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-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***

-

-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this

-      file which includes the original illustrations.

-      See 30098-h.htm or 30098-h.zip:

-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30098/30098-h/30098-h.htm)

-      or

-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30098/30098-h.zip)

-

-

-Transcriber's note:

-

-      1) Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some

-         questionable dates have been left as printed in the original

-         text.

-

-      2) Chapter IX--Sala del Gran Consiio possibly should be Sala

-         del Gran Consiglio.

-

-      3) Likely corrections are noted in brackets within the text

-         in the format [TN: . . .].

-

-

-

-

-

-THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING

-

-[Illustration: _Giorgione._

-                MADONNA WITH S. LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.

-               _Castelfranco._

-                (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-

-THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING

-

-by

-

-EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS

-

-With Illustrations

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-Books for Libraries Press

-Freeport, New York

-

-First Published 1912

-Reprinted 1972

-

-International Standard Book Number: 0-8369-6745-3

-Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-37907

-

-Printed in the United States of America

-By

-New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.

-Hallandale, Florida 33009

-

-

-

-

-PREFACE

-

-

-Many visits to Venice have brought home the fact that there exists,

-in English at least, no work which deals as a whole with the Venetian

-School and its masters. Biographical catalogues there are in plenty, but

-these, though useful for reference, say little to readers who are not

-already acquainted with the painters whose career and works are briefly

-recorded. "Lives" of individual masters abound, but however excellent

-and essential these may be to an advanced study of the school, the

-volumes containing them make too large a library to be easily carried

-about, and a great deal of reading and assimilation is required to set

-each painter in his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's

-_History of Painting in North Italy_ still remains our sheet anchor; but

-it is lengthy, over full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the

-interesting criticism which of late years has collected round each

-master. There seems room for a portable volume, making an attempt to

-consider the Venetian painters, in relation to one another, and to help

-the visitor not only to trace the evolution of the school from its dawn,

-through its full splendour and to its declining rays, but to realise

-what the Venetian School was, and what was the philosophy of life which

-it represented.

-

-Such a book does not pretend to vie with, much less to supersede, the

-masterly treatises on the subject which have from time to time appeared,

-or to take the place of exhaustive histories, such as that of Professor

-Leonello Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should but serve to pave

-the way to deeper and more detailed reading. It does not aspire to give

-a complete and comprehensive list of the painters; some of the minor

-ones may not even be mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates, and

-facts would add unduly to the size of the book, and, when without real

-bearing on the course of Venetian art, would have little significance.

-What the book does aim at is to enable those who care for art, but may

-not have mastered its history, to rear a framework on which to found

-their own observations and appreciations; to supply that coherent

-knowledge which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance with

-beautiful things, and to place the unscientific observer in a position

-to take greater advantage of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and

-interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic apprehension which the

-Venetian School comprises, and which marks it as the outcome and the

-symbol of a great historic age.

-

-The works cited have been principally those with which the ordinary

-traveller is likely to come into contact in the chief European

-galleries, and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not propose to

-be exhaustive, but merely indicate the principal works of the artists.

-Those in private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate

-importance, are usually eliminated. It has not been thought necessary to

-use profuse illustrations, as the book is intended primarily for use

-when visiting the original works.

-

-

-

-

-CONTENTS

-

-

- PART I

-

- CHAPTER I                            PAGE

-   VENICE AND HER ART                    3

-

- CHAPTER II

-   PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE              11

-

- CHAPTER III

-   INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA      21

-

- CHAPTER IV

-   THE SCHOOL OF MURANO                 29

-

- CHAPTER V

-   THE PADUAN INFLUENCE                 33

-

- CHAPTER VI

-   JACOPO BELLINI                       39

-

- CHAPTER VII

-   CARLO CRIVELLI                       44

-

- CHAPTER VIII

-   GENTILE BELLINI AND

-   ANTONELLO DA MESSINA                 48

-

- CHAPTER IX

-   ALVISE VIVARINI                      58

-

- CHAPTER X

-   CARPACCIO                            68

-

- CHAPTER XI

-   GIOVANNI BELLINI                     81

-

- CHAPTER XII

-   GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)       92

-

- CHAPTER XIII

-   CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER

-   FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI                103

-

-

- PART II

-

- CHAPTER XIV

-   GIORGIONE                           121

-

- CHAPTER XV

-   GIORGIONE (_continued_)             132

-

- CHAPTER XVI

-   THE GIORGIONESQUE                   140

-

- CHAPTER XVII

-   TITIAN                              144

-

- CHAPTER XVIII

-   TITIAN (_continued_)                157

-

- CHAPTER XIX

-   TITIAN (_continued_)                173

-

- CHAPTER XX

-   PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO     184

-

- CHAPTER XXI

-   SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO                198

-

- CHAPTER XXII

-   BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE         203

-

- CHAPTER XXIII

-   PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES  212

-

- CHAPTER XXIV

-   PAOLO VERONESE                      228

-

- CHAPTER XXV

-   TINTORETTO                          243

-

- CHAPTER XXVI

-   TINTORETTO (_continued_)            254

-

- CHAPTER XXVII

-   BASSANO                             269

-

-

- PART III

-

- CHAPTER XXVIII

-   THE INTERIM                         281

-

- CHAPTER XXIX

-   TIEPOLO                             297

-

- CHAPTER XXX

-   PIETRO LONGHI                       309

-

- CHAPTER XXXI

-   CANALE                              314

-

- CHAPTER XXXII

-   FRANCESCO GUARDI                    321

-

-

- BIBLIOGRAPHY                          329

-

- INDEX                                 333

-

-

-

-

-ILLUSTRATIONS

-

-

-                               BY                 AT

-

-  1. Madonna with S. Liberale  Giorgione          Castelfranco

-     and S. Francis                                       _Frontispiece_

-

-  2. Adoration  of the         Antonio da Murano  Berlin

-     Magi                                                            31

-

-  3. Agony in Garden           Jacopo Bellini     British Museum     41

-

-  4. Procession of the         Gentile Bellini    Venice

-     Holy Cross                                                      52

-

-  5. Altarpiece of 1480        Alvise Vivarini    Venice             60

-

-  6. Arrival of the            Carpaccio          Venice

-     Ambassadors                                                     75

-

-  7. Pietà                     Giovanni Bellini   Brera              87

-

-  8. An Allegory               Giovanni Bellini   Uffizi             94

-

-  9. Fête Champêtre            Giorgione          Louvre            136

-

- 10. Portrait of Ariosto       Titian             National Gallery  156

-

- 11. Diana and Actaeon         Titian             Earl Brownlow     161

-

- 12. Holy Family               Palma Vecchio      Colonna Gallery,

-                                                  Rome              185

-

- 13. Portrait of Laura di      Lorenzo Lotto      Brera

-     Pola                                                           194

-

- 14. Marriage in Cana          Paolo Veronese     Louvre            234

-

- 15. S. Mary of Egypt          Tintoretto         Scuola di

-                                                  San Rocco         258

-

- 16. Bacchus and Ariadne       Tintoretto         Ducal Palace      261

-

- 17. Baptism of S. Lucilla     Jacopo da Ponte    Bassano           274

-

- 18. Antony and Cleopatra      Tiepolo            Palazzo Labia,

-                                                  Venice            304

-

- 19. Visit to the              Pietro Longhi      National Gallery

-     Fortune-Teller                                                 310

-

- 20. S. Maria della Salute     Francesco Guardi   National Gallery  324

-

-

-

-

-LIST OF PAINTERS

-

-

- Paolo da Venezia, _fl._ 1333-1358.

- Niccolo di Pietro, _fl._ 1394-1404.

- Niccolo Semitocolo, _fl._ 1364.

- Stefano di Venezia, _fl._ 1353.

- Lorenzo Veneziano, _fl._ 1357-1379.

- Chatarinus, _fl._ 1372.

- Jacobello del Fiore, _fl._ 1415-1439.

- Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.

- Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), _circa_ 1385-1455.

- Michele Giambono, _fl._ 1470.

- Giovanni Alemanus, _fl._ 1440-1447.

- Antonio da Murano, _circa_ 1430-1470.

- Bartolommeo Vivarini, _fl._ 1420-1499.

- Alvise Vivarini, _fl._ 1461-1503.

- Antonello da Messina, _circa_ 1444-1493.

- Jacopo Bellini, _fl._ 1430-1466.

- Jacopo dei Barbari, _circa_ 1450-1516.

- Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.

- Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.

- Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.

- Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.

- Gentile Bellini, _circa_ 1427-1507.

- Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.

- Lazzaro Bastiani, _fl._ 1470-1508.

- Vittore Carpaccio, _fl._ 1478-1522.

- Girolamo da Santa Croce.

- Mansueti, _fl._ 1474-1510.

- Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.

- Vincenzo Catena, _fl._ 1495-1531.

- Bissolo, 1464-1528.

- Marco Basaiti, _circa_ 1470-1527.

- Andrea Previtali, _fl._ 1502-1525.

- Bartolommeo Veneto, _fl._ 1505-1555.

- N. Rondinelli, _fl._ 1480-1500.

- Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.

- Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.

- Giovanni Busi (Cariani), _circa_ 1480-1544.

- Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.

- Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.

- Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.

- Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).

- Morto da Feltre, _circa_ 1474-1522.

- Romanino, 1485-1566.

- Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.

- Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.

- Bernardino Licinio, _fl._ 1520-1544.

- Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), _circa_ 1498-1554.

- Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), _fl._ 1510-1540.

- Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.

- Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.

- Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.

- Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.

- Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.

- Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.

- Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.

- Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.

- Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.

- Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.

- Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.

- G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.

- Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.

- Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.

- Belotto, 1720-1780.

- Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.

-

-

-

-

-PART I

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER I

-

-VENICE AND HER ART

-

-

-Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether in character from

-that of every other part of Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and

-recognisable of all the schools; its singularity is such that a novice

-in art can easily, in a miscellaneous collection, sort out the works

-belonging to it, and added to this unique character is the position it

-occupies in the domain of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast

-an epoch of art comparable in originality and splendour to that of her

-great Florentine rival; an epoch which is to be classed among the great

-art manifestations of the world, which has exerted, and continues to

-exert, incalculable power over painting, and which is the inspiration as

-well as the despair of those who try to master its secret.

-

-The other schools of Italy, with all their superficial varieties of

-treatment and feeling, depended for their very life upon the extent to

-which they were able to imbibe the Florentine influence. Siena rejected

-that strength and perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly struck

-out on independent lines, achieving a magnificent victory.

-

-Art in Florence made a strictly logical progress. As civilisation awoke

-in the old Latin race, it went back in every domain of learning to the

-rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin and the alien structures left

-by the long barbaric dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour had

-never been a barbarian; and as the mind was once more roused to

-conscious life, Florence entered readily upon that great intellectual

-movement which she was destined to lead. Her cast of thought was, from

-the first, realistic and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to know the

-truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate experiments, to see things as

-they really were; and when she reached the point at which art was ready

-to speak, we find that the governing motive of her language was this

-same predilection for reality, and it was with this meaning that her

-typical artists found a voice. No artist ever sought for truth, both

-physical and spiritual, more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke

-more distinctly the mind of his age and country; and as one generation

-follows another, art in Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied to

-the intellectual movement. The scientific predilection for _form_, for

-the representation of things as they really are, characterises not

-Florentine painting alone, but the whole of Florentine art. It is an art

-of contributions and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at

-every step by dominating personalities, positively as well as relatively

-great, but with each member consciously absorbed in "going one better"

-than his predecessors, in solving problems and in mastering methods.

-Florentine art is the outcome of Florentine life and thought. It is part

-of the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason, of that exactitude

-of apprehension towards which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and

-the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards her, formed themselves on

-her pattern and worked upon the same lines, so that they have a certain

-general resemblance, and their excellence is in proportion to the

-thoroughness with which they have learned their lesson.

-

-The difference which separates Venetian from the rest of Italian

-painting is a fundamental one. Venice attains to an equally

-distinguished place, but the way in which she does it and the character

-of her contribution are both so absolutely distinct that her art seems

-to be the outcome of another race, with alien temperament and standards.

-Venice had, indeed, a history and a life of her own. Her entire

-isolation, from her foundation, gave her an independent government and

-customs peculiar to herself, but at the same time her people, even in

-their earliest and most precarious struggles, were no barbarians who

-had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life. Among the refugees

-were persons of high birth and great traditions, and they brought with

-them to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some political

-training and some idea of how to reconstruct their shattered social

-fabric. The Venetian Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence

-in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area was, every feature and

-sentiment was concentrated and intensified. But one element above all

-permeates it and sets it apart from other European States. The Oriental

-element in Venice must never be lost sight of if we wish to understand

-her philosophy of art.

-

-There are some grounds, seriously accepted by the most recent

-historians, for believing that the first Venetian colonists were the

-descendants of emigrants who in prehistoric times had established

-themselves in Asia and who had returned from thence to Northern Italy.

-"These colonists," says Hazlitt, "were called Tyrrhenians, and from

-their settlements round the mouth of the Po the Venetian stock was

-ultimately derived." If the tradition has any truth, we think with a

-deeper interest of that instinct for commerce which seems to have been

-in the very blood of the early Venetians. Did it, indeed, come down to

-them from the merchants of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful

-trading race which stretched out its arms all over Europe and

-penetrated even to our own island? From the first, Venice cut herself

-adrift, as far as possible, from Western ties, but she turned to Eastern

-people and to intercourse with the East with a natural affinity which

-savours of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived from her

-Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped with Eastern riches, must have

-assumed a deeply Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained many details

-peculiar to the East. The people observed a custom for choosing and

-dowering brides, which was of Asia. The national treatment of women was

-akin to that of an Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a retirement

-which recalled the life of the harem, only appearing on great occasions

-to display their brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled when

-they passed through the streets. The attachment of men to women had no

-intellectual bias, scarcely any sentiment, but "went straight to the

-mark: the enjoyment of physical beauty." The position of women in Venice

-was a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine lady of the

-Renaissance, who was highly educated, deeply versed in men and in

-affairs, the fine flower of culture, and the queen of a brilliant

-society. The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry was of Semitic

-intensity and seemed insatiable, and the gratification of the senses

-was a deliberate State policy. But passionate as was the spirit of

-patriotism, enthusiastic the love and loyalty of the people, the civic

-spirit was absent. The masses were contented to live under a despotic

-rule and to be little despots in their own houses. In the twelfth

-century the people saw power pass into the hands of the aristocracy, and

-as long as the despotism was a benevolent one, the event aroused no

-opposition. Like Orientals, the Venetians had wild outbursts, and like

-them they quieted down and nothing came of them. As Mr. Hazlitt remarks,

-"their occasional resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds of

-horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or enduring traces behind it. It

-established no principle. It taught no lesson." Venice was a Republic

-only in name. The whole aspect of her government is Eastern. Its system

-of espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and silent blows,--these

-are all Oriental traits, and the East entering into her whole life

-from without found a natural home awaiting it. We should be mistaken,

-however, in thinking that the Venetians in their great days were

-enervated and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to associate

-with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in the end drain the life out of

-her. "It is the disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not the

-same thing." The Venetians were by nature men with a deep capacity for

-feeling, and it is this deep feeling which has so large a share in

-Venetian art.

-

-The painters of Venice were of the people and had no wide intellectual

-outlook at its most splendid moment, such as was possessed by those men

-who in Florence were drawn into the company of the Medici and their

-court of scholars, and who all their lives were in the midst of a

-society of large aims and a free public spirit, in which men took their

-share of the responsibilities and honours of a citizen's life. The

-merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested in the solving of

-problems. They pay a price, and they want a good show of colour and

-gilding for their money. Presently they buy from outside, and a

-half-hearted imitation of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian

-artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare itself with true

-spontaneity till it feels behind it the weight and unanimity of the

-whole body of the people. That true outburst was long in coming, but its

-seeds were fructifying deep in a congenial soil. They were fostered by

-the warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and at last the racial

-instinct speaks with no uncertain accent in the great domain of art, and

-speaks in a new and unexpected way; as splendid as, yet utterly unlike,

-the grand intellectual declaration of Florence.

-

-Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all her history, in all

-her character, is Eastern rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom

-of feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion as opposed to

-intellect. Her whole story tells of a profoundly emotional and sensuous

-apprehension of the nature of things; and till the time comes when her

-artists are inspired to express that, their creations may be interesting

-enough, but they fail to reveal the true workings of her mind. When they

-do, they find a new medium and use it in a new way. Venetian colour,

-when it comes into its kingdom, speaks for a whole people, sensuous and

-of deep feeling, able for the first time to utter itself in art.

-

-We have to divide the history of the Venetian School into three parts.

-The first extends from the primitives to the end of Giovanni Bellini's

-life. He forms a link between the first and second periods. The second

-begins with Giorgione and ends with Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the

-Venetian School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century revival,

-in which Tiepolo is the most conspicuous figure, and which is in an

-equal degree the expression of the life of its time.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER II

-

-PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE

-

-

-The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its influence, was

-particularly strong in Venice, where mosaics adorned the cathedral

-of Torcello from the ninth century and St. Mark's became a splendid

-storehouse of Byzantine art. The earliest mosaic on the façade of St.

-Mark's was executed about the year 1250, those in the Baptistery date

-during the reign of Andrea Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354. Yet

-though the life of Giotto lies between these two dates, and his frescoes

-at Padua were within a few hours' journey, there is no sign that the

-great revolution in painting, which was making itself felt in every

-principal centre of Italy, had touched the richest and most peaceful of

-all her States.

-

-Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of Byzantinism. It rose as that

-of the mosaicists fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence and

-Siena in being for long almost imperceptible. Artists were looked upon

-merely as artisans in all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any

-other city they had been placed among the craftsmen. The statute of the

-Guild of Siena was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is the

-earliest of which we have any record, and bears the date of 1272. There

-is scarcely a word to indicate that pictures in the modern sense of the

-term existed. Painters were employed on the adornment of arms and of

-household furniture. Leather helmets and shields were painted, and such

-banners as we see in Paolo Uccello's battlepieces. Painted chests and

-_cassoni_ were already in demand, dishes and plates for the table and

-the surface of the table itself were treated in a similar way. Special

-regulations dealt with all these, and it is only at the end of the list

-that anconæ are mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework, having a

-compartment containing a picture of the Madonna and Child, and others

-with single figures of the saints, and these were the only pictures

-proper produced at this date. The demand for anconæ was, however, large,

-and they were very early placed, not only in the churches, but in the

-houses of patricians and burghers. Constant disputes arose between the

-painters and the gilders. Pictures were habitually painted upon a gold

-ground, but the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds

-themselves. "Gilding is the business of the gilder, painting that of the

-painter," says a contemporary record. "Now the gilder contends that if

-a frame has to be gilt and then touched with colour, he is entitled to

-perform both operations, but the painter disputes this right, and

-maintains that the gilder should return it to him when the addition

-of painting is desired." It was, however, finally decided by law that

-each should exercise both professions, when one or the other played a

-subordinate part in the finished work. Though the art of mosaic was

-falling into decay as painting began to emerge, yet the commercial

-manufactory of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been established as early

-as 600, went on, on the Rialto, without any variation of the traditional

-forms.

-

-Florence very early discarded the temptation to cling to material

-splendour, but as we pass into the Hall of the Primitives in the

-Venetian Academy, we see at once that Venetian art, in its earlier

-stages, has more to do with the gilder than the painter. The Holy

-Personages are merely accessories to the gorgeous framework, the

-embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which were in favour with the rich

-and magnificent patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for painting

-as painting, no craving after the study of form as the outcome of

-intellectual activity, no zest of discovery, such as made the painter's

-life in Florence an excitement in which the public shared. What little

-Venice imbibes of these things is from outside influence, after due

-lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of merchants and statesmen,

-she was too much bound up in the transactions and sensations of actual

-life to develop any abstract and thoughtful ideals.

-

-Perhaps the first painting we can discover which shows any sign of

-independent effort is the series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the

-back of the Pala d' Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark, when it was

-restored in the fourteenth century. This reveals an artist with some

-pictorial aptitude and one alive to the subjects that surround him. It

-tells the story of St. Mark's corpse transported to Venice. The first

-panel contains a group of cardinals of varying types and expressions; in

-another the disciple listening to St. Mark's teaching, and crouching

-with his elbows on his knees, has a true, natural touch. The dramatic

-feeling here and there is considerable. The scene of the guards watching

-the imprisoned Saint through the window and seeing the shadow of two

-heads, as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct emotion; and there

-is force as well as feeling for decorative composition in the panel in

-which the Saint's body lies at the feet of the sailors, while his vision

-appears shining upon the sails.

-

-Except for the exaggerated insistence on the gilded elaborations of the

-early ancona, there is not much to differentiate the early art of Venice

-from that of other centres; but we notice that it persevered longer in

-the material and mechanical art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made

-little impression, and many years elapsed before work akin to that of

-Giotto attracted attention and was admired and imitated. A man like

-Antonio Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in Venice. He had

-too much of the simplicity of the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his

-work to Pisa, where his naïf and humorous narratives still delight us in

-the Campo Santo. It was in 1384 that he was employed to finish the

-frescoes of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted

-at Andrea da Firenze's death, and the fondness for architecture and

-surroundings in the Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome, may,

-as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo Gaddi, who had already visited

-Padua and Venice.

-

-In the last years of the fourteenth century tributary streams begin to

-feed the feeble main current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was employed

-by the State to paint a huge fresco of Paradise in the Hall of the Gran

-Consiglio of the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for centuries under

-the painting by Tintoretto, was uncovered in 1909 and found to be in

-fairly good preservation. It can now be seen in a side room. It tells us

-that Guariento had to some extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones

-have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more the Giottesque than the

-Byzantine cast and show that the old traditions were crumbling.

-

-When painting in Venice first begins to live a life of its own,

-Jacobello del Fiore stands out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous

-Venetians. His father had been president of the Painters' Guild. Jacopo

-himself was president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich and popular

-member of the State and a man of high character. His works, to judge

-by the specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of art, though in

-the banner of "Justice," in the Academy, the space is filled in a

-monumental fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the lily has

-something grand and graceful. We trace the same treatment of flying

-banners and draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but picturesque

-S. Grisogono in the left transept of San Trovaso. Jacobello's will,

-executed in 1439 in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole, with

-provision for a possible posthumous son, shows him to have been a man of

-considerable possessions. He owned a slave and had other servants, a

-house, money, and books. Among his fellow-workers who are represented in

-Venice are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and Lorenzo Veneziano.

-The important altarpiece by the last, in the Academy, has evidently been

-reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover over the Annunciation, and the

-Saints have been restored to the framework in such wise that the backs

-of many of them are turned on the momentous central event. In the

-"Marriage of St. Catherine," in the same gallery, Lorenzo gets more

-natural. The Child, in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a

-lively expression, and looks round at His Mother as if playing a game.

-The chapel of San Tarasio in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which

-the central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is identical with

-Lorenzo's other work. One of the finest and most elaborate of all the

-anconæ is in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work of Lorenzo.

-In this, as well as in that of San Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child

-the apple, signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and symbolical of

-the Incarnation. This incident, which is found thus early in art, was

-evidently felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child from a

-representation of a merely earthly relationship to a spiritual scene

-of the deepest meaning and the highest dignity.

-

-Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of the last decade of the

-fourteenth century, from which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,

-but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively drawn to the

-Giottesque movement, but not, we may remember, before Giotto had been

-dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has been confounded with

-Niccolo Semitocolo, but it is now realised that they were two distinct

-masters. The most important work of Michele Giambono which has come

-down to us is the signed ancona with five saints, now in the Venetian

-Academy. It is unusual to find a saint in the central panel instead of

-the Madonna. The saint is on a larger scale than his companions, and has

-hitherto passed as the Redeemer, but Professor Venturi has identified

-him as St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell and pilgrim's

-staff. It is clear from his size and position that the ancona has been

-painted for an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.

-

-The saints on the right are S. Michael and S. Louis of Toulouse. Between

-S. John the Evangelist and S. James is a monastic figure which has

-evidently changed places with S. John at some moment of restoration. If

-the two figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible. S.

-John is inculcating a message inscribed in his open book, while the monk

-is displaying his humble answer on his own page. The use in it of the

-term _servus_ suggests that he is a Servite, though the want of the

-nimbus precludes the idea that he is one of the founders. It is probable

-that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who, though considered as a saint from the

-time of his death, was not canonised for several centuries.

-

-The Mond Collection includes a glowing picture by Giambono; a seated

-figure clad in rich vestments and holding an orb, probably representing

-a "Throne," one of the angelic orders of the celestial Hierarchy.[1]

-

- [1] These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M'N.

- Rushforth in the _Burlington Magazine_ for October 1911.

-

-Works are still in existence which may be ascribed to one or other of

-these masters, or of which no attribution can be made, but we know

-nothing positive of any other artists of the time which preceded the

-influence of Gentile da Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that the

-Venetian School in its origin had any pretension to be a school of

-colour, or that it could claim anything like real excellence at a time

-when the Republic first became alive to the movement which was going on

-in other parts of Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Paolo da Venezia._

-

- Venice.  St. Mark's: The Pala d' Oro.

- Vicenza. Death of the Virgin.

-

-

- _Lorenzo da Venezia._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.

-         Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.

- Berlin. Two Saints.

-

-

- _Nicoletto Semitocolo._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.

- Padua.  Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Stefano da Venezia._

-

- Venice. Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of

-           Semitocolo.

-

-

- _Jacobello del Fiore._

-

- Venice. Academy: Justice.

-         S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.

-

-

- _Niccolo di Pietro._

-

- Venice. S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Michele Giambono._

-

- Venice. Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.

- London. Mond Collection: A "Throne."

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER III

-

-INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA

-

-

-Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master, when he reached Venice in the

-early years of the fifteenth century, was already a man of note. He had

-received his art education in Florence, and he brought with him fresh

-and delicate devices for the enrichment of painting with gold, which,

-derived as it was from the Sienese assimilation of Byzantine methods,

-was very superior in fancy and refinement to anything that Venice had

-to show. He was a man of a gentle, mystic temperament, but he was

-accustomed to courts, and a finished master whose technique and artistic

-value was far beyond anything that the local painters were capable of.

-He spent some years in Venice, adorning the great hall with episodes

-from the legend of Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially cited,

-was of the battle between the Emperor and the Venetians. Gentile was

-working till about 1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were

-covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained some time in Bergamo and

-Brescia, and settled in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching

-Florence, he painted the famous "Adoration of the Magi," now in the

-Florentine Academy. Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;

-pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo S. Trinità, and he sent

-back two portraits after he had returned to his native Fabriano.

-

-We have no positive record of Gentile and Vittore Pisano, commonly

-called Pisanello, having met in Venice, but there is every evidence in

-their work that they did so, and that one overlapped the other in the

-paintings for the Ducal Palace.

-

-The School of Verona already had an honourable record, and its Guild

-dates from 1303. The following are its rules, the document of which is

-still preserved, while that of Venice has been lost:

-

-     RULES OF THE VERONESE GUILD (_abridged_)

-

-     1. No one to become a member who had not practised art for

-        twelve years.

-

-     2. Twelve artists to be elected members.

-

-     3. The reception of a new member depends on his being a senior.

-

-     4. The members are obliged in the winter season to take upon

-        themselves the instruction of all the pupils in turn.

-

-     5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.

-

-     6. Each member is bound to extend to another fraternal

-        assistance in necessity.

-

-     7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.

-

-     8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.

-

-     9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.

-

-    10. To follow the funerals of members with torches.

-

-    11. The President is to exercise reference authority.

-

-    12. The member who has the longest membership to be President.

-

-There were also by-laws, which provided that no master should accept

-a pupil for less than three years, and this acceptance had to be

-definitely registered by the public notary, a son, brother, grandson, or

-nephew being the only exceptions. No master might receive an apprentice

-who should have left another master before his time was out, unless with

-that master's free consent. There were penalties for enticing away a

-pupil, and others to be enforced against pupils who broke the agreement.

-Severe restrictions existed with regard to the sale of pictures, no one

-but a member of the Guild being allowed to sell them. No one might bring

-a work from any foreign place for purposes of sale. It might not

-even be brought to the town without the special permission of the

-_Gastaldiones_, or trustees of the Guild, and those trustees were

-permitted to search for and destroy forged pictures. Every painter,

-therefore, had to subordinate his interests and inclinations to the

-local school. It helps us to understand why the individual character of

-the different masters is so perceptible, and one of the primary causes

-of this must have been the careful training of the pupils in the

-master's workshop.

-

-The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello's first master, in the Church

-of S. Anastasia in Verona, shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at

-this early time following in the footsteps of Giotto. Three knights of

-the Cavalli family are presented by their patron saints to the Madonna.

-The composition has a large simplicity, a breadth of feeling which is

-carried into each gesture. The knights with their raised helmets, in the

-pattern of horses' heads, are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and

-dignified, and the saints are grand and stately. The picture has a

-delightful suavity and ease, and the colouring has evidently been

-lovely. The setting is in good proportion and more satisfactory than

-that of the Giottesques. From the series of frescoes in S. Antonio,

-Verona, we gather that while Venice was still limited to stiff anconæ,

-the Veronese masters were managing crowds of figures and rendering

-distances successfully. Altichiero puts in homely touches from everyday

-life with a freedom which shows he has not yet mastered the principles

-of selection or the dignified fitness which guided the great masters;

-as, for instance, in the case of the old woman, among the spectators of

-the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing her nose. He lets

-himself be drawn off by all manner of trivial detail and of gay costume;

-but again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the "Beheading of St.

-George," in the Paduan chapel of the Santo, he proves how well he

-understands the force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in gesture

-and expression, while the decorative use he makes of lances against the

-background was long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly surpassed,

-by Tintoretto.

-

-Pisanello, who followed quickly upon Altichiero and his assistant,

-Avanzi, exhibits the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations which

-commended Gentile da Fabriano to the splendour-loving Venetians. Verona,

-under the peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri, had long

-been the home of all knightly lore, and the artists had been employed to

-decorate chapels for the families of the great nobles. Among these,

-Pisanello had attained a high place. Though very few of his paintings

-remain, they all show these influences, and his subtly modelled medals

-establish him as a master of the most finished type. A much destroyed

-fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays the history of St. George and

-the Dragon. In the St. George we probably see the portrait of the great

-personage in whose honour the fresco was painted. He is mounting his

-horse, which, seen from behind, reminds us of the fore-shortened

-chargers of Paolo Uccello. The rescued princess, also a portrait, wears

-a magnificent dress and an elaborate headgear in the fashion of the day.

-Other horses, fiery and spirited, are grouped around, and in the band

-of cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is individualised; one is

-beautiful, another brutal, and so on through the seven. A greyhound

-and spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted, the background is

-excellent, and a realistic touch is given by the corpses which dangle

-unheeded from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined, but

-fortunately not restored, "Annunciation" in S. Fermo, has a simple,

-slender figure of the Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,

-with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed, child-like head with fair

-hair, is a most sweet and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in

-contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes round the church. All

-these paintings are too small to be the least effective at the height

-at which they are placed, and can only be seen with a good glass.

-Pisanello's art is not well adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he

-seems to have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as the two we

-possess. In these he is full of originality, and shows his love for the

-knightly life, the life of courts, in the armed _cap-à-pied_ figure of

-St. George, whose point-device armour is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat

-and feather. The artist's knowledge and love of animals and wild nature

-comes out in them, and his interest in beauty and chivalry as opposed to

-the outworn conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.

-

-We shall be able to trace the influence of both the Umbrian and the

-Veronese painter on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo Bellini, and

-it is important to note the likeness of the two to one another. In

-Gentile's "Adoration" we have on the one hand the Holy Family and the

-gay pageant of the kings, of which we could find the prototype in many

-an Umbrian panel. On the other we see those contrasting elements which

-were struggling in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals, in

-gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses. The two have no lasting

-effect, but though they created no actual school, they gave a stimulus

-to Venetian art, and started it on a new tack, enabling it to open its

-channels to fresh ideas. During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello

-del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new fashion to his early

-style, and the horse of S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in the

-"Adoration," or like Pisano's horses. Michele Giambono is actually found

-in collaboration, in the chapel of the Madonna da Mascoli in St. Mark's,

-with such a virile painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno, who

-is evidently responsible for God the Father and two of the Apostles; but

-Castagno must have been thoroughly antipathetic to the Venetians, and

-though he may have taught them the way to draw, he has not left any

-traces of a following.

-

-Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile's work in the Ducal Palace as

-already decaying, while Pisanello's was painted out by Alvise Vivarini

-and Bellini.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Gentile da Fabriano._

-

- Florence. Academy: Adoration of the Magi.

- Milan.    Brera: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Altichiero._

-

- Padua. Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.

-        Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.

-

-

- _Pisanello._

-

- Padua.  S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.

- Verona. S. Fermo: Annunciation.

- London. S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IV

-

-THE SCHOOL OF MURANO

-

-

-The important little town of Murano, a satellite of Venice, lies upon an

-island, some ten minutes' row from the mother State, distinct from which

-it preserved separate interests and regulations. Its glass manufacture

-was safeguarded by the most stringent decrees, which forbade members of

-the Guild to leave the islet under pain of death. Its mosaics, stone

-work, and architecture speak of an early artistic existence, and we

-recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese painters to be the first

-to strike out into a more emancipated type than that of the primitives.

-The painter Giovanni of Murano, called Giovanni Alemanus or d' Alemagna,

-names between which Venetian jealousy for a time drew an imaginary

-distinction, had certainly received his early education in Germany, and

-betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more Gothic style; but he

-was a fellow-worker with Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great

-Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several large altarpieces in

-which they collaborated. "Christ and the Virgin in Glory" was painted

-for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an inscription with both names

-on a banderol across the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His hands

-on the shoulders of the Mother and Son, makes a group of which we find

-the origin in Gentile da Fabriano's altarpiece in the Brera, and it is

-probable that one if not both masters had been studying with the Umbrian

-and absorbing the principles he had brought to Venice. It is easy to

-trace the influence of Giovanni d' Alemagna, though not always easy to

-pick out which part of a picture belongs to him and which to Antonio

-working under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is a "Coronation of the

-Virgin," with Gothic ornaments such as are not found in purely Italian

-art at this period, but the example in which both masters can be most

-closely followed is the great picture in the Academy, the "Madonna

-enthroned," where she sits under a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here

-the Gothic surroundings become very florid, and have a gingerbread-cake

-effect, which Italian taste would hardly have tolerated. Many features

-are characteristic of the German; the huge crown worn by the Mother, the

-floriated ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque appearance of

-the throne. Through it all, heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn

-of the tender expression which came into Venetian art with Gentile.

-

- [Illustration: _Antonio da Murano._

-                 ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

-                _Berlin._

-                 (_Photo, Hanfstängl._)]

-

-Giovanni d' Alemagna and Antonio da Murano were no doubt widely

-employed, and when the former died Antonio founded and carried on a

-real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in the parish of S. Maria

-Formosa with his wife, who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and the

-wills of both are still preserved in the parish archives. Gentile da

-Fabriano had set the example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses

-and strange animals; winding paths in the background and foreshortened

-limbs prove that attention had been drawn to Paolo Uccello's studies in

-perspective, while many figures and horses recall Pisanello. A striking

-proof of the sojourn of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in an

-"Adoration of Magi," now ascribed to Antonio da Murano, in which the

-central group, the oldest king kissing the Child's foot, is very like

-that in Gentile's "Adoration," but the foreshortened horses and the

-attendants argue the painter's knowledge of Pisanello's work. A

-comparison of the architecture in the background with that in the

-"St. George" in S. Anastasia shows the same derivation, and the dainty

-cavalier, who holds a flag and is in attendance on the youngest king, is

-reminiscent of St. George and St. Eustace in Pisanello's paintings in

-the National Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences of the

-two artists are combined.

-

-Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo, into partnership, and the

-title of da Murano was presently dropped for the more modern designation

-of Vivarini. Both brothers are fine and delicate in work, but from the

-outset of their collaboration the younger man is more advanced and more

-full of the spirit of the innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall

-of the Academy the Nativity has already a new realism; Joseph leans his

-head upon his hand, crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly

-vivid in expression, especially the old hermit holding the bell, whose

-face is brimming with ardent feeling.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Giovanni d' Alemanus and Antonio da Murano._

-

- Venice. Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.

-

-

- _Antonio da Murano._

-

- Berlin. Adoration of Magi.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER V

-

-THE PADUAN INFLUENCE

-

-

-And now into this dawning school, employed chiefly in the service of the

-Church, with its tentative and languid essays to understand Florentine

-composition, resulting in what is scarcely more than a mindless

-imitation, and with its rather more intelligent perception of the

-Humanist qualities of Pisanello's work, there enters a new factor; or

-rather a new agency makes a slightly more successful attempt than

-Gentile and Castagno had done to help the Venetians to realise the

-supreme importance of the human figure, its power in relation to other

-objects to determine space, its modelling and the significance of its

-attitude in conveying movement. Giotto had been able to present all

-these qualities in the human form, but he had done so by the light of

-genius, and had never formulated any sufficient rules for his followers'

-guidance. In Ghiberti's school, at the beginning of the fifteenth

-century, the fascination of the antique in art was making itself felt,

-but Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels it threatened to

-exercise, and had carried the Florentine school with him in his profound

-researches into the human form itself. Donatello had been working in

-Padua for ten years before Pisanello's death, and in an indirect way the

-Venetians were experiencing some after-results of the systematising and

-formulating of the new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual

-life had met with little encouragement among the positive, practical

-inhabitants of Venice, in Padua, which had been subject to her since

-1405, speculative thought and ideal studies were in full swing. There

-was no re-birth in Venice, whose tradition was unbroken and where "men

-were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo of a paganism in the

-remote past." St. Mark was the deity of Venice, and "the other twelve

-Apostles" were only obscurely connected with her religious life, which

-was strong and orthodox, but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms

-and inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand, was absorbed in

-questions of learning and religion. A university had been established

-here for two centuries. The abstract study of the antique was carried on

-with fervour, and the memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city which

-had never quite died out. It seemed perfectly right and respectable to

-the Venetians that the _savants_, lying safely removed from the busy

-stream of commercial life, should cultivate inquiries into theology

-and the classics, which would only have been a hindrance to their own

-practical business; but such, as it was well known, were of absorbing

-interest in the circles which gathered round the Medici in Florence. The

-school of art, which was now arising in Padua, was fed from such sources

-as these. The love of the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding

-principle, and influenced the art of painting more formally than it

-could succeed in doing among the independent and original Florentines.

-

-Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says, he may not have been the

-best of painters, has left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as

-genuine and which shows that he was more than the mere organiser he is

-sometimes called. He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently a

-dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments, which was becoming

-widespread. When he founded his school in Padua he evidently was its

-leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence. His pupils, even the

-greatest, were long in breaking away from his convention, and few of

-them threw it off entirely, even in after life. That convention was

-carried with undeviating thoroughness into every detail. Draperies are

-arranged in statuesque folds, designed to display every turn of the form

-beneath; the figures are moulded with all the precision and limitations

-of statuary. The very landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a

-volcanic character are constructed with the regularity of masonry. The

-colour and technique are equally uncompromising, and the surface becomes

-a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite in its lines, lacquer-like in

-its firmness of finish, while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been

-so prevalent, were replaced by more or less pedantic adaptations from

-Roman bas-reliefs. This system of design was practised most determinedly

-in Padua itself, but it soon spread to Venice. Squarcione himself was

-employed there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano clung to the old

-archaic style he saw the Paduan manner invading his kingdom, and his own

-brother became strongly Squarcionesque.

-

-The two brothers of Murano come most closely together in an altarpiece

-in the gallery of Bologna, where the framework is more simple than

-Alemanus's German taste would have permitted, and the Madonna and Child

-have some natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive art.

-Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and sets out to paint by himself, is

-crude and strong, but full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464,

-in the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking them off their

-pedestals and making them stand upon the ground, and though they are

-still isolated from one another in the partitions of an ancona, their

-sparkling eyes, individual features, and curly beards give them a look

-of life. The draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked folds,

-which display the forms, and the drawing of the bony structure,

-exaggerated in the arms and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and

-stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In several of his other

-altarpieces, Bartolommeo introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,

-such as Donatello had first brought to Padua, or which Paduan artists

-delighted to copy from classic columns. Antonio's manner to the end is

-the local Venetian manner, infused as it was with the soft and charming

-influence of Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo adopts

-the new and more ambitious style. Though not a very good painter, and

-inclined to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he was the head

-of a crowd of artists, and works of his school, signed _Opus factum_,

-went all over Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works of his

-pupils are numerous; the "St. Mark enthroned" in the Frari is as good if

-not better than the master's own work, and the triptych in the Correr

-Museum is a free imitation.

-

-Round this early school gathered such painters as Antonio da Negroponte

-and Quirizio da Murano, who were both working in 1450. Negroponte has

-left an enthroned Madonna in S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of

-the most beautiful examples of colour and of the fanciful charm of the

-Renaissance that the early art of Venice has to show. The Mother and

-Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned with antique reliefs, rich

-wreaths of fruit swag above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full of

-flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on cornucopias. On either

-side, four badly drawn little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly

-foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful, music-making angels which

-became such a feature of North Italian art. The Divine Mother, adoring

-the Child lying across her knees, has an exquisite, pensive face,

-conceived with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art. It seems

-quite possible, as Professor Leonello Venturi suggests, that we have

-here the early master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love of fruit

-garlands, of chains of beads and rich brocades carried to its farthest

-limits, who takes keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively

-little angels, and who gives the same pensive and almost mincing

-expression to his Madonnas.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini._

-

- Bologna. Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Bartolommeo Vivarini._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.

-         Frari: Madonna and four Saints.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.

-         S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.

- London. Madonna and Saints.

- Vienna. S. Ambrose and Saints.

-

-

- _Antonio da Negroponte._

-

- Venice. S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VI

-

-JACOPO BELLINI

-

-

-While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the school of Squarcione,

-which in the next few years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,

-another influence was asserting itself, which was sufficient to

-counteract the hard formalism of Paduan methods.

-

-When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he carried with him, and presently

-established with him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini, who had

-already been working with him and Pisanello, and who was an ardent

-disciple of the new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both Gentile and

-his apprentice were subjected to annoyance from the time they arrived in

-Florence, where the strict regulations which governed the Guilds made it

-very difficult for any newcomer to practise his art. The records of a

-police case report that on the 11th of June 1423 some young men, among

-them, one, Bernabo di San Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed

-throwing stones into the painter's room. His assistant, Jacopo Bellini,

-came out and drove the assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing

-Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to prison in default of

-payment. After six months' imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a

-penitential declaration set him at liberty. The accounts declare that

-Gentile took no steps to be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon

-after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first son was christened after

-his old master, which does not look as though they were on unfriendly

-terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and was much esteemed by the

-Estes of Ferrara, but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has left us only

-three signed works, and one or two more have lately been attributed to

-him, but they give very little idea of what an important master he was.

-

- [Illustration: _Jacopo Bellini._

-                 AGONY IN GARDEN--DRAWING.

-                _British Museum._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-His Madonna in the Academy has a round, simple type of face, and in the

-Louvre Madonna, which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to

-recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut, curved eyelids. In

-this picture, where the Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d' Este,

-we see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through him, on Venetian art.

-The connection between the two masters has been established in a very

-interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi's discovery of a sonnet,

-written in 1441, which recounts how they painted rival portraits of

-Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness that he was

-adjudged the first place. The landscape in the Louvre picture is

-advanced in treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its stag and

-its town upon the hill-side, is full of reminiscences of Pisanello,

-especially of the "St. George" in S. Anastasia. We come upon such

-traces, too, in Jacopo's drawings, and it is by his two sketch-books

-that we can best judge of his greatness. One of these is in the British

-Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered not many years ago in

-the granary of a castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo as one

-of the greatest masters of his day. He is larger, simpler, and more

-natural than Pisanello, and he apparently cares less for the human

-figure than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings. Many of his

-designs we shall refer to again when we come to speak of his two sons.

-His "Supper of Herod" reminds us of Masolino's fresco at Castiglione

-d' Olona. He sketches designs for numbers of religious scenes, treated

-in an original and interesting manner. A "Crucifixion" has bands of

-soldiers ranged on either side, an "Adoration of the Magi" has a string

-of camels coming down the hill, the executioners in a "Scourging" wear

-Eastern head-dresses. In a sketch for a "Baptism of Christ" tall angels

-hold the garments in the early traditional way; on one side two play

-the lute and the violin, while the two on the other side have a trumpet

-and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension, Resurrection,

-Circumcision, and Entombment, repeated over and over again with

-variations, and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice (where he was

-in 1427). Jacopo delights even more in fanciful and mythological than in

-sacred subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun riding a lion, a

-"Triumph of Bacchus" with panthers, are among such essays. The fauns

-pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His love of animals is equal

-to that of Pisanello, and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix

-between its horns is directly reminiscent of the Veronese. His horses,

-of which there are immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied from

-ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of single nude figures is often

-poor and weak enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped, geological

-formation of the Paduan School, but no one who so drank in every

-description of lively scene about him could have been in any danger of

-becoming a mere archeological type, and it was from this pitfall that he

-rescued Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo did not overlook any

-source of art open to him; he delights in the rich research of the

-Paduans as much as in the varieties of wild nature and all the incidents

-of contemporary life first annexed by Pisanello. He is often very like

-Gentile da Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello's domains of

-perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws a revel of satyrs and

-centaurs with a real interpretation of the lyrical and pagan spirit of

-the Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul, which found its full

-expression in his son, Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the

-founder of the Venetian School, for its makings existed already, but it

-was his influence on his sons which, above all, was accountable for the

-development of early excellence. His long, flowing lines have a sweep

-and a fanciful grace which form an absolute antidote to the definite,

-geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we see the thorough

-assimilation of those foreign elements which were in sympathy with

-the Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now Venice had only imbibed

-influences, she was soon to create for herself an artistic _milieu_ and

-to become the leader of the movement of painting in the north of Italy.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Jacopo Bellini._

-

- Brescia. Annunciation and Predelle.

- Verona.  Christ on Cross.

- Venice.  Academy: Madonna.

-          Museo Correr: Crucifixion.

- London.  British Museum: Sketch-book.

- Paris.   Madonna and Leonello d' Este: Sketch-book.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VII

-

-CARLO CRIVELLI

-

-

-We must turn aside from the main stream when we come to speak of Carlo

-Crivelli, who, important master as he was, occupies a place by himself.

-A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps, as we have noted, of Antonio

-Negroponte, Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the Paduans, from whom

-he learned that metallic, finished quality of paint which he carried to

-perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality, even genius, in the

-way in which he grapples with his medium and produces his own reading,

-and the circumstances of his life were such as to throw him in upon

-himself and to preserve his originality. His little early "Madonna and

-Child" at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte by the elaborate

-festoons, strings of beads, and large-patterned brocades used in the

-surroundings, and has those ugly, foreshortened little _putti_, holding

-the instruments of the Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione and

-Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved state, we are accustomed to

-think of as Mantegnesque.

-

-When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he was condemned to six

-months' imprisonment and to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage

-on a neighbour's wife. Perhaps it was to escape from an unenviable

-reputation that he left Venice soon after and set up painting in the

-Marches, where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then went on to Camerino

-in Umbria, where his great triptych, now in the Brera, was painted,

-and a few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission for an

-Annunciation in the Cathedral. This is the picture now in the National

-Gallery, in which the Bishop holds a model of the Duomo. After 1490 he

-worked in little towns in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.

-He does not seem ever to have come back to Venice.

-

-Shut up in the Marches, where there was little strong local talent, and

-where he could not keep up with the progress that was taking place in

-Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the artistic movement. He kept

-the Squarcionesque traditions to the end, but moulded them by his own

-love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover, he was of a very

-intense religious bias, and this finds a deeply touching and mystical

-expression, more especially in his Pietàs. The love of gilded patterns

-and fanciful detail was deep-seated in all the Umbrian country. His

-altarpieces were intended as sumptuous additions to rich churches, and

-were consequently arranged, with many divisions, in the old Muranese

-manner. His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a marvel of

-elaborate ornament and enamel-like painting. The Madonna is delicate,

-almost affected in her refinement. Her long fingers hold the Child's

-garment with the extreme of dainty precision, the croziers and rings of

-the saints and bishops are embossed with gold and real jewels. The

-flowers in the panel of "The Immaculate Conception," which hangs beside

-it, are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and grotesques or

-cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty of strength, and his male saints have

-vigorous, bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however, in his

-colour that he charms us most, and though he does not touch the real

-fount, he is of all the earlier school the most remarkable for subtle

-tender tones and lovely harmonies of olive-greens and faded rose and

-cream embossed with gold.

-

-Crivelli continued executing one great ancona after another, limiting

-his progress to perfecting his technique, and his influence was most

-deeply felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San Severino and

-Niccola Alunno. The honours paid him testify to the reputation he

-acquired. He was created a knight and presented with a golden laurel

-wreath. But though he never, that we can hear of, revisited his native

-State, he always adds _Venetus_ to the signature on his paintings, a

-fact which tells us that far from Venice and in provincial districts,

-her prestige was felt and gave his work an enhanced commercial value.

-He had no after-influence upon the Venetian School, and in this respect

-is interesting as an example of the tenacity exercised by the

-Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by any counter-attraction, they

-came to act upon a very different temperament; for in his love of grace

-and beauty and of rich effects, and especially in his intensity of

-mystic feeling, Crivelli is a true Venetian and has no natural affinity

-with the classic spirit of the Paduans.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Venice. SS. Jerome and Augustine.

- Ascoli. Duomo: Altarpiece and Pietà.

- Berlin. Madonna and six Saints.

- London. Pietà; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation;

-           Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.

-         Mr. Benson: Madonna.

-         Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.

-         Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.

-         Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion;

-           Madonna; Madonna and Saints.

- Milan. Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot,

-          Jerome, and Andrew.

-        Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.

- Rome.  Vatican: Pietà.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VIII

-

-GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA

-

-

-What, then, is the position which art has achieved in Venice a decade

-after the middle of the fourteenth century, and how does she compare

-with the Florentine School? The Florentines, Fra Angelico, Andrea del

-Castagno, and Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo was in his

-prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four, Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But

-though the progress in the north had been slower, art both in Padua and

-Venice was now in vigorous progress. Bartolommeo Vivarini was still

-painting and gathering round him a numerous band of followers; Mantegna

-was thirty, had just completed the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and

-the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile and Giovanni Bellini were

-two and four years his seniors.

-

-Francesco Negro, writing in the early years of the sixteenth century,

-speaks of Gentile as the elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is

-thought to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo's widow only

-mentions Gentile and another son, Niccolo, in her will. There is every

-reason to believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were the pupils

-and assistants of their father. A "Madonna" in the Mond Collection, the

-earliest known of Gentile's works, shows him imitating his father's

-style; but when his sister, Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is

-not surprising to find him following Mantegna's methods for a time, and

-a fresco of St. Mark in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission

-which he received in 1466, is taken direct from Mantegna's fresco at

-Padua.

-

-As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the Squarcionesque tradition and

-evolved a style of their own; Gentile as much as his even more famous

-brother. Gentile is the first chronicler of the men and manners of his

-time. In 1460 he settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the organ

-doors in St. Mark's. These large saints, especially the St. Mark, still

-recall the Paduan period. They have festoons of grapes and apples hung

-from the architectural ornaments, and the cast of drapery, showing the

-form beneath, reminds us of Mantegna's figures. But Gentile soon becomes

-an illustrator and portrait painter. Much of his work was done in the

-Scuola of St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this was destroyed

-by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the fine austere portrait of Lorenzo

-Giustiniani, in the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the Sultan

-Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested the Signoria to recommend a good

-painter and a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen, and departed

-in September for Constantinople. He painted many subjects for the

-private apartments of the Sultan, as well as the famous portrait now in

-the possession of Lady Layard. It would be difficult for a historic

-portrait to show more insight into character. The face is cold, weary,

-and sensual, with all the over-refined look of an old race and a long

-civilisation, and has a melancholy note in its distant and satiated

-gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile every mark of favour, loaded him with

-presents, and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He returned home in

-1493, bringing with him many sketches of Eastern personages and the

-picture, now in the Louvre, representing the reception of a Venetian

-Embassy by the Grand Vizier. Some five years before Gentile's commission

-to Constantinople Antonello da Messina had arrived in Venice, and the

-spread and popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the casting off

-of outworn ecclesiastical methods and brought the painters nearer to the

-truth of life. Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the notice

-of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo Vivarini was already using them in

-1473, but he was well known by reputation before he arrived, and having

-probably come into contact with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had

-better opportunities of seizing upon the new technique, and was able to

-establish it both in Milan and in Venice. A large number of Venetians

-were at this time resident in Messina: the families of Lombardo,

-Gradenigo, Contarini, Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those

-who had members settled there. Many of these were patrons of art, and

-probably paved the way to Antonello's reception in Venice. At first all

-the traits of Antonello's early work are Flemish: the full mantles,

-white linen caps and tuckers, the straight sharp folds and long wings of

-the angels have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to Venice in 1475,

-its colour and life fascinate him, and a great change comes over his

-work. His portraits show that he grasped a new intensity of life,

-and let us into the character of the men he saw around him. His

-"Condottiere," in the Louvre, declares the artist's recognition of

-that truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic disdain, the

-product of a daring, unscrupulous life. The "Portrait of a Humanist,"

-in the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest sense; and in the

-Trivulzio College at Milan an older man looks at us out of sly,

-expressive eyes, with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical

-mouth. It was not wonderful that these portraits, combined with the new

-medium, worked upon Gentile's imagination and determined his bent.

-

-The first examples of great canvases, illustrating and celebrating

-their own pageants, must have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes

-in the style of the reception of the Venetian ambassadors were called

-for on all hands, and when the excellence of Gentile's portraits was

-recognised, he became the model for all Venice. When his own and his

-father's and brother's paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered

-to replace them "quicker than was humanly possible" and at a very low

-price. Giovanni, who had been engaged on the external decorations, was

-ill at the time, but the Signoria was so pleased with the offer that it

-was decided to let no one touch the work till the two brothers were

-able to finish it. Gentile still painted religious altarpieces with the

-Virgin and Child enthroned with saints, but most of his time was devoted

-to the production of his great canvases. Some of these have disappeared,

-but the "Procession" and "Miracle of the Cross," commissioned by the

-school of S. Giovanni Evangelista, are now in the Academy, and the

-third canvas, executed for the same school, "St. Mark preaching at

-Alexandria," which was unfinished at the time of his death, and was

-completed by his brother, is in the Brera.

-

- [Illustration: _Gentile Bellini._

-                 PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-These great compositions of crowds bring back for us the Venice of

-Gentile's day as no verbal description can do. There is no especial

-richness of colour; the light is that of broad day in the Piazza and

-among the luminous waterways of the city. We can see the scene any

-day now in the wide square, making allowance for the difference of

-costume. The groups are set about in the ample space, with the wonderful

-cathedral as a background. St. Mark's has been painted hundreds of

-times, but no one has ever given such a good idea of it as Gentile--of

-its stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and he does so

-without detracting from the general effect, for St. Mark's, though the

-keynote of the whole composition, is kept subservient, and is part of

-the stage on which the scene is enacted. The procession passes along,

-carrying the relics, attended by the waxlights and the banners. Behind

-the reliquary kneels the merchant, Jacopo Salò, petitioning for the

-recovery of his wounded son. Then come the musicians; the spectators

-crowd round, they strain forward to see the chief part of the cortège,

-as a crowd naturally does. Some watch with reverence, others smile or

-have a negligent air. The faces of the candle-bearers are very like

-those we may see to-day in a great Church procession: some absorbed in

-their task, or uplifted by inner thoughts; others looking curiously

-and sceptically at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds to bring

-together all the types of life in Venice, all the officials and the

-ecclesiastical world, the young and old. With a few strokes he creates

-the individual and also the type;--the careless rover; the responsible

-magistrate; the shrewd, practical man of business; the young men, full

-of their own plans, but pausing to look on at one of the great religious

-sights of their city. In the "Finding of the Cross" he produces the

-effect of the whole city _en fête_. It was a sight which often met his

-eyes. The Doge made no fewer than thirty-six processions annually to

-various churches of the city, and on fourteen of these occasions he was

-accompanied by the whole of the nobles dressed in their State robes.

-Every event of importance was seized on by the Venetian ladies as an

-opportunity for arraying themselves in the richest attire, cloth of gold

-and velvet, plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies of Queen

-Catherine Cornaro's Court around their Queen upon the left side of the

-canal. The light from above streams upon the keeper of the School, who

-holds the sacred relic on high. All round are the old, irregular

-Venetian houses, and in the crowd he paints the variety of men he saw

-around him every day in Venice. Yet even in this animated scene he

-retains his old quattrocento calm. The groups are decorously assisting:

-only here and there he is drawn off to some small detail of reality,

-such as an oarsman dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting the

-negro servant pass out to take a header into the canal. The spectators

-look on coolly at one more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The

-committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of unforgettable portraits,

-grave, benign, sour, and austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In

-this composition he triumphs over all difficulties of perspective; our

-eye follows the canals, and the boats pass away under the bridge in

-atmospheric light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of light on

-broad brick surfaces, light which is cast up from the water and dances

-and shimmers on the marble façades.

-

-Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as others in 1505 and 1506. He

-left word that he was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and begged

-his brother Giovanni to finish the work in the Scuola, in return for

-which he is to receive their father's sketch-book. The unfinished piece

-is the "St. Mark preaching at Alexandria," and it shows Gentile still

-developing his capacity as a painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant

-in sunlight. The mass of white given by the head-dresses of the Turkish

-women is cleverly subdued so as not to detract from the effect of the

-sunlight. The thronged effect of the great square is studied with more

-than his usual care, and the faces have all the old individuality. The

-foremost figures in the crowd have a colour and richness which we may

-attribute to Giovanni's hand.

-

-Gentile was always fully employed, and the detailed paintings of

-functions became very popular; but he was a far less modern painter

-than his brother, and, in fact, they represent two distinct artistic

-generations, though Gentile's work was so much the most elaborate and,

-as the quattrocento would have thought, the most ambitious.

-

-Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet his is a grave, sincere

-art, and he has an unerring instinct for the right incidents to include.

-He cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are stern, powerful

-men, the treatment is historic and contemporary, but not gossipy. We

-realise the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide of human

-nature, but we also feel that he never forgot that he was chronicling

-the doings of a city of strong men, and that he must paint them, even in

-their hours of relaxation and emotion, so as to convey the real dignity

-and power which underlay all the events of the Republic.

-

-We gather from his will and that of his wife that they had no children,

-which perhaps makes the more natural the affectionate terms upon which

-he remained all through his life with his brother. Their artistic

-sympathies must have differed widely. Gentile's love for historical

-research, for costume and for pageants, found no echo in the deeper

-idealism of Giovanni--indeed, his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an

-inducement to the latter to finish his last great work, seems to hint

-that it was an exercise out of his brother's line; but he knew that

-Giovanni was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we might have

-expected, to his assistants, Giovanni Mansueti and Girolamo da

-Santacroce.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Gentile Bellini._

-

- London. S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.

- Milan.  Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.

- Venice. Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of

-           True Cross; Healing by True Cross.

-         Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.

-

-

- _Antonello da Messina._

-

- Antwerp. Crucifixion, 1475.

- Berlin.  Three Portraits.

- London.  The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.

- Messina. Madonna and Saints, 1473.

- Paris.   Condottiere.

- Milan.   Portrait of a Humanist.

- Venice.  Academy: Ecce Homo.

- Vicenza. Christ at the Column.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IX

-

-ALVISE VIVARINI

-

-

-Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were artists still firmly attached to

-the past, who were far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.

-

-One of Antonio de Murano's sons, Luigi or Alvise Vivarini, grew up to

-follow his father's profession, and was enrolled in the school of his

-uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic follower of

-Squarcione, Alvise was at first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo

-Bellini's efforts had done something to counteract the hard, statuesque

-Paduan manner, and had rendered Mantegna's art more human and less

-stony, but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque painters from

-importing into Venice the style which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo

-threw in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially when

-reinforced by Alvise, maintained its reputation as long as it only

-had to compete with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been firmly

-established in Venice for two generations, and were the best-known and

-most popular of her painters. Albert Dürer, on his first visit, admired

-them more than the Bellini. When, however, Gentile and his brother set

-up in Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and the old Muranese

-School. The Bellini had come with their father from Padua, with all its

-new and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige of relationship

-with Mantegna, and they shared the patronage of his powerful employers.

-The striking historical compositions of Gentile were at once in demand

-by the great confraternities. Bartolommeo had never been very successful

-in his dealing with oil-painting, though he had dabbled in it for some

-years before Antonello da Messina came his way, but the perception with

-which the Bellini at once grasped the new technique gave them the

-victory. We have only to compare the formless contours of much of

-Bartolommeo Vivarini's work, the bladder-like flesh-painting of the

-Holy Child, with the clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of

-Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead of the other.

-

-Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity with his father than with his

-uncle. He never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as Bartolommeo. The

-expression of his faces is much deeper and more inward, and he has

-something of the devotional sweetness of early art. His first known

-work is an ancona of 1475 at Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan

-monastery on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of the five

-panels the Madonna sits with her hands pressed palm to palm, in

-adoration of the Child asleep across her knees. The painter here follows

-the tradition of his father and uncle, especially in the Bologna

-altarpiece, in which they collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on

-either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in the old way, and

-it is only by degrees that we see there is more sweetness in the

-expression, better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer, more

-graceful outline than the earlier anconæ can show. Only five years after

-this ancona at Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated saints,

-we have the altarpiece in the Academy "of 1480," which was painted for a

-church in Treviso, and here a great change is immediately apparent. The

-antiquated division into panels has disappeared, nothing is left of the

-artificial, Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are simple, and

-the scene is a united one. The Madonna's outstretched hand, the

-suggestion of "Ecce Agnus Dei," makes an appeal which draws the

-attention of all the saints to one point, and it is made plain that the

-one idea pervades the entire assembly. The curtain, which symbolises the

-sanctuary, still hangs behind the throne, but the gold background is

-abandoned. Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape or

-constructed an interior, but he lightens the effect by two arched

-windows which let in the sky. The forms are characteristic of his

-idea of drawing the human figure; they have the long thighs with the

-knees low down, which we are accustomed to find, and he constructs a

-very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light and shade. There is no

-trace of the statuesque Paduan draperies. The Virgin's brocaded mantle

-is simply draped, and the robes of the saints hang in long straight

-folds. No doubt Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini, has

-more affinity with them, particularly with Giovanni, than with the

-Paduan artists, and as time goes on it is evident that he paints with

-many glances at what they were doing. In the altarpiece in Berlin he

-constructs an elaborate cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was

-already using. His saints are full of movement. In the end he begins to

-attitudinise and to display those artificial graces which were presently

-accentuated by Lotto.

-

- [Illustration: _Alvise Vivarini._

-                 ALTARPIECE OF 1480.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time been employed in the Sala del

-Gran Consiglio by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy school, had

-hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be invited to enter into competition

-with them. At length he wrote the following letter:--

-

-     TO THE MOST SERENE THE PRINCE AND THE MOST EXCELLENT

-     SIGNORIA--I am Alvise of Murano, a faithful servant of your

-     Serenity and of this most illustrious State. I have long been

-     anxious to exercise my skill before your Sublimity and prove

-     that continued study and labour on my part have not been

-     useless. Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and

-     praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without

-     return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing a canvas

-     in the Sala del Gran Consiio, according to the method at

-     present in use by the two brothers Bellinii, and I ask no more

-     for the said canvas than that I should be allowed the expenses

-     of the cloth and colours as well as the wages of the

-     journeymen, in the manner that has been granted to the said

-     Bellinii. When I have done I shall leave to your Serenity of

-     his goodness to give me in his wisdom the price which shall be

-     adjudged to be just, honest, and appropriate, in return for the

-     labour, which I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the

-     universal satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the

-     excellent Government, to the grace of which I most heartily

-     commend myself.

-

-The "method at present in use" was presumably the oil-painting

-established by Antonello, which was now being made use of to replace

-the decorations in fresco and tempera which Guariento, Pisanello, and

-Gentile da Fabriano had executed, and which were constantly decaying and

-suffering from the sea air and the dampness of the climate. The Council

-accepted Alvise's offer with little delay, and he was told to paint a

-picture for a space hitherto occupied by one of Pisanello's, and was

-given a salary of sixty ducats a year, something less than that drawn by

-Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work, scenes from the history of

-Barbarossa, perished in the great fire of 1577.

-

-Venice is rich in works which show us what sort of painter was at the

-head of the Muranese School at the time when it rivalled that of the

-Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either side of the altarpiece

-of 1480, and of these the Baptist is one of his best figures, "admirably

-expressive of tension and of brooding thought." It is large and free in

-stroke, and particularly advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close

-by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type of a strenuous, fanatical

-old woman, one which belongs not only to the period, but will be

-recognised by every student of human nature. Formidable and even cruel

-is her unflinching gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood for

-Scott's Prioress, and looks as little likely to show mercy to an erring

-member of her order. In contrast, there is the exquisite little "Madonna

-and Child" with the two baby angels, still shown as a Bellini in the

-sacristy of the Church of the Redentore. It is the most absolutely

-simple and direct picture of the kind painted in Venice. The baby life

-is more perfect than anything that Gian. Bellini produced, and if much

-less intellectual than his Madonnas, there is all the tender charm of

-the primitives, combined with a freedom of drapery and a softness of

-form which could not be surpassed. The two little angels are more

-mundane in spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they have nothing

-of the mystical quality, though we are reminded of Bellini, and the

-painting is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy of San Giobbe is

-an early Annunciation, which is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It

-has the old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its draperies are of

-a lovely tint. The priests of S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons

-of the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides several works by

-Bartolommeo and his assistants, is a little Madonna in a side chapel,

-which may be compared with the Redentore picture. The Mother sits inside

-a room, with the Child lying across her knees in the same pose. The two

-arched openings in the background of the 1480 altarpiece have become

-windows, through which we look out on a charming landscape of lake and

-mountain. In the same church a "Resurrection" is not to be overlooked.

-It was executed in 1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the

-sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the pink flush of dawn

-stands the swaying figure of the risen Christ, and below appear the

-heads of the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful. It is perhaps

-the very earliest example of that soft and sensuous feeling, that

-rhapsody of sensation which was presently to sweep like a flood over the

-art of Venice. "What a time must the dawn of the sixteenth century have

-been when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous and advanced of

-his age, had the freshness and youthful courage to greet it; nay,

-actually to depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in the

-'Resurrection'! Giorgione is here anticipated in the roundness and

-softness of the figures, and in the effect of light. Titian's Assunta is

-foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards' expressions." Alvise, if he

-never thoroughly mastered the structure of the nude, and if his forms

-keep throughout some touch of the archaic, some awkwardness in the

-thickness of the figures, with their round heads, long thighs, and

-uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily refined and tender in

-sentiment, his line has a natural flow and beauty, and the heads of his

-Madonnas and saints cannot be surpassed in loveliness.

-

-His death came when the noble altarpiece to St. Ambrogio in the Frari

-was still unfinished, and it was completed by his assistant, Marco

-Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably of Basaiti, but the

-venerable doctor is a grand figure, and the two young soldier saints on

-his right and left hand are striking examples of the beauty we claim

-for him. The architectural plan is very elaborate, but altogether

-successful. The group is set beneath an arched vault supported by

-columns and cornices. Overhead, behind a balustrade, is placed a

-coronation of the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so as not to

-interfere with each other, and the sword of St. George, the crozier of

-St. Gregory, and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the composition and

-give length and line. The faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,

-and the two angels making music below compare well with those of the

-Bellinesque School.

-

-The portraits Alvise has left add to his reputation, and remind us of

-those of Antonello da Messina, particularly in the vital expression

-of the eyes, though they are without Antonello's intense force. The

-"Bernardo di Salla" and the "Man feeding a Hawk," though some critics

-still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which make their

-attribution to Alvise almost certainly correct. Indeed, the resemblance

-of Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece cannot escape the most

-unscientific observer. There is the same inflated nostril, the

-peculiarly curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.

-

-Among the followers of Alvise, Marco Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and

-Lorenzo Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less direct are

-Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco Bonsignori, while Cima da

-Conegliano was for a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return to

-these later.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.  Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.

- London.  Portrait of Youth.

- Milan.   Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.

- Naples.  Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.

- Paris.   Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.

- Venice.  Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints,

-            1480.

-          Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.

-          S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection

-            and Predelle.

-          Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.

- Vienna.  Madonna.

- Windsor. Man feeding a Hawk.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER X

-

-CARPACCIO

-

-

-Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini's most faithful pupil. He and his

-master stand apart in having, before the arrival of the Venetian School

-proper, captured an aspect and a charm inspired by the natural beauty

-of the City of the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her historic

-appearance, and Carpaccio gives us something of the delight we feel

-to-day in her translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed spaces

-flooded with limpid light. While others were absorbed in assimilating

-extraneous influences, he goes on his own way, painting, indeed, the

-scenes that were asked for, but painting them in his own manner and with

-his own enjoyment.

-

-Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the Venetian State from very

-early days. The first use of painting had been that made by the Church

-to glorify religion, and very soon the State had followed, using it to

-enhance the love which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring home

-to them the consciousness of its greatness and glory. Pageants and

-processions were an integral part of Venetian life. The people looked

-on at them, often as they occurred, with more pride and sense of

-proprietorship than a Londoner does at a coronation procession or at the

-King going in state to open Parliament. The Venetian loved splendour and

-beauty and the story of the city's great achievements, and nothing

-provided so welcome a subject for the decoration of the great public

-halls as portrayals of the events which had made Venice famous. Artists

-had been employed to produce these as early as the end of the fourteenth

-century, and those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which perished in

-the great fire) were a rendering on modern lines of the same subjects,

-satisfying the more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.

-

-Besides the Church and the public Government, we have already seen the

-"Schools," as they were called, becoming important employers. These

-schools were the great organised confraternities in the cause of charity

-and mutual help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth century.

-That of St. Mark was naturally the foremost, but others were banded each

-under their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of rich patrons, for it

-was the fashion to belong to the confraternities. Riches and endowments

-rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting business were

-built, and were adorned with pictures setting forth the legends of

-their patron saints. We have already seen Gentile Bellini employed in

-the schools of San Marco and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.

-Ursula and St. George gave commissions to Carpaccio, or perhaps it would

-be more correct to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent in this

-art, provided employment for his pupil and assistant, and that by

-degrees Carpaccio became a _maestro_ on his own account.

-

-A host of second-rate painters were plying side by side, disciples

-first of one master, then drawn off to become followers of a second;

-assimilating the influence first of one workshop and then of another.

-Carpaccio has been lately identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who

-had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution to this painter of

-the "Doge before the Madonna," in the National Gallery, gives some

-countenance to the contention that he was held to be of great excellence

-in his time.

-

-Though some historians advance the suggestion that Carpaccio was a

-native of Capo d'Istria, there is little proof that he was not, like his

-father Pietro, born a Venetian. He seems to have worked in Venice all

-his life, his first work being dated 1490 and his last 1520. In 1527 his

-wife, Laura, declared herself a widow.

-

-The narrative art needed by the confraternities was supplied in

-perfection by Carpaccio, and one of his earliest independent

-commissions was the important one of decorating the School of St.

-Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a monopoly of the school. No one else

-had a right to collect offerings in her name or to put up an image to

-her. The legend afforded an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic

-scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage, and the cycle is one of

-the freshest and most characteristic things that has come down to us

-from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous. The mediocre

-masters who have educated the painter have made little impression on

-him. He is entirely occupied in delight in his subject and in telling

-his story. The story of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the

-daughter of the King of Brittany. The King of England sends his

-ambassadors to beg her hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the

-proposal with her father, and makes the conditions that Hereo, who is a

-heathen, shall be baptized, and that the betrothed couple must before

-marriage visit the Pope and the sacred shrines. After taking leave of

-their parents, the Prince and Princess depart on their expedition, but

-Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in which an angel has announced her

-martyrdom. She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000 virgins, and they

-are received by Pope Cyriacus in Rome. The Pope then makes the return

-journey with them as far as Cologne, where, however, they are assaulted

-and massacred by the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a splendid

-funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen scenes in which the story is

-told are arranged on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed

-them in the chronological order, some of the latest events being the

-least complete in artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns the

-following dates to the list:

-

-     1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet those of the

-     King of Brittany to ask for the hand of Ursula. Probably

-     painted from 1496-98.

-

-     2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal with her

-     father. 1496-98.

-

-     3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors. 1496-98.

-

-     4. The ambassadors return to the King of England. 1496-98.

-

-     5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.

-

-     6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their respective

-     parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.

-

-     9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins meet the Pope.

-     1492.

-

-     10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.

-

-     11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral. 1495.

-

-     13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of martyrdom,

-     venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received in heaven by the

-     Eternal Father. 1491.

-

-No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might naturally have been chosen for a

-first experiment. The heads are large with coarse features, and the

-proportions of the figures are poor. The face of the saint in glory (No.

-13), plump and without much expression, is of the type of Bastiani's

-saints. It may be assumed that such a great scheme of decoration would

-not have been entrusted to any one who was not already well known as an

-independent master, but perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about

-thirty when the work was begun, was still principally engrossed with the

-conventional, ecclesiastical subject. The heads of the virgins pressing

-round the saint appear to be portraits, and were very possibly those of

-the wives and daughters of members of the confraternity.

-

-The improvement that takes place is so rapid that we can guess how

-congenial the painter found the task and how quickly he adapted his

-already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes delight in the opportunity for

-painting a little domestic scene,--the bedroom of a young Venetian girl,

-perhaps a sister of his own. The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,

-are carefully drawn. The clear morning light streams into the room. The

-saint lies peacefully asleep, her hand under her head, her long

-eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is an idyll, full of insight

-into girlish life. The tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details

-that caught his eye. The crown lying on the ledge of the bed is an

-arbitrary introduction, as naïf as the angel. In the funeral scene the

-luminous light is diffused over all, the young saint lies upon her bier

-and is followed by priest and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth

-to nature, the draperies and garments are brought into harmony with the

-sky and background, and in all those that follow we find this quality

-of light. The landscape behind the massacre has gained in natural

-character, the city is at some distance, houses and churches are half

-buried in woods; the setting is much more natural than are the quaint

-and elegant pages who occupy it, and who are drawing their crossbows and

-attacking the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The panel in which the

-betrothed couple meet shows a great advance, and this and the succeeding

-ones of the ambassadors, which were painted between 1495 and 1498, must

-have crowned Carpaccio's reputation. He paints Venice in its most

-fascinating aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles, its sky and

-sea, its palaces and ships, the rich and picturesque dresses men wore

-in the streets, the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces a

-fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with the work of Pintoricchio.

-His Prince, kneeling in a white and gold dress, with long fair curls, is

-a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red dress and puffed sleeves, her

-rippling, flaxen hair and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.

-Carpaccio's art is simple and garrulous in feeling, his conception is

-as unpassionate as the fancies of a child, but he has a true love for

-these gay crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way--her solid, worthy

-citizens, men of substance, shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure

-seriously with a sense of responsibility. They throng the streets and

-cross over the bridges, every figure is full of freedom and vitality.

-The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors are the best of all the

-scenes. In the middle of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits

-upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to the left is gathered a

-group of Venetian personages, members of the Loredano family, which was

-a special patron of St. Ursula's Guild, and gave this panel. The types

-are all vividly realised and differentiated: the courtier looking

-critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious bourgeoisie; the man

-of fashion passing with his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too

-closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf keeper. Far beyond

-stretch the lagoons; the sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What is

-noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the absence of women, was then

-most true to life, for except on special occasions they were not seen in

-the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental seclusion. The dismissal

-of the ambassadors affords the opportunity for drawing an interior with

-the street visible through a doorway. A group at the side, of a man

-dictating a letter and the scribe taking down his words, writing

-laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his head on one side, is

-excellent in its quiet reality. The same life-like vivacity is displayed

-in Ursula's consultation with her father. The old nurse crouched upon

-the steps is introduced to break the line and to throw back the main

-group. Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the funeral scene,

-and Titian himself adopts his suggestion.

-

- [Illustration: _Carpaccio._

-                 ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a charming one. His treatment

-of light and water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense of peace

-and poetry, and though he is influenced by Gentile's splendid realistic

-heads, the type which appeals to him is gentler and more idealised. His

-fancy is caught by Oriental details, to which Gentile would naturally

-have directed his attention, and of which there was no lack in Venice at

-this time. All his episodes are very clearly illustrated, and his

-popular brush was kept busily employed. He took a share with other

-assistants in the series which Gentile was painting in S. Giovanni

-Evangelista. In 1502 the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to

-decorate their school, which had been founded fifty years earlier, for

-the relief of destitute Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects were

-to be selected from the lives of the Saviour and the patron saints of

-Dalmatia and Albania, St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.

-Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece which Carpaccio delivered

-between 1502 and 1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of the

-school. His "Jerome in his Study" has nothing ascetic, but shows a

-prosperous Venetian ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library

-among his books and writings. He is less successful in his scenes from

-the life of Christ; the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of Mantegna;

-but when he leaves his own style he is weak and poor, and imaginary

-scenes are quite beyond him. In the death and interment of St. Jerome he

-gives a delightful impression of the peace of the old convent garden,

-and in the scene where the lion introduced by the saint scatters the

-terrified monks he lets a sense of humour have free play. The monks in

-their long garments, escaping in all directions, are really comical, and

-in conjunction with the ingratiating smile of the lion, the scene passes

-into the region of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the comic in

-the scene in St. Ursula's history, where the 11,000 virgins are hurrying

-in single file along a winding road which disappears out of the picture.

-In the principal scene in the life of St. George, Carpaccio again

-achieves a masterpiece. The force and vivacity of the saint in armour

-charging the dragon, lingers long in the memory. The long, decorative

-lines of lance and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole landscape.

-The details show an almost childish delight in the realisation of

-ghoulish horrors. He rather injures his "Triumph of St. George" by his

-anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem; the flying flags

-distract the eye, and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken up

-into different parts, while the dragon is reduced to very unterrifying

-insignificance. His series for the school of the Albanians dealt with

-the life of the Virgin, who was their special patron. Its remains are

-at Bergamo, Milan, and in the Academy. The single figures in the

-"Presentation," the priest and maiden, are excellent. A child at the

-side of the steps, leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows once

-more what a hold this use of a figure had taken of him. In the

-"Visitation" the figures are too much scattered, and the fantastic

-buildings attract more attention than the women. He still produced

-altarpieces, and the Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple,

-which he was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where one of Bellini's

-most famous altarpieces stood, challenged him to put forth all his

-strength. He never produced anything more simple and noble or more

-worthy of the cinque-cento than this altarpiece (now in the Academy). It

-surpasses Bellini's arrangement in the way in which the personages are

-raised upon a step, while the dome overhead and the angel musicians

-below give them height and dignity. The contrast between the infant and

-the youthful woman and the old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast

-between youth and age is a very favourite one. Bellini, in the same

-church, draws it between SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in

-his last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian with St. Jerome.

-This is the most grandiose, the least of a _genre_ picture of all

-Carpaccio's creations, although he does make Simeon into a pontiff with

-attendant cardinals bearing his train. One of his last works is the S.

-Vitale over the high altar of the church of that name, where we forgive

-the wooden appearance of the horse which the saint rides for the sake of

-the simple dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by the balcony

-overhead. Nor must we forget that study of the "Two Courtesans" in the

-Museo Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism. It conveys to us

-the matter-of-fact monotony of the long, hot days, and the women and the

-animals with which they are beguiling their idle hours are painted with

-the greatest intelligence. It carries us back to another phase of life

-in Carpaccio's Venice, seen through his observant, humorous eyes, and if

-there is nothing in his colour distinctive of the impending Venetian

-richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant limpidity; it seems

-drawn straight from the transparent canals and radiant lagoons.

-

-We apprehend the difference at once in Bastiani and in Mansueti, who

-essay the same sort of compositions. They studied grouping carefully,

-and it must have seemed easy enough to paint their careful architecture

-and to place citizens in costume with appropriate action in a "Miracle

-of the Cross," or the "Preaching of St. Mark"; but these pictures are

-dry and crowded, they give no illusion of truth, there is none of the

-careless realism of Carpaccio's crowds,--of incidents taking place which

-are not essential to the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but

-which have their share in producing a full and varied illusion. The

-scenes want the air and depth in which Carpaccio's pictures are

-enveloped. We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into the outer air

-and refreshed by these heavy personages, standing in rows, painted in

-hot, dry colour, and carrying no conviction in their glance and action.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.    Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.

- Ferrara.   Death of Virgin.

- Milan.     Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen

-              disputing.

- Paris.     St. Stephen preaching.

- Stuttgart. Martyrdom of St. Stephen.

- Venice.    Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins;

-              Presentation in the Temple.

-            Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.

-            S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and

-              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of

-              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.

-            S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.

-            Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave

-              of her Father.

- Vienna.    Christ adored by Angels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XI

-

-GIOVANNI BELLINI

-

-

-The difference between Gian. Bellini and his accomplished brother, that

-which makes us so conscious that the first was the greater of the two

-and which sets him in a later artistic generation than Gentile, is a

-difference of mind. Such pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni

-was engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may suspect that their

-composition was not particularly congenial to him, and that the strictly

-religious pictures and the small allegorical studies, by which we must

-judge him, were more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal feeling

-which adds so strongly to his claim to be a great artist; it was this

-which drew all men to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence the

-art of his day in Venice.

-

-Jacopo's wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves everything to her two

-sons, Gentile and Niccolo. Giovanni was evidently not her son, but

-Vasari speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it is very

-possible that he was an illegitimate child, brought up, after the

-fashion that so often obtained, in the full privileges of his father's

-house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini was living in Venice in 1437,

-first near the Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio. He was a

-member of S. Giovanni Evangelista, and probably one of the leading

-artists of the city. His two sons helped him in his great decorative

-works, and also went with him to Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata

-Chapel. Their relative position is suggested by a document of 1457,

-which records that the father received twenty-one ducats for "three

-figures, done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the Patriarch," only

-two of which were to go to the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini's signature

-first appears on a document, and at about this time we may suppose that

-he and his brother began to execute small commissions on their own

-account. On these visits to Padua the intimacy must have sprung up,

-which led to Mantegna's marriage in 1453 with Jacopo's daughter. At

-Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna, drank in the inspiration

-left there by Donatello, the greatest master that either of them

-encountered. It was the humanistic and naturalistic side of Donatello

-which touched Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore. It

-chimed in, too, with his father's graceful and fanciful quality, and

-there is no doubt that the Venetian painters soon exercised a marked

-influence on Mantegna. They "fought for him with Squarcione," and even

-in the Eremitani frescoes he begins to lose his purely statuesque type

-and to become frankly Renaissance. In the later scenes of the series a

-pergola with grapes, a Venetian campanile and doorway replace his

-classic towers and arches of triumph. In the "Martyrdom of St. James"

-the couple walking by and paying no attention whatever to the tragic

-event, are very like the people whom Gentile introduces in his

-backgrounds.

-

-There are few documents more interesting in the history of art

-than the two pictures of the "Agony in the Garden," executed by the

-brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by Jacopo in the British

-Museum sketch-book. Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling

-before the vision of the Chalice, the figures wrapt in slumber, and the

-distant town. In few pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived

-in such sympathy with the figures. As we look at this sketch and examine

-the two finished compositions, which it is so fortunate to find in

-juxtaposition in the National Gallery, we surmise that the two artists

-agreed to carry out the same idea and each to give his version of

-Jacopo's suggestion, and very curious it is to see the rendering each

-has produced.

-

-Mantegna has made use of the most formal and Squarcionesque contours in

-his surroundings. The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.

-The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate perspective, and a band

-of classic figures fills the middle distance. The sleeping forms of the

-disciples are laid about like so many draped statues taken from their

-pedestals. The choir of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the

-imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully conceived Christ,

-the whole composition would leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,

-we can never look at Bellini's version without a fresh thrill. He, like

-Mantegna, has followed Jacopo's scheme of winding roads and the city

-"set on a hill," and has drawn the advancing band of soldiers; but,

-independent of all details, he gives us the vision of a poet. The still

-dawn is breaking over the broadly painted landscape, the rosy shafts of

-light are colouring the sky and casting their magic over every common

-object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred Figure kneels, wrapt into

-the Heavenly Vision, which is hardly more definite than a stronger

-beam of light upon the radiance. One of the disciples, at least, is a

-successful and natural study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen

-back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep. Bellini is less assured,

-less accomplished than Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the

-pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.

-

-Even earlier than this picture, critics place the "Crucifixion" and

-"Transfiguration" of the Museo Correr and our own "Salvator Mundi." In

-1443, when Giovanni was a young man of four or five and twenty, San

-Bernardino had held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of Venice

-had thronged to hear him. It is very possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests

-in his _Life of Bellini_, that Giovanni's emotional temperament had been

-worked upon by the preacher's eloquence, and the very poignant feelings

-of love and pity which his early art expresses were the deliberate

-consequence of his sympathy with the deep religious mysteries expounded.

-

-In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is still going with the

-Paduan current. In both we have the winding roads so characteristic of

-his father, but the rocks in the "Transfiguration" have the jointed,

-arbitrary character of Mantegna's and the draperies are plastered to the

-forms beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and a dignity which no

-reproduction seems able to convey. The feeling is already more imposing

-than the execution. Christ and the two prophets tower up against the

-belt of clouds, the central figure conveying a sense of pathetic

-isolation; while below, St. John's attitude betrays a state of tension,

-the feet being drawn up and contorted. This picture prepares us for the

-overwhelming emotion we find in the "Redeemer" and the group of Pietàs.

-The treatment of the Christ was a development of the early _motif_ of

-angels flying forward on either side of the Cross, but here the sacred

-blood pouring into the chalice is also sacramental and connected with

-the intensified religious fervour which had led to the foundation of

-the Franciscan and Dominican orders, illustrations of which are met

-with in the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century books

-of devotion. The accessories, the antique reliefs, the low wall, the

-distant buildings, have an allegorical meaning underlying each one, and

-common to trecento and, in a less degree, to quattrocento art. Paradise

-regained is signified by the paved court with the open door, in

-contradistinction to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed court; the type of

-the old covenant. In one of the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his

-hand into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness to suffer. The

-other represents a pagan sacrifice, foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the

-Cross. Figures in the background are leaving a ruined temple and making

-their way towards the new Christian city, fortified and crowned with a

-church tower, and in the midst of all this symbolism, Christ and the

-attendant angel are placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.

-

-During the next few years, Bellini devoted himself to two subjects of

-the highest devotional order. These are the Madonna and Child, the great

-exercise in every age for painters, and the Pietà, which he has made

-peculiarly his own.

-

- [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._

-                 PIETÀ.

-                _Brera, Milan._

-                 (_Photo, Brogi._)]

-

-Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering of the last subject, so

-full of passionate sorrow that it is hardly possible that it should not,

-if only half consciously, have stimulated the artistic sensibilities

-of the most sensitive of painters; but Bellini's pathos shrinks from

-all exaggeration. He conceives grief with the tenderest insight. His

-interest in the subject was so intense that he never left the execution

-to others, and though not a single one bears his signature, yet each is

-entirely by his own hand. Besides the Pietà at Milan, which is perhaps

-the best known, there is one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge's

-Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin. The version he adopts,

-which places the Body of Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite

-in North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief (now in the Victoria

-and Albert Museum), but whether he brought or found the suggestion in

-Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left sketches in which the

-whole group is within the tomb, and this rendering is followed by

-Carpaccio, Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never found in

-trecento art, and is probably traceable to the Paduan impulse to make

-use of classic remains.

-

-Giovanni Bellini's Pietàs fall into two groups. In one, the Christ is

-placed between the Virgin and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony

-of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer is supported by angels,

-who express the amazement and grief of immortal beings who see their

-Lord suffering an indignity from which they are immune.

-

-Mary and St. John _inside_ the sarcophagus shows that they are conceived

-mystically; Mary as the Church, and St. John as the personification of

-Christian Philosophy--a significance frequently attached to these

-figures. Such a picture was designed to hang over the altar, at which

-the mystical sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.

-

-In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini has shaken off the Paduan

-tradition, and is forming his own style and giving free play to his own

-feeling. The winding roads and evening sky, barred with clouds, are the

-accessories he used in the "Agony in the Garden," but the figures are

-treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in broad masses, and

-scarcely a trace is left of sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the

-study of the nude, everything is subordinated to the emotion expressed

-by the three figures: the helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the

-tender solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed look of the

-despairing friend. Here there is nothing of beautiful or pathetic

-symbol; the group is intense with the common sorrow of all the world.

-Mary presses the corpse to her as if to impart her own life, and gazes

-with anguished yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to have

-passed to a more complex age in his analysis of suffering, yet here is

-none of the extravagance which the primitive masters share with the

-Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his intensity.

-

-In the Rimini version the tender concern and questioning surprise of the

-attendant angels contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful dead

-body they support. Their childish limbs and butterfly wings make a

-sinuous pattern against the lacquered black of the ground-work, and Mr.

-Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion that the effect, reminiscent

-of Greek vase-painting, and the likeness of the Head of Christ to an old

-bronze, may, in a composition painted for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no

-mere accident, but a concession to the patron's enthusiasm for classic

-art.

-

-In 1470 Bellini received his first commission in the Scuola di San

-Marco. Gentile had been employed there since 1466 on the history of the

-Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint "The Deluge and the

-Ark of Noah" with all its attendant circumstances, but of these,

-except from Vasari's descriptions, we can form no idea. These great

-pageant-pictures had become identified with the Bellini and their

-following, while the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the

-province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected a change, for sacred

-subjects best suited the restrained and simple perfection of his style,

-and afforded the most sympathetic opening for his idealistic spirit. For

-the next twenty years or more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in

-public work, for we hear of his being given the direction of that which

-Gentile left unfinished in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in

-1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended the work for

-him, and in that year he was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand

-Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats. Other commissions were

-turned out of the _bottega_ he had set up with his brother in 1471, and

-between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro to paint the important

-altarpiece that still holds its place there. It is in some ways the

-greatest and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished. The

-central figures and the attendant saints have a large gravity and

-carefully studied individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological

-books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably contrasted with the sympathetic,

-cultured St. Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame, is a gem of

-beauty, and proves what an appeal nature was making to the painter. The

-predella, illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of the saints

-around the altar, is full of Oriental costumes. The horses are small

-Eastern horses, very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse, and the

-whole is evidently inspired by the sketches which Gentile brought back

-on his return from Constantinople in 1481.

-

-Looking from one to another of the cycle of Madonna pictures which

-Bellini produced, and of which so many hang side by side in the Academy,

-we are able to note how his conception varied. In one of the earliest

-the Child lies across its Mother's knee, in the attitude borrowed from

-his father and the Vivarini, from whom, too, he takes the uplifted

-hands, placed palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the gentle and

-adoring type, but his later Madonnas are stately Venetian ladies. He

-gives us a queenly woman, with full throat and stately poise, in the

-Madonna degli Alberi, in which the two little trees are symbols of the

-Old and New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely intellectual face

-with chiselled and refined features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it

-dramatically with the bluff St. George in armour; and there is another

-Madonna between St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which has a

-curious effect of artificial light.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XII

-

-GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)

-

-

-In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian Republic appointed Bellini

-superintendent of the Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable

-title of State Painter. In this capacity he was the overseer of all

-public works of painting, and was expected to devote a part of his

-time to the decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates nine of

-his historical paintings, which had been painted before the State

-appointment, all having reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but

-though he must have been much engrossed, he seems to have suspended the

-work from time to time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the large

-altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro in Murano, and the one in

-the Academy, which was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the last

-shows the greatest advance and is fullest of experiment. The Madonna is

-a grand ecclesiastical figure. It has been said with truth that it is

-a picture which must have afforded great support and dignity to the

-Church. The Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the Mother

-gazes out of the picture, extending invitation and encouragement to the

-advancing worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound; the

-artist has been more absorbed in the contrast between the beautiful,

-youthful body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe, older but not

-emaciated, and with the exquisite surface that his now complete mastery

-of oil-painting enabled him to produce. This technique has evidently

-been a great delight, and is here carried to perfection; the skin of

-St. Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of a horse in high

-condition. Everything that architecture, sculpture, and rich material

-can supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of the group; but the

-line of sight is still close to the bottom of the picture, and if it

-were not for the exquisite grace with which the angels are placed, the

-Madonna would have a broad, clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is

-the most splendid in colour of all his works. As he paints the rich

-light of a golden interior and the fused and splendid colours, he seems

-to pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste of the glory that is

-to follow. The Murano altarpiece is quite a different conception;

-instead of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling, _plein air_

-scene: the Mother benign, the Child soft and playful, the old Doge

-Barbarigo and the patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a

-garden and mediæval townlet filling up the background, for which, by the

-way, he uses the same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says much for

-his versatility that he could within a short time produce three such

-different versions.

-

-Among Bellini's most fascinating achievements in the last years of the

-fifteenth century are his allegorical paintings, known to us by the

-"Pélerinage de l'Âme" in the Uffizi and the little series in the

-Academy. The meaning of the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig from

-a mediæval poem by Guillaume de Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote

-about 1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has taken on

-Bellini's mystic spirit. The paved space, set within the marble rail,

-signifies, as in the "Salvator Mundi," the Paradise where souls await

-the Resurrection. The new-born souls cluster round the Tree of Life and

-shake its boughs. The poem says:

-

-    There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad

-    Who has not those who wound his heart,

-    And to whom it is not often necessary

-    To play and be solaced

-    And be soothed like a child

-    With something comforting.

-    Know that those playing

-    There in order to allay their sorrow

-    Have found beneath that tree

-    An apple that great comfort gives

-    To those that play with it.[2]

-

- [2] This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.

-

- [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._

-                 AN ALLEGORY.

-                _Florence._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort. St. Peter and St. Paul

-guard the door, beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy

-conversation. A very beautiful figure on the left, wrapped in a black

-shawl, requires explanation, and it has been suggested that it is the

-donor, a woman who may have lost husband and children, and who, still in

-life, is introduced, watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.

-SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have stepped out of the San Giobbe

-altarpiece, are obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.

-Catherine, at the Virgin's side, may be the donor's own saint. This

-picture, with its delicious landscape bathed in atmospheric light,

-is a forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions of "pure and

-unquestioning delight in the sensuous charm of rare and beautiful

-things" in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed than with

-the intellectual conception, and within its small space Bellini seems to

-have enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories in the Academy are

-also full of meaning. They are decorative works, and were probably

-painted for some small cabinet. They seem too small for a cassone. They

-are ruined by over-painting, but still full of grace and fancy. The

-figure in the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter between

-Luxury and Industry, is drawn from Jacopo's triumphant Bacchus. Fortune

-floats in her barque, holding the globe, and the souls who gather round

-her are some full of triumphant success, others clinging to her for

-comfort, while several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark waters.

-"Prudence," the only example of a female nude in Bellini's works, holds

-a looking-glass. Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing from his refuge.

-The Summa Virtus is an ugly representation of all the virtues; a

-waddling deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of justice; the

-pitcher in its hand means prudence, and the gold upon its feet

-symbolises charity. The landscape, both of this and of the "Fortune,"

-resembles that which he was painting in his larger works at the end of

-the century. Soon after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with Isabela

-d'Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That distinguished collector and

-connoisseur writes through her agent to get the promise of a picture,

-"a story or fable of antiquity," to be placed in position with the

-allegories which Mantegna had contributed to her "Paradiso." Bellini

-agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five ducats on account. He

-seems, however, to have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in

-competing with Mantegna on his own ground, and asks to be allowed to

-choose his subject. Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself

-with a sacred picture, and a "Nativity" was selected. She is at once

-full of suggestions, desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini

-demurs at introducing except as a child, but in April 1504 the

-commission is still unaccomplished, and Isabela angrily demands the

-return of her money. This brings a letter of humble apology from

-Bellini, and presently the picture is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes

-that it is quite beautiful, and that "though Giovanni has behaved as

-badly as possible, yet the bad must be taken with the good." The joy of

-its acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began to lay plans to get

-a further work out of Bellini, and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he

-would take a fresh commission always providing he might fix the subject.

-From the catalogue of her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture

-"sul asse" (on panel) represented the "B.V., il Putto, S. Giovanni

-Battista, S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina."

-

-The great altarpieces which remain strike us less by their research,

-their preoccupation with new problems of paint or grouping, than by

-their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was now nearly eighty years

-old, and in 1504 the young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution in art

-with his Castelfranco Madonna. In composition and detail the Madonna

-of San Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the Arcadian,

-innovating fashion of approaching a religious scene, of which the Church

-had long since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini cannot escape the

-indirect suggestion of the new manner. The same leaven was at work in

-him which was transforming the men of a younger generation. In this

-altarpiece, in the Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which have

-perished, and above all in the hermit saint in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he

-is linked in feeling and in treatment with the later Venetian School.

-

-The new device, which he adopts quite naturally, of raising the line of

-sight, sets the figures in increased depth. For the first time he gives

-height and majesty to the young Mother by carrying the draperies down

-over the steps. He realises to the full the contrast between the young,

-fragile heads of his girl-saints and the dark, venerable countenances of

-the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching itself like a flower upon

-its stem, reminds us of the type which we saw in his Watcher in the

-sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched, dome-like niche opens on a

-distance bathed in golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of the

-old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new perfection of feeling and

-atmosphere. Who the saints are matters little; it is the collective

-enjoyment of a company of congenial people that pleases us so much. The

-"Baptism" in S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later than

-Cima's in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in frank imitation of the younger

-man. Christ and the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without much

-zest, in a weak, conventional way, but the artist's true interest comes

-out in the beauty of face and gesture of the group of women holding the

-garments, and above all in the sombre gloom of the distance, which

-replaces Cima's charming landscape, and which keys the whole picture to

-the significance of a portent. In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.

-Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini keeps his love for the

-golden dome, but he lets us look through its arch, at rolling mountain

-solitudes, with mists rising between their folds. The geranium robe of

-the saint, an exquisite, vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden

-sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out against the evening sky,

-and in the faces of the two saints who stand on either side of the aged

-visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old intensity of religious

-feeling, a feeling which he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a

-more pagan tone.

-

-In 1507, at Gentile's death, Giovanni undertook, at his brother's

-dying request, to finish the "Preaching of St. Mark," receiving as a

-recompense that coveted sketch-book of his father's, from which he had

-adopted so many suggestions, and which, though he was the eldest, had

-been inherited by the legitimate son.

-

-In the preceding year Albert Dürer had visited Venice for the second

-time, and Bellini had received him with great cordiality. Dürer writes,

-"Bellini is very old, but is still the best painter in Venice"; and

-adds, "The things I admired on my last visit, I now do not value at

-all." Implying that he was able now to see how superior Bellini was to

-the hitherto more highly esteemed Vivarini.

-

-At the very end of Bellini's life, in 1514, the Duke of Ferrara paid

-him eighty-five ducats for a painting of "Bacchanals," now at Alnwick

-Castle; which may be looked upon as an open confession by one who had

-always considered himself as a painter of distinctively religious works,

-that such a gay scene of feasting afforded opportunities which he could

-not resist, for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods, sitting at

-their banquet in a sunny glade, are almost fully draped, and there is

-little of the _abandon_ which was affected by later painters. The

-picture was left unfinished, and was later given to Titian to complete.

-In his capacity as State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini's duty

-to execute the official portraits of the Doges. During his long life he

-saw eleven reigns, and during four he held the State appointment.

-Besides the official, he painted private portraits of the Doges, and

-that of Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of the most

-perfect presentments of the quattrocento. This portrait, painted by one

-old man of another, shows no weakening in touch or characterisation. It

-is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and simple. The face is

-quiet and unexaggerated; there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an

-air of accustomed dignity and thought, while the technique has all the

-perfection of the painter's prime.

-

-In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by

-the side of his brother Gentile. To the last he was popular and famous,

-overwhelmed with attentions from the most distinguished personages of

-the city. Though he had begun life when art showed such a different

-aspect, he was by nature so imbued with that temperament, which at the

-time of his death was beginning to assert itself in the younger school,

-that he was able to assimilate a really astonishing share of the new

-manner. He is guided by feeling more than by intellect. All the time he

-is working out problems, he is dominated by the emotion of his subject,

-but his emotion, his pathos, are invariably tempered and restrained by

-the calm moderation of the quattrocento. The golden mean still has

-command of Bellini, and never allows his feelings, however poignant,

-to degenerate into sentimentality or violence.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Madonna (E.).

-           Morelli: Two Madonnas.

- Berlin.   Pietà (L.); Dead Christ.

- Florence. Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).

- London.   Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.);

-             Salvator Mundi (E.).

- Milan.    Brera: Pietà (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.

- Mond Collection. Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).

- Murano.   S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.

- Naples.   Sala Grande: Transfiguration.

- Pesaro.   S. Francesco: Altarpiece.

- Rimini.   Dead Christ (E.).

- Venice.   Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);

-             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with

-             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.

-           Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead

-             Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.

-           Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Pietà (E.).

-           Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.

-           S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and

-             Augustine, 1513.

-           S. Maria dell' Orto: Madonna (E.).

-           S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.

- Vicenza.  S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIII

-

-CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI

-

-

-The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense of the joy of life and the

-apprehension of pure beauty, which was strengthening in the people and

-leading up to the great period of Venetian art, flooded round Bellini

-and recognised its expression in him. He was more popular and had a

-larger following among the artists of his day than either Gentile or

-Carpaccio with their frankly mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni's State

-works may have been, his religious paintings are the ones which are

-copied and adapted and studied by the younger band of artists, and this

-because of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional subjects.

-Gentile's pageant-pictures have still something cold and colourless,

-with a touch of the archaic, while Giovanni's religious altarpieces

-evince a new freedom of handling, a modern conception of beautiful

-women, a use of that colour which was soon to reign triumphant. As

-far as it went indeed, its triumph was already assured; as Giovanni

-advanced towards old age, it was no longer of any use for the young

-masters of the day to paint in any way save the one he had made popular,

-and one artist after another who had begun in the school of Alvise

-Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni Bellini.

-

-It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to his assistants, and as

-everything that went out of his workshop was signed by his name, even if

-it only represented the use of one of his designs, or a few words of

-advice, and was "passed" by the master, it is no wonder that European

-collections were flooded with works, among which only lately the names

-of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi, Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti,

-Rondinelli, and others begin to be disentangled.

-

-Only one of his followers stands out as a strong and original master,

-not quite of the first class, but developing his own individuality while

-he draws in much of what both Alvise and Bellini had to give. Cima da

-Conegliano, whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always signs himself

-_Coneglianensis_: the title of Cima, "the Rock," by which he is now so

-widely known, having first been mentioned in the seventeenth century by

-Boschini, and perhaps given him by that writer himself. He was a son of

-the mountains, who, though he came early to Venice, and lived there most

-of his life, never loses something of their wild freshness, and to the

-end delights in bringing them into his backgrounds. He lived with his

-mother at Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan marches, until

-1484, when he was twenty-five, and then came down to Vicenza, where he

-fell under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a Vicentine painter, who

-had been studying both with Alvise and Bellini. Cima's "Madonna with

-Saints," painted for the Church of St. Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489,

-shows him still using the old method of tempera, in a careful, cold,

-painstaking style, yet already showing his own taste. The composition

-has something of Alvise, yet that something has been learned through

-the agency of Montagna, for the figures have the latter's severity

-and austere character and the colour is clearer and more crude than

-Alvise's. It is no light resemblance, and he must have been long with

-Montagna. In the type of the Christ in Montagna's Pietà at Monte Berico,

-in the fondness for airy porticoes, in the architecture and main

-features of his "Madonna enthroned" in the Museo Civico at Vicenza, we

-see characteristics which Cima followed, though he interpreted them in

-his own way. He turns the heavy arches and domes that Alvise loved, into

-airy pergolas, decked with vines. He gives increasing importance to high

-skies and to atmospheric distances. When he got to Venice in 1492, he

-began to paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John Baptist with

-attendant saints, still in the Church of S. Madonna dell' Orto. The

-work of this is rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh, and

-he comes to his best soon after, in the "Baptism" in S. Giovanni in

-Bragora, which Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment

-of copying. It was quite unusual to choose such a subject for the High

-Altar, and could only be justified by devotion to the Baptist, who was

-Cima's own name-saint as well as that of the Church. Cima is here at his

-very highest; the composition is not derived from any one else, but is

-all the conception of an ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.

-The Christ is particularly fine and simple, unexaggerated in pose and

-type; the arm of the Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to

-give him a refined, tentative look, which makes a sympathetic appeal.

-The attendant angels look on with an air of sweet interest. The distant

-mountains, the undulating country, the little town of Conegliano,

-identified by the castle on its great rock, or _Cima_, are Arcadian in

-their sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed out, are full of

-sun, not of rain. The landscape has not the sombre mystery of Titian's,

-but is bright with the joyous delight of a lover of outdoor life. As

-Cima masters the new medium he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms

-lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity of his native town

-ordered the grand altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there, and

-in this he shows his connection with Venice; the architecture is partly

-taken from St. Mark's, the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a

-group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at the foot of the throne.

-Cima is, however, never merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly

-defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls are not the curls of

-Bellini's saints, his treatment of surface is refined, enamel-like,

-perfectly finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken treatment

-which Bellini's natural feeling for colour was beginning to dictate.

-Cima's pale golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness and

-precision, and though they are full of charm and refinement, they may

-be thought lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501 belongs the

-"Incredulity of St. Thomas," now in the Academy, but painted for the

-Guild of Masons. It is a picture full of expression and dignity, broad

-in treatment if a little cold in its self-restraint. Cima seems to have

-not quite enough intellect, and not quite enough strong feeling.

-However, the little altarpiece of the Nativity, in the Church of the

-Carmine in Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this foreshadows the

-work he did when he went to Parma, where his transparent shadows grow

-broader and stronger, and his figures gain in ease and freedom. He

-never loses the delicate radiance of his lights, and his types and his

-architecture alike convey something of a peculiarly refined, brilliant

-elegance.

-

-Like all these men of great energy and prolific genius, Cima produced an

-astonishing number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt had pupils on

-his own account, for a goodly list could be made of pictures in his

-style, but not by his own hand, which have been carried by collectors

-into widely-scattered places. His exquisite surface and finish and his

-marked originality make him a difficult master to imitate with any

-success. His latest work is dated 1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till

-1517, and it seems probable that he returned to his beloved Conegliano

-and there passed his last years.

-

-If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of Treviso, called Catena,

-gained an immense reputation by his industry and his power of imitating

-and adopting the manner of Bellini's School. In those days men did not

-trouble themselves much as to whether they were original or not. They

-worked away on traditional compositions, frankly introducing figures

-from their master's cartoons, modifying a type here, making some little

-experiment or arrangement there, and, as a French critic puts it,

-leaving their own personality to "hatch out" in due time, if it existed,

-and when it was sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It is

-here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman in the Sala del Gran

-Consiglio, at a salary of three ducats a month, he for long failed to

-acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which was possessed by the

-better disciples of the schools. But he is painstaking, determined to

-get on, and eager to satisfy the continually increasing demand for work.

-His draperies are confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with small

-features, inexpressive button mouths, and weak chins, and his flesh

-tints have little of the glow which is later the prerogative of every

-second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like many another careful

-mediocre man, in securing patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened

-he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano of a commission to paint

-the altarpiece for the Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal

-Palace. He adapts his group from that of Bellini in the Cathedral of

-Murano, bringing in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of which he

-afterwards made numerous copies, one of which was for long assigned to

-Gentile and one to Giovanni Bellini.

-

-That Catena is not without charm, we discern in such a composition as

-his "Martyrdom of St. Cristina," in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which the

-saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels upon the water, in which she

-met her death, and is surrounded by little angels, holding up the

-millstone tied round her neck, and laden with other instruments of her

-martyrdom. Catena borrows right and left, and tries to follow every new

-indication of contemporary taste. For instance, he remarks the growing

-admiration for colour, and hopes by painting gay, flat tints, in bright

-contrast, to produce the desired effect.

-

-It is evident that he made many friends among the rich connoisseurs of

-the time, and that his importance was out of proportion to his real

-merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing an account of Raphael's last days to

-a friend in Venice, and touching on Michelangelo's illness, begs him to

-see that Catena takes care of himself, "as the times are unfavourable to

-great painters." Catena had acquired and inherited considerable wealth;

-he came of a family of merchants, and resided in his own house in San

-Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried relations with Dona Maria

-Fustana, the daughter of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will 300

-ducats and all his personal effects. As a careful portrait-painter, with

-a talent for catching a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in some

-of his heads--that of a canon dressed in blue and red, at Vienna, and

-especially in one of a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden--he

-attains real distinction. And in his last phase he does at length prove

-the power that lies behind long industry and perseverance. Suddenly the

-Giorgionesque influence strikes him, and turning to imbibe this new

-element, he produces that masterpiece which throws a glamour over all

-his mediocre performances; his "Warrior adoring the Infant Christ," in

-the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm, rich and romantic in

-tone and spirit. The Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his

-dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of her draperies are still

-unsatisfactory, but the knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the

-romantic young page, holding his horse, are pure Giorgionesque figures.

-Beautiful in themselves, set in a beautiful landscape glowing with light

-and air, the whole picture exemplifies what surprising excellence could

-be suddenly attained by even very inferior artists, who were constantly

-associating with greater men, at a moment when the whole air was, as it

-were, vibrating with genius.

-

-Catena was very much addicted to making his will, and at least five

-testaments or codicils exist, one of them devising a sum of money for

-the benefit of the School of Painters in Venice, and another leaving to

-his executor, Prior Ignatius, the picture of a "St. Jerome in his Cell,"

-which may be the one in our national collection, which remained in

-Venice till 1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating Basaiti and

-Lotto, and brings in the partridge of which he made a sort of sign

-manual.

-

-Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro Lippomano, to announce that, at

-his request, he is continuing his patronage of Catena:

-

-     Though I had done all that lay in my power for Vincenzo Catena

-     before I received your Lordship's warm recommendation in his

-     favour, I did not hesitate, on receipt of your letter, to add

-     something to the first piece I had from him, and I did so

-     because of my love and reverence for you, and I trust that he

-     will return appropriate thanks to you for having remembered

-     that you could command me.

-

-Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman in different workshops and a

-master on his own account. For long the assistant and follower of Alvise

-Vivarini, we may judge that he was also his most trusted confidant, for

-to him was left the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to S.

-Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is apparent in the execution, and

-the two saints, Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have probably

-been added by him, for they have the air of interlopers, and do not come

-up to the rest of the company in form and conception. The Sebastian,

-with his hands behind his back and his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite

-sufficiently reminiscent of Bellini's figure of 1473 to make us believe

-that Basaiti was at once transferring his allegiance to that reigning

-master. In his earlier phase he has the round heads and the dry precise

-manner of the Muranese. In his large picture in the Academy, the

-"Calling of the Sons of Zebedee," he produces a large, important set

-piece, cold and lifeless, without one figure which arrests us, or

-lingers in the memory. "The Christ on the Mount" is more interesting as

-having been painted for San Giobbe, where Bellini's great altarpiece

-was already hanging, and coming into competition with Bellini's early

-rendering of the same scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is

-interesting to see what it has gained in "modernness." The landscape and

-trees are well drawn and in good colour, and the saints, standing on

-either side of a high portico, have dignity. In the "Dead Christ," in

-the Academy, he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints and

-the _putti_. The _putti_, looking thoughtfully at the dead, is a _motif_

-beloved of Bellini, but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini's pathos and

-significance; they are merely childish and seem to be amused.

-

-In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new phase. He has felt Giorgione's

-influence, and is beginning to try what he can do, while still keeping

-close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch, more animated figures, and

-a brilliant effect of landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour over

-his hard outlines and makes his figures bright and misty, and though

-underneath they are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising

-that many of his works for a time passed as those of Bellini. Though he

-is a clever imitator, "his figures are designed with less mastery, his

-drawing is a little less correct, his drapery less adapted to the under

-form. Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced, colours have the

-brightness, but not the true contrast required. In landscape he proceeds

-from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does not dwell on detail, but

-his masses have neither the sober tint nor the mysterious richness

-conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever instrument." Both

-Previtali and Rondinelli were workers with Basaiti in Bellini's studio.

-Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea Cordeliaghi or Cordella,

-and has left many unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and Lotto, Palma

-and Montagna; but for a time his work went forth from Bellini's workshop

-signed with Bellini's name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece in San

-Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes the title of Previtali, compiling it

-in the cartello with the monogram already used as Cordeliaghi. There are

-traces of many other minor artists at this period, all essaying the same

-manner, copying one or other of the masters, taking hints from each

-other. The Venetian love of splendour was turning to the collection

-of works of art, and the work of second-class artists was evidently

-much in demand and obtained its meed of admiration. Bissolo was a

-fellow-labourer with Catena in the Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he

-is soft and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has imbibed something

-of his tenderness of spirit.

-

-It will be seen from this list how difficult it is to unravel the tale

-of the false Bellinis. The master's own works speak for themselves

-with no uncertain voice, but away from these it is very difficult to

-pronounce as to whether he had given a design, or a few touches, or

-advice, and still more difficult to decide whether these were bestowed

-on Basaiti in his later manner, or on Previtali or Bissolo, or if the

-teaching was handed on by them in a still more diluted form to the

-lesser men who clustered round, much of whose work has survived and has

-been masquerading for centuries under more distinguished names. It is

-sometimes affirmed that the loss of originality in the endeavour to

-paint like greater men has been a symptom of decay in every school in

-the past. It is interesting to notice, therefore, that in every great

-age of painting there has always been an undercurrent of imitation,

-which has helped to form a stream of tradition, and which, as far as

-we can see, has done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Cima._

-

- Berlin.     Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.

- Conegliano. Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.

- Dresden.    The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.

- London.     Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.

- Milan.      Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.

- Parma.      Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.

- Paris.      Madonna with Saints.

- Venice.     Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Pietà; Madonna

-               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the

-               Angel.

-             Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.

-             S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and

-               Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.

-             SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.

-             S. Maria dell' Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome,

-               Mark, and Peter.

-             Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with

-               SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.

- Vicenza.    Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.

-

-

- _Vincenzo Catena._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.

- Berlin.  Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).

- Dresden. Holy Family (L.).

- London.  Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.);

-            Adoration of Magi (L.).

-          Mr. Benson: Holy Family.

-          Lord Brownlow: Nativity.

-          Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).

- Paris.   Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.

- Venice.  Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).

-          Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.

-          S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.

-          S. Trovaso: Madonna.

- Vienna.  Portrait of a Canon.

-

-

- _Marco Basaiti._

-

- Bergamo. The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.

- Berlin.  Pietà; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).

- London.  S. Jerome; Madonna.

- Milan.   Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.

- Munich.  Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).

- Murano.  S. Pietro: Assumption.

- Padua.   Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.

- Venice.  Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510;

-            Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.

-          Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.

-          Salute: S. Sebastian.

- Vienna.  Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.

-

-

- _Andrea Previtali._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece;

-            Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.

-          Lochis: Madonna and Saint.

-          Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.

-          S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.

-          S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and

-            four Female Saints, 1525.

- Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.

- Dresden. Madonna and Saints.

- London.  Madonna and Donor (E.).

- Milan.   Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.

- Oxford.  Christchurch Library: Madonna.

- Venice.  Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.

-          Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.

- Verona.  Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.

-

-

- _N. Rondinelli._

-

- Berlin.   Madonna.

- Florence. Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.

- Milan.    Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.

- Paris.    Madonna and Saints.

- Ravenna.  Two Madonnas with Saints.

-           S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.

- Venice.   Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.

-           Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.

-

-

- _Bissolo._

-

- London. Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.

-         Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.

- Venice. Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.

-         Redentore: Madonna and Saints.

-         S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.

-         Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.

-

-

-

-

- PART II

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIV

-

-GIORGIONE

-

-

-When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings, we find our admiration

-and criticism expressing themselves naturally in certain terms; we are

-struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of form, by the evidence of

-knowledge, by the display of thought and intellectual feeling. The

-Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive, nervous, fervent, or,

-as in Michelangelo and Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But

-when looking at pictures of the Venetian School we unconsciously use

-quite another sort of language; epithets like "dark" and "rich" come

-most freely to our lips; a golden glow, a slumberous velvety depth,

-seem to engulf and absorb all details. We are carried into the land

-of romance, and are fascinated and soothed, rather than stimulated

-and aroused. So it is with portraits; before the "Mona Lisa" our

-intelligence is all awake, but the men and women of Venetian canvases

-have a grave, indolent serenity, which accords well with the slumber

-of thought.

-

-Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century the painters of Venice

-had not differed very materially from those of other schools; they

-had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities of drawing,

-perspective and anatomy. They had been painting in oils for twenty-five

-years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for pageant-pictures than

-was felt in other States of Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and

-Leonardo to decorate her public palace, but no great store is set by

-their splendid achievements; their work is not even completed. The

-students fall upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish, instead

-of being treasured by the nation. Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio and the

-band of State painters are appreciated and well rewarded. These men have

-reproduced something of the lucent transparency, the natural colour of

-Venice, but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully aiming at any

-special effect. Year after year the Venetian masters assimilate more or

-less languidly the influences which reach them from the mainland. They

-welcome Guariento and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to learn

-from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans contribute their chiselled

-drawing, their learned perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet

-even early in the day the Venetians escape from that hard and learned

-art which is so alien to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo

-Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son is ready to follow

-feeling and emotion, and in his old age is quick to discover the first

-flavour of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone on upon the lines

-we have been tracing up to now, there would have been nothing very

-distinctive about it, for, however interesting and charming Alvise and

-Carpaccio, Cima and the Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when

-we speak of the Venetian School and when we rank it beside that of

-Florence, while Giovanni Bellini alone, in his later works, is not

-strong enough to bear the burden.

-

-The change which now comes over painting is not so much a technical one

-as a change of temper, a new tendency in human thought, and we link it

-with Giorgione because he was the channel through which the deep impulse

-first burst into the light. We have tried to trace the growth of the

-early Venetian School, but it does not develop logically like that of

-Florence; it is not the result of long endeavour, adding one acquisition

-and discovery to another. Venetian art was peculiarly the outcome of

-personalities, and it did not know its own mind till the sixteenth

-century. Then, like a hidden spring, it bubbles irresistibly to the

-surface, and the spot where it does so is called by the name of a man.

-

-There are beings in most great creative epochs who, with peculiar

-facility, seem to embody the purpose of their age and to yield

-themselves as ready instruments to its design. When time is ripe they

-appear, and are able, with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice to

-the desires and tendencies which have been straining for expression.

-These desires may owe their origin to national life and temperament; it

-may have taken generations to bring them to fruition, but they become

-audible through the agency of an individual genius. A genius is

-inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the seventeenth century,

-drew to her in Bernini a man who could with real power illustrate her

-determination to be grandiose and ostentatious, and, at the height of

-the Renaissance, Venice draws into her service a man whose sensuous

-feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed by every element

-around him.

-

-More conclusively than ever, at this time, Venice, the world's great

-sea-power, was in her full glory as the centre of the world's commerce

-and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had discovered the sea route to

-India in 1498, but the stupendous effect which this was to exert on the

-whole current of power did not become apparent all at once. Venice was

-still the great emporium of the East, linked to it by a thousand ties,

-Oriental in her love of Eastern richness.

-

-It would be exaggerating to say that the Venetians of the sixteenth

-century could not draw. As there were Tuscans who understood beautiful

-harmonies of colour, so there were Venetians who knew a good deal about

-form; but the other Italians looked upon colour as a charming adjunct,

-almost, one might say, as an amiable weakness: they never would have

-allowed that it might legitimately become the end and aim in painting,

-and in the same way form, though respected and considered, was never the

-principal object of the Venetians. Up to this time Venice had fed her

-emotional instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and brocades, but

-with Giorgione she discovered that there was a deeper emotional vehicle

-than these superficial glories,--glowing depths of colour enveloped in

-the mysterious richness of chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid

-and suggested more than it revealed.

-

-Giorgione no longer described "in drawing's learned tongue"; he

-carried all before him by giving his direct impression in colour. He

-conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little if their finely drawn

-draperies were blue or red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their

-dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange horizon. He hardly knows

-what attitudes his characters take, but their chestnut hair, their

-deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a moving harmony in which

-the importance of exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are not

-composed methodically and according to the old rules, but are the direct

-impress of the painter's joy in life. It was a new and audacious style

-in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely inevitable consequence,

-was to substitute for form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the

-quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how the shades of evening are able

-to transform the most commonplace scene; the dull road becomes a

-mysterious avenue, the colourless foliage develops luscious depths,

-the drab and arid plain glows with mellow light, purple shadows clothe

-and soften every harsh and ugly object, all detail dies, and our

-apprehension of it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of observing

-and criticising, we become soothed, contemplative, dreamy. It is the

-carrying of this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by means of

-chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer learned and explanatory, but deeply

-sensuous and emotional, that is the gift to art which found full voice

-with Giorgione, and which in one moment was recognised and welcomed to

-the exclusion of the older manner, because it touched the chord which

-vibrated through the whole Venetian temperament.

-

-And the immediate result was the picture of _no subject_. Giorgione

-creates for us idle figures with radiant flesh, or robed in rich

-costumes, surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask or care why

-they are gathered together. We have all had dreams of Elysian fields,

-"where falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows loudly," where all is

-rest and freedom, where music blends with the plash of fountains, and

-fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and no one asks what went

-before or what follows after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and

-nymphs: there never has been such a day, or such a land: it is a mood, a

-vision: it has danced before the eyes of poets, from David to Keats and

-Tennyson: it has rocked the tired hearts of men in all ages: the vision

-of a resting-place which makes no demands and where the dwellers are

-exempt from the cares and weakness of mortality. Needless to say, it is

-an ideal born of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise, and it

-speaks to that strain in the temperament which recognises that life

-cannot be all thought, but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the

-first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco sets that vague

-dream before men's eyes. The world, with its wistful yearnings and

-questionings, such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied, said little to

-his audience. Here was their natural atmosphere, though they had never

-known it before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused and golden lights

-are what Giorgione grasps from the material world, and as he steeps his

-senses in them the subject counts but little in the deep enjoyment they

-communicate. We, who have seen his manner repeated and developed through

-thousands of pictures, find it difficult to realise that there had been

-nothing like it before, that it was a unique departure, that when

-Bellini and Titian looked at his first creations they must have

-experienced a shock of revelation. The old definite style must have

-seemed suddenly hard and meagre, and every time they looked on the

-glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the mysterious shades of

-falling night, they must have felt they were endowed with a sense to

-which they had hitherto been strangers, but which, it was at once

-apparent, was their true heritage. They had found themselves, and in

-them Venice found her real expression, and with Giorgione and those who

-felt his impetus began the true Venetian School, set apart from all

-other forms of art by its way of using and diffusing and intensifying

-colour.

-

-When Giorgione, the son of a member of the house of Barbarelli and a

-peasant girl of Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather that he had

-nothing of the provincial. Vasari, who must often have heard of him

-from Titian, describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished

-appearance, beloved by his friends, a favourite with women, fond of

-dress and amusement, an admirable musician, and a welcome guest in the

-houses of the great. He was evidently no peasant-bred lad, but probably,

-though there is no record of the fact, was brought up, like many

-illegitimate children, in the paternal mansion. His home was not far

-from the lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is possible to

-imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain running up to the Asolean hills

-and with the Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he received his

-education in the school of Bellini, for when that master sold his

-allegory of the "Souls in Paradise" to one of the Medici, to adorn the

-summer villa of Poggio Imperiale, there went with it the two small

-canvases now in the Uffizi, the "Ordeal of Moses" and the "Judgment

-of Solomon," delightful little paintings in Giorgione's rich and

-distinctive style, but less accomplished than Bellini's picture, and

-with imperfections in the drawing of drapery and figures which suggest

-that they are the work of a very young man. The love of the Venetians

-for decorating the exterior of their palaces with fresco led to

-Giorgione being largely employed on work which was unhappily a grievous

-waste of time and talent, as far as posterity is concerned. We have a

-record of façades covered with spirited compositions and heraldic

-devices, of friezes with Bacchus and Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti,

-in his seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble figure of

-"Fortitude" grasping an axe, but beyond a few fragments nothing has

-survived. Before he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the

-important commission of decorating the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. This

-building, which we hear of so often in connection with the artists

-of Venice, was the trading-house for German, Hungarian, and Polish

-merchants. The Venetian Government surrounded these merchants with the

-most jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant connected with

-them was by law a Venetian, and, in fact, a spy of the Republic. All

-transactions of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian brokers,

-of whom some thirty were appointed. As time went on, some of these

-brokerships must have resolved themselves into sinecure offices, for

-we find Bellini holding one, and certainly without discharging any of

-the original duties, and they seem to have become some sort of State

-retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been burnt to the ground, and

-the present building was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys. A

-decree went forth that no marble, carving, or gilding were to be used,

-so that painting the outside was the only alternative. The roof was on

-in 1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and Morto da Feltre were

-employed in the adornment of the façade. Vasari is very much exercised

-over Giorgione's share in these decorations. "One does not find one

-subject carefully arranged," he complains, "or which follows correctly

-the history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for me, I have never

-been able to understand the meaning of these compositions, or have met

-any one able to explain them to me. Here one sees a man with a lion's

-head, beside a woman. Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love: it is

-all an inexplicable medley." Yet he is delighted with the brilliancy of

-the colour and the splendid execution, and adds, "Colour gives more

-pleasure in Venice than anywhere else."

-

-Among other early work was the little "Adoration of the Magi," in the

-National Gallery, and the so-called "Philosophers" at Vienna. According

-to the latest reading, this last illustrates Virgil's legend that when

-the Trojan Æneas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed out the future site

-of Rome to the ancient seer and his son. Giorgione, in painting the

-scene, is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his first great

-landscape, and all accessories have been sacrificed to intensity of

-effect. He revels in the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil

-masses of foliage, the long evening shadows, and the effect of dark

-forms silhouetted against the radiant light.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XV

-

-GIORGIONE (_continued_)

-

-

-When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back to Castelfranco, and painted

-an altarpiece for the Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth century

-Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain of Free Companions, who had made

-his fortune in the wars, where he had been attached to Catherine

-Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen from Cyprus, and when she retired

-to Asolo, settled near her at Castelfranco. His son, Matteo, entered the

-service of the Venetian Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances;

-but Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1504, and Costanza had

-his son's body embalmed and buried in the family chapel.

-

-Nothing is known of the details of this commission, but we are not

-straining the bounds of probability by assuming that in a little town

-like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village, the two youths must

-have been well known to each other, and that this acquaintance and

-the familiarity of the one with the appearance of the other may have

-been the determining cause which led the bereaved father to give the

-commission to the young painter, while the tragic circumstances were

-such as would appeal to an ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of

-our National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione for the figure of San

-Liberale, who is represented as a young man with bare head and crisp,

-golden locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the suit in which

-Matteo Costanza is dressed in the stone effigy which is still preserved

-in the cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the stone figure lies a

-helmet, resembling that on the head of the saint in the altarpiece.

-

-In Giorgione's group the Mother and Child are enthroned on high, with

-St. Francis and St. Liberale on either hand. The Child's glance is

-turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure with his lance at rest,

-his dagger on his hip, his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with

-features of almost feminine beauty. The picture is conceived in a new

-spirit of simplicity of design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in

-matters of detail. It is the work of a man who has observed that early

-morning, like late evening, has a marvellous power of eliminating all

-unessential accessories and of enveloping every object in a delicious

-scheme of light. Repainted, cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is

-still full of an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the ecstatic,

-devotional reverie of Perugino's saints. The painter of Castelfranco

-has not steeped his whole soul in religious imagination, like the

-painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the lyric feeling; his work is a

-poem in praise of youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine. He

-uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but Giorgione carries his unison of

-landscape with human feeling much further than Perugino; he observes the

-delicate effects of light, and limpid air circulates in his distance.

-The sun rising over the sea throws a glamour and purity of early morning

-over a scene meant to glorify the memory of a young life. The painter

-shows his connection with his master by using the figure of the St.

-Francis in Bellini's San Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to

-Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The San Zaccaria

-altarpiece was, as we have seen, painted in the year following that of

-Castelfranco. Something has incited the old painter to fresh efforts;

-out of his own evolution, or stimulated by his pupil's splendid

-experiments, he is drawn into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian

-cinque-cento.

-

-The Venetian painters were distinguished by their love for the kindred

-art of music. Giorgione himself was an admirable musician, and linked

-with all that is akin to music in his work, is his love for painting

-groups of people knit together by this bond. He uses it as a pastime to

-bring them into company, and the rich chords of colour seem permeated

-with the chords of sound. Not always, however, does he need even this

-excuse; his "conversation-pieces" are often merely composed of persons

-placed with indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings, governed by a

-mood which communicates itself to the beholder.

-

-With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully drawn upon the wall and

-flat tints were superimposed. They knew beforehand what the effect was

-to be; but the Venetians from this time gradually worked up the picture,

-imbedding tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting another,

-till the whole rich harmony was gradually evoked. With the Florentines,

-too, the figures supply the main interest; the background is an

-arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the painter's leisure, but

-Giorgione's and Titian's _fêtes champêtres_ and concerts could not _be_

-at all in any other environment. The amber flesh-tints and the glowing

-garments are so blended with the deep tones of the landscape, that one

-would not instil the mood the artist desires without the other. Piero di

-Cosimo and Pintoricchio can place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses

-in idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us beyond an observant

-pleasure, a detached amusement; but Giorgione's gloomy blues, his

-figures shining through the warm dusk of a summer evening, waken we

-hardly know what of vague yearning and brooding memory.

-

-In the "Fête Champêtre" of the Louvre he acquires a frankly sensuous

-charm. He becomes riper, richer in feeling, and displays great

-exuberance of style. The woman filling her pitcher at the fountain is

-exquisite in line and curve and amber colour. She seems to listen lazily

-to the liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard music of

-the pipes. The beautiful idyll in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art

-of composition. It is built up with uprights; pillars are formed by the

-groups of trees and figures, cut boldly across by the horizontal line of

-the bridge, but the figures themselves are put in without any attention

-to subject, though an unconscious humorist has discovered in them the

-domestic circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress is there to

-assist the left-hand columnar group, placed at the edge of the picture

-after the manner of Leonardo. The woman and child lighten the mass of

-foliage on the right and make a beautiful pattern. The white town of

-Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky, the winds bluster

-through the space, the trees shiver with the coming storm. Here and

-there leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp touch, in which

-we can follow readily the painter's quick impression.

-

-The "Knight of Malta" is a grand magisterial figure, majestic, yet full

-of ardent warmth lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The face

-is bisected with shadow, in the way which Michelangelo and Andrea del

-Sarto affected, and the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of the type

-which seems particularly to have pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too,

-belongs the honour of having created a Venus as pure as the Aphrodite of

-Cnidos and as beautiful as a courtesan of Titian.

-

- [Illustration: _Giorgione._

-                 FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE.

-                _Louvre._

-                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]

-

-The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511 is registered by all the

-oldest authorities. His body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members of

-the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church of San Liberale. In 1638

-an epitaph was placed over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.

-

-Allowing that he was hardly more than twenty when his new manner began

-to gain a following, he had only some twelve years in which to establish

-his deep and lasting influence. We divine that he was a man of strong

-personality, such a one as warms and stimulates his companions. Even his

-nickname tells us something,--Great George, the Chief, the George of

-Georges,--it seems to express him as a leader. And we have no lack of

-proof that he was admired and looked up to. His style became the only

-one that found favour in Venice, and the painters of the day did their

-best to conform to it. Few authentic examples are left from his own

-hand, but out of his conscious and devoted and more or less successful

-imitators, there grew up a school, "out of all those fascinating works,

-rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of many copies from, or

-variations on him, by unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings and

-designs were, for various reasons, prized as his; out of the immediate

-impression he made upon his contemporaries and with which he continued

-in men's minds; out of many traditions of subject and treatment which

-really descend from him to our own time, and by retracing which we fill

-out the original image."

-

-Summing up all these influences, he has left us the Giorgionesque;

-the art of choosing a moment in which the subject and the elements of

-colour and design are so perfectly fused and blended that we have no

-need to ask for any more articulate story; a moment into which all the

-significance, the fulness of existence has condensed itself, so that

-we are conscious of the very essence of life. Those idylls of beings

-wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music and the sound of water and the

-beauty of wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all our conscious

-apprehension of life if we are to drink in their full fascination. The

-dream of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to those who can

-contrast it adequately with the experience, the complication, and the

-thousand distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and relaxation,

-the power of the deeply tinted eventide, or of the fresh morning light,

-and the calm that drinks in the sensations they are able to afford, are

-among the precious things of life. The instinct upon which Giorgione's

-work rests is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the thinking

-faculty, the life of the heart, as compared to the life of the

-intellect, the solution of life's problems by love instead of by

-thought. It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression is

-conveyed by means of colour, deep, restful, satisfying, fused and

-controlled by chiaroscuro rather than by form.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.     Portrait of a Man.

- Buda-Pesth. Portrait of a Man.

- Castelfranco. Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.

- Dresden.    Sleeping Venus.

- Florence.   Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight

-               of Malta.

- Hampton Court. A Shepherd.

- Madrid.     Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.

- Paris.      Fête Champêtre.

- Rome.       Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.

- Venice.     Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.

-             Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.

-             San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.

- Boston.     Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.

- London.     Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.

-             Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.

- Vienna.     Evander showing Æneas the Future Site of Rome.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVI

-

-THE GIORGIONESQUE

-

-

-Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the painters round him felt his

-power. The Venetian painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a time

-when the men of one city observed and studied and took hints from those

-of every other, how faint are the signs that this particular manner

-attracted any great attention in other art centres. Leonardo da Vinci

-was a master of chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his forms,

-and never sacrifices to it the delicacy and fineness of his design. It

-is the one quality Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief instant

-at the period when Sebastian del Piombo had arrived in Rome from

-Venice. It takes hold most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,

-significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced intellectual

-capacity, but in Venice itself it now became the only way. The old

-Bellini finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena, Basaiti, Cariani

-do their best to acquire it, and so successfully was it acquired, so

-congenial was it to Venetian art, that even second- and third-rate

-Venetian painters have usually something attractive which triumphs over

-superficial and doubtful drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how

-much to their taste was this fused and golden manner, this disregard of

-defined form, and this new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room in the

-National Gallery is full of such examples: the Nymphs and _Amoretti_ of

-No. 1695, charming figures against melting vines and olives; "Venus and

-Adonis," in which a bewitching Cupid chases a butterfly; Lovers in a

-landscape, roaming in the summer twilight; scenes in which neither

-person nor scenery is a pretext for the other, but each has its full

-share in arousing the desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to, or

-taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics, but have all laid hold of

-his charm, and have some share in his inspiration.

-

-One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose work is still confounded

-with the master's, is Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times

-in his life also successfully imitated Palma and Lotto. In his

-Giorgionesque manner Cariani often creates charming figures and strong

-portraits, though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive tone. His

-family group in the Roncalli Collection at Bergamo is very close to

-Giorgione. Seven persons, three women and four men, are grouped together

-upon a terrace, and behind them stretches a calm landscape, half

-concealed by a brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is restful,

-though it lacks Giorgione's concentration of sensation. Then, again,

-Cariani flies off to the gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,

-when he tries to reproduce Giorgione's pastoral reveries, his shepherds

-and nymphs become mere peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who have

-nothing of the idyllic distinction which Giorgione never failed to

-infuse. "The Adulteress before Christ" at Glasgow still bears the

-greater name, but its short, vulgar figures and faulty composition

-disclaim his authorship, while Cariani is fully capable of such

-failings, and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite characteristic

-of him.

-

-These painters are more than merely imitative; they are also typical.

-Giorgione's new manner had appealed to some quality inherent and

-hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits they single out and

-dwell upon are the traits which appeal equally to the instincts of both.

-It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic than those of

-other second-rate painters. Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which

-Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to them, and it is a medium

-which does make an immediate appeal and covers a multitude of

-shortcomings.

-

-But Giorgione was not to leave his message to the mercy of mere

-disciples and imitators, however apt. Growing up around him were men to

-whom that message was an inspiration and a trumpet-call, men who were to

-develop and deepen it, endowing it with their own strength, recognising

-that the way which the young pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out

-was the one into which they could unhesitatingly pour their whole

-inclination. The instinct for colour was in their very blood. They

-turned to it with the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks the

-air or a fish the water, and foremost among them, to create and to

-consolidate, was the mighty Titian.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Cariani._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Madonna and Saints.

-          Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.

-          Morelli: Madonna (L.).

-          Roncalli Collection: Family Group.

- Hampton Court. Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).

- London.  Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).

- Milan.   Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).

-          Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.

- Paris.   Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.

- Rome.    Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.

- Venice.  Holy Family; Portraits.

- Vienna.  Christ bearing Cross; The "Bravo."

-

-

- _School of Giorgione._

-

- London. Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;

-               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.

-         Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVII

-

-TITIAN

-

-

-The mountains of Cadore are not always visible from Venice, but there

-they lie, behind the mists, and in the clear shining after rain, in the

-golden eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter days they stand out,

-lapis-lazuli blue or deep purple, or, like Shelley's enchanted peaks, in

-sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy slopes. Cadore is a

-land of rich chestnut woods, of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms,

-sudden storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of scenery which

-enters deep into the affections of its sons, and we can form some idea

-of the hold its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness obtained

-over the mind of Titian from the fact that in after years, while he

-never exerts himself to paint the city in which he lived and in which

-all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly constant to his

-mountain home, enters into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm

-and penetrating insight.

-

-The district formed part of the dependencies of the great republic, and

-relied upon Venice for its safety, its distinction, and in great measure

-for its employment. The small craftsmen and artists from all the country

-round looked forward to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.

-They tacked the name of their native town to their own name, and were

-drawn into the magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came back

-from time to time with stories of her art, her power, and beauty.

-

-The Vecelli had for generations held honourable posts in Cadore. The

-father and grandfather of the young Tiziano were influential men, and

-with his brother and sisters he must have been brought up in comfort.

-There are even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident that Titian

-was always a gentleman, though this did not prevent his being educated

-as a craftsman, and when he was only ten years old he was sent down to

-Venice to be apprenticed to a mosaicist.

-

-It was a changing Venice to which Titian came as a boy; changing in its

-life, its social and political conditions, and its art was faithfully

-registering its aspirations and tastes. More than at any previous time,

-it was calculated to impress a youth to whom it had been held up as the

-embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and the difference between the

-little hill-town set in the midst of its wild solitudes and the

-brilliant city of the sea must have been dazzling and bewildering. A

-new sense of intellectual luxury had awakened in the great commercial

-centre. The Venetian love of splendour was displaying itself by the

-encouragement and collection of objects of art, and both ancient and

-modern works were in increasing request. On Gentile Bellini's and

-Carpaccio's canvases we see the sort of people the Venetians were,

-shrewd, quiet, splendour-loving, but business-like, the young men

-fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs, splendid patrons of art

-and of religion. Buyers were beginning to find out what a delightful

-decoration the small picture made, and that it was as much in place in

-their own halls as over the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was

-gaining in importance, and the idea of making it a pleasure-giving

-picture, even more than a faithful transcript, was gathering ground. The

-"Procession of the Relic" was still in Gentile's studio, but the Frari

-"Madonna and Child" was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was

-beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the Bellini and Vivarini

-were in keen rivalship.

-

-Titian is said to have passed from the _bottega_ of Gentile to that of

-Giovanni Bellini, but nothing in his style reminds us of the former, and

-even his early work has very little that is really Bellinesque, whereas

-from the very first he reflects the new spirit which emanated from

-Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and we can divine the sympathy

-that arose between the two when they came together in Bellini's School.

-As soon as their apprenticeship was at an end they became partners. Fond

-of pleasure and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement, they

-were naturally congenial companions, and were drawn yet more closely

-together by their love for their art and by the aptitude with which

-Titian grasped Giorgione's principles.

-

-And if we ask ourselves why we take for granted that of two young men so

-closely allied in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione as the leader

-and the creator of the new style, we may answer that Titian was a more

-complex character. He was intellectual, and carried his intellect into

-his art, but this was no new feature. The intellect had had and was

-having a large share in art. But in that part which was new, and which

-was launching art upon an untried course, Giorgione is more intense,

-more one-idea'd than Titian. What he does he does with a fervour and a

-spontaneity that marks him as one who pours out the language of the

-heart.

-

-The partnership between the two was probably arranged a few years before

-the end of the century, for we have seen that young painters usually

-started on their own account at about nineteen or twenty. For some years

-Titian, like Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of the Fondaco

-dei Tedeschi. The groups of figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us

-that while Giorgione made some attempt at following classic figures,

-Titian broke entirely with Greek art and only thought of picturesque

-nature and contemporary costume.

-

-Vasari complains that he never knew what Titian's "Judith" was meant to

-represent, "unless it was Germania," but Zanetti, who had the benefit of

-Sebastiano Ricci's taste, declares that from what he saw, both Giorgione

-and Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. "While Giorgione showed a

-fervid and original spirit and opened up a new path, over which he shed

-a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was of a grander and more

-equable genius, leaning at first, indeed, upon Giorgione's example, but

-expanding with such force and rapidity as to place him in advance of

-his companion, on an eminence to which no later craftsman was able to

-climb.... He moderated the fire of Giorgione, whose strength lay in

-fanciful movement and a mysterious artifice in disposing shadows,

-contrasted darkly with warm lights, blended, strengthened, blurred, so

-as to produce the semblance of exuberant life." Certain works remain to

-link the two painters; even now critics are divided as to which of

-the two to attribute the "Concert" in the Pitti. The figures are

-Giorgionesque, but the technique establishes it as an early Titian, and

-it is doubtful whether Giorgione would be capable of the intellectual

-effort which produced the dreamy, passionate expression of the young

-monk, borne far out of himself by his own melody, and half recalled to

-life by the touch on his shoulder. Titian, like Giorgione, was a

-musician, and the fascination of music is felt by many masters of the

-Italian schools. In one picture the player feels vaguely after the

-melody, in another we are asked to anticipate the song that is just

-about to begin, or the last chords of that just finished vibrate upon

-the ear, but nowhere else in all art has any one so seized the melody of

-an instant and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in our ears as

-this musician does.

-

-Though we cannot say that Titian was the pupil of any one master, the

-fifteen years, more or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an

-indelible impression upon him. We have only to look at such a picture

-as the "Madonna and Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,"

-in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that in 1503 Giorgione at

-Castelfranco had taken the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary

-and had enthroned her on high in a bright and sunny landscape with

-S. Liberale standing sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding

-his liege lady.

-

-Titian in this early group casts every convention aside; a beautiful

-woman and lovely children are placed in surroundings whose charm is

-devoid of hieratic and religious significance. The same easy unfettered

-treatment appears in the "Madonna with the Cherries" at Vienna, and the

-"Madonna with St. Bridget and S. Ulfus" at Madrid, and while it has been

-surmised that the example of the precise Albert Dürer, who paid his

-first visit to Venice in 1506, was not without its effect in preserving

-Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and in inciting him to fine

-finish, it is interesting to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding

-the use of the carefully traced and transferred cartoon, and was

-sketching his design freely on panel or canvas with a brush dipped in

-brown pigment, and altering and modifying it as he went on.

-

-The last years of Titian's first period in Venice must have been anxious

-ones. The Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian possessions on

-the mainland, in anger at a refusal to grant his troops a free passage

-on their way to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy. Cadore was

-the first point of his invasion, and from 1507 Titian's uncle and

-great-uncle were in the Councils of the State, his father held an

-important command, and his brother Francesco, who had already made some

-progress as an artist, threw down his brush and became a soldier. Titian

-was not one of those who took up arms, but his thoughts must have been

-full of the attack and defence in his mountain fastnesses, and he must

-have anxiously awaited news of his father's troops and of the squadrons

-of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours Francesco was riding. Francesco

-made a reputation as a distinguished soldier, and was severely wounded,

-and when peace was made, Titian, "who loved him tenderly," persuaded him

-to return to the pursuit of art.

-

-The ratification of the League of Cambray, in which Julius II.,

-Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Naples combined against the power of

-Venice, was disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists who

-depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen of all kinds first fled to her

-for shelter, then, as profits and orders fell off, they left to look

-elsewhere for commissions. An outbreak of plague, in which Giorgione

-perished, went further to make Venice an undesirable home, and at this

-time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto for the Romagna, and

-Titian for Padua.

-

-We may believe that Titian never felt perfectly satisfied with

-fresco-painting as a craft, for when he was given a commission to fresco

-the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of St. Anthony, patron-saint

-of Padua, he threw off beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but

-he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants, among whom the

-feeble Domenico Campagnola, a painter whom he probably picked up at

-Padua, is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is best, as in "S.

-Anthony restoring a Youth," the drawing and composition only make us

-feel how enchanting the scene would have been in oils on one of Titian's

-melting canvases. In those frescoes which he executed himself while his

-interest was still fresh, the "Miracle which grants Speech to an Infant"

-is the most Giorgionesque. Up to this time he had preserved the

-straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his contemporaries, after

-the practice of Giorgione; he keeps, too, to his companion's plan of

-design, placing the most important figures upon one plane, close to the

-frame and behind a low wall or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame

-and with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes he makes use of this

-plan, and the straight clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay

-doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade, but the group of

-women to the left in the "Miracle of the Child" shows that Titian is

-beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own type. The introduction of

-portraits proves that he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in

-contradistinction to Giorgione's lyrically improvised figures. He fuses

-the influence of Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da Messina and

-the Bellini in a deeper knowledge of life and nature, and he is passing

-beyond Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When he was able to return

-to Venice, which he did in 1512, a temporary peace having been concluded

-with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial medium of fresco for good,

-and devoted himself to that which admitted of the afterthoughts, the

-enrichments, the gradual attainment of an exquisite surface, and at

-this time his works are remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.

-

-During the next twelve years we may group a number of paintings which,

-taken in conjunction with those of Giorgione, show the true Venetian

-School at its most intense, idyllic moment. They are the works of a man

-in the pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy, an example of the

-confident, sanguine, joyous temper of his age, capable of embodying

-its dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment of life, its

-worldly-mindedness, its love of pleasure, as well as its noble feeling

-and its grave and magnificent purpose.

-

-For absolute delight in colour let us turn to a picture like the "Noli

-me tangere" of the National Gallery. The golden light, the blues and

-olives of the landscape, the crimson of the Magdalen's raiment, combine

-in a feast of emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of the woman,

-whose soul is breathed out in the word "Master." The colour unites with

-the light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we can see Titian's delight

-in the ductile medium which had such power to give material sensation.

-In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and shoaling blues, the

-velvety fulness and plenitudes of the brush become visible; we can look

-into their depths and see something quite unlike the smooth, opaque

-washes of the Florentines.

-

-In such a masterpiece as "Sacred and Profane Love," painted during

-these years for the Borghese, there are summed up all those artistic

-aims towards which the Venetian painters had been tending. The picture

-is still Giorgionesque in mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff

-suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the love-suit of Jason; but

-the subject is not forced upon us, and we are more occupied with the

-contrast between the two beautiful personalities, so harmoniously

-related to each other, yet so opposed in type. The gracious,

-self-absorbed lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove, her

-silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and spirit to the goddess

-whose free, simple attitude and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal.

-The sinuous and enchanting line of Venus's figure against the crimson

-cloak has, I think, been the outcome of admiration for Giorgione's

-"Sleeping Venus," and has the same soft, unhurried curves. Titian's two

-figures are perfectly spaced in a setting which breathes the very aroma

-of the early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble fountain represents

-nymphs whipping a sleeping Love to life, while a cupid teases the chaste

-unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes in the water, fallen rose-leaves

-strew the mellow marble rim, around and away stretches a sunny country

-scene, in which people are placidly pursuing a life of ease and

-pleasure. What a revelation to Venice these pictures were which began

-with Giorgione's conversaziones! How little occupied the women are with

-the story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons on her fingers,

-like S. Ursula. Medea is listening to her own thoughts, but the whole

-scene is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and happiness of love. The

-little censer burning away in the blue and breathless air might be a

-philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the rays of the evening sun

-strike the picture, where it now hangs, and bring out each touch of its

-glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate with the joy of life and to

-thrill with the magic of summer in the days when the world was young.

-

-With the influence still lingering of Giorgione's "Knight of Malta,"

-Titian produced some of his finest portraits in the decade that led to

-the middle of his life. The "Dr. Parma" at Vienna, the noble "Man in

-Black" and "Man with a Glove" of the Louvre, the "Young Englishman" of

-the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the portrait at Temple Newsam,

-which, with some critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples

-in which he keeps the half-length, invented by Bellini and followed by

-Giorgione.

-

-After the visit to Padua he shows less preference for costume, and his

-women are generally clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than the

-square-cut bodice.

-

-We do not wonder that all the leading personages of Italy wished to be

-painted by Titian. His are the portraits of a man of intellect. They

-show the subject at his best; grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared

-and wished to appear; not taken off his guard in any way. What can be

-more sympathetic as a personality than the Ariosto of the National

-Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make a friend of him, and yet

-all the time he has himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much as

-he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that he does not intend us to

-discover. The painter himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he

-does not paint in his own fancies about his sitter--probably he had

-none; he saw what he was meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson calls

-"a certain happy insensibility" about him, which prevented him from

-taking fantastic flights, or from looking too deep below the surface.

-

- [Illustration: _Titian._

-                 ARIOSTO.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVIII

-

-TITIAN (_continued_)

-

-

-With the "Assumption," finished in 1518 for the Church of the Frari,

-Titian rose to the very highest among Renaissance painters. The

-"Glorious S. Mary" was his theme, and he concentrated all his efforts on

-the realisation of that one idea. The central figure is, as it were, a

-collective rather than an individual type. Well proportioned and elastic

-as it is, it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious and serene, it

-combines dramatic force and profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its

-hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly by that throbbing

-company of child angels and followed by full recognition and awestruck

-satisfaction in the adoring gaze of the throng below, yet Titian has

-contrived to keep some touch of the loving woman hurrying to meet her

-son. The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the garment of glowing

-blues and crimsons, have a more than common share in that spirit of

-confident joy and poured-out life which envelops the whole canvas. In

-the worthy representation of a great event, the visible assumption of

-Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts forth all his powers and

-steeps us in that temper of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and

-confidence in the capacity of man, which was so characteristic of the

-ripe Renaissance. In looking at this splendid canvas, we must call to

-mind the position for which Titian painted it. Hung in the dusky

-recesses of the apse, it was tempered by and merged in its stately

-surroundings. The band of Apostles almost formed a part of the

-whispering crowd below, and the glorious Mother was beheld soaring

-upwards to the golden light and the mysterious vistas of the vaulted

-arches above.

-

-The patronage of courts had by this time altered the tenor of Titian's

-life. In 1516 Duke Alfonso d'Este had invited him to Ferrara, where he

-had finished Bellini's "Bacchanals." It bears the marks of Titian's

-hand, and he has introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore into

-the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes to propose another painting, and

-Titian's acceptance is contained in a very courtier-like letter, in

-which we divine a touch of irony. "The more I thought of it," he ends,

-"the more I became convinced that the greatness of art among the

-ancients was due to the assistance they received from great princes, who

-were content to leave to the painter the credit and renown derived from

-their own ingenuity in bespeaking pictures." Alfonso's requirements for

-his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological scenes were already

-popular. Mantegna had adorned Isabela d'Este's "Paradiso" with revels

-of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception of classic myth in the

-Medici villa, already Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was to

-make designs for similar scenes to complete the decorations of the halls

-of Este. The same exuberant feeling he shows in the "Assumption" finds

-utterance in the "Garden of Loves" and the "Bacchanals," both painted

-for Alfonso of Ferrara. The children in the former may be compared with

-the angels in the "Assumption." Their blue wings match the heavenly blue

-sky, and they are painted with the most delicate finish.

-

-We can imagine the beauty of the great hall at Ferrara when hung with

-this brilliant series, which was completed in 1523 by the "Bacchus and

-Ariadne" of the National Gallery. The whole company of bacchanals is

-given up to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods the deep blue sky and

-great white clouds of a summer day. The deep greens of the foliage throw

-the creamy-white and burning colour of the draperies and the fair forms

-of the nymphs into glowing relief, while by a convention the satyrs

-are of a deep, tawny complexion. On a roll of music is stamped the

-rollicking device, "_Chi boit et ne reboit, ne sçeais que boir soit_."

-The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines, its crimson juice shines

-like a jewel in crystal goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.

-The influence of such pictures as these was absorbed by Rubens, but

-though they hardly surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and

-less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance is never shown more

-victoriously than here, where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the

-actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian than revolting. In

-the "Bacchus and Ariadne," Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood

-of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so simple, that we must

-smile in sympathy. The conqueror flinging himself from his golden

-chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle fluttering on high, is so

-full of reckless life that our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,

-marching with song and laughter, seems to people that golden country-side

-with fit inhabitants. The careless satyrs and little merry, goat-legged

-fauns shock us no more than a herd of forest ponies, tossing their manes

-and dashing along for love of life and movement.[3] Yet almost before

-this series was put in place Titian was showing the diversity of his

-genius by the "Deposition," now in the Louvre, which was painted at the

-instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d'Este.

-Here he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro. While it is

-satisfying in balance and sweeping rhythm, and by the way in which every

-line follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened lines of the dead

-Body, it escapes Raphael's academic treatment of the same subject. Its

-splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into a scene of solemn pathos

-and tragedy. The scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion, and

-what above all gives it its intense power is the way in which the

-flaming hues are absorbed into the twilight shadows. The dark heads

-stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor of the dead is half

-veiled by the falling night. It is a picture which has the emotional

-beauty of a scene in nature, and makes a profound impression by its

-depth and mystery. This same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant

-colouring of the great altarpiece painted for the Pesaro family in the

-Frari. Columns rise like great tree-trunks, light and air play through

-the clouds seen between them. The grouping is a new experiment, but the

-way in which the Mother and Child, though placed quite at one side of

-the picture, are focussed as the centre of interest, by the converging

-lines, diagonal on the one hand and straight on the other, crowns it

-with success. The scheme of colour brings the two figures into high

-relief, while St. Francis and the family of the donor are subordinated

-to rich, deep tints. Titian has abandoned, more completely than ever

-before, any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural majesty. He is

-a delightful, spoiled baby, fully aware of his sovereignty over his

-mother, pretending to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants, but

-occupying himself in making a tent over his head out of her veil. The

-"Madonna in Glory with six Saints" of the Vatican is another example of

-the rich and "smouldering" colour in which Titian was now creating his

-great altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality, a solidity,

-which gives reality without heaviness, and finishing with that

-fine-grained texture which makes his flesh look like marble endowed

-with life.

-

- [3] It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous

- above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in

- the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow's "Diana and Actaeon." The construction

- of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but little-known picture is

- admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing almost as a monochrome, the

- landscape is full of atmospheric suggestion. It is in Titian's latest

- manner, and its ample lines and free unimpeded motion can be due to no

- inferior brush.

-

- [Illustration: _Titian._

-                 DIANA AND ACTAEON.

-                _Earl Brownlow._

-                 (_The Medici Society, Ltd._)]

-

-Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us how boldly his own style

-was established. His sacred persons are not different from his pagans

-and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he still reminds us of

-Giorgione. He has been constant to the earliest influences which

-surrounded him, and to that temperament which made him accept those

-influences so instantaneously--and this constancy and unity give him the

-untroubled ascendancy over art which is such a feature of his position.

-

-With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had sprung to a recognised

-status in the great world of the Renaissance. They were no longer the

-patronised craftsmen. They had become the courted guests, the social

-equals. Titian, passing from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua

-and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants, was a magnificent

-personage, whose presence was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook

-a commission as one who conferred a coveted boon. Among those who

-clustered closest round the popular favourite, no one did more to

-enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant unscrupulous debauchee,

-wit, bully, blackmailer, but a man who, with all his faults, had

-evidently his own power of fascination, and, the friend of princes,

-must have been himself the prince of good company. Aretino, as far

-as he could be said to be attached to any one, was consistent in his

-attachment to Titian from the time they first met at the court of the

-Gonzaga. He played the part of a chorus, calling attention to the great

-painter's merits, jogging the memory of his employers as to payments,

-and never ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian, for his

-part, shows himself equally devoted to Aretino's interests, and has left

-various characteristic portraits of him, handsome and showy in his

-prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook him.

-

-In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of St. Peter Martyr invited

-artists to send in sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint, in

-SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one by Jacobello del Fiore.

-Palma Vecchio and Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off the

-prize. The picture was delivered in 1530, and during the autumn of 1529

-Sebastian del Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and Michelangelo

-had sought refuge there from Florence and had stayed for some months. A

-quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed the picture, so that

-it may quite probably have only been begun after intercourse with the

-Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian's ideas; for though he

-never ceases to be himself, it certainly seems as if the genius of

-Michelangelo had had some effect. From what we know of the altarpiece,

-which perished by fire in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli

-remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms of Herculean strength

-in violent action, but there his likeness to the Florentine ended;

-the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep, though not altogether

-successful, attention to anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture

-obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness from the setting in

-which the figures were placed--the great trees, bending and straining,

-the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in portentous harmony with the

-sinister deed, and overhead the enchanting gleam of light which shot

-downward and irradiated the face of the martyr and the two lovely

-winged boys, bathed in a flood of blue æther, who held aloft the palm of

-victory. Many copies of it remain, and we only regret that one which

-Rubens executed is not preserved among them.

-

-When we look at the delicious "Madonna del Coniglio" in the Louvre and

-our own "Marriage of S. Catherine," the first of which certainly, and

-the second probably, was painted about this time, we cannot doubt that

-the charm of the idea of motherhood had particularly arrested the

-painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio, was born, and was followed

-by another son and a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that

-passion of mother-love with an intensity and reality that can only be

-drawn from life, and on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his name,

-Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is increasing, and the landscape

-in these pictures equals the figures in importance and has engrossed the

-painter quite as much. Every year Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in

-the rich woodlands, the distant villages, the great white villa on the

-hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off blue mountains and the glooms

-and gleams of storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays through the

-summer clouds, which he has painted here, we see how constant was his

-study of his native country, and how profoundly he felt its poetry and

-its charm. He had married Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging

-to Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530 she died, and he

-mourned her deeply. He went on working and planning for his children's

-future, and his sister came from Cadore to take charge of the motherless

-household; but his friends' letters speak of his being ill from

-melancholy, and he could not go on living in the old house at San

-Samuele, which had been his home for sixteen years. He took a new house

-on the north side of the city, in the parish of San Canciano. The Casa

-Grande, as it was called, was a building of importance, which the

-painter first hired and finally bought, letting off such apartments as

-he did not need. The first floor had a terrace, and was entered by a

-flight of steps from the garden, which overlooked the lagoons, and had a

-view of the Cadore mountains. It has been swept away by the building of

-the Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the leases are preserved, and

-the exact site is well established. Here his children grew up, and he

-worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his eldest son, was idle and

-extravagant, a constant source of trouble, and Aretino writes him

-reproachful letters, which he treats with much impertinence. Orazio took

-to his father's profession, and was his constant companion, and often

-drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter, Lavinia, was his greatest

-joy and pride. In this house Titian showed constant hospitality, and

-there are records of the princely fashion in which he entertained his

-friends and distinguished foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known

-Humanist and _savant_ of the day, describes a Bacchanalian feast on

-the 1st of August, in a pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano

-Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi were present. Till the

-sun set they stayed indoors, admiring the artist's pictures. "As soon as

-it went down, the tables were spread, looking on the lagoons, which soon

-swarmed with gondolas full of beautiful women, and resounded with music

-of voices and instruments, which till midnight, accompanied our

-delightful supper. Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious

-wines, and the supper ended gaily."

-

-In the year 1532 Titian for the first time sought other than Italian

-patronage. Charles V., who was then at the height of his power, with all

-Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua, and among all the treasures

-that he saw was most struck by Titian's portrait of Federigo Gonzaga.

-After much writing to and fro, it was arranged that Titian should meet

-the Emperor at Bologna, where he had just been crowned. He made his

-first sketch of him, from which he afterwards produced a finished full

-length. It was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares that

-from that time forth Charles would never sit to any other master. He

-received a knighthood, and many commissions from members of the

-Emperor's court. It was for one of his nobles, da Valos, Marquis of

-Vasto, that he painted the allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which

-Mary of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is parting with her

-husband, who is bound on one of the desperate expeditions against the

-terrible Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the couple are

-encircled by Hymen, Victory, and the God of Love. The composition was

-repeated more than once, but never with quite the same success. We again

-suspect the influence of Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before

-Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver, for the Church of

-that name, of which the Doge was patron. The figures are life-size, the

-types stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and the colours, though

-gorgeous, are softened and broken by broad effects of light and shade.

-It is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that in which about this

-time he produced a series of beautiful female portraits, nude or

-semi-nude, chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the Duke of

-Urbino. The Duke at this time was the General-in-Chief of the Venetian

-forces, a position which took him often to Venice, and Titian's

-relations with him lasted till the painter's death. At least twenty-five

-of his works must have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro. Among

-these were the Venus of the Uffizi, "La Bella di Tiziano," in her

-gorgeous scheme of blue and amethyst, the "Girl in a Fur Cloak," besides

-portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It would be impossible to enumerate

-here the numbers of portraits which Titian was now supplying. The

-reputation he had acquired, not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and

-Germany, was greater than had ever been attained by any painter, while

-his social position was established among the highest in every court.

-"He had rivals in Venice," says Vasari, "but none that he did not

-crush by his excellence and knowledge of the world in converse with

-gentlemen." There is not a writer of the day who does not acclaim his

-genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of money, and had amassed a

-good fortune. He was constantly asking for favours, and had pensions and

-allowances from royal patrons. Lavinia, when she married, brought her

-husband a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the portraits of the

-Doges with tolerable regularity, but all through his life complaints

-were heard of his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand Council.

-Occupied as he was with the work of his foreign patrons, he had

-systematically neglected the conditions enjoined by his possession of a

-Broker's patent, and the Signoria suddenly called on him to refund the

-salary amounting to over 100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during

-which he had drawn it without performing his promise, while they

-prepared to instal Pordenone, who had lately appeared as his bitter

-rival, in his stead. Though Titian must have been making large sums of

-money at this time, his expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly

-face the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats at the same time

-that he lost the annual salary, nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a

-second-rate rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his own hands; he

-set to work and soon completed a great canvas of the "Battle of Cadore,"

-which, though it is only known to us from a contemporary print and a

-drawing by Rubens, evidently deserved Vasari's verdict of being the

-finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The movement and stir he

-contrives to give with a small number of figures is astonishing. The

-fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment advancing with lances and

-pennons produces the illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army,

-the desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises all the terrors of

-war. It was an atonement for his long period of neglect, but it was not

-till 1439 [TN: Pordenone died in 1539] that, Pordenone having suddenly

-died, the Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his Broker's

-patent. One of his later paintings for the State still keeps its place,

-"The Triumph of Faith," in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad

-form with flowing mantle, kneels before the angelic apparition of Faith,

-who holds a cross, which angels and cherubs help her to support.

-Beneath the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the Ducal Palace, and

-the Campanile. It is an allegory of Grimani's life; his defeat and

-captivity are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the magnificent

-figure of St. Mark with the lion is introduced to show that the Doge

-believes himself to owe his freedom to the saint's intercession. The

-prophet and standard-bearer at the sides were added by Marco Vecellio.

-

-Though the battlepiece perished in the fire of 1577, another masterpiece

-of this time marks a climax in Titian's brilliantly coloured and highly

-finished style. The "Presentation of the Virgin" was painted for the

-refectory of the Confraternity of the Carità, which was housed in the

-building now used as the Academy, so that the picture remains in the

-place for which it was executed. It is one of the most vivid and

-life-like of all his works. The composition is the traditional one;

-the fifteen steps of the "Gospel of Mary," the High Priest of the old

-dispensation welcoming the childish representative of the new. Below is

-a great crowd, but it is this little figure which first attracts the

-eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture and the free and

-glowing country beyond is not without meaning, and a broken Roman torso,

-lying neglected on the ground, symbolises the downfall of the Pagan

-Empire. The flight of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is

-an idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken by him from the

-sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini. The men on the left are portraits of

-members and patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque are the

-beautiful women in rich dresses at the foot of the steps. In this

-stately composition we see what is often noticeable in Titian's scenes;

-he brings in the bystanders after the manner of a Greek chorus. They

-all, with one accord, express the same sentiment. There is a certain

-acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a vein of simplicity flows through

-his nature. He has not the sensitive and subtle search after the motives

-of humanity which we find in Tintoretto or Lotto. He has great

-intellectual power, but not great imagination. It is a temper which

-helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality of his scenes

-undisturbed and adds to their effect. In the "Ecce Homo" Christ is shown

-to the populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment is a portrait of

-Aretino, and the contrast of the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd

-which, with all its lower instincts let loose, thunders back the cry of

-"Crucify Him," is the more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit

-which possesses the raging multitude. Other artists would have given

-more incidental byplay, and drawn off our attention from the main

-issue.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIX

-

-Titian (_continued_)

-

-

-While Titian was executing portraits of the Doges, of Aretino and of

-Isabella of Portugal, and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he was

-also striking out a new line in the ceiling pictures for the Church of

-San Spirito, which have since been transferred to the Salute. Though

-painted before his journey to Rome, it may be suspected that he had

-Michelangelo's work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that he was

-setting himself the task of bold foreshortening and technical problems.

-The daring of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that this is not

-Titian's element; his figures in violent movement give a vivid idea of

-strength and muscular force, but fail both in grace and drawing, and

-though the colour and light and shade distract our attention from

-defects of form, he does not possess that mastery over the flowing

-silhouette which Tintoretto attained.

-

-It was in 1543 that his relations with the Farnese, whose young cardinal

-he had been painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X. had tried to

-attract him there without success, but now at sixty-eight he found

-himself as far on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was with him, and

-Duke Guidobaldo was himself his escort, and sent him on with a band of

-men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul

-III. gave him a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed his cicerone.

-It is interesting to inquire what impression Rome, with its treasures of

-antique statuary and contemporary painting, made upon Titian. "He is

-filled with wonder and glad that he came," writes Bembo. In a letter to

-Aretino he regrets that he had not come before. He stayed eight months

-in Rome, and was made a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of Raphael

-in company with Sebastian del Piombo, and Michelangelo comes to see him

-at his lodgings, and he receives a long letter from Aretino advising him

-to compare Michelangelo with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with

-the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian was well established

-in his own style, and was received as the creator of acknowledged

-masterpieces, and he never painted a more magnificent portrait-piece

-than that of Paul III., the peevish old Pope, ailing and humorous,

-suspicious of the two nephews who are painted with him, and who he

-guessed to be conspiring against him. The characteristic attitude of the

-old man of eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick, irritable glance,

-the steady, determined gaze of the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and

-weak, wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised in a broader,

-more careless technique than Titian has hitherto used. Though he does

-not seem to have been directly influenced by all he saw in Rome, we

-undoubtedly find a change coming over his work between 1540 and 1550,

-which may be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic horizon and

-a consciousness of what others were doing, both around him and abroad.

-In its whole handling and character his late is different from his early

-manner. It begins at this time to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist

-character. His delight in rich colouring seems to wane, and he aims at

-intensifying the power of light. He reaches that point in the Venetian

-School of painting which we may regard as its climax, when there is

-little strong local colour, but the canvas seems illumined from within.

-There are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are suggested by sombre

-enveloping shades in which the radiant brightness is embedded. His

-landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue and smiling, filled with

-loving detail, but grander, more mysterious. In the "St. Jerome" in

-Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely surroundings, and the

-moon, slowly rising behind the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray

-across the crucifix. The "Supper at Emmaus" has the grandiose effect

-that is given by avoidance of detail and simplification of method.

-

-Titian painted several portraits of himself, and we know what sort of

-stately figure was presented by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas

-in 1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the depths of winter to

-obey Charles V.'s call to Augsburg. The excitement of the public was

-great at his departure, and Aretino describes how his house was besieged

-for the sketches and designs he left behind him. For nearly forty years

-Titian was employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had been working for

-Charles since 1530, and when the Emperor abdicated, his employment by

-Philip II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of 1686 contained

-seventy-six Titians, and though probably not all were genuine, yet an

-immense number were really by him, and the gallery, even now, is richer

-in his works than any other.

-

-The great hall of the Pardo must have been a wonderful sight, with

-Titian's finest portrait of himself in the midst, and the magnificent

-portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which he continued from this

-time forward to contribute to it. In this year, which was the last

-before Charles's abdication, and during this visit to South Germany, he

-painted the great equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field of

-Mühlberg, and two years later came the first of his many portraits of

-Philip II. The face, in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of

-fury of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the sitter is

-realised as a man of great distinction. Ugly and sensual as he is,

-we never tire of looking at Titian's conception--a full length of

-distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent colour. Everything

-in it lives, and the slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a

-whole biography in themselves.

-

-The splendid series of allegorical subjects which Titian contributed to

-the Pardo, while he was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces

-to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are among his most mature and

-important works. Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and stronger

-than in the "Jupiter and Antiope," or the "Venus of the Pardo" as it is

-sometimes called. The Venus herself has the attitude of Giorgione's

-dreaming goddess, with her arm flung up above her head. It is, perhaps,

-the only time that Titian succeeds in giving anything ideal to one of

-his Venuses. The famous nudes of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid

-courtesans, far removed from Giorgione's idyllic vision; but Antiope,

-slumbering on her couch of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with

-adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole world of sweet and

-joyful fancy. The whole scene is full of a _joie de vivre_, which

-carries us back to the Bacchanals painted so many years before, and in

-these Titian gives King Philip his most perfect work, every touch of

-which is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre, was given to Charles

-I. by the King of Spain, and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.

-"Danaë," "Venus and Adonis," "Europa and the Bull," and a "Last Supper"

-followed in quick succession, but Titian was now employing many

-assistants, and great parts of the canvases issuing from his workshop

-show weak, imitative hands, while replicas were made of other works.

-

-His later feeling for the religious in art is expressed in the now

-bedimmed paintings in San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes

-these in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety years old, the

-"Transfiguration" is remarkable for forcible, majestic movement, while

-in the "Annunciation" he invents quite a new treatment. Mary turns round

-and raises her veil, while she grasps the book as if she depended on it

-for stay and support. The four angels are full of life and gaiety, and

-the whole has much grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in the

-painter's later style, in broad and sweeping planes without patience

-of detail. The old man has signed it "Titianus, fecit, fecit," a

-contemptuous reply to some critics who complained of its want of finish.

-He knew well what it was in composition and execution, and that all that

-he had ever known or done lay within the careless strength of his last

-manner.

-

-A letter written to the King of Spain's secretary in 1574 gives

-a list "in part" of fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the last

-twenty-five years, "with many others which I do not remember." On every

-hand we hear of lost pictures from the master's brush, and the number

-produced even during the last ten years of his life must have been

-enormous, for till the end he was full of great undertakings and

-achievements. Very late in life he painted a "Shepherd and Nymph"

-(Vienna), which in its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its

-mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the early days with

-Giorgione, yet the blurred and smouldering richness, the absolute

-negation of all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest style, and

-he has gone past Giorgione on his own ground. Then in strange contrast

-is the "Christ Crowned with Thorns," at Vienna, a tragic figure

-stupefied with suffering. His last great work was the "Pietà" in

-the Academy, which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and very

-impressive. He places the Virgin supporting the Body in a great

-dome-shaped niche, which gives elevation. It is flanked by two calm,

-antique, stone figures, whose impassive air contrasts with the wild pain

-and grief below. The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator with the

-wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It perhaps hardly moves us like the

-concentrated feeling of Bellini's Madonna, or the hurried, trembling

-grief of Tintoretto's Magdalen, but it is monumental in the sweeping

-grace of its line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is sadly rubbed

-and darkened and has lost much of Titian's colour, but is still

-beautiful in its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden glow, as

-of half-extinguished fires. These late paintings are of the true

-impressionist order; looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled

-touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step farther away, to the

-right focus, light and dark arrange themselves, order shines through the

-whole, and we see what the great master meant us to see. "Titian's later

-creations," says Vasari, "are struck off rapidly, so that when close you

-cannot see them, but afar they look perfect, and this is the style which

-so many tried to imitate, to show that they were practised hands, but

-only produced absurdities." Titian was preparing the picture for the

-Frari, in payment for the grant of a tomb for himself, when in August

-1576 the plague broke out in Venice, and on the 27th the great painter

-died of it in his own house. The stringent regulations concerning

-infection were relaxed to do honour to one of the greatest sons of

-Venice, and he was laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn

-procession, through a city stricken by terror and panic, and buried

-in the Chapel of the Crucified Saviour, for which his last work was

-ordered. The "Assumption" of his prime looked down upon him, and close

-at hand was the "Madonna of Casa Pesaro." His son Orazio caught the

-plague and died immediately after, and the painter's house was sacked

-by thieves and many precious things stolen.

-

-The great personality of Titian stands out as that which of all others

-established and consolidated the school of Venice. He is its central

-figure. The century of life, of which eighty years were passed in

-ceaseless industry of production, left its deep impression on the art of

-every civilised country of Europe. Every great man of the day who was a

-lover of art and culture fell under Titian's spell. His influence on his

-contemporaries was enormous, and he had everything: genius, industry,

-personal distinction, character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too

-intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of the Venetian spirit,

-in the way that Tintoretto is; it is conceivable that in another

-environment Titian might have developed on rather different lines,

-but this temper gave him greater domination. He was free from the

-eccentricities which beset genius. He possessed the saving salt of

-practical common sense, so that the golden mean of sanity and healthful

-joy in his works commended them to all men, and they are not difficult

-to understand. Yet while all can see the beauty of his poetic instinct

-for colour, his interesting and original technique, his grasp and

-scope, his mastery and certainty have gained for him the title of "the

-painter's painter." There is no one from whom men feel that they can so

-safely learn so much, and the grand breadth and power of elimination of

-his later years is justified by the way in which in his earlier work he

-has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto to perfection.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Ancona.   Crucifixion (L.).

-           S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.

- Antwerp.  Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.

- Berlin.   Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.);

-             Lavinia bearing Charges.

- Brescia.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.

- Dresden.  Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride,

-             1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.); Portrait, 1561; Lady with

-             Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.

- Florence. Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman;

-             The Concert (E.); Philip II.; Ippolito de Medici, 1533;

-             Tomaso Mosti.

-           Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco

-             della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537; Flora; Venus, the head

-             a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora

-             Gonzaga; Madonna with S. Anthony Abbot.

- London.   Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me

-             tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John and Catherine.

-           Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three

-             Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon, 1559; Callisto, 1559.

-           Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).

-           Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.

- Madrid.   Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden

-             of Loves; Danaë, 1554; Venus and Youth playing Organ (L.);

-             Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment,

-             1559; Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.);

-             Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the Battle

-             of Mühlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II.,

-             1550; Philip II.; The Infant; Don Fernando and Victory;

-             Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and

-             Adonis; Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.

- Medole (near Brescia). Christ appearing to His Mother.

- Munich.   Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man

-             with Baton.

- Naples.   Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Danaë.

- Padua.    Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an

-             Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The Jealous Husband,

-             1511.

- Paris.    Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with

-             S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning with Thorns (L.);

-             Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.);

-             Francis I.; Allegory; Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon;

-             Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L'Homme au Gant (E.);

-             Portraits.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.);

-             Education of Cupid (L.).

-           Capitol: Baptism (E.).

-           Doria: Daughter of Herodias.

-           Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.

- Treviso.  Duomo: Annunciation.

- Urbino.   Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).

- Venice.   Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert;

-             Assumption, 1518; Pietà, 1573.

-           Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.

-           Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.

-           Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.

-           S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.

-           Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).

-           Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned

-             with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice of Isaac; Cain

-             and Abel.

-           S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).

- Verona.   Duomo: Assumption.

- Vienna.   Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo,

-             1543; Isabela d'Este, 1534; The Tambourine Player; Girl in

-             Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.);

-             Portraits; Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and

-             Callisto; Madonna and Saints.

- Wallace Collection. Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration

-             with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)

- Louvre.   Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)

- Glasgow.  Madonna and Saints.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XX

-

-PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO

-

-

-Among the many who clustered round Titian's long career, Palma attained

-to a place beside him and Giorgione which his talent, which was not of

-the highest order, scarcely warranted. But he was classed with the

-greatest, and influenced contemporary art because his work chimed in

-so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque by birth, he came of

-Venetian parentage, and learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.

-He never really mastered the inner niceties of anatomy in its finest

-sense, and the broad generalisation of his forms may be meant to conceal

-uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed, matronly women and plump

-children, his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and the clear

-golden polish in which his pictures are steeped, made a great appeal to

-the public. His invention is the large Santa Conversazione, as compared

-with those in half-length of the earlier masters. The Virgin and saints

-and kneeling or bending donors are placed under the spreading trees

-of a rich and picturesque landscape. It is Palma's version of the

-Giorgionesque ideal, which he had his share in establishing and

-developing. The heavy tree-trunk and dark foliage, silhouetted almost

-black against the background, are characteristic of his compositions. As

-his life goes on, though he still clings to his full, ripe figures and

-to the same smooth fleshiness in his women, the features become delicate

-and chiselled, and the more refined type and subtler feeling of his

-middle stage may be due to his companionship with Lotto, with whom he

-was in Bergamo when they were both about twenty-five. He touches his

-highest, and at the same time keeps very near Giorgione, in the

-splendid St. Barbara, painted for the company of the _Bombadieri_ or

-artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on which she stands; it

-was at her altar that they came to commend themselves on going forth to

-war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving for a safe return; and

-she is a truly noble figure, regal in conception and fine and firm in

-execution, attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and green, with

-splendid saints on either hand. Palma was often approached by his

-patrons who wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses; but though

-he produced a Venus, a handsome, full-blown model, he never excels in

-the nude, and his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His scenes have

-a domestic, familiar flavour. With all his golden and ivory beauty he

-lacks fire, and his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In his

-latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of scumble or haze. It

-would, however, be unfair to say he is not fine, and his portraits

-especially come very near the best. Vienna is rich in examples in

-half-lengths of one beautiful woman after another robed in the ample and

-gorgeous garments in which he is always interested. Among them is his

-handsome daughter, Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and wearing the

-large sleeves he admires. The "Tasso" of the National Gallery has been

-taken from him and given first to Giorgione and then to Titian, but

-there now seems some inclination to return it to its first author. It

-has a more dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are accustomed to

-associate with Palma; but he uses elsewhere the decorative background

-of olive branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny colouring, and the

-pronounced golden haze are Palmesque in the highest degree. The

-colouring is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of the Ariosto

-of Titian, which hangs near it.

-

- [Illustration: _Palma Vecchio._

-                 HOLY FAMILY.

-                _Colonna Gallery, Rome._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-No one could be more unlike Palma than his contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto,

-who has for long been classed with the Bergamasques, but who is proved

-by recently discovered documents to have been born in Venice. It was

-for long an accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and his

-earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso, bears traces of

-Bellini's manner. A Pietà above has child angels examining the wounds

-with the grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly his own, and

-the St. Jerome and the branch of fig-leaves silhouetted against the

-light remind us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto seems to have

-clung to quattrocento fashions. The ancona had long been rejected by

-most of his contemporaries, but he painted one of the last for a church

-in Recanati, in carved and gilt compartments, and he painted predellas

-long after they had become generally obsolete. We ask ourselves how it

-was that Lotto, who had so susceptible and easily swayed a nature,

-escaped the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful of any in the

-Venice of his youth--an influence which acted on Bellini in his old age,

-which Titian practically never shook off, and which dominated Palma to

-the exclusion of any earlier master.

-

-It would take too long to survey the train of argument by which

-Mr. Berenson has established Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto.

-Notwithstanding that Bellini's great superiority was becoming clear to

-the more cultured Venetians, Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still

-the painter _par excellence_ for the mass of the public. In the S.

-Cristina altarpiece the Child standing on its Mother's knee is in the

-same attitude as the Child in Alvise's altarpiece of 1480, and the

-Mother's hand holds it in the same way. Other details which supply

-internal evidence are the shape of hands and feet, the round heads and

-the way the Child is often represented lying across the Mother's knees.

-Lotto carries into old age the use of fruit and flowers and beads as

-decoration, a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the Vivarini, but which

-was never adopted by Bellini.

-

-About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with Palma, and for a short time the

-two were in close touch. A "Santa Conversazione," of which a good copy

-exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one at Dresden, with the Holy Family

-grouped under spreading trees, is saturated with Palma's spirit, but it

-soon passes away, and except for an occasional touch, disappears

-entirely from Lotto's work.

-

-Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo, for when in 1515 a competition

-between artists was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a descendant of

-General Colleone, for an altarpiece for S. Stefano, he competed and

-carried off the prize. This was the first of the series of the great

-works for Bergamo, which enrich the little city, where at this period

-he can best be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed to San

-Bartolommeo) is a most interesting human document, a revelation of the

-painter's personality. He does not break away from hieratic conventions,

-like the rival school; his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the

-church with saints grouped round her, a form from which the Vivarini

-never departed, but the whole is full of intense movement, of a lyric

-grace and ecstasy, a desire to express fervent and rapturous devotion.

-The architectural background is not in happy proportion in relation to

-the figures, but the effect of vista and space is more remarkable than

-in any North Italian master. The vivid treatment of light and shade, and

-the gaiety and delicacy of the flying angels, who hold the canopy, and

-of the putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes of throne and

-canopy and the decorations have led to the idea that Lotto drew his

-inspiration from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles in some ways;

-but at this time Correggio was only twenty, and had not given any

-examples of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque. We must

-look back to a common origin for those decorative details, which are so

-conspicuous in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini, which came to Lotto

-through the Vivarini and to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and

-of which the fountain-head for both was the school of Squarcione. For

-the much more striking resemblances of composition and spirit, the

-explanation seems to be that Lotto on one side of his nature was akin

-to Correggio; he had the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination to

-exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting was a vehicle for the

-expression of feeling, but Lotto had also common sense and a goodly

-share of that humour that is allied to pathos.

-

-Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in Bergamo, where the first altarpiece

-gained him orders for others. The reputation of a member of the school

-of Venice was a sure passport to employment. We trace Alvise's tradition

-very plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino, where the gesture of

-the Madonna's hand as she expounds to the listening saints recalls

-Alvise's of 1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto makes use

-of to the end of his life, lie scattered on the step; angels, daringly

-foreshortened, sweep aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour is

-in Lotto's scarlet, light blues, and violet. He soon shows himself fond

-of genre incidents, and in "Christ taking leave of His Mother" gives a

-view into a bedroom and a cat running across the floor. The donor kneels

-with her hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl necklace. In the

-"Marriage of S. Catherine" at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,

-with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very simply and naturally before

-the Child, and the exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young woman

-who represents the Madonna, looks out towards the spectator with a

-mundane and curiously modern air. It was probably the recognition

-of Lotto's success with portraits that led to their being so often

-introduced into his sacred pieces. In the one we have just noticed, the

-donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is brought in, and is on rather a larger scale

-than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not found him interesting. The

-portraits of the brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary

-Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate that wonderful series

-of characterisations which are his greatest distinction. A series of

-frescoes in village churches round Bergamo must also be noticed. They

-are remarkable for spontaneous and original decoration, and may compare

-with the ceremonial groups of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto's

-personages, as they chatter in the market-places, are full of natural

-animation and gaiety, and we realise what a step had been made in the

-painting of actual life.

-

-Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of Italy, the years

-from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto spent in Venice, found that city the

-gathering-ground of many of the most distinguished scholars and deepest

-thinkers of the day. Men of all shades of religious thought were engaged

-in learned discussion, and Lotto's ardent and inquiring temperament must

-have been stimulated by such an environment. During these years, too, he

-became intimate with Titian, and experimented in Titian's style, with

-the result that his painting gets thicker and richer, more fused and

-solid, and his figures are better put together. He imitates Titian's

-colour, too, but it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and he

-soon finds it does not suit him, and returns to his own scheme. His

-colour is still rather too dazzling, but the distances are translucent

-and atmospheric. He continues to introduce portraits. In his altarpiece

-in SS. Giovanni and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving

-petitions curiously resemble in type and expression the ecclesiastics

-we see to-day.

-

-Lotto was now an accepted member of Titian's set, and Aretino, in a

-letter dated 1548, writes that Titian values his taste and judgment as

-that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual mixture of connoisseurship

-and clever spite, goes on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he

-himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was not considered on a par with

-the masters of the first rank. "Envy is not in your breast," he says,

-"rather do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which

-you do not find in your own brush, ... holding the second place in the

-art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first place in the

-duties of religion."

-

-An interesting codex or commentary tells us that Lotto never received

-high prices for his work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about in

-artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and leaving a number with

-Jacopo Sansovino in the hope that he might hear of buyers. His work

-ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He undertook commissions at

-Recanati, Ancona, and Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a

-contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by which, in return for rooms

-and food, he made over himself and all his belongings to the care of the

-fraternity, "being tired of wandering, and wishing to end his days in

-that holy place." He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto

-as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of pictures which are

-distinguished by the same sort of apparent looseness and carelessness

-which we noticed in Titian's late style; a technique which, as in

-Titian's case, conceals a profound knowledge of plastic modelling.

-

-Though Lotto executed an immense number of important and very beautiful

-sacred works, his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting to the

-modern mind that one is tempted to linger over them. Other painters give

-us finer pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know who the sitters

-were and what was their story. Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality

-which marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born psychologist, and as such

-he witnesses to an attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which is of

-peculiar interest to our own. Lotto's bystanders, even in his sacred

-scenes, have nothing in common with Titian's "chorus"; they have the

-characterisation of distinct individuals, and when he is concerned with

-actual portraits he is intensely receptive and sensitive to the spirit

-of his sitters. He may be said to "give them away," and to take an

-almost unfair advantage of his perception. The sick man in the Doria

-Gallery looks like one stricken with a death sentence. He knows at least

-that it is touch and go, and the painter has symbolised the situation in

-the little winged genius balancing himself in a pair of scales. In the

-Borghese Gallery is the portrait of a young, magnificently dressed man,

-with a countenance marked by mental agitation, who presses one hand to

-his heart, while the other rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a

-tiny skull is half-hidden. The "Old Man" in the Brera has the hard,

-narrow, but intensely sad face of one whose natural disposition has

-been embittered by the circumstances of his life, just as that of our

-Prothonotary speaks of a large and gentle nature, mellowed by natural

-affections and happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with kindly

-mischief at "Marsilio and his Bride;" the broad, placid countenance of

-the man is so significantly contrasted with the clever mouth and eyes of

-the bride that it does not need the malicious glance of the cupid, who

-is fitting on the yoke, to "dot the i's and cross the t's" of their

-future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in the Brera, introduces

-us to one of those women who are charming in every age, not actually

-beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly dressed, sensible, and

-self-possessed, and the "Family Group" in our own gallery holds a

-history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments united by life in

-common and the clasping hands of children. Lotto does not keep the

-personal expression out of even such a canvas as his "Triumph of

-Chastity" in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His delightful Venus, one of the

-loveliest nudes in painting, flies from the attacking termagant, whose

-virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on her breast, and sweeps her little

-cupid with her with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the

-manners of mundane society.

-

- [Illustration: _Lorenzo Lotto._

-                 PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.

-                _Brera._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-The painter who was thus able to unveil personality had evidently a mind

-that was aware of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation

-and a more earnest and intimate religion. His life seems to have been

-one of some sadness, and crowned with only moderate success. He speaks

-of himself as "advanced in years, without loving care of any kind, and

-of a troubled mind." His will shows that his worldly possessions were

-few and poor, and that he had no heir closer than a nephew; but he

-leaves some of his cartoons as a dowry to "two girls of quiet nature,

-healthy in mind and body, and likely to make thrifty housekeepers," on

-their marriage to "two well-recommended young men," about to become

-painters. His sensitive and introspective temperament led him to prefer

-the retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the brilliant society

-of which he was made free in Venice. "His spirit," says Mr. Berenson,

-"is more like our own than is perhaps that of any other Italian

-painter, and it has all the appeal and fascination of a kindred soul

-in another age."

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Palma Vecchio._

-

- Bergamo.   Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).

- Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).

- Dresden.   Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family;

-              Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).

- London.    Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.

- Milan.     Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian;

-              Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.

- Naples.    Santa Conversazione with Donors.

- Paris.     Adoration of Shepherds.

- Rome.      Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.

-            Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.

-            Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.

- Venice.    Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.

-            Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).

-            S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.

- Vienna.    Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.

-

-

- _Lorenzo Lotto._

-

- Ancona.   Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).

- Asolo.    Madonna in Glory, 1506.

- Bergamo.  Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.

-           Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.

-           S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.

-           S. Alessandro in Colonna: Pietà.

-           S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.

-           S. Spirito: Altarpiece.

- Berlin.   Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.

- Brescia.  Nativity.

- Cingoli.  S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.

- Florence. Uffizi: Holy Family.

- London.   Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);

-             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;

-             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.

-           Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).

- Loreto.   Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer

-             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).

- Recanati. Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).

-           S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.

-           Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.

- Venice.   Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.

-           S. Giacomo dall' Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.

-           SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.

- Vienna.   Santa Conversazione, etc.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXI

-

-SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO

-

-

-It was very natural that Rome should wish for works of the masters of

-the new Venetian School, but the first-rate men were fully employed at

-home. All the efforts made to secure Titian failed till nearly the end

-of his career. On the other hand, Venice was full of less famous masters

-following in Giorgione's steps. When Sebastian Luciani was a young man,

-Giorgione was paramount there, and no one could have foretold that his

-life would be of such short duration. It was to be expected, therefore,

-that a painter who consulted his own interests should leave the city

-where he was overshadowed by a great genius and go farther afield. The

-influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the sixteenth century, so that

-it was a simpler matter for painters to transfer their talents, and

-painting was beginning to appeal strongly to the _dilettanti_, who

-rivalled one another in their offers.

-

-Only one work of Sebastian's is known belonging to this earlier time in

-Venice. It is the "S. Chrysostom enthroned," in S. Giovanni Crisostomo,

-and its majesty and rich colouring, and more especially the splendid

-group of women on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian beauty,

-make us wonder if Sebastian might not have risen to greater heights if

-he had remained in his natural environment. He responded to the call to

-Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great painter, [TN: Chigi was a banker] art

-collector, and patron, the friend of Leo X. Chigi had just completed

-the Farnesina Villa, and Sebastian was employed till 1512 on its

-decoration, and at once came under the influence of Michelangelo. The

-"Pietà" at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in fact, Vasari

-says that Michelangelo himself drew the cartoon for the figure of

-Christ, which would account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian

-embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine painter, and,

-according to Vasari, the great canvas of the "Raising of Lazarus," in

-the National Gallery, was executed under the orders and in part from

-the designs of Michelangelo. This colossal work was looked on as one

-of the most important creations of the sixteenth century, but there is

-little to make us wish to change it for the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo.

-The desire for scientific drawing and the search after composition have

-produced a laboured effect; the female figures are cast in a masculine

-mould, and it lacks both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and

-the emotional charm of Sebastian's native style. We cannot, however,

-avoid conjecturing if in the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a

-conception of the great Florentine. It is so easy in pose, so splendid

-in its, perhaps excessive, length of limb, that our thoughts turn

-involuntarily to the _Ignudi_ in the Sixtine Chapel. The picture has

-been dulled and injured by repainting, but the distance still has the

-sombre depth of the Venetians. All through Sebastian's career he seeks

-for form and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly is, he

-is great because he possesses that inborn feeling for harmony of colour.

-This is what we value in him, and he excels in so far as he follows his

-Venetian instincts.

-

-The death of Raphael improved Sebastian's position in Rome, and

-though Leo X. never liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.

-The "Fornarina" in the Uffizi, with the laurel-wreathed head and

-leopard-skin mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is

-curious that any critic should ever have assigned its rich, voluptuous

-tone and its coarse type to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions for

-decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and S. Pietro in Montorio in

-fresco, but in the latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring

-the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the Tuscan ease of hand. Colour,

-for which he possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused colour of

-Giorgione, is set aside by him; his tints become strong and crude, his

-surfaces grow hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of bold

-action, of drawing and modelling. The Venetian genius for portraiture

-remains, and he has left such fine examples as the "Andrea Doria" of the

-Vatican, or the "Portrait of a Man in the Pitti," a masterly picture

-both in drawing and execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse, and

-damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In the National Gallery we possess

-his own portrait by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici. The

-faces are well contrasted, and we judge from Sebastian's that his

-biographer describes him justly, as fat, indolent, and given to

-self-indulgence, but genial and fond of good company.

-

-After an absence of twenty years he returned to Venice. There he came

-in contact with Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship with

-Aretino, who became his great ally and admirer. The sack of Rome had

-driven him forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning partially

-to recover from that time of horror, he returned, and was cordially

-welcomed by Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost ecclesiastical

-circles. The Piombo, a well-paid, sinecure office of the Papal court,

-was bestowed on him, and his remaining years were spent in Rome. He

-was very anxious to collaborate with Michelangelo, and the great

-painter seems to have been quite inclined to the arrangement. The "Last

-Judgment," in the Sixtine Chapel, was suggested, and Sebastian had the

-melancholy task of taking down Perugino's masterpieces; but he wished to

-reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo stipulated for fresco, saying

-that oils were only fit for women, so that no agreement was arrived at.

-

-Sebastian's mode of work was slow, and he employed no assistants. He

-seems to have been inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,

-and his character shows in his work, which, with a few exceptions, has

-something heavy and common about it, a want of keenness and fire, an

-absence of refinement and selection.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Florence. Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.

-           Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).

- London.   Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.

- Naples.   Holy Family; Portraits.

- Paris.    Visitation, 1521.

- Rome.     Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).

-           Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.

-           S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.

- Treviso.  S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).

- Venice.   Academy: Visitation (E.).

-           S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).

- Viterbo.  Pietà (L.).

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXII

-

-BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE

-

-

-Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity of the different members

-of the family of Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in giving the

-name to one master only. Boschini, however, in 1777 discovered the

-register of the death of a second, and a third bearing the name was

-working twenty years later. Upon this Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion

-that we must recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the name of

-Bonifazio, but documents recently discovered by Professor Ludwig have

-in great measure destroyed Morelli's conjectures. There may have been

-obscure painters bearing the name, but they were mere imitators, and it

-is doubtful if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.

-

-Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one who counts. As Ridolfi says,

-he was born in Verona in the most beautiful moment of painting. He came

-to Venice at the age of eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,

-with whom his work has sometimes been confused. After Palma's death

-Bonifazio continued in friendly relations with his old master's family,

-and his niece married Palma's nephew. Bonifazio himself married the

-daughter of a basket-maker, and appears to have had no children, for

-he and his wife by their wills bestowed their whole fortune on their

-nephews. Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio's niece, was a painter

-whose pictures have sometimes been attributed to the legendary third

-Bonifazio. Bonifazio's life was passed peacefully in Venice. He received

-many important commissions from the Republic, and decorated the Palace

-of the Treasurers. His character and standing were high, and he was

-appointed, in company with Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy

-which Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly dower for five

-maidens. After a long life spent in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew

-to a little farm amidst orchards--fifteen acres of land in all--at San

-Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept his house in San Marcuola, where

-he died. He was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.

-

-A son of the plains and of Venetian stock, his work is always graceful

-and attractive, though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a very

-pronounced aristocratic character, and bears no trace of the rough,

-provincial strain of such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very fine

-and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour and energy in design. Nowhere do

-we get more worldly magnificence or such frank worship of wealth as on

-Bonifazio's joyous canvases. He represents Christian saints and Eastern

-kings alike, as gentlemen of princely rank. There is a note of purely

-secular art about his Adorations and Holy Families. In the "Adoration of

-the Magi," in the Academy, the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady of

-Bonifazio's acquaintance. The Child, so far from raising His hand in

-benediction, holds it out for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,

-distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the cup held by the second,

-who, in a puffed velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably that of

-the donor of the picture, who is in this way paid a courtier-like

-compliment. The third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must often have

-seen embarking from his Eastern galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A

-servant in a peaked hood peers round the column to catch sight of what

-is going on. The groups of animals in the background are well rendered.

-In the "Rich Man's Feast," where Lazarus lies upon the step, we have

-another scene of wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an orgy of

-colour. And, again, in the "Finding of Moses" (Brera) he paints nobles

-playing the lute, making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired women

-listening complacently. We are reminded of the way in which they lived:

-their one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of appearing in public

-in the latest and most magnificent fashions. And in these paintings

-Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and brocaded gowns in which the

-beautiful Venetians arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions of the

-year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted and coiled in the precise

-mode of the moment. The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly all

-his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself. As Catena often brings in

-a little white lap-dog, so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a

-liver-and-white spaniel.

-

-Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist who most successfully

-imitated Titian. He was the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,

-and received a good education in music and letters, before being sent

-off to Venice and placed in Titian's studio. Bordone does not seem to

-have been on very friendly terms with Titian. He was dissatisfied with

-his teaching, and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting from him a

-commission to paint an altarpiece which had been entrusted to him when

-he was only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with the manner of

-the dead Giorgione, and it was upon this master that he aspired to

-form his style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was painted for the

-Confraternity of St. Mark, and made his reputation. The legend it

-represents may be given in a few words:

-

-In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February, there arose a fearful

-storm in Venice. During the height of the tempest, three men accosted a

-poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed old boat by the Piazza,

-and begged that he would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where they had

-urgent business. After some demur they persuaded him to take the oars,

-and in spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished. On reaching

-the shore they pointed out to him a great ship, the crew of which he

-perceived to consist of a band of demons, who were stirring up the waves

-and making a great hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands on

-them to desist, when immediately they sailed away and there was a calm.

-The passengers then made the oarsman row them, one to S. Niccolo, one to

-S. Giorgio, and the third was rowed back to the Piazza. The fisherman

-timidly asked for his fare, and the third passenger desired him to go to

-the Doge and ask for payment, telling him that by that night's work a

-great disaster had been averted from the city. The fisherman replied

-that he should not be believed, but would be imprisoned as a liar. Then

-the passenger drew a ring from his finger. "Show him this for a sign,"

-he said, "and know that one of those you have this night rowed is S.

-Niccolas, the other is S. George, and I am S. Mark the Evangelist,

-Protector of the Venetian Republic." He then disappeared. The next day

-the fisherman presented the ring, and was assigned a provision for life

-from the Senate.

-

-There has, perhaps, never been a richer and more beautiful

-subject-picture painted than this glowing canvas, or one which brings

-more vividly before us the magnificence of the pageants which made

-such a part of Venetian life in the golden age of painting. It is all

-strength and splendour, and escapes the hectic colour and weaker type

-which appear in Bordone's "Last Supper" and some of his other works. In

-1538 he went to France and entered the service of Francis II., painting

-for him many portraits of ladies, besides works for the Cardinals of

-Guise and of Lorraine. The King of Poland sent to him for a "Jupiter and

-Antiope." At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns for work done for the

-great Fugger family.

-

-No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type of woman who at this time

-was most admired in Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired, with

-full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and ample, with "abundant

-flanks and snow-white breast." A type glowing with health and instinct

-with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without deep passions,

-and with no look that reveals profound emotions or the struggle of a

-soul. From what we see of Bordone's female portraits and from some of

-the mythological compositions he has left, he might have been among the

-most sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan, in the National

-Gallery, is an almost over-realistic presentment of a woman who has

-just parted from her lover. His women, with their carnation cheeks and

-expressionless faces, are like beautiful animals; but, as a matter

-of fact, their painter was sober and temperate in his life, very

-industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother. About 1536 he married

-the daughter of a Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one of the

-many insignificant painters of the end of the sixteenth century. Most

-of his days were divided between his little Villa of Lovadina in the

-district of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte dell' Cavallo near

-the Misericordia. "He lives comfortably in his quiet house," writes

-Vasari, who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, "working only at the

-request of princes, or his friends, avoiding all rivalry and those vain

-ambitions which do but disturb the repose of man, and seeking to avert

-any ruffling of the serene tranquillity of his life, which he is

-accustomed to preserve simple and upright."

-

-Many of his pictures show an intense love of country solitudes. His

-poetic backgrounds, lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling water

-are in curious contrast to the sumptuous groups in the foreground.

-

-His "Three Heads," in the Brera, is a superb piece of painting and

-an interesting characterisation. The woman is ripe, sensual, and

-calculating, feeling with her fingers for the gold chain, a mere

-golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid and prosaic. The

-go-between is dimly seen in the background, but the face of the suitor

-is a strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless, and bitter,

-taking his pleasure mechanically and with cynical detachment. The "Storm

-calmed by S. Mark" (Academy) was, in Mr. Berenson's opinion, begun by

-Giorgione.

-

-Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is the work of these

-two painters, it does not reach the highest level. It falls short of

-grandeur, and has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity. As we

-study it we feel that it marks the point to which Venetian art might

-have attained, the flood-mark it might have touched, if it had lacked

-the advent of the three or four great spirits, who, appearing about

-the same time, bore it up to sublimer heights and developed a more

-distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio and Bordone lack the

-grandeur and sweetness of Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative

-genius of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour, design, and

-decoration of Veronese, but they continue Venetian painting on logical

-lines, and they form a superb foundation for the highest.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Bonifazio Veronese._

-

- Dresden.  Finding of Moses.

- Florence. Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight

-             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.

- Hampton Court. Santa Conversazione.

- London.   Santa Conversazione (E.).

- Milan.    Brera: Finding of Moses.

- Paris.    Santa Conversazione.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee's Children; Return of the

-             Prodigal Son.

-           Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.

- Venice.   Academy: Rich Man's Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of

-             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.

-           Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.

- Vienna.   Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;

-             Salome.

-

-

- _Paris Bordone._

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Vintage Scenes.

- Berlin.   Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four

-             Saints.

- Dresden.  Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.

- Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Woman.

- Genoa.    Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.

- Hampton Court. Madonna and Donors.

- London.   Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.

-           Bridgewater House: Holy Family.

- Milan.    Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented

-             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.

-           S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.

- Munich.   Portrait; Man counting Jewels.

- Paris.    Portraits.

- Rome.     Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.

- Treviso.  Madonna and Saints.

-           Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.

- Venice.   Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.

-           Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.

-           Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.

-           S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.

- Vienna.   Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIII

-

-PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES

-

-

-It has become usual to include in the Venetian School those artists from

-the subject provinces on the mainland, who came down to try their luck

-at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark on their talent. The

-Friulan cities, Udine, Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had

-their own primitive schools and their scores of humble craftsmen. Their

-art wavered for some time in its expression between the German taste,

-which came so close to their gates, and the Italian, which was more

-truly their element.

-

-Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times in thirty years by the

-Turks. They poured in large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed

-the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred and carried off the

-inhabitants. These terrible periods are marked by the cessation of work

-in the provinces, but hope always revived again. The break caused by

-such a visitation can be distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,

-at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da Udine obtained the

-epithet of Pellegrino da San Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an

-early visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to Cima. He was

-appointed to decorate S. Antonino. His early work there is hard and

-coarse, ill-drawn, the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and the colour

-dusky and uniform; but owing to the Turkish raid, he had to take flight,

-and it was many a year before the monks gained sufficient courage and

-saved enough money to continue the embellishment of their church. In the

-meantime, Pellegrino's years had been spent partly in Venice and partly,

-perhaps, in Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing to paint a

-"Bacchus" for the Duke, was that the subject had already been painted

-by Pellegrino da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his work, it

-demonstrated that he had studied the modern Venetians and had come under

-a finer, deeper influence. A St. George in armour suggests Giorgione's

-S. Liberale at Castelfranco; he specially shows an affinity with

-Pordenone, who was his pupil and who was to become a better painter than

-his old master. As Pellegrino goes on he improves consistently, and

-adopts the method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form to a

-scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some extent, succeeds in his

-difficult task of applying to wall painting the system which the

-Venetians used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He was an

-ambitious, daring painter, and some of his church standards were for

-long attributed to Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains his

-chief monument; but for all his travels Pellegrino remains provincial in

-type, is unlucky in his selection, cares little for precision of form,

-and trusts to colour for effect.

-

-The same transition in art was taking place in other provinces. Morto da

-Feltre, Pennacchi, and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a

-Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went far onward, began their

-career under such minor masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes his

-name from his native town of Pordenone, in Friuli, was one of these. All

-the early part of his life was spent in painting frescoes in the small

-towns of the Friulan provinces. At first they bear signs of the tuition

-of Pellegrino, but it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has learned to

-imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite early, however, one of his chief

-failings appears, and one which is all his own, the disparity in size

-between his various figures. The secondary personages, the Magi in a

-Nativity, the Saints standing round an altar, are larger and more

-athletic in build and often more animated in action than the principal

-actors in the scene. What pleased Pordenone's contemporaries was his

-daring perspective and his instinctive feeling for movement. He carried

-out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at length his reputation,

-which had long been ripe in his native province, reached Venice. In

-1519 he was invited to Treviso to fresco the façade of a house for one

-of the Raviguino family. The painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and

-Titian was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the work so much that

-he hinted to Raviguino that he would be wise not to press him for a

-valuation. As a direct consequence of this piece of business, Pordenone

-was employed on the chapel at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At

-this time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa Pesaro were just

-finished, and it is probable that Pordenone paid his first visit to

-Venice, hard by, and saw his great contemporary's work. With his

-characteristic distaste for fresco, Titian undertook the altarpiece and

-painted the beautiful Annunciation which still holds its place, and

-Pordenone covered the dome with a foreshortened figure of the Eternal

-Father, surrounded by angels. Among the remaining frescoes in the

-Chapel, an Adoration of the Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.

-Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered his services to

-Mantua and Cremona, but the Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and

-restrained grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say to what Crowe

-and Cavalcaselle call his "large and colossal fable-painting." He

-pursued his way to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he passed

-through Mantua is evident from the first figures he painted in the

-cathedral. In Cremona every one admired him, and all the artists set to

-work to imitate his energetic foreshortening, vehement movement and huge

-proportions.

-

-Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all his life an itinerant

-painter. In 1521 he was back at Udine and wandered from place to

-place, painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at S. Maria at

-Spilimbergo, the façade of the Church of Valeriano, an imposing series

-at Travesio, and in 1525, the "Story of the True Cross" at Casara. At

-the last place he threw aside much of his exaggeration, and, ruined and

-restored as the frescoes are, they remain among his most dignified

-achievements. He may be studied best of all at Piacenza, in the Church

-of the Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his subjects between sacred

-and pagan, so that we turn from a "Flight into Egypt" or a "Marriage

-of S. Catherine," to the "Rape of Europa" or "Venus and Adonis." At

-Piacenza he shows himself the great painter he undoubtedly is, having

-achieved some mastery over form, while his colour has the true Venetian

-quality and almost equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,

-which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping shadows as only one

-whose spirit was in touch with the art of Giorgione would have

-understood how to use. Very complete records remain of Pordenone's life,

-full details of a quarrel with his brother over property left by his

-father in 1533, and accounts of the painter's negotiations to obtain a

-knighthood, which he fancied would place him more on a par with Titian

-when he went to live in Venice. The coveted honour was secured, but from

-this time he seems to have been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed

-continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a punctual and rapid

-decorator, and on being given the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to

-decorate in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole by March 1538. We

-have seen how Titian annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious

-they were to transfer his commission to Pordenone, and what a narrow

-escape the Venetian had of losing his Broker's patent. Pordenone was

-engaged by the nuns of Murano to paint an Annunciation, after they had

-rejected one by Titian on account of its price, and though it seems

-hardly possible that any one could have compared the two men, yet no

-doubt the pleasure of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually and

-for a moderate sum, often outweighed the honour of the possible painting

-by the great Titian.

-

-No one has left so few easel-paintings as Pordenone; fresco was so much

-better suited to his particular style. The canvas of the "Madonna of

-Mercy" in the Venice Academy, was painted about 1525 for a member of the

-house of Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the family. It is

-very free from his colossal, exaggerated manner; the attendant saints

-are studied from nature, and in his journals the painter mentions that

-the St. Roch is a portrait of himself. The "S. Lorenzo enthroned," in

-the same gallery, shows both his virtues and failings. The saints have

-his enormous proportions. The Baptist is twisting round, to display the

-foreshortening which Pordenone particularly affects. The gestures are

-empty and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and fluid; there is a

-large sense of decoration in the composition, and something simple and

-austere about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often the case with

-Pordenone, the principal actor of the scene is smaller and more

-sincerely imagined than the attendant personages, who are crowded into

-the foreground, where they are used to display the master's skill.

-

-Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he had been summoned by its

-Duke to undertake one of his great schemes of decoration. He was said

-to have been poisoned, but though he had jealous rivals there seems no

-proof of the truth of the assertion, which was one very commonly made in

-those days. He is interesting as being the only distinguished member of

-the Venetian School whose frescoes have come down to us in any number,

-and as being the only one of the later masters with whom it was the

-chosen medium.

-

-His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented in the National Gallery

-by a half-length of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court by a

-large family group and by another of three persons gathered round a

-spinet. His masterpiece is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari, which

-shows the influence of Palma. His flesh tints, striving to be rich, have

-a hot, red look, but his works have been constantly confounded with

-those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.

