he felt the primal sympathies that bind
men to the earth their mother, and to living things
their brethren." ^

This sympathy is expressed in a curious way in one
of his note-books. "Man," he says, "has great power
of speech, but the greater part thereof is empty and
deceitful. The animals have little, but that little is

* The Renaissance in Italy, vol. iii. p. 232.
42

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

useful and true ; and better is a small and certain thing
than a great falsehood." ^

The horse was the object of his constant and enthu-
siastic study. He used to buy the caged birds in the
market-place for the pleasure of letting them loose.
This, however, may not have been an impulse of kind-
ness and sympathy only, as he was intensely interested
in the problems of flight. He wrote a codice sul volo
degli uccelli, in which he differentiated the methods of
flight of the magpie, kite, thrush, swallow, and rook, and
his sketches include suggestions for flying-machines.

His sketch-books are full of notes of animal life.
There are in the Royal Library at Windsor drawings
of horses and cats in many different attitudes.

The lamb hugged by the little St. John Baptist in
the St. Anne (Louvre) will be remembered. The group
is reproduced exactly in a picture of the Lombard school
in the Milan Gallery, in another in the Leuchtenberg
Gallery, St. Petersburg, and also by Cesare da Sesto
in the Poldi Pezzoli collection, and by Salaino in the
Earl of Yarborough's collection. To produce the head
of Medusa, " he carried to one of his rooms, into which
none but himself ever entered, a number of lizards, hedge-
hogs, newts, serpents, dragon-flies, locusts, bats, glow-

^ MS. in library of Institut de France, in Leo7iardo da VincVs Note-books,
E. M'Curdy, 1906, p. 66.

43

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Filippino
Lippi,

i457(?)-i504

Piero di
Cosimo,
i462-i52i(?)

worms, and every other sort of strange animal of similar
kind on which he could lay his hand." ^

Filippino Lippi has in the National Gallery a
Madonna and Child, St. Jerome and St. Do7ninic^ in
which St. Jerome's lion is treated with more freedom
than usual, and not merely as a symbol. It is crouch-
ing down and roaring at a large brown bear, which looks
at it over a rock.^ There is also a blue-tit flying to
its nest of waiting young ones, and what is apparently
a squirrel high up on a ledge. A swan with out-
stretched neck flies across the sky.

Cosimo Rosselli, the contemporary of Filippino,
paints the common subject of the quarrelling dog and
cat in a Last Supper (Rome, Sistine Chapel), and in
the Sermon on the Mount the usual predacious hawk
flies overhead.

Vasari comments on the extraordinary diligence and
patience shown in Piero di Cosimo's drawings of animals
in a book belonging to Cosimo de' Medici. He evi-
dently took a genuine pleasure in painting them. In
the National Gallery is a classical myth, the Death of
Procris, as interpreted by the Renaissance. The faithful

^ Vasari, Lives, vol. ii. p. 378.

^ Mr. P. G. Konody speaks of this as a wild-boar. See Filippino Lippi,
p. XV. A woodcut by Domenico Campagnola {c. 15 17) shows a furious fight
between the lion and a bear which are locked together standing on their
hind legs. The saint watches the combat across a strongly flowing river.
See Bernhard Berenson, Critical Notes on Italia7i Paifiters, vol. ii. p. 290.

44

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

hound is part of the story. His grief and perplexity
yet trust in the kindly intentions of the satyr are well
portrayed. Perhaps he is the only dog in the Gallery
whose name, Lailaps, is known. The cranes^ and the
pelican seem to be arbitrarily introduced, though possibly
as a contrast in their life and movement ; unless we see
in the pelican who wounds herself for love a symbol of
the girl whose love brought death to herself.

Even more full of life is the Hylas and the Nymphs
in the collection of Mr. R. H. Benson. One of the
nymphs carries in a fold of her robe a little white
Bolognese dog. There are many birds ; a pheasant, a
goldfinch, and a hawk in the flower-strewn foreground.

A carefully detailed snake twines itself round a chain
on the neck of La Bella Simonetta (Chantilly). Venturi
thinks that it represents the asp of Cleopatra, with
reference to Simonetta's early death, ^ but it seems to
be the innocent ^sculapian snake. In the Jarves col-
lection (Newhaven, U.S.A.) is the Portrait of a Lady

^ "Michael Field" (Miss Bradley and Miss Cooper), in Sight and Song ^
calls these birds herons —

" The dogs sport on the sand.
The herons curve about the reeds
Or one by one descend the air,
While helplessly she bleeds
From throat and dabbled hand" —
but they are plainly the common crane.

* Storia delV Arte italiana, vol. vii. p. 701.

45

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Michael
Angelo,
1475-1564

Andrea del

Sarto,

1486-1531

who sits nursing a rabbit. An unusually well-painted
and lustrous-eyed rabbit with dark-tipped ears noses the
hand of the child in the Mars and Venus (Berlin), and
amongst other birds, two doves bill and coo between the
pair. A hawk-moth has settled on the leg of Venus.
The Child in the arms of the Madonna (Louvre)
stretches out to touch a pigeon which has the same
characteristics and happiness of pose as the birds in
the Berlin picture.

It was through the grandeur of the human figure
that Michelangelo Buonarroti expressed his noble and
lofty ideals. He had no desire to satisfy the eye by
painting landscapes as Gozzoli did, where trees, flowers,
birds, and beasts produce a whole which, however little
real thought there may be in it, cannot fail to please.
It is, however, interesting to notice his conception of
the whale which swallowed Jonah (Rome, Sistine
Chapel). He also paints the ram in NoaJis Offering,
and the swan in the story of Leda, but there is no
evidence of interest in animals for their own sake.

A large fresco by Andrea d'Agnolo, called del Sarto
from his father's trade as a tailor, must be mentioned,
but not as representing his usual style. It is in the
Medici Villa at Poggio a Cajano, and in it are represented
parrots, a turkey, a giraffe with the horn-like excres-
cences well marked on the head, monkeys, and Eastern

46

FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING

sheep, brought as tribute to Csesar ; an allusion to the
zoological fancy of Lorenzo the Magnificent.^ The
fresco was left unfinished, and completed by another
hand.

The Medici Library in Florence, to which scholars
had free access, contained many volumes which would
be useful to the naturalist. A copy of Pliny's Natural
History which once belonged to Lorenzo, and which
may well have helped in suggesting details in paintings
ordered by him, is now in the British Museum. It was
printed in Venice in 1472, and the first page, on which
are his arms, is illuminated with all sorts of creatures,
ranging from a bear to a " Ladybird."

Francesco Ubertini, called Bacchiacca, commended Bacchiacca,
himself to Cosimo de' Medici by his skill as an animal ^494-i557
painter. He was in great request as a designer of
tapestries, which he covered with animals, birds, fish,
and rare plants. Some of these may be seen in the
Museum of Tapestries in Florence. His pictures in the
National Gallery (cassoni panels) do not well illustrate

^ Lorenzo was not only a naturalist from curiosity, but made the grounds
of his villa of Poggio a Cajano, built for him by Giuliano da San Gallo, what
would now be called aijardin d''acclimatation. " He procured from Sicily
a breed of golden pheasants for his estate at Poggio a Cajano, where also
he had large quantities of silkworms for commercial purposes. He was
interested in pigs, importing a specially fine breed of these animals from
Calabria. His cows were noted throughout the country." — E. L. S. Hors-
burgh, Lore7izo the Magnificent, 1908, p. 462.

47

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

this side of his art. The mule on which Benjamin rides
with the bags of corn may be noticed.

A large collection of birds and beasts is painted in
the Moses striking the Rock (Venice, Palazzo Giovanelli).^
Bronzino Bronzino (Angelo di Cosimo) in the Veiius and

i5o2(?)-i572 Cupid i^Xox^no.^, Uffizi) paints two amorous doves. In
the same gallery is a portrait of Garzia de Medici, the
murdered son of Cosimo I., as a child. He grasps a
goldfinch in his right hand. It is curious that this
motive, usually confined to the Infant Saviour, should be
used for Cosimo's mischievous-looking boy. But the
goldfinch is especially mentioned as a common pet by
Sacchetti.

A finely painted snake twined round the neck of
Cleopatra (Rome, Borghese Gallery) is striking at her
breast. Here, as in the same subject by Piero di
Cosimo, it seems to be one of the harmless snakes,
which was no doubt more convenient to study in motion
than the venomous adder.

1 This painting was formerly attributed to Diirer. I have not been
able to examine it, but Morelli says that it contains lynx, cats, deer, parrots,
goats, oxen, martens, and asses {Italian Painters^ vol. i. p. io8). There is
a poor reproduction in the Milan edition (ed. Frizzoni) of 1897.

48

CHAPTER IV

SIENA

Duccio Di BuoNiNSEGNA, who may be considered as Duccio,
occupying in Sienese history the place of Giotto in ^' ^^ ^'^^^
Florence, has less observation of nature than his suc-
cessors ; but the ass and colt in the Siena altar-piece
show evidence of it, and in a painting of the Miraculous
Draught of Fishes (Mr. R. H. Benson), amongst the fish
in the sea round the boat is an octopus with seven legs
(and a very unpleasant countenance) and a crayfish.
He has tried to represent the fish, which are well differ-
entiated, not only in profile, but as they might be seen
in an aquarium, turning to look out through the glass.

Bruno di Giovanni, in a St. Ursula coming to the
aid of Pisa (Pisa, Museo Civico), paints a number of
fish seen in the same way, but all broadside on.

In the Campo Santo at Pisa the frescoes of the Pietroand
Tritimph of Death, stated by Vasari to be by Orcagna, Lorenzetti
but now attributed to the brothers Lorenzetti, are full of ^ i348(?)
well-observed animals — horses, mules, dogs, a hare, a
deer, a hind milked by a monk, and of birds a pheasant,

49 i>

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

wild-duck, and falcons. One of the falcons is being fed,
and anyone who has kept hawks will recognise the
attitude as being exactly true to life. A fox in the
rocky background is eating a bird. A lady sits between
two men, each of whom holds a falcon ; a little dog
stands up on her knee, and she is playfully pinching
it under the chin. It wriggles and tries to rub her
hand away with its paws. The horses and mules,
startled at the corpses in the way, are quite as full of
expression as those of Pisanello in the Si. George.

Crowe and Cavalcaselle say of the Legends of the
Herjnits on the south wall : " The lions in their strength
and elasticity are classical and seem to live, and wherever
animal life is depicted the painter is great. A fallen
mule, a camel entering a gate, exhibit his knowledge of
their natural forms." ^ A patient monk is angling in the
stream which flows across the immediate foreground ; a
procession of fishes passes him contemptuously by.

Of the same school is a curious picture belonging to
the Earl of Crawford, Scenes from the Lives of the
Hermits of the Thebaid, and the Founding of the Reli-
gious Gliders. Here are lions, storks, cranes, choughs,
a peacock, a donkey, a stag, ravens picking at the re-
mains in a coffin, a crocodile (ridden by St. Pachonius),
and a remarkably thick-set camel.

^ History of Painting in Italy , 1903, vol. iii. p. 107.
50

SIENA

Sassetta paints the story of SL Francis and the Wolf Sassetta,
of Gubbio (collection of Comte de Martel, Chateau de ^392-1450
Beaumont). The beast, of which only the forepart is
shown, holds out a paw to say " done " to the Saint,
who had undertaken its conversion to a better way
of life.i

The goldfinch is very frequently placed in the hands
of the Holy Child by painters of this school.^ They are
not easily referred to, as the names of most of them are
lost; but one by Andrea Vanni (Siena, Santo Stefano),
and another by Sano di Pietro in the collection of the
King, may be mentioned.

In a Holy Family by Bernardino Fungai, in the
National Gallery (on loan from South Kensington
Museum), a goldfinch is painted picking at a plum,
which it steadies with one foot.

Domenico di Bartolo, painting in the Ospedale della
Scala, Siena, the appropriate subject of helping the sick,
pictures a busy scene. People are being washed and
medically treated, some sitting up, some in bed ; and a
dog and cat (irresistible subject !) fight in the already
overcrowded ward,

^ Fioretti^ ch. xxi.

- In the apocryphal gospel of the Infancy it is told how, when the Child
Jesus was seven years old, and His playfellows were making animals out of
clay, He also made figures of birds and sparrows, which flew when He
ordered them to do so. — Evang-elzum htfaiitiae Arabicuni^ ch. xxxvi., ed.
Tischendorf (Lipsias, 1S76).

51

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Peruzzi, In the National Gallery is a drawing of the Adora-

tion of the Magi by Baldassare Peruzzi, also a painting
which is ascribed to him, but which may have been
worked up by another hand from the drawing. In this
are nine dogs, running along with the horses in the
procession, straining at the leash, barking at the men
who are opening the treasures of the kings, or at the
sheep. There is also a very well-studied if slightly
stunted elephant and a giraffe, evidently drawn from a
description. Particularly pleasing is the discretion with
which the greater part of it is covered by a tree, but
this does not hide the short, goat-like legs. It is of a
uniform colour, without any markings.

Lorenzo de' Medici had imported a giraffe to Florence,
where it was seen in a display organised when Galeazzo
Sforza and Pius II. were in the city in 1459.* It was
this animal no doubt which was painted, from more or
less close observation, by Luini and others. Peruzzi
was born in 1481, when it must have been dead some

^ " There was also a great hunt in the Piazza de' Signori, which was
closed all round with a stockade, and inside were turned loose two lions,
two horses, four bulls, two young buffaloes, a cow and a calf, a wild boar,
a girafife, with twenty men and a large ball of wood, so made that a man
could stand upright inside and roll it about in order to exasperate the
animals. But the loud shouts of the people so frightened the lions that
they were as though stupefied, many men broke into the enclosure, and the
lions were as lambs among them." — Istorie di Giovaiuii Cambi, quoted in
Letters of the Early Medici^ p. 6i,

52

SIENA

time. He was, however, a contemporary of the one
which De Rossi described. This was sent to Lorenzo
as a present from the " Sultan of Babylon " in 1488, and
lived until January 1489. It appears to have been
a popular favourite, and to have died affectionately
mourned, both by the children from whose hands it
gently accepted an apple, and the women into whose
baskets it delicately inserted an upper lip.^

Before Lorenzo's time one had probably not been
seen in Italy since the days of the Roman Empire.
Pliny says that it was first seen at Rome in the
Circensian games held by Caesar, the Dictator ; and
ten were exhibited in Rome at once in the time of
the Emperor Gordian.'^

There is a study for another Adoi^ation of the Magi
by Peruzzi at Sigmaringen.^ This is full of a vigour
and movement which is not only dramatic but theatrical.
Crowds of men are pointing and stretching out their
hands to the sacred group ; there are camels, and an
immense elephant flaps its ears and trumpets with
upraised trunk.

The elephant, though not often drawn, had been

^ See Dr. Guido Biagi, The Private Life of the Renaissance Florenti7ies,
1896.

^ Natural History {^o\\w, 1855), p. 275, note.

' It is reproduced by Frizzoni, Arte italiana del Rinascimento (Milan,
1891), p. 55.

53

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

known in Europe for a long period. Matthew Paris
records (year 1255) the arrival of one in England as
a present from Louis IX. of France to Henry III., and
soon afterwards a representation of it was carved on a
misericord of the new choir of Exeter Cathedral.

Salimbene says: "In that year (1235) the Lord
Emperor Frederick sent an elephant into Lombardy,
with several dromedaries and camels, and with many
leopards, and with many gerfalcons and hawks, and
passed through Parma, as I saw with my own eyes ;
and they stopped at Cremona." ^

King Emanuel of Portugal presented to Pope Leo X.
an elephant, as well as a rhinoceros. The elephant was
the popular feature in a state procession, in which
Tristan D'Acunha was the principal object of human
interest. Amnone, for this was the elephant's name,
seems to have behaved very well ; it genuflected to
the Pope, and when given a drink out of a bucket,
delighted him by lifting up its trunk and squirting
water over the spectators. Raphael painted its portrait
for the Pope.^

As in the case of the giraffe, elephants had been

1 Chronica fratris Salimbene dc Adam, Monumenta Germanise His-
torica (Hanover, 1905), torn. xxxii.,pars. i, pp. 92-3.

This elephant had been given to Frederick by the Sultan in 1228. See
R. T. Holbrook, Da7ite and the Animal Kingdom, 1902, p. 203.

' See Julia Cartwright, Baldassare Castiglione, 1908, vol. i. p. 385.

54

SIENA

known in Imperial Rome. They were brought to Italy
in the armies of Pyrrhus and Hannibal. They were
harnessed to the chariot of Pompeius Magnus at his
African triumph, and Germanicus gave an exhibition
of performing elephants, the account of which seems to
show that animal training has not advanced very much
since. One walked on a tight-rope ; four carried a fifth,
who with rather broad humour represented a sick woman
in a litter. At the end of the performance they took
their places at table amongst the guests, and reclined
upon the couches, doing so with such ease and precision
that they did not even jog the elbows of those who
were taking wine.^

1 Pliny, bk. viii. ch. it.

55

CHAPTER V

FERRARA

Cosimo CosiMO TuRA is represented in the National Gallery by

i4S^?)-i495 ^ '^^- J^^ome in the Desert. Here there is an owl with a
frog in its claws. If this is anything more than an
observed fact, perhaps we may credit the owl with the
benevolent intention of obtaining a little quiet for the
Saint's meditations. Charles Dickens, describing the
noise made by the Italian frogs after nightfall, says,
'* One would think that scores upon scores of women
in pattens were going up and down a wet stone pave-
ment without a moment's cessation." It would be
difficult to meditate through that.^

To the modern mind the frog does not suggest the
thought of irresponsible gaiety, but in Physiologus it is
a type of those who snatch at the fleeting pleasures of
this world.