-

-A long list might be given of minor artists who were industriously

-turning out work on similar lines to one or other of these masters:

-Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as Pordenone; Pomponio

-Amalteo, Pordenone's son-in-law, a spirited painter in fresco;

-Florigerio, who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom an altarpiece

-remains in the Academy; Giovanni Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to

-compile his notices of Friulan art, and many others only known by name.

-

-At the close of the fifteenth century the revulsion against Paduan art

-extended as far as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one of the first

-to acquire the trick of Venetian painting. He probably studied for a

-time under Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have been at

-Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan disturbances of 1506-12, and

-about 1510 Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino's Palmesque

-manner. His works at this time are dark and glowing, full of warm light

-and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under arches, after the manner

-of the Vivarini and Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed in

-noble architecture.

-

-Brescia was an opulent city, second only to Milan among the towns of

-northern Italy, and Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in 1511

-the city fell a prey to the horrors of war, was taken and lost by

-Venice, and in 1512 was sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,

-where he found a home among the Benedictines of S. Giustina. Here he was

-soon well employed on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the high

-altar, and a "Last Supper" for the refectory. It is also surmised that

-he helped in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several of which

-Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt, and the "Death of St. Anthony" is

-pointed out as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine colour, but

-poor drawing.

-

-Romanino returned to Brescia when the Venetians recovered it in 1516,

-but before doing so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects, which

-are among his most effective, in the choir of the Duomo.

-

-He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone, from whom he sometimes

-borrows ideas, but he is quite a convert to the modern style of the day,

-setting his groups in large spaces and using the slashed doublets, the

-long hose, and plumed headgear which Giorgione had found so picturesque.

-Romanino is often very poor and empty, and fails most in selection and

-expression at the moments when he most needs to be great, but he is

-successful in the golden style he adopted after his closer contact

-with the Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are extremely

-brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to be gaudy and careless in

-execution, and even the fine "Nativity" in the National Gallery gives

-the impression that size is more regarded than thought and feeling.

-

-Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the mainland who, coming within

-the charmed circle of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma and

-Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still keeps his own gamut of

-colour, and as he goes on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery

-in his tones. He can only be fully studied in Brescia itself, where

-literally dozens of altarpieces and wall-paintings show him in every

-phase. His first connection was probably with Romanino, but he reminds

-us at one time of Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful

-painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace and sentiment of his

-heads, and as time goes on he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the

-"Feast in the House of Simon" in the organ-loft of the Church of the

-Pietà in Venice, the very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded

-building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape, and the costly raiment

-and plenishing which might have been seen at any Venetian or Brescian

-banquet. In his portraits Moretto sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages

-are always dignified and expressive, with pale, high-bred faces, and

-exceedingly picturesque in dress and general arrangement. He loved to

-paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra Martinengo in the National

-Gallery, and to endow him with an air of romantic interest.

-

-One of those who entered so closely into the spirit of the Venetian

-School that he may almost be included within it, is Savoldo. His

-pictures are rare, and no gallery can show more than one or two

-examples. The Louvre has a portrait by him of Gaston de Foix, long

-thought to be by Giorgione. His native town can only show one

-altarpiece, an "Adoration of Shepherds," low in tone but intense in

-dusky shadow with fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his shadows,

-and often rough and startling in effect, but at his best he produces

-very beautiful, rich, evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino bears

-witness to the estimation in which he was held.

-

-It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has most claim to

-Bartolommeo Montagna, the early master of Cima. Born of Brescian

-parents, he settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most

-distinguished of those Vicentine painters who drank at the Venetian

-fount. He must have gone early to Venice and worked with the Vivarini,

-for in his altarpiece in the Brera he has the vaulted porticoes in

-which Bartolommeo and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His "Madonna enthroned"

-in the gallery at Vicenza has many points of contact with that of Alvise

-at Berlin. Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and the raised

-throne, and he is specially attracted by the groups of music-making

-angels; but Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise, and his lines

-are stronger and more sinewy. He keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling

-for calm and sweetness, but his personages have greater weight and

-gravity. He essays, too, a "Pietà" with saints, at Monte Berico, and

-shows both pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen Bellini's

-rendering, and attempts, if only with partial success, to contrast in

-the same way the indifference of death with the contemplation and

-anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular as Montagna's saints often

-are, they show power and austerity. His colour is brilliant and

-enamel-like; he does not arrive at the Venetian depth, yet his

-altarpieces are very grand, and once more we are struck by the greatness

-of even the secondary painters who drew their inspiration from Padua and

-Venice.

-

-Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza and Giovanni Buonconsiglio

-were imbued with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza, in one of his

-few remaining works, almost reproduces the beautiful "Assumption" by

-Pizzolo, Mantegna's young fellow-student, in the Chapel of the

-Eremitani. He employs Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate

-Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish between

-their works. Buonconsiglio's "Pietà" in the Vicenza gallery, is

-reminiscent of Montagna's at Monte Berico. The types are lean and bony,

-the features are almost as rugged as Dürer's, the flesh earthy and

-greenish. About 1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with Antonello da

-Messina; he begins to reside in Venice, and a change comes over his

-manner. His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired by studying

-Titian; and then, again, his bright tints remind us of Lotto. His name

-was on the register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.

-

-After Pisanello's achievement and his marked effect on early Venetian

-art, Veronese painting fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna's

-influence was strongly felt here, and art revived in Liberale da Verona,

-Falconetto, Casoto, the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters

-delightful in themselves, but having little connection with the

-school of Venice. Francesco Bonsignori, however, shook himself free

-from the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had for a time

-followed Liberale, and grows more like the Vicentines, Montagna and

-Buonconsiglio. He is careful about his drawing, but his figures, like

-those of many of these provincial painters, are short, bony and vulgar,

-very unlike the slender, distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under

-the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori works in the new palace of

-the Gonzagas, and several pictures painted for Mantua are now scattered

-in different collections. At Verona he has left four fine altarpieces.

-He went early to Venice, where he became the pupil of the Vivarini. His

-faces grow soft and oval, and the very careful outlines suggest the

-influence of Bellini.

-

-Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni Bellini; in fact, Vasari

-says that a "Dead Christ" in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed with

-Bellini's name, is from Mocetto's hand. His short, broad figures have

-something of Bartolommeo Vivarini's character.

-

-Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study with Giorgione, and we can

-trace his master's manner of turning half tones into deep shades; but he

-does not really understand the Giorgionesque treatment, in which shade

-was always rich and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable, nor in

-the lights can he produce the clear glow of Giorgione. Another Veronese,

-Cavazzola, has left a masterpiece upon which any painter might be happy

-to rest his reputation; the "Gattemalata with an Esquire" in the Uffizi,

-a picture noble in feeling and in execution, and one which owes a great

-deal to Venetian portrait-painters.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Pordenone._

-

- Casara.    Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.

- Colatto.   S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).

- Cremona.   Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;

-              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned

-              with Saints and Donor, 1522.

- Murano.    S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).

- Piacenza.  Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.

- Pordenone. Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints,

-              1535.

-            Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.

- Spilimbergo.  Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.

- Sensigana. Madonna and Saints.

- Torre.     Madonna and Saints.

- Treviso.   Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.

- Venice.    Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family;

-              Saints.

-            S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.

-            S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.

-

-

- _Pellegrino._

-

- San Daniele. Frescoes in S. Antonio.

- Cividale.    S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.

- Venice.      Academy: Annunciation.

-

-

- _Romanino._

-

- Bergamo. S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.

- Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Pietà.

- Brescia. Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity;

-            Coronation.

-          Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.

-          S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.

- Cremona. Duomo: Frescoes.

- London.  Polyptych; Portrait.

- Padua.   Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.

- Sato, Lago di Garda. Duomo: Saints and Donor.

- Trent.   Castello: Frescoes.

- Verona.  St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.

-

-

- _Moretto._

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.

- Brescia.  Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna

-             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory

-             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.

-           S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.

-           S. Francesco: Altarpiece.

-           S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.

-           S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;

-             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.

-           S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.

-           SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy:

-             Nativity.

-           Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.

- London.   Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;

-             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.

- Milan.    Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.

-           Castello: Triptych; Saints.

- Rome.     Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.

- Venice.   S. Maria della Pietà: Christ in the House of Levi.

- Verona.   S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.

-

-

- _Bartolommeo Montagna._

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.

- Berlin.  Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.

- Milan.   Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.

- Padua.   Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony's Tomb.

- Pavia.   Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.

- Venice.  Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.

- Verona.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Pietà; Frescoes, 1491-93.

- Vicenza. Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints;

-            Three Madonnas.

-          Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.

-          S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.

-          Monte Berico: Pietà, 1500; Fresco.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIV

-

-PAOLO VERONESE

-

-

-Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to be placed on the very

-highest pinnacle of the Venetian School, must be classed among

-those few great painters who rose far above the level of most of his

-contemporaries and who brought in a special note and flavour of his own.

-His art is an independent art, and he borrows little from predecessors

-or contemporaries. His free and joyous temperament gave relief at a

-moment when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened to become too

-sombre, and when Sebastian del Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and

-above all Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes. Veronese

-discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries and crimsons and oranges,

-and finds his range among cream and rose and grey-greens. Titian

-concentrated his colours and intensified his lights, Tintoretto

-sacrifices colour to vivid play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids

-the dark; the generous light plays all through his scenes. He has no

-wish to secure strong effects but delights in soft, faded tints; old

-rose and _turquoise morte_. In his colour and his subjects he is a

-personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving Republic, in which, as

-M. Yriarte says, a man produced his works as a tree produces its fruit.

-We get very near him in those vast palaces and churches and villas,

-where his heroic figures expand in the azure air, against the white

-clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the Renaissance about whom

-we know least. Here and there, in contemporary biography, we come across

-a mention of him and learn that he was sociable and lively, quick at

-taking offence, fond of his family and anxious to do his best by them.

-He was, too, very generous with his work--a great contrast in this

-respect to Titian--and contracts with convents and confraternities show

-that he often only stipulated for payment for bare time. Yet he was fond

-of personal luxury, loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says

-Ridolfi, "always wore velvet breeches."

-

-His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson, were Badile and

-Brusasorci, masters of Verona, but before he was twenty, he was away

-working on his own account. His first patron was Cardinal Gonzaga, who

-brought several painters from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no longer

-what it had been in the days of Isabela d'Este, and Paolo Caliari soon

-returned to his own town. Before he was twenty-three he had decorated

-Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration with Zelotti, a Veronese,

-portraying feasting gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural

-designs in monochrome. The two painters went on to other villas, mixing

-mortal and mythical figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.

-

-Zelotti having received a commission at Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek

-his fortune in Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano, on

-the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari wrote to him before arriving in

-Venice in 1555. Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable part

-in his destiny, he obtained a commission for a "Coronation of the Virgin

-and four other Saints." He first painted the sacristy, but his success

-was instantaneous, and many orders followed. The ceiling of the church

-was devoted to the history of Esther. The whole of these paintings

-are marvellously well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt

-framework, make a _coup d'oeil_ of surprising beauty. They had an

-immense effect. Every one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures

-of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp of her ceremonies, the

-rich Eastern stuffs and the glorious architecture of her palaces. It

-was an auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese's temper; the

-so-called Republic, now, more than ever, an oligarchy, was at the

-height of its fortunes, redecorating was going forward everywhere, the

-merchant-nobility was rich and spending magnificently, the Eastern trade

-was flourishing, Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari came

-to work for, preferred the ceremonial to the imaginative treatment of

-sacred themes, and he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible for

-illustration. He paints the history of Esther, with its royal audiences,

-banquets, and marriage-feasts. His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are

-composed, courtly personages, who maintain a dignified calm under

-misfortune, and have very little violent feeling to show.

-

-At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma Vecchio was just dead,

-Tintoretto was absorbed by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was

-with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati, Bonifazio, Schiavone,

-and Zelotti, all rendering homage to Titian who was eighty years old,

-but still in full vigour. Titian's opinions in matters of art were

-dictates, his judgment was a law. He immediately recognised Veronese's

-genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him, and together with

-Sansovino, who at this time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,

-he received the young painter with an approval which ensured him a good

-start. Five years after Veronese's arrival he was retained to decorate

-the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is a type of those patrician

-country-houses to which the Venetians were becoming more attached every

-year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait

-by Veronese is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed the

-ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten. Palladio, Alessandro

-Vittoria, and Veronese were associated to build him a dwelling worthy of

-a Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total contrast to the

-gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is sober and simple, and well adapted to

-leisure and retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations are

-devoid of gilding and colour, and the rooms adorned by Veronese's brush

-show him in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did not take place till

-four years later, but he has been influenced here by the feeling for the

-antique, and he thinks much of line and style. He leaves on one side the

-gorgeous brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually delights, and

-his nymphs are only clothed in their own beauty. And here Veronese shows

-his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons, the Barbaro family, are

-his friends, men and women of the world, who put no restraint on his

-fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese, with the bridle on

-his neck, so to speak, uses his opportunities fully, yet never exceeds

-the limits of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like Rubens, but

-proud, grave and sweet, seductive, but never suggestive or vulgar. After

-having placed single figures wherever he can find a nook, he assembles

-all the gods of Olympia at a supper in the cupola. Immortality is a

-beautiful young woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at her, caduceus

-in hand; Diana caresses her great hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his

-head on his hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid are scattered

-in the Empyrean, and Jupiter presides over the party. Below, a balcony

-rail runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an old lady, dressed in

-the latest fashion, points out the company to a beautiful young one and

-to a young man in a doublet who holds a hound in a leash. They are

-evidently family portraits, taken from those who looked on at the

-artist, and on the other side he has introduced members of his own

-family who were helping him. These decorations have a gaiety, an

-absence of pedantry, a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the

-Renaissance which tell of a happy moment when art was at its height and

-in touch with its environment. From about 1563 we may begin to date his

-great supper pictures. The Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most

-famous works, was painted for the refectory in Sammichele, the old part

-of S. Giorgio Maggiore. The treaty for it is still in existence, dated

-June 1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is to furnish canvas

-and colours, the painter's board, and a cask of wine. The further

-payment of 972 ducats illustrates the prices received by the greatest

-artists at the height of the Renaissance: £280 for work which occupied

-quite eight months.

-

-Veronese must have delighted in painting this work. Needless to say, it

-is not in the least religious. He has united in it all the most varied

-personages who struck his imagination. So we see a Spanish grandee,

-Francis I., Suleiman the Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and

-Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped round a table, are

-Veronese himself, playing the viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo

-da Ponte seated by them, and Paolo's brother, the architect, with his

-hand on his hip, tossing off a full glass; and in the governor of the

-feast, opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise Aretino. Under

-the marble columns of a Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the

-illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us an odd and informing

-document. We can but accept the scene and admire the originality of its

-design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness and fancy, the way

-in which the varied incidents are brought into harmony, and the grace of

-the colonnade, peopled with spectators, standing out against the depth

-of distant sky.

-

-The celebrated suppers, of which this is the first example, are

-dispersed in different galleries and some have disappeared, but from

-this time Veronese loved to paint these great displays, repeating some

-of them, but always introducing variety.

-

- [Illustration: _Paolo Veronese._

-                 MARRIAGE IN CANA.

-                _Louvre._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani, procurator of St. Mark's, who

-was appointed ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time saw the

-works of Raphael and Michelangelo and the treasures of antiquity. For

-a time, the sight of the antique had some effect upon his work; in his

-famous ceiling in the Louvre, "Jupiter destroying the Vices," the

-influence of Michelangelo is apparent and its large gestures are

-inspired by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese brought home casts

-from Rome, and statues of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have inspired

-the Jupiter. He did not go on long in this path; he does not really care

-for the nude--it is too simple for him. He prefers that his saints and

-divinities should appear in the gorgeous costumes of the day, and that

-his Venus and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich brocades. But

-few documents are left concerning his work for the Ducal Palace up to

-1576; much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but the Signoria then

-gave him a number of fresh commissions. The most important was the

-immense oval of the "Triumph of Venice," or, as it is sometimes called,

-the "Thanksgiving for Lepanto"; the Republic crowned by victory and

-surrounded by allegorical figures, Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno

-and the rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom: the fair Queen

-leans back, surrounded by laughing patricians, who look up from their

-balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on the Grand Canal. The

-horses of the Free Companions, the soldiers who go afar to carry out the

-will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of personages, each of whom

-represents a town or colony of her domain. Like all Veronese's

-creations, this will always be pre-eminently a picture of the sixteenth

-century, dated by a thousand details of costume, architecture, and

-armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the Venier, of Titian,

-Aretino, and Veronese himself, makes a deep impression upon us, and

-the artist reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.

-

-Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can show a canvas of Veronese or

-the assistants by whom he was now surrounded. From time to time he

-resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano, and his incessant production

-betrays no trace of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the saint is a

-triumph of the beauty of the silhouette against a radiant sky. He goes

-back to Verona and paints the "Martyrdom of St. George." He pours light

-into it. The saints open a shining path, down which a flower-crowned

-Love flutters with the diadem and palm of victory. The whole air and

-expression of St. George is full of strength and that look of goodness

-and serenity which is the painter's nearest approach to religious

-feeling. Veronese was created a Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was

-asking for his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature and fond of

-living with his family. Philip II. longed to get him to cover his great

-walls in the Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations

-and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.

-

-It was on account of the "Feast in the House of Levi" that in 1573 he

-was hauled before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document

-concerning this was only discovered a few years ago. The Signoria had

-never allowed any tribunal to chastise works of literature; on the

-contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor herself in geniuses of the

-mind, was the refuge of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a

-sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed her to set aside or

-suspend the decisions of the Holy Office, from which she could not quite

-emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was denounced by some "aggrieved

-person," to whom his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an outrage

-on religion. The members of the tribunal demanded "who the boy was with

-the bleeding nose?" and "why were halberdiers admitted?" Veronese

-replied that they were the sort of servants a rich and magnificent host

-would have about him. He was then asked why he had introduced the

-buffoon with a parrot on his hand. He replied that he really thought

-only Christ and His Apostles were present, but that when he had a little

-space over, he adorned it with imaginary figures. This defence of the

-vast and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and he was asked if he

-really thought that at the Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to

-bring in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other absurdities. Did

-he not know that in Germany and other places infested with heresy, they

-were in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church into ridicule,

-with intent to teach false doctrine to the ignorant? Paolo for his

-defence cited the Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted every

-figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor replied crushingly, that these

-were disembodied spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.

-Could Veronese uphold his picture as decent? The painter was probably

-not very much alarmed. He was a person of great importance in Venice,

-and the proceedings of the Inquisition were always jealously watched

-by members of the Senate, who would not have permitted any unfair

-interference with the liberties of those under the protection of the

-State. The real offence was the introduction of the German soldiers, who

-were peculiarly obnoxious to the Venetians; but Veronese did not care

-what the subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for a great

-_spectacle_. Brought to bay, he gave the true answer: "My Lords, I have

-not considered all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything

-disorderly. I painted the picture as it seemed best to me and as my

-intellect could conceive of it." It meant that Veronese painted in the

-way that he considered most artistic, without even remembering questions

-of religion, and in this he summed up his whole æsthetic creed. He was

-set at liberty on condition that he took out one or two of the most

-offending figures. The "Feast in the House of Levi" (as he named it

-after the trial) is the finest of all his great scenic effects. The air

-circulates freely through the white architecture, we breathe more deeply

-as we look out into the wide blue sky, and such is the sensation of

-expansion, that it is hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a flat

-wall. Titian's backgrounds are a blue horizon, a burning twilight.

-Veronese builds marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns blanched

-in the liquid light. His personages show little violent action. He

-places them in noble poses in which they can best show off their

-magnificent clothes, and he endows his patricians, his goddesses, his

-sacred persons, with a uniform air of majestic indolence.

-

-After his "trial," Veronese proceeded more triumphantly than ever. Every

-prince wished to have something from his brush; the Emperor Rudolph, at

-Prague, showed with pride the canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus.

-The Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of Ferrara, added

-Veronese's works to the treasures of the house of Este. The last ten

-years of his life were given up to visiting churches on the mainland and

-on the little islands round Venice, all covetous to possess something by

-the brilliant Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello, Murano,

-Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent and monastery loaded him with

-commissions, and it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in

-spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his most ardent patrons, those

-who delighted most in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were to be

-found in the religious houses. Then, when he went to rest in the summer

-heats in some villa on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here and

-there. It was on such an occasion, for the Pisani, that he painted the

-"Family of Darius," which was sold to England by a member of the house

-in 1857. The royal captives, who are throwing themselves at the feet of

-the conqueror, are, with Paolo's usual frank naïveté and disregard of

-anachronisms, dressed in full Venetian costume--all the chief personages

-are portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom and rapidity of

-execution, the completeness and finish, the charm of colour, the

-beauty of the figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander and

-Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy, make this one of the finest

-of all his works. The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it, "It is absurd

-and dazzling."

-

-In the "Rape of Europa," he recurred again to one of those legends of

-fabled beings who have outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and

-living. Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino and Bembo, well

-versed in mythology, and with his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse

-for painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets, and a delightful

-landscape. The wild flowers spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro

-against a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese turquoise. It is

-the work of a man who is a true poet of colour and for whom colour

-represents all the emotions of joy and pleasure.

-

-Veronese died comparatively young, of chill and fever, and all his

-family survived him. He lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary

-memoirs we know that he lived and dressed splendidly. He kept immense

-stores of gorgeous stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew

-everything from life,--the negroes covered with jewels, the bright-eyed

-pages, the models who, robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became

-queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls which bedecked them were from

-his own caskets. Though we know little of his private life, his work is

-so alive that he seems personified in it. He is saved from what might

-have been a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing

-colour in which he revels; his silks and satins are less modelled by

-shadows than tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and striped

-and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously combined that the eye rests,

-wherever it falls, on something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is

-where his genius lies, "the decoration does not add to the interest of

-the drama; it replaces it"; in short, it _is_ the drama itself, for his

-types show little selection, and his ideal of female beauty is not a

-very sympathetic one. His personages are cold and devoid of expression,

-their gestures are rather meaningless, but by means of light and air and

-exquisite colour he gives the poetical touch which all great art

-demands.

-

-On account of their size few examples of Veronese's work are to be found

-in private collections, but the galleries of the different European

-capitals are rich in them. Numbers of paintings, too, which are by his

-assistants are dignified by his name, and directly after his death

-spurious works were freely manufactured and sold as genuine.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Dresden.  Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi;

-             Marriage of Cana.

- Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.

-           Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).

- London.   Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before

-             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.

- Maser.    Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.

- Padua.    S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.

- Paris.    Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.

- Venice.   Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna

-             with Saints.

-           Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice

-             enthroned.

-           S. Barnabà: Holy Family.

-           S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.

-           S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in

-             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;

-             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.

- Verona.   Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.

-           S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.

- Vicenza.  Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.

- Vienna.   Christ at the House of Jairus.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXV

-

-TINTORETTO

-

-

-It does not seem likely that many new discoveries will be made about

-Tintoretto's life. It was an open and above-board one, and there is

-practically no time during its span that we are not able to account for,

-and to say where he was living and how he was occupied. The son of a

-dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds of Venice, the "little

-dyer," _il tentoretto_, appears as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn

-his chosen art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately after,

-summarily ejected from that master's workshop, on account, it seems

-probable, of the independence and innovation of his style, which was

-of the very kind most likely to shock and puzzle Titian's courtly,

-settled genius. After this he painted when and where he could, pursuing

-his artistic studies with the headlong ardour which through life

-characterised his attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he may have

-worked in Bonifazio's studio. He formed a close friendship with Andrea

-Schiavone,[4] he imported casts of Michelangelo's statues, he studied

-the works of Titian and Palma. Over his door was written "the colour of

-Titian and the form of Michelangelo." All his energies were for long

-devoted to the effort to master that form. Colour came to him naturally,

-but good drawing meant more to him than it had ever done to any

-Venetian. Long afterwards, to repeated inquiries as to how excellence

-could be best ensured, he would give no other advice than the

-reiterated, "study drawing." He practised till the human form in every

-attitude held no difficulties for him. He suspended little models by

-strings, and drew every limb and torso he could get hold of over and

-over again. He was found in every place where painting was wanted,

-getting the builders to let him experiment upon the house-fronts. To

-master light and shade he constructed little cardboard houses, in which,

-by means of sliding shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be

-arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of this part of his

-education, as in the end the love of shine and shadow was the most

-victorious of all his inspirations.

-

- [4] Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia,

- landing in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from

- Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably an

- assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the "Venus and Adonis" of the

- National Gallery, which owes much to his hand. He fails conspicuously in

- form, his shadows are black, and his figures often vulgar, but he has a

- fine sense of colour, and a free, crisp touch. He was one of the young

- masters who flooded Venice with light, sketchy wares.

-

-The chief events in Tintoretto's life are art-events. For some years he

-frescoed the outside of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his

-expenses. He decorated household furniture and everything he could

-lay hands on. Then came a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,

-organ-doors there, for unimportant churches. No one in Venice talked

-of any one save Palma, Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was

-difficult enough for an outsider, who was not one of their clique, to

-get employment. But by the time Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was

-becoming recognised; he had painted the two altarpieces for SS. Ermagora

-and Fortunato, and the offer he made to decorate the vast church of his

-parish brought him conspicuously into notice. In the first ardour of

-youth he completed the "Last Judgment" for the choir. From time to time,

-during fourteen years, he redeemed his early promises and executed the

-"Golden Calf" and the "Presentation of the Virgin." Within two years of

-his offer to the Prior, came his first great opportunity of achieving

-distinction. This was a commission from the Confraternity of St. Mark,

-and with the "Miracle of the Slave" he sprang at once to the highest

-place.

-

-The picture was universally admired, and was followed by three more

-dealing with the patron saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful

-young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi, as it is indifferently

-given, the daughter of a noble family of the mainland. Tradition has

-always pointed to the girl in blue in the "Golden Calf" as her portrait,

-while it is easy to recognise Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded

-giant, who helps to carry the idol. His house at this time was somewhere

-in the Parrocchia dell' Orto, and there, during the next fourteen years,

-eight children were born, of whom the two eldest, Domenico and Marietta,

-attained distinction in their father's profession. Another great

-event, which profoundly influenced his life, was the beginning of his

-connection in 1560 with the Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity

-which was devoted to combating the ravages of the plague and to

-succouring the families of its victims. His work for this lasted to the

-end of his life and is his most distinguished memorial.

-

-The palace to which the Robusti family moved in 1574, and which was

-inhabited by his descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified in

-the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into two parts, but it is evident

-that it was a dwelling of some importance, a good specimen of Venetian

-Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable decoration; the walls are

-sheathed in marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of Gothic

-windows in delicately carved frames and little balconies of fretted

-marble. Zanetti, in 1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze

-frieze cast from the master's design, which ran round the Grand Sala.

-The family must have occupied the _piano nobile_ and let off the floors

-they did not require.

-

-Descriptions of the life led by the painter and his family are given

-by Vasari, who knew him personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was

-published in 1646, and who must have known his children, several of whom

-were still alive and proud of their father's fame. We hear of pleasant

-evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic love of music,

-Tintoretto himself and his daughter being highly gifted. Among the

-_habitués_ were Zarlino, for twenty-five years chapel-master of St.

-Mark's, one of the fathers of modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who,

-in spite of his love for magnificent entertainments, was often to be

-found in Tintoretto's pleasant home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always

-welcome, and as time went on the house became the haunt of all the

-cultured gentlemen and _litterati_ of Venice.

-

-It is not difficult from the materials available to form a sufficiently

-lively idea of this Venetian citizen of the sixteenth century, as father

-and husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected a number of

-anecdotes, which space forbids me to use, but which are all very

-characteristic. We gather that he was a man of strong character,

-generous, sincere and simple, decided in his ways, caring little for

-the great world, but open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,

-observant of men and manners, and sometimes rather brusque in dealing

-with bores and offensive persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of

-good-natured banter of his wife's little weaknesses. A man, too, of

-upright conduct and free, as far as it can be ascertained, from any of

-those laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of celebrated men and

-so easily condoned by his age. Art was Tintoretto's main preoccupation;

-but he seems to have been a man of strong religious bias, making a close

-study of the Bible, and turning naturally in his last days to those

-truths with which his art had made him familiar, truths which he had

-represented with that touch of mystic feeling which was the deepest part

-of his nature.

-

-His relations with the State commenced in 1574, when his offer to

-present a superb painting of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and

-accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto was rewarded by a Broker's

-patent, and between this and the "Paradiso," the work of his old age, he

-executed a number of pictures for the Signoria. The only record of any

-travels are confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where he went in

-the 'sixties and again in 1579 to see to the hanging of paintings done

-for the Gonzaga, and of which the documents have been kept, though the

-pictures have vanished. Tintoretto's last years were saddened by the

-death of his beloved daughter, who had always been his constant

-companion. He died in 1579 after a fortnight's illness and left a will,

-which, together with that of his son, throws a good deal of light upon

-the family history.

-

-It is not easy to select from the vast quantity of work left by

-Tintoretto. He is one of those painters whose whole life was passed in

-his native city and who can only be adequately studied in that city.

-Perhaps the first place in which to seek him, is the great church which

-was the monument of his early prime. The "Last Judgment" was probably

-inspired by that of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and sketches

-must have reached the younger master, over whom the Florentine had

-exercised so strong a fascination. Tintoretto's version impresses one as

-that of a mind boiling with thoughts and visions which he pours out upon

-the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe, a scene of rushing

-destruction, of forms swept into oblivion, of others struggling to the

-light, of many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and light behind

-the rushing water,--water which makes us almost giddy as we watch it.

-The "Golden Calf" is a maturer production and includes some of the

-loveliest women Tintoretto ever painted. We see too plainly the

-planning, the device of concentrating interest on the idol by turning

-figures and pointing fingers, but nothing can be imagined more supple

-and queenly than the woman in blue, and the way the light falls on her

-head and perfectly foreshortened arm shows to what excellence Tintoretto

-had attained. The "Presentation" is a riper work. The drawing of the

-flight of steps and of the groups upon them could not be bettered. The

-little figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new dispensation, as she

-advances to meet the representative of the old, thrills with mystic

-feeling, yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy simplicity

-of a child. The "St. Agnes," with its contrast of light and shade, of

-strength made perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the

-commission of Cardinal Contarini.

-

-It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto, especially in the

-"Presentation," has contrived, while using the traditional episodes, to

-infuse so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast of age and youth,

-the joy of the Gentiles, the starlike figure of the child surrounded by

-shadows, convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with the nature of the

-scene.

-

-Next let us group together the miracles in the history of St. Mark. One

-of the qualities which strikes us most in the "Miracle of the Slave" is

-its strong local colour. It tells of Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike

-Tintoretto's later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;

-carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet, and turquoise-blue. The

-crimson velvet of the judge's dress is finely relieved against a

-blue-green sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive fire and dash

-which culminates at once and without effort in perfect action, "as a

-bird flies, or a horse gallops." It startled the quiet members of the

-Guild, and at the first moment they hesitated to accept it. The "Rescue

-of the Saracen" and the "Transportation of the Body" are more in the

-golden-brown manner to which he was moving, but it is in the "Finding

-of the Body" (Brera) that he rises to the highest emotional pitch. The

-colossal form of the saint, expanding with life and power as he towers

-in the spirit above his own lifeless clay, draws all eyes to him and

-seems to fill the barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every part of

-the vault is flooded by his life-giving energy, and here Tintoretto

-deals with light and shade with full mastery.

-

-As we follow Tintoretto's career, it is borne in upon us how little

-positive colour it takes to make a great colourist. The whole Venetian

-School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand as bright colour.

-Vivid tints are much more characteristic of the Flemish and the

-Florentine, or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong, crude

-colours are to be seen on all sides in the Salon or the Royal Academy,

-but they are absent from the scheme of sombre splendour which has

-given the Venetians their title to fame. This is especially true of

-Tintoretto, and it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut becomes

-more golden-brown and mellow; the greys and browns and ivories combine

-in a lustrous symphony more impressive than gay tints, flooded with

-enveloping shadow and illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another

-noticeable feature is the way in which he puts on his oil-colour, so

-that it bears the direct impression of the painter's hand. The

-Florentines had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark

-smoothed away; but as the later Venetians covered large spaces with

-oil-colour, they no longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the

-brush, and light, distance, movement, were all conveyed by the turns and

-twists and swirls with which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at

-the power of touch in such a picture as the "Death of Abel"; we see this

-spontaneity of execution actually forming part of the emotion with which

-the picture is charged. The concentrated hate of the one figure, the

-desperate appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape, gain

-their emotion as much from the impetuous brush-work as from the more

-studied design. We come closest to the painter's mind in the Scuola

-di San Rocco. He had already been employed in the church, and there

-remains, darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative of the

-career of S. Roch, patron saint of sufferers from the plague. When the

-great Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560, the confraternity

-asked a conclave of painters, among whom were Veronese and Andrea

-Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition. When they assembled to

-display their designs, Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling

-of the refectory and discovered a finished picture, the "S. Roch in

-Glory," which still holds its place there. Neither the other artists nor

-the brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional proceeding,

-but he "hoped they would not be offended; it was the only way he knew."

-Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of the rest, but partly

-also from the excellence of the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto,

-and after two years' work he was received into the order, and was

-assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (£50) a year for life, being

-bound every year to furnish three pictures.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVI

-

-TINTORETTO (_continued_)

-

-The first portion of the vast building that was finished was the

-Refectory, but in examining the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to

-leave it to its proper place, which is the climax. Before beginning,

-Tintoretto must have had the whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt

-that he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and recalled its plan and

-significance; the old dispensation typifying the new, the Old Testament

-history vivified by the acts of Christ. The main feature of the harmony

-which it is only reasonable to suppose governs the whole building, is

-its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of mercy. The principal

-paintings of the Upper Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine

-mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes bear upon the central

-idea. On the roof are the three most important miracles of mercy

-performed on behalf of the Chosen People. The paintings on roof and

-walls are linked together. The "Fall of Man" at one end of the Hall,

-the disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient eating of the

-Passover at the other, and is interdependent with the Manna in the

-Wilderness, the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves. The Miracles

-of satisfied thirst are represented by "Moses striking the Rock," Samson

-drinking from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah. The Baptism and

-other signs of the Advent of Christ and the Divine preparation, balance

-events in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory which opens from the

-Great Hall, we come to the "Crucifixion," the crowning act of mercy,

-surrounded by the events which immediately succeeded it, and typified

-immediately above in the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen

-Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment and succour, two of

-miraculous restoration to health, and two of deliverance from danger.

-The whole scheme has been worked out in detail in my book on

-"Tintoretto."

-

-In the working out of his great scheme, Tintoretto is impatient of

-hackneyed and traditional forms; he must have a reading of his own, and

-one which appeals to his imagination. We see that passion for movement

-which distinguishes his early work. "Moses striking the Rock" is a

-figure instinct with purpose and energy. The water bounds forth, living,

-life-giving, the people strain wildly to reach it. His figures are

-sometimes found fault with, as extravagant in gesture, but the attitudes

-were intended to be seen and to arrest attention from far below, and we

-must not forget that the painter's models were drawn from a Southern

-race, to whom emphasis of action is natural. Tintoretto, it may be

-conceded, is on certain occasions, generally when dealing with accessory

-figures, inclined to excess of gesture; it is the defect of his

-temperament, but when he has a subject that carries him away he is

-sincere and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared to him; his

-colour, however effective, is calculated, whereas Tintoretto's seems to

-permeate every object and to soak the whole composition. To quote a

-recent critic: "He chose to begin, if possible, with a subject charged

-with emotion. He then proceeded to treat it according to its nature,

-that is to say, he toned down and obscured the outlines of form and

-mapped out the subject instead in pale or sombre masses of light and

-shade. Under the control of this powerful scheme of chiaroscuro, the

-colouring of the composition was placed, but its own character, its

-degree of richness and sobriety, was determined by the kind of emotion

-belonging to the subject. To use colour in this way, not only with

-emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to use it to perform one

-of the greatest functions of art."[5]

-

- [5] "Venice and the Renaissance," _Edinburgh Review_, 1909.

-

-So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the aspect of the groups, the

-pathos of the faces or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and

-gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the atmosphere into which we

-are absorbed, the sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding light

-and shadow, that makes us feel how different the rendering is from any

-other. In the "Christ before Pilate" the head and figure of Christ are

-not particularly impressive in themselves, but the brilliant light

-falling on the white robes and coursing down the steps supplies dignity

-and poetry; the slender white figure stands out like a shaft of light

-against the lurid and troubled background. Again, in the "Way to

-Golgotha" the falling evening gleam, the wild sky, the deep shadow of

-the ravine, throw into relief the quiet form, detached in look and

-feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far above the brutal throng.

-Nowhere does that spiritual emotion find deeper expression than in the

-"Visitation." The passion of thanksgiving, the poignancy of mother-love,

-throb through the two women, who have been travelling towards one

-another, with a great secret between them, and who at length reach the

-haven of each other's love and knowledge. Here, too, the dying light,

-the waving tree, the obliteration of form, and the feeling of mystery

-make a deep appeal to the sensuous apprehension. We find it again and

-again; the great trees sway and whisper in the gathering darkness as the

-Virgin rides through the falling evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and

-in that most moving of all Tintoretto's creations, the "S. Mary of

-Egypt," the emotional mood of Nature's self is brought home to us. The

-trees that dominate the landscape are painted with a few "strokes like

-sabre cuts"; the landscape, given with apparent carelessness, yet

-conveying an indescribable sense of space and solemnity, unfolds itself

-under the dying day; and in solitary meditation, thrilling with ecstasy,

-sits that little figure, whose heart has travelled far away to commune

-with the Spirit, "whose dwelling is the light of setting suns."

-

-It is not possible in a short space to touch, even in passing, on all

-the many scenes in these halls: the "Annunciation," with its marvellous

-flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of pigeons in the Piazza,

-and how often the old painter must have watched them; the "Temptation,"

-contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh that _must_ be fed, with the

-calm of absolute purity; the "Massacre of the Innocents," for which the

-horrors of sacked towns could have supplied many a parallel,--we have

-not time to dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist has

-overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the dark halls, by choosing

-strong and varied effects of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we

-can picture what the halls must have been like when they first glowed

-from his hand, adorned with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung with

-opulent draperies, with the rose-red and purple of bishops' and

-cardinals' robes reflected in the gleaming pavement.

-

- [Illustration: _Tintoretto._     _Scuola di San Rocco._

-                 S. MARY OF EGYPT.

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto, by many renderings, have

-made the "Last Supper" peculiarly their own in the domain of art. It

-shows how strongly the mystic strain entered into the man's character,

-that often as Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its interest

-for him, and he never failed to find a fresh point of view. In that

-in S. Polo, Christ offers the sacred food with a gesture of vehement

-generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to all comers to the

-Mass, to afford them a welcome as they pass to the High Altar, it tells

-of the Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto himself, painted

-in the character of S. Paul, stands at one side, absorbed in meditation.

-We need not insist again on the emotional value of the deep colours, the

-rich creams and crimsons and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering,

-in S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point in symbolical

-treatment. Some people are only able to see a theatrical, artificial

-spirit in this picture, but at least, when we consider what deep

-meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on his subjects, we may believe that

-he himself was sincere and that he let himself go over what commended

-itself as an entirely new rendering. "The Light shined in the Darkness,

-and the Darkness comprehended it not." The supernatural is entering on

-every side, but the feast goes on; the serving men and maids busy

-themselves with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring, but not

-agitated; none see that throng of heavenly visitants, pouring in through

-the blue moonlight, called to their Master's side by the supreme

-significance of His words. The painter has taken full advantage of the

-opportunity of combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring out

-smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight and the unearthly radiance,

-in divers, yet mingling streams which fight against the surrounding

-gloom. In the scene in the Scuola di S. Rocco the betrayal is the

-dominating incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the Saviour

-is alone with the faithful disciples.

-

- [Illustration: _Tintoretto._

-                 BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

-                _Ducal Palace, Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Though several of the large compositions ascribed to Tintoretto in

-the Ducal Palace are only partly by him, or entirely by followers and

-imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his genius. There is much

-that is fine about the great state pieces. In the "Marriage of St.

-Catherine," the saint, in silken gown and long transparent veil, is an

-exquisite figure. Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden light

-and air, and yet we feel that these huge official subjects, with the

-prosaic old Doges introduced in incongruous company, neither stimulated

-his imagination nor satisfied his taste. It is on the smaller canvases

-that he finds inspiration. He never painted anything more lovely, more

-perfect in design, or more gay and tender in idea, than the cycle in

-the Ante-Collegio. The glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows upon

-ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and a refined, unselfconscious

-joy such as is felt in hardly any other work, except the painter's own

-"Milky Way" in the National Gallery. In all these four pictures the

-feeling for design, a branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,

-is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne all the principal lines,

-the eyes and gestures, converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol

-of union between the goddess and her lover, between the queenly city and

-the Adriatic sea. Or take "Pallas driving away Mars": see how the mass

-into which the figures are gathered on the left adds strength to the

-thrust of the goddess's arm, and what steadiness is given by that short

-straight lance of hers, coming in among all the yielding curves. The

-whole four are linked together in meaning: the call to Venice to reign

-over the seas, her triumphant peace, with Wisdom guiding her council,

-and her warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction with these

-pictures are two small ones in the chapel, hardly less beautiful--St.

-George with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome. It is difficult to

-say whether the exultant St. George, the dignified young bishop, or the

-two older saints are the more sympathetic creations, or the more

-admirable, both in drawing and colour. The sense of space in both

-settings is an added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy

-boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the composition.

-

-There are many other striking examples, ranging all through Tintoretto's

-life, of his untiring imagination. In the Salute is that "Marriage of

-Cana," in which all the actors seem to swim in golden light. The sharp

-silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine with which the hall

-is flooded, and all the architectural lines lead our eyes towards the

-central figure, placed at a distance. On that long canvas in the

-Academy, kneel the three treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending

-in homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit enthroned upon a broad

-piazza, through the marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape

-shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet and ermine kneel before the

-Child, or hold counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of S.

-Giustina. The "Crucifixion" (in S. Cassiano) is another triumph of the

-painter's imaginative conception. The bold lines of the crosses, the

-ladder, and the figures detach against a glorious sky, and the presence

-of the moving, murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of the line of

-sight, the spectator is made to form a part, is conveyed by the swaying

-and crossing of the lances borne by the armed men who keep the ground.

-There is a series, too, which deals with the Magdalen. She mourns her

-dead in that solemn, restrained "Entombment," where the enfolding

-shadows frame the cross against the sad dawn, which adorns the mortuary

-chapel of S. Giorgio Maggiore; and the Pietà in the Brera, the long

-lines of which add to the impression of tender repose, has its peace

-broken by the passionate cry of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto's

-ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same scene in a dozen different

-ways, and, in fact, the book of sketches lately acquired by the British

-Museum shows as many as thirty trials dashed off for one subject, and

-after all he uses one composed for something quite different. It is this

-habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh from his brain, that has led

-to the common but superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely a

-great improvisatore, whose successes came more or less by good luck. He

-could, indeed, paint pictures at a pace at which many great masters

-could only sketch, but he had already designed and considered and

-rejected, doing with oil, ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries

-did mentally. Such achievements as the Ante-Collegio cycle, the "House

-of Martha and Mary," the "Marriage of Cana," the "Temptation of S.

-Anthony," to name only a few, show a finish and perfection and a balance

-of design which preclude the idea of their being lightly painted

-pictures. When he was actually engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with

-impetuous ardour, but we may feel assured he left nothing to chance,

-though he had his own way of making sure of the result.

-

-It is strange to hear people, as one does now and then, talking of the

-"Paradiso" as "a splendid failure." It may be granted that the subject

-is an impossible one for human art to realise, yet when all allowance

-has been made for a lamentable amount of drying and blackening, it is

-difficult to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his admiration of that

-thronging multitude, ordered and disciplined by the tides of light and

-shadow, which roll in and out of the masses, resolving them into groups

-and single figures of almost matchless beauty and melting away into a

-sea of radiant æther, which tells us of the boundless space which

-surrounds the serried ranks of the Blessed.

-

-Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was allotted to him, and it was the

-last great effort of his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved

-both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is evident that the painter

-has framed it upon the thought of Dante's mystic rose. The circles and

-many of the figures can be traced in the poem, and the idea of the

-Eternal Light streaming through the leaves of the rose dominates the

-composition. It is appropriate that it should have been his last great

-work, as it was also the greatest attempt at composition ever made by a

-master of the Venetian School.

-

-There is no room here to study Tintoretto as a painter of battlepieces,

-though from the time he painted the "Battle of Lepanto," for the Council

-of Ten, he often returned to such subjects. His two series for the

-Gonzaga included several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses examples.

-The impetuosity of his style stood him in good stead, and he never fails

-to bring in graceful and striking figures.

-

-His portraits are hardly equal to Titian's intellectual grasp or

-fine-grained colour, but they are extraordinarily characteristic. He

-prefers to paint men rather than women, and he painted hundreds--all the

-great persons of his time who lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian

-portrait by this time was expected to be more than a likeness and more

-than a problem. It was to please the taste as a picture, to interest and

-to satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets behind the scenes,

-and we see some mood, some aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected

-to show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto's, but he deals with his

-sitters with an observation which pierces below the surface.

-

-In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often unable to discriminate between

-the turgid and melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental. The

-first all must abhor, but the last is sincere and deserves to be

-respected. It is by his best that we must judge a man, and taking his

-best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one has left a larger amount

-which will stand the test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and

-elevated central ideas, which unify all parts of his composition,

-Tintoretto stands with the greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual

-side of life was exemplified in Florentine art, but the Renaissance

-would have been a one-sided development if there had not arisen a body

-of men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous apprehension seemed of

-supreme value, and at the very last there arose with him one who, to

-their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of their chosen medium,

-added the crowning glory of the imaginative idea.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Augsburg. Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.

- Berlin.   Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator

-             before S. Mark.

- Dresden.  Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.

- Florence. Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.

-           Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old

-             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.

- Hampton Court. Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of

-             Dominican; Knight of Malta.

- London.   S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;

-             Origin of Milky Way.

-           Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.

- Madrid.   Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;

-             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before

-             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.

- Milan.    Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S.

-             Mark (E.).

- Paris.    Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of

-             Himself.

- Rome.     Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.

-           Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet;

-             Portraits.

- Turin.    The Trinity.

- Venice.   Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints

-             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;

-             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea

-             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam

-             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna

-             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in

-             Temple.

-           Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;

-             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;

-             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.

-           Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan's Forge;

-             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.

-           Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;

-             SS. Andrew and Jerome.

-           Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.

-           Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,

-             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:

-             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.

-           Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.

-           Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.

-           Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark

-             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.

-           Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.

-           S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.

-           S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;

-             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).

-           S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.

-           S. Maria dell' Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);

-             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.

-           S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.

-           S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the

-             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d' Armata;

-             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.

-           Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.

-             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls

-             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before

-             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.

-           Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.

-           S. Silvestro: Baptism.

-           S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.

-           S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.

- Vienna.   Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of

-             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and

-             Boy; Portrait of Lady.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVII

-

-BASSANO

-

-

-We wonder how many of those sightseers who pass through the

-Ante-Collegio in the Ducal Palace, and stare for a few moments at

-Tintoretto's famous quartet and at Veronese's "Rape of Europa," turn to

-give even such fleeting attention to the long, dark canvas which hangs

-beside them, "Jacob's Journey into Canaan," by Jacopo da Ponte, called

-Bassano.

-

-Yet from the position in which it is placed the visitor might guess that

-it is considered to be a gem, and it gains something in interest when we

-learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo Contarini at the same

-time as the "Rape of Europa," as if the great connoisseur enjoyed

-contrasting Veronese's light, gay style with the vigorous brush of

-da Ponte.

-

-If attention is arrested by the beauty of the painting, and the visitor

-should be inspired to seek the painter in his native city, he will be

-well repaid. Bassano once held an important position on the main road

-between Italy and Germany, but since the railroad was made across the

-Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little town which lies cradled on

-the spurs of the Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana opens. It is

-surrounded by chestnut woods, which sweep up to the blue mountains, the

-wide Brenta flows through the town, and the houses cluster high on

-either side, and have gardens and balconies overhanging the water. The

-façades of many of the houses are covered with fading frescoes, relics

-of da Ponte's school of fresco-painters, which, though they are fast

-perishing, still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.

-

-Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his father, Francesco, who

-in his day had been a pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.

-Francesco da Ponte's best work is to be found at Bassano, in the

-cathedral and the church of San Giovanni, and has many of the

-characteristics, such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola, which

-we have noticed that Montagna owed to the Vivarini. Francesco's son

-went when very young to Venice, and was there thrown at once among the

-artists of the lagoons, and attached himself in particular to Bonifazio.

-In Jacopo's earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a "Flight into

-Egypt," Bonifazio's tuition is markedly discernible in the build of the

-figures and, above all, in the form of the heads. A comparison of the

-very peculiarly shaped head of the Virgin in this picture with that of

-the Venetian lady in Bonifazio's "Rich Man's Feast," in the Venetian

-Academy, leaves us in no doubt on this score. Jacopo's "Adulteress

-before Christ" and the "Three in the Fiery Furnace" have Bonifazio's

-manner in the architecture and the staging of the figures. Only five

-examples are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it is all in

-Bonifazio's lighter style, not unlike his "Holy Family" in the National

-Gallery.

-

-The house in which the painter lived when he returned to his native

-town, still stands in the little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole

-façade retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with which he

-decorated it. The design is in four horizontal bands. First comes a

-frieze of children in every attitude of fun and frolic. Then follows a

-long range of animals--horses, oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and

-flowers make a border, with allegorical representations of the arts and

-crafts filling the spaces between the windows. The principal band is

-decorated with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now hardly

-discernible, but which represent "Samson slaying the Philistines,"

-"The Drunkenness of Noah," "Cain and Abel," "Lot and his Daughters,"

-and "Judith with the Head of Holofernes." Between the two last there

-formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child, with the motto, "Mors omnia

-aequat," which was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively good

-preservation.

-

-Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano, where, with the help of

-his four sons, who were all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible

-stream of works, which, it is said, were put up to auction at the

-neighbouring fairs, if no other market was forthcoming. From time to

-time he and his sons went down to Venice, and with the help of the

-eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he is generally known) painted the "Siege

-of Padua" and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His mature style was

-founded mainly upon that of Titian, and it is to this second manner that

-he owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours, and enhances his lights

-by deepening and consolidating his shadows, so that they come into

-strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer impasto. He has a

-marvellous faculty for keeping his colour pure, and his greens shine

-like a beetle's wing. A nature-lover in the highest degree, his painting

-of animals and plants evinces a mind which is steeped in the magic of

-outdoor life. A subject of which he was particularly fond, and which he

-seems to have undertaken for half the collectors of Europe, was the

-"Four Seasons." Here was found united everything that Bassano most loved

-to paint: beasts of the farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with

-their implements, scenes of harvest-time and vintage, rough peasants

-leading the plough, cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young girls

-making hay, driving home the cattle, taking dinner to the reapers. When

-he was obliged to paint for churches he chose such subjects as the

-Adoration of the Shepherds, the Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from

-the Temple, into which he could introduce animals, painting them with

-such vigour and such forcible colour that Titian himself is said to

-have had a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint his daughters

-engaged in household tasks, and perhaps placed his figures with rather

-too obvious a reference to light and shade, and to the sun striking

-full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of

-Veronese and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records that when he was

-one day discussing contemporary painters with the latter, Tintoretto

-exclaimed, "Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing and I had your colour I

-would defy the devil himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to

-make any show beside us."

-

-Bassano was invited to take up his residence at the Court of the Emperor

-Rudolph, but he refused to leave his mountain city, where he died in

-1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd of the poorest inhabitants,

-for whom his charity had been boundless.

-

-The "Journey of Jacob," to which we have already alluded, is among his

-most beautiful works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated to

-the charm of the landscape. The evening dusk draws all objects into its

-embrace. The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out against a gleam

-of sunset sky. The tree-trunks and light play of leafy branches, which

-break up the composition, are from da Ponte's own country round Bassano.

-The pony upon which the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among the quiet

-sheep, are given with all the loving truth of the born animal-painter.

-It is no wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him, and has more than

-once imitated his whole design.

-

-The "Baptism of St. Lucilla" (in the Museum at Bassano) is one of his

-most Titianesque creations. The personages in it are grouped upon a

-flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance palace with cypresses

-against a sky of evening-red barred with purple clouds. The drawing

-and modelling of the figures are almost faultless, and the colour is

-dazzling. The bending figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling on

-her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before the young bishop, St.

-Valentine, is one of the most graceful things in art, and Titian himself

-need not have disowned the little angels, bearing palm branches and

-frolicking in the stream of radiance overhead.

-

-Bassano has a "Concert," which is interesting as a family piece. It was

-painted in the year in which his son Leandro's marriage took place, and

-is probably a bridal painting to celebrate the event. The "Magistrates

-in Adoration" (Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light, and

-its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto's numerous pictures of

-kneeling doges and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.

-

- [Illustration: _Jacopo da Ponte._

-                 BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.

-                _Bassano._

-                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]

-

-Madonnas and saints are usually built into close-packed pyramids, but

-in the "Repose in Egypt," now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his arrangement

-comes very close to Palma and Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child,

-the attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting, head on hand, at the

-Virgin's feet and gazing in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of

-the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite landscape behind them, and

-the vigorously drawn tree under which they recline, show Bassano true to

-his passion for nature.

-

-Hampton Court is rich in his pictures. "The Adoration of the Shepherds,"

-in which the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an exercise in

-the manner of Titian's Frari altarpiece. His portraits are fine and

-sympathetic, but hardly any of them are signed or can be dated. His

-own is in the Uffizi, and there is a splendid "Old Man" at Buda-Pesth.

-Ariosto and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other distinguished

-men were among his sitters; most of them are in half-length with

-three-quarter heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly

-attractive one of a young man with a sensitive, acute countenance,

-robed in dignified, picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered linen

-collar. He stands by the sort of square window, opening on a distant

-landscape, of which Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front of

-which a golden vase, holding a branch of olive, catches the rays of

-light.

-

-Bassano has no great power of design, and his knowledge of the nude

-seems to have been small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour

-leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates other shortcomings.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Augsburg. Madonna and Saints.

- Bassano.  Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three

-             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight

-             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration

-             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending

-             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;

-             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).

-           Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.);

-             Nativity.

-           S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.

- Bergamo.  Carrara: Portrait.

-           Lochis: Portraits.

- Cittadella. Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.

- Dresden.  Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of

-             S. Paul.

- Hampton Court. Portraits; Jacob's Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);

-             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men

-             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.

- London.   Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.

- Milan.    Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to

-             Shepherds (L.).

- Munich.   Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.

- Padua.    S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.

- Paris.    Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.

- Venice.   Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino

-             blessing the Faithful.

-           Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob's Journey.

-           S. Giacomo dell' Orio: Madonna and Saints.

- Vicenza.  Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.

- Vienna.   The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;

-             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised

-             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the

-             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;

-             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.

-           Academy: Deposition; Portrait.

-

-

-

-

-PART III

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVIII

-

-THE INTERIM

-

-

-Many of the churches and palaces of Venice and the adjoining mainland,

-and almost every public and private gallery throughout Europe, contain

-pictures purporting to be painted by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and

-others of that famous company. Hardly a great English house but boasts

-of a round dozen at least of such specimens, acquired in the days when

-rich Englishmen made the "grand tour" and substantiated a reputation for

-taste and culture by collecting works of art. These pictures resemble

-the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted way. Their owners

-themselves are not very tenacious as to their authenticity, and the

-visit of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition tears their

-pretensions to tatters. In the Academia itself the Bonifazio and

-Tintoretto rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal Palace has

-ceilings and panels on which are reproduced the kind of compositions

-initiated by the great artists, which make an effort to capture their

-gamut of colour and to master their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them,

-in short, in everything except in their inimitable touch and fire and

-spirit. It would have been impossible for any men, however industrious

-and prolific, to have carried out all the work which passes under their

-names, to say nothing of that which has perished; but our surprise and

-curiosity diminish when we come to inquire systematically into the

-methods of that host of copyists which, even before the masters' death,

-had begun to ply its lucrative trade.

-

-We must bear in mind that every great man was surrounded by busy and

-attentive satellites, helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting

-a large part of important commissions, witnesses of the high prices

-received, and alive to all the gossip as to the relative popularity of

-the painters and the requests and orders which reached them from all

-quarters. The painters' own sons were in many instances those who first

-traded upon their fathers' fame. From Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we

-learn of the many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and the vast

-numbers painted by Domenico Robusti in the style of their respective

-fathers. Domenico seems to have particularly affected the subject of

-"St. George and the Dragon," and the picture at Dresden, which passes

-under Tintoretto's name, is perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano's four sons,

-Francesco "imitated his father perfectly," conserving his warmth of

-tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti enumerates a surprising number of

-Francesco's works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal Palace.

-Leandro followed more particularly his father's first manner, was a good

-portrait-painter, and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo copied and

-recopied the old Bassano till he even deceived connoisseurs, "how much

-more," says Zanetti, writing in 1771, "those of the present day, who

-behold them harmonised and accredited by time." No school in Venice was

-so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts of the imitators, as

-that of Paolo Veronese. Even at an early date it was impossible not to

-confound the master with the disciples; the weaker of the originals were

-held to be of imitators, the best imitations were assigned to the master

-himself. "Oh how easy it is," exclaims Zanetti again, "to make mistakes

-about Veronese's pictures, but I can point out sundry infallible

-characteristics to those who wish for light upon this doubtful path; the

-fineness and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime intelligence and

-grace, shown particularly in the form of the heads, which is never found

-in any of his imitators."

-

-Few Venetians, however, followed the style of only one man; the output

-was probably determined and varied by the demand. Too many attractive

-manners existed to dazzle them, and when once they began to imitate,

-they were tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered that every

-master left behind him stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and

-half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized upon, bought or

-stolen, and utilised to produce masterpieces masquerading under his

-name.

-

-As the seventeenth century advanced the character of art and manners

-underwent a change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel and bizarre,

-and the complex was preferred to the simple. Venetian art, in all its

-branches, had passed from the stately and restrained to the pompous and

-artificial. Yet the barocco style was used by Venice in a way of its

-own; whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament as it is, it yet

-compels admiration by its vigorous life and movement. The art of the

-sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was alive. It escaped the

-most deadly of all faults, a cold and academic mannerism--and this at a

-time when the rest of Italy was given over to the inflated followers of

-Michelangelo and the calculated elaborations of the eclectics.

-

-Many of the things we most love in Venice, such as the Salute, the

-Clock-Tower, the Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico and

-Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth century. The barocco

-intemperance in sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini; and

-as the immediate influence of the great masters declined, painting

-acquired the same sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity of

-Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from the lightning speed of

-his imagination and the unerring sureness of his brush, became a

-mechanical trick in the hands of superficial students. True art had

-migrated elsewhere--to the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt. As

-art grew more pompous it became less emotional. Painters like Palma

-Giovine spoilt their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry. The

-nickname of "Fa Presto" was deserved by others besides Luca Giordano,

-and Venice was overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime standard of

-excellence was the ability to make haste. Grandeur of conception was

-forgotten; a grave, ample manner was no longer understood; superficial

-sentiment and bombastic size carried the day. Yet a few painters, though

-their forms had become redundant and exaggerated, retained something of

-what had been the Venetian glory--the deep and moist colour of old. It

-still glowed with traces of its old lustre on the canvases of Giovanni

-Contarini, or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and though there was a

-perfect fury of production, without order and without law, there can

-still be perceived the survival of that sense of the decorative which

-kept the thread of art. We discover it in the ceiling of the Church of

-San Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints the glorification of

-the martyred patron, and which, fantastic and extravagant as it is,

-with its stupendous, architectural setting, and its acutely, almost

-absurdly foreshortened throng, is not without a certain grandiose

-geniality, ample and picturesque, like the buildings of that date. In

-Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino), whose "Nozze di Cana" in the

-Academia is a finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is made of

-cypresses, we seem to recognise the last ray of the Titianesque. The

-painting of the seventeenth century passed on towards the eighteenth,

-and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and Venuses smile at

-us, attitudinising and contorted upon their cloudy backgrounds.

-Lackadaisical Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the Angel of the

-Annunciation capers above the head of an affected Virgin, while violent

-colours, intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto betray

-the neighbourhood of the _tenebrosi_. When, towards the end of the

-seventeenth century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake off these

-influences, he went to the opposite extreme. Although a beautiful

-designer, he becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness and

-insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise, appearing in a country

-where the taste for luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly rooted.

-The student of Venetian painting, who wishes to fill up the hiatus which

-lies between the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth century,

-cannot do better than compare Fumiani's vault in San Pantaleone with

-Lazzarini's sober and earnest fresco, "The Charity of San Lorenzo

-Giustiniani," in San Pietro in Castello, and with Pietro Liberi's

-"Battle of the Dardanelles" in the Ducal Palace. In all three we have

-examples of the varied and accomplished yet soulless art of this period.

-Not many of the scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the

-seventeenth century have survived. They are to be found here and

-there by the curious who wander into old churches and palaces with a

-second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands; but in the reaction from

-the florid which took place in the Empire period, many of them gave

-place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal Palace, side by side with

-the masterpieces of the Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded

-canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini, Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and

-others like them. Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in St.

-Mark's are from designs by Palma Giovine and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who

-was a painter himself, as well as the painter's chronicler, has an

-"Adoration of the Magi" in S. Giovanni Elemosinario, poor enough in

-invention and execution. Two pictures by obscure artists disfigure a

-corner of the Scuola di San Rocco. The Museo Civico has a large canvas

-by Vicentino, a "Coronation of a Dogaressa," which once adorned Palazzo

-Grimani. We hear of a school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the

-master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi, and the names of others

-have come down to us in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards the

-end of the seventeenth century more light and novelty sparkles in the

-painting of the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us that he was no

-mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth century opens, we become aware of

-the strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta. Piazetta studied

-the works of the Carracci for some time in Bologna, and especially those

-of Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts of light and shade,

-has served above all as his model. He paints very darkly, and his

-figures often blend with and disappear into the profound tones of his

-backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls him "a Venetian Caravaggio"; and he has

-something of the strength and even the brutality of the Bolognese. A

-fine decorative and imaginative example of his work is the "Madonna

-appearing to S. Philip Neri" in the Church of S. Fava. The erect form of

-the Madonna is relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the mantle,

-upheld by _putti_. Radiant clouds light up the background and illumine

-the form of the old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at

-the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is a bold realist, and

-many of his small pictures are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,

-Battista's son, is described as "a fine intelligence," and attracts

-our notice as having forged special links with England. Hampton Court

-possesses a long array of his paintings. In the chapel of Chelsea

-Hospital the plaster semi-dome is painted by him, in oils, with very

-good effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill's studio, and his

-influence may be suspected in the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches

-in Hogarth's work.

-

-By the eighteenth century Venice had parted with her old nobility of

-soul, and enjoyment had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice, among

-the States of Italy, alone retained her freedom. The Doge reigned

-supreme as in the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the dreaded

-Three still sat in secret council. Venice was still the city of subtle

-poisons and dangerous mysteries, but the days were gone when she

-had held the balance in European affairs, and she had become, in a

-superlative degree, the city of pleasure. Nowhere was life more

-varied and entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.

-

-A long period of peace had rocked the Venetian people into calm

-security. There was, indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corfù,

-Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was retained in the

-struggles of Europe. The whole policy of the city's life was one of

-self-indulgence. Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole population

-lived "in piazza," laughing, gossiping, seeing and being seen. The

-very churches had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues; the

-convents boasted their _salons_, where nuns in low dresses, with pearls

-in their hair, received the advances of nobles and gallant abbés.

-People came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the last scandal,

-sensational stories, were the only subjects worth discussing. In an age

-of parodies and practical jokes, the more absurd any one could be, the

-more silly or witty stories he could tell, the more assured was his

-success in the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and laughter. The

-Carnival lasted for six months of the year, and was the occasion for

-masques and licence of every description. In the hot weather, the gay

-descendants of the Contarini, the Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand

-old houses, migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day and night

-the same reckless, irresponsible life went gaily on. The power of such

-courtesans as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was waning. Their

-place was adequately supplied by the easy dames of society, no longer

-secluded, proud and tranquil, but "stirred by the wild blood of youth

-and stooping to the frolic." "They are but faces and smiles, teasing

-and trumpery," says one of their critics, yet they are declared to be

-wideawake, natural and charming, making the most of their smattering of

-letters. Love was the great game; every woman had lovers, every married

-woman openly flaunted her _cicisbeo_ or _cavaliere servente_.

-

-The older portion of the middle class was still moderate and temperate,

-contented to live in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in

-politics, with which it was dangerous for the ordinary individual to

-meddle; but the new leaven was creeping through every level of society.

-The sons and daughters of the _bourgeoisie_ tried to rise in the social

-scale by aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They deserted the

-shop and the counting-house to play cards and strut upon the piazza.

-They mimicked the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and made

-fashionable love and carried on intrigues. The spirit of the whole

-people had lost its elevation; there were no more proud patricians, full

-of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public service; it was hardly

-possible to get a sufficient number of persons to carry on public

-business. It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet among all this

-degenerate life, we come upon something more real as we turn to the

-artists. They were very much alive. In music, in literature, and in

-painting, new and graceful forms of art were emerging. Painting was not

-the grand art of other days; it might be small and trivial, but there

-grew up a real little Renaissance of the eighteenth century, full of

-originality and fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous and banale

-style of the imitators.

-

-The influence of the "lady" was becoming increasingly felt by society.

-Confidential little boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the mode,

-and needed decorating as well as vast salas. The dainty luxury of gilt

-furniture, designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered in delicate

-silks, was matched by small, attractive works of art. Venice had lost

-her Eastern trade, and as the East faded out of her scheme of life, the

-West, to which she now turned, was bringing her a different form of

-art. The great reception rooms were still suited by the grandiose

-compositions of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but another genre of

-charming creations smiled from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate

-suites of rooms.

-

-It is impossible to name more than a fraction of these artists of the

-eighteenth century. There is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;

-Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the day; Luca Carlevaris,

-the forerunner of Canale; Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country

-are mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the most important are

-preserved in the cupola and spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle

-Howard. Their work is still to be found in many a Venetian church or

-North Italian gallery. Some of it is almost fine, though too often

-vitiated by the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day. When

-originality asserts itself more decidedly, Rosalba Carriera stands out

-as an artist who acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she was a

-young woman of twenty-four, she was already a great favourite with the

-public. She began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was bad, Jean

-Stève, a Frenchman, taught her to paint miniatures. She imparted a

-wonderfully delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to pastel, she

-brought to this branch of portraiture a brilliancy and freshness which

-it had not known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved for us better

-than any one else, those women of Venice who floated so lightly on the

-dancing waves of that sparkling stream. There they are: La Cornaro; La

-Maria Labia, who was surrounded by French lovers, "very courteous and

-very beautiful"; La Zenobio and La Pisani; La Foscari, with her black

-plumes; La Mocenigo, "the lady with the pearls." She has pinned them all

-to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted butterflies, with velvet

-neck-ribbons round their snowy throats and coquettish patches on their

-delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in their high-dressed hair and

-sheeny bodices. They look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting

-mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet, ephemeral, irresponsible in

-every relation of life. Older men and women there are, too, when those

-artificial years have produced a succession of rather dull, sodden

-personages, kindly, inoffensive, but stupid, and still trifling heavily

-with the world.

-

-Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare with those of her sitters.

-She and the other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy life of

-the worker, and found in their art the antidote to the evil living and

-the dissipation of the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.

-Rosalba's _milieu_ is a type of others of its class. She lives with her

-mother and sisters, an honest, cheerful, industrious existence. They are

-fond of old friends and old books, and indulge in music and simple

-pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba by preparing the groundwork of

-her paintings. She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on the

-harpsichord. She receives great men without much ceremony, and the

-Elector Palatine, the Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of Norway,

-and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come to her to order miniatures of

-their reigning beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she has plenty

-of commissions, and the frequently occurring names of English patrons in

-her fragmentary diaries, tell how much her work was admired by English

-travellers. She did more than anybody else to promote the fashion for

-pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its best in the pastel

-room of the Dresden Gallery.

-

-Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us a charming description of a

-party of English travellers, which included Horace Walpole, arriving in

-Venice in 1741, strolling about in mask and _bauta_, and visiting the

-famous pastellist in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba has

-painted Walpole, and has left one of the most interesting examples of

-her art.

-

-

-SOME EXAMPLES

-

- _Francesco da Ponte._

-

- Venice.   Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on

-             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left

-             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the

-             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to

-             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the

-             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;

-             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are

-             all very rich in colour.

-           Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.

-           Sala dell' Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.

-

-

- _Leandro da Ponte._

-

- Venice.   Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a

-             Blessed Candle to the Doge.

-           Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge

-             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one

-             side of the sala.

-           Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the

-             Avogadori Family.

-

-

- _Palma Giovine._

-

- Dresden.  Presentation of the Virgin.

- Florence. Uffizi: S. Margaret.

- Munich.   Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.

- Venice.   Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.

-           Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.

- Vienna.   Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pietà;

-             Immaculate Conception.

-

-

- _Il Padovanino._

-

- Florence. Uffizi: Lucretia.

- London.   Cornelia and her Children.

- Paris.    Venus and Cupid.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.

- Venice.   Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,

-             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.

- Verona.   Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.

- Vienna.   Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.

-

-

- _Pietro Liberi._

-

- Venice.   Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.

-

-

- _Andrea Vicentino._

-

- Venice.   Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.

-

-

- _G. A. Fumiani._

-

- Venice.   San Pantaleone: Ceiling.

-           Church of the Carità: Christ disputing with the Doctors.

-

-

- _A. Balestra._

-

- Verona.   S. Tomaso: Annunciation.

-

-

- _G. Lazzarini._

-

- Venice.   S. Pietro in Castello.

-           The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.

-

-

- _Sebastiano Ricci._

-

- Venice.   S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.

-           Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.

- London.   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.

-

-

- _G. B. Pittoni._

-

- Vicenza.  The Bath of Diana.

-

-

- _G. B. Piazetta._

-

- Venice.   Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.

-           Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.

-

-

- _Rosalba Carriera._

-

- Venice.   Academy: pastels.

- Dresden.  Pastels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIX

-

-TIEPOLO

-

-

-We have already noted that to establish the significance of any period

-in art, it is necessary that the tendencies should unite and combine in

-some culminating spirits who rise triumphant over their contemporaries

-and soar above the age in which they live. Such a genius stands out

-above the eighteenth century crowd, and is not only of his century, but

-of every time. For two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised as

-extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting cupids, nymphs, and

-parroquets. In the last century he experienced the effect of the

-profound discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century art had

-fallen. In France, David had obliterated Watteau; and the reputation

-of Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced Tiepolo and his

-contemporaries. When the delegates of the French Republic inspected

-Italian churches and palaces, and decided what works of art should be

-sent to the Louvre, they singled out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and

-Guidos, the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other such forgotten

-masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret

-of their descendants, they disdained to annex a single one of the great

-paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista Tiepolo.

-

-Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as "an artist of fantastic

-imagination." Most of the nineteenth-century critics do not even mention

-him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging line of praise, Blanc is

-equally disparaging, and for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his

-influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime; only now is he coming

-into his own, and it is recognised that the _plein-air_ artist, the

-luminarist, the impressionist, owe no small share of their knowledge to

-his inspiration.

-

-The name of Tiepolo brings before us a whole string of illustrious

-personages--doges and senators, magnificent procurators and great

-captains--but we have nothing to prove that the artist belonged to a

-decayed branch of the famous patrician house. Born in Castello, the

-people's quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth with that good

-draughtsman, Lazzarini. At twenty-three he married the sister of

-Francesco Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi and Canale and who is

-a better painter than either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.

-The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at its height. The life of

-the aristocracy on the lagoons was every year growing more gay, more

-abandoned to capricious inclination, to light loves and absurd

-amusements. And the art which reflected this life was called upon to

-give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather than character. Yet if

-the Venetian art had lost all connection with the grave magnificence of

-the past, it had kept aloof from the academic coldness which was in

-fashion beyond the lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a

-certain natural absurdity. The age had become romantic; the Arcadian

-convention was in full force, Nature herself was pressed into the

-service of idle, sentimental men and women. The country was pictured as

-a place of delight, where the sun always shone and the peasants passed

-their time singing madrigals and indulging in rural pleasures. The

-public, however, had begun to look for beauty; the traditions which had

-formed round the decorative schools were giving way to the appreciation

-of original work. Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when he is

-sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the taste of the Venetians, and

-without emancipating himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives

-to introduce a fresh accent. All round him was a weak and self-indulgent

-world, but within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant and

-inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng of personages on the ceilings

-of the churches and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations range

-from mythology to religion, from the sublime to the grotesque. All

-Olympia appears upon his ample and luminous spaces. It is not to the

-cold, austere Lazzarini, or to the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or

-the imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he was touched by each

-of them, that we must turn for Tiepolo's derivation. Long before his

-time, the kind of decoration of ceilings which we are apt to call

-Tiepolesque; the foreshortened architecture, the columns and cornices,

-the figures peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds, had been

-used by an increasing throng of painters. The style arose, indeed, in

-the quattrocento; Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo had used

-it, though in a far more sober way than later generations. Correggio

-and the Venetians had perfected the idea, which the artists of the

-seventeenth century seized upon and carried to the most intemperate

-excess. But Tiepolo rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,

-exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this time defied all laws of

-equilibrium, and we must go back further than his immediate predecessors

-for his origins. His claim to stand with Tintoretto or Veronese may be

-contested, but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese is the

-artist he studied with the greatest fervour. Without copying, he seems

-to have a natural affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates the

-ample arrangement of his groups, the grace of his architecture, and his

-decorative feeling for colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo's dearest

-friends, writes: "No painter of our time could so well recall the bright

-and happy creations of Veronese." The difference between them is more

-one of period than of temperament. Paolo Veronese represented the

-opulence of a rich, strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo's

-lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous women, and full of the

-modern spirit himself, he adapts his genius to his time and devotes

-himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental vein of the Venice of the

-decadence. Full of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to respond to

-any call. He went to and fro between Venice and the villas along the

-mainland and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting wider fields, he

-travelled to Milan and Genoa, where his frescoes still gleam in the

-palaces of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici. At Würzburg in

-Bavaria he achieved a magnificent series of decorations for the palace

-of the Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy, he painted

-altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his friends, and a fresh multitude

-of allegorical and mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His

-charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top to bottom by himself and

-his sons, and has amusing examples of contemporary dress and manners.

-

-When the Academy was instituted in 1755, Tiepolo was appointed its

-first director, but the sort of employment it provided was not suited to

-his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw up the post and went off to

-Spain with his two sons. There he received a splendid welcome and was

-loaded with commissions, the only dissentient voice being that of

-Raphael Mengs, who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the

-antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian's art. Tiepolo died

-suddenly in Madrid in 1770, pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,

-the frescoes he has left there show that his hand was as firm and his

-eye as sure as ever.

-

-His frescoes have, as we have said, that frankly theatrical flavour

-which corresponds exactly to the taste of the time. Such works as the

-"Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto" in the Church of the

-Scalzi in Venice, or the "Triumph of Faith" in that of the Pietà, the

-"Triumph of Hercules" in Palazzo Canossa in Verona, or the decorations

-in the magnificent villa of the Pisani at Strà, are extravagant and

-fantastic, yet have the impressive quality of genius. These last, which

-have for subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full of portraits.

-The patrician sons and daughters appear, surrounded by Abundance, War,

-and Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises Europe. All round are

-grouped flags and dragons, "nations grappling in the airy blue," bands

-of Red Indians in their war-paint and happy couples making love. The

-idea of the history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the House is

-paramount, and over all appears Fame, bearing the noble name into

-immortality. In Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal committee

-gave the painter a free hand, and on the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun

-in a chariot, with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the meridian,

-flooding the world with light. Venus and Saturn attend him, and his

-advent is heralded by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth joys at

-his coming, and a concourse of naiads, nymphs, and dolphins wait upon

-his footsteps. In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo has left

-one of his grandest displays. The haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his

-ideal of the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm, and, standing

-enthroned upon the rolling clouds, hardly deigns to acknowledge the

-homage of the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel is bestowing

-her scapulary. The most charming _amoretti_ are disporting in all

-directions, flinging themselves from on high in delicious _abandon_,

-alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal virtues. At Villa

-Valmarana near Vicenza, after revelling among the gods, he comes to

-earth and delights in painting lovely ladies with almond eyes and

-carnation cheeks, attended by their cavaliers, seated in balconies,

-looking on at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival scenes with

-masques and dominoes and _fêtes champêtres_, which give us a picture of

-the fashions and manners of the day. He brings in groups of Chinese in

-oriental dress, and then he condescends to paint country girls and their

-rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and Corydon.

-

-Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid. He abandons the airy fancies

-scattered in cloud-land. The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano affords

-an opportunity for introducing magnificent architecture, warriors in

-armour, and stately dames in satin and brocades. He touches his highest

-in the decorations of Palazzo Labia, where Antony and Cleopatra, seated

-at their banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard one another

-silently, with looks of sombre passion. Four exquisite panels have

-lately been acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the loves of

-Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast of gay, delicate colour, with

-fascinating backgrounds of Italian gardens. The throne-room of the

-palace at Madrid has the same order of compositions--Æneas conducted

-by Venus from Time to Immortality, and other deifications of Spanish

-royalty.

-

- [Illustration: _Tiepolo._

-                 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

-                _Palazzo Labia, Venice._]

-

-Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a tragic mood. In the Church of

-San Alvise he has left a "Way to Calvary," a "Flagellation," and a

-"Crowning of Thorns," which are intensely dramatic, and which show strong

-feeling. Particularly striking is the contrast between the refined and

-sensitive type of his Christ and the realistic and even brutal study of

-the two despairing malefactors--one a common ruffian, the other an aged

-offender of a higher class. His altarpiece at Este, representing S.

-Tecla staying the plague, is painted with a real insight into disaster

-and agony, and S. Tecla is a pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes

-in his easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a S. Anthony, or a

-Crucifixion, but he always returns before long to the ample spaces and

-fantastic subjects which his soul loved.

-

-Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art suggests a strong being,

-held captive by butterflies. Sometimes he is joyous and limpid,

-sometimes turbulent and strong, but he has always sincerity, force, and

-life. A great space serves to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better

-than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white limbs among the

-clouds, sea-horses ridden by Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman

-armour, balustrades and columns and _amoretti_. He does not even need to

-pounce his design, but puts in all sorts of improvised modifications

-with a sure hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring poses of his

-countless figures, and the freedom of his line speak eloquently of the

-mastery to which his hand had attained. He revels, above all, in effects

-of light--"all the light of the sky, and all the light of the sea; all

-the light of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath. He paints not

-ideas, scarcely even forms, but light. His ceilings are radiant, like

-the sky of birds; his poems seem to be written in the clouds. Light is

-fairer than all things, and Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of

-light."[6]

-

- [6] Philippe Monnier, _Venice in the Eighteenth Century_.

-

-Nearly all his compositions have a serene and limpid horizon, with

-the figures approaching it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and

-diaphanous, while the forms below are more muscular, the flesh tints are

-deeper, and the whole of the foreground is often enveloped in shadow.

-Veronese had lit up the shadows, which, under his contemporaries, were

-growing gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the same lines. He

-makes his figures more graceful, his draperies more vaporous, and

-illumines his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and rose, his

-golden-greys, and pearly whites and pastel tints are not so much solid

-colours as caprices of light. We have remarked already that with

-Veronese the accessories of gleaming satins and rich brocades serve to

-obscure the persons. In many of Tiepolo's scenes the figures are lost

-in a flutter of drapery, subject and action melt away, and we are only

-conscious of soft harmonies of delicious colour, as ethereal as the

-hues of spring flowers in woodland ways and joyous meadows. With these

-delicious, audacious fancies, put on with a nervous hand, we forget the

-age of profound and ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous

-solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe an atmosphere of

-irresponsible and capricious pleasure. In this last word of her great

-masters Venice keeps what her temperament loved--sensuous colour and

-emotional chiaroscuro, used to accentuate an art adapted to a city of

-pleasure.

-

-The excellence of the old masters' drawings is a perpetual revelation.

-Even second-class men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen, proving

-that drawing was looked upon as something over which it was necessary

-for even the meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo's drawings,

-preserved in Venice and in various museums, are as beautiful as can be

-wished; perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In Venice are twenty

-or thirty sheets in red carbon, of flights of angels, and of draperies

-studied in every variety of fold.

-

-Poor work of his school is often ascribed to his sons, but the superb

-"Stations of the Cross," in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,

-and published as his own in his lifetime, are almost equal to the

-father's work. Tiepolo had many immediate followers and imitators. The

-colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the Church of SS. Apostoli,

-Venice, may be pointed out as an example of one of these. But he is full

-of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson, writing of him, says he

-sometimes seems more the first than the last of a line, and notices how

-he influenced many French artists of recent times, though none seem

-quite to have caught the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite

-caprice.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Aranjuez. Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.

-           Orangery: Frescoes.

- Bergamo.  Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.

- Berlin.   Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.

- London.   Sketches; Deposition.

- Madrid.   Escurial; Ceilings.

- Milan.    Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.

-           Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.

- Paris.    Christ at Emmaus.

- Strà.     Villa Pisani: Ceiling.

- Venice.   Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding

-             the Cross.

-           Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.

-           Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.

-           Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.

-           S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.

-           SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.

-           S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.

-           Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.

-           S. Maria della Pietà: Triumph of Faith.

-           S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.

-           Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.

-           Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.

- Verona.   Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.

- Vicenza.  Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.

-           Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,

-             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.

- Würzburg. Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; Fêtes Galantes; Assumption;

-             Fall of Rebel Angels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXX

-

-PIETRO LONGHI

-

-

-We have here a master who is peculiarly the Venetian of the eighteenth

-century, a genre-painter whose charm it is not easy to surpass, yet

-one who did not at the outset find his true vocation. Longhi's first

-undertakings, specimens of which exist in certain palaces in Venice,

-were elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence of the Bolognese

-School, in which he studied for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He

-attempts to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings in emulation of

-Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy and common, and the Titans at her feet

-appear as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He shows no faculty

-for this kind of work, but he was thirty-two before he began to paint

-those small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style illustrate the

-"Vanity Fair" of his period, and in which the eighteenth century lives

-for us again.

-

-His earliest training was in the goldsmith's art, and he has left many

-drawings of plate, exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and their

-unerring precision of line. It was a moment when such things acquired a

-flawless purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their beauty with all

-the sensitive perception of the artist and the practised workman. His

-studies of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily

-careful, and he seems besides to have an intimate acquaintance with all

-the elegant dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order. We feel

-that he has himself been at home in the masquerade, has accompanied the

-lady to the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful shoulder, has

-listened to the soothsayer's murmurs. He has attended balls and routs,

-danced minuets, and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He is the last

-chronicler of the Venetian feasts, and with him ends that long series

-that began with Giorgione's concert and which developed and passed

-through suppers at Cana and banquets at the houses of Levi and the

-Pharisee. We are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity of Bonifazio

-and Veronese; the immense tables covered with gold and silver plate, the

-long lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the stream of servants

-bearing huge salvers, or the bands of musicians, nor are there any more

-alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes. Instead there are

-masques, the life of the Ridotto or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in

-dainty boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that city of eternal

-carnival where the _bauta_ was almost a national costume. Longhi

-holds that post which in French art is filled by Watteau, Fragonard,

-and Lancret, the painters of _fêtes galantes_, and though he cannot be

-placed on an equal footing with those masters, he is representative and

-significant enough. On his canvases are preserved for us the mysteries

-of the toilet, over which ladies and young men of fashion dawdled

-through the morning, the drinking of chocolate in _négligé_, the

-momentous instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing patches, the

-towers of hair built by the modish coiffeur--children trooping in, in

-hoops and uniforms, to kiss their mother's hand, the fine gentleman

-choosing a waistcoat and ogling the pretty embroideress, the pert young

-maidservant slipping a billet-doux into a beauty's hand under her

-husband's nose, the old beau toying with a fan, or the discreet abbé

-taking snuff over the morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi's day

-pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux make "a leg," and the

-lacqueys hand chocolate. The beautiful Venetians and their gallants

-swim through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto, or they hasten to

-assignations, disguised in wide _bauti_ and carrying preposterous muffs.

-The Correr Museum contains a number of his paintings and also his book

-of original sketches. One of the most entertaining of his canvases

-represents a visit of patricians to a nuns' parlour. The nuns and their

-pupils lend an attentive ear to the whispers of the world. Their

-dresses are trimmed with _point de Venise_, and a little theatre is

-visible in the background. This and the "Sala del Ridotto" which hangs

-near, are marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of colouring, and

-more animation than is usual in his genre-pictures. He has not preserved

-the lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist touch which was

-the natural inheritance of Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark

-and heavy, and he makes too free a use of body colour; but his attitude

-is one of close observation--he enjoys depicting the life around him,

-and we suspect that he sees in it the most perfect form of social

-intercourse imaginable. Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of

-painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles the genial, humorous

-playwright than he does Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared. Yet

-his execution and technique are a little like Hogarth's, and it is

-possible that he was influenced by the elder and stronger master, who

-entered on his triumphant career as a satirical painter of society

-about 1734. This was just the time when Longhi abandoned his unlucky

-decorative style, and it is quite possible that he may have met with

-engravings of the "Marriage à la mode," and was stimulated by them to

-the study of eighteenth-century manners, though his own temperament is

-far removed from Hogarth's moral force and grim satire. His serene,

-painstaking observation is never distracted by grossness and violence.

-The Venetians of his day may have been--undoubtedly were--effeminate,

-licentious, and decadent, but they were kind and gracious, of refined

-manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent, and so Longhi has

-transcribed them. In the time which followed, ceilings were covered by

-Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand, the scholars of David painted

-classical scenes, and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio Francesco

-Correr bought five hundred of his drawings from his son, Alessandro, but

-his works were ignored and dispersed. The classic and romantic fashions

-passed, but it was only in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing

-on art, revived consideration for the painter of a bygone generation.

-Many of his works are in private collections, especially in England, but

-few are in public galleries. The National Gallery is fortunate in

-possessing several excellent examples.

-

- [Illustration: _Pietro Longhi._

-                 VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Hanfstängl._)]

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.

-          Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.

- Dresden. Portrait of a Lady.

- Hampton Court. Three genre-pictures.

- London.  Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.

-          Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.

- Venice.  Academy: Six genre-paintings.

-          Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of

-            Goldoni.

-          Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.

-          Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXXI

-

-CANALE

-

-

-While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving themselves the inheritors of the

-great school of decorators, Venice herself was finding her chroniclers,

-and a school of landscape arose, of which Canale was the foremost

-member. Giovanni Antonio Canale was born in Venice in 1697, the same

-year as Tiepolo. His father earned his living at the profession,

-lucrative enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio learned to

-handle his brush, working at his side. In 1719 he went off to seek his

-fortune in Rome, and though he was obliged to help out his resources by

-his early trade, he was most concerned in the study of architecture,

-ancient and modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye, by the

-picturesque masses of stonework, the warm harmonious tones of classic

-remains and the effects of light upon them. He painted almost entirely

-out-of-doors, and has left many examples drawn from the ruins. His

-success in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still a very young man

-when he retraced his steps. On regaining his native town, he realised

-for the first time the beauty of its canals and palaces, and he never

-again wavered in his allegiance.

-

-Two rivals were already in the field, Luca Carlevaris, whose works were

-freely bought by the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures in

-whose views of Venice were often touched in by his uncle, Sebastiano;

-but Canale's growing fame soon dethroned them, "i cacciati del nido," as

-he said, using Dante's expression. In a generation full of caprice,

-delighting in sensational developments, Canale was methodical to a

-fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing every detail of Venetian

-landscape with untiring application and almost monotonous tranquillity.

-He lived in the midst of a band of painters who adored travel.

-Sebastiano Ricci was always on the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time

-in other cities and countries, and passed the last years of his life in

-Spain; Pietro Rotari was attached to the Court of St. Petersburg;

-Belotto, Canale's nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale remained at

-home, and, except for two short visits paid to England, contented

-himself with trips to Padua and Verona.

-

-Early in life Canale entered into relations with Joseph Smith, the

-British Consul in Venice, a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine

-collection of pictures, but had a gallery from which he was very ready

-to sell to travellers. He bought of the young Venetian at a very low

-price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to acquire the right to all his

-work for a certain period of time, with the object of sending it, at a

-good profit, to London. For a time Canale's luminous views were bought

-by the English under these auspices, but the artist, presently

-discovering that he was making a bad bargain, came over to England,

-where he met with an encouraging reception, especially at Windsor Castle

-and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale spent two years in England and

-painted on the Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not stand the

-English climate and fled from the damp and fogs to his own lagoons.

-

-To describe his paintings is to describe Venice at every hour of the day

-and night--Venice with its long array of noble palaces, with its Grand

-Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways. He reproduces the Venice we

-know, and we see how little it has changed. The gondolas cluster round

-the landing-stages of the Piazzetta, the crowds hurry in and out of the

-arcades of the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals that still

-retained their splendour: the Great Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei

-Schiavoni on the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and the entrance

-to the Cannaregio decked in flags for a feast-day. From one end to

-another of the Grand Canal, that "most beautiful street in the world,"

-as des Commines called it in 1495, we can trace every aspect of

-Canale's time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of its splendour

-or its animation. At the entrance stands S. Maria della Salute, that

-sanctuary dear to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering after the

-visitation of the plague in 1631. Its flamboyant dome, with its volutes,

-its population of stone saints, its green bronze door catching the

-light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent in our own day, and he

-painted it over and over again. The annual fête of the Confraternity of

-the Carità takes place at the Scuola di San Rocco, and Canale paints the

-old Renaissance building which shelters so much of Tintoretto's finest

-work, decorated with ropes of greenery and gay with flags,[7] while

-Tiepolo has put in the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the gazing

-populace. Near it in the National Gallery hangs a "Regatta" with its

-array of boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows lying across

-the range of palaces, and telling the exact hour of the day that it was

-sketched in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar pleasure in

-expressing quiet days, with calm green waters and wide empty piazzas,

-divided by sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding about their

-business in the hot midday, or a quiet little abbé crossing the piazza

-on his way to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the light on wall

-and façade, and of the transparent waters of the canals and the azure

-skies in which float great snowy fleeces.

-

- [7] It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.

-

-His second visit to England was paid in 1751. He was received with open

-arms by the great world, and invited to the houses of the nobility in

-town and country. The English were delighted with his taste and with the

-mastery with which he painted architectural scenes, and in spite of

-advancing years he produced a number of compositions, which commanded

-high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall, the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall,

-Northumberland House, Eton College, were some of the subjects which

-attracted him, and the treatment of which was signalised by his calm and

-perfect balance. He made use of the camera ottica, which is in principal

-identical with the camera oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and

-taught its proper use, but it must be confessed that in the careful

-perspective of some of his scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to

-convey a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous engraver.

-Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian had placed engraving on a very high level

-in the Venetian School, and though at a later date it became too

-elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought it back to simplicity. Canale

-aided them, and his _eaux-fortes_, of which he has left about thirty,

-are filled with light and breadth of treatment, and he is particularly

-happy in his brilliant, transparent water.

-

-The high prices Canale obtained for his pictures in his lifetime led to

-the usual imitations. He was surrounded by painters whose whole ambition

-was limited to copying him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,

-Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More than fifty of his finest

-works were bought by Smith for George III. and fill a room at Windsor.

-He was made a member of the Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime

-Minister of the Elector, obtained from him twenty-one works which now

-adorn the gallery there. Canale died in Venice, where he had lived

-nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio was a familiar object

-in the Piazzetta, at the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.

-

-His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also called Canaletto, and it

-seems that both uncle and nephew were equally known by the diminutive.

-Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career, where he attached

-himself to Panini, a painter of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and

-shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of vanity and self-importance,

-and on a visit to Germany managed to acquire the title of Count, which

-he adhered to with great complacency. He travelled all over Italy

-looking for patronage, and was very eager to find the road to success

-and fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he paid a visit to London

-and was patronised by Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success

-he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector, disappointed at not

-having secured the services of the uncle, was fain to console himself

-with those of the nephew. The extravagant and profligate Augustus II.,

-whose one idea was to extract money by every possible means from his

-subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was consistently devoted to

-Belotto, who was in his element as a Court painter. He paints all his

-uncle's subjects, and it is not always easy to distinguish between the

-two; but his paintings are dull and stiff as compared with those of

-Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour, and many of his views are

-admirably drawn.

-

-

-SOME WORKS OF CANALE

-

-It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being in

-private collections.

-

- Dresden.  The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;

-             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.

- Florence. The Piazzetta.

- Hampton Court. The Colosseum.

- London.   Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;

-             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.

- Paris.    Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.

- Venice.   Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.

- Vienna.   Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;

-             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;

-             The Piazzetta.

- Windsor.  About fifty paintings.

- Wallace Collection. The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San

-             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fête on the Grand Canal;

-             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;

-             A Water-fête; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal

-             in Venice.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXXII

-

-FRANCESCO GUARDI

-

-

-An entry in Gradenigo's diary of 1764, preserved in the Museo Correr,

-speaks of "Francesco Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,

-along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of the famous Canaletto, having

-by the aid of the camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases

-(not small) by the order of a stranger (an Englishman), with views of

-the Piazza San Marco, towards the Church and the Clock Tower, and of the

-Bridge of the Rialto and buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have

-to-day examined them under the colonnades of the Procurazie and met with

-universal applause."

-

-Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian Tyrol, and his mountain

-ancestry may account, as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and

-vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled in Venice, and his

-brother were painters. His son became one in due time, and the

-profession being followed by four members of the family accounts

-for the indifferent works often attributed to Guardi.

-

-His indebtedness to Canale is universally acknowledged, and perhaps it

-is true that he never attains to the monumental quality, the traditional

-dignity which marks Canale out as a great master, but he differs from

-Canale in temperament, style, and technique. Canale is a much more exact

-and serious student of architectural detail; Guardi, with greater

-visible vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation in drawing in

-buildings which do not really appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal

-Palace (Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier and more spacious

-than it really is. In his "Piazzetta" he puts in a corner of the Loggia

-where it would not actually be seen. In the "Fair in Piazza S. Marco"

-the arch from under which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he

-foreshortens the wing of the royal palace. He curtails the length of the

-columns in the piazza and so avoids monotony of effect, and he often

-alters the height of the campaniles he uses, making them tall and

-slender or short and broad, as his picture requires. At one time he

-produced some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr. Simonson, who

-has written an admirable life of the painter, believes that the hand of

-Canale is perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his natural

-element, and he often became heavy in colour and handling. In 1782 he

-undertook a commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a noted connoisseur

-and inspector of State pictures, and had been appointed superintendent

-in 1778 of an official studio for the restoration of old masters.

-

-Edwards had important dealings with Guardi, who was directed to paint

-four leading incidents in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of Pius

-IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves had become indifferent patrons

-of art, but Venice attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and

-before the second half of the eighteenth century the export of old

-masters had already become an established trade. There is no sign,

-however, that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship till 1760,

-extended any patronage to Guardi, though he enriched George III.'s

-collection with works of the chief contemporary artists of Venice. It is

-probable that Guardi had been warned against him by Canale and profited

-by the latter's experience.

-

-We can divide his work into three categories. 1. Views of Venice. 2.

-Public ceremonies. 3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually that he

-used the camera ottica, but though we may consider it probable, we

-cannot trace the use of it in his works. He is not only a painter of

-architecture, but pays great attention to light and atmosphere, and aims

-at subtle effects; a transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the

-sun pierces though the morning mists. His four large pendants in the

-Wallace Collection show his happiest efforts; light glances off the

-water and is reflected on the shadowed walls. His views round the Salute

-bring vividly before us those delicious morning hours in Venice when the

-green tide has just raced up the Grand Canal, when a fresh wind is

-lifting and curling all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and when

-the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as their light craft is caught

-and blown from side to side upon the rippling water. The sky occupies

-much of his space, he makes searching studies of it, and his favourite

-effect is a flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass of clouds.

-The line of the horizon is low, and he exhibits great mastery in

-painting the wide lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is one

-of the few masters of his day--perhaps the only one--who succeeds in

-representing a storm at sea.

-

-Often as he paints the same subjects he never becomes mechanical or

-photographic. We may sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale's unerring

-perspective and accurate buildings, but Guardi always finds some new

-rendering, some fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us a summer

-day, when Venice stands out in light, her white palaces reflected in the

-sun-illumined water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches bathed in

-shadow and fusing into the rich, dark tones of twilight. His boats and

-figures are introduced with great spirit and _brio_, and are alive

-with that handling which a French critic has described as his _griffe

-endiablée_.

-

- [Illustration: _Francesco Guardi._

-                 S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-His masterly and spirited painting of crowds enables him to reproduce

-for us all those public ceremonies which Venice retained as long as the

-Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the Doge to Venetian churches, to

-the Salute to commemorate the cessation of the plague, to San Zaccaria

-on Easter Day, the solemn procession on Corpus Christi Day, receptions

-of ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast of the Wedding of

-the Adriatic. He has faithfully preserved the ancient ceremonial which

-accompanied State festivities. In the "Fête du Jeudi Gras" (Louvre) he

-illustrates the acrobatic feats which were performed before Doge

-Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is erected on the Piazzetta, and

-gondoliers are seen climbing on each other's shoulders and dancing upon

-ropes. His motley crowds show that the whole population, patricians as

-well as people, took part in the feasts. He has also left many striking

-interiors: among others, that of the Sala del Gran Consiglio, where

-sometimes as many as a thousand persons were assembled, the "Reception

-of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV." (which formed one of the series

-ordered by Pietro Edwards), or the fine "Interior of a Theatre,"

-exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts in 1911, belonging to a series

-of which another is at Munich.

-

-In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very faithful attention to nature.

-The landscape painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson points

-out, were not animated by any very genuine impulse to study nature

-minutely. It was the picturesque element which appealed to them, and

-they were chiefly concerned to reproduce romantic features, grouped

-according to fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes, introducing

-classic remains, triumphal arches, airy Palladian monuments. His

-_capricci_ include compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown with

-foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting of Venetian palaces, but in

-which the combination is carried out with so much sparkle and nervous

-life and such charm of style, that it is attractive and piquant rather

-than grotesque.

-

-England is richest in Guardis, of any country, but France in one respect

-is better off, in possessing no less than eleven fine paintings of

-public ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the originator of small

-sketches, and perhaps the precursor of those glib little views which are

-handed about the Piazza at the present day. His drawings are fairly

-numerous, and are remarkably delicate and incisive in touch. A large

-collection which he left to his son is now in the Museo Correr. In his

-later years he was reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches in

-the Piazza, parting with them for a few ducats, and in this way flooding

-Venice with small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by his _bottega_

-is said to be at the corner of the Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock

-Tower. The house in which he died still exists in the Campiello della

-Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to

-the Madonna attached to it. When quite an old man, Guardi paid a visit

-to the home of his ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol, and

-made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the route. To this day his name

-is remembered with pride in his Tyrolean valley.

-

-

-SOME WORKS OF GUARDI

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: Landscapes.

- Berlin.  Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.

- London.  Views in Venice.

- Milan.   Museo Civico: Landscapes.

-          Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.

- Oxford.  Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.

- Padua.   Views in Venice.

- Paris.   Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in

-            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; "Jeudi Gras" in Venice;

-            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.

- Turin.   Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.

- Venice.  Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.

- Verona.  Landscapes.

- Wallace Collection. The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);

-            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;

-            The Dogana.

-

-

-

-

- BIBLIOGRAPHY

-

-

-It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to read

-French, German, and Italian, for though translations appear of the most

-important works, there are many interesting articles and monographs of

-minor artists which are otherwise inaccessible.

-

-Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or opinions, yet

-delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable, and new editions

-and translations are constantly issued. Sansoni's edition (Florence),

-with Milanesi's notes, is the most authoritative; and for translations,

-those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs. Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition

-in the Temple classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).

-

-Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian artists, who

-published his _Maraviglie dell' arte_ nine years after Domenico

-Tintoretto's death, is only to be read in Italian, though the anecdotes

-with which his work abounds are made use of by every writer.

-

-Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Painting in North Italy_ (Murray) is a

-storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole, marvellously

-correct information and sound opinion. It supplies a foundation, fills

-gaps, and supplements individual biographies as no other book does. For

-the early painters, down to the time of the Bellini, _I Origini dei

-pittori veneziani_, by Professor Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a

-large book, written with mastery and insight, and well illustrated; _La

-Storia della pittura veneziana_ is another careful work, which deals

-very minutely with the early school of mosaics.

-

-In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has _The Brothers

-Bellini_ (Bell's Great Masters), and the reader should not fail to read

-Mr. Roger Fry's _Bellini_ (Artist's Library), a scholarly monograph,

-short but reliable, and full of suggestion and appreciation, though

-written in a cool, critical spirit. Dr. Hills has dealt ably with

-_Pisanello_ (Duckworth).

-

-Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work _Vittore Carpaccio_,

-translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and Paul Kristeller in the

-equally important _Mantegna_, translated by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans,

-1901), seem to have exhausted all that there is to be said for the

-moment concerning these two painters.

-

-It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson's two well-known

-volumes, _The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance_, and the _North

-Italian Painters of the Renaissance_ (Putnam). They are brilliant essays

-which supplement every other work, overflowing with suggestive and

-critical matter, supplying original thoughts, and summing up in a few

-pregnant words the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding

-stages.

-

-In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater's essay, included

-in _The Renaissance_. The author is not always well informed as to

-facts--he wrote in the early days of criticism--but he is rich in idea

-and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook's _Life of Giorgione_ (Bell's Great

-Masters) is full and interesting. Some authorities question his

-attributions as being too numerous, but whether we regard them as

-authentic works of the master or as belonging to his school, the

-illustrations he gives add materially to our knowledge of the

-Giorgionesque.

-

-When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Life

-of Titian_ (Murray, out of print), in two large volumes, is well written

-and full of good material, from which subsequent writers have borrowed.

-An excellent Life, full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts,

-was lately brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with

-illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian's technique.

-Sir Claude Phillips's Monograph on Titian will appeal to every thoughtful

-lover of the painter's genius, and Dr. Gronau has written a good and

-scholarly Life (Duckworth).

-

-Mr. Berenson's _Lorenzo Lotto_ must be read for its interest and

-learning, given with all the author's charm and lucidity. It includes an

-essay on Alvise Vivarini.

-

-My own _Tintoretto_ (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full account of

-the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively with the scheme

-and details of the Scuola di San Rocco. Professor Thode has written a

-detailed and profusely illustrated Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss

-Series, and the Paradiso has been treated at length and illustrated

-in great detail in a very scholarly _édition de luxe_ by Mr. F. O.

-Osmaston. It is the fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow

-that his judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture

-than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching sermons,

-there are few critics who have so many ideas to give us, or who are so

-informed with a deep love of art, and both _Modern Painters_ and the

-_Stones of Venice_ should be read.

-

-M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese, which is full

-of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to take a copy of Boschini's

-_Della pittura veneziana_, 1797, when visiting the galleries, the

-palaces, and the churches of Venice. His lists of the pictures, as they

-were known in his day, often open our eyes to doubtful attributions.

-Second-hand copies of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the

-later-century artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of their

-period is supplied by Philippe Monnier's delightful _Venice in the

-Eighteenth Century_ (Chatto and Windus), which also has a good chapter

-on the lesser Venetian masters. The best Life of Tiepolo is in Italian,

-by Professor Pompeo Molmenti. The smaller masters have to be hunted for

-in many scattered essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi's

-pictures. Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by M.

-Uzanne, _Les Deux Canaletto_; and Mr. Simonson has written an important

-and charming volume on Francesco Guardi (Methuen, 1904), with beautiful

-reproductions of his works. Among other books which give special

-information are Morelli's two volumes, _Italian Painters in Borghese and

-Doria Pamphili_, and _In Dresden and Munich Galleries_, translated by

-Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter's magnificent

-catalogue of the Mond Collection--which, though published at fifteen

-guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries--has some valuable

-chapters on the Venetian masters.

-

-

-

-

-INDEX

-

-

- Academy, Florence, 28

-   Venice, 13, 16, 19, 32, 36, 38, 40, 43, 47, 52,

-     57, 67, 80, 102, 116, 117, 171, 183, 196, 202,

-     205, 206, 210, 211, 217, 219, 226, 227, 242,

-     262, 267, 271, 277, 281, 286, 295, 296, 308,

-     313, 320

- Adoration of Magi, 28, 31, 116, 131, 197, 205, 287

- Adoration of Shepherds, 116, 196, 222,

-     273, 275

- Agnolo Gaddi, 15

- Alemagna, Giovanni, 29-32, 36, 37, 58

- Altichiero, 24, 25

- Alvise Vivarini, 58-63, 65, 66, 69, 79,

-     104, 105, 112, 187, 190, 223, 330

- Amalteo, Pomponio, 219

- Amigoni, 292

- Anconæ, 12, 17, 18, 24, 36, 45, 59, 60, 187

- Angelico, Fra, 48

- Annunciation, 16, 26, 45, 178, 183, 258, 286

- Antonello da Messina, 50, 51, 59, 62, 66

- Antonio da Murano, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 58

- Antonio Negroponte, 37, 44

- Antonio Veneziano, 15

- Aretino, 163, 166, 167, 172-174, 182, 192,

-     201, 234, 236, 240

- Ascension, 41

- Augsburg, 176, 266, 276

-

- Badile, 229

- Balestra, 287

- Baptism of Christ, 41, 98, 255

- Bartolommeo Vivarini, 32, 36, 37, 38, 48, 58, 59,

-     64, 189, 223, 225

- Basaiti, Marco, 104, 111-116

- Bassano, 10, 247, 269-276, 282

- Bastiani, Lazzaro, 70, 73, 79

- Battoni, Pompeo, 297, 298

- Bellini, Gentile, 48-57, 68, 70, 81, 83, 89, 90,

-     99, 101, 103, 146

- Bellini, Giovanni, 10, 43, 48, 55, 61, 62, 63, 69,

-     78, 81, 82, 84-89, 90, 92, 94-101, 103, 104,

-     107, 109, 112-114, 122, 123, 127, 129, 130,

-     134, 140, 146, 147, 152, 155, 158, 159, 179,

-     186, 187, 223, 225, 318, 329, 330

- Bellini, Jacopo, 27, 28, 39-43, 58, 81-84, 86

- Belotto, 315, 319-331

- Bembo, Cardinal, 97, 111, 174, 240

- Benson, Mr., 47, 80, 116, 117, 143

- Berenson, Mr., 156, 187, 195, 210, 221, 229, 243,

-     307, 330

- Bergamo, 101, 114, 116, 117, 141, 143, 185, 188,

-     190, 196, 211, 219, 226, 227, 276, 308, 313, 328

- Berlin, 19, 32, 35, 47, 57, 66, 80, 101, 115-117,

-     139, 182, 196, 211, 223, 226, 227, 266, 308, 328

- Bissolo, 104, 114, 115, 117

- Blanc, M. Charles, 240, 288, 298

- Bologna, 36, 38, 60, 167, 288, 309

- Bonifazio, 203-206, 210, 243, 245, 250, 270, 281, 310

- Bonsignori, 224, 275

- Bordone, Paris, 203, 206, 208-211, 219, 231, 290

- Borghese, Villa, 154, 188, 194, 197, 331

- Boschini, 104, 282, 287, 331

- Boston, 139

- Botticelli, 127, 159

- Brera, 47, 57, 101, 115, 117, 143, 194, 205, 209,

-     211, 251, 304

- Brescia, 182, 196, 219, 220, 222, 226, 227

- Bridgewater House, 182, 211

- British Museum, 41, 263

- Broker's patent, 130, 169, 248

- Brusasorci, 229

- Buonconsiglio, 223, 224

- Burckhardt, 298

- _Burlington Magazine_, 18

- Byzantine art, 11, 13, 21

-

- Calderari, 219

- Carlevaris, Luca, 292, 315

- Caliari, Carlotto, 282

- Caliari, Paolo. _See_ Veronese

- Campagnola, Domenico, 151

- Canal, Fabio, 307

- Canale, Gian Antonio, 292, 298, 314-320, 322, 331

- Canaletto. _See_ Canale

- Caravaggio, 288

- Cariani, 141-143, 204

- Carpaccio, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 79, 80, 103,

-     122, 123, 146, 191

- Carracci, 88, 288, 298

- Carriera. _See_ Rosalba Carriera

- Castagno, Andrea del, 27, 48

- Castello, Milan, 51

- Catena, Vincenzo, 104, 108-111, 114, 202, 206

- Cathedrals, Ascoli, 47

-   Bassano, 270, 276

-   Conegliano, 115

-   Cremona, 215, 220, 226

-   Murano, 109

-   Spilimbergo, 226

-   Treviso, 183, 211, 215, 226

-   Verona, 183, 227

- Celesti, 287

- Chelsea Hospital, 289

- Churches--

-   Bergamo.

-     S. Alessandro, 117, 196

-     S. Bartolommeo, 188

-     S. Bernardino, 190

-     S. Spirito, 114, 117, 196

-   Brescia.

-     S. Clemente, 227

-     SS. Nazaro e Celso, 182

-   Castelfranco.

-     S. Liberale, 132

-   S. Daniele.

-     S. Antonino, 212, 214, 226

-   Padua.

-     Eremitani, 48, 83, 224

-     Il Santo, 25, 227

-     S. Giustina, 220, 242

-     S. Maria in Vanzo, 276

-     S. Zeno, 48

-   Pesaro.

-     S. Francesco, 102

-   Piacenza.

-     Madonna di Campagna, 216

-   Ravenna.

-     S. Domenico, 117

-   Rome.

-     S. Maria del Popolo, 200

-     S. Pietro in Montorio, 200, 202

-   Venice.

-     S. Alvise, 304

-     SS. Apostoli, 307, 308

-     S. Barnabà, 242

-     Carmine, 107, 116, 197

-     S. Cassiano, 267

-     SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, 245

-     S. Fava, 288, 308

-     S. Francesco della Vigna, 37, 38, 242

-     Gesuati, 296

-     S. Giacomo dell' Orio, 197, 277

-     S. Giobbe, 67, 78, 92, 95, 113

-     S. Giorgio Maggiore, 259, 263, 267

-     S. Giovanni in Bragora, 17, 38, 64, 67, 98,

-         106, 116, 211

-     S. Giovanni Crisostomo, 98, 102

-     S. Giovanni Elemosinario, 168, 287

-     SS. Giovanni and Paolo, 53, 101, 116

-     S. Maria Formosa, 31, 38, 196

-     S. Maria dei Frari, 38, 65, 67, 92, 93, 102,

-         112, 157, 161, 180, 183, 219, 275, 307

-     S. Maria Mater Domini, 109, 116, 267

-     S. Maria dei Miracoli, 20

-     S. Maria dell' Orto, 102, 106, 116, 249, 267

-     S. Maria della Salute, 173, 262, 267, 317, 324, 325

-     S. Mark's, 14, 19, 27, 49, 53, 247, 287

-     S. Pantaleone, 30, 285, 287

-     Pietà, 221, 227, 308

-     S. Pietro in Castello, 287, 296

-     S. Pietro in Murano, 92, 93

-     S. Polo, 259, 267

-     Redentore, 63, 64, 67, 117

-     S. Rocco, 267, 296

-     S. Salvatore, 178, 183

-     Scalzi, 308

-     S. Sebastiano, 230, 236, 241, 242

-     S. Spirito, 173

-     S. Stefano, 260, 267

-     S. Trovaso, 16, 116, 267

-     S. Vitale, 79, 80

-     S. Zaccaria, 17, 97, 112, 134, 325

-   Verona.

-     S. Anastasia, 24, 25, 28, 31, 41

-     S. Antonio, 24, 28

-     S. Fermo, 26, 28

-     S. Tomaso, 296

-   Vicenza.

-     S. Corona, 98, 102, 227

-     Monte Berico, 105, 223, 224, 227, 242

- Cima da Conegliano, 66, 98, 99, 103-108, 123, 322

- Colombini, 319

- Confraternity, Carità, 171

-   S. Mark, 69, 206, 245

- Contarini, Giovanni, 287

- Cook, Sir F., 183

- Cook, Mr. Herbert, 330

- Correggio, 189, 300

- Correr Museum (Museo Civico), 19, 79, 84, 87, 102,

-     117, 287, 311, 313, 326

- Crivelli, Carlo, 38, 44-47, 189

- Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 215, 329, 330

- Crucifixion, 25, 41, 84, 255, 256, 262

-

- Dante, 264

- David, 297, 313

- Doges--

-   Barbarigo, 93

-   Dandolo, 11

-   Giustiniani, 49

-   Gradenigo, 206

-   Grimani, 170

-   Loredano, 100, 109

-   Mocenigo, 325

- Donatello, 34, 82, 87

- Doria Gallery, 194, 331

- Dresden, 139, 182, 196, 210, 211, 242, 266, 276,

-     294, 296, 320

- Dürer, Albert, 59, 99, 150

-

- Edwards, Pietro, 323, 325

- Este, 305

- Este, Isabela d', 96, 97, 159, 229

-

- Fabriano, Gentile da, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31,

-     33, 39, 42, 62

- Florence, 4, 9, 21, 22, 28, 101, 117, 122, 123,

-     139, 182, 197, 202, 211, 242, 266

- Florentine, 3, 5, 7, 35, 121, 122, 125, 135, 153,

-     199, 200, 251

- Florigerio, 217

- Fondaco dei Tedeschi, 129, 130, 147

- Fragonard, 33

- Fry, Mr. Roger, 85, 89, 330

- Fumiani, Gianbattista, 285, 286

-

- Gaston de Foix, 222

- Giambono, Michele, 17, 18, 27

- Giordano, Luca, 285

- Giorgione, 10, 65, 97, 113, 125, 126-135, 137,

-     139-142, 147-149, 152-155, 166, 177, 179,

-     184-187, 193, 206, 210, 213, 214, 216, 219,

-     222, 310, 330

- Giotto, 4, 11, 15, 24, 33, 86

- Goldoni, Carlo, 312, 331

- Goncourt, de, 313

- Guardi, Francesco, 298, 321-324, 326, 328, 331

- Guariento, 15, 17, 62, 122

- Guercino, 297

- Guido, 297

- Guilds, 12, 16, 22, 23, 29, 39, 75, 198, 251

- Guillaume de Guilleville, 94

-

- Hampton Court, 143, 210, 211, 219, 266, 289, 320

- Hazlitt, 6, 8

- Hogarth, 289, 312

-

- Jacobello del Fiore, 16, 19, 27, 164

- Jacopo Bellini. _See_ Bellini

-

- Kristeller, M. Paul, 330

-

- Lancret, 311

- Last Judgment, 238

- Last Supper, 237, 208, 259

- Layard, Lady, 50, 57, 80, 116

- Lazzarini, Gregorio, 286, 287, 296, 300

- Leonardo, 122, 127, 136, 140, 159, 162

- Liberi, Pietro, 285, 287, 295

- Licinio, Bernardino, 218

- Licinio, G. A. _See_ Pordenone

- Lippo, Fra, 48

- London (National Gallery), 47, 57, 66, 100, 101,

-     115-117, 133, 141, 143, 156, 159, 182, 197,

-     201, 202, 208, 211, 218, 221, 222, 226, 227,

-     242, 261, 266, 276, 308, 313, 320, 328

- Longhi, Pietro, 288, 298, 309-313

- Lorenzo di San Severino, 46

- Lorenzo Veneziano, 16, 17, 19

- Loreto, 193, 197

- Lotto, Lorenzo, 172, 186, 187-196, 204, 222, 224,

-     275, 330

- Louvre, 40, 41, 43, 50, 57, 66, 115-117, 143, 161,

-     165, 177, 178, 182, 196, 202, 211, 233, 235,

-     242, 266, 277, 297, 308, 320, 328

- Luciani. _See_ Sebastian del Piombo

- Ludwig, Professor, 94, 203, 330

-

- Madrid, 139, 150, 182, 264, 266, 302, 304

- Mansueti, Giovanni, 56, 79

- Mantegna, 39, 42, 49, 58, 59, 77, 84, 96, 159, 215,

-     223, 224, 300, 318, 330

- Marieschi, 319

- Martino da Udine. _See_ Pellegrino

- Maser, Villa, 231, 242

- Masolino, 41

- Mengs, Raphael, 302

- Michelangelo, 110, 121, 122, 137, 164, 174, 199,

-     200-202, 244, 249, 300

- Milan, Ambrosiana, 66, 116, 275, 276

-   Brera. _See_ Brera

- Mocetto, Girolamo, 225

- Molmenti, Professor, 330, 331

- Mond Collection, 18, 20, 47, 49, 101

- Monnier, Philippe, 306, 331

- Montagna, Bartolommeo, 105, 114, 222-224, 270

- Morelli, 177, 203, 331

- Moretto, 221, 222

- Morto da Feltre, 130, 214

- Munich, 116, 183

- Murano, 29, 102, 116, 217, 226

- Museo Civico. _See_ Correr

-

- Naples, 50, 57, 66, 102, 183

- National Gallery. _See_ London

- Niccolo di Pietro, 16, 17, 20

- Niccolo Semitocolo, 16, 17, 19

-

- Osmaston, Mr. F. O., 331

-

- Padovanino, Il, 286, 196

- Padua, 19, 28, 34-37, 49, 59, 82, 86, 87, 116, 151,

-     155, 183, 223, 226, 227, 242, 272, 276

- Palaces--

-   Milan.

-     Archinto, 301, 308

-     Clerici, 301

-     Dugnani, 301, 304

-   Rome.

-     Colonna, 196

-   Strà.

-     Pisani, 302

-   Venice.

-     Ducal, 15, 87, 90, 102, 109, 114-117, 170, 183,

-         211, 235, 236, 242, 260, 265, 267, 269, 272,

-         277, 281, 295, 308, 316

-     Giovanelli, 136

-     Labia, 304, 308

-     Rezzonico, 308

-   Verona.

-     Canossa, 302

-   Würzburg, 301, 308

- Palma Giovine, 285, 287, 295

- Palma Vecchio, 141, 184-188, 196, 203, 204, 214,

-     219, 231, 244

- Paolo da Venezia, 14

- Paris. _See_ Louvre

- Parma, 115

- Pellegrino, 213, 214, 219, 226

- Pennacchi, 104, 214

- Perugino, 133, 134, 202

- Pesaro, 90, 94, 102

- Pesellino, 48

- Piacenza, 216, 226

- Piero di Cosimo, 135

- Pietà, 86, 87, 179, 199, 223, 224

- Pintoricchio, 74, 135

- Pisanello (Pisano), 21, 22, 24-28, 31, 33, 34, 37,

-     39-42, 62, 224, 330

- Pordenone, 169, 170, 202, 204, 214-221, 226

- Previtali, 104, 114, 115

-

- Quirizio da Murano, 37

-

- Raphael, 140, 161, 174, 200, 213, 221, 234

- Ravenna, 117, 132

- Rembrandt, 285

- Ricci, Battista, 288, 300

- Ricci, Marco, 315

- Ricci, Sebastiano, 148, 288, 292, 296, 315

- Richter, Dr. J. P., 331

- Ricketts, Mr. C., 330

- Ridolfi, 108, 229, 234, 247, 282, 287, 329

- Rimini, 87, 89, 102

- Robusti, Domenico, 246, 282

- Robusti, Jacopo. _See_ Tintoretto

- Robusti, Marietta, 246

- Romanino, 219-221

- Rome, 143, 183, 188, 196, 197, 202, 211, 227, 267,

-     277, 314, 319

- Rondinelli, 104, 114, 117

- Rosalba Carriera, 288, 292-294, 296

- Rubens, 160, 165, 170, 285

- Ruskin, 264, 331

-

- Sansovino, 92, 167, 174, 192

- Santa Croce, Girolamo da, 56

- Sarto, Andrea del, 137, 140

- Savoldo, 66, 222

- Sebastian del Piombo, 140, 198, 199-202, 228

- Siena, 4, 11, 12

- Signorelli, 121

- Simonson, Mr., 322, 326, 331

- Smith, Joseph, 315, 323

- Speranza, 223

- Spilimbergo, 216, 226

- Strong, Mr. S. A., 329, 330

-

- Taylor, Miss Cameron, 94

- Tiepolo, Domenico, 307

- Tiepolo, G. B., 10, 297-307, 309, 312, 314, 315,

-     317, 318, 331

- Tintoretto, 10, 15, 25, 173, 179, 181, 210, 231,

-     234, 243, 245-251, 253-256, 258-267, 269, 273,

-     276, 281, 282, 285, 300, 317, 330, 331

- Titian, 65, 106, 130, 135, 137, 143, 144-160,

-     162-178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 191-193,

-     201, 204, 205, 210, 215, 217, 220, 221, 224,

-     231, 236, 239, 243-245, 250, 256, 265, 273-275,

-     281, 290, 318, 321, 330

- Torbido, Francesco, 225

- Treviso, 108, 183, 186, 202, 211, 215, 226, 239

-

- Uccello, Paolo, 26, 42, 48

- Urbino, 163, 168, 174

- Uzanne, M. O., 331

-

- Valmarana, Villa, 303

- Varotari. _See_ Padovanino

- Vasari, 15, 89, 130, 148, 169, 170, 174, 178, 199,

-     209, 219, 225, 247, 329

- Vecellio. _See_ Titian

- Vecellio, Marco, 171

- Vecellio, Orazio, 164, 174

- Vecellio, Pomponio, 166

- Velasquez, 285

- Venice. _See_ Academy

- Venturi, Professor Antonio, 40

- Venturi, Professor Leonello, vi, 38, 329

- Verona, 22, 24, 25, 28, 183, 227, 229, 242, 302,

-     315, 328

- Veronese, Paolo, 221, 228, 230-242, 247, 253, 269,

-     281, 283, 310, 331

- Vicentino, 287

- Vicenza, 57, 102, 185, 227, 242-277, 296, 303, 307

- Vienna, 67, 80, 110, 116, 117, 131, 143, 149, 183,

-     196, 197, 211, 242, 268, 277, 320

- Visentini, 319

- Viterbo, 202

- Vivarini. _See_ Alvise

- Vivarini. _See_ Bartolommeo

-

- Wallace Collection, 183, 320, 328

- Walpole, Horace, 292, 294, 319

- Watteau, 297, 311, 312

- Wickhoff, Dr., 154

- Windsor, 47, 320

-

- Yriarte, M. Charles, 229, 331

-

- Zanetti, 129, 148, 246, 269, 282, 283, 301

- Zelotti, 230

- Zoppo, Marco, 44

- Zucchero, Federigo, 236

-

-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***

+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 30098-h.htm or 30098-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30098/30098-h/30098-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30098/30098-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      1) Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some
+         questionable dates have been left as printed in the original
+         text.
+
+      2) Chapter IX--Sala del Gran Consiio possibly should be Sala
+         del Gran Consiglio.
+
+      3) Likely corrections are noted in brackets within the text
+         in the format [TN: . . .].
+
+
+
+
+
+THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING
+
+[Illustration: _Giorgione._
+                MADONNA WITH S. LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.
+               _Castelfranco._
+                (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+
+THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING
+
+by
+
+EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS
+
+With Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Books for Libraries Press
+Freeport, New York
+
+First Published 1912
+Reprinted 1972
+
+International Standard Book Number: 0-8369-6745-3
+Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-37907
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+By
+New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.
+Hallandale, Florida 33009
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Many visits to Venice have brought home the fact that there exists,
+in English at least, no work which deals as a whole with the Venetian
+School and its masters. Biographical catalogues there are in plenty, but
+these, though useful for reference, say little to readers who are not
+already acquainted with the painters whose career and works are briefly
+recorded. "Lives" of individual masters abound, but however excellent
+and essential these may be to an advanced study of the school, the
+volumes containing them make too large a library to be easily carried
+about, and a great deal of reading and assimilation is required to set
+each painter in his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's
+_History of Painting in North Italy_ still remains our sheet anchor; but
+it is lengthy, over full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the
+interesting criticism which of late years has collected round each
+master. There seems room for a portable volume, making an attempt to
+consider the Venetian painters, in relation to one another, and to help
+the visitor not only to trace the evolution of the school from its dawn,
+through its full splendour and to its declining rays, but to realise
+what the Venetian School was, and what was the philosophy of life which
+it represented.
+
+Such a book does not pretend to vie with, much less to supersede, the
+masterly treatises on the subject which have from time to time appeared,
+or to take the place of exhaustive histories, such as that of Professor
+Leonello Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should but serve to pave
+the way to deeper and more detailed reading. It does not aspire to give
+a complete and comprehensive list of the painters; some of the minor
+ones may not even be mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates, and
+facts would add unduly to the size of the book, and, when without real
+bearing on the course of Venetian art, would have little significance.
+What the book does aim at is to enable those who care for art, but may
+not have mastered its history, to rear a framework on which to found
+their own observations and appreciations; to supply that coherent
+knowledge which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance with
+beautiful things, and to place the unscientific observer in a position
+to take greater advantage of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and
+interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic apprehension which the
+Venetian School comprises, and which marks it as the outcome and the
+symbol of a great historic age.
+
+The works cited have been principally those with which the ordinary
+traveller is likely to come into contact in the chief European
+galleries, and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not propose to
+be exhaustive, but merely indicate the principal works of the artists.
+Those in private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate
+importance, are usually eliminated. It has not been thought necessary to
+use profuse illustrations, as the book is intended primarily for use
+when visiting the original works.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PART I
+
+ CHAPTER I                            PAGE
+   VENICE AND HER ART                    3
+
+ CHAPTER II
+   PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE              11
+
+ CHAPTER III
+   INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA      21
+
+ CHAPTER IV
+   THE SCHOOL OF MURANO                 29
+
+ CHAPTER V
+   THE PADUAN INFLUENCE                 33
+
+ CHAPTER VI
+   JACOPO BELLINI                       39
+
+ CHAPTER VII
+   CARLO CRIVELLI                       44
+
+ CHAPTER VIII
+   GENTILE BELLINI AND
+   ANTONELLO DA MESSINA                 48
+
+ CHAPTER IX
+   ALVISE VIVARINI                      58
+
+ CHAPTER X
+   CARPACCIO                            68
+
+ CHAPTER XI
+   GIOVANNI BELLINI                     81
+
+ CHAPTER XII
+   GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)       92
+
+ CHAPTER XIII
+   CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER
+   FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI                103
+
+
+ PART II
+
+ CHAPTER XIV
+   GIORGIONE                           121
+
+ CHAPTER XV
+   GIORGIONE (_continued_)             132
+
+ CHAPTER XVI
+   THE GIORGIONESQUE                   140
+
+ CHAPTER XVII
+   TITIAN                              144
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII
+   TITIAN (_continued_)                157
+
+ CHAPTER XIX
+   TITIAN (_continued_)                173
+
+ CHAPTER XX
+   PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO     184
+
+ CHAPTER XXI
+   SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO                198
+
+ CHAPTER XXII
+   BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE         203
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII
+   PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES  212
+
+ CHAPTER XXIV
+   PAOLO VERONESE                      228
+
+ CHAPTER XXV
+   TINTORETTO                          243
+
+ CHAPTER XXVI
+   TINTORETTO (_continued_)            254
+
+ CHAPTER XXVII
+   BASSANO                             269
+
+
+ PART III
+
+ CHAPTER XXVIII
+   THE INTERIM                         281
+
+ CHAPTER XXIX
+   TIEPOLO                             297
+
+ CHAPTER XXX
+   PIETRO LONGHI                       309
+
+ CHAPTER XXXI
+   CANALE                              314
+
+ CHAPTER XXXII
+   FRANCESCO GUARDI                    321
+
+
+ BIBLIOGRAPHY                          329
+
+ INDEX                                 333
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                               BY                 AT
+
+  1. Madonna with S. Liberale  Giorgione          Castelfranco
+     and S. Francis                                       _Frontispiece_
+
+  2. Adoration  of the         Antonio da Murano  Berlin
+     Magi                                                            31
+
+  3. Agony in Garden           Jacopo Bellini     British Museum     41
+
+  4. Procession of the         Gentile Bellini    Venice
+     Holy Cross                                                      52
+
+  5. Altarpiece of 1480        Alvise Vivarini    Venice             60
+
+  6. Arrival of the            Carpaccio          Venice
+     Ambassadors                                                     75
+
+  7. Pietà                     Giovanni Bellini   Brera              87
+
+  8. An Allegory               Giovanni Bellini   Uffizi             94
+
+  9. Fête Champêtre            Giorgione          Louvre            136
+
+ 10. Portrait of Ariosto       Titian             National Gallery  156
+
+ 11. Diana and Actaeon         Titian             Earl Brownlow     161
+
+ 12. Holy Family               Palma Vecchio      Colonna Gallery,
+                                                  Rome              185
+
+ 13. Portrait of Laura di      Lorenzo Lotto      Brera
+     Pola                                                           194
+
+ 14. Marriage in Cana          Paolo Veronese     Louvre            234
+
+ 15. S. Mary of Egypt          Tintoretto         Scuola di
+                                                  San Rocco         258
+
+ 16. Bacchus and Ariadne       Tintoretto         Ducal Palace      261
+
+ 17. Baptism of S. Lucilla     Jacopo da Ponte    Bassano           274
+
+ 18. Antony and Cleopatra      Tiepolo            Palazzo Labia,
+                                                  Venice            304
+
+ 19. Visit to the              Pietro Longhi      National Gallery
+     Fortune-Teller                                                 310
+
+ 20. S. Maria della Salute     Francesco Guardi   National Gallery  324
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PAINTERS
+
+
+ Paolo da Venezia, _fl._ 1333-1358.
+ Niccolo di Pietro, _fl._ 1394-1404.
+ Niccolo Semitocolo, _fl._ 1364.
+ Stefano di Venezia, _fl._ 1353.
+ Lorenzo Veneziano, _fl._ 1357-1379.
+ Chatarinus, _fl._ 1372.
+ Jacobello del Fiore, _fl._ 1415-1439.
+ Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.
+ Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), _circa_ 1385-1455.
+ Michele Giambono, _fl._ 1470.
+ Giovanni Alemanus, _fl._ 1440-1447.
+ Antonio da Murano, _circa_ 1430-1470.
+ Bartolommeo Vivarini, _fl._ 1420-1499.
+ Alvise Vivarini, _fl._ 1461-1503.
+ Antonello da Messina, _circa_ 1444-1493.
+ Jacopo Bellini, _fl._ 1430-1466.
+ Jacopo dei Barbari, _circa_ 1450-1516.
+ Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.
+ Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.
+ Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.
+ Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.
+ Gentile Bellini, _circa_ 1427-1507.
+ Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.
+ Lazzaro Bastiani, _fl._ 1470-1508.
+ Vittore Carpaccio, _fl._ 1478-1522.
+ Girolamo da Santa Croce.
+ Mansueti, _fl._ 1474-1510.
+ Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.
+ Vincenzo Catena, _fl._ 1495-1531.
+ Bissolo, 1464-1528.
+ Marco Basaiti, _circa_ 1470-1527.
+ Andrea Previtali, _fl._ 1502-1525.
+ Bartolommeo Veneto, _fl._ 1505-1555.
+ N. Rondinelli, _fl._ 1480-1500.
+ Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.
+ Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.
+ Giovanni Busi (Cariani), _circa_ 1480-1544.
+ Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.
+ Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.
+ Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.
+ Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).
+ Morto da Feltre, _circa_ 1474-1522.
+ Romanino, 1485-1566.
+ Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.
+ Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.
+ Bernardino Licinio, _fl._ 1520-1544.
+ Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), _circa_ 1498-1554.
+ Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), _fl._ 1510-1540.
+ Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.
+ Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.
+ Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.
+ Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.
+ Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.
+ Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.
+ Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.
+ Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.
+ Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.
+ Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.
+ Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.
+ G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.
+ Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.
+ Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.
+ Belotto, 1720-1780.
+ Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+VENICE AND HER ART
+
+
+Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether in character from
+that of every other part of Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and
+recognisable of all the schools; its singularity is such that a novice
+in art can easily, in a miscellaneous collection, sort out the works
+belonging to it, and added to this unique character is the position it
+occupies in the domain of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast
+an epoch of art comparable in originality and splendour to that of her
+great Florentine rival; an epoch which is to be classed among the great
+art manifestations of the world, which has exerted, and continues to
+exert, incalculable power over painting, and which is the inspiration as
+well as the despair of those who try to master its secret.
+
+The other schools of Italy, with all their superficial varieties of
+treatment and feeling, depended for their very life upon the extent to
+which they were able to imbibe the Florentine influence. Siena rejected
+that strength and perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly struck
+out on independent lines, achieving a magnificent victory.
+
+Art in Florence made a strictly logical progress. As civilisation awoke
+in the old Latin race, it went back in every domain of learning to the
+rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin and the alien structures left
+by the long barbaric dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour had
+never been a barbarian; and as the mind was once more roused to
+conscious life, Florence entered readily upon that great intellectual
+movement which she was destined to lead. Her cast of thought was, from
+the first, realistic and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to know the
+truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate experiments, to see things as
+they really were; and when she reached the point at which art was ready
+to speak, we find that the governing motive of her language was this
+same predilection for reality, and it was with this meaning that her
+typical artists found a voice. No artist ever sought for truth, both
+physical and spiritual, more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke
+more distinctly the mind of his age and country; and as one generation
+follows another, art in Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied to
+the intellectual movement. The scientific predilection for _form_, for
+the representation of things as they really are, characterises not
+Florentine painting alone, but the whole of Florentine art. It is an art
+of contributions and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at
+every step by dominating personalities, positively as well as relatively
+great, but with each member consciously absorbed in "going one better"
+than his predecessors, in solving problems and in mastering methods.
+Florentine art is the outcome of Florentine life and thought. It is part
+of the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason, of that exactitude
+of apprehension towards which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and
+the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards her, formed themselves on
+her pattern and worked upon the same lines, so that they have a certain
+general resemblance, and their excellence is in proportion to the
+thoroughness with which they have learned their lesson.
+
+The difference which separates Venetian from the rest of Italian
+painting is a fundamental one. Venice attains to an equally
+distinguished place, but the way in which she does it and the character
+of her contribution are both so absolutely distinct that her art seems
+to be the outcome of another race, with alien temperament and standards.
+Venice had, indeed, a history and a life of her own. Her entire
+isolation, from her foundation, gave her an independent government and
+customs peculiar to herself, but at the same time her people, even in
+their earliest and most precarious struggles, were no barbarians who
+had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life. Among the refugees
+were persons of high birth and great traditions, and they brought with
+them to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some political
+training and some idea of how to reconstruct their shattered social
+fabric. The Venetian Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence
+in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area was, every feature and
+sentiment was concentrated and intensified. But one element above all
+permeates it and sets it apart from other European States. The Oriental
+element in Venice must never be lost sight of if we wish to understand
+her philosophy of art.
+
+There are some grounds, seriously accepted by the most recent
+historians, for believing that the first Venetian colonists were the
+descendants of emigrants who in prehistoric times had established
+themselves in Asia and who had returned from thence to Northern Italy.
+"These colonists," says Hazlitt, "were called Tyrrhenians, and from
+their settlements round the mouth of the Po the Venetian stock was
+ultimately derived." If the tradition has any truth, we think with a
+deeper interest of that instinct for commerce which seems to have been
+in the very blood of the early Venetians. Did it, indeed, come down to
+them from the merchants of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful
+trading race which stretched out its arms all over Europe and
+penetrated even to our own island? From the first, Venice cut herself
+adrift, as far as possible, from Western ties, but she turned to Eastern
+people and to intercourse with the East with a natural affinity which
+savours of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived from her
+Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped with Eastern riches, must have
+assumed a deeply Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained many details
+peculiar to the East. The people observed a custom for choosing and
+dowering brides, which was of Asia. The national treatment of women was
+akin to that of an Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a retirement
+which recalled the life of the harem, only appearing on great occasions
+to display their brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled when
+they passed through the streets. The attachment of men to women had no
+intellectual bias, scarcely any sentiment, but "went straight to the
+mark: the enjoyment of physical beauty." The position of women in Venice
+was a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine lady of the
+Renaissance, who was highly educated, deeply versed in men and in
+affairs, the fine flower of culture, and the queen of a brilliant
+society. The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry was of Semitic
+intensity and seemed insatiable, and the gratification of the senses
+was a deliberate State policy. But passionate as was the spirit of
+patriotism, enthusiastic the love and loyalty of the people, the civic
+spirit was absent. The masses were contented to live under a despotic
+rule and to be little despots in their own houses. In the twelfth
+century the people saw power pass into the hands of the aristocracy, and
+as long as the despotism was a benevolent one, the event aroused no
+opposition. Like Orientals, the Venetians had wild outbursts, and like
+them they quieted down and nothing came of them. As Mr. Hazlitt remarks,
+"their occasional resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds of
+horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or enduring traces behind it. It
+established no principle. It taught no lesson." Venice was a Republic
+only in name. The whole aspect of her government is Eastern. Its system
+of espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and silent blows,--these
+are all Oriental traits, and the East entering into her whole life
+from without found a natural home awaiting it. We should be mistaken,
+however, in thinking that the Venetians in their great days were
+enervated and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to associate
+with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in the end drain the life out of
+her. "It is the disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not the
+same thing." The Venetians were by nature men with a deep capacity for
+feeling, and it is this deep feeling which has so large a share in
+Venetian art.
+
+The painters of Venice were of the people and had no wide intellectual
+outlook at its most splendid moment, such as was possessed by those men
+who in Florence were drawn into the company of the Medici and their
+court of scholars, and who all their lives were in the midst of a
+society of large aims and a free public spirit, in which men took their
+share of the responsibilities and honours of a citizen's life. The
+merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested in the solving of
+problems. They pay a price, and they want a good show of colour and
+gilding for their money. Presently they buy from outside, and a
+half-hearted imitation of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian
+artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare itself with true
+spontaneity till it feels behind it the weight and unanimity of the
+whole body of the people. That true outburst was long in coming, but its
+seeds were fructifying deep in a congenial soil. They were fostered by
+the warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and at last the racial
+instinct speaks with no uncertain accent in the great domain of art, and
+speaks in a new and unexpected way; as splendid as, yet utterly unlike,
+the grand intellectual declaration of Florence.
+
+Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all her history, in all
+her character, is Eastern rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom
+of feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion as opposed to
+intellect. Her whole story tells of a profoundly emotional and sensuous
+apprehension of the nature of things; and till the time comes when her
+artists are inspired to express that, their creations may be interesting
+enough, but they fail to reveal the true workings of her mind. When they
+do, they find a new medium and use it in a new way. Venetian colour,
+when it comes into its kingdom, speaks for a whole people, sensuous and
+of deep feeling, able for the first time to utter itself in art.
+
+We have to divide the history of the Venetian School into three parts.
+The first extends from the primitives to the end of Giovanni Bellini's
+life. He forms a link between the first and second periods. The second
+begins with Giorgione and ends with Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the
+Venetian School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century revival,
+in which Tiepolo is the most conspicuous figure, and which is in an
+equal degree the expression of the life of its time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE
+
+
+The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its influence, was
+particularly strong in Venice, where mosaics adorned the cathedral
+of Torcello from the ninth century and St. Mark's became a splendid
+storehouse of Byzantine art. The earliest mosaic on the façade of St.
+Mark's was executed about the year 1250, those in the Baptistery date
+during the reign of Andrea Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354. Yet
+though the life of Giotto lies between these two dates, and his frescoes
+at Padua were within a few hours' journey, there is no sign that the
+great revolution in painting, which was making itself felt in every
+principal centre of Italy, had touched the richest and most peaceful of
+all her States.
+
+Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of Byzantinism. It rose as that
+of the mosaicists fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence and
+Siena in being for long almost imperceptible. Artists were looked upon
+merely as artisans in all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any
+other city they had been placed among the craftsmen. The statute of the
+Guild of Siena was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is the
+earliest of which we have any record, and bears the date of 1272. There
+is scarcely a word to indicate that pictures in the modern sense of the
+term existed. Painters were employed on the adornment of arms and of
+household furniture. Leather helmets and shields were painted, and such
+banners as we see in Paolo Uccello's battlepieces. Painted chests and
+_cassoni_ were already in demand, dishes and plates for the table and
+the surface of the table itself were treated in a similar way. Special
+regulations dealt with all these, and it is only at the end of the list
+that anconæ are mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework, having a
+compartment containing a picture of the Madonna and Child, and others
+with single figures of the saints, and these were the only pictures
+proper produced at this date. The demand for anconæ was, however, large,
+and they were very early placed, not only in the churches, but in the
+houses of patricians and burghers. Constant disputes arose between the
+painters and the gilders. Pictures were habitually painted upon a gold
+ground, but the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds
+themselves. "Gilding is the business of the gilder, painting that of the
+painter," says a contemporary record. "Now the gilder contends that if
+a frame has to be gilt and then touched with colour, he is entitled to
+perform both operations, but the painter disputes this right, and
+maintains that the gilder should return it to him when the addition
+of painting is desired." It was, however, finally decided by law that
+each should exercise both professions, when one or the other played a
+subordinate part in the finished work. Though the art of mosaic was
+falling into decay as painting began to emerge, yet the commercial
+manufactory of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been established as early
+as 600, went on, on the Rialto, without any variation of the traditional
+forms.
+
+Florence very early discarded the temptation to cling to material
+splendour, but as we pass into the Hall of the Primitives in the
+Venetian Academy, we see at once that Venetian art, in its earlier
+stages, has more to do with the gilder than the painter. The Holy
+Personages are merely accessories to the gorgeous framework, the
+embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which were in favour with the rich
+and magnificent patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for painting
+as painting, no craving after the study of form as the outcome of
+intellectual activity, no zest of discovery, such as made the painter's
+life in Florence an excitement in which the public shared. What little
+Venice imbibes of these things is from outside influence, after due
+lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of merchants and statesmen,
+she was too much bound up in the transactions and sensations of actual
+life to develop any abstract and thoughtful ideals.
+
+Perhaps the first painting we can discover which shows any sign of
+independent effort is the series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the
+back of the Pala d' Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark, when it was
+restored in the fourteenth century. This reveals an artist with some
+pictorial aptitude and one alive to the subjects that surround him. It
+tells the story of St. Mark's corpse transported to Venice. The first
+panel contains a group of cardinals of varying types and expressions; in
+another the disciple listening to St. Mark's teaching, and crouching
+with his elbows on his knees, has a true, natural touch. The dramatic
+feeling here and there is considerable. The scene of the guards watching
+the imprisoned Saint through the window and seeing the shadow of two
+heads, as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct emotion; and there
+is force as well as feeling for decorative composition in the panel in
+which the Saint's body lies at the feet of the sailors, while his vision
+appears shining upon the sails.
+
+Except for the exaggerated insistence on the gilded elaborations of the
+early ancona, there is not much to differentiate the early art of Venice
+from that of other centres; but we notice that it persevered longer in
+the material and mechanical art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made
+little impression, and many years elapsed before work akin to that of
+Giotto attracted attention and was admired and imitated. A man like
+Antonio Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in Venice. He had
+too much of the simplicity of the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his
+work to Pisa, where his naïf and humorous narratives still delight us in
+the Campo Santo. It was in 1384 that he was employed to finish the
+frescoes of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted
+at Andrea da Firenze's death, and the fondness for architecture and
+surroundings in the Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome, may,
+as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo Gaddi, who had already visited
+Padua and Venice.
+
+In the last years of the fourteenth century tributary streams begin to
+feed the feeble main current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was employed
+by the State to paint a huge fresco of Paradise in the Hall of the Gran
+Consiglio of the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for centuries under
+the painting by Tintoretto, was uncovered in 1909 and found to be in
+fairly good preservation. It can now be seen in a side room. It tells us
+that Guariento had to some extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones
+have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more the Giottesque than the
+Byzantine cast and show that the old traditions were crumbling.
+
+When painting in Venice first begins to live a life of its own,
+Jacobello del Fiore stands out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous
+Venetians. His father had been president of the Painters' Guild. Jacopo
+himself was president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich and popular
+member of the State and a man of high character. His works, to judge
+by the specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of art, though in
+the banner of "Justice," in the Academy, the space is filled in a
+monumental fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the lily has
+something grand and graceful. We trace the same treatment of flying
+banners and draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but picturesque
+S. Grisogono in the left transept of San Trovaso. Jacobello's will,
+executed in 1439 in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole, with
+provision for a possible posthumous son, shows him to have been a man of
+considerable possessions. He owned a slave and had other servants, a
+house, money, and books. Among his fellow-workers who are represented in
+Venice are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and Lorenzo Veneziano.
+The important altarpiece by the last, in the Academy, has evidently been
+reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover over the Annunciation, and the
+Saints have been restored to the framework in such wise that the backs
+of many of them are turned on the momentous central event. In the
+"Marriage of St. Catherine," in the same gallery, Lorenzo gets more
+natural. The Child, in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a
+lively expression, and looks round at His Mother as if playing a game.
+The chapel of San Tarasio in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which
+the central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is identical with
+Lorenzo's other work. One of the finest and most elaborate of all the
+anconæ is in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work of Lorenzo.
+In this, as well as in that of San Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child
+the apple, signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and symbolical of
+the Incarnation. This incident, which is found thus early in art, was
+evidently felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child from a
+representation of a merely earthly relationship to a spiritual scene
+of the deepest meaning and the highest dignity.
+
+Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of the last decade of the
+fourteenth century, from which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,
+but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively drawn to the
+Giottesque movement, but not, we may remember, before Giotto had been
+dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has been confounded with
+Niccolo Semitocolo, but it is now realised that they were two distinct
+masters. The most important work of Michele Giambono which has come
+down to us is the signed ancona with five saints, now in the Venetian
+Academy. It is unusual to find a saint in the central panel instead of
+the Madonna. The saint is on a larger scale than his companions, and has
+hitherto passed as the Redeemer, but Professor Venturi has identified
+him as St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell and pilgrim's
+staff. It is clear from his size and position that the ancona has been
+painted for an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.
+
+The saints on the right are S. Michael and S. Louis of Toulouse. Between
+S. John the Evangelist and S. James is a monastic figure which has
+evidently changed places with S. John at some moment of restoration. If
+the two figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible. S.
+John is inculcating a message inscribed in his open book, while the monk
+is displaying his humble answer on his own page. The use in it of the
+term _servus_ suggests that he is a Servite, though the want of the
+nimbus precludes the idea that he is one of the founders. It is probable
+that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who, though considered as a saint from the
+time of his death, was not canonised for several centuries.
+
+The Mond Collection includes a glowing picture by Giambono; a seated
+figure clad in rich vestments and holding an orb, probably representing
+a "Throne," one of the angelic orders of the celestial Hierarchy.[1]
+
+ [1] These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M'N.
+ Rushforth in the _Burlington Magazine_ for October 1911.
+
+Works are still in existence which may be ascribed to one or other of
+these masters, or of which no attribution can be made, but we know
+nothing positive of any other artists of the time which preceded the
+influence of Gentile da Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that the
+Venetian School in its origin had any pretension to be a school of
+colour, or that it could claim anything like real excellence at a time
+when the Republic first became alive to the movement which was going on
+in other parts of Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Paolo da Venezia._
+
+ Venice.  St. Mark's: The Pala d' Oro.
+ Vicenza. Death of the Virgin.
+
+
+ _Lorenzo da Venezia._
+
+ Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.
+         Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.
+         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.
+ Berlin. Two Saints.
+
+
+ _Nicoletto Semitocolo._
+
+ Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.
+ Padua.  Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.
+
+
+ _Stefano da Venezia._
+
+ Venice. Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of
+           Semitocolo.
+
+
+ _Jacobello del Fiore._
+
+ Venice. Academy: Justice.
+         S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.
+
+
+ _Niccolo di Pietro._
+
+ Venice. S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.
+
+
+ _Michele Giambono._
+
+ Venice. Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.
+ London. Mond Collection: A "Throne."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA
+
+
+Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master, when he reached Venice in the
+early years of the fifteenth century, was already a man of note. He had
+received his art education in Florence, and he brought with him fresh
+and delicate devices for the enrichment of painting with gold, which,
+derived as it was from the Sienese assimilation of Byzantine methods,
+was very superior in fancy and refinement to anything that Venice had
+to show. He was a man of a gentle, mystic temperament, but he was
+accustomed to courts, and a finished master whose technique and artistic
+value was far beyond anything that the local painters were capable of.
+He spent some years in Venice, adorning the great hall with episodes
+from the legend of Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially cited,
+was of the battle between the Emperor and the Venetians. Gentile was
+working till about 1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were
+covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained some time in Bergamo and
+Brescia, and settled in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching
+Florence, he painted the famous "Adoration of the Magi," now in the
+Florentine Academy. Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;
+pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo S. Trinità, and he sent
+back two portraits after he had returned to his native Fabriano.
+
+We have no positive record of Gentile and Vittore Pisano, commonly
+called Pisanello, having met in Venice, but there is every evidence in
+their work that they did so, and that one overlapped the other in the
+paintings for the Ducal Palace.
+
+The School of Verona already had an honourable record, and its Guild
+dates from 1303. The following are its rules, the document of which is
+still preserved, while that of Venice has been lost:
+
+     RULES OF THE VERONESE GUILD (_abridged_)
+
+     1. No one to become a member who had not practised art for
+        twelve years.
+
+     2. Twelve artists to be elected members.
+
+     3. The reception of a new member depends on his being a senior.
+
+     4. The members are obliged in the winter season to take upon
+        themselves the instruction of all the pupils in turn.
+
+     5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.
+
+     6. Each member is bound to extend to another fraternal
+        assistance in necessity.
+
+     7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.
+
+     8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.
+
+     9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.
+
+    10. To follow the funerals of members with torches.
+
+    11. The President is to exercise reference authority.
+
+    12. The member who has the longest membership to be President.
+
+There were also by-laws, which provided that no master should accept
+a pupil for less than three years, and this acceptance had to be
+definitely registered by the public notary, a son, brother, grandson, or
+nephew being the only exceptions. No master might receive an apprentice
+who should have left another master before his time was out, unless with
+that master's free consent. There were penalties for enticing away a
+pupil, and others to be enforced against pupils who broke the agreement.
+Severe restrictions existed with regard to the sale of pictures, no one
+but a member of the Guild being allowed to sell them. No one might bring
+a work from any foreign place for purposes of sale. It might not
+even be brought to the town without the special permission of the
+_Gastaldiones_, or trustees of the Guild, and those trustees were
+permitted to search for and destroy forged pictures. Every painter,
+therefore, had to subordinate his interests and inclinations to the
+local school. It helps us to understand why the individual character of
+the different masters is so perceptible, and one of the primary causes
+of this must have been the careful training of the pupils in the
+master's workshop.
+
+The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello's first master, in the Church
+of S. Anastasia in Verona, shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at
+this early time following in the footsteps of Giotto. Three knights of
+the Cavalli family are presented by their patron saints to the Madonna.
+The composition has a large simplicity, a breadth of feeling which is
+carried into each gesture. The knights with their raised helmets, in the
+pattern of horses' heads, are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and
+dignified, and the saints are grand and stately. The picture has a
+delightful suavity and ease, and the colouring has evidently been
+lovely. The setting is in good proportion and more satisfactory than
+that of the Giottesques. From the series of frescoes in S. Antonio,
+Verona, we gather that while Venice was still limited to stiff anconæ,
+the Veronese masters were managing crowds of figures and rendering
+distances successfully. Altichiero puts in homely touches from everyday
+life with a freedom which shows he has not yet mastered the principles
+of selection or the dignified fitness which guided the great masters;
+as, for instance, in the case of the old woman, among the spectators of
+the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing her nose. He lets
+himself be drawn off by all manner of trivial detail and of gay costume;
+but again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the "Beheading of St.
+George," in the Paduan chapel of the Santo, he proves how well he
+understands the force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in gesture
+and expression, while the decorative use he makes of lances against the
+background was long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly surpassed,
+by Tintoretto.
+
+Pisanello, who followed quickly upon Altichiero and his assistant,
+Avanzi, exhibits the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations which
+commended Gentile da Fabriano to the splendour-loving Venetians. Verona,
+under the peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri, had long
+been the home of all knightly lore, and the artists had been employed to
+decorate chapels for the families of the great nobles. Among these,
+Pisanello had attained a high place. Though very few of his paintings
+remain, they all show these influences, and his subtly modelled medals
+establish him as a master of the most finished type. A much destroyed
+fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays the history of St. George and
+the Dragon. In the St. George we probably see the portrait of the great
+personage in whose honour the fresco was painted. He is mounting his
+horse, which, seen from behind, reminds us of the fore-shortened
+chargers of Paolo Uccello. The rescued princess, also a portrait, wears
+a magnificent dress and an elaborate headgear in the fashion of the day.
+Other horses, fiery and spirited, are grouped around, and in the band
+of cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is individualised; one is
+beautiful, another brutal, and so on through the seven. A greyhound
+and spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted, the background is
+excellent, and a realistic touch is given by the corpses which dangle
+unheeded from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined, but
+fortunately not restored, "Annunciation" in S. Fermo, has a simple,
+slender figure of the Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,
+with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed, child-like head with fair
+hair, is a most sweet and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in
+contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes round the church. All
+these paintings are too small to be the least effective at the height
+at which they are placed, and can only be seen with a good glass.
+Pisanello's art is not well adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he
+seems to have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as the two we
+possess. In these he is full of originality, and shows his love for the
+knightly life, the life of courts, in the armed _cap-à-pied_ figure of
+St. George, whose point-device armour is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat
+and feather. The artist's knowledge and love of animals and wild nature
+comes out in them, and his interest in beauty and chivalry as opposed to
+the outworn conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.
+
+We shall be able to trace the influence of both the Umbrian and the
+Veronese painter on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo Bellini, and
+it is important to note the likeness of the two to one another. In
+Gentile's "Adoration" we have on the one hand the Holy Family and the
+gay pageant of the kings, of which we could find the prototype in many
+an Umbrian panel. On the other we see those contrasting elements which
+were struggling in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals, in
+gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses. The two have no lasting
+effect, but though they created no actual school, they gave a stimulus
+to Venetian art, and started it on a new tack, enabling it to open its
+channels to fresh ideas. During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello
+del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new fashion to his early
+style, and the horse of S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in the
+"Adoration," or like Pisano's horses. Michele Giambono is actually found
+in collaboration, in the chapel of the Madonna da Mascoli in St. Mark's,
+with such a virile painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno, who
+is evidently responsible for God the Father and two of the Apostles; but
+Castagno must have been thoroughly antipathetic to the Venetians, and
+though he may have taught them the way to draw, he has not left any
+traces of a following.
+
+Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile's work in the Ducal Palace as
+already decaying, while Pisanello's was painted out by Alvise Vivarini
+and Bellini.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Gentile da Fabriano._
+
+ Florence. Academy: Adoration of the Magi.
+ Milan.    Brera: Altarpiece.
+
+
+ _Altichiero._
+
+ Padua. Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.
+        Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.
+
+
+ _Pisanello._
+
+ Padua.  S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.
+ Verona. S. Fermo: Annunciation.
+ London. S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SCHOOL OF MURANO
+
+
+The important little town of Murano, a satellite of Venice, lies upon an
+island, some ten minutes' row from the mother State, distinct from which
+it preserved separate interests and regulations. Its glass manufacture
+was safeguarded by the most stringent decrees, which forbade members of
+the Guild to leave the islet under pain of death. Its mosaics, stone
+work, and architecture speak of an early artistic existence, and we
+recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese painters to be the first
+to strike out into a more emancipated type than that of the primitives.
+The painter Giovanni of Murano, called Giovanni Alemanus or d' Alemagna,
+names between which Venetian jealousy for a time drew an imaginary
+distinction, had certainly received his early education in Germany, and
+betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more Gothic style; but he
+was a fellow-worker with Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great
+Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several large altarpieces in
+which they collaborated. "Christ and the Virgin in Glory" was painted
+for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an inscription with both names
+on a banderol across the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His hands
+on the shoulders of the Mother and Son, makes a group of which we find
+the origin in Gentile da Fabriano's altarpiece in the Brera, and it is
+probable that one if not both masters had been studying with the Umbrian
+and absorbing the principles he had brought to Venice. It is easy to
+trace the influence of Giovanni d' Alemagna, though not always easy to
+pick out which part of a picture belongs to him and which to Antonio
+working under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is a "Coronation of the
+Virgin," with Gothic ornaments such as are not found in purely Italian
+art at this period, but the example in which both masters can be most
+closely followed is the great picture in the Academy, the "Madonna
+enthroned," where she sits under a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here
+the Gothic surroundings become very florid, and have a gingerbread-cake
+effect, which Italian taste would hardly have tolerated. Many features
+are characteristic of the German; the huge crown worn by the Mother, the
+floriated ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque appearance of
+the throne. Through it all, heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn
+of the tender expression which came into Venetian art with Gentile.
+
+ [Illustration: _Antonio da Murano._
+                 ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
+                _Berlin._
+                 (_Photo, Hanfstängl._)]
+
+Giovanni d' Alemagna and Antonio da Murano were no doubt widely
+employed, and when the former died Antonio founded and carried on a
+real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in the parish of S. Maria
+Formosa with his wife, who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and the
+wills of both are still preserved in the parish archives. Gentile da
+Fabriano had set the example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses
+and strange animals; winding paths in the background and foreshortened
+limbs prove that attention had been drawn to Paolo Uccello's studies in
+perspective, while many figures and horses recall Pisanello. A striking
+proof of the sojourn of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in an
+"Adoration of Magi," now ascribed to Antonio da Murano, in which the
+central group, the oldest king kissing the Child's foot, is very like
+that in Gentile's "Adoration," but the foreshortened horses and the
+attendants argue the painter's knowledge of Pisanello's work. A
+comparison of the architecture in the background with that in the
+"St. George" in S. Anastasia shows the same derivation, and the dainty
+cavalier, who holds a flag and is in attendance on the youngest king, is
+reminiscent of St. George and St. Eustace in Pisanello's paintings in
+the National Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences of the
+two artists are combined.
+
+Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo, into partnership, and the
+title of da Murano was presently dropped for the more modern designation
+of Vivarini. Both brothers are fine and delicate in work, but from the
+outset of their collaboration the younger man is more advanced and more
+full of the spirit of the innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall
+of the Academy the Nativity has already a new realism; Joseph leans his
+head upon his hand, crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly
+vivid in expression, especially the old hermit holding the bell, whose
+face is brimming with ardent feeling.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Giovanni d' Alemanus and Antonio da Murano._
+
+ Venice. Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.
+
+
+ _Antonio da Murano._
+
+ Berlin. Adoration of Magi.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE PADUAN INFLUENCE
+
+
+And now into this dawning school, employed chiefly in the service of the
+Church, with its tentative and languid essays to understand Florentine
+composition, resulting in what is scarcely more than a mindless
+imitation, and with its rather more intelligent perception of the
+Humanist qualities of Pisanello's work, there enters a new factor; or
+rather a new agency makes a slightly more successful attempt than
+Gentile and Castagno had done to help the Venetians to realise the
+supreme importance of the human figure, its power in relation to other
+objects to determine space, its modelling and the significance of its
+attitude in conveying movement. Giotto had been able to present all
+these qualities in the human form, but he had done so by the light of
+genius, and had never formulated any sufficient rules for his followers'
+guidance. In Ghiberti's school, at the beginning of the fifteenth
+century, the fascination of the antique in art was making itself felt,
+but Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels it threatened to
+exercise, and had carried the Florentine school with him in his profound
+researches into the human form itself. Donatello had been working in
+Padua for ten years before Pisanello's death, and in an indirect way the
+Venetians were experiencing some after-results of the systematising and
+formulating of the new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual
+life had met with little encouragement among the positive, practical
+inhabitants of Venice, in Padua, which had been subject to her since
+1405, speculative thought and ideal studies were in full swing. There
+was no re-birth in Venice, whose tradition was unbroken and where "men
+were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo of a paganism in the
+remote past." St. Mark was the deity of Venice, and "the other twelve
+Apostles" were only obscurely connected with her religious life, which
+was strong and orthodox, but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms
+and inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand, was absorbed in
+questions of learning and religion. A university had been established
+here for two centuries. The abstract study of the antique was carried on
+with fervour, and the memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city which
+had never quite died out. It seemed perfectly right and respectable to
+the Venetians that the _savants_, lying safely removed from the busy
+stream of commercial life, should cultivate inquiries into theology
+and the classics, which would only have been a hindrance to their own
+practical business; but such, as it was well known, were of absorbing
+interest in the circles which gathered round the Medici in Florence. The
+school of art, which was now arising in Padua, was fed from such sources
+as these. The love of the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding
+principle, and influenced the art of painting more formally than it
+could succeed in doing among the independent and original Florentines.
+
+Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says, he may not have been the
+best of painters, has left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as
+genuine and which shows that he was more than the mere organiser he is
+sometimes called. He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently a
+dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments, which was becoming
+widespread. When he founded his school in Padua he evidently was its
+leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence. His pupils, even the
+greatest, were long in breaking away from his convention, and few of
+them threw it off entirely, even in after life. That convention was
+carried with undeviating thoroughness into every detail. Draperies are
+arranged in statuesque folds, designed to display every turn of the form
+beneath; the figures are moulded with all the precision and limitations
+of statuary. The very landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a
+volcanic character are constructed with the regularity of masonry. The
+colour and technique are equally uncompromising, and the surface becomes
+a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite in its lines, lacquer-like in
+its firmness of finish, while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been
+so prevalent, were replaced by more or less pedantic adaptations from
+Roman bas-reliefs. This system of design was practised most determinedly
+in Padua itself, but it soon spread to Venice. Squarcione himself was
+employed there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano clung to the old
+archaic style he saw the Paduan manner invading his kingdom, and his own
+brother became strongly Squarcionesque.
+
+The two brothers of Murano come most closely together in an altarpiece
+in the gallery of Bologna, where the framework is more simple than
+Alemanus's German taste would have permitted, and the Madonna and Child
+have some natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive art.
+Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and sets out to paint by himself, is
+crude and strong, but full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464,
+in the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking them off their
+pedestals and making them stand upon the ground, and though they are
+still isolated from one another in the partitions of an ancona, their
+sparkling eyes, individual features, and curly beards give them a look
+of life. The draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked folds,
+which display the forms, and the drawing of the bony structure,
+exaggerated in the arms and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and
+stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In several of his other
+altarpieces, Bartolommeo introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,
+such as Donatello had first brought to Padua, or which Paduan artists
+delighted to copy from classic columns. Antonio's manner to the end is
+the local Venetian manner, infused as it was with the soft and charming
+influence of Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo adopts
+the new and more ambitious style. Though not a very good painter, and
+inclined to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he was the head
+of a crowd of artists, and works of his school, signed _Opus factum_,
+went all over Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works of his
+pupils are numerous; the "St. Mark enthroned" in the Frari is as good if
+not better than the master's own work, and the triptych in the Correr
+Museum is a free imitation.
+
+Round this early school gathered such painters as Antonio da Negroponte
+and Quirizio da Murano, who were both working in 1450. Negroponte has
+left an enthroned Madonna in S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of
+the most beautiful examples of colour and of the fanciful charm of the
+Renaissance that the early art of Venice has to show. The Mother and
+Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned with antique reliefs, rich
+wreaths of fruit swag above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full of
+flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on cornucopias. On either
+side, four badly drawn little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly
+foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful, music-making angels which
+became such a feature of North Italian art. The Divine Mother, adoring
+the Child lying across her knees, has an exquisite, pensive face,
+conceived with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art. It seems
+quite possible, as Professor Leonello Venturi suggests, that we have
+here the early master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love of fruit
+garlands, of chains of beads and rich brocades carried to its farthest
+limits, who takes keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively
+little angels, and who gives the same pensive and almost mincing
+expression to his Madonnas.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini._
+
+ Bologna. Altarpiece.
+
+
+ _Bartolommeo Vivarini._
+
+ Venice. Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.
+         Frari: Madonna and four Saints.
+         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.
+         S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.
+ London. Madonna and Saints.
+ Vienna. S. Ambrose and Saints.
+
+
+ _Antonio da Negroponte._
+
+ Venice. S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+JACOPO BELLINI
+
+
+While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the school of Squarcione,
+which in the next few years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,
+another influence was asserting itself, which was sufficient to
+counteract the hard formalism of Paduan methods.
+
+When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he carried with him, and presently
+established with him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini, who had
+already been working with him and Pisanello, and who was an ardent
+disciple of the new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both Gentile and
+his apprentice were subjected to annoyance from the time they arrived in
+Florence, where the strict regulations which governed the Guilds made it
+very difficult for any newcomer to practise his art. The records of a
+police case report that on the 11th of June 1423 some young men, among
+them, one, Bernabo di San Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed
+throwing stones into the painter's room. His assistant, Jacopo Bellini,
+came out and drove the assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing
+Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to prison in default of
+payment. After six months' imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a
+penitential declaration set him at liberty. The accounts declare that
+Gentile took no steps to be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon
+after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first son was christened after
+his old master, which does not look as though they were on unfriendly
+terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and was much esteemed by the
+Estes of Ferrara, but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has left us only
+three signed works, and one or two more have lately been attributed to
+him, but they give very little idea of what an important master he was.
+
+ [Illustration: _Jacopo Bellini._
+                 AGONY IN GARDEN--DRAWING.
+                _British Museum._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+His Madonna in the Academy has a round, simple type of face, and in the
+Louvre Madonna, which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to
+recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut, curved eyelids. In
+this picture, where the Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d' Este,
+we see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through him, on Venetian art.
+The connection between the two masters has been established in a very
+interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi's discovery of a sonnet,
+written in 1441, which recounts how they painted rival portraits of
+Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness that he was
+adjudged the first place. The landscape in the Louvre picture is
+advanced in treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its stag and
+its town upon the hill-side, is full of reminiscences of Pisanello,
+especially of the "St. George" in S. Anastasia. We come upon such
+traces, too, in Jacopo's drawings, and it is by his two sketch-books
+that we can best judge of his greatness. One of these is in the British
+Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered not many years ago in
+the granary of a castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo as one
+of the greatest masters of his day. He is larger, simpler, and more
+natural than Pisanello, and he apparently cares less for the human
+figure than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings. Many of his
+designs we shall refer to again when we come to speak of his two sons.
+His "Supper of Herod" reminds us of Masolino's fresco at Castiglione
+d' Olona. He sketches designs for numbers of religious scenes, treated
+in an original and interesting manner. A "Crucifixion" has bands of
+soldiers ranged on either side, an "Adoration of the Magi" has a string
+of camels coming down the hill, the executioners in a "Scourging" wear
+Eastern head-dresses. In a sketch for a "Baptism of Christ" tall angels
+hold the garments in the early traditional way; on one side two play
+the lute and the violin, while the two on the other side have a trumpet
+and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension, Resurrection,
+Circumcision, and Entombment, repeated over and over again with
+variations, and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice (where he was
+in 1427). Jacopo delights even more in fanciful and mythological than in
+sacred subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun riding a lion, a
+"Triumph of Bacchus" with panthers, are among such essays. The fauns
+pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His love of animals is equal
+to that of Pisanello, and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix
+between its horns is directly reminiscent of the Veronese. His horses,
+of which there are immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied from
+ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of single nude figures is often
+poor and weak enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped, geological
+formation of the Paduan School, but no one who so drank in every
+description of lively scene about him could have been in any danger of
+becoming a mere archeological type, and it was from this pitfall that he
+rescued Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo did not overlook any
+source of art open to him; he delights in the rich research of the
+Paduans as much as in the varieties of wild nature and all the incidents
+of contemporary life first annexed by Pisanello. He is often very like
+Gentile da Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello's domains of
+perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws a revel of satyrs and
+centaurs with a real interpretation of the lyrical and pagan spirit of
+the Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul, which found its full
+expression in his son, Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the
+founder of the Venetian School, for its makings existed already, but it
+was his influence on his sons which, above all, was accountable for the
+development of early excellence. His long, flowing lines have a sweep
+and a fanciful grace which form an absolute antidote to the definite,
+geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we see the thorough
+assimilation of those foreign elements which were in sympathy with
+the Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now Venice had only imbibed
+influences, she was soon to create for herself an artistic _milieu_ and
+to become the leader of the movement of painting in the north of Italy.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Jacopo Bellini._
+
+ Brescia. Annunciation and Predelle.
+ Verona.  Christ on Cross.
+ Venice.  Academy: Madonna.
+          Museo Correr: Crucifixion.
+ London.  British Museum: Sketch-book.
+ Paris.   Madonna and Leonello d' Este: Sketch-book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CARLO CRIVELLI
+
+
+We must turn aside from the main stream when we come to speak of Carlo
+Crivelli, who, important master as he was, occupies a place by himself.
+A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps, as we have noted, of Antonio
+Negroponte, Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the Paduans, from whom
+he learned that metallic, finished quality of paint which he carried to
+perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality, even genius, in the
+way in which he grapples with his medium and produces his own reading,
+and the circumstances of his life were such as to throw him in upon
+himself and to preserve his originality. His little early "Madonna and
+Child" at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte by the elaborate
+festoons, strings of beads, and large-patterned brocades used in the
+surroundings, and has those ugly, foreshortened little _putti_, holding
+the instruments of the Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione and
+Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved state, we are accustomed to
+think of as Mantegnesque.
+
+When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he was condemned to six
+months' imprisonment and to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage
+on a neighbour's wife. Perhaps it was to escape from an unenviable
+reputation that he left Venice soon after and set up painting in the
+Marches, where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then went on to Camerino
+in Umbria, where his great triptych, now in the Brera, was painted,
+and a few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission for an
+Annunciation in the Cathedral. This is the picture now in the National
+Gallery, in which the Bishop holds a model of the Duomo. After 1490 he
+worked in little towns in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.
+He does not seem ever to have come back to Venice.
+
+Shut up in the Marches, where there was little strong local talent, and
+where he could not keep up with the progress that was taking place in
+Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the artistic movement. He kept
+the Squarcionesque traditions to the end, but moulded them by his own
+love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover, he was of a very
+intense religious bias, and this finds a deeply touching and mystical
+expression, more especially in his Pietàs. The love of gilded patterns
+and fanciful detail was deep-seated in all the Umbrian country. His
+altarpieces were intended as sumptuous additions to rich churches, and
+were consequently arranged, with many divisions, in the old Muranese
+manner. His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a marvel of
+elaborate ornament and enamel-like painting. The Madonna is delicate,
+almost affected in her refinement. Her long fingers hold the Child's
+garment with the extreme of dainty precision, the croziers and rings of
+the saints and bishops are embossed with gold and real jewels. The
+flowers in the panel of "The Immaculate Conception," which hangs beside
+it, are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and grotesques or
+cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty of strength, and his male saints have
+vigorous, bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however, in his
+colour that he charms us most, and though he does not touch the real
+fount, he is of all the earlier school the most remarkable for subtle
+tender tones and lovely harmonies of olive-greens and faded rose and
+cream embossed with gold.
+
+Crivelli continued executing one great ancona after another, limiting
+his progress to perfecting his technique, and his influence was most
+deeply felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San Severino and
+Niccola Alunno. The honours paid him testify to the reputation he
+acquired. He was created a knight and presented with a golden laurel
+wreath. But though he never, that we can hear of, revisited his native
+State, he always adds _Venetus_ to the signature on his paintings, a
+fact which tells us that far from Venice and in provincial districts,
+her prestige was felt and gave his work an enhanced commercial value.
+He had no after-influence upon the Venetian School, and in this respect
+is interesting as an example of the tenacity exercised by the
+Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by any counter-attraction, they
+came to act upon a very different temperament; for in his love of grace
+and beauty and of rich effects, and especially in his intensity of
+mystic feeling, Crivelli is a true Venetian and has no natural affinity
+with the classic spirit of the Paduans.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Venice. SS. Jerome and Augustine.
+ Ascoli. Duomo: Altarpiece and Pietà.
+ Berlin. Madonna and six Saints.
+ London. Pietà; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation;
+           Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.
+         Mr. Benson: Madonna.
+         Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.
+         Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.
+         Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion;
+           Madonna; Madonna and Saints.
+ Milan. Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot,
+          Jerome, and Andrew.
+        Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.
+ Rome.  Vatican: Pietà.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
+
+
+What, then, is the position which art has achieved in Venice a decade
+after the middle of the fourteenth century, and how does she compare
+with the Florentine School? The Florentines, Fra Angelico, Andrea del
+Castagno, and Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo was in his
+prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four, Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But
+though the progress in the north had been slower, art both in Padua and
+Venice was now in vigorous progress. Bartolommeo Vivarini was still
+painting and gathering round him a numerous band of followers; Mantegna
+was thirty, had just completed the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and
+the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile and Giovanni Bellini were
+two and four years his seniors.
+
+Francesco Negro, writing in the early years of the sixteenth century,
+speaks of Gentile as the elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is
+thought to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo's widow only
+mentions Gentile and another son, Niccolo, in her will. There is every
+reason to believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were the pupils
+and assistants of their father. A "Madonna" in the Mond Collection, the
+earliest known of Gentile's works, shows him imitating his father's
+style; but when his sister, Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is
+not surprising to find him following Mantegna's methods for a time, and
+a fresco of St. Mark in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission
+which he received in 1466, is taken direct from Mantegna's fresco at
+Padua.
+
+As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the Squarcionesque tradition and
+evolved a style of their own; Gentile as much as his even more famous
+brother. Gentile is the first chronicler of the men and manners of his
+time. In 1460 he settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the organ
+doors in St. Mark's. These large saints, especially the St. Mark, still
+recall the Paduan period. They have festoons of grapes and apples hung
+from the architectural ornaments, and the cast of drapery, showing the
+form beneath, reminds us of Mantegna's figures. But Gentile soon becomes
+an illustrator and portrait painter. Much of his work was done in the
+Scuola of St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this was destroyed
+by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the fine austere portrait of Lorenzo
+Giustiniani, in the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the Sultan
+Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested the Signoria to recommend a good
+painter and a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen, and departed
+in September for Constantinople. He painted many subjects for the
+private apartments of the Sultan, as well as the famous portrait now in
+the possession of Lady Layard. It would be difficult for a historic
+portrait to show more insight into character. The face is cold, weary,
+and sensual, with all the over-refined look of an old race and a long
+civilisation, and has a melancholy note in its distant and satiated
+gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile every mark of favour, loaded him with
+presents, and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He returned home in
+1493, bringing with him many sketches of Eastern personages and the
+picture, now in the Louvre, representing the reception of a Venetian
+Embassy by the Grand Vizier. Some five years before Gentile's commission
+to Constantinople Antonello da Messina had arrived in Venice, and the
+spread and popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the casting off
+of outworn ecclesiastical methods and brought the painters nearer to the
+truth of life. Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the notice
+of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo Vivarini was already using them in
+1473, but he was well known by reputation before he arrived, and having
+probably come into contact with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had
+better opportunities of seizing upon the new technique, and was able to
+establish it both in Milan and in Venice. A large number of Venetians
+were at this time resident in Messina: the families of Lombardo,
+Gradenigo, Contarini, Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those
+who had members settled there. Many of these were patrons of art, and
+probably paved the way to Antonello's reception in Venice. At first all
+the traits of Antonello's early work are Flemish: the full mantles,
+white linen caps and tuckers, the straight sharp folds and long wings of
+the angels have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to Venice in 1475,
+its colour and life fascinate him, and a great change comes over his
+work. His portraits show that he grasped a new intensity of life,
+and let us into the character of the men he saw around him. His
+"Condottiere," in the Louvre, declares the artist's recognition of
+that truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic disdain, the
+product of a daring, unscrupulous life. The "Portrait of a Humanist,"
+in the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest sense; and in the
+Trivulzio College at Milan an older man looks at us out of sly,
+expressive eyes, with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical
+mouth. It was not wonderful that these portraits, combined with the new
+medium, worked upon Gentile's imagination and determined his bent.
+
+The first examples of great canvases, illustrating and celebrating
+their own pageants, must have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes
+in the style of the reception of the Venetian ambassadors were called
+for on all hands, and when the excellence of Gentile's portraits was
+recognised, he became the model for all Venice. When his own and his
+father's and brother's paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered
+to replace them "quicker than was humanly possible" and at a very low
+price. Giovanni, who had been engaged on the external decorations, was
+ill at the time, but the Signoria was so pleased with the offer that it
+was decided to let no one touch the work till the two brothers were
+able to finish it. Gentile still painted religious altarpieces with the
+Virgin and Child enthroned with saints, but most of his time was devoted
+to the production of his great canvases. Some of these have disappeared,
+but the "Procession" and "Miracle of the Cross," commissioned by the
+school of S. Giovanni Evangelista, are now in the Academy, and the
+third canvas, executed for the same school, "St. Mark preaching at
+Alexandria," which was unfinished at the time of his death, and was
+completed by his brother, is in the Brera.
+
+ [Illustration: _Gentile Bellini._
+                 PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.
+                _Venice._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+These great compositions of crowds bring back for us the Venice of
+Gentile's day as no verbal description can do. There is no especial
+richness of colour; the light is that of broad day in the Piazza and
+among the luminous waterways of the city. We can see the scene any
+day now in the wide square, making allowance for the difference of
+costume. The groups are set about in the ample space, with the wonderful
+cathedral as a background. St. Mark's has been painted hundreds of
+times, but no one has ever given such a good idea of it as Gentile--of
+its stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and he does so
+without detracting from the general effect, for St. Mark's, though the
+keynote of the whole composition, is kept subservient, and is part of
+the stage on which the scene is enacted. The procession passes along,
+carrying the relics, attended by the waxlights and the banners. Behind
+the reliquary kneels the merchant, Jacopo Salò, petitioning for the
+recovery of his wounded son. Then come the musicians; the spectators
+crowd round, they strain forward to see the chief part of the cortège,
+as a crowd naturally does. Some watch with reverence, others smile or
+have a negligent air. The faces of the candle-bearers are very like
+those we may see to-day in a great Church procession: some absorbed in
+their task, or uplifted by inner thoughts; others looking curiously
+and sceptically at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds to bring
+together all the types of life in Venice, all the officials and the
+ecclesiastical world, the young and old. With a few strokes he creates
+the individual and also the type;--the careless rover; the responsible
+magistrate; the shrewd, practical man of business; the young men, full
+of their own plans, but pausing to look on at one of the great religious
+sights of their city. In the "Finding of the Cross" he produces the
+effect of the whole city _en fête_. It was a sight which often met his
+eyes. The Doge made no fewer than thirty-six processions annually to
+various churches of the city, and on fourteen of these occasions he was
+accompanied by the whole of the nobles dressed in their State robes.
+Every event of importance was seized on by the Venetian ladies as an
+opportunity for arraying themselves in the richest attire, cloth of gold
+and velvet, plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies of Queen
+Catherine Cornaro's Court around their Queen upon the left side of the
+canal. The light from above streams upon the keeper of the School, who
+holds the sacred relic on high. All round are the old, irregular
+Venetian houses, and in the crowd he paints the variety of men he saw
+around him every day in Venice. Yet even in this animated scene he
+retains his old quattrocento calm. The groups are decorously assisting:
+only here and there he is drawn off to some small detail of reality,
+such as an oarsman dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting the
+negro servant pass out to take a header into the canal. The spectators
+look on coolly at one more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The
+committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of unforgettable portraits,
+grave, benign, sour, and austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In
+this composition he triumphs over all difficulties of perspective; our
+eye follows the canals, and the boats pass away under the bridge in
+atmospheric light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of light on
+broad brick surfaces, light which is cast up from the water and dances
+and shimmers on the marble façades.
+
+Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as others in 1505 and 1506. He
+left word that he was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and begged
+his brother Giovanni to finish the work in the Scuola, in return for
+which he is to receive their father's sketch-book. The unfinished piece
+is the "St. Mark preaching at Alexandria," and it shows Gentile still
+developing his capacity as a painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant
+in sunlight. The mass of white given by the head-dresses of the Turkish
+women is cleverly subdued so as not to detract from the effect of the
+sunlight. The thronged effect of the great square is studied with more
+than his usual care, and the faces have all the old individuality. The
+foremost figures in the crowd have a colour and richness which we may
+attribute to Giovanni's hand.
+
+Gentile was always fully employed, and the detailed paintings of
+functions became very popular; but he was a far less modern painter
+than his brother, and, in fact, they represent two distinct artistic
+generations, though Gentile's work was so much the most elaborate and,
+as the quattrocento would have thought, the most ambitious.
+
+Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet his is a grave, sincere
+art, and he has an unerring instinct for the right incidents to include.
+He cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are stern, powerful
+men, the treatment is historic and contemporary, but not gossipy. We
+realise the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide of human
+nature, but we also feel that he never forgot that he was chronicling
+the doings of a city of strong men, and that he must paint them, even in
+their hours of relaxation and emotion, so as to convey the real dignity
+and power which underlay all the events of the Republic.
+
+We gather from his will and that of his wife that they had no children,
+which perhaps makes the more natural the affectionate terms upon which
+he remained all through his life with his brother. Their artistic
+sympathies must have differed widely. Gentile's love for historical
+research, for costume and for pageants, found no echo in the deeper
+idealism of Giovanni--indeed, his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an
+inducement to the latter to finish his last great work, seems to hint
+that it was an exercise out of his brother's line; but he knew that
+Giovanni was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we might have
+expected, to his assistants, Giovanni Mansueti and Girolamo da
+Santacroce.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Gentile Bellini._
+
+ London. S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.
+ Milan.  Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.
+ Venice. Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of
+           True Cross; Healing by True Cross.
+         Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.
+
+
+ _Antonello da Messina._
+
+ Antwerp. Crucifixion, 1475.
+ Berlin.  Three Portraits.
+ London.  The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.
+ Messina. Madonna and Saints, 1473.
+ Paris.   Condottiere.
+ Milan.   Portrait of a Humanist.
+ Venice.  Academy: Ecce Homo.
+ Vicenza. Christ at the Column.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ALVISE VIVARINI
+
+
+Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were artists still firmly attached to
+the past, who were far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.
+
+One of Antonio de Murano's sons, Luigi or Alvise Vivarini, grew up to
+follow his father's profession, and was enrolled in the school of his
+uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic follower of
+Squarcione, Alvise was at first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo
+Bellini's efforts had done something to counteract the hard, statuesque
+Paduan manner, and had rendered Mantegna's art more human and less
+stony, but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque painters from
+importing into Venice the style which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo
+threw in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially when
+reinforced by Alvise, maintained its reputation as long as it only
+had to compete with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been firmly
+established in Venice for two generations, and were the best-known and
+most popular of her painters. Albert Dürer, on his first visit, admired
+them more than the Bellini. When, however, Gentile and his brother set
+up in Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and the old Muranese
+School. The Bellini had come with their father from Padua, with all its
+new and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige of relationship
+with Mantegna, and they shared the patronage of his powerful employers.
+The striking historical compositions of Gentile were at once in demand
+by the great confraternities. Bartolommeo had never been very successful
+in his dealing with oil-painting, though he had dabbled in it for some
+years before Antonello da Messina came his way, but the perception with
+which the Bellini at once grasped the new technique gave them the
+victory. We have only to compare the formless contours of much of
+Bartolommeo Vivarini's work, the bladder-like flesh-painting of the
+Holy Child, with the clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of
+Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead of the other.
+
+Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity with his father than with his
+uncle. He never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as Bartolommeo. The
+expression of his faces is much deeper and more inward, and he has
+something of the devotional sweetness of early art. His first known
+work is an ancona of 1475 at Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan
+monastery on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of the five
+panels the Madonna sits with her hands pressed palm to palm, in
+adoration of the Child asleep across her knees. The painter here follows
+the tradition of his father and uncle, especially in the Bologna
+altarpiece, in which they collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on
+either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in the old way, and
+it is only by degrees that we see there is more sweetness in the
+expression, better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer, more
+graceful outline than the earlier anconæ can show. Only five years after
+this ancona at Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated saints,
+we have the altarpiece in the Academy "of 1480," which was painted for a
+church in Treviso, and here a great change is immediately apparent. The
+antiquated division into panels has disappeared, nothing is left of the
+artificial, Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are simple, and
+the scene is a united one. The Madonna's outstretched hand, the
+suggestion of "Ecce Agnus Dei," makes an appeal which draws the
+attention of all the saints to one point, and it is made plain that the
+one idea pervades the entire assembly. The curtain, which symbolises the
+sanctuary, still hangs behind the throne, but the gold background is
+abandoned. Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape or
+constructed an interior, but he lightens the effect by two arched
+windows which let in the sky. The forms are characteristic of his
+idea of drawing the human figure; they have the long thighs with the
+knees low down, which we are accustomed to find, and he constructs a
+very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light and shade. There is no
+trace of the statuesque Paduan draperies. The Virgin's brocaded mantle
+is simply draped, and the robes of the saints hang in long straight
+folds. No doubt Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini, has
+more affinity with them, particularly with Giovanni, than with the
+Paduan artists, and as time goes on it is evident that he paints with
+many glances at what they were doing. In the altarpiece in Berlin he
+constructs an elaborate cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was
+already using. His saints are full of movement. In the end he begins to
+attitudinise and to display those artificial graces which were presently
+accentuated by Lotto.
+
+ [Illustration: _Alvise Vivarini._
+                 ALTARPIECE OF 1480.
+                _Venice._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time been employed in the Sala del
+Gran Consiglio by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy school, had
+hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be invited to enter into competition
+with them. At length he wrote the following letter:--
+
+     TO THE MOST SERENE THE PRINCE AND THE MOST EXCELLENT
+     SIGNORIA--I am Alvise of Murano, a faithful servant of your
+     Serenity and of this most illustrious State. I have long been
+     anxious to exercise my skill before your Sublimity and prove
+     that continued study and labour on my part have not been
+     useless. Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and
+     praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without
+     return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing a canvas
+     in the Sala del Gran Consiio, according to the method at
+     present in use by the two brothers Bellinii, and I ask no more
+     for the said canvas than that I should be allowed the expenses
+     of the cloth and colours as well as the wages of the
+     journeymen, in the manner that has been granted to the said
+     Bellinii. When I have done I shall leave to your Serenity of
+     his goodness to give me in his wisdom the price which shall be
+     adjudged to be just, honest, and appropriate, in return for the
+     labour, which I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the
+     universal satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the
+     excellent Government, to the grace of which I most heartily
+     commend myself.
+
+The "method at present in use" was presumably the oil-painting
+established by Antonello, which was now being made use of to replace
+the decorations in fresco and tempera which Guariento, Pisanello, and
+Gentile da Fabriano had executed, and which were constantly decaying and
+suffering from the sea air and the dampness of the climate. The Council
+accepted Alvise's offer with little delay, and he was told to paint a
+picture for a space hitherto occupied by one of Pisanello's, and was
+given a salary of sixty ducats a year, something less than that drawn by
+Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work, scenes from the history of
+Barbarossa, perished in the great fire of 1577.
+
+Venice is rich in works which show us what sort of painter was at the
+head of the Muranese School at the time when it rivalled that of the
+Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either side of the altarpiece
+of 1480, and of these the Baptist is one of his best figures, "admirably
+expressive of tension and of brooding thought." It is large and free in
+stroke, and particularly advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close
+by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type of a strenuous, fanatical
+old woman, one which belongs not only to the period, but will be
+recognised by every student of human nature. Formidable and even cruel
+is her unflinching gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood for
+Scott's Prioress, and looks as little likely to show mercy to an erring
+member of her order. In contrast, there is the exquisite little "Madonna
+and Child" with the two baby angels, still shown as a Bellini in the
+sacristy of the Church of the Redentore. It is the most absolutely
+simple and direct picture of the kind painted in Venice. The baby life
+is more perfect than anything that Gian. Bellini produced, and if much
+less intellectual than his Madonnas, there is all the tender charm of
+the primitives, combined with a freedom of drapery and a softness of
+form which could not be surpassed. The two little angels are more
+mundane in spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they have nothing
+of the mystical quality, though we are reminded of Bellini, and the
+painting is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy of San Giobbe is
+an early Annunciation, which is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It
+has the old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its draperies are of
+a lovely tint. The priests of S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons
+of the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides several works by
+Bartolommeo and his assistants, is a little Madonna in a side chapel,
+which may be compared with the Redentore picture. The Mother sits inside
+a room, with the Child lying across her knees in the same pose. The two
+arched openings in the background of the 1480 altarpiece have become
+windows, through which we look out on a charming landscape of lake and
+mountain. In the same church a "Resurrection" is not to be overlooked.
+It was executed in 1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the
+sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the pink flush of dawn
+stands the swaying figure of the risen Christ, and below appear the
+heads of the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful. It is perhaps
+the very earliest example of that soft and sensuous feeling, that
+rhapsody of sensation which was presently to sweep like a flood over the
+art of Venice. "What a time must the dawn of the sixteenth century have
+been when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous and advanced of
+his age, had the freshness and youthful courage to greet it; nay,
+actually to depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in the
+'Resurrection'! Giorgione is here anticipated in the roundness and
+softness of the figures, and in the effect of light. Titian's Assunta is
+foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards' expressions." Alvise, if he
+never thoroughly mastered the structure of the nude, and if his forms
+keep throughout some touch of the archaic, some awkwardness in the
+thickness of the figures, with their round heads, long thighs, and
+uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily refined and tender in
+sentiment, his line has a natural flow and beauty, and the heads of his
+Madonnas and saints cannot be surpassed in loveliness.
+
+His death came when the noble altarpiece to St. Ambrogio in the Frari
+was still unfinished, and it was completed by his assistant, Marco
+Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably of Basaiti, but the
+venerable doctor is a grand figure, and the two young soldier saints on
+his right and left hand are striking examples of the beauty we claim
+for him. The architectural plan is very elaborate, but altogether
+successful. The group is set beneath an arched vault supported by
+columns and cornices. Overhead, behind a balustrade, is placed a
+coronation of the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so as not to
+interfere with each other, and the sword of St. George, the crozier of
+St. Gregory, and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the composition and
+give length and line. The faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,
+and the two angels making music below compare well with those of the
+Bellinesque School.
+
+The portraits Alvise has left add to his reputation, and remind us of
+those of Antonello da Messina, particularly in the vital expression
+of the eyes, though they are without Antonello's intense force. The
+"Bernardo di Salla" and the "Man feeding a Hawk," though some critics
+still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which make their
+attribution to Alvise almost certainly correct. Indeed, the resemblance
+of Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece cannot escape the most
+unscientific observer. There is the same inflated nostril, the
+peculiarly curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.
+
+Among the followers of Alvise, Marco Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and
+Lorenzo Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less direct are
+Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco Bonsignori, while Cima da
+Conegliano was for a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return to
+these later.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Berlin.  Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.
+ London.  Portrait of Youth.
+ Milan.   Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.
+ Naples.  Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.
+ Paris.   Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.
+ Venice.  Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints,
+            1480.
+          Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.
+          S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection
+            and Predelle.
+          Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.
+ Vienna.  Madonna.
+ Windsor. Man feeding a Hawk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+CARPACCIO
+
+
+Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini's most faithful pupil. He and his
+master stand apart in having, before the arrival of the Venetian School
+proper, captured an aspect and a charm inspired by the natural beauty
+of the City of the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her historic
+appearance, and Carpaccio gives us something of the delight we feel
+to-day in her translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed spaces
+flooded with limpid light. While others were absorbed in assimilating
+extraneous influences, he goes on his own way, painting, indeed, the
+scenes that were asked for, but painting them in his own manner and with
+his own enjoyment.
+
+Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the Venetian State from very
+early days. The first use of painting had been that made by the Church
+to glorify religion, and very soon the State had followed, using it to
+enhance the love which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring home
+to them the consciousness of its greatness and glory. Pageants and
+processions were an integral part of Venetian life. The people looked
+on at them, often as they occurred, with more pride and sense of
+proprietorship than a Londoner does at a coronation procession or at the
+King going in state to open Parliament. The Venetian loved splendour and
+beauty and the story of the city's great achievements, and nothing
+provided so welcome a subject for the decoration of the great public
+halls as portrayals of the events which had made Venice famous. Artists
+had been employed to produce these as early as the end of the fourteenth
+century, and those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which perished in
+the great fire) were a rendering on modern lines of the same subjects,
+satisfying the more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.
+
+Besides the Church and the public Government, we have already seen the
+"Schools," as they were called, becoming important employers. These
+schools were the great organised confraternities in the cause of charity
+and mutual help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth century.
+That of St. Mark was naturally the foremost, but others were banded each
+under their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of rich patrons, for it
+was the fashion to belong to the confraternities. Riches and endowments
+rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting business were
+built, and were adorned with pictures setting forth the legends of
+their patron saints. We have already seen Gentile Bellini employed in
+the schools of San Marco and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.
+Ursula and St. George gave commissions to Carpaccio, or perhaps it would
+be more correct to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent in this
+art, provided employment for his pupil and assistant, and that by
+degrees Carpaccio became a _maestro_ on his own account.
+
+A host of second-rate painters were plying side by side, disciples
+first of one master, then drawn off to become followers of a second;
+assimilating the influence first of one workshop and then of another.
+Carpaccio has been lately identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who
+had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution to this painter of
+the "Doge before the Madonna," in the National Gallery, gives some
+countenance to the contention that he was held to be of great excellence
+in his time.
+
+Though some historians advance the suggestion that Carpaccio was a
+native of Capo d'Istria, there is little proof that he was not, like his
+father Pietro, born a Venetian. He seems to have worked in Venice all
+his life, his first work being dated 1490 and his last 1520. In 1527 his
+wife, Laura, declared herself a widow.
+
+The narrative art needed by the confraternities was supplied in
+perfection by Carpaccio, and one of his earliest independent
+commissions was the important one of decorating the School of St.
+Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a monopoly of the school. No one else
+had a right to collect offerings in her name or to put up an image to
+her. The legend afforded an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic
+scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage, and the cycle is one of
+the freshest and most characteristic things that has come down to us
+from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous. The mediocre
+masters who have educated the painter have made little impression on
+him. He is entirely occupied in delight in his subject and in telling
+his story. The story of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the
+daughter of the King of Brittany. The King of England sends his
+ambassadors to beg her hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the
+proposal with her father, and makes the conditions that Hereo, who is a
+heathen, shall be baptized, and that the betrothed couple must before
+marriage visit the Pope and the sacred shrines. After taking leave of
+their parents, the Prince and Princess depart on their expedition, but
+Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in which an angel has announced her
+martyrdom. She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000 virgins, and they
+are received by Pope Cyriacus in Rome. The Pope then makes the return
+journey with them as far as Cologne, where, however, they are assaulted
+and massacred by the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a splendid
+funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen scenes in which the story is
+told are arranged on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed
+them in the chronological order, some of the latest events being the
+least complete in artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns the
+following dates to the list:
+
+     1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet those of the
+     King of Brittany to ask for the hand of Ursula. Probably
+     painted from 1496-98.
+
+     2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal with her
+     father. 1496-98.
+
+     3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors. 1496-98.
+
+     4. The ambassadors return to the King of England. 1496-98.
+
+     5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.
+
+     6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their respective
+     parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.
+
+     9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins meet the Pope.
+     1492.
+
+     10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.
+
+     11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral. 1495.
+
+     13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of martyrdom,
+     venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received in heaven by the
+     Eternal Father. 1491.
+
+No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might naturally have been chosen for a
+first experiment. The heads are large with coarse features, and the
+proportions of the figures are poor. The face of the saint in glory (No.
+13), plump and without much expression, is of the type of Bastiani's
+saints. It may be assumed that such a great scheme of decoration would
+not have been entrusted to any one who was not already well known as an
+independent master, but perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about
+thirty when the work was begun, was still principally engrossed with the
+conventional, ecclesiastical subject. The heads of the virgins pressing
+round the saint appear to be portraits, and were very possibly those of
+the wives and daughters of members of the confraternity.
+
+The improvement that takes place is so rapid that we can guess how
+congenial the painter found the task and how quickly he adapted his
+already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes delight in the opportunity for
+painting a little domestic scene,--the bedroom of a young Venetian girl,
+perhaps a sister of his own. The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,
+are carefully drawn. The clear morning light streams into the room. The
+saint lies peacefully asleep, her hand under her head, her long
+eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is an idyll, full of insight
+into girlish life. The tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details
+that caught his eye. The crown lying on the ledge of the bed is an
+arbitrary introduction, as naïf as the angel. In the funeral scene the
+luminous light is diffused over all, the young saint lies upon her bier
+and is followed by priest and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth
+to nature, the draperies and garments are brought into harmony with the
+sky and background, and in all those that follow we find this quality
+of light. The landscape behind the massacre has gained in natural
+character, the city is at some distance, houses and churches are half
+buried in woods; the setting is much more natural than are the quaint
+and elegant pages who occupy it, and who are drawing their crossbows and
+attacking the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The panel in which the
+betrothed couple meet shows a great advance, and this and the succeeding
+ones of the ambassadors, which were painted between 1495 and 1498, must
+have crowned Carpaccio's reputation. He paints Venice in its most
+fascinating aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles, its sky and
+sea, its palaces and ships, the rich and picturesque dresses men wore
+in the streets, the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces a
+fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with the work of Pintoricchio.
+His Prince, kneeling in a white and gold dress, with long fair curls, is
+a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red dress and puffed sleeves, her
+rippling, flaxen hair and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.
+Carpaccio's art is simple and garrulous in feeling, his conception is
+as unpassionate as the fancies of a child, but he has a true love for
+these gay crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way--her solid, worthy
+citizens, men of substance, shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure
+seriously with a sense of responsibility. They throng the streets and
+cross over the bridges, every figure is full of freedom and vitality.
+The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors are the best of all the
+scenes. In the middle of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits
+upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to the left is gathered a
+group of Venetian personages, members of the Loredano family, which was
+a special patron of St. Ursula's Guild, and gave this panel. The types
+are all vividly realised and differentiated: the courtier looking
+critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious bourgeoisie; the man
+of fashion passing with his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too
+closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf keeper. Far beyond
+stretch the lagoons; the sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What is
+noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the absence of women, was then
+most true to life, for except on special occasions they were not seen in
+the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental seclusion. The dismissal
+of the ambassadors affords the opportunity for drawing an interior with
+the street visible through a doorway. A group at the side, of a man
+dictating a letter and the scribe taking down his words, writing
+laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his head on one side, is
+excellent in its quiet reality. The same life-like vivacity is displayed
+in Ursula's consultation with her father. The old nurse crouched upon
+the steps is introduced to break the line and to throw back the main
+group. Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the funeral scene,
+and Titian himself adopts his suggestion.
+
+ [Illustration: _Carpaccio._
+                 ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.
+                _Venice._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a charming one. His treatment
+of light and water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense of peace
+and poetry, and though he is influenced by Gentile's splendid realistic
+heads, the type which appeals to him is gentler and more idealised. His
+fancy is caught by Oriental details, to which Gentile would naturally
+have directed his attention, and of which there was no lack in Venice at
+this time. All his episodes are very clearly illustrated, and his
+popular brush was kept busily employed. He took a share with other
+assistants in the series which Gentile was painting in S. Giovanni
+Evangelista. In 1502 the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to
+decorate their school, which had been founded fifty years earlier, for
+the relief of destitute Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects were
+to be selected from the lives of the Saviour and the patron saints of
+Dalmatia and Albania, St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.
+Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece which Carpaccio delivered
+between 1502 and 1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of the
+school. His "Jerome in his Study" has nothing ascetic, but shows a
+prosperous Venetian ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library
+among his books and writings. He is less successful in his scenes from
+the life of Christ; the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of Mantegna;
+but when he leaves his own style he is weak and poor, and imaginary
+scenes are quite beyond him. In the death and interment of St. Jerome he
+gives a delightful impression of the peace of the old convent garden,
+and in the scene where the lion introduced by the saint scatters the
+terrified monks he lets a sense of humour have free play. The monks in
+their long garments, escaping in all directions, are really comical, and
+in conjunction with the ingratiating smile of the lion, the scene passes
+into the region of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the comic in
+the scene in St. Ursula's history, where the 11,000 virgins are hurrying
+in single file along a winding road which disappears out of the picture.
+In the principal scene in the life of St. George, Carpaccio again
+achieves a masterpiece. The force and vivacity of the saint in armour
+charging the dragon, lingers long in the memory. The long, decorative
+lines of lance and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole landscape.
+The details show an almost childish delight in the realisation of
+ghoulish horrors. He rather injures his "Triumph of St. George" by his
+anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem; the flying flags
+distract the eye, and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken up
+into different parts, while the dragon is reduced to very unterrifying
+insignificance. His series for the school of the Albanians dealt with
+the life of the Virgin, who was their special patron. Its remains are
+at Bergamo, Milan, and in the Academy. The single figures in the
+"Presentation," the priest and maiden, are excellent. A child at the
+side of the steps, leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows once
+more what a hold this use of a figure had taken of him. In the
+"Visitation" the figures are too much scattered, and the fantastic
+buildings attract more attention than the women. He still produced
+altarpieces, and the Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple,
+which he was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where one of Bellini's
+most famous altarpieces stood, challenged him to put forth all his
+strength. He never produced anything more simple and noble or more
+worthy of the cinque-cento than this altarpiece (now in the Academy). It
+surpasses Bellini's arrangement in the way in which the personages are
+raised upon a step, while the dome overhead and the angel musicians
+below give them height and dignity. The contrast between the infant and
+the youthful woman and the old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast
+between youth and age is a very favourite one. Bellini, in the same
+church, draws it between SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in
+his last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian with St. Jerome.
+This is the most grandiose, the least of a _genre_ picture of all
+Carpaccio's creations, although he does make Simeon into a pontiff with
+attendant cardinals bearing his train. One of his last works is the S.
+Vitale over the high altar of the church of that name, where we forgive
+the wooden appearance of the horse which the saint rides for the sake of
+the simple dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by the balcony
+overhead. Nor must we forget that study of the "Two Courtesans" in the
+Museo Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism. It conveys to us
+the matter-of-fact monotony of the long, hot days, and the women and the
+animals with which they are beguiling their idle hours are painted with
+the greatest intelligence. It carries us back to another phase of life
+in Carpaccio's Venice, seen through his observant, humorous eyes, and if
+there is nothing in his colour distinctive of the impending Venetian
+richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant limpidity; it seems
+drawn straight from the transparent canals and radiant lagoons.
+
+We apprehend the difference at once in Bastiani and in Mansueti, who
+essay the same sort of compositions. They studied grouping carefully,
+and it must have seemed easy enough to paint their careful architecture
+and to place citizens in costume with appropriate action in a "Miracle
+of the Cross," or the "Preaching of St. Mark"; but these pictures are
+dry and crowded, they give no illusion of truth, there is none of the
+careless realism of Carpaccio's crowds,--of incidents taking place which
+are not essential to the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but
+which have their share in producing a full and varied illusion. The
+scenes want the air and depth in which Carpaccio's pictures are
+enveloped. We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into the outer air
+and refreshed by these heavy personages, standing in rows, painted in
+hot, dry colour, and carrying no conviction in their glance and action.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Berlin.    Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.
+ Ferrara.   Death of Virgin.
+ Milan.     Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen
+              disputing.
+ Paris.     St. Stephen preaching.
+ Stuttgart. Martyrdom of St. Stephen.
+ Venice.    Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins;
+              Presentation in the Temple.
+            Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.
+            S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and
+              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of
+              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.
+            S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.
+            Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave
+              of her Father.
+ Vienna.    Christ adored by Angels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+GIOVANNI BELLINI
+
+
+The difference between Gian. Bellini and his accomplished brother, that
+which makes us so conscious that the first was the greater of the two
+and which sets him in a later artistic generation than Gentile, is a
+difference of mind. Such pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni
+was engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may suspect that their
+composition was not particularly congenial to him, and that the strictly
+religious pictures and the small allegorical studies, by which we must
+judge him, were more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal feeling
+which adds so strongly to his claim to be a great artist; it was this
+which drew all men to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence the
+art of his day in Venice.
+
+Jacopo's wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves everything to her two
+sons, Gentile and Niccolo. Giovanni was evidently not her son, but
+Vasari speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it is very
+possible that he was an illegitimate child, brought up, after the
+fashion that so often obtained, in the full privileges of his father's
+house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini was living in Venice in 1437,
+first near the Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio. He was a
+member of S. Giovanni Evangelista, and probably one of the leading
+artists of the city. His two sons helped him in his great decorative
+works, and also went with him to Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata
+Chapel. Their relative position is suggested by a document of 1457,
+which records that the father received twenty-one ducats for "three
+figures, done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the Patriarch," only
+two of which were to go to the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini's signature
+first appears on a document, and at about this time we may suppose that
+he and his brother began to execute small commissions on their own
+account. On these visits to Padua the intimacy must have sprung up,
+which led to Mantegna's marriage in 1453 with Jacopo's daughter. At
+Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna, drank in the inspiration
+left there by Donatello, the greatest master that either of them
+encountered. It was the humanistic and naturalistic side of Donatello
+which touched Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore. It
+chimed in, too, with his father's graceful and fanciful quality, and
+there is no doubt that the Venetian painters soon exercised a marked
+influence on Mantegna. They "fought for him with Squarcione," and even
+in the Eremitani frescoes he begins to lose his purely statuesque type
+and to become frankly Renaissance. In the later scenes of the series a
+pergola with grapes, a Venetian campanile and doorway replace his
+classic towers and arches of triumph. In the "Martyrdom of St. James"
+the couple walking by and paying no attention whatever to the tragic
+event, are very like the people whom Gentile introduces in his
+backgrounds.
+
+There are few documents more interesting in the history of art
+than the two pictures of the "Agony in the Garden," executed by the
+brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by Jacopo in the British
+Museum sketch-book. Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling
+before the vision of the Chalice, the figures wrapt in slumber, and the
+distant town. In few pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived
+in such sympathy with the figures. As we look at this sketch and examine
+the two finished compositions, which it is so fortunate to find in
+juxtaposition in the National Gallery, we surmise that the two artists
+agreed to carry out the same idea and each to give his version of
+Jacopo's suggestion, and very curious it is to see the rendering each
+has produced.
+
+Mantegna has made use of the most formal and Squarcionesque contours in
+his surroundings. The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.
+The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate perspective, and a band
+of classic figures fills the middle distance. The sleeping forms of the
+disciples are laid about like so many draped statues taken from their
+pedestals. The choir of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the
+imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully conceived Christ,
+the whole composition would leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,
+we can never look at Bellini's version without a fresh thrill. He, like
+Mantegna, has followed Jacopo's scheme of winding roads and the city
+"set on a hill," and has drawn the advancing band of soldiers; but,
+independent of all details, he gives us the vision of a poet. The still
+dawn is breaking over the broadly painted landscape, the rosy shafts of
+light are colouring the sky and casting their magic over every common
+object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred Figure kneels, wrapt into
+the Heavenly Vision, which is hardly more definite than a stronger
+beam of light upon the radiance. One of the disciples, at least, is a
+successful and natural study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen
+back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep. Bellini is less assured,
+less accomplished than Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the
+pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.
+
+Even earlier than this picture, critics place the "Crucifixion" and
+"Transfiguration" of the Museo Correr and our own "Salvator Mundi." In
+1443, when Giovanni was a young man of four or five and twenty, San
+Bernardino had held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of Venice
+had thronged to hear him. It is very possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests
+in his _Life of Bellini_, that Giovanni's emotional temperament had been
+worked upon by the preacher's eloquence, and the very poignant feelings
+of love and pity which his early art expresses were the deliberate
+consequence of his sympathy with the deep religious mysteries expounded.
+
+In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is still going with the
+Paduan current. In both we have the winding roads so characteristic of
+his father, but the rocks in the "Transfiguration" have the jointed,
+arbitrary character of Mantegna's and the draperies are plastered to the
+forms beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and a dignity which no
+reproduction seems able to convey. The feeling is already more imposing
+than the execution. Christ and the two prophets tower up against the
+belt of clouds, the central figure conveying a sense of pathetic
+isolation; while below, St. John's attitude betrays a state of tension,
+the feet being drawn up and contorted. This picture prepares us for the
+overwhelming emotion we find in the "Redeemer" and the group of Pietàs.
+The treatment of the Christ was a development of the early _motif_ of
+angels flying forward on either side of the Cross, but here the sacred
+blood pouring into the chalice is also sacramental and connected with
+the intensified religious fervour which had led to the foundation of
+the Franciscan and Dominican orders, illustrations of which are met
+with in the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century books
+of devotion. The accessories, the antique reliefs, the low wall, the
+distant buildings, have an allegorical meaning underlying each one, and
+common to trecento and, in a less degree, to quattrocento art. Paradise
+regained is signified by the paved court with the open door, in
+contradistinction to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed court; the type of
+the old covenant. In one of the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his
+hand into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness to suffer. The
+other represents a pagan sacrifice, foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the
+Cross. Figures in the background are leaving a ruined temple and making
+their way towards the new Christian city, fortified and crowned with a
+church tower, and in the midst of all this symbolism, Christ and the
+attendant angel are placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.
+
+During the next few years, Bellini devoted himself to two subjects of
+the highest devotional order. These are the Madonna and Child, the great
+exercise in every age for painters, and the Pietà, which he has made
+peculiarly his own.
+
+ [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._
+                 PIETÀ.
+                _Brera, Milan._
+                 (_Photo, Brogi._)]
+
+Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering of the last subject, so
+full of passionate sorrow that it is hardly possible that it should not,
+if only half consciously, have stimulated the artistic sensibilities
+of the most sensitive of painters; but Bellini's pathos shrinks from
+all exaggeration. He conceives grief with the tenderest insight. His
+interest in the subject was so intense that he never left the execution
+to others, and though not a single one bears his signature, yet each is
+entirely by his own hand. Besides the Pietà at Milan, which is perhaps
+the best known, there is one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge's
+Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin. The version he adopts,
+which places the Body of Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite
+in North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief (now in the Victoria
+and Albert Museum), but whether he brought or found the suggestion in
+Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left sketches in which the
+whole group is within the tomb, and this rendering is followed by
+Carpaccio, Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never found in
+trecento art, and is probably traceable to the Paduan impulse to make
+use of classic remains.
+
+Giovanni Bellini's Pietàs fall into two groups. In one, the Christ is
+placed between the Virgin and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony
+of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer is supported by angels,
+who express the amazement and grief of immortal beings who see their
+Lord suffering an indignity from which they are immune.
+
+Mary and St. John _inside_ the sarcophagus shows that they are conceived
+mystically; Mary as the Church, and St. John as the personification of
+Christian Philosophy--a significance frequently attached to these
+figures. Such a picture was designed to hang over the altar, at which
+the mystical sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.
+
+In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini has shaken off the Paduan
+tradition, and is forming his own style and giving free play to his own
+feeling. The winding roads and evening sky, barred with clouds, are the
+accessories he used in the "Agony in the Garden," but the figures are
+treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in broad masses, and
+scarcely a trace is left of sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the
+study of the nude, everything is subordinated to the emotion expressed
+by the three figures: the helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the
+tender solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed look of the
+despairing friend. Here there is nothing of beautiful or pathetic
+symbol; the group is intense with the common sorrow of all the world.
+Mary presses the corpse to her as if to impart her own life, and gazes
+with anguished yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to have
+passed to a more complex age in his analysis of suffering, yet here is
+none of the extravagance which the primitive masters share with the
+Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his intensity.
+
+In the Rimini version the tender concern and questioning surprise of the
+attendant angels contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful dead
+body they support. Their childish limbs and butterfly wings make a
+sinuous pattern against the lacquered black of the ground-work, and Mr.
+Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion that the effect, reminiscent
+of Greek vase-painting, and the likeness of the Head of Christ to an old
+bronze, may, in a composition painted for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no
+mere accident, but a concession to the patron's enthusiasm for classic
+art.
+
+In 1470 Bellini received his first commission in the Scuola di San
+Marco. Gentile had been employed there since 1466 on the history of the
+Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint "The Deluge and the
+Ark of Noah" with all its attendant circumstances, but of these,
+except from Vasari's descriptions, we can form no idea. These great
+pageant-pictures had become identified with the Bellini and their
+following, while the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the
+province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected a change, for sacred
+subjects best suited the restrained and simple perfection of his style,
+and afforded the most sympathetic opening for his idealistic spirit. For
+the next twenty years or more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in
+public work, for we hear of his being given the direction of that which
+Gentile left unfinished in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in
+1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended the work for
+him, and in that year he was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand
+Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats. Other commissions were
+turned out of the _bottega_ he had set up with his brother in 1471, and
+between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro to paint the important
+altarpiece that still holds its place there. It is in some ways the
+greatest and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished. The
+central figures and the attendant saints have a large gravity and
+carefully studied individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological
+books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably contrasted with the sympathetic,
+cultured St. Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame, is a gem of
+beauty, and proves what an appeal nature was making to the painter. The
+predella, illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of the saints
+around the altar, is full of Oriental costumes. The horses are small
+Eastern horses, very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse, and the
+whole is evidently inspired by the sketches which Gentile brought back
+on his return from Constantinople in 1481.
+
+Looking from one to another of the cycle of Madonna pictures which
+Bellini produced, and of which so many hang side by side in the Academy,
+we are able to note how his conception varied. In one of the earliest
+the Child lies across its Mother's knee, in the attitude borrowed from
+his father and the Vivarini, from whom, too, he takes the uplifted
+hands, placed palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the gentle and
+adoring type, but his later Madonnas are stately Venetian ladies. He
+gives us a queenly woman, with full throat and stately poise, in the
+Madonna degli Alberi, in which the two little trees are symbols of the
+Old and New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely intellectual face
+with chiselled and refined features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it
+dramatically with the bluff St. George in armour; and there is another
+Madonna between St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which has a
+curious effect of artificial light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)
+
+
+In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian Republic appointed Bellini
+superintendent of the Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable
+title of State Painter. In this capacity he was the overseer of all
+public works of painting, and was expected to devote a part of his
+time to the decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates nine of
+his historical paintings, which had been painted before the State
+appointment, all having reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but
+though he must have been much engrossed, he seems to have suspended the
+work from time to time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the large
+altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro in Murano, and the one in
+the Academy, which was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the last
+shows the greatest advance and is fullest of experiment. The Madonna is
+a grand ecclesiastical figure. It has been said with truth that it is
+a picture which must have afforded great support and dignity to the
+Church. The Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the Mother
+gazes out of the picture, extending invitation and encouragement to the
+advancing worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound; the
+artist has been more absorbed in the contrast between the beautiful,
+youthful body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe, older but not
+emaciated, and with the exquisite surface that his now complete mastery
+of oil-painting enabled him to produce. This technique has evidently
+been a great delight, and is here carried to perfection; the skin of
+St. Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of a horse in high
+condition. Everything that architecture, sculpture, and rich material
+can supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of the group; but the
+line of sight is still close to the bottom of the picture, and if it
+were not for the exquisite grace with which the angels are placed, the
+Madonna would have a broad, clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is
+the most splendid in colour of all his works. As he paints the rich
+light of a golden interior and the fused and splendid colours, he seems
+to pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste of the glory that is
+to follow. The Murano altarpiece is quite a different conception;
+instead of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling, _plein air_
+scene: the Mother benign, the Child soft and playful, the old Doge
+Barbarigo and the patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a
+garden and mediæval townlet filling up the background, for which, by the
+way, he uses the same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says much for
+his versatility that he could within a short time produce three such
+different versions.
+
+Among Bellini's most fascinating achievements in the last years of the
+fifteenth century are his allegorical paintings, known to us by the
+"Pélerinage de l'Âme" in the Uffizi and the little series in the
+Academy. The meaning of the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig from
+a mediæval poem by Guillaume de Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote
+about 1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has taken on
+Bellini's mystic spirit. The paved space, set within the marble rail,
+signifies, as in the "Salvator Mundi," the Paradise where souls await
+the Resurrection. The new-born souls cluster round the Tree of Life and
+shake its boughs. The poem says:
+
+    There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad
+    Who has not those who wound his heart,
+    And to whom it is not often necessary
+    To play and be solaced
+    And be soothed like a child
+    With something comforting.
+    Know that those playing
+    There in order to allay their sorrow
+    Have found beneath that tree
+    An apple that great comfort gives
+    To those that play with it.[2]
+
+ [2] This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.
+
+ [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._
+                 AN ALLEGORY.
+                _Florence._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort. St. Peter and St. Paul
+guard the door, beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy
+conversation. A very beautiful figure on the left, wrapped in a black
+shawl, requires explanation, and it has been suggested that it is the
+donor, a woman who may have lost husband and children, and who, still in
+life, is introduced, watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.
+SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have stepped out of the San Giobbe
+altarpiece, are obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.
+Catherine, at the Virgin's side, may be the donor's own saint. This
+picture, with its delicious landscape bathed in atmospheric light,
+is a forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions of "pure and
+unquestioning delight in the sensuous charm of rare and beautiful
+things" in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed than with
+the intellectual conception, and within its small space Bellini seems to
+have enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories in the Academy are
+also full of meaning. They are decorative works, and were probably
+painted for some small cabinet. They seem too small for a cassone. They
+are ruined by over-painting, but still full of grace and fancy. The
+figure in the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter between
+Luxury and Industry, is drawn from Jacopo's triumphant Bacchus. Fortune
+floats in her barque, holding the globe, and the souls who gather round
+her are some full of triumphant success, others clinging to her for
+comfort, while several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark waters.
+"Prudence," the only example of a female nude in Bellini's works, holds
+a looking-glass. Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing from his refuge.
+The Summa Virtus is an ugly representation of all the virtues; a
+waddling deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of justice; the
+pitcher in its hand means prudence, and the gold upon its feet
+symbolises charity. The landscape, both of this and of the "Fortune,"
+resembles that which he was painting in his larger works at the end of
+the century. Soon after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with Isabela
+d'Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That distinguished collector and
+connoisseur writes through her agent to get the promise of a picture,
+"a story or fable of antiquity," to be placed in position with the
+allegories which Mantegna had contributed to her "Paradiso." Bellini
+agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five ducats on account. He
+seems, however, to have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in
+competing with Mantegna on his own ground, and asks to be allowed to
+choose his subject. Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself
+with a sacred picture, and a "Nativity" was selected. She is at once
+full of suggestions, desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini
+demurs at introducing except as a child, but in April 1504 the
+commission is still unaccomplished, and Isabela angrily demands the
+return of her money. This brings a letter of humble apology from
+Bellini, and presently the picture is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes
+that it is quite beautiful, and that "though Giovanni has behaved as
+badly as possible, yet the bad must be taken with the good." The joy of
+its acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began to lay plans to get
+a further work out of Bellini, and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he
+would take a fresh commission always providing he might fix the subject.
+From the catalogue of her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture
+"sul asse" (on panel) represented the "B.V., il Putto, S. Giovanni
+Battista, S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina."
+
+The great altarpieces which remain strike us less by their research,
+their preoccupation with new problems of paint or grouping, than by
+their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was now nearly eighty years
+old, and in 1504 the young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution in art
+with his Castelfranco Madonna. In composition and detail the Madonna
+of San Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the Arcadian,
+innovating fashion of approaching a religious scene, of which the Church
+had long since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini cannot escape the
+indirect suggestion of the new manner. The same leaven was at work in
+him which was transforming the men of a younger generation. In this
+altarpiece, in the Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which have
+perished, and above all in the hermit saint in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he
+is linked in feeling and in treatment with the later Venetian School.
+
+The new device, which he adopts quite naturally, of raising the line of
+sight, sets the figures in increased depth. For the first time he gives
+height and majesty to the young Mother by carrying the draperies down
+over the steps. He realises to the full the contrast between the young,
+fragile heads of his girl-saints and the dark, venerable countenances of
+the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching itself like a flower upon
+its stem, reminds us of the type which we saw in his Watcher in the
+sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched, dome-like niche opens on a
+distance bathed in golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of the
+old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new perfection of feeling and
+atmosphere. Who the saints are matters little; it is the collective
+enjoyment of a company of congenial people that pleases us so much. The
+"Baptism" in S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later than
+Cima's in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in frank imitation of the younger
+man. Christ and the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without much
+zest, in a weak, conventional way, but the artist's true interest comes
+out in the beauty of face and gesture of the group of women holding the
+garments, and above all in the sombre gloom of the distance, which
+replaces Cima's charming landscape, and which keys the whole picture to
+the significance of a portent. In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.
+Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini keeps his love for the
+golden dome, but he lets us look through its arch, at rolling mountain
+solitudes, with mists rising between their folds. The geranium robe of
+the saint, an exquisite, vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden
+sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out against the evening sky,
+and in the faces of the two saints who stand on either side of the aged
+visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old intensity of religious
+feeling, a feeling which he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a
+more pagan tone.
+
+In 1507, at Gentile's death, Giovanni undertook, at his brother's
+dying request, to finish the "Preaching of St. Mark," receiving as a
+recompense that coveted sketch-book of his father's, from which he had
+adopted so many suggestions, and which, though he was the eldest, had
+been inherited by the legitimate son.
+
+In the preceding year Albert Dürer had visited Venice for the second
+time, and Bellini had received him with great cordiality. Dürer writes,
+"Bellini is very old, but is still the best painter in Venice"; and
+adds, "The things I admired on my last visit, I now do not value at
+all." Implying that he was able now to see how superior Bellini was to
+the hitherto more highly esteemed Vivarini.
+
+At the very end of Bellini's life, in 1514, the Duke of Ferrara paid
+him eighty-five ducats for a painting of "Bacchanals," now at Alnwick
+Castle; which may be looked upon as an open confession by one who had
+always considered himself as a painter of distinctively religious works,
+that such a gay scene of feasting afforded opportunities which he could
+not resist, for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods, sitting at
+their banquet in a sunny glade, are almost fully draped, and there is
+little of the _abandon_ which was affected by later painters. The
+picture was left unfinished, and was later given to Titian to complete.
+In his capacity as State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini's duty
+to execute the official portraits of the Doges. During his long life he
+saw eleven reigns, and during four he held the State appointment.
+Besides the official, he painted private portraits of the Doges, and
+that of Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of the most
+perfect presentments of the quattrocento. This portrait, painted by one
+old man of another, shows no weakening in touch or characterisation. It
+is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and simple. The face is
+quiet and unexaggerated; there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an
+air of accustomed dignity and thought, while the technique has all the
+perfection of the painter's prime.
+
+In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by
+the side of his brother Gentile. To the last he was popular and famous,
+overwhelmed with attentions from the most distinguished personages of
+the city. Though he had begun life when art showed such a different
+aspect, he was by nature so imbued with that temperament, which at the
+time of his death was beginning to assert itself in the younger school,
+that he was able to assimilate a really astonishing share of the new
+manner. He is guided by feeling more than by intellect. All the time he
+is working out problems, he is dominated by the emotion of his subject,
+but his emotion, his pathos, are invariably tempered and restrained by
+the calm moderation of the quattrocento. The golden mean still has
+command of Bellini, and never allows his feelings, however poignant,
+to degenerate into sentimentality or violence.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Bergamo.  Lochis: Madonna (E.).
+           Morelli: Two Madonnas.
+ Berlin.   Pietà (L.); Dead Christ.
+ Florence. Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).
+ London.   Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.);
+             Salvator Mundi (E.).
+ Milan.    Brera: Pietà (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.
+ Mond Collection. Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).
+ Murano.   S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.
+ Naples.   Sala Grande: Transfiguration.
+ Pesaro.   S. Francesco: Altarpiece.
+ Rimini.   Dead Christ (E.).
+ Venice.   Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);
+             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with
+             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.
+           Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead
+             Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.
+           Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Pietà (E.).
+           Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.
+           S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and
+             Augustine, 1513.
+           S. Maria dell' Orto: Madonna (E.).
+           S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.
+ Vicenza.  S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI
+
+
+The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense of the joy of life and the
+apprehension of pure beauty, which was strengthening in the people and
+leading up to the great period of Venetian art, flooded round Bellini
+and recognised its expression in him. He was more popular and had a
+larger following among the artists of his day than either Gentile or
+Carpaccio with their frankly mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni's State
+works may have been, his religious paintings are the ones which are
+copied and adapted and studied by the younger band of artists, and this
+because of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional subjects.
+Gentile's pageant-pictures have still something cold and colourless,
+with a touch of the archaic, while Giovanni's religious altarpieces
+evince a new freedom of handling, a modern conception of beautiful
+women, a use of that colour which was soon to reign triumphant. As
+far as it went indeed, its triumph was already assured; as Giovanni
+advanced towards old age, it was no longer of any use for the young
+masters of the day to paint in any way save the one he had made popular,
+and one artist after another who had begun in the school of Alvise
+Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni Bellini.
+
+It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to his assistants, and as
+everything that went out of his workshop was signed by his name, even if
+it only represented the use of one of his designs, or a few words of
+advice, and was "passed" by the master, it is no wonder that European
+collections were flooded with works, among which only lately the names
+of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi, Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti,
+Rondinelli, and others begin to be disentangled.
+
+Only one of his followers stands out as a strong and original master,
+not quite of the first class, but developing his own individuality while
+he draws in much of what both Alvise and Bellini had to give. Cima da
+Conegliano, whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always signs himself
+_Coneglianensis_: the title of Cima, "the Rock," by which he is now so
+widely known, having first been mentioned in the seventeenth century by
+Boschini, and perhaps given him by that writer himself. He was a son of
+the mountains, who, though he came early to Venice, and lived there most
+of his life, never loses something of their wild freshness, and to the
+end delights in bringing them into his backgrounds. He lived with his
+mother at Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan marches, until
+1484, when he was twenty-five, and then came down to Vicenza, where he
+fell under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a Vicentine painter, who
+had been studying both with Alvise and Bellini. Cima's "Madonna with
+Saints," painted for the Church of St. Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489,
+shows him still using the old method of tempera, in a careful, cold,
+painstaking style, yet already showing his own taste. The composition
+has something of Alvise, yet that something has been learned through
+the agency of Montagna, for the figures have the latter's severity
+and austere character and the colour is clearer and more crude than
+Alvise's. It is no light resemblance, and he must have been long with
+Montagna. In the type of the Christ in Montagna's Pietà at Monte Berico,
+in the fondness for airy porticoes, in the architecture and main
+features of his "Madonna enthroned" in the Museo Civico at Vicenza, we
+see characteristics which Cima followed, though he interpreted them in
+his own way. He turns the heavy arches and domes that Alvise loved, into
+airy pergolas, decked with vines. He gives increasing importance to high
+skies and to atmospheric distances. When he got to Venice in 1492, he
+began to paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John Baptist with
+attendant saints, still in the Church of S. Madonna dell' Orto. The
+work of this is rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh, and
+he comes to his best soon after, in the "Baptism" in S. Giovanni in
+Bragora, which Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment
+of copying. It was quite unusual to choose such a subject for the High
+Altar, and could only be justified by devotion to the Baptist, who was
+Cima's own name-saint as well as that of the Church. Cima is here at his
+very highest; the composition is not derived from any one else, but is
+all the conception of an ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.
+The Christ is particularly fine and simple, unexaggerated in pose and
+type; the arm of the Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to
+give him a refined, tentative look, which makes a sympathetic appeal.
+The attendant angels look on with an air of sweet interest. The distant
+mountains, the undulating country, the little town of Conegliano,
+identified by the castle on its great rock, or _Cima_, are Arcadian in
+their sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed out, are full of
+sun, not of rain. The landscape has not the sombre mystery of Titian's,
+but is bright with the joyous delight of a lover of outdoor life. As
+Cima masters the new medium he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms
+lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity of his native town
+ordered the grand altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there, and
+in this he shows his connection with Venice; the architecture is partly
+taken from St. Mark's, the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a
+group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at the foot of the throne.
+Cima is, however, never merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly
+defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls are not the curls of
+Bellini's saints, his treatment of surface is refined, enamel-like,
+perfectly finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken treatment
+which Bellini's natural feeling for colour was beginning to dictate.
+Cima's pale golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness and
+precision, and though they are full of charm and refinement, they may
+be thought lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501 belongs the
+"Incredulity of St. Thomas," now in the Academy, but painted for the
+Guild of Masons. It is a picture full of expression and dignity, broad
+in treatment if a little cold in its self-restraint. Cima seems to have
+not quite enough intellect, and not quite enough strong feeling.
+However, the little altarpiece of the Nativity, in the Church of the
+Carmine in Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this foreshadows the
+work he did when he went to Parma, where his transparent shadows grow
+broader and stronger, and his figures gain in ease and freedom. He
+never loses the delicate radiance of his lights, and his types and his
+architecture alike convey something of a peculiarly refined, brilliant
+elegance.
+
+Like all these men of great energy and prolific genius, Cima produced an
+astonishing number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt had pupils on
+his own account, for a goodly list could be made of pictures in his
+style, but not by his own hand, which have been carried by collectors
+into widely-scattered places. His exquisite surface and finish and his
+marked originality make him a difficult master to imitate with any
+success. His latest work is dated 1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till
+1517, and it seems probable that he returned to his beloved Conegliano
+and there passed his last years.
+
+If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of Treviso, called Catena,
+gained an immense reputation by his industry and his power of imitating
+and adopting the manner of Bellini's School. In those days men did not
+trouble themselves much as to whether they were original or not. They
+worked away on traditional compositions, frankly introducing figures
+from their master's cartoons, modifying a type here, making some little
+experiment or arrangement there, and, as a French critic puts it,
+leaving their own personality to "hatch out" in due time, if it existed,
+and when it was sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It is
+here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman in the Sala del Gran
+Consiglio, at a salary of three ducats a month, he for long failed to
+acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which was possessed by the
+better disciples of the schools. But he is painstaking, determined to
+get on, and eager to satisfy the continually increasing demand for work.
+His draperies are confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with small
+features, inexpressive button mouths, and weak chins, and his flesh
+tints have little of the glow which is later the prerogative of every
+second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like many another careful
+mediocre man, in securing patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened
+he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano of a commission to paint
+the altarpiece for the Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal
+Palace. He adapts his group from that of Bellini in the Cathedral of
+Murano, bringing in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of which he
+afterwards made numerous copies, one of which was for long assigned to
+Gentile and one to Giovanni Bellini.
+
+That Catena is not without charm, we discern in such a composition as
+his "Martyrdom of St. Cristina," in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which the
+saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels upon the water, in which she
+met her death, and is surrounded by little angels, holding up the
+millstone tied round her neck, and laden with other instruments of her
+martyrdom. Catena borrows right and left, and tries to follow every new
+indication of contemporary taste. For instance, he remarks the growing
+admiration for colour, and hopes by painting gay, flat tints, in bright
+contrast, to produce the desired effect.
+
+It is evident that he made many friends among the rich connoisseurs of
+the time, and that his importance was out of proportion to his real
+merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing an account of Raphael's last days to
+a friend in Venice, and touching on Michelangelo's illness, begs him to
+see that Catena takes care of himself, "as the times are unfavourable to
+great painters." Catena had acquired and inherited considerable wealth;
+he came of a family of merchants, and resided in his own house in San
+Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried relations with Dona Maria
+Fustana, the daughter of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will 300
+ducats and all his personal effects. As a careful portrait-painter, with
+a talent for catching a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in some
+of his heads--that of a canon dressed in blue and red, at Vienna, and
+especially in one of a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden--he
+attains real distinction. And in his last phase he does at length prove
+the power that lies behind long industry and perseverance. Suddenly the
+Giorgionesque influence strikes him, and turning to imbibe this new
+element, he produces that masterpiece which throws a glamour over all
+his mediocre performances; his "Warrior adoring the Infant Christ," in
+the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm, rich and romantic in
+tone and spirit. The Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his
+dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of her draperies are still
+unsatisfactory, but the knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the
+romantic young page, holding his horse, are pure Giorgionesque figures.
+Beautiful in themselves, set in a beautiful landscape glowing with light
+and air, the whole picture exemplifies what surprising excellence could
+be suddenly attained by even very inferior artists, who were constantly
+associating with greater men, at a moment when the whole air was, as it
+were, vibrating with genius.
+
+Catena was very much addicted to making his will, and at least five
+testaments or codicils exist, one of them devising a sum of money for
+the benefit of the School of Painters in Venice, and another leaving to
+his executor, Prior Ignatius, the picture of a "St. Jerome in his Cell,"
+which may be the one in our national collection, which remained in
+Venice till 1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating Basaiti and
+Lotto, and brings in the partridge of which he made a sort of sign
+manual.
+
+Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro Lippomano, to announce that, at
+his request, he is continuing his patronage of Catena:
+
+     Though I had done all that lay in my power for Vincenzo Catena
+     before I received your Lordship's warm recommendation in his
+     favour, I did not hesitate, on receipt of your letter, to add
+     something to the first piece I had from him, and I did so
+     because of my love and reverence for you, and I trust that he
+     will return appropriate thanks to you for having remembered
+     that you could command me.
+
+Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman in different workshops and a
+master on his own account. For long the assistant and follower of Alvise
+Vivarini, we may judge that he was also his most trusted confidant, for
+to him was left the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to S.
+Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is apparent in the execution, and
+the two saints, Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have probably
+been added by him, for they have the air of interlopers, and do not come
+up to the rest of the company in form and conception. The Sebastian,
+with his hands behind his back and his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite
+sufficiently reminiscent of Bellini's figure of 1473 to make us believe
+that Basaiti was at once transferring his allegiance to that reigning
+master. In his earlier phase he has the round heads and the dry precise
+manner of the Muranese. In his large picture in the Academy, the
+"Calling of the Sons of Zebedee," he produces a large, important set
+piece, cold and lifeless, without one figure which arrests us, or
+lingers in the memory. "The Christ on the Mount" is more interesting as
+having been painted for San Giobbe, where Bellini's great altarpiece
+was already hanging, and coming into competition with Bellini's early
+rendering of the same scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is
+interesting to see what it has gained in "modernness." The landscape and
+trees are well drawn and in good colour, and the saints, standing on
+either side of a high portico, have dignity. In the "Dead Christ," in
+the Academy, he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints and
+the _putti_. The _putti_, looking thoughtfully at the dead, is a _motif_
+beloved of Bellini, but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini's pathos and
+significance; they are merely childish and seem to be amused.
+
+In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new phase. He has felt Giorgione's
+influence, and is beginning to try what he can do, while still keeping
+close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch, more animated figures, and
+a brilliant effect of landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour over
+his hard outlines and makes his figures bright and misty, and though
+underneath they are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising
+that many of his works for a time passed as those of Bellini. Though he
+is a clever imitator, "his figures are designed with less mastery, his
+drawing is a little less correct, his drapery less adapted to the under
+form. Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced, colours have the
+brightness, but not the true contrast required. In landscape he proceeds
+from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does not dwell on detail, but
+his masses have neither the sober tint nor the mysterious richness
+conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever instrument." Both
+Previtali and Rondinelli were workers with Basaiti in Bellini's studio.
+Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea Cordeliaghi or Cordella,
+and has left many unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and Lotto, Palma
+and Montagna; but for a time his work went forth from Bellini's workshop
+signed with Bellini's name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece in San
+Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes the title of Previtali, compiling it
+in the cartello with the monogram already used as Cordeliaghi. There are
+traces of many other minor artists at this period, all essaying the same
+manner, copying one or other of the masters, taking hints from each
+other. The Venetian love of splendour was turning to the collection
+of works of art, and the work of second-class artists was evidently
+much in demand and obtained its meed of admiration. Bissolo was a
+fellow-labourer with Catena in the Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he
+is soft and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has imbibed something
+of his tenderness of spirit.
+
+It will be seen from this list how difficult it is to unravel the tale
+of the false Bellinis. The master's own works speak for themselves
+with no uncertain voice, but away from these it is very difficult to
+pronounce as to whether he had given a design, or a few touches, or
+advice, and still more difficult to decide whether these were bestowed
+on Basaiti in his later manner, or on Previtali or Bissolo, or if the
+teaching was handed on by them in a still more diluted form to the
+lesser men who clustered round, much of whose work has survived and has
+been masquerading for centuries under more distinguished names. It is
+sometimes affirmed that the loss of originality in the endeavour to
+paint like greater men has been a symptom of decay in every school in
+the past. It is interesting to notice, therefore, that in every great
+age of painting there has always been an undercurrent of imitation,
+which has helped to form a stream of tradition, and which, as far as
+we can see, has done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Cima._
+
+ Berlin.     Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.
+ Conegliano. Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.
+ Dresden.    The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.
+ London.     Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.
+ Milan.      Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.
+ Parma.      Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.
+ Paris.      Madonna with Saints.
+ Venice.     Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Pietà; Madonna
+               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the
+               Angel.
+             Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.
+             S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and
+               Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.
+             SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.
+             S. Maria dell' Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome,
+               Mark, and Peter.
+             Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with
+               SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.
+ Vicenza.    Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.
+
+
+ _Vincenzo Catena._
+
+ Bergamo. Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.
+ Berlin.  Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).
+ Dresden. Holy Family (L.).
+ London.  Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.);
+            Adoration of Magi (L.).
+          Mr. Benson: Holy Family.
+          Lord Brownlow: Nativity.
+          Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).
+ Paris.   Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.
+ Venice.  Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).
+          Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.
+          S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.
+          S. Trovaso: Madonna.
+ Vienna.  Portrait of a Canon.
+
+
+ _Marco Basaiti._
+
+ Bergamo. The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.
+ Berlin.  Pietà; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).
+ London.  S. Jerome; Madonna.
+ Milan.   Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.
+ Munich.  Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).
+ Murano.  S. Pietro: Assumption.
+ Padua.   Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.
+ Venice.  Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510;
+            Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.
+          Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.
+          Salute: S. Sebastian.
+ Vienna.  Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.
+
+
+ _Andrea Previtali._
+
+ Bergamo. Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece;
+            Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.
+          Lochis: Madonna and Saint.
+          Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.
+          S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.
+          S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and
+            four Female Saints, 1525.
+ Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.
+ Dresden. Madonna and Saints.
+ London.  Madonna and Donor (E.).
+ Milan.   Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.
+ Oxford.  Christchurch Library: Madonna.
+ Venice.  Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.
+          Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.
+ Verona.  Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.
+
+
+ _N. Rondinelli._
+
+ Berlin.   Madonna.
+ Florence. Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.
+ Milan.    Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.
+ Paris.    Madonna and Saints.
+ Ravenna.  Two Madonnas with Saints.
+           S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.
+ Venice.   Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.
+           Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.
+
+
+ _Bissolo._
+
+ London. Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.
+         Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.
+ Venice. Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.
+         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.
+         Redentore: Madonna and Saints.
+         S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.
+         Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.
+
+
+
+
+ PART II
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+GIORGIONE
+
+
+When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings, we find our admiration
+and criticism expressing themselves naturally in certain terms; we are
+struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of form, by the evidence of
+knowledge, by the display of thought and intellectual feeling. The
+Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive, nervous, fervent, or,
+as in Michelangelo and Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But
+when looking at pictures of the Venetian School we unconsciously use
+quite another sort of language; epithets like "dark" and "rich" come
+most freely to our lips; a golden glow, a slumberous velvety depth,
+seem to engulf and absorb all details. We are carried into the land
+of romance, and are fascinated and soothed, rather than stimulated
+and aroused. So it is with portraits; before the "Mona Lisa" our
+intelligence is all awake, but the men and women of Venetian canvases
+have a grave, indolent serenity, which accords well with the slumber
+of thought.
+
+Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century the painters of Venice
+had not differed very materially from those of other schools; they
+had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities of drawing,
+perspective and anatomy. They had been painting in oils for twenty-five
+years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for pageant-pictures than
+was felt in other States of Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and
+Leonardo to decorate her public palace, but no great store is set by
+their splendid achievements; their work is not even completed. The
+students fall upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish, instead
+of being treasured by the nation. Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio and the
+band of State painters are appreciated and well rewarded. These men have
+reproduced something of the lucent transparency, the natural colour of
+Venice, but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully aiming at any
+special effect. Year after year the Venetian masters assimilate more or
+less languidly the influences which reach them from the mainland. They
+welcome Guariento and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to learn
+from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans contribute their chiselled
+drawing, their learned perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet
+even early in the day the Venetians escape from that hard and learned
+art which is so alien to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo
+Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son is ready to follow
+feeling and emotion, and in his old age is quick to discover the first
+flavour of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone on upon the lines
+we have been tracing up to now, there would have been nothing very
+distinctive about it, for, however interesting and charming Alvise and
+Carpaccio, Cima and the Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when
+we speak of the Venetian School and when we rank it beside that of
+Florence, while Giovanni Bellini alone, in his later works, is not
+strong enough to bear the burden.
+
+The change which now comes over painting is not so much a technical one
+as a change of temper, a new tendency in human thought, and we link it
+with Giorgione because he was the channel through which the deep impulse
+first burst into the light. We have tried to trace the growth of the
+early Venetian School, but it does not develop logically like that of
+Florence; it is not the result of long endeavour, adding one acquisition
+and discovery to another. Venetian art was peculiarly the outcome of
+personalities, and it did not know its own mind till the sixteenth
+century. Then, like a hidden spring, it bubbles irresistibly to the
+surface, and the spot where it does so is called by the name of a man.
+
+There are beings in most great creative epochs who, with peculiar
+facility, seem to embody the purpose of their age and to yield
+themselves as ready instruments to its design. When time is ripe they
+appear, and are able, with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice to
+the desires and tendencies which have been straining for expression.
+These desires may owe their origin to national life and temperament; it
+may have taken generations to bring them to fruition, but they become
+audible through the agency of an individual genius. A genius is
+inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the seventeenth century,
+drew to her in Bernini a man who could with real power illustrate her
+determination to be grandiose and ostentatious, and, at the height of
+the Renaissance, Venice draws into her service a man whose sensuous
+feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed by every element
+around him.
+
+More conclusively than ever, at this time, Venice, the world's great
+sea-power, was in her full glory as the centre of the world's commerce
+and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had discovered the sea route to
+India in 1498, but the stupendous effect which this was to exert on the
+whole current of power did not become apparent all at once. Venice was
+still the great emporium of the East, linked to it by a thousand ties,
+Oriental in her love of Eastern richness.
+
+It would be exaggerating to say that the Venetians of the sixteenth
+century could not draw. As there were Tuscans who understood beautiful
+harmonies of colour, so there were Venetians who knew a good deal about
+form; but the other Italians looked upon colour as a charming adjunct,
+almost, one might say, as an amiable weakness: they never would have
+allowed that it might legitimately become the end and aim in painting,
+and in the same way form, though respected and considered, was never the
+principal object of the Venetians. Up to this time Venice had fed her
+emotional instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and brocades, but
+with Giorgione she discovered that there was a deeper emotional vehicle
+than these superficial glories,--glowing depths of colour enveloped in
+the mysterious richness of chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid
+and suggested more than it revealed.
+
+Giorgione no longer described "in drawing's learned tongue"; he
+carried all before him by giving his direct impression in colour. He
+conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little if their finely drawn
+draperies were blue or red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their
+dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange horizon. He hardly knows
+what attitudes his characters take, but their chestnut hair, their
+deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a moving harmony in which
+the importance of exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are not
+composed methodically and according to the old rules, but are the direct
+impress of the painter's joy in life. It was a new and audacious style
+in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely inevitable consequence,
+was to substitute for form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the
+quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how the shades of evening are able
+to transform the most commonplace scene; the dull road becomes a
+mysterious avenue, the colourless foliage develops luscious depths,
+the drab and arid plain glows with mellow light, purple shadows clothe
+and soften every harsh and ugly object, all detail dies, and our
+apprehension of it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of observing
+and criticising, we become soothed, contemplative, dreamy. It is the
+carrying of this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by means of
+chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer learned and explanatory, but deeply
+sensuous and emotional, that is the gift to art which found full voice
+with Giorgione, and which in one moment was recognised and welcomed to
+the exclusion of the older manner, because it touched the chord which
+vibrated through the whole Venetian temperament.
+
+And the immediate result was the picture of _no subject_. Giorgione
+creates for us idle figures with radiant flesh, or robed in rich
+costumes, surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask or care why
+they are gathered together. We have all had dreams of Elysian fields,
+"where falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows loudly," where all is
+rest and freedom, where music blends with the plash of fountains, and
+fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and no one asks what went
+before or what follows after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and
+nymphs: there never has been such a day, or such a land: it is a mood, a
+vision: it has danced before the eyes of poets, from David to Keats and
+Tennyson: it has rocked the tired hearts of men in all ages: the vision
+of a resting-place which makes no demands and where the dwellers are
+exempt from the cares and weakness of mortality. Needless to say, it is
+an ideal born of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise, and it
+speaks to that strain in the temperament which recognises that life
+cannot be all thought, but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the
+first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco sets that vague
+dream before men's eyes. The world, with its wistful yearnings and
+questionings, such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied, said little to
+his audience. Here was their natural atmosphere, though they had never
+known it before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused and golden lights
+are what Giorgione grasps from the material world, and as he steeps his
+senses in them the subject counts but little in the deep enjoyment they
+communicate. We, who have seen his manner repeated and developed through
+thousands of pictures, find it difficult to realise that there had been
+nothing like it before, that it was a unique departure, that when
+Bellini and Titian looked at his first creations they must have
+experienced a shock of revelation. The old definite style must have
+seemed suddenly hard and meagre, and every time they looked on the
+glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the mysterious shades of
+falling night, they must have felt they were endowed with a sense to
+which they had hitherto been strangers, but which, it was at once
+apparent, was their true heritage. They had found themselves, and in
+them Venice found her real expression, and with Giorgione and those who
+felt his impetus began the true Venetian School, set apart from all
+other forms of art by its way of using and diffusing and intensifying
+colour.
+
+When Giorgione, the son of a member of the house of Barbarelli and a
+peasant girl of Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather that he had
+nothing of the provincial. Vasari, who must often have heard of him
+from Titian, describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished
+appearance, beloved by his friends, a favourite with women, fond of
+dress and amusement, an admirable musician, and a welcome guest in the
+houses of the great. He was evidently no peasant-bred lad, but probably,
+though there is no record of the fact, was brought up, like many
+illegitimate children, in the paternal mansion. His home was not far
+from the lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is possible to
+imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain running up to the Asolean hills
+and with the Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he received his
+education in the school of Bellini, for when that master sold his
+allegory of the "Souls in Paradise" to one of the Medici, to adorn the
+summer villa of Poggio Imperiale, there went with it the two small
+canvases now in the Uffizi, the "Ordeal of Moses" and the "Judgment
+of Solomon," delightful little paintings in Giorgione's rich and
+distinctive style, but less accomplished than Bellini's picture, and
+with imperfections in the drawing of drapery and figures which suggest
+that they are the work of a very young man. The love of the Venetians
+for decorating the exterior of their palaces with fresco led to
+Giorgione being largely employed on work which was unhappily a grievous
+waste of time and talent, as far as posterity is concerned. We have a
+record of façades covered with spirited compositions and heraldic
+devices, of friezes with Bacchus and Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti,
+in his seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble figure of
+"Fortitude" grasping an axe, but beyond a few fragments nothing has
+survived. Before he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the
+important commission of decorating the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. This
+building, which we hear of so often in connection with the artists
+of Venice, was the trading-house for German, Hungarian, and Polish
+merchants. The Venetian Government surrounded these merchants with the
+most jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant connected with
+them was by law a Venetian, and, in fact, a spy of the Republic. All
+transactions of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian brokers,
+of whom some thirty were appointed. As time went on, some of these
+brokerships must have resolved themselves into sinecure offices, for
+we find Bellini holding one, and certainly without discharging any of
+the original duties, and they seem to have become some sort of State
+retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been burnt to the ground, and
+the present building was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys. A
+decree went forth that no marble, carving, or gilding were to be used,
+so that painting the outside was the only alternative. The roof was on
+in 1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and Morto da Feltre were
+employed in the adornment of the façade. Vasari is very much exercised
+over Giorgione's share in these decorations. "One does not find one
+subject carefully arranged," he complains, "or which follows correctly
+the history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for me, I have never
+been able to understand the meaning of these compositions, or have met
+any one able to explain them to me. Here one sees a man with a lion's
+head, beside a woman. Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love: it is
+all an inexplicable medley." Yet he is delighted with the brilliancy of
+the colour and the splendid execution, and adds, "Colour gives more
+pleasure in Venice than anywhere else."
+
+Among other early work was the little "Adoration of the Magi," in the
+National Gallery, and the so-called "Philosophers" at Vienna. According
+to the latest reading, this last illustrates Virgil's legend that when
+the Trojan Æneas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed out the future site
+of Rome to the ancient seer and his son. Giorgione, in painting the
+scene, is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his first great
+landscape, and all accessories have been sacrificed to intensity of
+effect. He revels in the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil
+masses of foliage, the long evening shadows, and the effect of dark
+forms silhouetted against the radiant light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+GIORGIONE (_continued_)
+
+
+When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back to Castelfranco, and painted
+an altarpiece for the Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth century
+Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain of Free Companions, who had made
+his fortune in the wars, where he had been attached to Catherine
+Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen from Cyprus, and when she retired
+to Asolo, settled near her at Castelfranco. His son, Matteo, entered the
+service of the Venetian Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances;
+but Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1504, and Costanza had
+his son's body embalmed and buried in the family chapel.
+
+Nothing is known of the details of this commission, but we are not
+straining the bounds of probability by assuming that in a little town
+like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village, the two youths must
+have been well known to each other, and that this acquaintance and
+the familiarity of the one with the appearance of the other may have
+been the determining cause which led the bereaved father to give the
+commission to the young painter, while the tragic circumstances were
+such as would appeal to an ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of
+our National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione for the figure of San
+Liberale, who is represented as a young man with bare head and crisp,
+golden locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the suit in which
+Matteo Costanza is dressed in the stone effigy which is still preserved
+in the cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the stone figure lies a
+helmet, resembling that on the head of the saint in the altarpiece.
+
+In Giorgione's group the Mother and Child are enthroned on high, with
+St. Francis and St. Liberale on either hand. The Child's glance is
+turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure with his lance at rest,
+his dagger on his hip, his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with
+features of almost feminine beauty. The picture is conceived in a new
+spirit of simplicity of design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in
+matters of detail. It is the work of a man who has observed that early
+morning, like late evening, has a marvellous power of eliminating all
+unessential accessories and of enveloping every object in a delicious
+scheme of light. Repainted, cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is
+still full of an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the ecstatic,
+devotional reverie of Perugino's saints. The painter of Castelfranco
+has not steeped his whole soul in religious imagination, like the
+painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the lyric feeling; his work is a
+poem in praise of youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine. He
+uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but Giorgione carries his unison of
+landscape with human feeling much further than Perugino; he observes the
+delicate effects of light, and limpid air circulates in his distance.
+The sun rising over the sea throws a glamour and purity of early morning
+over a scene meant to glorify the memory of a young life. The painter
+shows his connection with his master by using the figure of the St.
+Francis in Bellini's San Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to
+Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The San Zaccaria
+altarpiece was, as we have seen, painted in the year following that of
+Castelfranco. Something has incited the old painter to fresh efforts;
+out of his own evolution, or stimulated by his pupil's splendid
+experiments, he is drawn into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian
+cinque-cento.
+
+The Venetian painters were distinguished by their love for the kindred
+art of music. Giorgione himself was an admirable musician, and linked
+with all that is akin to music in his work, is his love for painting
+groups of people knit together by this bond. He uses it as a pastime to
+bring them into company, and the rich chords of colour seem permeated
+with the chords of sound. Not always, however, does he need even this
+excuse; his "conversation-pieces" are often merely composed of persons
+placed with indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings, governed by a
+mood which communicates itself to the beholder.
+
+With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully drawn upon the wall and
+flat tints were superimposed. They knew beforehand what the effect was
+to be; but the Venetians from this time gradually worked up the picture,
+imbedding tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting another,
+till the whole rich harmony was gradually evoked. With the Florentines,
+too, the figures supply the main interest; the background is an
+arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the painter's leisure, but
+Giorgione's and Titian's _fêtes champêtres_ and concerts could not _be_
+at all in any other environment. The amber flesh-tints and the glowing
+garments are so blended with the deep tones of the landscape, that one
+would not instil the mood the artist desires without the other. Piero di
+Cosimo and Pintoricchio can place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses
+in idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us beyond an observant
+pleasure, a detached amusement; but Giorgione's gloomy blues, his
+figures shining through the warm dusk of a summer evening, waken we
+hardly know what of vague yearning and brooding memory.
+
+In the "Fête Champêtre" of the Louvre he acquires a frankly sensuous
+charm. He becomes riper, richer in feeling, and displays great
+exuberance of style. The woman filling her pitcher at the fountain is
+exquisite in line and curve and amber colour. She seems to listen lazily
+to the liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard music of
+the pipes. The beautiful idyll in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art
+of composition. It is built up with uprights; pillars are formed by the
+groups of trees and figures, cut boldly across by the horizontal line of
+the bridge, but the figures themselves are put in without any attention
+to subject, though an unconscious humorist has discovered in them the
+domestic circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress is there to
+assist the left-hand columnar group, placed at the edge of the picture
+after the manner of Leonardo. The woman and child lighten the mass of
+foliage on the right and make a beautiful pattern. The white town of
+Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky, the winds bluster
+through the space, the trees shiver with the coming storm. Here and
+there leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp touch, in which
+we can follow readily the painter's quick impression.
+
+The "Knight of Malta" is a grand magisterial figure, majestic, yet full
+of ardent warmth lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The face
+is bisected with shadow, in the way which Michelangelo and Andrea del
+Sarto affected, and the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of the type
+which seems particularly to have pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too,
+belongs the honour of having created a Venus as pure as the Aphrodite of
+Cnidos and as beautiful as a courtesan of Titian.
+
+ [Illustration: _Giorgione._
+                 FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE.
+                _Louvre._
+                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]
+
+The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511 is registered by all the
+oldest authorities. His body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members of
+the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church of San Liberale. In 1638
+an epitaph was placed over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.
+
+Allowing that he was hardly more than twenty when his new manner began
+to gain a following, he had only some twelve years in which to establish
+his deep and lasting influence. We divine that he was a man of strong
+personality, such a one as warms and stimulates his companions. Even his
+nickname tells us something,--Great George, the Chief, the George of
+Georges,--it seems to express him as a leader. And we have no lack of
+proof that he was admired and looked up to. His style became the only
+one that found favour in Venice, and the painters of the day did their
+best to conform to it. Few authentic examples are left from his own
+hand, but out of his conscious and devoted and more or less successful
+imitators, there grew up a school, "out of all those fascinating works,
+rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of many copies from, or
+variations on him, by unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings and
+designs were, for various reasons, prized as his; out of the immediate
+impression he made upon his contemporaries and with which he continued
+in men's minds; out of many traditions of subject and treatment which
+really descend from him to our own time, and by retracing which we fill
+out the original image."
+
+Summing up all these influences, he has left us the Giorgionesque;
+the art of choosing a moment in which the subject and the elements of
+colour and design are so perfectly fused and blended that we have no
+need to ask for any more articulate story; a moment into which all the
+significance, the fulness of existence has condensed itself, so that
+we are conscious of the very essence of life. Those idylls of beings
+wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music and the sound of water and the
+beauty of wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all our conscious
+apprehension of life if we are to drink in their full fascination. The
+dream of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to those who can
+contrast it adequately with the experience, the complication, and the
+thousand distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and relaxation,
+the power of the deeply tinted eventide, or of the fresh morning light,
+and the calm that drinks in the sensations they are able to afford, are
+among the precious things of life. The instinct upon which Giorgione's
+work rests is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the thinking
+faculty, the life of the heart, as compared to the life of the
+intellect, the solution of life's problems by love instead of by
+thought. It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression is
+conveyed by means of colour, deep, restful, satisfying, fused and
+controlled by chiaroscuro rather than by form.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Berlin.     Portrait of a Man.
+ Buda-Pesth. Portrait of a Man.
+ Castelfranco. Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.
+ Dresden.    Sleeping Venus.
+ Florence.   Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight
+               of Malta.
+ Hampton Court. A Shepherd.
+ Madrid.     Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.
+ Paris.      Fête Champêtre.
+ Rome.       Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.
+ Venice.     Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.
+             Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.
+             San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.
+ Boston.     Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.
+ London.     Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.
+             Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.
+ Vienna.     Evander showing Æneas the Future Site of Rome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE GIORGIONESQUE
+
+
+Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the painters round him felt his
+power. The Venetian painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a time
+when the men of one city observed and studied and took hints from those
+of every other, how faint are the signs that this particular manner
+attracted any great attention in other art centres. Leonardo da Vinci
+was a master of chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his forms,
+and never sacrifices to it the delicacy and fineness of his design. It
+is the one quality Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief instant
+at the period when Sebastian del Piombo had arrived in Rome from
+Venice. It takes hold most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,
+significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced intellectual
+capacity, but in Venice itself it now became the only way. The old
+Bellini finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena, Basaiti, Cariani
+do their best to acquire it, and so successfully was it acquired, so
+congenial was it to Venetian art, that even second- and third-rate
+Venetian painters have usually something attractive which triumphs over
+superficial and doubtful drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how
+much to their taste was this fused and golden manner, this disregard of
+defined form, and this new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room in the
+National Gallery is full of such examples: the Nymphs and _Amoretti_ of
+No. 1695, charming figures against melting vines and olives; "Venus and
+Adonis," in which a bewitching Cupid chases a butterfly; Lovers in a
+landscape, roaming in the summer twilight; scenes in which neither
+person nor scenery is a pretext for the other, but each has its full
+share in arousing the desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to, or
+taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics, but have all laid hold of
+his charm, and have some share in his inspiration.
+
+One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose work is still confounded
+with the master's, is Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times
+in his life also successfully imitated Palma and Lotto. In his
+Giorgionesque manner Cariani often creates charming figures and strong
+portraits, though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive tone. His
+family group in the Roncalli Collection at Bergamo is very close to
+Giorgione. Seven persons, three women and four men, are grouped together
+upon a terrace, and behind them stretches a calm landscape, half
+concealed by a brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is restful,
+though it lacks Giorgione's concentration of sensation. Then, again,
+Cariani flies off to the gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,
+when he tries to reproduce Giorgione's pastoral reveries, his shepherds
+and nymphs become mere peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who have
+nothing of the idyllic distinction which Giorgione never failed to
+infuse. "The Adulteress before Christ" at Glasgow still bears the
+greater name, but its short, vulgar figures and faulty composition
+disclaim his authorship, while Cariani is fully capable of such
+failings, and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite characteristic
+of him.
+
+These painters are more than merely imitative; they are also typical.
+Giorgione's new manner had appealed to some quality inherent and
+hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits they single out and
+dwell upon are the traits which appeal equally to the instincts of both.
+It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic than those of
+other second-rate painters. Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which
+Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to them, and it is a medium
+which does make an immediate appeal and covers a multitude of
+shortcomings.
+
+But Giorgione was not to leave his message to the mercy of mere
+disciples and imitators, however apt. Growing up around him were men to
+whom that message was an inspiration and a trumpet-call, men who were to
+develop and deepen it, endowing it with their own strength, recognising
+that the way which the young pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out
+was the one into which they could unhesitatingly pour their whole
+inclination. The instinct for colour was in their very blood. They
+turned to it with the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks the
+air or a fish the water, and foremost among them, to create and to
+consolidate, was the mighty Titian.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Cariani._
+
+ Bergamo. Carrara: Madonna and Saints.
+          Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.
+          Morelli: Madonna (L.).
+          Roncalli Collection: Family Group.
+ Hampton Court. Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).
+ London.  Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).
+ Milan.   Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).
+          Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.
+ Paris.   Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.
+ Rome.    Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.
+ Venice.  Holy Family; Portraits.
+ Vienna.  Christ bearing Cross; The "Bravo."
+
+
+ _School of Giorgione._
+
+ London. Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;
+               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.
+         Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+TITIAN
+
+
+The mountains of Cadore are not always visible from Venice, but there
+they lie, behind the mists, and in the clear shining after rain, in the
+golden eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter days they stand out,
+lapis-lazuli blue or deep purple, or, like Shelley's enchanted peaks, in
+sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy slopes. Cadore is a
+land of rich chestnut woods, of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms,
+sudden storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of scenery which
+enters deep into the affections of its sons, and we can form some idea
+of the hold its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness obtained
+over the mind of Titian from the fact that in after years, while he
+never exerts himself to paint the city in which he lived and in which
+all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly constant to his
+mountain home, enters into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm
+and penetrating insight.
+
+The district formed part of the dependencies of the great republic, and
+relied upon Venice for its safety, its distinction, and in great measure
+for its employment. The small craftsmen and artists from all the country
+round looked forward to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.
+They tacked the name of their native town to their own name, and were
+drawn into the magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came back
+from time to time with stories of her art, her power, and beauty.
+
+The Vecelli had for generations held honourable posts in Cadore. The
+father and grandfather of the young Tiziano were influential men, and
+with his brother and sisters he must have been brought up in comfort.
+There are even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident that Titian
+was always a gentleman, though this did not prevent his being educated
+as a craftsman, and when he was only ten years old he was sent down to
+Venice to be apprenticed to a mosaicist.
+
+It was a changing Venice to which Titian came as a boy; changing in its
+life, its social and political conditions, and its art was faithfully
+registering its aspirations and tastes. More than at any previous time,
+it was calculated to impress a youth to whom it had been held up as the
+embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and the difference between the
+little hill-town set in the midst of its wild solitudes and the
+brilliant city of the sea must have been dazzling and bewildering. A
+new sense of intellectual luxury had awakened in the great commercial
+centre. The Venetian love of splendour was displaying itself by the
+encouragement and collection of objects of art, and both ancient and
+modern works were in increasing request. On Gentile Bellini's and
+Carpaccio's canvases we see the sort of people the Venetians were,
+shrewd, quiet, splendour-loving, but business-like, the young men
+fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs, splendid patrons of art
+and of religion. Buyers were beginning to find out what a delightful
+decoration the small picture made, and that it was as much in place in
+their own halls as over the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was
+gaining in importance, and the idea of making it a pleasure-giving
+picture, even more than a faithful transcript, was gathering ground. The
+"Procession of the Relic" was still in Gentile's studio, but the Frari
+"Madonna and Child" was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was
+beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the Bellini and Vivarini
+were in keen rivalship.
+
+Titian is said to have passed from the _bottega_ of Gentile to that of
+Giovanni Bellini, but nothing in his style reminds us of the former, and
+even his early work has very little that is really Bellinesque, whereas
+from the very first he reflects the new spirit which emanated from
+Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and we can divine the sympathy
+that arose between the two when they came together in Bellini's School.
+As soon as their apprenticeship was at an end they became partners. Fond
+of pleasure and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement, they
+were naturally congenial companions, and were drawn yet more closely
+together by their love for their art and by the aptitude with which
+Titian grasped Giorgione's principles.
+
+And if we ask ourselves why we take for granted that of two young men so
+closely allied in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione as the leader
+and the creator of the new style, we may answer that Titian was a more
+complex character. He was intellectual, and carried his intellect into
+his art, but this was no new feature. The intellect had had and was
+having a large share in art. But in that part which was new, and which
+was launching art upon an untried course, Giorgione is more intense,
+more one-idea'd than Titian. What he does he does with a fervour and a
+spontaneity that marks him as one who pours out the language of the
+heart.
+
+The partnership between the two was probably arranged a few years before
+the end of the century, for we have seen that young painters usually
+started on their own account at about nineteen or twenty. For some years
+Titian, like Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of the Fondaco
+dei Tedeschi. The groups of figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us
+that while Giorgione made some attempt at following classic figures,
+Titian broke entirely with Greek art and only thought of picturesque
+nature and contemporary costume.
+
+Vasari complains that he never knew what Titian's "Judith" was meant to
+represent, "unless it was Germania," but Zanetti, who had the benefit of
+Sebastiano Ricci's taste, declares that from what he saw, both Giorgione
+and Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. "While Giorgione showed a
+fervid and original spirit and opened up a new path, over which he shed
+a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was of a grander and more
+equable genius, leaning at first, indeed, upon Giorgione's example, but
+expanding with such force and rapidity as to place him in advance of
+his companion, on an eminence to which no later craftsman was able to
+climb.... He moderated the fire of Giorgione, whose strength lay in
+fanciful movement and a mysterious artifice in disposing shadows,
+contrasted darkly with warm lights, blended, strengthened, blurred, so
+as to produce the semblance of exuberant life." Certain works remain to
+link the two painters; even now critics are divided as to which of
+the two to attribute the "Concert" in the Pitti. The figures are
+Giorgionesque, but the technique establishes it as an early Titian, and
+it is doubtful whether Giorgione would be capable of the intellectual
+effort which produced the dreamy, passionate expression of the young
+monk, borne far out of himself by his own melody, and half recalled to
+life by the touch on his shoulder. Titian, like Giorgione, was a
+musician, and the fascination of music is felt by many masters of the
+Italian schools. In one picture the player feels vaguely after the
+melody, in another we are asked to anticipate the song that is just
+about to begin, or the last chords of that just finished vibrate upon
+the ear, but nowhere else in all art has any one so seized the melody of
+an instant and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in our ears as
+this musician does.
+
+Though we cannot say that Titian was the pupil of any one master, the
+fifteen years, more or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an
+indelible impression upon him. We have only to look at such a picture
+as the "Madonna and Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,"
+in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that in 1503 Giorgione at
+Castelfranco had taken the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary
+and had enthroned her on high in a bright and sunny landscape with
+S. Liberale standing sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding
+his liege lady.
+
+Titian in this early group casts every convention aside; a beautiful
+woman and lovely children are placed in surroundings whose charm is
+devoid of hieratic and religious significance. The same easy unfettered
+treatment appears in the "Madonna with the Cherries" at Vienna, and the
+"Madonna with St. Bridget and S. Ulfus" at Madrid, and while it has been
+surmised that the example of the precise Albert Dürer, who paid his
+first visit to Venice in 1506, was not without its effect in preserving
+Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and in inciting him to fine
+finish, it is interesting to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding
+the use of the carefully traced and transferred cartoon, and was
+sketching his design freely on panel or canvas with a brush dipped in
+brown pigment, and altering and modifying it as he went on.
+
+The last years of Titian's first period in Venice must have been anxious
+ones. The Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian possessions on
+the mainland, in anger at a refusal to grant his troops a free passage
+on their way to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy. Cadore was
+the first point of his invasion, and from 1507 Titian's uncle and
+great-uncle were in the Councils of the State, his father held an
+important command, and his brother Francesco, who had already made some
+progress as an artist, threw down his brush and became a soldier. Titian
+was not one of those who took up arms, but his thoughts must have been
+full of the attack and defence in his mountain fastnesses, and he must
+have anxiously awaited news of his father's troops and of the squadrons
+of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours Francesco was riding. Francesco
+made a reputation as a distinguished soldier, and was severely wounded,
+and when peace was made, Titian, "who loved him tenderly," persuaded him
+to return to the pursuit of art.
+
+The ratification of the League of Cambray, in which Julius II.,
+Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Naples combined against the power of
+Venice, was disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists who
+depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen of all kinds first fled to her
+for shelter, then, as profits and orders fell off, they left to look
+elsewhere for commissions. An outbreak of plague, in which Giorgione
+perished, went further to make Venice an undesirable home, and at this
+time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto for the Romagna, and
+Titian for Padua.
+
+We may believe that Titian never felt perfectly satisfied with
+fresco-painting as a craft, for when he was given a commission to fresco
+the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of St. Anthony, patron-saint
+of Padua, he threw off beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but
+he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants, among whom the
+feeble Domenico Campagnola, a painter whom he probably picked up at
+Padua, is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is best, as in "S.
+Anthony restoring a Youth," the drawing and composition only make us
+feel how enchanting the scene would have been in oils on one of Titian's
+melting canvases. In those frescoes which he executed himself while his
+interest was still fresh, the "Miracle which grants Speech to an Infant"
+is the most Giorgionesque. Up to this time he had preserved the
+straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his contemporaries, after
+the practice of Giorgione; he keeps, too, to his companion's plan of
+design, placing the most important figures upon one plane, close to the
+frame and behind a low wall or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame
+and with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes he makes use of this
+plan, and the straight clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay
+doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade, but the group of
+women to the left in the "Miracle of the Child" shows that Titian is
+beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own type. The introduction of
+portraits proves that he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in
+contradistinction to Giorgione's lyrically improvised figures. He fuses
+the influence of Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da Messina and
+the Bellini in a deeper knowledge of life and nature, and he is passing
+beyond Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When he was able to return
+to Venice, which he did in 1512, a temporary peace having been concluded
+with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial medium of fresco for good,
+and devoted himself to that which admitted of the afterthoughts, the
+enrichments, the gradual attainment of an exquisite surface, and at
+this time his works are remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.
+
+During the next twelve years we may group a number of paintings which,
+taken in conjunction with those of Giorgione, show the true Venetian
+School at its most intense, idyllic moment. They are the works of a man
+in the pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy, an example of the
+confident, sanguine, joyous temper of his age, capable of embodying
+its dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment of life, its
+worldly-mindedness, its love of pleasure, as well as its noble feeling
+and its grave and magnificent purpose.
+
+For absolute delight in colour let us turn to a picture like the "Noli
+me tangere" of the National Gallery. The golden light, the blues and
+olives of the landscape, the crimson of the Magdalen's raiment, combine
+in a feast of emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of the woman,
+whose soul is breathed out in the word "Master." The colour unites with
+the light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we can see Titian's delight
+in the ductile medium which had such power to give material sensation.
+In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and shoaling blues, the
+velvety fulness and plenitudes of the brush become visible; we can look
+into their depths and see something quite unlike the smooth, opaque
+washes of the Florentines.
+
+In such a masterpiece as "Sacred and Profane Love," painted during
+these years for the Borghese, there are summed up all those artistic
+aims towards which the Venetian painters had been tending. The picture
+is still Giorgionesque in mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff
+suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the love-suit of Jason; but
+the subject is not forced upon us, and we are more occupied with the
+contrast between the two beautiful personalities, so harmoniously
+related to each other, yet so opposed in type. The gracious,
+self-absorbed lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove, her
+silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and spirit to the goddess
+whose free, simple attitude and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal.
+The sinuous and enchanting line of Venus's figure against the crimson
+cloak has, I think, been the outcome of admiration for Giorgione's
+"Sleeping Venus," and has the same soft, unhurried curves. Titian's two
+figures are perfectly spaced in a setting which breathes the very aroma
+of the early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble fountain represents
+nymphs whipping a sleeping Love to life, while a cupid teases the chaste
+unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes in the water, fallen rose-leaves
+strew the mellow marble rim, around and away stretches a sunny country
+scene, in which people are placidly pursuing a life of ease and
+pleasure. What a revelation to Venice these pictures were which began
+with Giorgione's conversaziones! How little occupied the women are with
+the story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons on her fingers,
+like S. Ursula. Medea is listening to her own thoughts, but the whole
+scene is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and happiness of love. The
+little censer burning away in the blue and breathless air might be a
+philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the rays of the evening sun
+strike the picture, where it now hangs, and bring out each touch of its
+glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate with the joy of life and to
+thrill with the magic of summer in the days when the world was young.
+
+With the influence still lingering of Giorgione's "Knight of Malta,"
+Titian produced some of his finest portraits in the decade that led to
+the middle of his life. The "Dr. Parma" at Vienna, the noble "Man in
+Black" and "Man with a Glove" of the Louvre, the "Young Englishman" of
+the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the portrait at Temple Newsam,
+which, with some critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples
+in which he keeps the half-length, invented by Bellini and followed by
+Giorgione.
+
+After the visit to Padua he shows less preference for costume, and his
+women are generally clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than the
+square-cut bodice.
+
+We do not wonder that all the leading personages of Italy wished to be
+painted by Titian. His are the portraits of a man of intellect. They
+show the subject at his best; grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared
+and wished to appear; not taken off his guard in any way. What can be
+more sympathetic as a personality than the Ariosto of the National
+Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make a friend of him, and yet
+all the time he has himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much as
+he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that he does not intend us to
+discover. The painter himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he
+does not paint in his own fancies about his sitter--probably he had
+none; he saw what he was meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson calls
+"a certain happy insensibility" about him, which prevented him from
+taking fantastic flights, or from looking too deep below the surface.
+
+ [Illustration: _Titian._
+                 ARIOSTO.
+                _London._
+                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TITIAN (_continued_)
+
+
+With the "Assumption," finished in 1518 for the Church of the Frari,
+Titian rose to the very highest among Renaissance painters. The
+"Glorious S. Mary" was his theme, and he concentrated all his efforts on
+the realisation of that one idea. The central figure is, as it were, a
+collective rather than an individual type. Well proportioned and elastic
+as it is, it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious and serene, it
+combines dramatic force and profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its
+hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly by that throbbing
+company of child angels and followed by full recognition and awestruck
+satisfaction in the adoring gaze of the throng below, yet Titian has
+contrived to keep some touch of the loving woman hurrying to meet her
+son. The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the garment of glowing
+blues and crimsons, have a more than common share in that spirit of
+confident joy and poured-out life which envelops the whole canvas. In
+the worthy representation of a great event, the visible assumption of
+Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts forth all his powers and
+steeps us in that temper of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and
+confidence in the capacity of man, which was so characteristic of the
+ripe Renaissance. In looking at this splendid canvas, we must call to
+mind the position for which Titian painted it. Hung in the dusky
+recesses of the apse, it was tempered by and merged in its stately
+surroundings. The band of Apostles almost formed a part of the
+whispering crowd below, and the glorious Mother was beheld soaring
+upwards to the golden light and the mysterious vistas of the vaulted
+arches above.
+
+The patronage of courts had by this time altered the tenor of Titian's
+life. In 1516 Duke Alfonso d'Este had invited him to Ferrara, where he
+had finished Bellini's "Bacchanals." It bears the marks of Titian's
+hand, and he has introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore into
+the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes to propose another painting, and
+Titian's acceptance is contained in a very courtier-like letter, in
+which we divine a touch of irony. "The more I thought of it," he ends,
+"the more I became convinced that the greatness of art among the
+ancients was due to the assistance they received from great princes, who
+were content to leave to the painter the credit and renown derived from
+their own ingenuity in bespeaking pictures." Alfonso's requirements for
+his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological scenes were already
+popular. Mantegna had adorned Isabela d'Este's "Paradiso" with revels
+of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception of classic myth in the
+Medici villa, already Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was to
+make designs for similar scenes to complete the decorations of the halls
+of Este. The same exuberant feeling he shows in the "Assumption" finds
+utterance in the "Garden of Loves" and the "Bacchanals," both painted
+for Alfonso of Ferrara. The children in the former may be compared with
+the angels in the "Assumption." Their blue wings match the heavenly blue
+sky, and they are painted with the most delicate finish.
+
+We can imagine the beauty of the great hall at Ferrara when hung with
+this brilliant series, which was completed in 1523 by the "Bacchus and
+Ariadne" of the National Gallery. The whole company of bacchanals is
+given up to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods the deep blue sky and
+great white clouds of a summer day. The deep greens of the foliage throw
+the creamy-white and burning colour of the draperies and the fair forms
+of the nymphs into glowing relief, while by a convention the satyrs
+are of a deep, tawny complexion. On a roll of music is stamped the
+rollicking device, "_Chi boit et ne reboit, ne sçeais que boir soit_."
+The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines, its crimson juice shines
+like a jewel in crystal goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.
+The influence of such pictures as these was absorbed by Rubens, but
+though they hardly surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and
+less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance is never shown more
+victoriously than here, where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the
+actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian than revolting. In
+the "Bacchus and Ariadne," Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood
+of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so simple, that we must
+smile in sympathy. The conqueror flinging himself from his golden
+chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle fluttering on high, is so
+full of reckless life that our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,
+marching with song and laughter, seems to people that golden country-side
+with fit inhabitants. The careless satyrs and little merry, goat-legged
+fauns shock us no more than a herd of forest ponies, tossing their manes
+and dashing along for love of life and movement.[3] Yet almost before
+this series was put in place Titian was showing the diversity of his
+genius by the "Deposition," now in the Louvre, which was painted at the
+instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d'Este.
+Here he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro. While it is
+satisfying in balance and sweeping rhythm, and by the way in which every
+line follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened lines of the dead
+Body, it escapes Raphael's academic treatment of the same subject. Its
+splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into a scene of solemn pathos
+and tragedy. The scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion, and
+what above all gives it its intense power is the way in which the
+flaming hues are absorbed into the twilight shadows. The dark heads
+stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor of the dead is half
+veiled by the falling night. It is a picture which has the emotional
+beauty of a scene in nature, and makes a profound impression by its
+depth and mystery. This same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant
+colouring of the great altarpiece painted for the Pesaro family in the
+Frari. Columns rise like great tree-trunks, light and air play through
+the clouds seen between them. The grouping is a new experiment, but the
+way in which the Mother and Child, though placed quite at one side of
+the picture, are focussed as the centre of interest, by the converging
+lines, diagonal on the one hand and straight on the other, crowns it
+with success. The scheme of colour brings the two figures into high
+relief, while St. Francis and the family of the donor are subordinated
+to rich, deep tints. Titian has abandoned, more completely than ever
+before, any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural majesty. He is
+a delightful, spoiled baby, fully aware of his sovereignty over his
+mother, pretending to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants, but
+occupying himself in making a tent over his head out of her veil. The
+"Madonna in Glory with six Saints" of the Vatican is another example of
+the rich and "smouldering" colour in which Titian was now creating his
+great altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality, a solidity,
+which gives reality without heaviness, and finishing with that
+fine-grained texture which makes his flesh look like marble endowed
+with life.
+
+ [3] It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous
+ above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in
+ the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow's "Diana and Actaeon." The construction
+ of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but little-known picture is
+ admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing almost as a monochrome, the
+ landscape is full of atmospheric suggestion. It is in Titian's latest
+ manner, and its ample lines and free unimpeded motion can be due to no
+ inferior brush.
+
+ [Illustration: _Titian._
+                 DIANA AND ACTAEON.
+                _Earl Brownlow._
+                 (_The Medici Society, Ltd._)]
+
+Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us how boldly his own style
+was established. His sacred persons are not different from his pagans
+and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he still reminds us of
+Giorgione. He has been constant to the earliest influences which
+surrounded him, and to that temperament which made him accept those
+influences so instantaneously--and this constancy and unity give him the
+untroubled ascendancy over art which is such a feature of his position.
+
+With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had sprung to a recognised
+status in the great world of the Renaissance. They were no longer the
+patronised craftsmen. They had become the courted guests, the social
+equals. Titian, passing from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua
+and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants, was a magnificent
+personage, whose presence was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook
+a commission as one who conferred a coveted boon. Among those who
+clustered closest round the popular favourite, no one did more to
+enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant unscrupulous debauchee,
+wit, bully, blackmailer, but a man who, with all his faults, had
+evidently his own power of fascination, and, the friend of princes,
+must have been himself the prince of good company. Aretino, as far
+as he could be said to be attached to any one, was consistent in his
+attachment to Titian from the time they first met at the court of the
+Gonzaga. He played the part of a chorus, calling attention to the great
+painter's merits, jogging the memory of his employers as to payments,
+and never ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian, for his
+part, shows himself equally devoted to Aretino's interests, and has left
+various characteristic portraits of him, handsome and showy in his
+prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook him.
+
+In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of St. Peter Martyr invited
+artists to send in sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint, in
+SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one by Jacobello del Fiore.
+Palma Vecchio and Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off the
+prize. The picture was delivered in 1530, and during the autumn of 1529
+Sebastian del Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and Michelangelo
+had sought refuge there from Florence and had stayed for some months. A
+quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed the picture, so that
+it may quite probably have only been begun after intercourse with the
+Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian's ideas; for though he
+never ceases to be himself, it certainly seems as if the genius of
+Michelangelo had had some effect. From what we know of the altarpiece,
+which perished by fire in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli
+remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms of Herculean strength
+in violent action, but there his likeness to the Florentine ended;
+the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep, though not altogether
+successful, attention to anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture
+obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness from the setting in
+which the figures were placed--the great trees, bending and straining,
+the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in portentous harmony with the
+sinister deed, and overhead the enchanting gleam of light which shot
+downward and irradiated the face of the martyr and the two lovely
+winged boys, bathed in a flood of blue æther, who held aloft the palm of
+victory. Many copies of it remain, and we only regret that one which
+Rubens executed is not preserved among them.
+
+When we look at the delicious "Madonna del Coniglio" in the Louvre and
+our own "Marriage of S. Catherine," the first of which certainly, and
+the second probably, was painted about this time, we cannot doubt that
+the charm of the idea of motherhood had particularly arrested the
+painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio, was born, and was followed
+by another son and a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that
+passion of mother-love with an intensity and reality that can only be
+drawn from life, and on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his name,
+Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is increasing, and the landscape
+in these pictures equals the figures in importance and has engrossed the
+painter quite as much. Every year Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in
+the rich woodlands, the distant villages, the great white villa on the
+hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off blue mountains and the glooms
+and gleams of storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays through the
+summer clouds, which he has painted here, we see how constant was his
+study of his native country, and how profoundly he felt its poetry and
+its charm. He had married Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging
+to Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530 she died, and he
+mourned her deeply. He went on working and planning for his children's
+future, and his sister came from Cadore to take charge of the motherless
+household; but his friends' letters speak of his being ill from
+melancholy, and he could not go on living in the old house at San
+Samuele, which had been his home for sixteen years. He took a new house
+on the north side of the city, in the parish of San Canciano. The Casa
+Grande, as it was called, was a building of importance, which the
+painter first hired and finally bought, letting off such apartments as
+he did not need. The first floor had a terrace, and was entered by a
+flight of steps from the garden, which overlooked the lagoons, and had a
+view of the Cadore mountains. It has been swept away by the building of
+the Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the leases are preserved, and
+the exact site is well established. Here his children grew up, and he
+worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his eldest son, was idle and
+extravagant, a constant source of trouble, and Aretino writes him
+reproachful letters, which he treats with much impertinence. Orazio took
+to his father's profession, and was his constant companion, and often
+drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter, Lavinia, was his greatest
+joy and pride. In this house Titian showed constant hospitality, and
+there are records of the princely fashion in which he entertained his
+friends and distinguished foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known
+Humanist and _savant_ of the day, describes a Bacchanalian feast on
+the 1st of August, in a pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano
+Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi were present. Till the
+sun set they stayed indoors, admiring the artist's pictures. "As soon as
+it went down, the tables were spread, looking on the lagoons, which soon
+swarmed with gondolas full of beautiful women, and resounded with music
+of voices and instruments, which till midnight, accompanied our
+delightful supper. Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious
+wines, and the supper ended gaily."
+
+In the year 1532 Titian for the first time sought other than Italian
+patronage. Charles V., who was then at the height of his power, with all
+Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua, and among all the treasures
+that he saw was most struck by Titian's portrait of Federigo Gonzaga.
+After much writing to and fro, it was arranged that Titian should meet
+the Emperor at Bologna, where he had just been crowned. He made his
+first sketch of him, from which he afterwards produced a finished full
+length. It was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares that
+from that time forth Charles would never sit to any other master. He
+received a knighthood, and many commissions from members of the
+Emperor's court. It was for one of his nobles, da Valos, Marquis of
+Vasto, that he painted the allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which
+Mary of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is parting with her
+husband, who is bound on one of the desperate expeditions against the
+terrible Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the couple are
+encircled by Hymen, Victory, and the God of Love. The composition was
+repeated more than once, but never with quite the same success. We again
+suspect the influence of Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before
+Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver, for the Church of
+that name, of which the Doge was patron. The figures are life-size, the
+types stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and the colours, though
+gorgeous, are softened and broken by broad effects of light and shade.
+It is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that in which about this
+time he produced a series of beautiful female portraits, nude or
+semi-nude, chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the Duke of
+Urbino. The Duke at this time was the General-in-Chief of the Venetian
+forces, a position which took him often to Venice, and Titian's
+relations with him lasted till the painter's death. At least twenty-five
+of his works must have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro. Among
+these were the Venus of the Uffizi, "La Bella di Tiziano," in her
+gorgeous scheme of blue and amethyst, the "Girl in a Fur Cloak," besides
+portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It would be impossible to enumerate
+here the numbers of portraits which Titian was now supplying. The
+reputation he had acquired, not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and
+Germany, was greater than had ever been attained by any painter, while
+his social position was established among the highest in every court.
+"He had rivals in Venice," says Vasari, "but none that he did not
+crush by his excellence and knowledge of the world in converse with
+gentlemen." There is not a writer of the day who does not acclaim his
+genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of money, and had amassed a
+good fortune. He was constantly asking for favours, and had pensions and
+allowances from royal patrons. Lavinia, when she married, brought her
+husband a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the portraits of the
+Doges with tolerable regularity, but all through his life complaints
+were heard of his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand Council.
+Occupied as he was with the work of his foreign patrons, he had
+systematically neglected the conditions enjoined by his possession of a
+Broker's patent, and the Signoria suddenly called on him to refund the
+salary amounting to over 100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during
+which he had drawn it without performing his promise, while they
+prepared to instal Pordenone, who had lately appeared as his bitter
+rival, in his stead. Though Titian must have been making large sums of
+money at this time, his expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly
+face the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats at the same time
+that he lost the annual salary, nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a
+second-rate rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his own hands; he
+set to work and soon completed a great canvas of the "Battle of Cadore,"
+which, though it is only known to us from a contemporary print and a
+drawing by Rubens, evidently deserved Vasari's verdict of being the
+finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The movement and stir he
+contrives to give with a small number of figures is astonishing. The
+fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment advancing with lances and
+pennons produces the illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army,
+the desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises all the terrors of
+war. It was an atonement for his long period of neglect, but it was not
+till 1439 [TN: Pordenone died in 1539] that, Pordenone having suddenly
+died, the Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his Broker's
+patent. One of his later paintings for the State still keeps its place,
+"The Triumph of Faith," in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad
+form with flowing mantle, kneels before the angelic apparition of Faith,
+who holds a cross, which angels and cherubs help her to support.
+Beneath the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the Ducal Palace, and
+the Campanile. It is an allegory of Grimani's life; his defeat and
+captivity are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the magnificent
+figure of St. Mark with the lion is introduced to show that the Doge
+believes himself to owe his freedom to the saint's intercession. The
+prophet and standard-bearer at the sides were added by Marco Vecellio.
+
+Though the battlepiece perished in the fire of 1577, another masterpiece
+of this time marks a climax in Titian's brilliantly coloured and highly
+finished style. The "Presentation of the Virgin" was painted for the
+refectory of the Confraternity of the Carità, which was housed in the
+building now used as the Academy, so that the picture remains in the
+place for which it was executed. It is one of the most vivid and
+life-like of all his works. The composition is the traditional one;
+the fifteen steps of the "Gospel of Mary," the High Priest of the old
+dispensation welcoming the childish representative of the new. Below is
+a great crowd, but it is this little figure which first attracts the
+eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture and the free and
+glowing country beyond is not without meaning, and a broken Roman torso,
+lying neglected on the ground, symbolises the downfall of the Pagan
+Empire. The flight of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is
+an idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken by him from the
+sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini. The men on the left are portraits of
+members and patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque are the
+beautiful women in rich dresses at the foot of the steps. In this
+stately composition we see what is often noticeable in Titian's scenes;
+he brings in the bystanders after the manner of a Greek chorus. They
+all, with one accord, express the same sentiment. There is a certain
+acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a vein of simplicity flows through
+his nature. He has not the sensitive and subtle search after the motives
+of humanity which we find in Tintoretto or Lotto. He has great
+intellectual power, but not great imagination. It is a temper which
+helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality of his scenes
+undisturbed and adds to their effect. In the "Ecce Homo" Christ is shown
+to the populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment is a portrait of
+Aretino, and the contrast of the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd
+which, with all its lower instincts let loose, thunders back the cry of
+"Crucify Him," is the more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit
+which possesses the raging multitude. Other artists would have given
+more incidental byplay, and drawn off our attention from the main
+issue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Titian (_continued_)
+
+
+While Titian was executing portraits of the Doges, of Aretino and of
+Isabella of Portugal, and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he was
+also striking out a new line in the ceiling pictures for the Church of
+San Spirito, which have since been transferred to the Salute. Though
+painted before his journey to Rome, it may be suspected that he had
+Michelangelo's work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that he was
+setting himself the task of bold foreshortening and technical problems.
+The daring of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that this is not
+Titian's element; his figures in violent movement give a vivid idea of
+strength and muscular force, but fail both in grace and drawing, and
+though the colour and light and shade distract our attention from
+defects of form, he does not possess that mastery over the flowing
+silhouette which Tintoretto attained.
+
+It was in 1543 that his relations with the Farnese, whose young cardinal
+he had been painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X. had tried to
+attract him there without success, but now at sixty-eight he found
+himself as far on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was with him, and
+Duke Guidobaldo was himself his escort, and sent him on with a band of
+men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul
+III. gave him a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed his cicerone.
+It is interesting to inquire what impression Rome, with its treasures of
+antique statuary and contemporary painting, made upon Titian. "He is
+filled with wonder and glad that he came," writes Bembo. In a letter to
+Aretino he regrets that he had not come before. He stayed eight months
+in Rome, and was made a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of Raphael
+in company with Sebastian del Piombo, and Michelangelo comes to see him
+at his lodgings, and he receives a long letter from Aretino advising him
+to compare Michelangelo with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with
+the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian was well established
+in his own style, and was received as the creator of acknowledged
+masterpieces, and he never painted a more magnificent portrait-piece
+than that of Paul III., the peevish old Pope, ailing and humorous,
+suspicious of the two nephews who are painted with him, and who he
+guessed to be conspiring against him. The characteristic attitude of the
+old man of eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick, irritable glance,
+the steady, determined gaze of the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and
+weak, wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised in a broader,
+more careless technique than Titian has hitherto used. Though he does
+not seem to have been directly influenced by all he saw in Rome, we
+undoubtedly find a change coming over his work between 1540 and 1550,
+which may be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic horizon and
+a consciousness of what others were doing, both around him and abroad.
+In its whole handling and character his late is different from his early
+manner. It begins at this time to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist
+character. His delight in rich colouring seems to wane, and he aims at
+intensifying the power of light. He reaches that point in the Venetian
+School of painting which we may regard as its climax, when there is
+little strong local colour, but the canvas seems illumined from within.
+There are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are suggested by sombre
+enveloping shades in which the radiant brightness is embedded. His
+landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue and smiling, filled with
+loving detail, but grander, more mysterious. In the "St. Jerome" in
+Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely surroundings, and the
+moon, slowly rising behind the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray
+across the crucifix. The "Supper at Emmaus" has the grandiose effect
+that is given by avoidance of detail and simplification of method.
+
+Titian painted several portraits of himself, and we know what sort of
+stately figure was presented by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas
+in 1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the depths of winter to
+obey Charles V.'s call to Augsburg. The excitement of the public was
+great at his departure, and Aretino describes how his house was besieged
+for the sketches and designs he left behind him. For nearly forty years
+Titian was employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had been working for
+Charles since 1530, and when the Emperor abdicated, his employment by
+Philip II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of 1686 contained
+seventy-six Titians, and though probably not all were genuine, yet an
+immense number were really by him, and the gallery, even now, is richer
+in his works than any other.
+
+The great hall of the Pardo must have been a wonderful sight, with
+Titian's finest portrait of himself in the midst, and the magnificent
+portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which he continued from this
+time forward to contribute to it. In this year, which was the last
+before Charles's abdication, and during this visit to South Germany, he
+painted the great equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field of
+Mühlberg, and two years later came the first of his many portraits of
+Philip II. The face, in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of
+fury of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the sitter is
+realised as a man of great distinction. Ugly and sensual as he is,
+we never tire of looking at Titian's conception--a full length of
+distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent colour. Everything
+in it lives, and the slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a
+whole biography in themselves.
+
+The splendid series of allegorical subjects which Titian contributed to
+the Pardo, while he was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces
+to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are among his most mature and
+important works. Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and stronger
+than in the "Jupiter and Antiope," or the "Venus of the Pardo" as it is
+sometimes called. The Venus herself has the attitude of Giorgione's
+dreaming goddess, with her arm flung up above her head. It is, perhaps,
+the only time that Titian succeeds in giving anything ideal to one of
+his Venuses. The famous nudes of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid
+courtesans, far removed from Giorgione's idyllic vision; but Antiope,
+slumbering on her couch of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with
+adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole world of sweet and
+joyful fancy. The whole scene is full of a _joie de vivre_, which
+carries us back to the Bacchanals painted so many years before, and in
+these Titian gives King Philip his most perfect work, every touch of
+which is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre, was given to Charles
+I. by the King of Spain, and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.
+"Danaë," "Venus and Adonis," "Europa and the Bull," and a "Last Supper"
+followed in quick succession, but Titian was now employing many
+assistants, and great parts of the canvases issuing from his workshop
+show weak, imitative hands, while replicas were made of other works.
+
+His later feeling for the religious in art is expressed in the now
+bedimmed paintings in San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes
+these in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety years old, the
+"Transfiguration" is remarkable for forcible, majestic movement, while
+in the "Annunciation" he invents quite a new treatment. Mary turns round
+and raises her veil, while she grasps the book as if she depended on it
+for stay and support. The four angels are full of life and gaiety, and
+the whole has much grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in the
+painter's later style, in broad and sweeping planes without patience
+of detail. The old man has signed it "Titianus, fecit, fecit," a
+contemptuous reply to some critics who complained of its want of finish.
+He knew well what it was in composition and execution, and that all that
+he had ever known or done lay within the careless strength of his last
+manner.
+
+A letter written to the King of Spain's secretary in 1574 gives
+a list "in part" of fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the last
+twenty-five years, "with many others which I do not remember." On every
+hand we hear of lost pictures from the master's brush, and the number
+produced even during the last ten years of his life must have been
+enormous, for till the end he was full of great undertakings and
+achievements. Very late in life he painted a "Shepherd and Nymph"
+(Vienna), which in its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its
+mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the early days with
+Giorgione, yet the blurred and smouldering richness, the absolute
+negation of all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest style, and
+he has gone past Giorgione on his own ground. Then in strange contrast
+is the "Christ Crowned with Thorns," at Vienna, a tragic figure
+stupefied with suffering. His last great work was the "Pietà" in
+the Academy, which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and very
+impressive. He places the Virgin supporting the Body in a great
+dome-shaped niche, which gives elevation. It is flanked by two calm,
+antique, stone figures, whose impassive air contrasts with the wild pain
+and grief below. The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator with the
+wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It perhaps hardly moves us like the
+concentrated feeling of Bellini's Madonna, or the hurried, trembling
+grief of Tintoretto's Magdalen, but it is monumental in the sweeping
+grace of its line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is sadly rubbed
+and darkened and has lost much of Titian's colour, but is still
+beautiful in its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden glow, as
+of half-extinguished fires. These late paintings are of the true
+impressionist order; looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled
+touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step farther away, to the
+right focus, light and dark arrange themselves, order shines through the
+whole, and we see what the great master meant us to see. "Titian's later
+creations," says Vasari, "are struck off rapidly, so that when close you
+cannot see them, but afar they look perfect, and this is the style which
+so many tried to imitate, to show that they were practised hands, but
+only produced absurdities." Titian was preparing the picture for the
+Frari, in payment for the grant of a tomb for himself, when in August
+1576 the plague broke out in Venice, and on the 27th the great painter
+died of it in his own house. The stringent regulations concerning
+infection were relaxed to do honour to one of the greatest sons of
+Venice, and he was laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn
+procession, through a city stricken by terror and panic, and buried
+in the Chapel of the Crucified Saviour, for which his last work was
+ordered. The "Assumption" of his prime looked down upon him, and close
+at hand was the "Madonna of Casa Pesaro." His son Orazio caught the
+plague and died immediately after, and the painter's house was sacked
+by thieves and many precious things stolen.
+
+The great personality of Titian stands out as that which of all others
+established and consolidated the school of Venice. He is its central
+figure. The century of life, of which eighty years were passed in
+ceaseless industry of production, left its deep impression on the art of
+every civilised country of Europe. Every great man of the day who was a
+lover of art and culture fell under Titian's spell. His influence on his
+contemporaries was enormous, and he had everything: genius, industry,
+personal distinction, character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too
+intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of the Venetian spirit,
+in the way that Tintoretto is; it is conceivable that in another
+environment Titian might have developed on rather different lines,
+but this temper gave him greater domination. He was free from the
+eccentricities which beset genius. He possessed the saving salt of
+practical common sense, so that the golden mean of sanity and healthful
+joy in his works commended them to all men, and they are not difficult
+to understand. Yet while all can see the beauty of his poetic instinct
+for colour, his interesting and original technique, his grasp and
+scope, his mastery and certainty have gained for him the title of "the
+painter's painter." There is no one from whom men feel that they can so
+safely learn so much, and the grand breadth and power of elimination of
+his later years is justified by the way in which in his earlier work he
+has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto to perfection.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Ancona.   Crucifixion (L.).
+           S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.
+ Antwerp.  Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.
+ Berlin.   Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.);
+             Lavinia bearing Charges.
+ Brescia.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.
+ Dresden.  Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride,
+             1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.); Portrait, 1561; Lady with
+             Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.
+ Florence. Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman;
+             The Concert (E.); Philip II.; Ippolito de Medici, 1533;
+             Tomaso Mosti.
+           Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco
+             della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537; Flora; Venus, the head
+             a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora
+             Gonzaga; Madonna with S. Anthony Abbot.
+ London.   Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me
+             tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John and Catherine.
+           Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three
+             Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon, 1559; Callisto, 1559.
+           Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).
+           Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.
+ Madrid.   Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden
+             of Loves; Danaë, 1554; Venus and Youth playing Organ (L.);
+             Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment,
+             1559; Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.);
+             Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the Battle
+             of Mühlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II.,
+             1550; Philip II.; The Infant; Don Fernando and Victory;
+             Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and
+             Adonis; Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.
+ Medole (near Brescia). Christ appearing to His Mother.
+ Munich.   Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man
+             with Baton.
+ Naples.   Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Danaë.
+ Padua.    Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an
+             Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The Jealous Husband,
+             1511.
+ Paris.    Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with
+             S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning with Thorns (L.);
+             Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.);
+             Francis I.; Allegory; Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon;
+             Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L'Homme au Gant (E.);
+             Portraits.
+ Rome.     Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.);
+             Education of Cupid (L.).
+           Capitol: Baptism (E.).
+           Doria: Daughter of Herodias.
+           Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.
+ Treviso.  Duomo: Annunciation.
+ Urbino.   Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).
+ Venice.   Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert;
+             Assumption, 1518; Pietà, 1573.
+           Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.
+           Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.
+           Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.
+           S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.
+           Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).
+           Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned
+             with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice of Isaac; Cain
+             and Abel.
+           S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).
+ Verona.   Duomo: Assumption.
+ Vienna.   Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo,
+             1543; Isabela d'Este, 1534; The Tambourine Player; Girl in
+             Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.);
+             Portraits; Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and
+             Callisto; Madonna and Saints.
+ Wallace Collection. Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration
+             with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)
+ Louvre.   Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)
+ Glasgow.  Madonna and Saints.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO
+
+
+Among the many who clustered round Titian's long career, Palma attained
+to a place beside him and Giorgione which his talent, which was not of
+the highest order, scarcely warranted. But he was classed with the
+greatest, and influenced contemporary art because his work chimed in
+so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque by birth, he came of
+Venetian parentage, and learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.
+He never really mastered the inner niceties of anatomy in its finest
+sense, and the broad generalisation of his forms may be meant to conceal
+uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed, matronly women and plump
+children, his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and the clear
+golden polish in which his pictures are steeped, made a great appeal to
+the public. His invention is the large Santa Conversazione, as compared
+with those in half-length of the earlier masters. The Virgin and saints
+and kneeling or bending donors are placed under the spreading trees
+of a rich and picturesque landscape. It is Palma's version of the
+Giorgionesque ideal, which he had his share in establishing and
+developing. The heavy tree-trunk and dark foliage, silhouetted almost
+black against the background, are characteristic of his compositions. As
+his life goes on, though he still clings to his full, ripe figures and
+to the same smooth fleshiness in his women, the features become delicate
+and chiselled, and the more refined type and subtler feeling of his
+middle stage may be due to his companionship with Lotto, with whom he
+was in Bergamo when they were both about twenty-five. He touches his
+highest, and at the same time keeps very near Giorgione, in the
+splendid St. Barbara, painted for the company of the _Bombadieri_ or
+artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on which she stands; it
+was at her altar that they came to commend themselves on going forth to
+war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving for a safe return; and
+she is a truly noble figure, regal in conception and fine and firm in
+execution, attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and green, with
+splendid saints on either hand. Palma was often approached by his
+patrons who wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses; but though
+he produced a Venus, a handsome, full-blown model, he never excels in
+the nude, and his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His scenes have
+a domestic, familiar flavour. With all his golden and ivory beauty he
+lacks fire, and his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In his
+latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of scumble or haze. It
+would, however, be unfair to say he is not fine, and his portraits
+especially come very near the best. Vienna is rich in examples in
+half-lengths of one beautiful woman after another robed in the ample and
+gorgeous garments in which he is always interested. Among them is his
+handsome daughter, Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and wearing the
+large sleeves he admires. The "Tasso" of the National Gallery has been
+taken from him and given first to Giorgione and then to Titian, but
+there now seems some inclination to return it to its first author. It
+has a more dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are accustomed to
+associate with Palma; but he uses elsewhere the decorative background
+of olive branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny colouring, and the
+pronounced golden haze are Palmesque in the highest degree. The
+colouring is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of the Ariosto
+of Titian, which hangs near it.
+
+ [Illustration: _Palma Vecchio._
+                 HOLY FAMILY.
+                _Colonna Gallery, Rome._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+No one could be more unlike Palma than his contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto,
+who has for long been classed with the Bergamasques, but who is proved
+by recently discovered documents to have been born in Venice. It was
+for long an accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and his
+earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso, bears traces of
+Bellini's manner. A Pietà above has child angels examining the wounds
+with the grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly his own, and
+the St. Jerome and the branch of fig-leaves silhouetted against the
+light remind us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto seems to have
+clung to quattrocento fashions. The ancona had long been rejected by
+most of his contemporaries, but he painted one of the last for a church
+in Recanati, in carved and gilt compartments, and he painted predellas
+long after they had become generally obsolete. We ask ourselves how it
+was that Lotto, who had so susceptible and easily swayed a nature,
+escaped the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful of any in the
+Venice of his youth--an influence which acted on Bellini in his old age,
+which Titian practically never shook off, and which dominated Palma to
+the exclusion of any earlier master.
+
+It would take too long to survey the train of argument by which
+Mr. Berenson has established Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto.
+Notwithstanding that Bellini's great superiority was becoming clear to
+the more cultured Venetians, Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still
+the painter _par excellence_ for the mass of the public. In the S.
+Cristina altarpiece the Child standing on its Mother's knee is in the
+same attitude as the Child in Alvise's altarpiece of 1480, and the
+Mother's hand holds it in the same way. Other details which supply
+internal evidence are the shape of hands and feet, the round heads and
+the way the Child is often represented lying across the Mother's knees.
+Lotto carries into old age the use of fruit and flowers and beads as
+decoration, a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the Vivarini, but which
+was never adopted by Bellini.
+
+About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with Palma, and for a short time the
+two were in close touch. A "Santa Conversazione," of which a good copy
+exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one at Dresden, with the Holy Family
+grouped under spreading trees, is saturated with Palma's spirit, but it
+soon passes away, and except for an occasional touch, disappears
+entirely from Lotto's work.
+
+Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo, for when in 1515 a competition
+between artists was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a descendant of
+General Colleone, for an altarpiece for S. Stefano, he competed and
+carried off the prize. This was the first of the series of the great
+works for Bergamo, which enrich the little city, where at this period
+he can best be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed to San
+Bartolommeo) is a most interesting human document, a revelation of the
+painter's personality. He does not break away from hieratic conventions,
+like the rival school; his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the
+church with saints grouped round her, a form from which the Vivarini
+never departed, but the whole is full of intense movement, of a lyric
+grace and ecstasy, a desire to express fervent and rapturous devotion.
+The architectural background is not in happy proportion in relation to
+the figures, but the effect of vista and space is more remarkable than
+in any North Italian master. The vivid treatment of light and shade, and
+the gaiety and delicacy of the flying angels, who hold the canopy, and
+of the putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes of throne and
+canopy and the decorations have led to the idea that Lotto drew his
+inspiration from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles in some ways;
+but at this time Correggio was only twenty, and had not given any
+examples of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque. We must
+look back to a common origin for those decorative details, which are so
+conspicuous in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini, which came to Lotto
+through the Vivarini and to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and
+of which the fountain-head for both was the school of Squarcione. For
+the much more striking resemblances of composition and spirit, the
+explanation seems to be that Lotto on one side of his nature was akin
+to Correggio; he had the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination to
+exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting was a vehicle for the
+expression of feeling, but Lotto had also common sense and a goodly
+share of that humour that is allied to pathos.
+
+Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in Bergamo, where the first altarpiece
+gained him orders for others. The reputation of a member of the school
+of Venice was a sure passport to employment. We trace Alvise's tradition
+very plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino, where the gesture of
+the Madonna's hand as she expounds to the listening saints recalls
+Alvise's of 1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto makes use
+of to the end of his life, lie scattered on the step; angels, daringly
+foreshortened, sweep aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour is
+in Lotto's scarlet, light blues, and violet. He soon shows himself fond
+of genre incidents, and in "Christ taking leave of His Mother" gives a
+view into a bedroom and a cat running across the floor. The donor kneels
+with her hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl necklace. In the
+"Marriage of S. Catherine" at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,
+with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very simply and naturally before
+the Child, and the exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young woman
+who represents the Madonna, looks out towards the spectator with a
+mundane and curiously modern air. It was probably the recognition
+of Lotto's success with portraits that led to their being so often
+introduced into his sacred pieces. In the one we have just noticed, the
+donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is brought in, and is on rather a larger scale
+than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not found him interesting. The
+portraits of the brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary
+Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate that wonderful series
+of characterisations which are his greatest distinction. A series of
+frescoes in village churches round Bergamo must also be noticed. They
+are remarkable for spontaneous and original decoration, and may compare
+with the ceremonial groups of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto's
+personages, as they chatter in the market-places, are full of natural
+animation and gaiety, and we realise what a step had been made in the
+painting of actual life.
+
+Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of Italy, the years
+from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto spent in Venice, found that city the
+gathering-ground of many of the most distinguished scholars and deepest
+thinkers of the day. Men of all shades of religious thought were engaged
+in learned discussion, and Lotto's ardent and inquiring temperament must
+have been stimulated by such an environment. During these years, too, he
+became intimate with Titian, and experimented in Titian's style, with
+the result that his painting gets thicker and richer, more fused and
+solid, and his figures are better put together. He imitates Titian's
+colour, too, but it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and he
+soon finds it does not suit him, and returns to his own scheme. His
+colour is still rather too dazzling, but the distances are translucent
+and atmospheric. He continues to introduce portraits. In his altarpiece
+in SS. Giovanni and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving
+petitions curiously resemble in type and expression the ecclesiastics
+we see to-day.
+
+Lotto was now an accepted member of Titian's set, and Aretino, in a
+letter dated 1548, writes that Titian values his taste and judgment as
+that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual mixture of connoisseurship
+and clever spite, goes on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he
+himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was not considered on a par with
+the masters of the first rank. "Envy is not in your breast," he says,
+"rather do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which
+you do not find in your own brush, ... holding the second place in the
+art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first place in the
+duties of religion."
+
+An interesting codex or commentary tells us that Lotto never received
+high prices for his work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about in
+artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and leaving a number with
+Jacopo Sansovino in the hope that he might hear of buyers. His work
+ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He undertook commissions at
+Recanati, Ancona, and Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a
+contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by which, in return for rooms
+and food, he made over himself and all his belongings to the care of the
+fraternity, "being tired of wandering, and wishing to end his days in
+that holy place." He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto
+as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of pictures which are
+distinguished by the same sort of apparent looseness and carelessness
+which we noticed in Titian's late style; a technique which, as in
+Titian's case, conceals a profound knowledge of plastic modelling.
+
+Though Lotto executed an immense number of important and very beautiful
+sacred works, his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting to the
+modern mind that one is tempted to linger over them. Other painters give
+us finer pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know who the sitters
+were and what was their story. Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality
+which marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born psychologist, and as such
+he witnesses to an attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which is of
+peculiar interest to our own. Lotto's bystanders, even in his sacred
+scenes, have nothing in common with Titian's "chorus"; they have the
+characterisation of distinct individuals, and when he is concerned with
+actual portraits he is intensely receptive and sensitive to the spirit
+of his sitters. He may be said to "give them away," and to take an
+almost unfair advantage of his perception. The sick man in the Doria
+Gallery looks like one stricken with a death sentence. He knows at least
+that it is touch and go, and the painter has symbolised the situation in
+the little winged genius balancing himself in a pair of scales. In the
+Borghese Gallery is the portrait of a young, magnificently dressed man,
+with a countenance marked by mental agitation, who presses one hand to
+his heart, while the other rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a
+tiny skull is half-hidden. The "Old Man" in the Brera has the hard,
+narrow, but intensely sad face of one whose natural disposition has
+been embittered by the circumstances of his life, just as that of our
+Prothonotary speaks of a large and gentle nature, mellowed by natural
+affections and happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with kindly
+mischief at "Marsilio and his Bride;" the broad, placid countenance of
+the man is so significantly contrasted with the clever mouth and eyes of
+the bride that it does not need the malicious glance of the cupid, who
+is fitting on the yoke, to "dot the i's and cross the t's" of their
+future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in the Brera, introduces
+us to one of those women who are charming in every age, not actually
+beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly dressed, sensible, and
+self-possessed, and the "Family Group" in our own gallery holds a
+history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments united by life in
+common and the clasping hands of children. Lotto does not keep the
+personal expression out of even such a canvas as his "Triumph of
+Chastity" in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His delightful Venus, one of the
+loveliest nudes in painting, flies from the attacking termagant, whose
+virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on her breast, and sweeps her little
+cupid with her with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the
+manners of mundane society.
+
+ [Illustration: _Lorenzo Lotto._
+                 PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.
+                _Brera._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+The painter who was thus able to unveil personality had evidently a mind
+that was aware of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation
+and a more earnest and intimate religion. His life seems to have been
+one of some sadness, and crowned with only moderate success. He speaks
+of himself as "advanced in years, without loving care of any kind, and
+of a troubled mind." His will shows that his worldly possessions were
+few and poor, and that he had no heir closer than a nephew; but he
+leaves some of his cartoons as a dowry to "two girls of quiet nature,
+healthy in mind and body, and likely to make thrifty housekeepers," on
+their marriage to "two well-recommended young men," about to become
+painters. His sensitive and introspective temperament led him to prefer
+the retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the brilliant society
+of which he was made free in Venice. "His spirit," says Mr. Berenson,
+"is more like our own than is perhaps that of any other Italian
+painter, and it has all the appeal and fascination of a kindred soul
+in another age."
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Palma Vecchio._
+
+ Bergamo.   Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).
+ Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).
+ Dresden.   Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family;
+              Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).
+ London.    Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.
+ Milan.     Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian;
+              Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.
+ Naples.    Santa Conversazione with Donors.
+ Paris.     Adoration of Shepherds.
+ Rome.      Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.
+            Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.
+            Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.
+ Venice.    Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.
+            Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).
+            S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.
+ Vienna.    Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.
+
+
+ _Lorenzo Lotto._
+
+ Ancona.   Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).
+ Asolo.    Madonna in Glory, 1506.
+ Bergamo.  Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.
+           Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.
+           S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.
+           S. Alessandro in Colonna: Pietà.
+           S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.
+           S. Spirito: Altarpiece.
+ Berlin.   Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.
+ Brescia.  Nativity.
+ Cingoli.  S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.
+ Florence. Uffizi: Holy Family.
+ London.   Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);
+             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;
+             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.
+           Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).
+ Loreto.   Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer
+             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).
+ Recanati. Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).
+           S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.
+ Rome.     Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.
+           Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.
+ Venice.   Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.
+           S. Giacomo dall' Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.
+           SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.
+ Vienna.   Santa Conversazione, etc.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO
+
+
+It was very natural that Rome should wish for works of the masters of
+the new Venetian School, but the first-rate men were fully employed at
+home. All the efforts made to secure Titian failed till nearly the end
+of his career. On the other hand, Venice was full of less famous masters
+following in Giorgione's steps. When Sebastian Luciani was a young man,
+Giorgione was paramount there, and no one could have foretold that his
+life would be of such short duration. It was to be expected, therefore,
+that a painter who consulted his own interests should leave the city
+where he was overshadowed by a great genius and go farther afield. The
+influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the sixteenth century, so that
+it was a simpler matter for painters to transfer their talents, and
+painting was beginning to appeal strongly to the _dilettanti_, who
+rivalled one another in their offers.
+
+Only one work of Sebastian's is known belonging to this earlier time in
+Venice. It is the "S. Chrysostom enthroned," in S. Giovanni Crisostomo,
+and its majesty and rich colouring, and more especially the splendid
+group of women on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian beauty,
+make us wonder if Sebastian might not have risen to greater heights if
+he had remained in his natural environment. He responded to the call to
+Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great painter, [TN: Chigi was a banker] art
+collector, and patron, the friend of Leo X. Chigi had just completed
+the Farnesina Villa, and Sebastian was employed till 1512 on its
+decoration, and at once came under the influence of Michelangelo. The
+"Pietà" at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in fact, Vasari
+says that Michelangelo himself drew the cartoon for the figure of
+Christ, which would account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian
+embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine painter, and,
+according to Vasari, the great canvas of the "Raising of Lazarus," in
+the National Gallery, was executed under the orders and in part from
+the designs of Michelangelo. This colossal work was looked on as one
+of the most important creations of the sixteenth century, but there is
+little to make us wish to change it for the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo.
+The desire for scientific drawing and the search after composition have
+produced a laboured effect; the female figures are cast in a masculine
+mould, and it lacks both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and
+the emotional charm of Sebastian's native style. We cannot, however,
+avoid conjecturing if in the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a
+conception of the great Florentine. It is so easy in pose, so splendid
+in its, perhaps excessive, length of limb, that our thoughts turn
+involuntarily to the _Ignudi_ in the Sixtine Chapel. The picture has
+been dulled and injured by repainting, but the distance still has the
+sombre depth of the Venetians. All through Sebastian's career he seeks
+for form and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly is, he
+is great because he possesses that inborn feeling for harmony of colour.
+This is what we value in him, and he excels in so far as he follows his
+Venetian instincts.
+
+The death of Raphael improved Sebastian's position in Rome, and
+though Leo X. never liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.
+The "Fornarina" in the Uffizi, with the laurel-wreathed head and
+leopard-skin mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is
+curious that any critic should ever have assigned its rich, voluptuous
+tone and its coarse type to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions for
+decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and S. Pietro in Montorio in
+fresco, but in the latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring
+the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the Tuscan ease of hand. Colour,
+for which he possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused colour of
+Giorgione, is set aside by him; his tints become strong and crude, his
+surfaces grow hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of bold
+action, of drawing and modelling. The Venetian genius for portraiture
+remains, and he has left such fine examples as the "Andrea Doria" of the
+Vatican, or the "Portrait of a Man in the Pitti," a masterly picture
+both in drawing and execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse, and
+damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In the National Gallery we possess
+his own portrait by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici. The
+faces are well contrasted, and we judge from Sebastian's that his
+biographer describes him justly, as fat, indolent, and given to
+self-indulgence, but genial and fond of good company.
+
+After an absence of twenty years he returned to Venice. There he came
+in contact with Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship with
+Aretino, who became his great ally and admirer. The sack of Rome had
+driven him forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning partially
+to recover from that time of horror, he returned, and was cordially
+welcomed by Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost ecclesiastical
+circles. The Piombo, a well-paid, sinecure office of the Papal court,
+was bestowed on him, and his remaining years were spent in Rome. He
+was very anxious to collaborate with Michelangelo, and the great
+painter seems to have been quite inclined to the arrangement. The "Last
+Judgment," in the Sixtine Chapel, was suggested, and Sebastian had the
+melancholy task of taking down Perugino's masterpieces; but he wished to
+reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo stipulated for fresco, saying
+that oils were only fit for women, so that no agreement was arrived at.
+
+Sebastian's mode of work was slow, and he employed no assistants. He
+seems to have been inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,
+and his character shows in his work, which, with a few exceptions, has
+something heavy and common about it, a want of keenness and fire, an
+absence of refinement and selection.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Florence. Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.
+           Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).
+ London.   Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.
+ Naples.   Holy Family; Portraits.
+ Paris.    Visitation, 1521.
+ Rome.     Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).
+           Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.
+           S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.
+ Treviso.  S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).
+ Venice.   Academy: Visitation (E.).
+           S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).
+ Viterbo.  Pietà (L.).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE
+
+
+Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity of the different members
+of the family of Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in giving the
+name to one master only. Boschini, however, in 1777 discovered the
+register of the death of a second, and a third bearing the name was
+working twenty years later. Upon this Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion
+that we must recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the name of
+Bonifazio, but documents recently discovered by Professor Ludwig have
+in great measure destroyed Morelli's conjectures. There may have been
+obscure painters bearing the name, but they were mere imitators, and it
+is doubtful if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.
+
+Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one who counts. As Ridolfi says,
+he was born in Verona in the most beautiful moment of painting. He came
+to Venice at the age of eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,
+with whom his work has sometimes been confused. After Palma's death
+Bonifazio continued in friendly relations with his old master's family,
+and his niece married Palma's nephew. Bonifazio himself married the
+daughter of a basket-maker, and appears to have had no children, for
+he and his wife by their wills bestowed their whole fortune on their
+nephews. Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio's niece, was a painter
+whose pictures have sometimes been attributed to the legendary third
+Bonifazio. Bonifazio's life was passed peacefully in Venice. He received
+many important commissions from the Republic, and decorated the Palace
+of the Treasurers. His character and standing were high, and he was
+appointed, in company with Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy
+which Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly dower for five
+maidens. After a long life spent in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew
+to a little farm amidst orchards--fifteen acres of land in all--at San
+Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept his house in San Marcuola, where
+he died. He was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.
+
+A son of the plains and of Venetian stock, his work is always graceful
+and attractive, though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a very
+pronounced aristocratic character, and bears no trace of the rough,
+provincial strain of such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very fine
+and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour and energy in design. Nowhere do
+we get more worldly magnificence or such frank worship of wealth as on
+Bonifazio's joyous canvases. He represents Christian saints and Eastern
+kings alike, as gentlemen of princely rank. There is a note of purely
+secular art about his Adorations and Holy Families. In the "Adoration of
+the Magi," in the Academy, the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady of
+Bonifazio's acquaintance. The Child, so far from raising His hand in
+benediction, holds it out for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,
+distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the cup held by the second,
+who, in a puffed velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably that of
+the donor of the picture, who is in this way paid a courtier-like
+compliment. The third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must often have
+seen embarking from his Eastern galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A
+servant in a peaked hood peers round the column to catch sight of what
+is going on. The groups of animals in the background are well rendered.
+In the "Rich Man's Feast," where Lazarus lies upon the step, we have
+another scene of wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an orgy of
+colour. And, again, in the "Finding of Moses" (Brera) he paints nobles
+playing the lute, making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired women
+listening complacently. We are reminded of the way in which they lived:
+their one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of appearing in public
+in the latest and most magnificent fashions. And in these paintings
+Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and brocaded gowns in which the
+beautiful Venetians arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions of the
+year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted and coiled in the precise
+mode of the moment. The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly all
+his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself. As Catena often brings in
+a little white lap-dog, so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a
+liver-and-white spaniel.
+
+Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist who most successfully
+imitated Titian. He was the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,
+and received a good education in music and letters, before being sent
+off to Venice and placed in Titian's studio. Bordone does not seem to
+have been on very friendly terms with Titian. He was dissatisfied with
+his teaching, and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting from him a
+commission to paint an altarpiece which had been entrusted to him when
+he was only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with the manner of
+the dead Giorgione, and it was upon this master that he aspired to
+form his style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was painted for the
+Confraternity of St. Mark, and made his reputation. The legend it
+represents may be given in a few words:
+
+In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February, there arose a fearful
+storm in Venice. During the height of the tempest, three men accosted a
+poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed old boat by the Piazza,
+and begged that he would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where they had
+urgent business. After some demur they persuaded him to take the oars,
+and in spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished. On reaching
+the shore they pointed out to him a great ship, the crew of which he
+perceived to consist of a band of demons, who were stirring up the waves
+and making a great hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands on
+them to desist, when immediately they sailed away and there was a calm.
+The passengers then made the oarsman row them, one to S. Niccolo, one to
+S. Giorgio, and the third was rowed back to the Piazza. The fisherman
+timidly asked for his fare, and the third passenger desired him to go to
+the Doge and ask for payment, telling him that by that night's work a
+great disaster had been averted from the city. The fisherman replied
+that he should not be believed, but would be imprisoned as a liar. Then
+the passenger drew a ring from his finger. "Show him this for a sign,"
+he said, "and know that one of those you have this night rowed is S.
+Niccolas, the other is S. George, and I am S. Mark the Evangelist,
+Protector of the Venetian Republic." He then disappeared. The next day
+the fisherman presented the ring, and was assigned a provision for life
+from the Senate.
+
+There has, perhaps, never been a richer and more beautiful
+subject-picture painted than this glowing canvas, or one which brings
+more vividly before us the magnificence of the pageants which made
+such a part of Venetian life in the golden age of painting. It is all
+strength and splendour, and escapes the hectic colour and weaker type
+which appear in Bordone's "Last Supper" and some of his other works. In
+1538 he went to France and entered the service of Francis II., painting
+for him many portraits of ladies, besides works for the Cardinals of
+Guise and of Lorraine. The King of Poland sent to him for a "Jupiter and
+Antiope." At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns for work done for the
+great Fugger family.
+
+No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type of woman who at this time
+was most admired in Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired, with
+full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and ample, with "abundant
+flanks and snow-white breast." A type glowing with health and instinct
+with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without deep passions,
+and with no look that reveals profound emotions or the struggle of a
+soul. From what we see of Bordone's female portraits and from some of
+the mythological compositions he has left, he might have been among the
+most sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan, in the National
+Gallery, is an almost over-realistic presentment of a woman who has
+just parted from her lover. His women, with their carnation cheeks and
+expressionless faces, are like beautiful animals; but, as a matter
+of fact, their painter was sober and temperate in his life, very
+industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother. About 1536 he married
+the daughter of a Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one of the
+many insignificant painters of the end of the sixteenth century. Most
+of his days were divided between his little Villa of Lovadina in the
+district of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte dell' Cavallo near
+the Misericordia. "He lives comfortably in his quiet house," writes
+Vasari, who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, "working only at the
+request of princes, or his friends, avoiding all rivalry and those vain
+ambitions which do but disturb the repose of man, and seeking to avert
+any ruffling of the serene tranquillity of his life, which he is
+accustomed to preserve simple and upright."
+
+Many of his pictures show an intense love of country solitudes. His
+poetic backgrounds, lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling water
+are in curious contrast to the sumptuous groups in the foreground.
+
+His "Three Heads," in the Brera, is a superb piece of painting and
+an interesting characterisation. The woman is ripe, sensual, and
+calculating, feeling with her fingers for the gold chain, a mere
+golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid and prosaic. The
+go-between is dimly seen in the background, but the face of the suitor
+is a strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless, and bitter,
+taking his pleasure mechanically and with cynical detachment. The "Storm
+calmed by S. Mark" (Academy) was, in Mr. Berenson's opinion, begun by
+Giorgione.
+
+Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is the work of these
+two painters, it does not reach the highest level. It falls short of
+grandeur, and has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity. As we
+study it we feel that it marks the point to which Venetian art might
+have attained, the flood-mark it might have touched, if it had lacked
+the advent of the three or four great spirits, who, appearing about
+the same time, bore it up to sublimer heights and developed a more
+distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio and Bordone lack the
+grandeur and sweetness of Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative
+genius of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour, design, and
+decoration of Veronese, but they continue Venetian painting on logical
+lines, and they form a superb foundation for the highest.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Bonifazio Veronese._
+
+ Dresden.  Finding of Moses.
+ Florence. Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight
+             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.
+ Hampton Court. Santa Conversazione.
+ London.   Santa Conversazione (E.).
+ Milan.    Brera: Finding of Moses.
+ Paris.    Santa Conversazione.
+ Rome.     Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee's Children; Return of the
+             Prodigal Son.
+           Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.
+ Venice.   Academy: Rich Man's Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of
+             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.
+           Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.
+ Vienna.   Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;
+             Salome.
+
+
+ _Paris Bordone._
+
+ Bergamo.  Lochis: Vintage Scenes.
+ Berlin.   Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four
+             Saints.
+ Dresden.  Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.
+ Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Woman.
+ Genoa.    Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.
+ Hampton Court. Madonna and Donors.
+ London.   Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.
+           Bridgewater House: Holy Family.
+ Milan.    Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented
+             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.
+           S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.
+ Munich.   Portrait; Man counting Jewels.
+ Paris.    Portraits.
+ Rome.     Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.
+ Treviso.  Madonna and Saints.
+           Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.
+ Venice.   Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.
+           Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.
+           Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.
+           S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.
+ Vienna.   Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES
+
+
+It has become usual to include in the Venetian School those artists from
+the subject provinces on the mainland, who came down to try their luck
+at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark on their talent. The
+Friulan cities, Udine, Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had
+their own primitive schools and their scores of humble craftsmen. Their
+art wavered for some time in its expression between the German taste,
+which came so close to their gates, and the Italian, which was more
+truly their element.
+
+Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times in thirty years by the
+Turks. They poured in large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed
+the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred and carried off the
+inhabitants. These terrible periods are marked by the cessation of work
+in the provinces, but hope always revived again. The break caused by
+such a visitation can be distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,
+at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da Udine obtained the
+epithet of Pellegrino da San Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an
+early visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to Cima. He was
+appointed to decorate S. Antonino. His early work there is hard and
+coarse, ill-drawn, the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and the colour
+dusky and uniform; but owing to the Turkish raid, he had to take flight,
+and it was many a year before the monks gained sufficient courage and
+saved enough money to continue the embellishment of their church. In the
+meantime, Pellegrino's years had been spent partly in Venice and partly,
+perhaps, in Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing to paint a
+"Bacchus" for the Duke, was that the subject had already been painted
+by Pellegrino da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his work, it
+demonstrated that he had studied the modern Venetians and had come under
+a finer, deeper influence. A St. George in armour suggests Giorgione's
+S. Liberale at Castelfranco; he specially shows an affinity with
+Pordenone, who was his pupil and who was to become a better painter than
+his old master. As Pellegrino goes on he improves consistently, and
+adopts the method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form to a
+scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some extent, succeeds in his
+difficult task of applying to wall painting the system which the
+Venetians used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He was an
+ambitious, daring painter, and some of his church standards were for
+long attributed to Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains his
+chief monument; but for all his travels Pellegrino remains provincial in
+type, is unlucky in his selection, cares little for precision of form,
+and trusts to colour for effect.
+
+The same transition in art was taking place in other provinces. Morto da
+Feltre, Pennacchi, and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a
+Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went far onward, began their
+career under such minor masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes his
+name from his native town of Pordenone, in Friuli, was one of these. All
+the early part of his life was spent in painting frescoes in the small
+towns of the Friulan provinces. At first they bear signs of the tuition
+of Pellegrino, but it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has learned to
+imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite early, however, one of his chief
+failings appears, and one which is all his own, the disparity in size
+between his various figures. The secondary personages, the Magi in a
+Nativity, the Saints standing round an altar, are larger and more
+athletic in build and often more animated in action than the principal
+actors in the scene. What pleased Pordenone's contemporaries was his
+daring perspective and his instinctive feeling for movement. He carried
+out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at length his reputation,
+which had long been ripe in his native province, reached Venice. In
+1519 he was invited to Treviso to fresco the façade of a house for one
+of the Raviguino family. The painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and
+Titian was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the work so much that
+he hinted to Raviguino that he would be wise not to press him for a
+valuation. As a direct consequence of this piece of business, Pordenone
+was employed on the chapel at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At
+this time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa Pesaro were just
+finished, and it is probable that Pordenone paid his first visit to
+Venice, hard by, and saw his great contemporary's work. With his
+characteristic distaste for fresco, Titian undertook the altarpiece and
+painted the beautiful Annunciation which still holds its place, and
+Pordenone covered the dome with a foreshortened figure of the Eternal
+Father, surrounded by angels. Among the remaining frescoes in the
+Chapel, an Adoration of the Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.
+Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered his services to
+Mantua and Cremona, but the Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and
+restrained grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say to what Crowe
+and Cavalcaselle call his "large and colossal fable-painting." He
+pursued his way to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he passed
+through Mantua is evident from the first figures he painted in the
+cathedral. In Cremona every one admired him, and all the artists set to
+work to imitate his energetic foreshortening, vehement movement and huge
+proportions.
+
+Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all his life an itinerant
+painter. In 1521 he was back at Udine and wandered from place to
+place, painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at S. Maria at
+Spilimbergo, the façade of the Church of Valeriano, an imposing series
+at Travesio, and in 1525, the "Story of the True Cross" at Casara. At
+the last place he threw aside much of his exaggeration, and, ruined and
+restored as the frescoes are, they remain among his most dignified
+achievements. He may be studied best of all at Piacenza, in the Church
+of the Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his subjects between sacred
+and pagan, so that we turn from a "Flight into Egypt" or a "Marriage
+of S. Catherine," to the "Rape of Europa" or "Venus and Adonis." At
+Piacenza he shows himself the great painter he undoubtedly is, having
+achieved some mastery over form, while his colour has the true Venetian
+quality and almost equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,
+which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping shadows as only one
+whose spirit was in touch with the art of Giorgione would have
+understood how to use. Very complete records remain of Pordenone's life,
+full details of a quarrel with his brother over property left by his
+father in 1533, and accounts of the painter's negotiations to obtain a
+knighthood, which he fancied would place him more on a par with Titian
+when he went to live in Venice. The coveted honour was secured, but from
+this time he seems to have been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed
+continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a punctual and rapid
+decorator, and on being given the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to
+decorate in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole by March 1538. We
+have seen how Titian annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious
+they were to transfer his commission to Pordenone, and what a narrow
+escape the Venetian had of losing his Broker's patent. Pordenone was
+engaged by the nuns of Murano to paint an Annunciation, after they had
+rejected one by Titian on account of its price, and though it seems
+hardly possible that any one could have compared the two men, yet no
+doubt the pleasure of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually and
+for a moderate sum, often outweighed the honour of the possible painting
+by the great Titian.
+
+No one has left so few easel-paintings as Pordenone; fresco was so much
+better suited to his particular style. The canvas of the "Madonna of
+Mercy" in the Venice Academy, was painted about 1525 for a member of the
+house of Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the family. It is
+very free from his colossal, exaggerated manner; the attendant saints
+are studied from nature, and in his journals the painter mentions that
+the St. Roch is a portrait of himself. The "S. Lorenzo enthroned," in
+the same gallery, shows both his virtues and failings. The saints have
+his enormous proportions. The Baptist is twisting round, to display the
+foreshortening which Pordenone particularly affects. The gestures are
+empty and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and fluid; there is a
+large sense of decoration in the composition, and something simple and
+austere about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often the case with
+Pordenone, the principal actor of the scene is smaller and more
+sincerely imagined than the attendant personages, who are crowded into
+the foreground, where they are used to display the master's skill.
+
+Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he had been summoned by its
+Duke to undertake one of his great schemes of decoration. He was said
+to have been poisoned, but though he had jealous rivals there seems no
+proof of the truth of the assertion, which was one very commonly made in
+those days. He is interesting as being the only distinguished member of
+the Venetian School whose frescoes have come down to us in any number,
+and as being the only one of the later masters with whom it was the
+chosen medium.
+
+His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented in the National Gallery
+by a half-length of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court by a
+large family group and by another of three persons gathered round a
+spinet. His masterpiece is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari, which
+shows the influence of Palma. His flesh tints, striving to be rich, have
+a hot, red look, but his works have been constantly confounded with
+those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.
+
+A long list might be given of minor artists who were industriously
+turning out work on similar lines to one or other of these masters:
+Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as Pordenone; Pomponio
+Amalteo, Pordenone's son-in-law, a spirited painter in fresco;
+Florigerio, who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom an altarpiece
+remains in the Academy; Giovanni Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to
+compile his notices of Friulan art, and many others only known by name.
+
+At the close of the fifteenth century the revulsion against Paduan art
+extended as far as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one of the first
+to acquire the trick of Venetian painting. He probably studied for a
+time under Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have been at
+Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan disturbances of 1506-12, and
+about 1510 Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino's Palmesque
+manner. His works at this time are dark and glowing, full of warm light
+and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under arches, after the manner
+of the Vivarini and Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed in
+noble architecture.
+
+Brescia was an opulent city, second only to Milan among the towns of
+northern Italy, and Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in 1511
+the city fell a prey to the horrors of war, was taken and lost by
+Venice, and in 1512 was sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,
+where he found a home among the Benedictines of S. Giustina. Here he was
+soon well employed on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the high
+altar, and a "Last Supper" for the refectory. It is also surmised that
+he helped in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several of which
+Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt, and the "Death of St. Anthony" is
+pointed out as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine colour, but
+poor drawing.
+
+Romanino returned to Brescia when the Venetians recovered it in 1516,
+but before doing so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects, which
+are among his most effective, in the choir of the Duomo.
+
+He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone, from whom he sometimes
+borrows ideas, but he is quite a convert to the modern style of the day,
+setting his groups in large spaces and using the slashed doublets, the
+long hose, and plumed headgear which Giorgione had found so picturesque.
+Romanino is often very poor and empty, and fails most in selection and
+expression at the moments when he most needs to be great, but he is
+successful in the golden style he adopted after his closer contact
+with the Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are extremely
+brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to be gaudy and careless in
+execution, and even the fine "Nativity" in the National Gallery gives
+the impression that size is more regarded than thought and feeling.
+
+Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the mainland who, coming within
+the charmed circle of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma and
+Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still keeps his own gamut of
+colour, and as he goes on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery
+in his tones. He can only be fully studied in Brescia itself, where
+literally dozens of altarpieces and wall-paintings show him in every
+phase. His first connection was probably with Romanino, but he reminds
+us at one time of Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful
+painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace and sentiment of his
+heads, and as time goes on he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the
+"Feast in the House of Simon" in the organ-loft of the Church of the
+Pietà in Venice, the very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded
+building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape, and the costly raiment
+and plenishing which might have been seen at any Venetian or Brescian
+banquet. In his portraits Moretto sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages
+are always dignified and expressive, with pale, high-bred faces, and
+exceedingly picturesque in dress and general arrangement. He loved to
+paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra Martinengo in the National
+Gallery, and to endow him with an air of romantic interest.
+
+One of those who entered so closely into the spirit of the Venetian
+School that he may almost be included within it, is Savoldo. His
+pictures are rare, and no gallery can show more than one or two
+examples. The Louvre has a portrait by him of Gaston de Foix, long
+thought to be by Giorgione. His native town can only show one
+altarpiece, an "Adoration of Shepherds," low in tone but intense in
+dusky shadow with fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his shadows,
+and often rough and startling in effect, but at his best he produces
+very beautiful, rich, evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino bears
+witness to the estimation in which he was held.
+
+It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has most claim to
+Bartolommeo Montagna, the early master of Cima. Born of Brescian
+parents, he settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most
+distinguished of those Vicentine painters who drank at the Venetian
+fount. He must have gone early to Venice and worked with the Vivarini,
+for in his altarpiece in the Brera he has the vaulted porticoes in
+which Bartolommeo and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His "Madonna enthroned"
+in the gallery at Vicenza has many points of contact with that of Alvise
+at Berlin. Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and the raised
+throne, and he is specially attracted by the groups of music-making
+angels; but Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise, and his lines
+are stronger and more sinewy. He keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling
+for calm and sweetness, but his personages have greater weight and
+gravity. He essays, too, a "Pietà" with saints, at Monte Berico, and
+shows both pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen Bellini's
+rendering, and attempts, if only with partial success, to contrast in
+the same way the indifference of death with the contemplation and
+anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular as Montagna's saints often
+are, they show power and austerity. His colour is brilliant and
+enamel-like; he does not arrive at the Venetian depth, yet his
+altarpieces are very grand, and once more we are struck by the greatness
+of even the secondary painters who drew their inspiration from Padua and
+Venice.
+
+Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza and Giovanni Buonconsiglio
+were imbued with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza, in one of his
+few remaining works, almost reproduces the beautiful "Assumption" by
+Pizzolo, Mantegna's young fellow-student, in the Chapel of the
+Eremitani. He employs Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate
+Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish between
+their works. Buonconsiglio's "Pietà" in the Vicenza gallery, is
+reminiscent of Montagna's at Monte Berico. The types are lean and bony,
+the features are almost as rugged as Dürer's, the flesh earthy and
+greenish. About 1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with Antonello da
+Messina; he begins to reside in Venice, and a change comes over his
+manner. His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired by studying
+Titian; and then, again, his bright tints remind us of Lotto. His name
+was on the register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.
+
+After Pisanello's achievement and his marked effect on early Venetian
+art, Veronese painting fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna's
+influence was strongly felt here, and art revived in Liberale da Verona,
+Falconetto, Casoto, the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters
+delightful in themselves, but having little connection with the
+school of Venice. Francesco Bonsignori, however, shook himself free
+from the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had for a time
+followed Liberale, and grows more like the Vicentines, Montagna and
+Buonconsiglio. He is careful about his drawing, but his figures, like
+those of many of these provincial painters, are short, bony and vulgar,
+very unlike the slender, distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under
+the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori works in the new palace of
+the Gonzagas, and several pictures painted for Mantua are now scattered
+in different collections. At Verona he has left four fine altarpieces.
+He went early to Venice, where he became the pupil of the Vivarini. His
+faces grow soft and oval, and the very careful outlines suggest the
+influence of Bellini.
+
+Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni Bellini; in fact, Vasari
+says that a "Dead Christ" in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed with
+Bellini's name, is from Mocetto's hand. His short, broad figures have
+something of Bartolommeo Vivarini's character.
+
+Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study with Giorgione, and we can
+trace his master's manner of turning half tones into deep shades; but he
+does not really understand the Giorgionesque treatment, in which shade
+was always rich and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable, nor in
+the lights can he produce the clear glow of Giorgione. Another Veronese,
+Cavazzola, has left a masterpiece upon which any painter might be happy
+to rest his reputation; the "Gattemalata with an Esquire" in the Uffizi,
+a picture noble in feeling and in execution, and one which owes a great
+deal to Venetian portrait-painters.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ _Pordenone._
+
+ Casara.    Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.
+ Colatto.   S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).
+ Cremona.   Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;
+              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned
+              with Saints and Donor, 1522.
+ Murano.    S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).
+ Piacenza.  Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.
+ Pordenone. Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints,
+              1535.
+            Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.
+ Spilimbergo.  Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.
+ Sensigana. Madonna and Saints.
+ Torre.     Madonna and Saints.
+ Treviso.   Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.
+ Venice.    Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family;
+              Saints.
+            S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.
+            S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.
+
+
+ _Pellegrino._
+
+ San Daniele. Frescoes in S. Antonio.
+ Cividale.    S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.
+ Venice.      Academy: Annunciation.
+
+
+ _Romanino._
+
+ Bergamo. S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.
+ Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Pietà.
+ Brescia. Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity;
+            Coronation.
+          Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.
+          S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.
+ Cremona. Duomo: Frescoes.
+ London.  Polyptych; Portrait.
+ Padua.   Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.
+ Sato, Lago di Garda. Duomo: Saints and Donor.
+ Trent.   Castello: Frescoes.
+ Verona.  St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.
+
+
+ _Moretto._
+
+ Bergamo.  Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.
+ Brescia.  Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna
+             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory
+             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.
+           S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.
+           S. Francesco: Altarpiece.
+           S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.
+           S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;
+             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.
+           S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.
+           SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy:
+             Nativity.
+           Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.
+ London.   Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;
+             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.
+ Milan.    Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.
+           Castello: Triptych; Saints.
+ Rome.     Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.
+ Venice.   S. Maria della Pietà: Christ in the House of Levi.
+ Verona.   S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.
+
+
+ _Bartolommeo Montagna._
+
+ Bergamo. Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.
+ Berlin.  Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.
+ Milan.   Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.
+ Padua.   Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony's Tomb.
+ Pavia.   Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.
+ Venice.  Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.
+ Verona.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Pietà; Frescoes, 1491-93.
+ Vicenza. Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints;
+            Three Madonnas.
+          Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.
+          S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.
+          Monte Berico: Pietà, 1500; Fresco.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+PAOLO VERONESE
+
+
+Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to be placed on the very
+highest pinnacle of the Venetian School, must be classed among
+those few great painters who rose far above the level of most of his
+contemporaries and who brought in a special note and flavour of his own.
+His art is an independent art, and he borrows little from predecessors
+or contemporaries. His free and joyous temperament gave relief at a
+moment when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened to become too
+sombre, and when Sebastian del Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and
+above all Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes. Veronese
+discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries and crimsons and oranges,
+and finds his range among cream and rose and grey-greens. Titian
+concentrated his colours and intensified his lights, Tintoretto
+sacrifices colour to vivid play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids
+the dark; the generous light plays all through his scenes. He has no
+wish to secure strong effects but delights in soft, faded tints; old
+rose and _turquoise morte_. In his colour and his subjects he is a
+personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving Republic, in which, as
+M. Yriarte says, a man produced his works as a tree produces its fruit.
+We get very near him in those vast palaces and churches and villas,
+where his heroic figures expand in the azure air, against the white
+clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the Renaissance about whom
+we know least. Here and there, in contemporary biography, we come across
+a mention of him and learn that he was sociable and lively, quick at
+taking offence, fond of his family and anxious to do his best by them.
+He was, too, very generous with his work--a great contrast in this
+respect to Titian--and contracts with convents and confraternities show
+that he often only stipulated for payment for bare time. Yet he was fond
+of personal luxury, loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says
+Ridolfi, "always wore velvet breeches."
+
+His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson, were Badile and
+Brusasorci, masters of Verona, but before he was twenty, he was away
+working on his own account. His first patron was Cardinal Gonzaga, who
+brought several painters from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no longer
+what it had been in the days of Isabela d'Este, and Paolo Caliari soon
+returned to his own town. Before he was twenty-three he had decorated
+Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration with Zelotti, a Veronese,
+portraying feasting gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural
+designs in monochrome. The two painters went on to other villas, mixing
+mortal and mythical figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.
+
+Zelotti having received a commission at Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek
+his fortune in Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano, on
+the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari wrote to him before arriving in
+Venice in 1555. Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable part
+in his destiny, he obtained a commission for a "Coronation of the Virgin
+and four other Saints." He first painted the sacristy, but his success
+was instantaneous, and many orders followed. The ceiling of the church
+was devoted to the history of Esther. The whole of these paintings
+are marvellously well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt
+framework, make a _coup d'oeil_ of surprising beauty. They had an
+immense effect. Every one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures
+of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp of her ceremonies, the
+rich Eastern stuffs and the glorious architecture of her palaces. It
+was an auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese's temper; the
+so-called Republic, now, more than ever, an oligarchy, was at the
+height of its fortunes, redecorating was going forward everywhere, the
+merchant-nobility was rich and spending magnificently, the Eastern trade
+was flourishing, Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari came
+to work for, preferred the ceremonial to the imaginative treatment of
+sacred themes, and he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible for
+illustration. He paints the history of Esther, with its royal audiences,
+banquets, and marriage-feasts. His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are
+composed, courtly personages, who maintain a dignified calm under
+misfortune, and have very little violent feeling to show.
+
+At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma Vecchio was just dead,
+Tintoretto was absorbed by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was
+with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati, Bonifazio, Schiavone,
+and Zelotti, all rendering homage to Titian who was eighty years old,
+but still in full vigour. Titian's opinions in matters of art were
+dictates, his judgment was a law. He immediately recognised Veronese's
+genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him, and together with
+Sansovino, who at this time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,
+he received the young painter with an approval which ensured him a good
+start. Five years after Veronese's arrival he was retained to decorate
+the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is a type of those patrician
+country-houses to which the Venetians were becoming more attached every
+year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait
+by Veronese is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed the
+ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten. Palladio, Alessandro
+Vittoria, and Veronese were associated to build him a dwelling worthy of
+a Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total contrast to the
+gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is sober and simple, and well adapted to
+leisure and retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations are
+devoid of gilding and colour, and the rooms adorned by Veronese's brush
+show him in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did not take place till
+four years later, but he has been influenced here by the feeling for the
+antique, and he thinks much of line and style. He leaves on one side the
+gorgeous brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually delights, and
+his nymphs are only clothed in their own beauty. And here Veronese shows
+his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons, the Barbaro family, are
+his friends, men and women of the world, who put no restraint on his
+fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese, with the bridle on
+his neck, so to speak, uses his opportunities fully, yet never exceeds
+the limits of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like Rubens, but
+proud, grave and sweet, seductive, but never suggestive or vulgar. After
+having placed single figures wherever he can find a nook, he assembles
+all the gods of Olympia at a supper in the cupola. Immortality is a
+beautiful young woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at her, caduceus
+in hand; Diana caresses her great hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his
+head on his hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid are scattered
+in the Empyrean, and Jupiter presides over the party. Below, a balcony
+rail runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an old lady, dressed in
+the latest fashion, points out the company to a beautiful young one and
+to a young man in a doublet who holds a hound in a leash. They are
+evidently family portraits, taken from those who looked on at the
+artist, and on the other side he has introduced members of his own
+family who were helping him. These decorations have a gaiety, an
+absence of pedantry, a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the
+Renaissance which tell of a happy moment when art was at its height and
+in touch with its environment. From about 1563 we may begin to date his
+great supper pictures. The Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most
+famous works, was painted for the refectory in Sammichele, the old part
+of S. Giorgio Maggiore. The treaty for it is still in existence, dated
+June 1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is to furnish canvas
+and colours, the painter's board, and a cask of wine. The further
+payment of 972 ducats illustrates the prices received by the greatest
+artists at the height of the Renaissance: £280 for work which occupied
+quite eight months.
+
+Veronese must have delighted in painting this work. Needless to say, it
+is not in the least religious. He has united in it all the most varied
+personages who struck his imagination. So we see a Spanish grandee,
+Francis I., Suleiman the Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and
+Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped round a table, are
+Veronese himself, playing the viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo
+da Ponte seated by them, and Paolo's brother, the architect, with his
+hand on his hip, tossing off a full glass; and in the governor of the
+feast, opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise Aretino. Under
+the marble columns of a Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the
+illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us an odd and informing
+document. We can but accept the scene and admire the originality of its
+design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness and fancy, the way
+in which the varied incidents are brought into harmony, and the grace of
+the colonnade, peopled with spectators, standing out against the depth
+of distant sky.
+
+The celebrated suppers, of which this is the first example, are
+dispersed in different galleries and some have disappeared, but from
+this time Veronese loved to paint these great displays, repeating some
+of them, but always introducing variety.
+
+ [Illustration: _Paolo Veronese._
+                 MARRIAGE IN CANA.
+                _Louvre._
+                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]
+
+In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani, procurator of St. Mark's, who
+was appointed ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time saw the
+works of Raphael and Michelangelo and the treasures of antiquity. For
+a time, the sight of the antique had some effect upon his work; in his
+famous ceiling in the Louvre, "Jupiter destroying the Vices," the
+influence of Michelangelo is apparent and its large gestures are
+inspired by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese brought home casts
+from Rome, and statues of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have inspired
+the Jupiter. He did not go on long in this path; he does not really care
+for the nude--it is too simple for him. He prefers that his saints and
+divinities should appear in the gorgeous costumes of the day, and that
+his Venus and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich brocades. But
+few documents are left concerning his work for the Ducal Palace up to
+1576; much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but the Signoria then
+gave him a number of fresh commissions. The most important was the
+immense oval of the "Triumph of Venice," or, as it is sometimes called,
+the "Thanksgiving for Lepanto"; the Republic crowned by victory and
+surrounded by allegorical figures, Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno
+and the rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom: the fair Queen
+leans back, surrounded by laughing patricians, who look up from their
+balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on the Grand Canal. The
+horses of the Free Companions, the soldiers who go afar to carry out the
+will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of personages, each of whom
+represents a town or colony of her domain. Like all Veronese's
+creations, this will always be pre-eminently a picture of the sixteenth
+century, dated by a thousand details of costume, architecture, and
+armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the Venier, of Titian,
+Aretino, and Veronese himself, makes a deep impression upon us, and
+the artist reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.
+
+Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can show a canvas of Veronese or
+the assistants by whom he was now surrounded. From time to time he
+resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano, and his incessant production
+betrays no trace of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the saint is a
+triumph of the beauty of the silhouette against a radiant sky. He goes
+back to Verona and paints the "Martyrdom of St. George." He pours light
+into it. The saints open a shining path, down which a flower-crowned
+Love flutters with the diadem and palm of victory. The whole air and
+expression of St. George is full of strength and that look of goodness
+and serenity which is the painter's nearest approach to religious
+feeling. Veronese was created a Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was
+asking for his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature and fond of
+living with his family. Philip II. longed to get him to cover his great
+walls in the Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations
+and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.
+
+It was on account of the "Feast in the House of Levi" that in 1573 he
+was hauled before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document
+concerning this was only discovered a few years ago. The Signoria had
+never allowed any tribunal to chastise works of literature; on the
+contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor herself in geniuses of the
+mind, was the refuge of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a
+sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed her to set aside or
+suspend the decisions of the Holy Office, from which she could not quite
+emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was denounced by some "aggrieved
+person," to whom his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an outrage
+on religion. The members of the tribunal demanded "who the boy was with
+the bleeding nose?" and "why were halberdiers admitted?" Veronese
+replied that they were the sort of servants a rich and magnificent host
+would have about him. He was then asked why he had introduced the
+buffoon with a parrot on his hand. He replied that he really thought
+only Christ and His Apostles were present, but that when he had a little
+space over, he adorned it with imaginary figures. This defence of the
+vast and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and he was asked if he
+really thought that at the Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to
+bring in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other absurdities. Did
+he not know that in Germany and other places infested with heresy, they
+were in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church into ridicule,
+with intent to teach false doctrine to the ignorant? Paolo for his
+defence cited the Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted every
+figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor replied crushingly, that these
+were disembodied spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.
+Could Veronese uphold his picture as decent? The painter was probably
+not very much alarmed. He was a person of great importance in Venice,
+and the proceedings of the Inquisition were always jealously watched
+by members of the Senate, who would not have permitted any unfair
+interference with the liberties of those under the protection of the
+State. The real offence was the introduction of the German soldiers, who
+were peculiarly obnoxious to the Venetians; but Veronese did not care
+what the subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for a great
+_spectacle_. Brought to bay, he gave the true answer: "My Lords, I have
+not considered all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything
+disorderly. I painted the picture as it seemed best to me and as my
+intellect could conceive of it." It meant that Veronese painted in the
+way that he considered most artistic, without even remembering questions
+of religion, and in this he summed up his whole æsthetic creed. He was
+set at liberty on condition that he took out one or two of the most
+offending figures. The "Feast in the House of Levi" (as he named it
+after the trial) is the finest of all his great scenic effects. The air
+circulates freely through the white architecture, we breathe more deeply
+as we look out into the wide blue sky, and such is the sensation of
+expansion, that it is hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a flat
+wall. Titian's backgrounds are a blue horizon, a burning twilight.
+Veronese builds marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns blanched
+in the liquid light. His personages show little violent action. He
+places them in noble poses in which they can best show off their
+magnificent clothes, and he endows his patricians, his goddesses, his
+sacred persons, with a uniform air of majestic indolence.
+
+After his "trial," Veronese proceeded more triumphantly than ever. Every
+prince wished to have something from his brush; the Emperor Rudolph, at
+Prague, showed with pride the canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus.
+The Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of Ferrara, added
+Veronese's works to the treasures of the house of Este. The last ten
+years of his life were given up to visiting churches on the mainland and
+on the little islands round Venice, all covetous to possess something by
+the brilliant Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello, Murano,
+Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent and monastery loaded him with
+commissions, and it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in
+spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his most ardent patrons, those
+who delighted most in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were to be
+found in the religious houses. Then, when he went to rest in the summer
+heats in some villa on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here and
+there. It was on such an occasion, for the Pisani, that he painted the
+"Family of Darius," which was sold to England by a member of the house
+in 1857. The royal captives, who are throwing themselves at the feet of
+the conqueror, are, with Paolo's usual frank naïveté and disregard of
+anachronisms, dressed in full Venetian costume--all the chief personages
+are portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom and rapidity of
+execution, the completeness and finish, the charm of colour, the
+beauty of the figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander and
+Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy, make this one of the finest
+of all his works. The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it, "It is absurd
+and dazzling."
+
+In the "Rape of Europa," he recurred again to one of those legends of
+fabled beings who have outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and
+living. Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino and Bembo, well
+versed in mythology, and with his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse
+for painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets, and a delightful
+landscape. The wild flowers spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro
+against a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese turquoise. It is
+the work of a man who is a true poet of colour and for whom colour
+represents all the emotions of joy and pleasure.
+
+Veronese died comparatively young, of chill and fever, and all his
+family survived him. He lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary
+memoirs we know that he lived and dressed splendidly. He kept immense
+stores of gorgeous stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew
+everything from life,--the negroes covered with jewels, the bright-eyed
+pages, the models who, robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became
+queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls which bedecked them were from
+his own caskets. Though we know little of his private life, his work is
+so alive that he seems personified in it. He is saved from what might
+have been a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing
+colour in which he revels; his silks and satins are less modelled by
+shadows than tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and striped
+and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously combined that the eye rests,
+wherever it falls, on something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is
+where his genius lies, "the decoration does not add to the interest of
+the drama; it replaces it"; in short, it _is_ the drama itself, for his
+types show little selection, and his ideal of female beauty is not a
+very sympathetic one. His personages are cold and devoid of expression,
+their gestures are rather meaningless, but by means of light and air and
+exquisite colour he gives the poetical touch which all great art
+demands.
+
+On account of their size few examples of Veronese's work are to be found
+in private collections, but the galleries of the different European
+capitals are rich in them. Numbers of paintings, too, which are by his
+assistants are dignified by his name, and directly after his death
+spurious works were freely manufactured and sold as genuine.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Dresden.  Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi;
+             Marriage of Cana.
+ Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.
+           Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).
+ London.   Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before
+             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.
+ Maser.    Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.
+ Padua.    S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.
+ Paris.    Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.
+ Venice.   Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna
+             with Saints.
+           Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice
+             enthroned.
+           S. Barnabà: Holy Family.
+           S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.
+           S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in
+             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;
+             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.
+ Verona.   Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.
+           S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.
+ Vicenza.  Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.
+ Vienna.   Christ at the House of Jairus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+TINTORETTO
+
+
+It does not seem likely that many new discoveries will be made about
+Tintoretto's life. It was an open and above-board one, and there is
+practically no time during its span that we are not able to account for,
+and to say where he was living and how he was occupied. The son of a
+dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds of Venice, the "little
+dyer," _il tentoretto_, appears as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn
+his chosen art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately after,
+summarily ejected from that master's workshop, on account, it seems
+probable, of the independence and innovation of his style, which was
+of the very kind most likely to shock and puzzle Titian's courtly,
+settled genius. After this he painted when and where he could, pursuing
+his artistic studies with the headlong ardour which through life
+characterised his attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he may have
+worked in Bonifazio's studio. He formed a close friendship with Andrea
+Schiavone,[4] he imported casts of Michelangelo's statues, he studied
+the works of Titian and Palma. Over his door was written "the colour of
+Titian and the form of Michelangelo." All his energies were for long
+devoted to the effort to master that form. Colour came to him naturally,
+but good drawing meant more to him than it had ever done to any
+Venetian. Long afterwards, to repeated inquiries as to how excellence
+could be best ensured, he would give no other advice than the
+reiterated, "study drawing." He practised till the human form in every
+attitude held no difficulties for him. He suspended little models by
+strings, and drew every limb and torso he could get hold of over and
+over again. He was found in every place where painting was wanted,
+getting the builders to let him experiment upon the house-fronts. To
+master light and shade he constructed little cardboard houses, in which,
+by means of sliding shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be
+arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of this part of his
+education, as in the end the love of shine and shadow was the most
+victorious of all his inspirations.
+
+ [4] Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia,
+ landing in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from
+ Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably an
+ assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the "Venus and Adonis" of the
+ National Gallery, which owes much to his hand. He fails conspicuously in
+ form, his shadows are black, and his figures often vulgar, but he has a
+ fine sense of colour, and a free, crisp touch. He was one of the young
+ masters who flooded Venice with light, sketchy wares.
+
+The chief events in Tintoretto's life are art-events. For some years he
+frescoed the outside of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his
+expenses. He decorated household furniture and everything he could
+lay hands on. Then came a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,
+organ-doors there, for unimportant churches. No one in Venice talked
+of any one save Palma, Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was
+difficult enough for an outsider, who was not one of their clique, to
+get employment. But by the time Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was
+becoming recognised; he had painted the two altarpieces for SS. Ermagora
+and Fortunato, and the offer he made to decorate the vast church of his
+parish brought him conspicuously into notice. In the first ardour of
+youth he completed the "Last Judgment" for the choir. From time to time,
+during fourteen years, he redeemed his early promises and executed the
+"Golden Calf" and the "Presentation of the Virgin." Within two years of
+his offer to the Prior, came his first great opportunity of achieving
+distinction. This was a commission from the Confraternity of St. Mark,
+and with the "Miracle of the Slave" he sprang at once to the highest
+place.
+
+The picture was universally admired, and was followed by three more
+dealing with the patron saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful
+young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi, as it is indifferently
+given, the daughter of a noble family of the mainland. Tradition has
+always pointed to the girl in blue in the "Golden Calf" as her portrait,
+while it is easy to recognise Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded
+giant, who helps to carry the idol. His house at this time was somewhere
+in the Parrocchia dell' Orto, and there, during the next fourteen years,
+eight children were born, of whom the two eldest, Domenico and Marietta,
+attained distinction in their father's profession. Another great
+event, which profoundly influenced his life, was the beginning of his
+connection in 1560 with the Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity
+which was devoted to combating the ravages of the plague and to
+succouring the families of its victims. His work for this lasted to the
+end of his life and is his most distinguished memorial.
+
+The palace to which the Robusti family moved in 1574, and which was
+inhabited by his descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified in
+the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into two parts, but it is evident
+that it was a dwelling of some importance, a good specimen of Venetian
+Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable decoration; the walls are
+sheathed in marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of Gothic
+windows in delicately carved frames and little balconies of fretted
+marble. Zanetti, in 1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze
+frieze cast from the master's design, which ran round the Grand Sala.
+The family must have occupied the _piano nobile_ and let off the floors
+they did not require.
+
+Descriptions of the life led by the painter and his family are given
+by Vasari, who knew him personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was
+published in 1646, and who must have known his children, several of whom
+were still alive and proud of their father's fame. We hear of pleasant
+evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic love of music,
+Tintoretto himself and his daughter being highly gifted. Among the
+_habitués_ were Zarlino, for twenty-five years chapel-master of St.
+Mark's, one of the fathers of modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who,
+in spite of his love for magnificent entertainments, was often to be
+found in Tintoretto's pleasant home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always
+welcome, and as time went on the house became the haunt of all the
+cultured gentlemen and _litterati_ of Venice.
+
+It is not difficult from the materials available to form a sufficiently
+lively idea of this Venetian citizen of the sixteenth century, as father
+and husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected a number of
+anecdotes, which space forbids me to use, but which are all very
+characteristic. We gather that he was a man of strong character,
+generous, sincere and simple, decided in his ways, caring little for
+the great world, but open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,
+observant of men and manners, and sometimes rather brusque in dealing
+with bores and offensive persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of
+good-natured banter of his wife's little weaknesses. A man, too, of
+upright conduct and free, as far as it can be ascertained, from any of
+those laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of celebrated men and
+so easily condoned by his age. Art was Tintoretto's main preoccupation;
+but he seems to have been a man of strong religious bias, making a close
+study of the Bible, and turning naturally in his last days to those
+truths with which his art had made him familiar, truths which he had
+represented with that touch of mystic feeling which was the deepest part
+of his nature.
+
+His relations with the State commenced in 1574, when his offer to
+present a superb painting of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and
+accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto was rewarded by a Broker's
+patent, and between this and the "Paradiso," the work of his old age, he
+executed a number of pictures for the Signoria. The only record of any
+travels are confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where he went in
+the 'sixties and again in 1579 to see to the hanging of paintings done
+for the Gonzaga, and of which the documents have been kept, though the
+pictures have vanished. Tintoretto's last years were saddened by the
+death of his beloved daughter, who had always been his constant
+companion. He died in 1579 after a fortnight's illness and left a will,
+which, together with that of his son, throws a good deal of light upon
+the family history.
+
+It is not easy to select from the vast quantity of work left by
+Tintoretto. He is one of those painters whose whole life was passed in
+his native city and who can only be adequately studied in that city.
+Perhaps the first place in which to seek him, is the great church which
+was the monument of his early prime. The "Last Judgment" was probably
+inspired by that of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and sketches
+must have reached the younger master, over whom the Florentine had
+exercised so strong a fascination. Tintoretto's version impresses one as
+that of a mind boiling with thoughts and visions which he pours out upon
+the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe, a scene of rushing
+destruction, of forms swept into oblivion, of others struggling to the
+light, of many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and light behind
+the rushing water,--water which makes us almost giddy as we watch it.
+The "Golden Calf" is a maturer production and includes some of the
+loveliest women Tintoretto ever painted. We see too plainly the
+planning, the device of concentrating interest on the idol by turning
+figures and pointing fingers, but nothing can be imagined more supple
+and queenly than the woman in blue, and the way the light falls on her
+head and perfectly foreshortened arm shows to what excellence Tintoretto
+had attained. The "Presentation" is a riper work. The drawing of the
+flight of steps and of the groups upon them could not be bettered. The
+little figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new dispensation, as she
+advances to meet the representative of the old, thrills with mystic
+feeling, yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy simplicity
+of a child. The "St. Agnes," with its contrast of light and shade, of
+strength made perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the
+commission of Cardinal Contarini.
+
+It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto, especially in the
+"Presentation," has contrived, while using the traditional episodes, to
+infuse so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast of age and youth,
+the joy of the Gentiles, the starlike figure of the child surrounded by
+shadows, convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with the nature of the
+scene.
+
+Next let us group together the miracles in the history of St. Mark. One
+of the qualities which strikes us most in the "Miracle of the Slave" is
+its strong local colour. It tells of Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike
+Tintoretto's later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;
+carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet, and turquoise-blue. The
+crimson velvet of the judge's dress is finely relieved against a
+blue-green sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive fire and dash
+which culminates at once and without effort in perfect action, "as a
+bird flies, or a horse gallops." It startled the quiet members of the
+Guild, and at the first moment they hesitated to accept it. The "Rescue
+of the Saracen" and the "Transportation of the Body" are more in the
+golden-brown manner to which he was moving, but it is in the "Finding
+of the Body" (Brera) that he rises to the highest emotional pitch. The
+colossal form of the saint, expanding with life and power as he towers
+in the spirit above his own lifeless clay, draws all eyes to him and
+seems to fill the barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every part of
+the vault is flooded by his life-giving energy, and here Tintoretto
+deals with light and shade with full mastery.
+
+As we follow Tintoretto's career, it is borne in upon us how little
+positive colour it takes to make a great colourist. The whole Venetian
+School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand as bright colour.
+Vivid tints are much more characteristic of the Flemish and the
+Florentine, or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong, crude
+colours are to be seen on all sides in the Salon or the Royal Academy,
+but they are absent from the scheme of sombre splendour which has
+given the Venetians their title to fame. This is especially true of
+Tintoretto, and it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut becomes
+more golden-brown and mellow; the greys and browns and ivories combine
+in a lustrous symphony more impressive than gay tints, flooded with
+enveloping shadow and illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another
+noticeable feature is the way in which he puts on his oil-colour, so
+that it bears the direct impression of the painter's hand. The
+Florentines had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark
+smoothed away; but as the later Venetians covered large spaces with
+oil-colour, they no longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the
+brush, and light, distance, movement, were all conveyed by the turns and
+twists and swirls with which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at
+the power of touch in such a picture as the "Death of Abel"; we see this
+spontaneity of execution actually forming part of the emotion with which
+the picture is charged. The concentrated hate of the one figure, the
+desperate appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape, gain
+their emotion as much from the impetuous brush-work as from the more
+studied design. We come closest to the painter's mind in the Scuola
+di San Rocco. He had already been employed in the church, and there
+remains, darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative of the
+career of S. Roch, patron saint of sufferers from the plague. When the
+great Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560, the confraternity
+asked a conclave of painters, among whom were Veronese and Andrea
+Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition. When they assembled to
+display their designs, Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling
+of the refectory and discovered a finished picture, the "S. Roch in
+Glory," which still holds its place there. Neither the other artists nor
+the brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional proceeding,
+but he "hoped they would not be offended; it was the only way he knew."
+Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of the rest, but partly
+also from the excellence of the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto,
+and after two years' work he was received into the order, and was
+assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (£50) a year for life, being
+bound every year to furnish three pictures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+TINTORETTO (_continued_)
+
+The first portion of the vast building that was finished was the
+Refectory, but in examining the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to
+leave it to its proper place, which is the climax. Before beginning,
+Tintoretto must have had the whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt
+that he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and recalled its plan and
+significance; the old dispensation typifying the new, the Old Testament
+history vivified by the acts of Christ. The main feature of the harmony
+which it is only reasonable to suppose governs the whole building, is
+its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of mercy. The principal
+paintings of the Upper Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine
+mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes bear upon the central
+idea. On the roof are the three most important miracles of mercy
+performed on behalf of the Chosen People. The paintings on roof and
+walls are linked together. The "Fall of Man" at one end of the Hall,
+the disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient eating of the
+Passover at the other, and is interdependent with the Manna in the
+Wilderness, the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves. The Miracles
+of satisfied thirst are represented by "Moses striking the Rock," Samson
+drinking from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah. The Baptism and
+other signs of the Advent of Christ and the Divine preparation, balance
+events in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory which opens from the
+Great Hall, we come to the "Crucifixion," the crowning act of mercy,
+surrounded by the events which immediately succeeded it, and typified
+immediately above in the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen
+Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment and succour, two of
+miraculous restoration to health, and two of deliverance from danger.
+The whole scheme has been worked out in detail in my book on
+"Tintoretto."
+
+In the working out of his great scheme, Tintoretto is impatient of
+hackneyed and traditional forms; he must have a reading of his own, and
+one which appeals to his imagination. We see that passion for movement
+which distinguishes his early work. "Moses striking the Rock" is a
+figure instinct with purpose and energy. The water bounds forth, living,
+life-giving, the people strain wildly to reach it. His figures are
+sometimes found fault with, as extravagant in gesture, but the attitudes
+were intended to be seen and to arrest attention from far below, and we
+must not forget that the painter's models were drawn from a Southern
+race, to whom emphasis of action is natural. Tintoretto, it may be
+conceded, is on certain occasions, generally when dealing with accessory
+figures, inclined to excess of gesture; it is the defect of his
+temperament, but when he has a subject that carries him away he is
+sincere and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared to him; his
+colour, however effective, is calculated, whereas Tintoretto's seems to
+permeate every object and to soak the whole composition. To quote a
+recent critic: "He chose to begin, if possible, with a subject charged
+with emotion. He then proceeded to treat it according to its nature,
+that is to say, he toned down and obscured the outlines of form and
+mapped out the subject instead in pale or sombre masses of light and
+shade. Under the control of this powerful scheme of chiaroscuro, the
+colouring of the composition was placed, but its own character, its
+degree of richness and sobriety, was determined by the kind of emotion
+belonging to the subject. To use colour in this way, not only with
+emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to use it to perform one
+of the greatest functions of art."[5]
+
+ [5] "Venice and the Renaissance," _Edinburgh Review_, 1909.
+
+So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the aspect of the groups, the
+pathos of the faces or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and
+gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the atmosphere into which we
+are absorbed, the sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding light
+and shadow, that makes us feel how different the rendering is from any
+other. In the "Christ before Pilate" the head and figure of Christ are
+not particularly impressive in themselves, but the brilliant light
+falling on the white robes and coursing down the steps supplies dignity
+and poetry; the slender white figure stands out like a shaft of light
+against the lurid and troubled background. Again, in the "Way to
+Golgotha" the falling evening gleam, the wild sky, the deep shadow of
+the ravine, throw into relief the quiet form, detached in look and
+feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far above the brutal throng.
+Nowhere does that spiritual emotion find deeper expression than in the
+"Visitation." The passion of thanksgiving, the poignancy of mother-love,
+throb through the two women, who have been travelling towards one
+another, with a great secret between them, and who at length reach the
+haven of each other's love and knowledge. Here, too, the dying light,
+the waving tree, the obliteration of form, and the feeling of mystery
+make a deep appeal to the sensuous apprehension. We find it again and
+again; the great trees sway and whisper in the gathering darkness as the
+Virgin rides through the falling evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and
+in that most moving of all Tintoretto's creations, the "S. Mary of
+Egypt," the emotional mood of Nature's self is brought home to us. The
+trees that dominate the landscape are painted with a few "strokes like
+sabre cuts"; the landscape, given with apparent carelessness, yet
+conveying an indescribable sense of space and solemnity, unfolds itself
+under the dying day; and in solitary meditation, thrilling with ecstasy,
+sits that little figure, whose heart has travelled far away to commune
+with the Spirit, "whose dwelling is the light of setting suns."
+
+It is not possible in a short space to touch, even in passing, on all
+the many scenes in these halls: the "Annunciation," with its marvellous
+flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of pigeons in the Piazza,
+and how often the old painter must have watched them; the "Temptation,"
+contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh that _must_ be fed, with the
+calm of absolute purity; the "Massacre of the Innocents," for which the
+horrors of sacked towns could have supplied many a parallel,--we have
+not time to dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist has
+overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the dark halls, by choosing
+strong and varied effects of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we
+can picture what the halls must have been like when they first glowed
+from his hand, adorned with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung with
+opulent draperies, with the rose-red and purple of bishops' and
+cardinals' robes reflected in the gleaming pavement.
+
+ [Illustration: _Tintoretto._     _Scuola di San Rocco._
+                 S. MARY OF EGYPT.
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto, by many renderings, have
+made the "Last Supper" peculiarly their own in the domain of art. It
+shows how strongly the mystic strain entered into the man's character,
+that often as Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its interest
+for him, and he never failed to find a fresh point of view. In that
+in S. Polo, Christ offers the sacred food with a gesture of vehement
+generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to all comers to the
+Mass, to afford them a welcome as they pass to the High Altar, it tells
+of the Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto himself, painted
+in the character of S. Paul, stands at one side, absorbed in meditation.
+We need not insist again on the emotional value of the deep colours, the
+rich creams and crimsons and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering,
+in S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point in symbolical
+treatment. Some people are only able to see a theatrical, artificial
+spirit in this picture, but at least, when we consider what deep
+meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on his subjects, we may believe that
+he himself was sincere and that he let himself go over what commended
+itself as an entirely new rendering. "The Light shined in the Darkness,
+and the Darkness comprehended it not." The supernatural is entering on
+every side, but the feast goes on; the serving men and maids busy
+themselves with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring, but not
+agitated; none see that throng of heavenly visitants, pouring in through
+the blue moonlight, called to their Master's side by the supreme
+significance of His words. The painter has taken full advantage of the
+opportunity of combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring out
+smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight and the unearthly radiance,
+in divers, yet mingling streams which fight against the surrounding
+gloom. In the scene in the Scuola di S. Rocco the betrayal is the
+dominating incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the Saviour
+is alone with the faithful disciples.
+
+ [Illustration: _Tintoretto._
+                 BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.
+                _Ducal Palace, Venice._
+                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]
+
+Though several of the large compositions ascribed to Tintoretto in
+the Ducal Palace are only partly by him, or entirely by followers and
+imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his genius. There is much
+that is fine about the great state pieces. In the "Marriage of St.
+Catherine," the saint, in silken gown and long transparent veil, is an
+exquisite figure. Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden light
+and air, and yet we feel that these huge official subjects, with the
+prosaic old Doges introduced in incongruous company, neither stimulated
+his imagination nor satisfied his taste. It is on the smaller canvases
+that he finds inspiration. He never painted anything more lovely, more
+perfect in design, or more gay and tender in idea, than the cycle in
+the Ante-Collegio. The glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows upon
+ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and a refined, unselfconscious
+joy such as is felt in hardly any other work, except the painter's own
+"Milky Way" in the National Gallery. In all these four pictures the
+feeling for design, a branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,
+is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne all the principal lines,
+the eyes and gestures, converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol
+of union between the goddess and her lover, between the queenly city and
+the Adriatic sea. Or take "Pallas driving away Mars": see how the mass
+into which the figures are gathered on the left adds strength to the
+thrust of the goddess's arm, and what steadiness is given by that short
+straight lance of hers, coming in among all the yielding curves. The
+whole four are linked together in meaning: the call to Venice to reign
+over the seas, her triumphant peace, with Wisdom guiding her council,
+and her warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction with these
+pictures are two small ones in the chapel, hardly less beautiful--St.
+George with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome. It is difficult to
+say whether the exultant St. George, the dignified young bishop, or the
+two older saints are the more sympathetic creations, or the more
+admirable, both in drawing and colour. The sense of space in both
+settings is an added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy
+boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the composition.
+
+There are many other striking examples, ranging all through Tintoretto's
+life, of his untiring imagination. In the Salute is that "Marriage of
+Cana," in which all the actors seem to swim in golden light. The sharp
+silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine with which the hall
+is flooded, and all the architectural lines lead our eyes towards the
+central figure, placed at a distance. On that long canvas in the
+Academy, kneel the three treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending
+in homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit enthroned upon a broad
+piazza, through the marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape
+shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet and ermine kneel before the
+Child, or hold counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of S.
+Giustina. The "Crucifixion" (in S. Cassiano) is another triumph of the
+painter's imaginative conception. The bold lines of the crosses, the
+ladder, and the figures detach against a glorious sky, and the presence
+of the moving, murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of the line of
+sight, the spectator is made to form a part, is conveyed by the swaying
+and crossing of the lances borne by the armed men who keep the ground.
+There is a series, too, which deals with the Magdalen. She mourns her
+dead in that solemn, restrained "Entombment," where the enfolding
+shadows frame the cross against the sad dawn, which adorns the mortuary
+chapel of S. Giorgio Maggiore; and the Pietà in the Brera, the long
+lines of which add to the impression of tender repose, has its peace
+broken by the passionate cry of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto's
+ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same scene in a dozen different
+ways, and, in fact, the book of sketches lately acquired by the British
+Museum shows as many as thirty trials dashed off for one subject, and
+after all he uses one composed for something quite different. It is this
+habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh from his brain, that has led
+to the common but superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely a
+great improvisatore, whose successes came more or less by good luck. He
+could, indeed, paint pictures at a pace at which many great masters
+could only sketch, but he had already designed and considered and
+rejected, doing with oil, ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries
+did mentally. Such achievements as the Ante-Collegio cycle, the "House
+of Martha and Mary," the "Marriage of Cana," the "Temptation of S.
+Anthony," to name only a few, show a finish and perfection and a balance
+of design which preclude the idea of their being lightly painted
+pictures. When he was actually engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with
+impetuous ardour, but we may feel assured he left nothing to chance,
+though he had his own way of making sure of the result.
+
+It is strange to hear people, as one does now and then, talking of the
+"Paradiso" as "a splendid failure." It may be granted that the subject
+is an impossible one for human art to realise, yet when all allowance
+has been made for a lamentable amount of drying and blackening, it is
+difficult to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his admiration of that
+thronging multitude, ordered and disciplined by the tides of light and
+shadow, which roll in and out of the masses, resolving them into groups
+and single figures of almost matchless beauty and melting away into a
+sea of radiant æther, which tells us of the boundless space which
+surrounds the serried ranks of the Blessed.
+
+Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was allotted to him, and it was the
+last great effort of his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved
+both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is evident that the painter
+has framed it upon the thought of Dante's mystic rose. The circles and
+many of the figures can be traced in the poem, and the idea of the
+Eternal Light streaming through the leaves of the rose dominates the
+composition. It is appropriate that it should have been his last great
+work, as it was also the greatest attempt at composition ever made by a
+master of the Venetian School.
+
+There is no room here to study Tintoretto as a painter of battlepieces,
+though from the time he painted the "Battle of Lepanto," for the Council
+of Ten, he often returned to such subjects. His two series for the
+Gonzaga included several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses examples.
+The impetuosity of his style stood him in good stead, and he never fails
+to bring in graceful and striking figures.
+
+His portraits are hardly equal to Titian's intellectual grasp or
+fine-grained colour, but they are extraordinarily characteristic. He
+prefers to paint men rather than women, and he painted hundreds--all the
+great persons of his time who lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian
+portrait by this time was expected to be more than a likeness and more
+than a problem. It was to please the taste as a picture, to interest and
+to satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets behind the scenes,
+and we see some mood, some aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected
+to show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto's, but he deals with his
+sitters with an observation which pierces below the surface.
+
+In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often unable to discriminate between
+the turgid and melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental. The
+first all must abhor, but the last is sincere and deserves to be
+respected. It is by his best that we must judge a man, and taking his
+best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one has left a larger amount
+which will stand the test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and
+elevated central ideas, which unify all parts of his composition,
+Tintoretto stands with the greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual
+side of life was exemplified in Florentine art, but the Renaissance
+would have been a one-sided development if there had not arisen a body
+of men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous apprehension seemed of
+supreme value, and at the very last there arose with him one who, to
+their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of their chosen medium,
+added the crowning glory of the imaginative idea.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Augsburg. Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.
+ Berlin.   Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator
+             before S. Mark.
+ Dresden.  Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.
+ Florence. Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.
+           Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old
+             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.
+ Hampton Court. Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of
+             Dominican; Knight of Malta.
+ London.   S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;
+             Origin of Milky Way.
+           Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.
+ Madrid.   Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;
+             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before
+             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.
+ Milan.    Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S.
+             Mark (E.).
+ Paris.    Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of
+             Himself.
+ Rome.     Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.
+           Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet;
+             Portraits.
+ Turin.    The Trinity.
+ Venice.   Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints
+             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;
+             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea
+             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam
+             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna
+             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in
+             Temple.
+           Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;
+             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;
+             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.
+           Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan's Forge;
+             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.
+           Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;
+             SS. Andrew and Jerome.
+           Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.
+           Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,
+             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:
+             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.
+           Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.
+           Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.
+           Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark
+             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.
+           Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.
+           S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.
+           S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;
+             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).
+           S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.
+           S. Maria dell' Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);
+             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.
+           S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.
+           S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the
+             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d' Armata;
+             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.
+           Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.
+             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls
+             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before
+             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.
+           Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.
+           S. Silvestro: Baptism.
+           S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.
+           S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.
+ Vienna.   Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of
+             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and
+             Boy; Portrait of Lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+BASSANO
+
+
+We wonder how many of those sightseers who pass through the
+Ante-Collegio in the Ducal Palace, and stare for a few moments at
+Tintoretto's famous quartet and at Veronese's "Rape of Europa," turn to
+give even such fleeting attention to the long, dark canvas which hangs
+beside them, "Jacob's Journey into Canaan," by Jacopo da Ponte, called
+Bassano.
+
+Yet from the position in which it is placed the visitor might guess that
+it is considered to be a gem, and it gains something in interest when we
+learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo Contarini at the same
+time as the "Rape of Europa," as if the great connoisseur enjoyed
+contrasting Veronese's light, gay style with the vigorous brush of
+da Ponte.
+
+If attention is arrested by the beauty of the painting, and the visitor
+should be inspired to seek the painter in his native city, he will be
+well repaid. Bassano once held an important position on the main road
+between Italy and Germany, but since the railroad was made across the
+Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little town which lies cradled on
+the spurs of the Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana opens. It is
+surrounded by chestnut woods, which sweep up to the blue mountains, the
+wide Brenta flows through the town, and the houses cluster high on
+either side, and have gardens and balconies overhanging the water. The
+façades of many of the houses are covered with fading frescoes, relics
+of da Ponte's school of fresco-painters, which, though they are fast
+perishing, still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.
+
+Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his father, Francesco, who
+in his day had been a pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.
+Francesco da Ponte's best work is to be found at Bassano, in the
+cathedral and the church of San Giovanni, and has many of the
+characteristics, such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola, which
+we have noticed that Montagna owed to the Vivarini. Francesco's son
+went when very young to Venice, and was there thrown at once among the
+artists of the lagoons, and attached himself in particular to Bonifazio.
+In Jacopo's earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a "Flight into
+Egypt," Bonifazio's tuition is markedly discernible in the build of the
+figures and, above all, in the form of the heads. A comparison of the
+very peculiarly shaped head of the Virgin in this picture with that of
+the Venetian lady in Bonifazio's "Rich Man's Feast," in the Venetian
+Academy, leaves us in no doubt on this score. Jacopo's "Adulteress
+before Christ" and the "Three in the Fiery Furnace" have Bonifazio's
+manner in the architecture and the staging of the figures. Only five
+examples are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it is all in
+Bonifazio's lighter style, not unlike his "Holy Family" in the National
+Gallery.
+
+The house in which the painter lived when he returned to his native
+town, still stands in the little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole
+façade retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with which he
+decorated it. The design is in four horizontal bands. First comes a
+frieze of children in every attitude of fun and frolic. Then follows a
+long range of animals--horses, oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and
+flowers make a border, with allegorical representations of the arts and
+crafts filling the spaces between the windows. The principal band is
+decorated with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now hardly
+discernible, but which represent "Samson slaying the Philistines,"
+"The Drunkenness of Noah," "Cain and Abel," "Lot and his Daughters,"
+and "Judith with the Head of Holofernes." Between the two last there
+formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child, with the motto, "Mors omnia
+aequat," which was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively good
+preservation.
+
+Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano, where, with the help of
+his four sons, who were all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible
+stream of works, which, it is said, were put up to auction at the
+neighbouring fairs, if no other market was forthcoming. From time to
+time he and his sons went down to Venice, and with the help of the
+eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he is generally known) painted the "Siege
+of Padua" and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His mature style was
+founded mainly upon that of Titian, and it is to this second manner that
+he owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours, and enhances his lights
+by deepening and consolidating his shadows, so that they come into
+strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer impasto. He has a
+marvellous faculty for keeping his colour pure, and his greens shine
+like a beetle's wing. A nature-lover in the highest degree, his painting
+of animals and plants evinces a mind which is steeped in the magic of
+outdoor life. A subject of which he was particularly fond, and which he
+seems to have undertaken for half the collectors of Europe, was the
+"Four Seasons." Here was found united everything that Bassano most loved
+to paint: beasts of the farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with
+their implements, scenes of harvest-time and vintage, rough peasants
+leading the plough, cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young girls
+making hay, driving home the cattle, taking dinner to the reapers. When
+he was obliged to paint for churches he chose such subjects as the
+Adoration of the Shepherds, the Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from
+the Temple, into which he could introduce animals, painting them with
+such vigour and such forcible colour that Titian himself is said to
+have had a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint his daughters
+engaged in household tasks, and perhaps placed his figures with rather
+too obvious a reference to light and shade, and to the sun striking
+full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of
+Veronese and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records that when he was
+one day discussing contemporary painters with the latter, Tintoretto
+exclaimed, "Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing and I had your colour I
+would defy the devil himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to
+make any show beside us."
+
+Bassano was invited to take up his residence at the Court of the Emperor
+Rudolph, but he refused to leave his mountain city, where he died in
+1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd of the poorest inhabitants,
+for whom his charity had been boundless.
+
+The "Journey of Jacob," to which we have already alluded, is among his
+most beautiful works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated to
+the charm of the landscape. The evening dusk draws all objects into its
+embrace. The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out against a gleam
+of sunset sky. The tree-trunks and light play of leafy branches, which
+break up the composition, are from da Ponte's own country round Bassano.
+The pony upon which the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among the quiet
+sheep, are given with all the loving truth of the born animal-painter.
+It is no wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him, and has more than
+once imitated his whole design.
+
+The "Baptism of St. Lucilla" (in the Museum at Bassano) is one of his
+most Titianesque creations. The personages in it are grouped upon a
+flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance palace with cypresses
+against a sky of evening-red barred with purple clouds. The drawing
+and modelling of the figures are almost faultless, and the colour is
+dazzling. The bending figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling on
+her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before the young bishop, St.
+Valentine, is one of the most graceful things in art, and Titian himself
+need not have disowned the little angels, bearing palm branches and
+frolicking in the stream of radiance overhead.
+
+Bassano has a "Concert," which is interesting as a family piece. It was
+painted in the year in which his son Leandro's marriage took place, and
+is probably a bridal painting to celebrate the event. The "Magistrates
+in Adoration" (Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light, and
+its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto's numerous pictures of
+kneeling doges and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.
+
+ [Illustration: _Jacopo da Ponte._
+                 BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.
+                _Bassano._
+                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]
+
+Madonnas and saints are usually built into close-packed pyramids, but
+in the "Repose in Egypt," now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his arrangement
+comes very close to Palma and Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child,
+the attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting, head on hand, at the
+Virgin's feet and gazing in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of
+the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite landscape behind them, and
+the vigorously drawn tree under which they recline, show Bassano true to
+his passion for nature.
+
+Hampton Court is rich in his pictures. "The Adoration of the Shepherds,"
+in which the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an exercise in
+the manner of Titian's Frari altarpiece. His portraits are fine and
+sympathetic, but hardly any of them are signed or can be dated. His
+own is in the Uffizi, and there is a splendid "Old Man" at Buda-Pesth.
+Ariosto and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other distinguished
+men were among his sitters; most of them are in half-length with
+three-quarter heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly
+attractive one of a young man with a sensitive, acute countenance,
+robed in dignified, picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered linen
+collar. He stands by the sort of square window, opening on a distant
+landscape, of which Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front of
+which a golden vase, holding a branch of olive, catches the rays of
+light.
+
+Bassano has no great power of design, and his knowledge of the nude
+seems to have been small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour
+leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates other shortcomings.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Augsburg. Madonna and Saints.
+ Bassano.  Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three
+             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight
+             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration
+             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending
+             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;
+             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).
+           Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.);
+             Nativity.
+           S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.
+ Bergamo.  Carrara: Portrait.
+           Lochis: Portraits.
+ Cittadella. Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.
+ Dresden.  Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of
+             S. Paul.
+ Hampton Court. Portraits; Jacob's Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);
+             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men
+             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.
+ London.   Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.
+ Milan.    Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to
+             Shepherds (L.).
+ Munich.   Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.
+ Padua.    S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.
+ Paris.    Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).
+ Rome.     Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.
+ Venice.   Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino
+             blessing the Faithful.
+           Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob's Journey.
+           S. Giacomo dell' Orio: Madonna and Saints.
+ Vicenza.  Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.
+ Vienna.   The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;
+             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised
+             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the
+             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;
+             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.
+           Academy: Deposition; Portrait.
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE INTERIM
+
+
+Many of the churches and palaces of Venice and the adjoining mainland,
+and almost every public and private gallery throughout Europe, contain
+pictures purporting to be painted by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and
+others of that famous company. Hardly a great English house but boasts
+of a round dozen at least of such specimens, acquired in the days when
+rich Englishmen made the "grand tour" and substantiated a reputation for
+taste and culture by collecting works of art. These pictures resemble
+the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted way. Their owners
+themselves are not very tenacious as to their authenticity, and the
+visit of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition tears their
+pretensions to tatters. In the Academia itself the Bonifazio and
+Tintoretto rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal Palace has
+ceilings and panels on which are reproduced the kind of compositions
+initiated by the great artists, which make an effort to capture their
+gamut of colour and to master their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them,
+in short, in everything except in their inimitable touch and fire and
+spirit. It would have been impossible for any men, however industrious
+and prolific, to have carried out all the work which passes under their
+names, to say nothing of that which has perished; but our surprise and
+curiosity diminish when we come to inquire systematically into the
+methods of that host of copyists which, even before the masters' death,
+had begun to ply its lucrative trade.
+
+We must bear in mind that every great man was surrounded by busy and
+attentive satellites, helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting
+a large part of important commissions, witnesses of the high prices
+received, and alive to all the gossip as to the relative popularity of
+the painters and the requests and orders which reached them from all
+quarters. The painters' own sons were in many instances those who first
+traded upon their fathers' fame. From Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we
+learn of the many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and the vast
+numbers painted by Domenico Robusti in the style of their respective
+fathers. Domenico seems to have particularly affected the subject of
+"St. George and the Dragon," and the picture at Dresden, which passes
+under Tintoretto's name, is perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano's four sons,
+Francesco "imitated his father perfectly," conserving his warmth of
+tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti enumerates a surprising number of
+Francesco's works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal Palace.
+Leandro followed more particularly his father's first manner, was a good
+portrait-painter, and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo copied and
+recopied the old Bassano till he even deceived connoisseurs, "how much
+more," says Zanetti, writing in 1771, "those of the present day, who
+behold them harmonised and accredited by time." No school in Venice was
+so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts of the imitators, as
+that of Paolo Veronese. Even at an early date it was impossible not to
+confound the master with the disciples; the weaker of the originals were
+held to be of imitators, the best imitations were assigned to the master
+himself. "Oh how easy it is," exclaims Zanetti again, "to make mistakes
+about Veronese's pictures, but I can point out sundry infallible
+characteristics to those who wish for light upon this doubtful path; the
+fineness and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime intelligence and
+grace, shown particularly in the form of the heads, which is never found
+in any of his imitators."
+
+Few Venetians, however, followed the style of only one man; the output
+was probably determined and varied by the demand. Too many attractive
+manners existed to dazzle them, and when once they began to imitate,
+they were tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered that every
+master left behind him stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and
+half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized upon, bought or
+stolen, and utilised to produce masterpieces masquerading under his
+name.
+
+As the seventeenth century advanced the character of art and manners
+underwent a change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel and bizarre,
+and the complex was preferred to the simple. Venetian art, in all its
+branches, had passed from the stately and restrained to the pompous and
+artificial. Yet the barocco style was used by Venice in a way of its
+own; whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament as it is, it yet
+compels admiration by its vigorous life and movement. The art of the
+sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was alive. It escaped the
+most deadly of all faults, a cold and academic mannerism--and this at a
+time when the rest of Italy was given over to the inflated followers of
+Michelangelo and the calculated elaborations of the eclectics.
+
+Many of the things we most love in Venice, such as the Salute, the
+Clock-Tower, the Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico and
+Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth century. The barocco
+intemperance in sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini; and
+as the immediate influence of the great masters declined, painting
+acquired the same sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity of
+Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from the lightning speed of
+his imagination and the unerring sureness of his brush, became a
+mechanical trick in the hands of superficial students. True art had
+migrated elsewhere--to the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt. As
+art grew more pompous it became less emotional. Painters like Palma
+Giovine spoilt their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry. The
+nickname of "Fa Presto" was deserved by others besides Luca Giordano,
+and Venice was overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime standard of
+excellence was the ability to make haste. Grandeur of conception was
+forgotten; a grave, ample manner was no longer understood; superficial
+sentiment and bombastic size carried the day. Yet a few painters, though
+their forms had become redundant and exaggerated, retained something of
+what had been the Venetian glory--the deep and moist colour of old. It
+still glowed with traces of its old lustre on the canvases of Giovanni
+Contarini, or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and though there was a
+perfect fury of production, without order and without law, there can
+still be perceived the survival of that sense of the decorative which
+kept the thread of art. We discover it in the ceiling of the Church of
+San Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints the glorification of
+the martyred patron, and which, fantastic and extravagant as it is,
+with its stupendous, architectural setting, and its acutely, almost
+absurdly foreshortened throng, is not without a certain grandiose
+geniality, ample and picturesque, like the buildings of that date. In
+Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino), whose "Nozze di Cana" in the
+Academia is a finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is made of
+cypresses, we seem to recognise the last ray of the Titianesque. The
+painting of the seventeenth century passed on towards the eighteenth,
+and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and Venuses smile at
+us, attitudinising and contorted upon their cloudy backgrounds.
+Lackadaisical Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the Angel of the
+Annunciation capers above the head of an affected Virgin, while violent
+colours, intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto betray
+the neighbourhood of the _tenebrosi_. When, towards the end of the
+seventeenth century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake off these
+influences, he went to the opposite extreme. Although a beautiful
+designer, he becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness and
+insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise, appearing in a country
+where the taste for luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly rooted.
+The student of Venetian painting, who wishes to fill up the hiatus which
+lies between the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth century,
+cannot do better than compare Fumiani's vault in San Pantaleone with
+Lazzarini's sober and earnest fresco, "The Charity of San Lorenzo
+Giustiniani," in San Pietro in Castello, and with Pietro Liberi's
+"Battle of the Dardanelles" in the Ducal Palace. In all three we have
+examples of the varied and accomplished yet soulless art of this period.
+Not many of the scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the
+seventeenth century have survived. They are to be found here and
+there by the curious who wander into old churches and palaces with a
+second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands; but in the reaction from
+the florid which took place in the Empire period, many of them gave
+place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal Palace, side by side with
+the masterpieces of the Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded
+canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini, Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and
+others like them. Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in St.
+Mark's are from designs by Palma Giovine and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who
+was a painter himself, as well as the painter's chronicler, has an
+"Adoration of the Magi" in S. Giovanni Elemosinario, poor enough in
+invention and execution. Two pictures by obscure artists disfigure a
+corner of the Scuola di San Rocco. The Museo Civico has a large canvas
+by Vicentino, a "Coronation of a Dogaressa," which once adorned Palazzo
+Grimani. We hear of a school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the
+master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi, and the names of others
+have come down to us in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards the
+end of the seventeenth century more light and novelty sparkles in the
+painting of the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us that he was no
+mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth century opens, we become aware of
+the strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta. Piazetta studied
+the works of the Carracci for some time in Bologna, and especially those
+of Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts of light and shade,
+has served above all as his model. He paints very darkly, and his
+figures often blend with and disappear into the profound tones of his
+backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls him "a Venetian Caravaggio"; and he has
+something of the strength and even the brutality of the Bolognese. A
+fine decorative and imaginative example of his work is the "Madonna
+appearing to S. Philip Neri" in the Church of S. Fava. The erect form of
+the Madonna is relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the mantle,
+upheld by _putti_. Radiant clouds light up the background and illumine
+the form of the old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at
+the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is a bold realist, and
+many of his small pictures are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,
+Battista's son, is described as "a fine intelligence," and attracts
+our notice as having forged special links with England. Hampton Court
+possesses a long array of his paintings. In the chapel of Chelsea
+Hospital the plaster semi-dome is painted by him, in oils, with very
+good effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill's studio, and his
+influence may be suspected in the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches
+in Hogarth's work.
+
+By the eighteenth century Venice had parted with her old nobility of
+soul, and enjoyment had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice, among
+the States of Italy, alone retained her freedom. The Doge reigned
+supreme as in the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the dreaded
+Three still sat in secret council. Venice was still the city of subtle
+poisons and dangerous mysteries, but the days were gone when she
+had held the balance in European affairs, and she had become, in a
+superlative degree, the city of pleasure. Nowhere was life more
+varied and entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.
+
+A long period of peace had rocked the Venetian people into calm
+security. There was, indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corfù,
+Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was retained in the
+struggles of Europe. The whole policy of the city's life was one of
+self-indulgence. Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole population
+lived "in piazza," laughing, gossiping, seeing and being seen. The
+very churches had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues; the
+convents boasted their _salons_, where nuns in low dresses, with pearls
+in their hair, received the advances of nobles and gallant abbés.
+People came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the last scandal,
+sensational stories, were the only subjects worth discussing. In an age
+of parodies and practical jokes, the more absurd any one could be, the
+more silly or witty stories he could tell, the more assured was his
+success in the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and laughter. The
+Carnival lasted for six months of the year, and was the occasion for
+masques and licence of every description. In the hot weather, the gay
+descendants of the Contarini, the Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand
+old houses, migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day and night
+the same reckless, irresponsible life went gaily on. The power of such
+courtesans as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was waning. Their
+place was adequately supplied by the easy dames of society, no longer
+secluded, proud and tranquil, but "stirred by the wild blood of youth
+and stooping to the frolic." "They are but faces and smiles, teasing
+and trumpery," says one of their critics, yet they are declared to be
+wideawake, natural and charming, making the most of their smattering of
+letters. Love was the great game; every woman had lovers, every married
+woman openly flaunted her _cicisbeo_ or _cavaliere servente_.
+
+The older portion of the middle class was still moderate and temperate,
+contented to live in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in
+politics, with which it was dangerous for the ordinary individual to
+meddle; but the new leaven was creeping through every level of society.
+The sons and daughters of the _bourgeoisie_ tried to rise in the social
+scale by aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They deserted the
+shop and the counting-house to play cards and strut upon the piazza.
+They mimicked the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and made
+fashionable love and carried on intrigues. The spirit of the whole
+people had lost its elevation; there were no more proud patricians, full
+of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public service; it was hardly
+possible to get a sufficient number of persons to carry on public
+business. It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet among all this
+degenerate life, we come upon something more real as we turn to the
+artists. They were very much alive. In music, in literature, and in
+painting, new and graceful forms of art were emerging. Painting was not
+the grand art of other days; it might be small and trivial, but there
+grew up a real little Renaissance of the eighteenth century, full of
+originality and fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous and banale
+style of the imitators.
+
+The influence of the "lady" was becoming increasingly felt by society.
+Confidential little boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the mode,
+and needed decorating as well as vast salas. The dainty luxury of gilt
+furniture, designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered in delicate
+silks, was matched by small, attractive works of art. Venice had lost
+her Eastern trade, and as the East faded out of her scheme of life, the
+West, to which she now turned, was bringing her a different form of
+art. The great reception rooms were still suited by the grandiose
+compositions of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but another genre of
+charming creations smiled from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate
+suites of rooms.
+
+It is impossible to name more than a fraction of these artists of the
+eighteenth century. There is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;
+Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the day; Luca Carlevaris,
+the forerunner of Canale; Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country
+are mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the most important are
+preserved in the cupola and spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle
+Howard. Their work is still to be found in many a Venetian church or
+North Italian gallery. Some of it is almost fine, though too often
+vitiated by the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day. When
+originality asserts itself more decidedly, Rosalba Carriera stands out
+as an artist who acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she was a
+young woman of twenty-four, she was already a great favourite with the
+public. She began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was bad, Jean
+Stève, a Frenchman, taught her to paint miniatures. She imparted a
+wonderfully delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to pastel, she
+brought to this branch of portraiture a brilliancy and freshness which
+it had not known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved for us better
+than any one else, those women of Venice who floated so lightly on the
+dancing waves of that sparkling stream. There they are: La Cornaro; La
+Maria Labia, who was surrounded by French lovers, "very courteous and
+very beautiful"; La Zenobio and La Pisani; La Foscari, with her black
+plumes; La Mocenigo, "the lady with the pearls." She has pinned them all
+to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted butterflies, with velvet
+neck-ribbons round their snowy throats and coquettish patches on their
+delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in their high-dressed hair and
+sheeny bodices. They look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting
+mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet, ephemeral, irresponsible in
+every relation of life. Older men and women there are, too, when those
+artificial years have produced a succession of rather dull, sodden
+personages, kindly, inoffensive, but stupid, and still trifling heavily
+with the world.
+
+Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare with those of her sitters.
+She and the other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy life of
+the worker, and found in their art the antidote to the evil living and
+the dissipation of the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.
+Rosalba's _milieu_ is a type of others of its class. She lives with her
+mother and sisters, an honest, cheerful, industrious existence. They are
+fond of old friends and old books, and indulge in music and simple
+pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba by preparing the groundwork of
+her paintings. She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on the
+harpsichord. She receives great men without much ceremony, and the
+Elector Palatine, the Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of Norway,
+and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come to her to order miniatures of
+their reigning beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she has plenty
+of commissions, and the frequently occurring names of English patrons in
+her fragmentary diaries, tell how much her work was admired by English
+travellers. She did more than anybody else to promote the fashion for
+pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its best in the pastel
+room of the Dresden Gallery.
+
+Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us a charming description of a
+party of English travellers, which included Horace Walpole, arriving in
+Venice in 1741, strolling about in mask and _bauta_, and visiting the
+famous pastellist in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba has
+painted Walpole, and has left one of the most interesting examples of
+her art.
+
+
+SOME EXAMPLES
+
+ _Francesco da Ponte._
+
+ Venice.   Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on
+             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left
+             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the
+             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to
+             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the
+             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;
+             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are
+             all very rich in colour.
+           Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.
+           Sala dell' Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.
+
+
+ _Leandro da Ponte._
+
+ Venice.   Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a
+             Blessed Candle to the Doge.
+           Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge
+             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one
+             side of the sala.
+           Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the
+             Avogadori Family.
+
+
+ _Palma Giovine._
+
+ Dresden.  Presentation of the Virgin.
+ Florence. Uffizi: S. Margaret.
+ Munich.   Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.
+ Venice.   Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.
+           Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.
+ Vienna.   Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pietà;
+             Immaculate Conception.
+
+
+ _Il Padovanino._
+
+ Florence. Uffizi: Lucretia.
+ London.   Cornelia and her Children.
+ Paris.    Venus and Cupid.
+ Rome.     Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.
+ Venice.   Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,
+             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.
+ Verona.   Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.
+ Vienna.   Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.
+
+
+ _Pietro Liberi._
+
+ Venice.   Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.
+
+
+ _Andrea Vicentino._
+
+ Venice.   Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.
+
+
+ _G. A. Fumiani._
+
+ Venice.   San Pantaleone: Ceiling.
+           Church of the Carità: Christ disputing with the Doctors.
+
+
+ _A. Balestra._
+
+ Verona.   S. Tomaso: Annunciation.
+
+
+ _G. Lazzarini._
+
+ Venice.   S. Pietro in Castello.
+           The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.
+
+
+ _Sebastiano Ricci._
+
+ Venice.   S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.
+           Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.
+ London.   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.
+
+
+ _G. B. Pittoni._
+
+ Vicenza.  The Bath of Diana.
+
+
+ _G. B. Piazetta._
+
+ Venice.   Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.
+           Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.
+
+
+ _Rosalba Carriera._
+
+ Venice.   Academy: pastels.
+ Dresden.  Pastels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+TIEPOLO
+
+
+We have already noted that to establish the significance of any period
+in art, it is necessary that the tendencies should unite and combine in
+some culminating spirits who rise triumphant over their contemporaries
+and soar above the age in which they live. Such a genius stands out
+above the eighteenth century crowd, and is not only of his century, but
+of every time. For two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised as
+extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting cupids, nymphs, and
+parroquets. In the last century he experienced the effect of the
+profound discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century art had
+fallen. In France, David had obliterated Watteau; and the reputation
+of Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced Tiepolo and his
+contemporaries. When the delegates of the French Republic inspected
+Italian churches and palaces, and decided what works of art should be
+sent to the Louvre, they singled out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and
+Guidos, the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other such forgotten
+masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret
+of their descendants, they disdained to annex a single one of the great
+paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista Tiepolo.
+
+Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as "an artist of fantastic
+imagination." Most of the nineteenth-century critics do not even mention
+him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging line of praise, Blanc is
+equally disparaging, and for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his
+influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime; only now is he coming
+into his own, and it is recognised that the _plein-air_ artist, the
+luminarist, the impressionist, owe no small share of their knowledge to
+his inspiration.
+
+The name of Tiepolo brings before us a whole string of illustrious
+personages--doges and senators, magnificent procurators and great
+captains--but we have nothing to prove that the artist belonged to a
+decayed branch of the famous patrician house. Born in Castello, the
+people's quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth with that good
+draughtsman, Lazzarini. At twenty-three he married the sister of
+Francesco Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi and Canale and who is
+a better painter than either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.
+The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at its height. The life of
+the aristocracy on the lagoons was every year growing more gay, more
+abandoned to capricious inclination, to light loves and absurd
+amusements. And the art which reflected this life was called upon to
+give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather than character. Yet if
+the Venetian art had lost all connection with the grave magnificence of
+the past, it had kept aloof from the academic coldness which was in
+fashion beyond the lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a
+certain natural absurdity. The age had become romantic; the Arcadian
+convention was in full force, Nature herself was pressed into the
+service of idle, sentimental men and women. The country was pictured as
+a place of delight, where the sun always shone and the peasants passed
+their time singing madrigals and indulging in rural pleasures. The
+public, however, had begun to look for beauty; the traditions which had
+formed round the decorative schools were giving way to the appreciation
+of original work. Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when he is
+sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the taste of the Venetians, and
+without emancipating himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives
+to introduce a fresh accent. All round him was a weak and self-indulgent
+world, but within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant and
+inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng of personages on the ceilings
+of the churches and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations range
+from mythology to religion, from the sublime to the grotesque. All
+Olympia appears upon his ample and luminous spaces. It is not to the
+cold, austere Lazzarini, or to the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or
+the imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he was touched by each
+of them, that we must turn for Tiepolo's derivation. Long before his
+time, the kind of decoration of ceilings which we are apt to call
+Tiepolesque; the foreshortened architecture, the columns and cornices,
+the figures peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds, had been
+used by an increasing throng of painters. The style arose, indeed, in
+the quattrocento; Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo had used
+it, though in a far more sober way than later generations. Correggio
+and the Venetians had perfected the idea, which the artists of the
+seventeenth century seized upon and carried to the most intemperate
+excess. But Tiepolo rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,
+exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this time defied all laws of
+equilibrium, and we must go back further than his immediate predecessors
+for his origins. His claim to stand with Tintoretto or Veronese may be
+contested, but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese is the
+artist he studied with the greatest fervour. Without copying, he seems
+to have a natural affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates the
+ample arrangement of his groups, the grace of his architecture, and his
+decorative feeling for colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo's dearest
+friends, writes: "No painter of our time could so well recall the bright
+and happy creations of Veronese." The difference between them is more
+one of period than of temperament. Paolo Veronese represented the
+opulence of a rich, strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo's
+lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous women, and full of the
+modern spirit himself, he adapts his genius to his time and devotes
+himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental vein of the Venice of the
+decadence. Full of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to respond to
+any call. He went to and fro between Venice and the villas along the
+mainland and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting wider fields, he
+travelled to Milan and Genoa, where his frescoes still gleam in the
+palaces of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici. At Würzburg in
+Bavaria he achieved a magnificent series of decorations for the palace
+of the Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy, he painted
+altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his friends, and a fresh multitude
+of allegorical and mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His
+charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top to bottom by himself and
+his sons, and has amusing examples of contemporary dress and manners.
+
+When the Academy was instituted in 1755, Tiepolo was appointed its
+first director, but the sort of employment it provided was not suited to
+his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw up the post and went off to
+Spain with his two sons. There he received a splendid welcome and was
+loaded with commissions, the only dissentient voice being that of
+Raphael Mengs, who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the
+antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian's art. Tiepolo died
+suddenly in Madrid in 1770, pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,
+the frescoes he has left there show that his hand was as firm and his
+eye as sure as ever.
+
+His frescoes have, as we have said, that frankly theatrical flavour
+which corresponds exactly to the taste of the time. Such works as the
+"Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto" in the Church of the
+Scalzi in Venice, or the "Triumph of Faith" in that of the Pietà, the
+"Triumph of Hercules" in Palazzo Canossa in Verona, or the decorations
+in the magnificent villa of the Pisani at Strà, are extravagant and
+fantastic, yet have the impressive quality of genius. These last, which
+have for subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full of portraits.
+The patrician sons and daughters appear, surrounded by Abundance, War,
+and Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises Europe. All round are
+grouped flags and dragons, "nations grappling in the airy blue," bands
+of Red Indians in their war-paint and happy couples making love. The
+idea of the history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the House is
+paramount, and over all appears Fame, bearing the noble name into
+immortality. In Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal committee
+gave the painter a free hand, and on the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun
+in a chariot, with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the meridian,
+flooding the world with light. Venus and Saturn attend him, and his
+advent is heralded by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth joys at
+his coming, and a concourse of naiads, nymphs, and dolphins wait upon
+his footsteps. In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo has left
+one of his grandest displays. The haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his
+ideal of the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm, and, standing
+enthroned upon the rolling clouds, hardly deigns to acknowledge the
+homage of the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel is bestowing
+her scapulary. The most charming _amoretti_ are disporting in all
+directions, flinging themselves from on high in delicious _abandon_,
+alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal virtues. At Villa
+Valmarana near Vicenza, after revelling among the gods, he comes to
+earth and delights in painting lovely ladies with almond eyes and
+carnation cheeks, attended by their cavaliers, seated in balconies,
+looking on at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival scenes with
+masques and dominoes and _fêtes champêtres_, which give us a picture of
+the fashions and manners of the day. He brings in groups of Chinese in
+oriental dress, and then he condescends to paint country girls and their
+rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and Corydon.
+
+Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid. He abandons the airy fancies
+scattered in cloud-land. The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano affords
+an opportunity for introducing magnificent architecture, warriors in
+armour, and stately dames in satin and brocades. He touches his highest
+in the decorations of Palazzo Labia, where Antony and Cleopatra, seated
+at their banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard one another
+silently, with looks of sombre passion. Four exquisite panels have
+lately been acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the loves of
+Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast of gay, delicate colour, with
+fascinating backgrounds of Italian gardens. The throne-room of the
+palace at Madrid has the same order of compositions--Æneas conducted
+by Venus from Time to Immortality, and other deifications of Spanish
+royalty.
+
+ [Illustration: _Tiepolo._
+                 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
+                _Palazzo Labia, Venice._]
+
+Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a tragic mood. In the Church of
+San Alvise he has left a "Way to Calvary," a "Flagellation," and a
+"Crowning of Thorns," which are intensely dramatic, and which show strong
+feeling. Particularly striking is the contrast between the refined and
+sensitive type of his Christ and the realistic and even brutal study of
+the two despairing malefactors--one a common ruffian, the other an aged
+offender of a higher class. His altarpiece at Este, representing S.
+Tecla staying the plague, is painted with a real insight into disaster
+and agony, and S. Tecla is a pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes
+in his easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a S. Anthony, or a
+Crucifixion, but he always returns before long to the ample spaces and
+fantastic subjects which his soul loved.
+
+Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art suggests a strong being,
+held captive by butterflies. Sometimes he is joyous and limpid,
+sometimes turbulent and strong, but he has always sincerity, force, and
+life. A great space serves to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better
+than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white limbs among the
+clouds, sea-horses ridden by Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman
+armour, balustrades and columns and _amoretti_. He does not even need to
+pounce his design, but puts in all sorts of improvised modifications
+with a sure hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring poses of his
+countless figures, and the freedom of his line speak eloquently of the
+mastery to which his hand had attained. He revels, above all, in effects
+of light--"all the light of the sky, and all the light of the sea; all
+the light of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath. He paints not
+ideas, scarcely even forms, but light. His ceilings are radiant, like
+the sky of birds; his poems seem to be written in the clouds. Light is
+fairer than all things, and Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of
+light."[6]
+
+ [6] Philippe Monnier, _Venice in the Eighteenth Century_.
+
+Nearly all his compositions have a serene and limpid horizon, with
+the figures approaching it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and
+diaphanous, while the forms below are more muscular, the flesh tints are
+deeper, and the whole of the foreground is often enveloped in shadow.
+Veronese had lit up the shadows, which, under his contemporaries, were
+growing gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the same lines. He
+makes his figures more graceful, his draperies more vaporous, and
+illumines his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and rose, his
+golden-greys, and pearly whites and pastel tints are not so much solid
+colours as caprices of light. We have remarked already that with
+Veronese the accessories of gleaming satins and rich brocades serve to
+obscure the persons. In many of Tiepolo's scenes the figures are lost
+in a flutter of drapery, subject and action melt away, and we are only
+conscious of soft harmonies of delicious colour, as ethereal as the
+hues of spring flowers in woodland ways and joyous meadows. With these
+delicious, audacious fancies, put on with a nervous hand, we forget the
+age of profound and ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous
+solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe an atmosphere of
+irresponsible and capricious pleasure. In this last word of her great
+masters Venice keeps what her temperament loved--sensuous colour and
+emotional chiaroscuro, used to accentuate an art adapted to a city of
+pleasure.
+
+The excellence of the old masters' drawings is a perpetual revelation.
+Even second-class men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen, proving
+that drawing was looked upon as something over which it was necessary
+for even the meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo's drawings,
+preserved in Venice and in various museums, are as beautiful as can be
+wished; perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In Venice are twenty
+or thirty sheets in red carbon, of flights of angels, and of draperies
+studied in every variety of fold.
+
+Poor work of his school is often ascribed to his sons, but the superb
+"Stations of the Cross," in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,
+and published as his own in his lifetime, are almost equal to the
+father's work. Tiepolo had many immediate followers and imitators. The
+colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the Church of SS. Apostoli,
+Venice, may be pointed out as an example of one of these. But he is full
+of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson, writing of him, says he
+sometimes seems more the first than the last of a line, and notices how
+he influenced many French artists of recent times, though none seem
+quite to have caught the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite
+caprice.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Aranjuez. Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.
+           Orangery: Frescoes.
+ Bergamo.  Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.
+ Berlin.   Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.
+ London.   Sketches; Deposition.
+ Madrid.   Escurial; Ceilings.
+ Milan.    Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.
+           Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.
+ Paris.    Christ at Emmaus.
+ Strà.     Villa Pisani: Ceiling.
+ Venice.   Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding
+             the Cross.
+           Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.
+           Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.
+           Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.
+           S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.
+           SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.
+           S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.
+           Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.
+           S. Maria della Pietà: Triumph of Faith.
+           S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.
+           Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.
+           Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.
+ Verona.   Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.
+ Vicenza.  Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.
+           Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,
+             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.
+ Würzburg. Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; Fêtes Galantes; Assumption;
+             Fall of Rebel Angels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+PIETRO LONGHI
+
+
+We have here a master who is peculiarly the Venetian of the eighteenth
+century, a genre-painter whose charm it is not easy to surpass, yet
+one who did not at the outset find his true vocation. Longhi's first
+undertakings, specimens of which exist in certain palaces in Venice,
+were elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence of the Bolognese
+School, in which he studied for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He
+attempts to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings in emulation of
+Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy and common, and the Titans at her feet
+appear as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He shows no faculty
+for this kind of work, but he was thirty-two before he began to paint
+those small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style illustrate the
+"Vanity Fair" of his period, and in which the eighteenth century lives
+for us again.
+
+His earliest training was in the goldsmith's art, and he has left many
+drawings of plate, exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and their
+unerring precision of line. It was a moment when such things acquired a
+flawless purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their beauty with all
+the sensitive perception of the artist and the practised workman. His
+studies of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily
+careful, and he seems besides to have an intimate acquaintance with all
+the elegant dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order. We feel
+that he has himself been at home in the masquerade, has accompanied the
+lady to the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful shoulder, has
+listened to the soothsayer's murmurs. He has attended balls and routs,
+danced minuets, and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He is the last
+chronicler of the Venetian feasts, and with him ends that long series
+that began with Giorgione's concert and which developed and passed
+through suppers at Cana and banquets at the houses of Levi and the
+Pharisee. We are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity of Bonifazio
+and Veronese; the immense tables covered with gold and silver plate, the
+long lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the stream of servants
+bearing huge salvers, or the bands of musicians, nor are there any more
+alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes. Instead there are
+masques, the life of the Ridotto or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in
+dainty boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that city of eternal
+carnival where the _bauta_ was almost a national costume. Longhi
+holds that post which in French art is filled by Watteau, Fragonard,
+and Lancret, the painters of _fêtes galantes_, and though he cannot be
+placed on an equal footing with those masters, he is representative and
+significant enough. On his canvases are preserved for us the mysteries
+of the toilet, over which ladies and young men of fashion dawdled
+through the morning, the drinking of chocolate in _négligé_, the
+momentous instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing patches, the
+towers of hair built by the modish coiffeur--children trooping in, in
+hoops and uniforms, to kiss their mother's hand, the fine gentleman
+choosing a waistcoat and ogling the pretty embroideress, the pert young
+maidservant slipping a billet-doux into a beauty's hand under her
+husband's nose, the old beau toying with a fan, or the discreet abbé
+taking snuff over the morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi's day
+pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux make "a leg," and the
+lacqueys hand chocolate. The beautiful Venetians and their gallants
+swim through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto, or they hasten to
+assignations, disguised in wide _bauti_ and carrying preposterous muffs.
+The Correr Museum contains a number of his paintings and also his book
+of original sketches. One of the most entertaining of his canvases
+represents a visit of patricians to a nuns' parlour. The nuns and their
+pupils lend an attentive ear to the whispers of the world. Their
+dresses are trimmed with _point de Venise_, and a little theatre is
+visible in the background. This and the "Sala del Ridotto" which hangs
+near, are marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of colouring, and
+more animation than is usual in his genre-pictures. He has not preserved
+the lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist touch which was
+the natural inheritance of Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark
+and heavy, and he makes too free a use of body colour; but his attitude
+is one of close observation--he enjoys depicting the life around him,
+and we suspect that he sees in it the most perfect form of social
+intercourse imaginable. Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of
+painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles the genial, humorous
+playwright than he does Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared. Yet
+his execution and technique are a little like Hogarth's, and it is
+possible that he was influenced by the elder and stronger master, who
+entered on his triumphant career as a satirical painter of society
+about 1734. This was just the time when Longhi abandoned his unlucky
+decorative style, and it is quite possible that he may have met with
+engravings of the "Marriage à la mode," and was stimulated by them to
+the study of eighteenth-century manners, though his own temperament is
+far removed from Hogarth's moral force and grim satire. His serene,
+painstaking observation is never distracted by grossness and violence.
+The Venetians of his day may have been--undoubtedly were--effeminate,
+licentious, and decadent, but they were kind and gracious, of refined
+manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent, and so Longhi has
+transcribed them. In the time which followed, ceilings were covered by
+Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand, the scholars of David painted
+classical scenes, and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio Francesco
+Correr bought five hundred of his drawings from his son, Alessandro, but
+his works were ignored and dispersed. The classic and romantic fashions
+passed, but it was only in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing
+on art, revived consideration for the painter of a bygone generation.
+Many of his works are in private collections, especially in England, but
+few are in public galleries. The National Gallery is fortunate in
+possessing several excellent examples.
+
+ [Illustration: _Pietro Longhi._
+                 VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.
+                _London._
+                 (_Photo, Hanfstängl._)]
+
+
+PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+ Bergamo. Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.
+          Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.
+ Dresden. Portrait of a Lady.
+ Hampton Court. Three genre-pictures.
+ London.  Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.
+          Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.
+ Venice.  Academy: Six genre-paintings.
+          Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of
+            Goldoni.
+          Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.
+          Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+CANALE
+
+
+While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving themselves the inheritors of the
+great school of decorators, Venice herself was finding her chroniclers,
+and a school of landscape arose, of which Canale was the foremost
+member. Giovanni Antonio Canale was born in Venice in 1697, the same
+year as Tiepolo. His father earned his living at the profession,
+lucrative enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio learned to
+handle his brush, working at his side. In 1719 he went off to seek his
+fortune in Rome, and though he was obliged to help out his resources by
+his early trade, he was most concerned in the study of architecture,
+ancient and modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye, by the
+picturesque masses of stonework, the warm harmonious tones of classic
+remains and the effects of light upon them. He painted almost entirely
+out-of-doors, and has left many examples drawn from the ruins. His
+success in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still a very young man
+when he retraced his steps. On regaining his native town, he realised
+for the first time the beauty of its canals and palaces, and he never
+again wavered in his allegiance.
+
+Two rivals were already in the field, Luca Carlevaris, whose works were
+freely bought by the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures in
+whose views of Venice were often touched in by his uncle, Sebastiano;
+but Canale's growing fame soon dethroned them, "i cacciati del nido," as
+he said, using Dante's expression. In a generation full of caprice,
+delighting in sensational developments, Canale was methodical to a
+fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing every detail of Venetian
+landscape with untiring application and almost monotonous tranquillity.
+He lived in the midst of a band of painters who adored travel.
+Sebastiano Ricci was always on the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time
+in other cities and countries, and passed the last years of his life in
+Spain; Pietro Rotari was attached to the Court of St. Petersburg;
+Belotto, Canale's nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale remained at
+home, and, except for two short visits paid to England, contented
+himself with trips to Padua and Verona.
+
+Early in life Canale entered into relations with Joseph Smith, the
+British Consul in Venice, a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine
+collection of pictures, but had a gallery from which he was very ready
+to sell to travellers. He bought of the young Venetian at a very low
+price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to acquire the right to all his
+work for a certain period of time, with the object of sending it, at a
+good profit, to London. For a time Canale's luminous views were bought
+by the English under these auspices, but the artist, presently
+discovering that he was making a bad bargain, came over to England,
+where he met with an encouraging reception, especially at Windsor Castle
+and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale spent two years in England and
+painted on the Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not stand the
+English climate and fled from the damp and fogs to his own lagoons.
+
+To describe his paintings is to describe Venice at every hour of the day
+and night--Venice with its long array of noble palaces, with its Grand
+Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways. He reproduces the Venice we
+know, and we see how little it has changed. The gondolas cluster round
+the landing-stages of the Piazzetta, the crowds hurry in and out of the
+arcades of the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals that still
+retained their splendour: the Great Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei
+Schiavoni on the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and the entrance
+to the Cannaregio decked in flags for a feast-day. From one end to
+another of the Grand Canal, that "most beautiful street in the world,"
+as des Commines called it in 1495, we can trace every aspect of
+Canale's time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of its splendour
+or its animation. At the entrance stands S. Maria della Salute, that
+sanctuary dear to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering after the
+visitation of the plague in 1631. Its flamboyant dome, with its volutes,
+its population of stone saints, its green bronze door catching the
+light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent in our own day, and he
+painted it over and over again. The annual fête of the Confraternity of
+the Carità takes place at the Scuola di San Rocco, and Canale paints the
+old Renaissance building which shelters so much of Tintoretto's finest
+work, decorated with ropes of greenery and gay with flags,[7] while
+Tiepolo has put in the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the gazing
+populace. Near it in the National Gallery hangs a "Regatta" with its
+array of boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows lying across
+the range of palaces, and telling the exact hour of the day that it was
+sketched in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar pleasure in
+expressing quiet days, with calm green waters and wide empty piazzas,
+divided by sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding about their
+business in the hot midday, or a quiet little abbé crossing the piazza
+on his way to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the light on wall
+and façade, and of the transparent waters of the canals and the azure
+skies in which float great snowy fleeces.
+
+ [7] It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.
+
+His second visit to England was paid in 1751. He was received with open
+arms by the great world, and invited to the houses of the nobility in
+town and country. The English were delighted with his taste and with the
+mastery with which he painted architectural scenes, and in spite of
+advancing years he produced a number of compositions, which commanded
+high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall, the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall,
+Northumberland House, Eton College, were some of the subjects which
+attracted him, and the treatment of which was signalised by his calm and
+perfect balance. He made use of the camera ottica, which is in principal
+identical with the camera oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and
+taught its proper use, but it must be confessed that in the careful
+perspective of some of his scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to
+convey a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous engraver.
+Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian had placed engraving on a very high level
+in the Venetian School, and though at a later date it became too
+elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought it back to simplicity. Canale
+aided them, and his _eaux-fortes_, of which he has left about thirty,
+are filled with light and breadth of treatment, and he is particularly
+happy in his brilliant, transparent water.
+
+The high prices Canale obtained for his pictures in his lifetime led to
+the usual imitations. He was surrounded by painters whose whole ambition
+was limited to copying him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,
+Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More than fifty of his finest
+works were bought by Smith for George III. and fill a room at Windsor.
+He was made a member of the Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime
+Minister of the Elector, obtained from him twenty-one works which now
+adorn the gallery there. Canale died in Venice, where he had lived
+nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio was a familiar object
+in the Piazzetta, at the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.
+
+His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also called Canaletto, and it
+seems that both uncle and nephew were equally known by the diminutive.
+Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career, where he attached
+himself to Panini, a painter of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and
+shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of vanity and self-importance,
+and on a visit to Germany managed to acquire the title of Count, which
+he adhered to with great complacency. He travelled all over Italy
+looking for patronage, and was very eager to find the road to success
+and fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he paid a visit to London
+and was patronised by Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success
+he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector, disappointed at not
+having secured the services of the uncle, was fain to console himself
+with those of the nephew. The extravagant and profligate Augustus II.,
+whose one idea was to extract money by every possible means from his
+subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was consistently devoted to
+Belotto, who was in his element as a Court painter. He paints all his
+uncle's subjects, and it is not always easy to distinguish between the
+two; but his paintings are dull and stiff as compared with those of
+Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour, and many of his views are
+admirably drawn.
+
+
+SOME WORKS OF CANALE
+
+It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being in
+private collections.
+
+ Dresden.  The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;
+             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.
+ Florence. The Piazzetta.
+ Hampton Court. The Colosseum.
+ London.   Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;
+             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.
+ Paris.    Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.
+ Venice.   Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.
+ Vienna.   Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;
+             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;
+             The Piazzetta.
+ Windsor.  About fifty paintings.
+ Wallace Collection. The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San
+             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fête on the Grand Canal;
+             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;
+             A Water-fête; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal
+             in Venice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+FRANCESCO GUARDI
+
+
+An entry in Gradenigo's diary of 1764, preserved in the Museo Correr,
+speaks of "Francesco Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,
+along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of the famous Canaletto, having
+by the aid of the camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases
+(not small) by the order of a stranger (an Englishman), with views of
+the Piazza San Marco, towards the Church and the Clock Tower, and of the
+Bridge of the Rialto and buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have
+to-day examined them under the colonnades of the Procurazie and met with
+universal applause."
+
+Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian Tyrol, and his mountain
+ancestry may account, as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and
+vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled in Venice, and his
+brother were painters. His son became one in due time, and the
+profession being followed by four members of the family accounts
+for the indifferent works often attributed to Guardi.
+
+His indebtedness to Canale is universally acknowledged, and perhaps it
+is true that he never attains to the monumental quality, the traditional
+dignity which marks Canale out as a great master, but he differs from
+Canale in temperament, style, and technique. Canale is a much more exact
+and serious student of architectural detail; Guardi, with greater
+visible vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation in drawing in
+buildings which do not really appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal
+Palace (Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier and more spacious
+than it really is. In his "Piazzetta" he puts in a corner of the Loggia
+where it would not actually be seen. In the "Fair in Piazza S. Marco"
+the arch from under which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he
+foreshortens the wing of the royal palace. He curtails the length of the
+columns in the piazza and so avoids monotony of effect, and he often
+alters the height of the campaniles he uses, making them tall and
+slender or short and broad, as his picture requires. At one time he
+produced some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr. Simonson, who
+has written an admirable life of the painter, believes that the hand of
+Canale is perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his natural
+element, and he often became heavy in colour and handling. In 1782 he
+undertook a commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a noted connoisseur
+and inspector of State pictures, and had been appointed superintendent
+in 1778 of an official studio for the restoration of old masters.
+
+Edwards had important dealings with Guardi, who was directed to paint
+four leading incidents in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of Pius
+IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves had become indifferent patrons
+of art, but Venice attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and
+before the second half of the eighteenth century the export of old
+masters had already become an established trade. There is no sign,
+however, that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship till 1760,
+extended any patronage to Guardi, though he enriched George III.'s
+collection with works of the chief contemporary artists of Venice. It is
+probable that Guardi had been warned against him by Canale and profited
+by the latter's experience.
+
+We can divide his work into three categories. 1. Views of Venice. 2.
+Public ceremonies. 3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually that he
+used the camera ottica, but though we may consider it probable, we
+cannot trace the use of it in his works. He is not only a painter of
+architecture, but pays great attention to light and atmosphere, and aims
+at subtle effects; a transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the
+sun pierces though the morning mists. His four large pendants in the
+Wallace Collection show his happiest efforts; light glances off the
+water and is reflected on the shadowed walls. His views round the Salute
+bring vividly before us those delicious morning hours in Venice when the
+green tide has just raced up the Grand Canal, when a fresh wind is
+lifting and curling all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and when
+the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as their light craft is caught
+and blown from side to side upon the rippling water. The sky occupies
+much of his space, he makes searching studies of it, and his favourite
+effect is a flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass of clouds.
+The line of the horizon is low, and he exhibits great mastery in
+painting the wide lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is one
+of the few masters of his day--perhaps the only one--who succeeds in
+representing a storm at sea.
+
+Often as he paints the same subjects he never becomes mechanical or
+photographic. We may sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale's unerring
+perspective and accurate buildings, but Guardi always finds some new
+rendering, some fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us a summer
+day, when Venice stands out in light, her white palaces reflected in the
+sun-illumined water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches bathed in
+shadow and fusing into the rich, dark tones of twilight. His boats and
+figures are introduced with great spirit and _brio_, and are alive
+with that handling which a French critic has described as his _griffe
+endiablée_.
+
+ [Illustration: _Francesco Guardi._
+                 S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.
+                _London._
+                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]
+
+His masterly and spirited painting of crowds enables him to reproduce
+for us all those public ceremonies which Venice retained as long as the
+Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the Doge to Venetian churches, to
+the Salute to commemorate the cessation of the plague, to San Zaccaria
+on Easter Day, the solemn procession on Corpus Christi Day, receptions
+of ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast of the Wedding of
+the Adriatic. He has faithfully preserved the ancient ceremonial which
+accompanied State festivities. In the "Fête du Jeudi Gras" (Louvre) he
+illustrates the acrobatic feats which were performed before Doge
+Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is erected on the Piazzetta, and
+gondoliers are seen climbing on each other's shoulders and dancing upon
+ropes. His motley crowds show that the whole population, patricians as
+well as people, took part in the feasts. He has also left many striking
+interiors: among others, that of the Sala del Gran Consiglio, where
+sometimes as many as a thousand persons were assembled, the "Reception
+of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV." (which formed one of the series
+ordered by Pietro Edwards), or the fine "Interior of a Theatre,"
+exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts in 1911, belonging to a series
+of which another is at Munich.
+
+In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very faithful attention to nature.
+The landscape painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson points
+out, were not animated by any very genuine impulse to study nature
+minutely. It was the picturesque element which appealed to them, and
+they were chiefly concerned to reproduce romantic features, grouped
+according to fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes, introducing
+classic remains, triumphal arches, airy Palladian monuments. His
+_capricci_ include compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown with
+foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting of Venetian palaces, but in
+which the combination is carried out with so much sparkle and nervous
+life and such charm of style, that it is attractive and piquant rather
+than grotesque.
+
+England is richest in Guardis, of any country, but France in one respect
+is better off, in possessing no less than eleven fine paintings of
+public ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the originator of small
+sketches, and perhaps the precursor of those glib little views which are
+handed about the Piazza at the present day. His drawings are fairly
+numerous, and are remarkably delicate and incisive in touch. A large
+collection which he left to his son is now in the Museo Correr. In his
+later years he was reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches in
+the Piazza, parting with them for a few ducats, and in this way flooding
+Venice with small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by his _bottega_
+is said to be at the corner of the Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock
+Tower. The house in which he died still exists in the Campiello della
+Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to
+the Madonna attached to it. When quite an old man, Guardi paid a visit
+to the home of his ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol, and
+made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the route. To this day his name
+is remembered with pride in his Tyrolean valley.
+
+
+SOME WORKS OF GUARDI
+
+ Bergamo. Lochis: Landscapes.
+ Berlin.  Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.
+ London.  Views in Venice.
+ Milan.   Museo Civico: Landscapes.
+          Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.
+ Oxford.  Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.
+ Padua.   Views in Venice.
+ Paris.   Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in
+            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; "Jeudi Gras" in Venice;
+            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.
+ Turin.   Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.
+ Venice.  Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.
+ Verona.  Landscapes.
+ Wallace Collection. The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);
+            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;
+            The Dogana.
+
+
+
+
+ BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to read
+French, German, and Italian, for though translations appear of the most
+important works, there are many interesting articles and monographs of
+minor artists which are otherwise inaccessible.
+
+Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or opinions, yet
+delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable, and new editions
+and translations are constantly issued. Sansoni's edition (Florence),
+with Milanesi's notes, is the most authoritative; and for translations,
+those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs. Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition
+in the Temple classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).
+
+Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian artists, who
+published his _Maraviglie dell' arte_ nine years after Domenico
+Tintoretto's death, is only to be read in Italian, though the anecdotes
+with which his work abounds are made use of by every writer.
+
+Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Painting in North Italy_ (Murray) is a
+storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole, marvellously
+correct information and sound opinion. It supplies a foundation, fills
+gaps, and supplements individual biographies as no other book does. For
+the early painters, down to the time of the Bellini, _I Origini dei
+pittori veneziani_, by Professor Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a
+large book, written with mastery and insight, and well illustrated; _La
+Storia della pittura veneziana_ is another careful work, which deals
+very minutely with the early school of mosaics.
+
+In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has _The Brothers
+Bellini_ (Bell's Great Masters), and the reader should not fail to read
+Mr. Roger Fry's _Bellini_ (Artist's Library), a scholarly monograph,
+short but reliable, and full of suggestion and appreciation, though
+written in a cool, critical spirit. Dr. Hills has dealt ably with
+_Pisanello_ (Duckworth).
+
+Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work _Vittore Carpaccio_,
+translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and Paul Kristeller in the
+equally important _Mantegna_, translated by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans,
+1901), seem to have exhausted all that there is to be said for the
+moment concerning these two painters.
+
+It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson's two well-known
+volumes, _The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance_, and the _North
+Italian Painters of the Renaissance_ (Putnam). They are brilliant essays
+which supplement every other work, overflowing with suggestive and
+critical matter, supplying original thoughts, and summing up in a few
+pregnant words the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding
+stages.
+
+In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater's essay, included
+in _The Renaissance_. The author is not always well informed as to
+facts--he wrote in the early days of criticism--but he is rich in idea
+and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook's _Life of Giorgione_ (Bell's Great
+Masters) is full and interesting. Some authorities question his
+attributions as being too numerous, but whether we regard them as
+authentic works of the master or as belonging to his school, the
+illustrations he gives add materially to our knowledge of the
+Giorgionesque.
+
+When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Life
+of Titian_ (Murray, out of print), in two large volumes, is well written
+and full of good material, from which subsequent writers have borrowed.
+An excellent Life, full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts,
+was lately brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with
+illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian's technique.
+Sir Claude Phillips's Monograph on Titian will appeal to every thoughtful
+lover of the painter's genius, and Dr. Gronau has written a good and
+scholarly Life (Duckworth).
+
+Mr. Berenson's _Lorenzo Lotto_ must be read for its interest and
+learning, given with all the author's charm and lucidity. It includes an
+essay on Alvise Vivarini.
+
+My own _Tintoretto_ (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full account of
+the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively with the scheme
+and details of the Scuola di San Rocco. Professor Thode has written a
+detailed and profusely illustrated Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss
+Series, and the Paradiso has been treated at length and illustrated
+in great detail in a very scholarly _édition de luxe_ by Mr. F. O.
+Osmaston. It is the fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow
+that his judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture
+than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching sermons,
+there are few critics who have so many ideas to give us, or who are so
+informed with a deep love of art, and both _Modern Painters_ and the
+_Stones of Venice_ should be read.
+
+M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese, which is full
+of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to take a copy of Boschini's
+_Della pittura veneziana_, 1797, when visiting the galleries, the
+palaces, and the churches of Venice. His lists of the pictures, as they
+were known in his day, often open our eyes to doubtful attributions.
+Second-hand copies of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the
+later-century artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of their
+period is supplied by Philippe Monnier's delightful _Venice in the
+Eighteenth Century_ (Chatto and Windus), which also has a good chapter
+on the lesser Venetian masters. The best Life of Tiepolo is in Italian,
+by Professor Pompeo Molmenti. The smaller masters have to be hunted for
+in many scattered essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi's
+pictures. Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by M.
+Uzanne, _Les Deux Canaletto_; and Mr. Simonson has written an important
+and charming volume on Francesco Guardi (Methuen, 1904), with beautiful
+reproductions of his works. Among other books which give special
+information are Morelli's two volumes, _Italian Painters in Borghese and
+Doria Pamphili_, and _In Dresden and Munich Galleries_, translated by
+Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter's magnificent
+catalogue of the Mond Collection--which, though published at fifteen
+guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries--has some valuable
+chapters on the Venetian masters.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+ Academy, Florence, 28
+   Venice, 13, 16, 19, 32, 36, 38, 40, 43, 47, 52,
+     57, 67, 80, 102, 116, 117, 171, 183, 196, 202,
+     205, 206, 210, 211, 217, 219, 226, 227, 242,
+     262, 267, 271, 277, 281, 286, 295, 296, 308,
+     313, 320
+ Adoration of Magi, 28, 31, 116, 131, 197, 205, 287
+ Adoration of Shepherds, 116, 196, 222,
+     273, 275
+ Agnolo Gaddi, 15
+ Alemagna, Giovanni, 29-32, 36, 37, 58
+ Altichiero, 24, 25
+ Alvise Vivarini, 58-63, 65, 66, 69, 79,
+     104, 105, 112, 187, 190, 223, 330
+ Amalteo, Pomponio, 219
+ Amigoni, 292
+ Anconæ, 12, 17, 18, 24, 36, 45, 59, 60, 187
+ Angelico, Fra, 48
+ Annunciation, 16, 26, 45, 178, 183, 258, 286
+ Antonello da Messina, 50, 51, 59, 62, 66
+ Antonio da Murano, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 58
+ Antonio Negroponte, 37, 44
+ Antonio Veneziano, 15
+ Aretino, 163, 166, 167, 172-174, 182, 192,
+     201, 234, 236, 240
+ Ascension, 41
+ Augsburg, 176, 266, 276
+
+ Badile, 229
+ Balestra, 287
+ Baptism of Christ, 41, 98, 255
+ Bartolommeo Vivarini, 32, 36, 37, 38, 48, 58, 59,
+     64, 189, 223, 225
+ Basaiti, Marco, 104, 111-116
+ Bassano, 10, 247, 269-276, 282
+ Bastiani, Lazzaro, 70, 73, 79
+ Battoni, Pompeo, 297, 298
+ Bellini, Gentile, 48-57, 68, 70, 81, 83, 89, 90,
+     99, 101, 103, 146
+ Bellini, Giovanni, 10, 43, 48, 55, 61, 62, 63, 69,
+     78, 81, 82, 84-89, 90, 92, 94-101, 103, 104,
+     107, 109, 112-114, 122, 123, 127, 129, 130,
+     134, 140, 146, 147, 152, 155, 158, 159, 179,
+     186, 187, 223, 225, 318, 329, 330
+ Bellini, Jacopo, 27, 28, 39-43, 58, 81-84, 86
+ Belotto, 315, 319-331
+ Bembo, Cardinal, 97, 111, 174, 240
+ Benson, Mr., 47, 80, 116, 117, 143
+ Berenson, Mr., 156, 187, 195, 210, 221, 229, 243,
+     307, 330
+ Bergamo, 101, 114, 116, 117, 141, 143, 185, 188,
+     190, 196, 211, 219, 226, 227, 276, 308, 313, 328
+ Berlin, 19, 32, 35, 47, 57, 66, 80, 101, 115-117,
+     139, 182, 196, 211, 223, 226, 227, 266, 308, 328
+ Bissolo, 104, 114, 115, 117
+ Blanc, M. Charles, 240, 288, 298
+ Bologna, 36, 38, 60, 167, 288, 309
+ Bonifazio, 203-206, 210, 243, 245, 250, 270, 281, 310
+ Bonsignori, 224, 275
+ Bordone, Paris, 203, 206, 208-211, 219, 231, 290
+ Borghese, Villa, 154, 188, 194, 197, 331
+ Boschini, 104, 282, 287, 331
+ Boston, 139
+ Botticelli, 127, 159
+ Brera, 47, 57, 101, 115, 117, 143, 194, 205, 209,
+     211, 251, 304
+ Brescia, 182, 196, 219, 220, 222, 226, 227
+ Bridgewater House, 182, 211
+ British Museum, 41, 263
+ Broker's patent, 130, 169, 248
+ Brusasorci, 229
+ Buonconsiglio, 223, 224
+ Burckhardt, 298
+ _Burlington Magazine_, 18
+ Byzantine art, 11, 13, 21
+
+ Calderari, 219
+ Carlevaris, Luca, 292, 315
+ Caliari, Carlotto, 282
+ Caliari, Paolo. _See_ Veronese
+ Campagnola, Domenico, 151
+ Canal, Fabio, 307
+ Canale, Gian Antonio, 292, 298, 314-320, 322, 331
+ Canaletto. _See_ Canale
+ Caravaggio, 288
+ Cariani, 141-143, 204
+ Carpaccio, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 79, 80, 103,
+     122, 123, 146, 191
+ Carracci, 88, 288, 298
+ Carriera. _See_ Rosalba Carriera
+ Castagno, Andrea del, 27, 48
+ Castello, Milan, 51
+ Catena, Vincenzo, 104, 108-111, 114, 202, 206
+ Cathedrals, Ascoli, 47
+   Bassano, 270, 276
+   Conegliano, 115
+   Cremona, 215, 220, 226
+   Murano, 109
+   Spilimbergo, 226
+   Treviso, 183, 211, 215, 226
+   Verona, 183, 227
+ Celesti, 287
+ Chelsea Hospital, 289
+ Churches--
+   Bergamo.
+     S. Alessandro, 117, 196
+     S. Bartolommeo, 188
+     S. Bernardino, 190
+     S. Spirito, 114, 117, 196
+   Brescia.
+     S. Clemente, 227
+     SS. Nazaro e Celso, 182
+   Castelfranco.
+     S. Liberale, 132
+   S. Daniele.
+     S. Antonino, 212, 214, 226
+   Padua.
+     Eremitani, 48, 83, 224
+     Il Santo, 25, 227
+     S. Giustina, 220, 242
+     S. Maria in Vanzo, 276
+     S. Zeno, 48
+   Pesaro.
+     S. Francesco, 102
+   Piacenza.
+     Madonna di Campagna, 216
+   Ravenna.
+     S. Domenico, 117
+   Rome.
+     S. Maria del Popolo, 200
+     S. Pietro in Montorio, 200, 202
+   Venice.
+     S. Alvise, 304
+     SS. Apostoli, 307, 308
+     S. Barnabà, 242
+     Carmine, 107, 116, 197
+     S. Cassiano, 267
+     SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, 245
+     S. Fava, 288, 308
+     S. Francesco della Vigna, 37, 38, 242
+     Gesuati, 296
+     S. Giacomo dell' Orio, 197, 277
+     S. Giobbe, 67, 78, 92, 95, 113
+     S. Giorgio Maggiore, 259, 263, 267
+     S. Giovanni in Bragora, 17, 38, 64, 67, 98,
+         106, 116, 211
+     S. Giovanni Crisostomo, 98, 102
+     S. Giovanni Elemosinario, 168, 287
+     SS. Giovanni and Paolo, 53, 101, 116
+     S. Maria Formosa, 31, 38, 196
+     S. Maria dei Frari, 38, 65, 67, 92, 93, 102,
+         112, 157, 161, 180, 183, 219, 275, 307
+     S. Maria Mater Domini, 109, 116, 267
+     S. Maria dei Miracoli, 20
+     S. Maria dell' Orto, 102, 106, 116, 249, 267
+     S. Maria della Salute, 173, 262, 267, 317, 324, 325
+     S. Mark's, 14, 19, 27, 49, 53, 247, 287
+     S. Pantaleone, 30, 285, 287
+     Pietà, 221, 227, 308
+     S. Pietro in Castello, 287, 296
+     S. Pietro in Murano, 92, 93
+     S. Polo, 259, 267
+     Redentore, 63, 64, 67, 117
+     S. Rocco, 267, 296
+     S. Salvatore, 178, 183
+     Scalzi, 308
+     S. Sebastiano, 230, 236, 241, 242
+     S. Spirito, 173
+     S. Stefano, 260, 267
+     S. Trovaso, 16, 116, 267
+     S. Vitale, 79, 80
+     S. Zaccaria, 17, 97, 112, 134, 325
+   Verona.
+     S. Anastasia, 24, 25, 28, 31, 41
+     S. Antonio, 24, 28
+     S. Fermo, 26, 28
+     S. Tomaso, 296
+   Vicenza.
+     S. Corona, 98, 102, 227
+     Monte Berico, 105, 223, 224, 227, 242
+ Cima da Conegliano, 66, 98, 99, 103-108, 123, 322
+ Colombini, 319
+ Confraternity, Carità, 171
+   S. Mark, 69, 206, 245
+ Contarini, Giovanni, 287
+ Cook, Sir F., 183
+ Cook, Mr. Herbert, 330
+ Correggio, 189, 300
+ Correr Museum (Museo Civico), 19, 79, 84, 87, 102,
+     117, 287, 311, 313, 326
+ Crivelli, Carlo, 38, 44-47, 189
+ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 215, 329, 330
+ Crucifixion, 25, 41, 84, 255, 256, 262
+
+ Dante, 264
+ David, 297, 313
+ Doges--
+   Barbarigo, 93
+   Dandolo, 11
+   Giustiniani, 49
+   Gradenigo, 206
+   Grimani, 170
+   Loredano, 100, 109
+   Mocenigo, 325
+ Donatello, 34, 82, 87
+ Doria Gallery, 194, 331
+ Dresden, 139, 182, 196, 210, 211, 242, 266, 276,
+     294, 296, 320
+ Dürer, Albert, 59, 99, 150
+
+ Edwards, Pietro, 323, 325
+ Este, 305
+ Este, Isabela d', 96, 97, 159, 229
+
+ Fabriano, Gentile da, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31,
+     33, 39, 42, 62
+ Florence, 4, 9, 21, 22, 28, 101, 117, 122, 123,
+     139, 182, 197, 202, 211, 242, 266
+ Florentine, 3, 5, 7, 35, 121, 122, 125, 135, 153,
+     199, 200, 251
+ Florigerio, 217
+ Fondaco dei Tedeschi, 129, 130, 147
+ Fragonard, 33
+ Fry, Mr. Roger, 85, 89, 330
+ Fumiani, Gianbattista, 285, 286
+
+ Gaston de Foix, 222
+ Giambono, Michele, 17, 18, 27
+ Giordano, Luca, 285
+ Giorgione, 10, 65, 97, 113, 125, 126-135, 137,
+     139-142, 147-149, 152-155, 166, 177, 179,
+     184-187, 193, 206, 210, 213, 214, 216, 219,
+     222, 310, 330
+ Giotto, 4, 11, 15, 24, 33, 86
+ Goldoni, Carlo, 312, 331
+ Goncourt, de, 313
+ Guardi, Francesco, 298, 321-324, 326, 328, 331
+ Guariento, 15, 17, 62, 122
+ Guercino, 297
+ Guido, 297
+ Guilds, 12, 16, 22, 23, 29, 39, 75, 198, 251
+ Guillaume de Guilleville, 94
+
+ Hampton Court, 143, 210, 211, 219, 266, 289, 320
+ Hazlitt, 6, 8
+ Hogarth, 289, 312
+
+ Jacobello del Fiore, 16, 19, 27, 164
+ Jacopo Bellini. _See_ Bellini
+
+ Kristeller, M. Paul, 330
+
+ Lancret, 311
+ Last Judgment, 238
+ Last Supper, 237, 208, 259
+ Layard, Lady, 50, 57, 80, 116
+ Lazzarini, Gregorio, 286, 287, 296, 300
+ Leonardo, 122, 127, 136, 140, 159, 162
+ Liberi, Pietro, 285, 287, 295
+ Licinio, Bernardino, 218
+ Licinio, G. A. _See_ Pordenone
+ Lippo, Fra, 48
+ London (National Gallery), 47, 57, 66, 100, 101,
+     115-117, 133, 141, 143, 156, 159, 182, 197,
+     201, 202, 208, 211, 218, 221, 222, 226, 227,
+     242, 261, 266, 276, 308, 313, 320, 328
+ Longhi, Pietro, 288, 298, 309-313
+ Lorenzo di San Severino, 46
+ Lorenzo Veneziano, 16, 17, 19
+ Loreto, 193, 197
+ Lotto, Lorenzo, 172, 186, 187-196, 204, 222, 224,
+     275, 330
+ Louvre, 40, 41, 43, 50, 57, 66, 115-117, 143, 161,
+     165, 177, 178, 182, 196, 202, 211, 233, 235,
+     242, 266, 277, 297, 308, 320, 328
+ Luciani. _See_ Sebastian del Piombo
+ Ludwig, Professor, 94, 203, 330
+
+ Madrid, 139, 150, 182, 264, 266, 302, 304
+ Mansueti, Giovanni, 56, 79
+ Mantegna, 39, 42, 49, 58, 59, 77, 84, 96, 159, 215,
+     223, 224, 300, 318, 330
+ Marieschi, 319
+ Martino da Udine. _See_ Pellegrino
+ Maser, Villa, 231, 242
+ Masolino, 41
+ Mengs, Raphael, 302
+ Michelangelo, 110, 121, 122, 137, 164, 174, 199,
+     200-202, 244, 249, 300
+ Milan, Ambrosiana, 66, 116, 275, 276
+   Brera. _See_ Brera
+ Mocetto, Girolamo, 225
+ Molmenti, Professor, 330, 331
+ Mond Collection, 18, 20, 47, 49, 101
+ Monnier, Philippe, 306, 331
+ Montagna, Bartolommeo, 105, 114, 222-224, 270
+ Morelli, 177, 203, 331
+ Moretto, 221, 222
+ Morto da Feltre, 130, 214
+ Munich, 116, 183
+ Murano, 29, 102, 116, 217, 226
+ Museo Civico. _See_ Correr
+
+ Naples, 50, 57, 66, 102, 183
+ National Gallery. _See_ London
+ Niccolo di Pietro, 16, 17, 20
+ Niccolo Semitocolo, 16, 17, 19
+
+ Osmaston, Mr. F. O., 331
+
+ Padovanino, Il, 286, 196
+ Padua, 19, 28, 34-37, 49, 59, 82, 86, 87, 116, 151,
+     155, 183, 223, 226, 227, 242, 272, 276
+ Palaces--
+   Milan.
+     Archinto, 301, 308
+     Clerici, 301
+     Dugnani, 301, 304
+   Rome.
+     Colonna, 196
+   Strà.
+     Pisani, 302
+   Venice.
+     Ducal, 15, 87, 90, 102, 109, 114-117, 170, 183,
+         211, 235, 236, 242, 260, 265, 267, 269, 272,
+         277, 281, 295, 308, 316
+     Giovanelli, 136
+     Labia, 304, 308
+     Rezzonico, 308
+   Verona.
+     Canossa, 302
+   Würzburg, 301, 308
+ Palma Giovine, 285, 287, 295
+ Palma Vecchio, 141, 184-188, 196, 203, 204, 214,
+     219, 231, 244
+ Paolo da Venezia, 14
+ Paris. _See_ Louvre
+ Parma, 115
+ Pellegrino, 213, 214, 219, 226
+ Pennacchi, 104, 214
+ Perugino, 133, 134, 202
+ Pesaro, 90, 94, 102
+ Pesellino, 48
+ Piacenza, 216, 226
+ Piero di Cosimo, 135
+ Pietà, 86, 87, 179, 199, 223, 224
+ Pintoricchio, 74, 135
+ Pisanello (Pisano), 21, 22, 24-28, 31, 33, 34, 37,
+     39-42, 62, 224, 330
+ Pordenone, 169, 170, 202, 204, 214-221, 226
+ Previtali, 104, 114, 115
+
+ Quirizio da Murano, 37
+
+ Raphael, 140, 161, 174, 200, 213, 221, 234
+ Ravenna, 117, 132
+ Rembrandt, 285
+ Ricci, Battista, 288, 300
+ Ricci, Marco, 315
+ Ricci, Sebastiano, 148, 288, 292, 296, 315
+ Richter, Dr. J. P., 331
+ Ricketts, Mr. C., 330
+ Ridolfi, 108, 229, 234, 247, 282, 287, 329
+ Rimini, 87, 89, 102
+ Robusti, Domenico, 246, 282
+ Robusti, Jacopo. _See_ Tintoretto
+ Robusti, Marietta, 246
+ Romanino, 219-221
+ Rome, 143, 183, 188, 196, 197, 202, 211, 227, 267,
+     277, 314, 319
+ Rondinelli, 104, 114, 117
+ Rosalba Carriera, 288, 292-294, 296
+ Rubens, 160, 165, 170, 285
+ Ruskin, 264, 331
+
+ Sansovino, 92, 167, 174, 192
+ Santa Croce, Girolamo da, 56
+ Sarto, Andrea del, 137, 140
+ Savoldo, 66, 222
+ Sebastian del Piombo, 140, 198, 199-202, 228
+ Siena, 4, 11, 12
+ Signorelli, 121
+ Simonson, Mr., 322, 326, 331
+ Smith, Joseph, 315, 323
+ Speranza, 223
+ Spilimbergo, 216, 226
+ Strong, Mr. S. A., 329, 330
+
+ Taylor, Miss Cameron, 94
+ Tiepolo, Domenico, 307
+ Tiepolo, G. B., 10, 297-307, 309, 312, 314, 315,
+     317, 318, 331
+ Tintoretto, 10, 15, 25, 173, 179, 181, 210, 231,
+     234, 243, 245-251, 253-256, 258-267, 269, 273,
+     276, 281, 282, 285, 300, 317, 330, 331
+ Titian, 65, 106, 130, 135, 137, 143, 144-160,
+     162-178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 191-193,
+     201, 204, 205, 210, 215, 217, 220, 221, 224,
+     231, 236, 239, 243-245, 250, 256, 265, 273-275,
+     281, 290, 318, 321, 330
+ Torbido, Francesco, 225
+ Treviso, 108, 183, 186, 202, 211, 215, 226, 239
+
+ Uccello, Paolo, 26, 42, 48
+ Urbino, 163, 168, 174
+ Uzanne, M. O., 331
+
+ Valmarana, Villa, 303
+ Varotari. _See_ Padovanino
+ Vasari, 15, 89, 130, 148, 169, 170, 174, 178, 199,
+     209, 219, 225, 247, 329
+ Vecellio. _See_ Titian
+ Vecellio, Marco, 171
+ Vecellio, Orazio, 164, 174
+ Vecellio, Pomponio, 166
+ Velasquez, 285
+ Venice. _See_ Academy
+ Venturi, Professor Antonio, 40
+ Venturi, Professor Leonello, vi, 38, 329
+ Verona, 22, 24, 25, 28, 183, 227, 229, 242, 302,
+     315, 328
+ Veronese, Paolo, 221, 228, 230-242, 247, 253, 269,
+     281, 283, 310, 331
+ Vicentino, 287
+ Vicenza, 57, 102, 185, 227, 242-277, 296, 303, 307
+ Vienna, 67, 80, 110, 116, 117, 131, 143, 149, 183,
+     196, 197, 211, 242, 268, 277, 320
+ Visentini, 319
+ Viterbo, 202
+ Vivarini. _See_ Alvise
+ Vivarini. _See_ Bartolommeo
+
+ Wallace Collection, 183, 320, 328
+ Walpole, Horace, 292, 294, 319
+ Watteau, 297, 311, 312
+ Wickhoff, Dr., 154
+ Windsor, 47, 320
+
+ Yriarte, M. Charles, 229, 331
+
+ Zanetti, 129, 148, 246, 269, 282, 283, 301
+ Zelotti, 230
+ Zoppo, Marco, 44
+ Zucchero, Federigo, 236
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***
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-<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***</div>