^ The Cardinals assembled at the Congress of Mantua under Pius II., in
1459, made no attempt to do so. They complained bitterly at being kept
in a place where " the wine was poor, the food scarce, and nothing could be
heard save the croaking of the frogs." — Creighton, History of the Papacy,
1897, vol. iii. p. 219. See also Horace, Satires, i. 5, 14 ; and Dante, hiferno,
xxxii. 30.

56

FERRARA

Cattle find a place in the picture ; one cow is licking
and fondling her sucking calf. There is also a bird of
the bee-eater family. The lion is standing on a single-
span bridge over a stream. It hangs its head over the
water, its mouth open, in a most dejected attitude. A
cheerful lion is hard to find in these religious pictures.

At Ferrara (Palazzo Schifanoia) are courtly frescoes,
in one of which his patron Borso, Duke of Ferrara, goes
out hunting with hounds and horsemen, attended by
falconers and with a hooded falcon on his wrist.^ A
monkey and a hare are also represented.

Borso was not content with ordinary forms of sport,
but liked to see wild boars, bulls, bears, and lions fight-
ing indiscriminately. In another fresco swans attend
Mars and Venus, and rabbits feed in the grass.

Francesco del Cossa was also employed at the Schifa- Cossa,
noia Palace, and in a fresco of Duke Borso and his
jester a small hawk attacks a large heron. The heron
bends back its head to strike up at the hawk, but has
apparently lost its balance. Its head is below its legs,
and the toes are turned in like those of a dead bird.

Francia (Francesca Raibolini), though a Bolognese, Francia,
is placed with the Ferrara school on account of the

^ The walls of the Palazzo Davanzati at Florence or of the Palazzo
del Te at Mantua show how a great lord was happy to be daily surrounded
by pictures of birds, dogs, and horses.

57

i435(?)-i477

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

influence of his master, Lorenzo Costa/ upon his work.
In the altar-piece painted for Giovanni Bentivoglio in
1499 (Bologna), in front of the Child, who lies on the
ground, His head supported by a cushion, are two gold-
finches sitting on a twig. The same birds appear in the
" Franciscan " Annunciation dated in the following year.
Dr. G. C. Williamson says : " Attention should be
given to the birds that are depicted upon the branches
near St. John, as birds, generally goldfinches, are a
characteristic of Francia's work, and are always beauti-
fully painted with the utmost loving care. In this
picture there are two lovely ones ; and they also appear
in the Manzuoli and Bentivoglio altar-pieces." ^ Of the
Madonna in the Rose Garden he says : " Here he has
painted the roses on their trellis, and the birds and
lizards that sport in the branches, not as a Lombard
artist, say Luini, would have painted them, as a grand
rich background for the figures in the picture, but has
subordinated them to the central figure, and yet given
to their execution all the careful detail that he felt
was their due. He has painted them lovingly, in a
realistic manner, and as one who loved what he was
depicting."

^ There are some good animals, particularly a monkey and camels, in
an Adoration by Costa in the Brera, Milan.

* Francesco Kaibo/itii, called Francia, 1899, p. 59.

58

FERRARA

In the rare picture by Bono, who signs himself "a Bono da
pupil of Pisano " (National Gallery), besides the lion of p^i4t"i46i
the story there is a deer, very good in drawing, but
quite out of proportion to the landscape. It is cropping
the leaves of a hedge on the top of a rock in the back-
ground. A flock of birds flies across the sky.

Giovanni di Lutero, who adopted the name of DossoDossi,
Dosso Dossi, has at least twice painted the evidently ^479-i542
congenial subject of Circe, surrounded by the birds
and beasts that were once her lovers. In the Rome
example (Borghese Gallery) she is seated in a meadow
with hound and bird by her side. In that belonging
to Mr. Benson she has around her a brown greyhound,
a white puppy, a stag with his antlers in the velvet,
a hawk, an owl, two lions and a spoonbill. There is also
a hind standing before her. The painting of the lion,
in contrast with the other animals, is uncommonly poor.
Dossi evidently worked carefully from the model, and
his work went to pieces when he had not the concrete
fact before him. But lions were quite common in Italy
in his time, being kept publicly at Rome and Florence,
as well as in the collections of many nobles.

In the Holy Family at Hampton Court the Child
has His arm round the neck of a white cock, and holds
in His hands a ribbon which is tied to its foot.

59

CHAPTER VI

UMBRIA

In the congenial soil of the simple provincial towns
within the immediate influence of Assisi we should
naturally expect to find the growth of a sympathetic
attitude towards nature. Gentile da Fabriano has
already been spoken of, on account of his quarter of a
century's work in Florence, and the religious paintings
of Piero della Francesca of Borgo San Sepolcro, of
Benedetto Bonfigli and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo of Perugia,
also contain evidence of a sincere appreciation of animal
life in the next generation.
Francesca, The OX and the ass are treated with much sympathy

by Piero della Francesca in the Nativity in the National
Gallery. They do not appreciate the music of the
angelic choir, and the ass protests loudly with uplifted
head.^ A magpie perches on the roof of the shed,

^ There are mediaeval legends, however, which suggest that it may be
thought of as taking part in the hymn of universal nature in honour of the
Incarnation. The ass was specially reverenced on account of its connec-
tion with our Lord's life (as in the Nativity, the Flight into Egypt, and the
Entry into Jerusalem), and this last favoured beast was believed to have
crossed land and sea to Italy, and to have found a resting-place in the
church of Sta. Maria in Organo, Verona.

60

I4i5{?)-i492

UMBRIA

and goldfinches, now rather indistinct, flutter about the
thistles, their natural food. The neighbourhood of the
ass and the goldfinch in this picture reminds us of
Pliny's tribute to the bonhomie of this pretty bird. The
acanthis, he tells us, has no grudge against any living
creature, with one exception, the donkey which eats up
the thistles from whose seeds he expected to get a
meal.

Bonfigli, in an Adoration of the Magi (Perugia, Bonfigii,
Pinacoteca Vannucci), has painted the ox and the ass, ^' ^4^^^49o
and the horses and hunting dogs in the train of the
Magi. The heads and necks of two gaunt camels rise
like ichthyosauri above the crowd.

Pietro Vannucci, called II Perugino, in another Perugino,
version of the Tobias story (National Gallery), has a ^ ~^^^
very literal fish, greatly commended by Ruskin.^

In his Adoration, dated 1504 (Citta della Pieve), in
addition to the well-painted ox and ass there is a white
dog, sheep and goats, and two camels. A small hawk,
perhaps a merlin, which was used for the smaller birds,
is on the wrist of one of the attendants of the Magi.

In the foreground of Bernardino di Betto's Return Pinturicchio,
of Ulysses to Penelope (National Gallery) is a rather ^454-i5i3
stuffed-looking cat. It is playing with a ball of wool
which Penelope's handmaiden has been winding, and

* Arrows of the C/iace, vol. i. p. 177.
61

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

has dropped : Ulysses in his eager entry seems
bound to tumble over it. A jackdaw or some other
coiuus walks across a beam with the jerky consequential
strut of his kind. These birds are difficult to identify,
as the differences of form and colour are apt to be
confused in old painting, though unmistakable in the
living bird — the size of the raven, the greyish bloom
of the jackdaw, the white skin at the base of the beak
of the rook. Very possibly some of my identifications
in this species are wrong. A figure on the right has a
falcon on his wrist ; on the island seen through the
window are wild boars and a lion.

In one of the splendidly decorative frescoes in the
Piccolomini Library of the Cathedral of Siena, Pius II.
at Ancona, a falcon chases a pheasant across the sky
directly above the Pope's head, and a dog runs over a
bridge, ^neas Sylvius sets out for the Council of
Basle with knights on horseback, and a greyhound in
leash with a double row of bosses on its collar is a
conspicuous object. A hawk pursues a wild-duck while
y^neas is being invested as Poet Laureate before
Frederick 1 11.^ Indeed, Pinturicchio could hardly bear
to leave a space of quiet sky ; there must be a hawk
and some bird which it is chasing.

^ Enea Sylvio de' Piccolomini wrote a treatise On the Nature and Care
of Horses.

62

UMBRIA

The frescoes in the Borgia Apartment^ in the Vatican
are full of living creatures. Susanna preparing for
the bath in her little enclosed garden is surrounded by
her pets — a stag and hind, rabbits, a hare, and a monkey
chained by the middle. The usual hawks fly across
the sky. They occur again in the St. Catherine before the
Emperor, where hoopoes are also flying about. The same
birds, with a bee-eater, are painted in the Martyrdom of
St. Sebastian ; sl wild-duck is nearly as important as the
Dove in the Descent of the Holy Ghost. In the Visit of
St. Anthony to St. Paul the Hermit, a raven flies across
the rocks over the heads of two female devils.

Observation and humour is shown by the painter of
the Stoiy of Griselda, a follower of Pinturicchio (National
Gallery). All the animals are characteristic and painted
with appreciative enjoyment. Three couples especially
are introduced in an anecdotal spirit. A deer wishes
to investigate a fallen rose, the peacock's curiosity is
also aroused, and the sidelong distrust of the two shy
creatures is well caught. A staid and old-gentlemanly
dog is being barked at by a silly and vulgar cur with
a most abandoned cock to his ear, but is too dignified

* Mr. Edward Hutton, speaking of these rooms, says : " You come upon
a whole delightful country, a kind of Garden of Eden, where the animals are
friends with man — man and woman being always so dainty, so charming
there ; so that they play among the tall flowers unafraid, and the birds sing
under the soft sky, or build in the strange, fantastic trees." — The Cities of
Uinbria, 1906, p. 222.

63

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN -PAINTING

to show any energetic disapproval. A little dog, half
smooth like a poodle, and a rat observe each other with
caution. A small bear, tied by a red cord to a ring in
a pillar, sits sucking a fruit, and there are also about
twenty dogs, two camels ridden respectively by a falcon
and a monkey, two monkeys chained by the middle, a
flock of sheep, a bird on the back of a horse, two hawks
pursuing smaller birds, and another peacock. The
whole series, charming artistically, though curiously
wanting in colour, deserves the naturalist's careful study.
Raphael, It is known from Raphael's sketch-books that he

1483-1520 studied eagerly the horses of Leonardo, and those of
SL George in the Louvre and at St. Petersburg show the
influence of the master. In his later work it is not
always possible to trace the detail to his own hand. As
commissions crowded upon him he employed many
assistants, especially for such designs as those in the
Loggie of the Vatican, painted, no doubt, with reference
to the tastes of that devotee of the chase, Leo X.
What a medley is the Creation of the Animals —
elephants, a lion, stags, a horse, an ox, a mule, a camel,
a giraffe, an ape, storks, a peacock, a duck, a hawk,
several kinds of snails, and a unicorn ! Many animals
appear also in a Bacchanalian Scene (Dresden) painted
from his designs by Garofalo. Amongst others are an
elephant, camels, and leopards.

64

UMBRIA

In the arabesques surrounding the Vatican frescoes are
rats and squirrels, birds and snakes. In the Vemis,Ju7io
and Ceres (Rome, Villa Farnesina) there is a good hawk
with outstretched wings and tail expanded like a fan.
Ordinarily he is not successful in his painting of birds in
flight, or not sufficiently rigorous in judging the work
of his assistants. In the Meeting of Rachel and Jacob
the animals are full of eager life, especially the rams
impatient for their turn to drink. The cranes in the
cartoon for the Miraculous Draught of Fishes (South
Kensington Museum), with their red-capped heads
bordered with white, are good. The fish also are more
than suggestions of fishiness in the grand manner ;
the skate and the dogfish are easily recognisable.
The goldfinch appears in the hand of the infant
Baptist in the painting which is usually called from it
the Madonna del Cardellino (Florence, Uffizi). A
supposed locust, inspired by a fatal curiosity, walks
up to St. John the Baptist in a school picture in the
same gallery.

In Signorelli's Virgin and Child with Saints
(National Gallery) five goats are painted. One of
them stands up against a tree and tears at the wood
of a branch. It will be remembered that Margaritone,
more than two hundred years before, had noticed

practically the same action.

65 E

CHAPTER VII

VENICE— PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

The art of Venice owed its character to many contri-
buting influences, and yet the island city set her mark
strongly upon all these as they came into her service.
Florence and Padua were drawn upon, yet it is neither
the eager mental and spiritual inquiry of the one nor
the preoccupation with classic forms of the other which
we remember when we think of the decoration of her
palaces and churches. A settled, unanxious, and satis-
fying life led to a reasonable, clear-eyed, and not very
emotional attitude towards the whole of experience,
including religion, the historical fabric of which took
its place alongside the daily life of the merchant, the
sailor, or the magistrate. All that interested them in
nature is frankly brought in, and is not felt to be out of
place even in portraying circumstances the most sacred.

Pisanelio, j^ Vittore Pisano, or Pisanello, we recognise one of

1399-1452

the great animal painters of all time. The National

Gallery is fortunate in having the best example of his

rare art, the Vision of St. Eustace. Here the naturalist

66

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

is strongly in evidence, and we can see that his whole
delight has been in the careful delineation of the
creatures, which had to be got in anyhow, much to the
detriment of the composition. In addition to the future
Saint and the mystic stag, there are two other stags,
a hare, three kinds of dogs, and a bear. Among the
birds are pelicans, herons, swans, geese, a hoopoe, a
kingfisher, and two chaffinches. The painting is of the
most minute description, almost every hair and feather
being rendered in the style of the miniaturist. It
breathes a real delight in forest life, and intense sym-
pathy with it.

Vasari mentions his fresco of the Anmmciation in
S. Fermo Maggiore, Verona, as containing "many small
animals and birds in various parts of the work, all of
which are as natural and as animated as it is possible
to imagine." ^ Two pigeons with feathered feet and
a toy dog with a collar of bells can still be seen.

Pisanello's paintings alone would give but an im-
perfect idea of his "sense of naturalism." It is in his
sketches, both for paintings and medals, and in the
medals themselves that his genius can best be appre-
ciated. Amongst these we find a long-haired goat, a
stag, a mule, horses with even the spavins meticulously
reproduced, the veltro or boarhound, the greyhound,

\ Lives, vol. ii. p. loo.
67

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

a wild boar, a camel, a bat, an eagle, a weasel or
stoat, monkeys, goats, foxes, hares, wild-ducks, quail,
a bald-headed vulture with trilled neck, and a lynx.

The horses in the SL George and the Princess
(Verona, S. Anastasia) show evidence of even excessive
study, or rather of an uncompromising naturalism which
artistically somewhat defeats its purpose. Still, the
disposition of the animals is well differentiated ; the
group of the mule between two horses, for instance,
shows a sympathetic understanding of their peculiarities.
The alert muzzled greyhound, the nosing spaniel, and
the curly horned ram all show careful study.

The boar appears as a symbol of the defeated flesh
at the feet of St. Anthony in the Vision of St. Anthony
and St. George (National Gallery), but without the
tusks of the powerful beast of the medal of Alfonso I.
of Naples, Venator Intrepidans.

Dante mentions St. Anthony's pig in the Commedia —

" Saint Anthony
Fattens with this his swine, and others worse
Than swine, who diet at his lazy board,
Paying with unstamped metal for their fare."^

In honour of the symbolism the pigs of the monks
of St. Anthony were allowed to roam and find food
unchecked, even when they added personal injury to

* FaradisOf xxix. 124.

68

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

material damage by worrying children and attacking
grown-up people.

A botanist would at once notice the beauty of the pinks
and columbines in the so-called Isabella dEste (Louvre),
but our present inquiry is not concerned with vegetable
life. There are, however, three fine butterflies ; the
Red Admiral has evidently been studied from a dead
specimen. It will be noticed that whoever has set it
has pulled the upper wings a little too far forward.
The Clouded Yellow is also seen amongst the foliage,
and the Rare Swallow-tail.

A tondo of the AdoT'ation (Berlin) was formerly
attributed to Pisanello, but is probably only painted
under his influence. There are points about it which
are irreconcilable with the authorship. Still, it is full
of interest, and of course the authenticity of a picture
makes no difference in its value for our present purpose.
A painter equally illustrates the tendency of his time,
whether he be Pisanello or another. Two falcons attack
a heron ; one of them has risen above its quarry, which
points its long sharp beak upwards to ward off the down-
ward stroke. This is just the method which Spenser
describes In the Faerie Queene.

" As when a cast of falcons make their flight
At an heronshaw that lyes aloft on wing.
The whiles they strike at him with heedless might.
The wary foule his bill doth backward wring.
69

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

On which the first, whose force her first doth bring

Herselfe quite through the body doth engore,

And falleth down to grounde like senselesse thing.

But th' other, not so swift as she before,

Failes of her souse, and passing by doth hurt no more."

The Florentine engraver, Maso Finiguerra (1426-
1464), represents in a plate "of various wild animals
hunting and fighting" (British Museum), two birds, not
only in relatively the same position, but with exactly the
same outline. There are also lions, a cheetah, ducks,
and hares, boars, and stags being hunted by their
appropriate hounds.

The Flemish Stradanus (Giovanni della Strada), who
worked at Florence a century later, and was an appren-
tice to Michael Angelo, also represents this episode in
an engraving in the " Venationes " of 1567.^

Another falcon in the foreground of the Berlin
picture has got its victim down. A man rides between the
humps of a Bactrian camel. A peacock, with a curiously

^ But Mr. Baillie-Grohman, commenting on this, says : "It shows that
the artist fully believed the legend, sanctioned even by such late writers as
Walter Scott, that the heron when hard pressed and stooped at by the
hawk will point his beak upwards, and thus receive the descending enemy
upon its point, thereby inflicting serious injury, if not killing him outright.
According to modern experts, this pretty story has no foundation in fact.
It seems extraordinary that for centuries artists went on painting incidents
which they never could have seen ; scores, if not hundreds, of pictures of
what was once a favourite and aristocratic sport depicting this very occur-
rence" {Country Life ^ December 16, 191 1). It certainly does seem extra-
ordinary ; perhaps herons have changed their tactics.