-<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Venetian School of Painting, by Evelyn

-March Phillipps</h1>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="notes">

-Transcriber&#8217;s Note:<br />

-<br />

-Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some

-questionable dates have been left as printed in the original

-text.<br />

-<br />

-Text underlined in blue indicates a transcriber's note. Hover

-the cursor over the text to see the note.</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<hr class="full" />

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<h1>VENETIAN</h1>

-

-<h1>SCHOOL OF PAINTING</h1>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;">

-<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="392" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giorgione.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MADONNA WITH S.

-LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Castelfranco.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h6>

-The Venetian<br />

-School of Painting</h6>

-

-<h3>BY</h3>

-<h2>EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p class="center"><em>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</em></p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p class="center"><span style="font-size: larger;"><strong>BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES PRESS</strong></span><br />

-FREEPORT, NEW YORK</p>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-

-<p class="center"><strong>First Published 1912</strong><br />

-<strong>Reprinted 1972</strong></p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER:<br />

-0-8369-6745-3</p>

-

-<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER:<br />

-70-37907</p>

-

-<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br />

-BY<br />

-NEW WORLD BOOK MANUFACTURING CO., INC.<br />

-HALLANDALE, FLORIDA 33009</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>PREFACE</h2>

-

-

-<p>Many visits to Venice have brought home

-the fact that there exists, in English at least,

-no work which deals as a whole with the

-Venetian School and its masters. Biographical

-catalogues there are in plenty, but these, though

-useful for reference, say little to readers who are

-not already acquainted with the painters whose

-career and works are briefly recorded. &ldquo;Lives&rdquo;

-of individual masters abound, but however excellent

-and essential these may be to an advanced

-study of the school, the volumes containing

-them make too large a library to be easily

-carried about, and a great deal of reading and

-assimilation is required to set each painter in

-his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle&#8217;s

-<em>History of Painting in North Italy</em> still

-remains our sheet anchor; but it is lengthy, over

-full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a></span>

-interesting criticism which of late years has collected

-round each master. There seems room

-for a portable volume, making an attempt to

-consider the Venetian painters, in relation to

-one another, and to help the visitor not only

-to trace the evolution of the school from its

-dawn, through its full splendour and to its

-declining rays, but to realise what the Venetian

-School was, and what was the philosophy of

-life which it represented.</p>

-

-<p>Such a book does not pretend to vie with,

-much less to supersede, the masterly treatises on

-the subject which have from time to time

-appeared, or to take the place of exhaustive

-histories, such as that of Professor Leonello

-Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should

-but serve to pave the way to deeper and more

-detailed reading. It does not aspire to give a

-complete and comprehensive list of the painters;

-some of the minor ones may not even be

-mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates,

-and facts would add unduly to the size of the

-book, and, when without real bearing on

-the course of Venetian art, would have little

-significance. What the book does aim at is to

-enable those who care for art, but may not have

-mastered its history, to rear a framework on

-which to found their own observations and appreciations;

-to supply that coherent knowledge

-which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance

-with beautiful things, and to place the unscientific

-observer in a position to take greater advantage

-of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and

-interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic

-apprehension which the Venetian School comprises,

-and which marks it as the outcome and

-the symbol of a great historic age.</p>

-

-<p>The works cited have been principally those

-with which the ordinary traveller is likely to

-come into contact in the chief European galleries,

-and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not

-propose to be exhaustive, but merely indicate

-the principal works of the artists. Those in

-private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate

-importance, are usually eliminated. It has

-not been thought necessary to use profuse illustrations,

-as the book is intended primarily for

-use when visiting the original works.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>CONTENTS</h2>

-

-<div class='center'>

-<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART I</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER I</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Venice and her Art</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER II</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Primitive Art in Venice</span></td> <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER III</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Influences of Umbria and Verona</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER IV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The School of Murano</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER V</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Paduan Influence</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Jacopo Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Carlo Crivelli</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Gentile Bellini and Antonello da Messina</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER IX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Alvise Vivarini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER X</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Carpaccio</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giovanni Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giovanni Bellini</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cima da Conegliano and other Followers of Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART II</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giorgione</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giorgione</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Giorgionesque</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palma Vecchio and Lorenzo Lotto</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sebastian del Piombo</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bonifazio and Paris Bordone</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Painters of the Venetian Provinces</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Paolo Veronese</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tintoretto</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tintoretto</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bassano</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART III</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Interim</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tiepolo</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pietro Longhi</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXXI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Canale</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXXII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Francesco Guardi</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <td align='left'>BIBLIOGRAPHY</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_329">329</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>INDEX</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>

-

-<div class='center'>

-

-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-

-<tr>  <td align='right'></td>  <td class="td2"></td>

-           <td class="td3">BY</td>  <td class="td4">AT</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td style="vertical-align: top;" class="td1">1.</td>  <td class="td2">Madonna with S. Liberale and S. Francis</td>

-           <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" class="td3">Giorgione</td>  <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" class="td4">Castelfranco</td>  <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" align='right'><em><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></em></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">2.</td>  <td class="td2">Adoration  of the Magi</td>

-           <td class="td3">Antonio da Murano</td>  <td class="td4">Berlin</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">3.</td>  <td class="td2">Agony in Garden</td>

-           <td class="td3">Jacopo Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">British Museum</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#agony">41</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">4.</td>  <td class="td2">Procession of the Holy Cross</td>

-           <td class="td3">Gentile Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">5.</td>  <td class="td2">Altarpiece of 1480</td>

-           <td class="td3">Alvise Vivarini</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#altar">60</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">6.</td>  <td class="td2">Arrival of the Ambassadors</td>

-           <td class="td3">Carpaccio</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">7.</td>  <td class="td2">Piet&agrave;</td>

-           <td class="td3">Giovanni Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Brera</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#pieta">87</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">8.</td>  <td class="td2">An Allegory</td>

-           <td class="td3">Giovanni Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Uffizi</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#allegory">94</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">9.</td>  <td class="td2">F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre</td>

-           <td class="td3">Giorgione</td>  <td class="td4">Louvre</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#champ">136</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">10.</td>  <td class="td2">Portrait of Ariosto</td>

-           <td class="td3">Titian</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#aris">156</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">11.</td>  <td class="td2">Diana and Actaeon</td>

-           <td class="td3">Titian</td>  <td class="td4">Earl Brownlow</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#diana">161</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">12.</td>  <td class="td2">Holy Family</td>

-           <td class="td3">Palma Vecchio</td>  <td class="td4">Colonna Gallery, Rome</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#holy">185</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">13.</td>  <td class="td2">Portrait of Laura di Pola</td>

-           <td class="td3">Lorenzo Lotto</td>  <td class="td4">Brera</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#laura">194</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">14.</td>  <td class="td2">Marriage in Cana</td>

-           <td class="td3">Paolo Veronese</td>  <td class="td4">Louvre</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">15.</td>  <td class="td2">S. Mary of Egypt</td>

-           <td class="td3">Tintoretto</td>  <td class="td4">Scuola di San Rocco</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#egypt">258</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">16.</td>  <td class="td2">Bacchus and Ariadne</td>

-           <td class="td3">Tintoretto</td>  <td class="td4">Ducal Palace</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#bacchus">261</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">17.</td>  <td class="td2">Baptism of S. Lucilla</td>

-           <td class="td3">Jacopo da Ponte</td>  <td class="td4">Bassano</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#bapt">274</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">18.</td>  <td class="td2">Antony and Cleopatra</td>

-           <td class="td3">Tiepolo</td>  <td class="td4">Palazzo Labia, Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#cleo">304</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">19.</td>  <td class="td2">Visit to the Fortune-Teller</td>

-           <td class="td3">Pietro Longhi</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#visit">310</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">20.</td>  <td class="td2">S. Maria della Salute</td>

-           <td class="td3">Francesco Guardi</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#della">324</a></td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>LIST OF PAINTERS</h2>

-

-<div class="box">

-<p>

-Paolo da Venezia, <em>fl.</em> 1333-1358.<br />

-Niccolo di Pietro, <em>fl.</em> 1394-1404.<br />

-Niccolo Semitocolo, <em>fl.</em> 1364.<br />

-Stefano di Venezia, <em>fl.</em> 1353.<br />

-Lorenzo Veneziano, <em>fl.</em> 1357-1379.<br />

-Chatarinus, <em>fl.</em> 1372.<br />

-Jacobello del Fiore, <em>fl.</em> 1415-1439.<br />

-Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.<br />

-Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), <em>circa</em> 1385-1455.<br />

-Michele Giambono, <em>fl.</em> 1470.<br />

-Giovanni Alemanus, <em>fl.</em> 1440-1447.<br />

-Antonio da Murano, <em>circa</em> 1430-1470.<br />

-Bartolommeo Vivarini, <em>fl.</em> 1420-1499.<br />

-Alvise Vivarini, <em>fl.</em> 1461-1503.<br />

-Antonello da Messina, <em>circa</em> 1444-1493.<br />

-Jacopo Bellini, <em>fl.</em> 1430-1466.<br />

-Jacopo dei Barbari, <em>circa</em> 1450-1516.<br />

-Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.<br />

-Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.<br />

-Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.<br />

-Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.<br />

-Gentile Bellini, <em>circa</em> 1427-1507.<br />

-Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.<br />

-Lazzaro Bastiani, <em>fl.</em> 1470-1508.<br />

-Vittore Carpaccio, <em>fl.</em> 1478-1522.<br />

-Girolamo da Santa Croce.<br />

-Mansueti, <em>fl.</em> 1474-1510.<br />

-Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.<br />

-Vincenzo Catena, <em>fl.</em> 1495-1531.<br />

-Bissolo, 1464-1528.<br />

-Marco Basaiti, <em>circa</em> 1470-1527.<br />

-Andrea Previtali, <em>fl.</em> 1502-1525.<br />

-Bartolommeo Veneto, <em>fl.</em> 1505-1555.<br />

-N. Rondinelli, <em>fl.</em> 1480-1500.<br />

-Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.<br />

-Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.<br />

-Giovanni Busi (Cariani), <em>circa</em> 1480-1544.<br />

-Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.<br />

-Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.<br />

-Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.<br />

-Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).<br />

-Morto da Feltre, <em>circa</em> 1474-1522.<br />

-Romanino, 1485-1566.<br />

-Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.<br />

-Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.<br />

-Bernardino Licinio, <em>fl.</em> 1520-1544.<br />

-Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), <em>circa</em> 1498-1554.<br />

-Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), <em>fl.</em> 1510-1540.<br />

-Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.<br />

-Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.<br />

-Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.<br />

-Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.<br />

-Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.<br />

-Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.<br />

-Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.<br />

-Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.<br />

-Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.<br />

-Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.<br />

-Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.<br />

-G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.<br />

-Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.<br />

-Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.<br />

-Belotto, 1720-1780.<br />

-Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.</p></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>

-<h2>PART I</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>VENICE AND HER ART</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether

-in character from that of every other part of

-Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and

-recognisable of all the schools; its singularity

-is such that a novice in art can easily, in a

-miscellaneous collection, sort out the works

-belonging to it, and added to this unique character

-is the position it occupies in the domain

-of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast

-an epoch of art comparable in originality and

-splendour to that of her great Florentine rival;

-an epoch which is to be classed among the

-great art manifestations of the world, which has

-exerted, and continues to exert, incalculable

-power over painting, and which is the inspiration

-as well as the despair of those who try to

-master its secret.</p>

-

-<p>The other schools of Italy, with all their

-superficial varieties of treatment and feeling,

-depended for their very life upon the extent to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>

-which they were able to imbibe the Florentine

-influence. Siena rejected that strength and

-perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly

-struck out on independent lines, achieving a

-magnificent victory.</p>

-

-<p>Art in Florence made a strictly logical

-progress. As civilisation awoke in the old Latin

-race, it went back in every domain of learning

-to the rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin

-and the alien structures left by the long barbaric

-dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour

-had never been a barbarian; and as the mind was

-once more roused to conscious life, Florence

-entered readily upon that great intellectual

-movement which she was destined to lead.

-Her cast of thought was, from the first, realistic

-and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to

-know the truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate

-experiments, to see things as they really were;

-and when she reached the point at which art was

-ready to speak, we find that the governing motive

-of her language was this same predilection for

-reality, and it was with this meaning that her

-typical artists found a voice. No artist ever

-sought for truth, both physical and spiritual,

-more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke

-more distinctly the mind of his age and country;

-and as one generation follows another, art in

-Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied

-to the intellectual movement. The scientific

-predilection for <em>form</em>, for the representation

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>

-of things as they really are, characterises not

-Florentine painting alone, but the whole of

-Florentine art. It is an art of contributions

-and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at

-every step by dominating personalities, positively

-as well as relatively great, but with each member

-consciously absorbed in &ldquo;going one better&rdquo; than

-his predecessors, in solving problems and in

-mastering methods. Florentine art is the outcome

-of Florentine life and thought. It is part of

-the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason,

-of that exactitude of apprehension towards

-which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and

-the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards

-her, formed themselves on her pattern and

-worked upon the same lines, so that they

-have a certain general resemblance, and their

-excellence is in proportion to the thoroughness

-with which they have learned their lesson.</p>

-

-<p>The difference which separates Venetian from

-the rest of Italian painting is a fundamental one.

-Venice attains to an equally distinguished place,

-but the way in which she does it and the

-character of her contribution are both so

-absolutely distinct that her art seems to be the

-outcome of another race, with alien temperament

-and standards. Venice had, indeed, a history and

-a life of her own. Her entire isolation, from her

-foundation, gave her an independent government

-and customs peculiar to herself, but at the same

-time her people, even in their earliest and most

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>

-precarious struggles, were no barbarians who

-had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life.

-Among the refugees were persons of high birth

-and great traditions, and they brought with them

-to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some

-political training and some idea of how to reconstruct

-their shattered social fabric. The Venetian

-Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence

-in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area

-was, every feature and sentiment was concentrated

-and intensified. But one element above all permeates

-it and sets it apart from other European

-States. The Oriental element in Venice must

-never be lost sight of if we wish to understand

-her philosophy of art.</p>

-

-<p>There are some grounds, seriously accepted

-by the most recent historians, for believing that

-the first Venetian colonists were the descendants

-of emigrants who in prehistoric times had

-established themselves in Asia and who had

-returned from thence to Northern Italy. &ldquo;These

-colonists,&rdquo; says Hazlitt, &ldquo;were called Tyrrhenians,

-and from their settlements round the mouth of

-the Po the Venetian stock was ultimately

-derived.&rdquo; If the tradition has any truth, we

-think with a deeper interest of that instinct for

-commerce which seems to have been in the

-very blood of the early Venetians. Did it,

-indeed, come down to them from the merchants

-of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful

-trading race which stretched out its arms all

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>

-over Europe and penetrated even to our own

-island? From the first, Venice cut herself adrift,

-as far as possible, from Western ties, but she

-turned to Eastern people and to intercourse with

-the East with a natural affinity which savours

-of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived

-from her Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped

-with Eastern riches, must have assumed a deeply

-Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained

-many details peculiar to the East. The people

-observed a custom for choosing and dowering

-brides, which was of Asia. The national

-treatment of women was akin to that of an

-Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a

-retirement which recalled the life of the harem,

-only appearing on great occasions to display their

-brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled

-when they passed through the streets. The

-attachment of men to women had no intellectual

-bias, scarcely any sentiment, but &ldquo;went

-straight to the mark: the enjoyment of physical

-beauty.&rdquo; The position of women in Venice was

-a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine

-lady of the Renaissance, who was highly educated,

-deeply versed in men and in affairs, the fine flower

-of culture, and the queen of a brilliant society.

-The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry

-was of Semitic intensity and seemed insatiable,

-and the gratification of the senses was a

-deliberate State policy. But passionate as was

-the spirit of patriotism, enthusiastic the love and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>

-loyalty of the people, the civic spirit was absent.

-The masses were contented to live under a despotic

-rule and to be little despots in their own houses.

-In the twelfth century the people saw power pass

-into the hands of the aristocracy, and as long as

-the despotism was a benevolent one, the event

-aroused no opposition. Like Orientals, the

-Venetians had wild outbursts, and like them

-they quieted down and nothing came of them.

-As Mr. Hazlitt remarks, &ldquo;their occasional

-resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds

-of horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or

-enduring traces behind it. It established no

-principle. It taught no lesson.&rdquo; Venice was a

-Republic only in name. The whole aspect of

-her government is Eastern. Its system of

-espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and

-silent blows,&mdash;these are all Oriental traits, and

-the East entering into her whole life from

-without found a natural home awaiting it. We

-should be mistaken, however, in thinking that

-the Venetians in their great days were enervated

-and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to

-associate with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in

-the end drain the life out of her. &ldquo;It is the

-disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not

-the same thing.&rdquo; The Venetians were by nature

-men with a deep capacity for feeling, and it is

-this deep feeling which has so large a share in

-Venetian art.</p>

-

-<p>The painters of Venice were of the people

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>

-and had no wide intellectual outlook at its

-most splendid moment, such as was possessed by

-those men who in Florence were drawn into the

-company of the Medici and their court of

-scholars, and who all their lives were in the

-midst of a society of large aims and a free public

-spirit, in which men took their share of the

-responsibilities and honours of a citizen&#8217;s life.

-The merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested

-in the solving of problems. They

-pay a price, and they want a good show of colour

-and gilding for their money. Presently they

-buy from outside, and a half-hearted imitation

-of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian

-artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare

-itself with true spontaneity till it feels behind it

-the weight and unanimity of the whole body

-of the people. That true outburst was long in

-coming, but its seeds were fructifying deep in

-a congenial soil. They were fostered by the

-warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and

-at last the racial instinct speaks with no uncertain

-accent in the great domain of art, and

-speaks in a new and unexpected way; as

-splendid as, yet utterly unlike, the grand intellectual

-declaration of Florence.</p>

-

-<p>Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all

-her history, in all her character, is Eastern

-rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom of

-feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion

-as opposed to intellect. Her whole story tells

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>

-of a profoundly emotional and sensuous apprehension

-of the nature of things; and till the time

-comes when her artists are inspired to express

-that, their creations may be interesting enough,

-but they fail to reveal the true workings of

-her mind. When they do, they find a new

-medium and use it in a new way. Venetian

-colour, when it comes into its kingdom, speaks

-for a whole people, sensuous and of deep feeling,

-able for the first time to utter itself in art.</p>

-

-<p>We have to divide the history of the

-Venetian School into three parts. The first

-extends from the primitives to the end of

-Giovanni Bellini&#8217;s life. He forms a link

-between the first and second periods. The

-second begins with Giorgione and ends with

-Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the Venetian

-School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century

-revival, in which Tiepolo is the most

-conspicuous figure, and which is in an equal

-degree the expression of the life of its time.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its

-influence, was particularly strong in Venice,

-where mosaics adorned the cathedral of Torcello

-from the ninth century and St. Mark&#8217;s became

-a splendid storehouse of Byzantine art. The

-earliest mosaic on the fa&ccedil;ade of St. Mark&#8217;s was

-executed about the year 1250, those in the

-Baptistery date during the reign of Andrea

-Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354.

-Yet though the life of Giotto lies between these

-two dates, and his frescoes at Padua were within

-a few hours&#8217; journey, there is no sign that the

-great revolution in painting, which was making

-itself felt in every principal centre of Italy, had

-touched the richest and most peaceful of all her

-States.</p>

-

-<p>Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of

-Byzantinism. It rose as that of the mosaicists

-fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence

-and Siena in being for long almost imperceptible.

-Artists were looked upon merely as artisans in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>

-all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any

-other city they had been placed among the

-craftsmen. The statute of the Guild of Siena

-was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is

-the earliest of which we have any record, and

-bears the date of 1272. There is scarcely a

-word to indicate that pictures in the modern

-sense of the term existed. Painters were

-employed on the adornment of arms and of

-household furniture. Leather helmets and

-shields were painted, and such banners as we

-see in Paolo Uccello&#8217;s battlepieces. Painted

-chests and <em>cassoni</em> were already in demand, dishes

-and plates for the table and the surface of the

-table itself were treated in a similar way.

-Special regulations dealt with all these, and it

-is only at the end of the list that ancon&aelig; are

-mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework,

-having a compartment containing a

-picture of the Madonna and Child, and others

-with single figures of the saints, and these

-were the only pictures proper produced at this

-date. The demand for ancon&aelig; was, however,

-large, and they were very early placed, not only

-in the churches, but in the houses of patricians

-and burghers. Constant disputes arose between

-the painters and the gilders. Pictures were

-habitually painted upon a gold ground, but

-the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds

-themselves. &ldquo;Gilding is the business

-of the gilder, painting that of the painter,&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>

-says a contemporary record. &ldquo;Now the gilder

-contends that if a frame has to be gilt and

-then touched with colour, he is entitled to

-perform both operations, but the painter disputes

-this right, and maintains that the gilder should

-return it to him when the addition of painting

-is desired.&rdquo; It was, however, finally decided by

-law that each should exercise both professions,

-when one or the other played a subordinate

-part in the finished work. Though the art

-of mosaic was falling into decay as painting

-began to emerge, yet the commercial manufactory

-of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been

-established as early as 600, went on, on the Rialto,

-without any variation of the traditional forms.</p>

-

-<p>Florence very early discarded the temptation

-to cling to material splendour, but as we pass

-into the Hall of the Primitives in the Venetian

-Academy, we see at once that Venetian art,

-in its earlier stages, has more to do with the gilder

-than the painter. The Holy Personages are

-merely accessories to the gorgeous framework,

-the embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which

-were in favour with the rich and magnificent

-patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for

-painting as painting, no craving after the study

-of form as the outcome of intellectual activity,

-no zest of discovery, such as made the painter&#8217;s

-life in Florence an excitement in which the

-public shared. What little Venice imbibes of

-these things is from outside influence, after due

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>

-lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of

-merchants and statesmen, she was too much

-bound up in the transactions and sensations of

-actual life to develop any abstract and thoughtful

-ideals.</p>

-

-<p>Perhaps the first painting we can discover

-which shows any sign of independent effort is the

-series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the back

-of the Pala d&#8217; Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark,

-when it was restored in the fourteenth century.

-This reveals an artist with some pictorial aptitude

-and one alive to the subjects that surround him.

-It tells the story of St. Mark&#8217;s corpse transported

-to Venice. The first panel contains a group of

-cardinals of varying types and expressions; in

-another the disciple listening to St. Mark&#8217;s teaching,

-and crouching with his elbows on his knees,

-has a true, natural touch. The dramatic feeling

-here and there is considerable. The scene of the

-guards watching the imprisoned Saint through

-the window and seeing the shadow of two heads,

-as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct

-emotion; and there is force as well as feeling for

-decorative composition in the panel in which the

-Saint&#8217;s body lies at the feet of the sailors, while

-his vision appears shining upon the sails.</p>

-

-<p>Except for the exaggerated insistence on the

-gilded elaborations of the early ancona, there is

-not much to differentiate the early art of Venice

-from that of other centres; but we notice that it

-persevered longer in the material and mechanical

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>

-art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made little

-impression, and many years elapsed before work

-akin to that of Giotto attracted attention and was

-admired and imitated. A man like Antonio

-Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in

-Venice. He had too much of the simplicity of

-the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his work

-to Pisa, where his na&iuml;f and humorous narratives

-still delight us in the Campo Santo. It was in

-1384 that he was employed to finish the frescoes

-of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted

-at Andrea da Firenze&#8217;s death, and the

-fondness for architecture and surroundings in the

-Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome,

-may, as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo

-Gaddi, who had already visited Padua and

-Venice.</p>

-

-<p>In the last years of the fourteenth century

-tributary streams begin to feed the feeble main

-current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was

-employed by the State to paint a huge fresco of

-Paradise in the Hall of the Gran Consiglio of

-the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for

-centuries under the painting by Tintoretto, was

-uncovered in 1909 and found to be in fairly

-good preservation. It can now be seen in a side

-room. It tells us that Guariento had to some

-extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones

-have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more

-the Giottesque than the Byzantine cast and show

-that the old traditions were crumbling.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>

-When painting in Venice first begins to

-live a life of its own, Jacobello del Fiore stands

-out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous

-Venetians. His father had been president

-of the Painters&#8217; Guild. Jacopo himself was

-president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich

-and popular member of the State and a man

-of high character. His works, to judge by the

-specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of

-art, though in the banner of &ldquo;Justice,&rdquo; in the

-Academy, the space is filled in a monumental

-fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the

-lily has something grand and graceful. We

-trace the same treatment of flying banners and

-draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but

-picturesque S. Grisogono in the left transept of

-San Trovaso. Jacobello&#8217;s will, executed in 1439

-in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole,

-with provision for a possible posthumous son,

-shows him to have been a man of considerable

-possessions. He owned a slave and had other

-servants, a house, money, and books. Among his

-fellow-workers who are represented in Venice

-are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and

-Lorenzo Veneziano. The important altarpiece

-by the last, in the Academy, has evidently

-been reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover

-over the Annunciation, and the Saints have

-been restored to the framework in such wise

-that the backs of many of them are turned

-on the momentous central event. In the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>

-&ldquo;Marriage of St. Catherine,&rdquo; in the same

-gallery, Lorenzo gets more natural. The Child,

-in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a

-lively expression, and looks round at His Mother

-as if playing a game. The chapel of San Tarasio

-in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which the

-central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is

-identical with Lorenzo&#8217;s other work. One of

-the finest and most elaborate of all the ancon&aelig; is

-in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work

-of Lorenzo. In this, as well as in that of San

-Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child the apple,

-signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and

-symbolical of the Incarnation. This incident,

-which is found thus early in art, was evidently

-felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child

-from a representation of a merely earthly relationship

-to a spiritual scene of the deepest meaning

-and the highest dignity.</p>

-

-<p>Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of

-the last decade of the fourteenth century, from

-which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,

-but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively

-drawn to the Giottesque movement, but

-not, we may remember, before Giotto had been

-dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has

-been confounded with Niccolo Semitocolo, but

-it is now realised that they were two distinct

-masters. The most important work of Michele

-Giambono which has come down to us is the

-signed ancona with five saints, now in the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>

-Venetian Academy. It is unusual to find a saint

-in the central panel instead of the Madonna.

-The saint is on a larger scale than his companions,

-and has hitherto passed as the Redeemer,

-but Professor Venturi has identified him as

-St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell

-and pilgrim&#8217;s staff. It is clear from his size

-and position that the ancona has been painted for

-an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.</p>

-

-<p>The saints on the right are S. Michael and

-S. Louis of Toulouse. Between S. John the Evangelist

-and S. James is a monastic figure which

-has evidently changed places with S. John

-at some moment of restoration. If the two

-figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible.

-S. John is inculcating a message

-inscribed in his open book, while the monk is

-displaying his humble answer on his own page.

-The use in it of the term <em>servus</em> suggests that

-he is a Servite, though the want of the nimbus

-precludes the idea that he is one of the founders.

-It is probable that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who,

-though considered as a saint from the time of

-his death, was not canonised for several centuries.</p>

-

-<p>The Mond Collection includes a glowing

-picture by Giambono; a seated figure clad in

-rich vestments and holding an orb, probably

-representing a &ldquo;Throne,&rdquo; one of the angelic

-orders of the celestial

-Hierarchy.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>

-Works are still in existence which may be

-ascribed to one or other of these masters, or

-of which no attribution can be made, but we

-know nothing positive of any other artists of the

-time which preceded the influence of Gentile da

-Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that

-the Venetian School in its origin had any pretension

-to be a school of colour, or that it could

-claim anything like real excellence at a time

-when the Republic first became alive to the

-movement which was going on in other parts of

-Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Paolo da Venezia.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Mark&#8217;s: The Pala d&#8217; Oro.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Lorenzo da Venezia.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Nicoletto Semitocolo.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Stefano da Venezia.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of Semitocolo.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Jacobello del Fiore.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Justice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Niccolo di Pietro.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Michele Giambono.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: A &ldquo;Throne.&rdquo;</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master,

-when he reached Venice in the early years of

-the fifteenth century, was already a man of note.

-He had received his art education in Florence,

-and he brought with him fresh and delicate

-devices for the enrichment of painting with

-gold, which, derived as it was from the Sienese

-assimilation of Byzantine methods, was very

-superior in fancy and refinement to anything

-that Venice had to show. He was a man of a

-gentle, mystic temperament, but he was accustomed

-to courts, and a finished master whose

-technique and artistic value was far beyond anything

-that the local painters were capable of.

-He spent some years in Venice, adorning the

-great hall with episodes from the legend of

-Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially

-cited, was of the battle between the Emperor and

-the Venetians. Gentile was working till about

-1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were

-covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>

-some time in Bergamo and Brescia, and settled

-in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching

-Florence, he painted the famous &ldquo;Adoration

-of the Magi,&rdquo; now in the Florentine Academy.

-Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;

-pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo

-S. Trinit&agrave;, and he sent back two portraits after

-he had returned to his native Fabriano.</p>

-

-<p>We have no positive record of Gentile and

-Vittore Pisano, commonly called Pisanello,

-having met in Venice, but there is every

-evidence in their work that they did so, and

-that one overlapped the other in the paintings

-for the Ducal Palace.</p>

-

-<p>The School of Verona already had an honourable

-record, and its Guild dates from 1303.

-The following are its rules, the document of

-which is still preserved, while that of Venice

-has been lost:</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p><span class="smcap">Rules of the Veronese Guild</span> (<em>abridged</em>)</p>

-

-<p>1. No one to become a member who had not

-practised art for twelve years.</p>

-

-<p>2. Twelve artists to be elected members.</p>

-

-<p>3. The reception of a new member depends on his

-being a senior.</p>

-

-<p>4. The members are obliged in the winter season

-to take upon themselves the instruction of

-all the pupils in turn.</p>

-

-<p>5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.</p>

-

-<p>6. Each member is bound to extend to another

-fraternal assistance in necessity.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>

-7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.</p>

-

-<p>8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.</p>

-

-<p>9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.</p>

-

-<p>10. To follow the funerals of members with

-torches.</p>

-

-<p>11. The President is to exercise reference authority.</p>

-

-<p>12. The member who has the longest membership

-to be President.</p></div>

-

-<p>There were also by-laws, which provided

-that no master should accept a pupil for less

-than three years, and this acceptance had to

-be definitely registered by the public notary, a

-son, brother, grandson, or nephew being the

-only exceptions. No master might receive

-an apprentice who should have left another

-master before his time was out, unless with that

-master&#8217;s free consent. There were penalties for

-enticing away a pupil, and others to be enforced

-against pupils who broke the agreement. Severe

-restrictions existed with regard to the sale of

-pictures, no one but a member of the Guild

-being allowed to sell them. No one might

-bring a work from any foreign place for purposes

-of sale. It might not even be brought

-to the town without the special permission of

-the <em>Gastaldiones</em>, or trustees of the Guild, and

-those trustees were permitted to search for and

-destroy forged pictures. Every painter, therefore,

-had to subordinate his interests and inclinations

-to the local school. It helps us to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>

-understand why the individual character of the

-different masters is so perceptible, and one of

-the primary causes of this must have been the

-careful training of the pupils in the master&#8217;s

-workshop.</p>

-

-<p>The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello&#8217;s first

-master, in the Church of S. Anastasia in Verona,

-shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at

-this early time following in the footsteps of

-Giotto. Three knights of the Cavalli family

-are presented by their patron saints to the

-Madonna. The composition has a large simplicity,

-a breadth of feeling which is carried

-into each gesture. The knights with their

-raised helmets, in the pattern of horses&#8217; heads,

-are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and

-dignified, and the saints are grand and stately.

-The picture has a delightful suavity and ease,

-and the colouring has evidently been lovely.

-The setting is in good proportion and more

-satisfactory than that of the Giottesques. From

-the series of frescoes in S. Antonio, Verona,

-we gather that while Venice was still limited

-to stiff ancon&aelig;, the Veronese masters were

-managing crowds of figures and rendering distances

-successfully. Altichiero puts in homely

-touches from everyday life with a freedom

-which shows he has not yet mastered the

-principles of selection or the dignified fitness

-which guided the great masters; as, for instance,

-in the case of the old woman, among the spectators

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>

-of the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing

-her nose. He lets himself be drawn off by all

-manner of trivial detail and of gay costume; but

-again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the &ldquo;Beheading

-of St. George,&rdquo; in the Paduan chapel of the

-Santo, he proves how well he understands the

-force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in

-gesture and expression, while the decorative use

-he makes of lances against the background was

-long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly

-surpassed, by Tintoretto.</p>

-

-<p>Pisanello, who followed quickly upon

-Altichiero and his assistant, Avanzi, exhibits

-the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations

-which commended Gentile da Fabriano to the

-splendour-loving Venetians. Verona, under the

-peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri,

-had long been the home of all knightly

-lore, and the artists had been employed to

-decorate chapels for the families of the great

-nobles. Among these, Pisanello had attained a

-high place. Though very few of his paintings

-remain, they all show these influences, and his

-subtly modelled medals establish him as a

-master of the most finished type. A much

-destroyed fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays

-the history of St. George and the Dragon.

-In the St. George we probably see the portrait

-of the great personage in whose honour the

-fresco was painted. He is mounting his horse,

-which, seen from behind, reminds us of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>

-fore-shortened chargers of Paolo Uccello. The

-rescued princess, also a portrait, wears a magnificent

-dress and an elaborate headgear in the

-fashion of the day. Other horses, fiery and

-spirited, are grouped around, and in the band of

-cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is

-individualised; one is beautiful, another brutal,

-and so on through the seven. A greyhound and

-spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted,

-the background is excellent, and a realistic touch

-is given by the corpses which dangle unheeded

-from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined,

-but fortunately not restored, &ldquo;Annunciation&rdquo; in

-S. Fermo, has a simple, slender figure of the

-Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,

-with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed,

-child-like head with fair hair, is a most sweet

-and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in

-contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes

-round the church. All these paintings are too

-small to be the least effective at the height at

-which they are placed, and can only be seen

-with a good glass. Pisanello&#8217;s art is not well

-adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he seems to

-have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as

-the two we possess. In these he is full of

-originality, and shows his love for the knightly

-life, the life of courts, in the armed <em>cap-&agrave;-pied</em>

-figure of St. George, whose point-device armour

-is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat and feather.

-The artist&#8217;s knowledge and love of animals and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>

-wild nature comes out in them, and his interest

-in beauty and chivalry as opposed to the outworn

-conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.</p>

-

-<p>We shall be able to trace the influence of

-both the Umbrian and the Veronese painter

-on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo

-Bellini, and it is important to note the likeness

-of the two to one another. In Gentile&#8217;s

-&ldquo;Adoration&rdquo; we have on the one hand the

-Holy Family and the gay pageant of the kings,

-of which we could find the prototype in

-many an Umbrian panel. On the other we see

-those contrasting elements which were struggling

-in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals,

-in gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses.

-The two have no lasting effect, but though they

-created no actual school, they gave a stimulus to

-Venetian art, and started it on a new tack,

-enabling it to open its channels to fresh ideas.

-During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello

-del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new

-fashion to his early style, and the horse of

-S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in

-the &ldquo;Adoration,&rdquo; or like Pisano&#8217;s horses.

-Michele Giambono is actually found in collaboration,

-in the chapel of the Madonna da

-Mascoli in St. Mark&#8217;s, with such a virile

-painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno,

-who is evidently responsible for God the Father

-and two of the Apostles; but Castagno must

-have been thoroughly antipathetic to the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>

-Venetians, and though he may have taught

-them the way to draw, he has not left any

-traces of a following.</p>

-

-<p>Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile&#8217;s

-work in the Ducal Palace as already decaying,

-while Pisanello&#8217;s was painted out by Alvise

-Vivarini and Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Gentile da Fabriano.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Adoration of the Magi.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Altichiero.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pisanello.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Fermo: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE SCHOOL OF MURANO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The important little town of Murano, a satellite

-of Venice, lies upon an island, some ten minutes&#8217;

-row from the mother State, distinct from which

-it preserved separate interests and regulations.

-Its glass manufacture was safeguarded by the

-most stringent decrees, which forbade members

-of the Guild to leave the islet under pain of

-death. Its mosaics, stone work, and architecture

-speak of an early artistic existence, and we

-recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese

-painters to be the first to strike out into a more

-emancipated type than that of the primitives.

-The painter Giovanni of Murano, called

-Giovanni Alemanus or d&#8217; Alemagna, names

-between which Venetian jealousy for a time

-drew an imaginary distinction, had certainly

-received his early education in Germany, and

-betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more

-Gothic style; but he was a fellow-worker with

-Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great

-Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>

-large altarpieces in which they collaborated.

-&ldquo;Christ and the Virgin in Glory&rdquo; was painted

-for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an

-inscription with both names on a banderol across

-the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His

-hands on the shoulders of the Mother and Son,

-makes a group of which we find the origin in

-Gentile da Fabriano&#8217;s altarpiece in the Brera,

-and it is probable that one if not both masters

-had been studying with the Umbrian and

-absorbing the principles he had brought to

-Venice. It is easy to trace the influence of

-Giovanni d&#8217; Alemagna, though not always

-easy to pick out which part of a picture

-belongs to him and which to Antonio working

-under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is

-a &ldquo;Coronation of the Virgin,&rdquo; with Gothic

-ornaments such as are not found in purely

-Italian art at this period, but the example in

-which both masters can be most closely followed

-is the great picture in the Academy, the

-&ldquo;Madonna enthroned,&rdquo; where she sits under

-a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here the

-Gothic surroundings become very florid, and

-have a gingerbread-cake effect, which Italian

-taste would hardly have tolerated. Many

-features are characteristic of the German; the

-huge crown worn by the Mother, the floriated

-ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque

-appearance of the throne. Through it all,

-heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>

-the tender expression which came into Venetian

-art with Gentile.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="550" height="358" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Antonio da Murano.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ADORATION OF THE

-MAGI.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Berlin.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Hanfst&auml;ngl.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Giovanni d&#8217; Alemagna and Antonio da Murano

-were no doubt widely employed, and when the

-former died Antonio founded and carried on a

-real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in

-the parish of S. Maria Formosa with his wife,

-who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and

-the wills of both are still preserved in the parish

-archives. Gentile da Fabriano had set the

-example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses

-and strange animals; winding paths in the background

-and foreshortened limbs prove that attention

-had been drawn to Paolo Uccello&#8217;s studies

-in perspective, while many figures and horses

-recall Pisanello. A striking proof of the sojourn

-of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in

-an &ldquo;Adoration of Magi,&rdquo; now ascribed to

-Antonio da Murano, in which the central group,

-the oldest king kissing the Child&#8217;s foot, is very

-like that in Gentile&#8217;s &ldquo;Adoration,&rdquo; but the foreshortened

-horses and the attendants argue the

-painter&#8217;s knowledge of Pisanello&#8217;s work. A comparison

-of the architecture in the background

-with that in the &ldquo;St. George&rdquo; in S. Anastasia

-shows the same derivation, and the dainty cavalier,

-who holds a flag and is in attendance on the

-youngest king, is reminiscent of St. George and

-St. Eustace in Pisanello&#8217;s paintings in the National

-Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences

-of the two artists are combined.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>

-Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo,

-into partnership, and the title of da

-Murano was presently dropped for the more

-modern designation of Vivarini. Both brothers

-are fine and delicate in work, but from the outset

-of their collaboration the younger man is

-more advanced and more full of the spirit of the

-innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall of

-the Academy the Nativity has already a new

-realism; Joseph leans his head upon his hand,

-crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly

-vivid in expression, especially the old hermit

-holding the bell, whose face is brimming with

-ardent feeling.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Giovanni d&#8217; Alemanus and Antonio da Murano.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Murano.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Magi.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE PADUAN INFLUENCE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>And now into this dawning school, employed

-chiefly in the service of the Church, with its

-tentative and languid essays to understand

-Florentine composition, resulting in what is

-scarcely more than a mindless imitation, and

-with its rather more intelligent perception of the

-Humanist qualities of Pisanello&#8217;s work, there

-enters a new factor; or rather a new agency

-makes a slightly more successful attempt than

-Gentile and Castagno had done to help the

-Venetians to realise the supreme importance of

-the human figure, its power in relation to other

-objects to determine space, its modelling and

-the significance of its attitude in conveying

-movement. Giotto had been able to present all

-these qualities in the human form, but he had

-done so by the light of genius, and had never

-formulated any sufficient rules for his followers&#8217;

-guidance. In Ghiberti&#8217;s school, at the beginning

-of the fifteenth century, the fascination of the

-antique in art was making itself felt, but

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels

-it threatened to exercise, and had carried

-the Florentine school with him in his profound

-researches into the human form itself.

-Donatello had been working in Padua for ten

-years before Pisanello&#8217;s death, and in an indirect

-way the Venetians were experiencing some after-results

-of the systematising and formulating of the

-new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual

-life had met with little encouragement among

-the positive, practical inhabitants of Venice, in

-Padua, which had been subject to her since 1405,

-speculative thought and ideal studies were in

-full swing. There was no re-birth in Venice,

-whose tradition was unbroken and where &ldquo;men

-were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo

-of a paganism in the remote past.&rdquo; St. Mark

-was the deity of Venice, and &ldquo;the other twelve

-Apostles&rdquo; were only obscurely connected with

-her religious life, which was strong and orthodox,

-but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms and

-inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand,

-was absorbed in questions of learning and

-religion. A university had been established here

-for two centuries. The abstract study of the

-antique was carried on with fervour, and the

-memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city

-which had never quite died out. It seemed

-perfectly right and respectable to the Venetians

-that the <em>savants</em>, lying safely removed from the

-busy stream of commercial life, should cultivate

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>inquiries into theology and the classics, which

-would only have been a hindrance to their own

-practical business; but such, as it was well known,

-were of absorbing interest in the circles which

-gathered round the Medici in Florence. The

-school of art, which was now arising in Padua,

-was fed from such sources as these. The love of

-the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding

-principle, and influenced the art of painting more

-formally than it could succeed in doing among

-the independent and original Florentines.</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says,

-he may not have been the best of painters, has

-left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as

-genuine and which shows that he was more

-than the mere organiser he is sometimes called.

-He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently

-a dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments,

-which was becoming widespread. When

-he founded his school in Padua he evidently

-was its leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence.

-His pupils, even the greatest, were

-long in breaking away from his convention,

-and few of them threw it off entirely, even in

-after life. That convention was carried with

-undeviating thoroughness into every detail.

-Draperies are arranged in statuesque folds,

-designed to display every turn of the form

-beneath; the figures are moulded with all the

-precision and limitations of statuary. The very

-landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>volcanic character are constructed with the

-regularity of masonry. The colour and technique

-are equally uncompromising, and the surface

-becomes a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite

-in its lines, lacquer-like in its firmness of finish,

-while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been

-so prevalent, were replaced by more or less

-pedantic adaptations from Roman bas-reliefs.

-This system of design was practised most

-determinedly in Padua itself, but it soon spread

-to Venice. Squarcione himself was employed

-there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano

-clung to the old archaic style he saw the Paduan

-manner invading his kingdom, and his own

-brother became strongly Squarcionesque.</p>

-

-<p>The two brothers of Murano come most

-closely together in an altarpiece in the gallery of

-Bologna, where the framework is more simple

-than Alemanus&#8217;s German taste would have permitted,

-and the Madonna and Child have some

-natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive

-art. Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and

-sets out to paint by himself, is crude and strong, but

-full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464, in

-the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking

-them off their pedestals and making them stand

-upon the ground, and though they are still

-isolated from one another in the partitions of an

-ancona, their sparkling eyes, individual features,

-and curly beards give them a look of life. The

-draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>folds, which display the forms, and the drawing

-of the bony structure, exaggerated in the arms

-and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and

-stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In

-several of his other altarpieces, Bartolommeo

-introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,

-such as Donatello had first brought to Padua,

-or which Paduan artists delighted to copy from

-classic columns. Antonio&#8217;s manner to the end

-is the local Venetian manner, infused as it was

-with the soft and charming influence of Gentile

-da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo

-adopts the new and more ambitious style.

-Though not a very good painter, and inclined

-to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he

-was the head of a crowd of artists, and works of

-his school, signed <em>Opus factum</em>, went all over

-Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works

-of his pupils are numerous; the &ldquo;St. Mark enthroned&rdquo;

-in the Frari is as good if not better

-than the master&#8217;s own work, and the triptych in

-the Correr Museum is a free imitation.</p>

-

-<p>Round this early school gathered such

-painters as Antonio da Negroponte and Quirizio

-da Murano, who were both working in 1450.

-Negroponte has left an enthroned Madonna in

-S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of the

-most beautiful examples of colour and of the

-fanciful charm of the Renaissance that the early

-art of Venice has to show. The Mother and

-Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>with antique reliefs, rich wreaths of fruit swag

-above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full

-of flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on

-cornucopias. On either side, four badly drawn

-little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly

-foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful,

-music-making angels which became such a

-feature of North Italian art. The Divine

-Mother, adoring the Child lying across her

-knees, has an exquisite, pensive face, conceived

-with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art.

-It seems quite possible, as Professor Leonello

-Venturi suggests, that we have here the early

-master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love

-of fruit garlands, of chains of beads and rich

-brocades carried to its farthest limits, who takes

-keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively

-little angels, and who gives the same pensive and

-almost mincing expression to his Madonnas.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bologna.</td>  <td class="td5">Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bartolommeo Vivarini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Madonna and four Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Ambrose and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Negroponte.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>JACOPO BELLINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the

-school of Squarcione, which in the next few

-years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,

-another influence was asserting itself, which was

-sufficient to counteract the hard formalism of

-Paduan methods.</p>

-

-<p>When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he

-carried with him, and presently established with

-him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini,

-who had already been working with him and

-Pisanello, and who was an ardent disciple of the

-new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both

-Gentile and his apprentice were subjected to annoyance

-from the time they arrived in Florence,

-where the strict regulations which governed the

-Guilds made it very difficult for any newcomer

-to practise his art. The records of a police case

-report that on the 11th of June 1423 some

-young men, among them, one, Bernabo di San

-Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed

-throwing stones into the painter&#8217;s room. His

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>assistant, Jacopo Bellini, came out and drove the

-assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing

-Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to

-prison in default of payment. After six months&#8217;

-imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a

-penitential declaration set him at liberty. The

-accounts declare that Gentile took no steps to

-be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon

-after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first

-son was christened after his old master, which

-does not look as though they were on unfriendly

-terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and

-was much esteemed by the Estes of Ferrara,

-but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has

-left us only three signed works, and one or two

-more have lately been attributed to him, but

-they give very little idea of what an important

-master he was.</p>

-

-<p><a name="agony" id="agony"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">

-<img src="images/img062.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Jacopo Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AGONY IN GARDEN&mdash;DRAWING.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>British Museum.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>His Madonna in the Academy has a round,

-simple type of face, and in the Louvre Madonna,

-which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to

-recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut,

-curved eyelids. In this picture, where the

-Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d&#8217; Este, we

-see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through

-him, on Venetian art. The connection between

-the two masters has been established in a very

-interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi&#8217;s

-discovery of a sonnet, written in 1441, which

-recounts how they painted rival portraits of

-Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>that he was adjudged the first place. The

-landscape in the Louvre picture is advanced in

-treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its

-stag and its town upon the hill-side, is full of

-reminiscences of Pisanello, especially of the &ldquo;St.

-George&rdquo; in S. Anastasia. We come upon such

-traces, too, in Jacopo&#8217;s drawings, and it is by

-his two sketch-books that we can best judge of

-his greatness. One of these is in the British

-Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered

-not many years ago in the granary of a

-castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo

-as one of the greatest masters of his day. He is

-larger, simpler, and more natural than Pisanello,

-and he apparently cares less for the human figure

-than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings.

-Many of his designs we shall refer to again when

-we come to speak of his two sons. His &ldquo;Supper

-of Herod&rdquo; reminds us of Masolino&#8217;s fresco at

-Castiglione d&#8217; Olona. He sketches designs for

-numbers of religious scenes, treated in an original

-and interesting manner. A &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; has

-bands of soldiers ranged on either side, an

-&ldquo;Adoration of the Magi&rdquo; has a string of camels

-coming down the hill, the executioners in a

-&ldquo;Scourging&rdquo; wear Eastern head-dresses. In a

-sketch for a &ldquo;Baptism of Christ&rdquo; tall angels

-hold the garments in the early traditional way;

-on one side two play the lute and the violin,

-while the two on the other side have a trumpet

-and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>Resurrection, Circumcision, and Entombment,

-repeated over and over again with variations,

-and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice

-(where he was in 1427). Jacopo delights even

-more in fanciful and mythological than in sacred

-subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun

-riding a lion, a &ldquo;Triumph of Bacchus&rdquo; with

-panthers, are among such essays. The fauns

-pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His

-love of animals is equal to that of Pisanello,

-and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix

-between its horns is directly reminiscent of the

-Veronese. His horses, of which there are

-immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied

-from ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of

-single nude figures is often poor and weak

-enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped,

-geological formation of the Paduan School, but

-no one who so drank in every description of

-lively scene about him could have been in any

-danger of becoming a mere archeological type,

-and it was from this pitfall that he rescued

-Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo

-did not overlook any source of art open to him;

-he delights in the rich research of the Paduans as

-much as in the varieties of wild nature and all

-the incidents of contemporary life first annexed

-by Pisanello. He is often very like Gentile da

-Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello&#8217;s domains

-of perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws

-a revel of satyrs and centaurs with a real interpretation

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>of the lyrical and pagan spirit of the

-Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul,

-which found its full expression in his son,

-Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the

-founder of the Venetian School, for its makings

-existed already, but it was his influence on

-his sons which, above all, was accountable for

-the development of early excellence. His long,

-flowing lines have a sweep and a fanciful grace

-which form an absolute antidote to the definite,

-geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we

-see the thorough assimilation of those foreign

-elements which were in sympathy with the

-Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now

-Venice had only imbibed influences, she was

-soon to create for herself an artistic <em>milieu</em>

-and to become the leader of the movement of

-painting in the north of Italy.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Jacopo Bellini.</em></p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Annunciation and Predelle.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ on Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Crucifixion.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">British Museum: Sketch-book.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Leonello d&#8217; Este: Sketch-book.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CARLO CRIVELLI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We must turn aside from the main stream when

-we come to speak of Carlo Crivelli, who,

-important master as he was, occupies a place

-by himself. A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps,

-as we have noted, of Antonio Negroponte,

-Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the

-Paduans, from whom he learned that metallic,

-finished quality of paint which he carried to

-perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality,

-even genius, in the way in which he grapples

-with his medium and produces his own reading,

-and the circumstances of his life were such as to

-throw him in upon himself and to preserve his

-originality. His little early &ldquo;Madonna and

-Child&rdquo; at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte

-by the elaborate festoons, strings of beads,

-and large-patterned brocades used in the surroundings,

-and has those ugly, foreshortened

-little <em>putti</em>, holding the instruments of the

-Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione

-and Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>state, we are accustomed to think of as

-Mantegnesque.</p>

-

-<p>When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he

-was condemned to six months&#8217; imprisonment and

-to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage on

-a neighbour&#8217;s wife. Perhaps it was to escape

-from an unenviable reputation that he left Venice

-soon after and set up painting in the Marches,

-where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then

-went on to Camerino in Umbria, where his great

-triptych, now in the Brera, was painted, and a

-few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission

-for an Annunciation in the Cathedral.

-This is the picture now in the National Gallery,

-in which the Bishop holds a model of the

-Duomo. After 1490 he worked in little towns

-in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.

-He does not seem ever to have come back to

-Venice.</p>

-

-<p>Shut up in the Marches, where there was

-little strong local talent, and where he could not

-keep up with the progress that was taking place

-in Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the

-artistic movement. He kept the Squarcionesque

-traditions to the end, but moulded them by his

-own love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover,

-he was of a very intense religious bias, and

-this finds a deeply touching and mystical expression,

-more especially in his Piet&agrave;s. The love

-of gilded patterns and fanciful detail was deep-seated

-in all the Umbrian country. His altarpieces

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>were intended as sumptuous additions to

-rich churches, and were consequently arranged,

-with many divisions, in the old Muranese manner.

-His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a

-marvel of elaborate ornament and enamel-like

-painting. The Madonna is delicate, almost

-affected in her refinement. Her long fingers

-hold the Child&#8217;s garment with the extreme of

-dainty precision, the croziers and rings of the

-saints and bishops are embossed with gold and

-real jewels. The flowers in the panel of &ldquo;The

-Immaculate Conception,&rdquo; which hangs beside it,

-are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and

-grotesques or cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty

-of strength, and his male saints have vigorous,

-bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however,

-in his colour that he charms us most, and

-though he does not touch the real fount, he

-is of all the earlier school the most remarkable

-for subtle tender tones and lovely harmonies of

-olive-greens and faded rose and cream embossed

-with gold.</p>

-

-<p>Crivelli continued executing one great ancona

-after another, limiting his progress to perfecting

-his technique, and his influence was most deeply

-felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San

-Severino and Niccola Alunno. The honours paid

-him testify to the reputation he acquired. He

-was created a knight and presented with a golden

-laurel wreath. But though he never, that we can

-hear of, revisited his native State, he always adds

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span><em>Venetus</em> to the signature on his paintings, a fact

-which tells us that far from Venice and in

-provincial districts, her prestige was felt and

-gave his work an enhanced commercial value.

-He had no after-influence upon the Venetian

-School, and in this respect is interesting as

-an example of the tenacity exercised by the

-Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by

-any counter-attraction, they came to act upon a

-very different temperament; for in his love of

-grace and beauty and of rich effects, and especially

-in his intensity of mystic feeling, Crivelli is a

-true Venetian and has no natural affinity with

-the classic spirit of the Paduans.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Jerome and Augustine.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ascoli.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Altarpiece and Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and six Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave;; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation; Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot, Jerome, and Andrew.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>What, then, is the position which art has

-achieved in Venice a decade after the middle of

-the fourteenth century, and how does she compare

-with the Florentine School? The Florentines,

-Fra Angelico, Andrea del Castagno, and

-Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo

-was in his prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four,

-Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But though the

-progress in the north had been slower, art both

-in Padua and Venice was now in vigorous progress.

-Bartolommeo Vivarini was still painting

-and gathering round him a numerous band of

-followers; Mantegna was thirty, had just completed

-the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and

-the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile

-and Giovanni Bellini were two and four years

-his seniors.</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Negro, writing in the early years

-of the sixteenth century, speaks of Gentile as the

-elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is thought

-to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo&#8217;s

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>widow only mentions Gentile and another son,

-Niccolo, in her will. There is every reason to

-believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were

-the pupils and assistants of their father. A

-&ldquo;Madonna&rdquo; in the Mond Collection, the

-earliest known of Gentile&#8217;s works, shows him

-imitating his father&#8217;s style; but when his sister,

-Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is not

-surprising to find him following Mantegna&#8217;s

-methods for a time, and a fresco of St. Mark

-in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission

-which he received in 1466, is taken

-direct from Mantegna&#8217;s fresco at Padua.</p>

-

-<p>As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the

-Squarcionesque tradition and evolved a style of

-their own; Gentile as much as his even more

-famous brother. Gentile is the first chronicler

-of the men and manners of his time. In 1460 he

-settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the

-organ doors in St. Mark&#8217;s. These large saints,

-especially the St. Mark, still recall the Paduan

-period. They have festoons of grapes and apples

-hung from the architectural ornaments, and the

-cast of drapery, showing the form beneath,

-reminds us of Mantegna&#8217;s figures. But Gentile

-soon becomes an illustrator and portrait painter.

-Much of his work was done in the Scuola of

-St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this

-was destroyed by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the

-fine austere portrait of Lorenzo Giustiniani, in

-the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Sultan Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested

-the Signoria to recommend a good painter and

-a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen,

-and departed in September for Constantinople.

-He painted many subjects for the private apartments

-of the Sultan, as well as the famous

-portrait now in the possession of Lady Layard.

-It would be difficult for a historic portrait to

-show more insight into character. The face is

-cold, weary, and sensual, with all the over-refined

-look of an old race and a long civilisation,

-and has a melancholy note in its distant

-and satiated gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile

-every mark of favour, loaded him with presents,

-and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He

-returned home in 1493, bringing with him

-many sketches of Eastern personages and the

-picture, now in the Louvre, representing the

-reception of a Venetian Embassy by the Grand

-Vizier. Some five years before Gentile&#8217;s commission

-to Constantinople Antonello da Messina

-had arrived in Venice, and the spread and

-popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the

-casting off of outworn ecclesiastical methods and

-brought the painters nearer to the truth of life.

-Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the

-notice of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo

-Vivarini was already using them in 1473, but

-he was well known by reputation before he

-arrived, and having probably come into contact

-with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>better opportunities of seizing upon the new

-technique, and was able to establish it both in

-Milan and in Venice. A large number of

-Venetians were at this time resident in Messina:

-the families of Lombardo, Gradenigo, Contarini,

-Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those

-who had members settled there. Many of these

-were patrons of art, and probably paved the way

-to Antonello&#8217;s reception in Venice. At first all

-the traits of Antonello&#8217;s early work are Flemish:

-the full mantles, white linen caps and tuckers, the

-straight sharp folds and long wings of the angels

-have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to

-Venice in 1475, its colour and life fascinate him,

-and a great change comes over his work. His

-portraits show that he grasped a new intensity

-of life, and let us into the character of the men

-he saw around him. His &ldquo;Condottiere,&rdquo; in the

-Louvre, declares the artist&#8217;s recognition of that

-truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic

-disdain, the product of a daring, unscrupulous

-life. The &ldquo;Portrait of a Humanist,&rdquo; in

-the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest

-sense; and in the Trivulzio College at Milan an

-older man looks at us out of sly, expressive eyes,

-with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical

-mouth. It was not wonderful that these

-portraits, combined with the new medium,

-worked upon Gentile&#8217;s imagination and determined

-his bent.</p>

-

-<p>The first examples of great canvases, illustrating

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>and celebrating their own pageants, must

-have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes in

-the style of the reception of the Venetian

-ambassadors were called for on all hands, and

-when the excellence of Gentile&#8217;s portraits was

-recognised, he became the model for all Venice.

-When his own and his father&#8217;s and brother&#8217;s

-paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered

-to replace them &ldquo;quicker than was humanly

-possible&rdquo; and at a very low price. Giovanni,

-who had been engaged on the external decorations,

-was ill at the time, but the Signoria was

-so pleased with the offer that it was decided to

-let no one touch the work till the two brothers

-were able to finish it. Gentile still painted

-religious altarpieces with the Virgin and Child

-enthroned with saints, but most of his time was

-devoted to the production of his great canvases.

-Some of these have disappeared, but the &ldquo;Procession&rdquo;

-and &ldquo;Miracle of the Cross,&rdquo; commissioned

-by the school of S. Giovanni Evangelista,

-are now in the Academy, and the third canvas,

-executed for the same school, &ldquo;St. Mark preaching

-at Alexandria,&rdquo; which was unfinished at the

-time of his death, and was completed by his

-brother, is in the Brera.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img075.jpg" width="550" height="267" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Gentile Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>These great compositions of crowds bring

-back for us the Venice of Gentile&#8217;s day as no

-verbal description can do. There is no especial

-richness of colour; the light is that of broad day

-in the Piazza and among the luminous waterways

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>of the city. We can see the scene any day

-now in the wide square, making allowance for

-the difference of costume. The groups are set

-about in the ample space, with the wonderful

-cathedral as a background. St. Mark&#8217;s has been

-painted hundreds of times, but no one has ever

-given such a good idea of it as Gentile&mdash;of its

-stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and

-he does so without detracting from the general

-effect, for St. Mark&#8217;s, though the keynote of the

-whole composition, is kept subservient, and is

-part of the stage on which the scene is enacted.

-The procession passes along, carrying the relics,

-attended by the waxlights and the banners.

-Behind the reliquary kneels the merchant,

-Jacopo Sal&ograve;, petitioning for the recovery of his

-wounded son. Then come the musicians; the

-spectators crowd round, they strain forward to

-see the chief part of the cort&egrave;ge, as a crowd

-naturally does. Some watch with reverence,

-others smile or have a negligent air. The faces

-of the candle-bearers are very like those we

-may see to-day in a great Church procession:

-some absorbed in their task, or uplifted by inner

-thoughts; others looking curiously and sceptically

-at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds

-to bring together all the types of life in Venice,

-all the officials and the ecclesiastical world, the

-young and old. With a few strokes he creates

-the individual and also the type;&mdash;the careless

-rover; the responsible magistrate; the shrewd,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>practical man of business; the young men, full

-of their own plans, but pausing to look on at

-one of the great religious sights of their city.

-In the &ldquo;Finding of the Cross&rdquo; he produces the

-effect of the whole city <em>en f&ecirc;te</em>. It was a sight

-which often met his eyes. The Doge made no

-fewer than thirty-six processions annually to

-various churches of the city, and on fourteen of

-these occasions he was accompanied by the whole

-of the nobles dressed in their State robes. Every

-event of importance was seized on by the Venetian

-ladies as an opportunity for arraying themselves

-in the richest attire, cloth of gold and velvet,

-plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies

-of Queen Catherine Cornaro&#8217;s Court around their

-Queen upon the left side of the canal. The

-light from above streams upon the keeper of the

-School, who holds the sacred relic on high. All

-round are the old, irregular Venetian houses, and

-in the crowd he paints the variety of men he

-saw around him every day in Venice. Yet even

-in this animated scene he retains his old quattrocento

-calm. The groups are decorously assisting:

-only here and there he is drawn off to some

-small detail of reality, such as an oarsman

-dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting

-the negro servant pass out to take a header into

-the canal. The spectators look on coolly at one

-more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The

-committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of

-unforgettable portraits, grave, benign, sour, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In this

-composition he triumphs over all difficulties of

-perspective; our eye follows the canals, and the

-boats pass away under the bridge in atmospheric

-light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of

-light on broad brick surfaces, light which is

-cast up from the water and dances and shimmers

-on the marble fa&ccedil;ades.</p>

-

-<p>Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as

-others in 1505 and 1506. He left word that he

-was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and

-begged his brother Giovanni to finish the work

-in the Scuola, in return for which he is to receive

-their father&#8217;s sketch-book. The unfinished piece

-is the &ldquo;St. Mark preaching at Alexandria,&rdquo; and

-it shows Gentile still developing his capacity as a

-painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant in sunlight.

-The mass of white given by the head-dresses

-of the Turkish women is cleverly subdued

-so as not to detract from the effect of the sunlight.

-The thronged effect of the great square is studied

-with more than his usual care, and the faces have

-all the old individuality. The foremost figures in

-the crowd have a colour and richness which we

-may attribute to Giovanni&#8217;s hand.</p>

-

-<p>Gentile was always fully employed, and the

-detailed paintings of functions became very

-popular; but he was a far less modern painter

-than his brother, and, in fact, they represent

-two distinct artistic generations, though Gentile&#8217;s

-work was so much the most elaborate and, as

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the quattrocento would have thought, the most

-ambitious.</p>

-

-<p>Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet

-his is a grave, sincere art, and he has an unerring

-instinct for the right incidents to include. He

-cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are

-stern, powerful men, the treatment is historic

-and contemporary, but not gossipy. We realise

-the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide

-of human nature, but we also feel that he never

-forgot that he was chronicling the doings of a

-city of strong men, and that he must paint them,

-even in their hours of relaxation and emotion, so

-as to convey the real dignity and power which

-underlay all the events of the Republic.</p>

-

-<p>We gather from his will and that of his wife

-that they had no children, which perhaps makes

-the more natural the affectionate terms upon

-which he remained all through his life with

-his brother. Their artistic sympathies must

-have differed widely. Gentile&#8217;s love for historical

-research, for costume and for pageants, found

-no echo in the deeper idealism of Giovanni&mdash;indeed,

-his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an

-inducement to the latter to finish his last great

-work, seems to hint that it was an exercise out

-of his brother&#8217;s line; but he knew that Giovanni

-was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we

-might have expected, to his assistants, Giovanni

-Mansueti and Girolamo da Santacroce.</p>

-

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Gentile Bellini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of True Cross; Healing by True Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonello da Messina.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Antwerp.</td>  <td class="td5">Crucifixion, 1475.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Three Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Messina.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints, 1473.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Condottiere.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Humanist.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Ecce Homo.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at the Column.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>ALVISE VIVARINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were

-artists still firmly attached to the past, who were

-far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.</p>

-

-<p>One of Antonio de Murano&#8217;s sons, Luigi or

-Alvise Vivarini, grew up to follow his father&#8217;s

-profession, and was enrolled in the school of his

-uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic

-follower of Squarcione, Alvise was at

-first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo Bellini&#8217;s

-efforts had done something to counteract the

-hard, statuesque Paduan manner, and had rendered

-Mantegna&#8217;s art more human and less stony,

-but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque

-painters from importing into Venice the style

-which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo threw

-in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially

-when reinforced by Alvise, maintained

-its reputation as long as it only had to compete

-with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been

-firmly established in Venice for two generations,

-and were the best-known and most popular of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>her painters. Albert D&uuml;rer, on his first visit,

-admired them more than the Bellini. When,

-however, Gentile and his brother set up in

-Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and

-the old Muranese School. The Bellini had come

-with their father from Padua, with all its new

-and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige

-of relationship with Mantegna, and they shared

-the patronage of his powerful employers. The

-striking historical compositions of Gentile were

-at once in demand by the great confraternities.

-Bartolommeo had never been very successful in

-his dealing with oil-painting, though he had

-dabbled in it for some years before Antonello da

-Messina came his way, but the perception with

-which the Bellini at once grasped the new

-technique gave them the victory. We have

-only to compare the formless contours of much

-of Bartolommeo Vivarini&#8217;s work, the bladder-like

-flesh-painting of the Holy Child, with the

-clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of

-Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead

-of the other.</p>

-

-<p>Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity

-with his father than with his uncle. He

-never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as

-Bartolommeo. The expression of his faces is

-much deeper and more inward, and he has something

-of the devotional sweetness of early art.

-His first known work is an ancona of 1475 at

-Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan monastery

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of

-the five panels the Madonna sits with her hands

-pressed palm to palm, in adoration of the Child

-asleep across her knees. The painter here follows

-the tradition of his father and uncle, especially

-in the Bologna altarpiece, in which they

-collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on

-either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in

-the old way, and it is only by degrees that we

-see there is more sweetness in the expression,

-better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer,

-more graceful outline than the earlier ancon&aelig;

-can show. Only five years after this ancona at

-Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated

-saints, we have the altarpiece in the Academy

-&ldquo;of 1480,&rdquo; which was painted for a church in

-Treviso, and here a great change is immediately

-apparent. The antiquated division into panels

-has disappeared, nothing is left of the artificial,

-Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are

-simple, and the scene is a united one. The

-Madonna&#8217;s outstretched hand, the suggestion of

-&ldquo;Ecce Agnus Dei,&rdquo; makes an appeal which

-draws the attention of all the saints to one point,

-and it is made plain that the one idea pervades

-the entire assembly. The curtain, which

-symbolises the sanctuary, still hangs behind the

-throne, but the gold background is abandoned.

-Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape

-or constructed an interior, but he lightens

-the effect by two arched windows which let in the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>sky. The forms are characteristic of his idea of

-drawing the human figure; they have the long

-thighs with the knees low down, which we

-are accustomed to find, and he constructs a

-very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light

-and shade. There is no trace of the statuesque

-Paduan draperies. The Virgin&#8217;s brocaded

-mantle is simply draped, and the robes of the

-saints hang in long straight folds. No doubt

-Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini,

-has more affinity with them, particularly with

-Giovanni, than with the Paduan artists, and as

-time goes on it is evident that he paints with

-many glances at what they were doing. In the

-altarpiece in Berlin he constructs an elaborate

-cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was

-already using. His saints are full of movement.

-In the end he begins to attitudinise and to display

-those artificial graces which were presently

-accentuated by Lotto.</p>

-

-<p><a name="altar" id="altar"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img085.jpg" width="550" height="490" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Alvise Vivarini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ALTARPIECE OF 1480.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time

-been employed in the Sala del Gran Consiglio

-by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy

-school, had hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be

-invited to enter into competition with them.

-At length he wrote the following letter:&mdash;</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">To the Most Serene the Prince and the Most

-Excellent Signoria</span>&mdash;I am Alvise of Murano, a

-faithful servant of your Serenity and of this most

-illustrious State. I have long been anxious to exercise

-my skill before your Sublimity and prove that continued

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>study and labour on my part have not been useless.

-Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and

-praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without

-return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing

-a canvas in the

-<ins class="translit" title="Possibly should be Sala del Gran Consiglio">Sala del Gran Consiio</ins>,

-according to the

-method at present in use by the two brothers Bellinii,

-and I ask no more for the said canvas than that I should

-be allowed the expenses of the cloth and colours as well

-as the wages of the journeymen, in the manner that has

-been granted to the said Bellinii. When I have done I

-shall leave to your Serenity of his goodness to give me in

-his wisdom the price which shall be adjudged to be just,

-honest, and appropriate, in return for the labour, which

-I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the universal

-satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the excellent

-Government, to the grace of which I most heartily

-commend myself.</p></div>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;method at present in use&rdquo; was presumably

-the oil-painting established by Antonello,

-which was now being made use of to replace

-the decorations in fresco and tempera which

-Guariento, Pisanello, and Gentile da Fabriano

-had executed, and which were constantly decaying

-and suffering from the sea air and the dampness

-of the climate. The Council accepted

-Alvise&#8217;s offer with little delay, and he was told to

-paint a picture for a space hitherto occupied by

-one of Pisanello&#8217;s, and was given a salary of sixty

-ducats a year, something less than that drawn

-by Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work,

-scenes from the history of Barbarossa, perished

-in the great fire of 1577.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>Venice is rich in works which show us what

-sort of painter was at the head of the Muranese

-School at the time when it rivalled that of the

-Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either

-side of the altarpiece of 1480, and of these the

-Baptist is one of his best figures, &ldquo;admirably

-expressive of tension and of brooding thought.&rdquo;

-It is large and free in stroke, and particularly

-advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close

-by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type

-of a strenuous, fanatical old woman, one which

-belongs not only to the period, but will be

-recognised by every student of human nature.

-Formidable and even cruel is her unflinching

-gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood

-for Scott&#8217;s Prioress, and looks as little likely to

-show mercy to an erring member of her order.

-In contrast, there is the exquisite little &ldquo;Madonna

-and Child&rdquo; with the two baby angels, still

-shown as a Bellini in the sacristy of the

-Church of the Redentore. It is the most

-absolutely simple and direct picture of the kind

-painted in Venice. The baby life is more perfect

-than anything that Gian. Bellini produced,

-and if much less intellectual than his Madonnas,

-there is all the tender charm of the primitives,

-combined with a freedom of drapery and a

-softness of form which could not be surpassed.

-The two little angels are more mundane in

-spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they

-have nothing of the mystical quality, though

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>we are reminded of Bellini, and the painting

-is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy

-of San Giobbe is an early Annunciation, which

-is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It has the

-old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its

-draperies are of a lovely tint. The priests of

-S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons of

-the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides

-several works by Bartolommeo and his assistants,

-is a little Madonna in a side chapel, which may

-be compared with the Redentore picture. The

-Mother sits inside a room, with the Child lying

-across her knees in the same pose. The two

-arched openings in the background of the 1480

-altarpiece have become windows, through which

-we look out on a charming landscape of lake and

-mountain. In the same church a &ldquo;Resurrection&rdquo;

-is not to be overlooked. It was executed in

-1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the

-sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the

-pink flush of dawn stands the swaying figure of

-the risen Christ, and below appear the heads of

-the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful.

-It is perhaps the very earliest example of that

-soft and sensuous feeling, that rhapsody of

-sensation which was presently to sweep like a

-flood over the art of Venice. &ldquo;What a time

-must the dawn of the sixteenth century have been

-when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous

-and advanced of his age, had the freshness and

-youthful courage to greet it; nay, actually to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in

-the &lsquo;Resurrection&rsquo;! Giorgione is here anticipated

-in the roundness and softness of the figures,

-and in the effect of light. Titian&#8217;s Assunta is

-foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards&#8217;

-expressions.&rdquo; Alvise, if he never thoroughly

-mastered the structure of the nude, and if his

-forms keep throughout some touch of the

-archaic, some awkwardness in the thickness

-of the figures, with their round heads, long

-thighs, and uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily

-refined and tender in sentiment, his

-line has a natural flow and beauty, and the

-heads of his Madonnas and saints cannot be

-surpassed in loveliness.</p>

-

-<p>His death came when the noble altarpiece to

-St. Ambrogio in the Frari was still unfinished,

-and it was completed by his assistant, Marco

-Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably

-of Basaiti, but the venerable doctor is a grand

-figure, and the two young soldier saints on his

-right and left hand are striking examples of

-the beauty we claim for him. The architectural

-plan is very elaborate, but altogether successful.

-The group is set beneath an arched vault

-supported by columns and cornices. Overhead,

-behind a balustrade, is placed a coronation of

-the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so

-as not to interfere with each other, and the

-sword of St. George, the crozier of St. Gregory,

-and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>composition and give length and line. The

-faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,

-and the two angels making music below

-compare well with those of the Bellinesque

-School.</p>

-

-<p>The portraits Alvise has left add to his

-reputation, and remind us of those of Antonello

-da Messina, particularly in the vital expression

-of the eyes, though they are without Antonello&#8217;s

-intense force. The &ldquo;Bernardo di Salla&rdquo; and the

-&ldquo;Man feeding a Hawk,&rdquo; though some critics

-still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which

-make their attribution to Alvise almost certainly

-correct. Indeed, the resemblance of

-Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece

-cannot escape the most unscientific observer.

-There is the same inflated nostril, the peculiarly

-curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.</p>

-

-<p>Among the followers of Alvise, Marco

-Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and Lorenzo

-Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less

-direct are Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco

-Bonsignori, while Cima da Conegliano was for

-a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return

-to these later.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Youth.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints, 1480.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection and Predelle.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Windsor.</td>  <td class="td5">Man feeding a Hawk.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CARPACCIO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini&#8217;s most

-faithful pupil. He and his master stand apart

-in having, before the arrival of the Venetian

-School proper, captured an aspect and a charm

-inspired by the natural beauty of the City of

-the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her

-historic appearance, and Carpaccio gives us

-something of the delight we feel to-day in her

-translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed

-spaces flooded with limpid light. While

-others were absorbed in assimilating extraneous

-influences, he goes on his own way, painting,

-indeed, the scenes that were asked for, but

-painting them in his own manner and with his

-own enjoyment.</p>

-

-<p>Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the

-Venetian State from very early days. The

-first use of painting had been that made by the

-Church to glorify religion, and very soon the

-State had followed, using it to enhance the love

-which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>home to them the consciousness of its greatness

-and glory. Pageants and processions were an

-integral part of Venetian life. The people

-looked on at them, often as they occurred, with

-more pride and sense of proprietorship than a

-Londoner does at a coronation procession or at

-the King going in state to open Parliament. The

-Venetian loved splendour and beauty and the

-story of the city&#8217;s great achievements, and

-nothing provided so welcome a subject for the

-decoration of the great public halls as portrayals

-of the events which had made Venice famous.

-Artists had been employed to produce these as

-early as the end of the fourteenth century, and

-those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which

-perished in the great fire) were a rendering on

-modern lines of the same subjects, satisfying the

-more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.</p>

-

-<p>Besides the Church and the public Government,

-we have already seen the &ldquo;Schools,&rdquo; as

-they were called, becoming important employers.

-These schools were the great organised confraternities

-in the cause of charity and mutual

-help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth

-century. That of St. Mark was naturally the

-foremost, but others were banded each under

-their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of

-rich patrons, for it was the fashion to belong

-to the confraternities. Riches and endowments

-rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting

-business were built, and were adorned

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>with pictures setting forth the legends of their

-patron saints. We have already seen Gentile

-Bellini employed in the schools of San Marco

-and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.

-Ursula and St. George gave commissions to

-Carpaccio, or perhaps it would be more correct

-to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent

-in this art, provided employment for his pupil

-and assistant, and that by degrees Carpaccio

-became a <em>maestro</em> on his own account.</p>

-

-<p>A host of second-rate painters were plying

-side by side, disciples first of one master, then

-drawn off to become followers of a second;

-assimilating the influence first of one workshop

-and then of another. Carpaccio has been lately

-identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who

-had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution

-to this painter of the &ldquo;Doge before the

-Madonna,&rdquo; in the National Gallery, gives some

-countenance to the contention that he was held

-to be of great excellence in his time.</p>

-

-<p>Though some historians advance the suggestion

-that Carpaccio was a native of Capo

-d&#8217;Istria, there is little proof that he was not,

-like his father Pietro, born a Venetian. He

-seems to have worked in Venice all his life,

-his first work being dated 1490 and his last

-1520. In 1527 his wife, Laura, declared herself

-a widow.</p>

-

-<p>The narrative art needed by the confraternities

-was supplied in perfection by Carpaccio,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>and one of his earliest independent commissions

-was the important one of decorating the School

-of St. Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a

-monopoly of the school. No one else had

-a right to collect offerings in her name or to

-put up an image to her. The legend afforded

-an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic

-scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage,

-and the cycle is one of the freshest and most

-characteristic things that has come down to us

-from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous.

-The mediocre masters who have

-educated the painter have made little impression

-on him. He is entirely occupied in delight in

-his subject and in telling his story. The story

-of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the

-daughter of the King of Brittany. The King

-of England sends his ambassadors to beg her

-hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the

-proposal with her father, and makes the conditions

-that Hereo, who is a heathen, shall be

-baptized, and that the betrothed couple must

-before marriage visit the Pope and the sacred

-shrines. After taking leave of their parents, the

-Prince and Princess depart on their expedition,

-but Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in

-which an angel has announced her martyrdom.

-She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000

-virgins, and they are received by Pope Cyriacus

-in Rome. The Pope then makes the return

-journey with them as far as Cologne, where,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>

-however, they are assaulted and massacred by

-the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a

-splendid funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen

-scenes in which the story is told are arranged

-on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed

-them in the chronological order, some

-of the latest events being the least complete in

-artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns

-the following dates to the list:</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p>1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet

-those of the King of Brittany to ask for the hand of

-Ursula. Probably painted from 1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal

-with her father. 1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors.

-1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>4. The ambassadors return to the King of England.

-1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.</p>

-

-<p>6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their

-respective parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.</p>

-

-<p>9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins

-meet the Pope. 1492.</p>

-

-<p>10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.</p>

-

-<p>11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral.

-1495.</p>

-

-<p>13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of

-martyrdom, venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received

-in heaven by the Eternal Father. 1491.</p></div>

-

-<p>No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might

-naturally have been chosen for a first experiment.

-The heads are large with coarse features, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>the proportions of the figures are poor. The

-face of the saint in glory (No. 13), plump and

-without much expression, is of the type of

-Bastiani&#8217;s saints. It may be assumed that such

-a great scheme of decoration would not have

-been entrusted to any one who was not already

-well known as an independent master, but

-perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about

-thirty when the work was begun, was still principally

-engrossed with the conventional, ecclesiastical

-subject. The heads of the virgins pressing

-round the saint appear to be portraits, and were

-very possibly those of the wives and daughters

-of members of the confraternity.</p>

-

-<p>The improvement that takes place is so rapid

-that we can guess how congenial the painter

-found the task and how quickly he adapted his

-already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes

-delight in the opportunity for painting a little

-domestic scene,&mdash;the bedroom of a young

-Venetian girl, perhaps a sister of his own.

-The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,

-are carefully drawn. The clear morning light

-streams into the room. The saint lies peacefully

-asleep, her hand under her head, her long

-eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is

-an idyll, full of insight into girlish life. The

-tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details

-that caught his eye. The crown lying on the

-ledge of the bed is an arbitrary introduction,

-as na&iuml;f as the angel. In the funeral scene the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>luminous light is diffused over all, the young

-saint lies upon her bier and is followed by priest

-and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth

-to nature, the draperies and garments are brought

-into harmony with the sky and background, and

-in all those that follow we find this quality of

-light. The landscape behind the massacre has

-gained in natural character, the city is at some

-distance, houses and churches are half buried in

-woods; the setting is much more natural than are

-the quaint and elegant pages who occupy it, and

-who are drawing their crossbows and attacking

-the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The

-panel in which the betrothed couple meet shows

-a great advance, and this and the succeeding ones

-of the ambassadors, which were painted between

-1495 and 1498, must have crowned Carpaccio&#8217;s

-reputation. He paints Venice in its most fascinating

-aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles,

-its sky and sea, its palaces and ships, the rich

-and picturesque dresses men wore in the streets,

-the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces

-a fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with

-the work of Pintoricchio. His Prince, kneeling

-in a white and gold dress, with long fair

-curls, is a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red

-dress and puffed sleeves, her rippling, flaxen hair

-and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.

-Carpaccio&#8217;s art is simple and garrulous in feeling,

-his conception is as unpassionate as the fancies

-of a child, but he has a true love for these gay

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way&mdash;her

-solid, worthy citizens, men of substance,

-shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure

-seriously with a sense of responsibility. They

-throng the streets and cross over the bridges,

-every figure is full of freedom and vitality.

-The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors

-are the best of all the scenes. In the middle

-of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits

-upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to

-the left is gathered a group of Venetian personages,

-members of the Loredano family, which

-was a special patron of St. Ursula&#8217;s Guild, and

-gave this panel. The types are all vividly

-realised and differentiated: the courtier looking

-critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious

-bourgeoisie; the man of fashion passing with

-his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too

-closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf

-keeper. Far beyond stretch the lagoons; the

-sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What

-is noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the

-absence of women, was then most true to life, for

-except on special occasions they were not seen

-in the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental

-seclusion. The dismissal of the ambassadors

-affords the opportunity for drawing an interior

-with the street visible through a doorway. A

-group at the side, of a man dictating a letter

-and the scribe taking down his words, writing

-laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>head on one side, is excellent in its quiet reality.

-The same life-like vivacity is displayed in Ursula&#8217;s

-consultation with her father. The old nurse

-crouched upon the steps is introduced to break

-the line and to throw back the main group.

-Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the

-funeral scene, and Titian himself adopts his

-suggestion.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img102.jpg" width="550" height="263" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Carpaccio.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a

-charming one. His treatment of light and

-water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense

-of peace and poetry, and though he is influenced

-by Gentile&#8217;s splendid realistic heads, the

-type which appeals to him is gentler and more

-idealised. His fancy is caught by Oriental

-details, to which Gentile would naturally have

-directed his attention, and of which there was

-no lack in Venice at this time. All his episodes

-are very clearly illustrated, and his popular brush

-was kept busily employed. He took a share with

-other assistants in the series which Gentile was

-painting in S. Giovanni Evangelista. In 1502

-the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to

-decorate their school, which had been founded

-fifty years earlier, for the relief of destitute

-Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects

-were to be selected from the lives of the Saviour

-and the patron saints of Dalmatia and Albania,

-St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.

-Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece

-which Carpaccio delivered between 1502 and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of

-the school. His &ldquo;Jerome in his Study&rdquo; has

-nothing ascetic, but shows a prosperous Venetian

-ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library

-among his books and writings. He is less

-successful in his scenes from the life of Christ;

-the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of

-Mantegna; but when he leaves his own style he

-is weak and poor, and imaginary scenes are quite

-beyond him. In the death and interment of St.

-Jerome he gives a delightful impression of the

-peace of the old convent garden, and in the scene

-where the lion introduced by the saint scatters

-the terrified monks he lets a sense of humour

-have free play. The monks in their long

-garments, escaping in all directions, are really

-comical, and in conjunction with the ingratiating

-smile of the lion, the scene passes into the region

-of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the

-comic in the scene in St. Ursula&#8217;s history, where

-the 11,000 virgins are hurrying in single file

-along a winding road which disappears out of

-the picture. In the principal scene in the life

-of St. George, Carpaccio again achieves a masterpiece.

-The force and vivacity of the saint in

-armour charging the dragon, lingers long in the

-memory. The long, decorative lines of lance

-and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole

-landscape. The details show an almost childish

-delight in the realisation of ghoulish horrors.

-He rather injures his &ldquo;Triumph of St. George&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>by his anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon

-at Jerusalem; the flying flags distract the eye,

-and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken

-up into different parts, while the dragon is

-reduced to very unterrifying insignificance. His

-series for the school of the Albanians dealt with

-the life of the Virgin, who was their special

-patron. Its remains are at Bergamo, Milan, and

-in the Academy. The single figures in the

-&ldquo;Presentation,&rdquo; the priest and maiden, are

-excellent. A child at the side of the steps,

-leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows

-once more what a hold this use of a figure had

-taken of him. In the &ldquo;Visitation&rdquo; the figures

-are too much scattered, and the fantastic buildings

-attract more attention than the women. He

-still produced altarpieces, and the Presentation

-of the Infant Christ in the Temple, which he

-was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where

-one of Bellini&#8217;s most famous altarpieces stood,

-challenged him to put forth all his strength. He

-never produced anything more simple and noble

-or more worthy of the cinque-cento than this

-altarpiece (now in the Academy). It surpasses

-Bellini&#8217;s arrangement in the way in which the

-personages are raised upon a step, while the dome

-overhead and the angel musicians below give

-them height and dignity. The contrast between

-the infant and the youthful woman and the

-old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast

-between youth and age is a very favourite one.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>Bellini, in the same church, draws it between

-SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in his

-last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian

-with St. Jerome. This is the most grandiose,

-the least of a <em>genre</em> picture of all Carpaccio&#8217;s

-creations, although he does make Simeon into a

-pontiff with attendant cardinals bearing his train.

-One of his last works is the S. Vitale over the

-high altar of the church of that name, where

-we forgive the wooden appearance of the horse

-which the saint rides for the sake of the simple

-dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by

-the balcony overhead. Nor must we forget that

-study of the &ldquo;Two Courtesans&rdquo; in the Museo

-Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism.

-It conveys to us the matter-of-fact monotony of

-the long, hot days, and the women and the animals

-with which they are beguiling their idle hours

-are painted with the greatest intelligence. It

-carries us back to another phase of life in

-Carpaccio&#8217;s Venice, seen through his observant,

-humorous eyes, and if there is nothing in his

-colour distinctive of the impending Venetian

-richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant

-limpidity; it seems drawn straight from the

-transparent canals and radiant lagoons.</p>

-

-<p>We apprehend the difference at once in

-Bastiani and in Mansueti, who essay the same

-sort of compositions. They studied grouping

-carefully, and it must have seemed easy enough

-to paint their careful architecture and to place

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>citizens in costume with appropriate action in a

-&ldquo;Miracle of the Cross,&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Preaching of St.

-Mark&rdquo;; but these pictures are dry and crowded,

-they give no illusion of truth, there is none of

-the careless realism of Carpaccio&#8217;s crowds,&mdash;of

-incidents taking place which are not essential to

-the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but

-which have their share in producing a full and

-varied illusion. The scenes want the air and

-depth in which Carpaccio&#8217;s pictures are enveloped.

-We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into

-the outer air and refreshed by these heavy personages,

-standing in rows, painted in hot, dry

-colour, and carrying no conviction in their

-glance and action.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ferrara.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen disputing.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Stephen preaching.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Stuttgart.</td>  <td class="td5">Martyrdom of St. Stephen.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins; Presentation in the Temple.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and

-              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of

-              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave of her Father.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ adored by Angels.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIOVANNI BELLINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The difference between Gian. Bellini and his

-accomplished brother, that which makes us so

-conscious that the first was the greater of the

-two and which sets him in a later artistic generation

-than Gentile, is a difference of mind. Such

-pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni was

-engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may

-suspect that their composition was not particularly

-congenial to him, and that the strictly

-religious pictures and the small allegorical

-studies, by which we must judge him, were

-more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal

-feeling which adds so strongly to his claim to be

-a great artist; it was this which drew all men

-to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence

-the art of his day in Venice.</p>

-

-<p>Jacopo&#8217;s wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves

-everything to her two sons, Gentile and Niccolo.

-Giovanni was evidently not her son, but Vasari

-speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it

-is very possible that he was an illegitimate child,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>brought up, after the fashion that so often

-obtained, in the full privileges of his father&#8217;s

-house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini

-was living in Venice in 1437, first near the

-Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio.

-He was a member of S. Giovanni Evangelista,

-and probably one of the leading artists of the

-city. His two sons helped him in his great

-decorative works, and also went with him to

-Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata Chapel.

-Their relative position is suggested by a document

-of 1457, which records that the father

-received twenty-one ducats for &ldquo;three figures,

-done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the

-Patriarch,&rdquo; only two of which were to go to

-the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini&#8217;s signature first

-appears on a document, and at about this time

-we may suppose that he and his brother began to

-execute small commissions on their own account.

-On these visits to Padua the intimacy must

-have sprung up, which led to Mantegna&#8217;s

-marriage in 1453 with Jacopo&#8217;s daughter. At

-Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna,

-drank in the inspiration left there by Donatello,

-the greatest master that either of

-them encountered. It was the humanistic and

-naturalistic side of Donatello which touched

-Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore.

-It chimed in, too, with his father&#8217;s graceful and

-fanciful quality, and there is no doubt that the

-Venetian painters soon exercised a marked influence

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>on Mantegna. They &ldquo;fought for him with

-Squarcione,&rdquo; and even in the Eremitani frescoes

-he begins to lose his purely statuesque type and

-to become frankly Renaissance. In the later

-scenes of the series a pergola with grapes, a

-Venetian campanile and doorway replace his

-classic towers and arches of triumph. In the

-&ldquo;Martyrdom of St. James&rdquo; the couple walking by

-and paying no attention whatever to the tragic

-event, are very like the people whom Gentile

-introduces in his backgrounds.</p>

-

-<p>There are few documents more interesting

-in the history of art than the two pictures of

-the &ldquo;Agony in the Garden,&rdquo; executed by the

-brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by

-Jacopo in the British Museum sketch-book.

-Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling

-before the vision of the Chalice, the figures

-wrapt in slumber, and the distant town. In few

-pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived

-in such sympathy with the figures. As

-we look at this sketch and examine the two

-finished compositions, which it is so fortunate

-to find in juxtaposition in the National Gallery,

-we surmise that the two artists agreed to

-carry out the same idea and each to give his

-version of Jacopo&#8217;s suggestion, and very curious

-it is to see the rendering each has produced.</p>

-

-<p>Mantegna has made use of the most formal

-and Squarcionesque contours in his surroundings.

-The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate

-perspective, and a band of classic figures fills the

-middle distance. The sleeping forms of the

-disciples are laid about like so many draped

-statues taken from their pedestals. The choir

-of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the

-imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully

-conceived Christ, the whole composition would

-leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,

-we can never look at Bellini&#8217;s version without

-a fresh thrill. He, like Mantegna, has followed

-Jacopo&#8217;s scheme of winding roads and the city

-&ldquo;set on a hill,&rdquo; and has drawn the advancing

-band of soldiers; but, independent of all details,

-he gives us the vision of a poet. The still dawn

-is breaking over the broadly painted landscape,

-the rosy shafts of light are colouring the sky

-and casting their magic over every common

-object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred

-Figure kneels, wrapt into the Heavenly Vision,

-which is hardly more definite than a stronger

-beam of light upon the radiance. One of the

-disciples, at least, is a successful and natural

-study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen

-back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep.

-Bellini is less assured, less accomplished than

-Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the

-pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.</p>

-

-<p>Even earlier than this picture, critics place

-the &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; and &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo; of the

-Museo Correr and our own &ldquo;Salvator Mundi.&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>In 1443, when Giovanni was a young man of

-four or five and twenty, San Bernardino had

-held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of

-Venice had thronged to hear him. It is very

-possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests in his <em>Life

-of Bellini</em>, that Giovanni&#8217;s emotional temperament

-had been worked upon by the preacher&#8217;s

-eloquence, and the very poignant feelings of

-love and pity which his early art expresses were

-the deliberate consequence of his sympathy with

-the deep religious mysteries expounded.</p>

-

-<p>In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is

-still going with the Paduan current. In both we

-have the winding roads so characteristic of his

-father, but the rocks in the &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo;

-have the jointed, arbitrary character of Mantegna&#8217;s

-and the draperies are plastered to the forms

-beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and

-a dignity which no reproduction seems able to

-convey. The feeling is already more imposing

-than the execution. Christ and the two prophets

-tower up against the belt of clouds, the central

-figure conveying a sense of pathetic isolation;

-while below, St. John&#8217;s attitude betrays a state of

-tension, the feet being drawn up and contorted.

-This picture prepares us for the overwhelming

-emotion we find in the &ldquo;Redeemer&rdquo; and the

-group of Piet&agrave;s. The treatment of the Christ

-was a development of the early <em>motif</em> of angels

-flying forward on either side of the Cross, but

-here the sacred blood pouring into the chalice

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>is also sacramental and connected with the intensified

-religious fervour which had led to the

-foundation of the Franciscan and Dominican

-orders, illustrations of which are met with in

-the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century

-books of devotion. The accessories, the

-antique reliefs, the low wall, the distant buildings,

-have an allegorical meaning underlying each one,

-and common to trecento and, in a less degree, to

-quattrocento art. Paradise regained is signified

-by the paved court with the open door, in contradistinction

-to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed

-court; the type of the old covenant. In one of

-the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his hand

-into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness

-to suffer. The other represents a pagan sacrifice,

-foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the Cross.

-Figures in the background are leaving a ruined

-temple and making their way towards the new

-Christian city, fortified and crowned with a

-church tower, and in the midst of all this

-symbolism, Christ and the attendant angel are

-placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.</p>

-

-<p>During the next few years, Bellini devoted

-himself to two subjects of the highest devotional

-order. These are the Madonna and Child, the

-great exercise in every age for painters, and the

-Piet&agrave;, which he has made peculiarly his own.</p>

-

-<p><a name="pieta" id="pieta"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img116.jpg" width="550" height="428" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giovanni Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PIET&Agrave;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Brera, Milan.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Brogi.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering

-of the last subject, so full of passionate sorrow

-that it is hardly possible that it should not, if only

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>half consciously, have stimulated the artistic

-sensibilities of the most sensitive of painters; but

-Bellini&#8217;s pathos shrinks from all exaggeration.

-He conceives grief with the tenderest insight.

-His interest in the subject was so intense that he

-never left the execution to others, and though

-not a single one bears his signature, yet each is

-entirely by his own hand. Besides the Piet&agrave; at

-Milan, which is perhaps the best known, there is

-one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge&#8217;s

-Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin.

-The version he adopts, which places the Body of

-Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite in

-North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief

-(now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), but

-whether he brought or found the suggestion in

-Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left

-sketches in which the whole group is within the

-tomb, and this rendering is followed by Carpaccio,

-Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never

-found in trecento art, and is probably traceable

-to the Paduan impulse to make use of classic

-remains.</p>

-

-<p>Giovanni Bellini&#8217;s Piet&agrave;s fall into two groups.

-In one, the Christ is placed between the Virgin

-and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony

-of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer

-is supported by angels, who express the

-amazement and grief of immortal beings who see

-their Lord suffering an indignity from which they

-are immune.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>Mary and St. John <em>inside</em> the sarcophagus

-shows that they are conceived mystically; Mary

-as the Church, and St. John as the personification

-of Christian Philosophy&mdash;a significance frequently

-attached to these figures. Such a picture was designed

-to hang over the altar, at which the mystical

-sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.</p>

-

-<p>In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini

-has shaken off the Paduan tradition, and is forming

-his own style and giving free play to his own

-feeling. The winding roads and evening sky,

-barred with clouds, are the accessories he used in

-the &ldquo;Agony in the Garden,&rdquo; but the figures are

-treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in

-broad masses, and scarcely a trace is left of

-sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the study

-of the nude, everything is subordinated to the

-emotion expressed by the three figures: the

-helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the tender

-solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed

-look of the despairing friend. Here there is

-nothing of beautiful or pathetic symbol; the

-group is intense with the common sorrow of all

-the world. Mary presses the corpse to her as if

-to impart her own life, and gazes with anguished

-yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to

-have passed to a more complex age in his analysis

-of suffering, yet here is none of the extravagance

-which the primitive masters share with the

-Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his

-intensity.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p><p>In the Rimini version the tender concern

-and questioning surprise of the attendant angels

-contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful

-dead body they support. Their childish limbs

-and butterfly wings make a sinuous pattern

-against the lacquered black of the ground-work,

-and Mr. Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion

-that the effect, reminiscent of Greek vase-painting,

-and the likeness of the Head of Christ

-to an old bronze, may, in a composition painted

-for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no mere accident,

-but a concession to the patron&#8217;s enthusiasm for

-classic art.</p>

-

-<p>In 1470 Bellini received his first commission

-in the Scuola di San Marco. Gentile had been

-employed there since 1466 on the history of the

-Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint

-&ldquo;The Deluge and the Ark of Noah&rdquo; with all its

-attendant circumstances, but of these, except

-from Vasari&#8217;s descriptions, we can form no idea.

-These great pageant-pictures had become identified

-with the Bellini and their following, while

-the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the

-province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected

-a change, for sacred subjects best suited the restrained

-and simple perfection of his style, and

-afforded the most sympathetic opening for his

-idealistic spirit. For the next twenty years or

-more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in

-public work, for we hear of his being given the

-direction of that which Gentile left unfinished

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in

-1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended

-the work for him, and in that year he

-was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand

-Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats.

-Other commissions were turned out of the <em>bottega</em>

-he had set up with his brother in 1471, and

-between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro

-to paint the important altarpiece that still holds

-its place there. It is in some ways the greatest

-and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished.

-The central figures and the attendant

-saints have a large gravity and carefully studied

-individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological

-books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably

-contrasted with the sympathetic, cultured St.

-Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame,

-is a gem of beauty, and proves what an appeal

-nature was making to the painter. The predella,

-illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of

-the saints around the altar, is full of Oriental

-costumes. The horses are small Eastern horses,

-very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse,

-and the whole is evidently inspired by the

-sketches which Gentile brought back on his

-return from Constantinople in 1481.</p>

-

-<p>Looking from one to another of the cycle of

-Madonna pictures which Bellini produced, and

-of which so many hang side by side in the

-Academy, we are able to note how his conception

-varied. In one of the earliest the Child

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>lies across its Mother&#8217;s knee, in the attitude

-borrowed from his father and the Vivarini, from

-whom, too, he takes the uplifted hands, placed

-palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the

-gentle and adoring type, but his later Madonnas

-are stately Venetian ladies. He gives us a

-queenly woman, with full throat and stately

-poise, in the Madonna degli Alberi, in which

-the two little trees are symbols of the Old and

-New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely

-intellectual face with chiselled and refined

-features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it

-dramatically with the bluff St. George in

-armour; and there is another Madonna between

-St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which

-has a curious effect of artificial light.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIOVANNI BELLINI</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian

-Republic appointed Bellini superintendent of the

-Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable

-title of State Painter. In this capacity he was

-the overseer of all public works of painting, and

-was expected to devote a part of his time to the

-decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates

-nine of his historical paintings, which had been

-painted before the State appointment, all having

-reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but

-though he must have been much engrossed, he

-seems to have suspended the work from time to

-time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the

-large altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro

-in Murano, and the one in the Academy, which

-was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the

-last shows the greatest advance and is fullest of

-experiment. The Madonna is a grand ecclesiastical

-figure. It has been said with truth

-that it is a picture which must have afforded

-great support and dignity to the Church. The

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the

-Mother gazes out of the picture, extending

-invitation and encouragement to the advancing

-worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound;

-the artist has been more absorbed

-in the contrast between the beautiful, youthful

-body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe,

-older but not emaciated, and with the exquisite

-surface that his now complete mastery of oil-painting

-enabled him to produce. This technique

-has evidently been a great delight, and

-is here carried to perfection; the skin of St.

-Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of

-a horse in high condition. Everything that

-architecture, sculpture, and rich material can

-supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of

-the group; but the line of sight is still close to

-the bottom of the picture, and if it were not for

-the exquisite grace with which the angels are

-placed, the Madonna would have a broad,

-clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is

-the most splendid in colour of all his works.

-As he paints the rich light of a golden interior

-and the fused and splendid colours, he seems to

-pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste

-of the glory that is to follow. The Murano

-altarpiece is quite a different conception; instead

-of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling,

-<em>plein air</em> scene: the Mother benign, the Child

-soft and playful, the old Doge Barbarigo and the

-patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>garden and medi&aelig;val townlet filling up the

-background, for which, by the way, he uses the

-same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says

-much for his versatility that he could within a

-short time produce three such different versions.</p>

-

-<p>Among Bellini&#8217;s most fascinating achievements

-in the last years of the fifteenth century are

-his allegorical paintings, known to us by the

-&ldquo;P&eacute;lerinage de l&#8217;&Acirc;me&rdquo; in the Uffizi and the

-little series in the Academy. The meaning of

-the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig

-from a medi&aelig;val poem by Guillaume de

-Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote about

-1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has

-taken on Bellini&#8217;s mystic spirit. The paved

-space, set within the marble rail, signifies, as in

-the &ldquo;Salvator Mundi,&rdquo; the Paradise where souls

-await the Resurrection. The new-born souls

-cluster round the Tree of Life and shake its

-boughs. The poem says:</p>

-

-<p style="margin-left: 2em;">

-There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad<br />

-Who has not those who wound his heart,<br />

-And to whom it is not often necessary<br />

-To play and be solaced<br />

-And be soothed like a child<br />

-With something comforting.<br />

-Know that those playing<br />

-There in order to allay their sorrow<br />

-Have found beneath that tree<br />

-An apple that great comfort gives<br />

-To those that play with it.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>

-</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><a name="allegory" id="allegory"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img125.jpg" width="550" height="341" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giovanni Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AN ALLEGORY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Florence.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort.

-St. Peter and St. Paul guard the door,

-beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy

-conversation. A very beautiful figure on the

-left, wrapped in a black shawl, requires explanation,

-and it has been suggested that it is the

-donor, a woman who may have lost husband and

-children, and who, still in life, is introduced,

-watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.

-SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have

-stepped out of the San Giobbe altarpiece, are

-obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.

-Catherine, at the Virgin&#8217;s side, may be the donor&#8217;s

-own saint. This picture, with its delicious

-landscape bathed in atmospheric light, is a

-forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions

-of &ldquo;pure and unquestioning delight in the

-sensuous charm of rare and beautiful things&rdquo;

-in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed

-than with the intellectual conception,

-and within its small space Bellini seems to have

-enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories

-in the Academy are also full of meaning. They

-are decorative works, and were probably painted

-for some small cabinet. They seem too small

-for a cassone. They are ruined by over-painting,

-but still full of grace and fancy. The figure in

-the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter

-between Luxury and Industry, is drawn from

-Jacopo&#8217;s triumphant Bacchus. Fortune floats in

-her barque, holding the globe, and the souls

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>who gather round her are some full of triumphant

-success, others clinging to her for comfort, while

-several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark

-waters. &ldquo;Prudence,&rdquo; the only example of a

-female nude in Bellini&#8217;s works, holds a looking-glass.

-Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing

-from his refuge. The Summa Virtus is an ugly

-representation of all the virtues; a waddling

-deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of

-justice; the pitcher in its hand means prudence,

-and the gold upon its feet symbolises charity.

-The landscape, both of this and of the &ldquo;Fortune,&rdquo;

-resembles that which he was painting in his

-larger works at the end of the century. Soon

-after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with

-Isabela d&#8217;Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That

-distinguished collector and connoisseur writes

-through her agent to get the promise of a

-picture, &ldquo;a story or fable of antiquity,&rdquo; to be

-placed in position with the allegories which

-Mantegna had contributed to her &ldquo;Paradiso.&rdquo;

-Bellini agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five

-ducats on account. He seems, however, to

-have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in

-competing with Mantegna on his own ground,

-and asks to be allowed to choose his subject.

-Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself

-with a sacred picture, and a &ldquo;Nativity&rdquo; was

-selected. She is at once full of suggestions,

-desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini

-demurs at introducing except as a child, but in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>April 1504 the commission is still unaccomplished,

-and Isabela angrily demands the return

-of her money. This brings a letter of humble

-apology from Bellini, and presently the picture

-is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes that it is

-quite beautiful, and that &ldquo;though Giovanni has

-behaved as badly as possible, yet the bad must

-be taken with the good.&rdquo; The joy of its

-acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began

-to lay plans to get a further work out of Bellini,

-and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he would

-take a fresh commission always providing he

-might fix the subject. From the catalogue of

-her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture

-&ldquo;sul asse&rdquo; (on panel) represented the &ldquo;B.V.,

-il Putto, S. Giovanni Battista, S. Giovanni

-Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>The great altarpieces which remain strike us

-less by their research, their preoccupation with

-new problems of paint or grouping, than by

-their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was

-now nearly eighty years old, and in 1504 the

-young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution

-in art with his Castelfranco Madonna. In

-composition and detail the Madonna of San

-Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the

-Arcadian, innovating fashion of approaching a

-religious scene, of which the Church had long

-since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini

-cannot escape the indirect suggestion of the

-new manner. The same leaven was at work

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>in him which was transforming the men of a

-younger generation. In this altarpiece, in the

-Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which

-have perished, and above all in the hermit saint

-in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he is linked in feeling

-and in treatment with the later Venetian School.</p>

-

-<p>The new device, which he adopts quite

-naturally, of raising the line of sight, sets the

-figures in increased depth. For the first time

-he gives height and majesty to the young

-Mother by carrying the draperies down over the

-steps. He realises to the full the contrast

-between the young, fragile heads of his girl-saints

-and the dark, venerable countenances of

-the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching

-itself like a flower upon its stem, reminds us of

-the type which we saw in his Watcher in the

-sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched,

-dome-like niche opens on a distance bathed in

-golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of

-the old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new

-perfection of feeling and atmosphere. Who the

-saints are matters little; it is the collective

-enjoyment of a company of congenial people

-that pleases us so much. The &ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; in

-S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later

-than Cima&#8217;s in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in

-frank imitation of the younger man. Christ and

-the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without

-much zest, in a weak, conventional way,

-but the artist&#8217;s true interest comes out in the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>beauty of face and gesture of the group of

-women holding the garments, and above all in

-the sombre gloom of the distance, which replaces

-Cima&#8217;s charming landscape, and which keys the

-whole picture to the significance of a portent.

-In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.

-Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini

-keeps his love for the golden dome, but he lets

-us look through its arch, at rolling mountain

-solitudes, with mists rising between their folds.

-The geranium robe of the saint, an exquisite,

-vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden

-sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out

-against the evening sky, and in the faces of the

-two saints who stand on either side of the aged

-visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old

-intensity of religious feeling, a feeling which

-he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a

-more pagan tone.</p>

-

-<p>In 1507, at Gentile&#8217;s death, Giovanni undertook,

-at his brother&#8217;s dying request, to finish

-the &ldquo;Preaching of St. Mark,&rdquo; receiving as a

-recompense that coveted sketch-book of his

-father&#8217;s, from which he had adopted so many

-suggestions, and which, though he was the

-eldest, had been inherited by the legitimate son.</p>

-

-<p>In the preceding year Albert D&uuml;rer had

-visited Venice for the second time, and Bellini

-had received him with great cordiality. D&uuml;rer

-writes, &ldquo;Bellini is very old, but is still the best

-painter in Venice&rdquo;; and adds, &ldquo;The things I

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>admired on my last visit, I now do not value at

-all.&rdquo; Implying that he was able now to see

-how superior Bellini was to the hitherto more

-highly esteemed Vivarini.</p>

-

-<p>At the very end of Bellini&#8217;s life, in 1514,

-the Duke of Ferrara paid him eighty-five ducats

-for a painting of &ldquo;Bacchanals,&rdquo; now at Alnwick

-Castle; which may be looked upon as an

-open confession by one who had always considered

-himself as a painter of distinctively

-religious works, that such a gay scene of feasting

-afforded opportunities which he could not resist,

-for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods,

-sitting at their banquet in a sunny glade, are

-almost fully draped, and there is little of the

-<em>abandon</em> which was affected by later painters.

-The picture was left unfinished, and was later

-given to Titian to complete. In his capacity as

-State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini&#8217;s

-duty to execute the official portraits of the

-Doges. During his long life he saw eleven

-reigns, and during four he held the State

-appointment. Besides the official, he painted

-private portraits of the Doges, and that of

-Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of

-the most perfect presentments of the quattrocento.

-This portrait, painted by one old man of another,

-shows no weakening in touch or characterisation.

-It is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and

-simple. The face is quiet and unexaggerated;

-there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an air

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>of accustomed dignity and thought, while the

-technique has all the perfection of the painter&#8217;s

-prime.</p>

-

-<p>In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church

-of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by the side of his

-brother Gentile. To the last he was popular

-and famous, overwhelmed with attentions from

-the most distinguished personages of the city.

-Though he had begun life when art showed

-such a different aspect, he was by nature so

-imbued with that temperament, which at the

-time of his death was beginning to assert itself

-in the younger school, that he was able to

-assimilate a really astonishing share of the new

-manner. He is guided by feeling more than

-by intellect. All the time he is working out

-problems, he is dominated by the emotion of

-his subject, but his emotion, his pathos, are

-invariably tempered and restrained by the calm

-moderation of the quattrocento. The golden

-mean still has command of Bellini, and never

-allows his feelings, however poignant, to degenerate

-into sentimentality or violence.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Morelli: Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave; (L.); Dead Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.); Salvator Mundi (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Piet&agrave; (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Mond Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Sala Grande: Transfiguration.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Pesaro.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rimini.</td>  <td class="td5">Dead Christ (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);

-             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with

-             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Piet&agrave; (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and Augustine, 1513.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS

-OF BELLINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense

-of the joy of life and the apprehension of pure

-beauty, which was strengthening in the people

-and leading up to the great period of Venetian

-art, flooded round Bellini and recognised its expression

-in him. He was more popular and had a

-larger following among the artists of his day than

-either Gentile or Carpaccio with their frankly

-mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni&#8217;s State works

-may have been, his religious paintings are the

-ones which are copied and adapted and studied

-by the younger band of artists, and this because

-of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional

-subjects. Gentile&#8217;s pageant-pictures

-have still something cold and colourless, with a

-touch of the archaic, while Giovanni&#8217;s religious

-altarpieces evince a new freedom of handling, a

-modern conception of beautiful women, a use of

-that colour which was soon to reign triumphant.

-As far as it went indeed, its triumph was already

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>assured; as Giovanni advanced towards old age,

-it was no longer of any use for the young

-masters of the day to paint in any way save

-the one he had made popular, and one artist

-after another who had begun in the school of

-Alvise Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni

-Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to

-his assistants, and as everything that went out of

-his workshop was signed by his name, even if it

-only represented the use of one of his designs, or

-a few words of advice, and was &ldquo;passed&rdquo; by the

-master, it is no wonder that European collections

-were flooded with works, among which only

-lately the names of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi,

-Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti, Rondinelli, and

-others begin to be disentangled.</p>

-

-<p>Only one of his followers stands out as a

-strong and original master, not quite of the first

-class, but developing his own individuality while

-he draws in much of what both Alvise and

-Bellini had to give. Cima da Conegliano,

-whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always

-signs himself <em>Coneglianensis</em>: the title of Cima,

-&ldquo;the Rock,&rdquo; by which he is now so widely

-known, having first been mentioned in the

-seventeenth century by Boschini, and perhaps

-given him by that writer himself. He was a

-son of the mountains, who, though he came early

-to Venice, and lived there most of his life, never

-loses something of their wild freshness, and to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>the end delights in bringing them into his

-backgrounds. He lived with his mother at

-Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan

-marches, until 1484, when he was twenty-five,

-and then came down to Vicenza, where he fell

-under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a

-Vicentine painter, who had been studying both

-with Alvise and Bellini. Cima&#8217;s &ldquo;Madonna

-with Saints,&rdquo; painted for the Church of St.

-Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489, shows him still

-using the old method of tempera, in a careful,

-cold, painstaking style, yet already showing his

-own taste. The composition has something of

-Alvise, yet that something has been learned

-through the agency of Montagna, for the figures

-have the latter&#8217;s severity and austere character

-and the colour is clearer and more crude than

-Alvise&#8217;s. It is no light resemblance, and he

-must have been long with Montagna. In the

-type of the Christ in Montagna&#8217;s Piet&agrave; at

-Monte Berico, in the fondness for airy porticoes,

-in the architecture and main features of his

-&ldquo;Madonna enthroned&rdquo; in the Museo Civico at

-Vicenza, we see characteristics which Cima

-followed, though he interpreted them in his

-own way. He turns the heavy arches and

-domes that Alvise loved, into airy pergolas,

-decked with vines. He gives increasing importance

-to high skies and to atmospheric distances.

-When he got to Venice in 1492, he began to

-paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>Baptist with attendant saints, still in the Church

-of S. Madonna dell&#8217; Orto. The work of this is

-rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh,

-and he comes to his best soon after, in the

-&ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; in S. Giovanni in Bragora, which

-Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment

-of copying. It was quite unusual to choose

-such a subject for the High Altar, and could

-only be justified by devotion to the Baptist,

-who was Cima&#8217;s own name-saint as well as

-that of the Church. Cima is here at his very

-highest; the composition is not derived from

-any one else, but is all the conception of an

-ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.

-The Christ is particularly fine and simple,

-unexaggerated in pose and type; the arm of the

-Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to

-give him a refined, tentative look, which makes

-a sympathetic appeal. The attendant angels look

-on with an air of sweet interest. The distant

-mountains, the undulating country, the little

-town of Conegliano, identified by the castle on

-its great rock, or <em>Cima</em>, are Arcadian in their

-sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed

-out, are full of sun, not of rain. The landscape

-has not the sombre mystery of Titian&#8217;s, but is

-bright with the joyous delight of a lover of

-outdoor life. As Cima masters the new medium

-he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms

-lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity

-of his native town ordered the grand

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there,

-and in this he shows his connection with Venice;

-the architecture is partly taken from St. Mark&#8217;s,

-the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a

-group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at

-the foot of the throne. Cima is, however, never

-merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly

-defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls

-are not the curls of Bellini&#8217;s saints, his treatment

-of surface is refined, enamel-like, perfectly

-finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken

-treatment which Bellini&#8217;s natural feeling for

-colour was beginning to dictate. Cima&#8217;s pale

-golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness

-and precision, and though they are full of

-charm and refinement, they may be thought

-lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501

-belongs the &ldquo;Incredulity of St. Thomas,&rdquo; now

-in the Academy, but painted for the Guild of

-Masons. It is a picture full of expression and

-dignity, broad in treatment if a little cold in its

-self-restraint. Cima seems to have not quite

-enough intellect, and not quite enough strong

-feeling. However, the little altarpiece of the

-Nativity, in the Church of the Carmine in

-Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this

-foreshadows the work he did when he went to

-Parma, where his transparent shadows grow

-broader and stronger, and his figures gain in

-ease and freedom. He never loses the delicate

-radiance of his lights, and his types and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>his architecture alike convey something of a

-peculiarly refined, brilliant elegance.</p>

-

-<p>Like all these men of great energy and

-prolific genius, Cima produced an astonishing

-number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt

-had pupils on his own account, for a goodly list

-could be made of pictures in his style, but not

-by his own hand, which have been carried by

-collectors into widely-scattered places. His

-exquisite surface and finish and his marked

-originality make him a difficult master to imitate

-with any success. His latest work is dated

-1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till 1517, and it

-seems probable that he returned to his beloved

-Conegliano and there passed his last years.</p>

-

-<p>If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of

-Treviso, called Catena, gained an immense reputation

-by his industry and his power of imitating

-and adopting the manner of Bellini&#8217;s School. In

-those days men did not trouble themselves much

-as to whether they were original or not. They

-worked away on traditional compositions, frankly

-introducing figures from their master&#8217;s cartoons,

-modifying a type here, making some little experiment

-or arrangement there, and, as a French critic

-puts it, leaving their own personality to &ldquo;hatch

-out&rdquo; in due time, if it existed, and when it was

-sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It

-is here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman

-in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, at a salary

-of three ducats a month, he for long failed to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which

-was possessed by the better disciples of the

-schools. But he is painstaking, determined to

-get on, and eager to satisfy the continually

-increasing demand for work. His draperies are

-confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with

-small features, inexpressive button mouths, and

-weak chins, and his flesh tints have little of

-the glow which is later the prerogative of every

-second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like

-many another careful mediocre man, in securing

-patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened

-he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano

-of a commission to paint the altarpiece for the

-Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal

-Palace. He adapts his group from that of

-Bellini in the Cathedral of Murano, bringing

-in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of

-which he afterwards made numerous copies, one

-of which was for long assigned to Gentile and

-one to Giovanni Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>That Catena is not without charm, we discern

-in such a composition as his &ldquo;Martyrdom of St.

-Cristina,&rdquo; in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which

-the saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels

-upon the water, in which she met her death,

-and is surrounded by little angels, holding up

-the millstone tied round her neck, and laden

-with other instruments of her martyrdom.

-Catena borrows right and left, and tries to

-follow every new indication of contemporary

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>taste. For instance, he remarks the growing

-admiration for colour, and hopes by painting

-gay, flat tints, in bright contrast, to produce the

-desired effect.</p>

-

-<p>It is evident that he made many friends

-among the rich connoisseurs of the time, and

-that his importance was out of proportion to

-his real merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing

-an account of Raphael&#8217;s last days to a friend in

-Venice, and touching on Michelangelo&#8217;s illness,

-begs him to see that Catena takes care of

-himself, &ldquo;as the times are unfavourable to great

-painters.&rdquo; Catena had acquired and inherited

-considerable wealth; he came of a family of

-merchants, and resided in his own house in San

-Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried

-relations with Dona Maria Fustana, the daughter

-of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will

-300 ducats and all his personal effects. As a

-careful portrait-painter, with a talent for catching

-a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in

-some of his heads&mdash;that of a canon dressed in

-blue and red, at Vienna, and especially in one of

-a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden&mdash;he

-attains real distinction. And in his last

-phase he does at length prove the power that

-lies behind long industry and perseverance.

-Suddenly the Giorgionesque influence strikes

-him, and turning to imbibe this new element,

-he produces that masterpiece which throws a

-glamour over all his mediocre performances;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>his &ldquo;Warrior adoring the Infant Christ,&rdquo; in

-the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm,

-rich and romantic in tone and spirit. The

-Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his

-dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of

-her draperies are still unsatisfactory, but the

-knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the

-romantic young page, holding his horse, are

-pure Giorgionesque figures. Beautiful in themselves,

-set in a beautiful landscape glowing

-with light and air, the whole picture exemplifies

-what surprising excellence could be

-suddenly attained by even very inferior artists,

-who were constantly associating with greater

-men, at a moment when the whole air was, as

-it were, vibrating with genius.</p>

-

-<p>Catena was very much addicted to making

-his will, and at least five testaments or codicils

-exist, one of them devising a sum of money

-for the benefit of the School of Painters in

-Venice, and another leaving to his executor, Prior

-Ignatius, the picture of a &ldquo;St. Jerome in his

-Cell,&rdquo; which may be the one in our national

-collection, which remained in Venice till

-1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating

-Basaiti and Lotto, and brings in the partridge of

-which he made a sort of sign manual.</p>

-

-<p>Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro

-Lippomano, to announce that, at his request, he

-is continuing his patronage of Catena:</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p>Though I had done all that lay in my power for

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>Vincenzo Catena before I received your Lordship&#8217;s

-warm recommendation in his favour, I did not hesitate,

-on receipt of your letter, to add something to the first

-piece I had from him, and I did so because of my love

-and reverence for you, and I trust that he will return

-appropriate thanks to you for having remembered that

-you could command me.</p></div>

-

-<p>Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman

-in different workshops and a master on his own

-account. For long the assistant and follower of

-Alvise Vivarini, we may judge that he was also

-his most trusted confidant, for to him was left

-the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to

-S. Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is

-apparent in the execution, and the two saints,

-Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have

-probably been added by him, for they have the

-air of interlopers, and do not come up to the rest

-of the company in form and conception. The

-Sebastian, with his hands behind his back and

-his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite sufficiently

-reminiscent of Bellini&#8217;s figure of 1473 to make

-us believe that Basaiti was at once transferring

-his allegiance to that reigning master. In his

-earlier phase he has the round heads and the

-dry precise manner of the Muranese. In his

-large picture in the Academy, the &ldquo;Calling of

-the Sons of Zebedee,&rdquo; he produces a large,

-important set piece, cold and lifeless, without

-one figure which arrests us, or lingers in

-the memory. &ldquo;The Christ on the Mount&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>is more interesting as having been painted for

-San Giobbe, where Bellini&#8217;s great altarpiece

-was already hanging, and coming into competition

-with Bellini&#8217;s early rendering of the same

-scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is

-interesting to see what it has gained in

-&ldquo;modernness.&rdquo; The landscape and trees are

-well drawn and in good colour, and the saints,

-standing on either side of a high portico, have

-dignity. In the &ldquo;Dead Christ,&rdquo; in the Academy,

-he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints

-and the <em>putti</em>. The <em>putti</em>, looking thoughtfully

-at the dead, is a <em>motif</em> beloved of Bellini,

-but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini&#8217;s pathos

-and significance; they are merely childish and

-seem to be amused.</p>

-

-<p>In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new

-phase. He has felt Giorgione&#8217;s influence, and

-is beginning to try what he can do, while still

-keeping close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch,

-more animated figures, and a brilliant effect of

-landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour

-over his hard outlines and makes his figures

-bright and misty, and though underneath they

-are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising

-that many of his works for a time passed

-as those of Bellini. Though he is a clever

-imitator, &ldquo;his figures are designed with less

-mastery, his drawing is a little less correct,

-his drapery less adapted to the under form.

-Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>colours have the brightness, but not the true

-contrast required. In landscape he proceeds

-from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does

-not dwell on detail, but his masses have neither

-the sober tint nor the mysterious richness

-conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever

-instrument.&rdquo; Both Previtali and Rondinelli

-were workers with Basaiti in Bellini&#8217;s studio.

-Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea

-Cordeliaghi or Cordella, and has left many

-unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and

-Lotto, Palma and Montagna; but for a time his

-work went forth from Bellini&#8217;s workshop signed

-with Bellini&#8217;s name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece

-in San Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes

-the title of Previtali, compiling it in the

-cartello with the monogram already used as

-Cordeliaghi. There are traces of many other

-minor artists at this period, all essaying the

-same manner, copying one or other of the

-masters, taking hints from each other. The

-Venetian love of splendour was turning to the

-collection of works of art, and the work of

-second-class artists was evidently much in

-demand and obtained its meed of admiration.

-Bissolo was a fellow-labourer with Catena in the

-Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he is soft

-and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has

-imbibed something of his tenderness of spirit.</p>

-

-<p>It will be seen from this list how difficult it

-is to unravel the tale of the false Bellinis. The

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>master&#8217;s own works speak for themselves with

-no uncertain voice, but away from these it is

-very difficult to pronounce as to whether he had

-given a design, or a few touches, or advice, and

-still more difficult to decide whether these were

-bestowed on Basaiti in his later manner, or on

-Previtali or Bissolo, or if the teaching was handed

-on by them in a still more diluted form to

-the lesser men who clustered round, much of

-whose work has survived and has been masquerading

-for centuries under more distinguished

-names. It is sometimes affirmed that the loss

-of originality in the endeavour to paint like

-greater men has been a symptom of decay in

-every school in the past. It is interesting to

-notice, therefore, that in every great age of

-painting there has always been an undercurrent

-of imitation, which has helped to form a stream

-of tradition, and which, as far as we can see, has

-done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Cima.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Conegliano.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Parma.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Piet&agrave;; Madonna

-               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the Angel.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome, Mark, and Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Vincenzo Catena.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lord Brownlow: Nativity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Canon.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Marco Basaiti.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave;; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Jerome; Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro: Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510; Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute: S. Sebastian.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Andrea Previtali.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece; Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saint.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and four Female Saints, 1525.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Oxford.</td>  <td class="td5">Christchurch Library: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>N. Rondinelli.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ravenna.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Madonnas with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bissolo.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>

-<h2>PART II</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIORGIONE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings,

-we find our admiration and criticism expressing

-themselves naturally in certain terms; we are

-struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of

-form, by the evidence of knowledge, by the

-display of thought and intellectual feeling. The

-Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive,

-nervous, fervent, or, as in Michelangelo and

-Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But

-when looking at pictures of the Venetian School

-we unconsciously use quite another sort of

-language; epithets like &ldquo;dark&rdquo; and &ldquo;rich&rdquo;

-come most freely to our lips; a golden glow,

-a slumberous velvety depth, seem to engulf

-and absorb all details. We are carried into the

-land of romance, and are fascinated and soothed,

-rather than stimulated and aroused. So it is with

-portraits; before the &ldquo;Mona Lisa&rdquo; our intelligence

-is all awake, but the men and women of

-Venetian canvases have a grave, indolent serenity,

-which accords well with the slumber of thought.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century

-the painters of Venice had not differed very

-materially from those of other schools; they

-had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities

-of drawing, perspective and anatomy.

-They had been painting in oils for twenty-five

-years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for

-pageant-pictures than was felt in other States of

-Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and Leonardo

-to decorate her public palace, but no great

-store is set by their splendid achievements; their

-work is not even completed. The students fall

-upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish,

-instead of being treasured by the nation. Gentile

-Bellini and Carpaccio and the band of State

-painters are appreciated and well rewarded.

-These men have reproduced something of the

-lucent transparency, the natural colour of Venice,

-but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully

-aiming at any special effect. Year after year

-the Venetian masters assimilate more or less

-languidly the influences which reach them

-from the mainland. They welcome Guariento

-and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to

-learn from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans

-contribute their chiselled drawing, their learned

-perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet

-even early in the day the Venetians escape from

-that hard and learned art which is so alien

-to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo

-Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>is ready to follow feeling and emotion, and in

-his old age is quick to discover the first flavour

-of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone

-on upon the lines we have been tracing up

-to now, there would have been nothing very

-distinctive about it, for, however interesting and

-charming Alvise and Carpaccio, Cima and the

-Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when

-we speak of the Venetian School and when we

-rank it beside that of Florence, while Giovanni

-Bellini alone, in his later works, is not strong

-enough to bear the burden.</p>

-

-<p>The change which now comes over painting

-is not so much a technical one as a change of

-temper, a new tendency in human thought, and

-we link it with Giorgione because he was the

-channel through which the deep impulse first

-burst into the light. We have tried to trace the

-growth of the early Venetian School, but it does

-not develop logically like that of Florence; it

-is not the result of long endeavour, adding one

-acquisition and discovery to another. Venetian

-art was peculiarly the outcome of personalities,

-and it did not know its own mind till the

-sixteenth century. Then, like a hidden spring,

-it bubbles irresistibly to the surface, and the spot

-where it does so is called by the name of a man.</p>

-

-<p>There are beings in most great creative

-epochs who, with peculiar facility, seem to

-embody the purpose of their age and to yield

-themselves as ready instruments to its design.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>When time is ripe they appear, and are able,

-with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice

-to the desires and tendencies which have been

-straining for expression. These desires may owe

-their origin to national life and temperament;

-it may have taken generations to bring them to

-fruition, but they become audible through the

-agency of an individual genius. A genius is

-inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the

-seventeenth century, drew to her in Bernini a

-man who could with real power illustrate her

-determination to be grandiose and ostentatious,

-and, at the height of the Renaissance, Venice

-draws into her service a man whose sensuous

-feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed

-by every element around him.</p>

-

-<p>More conclusively than ever, at this time,

-Venice, the world&#8217;s great sea-power, was in her

-full glory as the centre of the world&#8217;s commerce

-and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had

-discovered the sea route to India in 1498, but

-the stupendous effect which this was to exert

-on the whole current of power did not become

-apparent all at once. Venice was still the

-great emporium of the East, linked to it by a

-thousand ties, Oriental in her love of Eastern

-richness.</p>

-

-<p>It would be exaggerating to say that the

-Venetians of the sixteenth century could not

-draw. As there were Tuscans who understood

-beautiful harmonies of colour, so there were

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Venetians who knew a good deal about form;

-but the other Italians looked upon colour as a

-charming adjunct, almost, one might say, as

-an amiable weakness: they never would have

-allowed that it might legitimately become the

-end and aim in painting, and in the same way

-form, though respected and considered, was

-never the principal object of the Venetians.

-Up to this time Venice had fed her emotional

-instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and

-brocades, but with Giorgione she discovered

-that there was a deeper emotional vehicle than

-these superficial glories,&mdash;glowing depths of

-colour enveloped in the mysterious richness of

-chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid

-and suggested more than it revealed.</p>

-

-<p>Giorgione no longer described &ldquo;in drawing&#8217;s

-learned tongue&rdquo;; he carried all before him

-by giving his direct impression in colour. He

-conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little

-if their finely drawn draperies were blue or

-red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their

-dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange

-horizon. He hardly knows what attitudes his

-characters take, but their chestnut hair, their

-deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a

-moving harmony in which the importance of

-exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are

-not composed methodically and according to

-the old rules, but are the direct impress of the

-painter&#8217;s joy in life. It was a new and audacious

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>style in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely

-inevitable consequence, was to substitute for

-form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the

-quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how

-the shades of evening are able to transform

-the most commonplace scene; the dull road

-becomes a mysterious avenue, the colourless

-foliage develops luscious depths, the drab and

-arid plain glows with mellow light, purple

-shadows clothe and soften every harsh and ugly

-object, all detail dies, and our apprehension of

-it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of

-observing and criticising, we become soothed,

-contemplative, dreamy. It is the carrying of

-this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by

-means of chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer

-learned and explanatory, but deeply sensuous

-and emotional, that is the gift to art which

-found full voice with Giorgione, and which

-in one moment was recognised and welcomed

-to the exclusion of the older manner, because

-it touched the chord which vibrated through

-the whole Venetian temperament.</p>

-

-<p>And the immediate result was the picture of

-<em>no subject</em>. Giorgione creates for us idle figures

-with radiant flesh, or robed in rich costumes,

-surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask

-or care why they are gathered together. We

-have all had dreams of Elysian fields, &ldquo;where

-falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows

-loudly,&rdquo; where all is rest and freedom, where

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>music blends with the plash of fountains, and

-fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and

-no one asks what went before or what follows

-after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and

-nymphs: there never has been such a day, or

-such a land: it is a mood, a vision: it has

-danced before the eyes of poets, from David to

-Keats and Tennyson: it has rocked the tired

-hearts of men in all ages: the vision of a resting-place

-which makes no demands and where the

-dwellers are exempt from the cares and weakness

-of mortality. Needless to say, it is an ideal born

-of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise,

-and it speaks to that strain in the temperament

-which recognises that life cannot be all thought,

-but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the

-first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco

-sets that vague dream before men&#8217;s eyes.

-The world, with its wistful yearnings and questionings,

-such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied,

-said little to his audience. Here was their natural

-atmosphere, though they had never known it

-before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused

-and golden lights are what Giorgione grasps

-from the material world, and as he steeps his

-senses in them the subject counts but little in

-the deep enjoyment they communicate. We,

-who have seen his manner repeated and developed

-through thousands of pictures, find it difficult to

-realise that there had been nothing like it before,

-that it was a unique departure, that when Bellini

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>and Titian looked at his first creations they must

-have experienced a shock of revelation. The

-old definite style must have seemed suddenly

-hard and meagre, and every time they looked on

-the glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the

-mysterious shades of falling night, they must

-have felt they were endowed with a sense to

-which they had hitherto been strangers, but

-which, it was at once apparent, was their true

-heritage. They had found themselves, and in

-them Venice found her real expression, and

-with Giorgione and those who felt his impetus

-began the true Venetian School, set apart from

-all other forms of art by its way of using and

-diffusing and intensifying colour.</p>

-

-<p>When Giorgione, the son of a member of

-the house of Barbarelli and a peasant girl of

-Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather

-that he had nothing of the provincial. Vasari,

-who must often have heard of him from Titian,

-describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished

-appearance, beloved by his friends, a

-favourite with women, fond of dress and amusement,

-an admirable musician, and a welcome guest

-in the houses of the great. He was evidently

-no peasant-bred lad, but probably, though

-there is no record of the fact, was brought up,

-like many illegitimate children, in the paternal

-mansion. His home was not far from the

-lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is

-possible to imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>running up to the Asolean hills and with the

-Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he

-received his education in the school of Bellini,

-for when that master sold his allegory of the

-&ldquo;Souls in Paradise&rdquo; to one of the Medici, to

-adorn the summer villa of Poggio Imperiale,

-there went with it the two small canvases now

-in the Uffizi, the &ldquo;Ordeal of Moses&rdquo; and the

-&ldquo;Judgment of Solomon,&rdquo; delightful little

-paintings in Giorgione&#8217;s rich and distinctive style,

-but less accomplished than Bellini&#8217;s picture, and

-with imperfections in the drawing of drapery

-and figures which suggest that they are the

-work of a very young man. The love of the

-Venetians for decorating the exterior of their

-palaces with fresco led to Giorgione being largely

-employed on work which was unhappily a

-grievous waste of time and talent, as far as

-posterity is concerned. We have a record of

-fa&ccedil;ades covered with spirited compositions and

-heraldic devices, of friezes with Bacchus and

-Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti, in his

-seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble

-figure of &ldquo;Fortitude&rdquo; grasping an axe, but beyond

-a few fragments nothing has survived. Before

-he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the

-important commission of decorating the Fondaco

-dei Tedeschi. This building, which we hear of

-so often in connection with the artists of Venice,

-was the trading-house for German, Hungarian,

-and Polish merchants. The Venetian Government

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>surrounded these merchants with the most

-jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant

-connected with them was by law a Venetian, and,

-in fact, a spy of the Republic. All transactions

-of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian

-brokers, of whom some thirty were appointed.

-As time went on, some of these brokerships must

-have resolved themselves into sinecure offices,

-for we find Bellini holding one, and certainly

-without discharging any of the original duties,

-and they seem to have become some sort of State

-retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been

-burnt to the ground, and the present building

-was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys.

-A decree went forth that no marble, carving, or

-gilding were to be used, so that painting the outside

-was the only alternative. The roof was on in

-1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and

-Morto da Feltre were employed in the adornment

-of the fa&ccedil;ade. Vasari is very much exercised

-over Giorgione&#8217;s share in these decorations. &ldquo;One

-does not find one subject carefully arranged,&rdquo;

-he complains, &ldquo;or which follows correctly the

-history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for

-me, I have never been able to understand the

-meaning of these compositions, or have met

-any one able to explain them to me. Here one

-sees a man with a lion&#8217;s head, beside a woman.

-Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love:

-it is all an inexplicable medley.&rdquo; Yet he is

-delighted with the brilliancy of the colour and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>the splendid execution, and adds, &ldquo;Colour gives

-more pleasure in Venice than anywhere else.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Among other early work was the little

-&ldquo;Adoration of the Magi,&rdquo; in the National

-Gallery, and the so-called &ldquo;Philosophers&rdquo; at

-Vienna. According to the latest reading, this

-last illustrates Virgil&#8217;s legend that when the

-Trojan &AElig;neas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed

-out the future site of Rome to the ancient seer

-and his son. Giorgione, in painting the scene,

-is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his

-first great landscape, and all accessories have been

-sacrificed to intensity of effect. He revels in

-the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil

-masses of foliage, the long evening shadows,

-and the effect of dark forms silhouetted against

-the radiant light.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIORGIONE</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back

-to Castelfranco, and painted an altarpiece for the

-Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth

-century Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain

-of Free Companions, who had made his fortune

-in the wars, where he had been attached to

-Catherine Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen

-from Cyprus, and when she retired to Asolo,

-settled near her at Castelfranco. His son,

-Matteo, entered the service of the Venetian

-Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances; but

-Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in

-1504, and Costanza had his son&#8217;s body embalmed

-and buried in the family chapel.</p>

-

-<p>Nothing is known of the details of this

-commission, but we are not straining the bounds

-of probability by assuming that in a little town

-like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village,

-the two youths must have been well known to

-each other, and that this acquaintance and the

-familiarity of the one with the appearance of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>the other may have been the determining cause

-which led the bereaved father to give the commission

-to the young painter, while the tragic

-circumstances were such as would appeal to an

-ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of our

-National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione

-for the figure of San Liberale, who is represented

-as a young man with bare head and crisp, golden

-locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the

-suit in which Matteo Costanza is dressed in

-the stone effigy which is still preserved in the

-cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the

-stone figure lies a helmet, resembling that on the

-head of the saint in the altarpiece.</p>

-

-<p>In Giorgione&#8217;s group the Mother and Child

-are enthroned on high, with St. Francis and St.

-Liberale on either hand. The Child&#8217;s glance is

-turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure

-with his lance at rest, his dagger on his hip,

-his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with

-features of almost feminine beauty. The picture

-is conceived in a new spirit of simplicity of

-design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in

-matters of detail. It is the work of a man who

-has observed that early morning, like late evening,

-has a marvellous power of eliminating all

-unessential accessories and of enveloping every

-object in a delicious scheme of light. Repainted,

-cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is still full of

-an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the

-ecstatic, devotional reverie of Perugino&#8217;s saints.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>The painter of Castelfranco has not steeped his

-whole soul in religious imagination, like the

-painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the

-lyric feeling; his work is a poem in praise of

-youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine.

-He uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but

-Giorgione carries his unison of landscape with

-human feeling much further than Perugino; he

-observes the delicate effects of light, and limpid

-air circulates in his distance. The sun rising

-over the sea throws a glamour and purity of

-early morning over a scene meant to glorify

-the memory of a young life. The painter

-shows his connection with his master by using

-the figure of the St. Francis in Bellini&#8217;s San

-Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to

-Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The

-San Zaccaria altarpiece was, as we have seen,

-painted in the year following that of Castelfranco.

-Something has incited the old painter to fresh

-efforts; out of his own evolution, or stimulated

-by his pupil&#8217;s splendid experiments, he is drawn

-into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian

-cinque-cento.</p>

-

-<p>The Venetian painters were distinguished

-by their love for the kindred art of music.

-Giorgione himself was an admirable musician,

-and linked with all that is akin to music in his

-work, is his love for painting groups of people

-knit together by this bond. He uses it as a

-pastime to bring them into company, and the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>rich chords of colour seem permeated with the

-chords of sound. Not always, however, does he

-need even this excuse; his &ldquo;conversation-pieces&rdquo;

-are often merely composed of persons placed with

-indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings,

-governed by a mood which communicates itself

-to the beholder.</p>

-

-<p>With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully

-drawn upon the wall and flat tints were

-superimposed. They knew beforehand what the

-effect was to be; but the Venetians from this

-time gradually worked up the picture, imbedding

-tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting

-another, till the whole rich harmony was gradually

-evoked. With the Florentines, too, the figures

-supply the main interest; the background is an

-arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the

-painter&#8217;s leisure, but Giorgione&#8217;s and Titian&#8217;s <em>f&ecirc;tes

-champ&ecirc;tres</em> and concerts could not <em>be</em> at all in any

-other environment. The amber flesh-tints and

-the glowing garments are so blended with the

-deep tones of the landscape, that one would not

-instil the mood the artist desires without the

-other. Piero di Cosimo and Pintoricchio can

-place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses in

-idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us

-beyond an observant pleasure, a detached amusement;

-but Giorgione&#8217;s gloomy blues, his figures

-shining through the warm dusk of a summer

-evening, waken we hardly know what of vague

-yearning and brooding memory.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>In the &ldquo;F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre&rdquo; of the Louvre he

-acquires a frankly sensuous charm. He becomes

-riper, richer in feeling, and displays great exuberance

-of style. The woman filling her pitcher

-at the fountain is exquisite in line and curve and

-amber colour. She seems to listen lazily to the

-liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard

-music of the pipes. The beautiful idyll

-in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art of composition.

-It is built up with uprights; pillars are

-formed by the groups of trees and figures, cut

-boldly across by the horizontal line of the bridge,

-but the figures themselves are put in without

-any attention to subject, though an unconscious

-humorist has discovered in them the domestic

-circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress

-is there to assist the left-hand columnar group,

-placed at the edge of the picture after the

-manner of Leonardo. The woman and child

-lighten the mass of foliage on the right and

-make a beautiful pattern. The white town of

-Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky,

-the winds bluster through the space, the trees

-shiver with the coming storm. Here and there

-leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp

-touch, in which we can follow readily the

-painter&#8217;s quick impression.</p>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;Knight of Malta&rdquo; is a grand magisterial

-figure, majestic, yet full of ardent warmth

-lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The

-face is bisected with shadow, in the way which

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto affected, and

-the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of

-the type which seems particularly to have

-pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too, belongs

-the honour of having created a Venus as pure as

-the Aphrodite of Cnidos and as beautiful as a

-courtesan of Titian.</p>

-

-<p><a name="champ" id="champ"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img169.jpg" width="550" height="436" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giorgione.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; F&Ecirc;TE CHAMP&Ecirc;TRE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Louvre.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Alinari.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511

-is registered by all the oldest authorities. His

-body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members

-of the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church

-of San Liberale. In 1638 an epitaph was placed

-over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.</p>

-

-<p>Allowing that he was hardly more than

-twenty when his new manner began to gain a

-following, he had only some twelve years in

-which to establish his deep and lasting influence.

-We divine that he was a man of strong personality,

-such a one as warms and stimulates his

-companions. Even his nickname tells us something,&mdash;Great

-George, the Chief, the George of

-Georges,&mdash;it seems to express him as a leader.

-And we have no lack of proof that he was

-admired and looked up to. His style became

-the only one that found favour in Venice, and

-the painters of the day did their best to conform

-to it. Few authentic examples are left from his

-own hand, but out of his conscious and devoted

-and more or less successful imitators, there grew

-up a school, &ldquo;out of all those fascinating works,

-rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>many copies from, or variations on him, by

-unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings

-and designs were, for various reasons, prized as

-his; out of the immediate impression he made

-upon his contemporaries and with which he

-continued in men&#8217;s minds; out of many traditions

-of subject and treatment which really

-descend from him to our own time, and by

-retracing which we fill out the original image.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Summing up all these influences, he has left

-us the Giorgionesque; the art of choosing a

-moment in which the subject and the elements

-of colour and design are so perfectly fused and

-blended that we have no need to ask for any

-more articulate story; a moment into which

-all the significance, the fulness of existence has

-condensed itself, so that we are conscious of the

-very essence of life. Those idylls of beings

-wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music

-and the sound of water and the beauty of

-wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all

-our conscious apprehension of life if we are

-to drink in their full fascination. The dream

-of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to

-those who can contrast it adequately with the

-experience, the complication, and the thousand

-distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and

-relaxation, the power of the deeply tinted eventide,

-or of the fresh morning light, and the calm

-that drinks in the sensations they are able to

-afford, are among the precious things of life.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>The instinct upon which Giorgione&#8217;s work rests

-is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the

-thinking faculty, the life of the heart, as compared

-to the life of the intellect, the solution of

-life&#8217;s problems by love instead of by thought.

-It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression

-is conveyed by means of colour, deep,

-restful, satisfying, fused and controlled by

-chiaroscuro rather than by form.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Buda-Pesth.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Castelfranco.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Sleeping Venus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight of Malta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">A Shepherd.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Boston.</td>  <td class="td5">Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Evander showing &AElig;neas the Future Site of Rome.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE GIORGIONESQUE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the

-painters round him felt his power. The Venetian

-painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a

-time when the men of one city observed and

-studied and took hints from those of every other,

-how faint are the signs that this particular

-manner attracted any great attention in other

-art centres. Leonardo da Vinci was a master of

-chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his

-forms, and never sacrifices to it the delicacy

-and fineness of his design. It is the one quality

-Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief

-instant at the period when Sebastian del Piombo

-had arrived in Rome from Venice. It takes hold

-most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,

-significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced

-intellectual capacity, but in Venice itself

-it now became the only way. The old Bellini

-finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena,

-Basaiti, Cariani do their best to acquire it, and so

-successfully was it acquired, so congenial was it

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>to Venetian art, that even second-&nbsp;and third-rate

-Venetian painters have usually something attractive

-which triumphs over superficial and doubtful

-drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how

-much to their taste was this fused and golden

-manner, this disregard of defined form, and this

-new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room

-in the National Gallery is full of such examples:

-the Nymphs and <em>Amoretti</em> of No. 1695, charming

-figures against melting vines and olives; &ldquo;Venus

-and Adonis,&rdquo; in which a bewitching Cupid

-chases a butterfly; Lovers in a landscape, roaming

-in the summer twilight; scenes in which

-neither person nor scenery is a pretext for the

-other, but each has its full share in arousing the

-desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to,

-or taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics,

-but have all laid hold of his charm, and have

-some share in his inspiration.</p>

-

-<p>One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose

-work is still confounded with the master&#8217;s, is

-Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times

-in his life also successfully imitated Palma and

-Lotto. In his Giorgionesque manner Cariani often

-creates charming figures and strong portraits,

-though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive

-tone. His family group in the Roncalli Collection

-at Bergamo is very close to Giorgione. Seven

-persons, three women and four men, are grouped

-together upon a terrace, and behind them

-stretches a calm landscape, half concealed by a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is

-restful, though it lacks Giorgione&#8217;s concentration

-of sensation. Then, again, Cariani flies off to the

-gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,

-when he tries to reproduce Giorgione&#8217;s pastoral

-reveries, his shepherds and nymphs become mere

-peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who

-have nothing of the idyllic distinction which

-Giorgione never failed to infuse. &ldquo;The

-Adulteress before Christ&rdquo; at Glasgow still bears

-the greater name, but its short, vulgar figures

-and faulty composition disclaim his authorship,

-while Cariani is fully capable of such failings,

-and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite

-characteristic of him.</p>

-

-<p>These painters are more than merely imitative;

-they are also typical. Giorgione&#8217;s new manner

-had appealed to some quality inherent and

-hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits

-they single out and dwell upon are the traits

-which appeal equally to the instincts of both.

-It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic

-than those of other second-rate painters.

-Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which

-Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to

-them, and it is a medium which does make an

-immediate appeal and covers a multitude of shortcomings.</p>

-

-<p>But Giorgione was not to leave his message

-to the mercy of mere disciples and imitators,

-however apt. Growing up around him were

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>men to whom that message was an inspiration

-and a trumpet-call, men who were to develop and

-deepen it, endowing it with their own strength,

-recognising that the way which the young

-pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out was the

-one into which they could unhesitatingly pour

-their whole inclination. The instinct for colour

-was in their very blood. They turned to it with

-the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks

-the air or a fish the water, and foremost among

-them, to create and to consolidate, was the

-mighty Titian.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Cariani.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Morelli: Madonna (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Roncalli Collection: Family Group.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ bearing Cross; The &ldquo;Bravo.&rdquo;</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>School of Giorgione.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;

-               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The mountains of Cadore are not always visible

-from Venice, but there they lie, behind the mists,

-and in the clear shining after rain, in the golden

-eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter

-days they stand out, lapis-lazuli blue or deep

-purple, or, like Shelley&#8217;s enchanted peaks, in

-sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy

-slopes. Cadore is a land of rich chestnut woods,

-of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms, sudden

-storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of

-scenery which enters deep into the affections of

-its sons, and we can form some idea of the hold

-its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness

-obtained over the mind of Titian from the fact

-that in after years, while he never exerts himself

-to paint the city in which he lived and in which

-all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly

-constant to his mountain home, enters

-into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm

-and penetrating insight.</p>

-

-<p>The district formed part of the dependencies

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>of the great republic, and relied upon Venice for

-its safety, its distinction, and in great measure

-for its employment. The small craftsmen and

-artists from all the country round looked forward

-to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.

-They tacked the name of their native town to

-their own name, and were drawn into the

-magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came

-back from time to time with stories of her art,

-her power, and beauty.</p>

-

-<p>The Vecelli had for generations held honourable

-posts in Cadore. The father and grandfather

-of the young Tiziano were influential

-men, and with his brother and sisters he must

-have been brought up in comfort. There are

-even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident

-that Titian was always a gentleman, though this

-did not prevent his being educated as a craftsman,

-and when he was only ten years old he

-was sent down to Venice to be apprenticed to

-a mosaicist.</p>

-

-<p>It was a changing Venice to which Titian

-came as a boy; changing in its life, its social

-and political conditions, and its art was faithfully

-registering its aspirations and tastes. More

-than at any previous time, it was calculated

-to impress a youth to whom it had been held up

-as the embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and

-the difference between the little hill-town set in

-the midst of its wild solitudes and the brilliant

-city of the sea must have been dazzling and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>bewildering. A new sense of intellectual luxury

-had awakened in the great commercial centre.

-The Venetian love of splendour was displaying

-itself by the encouragement and collection of

-objects of art, and both ancient and modern

-works were in increasing request. On Gentile

-Bellini&#8217;s and Carpaccio&#8217;s canvases we see the sort

-of people the Venetians were, shrewd, quiet,

-splendour-loving, but business-like, the young

-men fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs,

-splendid patrons of art and of religion. Buyers

-were beginning to find out what a delightful

-decoration the small picture made, and that it

-was as much in place in their own halls as over

-the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was

-gaining in importance, and the idea of making it

-a pleasure-giving picture, even more than a faithful

-transcript, was gathering ground. The

-&ldquo;Procession of the Relic&rdquo; was still in Gentile&#8217;s

-studio, but the Frari &ldquo;Madonna and Child&rdquo;

-was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was

-beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the

-Bellini and Vivarini were in keen rivalship.</p>

-

-<p>Titian is said to have passed from the <em>bottega</em>

-of Gentile to that of Giovanni Bellini, but

-nothing in his style reminds us of the former,

-and even his early work has very little that is

-really Bellinesque, whereas from the very first

-he reflects the new spirit which emanated from

-Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and

-we can divine the sympathy that arose between

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>the two when they came together in Bellini&#8217;s

-School. As soon as their apprenticeship was at

-an end they became partners. Fond of pleasure

-and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement,

-they were naturally congenial companions,

-and were drawn yet more closely together by

-their love for their art and by the aptitude with

-which Titian grasped Giorgione&#8217;s principles.</p>

-

-<p>And if we ask ourselves why we take for

-granted that of two young men so closely allied

-in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione

-as the leader and the creator of the new style,

-we may answer that Titian was a more complex

-character. He was intellectual, and carried his

-intellect into his art, but this was no new

-feature. The intellect had had and was having

-a large share in art. But in that part which was

-new, and which was launching art upon an

-untried course, Giorgione is more intense, more

-one-idea&#8217;d than Titian. What he does he does

-with a fervour and a spontaneity that marks him

-as one who pours out the language of the heart.</p>

-

-<p>The partnership between the two was probably

-arranged a few years before the end of the

-century, for we have seen that young painters

-usually started on their own account at about

-nineteen or twenty. For some years Titian, like

-Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of

-the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The groups of

-figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us

-that while Giorgione made some attempt at

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>following classic figures, Titian broke entirely

-with Greek art and only thought of picturesque

-nature and contemporary costume.</p>

-

-<p>Vasari complains that he never knew what

-Titian&#8217;s &ldquo;Judith&rdquo; was meant to represent,

-&ldquo;unless it was Germania,&rdquo; but Zanetti, who had

-the benefit of Sebastiano Ricci&#8217;s taste, declares

-that from what he saw, both Giorgione and

-Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. &ldquo;While

-Giorgione showed a fervid and original spirit

-and opened up a new path, over which he shed

-a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was

-of a grander and more equable genius, leaning

-at first, indeed, upon Giorgione&#8217;s example, but

-expanding with such force and rapidity as to

-place him in advance of his companion, on an

-eminence to which no later craftsman was

-able to climb.... He moderated the fire of

-Giorgione, whose strength lay in fanciful movement

-and a mysterious artifice in disposing

-shadows, contrasted darkly with warm lights,

-blended, strengthened, blurred, so as to produce

-the semblance of exuberant life.&rdquo; Certain works

-remain to link the two painters; even now

-critics are divided as to which of the two to

-attribute the &ldquo;Concert&rdquo; in the Pitti. The

-figures are Giorgionesque, but the technique

-establishes it as an early Titian, and it is doubtful

-whether Giorgione would be capable of the

-intellectual effort which produced the dreamy,

-passionate expression of the young monk, borne

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>far out of himself by his own melody, and half

-recalled to life by the touch on his shoulder.

-Titian, like Giorgione, was a musician, and the

-fascination of music is felt by many masters

-of the Italian schools. In one picture the player

-feels vaguely after the melody, in another we are

-asked to anticipate the song that is just about

-to begin, or the last chords of that just finished

-vibrate upon the ear, but nowhere else in all art

-has any one so seized the melody of an instant

-and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in

-our ears as this musician does.</p>

-

-<p>Though we cannot say that Titian was the

-pupil of any one master, the fifteen years, more

-or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an

-indelible impression upon him. We have only

-to look at such a picture as the &ldquo;Madonna and

-Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,&rdquo;

-in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that

-in 1503 Giorgione at Castelfranco had taken

-the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary

-and had enthroned her on high in a bright

-and sunny landscape with S. Liberale standing

-sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding his

-liege lady.</p>

-

-<p>Titian in this early group casts every convention

-aside; a beautiful woman and lovely

-children are placed in surroundings whose charm

-is devoid of hieratic and religious significance.

-The same easy unfettered treatment appears in

-the &ldquo;Madonna with the Cherries&rdquo; at Vienna,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>and the &ldquo;Madonna with St. Bridget and S.

-Ulfus&rdquo; at Madrid, and while it has been surmised

-that the example of the precise Albert

-D&uuml;rer, who paid his first visit to Venice in

-1506, was not without its effect in preserving

-Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and

-in inciting him to fine finish, it is interesting

-to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding

-the use of the carefully traced and transferred

-cartoon, and was sketching his design freely on

-panel or canvas with a brush dipped in brown

-pigment, and altering and modifying it as he

-went on.</p>

-

-<p>The last years of Titian&#8217;s first period in

-Venice must have been anxious ones. The

-Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian

-possessions on the mainland, in anger at a refusal

-to grant his troops a free passage on their way

-to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy.

-Cadore was the first point of his invasion, and

-from 1507 Titian&#8217;s uncle and great-uncle were

-in the Councils of the State, his father held an

-important command, and his brother Francesco,

-who had already made some progress as an

-artist, threw down his brush and became a

-soldier. Titian was not one of those who took

-up arms, but his thoughts must have been full

-of the attack and defence in his mountain

-fastnesses, and he must have anxiously awaited

-news of his father&#8217;s troops and of the squadrons

-of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Francesco was riding. Francesco made a reputation

-as a distinguished soldier, and was severely

-wounded, and when peace was made, Titian,

-&ldquo;who loved him tenderly,&rdquo; persuaded him to

-return to the pursuit of art.</p>

-

-<p>The ratification of the League of Cambray, in

-which Julius II., Maximilian, and Ferdinand of

-Naples combined against the power of Venice, was

-disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists

-who depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen

-of all kinds first fled to her for shelter, then, as

-profits and orders fell off, they left to look elsewhere

-for commissions. An outbreak of plague,

-in which Giorgione perished, went further to

-make Venice an undesirable home, and at this

-time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto

-for the Romagna, and Titian for Padua.</p>

-

-<p>We may believe that Titian never felt

-perfectly satisfied with fresco-painting as a craft,

-for when he was given a commission to fresco

-the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of

-St. Anthony, patron-saint of Padua, he threw off

-beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but

-he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants,

-among whom the feeble Domenico Campagnola,

-a painter whom he probably picked up at Padua,

-is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is

-best, as in &ldquo;S. Anthony restoring a Youth,&rdquo; the

-drawing and composition only make us feel how

-enchanting the scene would have been in oils

-on one of Titian&#8217;s melting canvases. In those

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>frescoes which he executed himself while his

-interest was still fresh, the &ldquo;Miracle which

-grants Speech to an Infant&rdquo; is the most Giorgionesque.

-Up to this time he had preserved the

-straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his

-contemporaries, after the practice of Giorgione;

-he keeps, too, to his companion&#8217;s plan of design,

-placing the most important figures upon one

-plane, close to the frame and behind a low wall

-or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame and

-with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes

-he makes use of this plan, and the straight

-clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay

-doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade,

-but the group of women to the left in the

-&ldquo;Miracle of the Child&rdquo; shows that Titian is

-beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own

-type. The introduction of portraits proves that

-he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in

-contradistinction to Giorgione&#8217;s lyrically improvised

-figures. He fuses the influence of

-Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da

-Messina and the Bellini in a deeper knowledge

-of life and nature, and he is passing beyond

-Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When

-he was able to return to Venice, which he did in

-1512, a temporary peace having been concluded

-with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial

-medium of fresco for good, and devoted himself

-to that which admitted of the afterthoughts,

-the enrichments, the gradual attainment of an

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>exquisite surface, and at this time his works are

-remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.</p>

-

-<p>During the next twelve years we may group

-a number of paintings which, taken in conjunction

-with those of Giorgione, show the

-true Venetian School at its most intense, idyllic

-moment. They are the works of a man in the

-pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy,

-an example of the confident, sanguine, joyous

-temper of his age, capable of embodying its

-dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment

-of life, its worldly-mindedness, its love of

-pleasure, as well as its noble feeling and its

-grave and magnificent purpose.</p>

-

-<p>For absolute delight in colour let us turn to

-a picture like the &ldquo;Noli me tangere&rdquo; of the

-National Gallery. The golden light, the blues

-and olives of the landscape, the crimson of the

-Magdalen&#8217;s raiment, combine in a feast of

-emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of

-the woman, whose soul is breathed out in the

-word &ldquo;Master.&rdquo; The colour unites with the

-light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we

-can see Titian&#8217;s delight in the ductile medium

-which had such power to give material sensation.

-In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and

-shoaling blues, the velvety fulness and plenitudes

-of the brush become visible; we can look into

-their depths and see something quite unlike the

-smooth, opaque washes of the Florentines.</p>

-

-<p>In such a masterpiece as &ldquo;Sacred and Profane

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Love,&rdquo; painted during these years for the Borghese,

-there are summed up all those artistic aims

-towards which the Venetian painters had been

-tending. The picture is still Giorgionesque in

-mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff

-suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the

-love-suit of Jason; but the subject is not forced

-upon us, and we are more occupied with the

-contrast between the two beautiful personalities,

-so harmoniously related to each other, yet so

-opposed in type. The gracious, self-absorbed

-lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove,

-her silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and

-spirit to the goddess whose free, simple attitude

-and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal. The

-sinuous and enchanting line of Venus&#8217;s figure

-against the crimson cloak has, I think, been the

-outcome of admiration for Giorgione&#8217;s &ldquo;Sleeping

-Venus,&rdquo; and has the same soft, unhurried curves.

-Titian&#8217;s two figures are perfectly spaced in a

-setting which breathes the very aroma of the

-early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble

-fountain represents nymphs whipping a sleeping

-Love to life, while a cupid teases the

-chaste unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes

-in the water, fallen rose-leaves strew the

-mellow marble rim, around and away stretches

-a sunny country scene, in which people are

-placidly pursuing a life of ease and pleasure.

-What a revelation to Venice these pictures were

-which began with Giorgione&#8217;s conversaziones!

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>How little occupied the women are with the

-story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons

-on her fingers, like S. Ursula. Medea is listening

-to her own thoughts, but the whole scene

-is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and

-happiness of love. The little censer burning

-away in the blue and breathless air might be a

-philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the

-rays of the evening sun strike the picture,

-where it now hangs, and bring out each touch

-of its glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate

-with the joy of life and to thrill with the

-magic of summer in the days when the world

-was young.</p>

-

-<p>With the influence still lingering of Giorgione&#8217;s

-&ldquo;Knight of Malta,&rdquo; Titian produced some of his

-finest portraits in the decade that led to the

-middle of his life. The &ldquo;Dr. Parma&rdquo; at Vienna,

-the noble &ldquo;Man in Black&rdquo; and &ldquo;Man with a

-Glove&rdquo; of the Louvre, the &ldquo;Young Englishman&rdquo;

-of the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the

-portrait at Temple Newsam, which, with some

-critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples

-in which he keeps the half-length, invented by

-Bellini and followed by Giorgione.</p>

-

-<p>After the visit to Padua he shows less preference

-for costume, and his women are generally

-clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than

-the square-cut bodice.</p>

-

-<p>We do not wonder that all the leading

-personages of Italy wished to be painted by

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>Titian. His are the portraits of a man of

-intellect. They show the subject at his best;

-grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared and

-wished to appear; not taken off his guard in

-any way. What can be more sympathetic as a

-personality than the Ariosto of the National

-Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make

-a friend of him, and yet all the time he has

-himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much

-as he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that

-he does not intend us to discover. The painter

-himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he

-does not paint in his own fancies about his

-sitter&mdash;probably he had none; he saw what he was

-meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson

-calls &ldquo;a certain happy insensibility&rdquo; about him,

-which prevented him from taking fantastic

-flights, or from looking too deep below the

-surface.</p>

-

-<p><a name="aris" id="aris"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">

-<img src="images/img191.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Titian.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARIOSTO.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>With the &ldquo;Assumption,&rdquo; finished in 1518 for

-the Church of the Frari, Titian rose to the

-very highest among Renaissance painters. The

-&ldquo;Glorious S. Mary&rdquo; was his theme, and he

-concentrated all his efforts on the realisation of

-that one idea. The central figure is, as it

-were, a collective rather than an individual

-type. Well proportioned and elastic as it is,

-it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious

-and serene, it combines dramatic force and

-profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its

-hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly

-by that throbbing company of child angels and

-followed by full recognition and awestruck satisfaction

-in the adoring gaze of the throng below,

-yet Titian has contrived to keep some touch of

-the loving woman hurrying to meet her son.

-The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the

-garment of glowing blues and crimsons, have

-a more than common share in that spirit of

-confident joy and poured-out life which envelops

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>the whole canvas. In the worthy representation

-of a great event, the visible assumption of

-Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts

-forth all his powers and steeps us in that temper

-of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and confidence

-in the capacity of man, which was so

-characteristic of the ripe Renaissance. In looking

-at this splendid canvas, we must call to

-mind the position for which Titian painted it.

-Hung in the dusky recesses of the apse, it was

-tempered by and merged in its stately surroundings.

-The band of Apostles almost formed

-a part of the whispering crowd below, and the

-glorious Mother was beheld soaring upwards to

-the golden light and the mysterious vistas of

-the vaulted arches above.</p>

-

-<p>The patronage of courts had by this time

-altered the tenor of Titian&#8217;s life. In 1516

-Duke Alfonso d&#8217;Este had invited him to Ferrara,

-where he had finished Bellini&#8217;s &ldquo;Bacchanals.&rdquo;

-It bears the marks of Titian&#8217;s hand, and he has

-introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore

-into the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes

-to propose another painting, and Titian&#8217;s acceptance

-is contained in a very courtier-like letter,

-in which we divine a touch of irony. &ldquo;The

-more I thought of it,&rdquo; he ends, &ldquo;the more I

-became convinced that the greatness of art

-among the ancients was due to the assistance

-they received from great princes, who were

-content to leave to the painter the credit and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>renown derived from their own ingenuity in

-bespeaking pictures.&rdquo; Alfonso&#8217;s requirements

-for his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological

-scenes were already popular. Mantegna

-had adorned Isabela d&#8217;Este&#8217;s &ldquo;Paradiso&rdquo; with

-revels of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception

-of classic myth in the Medici villa, already

-Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was

-to make designs for similar scenes to complete

-the decorations of the halls of Este. The same

-exuberant feeling he shows in the &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo;

-finds utterance in the &ldquo;Garden of Loves&rdquo; and

-the &ldquo;Bacchanals,&rdquo; both painted for Alfonso of

-Ferrara. The children in the former may be

-compared with the angels in the &ldquo;Assumption.&rdquo;

-Their blue wings match the heavenly blue sky,

-and they are painted with the most delicate finish.</p>

-

-<p>We can imagine the beauty of the great

-hall at Ferrara when hung with this brilliant

-series, which was completed in 1523 by the

-&ldquo;Bacchus and Ariadne&rdquo; of the National Gallery.

-The whole company of bacchanals is given up

-to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods

-the deep blue sky and great white clouds of a

-summer day. The deep greens of the foliage

-throw the creamy-white and burning colour of

-the draperies and the fair forms of the nymphs

-into glowing relief, while by a convention

-the satyrs are of a deep, tawny complexion.

-On a roll of music is stamped the rollicking

-device, &ldquo;<em>Chi boit et ne reboit, ne s&ccedil;eais que boir soit</em>.&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines,

-its crimson juice shines like a jewel in crystal

-goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.

-The influence of such pictures as these was

-absorbed by Rubens, but though they hardly

-surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and

-less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance

-is never shown more victoriously than here,

-where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the

-actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian

-than revolting. In the &ldquo;Bacchus and Ariadne,&rdquo;

-Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood

-of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so

-simple, that we must smile in sympathy. The

-conqueror flinging himself from his golden

-chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle

-fluttering on high, is so full of reckless life that

-our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,

-marching with song and laughter, seems to

-people that golden country-side with fit inhabitants.

-The careless satyrs and little merry,

-goat-legged fauns shock us no more than a herd

-of forest ponies, tossing their manes and dashing

-along for love of life and movement.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Yet almost

-before this series was put in place Titian was

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>showing the diversity of his genius by the

-&ldquo;Deposition,&rdquo; now in the Louvre, which was

-painted at the instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis

-of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d&#8217;Este. Here

-he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro.

-While it is satisfying in balance and sweeping

-rhythm, and by the way in which every line

-follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened

-lines of the dead Body, it escapes Raphael&#8217;s

-academic treatment of the same subject. Its

-splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into

-a scene of solemn pathos and tragedy. The

-scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion,

-and what above all gives it its intense power is

-the way in which the flaming hues are absorbed

-into the twilight shadows. The dark heads

-stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor

-of the dead is half veiled by the falling night.

-It is a picture which has the emotional beauty

-of a scene in nature, and makes a profound

-impression by its depth and mystery. This

-same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant

-colouring of the great altarpiece painted for

-the Pesaro family in the Frari. Columns rise

-like great tree-trunks, light and air play through

-the clouds seen between them. The grouping

-is a new experiment, but the way in which

-the Mother and Child, though placed quite at

-one side of the picture, are focussed as the

-centre of interest, by the converging lines,

-diagonal on the one hand and straight on the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>other, crowns it with success. The scheme of

-colour brings the two figures into high relief,

-while St. Francis and the family of the donor

-are subordinated to rich, deep tints. Titian has

-abandoned, more completely than ever before,

-any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural

-majesty. He is a delightful, spoiled baby, fully

-aware of his sovereignty over his mother, pretending

-to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants,

-but occupying himself in making a tent

-over his head out of her veil. The &ldquo;Madonna

-in Glory with six Saints&rdquo; of the Vatican is

-another example of the rich and &ldquo;smouldering&rdquo;

-colour in which Titian was now creating his great

-altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality,

-a solidity, which gives reality without heaviness,

-and finishing with that fine-grained texture

-which makes his flesh look like marble endowed

-with life.</p>

-

-<p><a name="diana" id="diana"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img198.jpg" width="550" height="492" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Titian.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; DIANA AND ACTAEON.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Earl Brownlow.</em><br />

-(<em>The Medici Society, Ltd.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us

-how boldly his own style was established. His

-sacred persons are not different from his pagans

-and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he

-still reminds us of Giorgione. He has been

-constant to the earliest influences which

-surrounded him, and to that temperament which

-made him accept those influences so

-instantaneously&mdash;and this constancy and unity give

-him the untroubled ascendancy over art which

-is such a feature of his position.</p>

-

-<p>With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>sprung to a recognised status in the great world

-of the Renaissance. They were no longer the

-patronised craftsmen. They had become the

-courted guests, the social equals. Titian, passing

-from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua

-and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants,

-was a magnificent personage, whose presence

-was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook

-a commission as one who conferred a coveted

-boon. Among those who clustered closest round

-the popular favourite, no one did more to

-enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant

-unscrupulous debauchee, wit, bully, blackmailer,

-but a man who, with all his faults, had evidently

-his own power of fascination, and, the friend of

-princes, must have been himself the prince of

-good company. Aretino, as far as he could be

-said to be attached to any one, was consistent in

-his attachment to Titian from the time they

-first met at the court of the Gonzaga. He

-played the part of a chorus, calling attention to

-the great painter&#8217;s merits, jogging the memory

-of his employers as to payments, and never

-ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian,

-for his part, shows himself equally devoted to

-Aretino&#8217;s interests, and has left various characteristic

-portraits of him, handsome and showy in

-his prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook

-him.</p>

-

-<p>In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of

-St. Peter Martyr invited artists to send in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint,

-in SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one

-by Jacobello del Fiore. Palma Vecchio and

-Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off

-the prize. The picture was delivered in 1530,

-and during the autumn of 1529 Sebastian del

-Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and

-Michelangelo had sought refuge there from

-Florence and had stayed for some months. A

-quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed

-the picture, so that it may quite probably have

-only been begun after intercourse with the

-Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian&#8217;s

-ideas; for though he never ceases to be himself,

-it certainly seems as if the genius of Michelangelo

-had had some effect. From what we

-know of the altarpiece, which perished by fire

-in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli

-remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms

-of Herculean strength in violent action, but

-there his likeness to the Florentine ended;

-the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep,

-though not altogether successful, attention to

-anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture

-obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness

-from the setting in which the figures were

-placed&mdash;the great trees, bending and straining,

-the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in

-portentous harmony with the sinister deed, and

-overhead the enchanting gleam of light which

-shot downward and irradiated the face of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>martyr and the two lovely winged boys, bathed

-in a flood of blue &aelig;ther, who held aloft the palm

-of victory. Many copies of it remain, and we

-only regret that one which Rubens executed is

-not preserved among them.</p>

-

-<p>When we look at the delicious &ldquo;Madonna del

-Coniglio&rdquo; in the Louvre and our own &ldquo;Marriage

-of S. Catherine,&rdquo; the first of which certainly, and

-the second probably, was painted about this time,

-we cannot doubt that the charm of the idea

-of motherhood had particularly arrested the

-painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio,

-was born, and was followed by another son and

-a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that

-passion of mother-love with an intensity and

-reality that can only be drawn from life, and

-on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his

-name, Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is

-increasing, and the landscape in these pictures

-equals the figures in importance and has engrossed

-the painter quite as much. Every year

-Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in the rich

-woodlands, the distant villages, the great white

-villa on the hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off

-blue mountains and the glooms and gleams of

-storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays

-through the summer clouds, which he has

-painted here, we see how constant was his study

-of his native country, and how profoundly he

-felt its poetry and its charm. He had married

-Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530

-she died, and he mourned her deeply. He

-went on working and planning for his children&#8217;s

-future, and his sister came from Cadore to take

-charge of the motherless household; but his

-friends&#8217; letters speak of his being ill from melancholy,

-and he could not go on living in the

-old house at San Samuele, which had been his

-home for sixteen years. He took a new house

-on the north side of the city, in the parish of

-San Canciano. The Casa Grande, as it was

-called, was a building of importance, which the

-painter first hired and finally bought, letting off

-such apartments as he did not need. The first

-floor had a terrace, and was entered by a flight

-of steps from the garden, which overlooked the

-lagoons, and had a view of the Cadore mountains.

-It has been swept away by the building of the

-Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the

-leases are preserved, and the exact site is well

-established. Here his children grew up, and he

-worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his

-eldest son, was idle and extravagant, a constant

-source of trouble, and Aretino writes him reproachful

-letters, which he treats with much

-impertinence. Orazio took to his father&#8217;s profession,

-and was his constant companion, and often

-drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter,

-Lavinia, was his greatest joy and pride. In this

-house Titian showed constant hospitality, and

-there are records of the princely fashion in which

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>he entertained his friends and distinguished

-foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known

-Humanist and <em>savant</em> of the day, describes a

-Bacchanalian feast on the 1st of August, in a

-pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano

-Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi

-were present. Till the sun set they stayed indoors,

-admiring the artist&#8217;s pictures. &ldquo;As soon as

-it went down, the tables were spread, looking on

-the lagoons, which soon swarmed with gondolas

-full of beautiful women, and resounded with

-music of voices and instruments, which till

-midnight, accompanied our delightful supper.

-Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious

-wines, and the supper ended gaily.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>In the year 1532 Titian for the first time

-sought other than Italian patronage. Charles V.,

-who was then at the height of his power, with

-all Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua,

-and among all the treasures that he saw was

-most struck by Titian&#8217;s portrait of Federigo

-Gonzaga. After much writing to and fro, it was

-arranged that Titian should meet the Emperor

-at Bologna, where he had just been crowned.

-He made his first sketch of him, from which he

-afterwards produced a finished full length. It

-was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares

-that from that time forth Charles would never sit

-to any other master. He received a knighthood,

-and many commissions from members of the

-Emperor&#8217;s court. It was for one of his nobles,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>da Valos, Marquis of Vasto, that he painted the

-allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which Mary

-of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is

-parting with her husband, who is bound on one

-of the desperate expeditions against the terrible

-Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the

-couple are encircled by Hymen, Victory, and

-the God of Love. The composition was repeated

-more than once, but never with quite the same

-success. We again suspect the influence of

-Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before

-Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver,

-for the Church of that name, of which the Doge

-was patron. The figures are life-size, the types

-stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and

-the colours, though gorgeous, are softened and

-broken by broad effects of light and shade. It

-is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that

-in which about this time he produced a series of

-beautiful female portraits, nude or semi-nude,

-chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the

-Duke of Urbino. The Duke at this time was

-the General-in-Chief of the Venetian forces, a

-position which took him often to Venice, and

-Titian&#8217;s relations with him lasted till the painter&#8217;s

-death. At least twenty-five of his works must

-have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro.

-Among these were the Venus of the Uffizi, &ldquo;La

-Bella di Tiziano,&rdquo; in her gorgeous scheme of

-blue and amethyst, the &ldquo;Girl in a Fur Cloak,&rdquo;

-besides portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>would be impossible to enumerate here the

-numbers of portraits which Titian was now

-supplying. The reputation he had acquired,

-not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and

-Germany, was greater than had ever been attained

-by any painter, while his social position was

-established among the highest in every court.

-&ldquo;He had rivals in Venice,&rdquo; says Vasari,

-&ldquo;but none that he did not crush by his

-excellence and knowledge of the world in

-converse with gentlemen.&rdquo; There is not a

-writer of the day who does not acclaim his

-genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of

-money, and had amassed a good fortune. He

-was constantly asking for favours, and had

-pensions and allowances from royal patrons.

-Lavinia, when she married, brought her husband

-a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the

-portraits of the Doges with tolerable regularity,

-but all through his life complaints were heard of

-his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand

-Council. Occupied as he was with the work of his

-foreign patrons, he had systematically neglected

-the conditions enjoined by his possession of a

-Broker&#8217;s patent, and the Signoria suddenly called

-on him to refund the salary amounting to over

-100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during

-which he had drawn it without performing his

-promise, while they prepared to instal Pordenone,

-who had lately appeared as his bitter rival, in

-his stead. Though Titian must have been

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>making large sums of money at this time, his

-expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly face

-the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats

-at the same time that he lost the annual salary,

-nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a second-rate

-rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his

-own hands; he set to work and soon completed

-a great canvas of the &ldquo;Battle of Cadore,&rdquo; which,

-though it is only known to us from a contemporary

-print and a drawing by Rubens,

-evidently deserved Vasari&#8217;s verdict of being the

-finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The

-movement and stir he contrives to give with a

-small number of figures is astonishing. The

-fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment

-advancing with lances and pennons produces the

-illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army, the

-desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises

-all the terrors of war. It was an atonement for

-his long period of neglect, but it was not till

-<ins class="translit" title="Pordenone died in 1539">1439</ins> that, Pordenone having suddenly died, the

-Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his

-Broker&#8217;s patent. One of his later paintings for the

-State still keeps its place, &ldquo;The Triumph of

-Faith,&rdquo; in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad

-form with flowing mantle, kneels before the

-angelic apparition of Faith, who holds a cross,

-which angels and cherubs help her to support.

-Beneath the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the

-Ducal Palace, and the Campanile. It is an allegory

-of Grimani&#8217;s life; his defeat and captivity

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the

-magnificent figure of St. Mark with the lion is

-introduced to show that the Doge believes himself

-to owe his freedom to the saint&#8217;s intercession.

-The prophet and standard-bearer at the sides

-were added by Marco Vecellio.</p>

-

-<p>Though the battlepiece perished in the fire

-of 1577, another masterpiece of this time marks

-a climax in Titian&#8217;s brilliantly coloured and

-highly finished style. The &ldquo;Presentation of the

-Virgin&rdquo; was painted for the refectory of the

-Confraternity of the Carit&agrave;, which was housed in

-the building now used as the Academy, so that

-the picture remains in the place for which it

-was executed. It is one of the most vivid and

-life-like of all his works. The composition is

-the traditional one; the fifteen steps of the

-&ldquo;Gospel of Mary,&rdquo; the High Priest of the old

-dispensation welcoming the childish representative

-of the new. Below is a great crowd, but

-it is this little figure which first attracts the

-eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture

-and the free and glowing country beyond

-is not without meaning, and a broken Roman

-torso, lying neglected on the ground, symbolises

-the downfall of the Pagan Empire. The flight

-of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is an

-idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken

-by him from the sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini.

-The men on the left are portraits of members and

-patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>are the beautiful women in rich dresses at the

-foot of the steps. In this stately composition

-we see what is often noticeable in Titian&#8217;s

-scenes; he brings in the bystanders after the

-manner of a Greek chorus. They all, with one

-accord, express the same sentiment. There is a

-certain acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a

-vein of simplicity flows through his nature. He

-has not the sensitive and subtle search after the

-motives of humanity which we find in Tintoretto

-or Lotto. He has great intellectual power, but

-not great imagination. It is a temper which

-helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality

-of his scenes undisturbed and adds to their effect.

-In the &ldquo;Ecce Homo&rdquo; Christ is shown to the

-populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment

-is a portrait of Aretino, and the contrast of

-the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd

-which, with all its lower instincts let loose,

-thunders back the cry of &ldquo;Crucify Him,&rdquo; is the

-more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit

-which possesses the raging multitude. Other

-artists would have given more incidental byplay,

-and drawn off our attention from the main issue.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>While Titian was executing portraits of the

-Doges, of Aretino and of Isabella of Portugal,

-and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he

-was also striking out a new line in the ceiling

-pictures for the Church of San Spirito, which

-have since been transferred to the Salute.

-Though painted before his journey to Rome,

-it may be suspected that he had Michelangelo&#8217;s

-work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that

-he was setting himself the task of bold foreshortening

-and technical problems. The daring

-of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that

-this is not Titian&#8217;s element; his figures in violent

-movement give a vivid idea of strength and muscular

-force, but fail both in grace and drawing,

-and though the colour and light and shade distract

-our attention from defects of form, he does

-not possess that mastery over the flowing silhouette

-which Tintoretto attained.</p>

-

-<p>It was in 1543 that his relations with the

-Farnese, whose young cardinal he had been

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X.

-had tried to attract him there without success,

-but now at sixty-eight he found himself as far

-on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was

-with him, and Duke Guidobaldo was himself

-his escort, and sent him on with a band of

-men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in

-Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul III. gave him

-a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed

-his cicerone. It is interesting to inquire what

-impression Rome, with its treasures of antique

-statuary and contemporary painting, made upon

-Titian. &ldquo;He is filled with wonder and glad

-that he came,&rdquo; writes Bembo. In a letter to

-Aretino he regrets that he had not come before.

-He stayed eight months in Rome, and was made

-a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of

-Raphael in company with Sebastian del Piombo,

-and Michelangelo comes to see him at his

-lodgings, and he receives a long letter from

-Aretino advising him to compare Michelangelo

-with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with

-the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian

-was well established in his own style, and was

-received as the creator of acknowledged masterpieces,

-and he never painted a more magnificent

-portrait-piece than that of Paul III., the peevish

-old Pope, ailing and humorous, suspicious of the

-two nephews who are painted with him, and

-who he guessed to be conspiring against him.

-The characteristic attitude of the old man of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick,

-irritable glance, the steady, determined gaze of

-the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and weak,

-wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised

-in a broader, more careless technique than Titian

-has hitherto used. Though he does not seem

-to have been directly influenced by all he saw in

-Rome, we undoubtedly find a change coming over

-his work between 1540 and 1550, which may

-be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic

-horizon and a consciousness of what others were

-doing, both around him and abroad. In its

-whole handling and character his late is different

-from his early manner. It begins at this time

-to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist character.

-His delight in rich colouring seems to wane,

-and he aims at intensifying the power of light.

-He reaches that point in the Venetian School

-of painting which we may regard as its climax,

-when there is little strong local colour, but the

-canvas seems illumined from within. There

-are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are

-suggested by sombre enveloping shades in

-which the radiant brightness is embedded. His

-landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue

-and smiling, filled with loving detail, but

-grander, more mysterious. In the &ldquo;St. Jerome&rdquo;

-in Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely

-surroundings, and the moon, slowly rising behind

-the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray across

-the crucifix. The &ldquo;Supper at Emmaus&rdquo; has

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>the grandiose effect that is given by avoidance

-of detail and simplification of method.</p>

-

-<p>Titian painted several portraits of himself, and

-we know what sort of stately figure was presented

-by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas in

-1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the

-depths of winter to obey Charles V.&#8217;s call to Augsburg.

-The excitement of the public was great at

-his departure, and Aretino describes how his house

-was besieged for the sketches and designs he left

-behind him. For nearly forty years Titian was

-employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had

-been working for Charles since 1530, and when

-the Emperor abdicated, his employment by Philip

-II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of

-1686 contained seventy-six Titians, and though

-probably not all were genuine, yet an immense

-number were really by him, and the gallery,

-even now, is richer in his works than any other.</p>

-

-<p>The great hall of the Pardo must have been

-a wonderful sight, with Titian&#8217;s finest portrait

-of himself in the midst, and the magnificent

-portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which

-he continued from this time forward to contribute

-to it. In this year, which was the

-last before Charles&#8217;s abdication, and during this

-visit to South Germany, he painted the great

-equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field

-of M&uuml;hlberg, and two years later came the first

-of his many portraits of Philip II. The face,

-in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of fury

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the

-sitter is realised as a man of great distinction.

-Ugly and sensual as he is, we never tire of

-looking at Titian&#8217;s conception&mdash;a full length of

-distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent

-colour. Everything in it lives, and the

-slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a

-whole biography in themselves.</p>

-

-<p>The splendid series of allegorical subjects

-which Titian contributed to the Pardo, while he

-was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces

-to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are

-among his most mature and important works.

-Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and

-stronger than in the &ldquo;Jupiter and Antiope,&rdquo; or

-the &ldquo;Venus of the Pardo&rdquo; as it is sometimes

-called. The Venus herself has the attitude of

-Giorgione&#8217;s dreaming goddess, with her arm

-flung up above her head. It is, perhaps, the only

-time that Titian succeeds in giving anything

-ideal to one of his Venuses. The famous nudes

-of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid

-courtesans, far removed from Giorgione&#8217;s idyllic

-vision; but Antiope, slumbering on her couch

-of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with

-adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole

-world of sweet and joyful fancy. The whole

-scene is full of a <em>joie de vivre</em>, which carries us

-back to the Bacchanals painted so many years

-before, and in these Titian gives King Philip

-his most perfect work, every touch of which

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre,

-was given to Charles I. by the King of Spain,

-and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.

-&ldquo;Dana&euml;,&rdquo; &ldquo;Venus and Adonis,&rdquo; &ldquo;Europa and

-the Bull,&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; followed in

-quick succession, but Titian was now employing

-many assistants, and great parts of the canvases

-issuing from his workshop show weak, imitative

-hands, while replicas were made of other works.</p>

-

-<p>His later feeling for the religious in art is

-expressed in the now bedimmed paintings in

-San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes these

-in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety

-years old, the &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo; is remarkable

-for forcible, majestic movement, while in the

-&ldquo;Annunciation&rdquo; he invents quite a new treatment.

-Mary turns round and raises her veil,

-while she grasps the book as if she depended on

-it for stay and support. The four angels are

-full of life and gaiety, and the whole has much

-grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in

-the painter&#8217;s later style, in broad and sweeping

-planes without patience of detail. The old man

-has signed it &ldquo;Titianus, fecit, fecit,&rdquo; a contemptuous

-reply to some critics who complained

-of its want of finish. He knew well what it

-was in composition and execution, and that all

-that he had ever known or done lay within the

-careless strength of his last manner.</p>

-

-<p>A letter written to the King of Spain&#8217;s

-secretary in 1574 gives a list &ldquo;in part&rdquo; of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the

-last twenty-five years, &ldquo;with many others which

-I do not remember.&rdquo; On every hand we hear

-of lost pictures from the master&#8217;s brush, and the

-number produced even during the last ten years

-of his life must have been enormous, for till

-the end he was full of great undertakings and

-achievements. Very late in life he painted a

-&ldquo;Shepherd and Nymph&rdquo; (Vienna), which in

-its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its

-mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the

-early days with Giorgione, yet the blurred and

-smouldering richness, the absolute negation of

-all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest

-style, and he has gone past Giorgione on his

-own ground. Then in strange contrast is the

-&ldquo;Christ Crowned with Thorns,&rdquo; at Vienna, a

-tragic figure stupefied with suffering. His last

-great work was the &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo; in the Academy,

-which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and

-very impressive. He places the Virgin supporting

-the Body in a great dome-shaped niche,

-which gives elevation. It is flanked by two

-calm, antique, stone figures, whose impassive air

-contrasts with the wild pain and grief below.

-The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator

-with the wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It

-perhaps hardly moves us like the concentrated

-feeling of Bellini&#8217;s Madonna, or the hurried,

-trembling grief of Tintoretto&#8217;s Magdalen, but

-it is monumental in the sweeping grace of its

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is

-sadly rubbed and darkened and has lost much

-of Titian&#8217;s colour, but is still beautiful in

-its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden

-glow, as of half-extinguished fires. These late

-paintings are of the true impressionist order;

-looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled

-touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step

-farther away, to the right focus, light and dark

-arrange themselves, order shines through the

-whole, and we see what the great master meant

-us to see. &ldquo;Titian&#8217;s later creations,&rdquo; says

-Vasari, &ldquo;are struck off rapidly, so that when

-close you cannot see them, but afar they look

-perfect, and this is the style which so many

-tried to imitate, to show that they were practised

-hands, but only produced absurdities.&rdquo; Titian

-was preparing the picture for the Frari, in payment

-for the grant of a tomb for himself, when

-in August 1576 the plague broke out in Venice,

-and on the 27th the great painter died of it in

-his own house. The stringent regulations concerning

-infection were relaxed to do honour to

-one of the greatest sons of Venice, and he was

-laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn

-procession, through a city stricken by terror and

-panic, and buried in the Chapel of the Crucified

-Saviour, for which his last work was ordered.

-The &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo; of his prime looked down

-upon him, and close at hand was the &ldquo;Madonna

-of Casa Pesaro.&rdquo; His son Orazio caught the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>plague and died immediately after, and the

-painter&#8217;s house was sacked by thieves and many

-precious things stolen.</p>

-

-<p>The great personality of Titian stands out

-as that which of all others established and

-consolidated the school of Venice. He is its

-central figure. The century of life, of which

-eighty years were passed in ceaseless industry of

-production, left its deep impression on the art of

-every civilised country of Europe. Every great

-man of the day who was a lover of art and

-culture fell under Titian&#8217;s spell. His influence

-on his contemporaries was enormous, and he had

-everything: genius, industry, personal distinction,

-character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too

-intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of

-the Venetian spirit, in the way that Tintoretto

-is; it is conceivable that in another environment

-Titian might have developed on rather

-different lines, but this temper gave him greater

-domination. He was free from the eccentricities

-which beset genius. He possessed the saving

-salt of practical common sense, so that the

-golden mean of sanity and healthful joy in his

-works commended them to all men, and they are

-not difficult to understand. Yet while all can

-see the beauty of his poetic instinct for colour,

-his interesting and original technique, his grasp

-and scope, his mastery and certainty have gained

-for him the title of &ldquo;the painter&#8217;s painter.&rdquo;

-There is no one from whom men feel that they

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>can so safely learn so much, and the grand breadth

-and power of elimination of his later years is

-justified by the way in which in his earlier work

-he has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto

-to perfection.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ancona.</td>  <td class="td5">Crucifixion (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Antwerp.</td>  <td class="td5">Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.); Lavinia bearing Charges.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride, 1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.);

-                            Portrait, 1561; Lady with Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman; The Concert (E.); Philip II.;

-                            Ippolito de Medici, 1533; Tomaso Mosti.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537;

-                            Flora; Venus, the head a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora Gonzaga; Madonna

-                            with S. Anthony Abbot.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John

-                            and Catherine.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon,

-                            1559; Callisto, 1559.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden of Loves; Dana&euml;, 1554; Venus and

-                            Youth playing Organ (L.); Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment, 1559;

-                            Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.); Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the

-                            Battle of M&uuml;hlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II., 1550; Philip II.; The Infant;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>

-                            Don Fernando and Victory; Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and Adonis;

-                            Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Medole.</td>  <td class="td5"> (near Brescia) Christ appearing to His Mother.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man with Baton.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Dana&euml;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The

-                            Jealous Husband, 1511.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning

-                            with Thorns (L.); Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.); Francis I.; Allegory;

-                            Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon; Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L&#8217;Homme

-                            au Gant (E.); Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.); Education of Cupid (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Baptism (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Doria: Daughter of Herodias.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Urbino.</td>  <td class="td5">Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert; Assumption, 1518; Piet&agrave;, 1573.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice

-                            of Isaac; Cain and Abel.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo, 1543; Isabela d&#8217;Este, 1534;

-                            The Tambourine Player; Girl in Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.); Portraits;

-                            Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and Callisto; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Louvre.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Glasgow.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Among the many who clustered round Titian&#8217;s

-long career, Palma attained to a place beside him

-and Giorgione which his talent, which was not

-of the highest order, scarcely warranted. But

-he was classed with the greatest, and influenced

-contemporary art because his work chimed in

-so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque

-by birth, he came of Venetian parentage, and

-learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.

-He never really mastered the inner niceties of

-anatomy in its finest sense, and the broad

-generalisation of his forms may be meant

-to conceal uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed,

-matronly women and plump children,

-his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and

-the clear golden polish in which his pictures

-are steeped, made a great appeal to the public.

-His invention is the large Santa Conversazione,

-as compared with those in half-length of the

-earlier masters. The Virgin and saints and

-kneeling or bending donors are placed under

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>the spreading trees of a rich and picturesque

-landscape. It is Palma&#8217;s version of the Giorgionesque

-ideal, which he had his share in establishing

-and developing. The heavy tree-trunk and

-dark foliage, silhouetted almost black against

-the background, are characteristic of his compositions.

-As his life goes on, though he still

-clings to his full, ripe figures and to the same

-smooth fleshiness in his women, the features

-become delicate and chiselled, and the more

-refined type and subtler feeling of his middle

-stage may be due to his companionship with

-Lotto, with whom he was in Bergamo when

-they were both about twenty-five. He touches

-his highest, and at the same time keeps very

-near Giorgione, in the splendid St. Barbara,

-painted for the company of the <em>Bombadieri</em> or

-artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on

-which she stands; it was at her altar that they

-came to commend themselves on going forth to

-war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving

-for a safe return; and she is a truly noble figure,

-regal in conception and fine and firm in execution,

-attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and

-green, with splendid saints on either hand.

-Palma was often approached by his patrons who

-wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses;

-but though he produced a Venus, a handsome,

-full-blown model, he never excels in the nude, and

-his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His

-scenes have a domestic, familiar flavour. With

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>all his golden and ivory beauty he lacks fire, and

-his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In

-his latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of

-scumble or haze. It would, however, be unfair

-to say he is not fine, and his portraits especially

-come very near the best. Vienna is rich in

-examples in half-lengths of one beautiful woman

-after another robed in the ample and gorgeous

-garments in which he is always interested.

-Among them is his handsome daughter,

-Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and

-wearing the large sleeves he admires. The

-&ldquo;Tasso&rdquo; of the National Gallery has been taken

-from him and given first to Giorgione and then

-to Titian, but there now seems some inclination

-to return it to its first author. It has a more

-dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are

-accustomed to associate with Palma; but he uses

-elsewhere the decorative background of olive

-branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny

-colouring, and the pronounced golden haze are

-Palmesque in the highest degree. The colouring

-is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of

-the Ariosto of Titian, which hangs near it.</p>

-

-<p><a name="holy" id="holy"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img224.jpg" width="550" height="413" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Palma Vecchio.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HOLY FAMILY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Colonna Gallery, Rome.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>No one could be more unlike Palma than his

-contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto, who has for long

-been classed with the Bergamasques, but who

-is proved by recently discovered documents to

-have been born in Venice. It was for long an

-accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and

-his earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>bears traces of Bellini&#8217;s manner. A Piet&agrave; above

-has child angels examining the wounds with the

-grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly

-his own, and the St. Jerome and the branch of

-fig-leaves silhouetted against the light remind

-us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto

-seems to have clung to quattrocento fashions.

-The ancona had long been rejected by most of

-his contemporaries, but he painted one of the

-last for a church in Recanati, in carved and

-gilt compartments, and he painted predellas long

-after they had become generally obsolete. We

-ask ourselves how it was that Lotto, who had so

-susceptible and easily swayed a nature, escaped

-the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful

-of any in the Venice of his youth&mdash;an influence

-which acted on Bellini in his old age, which

-Titian practically never shook off, and which

-dominated Palma to the exclusion of any earlier

-master.</p>

-

-<p>It would take too long to survey the train of

-argument by which Mr. Berenson has established

-Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto. Notwithstanding

-that Bellini&#8217;s great superiority was

-becoming clear to the more cultured Venetians,

-Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still the

-painter <em>par excellence</em> for the mass of the public.

-In the S. Cristina altarpiece the Child standing

-on its Mother&#8217;s knee is in the same attitude as

-the Child in Alvise&#8217;s altarpiece of 1480, and the

-Mother&#8217;s hand holds it in the same way. Other

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>details which supply internal evidence are the

-shape of hands and feet, the round heads and the

-way the Child is often represented lying across

-the Mother&#8217;s knees. Lotto carries into old age

-the use of fruit and flowers and beads as decoration,

-a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the

-Vivarini, but which was never adopted by Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with

-Palma, and for a short time the two were in close

-touch. A &ldquo;Santa Conversazione,&rdquo; of which a

-good copy exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one

-at Dresden, with the Holy Family grouped under

-spreading trees, is saturated with Palma&#8217;s spirit,

-but it soon passes away, and except for an

-occasional touch, disappears entirely from Lotto&#8217;s

-work.</p>

-

-<p>Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo,

-for when in 1515 a competition between artists

-was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a

-descendant of General Colleone, for an altarpiece

-for S. Stefano, he competed and carried

-off the prize. This was the first of the series

-of the great works for Bergamo, which enrich

-the little city, where at this period he can best

-be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed

-to San Bartolommeo) is a most interesting

-human document, a revelation of the

-painter&#8217;s personality. He does not break away

-from hieratic conventions, like the rival school;

-his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the

-church with saints grouped round her, a form

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>from which the Vivarini never departed, but

-the whole is full of intense movement, of a

-lyric grace and ecstasy, a desire to express

-fervent and rapturous devotion. The architectural

-background is not in happy proportion

-in relation to the figures, but the effect of vista

-and space is more remarkable than in any North

-Italian master. The vivid treatment of light

-and shade, and the gaiety and delicacy of the

-flying angels, who hold the canopy, and of the

-putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes

-of throne and canopy and the decorations have

-led to the idea that Lotto drew his inspiration

-from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles

-in some ways; but at this time Correggio was

-only twenty, and had not given any examples

-of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque.

-We must look back to a common origin

-for those decorative details, which are so conspicuous

-in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini,

-which came to Lotto through the Vivarini and

-to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and of

-which the fountain-head for both was the school

-of Squarcione. For the much more striking

-resemblances of composition and spirit, the explanation

-seems to be that Lotto on one side

-of his nature was akin to Correggio; he had

-the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination

-to exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting

-was a vehicle for the expression of feeling,

-but Lotto had also common sense and a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>goodly share of that humour that is allied to

-pathos.</p>

-

-<p>Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in

-Bergamo, where the first altarpiece gained him

-orders for others. The reputation of a member

-of the school of Venice was a sure passport to

-employment. We trace Alvise&#8217;s tradition very

-plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino,

-where the gesture of the Madonna&#8217;s hand as she

-expounds to the listening saints recalls Alvise&#8217;s of

-1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto

-makes use of to the end of his life, lie scattered

-on the step; angels, daringly foreshortened, sweep

-aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour

-is in Lotto&#8217;s scarlet, light blues, and violet.

-He soon shows himself fond of genre incidents,

-and in &ldquo;Christ taking leave of His Mother&rdquo;

-gives a view into a bedroom and a cat running

-across the floor. The donor kneels with her

-hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl

-necklace. In the &ldquo;Marriage of S. Catherine&rdquo;

-at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,

-with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very

-simply and naturally before the Child, and the

-exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young

-woman who represents the Madonna, looks

-out towards the spectator with a mundane

-and curiously modern air. It was probably

-the recognition of Lotto&#8217;s success with portraits

-that led to their being so often introduced

-into his sacred pieces. In the one we have

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>just noticed, the donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is

-brought in, and is on rather a larger scale

-than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not

-found him interesting. The portraits of the

-brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary

-Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate

-that wonderful series of characterisations

-which are his greatest distinction. A series of

-frescoes in village churches round Bergamo

-must also be noticed. They are remarkable

-for spontaneous and original decoration, and

-may compare with the ceremonial groups of

-Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto&#8217;s personages,

-as they chatter in the market-places, are

-full of natural animation and gaiety, and we

-realise what a step had been made in the

-painting of actual life.</p>

-

-<p>Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of

-Italy, the years from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto

-spent in Venice, found that city the gathering-ground

-of many of the most distinguished

-scholars and deepest thinkers of the day. Men

-of all shades of religious thought were engaged

-in learned discussion, and Lotto&#8217;s ardent and

-inquiring temperament must have been stimulated

-by such an environment. During these

-years, too, he became intimate with Titian, and

-experimented in Titian&#8217;s style, with the result

-that his painting gets thicker and richer, more

-fused and solid, and his figures are better put

-together. He imitates Titian&#8217;s colour, too, but

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and

-he soon finds it does not suit him, and returns

-to his own scheme. His colour is still rather

-too dazzling, but the distances are translucent

-and atmospheric. He continues to introduce

-portraits. In his altarpiece in SS. Giovanni

-and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving

-petitions curiously resemble in type and expression

-the ecclesiastics we see to-day.</p>

-

-<p>Lotto was now an accepted member of

-Titian&#8217;s set, and Aretino, in a letter dated 1548,

-writes that Titian values his taste and judgment

-as that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual

-mixture of connoisseurship and clever spite, goes

-on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he

-himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was

-not considered on a par with the masters of

-the first rank. &ldquo;Envy is not in your breast,&rdquo; he

-says, &ldquo;rather do you delight to see in other

-artists certain qualities which you do not find

-in your own brush, ... holding the second

-place in the art of painting is nothing compared

-to holding the first place in the duties of

-religion.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>An interesting codex or commentary tells us

-that Lotto never received high prices for his

-work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about

-in artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and

-leaving a number with Jacopo Sansovino in the

-hope that he might hear of buyers. His work

-ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>undertook commissions at Recanati, Ancona, and

-Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a

-contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by

-which, in return for rooms and food, he made

-over himself and all his belongings to the care

-of the fraternity, &ldquo;being tired of wandering,

-and wishing to end his days in that holy place.&rdquo;

-He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto

-as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of

-pictures which are distinguished by the same sort

-of apparent looseness and carelessness which we

-noticed in Titian&#8217;s late style; a technique which,

-as in Titian&#8217;s case, conceals a profound knowledge

-of plastic modelling.</p>

-

-<p>Though Lotto executed an immense number

-of important and very beautiful sacred works,

-his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting

-to the modern mind that one is tempted to

-linger over them. Other painters give us finer

-pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know

-who the sitters were and what was their story.

-Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality which

-marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born

-psychologist, and as such he witnesses to an

-attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which

-is of peculiar interest to our own. Lotto&#8217;s bystanders,

-even in his sacred scenes, have nothing

-in common with Titian&#8217;s &ldquo;chorus&rdquo;; they have the

-characterisation of distinct individuals, and when

-he is concerned with actual portraits he is intensely

-receptive and sensitive to the spirit of his sitters.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>He may be said to &ldquo;give them away,&rdquo; and to

-take an almost unfair advantage of his perception.

-The sick man in the Doria Gallery looks

-like one stricken with a death sentence. He

-knows at least that it is touch and go, and

-the painter has symbolised the situation in the

-little winged genius balancing himself in a pair

-of scales. In the Borghese Gallery is the portrait

-of a young, magnificently dressed man, with a

-countenance marked by mental agitation, who

-presses one hand to his heart, while the other

-rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a tiny

-skull is half-hidden. The &ldquo;Old Man&rdquo; in the

-Brera has the hard, narrow, but intensely sad

-face of one whose natural disposition has been

-embittered by the circumstances of his life, just

-as that of our Prothonotary speaks of a large and

-gentle nature, mellowed by natural affections and

-happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with

-kindly mischief at &ldquo;Marsilio and his Bride;&rdquo; the

-broad, placid countenance of the man is so significantly

-contrasted with the clever mouth and

-eyes of the bride that it does not need the

-malicious glance of the cupid, who is fitting on

-the yoke, to &ldquo;dot the i&#8217;s and cross the t&#8217;s&rdquo; of their

-future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in

-the Brera, introduces us to one of those women

-who are charming in every age, not actually

-beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly

-dressed, sensible, and self-possessed, and the

-&ldquo;Family Group&rdquo; in our own gallery holds a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments

-united by life in common and the clasping hands

-of children. Lotto does not keep the personal expression

-out of even such a canvas as his &ldquo;Triumph

-of Chastity&rdquo; in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His

-delightful Venus, one of the loveliest nudes

-in painting, flies from the attacking termagant,

-whose virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on

-her breast, and sweeps her little cupid with her

-with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the

-manners of mundane society.</p>

-

-<p><a name="laura" id="laura"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;">

-<img src="images/img235.jpg" width="447" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Lorenzo Lotto.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Brera.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>The painter who was thus able to unveil

-personality had evidently a mind that was aware

-of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation

-and a more earnest and intimate religion.

-His life seems to have been one of some sadness,

-and crowned with only moderate success. He

-speaks of himself as &ldquo;advanced in years, without

-loving care of any kind, and of a troubled mind.&rdquo;

-His will shows that his worldly possessions were

-few and poor, and that he had no heir closer

-than a nephew; but he leaves some of his

-cartoons as a dowry to &ldquo;two girls of quiet

-nature, healthy in mind and body, and likely to

-make thrifty housekeepers,&rdquo; on their marriage

-to &ldquo;two well-recommended young men,&rdquo; about

-to become painters. His sensitive and introspective

-temperament led him to prefer the

-retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the

-brilliant society of which he was made free in

-Venice. &ldquo;His spirit,&rdquo; says Mr. Berenson, &ldquo;is

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>more like our own than is perhaps that of any

-other Italian painter, and it has all the appeal

-and fascination of a kindred soul in another age.&rdquo;</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Palma Vecchio.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cambridge.</td>  <td class="td5">Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family; Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian; Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione with Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Lorenzo Lotto.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ancona.</td>  <td class="td5">Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Asolo.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna in Glory, 1506.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Colonna: Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Spirito: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Nativity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cingoli.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);

-             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;

-             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Loreto.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer

-             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Recanati.</td>  <td class="td5">Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giacomo dall&#8217; Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione, etc.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>It was very natural that Rome should wish for

-works of the masters of the new Venetian School,

-but the first-rate men were fully employed at

-home. All the efforts made to secure Titian

-failed till nearly the end of his career. On the

-other hand, Venice was full of less famous

-masters following in Giorgione&#8217;s steps. When

-Sebastian Luciani was a young man, Giorgione

-was paramount there, and no one could have

-foretold that his life would be of such short

-duration. It was to be expected, therefore, that

-a painter who consulted his own interests should

-leave the city where he was overshadowed by

-a great genius and go farther afield. The

-influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the

-sixteenth century, so that it was a simpler

-matter for painters to transfer their talents,

-and painting was beginning to appeal strongly

-to the <em>dilettanti</em>, who rivalled one another in

-their offers.</p>

-

-<p>Only one work of Sebastian&#8217;s is known belonging

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>to this earlier time in Venice. It is

-the &ldquo;S. Chrysostom enthroned,&rdquo; in S. Giovanni

-Crisostomo, and its majesty and rich colouring,

-and more especially the splendid group of women

-on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian

-beauty, make us wonder if Sebastian might not

-have risen to greater heights if he had remained

-in his natural environment. He responded to

-the call to Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great

-<ins class="translit" title="Chigi was a banker">painter</ins>, art collector, and patron, the friend of

-Leo X. Chigi had just completed the Farnesina

-Villa, and Sebastian was employed till

-1512 on its decoration, and at once came under

-the influence of Michelangelo. The &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo;

-at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in

-fact, Vasari says that Michelangelo himself drew

-the cartoon for the figure of Christ, which would

-account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian

-embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine

-painter, and, according to Vasari, the great canvas

-of the &ldquo;Raising of Lazarus,&rdquo; in the National

-Gallery, was executed under the orders and in

-part from the designs of Michelangelo. This

-colossal work was looked on as one of the most

-important creations of the sixteenth century, but

-there is little to make us wish to change it for

-the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo. The desire for

-scientific drawing and the search after composition

-have produced a laboured effect; the female

-figures are cast in a masculine mould, and it lacks

-both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>the emotional charm of Sebastian&#8217;s native style.

-We cannot, however, avoid conjecturing if in

-the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a

-conception of the great Florentine. It is so

-easy in pose, so splendid in its, perhaps excessive,

-length of limb, that our thoughts turn

-involuntarily to the <em>Ignudi</em> in the Sixtine

-Chapel. The picture has been dulled and

-injured by repainting, but the distance still

-has the sombre depth of the Venetians. All

-through Sebastian&#8217;s career he seeks for form

-and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly

-is, he is great because he possesses

-that inborn feeling for harmony of colour. This

-is what we value in him, and he excels in so far

-as he follows his Venetian instincts.</p>

-

-<p>The death of Raphael improved Sebastian&#8217;s

-position in Rome, and though Leo X. never

-liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.

-The &ldquo;Fornarina&rdquo; in the Uffizi, with

-the laurel-wreathed head and leopard-skin

-mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is

-curious that any critic should ever have assigned

-its rich, voluptuous tone and its coarse type

-to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions

-for decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and

-S. Pietro in Montorio in fresco, but in the

-latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring

-the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the

-Tuscan ease of hand. Colour, for which he

-possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>colour of Giorgione, is set aside by him; his

-tints become strong and crude, his surfaces grow

-hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of

-bold action, of drawing and modelling. The

-Venetian genius for portraiture remains, and he

-has left such fine examples as the &ldquo;Andrea Doria&rdquo;

-of the Vatican, or the &ldquo;Portrait of a Man in the

-Pitti,&rdquo; a masterly picture both in drawing and

-execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse,

-and damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In

-the National Gallery we possess his own portrait

-by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici.

-The faces are well contrasted, and we judge from

-Sebastian&#8217;s that his biographer describes him

-justly, as fat, indolent, and given to self-indulgence,

-but genial and fond of good company.</p>

-

-<p>After an absence of twenty years he returned

-to Venice. There he came in contact with

-Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship

-with Aretino, who became his great ally and

-admirer. The sack of Rome had driven him

-forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning

-partially to recover from that time of horror,

-he returned, and was cordially welcomed by

-Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost

-ecclesiastical circles. The Piombo, a well-paid,

-sinecure office of the Papal court, was bestowed

-on him, and his remaining years were spent in

-Rome. He was very anxious to collaborate

-with Michelangelo, and the great painter seems

-to have been quite inclined to the arrangement.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>The &ldquo;Last Judgment,&rdquo; in the Sixtine Chapel,

-was suggested, and Sebastian had the melancholy

-task of taking down Perugino&#8217;s masterpieces; but

-he wished to reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo

-stipulated for fresco, saying that oils were

-only fit for women, so that no agreement was

-arrived at.</p>

-

-<p>Sebastian&#8217;s mode of work was slow, and he

-employed no assistants. He seems to have been

-inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,

-and his character shows in his work, which, with

-a few exceptions, has something heavy and

-common about it, a want of keenness and fire,

-an absence of refinement and selection.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Visitation, 1521.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Visitation (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Viterbo.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave; (L.).</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity

-of the different members of the family of

-Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in

-giving the name to one master only. Boschini,

-however, in 1777 discovered the register of the

-death of a second, and a third bearing the name

-was working twenty years later. Upon this

-Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion that we must

-recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the

-name of Bonifazio, but documents recently

-discovered by Professor Ludwig have in great

-measure destroyed Morelli&#8217;s conjectures. There

-may have been obscure painters bearing the name,

-but they were mere imitators, and it is doubtful

-if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.</p>

-

-<p>Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one

-who counts. As Ridolfi says, he was born in

-Verona in the most beautiful moment of

-painting. He came to Venice at the age of

-eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,

-with whom his work has sometimes been

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>confused. After Palma&#8217;s death Bonifazio continued

-in friendly relations with his old master&#8217;s

-family, and his niece married Palma&#8217;s nephew.

-Bonifazio himself married the daughter of a

-basket-maker, and appears to have had no

-children, for he and his wife by their wills

-bestowed their whole fortune on their nephews.

-Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio&#8217;s niece,

-was a painter whose pictures have sometimes

-been attributed to the legendary third Bonifazio.

-Bonifazio&#8217;s life was passed peacefully in Venice.

-He received many important commissions from

-the Republic, and decorated the Palace of the

-Treasurers. His character and standing were

-high, and he was appointed, in company with

-Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy which

-Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly

-dower for five maidens. After a long life spent

-in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew to a little

-farm amidst orchards&mdash;fifteen acres of land in

-all&mdash;at San Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept

-his house in San Marcuola, where he died. He

-was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.</p>

-

-<p>A son of the plains and of Venetian stock,

-his work is always graceful and attractive,

-though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a

-very pronounced aristocratic character, and bears

-no trace of the rough, provincial strain of

-such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very

-fine and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour

-and energy in design. Nowhere do we get

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>more worldly magnificence or such frank

-worship of wealth as on Bonifazio&#8217;s joyous

-canvases. He represents Christian saints and

-Eastern kings alike, as gentlemen of princely

-rank. There is a note of purely secular art

-about his Adorations and Holy Families. In

-the &ldquo;Adoration of the Magi,&rdquo; in the Academy,

-the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady

-of Bonifazio&#8217;s acquaintance. The Child, so far

-from raising His hand in benediction, holds it out

-for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,

-distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the

-cup held by the second, who, in a puffed

-velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably

-that of the donor of the picture, who is in this

-way paid a courtier-like compliment. The

-third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must

-often have seen embarking from his Eastern

-galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A servant

-in a peaked hood peers round the column to

-catch sight of what is going on. The groups

-of animals in the background are well rendered.

-In the &ldquo;Rich Man&#8217;s Feast,&rdquo; where Lazarus

-lies upon the step, we have another scene of

-wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an

-orgy of colour. And, again, in the &ldquo;Finding of

-Moses&rdquo; (Brera) he paints nobles playing the lute,

-making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired

-women listening complacently. We are reminded

-of the way in which they lived: their

-one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>appearing in public in the latest and most

-magnificent fashions. And in these paintings

-Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and

-brocaded gowns in which the beautiful Venetians

-arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions

-of the year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted

-and coiled in the precise mode of the moment.

-The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly

-all his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself.

-As Catena often brings in a little white lap-dog,

-so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a liver-and-white

-spaniel.</p>

-

-<p>Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist

-who most successfully imitated Titian. He was

-the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,

-and received a good education in music and

-letters, before being sent off to Venice and

-placed in Titian&#8217;s studio. Bordone does not

-seem to have been on very friendly terms with

-Titian. He was dissatisfied with his teaching,

-and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting

-from him a commission to paint an altarpiece

-which had been entrusted to him when he was

-only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with

-the manner of the dead Giorgione, and it was

-upon this master that he aspired to form his

-style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was

-painted for the Confraternity of St. Mark, and

-made his reputation. The legend it represents

-may be given in a few words:</p>

-

-<p>In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>there arose a fearful storm in Venice. During

-the height of the tempest, three men accosted a

-poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed

-old boat by the Piazza, and begged that he

-would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where

-they had urgent business. After some demur

-they persuaded him to take the oars, and in

-spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished.

-On reaching the shore they pointed out

-to him a great ship, the crew of which he perceived

-to consist of a band of demons, who were

-stirring up the waves and making a great

-hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands

-on them to desist, when immediately

-they sailed away and there was a calm. The

-passengers then made the oarsman row them,

-one to S. Niccolo, one to S. Giorgio, and the

-third was rowed back to the Piazza. The

-fisherman timidly asked for his fare, and the

-third passenger desired him to go to the Doge

-and ask for payment, telling him that by that

-night&#8217;s work a great disaster had been averted

-from the city. The fisherman replied that he

-should not be believed, but would be imprisoned

-as a liar. Then the passenger drew a ring from

-his finger. &ldquo;Show him this for a sign,&rdquo; he said,

-&ldquo;and know that one of those you have this night

-rowed is S. Niccolas, the other is S. George, and

-I am S. Mark the Evangelist, Protector of

-the Venetian Republic.&rdquo; He then disappeared.

-The next day the fisherman presented the ring,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>and was assigned a provision for life from the

-Senate.</p>

-

-<p>There has, perhaps, never been a richer and

-more beautiful subject-picture painted than this

-glowing canvas, or one which brings more vividly

-before us the magnificence of the pageants which

-made such a part of Venetian life in the golden age

-of painting. It is all strength and splendour, and

-escapes the hectic colour and weaker type which

-appear in Bordone&#8217;s &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; and some of

-his other works. In 1538 he went to France

-and entered the service of Francis II., painting

-for him many portraits of ladies, besides works

-for the Cardinals of Guise and of Lorraine. The

-King of Poland sent to him for a &ldquo;Jupiter and

-Antiope.&rdquo; At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns

-for work done for the great Fugger family.</p>

-

-<p>No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type

-of woman who at this time was most admired in

-Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired,

-with full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and

-ample, with &ldquo;abundant flanks and snow-white

-breast.&rdquo; A type glowing with health and instinct

-with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without

-deep passions, and with no look that reveals

-profound emotions or the struggle of a soul.

-From what we see of Bordone&#8217;s female portraits

-and from some of the mythological compositions

-he has left, he might have been among the most

-sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan,

-in the National Gallery, is an almost over-realistic

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>presentment of a woman who has just

-parted from her lover. His women, with their

-carnation cheeks and expressionless faces, are like

-beautiful animals; but, as a matter of fact, their

-painter was sober and temperate in his life, very

-industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother.

-About 1536 he married the daughter of a

-Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one

-of the many insignificant painters of the end of the

-sixteenth century. Most of his days were divided

-between his little Villa of Lovadina in the district

-of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte

-dell&#8217; Cavallo near the Misericordia. &ldquo;He lives

-comfortably in his quiet house,&rdquo; writes Vasari,

-who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, &ldquo;working

-only at the request of princes, or his friends,

-avoiding all rivalry and those vain ambitions

-which do but disturb the repose of man, and

-seeking to avert any ruffling of the serene

-tranquillity of his life, which he is accustomed

-to preserve simple and upright.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Many of his pictures show an intense love

-of country solitudes. His poetic backgrounds,

-lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling

-water are in curious contrast to the sumptuous

-groups in the foreground.</p>

-

-<p>His &ldquo;Three Heads,&rdquo; in the Brera, is a superb

-piece of painting and an interesting characterisation.

-The woman is ripe, sensual, and calculating,

-feeling with her fingers for the gold chain,

-a mere golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>and prosaic. The go-between is dimly seen in

-the background, but the face of the suitor is a

-strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless,

-and bitter, taking his pleasure mechanically

-and with cynical detachment. The &ldquo;Storm

-calmed by S. Mark&rdquo; (Academy) was, in Mr.

-Berenson&#8217;s opinion, begun by Giorgione.</p>

-

-<p>Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is

-the work of these two painters, it does not reach

-the highest level. It falls short of grandeur, and

-has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity.

-As we study it we feel that it marks the point

-to which Venetian art might have attained, the

-flood-mark it might have touched, if it had

-lacked the advent of the three or four great

-spirits, who, appearing about the same time, bore

-it up to sublimer heights and developed a

-more distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio

-and Bordone lack the grandeur and sweetness of

-Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative genius

-of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour,

-design, and decoration of Veronese, but they

-continue Venetian painting on logical lines, and

-they form a superb foundation for the highest.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bonifazio Veronese.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight

-             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee&#8217;s Children; Return of the

-             Prodigal Son.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Rich Man&#8217;s Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of

-             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;

-             Salome.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Paris Bordone.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Vintage Scenes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portrait of Woman.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Genoa.</td>  <td class="td5">Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented

-             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait; Man counting Jewels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>It has become usual to include in the Venetian

-School those artists from the subject provinces

-on the mainland, who came down to try their

-luck at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark

-on their talent. The Friulan cities, Udine,

-Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had

-their own primitive schools and their scores of

-humble craftsmen. Their art wavered for some

-time in its expression between the German taste,

-which came so close to their gates, and the Italian,

-which was more truly their element.</p>

-

-<p>Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times

-in thirty years by the Turks. They poured in

-large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed

-the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred

-and carried off the inhabitants. These terrible

-periods are marked by the cessation of work in

-the provinces, but hope always revived again.

-The break caused by such a visitation can be

-distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,

-at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>Udine obtained the epithet of Pellegrino da San

-Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an early

-visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to

-Cima. He was appointed to decorate S. Antonino.

-His early work there is hard and coarse, ill-drawn,

-the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and

-the colour dusky and uniform; but owing to

-the Turkish raid, he had to take flight, and it

-was many a year before the monks gained

-sufficient courage and saved enough money to

-continue the embellishment of their church.

-In the meantime, Pellegrino&#8217;s years had been

-spent partly in Venice and partly, perhaps, in

-Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing

-to paint a &ldquo;Bacchus&rdquo; for the Duke, was that the

-subject had already been painted by Pellegrino

-da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his

-work, it demonstrated that he had studied the

-modern Venetians and had come under a finer,

-deeper influence. A St. George in armour

-suggests Giorgione&#8217;s S. Liberale at Castelfranco;

-he specially shows an affinity with Pordenone,

-who was his pupil and who was to become a

-better painter than his old master. As Pellegrino

-goes on he improves consistently, and adopts the

-method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form

-to a scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some

-extent, succeeds in his difficult task of applying

-to wall painting the system which the Venetians

-used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He

-was an ambitious, daring painter, and some of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>his church standards were for long attributed to

-Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains

-his chief monument; but for all his travels

-Pellegrino remains provincial in type, is unlucky

-in his selection, cares little for precision of form,

-and trusts to colour for effect.</p>

-

-<p>The same transition in art was taking place in

-other provinces. Morto da Feltre, Pennacchi,

-and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a

-Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went

-far onward, began their career under such minor

-masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes

-his name from his native town of Pordenone, in

-Friuli, was one of these. All the early part of

-his life was spent in painting frescoes in the

-small towns of the Friulan provinces. At first

-they bear signs of the tuition of Pellegrino, but

-it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has

-learned to imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite

-early, however, one of his chief failings appears,

-and one which is all his own, the disparity

-in size between his various figures. The

-secondary personages, the Magi in a Nativity,

-the Saints standing round an altar, are larger

-and more athletic in build and often more

-animated in action than the principal actors in

-the scene. What pleased Pordenone&#8217;s contemporaries

-was his daring perspective and his

-instinctive feeling for movement. He carried

-out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at

-length his reputation, which had long been ripe

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>in his native province, reached Venice. In 1519

-he was invited to Treviso to fresco the fa&ccedil;ade of

-a house for one of the Raviguino family. The

-painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and Titian

-was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the

-work so much that he hinted to Raviguino that

-he would be wise not to press him for a valuation.

-As a direct consequence of this piece of

-business, Pordenone was employed on the chapel

-at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At this

-time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa

-Pesaro were just finished, and it is probable

-that Pordenone paid his first visit to Venice,

-hard by, and saw his great contemporary&#8217;s work.

-With his characteristic distaste for fresco,

-Titian undertook the altarpiece and painted the

-beautiful Annunciation which still holds its

-place, and Pordenone covered the dome with

-a foreshortened figure of the Eternal Father,

-surrounded by angels. Among the remaining

-frescoes in the Chapel, an Adoration of the

-Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.

-Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered

-his services to Mantua and Cremona, but the

-Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and restrained

-grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say

-to what Crowe and Cavalcaselle call his &ldquo;large

-and colossal fable-painting.&rdquo; He pursued his way

-to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he

-passed through Mantua is evident from the first

-figures he painted in the cathedral. In Cremona

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>every one admired him, and all the artists set to

-work to imitate his energetic foreshortening,

-vehement movement and huge proportions.</p>

-

-<p>Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all

-his life an itinerant painter. In 1521 he was

-back at Udine and wandered from place to place,

-painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at

-S. Maria at Spilimbergo, the fa&ccedil;ade of the Church

-of Valeriano, an imposing series at Travesio, and

-in 1525, the &ldquo;Story of the True Cross&rdquo; at Casara.

-At the last place he threw aside much of his

-exaggeration, and, ruined and restored as the

-frescoes are, they remain among his most

-dignified achievements. He may be studied

-best of all at Piacenza, in the Church of the

-Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his

-subjects between sacred and pagan, so that we

-turn from a &ldquo;Flight into Egypt&rdquo; or a &ldquo;Marriage

-of S. Catherine,&rdquo; to the &ldquo;Rape of Europa&rdquo; or

-&ldquo;Venus and Adonis.&rdquo; At Piacenza he shows

-himself the great painter he undoubtedly is,

-having achieved some mastery over form, while

-his colour has the true Venetian quality and almost

-equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,

-which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping

-shadows as only one whose spirit was in touch

-with the art of Giorgione would have understood

-how to use. Very complete records remain of

-Pordenone&#8217;s life, full details of a quarrel with his

-brother over property left by his father in 1533,

-and accounts of the painter&#8217;s negotiations to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>obtain a knighthood, which he fancied would

-place him more on a par with Titian when he

-went to live in Venice. The coveted honour

-was secured, but from this time he seems to have

-been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed

-continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a

-punctual and rapid decorator, and on being given

-the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to decorate

-in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole

-by March 1538. We have seen how Titian

-annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious

-they were to transfer his commission to

-Pordenone, and what a narrow escape the

-Venetian had of losing his Broker&#8217;s patent.

-Pordenone was engaged by the nuns of Murano

-to paint an Annunciation, after they had rejected

-one by Titian on account of its price, and though

-it seems hardly possible that any one could have

-compared the two men, yet no doubt the pleasure

-of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually

-and for a moderate sum, often outweighed the

-honour of the possible painting by the great

-Titian.</p>

-

-<p>No one has left so few easel-paintings as

-Pordenone; fresco was so much better suited to

-his particular style. The canvas of the &ldquo;Madonna

-of Mercy&rdquo; in the Venice Academy, was painted

-about 1525 for a member of the house of

-Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the

-family. It is very free from his colossal,

-exaggerated manner; the attendant saints are

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>studied from nature, and in his journals the

-painter mentions that the St. Roch is a portrait

-of himself. The &ldquo;S. Lorenzo enthroned,&rdquo; in

-the same gallery, shows both his virtues and

-failings. The saints have his enormous proportions.

-The Baptist is twisting round, to

-display the foreshortening which Pordenone

-particularly affects. The gestures are empty

-and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and

-fluid; there is a large sense of decoration in the

-composition, and something simple and austere

-about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often

-the case with Pordenone, the principal actor of

-the scene is smaller and more sincerely imagined

-than the attendant personages, who are crowded

-into the foreground, where they are used to

-display the master&#8217;s skill.</p>

-

-<p>Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he

-had been summoned by its Duke to undertake

-one of his great schemes of decoration. He was

-said to have been poisoned, but though he had

-jealous rivals there seems no proof of the truth

-of the assertion, which was one very commonly

-made in those days. He is interesting as being

-the only distinguished member of the Venetian

-School whose frescoes have come down to us in

-any number, and as being the only one of the

-later masters with whom it was the chosen

-medium.</p>

-

-<p>His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented

-in the National Gallery by a half-length

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court

-by a large family group and by another of three

-persons gathered round a spinet. His masterpiece

-is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari,

-which shows the influence of Palma. His flesh

-tints, striving to be rich, have a hot, red look,

-but his works have been constantly confounded

-with those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.</p>

-

-<p>A long list might be given of minor artists

-who were industriously turning out work on

-similar lines to one or other of these masters:

-Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as

-Pordenone; Pomponio Amalteo, Pordenone&#8217;s son-in-law,

-a spirited painter in fresco; Florigerio,

-who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom

-an altarpiece remains in the Academy; Giovanni

-Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to compile

-his notices of Friulan art, and many others only

-known by name.</p>

-

-<p>At the close of the fifteenth century the

-revulsion against Paduan art extended as far

-as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one

-of the first to acquire the trick of Venetian

-painting. He probably studied for a time under

-Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have

-been at Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan

-disturbances of 1506-12, and about 1510

-Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino&#8217;s

-Palmesque manner. His works at this

-time are dark and glowing, full of warm light

-and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>arches, after the manner of the Vivarini and

-Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed

-in noble architecture.</p>

-

-<p>Brescia was an opulent city, second only to

-Milan among the towns of northern Italy, and

-Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in

-1511 the city fell a prey to the horrors of war,

-was taken and lost by Venice, and in 1512 was

-sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,

-where he found a home among the Benedictines

-of S. Giustina. Here he was soon well employed

-on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the

-high altar, and a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; for the

-refectory. It is also surmised that he helped

-in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several

-of which Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt,

-and the &ldquo;Death of St. Anthony&rdquo; is pointed out

-as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine

-colour, but poor drawing.</p>

-

-<p>Romanino returned to Brescia when the

-Venetians recovered it in 1516, but before doing

-so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects,

-which are among his most effective, in the choir

-of the Duomo.</p>

-

-<p>He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone,

-from whom he sometimes borrows ideas, but

-he is quite a convert to the modern style

-of the day, setting his groups in large spaces

-and using the slashed doublets, the long hose,

-and plumed headgear which Giorgione had

-found so picturesque. Romanino is often very

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>poor and empty, and fails most in selection and

-expression at the moments when he most needs

-to be great, but he is successful in the golden

-style he adopted after his closer contact with the

-Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are

-extremely brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to

-be gaudy and careless in execution, and even the

-fine &ldquo;Nativity&rdquo; in the National Gallery gives

-the impression that size is more regarded than

-thought and feeling.</p>

-

-<p>Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the

-mainland who, coming within the charmed circle

-of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma

-and Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still

-keeps his own gamut of colour, and as he goes

-on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery in

-his tones. He can only be fully studied in

-Brescia itself, where literally dozens of altarpieces

-and wall-paintings show him in every

-phase. His first connection was probably with

-Romanino, but he reminds us at one time of

-Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful

-painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace

-and sentiment of his heads, and as time goes on

-he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the

-&ldquo;Feast in the House of Simon&rdquo; in the organ-loft

-of the Church of the Piet&agrave; in Venice, the

-very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded

-building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape,

-and the costly raiment and plenishing which

-might have been seen at any Venetian or

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>Brescian banquet. In his portraits Moretto

-sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages are

-always dignified and expressive, with pale,

-high-bred faces, and exceedingly picturesque

-in dress and general arrangement. He loved

-to paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra

-Martinengo in the National Gallery, and to

-endow him with an air of romantic interest.</p>

-

-<p>One of those who entered so closely into the

-spirit of the Venetian School that he may almost

-be included within it, is Savoldo. His pictures

-are rare, and no gallery can show more than one

-or two examples. The Louvre has a portrait

-by him of Gaston de Foix, long thought to be

-by Giorgione. His native town can only show

-one altarpiece, an &ldquo;Adoration of Shepherds,&rdquo;

-low in tone but intense in dusky shadow with

-fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his

-shadows, and often rough and startling in effect,

-but at his best he produces very beautiful, rich,

-evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino

-bears witness to the estimation in which he was

-held.</p>

-

-<p>It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has

-most claim to Bartolommeo Montagna, the early

-master of Cima. Born of Brescian parents, he

-settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most

-distinguished of those Vicentine painters who

-drank at the Venetian fount. He must have

-gone early to Venice and worked with the

-Vivarini, for in his altarpiece in the Brera he

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>has the vaulted porticoes in which Bartolommeo

-and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His &ldquo;Madonna

-enthroned&rdquo; in the gallery at Vicenza has many

-points of contact with that of Alvise at Berlin.

-Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and

-the raised throne, and he is specially attracted

-by the groups of music-making angels; but

-Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise,

-and his lines are stronger and more sinewy. He

-keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling for calm

-and sweetness, but his personages have greater

-weight and gravity. He essays, too, a &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo;

-with saints, at Monte Berico, and shows both

-pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen

-Bellini&#8217;s rendering, and attempts, if only with

-partial success, to contrast in the same way the

-indifference of death with the contemplation

-and anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular

-as Montagna&#8217;s saints often are, they show

-power and austerity. His colour is brilliant

-and enamel-like; he does not arrive at the

-Venetian depth, yet his altarpieces are very

-grand, and once more we are struck by the

-greatness of even the secondary painters who

-drew their inspiration from Padua and Venice.</p>

-

-<p>Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza

-and Giovanni Buonconsiglio were imbued

-with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza,

-in one of his few remaining works, almost

-reproduces the beautiful &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo; by

-Pizzolo, Mantegna&#8217;s young fellow-student, in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>the Chapel of the Eremitani. He employs

-Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate

-Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to

-distinguish between their works. Buonconsiglio&#8217;s

-&ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo; in the Vicenza gallery, is reminiscent

-of Montagna&#8217;s at Monte Berico. The types are

-lean and bony, the features are almost as rugged

-as D&uuml;rer&#8217;s, the flesh earthy and greenish. About

-1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with

-Antonello da Messina; he begins to reside in

-Venice, and a change comes over his manner.

-His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired

-by studying Titian; and then, again, his bright

-tints remind us of Lotto. His name was on the

-register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.</p>

-

-<p>After Pisanello&#8217;s achievement and his marked

-effect on early Venetian art, Veronese painting

-fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna&#8217;s

-influence was strongly felt here, and art revived

-in Liberale da Verona, Falconetto, Casoto,

-the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters

-delightful in themselves, but having little connection

-with the school of Venice. Francesco

-Bonsignori, however, shook himself free from

-the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had

-for a time followed Liberale, and grows more

-like the Vicentines, Montagna and Buonconsiglio.

-He is careful about his drawing, but his figures,

-like those of many of these provincial painters, are

-short, bony and vulgar, very unlike the slender,

-distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori

-works in the new palace of the Gonzagas, and

-several pictures painted for Mantua are now

-scattered in different collections. At Verona he

-has left four fine altarpieces. He went early

-to Venice, where he became the pupil of the

-Vivarini. His faces grow soft and oval, and

-the very careful outlines suggest the influence

-of Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni

-Bellini; in fact, Vasari says that a &ldquo;Dead

-Christ&rdquo; in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed

-with Bellini&#8217;s name, is from Mocetto&#8217;s hand.

-His short, broad figures have something of

-Bartolommeo Vivarini&#8217;s character.</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study

-with Giorgione, and we can trace his master&#8217;s

-manner of turning half tones into deep shades;

-but he does not really understand the Giorgionesque

-treatment, in which shade was always rich

-and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable,

-nor in the lights can he produce the clear glow

-of Giorgione. Another Veronese, Cavazzola, has

-left a masterpiece upon which any painter might

-be happy to rest his reputation; the &ldquo;Gattemalata

-with an Esquire&rdquo; in the Uffizi, a picture noble

-in feeling and in execution, and one which owes

-a great deal to Venetian portrait-painters.</p>

-

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pordenone.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Casara.</td>  <td class="td5">Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Colatto.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cremona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;

-              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned

-              with Saints and Donor, 1522.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Piacenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Pordenone.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints, 1535.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Spilimbergo.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Sensigana.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Torre.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family; Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pellegrino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">San Daniele.</td>  <td class="td5">Frescoes in S. Antonio.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cividale.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Romanino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity; Coronation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cremona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Polyptych; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Sato, Lago di Garda.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">&nbsp;&nbsp;Duomo: Saints and Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Trent.</td>  <td class="td5">Castello: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Moretto.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna

-             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory

-             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;

-             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy: Nativity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;

-             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Castello: Triptych; Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria della Piet&agrave;: Christ in the House of Levi.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bartolommeo Montagna.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony&#8217;s Tomb.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Pavia.</td>  <td class="td5">Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Piet&agrave;; Frescoes, 1491-93.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints; Three Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Monte Berico: Piet&agrave;, 1500; Fresco.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PAOLO VERONESE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to

-be placed on the very highest pinnacle of the

-Venetian School, must be classed among those

-few great painters who rose far above the level

-of most of his contemporaries and who brought

-in a special note and flavour of his own. His

-art is an independent art, and he borrows little

-from predecessors or contemporaries. His free

-and joyous temperament gave relief at a moment

-when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened

-to become too sombre, and when Sebastian del

-Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and above all

-Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes.

-Veronese discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries

-and crimsons and oranges, and finds his

-range among cream and rose and grey-greens.

-Titian concentrated his colours and intensified

-his lights, Tintoretto sacrifices colour to vivid

-play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids the

-dark; the generous light plays all through his

-scenes. He has no wish to secure strong effects

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>but delights in soft, faded tints; old rose and

-<em>turquoise morte</em>. In his colour and his subjects

-he is a personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving

-Republic, in which, as M. Yriarte says,

-a man produced his works as a tree produces its

-fruit. We get very near him in those vast

-palaces and churches and villas, where his heroic

-figures expand in the azure air, against the white

-clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the

-Renaissance about whom we know least. Here

-and there, in contemporary biography, we come

-across a mention of him and learn that he was

-sociable and lively, quick at taking offence, fond

-of his family and anxious to do his best by them.

-He was, too, very generous with his work&mdash;a

-great contrast in this respect to Titian&mdash;and

-contracts with convents and confraternities show

-that he often only stipulated for payment for

-bare time. Yet he was fond of personal luxury,

-loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says

-Ridolfi, &ldquo;always wore velvet breeches.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson,

-were Badile and Brusasorci, masters of Verona,

-but before he was twenty, he was away working

-on his own account. His first patron was

-Cardinal Gonzaga, who brought several painters

-from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no

-longer what it had been in the days of Isabela

-d&#8217;Este, and Paolo Caliari soon returned to his

-own town. Before he was twenty-three he had

-decorated Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>with Zelotti, a Veronese, portraying feasting

-gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural

-designs in monochrome. The two painters went

-on to other villas, mixing mortal and mythical

-figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.</p>

-

-<p>Zelotti having received a commission at

-Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek his fortune in

-Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano,

-on the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari

-wrote to him before arriving in Venice in 1555.

-Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable

-part in his destiny, he obtained a

-commission for a &ldquo;Coronation of the Virgin

-and four other Saints.&rdquo; He first painted the

-sacristy, but his success was instantaneous, and

-many orders followed. The ceiling of the

-church was devoted to the history of Esther.

-The whole of these paintings are marvellously

-well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt

-framework, make a <em>coup d&#8217;&oelig;il</em> of surprising

-beauty. They had an immense effect. Every

-one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures

-of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp

-of her ceremonies, the rich Eastern stuffs and the

-glorious architecture of her palaces. It was an

-auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese&#8217;s

-temper; the so-called Republic, now, more than

-ever, an oligarchy, was at the height of its fortunes,

-redecorating was going forward everywhere,

-the merchant-nobility was rich and spending

-magnificently, the Eastern trade was flourishing,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari

-came to work for, preferred the ceremonial to

-the imaginative treatment of sacred themes, and

-he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible

-for illustration. He paints the history of Esther,

-with its royal audiences, banquets, and marriage-feasts.

-His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are

-composed, courtly personages, who maintain a

-dignified calm under misfortune, and have very

-little violent feeling to show.</p>

-

-<p>At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma

-Vecchio was just dead, Tintoretto was absorbed

-by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was

-with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati,

-Bonifazio, Schiavone, and Zelotti, all rendering

-homage to Titian who was eighty years old,

-but still in full vigour. Titian&#8217;s opinions in

-matters of art were dictates, his judgment was

-a law. He immediately recognised Veronese&#8217;s

-genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him,

-and together with Sansovino, who at this

-time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,

-he received the young painter with an approval

-which ensured him a good start. Five years

-after Veronese&#8217;s arrival he was retained to

-decorate the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is

-a type of those patrician country-houses to which

-the Venetians were becoming more attached

-every year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of

-Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait by Veronese

-is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>the ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten.

-Palladio, Alessandro Vittoria, and Veronese were

-associated to build him a dwelling worthy of a

-Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total

-contrast to the gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is

-sober and simple, and well adapted to leisure and

-retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations

-are devoid of gilding and colour, and the

-rooms adorned by Veronese&#8217;s brush show him

-in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did

-not take place till four years later, but he

-has been influenced here by the feeling for

-the antique, and he thinks much of line and

-style. He leaves on one side the gorgeous

-brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually

-delights, and his nymphs are only clothed in

-their own beauty. And here Veronese shows

-his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons,

-the Barbaro family, are his friends, men and

-women of the world, who put no restraint on his

-fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese,

-with the bridle on his neck, so to speak, uses his

-opportunities fully, yet never exceeds the limits

-of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like

-Rubens, but proud, grave and sweet, seductive,

-but never suggestive or vulgar. After having

-placed single figures wherever he can find a nook,

-he assembles all the gods of Olympia at a supper

-in the cupola. Immortality is a beautiful young

-woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at

-her, caduceus in hand; Diana caresses her great

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his head on his

-hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid

-are scattered in the Empyrean, and Jupiter

-presides over the party. Below, a balcony rail

-runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an

-old lady, dressed in the latest fashion, points out

-the company to a beautiful young one and to a

-young man in a doublet who holds a hound in

-a leash. They are evidently family portraits,

-taken from those who looked on at the artist, and

-on the other side he has introduced members of

-his own family who were helping him. These

-decorations have a gaiety, an absence of pedantry,

-a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the

-Renaissance which tell of a happy moment

-when art was at its height and in touch with

-its environment. From about 1563 we may

-begin to date his great supper pictures. The

-Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most

-famous works, was painted for the refectory in

-Sammichele, the old part of S. Giorgio Maggiore.

-The treaty for it is still in existence, dated June

-1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is

-to furnish canvas and colours, the painter&#8217;s board,

-and a cask of wine. The further payment of 972

-ducats illustrates the prices received by the

-greatest artists at the height of the Renaissance:

-&pound;280 for work which occupied quite eight months.</p>

-

-<p>Veronese must have delighted in painting this

-work. Needless to say, it is not in the least

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>religious. He has united in it all the most varied

-personages who struck his imagination. So we

-see a Spanish grandee, Francis I., Suleiman the

-Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and

-Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped

-round a table, are Veronese himself, playing the

-viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo da

-Ponte seated by them, and Paolo&#8217;s brother, the

-architect, with his hand on his hip, tossing off a

-full glass; and in the governor of the feast,

-opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise

-Aretino. Under the marble columns of a

-Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the

-illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us

-an odd and informing document. We can but

-accept the scene and admire the originality of its

-design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness

-and fancy, the way in which the varied

-incidents are brought into harmony, and the

-grace of the colonnade, peopled with spectators,

-standing out against the depth of distant sky.</p>

-

-<p>The celebrated suppers, of which this is the

-first example, are dispersed in different galleries

-and some have disappeared, but from this time

-Veronese loved to paint these great displays,

-repeating some of them, but always introducing

-variety.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img277.jpg" width="550" height="372" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Paolo Veronese.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MARRIAGE IN CANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Louvre.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani,

-procurator of St. Mark&#8217;s, who was appointed

-ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time

-saw the works of Raphael and Michelangelo and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>the treasures of antiquity. For a time, the sight

-of the antique had some effect upon his work;

-in his famous ceiling in the Louvre, &ldquo;Jupiter

-destroying the Vices,&rdquo; the influence of Michelangelo

-is apparent and its large gestures are inspired

-by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese

-brought home casts from Rome, and statues

-of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have

-inspired the Jupiter. He did not go on long in

-this path; he does not really care for the nude&mdash;it

-is too simple for him. He prefers that his

-saints and divinities should appear in the gorgeous

-costumes of the day, and that his Venus

-and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich

-brocades. But few documents are left concerning

-his work for the Ducal Palace up to 1576;

-much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but

-the Signoria then gave him a number of fresh

-commissions. The most important was the

-immense oval of the &ldquo;Triumph of Venice,&rdquo;

-or, as it is sometimes called, the &ldquo;Thanksgiving

-for Lepanto&rdquo;; the Republic crowned by

-victory and surrounded by allegorical figures,

-Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno and the

-rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom:

-the fair Queen leans back, surrounded

-by laughing patricians, who look up from their

-balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on

-the Grand Canal. The horses of the Free Companions,

-the soldiers who go afar to carry out

-the will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>personages, each of whom represents a town or

-colony of her domain. Like all Veronese&#8217;s

-creations, this will always be pre-eminently a

-picture of the sixteenth century, dated by a

-thousand details of costume, architecture, and

-armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the

-Venier, of Titian, Aretino, and Veronese himself,

-makes a deep impression upon us, and the artist

-reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.</p>

-

-<p>Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can

-show a canvas of Veronese or the assistants by

-whom he was now surrounded. From time to

-time he resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano,

-and his incessant production betrays no trace

-of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the

-saint is a triumph of the beauty of the silhouette

-against a radiant sky. He goes back to Verona

-and paints the &ldquo;Martyrdom of St. George.&rdquo; He

-pours light into it. The saints open a shining

-path, down which a flower-crowned Love flutters

-with the diadem and palm of victory. The

-whole air and expression of St. George is full

-of strength and that look of goodness and

-serenity which is the painter&#8217;s nearest approach

-to religious feeling. Veronese was created a

-Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was asking for

-his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature

-and fond of living with his family. Philip II.

-longed to get him to cover his great walls in the

-Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations

-and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>It was on account of the &ldquo;Feast in the House

-of Levi&rdquo; that in 1573 he was hauled before the

-tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document

-concerning this was only discovered a few years

-ago. The Signoria had never allowed any

-tribunal to chastise works of literature; on

-the contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor

-herself in geniuses of the mind, was the refuge

-of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a

-sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed

-her to set aside or suspend the decisions of the

-Holy Office, from which she could not quite

-emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was

-denounced by some &ldquo;aggrieved person,&rdquo; to whom

-his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an

-outrage on religion. The members of the

-tribunal demanded &ldquo;who the boy was with the

-bleeding nose?&rdquo; and &ldquo;why were halberdiers

-admitted?&rdquo; Veronese replied that they were the

-sort of servants a rich and magnificent host would

-have about him. He was then asked why he

-had introduced the buffoon with a parrot on his

-hand. He replied that he really thought only

-Christ and His Apostles were present, but that

-when he had a little space over, he adorned it

-with imaginary figures. This defence of the vast

-and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and

-he was asked if he really thought that at the

-Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to bring

-in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other

-absurdities. Did he not know that in Germany

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>and other places infested with heresy, they were

-in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church

-into ridicule, with intent to teach false doctrine

-to the ignorant? Paolo for his defence cited the

-Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted

-every figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor

-replied crushingly, that these were disembodied

-spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.

-Could Veronese uphold his picture as

-decent? The painter was probably not very

-much alarmed. He was a person of great importance

-in Venice, and the proceedings of the

-Inquisition were always jealously watched by

-members of the Senate, who would not have permitted

-any unfair interference with the liberties

-of those under the protection of the State. The

-real offence was the introduction of the German

-soldiers, who were peculiarly obnoxious to the

-Venetians; but Veronese did not care what the

-subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for

-a great <em>spectacle</em>. Brought to bay, he gave the

-true answer: &ldquo;My Lords, I have not considered

-all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything

-disorderly. I painted the picture as it

-seemed best to me and as my intellect could

-conceive of it.&rdquo; It meant that Veronese painted

-in the way that he considered most artistic, without

-even remembering questions of religion, and

-in this he summed up his whole &aelig;sthetic creed.

-He was set at liberty on condition that he took

-out one or two of the most offending figures.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>The &ldquo;Feast in the House of Levi&rdquo; (as he named

-it after the trial) is the finest of all his great

-scenic effects. The air circulates freely through

-the white architecture, we breathe more deeply

-as we look out into the wide blue sky, and

-such is the sensation of expansion, that it is

-hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a

-flat wall. Titian&#8217;s backgrounds are a blue

-horizon, a burning twilight. Veronese builds

-marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns

-blanched in the liquid light. His personages

-show little violent action. He places them in

-noble poses in which they can best show off

-their magnificent clothes, and he endows his

-patricians, his goddesses, his sacred persons, with

-a uniform air of majestic indolence.</p>

-

-<p>After his &ldquo;trial,&rdquo; Veronese proceeded more

-triumphantly than ever. Every prince wished

-to have something from his brush; the Emperor

-Rudolph, at Prague, showed with pride the

-canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus. The

-Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of

-Ferrara, added Veronese&#8217;s works to the treasures

-of the house of Este. The last ten years of his

-life were given up to visiting churches on the

-mainland and on the little islands round Venice,

-all covetous to possess something by the brilliant

-Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello,

-Murano, Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent

-and monastery loaded him with commissions, and

-it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his

-most ardent patrons, those who delighted most

-in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were

-to be found in the religious houses. Then, when

-he went to rest in the summer heats in some villa

-on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here

-and there. It was on such an occasion, for the

-Pisani, that he painted the &ldquo;Family of Darius,&rdquo;

-which was sold to England by a member of

-the house in 1857. The royal captives, who

-are throwing themselves at the feet of the

-conqueror, are, with Paolo&#8217;s usual frank na&iuml;vet&eacute;

-and disregard of anachronisms, dressed in full

-Venetian costume&mdash;all the chief personages are

-portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom

-and rapidity of execution, the completeness and

-finish, the charm of colour, the beauty of the

-figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander

-and Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy,

-make this one of the finest of all his works.

-The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it,

-&ldquo;It is absurd and dazzling.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>In the &ldquo;Rape of Europa,&rdquo; he recurred again

-to one of those legends of fabled beings who have

-outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and living.

-Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino

-and Bembo, well versed in mythology, and with

-his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse for

-painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets,

-and a delightful landscape. The wild flowers

-spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro against

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese

-turquoise. It is the work of a man who is a

-true poet of colour and for whom colour represents

-all the emotions of joy and pleasure.</p>

-

-<p>Veronese died comparatively young, of chill

-and fever, and all his family survived him. He

-lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary

-memoirs we know that he lived and dressed

-splendidly. He kept immense stores of gorgeous

-stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew

-everything from life,&mdash;the negroes covered with

-jewels, the bright-eyed pages, the models who,

-robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became

-queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls

-which bedecked them were from his own

-caskets. Though we know little of his private

-life, his work is so alive that he seems personified

-in it. He is saved from what might have been

-a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing

-colour in which he revels; his silks

-and satins are less modelled by shadows than

-tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and

-striped and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously

-combined that the eye rests, wherever it falls, on

-something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is

-where his genius lies, &ldquo;the decoration does not

-add to the interest of the drama; it replaces

-it&rdquo;; in short, it <em>is</em> the drama itself, for his types

-show little selection, and his ideal of female

-beauty is not a very sympathetic one. His

-personages are cold and devoid of expression,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>their gestures are rather meaningless, but by

-means of light and air and exquisite colour he

-gives the poetical touch which all great art

-demands.</p>

-

-<p>On account of their size few examples of

-Veronese&#8217;s work are to be found in private

-collections, but the galleries of the different

-European capitals are rich in them. Numbers

-of paintings, too, which are by his assistants

-are dignified by his name, and directly after his

-death spurious works were freely manufactured

-and sold as genuine.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi; Marriage of Cana.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before

-             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Maser.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice enthroned.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Barnab&agrave;: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in

-             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;

-             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at the House of Jairus.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TINTORETTO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>It does not seem likely that many new discoveries

-will be made about Tintoretto&#8217;s life. It

-was an open and above-board one, and there is

-practically no time during its span that we are

-not able to account for, and to say where he

-was living and how he was occupied. The son of

-a dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds

-of Venice, the &ldquo;little dyer,&rdquo; <em>il tentoretto</em>, appears

-as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn his chosen

-art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately

-after, summarily ejected from that

-master&#8217;s workshop, on account, it seems probable,

-of the independence and innovation of his style,

-which was of the very kind most likely to shock

-and puzzle Titian&#8217;s courtly, settled genius. After

-this he painted when and where he could,

-pursuing his artistic studies with the headlong

-ardour which through life characterised his

-attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he

-may have worked in Bonifazio&#8217;s studio. He

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>

-formed a close friendship with Andrea Schiavone,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>

-he imported casts of Michelangelo&#8217;s statues, he

-studied the works of Titian and Palma. Over

-his door was written &ldquo;the colour of Titian and

-the form of Michelangelo.&rdquo; All his energies

-were for long devoted to the effort to master

-that form. Colour came to him naturally, but

-good drawing meant more to him than it had

-ever done to any Venetian. Long afterwards, to

-repeated inquiries as to how excellence could

-be best ensured, he would give no other advice

-than the reiterated, &ldquo;study drawing.&rdquo; He

-practised till the human form in every attitude

-held no difficulties for him. He suspended

-little models by strings, and drew every limb

-and torso he could get hold of over and over

-again. He was found in every place where

-painting was wanted, getting the builders to let

-him experiment upon the house-fronts. To

-master light and shade he constructed little

-cardboard houses, in which, by means of sliding

-shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be

-arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of

-this part of his education, as in the end the love

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>of shine and shadow was the most victorious of

-all his inspirations.</p>

-

-<p>The chief events in Tintoretto&#8217;s life are art-events.

-For some years he frescoed the outside

-of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his

-expenses. He decorated household furniture and

-everything he could lay hands on. Then came

-a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,

-organ-doors there, for unimportant churches.

-No one in Venice talked of any one save Palma,

-Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was difficult

-enough for an outsider, who was not one of their

-clique, to get employment. But by the time

-Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was becoming

-recognised; he had painted the two

-altarpieces for SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, and

-the offer he made to decorate the vast church

-of his parish brought him conspicuously into

-notice. In the first ardour of youth he completed

-the &ldquo;Last Judgment&rdquo; for the choir.

-From time to time, during fourteen years, he

-redeemed his early promises and executed the

-&ldquo;Golden Calf&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Presentation of the

-Virgin.&rdquo; Within two years of his offer to

-the Prior, came his first great opportunity of

-achieving distinction. This was a commission

-from the Confraternity of St. Mark, and with the

-&ldquo;Miracle of the Slave&rdquo; he sprang at once to the

-highest place.</p>

-

-<p>The picture was universally admired, and was

-followed by three more dealing with the patron

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful

-young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi,

-as it is indifferently given, the daughter of a

-noble family of the mainland. Tradition has

-always pointed to the girl in blue in the &ldquo;Golden

-Calf&rdquo; as her portrait, while it is easy to recognise

-Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded giant,

-who helps to carry the idol. His house at this

-time was somewhere in the Parrocchia dell&#8217; Orto,

-and there, during the next fourteen years, eight

-children were born, of whom the two eldest,

-Domenico and Marietta, attained distinction in

-their father&#8217;s profession. Another great event,

-which profoundly influenced his life, was the

-beginning of his connection in 1560 with the

-Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity

-which was devoted to combating the ravages of

-the plague and to succouring the families of its

-victims. His work for this lasted to the end of

-his life and is his most distinguished memorial.</p>

-

-<p>The palace to which the Robusti family

-moved in 1574, and which was inhabited by his

-descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified

-in the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into

-two parts, but it is evident that it was a dwelling

-of some importance, a good specimen of

-Venetian Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable

-decoration; the walls are sheathed in

-marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of

-Gothic windows in delicately carved frames and

-little balconies of fretted marble. Zanetti, in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze

-frieze cast from the master&#8217;s design, which ran

-round the Grand Sala. The family must have

-occupied the <em>piano nobile</em> and let off the floors

-they did not require.</p>

-

-<p>Descriptions of the life led by the painter and

-his family are given by Vasari, who knew him

-personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was published

-in 1646, and who must have known his

-children, several of whom were still alive and

-proud of their father&#8217;s fame. We hear of pleasant

-evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic

-love of music, Tintoretto himself and his

-daughter being highly gifted. Among the

-<em>habitu&eacute;s</em> were Zarlino, for twenty-five years

-chapel-master of St. Mark&#8217;s, one of the fathers of

-modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who, in

-spite of his love for magnificent entertainments,

-was often to be found in Tintoretto&#8217;s pleasant

-home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always

-welcome, and as time went on the house became

-the haunt of all the cultured gentlemen and

-<em>litterati</em> of Venice.</p>

-

-<p>It is not difficult from the materials available

-to form a sufficiently lively idea of this Venetian

-citizen of the sixteenth century, as father and

-husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected

-a number of anecdotes, which space forbids me

-to use, but which are all very characteristic. We

-gather that he was a man of strong character,

-generous, sincere and simple, decided in his

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>ways, caring little for the great world, but

-open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,

-observant of men and manners, and sometimes

-rather brusque in dealing with bores and offensive

-persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of good-natured

-banter of his wife&#8217;s little weaknesses.

-A man, too, of upright conduct and free, as far

-as it can be ascertained, from any of those

-laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of

-celebrated men and so easily condoned by his

-age. Art was Tintoretto&#8217;s main preoccupation;

-but he seems to have been a man of strong

-religious bias, making a close study of the Bible,

-and turning naturally in his last days to those

-truths with which his art had made him familiar,

-truths which he had represented with that touch

-of mystic feeling which was the deepest part

-of his nature.</p>

-

-<p>His relations with the State commenced in

-1574, when his offer to present a superb painting

-of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and

-accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto

-was rewarded by a Broker&#8217;s patent, and between

-this and the &ldquo;Paradiso,&rdquo; the work of his old

-age, he executed a number of pictures for the

-Signoria. The only record of any travels are

-confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where

-he went in the &#8217;sixties and again in 1579 to see

-to the hanging of paintings done for the Gonzaga,

-and of which the documents have been kept,

-though the pictures have vanished. Tintoretto&#8217;s

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>last years were saddened by the death of his

-beloved daughter, who had always been his

-constant companion. He died in 1579 after a

-fortnight&#8217;s illness and left a will, which, together

-with that of his son, throws a good deal of light

-upon the family history.</p>

-

-<p>It is not easy to select from the vast quantity

-of work left by Tintoretto. He is one of those

-painters whose whole life was passed in his

-native city and who can only be adequately

-studied in that city. Perhaps the first place in

-which to seek him, is the great church which

-was the monument of his early prime. The

-&ldquo;Last Judgment&rdquo; was probably inspired by that

-of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and

-sketches must have reached the younger master,

-over whom the Florentine had exercised so

-strong a fascination. Tintoretto&#8217;s version impresses

-one as that of a mind boiling with

-thoughts and visions which he pours out upon

-the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe,

-a scene of rushing destruction, of forms swept

-into oblivion, of others struggling to the light, of

-many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and

-light behind the rushing water,&mdash;water which

-makes us almost giddy as we watch it. The

-&ldquo;Golden Calf&rdquo; is a maturer production and includes

-some of the loveliest women Tintoretto

-ever painted. We see too plainly the planning,

-the device of concentrating interest on the idol by

-turning figures and pointing fingers, but nothing

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>can be imagined more supple and queenly than

-the woman in blue, and the way the light falls

-on her head and perfectly foreshortened arm

-shows to what excellence Tintoretto had attained.

-The &ldquo;Presentation&rdquo; is a riper work. The

-drawing of the flight of steps and of the groups

-upon them could not be bettered. The little

-figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new

-dispensation, as she advances to meet the representative

-of the old, thrills with mystic feeling,

-yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy

-simplicity of a child. The &ldquo;St. Agnes,&rdquo; with

-its contrast of light and shade, of strength made

-perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the

-commission of Cardinal Contarini.</p>

-

-<p>It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto,

-especially in the &ldquo;Presentation,&rdquo; has contrived,

-while using the traditional episodes, to infuse

-so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast

-of age and youth, the joy of the Gentiles, the

-starlike figure of the child surrounded by shadows,

-convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with

-the nature of the scene.</p>

-

-<p>Next let us group together the miracles in

-the history of St. Mark. One of the qualities

-which strikes us most in the &ldquo;Miracle of the

-Slave&rdquo; is its strong local colour. It tells of

-Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike Tintoretto&#8217;s

-later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;

-carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet,

-and turquoise-blue. The crimson velvet of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>judge&#8217;s dress is finely relieved against a blue-green

-sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive

-fire and dash which culminates at once and

-without effort in perfect action, &ldquo;as a bird flies,

-or a horse gallops.&rdquo; It startled the quiet

-members of the Guild, and at the first moment

-they hesitated to accept it. The &ldquo;Rescue of

-the Saracen&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Transportation of the

-Body&rdquo; are more in the golden-brown manner

-to which he was moving, but it is in the

-&ldquo;Finding of the Body&rdquo; (Brera) that he rises to

-the highest emotional pitch. The colossal form

-of the saint, expanding with life and power as he

-towers in the spirit above his own lifeless clay,

-draws all eyes to him and seems to fill the

-barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every

-part of the vault is flooded by his life-giving

-energy, and here Tintoretto deals with light and

-shade with full mastery.</p>

-

-<p>As we follow Tintoretto&#8217;s career, it is borne

-in upon us how little positive colour it takes to

-make a great colourist. The whole Venetian

-School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand

-as bright colour. Vivid tints are much more

-characteristic of the Flemish and the Florentine,

-or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong,

-crude colours are to be seen on all sides in the

-Salon or the Royal Academy, but they are

-absent from the scheme of sombre splendour

-which has given the Venetians their title to

-fame. This is especially true of Tintoretto, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut

-becomes more golden-brown and mellow; the

-greys and browns and ivories combine in a

-lustrous symphony more impressive than gay

-tints, flooded with enveloping shadow and

-illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another

-noticeable feature is the way in which he

-puts on his oil-colour, so that it bears the direct

-impression of the painter&#8217;s hand. The Florentines

-had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark

-smoothed away; but as the later Venetians

-covered large spaces with oil-colour, they no

-longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the

-brush, and light, distance, movement, were all

-conveyed by the turns and twists and swirls with

-which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at

-the power of touch in such a picture as the

-&ldquo;Death of Abel&rdquo;; we see this spontaneity of

-execution actually forming part of the emotion

-with which the picture is charged. The concentrated

-hate of the one figure, the desperate

-appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape,

-gain their emotion as much from the

-impetuous brush-work as from the more studied

-design. We come closest to the painter&#8217;s mind

-in the Scuola di San Rocco. He had already

-been employed in the church, and there remains,

-darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative

-of the career of S. Roch, patron saint of

-sufferers from the plague. When the great

-Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>the confraternity asked a conclave of painters,

-among whom were Veronese and Andrea

-Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition.

-When they assembled to display their designs,

-Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling

-of the refectory and discovered a finished picture,

-the &ldquo;S. Roch in Glory,&rdquo; which still holds its

-place there. Neither the other artists nor the

-brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional

-proceeding, but he &ldquo;hoped they would

-not be offended; it was the only way he knew.&rdquo;

-Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of

-the rest, but partly also from the excellence of

-the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto, and

-after two years&#8217; work he was received into the

-order, and was assigned an annual provision of

-100 ducats (&pound;50) a year for life, being bound

-every year to furnish three pictures.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TINTORETTO</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-<p>The first portion of the vast building that was

-finished was the Refectory, but in examining

-the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to

-leave it to its proper place, which is the climax.

-Before beginning, Tintoretto must have had the

-whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt that

-he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and

-recalled its plan and significance; the old dispensation

-typifying the new, the Old Testament

-history vivified by the acts of Christ. The

-main feature of the harmony which it is only

-reasonable to suppose governs the whole building,

-is its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of

-mercy. The principal paintings of the Upper

-Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine

-mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes

-bear upon the central idea. On the roof are the

-three most important miracles of mercy performed

-on behalf of the Chosen People. The

-paintings on roof and walls are linked together.

-The &ldquo;Fall of Man&rdquo; at one end of the Hall, the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient

-eating of the Passover at the other, and is

-interdependent with the Manna in the Wilderness,

-the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves.

-The Miracles of satisfied thirst are represented

-by &ldquo;Moses striking the Rock,&rdquo; Samson drinking

-from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah.

-The Baptism and other signs of the Advent of

-Christ and the Divine preparation, balance events

-in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory

-which opens from the Great Hall, we come to

-the &ldquo;Crucifixion,&rdquo; the crowning act of mercy,

-surrounded by the events which immediately

-succeeded it, and typified immediately above in

-the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen

-Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment

-and succour, two of miraculous restoration

-to health, and two of deliverance from danger.

-The whole scheme has been worked out in

-detail in my book on &ldquo;Tintoretto.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>In the working out of his great scheme,

-Tintoretto is impatient of hackneyed and traditional

-forms; he must have a reading of his own,

-and one which appeals to his imagination. We

-see that passion for movement which distinguishes

-his early work. &ldquo;Moses striking the Rock&rdquo; is a

-figure instinct with purpose and energy. The

-water bounds forth, living, life-giving, the people

-strain wildly to reach it. His figures are sometimes

-found fault with, as extravagant in gesture,

-but the attitudes were intended to be seen and to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>arrest attention from far below, and we must not

-forget that the painter&#8217;s models were drawn from

-a Southern race, to whom emphasis of action is

-natural. Tintoretto, it may be conceded, is on

-certain occasions, generally when dealing with

-accessory figures, inclined to excess of gesture;

-it is the defect of his temperament, but when he

-has a subject that carries him away he is sincere

-and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared

-to him; his colour, however effective, is

-calculated, whereas Tintoretto&#8217;s seems to permeate

-every object and to soak the whole composition.

-To quote a recent critic: &ldquo;He chose to begin, if

-possible, with a subject charged with emotion.

-He then proceeded to treat it according to its

-nature, that is to say, he toned down and obscured

-the outlines of form and mapped out the subject

-instead in pale or sombre masses of light and

-shade. Under the control of this powerful

-scheme of chiaroscuro, the colouring of the

-composition was placed, but its own character,

-its degree of richness and sobriety, was determined

-by the kind of emotion belonging to the subject.

-To use colour in this way, not only with

-emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to

-use it to perform one of the greatest functions

-of art.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>

-

-<p>So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the

-aspect of the groups, the pathos of the faces

-or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the

-atmosphere into which we are absorbed, the

-sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding

-light and shadow, that makes us feel how different

-the rendering is from any other. In the &ldquo;Christ

-before Pilate&rdquo; the head and figure of Christ are

-not particularly impressive in themselves, but

-the brilliant light falling on the white robes and

-coursing down the steps supplies dignity and

-poetry; the slender white figure stands out

-like a shaft of light against the lurid and

-troubled background. Again, in the &ldquo;Way to

-Golgotha&rdquo; the falling evening gleam, the wild

-sky, the deep shadow of the ravine, throw into

-relief the quiet form, detached in look and

-feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far

-above the brutal throng. Nowhere does that

-spiritual emotion find deeper expression than

-in the &ldquo;Visitation.&rdquo; The passion of thanksgiving,

-the poignancy of mother-love, throb

-through the two women, who have been

-travelling towards one another, with a great

-secret between them, and who at length reach

-the haven of each other&#8217;s love and knowledge.

-Here, too, the dying light, the waving tree,

-the obliteration of form, and the feeling of

-mystery make a deep appeal to the sensuous

-apprehension. We find it again and again; the

-great trees sway and whisper in the gathering

-darkness as the Virgin rides through the falling

-evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and in that

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>most moving of all Tintoretto&#8217;s creations, the

-&ldquo;S. Mary of Egypt,&rdquo; the emotional mood of

-Nature&#8217;s self is brought home to us. The trees

-that dominate the landscape are painted with

-a few &ldquo;strokes like sabre cuts&rdquo;; the landscape,

-given with apparent carelessness, yet conveying

-an indescribable sense of space and solemnity,

-unfolds itself under the dying day; and in solitary

-meditation, thrilling with ecstasy, sits that little

-figure, whose heart has travelled far away to

-commune with the Spirit, &ldquo;whose dwelling is

-the light of setting suns.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>It is not possible in a short space to touch,

-even in passing, on all the many scenes in these

-halls: the &ldquo;Annunciation,&rdquo; with its marvellous

-flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of

-pigeons in the Piazza, and how often the old

-painter must have watched them; the &ldquo;Temptation,&rdquo;

-contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh

-that <em>must</em> be fed, with the calm of absolute

-purity; the &ldquo;Massacre of the Innocents,&rdquo; for

-which the horrors of sacked towns could have

-supplied many a parallel,&mdash;we have not time to

-dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist

-has overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the

-dark halls, by choosing strong and varied effects

-of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we

-can picture what the halls must have been like

-when they first glowed from his hand, adorned

-with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung

-with opulent draperies, with the rose-red and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>purple of bishops&#8217; and cardinals&#8217; robes reflected in

-the gleaming pavement.</p>

-

-<p><a name="egypt" id="egypt"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">

-<img src="images/img303.jpg" width="259" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Tintoretto.</em> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><em>Scuola di San Rocco.</em></span><br />

-S. MARY OF EGYPT.<br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto,

-by many renderings, have made the &ldquo;Last

-Supper&rdquo; peculiarly their own in the domain of

-art. It shows how strongly the mystic strain

-entered into the man&#8217;s character, that often as

-Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its

-interest for him, and he never failed to find a fresh

-point of view. In that in S. Polo, Christ offers

-the sacred food with a gesture of vehement

-generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to

-all comers to the Mass, to afford them a welcome

-as they pass to the High Altar, it tells of the

-Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto

-himself, painted in the character of S. Paul,

-stands at one side, absorbed in meditation. We

-need not insist again on the emotional value of

-the deep colours, the rich creams and crimsons

-and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering, in

-S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point

-in symbolical treatment. Some people are only

-able to see a theatrical, artificial spirit in this

-picture, but at least, when we consider what

-deep meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on

-his subjects, we may believe that he himself was

-sincere and that he let himself go over what

-commended itself as an entirely new rendering.

-&ldquo;The Light shined in the Darkness, and the

-Darkness comprehended it not.&rdquo; The supernatural

-is entering on every side, but the feast

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>goes on; the serving men and maids busy themselves

-with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring,

-but not agitated; none see that throng of

-heavenly visitants, pouring in through the blue

-moonlight, called to their Master&#8217;s side by the

-supreme significance of His words. The painter

-has taken full advantage of the opportunity of

-combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring

-out smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight

-and the unearthly radiance, in divers, yet

-mingling streams which fight against the surrounding

-gloom. In the scene in the Scuola

-di S. Rocco the betrayal is the dominating

-incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the

-Saviour is alone with the faithful disciples.</p>

-

-<p><a name="bacchus" id="bacchus"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img308.jpg" width="550" height="467" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Tintoretto.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Ducal Palace, Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Though several of the large compositions

-ascribed to Tintoretto in the Ducal Palace are

-only partly by him, or entirely by followers and

-imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his

-genius. There is much that is fine about the

-great state pieces. In the &ldquo;Marriage of St.

-Catherine,&rdquo; the saint, in silken gown and

-long transparent veil, is an exquisite figure.

-Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden

-light and air, and yet we feel that these huge

-official subjects, with the prosaic old Doges

-introduced in incongruous company, neither

-stimulated his imagination nor satisfied his taste.

-It is on the smaller canvases that he finds inspiration.

-He never painted anything more lovely,

-more perfect in design, or more gay and tender in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>idea, than the cycle in the Ante-Collegio. The

-glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows

-upon ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and

-a refined, unselfconscious joy such as is felt in

-hardly any other work, except the painter&#8217;s own

-&ldquo;Milky Way&rdquo; in the National Gallery. In all

-these four pictures the feeling for design, a

-branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,

-is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne

-all the principal lines, the eyes and gestures,

-converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol

-of union between the goddess and her lover,

-between the queenly city and the Adriatic sea.

-Or take &ldquo;Pallas driving away Mars&rdquo;: see how

-the mass into which the figures are gathered on

-the left adds strength to the thrust of the

-goddess&#8217;s arm, and what steadiness is given by

-that short straight lance of hers, coming in

-among all the yielding curves. The whole four

-are linked together in meaning: the call to

-Venice to reign over the seas, her triumphant

-peace, with Wisdom guiding her council, and her

-warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction

-with these pictures are two small ones

-in the chapel, hardly less beautiful&mdash;St. George

-with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome.

-It is difficult to say whether the exultant St.

-George, the dignified young bishop, or the two

-older saints are the more sympathetic creations,

-or the more admirable, both in drawing and

-colour. The sense of space in both settings is an

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy

-boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the

-composition.</p>

-

-<p>There are many other striking examples,

-ranging all through Tintoretto&#8217;s life, of his

-untiring imagination. In the Salute is that

-&ldquo;Marriage of Cana,&rdquo; in which all the actors

-seem to swim in golden light. The sharp

-silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine

-with which the hall is flooded, and all the

-architectural lines lead our eyes towards the

-central figure, placed at a distance. On that

-long canvas in the Academy, kneel the three

-treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending in

-homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit

-enthroned upon a broad piazza, through the

-marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape

-shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet

-and ermine kneel before the Child, or hold

-counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of

-S. Giustina. The &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; (in S. Cassiano)

-is another triumph of the painter&#8217;s imaginative

-conception. The bold lines of the crosses,

-the ladder, and the figures detach against a

-glorious sky, and the presence of the moving,

-murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of

-the line of sight, the spectator is made to form

-a part, is conveyed by the swaying and crossing

-of the lances borne by the armed men who keep

-the ground. There is a series, too, which deals

-with the Magdalen. She mourns her dead in that

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>solemn, restrained &ldquo;Entombment,&rdquo; where the enfolding

-shadows frame the cross against the sad

-dawn, which adorns the mortuary chapel of S.

-Giorgio Maggiore; and the Piet&agrave; in the Brera, the

-long lines of which add to the impression of tender

-repose, has its peace broken by the passionate cry

-of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto&#8217;s

-ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same

-scene in a dozen different ways, and, in fact,

-the book of sketches lately acquired by the

-British Museum shows as many as thirty trials

-dashed off for one subject, and after all he uses

-one composed for something quite different. It

-is this habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh

-from his brain, that has led to the common but

-superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely

-a great improvisatore, whose successes came more

-or less by good luck. He could, indeed, paint

-pictures at a pace at which many great masters

-could only sketch, but he had already designed

-and considered and rejected, doing with oil,

-ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries

-did mentally. Such achievements as the

-Ante-Collegio cycle, the &ldquo;House of Martha

-and Mary,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Marriage of Cana,&rdquo; the

-&ldquo;Temptation of S. Anthony,&rdquo; to name only a

-few, show a finish and perfection and a balance

-of design which preclude the idea of their being

-lightly painted pictures. When he was actually

-engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with impetuous

-ardour, but we may feel assured he left

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>nothing to chance, though he had his own way

-of making sure of the result.</p>

-

-<p>It is strange to hear people, as one does now

-and then, talking of the &ldquo;Paradiso&rdquo; as &ldquo;a splendid

-failure.&rdquo; It may be granted that the subject is

-an impossible one for human art to realise, yet

-when all allowance has been made for a lamentable

-amount of drying and blackening, it is difficult

-to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his

-admiration of that thronging multitude, ordered

-and disciplined by the tides of light and shadow,

-which roll in and out of the masses, resolving

-them into groups and single figures of almost

-matchless beauty and melting away into a sea

-of radiant ether, which tells us of the boundless

-space which surrounds the serried ranks of the

-Blessed.</p>

-

-<p>Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was

-allotted to him, and it was the last great effort of

-his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved

-both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is

-evident that the painter has framed it upon

-the thought of Dante&#8217;s mystic rose. The circles

-and many of the figures can be traced in the

-poem, and the idea of the Eternal Light streaming

-through the leaves of the rose dominates the

-composition. It is appropriate that it should

-have been his last great work, as it was also

-the greatest attempt at composition ever made

-by a master of the Venetian School.</p>

-

-<p>There is no room here to study Tintoretto as

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>a painter of battlepieces, though from the time

-he painted the &ldquo;Battle of Lepanto,&rdquo; for the

-Council of Ten, he often returned to such

-subjects. His two series for the Gonzaga included

-several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses

-examples. The impetuosity of his style stood

-him in good stead, and he never fails to bring in

-graceful and striking figures.</p>

-

-<p>His portraits are hardly equal to Titian&#8217;s

-intellectual grasp or fine-grained colour, but they

-are extraordinarily characteristic. He prefers to

-paint men rather than women, and he painted

-hundreds&mdash;all the great persons of his time who

-lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian

-portrait by this time was expected to be more

-than a likeness and more than a problem. It was

-to please the taste as a picture, to interest and to

-satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets

-behind the scenes, and we see some mood, some

-aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected to

-show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto&#8217;s,

-but he deals with his sitters with an observation

-which pierces below the surface.</p>

-

-<p>In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often

-unable to discriminate between the turgid and

-melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental.

-The first all must abhor, but the last

-is sincere and deserves to be respected. It is by

-his best that we must judge a man, and taking

-his best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one

-has left a larger amount which will stand the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and

-elevated central ideas, which unify all parts

-of his composition, Tintoretto stands with the

-greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual

-side of life was exemplified in Florentine art,

-but the Renaissance would have been a one-sided

-development if there had not arisen a body of

-men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous

-apprehension seemed of supreme value, and at

-the very last there arose with him one who, to

-their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of

-their chosen medium, added the crowning glory

-of the imaginative idea.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Augsburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator

-             before S. Mark.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old

-             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of

-             Dominican; Knight of Malta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;

-             Origin of Milky Way.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;

-             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before

-             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S. Mark (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of Himself.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Turin.</td>  <td class="td5">The Trinity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints

-             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;

-             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea

-             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam

-             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna

-             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in

-             Temple.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;

-             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;

-             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan&#8217;s Forge;

-             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;

-             SS. Andrew and Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,

-             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:

-             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark

-             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;

-             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);

-             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the

-             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d&#8217; Armata;

-             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.

-             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls

-             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before

-             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Silvestro: Baptism.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of

-             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and

-             Boy; Portrait of Lady.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>BASSANO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We wonder how many of those sightseers who

-pass through the Ante-Collegio in the Ducal

-Palace, and stare for a few moments at Tintoretto&#8217;s

-famous quartet and at Veronese&#8217;s &ldquo;Rape of

-Europa,&rdquo; turn to give even such fleeting attention

-to the long, dark canvas which hangs beside

-them, &ldquo;Jacob&#8217;s Journey into Canaan,&rdquo; by Jacopo

-da Ponte, called Bassano.</p>

-

-<p>Yet from the position in which it is placed

-the visitor might guess that it is considered to be

-a gem, and it gains something in interest when we

-learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo

-Contarini at the same time as the &ldquo;Rape of

-Europa,&rdquo; as if the great connoisseur enjoyed

-contrasting Veronese&#8217;s light, gay style with the

-vigorous brush of da Ponte.</p>

-

-<p>If attention is arrested by the beauty of the

-painting, and the visitor should be inspired to

-seek the painter in his native city, he will be

-well repaid. Bassano once held an important

-position on the main road between Italy and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>Germany, but since the railroad was made across

-the Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little

-town which lies cradled on the spurs of the

-Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana

-opens. It is surrounded by chestnut woods,

-which sweep up to the blue mountains, the wide

-Brenta flows through the town, and the houses

-cluster high on either side, and have gardens and

-balconies overhanging the water. The fa&ccedil;ades

-of many of the houses are covered with fading

-frescoes, relics of da Ponte&#8217;s school of fresco-painters,

-which, though they are fast perishing,

-still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.</p>

-

-<p>Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his

-father, Francesco, who in his day had been a

-pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.

-Francesco da Ponte&#8217;s best work is to be found

-at Bassano, in the cathedral and the church of

-San Giovanni, and has many of the characteristics,

-such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola,

-which we have noticed that Montagna owed to

-the Vivarini. Francesco&#8217;s son went when very

-young to Venice, and was there thrown at once

-among the artists of the lagoons, and attached

-himself in particular to Bonifazio. In Jacopo&#8217;s

-earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a

-&ldquo;Flight into Egypt,&rdquo; Bonifazio&#8217;s tuition is

-markedly discernible in the build of the figures

-and, above all, in the form of the heads. A

-comparison of the very peculiarly shaped head

-of the Virgin in this picture with that of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>

-Venetian lady in Bonifazio&#8217;s &ldquo;Rich Man&#8217;s Feast,&rdquo;

-in the Venetian Academy, leaves us in no doubt

-on this score. Jacopo&#8217;s &ldquo;Adulteress before

-Christ&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Three in the Fiery Furnace&rdquo;

-have Bonifazio&#8217;s manner in the architecture and

-the staging of the figures. Only five examples

-are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it

-is all in Bonifazio&#8217;s lighter style, not unlike his

-&ldquo;Holy Family&rdquo; in the National Gallery.</p>

-

-<p>The house in which the painter lived when

-he returned to his native town, still stands in the

-little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole fa&ccedil;ade

-retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with

-which he decorated it. The design is in four

-horizontal bands. First comes a frieze of

-children in every attitude of fun and frolic.

-Then follows a long range of animals&mdash;horses,

-oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and flowers

-make a border, with allegorical representations

-of the arts and crafts filling the spaces between

-the windows. The principal band is decorated

-with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now

-hardly discernible, but which represent &ldquo;Samson

-slaying the Philistines,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Drunkenness

-of Noah,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cain and Abel,&rdquo; &ldquo;Lot and his

-Daughters,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Judith with the Head of

-Holofernes.&rdquo; Between the two last there

-formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child,

-with the motto, &ldquo;Mors omnia aequat,&rdquo; which

-was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively

-good preservation.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano,

-where, with the help of his four sons, who were

-all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible

-stream of works, which, it is said, were put up

-to auction at the neighbouring fairs, if no other

-market was forthcoming. From time to time

-he and his sons went down to Venice, and with

-the help of the eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he

-is generally known) painted the &ldquo;Siege of Padua&rdquo;

-and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His

-mature style was founded mainly upon that of

-Titian, and it is to this second manner that he

-owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours,

-and enhances his lights by deepening and consolidating

-his shadows, so that they come into

-strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer

-impasto. He has a marvellous faculty for keeping

-his colour pure, and his greens shine like a

-beetle&#8217;s wing. A nature-lover in the highest

-degree, his painting of animals and plants evinces

-a mind which is steeped in the magic of outdoor

-life. A subject of which he was particularly

-fond, and which he seems to have undertaken for

-half the collectors of Europe, was the &ldquo;Four

-Seasons.&rdquo; Here was found united everything

-that Bassano most loved to paint: beasts of the

-farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with

-their implements, scenes of harvest-time and

-vintage, rough peasants leading the plough,

-cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young

-girls making hay, driving home the cattle,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>taking dinner to the reapers. When he was

-obliged to paint for churches he chose such

-subjects as the Adoration of the Shepherds, the

-Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from the

-Temple, into which he could introduce animals,

-painting them with such vigour and such forcible

-colour that Titian himself is said to have had

-a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint

-his daughters engaged in household tasks, and

-perhaps placed his figures with rather too obvious

-a reference to light and shade, and to the sun

-striking full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom

-shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of Veronese

-and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records

-that when he was one day discussing contemporary

-painters with the latter, Tintoretto

-exclaimed, &ldquo;Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing

-and I had your colour I would defy the devil

-himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to

-make any show beside us.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Bassano was invited to take up his residence

-at the Court of the Emperor Rudolph, but he

-refused to leave his mountain city, where he died

-in 1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd

-of the poorest inhabitants, for whom his charity

-had been boundless.</p>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;Journey of Jacob,&rdquo; to which we have

-already alluded, is among his most beautiful

-works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated

-to the charm of the landscape. The

-evening dusk draws all objects into its embrace.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out

-against a gleam of sunset sky. The tree-trunks

-and light play of leafy branches, which break

-up the composition, are from da Ponte&#8217;s own

-country round Bassano. The pony upon which

-the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among

-the quiet sheep, are given with all the loving

-truth of the born animal-painter. It is no

-wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him,

-and has more than once imitated his whole

-design.</p>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;Baptism of St. Lucilla&rdquo; (in the Museum

-at Bassano) is one of his most Titianesque

-creations. The personages in it are grouped

-upon a flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance

-palace with cypresses against a sky of

-evening-red barred with purple clouds. The

-drawing and modelling of the figures are almost

-faultless, and the colour is dazzling. The bending

-figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling

-on her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before

-the young bishop, St. Valentine, is one of the

-most graceful things in art, and Titian himself

-need not have disowned the little angels, bearing

-palm branches and frolicking in the stream of

-radiance overhead.</p>

-

-<p>Bassano has a &ldquo;Concert,&rdquo; which is interesting

-as a family piece. It was painted in the year

-in which his son Leandro&#8217;s marriage took place,

-and is probably a bridal painting to celebrate

-the event. The &ldquo;Magistrates in Adoration&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>(Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light,

-and its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto&#8217;s

-numerous pictures of kneeling doges

-and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.</p>

-

-<p><a name="bapt" id="bapt"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 379px;">

-<img src="images/img323.jpg" width="379" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Jacopo da Ponte.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Bassano.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Alinari.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Madonnas and saints are usually built into

-close-packed pyramids, but in the &ldquo;Repose in

-Egypt,&rdquo; now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his

-arrangement comes very close to Palma and

-Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child, the

-attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting,

-head on hand, at the Virgin&#8217;s feet and gazing

-in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of

-the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite

-landscape behind them, and the vigorously drawn

-tree under which they recline, show Bassano

-true to his passion for nature.</p>

-

-<p>Hampton Court is rich in his pictures.

-&ldquo;The Adoration of the Shepherds,&rdquo; in which

-the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an

-exercise in the manner of Titian&#8217;s Frari altarpiece.

-His portraits are fine and sympathetic,

-but hardly any of them are signed or can be

-dated. His own is in the Uffizi, and there is a

-splendid &ldquo;Old Man&rdquo; at Buda-Pesth. Ariosto

-and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other

-distinguished men were among his sitters; most

-of them are in half-length with three-quarter

-heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly

-attractive one of a young man with a

-sensitive, acute countenance, robed in dignified,

-picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>linen collar. He stands by the sort of square

-window, opening on a distant landscape, of which

-Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front

-of which a golden vase, holding a branch of

-olive, catches the rays of light.</p>

-

-<p>Bassano has no great power of design, and

-his knowledge of the nude seems to have been

-small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour

-leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates

-other shortcomings.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Augsburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bassano.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three

-             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight

-             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration

-             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending

-             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;

-             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.); Nativity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cittadella.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of S. Paul.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; Jacob&#8217;s Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);

-             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men

-             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to Shepherds (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino

-             blessing the Faithful.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob&#8217;s Journey.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giacomo dell&#8217; Orio: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;

-             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised

-             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the

-             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;

-             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Deposition; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>

-<h2>PART III</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE INTERIM</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Many of the churches and palaces of Venice

-and the adjoining mainland, and almost every

-public and private gallery throughout Europe,

-contain pictures purporting to be painted by

-Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and others of that

-famous company. Hardly a great English house

-but boasts of a round dozen at least of such

-specimens, acquired in the days when rich

-Englishmen made the &ldquo;grand tour&rdquo; and substantiated

-a reputation for taste and culture by

-collecting works of art. These pictures resemble

-the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted

-way. Their owners themselves are not very

-tenacious as to their authenticity, and the visit

-of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition

-tears their pretensions to tatters. In the

-Academia itself the Bonifazio and Tintoretto

-rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal

-Palace has ceilings and panels on which are

-reproduced the kind of compositions initiated

-by the great artists, which make an effort to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>capture their gamut of colour and to master

-their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them, in

-short, in everything except in their inimitable

-touch and fire and spirit. It would have been

-impossible for any men, however industrious

-and prolific, to have carried out all the work

-which passes under their names, to say nothing

-of that which has perished; but our surprise and

-curiosity diminish when we come to inquire

-systematically into the methods of that host of

-copyists which, even before the masters&#8217; death,

-had begun to ply its lucrative trade.</p>

-

-<p>We must bear in mind that every great man

-was surrounded by busy and attentive satellites,

-helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting

-a large part of important commissions, witnesses

-of the high prices received, and alive to all the

-gossip as to the relative popularity of the

-painters and the requests and orders which

-reached them from all quarters. The painters&#8217;

-own sons were in many instances those who

-first traded upon their fathers&#8217; fame. From

-Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we learn of the

-many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and

-the vast numbers painted by Domenico Robusti

-in the style of their respective fathers. Domenico

-seems to have particularly affected the subject of

-&ldquo;St. George and the Dragon,&rdquo; and the picture at

-Dresden, which passes under Tintoretto&#8217;s name, is

-perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano&#8217;s four sons, Francesco

-&ldquo;imitated his father perfectly,&rdquo; conserving

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>his warmth of tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti

-enumerates a surprising number of Francesco&#8217;s

-works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal

-Palace. Leandro followed more particularly his

-father&#8217;s first manner, was a good portrait-painter,

-and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo

-copied and recopied the old Bassano till he

-even deceived connoisseurs, &ldquo;how much more,&rdquo;

-says Zanetti, writing in 1771, &ldquo;those of the

-present day, who behold them harmonised and

-accredited by time.&rdquo; No school in Venice was

-so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts

-of the imitators, as that of Paolo Veronese.

-Even at an early date it was impossible not to

-confound the master with the disciples; the

-weaker of the originals were held to be of

-imitators, the best imitations were assigned to

-the master himself. &ldquo;Oh how easy it is,&rdquo;

-exclaims Zanetti again, &ldquo;to make mistakes about

-Veronese&#8217;s pictures, but I can point out sundry

-infallible characteristics to those who wish for

-light upon this doubtful path; the fineness

-and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime

-intelligence and grace, shown particularly in

-the form of the heads, which is never found in

-any of his imitators.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Few Venetians, however, followed the style

-of only one man; the output was probably

-determined and varied by the demand. Too

-many attractive manners existed to dazzle them,

-and when once they began to imitate, they were

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered

-that every master left behind him

-stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and

-half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized

-upon, bought or stolen, and utilised to produce

-masterpieces masquerading under his name.</p>

-

-<p>As the seventeenth century advanced the

-character of art and manners underwent a

-change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel

-and bizarre, and the complex was preferred to

-the simple. Venetian art, in all its branches,

-had passed from the stately and restrained to

-the pompous and artificial. Yet the barocco

-style was used by Venice in a way of its own;

-whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament

-as it is, it yet compels admiration by its

-vigorous life and movement. The art of the

-sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was

-alive. It escaped the most deadly of all faults,

-a cold and academic mannerism&mdash;and this at a

-time when the rest of Italy was given over to

-the inflated followers of Michelangelo and the

-calculated elaborations of the eclectics.</p>

-

-<p>Many of the things we most love in Venice,

-such as the Salute, the Clock-Tower, the

-Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico

-and Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth

-century. The barocco intemperance in

-sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini;

-and as the immediate influence of the great

-masters declined, painting acquired the same

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity

-of Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from

-the lightning speed of his imagination and

-the unerring sureness of his brush, became a

-mechanical trick in the hands of superficial

-students. True art had migrated elsewhere&mdash;to

-the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt.

-As art grew more pompous it became less

-emotional. Painters like Palma Giovine spoilt

-their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry.

-The nickname of &ldquo;Fa Presto&rdquo; was deserved by

-others besides Luca Giordano, and Venice was

-overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime

-standard of excellence was the ability to make

-haste. Grandeur of conception was forgotten;

-a grave, ample manner was no longer understood;

-superficial sentiment and bombastic size

-carried the day. Yet a few painters, though

-their forms had become redundant and exaggerated,

-retained something of what had been

-the Venetian glory&mdash;the deep and moist colour

-of old. It still glowed with traces of its old

-lustre on the canvases of Giovanni Contarini,

-or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and

-though there was a perfect fury of production,

-without order and without law, there can still

-be perceived the survival of that sense of the

-decorative which kept the thread of art. We

-discover it in the ceiling of the Church of San

-Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints

-the glorification of the martyred patron, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>which, fantastic and extravagant as it is, with

-its stupendous, architectural setting, and its

-acutely, almost absurdly foreshortened throng,

-is not without a certain grandiose geniality,

-ample and picturesque, like the buildings of

-that date. In Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino),

-whose &ldquo;Nozze di Cana&rdquo; in the Academia is a

-finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is

-made of cypresses, we seem to recognise the last

-ray of the Titianesque. The painting of the seventeenth

-century passed on towards the eighteenth,

-and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and

-Venuses smile at us, attitudinising and contorted

-upon their cloudy backgrounds. Lackadaisical

-Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the

-Angel of the Annunciation capers above the

-head of an affected Virgin, while violent colours,

-intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto

-betray the neighbourhood of the <em>tenebrosi</em>.

-When, towards the end of the seventeenth

-century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake

-off these influences, he went to the opposite

-extreme. Although a beautiful designer, he

-becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness

-and insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise,

-appearing in a country where the taste for

-luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly

-rooted. The student of Venetian painting, who

-wishes to fill up the hiatus which lies between

-the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth

-century, cannot do better than compare Fumiani&#8217;s

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>vault in San Pantaleone with Lazzarini&#8217;s sober

-and earnest fresco, &ldquo;The Charity of San Lorenzo

-Giustiniani,&rdquo; in San Pietro in Castello, and with

-Pietro Liberi&#8217;s &ldquo;Battle of the Dardanelles&rdquo; in

-the Ducal Palace. In all three we have

-examples of the varied and accomplished yet

-soulless art of this period. Not many of the

-scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the

-seventeenth century have survived. They are

-to be found here and there by the curious who

-wander into old churches and palaces with a

-second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands;

-but in the reaction from the florid which took

-place in the Empire period, many of them gave

-place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal

-Palace, side by side with the masterpieces of the

-Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded

-canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini,

-Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and others like them.

-Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in

-St. Mark&#8217;s are from designs by Palma Giovine

-and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who was a painter

-himself, as well as the painter&#8217;s chronicler, has

-an &ldquo;Adoration of the Magi&rdquo; in S. Giovanni

-Elemosinario, poor enough in invention and

-execution. Two pictures by obscure artists

-disfigure a corner of the Scuola di San Rocco.

-The Museo Civico has a large canvas by

-Vicentino, a &ldquo;Coronation of a Dogaressa,&rdquo; which

-once adorned Palazzo Grimani. We hear of a

-school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi,

-and the names of others have come down to us

-in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards

-the end of the seventeenth century more

-light and novelty sparkles in the painting of

-the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us

-that he was no mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth

-century opens, we become aware of the

-strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta.

-Piazetta studied the works of the Carracci for

-some time in Bologna, and especially those of

-Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts

-of light and shade, has served above all as his

-model. He paints very darkly, and his figures

-often blend with and disappear into the profound

-tones of his backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls

-him &ldquo;a Venetian Caravaggio&rdquo;; and he has

-something of the strength and even the brutality

-of the Bolognese. A fine decorative and imaginative

-example of his work is the &ldquo;Madonna

-appearing to S. Philip Neri&rdquo; in the Church of

-S. Fava. The erect form of the Madonna is

-relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the

-mantle, upheld by <em>putti</em>. Radiant clouds light

-up the background and illumine the form of the

-old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at

-the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is

-a bold realist, and many of his small pictures

-are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,

-Battista&#8217;s son, is described as &ldquo;a fine intelligence,&rdquo;

-and attracts our notice as having forged

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>special links with England. Hampton Court

-possesses a long array of his paintings. In the

-chapel of Chelsea Hospital the plaster semi-dome

-is painted by him, in oils, with very good

-effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill&#8217;s

-studio, and his influence may be suspected in

-the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches in

-Hogarth&#8217;s work.</p>

-

-<p>By the eighteenth century Venice had parted

-with her old nobility of soul, and enjoyment

-had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice,

-among the States of Italy, alone retained her

-freedom. The Doge reigned supreme as in

-the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the

-dreaded Three still sat in secret council. Venice

-was still the city of subtle poisons and dangerous

-mysteries, but the days were gone when she had

-held the balance in European affairs, and she

-had become, in a superlative degree, the city of

-pleasure. Nowhere was life more varied and

-entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.</p>

-

-<p>A long period of peace had rocked the

-Venetian people into calm security. There was,

-indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corf&ugrave;,

-Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was

-retained in the struggles of Europe. The whole

-policy of the city&#8217;s life was one of self-indulgence.

-Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole

-population lived &ldquo;in piazza,&rdquo; laughing, gossiping,

-seeing and being seen. The very churches

-had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>the convents boasted their <em>salons</em>, where nuns

-in low dresses, with pearls in their hair, received

-the advances of nobles and gallant abb&eacute;s. People

-came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the

-last scandal, sensational stories, were the only

-subjects worth discussing. In an age of parodies

-and practical jokes, the more absurd any one

-could be, the more silly or witty stories he

-could tell, the more assured was his success in

-the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and

-laughter. The Carnival lasted for six months

-of the year, and was the occasion for masques

-and licence of every description. In the hot

-weather, the gay descendants of the Contarini, the

-Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand old houses,

-migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day

-and night the same reckless, irresponsible life

-went gaily on. The power of such courtesans

-as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was

-waning. Their place was adequately supplied

-by the easy dames of society, no longer secluded,

-proud and tranquil, but &ldquo;stirred by the wild

-blood of youth and stooping to the frolic.&rdquo;

-&ldquo;They are but faces and smiles, teasing and

-trumpery,&rdquo; says one of their critics, yet they

-are declared to be wideawake, natural and

-charming, making the most of their smattering

-of letters. Love was the great game; every

-woman had lovers, every married woman openly

-flaunted her <em>cicisbeo</em> or <em>cavaliere servente</em>.</p>

-

-<p>The older portion of the middle class was

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>still moderate and temperate, contented to live

-in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in

-politics, with which it was dangerous for the

-ordinary individual to meddle; but the new

-leaven was creeping through every level of

-society. The sons and daughters of the

-<em>bourgeoisie</em> tried to rise in the social scale by

-aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They

-deserted the shop and the counting-house to play

-cards and strut upon the piazza. They mimicked

-the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and

-made fashionable love and carried on intrigues.

-The spirit of the whole people had lost its

-elevation; there were no more proud patricians,

-full of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public

-service; it was hardly possible to get a sufficient

-number of persons to carry on public business.

-It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet

-among all this degenerate life, we come upon

-something more real as we turn to the artists.

-They were very much alive. In music, in

-literature, and in painting, new and graceful

-forms of art were emerging. Painting was not the

-grand art of other days; it might be small and

-trivial, but there grew up a real little Renaissance

-of the eighteenth century, full of originality and

-fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous

-and banale style of the imitators.</p>

-

-<p>The influence of the &ldquo;lady&rdquo; was becoming

-increasingly felt by society. Confidential little

-boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>mode, and needed decorating as well as vast

-salas. The dainty luxury of gilt furniture,

-designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered

-in delicate silks, was matched by small, attractive

-works of art. Venice had lost her Eastern trade,

-and as the East faded out of her scheme of life,

-the West, to which she now turned, was bringing

-her a different form of art. The great reception

-rooms were still suited by the grandiose compositions

-of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but

-another genre of charming creations smiled

-from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate

-suites of rooms.</p>

-

-<p>It is impossible to name more than a fraction

-of these artists of the eighteenth century. There

-is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;

-Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the

-day; Luca Carlevaris, the forerunner of Canale;

-Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country are

-mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the

-most important are preserved in the cupola and

-spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle Howard.

-Their work is still to be found in many a

-Venetian church or North Italian gallery. Some

-of it is almost fine, though too often vitiated by

-the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day.

-When originality asserts itself more decidedly,

-Rosalba Carriera stands out as an artist who

-acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she

-was a young woman of twenty-four, she was

-already a great favourite with the public. She

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was

-bad, Jean St&egrave;ve, a Frenchman, taught her to

-paint miniatures. She imparted a wonderfully

-delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to

-pastel, she brought to this branch of portraiture

-a brilliancy and freshness which it had not

-known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved

-for us better than any one else, those women

-of Venice who floated so lightly on the dancing

-waves of that sparkling stream. There they

-are: La Cornaro; La Maria Labia, who was

-surrounded by French lovers, &ldquo;very courteous

-and very beautiful&rdquo;; La Zenobio and La Pisani;

-La Foscari, with her black plumes; La Mocenigo,

-&ldquo;the lady with the pearls.&rdquo; She has pinned

-them all to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted

-butterflies, with velvet neck-ribbons

-round their snowy throats and coquettish patches

-on their delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in

-their high-dressed hair and sheeny bodices. They

-look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting

-mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet,

-ephemeral, irresponsible in every relation of life.

-Older men and women there are, too, when those

-artificial years have produced a succession of

-rather dull, sodden personages, kindly, inoffensive,

-but stupid, and still trifling heavily with the

-world.</p>

-

-<p>Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare

-with those of her sitters. She and the

-other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>life of the worker, and found in their art the

-antidote to the evil living and the dissipation of

-the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.

-Rosalba&#8217;s <em>milieu</em> is a type of others of its class.

-She lives with her mother and sisters, an honest,

-cheerful, industrious existence. They are fond

-of old friends and old books, and indulge in music

-and simple pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba

-by preparing the groundwork of her paintings.

-She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on

-the harpsichord. She receives great men without

-much ceremony, and the Elector Palatine, the

-Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of

-Norway, and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come

-to her to order miniatures of their reigning

-beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she

-has plenty of commissions, and the frequently

-occurring names of English patrons in her fragmentary

-diaries, tell how much her work was

-admired by English travellers. She did more

-than anybody else to promote the fashion for

-pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its

-best in the pastel room of the Dresden Gallery.</p>

-

-<p>Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us

-a charming description of a party of English

-travellers, which included Horace Walpole,

-arriving in Venice in 1741, strolling about in

-mask and <em>bauta</em>, and visiting the famous pastellist

-in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba

-has painted Walpole, and has left one of the

-most interesting examples of her art.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>

-<p class="center">SOME EXAMPLES</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Francesco da Ponte.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on

-             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left

-             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the

-             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to

-             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the

-             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;

-             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are

-             all very rich in colour.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala dell&#8217; Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Leandro da Ponte.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a

-             Blessed Candle to the Doge.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge

-             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one

-             side of the sala.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the

-             Avogadori Family.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Palma Giovine.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Presentation of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: S. Margaret.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pietà; Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Il Padovanino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Lucretia.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Cornelia and her Children.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Venus and Cupid.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,

-             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pietro Liberi.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Andrea Vicentino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. A. Fumiani.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">San Pantaleone: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Church of the Carità: Christ disputing with the Doctors.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>A. Balestra.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Tomaso: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. Lazzarini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro in Castello.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Sebastiano Ricci.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. B. Pittoni.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">The Bath of Diana.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. B. Piazetta.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Rosalba Carriera.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: pastels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Pastels.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TIEPOLO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We have already noted that to establish the

-significance of any period in art, it is necessary

-that the tendencies should unite and combine in

-some culminating spirits who rise triumphant

-over their contemporaries and soar above the

-age in which they live. Such a genius stands

-out above the eighteenth century crowd, and is

-not only of his century, but of every time. For

-two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised

-as extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting

-cupids, nymphs, and parroquets. In the last

-century he experienced the effect of the profound

-discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century

-art had fallen. In France, David had

-obliterated Watteau; and the reputation of

-Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced

-Tiepolo and his contemporaries. When the

-delegates of the French Republic inspected Italian

-churches and palaces, and decided what works of

-art should be sent to the Louvre, they singled

-out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and Guidos,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other

-such forgotten masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a

-Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret of their

-descendants, they disdained to annex a single one

-of the great paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista

-Tiepolo.</p>

-

-<p>Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as &ldquo;an

-artist of fantastic imagination.&rdquo; Most of the

-nineteenth-century critics do not even mention

-him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging

-line of praise, Blanc is equally disparaging, and

-for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his

-influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime;

-only now is he coming into his own, and it is

-recognised that the <em>plein-air</em> artist, the luminarist,

-the impressionist, owe no small share of their

-knowledge to his inspiration.</p>

-

-<p>The name of Tiepolo brings before us a

-whole string of illustrious personages&mdash;doges

-and senators, magnificent procurators and great

-captains&mdash;but we have nothing to prove that the

-artist belonged to a decayed branch of the famous

-patrician house. Born in Castello, the people&#8217;s

-quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth

-with that good draughtsman, Lazzarini. At

-twenty-three he married the sister of Francesco

-Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi

-and Canale and who is a better painter than

-either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.

-The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at

-its height. The life of the aristocracy on the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>lagoons was every year growing more gay,

-more abandoned to capricious inclination, to

-light loves and absurd amusements. And the

-art which reflected this life was called upon to

-give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather

-than character. Yet if the Venetian art had lost

-all connection with the grave magnificence of

-the past, it had kept aloof from the academic

-coldness which was in fashion beyond the

-lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a

-certain natural absurdity. The age had become

-romantic; the Arcadian convention was in full

-force, Nature herself was pressed into the service

-of idle, sentimental men and women. The

-country was pictured as a place of delight,

-where the sun always shone and the peasants

-passed their time singing madrigals and indulging

-in rural pleasures. The public, however, had

-begun to look for beauty; the traditions which

-had formed round the decorative schools were

-giving way to the appreciation of original work.

-Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when

-he is sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the

-taste of the Venetians, and without emancipating

-himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives

-to introduce a fresh accent. All round

-him was a weak and self-indulgent world, but

-within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant

-and inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng

-of personages on the ceilings of the churches

-and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>range from mythology to religion, from

-the sublime to the grotesque. All Olympia

-appears upon his ample and luminous spaces.

-It is not to the cold, austere Lazzarini, or to

-the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or the

-imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he

-was touched by each of them, that we must turn

-for Tiepolo&#8217;s derivation. Long before his time,

-the kind of decoration of ceilings which we

-are apt to call Tiepolesque; the foreshortened

-architecture, the columns and cornices, the figures

-peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds,

-had been used by an increasing throng of painters.

-The style arose, indeed, in the quattrocento;

-Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo

-had used it, though in a far more sober way than

-later generations. Correggio and the Venetians

-had perfected the idea, which the artists of the

-seventeenth century seized upon and carried

-to the most intemperate excess. But Tiepolo

-rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,

-exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this

-time defied all laws of equilibrium, and we

-must go back further than his immediate predecessors

-for his origins. His claim to stand

-with Tintoretto or Veronese may be contested,

-but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese

-is the artist he studied with the greatest fervour.

-Without copying, he seems to have a natural

-affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates

-the ample arrangement of his groups, the grace

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>of his architecture, and his decorative feeling for

-colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo&#8217;s dearest

-friends, writes: &ldquo;No painter of our time could

-so well recall the bright and happy creations

-of Veronese.&rdquo; The difference between them is

-more one of period than of temperament. Paolo

-Veronese represented the opulence of a rich,

-strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo&#8217;s

-lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous

-women, and full of the modern spirit himself,

-he adapts his genius to his time and devotes

-himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental

-vein of the Venice of the decadence. Full

-of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to

-respond to any call. He went to and fro between

-Venice and the villas along the mainland

-and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting

-wider fields, he travelled to Milan and Genoa,

-where his frescoes still gleam in the palaces

-of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici.

-At W&uuml;rzburg in Bavaria he achieved a magnificent

-series of decorations for the palace of the

-Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy,

-he painted altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his

-friends, and a fresh multitude of allegorical and

-mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His

-charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top

-to bottom by himself and his sons, and has

-amusing examples of contemporary dress and

-manners.</p>

-

-<p>When the Academy was instituted in 1755,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>Tiepolo was appointed its first director, but the

-sort of employment it provided was not suited

-to his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw

-up the post and went off to Spain with his two

-sons. There he received a splendid welcome

-and was loaded with commissions, the only

-dissentient voice being that of Raphael Mengs,

-who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the

-antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian&#8217;s

-art. Tiepolo died suddenly in Madrid in 1770,

-pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,

-the frescoes he has left there show that his

-hand was as firm and his eye as sure as ever.</p>

-

-<p>His frescoes have, as we have said, that

-frankly theatrical flavour which corresponds

-exactly to the taste of the time. Such works

-as the &ldquo;Transportation of the Holy House of

-Loretto&rdquo; in the Church of the Scalzi in Venice,

-or the &ldquo;Triumph of Faith&rdquo; in that of the

-Piet&agrave;, the &ldquo;Triumph of Hercules&rdquo; in Palazzo

-Canossa in Verona, or the decorations in the

-magnificent villa of the Pisani at Str&agrave;, are

-extravagant and fantastic, yet have the impressive

-quality of genius. These last, which have for

-subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full

-of portraits. The patrician sons and daughters

-appear, surrounded by Abundance, War, and

-Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises

-Europe. All round are grouped flags and

-dragons, &ldquo;nations grappling in the airy blue,&rdquo;

-bands of Red Indians in their war-paint and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>happy couples making love. The idea of the

-history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the

-House is paramount, and over all appears Fame,

-bearing the noble name into immortality. In

-Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal

-committee gave the painter a free hand, and on

-the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun in a chariot,

-with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the

-meridian, flooding the world with light. Venus

-and Saturn attend him, and his advent is heralded

-by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth

-joys at his coming, and a concourse of naiads,

-nymphs, and dolphins wait upon his footsteps.

-In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo

-has left one of his grandest displays. The

-haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his ideal of

-the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm,

-and, standing enthroned upon the rolling clouds,

-hardly deigns to acknowledge the homage of

-the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel

-is bestowing her scapulary. The most charming

-<em>amoretti</em> are disporting in all directions, flinging

-themselves from on high in delicious <em>abandon</em>,

-alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal

-virtues. At Villa Valmarana near Vicenza, after

-revelling among the gods, he comes to earth

-and delights in painting lovely ladies with

-almond eyes and carnation cheeks, attended by

-their cavaliers, seated in balconies, looking on

-at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival

-scenes with masques and dominoes and <em>f&ecirc;tes

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>champ&ecirc;tres</em>, which give us a picture of the

-fashions and manners of the day. He brings in

-groups of Chinese in oriental dress, and then

-he condescends to paint country girls and their

-rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and

-Corydon.</p>

-

-<p>Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid.

-He abandons the airy fancies scattered in cloud-land.

-The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano

-affords an opportunity for introducing magnificent

-architecture, warriors in armour, and stately

-dames in satin and brocades. He touches his

-highest in the decorations of Palazzo Labia,

-where Antony and Cleopatra, seated at their

-banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard

-one another silently, with looks of sombre

-passion. Four exquisite panels have lately been

-acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the

-loves of Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast

-of gay, delicate colour, with fascinating backgrounds

-of Italian gardens. The throne-room

-of the palace at Madrid has the same order of

-compositions&mdash;&AElig;neas conducted by Venus from

-Time to Immortality, and other deifications of

-Spanish royalty.</p>

-

-<p><a name="cleo" id="cleo"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 431px;">

-<img src="images/img355.jpg" width="431" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Tiepolo.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Palazzo Labia, Venice.</em></p>

-

-<p>Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a

-tragic mood. In the Church of San Alvise he

-has left a &ldquo;Way to Calvary,&rdquo; a &ldquo;Flagellation,&rdquo;

-and a &ldquo;Crowning of Thorns,&rdquo; which are intensely

-dramatic, and which show strong feeling.

-Particularly striking is the contrast between the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>refined and sensitive type of his Christ and the

-realistic and even brutal study of the two

-despairing malefactors&mdash;one a common ruffian,

-the other an aged offender of a higher class.

-His altarpiece at Este, representing S. Tecla

-staying the plague, is painted with a real insight

-into disaster and agony, and S. Tecla is a

-pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes in his

-easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a

-S. Anthony, or a Crucifixion, but he always

-returns before long to the ample spaces and

-fantastic subjects which his soul loved.</p>

-

-<p>Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art

-suggests a strong being, held captive by butterflies.

-Sometimes he is joyous and limpid, sometimes

-turbulent and strong, but he has always

-sincerity, force, and life. A great space serves

-to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better

-than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white

-limbs among the clouds, sea-horses ridden by

-Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman armour,

-balustrades and columns and <em>amoretti</em>. He does

-not even need to pounce his design, but puts in

-all sorts of improvised modifications with a sure

-hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring

-poses of his countless figures, and the freedom of

-his line speak eloquently of the mastery to

-which his hand had attained. He revels, above

-all, in effects of light&mdash;&ldquo;all the light of the

-sky, and all the light of the sea; all the light

-of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>He paints not ideas, scarcely even forms, but

-light. His ceilings are radiant, like the sky

-of birds; his poems seem to be written in the

-clouds. Light is fairer than all things, and

-Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of

-light.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>

-

-<p>Nearly all his compositions have a serene

-and limpid horizon, with the figures approaching

-it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and

-diaphanous, while the forms below are more

-muscular, the flesh tints are deeper, and the

-whole of the foreground is often enveloped in

-shadow. Veronese had lit up the shadows,

-which, under his contemporaries, were growing

-gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the

-same lines. He makes his figures more graceful,

-his draperies more vaporous, and illumines

-his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and

-rose, his golden-greys, and pearly whites and

-pastel tints are not so much solid colours as

-caprices of light. We have remarked already

-that with Veronese the accessories of gleaming

-satins and rich brocades serve to obscure the

-persons. In many of Tiepolo&#8217;s scenes the

-figures are lost in a flutter of drapery, subject

-and action melt away, and we are only conscious

-of soft harmonies of delicious colour,

-as ethereal as the hues of spring flowers in

-woodland ways and joyous meadows. With

-these delicious, audacious fancies, put on with

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>a nervous hand, we forget the age of profound and

-ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous

-solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe

-an atmosphere of irresponsible and capricious

-pleasure. In this last word of her great masters

-Venice keeps what her temperament loved&mdash;sensuous

-colour and emotional chiaroscuro, used

-to accentuate an art adapted to a city of pleasure.</p>

-

-<p>The excellence of the old masters&#8217; drawings

-is a perpetual revelation. Even second-class

-men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen,

-proving that drawing was looked upon as something

-over which it was necessary for even the

-meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo&#8217;s

-drawings, preserved in Venice and in various

-museums, are as beautiful as can be wished;

-perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In

-Venice are twenty or thirty sheets in red carbon,

-of flights of angels, and of draperies studied in

-every variety of fold.</p>

-

-<p>Poor work of his school is often ascribed to

-his sons, but the superb &ldquo;Stations of the Cross,&rdquo;

-in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,

-and published as his own in his lifetime, are

-almost equal to the father&#8217;s work. Tiepolo had

-many immediate followers and imitators. The

-colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the

-Church of SS. Apostoli, Venice, may be pointed

-out as an example of one of these. But he is full

-of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson,

-writing of him, says he sometimes seems more

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>the first than the last of a line, and notices how

-he influenced many French artists of recent

-times, though none seem quite to have caught

-the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite

-caprice.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Aranjuez.</td>  <td class="td5">Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Orangery: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Sketches; Deposition.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Escurial; Ceilings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Str&agrave;.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Pisani: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding the Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria della Piet&agrave;: Triumph of Faith.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,

-             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">W&uuml;rzburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; F&ecirc;tes Galantes; Assumption;

-             Fall of Rebel Angels.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PIETRO LONGHI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We have here a master who is peculiarly the

-Venetian of the eighteenth century, a genre-painter

-whose charm it is not easy to surpass,

-yet one who did not at the outset find his true

-vocation. Longhi&#8217;s first undertakings, specimens

-of which exist in certain palaces in Venice, were

-elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence

-of the Bolognese School, in which he studied

-for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He attempts

-to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings

-in emulation of Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy

-and common, and the Titans at her feet appear

-as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He

-shows no faculty for this kind of work, but he

-was thirty-two before he began to paint those

-small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style

-illustrate the &ldquo;Vanity Fair&rdquo; of his period, and in

-which the eighteenth century lives for us again.</p>

-

-<p>His earliest training was in the goldsmith&#8217;s

-art, and he has left many drawings of plate,

-exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>their unerring precision of line. It was a

-moment when such things acquired a flawless

-purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their

-beauty with all the sensitive perception of the

-artist and the practised workman. His studies

-of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily

-careful, and he seems besides to have

-an intimate acquaintance with all the elegant

-dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order.

-We feel that he has himself been at home in

-the masquerade, has accompanied the lady to

-the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful

-shoulder, has listened to the soothsayer&#8217;s murmurs.

-He has attended balls and routs, danced minuets,

-and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He

-is the last chronicler of the Venetian feasts,

-and with him ends that long series that began

-with Giorgione&#8217;s concert and which developed

-and passed through suppers at Cana and banquets

-at the houses of Levi and the Pharisee. We

-are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity

-of Bonifazio and Veronese; the immense tables

-covered with gold and silver plate, the long

-lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the

-stream of servants bearing huge salvers, or the

-bands of musicians, nor are there any more

-alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes.

-Instead there are masques, the life of the Ridotto

-or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in dainty

-boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that

-city of eternal carnival where the <em>bauta</em> was

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>almost a national costume. Longhi holds that

-post which in French art is filled by Watteau,

-Fragonard, and Lancret, the painters of <em>f&ecirc;tes

-galantes</em>, and though he cannot be placed on

-an equal footing with those masters, he is

-representative and significant enough. On his

-canvases are preserved for us the mysteries of

-the toilet, over which ladies and young men

-of fashion dawdled through the morning, the

-drinking of chocolate in <em>n&eacute;glig&eacute;</em>, the momentous

-instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing

-patches, the towers of hair built by the modish

-coiffeur&mdash;children trooping in, in hoops and

-uniforms, to kiss their mother&#8217;s hand, the fine

-gentleman choosing a waistcoat and ogling the

-pretty embroideress, the pert young maidservant

-slipping a billet-doux into a beauty&#8217;s hand under

-her husband&#8217;s nose, the old beau toying with

-a fan, or the discreet abb&eacute; taking snuff over the

-morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi&#8217;s

-day pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux

-make &ldquo;a leg,&rdquo; and the lacqueys hand chocolate.

-The beautiful Venetians and their gallants swim

-through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto,

-or they hasten to assignations, disguised in wide

-<em>bauti</em> and carrying preposterous muffs. The

-Correr Museum contains a number of his

-paintings and also his book of original sketches.

-One of the most entertaining of his canvases

-represents a visit of patricians to a nuns&#8217; parlour.

-The nuns and their pupils lend an attentive

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>ear to the whispers of the world. Their dresses

-are trimmed with <em>point de Venise</em>, and a little

-theatre is visible in the background. This and

-the &ldquo;Sala del Ridotto&rdquo; which hangs near, are

-marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of

-colouring, and more animation than is usual in

-his genre-pictures. He has not preserved the

-lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist

-touch which was the natural inheritance of

-Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark

-and heavy, and he makes too free a use of

-body colour; but his attitude is one of close

-observation&mdash;he enjoys depicting the life around

-him, and we suspect that he sees in it the most

-perfect form of social intercourse imaginable.

-Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of

-painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles

-the genial, humorous playwright than he does

-Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared.

-Yet his execution and technique are a little

-like Hogarth&#8217;s, and it is possible that he was

-influenced by the elder and stronger master,

-who entered on his triumphant career as a

-satirical painter of society about 1734. This

-was just the time when Longhi abandoned his

-unlucky decorative style, and it is quite possible

-that he may have met with engravings of the

-&ldquo;Marriage &agrave; la mode,&rdquo; and was stimulated by

-them to the study of eighteenth-century manners,

-though his own temperament is far removed

-from Hogarth&#8217;s moral force and grim satire.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>His serene, painstaking observation is never

-distracted by grossness and violence. The

-Venetians of his day may have been&mdash;undoubtedly

-were&mdash;effeminate, licentious, and decadent,

-but they were kind and gracious, of

-refined manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent,

-and so Longhi has transcribed them. In the

-time which followed, ceilings were covered by

-Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand,

-the scholars of David painted classical scenes,

-and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio

-Francesco Correr bought five hundred of his

-drawings from his son, Alessandro, but his

-works were ignored and dispersed. The classic

-and romantic fashions passed, but it was only

-in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing

-on art, revived consideration for the painter of a

-bygone generation. Many of his works are in

-private collections, especially in England, but few

-are in public galleries. The National Gallery is

-fortunate in possessing several excellent examples.</p>

-

-<p><a name="visit" id="visit"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 441px;">

-<img src="images/img363.jpg" width="441" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Pietro Longhi.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Hanfst&auml;ngl.</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Lady.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Three genre-pictures.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Six genre-paintings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of Goldoni.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CANALE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving

-themselves the inheritors of the great school

-of decorators, Venice herself was finding her

-chroniclers, and a school of landscape arose, of

-which Canale was the foremost member. Giovanni

-Antonio Canale was born in Venice in

-1697, the same year as Tiepolo. His father

-earned his living at the profession, lucrative

-enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio

-learned to handle his brush, working at his side.

-In 1719 he went off to seek his fortune in Rome,

-and though he was obliged to help out his

-resources by his early trade, he was most concerned

-in the study of architecture, ancient and

-modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye,

-by the picturesque masses of stonework, the

-warm harmonious tones of classic remains and

-the effects of light upon them. He painted

-almost entirely out-of-doors, and has left many

-examples drawn from the ruins. His success

-in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>a very young man when he retraced his steps.

-On regaining his native town, he realised for the

-first time the beauty of its canals and palaces,

-and he never again wavered in his allegiance.</p>

-

-<p>Two rivals were already in the field, Luca

-Carlevaris, whose works were freely bought by

-the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures

-in whose views of Venice were often touched

-in by his uncle, Sebastiano; but Canale&#8217;s growing

-fame soon dethroned them, &ldquo;i cacciati del nido,&rdquo;

-as he said, using Dante&#8217;s expression. In a

-generation full of caprice, delighting in sensational

-developments, Canale was methodical to

-a fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing

-every detail of Venetian landscape with untiring

-application and almost monotonous tranquillity.

-He lived in the midst of a band of painters who

-adored travel. Sebastiano Ricci was always on

-the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time in

-other cities and countries, and passed the last

-years of his life in Spain; Pietro Rotari was

-attached to the Court of St. Petersburg; Belotto,

-Canale&#8217;s nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale

-remained at home, and, except for two short

-visits paid to England, contented himself with

-trips to Padua and Verona.</p>

-

-<p>Early in life Canale entered into relations

-with Joseph Smith, the British Consul in Venice,

-a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine

-collection of pictures, but had a gallery from

-which he was very ready to sell to travellers.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>He bought of the young Venetian at a very

-low price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to

-acquire the right to all his work for a certain

-period of time, with the object of sending it, at

-a good profit, to London. For a time Canale&#8217;s

-luminous views were bought by the English

-under these auspices, but the artist, presently

-discovering that he was making a bad bargain,

-came over to England, where he met with an

-encouraging reception, especially at Windsor

-Castle and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale

-spent two years in England and painted on the

-Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not

-stand the English climate and fled from the

-damp and fogs to his own lagoons.</p>

-

-<p>To describe his paintings is to describe Venice

-at every hour of the day and night&mdash;Venice

-with its long array of noble palaces, with its

-Grand Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways.

-He reproduces the Venice we know, and

-we see how little it has changed. The gondolas

-cluster round the landing-stages of the Piazzetta,

-the crowds hurry in and out of the arcades of

-the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals

-that still retained their splendour: the Great

-Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei Schiavoni on

-the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and

-the entrance to the Cannaregio decked in flags

-for a feast-day. From one end to another of

-the Grand Canal, that &ldquo;most beautiful street

-in the world,&rdquo; as des Commines called it in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>1495, we can trace every aspect of Canale&#8217;s

-time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of

-its splendour or its animation. At the entrance

-stands S. Maria della Salute, that sanctuary dear

-to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering

-after the visitation of the plague in 1631. Its

-flamboyant dome, with its volutes, its population

-of stone saints, its green bronze door catching

-the light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent

-in our own day, and he painted it over and

-over again. The annual f&ecirc;te of the Confraternity

-of the Carit&agrave; takes place at the Scuola di San

-Rocco, and Canale paints the old Renaissance

-building which shelters so much of Tintoretto&#8217;s

-finest work, decorated with ropes of greenery

-and gay with flags,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> while Tiepolo has put in

-the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the

-gazing populace. Near it in the National

-Gallery hangs a &ldquo;Regatta&rdquo; with its array of

-boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows

-lying across the range of palaces, and telling

-the exact hour of the day that it was sketched

-in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar

-pleasure in expressing quiet days, with calm

-green waters and wide empty piazzas, divided by

-sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding

-about their business in the hot midday, or a

-quiet little abb&eacute; crossing the piazza on his way

-to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the

-light on wall and fa&ccedil;ade, and of the transparent

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>waters of the canals and the azure skies in which

-float great snowy fleeces.</p>

-

-<p>His second visit to England was paid in

-1751. He was received with open arms by

-the great world, and invited to the houses of the

-nobility in town and country. The English

-were delighted with his taste and with the

-mastery with which he painted architectural

-scenes, and in spite of advancing years he produced

-a number of compositions, which commanded

-high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall,

-the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall, Northumberland

-House, Eton College, were some of the

-subjects which attracted him, and the treatment

-of which was signalised by his calm and perfect

-balance. He made use of the camera ottica,

-which is in principal identical with the camera

-oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and

-taught its proper use, but it must be confessed

-that in the careful perspective of some of his

-scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to convey

-a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous

-engraver. Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian

-had placed engraving on a very high level in the

-Venetian School, and though at a later date it

-became too elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought

-it back to simplicity. Canale aided them, and

-his <em>eaux-fortes</em>, of which he has left about thirty,

-are filled with light and breadth of treatment,

-and he is particularly happy in his brilliant,

-transparent water.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p><p>The high prices Canale obtained for his

-pictures in his lifetime led to the usual

-imitations. He was surrounded by painters

-whose whole ambition was limited to copying

-him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,

-Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More

-than fifty of his finest works were bought

-by Smith for George III. and fill a room at

-Windsor. He was made a member of the

-Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime

-Minister of the Elector, obtained from him

-twenty-one works which now adorn the gallery

-there. Canale died in Venice, where he had

-lived nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio

-was a familiar object in the Piazzetta, at

-the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.</p>

-

-<p>His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also

-called Canaletto, and it seems that both uncle and

-nephew were equally known by the diminutive.

-Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career,

-where he attached himself to Panini, a painter

-of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and

-shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of

-vanity and self-importance, and on a visit to

-Germany managed to acquire the title of Count,

-which he adhered to with great complacency.

-He travelled all over Italy looking for patronage,

-and was very eager to find the road to success and

-fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he

-paid a visit to London and was patronised by

-Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector,

-disappointed at not having secured the services

-of the uncle, was fain to console himself with

-those of the nephew. The extravagant and

-profligate Augustus II., whose one idea was to

-extract money by every possible means from

-his subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was

-consistently devoted to Belotto, who was in his

-element as a Court painter. He paints all his

-uncle&#8217;s subjects, and it is not always easy to

-distinguish between the two; but his paintings

-are dull and stiff as compared with those of

-Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour,

-and many of his views are admirably drawn.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">SOME WORKS OF CANALE</p>

-

-<p class="center">It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being

-in private collections.</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;

-             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">The Piazzetta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">The Colosseum.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;

-             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;

-             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;

-             The Piazzetta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Windsor.</td>  <td class="td5">About fifty paintings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San

-             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fête on the Grand Canal;

-             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;

-             A Water-fête; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal

-             in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>FRANCESCO GUARDI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>An entry in Gradenigo&#8217;s diary of 1764, preserved

-in the Museo Correr, speaks of &ldquo;Francesco

-Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,

-along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of

-the famous Canaletto, having by the aid of the

-camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases

-(not small) by the order of a stranger (an

-Englishman), with views of the Piazza San

-Marco, towards the Church and the Clock

-Tower, and of the Bridge of the Rialto and

-buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have

-to-day examined them under the colonnades

-of the Procurazie and met with universal

-applause.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian

-Tyrol, and his mountain ancestry may account,

-as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and

-vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled

-in Venice, and his brother were painters. His

-son became one in due time, and the profession

-being followed by four members of the family

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>accounts for the indifferent works often attributed

-to Guardi.</p>

-

-<p>His indebtedness to Canale is universally

-acknowledged, and perhaps it is true that he

-never attains to the monumental quality, the

-traditional dignity which marks Canale out as

-a great master, but he differs from Canale in

-temperament, style, and technique. Canale is

-a much more exact and serious student of

-architectural detail; Guardi, with greater visible

-vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation

-in drawing in buildings which do not really

-appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal Palace

-(Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier

-and more spacious than it really is. In his

-&ldquo;Piazzetta&rdquo; he puts in a corner of the Loggia

-where it would not actually be seen. In the

-&ldquo;Fair in Piazza S. Marco&rdquo; the arch from under

-which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he foreshortens

-the wing of the royal palace. He curtails

-the length of the columns in the piazza and so

-avoids monotony of effect, and he often alters

-the height of the campaniles he uses, making

-them tall and slender or short and broad, as

-his picture requires. At one time he produced

-some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr.

-Simonson, who has written an admirable life of

-the painter, believes that the hand of Canale is

-perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his

-natural element, and he often became heavy in

-colour and handling. In 1782 he undertook a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a

-noted connoisseur and inspector of State pictures,

-and had been appointed superintendent in 1778 of

-an official studio for the restoration of old masters.</p>

-

-<p>Edwards had important dealings with Guardi,

-who was directed to paint four leading incidents

-in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of

-Pius IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves

-had become indifferent patrons of art, but Venice

-attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and

-before the second half of the eighteenth century

-the export of old masters had already become

-an established trade. There is no sign, however,

-that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship

-till 1760, extended any patronage to Guardi,

-though he enriched George III.&#8217;s collection

-with works of the chief contemporary artists

-of Venice. It is probable that Guardi had been

-warned against him by Canale and profited by

-the latter&#8217;s experience.</p>

-

-<p>We can divide his work into three categories.

-1. Views of Venice. 2. Public ceremonies.

-3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually

-that he used the camera ottica, but though we

-may consider it probable, we cannot trace the

-use of it in his works. He is not only a painter

-of architecture, but pays great attention to light

-and atmosphere, and aims at subtle effects; a

-transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the

-sun pierces though the morning mists. His

-four large pendants in the Wallace Collection

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>show his happiest efforts; light glances off the

-water and is reflected on the shadowed walls.

-His views round the Salute bring vividly before

-us those delicious morning hours in Venice

-when the green tide has just raced up the Grand

-Canal, when a fresh wind is lifting and curling

-all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and

-when the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as

-their light craft is caught and blown from side

-to side upon the rippling water. The sky

-occupies much of his space, he makes searching

-studies of it, and his favourite effect is a

-flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass

-of clouds. The line of the horizon is low, and

-he exhibits great mastery in painting the wide

-lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is

-one of the few masters of his day&mdash;perhaps

-the only one&mdash;who succeeds in representing a

-storm at sea.</p>

-

-<p>Often as he paints the same subjects he never

-becomes mechanical or photographic. We may

-sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale&#8217;s

-unerring perspective and accurate buildings, but

-Guardi always finds some new rendering, some

-fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us

-a summer day, when Venice stands out in light,

-her white palaces reflected in the sun-illumined

-water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches

-bathed in shadow and fusing into the rich, dark

-tones of twilight. His boats and figures are

-introduced with great spirit and <em>brio</em>, and are

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>alive with that handling which a French critic

-has described as his <em>griffe endiabl&eacute;e</em>.</p>

-

-<p><a name="della" id="della"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img379.jpg" width="550" height="400" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Francesco Guardi.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>His masterly and spirited painting of crowds

-enables him to reproduce for us all those public

-ceremonies which Venice retained as long as

-the Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the

-Doge to Venetian churches, to the Salute to

-commemorate the cessation of the plague, to

-San Zaccaria on Easter Day, the solemn procession

-on Corpus Christi Day, receptions of

-ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast

-of the Wedding of the Adriatic. He has faithfully

-preserved the ancient ceremonial which

-accompanied State festivities. In the &ldquo;F&ecirc;te

-du Jeudi Gras&rdquo; (Louvre) he illustrates the acrobatic

-feats which were performed before Doge

-Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is

-erected on the Piazzetta, and gondoliers are seen

-climbing on each other&#8217;s shoulders and dancing

-upon ropes. His motley crowds show that the

-whole population, patricians as well as people,

-took part in the feasts. He has also left many

-striking interiors: among others, that of the

-Sala del Gran Consiglio, where sometimes as

-many as a thousand persons were assembled, the

-&ldquo;Reception of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV.&rdquo;

-(which formed one of the series ordered by

-Pietro Edwards), or the fine &ldquo;Interior of a

-Theatre,&rdquo; exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts

-in 1911, belonging to a series of which another

-is at Munich.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p><p>In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very

-faithful attention to nature. The landscape

-painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson

-points out, were not animated by any very

-genuine impulse to study nature minutely. It

-was the picturesque element which appealed to

-them, and they were chiefly concerned to reproduce

-romantic features, grouped according to

-fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes,

-introducing classic remains, triumphal arches,

-airy Palladian monuments. His <em>capricci</em> include

-compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown

-with foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting

-of Venetian palaces, but in which the combination

-is carried out with so much sparkle and

-nervous life and such charm of style, that it is

-attractive and piquant rather than grotesque.</p>

-

-<p>England is richest in Guardis, of any country,

-but France in one respect is better off, in possessing

-no less than eleven fine paintings of public

-ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the

-originator of small sketches, and perhaps the

-precursor of those glib little views which are

-handed about the Piazza at the present day.

-His drawings are fairly numerous, and are remarkably

-delicate and incisive in touch. A

-large collection which he left to his son is now

-in the Museo Correr. In his later years he was

-reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches

-in the Piazza, parting with them for a few

-ducats, and in this way flooding Venice with

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by

-his <em>bottega</em> is said to be at the corner of the

-Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock Tower. The

-house in which he died still exists in the

-Campiello della Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia

-S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to the

-Madonna attached to it. When quite an old

-man, Guardi paid a visit to the home of his

-ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol,

-and made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the

-route. To this day his name is remembered

-with pride in his Tyrolean valley.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">SOME WORKS OF GUARDI</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Civico: Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Oxford.</td>  <td class="td5">Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in

-            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; &ldquo;Jeudi Gras&rdquo; in Venice;

-            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Turin.</td>  <td class="td5">Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);

-            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;

-            The Dogana.</td>  </tr>

-

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>

-<h2>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2>

-

-

-<p>It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to

-read French, German, and Italian, for though translations

-appear of the most important works, there are many interesting

-articles and monographs of minor artists which are otherwise

-inaccessible.</p>

-

-<p>Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or

-opinions, yet delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable,

-and new editions and translations are constantly issued.

-Sansoni&#8217;s edition (Florence), with Milanesi&#8217;s notes, is the most

-authoritative; and for translations, those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs.

-Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition in the Temple

-classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).</p>

-

-<p>Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian

-artists, who published his <em>Maraviglie dell&#8217; arte</em> nine years

-after Domenico Tintoretto&#8217;s death, is only to be read in

-Italian, though the anecdotes with which his work abounds

-are made use of by every writer.</p>

-

-<p>Crowe and Cavalcaselle&#8217;s <em>Painting in North Italy</em> (Murray)

-is a storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole,

-marvellously correct information and sound opinion. It supplies

-a foundation, fills gaps, and supplements individual biographies

-as no other book does. For the early painters, down to the

-time of the Bellini, <em>I Origini dei pittori veneziani</em>, by Professor

-Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a large book, written with

-mastery and insight, and well illustrated; <em>La Storia della pittura

-veneziana</em> is another careful work, which deals very minutely

-with the early school of mosaics.</p>

-

-<p>In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has <em>The

-Brothers Bellini</em> (Bell&#8217;s Great Masters), and the reader should

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>not fail to read Mr. Roger Fry&#8217;s <em>Bellini</em> (Artist&#8217;s Library), a

-scholarly monograph, short but reliable, and full of suggestion

-and appreciation, though written in a cool, critical spirit.

-Dr. Hills has dealt ably with <em>Pisanello</em> (Duckworth).</p>

-

-<p>Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work <em>Vittore

-Carpaccio</em>, translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and

-Paul Kristeller in the equally important <em>Mantegna</em>, translated

-by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans, 1901), seem to have exhausted

-all that there is to be said for the moment concerning these

-two painters.</p>

-

-<p>It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson&#8217;s two

-well-known volumes, <em>The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance</em>,

-and the <em>North Italian Painters of the Renaissance</em> (Putnam).

-They are brilliant essays which supplement every other work,

-overflowing with suggestive and critical matter, supplying

-original thoughts, and summing up in a few pregnant words

-the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding stages.</p>

-

-<p>In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater&#8217;s

-essay, included in <em>The Renaissance</em>. The author is not always

-well informed as to facts&mdash;he wrote in the early days of criticism&mdash;but

-he is rich in idea and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook&#8217;s <em>Life

-of Giorgione</em> (Bell&#8217;s Great Masters) is full and interesting.

-Some authorities question his attributions as being too

-numerous, but whether we regard them as authentic works of

-the master or as belonging to his school, the illustrations he

-gives add materially to our knowledge of the Giorgionesque.</p>

-

-<p>When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and

-Cavalcaselle&#8217;s <em>Life of Titian</em> (Murray, out of print), in two

-large volumes, is well written and full of good material, from

-which subsequent writers have borrowed. An excellent Life,

-full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts, was lately

-brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with

-illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian&#8217;s technique.

-Sir Claude Phillips&#8217;s Monograph on Titian will appeal

-to every thoughtful lover of the painter&#8217;s genius, and Dr.

-Gronau has written a good and scholarly Life (Duckworth).</p>

-

-<p>Mr. Berenson&#8217;s <em>Lorenzo Lotto</em> must be read for its interest

-and learning, given with all the author&#8217;s charm and lucidity.

-It includes an essay on Alvise Vivarini.</p>

-

-<p>My own <em>Tintoretto</em> (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>account of the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively

-with the scheme and details of the Scuola di San Rocco.

-Professor Thode has written a detailed and profusely illustrated

-Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss Series, and the Paradiso has

-been treated at length and illustrated in great detail in a very

-scholarly <em>&eacute;dition de luxe</em> by Mr. F. O. Osmaston. It is the

-fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow that his

-judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture

-than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching

-sermons, there are few critics who have so many ideas to give

-us, or who are so informed with a deep love of art, and both

-<em>Modern Painters</em> and the <em>Stones of Venice</em> should be read.</p>

-

-<p>M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese,

-which is full of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to

-take a copy of Boschini&#8217;s <em>Della pittura veneziana</em>, 1797, when

-visiting the galleries, the palaces, and the churches of Venice.

-His lists of the pictures, as they were known in his day, often

-open our eyes to doubtful attributions. Second-hand copies

-of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the later-century

-artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of

-their period is supplied by Philippe Monnier&#8217;s delightful <em>Venice

-in the Eighteenth Century</em> (Chatto and Windus), which also

-has a good chapter on the lesser Venetian masters. The best

-Life of Tiepolo is in Italian, by Professor Pompeo Molmenti.

-The smaller masters have to be hunted for in many scattered

-essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi&#8217;s pictures.

-Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by

-M. Uzanne, <em>Les Deux Canaletto</em>; and Mr. Simonson has written

-an important and charming volume on Francesco Guardi

-(Methuen, 1904), with beautiful reproductions of his works.

-Among other books which give special information are

-Morelli&#8217;s two volumes, <em>Italian Painters in Borghese and Doria

-Pamphili</em>, and <em>In Dresden and Munich Galleries</em>, translated by

-Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter&#8217;s

-magnificent catalogue of the Mond Collection&mdash;which, though

-published at fifteen guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries&mdash;has

-some valuable chapters on the Venetian masters.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>

-<h2>INDEX</h2>

-

-<ul>

-

-<li><a name="Academy" id="Academy"></a>Academy, Florence, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>

-  <ul><li>Venice, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,

-          <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,

-          <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>,

-          <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Adoration of Magi, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Adoration of Shepherds, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>

-

-<li>Agnolo Gaddi, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>

-

-<li>Alemagna, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>

-

-<li>Altichiero, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Alvise" id="Alvise"></a>Alvise Vivarini, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Amalteo, Pomponio, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>

-

-<li>Amigoni, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>

-

-<li>Ancon&aelig;, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>

-

-<li>Angelico, Fra, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Annunciation, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonello da Messina, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonio da Murano, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonio Negroponte, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonio Veneziano, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>

-

-<li>Aretino, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>

-

-<li>Ascension, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>

-

-<li>Augsburg, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Badile, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>

-

-<li>Balestra, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Baptism of Christ, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Bartolommeo" id="Bartolommeo"></a>Bartolommeo Vivarini, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>

-

-<li>Basaiti, Marco, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-<a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>

-

-<li>Bassano, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>

-

-<li>Bastiani, Lazzaro, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>

-

-<li>Battoni, Pompeo, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li>Bellini, Gentile, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>

-

-<li>Bellini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_89">89</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Bellini" id="Bellini"></a>Bellini, Jacopo, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>

-

-<li>Belotto, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>-<a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Bembo, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>

-

-<li>Benson, Mr., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>

-

-<li>Berenson, Mr., <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Bergamo, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Berlin, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Bissolo, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>

-

-<li>Blanc, M. Charles, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li>Bologna, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>

-

-<li>Bonifazio, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li>

-

-<li>Bonsignori, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>

-

-<li>Bordone, Paris, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-<a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li>

-

-<li>Borghese, Villa, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Boschini, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Boston, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>

-

-<li>Botticelli, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Brera" id="Brera"></a>Brera, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>

-

-<li>Brescia, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-

-<li>Bridgewater House, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>

-

-<li>British Museum, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>

-

-<li>Broker&#8217;s patent, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>

-

-<li>Brusasorci, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>

-

-<li>Buonconsiglio, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>

-

-<li>Burckhardt, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li><em>Burlington Magazine</em>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>

-

-<li>Byzantine art, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Calderari, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>

-

-<li>Carlevaris, Luca, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>

-

-<li>Caliari, Carlotto, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>

-

-<li>Caliari, Paolo. <em>See</em> <a href="#Veronese">Veronese</a></li>

-

-<li>Campagnola, Domenico, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li>

-

-<li>Canal, Fabio, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Canale" id="Canale"></a>Canale, Gian Antonio, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>-<a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Canaletto. <em>See</em> <a href="#Canale">Canale</a></li>

-

-<li>Caravaggio, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>

-

-<li>Cariani, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>

-

-<li>Carpaccio, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li>

-

-<li>Carracci, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li>Carriera. <em>See</em> <a href="#Rosalba">Rosalba Carriera</a></li>

-

-<li>Castagno, Andrea del, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Castello, Milan, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>

-

-<li>Catena, Vincenzo, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>

-

-<li>Cathedrals, Ascoli, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>

-  <ul><li>Bassano, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-  <li>Conegliano, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>

-  <li>Cremona, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-  <li>Murano, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>

-  <li>Spilimbergo, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-  <li>Treviso, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-  <li>Verona, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Celesti, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Chelsea Hospital, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>

-

-<li>Churches&mdash;

-  <ul><li>Bergamo.

-    <ul><li>S. Alessandro, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>

-    <li>S. Bartolommeo, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>

-    <li>S. Bernardino, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>

-    <li>S. Spirito, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Brescia.

-    <ul><li>S. Clemente, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Nazaro e Celso, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Castelfranco.

-    <ul><li>S. Liberale, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>S. Daniele.

-    <ul><li>S. Antonino, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Padua.

-    <ul><li>Eremitani, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>

-    <li>Il Santo, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giustina, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria in Vanzo, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-    <li>S. Zeno, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Pesaro.

-    <ul><li>S. Francesco, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Piacenza.

-    <ul><li>Madonna di Campagna, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Ravenna.

-    <ul><li>S. Domenico, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Rome.

-    <ul><li>S. Maria del Popolo, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pietro in Montorio, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Venice.

-    <ul><li>S. Alvise, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Apostoli, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Barnab&agrave;, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>Carmine, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>

-    <li>S. Cassiano, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>

-    <li>S. Fava, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Francesco della Vigna, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>Gesuati, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giacomo dell&#8217; Orio, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giobbe, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giorgio Maggiore, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giovanni in Bragora, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giovanni Crisostomo, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giovanni Elemosinario, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Giovanni and Paolo, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria Formosa, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria dei Frari, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>,

-           <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria Mater Domini, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria dei Miracoli, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria della Salute, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>

-    <li>S. Mark&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pantaleone, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-    <li>Piet&agrave;, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pietro in Castello, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pietro in Murano, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>

-    <li>S. Polo, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>Redentore, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>

-    <li>S. Rocco, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-    <li>S. Salvatore, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-    <li>Scalzi, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Sebastiano, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>S. Spirito, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>

-    <li>S. Stefano, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Trovaso, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Vitale, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>

-    <li>S. Zaccaria, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Verona.

-    <ul><li>S. Anastasia, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>

-    <li>S. Antonio, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>

-    <li>S. Fermo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>

-    <li>S. Tomaso, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Vicenza.

-    <ul><li>S. Corona, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-    <li>Monte Berico, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li></ul></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Cima da Conegliano, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>

-

-<li>Colombini, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Confraternity, Carit&agrave;, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>

-  <ul><li>S. Mark, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Contarini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Cook, Sir F., <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-

-<li>Cook, Mr. Herbert, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Correggio, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Correr" id="Correr"></a>Correr Museum (Museo Civico), <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>

-

-<li>Crivelli, Carlo, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>

-

-<li>Crowe and Cavalcaselle, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Crucifixion, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Dante, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>

-

-<li>David, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>

-

-<li>Doges&mdash;

-  <ul><li>Barbarigo, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>

-  <li>Dandolo, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>

-  <li>Giustiniani, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>

-  <li>Gradenigo, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>

-  <li>Grimani, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>

-  <li>Loredano, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>

-  <li>Mocenigo, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Donatello, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>

-

-<li>Doria Gallery, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Dresden, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>D&uuml;rer, Albert, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Edwards, Pietro, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>

-

-<li>Este, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>

-

-<li>Este, Isabela d&#8217;, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Fabriano, Gentile da, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>

-

-<li>Florence, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li>

-

-<li>Florentine, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>

-

-<li>Florigerio, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>

-

-<li>Fondaco dei Tedeschi, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>

-

-<li>Fragonard, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>

-

-<li>Fry, Mr. Roger, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Fumiani, Gianbattista, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Gaston de Foix, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>

-

-<li>Giambono, Michele, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>

-

-<li>Giordano, Luca, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Giorgione, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Giotto, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>

-

-<li>Goldoni, Carlo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Goncourt, de, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>

-

-<li>Guardi, Francesco, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>-<a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Guariento, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>

-

-<li>Guercino, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>

-

-<li>Guido, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>

-

-<li>Guilds, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>

-

-<li>Guillaume de Guilleville, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>Hazlitt, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>

-

-<li>Hogarth, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Jacobello del Fiore, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>

-

-<li>Jacopo Bellini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Bellini">Bellini</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Kristeller, M. Paul, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Lancret, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>

-

-<li>Last Judgment, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>

-

-<li>Last Supper, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>

-

-<li>Layard, Lady, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>

-

-<li>Lazzarini, Gregorio, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li>Leonardo, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>

-

-<li>Liberi, Pietro, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>

-

-<li>Licinio, Bernardino, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>

-

-<li>Licinio, G. A. <em>See</em> <a href="#Pordenone">Pordenone</a></li>

-

-<li>Lippo, Fra, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="London" id="London"></a>London (National Gallery), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Longhi, Pietro, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>-<a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>

-

-<li>Lorenzo di San Severino, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>

-

-<li>Lorenzo Veneziano, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>

-

-<li>Loreto, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>

-

-<li>Lotto, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Louvre" id="Louvre"></a>Louvre, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Luciani. <em>See</em> <a href="#Sebastian">Sebastian del Piombo</a></li>

-

-<li>Ludwig, Professor, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Madrid, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>

-

-<li>Mansueti, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>

-

-<li>Mantegna, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Marieschi, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Martino da Udine. <em>See</em> <a href="#Pellegrino">Pellegrino</a></li>

-

-<li>Maser, Villa, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-

-<li>Masolino, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>

-

-<li>Mengs, Raphael, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>

-

-<li>Michelangelo, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li>Milan, Ambrosiana, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>

-  <ul><li>Brera. <em>See</em> <a href="#Brera">Brera</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Mocetto, Girolamo, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>

-

-<li>Molmenti, Professor, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Mond Collection, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>

-

-<li>Monnier, Philippe, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Montagna, Bartolommeo, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li>

-

-<li>Morelli, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Moretto, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>

-

-<li>Morto da Feltre, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>

-

-<li>Munich, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-

-<li>Murano, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Museo Civico. <em>See</em> <a href="#Correr">Correr</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Naples, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-

-<li>National Gallery. <em>See</em> <a href="#London">London</a></li>

-

-<li>Niccolo di Pietro, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>

-

-<li>Niccolo Semitocolo, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Osmaston, Mr. F. O., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li><a name="Padovanino" id="Padovanino"></a>Padovanino, Il, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>

-

-<li>Padua, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-

-<li>Palaces&mdash;

-  <ul><li>Milan.

-    <ul><li>Archinto, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>Clerici, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>

-    <li>Dugnani, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Rome.

-    <ul><li>Colonna, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Str&agrave;.

-    <ul><li>Pisani, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Venice.

-    <ul><li>Ducal, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,

-        <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>

-    <li>Giovanelli, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>

-    <li>Labia, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>Rezzonico, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Verona.

-    <ul><li>Canossa, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>W&uuml;rzburg, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Palma Giovine, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>

-

-<li>Palma Vecchio, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>

-

-<li>Paolo da Venezia, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>

-

-<li>Paris. <em>See</em> <a href="#Louvre">Louvre</a></li>

-

-<li>Parma, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Pellegrino" id="Pellegrino"></a>Pellegrino, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Pennacchi, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>

-

-<li>Perugino, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>

-

-<li>Pesaro, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>

-

-<li>Pesellino, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Piacenza, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Piero di Cosimo, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>

-

-<li>Piet&agrave;, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>

-

-<li>Pintoricchio, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>

-

-<li>Pisanello (Pisano), <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Pordenone" id="Pordenone"></a>Pordenone, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Previtali, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Quirizio da Murano, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Raphael, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>

-

-<li>Ravenna, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>

-

-<li>Rembrandt, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricci, Battista, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricci, Marco, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricci, Sebastiano, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>

-

-<li>Richter, Dr. J. P., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricketts, Mr. C., <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Ridolfi, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>

-

-<li>Rimini, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>

-

-<li>Robusti, Domenico, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>

-

-<li>Robusti, Jacopo. <em>See</em> <a href="#Tintoretto">Tintoretto</a></li>

-

-<li>Robusti, Marietta, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>

-

-<li>Romanino, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>

-

-<li>Rome, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Rondinelli, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Rosalba" id="Rosalba"></a>Rosalba Carriera, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>-<a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-

-<li>Rubens, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Ruskin, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Sansovino, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>

-

-<li>Santa Croce, Girolamo da, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>

-

-<li>Sarto, Andrea del, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>

-

-<li>Savoldo, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Sebastian" id="Sebastian"></a>Sebastian del Piombo, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>

-

-<li>Siena, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>

-

-<li>Signorelli, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>

-

-<li>Simonson, Mr., <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Smith, Joseph, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>

-

-<li>Speranza, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>

-

-<li>Spilimbergo, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Strong, Mr. S. A., <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Taylor, Miss Cameron, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>

-

-<li>Tiepolo, Domenico, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-

-<li>Tiepolo, G. B., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Tintoretto" id="Tintoretto"></a>Tintoretto, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_253">253</a>-<a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>-<a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Titian" id="Titian"></a>Titian, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>-<a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Torbido, Francesco, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>

-

-<li>Treviso, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Uccello, Paolo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Urbino, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>

-

-<li>Uzanne, M. O., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Valmarana, Villa, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li>

-

-<li>Varotari. <em>See</em> <a href="#Padovanino">Padovanino</a></li>

-

-<li>Vasari, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio. <em>See</em> <a href="#Titian">Titian</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio, Marco, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio, Orazio, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio, Pomponio, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>

-

-<li>Velasquez, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Venice. <em>See</em> <a href="#Academy">Academy</a></li>

-

-<li>Venturi, Professor Antonio, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>

-

-<li>Venturi, Professor Leonello, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>

-

-<li>Verona, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Veronese" id="Veronese"></a>Veronese, Paolo, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Vicentino, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Vicenza, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-

-<li>Vienna, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>Visentini, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Viterbo, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>

-

-<li>Vivarini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Alvise">Alvise</a></li>

-

-<li>Vivarini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Bartolommeo">Bartolommeo</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Wallace Collection, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Watteau, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>

-

-<li>Wickhoff, Dr., <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>

-

-<li>Windsor, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Yriarte, M. Charles, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Zanetti, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>

-

-<li>Zelotti, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>

-

-<li>Zoppo, Marco, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>

-

-<li>Zucchero, Federigo, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<hr style="width: 95%;" />

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>

-

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>

-These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M&#699;N. Rushforth in

-the <em>Burlington Magazine</em> for October 1911.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>

-This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>

-It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous

-above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in

-the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow&#8217;s &ldquo;Diana and Actaeon.&rdquo;

-The construction of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but

-little-known picture is admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing

-almost as a monochrome, the landscape is full of atmospheric

-suggestion. It is in Titian&#8217;s latest manner, and its ample lines and

-free unimpeded motion can be due to no inferior brush.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>

-Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia, landing

-in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from

-Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably

-an assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the &ldquo;Venus and

-Adonis&rdquo; of the National Gallery, which owes much to his hand.