70

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

fringed tail, perches on the shed, underneath which are
the ox and ass. Sheep feed in the distance, and a
greyhound watches the struggle in the foreground with
interest, but thinks it prudent not to intervene.

Jacopo Bellini probably owed much to Pisanello, Jacopo
and also to Gentile da Fabriano. They both came to i4oo-i464(?)
Venice to decorate the Ducal Palace, and their fresh
and vivid outlook upon nature could not but be a
powerful stimulus to Jacopo.

One of his sketch-books, dated 1430, which is now
in the British Museum, contains, amongst studies of
architecture in perspective and the human figure, a large
proportion of drawings of animals and birds.

These include a family of lions with cubs (2), lions
attacking horses (7), a lion on its back rolling over and
playing with a cub, the lioness sitting near (15), a lion
with two cubs, one crawling on to its back (82), deer,
lion and lioness, and rabbit (16), a man with hawk on
wrist, another with a hunting dog (13), two eagles on a
branch (58), a beautiful stag (71), four hawks on a
perch, and a dog barking at an ape (89), five cheetahs,
one running with an easy springing gait (92).^

Gentile Bellini in the Preaching of St. Mark at Gentile
Alexandria (Milan, Brera) has painted camels and a ™^!'jco.7
giraffe. If the neck is not quite satisfactory, he has

' The numbers are those of the pages on the Museum stamp.

71

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Giovanni
Bellini,

I430(?)-I5i6

at any rate got the shape of the body right, and the
proportion between the length of the front and back
legs. If Gentile had not seen the Medici giraffes, he
could have used the description of Marco Polo, which
would be current in Venice, where he returned after his
travels in 1295, and lived, after his imprisonment in
Genoa, until 1324. "The body," he says, "is well
proportioned, the fore-legs long and high, the hind-
legs short ; the neck is long, the head small, and in
its manners it is gentle. Its prevailing colour is light,
with circular reddish spots. Its height (or length of its
neck) is three paces." 1

Dr. F. R. Martin has published (in the Burlington
Magazine, 19 10) drawings of a gazelle or antelope and
a hare which he found in Constantinople. He believes
them to have been done while Gentile was engaged on
his embassy there.

In a picture of his school, Afadonna and Child
Enthroned (National Gallery), a goldfinch with out-
stretched wings ready to take flight stands on the
brocaded robe of the Madonna. In another, the Visit
of the Venetian Ambassadors (Louvre), there are deer, a
monkey, and two shaggy Bactrian camels.

Mr. Roger Fry discusses the horses in the scene of
the Conversion of St. Paul in the predella of the Pesaro
altar-piece by Giovanni Bellini.

* Travels, ch. xxxvii.
72

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

He points out that "the horse in Italian art before
this time was always the destrier ; this horse, peculiar
for its small, compact build, is not indeed the Arab
horse, but it is the horse (possibly a descendant of
the Greek horse, of which we are here forcibly re-
minded) which is to be found to this day in the
uplands and mountainous districts of Turkey," and
speaks of one in Gentile Bellini's Adoration of the Magi
(Venice, Lady Layard's collection), " which may almost
have been the oriorinal of St. Paul's horse here." ^

A very good example of Giovanni's attitude to
external nature is to be seen in the National Gallery.
"You are to be interested," says Ruskin, "in the living
creatures, not in what is happening to them," and in the
Death of St. Peter Martyr it is evidently the living
creatures other than human which have a large share
of his interest. The dog, the lamb, the goat, the cattle,
the young donkey with large downy head, standing
luxuriously half asleep in the shade of the coppice ;
the brown bird of the flycatcher type perching on a
twig above the cartellino ; all these go to make up
that abounding unobtrusive life of the country which
is the background for the joys, the sorrows, and the
evil passions of men.^

^ Giovanni Bellini^ 1899, pp. 30-31.

* " Celle qu'on essaierait de trouver dans I'indifiference, ou meme le defi
injurieux que la nature semble opposer parfois k nos sentiments, serait bien
subtile pour cette epoque." — Emile Michel, Les Maitres du Paysage^ p. 14.

73

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Among the animals surrounding the SL Jerome in
the possession of Mr. R. H. Benson, are a hawk, two
rabbits, a squirrel, and a lizard. A peacock, a stork,
and a partridge appear in a corner of the altar-piece in
St. Pietro Martire, Murano.

A painting oi St. Francis of Assist'^ standing before
his cell and singing his canticle to the sun, illustrates
a line of influence mentioned in the first chapter. Here
animal life is represented by a well-drawn ass, sheep
and goats, a kingfisher, a crane, and a rabbit. The
crane has just settled on the narrow top of a column
of cliff; its wings are not yet at rest, fluttering while it
gets its foothold. The rabbit looks out through a hole
in the wall behind the Saint, its head only disengaged.
Its upturned eyes express amazement and cautious
curiosity rather than confidence.

All the natural details, animate or inanimate, are
painted with great minuteness and individual beauty,
but the picture as a whole cannot be considered emotion-
ally satisfying. Nature is there, but irresponsive.

In the Uffizi allegory he has travelled a long way
from the devotional simplicity of subjects like the Blood

' Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 19 12, by the
trustees of the late Miss M. A. Driver. In spite of the apparently genuine
signature, it is considered by Mr. Roger Fry to be by Basaiti, and un-
doubtedly has strong likeness to such work as the National Gallery
Madomta of the Meadow, and St. Jerome Reading.

74

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

of the Redee^ner Qx the Pieta. The mediaeval idea of the
world beyond the grave as found in Dante was grow-
ing dim, and men's minds were becoming more occupied
with the present world, so rich in its possibilities of
pleasure and beauty. This picture shows how tradi-
tional conceptions still worked in Bellini's mind while
his nature was opening out to a more sensuous delight
in the aspect of things. Eastern sheep and goats
appear against the rock, and also the centaur which
we first met in Giotto's Obedience.

The rich brocade dress of a lady painted by one
of Bellini's pupils may be noticed (National Gallery,
No. 631). It is ascribed to Francesco Bissolo. On
the embroidered band running across the open neck are
dogs and other sporting animals.

Antonello da Messina in the Antwerp Crucifixion Antoneiioda
— there is one not quite identical in the National jj^^to
Gallery — represents a small owl at the foot of the
cross. It seems to be the small tufted or scops owl
{Scops giu), so called from its cry.

Browning mentions this bird in " Andrea del Sarto,"
in the passage where the painter describes to his wife
the coming on of evening —

" See, it's settled dusk now, there's a star :
Morello's gone, the watch-lights show the wall,
The cue-owls speak the name we call them by."

75

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

The noise is described by Seebohm as monotonous
as a passing bell, and almost as melancholy.^ Is this
the significance of the bird's presence here?

A S^. Je7^ome in his (very convenient and hygienic)
Study, by the same painter (National Gallery), contains
a partridge,- a peacock, and a cat, as well as the thin-
legged lion. Birds fly in and out of the window. The
Saint's care for the creatures is shown by a bowl for
food or water which is placed on the steps.

A little dog sits on the steps in front of the cere-
mony of the Circumcision in Marco Marziale's picture
in the National Gallery. Close to is a fly, which is
walking up the marble.

In an Adoration of the Magi (Glasgow Gallery),
considered by Sir J. C. Robinson to be by Antonello,
there are two incidents which occur also in the Piero
della Francesca Nativity already described. The
pictures are quite unlike in composition, but in each
there is a braying ass, and a magpie perching on the
roof of the shed.

^ Bowdler Sharpe, Handbook to the Birds of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 83.

Pliny speaks of the horned owl {bubo) as of bad omen, and as " specially
funereal." " It is greatly abhorred in all auspices of a public nature. The
monster of the night, its voice is heard not with any tuneful note, but
emitting a sort of shriek. Hence it is that it is looked upon as a dreadful
omen to see it in a city, or even so much as in the daytime." (Bk. x. ch. 16.)

* The Ano7iiino, who saw the picture in the early sixteenth century,
calls this bird a quail.

76

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Vittore Carpaccio did not stop at the delineation Carpaccio,
of everyday life. Dragons, basilisks, and unicorns
were commonplaces to him. To confine ourselves,
however, to creatures with which most of us are more
familiar : in the Baptisjn of the Princess in the St.
George series (Venice, San Giorgio degli Schiavoni),
is a large scarlet parrot which nibbles a plant in the
foreground, as well as a greyhound on leash, with elabo-
rate collar, sitting up facing the spectator. Some care
was evidently taken about the collar of a favourite dog :
with this may be compared that with hawk-bills on the
little dog which sits up to one of the courtesans in the
picture in the Correr Museum, Venice, and with that
on the hound in the right-hand foreground of Gentile
da Fabriano's Adoration, or on the large dog in
Veronese's Adoration in the National Gallery.

In the scene where St. George kills the dragon,
everything is designed to emphasise the horror of the
fearsome creature's lair. Amongst the dead and dis-
membered bodies of unsuccessful champions are to be
seen snakes (one has caught a frog and is holding
it in his mouth), lizards, and a toad. The lizards
in particular are painted with sure observation of
their attitudes and of such points as the wrinkling
of the skin at the neck as the head is quickly turned.

To represent one as gnawing at the body of the

77

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

dead girl adds to the loathsomeness of the fate from
which the Princess is to be rescued, but the lizard
does not eat flesh. Three vultures settle on a heap
of putrefying remains in the background.

In the S^. Jerome series, the most interesting (and
amusing) picture is perhaps that in which the monks
flee pell-mell from the lion, in spite of the Saint's
deprecating gestures and the beast's own apologetic
and ingratiating air. This painting is rich in animal
life. A fallow deer, a rabbit, and a peacock share
in the flight of the monks, but another rabbit, two
other deer, a genet, a guinea - fowl, the inevitable
parrot and other birds are quite undisturbed. The
parrot was now often painted, though this is recog-
nisable as Carpaccio's model, but he seems to have
struck out a new line with his oruinea-fowl.^

There is a delightful little dog in the St. Jerome
in his Study, sitting bolt upright waiting eagerly for
his master to finish work, and hardly able to contain
himself. His paws seem to dance on the ground,
and one can almost hear his whimperings. The great
Doctor, busy with his translation, is just a little worried,
and looks out of the window with uplifted pen waiting
for the mot juste.

^ This bird was amongst the presents made to Leo X. by the King of
Portugal (see p. 54).

78

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

In the Death of St. Jerome a lizard is painted
close to the body immediately above the cartellino.
There are several birds, and a genet trots round a
palm tree to which it is tethered.

In the St. Ursula series (Venice, Accademia) the
guinea-fowl is again painted, looking at an Eastern
dwarf who sits on the steps of the baldacchino in the
Return of the Anibassadoi^s. The large dog lying
on the landing-stage of Cologne may be noticed,
and the little dog on guard at the foot of St. Ursula's
bed in the Dream. In the rough sketch for this picture
in the Uffizi, another animal, possibly a cat, is scamper-
ing across the room. A goldfinch stands on the parapet
which forms the foreground of St. Ursula taking leave
of her Father (Venice, Layard Gallery).

The St. Stephen series, now scattered, contains
many examples of animal life. In the Ordination of
the Saint (Berlin) is a dog, a camel, and the same
parrot. In the Disputation ivith the Doctors (Milan,
Brera), the guinea-fowl appears again, and some
pretty deer are painted in the Preaching at Jerusalem,
(Louvre). A peacock, the parrot, and two doves
appear in addition to the dogs already mentioned in
the picture of the Courtesans.

Also in the Correr Museum is the Visitation, in
which the meetingf of the Blessed Virgin and Elizabeth

79

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

is represented as taking place not " in the house " but
in a landscape in front of a palace. Our old friend
the parrot is on the edge of a brook looking at a hare
which is jumping over ; and another bird is beak to nose
with a rabbit. A fallow deer sits by the brook. Car-
paccio may have seen a hare jumping over a stream, but
it is doubtful whether it would do so unless pressed.
Perhaps the parrot has said something startling. In the
Birth of the Vi7'gin (in the same gallery), the usual
scene of food being taken into the bedchamber of St.
Anna, two rabbits are painted nibbling a cabbage-leaf in
the middle of the room. In the A^tnunciation (Venice,
Accademia) there is a peacock, a pheasant, and doves
perching on the tester of the porch.

A curious picture, lately recognised by Sir Claude
Phillips as being by Carpaccio, is the Meditation on
the Passion, formerly attributed to Mantegna. In the
background deer are being stalked by leopards, and
one has just been pulled down. There are several
birds, including the now very familiar parrot, which
Sir Claude does not mention, but which is in itself
strong evidence of authorship.^

Morelli says that another Venetian, Girolamo da

^ Burlington Magazine, 191 1. The picture was in the collection of Sir
Wm. Abdy, and was exhibited as a Mantegna (it has his signature, inac-
curately spelled, on a cartellind) at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition
ofi88i.

80

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Santa Croce, a follower of Giovanni Bellini, intro-
duced a parrot wherever the subject he was treating
would allow it, just as Paolo Farinati used to put a
snail into his paintings as a kind of personal mark.

Liberale da Verona paints two stags, one lying
down, the other feeding, in the landscape of the
Death of Dido (National Gallery).

Benedetto Diana paints a partridge in the Pilgrims
of Emmaus (Venice, S. Salvatore) and a guinea-fowl in
a Virgin and Saints (Venice, Accademia). He seems
to have been a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, and would be
familiar with the work of Carpaccio, whose guinea-fowl
has already been noticed.

This bird appears again in a picture by Lazzaro
Bastiani, one of the lesser painters of the school. This
is the Annunciation of the museum at Kloster Neul)urg,
Austria, in which are also a goldfinch, a parrot, a stag,
and a snake. There is a goldfinch in a painting of
the Madonna (Venice, Ducal Palace), and a peacock
and a dove in the Archangel Gabriel of the Museo
Civico, Padua.

A painter much influenced by Giovanni Bellini, Montagna,
Bartolommeo Montagna, has painted a butterfly and an ^^^°^ ^"^^^^
apple on the rock which forms the setting of a Pieta at
Monte Berico, Vicenza. Perhaps the cause of the first
sin and the symbol of risen life are placed here in

8i F

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

relation to the completed sacrifice of the Redeemer. In
the Madonna Enthroned (Vicenza, Duomo), amongst
other birds are two swallows, one on the bar of the
baldacchino and another on the capital of one of the
supporting pillars.

The Infant Christ in Sir William Farrer's Madonna
and Child presses a goldfinch to His breast. The
helpless and uncomfortable position of the bird is well
studied ; it squeaks with open beak and tries to find a
hold for its feet. An ape, a stag, a peacock, and a hoo-
poe are painted in a St. Jerome (Bergamo, Accademia
Carrara).
Cimada Giovanni Battista, generally called by his nickname

c *i4^-i^i8 Cima da Conegliano from the hill-top of his native place
which he was so fond of using in the background of his
pictures, paints a very miserable lion in the National
Gallery St. Jerome. There is also a hawk and a serpent.
The middle portion is repeated in a picture of the
same subject belonging to Major Kennard, but more life
is introduced. A kino^fisher sits on a ledo^e of rock over-
hanging a pool, while another flies off with a fish in its
beak. Two red-legged partridges and a stag are also
to be seen. A green lizard, painted with much detail,
fights with a snake in the foreground.

There is always a gathering of wild life round St.
Jerome, but this picture is unusually full of it.

82

PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

St. Guthlac, in his retirement far in the fens at Crow-
land, said when the swallows came and perched upon
his knee, "He who leads his life according to the will of
God, to him the wild deer and the wild birds draw more
near." '

The same artist, painting a Vii^gin and Child with
the Conegliano background (National Gallery), thinks it
worth while to introduce a man driving a mule laden
with a pack, two swans in the river, and a bird on the
bough of a tree on the bank. They are all so small that
they have to be looked for. This is an example of the
common tendency to introduce animal life even where it
could serve no decorative or symbolical purpose. In
the Madonna of the Goldfinch, also in the National
Gallery, the bird in the child's hand appears to be a
linnet, A stag feeds in the landscape. Cima paints a
lizard on the wall behind the Madonna Enth^'oned in the
Museo Civico, Vicenza. Around the sleeping Endymion
(Parma) are two storks, a dog, a young stag, and two
rabbits.

^ A group of stories, other than those of St. Francis, illustrates this ; for
instance, that of St. Hugh of Lincoln and the swan at Stow.

83

CHAPTER VIII

VENICE— CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

Crivelli, The National Gallery contains useful examples of the

brilliant and finished work of Carlo Crivelli. The tail
of the gorgeous peacock in the Annunciation is almost
as solidly painted as the architecture. The perches for
the doves will be noticed and the kind of cage then in
use. Sacchetti has an amusing story which illustrates
the passion for keeping birds which prevailed in his
time and the eagerness with which strange pets were
sought for.

A certain Marquis Aldobrandino commissioned an
innkeeper, Basso della Penna, to procure him a bird in
a cage. He wanted something quite uncommon, none
of your linnets and goldfinches, and a good songster.
The innkeeper, having people from all countries passing
through his house, would be likely to hear of anything
really interesting and unusual. Basso, seeing his way
to a little joke at the Marquis' expense, had a large cage
made, in which he caused himself to be conveyed to the

84

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

palace, chirping and twittering lustily. But Aldobran-
dino commanded his servants to hold the cage out of
the window, giving it a good swing before setting it on
the sill. Basso, terrified, shouted and bawled, but to no
purpose, and all the town rushed to the square to see so
joyful a sight. ^

In the picture of the Beato Ferretti there are two
ducks in a pool at the corner ; one is still a duckling,
and the downy little head is delightfully rendered. A
goldfinch is perching in a tree above in an unusual
position, foreshortened, just showing the bright colour
of the head over the back. One in exactly the same
position is to be seen in the St. John Baptist panel of
the composite altar-piece, No. 788.

In another picture, the Virgin and Child between
Saints, or Madonna del/a Rondine, a swallow has
alighted on the upper ledge of the throne. The swallow
— and the martin, which is often confounded with it —
has always been affectionately regarded on account of
its faithful return to the old locality,^ and the care for its
young, which, from its social habit, is so easily observed.

1 Novelle, No. VI.

2 Countess Cesaresco mentions "the ancient custom of carrying a
wooden swallow from house to house and asking for largesse in honour
of the return of the spring." " I do not know," she says, " that there is
an older piece of folklore on record which is still in current usq."— Outdoor
Life in Greek and Rojnan Poets. 191 1.

85

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

A panel of the predella shows St. Jerome at the foot of
the cross, upon which perches a vulture. There is also
a flamingo feeding, a snake, a lion, a mule and rabbit
foreshortened from behind ; two other rabbits, one very
clumsily painted about the head, and a dog asleep in
a cave. The attitude of the lion is very well observed
and the details of structure well carried out ; the
painting of the paws should be noticed.

A snail is painted, travelling along with outstretched
horns, at the feet of St. Francis in the Madonna and
Child Enthroned, dated 1491. Even its sluggish heart
is moved.

The Earl of Northbrook has a Madonna in which
the Child holds a goldfinch in both hands. A Virgin
and Child at Ancona (Pinacoteca Podesti) contains
another goldfinch with a very short neck, which flies
at the end of a string held by the Child.

Crivelli has introduced the common house-fly into
at least four paintings. One is in the picture belonging
to Lord Northbrook just mentioned ; the child holding
the bird looks round at the fly, which is crawling in his
direction. Another is in the National Gallery (No.
907), a third is at South Kensington, and the fourth
belongs to Mr. Benson.
Catena, Vincenzo di Biagio, known as Catena (if the St.

c. 1470-1531 j^YQfyiQ in the National Gallery is by him and not by

86

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

Giovanni Bellini), was fond of the partridge. Here one
stalks delicately up to the Saint's old pair of shoes,
so neatly laid together, as who should say: "Anything
interesting in here, I wonder ? Nothing that will make
me jump, I hope ? " The lion does not look a cheerful
pet. In the Warrior adoring the Infant Christ there
are also two red-legged partridges feeding behind the
Madonna, and a little curly dog.

The partridge is frequently introduced in Italian
painting. It is connected in legend with St. John,
and there are far-fetched analogies about it in Physio-
logus. It is said, for instance, to rob its fellow birds
of their eggs because it is anxious to have more to
hatch and rear, and so typifies the Church in its zeal
for souls. It is also, by contrast, said to represent the
Devil. Even with so wide a range of possible inter-
pretation it is difficult to discover its appropriateness
in any given picture. It appears even in Titian's Venus
Reposing (Florence, Uffizi).

In the Madonna of the Meadow (National Gallery), Basaiti,
originally attributed to Marco Basaiti, then to Giovanni ^'
Bellini, and now again to Basaiti,^ there is some good
painting of animal life, with nothing perfunctory about
its rendering. A stork with active wings and beak

^ Sir Walter Armstrong thinks that it is by Catena. See Notes oft the
National Gallery, 1887, p. 23.

87

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

defends itself against a snake. There may be some
religious symbolism in this episode/ but the scene must
always have been a familiar one in Italy. Virgil long
before had noticed it —

" But when the golden spring reveals the year,
And the white bird returns whom serpents fear,
That season deem the best to plant thy vines." ^

The stork comes over in the spring after its wintering
in Africa. A Syrian goat with pendulous ears gives
local colour.^ The earlier Venetians made a point of
this, anticipating in some degree the method of Tissot
and Holman Hunt. One of the Bellini — Gentile,
Giovanni's brother — had been on an embassy to Con-
stantinople and had painted the portrait of the Sultan.
No doubt his sketch-books were eagerly taken advan-
tage of on his return in 1481. An eagle is seen
perching on a tree to the left.
Giorgione, Giorgio of Castelfranco, familiarly called Giorgione,

to whom the name of Barbarelli has been given by an

^ " As the bird is the clothed power of the air, so this is the clothed
power of the dust ; as the bird is the symbol of the spirit of life, so this of
the grasp and sting of death." — Ruskin, Queen of the Air, § 68.

^ Georgics, bk. ii., Dryden's translation.

' Syrian goats with long ears are specially mentioned as being in the
zoological garden of the Cardinal of Aquileja at Albano in 1463. — The
Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt. Trans. S. G. C.
Middlemore, 1890, p. 295.

c. 1477-1510

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

unreliable later tradition, was one of those to whom
classical literature was an inspiration. Even Vasari
was quite unable to understand some of his allegorical
or derivative frescoes. It is not wonderful, therefore, if
to-day their interpretation is a matter of some doubt. A
small panel in the National Gallery, officially put down
to his school, but quite possibly an early essay by the
master himself, is of this character. Perhaps it is admis-
sible to call it a picture of the Golden Age ; a young
man's dream in which knowledge, the arts, and warring
nature itself are reconciled into a harmony. In it a
leopard (not the hunting leopard) is seen, two deer, a
peacock on a perilously slender branch, and three
other birds, including an owl. In the National Gallery
also is his only extant Adoration. There are here two
powerful horses in addition to the ox and ass.

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) takes from Catullus his sub- Titian,
ject of the Meetmg of Bacchus with Ariadne (National
Gallery). The light falls beautifully on the sleek lithe
bodies of the cheetahs, who look at one another as much
as to say, " Rather a sudden stop ! Who's his friend,
I wonder ? " They are wearing collars decorated
with hawk-bells. The serpents entwining the brown
limbs of the " Ophiucus " seem to be the common
grass-snake, made large enough to show effectively.^

^ The grass snake has been known to reach a length of six feet.

89

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN. PAINTING

The head of the one in his left hand is better painted
than that of the other. The dark spaniel with white
paws, barking at the little satyr, has a homely and
modern look. No doubt it was somebody's pet, and
had to have a place found for it. The picture was
painted for Duke Alfonso I. of Ferrara, so this little dog
may well have been a favourite of the Ducal Court.

Alfonso evidently appreciated Titian's painting of
animals. We find him writing to his agent in Venice,
Jacopo Tebaldi, to order from Titian a faithful life-size
portrait of an " animal called a gazelle," which was in the
possession of Giovanni Cornaro. Unfortunately when
the painter arrived the gazelle was dead and buried, or
rather thrown into the canal. But Cornaro had a pic-
ture by Giovanni Bellini in which a gazelle appeared,
and with the help of this Titian was able to satisfy the
Duke's wishes.^

In the Louvre is the Madonna of the Rabbit, about
the ears of which it is impossible to feel quite happy.
Rabbits also play about in the landscape of Sacred and
Profane Love (Rome, Borghese), and in a picture at
Bridgewater House. A sympathetic lizard watches
St. Jei'oine at his self-discipline before the crucifix
(Milan, Brera), but a lion with a very human pointed
nose sleeps quietly, head on paw.

^ See Dr, Georg Gronau, Titian, 1904, p. 50.
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BY TITIAN

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

The Daughter of Roberto Strozzi (Berlin) caresses a
beautifully painted little red-and-white spaniel, whose
attention is divided between the spectator and the food
its little mistress is offering it. The ears are slightly
raised, and there is nothing rigid about the sitting pose :
imminent movement is suggested. Titian frequently
painted this toy breed. It is to be found in the back-
ground of the portrait of Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of
Urbino (Florence, Uffizi), and on the bed of Venus in
two pictures in the same gallery, in one case asleep, in
the other barking at a partridge. It tries to escape
from the painful sight of Philip II. dedicating his Son to
Victory (Madrid, Prado), and walks, on a rather larger
scale, with Tobias and the Angel (Venice, S. Marziale).

In an interesting recent book it is stated that the
first record we have of red-and-white toy spaniels in
Europe is in Titian's pictures, and that their origin is
probably explained by the pairing of a Chinese dog
with the native Italian type.^ Palma Vecchio also
painted this dog.

* " In Italy and Malta the indigenous dogs were the shock-dog and the
' Pomeranian ' Militaeus, but Italy traded with China from the eighth and
ninth centuries onwards, and I thought the secret of the puzzling upspring-
ing of the new type might lie in a cross between an indigenous dog and a
red-and-white variety of Chinese dog imported to Italy. This Chinese dog
I traced with infinite trouble, and he was admittedly the foundation of
the red-and-white Toy."— Hon. Mrs. Neville Lytton, Toy Dogs and their
Ancestors^ 191 1.

91

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Lotto, The love of pets in Renaissance Italy does not seem

to have been confined to the men/ but we should hardly
have expected to find the marten family adopted as ladies'
pets. Two portraits in which this animal is painted
will be mentioned later, and another, a bust of a middle-
aged woman, by Lorenzo Lotto, is in the Bergamo
Gallery. She is represented as nursing a marten which
has wriggled its head down, and shows its strong
cusped teeth. A slight chain is round its neck.

Sacchetti, speaking of the extravagance of women,
as satirists have always done in ages of luxury, says,
" They wear around their necks a collar, to which are
attached all sorts of little beasts that hang down into
their breasts." Whatever the exact meaning of this
may be, it points to the fact that even before the
end of the fourteenth century the keeping of pets had
become something of a craze. ^ In the Trmmph of
Chastity (Rome, Rospigliosi Gallery) an ermine, the
stoat in its white winter coat with black-tipped tail,
stands on the broad bosom of Chastity (not very sym-
pathetically painted) as she chases away Venus, Cupid,

' Hubertus describes how Frederick, riding into Innsbruck, met a lady
leading a large tame stag with splendid horns. — Gentlemen Errafti, p. 344.

Fashionable amusements, then as now, spread rapidly among the
" governing classes " of Europe.

* See Dr. Guido Biagi, The Private Life of the Renaissance Florentines,
p. 38.

92

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

and the dove. It is taking a lively interest in the
proceedings, and is evidently used to human companion-
ship. It wears a little collar and pendant.

The oxen straining at the rope, in the predella
of the picture in the Library, Jesi, trying in vain
to drag Sf. Lucy to dishonour, are well drawn from
nature. A comparison of the different couples in
scenes ii. and iii. shows how he has represented
the strain only gradually falling upon the foremost
beasts. The pair next to the Saint have all their
weight thrown against the rope round the little figure
in the full skirts, as she stands quietly speaking to
the judge. In the first panel two dogs play and rush
about the church, while a priest says Mass, and people
pray before a candle-decked shrine. A dog runs before
St. Barbara (Trescore, Oratorio Suardi) as she is
dragged to execution. A cat scampers across the
bedroom of the Blessed Virgin, startled by the arch-
angel in the Ammnciation (Recanati, Sta. Maria Sopra
Mercanti). A white rabbit pricks up its ears in
amazement at the uplifted hands of the King of Salem
as he offers the mystic bread and wine (in generous
quantity) to Abraham in the Sacrifice of Melchisedek
(Loretto, Archbishop's Palace), and an attendant leads
a calf.

Giovanni de' Busi, called Cariani, was a painter of Cariani,

^ c. 1480-1541

93

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Morando,
1486-1522

Bonifazio,
1487-1553

Sante Conversazioni. Two rabbits are playing together
in the picture of this class known as The Seamsh'ess
Madomia (Rome, Corsini Gallery), and among the birds
represented are partridges and a guinea-fowl.

Paolo Morando, who was a native of Verona, and
whose principal pictures are still to be seen there, has in
the National Gallery a St. Rock with the Aftgel, in
which the Saint's dog is not by any means painted as
an emblem only. It is the little Bolognese breed, and
looks downward out of the picture with its ears slightly
raised, a lifelike pose.

Bonifazio di Pitati, called Veronese, paints four
dogs in his Parable of Dives and Lazarus (Venice,
Accademia) ; one looks up at a puppy carried in a
kind of pouch on the back of a 'cello player. There
is also a man with a falcon on his wrist.

In the background of a Madonna and Child with
Saints (National Gallery) a lion is worrying a sheep-
dog. Sir Frederick Burton at least interprets it in
this way in the Catalogue of 1890. The lion would
perhaps connect the incident with St. Jerome, who is
painted behind St. James. Sir E. T. Cook calls the
animals a wolf and a sheep — " Notice the significance
of the incident in the middle distance — a shepherd asleep,
while a wolf is devouring a sheep." ^

^ A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, 1901, vol. i, p. 582.

94

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

Here is a problem of interpretation for the visitor
to the National Gallery, in which good sight as well
as knowledge of natural forms will be of service. The
group was probably never painted with much detail,
and the picture is at present hung rather high.

Alessandro Bonvici, of Brescia, nicknamed " II Moretto,
Moretto," has a choice of subordinate incidents in his
pictures which reminds us of Titian and Veronese.
Well-painted dogs and cats are frequently introduced
by him in the " Suppers " of the Gospel, which are so
characteristic of Venetian art. The Jesus at Emmaus
(Brescia, Martinengo Gallery) and the Last Supper
(S. Giovanni Evangelista) may be particularly men-
tioned. A monkey on the shoulders of a dwarf, in
the Supper at Simons House (Venice, S. Maria della
Pieta), has grasped him firmly by the hair.

In a curious Christ and Saints (Vienna), Marco Bello,
who was painting early in the sixteenth century, has occu-
pied the foreground with a row of creatures which appear
to have no logical or pictorial relation to the figures.

From left to right are to be seen a dove, a king-
fisher, a duck, three toads, a flamingo, two partridges,
and a lapwing or peewit.

Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) often painted the dog. Tintoretto,
One is under the table gnawing a bone in the Last Supper ^^^ ~^^'^
of the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, and

95

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

in another picture of the same subject (Scuolo di San
Rocco) a dog in the foreground barks vigorously in
sympathy as the disciples excitedly ask, "Is it I?"

Ruskin says of the ass in the Flight into Egypt^
" I have never seen any of the nobler animals — lion,
or leopard, or horse, or dragon — made so sublime as this
quiet head of the domestic ass, chiefly owing to the
• grand motion in the nostril and writhing in the ears."

He contrasts this with the "slovenly and mean" cow
in the Adoration of the Shepherds}

There are frogs, a snake, a peacock, and a rabbit in
the Louvre Susannah at the Bath. In the Origin of
the Milky Way (National Gallery) Juno is attended
by two peacocks. A rather heraldic eagle carries the
thunderbolts of Jove. In the Adoration already men-
tioned is a peacock in which Ruskin notices " the
peculiar flatness of the back and undulation of the
shoulders ; the bird's body is all there, though its
feathers are a good deal neglected ; and the same
thing is noticeable in a cock who is pecking among
the straw near the spectator, though in other respects
a shabby cock enough."

Jonah's whale is painted as a shaggy monster with
canine teeth.

Veronese, Xhe doe is painted by Veronese (Paolo Caliari of

1528-1588 s r /

^ The Stones of Venice, 1853, vol. iii. p. 336.
96

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

Verona) in many subjects from the Gospels. Amongst
these are the Adoration (National Gallery, Dresden,
and Milan), the Feast of Cana and the Disciples
of Em7naMS (Louvre), and the Supper at the Pharisees
House (Venice, Accademia). In this last the dog is in
front, and it appears from a document discovered by
M. Basquet that in 1573 Veronese had to appear before
the Holy Office on account of this picture, which was
painted for a convent. The frank inclusion of every-
day life of which we spoke is now connected, in the
mind of the Counter-Reformation, with heresy. The
" buffoons, dwarfs, drunken Germans and other fool-
eries " were objected to, and it was suggested that the
Magdalen should be put in the place occupied by the
dog.

In the National Gallery Adoration (painted in the
same year), the dog has on a collar of blue material laid
over the leather. An arresting incident in the very
middle of this picture is a man striking up with all his
force at a refractory and vicious-looking camel, whose
snarling lips are well rendered. The Mary Magdalene
in the hozcse of Simon the Pharisee (Turin) has two dogs
in the foreground, one coming from under the tablecloth,
and a parrot on the ledge of the portico screws round its
head to look down with one eye at the excited group
of Pharisees below. Two dogs have got a cat down

97 G

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

in the foreground of the Supper in the Pharisee's
House (Milan, Brera). It is, however, rendering a
very good account of itself both with teeth and
claws. The dog in Happy Union (National Gallery)
is probably introduced to suggest faithfulness, in
contrast to the unfaithfulness which is the subject
of one of the other three allegories. Ruskin says that
the dog is constantly introduced by the Venetians
in order to give the fullest contrast to the highest
tones of human thought and feeling. " They do this
not because they consider him the basest of animals,
but the highest, the connecting link between men and
animals, in whom the lower forms of really human
feeling may be best exemplified, such as conceit, gluttony,
indolence, petulance. But they saw the noble qualities
of the dog also — all his patience, love, and faithfulness." ^
A monkey in the Fa7nily of Darius (National Gallery)
clings to the finial of a balustrade with one hand, which
is far too human in shape. The thumb is longer than
in the true monkey form.

1 Modern Painters, vol. v. ch. vi. § 14.

Petrarch took a dog with him to the farm at Vauclose. "The dog
was a great feature, being a gift from Cardinal Colonna, and he is the
hero of one of Petrarca's Latin Metrical Epistles, in which he is extolled
for his agreeable manners and for the way in which, forgetting the princely
luxury to which he is accustomed, he adapts himself to his humble sur-
roundings." {Cf. Epist. Metr., Lib. iii. Ep. i.). — Maud F. J errold, Francesco
Petrarca, 1909.

98

CRIVELLI TO VERONESE

From the Metamorphoses of Ovid came the story
of Eu7'opa and the Bull, which Veronese has painted
in two versions, at Rome and Vienna ; a study for, or
copy of this, is in the National Gallery. In the Rome
picture, Jupiter under the form of a bull has enticed
Europa to mount his back, and is going to swim with
her off to Crete. The dog on the left looks on with
some excitement at his mistress' prank. A jealous
cow, with open mouth and a ludicrous expression in her
round staring eye, seems strongly to disapprove of the
proceedings.