-He fails conspicuously in form, his shadows are black, and his

-figures often vulgar, but he has a fine sense of colour, and a free,

-crisp touch. He was one of the young masters who flooded Venice

-with light, sketchy wares.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>

-&ldquo;Venice and the Renaissance,&rdquo; <em>Edinburgh Review</em>, 1909.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>

-Philippe Monnier, <em>Venice in the Eighteenth Century</em>.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>

-It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.</p></div>

-

-</div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***</div>

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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Venetian School of Painting, by Evelyn
+March Phillipps</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="notes">
+Transcriber&#8217;s Note:<br />
+<br />
+Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some
+questionable dates have been left as printed in the original
+text.<br />
+<br />
+Text underlined in blue indicates a transcriber's note. Hover
+the cursor over the text to see the note.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>VENETIAN</h1>
+
+<h1>SCHOOL OF PAINTING</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;">
+<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="392" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Giorgione.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MADONNA WITH S.
+LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Castelfranco.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h6>
+The Venetian<br />
+School of Painting</h6>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</em></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span style="font-size: larger;"><strong>BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES PRESS</strong></span><br />
+FREEPORT, NEW YORK</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="center"><strong>First Published 1912</strong><br />
+<strong>Reprinted 1972</strong></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER:<br />
+0-8369-6745-3</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER:<br />
+70-37907</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br />
+BY<br />
+NEW WORLD BOOK MANUFACTURING CO., INC.<br />
+HALLANDALE, FLORIDA 33009</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>Many visits to Venice have brought home
+the fact that there exists, in English at least,
+no work which deals as a whole with the
+Venetian School and its masters. Biographical
+catalogues there are in plenty, but these, though
+useful for reference, say little to readers who are
+not already acquainted with the painters whose
+career and works are briefly recorded. &ldquo;Lives&rdquo;
+of individual masters abound, but however excellent
+and essential these may be to an advanced
+study of the school, the volumes containing
+them make too large a library to be easily
+carried about, and a great deal of reading and
+assimilation is required to set each painter in
+his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle&#8217;s
+<em>History of Painting in North Italy</em> still
+remains our sheet anchor; but it is lengthy, over
+full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a></span>
+interesting criticism which of late years has collected
+round each master. There seems room
+for a portable volume, making an attempt to
+consider the Venetian painters, in relation to
+one another, and to help the visitor not only
+to trace the evolution of the school from its
+dawn, through its full splendour and to its
+declining rays, but to realise what the Venetian
+School was, and what was the philosophy of
+life which it represented.</p>
+
+<p>Such a book does not pretend to vie with,
+much less to supersede, the masterly treatises on
+the subject which have from time to time
+appeared, or to take the place of exhaustive
+histories, such as that of Professor Leonello
+Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should
+but serve to pave the way to deeper and more
+detailed reading. It does not aspire to give a
+complete and comprehensive list of the painters;
+some of the minor ones may not even be
+mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates,
+and facts would add unduly to the size of the
+book, and, when without real bearing on
+the course of Venetian art, would have little
+significance. What the book does aim at is to
+enable those who care for art, but may not have
+mastered its history, to rear a framework on
+which to found their own observations and appreciations;
+to supply that coherent knowledge
+which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance
+with beautiful things, and to place the unscientific
+observer in a position to take greater advantage
+of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and
+interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic
+apprehension which the Venetian School comprises,
+and which marks it as the outcome and
+the symbol of a great historic age.</p>
+
+<p>The works cited have been principally those
+with which the ordinary traveller is likely to
+come into contact in the chief European galleries,
+and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not
+propose to be exhaustive, but merely indicate
+the principal works of the artists. Those in
+private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate
+importance, are usually eliminated. It has
+not been thought necessary to use profuse illustrations,
+as the book is intended primarily for
+use when visiting the original works.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART I</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER I</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Venice and her Art</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER II</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Primitive Art in Venice</span></td> <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER III</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Influences of Umbria and Verona</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER IV</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The School of Murano</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER V</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Paduan Influence</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VI</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Jacopo Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Carlo Crivelli</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VIII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Gentile Bellini and Antonello da Messina</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER IX</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Alvise Vivarini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER X</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Carpaccio</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XI</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giovanni Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giovanni Bellini</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cima da Conegliano and other Followers of Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART II</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIV</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giorgione</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XV</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giorgione</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVI</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Giorgionesque</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVIII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIX</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XX</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palma Vecchio and Lorenzo Lotto</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXI</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sebastian del Piombo</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bonifazio and Paris Bordone</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Painters of the Venetian Provinces</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIV</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Paolo Veronese</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXV</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tintoretto</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVI</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tintoretto</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bassano</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART III</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVIII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Interim</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIX</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tiepolo</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXX</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pietro Longhi</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXXI</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Canale</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXXII</th>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Francesco Guardi</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+
+<tr>  <td align='left'>BIBLIOGRAPHY</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_329">329</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td align='left'>INDEX</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+
+<tr>  <td align='right'></td>  <td class="td2"></td>
+           <td class="td3">BY</td>  <td class="td4">AT</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td style="vertical-align: top;" class="td1">1.</td>  <td class="td2">Madonna with S. Liberale and S. Francis</td>
+           <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" class="td3">Giorgione</td>  <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" class="td4">Castelfranco</td>  <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" align='right'><em><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></em></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">2.</td>  <td class="td2">Adoration  of the Magi</td>
+           <td class="td3">Antonio da Murano</td>  <td class="td4">Berlin</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">3.</td>  <td class="td2">Agony in Garden</td>
+           <td class="td3">Jacopo Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">British Museum</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#agony">41</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">4.</td>  <td class="td2">Procession of the Holy Cross</td>
+           <td class="td3">Gentile Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">5.</td>  <td class="td2">Altarpiece of 1480</td>
+           <td class="td3">Alvise Vivarini</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#altar">60</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">6.</td>  <td class="td2">Arrival of the Ambassadors</td>
+           <td class="td3">Carpaccio</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">7.</td>  <td class="td2">Piet&agrave;</td>
+           <td class="td3">Giovanni Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Brera</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#pieta">87</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">8.</td>  <td class="td2">An Allegory</td>
+           <td class="td3">Giovanni Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Uffizi</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#allegory">94</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">9.</td>  <td class="td2">F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre</td>
+           <td class="td3">Giorgione</td>  <td class="td4">Louvre</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#champ">136</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">10.</td>  <td class="td2">Portrait of Ariosto</td>
+           <td class="td3">Titian</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#aris">156</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">11.</td>  <td class="td2">Diana and Actaeon</td>
+           <td class="td3">Titian</td>  <td class="td4">Earl Brownlow</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#diana">161</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">12.</td>  <td class="td2">Holy Family</td>
+           <td class="td3">Palma Vecchio</td>  <td class="td4">Colonna Gallery, Rome</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#holy">185</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">13.</td>  <td class="td2">Portrait of Laura di Pola</td>
+           <td class="td3">Lorenzo Lotto</td>  <td class="td4">Brera</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#laura">194</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">14.</td>  <td class="td2">Marriage in Cana</td>
+           <td class="td3">Paolo Veronese</td>  <td class="td4">Louvre</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">15.</td>  <td class="td2">S. Mary of Egypt</td>
+           <td class="td3">Tintoretto</td>  <td class="td4">Scuola di San Rocco</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#egypt">258</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">16.</td>  <td class="td2">Bacchus and Ariadne</td>
+           <td class="td3">Tintoretto</td>  <td class="td4">Ducal Palace</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#bacchus">261</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">17.</td>  <td class="td2">Baptism of S. Lucilla</td>
+           <td class="td3">Jacopo da Ponte</td>  <td class="td4">Bassano</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#bapt">274</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">18.</td>  <td class="td2">Antony and Cleopatra</td>
+           <td class="td3">Tiepolo</td>  <td class="td4">Palazzo Labia, Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#cleo">304</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">19.</td>  <td class="td2">Visit to the Fortune-Teller</td>
+           <td class="td3">Pietro Longhi</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#visit">310</a></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td1">20.</td>  <td class="td2">S. Maria della Salute</td>
+           <td class="td3">Francesco Guardi</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#della">324</a></td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF PAINTERS</h2>
+
+<div class="box">
+<p>
+Paolo da Venezia, <em>fl.</em> 1333-1358.<br />
+Niccolo di Pietro, <em>fl.</em> 1394-1404.<br />
+Niccolo Semitocolo, <em>fl.</em> 1364.<br />
+Stefano di Venezia, <em>fl.</em> 1353.<br />
+Lorenzo Veneziano, <em>fl.</em> 1357-1379.<br />
+Chatarinus, <em>fl.</em> 1372.<br />
+Jacobello del Fiore, <em>fl.</em> 1415-1439.<br />
+Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.<br />
+Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), <em>circa</em> 1385-1455.<br />
+Michele Giambono, <em>fl.</em> 1470.<br />
+Giovanni Alemanus, <em>fl.</em> 1440-1447.<br />
+Antonio da Murano, <em>circa</em> 1430-1470.<br />
+Bartolommeo Vivarini, <em>fl.</em> 1420-1499.<br />
+Alvise Vivarini, <em>fl.</em> 1461-1503.<br />
+Antonello da Messina, <em>circa</em> 1444-1493.<br />
+Jacopo Bellini, <em>fl.</em> 1430-1466.<br />
+Jacopo dei Barbari, <em>circa</em> 1450-1516.<br />
+Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.<br />
+Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.<br />
+Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.<br />
+Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.<br />
+Gentile Bellini, <em>circa</em> 1427-1507.<br />
+Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.<br />
+Lazzaro Bastiani, <em>fl.</em> 1470-1508.<br />
+Vittore Carpaccio, <em>fl.</em> 1478-1522.<br />
+Girolamo da Santa Croce.<br />
+Mansueti, <em>fl.</em> 1474-1510.<br />
+Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.<br />
+Vincenzo Catena, <em>fl.</em> 1495-1531.<br />
+Bissolo, 1464-1528.<br />
+Marco Basaiti, <em>circa</em> 1470-1527.<br />
+Andrea Previtali, <em>fl.</em> 1502-1525.<br />
+Bartolommeo Veneto, <em>fl.</em> 1505-1555.<br />
+N. Rondinelli, <em>fl.</em> 1480-1500.<br />
+Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.<br />
+Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.<br />
+Giovanni Busi (Cariani), <em>circa</em> 1480-1544.<br />
+Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.<br />
+Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.<br />
+Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.<br />
+Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).<br />
+Morto da Feltre, <em>circa</em> 1474-1522.<br />
+Romanino, 1485-1566.<br />
+Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.<br />
+Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.<br />
+Bernardino Licinio, <em>fl.</em> 1520-1544.<br />
+Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), <em>circa</em> 1498-1554.<br />
+Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), <em>fl.</em> 1510-1540.<br />
+Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.<br />
+Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.<br />
+Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.<br />
+Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.<br />
+Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.<br />
+Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.<br />
+Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.<br />
+Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.<br />
+Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.<br />
+Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.<br />
+Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.<br />
+G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.<br />
+Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.<br />
+Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.<br />
+Belotto, 1720-1780.<br />
+Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PART I</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>VENICE AND HER ART</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether
+in character from that of every other part of
+Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and
+recognisable of all the schools; its singularity
+is such that a novice in art can easily, in a
+miscellaneous collection, sort out the works
+belonging to it, and added to this unique character
+is the position it occupies in the domain
+of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast
+an epoch of art comparable in originality and
+splendour to that of her great Florentine rival;
+an epoch which is to be classed among the
+great art manifestations of the world, which has
+exerted, and continues to exert, incalculable
+power over painting, and which is the inspiration
+as well as the despair of those who try to
+master its secret.</p>
+
+<p>The other schools of Italy, with all their
+superficial varieties of treatment and feeling,
+depended for their very life upon the extent to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+which they were able to imbibe the Florentine
+influence. Siena rejected that strength and
+perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly
+struck out on independent lines, achieving a
+magnificent victory.</p>
+
+<p>Art in Florence made a strictly logical
+progress. As civilisation awoke in the old Latin
+race, it went back in every domain of learning
+to the rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin
+and the alien structures left by the long barbaric
+dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour
+had never been a barbarian; and as the mind was
+once more roused to conscious life, Florence
+entered readily upon that great intellectual
+movement which she was destined to lead.
+Her cast of thought was, from the first, realistic
+and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to
+know the truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate
+experiments, to see things as they really were;
+and when she reached the point at which art was
+ready to speak, we find that the governing motive
+of her language was this same predilection for
+reality, and it was with this meaning that her
+typical artists found a voice. No artist ever
+sought for truth, both physical and spiritual,
+more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke
+more distinctly the mind of his age and country;
+and as one generation follows another, art in
+Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied
+to the intellectual movement. The scientific
+predilection for <em>form</em>, for the representation
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+of things as they really are, characterises not
+Florentine painting alone, but the whole of
+Florentine art. It is an art of contributions
+and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at
+every step by dominating personalities, positively
+as well as relatively great, but with each member
+consciously absorbed in &ldquo;going one better&rdquo; than
+his predecessors, in solving problems and in
+mastering methods. Florentine art is the outcome
+of Florentine life and thought. It is part of
+the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason,
+of that exactitude of apprehension towards
+which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and
+the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards
+her, formed themselves on her pattern and
+worked upon the same lines, so that they
+have a certain general resemblance, and their
+excellence is in proportion to the thoroughness
+with which they have learned their lesson.</p>
+
+<p>The difference which separates Venetian from
+the rest of Italian painting is a fundamental one.
+Venice attains to an equally distinguished place,
+but the way in which she does it and the
+character of her contribution are both so
+absolutely distinct that her art seems to be the
+outcome of another race, with alien temperament
+and standards. Venice had, indeed, a history and
+a life of her own. Her entire isolation, from her
+foundation, gave her an independent government
+and customs peculiar to herself, but at the same
+time her people, even in their earliest and most
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+precarious struggles, were no barbarians who
+had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life.
+Among the refugees were persons of high birth
+and great traditions, and they brought with them
+to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some
+political training and some idea of how to reconstruct
+their shattered social fabric. The Venetian
+Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence
+in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area
+was, every feature and sentiment was concentrated
+and intensified. But one element above all permeates
+it and sets it apart from other European
+States. The Oriental element in Venice must
+never be lost sight of if we wish to understand
+her philosophy of art.</p>
+
+<p>There are some grounds, seriously accepted
+by the most recent historians, for believing that
+the first Venetian colonists were the descendants
+of emigrants who in prehistoric times had
+established themselves in Asia and who had
+returned from thence to Northern Italy. &ldquo;These
+colonists,&rdquo; says Hazlitt, &ldquo;were called Tyrrhenians,
+and from their settlements round the mouth of
+the Po the Venetian stock was ultimately
+derived.&rdquo; If the tradition has any truth, we
+think with a deeper interest of that instinct for
+commerce which seems to have been in the
+very blood of the early Venetians. Did it,
+indeed, come down to them from the merchants
+of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful
+trading race which stretched out its arms all
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+over Europe and penetrated even to our own
+island? From the first, Venice cut herself adrift,
+as far as possible, from Western ties, but she
+turned to Eastern people and to intercourse with
+the East with a natural affinity which savours
+of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived
+from her Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped
+with Eastern riches, must have assumed a deeply
+Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained
+many details peculiar to the East. The people
+observed a custom for choosing and dowering
+brides, which was of Asia. The national
+treatment of women was akin to that of an
+Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a
+retirement which recalled the life of the harem,
+only appearing on great occasions to display their
+brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled
+when they passed through the streets. The
+attachment of men to women had no intellectual
+bias, scarcely any sentiment, but &ldquo;went
+straight to the mark: the enjoyment of physical
+beauty.&rdquo; The position of women in Venice was
+a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine
+lady of the Renaissance, who was highly educated,
+deeply versed in men and in affairs, the fine flower
+of culture, and the queen of a brilliant society.
+The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry
+was of Semitic intensity and seemed insatiable,
+and the gratification of the senses was a
+deliberate State policy. But passionate as was
+the spirit of patriotism, enthusiastic the love and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+loyalty of the people, the civic spirit was absent.
+The masses were contented to live under a despotic
+rule and to be little despots in their own houses.
+In the twelfth century the people saw power pass
+into the hands of the aristocracy, and as long as
+the despotism was a benevolent one, the event
+aroused no opposition. Like Orientals, the
+Venetians had wild outbursts, and like them
+they quieted down and nothing came of them.
+As Mr. Hazlitt remarks, &ldquo;their occasional
+resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds
+of horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or
+enduring traces behind it. It established no
+principle. It taught no lesson.&rdquo; Venice was a
+Republic only in name. The whole aspect of
+her government is Eastern. Its system of
+espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and
+silent blows,&mdash;these are all Oriental traits, and
+the East entering into her whole life from
+without found a natural home awaiting it. We
+should be mistaken, however, in thinking that
+the Venetians in their great days were enervated
+and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to
+associate with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in
+the end drain the life out of her. &ldquo;It is the
+disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not
+the same thing.&rdquo; The Venetians were by nature
+men with a deep capacity for feeling, and it is
+this deep feeling which has so large a share in
+Venetian art.</p>
+
+<p>The painters of Venice were of the people
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+and had no wide intellectual outlook at its
+most splendid moment, such as was possessed by
+those men who in Florence were drawn into the
+company of the Medici and their court of
+scholars, and who all their lives were in the
+midst of a society of large aims and a free public
+spirit, in which men took their share of the
+responsibilities and honours of a citizen&#8217;s life.
+The merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested
+in the solving of problems. They
+pay a price, and they want a good show of colour
+and gilding for their money. Presently they
+buy from outside, and a half-hearted imitation
+of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian
+artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare
+itself with true spontaneity till it feels behind it
+the weight and unanimity of the whole body
+of the people. That true outburst was long in
+coming, but its seeds were fructifying deep in
+a congenial soil. They were fostered by the
+warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and
+at last the racial instinct speaks with no uncertain
+accent in the great domain of art, and
+speaks in a new and unexpected way; as
+splendid as, yet utterly unlike, the grand intellectual
+declaration of Florence.</p>
+
+<p>Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all
+her history, in all her character, is Eastern
+rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom of
+feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion
+as opposed to intellect. Her whole story tells
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+of a profoundly emotional and sensuous apprehension
+of the nature of things; and till the time
+comes when her artists are inspired to express
+that, their creations may be interesting enough,
+but they fail to reveal the true workings of
+her mind. When they do, they find a new
+medium and use it in a new way. Venetian
+colour, when it comes into its kingdom, speaks
+for a whole people, sensuous and of deep feeling,
+able for the first time to utter itself in art.</p>
+
+<p>We have to divide the history of the
+Venetian School into three parts. The first
+extends from the primitives to the end of
+Giovanni Bellini&#8217;s life. He forms a link
+between the first and second periods. The
+second begins with Giorgione and ends with
+Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the Venetian
+School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century
+revival, in which Tiepolo is the most
+conspicuous figure, and which is in an equal
+degree the expression of the life of its time.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its
+influence, was particularly strong in Venice,
+where mosaics adorned the cathedral of Torcello
+from the ninth century and St. Mark&#8217;s became
+a splendid storehouse of Byzantine art. The
+earliest mosaic on the fa&ccedil;ade of St. Mark&#8217;s was
+executed about the year 1250, those in the
+Baptistery date during the reign of Andrea
+Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354.
+Yet though the life of Giotto lies between these
+two dates, and his frescoes at Padua were within
+a few hours&#8217; journey, there is no sign that the
+great revolution in painting, which was making
+itself felt in every principal centre of Italy, had
+touched the richest and most peaceful of all her
+States.</p>
+
+<p>Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of
+Byzantinism. It rose as that of the mosaicists
+fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence
+and Siena in being for long almost imperceptible.
+Artists were looked upon merely as artisans in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any
+other city they had been placed among the
+craftsmen. The statute of the Guild of Siena
+was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is
+the earliest of which we have any record, and
+bears the date of 1272. There is scarcely a
+word to indicate that pictures in the modern
+sense of the term existed. Painters were
+employed on the adornment of arms and of
+household furniture. Leather helmets and
+shields were painted, and such banners as we
+see in Paolo Uccello&#8217;s battlepieces. Painted
+chests and <em>cassoni</em> were already in demand, dishes
+and plates for the table and the surface of the
+table itself were treated in a similar way.
+Special regulations dealt with all these, and it
+is only at the end of the list that ancon&aelig; are
+mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework,
+having a compartment containing a
+picture of the Madonna and Child, and others
+with single figures of the saints, and these
+were the only pictures proper produced at this
+date. The demand for ancon&aelig; was, however,
+large, and they were very early placed, not only
+in the churches, but in the houses of patricians
+and burghers. Constant disputes arose between
+the painters and the gilders. Pictures were
+habitually painted upon a gold ground, but
+the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds
+themselves. &ldquo;Gilding is the business
+of the gilder, painting that of the painter,&rdquo;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+says a contemporary record. &ldquo;Now the gilder
+contends that if a frame has to be gilt and
+then touched with colour, he is entitled to
+perform both operations, but the painter disputes
+this right, and maintains that the gilder should
+return it to him when the addition of painting
+is desired.&rdquo; It was, however, finally decided by
+law that each should exercise both professions,
+when one or the other played a subordinate
+part in the finished work. Though the art
+of mosaic was falling into decay as painting
+began to emerge, yet the commercial manufactory
+of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been
+established as early as 600, went on, on the Rialto,
+without any variation of the traditional forms.</p>
+
+<p>Florence very early discarded the temptation
+to cling to material splendour, but as we pass
+into the Hall of the Primitives in the Venetian
+Academy, we see at once that Venetian art,
+in its earlier stages, has more to do with the gilder
+than the painter. The Holy Personages are
+merely accessories to the gorgeous framework,
+the embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which
+were in favour with the rich and magnificent
+patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for
+painting as painting, no craving after the study
+of form as the outcome of intellectual activity,
+no zest of discovery, such as made the painter&#8217;s
+life in Florence an excitement in which the
+public shared. What little Venice imbibes of
+these things is from outside influence, after due
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of
+merchants and statesmen, she was too much
+bound up in the transactions and sensations of
+actual life to develop any abstract and thoughtful
+ideals.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the first painting we can discover
+which shows any sign of independent effort is the
+series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the back
+of the Pala d&#8217; Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark,
+when it was restored in the fourteenth century.
+This reveals an artist with some pictorial aptitude
+and one alive to the subjects that surround him.
+It tells the story of St. Mark&#8217;s corpse transported
+to Venice. The first panel contains a group of
+cardinals of varying types and expressions; in
+another the disciple listening to St. Mark&#8217;s teaching,
+and crouching with his elbows on his knees,
+has a true, natural touch. The dramatic feeling
+here and there is considerable. The scene of the
+guards watching the imprisoned Saint through
+the window and seeing the shadow of two heads,
+as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct
+emotion; and there is force as well as feeling for
+decorative composition in the panel in which the
+Saint&#8217;s body lies at the feet of the sailors, while
+his vision appears shining upon the sails.</p>
+
+<p>Except for the exaggerated insistence on the
+gilded elaborations of the early ancona, there is
+not much to differentiate the early art of Venice
+from that of other centres; but we notice that it
+persevered longer in the material and mechanical
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made little
+impression, and many years elapsed before work
+akin to that of Giotto attracted attention and was
+admired and imitated. A man like Antonio
+Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in
+Venice. He had too much of the simplicity of
+the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his work
+to Pisa, where his na&iuml;f and humorous narratives
+still delight us in the Campo Santo. It was in
+1384 that he was employed to finish the frescoes
+of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted
+at Andrea da Firenze&#8217;s death, and the
+fondness for architecture and surroundings in the
+Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome,
+may, as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo
+Gaddi, who had already visited Padua and
+Venice.</p>
+
+<p>In the last years of the fourteenth century
+tributary streams begin to feed the feeble main
+current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was
+employed by the State to paint a huge fresco of
+Paradise in the Hall of the Gran Consiglio of
+the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for
+centuries under the painting by Tintoretto, was
+uncovered in 1909 and found to be in fairly
+good preservation. It can now be seen in a side
+room. It tells us that Guariento had to some
+extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones
+have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more
+the Giottesque than the Byzantine cast and show
+that the old traditions were crumbling.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+When painting in Venice first begins to
+live a life of its own, Jacobello del Fiore stands
+out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous
+Venetians. His father had been president
+of the Painters&#8217; Guild. Jacopo himself was
+president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich
+and popular member of the State and a man
+of high character. His works, to judge by the
+specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of
+art, though in the banner of &ldquo;Justice,&rdquo; in the
+Academy, the space is filled in a monumental
+fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the
+lily has something grand and graceful. We
+trace the same treatment of flying banners and
+draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but
+picturesque S. Grisogono in the left transept of
+San Trovaso. Jacobello&#8217;s will, executed in 1439
+in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole,
+with provision for a possible posthumous son,
+shows him to have been a man of considerable
+possessions. He owned a slave and had other
+servants, a house, money, and books. Among his
+fellow-workers who are represented in Venice
+are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and
+Lorenzo Veneziano. The important altarpiece
+by the last, in the Academy, has evidently
+been reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover
+over the Annunciation, and the Saints have
+been restored to the framework in such wise
+that the backs of many of them are turned
+on the momentous central event. In the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Marriage of St. Catherine,&rdquo; in the same
+gallery, Lorenzo gets more natural. The Child,
+in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a
+lively expression, and looks round at His Mother
+as if playing a game. The chapel of San Tarasio
+in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which the
+central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is
+identical with Lorenzo&#8217;s other work. One of
+the finest and most elaborate of all the ancon&aelig; is
+in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work
+of Lorenzo. In this, as well as in that of San
+Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child the apple,
+signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and
+symbolical of the Incarnation. This incident,
+which is found thus early in art, was evidently
+felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child
+from a representation of a merely earthly relationship
+to a spiritual scene of the deepest meaning
+and the highest dignity.</p>
+
+<p>Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of
+the last decade of the fourteenth century, from
+which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,
+but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively
+drawn to the Giottesque movement, but
+not, we may remember, before Giotto had been
+dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has
+been confounded with Niccolo Semitocolo, but
+it is now realised that they were two distinct
+masters. The most important work of Michele
+Giambono which has come down to us is the
+signed ancona with five saints, now in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+Venetian Academy. It is unusual to find a saint
+in the central panel instead of the Madonna.
+The saint is on a larger scale than his companions,
+and has hitherto passed as the Redeemer,
+but Professor Venturi has identified him as
+St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell
+and pilgrim&#8217;s staff. It is clear from his size
+and position that the ancona has been painted for
+an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.</p>
+
+<p>The saints on the right are S. Michael and
+S. Louis of Toulouse. Between S. John the Evangelist
+and S. James is a monastic figure which
+has evidently changed places with S. John
+at some moment of restoration. If the two
+figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible.
+S. John is inculcating a message
+inscribed in his open book, while the monk is
+displaying his humble answer on his own page.
+The use in it of the term <em>servus</em> suggests that
+he is a Servite, though the want of the nimbus
+precludes the idea that he is one of the founders.
+It is probable that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who,
+though considered as a saint from the time of
+his death, was not canonised for several centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The Mond Collection includes a glowing
+picture by Giambono; a seated figure clad in
+rich vestments and holding an orb, probably
+representing a &ldquo;Throne,&rdquo; one of the angelic
+orders of the celestial
+Hierarchy.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+Works are still in existence which may be
+ascribed to one or other of these masters, or
+of which no attribution can be made, but we
+know nothing positive of any other artists of the
+time which preceded the influence of Gentile da
+Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that
+the Venetian School in its origin had any pretension
+to be a school of colour, or that it could
+claim anything like real excellence at a time
+when the Republic first became alive to the
+movement which was going on in other parts of
+Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Paolo da Venezia.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Mark&#8217;s: The Pala d&#8217; Oro.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Lorenzo da Venezia.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Saints.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Nicoletto Semitocolo.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Stefano da Venezia.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of Semitocolo.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Jacobello del Fiore.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Justice.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Niccolo di Pietro.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Michele Giambono.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: A &ldquo;Throne.&rdquo;</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master,
+when he reached Venice in the early years of
+the fifteenth century, was already a man of note.
+He had received his art education in Florence,
+and he brought with him fresh and delicate
+devices for the enrichment of painting with
+gold, which, derived as it was from the Sienese
+assimilation of Byzantine methods, was very
+superior in fancy and refinement to anything
+that Venice had to show. He was a man of a
+gentle, mystic temperament, but he was accustomed
+to courts, and a finished master whose
+technique and artistic value was far beyond anything
+that the local painters were capable of.
+He spent some years in Venice, adorning the
+great hall with episodes from the legend of
+Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially
+cited, was of the battle between the Emperor and
+the Venetians. Gentile was working till about
+1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were
+covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+some time in Bergamo and Brescia, and settled
+in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching
+Florence, he painted the famous &ldquo;Adoration
+of the Magi,&rdquo; now in the Florentine Academy.
+Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;
+pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo
+S. Trinit&agrave;, and he sent back two portraits after
+he had returned to his native Fabriano.</p>
+
+<p>We have no positive record of Gentile and
+Vittore Pisano, commonly called Pisanello,
+having met in Venice, but there is every
+evidence in their work that they did so, and
+that one overlapped the other in the paintings
+for the Ducal Palace.</p>
+
+<p>The School of Verona already had an honourable
+record, and its Guild dates from 1303.
+The following are its rules, the document of
+which is still preserved, while that of Venice
+has been lost:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Rules of the Veronese Guild</span> (<em>abridged</em>)</p>
+
+<p>1. No one to become a member who had not
+practised art for twelve years.</p>
+
+<p>2. Twelve artists to be elected members.</p>
+
+<p>3. The reception of a new member depends on his
+being a senior.</p>
+
+<p>4. The members are obliged in the winter season
+to take upon themselves the instruction of
+all the pupils in turn.</p>
+
+<p>5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.</p>
+
+<p>6. Each member is bound to extend to another
+fraternal assistance in necessity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.</p>
+
+<p>8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.</p>
+
+<p>9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.</p>
+
+<p>10. To follow the funerals of members with
+torches.</p>
+
+<p>11. The President is to exercise reference authority.</p>
+
+<p>12. The member who has the longest membership
+to be President.</p></div>
+
+<p>There were also by-laws, which provided
+that no master should accept a pupil for less
+than three years, and this acceptance had to
+be definitely registered by the public notary, a
+son, brother, grandson, or nephew being the
+only exceptions. No master might receive
+an apprentice who should have left another
+master before his time was out, unless with that
+master&#8217;s free consent. There were penalties for
+enticing away a pupil, and others to be enforced
+against pupils who broke the agreement. Severe
+restrictions existed with regard to the sale of
+pictures, no one but a member of the Guild
+being allowed to sell them. No one might
+bring a work from any foreign place for purposes
+of sale. It might not even be brought
+to the town without the special permission of
+the <em>Gastaldiones</em>, or trustees of the Guild, and
+those trustees were permitted to search for and
+destroy forged pictures. Every painter, therefore,
+had to subordinate his interests and inclinations
+to the local school. It helps us to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+understand why the individual character of the
+different masters is so perceptible, and one of
+the primary causes of this must have been the
+careful training of the pupils in the master&#8217;s
+workshop.</p>
+
+<p>The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello&#8217;s first
+master, in the Church of S. Anastasia in Verona,
+shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at
+this early time following in the footsteps of
+Giotto. Three knights of the Cavalli family
+are presented by their patron saints to the
+Madonna. The composition has a large simplicity,
+a breadth of feeling which is carried
+into each gesture. The knights with their
+raised helmets, in the pattern of horses&#8217; heads,
+are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and
+dignified, and the saints are grand and stately.
+The picture has a delightful suavity and ease,
+and the colouring has evidently been lovely.
+The setting is in good proportion and more
+satisfactory than that of the Giottesques. From
+the series of frescoes in S. Antonio, Verona,
+we gather that while Venice was still limited
+to stiff ancon&aelig;, the Veronese masters were
+managing crowds of figures and rendering distances
+successfully. Altichiero puts in homely
+touches from everyday life with a freedom
+which shows he has not yet mastered the
+principles of selection or the dignified fitness
+which guided the great masters; as, for instance,
+in the case of the old woman, among the spectators
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+of the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing
+her nose. He lets himself be drawn off by all
+manner of trivial detail and of gay costume; but
+again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the &ldquo;Beheading
+of St. George,&rdquo; in the Paduan chapel of the
+Santo, he proves how well he understands the
+force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in
+gesture and expression, while the decorative use
+he makes of lances against the background was
+long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly
+surpassed, by Tintoretto.</p>
+
+<p>Pisanello, who followed quickly upon
+Altichiero and his assistant, Avanzi, exhibits
+the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations
+which commended Gentile da Fabriano to the
+splendour-loving Venetians. Verona, under the
+peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri,
+had long been the home of all knightly
+lore, and the artists had been employed to
+decorate chapels for the families of the great
+nobles. Among these, Pisanello had attained a
+high place. Though very few of his paintings
+remain, they all show these influences, and his
+subtly modelled medals establish him as a
+master of the most finished type. A much
+destroyed fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays
+the history of St. George and the Dragon.
+In the St. George we probably see the portrait
+of the great personage in whose honour the
+fresco was painted. He is mounting his horse,
+which, seen from behind, reminds us of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+fore-shortened chargers of Paolo Uccello. The
+rescued princess, also a portrait, wears a magnificent
+dress and an elaborate headgear in the
+fashion of the day. Other horses, fiery and
+spirited, are grouped around, and in the band of
+cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is
+individualised; one is beautiful, another brutal,
+and so on through the seven. A greyhound and
+spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted,
+the background is excellent, and a realistic touch
+is given by the corpses which dangle unheeded
+from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined,
+but fortunately not restored, &ldquo;Annunciation&rdquo; in
+S. Fermo, has a simple, slender figure of the
+Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,
+with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed,
+child-like head with fair hair, is a most sweet
+and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in
+contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes
+round the church. All these paintings are too
+small to be the least effective at the height at
+which they are placed, and can only be seen
+with a good glass. Pisanello&#8217;s art is not well
+adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he seems to
+have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as
+the two we possess. In these he is full of
+originality, and shows his love for the knightly
+life, the life of courts, in the armed <em>cap-&agrave;-pied</em>
+figure of St. George, whose point-device armour
+is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat and feather.
+The artist&#8217;s knowledge and love of animals and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+wild nature comes out in them, and his interest
+in beauty and chivalry as opposed to the outworn
+conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.</p>
+
+<p>We shall be able to trace the influence of
+both the Umbrian and the Veronese painter
+on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo
+Bellini, and it is important to note the likeness
+of the two to one another. In Gentile&#8217;s
+&ldquo;Adoration&rdquo; we have on the one hand the
+Holy Family and the gay pageant of the kings,
+of which we could find the prototype in
+many an Umbrian panel. On the other we see
+those contrasting elements which were struggling
+in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals,
+in gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses.
+The two have no lasting effect, but though they
+created no actual school, they gave a stimulus to
+Venetian art, and started it on a new tack,
+enabling it to open its channels to fresh ideas.
+During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello
+del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new
+fashion to his early style, and the horse of
+S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in
+the &ldquo;Adoration,&rdquo; or like Pisano&#8217;s horses.
+Michele Giambono is actually found in collaboration,
+in the chapel of the Madonna da
+Mascoli in St. Mark&#8217;s, with such a virile
+painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno,
+who is evidently responsible for God the Father
+and two of the Apostles; but Castagno must
+have been thoroughly antipathetic to the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+Venetians, and though he may have taught
+them the way to draw, he has not left any
+traces of a following.</p>
+
+<p>Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile&#8217;s
+work in the Ducal Palace as already decaying,
+while Pisanello&#8217;s was painted out by Alvise
+Vivarini and Bellini.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Gentile da Fabriano.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Adoration of the Magi.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Altichiero.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pisanello.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Fermo: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>THE SCHOOL OF MURANO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>The important little town of Murano, a satellite
+of Venice, lies upon an island, some ten minutes&#8217;
+row from the mother State, distinct from which
+it preserved separate interests and regulations.
+Its glass manufacture was safeguarded by the
+most stringent decrees, which forbade members
+of the Guild to leave the islet under pain of
+death. Its mosaics, stone work, and architecture
+speak of an early artistic existence, and we
+recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese
+painters to be the first to strike out into a more
+emancipated type than that of the primitives.
+The painter Giovanni of Murano, called
+Giovanni Alemanus or d&#8217; Alemagna, names
+between which Venetian jealousy for a time
+drew an imaginary distinction, had certainly
+received his early education in Germany, and
+betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more
+Gothic style; but he was a fellow-worker with
+Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great
+Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+large altarpieces in which they collaborated.
+&ldquo;Christ and the Virgin in Glory&rdquo; was painted
+for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an
+inscription with both names on a banderol across
+the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His
+hands on the shoulders of the Mother and Son,
+makes a group of which we find the origin in
+Gentile da Fabriano&#8217;s altarpiece in the Brera,
+and it is probable that one if not both masters
+had been studying with the Umbrian and
+absorbing the principles he had brought to
+Venice. It is easy to trace the influence of
+Giovanni d&#8217; Alemagna, though not always
+easy to pick out which part of a picture
+belongs to him and which to Antonio working
+under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is
+a &ldquo;Coronation of the Virgin,&rdquo; with Gothic
+ornaments such as are not found in purely
+Italian art at this period, but the example in
+which both masters can be most closely followed
+is the great picture in the Academy, the
+&ldquo;Madonna enthroned,&rdquo; where she sits under
+a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here the
+Gothic surroundings become very florid, and
+have a gingerbread-cake effect, which Italian
+taste would hardly have tolerated. Many
+features are characteristic of the German; the
+huge crown worn by the Mother, the floriated
+ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque
+appearance of the throne. Through it all,
+heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+the tender expression which came into Venetian
+art with Gentile.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="550" height="358" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Antonio da Murano.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ADORATION OF THE
+MAGI.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Berlin.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Hanfst&auml;ngl.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni d&#8217; Alemagna and Antonio da Murano
+were no doubt widely employed, and when the
+former died Antonio founded and carried on a
+real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in
+the parish of S. Maria Formosa with his wife,
+who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and
+the wills of both are still preserved in the parish
+archives. Gentile da Fabriano had set the
+example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses
+and strange animals; winding paths in the background
+and foreshortened limbs prove that attention
+had been drawn to Paolo Uccello&#8217;s studies
+in perspective, while many figures and horses
+recall Pisanello. A striking proof of the sojourn
+of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in
+an &ldquo;Adoration of Magi,&rdquo; now ascribed to
+Antonio da Murano, in which the central group,
+the oldest king kissing the Child&#8217;s foot, is very
+like that in Gentile&#8217;s &ldquo;Adoration,&rdquo; but the foreshortened
+horses and the attendants argue the
+painter&#8217;s knowledge of Pisanello&#8217;s work. A comparison
+of the architecture in the background
+with that in the &ldquo;St. George&rdquo; in S. Anastasia
+shows the same derivation, and the dainty cavalier,
+who holds a flag and is in attendance on the
+youngest king, is reminiscent of St. George and
+St. Eustace in Pisanello&#8217;s paintings in the National
+Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences
+of the two artists are combined.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo,
+into partnership, and the title of da
+Murano was presently dropped for the more
+modern designation of Vivarini. Both brothers
+are fine and delicate in work, but from the outset
+of their collaboration the younger man is
+more advanced and more full of the spirit of the
+innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall of
+the Academy the Nativity has already a new
+realism; Joseph leans his head upon his hand,
+crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly
+vivid in expression, especially the old hermit
+holding the bell, whose face is brimming with
+ardent feeling.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Giovanni d&#8217; Alemanus and Antonio da Murano.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Murano.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Magi.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>THE PADUAN INFLUENCE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>And now into this dawning school, employed
+chiefly in the service of the Church, with its
+tentative and languid essays to understand
+Florentine composition, resulting in what is
+scarcely more than a mindless imitation, and
+with its rather more intelligent perception of the
+Humanist qualities of Pisanello&#8217;s work, there
+enters a new factor; or rather a new agency
+makes a slightly more successful attempt than
+Gentile and Castagno had done to help the
+Venetians to realise the supreme importance of
+the human figure, its power in relation to other
+objects to determine space, its modelling and
+the significance of its attitude in conveying
+movement. Giotto had been able to present all
+these qualities in the human form, but he had
+done so by the light of genius, and had never
+formulated any sufficient rules for his followers&#8217;
+guidance. In Ghiberti&#8217;s school, at the beginning
+of the fifteenth century, the fascination of the
+antique in art was making itself felt, but
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels
+it threatened to exercise, and had carried
+the Florentine school with him in his profound
+researches into the human form itself.
+Donatello had been working in Padua for ten
+years before Pisanello&#8217;s death, and in an indirect
+way the Venetians were experiencing some after-results
+of the systematising and formulating of the
+new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual
+life had met with little encouragement among
+the positive, practical inhabitants of Venice, in
+Padua, which had been subject to her since 1405,
+speculative thought and ideal studies were in
+full swing. There was no re-birth in Venice,
+whose tradition was unbroken and where &ldquo;men
+were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo
+of a paganism in the remote past.&rdquo; St. Mark
+was the deity of Venice, and &ldquo;the other twelve
+Apostles&rdquo; were only obscurely connected with
+her religious life, which was strong and orthodox,
+but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms and
+inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand,
+was absorbed in questions of learning and
+religion. A university had been established here
+for two centuries. The abstract study of the
+antique was carried on with fervour, and the
+memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city
+which had never quite died out. It seemed
+perfectly right and respectable to the Venetians
+that the <em>savants</em>, lying safely removed from the
+busy stream of commercial life, should cultivate
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>inquiries into theology and the classics, which
+would only have been a hindrance to their own
+practical business; but such, as it was well known,
+were of absorbing interest in the circles which
+gathered round the Medici in Florence. The
+school of art, which was now arising in Padua,
+was fed from such sources as these. The love of
+the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding
+principle, and influenced the art of painting more
+formally than it could succeed in doing among
+the independent and original Florentines.</p>
+
+<p>Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says,
+he may not have been the best of painters, has
+left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as
+genuine and which shows that he was more
+than the mere organiser he is sometimes called.
+He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently
+a dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments,
+which was becoming widespread. When
+he founded his school in Padua he evidently
+was its leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence.
+His pupils, even the greatest, were
+long in breaking away from his convention,
+and few of them threw it off entirely, even in
+after life. That convention was carried with
+undeviating thoroughness into every detail.
+Draperies are arranged in statuesque folds,
+designed to display every turn of the form
+beneath; the figures are moulded with all the
+precision and limitations of statuary. The very
+landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>volcanic character are constructed with the
+regularity of masonry. The colour and technique
+are equally uncompromising, and the surface
+becomes a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite
+in its lines, lacquer-like in its firmness of finish,
+while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been
+so prevalent, were replaced by more or less
+pedantic adaptations from Roman bas-reliefs.
+This system of design was practised most
+determinedly in Padua itself, but it soon spread
+to Venice. Squarcione himself was employed
+there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano
+clung to the old archaic style he saw the Paduan
+manner invading his kingdom, and his own
+brother became strongly Squarcionesque.</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers of Murano come most
+closely together in an altarpiece in the gallery of
+Bologna, where the framework is more simple
+than Alemanus&#8217;s German taste would have permitted,
+and the Madonna and Child have some
+natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive
+art. Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and
+sets out to paint by himself, is crude and strong, but
+full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464, in
+the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking
+them off their pedestals and making them stand
+upon the ground, and though they are still
+isolated from one another in the partitions of an
+ancona, their sparkling eyes, individual features,
+and curly beards give them a look of life. The
+draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>folds, which display the forms, and the drawing
+of the bony structure, exaggerated in the arms
+and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and
+stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In
+several of his other altarpieces, Bartolommeo
+introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,
+such as Donatello had first brought to Padua,
+or which Paduan artists delighted to copy from
+classic columns. Antonio&#8217;s manner to the end
+is the local Venetian manner, infused as it was
+with the soft and charming influence of Gentile
+da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo
+adopts the new and more ambitious style.
+Though not a very good painter, and inclined
+to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he
+was the head of a crowd of artists, and works of
+his school, signed <em>Opus factum</em>, went all over
+Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works
+of his pupils are numerous; the &ldquo;St. Mark enthroned&rdquo;
+in the Frari is as good if not better
+than the master&#8217;s own work, and the triptych in
+the Correr Museum is a free imitation.</p>
+
+<p>Round this early school gathered such
+painters as Antonio da Negroponte and Quirizio
+da Murano, who were both working in 1450.
+Negroponte has left an enthroned Madonna in
+S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of the
+most beautiful examples of colour and of the
+fanciful charm of the Renaissance that the early
+art of Venice has to show. The Mother and
+Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>with antique reliefs, rich wreaths of fruit swag
+above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full
+of flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on
+cornucopias. On either side, four badly drawn
+little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly
+foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful,
+music-making angels which became such a
+feature of North Italian art. The Divine
+Mother, adoring the Child lying across her
+knees, has an exquisite, pensive face, conceived
+with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art.
+It seems quite possible, as Professor Leonello
+Venturi suggests, that we have here the early
+master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love
+of fruit garlands, of chains of beads and rich
+brocades carried to its farthest limits, who takes
+keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively
+little angels, and who gives the same pensive and
+almost mincing expression to his Madonnas.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bologna.</td>  <td class="td5">Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bartolommeo Vivarini.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Madonna and four Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Ambrose and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Negroponte.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>JACOPO BELLINI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the
+school of Squarcione, which in the next few
+years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,
+another influence was asserting itself, which was
+sufficient to counteract the hard formalism of
+Paduan methods.</p>
+
+<p>When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he
+carried with him, and presently established with
+him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini,
+who had already been working with him and
+Pisanello, and who was an ardent disciple of the
+new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both
+Gentile and his apprentice were subjected to annoyance
+from the time they arrived in Florence,
+where the strict regulations which governed the
+Guilds made it very difficult for any newcomer
+to practise his art. The records of a police case
+report that on the 11th of June 1423 some
+young men, among them, one, Bernabo di San
+Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed
+throwing stones into the painter&#8217;s room. His
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>assistant, Jacopo Bellini, came out and drove the
+assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing
+Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to
+prison in default of payment. After six months&#8217;
+imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a
+penitential declaration set him at liberty. The
+accounts declare that Gentile took no steps to
+be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon
+after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first
+son was christened after his old master, which
+does not look as though they were on unfriendly
+terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and
+was much esteemed by the Estes of Ferrara,
+but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has
+left us only three signed works, and one or two
+more have lately been attributed to him, but
+they give very little idea of what an important
+master he was.</p>
+
+<p><a name="agony" id="agony"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">
+<img src="images/img062.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Jacopo Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AGONY IN GARDEN&mdash;DRAWING.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>British Museum.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>His Madonna in the Academy has a round,
+simple type of face, and in the Louvre Madonna,
+which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to
+recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut,
+curved eyelids. In this picture, where the
+Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d&#8217; Este, we
+see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through
+him, on Venetian art. The connection between
+the two masters has been established in a very
+interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi&#8217;s
+discovery of a sonnet, written in 1441, which
+recounts how they painted rival portraits of
+Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>that he was adjudged the first place. The
+landscape in the Louvre picture is advanced in
+treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its
+stag and its town upon the hill-side, is full of
+reminiscences of Pisanello, especially of the &ldquo;St.
+George&rdquo; in S. Anastasia. We come upon such
+traces, too, in Jacopo&#8217;s drawings, and it is by
+his two sketch-books that we can best judge of
+his greatness. One of these is in the British
+Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered
+not many years ago in the granary of a
+castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo
+as one of the greatest masters of his day. He is
+larger, simpler, and more natural than Pisanello,
+and he apparently cares less for the human figure
+than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings.
+Many of his designs we shall refer to again when
+we come to speak of his two sons. His &ldquo;Supper
+of Herod&rdquo; reminds us of Masolino&#8217;s fresco at
+Castiglione d&#8217; Olona. He sketches designs for
+numbers of religious scenes, treated in an original
+and interesting manner. A &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; has
+bands of soldiers ranged on either side, an
+&ldquo;Adoration of the Magi&rdquo; has a string of camels
+coming down the hill, the executioners in a
+&ldquo;Scourging&rdquo; wear Eastern head-dresses. In a
+sketch for a &ldquo;Baptism of Christ&rdquo; tall angels
+hold the garments in the early traditional way;
+on one side two play the lute and the violin,
+while the two on the other side have a trumpet
+and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>Resurrection, Circumcision, and Entombment,
+repeated over and over again with variations,
+and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice
+(where he was in 1427). Jacopo delights even
+more in fanciful and mythological than in sacred
+subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun
+riding a lion, a &ldquo;Triumph of Bacchus&rdquo; with
+panthers, are among such essays. The fauns
+pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His
+love of animals is equal to that of Pisanello,
+and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix
+between its horns is directly reminiscent of the
+Veronese. His horses, of which there are
+immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied
+from ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of
+single nude figures is often poor and weak
+enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped,
+geological formation of the Paduan School, but
+no one who so drank in every description of
+lively scene about him could have been in any
+danger of becoming a mere archeological type,
+and it was from this pitfall that he rescued
+Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo
+did not overlook any source of art open to him;
+he delights in the rich research of the Paduans as
+much as in the varieties of wild nature and all
+the incidents of contemporary life first annexed
+by Pisanello. He is often very like Gentile da
+Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello&#8217;s domains
+of perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws
+a revel of satyrs and centaurs with a real interpretation
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>of the lyrical and pagan spirit of the
+Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul,
+which found its full expression in his son,
+Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the
+founder of the Venetian School, for its makings
+existed already, but it was his influence on
+his sons which, above all, was accountable for
+the development of early excellence. His long,
+flowing lines have a sweep and a fanciful grace
+which form an absolute antidote to the definite,
+geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we
+see the thorough assimilation of those foreign
+elements which were in sympathy with the
+Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now
+Venice had only imbibed influences, she was
+soon to create for herself an artistic <em>milieu</em>
+and to become the leader of the movement of
+painting in the north of Italy.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+ <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Jacopo Bellini.</em></p>
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Annunciation and Predelle.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ on Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Crucifixion.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">British Museum: Sketch-book.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Leonello d&#8217; Este: Sketch-book.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>CARLO CRIVELLI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>We must turn aside from the main stream when
+we come to speak of Carlo Crivelli, who,
+important master as he was, occupies a place
+by himself. A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps,
+as we have noted, of Antonio Negroponte,
+Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the
+Paduans, from whom he learned that metallic,
+finished quality of paint which he carried to
+perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality,
+even genius, in the way in which he grapples
+with his medium and produces his own reading,
+and the circumstances of his life were such as to
+throw him in upon himself and to preserve his
+originality. His little early &ldquo;Madonna and
+Child&rdquo; at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte
+by the elaborate festoons, strings of beads,
+and large-patterned brocades used in the surroundings,
+and has those ugly, foreshortened
+little <em>putti</em>, holding the instruments of the
+Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione
+and Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>state, we are accustomed to think of as
+Mantegnesque.</p>
+
+<p>When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he
+was condemned to six months&#8217; imprisonment and
+to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage on
+a neighbour&#8217;s wife. Perhaps it was to escape
+from an unenviable reputation that he left Venice
+soon after and set up painting in the Marches,
+where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then
+went on to Camerino in Umbria, where his great
+triptych, now in the Brera, was painted, and a
+few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission
+for an Annunciation in the Cathedral.
+This is the picture now in the National Gallery,
+in which the Bishop holds a model of the
+Duomo. After 1490 he worked in little towns
+in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.
+He does not seem ever to have come back to
+Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Shut up in the Marches, where there was
+little strong local talent, and where he could not
+keep up with the progress that was taking place
+in Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the
+artistic movement. He kept the Squarcionesque
+traditions to the end, but moulded them by his
+own love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover,
+he was of a very intense religious bias, and
+this finds a deeply touching and mystical expression,
+more especially in his Piet&agrave;s. The love
+of gilded patterns and fanciful detail was deep-seated
+in all the Umbrian country. His altarpieces
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>were intended as sumptuous additions to
+rich churches, and were consequently arranged,
+with many divisions, in the old Muranese manner.
+His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a
+marvel of elaborate ornament and enamel-like
+painting. The Madonna is delicate, almost
+affected in her refinement. Her long fingers
+hold the Child&#8217;s garment with the extreme of
+dainty precision, the croziers and rings of the
+saints and bishops are embossed with gold and
+real jewels. The flowers in the panel of &ldquo;The
+Immaculate Conception,&rdquo; which hangs beside it,
+are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and
+grotesques or cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty
+of strength, and his male saints have vigorous,
+bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however,
+in his colour that he charms us most, and
+though he does not touch the real fount, he
+is of all the earlier school the most remarkable
+for subtle tender tones and lovely harmonies of
+olive-greens and faded rose and cream embossed
+with gold.</p>
+
+<p>Crivelli continued executing one great ancona
+after another, limiting his progress to perfecting
+his technique, and his influence was most deeply
+felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San
+Severino and Niccola Alunno. The honours paid
+him testify to the reputation he acquired. He
+was created a knight and presented with a golden
+laurel wreath. But though he never, that we can
+hear of, revisited his native State, he always adds
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span><em>Venetus</em> to the signature on his paintings, a fact
+which tells us that far from Venice and in
+provincial districts, her prestige was felt and
+gave his work an enhanced commercial value.
+He had no after-influence upon the Venetian
+School, and in this respect is interesting as
+an example of the tenacity exercised by the
+Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by
+any counter-attraction, they came to act upon a
+very different temperament; for in his love of
+grace and beauty and of rich effects, and especially
+in his intensity of mystic feeling, Crivelli is a
+true Venetian and has no natural affinity with
+the classic spirit of the Paduans.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Jerome and Augustine.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Ascoli.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Altarpiece and Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and six Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave;; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation; Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot, Jerome, and Andrew.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>What, then, is the position which art has
+achieved in Venice a decade after the middle of
+the fourteenth century, and how does she compare
+with the Florentine School? The Florentines,
+Fra Angelico, Andrea del Castagno, and
+Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo
+was in his prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four,
+Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But though the
+progress in the north had been slower, art both
+in Padua and Venice was now in vigorous progress.
+Bartolommeo Vivarini was still painting
+and gathering round him a numerous band of
+followers; Mantegna was thirty, had just completed
+the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and
+the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile
+and Giovanni Bellini were two and four years
+his seniors.</p>
+
+<p>Francesco Negro, writing in the early years
+of the sixteenth century, speaks of Gentile as the
+elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is thought
+to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>widow only mentions Gentile and another son,
+Niccolo, in her will. There is every reason to
+believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were
+the pupils and assistants of their father. A
+&ldquo;Madonna&rdquo; in the Mond Collection, the
+earliest known of Gentile&#8217;s works, shows him
+imitating his father&#8217;s style; but when his sister,
+Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is not
+surprising to find him following Mantegna&#8217;s
+methods for a time, and a fresco of St. Mark
+in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission
+which he received in 1466, is taken
+direct from Mantegna&#8217;s fresco at Padua.</p>
+
+<p>As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the
+Squarcionesque tradition and evolved a style of
+their own; Gentile as much as his even more
+famous brother. Gentile is the first chronicler
+of the men and manners of his time. In 1460 he
+settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the
+organ doors in St. Mark&#8217;s. These large saints,
+especially the St. Mark, still recall the Paduan
+period. They have festoons of grapes and apples
+hung from the architectural ornaments, and the
+cast of drapery, showing the form beneath,
+reminds us of Mantegna&#8217;s figures. But Gentile
+soon becomes an illustrator and portrait painter.
+Much of his work was done in the Scuola of
+St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this
+was destroyed by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the
+fine austere portrait of Lorenzo Giustiniani, in
+the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Sultan Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested
+the Signoria to recommend a good painter and
+a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen,
+and departed in September for Constantinople.
+He painted many subjects for the private apartments
+of the Sultan, as well as the famous
+portrait now in the possession of Lady Layard.
+It would be difficult for a historic portrait to
+show more insight into character. The face is
+cold, weary, and sensual, with all the over-refined
+look of an old race and a long civilisation,
+and has a melancholy note in its distant
+and satiated gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile
+every mark of favour, loaded him with presents,
+and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He
+returned home in 1493, bringing with him
+many sketches of Eastern personages and the
+picture, now in the Louvre, representing the
+reception of a Venetian Embassy by the Grand
+Vizier. Some five years before Gentile&#8217;s commission
+to Constantinople Antonello da Messina
+had arrived in Venice, and the spread and
+popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the
+casting off of outworn ecclesiastical methods and
+brought the painters nearer to the truth of life.
+Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the
+notice of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo
+Vivarini was already using them in 1473, but
+he was well known by reputation before he
+arrived, and having probably come into contact
+with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>better opportunities of seizing upon the new
+technique, and was able to establish it both in
+Milan and in Venice. A large number of
+Venetians were at this time resident in Messina:
+the families of Lombardo, Gradenigo, Contarini,
+Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those
+who had members settled there. Many of these
+were patrons of art, and probably paved the way
+to Antonello&#8217;s reception in Venice. At first all
+the traits of Antonello&#8217;s early work are Flemish:
+the full mantles, white linen caps and tuckers, the
+straight sharp folds and long wings of the angels
+have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to
+Venice in 1475, its colour and life fascinate him,
+and a great change comes over his work. His
+portraits show that he grasped a new intensity
+of life, and let us into the character of the men
+he saw around him. His &ldquo;Condottiere,&rdquo; in the
+Louvre, declares the artist&#8217;s recognition of that
+truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic
+disdain, the product of a daring, unscrupulous
+life. The &ldquo;Portrait of a Humanist,&rdquo; in
+the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest
+sense; and in the Trivulzio College at Milan an
+older man looks at us out of sly, expressive eyes,
+with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical
+mouth. It was not wonderful that these
+portraits, combined with the new medium,
+worked upon Gentile&#8217;s imagination and determined
+his bent.</p>
+
+<p>The first examples of great canvases, illustrating
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>and celebrating their own pageants, must
+have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes in
+the style of the reception of the Venetian
+ambassadors were called for on all hands, and
+when the excellence of Gentile&#8217;s portraits was
+recognised, he became the model for all Venice.
+When his own and his father&#8217;s and brother&#8217;s
+paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered
+to replace them &ldquo;quicker than was humanly
+possible&rdquo; and at a very low price. Giovanni,
+who had been engaged on the external decorations,
+was ill at the time, but the Signoria was
+so pleased with the offer that it was decided to
+let no one touch the work till the two brothers
+were able to finish it. Gentile still painted
+religious altarpieces with the Virgin and Child
+enthroned with saints, but most of his time was
+devoted to the production of his great canvases.
+Some of these have disappeared, but the &ldquo;Procession&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;Miracle of the Cross,&rdquo; commissioned
+by the school of S. Giovanni Evangelista,
+are now in the Academy, and the third canvas,
+executed for the same school, &ldquo;St. Mark preaching
+at Alexandria,&rdquo; which was unfinished at the
+time of his death, and was completed by his
+brother, is in the Brera.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img075.jpg" width="550" height="267" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Gentile Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>These great compositions of crowds bring
+back for us the Venice of Gentile&#8217;s day as no
+verbal description can do. There is no especial
+richness of colour; the light is that of broad day
+in the Piazza and among the luminous waterways
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>of the city. We can see the scene any day
+now in the wide square, making allowance for
+the difference of costume. The groups are set
+about in the ample space, with the wonderful
+cathedral as a background. St. Mark&#8217;s has been
+painted hundreds of times, but no one has ever
+given such a good idea of it as Gentile&mdash;of its
+stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and
+he does so without detracting from the general
+effect, for St. Mark&#8217;s, though the keynote of the
+whole composition, is kept subservient, and is
+part of the stage on which the scene is enacted.
+The procession passes along, carrying the relics,
+attended by the waxlights and the banners.
+Behind the reliquary kneels the merchant,
+Jacopo Sal&ograve;, petitioning for the recovery of his
+wounded son. Then come the musicians; the
+spectators crowd round, they strain forward to
+see the chief part of the cort&egrave;ge, as a crowd
+naturally does. Some watch with reverence,
+others smile or have a negligent air. The faces
+of the candle-bearers are very like those we
+may see to-day in a great Church procession:
+some absorbed in their task, or uplifted by inner
+thoughts; others looking curiously and sceptically
+at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds
+to bring together all the types of life in Venice,
+all the officials and the ecclesiastical world, the
+young and old. With a few strokes he creates
+the individual and also the type;&mdash;the careless
+rover; the responsible magistrate; the shrewd,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>practical man of business; the young men, full
+of their own plans, but pausing to look on at
+one of the great religious sights of their city.
+In the &ldquo;Finding of the Cross&rdquo; he produces the
+effect of the whole city <em>en f&ecirc;te</em>. It was a sight
+which often met his eyes. The Doge made no
+fewer than thirty-six processions annually to
+various churches of the city, and on fourteen of
+these occasions he was accompanied by the whole
+of the nobles dressed in their State robes. Every
+event of importance was seized on by the Venetian
+ladies as an opportunity for arraying themselves
+in the richest attire, cloth of gold and velvet,
+plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies
+of Queen Catherine Cornaro&#8217;s Court around their
+Queen upon the left side of the canal. The
+light from above streams upon the keeper of the
+School, who holds the sacred relic on high. All
+round are the old, irregular Venetian houses, and
+in the crowd he paints the variety of men he
+saw around him every day in Venice. Yet even
+in this animated scene he retains his old quattrocento
+calm. The groups are decorously assisting:
+only here and there he is drawn off to some
+small detail of reality, such as an oarsman
+dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting
+the negro servant pass out to take a header into
+the canal. The spectators look on coolly at one
+more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The
+committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of
+unforgettable portraits, grave, benign, sour, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In this
+composition he triumphs over all difficulties of
+perspective; our eye follows the canals, and the
+boats pass away under the bridge in atmospheric
+light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of
+light on broad brick surfaces, light which is
+cast up from the water and dances and shimmers
+on the marble fa&ccedil;ades.</p>
+
+<p>Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as
+others in 1505 and 1506. He left word that he
+was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and
+begged his brother Giovanni to finish the work
+in the Scuola, in return for which he is to receive
+their father&#8217;s sketch-book. The unfinished piece
+is the &ldquo;St. Mark preaching at Alexandria,&rdquo; and
+it shows Gentile still developing his capacity as a
+painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant in sunlight.
+The mass of white given by the head-dresses
+of the Turkish women is cleverly subdued
+so as not to detract from the effect of the sunlight.
+The thronged effect of the great square is studied
+with more than his usual care, and the faces have
+all the old individuality. The foremost figures in
+the crowd have a colour and richness which we
+may attribute to Giovanni&#8217;s hand.</p>
+
+<p>Gentile was always fully employed, and the
+detailed paintings of functions became very
+popular; but he was a far less modern painter
+than his brother, and, in fact, they represent
+two distinct artistic generations, though Gentile&#8217;s
+work was so much the most elaborate and, as
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the quattrocento would have thought, the most
+ambitious.</p>
+
+<p>Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet
+his is a grave, sincere art, and he has an unerring
+instinct for the right incidents to include. He
+cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are
+stern, powerful men, the treatment is historic
+and contemporary, but not gossipy. We realise
+the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide
+of human nature, but we also feel that he never
+forgot that he was chronicling the doings of a
+city of strong men, and that he must paint them,
+even in their hours of relaxation and emotion, so
+as to convey the real dignity and power which
+underlay all the events of the Republic.</p>
+
+<p>We gather from his will and that of his wife
+that they had no children, which perhaps makes
+the more natural the affectionate terms upon
+which he remained all through his life with
+his brother. Their artistic sympathies must
+have differed widely. Gentile&#8217;s love for historical
+research, for costume and for pageants, found
+no echo in the deeper idealism of Giovanni&mdash;indeed,
+his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an
+inducement to the latter to finish his last great
+work, seems to hint that it was an exercise out
+of his brother&#8217;s line; but he knew that Giovanni
+was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we
+might have expected, to his assistants, Giovanni
+Mansueti and Girolamo da Santacroce.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Gentile Bellini.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of True Cross; Healing by True Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonello da Messina.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Antwerp.</td>  <td class="td5">Crucifixion, 1475.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Three Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Messina.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints, 1473.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Condottiere.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Humanist.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Ecce Homo.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at the Column.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>ALVISE VIVARINI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were
+artists still firmly attached to the past, who were
+far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.</p>
+
+<p>One of Antonio de Murano&#8217;s sons, Luigi or
+Alvise Vivarini, grew up to follow his father&#8217;s
+profession, and was enrolled in the school of his
+uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic
+follower of Squarcione, Alvise was at
+first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo Bellini&#8217;s
+efforts had done something to counteract the
+hard, statuesque Paduan manner, and had rendered
+Mantegna&#8217;s art more human and less stony,
+but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque
+painters from importing into Venice the style
+which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo threw
+in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially
+when reinforced by Alvise, maintained
+its reputation as long as it only had to compete
+with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been
+firmly established in Venice for two generations,
+and were the best-known and most popular of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>her painters. Albert D&uuml;rer, on his first visit,
+admired them more than the Bellini. When,
+however, Gentile and his brother set up in
+Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and
+the old Muranese School. The Bellini had come
+with their father from Padua, with all its new
+and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige
+of relationship with Mantegna, and they shared
+the patronage of his powerful employers. The
+striking historical compositions of Gentile were
+at once in demand by the great confraternities.
+Bartolommeo had never been very successful in
+his dealing with oil-painting, though he had
+dabbled in it for some years before Antonello da
+Messina came his way, but the perception with
+which the Bellini at once grasped the new
+technique gave them the victory. We have
+only to compare the formless contours of much
+of Bartolommeo Vivarini&#8217;s work, the bladder-like
+flesh-painting of the Holy Child, with the
+clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of
+Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead
+of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity
+with his father than with his uncle. He
+never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as
+Bartolommeo. The expression of his faces is
+much deeper and more inward, and he has something
+of the devotional sweetness of early art.
+His first known work is an ancona of 1475 at
+Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan monastery
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of
+the five panels the Madonna sits with her hands
+pressed palm to palm, in adoration of the Child
+asleep across her knees. The painter here follows
+the tradition of his father and uncle, especially
+in the Bologna altarpiece, in which they
+collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on
+either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in
+the old way, and it is only by degrees that we
+see there is more sweetness in the expression,
+better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer,
+more graceful outline than the earlier ancon&aelig;
+can show. Only five years after this ancona at
+Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated
+saints, we have the altarpiece in the Academy
+&ldquo;of 1480,&rdquo; which was painted for a church in
+Treviso, and here a great change is immediately
+apparent. The antiquated division into panels
+has disappeared, nothing is left of the artificial,
+Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are
+simple, and the scene is a united one. The
+Madonna&#8217;s outstretched hand, the suggestion of
+&ldquo;Ecce Agnus Dei,&rdquo; makes an appeal which
+draws the attention of all the saints to one point,
+and it is made plain that the one idea pervades
+the entire assembly. The curtain, which
+symbolises the sanctuary, still hangs behind the
+throne, but the gold background is abandoned.
+Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape
+or constructed an interior, but he lightens
+the effect by two arched windows which let in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>sky. The forms are characteristic of his idea of
+drawing the human figure; they have the long
+thighs with the knees low down, which we
+are accustomed to find, and he constructs a
+very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light
+and shade. There is no trace of the statuesque
+Paduan draperies. The Virgin&#8217;s brocaded
+mantle is simply draped, and the robes of the
+saints hang in long straight folds. No doubt
+Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini,
+has more affinity with them, particularly with
+Giovanni, than with the Paduan artists, and as
+time goes on it is evident that he paints with
+many glances at what they were doing. In the
+altarpiece in Berlin he constructs an elaborate
+cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was
+already using. His saints are full of movement.
+In the end he begins to attitudinise and to display
+those artificial graces which were presently
+accentuated by Lotto.</p>
+
+<p><a name="altar" id="altar"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img085.jpg" width="550" height="490" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Alvise Vivarini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ALTARPIECE OF 1480.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time
+been employed in the Sala del Gran Consiglio
+by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy
+school, had hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be
+invited to enter into competition with them.
+At length he wrote the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">To the Most Serene the Prince and the Most
+Excellent Signoria</span>&mdash;I am Alvise of Murano, a
+faithful servant of your Serenity and of this most
+illustrious State. I have long been anxious to exercise
+my skill before your Sublimity and prove that continued
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>study and labour on my part have not been useless.
+Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and
+praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without
+return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing
+a canvas in the
+<ins class="translit" title="Possibly should be Sala del Gran Consiglio">Sala del Gran Consiio</ins>,
+according to the
+method at present in use by the two brothers Bellinii,
+and I ask no more for the said canvas than that I should
+be allowed the expenses of the cloth and colours as well
+as the wages of the journeymen, in the manner that has
+been granted to the said Bellinii. When I have done I
+shall leave to your Serenity of his goodness to give me in
+his wisdom the price which shall be adjudged to be just,
+honest, and appropriate, in return for the labour, which
+I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the universal
+satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the excellent
+Government, to the grace of which I most heartily
+commend myself.</p></div>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;method at present in use&rdquo; was presumably
+the oil-painting established by Antonello,
+which was now being made use of to replace
+the decorations in fresco and tempera which
+Guariento, Pisanello, and Gentile da Fabriano
+had executed, and which were constantly decaying
+and suffering from the sea air and the dampness
+of the climate. The Council accepted
+Alvise&#8217;s offer with little delay, and he was told to
+paint a picture for a space hitherto occupied by
+one of Pisanello&#8217;s, and was given a salary of sixty
+ducats a year, something less than that drawn
+by Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work,
+scenes from the history of Barbarossa, perished
+in the great fire of 1577.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>Venice is rich in works which show us what
+sort of painter was at the head of the Muranese
+School at the time when it rivalled that of the
+Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either
+side of the altarpiece of 1480, and of these the
+Baptist is one of his best figures, &ldquo;admirably
+expressive of tension and of brooding thought.&rdquo;
+It is large and free in stroke, and particularly
+advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close
+by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type
+of a strenuous, fanatical old woman, one which
+belongs not only to the period, but will be
+recognised by every student of human nature.
+Formidable and even cruel is her unflinching
+gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood
+for Scott&#8217;s Prioress, and looks as little likely to
+show mercy to an erring member of her order.
+In contrast, there is the exquisite little &ldquo;Madonna
+and Child&rdquo; with the two baby angels, still
+shown as a Bellini in the sacristy of the
+Church of the Redentore. It is the most
+absolutely simple and direct picture of the kind
+painted in Venice. The baby life is more perfect
+than anything that Gian. Bellini produced,
+and if much less intellectual than his Madonnas,
+there is all the tender charm of the primitives,
+combined with a freedom of drapery and a
+softness of form which could not be surpassed.
+The two little angels are more mundane in
+spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they
+have nothing of the mystical quality, though
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>we are reminded of Bellini, and the painting
+is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy
+of San Giobbe is an early Annunciation, which
+is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It has the
+old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its
+draperies are of a lovely tint. The priests of
+S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons of
+the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides
+several works by Bartolommeo and his assistants,
+is a little Madonna in a side chapel, which may
+be compared with the Redentore picture. The
+Mother sits inside a room, with the Child lying
+across her knees in the same pose. The two
+arched openings in the background of the 1480
+altarpiece have become windows, through which
+we look out on a charming landscape of lake and
+mountain. In the same church a &ldquo;Resurrection&rdquo;
+is not to be overlooked. It was executed in
+1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the
+sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the
+pink flush of dawn stands the swaying figure of
+the risen Christ, and below appear the heads of
+the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful.
+It is perhaps the very earliest example of that
+soft and sensuous feeling, that rhapsody of
+sensation which was presently to sweep like a
+flood over the art of Venice. &ldquo;What a time
+must the dawn of the sixteenth century have been
+when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous
+and advanced of his age, had the freshness and
+youthful courage to greet it; nay, actually to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in
+the &lsquo;Resurrection&rsquo;! Giorgione is here anticipated
+in the roundness and softness of the figures,
+and in the effect of light. Titian&#8217;s Assunta is
+foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards&#8217;
+expressions.&rdquo; Alvise, if he never thoroughly
+mastered the structure of the nude, and if his
+forms keep throughout some touch of the
+archaic, some awkwardness in the thickness
+of the figures, with their round heads, long
+thighs, and uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily
+refined and tender in sentiment, his
+line has a natural flow and beauty, and the
+heads of his Madonnas and saints cannot be
+surpassed in loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>His death came when the noble altarpiece to
+St. Ambrogio in the Frari was still unfinished,
+and it was completed by his assistant, Marco
+Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably
+of Basaiti, but the venerable doctor is a grand
+figure, and the two young soldier saints on his
+right and left hand are striking examples of
+the beauty we claim for him. The architectural
+plan is very elaborate, but altogether successful.
+The group is set beneath an arched vault
+supported by columns and cornices. Overhead,
+behind a balustrade, is placed a coronation of
+the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so
+as not to interfere with each other, and the
+sword of St. George, the crozier of St. Gregory,
+and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>composition and give length and line. The
+faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,
+and the two angels making music below
+compare well with those of the Bellinesque
+School.</p>
+
+<p>The portraits Alvise has left add to his
+reputation, and remind us of those of Antonello
+da Messina, particularly in the vital expression
+of the eyes, though they are without Antonello&#8217;s
+intense force. The &ldquo;Bernardo di Salla&rdquo; and the
+&ldquo;Man feeding a Hawk,&rdquo; though some critics
+still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which
+make their attribution to Alvise almost certainly
+correct. Indeed, the resemblance of
+Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece
+cannot escape the most unscientific observer.
+There is the same inflated nostril, the peculiarly
+curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Among the followers of Alvise, Marco
+Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and Lorenzo
+Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less
+direct are Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco
+Bonsignori, while Cima da Conegliano was for
+a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return
+to these later.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Youth.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints, 1480.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection and Predelle.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Windsor.</td>  <td class="td5">Man feeding a Hawk.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>CARPACCIO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini&#8217;s most
+faithful pupil. He and his master stand apart
+in having, before the arrival of the Venetian
+School proper, captured an aspect and a charm
+inspired by the natural beauty of the City of
+the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her
+historic appearance, and Carpaccio gives us
+something of the delight we feel to-day in her
+translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed
+spaces flooded with limpid light. While
+others were absorbed in assimilating extraneous
+influences, he goes on his own way, painting,
+indeed, the scenes that were asked for, but
+painting them in his own manner and with his
+own enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the
+Venetian State from very early days. The
+first use of painting had been that made by the
+Church to glorify religion, and very soon the
+State had followed, using it to enhance the love
+which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>home to them the consciousness of its greatness
+and glory. Pageants and processions were an
+integral part of Venetian life. The people
+looked on at them, often as they occurred, with
+more pride and sense of proprietorship than a
+Londoner does at a coronation procession or at
+the King going in state to open Parliament. The
+Venetian loved splendour and beauty and the
+story of the city&#8217;s great achievements, and
+nothing provided so welcome a subject for the
+decoration of the great public halls as portrayals
+of the events which had made Venice famous.
+Artists had been employed to produce these as
+early as the end of the fourteenth century, and
+those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which
+perished in the great fire) were a rendering on
+modern lines of the same subjects, satisfying the
+more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the Church and the public Government,
+we have already seen the &ldquo;Schools,&rdquo; as
+they were called, becoming important employers.
+These schools were the great organised confraternities
+in the cause of charity and mutual
+help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth
+century. That of St. Mark was naturally the
+foremost, but others were banded each under
+their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of
+rich patrons, for it was the fashion to belong
+to the confraternities. Riches and endowments
+rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting
+business were built, and were adorned
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>with pictures setting forth the legends of their
+patron saints. We have already seen Gentile
+Bellini employed in the schools of San Marco
+and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.
+Ursula and St. George gave commissions to
+Carpaccio, or perhaps it would be more correct
+to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent
+in this art, provided employment for his pupil
+and assistant, and that by degrees Carpaccio
+became a <em>maestro</em> on his own account.</p>
+
+<p>A host of second-rate painters were plying
+side by side, disciples first of one master, then
+drawn off to become followers of a second;
+assimilating the influence first of one workshop
+and then of another. Carpaccio has been lately
+identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who
+had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution
+to this painter of the &ldquo;Doge before the
+Madonna,&rdquo; in the National Gallery, gives some
+countenance to the contention that he was held
+to be of great excellence in his time.</p>
+
+<p>Though some historians advance the suggestion
+that Carpaccio was a native of Capo
+d&#8217;Istria, there is little proof that he was not,
+like his father Pietro, born a Venetian. He
+seems to have worked in Venice all his life,
+his first work being dated 1490 and his last
+1520. In 1527 his wife, Laura, declared herself
+a widow.</p>
+
+<p>The narrative art needed by the confraternities
+was supplied in perfection by Carpaccio,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>and one of his earliest independent commissions
+was the important one of decorating the School
+of St. Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a
+monopoly of the school. No one else had
+a right to collect offerings in her name or to
+put up an image to her. The legend afforded
+an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic
+scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage,
+and the cycle is one of the freshest and most
+characteristic things that has come down to us
+from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous.
+The mediocre masters who have
+educated the painter have made little impression
+on him. He is entirely occupied in delight in
+his subject and in telling his story. The story
+of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the
+daughter of the King of Brittany. The King
+of England sends his ambassadors to beg her
+hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the
+proposal with her father, and makes the conditions
+that Hereo, who is a heathen, shall be
+baptized, and that the betrothed couple must
+before marriage visit the Pope and the sacred
+shrines. After taking leave of their parents, the
+Prince and Princess depart on their expedition,
+but Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in
+which an angel has announced her martyrdom.
+She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000
+virgins, and they are received by Pope Cyriacus
+in Rome. The Pope then makes the return
+journey with them as far as Cologne, where,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+however, they are assaulted and massacred by
+the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a
+splendid funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen
+scenes in which the story is told are arranged
+on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed
+them in the chronological order, some
+of the latest events being the least complete in
+artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns
+the following dates to the list:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet
+those of the King of Brittany to ask for the hand of
+Ursula. Probably painted from 1496-98.</p>
+
+<p>2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal
+with her father. 1496-98.</p>
+
+<p>3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors.
+1496-98.</p>
+
+<p>4. The ambassadors return to the King of England.
+1496-98.</p>
+
+<p>5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.</p>
+
+<p>6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their
+respective parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.</p>
+
+<p>9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins
+meet the Pope. 1492.</p>
+
+<p>10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.</p>
+
+<p>11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral.
+1495.</p>
+
+<p>13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of
+martyrdom, venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received
+in heaven by the Eternal Father. 1491.</p></div>
+
+<p>No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might
+naturally have been chosen for a first experiment.
+The heads are large with coarse features, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>the proportions of the figures are poor. The
+face of the saint in glory (No. 13), plump and
+without much expression, is of the type of
+Bastiani&#8217;s saints. It may be assumed that such
+a great scheme of decoration would not have
+been entrusted to any one who was not already
+well known as an independent master, but
+perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about
+thirty when the work was begun, was still principally
+engrossed with the conventional, ecclesiastical
+subject. The heads of the virgins pressing
+round the saint appear to be portraits, and were
+very possibly those of the wives and daughters
+of members of the confraternity.</p>
+
+<p>The improvement that takes place is so rapid
+that we can guess how congenial the painter
+found the task and how quickly he adapted his
+already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes
+delight in the opportunity for painting a little
+domestic scene,&mdash;the bedroom of a young
+Venetian girl, perhaps a sister of his own.
+The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,
+are carefully drawn. The clear morning light
+streams into the room. The saint lies peacefully
+asleep, her hand under her head, her long
+eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is
+an idyll, full of insight into girlish life. The
+tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details
+that caught his eye. The crown lying on the
+ledge of the bed is an arbitrary introduction,
+as na&iuml;f as the angel. In the funeral scene the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>luminous light is diffused over all, the young
+saint lies upon her bier and is followed by priest
+and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth
+to nature, the draperies and garments are brought
+into harmony with the sky and background, and
+in all those that follow we find this quality of
+light. The landscape behind the massacre has
+gained in natural character, the city is at some
+distance, houses and churches are half buried in
+woods; the setting is much more natural than are
+the quaint and elegant pages who occupy it, and
+who are drawing their crossbows and attacking
+the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The
+panel in which the betrothed couple meet shows
+a great advance, and this and the succeeding ones
+of the ambassadors, which were painted between
+1495 and 1498, must have crowned Carpaccio&#8217;s
+reputation. He paints Venice in its most fascinating
+aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles,
+its sky and sea, its palaces and ships, the rich
+and picturesque dresses men wore in the streets,
+the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces
+a fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with
+the work of Pintoricchio. His Prince, kneeling
+in a white and gold dress, with long fair
+curls, is a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red
+dress and puffed sleeves, her rippling, flaxen hair
+and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.
+Carpaccio&#8217;s art is simple and garrulous in feeling,
+his conception is as unpassionate as the fancies
+of a child, but he has a true love for these gay
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way&mdash;her
+solid, worthy citizens, men of substance,
+shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure
+seriously with a sense of responsibility. They
+throng the streets and cross over the bridges,
+every figure is full of freedom and vitality.
+The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors
+are the best of all the scenes. In the middle
+of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits
+upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to
+the left is gathered a group of Venetian personages,
+members of the Loredano family, which
+was a special patron of St. Ursula&#8217;s Guild, and
+gave this panel. The types are all vividly
+realised and differentiated: the courtier looking
+critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious
+bourgeoisie; the man of fashion passing with
+his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too
+closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf
+keeper. Far beyond stretch the lagoons; the
+sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What
+is noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the
+absence of women, was then most true to life, for
+except on special occasions they were not seen
+in the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental
+seclusion. The dismissal of the ambassadors
+affords the opportunity for drawing an interior
+with the street visible through a doorway. A
+group at the side, of a man dictating a letter
+and the scribe taking down his words, writing
+laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>head on one side, is excellent in its quiet reality.
+The same life-like vivacity is displayed in Ursula&#8217;s
+consultation with her father. The old nurse
+crouched upon the steps is introduced to break
+the line and to throw back the main group.
+Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the
+funeral scene, and Titian himself adopts his
+suggestion.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img102.jpg" width="550" height="263" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Carpaccio.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a
+charming one. His treatment of light and
+water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense
+of peace and poetry, and though he is influenced
+by Gentile&#8217;s splendid realistic heads, the
+type which appeals to him is gentler and more
+idealised. His fancy is caught by Oriental
+details, to which Gentile would naturally have
+directed his attention, and of which there was
+no lack in Venice at this time. All his episodes
+are very clearly illustrated, and his popular brush
+was kept busily employed. He took a share with
+other assistants in the series which Gentile was
+painting in S. Giovanni Evangelista. In 1502
+the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to
+decorate their school, which had been founded
+fifty years earlier, for the relief of destitute
+Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects
+were to be selected from the lives of the Saviour
+and the patron saints of Dalmatia and Albania,
+St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.
+Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece
+which Carpaccio delivered between 1502 and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of
+the school. His &ldquo;Jerome in his Study&rdquo; has
+nothing ascetic, but shows a prosperous Venetian
+ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library
+among his books and writings. He is less
+successful in his scenes from the life of Christ;
+the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of
+Mantegna; but when he leaves his own style he
+is weak and poor, and imaginary scenes are quite
+beyond him. In the death and interment of St.
+Jerome he gives a delightful impression of the
+peace of the old convent garden, and in the scene
+where the lion introduced by the saint scatters
+the terrified monks he lets a sense of humour
+have free play. The monks in their long
+garments, escaping in all directions, are really
+comical, and in conjunction with the ingratiating
+smile of the lion, the scene passes into the region
+of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the
+comic in the scene in St. Ursula&#8217;s history, where
+the 11,000 virgins are hurrying in single file
+along a winding road which disappears out of
+the picture. In the principal scene in the life
+of St. George, Carpaccio again achieves a masterpiece.
+The force and vivacity of the saint in
+armour charging the dragon, lingers long in the
+memory. The long, decorative lines of lance
+and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole
+landscape. The details show an almost childish
+delight in the realisation of ghoulish horrors.
+He rather injures his &ldquo;Triumph of St. George&rdquo;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>by his anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon
+at Jerusalem; the flying flags distract the eye,
+and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken
+up into different parts, while the dragon is
+reduced to very unterrifying insignificance. His
+series for the school of the Albanians dealt with
+the life of the Virgin, who was their special
+patron. Its remains are at Bergamo, Milan, and
+in the Academy. The single figures in the
+&ldquo;Presentation,&rdquo; the priest and maiden, are
+excellent. A child at the side of the steps,
+leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows
+once more what a hold this use of a figure had
+taken of him. In the &ldquo;Visitation&rdquo; the figures
+are too much scattered, and the fantastic buildings
+attract more attention than the women. He
+still produced altarpieces, and the Presentation
+of the Infant Christ in the Temple, which he
+was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where
+one of Bellini&#8217;s most famous altarpieces stood,
+challenged him to put forth all his strength. He
+never produced anything more simple and noble
+or more worthy of the cinque-cento than this
+altarpiece (now in the Academy). It surpasses
+Bellini&#8217;s arrangement in the way in which the
+personages are raised upon a step, while the dome
+overhead and the angel musicians below give
+them height and dignity. The contrast between
+the infant and the youthful woman and the
+old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast
+between youth and age is a very favourite one.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>Bellini, in the same church, draws it between
+SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in his
+last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian
+with St. Jerome. This is the most grandiose,
+the least of a <em>genre</em> picture of all Carpaccio&#8217;s
+creations, although he does make Simeon into a
+pontiff with attendant cardinals bearing his train.
+One of his last works is the S. Vitale over the
+high altar of the church of that name, where
+we forgive the wooden appearance of the horse
+which the saint rides for the sake of the simple
+dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by
+the balcony overhead. Nor must we forget that
+study of the &ldquo;Two Courtesans&rdquo; in the Museo
+Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism.
+It conveys to us the matter-of-fact monotony of
+the long, hot days, and the women and the animals
+with which they are beguiling their idle hours
+are painted with the greatest intelligence. It
+carries us back to another phase of life in
+Carpaccio&#8217;s Venice, seen through his observant,
+humorous eyes, and if there is nothing in his
+colour distinctive of the impending Venetian
+richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant
+limpidity; it seems drawn straight from the
+transparent canals and radiant lagoons.</p>
+
+<p>We apprehend the difference at once in
+Bastiani and in Mansueti, who essay the same
+sort of compositions. They studied grouping
+carefully, and it must have seemed easy enough
+to paint their careful architecture and to place
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>citizens in costume with appropriate action in a
+&ldquo;Miracle of the Cross,&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Preaching of St.
+Mark&rdquo;; but these pictures are dry and crowded,
+they give no illusion of truth, there is none of
+the careless realism of Carpaccio&#8217;s crowds,&mdash;of
+incidents taking place which are not essential to
+the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but
+which have their share in producing a full and
+varied illusion. The scenes want the air and
+depth in which Carpaccio&#8217;s pictures are enveloped.
+We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into
+the outer air and refreshed by these heavy personages,
+standing in rows, painted in hot, dry
+colour, and carrying no conviction in their
+glance and action.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Ferrara.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen disputing.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Stephen preaching.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Stuttgart.</td>  <td class="td5">Martyrdom of St. Stephen.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins; Presentation in the Temple.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and
+              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of
+              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave of her Father.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ adored by Angels.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>GIOVANNI BELLINI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>The difference between Gian. Bellini and his
+accomplished brother, that which makes us so
+conscious that the first was the greater of the
+two and which sets him in a later artistic generation
+than Gentile, is a difference of mind. Such
+pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni was
+engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may
+suspect that their composition was not particularly
+congenial to him, and that the strictly
+religious pictures and the small allegorical
+studies, by which we must judge him, were
+more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal
+feeling which adds so strongly to his claim to be
+a great artist; it was this which drew all men
+to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence
+the art of his day in Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo&#8217;s wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves
+everything to her two sons, Gentile and Niccolo.
+Giovanni was evidently not her son, but Vasari
+speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it
+is very possible that he was an illegitimate child,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>brought up, after the fashion that so often
+obtained, in the full privileges of his father&#8217;s
+house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini
+was living in Venice in 1437, first near the
+Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio.
+He was a member of S. Giovanni Evangelista,
+and probably one of the leading artists of the
+city. His two sons helped him in his great
+decorative works, and also went with him to
+Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata Chapel.
+Their relative position is suggested by a document
+of 1457, which records that the father
+received twenty-one ducats for &ldquo;three figures,
+done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the
+Patriarch,&rdquo; only two of which were to go to
+the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini&#8217;s signature first
+appears on a document, and at about this time
+we may suppose that he and his brother began to
+execute small commissions on their own account.
+On these visits to Padua the intimacy must
+have sprung up, which led to Mantegna&#8217;s
+marriage in 1453 with Jacopo&#8217;s daughter. At
+Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna,
+drank in the inspiration left there by Donatello,
+the greatest master that either of
+them encountered. It was the humanistic and
+naturalistic side of Donatello which touched
+Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore.
+It chimed in, too, with his father&#8217;s graceful and
+fanciful quality, and there is no doubt that the
+Venetian painters soon exercised a marked influence
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>on Mantegna. They &ldquo;fought for him with
+Squarcione,&rdquo; and even in the Eremitani frescoes
+he begins to lose his purely statuesque type and
+to become frankly Renaissance. In the later
+scenes of the series a pergola with grapes, a
+Venetian campanile and doorway replace his
+classic towers and arches of triumph. In the
+&ldquo;Martyrdom of St. James&rdquo; the couple walking by
+and paying no attention whatever to the tragic
+event, are very like the people whom Gentile
+introduces in his backgrounds.</p>
+
+<p>There are few documents more interesting
+in the history of art than the two pictures of
+the &ldquo;Agony in the Garden,&rdquo; executed by the
+brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by
+Jacopo in the British Museum sketch-book.
+Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling
+before the vision of the Chalice, the figures
+wrapt in slumber, and the distant town. In few
+pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived
+in such sympathy with the figures. As
+we look at this sketch and examine the two
+finished compositions, which it is so fortunate
+to find in juxtaposition in the National Gallery,
+we surmise that the two artists agreed to
+carry out the same idea and each to give his
+version of Jacopo&#8217;s suggestion, and very curious
+it is to see the rendering each has produced.</p>
+
+<p>Mantegna has made use of the most formal
+and Squarcionesque contours in his surroundings.
+The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate
+perspective, and a band of classic figures fills the
+middle distance. The sleeping forms of the
+disciples are laid about like so many draped
+statues taken from their pedestals. The choir
+of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the
+imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully
+conceived Christ, the whole composition would
+leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,
+we can never look at Bellini&#8217;s version without
+a fresh thrill. He, like Mantegna, has followed
+Jacopo&#8217;s scheme of winding roads and the city
+&ldquo;set on a hill,&rdquo; and has drawn the advancing
+band of soldiers; but, independent of all details,
+he gives us the vision of a poet. The still dawn
+is breaking over the broadly painted landscape,
+the rosy shafts of light are colouring the sky
+and casting their magic over every common
+object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred
+Figure kneels, wrapt into the Heavenly Vision,
+which is hardly more definite than a stronger
+beam of light upon the radiance. One of the
+disciples, at least, is a successful and natural
+study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen
+back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep.
+Bellini is less assured, less accomplished than
+Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the
+pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Even earlier than this picture, critics place
+the &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; and &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo; of the
+Museo Correr and our own &ldquo;Salvator Mundi.&rdquo;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>In 1443, when Giovanni was a young man of
+four or five and twenty, San Bernardino had
+held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of
+Venice had thronged to hear him. It is very
+possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests in his <em>Life
+of Bellini</em>, that Giovanni&#8217;s emotional temperament
+had been worked upon by the preacher&#8217;s
+eloquence, and the very poignant feelings of
+love and pity which his early art expresses were
+the deliberate consequence of his sympathy with
+the deep religious mysteries expounded.</p>
+
+<p>In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is
+still going with the Paduan current. In both we
+have the winding roads so characteristic of his
+father, but the rocks in the &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo;
+have the jointed, arbitrary character of Mantegna&#8217;s
+and the draperies are plastered to the forms
+beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and
+a dignity which no reproduction seems able to
+convey. The feeling is already more imposing
+than the execution. Christ and the two prophets
+tower up against the belt of clouds, the central
+figure conveying a sense of pathetic isolation;
+while below, St. John&#8217;s attitude betrays a state of
+tension, the feet being drawn up and contorted.
+This picture prepares us for the overwhelming
+emotion we find in the &ldquo;Redeemer&rdquo; and the
+group of Piet&agrave;s. The treatment of the Christ
+was a development of the early <em>motif</em> of angels
+flying forward on either side of the Cross, but
+here the sacred blood pouring into the chalice
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>is also sacramental and connected with the intensified
+religious fervour which had led to the
+foundation of the Franciscan and Dominican
+orders, illustrations of which are met with in
+the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century
+books of devotion. The accessories, the
+antique reliefs, the low wall, the distant buildings,
+have an allegorical meaning underlying each one,
+and common to trecento and, in a less degree, to
+quattrocento art. Paradise regained is signified
+by the paved court with the open door, in contradistinction
+to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed
+court; the type of the old covenant. In one of
+the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his hand
+into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness
+to suffer. The other represents a pagan sacrifice,
+foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the Cross.
+Figures in the background are leaving a ruined
+temple and making their way towards the new
+Christian city, fortified and crowned with a
+church tower, and in the midst of all this
+symbolism, Christ and the attendant angel are
+placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.</p>
+
+<p>During the next few years, Bellini devoted
+himself to two subjects of the highest devotional
+order. These are the Madonna and Child, the
+great exercise in every age for painters, and the
+Piet&agrave;, which he has made peculiarly his own.</p>
+
+<p><a name="pieta" id="pieta"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img116.jpg" width="550" height="428" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Giovanni Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PIET&Agrave;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Brera, Milan.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Brogi.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering
+of the last subject, so full of passionate sorrow
+that it is hardly possible that it should not, if only
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>half consciously, have stimulated the artistic
+sensibilities of the most sensitive of painters; but
+Bellini&#8217;s pathos shrinks from all exaggeration.
+He conceives grief with the tenderest insight.
+His interest in the subject was so intense that he
+never left the execution to others, and though
+not a single one bears his signature, yet each is
+entirely by his own hand. Besides the Piet&agrave; at
+Milan, which is perhaps the best known, there is
+one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge&#8217;s
+Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin.
+The version he adopts, which places the Body of
+Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite in
+North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief
+(now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), but
+whether he brought or found the suggestion in
+Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left
+sketches in which the whole group is within the
+tomb, and this rendering is followed by Carpaccio,
+Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never
+found in trecento art, and is probably traceable
+to the Paduan impulse to make use of classic
+remains.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni Bellini&#8217;s Piet&agrave;s fall into two groups.
+In one, the Christ is placed between the Virgin
+and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony
+of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer
+is supported by angels, who express the
+amazement and grief of immortal beings who see
+their Lord suffering an indignity from which they
+are immune.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>Mary and St. John <em>inside</em> the sarcophagus
+shows that they are conceived mystically; Mary
+as the Church, and St. John as the personification
+of Christian Philosophy&mdash;a significance frequently
+attached to these figures. Such a picture was designed
+to hang over the altar, at which the mystical
+sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.</p>
+
+<p>In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini
+has shaken off the Paduan tradition, and is forming
+his own style and giving free play to his own
+feeling. The winding roads and evening sky,
+barred with clouds, are the accessories he used in
+the &ldquo;Agony in the Garden,&rdquo; but the figures are
+treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in
+broad masses, and scarcely a trace is left of
+sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the study
+of the nude, everything is subordinated to the
+emotion expressed by the three figures: the
+helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the tender
+solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed
+look of the despairing friend. Here there is
+nothing of beautiful or pathetic symbol; the
+group is intense with the common sorrow of all
+the world. Mary presses the corpse to her as if
+to impart her own life, and gazes with anguished
+yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to
+have passed to a more complex age in his analysis
+of suffering, yet here is none of the extravagance
+which the primitive masters share with the
+Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his
+intensity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p><p>In the Rimini version the tender concern
+and questioning surprise of the attendant angels
+contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful
+dead body they support. Their childish limbs
+and butterfly wings make a sinuous pattern
+against the lacquered black of the ground-work,
+and Mr. Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion
+that the effect, reminiscent of Greek vase-painting,
+and the likeness of the Head of Christ
+to an old bronze, may, in a composition painted
+for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no mere accident,
+but a concession to the patron&#8217;s enthusiasm for
+classic art.</p>
+
+<p>In 1470 Bellini received his first commission
+in the Scuola di San Marco. Gentile had been
+employed there since 1466 on the history of the
+Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint
+&ldquo;The Deluge and the Ark of Noah&rdquo; with all its
+attendant circumstances, but of these, except
+from Vasari&#8217;s descriptions, we can form no idea.
+These great pageant-pictures had become identified
+with the Bellini and their following, while
+the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the
+province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected
+a change, for sacred subjects best suited the restrained
+and simple perfection of his style, and
+afforded the most sympathetic opening for his
+idealistic spirit. For the next twenty years or
+more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in
+public work, for we hear of his being given the
+direction of that which Gentile left unfinished
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in
+1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended
+the work for him, and in that year he
+was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand
+Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats.
+Other commissions were turned out of the <em>bottega</em>
+he had set up with his brother in 1471, and
+between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro
+to paint the important altarpiece that still holds
+its place there. It is in some ways the greatest
+and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished.
+The central figures and the attendant
+saints have a large gravity and carefully studied
+individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological
+books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably
+contrasted with the sympathetic, cultured St.
+Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame,
+is a gem of beauty, and proves what an appeal
+nature was making to the painter. The predella,
+illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of
+the saints around the altar, is full of Oriental
+costumes. The horses are small Eastern horses,
+very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse,
+and the whole is evidently inspired by the
+sketches which Gentile brought back on his
+return from Constantinople in 1481.</p>
+
+<p>Looking from one to another of the cycle of
+Madonna pictures which Bellini produced, and
+of which so many hang side by side in the
+Academy, we are able to note how his conception
+varied. In one of the earliest the Child
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>lies across its Mother&#8217;s knee, in the attitude
+borrowed from his father and the Vivarini, from
+whom, too, he takes the uplifted hands, placed
+palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the
+gentle and adoring type, but his later Madonnas
+are stately Venetian ladies. He gives us a
+queenly woman, with full throat and stately
+poise, in the Madonna degli Alberi, in which
+the two little trees are symbols of the Old and
+New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely
+intellectual face with chiselled and refined
+features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it
+dramatically with the bluff St. George in
+armour; and there is another Madonna between
+St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which
+has a curious effect of artificial light.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>GIOVANNI BELLINI</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>
+
+
+<p>In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian
+Republic appointed Bellini superintendent of the
+Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable
+title of State Painter. In this capacity he was
+the overseer of all public works of painting, and
+was expected to devote a part of his time to the
+decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates
+nine of his historical paintings, which had been
+painted before the State appointment, all having
+reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but
+though he must have been much engrossed, he
+seems to have suspended the work from time to
+time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the
+large altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro
+in Murano, and the one in the Academy, which
+was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the
+last shows the greatest advance and is fullest of
+experiment. The Madonna is a grand ecclesiastical
+figure. It has been said with truth
+that it is a picture which must have afforded
+great support and dignity to the Church. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the
+Mother gazes out of the picture, extending
+invitation and encouragement to the advancing
+worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound;
+the artist has been more absorbed
+in the contrast between the beautiful, youthful
+body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe,
+older but not emaciated, and with the exquisite
+surface that his now complete mastery of oil-painting
+enabled him to produce. This technique
+has evidently been a great delight, and
+is here carried to perfection; the skin of St.
+Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of
+a horse in high condition. Everything that
+architecture, sculpture, and rich material can
+supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of
+the group; but the line of sight is still close to
+the bottom of the picture, and if it were not for
+the exquisite grace with which the angels are
+placed, the Madonna would have a broad,
+clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is
+the most splendid in colour of all his works.
+As he paints the rich light of a golden interior
+and the fused and splendid colours, he seems to
+pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste
+of the glory that is to follow. The Murano
+altarpiece is quite a different conception; instead
+of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling,
+<em>plein air</em> scene: the Mother benign, the Child
+soft and playful, the old Doge Barbarigo and the
+patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>garden and medi&aelig;val townlet filling up the
+background, for which, by the way, he uses the
+same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says
+much for his versatility that he could within a
+short time produce three such different versions.</p>
+
+<p>Among Bellini&#8217;s most fascinating achievements
+in the last years of the fifteenth century are
+his allegorical paintings, known to us by the
+&ldquo;P&eacute;lerinage de l&#8217;&Acirc;me&rdquo; in the Uffizi and the
+little series in the Academy. The meaning of
+the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig
+from a medi&aelig;val poem by Guillaume de
+Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote about
+1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has
+taken on Bellini&#8217;s mystic spirit. The paved
+space, set within the marble rail, signifies, as in
+the &ldquo;Salvator Mundi,&rdquo; the Paradise where souls
+await the Resurrection. The new-born souls
+cluster round the Tree of Life and shake its
+boughs. The poem says:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">
+There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad<br />
+Who has not those who wound his heart,<br />
+And to whom it is not often necessary<br />
+To play and be solaced<br />
+And be soothed like a child<br />
+With something comforting.<br />
+Know that those playing<br />
+There in order to allay their sorrow<br />
+Have found beneath that tree<br />
+An apple that great comfort gives<br />
+To those that play with it.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><a name="allegory" id="allegory"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img125.jpg" width="550" height="341" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Giovanni Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AN ALLEGORY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Florence.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort.
+St. Peter and St. Paul guard the door,
+beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy
+conversation. A very beautiful figure on the
+left, wrapped in a black shawl, requires explanation,
+and it has been suggested that it is the
+donor, a woman who may have lost husband and
+children, and who, still in life, is introduced,
+watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.
+SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have
+stepped out of the San Giobbe altarpiece, are
+obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.
+Catherine, at the Virgin&#8217;s side, may be the donor&#8217;s
+own saint. This picture, with its delicious
+landscape bathed in atmospheric light, is a
+forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions
+of &ldquo;pure and unquestioning delight in the
+sensuous charm of rare and beautiful things&rdquo;
+in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed
+than with the intellectual conception,
+and within its small space Bellini seems to have
+enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories
+in the Academy are also full of meaning. They
+are decorative works, and were probably painted
+for some small cabinet. They seem too small
+for a cassone. They are ruined by over-painting,
+but still full of grace and fancy. The figure in
+the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter
+between Luxury and Industry, is drawn from
+Jacopo&#8217;s triumphant Bacchus. Fortune floats in
+her barque, holding the globe, and the souls
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>who gather round her are some full of triumphant
+success, others clinging to her for comfort, while
+several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark
+waters. &ldquo;Prudence,&rdquo; the only example of a
+female nude in Bellini&#8217;s works, holds a looking-glass.
+Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing
+from his refuge. The Summa Virtus is an ugly
+representation of all the virtues; a waddling
+deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of
+justice; the pitcher in its hand means prudence,
+and the gold upon its feet symbolises charity.
+The landscape, both of this and of the &ldquo;Fortune,&rdquo;
+resembles that which he was painting in his
+larger works at the end of the century. Soon
+after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with
+Isabela d&#8217;Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That
+distinguished collector and connoisseur writes
+through her agent to get the promise of a
+picture, &ldquo;a story or fable of antiquity,&rdquo; to be
+placed in position with the allegories which
+Mantegna had contributed to her &ldquo;Paradiso.&rdquo;
+Bellini agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five
+ducats on account. He seems, however, to
+have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in
+competing with Mantegna on his own ground,
+and asks to be allowed to choose his subject.
+Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself
+with a sacred picture, and a &ldquo;Nativity&rdquo; was
+selected. She is at once full of suggestions,
+desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini
+demurs at introducing except as a child, but in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>April 1504 the commission is still unaccomplished,
+and Isabela angrily demands the return
+of her money. This brings a letter of humble
+apology from Bellini, and presently the picture
+is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes that it is
+quite beautiful, and that &ldquo;though Giovanni has
+behaved as badly as possible, yet the bad must
+be taken with the good.&rdquo; The joy of its
+acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began
+to lay plans to get a further work out of Bellini,
+and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he would
+take a fresh commission always providing he
+might fix the subject. From the catalogue of
+her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture
+&ldquo;sul asse&rdquo; (on panel) represented the &ldquo;B.V.,
+il Putto, S. Giovanni Battista, S. Giovanni
+Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The great altarpieces which remain strike us
+less by their research, their preoccupation with
+new problems of paint or grouping, than by
+their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was
+now nearly eighty years old, and in 1504 the
+young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution
+in art with his Castelfranco Madonna. In
+composition and detail the Madonna of San
+Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the
+Arcadian, innovating fashion of approaching a
+religious scene, of which the Church had long
+since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini
+cannot escape the indirect suggestion of the
+new manner. The same leaven was at work
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>in him which was transforming the men of a
+younger generation. In this altarpiece, in the
+Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which
+have perished, and above all in the hermit saint
+in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he is linked in feeling
+and in treatment with the later Venetian School.</p>
+
+<p>The new device, which he adopts quite
+naturally, of raising the line of sight, sets the
+figures in increased depth. For the first time
+he gives height and majesty to the young
+Mother by carrying the draperies down over the
+steps. He realises to the full the contrast
+between the young, fragile heads of his girl-saints
+and the dark, venerable countenances of
+the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching
+itself like a flower upon its stem, reminds us of
+the type which we saw in his Watcher in the
+sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched,
+dome-like niche opens on a distance bathed in
+golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of
+the old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new
+perfection of feeling and atmosphere. Who the
+saints are matters little; it is the collective
+enjoyment of a company of congenial people
+that pleases us so much. The &ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; in
+S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later
+than Cima&#8217;s in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in
+frank imitation of the younger man. Christ and
+the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without
+much zest, in a weak, conventional way,
+but the artist&#8217;s true interest comes out in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>beauty of face and gesture of the group of
+women holding the garments, and above all in
+the sombre gloom of the distance, which replaces
+Cima&#8217;s charming landscape, and which keys the
+whole picture to the significance of a portent.
+In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.
+Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini
+keeps his love for the golden dome, but he lets
+us look through its arch, at rolling mountain
+solitudes, with mists rising between their folds.
+The geranium robe of the saint, an exquisite,
+vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden
+sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out
+against the evening sky, and in the faces of the
+two saints who stand on either side of the aged
+visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old
+intensity of religious feeling, a feeling which
+he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a
+more pagan tone.</p>
+
+<p>In 1507, at Gentile&#8217;s death, Giovanni undertook,
+at his brother&#8217;s dying request, to finish
+the &ldquo;Preaching of St. Mark,&rdquo; receiving as a
+recompense that coveted sketch-book of his
+father&#8217;s, from which he had adopted so many
+suggestions, and which, though he was the
+eldest, had been inherited by the legitimate son.</p>
+
+<p>In the preceding year Albert D&uuml;rer had
+visited Venice for the second time, and Bellini
+had received him with great cordiality. D&uuml;rer
+writes, &ldquo;Bellini is very old, but is still the best
+painter in Venice&rdquo;; and adds, &ldquo;The things I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>admired on my last visit, I now do not value at
+all.&rdquo; Implying that he was able now to see
+how superior Bellini was to the hitherto more
+highly esteemed Vivarini.</p>
+
+<p>At the very end of Bellini&#8217;s life, in 1514,
+the Duke of Ferrara paid him eighty-five ducats
+for a painting of &ldquo;Bacchanals,&rdquo; now at Alnwick
+Castle; which may be looked upon as an
+open confession by one who had always considered
+himself as a painter of distinctively
+religious works, that such a gay scene of feasting
+afforded opportunities which he could not resist,
+for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods,
+sitting at their banquet in a sunny glade, are
+almost fully draped, and there is little of the
+<em>abandon</em> which was affected by later painters.
+The picture was left unfinished, and was later
+given to Titian to complete. In his capacity as
+State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini&#8217;s
+duty to execute the official portraits of the
+Doges. During his long life he saw eleven
+reigns, and during four he held the State
+appointment. Besides the official, he painted
+private portraits of the Doges, and that of
+Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of
+the most perfect presentments of the quattrocento.
+This portrait, painted by one old man of another,
+shows no weakening in touch or characterisation.
+It is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and
+simple. The face is quiet and unexaggerated;
+there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an air
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>of accustomed dignity and thought, while the
+technique has all the perfection of the painter&#8217;s
+prime.</p>
+
+<p>In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church
+of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by the side of his
+brother Gentile. To the last he was popular
+and famous, overwhelmed with attentions from
+the most distinguished personages of the city.
+Though he had begun life when art showed
+such a different aspect, he was by nature so
+imbued with that temperament, which at the
+time of his death was beginning to assert itself
+in the younger school, that he was able to
+assimilate a really astonishing share of the new
+manner. He is guided by feeling more than
+by intellect. All the time he is working out
+problems, he is dominated by the emotion of
+his subject, but his emotion, his pathos, are
+invariably tempered and restrained by the calm
+moderation of the quattrocento. The golden
+mean still has command of Bellini, and never
+allows his feelings, however poignant, to degenerate
+into sentimentality or violence.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Morelli: Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave; (L.); Dead Christ.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.); Salvator Mundi (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Piet&agrave; (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Mond Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Sala Grande: Transfiguration.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Pesaro.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rimini.</td>  <td class="td5">Dead Christ (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);
+             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with
+             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Piet&agrave; (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and Augustine, 1513.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS
+OF BELLINI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense
+of the joy of life and the apprehension of pure
+beauty, which was strengthening in the people
+and leading up to the great period of Venetian
+art, flooded round Bellini and recognised its expression
+in him. He was more popular and had a
+larger following among the artists of his day than
+either Gentile or Carpaccio with their frankly
+mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni&#8217;s State works
+may have been, his religious paintings are the
+ones which are copied and adapted and studied
+by the younger band of artists, and this because
+of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional
+subjects. Gentile&#8217;s pageant-pictures
+have still something cold and colourless, with a
+touch of the archaic, while Giovanni&#8217;s religious
+altarpieces evince a new freedom of handling, a
+modern conception of beautiful women, a use of
+that colour which was soon to reign triumphant.
+As far as it went indeed, its triumph was already
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>assured; as Giovanni advanced towards old age,
+it was no longer of any use for the young
+masters of the day to paint in any way save
+the one he had made popular, and one artist
+after another who had begun in the school of
+Alvise Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni
+Bellini.</p>
+
+<p>It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to
+his assistants, and as everything that went out of
+his workshop was signed by his name, even if it
+only represented the use of one of his designs, or
+a few words of advice, and was &ldquo;passed&rdquo; by the
+master, it is no wonder that European collections
+were flooded with works, among which only
+lately the names of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi,
+Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti, Rondinelli, and
+others begin to be disentangled.</p>
+
+<p>Only one of his followers stands out as a
+strong and original master, not quite of the first
+class, but developing his own individuality while
+he draws in much of what both Alvise and
+Bellini had to give. Cima da Conegliano,
+whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always
+signs himself <em>Coneglianensis</em>: the title of Cima,
+&ldquo;the Rock,&rdquo; by which he is now so widely
+known, having first been mentioned in the
+seventeenth century by Boschini, and perhaps
+given him by that writer himself. He was a
+son of the mountains, who, though he came early
+to Venice, and lived there most of his life, never
+loses something of their wild freshness, and to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>the end delights in bringing them into his
+backgrounds. He lived with his mother at
+Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan
+marches, until 1484, when he was twenty-five,
+and then came down to Vicenza, where he fell
+under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a
+Vicentine painter, who had been studying both
+with Alvise and Bellini. Cima&#8217;s &ldquo;Madonna
+with Saints,&rdquo; painted for the Church of St.
+Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489, shows him still
+using the old method of tempera, in a careful,
+cold, painstaking style, yet already showing his
+own taste. The composition has something of
+Alvise, yet that something has been learned
+through the agency of Montagna, for the figures
+have the latter&#8217;s severity and austere character
+and the colour is clearer and more crude than
+Alvise&#8217;s. It is no light resemblance, and he
+must have been long with Montagna. In the
+type of the Christ in Montagna&#8217;s Piet&agrave; at
+Monte Berico, in the fondness for airy porticoes,
+in the architecture and main features of his
+&ldquo;Madonna enthroned&rdquo; in the Museo Civico at
+Vicenza, we see characteristics which Cima
+followed, though he interpreted them in his
+own way. He turns the heavy arches and
+domes that Alvise loved, into airy pergolas,
+decked with vines. He gives increasing importance
+to high skies and to atmospheric distances.
+When he got to Venice in 1492, he began to
+paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>Baptist with attendant saints, still in the Church
+of S. Madonna dell&#8217; Orto. The work of this is
+rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh,
+and he comes to his best soon after, in the
+&ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; in S. Giovanni in Bragora, which
+Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment
+of copying. It was quite unusual to choose
+such a subject for the High Altar, and could
+only be justified by devotion to the Baptist,
+who was Cima&#8217;s own name-saint as well as
+that of the Church. Cima is here at his very
+highest; the composition is not derived from
+any one else, but is all the conception of an
+ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.
+The Christ is particularly fine and simple,
+unexaggerated in pose and type; the arm of the
+Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to
+give him a refined, tentative look, which makes
+a sympathetic appeal. The attendant angels look
+on with an air of sweet interest. The distant
+mountains, the undulating country, the little
+town of Conegliano, identified by the castle on
+its great rock, or <em>Cima</em>, are Arcadian in their
+sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed
+out, are full of sun, not of rain. The landscape
+has not the sombre mystery of Titian&#8217;s, but is
+bright with the joyous delight of a lover of
+outdoor life. As Cima masters the new medium
+he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms
+lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity
+of his native town ordered the grand
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there,
+and in this he shows his connection with Venice;
+the architecture is partly taken from St. Mark&#8217;s,
+the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a
+group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at
+the foot of the throne. Cima is, however, never
+merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly
+defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls
+are not the curls of Bellini&#8217;s saints, his treatment
+of surface is refined, enamel-like, perfectly
+finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken
+treatment which Bellini&#8217;s natural feeling for
+colour was beginning to dictate. Cima&#8217;s pale
+golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness
+and precision, and though they are full of
+charm and refinement, they may be thought
+lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501
+belongs the &ldquo;Incredulity of St. Thomas,&rdquo; now
+in the Academy, but painted for the Guild of
+Masons. It is a picture full of expression and
+dignity, broad in treatment if a little cold in its
+self-restraint. Cima seems to have not quite
+enough intellect, and not quite enough strong
+feeling. However, the little altarpiece of the
+Nativity, in the Church of the Carmine in
+Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this
+foreshadows the work he did when he went to
+Parma, where his transparent shadows grow
+broader and stronger, and his figures gain in
+ease and freedom. He never loses the delicate
+radiance of his lights, and his types and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>his architecture alike convey something of a
+peculiarly refined, brilliant elegance.</p>
+
+<p>Like all these men of great energy and
+prolific genius, Cima produced an astonishing
+number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt
+had pupils on his own account, for a goodly list
+could be made of pictures in his style, but not
+by his own hand, which have been carried by
+collectors into widely-scattered places. His
+exquisite surface and finish and his marked
+originality make him a difficult master to imitate
+with any success. His latest work is dated
+1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till 1517, and it
+seems probable that he returned to his beloved
+Conegliano and there passed his last years.</p>
+
+<p>If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of
+Treviso, called Catena, gained an immense reputation
+by his industry and his power of imitating
+and adopting the manner of Bellini&#8217;s School. In
+those days men did not trouble themselves much
+as to whether they were original or not. They
+worked away on traditional compositions, frankly
+introducing figures from their master&#8217;s cartoons,
+modifying a type here, making some little experiment
+or arrangement there, and, as a French critic
+puts it, leaving their own personality to &ldquo;hatch
+out&rdquo; in due time, if it existed, and when it was
+sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It
+is here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman
+in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, at a salary
+of three ducats a month, he for long failed to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which
+was possessed by the better disciples of the
+schools. But he is painstaking, determined to
+get on, and eager to satisfy the continually
+increasing demand for work. His draperies are
+confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with
+small features, inexpressive button mouths, and
+weak chins, and his flesh tints have little of
+the glow which is later the prerogative of every
+second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like
+many another careful mediocre man, in securing
+patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened
+he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano
+of a commission to paint the altarpiece for the
+Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal
+Palace. He adapts his group from that of
+Bellini in the Cathedral of Murano, bringing
+in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of
+which he afterwards made numerous copies, one
+of which was for long assigned to Gentile and
+one to Giovanni Bellini.</p>
+
+<p>That Catena is not without charm, we discern
+in such a composition as his &ldquo;Martyrdom of St.
+Cristina,&rdquo; in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which
+the saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels
+upon the water, in which she met her death,
+and is surrounded by little angels, holding up
+the millstone tied round her neck, and laden
+with other instruments of her martyrdom.
+Catena borrows right and left, and tries to
+follow every new indication of contemporary
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>taste. For instance, he remarks the growing
+admiration for colour, and hopes by painting
+gay, flat tints, in bright contrast, to produce the
+desired effect.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident that he made many friends
+among the rich connoisseurs of the time, and
+that his importance was out of proportion to
+his real merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing
+an account of Raphael&#8217;s last days to a friend in
+Venice, and touching on Michelangelo&#8217;s illness,
+begs him to see that Catena takes care of
+himself, &ldquo;as the times are unfavourable to great
+painters.&rdquo; Catena had acquired and inherited
+considerable wealth; he came of a family of
+merchants, and resided in his own house in San
+Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried
+relations with Dona Maria Fustana, the daughter
+of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will
+300 ducats and all his personal effects. As a
+careful portrait-painter, with a talent for catching
+a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in
+some of his heads&mdash;that of a canon dressed in
+blue and red, at Vienna, and especially in one of
+a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden&mdash;he
+attains real distinction. And in his last
+phase he does at length prove the power that
+lies behind long industry and perseverance.
+Suddenly the Giorgionesque influence strikes
+him, and turning to imbibe this new element,
+he produces that masterpiece which throws a
+glamour over all his mediocre performances;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>his &ldquo;Warrior adoring the Infant Christ,&rdquo; in
+the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm,
+rich and romantic in tone and spirit. The
+Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his
+dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of
+her draperies are still unsatisfactory, but the
+knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the
+romantic young page, holding his horse, are
+pure Giorgionesque figures. Beautiful in themselves,
+set in a beautiful landscape glowing
+with light and air, the whole picture exemplifies
+what surprising excellence could be
+suddenly attained by even very inferior artists,
+who were constantly associating with greater
+men, at a moment when the whole air was, as
+it were, vibrating with genius.</p>
+
+<p>Catena was very much addicted to making
+his will, and at least five testaments or codicils
+exist, one of them devising a sum of money
+for the benefit of the School of Painters in
+Venice, and another leaving to his executor, Prior
+Ignatius, the picture of a &ldquo;St. Jerome in his
+Cell,&rdquo; which may be the one in our national
+collection, which remained in Venice till
+1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating
+Basaiti and Lotto, and brings in the partridge of
+which he made a sort of sign manual.</p>
+
+<p>Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro
+Lippomano, to announce that, at his request, he
+is continuing his patronage of Catena:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Though I had done all that lay in my power for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>Vincenzo Catena before I received your Lordship&#8217;s
+warm recommendation in his favour, I did not hesitate,
+on receipt of your letter, to add something to the first
+piece I had from him, and I did so because of my love
+and reverence for you, and I trust that he will return
+appropriate thanks to you for having remembered that
+you could command me.</p></div>
+
+<p>Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman
+in different workshops and a master on his own
+account. For long the assistant and follower of
+Alvise Vivarini, we may judge that he was also
+his most trusted confidant, for to him was left
+the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to
+S. Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is
+apparent in the execution, and the two saints,
+Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have
+probably been added by him, for they have the
+air of interlopers, and do not come up to the rest
+of the company in form and conception. The
+Sebastian, with his hands behind his back and
+his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite sufficiently
+reminiscent of Bellini&#8217;s figure of 1473 to make
+us believe that Basaiti was at once transferring
+his allegiance to that reigning master. In his
+earlier phase he has the round heads and the
+dry precise manner of the Muranese. In his
+large picture in the Academy, the &ldquo;Calling of
+the Sons of Zebedee,&rdquo; he produces a large,
+important set piece, cold and lifeless, without
+one figure which arrests us, or lingers in
+the memory. &ldquo;The Christ on the Mount&rdquo;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>is more interesting as having been painted for
+San Giobbe, where Bellini&#8217;s great altarpiece
+was already hanging, and coming into competition
+with Bellini&#8217;s early rendering of the same
+scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is
+interesting to see what it has gained in
+&ldquo;modernness.&rdquo; The landscape and trees are
+well drawn and in good colour, and the saints,
+standing on either side of a high portico, have
+dignity. In the &ldquo;Dead Christ,&rdquo; in the Academy,
+he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints
+and the <em>putti</em>. The <em>putti</em>, looking thoughtfully
+at the dead, is a <em>motif</em> beloved of Bellini,
+but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini&#8217;s pathos
+and significance; they are merely childish and
+seem to be amused.</p>
+
+<p>In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new
+phase. He has felt Giorgione&#8217;s influence, and
+is beginning to try what he can do, while still
+keeping close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch,
+more animated figures, and a brilliant effect of
+landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour
+over his hard outlines and makes his figures
+bright and misty, and though underneath they
+are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising
+that many of his works for a time passed
+as those of Bellini. Though he is a clever
+imitator, &ldquo;his figures are designed with less
+mastery, his drawing is a little less correct,
+his drapery less adapted to the under form.
+Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>colours have the brightness, but not the true
+contrast required. In landscape he proceeds
+from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does
+not dwell on detail, but his masses have neither
+the sober tint nor the mysterious richness
+conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever
+instrument.&rdquo; Both Previtali and Rondinelli
+were workers with Basaiti in Bellini&#8217;s studio.
+Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea
+Cordeliaghi or Cordella, and has left many
+unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and
+Lotto, Palma and Montagna; but for a time his
+work went forth from Bellini&#8217;s workshop signed
+with Bellini&#8217;s name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece
+in San Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes
+the title of Previtali, compiling it in the
+cartello with the monogram already used as
+Cordeliaghi. There are traces of many other
+minor artists at this period, all essaying the
+same manner, copying one or other of the
+masters, taking hints from each other. The
+Venetian love of splendour was turning to the
+collection of works of art, and the work of
+second-class artists was evidently much in
+demand and obtained its meed of admiration.
+Bissolo was a fellow-labourer with Catena in the
+Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he is soft
+and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has
+imbibed something of his tenderness of spirit.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen from this list how difficult it
+is to unravel the tale of the false Bellinis. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>master&#8217;s own works speak for themselves with
+no uncertain voice, but away from these it is
+very difficult to pronounce as to whether he had
+given a design, or a few touches, or advice, and
+still more difficult to decide whether these were
+bestowed on Basaiti in his later manner, or on
+Previtali or Bissolo, or if the teaching was handed
+on by them in a still more diluted form to
+the lesser men who clustered round, much of
+whose work has survived and has been masquerading
+for centuries under more distinguished
+names. It is sometimes affirmed that the loss
+of originality in the endeavour to paint like
+greater men has been a symptom of decay in
+every school in the past. It is interesting to
+notice, therefore, that in every great age of
+painting there has always been an undercurrent
+of imitation, which has helped to form a stream
+of tradition, and which, as far as we can see, has
+done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Cima.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Conegliano.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Parma.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Piet&agrave;; Madonna
+               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the Angel.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome, Mark, and Peter.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Vincenzo Catena.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lord Brownlow: Nativity.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Canon.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Marco Basaiti.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave;; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Jerome; Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro: Assumption.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510; Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute: S. Sebastian.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Andrea Previtali.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece; Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saint.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and four Female Saints, 1525.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Oxford.</td>  <td class="td5">Christchurch Library: Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>N. Rondinelli.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Ravenna.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Madonnas with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bissolo.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PART II</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>GIORGIONE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings,
+we find our admiration and criticism expressing
+themselves naturally in certain terms; we are
+struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of
+form, by the evidence of knowledge, by the
+display of thought and intellectual feeling. The
+Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive,
+nervous, fervent, or, as in Michelangelo and
+Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But
+when looking at pictures of the Venetian School
+we unconsciously use quite another sort of
+language; epithets like &ldquo;dark&rdquo; and &ldquo;rich&rdquo;
+come most freely to our lips; a golden glow,
+a slumberous velvety depth, seem to engulf
+and absorb all details. We are carried into the
+land of romance, and are fascinated and soothed,
+rather than stimulated and aroused. So it is with
+portraits; before the &ldquo;Mona Lisa&rdquo; our intelligence
+is all awake, but the men and women of
+Venetian canvases have a grave, indolent serenity,
+which accords well with the slumber of thought.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century
+the painters of Venice had not differed very
+materially from those of other schools; they
+had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities
+of drawing, perspective and anatomy.
+They had been painting in oils for twenty-five
+years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for
+pageant-pictures than was felt in other States of
+Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and Leonardo
+to decorate her public palace, but no great
+store is set by their splendid achievements; their
+work is not even completed. The students fall
+upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish,
+instead of being treasured by the nation. Gentile
+Bellini and Carpaccio and the band of State
+painters are appreciated and well rewarded.
+These men have reproduced something of the
+lucent transparency, the natural colour of Venice,
+but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully
+aiming at any special effect. Year after year
+the Venetian masters assimilate more or less
+languidly the influences which reach them
+from the mainland. They welcome Guariento
+and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to
+learn from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans
+contribute their chiselled drawing, their learned
+perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet
+even early in the day the Venetians escape from
+that hard and learned art which is so alien
+to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo
+Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>is ready to follow feeling and emotion, and in
+his old age is quick to discover the first flavour
+of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone
+on upon the lines we have been tracing up
+to now, there would have been nothing very
+distinctive about it, for, however interesting and
+charming Alvise and Carpaccio, Cima and the
+Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when
+we speak of the Venetian School and when we
+rank it beside that of Florence, while Giovanni
+Bellini alone, in his later works, is not strong
+enough to bear the burden.</p>
+
+<p>The change which now comes over painting
+is not so much a technical one as a change of
+temper, a new tendency in human thought, and
+we link it with Giorgione because he was the
+channel through which the deep impulse first
+burst into the light. We have tried to trace the
+growth of the early Venetian School, but it does
+not develop logically like that of Florence; it
+is not the result of long endeavour, adding one
+acquisition and discovery to another. Venetian
+art was peculiarly the outcome of personalities,
+and it did not know its own mind till the
+sixteenth century. Then, like a hidden spring,
+it bubbles irresistibly to the surface, and the spot
+where it does so is called by the name of a man.</p>
+
+<p>There are beings in most great creative
+epochs who, with peculiar facility, seem to
+embody the purpose of their age and to yield
+themselves as ready instruments to its design.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>When time is ripe they appear, and are able,
+with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice
+to the desires and tendencies which have been
+straining for expression. These desires may owe
+their origin to national life and temperament;
+it may have taken generations to bring them to
+fruition, but they become audible through the
+agency of an individual genius. A genius is
+inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the
+seventeenth century, drew to her in Bernini a
+man who could with real power illustrate her
+determination to be grandiose and ostentatious,
+and, at the height of the Renaissance, Venice
+draws into her service a man whose sensuous
+feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed
+by every element around him.</p>
+
+<p>More conclusively than ever, at this time,
+Venice, the world&#8217;s great sea-power, was in her
+full glory as the centre of the world&#8217;s commerce
+and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had
+discovered the sea route to India in 1498, but
+the stupendous effect which this was to exert
+on the whole current of power did not become
+apparent all at once. Venice was still the
+great emporium of the East, linked to it by a
+thousand ties, Oriental in her love of Eastern
+richness.</p>
+
+<p>It would be exaggerating to say that the
+Venetians of the sixteenth century could not
+draw. As there were Tuscans who understood
+beautiful harmonies of colour, so there were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Venetians who knew a good deal about form;
+but the other Italians looked upon colour as a
+charming adjunct, almost, one might say, as
+an amiable weakness: they never would have
+allowed that it might legitimately become the
+end and aim in painting, and in the same way
+form, though respected and considered, was
+never the principal object of the Venetians.
+Up to this time Venice had fed her emotional
+instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and
+brocades, but with Giorgione she discovered
+that there was a deeper emotional vehicle than
+these superficial glories,&mdash;glowing depths of
+colour enveloped in the mysterious richness of
+chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid
+and suggested more than it revealed.</p>
+
+<p>Giorgione no longer described &ldquo;in drawing&#8217;s
+learned tongue&rdquo;; he carried all before him
+by giving his direct impression in colour. He
+conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little
+if their finely drawn draperies were blue or
+red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their
+dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange
+horizon. He hardly knows what attitudes his
+characters take, but their chestnut hair, their
+deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a
+moving harmony in which the importance of
+exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are
+not composed methodically and according to
+the old rules, but are the direct impress of the
+painter&#8217;s joy in life. It was a new and audacious
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>style in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely
+inevitable consequence, was to substitute for
+form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the
+quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how
+the shades of evening are able to transform
+the most commonplace scene; the dull road
+becomes a mysterious avenue, the colourless
+foliage develops luscious depths, the drab and
+arid plain glows with mellow light, purple
+shadows clothe and soften every harsh and ugly
+object, all detail dies, and our apprehension of
+it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of
+observing and criticising, we become soothed,
+contemplative, dreamy. It is the carrying of
+this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by
+means of chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer
+learned and explanatory, but deeply sensuous
+and emotional, that is the gift to art which
+found full voice with Giorgione, and which
+in one moment was recognised and welcomed
+to the exclusion of the older manner, because
+it touched the chord which vibrated through
+the whole Venetian temperament.</p>
+
+<p>And the immediate result was the picture of
+<em>no subject</em>. Giorgione creates for us idle figures
+with radiant flesh, or robed in rich costumes,
+surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask
+or care why they are gathered together. We
+have all had dreams of Elysian fields, &ldquo;where
+falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows
+loudly,&rdquo; where all is rest and freedom, where
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>music blends with the plash of fountains, and
+fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and
+no one asks what went before or what follows
+after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and
+nymphs: there never has been such a day, or
+such a land: it is a mood, a vision: it has
+danced before the eyes of poets, from David to
+Keats and Tennyson: it has rocked the tired
+hearts of men in all ages: the vision of a resting-place
+which makes no demands and where the
+dwellers are exempt from the cares and weakness
+of mortality. Needless to say, it is an ideal born
+of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise,
+and it speaks to that strain in the temperament
+which recognises that life cannot be all thought,
+but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the
+first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco
+sets that vague dream before men&#8217;s eyes.
+The world, with its wistful yearnings and questionings,
+such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied,
+said little to his audience. Here was their natural
+atmosphere, though they had never known it
+before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused
+and golden lights are what Giorgione grasps
+from the material world, and as he steeps his
+senses in them the subject counts but little in
+the deep enjoyment they communicate. We,
+who have seen his manner repeated and developed
+through thousands of pictures, find it difficult to
+realise that there had been nothing like it before,
+that it was a unique departure, that when Bellini
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>and Titian looked at his first creations they must
+have experienced a shock of revelation. The
+old definite style must have seemed suddenly
+hard and meagre, and every time they looked on
+the glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the
+mysterious shades of falling night, they must
+have felt they were endowed with a sense to
+which they had hitherto been strangers, but
+which, it was at once apparent, was their true
+heritage. They had found themselves, and in
+them Venice found her real expression, and
+with Giorgione and those who felt his impetus
+began the true Venetian School, set apart from
+all other forms of art by its way of using and
+diffusing and intensifying colour.</p>
+
+<p>When Giorgione, the son of a member of
+the house of Barbarelli and a peasant girl of
+Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather
+that he had nothing of the provincial. Vasari,
+who must often have heard of him from Titian,
+describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished
+appearance, beloved by his friends, a
+favourite with women, fond of dress and amusement,
+an admirable musician, and a welcome guest
+in the houses of the great. He was evidently
+no peasant-bred lad, but probably, though
+there is no record of the fact, was brought up,
+like many illegitimate children, in the paternal
+mansion. His home was not far from the
+lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is
+possible to imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>running up to the Asolean hills and with the
+Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he
+received his education in the school of Bellini,
+for when that master sold his allegory of the
+&ldquo;Souls in Paradise&rdquo; to one of the Medici, to
+adorn the summer villa of Poggio Imperiale,
+there went with it the two small canvases now
+in the Uffizi, the &ldquo;Ordeal of Moses&rdquo; and the
+&ldquo;Judgment of Solomon,&rdquo; delightful little
+paintings in Giorgione&#8217;s rich and distinctive style,
+but less accomplished than Bellini&#8217;s picture, and
+with imperfections in the drawing of drapery
+and figures which suggest that they are the
+work of a very young man. The love of the
+Venetians for decorating the exterior of their
+palaces with fresco led to Giorgione being largely
+employed on work which was unhappily a
+grievous waste of time and talent, as far as
+posterity is concerned. We have a record of
+fa&ccedil;ades covered with spirited compositions and
+heraldic devices, of friezes with Bacchus and
+Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti, in his
+seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble
+figure of &ldquo;Fortitude&rdquo; grasping an axe, but beyond
+a few fragments nothing has survived. Before
+he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the
+important commission of decorating the Fondaco
+dei Tedeschi. This building, which we hear of
+so often in connection with the artists of Venice,
+was the trading-house for German, Hungarian,
+and Polish merchants. The Venetian Government
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>surrounded these merchants with the most
+jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant
+connected with them was by law a Venetian, and,
+in fact, a spy of the Republic. All transactions
+of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian
+brokers, of whom some thirty were appointed.
+As time went on, some of these brokerships must
+have resolved themselves into sinecure offices,
+for we find Bellini holding one, and certainly
+without discharging any of the original duties,
+and they seem to have become some sort of State
+retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been
+burnt to the ground, and the present building
+was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys.
+A decree went forth that no marble, carving, or
+gilding were to be used, so that painting the outside
+was the only alternative. The roof was on in
+1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and
+Morto da Feltre were employed in the adornment
+of the fa&ccedil;ade. Vasari is very much exercised
+over Giorgione&#8217;s share in these decorations. &ldquo;One
+does not find one subject carefully arranged,&rdquo;
+he complains, &ldquo;or which follows correctly the
+history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for
+me, I have never been able to understand the
+meaning of these compositions, or have met
+any one able to explain them to me. Here one
+sees a man with a lion&#8217;s head, beside a woman.
+Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love:
+it is all an inexplicable medley.&rdquo; Yet he is
+delighted with the brilliancy of the colour and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>the splendid execution, and adds, &ldquo;Colour gives
+more pleasure in Venice than anywhere else.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Among other early work was the little
+&ldquo;Adoration of the Magi,&rdquo; in the National
+Gallery, and the so-called &ldquo;Philosophers&rdquo; at
+Vienna. According to the latest reading, this
+last illustrates Virgil&#8217;s legend that when the
+Trojan &AElig;neas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed
+out the future site of Rome to the ancient seer
+and his son. Giorgione, in painting the scene,
+is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his
+first great landscape, and all accessories have been
+sacrificed to intensity of effect. He revels in
+the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil
+masses of foliage, the long evening shadows,
+and the effect of dark forms silhouetted against
+the radiant light.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>GIORGIONE</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>
+
+
+<p>When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back
+to Castelfranco, and painted an altarpiece for the
+Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth
+century Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain
+of Free Companions, who had made his fortune
+in the wars, where he had been attached to
+Catherine Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen
+from Cyprus, and when she retired to Asolo,
+settled near her at Castelfranco. His son,
+Matteo, entered the service of the Venetian
+Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances; but
+Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in
+1504, and Costanza had his son&#8217;s body embalmed
+and buried in the family chapel.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is known of the details of this
+commission, but we are not straining the bounds
+of probability by assuming that in a little town
+like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village,
+the two youths must have been well known to
+each other, and that this acquaintance and the
+familiarity of the one with the appearance of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>the other may have been the determining cause
+which led the bereaved father to give the commission
+to the young painter, while the tragic
+circumstances were such as would appeal to an
+ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of our
+National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione
+for the figure of San Liberale, who is represented
+as a young man with bare head and crisp, golden
+locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the
+suit in which Matteo Costanza is dressed in
+the stone effigy which is still preserved in the
+cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the
+stone figure lies a helmet, resembling that on the
+head of the saint in the altarpiece.</p>
+
+<p>In Giorgione&#8217;s group the Mother and Child
+are enthroned on high, with St. Francis and St.
+Liberale on either hand. The Child&#8217;s glance is
+turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure
+with his lance at rest, his dagger on his hip,
+his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with
+features of almost feminine beauty. The picture
+is conceived in a new spirit of simplicity of
+design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in
+matters of detail. It is the work of a man who
+has observed that early morning, like late evening,
+has a marvellous power of eliminating all
+unessential accessories and of enveloping every
+object in a delicious scheme of light. Repainted,
+cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is still full of
+an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the
+ecstatic, devotional reverie of Perugino&#8217;s saints.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>The painter of Castelfranco has not steeped his
+whole soul in religious imagination, like the
+painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the
+lyric feeling; his work is a poem in praise of
+youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine.
+He uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but
+Giorgione carries his unison of landscape with
+human feeling much further than Perugino; he
+observes the delicate effects of light, and limpid
+air circulates in his distance. The sun rising
+over the sea throws a glamour and purity of
+early morning over a scene meant to glorify
+the memory of a young life. The painter
+shows his connection with his master by using
+the figure of the St. Francis in Bellini&#8217;s San
+Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to
+Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The
+San Zaccaria altarpiece was, as we have seen,
+painted in the year following that of Castelfranco.
+Something has incited the old painter to fresh
+efforts; out of his own evolution, or stimulated
+by his pupil&#8217;s splendid experiments, he is drawn
+into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian
+cinque-cento.</p>
+
+<p>The Venetian painters were distinguished
+by their love for the kindred art of music.
+Giorgione himself was an admirable musician,
+and linked with all that is akin to music in his
+work, is his love for painting groups of people
+knit together by this bond. He uses it as a
+pastime to bring them into company, and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>rich chords of colour seem permeated with the
+chords of sound. Not always, however, does he
+need even this excuse; his &ldquo;conversation-pieces&rdquo;
+are often merely composed of persons placed with
+indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings,
+governed by a mood which communicates itself
+to the beholder.</p>
+
+<p>With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully
+drawn upon the wall and flat tints were
+superimposed. They knew beforehand what the
+effect was to be; but the Venetians from this
+time gradually worked up the picture, imbedding
+tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting
+another, till the whole rich harmony was gradually
+evoked. With the Florentines, too, the figures
+supply the main interest; the background is an
+arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the
+painter&#8217;s leisure, but Giorgione&#8217;s and Titian&#8217;s <em>f&ecirc;tes
+champ&ecirc;tres</em> and concerts could not <em>be</em> at all in any
+other environment. The amber flesh-tints and
+the glowing garments are so blended with the
+deep tones of the landscape, that one would not
+instil the mood the artist desires without the
+other. Piero di Cosimo and Pintoricchio can
+place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses in
+idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us
+beyond an observant pleasure, a detached amusement;
+but Giorgione&#8217;s gloomy blues, his figures
+shining through the warm dusk of a summer
+evening, waken we hardly know what of vague
+yearning and brooding memory.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>In the &ldquo;F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre&rdquo; of the Louvre he
+acquires a frankly sensuous charm. He becomes
+riper, richer in feeling, and displays great exuberance
+of style. The woman filling her pitcher
+at the fountain is exquisite in line and curve and
+amber colour. She seems to listen lazily to the
+liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard
+music of the pipes. The beautiful idyll
+in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art of composition.
+It is built up with uprights; pillars are
+formed by the groups of trees and figures, cut
+boldly across by the horizontal line of the bridge,
+but the figures themselves are put in without
+any attention to subject, though an unconscious
+humorist has discovered in them the domestic
+circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress
+is there to assist the left-hand columnar group,
+placed at the edge of the picture after the
+manner of Leonardo. The woman and child
+lighten the mass of foliage on the right and
+make a beautiful pattern. The white town of
+Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky,
+the winds bluster through the space, the trees
+shiver with the coming storm. Here and there
+leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp
+touch, in which we can follow readily the
+painter&#8217;s quick impression.</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Knight of Malta&rdquo; is a grand magisterial
+figure, majestic, yet full of ardent warmth
+lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The
+face is bisected with shadow, in the way which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto affected, and
+the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of
+the type which seems particularly to have
+pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too, belongs
+the honour of having created a Venus as pure as
+the Aphrodite of Cnidos and as beautiful as a
+courtesan of Titian.</p>
+
+<p><a name="champ" id="champ"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img169.jpg" width="550" height="436" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Giorgione.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; F&Ecirc;TE CHAMP&Ecirc;TRE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Louvre.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Alinari.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511
+is registered by all the oldest authorities. His
+body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members
+of the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church
+of San Liberale. In 1638 an epitaph was placed
+over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.</p>
+
+<p>Allowing that he was hardly more than
+twenty when his new manner began to gain a
+following, he had only some twelve years in
+which to establish his deep and lasting influence.
+We divine that he was a man of strong personality,
+such a one as warms and stimulates his
+companions. Even his nickname tells us something,&mdash;Great
+George, the Chief, the George of
+Georges,&mdash;it seems to express him as a leader.
+And we have no lack of proof that he was
+admired and looked up to. His style became
+the only one that found favour in Venice, and
+the painters of the day did their best to conform
+to it. Few authentic examples are left from his
+own hand, but out of his conscious and devoted
+and more or less successful imitators, there grew
+up a school, &ldquo;out of all those fascinating works,
+rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>many copies from, or variations on him, by
+unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings
+and designs were, for various reasons, prized as
+his; out of the immediate impression he made
+upon his contemporaries and with which he
+continued in men&#8217;s minds; out of many traditions
+of subject and treatment which really
+descend from him to our own time, and by
+retracing which we fill out the original image.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Summing up all these influences, he has left
+us the Giorgionesque; the art of choosing a
+moment in which the subject and the elements
+of colour and design are so perfectly fused and
+blended that we have no need to ask for any
+more articulate story; a moment into which
+all the significance, the fulness of existence has
+condensed itself, so that we are conscious of the
+very essence of life. Those idylls of beings
+wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music
+and the sound of water and the beauty of
+wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all
+our conscious apprehension of life if we are
+to drink in their full fascination. The dream
+of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to
+those who can contrast it adequately with the
+experience, the complication, and the thousand
+distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and
+relaxation, the power of the deeply tinted eventide,
+or of the fresh morning light, and the calm
+that drinks in the sensations they are able to
+afford, are among the precious things of life.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>The instinct upon which Giorgione&#8217;s work rests
+is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the
+thinking faculty, the life of the heart, as compared
+to the life of the intellect, the solution of
+life&#8217;s problems by love instead of by thought.
+It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression
+is conveyed by means of colour, deep,
+restful, satisfying, fused and controlled by
+chiaroscuro rather than by form.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Buda-Pesth.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Castelfranco.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Sleeping Venus.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight of Malta.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">A Shepherd.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Boston.</td>  <td class="td5">Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Evander showing &AElig;neas the Future Site of Rome.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>THE GIORGIONESQUE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the
+painters round him felt his power. The Venetian
+painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a
+time when the men of one city observed and
+studied and took hints from those of every other,
+how faint are the signs that this particular
+manner attracted any great attention in other
+art centres. Leonardo da Vinci was a master of
+chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his
+forms, and never sacrifices to it the delicacy
+and fineness of his design. It is the one quality
+Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief
+instant at the period when Sebastian del Piombo
+had arrived in Rome from Venice. It takes hold
+most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,
+significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced
+intellectual capacity, but in Venice itself
+it now became the only way. The old Bellini
+finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena,
+Basaiti, Cariani do their best to acquire it, and so
+successfully was it acquired, so congenial was it
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>to Venetian art, that even second-&nbsp;and third-rate
+Venetian painters have usually something attractive
+which triumphs over superficial and doubtful
+drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how
+much to their taste was this fused and golden
+manner, this disregard of defined form, and this
+new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room
+in the National Gallery is full of such examples:
+the Nymphs and <em>Amoretti</em> of No. 1695, charming
+figures against melting vines and olives; &ldquo;Venus
+and Adonis,&rdquo; in which a bewitching Cupid
+chases a butterfly; Lovers in a landscape, roaming
+in the summer twilight; scenes in which
+neither person nor scenery is a pretext for the
+other, but each has its full share in arousing the
+desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to,
+or taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics,
+but have all laid hold of his charm, and have
+some share in his inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose
+work is still confounded with the master&#8217;s, is
+Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times
+in his life also successfully imitated Palma and
+Lotto. In his Giorgionesque manner Cariani often
+creates charming figures and strong portraits,
+though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive
+tone. His family group in the Roncalli Collection
+at Bergamo is very close to Giorgione. Seven
+persons, three women and four men, are grouped
+together upon a terrace, and behind them
+stretches a calm landscape, half concealed by a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is
+restful, though it lacks Giorgione&#8217;s concentration
+of sensation. Then, again, Cariani flies off to the
+gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,
+when he tries to reproduce Giorgione&#8217;s pastoral
+reveries, his shepherds and nymphs become mere
+peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who
+have nothing of the idyllic distinction which
+Giorgione never failed to infuse. &ldquo;The
+Adulteress before Christ&rdquo; at Glasgow still bears
+the greater name, but its short, vulgar figures
+and faulty composition disclaim his authorship,
+while Cariani is fully capable of such failings,
+and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite
+characteristic of him.</p>
+
+<p>These painters are more than merely imitative;
+they are also typical. Giorgione&#8217;s new manner
+had appealed to some quality inherent and
+hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits
+they single out and dwell upon are the traits
+which appeal equally to the instincts of both.
+It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic
+than those of other second-rate painters.
+Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which
+Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to
+them, and it is a medium which does make an
+immediate appeal and covers a multitude of shortcomings.</p>
+
+<p>But Giorgione was not to leave his message
+to the mercy of mere disciples and imitators,
+however apt. Growing up around him were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>men to whom that message was an inspiration
+and a trumpet-call, men who were to develop and
+deepen it, endowing it with their own strength,
+recognising that the way which the young
+pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out was the
+one into which they could unhesitatingly pour
+their whole inclination. The instinct for colour
+was in their very blood. They turned to it with
+the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks
+the air or a fish the water, and foremost among
+them, to create and to consolidate, was the
+mighty Titian.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Cariani.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Morelli: Madonna (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Roncalli Collection: Family Group.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ bearing Cross; The &ldquo;Bravo.&rdquo;</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>School of Giorgione.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;
+               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>The mountains of Cadore are not always visible
+from Venice, but there they lie, behind the mists,
+and in the clear shining after rain, in the golden
+eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter
+days they stand out, lapis-lazuli blue or deep
+purple, or, like Shelley&#8217;s enchanted peaks, in
+sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy
+slopes. Cadore is a land of rich chestnut woods,
+of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms, sudden
+storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of
+scenery which enters deep into the affections of
+its sons, and we can form some idea of the hold
+its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness
+obtained over the mind of Titian from the fact
+that in after years, while he never exerts himself
+to paint the city in which he lived and in which
+all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly
+constant to his mountain home, enters
+into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm
+and penetrating insight.</p>
+
+<p>The district formed part of the dependencies
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>of the great republic, and relied upon Venice for
+its safety, its distinction, and in great measure
+for its employment. The small craftsmen and
+artists from all the country round looked forward
+to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.
+They tacked the name of their native town to
+their own name, and were drawn into the
+magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came
+back from time to time with stories of her art,
+her power, and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The Vecelli had for generations held honourable
+posts in Cadore. The father and grandfather
+of the young Tiziano were influential
+men, and with his brother and sisters he must
+have been brought up in comfort. There are
+even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident
+that Titian was always a gentleman, though this
+did not prevent his being educated as a craftsman,
+and when he was only ten years old he
+was sent down to Venice to be apprenticed to
+a mosaicist.</p>
+
+<p>It was a changing Venice to which Titian
+came as a boy; changing in its life, its social
+and political conditions, and its art was faithfully
+registering its aspirations and tastes. More
+than at any previous time, it was calculated
+to impress a youth to whom it had been held up
+as the embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and
+the difference between the little hill-town set in
+the midst of its wild solitudes and the brilliant
+city of the sea must have been dazzling and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>bewildering. A new sense of intellectual luxury
+had awakened in the great commercial centre.
+The Venetian love of splendour was displaying
+itself by the encouragement and collection of
+objects of art, and both ancient and modern
+works were in increasing request. On Gentile
+Bellini&#8217;s and Carpaccio&#8217;s canvases we see the sort
+of people the Venetians were, shrewd, quiet,
+splendour-loving, but business-like, the young
+men fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs,
+splendid patrons of art and of religion. Buyers
+were beginning to find out what a delightful
+decoration the small picture made, and that it
+was as much in place in their own halls as over
+the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was
+gaining in importance, and the idea of making it
+a pleasure-giving picture, even more than a faithful
+transcript, was gathering ground. The
+&ldquo;Procession of the Relic&rdquo; was still in Gentile&#8217;s
+studio, but the Frari &ldquo;Madonna and Child&rdquo;
+was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was
+beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the
+Bellini and Vivarini were in keen rivalship.</p>
+
+<p>Titian is said to have passed from the <em>bottega</em>
+of Gentile to that of Giovanni Bellini, but
+nothing in his style reminds us of the former,
+and even his early work has very little that is
+really Bellinesque, whereas from the very first
+he reflects the new spirit which emanated from
+Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and
+we can divine the sympathy that arose between
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>the two when they came together in Bellini&#8217;s
+School. As soon as their apprenticeship was at
+an end they became partners. Fond of pleasure
+and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement,
+they were naturally congenial companions,
+and were drawn yet more closely together by
+their love for their art and by the aptitude with
+which Titian grasped Giorgione&#8217;s principles.</p>
+
+<p>And if we ask ourselves why we take for
+granted that of two young men so closely allied
+in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione
+as the leader and the creator of the new style,
+we may answer that Titian was a more complex
+character. He was intellectual, and carried his
+intellect into his art, but this was no new
+feature. The intellect had had and was having
+a large share in art. But in that part which was
+new, and which was launching art upon an
+untried course, Giorgione is more intense, more
+one-idea&#8217;d than Titian. What he does he does
+with a fervour and a spontaneity that marks him
+as one who pours out the language of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>The partnership between the two was probably
+arranged a few years before the end of the
+century, for we have seen that young painters
+usually started on their own account at about
+nineteen or twenty. For some years Titian, like
+Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of
+the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The groups of
+figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us
+that while Giorgione made some attempt at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>following classic figures, Titian broke entirely
+with Greek art and only thought of picturesque
+nature and contemporary costume.</p>
+
+<p>Vasari complains that he never knew what
+Titian&#8217;s &ldquo;Judith&rdquo; was meant to represent,
+&ldquo;unless it was Germania,&rdquo; but Zanetti, who had
+the benefit of Sebastiano Ricci&#8217;s taste, declares
+that from what he saw, both Giorgione and
+Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. &ldquo;While
+Giorgione showed a fervid and original spirit
+and opened up a new path, over which he shed
+a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was
+of a grander and more equable genius, leaning
+at first, indeed, upon Giorgione&#8217;s example, but
+expanding with such force and rapidity as to
+place him in advance of his companion, on an
+eminence to which no later craftsman was
+able to climb.... He moderated the fire of
+Giorgione, whose strength lay in fanciful movement
+and a mysterious artifice in disposing
+shadows, contrasted darkly with warm lights,
+blended, strengthened, blurred, so as to produce
+the semblance of exuberant life.&rdquo; Certain works
+remain to link the two painters; even now
+critics are divided as to which of the two to
+attribute the &ldquo;Concert&rdquo; in the Pitti. The
+figures are Giorgionesque, but the technique
+establishes it as an early Titian, and it is doubtful
+whether Giorgione would be capable of the
+intellectual effort which produced the dreamy,
+passionate expression of the young monk, borne
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>far out of himself by his own melody, and half
+recalled to life by the touch on his shoulder.
+Titian, like Giorgione, was a musician, and the
+fascination of music is felt by many masters
+of the Italian schools. In one picture the player
+feels vaguely after the melody, in another we are
+asked to anticipate the song that is just about
+to begin, or the last chords of that just finished
+vibrate upon the ear, but nowhere else in all art
+has any one so seized the melody of an instant
+and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in
+our ears as this musician does.</p>
+
+<p>Though we cannot say that Titian was the
+pupil of any one master, the fifteen years, more
+or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an
+indelible impression upon him. We have only
+to look at such a picture as the &ldquo;Madonna and
+Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,&rdquo;
+in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that
+in 1503 Giorgione at Castelfranco had taken
+the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary
+and had enthroned her on high in a bright
+and sunny landscape with S. Liberale standing
+sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding his
+liege lady.</p>
+
+<p>Titian in this early group casts every convention
+aside; a beautiful woman and lovely
+children are placed in surroundings whose charm
+is devoid of hieratic and religious significance.
+The same easy unfettered treatment appears in
+the &ldquo;Madonna with the Cherries&rdquo; at Vienna,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>and the &ldquo;Madonna with St. Bridget and S.
+Ulfus&rdquo; at Madrid, and while it has been surmised
+that the example of the precise Albert
+D&uuml;rer, who paid his first visit to Venice in
+1506, was not without its effect in preserving
+Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and
+in inciting him to fine finish, it is interesting
+to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding
+the use of the carefully traced and transferred
+cartoon, and was sketching his design freely on
+panel or canvas with a brush dipped in brown
+pigment, and altering and modifying it as he
+went on.</p>
+
+<p>The last years of Titian&#8217;s first period in
+Venice must have been anxious ones. The
+Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian
+possessions on the mainland, in anger at a refusal
+to grant his troops a free passage on their way
+to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy.
+Cadore was the first point of his invasion, and
+from 1507 Titian&#8217;s uncle and great-uncle were
+in the Councils of the State, his father held an
+important command, and his brother Francesco,
+who had already made some progress as an
+artist, threw down his brush and became a
+soldier. Titian was not one of those who took
+up arms, but his thoughts must have been full
+of the attack and defence in his mountain
+fastnesses, and he must have anxiously awaited
+news of his father&#8217;s troops and of the squadrons
+of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Francesco was riding. Francesco made a reputation
+as a distinguished soldier, and was severely
+wounded, and when peace was made, Titian,
+&ldquo;who loved him tenderly,&rdquo; persuaded him to
+return to the pursuit of art.</p>
+
+<p>The ratification of the League of Cambray, in
+which Julius II., Maximilian, and Ferdinand of
+Naples combined against the power of Venice, was
+disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists
+who depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen
+of all kinds first fled to her for shelter, then, as
+profits and orders fell off, they left to look elsewhere
+for commissions. An outbreak of plague,
+in which Giorgione perished, went further to
+make Venice an undesirable home, and at this
+time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto
+for the Romagna, and Titian for Padua.</p>
+
+<p>We may believe that Titian never felt
+perfectly satisfied with fresco-painting as a craft,
+for when he was given a commission to fresco
+the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of
+St. Anthony, patron-saint of Padua, he threw off
+beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but
+he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants,
+among whom the feeble Domenico Campagnola,
+a painter whom he probably picked up at Padua,
+is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is
+best, as in &ldquo;S. Anthony restoring a Youth,&rdquo; the
+drawing and composition only make us feel how
+enchanting the scene would have been in oils
+on one of Titian&#8217;s melting canvases. In those
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>frescoes which he executed himself while his
+interest was still fresh, the &ldquo;Miracle which
+grants Speech to an Infant&rdquo; is the most Giorgionesque.
+Up to this time he had preserved the
+straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his
+contemporaries, after the practice of Giorgione;
+he keeps, too, to his companion&#8217;s plan of design,
+placing the most important figures upon one
+plane, close to the frame and behind a low wall
+or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame and
+with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes
+he makes use of this plan, and the straight
+clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay
+doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade,
+but the group of women to the left in the
+&ldquo;Miracle of the Child&rdquo; shows that Titian is
+beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own
+type. The introduction of portraits proves that
+he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in
+contradistinction to Giorgione&#8217;s lyrically improvised
+figures. He fuses the influence of
+Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da
+Messina and the Bellini in a deeper knowledge
+of life and nature, and he is passing beyond
+Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When
+he was able to return to Venice, which he did in
+1512, a temporary peace having been concluded
+with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial
+medium of fresco for good, and devoted himself
+to that which admitted of the afterthoughts,
+the enrichments, the gradual attainment of an
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>exquisite surface, and at this time his works are
+remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.</p>
+
+<p>During the next twelve years we may group
+a number of paintings which, taken in conjunction
+with those of Giorgione, show the
+true Venetian School at its most intense, idyllic
+moment. They are the works of a man in the
+pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy,
+an example of the confident, sanguine, joyous
+temper of his age, capable of embodying its
+dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment
+of life, its worldly-mindedness, its love of
+pleasure, as well as its noble feeling and its
+grave and magnificent purpose.</p>
+
+<p>For absolute delight in colour let us turn to
+a picture like the &ldquo;Noli me tangere&rdquo; of the
+National Gallery. The golden light, the blues
+and olives of the landscape, the crimson of the
+Magdalen&#8217;s raiment, combine in a feast of
+emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of
+the woman, whose soul is breathed out in the
+word &ldquo;Master.&rdquo; The colour unites with the
+light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we
+can see Titian&#8217;s delight in the ductile medium
+which had such power to give material sensation.
+In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and
+shoaling blues, the velvety fulness and plenitudes
+of the brush become visible; we can look into
+their depths and see something quite unlike the
+smooth, opaque washes of the Florentines.</p>
+
+<p>In such a masterpiece as &ldquo;Sacred and Profane
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Love,&rdquo; painted during these years for the Borghese,
+there are summed up all those artistic aims
+towards which the Venetian painters had been
+tending. The picture is still Giorgionesque in
+mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff
+suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the
+love-suit of Jason; but the subject is not forced
+upon us, and we are more occupied with the
+contrast between the two beautiful personalities,
+so harmoniously related to each other, yet so
+opposed in type. The gracious, self-absorbed
+lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove,
+her silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and
+spirit to the goddess whose free, simple attitude
+and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal. The
+sinuous and enchanting line of Venus&#8217;s figure
+against the crimson cloak has, I think, been the
+outcome of admiration for Giorgione&#8217;s &ldquo;Sleeping
+Venus,&rdquo; and has the same soft, unhurried curves.
+Titian&#8217;s two figures are perfectly spaced in a
+setting which breathes the very aroma of the
+early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble
+fountain represents nymphs whipping a sleeping
+Love to life, while a cupid teases the
+chaste unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes
+in the water, fallen rose-leaves strew the
+mellow marble rim, around and away stretches
+a sunny country scene, in which people are
+placidly pursuing a life of ease and pleasure.
+What a revelation to Venice these pictures were
+which began with Giorgione&#8217;s conversaziones!
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>How little occupied the women are with the
+story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons
+on her fingers, like S. Ursula. Medea is listening
+to her own thoughts, but the whole scene
+is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and
+happiness of love. The little censer burning
+away in the blue and breathless air might be a
+philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the
+rays of the evening sun strike the picture,
+where it now hangs, and bring out each touch
+of its glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate
+with the joy of life and to thrill with the
+magic of summer in the days when the world
+was young.</p>
+
+<p>With the influence still lingering of Giorgione&#8217;s
+&ldquo;Knight of Malta,&rdquo; Titian produced some of his
+finest portraits in the decade that led to the
+middle of his life. The &ldquo;Dr. Parma&rdquo; at Vienna,
+the noble &ldquo;Man in Black&rdquo; and &ldquo;Man with a
+Glove&rdquo; of the Louvre, the &ldquo;Young Englishman&rdquo;
+of the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the
+portrait at Temple Newsam, which, with some
+critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples
+in which he keeps the half-length, invented by
+Bellini and followed by Giorgione.</p>
+
+<p>After the visit to Padua he shows less preference
+for costume, and his women are generally
+clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than
+the square-cut bodice.</p>
+
+<p>We do not wonder that all the leading
+personages of Italy wished to be painted by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>Titian. His are the portraits of a man of
+intellect. They show the subject at his best;
+grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared and
+wished to appear; not taken off his guard in
+any way. What can be more sympathetic as a
+personality than the Ariosto of the National
+Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make
+a friend of him, and yet all the time he has
+himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much
+as he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that
+he does not intend us to discover. The painter
+himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he
+does not paint in his own fancies about his
+sitter&mdash;probably he had none; he saw what he was
+meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson
+calls &ldquo;a certain happy insensibility&rdquo; about him,
+which prevented him from taking fantastic
+flights, or from looking too deep below the
+surface.</p>
+
+<p><a name="aris" id="aris"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">
+<img src="images/img191.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Titian.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARIOSTO.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>
+
+
+<p>With the &ldquo;Assumption,&rdquo; finished in 1518 for
+the Church of the Frari, Titian rose to the
+very highest among Renaissance painters. The
+&ldquo;Glorious S. Mary&rdquo; was his theme, and he
+concentrated all his efforts on the realisation of
+that one idea. The central figure is, as it
+were, a collective rather than an individual
+type. Well proportioned and elastic as it is,
+it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious
+and serene, it combines dramatic force and
+profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its
+hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly
+by that throbbing company of child angels and
+followed by full recognition and awestruck satisfaction
+in the adoring gaze of the throng below,
+yet Titian has contrived to keep some touch of
+the loving woman hurrying to meet her son.
+The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the
+garment of glowing blues and crimsons, have
+a more than common share in that spirit of
+confident joy and poured-out life which envelops
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>the whole canvas. In the worthy representation
+of a great event, the visible assumption of
+Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts
+forth all his powers and steeps us in that temper
+of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and confidence
+in the capacity of man, which was so
+characteristic of the ripe Renaissance. In looking
+at this splendid canvas, we must call to
+mind the position for which Titian painted it.
+Hung in the dusky recesses of the apse, it was
+tempered by and merged in its stately surroundings.
+The band of Apostles almost formed
+a part of the whispering crowd below, and the
+glorious Mother was beheld soaring upwards to
+the golden light and the mysterious vistas of
+the vaulted arches above.</p>
+
+<p>The patronage of courts had by this time
+altered the tenor of Titian&#8217;s life. In 1516
+Duke Alfonso d&#8217;Este had invited him to Ferrara,
+where he had finished Bellini&#8217;s &ldquo;Bacchanals.&rdquo;
+It bears the marks of Titian&#8217;s hand, and he has
+introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore
+into the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes
+to propose another painting, and Titian&#8217;s acceptance
+is contained in a very courtier-like letter,
+in which we divine a touch of irony. &ldquo;The
+more I thought of it,&rdquo; he ends, &ldquo;the more I
+became convinced that the greatness of art
+among the ancients was due to the assistance
+they received from great princes, who were
+content to leave to the painter the credit and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>renown derived from their own ingenuity in
+bespeaking pictures.&rdquo; Alfonso&#8217;s requirements
+for his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological
+scenes were already popular. Mantegna
+had adorned Isabela d&#8217;Este&#8217;s &ldquo;Paradiso&rdquo; with
+revels of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception
+of classic myth in the Medici villa, already
+Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was
+to make designs for similar scenes to complete
+the decorations of the halls of Este. The same
+exuberant feeling he shows in the &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo;
+finds utterance in the &ldquo;Garden of Loves&rdquo; and
+the &ldquo;Bacchanals,&rdquo; both painted for Alfonso of
+Ferrara. The children in the former may be
+compared with the angels in the &ldquo;Assumption.&rdquo;
+Their blue wings match the heavenly blue sky,
+and they are painted with the most delicate finish.</p>
+
+<p>We can imagine the beauty of the great
+hall at Ferrara when hung with this brilliant
+series, which was completed in 1523 by the
+&ldquo;Bacchus and Ariadne&rdquo; of the National Gallery.
+The whole company of bacchanals is given up
+to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods
+the deep blue sky and great white clouds of a
+summer day. The deep greens of the foliage
+throw the creamy-white and burning colour of
+the draperies and the fair forms of the nymphs
+into glowing relief, while by a convention
+the satyrs are of a deep, tawny complexion.
+On a roll of music is stamped the rollicking
+device, &ldquo;<em>Chi boit et ne reboit, ne s&ccedil;eais que boir soit</em>.&rdquo;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines,
+its crimson juice shines like a jewel in crystal
+goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.
+The influence of such pictures as these was
+absorbed by Rubens, but though they hardly
+surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and
+less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance
+is never shown more victoriously than here,
+where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the
+actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian
+than revolting. In the &ldquo;Bacchus and Ariadne,&rdquo;
+Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood
+of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so
+simple, that we must smile in sympathy. The
+conqueror flinging himself from his golden
+chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle
+fluttering on high, is so full of reckless life that
+our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,
+marching with song and laughter, seems to
+people that golden country-side with fit inhabitants.
+The careless satyrs and little merry,
+goat-legged fauns shock us no more than a herd
+of forest ponies, tossing their manes and dashing
+along for love of life and movement.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Yet almost
+before this series was put in place Titian was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>showing the diversity of his genius by the
+&ldquo;Deposition,&rdquo; now in the Louvre, which was
+painted at the instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis
+of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d&#8217;Este. Here
+he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro.
+While it is satisfying in balance and sweeping
+rhythm, and by the way in which every line
+follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened
+lines of the dead Body, it escapes Raphael&#8217;s
+academic treatment of the same subject. Its
+splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into
+a scene of solemn pathos and tragedy. The
+scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion,
+and what above all gives it its intense power is
+the way in which the flaming hues are absorbed
+into the twilight shadows. The dark heads
+stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor
+of the dead is half veiled by the falling night.
+It is a picture which has the emotional beauty
+of a scene in nature, and makes a profound
+impression by its depth and mystery. This
+same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant
+colouring of the great altarpiece painted for
+the Pesaro family in the Frari. Columns rise
+like great tree-trunks, light and air play through
+the clouds seen between them. The grouping
+is a new experiment, but the way in which
+the Mother and Child, though placed quite at
+one side of the picture, are focussed as the
+centre of interest, by the converging lines,
+diagonal on the one hand and straight on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>other, crowns it with success. The scheme of
+colour brings the two figures into high relief,
+while St. Francis and the family of the donor
+are subordinated to rich, deep tints. Titian has
+abandoned, more completely than ever before,
+any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural
+majesty. He is a delightful, spoiled baby, fully
+aware of his sovereignty over his mother, pretending
+to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants,
+but occupying himself in making a tent
+over his head out of her veil. The &ldquo;Madonna
+in Glory with six Saints&rdquo; of the Vatican is
+another example of the rich and &ldquo;smouldering&rdquo;
+colour in which Titian was now creating his great
+altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality,
+a solidity, which gives reality without heaviness,
+and finishing with that fine-grained texture
+which makes his flesh look like marble endowed
+with life.</p>
+
+<p><a name="diana" id="diana"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img198.jpg" width="550" height="492" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Titian.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; DIANA AND ACTAEON.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Earl Brownlow.</em><br />
+(<em>The Medici Society, Ltd.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us
+how boldly his own style was established. His
+sacred persons are not different from his pagans
+and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he
+still reminds us of Giorgione. He has been
+constant to the earliest influences which
+surrounded him, and to that temperament which
+made him accept those influences so
+instantaneously&mdash;and this constancy and unity give
+him the untroubled ascendancy over art which
+is such a feature of his position.</p>
+
+<p>With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>sprung to a recognised status in the great world
+of the Renaissance. They were no longer the
+patronised craftsmen. They had become the
+courted guests, the social equals. Titian, passing
+from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua
+and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants,
+was a magnificent personage, whose presence
+was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook
+a commission as one who conferred a coveted
+boon. Among those who clustered closest round
+the popular favourite, no one did more to
+enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant
+unscrupulous debauchee, wit, bully, blackmailer,
+but a man who, with all his faults, had evidently
+his own power of fascination, and, the friend of
+princes, must have been himself the prince of
+good company. Aretino, as far as he could be
+said to be attached to any one, was consistent in
+his attachment to Titian from the time they
+first met at the court of the Gonzaga. He
+played the part of a chorus, calling attention to
+the great painter&#8217;s merits, jogging the memory
+of his employers as to payments, and never
+ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian,
+for his part, shows himself equally devoted to
+Aretino&#8217;s interests, and has left various characteristic
+portraits of him, handsome and showy in
+his prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook
+him.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of
+St. Peter Martyr invited artists to send in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint,
+in SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one
+by Jacobello del Fiore. Palma Vecchio and
+Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off
+the prize. The picture was delivered in 1530,
+and during the autumn of 1529 Sebastian del
+Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and
+Michelangelo had sought refuge there from
+Florence and had stayed for some months. A
+quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed
+the picture, so that it may quite probably have
+only been begun after intercourse with the
+Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian&#8217;s
+ideas; for though he never ceases to be himself,
+it certainly seems as if the genius of Michelangelo
+had had some effect. From what we
+know of the altarpiece, which perished by fire
+in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli
+remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms
+of Herculean strength in violent action, but
+there his likeness to the Florentine ended;
+the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep,
+though not altogether successful, attention to
+anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture
+obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness
+from the setting in which the figures were
+placed&mdash;the great trees, bending and straining,
+the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in
+portentous harmony with the sinister deed, and
+overhead the enchanting gleam of light which
+shot downward and irradiated the face of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>martyr and the two lovely winged boys, bathed
+in a flood of blue &aelig;ther, who held aloft the palm
+of victory. Many copies of it remain, and we
+only regret that one which Rubens executed is
+not preserved among them.</p>
+
+<p>When we look at the delicious &ldquo;Madonna del
+Coniglio&rdquo; in the Louvre and our own &ldquo;Marriage
+of S. Catherine,&rdquo; the first of which certainly, and
+the second probably, was painted about this time,
+we cannot doubt that the charm of the idea
+of motherhood had particularly arrested the
+painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio,
+was born, and was followed by another son and
+a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that
+passion of mother-love with an intensity and
+reality that can only be drawn from life, and
+on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his
+name, Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is
+increasing, and the landscape in these pictures
+equals the figures in importance and has engrossed
+the painter quite as much. Every year
+Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in the rich
+woodlands, the distant villages, the great white
+villa on the hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off
+blue mountains and the glooms and gleams of
+storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays
+through the summer clouds, which he has
+painted here, we see how constant was his study
+of his native country, and how profoundly he
+felt its poetry and its charm. He had married
+Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530
+she died, and he mourned her deeply. He
+went on working and planning for his children&#8217;s
+future, and his sister came from Cadore to take
+charge of the motherless household; but his
+friends&#8217; letters speak of his being ill from melancholy,
+and he could not go on living in the
+old house at San Samuele, which had been his
+home for sixteen years. He took a new house
+on the north side of the city, in the parish of
+San Canciano. The Casa Grande, as it was
+called, was a building of importance, which the
+painter first hired and finally bought, letting off
+such apartments as he did not need. The first
+floor had a terrace, and was entered by a flight
+of steps from the garden, which overlooked the
+lagoons, and had a view of the Cadore mountains.
+It has been swept away by the building of the
+Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the
+leases are preserved, and the exact site is well
+established. Here his children grew up, and he
+worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his
+eldest son, was idle and extravagant, a constant
+source of trouble, and Aretino writes him reproachful
+letters, which he treats with much
+impertinence. Orazio took to his father&#8217;s profession,
+and was his constant companion, and often
+drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter,
+Lavinia, was his greatest joy and pride. In this
+house Titian showed constant hospitality, and
+there are records of the princely fashion in which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>he entertained his friends and distinguished
+foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known
+Humanist and <em>savant</em> of the day, describes a
+Bacchanalian feast on the 1st of August, in a
+pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano
+Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi
+were present. Till the sun set they stayed indoors,
+admiring the artist&#8217;s pictures. &ldquo;As soon as
+it went down, the tables were spread, looking on
+the lagoons, which soon swarmed with gondolas
+full of beautiful women, and resounded with
+music of voices and instruments, which till
+midnight, accompanied our delightful supper.
+Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious
+wines, and the supper ended gaily.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1532 Titian for the first time
+sought other than Italian patronage. Charles V.,
+who was then at the height of his power, with
+all Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua,
+and among all the treasures that he saw was
+most struck by Titian&#8217;s portrait of Federigo
+Gonzaga. After much writing to and fro, it was
+arranged that Titian should meet the Emperor
+at Bologna, where he had just been crowned.
+He made his first sketch of him, from which he
+afterwards produced a finished full length. It
+was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares
+that from that time forth Charles would never sit
+to any other master. He received a knighthood,
+and many commissions from members of the
+Emperor&#8217;s court. It was for one of his nobles,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>da Valos, Marquis of Vasto, that he painted the
+allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which Mary
+of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is
+parting with her husband, who is bound on one
+of the desperate expeditions against the terrible
+Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the
+couple are encircled by Hymen, Victory, and
+the God of Love. The composition was repeated
+more than once, but never with quite the same
+success. We again suspect the influence of
+Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before
+Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver,
+for the Church of that name, of which the Doge
+was patron. The figures are life-size, the types
+stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and
+the colours, though gorgeous, are softened and
+broken by broad effects of light and shade. It
+is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that
+in which about this time he produced a series of
+beautiful female portraits, nude or semi-nude,
+chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the
+Duke of Urbino. The Duke at this time was
+the General-in-Chief of the Venetian forces, a
+position which took him often to Venice, and
+Titian&#8217;s relations with him lasted till the painter&#8217;s
+death. At least twenty-five of his works must
+have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro.
+Among these were the Venus of the Uffizi, &ldquo;La
+Bella di Tiziano,&rdquo; in her gorgeous scheme of
+blue and amethyst, the &ldquo;Girl in a Fur Cloak,&rdquo;
+besides portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>would be impossible to enumerate here the
+numbers of portraits which Titian was now
+supplying. The reputation he had acquired,
+not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and
+Germany, was greater than had ever been attained
+by any painter, while his social position was
+established among the highest in every court.
+&ldquo;He had rivals in Venice,&rdquo; says Vasari,
+&ldquo;but none that he did not crush by his
+excellence and knowledge of the world in
+converse with gentlemen.&rdquo; There is not a
+writer of the day who does not acclaim his
+genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of
+money, and had amassed a good fortune. He
+was constantly asking for favours, and had
+pensions and allowances from royal patrons.
+Lavinia, when she married, brought her husband
+a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the
+portraits of the Doges with tolerable regularity,
+but all through his life complaints were heard of
+his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand
+Council. Occupied as he was with the work of his
+foreign patrons, he had systematically neglected
+the conditions enjoined by his possession of a
+Broker&#8217;s patent, and the Signoria suddenly called
+on him to refund the salary amounting to over
+100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during
+which he had drawn it without performing his
+promise, while they prepared to instal Pordenone,
+who had lately appeared as his bitter rival, in
+his stead. Though Titian must have been
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>making large sums of money at this time, his
+expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly face
+the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats
+at the same time that he lost the annual salary,
+nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a second-rate
+rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his
+own hands; he set to work and soon completed
+a great canvas of the &ldquo;Battle of Cadore,&rdquo; which,
+though it is only known to us from a contemporary
+print and a drawing by Rubens,
+evidently deserved Vasari&#8217;s verdict of being the
+finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The
+movement and stir he contrives to give with a
+small number of figures is astonishing. The
+fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment
+advancing with lances and pennons produces the
+illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army, the
+desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises
+all the terrors of war. It was an atonement for
+his long period of neglect, but it was not till
+<ins class="translit" title="Pordenone died in 1539">1439</ins> that, Pordenone having suddenly died, the
+Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his
+Broker&#8217;s patent. One of his later paintings for the
+State still keeps its place, &ldquo;The Triumph of
+Faith,&rdquo; in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad
+form with flowing mantle, kneels before the
+angelic apparition of Faith, who holds a cross,
+which angels and cherubs help her to support.
+Beneath the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the
+Ducal Palace, and the Campanile. It is an allegory
+of Grimani&#8217;s life; his defeat and captivity
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the
+magnificent figure of St. Mark with the lion is
+introduced to show that the Doge believes himself
+to owe his freedom to the saint&#8217;s intercession.
+The prophet and standard-bearer at the sides
+were added by Marco Vecellio.</p>
+
+<p>Though the battlepiece perished in the fire
+of 1577, another masterpiece of this time marks
+a climax in Titian&#8217;s brilliantly coloured and
+highly finished style. The &ldquo;Presentation of the
+Virgin&rdquo; was painted for the refectory of the
+Confraternity of the Carit&agrave;, which was housed in
+the building now used as the Academy, so that
+the picture remains in the place for which it
+was executed. It is one of the most vivid and
+life-like of all his works. The composition is
+the traditional one; the fifteen steps of the
+&ldquo;Gospel of Mary,&rdquo; the High Priest of the old
+dispensation welcoming the childish representative
+of the new. Below is a great crowd, but
+it is this little figure which first attracts the
+eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture
+and the free and glowing country beyond
+is not without meaning, and a broken Roman
+torso, lying neglected on the ground, symbolises
+the downfall of the Pagan Empire. The flight
+of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is an
+idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken
+by him from the sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini.
+The men on the left are portraits of members and
+patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>are the beautiful women in rich dresses at the
+foot of the steps. In this stately composition
+we see what is often noticeable in Titian&#8217;s
+scenes; he brings in the bystanders after the
+manner of a Greek chorus. They all, with one
+accord, express the same sentiment. There is a
+certain acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a
+vein of simplicity flows through his nature. He
+has not the sensitive and subtle search after the
+motives of humanity which we find in Tintoretto
+or Lotto. He has great intellectual power, but
+not great imagination. It is a temper which
+helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality
+of his scenes undisturbed and adds to their effect.
+In the &ldquo;Ecce Homo&rdquo; Christ is shown to the
+populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment
+is a portrait of Aretino, and the contrast of
+the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd
+which, with all its lower instincts let loose,
+thunders back the cry of &ldquo;Crucify Him,&rdquo; is the
+more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit
+which possesses the raging multitude. Other
+artists would have given more incidental byplay,
+and drawn off our attention from the main issue.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>
+
+
+<p>While Titian was executing portraits of the
+Doges, of Aretino and of Isabella of Portugal,
+and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he
+was also striking out a new line in the ceiling
+pictures for the Church of San Spirito, which
+have since been transferred to the Salute.
+Though painted before his journey to Rome,
+it may be suspected that he had Michelangelo&#8217;s
+work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that
+he was setting himself the task of bold foreshortening
+and technical problems. The daring
+of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that
+this is not Titian&#8217;s element; his figures in violent
+movement give a vivid idea of strength and muscular
+force, but fail both in grace and drawing,
+and though the colour and light and shade distract
+our attention from defects of form, he does
+not possess that mastery over the flowing silhouette
+which Tintoretto attained.</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1543 that his relations with the
+Farnese, whose young cardinal he had been
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X.
+had tried to attract him there without success,
+but now at sixty-eight he found himself as far
+on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was
+with him, and Duke Guidobaldo was himself
+his escort, and sent him on with a band of
+men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in
+Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul III. gave him
+a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed
+his cicerone. It is interesting to inquire what
+impression Rome, with its treasures of antique
+statuary and contemporary painting, made upon
+Titian. &ldquo;He is filled with wonder and glad
+that he came,&rdquo; writes Bembo. In a letter to
+Aretino he regrets that he had not come before.
+He stayed eight months in Rome, and was made
+a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of
+Raphael in company with Sebastian del Piombo,
+and Michelangelo comes to see him at his
+lodgings, and he receives a long letter from
+Aretino advising him to compare Michelangelo
+with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with
+the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian
+was well established in his own style, and was
+received as the creator of acknowledged masterpieces,
+and he never painted a more magnificent
+portrait-piece than that of Paul III., the peevish
+old Pope, ailing and humorous, suspicious of the
+two nephews who are painted with him, and
+who he guessed to be conspiring against him.
+The characteristic attitude of the old man of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick,
+irritable glance, the steady, determined gaze of
+the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and weak,
+wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised
+in a broader, more careless technique than Titian
+has hitherto used. Though he does not seem
+to have been directly influenced by all he saw in
+Rome, we undoubtedly find a change coming over
+his work between 1540 and 1550, which may
+be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic
+horizon and a consciousness of what others were
+doing, both around him and abroad. In its
+whole handling and character his late is different
+from his early manner. It begins at this time
+to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist character.
+His delight in rich colouring seems to wane,
+and he aims at intensifying the power of light.
+He reaches that point in the Venetian School
+of painting which we may regard as its climax,
+when there is little strong local colour, but the
+canvas seems illumined from within. There
+are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are
+suggested by sombre enveloping shades in
+which the radiant brightness is embedded. His
+landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue
+and smiling, filled with loving detail, but
+grander, more mysterious. In the &ldquo;St. Jerome&rdquo;
+in Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely
+surroundings, and the moon, slowly rising behind
+the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray across
+the crucifix. The &ldquo;Supper at Emmaus&rdquo; has
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>the grandiose effect that is given by avoidance
+of detail and simplification of method.</p>
+
+<p>Titian painted several portraits of himself, and
+we know what sort of stately figure was presented
+by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas in
+1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the
+depths of winter to obey Charles V.&#8217;s call to Augsburg.
+The excitement of the public was great at
+his departure, and Aretino describes how his house
+was besieged for the sketches and designs he left
+behind him. For nearly forty years Titian was
+employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had
+been working for Charles since 1530, and when
+the Emperor abdicated, his employment by Philip
+II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of
+1686 contained seventy-six Titians, and though
+probably not all were genuine, yet an immense
+number were really by him, and the gallery,
+even now, is richer in his works than any other.</p>
+
+<p>The great hall of the Pardo must have been
+a wonderful sight, with Titian&#8217;s finest portrait
+of himself in the midst, and the magnificent
+portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which
+he continued from this time forward to contribute
+to it. In this year, which was the
+last before Charles&#8217;s abdication, and during this
+visit to South Germany, he painted the great
+equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field
+of M&uuml;hlberg, and two years later came the first
+of his many portraits of Philip II. The face,
+in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of fury
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the
+sitter is realised as a man of great distinction.
+Ugly and sensual as he is, we never tire of
+looking at Titian&#8217;s conception&mdash;a full length of
+distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent
+colour. Everything in it lives, and the
+slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a
+whole biography in themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The splendid series of allegorical subjects
+which Titian contributed to the Pardo, while he
+was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces
+to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are
+among his most mature and important works.
+Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and
+stronger than in the &ldquo;Jupiter and Antiope,&rdquo; or
+the &ldquo;Venus of the Pardo&rdquo; as it is sometimes
+called. The Venus herself has the attitude of
+Giorgione&#8217;s dreaming goddess, with her arm
+flung up above her head. It is, perhaps, the only
+time that Titian succeeds in giving anything
+ideal to one of his Venuses. The famous nudes
+of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid
+courtesans, far removed from Giorgione&#8217;s idyllic
+vision; but Antiope, slumbering on her couch
+of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with
+adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole
+world of sweet and joyful fancy. The whole
+scene is full of a <em>joie de vivre</em>, which carries us
+back to the Bacchanals painted so many years
+before, and in these Titian gives King Philip
+his most perfect work, every touch of which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre,
+was given to Charles I. by the King of Spain,
+and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.
+&ldquo;Dana&euml;,&rdquo; &ldquo;Venus and Adonis,&rdquo; &ldquo;Europa and
+the Bull,&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; followed in
+quick succession, but Titian was now employing
+many assistants, and great parts of the canvases
+issuing from his workshop show weak, imitative
+hands, while replicas were made of other works.</p>
+
+<p>His later feeling for the religious in art is
+expressed in the now bedimmed paintings in
+San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes these
+in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety
+years old, the &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo; is remarkable
+for forcible, majestic movement, while in the
+&ldquo;Annunciation&rdquo; he invents quite a new treatment.
+Mary turns round and raises her veil,
+while she grasps the book as if she depended on
+it for stay and support. The four angels are
+full of life and gaiety, and the whole has much
+grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in
+the painter&#8217;s later style, in broad and sweeping
+planes without patience of detail. The old man
+has signed it &ldquo;Titianus, fecit, fecit,&rdquo; a contemptuous
+reply to some critics who complained
+of its want of finish. He knew well what it
+was in composition and execution, and that all
+that he had ever known or done lay within the
+careless strength of his last manner.</p>
+
+<p>A letter written to the King of Spain&#8217;s
+secretary in 1574 gives a list &ldquo;in part&rdquo; of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the
+last twenty-five years, &ldquo;with many others which
+I do not remember.&rdquo; On every hand we hear
+of lost pictures from the master&#8217;s brush, and the
+number produced even during the last ten years
+of his life must have been enormous, for till
+the end he was full of great undertakings and
+achievements. Very late in life he painted a
+&ldquo;Shepherd and Nymph&rdquo; (Vienna), which in
+its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its
+mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the
+early days with Giorgione, yet the blurred and
+smouldering richness, the absolute negation of
+all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest
+style, and he has gone past Giorgione on his
+own ground. Then in strange contrast is the
+&ldquo;Christ Crowned with Thorns,&rdquo; at Vienna, a
+tragic figure stupefied with suffering. His last
+great work was the &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo; in the Academy,
+which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and
+very impressive. He places the Virgin supporting
+the Body in a great dome-shaped niche,
+which gives elevation. It is flanked by two
+calm, antique, stone figures, whose impassive air
+contrasts with the wild pain and grief below.
+The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator
+with the wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It
+perhaps hardly moves us like the concentrated
+feeling of Bellini&#8217;s Madonna, or the hurried,
+trembling grief of Tintoretto&#8217;s Magdalen, but
+it is monumental in the sweeping grace of its
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is
+sadly rubbed and darkened and has lost much
+of Titian&#8217;s colour, but is still beautiful in
+its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden
+glow, as of half-extinguished fires. These late
+paintings are of the true impressionist order;
+looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled
+touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step
+farther away, to the right focus, light and dark
+arrange themselves, order shines through the
+whole, and we see what the great master meant
+us to see. &ldquo;Titian&#8217;s later creations,&rdquo; says
+Vasari, &ldquo;are struck off rapidly, so that when
+close you cannot see them, but afar they look
+perfect, and this is the style which so many
+tried to imitate, to show that they were practised
+hands, but only produced absurdities.&rdquo; Titian
+was preparing the picture for the Frari, in payment
+for the grant of a tomb for himself, when
+in August 1576 the plague broke out in Venice,
+and on the 27th the great painter died of it in
+his own house. The stringent regulations concerning
+infection were relaxed to do honour to
+one of the greatest sons of Venice, and he was
+laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn
+procession, through a city stricken by terror and
+panic, and buried in the Chapel of the Crucified
+Saviour, for which his last work was ordered.
+The &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo; of his prime looked down
+upon him, and close at hand was the &ldquo;Madonna
+of Casa Pesaro.&rdquo; His son Orazio caught the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>plague and died immediately after, and the
+painter&#8217;s house was sacked by thieves and many
+precious things stolen.</p>
+
+<p>The great personality of Titian stands out
+as that which of all others established and
+consolidated the school of Venice. He is its
+central figure. The century of life, of which
+eighty years were passed in ceaseless industry of
+production, left its deep impression on the art of
+every civilised country of Europe. Every great
+man of the day who was a lover of art and
+culture fell under Titian&#8217;s spell. His influence
+on his contemporaries was enormous, and he had
+everything: genius, industry, personal distinction,
+character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too
+intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of
+the Venetian spirit, in the way that Tintoretto
+is; it is conceivable that in another environment
+Titian might have developed on rather
+different lines, but this temper gave him greater
+domination. He was free from the eccentricities
+which beset genius. He possessed the saving
+salt of practical common sense, so that the
+golden mean of sanity and healthful joy in his
+works commended them to all men, and they are
+not difficult to understand. Yet while all can
+see the beauty of his poetic instinct for colour,
+his interesting and original technique, his grasp
+and scope, his mastery and certainty have gained
+for him the title of &ldquo;the painter&#8217;s painter.&rdquo;
+There is no one from whom men feel that they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>can so safely learn so much, and the grand breadth
+and power of elimination of his later years is
+justified by the way in which in his earlier work
+he has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto
+to perfection.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Ancona.</td>  <td class="td5">Crucifixion (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Antwerp.</td>  <td class="td5">Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.); Lavinia bearing Charges.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride, 1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.);
+                            Portrait, 1561; Lady with Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman; The Concert (E.); Philip II.;
+                            Ippolito de Medici, 1533; Tomaso Mosti.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537;
+                            Flora; Venus, the head a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora Gonzaga; Madonna
+                            with S. Anthony Abbot.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John
+                            and Catherine.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon,
+                            1559; Callisto, 1559.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden of Loves; Dana&euml;, 1554; Venus and
+                            Youth playing Organ (L.); Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment, 1559;
+                            Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.); Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the
+                            Battle of M&uuml;hlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II., 1550; Philip II.; The Infant;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+                            Don Fernando and Victory; Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and Adonis;
+                            Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Medole.</td>  <td class="td5"> (near Brescia) Christ appearing to His Mother.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man with Baton.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Dana&euml;.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The
+                            Jealous Husband, 1511.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning
+                            with Thorns (L.); Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.); Francis I.; Allegory;
+                            Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon; Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L&#8217;Homme
+                            au Gant (E.); Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.); Education of Cupid (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Baptism (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Doria: Daughter of Herodias.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Urbino.</td>  <td class="td5">Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert; Assumption, 1518; Piet&agrave;, 1573.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice
+                            of Isaac; Cain and Abel.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Assumption.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo, 1543; Isabela d&#8217;Este, 1534;
+                            The Tambourine Player; Girl in Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.); Portraits;
+                            Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and Callisto; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Louvre.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Glasgow.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Among the many who clustered round Titian&#8217;s
+long career, Palma attained to a place beside him
+and Giorgione which his talent, which was not
+of the highest order, scarcely warranted. But
+he was classed with the greatest, and influenced
+contemporary art because his work chimed in
+so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque
+by birth, he came of Venetian parentage, and
+learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.
+He never really mastered the inner niceties of
+anatomy in its finest sense, and the broad
+generalisation of his forms may be meant
+to conceal uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed,
+matronly women and plump children,
+his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and
+the clear golden polish in which his pictures
+are steeped, made a great appeal to the public.
+His invention is the large Santa Conversazione,
+as compared with those in half-length of the
+earlier masters. The Virgin and saints and
+kneeling or bending donors are placed under
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>the spreading trees of a rich and picturesque
+landscape. It is Palma&#8217;s version of the Giorgionesque
+ideal, which he had his share in establishing
+and developing. The heavy tree-trunk and
+dark foliage, silhouetted almost black against
+the background, are characteristic of his compositions.
+As his life goes on, though he still
+clings to his full, ripe figures and to the same
+smooth fleshiness in his women, the features
+become delicate and chiselled, and the more
+refined type and subtler feeling of his middle
+stage may be due to his companionship with
+Lotto, with whom he was in Bergamo when
+they were both about twenty-five. He touches
+his highest, and at the same time keeps very
+near Giorgione, in the splendid St. Barbara,
+painted for the company of the <em>Bombadieri</em> or
+artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on
+which she stands; it was at her altar that they
+came to commend themselves on going forth to
+war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving
+for a safe return; and she is a truly noble figure,
+regal in conception and fine and firm in execution,
+attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and
+green, with splendid saints on either hand.
+Palma was often approached by his patrons who
+wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses;
+but though he produced a Venus, a handsome,
+full-blown model, he never excels in the nude, and
+his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His
+scenes have a domestic, familiar flavour. With
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>all his golden and ivory beauty he lacks fire, and
+his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In
+his latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of
+scumble or haze. It would, however, be unfair
+to say he is not fine, and his portraits especially
+come very near the best. Vienna is rich in
+examples in half-lengths of one beautiful woman
+after another robed in the ample and gorgeous
+garments in which he is always interested.
+Among them is his handsome daughter,
+Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and
+wearing the large sleeves he admires. The
+&ldquo;Tasso&rdquo; of the National Gallery has been taken
+from him and given first to Giorgione and then
+to Titian, but there now seems some inclination
+to return it to its first author. It has a more
+dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are
+accustomed to associate with Palma; but he uses
+elsewhere the decorative background of olive
+branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny
+colouring, and the pronounced golden haze are
+Palmesque in the highest degree. The colouring
+is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of
+the Ariosto of Titian, which hangs near it.</p>
+
+<p><a name="holy" id="holy"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img224.jpg" width="550" height="413" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Palma Vecchio.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HOLY FAMILY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Colonna Gallery, Rome.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>No one could be more unlike Palma than his
+contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto, who has for long
+been classed with the Bergamasques, but who
+is proved by recently discovered documents to
+have been born in Venice. It was for long an
+accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and
+his earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>bears traces of Bellini&#8217;s manner. A Piet&agrave; above
+has child angels examining the wounds with the
+grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly
+his own, and the St. Jerome and the branch of
+fig-leaves silhouetted against the light remind
+us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto
+seems to have clung to quattrocento fashions.
+The ancona had long been rejected by most of
+his contemporaries, but he painted one of the
+last for a church in Recanati, in carved and
+gilt compartments, and he painted predellas long
+after they had become generally obsolete. We
+ask ourselves how it was that Lotto, who had so
+susceptible and easily swayed a nature, escaped
+the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful
+of any in the Venice of his youth&mdash;an influence
+which acted on Bellini in his old age, which
+Titian practically never shook off, and which
+dominated Palma to the exclusion of any earlier
+master.</p>
+
+<p>It would take too long to survey the train of
+argument by which Mr. Berenson has established
+Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto. Notwithstanding
+that Bellini&#8217;s great superiority was
+becoming clear to the more cultured Venetians,
+Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still the
+painter <em>par excellence</em> for the mass of the public.
+In the S. Cristina altarpiece the Child standing
+on its Mother&#8217;s knee is in the same attitude as
+the Child in Alvise&#8217;s altarpiece of 1480, and the
+Mother&#8217;s hand holds it in the same way. Other
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>details which supply internal evidence are the
+shape of hands and feet, the round heads and the
+way the Child is often represented lying across
+the Mother&#8217;s knees. Lotto carries into old age
+the use of fruit and flowers and beads as decoration,
+a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the
+Vivarini, but which was never adopted by Bellini.</p>
+
+<p>About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with
+Palma, and for a short time the two were in close
+touch. A &ldquo;Santa Conversazione,&rdquo; of which a
+good copy exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one
+at Dresden, with the Holy Family grouped under
+spreading trees, is saturated with Palma&#8217;s spirit,
+but it soon passes away, and except for an
+occasional touch, disappears entirely from Lotto&#8217;s
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo,
+for when in 1515 a competition between artists
+was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a
+descendant of General Colleone, for an altarpiece
+for S. Stefano, he competed and carried
+off the prize. This was the first of the series
+of the great works for Bergamo, which enrich
+the little city, where at this period he can best
+be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed
+to San Bartolommeo) is a most interesting
+human document, a revelation of the
+painter&#8217;s personality. He does not break away
+from hieratic conventions, like the rival school;
+his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the
+church with saints grouped round her, a form
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>from which the Vivarini never departed, but
+the whole is full of intense movement, of a
+lyric grace and ecstasy, a desire to express
+fervent and rapturous devotion. The architectural
+background is not in happy proportion
+in relation to the figures, but the effect of vista
+and space is more remarkable than in any North
+Italian master. The vivid treatment of light
+and shade, and the gaiety and delicacy of the
+flying angels, who hold the canopy, and of the
+putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes
+of throne and canopy and the decorations have
+led to the idea that Lotto drew his inspiration
+from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles
+in some ways; but at this time Correggio was
+only twenty, and had not given any examples
+of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque.
+We must look back to a common origin
+for those decorative details, which are so conspicuous
+in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini,
+which came to Lotto through the Vivarini and
+to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and of
+which the fountain-head for both was the school
+of Squarcione. For the much more striking
+resemblances of composition and spirit, the explanation
+seems to be that Lotto on one side
+of his nature was akin to Correggio; he had
+the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination
+to exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting
+was a vehicle for the expression of feeling,
+but Lotto had also common sense and a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>goodly share of that humour that is allied to
+pathos.</p>
+
+<p>Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in
+Bergamo, where the first altarpiece gained him
+orders for others. The reputation of a member
+of the school of Venice was a sure passport to
+employment. We trace Alvise&#8217;s tradition very
+plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino,
+where the gesture of the Madonna&#8217;s hand as she
+expounds to the listening saints recalls Alvise&#8217;s of
+1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto
+makes use of to the end of his life, lie scattered
+on the step; angels, daringly foreshortened, sweep
+aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour
+is in Lotto&#8217;s scarlet, light blues, and violet.
+He soon shows himself fond of genre incidents,
+and in &ldquo;Christ taking leave of His Mother&rdquo;
+gives a view into a bedroom and a cat running
+across the floor. The donor kneels with her
+hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl
+necklace. In the &ldquo;Marriage of S. Catherine&rdquo;
+at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,
+with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very
+simply and naturally before the Child, and the
+exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young
+woman who represents the Madonna, looks
+out towards the spectator with a mundane
+and curiously modern air. It was probably
+the recognition of Lotto&#8217;s success with portraits
+that led to their being so often introduced
+into his sacred pieces. In the one we have
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>just noticed, the donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is
+brought in, and is on rather a larger scale
+than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not
+found him interesting. The portraits of the
+brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary
+Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate
+that wonderful series of characterisations
+which are his greatest distinction. A series of
+frescoes in village churches round Bergamo
+must also be noticed. They are remarkable
+for spontaneous and original decoration, and
+may compare with the ceremonial groups of
+Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto&#8217;s personages,
+as they chatter in the market-places, are
+full of natural animation and gaiety, and we
+realise what a step had been made in the
+painting of actual life.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of
+Italy, the years from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto
+spent in Venice, found that city the gathering-ground
+of many of the most distinguished
+scholars and deepest thinkers of the day. Men
+of all shades of religious thought were engaged
+in learned discussion, and Lotto&#8217;s ardent and
+inquiring temperament must have been stimulated
+by such an environment. During these
+years, too, he became intimate with Titian, and
+experimented in Titian&#8217;s style, with the result
+that his painting gets thicker and richer, more
+fused and solid, and his figures are better put
+together. He imitates Titian&#8217;s colour, too, but
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and
+he soon finds it does not suit him, and returns
+to his own scheme. His colour is still rather
+too dazzling, but the distances are translucent
+and atmospheric. He continues to introduce
+portraits. In his altarpiece in SS. Giovanni
+and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving
+petitions curiously resemble in type and expression
+the ecclesiastics we see to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Lotto was now an accepted member of
+Titian&#8217;s set, and Aretino, in a letter dated 1548,
+writes that Titian values his taste and judgment
+as that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual
+mixture of connoisseurship and clever spite, goes
+on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he
+himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was
+not considered on a par with the masters of
+the first rank. &ldquo;Envy is not in your breast,&rdquo; he
+says, &ldquo;rather do you delight to see in other
+artists certain qualities which you do not find
+in your own brush, ... holding the second
+place in the art of painting is nothing compared
+to holding the first place in the duties of
+religion.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>An interesting codex or commentary tells us
+that Lotto never received high prices for his
+work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about
+in artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and
+leaving a number with Jacopo Sansovino in the
+hope that he might hear of buyers. His work
+ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>undertook commissions at Recanati, Ancona, and
+Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a
+contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by
+which, in return for rooms and food, he made
+over himself and all his belongings to the care
+of the fraternity, &ldquo;being tired of wandering,
+and wishing to end his days in that holy place.&rdquo;
+He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto
+as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of
+pictures which are distinguished by the same sort
+of apparent looseness and carelessness which we
+noticed in Titian&#8217;s late style; a technique which,
+as in Titian&#8217;s case, conceals a profound knowledge
+of plastic modelling.</p>
+
+<p>Though Lotto executed an immense number
+of important and very beautiful sacred works,
+his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting
+to the modern mind that one is tempted to
+linger over them. Other painters give us finer
+pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know
+who the sitters were and what was their story.
+Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality which
+marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born
+psychologist, and as such he witnesses to an
+attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which
+is of peculiar interest to our own. Lotto&#8217;s bystanders,
+even in his sacred scenes, have nothing
+in common with Titian&#8217;s &ldquo;chorus&rdquo;; they have the
+characterisation of distinct individuals, and when
+he is concerned with actual portraits he is intensely
+receptive and sensitive to the spirit of his sitters.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>He may be said to &ldquo;give them away,&rdquo; and to
+take an almost unfair advantage of his perception.
+The sick man in the Doria Gallery looks
+like one stricken with a death sentence. He
+knows at least that it is touch and go, and
+the painter has symbolised the situation in the
+little winged genius balancing himself in a pair
+of scales. In the Borghese Gallery is the portrait
+of a young, magnificently dressed man, with a
+countenance marked by mental agitation, who
+presses one hand to his heart, while the other
+rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a tiny
+skull is half-hidden. The &ldquo;Old Man&rdquo; in the
+Brera has the hard, narrow, but intensely sad
+face of one whose natural disposition has been
+embittered by the circumstances of his life, just
+as that of our Prothonotary speaks of a large and
+gentle nature, mellowed by natural affections and
+happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with
+kindly mischief at &ldquo;Marsilio and his Bride;&rdquo; the
+broad, placid countenance of the man is so significantly
+contrasted with the clever mouth and
+eyes of the bride that it does not need the
+malicious glance of the cupid, who is fitting on
+the yoke, to &ldquo;dot the i&#8217;s and cross the t&#8217;s&rdquo; of their
+future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in
+the Brera, introduces us to one of those women
+who are charming in every age, not actually
+beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly
+dressed, sensible, and self-possessed, and the
+&ldquo;Family Group&rdquo; in our own gallery holds a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments
+united by life in common and the clasping hands
+of children. Lotto does not keep the personal expression
+out of even such a canvas as his &ldquo;Triumph
+of Chastity&rdquo; in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His
+delightful Venus, one of the loveliest nudes
+in painting, flies from the attacking termagant,
+whose virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on
+her breast, and sweeps her little cupid with her
+with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the
+manners of mundane society.</p>
+
+<p><a name="laura" id="laura"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;">
+<img src="images/img235.jpg" width="447" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Lorenzo Lotto.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Brera.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>The painter who was thus able to unveil
+personality had evidently a mind that was aware
+of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation
+and a more earnest and intimate religion.
+His life seems to have been one of some sadness,
+and crowned with only moderate success. He
+speaks of himself as &ldquo;advanced in years, without
+loving care of any kind, and of a troubled mind.&rdquo;
+His will shows that his worldly possessions were
+few and poor, and that he had no heir closer
+than a nephew; but he leaves some of his
+cartoons as a dowry to &ldquo;two girls of quiet
+nature, healthy in mind and body, and likely to
+make thrifty housekeepers,&rdquo; on their marriage
+to &ldquo;two well-recommended young men,&rdquo; about
+to become painters. His sensitive and introspective
+temperament led him to prefer the
+retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the
+brilliant society of which he was made free in
+Venice. &ldquo;His spirit,&rdquo; says Mr. Berenson, &ldquo;is
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>more like our own than is perhaps that of any
+other Italian painter, and it has all the appeal
+and fascination of a kindred soul in another age.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Palma Vecchio.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Cambridge.</td>  <td class="td5">Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family; Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian; Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione with Donors.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Lorenzo Lotto.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Ancona.</td>  <td class="td5">Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Asolo.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna in Glory, 1506.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Colonna: Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Spirito: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Nativity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Cingoli.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);
+             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;
+             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Loreto.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer
+             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Recanati.</td>  <td class="td5">Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giacomo dall&#8217; Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione, etc.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>It was very natural that Rome should wish for
+works of the masters of the new Venetian School,
+but the first-rate men were fully employed at
+home. All the efforts made to secure Titian
+failed till nearly the end of his career. On the
+other hand, Venice was full of less famous
+masters following in Giorgione&#8217;s steps. When
+Sebastian Luciani was a young man, Giorgione
+was paramount there, and no one could have
+foretold that his life would be of such short
+duration. It was to be expected, therefore, that
+a painter who consulted his own interests should
+leave the city where he was overshadowed by
+a great genius and go farther afield. The
+influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the
+sixteenth century, so that it was a simpler
+matter for painters to transfer their talents,
+and painting was beginning to appeal strongly
+to the <em>dilettanti</em>, who rivalled one another in
+their offers.</p>
+
+<p>Only one work of Sebastian&#8217;s is known belonging
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>to this earlier time in Venice. It is
+the &ldquo;S. Chrysostom enthroned,&rdquo; in S. Giovanni
+Crisostomo, and its majesty and rich colouring,
+and more especially the splendid group of women
+on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian
+beauty, make us wonder if Sebastian might not
+have risen to greater heights if he had remained
+in his natural environment. He responded to
+the call to Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great
+<ins class="translit" title="Chigi was a banker">painter</ins>, art collector, and patron, the friend of
+Leo X. Chigi had just completed the Farnesina
+Villa, and Sebastian was employed till
+1512 on its decoration, and at once came under
+the influence of Michelangelo. The &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo;
+at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in
+fact, Vasari says that Michelangelo himself drew
+the cartoon for the figure of Christ, which would
+account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian
+embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine
+painter, and, according to Vasari, the great canvas
+of the &ldquo;Raising of Lazarus,&rdquo; in the National
+Gallery, was executed under the orders and in
+part from the designs of Michelangelo. This
+colossal work was looked on as one of the most
+important creations of the sixteenth century, but
+there is little to make us wish to change it for
+the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo. The desire for
+scientific drawing and the search after composition
+have produced a laboured effect; the female
+figures are cast in a masculine mould, and it lacks
+both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>the emotional charm of Sebastian&#8217;s native style.
+We cannot, however, avoid conjecturing if in
+the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a
+conception of the great Florentine. It is so
+easy in pose, so splendid in its, perhaps excessive,
+length of limb, that our thoughts turn
+involuntarily to the <em>Ignudi</em> in the Sixtine
+Chapel. The picture has been dulled and
+injured by repainting, but the distance still
+has the sombre depth of the Venetians. All
+through Sebastian&#8217;s career he seeks for form
+and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly
+is, he is great because he possesses
+that inborn feeling for harmony of colour. This
+is what we value in him, and he excels in so far
+as he follows his Venetian instincts.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Raphael improved Sebastian&#8217;s
+position in Rome, and though Leo X. never
+liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.
+The &ldquo;Fornarina&rdquo; in the Uffizi, with
+the laurel-wreathed head and leopard-skin
+mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is
+curious that any critic should ever have assigned
+its rich, voluptuous tone and its coarse type
+to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions
+for decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and
+S. Pietro in Montorio in fresco, but in the
+latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring
+the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the
+Tuscan ease of hand. Colour, for which he
+possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>colour of Giorgione, is set aside by him; his
+tints become strong and crude, his surfaces grow
+hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of
+bold action, of drawing and modelling. The
+Venetian genius for portraiture remains, and he
+has left such fine examples as the &ldquo;Andrea Doria&rdquo;
+of the Vatican, or the &ldquo;Portrait of a Man in the
+Pitti,&rdquo; a masterly picture both in drawing and
+execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse,
+and damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In
+the National Gallery we possess his own portrait
+by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici.
+The faces are well contrasted, and we judge from
+Sebastian&#8217;s that his biographer describes him
+justly, as fat, indolent, and given to self-indulgence,
+but genial and fond of good company.</p>
+
+<p>After an absence of twenty years he returned
+to Venice. There he came in contact with
+Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship
+with Aretino, who became his great ally and
+admirer. The sack of Rome had driven him
+forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning
+partially to recover from that time of horror,
+he returned, and was cordially welcomed by
+Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost
+ecclesiastical circles. The Piombo, a well-paid,
+sinecure office of the Papal court, was bestowed
+on him, and his remaining years were spent in
+Rome. He was very anxious to collaborate
+with Michelangelo, and the great painter seems
+to have been quite inclined to the arrangement.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>The &ldquo;Last Judgment,&rdquo; in the Sixtine Chapel,
+was suggested, and Sebastian had the melancholy
+task of taking down Perugino&#8217;s masterpieces; but
+he wished to reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo
+stipulated for fresco, saying that oils were
+only fit for women, so that no agreement was
+arrived at.</p>
+
+<p>Sebastian&#8217;s mode of work was slow, and he
+employed no assistants. He seems to have been
+inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,
+and his character shows in his work, which, with
+a few exceptions, has something heavy and
+common about it, a want of keenness and fire,
+an absence of refinement and selection.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Visitation, 1521.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Visitation (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Viterbo.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave; (L.).</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity
+of the different members of the family of
+Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in
+giving the name to one master only. Boschini,
+however, in 1777 discovered the register of the
+death of a second, and a third bearing the name
+was working twenty years later. Upon this
+Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion that we must
+recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the
+name of Bonifazio, but documents recently
+discovered by Professor Ludwig have in great
+measure destroyed Morelli&#8217;s conjectures. There
+may have been obscure painters bearing the name,
+but they were mere imitators, and it is doubtful
+if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.</p>
+
+<p>Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one
+who counts. As Ridolfi says, he was born in
+Verona in the most beautiful moment of
+painting. He came to Venice at the age of
+eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,
+with whom his work has sometimes been
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>confused. After Palma&#8217;s death Bonifazio continued
+in friendly relations with his old master&#8217;s
+family, and his niece married Palma&#8217;s nephew.
+Bonifazio himself married the daughter of a
+basket-maker, and appears to have had no
+children, for he and his wife by their wills
+bestowed their whole fortune on their nephews.
+Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio&#8217;s niece,
+was a painter whose pictures have sometimes
+been attributed to the legendary third Bonifazio.
+Bonifazio&#8217;s life was passed peacefully in Venice.
+He received many important commissions from
+the Republic, and decorated the Palace of the
+Treasurers. His character and standing were
+high, and he was appointed, in company with
+Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy which
+Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly
+dower for five maidens. After a long life spent
+in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew to a little
+farm amidst orchards&mdash;fifteen acres of land in
+all&mdash;at San Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept
+his house in San Marcuola, where he died. He
+was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.</p>
+
+<p>A son of the plains and of Venetian stock,
+his work is always graceful and attractive,
+though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a
+very pronounced aristocratic character, and bears
+no trace of the rough, provincial strain of
+such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very
+fine and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour
+and energy in design. Nowhere do we get
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>more worldly magnificence or such frank
+worship of wealth as on Bonifazio&#8217;s joyous
+canvases. He represents Christian saints and
+Eastern kings alike, as gentlemen of princely
+rank. There is a note of purely secular art
+about his Adorations and Holy Families. In
+the &ldquo;Adoration of the Magi,&rdquo; in the Academy,
+the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady
+of Bonifazio&#8217;s acquaintance. The Child, so far
+from raising His hand in benediction, holds it out
+for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,
+distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the
+cup held by the second, who, in a puffed
+velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably
+that of the donor of the picture, who is in this
+way paid a courtier-like compliment. The
+third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must
+often have seen embarking from his Eastern
+galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A servant
+in a peaked hood peers round the column to
+catch sight of what is going on. The groups
+of animals in the background are well rendered.
+In the &ldquo;Rich Man&#8217;s Feast,&rdquo; where Lazarus
+lies upon the step, we have another scene of
+wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an
+orgy of colour. And, again, in the &ldquo;Finding of
+Moses&rdquo; (Brera) he paints nobles playing the lute,
+making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired
+women listening complacently. We are reminded
+of the way in which they lived: their
+one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>appearing in public in the latest and most
+magnificent fashions. And in these paintings
+Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and
+brocaded gowns in which the beautiful Venetians
+arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions
+of the year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted
+and coiled in the precise mode of the moment.
+The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly
+all his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself.
+As Catena often brings in a little white lap-dog,
+so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a liver-and-white
+spaniel.</p>
+
+<p>Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist
+who most successfully imitated Titian. He was
+the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,
+and received a good education in music and
+letters, before being sent off to Venice and
+placed in Titian&#8217;s studio. Bordone does not
+seem to have been on very friendly terms with
+Titian. He was dissatisfied with his teaching,
+and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting
+from him a commission to paint an altarpiece
+which had been entrusted to him when he was
+only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with
+the manner of the dead Giorgione, and it was
+upon this master that he aspired to form his
+style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was
+painted for the Confraternity of St. Mark, and
+made his reputation. The legend it represents
+may be given in a few words:</p>
+
+<p>In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>there arose a fearful storm in Venice. During
+the height of the tempest, three men accosted a
+poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed
+old boat by the Piazza, and begged that he
+would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where
+they had urgent business. After some demur
+they persuaded him to take the oars, and in
+spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished.
+On reaching the shore they pointed out
+to him a great ship, the crew of which he perceived
+to consist of a band of demons, who were
+stirring up the waves and making a great
+hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands
+on them to desist, when immediately
+they sailed away and there was a calm. The
+passengers then made the oarsman row them,
+one to S. Niccolo, one to S. Giorgio, and the
+third was rowed back to the Piazza. The
+fisherman timidly asked for his fare, and the
+third passenger desired him to go to the Doge
+and ask for payment, telling him that by that
+night&#8217;s work a great disaster had been averted
+from the city. The fisherman replied that he
+should not be believed, but would be imprisoned
+as a liar. Then the passenger drew a ring from
+his finger. &ldquo;Show him this for a sign,&rdquo; he said,
+&ldquo;and know that one of those you have this night
+rowed is S. Niccolas, the other is S. George, and
+I am S. Mark the Evangelist, Protector of
+the Venetian Republic.&rdquo; He then disappeared.
+The next day the fisherman presented the ring,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>and was assigned a provision for life from the
+Senate.</p>
+
+<p>There has, perhaps, never been a richer and
+more beautiful subject-picture painted than this
+glowing canvas, or one which brings more vividly
+before us the magnificence of the pageants which
+made such a part of Venetian life in the golden age
+of painting. It is all strength and splendour, and
+escapes the hectic colour and weaker type which
+appear in Bordone&#8217;s &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; and some of
+his other works. In 1538 he went to France
+and entered the service of Francis II., painting
+for him many portraits of ladies, besides works
+for the Cardinals of Guise and of Lorraine. The
+King of Poland sent to him for a &ldquo;Jupiter and
+Antiope.&rdquo; At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns
+for work done for the great Fugger family.</p>
+
+<p>No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type
+of woman who at this time was most admired in
+Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired,
+with full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and
+ample, with &ldquo;abundant flanks and snow-white
+breast.&rdquo; A type glowing with health and instinct
+with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without
+deep passions, and with no look that reveals
+profound emotions or the struggle of a soul.
+From what we see of Bordone&#8217;s female portraits
+and from some of the mythological compositions
+he has left, he might have been among the most
+sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan,
+in the National Gallery, is an almost over-realistic
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>presentment of a woman who has just
+parted from her lover. His women, with their
+carnation cheeks and expressionless faces, are like
+beautiful animals; but, as a matter of fact, their
+painter was sober and temperate in his life, very
+industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother.
+About 1536 he married the daughter of a
+Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one
+of the many insignificant painters of the end of the
+sixteenth century. Most of his days were divided
+between his little Villa of Lovadina in the district
+of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte
+dell&#8217; Cavallo near the Misericordia. &ldquo;He lives
+comfortably in his quiet house,&rdquo; writes Vasari,
+who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, &ldquo;working
+only at the request of princes, or his friends,
+avoiding all rivalry and those vain ambitions
+which do but disturb the repose of man, and
+seeking to avert any ruffling of the serene
+tranquillity of his life, which he is accustomed
+to preserve simple and upright.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Many of his pictures show an intense love
+of country solitudes. His poetic backgrounds,
+lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling
+water are in curious contrast to the sumptuous
+groups in the foreground.</p>
+
+<p>His &ldquo;Three Heads,&rdquo; in the Brera, is a superb
+piece of painting and an interesting characterisation.
+The woman is ripe, sensual, and calculating,
+feeling with her fingers for the gold chain,
+a mere golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>and prosaic. The go-between is dimly seen in
+the background, but the face of the suitor is a
+strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless,
+and bitter, taking his pleasure mechanically
+and with cynical detachment. The &ldquo;Storm
+calmed by S. Mark&rdquo; (Academy) was, in Mr.
+Berenson&#8217;s opinion, begun by Giorgione.</p>
+
+<p>Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is
+the work of these two painters, it does not reach
+the highest level. It falls short of grandeur, and
+has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity.
+As we study it we feel that it marks the point
+to which Venetian art might have attained, the
+flood-mark it might have touched, if it had
+lacked the advent of the three or four great
+spirits, who, appearing about the same time, bore
+it up to sublimer heights and developed a
+more distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio
+and Bordone lack the grandeur and sweetness of
+Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative genius
+of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour,
+design, and decoration of Veronese, but they
+continue Venetian painting on logical lines, and
+they form a superb foundation for the highest.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bonifazio Veronese.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight
+             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee&#8217;s Children; Return of the
+             Prodigal Son.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Rich Man&#8217;s Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of
+             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;
+             Salome.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Paris Bordone.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Vintage Scenes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portrait of Woman.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Genoa.</td>  <td class="td5">Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Donors.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented
+             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait; Man counting Jewels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>It has become usual to include in the Venetian
+School those artists from the subject provinces
+on the mainland, who came down to try their
+luck at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark
+on their talent. The Friulan cities, Udine,
+Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had
+their own primitive schools and their scores of
+humble craftsmen. Their art wavered for some
+time in its expression between the German taste,
+which came so close to their gates, and the Italian,
+which was more truly their element.</p>
+
+<p>Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times
+in thirty years by the Turks. They poured in
+large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed
+the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred
+and carried off the inhabitants. These terrible
+periods are marked by the cessation of work in
+the provinces, but hope always revived again.
+The break caused by such a visitation can be
+distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,
+at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>Udine obtained the epithet of Pellegrino da San
+Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an early
+visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to
+Cima. He was appointed to decorate S. Antonino.
+His early work there is hard and coarse, ill-drawn,
+the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and
+the colour dusky and uniform; but owing to
+the Turkish raid, he had to take flight, and it
+was many a year before the monks gained
+sufficient courage and saved enough money to
+continue the embellishment of their church.
+In the meantime, Pellegrino&#8217;s years had been
+spent partly in Venice and partly, perhaps, in
+Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing
+to paint a &ldquo;Bacchus&rdquo; for the Duke, was that the
+subject had already been painted by Pellegrino
+da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his
+work, it demonstrated that he had studied the
+modern Venetians and had come under a finer,
+deeper influence. A St. George in armour
+suggests Giorgione&#8217;s S. Liberale at Castelfranco;
+he specially shows an affinity with Pordenone,
+who was his pupil and who was to become a
+better painter than his old master. As Pellegrino
+goes on he improves consistently, and adopts the
+method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form
+to a scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some
+extent, succeeds in his difficult task of applying
+to wall painting the system which the Venetians
+used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He
+was an ambitious, daring painter, and some of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>his church standards were for long attributed to
+Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains
+his chief monument; but for all his travels
+Pellegrino remains provincial in type, is unlucky
+in his selection, cares little for precision of form,
+and trusts to colour for effect.</p>
+
+<p>The same transition in art was taking place in
+other provinces. Morto da Feltre, Pennacchi,
+and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a
+Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went
+far onward, began their career under such minor
+masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes
+his name from his native town of Pordenone, in
+Friuli, was one of these. All the early part of
+his life was spent in painting frescoes in the
+small towns of the Friulan provinces. At first
+they bear signs of the tuition of Pellegrino, but
+it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has
+learned to imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite
+early, however, one of his chief failings appears,
+and one which is all his own, the disparity
+in size between his various figures. The
+secondary personages, the Magi in a Nativity,
+the Saints standing round an altar, are larger
+and more athletic in build and often more
+animated in action than the principal actors in
+the scene. What pleased Pordenone&#8217;s contemporaries
+was his daring perspective and his
+instinctive feeling for movement. He carried
+out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at
+length his reputation, which had long been ripe
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>in his native province, reached Venice. In 1519
+he was invited to Treviso to fresco the fa&ccedil;ade of
+a house for one of the Raviguino family. The
+painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and Titian
+was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the
+work so much that he hinted to Raviguino that
+he would be wise not to press him for a valuation.
+As a direct consequence of this piece of
+business, Pordenone was employed on the chapel
+at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At this
+time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa
+Pesaro were just finished, and it is probable
+that Pordenone paid his first visit to Venice,
+hard by, and saw his great contemporary&#8217;s work.
+With his characteristic distaste for fresco,
+Titian undertook the altarpiece and painted the
+beautiful Annunciation which still holds its
+place, and Pordenone covered the dome with
+a foreshortened figure of the Eternal Father,
+surrounded by angels. Among the remaining
+frescoes in the Chapel, an Adoration of the
+Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.
+Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered
+his services to Mantua and Cremona, but the
+Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and restrained
+grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say
+to what Crowe and Cavalcaselle call his &ldquo;large
+and colossal fable-painting.&rdquo; He pursued his way
+to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he
+passed through Mantua is evident from the first
+figures he painted in the cathedral. In Cremona
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>every one admired him, and all the artists set to
+work to imitate his energetic foreshortening,
+vehement movement and huge proportions.</p>
+
+<p>Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all
+his life an itinerant painter. In 1521 he was
+back at Udine and wandered from place to place,
+painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at
+S. Maria at Spilimbergo, the fa&ccedil;ade of the Church
+of Valeriano, an imposing series at Travesio, and
+in 1525, the &ldquo;Story of the True Cross&rdquo; at Casara.
+At the last place he threw aside much of his
+exaggeration, and, ruined and restored as the
+frescoes are, they remain among his most
+dignified achievements. He may be studied
+best of all at Piacenza, in the Church of the
+Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his
+subjects between sacred and pagan, so that we
+turn from a &ldquo;Flight into Egypt&rdquo; or a &ldquo;Marriage
+of S. Catherine,&rdquo; to the &ldquo;Rape of Europa&rdquo; or
+&ldquo;Venus and Adonis.&rdquo; At Piacenza he shows
+himself the great painter he undoubtedly is,
+having achieved some mastery over form, while
+his colour has the true Venetian quality and almost
+equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,
+which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping
+shadows as only one whose spirit was in touch
+with the art of Giorgione would have understood
+how to use. Very complete records remain of
+Pordenone&#8217;s life, full details of a quarrel with his
+brother over property left by his father in 1533,
+and accounts of the painter&#8217;s negotiations to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>obtain a knighthood, which he fancied would
+place him more on a par with Titian when he
+went to live in Venice. The coveted honour
+was secured, but from this time he seems to have
+been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed
+continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a
+punctual and rapid decorator, and on being given
+the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to decorate
+in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole
+by March 1538. We have seen how Titian
+annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious
+they were to transfer his commission to
+Pordenone, and what a narrow escape the
+Venetian had of losing his Broker&#8217;s patent.
+Pordenone was engaged by the nuns of Murano
+to paint an Annunciation, after they had rejected
+one by Titian on account of its price, and though
+it seems hardly possible that any one could have
+compared the two men, yet no doubt the pleasure
+of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually
+and for a moderate sum, often outweighed the
+honour of the possible painting by the great
+Titian.</p>
+
+<p>No one has left so few easel-paintings as
+Pordenone; fresco was so much better suited to
+his particular style. The canvas of the &ldquo;Madonna
+of Mercy&rdquo; in the Venice Academy, was painted
+about 1525 for a member of the house of
+Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the
+family. It is very free from his colossal,
+exaggerated manner; the attendant saints are
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>studied from nature, and in his journals the
+painter mentions that the St. Roch is a portrait
+of himself. The &ldquo;S. Lorenzo enthroned,&rdquo; in
+the same gallery, shows both his virtues and
+failings. The saints have his enormous proportions.
+The Baptist is twisting round, to
+display the foreshortening which Pordenone
+particularly affects. The gestures are empty
+and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and
+fluid; there is a large sense of decoration in the
+composition, and something simple and austere
+about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often
+the case with Pordenone, the principal actor of
+the scene is smaller and more sincerely imagined
+than the attendant personages, who are crowded
+into the foreground, where they are used to
+display the master&#8217;s skill.</p>
+
+<p>Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he
+had been summoned by its Duke to undertake
+one of his great schemes of decoration. He was
+said to have been poisoned, but though he had
+jealous rivals there seems no proof of the truth
+of the assertion, which was one very commonly
+made in those days. He is interesting as being
+the only distinguished member of the Venetian
+School whose frescoes have come down to us in
+any number, and as being the only one of the
+later masters with whom it was the chosen
+medium.</p>
+
+<p>His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented
+in the National Gallery by a half-length
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court
+by a large family group and by another of three
+persons gathered round a spinet. His masterpiece
+is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari,
+which shows the influence of Palma. His flesh
+tints, striving to be rich, have a hot, red look,
+but his works have been constantly confounded
+with those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.</p>
+
+<p>A long list might be given of minor artists
+who were industriously turning out work on
+similar lines to one or other of these masters:
+Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as
+Pordenone; Pomponio Amalteo, Pordenone&#8217;s son-in-law,
+a spirited painter in fresco; Florigerio,
+who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom
+an altarpiece remains in the Academy; Giovanni
+Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to compile
+his notices of Friulan art, and many others only
+known by name.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the fifteenth century the
+revulsion against Paduan art extended as far
+as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one
+of the first to acquire the trick of Venetian
+painting. He probably studied for a time under
+Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have
+been at Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan
+disturbances of 1506-12, and about 1510
+Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino&#8217;s
+Palmesque manner. His works at this
+time are dark and glowing, full of warm light
+and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>arches, after the manner of the Vivarini and
+Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed
+in noble architecture.</p>
+
+<p>Brescia was an opulent city, second only to
+Milan among the towns of northern Italy, and
+Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in
+1511 the city fell a prey to the horrors of war,
+was taken and lost by Venice, and in 1512 was
+sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,
+where he found a home among the Benedictines
+of S. Giustina. Here he was soon well employed
+on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the
+high altar, and a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; for the
+refectory. It is also surmised that he helped
+in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several
+of which Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt,
+and the &ldquo;Death of St. Anthony&rdquo; is pointed out
+as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine
+colour, but poor drawing.</p>
+
+<p>Romanino returned to Brescia when the
+Venetians recovered it in 1516, but before doing
+so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects,
+which are among his most effective, in the choir
+of the Duomo.</p>
+
+<p>He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone,
+from whom he sometimes borrows ideas, but
+he is quite a convert to the modern style
+of the day, setting his groups in large spaces
+and using the slashed doublets, the long hose,
+and plumed headgear which Giorgione had
+found so picturesque. Romanino is often very
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>poor and empty, and fails most in selection and
+expression at the moments when he most needs
+to be great, but he is successful in the golden
+style he adopted after his closer contact with the
+Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are
+extremely brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to
+be gaudy and careless in execution, and even the
+fine &ldquo;Nativity&rdquo; in the National Gallery gives
+the impression that size is more regarded than
+thought and feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the
+mainland who, coming within the charmed circle
+of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma
+and Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still
+keeps his own gamut of colour, and as he goes
+on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery in
+his tones. He can only be fully studied in
+Brescia itself, where literally dozens of altarpieces
+and wall-paintings show him in every
+phase. His first connection was probably with
+Romanino, but he reminds us at one time of
+Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful
+painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace
+and sentiment of his heads, and as time goes on
+he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the
+&ldquo;Feast in the House of Simon&rdquo; in the organ-loft
+of the Church of the Piet&agrave; in Venice, the
+very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded
+building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape,
+and the costly raiment and plenishing which
+might have been seen at any Venetian or
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>Brescian banquet. In his portraits Moretto
+sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages are
+always dignified and expressive, with pale,
+high-bred faces, and exceedingly picturesque
+in dress and general arrangement. He loved
+to paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra
+Martinengo in the National Gallery, and to
+endow him with an air of romantic interest.</p>
+
+<p>One of those who entered so closely into the
+spirit of the Venetian School that he may almost
+be included within it, is Savoldo. His pictures
+are rare, and no gallery can show more than one
+or two examples. The Louvre has a portrait
+by him of Gaston de Foix, long thought to be
+by Giorgione. His native town can only show
+one altarpiece, an &ldquo;Adoration of Shepherds,&rdquo;
+low in tone but intense in dusky shadow with
+fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his
+shadows, and often rough and startling in effect,
+but at his best he produces very beautiful, rich,
+evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino
+bears witness to the estimation in which he was
+held.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has
+most claim to Bartolommeo Montagna, the early
+master of Cima. Born of Brescian parents, he
+settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most
+distinguished of those Vicentine painters who
+drank at the Venetian fount. He must have
+gone early to Venice and worked with the
+Vivarini, for in his altarpiece in the Brera he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>has the vaulted porticoes in which Bartolommeo
+and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His &ldquo;Madonna
+enthroned&rdquo; in the gallery at Vicenza has many
+points of contact with that of Alvise at Berlin.
+Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and
+the raised throne, and he is specially attracted
+by the groups of music-making angels; but
+Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise,
+and his lines are stronger and more sinewy. He
+keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling for calm
+and sweetness, but his personages have greater
+weight and gravity. He essays, too, a &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo;
+with saints, at Monte Berico, and shows both
+pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen
+Bellini&#8217;s rendering, and attempts, if only with
+partial success, to contrast in the same way the
+indifference of death with the contemplation
+and anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular
+as Montagna&#8217;s saints often are, they show
+power and austerity. His colour is brilliant
+and enamel-like; he does not arrive at the
+Venetian depth, yet his altarpieces are very
+grand, and once more we are struck by the
+greatness of even the secondary painters who
+drew their inspiration from Padua and Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza
+and Giovanni Buonconsiglio were imbued
+with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza,
+in one of his few remaining works, almost
+reproduces the beautiful &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo; by
+Pizzolo, Mantegna&#8217;s young fellow-student, in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>the Chapel of the Eremitani. He employs
+Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate
+Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to
+distinguish between their works. Buonconsiglio&#8217;s
+&ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo; in the Vicenza gallery, is reminiscent
+of Montagna&#8217;s at Monte Berico. The types are
+lean and bony, the features are almost as rugged
+as D&uuml;rer&#8217;s, the flesh earthy and greenish. About
+1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with
+Antonello da Messina; he begins to reside in
+Venice, and a change comes over his manner.
+His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired
+by studying Titian; and then, again, his bright
+tints remind us of Lotto. His name was on the
+register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.</p>
+
+<p>After Pisanello&#8217;s achievement and his marked
+effect on early Venetian art, Veronese painting
+fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna&#8217;s
+influence was strongly felt here, and art revived
+in Liberale da Verona, Falconetto, Casoto,
+the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters
+delightful in themselves, but having little connection
+with the school of Venice. Francesco
+Bonsignori, however, shook himself free from
+the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had
+for a time followed Liberale, and grows more
+like the Vicentines, Montagna and Buonconsiglio.
+He is careful about his drawing, but his figures,
+like those of many of these provincial painters, are
+short, bony and vulgar, very unlike the slender,
+distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori
+works in the new palace of the Gonzagas, and
+several pictures painted for Mantua are now
+scattered in different collections. At Verona he
+has left four fine altarpieces. He went early
+to Venice, where he became the pupil of the
+Vivarini. His faces grow soft and oval, and
+the very careful outlines suggest the influence
+of Bellini.</p>
+
+<p>Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni
+Bellini; in fact, Vasari says that a &ldquo;Dead
+Christ&rdquo; in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed
+with Bellini&#8217;s name, is from Mocetto&#8217;s hand.
+His short, broad figures have something of
+Bartolommeo Vivarini&#8217;s character.</p>
+
+<p>Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study
+with Giorgione, and we can trace his master&#8217;s
+manner of turning half tones into deep shades;
+but he does not really understand the Giorgionesque
+treatment, in which shade was always rich
+and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable,
+nor in the lights can he produce the clear glow
+of Giorgione. Another Veronese, Cavazzola, has
+left a masterpiece upon which any painter might
+be happy to rest his reputation; the &ldquo;Gattemalata
+with an Esquire&rdquo; in the Uffizi, a picture noble
+in feeling and in execution, and one which owes
+a great deal to Venetian portrait-painters.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pordenone.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Casara.</td>  <td class="td5">Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Colatto.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Cremona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;
+              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned
+              with Saints and Donor, 1522.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Piacenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Pordenone.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints, 1535.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Spilimbergo.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Sensigana.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Torre.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family; Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pellegrino.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">San Daniele.</td>  <td class="td5">Frescoes in S. Antonio.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Cividale.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Romanino.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity; Coronation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Cremona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Polyptych; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Sato, Lago di Garda.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">&nbsp;&nbsp;Duomo: Saints and Donor.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Trent.</td>  <td class="td5">Castello: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Moretto.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna
+             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory
+             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;
+             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy: Nativity.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;
+             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Castello: Triptych; Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria della Piet&agrave;: Christ in the House of Levi.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bartolommeo Montagna.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony&#8217;s Tomb.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Pavia.</td>  <td class="td5">Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Piet&agrave;; Frescoes, 1491-93.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints; Three Madonnas.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Monte Berico: Piet&agrave;, 1500; Fresco.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>PAOLO VERONESE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to
+be placed on the very highest pinnacle of the
+Venetian School, must be classed among those
+few great painters who rose far above the level
+of most of his contemporaries and who brought
+in a special note and flavour of his own. His
+art is an independent art, and he borrows little
+from predecessors or contemporaries. His free
+and joyous temperament gave relief at a moment
+when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened
+to become too sombre, and when Sebastian del
+Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and above all
+Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes.
+Veronese discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries
+and crimsons and oranges, and finds his
+range among cream and rose and grey-greens.
+Titian concentrated his colours and intensified
+his lights, Tintoretto sacrifices colour to vivid
+play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids the
+dark; the generous light plays all through his
+scenes. He has no wish to secure strong effects
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>but delights in soft, faded tints; old rose and
+<em>turquoise morte</em>. In his colour and his subjects
+he is a personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving
+Republic, in which, as M. Yriarte says,
+a man produced his works as a tree produces its
+fruit. We get very near him in those vast
+palaces and churches and villas, where his heroic
+figures expand in the azure air, against the white
+clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the
+Renaissance about whom we know least. Here
+and there, in contemporary biography, we come
+across a mention of him and learn that he was
+sociable and lively, quick at taking offence, fond
+of his family and anxious to do his best by them.
+He was, too, very generous with his work&mdash;a
+great contrast in this respect to Titian&mdash;and
+contracts with convents and confraternities show
+that he often only stipulated for payment for
+bare time. Yet he was fond of personal luxury,
+loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says
+Ridolfi, &ldquo;always wore velvet breeches.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson,
+were Badile and Brusasorci, masters of Verona,
+but before he was twenty, he was away working
+on his own account. His first patron was
+Cardinal Gonzaga, who brought several painters
+from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no
+longer what it had been in the days of Isabela
+d&#8217;Este, and Paolo Caliari soon returned to his
+own town. Before he was twenty-three he had
+decorated Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>with Zelotti, a Veronese, portraying feasting
+gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural
+designs in monochrome. The two painters went
+on to other villas, mixing mortal and mythical
+figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.</p>
+
+<p>Zelotti having received a commission at
+Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek his fortune in
+Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano,
+on the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari
+wrote to him before arriving in Venice in 1555.
+Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable
+part in his destiny, he obtained a
+commission for a &ldquo;Coronation of the Virgin
+and four other Saints.&rdquo; He first painted the
+sacristy, but his success was instantaneous, and
+many orders followed. The ceiling of the
+church was devoted to the history of Esther.
+The whole of these paintings are marvellously
+well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt
+framework, make a <em>coup d&#8217;&oelig;il</em> of surprising
+beauty. They had an immense effect. Every
+one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures
+of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp
+of her ceremonies, the rich Eastern stuffs and the
+glorious architecture of her palaces. It was an
+auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese&#8217;s
+temper; the so-called Republic, now, more than
+ever, an oligarchy, was at the height of its fortunes,
+redecorating was going forward everywhere,
+the merchant-nobility was rich and spending
+magnificently, the Eastern trade was flourishing,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari
+came to work for, preferred the ceremonial to
+the imaginative treatment of sacred themes, and
+he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible
+for illustration. He paints the history of Esther,
+with its royal audiences, banquets, and marriage-feasts.
+His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are
+composed, courtly personages, who maintain a
+dignified calm under misfortune, and have very
+little violent feeling to show.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma
+Vecchio was just dead, Tintoretto was absorbed
+by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was
+with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati,
+Bonifazio, Schiavone, and Zelotti, all rendering
+homage to Titian who was eighty years old,
+but still in full vigour. Titian&#8217;s opinions in
+matters of art were dictates, his judgment was
+a law. He immediately recognised Veronese&#8217;s
+genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him,
+and together with Sansovino, who at this
+time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,
+he received the young painter with an approval
+which ensured him a good start. Five years
+after Veronese&#8217;s arrival he was retained to
+decorate the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is
+a type of those patrician country-houses to which
+the Venetians were becoming more attached
+every year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of
+Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait by Veronese
+is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>the ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten.
+Palladio, Alessandro Vittoria, and Veronese were
+associated to build him a dwelling worthy of a
+Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total
+contrast to the gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is
+sober and simple, and well adapted to leisure and
+retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations
+are devoid of gilding and colour, and the
+rooms adorned by Veronese&#8217;s brush show him
+in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did
+not take place till four years later, but he
+has been influenced here by the feeling for
+the antique, and he thinks much of line and
+style. He leaves on one side the gorgeous
+brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually
+delights, and his nymphs are only clothed in
+their own beauty. And here Veronese shows
+his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons,
+the Barbaro family, are his friends, men and
+women of the world, who put no restraint on his
+fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese,
+with the bridle on his neck, so to speak, uses his
+opportunities fully, yet never exceeds the limits
+of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like
+Rubens, but proud, grave and sweet, seductive,
+but never suggestive or vulgar. After having
+placed single figures wherever he can find a nook,
+he assembles all the gods of Olympia at a supper
+in the cupola. Immortality is a beautiful young
+woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at
+her, caduceus in hand; Diana caresses her great
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his head on his
+hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid
+are scattered in the Empyrean, and Jupiter
+presides over the party. Below, a balcony rail
+runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an
+old lady, dressed in the latest fashion, points out
+the company to a beautiful young one and to a
+young man in a doublet who holds a hound in
+a leash. They are evidently family portraits,
+taken from those who looked on at the artist, and
+on the other side he has introduced members of
+his own family who were helping him. These
+decorations have a gaiety, an absence of pedantry,
+a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the
+Renaissance which tell of a happy moment
+when art was at its height and in touch with
+its environment. From about 1563 we may
+begin to date his great supper pictures. The
+Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most
+famous works, was painted for the refectory in
+Sammichele, the old part of S. Giorgio Maggiore.
+The treaty for it is still in existence, dated June
+1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is
+to furnish canvas and colours, the painter&#8217;s board,
+and a cask of wine. The further payment of 972
+ducats illustrates the prices received by the
+greatest artists at the height of the Renaissance:
+&pound;280 for work which occupied quite eight months.</p>
+
+<p>Veronese must have delighted in painting this
+work. Needless to say, it is not in the least
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>religious. He has united in it all the most varied
+personages who struck his imagination. So we
+see a Spanish grandee, Francis I., Suleiman the
+Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and
+Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped
+round a table, are Veronese himself, playing the
+viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo da
+Ponte seated by them, and Paolo&#8217;s brother, the
+architect, with his hand on his hip, tossing off a
+full glass; and in the governor of the feast,
+opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise
+Aretino. Under the marble columns of a
+Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the
+illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us
+an odd and informing document. We can but
+accept the scene and admire the originality of its
+design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness
+and fancy, the way in which the varied
+incidents are brought into harmony, and the
+grace of the colonnade, peopled with spectators,
+standing out against the depth of distant sky.</p>
+
+<p>The celebrated suppers, of which this is the
+first example, are dispersed in different galleries
+and some have disappeared, but from this time
+Veronese loved to paint these great displays,
+repeating some of them, but always introducing
+variety.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img277.jpg" width="550" height="372" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Paolo Veronese.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MARRIAGE IN CANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Louvre.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani,
+procurator of St. Mark&#8217;s, who was appointed
+ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time
+saw the works of Raphael and Michelangelo and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>the treasures of antiquity. For a time, the sight
+of the antique had some effect upon his work;
+in his famous ceiling in the Louvre, &ldquo;Jupiter
+destroying the Vices,&rdquo; the influence of Michelangelo
+is apparent and its large gestures are inspired
+by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese
+brought home casts from Rome, and statues
+of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have
+inspired the Jupiter. He did not go on long in
+this path; he does not really care for the nude&mdash;it
+is too simple for him. He prefers that his
+saints and divinities should appear in the gorgeous
+costumes of the day, and that his Venus
+and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich
+brocades. But few documents are left concerning
+his work for the Ducal Palace up to 1576;
+much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but
+the Signoria then gave him a number of fresh
+commissions. The most important was the
+immense oval of the &ldquo;Triumph of Venice,&rdquo;
+or, as it is sometimes called, the &ldquo;Thanksgiving
+for Lepanto&rdquo;; the Republic crowned by
+victory and surrounded by allegorical figures,
+Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno and the
+rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom:
+the fair Queen leans back, surrounded
+by laughing patricians, who look up from their
+balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on
+the Grand Canal. The horses of the Free Companions,
+the soldiers who go afar to carry out
+the will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>personages, each of whom represents a town or
+colony of her domain. Like all Veronese&#8217;s
+creations, this will always be pre-eminently a
+picture of the sixteenth century, dated by a
+thousand details of costume, architecture, and
+armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the
+Venier, of Titian, Aretino, and Veronese himself,
+makes a deep impression upon us, and the artist
+reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can
+show a canvas of Veronese or the assistants by
+whom he was now surrounded. From time to
+time he resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano,
+and his incessant production betrays no trace
+of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the
+saint is a triumph of the beauty of the silhouette
+against a radiant sky. He goes back to Verona
+and paints the &ldquo;Martyrdom of St. George.&rdquo; He
+pours light into it. The saints open a shining
+path, down which a flower-crowned Love flutters
+with the diadem and palm of victory. The
+whole air and expression of St. George is full
+of strength and that look of goodness and
+serenity which is the painter&#8217;s nearest approach
+to religious feeling. Veronese was created a
+Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was asking for
+his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature
+and fond of living with his family. Philip II.
+longed to get him to cover his great walls in the
+Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations
+and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>It was on account of the &ldquo;Feast in the House
+of Levi&rdquo; that in 1573 he was hauled before the
+tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document
+concerning this was only discovered a few years
+ago. The Signoria had never allowed any
+tribunal to chastise works of literature; on
+the contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor
+herself in geniuses of the mind, was the refuge
+of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a
+sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed
+her to set aside or suspend the decisions of the
+Holy Office, from which she could not quite
+emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was
+denounced by some &ldquo;aggrieved person,&rdquo; to whom
+his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an
+outrage on religion. The members of the
+tribunal demanded &ldquo;who the boy was with the
+bleeding nose?&rdquo; and &ldquo;why were halberdiers
+admitted?&rdquo; Veronese replied that they were the
+sort of servants a rich and magnificent host would
+have about him. He was then asked why he
+had introduced the buffoon with a parrot on his
+hand. He replied that he really thought only
+Christ and His Apostles were present, but that
+when he had a little space over, he adorned it
+with imaginary figures. This defence of the vast
+and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and
+he was asked if he really thought that at the
+Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to bring
+in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other
+absurdities. Did he not know that in Germany
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>and other places infested with heresy, they were
+in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church
+into ridicule, with intent to teach false doctrine
+to the ignorant? Paolo for his defence cited the
+Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted
+every figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor
+replied crushingly, that these were disembodied
+spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.
+Could Veronese uphold his picture as
+decent? The painter was probably not very
+much alarmed. He was a person of great importance
+in Venice, and the proceedings of the
+Inquisition were always jealously watched by
+members of the Senate, who would not have permitted
+any unfair interference with the liberties
+of those under the protection of the State. The
+real offence was the introduction of the German
+soldiers, who were peculiarly obnoxious to the
+Venetians; but Veronese did not care what the
+subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for
+a great <em>spectacle</em>. Brought to bay, he gave the
+true answer: &ldquo;My Lords, I have not considered
+all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything
+disorderly. I painted the picture as it
+seemed best to me and as my intellect could
+conceive of it.&rdquo; It meant that Veronese painted
+in the way that he considered most artistic, without
+even remembering questions of religion, and
+in this he summed up his whole &aelig;sthetic creed.
+He was set at liberty on condition that he took
+out one or two of the most offending figures.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>The &ldquo;Feast in the House of Levi&rdquo; (as he named
+it after the trial) is the finest of all his great
+scenic effects. The air circulates freely through
+the white architecture, we breathe more deeply
+as we look out into the wide blue sky, and
+such is the sensation of expansion, that it is
+hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a
+flat wall. Titian&#8217;s backgrounds are a blue
+horizon, a burning twilight. Veronese builds
+marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns
+blanched in the liquid light. His personages
+show little violent action. He places them in
+noble poses in which they can best show off
+their magnificent clothes, and he endows his
+patricians, his goddesses, his sacred persons, with
+a uniform air of majestic indolence.</p>
+
+<p>After his &ldquo;trial,&rdquo; Veronese proceeded more
+triumphantly than ever. Every prince wished
+to have something from his brush; the Emperor
+Rudolph, at Prague, showed with pride the
+canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus. The
+Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of
+Ferrara, added Veronese&#8217;s works to the treasures
+of the house of Este. The last ten years of his
+life were given up to visiting churches on the
+mainland and on the little islands round Venice,
+all covetous to possess something by the brilliant
+Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello,
+Murano, Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent
+and monastery loaded him with commissions, and
+it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his
+most ardent patrons, those who delighted most
+in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were
+to be found in the religious houses. Then, when
+he went to rest in the summer heats in some villa
+on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here
+and there. It was on such an occasion, for the
+Pisani, that he painted the &ldquo;Family of Darius,&rdquo;
+which was sold to England by a member of
+the house in 1857. The royal captives, who
+are throwing themselves at the feet of the
+conqueror, are, with Paolo&#8217;s usual frank na&iuml;vet&eacute;
+and disregard of anachronisms, dressed in full
+Venetian costume&mdash;all the chief personages are
+portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom
+and rapidity of execution, the completeness and
+finish, the charm of colour, the beauty of the
+figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander
+and Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy,
+make this one of the finest of all his works.
+The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it,
+&ldquo;It is absurd and dazzling.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the &ldquo;Rape of Europa,&rdquo; he recurred again
+to one of those legends of fabled beings who have
+outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and living.
+Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino
+and Bembo, well versed in mythology, and with
+his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse for
+painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets,
+and a delightful landscape. The wild flowers
+spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro against
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese
+turquoise. It is the work of a man who is a
+true poet of colour and for whom colour represents
+all the emotions of joy and pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Veronese died comparatively young, of chill
+and fever, and all his family survived him. He
+lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary
+memoirs we know that he lived and dressed
+splendidly. He kept immense stores of gorgeous
+stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew
+everything from life,&mdash;the negroes covered with
+jewels, the bright-eyed pages, the models who,
+robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became
+queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls
+which bedecked them were from his own
+caskets. Though we know little of his private
+life, his work is so alive that he seems personified
+in it. He is saved from what might have been
+a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing
+colour in which he revels; his silks
+and satins are less modelled by shadows than
+tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and
+striped and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously
+combined that the eye rests, wherever it falls, on
+something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is
+where his genius lies, &ldquo;the decoration does not
+add to the interest of the drama; it replaces
+it&rdquo;; in short, it <em>is</em> the drama itself, for his types
+show little selection, and his ideal of female
+beauty is not a very sympathetic one. His
+personages are cold and devoid of expression,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>their gestures are rather meaningless, but by
+means of light and air and exquisite colour he
+gives the poetical touch which all great art
+demands.</p>
+
+<p>On account of their size few examples of
+Veronese&#8217;s work are to be found in private
+collections, but the galleries of the different
+European capitals are rich in them. Numbers
+of paintings, too, which are by his assistants
+are dignified by his name, and directly after his
+death spurious works were freely manufactured
+and sold as genuine.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi; Marriage of Cana.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before
+             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Maser.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna with Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice enthroned.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Barnab&agrave;: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in
+             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;
+             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at the House of Jairus.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>TINTORETTO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>It does not seem likely that many new discoveries
+will be made about Tintoretto&#8217;s life. It
+was an open and above-board one, and there is
+practically no time during its span that we are
+not able to account for, and to say where he
+was living and how he was occupied. The son of
+a dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds
+of Venice, the &ldquo;little dyer,&rdquo; <em>il tentoretto</em>, appears
+as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn his chosen
+art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately
+after, summarily ejected from that
+master&#8217;s workshop, on account, it seems probable,
+of the independence and innovation of his style,
+which was of the very kind most likely to shock
+and puzzle Titian&#8217;s courtly, settled genius. After
+this he painted when and where he could,
+pursuing his artistic studies with the headlong
+ardour which through life characterised his
+attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he
+may have worked in Bonifazio&#8217;s studio. He
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
+formed a close friendship with Andrea Schiavone,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+he imported casts of Michelangelo&#8217;s statues, he
+studied the works of Titian and Palma. Over
+his door was written &ldquo;the colour of Titian and
+the form of Michelangelo.&rdquo; All his energies
+were for long devoted to the effort to master
+that form. Colour came to him naturally, but
+good drawing meant more to him than it had
+ever done to any Venetian. Long afterwards, to
+repeated inquiries as to how excellence could
+be best ensured, he would give no other advice
+than the reiterated, &ldquo;study drawing.&rdquo; He
+practised till the human form in every attitude
+held no difficulties for him. He suspended
+little models by strings, and drew every limb
+and torso he could get hold of over and over
+again. He was found in every place where
+painting was wanted, getting the builders to let
+him experiment upon the house-fronts. To
+master light and shade he constructed little
+cardboard houses, in which, by means of sliding
+shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be
+arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of
+this part of his education, as in the end the love
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>of shine and shadow was the most victorious of
+all his inspirations.</p>
+
+<p>The chief events in Tintoretto&#8217;s life are art-events.
+For some years he frescoed the outside
+of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his
+expenses. He decorated household furniture and
+everything he could lay hands on. Then came
+a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,
+organ-doors there, for unimportant churches.
+No one in Venice talked of any one save Palma,
+Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was difficult
+enough for an outsider, who was not one of their
+clique, to get employment. But by the time
+Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was becoming
+recognised; he had painted the two
+altarpieces for SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, and
+the offer he made to decorate the vast church
+of his parish brought him conspicuously into
+notice. In the first ardour of youth he completed
+the &ldquo;Last Judgment&rdquo; for the choir.
+From time to time, during fourteen years, he
+redeemed his early promises and executed the
+&ldquo;Golden Calf&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Presentation of the
+Virgin.&rdquo; Within two years of his offer to
+the Prior, came his first great opportunity of
+achieving distinction. This was a commission
+from the Confraternity of St. Mark, and with the
+&ldquo;Miracle of the Slave&rdquo; he sprang at once to the
+highest place.</p>
+
+<p>The picture was universally admired, and was
+followed by three more dealing with the patron
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful
+young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi,
+as it is indifferently given, the daughter of a
+noble family of the mainland. Tradition has
+always pointed to the girl in blue in the &ldquo;Golden
+Calf&rdquo; as her portrait, while it is easy to recognise
+Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded giant,
+who helps to carry the idol. His house at this
+time was somewhere in the Parrocchia dell&#8217; Orto,
+and there, during the next fourteen years, eight
+children were born, of whom the two eldest,
+Domenico and Marietta, attained distinction in
+their father&#8217;s profession. Another great event,
+which profoundly influenced his life, was the
+beginning of his connection in 1560 with the
+Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity
+which was devoted to combating the ravages of
+the plague and to succouring the families of its
+victims. His work for this lasted to the end of
+his life and is his most distinguished memorial.</p>
+
+<p>The palace to which the Robusti family
+moved in 1574, and which was inhabited by his
+descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified
+in the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into
+two parts, but it is evident that it was a dwelling
+of some importance, a good specimen of
+Venetian Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable
+decoration; the walls are sheathed in
+marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of
+Gothic windows in delicately carved frames and
+little balconies of fretted marble. Zanetti, in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze
+frieze cast from the master&#8217;s design, which ran
+round the Grand Sala. The family must have
+occupied the <em>piano nobile</em> and let off the floors
+they did not require.</p>
+
+<p>Descriptions of the life led by the painter and
+his family are given by Vasari, who knew him
+personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was published
+in 1646, and who must have known his
+children, several of whom were still alive and
+proud of their father&#8217;s fame. We hear of pleasant
+evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic
+love of music, Tintoretto himself and his
+daughter being highly gifted. Among the
+<em>habitu&eacute;s</em> were Zarlino, for twenty-five years
+chapel-master of St. Mark&#8217;s, one of the fathers of
+modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who, in
+spite of his love for magnificent entertainments,
+was often to be found in Tintoretto&#8217;s pleasant
+home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always
+welcome, and as time went on the house became
+the haunt of all the cultured gentlemen and
+<em>litterati</em> of Venice.</p>
+
+<p>It is not difficult from the materials available
+to form a sufficiently lively idea of this Venetian
+citizen of the sixteenth century, as father and
+husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected
+a number of anecdotes, which space forbids me
+to use, but which are all very characteristic. We
+gather that he was a man of strong character,
+generous, sincere and simple, decided in his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>ways, caring little for the great world, but
+open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,
+observant of men and manners, and sometimes
+rather brusque in dealing with bores and offensive
+persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of good-natured
+banter of his wife&#8217;s little weaknesses.
+A man, too, of upright conduct and free, as far
+as it can be ascertained, from any of those
+laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of
+celebrated men and so easily condoned by his
+age. Art was Tintoretto&#8217;s main preoccupation;
+but he seems to have been a man of strong
+religious bias, making a close study of the Bible,
+and turning naturally in his last days to those
+truths with which his art had made him familiar,
+truths which he had represented with that touch
+of mystic feeling which was the deepest part
+of his nature.</p>
+
+<p>His relations with the State commenced in
+1574, when his offer to present a superb painting
+of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and
+accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto
+was rewarded by a Broker&#8217;s patent, and between
+this and the &ldquo;Paradiso,&rdquo; the work of his old
+age, he executed a number of pictures for the
+Signoria. The only record of any travels are
+confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where
+he went in the &#8217;sixties and again in 1579 to see
+to the hanging of paintings done for the Gonzaga,
+and of which the documents have been kept,
+though the pictures have vanished. Tintoretto&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>last years were saddened by the death of his
+beloved daughter, who had always been his
+constant companion. He died in 1579 after a
+fortnight&#8217;s illness and left a will, which, together
+with that of his son, throws a good deal of light
+upon the family history.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to select from the vast quantity
+of work left by Tintoretto. He is one of those
+painters whose whole life was passed in his
+native city and who can only be adequately
+studied in that city. Perhaps the first place in
+which to seek him, is the great church which
+was the monument of his early prime. The
+&ldquo;Last Judgment&rdquo; was probably inspired by that
+of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and
+sketches must have reached the younger master,
+over whom the Florentine had exercised so
+strong a fascination. Tintoretto&#8217;s version impresses
+one as that of a mind boiling with
+thoughts and visions which he pours out upon
+the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe,
+a scene of rushing destruction, of forms swept
+into oblivion, of others struggling to the light, of
+many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and
+light behind the rushing water,&mdash;water which
+makes us almost giddy as we watch it. The
+&ldquo;Golden Calf&rdquo; is a maturer production and includes
+some of the loveliest women Tintoretto
+ever painted. We see too plainly the planning,
+the device of concentrating interest on the idol by
+turning figures and pointing fingers, but nothing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>can be imagined more supple and queenly than
+the woman in blue, and the way the light falls
+on her head and perfectly foreshortened arm
+shows to what excellence Tintoretto had attained.
+The &ldquo;Presentation&rdquo; is a riper work. The
+drawing of the flight of steps and of the groups
+upon them could not be bettered. The little
+figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new
+dispensation, as she advances to meet the representative
+of the old, thrills with mystic feeling,
+yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy
+simplicity of a child. The &ldquo;St. Agnes,&rdquo; with
+its contrast of light and shade, of strength made
+perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the
+commission of Cardinal Contarini.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto,
+especially in the &ldquo;Presentation,&rdquo; has contrived,
+while using the traditional episodes, to infuse
+so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast
+of age and youth, the joy of the Gentiles, the
+starlike figure of the child surrounded by shadows,
+convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with
+the nature of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Next let us group together the miracles in
+the history of St. Mark. One of the qualities
+which strikes us most in the &ldquo;Miracle of the
+Slave&rdquo; is its strong local colour. It tells of
+Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike Tintoretto&#8217;s
+later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;
+carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet,
+and turquoise-blue. The crimson velvet of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>judge&#8217;s dress is finely relieved against a blue-green
+sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive
+fire and dash which culminates at once and
+without effort in perfect action, &ldquo;as a bird flies,
+or a horse gallops.&rdquo; It startled the quiet
+members of the Guild, and at the first moment
+they hesitated to accept it. The &ldquo;Rescue of
+the Saracen&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Transportation of the
+Body&rdquo; are more in the golden-brown manner
+to which he was moving, but it is in the
+&ldquo;Finding of the Body&rdquo; (Brera) that he rises to
+the highest emotional pitch. The colossal form
+of the saint, expanding with life and power as he
+towers in the spirit above his own lifeless clay,
+draws all eyes to him and seems to fill the
+barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every
+part of the vault is flooded by his life-giving
+energy, and here Tintoretto deals with light and
+shade with full mastery.</p>
+
+<p>As we follow Tintoretto&#8217;s career, it is borne
+in upon us how little positive colour it takes to
+make a great colourist. The whole Venetian
+School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand
+as bright colour. Vivid tints are much more
+characteristic of the Flemish and the Florentine,
+or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong,
+crude colours are to be seen on all sides in the
+Salon or the Royal Academy, but they are
+absent from the scheme of sombre splendour
+which has given the Venetians their title to
+fame. This is especially true of Tintoretto, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut
+becomes more golden-brown and mellow; the
+greys and browns and ivories combine in a
+lustrous symphony more impressive than gay
+tints, flooded with enveloping shadow and
+illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another
+noticeable feature is the way in which he
+puts on his oil-colour, so that it bears the direct
+impression of the painter&#8217;s hand. The Florentines
+had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark
+smoothed away; but as the later Venetians
+covered large spaces with oil-colour, they no
+longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the
+brush, and light, distance, movement, were all
+conveyed by the turns and twists and swirls with
+which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at
+the power of touch in such a picture as the
+&ldquo;Death of Abel&rdquo;; we see this spontaneity of
+execution actually forming part of the emotion
+with which the picture is charged. The concentrated
+hate of the one figure, the desperate
+appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape,
+gain their emotion as much from the
+impetuous brush-work as from the more studied
+design. We come closest to the painter&#8217;s mind
+in the Scuola di San Rocco. He had already
+been employed in the church, and there remains,
+darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative
+of the career of S. Roch, patron saint of
+sufferers from the plague. When the great
+Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>the confraternity asked a conclave of painters,
+among whom were Veronese and Andrea
+Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition.
+When they assembled to display their designs,
+Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling
+of the refectory and discovered a finished picture,
+the &ldquo;S. Roch in Glory,&rdquo; which still holds its
+place there. Neither the other artists nor the
+brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional
+proceeding, but he &ldquo;hoped they would
+not be offended; it was the only way he knew.&rdquo;
+Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of
+the rest, but partly also from the excellence of
+the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto, and
+after two years&#8217; work he was received into the
+order, and was assigned an annual provision of
+100 ducats (&pound;50) a year for life, being bound
+every year to furnish three pictures.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>TINTORETTO</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>
+
+<p>The first portion of the vast building that was
+finished was the Refectory, but in examining
+the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to
+leave it to its proper place, which is the climax.
+Before beginning, Tintoretto must have had the
+whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt that
+he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and
+recalled its plan and significance; the old dispensation
+typifying the new, the Old Testament
+history vivified by the acts of Christ. The
+main feature of the harmony which it is only
+reasonable to suppose governs the whole building,
+is its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of
+mercy. The principal paintings of the Upper
+Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine
+mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes
+bear upon the central idea. On the roof are the
+three most important miracles of mercy performed
+on behalf of the Chosen People. The
+paintings on roof and walls are linked together.
+The &ldquo;Fall of Man&rdquo; at one end of the Hall, the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient
+eating of the Passover at the other, and is
+interdependent with the Manna in the Wilderness,
+the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves.
+The Miracles of satisfied thirst are represented
+by &ldquo;Moses striking the Rock,&rdquo; Samson drinking
+from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah.
+The Baptism and other signs of the Advent of
+Christ and the Divine preparation, balance events
+in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory
+which opens from the Great Hall, we come to
+the &ldquo;Crucifixion,&rdquo; the crowning act of mercy,
+surrounded by the events which immediately
+succeeded it, and typified immediately above in
+the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen
+Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment
+and succour, two of miraculous restoration
+to health, and two of deliverance from danger.
+The whole scheme has been worked out in
+detail in my book on &ldquo;Tintoretto.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In the working out of his great scheme,
+Tintoretto is impatient of hackneyed and traditional
+forms; he must have a reading of his own,
+and one which appeals to his imagination. We
+see that passion for movement which distinguishes
+his early work. &ldquo;Moses striking the Rock&rdquo; is a
+figure instinct with purpose and energy. The
+water bounds forth, living, life-giving, the people
+strain wildly to reach it. His figures are sometimes
+found fault with, as extravagant in gesture,
+but the attitudes were intended to be seen and to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>arrest attention from far below, and we must not
+forget that the painter&#8217;s models were drawn from
+a Southern race, to whom emphasis of action is
+natural. Tintoretto, it may be conceded, is on
+certain occasions, generally when dealing with
+accessory figures, inclined to excess of gesture;
+it is the defect of his temperament, but when he
+has a subject that carries him away he is sincere
+and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared
+to him; his colour, however effective, is
+calculated, whereas Tintoretto&#8217;s seems to permeate
+every object and to soak the whole composition.
+To quote a recent critic: &ldquo;He chose to begin, if
+possible, with a subject charged with emotion.
+He then proceeded to treat it according to its
+nature, that is to say, he toned down and obscured
+the outlines of form and mapped out the subject
+instead in pale or sombre masses of light and
+shade. Under the control of this powerful
+scheme of chiaroscuro, the colouring of the
+composition was placed, but its own character,
+its degree of richness and sobriety, was determined
+by the kind of emotion belonging to the subject.
+To use colour in this way, not only with
+emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to
+use it to perform one of the greatest functions
+of art.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the
+aspect of the groups, the pathos of the faces
+or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the
+atmosphere into which we are absorbed, the
+sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding
+light and shadow, that makes us feel how different
+the rendering is from any other. In the &ldquo;Christ
+before Pilate&rdquo; the head and figure of Christ are
+not particularly impressive in themselves, but
+the brilliant light falling on the white robes and
+coursing down the steps supplies dignity and
+poetry; the slender white figure stands out
+like a shaft of light against the lurid and
+troubled background. Again, in the &ldquo;Way to
+Golgotha&rdquo; the falling evening gleam, the wild
+sky, the deep shadow of the ravine, throw into
+relief the quiet form, detached in look and
+feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far
+above the brutal throng. Nowhere does that
+spiritual emotion find deeper expression than
+in the &ldquo;Visitation.&rdquo; The passion of thanksgiving,
+the poignancy of mother-love, throb
+through the two women, who have been
+travelling towards one another, with a great
+secret between them, and who at length reach
+the haven of each other&#8217;s love and knowledge.
+Here, too, the dying light, the waving tree,
+the obliteration of form, and the feeling of
+mystery make a deep appeal to the sensuous
+apprehension. We find it again and again; the
+great trees sway and whisper in the gathering
+darkness as the Virgin rides through the falling
+evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and in that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>most moving of all Tintoretto&#8217;s creations, the
+&ldquo;S. Mary of Egypt,&rdquo; the emotional mood of
+Nature&#8217;s self is brought home to us. The trees
+that dominate the landscape are painted with
+a few &ldquo;strokes like sabre cuts&rdquo;; the landscape,
+given with apparent carelessness, yet conveying
+an indescribable sense of space and solemnity,
+unfolds itself under the dying day; and in solitary
+meditation, thrilling with ecstasy, sits that little
+figure, whose heart has travelled far away to
+commune with the Spirit, &ldquo;whose dwelling is
+the light of setting suns.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is not possible in a short space to touch,
+even in passing, on all the many scenes in these
+halls: the &ldquo;Annunciation,&rdquo; with its marvellous
+flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of
+pigeons in the Piazza, and how often the old
+painter must have watched them; the &ldquo;Temptation,&rdquo;
+contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh
+that <em>must</em> be fed, with the calm of absolute
+purity; the &ldquo;Massacre of the Innocents,&rdquo; for
+which the horrors of sacked towns could have
+supplied many a parallel,&mdash;we have not time to
+dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist
+has overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the
+dark halls, by choosing strong and varied effects
+of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we
+can picture what the halls must have been like
+when they first glowed from his hand, adorned
+with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung
+with opulent draperies, with the rose-red and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>purple of bishops&#8217; and cardinals&#8217; robes reflected in
+the gleaming pavement.</p>
+
+<p><a name="egypt" id="egypt"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">
+<img src="images/img303.jpg" width="259" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Tintoretto.</em> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><em>Scuola di San Rocco.</em></span><br />
+S. MARY OF EGYPT.<br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto,
+by many renderings, have made the &ldquo;Last
+Supper&rdquo; peculiarly their own in the domain of
+art. It shows how strongly the mystic strain
+entered into the man&#8217;s character, that often as
+Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its
+interest for him, and he never failed to find a fresh
+point of view. In that in S. Polo, Christ offers
+the sacred food with a gesture of vehement
+generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to
+all comers to the Mass, to afford them a welcome
+as they pass to the High Altar, it tells of the
+Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto
+himself, painted in the character of S. Paul,
+stands at one side, absorbed in meditation. We
+need not insist again on the emotional value of
+the deep colours, the rich creams and crimsons
+and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering, in
+S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point
+in symbolical treatment. Some people are only
+able to see a theatrical, artificial spirit in this
+picture, but at least, when we consider what
+deep meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on
+his subjects, we may believe that he himself was
+sincere and that he let himself go over what
+commended itself as an entirely new rendering.
+&ldquo;The Light shined in the Darkness, and the
+Darkness comprehended it not.&rdquo; The supernatural
+is entering on every side, but the feast
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>goes on; the serving men and maids busy themselves
+with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring,
+but not agitated; none see that throng of
+heavenly visitants, pouring in through the blue
+moonlight, called to their Master&#8217;s side by the
+supreme significance of His words. The painter
+has taken full advantage of the opportunity of
+combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring
+out smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight
+and the unearthly radiance, in divers, yet
+mingling streams which fight against the surrounding
+gloom. In the scene in the Scuola
+di S. Rocco the betrayal is the dominating
+incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the
+Saviour is alone with the faithful disciples.</p>
+
+<p><a name="bacchus" id="bacchus"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img308.jpg" width="550" height="467" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Tintoretto.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Ducal Palace, Venice.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Though several of the large compositions
+ascribed to Tintoretto in the Ducal Palace are
+only partly by him, or entirely by followers and
+imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his
+genius. There is much that is fine about the
+great state pieces. In the &ldquo;Marriage of St.
+Catherine,&rdquo; the saint, in silken gown and
+long transparent veil, is an exquisite figure.
+Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden
+light and air, and yet we feel that these huge
+official subjects, with the prosaic old Doges
+introduced in incongruous company, neither
+stimulated his imagination nor satisfied his taste.
+It is on the smaller canvases that he finds inspiration.
+He never painted anything more lovely,
+more perfect in design, or more gay and tender in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>idea, than the cycle in the Ante-Collegio. The
+glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows
+upon ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and
+a refined, unselfconscious joy such as is felt in
+hardly any other work, except the painter&#8217;s own
+&ldquo;Milky Way&rdquo; in the National Gallery. In all
+these four pictures the feeling for design, a
+branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,
+is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne
+all the principal lines, the eyes and gestures,
+converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol
+of union between the goddess and her lover,
+between the queenly city and the Adriatic sea.
+Or take &ldquo;Pallas driving away Mars&rdquo;: see how
+the mass into which the figures are gathered on
+the left adds strength to the thrust of the
+goddess&#8217;s arm, and what steadiness is given by
+that short straight lance of hers, coming in
+among all the yielding curves. The whole four
+are linked together in meaning: the call to
+Venice to reign over the seas, her triumphant
+peace, with Wisdom guiding her council, and her
+warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction
+with these pictures are two small ones
+in the chapel, hardly less beautiful&mdash;St. George
+with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome.
+It is difficult to say whether the exultant St.
+George, the dignified young bishop, or the two
+older saints are the more sympathetic creations,
+or the more admirable, both in drawing and
+colour. The sense of space in both settings is an
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy
+boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the
+composition.</p>
+
+<p>There are many other striking examples,
+ranging all through Tintoretto&#8217;s life, of his
+untiring imagination. In the Salute is that
+&ldquo;Marriage of Cana,&rdquo; in which all the actors
+seem to swim in golden light. The sharp
+silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine
+with which the hall is flooded, and all the
+architectural lines lead our eyes towards the
+central figure, placed at a distance. On that
+long canvas in the Academy, kneel the three
+treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending in
+homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit
+enthroned upon a broad piazza, through the
+marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape
+shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet
+and ermine kneel before the Child, or hold
+counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of
+S. Giustina. The &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; (in S. Cassiano)
+is another triumph of the painter&#8217;s imaginative
+conception. The bold lines of the crosses,
+the ladder, and the figures detach against a
+glorious sky, and the presence of the moving,
+murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of
+the line of sight, the spectator is made to form
+a part, is conveyed by the swaying and crossing
+of the lances borne by the armed men who keep
+the ground. There is a series, too, which deals
+with the Magdalen. She mourns her dead in that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>solemn, restrained &ldquo;Entombment,&rdquo; where the enfolding
+shadows frame the cross against the sad
+dawn, which adorns the mortuary chapel of S.
+Giorgio Maggiore; and the Piet&agrave; in the Brera, the
+long lines of which add to the impression of tender
+repose, has its peace broken by the passionate cry
+of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto&#8217;s
+ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same
+scene in a dozen different ways, and, in fact,
+the book of sketches lately acquired by the
+British Museum shows as many as thirty trials
+dashed off for one subject, and after all he uses
+one composed for something quite different. It
+is this habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh
+from his brain, that has led to the common but
+superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely
+a great improvisatore, whose successes came more
+or less by good luck. He could, indeed, paint
+pictures at a pace at which many great masters
+could only sketch, but he had already designed
+and considered and rejected, doing with oil,
+ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries
+did mentally. Such achievements as the
+Ante-Collegio cycle, the &ldquo;House of Martha
+and Mary,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Marriage of Cana,&rdquo; the
+&ldquo;Temptation of S. Anthony,&rdquo; to name only a
+few, show a finish and perfection and a balance
+of design which preclude the idea of their being
+lightly painted pictures. When he was actually
+engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with impetuous
+ardour, but we may feel assured he left
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>nothing to chance, though he had his own way
+of making sure of the result.</p>
+
+<p>It is strange to hear people, as one does now
+and then, talking of the &ldquo;Paradiso&rdquo; as &ldquo;a splendid
+failure.&rdquo; It may be granted that the subject is
+an impossible one for human art to realise, yet
+when all allowance has been made for a lamentable
+amount of drying and blackening, it is difficult
+to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his
+admiration of that thronging multitude, ordered
+and disciplined by the tides of light and shadow,
+which roll in and out of the masses, resolving
+them into groups and single figures of almost
+matchless beauty and melting away into a sea
+of radiant ether, which tells us of the boundless
+space which surrounds the serried ranks of the
+Blessed.</p>
+
+<p>Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was
+allotted to him, and it was the last great effort of
+his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved
+both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is
+evident that the painter has framed it upon
+the thought of Dante&#8217;s mystic rose. The circles
+and many of the figures can be traced in the
+poem, and the idea of the Eternal Light streaming
+through the leaves of the rose dominates the
+composition. It is appropriate that it should
+have been his last great work, as it was also
+the greatest attempt at composition ever made
+by a master of the Venetian School.</p>
+
+<p>There is no room here to study Tintoretto as
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>a painter of battlepieces, though from the time
+he painted the &ldquo;Battle of Lepanto,&rdquo; for the
+Council of Ten, he often returned to such
+subjects. His two series for the Gonzaga included
+several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses
+examples. The impetuosity of his style stood
+him in good stead, and he never fails to bring in
+graceful and striking figures.</p>
+
+<p>His portraits are hardly equal to Titian&#8217;s
+intellectual grasp or fine-grained colour, but they
+are extraordinarily characteristic. He prefers to
+paint men rather than women, and he painted
+hundreds&mdash;all the great persons of his time who
+lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian
+portrait by this time was expected to be more
+than a likeness and more than a problem. It was
+to please the taste as a picture, to interest and to
+satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets
+behind the scenes, and we see some mood, some
+aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected to
+show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto&#8217;s,
+but he deals with his sitters with an observation
+which pierces below the surface.</p>
+
+<p>In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often
+unable to discriminate between the turgid and
+melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental.
+The first all must abhor, but the last
+is sincere and deserves to be respected. It is by
+his best that we must judge a man, and taking
+his best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one
+has left a larger amount which will stand the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and
+elevated central ideas, which unify all parts
+of his composition, Tintoretto stands with the
+greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual
+side of life was exemplified in Florentine art,
+but the Renaissance would have been a one-sided
+development if there had not arisen a body of
+men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous
+apprehension seemed of supreme value, and at
+the very last there arose with him one who, to
+their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of
+their chosen medium, added the crowning glory
+of the imaginative idea.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Augsburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator
+             before S. Mark.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old
+             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of
+             Dominican; Knight of Malta.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;
+             Origin of Milky Way.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;
+             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before
+             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S. Mark (E.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of Himself.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Turin.</td>  <td class="td5">The Trinity.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints
+             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;
+             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea
+             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam
+             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna
+             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in
+             Temple.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;
+             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;
+             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan&#8217;s Forge;
+             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;
+             SS. Andrew and Jerome.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,
+             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:
+             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark
+             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;
+             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);
+             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the
+             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d&#8217; Armata;
+             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.
+             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls
+             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before
+             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Silvestro: Baptism.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of
+             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and
+             Boy; Portrait of Lady.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>BASSANO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>We wonder how many of those sightseers who
+pass through the Ante-Collegio in the Ducal
+Palace, and stare for a few moments at Tintoretto&#8217;s
+famous quartet and at Veronese&#8217;s &ldquo;Rape of
+Europa,&rdquo; turn to give even such fleeting attention
+to the long, dark canvas which hangs beside
+them, &ldquo;Jacob&#8217;s Journey into Canaan,&rdquo; by Jacopo
+da Ponte, called Bassano.</p>
+
+<p>Yet from the position in which it is placed
+the visitor might guess that it is considered to be
+a gem, and it gains something in interest when we
+learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo
+Contarini at the same time as the &ldquo;Rape of
+Europa,&rdquo; as if the great connoisseur enjoyed
+contrasting Veronese&#8217;s light, gay style with the
+vigorous brush of da Ponte.</p>
+
+<p>If attention is arrested by the beauty of the
+painting, and the visitor should be inspired to
+seek the painter in his native city, he will be
+well repaid. Bassano once held an important
+position on the main road between Italy and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>Germany, but since the railroad was made across
+the Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little
+town which lies cradled on the spurs of the
+Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana
+opens. It is surrounded by chestnut woods,
+which sweep up to the blue mountains, the wide
+Brenta flows through the town, and the houses
+cluster high on either side, and have gardens and
+balconies overhanging the water. The fa&ccedil;ades
+of many of the houses are covered with fading
+frescoes, relics of da Ponte&#8217;s school of fresco-painters,
+which, though they are fast perishing,
+still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.</p>
+
+<p>Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his
+father, Francesco, who in his day had been a
+pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.
+Francesco da Ponte&#8217;s best work is to be found
+at Bassano, in the cathedral and the church of
+San Giovanni, and has many of the characteristics,
+such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola,
+which we have noticed that Montagna owed to
+the Vivarini. Francesco&#8217;s son went when very
+young to Venice, and was there thrown at once
+among the artists of the lagoons, and attached
+himself in particular to Bonifazio. In Jacopo&#8217;s
+earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a
+&ldquo;Flight into Egypt,&rdquo; Bonifazio&#8217;s tuition is
+markedly discernible in the build of the figures
+and, above all, in the form of the heads. A
+comparison of the very peculiarly shaped head
+of the Virgin in this picture with that of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>
+Venetian lady in Bonifazio&#8217;s &ldquo;Rich Man&#8217;s Feast,&rdquo;
+in the Venetian Academy, leaves us in no doubt
+on this score. Jacopo&#8217;s &ldquo;Adulteress before
+Christ&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Three in the Fiery Furnace&rdquo;
+have Bonifazio&#8217;s manner in the architecture and
+the staging of the figures. Only five examples
+are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it
+is all in Bonifazio&#8217;s lighter style, not unlike his
+&ldquo;Holy Family&rdquo; in the National Gallery.</p>
+
+<p>The house in which the painter lived when
+he returned to his native town, still stands in the
+little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole fa&ccedil;ade
+retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with
+which he decorated it. The design is in four
+horizontal bands. First comes a frieze of
+children in every attitude of fun and frolic.
+Then follows a long range of animals&mdash;horses,
+oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and flowers
+make a border, with allegorical representations
+of the arts and crafts filling the spaces between
+the windows. The principal band is decorated
+with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now
+hardly discernible, but which represent &ldquo;Samson
+slaying the Philistines,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Drunkenness
+of Noah,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cain and Abel,&rdquo; &ldquo;Lot and his
+Daughters,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Judith with the Head of
+Holofernes.&rdquo; Between the two last there
+formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child,
+with the motto, &ldquo;Mors omnia aequat,&rdquo; which
+was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively
+good preservation.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano,
+where, with the help of his four sons, who were
+all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible
+stream of works, which, it is said, were put up
+to auction at the neighbouring fairs, if no other
+market was forthcoming. From time to time
+he and his sons went down to Venice, and with
+the help of the eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he
+is generally known) painted the &ldquo;Siege of Padua&rdquo;
+and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His
+mature style was founded mainly upon that of
+Titian, and it is to this second manner that he
+owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours,
+and enhances his lights by deepening and consolidating
+his shadows, so that they come into
+strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer
+impasto. He has a marvellous faculty for keeping
+his colour pure, and his greens shine like a
+beetle&#8217;s wing. A nature-lover in the highest
+degree, his painting of animals and plants evinces
+a mind which is steeped in the magic of outdoor
+life. A subject of which he was particularly
+fond, and which he seems to have undertaken for
+half the collectors of Europe, was the &ldquo;Four
+Seasons.&rdquo; Here was found united everything
+that Bassano most loved to paint: beasts of the
+farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with
+their implements, scenes of harvest-time and
+vintage, rough peasants leading the plough,
+cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young
+girls making hay, driving home the cattle,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>taking dinner to the reapers. When he was
+obliged to paint for churches he chose such
+subjects as the Adoration of the Shepherds, the
+Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from the
+Temple, into which he could introduce animals,
+painting them with such vigour and such forcible
+colour that Titian himself is said to have had
+a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint
+his daughters engaged in household tasks, and
+perhaps placed his figures with rather too obvious
+a reference to light and shade, and to the sun
+striking full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom
+shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of Veronese
+and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records
+that when he was one day discussing contemporary
+painters with the latter, Tintoretto
+exclaimed, &ldquo;Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing
+and I had your colour I would defy the devil
+himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to
+make any show beside us.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Bassano was invited to take up his residence
+at the Court of the Emperor Rudolph, but he
+refused to leave his mountain city, where he died
+in 1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd
+of the poorest inhabitants, for whom his charity
+had been boundless.</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Journey of Jacob,&rdquo; to which we have
+already alluded, is among his most beautiful
+works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated
+to the charm of the landscape. The
+evening dusk draws all objects into its embrace.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out
+against a gleam of sunset sky. The tree-trunks
+and light play of leafy branches, which break
+up the composition, are from da Ponte&#8217;s own
+country round Bassano. The pony upon which
+the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among
+the quiet sheep, are given with all the loving
+truth of the born animal-painter. It is no
+wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him,
+and has more than once imitated his whole
+design.</p>
+
+<p>The &ldquo;Baptism of St. Lucilla&rdquo; (in the Museum
+at Bassano) is one of his most Titianesque
+creations. The personages in it are grouped
+upon a flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance
+palace with cypresses against a sky of
+evening-red barred with purple clouds. The
+drawing and modelling of the figures are almost
+faultless, and the colour is dazzling. The bending
+figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling
+on her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before
+the young bishop, St. Valentine, is one of the
+most graceful things in art, and Titian himself
+need not have disowned the little angels, bearing
+palm branches and frolicking in the stream of
+radiance overhead.</p>
+
+<p>Bassano has a &ldquo;Concert,&rdquo; which is interesting
+as a family piece. It was painted in the year
+in which his son Leandro&#8217;s marriage took place,
+and is probably a bridal painting to celebrate
+the event. The &ldquo;Magistrates in Adoration&rdquo;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>(Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light,
+and its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto&#8217;s
+numerous pictures of kneeling doges
+and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.</p>
+
+<p><a name="bapt" id="bapt"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 379px;">
+<img src="images/img323.jpg" width="379" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Jacopo da Ponte.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Bassano.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Alinari.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Madonnas and saints are usually built into
+close-packed pyramids, but in the &ldquo;Repose in
+Egypt,&rdquo; now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his
+arrangement comes very close to Palma and
+Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child, the
+attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting,
+head on hand, at the Virgin&#8217;s feet and gazing
+in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of
+the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite
+landscape behind them, and the vigorously drawn
+tree under which they recline, show Bassano
+true to his passion for nature.</p>
+
+<p>Hampton Court is rich in his pictures.
+&ldquo;The Adoration of the Shepherds,&rdquo; in which
+the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an
+exercise in the manner of Titian&#8217;s Frari altarpiece.
+His portraits are fine and sympathetic,
+but hardly any of them are signed or can be
+dated. His own is in the Uffizi, and there is a
+splendid &ldquo;Old Man&rdquo; at Buda-Pesth. Ariosto
+and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other
+distinguished men were among his sitters; most
+of them are in half-length with three-quarter
+heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly
+attractive one of a young man with a
+sensitive, acute countenance, robed in dignified,
+picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>linen collar. He stands by the sort of square
+window, opening on a distant landscape, of which
+Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front
+of which a golden vase, holding a branch of
+olive, catches the rays of light.</p>
+
+<p>Bassano has no great power of design, and
+his knowledge of the nude seems to have been
+small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour
+leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates
+other shortcomings.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Augsburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bassano.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three
+             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight
+             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration
+             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending
+             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;
+             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.); Nativity.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Cittadella.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of S. Paul.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; Jacob&#8217;s Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);
+             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men
+             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to Shepherds (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino
+             blessing the Faithful.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob&#8217;s Journey.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giacomo dell&#8217; Orio: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;
+             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised
+             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the
+             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;
+             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Deposition; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PART III</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>THE INTERIM</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>Many of the churches and palaces of Venice
+and the adjoining mainland, and almost every
+public and private gallery throughout Europe,
+contain pictures purporting to be painted by
+Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and others of that
+famous company. Hardly a great English house
+but boasts of a round dozen at least of such
+specimens, acquired in the days when rich
+Englishmen made the &ldquo;grand tour&rdquo; and substantiated
+a reputation for taste and culture by
+collecting works of art. These pictures resemble
+the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted
+way. Their owners themselves are not very
+tenacious as to their authenticity, and the visit
+of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition
+tears their pretensions to tatters. In the
+Academia itself the Bonifazio and Tintoretto
+rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal
+Palace has ceilings and panels on which are
+reproduced the kind of compositions initiated
+by the great artists, which make an effort to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>capture their gamut of colour and to master
+their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them, in
+short, in everything except in their inimitable
+touch and fire and spirit. It would have been
+impossible for any men, however industrious
+and prolific, to have carried out all the work
+which passes under their names, to say nothing
+of that which has perished; but our surprise and
+curiosity diminish when we come to inquire
+systematically into the methods of that host of
+copyists which, even before the masters&#8217; death,
+had begun to ply its lucrative trade.</p>
+
+<p>We must bear in mind that every great man
+was surrounded by busy and attentive satellites,
+helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting
+a large part of important commissions, witnesses
+of the high prices received, and alive to all the
+gossip as to the relative popularity of the
+painters and the requests and orders which
+reached them from all quarters. The painters&#8217;
+own sons were in many instances those who
+first traded upon their fathers&#8217; fame. From
+Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we learn of the
+many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and
+the vast numbers painted by Domenico Robusti
+in the style of their respective fathers. Domenico
+seems to have particularly affected the subject of
+&ldquo;St. George and the Dragon,&rdquo; and the picture at
+Dresden, which passes under Tintoretto&#8217;s name, is
+perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano&#8217;s four sons, Francesco
+&ldquo;imitated his father perfectly,&rdquo; conserving
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>his warmth of tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti
+enumerates a surprising number of Francesco&#8217;s
+works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal
+Palace. Leandro followed more particularly his
+father&#8217;s first manner, was a good portrait-painter,
+and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo
+copied and recopied the old Bassano till he
+even deceived connoisseurs, &ldquo;how much more,&rdquo;
+says Zanetti, writing in 1771, &ldquo;those of the
+present day, who behold them harmonised and
+accredited by time.&rdquo; No school in Venice was
+so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts
+of the imitators, as that of Paolo Veronese.
+Even at an early date it was impossible not to
+confound the master with the disciples; the
+weaker of the originals were held to be of
+imitators, the best imitations were assigned to
+the master himself. &ldquo;Oh how easy it is,&rdquo;
+exclaims Zanetti again, &ldquo;to make mistakes about
+Veronese&#8217;s pictures, but I can point out sundry
+infallible characteristics to those who wish for
+light upon this doubtful path; the fineness
+and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime
+intelligence and grace, shown particularly in
+the form of the heads, which is never found in
+any of his imitators.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Few Venetians, however, followed the style
+of only one man; the output was probably
+determined and varied by the demand. Too
+many attractive manners existed to dazzle them,
+and when once they began to imitate, they were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered
+that every master left behind him
+stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and
+half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized
+upon, bought or stolen, and utilised to produce
+masterpieces masquerading under his name.</p>
+
+<p>As the seventeenth century advanced the
+character of art and manners underwent a
+change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel
+and bizarre, and the complex was preferred to
+the simple. Venetian art, in all its branches,
+had passed from the stately and restrained to
+the pompous and artificial. Yet the barocco
+style was used by Venice in a way of its own;
+whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament
+as it is, it yet compels admiration by its
+vigorous life and movement. The art of the
+sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was
+alive. It escaped the most deadly of all faults,
+a cold and academic mannerism&mdash;and this at a
+time when the rest of Italy was given over to
+the inflated followers of Michelangelo and the
+calculated elaborations of the eclectics.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the things we most love in Venice,
+such as the Salute, the Clock-Tower, the
+Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico
+and Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth
+century. The barocco intemperance in
+sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini;
+and as the immediate influence of the great
+masters declined, painting acquired the same
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity
+of Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from
+the lightning speed of his imagination and
+the unerring sureness of his brush, became a
+mechanical trick in the hands of superficial
+students. True art had migrated elsewhere&mdash;to
+the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt.
+As art grew more pompous it became less
+emotional. Painters like Palma Giovine spoilt
+their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry.
+The nickname of &ldquo;Fa Presto&rdquo; was deserved by
+others besides Luca Giordano, and Venice was
+overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime
+standard of excellence was the ability to make
+haste. Grandeur of conception was forgotten;
+a grave, ample manner was no longer understood;
+superficial sentiment and bombastic size
+carried the day. Yet a few painters, though
+their forms had become redundant and exaggerated,
+retained something of what had been
+the Venetian glory&mdash;the deep and moist colour
+of old. It still glowed with traces of its old
+lustre on the canvases of Giovanni Contarini,
+or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and
+though there was a perfect fury of production,
+without order and without law, there can still
+be perceived the survival of that sense of the
+decorative which kept the thread of art. We
+discover it in the ceiling of the Church of San
+Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints
+the glorification of the martyred patron, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>which, fantastic and extravagant as it is, with
+its stupendous, architectural setting, and its
+acutely, almost absurdly foreshortened throng,
+is not without a certain grandiose geniality,
+ample and picturesque, like the buildings of
+that date. In Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino),
+whose &ldquo;Nozze di Cana&rdquo; in the Academia is a
+finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is
+made of cypresses, we seem to recognise the last
+ray of the Titianesque. The painting of the seventeenth
+century passed on towards the eighteenth,
+and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and
+Venuses smile at us, attitudinising and contorted
+upon their cloudy backgrounds. Lackadaisical
+Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the
+Angel of the Annunciation capers above the
+head of an affected Virgin, while violent colours,
+intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto
+betray the neighbourhood of the <em>tenebrosi</em>.
+When, towards the end of the seventeenth
+century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake
+off these influences, he went to the opposite
+extreme. Although a beautiful designer, he
+becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness
+and insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise,
+appearing in a country where the taste for
+luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly
+rooted. The student of Venetian painting, who
+wishes to fill up the hiatus which lies between
+the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth
+century, cannot do better than compare Fumiani&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>vault in San Pantaleone with Lazzarini&#8217;s sober
+and earnest fresco, &ldquo;The Charity of San Lorenzo
+Giustiniani,&rdquo; in San Pietro in Castello, and with
+Pietro Liberi&#8217;s &ldquo;Battle of the Dardanelles&rdquo; in
+the Ducal Palace. In all three we have
+examples of the varied and accomplished yet
+soulless art of this period. Not many of the
+scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the
+seventeenth century have survived. They are
+to be found here and there by the curious who
+wander into old churches and palaces with a
+second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands;
+but in the reaction from the florid which took
+place in the Empire period, many of them gave
+place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal
+Palace, side by side with the masterpieces of the
+Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded
+canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini,
+Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and others like them.
+Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in
+St. Mark&#8217;s are from designs by Palma Giovine
+and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who was a painter
+himself, as well as the painter&#8217;s chronicler, has
+an &ldquo;Adoration of the Magi&rdquo; in S. Giovanni
+Elemosinario, poor enough in invention and
+execution. Two pictures by obscure artists
+disfigure a corner of the Scuola di San Rocco.
+The Museo Civico has a large canvas by
+Vicentino, a &ldquo;Coronation of a Dogaressa,&rdquo; which
+once adorned Palazzo Grimani. We hear of a
+school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi,
+and the names of others have come down to us
+in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards
+the end of the seventeenth century more
+light and novelty sparkles in the painting of
+the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us
+that he was no mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth
+century opens, we become aware of the
+strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta.
+Piazetta studied the works of the Carracci for
+some time in Bologna, and especially those of
+Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts
+of light and shade, has served above all as his
+model. He paints very darkly, and his figures
+often blend with and disappear into the profound
+tones of his backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls
+him &ldquo;a Venetian Caravaggio&rdquo;; and he has
+something of the strength and even the brutality
+of the Bolognese. A fine decorative and imaginative
+example of his work is the &ldquo;Madonna
+appearing to S. Philip Neri&rdquo; in the Church of
+S. Fava. The erect form of the Madonna is
+relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the
+mantle, upheld by <em>putti</em>. Radiant clouds light
+up the background and illumine the form of the
+old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at
+the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is
+a bold realist, and many of his small pictures
+are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,
+Battista&#8217;s son, is described as &ldquo;a fine intelligence,&rdquo;
+and attracts our notice as having forged
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>special links with England. Hampton Court
+possesses a long array of his paintings. In the
+chapel of Chelsea Hospital the plaster semi-dome
+is painted by him, in oils, with very good
+effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill&#8217;s
+studio, and his influence may be suspected in
+the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches in
+Hogarth&#8217;s work.</p>
+
+<p>By the eighteenth century Venice had parted
+with her old nobility of soul, and enjoyment
+had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice,
+among the States of Italy, alone retained her
+freedom. The Doge reigned supreme as in
+the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the
+dreaded Three still sat in secret council. Venice
+was still the city of subtle poisons and dangerous
+mysteries, but the days were gone when she had
+held the balance in European affairs, and she
+had become, in a superlative degree, the city of
+pleasure. Nowhere was life more varied and
+entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>A long period of peace had rocked the
+Venetian people into calm security. There was,
+indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corf&ugrave;,
+Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was
+retained in the struggles of Europe. The whole
+policy of the city&#8217;s life was one of self-indulgence.
+Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole
+population lived &ldquo;in piazza,&rdquo; laughing, gossiping,
+seeing and being seen. The very churches
+had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>the convents boasted their <em>salons</em>, where nuns
+in low dresses, with pearls in their hair, received
+the advances of nobles and gallant abb&eacute;s. People
+came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the
+last scandal, sensational stories, were the only
+subjects worth discussing. In an age of parodies
+and practical jokes, the more absurd any one
+could be, the more silly or witty stories he
+could tell, the more assured was his success in
+the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and
+laughter. The Carnival lasted for six months
+of the year, and was the occasion for masques
+and licence of every description. In the hot
+weather, the gay descendants of the Contarini, the
+Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand old houses,
+migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day
+and night the same reckless, irresponsible life
+went gaily on. The power of such courtesans
+as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was
+waning. Their place was adequately supplied
+by the easy dames of society, no longer secluded,
+proud and tranquil, but &ldquo;stirred by the wild
+blood of youth and stooping to the frolic.&rdquo;
+&ldquo;They are but faces and smiles, teasing and
+trumpery,&rdquo; says one of their critics, yet they
+are declared to be wideawake, natural and
+charming, making the most of their smattering
+of letters. Love was the great game; every
+woman had lovers, every married woman openly
+flaunted her <em>cicisbeo</em> or <em>cavaliere servente</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The older portion of the middle class was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>still moderate and temperate, contented to live
+in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in
+politics, with which it was dangerous for the
+ordinary individual to meddle; but the new
+leaven was creeping through every level of
+society. The sons and daughters of the
+<em>bourgeoisie</em> tried to rise in the social scale by
+aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They
+deserted the shop and the counting-house to play
+cards and strut upon the piazza. They mimicked
+the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and
+made fashionable love and carried on intrigues.
+The spirit of the whole people had lost its
+elevation; there were no more proud patricians,
+full of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public
+service; it was hardly possible to get a sufficient
+number of persons to carry on public business.
+It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet
+among all this degenerate life, we come upon
+something more real as we turn to the artists.
+They were very much alive. In music, in
+literature, and in painting, new and graceful
+forms of art were emerging. Painting was not the
+grand art of other days; it might be small and
+trivial, but there grew up a real little Renaissance
+of the eighteenth century, full of originality and
+fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous
+and banale style of the imitators.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of the &ldquo;lady&rdquo; was becoming
+increasingly felt by society. Confidential little
+boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>mode, and needed decorating as well as vast
+salas. The dainty luxury of gilt furniture,
+designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered
+in delicate silks, was matched by small, attractive
+works of art. Venice had lost her Eastern trade,
+and as the East faded out of her scheme of life,
+the West, to which she now turned, was bringing
+her a different form of art. The great reception
+rooms were still suited by the grandiose compositions
+of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but
+another genre of charming creations smiled
+from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate
+suites of rooms.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to name more than a fraction
+of these artists of the eighteenth century. There
+is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;
+Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the
+day; Luca Carlevaris, the forerunner of Canale;
+Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country are
+mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the
+most important are preserved in the cupola and
+spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle Howard.
+Their work is still to be found in many a
+Venetian church or North Italian gallery. Some
+of it is almost fine, though too often vitiated by
+the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day.
+When originality asserts itself more decidedly,
+Rosalba Carriera stands out as an artist who
+acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she
+was a young woman of twenty-four, she was
+already a great favourite with the public. She
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was
+bad, Jean St&egrave;ve, a Frenchman, taught her to
+paint miniatures. She imparted a wonderfully
+delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to
+pastel, she brought to this branch of portraiture
+a brilliancy and freshness which it had not
+known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved
+for us better than any one else, those women
+of Venice who floated so lightly on the dancing
+waves of that sparkling stream. There they
+are: La Cornaro; La Maria Labia, who was
+surrounded by French lovers, &ldquo;very courteous
+and very beautiful&rdquo;; La Zenobio and La Pisani;
+La Foscari, with her black plumes; La Mocenigo,
+&ldquo;the lady with the pearls.&rdquo; She has pinned
+them all to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted
+butterflies, with velvet neck-ribbons
+round their snowy throats and coquettish patches
+on their delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in
+their high-dressed hair and sheeny bodices. They
+look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting
+mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet,
+ephemeral, irresponsible in every relation of life.
+Older men and women there are, too, when those
+artificial years have produced a succession of
+rather dull, sodden personages, kindly, inoffensive,
+but stupid, and still trifling heavily with the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare
+with those of her sitters. She and the
+other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>life of the worker, and found in their art the
+antidote to the evil living and the dissipation of
+the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.
+Rosalba&#8217;s <em>milieu</em> is a type of others of its class.
+She lives with her mother and sisters, an honest,
+cheerful, industrious existence. They are fond
+of old friends and old books, and indulge in music
+and simple pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba
+by preparing the groundwork of her paintings.
+She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on
+the harpsichord. She receives great men without
+much ceremony, and the Elector Palatine, the
+Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of
+Norway, and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come
+to her to order miniatures of their reigning
+beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she
+has plenty of commissions, and the frequently
+occurring names of English patrons in her fragmentary
+diaries, tell how much her work was
+admired by English travellers. She did more
+than anybody else to promote the fashion for
+pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its
+best in the pastel room of the Dresden Gallery.</p>
+
+<p>Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us
+a charming description of a party of English
+travellers, which included Horace Walpole,
+arriving in Venice in 1741, strolling about in
+mask and <em>bauta</em>, and visiting the famous pastellist
+in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba
+has painted Walpole, and has left one of the
+most interesting examples of her art.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">SOME EXAMPLES</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Francesco da Ponte.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on
+             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left
+             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the
+             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to
+             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the
+             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;
+             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are
+             all very rich in colour.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala dell&#8217; Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Leandro da Ponte.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a
+             Blessed Candle to the Doge.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge
+             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one
+             side of the sala.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the
+             Avogadori Family.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Palma Giovine.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Presentation of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: S. Margaret.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pietà; Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Il Padovanino.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Lucretia.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Cornelia and her Children.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Venus and Cupid.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,
+             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pietro Liberi.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Andrea Vicentino.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. A. Fumiani.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">San Pantaleone: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Church of the Carità: Christ disputing with the Doctors.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>A. Balestra.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Tomaso: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. Lazzarini.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro in Castello.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Sebastiano Ricci.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. B. Pittoni.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">The Bath of Diana.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. B. Piazetta.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Rosalba Carriera.</em></p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: pastels.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Pastels.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>TIEPOLO</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>We have already noted that to establish the
+significance of any period in art, it is necessary
+that the tendencies should unite and combine in
+some culminating spirits who rise triumphant
+over their contemporaries and soar above the
+age in which they live. Such a genius stands
+out above the eighteenth century crowd, and is
+not only of his century, but of every time. For
+two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised
+as extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting
+cupids, nymphs, and parroquets. In the last
+century he experienced the effect of the profound
+discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century
+art had fallen. In France, David had
+obliterated Watteau; and the reputation of
+Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced
+Tiepolo and his contemporaries. When the
+delegates of the French Republic inspected Italian
+churches and palaces, and decided what works of
+art should be sent to the Louvre, they singled
+out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and Guidos,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other
+such forgotten masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a
+Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret of their
+descendants, they disdained to annex a single one
+of the great paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista
+Tiepolo.</p>
+
+<p>Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as &ldquo;an
+artist of fantastic imagination.&rdquo; Most of the
+nineteenth-century critics do not even mention
+him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging
+line of praise, Blanc is equally disparaging, and
+for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his
+influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime;
+only now is he coming into his own, and it is
+recognised that the <em>plein-air</em> artist, the luminarist,
+the impressionist, owe no small share of their
+knowledge to his inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>The name of Tiepolo brings before us a
+whole string of illustrious personages&mdash;doges
+and senators, magnificent procurators and great
+captains&mdash;but we have nothing to prove that the
+artist belonged to a decayed branch of the famous
+patrician house. Born in Castello, the people&#8217;s
+quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth
+with that good draughtsman, Lazzarini. At
+twenty-three he married the sister of Francesco
+Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi
+and Canale and who is a better painter than
+either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.
+The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at
+its height. The life of the aristocracy on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>lagoons was every year growing more gay,
+more abandoned to capricious inclination, to
+light loves and absurd amusements. And the
+art which reflected this life was called upon to
+give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather
+than character. Yet if the Venetian art had lost
+all connection with the grave magnificence of
+the past, it had kept aloof from the academic
+coldness which was in fashion beyond the
+lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a
+certain natural absurdity. The age had become
+romantic; the Arcadian convention was in full
+force, Nature herself was pressed into the service
+of idle, sentimental men and women. The
+country was pictured as a place of delight,
+where the sun always shone and the peasants
+passed their time singing madrigals and indulging
+in rural pleasures. The public, however, had
+begun to look for beauty; the traditions which
+had formed round the decorative schools were
+giving way to the appreciation of original work.
+Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when
+he is sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the
+taste of the Venetians, and without emancipating
+himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives
+to introduce a fresh accent. All round
+him was a weak and self-indulgent world, but
+within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant
+and inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng
+of personages on the ceilings of the churches
+and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>range from mythology to religion, from
+the sublime to the grotesque. All Olympia
+appears upon his ample and luminous spaces.
+It is not to the cold, austere Lazzarini, or to
+the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or the
+imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he
+was touched by each of them, that we must turn
+for Tiepolo&#8217;s derivation. Long before his time,
+the kind of decoration of ceilings which we
+are apt to call Tiepolesque; the foreshortened
+architecture, the columns and cornices, the figures
+peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds,
+had been used by an increasing throng of painters.
+The style arose, indeed, in the quattrocento;
+Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo
+had used it, though in a far more sober way than
+later generations. Correggio and the Venetians
+had perfected the idea, which the artists of the
+seventeenth century seized upon and carried
+to the most intemperate excess. But Tiepolo
+rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,
+exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this
+time defied all laws of equilibrium, and we
+must go back further than his immediate predecessors
+for his origins. His claim to stand
+with Tintoretto or Veronese may be contested,
+but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese
+is the artist he studied with the greatest fervour.
+Without copying, he seems to have a natural
+affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates
+the ample arrangement of his groups, the grace
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>of his architecture, and his decorative feeling for
+colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo&#8217;s dearest
+friends, writes: &ldquo;No painter of our time could
+so well recall the bright and happy creations
+of Veronese.&rdquo; The difference between them is
+more one of period than of temperament. Paolo
+Veronese represented the opulence of a rich,
+strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo&#8217;s
+lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous
+women, and full of the modern spirit himself,
+he adapts his genius to his time and devotes
+himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental
+vein of the Venice of the decadence. Full
+of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to
+respond to any call. He went to and fro between
+Venice and the villas along the mainland
+and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting
+wider fields, he travelled to Milan and Genoa,
+where his frescoes still gleam in the palaces
+of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici.
+At W&uuml;rzburg in Bavaria he achieved a magnificent
+series of decorations for the palace of the
+Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy,
+he painted altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his
+friends, and a fresh multitude of allegorical and
+mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His
+charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top
+to bottom by himself and his sons, and has
+amusing examples of contemporary dress and
+manners.</p>
+
+<p>When the Academy was instituted in 1755,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>Tiepolo was appointed its first director, but the
+sort of employment it provided was not suited
+to his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw
+up the post and went off to Spain with his two
+sons. There he received a splendid welcome
+and was loaded with commissions, the only
+dissentient voice being that of Raphael Mengs,
+who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the
+antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian&#8217;s
+art. Tiepolo died suddenly in Madrid in 1770,
+pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,
+the frescoes he has left there show that his
+hand was as firm and his eye as sure as ever.</p>
+
+<p>His frescoes have, as we have said, that
+frankly theatrical flavour which corresponds
+exactly to the taste of the time. Such works
+as the &ldquo;Transportation of the Holy House of
+Loretto&rdquo; in the Church of the Scalzi in Venice,
+or the &ldquo;Triumph of Faith&rdquo; in that of the
+Piet&agrave;, the &ldquo;Triumph of Hercules&rdquo; in Palazzo
+Canossa in Verona, or the decorations in the
+magnificent villa of the Pisani at Str&agrave;, are
+extravagant and fantastic, yet have the impressive
+quality of genius. These last, which have for
+subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full
+of portraits. The patrician sons and daughters
+appear, surrounded by Abundance, War, and
+Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises
+Europe. All round are grouped flags and
+dragons, &ldquo;nations grappling in the airy blue,&rdquo;
+bands of Red Indians in their war-paint and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>happy couples making love. The idea of the
+history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the
+House is paramount, and over all appears Fame,
+bearing the noble name into immortality. In
+Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal
+committee gave the painter a free hand, and on
+the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun in a chariot,
+with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the
+meridian, flooding the world with light. Venus
+and Saturn attend him, and his advent is heralded
+by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth
+joys at his coming, and a concourse of naiads,
+nymphs, and dolphins wait upon his footsteps.
+In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo
+has left one of his grandest displays. The
+haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his ideal of
+the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm,
+and, standing enthroned upon the rolling clouds,
+hardly deigns to acknowledge the homage of
+the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel
+is bestowing her scapulary. The most charming
+<em>amoretti</em> are disporting in all directions, flinging
+themselves from on high in delicious <em>abandon</em>,
+alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal
+virtues. At Villa Valmarana near Vicenza, after
+revelling among the gods, he comes to earth
+and delights in painting lovely ladies with
+almond eyes and carnation cheeks, attended by
+their cavaliers, seated in balconies, looking on
+at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival
+scenes with masques and dominoes and <em>f&ecirc;tes
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>champ&ecirc;tres</em>, which give us a picture of the
+fashions and manners of the day. He brings in
+groups of Chinese in oriental dress, and then
+he condescends to paint country girls and their
+rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and
+Corydon.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid.
+He abandons the airy fancies scattered in cloud-land.
+The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano
+affords an opportunity for introducing magnificent
+architecture, warriors in armour, and stately
+dames in satin and brocades. He touches his
+highest in the decorations of Palazzo Labia,
+where Antony and Cleopatra, seated at their
+banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard
+one another silently, with looks of sombre
+passion. Four exquisite panels have lately been
+acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the
+loves of Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast
+of gay, delicate colour, with fascinating backgrounds
+of Italian gardens. The throne-room
+of the palace at Madrid has the same order of
+compositions&mdash;&AElig;neas conducted by Venus from
+Time to Immortality, and other deifications of
+Spanish royalty.</p>
+
+<p><a name="cleo" id="cleo"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 431px;">
+<img src="images/img355.jpg" width="431" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Tiepolo.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Palazzo Labia, Venice.</em></p>
+
+<p>Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a
+tragic mood. In the Church of San Alvise he
+has left a &ldquo;Way to Calvary,&rdquo; a &ldquo;Flagellation,&rdquo;
+and a &ldquo;Crowning of Thorns,&rdquo; which are intensely
+dramatic, and which show strong feeling.
+Particularly striking is the contrast between the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>refined and sensitive type of his Christ and the
+realistic and even brutal study of the two
+despairing malefactors&mdash;one a common ruffian,
+the other an aged offender of a higher class.
+His altarpiece at Este, representing S. Tecla
+staying the plague, is painted with a real insight
+into disaster and agony, and S. Tecla is a
+pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes in his
+easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a
+S. Anthony, or a Crucifixion, but he always
+returns before long to the ample spaces and
+fantastic subjects which his soul loved.</p>
+
+<p>Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art
+suggests a strong being, held captive by butterflies.
+Sometimes he is joyous and limpid, sometimes
+turbulent and strong, but he has always
+sincerity, force, and life. A great space serves
+to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better
+than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white
+limbs among the clouds, sea-horses ridden by
+Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman armour,
+balustrades and columns and <em>amoretti</em>. He does
+not even need to pounce his design, but puts in
+all sorts of improvised modifications with a sure
+hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring
+poses of his countless figures, and the freedom of
+his line speak eloquently of the mastery to
+which his hand had attained. He revels, above
+all, in effects of light&mdash;&ldquo;all the light of the
+sky, and all the light of the sea; all the light
+of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>He paints not ideas, scarcely even forms, but
+light. His ceilings are radiant, like the sky
+of birds; his poems seem to be written in the
+clouds. Light is fairer than all things, and
+Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of
+light.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nearly all his compositions have a serene
+and limpid horizon, with the figures approaching
+it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and
+diaphanous, while the forms below are more
+muscular, the flesh tints are deeper, and the
+whole of the foreground is often enveloped in
+shadow. Veronese had lit up the shadows,
+which, under his contemporaries, were growing
+gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the
+same lines. He makes his figures more graceful,
+his draperies more vaporous, and illumines
+his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and
+rose, his golden-greys, and pearly whites and
+pastel tints are not so much solid colours as
+caprices of light. We have remarked already
+that with Veronese the accessories of gleaming
+satins and rich brocades serve to obscure the
+persons. In many of Tiepolo&#8217;s scenes the
+figures are lost in a flutter of drapery, subject
+and action melt away, and we are only conscious
+of soft harmonies of delicious colour,
+as ethereal as the hues of spring flowers in
+woodland ways and joyous meadows. With
+these delicious, audacious fancies, put on with
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>a nervous hand, we forget the age of profound and
+ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous
+solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe
+an atmosphere of irresponsible and capricious
+pleasure. In this last word of her great masters
+Venice keeps what her temperament loved&mdash;sensuous
+colour and emotional chiaroscuro, used
+to accentuate an art adapted to a city of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The excellence of the old masters&#8217; drawings
+is a perpetual revelation. Even second-class
+men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen,
+proving that drawing was looked upon as something
+over which it was necessary for even the
+meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo&#8217;s
+drawings, preserved in Venice and in various
+museums, are as beautiful as can be wished;
+perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In
+Venice are twenty or thirty sheets in red carbon,
+of flights of angels, and of draperies studied in
+every variety of fold.</p>
+
+<p>Poor work of his school is often ascribed to
+his sons, but the superb &ldquo;Stations of the Cross,&rdquo;
+in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,
+and published as his own in his lifetime, are
+almost equal to the father&#8217;s work. Tiepolo had
+many immediate followers and imitators. The
+colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the
+Church of SS. Apostoli, Venice, may be pointed
+out as an example of one of these. But he is full
+of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson,
+writing of him, says he sometimes seems more
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>the first than the last of a line, and notices how
+he influenced many French artists of recent
+times, though none seem quite to have caught
+the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite
+caprice.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Aranjuez.</td>  <td class="td5">Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Orangery: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Sketches; Deposition.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Escurial; Ceilings.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Str&agrave;.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Pisani: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding the Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria della Piet&agrave;: Triumph of Faith.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,
+             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">W&uuml;rzburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; F&ecirc;tes Galantes; Assumption;
+             Fall of Rebel Angels.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>PIETRO LONGHI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>We have here a master who is peculiarly the
+Venetian of the eighteenth century, a genre-painter
+whose charm it is not easy to surpass,
+yet one who did not at the outset find his true
+vocation. Longhi&#8217;s first undertakings, specimens
+of which exist in certain palaces in Venice, were
+elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence
+of the Bolognese School, in which he studied
+for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He attempts
+to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings
+in emulation of Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy
+and common, and the Titans at her feet appear
+as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He
+shows no faculty for this kind of work, but he
+was thirty-two before he began to paint those
+small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style
+illustrate the &ldquo;Vanity Fair&rdquo; of his period, and in
+which the eighteenth century lives for us again.</p>
+
+<p>His earliest training was in the goldsmith&#8217;s
+art, and he has left many drawings of plate,
+exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>their unerring precision of line. It was a
+moment when such things acquired a flawless
+purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their
+beauty with all the sensitive perception of the
+artist and the practised workman. His studies
+of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily
+careful, and he seems besides to have
+an intimate acquaintance with all the elegant
+dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order.
+We feel that he has himself been at home in
+the masquerade, has accompanied the lady to
+the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful
+shoulder, has listened to the soothsayer&#8217;s murmurs.
+He has attended balls and routs, danced minuets,
+and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He
+is the last chronicler of the Venetian feasts,
+and with him ends that long series that began
+with Giorgione&#8217;s concert and which developed
+and passed through suppers at Cana and banquets
+at the houses of Levi and the Pharisee. We
+are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity
+of Bonifazio and Veronese; the immense tables
+covered with gold and silver plate, the long
+lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the
+stream of servants bearing huge salvers, or the
+bands of musicians, nor are there any more
+alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes.
+Instead there are masques, the life of the Ridotto
+or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in dainty
+boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that
+city of eternal carnival where the <em>bauta</em> was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>almost a national costume. Longhi holds that
+post which in French art is filled by Watteau,
+Fragonard, and Lancret, the painters of <em>f&ecirc;tes
+galantes</em>, and though he cannot be placed on
+an equal footing with those masters, he is
+representative and significant enough. On his
+canvases are preserved for us the mysteries of
+the toilet, over which ladies and young men
+of fashion dawdled through the morning, the
+drinking of chocolate in <em>n&eacute;glig&eacute;</em>, the momentous
+instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing
+patches, the towers of hair built by the modish
+coiffeur&mdash;children trooping in, in hoops and
+uniforms, to kiss their mother&#8217;s hand, the fine
+gentleman choosing a waistcoat and ogling the
+pretty embroideress, the pert young maidservant
+slipping a billet-doux into a beauty&#8217;s hand under
+her husband&#8217;s nose, the old beau toying with
+a fan, or the discreet abb&eacute; taking snuff over the
+morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi&#8217;s
+day pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux
+make &ldquo;a leg,&rdquo; and the lacqueys hand chocolate.
+The beautiful Venetians and their gallants swim
+through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto,
+or they hasten to assignations, disguised in wide
+<em>bauti</em> and carrying preposterous muffs. The
+Correr Museum contains a number of his
+paintings and also his book of original sketches.
+One of the most entertaining of his canvases
+represents a visit of patricians to a nuns&#8217; parlour.
+The nuns and their pupils lend an attentive
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>ear to the whispers of the world. Their dresses
+are trimmed with <em>point de Venise</em>, and a little
+theatre is visible in the background. This and
+the &ldquo;Sala del Ridotto&rdquo; which hangs near, are
+marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of
+colouring, and more animation than is usual in
+his genre-pictures. He has not preserved the
+lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist
+touch which was the natural inheritance of
+Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark
+and heavy, and he makes too free a use of
+body colour; but his attitude is one of close
+observation&mdash;he enjoys depicting the life around
+him, and we suspect that he sees in it the most
+perfect form of social intercourse imaginable.
+Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of
+painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles
+the genial, humorous playwright than he does
+Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared.
+Yet his execution and technique are a little
+like Hogarth&#8217;s, and it is possible that he was
+influenced by the elder and stronger master,
+who entered on his triumphant career as a
+satirical painter of society about 1734. This
+was just the time when Longhi abandoned his
+unlucky decorative style, and it is quite possible
+that he may have met with engravings of the
+&ldquo;Marriage &agrave; la mode,&rdquo; and was stimulated by
+them to the study of eighteenth-century manners,
+though his own temperament is far removed
+from Hogarth&#8217;s moral force and grim satire.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>His serene, painstaking observation is never
+distracted by grossness and violence. The
+Venetians of his day may have been&mdash;undoubtedly
+were&mdash;effeminate, licentious, and decadent,
+but they were kind and gracious, of
+refined manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent,
+and so Longhi has transcribed them. In the
+time which followed, ceilings were covered by
+Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand,
+the scholars of David painted classical scenes,
+and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio
+Francesco Correr bought five hundred of his
+drawings from his son, Alessandro, but his
+works were ignored and dispersed. The classic
+and romantic fashions passed, but it was only
+in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing
+on art, revived consideration for the painter of a
+bygone generation. Many of his works are in
+private collections, especially in England, but few
+are in public galleries. The National Gallery is
+fortunate in possessing several excellent examples.</p>
+
+<p><a name="visit" id="visit"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 441px;">
+<img src="images/img363.jpg" width="441" height="550" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Pietro Longhi.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Hanfst&auml;ngl.</em>)</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Lady.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Three genre-pictures.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Six genre-paintings.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of Goldoni.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>CANALE</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving
+themselves the inheritors of the great school
+of decorators, Venice herself was finding her
+chroniclers, and a school of landscape arose, of
+which Canale was the foremost member. Giovanni
+Antonio Canale was born in Venice in
+1697, the same year as Tiepolo. His father
+earned his living at the profession, lucrative
+enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio
+learned to handle his brush, working at his side.
+In 1719 he went off to seek his fortune in Rome,
+and though he was obliged to help out his
+resources by his early trade, he was most concerned
+in the study of architecture, ancient and
+modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye,
+by the picturesque masses of stonework, the
+warm harmonious tones of classic remains and
+the effects of light upon them. He painted
+almost entirely out-of-doors, and has left many
+examples drawn from the ruins. His success
+in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>a very young man when he retraced his steps.
+On regaining his native town, he realised for the
+first time the beauty of its canals and palaces,
+and he never again wavered in his allegiance.</p>
+
+<p>Two rivals were already in the field, Luca
+Carlevaris, whose works were freely bought by
+the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures
+in whose views of Venice were often touched
+in by his uncle, Sebastiano; but Canale&#8217;s growing
+fame soon dethroned them, &ldquo;i cacciati del nido,&rdquo;
+as he said, using Dante&#8217;s expression. In a
+generation full of caprice, delighting in sensational
+developments, Canale was methodical to
+a fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing
+every detail of Venetian landscape with untiring
+application and almost monotonous tranquillity.
+He lived in the midst of a band of painters who
+adored travel. Sebastiano Ricci was always on
+the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time in
+other cities and countries, and passed the last
+years of his life in Spain; Pietro Rotari was
+attached to the Court of St. Petersburg; Belotto,
+Canale&#8217;s nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale
+remained at home, and, except for two short
+visits paid to England, contented himself with
+trips to Padua and Verona.</p>
+
+<p>Early in life Canale entered into relations
+with Joseph Smith, the British Consul in Venice,
+a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine
+collection of pictures, but had a gallery from
+which he was very ready to sell to travellers.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>He bought of the young Venetian at a very
+low price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to
+acquire the right to all his work for a certain
+period of time, with the object of sending it, at
+a good profit, to London. For a time Canale&#8217;s
+luminous views were bought by the English
+under these auspices, but the artist, presently
+discovering that he was making a bad bargain,
+came over to England, where he met with an
+encouraging reception, especially at Windsor
+Castle and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale
+spent two years in England and painted on the
+Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not
+stand the English climate and fled from the
+damp and fogs to his own lagoons.</p>
+
+<p>To describe his paintings is to describe Venice
+at every hour of the day and night&mdash;Venice
+with its long array of noble palaces, with its
+Grand Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways.
+He reproduces the Venice we know, and
+we see how little it has changed. The gondolas
+cluster round the landing-stages of the Piazzetta,
+the crowds hurry in and out of the arcades of
+the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals
+that still retained their splendour: the Great
+Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei Schiavoni on
+the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and
+the entrance to the Cannaregio decked in flags
+for a feast-day. From one end to another of
+the Grand Canal, that &ldquo;most beautiful street
+in the world,&rdquo; as des Commines called it in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>1495, we can trace every aspect of Canale&#8217;s
+time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of
+its splendour or its animation. At the entrance
+stands S. Maria della Salute, that sanctuary dear
+to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering
+after the visitation of the plague in 1631. Its
+flamboyant dome, with its volutes, its population
+of stone saints, its green bronze door catching
+the light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent
+in our own day, and he painted it over and
+over again. The annual f&ecirc;te of the Confraternity
+of the Carit&agrave; takes place at the Scuola di San
+Rocco, and Canale paints the old Renaissance
+building which shelters so much of Tintoretto&#8217;s
+finest work, decorated with ropes of greenery
+and gay with flags,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> while Tiepolo has put in
+the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the
+gazing populace. Near it in the National
+Gallery hangs a &ldquo;Regatta&rdquo; with its array of
+boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows
+lying across the range of palaces, and telling
+the exact hour of the day that it was sketched
+in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar
+pleasure in expressing quiet days, with calm
+green waters and wide empty piazzas, divided by
+sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding
+about their business in the hot midday, or a
+quiet little abb&eacute; crossing the piazza on his way
+to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the
+light on wall and fa&ccedil;ade, and of the transparent
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>waters of the canals and the azure skies in which
+float great snowy fleeces.</p>
+
+<p>His second visit to England was paid in
+1751. He was received with open arms by
+the great world, and invited to the houses of the
+nobility in town and country. The English
+were delighted with his taste and with the
+mastery with which he painted architectural
+scenes, and in spite of advancing years he produced
+a number of compositions, which commanded
+high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall,
+the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall, Northumberland
+House, Eton College, were some of the
+subjects which attracted him, and the treatment
+of which was signalised by his calm and perfect
+balance. He made use of the camera ottica,
+which is in principal identical with the camera
+oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and
+taught its proper use, but it must be confessed
+that in the careful perspective of some of his
+scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to convey
+a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous
+engraver. Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian
+had placed engraving on a very high level in the
+Venetian School, and though at a later date it
+became too elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought
+it back to simplicity. Canale aided them, and
+his <em>eaux-fortes</em>, of which he has left about thirty,
+are filled with light and breadth of treatment,
+and he is particularly happy in his brilliant,
+transparent water.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p><p>The high prices Canale obtained for his
+pictures in his lifetime led to the usual
+imitations. He was surrounded by painters
+whose whole ambition was limited to copying
+him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,
+Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More
+than fifty of his finest works were bought
+by Smith for George III. and fill a room at
+Windsor. He was made a member of the
+Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime
+Minister of the Elector, obtained from him
+twenty-one works which now adorn the gallery
+there. Canale died in Venice, where he had
+lived nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio
+was a familiar object in the Piazzetta, at
+the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.</p>
+
+<p>His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also
+called Canaletto, and it seems that both uncle and
+nephew were equally known by the diminutive.
+Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career,
+where he attached himself to Panini, a painter
+of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and
+shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of
+vanity and self-importance, and on a visit to
+Germany managed to acquire the title of Count,
+which he adhered to with great complacency.
+He travelled all over Italy looking for patronage,
+and was very eager to find the road to success and
+fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he
+paid a visit to London and was patronised by
+Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector,
+disappointed at not having secured the services
+of the uncle, was fain to console himself with
+those of the nephew. The extravagant and
+profligate Augustus II., whose one idea was to
+extract money by every possible means from
+his subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was
+consistently devoted to Belotto, who was in his
+element as a Court painter. He paints all his
+uncle&#8217;s subjects, and it is not always easy to
+distinguish between the two; but his paintings
+are dull and stiff as compared with those of
+Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour,
+and many of his views are admirably drawn.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SOME WORKS OF CANALE</p>
+
+<p class="center">It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being
+in private collections.</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;
+             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">The Piazzetta.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">The Colosseum.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;
+             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;
+             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;
+             The Piazzetta.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Windsor.</td>  <td class="td5">About fifty paintings.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San
+             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fête on the Grand Canal;
+             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;
+             A Water-fête; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal
+             in Venice.</td>  </tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>FRANCESCO GUARDI</strong></p>
+
+
+<p>An entry in Gradenigo&#8217;s diary of 1764, preserved
+in the Museo Correr, speaks of &ldquo;Francesco
+Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,
+along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of
+the famous Canaletto, having by the aid of the
+camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases
+(not small) by the order of a stranger (an
+Englishman), with views of the Piazza San
+Marco, towards the Church and the Clock
+Tower, and of the Bridge of the Rialto and
+buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have
+to-day examined them under the colonnades
+of the Procurazie and met with universal
+applause.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian
+Tyrol, and his mountain ancestry may account,
+as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and
+vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled
+in Venice, and his brother were painters. His
+son became one in due time, and the profession
+being followed by four members of the family
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>accounts for the indifferent works often attributed
+to Guardi.</p>
+
+<p>His indebtedness to Canale is universally
+acknowledged, and perhaps it is true that he
+never attains to the monumental quality, the
+traditional dignity which marks Canale out as
+a great master, but he differs from Canale in
+temperament, style, and technique. Canale is
+a much more exact and serious student of
+architectural detail; Guardi, with greater visible
+vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation
+in drawing in buildings which do not really
+appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal Palace
+(Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier
+and more spacious than it really is. In his
+&ldquo;Piazzetta&rdquo; he puts in a corner of the Loggia
+where it would not actually be seen. In the
+&ldquo;Fair in Piazza S. Marco&rdquo; the arch from under
+which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he foreshortens
+the wing of the royal palace. He curtails
+the length of the columns in the piazza and so
+avoids monotony of effect, and he often alters
+the height of the campaniles he uses, making
+them tall and slender or short and broad, as
+his picture requires. At one time he produced
+some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr.
+Simonson, who has written an admirable life of
+the painter, believes that the hand of Canale is
+perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his
+natural element, and he often became heavy in
+colour and handling. In 1782 he undertook a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a
+noted connoisseur and inspector of State pictures,
+and had been appointed superintendent in 1778 of
+an official studio for the restoration of old masters.</p>
+
+<p>Edwards had important dealings with Guardi,
+who was directed to paint four leading incidents
+in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of
+Pius IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves
+had become indifferent patrons of art, but Venice
+attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and
+before the second half of the eighteenth century
+the export of old masters had already become
+an established trade. There is no sign, however,
+that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship
+till 1760, extended any patronage to Guardi,
+though he enriched George III.&#8217;s collection
+with works of the chief contemporary artists
+of Venice. It is probable that Guardi had been
+warned against him by Canale and profited by
+the latter&#8217;s experience.</p>
+
+<p>We can divide his work into three categories.
+1. Views of Venice. 2. Public ceremonies.
+3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually
+that he used the camera ottica, but though we
+may consider it probable, we cannot trace the
+use of it in his works. He is not only a painter
+of architecture, but pays great attention to light
+and atmosphere, and aims at subtle effects; a
+transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the
+sun pierces though the morning mists. His
+four large pendants in the Wallace Collection
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>show his happiest efforts; light glances off the
+water and is reflected on the shadowed walls.
+His views round the Salute bring vividly before
+us those delicious morning hours in Venice
+when the green tide has just raced up the Grand
+Canal, when a fresh wind is lifting and curling
+all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and
+when the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as
+their light craft is caught and blown from side
+to side upon the rippling water. The sky
+occupies much of his space, he makes searching
+studies of it, and his favourite effect is a
+flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass
+of clouds. The line of the horizon is low, and
+he exhibits great mastery in painting the wide
+lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is
+one of the few masters of his day&mdash;perhaps
+the only one&mdash;who succeeds in representing a
+storm at sea.</p>
+
+<p>Often as he paints the same subjects he never
+becomes mechanical or photographic. We may
+sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale&#8217;s
+unerring perspective and accurate buildings, but
+Guardi always finds some new rendering, some
+fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us
+a summer day, when Venice stands out in light,
+her white palaces reflected in the sun-illumined
+water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches
+bathed in shadow and fusing into the rich, dark
+tones of twilight. His boats and figures are
+introduced with great spirit and <em>brio</em>, and are
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>alive with that handling which a French critic
+has described as his <em>griffe endiabl&eacute;e</em>.</p>
+
+<p><a name="della" id="della"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/img379.jpg" width="550" height="400" alt="image" title="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption"><em>Francesco Guardi.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />
+(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>His masterly and spirited painting of crowds
+enables him to reproduce for us all those public
+ceremonies which Venice retained as long as
+the Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the
+Doge to Venetian churches, to the Salute to
+commemorate the cessation of the plague, to
+San Zaccaria on Easter Day, the solemn procession
+on Corpus Christi Day, receptions of
+ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast
+of the Wedding of the Adriatic. He has faithfully
+preserved the ancient ceremonial which
+accompanied State festivities. In the &ldquo;F&ecirc;te
+du Jeudi Gras&rdquo; (Louvre) he illustrates the acrobatic
+feats which were performed before Doge
+Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is
+erected on the Piazzetta, and gondoliers are seen
+climbing on each other&#8217;s shoulders and dancing
+upon ropes. His motley crowds show that the
+whole population, patricians as well as people,
+took part in the feasts. He has also left many
+striking interiors: among others, that of the
+Sala del Gran Consiglio, where sometimes as
+many as a thousand persons were assembled, the
+&ldquo;Reception of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV.&rdquo;
+(which formed one of the series ordered by
+Pietro Edwards), or the fine &ldquo;Interior of a
+Theatre,&rdquo; exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts
+in 1911, belonging to a series of which another
+is at Munich.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p><p>In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very
+faithful attention to nature. The landscape
+painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson
+points out, were not animated by any very
+genuine impulse to study nature minutely. It
+was the picturesque element which appealed to
+them, and they were chiefly concerned to reproduce
+romantic features, grouped according to
+fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes,
+introducing classic remains, triumphal arches,
+airy Palladian monuments. His <em>capricci</em> include
+compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown
+with foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting
+of Venetian palaces, but in which the combination
+is carried out with so much sparkle and
+nervous life and such charm of style, that it is
+attractive and piquant rather than grotesque.</p>
+
+<p>England is richest in Guardis, of any country,
+but France in one respect is better off, in possessing
+no less than eleven fine paintings of public
+ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the
+originator of small sketches, and perhaps the
+precursor of those glib little views which are
+handed about the Piazza at the present day.
+His drawings are fairly numerous, and are remarkably
+delicate and incisive in touch. A
+large collection which he left to his son is now
+in the Museo Correr. In his later years he was
+reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches
+in the Piazza, parting with them for a few
+ducats, and in this way flooding Venice with
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by
+his <em>bottega</em> is said to be at the corner of the
+Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock Tower. The
+house in which he died still exists in the
+Campiello della Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia
+S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to the
+Madonna attached to it. When quite an old
+man, Guardi paid a visit to the home of his
+ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol,
+and made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the
+route. To this day his name is remembered
+with pride in his Tyrolean valley.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SOME WORKS OF GUARDI</p>
+
+<div>
+<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Landscapes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Civico: Landscapes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Oxford.</td>  <td class="td5">Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in
+            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; &ldquo;Jeudi Gras&rdquo; in Venice;
+            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Turin.</td>  <td class="td5">Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Landscapes.</td>  </tr>
+<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);
+            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;
+            The Dogana.</td>  </tr>
+
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to
+read French, German, and Italian, for though translations
+appear of the most important works, there are many interesting
+articles and monographs of minor artists which are otherwise
+inaccessible.</p>
+
+<p>Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or
+opinions, yet delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable,
+and new editions and translations are constantly issued.
+Sansoni&#8217;s edition (Florence), with Milanesi&#8217;s notes, is the most
+authoritative; and for translations, those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs.
+Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition in the Temple
+classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).</p>
+
+<p>Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian
+artists, who published his <em>Maraviglie dell&#8217; arte</em> nine years
+after Domenico Tintoretto&#8217;s death, is only to be read in
+Italian, though the anecdotes with which his work abounds
+are made use of by every writer.</p>
+
+<p>Crowe and Cavalcaselle&#8217;s <em>Painting in North Italy</em> (Murray)
+is a storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole,
+marvellously correct information and sound opinion. It supplies
+a foundation, fills gaps, and supplements individual biographies
+as no other book does. For the early painters, down to the
+time of the Bellini, <em>I Origini dei pittori veneziani</em>, by Professor
+Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a large book, written with
+mastery and insight, and well illustrated; <em>La Storia della pittura
+veneziana</em> is another careful work, which deals very minutely
+with the early school of mosaics.</p>
+
+<p>In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has <em>The
+Brothers Bellini</em> (Bell&#8217;s Great Masters), and the reader should
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>not fail to read Mr. Roger Fry&#8217;s <em>Bellini</em> (Artist&#8217;s Library), a
+scholarly monograph, short but reliable, and full of suggestion
+and appreciation, though written in a cool, critical spirit.
+Dr. Hills has dealt ably with <em>Pisanello</em> (Duckworth).</p>
+
+<p>Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work <em>Vittore
+Carpaccio</em>, translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and
+Paul Kristeller in the equally important <em>Mantegna</em>, translated
+by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans, 1901), seem to have exhausted
+all that there is to be said for the moment concerning these
+two painters.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson&#8217;s two
+well-known volumes, <em>The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance</em>,
+and the <em>North Italian Painters of the Renaissance</em> (Putnam).
+They are brilliant essays which supplement every other work,
+overflowing with suggestive and critical matter, supplying
+original thoughts, and summing up in a few pregnant words
+the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding stages.</p>
+
+<p>In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater&#8217;s
+essay, included in <em>The Renaissance</em>. The author is not always
+well informed as to facts&mdash;he wrote in the early days of criticism&mdash;but
+he is rich in idea and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook&#8217;s <em>Life
+of Giorgione</em> (Bell&#8217;s Great Masters) is full and interesting.
+Some authorities question his attributions as being too
+numerous, but whether we regard them as authentic works of
+the master or as belonging to his school, the illustrations he
+gives add materially to our knowledge of the Giorgionesque.</p>
+
+<p>When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and
+Cavalcaselle&#8217;s <em>Life of Titian</em> (Murray, out of print), in two
+large volumes, is well written and full of good material, from
+which subsequent writers have borrowed. An excellent Life,
+full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts, was lately
+brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with
+illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian&#8217;s technique.
+Sir Claude Phillips&#8217;s Monograph on Titian will appeal
+to every thoughtful lover of the painter&#8217;s genius, and Dr.
+Gronau has written a good and scholarly Life (Duckworth).</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Berenson&#8217;s <em>Lorenzo Lotto</em> must be read for its interest
+and learning, given with all the author&#8217;s charm and lucidity.
+It includes an essay on Alvise Vivarini.</p>
+
+<p>My own <em>Tintoretto</em> (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>account of the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively
+with the scheme and details of the Scuola di San Rocco.
+Professor Thode has written a detailed and profusely illustrated
+Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss Series, and the Paradiso has
+been treated at length and illustrated in great detail in a very
+scholarly <em>&eacute;dition de luxe</em> by Mr. F. O. Osmaston. It is the
+fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow that his
+judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture
+than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching
+sermons, there are few critics who have so many ideas to give
+us, or who are so informed with a deep love of art, and both
+<em>Modern Painters</em> and the <em>Stones of Venice</em> should be read.</p>
+
+<p>M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese,
+which is full of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to
+take a copy of Boschini&#8217;s <em>Della pittura veneziana</em>, 1797, when
+visiting the galleries, the palaces, and the churches of Venice.
+His lists of the pictures, as they were known in his day, often
+open our eyes to doubtful attributions. Second-hand copies
+of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the later-century
+artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of
+their period is supplied by Philippe Monnier&#8217;s delightful <em>Venice
+in the Eighteenth Century</em> (Chatto and Windus), which also
+has a good chapter on the lesser Venetian masters. The best
+Life of Tiepolo is in Italian, by Professor Pompeo Molmenti.
+The smaller masters have to be hunted for in many scattered
+essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi&#8217;s pictures.
+Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by
+M. Uzanne, <em>Les Deux Canaletto</em>; and Mr. Simonson has written
+an important and charming volume on Francesco Guardi
+(Methuen, 1904), with beautiful reproductions of his works.
+Among other books which give special information are
+Morelli&#8217;s two volumes, <em>Italian Painters in Borghese and Doria
+Pamphili</em>, and <em>In Dresden and Munich Galleries</em>, translated by
+Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter&#8217;s
+magnificent catalogue of the Mond Collection&mdash;which, though
+published at fifteen guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries&mdash;has
+some valuable chapters on the Venetian masters.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a name="Academy" id="Academy"></a>Academy, Florence, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>
+  <ul><li>Venice, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,
+          <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,
+          <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>,
+          <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Adoration of Magi, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>Adoration of Shepherds, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>
+
+<li>Agnolo Gaddi, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li>Alemagna, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li>Altichiero, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Alvise" id="Alvise"></a>Alvise Vivarini, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Amalteo, Pomponio, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li>Amigoni, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+
+<li>Ancon&aelig;, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>
+
+<li>Angelico, Fra, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Annunciation, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonello da Messina, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonio da Murano, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonio Negroponte, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonio Veneziano, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li>Aretino, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+<li>Ascension, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Augsburg, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Badile, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+<li>Balestra, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>Baptism of Christ, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Bartolommeo" id="Bartolommeo"></a>Bartolommeo Vivarini, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+<li>Basaiti, Marco, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-<a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li>Bassano, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+<li>Bastiani, Lazzaro, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li>Battoni, Pompeo, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+
+<li>Bellini, Gentile, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li>Bellini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_89">89</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Bellini" id="Bellini"></a>Bellini, Jacopo, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Belotto, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>-<a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Bembo, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+<li>Benson, Mr., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+<li>Berenson, Mr., <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Bergamo, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li>Berlin, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li>Bissolo, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li>Blanc, M. Charles, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+
+<li>Bologna, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+<li>Bonifazio, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li>
+
+<li>Bonsignori, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>
+
+<li>Bordone, Paris, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-<a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li>
+
+<li>Borghese, Villa, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Boschini, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Boston, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Botticelli, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Brera" id="Brera"></a>Brera, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+<li>Brescia, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+
+<li>Bridgewater House, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li>British Museum, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+
+<li>Broker&#8217;s patent, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li>Brusasorci, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+<li>Buonconsiglio, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Burckhardt, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+
+<li><em>Burlington Magazine</em>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+<li>Byzantine art, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Calderari, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li>Carlevaris, Luca, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+
+<li>Caliari, Carlotto, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+<li>Caliari, Paolo. <em>See</em> <a href="#Veronese">Veronese</a></li>
+
+<li>Campagnola, Domenico, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li>
+
+<li>Canal, Fabio, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Canale" id="Canale"></a>Canale, Gian Antonio, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>-<a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Canaletto. <em>See</em> <a href="#Canale">Canale</a></li>
+
+<li>Caravaggio, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+<li>Cariani, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+
+<li>Carpaccio, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li>
+
+<li>Carracci, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+
+<li>Carriera. <em>See</em> <a href="#Rosalba">Rosalba Carriera</a></li>
+
+<li>Castagno, Andrea del, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Castello, Milan, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+<li>Catena, Vincenzo, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+<li>Cathedrals, Ascoli, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>
+  <ul><li>Bassano, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+  <li>Conegliano, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+  <li>Cremona, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+  <li>Murano, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+  <li>Spilimbergo, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+  <li>Treviso, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+  <li>Verona, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Celesti, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>Chelsea Hospital, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>
+
+<li>Churches&mdash;
+  <ul><li>Bergamo.
+    <ul><li>S. Alessandro, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>
+    <li>S. Bartolommeo, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+    <li>S. Bernardino, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+    <li>S. Spirito, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Brescia.
+    <ul><li>S. Clemente, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+    <li>SS. Nazaro e Celso, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Castelfranco.
+    <ul><li>S. Liberale, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>S. Daniele.
+    <ul><li>S. Antonino, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Padua.
+    <ul><li>Eremitani, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+    <li>Il Santo, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giustina, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria in Vanzo, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+    <li>S. Zeno, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Pesaro.
+    <ul><li>S. Francesco, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Piacenza.
+    <ul><li>Madonna di Campagna, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Ravenna.
+    <ul><li>S. Domenico, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Rome.
+    <ul><li>S. Maria del Popolo, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+    <li>S. Pietro in Montorio, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Venice.
+    <ul><li>S. Alvise, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+    <li>SS. Apostoli, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+    <li>S. Barnab&agrave;, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+    <li>Carmine, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+    <li>S. Cassiano, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+    <li>S. Fava, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+    <li>S. Francesco della Vigna, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+    <li>Gesuati, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giacomo dell&#8217; Orio, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giobbe, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giorgio Maggiore, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giovanni in Bragora, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giovanni Crisostomo, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+    <li>S. Giovanni Elemosinario, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+    <li>SS. Giovanni and Paolo, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria Formosa, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria dei Frari, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>,
+           <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria Mater Domini, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria dei Miracoli, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>S. Maria della Salute, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+    <li>S. Mark&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+    <li>S. Pantaleone, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+    <li>Piet&agrave;, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+    <li>S. Pietro in Castello, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+    <li>S. Pietro in Murano, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+    <li>S. Polo, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>Redentore, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+    <li>S. Rocco, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+    <li>S. Salvatore, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+    <li>Scalzi, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+    <li>S. Sebastiano, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+    <li>S. Spirito, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+    <li>S. Stefano, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>S. Trovaso, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+    <li>S. Vitale, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+    <li>S. Zaccaria, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Verona.
+    <ul><li>S. Anastasia, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+    <li>S. Antonio, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+    <li>S. Fermo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+    <li>S. Tomaso, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Vicenza.
+    <ul><li>S. Corona, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+    <li>Monte Berico, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li></ul></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Cima da Conegliano, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>
+
+<li>Colombini, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+<li>Confraternity, Carit&agrave;, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>
+  <ul><li>S. Mark, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Contarini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>Cook, Sir F., <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+
+<li>Cook, Mr. Herbert, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Correggio, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Correr" id="Correr"></a>Correr Museum (Museo Civico), <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>
+
+<li>Crivelli, Carlo, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+<li>Crowe and Cavalcaselle, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Crucifixion, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Dante, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+
+<li>David, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Doges&mdash;
+  <ul><li>Barbarigo, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+  <li>Dandolo, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+  <li>Giustiniani, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+  <li>Gradenigo, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+  <li>Grimani, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+  <li>Loredano, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+  <li>Mocenigo, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Donatello, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+<li>Doria Gallery, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Dresden, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+<li>D&uuml;rer, Albert, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Edwards, Pietro, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+<li>Este, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+<li>Este, Isabela d&#8217;, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Fabriano, Gentile da, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li>Florence, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li>
+
+<li>Florentine, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+<li>Florigerio, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+<li>Fondaco dei Tedeschi, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>
+
+<li>Fragonard, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+
+<li>Fry, Mr. Roger, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Fumiani, Gianbattista, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Gaston de Foix, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+
+<li>Giambono, Michele, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+<li>Giordano, Luca, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+<li>Giorgione, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Giotto, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Goldoni, Carlo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Goncourt, de, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Guardi, Francesco, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>-<a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Guariento, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>
+
+<li>Guercino, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>
+
+<li>Guido, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>
+
+<li>Guilds, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+<li>Guillaume de Guilleville, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+<li>Hazlitt, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+
+<li>Hogarth, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Jacobello del Fiore, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacopo Bellini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Bellini">Bellini</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Kristeller, M. Paul, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Lancret, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+<li>Last Judgment, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>
+
+<li>Last Supper, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Layard, Lady, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li>Lazzarini, Gregorio, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+
+<li>Leonardo, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+<li>Liberi, Pietro, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+<li>Licinio, Bernardino, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+
+<li>Licinio, G. A. <em>See</em> <a href="#Pordenone">Pordenone</a></li>
+
+<li>Lippo, Fra, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="London" id="London"></a>London (National Gallery), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li>Longhi, Pietro, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>-<a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Lorenzo di San Severino, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>Lorenzo Veneziano, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Loreto, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+<li>Lotto, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Louvre" id="Louvre"></a>Louvre, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li>Luciani. <em>See</em> <a href="#Sebastian">Sebastian del Piombo</a></li>
+
+<li>Ludwig, Professor, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Madrid, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+<li>Mansueti, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li>Mantegna, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Marieschi, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+<li>Martino da Udine. <em>See</em> <a href="#Pellegrino">Pellegrino</a></li>
+
+<li>Maser, Villa, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+
+<li>Masolino, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Mengs, Raphael, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>
+
+<li>Michelangelo, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+
+<li>Milan, Ambrosiana, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>
+  <ul><li>Brera. <em>See</em> <a href="#Brera">Brera</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Mocetto, Girolamo, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+<li>Molmenti, Professor, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Mond Collection, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+
+<li>Monnier, Philippe, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Montagna, Bartolommeo, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li>
+
+<li>Morelli, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Moretto, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+
+<li>Morto da Feltre, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Munich, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+
+<li>Murano, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+<li>Museo Civico. <em>See</em> <a href="#Correr">Correr</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Naples, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+
+<li>National Gallery. <em>See</em> <a href="#London">London</a></li>
+
+<li>Niccolo di Pietro, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+
+<li>Niccolo Semitocolo, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Osmaston, Mr. F. O., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li><a name="Padovanino" id="Padovanino"></a>Padovanino, Il, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>
+
+<li>Padua, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+<li>Palaces&mdash;
+  <ul><li>Milan.
+    <ul><li>Archinto, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+    <li>Clerici, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+    <li>Dugnani, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Rome.
+    <ul><li>Colonna, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Str&agrave;.
+    <ul><li>Pisani, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Venice.
+    <ul><li>Ducal, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,
+        <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>
+    <li>Giovanelli, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+    <li>Labia, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+    <li>Rezzonico, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>Verona.
+    <ul><li>Canossa, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li>
+  <li>W&uuml;rzburg, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>Palma Giovine, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+<li>Palma Vecchio, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li>Paolo da Venezia, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+<li>Paris. <em>See</em> <a href="#Louvre">Louvre</a></li>
+
+<li>Parma, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Pellegrino" id="Pellegrino"></a>Pellegrino, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+<li>Pennacchi, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Perugino, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+<li>Pesaro, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li>Pesellino, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Piacenza, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+<li>Piero di Cosimo, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+<li>Piet&agrave;, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Pintoricchio, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+<li>Pisanello (Pisano), <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Pordenone" id="Pordenone"></a>Pordenone, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+<li>Previtali, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Quirizio da Murano, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Raphael, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+
+<li>Ravenna, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li>Rembrandt, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+<li>Ricci, Battista, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+
+<li>Ricci, Marco, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+
+<li>Ricci, Sebastiano, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+
+<li>Richter, Dr. J. P., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Ricketts, Mr. C., <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Ridolfi, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>
+
+<li>Rimini, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li>Robusti, Domenico, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+<li>Robusti, Jacopo. <em>See</em> <a href="#Tintoretto">Tintoretto</a></li>
+
+<li>Robusti, Marietta, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+<li>Romanino, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+
+<li>Rome, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+<li>Rondinelli, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Rosalba" id="Rosalba"></a>Rosalba Carriera, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>-<a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+
+<li>Rubens, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+<li>Ruskin, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Sansovino, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+<li>Santa Croce, Girolamo da, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+
+<li>Sarto, Andrea del, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li>Savoldo, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Sebastian" id="Sebastian"></a>Sebastian del Piombo, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+<li>Siena, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+<li>Signorelli, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+
+<li>Simonson, Mr., <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Smith, Joseph, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+<li>Speranza, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>Spilimbergo, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+<li>Strong, Mr. S. A., <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Taylor, Miss Cameron, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li>Tiepolo, Domenico, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+<li>Tiepolo, G. B., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Tintoretto" id="Tintoretto"></a>Tintoretto, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_253">253</a>-<a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>-<a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Titian" id="Titian"></a>Titian, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>-<a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Torbido, Francesco, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+<li>Treviso, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Uccello, Paolo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Urbino, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+<li>Uzanne, M. O., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Valmarana, Villa, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li>
+
+<li>Varotari. <em>See</em> <a href="#Padovanino">Padovanino</a></li>
+
+<li>Vasari, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>
+
+<li>Vecellio. <em>See</em> <a href="#Titian">Titian</a></li>
+
+<li>Vecellio, Marco, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>Vecellio, Orazio, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+<li>Vecellio, Pomponio, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+<li>Velasquez, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+<li>Venice. <em>See</em> <a href="#Academy">Academy</a></li>
+
+<li>Venturi, Professor Antonio, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+<li>Venturi, Professor Leonello, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>
+
+<li>Verona, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li><a name="Veronese" id="Veronese"></a>Veronese, Paolo, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>Vicentino, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>Vicenza, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+<li>Vienna, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+<li>Visentini, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+<li>Viterbo, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+<li>Vivarini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Alvise">Alvise</a></li>
+
+<li>Vivarini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Bartolommeo">Bartolommeo</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Wallace Collection, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li>Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+<li>Watteau, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+<li>Wickhoff, Dr., <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>
+
+<li>Windsor, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Yriarte, M. Charles, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+<li>&nbsp;</li>
+
+<li>Zanetti, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+<li>Zelotti, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+<li>Zoppo, Marco, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Zucchero, Federigo, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 95%;" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M&#699;N. Rushforth in
+the <em>Burlington Magazine</em> for October 1911.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
+It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous
+above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in
+the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow&#8217;s &ldquo;Diana and Actaeon.&rdquo;
+The construction of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but
+little-known picture is admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing
+almost as a monochrome, the landscape is full of atmospheric
+suggestion. It is in Titian&#8217;s latest manner, and its ample lines and
+free unimpeded motion can be due to no inferior brush.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
+Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia, landing
+in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from
+Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably
+an assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the &ldquo;Venus and
+Adonis&rdquo; of the National Gallery, which owes much to his hand.
+He fails conspicuously in form, his shadows are black, and his
+figures often vulgar, but he has a fine sense of colour, and a free,
+crisp touch. He was one of the young masters who flooded Venice
+with light, sketchy wares.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>
+&ldquo;Venice and the Renaissance,&rdquo; <em>Edinburgh Review</em>, 1909.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>
+Philippe Monnier, <em>Venice in the Eighteenth Century</em>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>
+It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30098 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Venetian School of Painting, by Evelyn