In Scorn, another picture of the series of which
Happy Union is one, an ermine, again as in the Lotto
an emblem of chastity, is painted. It is on the arm
of one of the girls, looking back, its head twisted in
an awkward position, as though it were glad to get
away from the distasteful presence of the man lying
under the foot of Cupid.

99

CHAPTER IX

PADUA

Justus of
Padua,
d. 1400

Mantegna,
1431-1506

An early painter, known by a name which recalls his
quarter of a century's work in Padua, where he studied
the paintings of Giotto, is Justus — Giusto di Giovanni
— of Padua.

A very good example of his art is the Coronation
of the Virgin (National Gallery), dated 1367. The
painting of the ass is excellent ; the long upper lip,
the curve of the nose, and the peppering of white
on the dark hair are all carefully rendered. The ox
is less good, and the ram is as clumsy and wanting in
modelling as those of Margaritone.

Though Justus is included here, it is not by such
work that the character of Paduan painting is shown.
The spirit of revived antiquity, which here owed so
much to the enthusiastic teaching of Squarcione, is
seen in all its impressive grandeur in Andrea Mantegna.
He felt and shared in the life which Greek and Roman
sculpture had handed down. But he too, brought up
on the farm, painted nature from loving observation
and for its own sake.

100

PADUA

In the Madonna of Victory (Louvre), painted for
Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, in 1495, to
celebrate the battle of Fornovo, he has introduced one
of those apses of fruit and flowers which he may have
designed as a background for some religious representa-
tion or secular triumph. Here parrots and a sulphur-
crested cockatoo are seen chained by the leg to the
foliage. This is a bird we are hardly prepared to find
in Italy in the fifteenth century, as it is peculiar to the
Australasian region.

An AdoTLition (Florence, Uffizi) has about it a sugges-
tion of the stage. Possibly it is a recollection of scenery
which he had designed for a similar representation. In
it a camel is being brought down the practicable road-
way by a crowd of supers. The star and the banks of
angels have also a "property " appearance.

The incongruity which we have noticed in other
religious pictures is very marked in the Christ's Agony
in the Garden (National Gallery) ; somehow we should
not have expected it from a painter of the monumental
gravity of Mantegna. But the shock which the ludicrous
play of the rabbits gives us does heighten the effect
of the supreme spiritual tension experienced alone by
the Saviour, as the Apostles, absolutely overcome, sleep
open-mouthed. Two of the rabbits face each other,
watching, ready to jump to this side or that according to

lOI

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

the other's movement. Of another group of three, all
alert so that you feel that the slightest sound would
send them scuttling to their burrows, one sits up and
cuffs another with quickly thrust-out paw.^ Two tiny
storks or egrets, in either case quite out of proportion to
the human figures, stand in the river, and an eagle
perches in a tree. Sir E. T. Cook- calls this bird a
cormorant, to which it has some resemblance, but I be-
lieve that it is an eagle. The beak and feet particularly
should be noticed. It is the same bird as the one which
sits on the tree in Basaiti's Madonna of the Meadow.

It might be thought that a web-footed bird like the
cormorant would not be a percher, and that this would
alone decide the question, but it appears to be a fact
that it does settle and sometimes even nest in a tree :
this was noticed as its habit as far back as Pliny.^

Two rabbits come out of their burrows in the
Parnassus (Louvre), and there is a squirrel which seems

^ The rabbit is very frequently painted, and was a common feature
of Italian country life. Annibale Caro, advising Torquato Conti as to the
building of the Villa Catena near Poli in 1563, speaks of a deer park,
dovecots, and rabbit-warrens as the first necessities of a country house. —
See Rudolfo Lanciani, Wanderings in the Roman Campagna, 1909, p. 212.

^ Handbook to the National Gallery, vol. i. p. 642.

^ " Cormorants not uncommonly breed on inland lakes and swamps,
especially in the proximity of trees. Cormorants perch with ease on rocks,
posts, and limbs of trees . . . and not infrequently they roost in trees with
the head drawn back upon the shoulders.'' — A. H. Evans in Catnbridge
Natural History (Birds), vol. ix. p. 78.

102

PADUA

to wish to join in the dance in front of Mars and
Venus.

Truly magnificent even in their present repainted
state are the five scenes from the Triumph of Julius
Ccssar, at Hampton Court, originally painted in tempera
for the Ducal Court at Mantua.

The elephants are very plainly African ; they have
large ears, and the extremity of the trunk is without the
long upper finger of the Asiatic species. The Eastern
sheep which we saw in the Basaiti picture also appear,
and the smooth white bull with pendulous neck.

Like the religious Rappresentazione, the Trion/o was
not a matter of imagination only. Mantegna had seen
with his own eyes these processions, which the greatest
painters and most learned scholars of the day combined
to arrange. They gradually took the place of the
religious ones as the Renaissance grew to its full de-
velopment. The sculptures of the Arch of Titus and
similar remains of Roman greatness formed their ground-
work ; for in that country, amongst the ancient monu-
ments, with fresh antiquities constantly being unearthed,
literature was not the only means by which the classical
tradition was continued.

The paintings in the Camera dei Sposi, Castello

di Corte, Mantua, are of a processional nature, though

not after this classic model.

103

c. 1470-1517

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

In the Meeting of Mmgrave Ludovico of Mantua
with his Son Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, there is a dog
close at the heels of the Margrave. No doubt this was
a favourite companion. Benvenuto Cellini had such a
*' shock dog," or shaggy retriever, given to him by Duke
Alessandro, which, besides following the gun, was an
excellent house-dog, and defended his shop when broken
into by robbers.^ Other dogs are to be seen in the
suite of the Margrave.
Francesco There are in the National Gallery two paintings by

^x^^l-i^vi Francesco Mantegna, the son and pupil of Andrea, which
may be mentioned here. Religious symbolism is the
note of the Christ and the Magdalen. A vine grows
luxuriously over the dead tree, signifying perhaps the
inevitable permanence of life as shown in the Resurrec-
tion. A serpent attacks a nest of eggs, which always
have that significance, and there is a curious hive round
which bees are swarming. The monks were great bee-
keepers, the honey being used instead of sugar and
the wax for candles, and they drew many fanciful and
useful lessons from them. Peter of Capua calls the risen
and ascended Saviour Apis ^therea — the Heavenly
Bee. Masolino paints a swarm of bees in San Cle-
mente, Rome ; but here they are a necessary part of
the story of the infant Ambrose.

* Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellmi, trans. R oscoe, ch. x.
104

PADUA

In another Francesco, The Holy Women at the
Sepulchre, are two ducks quarrelling in a pond, and
a tortoise on the bank. This is the European pond-
tortoise, and its habits may have caused it to be painted
as a symbol here. At the commencement of the winter
it constructs an underground chamber, in which it
remains buried in slumber until spring.

A fly is painted by Gregorio Schiavone on the step Gregorio
of the throne of the Madonna and Child with Saints c.*^i47o°"^
(National Gallery), to the right of the cartellino in
which he describes himself as the pupil of Squarcione.
It will be remembered that Crivelli, whose flies have
already been noticed, was also a follower of Squarcione.

Perhaps one of the early stories of Giotto may have
had common currency, and have suggested the painting
of the fly. Vasari tells it thus : " It is said that Giotto,
when he was still a boy and studying with Cimabue,
once painted a fly on the nose of a figure on which
Cimabue himself was employed, and this so naturally,
that, when the master returned to continue his work, he
believed it to be real, and lifted his hand more than
once to drive it away before he should go on with the
painting." ^

^ Lives, vol. i. p. 78.

105

CHAPTER X

LOMBARDY

Foppa, ViNCENZO FopPA has painted swallows on the cornice

c. 1425-1492 ^^^ rafters of the dismantled building under whose
shadow the Adoration of the Kings takes place (National
Gallery). In comparison with Crivelli's swallow they
are feebly realised. Sheep feed on the steep hillside,
and two of the riders in the train of the kings have
hawks on their wrists.
Luini, The backgrounds of Bernardino Luini's larger com-

positions are made interesting by his constant use of the
animal motive. In the Adoration of the Magi (Louvre)
there is a camel amongst the horses of the distant
retinue. In a more crowded rendering of the same
subject (Saronno, Sta. Maria dei Miracoli) he has
painted Lorenzo's giraffe in the cavalcade. Here the
rendering is on the whole faithful, and the reticulated
protective markings, like sunlight thrown through a
trellis of boughs, are well brought out. There are
camels also here, as in the Israelites leaving Egypt
(Milan, Brera). The giraffe also appears in a picture

106

c. 1475-1533

LOMBARDY

in the Cathedral, Como, where it is led by a man with
a rope, and looks back over (a good way over) its
shoulder. An elephant, a tiger (?), and camels are in-
cluded in the procession.

In the Crucifixion, at Lugano, his pleasure in paint-
ing the dog with the soldiers who have been dicing for
the seamless coat is very evident. Another dog occurs
in the left-hand corner of the fresco, turning its back
upon the group of holy women.

A cat sits at the feet of Judas in the fresco of the
Last Supper in the same church. A cat and dog are
painted in the Spozalizio in San Maurizio, Milan.

A portrait of a lady, attributed to Luini, was shown
at the Exhibition of Early Italian Art at the New
Gallery in 1893-4: she is carrying in her right hand
a pet animal of the marten tribe. In the Czartoryski
Gallery, Cracow, is a similar picture, perhaps by Bol-
traffio, in which the animal, which may be a ferret,
looks round, its paws on the girl's left arm as she
caresses it with her right hand.

Sodoma's portrait of himself at Monte Oliveto, Sodoma,
attended by badgers and ravens, suggests at once his
fondness for animals. He kept birds there while paint-
ing the frescoes of the Life of St. Benedict, ordered by
the monastery, and in the still extant accounts are the
charges for seed.

107

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

These frescoes are full of animal life, very unequally-
painted. A swan with a ludicrous neck and altogether
ill-shaped is close to his own portrait; an equally bad
peacock appears in the scene in which a raven and
a cat are feeding, with characteristic action, on different
sides of a pillar. Several assistants were employed
here.

According to Vasari, who loathed him, Giovanni
Antonio Bazzi's house was almost as hospitable to the
lower creatures as Noah's ark. ** He delighted in
keeping all sorts of strange animals in his house —
badgers, squirrels, monkeys, dwarf asses, Barbary
steeds to run in the palio, ponies from Elba, jays,
bantams, Indian turtle-doves, and other animals of a
similar kind."^ An ape rode with him on the saddle
in the race of San Bernaba in Florence. He had a
raven which would imitate his voice so exactly that if
any one knocked at the door it was as though Sodoma
himself had said, " Come in ! "

Talking birds seem to have been much prized.
The Archduke Philip's green parrot has already
been mentioned. Salimbene, two centuries earlier,
tells us of a talking crow of Gregorio di Montelungo,
in Ferrara. "The crow talked like a man, and was
great at taking people in. It used to get up in the

^ Le Vite, ed. Milanesi, vol. vi. p. 380 ; Lives, vol. iii. p. 356.

108

LOMBARDY

night and call the travellers from their lodgings, say-
ing, ' Who wants to come to Bononia ? Who wants
to come to Dojulum ? Who wants to come to Peolan ?
Come, come, come ! quickly, quickly, quickly ! get up,
get up ! come, come ! Bring your things ! Let us be
off, let us be off! To the boat.' Newcomers, not having
heard of the deceptive crow, used to get up and take all
their luggage and spend a good part of the night on the
bank of the Po, waiting in vain for the boat, before they
realised that they had been tricked." ^

Vasari has no sympathy with such things. " This
animal," he contemptuously says of Sodoma, "frittered
away much time with his beasts and fooleries, and so
neglected his work." In more than one respect he
recalls Rossetti (whose friends were expected to find his
wombat the nicest beast on earth), and the " ragging "
spirit which tempered the ideals of the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood.^

In answer to some municipal demand, he sends the
following inventory : "Be it herewith known and noti-
fied to you, my honourable fellow-townsmen, by Me,

^ Tom. xxxii. pars i. p. 390.

^ Rossetti, in this mood, wrote —

" Oh ! How the family affections combat

Within my breast ! Each hour throws a bomb at

My burning soul— neither from owl nor from bat

Can peace be gained, until I clasp my wombat."

109

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Master John Sodoma, in respect to my possessions as
under : First, then, I have a garden by the new fountain,
where I sow and others reap. Then in Vallerozzi,
a house as my residence, not to mention a lawsuit
with one Niccolo di Libri. In my stalls eight horses
. . . further I have a monkey ; moreover a raven,
which I keep by me in order that he may teach
from his cage a theological jackass also to speak.
Item, an owl to frighten the witches, 2 peacocks,
2 dogs, 2 cats, a sparrow-hawk, and other birds of
prey, 6 fowls, 18 chicks, 2 moorfowl [guinea-fowl .f*], and
many other birds, to name all of which would only
cause confusion." ^ Amongst the property left at his
death was a parrot in a cage.^

In the Leda (Rome, Borghese), in addition to the
powerful swan, is a snail, a thrush, a goldfinch, and a
dove.'^ In the Berlin Charity a pelican is painted in
a nest in a tree.

The value of Vasari's condemnation of the keeping
of pets as representing the opinion of the time was con-
sidered in the first chapter. Mr. Berenson has acutely
summed up his credibility by saying that he said the

1 Lives, vol. iii. p. 357, note. The genuineness of this document is, how-
ever, open to doubt.

* R. H. Hobart Cust, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, 1906, p. 64, note.

^ I follow Morelli in giving this picture to Sodoma, either as original
or an early copy.

no

LOMBARDY

very best he could about his friends — or a little more —
and did not hesitate to say the worst of those who were
his rivals. " Everything he tells us about the Floren-
tine artists still living at the beginning of the sixteenth
century has the value of living tradition, although allow-
ance must be made for his occasionally becoming the
mouthpiece of still smouldering hatreds, which make
him a partisan even in matters of the past. His point
of view, furthermore, is grossly provincial, not to say
municipal, and his opinion as to the relative importance
of Florentine art in general is not to be taken without
criticism, and still less his estimates of artists such as
Perugino, Pinturicchio, or Sodoma, who came from the
outside to spoil the trade of Florentines and Tuscans." ^

An Adoration (Milan, Brera) by Gaudenzio Ferrari Ferrari,
contains in one of the panels an elaborately dressed
youth on horseback with a hawk on his hand. A
monkey sits behind him. In the foreground a man is
holding a leopard which has a strong chain wrapped
twice round its neck. No doubt it is meant for the
hunting leopard, but it is covered at regular intervals
with spots, in groups of three, as though put on with
a stencil. A quaint little curly dog accompanies a
dwarf in the middle panel, and in that on the left
there is a camel.

^ study atid Criticism of Italian Art, second series, 1902, p. 117.

Ill

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Correggio, Another woebegone lion is painted by Correggio

1494-1534 (Antonio Allegri) in the Madonna di S. Girolamo
(Parma, Royal Gallery). The lion was intentionally
somewhat conventionalised in these pictures, and is
usually of the type made familiar by the block-books
of the Bib Ha Pauperu7n, but here evidently it is the
African lion.

The dog appears several times with the cherubs in
the frescoes of San Paolo, Parma, generally much worried
by their attentions. One particularly, a long-nosed
greyhound hugged tightly round the neck, has the
strained look and the averted eye which any one who
has seen dogs and children together must have noticed.

A spaniel, v/hich has rushed up just too late to
reach the eagle which is carrying off Ganymede (Vienna,
Imperial Gallery), stands and barks vigorously into
the air. The symbols of the Evangelists have as a
rule been neglected, but the eagle in the St. John
(Parma, S. Giovanni Evangelista), curiously fitted into
a corner of the lunette, is painted in an unconventional
manner, preening its wing feathers with its beak.

A rabbit peeps inquisitively round some foliage at
the Virgin and Child in the National Museum, Naples.

The painters of the decadence do not concern us in
the present inquiry, but by contrast they light up the
methods and ideals of their predecessors. The glow

112

THE DECADENCE

of the Renaissance, to which Mr. Berenson specifically
refers, has died down. The loving perception and
rendering of the individually beautiful in nature is no
longer a motive. Conventional forms and textures
take the place of vividly realised living quality of
surface and material. "Furniture, utensils, houses,
animals, birds, weapons," says Symonds, " are idealised
— stripped, that is to say, of what in these things is
specific and vital." ^

A motive significant of this decadence is seen in the
Holy Family, by Baroccio (1526-16 12), in the National
Gallery : their amusement at the terror of a bird, the
goldfinch again, and the eagerness of a cat.

Ruskin says : "In representing, nay, in thinking and
caring for these beasts, man has to think of them essen-
tially with their skins on them and their souls in them.
He is to know how they are spotted, wrinkled, furred,
and speckled, and what the look of them is in the eyes,
and what they grasp or cling or trot or pat in their paws
and claws. He is to take every view of them, in fact,
except one — the butcher's view."

Bassano (15 10-1592) can hardly be acquitted of
having taken this view. He seems to have cared most
for animals that are good to eat ; and in a picture of the
Building of the Ark (Rome, Doria Gallery) a regular

^ The Renaissance in Italy, vol. vii. p. 233.

113 H

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

farmyard is gathered together ready to go in. They
are exclusively the edible domestic animals.

The subject of Lazarus and Dives (Vienna) gives
him the opportunity of introducing the rich man's open-
air larder, which exactly faces the high table where he
is feasting under a colonnade. Rows of plates, dishes,
ladles, and other implements of cookery are arrayed,
and a hare, chickens ready plucked, fish, and other food
is displayed. Two dogs lick the poor man's wounds ; ^
a cat and a monkey quarrel amongst the pots and pans.
A peacock is the one spot of beauty in the sordid scene,
and one imagines him smacking his lips over this.

Even when he paints the power of Orpheus, it is over
the inhabitants of the poultry-yard that he thinks of it
as being exercised. Technically he has his merits, but
they are the merits of a descending scale, and in his
treatment of animals he is felt to be in contrast with the
best period of Italian art.

Caravaggio goes even further, and makes a roast
chicken the obvious point of interest in his Supper of
Eminaus.

^ The same incident is painted in the Good Samaritan in the National
Gallery.

114

APPENDIX A

ANIMALS, BIRDS, REPTILES, FISHES, AND INSECTS
REPRESENTED BY THE ITALIAN PAINTERS

Ape or Monkey. — Jacopo Bellini, Gentile Bellini (school), Giovanni
Bellini, Gentile da Fabriano, Botticelli, Ludovico Mazzolino,
Veronese, Bassano, Pinturicchio, Montagna, Peruzzi, Michele di
Matteo, Bernardino Jacopi, Andrea del Sarto (?), Lorenzo Costa,
Moretto, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Gozzoli.

Lion. — Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti, Lorenzetti (school), Andrea da
Firenze, Cima da Conegliano, Pinturicchio, Filippino I^ippi,
Crivelli, Titian, Basaiti, Catena, Matteo da Gualdo, Raphael,
Bonifazio Veronese, Cosimo Tura, Pacchiarotto, Uccello, Botticini,
Moretto, Sassetta, Jacopo Bellini, Carpaccio, Correggio, Leonardo
da Vinci.

Leopard. — Gentile da Fabriano, Gozzoli, Giorgione (school), Luini,
Gaudenzio Ferrari.

Cheetah. — Gentile da Fabriano, Gozzoli, Titian, Jacopo Bellini, Andrea
da Firenze, Pesellino.

Lynx. — Pisanello, Bacchiacca,

Genet. — Carpaccio.

Wild-cat. — Pisanello.

Domestic Cat. — Orcagna, Antonello da Messina, Gozzoli, Pinturicchio,
Luini, Sodoma, Girolamo del Pacchia, Titian, Bassano, Ghirlan-
dajo, Lorenzo Lotto, Domenico di Bartolo, Leonardo da Vinci,
Cosimo Rosselli, Moretto.

Dog. — Most painters.

Wolf. — Giotto, Andrea da Firenze (?), Sassetta.

115

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Fox. — Andrea da Firenze (?), Pisanello, Pietro Lorenzetti.

Bear. — Giotto, Filippino Lippi, Pisanello, Uccello, Pesellino.

Badger. — Sodoma.

Horse., Ass, or Mule. — Most painters.

Domestic Ox. — Most painters.

Buffalo. — Uccello.

Goat. — Margaritone, Giotto, Pisanello, Signorelli, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo,
Titian, Domenico Campagnola, Andrea del Sarto (?), Bacchiacca,
Botticelli, Gozzoli, Lorenzo di Credi.

Sheep. — Margaritone, Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Orcagna, Justus of
Padua, Andrea da Firenze (?), Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi, Fra
Angelico, Foppa, Crivelli, Perugino, Titian, Francesco da
Volterra, Bonifazio Veronese, Michael Angelo, Carpaccio, Palma
Vecchio, Lorenzo Costa, Pietro di Puccio, Domenico Campagnola,
Moretto, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione.

Deer. — Pietro Lorenzetti, Lorenzetti (school), Gozzoli, Cima da Cone-
gliano, Pisanello, Bono, Dosso Dossi, Botticelli, Battista di
Dossi, Liberate da Verona (?), Carpaccio, Matteo di Balducci,
Montagna, Raphael, Jacopo Bellini, Pinturicchio, Correggio,
PoUajuolo, Gentile Bellini (school), Bacchiacca.

Gazelle. — Gentile Bellini.

Elephant. — Mantegna, Peruzzi, Raphael, Luini.

Boar or Pig. — Sassetta, Luini, Pisanello, Moretto, Pinturicchio.

Giraffe. — Gentile Bellini (?), Luini, Peruzzi, Andrea del Sarto (?),
Raphael, Pesellino (school).

Caviel. — Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti, Lorenzetti (school), Pinturicchio,
Filippo Lippi, Gozzoli, Perugino, Luini, Mantegna, Raphael,
Veronese, Fra Angelico, Carpaccio, Gentile Bellini, Sassetta,
Benedetto Bonfigli, Andrea Sabatini, Leonardo, Gaudenzio
Ferrari, Lorenzo Costa, Lorenzo Monaco, Pesellino (school),
Orcagna.

Marten. — Luini (?), Lotto, Bacchiacca, Boltraffio (?).

Weasel. — Pisanello.

Stoat {Ermi?ie). — Lotto, Veronese.

Hare. — Pisanello, Gentile Bellini, Pinturicchio.

Ii6

APPENDIX A

Rabbit. — Cima da Conegliano, Lotto, Tintoretto, Jacopo Bellini,
Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Mantegna, Cosimo Tura, Pintu-
ricchio, Crivelli, Giovanni di Paolo, Titian, Carpaccio, Piero di
Cosimo, Piero della Francesca, Moretto, Correggio, Francesco
del Cossa, Cariani, Timoteo Viti.

Squirrel. — Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna, Raphael.

Rat. — Raphael.

Bat. — Pisanello,
JV/iale. — Michael Angelo, Tintoretto.

Eagle. — Jacopo Bellini, Pisanello, Francia, Correggio, Titian, Cosimo
Tura, Basaiti, Mantegna, Raphael.

Hawk or Falcott. — Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti, Gentile da Fabriano,
Cosimo Tura, Andrea da Firenze, Gozzoli, Bonifazio Veronese,
Foppa, Verrocchio, Pinturicchio, Ghirlandajo, Michele di Matteo,
Cosimo Roselli, Giovanni Bellini, Dosso Dossi, Jacopo Bellini,
Perugino, Raphael, Francesco Cossa, Filippo Lippi, Titian,
Pesellino, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Veronese, Lorenzo Costa.

Owl. — Cosimo Tura, Perugino, Dosso Dossi, Ludovico Mazzolino,
Giorgione (school).

Scops Owl. — Antonello da Messina.

Vulture. — Pisanello, Carpaccio, Crivelli.

Raven. — Lorenzetti (school), Uccello, Giovanni Bellini, Pinturicchio,
Sodoma.

Jackdaw. — Giotto, Pinturicchio.

Magpie. — Piero della Francesca, Antonello da Messina (?), Gozzoli.

Chough. — Lorenzetti (school).

Jay. — Giotto, Gentile da Fabriano, Gozzoli.

Woodpecker {green). — Giotto.
„ (spotted). — Giotto.

Kingfisher. — Pisanello, Cima da Conegliano, Giovanni Bellini, Marco
Bello.

Heron. — Pisanello, Francesco del Cossa, Pisanello (school).

Crane. — Lorenzetti (school), Piero di Cosimo, Crivelli, Raphael,
Giovanni Bellini, Veronese.

117

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Stork. — Lorenzetti (school), Giovanni Bellini, Cima da Conegliano,

Mantegna, Raphael, Pisanello.
Flamingo. — Crivelli, Marco Bello.

Pelican. — Piero di Cosimo, Pisanello, Sodoma, Jacopo d'Avanzi.
Spoonbill. — Dosso Dossi.
Lapwing {^Peewit). — Marco Bello.
Swan. — Cima da Conegliano, Cosimo Tura, Filippo Lippi, Sodoma,

Piero della Francesca, Correggio, Michael Angelo, Girolamo di

Carpi, Francesco del Cossa, Gianpedrino, Domenico Puligo(?),

Veronese, Filippino Lippi, Giorgione.
Goose. — Pisanello.

Domestic Duck. — Crivelli, Francesco Mantegna.
Wild Duck. — Pisanello, Gozzoli, Pinturicchio, Ghirlandajo, Marco

Bello, Pietro Lorenzetti.
Domestic Fowl. — Crivelli, Bassano, Dosso Dossi, Lo Spagna, Mezzastris,

Tintoretto.
Pheasant. — Pietro Lorenzetti, Filippo Lippi, Pinturicchio, Piero di

Cosimo.
Partridge. — Giovanni Bellini, Antonello da Messina, Catena, Titian,

Benedetto Diana, Cima da Conegliano, Luini, Cariani, Marco

Bello.
Grouse. — Gozzoli.

Quail. — Giotto, Antonio Pollajuolo, Pisanello.

Guinea-fowl. — Carpaccio, Benedetto Diana, Cariani, Lazzaro Bastiani.
Peacock. — Lorenzetti (school), Gentile da Fabriano, Giovanni Bellini,

Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Gozzoli, Crivelli, Antonello da Messina,

Pesellino, Sodoma, Tintoretto, Raphael, Pinturicchio, Carpaccio,

Montagna, Ghirlandajo, Stefano di Zevio, Bastiani.
Turkey. — Andrea del Sarto (?).
Parrot. — Orcagna, Gozzoli, Mantegna, Girolamo di Santa Croce,

Carpaccio, F. Floris (?), Peruzzi, Veronese, Giovanni Bellini,

Bacchiacca, Andrea del Sarto (?).
Cockatoo. — Mantegna.
Hawfinch. — Giotto.

Goldfinch. — Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Sano di Pietro, Botticelli,

ii8

APPENDIX A

Francia, Filippo Lippi, Gentile Bellini (school), Filippo Mazzola,
Pisanello, Andrea del Sarto, Sodoma, Baroccio, Andrea Vanni,
Carpaccio, Montagna, Piero di Cosimo, Ghirlandajo, Bastiani,
Ambrogio di Predis, Domenico Morone, Raphael, Veronese,
Bronzino.

Chaffinch. — Giotto, Pisanello.

Wagtail. — Giorgione (school), Buffalmacco (?).

Golden Oriole. — Gozzoli.

Hoopoe. — Pisanello, Pinturicchio, Montagna.

Thrush. — Giotto, Gozzoli, Sodoma.

Blackbird. — Gozzoli.

Robin. — Giotto, Buffalmacco (?)

Great-Tit. — Giotto, Gozzoli.

Blue-Tit. — Filippino Lippi.

Swallow. — Crivelli, Foppa, Montagna, Matteo da Gualdo.

Bee-eater. — Cosimo Tura, Ghirlandajo, Gozzoli, Pinturicchio.

Pigeon or Dove. — Pisanello, Giorgione (school), Giotto, Crivelli, Piero
di Cosimo, Piero della Francesca, Uccello, Botticelli, Carpaccio,
Bronzino, Basaiti, Raphael, Ghirlandajo, Marco Bello, Alvise
Vivarini.

Lizard. — Cima da Conegliano, Filippo Lippi, Giovanni Bellini, Titian,
Carpaccio, Francia.

Frog. — Cosimo Tura, Carpaccio, Tintoretto.

Toad. — Carpaccio, Marco Bello.

Snake. — Piero di Cosimo, Antonella da Messina, Jacopo Bellini,
Giovanni Bellini, Pisanello, Botticelli, Carpaccio, Titian, Tinto-
retto, Cima da Conegliano, Alesso Baldovinetti, Bronzino, Raphael,
Pietro Lorenzetti.

Crocodile. — Lorenzetti (school).

Tortoise. — Francesco Mantegna.

Snail. — Crivelli, Sodoma, Paolo Farinato, Raphael.

Dogfish. — Raphael.

Skate. — Raphael.

Octopus. — Duccio.

119

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Crayfish. — Duccio.

Various Fish. — Duccio, Bruno di Giovanni, Masaccio, Mantegna,
Botticini (?), Perugino, Bassano, Cima da Conegliano, Lorenzo da
Sanseverino, Raphael, Taddeo Gaddi (school), Veronese, Titian,
Pietro Lorenzetti.

Locust. — Raphael (school).

House-fiy. — Crivelli, Gregorio Schiavone, Marco Marziale.

Bee. — Masolino, Francesco Mantegna.

Hortiet. — Botticelli.

Red Admiral. — Pisanello.

Clouded Yellow. — Pisanello.

Scarce Swallow-tail. — Pisanello.

Various Butterflies and Moths. — Piero di Cosimo, Montagna.

Spider. — Veronese.

Note. — A query refers to the painter, not to the animal. Thus pictures begun by
Gentile Bellini and Andrea del Sarto were completed by other painters.

I20

APPENDIX B

PAINTINGS IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY
SUGGESTED FOR STUDY

FLORENCE

564.

Margaritone.

The Virgin and Child.

Ox, ass, sheep, goats.

574-

Orcagna.

The Adoration of the
Magi.

Ox, ass, sheep, dog (?),
camel.

579-

Taddeo Gaddi(school)

. The Baptism of Christ.

Fish.

583-

Uccello.

The Battle of St. Egidio.

Horses.

283.

Gozzoli.

The Virgin and Child
Enthroned.

Goldfinch, great-tit.

1033-

Botticelli.

The Adoration of the
Magi.

Ox, ass, dog, monkeys,
rabbits, deer.

1034.

„

The Nativity.

Ox, ass.

781.

Botticini (?).

Tobias.

Dog, fish.

227.

„

St. Jerome.

Lion.

293-

Filippino Lippi.

St. Jerome and St.
Dominic.

Lion, bear, squirrel (?),
swan, blue-tit.

648.

Lorenzo di Credi.

The Virgin Adoring the
Infant Christ.

Sheep, goats.

698.

Piero di Cosimo.

The Death of Procris.

Dogs, cranes, pelican.

1219.

Bacchiacca.

The History of Joseph.

Mule.

29.

Baroccio.

Holy Family.

Cat, goldfinch.

1849. Pacchiarotto.

S.K.M. Bernardino Fungai.

167 (see Peruzzi.
also 218).

SIENA

The Nativity. Ox, ass, lion.

Holy Family. Goldfinch.

The Adoration of the Elephant, giraffe,

Magi. camels, monkey,
parrot.

121

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

773. Cosimo Tura.

141 1. Ercole de' Roberti.

771. Bono.

82. Mazzolino.

908. Piero della Fran-
cesca.

1847. Signorelli.

FERRARA
St. Jerome.

The Adoration of the
Shepherds.

St. Jerome.

The Holy Family.

UMBRIA
The Nativity.

The Virgin Crowned by
Angels and attended
by Saints.

The Virgin adoring the
Infant Christ.

The Return of Ulysses.
The Story of Griselda.

VENICE

The Vision of St. Eus-
tace.

288. Perugino.
911. Pinturicchio.
912-914. Umbrian School.

1436. Pisanello.

776. „ St. Anthony and St.

George.

750. Gentile Bellini Madonna and Child En-

(school). throned.

812. Giovanni Bellini. St. Peter Martyr.

1418. Antonello da Mes- St. Jerome,
sina.

1416. Filippo Mazzola. Virgin and Child with

Saints.

1336. Liberale da Verona (?). The Death of Dido.

1953. Lazzaro Bastiani. The Virgin and Child.

122

Lion, cows, owl, bee-
eater, frog.

Ox, ass, lion.

Lion, deer, birds.
Monkey, lamb.

Ox, ass, magpie, gold-
finch.

Goats.

Fish.

Lion, cat, wild-boar,
jackdaw.

Monkey, camels, bear,
deer, sheep, dogs,
peacocks, hawks.

Bear, stag, dogs,
swans, geese, hoo-
poe, pelicans, herons,
chafiSnches, king-
fisher.

Boar.

Goldfinch.

Cattle, donkey, goat,
Iamb, bird.

Lion, cat, peacock,
birds.

Goldfinch.

Deer.

Goldfinch.

APPENDIX B

803.

Marco Marziale.

The Circumcision.

Dog, fly.

1 120.

Cima da Conegliano.

St. Jerome.

Lion, hawk, serpent.

300.

»

The Virgin and Child.

Mule, swans, birds.

634.

M

The Madonna.

Stag, linnet (?).

739-

Crivelli.

The Annunciation.

Peacock, doves.

668.

„

The Beato Ferretti.

Ducks, goldfinch.

788.

"

The Madonna and Child
Enthroned.

Goldfinch.

724.

"

Madonna della Rondine.

Lion, dog, mule, rab-
bits, vulture, fla-
mingo, swallow,
snake.

807.

"

The Madonna and Child
Enthroned.

Snail.

907.

n

St. Catherine.

Fly.

694.

Catena.

St. Jerome.

Partridges.

234.

>»

A Warrior Adoring.

Dog, partridges.

599-

Basaiti.

The Madonna of the
Meadow.

Cattle, goat, stork,
eagle.

281.

„

St. Jerome Reading.

Lion, dove, snake.

1 160.

Giorgione.

The Adoration of the
Magi.

Ox, ass, horses.

"73-

,, (school).

Unknown subject.

Leopard, deer, owl,
peacock, wagtail.

930.

.. .1

The Garden of Love.

Doves.

35-

Titian.

Bacchus and Ariadne.

Cheetahs, spaniel,
snakes.

34-

,,

Venus and Adonis.

Mastiff and setter.

735.

Morando.

St. Roch with the Angel.

Dog.

1202.

Bonifazio Veronese.

Madonna and Child with
Saints.

Lion and sheep-dog (?).

1313-

Tintoretto.

The Origin of the Milky
Way.

Peacocks, eagle.

268.

Veronese.

The Adoration of the
Magi.

Dog, camel.

294.

"

The Family of Darius.
123

Monkey, spaniels.

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN . PAINTING

1324. Veronese. Scorn. Ermine.

1326. „ Happy Union. Dog.

1696. Venetian School. Landscape with Nymphs. Goat, sheep.

LOMBARDY

729. Foppa. The Adoration of the Horses, swallows,

Magi. hawks.

734. Andrea da Solario. Portrait of Gio. Christo- Deer,

phoro Longono.

1466. Lelio Orsi. The Walk to Emmaus. Birds.

PADUA

630. Justus of Padua. The Coronation of the Ox, ass.

Virgin

14 1 7. Andrea Mantegna. The Agony in the Gar- Rabbits, storks, eagle.

den.