-March Phillipps

-

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-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

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-Title: The Venetian School of Painting

-

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-Author: Evelyn March Phillipps

-

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-Release Date: September 26, 2009  [eBook #30098]

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-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING***

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-Transcriber's note:

-

-      1) Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some

-         questionable dates have been left as printed in the original

-         text.

-

-      2) Chapter IX--Sala del Gran Consiio possibly should be Sala

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-

-THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING

-

-[Illustration: _Giorgione._

-                MADONNA WITH S. LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.

-               _Castelfranco._

-                (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-

-THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING

-

-by

-

-EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS

-

-With Illustrations

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-Books for Libraries Press

-Freeport, New York

-

-First Published 1912

-Reprinted 1972

-

-International Standard Book Number: 0-8369-6745-3

-Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-37907

-

-Printed in the United States of America

-By

-New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.

-Hallandale, Florida 33009

-

-

-

-

-PREFACE

-

-

-Many visits to Venice have brought home the fact that there exists,

-in English at least, no work which deals as a whole with the Venetian

-School and its masters. Biographical catalogues there are in plenty, but

-these, though useful for reference, say little to readers who are not

-already acquainted with the painters whose career and works are briefly

-recorded. "Lives" of individual masters abound, but however excellent

-and essential these may be to an advanced study of the school, the

-volumes containing them make too large a library to be easily carried

-about, and a great deal of reading and assimilation is required to set

-each painter in his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's

-_History of Painting in North Italy_ still remains our sheet anchor; but

-it is lengthy, over full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the

-interesting criticism which of late years has collected round each

-master. There seems room for a portable volume, making an attempt to

-consider the Venetian painters, in relation to one another, and to help

-the visitor not only to trace the evolution of the school from its dawn,

-through its full splendour and to its declining rays, but to realise

-what the Venetian School was, and what was the philosophy of life which

-it represented.

-

-Such a book does not pretend to vie with, much less to supersede, the

-masterly treatises on the subject which have from time to time appeared,

-or to take the place of exhaustive histories, such as that of Professor

-Leonello Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should but serve to pave

-the way to deeper and more detailed reading. It does not aspire to give

-a complete and comprehensive list of the painters; some of the minor

-ones may not even be mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates, and

-facts would add unduly to the size of the book, and, when without real

-bearing on the course of Venetian art, would have little significance.

-What the book does aim at is to enable those who care for art, but may

-not have mastered its history, to rear a framework on which to found

-their own observations and appreciations; to supply that coherent

-knowledge which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance with

-beautiful things, and to place the unscientific observer in a position

-to take greater advantage of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and

-interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic apprehension which the

-Venetian School comprises, and which marks it as the outcome and the

-symbol of a great historic age.

-

-The works cited have been principally those with which the ordinary

-traveller is likely to come into contact in the chief European

-galleries, and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not propose to

-be exhaustive, but merely indicate the principal works of the artists.

-Those in private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate

-importance, are usually eliminated. It has not been thought necessary to

-use profuse illustrations, as the book is intended primarily for use

-when visiting the original works.

-

-

-

-

-CONTENTS

-

-

- PART I

-

- CHAPTER I                            PAGE

-   VENICE AND HER ART                    3

-

- CHAPTER II

-   PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE              11

-

- CHAPTER III

-   INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA      21

-

- CHAPTER IV

-   THE SCHOOL OF MURANO                 29

-

- CHAPTER V

-   THE PADUAN INFLUENCE                 33

-

- CHAPTER VI

-   JACOPO BELLINI                       39

-

- CHAPTER VII

-   CARLO CRIVELLI                       44

-

- CHAPTER VIII

-   GENTILE BELLINI AND

-   ANTONELLO DA MESSINA                 48

-

- CHAPTER IX

-   ALVISE VIVARINI                      58

-

- CHAPTER X

-   CARPACCIO                            68

-

- CHAPTER XI

-   GIOVANNI BELLINI                     81

-

- CHAPTER XII

-   GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)       92

-

- CHAPTER XIII

-   CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER

-   FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI                103

-

-

- PART II

-

- CHAPTER XIV

-   GIORGIONE                           121

-

- CHAPTER XV

-   GIORGIONE (_continued_)             132

-

- CHAPTER XVI

-   THE GIORGIONESQUE                   140

-

- CHAPTER XVII

-   TITIAN                              144

-

- CHAPTER XVIII

-   TITIAN (_continued_)                157

-

- CHAPTER XIX

-   TITIAN (_continued_)                173

-

- CHAPTER XX

-   PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO     184

-

- CHAPTER XXI

-   SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO                198

-

- CHAPTER XXII

-   BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE         203

-

- CHAPTER XXIII

-   PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES  212

-

- CHAPTER XXIV

-   PAOLO VERONESE                      228

-

- CHAPTER XXV

-   TINTORETTO                          243

-

- CHAPTER XXVI

-   TINTORETTO (_continued_)            254

-

- CHAPTER XXVII

-   BASSANO                             269

-

-

- PART III

-

- CHAPTER XXVIII

-   THE INTERIM                         281

-

- CHAPTER XXIX

-   TIEPOLO                             297

-

- CHAPTER XXX

-   PIETRO LONGHI                       309

-

- CHAPTER XXXI

-   CANALE                              314

-

- CHAPTER XXXII

-   FRANCESCO GUARDI                    321

-

-

- BIBLIOGRAPHY                          329

-

- INDEX                                 333

-

-

-

-

-ILLUSTRATIONS

-

-

-                               BY                 AT

-

-  1. Madonna with S. Liberale  Giorgione          Castelfranco

-     and S. Francis                                       _Frontispiece_

-

-  2. Adoration  of the         Antonio da Murano  Berlin

-     Magi                                                            31

-

-  3. Agony in Garden           Jacopo Bellini     British Museum     41

-

-  4. Procession of the         Gentile Bellini    Venice

-     Holy Cross                                                      52

-

-  5. Altarpiece of 1480        Alvise Vivarini    Venice             60

-

-  6. Arrival of the            Carpaccio          Venice

-     Ambassadors                                                     75

-

-  7. Pietà                     Giovanni Bellini   Brera              87

-

-  8. An Allegory               Giovanni Bellini   Uffizi             94

-

-  9. Fête Champêtre            Giorgione          Louvre            136

-

- 10. Portrait of Ariosto       Titian             National Gallery  156

-

- 11. Diana and Actaeon         Titian             Earl Brownlow     161

-

- 12. Holy Family               Palma Vecchio      Colonna Gallery,

-                                                  Rome              185

-

- 13. Portrait of Laura di      Lorenzo Lotto      Brera

-     Pola                                                           194

-

- 14. Marriage in Cana          Paolo Veronese     Louvre            234

-

- 15. S. Mary of Egypt          Tintoretto         Scuola di

-                                                  San Rocco         258

-

- 16. Bacchus and Ariadne       Tintoretto         Ducal Palace      261

-

- 17. Baptism of S. Lucilla     Jacopo da Ponte    Bassano           274

-

- 18. Antony and Cleopatra      Tiepolo            Palazzo Labia,

-                                                  Venice            304

-

- 19. Visit to the              Pietro Longhi      National Gallery

-     Fortune-Teller                                                 310

-

- 20. S. Maria della Salute     Francesco Guardi   National Gallery  324

-

-

-

-

-LIST OF PAINTERS

-

-

- Paolo da Venezia, _fl._ 1333-1358.

- Niccolo di Pietro, _fl._ 1394-1404.

- Niccolo Semitocolo, _fl._ 1364.

- Stefano di Venezia, _fl._ 1353.

- Lorenzo Veneziano, _fl._ 1357-1379.

- Chatarinus, _fl._ 1372.

- Jacobello del Fiore, _fl._ 1415-1439.

- Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.

- Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), _circa_ 1385-1455.

- Michele Giambono, _fl._ 1470.

- Giovanni Alemanus, _fl._ 1440-1447.

- Antonio da Murano, _circa_ 1430-1470.

- Bartolommeo Vivarini, _fl._ 1420-1499.

- Alvise Vivarini, _fl._ 1461-1503.

- Antonello da Messina, _circa_ 1444-1493.

- Jacopo Bellini, _fl._ 1430-1466.

- Jacopo dei Barbari, _circa_ 1450-1516.

- Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.

- Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.

- Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.

- Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.

- Gentile Bellini, _circa_ 1427-1507.

- Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.

- Lazzaro Bastiani, _fl._ 1470-1508.

- Vittore Carpaccio, _fl._ 1478-1522.

- Girolamo da Santa Croce.

- Mansueti, _fl._ 1474-1510.

- Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.

- Vincenzo Catena, _fl._ 1495-1531.

- Bissolo, 1464-1528.

- Marco Basaiti, _circa_ 1470-1527.

- Andrea Previtali, _fl._ 1502-1525.

- Bartolommeo Veneto, _fl._ 1505-1555.

- N. Rondinelli, _fl._ 1480-1500.

- Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.

- Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.

- Giovanni Busi (Cariani), _circa_ 1480-1544.

- Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.

- Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.

- Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.

- Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).

- Morto da Feltre, _circa_ 1474-1522.

- Romanino, 1485-1566.

- Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.

- Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.

- Bernardino Licinio, _fl._ 1520-1544.

- Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), _circa_ 1498-1554.

- Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), _fl._ 1510-1540.

- Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.

- Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.

- Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.

- Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.

- Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.

- Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.

- Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.

- Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.

- Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.

- Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.

- Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.

- G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.

- Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.

- Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.

- Belotto, 1720-1780.

- Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.

-

-

-

-

-PART I

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER I

-

-VENICE AND HER ART

-

-

-Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether in character from

-that of every other part of Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and

-recognisable of all the schools; its singularity is such that a novice

-in art can easily, in a miscellaneous collection, sort out the works

-belonging to it, and added to this unique character is the position it

-occupies in the domain of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast

-an epoch of art comparable in originality and splendour to that of her

-great Florentine rival; an epoch which is to be classed among the great

-art manifestations of the world, which has exerted, and continues to

-exert, incalculable power over painting, and which is the inspiration as

-well as the despair of those who try to master its secret.

-

-The other schools of Italy, with all their superficial varieties of

-treatment and feeling, depended for their very life upon the extent to

-which they were able to imbibe the Florentine influence. Siena rejected

-that strength and perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly struck

-out on independent lines, achieving a magnificent victory.

-

-Art in Florence made a strictly logical progress. As civilisation awoke

-in the old Latin race, it went back in every domain of learning to the

-rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin and the alien structures left

-by the long barbaric dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour had

-never been a barbarian; and as the mind was once more roused to

-conscious life, Florence entered readily upon that great intellectual

-movement which she was destined to lead. Her cast of thought was, from

-the first, realistic and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to know the

-truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate experiments, to see things as

-they really were; and when she reached the point at which art was ready

-to speak, we find that the governing motive of her language was this

-same predilection for reality, and it was with this meaning that her

-typical artists found a voice. No artist ever sought for truth, both

-physical and spiritual, more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke

-more distinctly the mind of his age and country; and as one generation

-follows another, art in Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied to

-the intellectual movement. The scientific predilection for _form_, for

-the representation of things as they really are, characterises not

-Florentine painting alone, but the whole of Florentine art. It is an art

-of contributions and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at

-every step by dominating personalities, positively as well as relatively

-great, but with each member consciously absorbed in "going one better"

-than his predecessors, in solving problems and in mastering methods.

-Florentine art is the outcome of Florentine life and thought. It is part

-of the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason, of that exactitude

-of apprehension towards which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and

-the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards her, formed themselves on

-her pattern and worked upon the same lines, so that they have a certain

-general resemblance, and their excellence is in proportion to the

-thoroughness with which they have learned their lesson.

-

-The difference which separates Venetian from the rest of Italian

-painting is a fundamental one. Venice attains to an equally

-distinguished place, but the way in which she does it and the character

-of her contribution are both so absolutely distinct that her art seems

-to be the outcome of another race, with alien temperament and standards.

-Venice had, indeed, a history and a life of her own. Her entire

-isolation, from her foundation, gave her an independent government and

-customs peculiar to herself, but at the same time her people, even in

-their earliest and most precarious struggles, were no barbarians who

-had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life. Among the refugees

-were persons of high birth and great traditions, and they brought with

-them to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some political

-training and some idea of how to reconstruct their shattered social

-fabric. The Venetian Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence

-in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area was, every feature and

-sentiment was concentrated and intensified. But one element above all

-permeates it and sets it apart from other European States. The Oriental

-element in Venice must never be lost sight of if we wish to understand

-her philosophy of art.

-

-There are some grounds, seriously accepted by the most recent

-historians, for believing that the first Venetian colonists were the

-descendants of emigrants who in prehistoric times had established

-themselves in Asia and who had returned from thence to Northern Italy.

-"These colonists," says Hazlitt, "were called Tyrrhenians, and from

-their settlements round the mouth of the Po the Venetian stock was

-ultimately derived." If the tradition has any truth, we think with a

-deeper interest of that instinct for commerce which seems to have been

-in the very blood of the early Venetians. Did it, indeed, come down to

-them from the merchants of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful

-trading race which stretched out its arms all over Europe and

-penetrated even to our own island? From the first, Venice cut herself

-adrift, as far as possible, from Western ties, but she turned to Eastern

-people and to intercourse with the East with a natural affinity which

-savours of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived from her

-Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped with Eastern riches, must have

-assumed a deeply Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained many details

-peculiar to the East. The people observed a custom for choosing and

-dowering brides, which was of Asia. The national treatment of women was

-akin to that of an Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a retirement

-which recalled the life of the harem, only appearing on great occasions

-to display their brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled when

-they passed through the streets. The attachment of men to women had no

-intellectual bias, scarcely any sentiment, but "went straight to the

-mark: the enjoyment of physical beauty." The position of women in Venice

-was a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine lady of the

-Renaissance, who was highly educated, deeply versed in men and in

-affairs, the fine flower of culture, and the queen of a brilliant

-society. The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry was of Semitic

-intensity and seemed insatiable, and the gratification of the senses

-was a deliberate State policy. But passionate as was the spirit of

-patriotism, enthusiastic the love and loyalty of the people, the civic

-spirit was absent. The masses were contented to live under a despotic

-rule and to be little despots in their own houses. In the twelfth

-century the people saw power pass into the hands of the aristocracy, and

-as long as the despotism was a benevolent one, the event aroused no

-opposition. Like Orientals, the Venetians had wild outbursts, and like

-them they quieted down and nothing came of them. As Mr. Hazlitt remarks,

-"their occasional resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds of

-horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or enduring traces behind it. It

-established no principle. It taught no lesson." Venice was a Republic

-only in name. The whole aspect of her government is Eastern. Its system

-of espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and silent blows,--these

-are all Oriental traits, and the East entering into her whole life

-from without found a natural home awaiting it. We should be mistaken,

-however, in thinking that the Venetians in their great days were

-enervated and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to associate

-with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in the end drain the life out of

-her. "It is the disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not the

-same thing." The Venetians were by nature men with a deep capacity for

-feeling, and it is this deep feeling which has so large a share in

-Venetian art.

-

-The painters of Venice were of the people and had no wide intellectual

-outlook at its most splendid moment, such as was possessed by those men

-who in Florence were drawn into the company of the Medici and their

-court of scholars, and who all their lives were in the midst of a

-society of large aims and a free public spirit, in which men took their

-share of the responsibilities and honours of a citizen's life. The

-merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested in the solving of

-problems. They pay a price, and they want a good show of colour and

-gilding for their money. Presently they buy from outside, and a

-half-hearted imitation of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian

-artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare itself with true

-spontaneity till it feels behind it the weight and unanimity of the

-whole body of the people. That true outburst was long in coming, but its

-seeds were fructifying deep in a congenial soil. They were fostered by

-the warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and at last the racial

-instinct speaks with no uncertain accent in the great domain of art, and

-speaks in a new and unexpected way; as splendid as, yet utterly unlike,

-the grand intellectual declaration of Florence.

-

-Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all her history, in all

-her character, is Eastern rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom

-of feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion as opposed to

-intellect. Her whole story tells of a profoundly emotional and sensuous

-apprehension of the nature of things; and till the time comes when her

-artists are inspired to express that, their creations may be interesting

-enough, but they fail to reveal the true workings of her mind. When they

-do, they find a new medium and use it in a new way. Venetian colour,

-when it comes into its kingdom, speaks for a whole people, sensuous and

-of deep feeling, able for the first time to utter itself in art.

-

-We have to divide the history of the Venetian School into three parts.

-The first extends from the primitives to the end of Giovanni Bellini's

-life. He forms a link between the first and second periods. The second

-begins with Giorgione and ends with Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the

-Venetian School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century revival,

-in which Tiepolo is the most conspicuous figure, and which is in an

-equal degree the expression of the life of its time.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER II

-

-PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE

-

-

-The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its influence, was

-particularly strong in Venice, where mosaics adorned the cathedral

-of Torcello from the ninth century and St. Mark's became a splendid

-storehouse of Byzantine art. The earliest mosaic on the façade of St.

-Mark's was executed about the year 1250, those in the Baptistery date

-during the reign of Andrea Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354. Yet

-though the life of Giotto lies between these two dates, and his frescoes

-at Padua were within a few hours' journey, there is no sign that the

-great revolution in painting, which was making itself felt in every

-principal centre of Italy, had touched the richest and most peaceful of

-all her States.

-

-Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of Byzantinism. It rose as that

-of the mosaicists fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence and

-Siena in being for long almost imperceptible. Artists were looked upon

-merely as artisans in all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any

-other city they had been placed among the craftsmen. The statute of the

-Guild of Siena was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is the

-earliest of which we have any record, and bears the date of 1272. There

-is scarcely a word to indicate that pictures in the modern sense of the

-term existed. Painters were employed on the adornment of arms and of

-household furniture. Leather helmets and shields were painted, and such

-banners as we see in Paolo Uccello's battlepieces. Painted chests and

-_cassoni_ were already in demand, dishes and plates for the table and

-the surface of the table itself were treated in a similar way. Special

-regulations dealt with all these, and it is only at the end of the list

-that anconæ are mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework, having a

-compartment containing a picture of the Madonna and Child, and others

-with single figures of the saints, and these were the only pictures

-proper produced at this date. The demand for anconæ was, however, large,

-and they were very early placed, not only in the churches, but in the

-houses of patricians and burghers. Constant disputes arose between the

-painters and the gilders. Pictures were habitually painted upon a gold

-ground, but the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds

-themselves. "Gilding is the business of the gilder, painting that of the

-painter," says a contemporary record. "Now the gilder contends that if

-a frame has to be gilt and then touched with colour, he is entitled to

-perform both operations, but the painter disputes this right, and

-maintains that the gilder should return it to him when the addition

-of painting is desired." It was, however, finally decided by law that

-each should exercise both professions, when one or the other played a

-subordinate part in the finished work. Though the art of mosaic was

-falling into decay as painting began to emerge, yet the commercial

-manufactory of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been established as early

-as 600, went on, on the Rialto, without any variation of the traditional

-forms.

-

-Florence very early discarded the temptation to cling to material

-splendour, but as we pass into the Hall of the Primitives in the

-Venetian Academy, we see at once that Venetian art, in its earlier

-stages, has more to do with the gilder than the painter. The Holy

-Personages are merely accessories to the gorgeous framework, the

-embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which were in favour with the rich

-and magnificent patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for painting

-as painting, no craving after the study of form as the outcome of

-intellectual activity, no zest of discovery, such as made the painter's

-life in Florence an excitement in which the public shared. What little

-Venice imbibes of these things is from outside influence, after due

-lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of merchants and statesmen,

-she was too much bound up in the transactions and sensations of actual

-life to develop any abstract and thoughtful ideals.

-

-Perhaps the first painting we can discover which shows any sign of

-independent effort is the series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the

-back of the Pala d' Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark, when it was

-restored in the fourteenth century. This reveals an artist with some

-pictorial aptitude and one alive to the subjects that surround him. It

-tells the story of St. Mark's corpse transported to Venice. The first

-panel contains a group of cardinals of varying types and expressions; in

-another the disciple listening to St. Mark's teaching, and crouching

-with his elbows on his knees, has a true, natural touch. The dramatic

-feeling here and there is considerable. The scene of the guards watching

-the imprisoned Saint through the window and seeing the shadow of two

-heads, as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct emotion; and there

-is force as well as feeling for decorative composition in the panel in

-which the Saint's body lies at the feet of the sailors, while his vision

-appears shining upon the sails.

-

-Except for the exaggerated insistence on the gilded elaborations of the

-early ancona, there is not much to differentiate the early art of Venice

-from that of other centres; but we notice that it persevered longer in

-the material and mechanical art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made

-little impression, and many years elapsed before work akin to that of

-Giotto attracted attention and was admired and imitated. A man like

-Antonio Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in Venice. He had

-too much of the simplicity of the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his

-work to Pisa, where his naïf and humorous narratives still delight us in

-the Campo Santo. It was in 1384 that he was employed to finish the

-frescoes of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted

-at Andrea da Firenze's death, and the fondness for architecture and

-surroundings in the Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome, may,

-as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo Gaddi, who had already visited

-Padua and Venice.

-

-In the last years of the fourteenth century tributary streams begin to

-feed the feeble main current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was employed

-by the State to paint a huge fresco of Paradise in the Hall of the Gran

-Consiglio of the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for centuries under

-the painting by Tintoretto, was uncovered in 1909 and found to be in

-fairly good preservation. It can now be seen in a side room. It tells us

-that Guariento had to some extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones

-have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more the Giottesque than the

-Byzantine cast and show that the old traditions were crumbling.

-

-When painting in Venice first begins to live a life of its own,

-Jacobello del Fiore stands out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous

-Venetians. His father had been president of the Painters' Guild. Jacopo

-himself was president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich and popular

-member of the State and a man of high character. His works, to judge

-by the specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of art, though in

-the banner of "Justice," in the Academy, the space is filled in a

-monumental fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the lily has

-something grand and graceful. We trace the same treatment of flying

-banners and draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but picturesque

-S. Grisogono in the left transept of San Trovaso. Jacobello's will,

-executed in 1439 in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole, with

-provision for a possible posthumous son, shows him to have been a man of

-considerable possessions. He owned a slave and had other servants, a

-house, money, and books. Among his fellow-workers who are represented in

-Venice are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and Lorenzo Veneziano.

-The important altarpiece by the last, in the Academy, has evidently been

-reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover over the Annunciation, and the

-Saints have been restored to the framework in such wise that the backs

-of many of them are turned on the momentous central event. In the

-"Marriage of St. Catherine," in the same gallery, Lorenzo gets more

-natural. The Child, in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a

-lively expression, and looks round at His Mother as if playing a game.

-The chapel of San Tarasio in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which

-the central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is identical with

-Lorenzo's other work. One of the finest and most elaborate of all the

-anconæ is in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work of Lorenzo.

-In this, as well as in that of San Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child

-the apple, signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and symbolical of

-the Incarnation. This incident, which is found thus early in art, was

-evidently felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child from a

-representation of a merely earthly relationship to a spiritual scene

-of the deepest meaning and the highest dignity.

-

-Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of the last decade of the

-fourteenth century, from which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,

-but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively drawn to the

-Giottesque movement, but not, we may remember, before Giotto had been

-dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has been confounded with

-Niccolo Semitocolo, but it is now realised that they were two distinct

-masters. The most important work of Michele Giambono which has come

-down to us is the signed ancona with five saints, now in the Venetian

-Academy. It is unusual to find a saint in the central panel instead of

-the Madonna. The saint is on a larger scale than his companions, and has

-hitherto passed as the Redeemer, but Professor Venturi has identified

-him as St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell and pilgrim's

-staff. It is clear from his size and position that the ancona has been

-painted for an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.

-

-The saints on the right are S. Michael and S. Louis of Toulouse. Between

-S. John the Evangelist and S. James is a monastic figure which has

-evidently changed places with S. John at some moment of restoration. If

-the two figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible. S.

-John is inculcating a message inscribed in his open book, while the monk

-is displaying his humble answer on his own page. The use in it of the

-term _servus_ suggests that he is a Servite, though the want of the

-nimbus precludes the idea that he is one of the founders. It is probable

-that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who, though considered as a saint from the

-time of his death, was not canonised for several centuries.

-

-The Mond Collection includes a glowing picture by Giambono; a seated

-figure clad in rich vestments and holding an orb, probably representing

-a "Throne," one of the angelic orders of the celestial Hierarchy.[1]

-

- [1] These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M'N.

- Rushforth in the _Burlington Magazine_ for October 1911.

-

-Works are still in existence which may be ascribed to one or other of

-these masters, or of which no attribution can be made, but we know

-nothing positive of any other artists of the time which preceded the

-influence of Gentile da Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that the

-Venetian School in its origin had any pretension to be a school of

-colour, or that it could claim anything like real excellence at a time

-when the Republic first became alive to the movement which was going on

-in other parts of Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Paolo da Venezia._

-

- Venice.  St. Mark's: The Pala d' Oro.

- Vicenza. Death of the Virgin.

-

-

- _Lorenzo da Venezia._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.

-         Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.

- Berlin. Two Saints.

-

-

- _Nicoletto Semitocolo._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.

- Padua.  Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Stefano da Venezia._

-

- Venice. Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of

-           Semitocolo.

-

-

- _Jacobello del Fiore._

-

- Venice. Academy: Justice.

-         S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.

-

-

- _Niccolo di Pietro._

-

- Venice. S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Michele Giambono._

-

- Venice. Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.

- London. Mond Collection: A "Throne."

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER III

-

-INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA

-

-

-Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master, when he reached Venice in the

-early years of the fifteenth century, was already a man of note. He had

-received his art education in Florence, and he brought with him fresh

-and delicate devices for the enrichment of painting with gold, which,

-derived as it was from the Sienese assimilation of Byzantine methods,

-was very superior in fancy and refinement to anything that Venice had

-to show. He was a man of a gentle, mystic temperament, but he was

-accustomed to courts, and a finished master whose technique and artistic

-value was far beyond anything that the local painters were capable of.

-He spent some years in Venice, adorning the great hall with episodes

-from the legend of Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially cited,

-was of the battle between the Emperor and the Venetians. Gentile was

-working till about 1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were

-covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained some time in Bergamo and

-Brescia, and settled in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching

-Florence, he painted the famous "Adoration of the Magi," now in the

-Florentine Academy. Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;

-pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo S. Trinità, and he sent

-back two portraits after he had returned to his native Fabriano.

-

-We have no positive record of Gentile and Vittore Pisano, commonly

-called Pisanello, having met in Venice, but there is every evidence in

-their work that they did so, and that one overlapped the other in the

-paintings for the Ducal Palace.

-

-The School of Verona already had an honourable record, and its Guild

-dates from 1303. The following are its rules, the document of which is

-still preserved, while that of Venice has been lost:

-

-     RULES OF THE VERONESE GUILD (_abridged_)

-

-     1. No one to become a member who had not practised art for

-        twelve years.

-

-     2. Twelve artists to be elected members.

-

-     3. The reception of a new member depends on his being a senior.

-

-     4. The members are obliged in the winter season to take upon

-        themselves the instruction of all the pupils in turn.

-

-     5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.

-

-     6. Each member is bound to extend to another fraternal

-        assistance in necessity.

-

-     7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.

-

-     8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.

-

-     9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.

-

-    10. To follow the funerals of members with torches.

-

-    11. The President is to exercise reference authority.

-

-    12. The member who has the longest membership to be President.

-

-There were also by-laws, which provided that no master should accept

-a pupil for less than three years, and this acceptance had to be

-definitely registered by the public notary, a son, brother, grandson, or

-nephew being the only exceptions. No master might receive an apprentice

-who should have left another master before his time was out, unless with

-that master's free consent. There were penalties for enticing away a

-pupil, and others to be enforced against pupils who broke the agreement.

-Severe restrictions existed with regard to the sale of pictures, no one

-but a member of the Guild being allowed to sell them. No one might bring

-a work from any foreign place for purposes of sale. It might not

-even be brought to the town without the special permission of the

-_Gastaldiones_, or trustees of the Guild, and those trustees were

-permitted to search for and destroy forged pictures. Every painter,

-therefore, had to subordinate his interests and inclinations to the

-local school. It helps us to understand why the individual character of

-the different masters is so perceptible, and one of the primary causes

-of this must have been the careful training of the pupils in the

-master's workshop.

-

-The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello's first master, in the Church

-of S. Anastasia in Verona, shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at

-this early time following in the footsteps of Giotto. Three knights of

-the Cavalli family are presented by their patron saints to the Madonna.

-The composition has a large simplicity, a breadth of feeling which is

-carried into each gesture. The knights with their raised helmets, in the

-pattern of horses' heads, are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and

-dignified, and the saints are grand and stately. The picture has a

-delightful suavity and ease, and the colouring has evidently been

-lovely. The setting is in good proportion and more satisfactory than

-that of the Giottesques. From the series of frescoes in S. Antonio,

-Verona, we gather that while Venice was still limited to stiff anconæ,

-the Veronese masters were managing crowds of figures and rendering

-distances successfully. Altichiero puts in homely touches from everyday

-life with a freedom which shows he has not yet mastered the principles

-of selection or the dignified fitness which guided the great masters;

-as, for instance, in the case of the old woman, among the spectators of

-the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing her nose. He lets

-himself be drawn off by all manner of trivial detail and of gay costume;

-but again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the "Beheading of St.

-George," in the Paduan chapel of the Santo, he proves how well he

-understands the force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in gesture

-and expression, while the decorative use he makes of lances against the

-background was long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly surpassed,

-by Tintoretto.

-

-Pisanello, who followed quickly upon Altichiero and his assistant,

-Avanzi, exhibits the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations which

-commended Gentile da Fabriano to the splendour-loving Venetians. Verona,

-under the peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri, had long

-been the home of all knightly lore, and the artists had been employed to

-decorate chapels for the families of the great nobles. Among these,

-Pisanello had attained a high place. Though very few of his paintings

-remain, they all show these influences, and his subtly modelled medals

-establish him as a master of the most finished type. A much destroyed

-fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays the history of St. George and

-the Dragon. In the St. George we probably see the portrait of the great

-personage in whose honour the fresco was painted. He is mounting his

-horse, which, seen from behind, reminds us of the fore-shortened

-chargers of Paolo Uccello. The rescued princess, also a portrait, wears

-a magnificent dress and an elaborate headgear in the fashion of the day.

-Other horses, fiery and spirited, are grouped around, and in the band

-of cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is individualised; one is

-beautiful, another brutal, and so on through the seven. A greyhound

-and spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted, the background is

-excellent, and a realistic touch is given by the corpses which dangle

-unheeded from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined, but

-fortunately not restored, "Annunciation" in S. Fermo, has a simple,

-slender figure of the Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,

-with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed, child-like head with fair

-hair, is a most sweet and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in

-contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes round the church. All

-these paintings are too small to be the least effective at the height

-at which they are placed, and can only be seen with a good glass.

-Pisanello's art is not well adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he

-seems to have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as the two we

-possess. In these he is full of originality, and shows his love for the

-knightly life, the life of courts, in the armed _cap-à-pied_ figure of

-St. George, whose point-device armour is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat

-and feather. The artist's knowledge and love of animals and wild nature

-comes out in them, and his interest in beauty and chivalry as opposed to

-the outworn conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.

-

-We shall be able to trace the influence of both the Umbrian and the

-Veronese painter on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo Bellini, and

-it is important to note the likeness of the two to one another. In

-Gentile's "Adoration" we have on the one hand the Holy Family and the

-gay pageant of the kings, of which we could find the prototype in many

-an Umbrian panel. On the other we see those contrasting elements which

-were struggling in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals, in

-gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses. The two have no lasting

-effect, but though they created no actual school, they gave a stimulus

-to Venetian art, and started it on a new tack, enabling it to open its

-channels to fresh ideas. During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello

-del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new fashion to his early

-style, and the horse of S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in the

-"Adoration," or like Pisano's horses. Michele Giambono is actually found

-in collaboration, in the chapel of the Madonna da Mascoli in St. Mark's,

-with such a virile painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno, who

-is evidently responsible for God the Father and two of the Apostles; but

-Castagno must have been thoroughly antipathetic to the Venetians, and

-though he may have taught them the way to draw, he has not left any

-traces of a following.

-

-Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile's work in the Ducal Palace as

-already decaying, while Pisanello's was painted out by Alvise Vivarini

-and Bellini.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Gentile da Fabriano._

-

- Florence. Academy: Adoration of the Magi.

- Milan.    Brera: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Altichiero._

-

- Padua. Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.

-        Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.

-

-

- _Pisanello._

-

- Padua.  S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.

- Verona. S. Fermo: Annunciation.

- London. S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IV

-

-THE SCHOOL OF MURANO

-

-

-The important little town of Murano, a satellite of Venice, lies upon an

-island, some ten minutes' row from the mother State, distinct from which

-it preserved separate interests and regulations. Its glass manufacture

-was safeguarded by the most stringent decrees, which forbade members of

-the Guild to leave the islet under pain of death. Its mosaics, stone

-work, and architecture speak of an early artistic existence, and we

-recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese painters to be the first

-to strike out into a more emancipated type than that of the primitives.

-The painter Giovanni of Murano, called Giovanni Alemanus or d' Alemagna,

-names between which Venetian jealousy for a time drew an imaginary

-distinction, had certainly received his early education in Germany, and

-betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more Gothic style; but he

-was a fellow-worker with Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great

-Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several large altarpieces in

-which they collaborated. "Christ and the Virgin in Glory" was painted

-for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an inscription with both names

-on a banderol across the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His hands

-on the shoulders of the Mother and Son, makes a group of which we find

-the origin in Gentile da Fabriano's altarpiece in the Brera, and it is

-probable that one if not both masters had been studying with the Umbrian

-and absorbing the principles he had brought to Venice. It is easy to

-trace the influence of Giovanni d' Alemagna, though not always easy to

-pick out which part of a picture belongs to him and which to Antonio

-working under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is a "Coronation of the

-Virgin," with Gothic ornaments such as are not found in purely Italian

-art at this period, but the example in which both masters can be most

-closely followed is the great picture in the Academy, the "Madonna

-enthroned," where she sits under a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here

-the Gothic surroundings become very florid, and have a gingerbread-cake

-effect, which Italian taste would hardly have tolerated. Many features

-are characteristic of the German; the huge crown worn by the Mother, the

-floriated ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque appearance of

-the throne. Through it all, heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn

-of the tender expression which came into Venetian art with Gentile.

-

- [Illustration: _Antonio da Murano._

-                 ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

-                _Berlin._

-                 (_Photo, Hanfstängl._)]

-

-Giovanni d' Alemagna and Antonio da Murano were no doubt widely

-employed, and when the former died Antonio founded and carried on a

-real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in the parish of S. Maria

-Formosa with his wife, who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and the

-wills of both are still preserved in the parish archives. Gentile da

-Fabriano had set the example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses

-and strange animals; winding paths in the background and foreshortened

-limbs prove that attention had been drawn to Paolo Uccello's studies in

-perspective, while many figures and horses recall Pisanello. A striking

-proof of the sojourn of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in an

-"Adoration of Magi," now ascribed to Antonio da Murano, in which the

-central group, the oldest king kissing the Child's foot, is very like

-that in Gentile's "Adoration," but the foreshortened horses and the

-attendants argue the painter's knowledge of Pisanello's work. A

-comparison of the architecture in the background with that in the

-"St. George" in S. Anastasia shows the same derivation, and the dainty

-cavalier, who holds a flag and is in attendance on the youngest king, is

-reminiscent of St. George and St. Eustace in Pisanello's paintings in

-the National Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences of the

-two artists are combined.

-

-Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo, into partnership, and the

-title of da Murano was presently dropped for the more modern designation

-of Vivarini. Both brothers are fine and delicate in work, but from the

-outset of their collaboration the younger man is more advanced and more

-full of the spirit of the innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall

-of the Academy the Nativity has already a new realism; Joseph leans his

-head upon his hand, crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly

-vivid in expression, especially the old hermit holding the bell, whose

-face is brimming with ardent feeling.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Giovanni d' Alemanus and Antonio da Murano._

-

- Venice. Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.

-

-

- _Antonio da Murano._

-

- Berlin. Adoration of Magi.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER V

-

-THE PADUAN INFLUENCE

-

-

-And now into this dawning school, employed chiefly in the service of the

-Church, with its tentative and languid essays to understand Florentine

-composition, resulting in what is scarcely more than a mindless

-imitation, and with its rather more intelligent perception of the

-Humanist qualities of Pisanello's work, there enters a new factor; or

-rather a new agency makes a slightly more successful attempt than

-Gentile and Castagno had done to help the Venetians to realise the

-supreme importance of the human figure, its power in relation to other

-objects to determine space, its modelling and the significance of its

-attitude in conveying movement. Giotto had been able to present all

-these qualities in the human form, but he had done so by the light of

-genius, and had never formulated any sufficient rules for his followers'

-guidance. In Ghiberti's school, at the beginning of the fifteenth

-century, the fascination of the antique in art was making itself felt,

-but Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels it threatened to

-exercise, and had carried the Florentine school with him in his profound

-researches into the human form itself. Donatello had been working in

-Padua for ten years before Pisanello's death, and in an indirect way the

-Venetians were experiencing some after-results of the systematising and

-formulating of the new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual

-life had met with little encouragement among the positive, practical

-inhabitants of Venice, in Padua, which had been subject to her since

-1405, speculative thought and ideal studies were in full swing. There

-was no re-birth in Venice, whose tradition was unbroken and where "men

-were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo of a paganism in the

-remote past." St. Mark was the deity of Venice, and "the other twelve

-Apostles" were only obscurely connected with her religious life, which

-was strong and orthodox, but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms

-and inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand, was absorbed in

-questions of learning and religion. A university had been established

-here for two centuries. The abstract study of the antique was carried on

-with fervour, and the memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city which

-had never quite died out. It seemed perfectly right and respectable to

-the Venetians that the _savants_, lying safely removed from the busy

-stream of commercial life, should cultivate inquiries into theology

-and the classics, which would only have been a hindrance to their own

-practical business; but such, as it was well known, were of absorbing

-interest in the circles which gathered round the Medici in Florence. The

-school of art, which was now arising in Padua, was fed from such sources

-as these. The love of the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding

-principle, and influenced the art of painting more formally than it

-could succeed in doing among the independent and original Florentines.

-

-Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says, he may not have been the

-best of painters, has left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as

-genuine and which shows that he was more than the mere organiser he is

-sometimes called. He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently a

-dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments, which was becoming

-widespread. When he founded his school in Padua he evidently was its

-leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence. His pupils, even the

-greatest, were long in breaking away from his convention, and few of

-them threw it off entirely, even in after life. That convention was

-carried with undeviating thoroughness into every detail. Draperies are

-arranged in statuesque folds, designed to display every turn of the form

-beneath; the figures are moulded with all the precision and limitations

-of statuary. The very landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a

-volcanic character are constructed with the regularity of masonry. The

-colour and technique are equally uncompromising, and the surface becomes

-a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite in its lines, lacquer-like in

-its firmness of finish, while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been

-so prevalent, were replaced by more or less pedantic adaptations from

-Roman bas-reliefs. This system of design was practised most determinedly

-in Padua itself, but it soon spread to Venice. Squarcione himself was

-employed there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano clung to the old

-archaic style he saw the Paduan manner invading his kingdom, and his own

-brother became strongly Squarcionesque.

-

-The two brothers of Murano come most closely together in an altarpiece

-in the gallery of Bologna, where the framework is more simple than

-Alemanus's German taste would have permitted, and the Madonna and Child

-have some natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive art.

-Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and sets out to paint by himself, is

-crude and strong, but full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464,

-in the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking them off their

-pedestals and making them stand upon the ground, and though they are

-still isolated from one another in the partitions of an ancona, their

-sparkling eyes, individual features, and curly beards give them a look

-of life. The draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked folds,

-which display the forms, and the drawing of the bony structure,

-exaggerated in the arms and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and

-stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In several of his other

-altarpieces, Bartolommeo introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,

-such as Donatello had first brought to Padua, or which Paduan artists

-delighted to copy from classic columns. Antonio's manner to the end is

-the local Venetian manner, infused as it was with the soft and charming

-influence of Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo adopts

-the new and more ambitious style. Though not a very good painter, and

-inclined to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he was the head

-of a crowd of artists, and works of his school, signed _Opus factum_,

-went all over Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works of his

-pupils are numerous; the "St. Mark enthroned" in the Frari is as good if

-not better than the master's own work, and the triptych in the Correr

-Museum is a free imitation.

-

-Round this early school gathered such painters as Antonio da Negroponte

-and Quirizio da Murano, who were both working in 1450. Negroponte has

-left an enthroned Madonna in S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of

-the most beautiful examples of colour and of the fanciful charm of the

-Renaissance that the early art of Venice has to show. The Mother and

-Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned with antique reliefs, rich

-wreaths of fruit swag above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full of

-flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on cornucopias. On either

-side, four badly drawn little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly

-foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful, music-making angels which

-became such a feature of North Italian art. The Divine Mother, adoring

-the Child lying across her knees, has an exquisite, pensive face,

-conceived with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art. It seems

-quite possible, as Professor Leonello Venturi suggests, that we have

-here the early master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love of fruit

-garlands, of chains of beads and rich brocades carried to its farthest

-limits, who takes keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively

-little angels, and who gives the same pensive and almost mincing

-expression to his Madonnas.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini._

-

- Bologna. Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Bartolommeo Vivarini._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.

-         Frari: Madonna and four Saints.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.

-         S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.

- London. Madonna and Saints.

- Vienna. S. Ambrose and Saints.

-

-

- _Antonio da Negroponte._

-

- Venice. S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VI

-

-JACOPO BELLINI

-

-

-While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the school of Squarcione,

-which in the next few years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,

-another influence was asserting itself, which was sufficient to

-counteract the hard formalism of Paduan methods.

-

-When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he carried with him, and presently

-established with him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini, who had

-already been working with him and Pisanello, and who was an ardent

-disciple of the new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both Gentile and

-his apprentice were subjected to annoyance from the time they arrived in

-Florence, where the strict regulations which governed the Guilds made it

-very difficult for any newcomer to practise his art. The records of a

-police case report that on the 11th of June 1423 some young men, among

-them, one, Bernabo di San Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed

-throwing stones into the painter's room. His assistant, Jacopo Bellini,

-came out and drove the assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing

-Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to prison in default of

-payment. After six months' imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a

-penitential declaration set him at liberty. The accounts declare that

-Gentile took no steps to be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon

-after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first son was christened after

-his old master, which does not look as though they were on unfriendly

-terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and was much esteemed by the

-Estes of Ferrara, but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has left us only

-three signed works, and one or two more have lately been attributed to

-him, but they give very little idea of what an important master he was.

-

- [Illustration: _Jacopo Bellini._

-                 AGONY IN GARDEN--DRAWING.

-                _British Museum._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-His Madonna in the Academy has a round, simple type of face, and in the

-Louvre Madonna, which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to

-recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut, curved eyelids. In

-this picture, where the Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d' Este,

-we see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through him, on Venetian art.

-The connection between the two masters has been established in a very

-interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi's discovery of a sonnet,

-written in 1441, which recounts how they painted rival portraits of

-Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness that he was

-adjudged the first place. The landscape in the Louvre picture is

-advanced in treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its stag and

-its town upon the hill-side, is full of reminiscences of Pisanello,

-especially of the "St. George" in S. Anastasia. We come upon such

-traces, too, in Jacopo's drawings, and it is by his two sketch-books

-that we can best judge of his greatness. One of these is in the British

-Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered not many years ago in

-the granary of a castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo as one

-of the greatest masters of his day. He is larger, simpler, and more

-natural than Pisanello, and he apparently cares less for the human

-figure than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings. Many of his

-designs we shall refer to again when we come to speak of his two sons.

-His "Supper of Herod" reminds us of Masolino's fresco at Castiglione

-d' Olona. He sketches designs for numbers of religious scenes, treated

-in an original and interesting manner. A "Crucifixion" has bands of

-soldiers ranged on either side, an "Adoration of the Magi" has a string

-of camels coming down the hill, the executioners in a "Scourging" wear

-Eastern head-dresses. In a sketch for a "Baptism of Christ" tall angels

-hold the garments in the early traditional way; on one side two play

-the lute and the violin, while the two on the other side have a trumpet

-and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension, Resurrection,

-Circumcision, and Entombment, repeated over and over again with

-variations, and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice (where he was

-in 1427). Jacopo delights even more in fanciful and mythological than in

-sacred subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun riding a lion, a

-"Triumph of Bacchus" with panthers, are among such essays. The fauns

-pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His love of animals is equal

-to that of Pisanello, and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix

-between its horns is directly reminiscent of the Veronese. His horses,

-of which there are immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied from

-ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of single nude figures is often

-poor and weak enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped, geological

-formation of the Paduan School, but no one who so drank in every

-description of lively scene about him could have been in any danger of

-becoming a mere archeological type, and it was from this pitfall that he

-rescued Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo did not overlook any

-source of art open to him; he delights in the rich research of the

-Paduans as much as in the varieties of wild nature and all the incidents

-of contemporary life first annexed by Pisanello. He is often very like

-Gentile da Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello's domains of

-perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws a revel of satyrs and

-centaurs with a real interpretation of the lyrical and pagan spirit of

-the Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul, which found its full

-expression in his son, Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the

-founder of the Venetian School, for its makings existed already, but it

-was his influence on his sons which, above all, was accountable for the

-development of early excellence. His long, flowing lines have a sweep

-and a fanciful grace which form an absolute antidote to the definite,

-geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we see the thorough

-assimilation of those foreign elements which were in sympathy with

-the Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now Venice had only imbibed

-influences, she was soon to create for herself an artistic _milieu_ and

-to become the leader of the movement of painting in the north of Italy.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Jacopo Bellini._

-

- Brescia. Annunciation and Predelle.

- Verona.  Christ on Cross.

- Venice.  Academy: Madonna.

-          Museo Correr: Crucifixion.

- London.  British Museum: Sketch-book.

- Paris.   Madonna and Leonello d' Este: Sketch-book.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VII

-

-CARLO CRIVELLI

-

-

-We must turn aside from the main stream when we come to speak of Carlo

-Crivelli, who, important master as he was, occupies a place by himself.

-A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps, as we have noted, of Antonio

-Negroponte, Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the Paduans, from whom

-he learned that metallic, finished quality of paint which he carried to

-perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality, even genius, in the

-way in which he grapples with his medium and produces his own reading,

-and the circumstances of his life were such as to throw him in upon

-himself and to preserve his originality. His little early "Madonna and

-Child" at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte by the elaborate

-festoons, strings of beads, and large-patterned brocades used in the

-surroundings, and has those ugly, foreshortened little _putti_, holding

-the instruments of the Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione and

-Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved state, we are accustomed to

-think of as Mantegnesque.

-

-When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he was condemned to six

-months' imprisonment and to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage

-on a neighbour's wife. Perhaps it was to escape from an unenviable

-reputation that he left Venice soon after and set up painting in the

-Marches, where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then went on to Camerino

-in Umbria, where his great triptych, now in the Brera, was painted,

-and a few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission for an

-Annunciation in the Cathedral. This is the picture now in the National

-Gallery, in which the Bishop holds a model of the Duomo. After 1490 he

-worked in little towns in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.

-He does not seem ever to have come back to Venice.

-

-Shut up in the Marches, where there was little strong local talent, and

-where he could not keep up with the progress that was taking place in

-Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the artistic movement. He kept

-the Squarcionesque traditions to the end, but moulded them by his own

-love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover, he was of a very

-intense religious bias, and this finds a deeply touching and mystical

-expression, more especially in his Pietàs. The love of gilded patterns

-and fanciful detail was deep-seated in all the Umbrian country. His

-altarpieces were intended as sumptuous additions to rich churches, and

-were consequently arranged, with many divisions, in the old Muranese

-manner. His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a marvel of

-elaborate ornament and enamel-like painting. The Madonna is delicate,

-almost affected in her refinement. Her long fingers hold the Child's

-garment with the extreme of dainty precision, the croziers and rings of

-the saints and bishops are embossed with gold and real jewels. The

-flowers in the panel of "The Immaculate Conception," which hangs beside

-it, are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and grotesques or

-cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty of strength, and his male saints have

-vigorous, bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however, in his

-colour that he charms us most, and though he does not touch the real

-fount, he is of all the earlier school the most remarkable for subtle

-tender tones and lovely harmonies of olive-greens and faded rose and

-cream embossed with gold.

-

-Crivelli continued executing one great ancona after another, limiting

-his progress to perfecting his technique, and his influence was most

-deeply felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San Severino and

-Niccola Alunno. The honours paid him testify to the reputation he

-acquired. He was created a knight and presented with a golden laurel

-wreath. But though he never, that we can hear of, revisited his native

-State, he always adds _Venetus_ to the signature on his paintings, a

-fact which tells us that far from Venice and in provincial districts,

-her prestige was felt and gave his work an enhanced commercial value.

-He had no after-influence upon the Venetian School, and in this respect

-is interesting as an example of the tenacity exercised by the

-Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by any counter-attraction, they

-came to act upon a very different temperament; for in his love of grace

-and beauty and of rich effects, and especially in his intensity of

-mystic feeling, Crivelli is a true Venetian and has no natural affinity

-with the classic spirit of the Paduans.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Venice. SS. Jerome and Augustine.

- Ascoli. Duomo: Altarpiece and Pietà.

- Berlin. Madonna and six Saints.

- London. Pietà; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation;

-           Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.

-         Mr. Benson: Madonna.

-         Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.

-         Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.

-         Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion;

-           Madonna; Madonna and Saints.

- Milan. Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot,

-          Jerome, and Andrew.

-        Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.

- Rome.  Vatican: Pietà.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VIII

-

-GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA

-

-

-What, then, is the position which art has achieved in Venice a decade

-after the middle of the fourteenth century, and how does she compare

-with the Florentine School? The Florentines, Fra Angelico, Andrea del

-Castagno, and Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo was in his

-prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four, Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But

-though the progress in the north had been slower, art both in Padua and

-Venice was now in vigorous progress. Bartolommeo Vivarini was still

-painting and gathering round him a numerous band of followers; Mantegna

-was thirty, had just completed the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and

-the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile and Giovanni Bellini were

-two and four years his seniors.

-

-Francesco Negro, writing in the early years of the sixteenth century,

-speaks of Gentile as the elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is

-thought to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo's widow only

-mentions Gentile and another son, Niccolo, in her will. There is every

-reason to believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were the pupils

-and assistants of their father. A "Madonna" in the Mond Collection, the

-earliest known of Gentile's works, shows him imitating his father's

-style; but when his sister, Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is

-not surprising to find him following Mantegna's methods for a time, and

-a fresco of St. Mark in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission

-which he received in 1466, is taken direct from Mantegna's fresco at

-Padua.

-

-As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the Squarcionesque tradition and

-evolved a style of their own; Gentile as much as his even more famous

-brother. Gentile is the first chronicler of the men and manners of his

-time. In 1460 he settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the organ

-doors in St. Mark's. These large saints, especially the St. Mark, still

-recall the Paduan period. They have festoons of grapes and apples hung

-from the architectural ornaments, and the cast of drapery, showing the

-form beneath, reminds us of Mantegna's figures. But Gentile soon becomes

-an illustrator and portrait painter. Much of his work was done in the

-Scuola of St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this was destroyed

-by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the fine austere portrait of Lorenzo

-Giustiniani, in the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the Sultan

-Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested the Signoria to recommend a good

-painter and a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen, and departed

-in September for Constantinople. He painted many subjects for the

-private apartments of the Sultan, as well as the famous portrait now in

-the possession of Lady Layard. It would be difficult for a historic

-portrait to show more insight into character. The face is cold, weary,

-and sensual, with all the over-refined look of an old race and a long

-civilisation, and has a melancholy note in its distant and satiated

-gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile every mark of favour, loaded him with

-presents, and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He returned home in

-1493, bringing with him many sketches of Eastern personages and the

-picture, now in the Louvre, representing the reception of a Venetian

-Embassy by the Grand Vizier. Some five years before Gentile's commission

-to Constantinople Antonello da Messina had arrived in Venice, and the

-spread and popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the casting off

-of outworn ecclesiastical methods and brought the painters nearer to the

-truth of life. Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the notice

-of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo Vivarini was already using them in

-1473, but he was well known by reputation before he arrived, and having

-probably come into contact with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had

-better opportunities of seizing upon the new technique, and was able to

-establish it both in Milan and in Venice. A large number of Venetians

-were at this time resident in Messina: the families of Lombardo,

-Gradenigo, Contarini, Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those

-who had members settled there. Many of these were patrons of art, and

-probably paved the way to Antonello's reception in Venice. At first all

-the traits of Antonello's early work are Flemish: the full mantles,

-white linen caps and tuckers, the straight sharp folds and long wings of

-the angels have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to Venice in 1475,

-its colour and life fascinate him, and a great change comes over his

-work. His portraits show that he grasped a new intensity of life,

-and let us into the character of the men he saw around him. His

-"Condottiere," in the Louvre, declares the artist's recognition of

-that truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic disdain, the

-product of a daring, unscrupulous life. The "Portrait of a Humanist,"

-in the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest sense; and in the

-Trivulzio College at Milan an older man looks at us out of sly,

-expressive eyes, with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical

-mouth. It was not wonderful that these portraits, combined with the new

-medium, worked upon Gentile's imagination and determined his bent.

-

-The first examples of great canvases, illustrating and celebrating

-their own pageants, must have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes

-in the style of the reception of the Venetian ambassadors were called

-for on all hands, and when the excellence of Gentile's portraits was

-recognised, he became the model for all Venice. When his own and his

-father's and brother's paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered

-to replace them "quicker than was humanly possible" and at a very low

-price. Giovanni, who had been engaged on the external decorations, was

-ill at the time, but the Signoria was so pleased with the offer that it

-was decided to let no one touch the work till the two brothers were

-able to finish it. Gentile still painted religious altarpieces with the

-Virgin and Child enthroned with saints, but most of his time was devoted

-to the production of his great canvases. Some of these have disappeared,

-but the "Procession" and "Miracle of the Cross," commissioned by the

-school of S. Giovanni Evangelista, are now in the Academy, and the

-third canvas, executed for the same school, "St. Mark preaching at

-Alexandria," which was unfinished at the time of his death, and was

-completed by his brother, is in the Brera.

-

- [Illustration: _Gentile Bellini._

-                 PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-These great compositions of crowds bring back for us the Venice of

-Gentile's day as no verbal description can do. There is no especial

-richness of colour; the light is that of broad day in the Piazza and

-among the luminous waterways of the city. We can see the scene any

-day now in the wide square, making allowance for the difference of

-costume. The groups are set about in the ample space, with the wonderful

-cathedral as a background. St. Mark's has been painted hundreds of

-times, but no one has ever given such a good idea of it as Gentile--of

-its stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and he does so

-without detracting from the general effect, for St. Mark's, though the

-keynote of the whole composition, is kept subservient, and is part of

-the stage on which the scene is enacted. The procession passes along,

-carrying the relics, attended by the waxlights and the banners. Behind

-the reliquary kneels the merchant, Jacopo Salò, petitioning for the

-recovery of his wounded son. Then come the musicians; the spectators

-crowd round, they strain forward to see the chief part of the cortège,

-as a crowd naturally does. Some watch with reverence, others smile or

-have a negligent air. The faces of the candle-bearers are very like

-those we may see to-day in a great Church procession: some absorbed in

-their task, or uplifted by inner thoughts; others looking curiously

-and sceptically at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds to bring

-together all the types of life in Venice, all the officials and the

-ecclesiastical world, the young and old. With a few strokes he creates

-the individual and also the type;--the careless rover; the responsible

-magistrate; the shrewd, practical man of business; the young men, full

-of their own plans, but pausing to look on at one of the great religious

-sights of their city. In the "Finding of the Cross" he produces the

-effect of the whole city _en fête_. It was a sight which often met his

-eyes. The Doge made no fewer than thirty-six processions annually to

-various churches of the city, and on fourteen of these occasions he was

-accompanied by the whole of the nobles dressed in their State robes.

-Every event of importance was seized on by the Venetian ladies as an

-opportunity for arraying themselves in the richest attire, cloth of gold

-and velvet, plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies of Queen

-Catherine Cornaro's Court around their Queen upon the left side of the

-canal. The light from above streams upon the keeper of the School, who

-holds the sacred relic on high. All round are the old, irregular

-Venetian houses, and in the crowd he paints the variety of men he saw

-around him every day in Venice. Yet even in this animated scene he

-retains his old quattrocento calm. The groups are decorously assisting:

-only here and there he is drawn off to some small detail of reality,

-such as an oarsman dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting the

-negro servant pass out to take a header into the canal. The spectators

-look on coolly at one more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The

-committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of unforgettable portraits,

-grave, benign, sour, and austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In

-this composition he triumphs over all difficulties of perspective; our

-eye follows the canals, and the boats pass away under the bridge in

-atmospheric light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of light on

-broad brick surfaces, light which is cast up from the water and dances

-and shimmers on the marble façades.

-

-Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as others in 1505 and 1506. He

-left word that he was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and begged

-his brother Giovanni to finish the work in the Scuola, in return for

-which he is to receive their father's sketch-book. The unfinished piece

-is the "St. Mark preaching at Alexandria," and it shows Gentile still

-developing his capacity as a painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant

-in sunlight. The mass of white given by the head-dresses of the Turkish

-women is cleverly subdued so as not to detract from the effect of the

-sunlight. The thronged effect of the great square is studied with more

-than his usual care, and the faces have all the old individuality. The

-foremost figures in the crowd have a colour and richness which we may

-attribute to Giovanni's hand.

-

-Gentile was always fully employed, and the detailed paintings of

-functions became very popular; but he was a far less modern painter

-than his brother, and, in fact, they represent two distinct artistic

-generations, though Gentile's work was so much the most elaborate and,

-as the quattrocento would have thought, the most ambitious.

-

-Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet his is a grave, sincere

-art, and he has an unerring instinct for the right incidents to include.

-He cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are stern, powerful

-men, the treatment is historic and contemporary, but not gossipy. We

-realise the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide of human

-nature, but we also feel that he never forgot that he was chronicling

-the doings of a city of strong men, and that he must paint them, even in

-their hours of relaxation and emotion, so as to convey the real dignity

-and power which underlay all the events of the Republic.

-

-We gather from his will and that of his wife that they had no children,

-which perhaps makes the more natural the affectionate terms upon which

-he remained all through his life with his brother. Their artistic

-sympathies must have differed widely. Gentile's love for historical

-research, for costume and for pageants, found no echo in the deeper

-idealism of Giovanni--indeed, his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an

-inducement to the latter to finish his last great work, seems to hint

-that it was an exercise out of his brother's line; but he knew that

-Giovanni was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we might have

-expected, to his assistants, Giovanni Mansueti and Girolamo da

-Santacroce.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Gentile Bellini._

-

- London. S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.

- Milan.  Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.

- Venice. Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of

-           True Cross; Healing by True Cross.

-         Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.

-

-

- _Antonello da Messina._

-

- Antwerp. Crucifixion, 1475.

- Berlin.  Three Portraits.

- London.  The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.

- Messina. Madonna and Saints, 1473.

- Paris.   Condottiere.

- Milan.   Portrait of a Humanist.

- Venice.  Academy: Ecce Homo.

- Vicenza. Christ at the Column.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IX

-

-ALVISE VIVARINI

-

-

-Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were artists still firmly attached to

-the past, who were far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.

-

-One of Antonio de Murano's sons, Luigi or Alvise Vivarini, grew up to

-follow his father's profession, and was enrolled in the school of his

-uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic follower of

-Squarcione, Alvise was at first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo

-Bellini's efforts had done something to counteract the hard, statuesque

-Paduan manner, and had rendered Mantegna's art more human and less

-stony, but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque painters from

-importing into Venice the style which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo

-threw in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially when

-reinforced by Alvise, maintained its reputation as long as it only

-had to compete with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been firmly

-established in Venice for two generations, and were the best-known and

-most popular of her painters. Albert Dürer, on his first visit, admired

-them more than the Bellini. When, however, Gentile and his brother set

-up in Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and the old Muranese

-School. The Bellini had come with their father from Padua, with all its

-new and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige of relationship

-with Mantegna, and they shared the patronage of his powerful employers.

-The striking historical compositions of Gentile were at once in demand

-by the great confraternities. Bartolommeo had never been very successful

-in his dealing with oil-painting, though he had dabbled in it for some

-years before Antonello da Messina came his way, but the perception with

-which the Bellini at once grasped the new technique gave them the

-victory. We have only to compare the formless contours of much of

-Bartolommeo Vivarini's work, the bladder-like flesh-painting of the

-Holy Child, with the clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of

-Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead of the other.

-

-Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity with his father than with his

-uncle. He never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as Bartolommeo. The

-expression of his faces is much deeper and more inward, and he has

-something of the devotional sweetness of early art. His first known

-work is an ancona of 1475 at Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan

-monastery on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of the five

-panels the Madonna sits with her hands pressed palm to palm, in

-adoration of the Child asleep across her knees. The painter here follows

-the tradition of his father and uncle, especially in the Bologna

-altarpiece, in which they collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on

-either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in the old way, and

-it is only by degrees that we see there is more sweetness in the

-expression, better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer, more

-graceful outline than the earlier anconæ can show. Only five years after

-this ancona at Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated saints,

-we have the altarpiece in the Academy "of 1480," which was painted for a

-church in Treviso, and here a great change is immediately apparent. The

-antiquated division into panels has disappeared, nothing is left of the

-artificial, Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are simple, and

-the scene is a united one. The Madonna's outstretched hand, the

-suggestion of "Ecce Agnus Dei," makes an appeal which draws the

-attention of all the saints to one point, and it is made plain that the

-one idea pervades the entire assembly. The curtain, which symbolises the

-sanctuary, still hangs behind the throne, but the gold background is

-abandoned. Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape or

-constructed an interior, but he lightens the effect by two arched

-windows which let in the sky. The forms are characteristic of his

-idea of drawing the human figure; they have the long thighs with the

-knees low down, which we are accustomed to find, and he constructs a

-very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light and shade. There is no

-trace of the statuesque Paduan draperies. The Virgin's brocaded mantle

-is simply draped, and the robes of the saints hang in long straight

-folds. No doubt Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini, has

-more affinity with them, particularly with Giovanni, than with the

-Paduan artists, and as time goes on it is evident that he paints with

-many glances at what they were doing. In the altarpiece in Berlin he

-constructs an elaborate cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was

-already using. His saints are full of movement. In the end he begins to

-attitudinise and to display those artificial graces which were presently

-accentuated by Lotto.

-

- [Illustration: _Alvise Vivarini._

-                 ALTARPIECE OF 1480.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time been employed in the Sala del

-Gran Consiglio by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy school, had

-hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be invited to enter into competition

-with them. At length he wrote the following letter:--

-

-     TO THE MOST SERENE THE PRINCE AND THE MOST EXCELLENT

-     SIGNORIA--I am Alvise of Murano, a faithful servant of your

-     Serenity and of this most illustrious State. I have long been

-     anxious to exercise my skill before your Sublimity and prove

-     that continued study and labour on my part have not been

-     useless. Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and

-     praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without

-     return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing a canvas

-     in the Sala del Gran Consiio, according to the method at

-     present in use by the two brothers Bellinii, and I ask no more

-     for the said canvas than that I should be allowed the expenses

-     of the cloth and colours as well as the wages of the

-     journeymen, in the manner that has been granted to the said

-     Bellinii. When I have done I shall leave to your Serenity of

-     his goodness to give me in his wisdom the price which shall be

-     adjudged to be just, honest, and appropriate, in return for the

-     labour, which I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the

-     universal satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the

-     excellent Government, to the grace of which I most heartily

-     commend myself.

-

-The "method at present in use" was presumably the oil-painting

-established by Antonello, which was now being made use of to replace

-the decorations in fresco and tempera which Guariento, Pisanello, and

-Gentile da Fabriano had executed, and which were constantly decaying and

-suffering from the sea air and the dampness of the climate. The Council

-accepted Alvise's offer with little delay, and he was told to paint a

-picture for a space hitherto occupied by one of Pisanello's, and was

-given a salary of sixty ducats a year, something less than that drawn by

-Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work, scenes from the history of

-Barbarossa, perished in the great fire of 1577.

-

-Venice is rich in works which show us what sort of painter was at the

-head of the Muranese School at the time when it rivalled that of the

-Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either side of the altarpiece

-of 1480, and of these the Baptist is one of his best figures, "admirably

-expressive of tension and of brooding thought." It is large and free in

-stroke, and particularly advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close

-by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type of a strenuous, fanatical

-old woman, one which belongs not only to the period, but will be

-recognised by every student of human nature. Formidable and even cruel

-is her unflinching gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood for

-Scott's Prioress, and looks as little likely to show mercy to an erring

-member of her order. In contrast, there is the exquisite little "Madonna

-and Child" with the two baby angels, still shown as a Bellini in the

-sacristy of the Church of the Redentore. It is the most absolutely

-simple and direct picture of the kind painted in Venice. The baby life

-is more perfect than anything that Gian. Bellini produced, and if much

-less intellectual than his Madonnas, there is all the tender charm of

-the primitives, combined with a freedom of drapery and a softness of

-form which could not be surpassed. The two little angels are more

-mundane in spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they have nothing

-of the mystical quality, though we are reminded of Bellini, and the

-painting is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy of San Giobbe is

-an early Annunciation, which is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It

-has the old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its draperies are of

-a lovely tint. The priests of S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons

-of the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides several works by

-Bartolommeo and his assistants, is a little Madonna in a side chapel,

-which may be compared with the Redentore picture. The Mother sits inside

-a room, with the Child lying across her knees in the same pose. The two

-arched openings in the background of the 1480 altarpiece have become

-windows, through which we look out on a charming landscape of lake and

-mountain. In the same church a "Resurrection" is not to be overlooked.

-It was executed in 1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the

-sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the pink flush of dawn

-stands the swaying figure of the risen Christ, and below appear the

-heads of the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful. It is perhaps

-the very earliest example of that soft and sensuous feeling, that

-rhapsody of sensation which was presently to sweep like a flood over the

-art of Venice. "What a time must the dawn of the sixteenth century have

-been when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous and advanced of

-his age, had the freshness and youthful courage to greet it; nay,

-actually to depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in the

-'Resurrection'! Giorgione is here anticipated in the roundness and

-softness of the figures, and in the effect of light. Titian's Assunta is

-foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards' expressions." Alvise, if he

-never thoroughly mastered the structure of the nude, and if his forms

-keep throughout some touch of the archaic, some awkwardness in the

-thickness of the figures, with their round heads, long thighs, and

-uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily refined and tender in

-sentiment, his line has a natural flow and beauty, and the heads of his

-Madonnas and saints cannot be surpassed in loveliness.

-

-His death came when the noble altarpiece to St. Ambrogio in the Frari

-was still unfinished, and it was completed by his assistant, Marco

-Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably of Basaiti, but the

-venerable doctor is a grand figure, and the two young soldier saints on

-his right and left hand are striking examples of the beauty we claim

-for him. The architectural plan is very elaborate, but altogether

-successful. The group is set beneath an arched vault supported by

-columns and cornices. Overhead, behind a balustrade, is placed a

-coronation of the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so as not to

-interfere with each other, and the sword of St. George, the crozier of

-St. Gregory, and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the composition and

-give length and line. The faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,

-and the two angels making music below compare well with those of the

-Bellinesque School.

-

-The portraits Alvise has left add to his reputation, and remind us of

-those of Antonello da Messina, particularly in the vital expression

-of the eyes, though they are without Antonello's intense force. The

-"Bernardo di Salla" and the "Man feeding a Hawk," though some critics

-still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which make their

-attribution to Alvise almost certainly correct. Indeed, the resemblance

-of Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece cannot escape the most

-unscientific observer. There is the same inflated nostril, the

-peculiarly curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.

-

-Among the followers of Alvise, Marco Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and

-Lorenzo Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less direct are

-Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco Bonsignori, while Cima da

-Conegliano was for a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return to

-these later.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.  Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.

- London.  Portrait of Youth.

- Milan.   Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.

- Naples.  Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.

- Paris.   Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.

- Venice.  Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints,

-            1480.

-          Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.

-          S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection

-            and Predelle.

-          Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.

- Vienna.  Madonna.

- Windsor. Man feeding a Hawk.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER X

-

-CARPACCIO

-

-

-Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini's most faithful pupil. He and his

-master stand apart in having, before the arrival of the Venetian School

-proper, captured an aspect and a charm inspired by the natural beauty

-of the City of the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her historic

-appearance, and Carpaccio gives us something of the delight we feel

-to-day in her translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed spaces

-flooded with limpid light. While others were absorbed in assimilating

-extraneous influences, he goes on his own way, painting, indeed, the

-scenes that were asked for, but painting them in his own manner and with

-his own enjoyment.

-

-Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the Venetian State from very

-early days. The first use of painting had been that made by the Church

-to glorify religion, and very soon the State had followed, using it to

-enhance the love which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring home

-to them the consciousness of its greatness and glory. Pageants and

-processions were an integral part of Venetian life. The people looked

-on at them, often as they occurred, with more pride and sense of

-proprietorship than a Londoner does at a coronation procession or at the

-King going in state to open Parliament. The Venetian loved splendour and

-beauty and the story of the city's great achievements, and nothing

-provided so welcome a subject for the decoration of the great public

-halls as portrayals of the events which had made Venice famous. Artists

-had been employed to produce these as early as the end of the fourteenth

-century, and those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which perished in

-the great fire) were a rendering on modern lines of the same subjects,

-satisfying the more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.

-

-Besides the Church and the public Government, we have already seen the

-"Schools," as they were called, becoming important employers. These

-schools were the great organised confraternities in the cause of charity

-and mutual help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth century.

-That of St. Mark was naturally the foremost, but others were banded each

-under their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of rich patrons, for it

-was the fashion to belong to the confraternities. Riches and endowments

-rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting business were

-built, and were adorned with pictures setting forth the legends of

-their patron saints. We have already seen Gentile Bellini employed in

-the schools of San Marco and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.

-Ursula and St. George gave commissions to Carpaccio, or perhaps it would

-be more correct to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent in this

-art, provided employment for his pupil and assistant, and that by

-degrees Carpaccio became a _maestro_ on his own account.

-

-A host of second-rate painters were plying side by side, disciples

-first of one master, then drawn off to become followers of a second;

-assimilating the influence first of one workshop and then of another.

-Carpaccio has been lately identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who

-had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution to this painter of

-the "Doge before the Madonna," in the National Gallery, gives some

-countenance to the contention that he was held to be of great excellence

-in his time.

-

-Though some historians advance the suggestion that Carpaccio was a

-native of Capo d'Istria, there is little proof that he was not, like his

-father Pietro, born a Venetian. He seems to have worked in Venice all

-his life, his first work being dated 1490 and his last 1520. In 1527 his

-wife, Laura, declared herself a widow.

-

-The narrative art needed by the confraternities was supplied in

-perfection by Carpaccio, and one of his earliest independent

-commissions was the important one of decorating the School of St.

-Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a monopoly of the school. No one else

-had a right to collect offerings in her name or to put up an image to

-her. The legend afforded an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic

-scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage, and the cycle is one of

-the freshest and most characteristic things that has come down to us

-from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous. The mediocre

-masters who have educated the painter have made little impression on

-him. He is entirely occupied in delight in his subject and in telling

-his story. The story of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the

-daughter of the King of Brittany. The King of England sends his

-ambassadors to beg her hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the

-proposal with her father, and makes the conditions that Hereo, who is a

-heathen, shall be baptized, and that the betrothed couple must before

-marriage visit the Pope and the sacred shrines. After taking leave of

-their parents, the Prince and Princess depart on their expedition, but

-Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in which an angel has announced her

-martyrdom. She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000 virgins, and they

-are received by Pope Cyriacus in Rome. The Pope then makes the return

-journey with them as far as Cologne, where, however, they are assaulted

-and massacred by the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a splendid

-funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen scenes in which the story is

-told are arranged on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed

-them in the chronological order, some of the latest events being the

-least complete in artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns the

-following dates to the list:

-

-     1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet those of the

-     King of Brittany to ask for the hand of Ursula. Probably

-     painted from 1496-98.

-

-     2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal with her

-     father. 1496-98.

-

-     3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors. 1496-98.

-

-     4. The ambassadors return to the King of England. 1496-98.

-

-     5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.

-

-     6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their respective

-     parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.

-

-     9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins meet the Pope.

-     1492.

-

-     10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.

-

-     11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral. 1495.

-

-     13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of martyrdom,

-     venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received in heaven by the

-     Eternal Father. 1491.

-

-No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might naturally have been chosen for a

-first experiment. The heads are large with coarse features, and the

-proportions of the figures are poor. The face of the saint in glory (No.

-13), plump and without much expression, is of the type of Bastiani's

-saints. It may be assumed that such a great scheme of decoration would

-not have been entrusted to any one who was not already well known as an

-independent master, but perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about

-thirty when the work was begun, was still principally engrossed with the

-conventional, ecclesiastical subject. The heads of the virgins pressing

-round the saint appear to be portraits, and were very possibly those of

-the wives and daughters of members of the confraternity.

-

-The improvement that takes place is so rapid that we can guess how

-congenial the painter found the task and how quickly he adapted his

-already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes delight in the opportunity for

-painting a little domestic scene,--the bedroom of a young Venetian girl,

-perhaps a sister of his own. The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,

-are carefully drawn. The clear morning light streams into the room. The

-saint lies peacefully asleep, her hand under her head, her long

-eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is an idyll, full of insight

-into girlish life. The tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details

-that caught his eye. The crown lying on the ledge of the bed is an

-arbitrary introduction, as naïf as the angel. In the funeral scene the

-luminous light is diffused over all, the young saint lies upon her bier

-and is followed by priest and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth

-to nature, the draperies and garments are brought into harmony with the

-sky and background, and in all those that follow we find this quality

-of light. The landscape behind the massacre has gained in natural

-character, the city is at some distance, houses and churches are half

-buried in woods; the setting is much more natural than are the quaint

-and elegant pages who occupy it, and who are drawing their crossbows and

-attacking the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The panel in which the

-betrothed couple meet shows a great advance, and this and the succeeding

-ones of the ambassadors, which were painted between 1495 and 1498, must

-have crowned Carpaccio's reputation. He paints Venice in its most

-fascinating aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles, its sky and

-sea, its palaces and ships, the rich and picturesque dresses men wore

-in the streets, the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces a

-fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with the work of Pintoricchio.

-His Prince, kneeling in a white and gold dress, with long fair curls, is

-a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red dress and puffed sleeves, her

-rippling, flaxen hair and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.

-Carpaccio's art is simple and garrulous in feeling, his conception is

-as unpassionate as the fancies of a child, but he has a true love for

-these gay crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way--her solid, worthy

-citizens, men of substance, shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure

-seriously with a sense of responsibility. They throng the streets and

-cross over the bridges, every figure is full of freedom and vitality.

-The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors are the best of all the

-scenes. In the middle of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits

-upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to the left is gathered a

-group of Venetian personages, members of the Loredano family, which was

-a special patron of St. Ursula's Guild, and gave this panel. The types

-are all vividly realised and differentiated: the courtier looking

-critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious bourgeoisie; the man

-of fashion passing with his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too

-closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf keeper. Far beyond

-stretch the lagoons; the sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What is

-noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the absence of women, was then

-most true to life, for except on special occasions they were not seen in

-the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental seclusion. The dismissal

-of the ambassadors affords the opportunity for drawing an interior with

-the street visible through a doorway. A group at the side, of a man

-dictating a letter and the scribe taking down his words, writing

-laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his head on one side, is

-excellent in its quiet reality. The same life-like vivacity is displayed

-in Ursula's consultation with her father. The old nurse crouched upon

-the steps is introduced to break the line and to throw back the main

-group. Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the funeral scene,

-and Titian himself adopts his suggestion.

-

- [Illustration: _Carpaccio._

-                 ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a charming one. His treatment

-of light and water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense of peace

-and poetry, and though he is influenced by Gentile's splendid realistic

-heads, the type which appeals to him is gentler and more idealised. His

-fancy is caught by Oriental details, to which Gentile would naturally

-have directed his attention, and of which there was no lack in Venice at

-this time. All his episodes are very clearly illustrated, and his

-popular brush was kept busily employed. He took a share with other

-assistants in the series which Gentile was painting in S. Giovanni

-Evangelista. In 1502 the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to

-decorate their school, which had been founded fifty years earlier, for

-the relief of destitute Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects were

-to be selected from the lives of the Saviour and the patron saints of

-Dalmatia and Albania, St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.

-Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece which Carpaccio delivered

-between 1502 and 1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of the

-school. His "Jerome in his Study" has nothing ascetic, but shows a

-prosperous Venetian ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library

-among his books and writings. He is less successful in his scenes from

-the life of Christ; the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of Mantegna;

-but when he leaves his own style he is weak and poor, and imaginary

-scenes are quite beyond him. In the death and interment of St. Jerome he

-gives a delightful impression of the peace of the old convent garden,

-and in the scene where the lion introduced by the saint scatters the

-terrified monks he lets a sense of humour have free play. The monks in

-their long garments, escaping in all directions, are really comical, and

-in conjunction with the ingratiating smile of the lion, the scene passes

-into the region of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the comic in

-the scene in St. Ursula's history, where the 11,000 virgins are hurrying

-in single file along a winding road which disappears out of the picture.

-In the principal scene in the life of St. George, Carpaccio again

-achieves a masterpiece. The force and vivacity of the saint in armour

-charging the dragon, lingers long in the memory. The long, decorative

-lines of lance and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole landscape.

-The details show an almost childish delight in the realisation of

-ghoulish horrors. He rather injures his "Triumph of St. George" by his

-anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem; the flying flags

-distract the eye, and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken up

-into different parts, while the dragon is reduced to very unterrifying

-insignificance. His series for the school of the Albanians dealt with

-the life of the Virgin, who was their special patron. Its remains are

-at Bergamo, Milan, and in the Academy. The single figures in the

-"Presentation," the priest and maiden, are excellent. A child at the

-side of the steps, leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows once

-more what a hold this use of a figure had taken of him. In the

-"Visitation" the figures are too much scattered, and the fantastic

-buildings attract more attention than the women. He still produced

-altarpieces, and the Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple,

-which he was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where one of Bellini's

-most famous altarpieces stood, challenged him to put forth all his

-strength. He never produced anything more simple and noble or more

-worthy of the cinque-cento than this altarpiece (now in the Academy). It

-surpasses Bellini's arrangement in the way in which the personages are

-raised upon a step, while the dome overhead and the angel musicians

-below give them height and dignity. The contrast between the infant and

-the youthful woman and the old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast

-between youth and age is a very favourite one. Bellini, in the same

-church, draws it between SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in

-his last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian with St. Jerome.

-This is the most grandiose, the least of a _genre_ picture of all

-Carpaccio's creations, although he does make Simeon into a pontiff with

-attendant cardinals bearing his train. One of his last works is the S.

-Vitale over the high altar of the church of that name, where we forgive

-the wooden appearance of the horse which the saint rides for the sake of

-the simple dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by the balcony

-overhead. Nor must we forget that study of the "Two Courtesans" in the

-Museo Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism. It conveys to us

-the matter-of-fact monotony of the long, hot days, and the women and the

-animals with which they are beguiling their idle hours are painted with

-the greatest intelligence. It carries us back to another phase of life

-in Carpaccio's Venice, seen through his observant, humorous eyes, and if

-there is nothing in his colour distinctive of the impending Venetian

-richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant limpidity; it seems

-drawn straight from the transparent canals and radiant lagoons.

-

-We apprehend the difference at once in Bastiani and in Mansueti, who

-essay the same sort of compositions. They studied grouping carefully,

-and it must have seemed easy enough to paint their careful architecture

-and to place citizens in costume with appropriate action in a "Miracle

-of the Cross," or the "Preaching of St. Mark"; but these pictures are

-dry and crowded, they give no illusion of truth, there is none of the

-careless realism of Carpaccio's crowds,--of incidents taking place which

-are not essential to the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but

-which have their share in producing a full and varied illusion. The

-scenes want the air and depth in which Carpaccio's pictures are

-enveloped. We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into the outer air

-and refreshed by these heavy personages, standing in rows, painted in

-hot, dry colour, and carrying no conviction in their glance and action.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.    Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.

- Ferrara.   Death of Virgin.

- Milan.     Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen

-              disputing.

- Paris.     St. Stephen preaching.

- Stuttgart. Martyrdom of St. Stephen.

- Venice.    Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins;

-              Presentation in the Temple.

-            Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.

-            S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and

-              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of

-              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.

-            S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.

-            Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave

-              of her Father.

- Vienna.    Christ adored by Angels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XI

-

-GIOVANNI BELLINI

-

-

-The difference between Gian. Bellini and his accomplished brother, that

-which makes us so conscious that the first was the greater of the two

-and which sets him in a later artistic generation than Gentile, is a

-difference of mind. Such pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni

-was engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may suspect that their

-composition was not particularly congenial to him, and that the strictly

-religious pictures and the small allegorical studies, by which we must

-judge him, were more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal feeling

-which adds so strongly to his claim to be a great artist; it was this

-which drew all men to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence the

-art of his day in Venice.

-

-Jacopo's wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves everything to her two

-sons, Gentile and Niccolo. Giovanni was evidently not her son, but

-Vasari speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it is very

-possible that he was an illegitimate child, brought up, after the

-fashion that so often obtained, in the full privileges of his father's

-house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini was living in Venice in 1437,

-first near the Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio. He was a

-member of S. Giovanni Evangelista, and probably one of the leading

-artists of the city. His two sons helped him in his great decorative

-works, and also went with him to Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata

-Chapel. Their relative position is suggested by a document of 1457,

-which records that the father received twenty-one ducats for "three

-figures, done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the Patriarch," only

-two of which were to go to the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini's signature

-first appears on a document, and at about this time we may suppose that

-he and his brother began to execute small commissions on their own

-account. On these visits to Padua the intimacy must have sprung up,

-which led to Mantegna's marriage in 1453 with Jacopo's daughter. At

-Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna, drank in the inspiration

-left there by Donatello, the greatest master that either of them

-encountered. It was the humanistic and naturalistic side of Donatello

-which touched Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore. It

-chimed in, too, with his father's graceful and fanciful quality, and

-there is no doubt that the Venetian painters soon exercised a marked

-influence on Mantegna. They "fought for him with Squarcione," and even

-in the Eremitani frescoes he begins to lose his purely statuesque type

-and to become frankly Renaissance. In the later scenes of the series a

-pergola with grapes, a Venetian campanile and doorway replace his

-classic towers and arches of triumph. In the "Martyrdom of St. James"

-the couple walking by and paying no attention whatever to the tragic

-event, are very like the people whom Gentile introduces in his

-backgrounds.

-

-There are few documents more interesting in the history of art

-than the two pictures of the "Agony in the Garden," executed by the

-brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by Jacopo in the British

-Museum sketch-book. Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling

-before the vision of the Chalice, the figures wrapt in slumber, and the

-distant town. In few pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived

-in such sympathy with the figures. As we look at this sketch and examine

-the two finished compositions, which it is so fortunate to find in

-juxtaposition in the National Gallery, we surmise that the two artists

-agreed to carry out the same idea and each to give his version of

-Jacopo's suggestion, and very curious it is to see the rendering each

-has produced.

-

-Mantegna has made use of the most formal and Squarcionesque contours in

-his surroundings. The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.

-The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate perspective, and a band

-of classic figures fills the middle distance. The sleeping forms of the

-disciples are laid about like so many draped statues taken from their

-pedestals. The choir of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the

-imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully conceived Christ,

-the whole composition would leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,

-we can never look at Bellini's version without a fresh thrill. He, like

-Mantegna, has followed Jacopo's scheme of winding roads and the city

-"set on a hill," and has drawn the advancing band of soldiers; but,

-independent of all details, he gives us the vision of a poet. The still

-dawn is breaking over the broadly painted landscape, the rosy shafts of

-light are colouring the sky and casting their magic over every common

-object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred Figure kneels, wrapt into

-the Heavenly Vision, which is hardly more definite than a stronger

-beam of light upon the radiance. One of the disciples, at least, is a

-successful and natural study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen

-back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep. Bellini is less assured,

-less accomplished than Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the

-pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.

-

-Even earlier than this picture, critics place the "Crucifixion" and

-"Transfiguration" of the Museo Correr and our own "Salvator Mundi." In

-1443, when Giovanni was a young man of four or five and twenty, San

-Bernardino had held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of Venice

-had thronged to hear him. It is very possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests

-in his _Life of Bellini_, that Giovanni's emotional temperament had been

-worked upon by the preacher's eloquence, and the very poignant feelings

-of love and pity which his early art expresses were the deliberate

-consequence of his sympathy with the deep religious mysteries expounded.

-

-In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is still going with the

-Paduan current. In both we have the winding roads so characteristic of

-his father, but the rocks in the "Transfiguration" have the jointed,

-arbitrary character of Mantegna's and the draperies are plastered to the

-forms beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and a dignity which no

-reproduction seems able to convey. The feeling is already more imposing

-than the execution. Christ and the two prophets tower up against the

-belt of clouds, the central figure conveying a sense of pathetic

-isolation; while below, St. John's attitude betrays a state of tension,

-the feet being drawn up and contorted. This picture prepares us for the

-overwhelming emotion we find in the "Redeemer" and the group of Pietàs.

-The treatment of the Christ was a development of the early _motif_ of

-angels flying forward on either side of the Cross, but here the sacred

-blood pouring into the chalice is also sacramental and connected with

-the intensified religious fervour which had led to the foundation of

-the Franciscan and Dominican orders, illustrations of which are met

-with in the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century books

-of devotion. The accessories, the antique reliefs, the low wall, the

-distant buildings, have an allegorical meaning underlying each one, and

-common to trecento and, in a less degree, to quattrocento art. Paradise

-regained is signified by the paved court with the open door, in

-contradistinction to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed court; the type of

-the old covenant. In one of the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his

-hand into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness to suffer. The

-other represents a pagan sacrifice, foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the

-Cross. Figures in the background are leaving a ruined temple and making

-their way towards the new Christian city, fortified and crowned with a

-church tower, and in the midst of all this symbolism, Christ and the

-attendant angel are placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.

-

-During the next few years, Bellini devoted himself to two subjects of

-the highest devotional order. These are the Madonna and Child, the great

-exercise in every age for painters, and the Pietà, which he has made

-peculiarly his own.

-

- [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._

-                 PIETÀ.

-                _Brera, Milan._

-                 (_Photo, Brogi._)]

-

-Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering of the last subject, so

-full of passionate sorrow that it is hardly possible that it should not,

-if only half consciously, have stimulated the artistic sensibilities

-of the most sensitive of painters; but Bellini's pathos shrinks from

-all exaggeration. He conceives grief with the tenderest insight. His

-interest in the subject was so intense that he never left the execution

-to others, and though not a single one bears his signature, yet each is

-entirely by his own hand. Besides the Pietà at Milan, which is perhaps

-the best known, there is one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge's

-Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin. The version he adopts,

-which places the Body of Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite

-in North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief (now in the Victoria

-and Albert Museum), but whether he brought or found the suggestion in

-Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left sketches in which the

-whole group is within the tomb, and this rendering is followed by

-Carpaccio, Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never found in

-trecento art, and is probably traceable to the Paduan impulse to make

-use of classic remains.

-

-Giovanni Bellini's Pietàs fall into two groups. In one, the Christ is

-placed between the Virgin and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony

-of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer is supported by angels,

-who express the amazement and grief of immortal beings who see their

-Lord suffering an indignity from which they are immune.

-

-Mary and St. John _inside_ the sarcophagus shows that they are conceived

-mystically; Mary as the Church, and St. John as the personification of

-Christian Philosophy--a significance frequently attached to these

-figures. Such a picture was designed to hang over the altar, at which

-the mystical sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.

-

-In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini has shaken off the Paduan

-tradition, and is forming his own style and giving free play to his own

-feeling. The winding roads and evening sky, barred with clouds, are the

-accessories he used in the "Agony in the Garden," but the figures are

-treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in broad masses, and

-scarcely a trace is left of sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the

-study of the nude, everything is subordinated to the emotion expressed

-by the three figures: the helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the

-tender solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed look of the

-despairing friend. Here there is nothing of beautiful or pathetic

-symbol; the group is intense with the common sorrow of all the world.

-Mary presses the corpse to her as if to impart her own life, and gazes

-with anguished yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to have

-passed to a more complex age in his analysis of suffering, yet here is

-none of the extravagance which the primitive masters share with the

-Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his intensity.

-

-In the Rimini version the tender concern and questioning surprise of the

-attendant angels contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful dead

-body they support. Their childish limbs and butterfly wings make a

-sinuous pattern against the lacquered black of the ground-work, and Mr.

-Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion that the effect, reminiscent

-of Greek vase-painting, and the likeness of the Head of Christ to an old

-bronze, may, in a composition painted for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no

-mere accident, but a concession to the patron's enthusiasm for classic

-art.

-

-In 1470 Bellini received his first commission in the Scuola di San

-Marco. Gentile had been employed there since 1466 on the history of the

-Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint "The Deluge and the

-Ark of Noah" with all its attendant circumstances, but of these,

-except from Vasari's descriptions, we can form no idea. These great

-pageant-pictures had become identified with the Bellini and their

-following, while the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the

-province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected a change, for sacred

-subjects best suited the restrained and simple perfection of his style,

-and afforded the most sympathetic opening for his idealistic spirit. For

-the next twenty years or more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in

-public work, for we hear of his being given the direction of that which

-Gentile left unfinished in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in

-1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended the work for

-him, and in that year he was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand

-Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats. Other commissions were

-turned out of the _bottega_ he had set up with his brother in 1471, and

-between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro to paint the important

-altarpiece that still holds its place there. It is in some ways the

-greatest and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished. The

-central figures and the attendant saints have a large gravity and

-carefully studied individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological

-books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably contrasted with the sympathetic,

-cultured St. Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame, is a gem of

-beauty, and proves what an appeal nature was making to the painter. The

-predella, illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of the saints

-around the altar, is full of Oriental costumes. The horses are small

-Eastern horses, very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse, and the

-whole is evidently inspired by the sketches which Gentile brought back

-on his return from Constantinople in 1481.

-

-Looking from one to another of the cycle of Madonna pictures which

-Bellini produced, and of which so many hang side by side in the Academy,

-we are able to note how his conception varied. In one of the earliest

-the Child lies across its Mother's knee, in the attitude borrowed from

-his father and the Vivarini, from whom, too, he takes the uplifted

-hands, placed palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the gentle and

-adoring type, but his later Madonnas are stately Venetian ladies. He

-gives us a queenly woman, with full throat and stately poise, in the

-Madonna degli Alberi, in which the two little trees are symbols of the

-Old and New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely intellectual face

-with chiselled and refined features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it

-dramatically with the bluff St. George in armour; and there is another

-Madonna between St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which has a

-curious effect of artificial light.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XII

-

-GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)

-

-

-In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian Republic appointed Bellini

-superintendent of the Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable

-title of State Painter. In this capacity he was the overseer of all

-public works of painting, and was expected to devote a part of his

-time to the decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates nine of

-his historical paintings, which had been painted before the State

-appointment, all having reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but

-though he must have been much engrossed, he seems to have suspended the

-work from time to time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the large

-altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro in Murano, and the one in

-the Academy, which was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the last

-shows the greatest advance and is fullest of experiment. The Madonna is

-a grand ecclesiastical figure. It has been said with truth that it is

-a picture which must have afforded great support and dignity to the

-Church. The Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the Mother

-gazes out of the picture, extending invitation and encouragement to the

-advancing worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound; the

-artist has been more absorbed in the contrast between the beautiful,

-youthful body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe, older but not

-emaciated, and with the exquisite surface that his now complete mastery

-of oil-painting enabled him to produce. This technique has evidently

-been a great delight, and is here carried to perfection; the skin of

-St. Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of a horse in high

-condition. Everything that architecture, sculpture, and rich material

-can supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of the group; but the

-line of sight is still close to the bottom of the picture, and if it

-were not for the exquisite grace with which the angels are placed, the

-Madonna would have a broad, clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is

-the most splendid in colour of all his works. As he paints the rich

-light of a golden interior and the fused and splendid colours, he seems

-to pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste of the glory that is

-to follow. The Murano altarpiece is quite a different conception;

-instead of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling, _plein air_

-scene: the Mother benign, the Child soft and playful, the old Doge

-Barbarigo and the patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a

-garden and mediæval townlet filling up the background, for which, by the

-way, he uses the same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says much for

-his versatility that he could within a short time produce three such

-different versions.

-

-Among Bellini's most fascinating achievements in the last years of the

-fifteenth century are his allegorical paintings, known to us by the

-"Pélerinage de l'Âme" in the Uffizi and the little series in the

-Academy. The meaning of the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig from

-a mediæval poem by Guillaume de Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote

-about 1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has taken on

-Bellini's mystic spirit. The paved space, set within the marble rail,

-signifies, as in the "Salvator Mundi," the Paradise where souls await

-the Resurrection. The new-born souls cluster round the Tree of Life and

-shake its boughs. The poem says:

-

-    There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad

-    Who has not those who wound his heart,

-    And to whom it is not often necessary

-    To play and be solaced

-    And be soothed like a child

-    With something comforting.

-    Know that those playing

-    There in order to allay their sorrow

-    Have found beneath that tree

-    An apple that great comfort gives

-    To those that play with it.[2]

-

- [2] This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.

-

- [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._

-                 AN ALLEGORY.

-                _Florence._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort. St. Peter and St. Paul

-guard the door, beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy

-conversation. A very beautiful figure on the left, wrapped in a black

-shawl, requires explanation, and it has been suggested that it is the

-donor, a woman who may have lost husband and children, and who, still in

-life, is introduced, watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.

-SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have stepped out of the San Giobbe

-altarpiece, are obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.

-Catherine, at the Virgin's side, may be the donor's own saint. This

-picture, with its delicious landscape bathed in atmospheric light,

-is a forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions of "pure and

-unquestioning delight in the sensuous charm of rare and beautiful

-things" in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed than with

-the intellectual conception, and within its small space Bellini seems to

-have enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories in the Academy are

-also full of meaning. They are decorative works, and were probably

-painted for some small cabinet. They seem too small for a cassone. They

-are ruined by over-painting, but still full of grace and fancy. The

-figure in the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter between

-Luxury and Industry, is drawn from Jacopo's triumphant Bacchus. Fortune

-floats in her barque, holding the globe, and the souls who gather round

-her are some full of triumphant success, others clinging to her for

-comfort, while several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark waters.

-"Prudence," the only example of a female nude in Bellini's works, holds

-a looking-glass. Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing from his refuge.

-The Summa Virtus is an ugly representation of all the virtues; a

-waddling deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of justice; the

-pitcher in its hand means prudence, and the gold upon its feet

-symbolises charity. The landscape, both of this and of the "Fortune,"

-resembles that which he was painting in his larger works at the end of

-the century. Soon after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with Isabela

-d'Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That distinguished collector and

-connoisseur writes through her agent to get the promise of a picture,

-"a story or fable of antiquity," to be placed in position with the

-allegories which Mantegna had contributed to her "Paradiso." Bellini

-agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five ducats on account. He

-seems, however, to have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in

-competing with Mantegna on his own ground, and asks to be allowed to

-choose his subject. Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself

-with a sacred picture, and a "Nativity" was selected. She is at once

-full of suggestions, desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini

-demurs at introducing except as a child, but in April 1504 the

-commission is still unaccomplished, and Isabela angrily demands the

-return of her money. This brings a letter of humble apology from

-Bellini, and presently the picture is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes

-that it is quite beautiful, and that "though Giovanni has behaved as

-badly as possible, yet the bad must be taken with the good." The joy of

-its acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began to lay plans to get

-a further work out of Bellini, and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he

-would take a fresh commission always providing he might fix the subject.

-From the catalogue of her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture

-"sul asse" (on panel) represented the "B.V., il Putto, S. Giovanni

-Battista, S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina."

-

-The great altarpieces which remain strike us less by their research,

-their preoccupation with new problems of paint or grouping, than by

-their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was now nearly eighty years

-old, and in 1504 the young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution in art

-with his Castelfranco Madonna. In composition and detail the Madonna

-of San Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the Arcadian,

-innovating fashion of approaching a religious scene, of which the Church

-had long since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini cannot escape the

-indirect suggestion of the new manner. The same leaven was at work in

-him which was transforming the men of a younger generation. In this

-altarpiece, in the Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which have

-perished, and above all in the hermit saint in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he

-is linked in feeling and in treatment with the later Venetian School.

-

-The new device, which he adopts quite naturally, of raising the line of

-sight, sets the figures in increased depth. For the first time he gives

-height and majesty to the young Mother by carrying the draperies down

-over the steps. He realises to the full the contrast between the young,

-fragile heads of his girl-saints and the dark, venerable countenances of

-the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching itself like a flower upon

-its stem, reminds us of the type which we saw in his Watcher in the

-sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched, dome-like niche opens on a

-distance bathed in golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of the

-old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new perfection of feeling and

-atmosphere. Who the saints are matters little; it is the collective

-enjoyment of a company of congenial people that pleases us so much. The

-"Baptism" in S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later than

-Cima's in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in frank imitation of the younger

-man. Christ and the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without much

-zest, in a weak, conventional way, but the artist's true interest comes

-out in the beauty of face and gesture of the group of women holding the

-garments, and above all in the sombre gloom of the distance, which

-replaces Cima's charming landscape, and which keys the whole picture to

-the significance of a portent. In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.

-Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini keeps his love for the

-golden dome, but he lets us look through its arch, at rolling mountain

-solitudes, with mists rising between their folds. The geranium robe of

-the saint, an exquisite, vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden

-sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out against the evening sky,

-and in the faces of the two saints who stand on either side of the aged

-visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old intensity of religious

-feeling, a feeling which he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a

-more pagan tone.