639. Francesco Mantegna. Christ and the Magdalen. Serpent, bees.

1381. ,, ,, The Holy Women at the Ducks, tortoise.

Sepulchre.

630. Schiavone. The Madonna and Child Fly,

with Saints.

124

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anonimo, the. Ed. G. C. Williamson, trans. Paolo Mussi, 1903.

Armstrong, Sir W. Notes on the National Gallery, 1887.

Arnold, Matthew. Essays in Criticism, 2nd series, 1898 (Pagan

and Mediaeval Religious Sentiment).
Beazley, C. R. The Dawn of Modern Geography, vol. iii., 1906.
Beltrami, Luca. Luini, 1512-1532. Milan, 1911.
Berenson, Bernhard :

The Study and Criticism of Italian Art, 2 vols., 1901-2.
Lorenzo Lotto, 1905.

North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 1907.
Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 1909.
Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, 1899.
A Sienese Painter of the Franciscan Legend, 1909.
The Drawings of the Florentine Painters, 2 vols., 1903.
Biagi, Guido. The Private Life of the Renaissance Florentines.

Florence, 1896.
Brinton, Selwyn. The Renaissance in Italian Art, 4 vols., 1898-

1904.
Brown, Baldwin. The Fine Arts, 1891.
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Trans. S. G. S. Middlemore, 1890.
Burlington Magazine, The.
Cahier and Martin. Melanges d'Archeologie (for Bestiaries),

vols. ii. and iii. Paris, 185 1-3.
Cambridge Modern History. Vol. i., The Renaissance, 1902.

125

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Cambridge Natural History.

Cartwright, Julia. The Painters of Florence, 191 o.

Cook, E. T. A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, 1901.

CouLTON, G. G. :

Sidelight on the Franciscans (^Independent Review, Feb. 1905).

From St. Francis to Dante, 2nd ed., 1906.

A Mediaeval Garner, 19 10.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in Italy. Ed.

Langton Douglas, 4 vols., 1903-1911.
CusT, R. H. H. Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, 1906.
Davies, G. S. Ghirlandajo, 1908.

DiDRON, A. N. Christian Iconography. Bohn's ed., 2 vols., 1896.
Dresser, H. E. A History of the Birds of Europe, 1871-1881.
Evans, E. P. Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture,

1896.
Frizzoni, Gustavo. Arte italiana del Rinascimento. Milan, 1891.
Fry, R. E. Bellini, 1899.
Gronau, Georg. Titian, 1904.
Hill, G. F. Pisanello, 1905.

HoLBROOK, R. T. Dante and the Animal Kingdom, 1902.
Holroyd, Sir Charles. The National Gallery : North Italian Schools.
HoRSBURGH, E. L. S. Lorenzo the Magnificent, 1908.
Knapp, Fritz. Piero di Cosimo. Halle, 1898.
Kraus, F. X. Geschichte de christlichen Kunst, 3 vols. Freiburg,

1897-1900.
Kugler, F. T. Handbook of Painting. Ed. Layard, 1887.
Lydekker, R. Royal Natural History, 1894.

Lytton, Hon. Mrs. Neville. Toy Dogs and their Ancestors, 191 1.
Male. L'Art religieux du xiii. Siecle, 19 10.
Marco Polo. Travels. Everyman Library.
McCurdy, Edward. Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks, 1906.

126

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Michel, E. Histoire de I'Art, vols. iii. (2) and iv. Paris, 1908-9.
MiCHELL, E. B. The Art and Practice of Hawking, 1900.
MoLMENTi AND LuDWiG. Life and Works of Vittore Carpaccio.

Trans. R. H. H. Cust, 1907.
MoRELLi, Giovanni :

Italian Painters. Trans. C. J. Ffoulkes, 2 vols., 1892-3.
Delia pittura italiana, studii storico critici. Ed. Gustavo Frizzoni.
Milan, 1897.
MiJNTZ, E. Histoire de I'Art pendant la Renaissance, 3 vols. Paris,

1889.
MiJTHER, R. Geschichte der Malerei, vol. i. Leipzig, 1909.
Ogilvie-Grant, W. R. A Handbook to the Game-birds, 2 vols.,

1896.
Physiologus Syrus. Edidit O. Gerhardus Tychsen. Rostochii, 1795.
Physiologus, Geschichte des. Von Dr. Freidrich Lauchert. Strass-

burg, 1889.
Pliny. Natural History. Bohn's ed., 6 vols, 1855-7.
Ragg, Lonsdale. Dante and his Italy, 1907.
Renan, Ernest. Nouvelles etudes d'Histoire Religieuse. Paris,

1884.
Ricci, Corrado. Pinturicchio. Trans. F. Symonds, 1902.
RiCHTER, J. P. Lectures on the National Gallery, 1898.
Ross, Janet. Lives of the Early Medici as told in their Correspond-
ence, 1910.
Rossetti, D. G. Early Italian Poets.
RusHFORTH, G. M'Neil. CrivclH, 1900.
RusKiN. Passim.
Sabatier, p. Life of St. Francis of Assisi. Trans. L. S. Houghton,

1899.
Sacchetti, Franco. Novelle, 3 vols. Milan, 1804-5.

Tales from. Trans. M. G. Steedraan, introduction by Dr. Guido
Biagi, 1908.

127

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN . PAINTING

Salimbene. Cronica Fratris Salimbene de Adam Ordinis Minorum,
torn, xxxii. Monumenta Germanic Historica. Hannoverae,
1905.
Salter, E. G. Franciscan Legends in Italian Art, 1905.
Symonds, J. A. The Renaissance in Italy: The Fine Arts, 1897.
Taylor, H. O. :

The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages, 1901.
The Mediaeval Mind, 191 1.
Vasari, G. :

Le Vite de' piu Eccellenti Pittori, con nuove annotazioni e com-

menti di Gaetano Milanesi, 9 vols. Florence, 1878-1885.
Le Vite. (i) Gentile da Fabriano e il Pisanello. Ed. A.

Venturi. Florence, 1896.
Lives of the Painters. Ed. Blashfield and Hopkins, 4 vols.,
1897.
Venturi, A. Storia dell' arte italiana, 8 vols. Milan, 1901-1911.
Williamson, G. C. :

Bernardino Luini, 1899.
Francesco Raibolini, called Francia, 1899.
Woermann, K. Geschichte der Kunst aller Zeiten und Volker, 3 vols.
Leipzig, 1900-1911.

128

ILLUSTRATIONS

129

THE VIRGIN ANiJ CHILD (detail)

MAKGAKITONE

131

JOACHIM RETURNING
TO THE SHEEPFOLDS

ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA

133

ST. FRANCIS PREACHING TO THE BIRDS
GIOTTO

J 'ho to : Amicrsotr
UPPER CHURCH, ASSISl

I 2

z <

2 5

< 3

137

THE NATIVITY

FILIPPO LU'PI (?)

Pltoto- Alinari
LOUVRF.

'39

THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI (detail)

GOZZOLl

KlCCAKDl PALACE, FLORENCE

141

re h

143

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

BOTTICELLI

Photo: Manscll
NATIONAL GALLKRY

145

STUDY OF CATS

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Fhoto: Brauii

H.M. THE KING, WINDSOR

•47

149

•w- 'S O

O 0^

w c
H <

151

GARZIA DE' MKDICI

ISRONZINO

Plioto : Brogi
LFFIZI, FLORENCE

^53

D -

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

PERUZZI

Photo: Hanjstaengl
NATIONAL GALLERY

O/

159

SUSANNA

PINTURICCHIO

Photo: Brogi
BOKGIA ArAKTMKNT, VATICAN

r6i

THE STORY OF GRISELDA (dktail)

UMBRIAN SCHOOL

Photo: Hanfstacitgl
NATIONAL GAI.I.KRY

163

l6:

>^ 1

\ '.

167

L 2

STUDY OF DEER

PISAXELLO

169

-^

..-^

STUDY OF MONKEYS

PISANELLO

Photo: Braun
LOUVRE

171

AN ESTE PRINCESS

PISANELLO

Photo: Alinari
LOUVRE

J73

h £

175

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

FOLLOWER OF PISANELLO

Photo : Han/staengl
BERLIN

177

STUDY OF CHEETAHS

JACOPO BELLINI

Photo : Macbeth
BRITISH MUSEUM

179

3- W
U a.

'83

M 2

THE DEATH OF

ST, PETER xMARTYR (detail)

GIOVANNI BELLINI

Photo : Hanfstaetigt
NATIONAL GALLERY

ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY

ANTONELLU DA Mp:SSI.\A

Pitoto IJitiiJitatH^i
NATIONAL GALLERY

187

o 2

189

191

193

195

THE SLEEPING ENDYMION

CIMA DA CONEGLIANO

Photo : A I'Dinri
I'ARMA

197

THE BEATO FERRETTI

CRrVELLI

' -J '.i' ." Mansell
NATIONAL GALLERY

199

VIRGIN AND CHILD

CRIVEI.I.I

/ ^hoto : Hanfstaengl
LORD NORTHBROOK

X <

203

AN UNKNOWN SUBJECT

SCHOOL OK GIOKGIONE

I'itoto: MiUtscll
NATIONAL GALLERY

205

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE

TITIAN

Photo: Han/staengl
NATIONAL GALLERY

207

THE TRIUMPH OF CHASTITY (detail)

LOTTO

Fk oto : A nderson
KOSPIGLIOSI GALLERY, ROME

209

PORTRAIT

LOTTO

Photo: Allnari
BERGAMO

THE SEAMSTRESS MADONNA

CARIAM

Photo: Anderson
COKSINI GALLERY, ROME

■ 215

O 2

217

THE AGONY

IN THE GARDEN (detail)

MANTEGNA

/..'/('.• Ha n/staciigi
NATIONAL GALLERY

219

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

LUINI

Photo: Alinari
THE CATHEDRAL, COMO

PORTRAIT

MILANESE SCHOOL — ROLTRAFFIO?

rhoio: PaiK'Uhoivsli
CZAKTORVSKI GALLERY, CRACOW

THE LIFE OF ST. BENEDICT,
PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF (detail)

SODOMA

Pilot 0 : Brogi
MONTE OLIVETO

225

r

INDEX

Adder, 48

Africa, 7

Agnes, St., 26

Albano, Syrian goats at, 88

Alberti, Leo Battista, 42

Albertus Magnus, 3

Alfonso I. of Naples, 68

— — of Ferrara, 90
Allegories of St. Francis, the, 13
Allegri, Antonio. See Correggio
Ambrose, St., 104

Amiens, the Cathedral, 3
Amnone, the Pope's elephant, 54
Ancolini, 8

Ancona, Pinacoteca Podesti, 86
Angelico, Fra, 25-6, 38
Anonimo, the, 76
Ant, 8

Antelope, 72
Anthony, St., 63, 68
Antwerp, 75

Ape, 8, 22, 24, 64, 71, S2
Apocrypha, 40
Aquileja, Cardinal of, 88
Arezzo, Margaritone of. See Mar-
garitone

— Bishop Guido of, 23
.Armstrong, Sir W., 87
Asia, 7, 8

Asp, 45

Ass, II, 18, 19, 20, 25, 30, 31, 39, 42,

48, 49, 50, 60, 61, 71, 73, 74,

89, 96, 100, 108
Assisi, 60

— Church of S. Francesco at, 13

14, 16, 19

Assisi, St. Francis of. See Francis
Assyrian sculpture, 12
Augustine, St., 37, 2>'^
Australasia, loi

Baboon, 22, 24

Babylon, 12, 53

Bacchiacca, 47

Badger, 21, 107, 108

Baldovinetti, Alesso, 41

Baillie-Grohman, Mr., 70

Bandicoot, 8

Bantam, 108

Barbara, St., 93

Barbarelli. See Giorgione

Barine, M., 4

Baroccio, 1 13

Bartholomew Anglicus, 3

Bartolo, Domenico di, 51

Basaiti, Marco, 74, 87, 102, 103

Basilisk, 76

Bassano, 1 13

Bastiani, Lazzaro, 81, 86

Bat, 43, 68

Battista, Giovanni. See Cima

Bazzi. See Sodoma

Bear, 8, 19, 27, 31, 44, 47, 57, 64,

67
Beaumont, Chateau de, 51
Beazley, Mr. C. R., 8
Bee, 5, 104
Bee-eater, 42, 57, 63
Bellini, Jacopo, 71

— Gentile, 71, 73, 88

— Giovanni, 72-75, 81, 86, 88
Bello, Marco, 95

27 P

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Benedict, St., 107
Beni, M., 18
Benozzo. See Gozzoli
Benson, Mr., collection of, 74
Bentivoglio, Giovanni, 58
Berenson, Mr., 13, 20, 26, 29, 31, 44,

110
Bergamo, 25, 82, 92
Berlin, 46, 69, 79, 91
Bestiaries, the, 4
Betto, Bernardino di. See Pinturic-

chio
Bevagna, St. Francis preaches to

birds at, 17
Biagi, Dr., 53, 92
Biagio, Vincenzo di. See Catena
Biblia Pauperum, 4, 112
Bigordi. See Ghirlandajo
Bissolo, Francesco, 75
Blackbird, 35
Boar, 57, 62, 68
Boarhound, 67
Bologna, 58
Boltraffio, 107
Bonfigli, Benedetto, 60, 61
Bono da Ferrara, 59
Bonvici, Alessandro. Sec Moretto
Borgo San Sepolcro, 60
Borso, Duke of Ferrara, 57
Botticelli, 27, 39-41
Botticini, 40

Brescia, Martinego Gallery, 95
— S. Giovanni Evangelista, 95
Bronzino, 48

Brown, Prof. Baldwin, 24
Browning, Robert, 75
Buffalini, the, 9
Buffalniacco, 19, 23
Buffalo, 8, 9, 27

Buonarroti. See Michael Angelo
Burckhardt, Dr., 8, 88
Burton, Sir F. W., 94
Busi, Giovanni de'. See Cariani
Buti, Lucrezia, 30
Butterfly, 69, 81
Byzantine painting, 21

22

Calabria, Lorenzo de' Medici im-
ports pigs from, 47

Caliari, Paolo. See Veronese

Cambi, Giovanni, 52

Camel, 8, 19, 20, 22, 26, 28, 31, 33, 35,
50.53,54,61,64,68,70, 71,72,

79,97, lOI, 106, 107, III

Campagnola, Domenico, 44

Capua, Peter of, 104

Caravaggio, 114

Cariani, 93

Caro, Annibale, 102

Carpaccio, 27, 76-80, 81

Cartwright, Julia (Mrs. Ady), 54

Castelfranco, 88

Cat, 6, 22, 26, 37, 42, 43, 44, 48, 51,

61,76,93,95,97, 107, 108, no,

113, 114
Catena, 86-7

Catherine of Alexandria, St., 19, 63
Catullus, 89

Cavallini, mosaic by, 12
Caxton, the Golden Legend, 19
Cellini, Benvenuto, 114
Cenni, Giovanni. See Cimabue
Centaur, the, 13, 75
Cesaresco, Countess, 85
Chaffinch, 17, 67
Chameleon, 28
Chantilly, 45

Chartres, the Cathedral, 3
Cheetah, 8, 23, 31, 33, 71,89
China, Italy's trade with, 91
Chita. See Cheetah
Chough, 50
Cicada, 5, 6

Cima da Conegliano, 82-3
Cimabue, 12, 105
Clement V., Pope, 16
Clouded- Yellow butterfly, 69
Cockatoo, 10 1
Colonna, Cardinal, 98
Columbine, 69
Como, the Cathedral, 107
Constantinople, 72, 88
Conti, Torquato, 102

INDEX

Cook, Sir E. T., 94, 102
Cook, Sir F., collection of, 31
Cormorant, 102
Cornaro, Giovanni, 90
Correggio, 112
Cosimo, Piero di, 44, 48, 89
Cosmo, St., 26
Cossa, Francesco del, 57
Costa, Lorenzo, 58
Coulton, Mr. G. G., 4, 7, 16, 24, 35
Cracow, Czartoryski Gallery, 107
Crane, 8, 11, 45, 50, 65, 74
Crawford, Earl of, collection of, 50
— Mr. Oswald, 2
Crayfish, 49
Creighton, Bishop, 56
Cremona, 54
Crivelli, S4-6, 105
Crocodile, 8, 50
Crow, 8, 108
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Messrs., 12,

Crowland, 83
Crusades, the, 7
Cue-owl, 75

Cust, Mrs. Henry, 16, 36
Cust, Mr. R. H. H., no

Damian, St., 26

Dante, 7, 56, 68, 75

Deer, 7, 32, 39> 42, 48, 49) 59, 63, 71,

72, 80, 83, 89
Destrier, the, 73
Diana, Benedetto, 81
Dickens, Charles, 56
Didron, M., 20

Dog, 6, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26,

30, 33, 37, 38, 39, 44, 45, 49,
51, 52, 59, 60, 62, 63, 67, 71,

73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 83, 86,
87, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98,
99, 104, 107, no, n2, 113,

114
Dogfish, 65

Dominican Order, the, 22
Dossi, Dosso, 59

Douglas, Mr. Langton, 12

Douai, Benedictines of, 4

Dove, 5, 17, 35, 36, 42, 46, 47, 67,

79, 80, 81, 84, 88, 89, 95, 108,

no
Dragon, 76, 77, 96
Dragon-fly, 43
Dresden, 64, 97
Dromedary, 18, 35, 54
Duccio, 49
Duck, 33, 41, 50, 62, 63,;64, 68, 85,

95, 105
Diirer, Albert, 48, 77

Eagle, 3, 9, 68, 71, 83, 96, n2
Eclogues of Virgil, 7
Egret, 102
Egyptian art, 12
Elba ponies, 108

Elephant, 8, 53, 54, 55, 64, 103, 107
Emanuel, King of Portugal, 34
England, 54

Ermine, or stoat, 8, 68, 92, 99
Este, Isabella, 103
— portrait of a princess of, 69
Eudes, Archbishop of Rouen, 6
Eugenius IV., Pope, 24
Evans, Mr. E. P., 30
Evreux, convent at, 6
Exeter Cathedral, carving of ele-
phant in, 54

Fabriano, Gentile da, 23, 60, 71, 77
Falcon, 8, 14, 15, 19, 22, 31, 35, 37,

38, 50, 57, 62, 64, 69, 94
Fallow-deer, 8
Farinato, Paolo, 81
Farrer, Sir W., collection of, 82
P'errara, Palazzo Schifanoia, 57
Ferrari, Gaudenzio, ni
Ferret, 35, 107
Ferretti, the Beato, 85
Fioretti, the, 51
Firenze, Andrea da, 21, 34
Fish, 40, 41,49, 50, 61, 65
Flamingo, 86, 95

9

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING

Florence, lo, 24, 52, 59, 60, 70, 108

— Accademia, 23, 24, 26, 33, 38, 42

— Palazzo Davanzati, 57

— — Riccardi, 31-4

— Uffizi, 39, 47, 65, 74, 87, 91. loi

— Annunziata, 41

— S. Marco, 25

— S. Maria Novella, 22, 28

— S. Trinitk, 42

— Ognissanti, 42

— Campanile, 18
Fly, 76, 86, 105

Folgore da San Geminiano, 14, 15

Foppa, 106

Fornovo, battle of, loi

Fowl, domestic, 21, 59, 96

Fox, 8, 50, 86

— flying, 8

Francesca, Piero della, 60, 76

Francia, 57

Francis of Assisi, St., 4-7, 14, 18, 23,

83,85
Franciscan Order, 6
Frederick II., the Emperor, 15, 35,

54

— — the Elector, 15, 92

— 111,62
Frizzoni, Dr., 48, 53
Frog, 56, n

Fry, Mr. Roger, 72, 74
Fungai, Bernardino, 51

Gallo, G. da San, 47
Garofalo, 64
Gazelle, 72, 90
Gecko, 30
Genet, 79
Genoa, 72
Games, Roman, 53
George, St., 50, 64, 77
Georgics, the, of Virgil, 7
Gerfalcon, 8, 54
Germanicus, 55
Gerson, 16
Ghirlandajo, 41
Gimignano, San, y]^ 38

Giorgione, 88

Giotto, 13-19, 35, 49, 75, 89, 105

Giovanni, Bruno di, 49

Giraffe, 8, 46, 52, 54, 64, 71, 106

Glasgow Gallery, 76

Glow-worm, 43

Goat, 8, II, 33, 40, 48, 61, 65, 67,

1% 74, 75, 88
Golden-oriole, 35, 45
Goldfinch, 17, 31, 33, 42, 45, 48, 51,

58, 60, 65, 72, 79, Si, 82, 83,

84, 85, 1 10
Gonzaga, Eleanora, 91

— Francesco, loi
Goose, 67

Gospels, the Apocryphal, 20, 51

Gozzoli, Benozzo, 31-8

Grasshopper, 36

Grass-snake, 89

Greece, 7

Greek art, 12

Greyhound, 59, 62, 67, 68, 71, 77,

III
Gronau, Dr., 90
Grouse, 33
Gubbio, 5

Guinea-fowl, 78, 79, 94, no
Guthlac, St., 83

Habakkuk, 20

Hannibal, 55

Hare, 8, 32, 37, 49, 57, 63, 67, 68, 80

Hawfinch, 18

Hawk, 16, 36, 38, 41, 44, 45, 54, 59,

61, 64, 65, 74, 82, 106, III
Hawk-bells, ']'], 89
Hawking, 32, 33
Hawk-moth, 46
Hedgehog, 43
Henry III., 54
Hernieneia, the, 20
Heron, 8, 16, 57, 67, 69
Hibernation, of lizard, 30

— of tortoise, 105
Holbein, "]"]
Holbrook, Mr. R. T., 55

230

INDEX

Holroyd, Sir C, 28

Hondecoeter, 2

Honnecourt, Villard de, 36

Hoopoe, 63, 67, 82

Horace, 56

Hornet, 40

Horse, 14, 26, 43, 49, 50, 52, 61, 64,

67, 68, 72>^ 89, no, III
Hubertus, chronicler of the Palsgrave

Frederick, 15, 16, 36, 92
Hugh, St, 83
Hunt, Holman, 88
Hutton, Mr. E., 63

Idylls, the, of Theocritus, 7
India, 8, 34

Iphigeneia, pageant of, 24
Isaiah, 20

Jackdaw, 17, 62

James, St., 94

Jay, 17, 33» 108

Jerome, St., 9, 19, 74, 78, 82, 86, 88,

90, 94, 1 1 1
Jerrold, Miss AI. F., 98
Jesi, 93
Joachim, 18
Job, Book of, 27
John Baptist, St., 85
John the Evangelist, St., 87, 112
Jonah, 46, 97
Jordanus of Severac, 8
Joseph, St., II
Justus of Padua, 100

Kennard, Major, collection of, 82

Kingfisher, 67, 74, 82

Kinsgley, Charles, 5

Kite, 8, 16, 43

Kloster Neuburg, 81

Knossos, wall-paintings at, 12

Lady-bird, 47
Laihips, the dog, 45
Lamb, 22, 25, 42, 73
Landseer, Sir Edwin, 2

Lapwing, 95

Lark, 5

Layard, Lady, collection of, 72)i 79

Legenda Atirca, the, 19

Leo X., Pope, 55

Leopard, 8, 23, 25, 33, 35, 55, 64, 80,

89, 96, 1 1 1
Levant, the, 7
Leveret, 5
Linnet, 83, 84
Lion, 8, II, 27, 50, 57, 59, 62, 64, 71,

76, 78, 82, 86, 88, 91, 96, III
Lippi, Fra Filippo, 30

— FiHppino 39, 44

Lizard, 28, 30, 43, 74, 77, 79, 82, 83,

90
Locust, 35, 45
London, National Gallery, 10, 19,

22, 26, 38, 39, 40, 44, 47, 52,

60, 61, 65, 66, 68, 72, 73» 75;

76, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86.

87, 94, 96, 97, 98, 100, loir
105, 114, 116

— British Museum, 15, 47, yo, ji

— South Kensington, Victoria and

Albert Museum, 21, 51, 65,
86

— Hampton Court, 59, 103

— Bridgewater House, 90
Lonsn, 34

Lorenzetti, the brothers, 49

Lorenzo, Fiorenzo di, 60

Loretto, 93

Lotto, Lorenzo, 92-4

Louis, St., 1 1, 54

Lucy, St., 93

Lugano, 107

Luini, Bernardino, 52, 58, 106-107

Lutero, Giovanni di. See Dossi

Lynx, 8, 35, 48, 68

Lytton, Hon. Mrs. Neville, 91

Madrid, the Prado, 26, 91
Magpie, 43, 60, 76
Malta, 91
Mandeville, Sir John, 29

231

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN- PAINTING

Mantegna, Andrea, 15, 80, 100-104

— Francesco, 104-105
Mantua, 57, 103

— Congress of, 56

Manzuoli altar-piece, Bologna, 58
Margaritone, of Arezzo, 10, 12, 18,

65, 100
Mark, St., 71
Marmot, 8

Martel, Comte de, collection of, 51
Marten, 8, 48, 92, 107
Martin, 85
Marziale, Marco, 76
Medici, the, 29

— Cosimo de', 32, 44, 47, 48

— Clarice de', 32

— Garzia de', 48

— Lorenzo de', 32, 33, 47, 53

— Library, 47
Merlin, 61

Messina, Antonello da, 75-6
Metamorphoses, Ovid's, 7
Michael Angelo, 46, 70
Michel, Emile, T2>
Milan, 24

— Brera, 71, 79, 9°, 97, 98, 106,

III

— Poldi Pezzoli Gallery, 43

— S. Maurizio, 107
Milanesi, 30
Militaeus, the, 91
Millais, Sir J. E., 2
Minotaur, pageant of, 24
Mole, 28

Monica, St., 37

Monkey, 8, 22, 25, 31, 39, 46, 57, 63,

64,68,72,95,98,108,110, III,

114
Montagna, Bartolommeo, 81
Monte Corvino, John of, 8

— Croce, Ricold of, 8

— Oliveto, 107
Montefalco, 35

Montelungo, Gregorio di, 108
Moorfowl, no

Morando, Paolo, 94

Morelli, Giovanni (Ivan Lermolieff),

48, 80, no
Moretto, 95
Mosaics, Roman and mediaeval, 12 ;

by Orcagna, 21
Mouse, 8
Mule, 33, 47, 48, 49, 5o> 64,67, 68, 83,

86
Miintz, M. Eugene, 29
Muratori, 24
Musk-deer, 8
Mycenae, 12

Naples, 112

Narbonne, 7

Nazareth, 34

Newt, 43

Northbrook, collection of Earl of, 85

Novelle, the, of Sacchetti, 23

Octopus, 49
Oliveto, Monte, 107
Orcagna, 21, 50
Oriole, golden, 35, 45
Orvieto, the Cathedral, 12, 21
Ostrich, 36

Ovid, the Metamorphoses of, 7, 99
Owl, 56, 59, 75, 76, 89
Ox, 9, 1 1, 20, 26, 30, 31, 33, 39, 42, 48,
57,61,71,76,89,93,99, 103

Pachonius, St., 50
Padua, 28

— Arena Chapel, 81

— Museo Civico, 14, 18
Palio, the, 108

Palma Vecchio, 91
Panther, 34

Paris, the Louvre, 17, 24, 30, 31, 43,64,
69, 72, 79, 90, 96, 97, 101, 102

— Matthew, 54

— \.\\Q Menagier de, 16
Parma, 35, 54, 83, in

— S. Giovanni Evangelista, 112
Parrot, 8, 22, 33, 35, 36, 46, 48, 76,

78, 80, 81, 97

232

INDEX

Partridge, 8, i6, 74, 76, 81, 82, 87,

91, 94, 95

Pater, Walter, 39

Paul, St., 72
the Hermit, 63

Peacock, 8, 24, 31, 33, 36, 37, 42, 50,
63, 64, 70, 74, 76, 78, 80, 81,
82, 84, 89, 96, no, 114

Pelican, 3, 45, 67, 85, no

Peregrine falcon, 8

Perugia, 24, 60

Perugino, 61

Peruzzi, Baldassare, 52

Pesaro, 72

Pesellino, 31

Pesello, Francesco. See Pesellino

Peter Martyr, St., 73

Petrarch, 98

Petri, Sano di, 51

Pheasant, 5, 6, 8, 31, 49, 62, 80

— golden, 47

Philip, the Archduke, 36
Phillips, Sir Claude, 80
Physiologus, the, 3, 4, 30, 87
Piccolomini, yEneas Sylvius (Pius
II.), 62

— Library, Siena, 62
Pig, 47, 68

Pink, 69

Pinturicchio, 41, 61-64, m

Pisa, 24

— Campo Santo, 34, 35, 37, 49

— Museo Civico, 49
Pisanello, 35, 50, 66-9
Pisani, the, 12

Pisano, Vittore. See Pisanello
Pistoia, S. Francesco-al-prato, 19

— Nicholas of, 8
Pitati di. Sec Bonifazio
Pius II., Pope, 52, 56, 62

Pliny, the Natural History, 47, 53,

55, 60, 76, 102
Poggio a Cajano, the Medici villa

at, 47
Poli, 102
Poliziano, Angelo, 32

Pollajuolo, the brothers, 41

— Piero, 41
Polo, Marco, 7, 72
Pomeranian dog, 91
Pompeii, painting at, 36
Pompeius Magnus, 55
Potter, Paul, 2

Prato, 30
Pyrrhus, 55

Quail, 8, 17, 68

Rabbit, it, 39, 46, 57, 63, 71, 74, 78,

80, 83, 86, 90, 93, 94, loi
Raibolini. See Francia
Ram, n, 40, 46, 65, 68
Ranieri, St., 34
Raphael, 54, 64-6
Rapp7-ese»tazio7ie, the, 25, 103
Rat, 64

Raven, 27, 50, 62, 63, 107, 108, no
Recanati, 93

Red-Admiral butterfly, 69
Reindeer, 8
Renan, Ernest, 6
Rhinoceros, 8, 54
Rieti, Lake, 5
Riviere, Briton, 2
Robin, 18, 19
Robinson, Sir J. C, 76
Robusti, Jacopo. See Tintoretto
Roch, St., 94
Roebuck, 33
Rogers, Thorold, 18
Rome, 59

— Borghese Gallery, 92

— Colonna Gallery, 25

— Corsini Gallery, 94

— Doria Gallery, 113

— Rospigliosi Gallery, 92

— Villa Farnesina, 65

— Vatican, Loggie, 64, 65
Appartamento Borgia, 63

— S. Clemente, 104
Rook, 43, 62
Roselli, Cosimo, 44

233

ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN. PAINTING

Ross, Janet (Mrs. H, R. Ross), 33
Rossetti, D. G., 15, 37, 109
Rossi, de, 53

Rouen, Archbishop Eudes of, 6
Ruskin, John, i, 2, 11, 15, 18, 23, 61,
l%n, 88,96,98, 113

Sabatier, M., 18, 36

Sacchetti, Franco, 23, 48, 84, 92

Salaino, 43

Salamander, 28

SaHmbene, 6, 24, 35, 36, 54, 108

San Gimignano, yj^ 38

Santa Croce, Girolamo da, 80

Saronno, S. Maria dei Miracoli, 100

Sarto, Andrea del, 46-7

Sassetta, 51

Schiavone, Gregorio, 105

Scops-owl, 75

Scott, Sir Walter, 70

Sebastian, St., 63

Seebohm, Mr., 76

Serpent. See Snake

Sesto, Cesare da, 43

Severac, Jordanus of, 8

Sforza, the, 9

— Galeazzo, 52
Sharpe, Mr. Bowdler, 76

Sheep, II, 19, 21, 30, y:,, 47, 61, 64,
. 74, 75,. 103, 106

— size of, in fourteenth century,

18
Sicily, Lorenzo de' Medici imports

pheasants from, 47
Siena, Ospedale della Scala, 51

— Piccolomini Library, 62

— S. Stefano, 51
Sigmaringen, 53
Signorelli, Luca, 65
Silkworms, 47
Simonetta Vespucci, 45
Skate, 65

Snail, 64, 81, 85, no

Snake, 9, 43, 45, 48, 81, 82, 86, 88,

89, 104
Sodoma, 107-111

Spain, 36
Sparrow, 51
Sparrow-hawk, no
Spaniel, 68, 90, 91, 112
Speculum, the, 3, 4
Spenser, Edmund, 69
Spielmann, Mr. M. H., 2
Spoonbill, 59
Squarcione, 100, 105
Squirrel, 6, 8, 44, 74, 108
Stag. See Deer
Stephen, St., 79
Stia, birds at, 18
Stoat. See Ermine
Stork, 8, 50, 64, 74, 83, 87, 102
Stow, the swan of, 83
St. Petersburg, 64

— Leuchtenberg Gallery, 43
Stradanus, the Venationes of, 70
Strozzi, Roberto, 91
Swallow, 5, 43, 82, 85, 106
Swallow-tail butterfly, 69
Swan, 8, 44, 46, 57, 83, 108-110

— J. M., 2

Symonds, J. A., 13, 42, 113

Tanagra, 12

Taylor, Mr. H. 0.,6, 12

Tench, 5

Theocritus, the Idylls of, 7

Thrush, 35, 43, no

Tiger, 8, 107

Tintoretto, 95-7

Tischendorf, 20, 5 1

Tissot, M., 88

Tit, great, 17

— blue, 44
Titian, 87, 89-91, 95
Toad, T], 95
Tobit, book of, 40
Torriti, mosaic by, 12
Tortoise, 105
Trescore, 93
Trionfo, the, 103
Troyon, 2

Tura, Cosimo, 56

^34

INDEX

Turin, 97
Turkey, 46, 73
Turtle-dove, Indian, 108

Ubertini, Francesco. See Bacchi-

acca
Uccello, Paolo, 26-9
Unicorn, 64, 76
Ursula, St., 79

Vanni, Andrea, 51

Vannucci, Pietro. See Perugino

Vasari, Giorgio, i, 12, 26, 27, 31, 41,

44, 50, 67, 88, 105, 108, 109,

no
Vauclose, 98
Vecellio. See Titian
Veliro, the, 67

Venationes^ the. See Stradanus
Venice, Accademia, 79, 81, 94, 97

— Museo Correr, T]^ 79

— Ducal Palace, 71, 81

— Layard collection, 73, 79

— Palazzo Giovanelli, 48

— Scuolo di S. Rocco, 96

— S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, 76

— S. Maria della Pieta, 95

— S. Maria della Salute, 95

— S. Marziale, 91

— S. Salvatore, 81
Venturi, Sig. A., 34, 45
Verna, La, 18

Verona, 94

— Liberale da, 81

— S. Fermo Maggiore, 67

— S. Maria in Organo, 60
Veronese, Bonifazio. See Bonifazio
Veronese, Paolo, 'j'j, 95, 96-9
Verrocchio, Andrea, 38

Vicenza, 83

— Duomo, 82

— Monte Berico, 81
Vienna, 95, 112, 114
Vincent of Beauvais, 3

Vinci, Leonardo da, 27, 42-4, 64
Viper, 9
Virgil, 88
Visconti, the, 9
Voragine, Jacobus de, 19
Vulture, 8, 68, 78, 86

Wagtail, 19

Wantage, Lady, collection of, 31

Weasel, 68

Whale, 46, 97

Williamson, Dr. G. C., 58

Windsor, Royal Library, 43

Wolf, 4, 5. 8, 22, 50

Wombat, 109

Woodpecker, 17

Wood-pigeon, 35

Worm, 5

Yak, 8

THE END

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