-

-In 1507, at Gentile's death, Giovanni undertook, at his brother's

-dying request, to finish the "Preaching of St. Mark," receiving as a

-recompense that coveted sketch-book of his father's, from which he had

-adopted so many suggestions, and which, though he was the eldest, had

-been inherited by the legitimate son.

-

-In the preceding year Albert Dürer had visited Venice for the second

-time, and Bellini had received him with great cordiality. Dürer writes,

-"Bellini is very old, but is still the best painter in Venice"; and

-adds, "The things I admired on my last visit, I now do not value at

-all." Implying that he was able now to see how superior Bellini was to

-the hitherto more highly esteemed Vivarini.

-

-At the very end of Bellini's life, in 1514, the Duke of Ferrara paid

-him eighty-five ducats for a painting of "Bacchanals," now at Alnwick

-Castle; which may be looked upon as an open confession by one who had

-always considered himself as a painter of distinctively religious works,

-that such a gay scene of feasting afforded opportunities which he could

-not resist, for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods, sitting at

-their banquet in a sunny glade, are almost fully draped, and there is

-little of the _abandon_ which was affected by later painters. The

-picture was left unfinished, and was later given to Titian to complete.

-In his capacity as State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini's duty

-to execute the official portraits of the Doges. During his long life he

-saw eleven reigns, and during four he held the State appointment.

-Besides the official, he painted private portraits of the Doges, and

-that of Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of the most

-perfect presentments of the quattrocento. This portrait, painted by one

-old man of another, shows no weakening in touch or characterisation. It

-is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and simple. The face is

-quiet and unexaggerated; there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an

-air of accustomed dignity and thought, while the technique has all the

-perfection of the painter's prime.

-

-In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by

-the side of his brother Gentile. To the last he was popular and famous,

-overwhelmed with attentions from the most distinguished personages of

-the city. Though he had begun life when art showed such a different

-aspect, he was by nature so imbued with that temperament, which at the

-time of his death was beginning to assert itself in the younger school,

-that he was able to assimilate a really astonishing share of the new

-manner. He is guided by feeling more than by intellect. All the time he

-is working out problems, he is dominated by the emotion of his subject,

-but his emotion, his pathos, are invariably tempered and restrained by

-the calm moderation of the quattrocento. The golden mean still has

-command of Bellini, and never allows his feelings, however poignant,

-to degenerate into sentimentality or violence.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Madonna (E.).

-           Morelli: Two Madonnas.

- Berlin.   Pietà (L.); Dead Christ.

- Florence. Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).

- London.   Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.);

-             Salvator Mundi (E.).

- Milan.    Brera: Pietà (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.

- Mond Collection. Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).

- Murano.   S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.

- Naples.   Sala Grande: Transfiguration.

- Pesaro.   S. Francesco: Altarpiece.

- Rimini.   Dead Christ (E.).

- Venice.   Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);

-             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with

-             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.

-           Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead

-             Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.

-           Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Pietà (E.).

-           Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.

-           S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and

-             Augustine, 1513.

-           S. Maria dell' Orto: Madonna (E.).

-           S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.

- Vicenza.  S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIII

-

-CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI

-

-

-The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense of the joy of life and the

-apprehension of pure beauty, which was strengthening in the people and

-leading up to the great period of Venetian art, flooded round Bellini

-and recognised its expression in him. He was more popular and had a

-larger following among the artists of his day than either Gentile or

-Carpaccio with their frankly mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni's State

-works may have been, his religious paintings are the ones which are

-copied and adapted and studied by the younger band of artists, and this

-because of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional subjects.

-Gentile's pageant-pictures have still something cold and colourless,

-with a touch of the archaic, while Giovanni's religious altarpieces

-evince a new freedom of handling, a modern conception of beautiful

-women, a use of that colour which was soon to reign triumphant. As

-far as it went indeed, its triumph was already assured; as Giovanni

-advanced towards old age, it was no longer of any use for the young

-masters of the day to paint in any way save the one he had made popular,

-and one artist after another who had begun in the school of Alvise

-Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni Bellini.

-

-It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to his assistants, and as

-everything that went out of his workshop was signed by his name, even if

-it only represented the use of one of his designs, or a few words of

-advice, and was "passed" by the master, it is no wonder that European

-collections were flooded with works, among which only lately the names

-of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi, Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti,

-Rondinelli, and others begin to be disentangled.

-

-Only one of his followers stands out as a strong and original master,

-not quite of the first class, but developing his own individuality while

-he draws in much of what both Alvise and Bellini had to give. Cima da

-Conegliano, whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always signs himself

-_Coneglianensis_: the title of Cima, "the Rock," by which he is now so

-widely known, having first been mentioned in the seventeenth century by

-Boschini, and perhaps given him by that writer himself. He was a son of

-the mountains, who, though he came early to Venice, and lived there most

-of his life, never loses something of their wild freshness, and to the

-end delights in bringing them into his backgrounds. He lived with his

-mother at Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan marches, until

-1484, when he was twenty-five, and then came down to Vicenza, where he

-fell under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a Vicentine painter, who

-had been studying both with Alvise and Bellini. Cima's "Madonna with

-Saints," painted for the Church of St. Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489,

-shows him still using the old method of tempera, in a careful, cold,

-painstaking style, yet already showing his own taste. The composition

-has something of Alvise, yet that something has been learned through

-the agency of Montagna, for the figures have the latter's severity

-and austere character and the colour is clearer and more crude than

-Alvise's. It is no light resemblance, and he must have been long with

-Montagna. In the type of the Christ in Montagna's Pietà at Monte Berico,

-in the fondness for airy porticoes, in the architecture and main

-features of his "Madonna enthroned" in the Museo Civico at Vicenza, we

-see characteristics which Cima followed, though he interpreted them in

-his own way. He turns the heavy arches and domes that Alvise loved, into

-airy pergolas, decked with vines. He gives increasing importance to high

-skies and to atmospheric distances. When he got to Venice in 1492, he

-began to paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John Baptist with

-attendant saints, still in the Church of S. Madonna dell' Orto. The

-work of this is rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh, and

-he comes to his best soon after, in the "Baptism" in S. Giovanni in

-Bragora, which Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment

-of copying. It was quite unusual to choose such a subject for the High

-Altar, and could only be justified by devotion to the Baptist, who was

-Cima's own name-saint as well as that of the Church. Cima is here at his

-very highest; the composition is not derived from any one else, but is

-all the conception of an ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.

-The Christ is particularly fine and simple, unexaggerated in pose and

-type; the arm of the Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to

-give him a refined, tentative look, which makes a sympathetic appeal.

-The attendant angels look on with an air of sweet interest. The distant

-mountains, the undulating country, the little town of Conegliano,

-identified by the castle on its great rock, or _Cima_, are Arcadian in

-their sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed out, are full of

-sun, not of rain. The landscape has not the sombre mystery of Titian's,

-but is bright with the joyous delight of a lover of outdoor life. As

-Cima masters the new medium he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms

-lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity of his native town

-ordered the grand altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there, and

-in this he shows his connection with Venice; the architecture is partly

-taken from St. Mark's, the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a

-group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at the foot of the throne.

-Cima is, however, never merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly

-defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls are not the curls of

-Bellini's saints, his treatment of surface is refined, enamel-like,

-perfectly finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken treatment

-which Bellini's natural feeling for colour was beginning to dictate.

-Cima's pale golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness and

-precision, and though they are full of charm and refinement, they may

-be thought lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501 belongs the

-"Incredulity of St. Thomas," now in the Academy, but painted for the

-Guild of Masons. It is a picture full of expression and dignity, broad

-in treatment if a little cold in its self-restraint. Cima seems to have

-not quite enough intellect, and not quite enough strong feeling.

-However, the little altarpiece of the Nativity, in the Church of the

-Carmine in Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this foreshadows the

-work he did when he went to Parma, where his transparent shadows grow

-broader and stronger, and his figures gain in ease and freedom. He

-never loses the delicate radiance of his lights, and his types and his

-architecture alike convey something of a peculiarly refined, brilliant

-elegance.

-

-Like all these men of great energy and prolific genius, Cima produced an

-astonishing number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt had pupils on

-his own account, for a goodly list could be made of pictures in his

-style, but not by his own hand, which have been carried by collectors

-into widely-scattered places. His exquisite surface and finish and his

-marked originality make him a difficult master to imitate with any

-success. His latest work is dated 1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till

-1517, and it seems probable that he returned to his beloved Conegliano

-and there passed his last years.

-

-If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of Treviso, called Catena,

-gained an immense reputation by his industry and his power of imitating

-and adopting the manner of Bellini's School. In those days men did not

-trouble themselves much as to whether they were original or not. They

-worked away on traditional compositions, frankly introducing figures

-from their master's cartoons, modifying a type here, making some little

-experiment or arrangement there, and, as a French critic puts it,

-leaving their own personality to "hatch out" in due time, if it existed,

-and when it was sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It is

-here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman in the Sala del Gran

-Consiglio, at a salary of three ducats a month, he for long failed to

-acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which was possessed by the

-better disciples of the schools. But he is painstaking, determined to

-get on, and eager to satisfy the continually increasing demand for work.

-His draperies are confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with small

-features, inexpressive button mouths, and weak chins, and his flesh

-tints have little of the glow which is later the prerogative of every

-second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like many another careful

-mediocre man, in securing patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened

-he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano of a commission to paint

-the altarpiece for the Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal

-Palace. He adapts his group from that of Bellini in the Cathedral of

-Murano, bringing in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of which he

-afterwards made numerous copies, one of which was for long assigned to

-Gentile and one to Giovanni Bellini.

-

-That Catena is not without charm, we discern in such a composition as

-his "Martyrdom of St. Cristina," in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which the

-saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels upon the water, in which she

-met her death, and is surrounded by little angels, holding up the

-millstone tied round her neck, and laden with other instruments of her

-martyrdom. Catena borrows right and left, and tries to follow every new

-indication of contemporary taste. For instance, he remarks the growing

-admiration for colour, and hopes by painting gay, flat tints, in bright

-contrast, to produce the desired effect.

-

-It is evident that he made many friends among the rich connoisseurs of

-the time, and that his importance was out of proportion to his real

-merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing an account of Raphael's last days to

-a friend in Venice, and touching on Michelangelo's illness, begs him to

-see that Catena takes care of himself, "as the times are unfavourable to

-great painters." Catena had acquired and inherited considerable wealth;

-he came of a family of merchants, and resided in his own house in San

-Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried relations with Dona Maria

-Fustana, the daughter of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will 300

-ducats and all his personal effects. As a careful portrait-painter, with

-a talent for catching a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in some

-of his heads--that of a canon dressed in blue and red, at Vienna, and

-especially in one of a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden--he

-attains real distinction. And in his last phase he does at length prove

-the power that lies behind long industry and perseverance. Suddenly the

-Giorgionesque influence strikes him, and turning to imbibe this new

-element, he produces that masterpiece which throws a glamour over all

-his mediocre performances; his "Warrior adoring the Infant Christ," in

-the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm, rich and romantic in

-tone and spirit. The Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his

-dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of her draperies are still

-unsatisfactory, but the knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the

-romantic young page, holding his horse, are pure Giorgionesque figures.

-Beautiful in themselves, set in a beautiful landscape glowing with light

-and air, the whole picture exemplifies what surprising excellence could

-be suddenly attained by even very inferior artists, who were constantly

-associating with greater men, at a moment when the whole air was, as it

-were, vibrating with genius.

-

-Catena was very much addicted to making his will, and at least five

-testaments or codicils exist, one of them devising a sum of money for

-the benefit of the School of Painters in Venice, and another leaving to

-his executor, Prior Ignatius, the picture of a "St. Jerome in his Cell,"

-which may be the one in our national collection, which remained in

-Venice till 1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating Basaiti and

-Lotto, and brings in the partridge of which he made a sort of sign

-manual.

-

-Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro Lippomano, to announce that, at

-his request, he is continuing his patronage of Catena:

-

-     Though I had done all that lay in my power for Vincenzo Catena

-     before I received your Lordship's warm recommendation in his

-     favour, I did not hesitate, on receipt of your letter, to add

-     something to the first piece I had from him, and I did so

-     because of my love and reverence for you, and I trust that he

-     will return appropriate thanks to you for having remembered

-     that you could command me.

-

-Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman in different workshops and a

-master on his own account. For long the assistant and follower of Alvise

-Vivarini, we may judge that he was also his most trusted confidant, for

-to him was left the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to S.

-Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is apparent in the execution, and

-the two saints, Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have probably

-been added by him, for they have the air of interlopers, and do not come

-up to the rest of the company in form and conception. The Sebastian,

-with his hands behind his back and his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite

-sufficiently reminiscent of Bellini's figure of 1473 to make us believe

-that Basaiti was at once transferring his allegiance to that reigning

-master. In his earlier phase he has the round heads and the dry precise

-manner of the Muranese. In his large picture in the Academy, the

-"Calling of the Sons of Zebedee," he produces a large, important set

-piece, cold and lifeless, without one figure which arrests us, or

-lingers in the memory. "The Christ on the Mount" is more interesting as

-having been painted for San Giobbe, where Bellini's great altarpiece

-was already hanging, and coming into competition with Bellini's early

-rendering of the same scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is

-interesting to see what it has gained in "modernness." The landscape and

-trees are well drawn and in good colour, and the saints, standing on

-either side of a high portico, have dignity. In the "Dead Christ," in

-the Academy, he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints and

-the _putti_. The _putti_, looking thoughtfully at the dead, is a _motif_

-beloved of Bellini, but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini's pathos and

-significance; they are merely childish and seem to be amused.

-

-In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new phase. He has felt Giorgione's

-influence, and is beginning to try what he can do, while still keeping

-close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch, more animated figures, and

-a brilliant effect of landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour over

-his hard outlines and makes his figures bright and misty, and though

-underneath they are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising

-that many of his works for a time passed as those of Bellini. Though he

-is a clever imitator, "his figures are designed with less mastery, his

-drawing is a little less correct, his drapery less adapted to the under

-form. Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced, colours have the

-brightness, but not the true contrast required. In landscape he proceeds

-from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does not dwell on detail, but

-his masses have neither the sober tint nor the mysterious richness

-conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever instrument." Both

-Previtali and Rondinelli were workers with Basaiti in Bellini's studio.

-Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea Cordeliaghi or Cordella,

-and has left many unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and Lotto, Palma

-and Montagna; but for a time his work went forth from Bellini's workshop

-signed with Bellini's name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece in San

-Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes the title of Previtali, compiling it

-in the cartello with the monogram already used as Cordeliaghi. There are

-traces of many other minor artists at this period, all essaying the same

-manner, copying one or other of the masters, taking hints from each

-other. The Venetian love of splendour was turning to the collection

-of works of art, and the work of second-class artists was evidently

-much in demand and obtained its meed of admiration. Bissolo was a

-fellow-labourer with Catena in the Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he

-is soft and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has imbibed something

-of his tenderness of spirit.

-

-It will be seen from this list how difficult it is to unravel the tale

-of the false Bellinis. The master's own works speak for themselves

-with no uncertain voice, but away from these it is very difficult to

-pronounce as to whether he had given a design, or a few touches, or

-advice, and still more difficult to decide whether these were bestowed

-on Basaiti in his later manner, or on Previtali or Bissolo, or if the

-teaching was handed on by them in a still more diluted form to the

-lesser men who clustered round, much of whose work has survived and has

-been masquerading for centuries under more distinguished names. It is

-sometimes affirmed that the loss of originality in the endeavour to

-paint like greater men has been a symptom of decay in every school in

-the past. It is interesting to notice, therefore, that in every great

-age of painting there has always been an undercurrent of imitation,

-which has helped to form a stream of tradition, and which, as far as

-we can see, has done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Cima._

-

- Berlin.     Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.

- Conegliano. Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.

- Dresden.    The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.

- London.     Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.

- Milan.      Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.

- Parma.      Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.

- Paris.      Madonna with Saints.

- Venice.     Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Pietà; Madonna

-               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the

-               Angel.

-             Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.

-             S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and

-               Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.

-             SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.

-             S. Maria dell' Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome,

-               Mark, and Peter.

-             Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with

-               SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.

- Vicenza.    Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.

-

-

- _Vincenzo Catena._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.

- Berlin.  Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).

- Dresden. Holy Family (L.).

- London.  Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.);

-            Adoration of Magi (L.).

-          Mr. Benson: Holy Family.

-          Lord Brownlow: Nativity.

-          Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).

- Paris.   Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.

- Venice.  Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).

-          Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.

-          S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.

-          S. Trovaso: Madonna.

- Vienna.  Portrait of a Canon.

-

-

- _Marco Basaiti._

-

- Bergamo. The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.

- Berlin.  Pietà; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).

- London.  S. Jerome; Madonna.

- Milan.   Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.

- Munich.  Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).

- Murano.  S. Pietro: Assumption.

- Padua.   Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.

- Venice.  Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510;

-            Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.

-          Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.

-          Salute: S. Sebastian.

- Vienna.  Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.

-

-

- _Andrea Previtali._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece;

-            Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.

-          Lochis: Madonna and Saint.

-          Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.

-          S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.

-          S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and

-            four Female Saints, 1525.

- Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.

- Dresden. Madonna and Saints.

- London.  Madonna and Donor (E.).

- Milan.   Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.

- Oxford.  Christchurch Library: Madonna.

- Venice.  Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.

-          Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.

- Verona.  Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.

-

-

- _N. Rondinelli._

-

- Berlin.   Madonna.

- Florence. Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.

- Milan.    Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.

- Paris.    Madonna and Saints.

- Ravenna.  Two Madonnas with Saints.

-           S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.

- Venice.   Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.

-           Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.

-

-

- _Bissolo._

-

- London. Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.

-         Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.

- Venice. Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.

-         Redentore: Madonna and Saints.

-         S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.

-         Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.

-

-

-

-

- PART II

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIV

-

-GIORGIONE

-

-

-When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings, we find our admiration

-and criticism expressing themselves naturally in certain terms; we are

-struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of form, by the evidence of

-knowledge, by the display of thought and intellectual feeling. The

-Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive, nervous, fervent, or,

-as in Michelangelo and Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But

-when looking at pictures of the Venetian School we unconsciously use

-quite another sort of language; epithets like "dark" and "rich" come

-most freely to our lips; a golden glow, a slumberous velvety depth,

-seem to engulf and absorb all details. We are carried into the land

-of romance, and are fascinated and soothed, rather than stimulated

-and aroused. So it is with portraits; before the "Mona Lisa" our

-intelligence is all awake, but the men and women of Venetian canvases

-have a grave, indolent serenity, which accords well with the slumber

-of thought.

-

-Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century the painters of Venice

-had not differed very materially from those of other schools; they

-had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities of drawing,

-perspective and anatomy. They had been painting in oils for twenty-five

-years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for pageant-pictures than

-was felt in other States of Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and

-Leonardo to decorate her public palace, but no great store is set by

-their splendid achievements; their work is not even completed. The

-students fall upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish, instead

-of being treasured by the nation. Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio and the

-band of State painters are appreciated and well rewarded. These men have

-reproduced something of the lucent transparency, the natural colour of

-Venice, but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully aiming at any

-special effect. Year after year the Venetian masters assimilate more or

-less languidly the influences which reach them from the mainland. They

-welcome Guariento and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to learn

-from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans contribute their chiselled

-drawing, their learned perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet

-even early in the day the Venetians escape from that hard and learned

-art which is so alien to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo

-Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son is ready to follow

-feeling and emotion, and in his old age is quick to discover the first

-flavour of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone on upon the lines

-we have been tracing up to now, there would have been nothing very

-distinctive about it, for, however interesting and charming Alvise and

-Carpaccio, Cima and the Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when

-we speak of the Venetian School and when we rank it beside that of

-Florence, while Giovanni Bellini alone, in his later works, is not

-strong enough to bear the burden.

-

-The change which now comes over painting is not so much a technical one

-as a change of temper, a new tendency in human thought, and we link it

-with Giorgione because he was the channel through which the deep impulse

-first burst into the light. We have tried to trace the growth of the

-early Venetian School, but it does not develop logically like that of

-Florence; it is not the result of long endeavour, adding one acquisition

-and discovery to another. Venetian art was peculiarly the outcome of

-personalities, and it did not know its own mind till the sixteenth

-century. Then, like a hidden spring, it bubbles irresistibly to the

-surface, and the spot where it does so is called by the name of a man.

-

-There are beings in most great creative epochs who, with peculiar

-facility, seem to embody the purpose of their age and to yield

-themselves as ready instruments to its design. When time is ripe they

-appear, and are able, with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice to

-the desires and tendencies which have been straining for expression.

-These desires may owe their origin to national life and temperament; it

-may have taken generations to bring them to fruition, but they become

-audible through the agency of an individual genius. A genius is

-inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the seventeenth century,

-drew to her in Bernini a man who could with real power illustrate her

-determination to be grandiose and ostentatious, and, at the height of

-the Renaissance, Venice draws into her service a man whose sensuous

-feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed by every element

-around him.

-

-More conclusively than ever, at this time, Venice, the world's great

-sea-power, was in her full glory as the centre of the world's commerce

-and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had discovered the sea route to

-India in 1498, but the stupendous effect which this was to exert on the

-whole current of power did not become apparent all at once. Venice was

-still the great emporium of the East, linked to it by a thousand ties,

-Oriental in her love of Eastern richness.

-

-It would be exaggerating to say that the Venetians of the sixteenth

-century could not draw. As there were Tuscans who understood beautiful

-harmonies of colour, so there were Venetians who knew a good deal about

-form; but the other Italians looked upon colour as a charming adjunct,

-almost, one might say, as an amiable weakness: they never would have

-allowed that it might legitimately become the end and aim in painting,

-and in the same way form, though respected and considered, was never the

-principal object of the Venetians. Up to this time Venice had fed her

-emotional instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and brocades, but

-with Giorgione she discovered that there was a deeper emotional vehicle

-than these superficial glories,--glowing depths of colour enveloped in

-the mysterious richness of chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid

-and suggested more than it revealed.

-

-Giorgione no longer described "in drawing's learned tongue"; he

-carried all before him by giving his direct impression in colour. He

-conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little if their finely drawn

-draperies were blue or red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their

-dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange horizon. He hardly knows

-what attitudes his characters take, but their chestnut hair, their

-deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a moving harmony in which

-the importance of exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are not

-composed methodically and according to the old rules, but are the direct

-impress of the painter's joy in life. It was a new and audacious style

-in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely inevitable consequence,

-was to substitute for form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the

-quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how the shades of evening are able

-to transform the most commonplace scene; the dull road becomes a

-mysterious avenue, the colourless foliage develops luscious depths,

-the drab and arid plain glows with mellow light, purple shadows clothe

-and soften every harsh and ugly object, all detail dies, and our

-apprehension of it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of observing

-and criticising, we become soothed, contemplative, dreamy. It is the

-carrying of this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by means of

-chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer learned and explanatory, but deeply

-sensuous and emotional, that is the gift to art which found full voice

-with Giorgione, and which in one moment was recognised and welcomed to

-the exclusion of the older manner, because it touched the chord which

-vibrated through the whole Venetian temperament.

-

-And the immediate result was the picture of _no subject_. Giorgione

-creates for us idle figures with radiant flesh, or robed in rich

-costumes, surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask or care why

-they are gathered together. We have all had dreams of Elysian fields,

-"where falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows loudly," where all is

-rest and freedom, where music blends with the plash of fountains, and

-fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and no one asks what went

-before or what follows after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and

-nymphs: there never has been such a day, or such a land: it is a mood, a

-vision: it has danced before the eyes of poets, from David to Keats and

-Tennyson: it has rocked the tired hearts of men in all ages: the vision

-of a resting-place which makes no demands and where the dwellers are

-exempt from the cares and weakness of mortality. Needless to say, it is

-an ideal born of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise, and it

-speaks to that strain in the temperament which recognises that life

-cannot be all thought, but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the

-first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco sets that vague

-dream before men's eyes. The world, with its wistful yearnings and

-questionings, such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied, said little to

-his audience. Here was their natural atmosphere, though they had never

-known it before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused and golden lights

-are what Giorgione grasps from the material world, and as he steeps his

-senses in them the subject counts but little in the deep enjoyment they

-communicate. We, who have seen his manner repeated and developed through

-thousands of pictures, find it difficult to realise that there had been

-nothing like it before, that it was a unique departure, that when

-Bellini and Titian looked at his first creations they must have

-experienced a shock of revelation. The old definite style must have

-seemed suddenly hard and meagre, and every time they looked on the

-glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the mysterious shades of

-falling night, they must have felt they were endowed with a sense to

-which they had hitherto been strangers, but which, it was at once

-apparent, was their true heritage. They had found themselves, and in

-them Venice found her real expression, and with Giorgione and those who

-felt his impetus began the true Venetian School, set apart from all

-other forms of art by its way of using and diffusing and intensifying

-colour.

-

-When Giorgione, the son of a member of the house of Barbarelli and a

-peasant girl of Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather that he had

-nothing of the provincial. Vasari, who must often have heard of him

-from Titian, describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished

-appearance, beloved by his friends, a favourite with women, fond of

-dress and amusement, an admirable musician, and a welcome guest in the

-houses of the great. He was evidently no peasant-bred lad, but probably,

-though there is no record of the fact, was brought up, like many

-illegitimate children, in the paternal mansion. His home was not far

-from the lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is possible to

-imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain running up to the Asolean hills

-and with the Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he received his

-education in the school of Bellini, for when that master sold his

-allegory of the "Souls in Paradise" to one of the Medici, to adorn the

-summer villa of Poggio Imperiale, there went with it the two small

-canvases now in the Uffizi, the "Ordeal of Moses" and the "Judgment

-of Solomon," delightful little paintings in Giorgione's rich and

-distinctive style, but less accomplished than Bellini's picture, and

-with imperfections in the drawing of drapery and figures which suggest

-that they are the work of a very young man. The love of the Venetians

-for decorating the exterior of their palaces with fresco led to

-Giorgione being largely employed on work which was unhappily a grievous

-waste of time and talent, as far as posterity is concerned. We have a

-record of façades covered with spirited compositions and heraldic

-devices, of friezes with Bacchus and Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti,

-in his seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble figure of

-"Fortitude" grasping an axe, but beyond a few fragments nothing has

-survived. Before he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the

-important commission of decorating the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. This

-building, which we hear of so often in connection with the artists

-of Venice, was the trading-house for German, Hungarian, and Polish

-merchants. The Venetian Government surrounded these merchants with the

-most jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant connected with

-them was by law a Venetian, and, in fact, a spy of the Republic. All

-transactions of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian brokers,

-of whom some thirty were appointed. As time went on, some of these

-brokerships must have resolved themselves into sinecure offices, for

-we find Bellini holding one, and certainly without discharging any of

-the original duties, and they seem to have become some sort of State

-retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been burnt to the ground, and

-the present building was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys. A

-decree went forth that no marble, carving, or gilding were to be used,

-so that painting the outside was the only alternative. The roof was on

-in 1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and Morto da Feltre were

-employed in the adornment of the façade. Vasari is very much exercised

-over Giorgione's share in these decorations. "One does not find one

-subject carefully arranged," he complains, "or which follows correctly

-the history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for me, I have never

-been able to understand the meaning of these compositions, or have met

-any one able to explain them to me. Here one sees a man with a lion's

-head, beside a woman. Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love: it is

-all an inexplicable medley." Yet he is delighted with the brilliancy of

-the colour and the splendid execution, and adds, "Colour gives more

-pleasure in Venice than anywhere else."

-

-Among other early work was the little "Adoration of the Magi," in the

-National Gallery, and the so-called "Philosophers" at Vienna. According

-to the latest reading, this last illustrates Virgil's legend that when

-the Trojan Æneas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed out the future site

-of Rome to the ancient seer and his son. Giorgione, in painting the

-scene, is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his first great

-landscape, and all accessories have been sacrificed to intensity of

-effect. He revels in the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil

-masses of foliage, the long evening shadows, and the effect of dark

-forms silhouetted against the radiant light.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XV

-

-GIORGIONE (_continued_)

-

-

-When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back to Castelfranco, and painted

-an altarpiece for the Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth century

-Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain of Free Companions, who had made

-his fortune in the wars, where he had been attached to Catherine

-Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen from Cyprus, and when she retired

-to Asolo, settled near her at Castelfranco. His son, Matteo, entered the

-service of the Venetian Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances;

-but Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1504, and Costanza had

-his son's body embalmed and buried in the family chapel.

-

-Nothing is known of the details of this commission, but we are not

-straining the bounds of probability by assuming that in a little town

-like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village, the two youths must

-have been well known to each other, and that this acquaintance and

-the familiarity of the one with the appearance of the other may have

-been the determining cause which led the bereaved father to give the

-commission to the young painter, while the tragic circumstances were

-such as would appeal to an ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of

-our National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione for the figure of San

-Liberale, who is represented as a young man with bare head and crisp,

-golden locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the suit in which

-Matteo Costanza is dressed in the stone effigy which is still preserved

-in the cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the stone figure lies a

-helmet, resembling that on the head of the saint in the altarpiece.

-

-In Giorgione's group the Mother and Child are enthroned on high, with

-St. Francis and St. Liberale on either hand. The Child's glance is

-turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure with his lance at rest,

-his dagger on his hip, his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with

-features of almost feminine beauty. The picture is conceived in a new

-spirit of simplicity of design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in

-matters of detail. It is the work of a man who has observed that early

-morning, like late evening, has a marvellous power of eliminating all

-unessential accessories and of enveloping every object in a delicious

-scheme of light. Repainted, cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is

-still full of an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the ecstatic,

-devotional reverie of Perugino's saints. The painter of Castelfranco

-has not steeped his whole soul in religious imagination, like the

-painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the lyric feeling; his work is a

-poem in praise of youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine. He

-uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but Giorgione carries his unison of

-landscape with human feeling much further than Perugino; he observes the

-delicate effects of light, and limpid air circulates in his distance.

-The sun rising over the sea throws a glamour and purity of early morning

-over a scene meant to glorify the memory of a young life. The painter

-shows his connection with his master by using the figure of the St.

-Francis in Bellini's San Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to

-Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The San Zaccaria

-altarpiece was, as we have seen, painted in the year following that of

-Castelfranco. Something has incited the old painter to fresh efforts;

-out of his own evolution, or stimulated by his pupil's splendid

-experiments, he is drawn into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian

-cinque-cento.

-

-The Venetian painters were distinguished by their love for the kindred

-art of music. Giorgione himself was an admirable musician, and linked

-with all that is akin to music in his work, is his love for painting

-groups of people knit together by this bond. He uses it as a pastime to

-bring them into company, and the rich chords of colour seem permeated

-with the chords of sound. Not always, however, does he need even this

-excuse; his "conversation-pieces" are often merely composed of persons

-placed with indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings, governed by a

-mood which communicates itself to the beholder.

-

-With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully drawn upon the wall and

-flat tints were superimposed. They knew beforehand what the effect was

-to be; but the Venetians from this time gradually worked up the picture,

-imbedding tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting another,

-till the whole rich harmony was gradually evoked. With the Florentines,

-too, the figures supply the main interest; the background is an

-arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the painter's leisure, but

-Giorgione's and Titian's _fêtes champêtres_ and concerts could not _be_

-at all in any other environment. The amber flesh-tints and the glowing

-garments are so blended with the deep tones of the landscape, that one

-would not instil the mood the artist desires without the other. Piero di

-Cosimo and Pintoricchio can place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses

-in idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us beyond an observant

-pleasure, a detached amusement; but Giorgione's gloomy blues, his

-figures shining through the warm dusk of a summer evening, waken we

-hardly know what of vague yearning and brooding memory.

-

-In the "Fête Champêtre" of the Louvre he acquires a frankly sensuous

-charm. He becomes riper, richer in feeling, and displays great

-exuberance of style. The woman filling her pitcher at the fountain is

-exquisite in line and curve and amber colour. She seems to listen lazily

-to the liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard music of

-the pipes. The beautiful idyll in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art

-of composition. It is built up with uprights; pillars are formed by the

-groups of trees and figures, cut boldly across by the horizontal line of

-the bridge, but the figures themselves are put in without any attention

-to subject, though an unconscious humorist has discovered in them the

-domestic circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress is there to

-assist the left-hand columnar group, placed at the edge of the picture

-after the manner of Leonardo. The woman and child lighten the mass of

-foliage on the right and make a beautiful pattern. The white town of

-Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky, the winds bluster

-through the space, the trees shiver with the coming storm. Here and

-there leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp touch, in which

-we can follow readily the painter's quick impression.

-

-The "Knight of Malta" is a grand magisterial figure, majestic, yet full

-of ardent warmth lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The face

-is bisected with shadow, in the way which Michelangelo and Andrea del

-Sarto affected, and the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of the type

-which seems particularly to have pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too,

-belongs the honour of having created a Venus as pure as the Aphrodite of

-Cnidos and as beautiful as a courtesan of Titian.

-

- [Illustration: _Giorgione._

-                 FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE.

-                _Louvre._

-                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]

-

-The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511 is registered by all the

-oldest authorities. His body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members of

-the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church of San Liberale. In 1638

-an epitaph was placed over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.

-

-Allowing that he was hardly more than twenty when his new manner began

-to gain a following, he had only some twelve years in which to establish

-his deep and lasting influence. We divine that he was a man of strong

-personality, such a one as warms and stimulates his companions. Even his

-nickname tells us something,--Great George, the Chief, the George of

-Georges,--it seems to express him as a leader. And we have no lack of

-proof that he was admired and looked up to. His style became the only

-one that found favour in Venice, and the painters of the day did their

-best to conform to it. Few authentic examples are left from his own

-hand, but out of his conscious and devoted and more or less successful

-imitators, there grew up a school, "out of all those fascinating works,

-rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of many copies from, or

-variations on him, by unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings and

-designs were, for various reasons, prized as his; out of the immediate

-impression he made upon his contemporaries and with which he continued

-in men's minds; out of many traditions of subject and treatment which

-really descend from him to our own time, and by retracing which we fill

-out the original image."

-

-Summing up all these influences, he has left us the Giorgionesque;

-the art of choosing a moment in which the subject and the elements of

-colour and design are so perfectly fused and blended that we have no

-need to ask for any more articulate story; a moment into which all the

-significance, the fulness of existence has condensed itself, so that

-we are conscious of the very essence of life. Those idylls of beings

-wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music and the sound of water and the

-beauty of wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all our conscious

-apprehension of life if we are to drink in their full fascination. The

-dream of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to those who can

-contrast it adequately with the experience, the complication, and the

-thousand distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and relaxation,

-the power of the deeply tinted eventide, or of the fresh morning light,

-and the calm that drinks in the sensations they are able to afford, are

-among the precious things of life. The instinct upon which Giorgione's

-work rests is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the thinking

-faculty, the life of the heart, as compared to the life of the

-intellect, the solution of life's problems by love instead of by

-thought. It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression is

-conveyed by means of colour, deep, restful, satisfying, fused and

-controlled by chiaroscuro rather than by form.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.     Portrait of a Man.

- Buda-Pesth. Portrait of a Man.

- Castelfranco. Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.

- Dresden.    Sleeping Venus.

- Florence.   Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight

-               of Malta.

- Hampton Court. A Shepherd.

- Madrid.     Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.

- Paris.      Fête Champêtre.

- Rome.       Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.

- Venice.     Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.

-             Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.

-             San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.

- Boston.     Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.

- London.     Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.

-             Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.

- Vienna.     Evander showing Æneas the Future Site of Rome.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVI

-

-THE GIORGIONESQUE

-

-

-Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the painters round him felt his

-power. The Venetian painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a time

-when the men of one city observed and studied and took hints from those

-of every other, how faint are the signs that this particular manner

-attracted any great attention in other art centres. Leonardo da Vinci

-was a master of chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his forms,

-and never sacrifices to it the delicacy and fineness of his design. It

-is the one quality Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief instant

-at the period when Sebastian del Piombo had arrived in Rome from

-Venice. It takes hold most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,

-significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced intellectual

-capacity, but in Venice itself it now became the only way. The old

-Bellini finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena, Basaiti, Cariani

-do their best to acquire it, and so successfully was it acquired, so

-congenial was it to Venetian art, that even second- and third-rate

-Venetian painters have usually something attractive which triumphs over

-superficial and doubtful drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how

-much to their taste was this fused and golden manner, this disregard of

-defined form, and this new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room in the

-National Gallery is full of such examples: the Nymphs and _Amoretti_ of

-No. 1695, charming figures against melting vines and olives; "Venus and

-Adonis," in which a bewitching Cupid chases a butterfly; Lovers in a

-landscape, roaming in the summer twilight; scenes in which neither

-person nor scenery is a pretext for the other, but each has its full

-share in arousing the desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to, or

-taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics, but have all laid hold of

-his charm, and have some share in his inspiration.

-

-One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose work is still confounded

-with the master's, is Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times

-in his life also successfully imitated Palma and Lotto. In his

-Giorgionesque manner Cariani often creates charming figures and strong

-portraits, though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive tone. His

-family group in the Roncalli Collection at Bergamo is very close to

-Giorgione. Seven persons, three women and four men, are grouped together

-upon a terrace, and behind them stretches a calm landscape, half

-concealed by a brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is restful,

-though it lacks Giorgione's concentration of sensation. Then, again,

-Cariani flies off to the gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,

-when he tries to reproduce Giorgione's pastoral reveries, his shepherds

-and nymphs become mere peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who have

-nothing of the idyllic distinction which Giorgione never failed to

-infuse. "The Adulteress before Christ" at Glasgow still bears the

-greater name, but its short, vulgar figures and faulty composition

-disclaim his authorship, while Cariani is fully capable of such

-failings, and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite characteristic

-of him.

-

-These painters are more than merely imitative; they are also typical.

-Giorgione's new manner had appealed to some quality inherent and

-hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits they single out and

-dwell upon are the traits which appeal equally to the instincts of both.

-It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic than those of

-other second-rate painters. Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which

-Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to them, and it is a medium

-which does make an immediate appeal and covers a multitude of

-shortcomings.

-

-But Giorgione was not to leave his message to the mercy of mere

-disciples and imitators, however apt. Growing up around him were men to

-whom that message was an inspiration and a trumpet-call, men who were to

-develop and deepen it, endowing it with their own strength, recognising

-that the way which the young pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out

-was the one into which they could unhesitatingly pour their whole

-inclination. The instinct for colour was in their very blood. They

-turned to it with the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks the

-air or a fish the water, and foremost among them, to create and to

-consolidate, was the mighty Titian.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Cariani._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Madonna and Saints.

-          Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.

-          Morelli: Madonna (L.).

-          Roncalli Collection: Family Group.

- Hampton Court. Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).

- London.  Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).

- Milan.   Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).

-          Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.

- Paris.   Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.

- Rome.    Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.

- Venice.  Holy Family; Portraits.

- Vienna.  Christ bearing Cross; The "Bravo."

-

-

- _School of Giorgione._

-

- London. Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;

-               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.

-         Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVII

-

-TITIAN

-

-

-The mountains of Cadore are not always visible from Venice, but there

-they lie, behind the mists, and in the clear shining after rain, in the

-golden eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter days they stand out,

-lapis-lazuli blue or deep purple, or, like Shelley's enchanted peaks, in

-sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy slopes. Cadore is a

-land of rich chestnut woods, of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms,

-sudden storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of scenery which

-enters deep into the affections of its sons, and we can form some idea

-of the hold its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness obtained

-over the mind of Titian from the fact that in after years, while he

-never exerts himself to paint the city in which he lived and in which

-all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly constant to his

-mountain home, enters into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm

-and penetrating insight.

-

-The district formed part of the dependencies of the great republic, and

-relied upon Venice for its safety, its distinction, and in great measure

-for its employment. The small craftsmen and artists from all the country

-round looked forward to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.

-They tacked the name of their native town to their own name, and were

-drawn into the magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came back

-from time to time with stories of her art, her power, and beauty.

-

-The Vecelli had for generations held honourable posts in Cadore. The

-father and grandfather of the young Tiziano were influential men, and

-with his brother and sisters he must have been brought up in comfort.

-There are even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident that Titian

-was always a gentleman, though this did not prevent his being educated

-as a craftsman, and when he was only ten years old he was sent down to

-Venice to be apprenticed to a mosaicist.

-

-It was a changing Venice to which Titian came as a boy; changing in its

-life, its social and political conditions, and its art was faithfully

-registering its aspirations and tastes. More than at any previous time,

-it was calculated to impress a youth to whom it had been held up as the

-embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and the difference between the

-little hill-town set in the midst of its wild solitudes and the

-brilliant city of the sea must have been dazzling and bewildering. A

-new sense of intellectual luxury had awakened in the great commercial

-centre. The Venetian love of splendour was displaying itself by the

-encouragement and collection of objects of art, and both ancient and

-modern works were in increasing request. On Gentile Bellini's and

-Carpaccio's canvases we see the sort of people the Venetians were,

-shrewd, quiet, splendour-loving, but business-like, the young men

-fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs, splendid patrons of art

-and of religion. Buyers were beginning to find out what a delightful

-decoration the small picture made, and that it was as much in place in

-their own halls as over the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was

-gaining in importance, and the idea of making it a pleasure-giving

-picture, even more than a faithful transcript, was gathering ground. The

-"Procession of the Relic" was still in Gentile's studio, but the Frari

-"Madonna and Child" was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was

-beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the Bellini and Vivarini

-were in keen rivalship.

-

-Titian is said to have passed from the _bottega_ of Gentile to that of

-Giovanni Bellini, but nothing in his style reminds us of the former, and

-even his early work has very little that is really Bellinesque, whereas

-from the very first he reflects the new spirit which emanated from

-Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and we can divine the sympathy

-that arose between the two when they came together in Bellini's School.

-As soon as their apprenticeship was at an end they became partners. Fond

-of pleasure and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement, they

-were naturally congenial companions, and were drawn yet more closely

-together by their love for their art and by the aptitude with which

-Titian grasped Giorgione's principles.

-

-And if we ask ourselves why we take for granted that of two young men so

-closely allied in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione as the leader

-and the creator of the new style, we may answer that Titian was a more

-complex character. He was intellectual, and carried his intellect into

-his art, but this was no new feature. The intellect had had and was

-having a large share in art. But in that part which was new, and which

-was launching art upon an untried course, Giorgione is more intense,

-more one-idea'd than Titian. What he does he does with a fervour and a

-spontaneity that marks him as one who pours out the language of the

-heart.

-

-The partnership between the two was probably arranged a few years before

-the end of the century, for we have seen that young painters usually

-started on their own account at about nineteen or twenty. For some years

-Titian, like Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of the Fondaco

-dei Tedeschi. The groups of figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us

-that while Giorgione made some attempt at following classic figures,

-Titian broke entirely with Greek art and only thought of picturesque

-nature and contemporary costume.

-

-Vasari complains that he never knew what Titian's "Judith" was meant to

-represent, "unless it was Germania," but Zanetti, who had the benefit of

-Sebastiano Ricci's taste, declares that from what he saw, both Giorgione

-and Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. "While Giorgione showed a

-fervid and original spirit and opened up a new path, over which he shed

-a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was of a grander and more

-equable genius, leaning at first, indeed, upon Giorgione's example, but

-expanding with such force and rapidity as to place him in advance of

-his companion, on an eminence to which no later craftsman was able to

-climb.... He moderated the fire of Giorgione, whose strength lay in

-fanciful movement and a mysterious artifice in disposing shadows,

-contrasted darkly with warm lights, blended, strengthened, blurred, so

-as to produce the semblance of exuberant life." Certain works remain to

-link the two painters; even now critics are divided as to which of

-the two to attribute the "Concert" in the Pitti. The figures are

-Giorgionesque, but the technique establishes it as an early Titian, and

-it is doubtful whether Giorgione would be capable of the intellectual

-effort which produced the dreamy, passionate expression of the young

-monk, borne far out of himself by his own melody, and half recalled to

-life by the touch on his shoulder. Titian, like Giorgione, was a

-musician, and the fascination of music is felt by many masters of the

-Italian schools. In one picture the player feels vaguely after the

-melody, in another we are asked to anticipate the song that is just

-about to begin, or the last chords of that just finished vibrate upon

-the ear, but nowhere else in all art has any one so seized the melody of

-an instant and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in our ears as

-this musician does.

-

-Though we cannot say that Titian was the pupil of any one master, the

-fifteen years, more or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an

-indelible impression upon him. We have only to look at such a picture

-as the "Madonna and Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,"

-in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that in 1503 Giorgione at

-Castelfranco had taken the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary

-and had enthroned her on high in a bright and sunny landscape with

-S. Liberale standing sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding

-his liege lady.

-

-Titian in this early group casts every convention aside; a beautiful

-woman and lovely children are placed in surroundings whose charm is

-devoid of hieratic and religious significance. The same easy unfettered

-treatment appears in the "Madonna with the Cherries" at Vienna, and the

-"Madonna with St. Bridget and S. Ulfus" at Madrid, and while it has been

-surmised that the example of the precise Albert Dürer, who paid his

-first visit to Venice in 1506, was not without its effect in preserving

-Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and in inciting him to fine

-finish, it is interesting to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding

-the use of the carefully traced and transferred cartoon, and was

-sketching his design freely on panel or canvas with a brush dipped in

-brown pigment, and altering and modifying it as he went on.

-

-The last years of Titian's first period in Venice must have been anxious

-ones. The Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian possessions on

-the mainland, in anger at a refusal to grant his troops a free passage

-on their way to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy. Cadore was

-the first point of his invasion, and from 1507 Titian's uncle and

-great-uncle were in the Councils of the State, his father held an

-important command, and his brother Francesco, who had already made some

-progress as an artist, threw down his brush and became a soldier. Titian

-was not one of those who took up arms, but his thoughts must have been

-full of the attack and defence in his mountain fastnesses, and he must

-have anxiously awaited news of his father's troops and of the squadrons

-of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours Francesco was riding. Francesco

-made a reputation as a distinguished soldier, and was severely wounded,

-and when peace was made, Titian, "who loved him tenderly," persuaded him

-to return to the pursuit of art.

-

-The ratification of the League of Cambray, in which Julius II.,

-Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Naples combined against the power of

-Venice, was disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists who

-depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen of all kinds first fled to her

-for shelter, then, as profits and orders fell off, they left to look

-elsewhere for commissions. An outbreak of plague, in which Giorgione

-perished, went further to make Venice an undesirable home, and at this

-time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto for the Romagna, and

-Titian for Padua.

-

-We may believe that Titian never felt perfectly satisfied with

-fresco-painting as a craft, for when he was given a commission to fresco

-the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of St. Anthony, patron-saint

-of Padua, he threw off beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but

-he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants, among whom the

-feeble Domenico Campagnola, a painter whom he probably picked up at

-Padua, is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is best, as in "S.

-Anthony restoring a Youth," the drawing and composition only make us

-feel how enchanting the scene would have been in oils on one of Titian's

-melting canvases. In those frescoes which he executed himself while his

-interest was still fresh, the "Miracle which grants Speech to an Infant"

-is the most Giorgionesque. Up to this time he had preserved the

-straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his contemporaries, after

-the practice of Giorgione; he keeps, too, to his companion's plan of

-design, placing the most important figures upon one plane, close to the

-frame and behind a low wall or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame

-and with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes he makes use of this

-plan, and the straight clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay

-doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade, but the group of

-women to the left in the "Miracle of the Child" shows that Titian is

-beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own type. The introduction of

-portraits proves that he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in

-contradistinction to Giorgione's lyrically improvised figures. He fuses

-the influence of Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da Messina and

-the Bellini in a deeper knowledge of life and nature, and he is passing

-beyond Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When he was able to return

-to Venice, which he did in 1512, a temporary peace having been concluded

-with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial medium of fresco for good,

-and devoted himself to that which admitted of the afterthoughts, the

-enrichments, the gradual attainment of an exquisite surface, and at

-this time his works are remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.

-

-During the next twelve years we may group a number of paintings which,

-taken in conjunction with those of Giorgione, show the true Venetian

-School at its most intense, idyllic moment. They are the works of a man

-in the pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy, an example of the

-confident, sanguine, joyous temper of his age, capable of embodying

-its dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment of life, its

-worldly-mindedness, its love of pleasure, as well as its noble feeling

-and its grave and magnificent purpose.

-

-For absolute delight in colour let us turn to a picture like the "Noli

-me tangere" of the National Gallery. The golden light, the blues and

-olives of the landscape, the crimson of the Magdalen's raiment, combine

-in a feast of emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of the woman,

-whose soul is breathed out in the word "Master." The colour unites with

-the light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we can see Titian's delight

-in the ductile medium which had such power to give material sensation.

-In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and shoaling blues, the

-velvety fulness and plenitudes of the brush become visible; we can look

-into their depths and see something quite unlike the smooth, opaque

-washes of the Florentines.

-

-In such a masterpiece as "Sacred and Profane Love," painted during

-these years for the Borghese, there are summed up all those artistic

-aims towards which the Venetian painters had been tending. The picture

-is still Giorgionesque in mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff

-suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the love-suit of Jason; but

-the subject is not forced upon us, and we are more occupied with the

-contrast between the two beautiful personalities, so harmoniously

-related to each other, yet so opposed in type. The gracious,

-self-absorbed lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove, her

-silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and spirit to the goddess

-whose free, simple attitude and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal.

-The sinuous and enchanting line of Venus's figure against the crimson

-cloak has, I think, been the outcome of admiration for Giorgione's

-"Sleeping Venus," and has the same soft, unhurried curves. Titian's two

-figures are perfectly spaced in a setting which breathes the very aroma

-of the early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble fountain represents

-nymphs whipping a sleeping Love to life, while a cupid teases the chaste

-unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes in the water, fallen rose-leaves

-strew the mellow marble rim, around and away stretches a sunny country

-scene, in which people are placidly pursuing a life of ease and

-pleasure. What a revelation to Venice these pictures were which began

-with Giorgione's conversaziones! How little occupied the women are with

-the story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons on her fingers,

-like S. Ursula. Medea is listening to her own thoughts, but the whole

-scene is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and happiness of love. The

-little censer burning away in the blue and breathless air might be a

-philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the rays of the evening sun

-strike the picture, where it now hangs, and bring out each touch of its

-glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate with the joy of life and to

-thrill with the magic of summer in the days when the world was young.

-

-With the influence still lingering of Giorgione's "Knight of Malta,"

-Titian produced some of his finest portraits in the decade that led to

-the middle of his life. The "Dr. Parma" at Vienna, the noble "Man in

-Black" and "Man with a Glove" of the Louvre, the "Young Englishman" of

-the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the portrait at Temple Newsam,

-which, with some critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples

-in which he keeps the half-length, invented by Bellini and followed by

-Giorgione.

-

-After the visit to Padua he shows less preference for costume, and his

-women are generally clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than the

-square-cut bodice.

-

-We do not wonder that all the leading personages of Italy wished to be

-painted by Titian. His are the portraits of a man of intellect. They

-show the subject at his best; grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared

-and wished to appear; not taken off his guard in any way. What can be

-more sympathetic as a personality than the Ariosto of the National

-Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make a friend of him, and yet

-all the time he has himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much as

-he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that he does not intend us to

-discover. The painter himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he

-does not paint in his own fancies about his sitter--probably he had

-none; he saw what he was meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson calls

-"a certain happy insensibility" about him, which prevented him from

-taking fantastic flights, or from looking too deep below the surface.

-

- [Illustration: _Titian._

-                 ARIOSTO.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVIII

-

-TITIAN (_continued_)

-

-

-With the "Assumption," finished in 1518 for the Church of the Frari,

-Titian rose to the very highest among Renaissance painters. The

-"Glorious S. Mary" was his theme, and he concentrated all his efforts on

-the realisation of that one idea. The central figure is, as it were, a

-collective rather than an individual type. Well proportioned and elastic

-as it is, it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious and serene, it

-combines dramatic force and profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its

-hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly by that throbbing

-company of child angels and followed by full recognition and awestruck

-satisfaction in the adoring gaze of the throng below, yet Titian has

-contrived to keep some touch of the loving woman hurrying to meet her

-son. The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the garment of glowing

-blues and crimsons, have a more than common share in that spirit of

-confident joy and poured-out life which envelops the whole canvas. In

-the worthy representation of a great event, the visible assumption of

-Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts forth all his powers and

-steeps us in that temper of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and

-confidence in the capacity of man, which was so characteristic of the

-ripe Renaissance. In looking at this splendid canvas, we must call to

-mind the position for which Titian painted it. Hung in the dusky

-recesses of the apse, it was tempered by and merged in its stately

-surroundings. The band of Apostles almost formed a part of the

-whispering crowd below, and the glorious Mother was beheld soaring

-upwards to the golden light and the mysterious vistas of the vaulted

-arches above.

-

-The patronage of courts had by this time altered the tenor of Titian's

-life. In 1516 Duke Alfonso d'Este had invited him to Ferrara, where he

-had finished Bellini's "Bacchanals." It bears the marks of Titian's

-hand, and he has introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore into

-the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes to propose another painting, and

-Titian's acceptance is contained in a very courtier-like letter, in

-which we divine a touch of irony. "The more I thought of it," he ends,

-"the more I became convinced that the greatness of art among the

-ancients was due to the assistance they received from great princes, who

-were content to leave to the painter the credit and renown derived from

-their own ingenuity in bespeaking pictures." Alfonso's requirements for

-his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological scenes were already

-popular. Mantegna had adorned Isabela d'Este's "Paradiso" with revels

-of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception of classic myth in the

-Medici villa, already Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was to

-make designs for similar scenes to complete the decorations of the halls

-of Este. The same exuberant feeling he shows in the "Assumption" finds

-utterance in the "Garden of Loves" and the "Bacchanals," both painted

-for Alfonso of Ferrara. The children in the former may be compared with

-the angels in the "Assumption." Their blue wings match the heavenly blue

-sky, and they are painted with the most delicate finish.

-

-We can imagine the beauty of the great hall at Ferrara when hung with

-this brilliant series, which was completed in 1523 by the "Bacchus and

-Ariadne" of the National Gallery. The whole company of bacchanals is

-given up to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods the deep blue sky and

-great white clouds of a summer day. The deep greens of the foliage throw

-the creamy-white and burning colour of the draperies and the fair forms

-of the nymphs into glowing relief, while by a convention the satyrs

-are of a deep, tawny complexion. On a roll of music is stamped the

-rollicking device, "_Chi boit et ne reboit, ne sçeais que boir soit_."

-The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines, its crimson juice shines

-like a jewel in crystal goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.

-The influence of such pictures as these was absorbed by Rubens, but

-though they hardly surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and

-less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance is never shown more

-victoriously than here, where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the

-actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian than revolting. In

-the "Bacchus and Ariadne," Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood

-of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so simple, that we must

-smile in sympathy. The conqueror flinging himself from his golden

-chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle fluttering on high, is so

-full of reckless life that our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,

-marching with song and laughter, seems to people that golden country-side

-with fit inhabitants. The careless satyrs and little merry, goat-legged

-fauns shock us no more than a herd of forest ponies, tossing their manes

-and dashing along for love of life and movement.[3] Yet almost before

-this series was put in place Titian was showing the diversity of his

-genius by the "Deposition," now in the Louvre, which was painted at the

-instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d'Este.

-Here he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro. While it is

-satisfying in balance and sweeping rhythm, and by the way in which every

-line follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened lines of the dead

-Body, it escapes Raphael's academic treatment of the same subject. Its

-splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into a scene of solemn pathos

-and tragedy. The scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion, and

-what above all gives it its intense power is the way in which the

-flaming hues are absorbed into the twilight shadows. The dark heads

-stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor of the dead is half

-veiled by the falling night. It is a picture which has the emotional

-beauty of a scene in nature, and makes a profound impression by its

-depth and mystery. This same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant

-colouring of the great altarpiece painted for the Pesaro family in the

-Frari. Columns rise like great tree-trunks, light and air play through

-the clouds seen between them. The grouping is a new experiment, but the

-way in which the Mother and Child, though placed quite at one side of

-the picture, are focussed as the centre of interest, by the converging

-lines, diagonal on the one hand and straight on the other, crowns it

-with success. The scheme of colour brings the two figures into high

-relief, while St. Francis and the family of the donor are subordinated

-to rich, deep tints. Titian has abandoned, more completely than ever

-before, any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural majesty. He is

-a delightful, spoiled baby, fully aware of his sovereignty over his

-mother, pretending to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants, but

-occupying himself in making a tent over his head out of her veil. The

-"Madonna in Glory with six Saints" of the Vatican is another example of

-the rich and "smouldering" colour in which Titian was now creating his

-great altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality, a solidity,

-which gives reality without heaviness, and finishing with that

-fine-grained texture which makes his flesh look like marble endowed

-with life.

-

- [3] It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous

- above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in

- the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow's "Diana and Actaeon." The construction

- of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but little-known picture is

- admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing almost as a monochrome, the

- landscape is full of atmospheric suggestion. It is in Titian's latest

- manner, and its ample lines and free unimpeded motion can be due to no

- inferior brush.

-

- [Illustration: _Titian._

-                 DIANA AND ACTAEON.

-                _Earl Brownlow._

-                 (_The Medici Society, Ltd._)]

-

-Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us how boldly his own style

-was established. His sacred persons are not different from his pagans

-and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he still reminds us of

-Giorgione. He has been constant to the earliest influences which

-surrounded him, and to that temperament which made him accept those

-influences so instantaneously--and this constancy and unity give him the

-untroubled ascendancy over art which is such a feature of his position.

-

-With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had sprung to a recognised

-status in the great world of the Renaissance. They were no longer the

-patronised craftsmen. They had become the courted guests, the social

-equals. Titian, passing from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua

-and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants, was a magnificent

-personage, whose presence was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook

-a commission as one who conferred a coveted boon. Among those who

-clustered closest round the popular favourite, no one did more to

-enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant unscrupulous debauchee,

-wit, bully, blackmailer, but a man who, with all his faults, had

-evidently his own power of fascination, and, the friend of princes,

-must have been himself the prince of good company. Aretino, as far

-as he could be said to be attached to any one, was consistent in his

-attachment to Titian from the time they first met at the court of the

-Gonzaga. He played the part of a chorus, calling attention to the great

-painter's merits, jogging the memory of his employers as to payments,

-and never ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian, for his

-part, shows himself equally devoted to Aretino's interests, and has left

-various characteristic portraits of him, handsome and showy in his

-prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook him.

-

-In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of St. Peter Martyr invited

-artists to send in sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint, in

-SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one by Jacobello del Fiore.

-Palma Vecchio and Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off the

-prize. The picture was delivered in 1530, and during the autumn of 1529

-Sebastian del Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and Michelangelo

-had sought refuge there from Florence and had stayed for some months. A

-quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed the picture, so that

-it may quite probably have only been begun after intercourse with the

-Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian's ideas; for though he

-never ceases to be himself, it certainly seems as if the genius of

-Michelangelo had had some effect. From what we know of the altarpiece,

-which perished by fire in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli

-remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms of Herculean strength

-in violent action, but there his likeness to the Florentine ended;

-the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep, though not altogether

-successful, attention to anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture

-obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness from the setting in

-which the figures were placed--the great trees, bending and straining,

-the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in portentous harmony with the

-sinister deed, and overhead the enchanting gleam of light which shot

-downward and irradiated the face of the martyr and the two lovely

-winged boys, bathed in a flood of blue æther, who held aloft the palm of

-victory. Many copies of it remain, and we only regret that one which

-Rubens executed is not preserved among them.

-

-When we look at the delicious "Madonna del Coniglio" in the Louvre and

-our own "Marriage of S. Catherine," the first of which certainly, and

-the second probably, was painted about this time, we cannot doubt that

-the charm of the idea of motherhood had particularly arrested the

-painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio, was born, and was followed

-by another son and a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that

-passion of mother-love with an intensity and reality that can only be

-drawn from life, and on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his name,

-Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is increasing, and the landscape

-in these pictures equals the figures in importance and has engrossed the

-painter quite as much. Every year Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in

-the rich woodlands, the distant villages, the great white villa on the

-hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off blue mountains and the glooms

-and gleams of storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays through the

-summer clouds, which he has painted here, we see how constant was his

-study of his native country, and how profoundly he felt its poetry and

-its charm. He had married Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging

-to Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530 she died, and he

-mourned her deeply. He went on working and planning for his children's

-future, and his sister came from Cadore to take charge of the motherless

-household; but his friends' letters speak of his being ill from

-melancholy, and he could not go on living in the old house at San

-Samuele, which had been his home for sixteen years. He took a new house

-on the north side of the city, in the parish of San Canciano. The Casa

-Grande, as it was called, was a building of importance, which the

-painter first hired and finally bought, letting off such apartments as

-he did not need. The first floor had a terrace, and was entered by a

-flight of steps from the garden, which overlooked the lagoons, and had a

-view of the Cadore mountains. It has been swept away by the building of

-the Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the leases are preserved, and

-the exact site is well established. Here his children grew up, and he

-worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his eldest son, was idle and

-extravagant, a constant source of trouble, and Aretino writes him

-reproachful letters, which he treats with much impertinence. Orazio took

-to his father's profession, and was his constant companion, and often

-drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter, Lavinia, was his greatest

-joy and pride. In this house Titian showed constant hospitality, and

-there are records of the princely fashion in which he entertained his

-friends and distinguished foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known

-Humanist and _savant_ of the day, describes a Bacchanalian feast on

-the 1st of August, in a pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano

-Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi were present. Till the

-sun set they stayed indoors, admiring the artist's pictures. "As soon as

-it went down, the tables were spread, looking on the lagoons, which soon

-swarmed with gondolas full of beautiful women, and resounded with music

-of voices and instruments, which till midnight, accompanied our

-delightful supper. Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious

-wines, and the supper ended gaily."

-

-In the year 1532 Titian for the first time sought other than Italian

-patronage. Charles V., who was then at the height of his power, with all

-Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua, and among all the treasures

-that he saw was most struck by Titian's portrait of Federigo Gonzaga.

-After much writing to and fro, it was arranged that Titian should meet

-the Emperor at Bologna, where he had just been crowned. He made his

-first sketch of him, from which he afterwards produced a finished full

-length. It was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares that

-from that time forth Charles would never sit to any other master. He

-received a knighthood, and many commissions from members of the

-Emperor's court. It was for one of his nobles, da Valos, Marquis of

-Vasto, that he painted the allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which

-Mary of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is parting with her

-husband, who is bound on one of the desperate expeditions against the

-terrible Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the couple are

-encircled by Hymen, Victory, and the God of Love. The composition was

-repeated more than once, but never with quite the same success. We again

-suspect the influence of Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before

-Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver, for the Church of

-that name, of which the Doge was patron. The figures are life-size, the

-types stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and the colours, though

-gorgeous, are softened and broken by broad effects of light and shade.

-It is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that in which about this

-time he produced a series of beautiful female portraits, nude or

-semi-nude, chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the Duke of

-Urbino. The Duke at this time was the General-in-Chief of the Venetian

-forces, a position which took him often to Venice, and Titian's

-relations with him lasted till the painter's death. At least twenty-five

-of his works must have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro. Among

-these were the Venus of the Uffizi, "La Bella di Tiziano," in her

-gorgeous scheme of blue and amethyst, the "Girl in a Fur Cloak," besides

-portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It would be impossible to enumerate

-here the numbers of portraits which Titian was now supplying. The

-reputation he had acquired, not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and

-Germany, was greater than had ever been attained by any painter, while

-his social position was established among the highest in every court.

-"He had rivals in Venice," says Vasari, "but none that he did not

-crush by his excellence and knowledge of the world in converse with

-gentlemen." There is not a writer of the day who does not acclaim his

-genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of money, and had amassed a

-good fortune. He was constantly asking for favours, and had pensions and

-allowances from royal patrons. Lavinia, when she married, brought her

-husband a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the portraits of the

-Doges with tolerable regularity, but all through his life complaints

-were heard of his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand Council.

-Occupied as he was with the work of his foreign patrons, he had

-systematically neglected the conditions enjoined by his possession of a

-Broker's patent, and the Signoria suddenly called on him to refund the

-salary amounting to over 100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during

-which he had drawn it without performing his promise, while they

-prepared to instal Pordenone, who had lately appeared as his bitter

-rival, in his stead. Though Titian must have been making large sums of

-money at this time, his expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly

-face the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats at the same time

-that he lost the annual salary, nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a

-second-rate rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his own hands; he

-set to work and soon completed a great canvas of the "Battle of Cadore,"

-which, though it is only known to us from a contemporary print and a

-drawing by Rubens, evidently deserved Vasari's verdict of being the

-finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The movement and stir he

-contrives to give with a small number of figures is astonishing. The

-fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment advancing with lances and

-pennons produces the illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army,

-the desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises all the terrors of

-war. It was an atonement for his long period of neglect, but it was not

-till 1439 [TN: Pordenone died in 1539] that, Pordenone having suddenly

-died, the Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his Broker's

-patent. One of his later paintings for the State still keeps its place,

-"The Triumph of Faith," in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad

-form with flowing mantle, kneels before the angelic apparition of Faith,

-who holds a cross, which angels and cherubs help her to support.

-Beneath the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the Ducal Palace, and

-the Campanile. It is an allegory of Grimani's life; his defeat and

-captivity are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the magnificent

-figure of St. Mark with the lion is introduced to show that the Doge

-believes himself to owe his freedom to the saint's intercession. The

-prophet and standard-bearer at the sides were added by Marco Vecellio.

-

-Though the battlepiece perished in the fire of 1577, another masterpiece

-of this time marks a climax in Titian's brilliantly coloured and highly

-finished style. The "Presentation of the Virgin" was painted for the

-refectory of the Confraternity of the Carità, which was housed in the

-building now used as the Academy, so that the picture remains in the

-place for which it was executed. It is one of the most vivid and

-life-like of all his works. The composition is the traditional one;

-the fifteen steps of the "Gospel of Mary," the High Priest of the old

-dispensation welcoming the childish representative of the new. Below is

-a great crowd, but it is this little figure which first attracts the

-eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture and the free and

-glowing country beyond is not without meaning, and a broken Roman torso,

-lying neglected on the ground, symbolises the downfall of the Pagan

-Empire. The flight of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is

-an idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken by him from the

-sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini. The men on the left are portraits of

-members and patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque are the

-beautiful women in rich dresses at the foot of the steps. In this

-stately composition we see what is often noticeable in Titian's scenes;

-he brings in the bystanders after the manner of a Greek chorus. They

-all, with one accord, express the same sentiment. There is a certain

-acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a vein of simplicity flows through

-his nature. He has not the sensitive and subtle search after the motives

-of humanity which we find in Tintoretto or Lotto. He has great

-intellectual power, but not great imagination. It is a temper which

-helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality of his scenes

-undisturbed and adds to their effect. In the "Ecce Homo" Christ is shown

-to the populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment is a portrait of

-Aretino, and the contrast of the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd

-which, with all its lower instincts let loose, thunders back the cry of

-"Crucify Him," is the more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit

-which possesses the raging multitude. Other artists would have given

-more incidental byplay, and drawn off our attention from the main

-issue.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIX

-

-Titian (_continued_)

-

-

-While Titian was executing portraits of the Doges, of Aretino and of

-Isabella of Portugal, and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he was

-also striking out a new line in the ceiling pictures for the Church of

-San Spirito, which have since been transferred to the Salute. Though

-painted before his journey to Rome, it may be suspected that he had

-Michelangelo's work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that he was

-setting himself the task of bold foreshortening and technical problems.

-The daring of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that this is not

-Titian's element; his figures in violent movement give a vivid idea of

-strength and muscular force, but fail both in grace and drawing, and

-though the colour and light and shade distract our attention from

-defects of form, he does not possess that mastery over the flowing

-silhouette which Tintoretto attained.

-

-It was in 1543 that his relations with the Farnese, whose young cardinal

-he had been painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X. had tried to

-attract him there without success, but now at sixty-eight he found

-himself as far on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was with him, and

-Duke Guidobaldo was himself his escort, and sent him on with a band of

-men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul

-III. gave him a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed his cicerone.

-It is interesting to inquire what impression Rome, with its treasures of

-antique statuary and contemporary painting, made upon Titian. "He is

-filled with wonder and glad that he came," writes Bembo. In a letter to

-Aretino he regrets that he had not come before. He stayed eight months

-in Rome, and was made a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of Raphael

-in company with Sebastian del Piombo, and Michelangelo comes to see him

-at his lodgings, and he receives a long letter from Aretino advising him

-to compare Michelangelo with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with

-the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian was well established

-in his own style, and was received as the creator of acknowledged

-masterpieces, and he never painted a more magnificent portrait-piece

-than that of Paul III., the peevish old Pope, ailing and humorous,

-suspicious of the two nephews who are painted with him, and who he

-guessed to be conspiring against him. The characteristic attitude of the

-old man of eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick, irritable glance,

-the steady, determined gaze of the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and

-weak, wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised in a broader,

-more careless technique than Titian has hitherto used. Though he does

-not seem to have been directly influenced by all he saw in Rome, we

-undoubtedly find a change coming over his work between 1540 and 1550,

-which may be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic horizon and

-a consciousness of what others were doing, both around him and abroad.

-In its whole handling and character his late is different from his early

-manner. It begins at this time to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist

-character. His delight in rich colouring seems to wane, and he aims at

-intensifying the power of light. He reaches that point in the Venetian

-School of painting which we may regard as its climax, when there is

-little strong local colour, but the canvas seems illumined from within.

-There are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are suggested by sombre

-enveloping shades in which the radiant brightness is embedded. His

-landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue and smiling, filled with

-loving detail, but grander, more mysterious. In the "St. Jerome" in

-Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely surroundings, and the

-moon, slowly rising behind the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray

-across the crucifix. The "Supper at Emmaus" has the grandiose effect

-that is given by avoidance of detail and simplification of method.

-

-Titian painted several portraits of himself, and we know what sort of

-stately figure was presented by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas

-in 1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the depths of winter to

-obey Charles V.'s call to Augsburg. The excitement of the public was

-great at his departure, and Aretino describes how his house was besieged

-for the sketches and designs he left behind him. For nearly forty years

-Titian was employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had been working for

-Charles since 1530, and when the Emperor abdicated, his employment by

-Philip II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of 1686 contained

-seventy-six Titians, and though probably not all were genuine, yet an

-immense number were really by him, and the gallery, even now, is richer

-in his works than any other.

-

-The great hall of the Pardo must have been a wonderful sight, with

-Titian's finest portrait of himself in the midst, and the magnificent

-portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which he continued from this

-time forward to contribute to it. In this year, which was the last

-before Charles's abdication, and during this visit to South Germany, he

-painted the great equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field of

-Mühlberg, and two years later came the first of his many portraits of

-Philip II. The face, in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of

-fury of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the sitter is

-realised as a man of great distinction. Ugly and sensual as he is,

-we never tire of looking at Titian's conception--a full length of

-distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent colour. Everything

-in it lives, and the slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a

-whole biography in themselves.

-

-The splendid series of allegorical subjects which Titian contributed to

-the Pardo, while he was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces

-to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are among his most mature and

-important works. Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and stronger

-than in the "Jupiter and Antiope," or the "Venus of the Pardo" as it is

-sometimes called. The Venus herself has the attitude of Giorgione's

-dreaming goddess, with her arm flung up above her head. It is, perhaps,

-the only time that Titian succeeds in giving anything ideal to one of

-his Venuses. The famous nudes of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid

-courtesans, far removed from Giorgione's idyllic vision; but Antiope,

-slumbering on her couch of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with

-adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole world of sweet and

-joyful fancy. The whole scene is full of a _joie de vivre_, which

-carries us back to the Bacchanals painted so many years before, and in

-these Titian gives King Philip his most perfect work, every touch of

-which is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre, was given to Charles

-I. by the King of Spain, and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.

-"Danaë," "Venus and Adonis," "Europa and the Bull," and a "Last Supper"

-followed in quick succession, but Titian was now employing many

-assistants, and great parts of the canvases issuing from his workshop

-show weak, imitative hands, while replicas were made of other works.

-

-His later feeling for the religious in art is expressed in the now

-bedimmed paintings in San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes

-these in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety years old, the

-"Transfiguration" is remarkable for forcible, majestic movement, while

-in the "Annunciation" he invents quite a new treatment. Mary turns round

-and raises her veil, while she grasps the book as if she depended on it

-for stay and support. The four angels are full of life and gaiety, and

-the whole has much grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in the

-painter's later style, in broad and sweeping planes without patience

-of detail. The old man has signed it "Titianus, fecit, fecit," a

-contemptuous reply to some critics who complained of its want of finish.

-He knew well what it was in composition and execution, and that all that

-he had ever known or done lay within the careless strength of his last

-manner.

-

-A letter written to the King of Spain's secretary in 1574 gives

-a list "in part" of fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the last

-twenty-five years, "with many others which I do not remember." On every

-hand we hear of lost pictures from the master's brush, and the number

-produced even during the last ten years of his life must have been

-enormous, for till the end he was full of great undertakings and

-achievements. Very late in life he painted a "Shepherd and Nymph"

-(Vienna), which in its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its

-mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the early days with

-Giorgione, yet the blurred and smouldering richness, the absolute

-negation of all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest style, and

-he has gone past Giorgione on his own ground. Then in strange contrast

-is the "Christ Crowned with Thorns," at Vienna, a tragic figure

-stupefied with suffering. His last great work was the "Pietà" in

-the Academy, which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and very

-impressive. He places the Virgin supporting the Body in a great

-dome-shaped niche, which gives elevation. It is flanked by two calm,

-antique, stone figures, whose impassive air contrasts with the wild pain

-and grief below. The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator with the

-wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It perhaps hardly moves us like the

-concentrated feeling of Bellini's Madonna, or the hurried, trembling

-grief of Tintoretto's Magdalen, but it is monumental in the sweeping

-grace of its line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is sadly rubbed

-and darkened and has lost much of Titian's colour, but is still

-beautiful in its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden glow, as

-of half-extinguished fires. These late paintings are of the true

-impressionist order; looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled

-touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step farther away, to the

-right focus, light and dark arrange themselves, order shines through the

-whole, and we see what the great master meant us to see. "Titian's later

-creations," says Vasari, "are struck off rapidly, so that when close you

-cannot see them, but afar they look perfect, and this is the style which

-so many tried to imitate, to show that they were practised hands, but

-only produced absurdities." Titian was preparing the picture for the

-Frari, in payment for the grant of a tomb for himself, when in August

-1576 the plague broke out in Venice, and on the 27th the great painter

-died of it in his own house. The stringent regulations concerning

-infection were relaxed to do honour to one of the greatest sons of

-Venice, and he was laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn

-procession, through a city stricken by terror and panic, and buried

-in the Chapel of the Crucified Saviour, for which his last work was

-ordered. The "Assumption" of his prime looked down upon him, and close

-at hand was the "Madonna of Casa Pesaro." His son Orazio caught the

-plague and died immediately after, and the painter's house was sacked

-by thieves and many precious things stolen.

-

-The great personality of Titian stands out as that which of all others

-established and consolidated the school of Venice. He is its central

-figure. The century of life, of which eighty years were passed in

-ceaseless industry of production, left its deep impression on the art of

-every civilised country of Europe. Every great man of the day who was a

-lover of art and culture fell under Titian's spell. His influence on his

-contemporaries was enormous, and he had everything: genius, industry,

-personal distinction, character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too

-intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of the Venetian spirit,

-in the way that Tintoretto is; it is conceivable that in another

-environment Titian might have developed on rather different lines,

-but this temper gave him greater domination. He was free from the

-eccentricities which beset genius. He possessed the saving salt of

-practical common sense, so that the golden mean of sanity and healthful

-joy in his works commended them to all men, and they are not difficult

-to understand. Yet while all can see the beauty of his poetic instinct

-for colour, his interesting and original technique, his grasp and

-scope, his mastery and certainty have gained for him the title of "the

-painter's painter." There is no one from whom men feel that they can so

-safely learn so much, and the grand breadth and power of elimination of

-his later years is justified by the way in which in his earlier work he

-has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto to perfection.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Ancona.   Crucifixion (L.).

-           S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.

- Antwerp.  Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.

- Berlin.   Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.);

-             Lavinia bearing Charges.

- Brescia.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.

- Dresden.  Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride,

-             1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.); Portrait, 1561; Lady with

-             Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.

- Florence. Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman;

-             The Concert (E.); Philip II.; Ippolito de Medici, 1533;

-             Tomaso Mosti.

-           Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco

-             della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537; Flora; Venus, the head

-             a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora

-             Gonzaga; Madonna with S. Anthony Abbot.

- London.   Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me

-             tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John and Catherine.

-           Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three

-             Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon, 1559; Callisto, 1559.

-           Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).

-           Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.

- Madrid.   Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden

-             of Loves; Danaë, 1554; Venus and Youth playing Organ (L.);

-             Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment,

-             1559; Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.);

-             Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the Battle

-             of Mühlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II.,

-             1550; Philip II.; The Infant; Don Fernando and Victory;

-             Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and

-             Adonis; Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.

- Medole (near Brescia). Christ appearing to His Mother.

- Munich.   Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man

-             with Baton.

- Naples.   Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Danaë.

- Padua.    Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an

-             Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The Jealous Husband,

-             1511.

- Paris.    Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with

-             S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning with Thorns (L.);

-             Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.);

-             Francis I.; Allegory; Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon;

-             Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L'Homme au Gant (E.);

-             Portraits.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.);

-             Education of Cupid (L.).

-           Capitol: Baptism (E.).

-           Doria: Daughter of Herodias.

-           Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.

- Treviso.  Duomo: Annunciation.

- Urbino.   Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).

- Venice.   Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert;

-             Assumption, 1518; Pietà, 1573.

-           Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.

-           Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.

-           Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.

-           S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.

-           Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).

-           Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned

-             with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice of Isaac; Cain

-             and Abel.

-           S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).

- Verona.   Duomo: Assumption.

- Vienna.   Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo,

-             1543; Isabela d'Este, 1534; The Tambourine Player; Girl in

-             Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.);

-             Portraits; Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and

-             Callisto; Madonna and Saints.

- Wallace Collection. Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration

-             with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)

- Louvre.   Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)

- Glasgow.  Madonna and Saints.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XX

-

-PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO

-

-

-Among the many who clustered round Titian's long career, Palma attained

-to a place beside him and Giorgione which his talent, which was not of

-the highest order, scarcely warranted. But he was classed with the

-greatest, and influenced contemporary art because his work chimed in

-so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque by birth, he came of

-Venetian parentage, and learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.

-He never really mastered the inner niceties of anatomy in its finest

-sense, and the broad generalisation of his forms may be meant to conceal

-uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed, matronly women and plump

-children, his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and the clear

-golden polish in which his pictures are steeped, made a great appeal to

-the public. His invention is the large Santa Conversazione, as compared

-with those in half-length of the earlier masters. The Virgin and saints

-and kneeling or bending donors are placed under the spreading trees

-of a rich and picturesque landscape. It is Palma's version of the

-Giorgionesque ideal, which he had his share in establishing and

-developing. The heavy tree-trunk and dark foliage, silhouetted almost

-black against the background, are characteristic of his compositions. As

-his life goes on, though he still clings to his full, ripe figures and

-to the same smooth fleshiness in his women, the features become delicate

-and chiselled, and the more refined type and subtler feeling of his

-middle stage may be due to his companionship with Lotto, with whom he

-was in Bergamo when they were both about twenty-five. He touches his

-highest, and at the same time keeps very near Giorgione, in the

-splendid St. Barbara, painted for the company of the _Bombadieri_ or

-artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on which she stands; it

-was at her altar that they came to commend themselves on going forth to

-war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving for a safe return; and

-she is a truly noble figure, regal in conception and fine and firm in

-execution, attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and green, with

-splendid saints on either hand. Palma was often approached by his

-patrons who wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses; but though

-he produced a Venus, a handsome, full-blown model, he never excels in

-the nude, and his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His scenes have

-a domestic, familiar flavour. With all his golden and ivory beauty he

-lacks fire, and his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In his

-latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of scumble or haze. It

-would, however, be unfair to say he is not fine, and his portraits

-especially come very near the best. Vienna is rich in examples in

-half-lengths of one beautiful woman after another robed in the ample and

-gorgeous garments in which he is always interested. Among them is his

-handsome daughter, Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and wearing the

-large sleeves he admires. The "Tasso" of the National Gallery has been

-taken from him and given first to Giorgione and then to Titian, but

-there now seems some inclination to return it to its first author. It

-has a more dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are accustomed to

-associate with Palma; but he uses elsewhere the decorative background

-of olive branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny colouring, and the

-pronounced golden haze are Palmesque in the highest degree. The

-colouring is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of the Ariosto

-of Titian, which hangs near it.

-

- [Illustration: _Palma Vecchio._

-                 HOLY FAMILY.

-                _Colonna Gallery, Rome._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-No one could be more unlike Palma than his contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto,

-who has for long been classed with the Bergamasques, but who is proved

-by recently discovered documents to have been born in Venice. It was

-for long an accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and his

-earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso, bears traces of

-Bellini's manner. A Pietà above has child angels examining the wounds

-with the grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly his own, and

-the St. Jerome and the branch of fig-leaves silhouetted against the

-light remind us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto seems to have

-clung to quattrocento fashions. The ancona had long been rejected by

-most of his contemporaries, but he painted one of the last for a church

-in Recanati, in carved and gilt compartments, and he painted predellas

-long after they had become generally obsolete. We ask ourselves how it

-was that Lotto, who had so susceptible and easily swayed a nature,

-escaped the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful of any in the

-Venice of his youth--an influence which acted on Bellini in his old age,

-which Titian practically never shook off, and which dominated Palma to

-the exclusion of any earlier master.

-

-It would take too long to survey the train of argument by which

-Mr. Berenson has established Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto.

-Notwithstanding that Bellini's great superiority was becoming clear to

-the more cultured Venetians, Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still

-the painter _par excellence_ for the mass of the public. In the S.

-Cristina altarpiece the Child standing on its Mother's knee is in the

-same attitude as the Child in Alvise's altarpiece of 1480, and the

-Mother's hand holds it in the same way. Other details which supply

-internal evidence are the shape of hands and feet, the round heads and

-the way the Child is often represented lying across the Mother's knees.

-Lotto carries into old age the use of fruit and flowers and beads as

-decoration, a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the Vivarini, but which

-was never adopted by Bellini.

-

-About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with Palma, and for a short time the

-two were in close touch. A "Santa Conversazione," of which a good copy

-exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one at Dresden, with the Holy Family

-grouped under spreading trees, is saturated with Palma's spirit, but it

-soon passes away, and except for an occasional touch, disappears

-entirely from Lotto's work.

-

-Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo, for when in 1515 a competition

-between artists was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a descendant of

-General Colleone, for an altarpiece for S. Stefano, he competed and

-carried off the prize. This was the first of the series of the great

-works for Bergamo, which enrich the little city, where at this period

-he can best be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed to San

-Bartolommeo) is a most interesting human document, a revelation of the

-painter's personality. He does not break away from hieratic conventions,

-like the rival school; his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the

-church with saints grouped round her, a form from which the Vivarini

-never departed, but the whole is full of intense movement, of a lyric

-grace and ecstasy, a desire to express fervent and rapturous devotion.

-The architectural background is not in happy proportion in relation to

-the figures, but the effect of vista and space is more remarkable than

-in any North Italian master. The vivid treatment of light and shade, and

-the gaiety and delicacy of the flying angels, who hold the canopy, and

-of the putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes of throne and

-canopy and the decorations have led to the idea that Lotto drew his

-inspiration from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles in some ways;

-but at this time Correggio was only twenty, and had not given any

-examples of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque. We must

-look back to a common origin for those decorative details, which are so

-conspicuous in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini, which came to Lotto

-through the Vivarini and to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and

-of which the fountain-head for both was the school of Squarcione. For

-the much more striking resemblances of composition and spirit, the

-explanation seems to be that Lotto on one side of his nature was akin

-to Correggio; he had the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination to

-exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting was a vehicle for the

-expression of feeling, but Lotto had also common sense and a goodly

-share of that humour that is allied to pathos.

-

-Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in Bergamo, where the first altarpiece

-gained him orders for others. The reputation of a member of the school

-of Venice was a sure passport to employment. We trace Alvise's tradition

-very plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino, where the gesture of

-the Madonna's hand as she expounds to the listening saints recalls

-Alvise's of 1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto makes use

-of to the end of his life, lie scattered on the step; angels, daringly

-foreshortened, sweep aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour is

-in Lotto's scarlet, light blues, and violet. He soon shows himself fond

-of genre incidents, and in "Christ taking leave of His Mother" gives a

-view into a bedroom and a cat running across the floor. The donor kneels

-with her hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl necklace. In the

-"Marriage of S. Catherine" at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,

-with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very simply and naturally before

-the Child, and the exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young woman

-who represents the Madonna, looks out towards the spectator with a

-mundane and curiously modern air. It was probably the recognition

-of Lotto's success with portraits that led to their being so often

-introduced into his sacred pieces. In the one we have just noticed, the

-donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is brought in, and is on rather a larger scale

-than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not found him interesting. The

-portraits of the brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary

-Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate that wonderful series

-of characterisations which are his greatest distinction. A series of

-frescoes in village churches round Bergamo must also be noticed. They

-are remarkable for spontaneous and original decoration, and may compare

-with the ceremonial groups of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto's

-personages, as they chatter in the market-places, are full of natural

-animation and gaiety, and we realise what a step had been made in the

-painting of actual life.

-

-Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of Italy, the years

-from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto spent in Venice, found that city the

-gathering-ground of many of the most distinguished scholars and deepest

-thinkers of the day. Men of all shades of religious thought were engaged

-in learned discussion, and Lotto's ardent and inquiring temperament must

-have been stimulated by such an environment. During these years, too, he

-became intimate with Titian, and experimented in Titian's style, with

-the result that his painting gets thicker and richer, more fused and

-solid, and his figures are better put together. He imitates Titian's

-colour, too, but it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and he

-soon finds it does not suit him, and returns to his own scheme. His

-colour is still rather too dazzling, but the distances are translucent

-and atmospheric. He continues to introduce portraits. In his altarpiece

-in SS. Giovanni and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving

-petitions curiously resemble in type and expression the ecclesiastics

-we see to-day.

-

-Lotto was now an accepted member of Titian's set, and Aretino, in a

-letter dated 1548, writes that Titian values his taste and judgment as

-that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual mixture of connoisseurship

-and clever spite, goes on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he

-himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was not considered on a par with

-the masters of the first rank. "Envy is not in your breast," he says,

-"rather do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which

-you do not find in your own brush, ... holding the second place in the

-art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first place in the

-duties of religion."

-

-An interesting codex or commentary tells us that Lotto never received

-high prices for his work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about in

-artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and leaving a number with

-Jacopo Sansovino in the hope that he might hear of buyers. His work

-ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He undertook commissions at

-Recanati, Ancona, and Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a

-contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by which, in return for rooms

-and food, he made over himself and all his belongings to the care of the

-fraternity, "being tired of wandering, and wishing to end his days in

-that holy place." He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto

-as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of pictures which are

-distinguished by the same sort of apparent looseness and carelessness

-which we noticed in Titian's late style; a technique which, as in

-Titian's case, conceals a profound knowledge of plastic modelling.

-

-Though Lotto executed an immense number of important and very beautiful

-sacred works, his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting to the

-modern mind that one is tempted to linger over them. Other painters give

-us finer pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know who the sitters

-were and what was their story. Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality

-which marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born psychologist, and as such

-he witnesses to an attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which is of

-peculiar interest to our own. Lotto's bystanders, even in his sacred

-scenes, have nothing in common with Titian's "chorus"; they have the

-characterisation of distinct individuals, and when he is concerned with

-actual portraits he is intensely receptive and sensitive to the spirit

-of his sitters. He may be said to "give them away," and to take an

-almost unfair advantage of his perception. The sick man in the Doria

-Gallery looks like one stricken with a death sentence. He knows at least

-that it is touch and go, and the painter has symbolised the situation in

-the little winged genius balancing himself in a pair of scales. In the

-Borghese Gallery is the portrait of a young, magnificently dressed man,

-with a countenance marked by mental agitation, who presses one hand to

-his heart, while the other rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a

-tiny skull is half-hidden. The "Old Man" in the Brera has the hard,

-narrow, but intensely sad face of one whose natural disposition has

-been embittered by the circumstances of his life, just as that of our

-Prothonotary speaks of a large and gentle nature, mellowed by natural

-affections and happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with kindly

-mischief at "Marsilio and his Bride;" the broad, placid countenance of

-the man is so significantly contrasted with the clever mouth and eyes of

-the bride that it does not need the malicious glance of the cupid, who

-is fitting on the yoke, to "dot the i's and cross the t's" of their

-future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in the Brera, introduces

-us to one of those women who are charming in every age, not actually

-beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly dressed, sensible, and

-self-possessed, and the "Family Group" in our own gallery holds a

-history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments united by life in

-common and the clasping hands of children. Lotto does not keep the

-personal expression out of even such a canvas as his "Triumph of

-Chastity" in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His delightful Venus, one of the

-loveliest nudes in painting, flies from the attacking termagant, whose

-virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on her breast, and sweeps her little

-cupid with her with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the

-manners of mundane society.

-

- [Illustration: _Lorenzo Lotto._

-                 PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.

-                _Brera._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-The painter who was thus able to unveil personality had evidently a mind

-that was aware of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation

-and a more earnest and intimate religion. His life seems to have been

-one of some sadness, and crowned with only moderate success. He speaks

-of himself as "advanced in years, without loving care of any kind, and

-of a troubled mind." His will shows that his worldly possessions were

-few and poor, and that he had no heir closer than a nephew; but he

-leaves some of his cartoons as a dowry to "two girls of quiet nature,

-healthy in mind and body, and likely to make thrifty housekeepers," on

-their marriage to "two well-recommended young men," about to become

-painters. His sensitive and introspective temperament led him to prefer

-the retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the brilliant society

-of which he was made free in Venice. "His spirit," says Mr. Berenson,

-"is more like our own than is perhaps that of any other Italian

-painter, and it has all the appeal and fascination of a kindred soul

-in another age."

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Palma Vecchio._

-

- Bergamo.   Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).

- Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).

- Dresden.   Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family;

-              Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).

- London.    Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.

- Milan.     Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian;

-              Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.

- Naples.    Santa Conversazione with Donors.

- Paris.     Adoration of Shepherds.

- Rome.      Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.

-            Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.

-            Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.

- Venice.    Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.

-            Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).

-            S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.

- Vienna.    Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.

-

-

- _Lorenzo Lotto._

-

- Ancona.   Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).

- Asolo.    Madonna in Glory, 1506.

- Bergamo.  Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.

-           Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.

-           S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.

-           S. Alessandro in Colonna: Pietà.

-           S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.

-           S. Spirito: Altarpiece.

- Berlin.   Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.

- Brescia.  Nativity.

- Cingoli.  S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.

- Florence. Uffizi: Holy Family.

- London.   Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);

-             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;

-             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.

-           Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).

- Loreto.   Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer

-             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).

- Recanati. Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).

-           S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.

-           Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.

- Venice.   Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.

-           S. Giacomo dall' Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.

-           SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.

- Vienna.   Santa Conversazione, etc.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXI

-

-SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO

-

-

-It was very natural that Rome should wish for works of the masters of

-the new Venetian School, but the first-rate men were fully employed at

-home. All the efforts made to secure Titian failed till nearly the end

-of his career. On the other hand, Venice was full of less famous masters

-following in Giorgione's steps. When Sebastian Luciani was a young man,

-Giorgione was paramount there, and no one could have foretold that his

-life would be of such short duration. It was to be expected, therefore,

-that a painter who consulted his own interests should leave the city

-where he was overshadowed by a great genius and go farther afield. The

-influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the sixteenth century, so that

-it was a simpler matter for painters to transfer their talents, and

-painting was beginning to appeal strongly to the _dilettanti_, who

-rivalled one another in their offers.

-

-Only one work of Sebastian's is known belonging to this earlier time in

-Venice. It is the "S. Chrysostom enthroned," in S. Giovanni Crisostomo,

-and its majesty and rich colouring, and more especially the splendid

-group of women on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian beauty,

-make us wonder if Sebastian might not have risen to greater heights if

-he had remained in his natural environment. He responded to the call to

-Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great painter, [TN: Chigi was a banker] art

-collector, and patron, the friend of Leo X. Chigi had just completed

-the Farnesina Villa, and Sebastian was employed till 1512 on its

-decoration, and at once came under the influence of Michelangelo. The

-"Pietà" at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in fact, Vasari

-says that Michelangelo himself drew the cartoon for the figure of

-Christ, which would account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian

-embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine painter, and,

-according to Vasari, the great canvas of the "Raising of Lazarus," in

-the National Gallery, was executed under the orders and in part from

-the designs of Michelangelo. This colossal work was looked on as one

-of the most important creations of the sixteenth century, but there is

-little to make us wish to change it for the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo.

-The desire for scientific drawing and the search after composition have

-produced a laboured effect; the female figures are cast in a masculine

-mould, and it lacks both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and

-the emotional charm of Sebastian's native style. We cannot, however,

-avoid conjecturing if in the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a

-conception of the great Florentine. It is so easy in pose, so splendid

-in its, perhaps excessive, length of limb, that our thoughts turn

-involuntarily to the _Ignudi_ in the Sixtine Chapel. The picture has

-been dulled and injured by repainting, but the distance still has the

-sombre depth of the Venetians. All through Sebastian's career he seeks

-for form and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly is, he

-is great because he possesses that inborn feeling for harmony of colour.

-This is what we value in him, and he excels in so far as he follows his

-Venetian instincts.

-

-The death of Raphael improved Sebastian's position in Rome, and

-though Leo X. never liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.

-The "Fornarina" in the Uffizi, with the laurel-wreathed head and

-leopard-skin mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is

-curious that any critic should ever have assigned its rich, voluptuous

-tone and its coarse type to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions for

-decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and S. Pietro in Montorio in

-fresco, but in the latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring

-the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the Tuscan ease of hand. Colour,

-for which he possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused colour of

-Giorgione, is set aside by him; his tints become strong and crude, his

-surfaces grow hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of bold

-action, of drawing and modelling. The Venetian genius for portraiture

-remains, and he has left such fine examples as the "Andrea Doria" of the

-Vatican, or the "Portrait of a Man in the Pitti," a masterly picture

-both in drawing and execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse, and

-damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In the National Gallery we possess

-his own portrait by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici. The

-faces are well contrasted, and we judge from Sebastian's that his

-biographer describes him justly, as fat, indolent, and given to

-self-indulgence, but genial and fond of good company.

-

-After an absence of twenty years he returned to Venice. There he came

-in contact with Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship with

-Aretino, who became his great ally and admirer. The sack of Rome had

-driven him forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning partially

-to recover from that time of horror, he returned, and was cordially

-welcomed by Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost ecclesiastical

-circles. The Piombo, a well-paid, sinecure office of the Papal court,

-was bestowed on him, and his remaining years were spent in Rome. He

-was very anxious to collaborate with Michelangelo, and the great

-painter seems to have been quite inclined to the arrangement. The "Last

-Judgment," in the Sixtine Chapel, was suggested, and Sebastian had the

-melancholy task of taking down Perugino's masterpieces; but he wished to

-reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo stipulated for fresco, saying

-that oils were only fit for women, so that no agreement was arrived at.

-

-Sebastian's mode of work was slow, and he employed no assistants. He

-seems to have been inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,

-and his character shows in his work, which, with a few exceptions, has

-something heavy and common about it, a want of keenness and fire, an

-absence of refinement and selection.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Florence. Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.

-           Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).

- London.   Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.

- Naples.   Holy Family; Portraits.

- Paris.    Visitation, 1521.

- Rome.     Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).

-           Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.

-           S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.

- Treviso.  S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).

- Venice.   Academy: Visitation (E.).

-           S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).

- Viterbo.  Pietà (L.).

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXII

-

-BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE

-

-

-Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity of the different members

-of the family of Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in giving the

-name to one master only. Boschini, however, in 1777 discovered the

-register of the death of a second, and a third bearing the name was

-working twenty years later. Upon this Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion

-that we must recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the name of

-Bonifazio, but documents recently discovered by Professor Ludwig have

-in great measure destroyed Morelli's conjectures. There may have been

-obscure painters bearing the name, but they were mere imitators, and it

-is doubtful if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.

-

-Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one who counts. As Ridolfi says,

-he was born in Verona in the most beautiful moment of painting. He came

-to Venice at the age of eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,

-with whom his work has sometimes been confused. After Palma's death

-Bonifazio continued in friendly relations with his old master's family,

-and his niece married Palma's nephew. Bonifazio himself married the

-daughter of a basket-maker, and appears to have had no children, for

-he and his wife by their wills bestowed their whole fortune on their

-nephews. Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio's niece, was a painter

-whose pictures have sometimes been attributed to the legendary third

-Bonifazio. Bonifazio's life was passed peacefully in Venice. He received

-many important commissions from the Republic, and decorated the Palace

-of the Treasurers. His character and standing were high, and he was

-appointed, in company with Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy

-which Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly dower for five

-maidens. After a long life spent in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew

-to a little farm amidst orchards--fifteen acres of land in all--at San

-Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept his house in San Marcuola, where

-he died. He was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.

-

-A son of the plains and of Venetian stock, his work is always graceful

-and attractive, though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a very

-pronounced aristocratic character, and bears no trace of the rough,

-provincial strain of such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very fine

-and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour and energy in design. Nowhere do

-we get more worldly magnificence or such frank worship of wealth as on

-Bonifazio's joyous canvases. He represents Christian saints and Eastern

-kings alike, as gentlemen of princely rank. There is a note of purely

-secular art about his Adorations and Holy Families. In the "Adoration of

-the Magi," in the Academy, the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady of

-Bonifazio's acquaintance. The Child, so far from raising His hand in

-benediction, holds it out for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,

-distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the cup held by the second,

-who, in a puffed velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably that of

-the donor of the picture, who is in this way paid a courtier-like

-compliment. The third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must often have

-seen embarking from his Eastern galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A

-servant in a peaked hood peers round the column to catch sight of what

-is going on. The groups of animals in the background are well rendered.

-In the "Rich Man's Feast," where Lazarus lies upon the step, we have

-another scene of wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an orgy of

-colour. And, again, in the "Finding of Moses" (Brera) he paints nobles

-playing the lute, making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired women

-listening complacently. We are reminded of the way in which they lived:

-their one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of appearing in public

-in the latest and most magnificent fashions. And in these paintings

-Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and brocaded gowns in which the

-beautiful Venetians arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions of the

-year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted and coiled in the precise

-mode of the moment. The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly all

-his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself. As Catena often brings in

-a little white lap-dog, so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a

-liver-and-white spaniel.

-

-Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist who most successfully

-imitated Titian. He was the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,

-and received a good education in music and letters, before being sent

-off to Venice and placed in Titian's studio. Bordone does not seem to

-have been on very friendly terms with Titian. He was dissatisfied with

-his teaching, and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting from him a

-commission to paint an altarpiece which had been entrusted to him when

-he was only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with the manner of

-the dead Giorgione, and it was upon this master that he aspired to

-form his style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was painted for the

-Confraternity of St. Mark, and made his reputation. The legend it

-represents may be given in a few words:

-

-In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February, there arose a fearful

-storm in Venice. During the height of the tempest, three men accosted a

-poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed old boat by the Piazza,

-and begged that he would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where they had

-urgent business. After some demur they persuaded him to take the oars,

-and in spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished. On reaching

-the shore they pointed out to him a great ship, the crew of which he

-perceived to consist of a band of demons, who were stirring up the waves

-and making a great hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands on

-them to desist, when immediately they sailed away and there was a calm.

-The passengers then made the oarsman row them, one to S. Niccolo, one to

-S. Giorgio, and the third was rowed back to the Piazza. The fisherman

-timidly asked for his fare, and the third passenger desired him to go to

-the Doge and ask for payment, telling him that by that night's work a

-great disaster had been averted from the city. The fisherman replied

-that he should not be believed, but would be imprisoned as a liar. Then

-the passenger drew a ring from his finger. "Show him this for a sign,"

-he said, "and know that one of those you have this night rowed is S.

-Niccolas, the other is S. George, and I am S. Mark the Evangelist,

-Protector of the Venetian Republic." He then disappeared. The next day

-the fisherman presented the ring, and was assigned a provision for life

-from the Senate.

-

-There has, perhaps, never been a richer and more beautiful

-subject-picture painted than this glowing canvas, or one which brings

-more vividly before us the magnificence of the pageants which made

-such a part of Venetian life in the golden age of painting. It is all

-strength and splendour, and escapes the hectic colour and weaker type

-which appear in Bordone's "Last Supper" and some of his other works. In

-1538 he went to France and entered the service of Francis II., painting

-for him many portraits of ladies, besides works for the Cardinals of

-Guise and of Lorraine. The King of Poland sent to him for a "Jupiter and

-Antiope." At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns for work done for the

-great Fugger family.

-

-No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type of woman who at this time

-was most admired in Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired, with

-full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and ample, with "abundant

-flanks and snow-white breast." A type glowing with health and instinct

-with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without deep passions,

-and with no look that reveals profound emotions or the struggle of a

-soul. From what we see of Bordone's female portraits and from some of

-the mythological compositions he has left, he might have been among the

-most sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan, in the National

-Gallery, is an almost over-realistic presentment of a woman who has

-just parted from her lover. His women, with their carnation cheeks and

-expressionless faces, are like beautiful animals; but, as a matter

-of fact, their painter was sober and temperate in his life, very

-industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother. About 1536 he married

-the daughter of a Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one of the

-many insignificant painters of the end of the sixteenth century. Most

-of his days were divided between his little Villa of Lovadina in the

-district of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte dell' Cavallo near

-the Misericordia. "He lives comfortably in his quiet house," writes

-Vasari, who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, "working only at the

-request of princes, or his friends, avoiding all rivalry and those vain

-ambitions which do but disturb the repose of man, and seeking to avert

-any ruffling of the serene tranquillity of his life, which he is

-accustomed to preserve simple and upright."

-

-Many of his pictures show an intense love of country solitudes. His

-poetic backgrounds, lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling water

-are in curious contrast to the sumptuous groups in the foreground.

-

-His "Three Heads," in the Brera, is a superb piece of painting and

-an interesting characterisation. The woman is ripe, sensual, and

-calculating, feeling with her fingers for the gold chain, a mere

-golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid and prosaic. The

-go-between is dimly seen in the background, but the face of the suitor

-is a strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless, and bitter,

-taking his pleasure mechanically and with cynical detachment. The "Storm

-calmed by S. Mark" (Academy) was, in Mr. Berenson's opinion, begun by

-Giorgione.

-

-Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is the work of these

-two painters, it does not reach the highest level. It falls short of

-grandeur, and has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity. As we

-study it we feel that it marks the point to which Venetian art might

-have attained, the flood-mark it might have touched, if it had lacked

-the advent of the three or four great spirits, who, appearing about

-the same time, bore it up to sublimer heights and developed a more

-distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio and Bordone lack the

-grandeur and sweetness of Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative

-genius of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour, design, and

-decoration of Veronese, but they continue Venetian painting on logical

-lines, and they form a superb foundation for the highest.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Bonifazio Veronese._

-

- Dresden.  Finding of Moses.

- Florence. Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight

-             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.

- Hampton Court. Santa Conversazione.

- London.   Santa Conversazione (E.).

- Milan.    Brera: Finding of Moses.

- Paris.    Santa Conversazione.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee's Children; Return of the

-             Prodigal Son.

-           Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.

- Venice.   Academy: Rich Man's Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of

-             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.

-           Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.

- Vienna.   Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;

-             Salome.

-

-

- _Paris Bordone._

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Vintage Scenes.

- Berlin.   Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four

-             Saints.

- Dresden.  Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.

- Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Woman.

- Genoa.    Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.

- Hampton Court. Madonna and Donors.

- London.   Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.

-           Bridgewater House: Holy Family.

- Milan.    Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented

-             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.

-           S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.

- Munich.   Portrait; Man counting Jewels.

- Paris.    Portraits.

- Rome.     Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.

- Treviso.  Madonna and Saints.

-           Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.

- Venice.   Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.

-           Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.

-           Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.

-           S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.

- Vienna.   Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIII

-

-PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES

-

-

-It has become usual to include in the Venetian School those artists from

-the subject provinces on the mainland, who came down to try their luck

-at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark on their talent. The

-Friulan cities, Udine, Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had

-their own primitive schools and their scores of humble craftsmen. Their

-art wavered for some time in its expression between the German taste,

-which came so close to their gates, and the Italian, which was more

-truly their element.

-

-Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times in thirty years by the

-Turks. They poured in large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed

-the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred and carried off the

-inhabitants. These terrible periods are marked by the cessation of work

-in the provinces, but hope always revived again. The break caused by

-such a visitation can be distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,

-at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da Udine obtained the

-epithet of Pellegrino da San Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an

-early visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to Cima. He was

-appointed to decorate S. Antonino. His early work there is hard and

-coarse, ill-drawn, the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and the colour

-dusky and uniform; but owing to the Turkish raid, he had to take flight,

-and it was many a year before the monks gained sufficient courage and

-saved enough money to continue the embellishment of their church. In the

-meantime, Pellegrino's years had been spent partly in Venice and partly,

-perhaps, in Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing to paint a

-"Bacchus" for the Duke, was that the subject had already been painted

-by Pellegrino da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his work, it

-demonstrated that he had studied the modern Venetians and had come under

-a finer, deeper influence. A St. George in armour suggests Giorgione's

-S. Liberale at Castelfranco; he specially shows an affinity with

-Pordenone, who was his pupil and who was to become a better painter than

-his old master. As Pellegrino goes on he improves consistently, and

-adopts the method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form to a

-scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some extent, succeeds in his

-difficult task of applying to wall painting the system which the

-Venetians used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He was an

-ambitious, daring painter, and some of his church standards were for

-long attributed to Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains his

-chief monument; but for all his travels Pellegrino remains provincial in

-type, is unlucky in his selection, cares little for precision of form,

-and trusts to colour for effect.

-

-The same transition in art was taking place in other provinces. Morto da

-Feltre, Pennacchi, and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a

-Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went far onward, began their

-career under such minor masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes his

-name from his native town of Pordenone, in Friuli, was one of these. All

-the early part of his life was spent in painting frescoes in the small

-towns of the Friulan provinces. At first they bear signs of the tuition

-of Pellegrino, but it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has learned to

-imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite early, however, one of his chief

-failings appears, and one which is all his own, the disparity in size

-between his various figures. The secondary personages, the Magi in a

-Nativity, the Saints standing round an altar, are larger and more

-athletic in build and often more animated in action than the principal

-actors in the scene. What pleased Pordenone's contemporaries was his

-daring perspective and his instinctive feeling for movement. He carried

-out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at length his reputation,

-which had long been ripe in his native province, reached Venice. In

-1519 he was invited to Treviso to fresco the façade of a house for one

-of the Raviguino family. The painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and

-Titian was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the work so much that

-he hinted to Raviguino that he would be wise not to press him for a

-valuation. As a direct consequence of this piece of business, Pordenone

-was employed on the chapel at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At

-this time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa Pesaro were just

-finished, and it is probable that Pordenone paid his first visit to

-Venice, hard by, and saw his great contemporary's work. With his

-characteristic distaste for fresco, Titian undertook the altarpiece and

-painted the beautiful Annunciation which still holds its place, and

-Pordenone covered the dome with a foreshortened figure of the Eternal

-Father, surrounded by angels. Among the remaining frescoes in the

-Chapel, an Adoration of the Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.

-Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered his services to

-Mantua and Cremona, but the Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and

-restrained grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say to what Crowe

-and Cavalcaselle call his "large and colossal fable-painting." He

-pursued his way to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he passed

-through Mantua is evident from the first figures he painted in the

-cathedral. In Cremona every one admired him, and all the artists set to

-work to imitate his energetic foreshortening, vehement movement and huge

-proportions.

-

-Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all his life an itinerant

-painter. In 1521 he was back at Udine and wandered from place to

-place, painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at S. Maria at

-Spilimbergo, the façade of the Church of Valeriano, an imposing series

-at Travesio, and in 1525, the "Story of the True Cross" at Casara. At

-the last place he threw aside much of his exaggeration, and, ruined and

-restored as the frescoes are, they remain among his most dignified

-achievements. He may be studied best of all at Piacenza, in the Church

-of the Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his subjects between sacred

-and pagan, so that we turn from a "Flight into Egypt" or a "Marriage

-of S. Catherine," to the "Rape of Europa" or "Venus and Adonis." At

-Piacenza he shows himself the great painter he undoubtedly is, having

-achieved some mastery over form, while his colour has the true Venetian

-quality and almost equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,

-which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping shadows as only one

-whose spirit was in touch with the art of Giorgione would have

-understood how to use. Very complete records remain of Pordenone's life,

-full details of a quarrel with his brother over property left by his

-father in 1533, and accounts of the painter's negotiations to obtain a

-knighthood, which he fancied would place him more on a par with Titian

-when he went to live in Venice. The coveted honour was secured, but from

-this time he seems to have been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed

-continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a punctual and rapid

-decorator, and on being given the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to

-decorate in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole by March 1538. We

-have seen how Titian annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious

-they were to transfer his commission to Pordenone, and what a narrow

-escape the Venetian had of losing his Broker's patent. Pordenone was

-engaged by the nuns of Murano to paint an Annunciation, after they had

-rejected one by Titian on account of its price, and though it seems

-hardly possible that any one could have compared the two men, yet no

-doubt the pleasure of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually and

-for a moderate sum, often outweighed the honour of the possible painting

-by the great Titian.

-

-No one has left so few easel-paintings as Pordenone; fresco was so much

-better suited to his particular style. The canvas of the "Madonna of

-Mercy" in the Venice Academy, was painted about 1525 for a member of the

-house of Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the family. It is

-very free from his colossal, exaggerated manner; the attendant saints

-are studied from nature, and in his journals the painter mentions that

-the St. Roch is a portrait of himself. The "S. Lorenzo enthroned," in

-the same gallery, shows both his virtues and failings. The saints have

-his enormous proportions. The Baptist is twisting round, to display the

-foreshortening which Pordenone particularly affects. The gestures are

-empty and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and fluid; there is a

-large sense of decoration in the composition, and something simple and

-austere about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often the case with

-Pordenone, the principal actor of the scene is smaller and more

-sincerely imagined than the attendant personages, who are crowded into

-the foreground, where they are used to display the master's skill.

-

-Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he had been summoned by its

-Duke to undertake one of his great schemes of decoration. He was said

-to have been poisoned, but though he had jealous rivals there seems no

-proof of the truth of the assertion, which was one very commonly made in

-those days. He is interesting as being the only distinguished member of

-the Venetian School whose frescoes have come down to us in any number,

-and as being the only one of the later masters with whom it was the

-chosen medium.

-

-His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented in the National Gallery

-by a half-length of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court by a

-large family group and by another of three persons gathered round a

-spinet. His masterpiece is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari, which

-shows the influence of Palma. His flesh tints, striving to be rich, have

-a hot, red look, but his works have been constantly confounded with

-those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.

-

-A long list might be given of minor artists who were industriously

-turning out work on similar lines to one or other of these masters:

-Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as Pordenone; Pomponio

-Amalteo, Pordenone's son-in-law, a spirited painter in fresco;

-Florigerio, who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom an altarpiece

-remains in the Academy; Giovanni Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to

-compile his notices of Friulan art, and many others only known by name.

-

-At the close of the fifteenth century the revulsion against Paduan art

-extended as far as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one of the first

-to acquire the trick of Venetian painting. He probably studied for a

-time under Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have been at

-Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan disturbances of 1506-12, and

-about 1510 Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino's Palmesque

-manner. His works at this time are dark and glowing, full of warm light

-and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under arches, after the manner

-of the Vivarini and Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed in

-noble architecture.

-

-Brescia was an opulent city, second only to Milan among the towns of

-northern Italy, and Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in 1511

-the city fell a prey to the horrors of war, was taken and lost by

-Venice, and in 1512 was sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,

-where he found a home among the Benedictines of S. Giustina. Here he was

-soon well employed on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the high

-altar, and a "Last Supper" for the refectory. It is also surmised that

-he helped in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several of which

-Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt, and the "Death of St. Anthony" is

-pointed out as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine colour, but

-poor drawing.

-

-Romanino returned to Brescia when the Venetians recovered it in 1516,

-but before doing so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects, which

-are among his most effective, in the choir of the Duomo.

-

-He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone, from whom he sometimes

-borrows ideas, but he is quite a convert to the modern style of the day,

-setting his groups in large spaces and using the slashed doublets, the

-long hose, and plumed headgear which Giorgione had found so picturesque.

-Romanino is often very poor and empty, and fails most in selection and

-expression at the moments when he most needs to be great, but he is

-successful in the golden style he adopted after his closer contact

-with the Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are extremely

-brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to be gaudy and careless in

-execution, and even the fine "Nativity" in the National Gallery gives

-the impression that size is more regarded than thought and feeling.

-

-Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the mainland who, coming within

-the charmed circle of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma and

-Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still keeps his own gamut of

-colour, and as he goes on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery

-in his tones. He can only be fully studied in Brescia itself, where

-literally dozens of altarpieces and wall-paintings show him in every

-phase. His first connection was probably with Romanino, but he reminds

-us at one time of Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful

-painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace and sentiment of his

-heads, and as time goes on he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the

-"Feast in the House of Simon" in the organ-loft of the Church of the

-Pietà in Venice, the very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded

-building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape, and the costly raiment

-and plenishing which might have been seen at any Venetian or Brescian

-banquet. In his portraits Moretto sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages

-are always dignified and expressive, with pale, high-bred faces, and

-exceedingly picturesque in dress and general arrangement. He loved to

-paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra Martinengo in the National

-Gallery, and to endow him with an air of romantic interest.

-

-One of those who entered so closely into the spirit of the Venetian

-School that he may almost be included within it, is Savoldo. His

-pictures are rare, and no gallery can show more than one or two

-examples. The Louvre has a portrait by him of Gaston de Foix, long

-thought to be by Giorgione. His native town can only show one

-altarpiece, an "Adoration of Shepherds," low in tone but intense in

-dusky shadow with fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his shadows,

-and often rough and startling in effect, but at his best he produces

-very beautiful, rich, evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino bears

-witness to the estimation in which he was held.

-

-It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has most claim to

-Bartolommeo Montagna, the early master of Cima. Born of Brescian

-parents, he settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most

-distinguished of those Vicentine painters who drank at the Venetian

-fount. He must have gone early to Venice and worked with the Vivarini,

-for in his altarpiece in the Brera he has the vaulted porticoes in

-which Bartolommeo and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His "Madonna enthroned"

-in the gallery at Vicenza has many points of contact with that of Alvise

-at Berlin. Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and the raised

-throne, and he is specially attracted by the groups of music-making

-angels; but Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise, and his lines

-are stronger and more sinewy. He keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling

-for calm and sweetness, but his personages have greater weight and

-gravity. He essays, too, a "Pietà" with saints, at Monte Berico, and

-shows both pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen Bellini's

-rendering, and attempts, if only with partial success, to contrast in

-the same way the indifference of death with the contemplation and

-anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular as Montagna's saints often

-are, they show power and austerity. His colour is brilliant and

-enamel-like; he does not arrive at the Venetian depth, yet his

-altarpieces are very grand, and once more we are struck by the greatness

-of even the secondary painters who drew their inspiration from Padua and

-Venice.

-

-Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza and Giovanni Buonconsiglio

-were imbued with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza, in one of his

-few remaining works, almost reproduces the beautiful "Assumption" by

-Pizzolo, Mantegna's young fellow-student, in the Chapel of the

-Eremitani. He employs Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate

-Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish between

-their works. Buonconsiglio's "Pietà" in the Vicenza gallery, is

-reminiscent of Montagna's at Monte Berico. The types are lean and bony,

-the features are almost as rugged as Dürer's, the flesh earthy and

-greenish. About 1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with Antonello da

-Messina; he begins to reside in Venice, and a change comes over his

-manner. His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired by studying

-Titian; and then, again, his bright tints remind us of Lotto. His name

-was on the register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.

-

-After Pisanello's achievement and his marked effect on early Venetian

-art, Veronese painting fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna's

-influence was strongly felt here, and art revived in Liberale da Verona,

-Falconetto, Casoto, the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters

-delightful in themselves, but having little connection with the

-school of Venice. Francesco Bonsignori, however, shook himself free

-from the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had for a time

-followed Liberale, and grows more like the Vicentines, Montagna and

-Buonconsiglio. He is careful about his drawing, but his figures, like

-those of many of these provincial painters, are short, bony and vulgar,

-very unlike the slender, distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under

-the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori works in the new palace of

-the Gonzagas, and several pictures painted for Mantua are now scattered

-in different collections. At Verona he has left four fine altarpieces.

-He went early to Venice, where he became the pupil of the Vivarini. His

-faces grow soft and oval, and the very careful outlines suggest the

-influence of Bellini.

-

-Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni Bellini; in fact, Vasari

-says that a "Dead Christ" in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed with

-Bellini's name, is from Mocetto's hand. His short, broad figures have

-something of Bartolommeo Vivarini's character.

-

-Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study with Giorgione, and we can

-trace his master's manner of turning half tones into deep shades; but he

-does not really understand the Giorgionesque treatment, in which shade

-was always rich and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable, nor in

-the lights can he produce the clear glow of Giorgione. Another Veronese,

-Cavazzola, has left a masterpiece upon which any painter might be happy

-to rest his reputation; the "Gattemalata with an Esquire" in the Uffizi,

-a picture noble in feeling and in execution, and one which owes a great

-deal to Venetian portrait-painters.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Pordenone._

-

- Casara.    Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.

- Colatto.   S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).

- Cremona.   Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;

-              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned

-              with Saints and Donor, 1522.

- Murano.    S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).

- Piacenza.  Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.

- Pordenone. Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints,

-              1535.

-            Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.

- Spilimbergo.  Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.

- Sensigana. Madonna and Saints.

- Torre.     Madonna and Saints.

- Treviso.   Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.

- Venice.    Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family;

-              Saints.

-            S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.

-            S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.

-

-

- _Pellegrino._

-

- San Daniele. Frescoes in S. Antonio.

- Cividale.    S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.

- Venice.      Academy: Annunciation.

-

-

- _Romanino._

-

- Bergamo. S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.

- Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Pietà.

- Brescia. Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity;

-            Coronation.

-          Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.

-          S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.

- Cremona. Duomo: Frescoes.

- London.  Polyptych; Portrait.

- Padua.   Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.

- Sato, Lago di Garda. Duomo: Saints and Donor.

- Trent.   Castello: Frescoes.

- Verona.  St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.

-

-

- _Moretto._

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.

- Brescia.  Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna

-             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory

-             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.

-           S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.

-           S. Francesco: Altarpiece.

-           S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.

-           S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;

-             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.

-           S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.

-           SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy:

-             Nativity.

-           Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.

- London.   Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;

-             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.

- Milan.    Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.

-           Castello: Triptych; Saints.

- Rome.     Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.

- Venice.   S. Maria della Pietà: Christ in the House of Levi.

- Verona.   S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.

-

-

- _Bartolommeo Montagna._

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.

- Berlin.  Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.

- Milan.   Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.

- Padua.   Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony's Tomb.

- Pavia.   Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.

- Venice.  Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.

- Verona.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Pietà; Frescoes, 1491-93.

- Vicenza. Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints;

-            Three Madonnas.

-          Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.

-          S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.

-          Monte Berico: Pietà, 1500; Fresco.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIV

-

-PAOLO VERONESE

-

-

-Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to be placed on the very

-highest pinnacle of the Venetian School, must be classed among

-those few great painters who rose far above the level of most of his

-contemporaries and who brought in a special note and flavour of his own.

-His art is an independent art, and he borrows little from predecessors

-or contemporaries. His free and joyous temperament gave relief at a

-moment when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened to become too

-sombre, and when Sebastian del Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and

-above all Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes. Veronese

-discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries and crimsons and oranges,

-and finds his range among cream and rose and grey-greens. Titian

-concentrated his colours and intensified his lights, Tintoretto

-sacrifices colour to vivid play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids

-the dark; the generous light plays all through his scenes. He has no

-wish to secure strong effects but delights in soft, faded tints; old

-rose and _turquoise morte_. In his colour and his subjects he is a

-personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving Republic, in which, as

-M. Yriarte says, a man produced his works as a tree produces its fruit.

-We get very near him in those vast palaces and churches and villas,

-where his heroic figures expand in the azure air, against the white

-clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the Renaissance about whom

-we know least. Here and there, in contemporary biography, we come across

-a mention of him and learn that he was sociable and lively, quick at

-taking offence, fond of his family and anxious to do his best by them.

-He was, too, very generous with his work--a great contrast in this

-respect to Titian--and contracts with convents and confraternities show

-that he often only stipulated for payment for bare time. Yet he was fond

-of personal luxury, loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says

-Ridolfi, "always wore velvet breeches."

-

-His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson, were Badile and

-Brusasorci, masters of Verona, but before he was twenty, he was away

-working on his own account. His first patron was Cardinal Gonzaga, who

-brought several painters from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no longer

-what it had been in the days of Isabela d'Este, and Paolo Caliari soon

-returned to his own town. Before he was twenty-three he had decorated

-Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration with Zelotti, a Veronese,

-portraying feasting gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural

-designs in monochrome. The two painters went on to other villas, mixing

-mortal and mythical figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.

-

-Zelotti having received a commission at Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek

-his fortune in Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano, on

-the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari wrote to him before arriving in

-Venice in 1555. Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable part

-in his destiny, he obtained a commission for a "Coronation of the Virgin

-and four other Saints." He first painted the sacristy, but his success

-was instantaneous, and many orders followed. The ceiling of the church

-was devoted to the history of Esther. The whole of these paintings

-are marvellously well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt

-framework, make a _coup d'oeil_ of surprising beauty. They had an

-immense effect. Every one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures

-of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp of her ceremonies, the

-rich Eastern stuffs and the glorious architecture of her palaces. It

-was an auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese's temper; the

-so-called Republic, now, more than ever, an oligarchy, was at the

-height of its fortunes, redecorating was going forward everywhere, the

-merchant-nobility was rich and spending magnificently, the Eastern trade

-was flourishing, Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari came

-to work for, preferred the ceremonial to the imaginative treatment of

-sacred themes, and he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible for

-illustration. He paints the history of Esther, with its royal audiences,

-banquets, and marriage-feasts. His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are

-composed, courtly personages, who maintain a dignified calm under

-misfortune, and have very little violent feeling to show.

-

-At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma Vecchio was just dead,

-Tintoretto was absorbed by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was

-with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati, Bonifazio, Schiavone,

-and Zelotti, all rendering homage to Titian who was eighty years old,

-but still in full vigour. Titian's opinions in matters of art were

-dictates, his judgment was a law. He immediately recognised Veronese's

-genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him, and together with

-Sansovino, who at this time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,

-he received the young painter with an approval which ensured him a good

-start. Five years after Veronese's arrival he was retained to decorate

-the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is a type of those patrician

-country-houses to which the Venetians were becoming more attached every

-year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait

-by Veronese is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed the

-ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten. Palladio, Alessandro

-Vittoria, and Veronese were associated to build him a dwelling worthy of

-a Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total contrast to the

-gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is sober and simple, and well adapted to

-leisure and retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations are

-devoid of gilding and colour, and the rooms adorned by Veronese's brush

-show him in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did not take place till

-four years later, but he has been influenced here by the feeling for the

-antique, and he thinks much of line and style. He leaves on one side the

-gorgeous brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually delights, and

-his nymphs are only clothed in their own beauty. And here Veronese shows

-his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons, the Barbaro family, are

-his friends, men and women of the world, who put no restraint on his

-fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese, with the bridle on

-his neck, so to speak, uses his opportunities fully, yet never exceeds

-the limits of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like Rubens, but

-proud, grave and sweet, seductive, but never suggestive or vulgar. After

-having placed single figures wherever he can find a nook, he assembles

-all the gods of Olympia at a supper in the cupola. Immortality is a

-beautiful young woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at her, caduceus

-in hand; Diana caresses her great hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his

-head on his hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid are scattered

-in the Empyrean, and Jupiter presides over the party. Below, a balcony

-rail runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an old lady, dressed in

-the latest fashion, points out the company to a beautiful young one and

-to a young man in a doublet who holds a hound in a leash. They are

-evidently family portraits, taken from those who looked on at the

-artist, and on the other side he has introduced members of his own

-family who were helping him. These decorations have a gaiety, an

-absence of pedantry, a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the

-Renaissance which tell of a happy moment when art was at its height and

-in touch with its environment. From about 1563 we may begin to date his

-great supper pictures. The Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most

-famous works, was painted for the refectory in Sammichele, the old part

-of S. Giorgio Maggiore. The treaty for it is still in existence, dated

-June 1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is to furnish canvas

-and colours, the painter's board, and a cask of wine. The further

-payment of 972 ducats illustrates the prices received by the greatest

-artists at the height of the Renaissance: £280 for work which occupied

-quite eight months.

-

-Veronese must have delighted in painting this work. Needless to say, it

-is not in the least religious. He has united in it all the most varied

-personages who struck his imagination. So we see a Spanish grandee,

-Francis I., Suleiman the Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and

-Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped round a table, are

-Veronese himself, playing the viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo

-da Ponte seated by them, and Paolo's brother, the architect, with his

-hand on his hip, tossing off a full glass; and in the governor of the

-feast, opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise Aretino. Under

-the marble columns of a Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the

-illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us an odd and informing

-document. We can but accept the scene and admire the originality of its

-design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness and fancy, the way

-in which the varied incidents are brought into harmony, and the grace of

-the colonnade, peopled with spectators, standing out against the depth

-of distant sky.

-

-The celebrated suppers, of which this is the first example, are

-dispersed in different galleries and some have disappeared, but from

-this time Veronese loved to paint these great displays, repeating some

-of them, but always introducing variety.

-

- [Illustration: _Paolo Veronese._

-                 MARRIAGE IN CANA.

-                _Louvre._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani, procurator of St. Mark's, who

-was appointed ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time saw the

-works of Raphael and Michelangelo and the treasures of antiquity. For

-a time, the sight of the antique had some effect upon his work; in his

-famous ceiling in the Louvre, "Jupiter destroying the Vices," the

-influence of Michelangelo is apparent and its large gestures are

-inspired by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese brought home casts

-from Rome, and statues of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have inspired

-the Jupiter. He did not go on long in this path; he does not really care

-for the nude--it is too simple for him. He prefers that his saints and

-divinities should appear in the gorgeous costumes of the day, and that

-his Venus and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich brocades. But

-few documents are left concerning his work for the Ducal Palace up to

-1576; much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but the Signoria then

-gave him a number of fresh commissions. The most important was the

-immense oval of the "Triumph of Venice," or, as it is sometimes called,

-the "Thanksgiving for Lepanto"; the Republic crowned by victory and

-surrounded by allegorical figures, Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno

-and the rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom: the fair Queen

-leans back, surrounded by laughing patricians, who look up from their

-balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on the Grand Canal. The

-horses of the Free Companions, the soldiers who go afar to carry out the

-will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of personages, each of whom

-represents a town or colony of her domain. Like all Veronese's

-creations, this will always be pre-eminently a picture of the sixteenth

-century, dated by a thousand details of costume, architecture, and

-armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the Venier, of Titian,

-Aretino, and Veronese himself, makes a deep impression upon us, and

-the artist reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.

-

-Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can show a canvas of Veronese or

-the assistants by whom he was now surrounded. From time to time he

-resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano, and his incessant production

-betrays no trace of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the saint is a

-triumph of the beauty of the silhouette against a radiant sky. He goes

-back to Verona and paints the "Martyrdom of St. George." He pours light

-into it. The saints open a shining path, down which a flower-crowned

-Love flutters with the diadem and palm of victory. The whole air and

-expression of St. George is full of strength and that look of goodness

-and serenity which is the painter's nearest approach to religious

-feeling. Veronese was created a Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was

-asking for his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature and fond of

-living with his family. Philip II. longed to get him to cover his great

-walls in the Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations

-and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.

-

-It was on account of the "Feast in the House of Levi" that in 1573 he

-was hauled before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document

-concerning this was only discovered a few years ago. The Signoria had

-never allowed any tribunal to chastise works of literature; on the

-contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor herself in geniuses of the

-mind, was the refuge of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a

-sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed her to set aside or

-suspend the decisions of the Holy Office, from which she could not quite

-emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was denounced by some "aggrieved

-person," to whom his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an outrage

-on religion. The members of the tribunal demanded "who the boy was with

-the bleeding nose?" and "why were halberdiers admitted?" Veronese

-replied that they were the sort of servants a rich and magnificent host

-would have about him. He was then asked why he had introduced the

-buffoon with a parrot on his hand. He replied that he really thought

-only Christ and His Apostles were present, but that when he had a little

-space over, he adorned it with imaginary figures. This defence of the

-vast and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and he was asked if he

-really thought that at the Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to

-bring in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other absurdities. Did

-he not know that in Germany and other places infested with heresy, they

-were in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church into ridicule,

-with intent to teach false doctrine to the ignorant? Paolo for his

-defence cited the Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted every

-figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor replied crushingly, that these

-were disembodied spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.

-Could Veronese uphold his picture as decent? The painter was probably

-not very much alarmed. He was a person of great importance in Venice,

-and the proceedings of the Inquisition were always jealously watched

-by members of the Senate, who would not have permitted any unfair

-interference with the liberties of those under the protection of the

-State. The real offence was the introduction of the German soldiers, who

-were peculiarly obnoxious to the Venetians; but Veronese did not care

-what the subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for a great

-_spectacle_. Brought to bay, he gave the true answer: "My Lords, I have

-not considered all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything

-disorderly. I painted the picture as it seemed best to me and as my

-intellect could conceive of it." It meant that Veronese painted in the

-way that he considered most artistic, without even remembering questions

-of religion, and in this he summed up his whole æsthetic creed. He was

-set at liberty on condition that he took out one or two of the most

-offending figures. The "Feast in the House of Levi" (as he named it

-after the trial) is the finest of all his great scenic effects. The air

-circulates freely through the white architecture, we breathe more deeply

-as we look out into the wide blue sky, and such is the sensation of

-expansion, that it is hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a flat

-wall. Titian's backgrounds are a blue horizon, a burning twilight.

-Veronese builds marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns blanched

-in the liquid light. His personages show little violent action. He

-places them in noble poses in which they can best show off their

-magnificent clothes, and he endows his patricians, his goddesses, his

-sacred persons, with a uniform air of majestic indolence.

-

-After his "trial," Veronese proceeded more triumphantly than ever. Every

-prince wished to have something from his brush; the Emperor Rudolph, at

-Prague, showed with pride the canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus.

-The Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of Ferrara, added

-Veronese's works to the treasures of the house of Este. The last ten

-years of his life were given up to visiting churches on the mainland and

-on the little islands round Venice, all covetous to possess something by

-the brilliant Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello, Murano,

-Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent and monastery loaded him with

-commissions, and it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in

-spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his most ardent patrons, those

-who delighted most in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were to be

-found in the religious houses. Then, when he went to rest in the summer

-heats in some villa on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here and

-there. It was on such an occasion, for the Pisani, that he painted the

-"Family of Darius," which was sold to England by a member of the house

-in 1857. The royal captives, who are throwing themselves at the feet of

-the conqueror, are, with Paolo's usual frank naïveté and disregard of

-anachronisms, dressed in full Venetian costume--all the chief personages

-are portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom and rapidity of

-execution, the completeness and finish, the charm of colour, the

-beauty of the figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander and

-Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy, make this one of the finest

-of all his works. The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it, "It is absurd

-and dazzling."

-

-In the "Rape of Europa," he recurred again to one of those legends of

-fabled beings who have outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and

-living. Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino and Bembo, well

-versed in mythology, and with his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse

-for painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets, and a delightful

-landscape. The wild flowers spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro

-against a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese turquoise. It is

-the work of a man who is a true poet of colour and for whom colour

-represents all the emotions of joy and pleasure.

-

-Veronese died comparatively young, of chill and fever, and all his

-family survived him. He lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary

-memoirs we know that he lived and dressed splendidly. He kept immense

-stores of gorgeous stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew

-everything from life,--the negroes covered with jewels, the bright-eyed

-pages, the models who, robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became

-queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls which bedecked them were from

-his own caskets. Though we know little of his private life, his work is

-so alive that he seems personified in it. He is saved from what might

-have been a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing

-colour in which he revels; his silks and satins are less modelled by

-shadows than tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and striped

-and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously combined that the eye rests,

-wherever it falls, on something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is

-where his genius lies, "the decoration does not add to the interest of

-the drama; it replaces it"; in short, it _is_ the drama itself, for his

-types show little selection, and his ideal of female beauty is not a

-very sympathetic one. His personages are cold and devoid of expression,

-their gestures are rather meaningless, but by means of light and air and

-exquisite colour he gives the poetical touch which all great art

-demands.

-

-On account of their size few examples of Veronese's work are to be found

-in private collections, but the galleries of the different European

-capitals are rich in them. Numbers of paintings, too, which are by his

-assistants are dignified by his name, and directly after his death

-spurious works were freely manufactured and sold as genuine.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Dresden.  Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi;

-             Marriage of Cana.

- Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.

-           Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).

- London.   Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before

-             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.

- Maser.    Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.

- Padua.    S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.

- Paris.    Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.

- Venice.   Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna

-             with Saints.

-           Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice

-             enthroned.

-           S. Barnabà: Holy Family.

-           S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.

-           S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in

-             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;

-             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.

- Verona.   Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.

-           S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.

- Vicenza.  Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.

- Vienna.   Christ at the House of Jairus.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXV

-

-TINTORETTO

-

-

-It does not seem likely that many new discoveries will be made about

-Tintoretto's life. It was an open and above-board one, and there is

-practically no time during its span that we are not able to account for,

-and to say where he was living and how he was occupied. The son of a

-dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds of Venice, the "little

-dyer," _il tentoretto_, appears as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn

-his chosen art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately after,

-summarily ejected from that master's workshop, on account, it seems

-probable, of the independence and innovation of his style, which was

-of the very kind most likely to shock and puzzle Titian's courtly,

-settled genius. After this he painted when and where he could, pursuing

-his artistic studies with the headlong ardour which through life

-characterised his attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he may have

-worked in Bonifazio's studio. He formed a close friendship with Andrea

-Schiavone,[4] he imported casts of Michelangelo's statues, he studied

-the works of Titian and Palma. Over his door was written "the colour of

-Titian and the form of Michelangelo." All his energies were for long

-devoted to the effort to master that form. Colour came to him naturally,

-but good drawing meant more to him than it had ever done to any

-Venetian. Long afterwards, to repeated inquiries as to how excellence

-could be best ensured, he would give no other advice than the

-reiterated, "study drawing." He practised till the human form in every

-attitude held no difficulties for him. He suspended little models by

-strings, and drew every limb and torso he could get hold of over and

-over again. He was found in every place where painting was wanted,

-getting the builders to let him experiment upon the house-fronts. To

-master light and shade he constructed little cardboard houses, in which,

-by means of sliding shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be

-arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of this part of his

-education, as in the end the love of shine and shadow was the most

-victorious of all his inspirations.

-

- [4] Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia,

- landing in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from

- Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably an

- assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the "Venus and Adonis" of the

- National Gallery, which owes much to his hand. He fails conspicuously in

- form, his shadows are black, and his figures often vulgar, but he has a

- fine sense of colour, and a free, crisp touch. He was one of the young

- masters who flooded Venice with light, sketchy wares.

-

-The chief events in Tintoretto's life are art-events. For some years he

-frescoed the outside of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his

-expenses. He decorated household furniture and everything he could

-lay hands on. Then came a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,

-organ-doors there, for unimportant churches. No one in Venice talked

-of any one save Palma, Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was

-difficult enough for an outsider, who was not one of their clique, to

-get employment. But by the time Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was

-becoming recognised; he had painted the two altarpieces for SS. Ermagora

-and Fortunato, and the offer he made to decorate the vast church of his

-parish brought him conspicuously into notice. In the first ardour of

-youth he completed the "Last Judgment" for the choir. From time to time,

-during fourteen years, he redeemed his early promises and executed the

-"Golden Calf" and the "Presentation of the Virgin." Within two years of

-his offer to the Prior, came his first great opportunity of achieving

-distinction. This was a commission from the Confraternity of St. Mark,

-and with the "Miracle of the Slave" he sprang at once to the highest

-place.

-

-The picture was universally admired, and was followed by three more

-dealing with the patron saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful

-young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi, as it is indifferently

-given, the daughter of a noble family of the mainland. Tradition has

-always pointed to the girl in blue in the "Golden Calf" as her portrait,

-while it is easy to recognise Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded

-giant, who helps to carry the idol. His house at this time was somewhere

-in the Parrocchia dell' Orto, and there, during the next fourteen years,

-eight children were born, of whom the two eldest, Domenico and Marietta,

-attained distinction in their father's profession. Another great

-event, which profoundly influenced his life, was the beginning of his

-connection in 1560 with the Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity

-which was devoted to combating the ravages of the plague and to

-succouring the families of its victims. His work for this lasted to the

-end of his life and is his most distinguished memorial.

-

-The palace to which the Robusti family moved in 1574, and which was

-inhabited by his descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified in

-the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into two parts, but it is evident

-that it was a dwelling of some importance, a good specimen of Venetian

-Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable decoration; the walls are

-sheathed in marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of Gothic

-windows in delicately carved frames and little balconies of fretted

-marble. Zanetti, in 1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze

-frieze cast from the master's design, which ran round the Grand Sala.

-The family must have occupied the _piano nobile_ and let off the floors

-they did not require.

-

-Descriptions of the life led by the painter and his family are given

-by Vasari, who knew him personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was

-published in 1646, and who must have known his children, several of whom

-were still alive and proud of their father's fame. We hear of pleasant

-evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic love of music,

-Tintoretto himself and his daughter being highly gifted. Among the

-_habitués_ were Zarlino, for twenty-five years chapel-master of St.

-Mark's, one of the fathers of modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who,

-in spite of his love for magnificent entertainments, was often to be

-found in Tintoretto's pleasant home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always

-welcome, and as time went on the house became the haunt of all the

-cultured gentlemen and _litterati_ of Venice.

-

-It is not difficult from the materials available to form a sufficiently

-lively idea of this Venetian citizen of the sixteenth century, as father

-and husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected a number of

-anecdotes, which space forbids me to use, but which are all very

-characteristic. We gather that he was a man of strong character,

-generous, sincere and simple, decided in his ways, caring little for

-the great world, but open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,

-observant of men and manners, and sometimes rather brusque in dealing

-with bores and offensive persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of

-good-natured banter of his wife's little weaknesses. A man, too, of

-upright conduct and free, as far as it can be ascertained, from any of

-those laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of celebrated men and

-so easily condoned by his age. Art was Tintoretto's main preoccupation;

-but he seems to have been a man of strong religious bias, making a close

-study of the Bible, and turning naturally in his last days to those

-truths with which his art had made him familiar, truths which he had

-represented with that touch of mystic feeling which was the deepest part

-of his nature.

-

-His relations with the State commenced in 1574, when his offer to

-present a superb painting of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and

-accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto was rewarded by a Broker's

-patent, and between this and the "Paradiso," the work of his old age, he

-executed a number of pictures for the Signoria. The only record of any

-travels are confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where he went in

-the 'sixties and again in 1579 to see to the hanging of paintings done

-for the Gonzaga, and of which the documents have been kept, though the

-pictures have vanished. Tintoretto's last years were saddened by the

-death of his beloved daughter, who had always been his constant

-companion. He died in 1579 after a fortnight's illness and left a will,

-which, together with that of his son, throws a good deal of light upon

-the family history.

-

-It is not easy to select from the vast quantity of work left by

-Tintoretto. He is one of those painters whose whole life was passed in

-his native city and who can only be adequately studied in that city.

-Perhaps the first place in which to seek him, is the great church which

-was the monument of his early prime. The "Last Judgment" was probably

-inspired by that of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and sketches

-must have reached the younger master, over whom the Florentine had

-exercised so strong a fascination. Tintoretto's version impresses one as

-that of a mind boiling with thoughts and visions which he pours out upon

-the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe, a scene of rushing

-destruction, of forms swept into oblivion, of others struggling to the

-light, of many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and light behind

-the rushing water,--water which makes us almost giddy as we watch it.

-The "Golden Calf" is a maturer production and includes some of the

-loveliest women Tintoretto ever painted. We see too plainly the

-planning, the device of concentrating interest on the idol by turning

-figures and pointing fingers, but nothing can be imagined more supple

-and queenly than the woman in blue, and the way the light falls on her

-head and perfectly foreshortened arm shows to what excellence Tintoretto

-had attained. The "Presentation" is a riper work. The drawing of the

-flight of steps and of the groups upon them could not be bettered. The

-little figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new dispensation, as she

-advances to meet the representative of the old, thrills with mystic

-feeling, yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy simplicity

-of a child. The "St. Agnes," with its contrast of light and shade, of

-strength made perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the

-commission of Cardinal Contarini.

-

-It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto, especially in the

-"Presentation," has contrived, while using the traditional episodes, to

-infuse so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast of age and youth,

-the joy of the Gentiles, the starlike figure of the child surrounded by

-shadows, convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with the nature of the

-scene.

-

-Next let us group together the miracles in the history of St. Mark. One

-of the qualities which strikes us most in the "Miracle of the Slave" is

-its strong local colour. It tells of Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike

-Tintoretto's later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;

-carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet, and turquoise-blue. The

-crimson velvet of the judge's dress is finely relieved against a

-blue-green sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive fire and dash

-which culminates at once and without effort in perfect action, "as a

-bird flies, or a horse gallops." It startled the quiet members of the

-Guild, and at the first moment they hesitated to accept it. The "Rescue

-of the Saracen" and the "Transportation of the Body" are more in the

-golden-brown manner to which he was moving, but it is in the "Finding

-of the Body" (Brera) that he rises to the highest emotional pitch. The

-colossal form of the saint, expanding with life and power as he towers

-in the spirit above his own lifeless clay, draws all eyes to him and

-seems to fill the barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every part of

-the vault is flooded by his life-giving energy, and here Tintoretto

-deals with light and shade with full mastery.

-

-As we follow Tintoretto's career, it is borne in upon us how little

-positive colour it takes to make a great colourist. The whole Venetian

-School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand as bright colour.

-Vivid tints are much more characteristic of the Flemish and the

-Florentine, or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong, crude

-colours are to be seen on all sides in the Salon or the Royal Academy,

-but they are absent from the scheme of sombre splendour which has

-given the Venetians their title to fame. This is especially true of

-Tintoretto, and it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut becomes

-more golden-brown and mellow; the greys and browns and ivories combine

-in a lustrous symphony more impressive than gay tints, flooded with

-enveloping shadow and illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another

-noticeable feature is the way in which he puts on his oil-colour, so

-that it bears the direct impression of the painter's hand. The

-Florentines had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark

-smoothed away; but as the later Venetians covered large spaces with

-oil-colour, they no longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the

-brush, and light, distance, movement, were all conveyed by the turns and

-twists and swirls with which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at

-the power of touch in such a picture as the "Death of Abel"; we see this

-spontaneity of execution actually forming part of the emotion with which

-the picture is charged. The concentrated hate of the one figure, the

-desperate appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape, gain

-their emotion as much from the impetuous brush-work as from the more

-studied design. We come closest to the painter's mind in the Scuola

-di San Rocco. He had already been employed in the church, and there

-remains, darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative of the

-career of S. Roch, patron saint of sufferers from the plague. When the

-great Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560, the confraternity

-asked a conclave of painters, among whom were Veronese and Andrea

-Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition. When they assembled to

-display their designs, Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling

-of the refectory and discovered a finished picture, the "S. Roch in

-Glory," which still holds its place there. Neither the other artists nor

-the brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional proceeding,

-but he "hoped they would not be offended; it was the only way he knew."

-Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of the rest, but partly

-also from the excellence of the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto,

-and after two years' work he was received into the order, and was

-assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (£50) a year for life, being

-bound every year to furnish three pictures.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVI

-

-TINTORETTO (_continued_)

-

-The first portion of the vast building that was finished was the

-Refectory, but in examining the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to

-leave it to its proper place, which is the climax. Before beginning,

-Tintoretto must have had the whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt

-that he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and recalled its plan and

-significance; the old dispensation typifying the new, the Old Testament

-history vivified by the acts of Christ. The main feature of the harmony

-which it is only reasonable to suppose governs the whole building, is

-its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of mercy. The principal

-paintings of the Upper Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine

-mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes bear upon the central

-idea. On the roof are the three most important miracles of mercy

-performed on behalf of the Chosen People. The paintings on roof and

-walls are linked together. The "Fall of Man" at one end of the Hall,

-the disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient eating of the

-Passover at the other, and is interdependent with the Manna in the

-Wilderness, the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves. The Miracles

-of satisfied thirst are represented by "Moses striking the Rock," Samson

-drinking from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah. The Baptism and

-other signs of the Advent of Christ and the Divine preparation, balance

-events in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory which opens from the

-Great Hall, we come to the "Crucifixion," the crowning act of mercy,

-surrounded by the events which immediately succeeded it, and typified

-immediately above in the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen

-Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment and succour, two of

-miraculous restoration to health, and two of deliverance from danger.

-The whole scheme has been worked out in detail in my book on

-"Tintoretto."

-

-In the working out of his great scheme, Tintoretto is impatient of

-hackneyed and traditional forms; he must have a reading of his own, and

-one which appeals to his imagination. We see that passion for movement

-which distinguishes his early work. "Moses striking the Rock" is a

-figure instinct with purpose and energy. The water bounds forth, living,

-life-giving, the people strain wildly to reach it. His figures are

-sometimes found fault with, as extravagant in gesture, but the attitudes

-were intended to be seen and to arrest attention from far below, and we

-must not forget that the painter's models were drawn from a Southern

-race, to whom emphasis of action is natural. Tintoretto, it may be

-conceded, is on certain occasions, generally when dealing with accessory

-figures, inclined to excess of gesture; it is the defect of his

-temperament, but when he has a subject that carries him away he is

-sincere and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared to him; his

-colour, however effective, is calculated, whereas Tintoretto's seems to

-permeate every object and to soak the whole composition. To quote a

-recent critic: "He chose to begin, if possible, with a subject charged

-with emotion. He then proceeded to treat it according to its nature,

-that is to say, he toned down and obscured the outlines of form and

-mapped out the subject instead in pale or sombre masses of light and

-shade. Under the control of this powerful scheme of chiaroscuro, the

-colouring of the composition was placed, but its own character, its

-degree of richness and sobriety, was determined by the kind of emotion

-belonging to the subject. To use colour in this way, not only with

-emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to use it to perform one

-of the greatest functions of art."[5]

-

- [5] "Venice and the Renaissance," _Edinburgh Review_, 1909.

-

-So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the aspect of the groups, the

-pathos of the faces or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and

-gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the atmosphere into which we

-are absorbed, the sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding light

-and shadow, that makes us feel how different the rendering is from any

-other. In the "Christ before Pilate" the head and figure of Christ are

-not particularly impressive in themselves, but the brilliant light

-falling on the white robes and coursing down the steps supplies dignity

-and poetry; the slender white figure stands out like a shaft of light

-against the lurid and troubled background. Again, in the "Way to

-Golgotha" the falling evening gleam, the wild sky, the deep shadow of

-the ravine, throw into relief the quiet form, detached in look and

-feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far above the brutal throng.

-Nowhere does that spiritual emotion find deeper expression than in the

-"Visitation." The passion of thanksgiving, the poignancy of mother-love,

-throb through the two women, who have been travelling towards one

-another, with a great secret between them, and who at length reach the

-haven of each other's love and knowledge. Here, too, the dying light,

-the waving tree, the obliteration of form, and the feeling of mystery

-make a deep appeal to the sensuous apprehension. We find it again and

-again; the great trees sway and whisper in the gathering darkness as the

-Virgin rides through the falling evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and

-in that most moving of all Tintoretto's creations, the "S. Mary of

-Egypt," the emotional mood of Nature's self is brought home to us. The

-trees that dominate the landscape are painted with a few "strokes like

-sabre cuts"; the landscape, given with apparent carelessness, yet

-conveying an indescribable sense of space and solemnity, unfolds itself

-under the dying day; and in solitary meditation, thrilling with ecstasy,

-sits that little figure, whose heart has travelled far away to commune

-with the Spirit, "whose dwelling is the light of setting suns."

-

-It is not possible in a short space to touch, even in passing, on all

-the many scenes in these halls: the "Annunciation," with its marvellous

-flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of pigeons in the Piazza,

-and how often the old painter must have watched them; the "Temptation,"

-contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh that _must_ be fed, with the

-calm of absolute purity; the "Massacre of the Innocents," for which the

-horrors of sacked towns could have supplied many a parallel,--we have

-not time to dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist has

-overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the dark halls, by choosing

-strong and varied effects of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we

-can picture what the halls must have been like when they first glowed

-from his hand, adorned with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung with

-opulent draperies, with the rose-red and purple of bishops' and

-cardinals' robes reflected in the gleaming pavement.

-

- [Illustration: _Tintoretto._     _Scuola di San Rocco._

-                 S. MARY OF EGYPT.

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto, by many renderings, have

-made the "Last Supper" peculiarly their own in the domain of art. It

-shows how strongly the mystic strain entered into the man's character,

-that often as Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its interest

-for him, and he never failed to find a fresh point of view. In that

-in S. Polo, Christ offers the sacred food with a gesture of vehement

-generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to all comers to the

-Mass, to afford them a welcome as they pass to the High Altar, it tells

-of the Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto himself, painted

-in the character of S. Paul, stands at one side, absorbed in meditation.

-We need not insist again on the emotional value of the deep colours, the

-rich creams and crimsons and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering,

-in S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point in symbolical

-treatment. Some people are only able to see a theatrical, artificial

-spirit in this picture, but at least, when we consider what deep

-meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on his subjects, we may believe that

-he himself was sincere and that he let himself go over what commended

-itself as an entirely new rendering. "The Light shined in the Darkness,

-and the Darkness comprehended it not." The supernatural is entering on

-every side, but the feast goes on; the serving men and maids busy

-themselves with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring, but not

-agitated; none see that throng of heavenly visitants, pouring in through

-the blue moonlight, called to their Master's side by the supreme

-significance of His words. The painter has taken full advantage of the

-opportunity of combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring out

-smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight and the unearthly radiance,

-in divers, yet mingling streams which fight against the surrounding

-gloom. In the scene in the Scuola di S. Rocco the betrayal is the

-dominating incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the Saviour

-is alone with the faithful disciples.

-

- [Illustration: _Tintoretto._

-                 BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

-                _Ducal Palace, Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Though several of the large compositions ascribed to Tintoretto in

-the Ducal Palace are only partly by him, or entirely by followers and

-imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his genius. There is much

-that is fine about the great state pieces. In the "Marriage of St.

-Catherine," the saint, in silken gown and long transparent veil, is an

-exquisite figure. Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden light

-and air, and yet we feel that these huge official subjects, with the

-prosaic old Doges introduced in incongruous company, neither stimulated

-his imagination nor satisfied his taste. It is on the smaller canvases

-that he finds inspiration. He never painted anything more lovely, more

-perfect in design, or more gay and tender in idea, than the cycle in

-the Ante-Collegio. The glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows upon

-ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and a refined, unselfconscious

-joy such as is felt in hardly any other work, except the painter's own

-"Milky Way" in the National Gallery. In all these four pictures the

-feeling for design, a branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,

-is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne all the principal lines,

-the eyes and gestures, converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol

-of union between the goddess and her lover, between the queenly city and

-the Adriatic sea. Or take "Pallas driving away Mars": see how the mass

-into which the figures are gathered on the left adds strength to the

-thrust of the goddess's arm, and what steadiness is given by that short

-straight lance of hers, coming in among all the yielding curves. The

-whole four are linked together in meaning: the call to Venice to reign

-over the seas, her triumphant peace, with Wisdom guiding her council,

-and her warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction with these

-pictures are two small ones in the chapel, hardly less beautiful--St.

-George with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome. It is difficult to

-say whether the exultant St. George, the dignified young bishop, or the

-two older saints are the more sympathetic creations, or the more

-admirable, both in drawing and colour. The sense of space in both

-settings is an added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy

-boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the composition.

-

-There are many other striking examples, ranging all through Tintoretto's

-life, of his untiring imagination. In the Salute is that "Marriage of

-Cana," in which all the actors seem to swim in golden light. The sharp

-silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine with which the hall

-is flooded, and all the architectural lines lead our eyes towards the

-central figure, placed at a distance. On that long canvas in the

-Academy, kneel the three treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending

-in homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit enthroned upon a broad

-piazza, through the marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape

-shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet and ermine kneel before the

-Child, or hold counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of S.

-Giustina. The "Crucifixion" (in S. Cassiano) is another triumph of the

-painter's imaginative conception. The bold lines of the crosses, the

-ladder, and the figures detach against a glorious sky, and the presence

-of the moving, murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of the line of

-sight, the spectator is made to form a part, is conveyed by the swaying

-and crossing of the lances borne by the armed men who keep the ground.

-There is a series, too, which deals with the Magdalen. She mourns her

-dead in that solemn, restrained "Entombment," where the enfolding

-shadows frame the cross against the sad dawn, which adorns the mortuary

-chapel of S. Giorgio Maggiore; and the Pietà in the Brera, the long

-lines of which add to the impression of tender repose, has its peace

-broken by the passionate cry of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto's

-ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same scene in a dozen different

-ways, and, in fact, the book of sketches lately acquired by the British

-Museum shows as many as thirty trials dashed off for one subject, and

-after all he uses one composed for something quite different. It is this

-habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh from his brain, that has led

-to the common but superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely a

-great improvisatore, whose successes came more or less by good luck. He

-could, indeed, paint pictures at a pace at which many great masters

-could only sketch, but he had already designed and considered and

-rejected, doing with oil, ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries

-did mentally. Such achievements as the Ante-Collegio cycle, the "House

-of Martha and Mary," the "Marriage of Cana," the "Temptation of S.

-Anthony," to name only a few, show a finish and perfection and a balance

-of design which preclude the idea of their being lightly painted

-pictures. When he was actually engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with

-impetuous ardour, but we may feel assured he left nothing to chance,

-though he had his own way of making sure of the result.

-

-It is strange to hear people, as one does now and then, talking of the

-"Paradiso" as "a splendid failure." It may be granted that the subject

-is an impossible one for human art to realise, yet when all allowance

-has been made for a lamentable amount of drying and blackening, it is

-difficult to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his admiration of that

-thronging multitude, ordered and disciplined by the tides of light and

-shadow, which roll in and out of the masses, resolving them into groups

-and single figures of almost matchless beauty and melting away into a

-sea of radiant æther, which tells us of the boundless space which

-surrounds the serried ranks of the Blessed.

-

-Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was allotted to him, and it was the

-last great effort of his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved

-both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is evident that the painter

-has framed it upon the thought of Dante's mystic rose. The circles and

-many of the figures can be traced in the poem, and the idea of the

-Eternal Light streaming through the leaves of the rose dominates the

-composition. It is appropriate that it should have been his last great

-work, as it was also the greatest attempt at composition ever made by a

-master of the Venetian School.

-

-There is no room here to study Tintoretto as a painter of battlepieces,

-though from the time he painted the "Battle of Lepanto," for the Council

-of Ten, he often returned to such subjects. His two series for the

-Gonzaga included several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses examples.

-The impetuosity of his style stood him in good stead, and he never fails

-to bring in graceful and striking figures.

-

-His portraits are hardly equal to Titian's intellectual grasp or

-fine-grained colour, but they are extraordinarily characteristic. He

-prefers to paint men rather than women, and he painted hundreds--all the

-great persons of his time who lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian

-portrait by this time was expected to be more than a likeness and more

-than a problem. It was to please the taste as a picture, to interest and

-to satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets behind the scenes,

-and we see some mood, some aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected

-to show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto's, but he deals with his

-sitters with an observation which pierces below the surface.

-

-In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often unable to discriminate between

-the turgid and melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental. The

-first all must abhor, but the last is sincere and deserves to be

-respected. It is by his best that we must judge a man, and taking his

-best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one has left a larger amount

-which will stand the test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and

-elevated central ideas, which unify all parts of his composition,

-Tintoretto stands with the greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual

-side of life was exemplified in Florentine art, but the Renaissance

-would have been a one-sided development if there had not arisen a body

-of men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous apprehension seemed of

-supreme value, and at the very last there arose with him one who, to

-their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of their chosen medium,

-added the crowning glory of the imaginative idea.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Augsburg. Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.

- Berlin.   Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator

-             before S. Mark.

- Dresden.  Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.

- Florence. Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.

-           Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old

-             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.

- Hampton Court. Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of

-             Dominican; Knight of Malta.

- London.   S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;

-             Origin of Milky Way.

-           Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.

- Madrid.   Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;

-             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before

-             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.

- Milan.    Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S.

-             Mark (E.).

- Paris.    Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of

-             Himself.

- Rome.     Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.

-           Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet;

-             Portraits.

- Turin.    The Trinity.

- Venice.   Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints

-             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;

-             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea

-             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam

-             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna

-             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in

-             Temple.

-           Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;

-             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;

-             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.

-           Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan's Forge;

-             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.

-           Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;

-             SS. Andrew and Jerome.

-           Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.

-           Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,

-             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:

-             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.

-           Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.

-           Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.

-           Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark

-             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.

-           Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.

-           S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.

-           S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;

-             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).

-           S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.

-           S. Maria dell' Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);

-             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.

-           S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.

-           S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the

-             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d' Armata;

-             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.

-           Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.

-             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls

-             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before

-             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.

-           Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.

-           S. Silvestro: Baptism.

-           S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.

-           S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.

- Vienna.   Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of

-             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and

-             Boy; Portrait of Lady.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVII

-

-BASSANO

-

-

-We wonder how many of those sightseers who pass through the

-Ante-Collegio in the Ducal Palace, and stare for a few moments at

-Tintoretto's famous quartet and at Veronese's "Rape of Europa," turn to

-give even such fleeting attention to the long, dark canvas which hangs

-beside them, "Jacob's Journey into Canaan," by Jacopo da Ponte, called

-Bassano.

-

-Yet from the position in which it is placed the visitor might guess that

-it is considered to be a gem, and it gains something in interest when we

-learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo Contarini at the same

-time as the "Rape of Europa," as if the great connoisseur enjoyed

-contrasting Veronese's light, gay style with the vigorous brush of

-da Ponte.

-

-If attention is arrested by the beauty of the painting, and the visitor

-should be inspired to seek the painter in his native city, he will be

-well repaid. Bassano once held an important position on the main road

-between Italy and Germany, but since the railroad was made across the

-Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little town which lies cradled on

-the spurs of the Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana opens. It is

-surrounded by chestnut woods, which sweep up to the blue mountains, the

-wide Brenta flows through the town, and the houses cluster high on

-either side, and have gardens and balconies overhanging the water. The

-façades of many of the houses are covered with fading frescoes, relics

-of da Ponte's school of fresco-painters, which, though they are fast

-perishing, still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.

-

-Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his father, Francesco, who

-in his day had been a pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.

-Francesco da Ponte's best work is to be found at Bassano, in the

-cathedral and the church of San Giovanni, and has many of the

-characteristics, such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola, which

-we have noticed that Montagna owed to the Vivarini. Francesco's son

-went when very young to Venice, and was there thrown at once among the

-artists of the lagoons, and attached himself in particular to Bonifazio.

-In Jacopo's earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a "Flight into

-Egypt," Bonifazio's tuition is markedly discernible in the build of the

-figures and, above all, in the form of the heads. A comparison of the

-very peculiarly shaped head of the Virgin in this picture with that of

-the Venetian lady in Bonifazio's "Rich Man's Feast," in the Venetian

-Academy, leaves us in no doubt on this score. Jacopo's "Adulteress

-before Christ" and the "Three in the Fiery Furnace" have Bonifazio's

-manner in the architecture and the staging of the figures. Only five

-examples are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it is all in

-Bonifazio's lighter style, not unlike his "Holy Family" in the National

-Gallery.

-

-The house in which the painter lived when he returned to his native

-town, still stands in the little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole

-façade retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with which he

-decorated it. The design is in four horizontal bands. First comes a

-frieze of children in every attitude of fun and frolic. Then follows a

-long range of animals--horses, oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and

-flowers make a border, with allegorical representations of the arts and

-crafts filling the spaces between the windows. The principal band is

-decorated with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now hardly

-discernible, but which represent "Samson slaying the Philistines,"

-"The Drunkenness of Noah," "Cain and Abel," "Lot and his Daughters,"

-and "Judith with the Head of Holofernes." Between the two last there

-formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child, with the motto, "Mors omnia

-aequat," which was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively good

-preservation.

-

-Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano, where, with the help of

-his four sons, who were all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible

-stream of works, which, it is said, were put up to auction at the

-neighbouring fairs, if no other market was forthcoming. From time to

-time he and his sons went down to Venice, and with the help of the

-eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he is generally known) painted the "Siege

-of Padua" and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His mature style was

-founded mainly upon that of Titian, and it is to this second manner that

-he owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours, and enhances his lights

-by deepening and consolidating his shadows, so that they come into

-strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer impasto. He has a

-marvellous faculty for keeping his colour pure, and his greens shine

-like a beetle's wing. A nature-lover in the highest degree, his painting

-of animals and plants evinces a mind which is steeped in the magic of

-outdoor life. A subject of which he was particularly fond, and which he

-seems to have undertaken for half the collectors of Europe, was the

-"Four Seasons." Here was found united everything that Bassano most loved

-to paint: beasts of the farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with

-their implements, scenes of harvest-time and vintage, rough peasants

-leading the plough, cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young girls

-making hay, driving home the cattle, taking dinner to the reapers. When

-he was obliged to paint for churches he chose such subjects as the

-Adoration of the Shepherds, the Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from

-the Temple, into which he could introduce animals, painting them with

-such vigour and such forcible colour that Titian himself is said to

-have had a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint his daughters

-engaged in household tasks, and perhaps placed his figures with rather

-too obvious a reference to light and shade, and to the sun striking

-full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of

-Veronese and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records that when he was

-one day discussing contemporary painters with the latter, Tintoretto

-exclaimed, "Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing and I had your colour I

-would defy the devil himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to

-make any show beside us."

-

-Bassano was invited to take up his residence at the Court of the Emperor

-Rudolph, but he refused to leave his mountain city, where he died in

-1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd of the poorest inhabitants,

-for whom his charity had been boundless.

-

-The "Journey of Jacob," to which we have already alluded, is among his

-most beautiful works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated to

-the charm of the landscape. The evening dusk draws all objects into its

-embrace. The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out against a gleam

-of sunset sky. The tree-trunks and light play of leafy branches, which

-break up the composition, are from da Ponte's own country round Bassano.

-The pony upon which the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among the quiet

-sheep, are given with all the loving truth of the born animal-painter.

-It is no wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him, and has more than

-once imitated his whole design.

-

-The "Baptism of St. Lucilla" (in the Museum at Bassano) is one of his

-most Titianesque creations. The personages in it are grouped upon a

-flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance palace with cypresses

-against a sky of evening-red barred with purple clouds. The drawing

-and modelling of the figures are almost faultless, and the colour is

-dazzling. The bending figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling on

-her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before the young bishop, St.

-Valentine, is one of the most graceful things in art, and Titian himself

-need not have disowned the little angels, bearing palm branches and

-frolicking in the stream of radiance overhead.

-

-Bassano has a "Concert," which is interesting as a family piece. It was

-painted in the year in which his son Leandro's marriage took place, and

-is probably a bridal painting to celebrate the event. The "Magistrates

-in Adoration" (Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light, and

-its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto's numerous pictures of

-kneeling doges and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.

-

- [Illustration: _Jacopo da Ponte._

-                 BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.

-                _Bassano._

-                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]

-

-Madonnas and saints are usually built into close-packed pyramids, but

-in the "Repose in Egypt," now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his arrangement

-comes very close to Palma and Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child,

-the attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting, head on hand, at the

-Virgin's feet and gazing in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of

-the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite landscape behind them, and

-the vigorously drawn tree under which they recline, show Bassano true to

-his passion for nature.

-

-Hampton Court is rich in his pictures. "The Adoration of the Shepherds,"

-in which the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an exercise in

-the manner of Titian's Frari altarpiece. His portraits are fine and

-sympathetic, but hardly any of them are signed or can be dated. His

-own is in the Uffizi, and there is a splendid "Old Man" at Buda-Pesth.

-Ariosto and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other distinguished

-men were among his sitters; most of them are in half-length with

-three-quarter heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly

-attractive one of a young man with a sensitive, acute countenance,

-robed in dignified, picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered linen

-collar. He stands by the sort of square window, opening on a distant

-landscape, of which Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front of

-which a golden vase, holding a branch of olive, catches the rays of

-light.

-

-Bassano has no great power of design, and his knowledge of the nude

-seems to have been small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour

-leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates other shortcomings.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Augsburg. Madonna and Saints.

- Bassano.  Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three

-             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight

-             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration

-             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending

-             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;

-             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).

-           Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.);

-             Nativity.

-           S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.

- Bergamo.  Carrara: Portrait.

-           Lochis: Portraits.

- Cittadella. Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.

- Dresden.  Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of

-             S. Paul.

- Hampton Court. Portraits; Jacob's Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);

-             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men

-             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.

- London.   Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.

- Milan.    Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to

-             Shepherds (L.).

- Munich.   Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.

- Padua.    S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.

- Paris.    Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.

- Venice.   Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino

-             blessing the Faithful.

-           Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob's Journey.

-           S. Giacomo dell' Orio: Madonna and Saints.

- Vicenza.  Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.

- Vienna.   The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;

-             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised

-             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the

-             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;

-             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.

-           Academy: Deposition; Portrait.

-

-

-

-

-PART III

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVIII

-

-THE INTERIM

-

-

-Many of the churches and palaces of Venice and the adjoining mainland,

-and almost every public and private gallery throughout Europe, contain

-pictures purporting to be painted by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and

-others of that famous company. Hardly a great English house but boasts

-of a round dozen at least of such specimens, acquired in the days when

-rich Englishmen made the "grand tour" and substantiated a reputation for

-taste and culture by collecting works of art. These pictures resemble

-the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted way. Their owners

-themselves are not very tenacious as to their authenticity, and the

-visit of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition tears their

-pretensions to tatters. In the Academia itself the Bonifazio and

-Tintoretto rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal Palace has

-ceilings and panels on which are reproduced the kind of compositions

-initiated by the great artists, which make an effort to capture their

-gamut of colour and to master their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them,

-in short, in everything except in their inimitable touch and fire and

-spirit. It would have been impossible for any men, however industrious

-and prolific, to have carried out all the work which passes under their

-names, to say nothing of that which has perished; but our surprise and

-curiosity diminish when we come to inquire systematically into the

-methods of that host of copyists which, even before the masters' death,

-had begun to ply its lucrative trade.

-

-We must bear in mind that every great man was surrounded by busy and

-attentive satellites, helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting

-a large part of important commissions, witnesses of the high prices

-received, and alive to all the gossip as to the relative popularity of

-the painters and the requests and orders which reached them from all

-quarters. The painters' own sons were in many instances those who first

-traded upon their fathers' fame. From Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we

-learn of the many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and the vast

-numbers painted by Domenico Robusti in the style of their respective

-fathers. Domenico seems to have particularly affected the subject of

-"St. George and the Dragon," and the picture at Dresden, which passes

-under Tintoretto's name, is perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano's four sons,

-Francesco "imitated his father perfectly," conserving his warmth of

-tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti enumerates a surprising number of

-Francesco's works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal Palace.

-Leandro followed more particularly his father's first manner, was a good

-portrait-painter, and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo copied and

-recopied the old Bassano till he even deceived connoisseurs, "how much

-more," says Zanetti, writing in 1771, "those of the present day, who

-behold them harmonised and accredited by time." No school in Venice was

-so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts of the imitators, as

-that of Paolo Veronese. Even at an early date it was impossible not to

-confound the master with the disciples; the weaker of the originals were

-held to be of imitators, the best imitations were assigned to the master

-himself. "Oh how easy it is," exclaims Zanetti again, "to make mistakes

-about Veronese's pictures, but I can point out sundry infallible

-characteristics to those who wish for light upon this doubtful path; the

-fineness and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime intelligence and

-grace, shown particularly in the form of the heads, which is never found

-in any of his imitators."

-

-Few Venetians, however, followed the style of only one man; the output

-was probably determined and varied by the demand. Too many attractive

-manners existed to dazzle them, and when once they began to imitate,

-they were tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered that every

-master left behind him stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and

-half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized upon, bought or

-stolen, and utilised to produce masterpieces masquerading under his

-name.

-

-As the seventeenth century advanced the character of art and manners

-underwent a change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel and bizarre,

-and the complex was preferred to the simple. Venetian art, in all its

-branches, had passed from the stately and restrained to the pompous and

-artificial. Yet the barocco style was used by Venice in a way of its

-own; whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament as it is, it yet

-compels admiration by its vigorous life and movement. The art of the

-sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was alive. It escaped the

-most deadly of all faults, a cold and academic mannerism--and this at a

-time when the rest of Italy was given over to the inflated followers of

-Michelangelo and the calculated elaborations of the eclectics.

-

-Many of the things we most love in Venice, such as the Salute, the

-Clock-Tower, the Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico and

-Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth century. The barocco

-intemperance in sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini; and

-as the immediate influence of the great masters declined, painting

-acquired the same sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity of

-Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from the lightning speed of

-his imagination and the unerring sureness of his brush, became a

-mechanical trick in the hands of superficial students. True art had

-migrated elsewhere--to the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt. As

-art grew more pompous it became less emotional. Painters like Palma

-Giovine spoilt their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry. The

-nickname of "Fa Presto" was deserved by others besides Luca Giordano,

-and Venice was overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime standard of

-excellence was the ability to make haste. Grandeur of conception was

-forgotten; a grave, ample manner was no longer understood; superficial

-sentiment and bombastic size carried the day. Yet a few painters, though

-their forms had become redundant and exaggerated, retained something of

-what had been the Venetian glory--the deep and moist colour of old. It

-still glowed with traces of its old lustre on the canvases of Giovanni

-Contarini, or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and though there was a

-perfect fury of production, without order and without law, there can

-still be perceived the survival of that sense of the decorative which

-kept the thread of art. We discover it in the ceiling of the Church of

-San Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints the glorification of

-the martyred patron, and which, fantastic and extravagant as it is,

-with its stupendous, architectural setting, and its acutely, almost

-absurdly foreshortened throng, is not without a certain grandiose

-geniality, ample and picturesque, like the buildings of that date. In

-Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino), whose "Nozze di Cana" in the

-Academia is a finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is made of

-cypresses, we seem to recognise the last ray of the Titianesque. The

-painting of the seventeenth century passed on towards the eighteenth,

-and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and Venuses smile at

-us, attitudinising and contorted upon their cloudy backgrounds.

-Lackadaisical Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the Angel of the

-Annunciation capers above the head of an affected Virgin, while violent

-colours, intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto betray

-the neighbourhood of the _tenebrosi_. When, towards the end of the

-seventeenth century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake off these

-influences, he went to the opposite extreme. Although a beautiful

-designer, he becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness and

-insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise, appearing in a country

-where the taste for luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly rooted.

-The student of Venetian painting, who wishes to fill up the hiatus which

-lies between the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth century,

-cannot do better than compare Fumiani's vault in San Pantaleone with

-Lazzarini's sober and earnest fresco, "The Charity of San Lorenzo

-Giustiniani," in San Pietro in Castello, and with Pietro Liberi's

-"Battle of the Dardanelles" in the Ducal Palace. In all three we have

-examples of the varied and accomplished yet soulless art of this period.

-Not many of the scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the

-seventeenth century have survived. They are to be found here and

-there by the curious who wander into old churches and palaces with a

-second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands; but in the reaction from

-the florid which took place in the Empire period, many of them gave

-place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal Palace, side by side with

-the masterpieces of the Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded

-canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini, Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and

-others like them. Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in St.

-Mark's are from designs by Palma Giovine and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who

-was a painter himself, as well as the painter's chronicler, has an

-"Adoration of the Magi" in S. Giovanni Elemosinario, poor enough in

-invention and execution. Two pictures by obscure artists disfigure a

-corner of the Scuola di San Rocco. The Museo Civico has a large canvas

-by Vicentino, a "Coronation of a Dogaressa," which once adorned Palazzo

-Grimani. We hear of a school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the

-master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi, and the names of others

-have come down to us in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards the

-end of the seventeenth century more light and novelty sparkles in the

-painting of the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us that he was no

-mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth century opens, we become aware of

-the strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta. Piazetta studied

-the works of the Carracci for some time in Bologna, and especially those

-of Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts of light and shade,

-has served above all as his model. He paints very darkly, and his

-figures often blend with and disappear into the profound tones of his

-backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls him "a Venetian Caravaggio"; and he has

-something of the strength and even the brutality of the Bolognese. A

-fine decorative and imaginative example of his work is the "Madonna

-appearing to S. Philip Neri" in the Church of S. Fava. The erect form of

-the Madonna is relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the mantle,

-upheld by _putti_. Radiant clouds light up the background and illumine

-the form of the old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at

-the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is a bold realist, and

-many of his small pictures are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,

-Battista's son, is described as "a fine intelligence," and attracts

-our notice as having forged special links with England. Hampton Court

-possesses a long array of his paintings. In the chapel of Chelsea

-Hospital the plaster semi-dome is painted by him, in oils, with very

-good effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill's studio, and his

-influence may be suspected in the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches

-in Hogarth's work.

-

-By the eighteenth century Venice had parted with her old nobility of

-soul, and enjoyment had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice, among

-the States of Italy, alone retained her freedom. The Doge reigned

-supreme as in the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the dreaded

-Three still sat in secret council. Venice was still the city of subtle

-poisons and dangerous mysteries, but the days were gone when she

-had held the balance in European affairs, and she had become, in a

-superlative degree, the city of pleasure. Nowhere was life more

-varied and entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.

-

-A long period of peace had rocked the Venetian people into calm

-security. There was, indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corfù,

-Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was retained in the

-struggles of Europe. The whole policy of the city's life was one of

-self-indulgence. Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole population

-lived "in piazza," laughing, gossiping, seeing and being seen. The

-very churches had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues; the

-convents boasted their _salons_, where nuns in low dresses, with pearls

-in their hair, received the advances of nobles and gallant abbés.

-People came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the last scandal,

-sensational stories, were the only subjects worth discussing. In an age

-of parodies and practical jokes, the more absurd any one could be, the

-more silly or witty stories he could tell, the more assured was his

-success in the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and laughter. The

-Carnival lasted for six months of the year, and was the occasion for

-masques and licence of every description. In the hot weather, the gay

-descendants of the Contarini, the Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand

-old houses, migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day and night

-the same reckless, irresponsible life went gaily on. The power of such

-courtesans as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was waning. Their

-place was adequately supplied by the easy dames of society, no longer

-secluded, proud and tranquil, but "stirred by the wild blood of youth

-and stooping to the frolic." "They are but faces and smiles, teasing

-and trumpery," says one of their critics, yet they are declared to be

-wideawake, natural and charming, making the most of their smattering of

-letters. Love was the great game; every woman had lovers, every married

-woman openly flaunted her _cicisbeo_ or _cavaliere servente_.

-

-The older portion of the middle class was still moderate and temperate,

-contented to live in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in

-politics, with which it was dangerous for the ordinary individual to

-meddle; but the new leaven was creeping through every level of society.

-The sons and daughters of the _bourgeoisie_ tried to rise in the social

-scale by aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They deserted the

-shop and the counting-house to play cards and strut upon the piazza.

-They mimicked the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and made

-fashionable love and carried on intrigues. The spirit of the whole

-people had lost its elevation; there were no more proud patricians, full

-of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public service; it was hardly

-possible to get a sufficient number of persons to carry on public

-business. It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet among all this

-degenerate life, we come upon something more real as we turn to the

-artists. They were very much alive. In music, in literature, and in

-painting, new and graceful forms of art were emerging. Painting was not

-the grand art of other days; it might be small and trivial, but there

-grew up a real little Renaissance of the eighteenth century, full of

-originality and fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous and banale

-style of the imitators.

-

-The influence of the "lady" was becoming increasingly felt by society.

-Confidential little boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the mode,

-and needed decorating as well as vast salas. The dainty luxury of gilt

-furniture, designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered in delicate

-silks, was matched by small, attractive works of art. Venice had lost

-her Eastern trade, and as the East faded out of her scheme of life, the

-West, to which she now turned, was bringing her a different form of

-art. The great reception rooms were still suited by the grandiose

-compositions of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but another genre of

-charming creations smiled from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate

-suites of rooms.

-

-It is impossible to name more than a fraction of these artists of the

-eighteenth century. There is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;

-Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the day; Luca Carlevaris,

-the forerunner of Canale; Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country

-are mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the most important are

-preserved in the cupola and spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle

-Howard. Their work is still to be found in many a Venetian church or

-North Italian gallery. Some of it is almost fine, though too often

-vitiated by the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day. When

-originality asserts itself more decidedly, Rosalba Carriera stands out

-as an artist who acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she was a

-young woman of twenty-four, she was already a great favourite with the

-public. She began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was bad, Jean

-Stève, a Frenchman, taught her to paint miniatures. She imparted a

-wonderfully delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to pastel, she

-brought to this branch of portraiture a brilliancy and freshness which

-it had not known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved for us better

-than any one else, those women of Venice who floated so lightly on the

-dancing waves of that sparkling stream. There they are: La Cornaro; La

-Maria Labia, who was surrounded by French lovers, "very courteous and

-very beautiful"; La Zenobio and La Pisani; La Foscari, with her black

-plumes; La Mocenigo, "the lady with the pearls." She has pinned them all

-to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted butterflies, with velvet

-neck-ribbons round their snowy throats and coquettish patches on their

-delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in their high-dressed hair and

-sheeny bodices. They look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting

-mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet, ephemeral, irresponsible in

-every relation of life. Older men and women there are, too, when those

-artificial years have produced a succession of rather dull, sodden

-personages, kindly, inoffensive, but stupid, and still trifling heavily

-with the world.

-

-Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare with those of her sitters.

-She and the other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy life of

-the worker, and found in their art the antidote to the evil living and

-the dissipation of the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.

-Rosalba's _milieu_ is a type of others of its class. She lives with her

-mother and sisters, an honest, cheerful, industrious existence. They are

-fond of old friends and old books, and indulge in music and simple

-pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba by preparing the groundwork of

-her paintings. She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on the

-harpsichord. She receives great men without much ceremony, and the

-Elector Palatine, the Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of Norway,

-and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come to her to order miniatures of

-their reigning beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she has plenty

-of commissions, and the frequently occurring names of English patrons in

-her fragmentary diaries, tell how much her work was admired by English

-travellers. She did more than anybody else to promote the fashion for

-pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its best in the pastel

-room of the Dresden Gallery.

-

-Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us a charming description of a

-party of English travellers, which included Horace Walpole, arriving in

-Venice in 1741, strolling about in mask and _bauta_, and visiting the

-famous pastellist in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba has

-painted Walpole, and has left one of the most interesting examples of

-her art.

-

-

-SOME EXAMPLES

-

- _Francesco da Ponte._

-

- Venice.   Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on

-             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left

-             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the

-             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to

-             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the

-             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;

-             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are

-             all very rich in colour.

-           Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.

-           Sala dell' Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.

-

-

- _Leandro da Ponte._

-

- Venice.   Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a

-             Blessed Candle to the Doge.

-           Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge

-             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one

-             side of the sala.

-           Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the

-             Avogadori Family.

-

-

- _Palma Giovine._

-

- Dresden.  Presentation of the Virgin.

- Florence. Uffizi: S. Margaret.

- Munich.   Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.

- Venice.   Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.

-           Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.

- Vienna.   Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pietà;

-             Immaculate Conception.

-

-

- _Il Padovanino._

-

- Florence. Uffizi: Lucretia.

- London.   Cornelia and her Children.

- Paris.    Venus and Cupid.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.

- Venice.   Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,

-             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.

- Verona.   Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.

- Vienna.   Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.

-

-

- _Pietro Liberi._

-

- Venice.   Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.

-

-

- _Andrea Vicentino._

-

- Venice.   Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.

-

-

- _G. A. Fumiani._

-

- Venice.   San Pantaleone: Ceiling.

-           Church of the Carità: Christ disputing with the Doctors.

-

-

- _A. Balestra._

-

- Verona.   S. Tomaso: Annunciation.

-

-

- _G. Lazzarini._

-

- Venice.   S. Pietro in Castello.

-           The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.

-

-

- _Sebastiano Ricci._

-

- Venice.   S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.

-           Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.

- London.   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.

-

-

- _G. B. Pittoni._

-

- Vicenza.  The Bath of Diana.

-

-

- _G. B. Piazetta._

-

- Venice.   Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.

-           Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.

-

-

- _Rosalba Carriera._

-

- Venice.   Academy: pastels.

- Dresden.  Pastels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIX

-

-TIEPOLO

-

-

-We have already noted that to establish the significance of any period

-in art, it is necessary that the tendencies should unite and combine in

-some culminating spirits who rise triumphant over their contemporaries

-and soar above the age in which they live. Such a genius stands out

-above the eighteenth century crowd, and is not only of his century, but

-of every time. For two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised as

-extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting cupids, nymphs, and

-parroquets. In the last century he experienced the effect of the

-profound discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century art had

-fallen. In France, David had obliterated Watteau; and the reputation

-of Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced Tiepolo and his

-contemporaries. When the delegates of the French Republic inspected

-Italian churches and palaces, and decided what works of art should be

-sent to the Louvre, they singled out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and

-Guidos, the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other such forgotten

-masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret

-of their descendants, they disdained to annex a single one of the great

-paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista Tiepolo.

-

-Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as "an artist of fantastic

-imagination." Most of the nineteenth-century critics do not even mention

-him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging line of praise, Blanc is

-equally disparaging, and for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his

-influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime; only now is he coming

-into his own, and it is recognised that the _plein-air_ artist, the

-luminarist, the impressionist, owe no small share of their knowledge to

-his inspiration.

-

-The name of Tiepolo brings before us a whole string of illustrious

-personages--doges and senators, magnificent procurators and great

-captains--but we have nothing to prove that the artist belonged to a

-decayed branch of the famous patrician house. Born in Castello, the

-people's quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth with that good

-draughtsman, Lazzarini. At twenty-three he married the sister of

-Francesco Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi and Canale and who is

-a better painter than either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.

-The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at its height. The life of

-the aristocracy on the lagoons was every year growing more gay, more

-abandoned to capricious inclination, to light loves and absurd

-amusements. And the art which reflected this life was called upon to

-give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather than character. Yet if

-the Venetian art had lost all connection with the grave magnificence of

-the past, it had kept aloof from the academic coldness which was in

-fashion beyond the lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a

-certain natural absurdity. The age had become romantic; the Arcadian

-convention was in full force, Nature herself was pressed into the

-service of idle, sentimental men and women. The country was pictured as

-a place of delight, where the sun always shone and the peasants passed

-their time singing madrigals and indulging in rural pleasures. The

-public, however, had begun to look for beauty; the traditions which had

-formed round the decorative schools were giving way to the appreciation

-of original work. Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when he is

-sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the taste of the Venetians, and

-without emancipating himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives

-to introduce a fresh accent. All round him was a weak and self-indulgent

-world, but within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant and

-inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng of personages on the ceilings

-of the churches and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations range

-from mythology to religion, from the sublime to the grotesque. All

-Olympia appears upon his ample and luminous spaces. It is not to the

-cold, austere Lazzarini, or to the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or

-the imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he was touched by each

-of them, that we must turn for Tiepolo's derivation. Long before his

-time, the kind of decoration of ceilings which we are apt to call

-Tiepolesque; the foreshortened architecture, the columns and cornices,

-the figures peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds, had been

-used by an increasing throng of painters. The style arose, indeed, in

-the quattrocento; Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo had used

-it, though in a far more sober way than later generations. Correggio

-and the Venetians had perfected the idea, which the artists of the

-seventeenth century seized upon and carried to the most intemperate

-excess. But Tiepolo rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,

-exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this time defied all laws of

-equilibrium, and we must go back further than his immediate predecessors

-for his origins. His claim to stand with Tintoretto or Veronese may be

-contested, but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese is the

-artist he studied with the greatest fervour. Without copying, he seems

-to have a natural affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates the

-ample arrangement of his groups, the grace of his architecture, and his

-decorative feeling for colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo's dearest

-friends, writes: "No painter of our time could so well recall the bright

-and happy creations of Veronese." The difference between them is more

-one of period than of temperament. Paolo Veronese represented the

-opulence of a rich, strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo's

-lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous women, and full of the

-modern spirit himself, he adapts his genius to his time and devotes

-himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental vein of the Venice of the

-decadence. Full of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to respond to

-any call. He went to and fro between Venice and the villas along the

-mainland and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting wider fields, he

-travelled to Milan and Genoa, where his frescoes still gleam in the

-palaces of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici. At Würzburg in

-Bavaria he achieved a magnificent series of decorations for the palace

-of the Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy, he painted

-altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his friends, and a fresh multitude

-of allegorical and mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His

-charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top to bottom by himself and

-his sons, and has amusing examples of contemporary dress and manners.

-

-When the Academy was instituted in 1755, Tiepolo was appointed its

-first director, but the sort of employment it provided was not suited to

-his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw up the post and went off to

-Spain with his two sons. There he received a splendid welcome and was

-loaded with commissions, the only dissentient voice being that of

-Raphael Mengs, who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the

-antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian's art. Tiepolo died

-suddenly in Madrid in 1770, pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,

-the frescoes he has left there show that his hand was as firm and his

-eye as sure as ever.

-

-His frescoes have, as we have said, that frankly theatrical flavour

-which corresponds exactly to the taste of the time. Such works as the

-"Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto" in the Church of the

-Scalzi in Venice, or the "Triumph of Faith" in that of the Pietà, the

-"Triumph of Hercules" in Palazzo Canossa in Verona, or the decorations

-in the magnificent villa of the Pisani at Strà, are extravagant and

-fantastic, yet have the impressive quality of genius. These last, which

-have for subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full of portraits.

-The patrician sons and daughters appear, surrounded by Abundance, War,

-and Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises Europe. All round are

-grouped flags and dragons, "nations grappling in the airy blue," bands

-of Red Indians in their war-paint and happy couples making love. The

-idea of the history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the House is

-paramount, and over all appears Fame, bearing the noble name into

-immortality. In Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal committee

-gave the painter a free hand, and on the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun

-in a chariot, with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the meridian,

-flooding the world with light. Venus and Saturn attend him, and his

-advent is heralded by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth joys at

-his coming, and a concourse of naiads, nymphs, and dolphins wait upon

-his footsteps. In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo has left

-one of his grandest displays. The haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his

-ideal of the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm, and, standing

-enthroned upon the rolling clouds, hardly deigns to acknowledge the

-homage of the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel is bestowing

-her scapulary. The most charming _amoretti_ are disporting in all

-directions, flinging themselves from on high in delicious _abandon_,

-alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal virtues. At Villa

-Valmarana near Vicenza, after revelling among the gods, he comes to

-earth and delights in painting lovely ladies with almond eyes and

-carnation cheeks, attended by their cavaliers, seated in balconies,

-looking on at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival scenes with

-masques and dominoes and _fêtes champêtres_, which give us a picture of

-the fashions and manners of the day. He brings in groups of Chinese in

-oriental dress, and then he condescends to paint country girls and their

-rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and Corydon.

-

-Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid. He abandons the airy fancies

-scattered in cloud-land. The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano affords

-an opportunity for introducing magnificent architecture, warriors in

-armour, and stately dames in satin and brocades. He touches his highest

-in the decorations of Palazzo Labia, where Antony and Cleopatra, seated

-at their banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard one another

-silently, with looks of sombre passion. Four exquisite panels have

-lately been acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the loves of

-Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast of gay, delicate colour, with

-fascinating backgrounds of Italian gardens. The throne-room of the

-palace at Madrid has the same order of compositions--Æneas conducted

-by Venus from Time to Immortality, and other deifications of Spanish

-royalty.

-

- [Illustration: _Tiepolo._

-                 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

-                _Palazzo Labia, Venice._]

-

-Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a tragic mood. In the Church of

-San Alvise he has left a "Way to Calvary," a "Flagellation," and a

-"Crowning of Thorns," which are intensely dramatic, and which show strong

-feeling. Particularly striking is the contrast between the refined and

-sensitive type of his Christ and the realistic and even brutal study of

-the two despairing malefactors--one a common ruffian, the other an aged

-offender of a higher class. His altarpiece at Este, representing S.

-Tecla staying the plague, is painted with a real insight into disaster

-and agony, and S. Tecla is a pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes

-in his easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a S. Anthony, or a

-Crucifixion, but he always returns before long to the ample spaces and

-fantastic subjects which his soul loved.

-

-Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art suggests a strong being,

-held captive by butterflies. Sometimes he is joyous and limpid,

-sometimes turbulent and strong, but he has always sincerity, force, and

-life. A great space serves to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better

-than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white limbs among the

-clouds, sea-horses ridden by Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman

-armour, balustrades and columns and _amoretti_. He does not even need to

-pounce his design, but puts in all sorts of improvised modifications

-with a sure hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring poses of his

-countless figures, and the freedom of his line speak eloquently of the

-mastery to which his hand had attained. He revels, above all, in effects

-of light--"all the light of the sky, and all the light of the sea; all

-the light of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath. He paints not

-ideas, scarcely even forms, but light. His ceilings are radiant, like

-the sky of birds; his poems seem to be written in the clouds. Light is

-fairer than all things, and Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of

-light."[6]

-

- [6] Philippe Monnier, _Venice in the Eighteenth Century_.

-

-Nearly all his compositions have a serene and limpid horizon, with

-the figures approaching it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and

-diaphanous, while the forms below are more muscular, the flesh tints are

-deeper, and the whole of the foreground is often enveloped in shadow.

-Veronese had lit up the shadows, which, under his contemporaries, were

-growing gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the same lines. He

-makes his figures more graceful, his draperies more vaporous, and

-illumines his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and rose, his

-golden-greys, and pearly whites and pastel tints are not so much solid

-colours as caprices of light. We have remarked already that with

-Veronese the accessories of gleaming satins and rich brocades serve to

-obscure the persons. In many of Tiepolo's scenes the figures are lost

-in a flutter of drapery, subject and action melt away, and we are only

-conscious of soft harmonies of delicious colour, as ethereal as the

-hues of spring flowers in woodland ways and joyous meadows. With these

-delicious, audacious fancies, put on with a nervous hand, we forget the

-age of profound and ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous

-solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe an atmosphere of

-irresponsible and capricious pleasure. In this last word of her great

-masters Venice keeps what her temperament loved--sensuous colour and

-emotional chiaroscuro, used to accentuate an art adapted to a city of

-pleasure.

-

-The excellence of the old masters' drawings is a perpetual revelation.

-Even second-class men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen, proving

-that drawing was looked upon as something over which it was necessary

-for even the meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo's drawings,

-preserved in Venice and in various museums, are as beautiful as can be

-wished; perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In Venice are twenty

-or thirty sheets in red carbon, of flights of angels, and of draperies

-studied in every variety of fold.

-

-Poor work of his school is often ascribed to his sons, but the superb

-"Stations of the Cross," in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,

-and published as his own in his lifetime, are almost equal to the

-father's work. Tiepolo had many immediate followers and imitators. The

-colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the Church of SS. Apostoli,

-Venice, may be pointed out as an example of one of these. But he is full

-of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson, writing of him, says he

-sometimes seems more the first than the last of a line, and notices how

-he influenced many French artists of recent times, though none seem

-quite to have caught the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite

-caprice.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Aranjuez. Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.

-           Orangery: Frescoes.

- Bergamo.  Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.

- Berlin.   Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.

- London.   Sketches; Deposition.

- Madrid.   Escurial; Ceilings.

- Milan.    Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.

-           Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.

- Paris.    Christ at Emmaus.

- Strà.     Villa Pisani: Ceiling.

- Venice.   Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding

-             the Cross.

-           Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.

-           Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.

-           Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.

-           S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.

-           SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.

-           S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.

-           Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.

-           S. Maria della Pietà: Triumph of Faith.

-           S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.

-           Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.

-           Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.

- Verona.   Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.

- Vicenza.  Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.

-           Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,

-             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.

- Würzburg. Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; Fêtes Galantes; Assumption;

-             Fall of Rebel Angels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXX

-

-PIETRO LONGHI

-

-

-We have here a master who is peculiarly the Venetian of the eighteenth

-century, a genre-painter whose charm it is not easy to surpass, yet

-one who did not at the outset find his true vocation. Longhi's first

-undertakings, specimens of which exist in certain palaces in Venice,

-were elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence of the Bolognese

-School, in which he studied for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He

-attempts to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings in emulation of

-Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy and common, and the Titans at her feet

-appear as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He shows no faculty

-for this kind of work, but he was thirty-two before he began to paint

-those small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style illustrate the

-"Vanity Fair" of his period, and in which the eighteenth century lives

-for us again.

-

-His earliest training was in the goldsmith's art, and he has left many

-drawings of plate, exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and their

-unerring precision of line. It was a moment when such things acquired a

-flawless purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their beauty with all

-the sensitive perception of the artist and the practised workman. His

-studies of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily

-careful, and he seems besides to have an intimate acquaintance with all

-the elegant dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order. We feel

-that he has himself been at home in the masquerade, has accompanied the

-lady to the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful shoulder, has

-listened to the soothsayer's murmurs. He has attended balls and routs,

-danced minuets, and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He is the last

-chronicler of the Venetian feasts, and with him ends that long series

-that began with Giorgione's concert and which developed and passed

-through suppers at Cana and banquets at the houses of Levi and the

-Pharisee. We are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity of Bonifazio

-and Veronese; the immense tables covered with gold and silver plate, the

-long lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the stream of servants

-bearing huge salvers, or the bands of musicians, nor are there any more

-alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes. Instead there are

-masques, the life of the Ridotto or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in

-dainty boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that city of eternal

-carnival where the _bauta_ was almost a national costume. Longhi

-holds that post which in French art is filled by Watteau, Fragonard,

-and Lancret, the painters of _fêtes galantes_, and though he cannot be

-placed on an equal footing with those masters, he is representative and

-significant enough. On his canvases are preserved for us the mysteries

-of the toilet, over which ladies and young men of fashion dawdled

-through the morning, the drinking of chocolate in _négligé_, the

-momentous instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing patches, the

-towers of hair built by the modish coiffeur--children trooping in, in

-hoops and uniforms, to kiss their mother's hand, the fine gentleman

-choosing a waistcoat and ogling the pretty embroideress, the pert young

-maidservant slipping a billet-doux into a beauty's hand under her

-husband's nose, the old beau toying with a fan, or the discreet abbé

-taking snuff over the morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi's day

-pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux make "a leg," and the

-lacqueys hand chocolate. The beautiful Venetians and their gallants

-swim through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto, or they hasten to

-assignations, disguised in wide _bauti_ and carrying preposterous muffs.

-The Correr Museum contains a number of his paintings and also his book

-of original sketches. One of the most entertaining of his canvases

-represents a visit of patricians to a nuns' parlour. The nuns and their

-pupils lend an attentive ear to the whispers of the world. Their

-dresses are trimmed with _point de Venise_, and a little theatre is

-visible in the background. This and the "Sala del Ridotto" which hangs

-near, are marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of colouring, and

-more animation than is usual in his genre-pictures. He has not preserved

-the lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist touch which was

-the natural inheritance of Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark

-and heavy, and he makes too free a use of body colour; but his attitude

-is one of close observation--he enjoys depicting the life around him,

-and we suspect that he sees in it the most perfect form of social

-intercourse imaginable. Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of

-painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles the genial, humorous

-playwright than he does Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared. Yet

-his execution and technique are a little like Hogarth's, and it is

-possible that he was influenced by the elder and stronger master, who

-entered on his triumphant career as a satirical painter of society

-about 1734. This was just the time when Longhi abandoned his unlucky

-decorative style, and it is quite possible that he may have met with

-engravings of the "Marriage à la mode," and was stimulated by them to

-the study of eighteenth-century manners, though his own temperament is

-far removed from Hogarth's moral force and grim satire. His serene,

-painstaking observation is never distracted by grossness and violence.

-The Venetians of his day may have been--undoubtedly were--effeminate,

-licentious, and decadent, but they were kind and gracious, of refined

-manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent, and so Longhi has

-transcribed them. In the time which followed, ceilings were covered by

-Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand, the scholars of David painted

-classical scenes, and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio Francesco

-Correr bought five hundred of his drawings from his son, Alessandro, but

-his works were ignored and dispersed. The classic and romantic fashions

-passed, but it was only in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing

-on art, revived consideration for the painter of a bygone generation.

-Many of his works are in private collections, especially in England, but

-few are in public galleries. The National Gallery is fortunate in

-possessing several excellent examples.

-

- [Illustration: _Pietro Longhi._

-                 VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Hanfstängl._)]

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.

-          Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.

- Dresden. Portrait of a Lady.

- Hampton Court. Three genre-pictures.

- London.  Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.

-          Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.

- Venice.  Academy: Six genre-paintings.

-          Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of

-            Goldoni.

-          Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.

-          Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXXI

-

-CANALE

-

-

-While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving themselves the inheritors of the

-great school of decorators, Venice herself was finding her chroniclers,

-and a school of landscape arose, of which Canale was the foremost

-member. Giovanni Antonio Canale was born in Venice in 1697, the same

-year as Tiepolo. His father earned his living at the profession,

-lucrative enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio learned to

-handle his brush, working at his side. In 1719 he went off to seek his

-fortune in Rome, and though he was obliged to help out his resources by

-his early trade, he was most concerned in the study of architecture,

-ancient and modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye, by the

-picturesque masses of stonework, the warm harmonious tones of classic

-remains and the effects of light upon them. He painted almost entirely

-out-of-doors, and has left many examples drawn from the ruins. His

-success in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still a very young man

-when he retraced his steps. On regaining his native town, he realised

-for the first time the beauty of its canals and palaces, and he never

-again wavered in his allegiance.

-

-Two rivals were already in the field, Luca Carlevaris, whose works were

-freely bought by the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures in

-whose views of Venice were often touched in by his uncle, Sebastiano;

-but Canale's growing fame soon dethroned them, "i cacciati del nido," as

-he said, using Dante's expression. In a generation full of caprice,

-delighting in sensational developments, Canale was methodical to a

-fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing every detail of Venetian

-landscape with untiring application and almost monotonous tranquillity.

-He lived in the midst of a band of painters who adored travel.

-Sebastiano Ricci was always on the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time

-in other cities and countries, and passed the last years of his life in

-Spain; Pietro Rotari was attached to the Court of St. Petersburg;

-Belotto, Canale's nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale remained at

-home, and, except for two short visits paid to England, contented

-himself with trips to Padua and Verona.

-

-Early in life Canale entered into relations with Joseph Smith, the

-British Consul in Venice, a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine

-collection of pictures, but had a gallery from which he was very ready

-to sell to travellers. He bought of the young Venetian at a very low

-price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to acquire the right to all his

-work for a certain period of time, with the object of sending it, at a

-good profit, to London. For a time Canale's luminous views were bought

-by the English under these auspices, but the artist, presently

-discovering that he was making a bad bargain, came over to England,

-where he met with an encouraging reception, especially at Windsor Castle

-and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale spent two years in England and

-painted on the Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not stand the

-English climate and fled from the damp and fogs to his own lagoons.

-

-To describe his paintings is to describe Venice at every hour of the day

-and night--Venice with its long array of noble palaces, with its Grand

-Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways. He reproduces the Venice we

-know, and we see how little it has changed. The gondolas cluster round

-the landing-stages of the Piazzetta, the crowds hurry in and out of the

-arcades of the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals that still

-retained their splendour: the Great Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei

-Schiavoni on the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and the entrance

-to the Cannaregio decked in flags for a feast-day. From one end to

-another of the Grand Canal, that "most beautiful street in the world,"

-as des Commines called it in 1495, we can trace every aspect of

-Canale's time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of its splendour

-or its animation. At the entrance stands S. Maria della Salute, that

-sanctuary dear to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering after the

-visitation of the plague in 1631. Its flamboyant dome, with its volutes,

-its population of stone saints, its green bronze door catching the

-light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent in our own day, and he

-painted it over and over again. The annual fête of the Confraternity of

-the Carità takes place at the Scuola di San Rocco, and Canale paints the

-old Renaissance building which shelters so much of Tintoretto's finest

-work, decorated with ropes of greenery and gay with flags,[7] while

-Tiepolo has put in the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the gazing

-populace. Near it in the National Gallery hangs a "Regatta" with its

-array of boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows lying across

-the range of palaces, and telling the exact hour of the day that it was

-sketched in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar pleasure in

-expressing quiet days, with calm green waters and wide empty piazzas,

-divided by sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding about their

-business in the hot midday, or a quiet little abbé crossing the piazza

-on his way to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the light on wall

-and façade, and of the transparent waters of the canals and the azure

-skies in which float great snowy fleeces.

-

- [7] It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.

-

-His second visit to England was paid in 1751. He was received with open

-arms by the great world, and invited to the houses of the nobility in

-town and country. The English were delighted with his taste and with the

-mastery with which he painted architectural scenes, and in spite of

-advancing years he produced a number of compositions, which commanded

-high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall, the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall,

-Northumberland House, Eton College, were some of the subjects which

-attracted him, and the treatment of which was signalised by his calm and

-perfect balance. He made use of the camera ottica, which is in principal

-identical with the camera oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and

-taught its proper use, but it must be confessed that in the careful

-perspective of some of his scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to

-convey a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous engraver.

-Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian had placed engraving on a very high level

-in the Venetian School, and though at a later date it became too

-elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought it back to simplicity. Canale

-aided them, and his _eaux-fortes_, of which he has left about thirty,

-are filled with light and breadth of treatment, and he is particularly

-happy in his brilliant, transparent water.

-

-The high prices Canale obtained for his pictures in his lifetime led to

-the usual imitations. He was surrounded by painters whose whole ambition

-was limited to copying him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,

-Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More than fifty of his finest

-works were bought by Smith for George III. and fill a room at Windsor.

-He was made a member of the Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime

-Minister of the Elector, obtained from him twenty-one works which now

-adorn the gallery there. Canale died in Venice, where he had lived

-nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio was a familiar object

-in the Piazzetta, at the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.

-

-His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also called Canaletto, and it

-seems that both uncle and nephew were equally known by the diminutive.

-Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career, where he attached

-himself to Panini, a painter of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and

-shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of vanity and self-importance,

-and on a visit to Germany managed to acquire the title of Count, which

-he adhered to with great complacency. He travelled all over Italy

-looking for patronage, and was very eager to find the road to success

-and fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he paid a visit to London

-and was patronised by Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success

-he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector, disappointed at not

-having secured the services of the uncle, was fain to console himself

-with those of the nephew. The extravagant and profligate Augustus II.,

-whose one idea was to extract money by every possible means from his

-subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was consistently devoted to

-Belotto, who was in his element as a Court painter. He paints all his

-uncle's subjects, and it is not always easy to distinguish between the

-two; but his paintings are dull and stiff as compared with those of

-Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour, and many of his views are

-admirably drawn.

-

-

-SOME WORKS OF CANALE

-

-It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being in

-private collections.

-

- Dresden.  The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;

-             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.

- Florence. The Piazzetta.

- Hampton Court. The Colosseum.

- London.   Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;

-             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.

- Paris.    Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.

- Venice.   Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.

- Vienna.   Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;

-             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;

-             The Piazzetta.

- Windsor.  About fifty paintings.

- Wallace Collection. The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San

-             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fête on the Grand Canal;

-             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;

-             A Water-fête; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal

-             in Venice.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXXII

-

-FRANCESCO GUARDI

-

-

-An entry in Gradenigo's diary of 1764, preserved in the Museo Correr,

-speaks of "Francesco Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,

-along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of the famous Canaletto, having

-by the aid of the camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases

-(not small) by the order of a stranger (an Englishman), with views of

-the Piazza San Marco, towards the Church and the Clock Tower, and of the

-Bridge of the Rialto and buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have

-to-day examined them under the colonnades of the Procurazie and met with

-universal applause."

-

-Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian Tyrol, and his mountain

-ancestry may account, as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and

-vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled in Venice, and his

-brother were painters. His son became one in due time, and the

-profession being followed by four members of the family accounts

-for the indifferent works often attributed to Guardi.

-

-His indebtedness to Canale is universally acknowledged, and perhaps it

-is true that he never attains to the monumental quality, the traditional

-dignity which marks Canale out as a great master, but he differs from

-Canale in temperament, style, and technique. Canale is a much more exact

-and serious student of architectural detail; Guardi, with greater

-visible vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation in drawing in

-buildings which do not really appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal

-Palace (Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier and more spacious

-than it really is. In his "Piazzetta" he puts in a corner of the Loggia

-where it would not actually be seen. In the "Fair in Piazza S. Marco"

-the arch from under which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he

-foreshortens the wing of the royal palace. He curtails the length of the

-columns in the piazza and so avoids monotony of effect, and he often

-alters the height of the campaniles he uses, making them tall and

-slender or short and broad, as his picture requires. At one time he

-produced some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr. Simonson, who

-has written an admirable life of the painter, believes that the hand of

-Canale is perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his natural

-element, and he often became heavy in colour and handling. In 1782 he

-undertook a commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a noted connoisseur

-and inspector of State pictures, and had been appointed superintendent

-in 1778 of an official studio for the restoration of old masters.

-

-Edwards had important dealings with Guardi, who was directed to paint

-four leading incidents in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of Pius

-IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves had become indifferent patrons

-of art, but Venice attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and

-before the second half of the eighteenth century the export of old

-masters had already become an established trade. There is no sign,

-however, that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship till 1760,

-extended any patronage to Guardi, though he enriched George III.'s

-collection with works of the chief contemporary artists of Venice. It is

-probable that Guardi had been warned against him by Canale and profited

-by the latter's experience.

-

-We can divide his work into three categories. 1. Views of Venice. 2.

-Public ceremonies. 3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually that he

-used the camera ottica, but though we may consider it probable, we

-cannot trace the use of it in his works. He is not only a painter of

-architecture, but pays great attention to light and atmosphere, and aims

-at subtle effects; a transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the

-sun pierces though the morning mists. His four large pendants in the

-Wallace Collection show his happiest efforts; light glances off the

-water and is reflected on the shadowed walls. His views round the Salute

-bring vividly before us those delicious morning hours in Venice when the

-green tide has just raced up the Grand Canal, when a fresh wind is

-lifting and curling all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and when

-the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as their light craft is caught

-and blown from side to side upon the rippling water. The sky occupies

-much of his space, he makes searching studies of it, and his favourite

-effect is a flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass of clouds.

-The line of the horizon is low, and he exhibits great mastery in

-painting the wide lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is one

-of the few masters of his day--perhaps the only one--who succeeds in

-representing a storm at sea.

-

-Often as he paints the same subjects he never becomes mechanical or

-photographic. We may sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale's unerring

-perspective and accurate buildings, but Guardi always finds some new

-rendering, some fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us a summer

-day, when Venice stands out in light, her white palaces reflected in the

-sun-illumined water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches bathed in

-shadow and fusing into the rich, dark tones of twilight. His boats and

-figures are introduced with great spirit and _brio_, and are alive

-with that handling which a French critic has described as his _griffe

-endiablée_.

-

- [Illustration: _Francesco Guardi._

-                 S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-His masterly and spirited painting of crowds enables him to reproduce

-for us all those public ceremonies which Venice retained as long as the

-Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the Doge to Venetian churches, to

-the Salute to commemorate the cessation of the plague, to San Zaccaria

-on Easter Day, the solemn procession on Corpus Christi Day, receptions

-of ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast of the Wedding of

-the Adriatic. He has faithfully preserved the ancient ceremonial which

-accompanied State festivities. In the "Fête du Jeudi Gras" (Louvre) he

-illustrates the acrobatic feats which were performed before Doge

-Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is erected on the Piazzetta, and

-gondoliers are seen climbing on each other's shoulders and dancing upon

-ropes. His motley crowds show that the whole population, patricians as

-well as people, took part in the feasts. He has also left many striking

-interiors: among others, that of the Sala del Gran Consiglio, where

-sometimes as many as a thousand persons were assembled, the "Reception

-of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV." (which formed one of the series

-ordered by Pietro Edwards), or the fine "Interior of a Theatre,"

-exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts in 1911, belonging to a series

-of which another is at Munich.

-

-In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very faithful attention to nature.

-The landscape painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson points

-out, were not animated by any very genuine impulse to study nature

-minutely. It was the picturesque element which appealed to them, and

-they were chiefly concerned to reproduce romantic features, grouped

-according to fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes, introducing

-classic remains, triumphal arches, airy Palladian monuments. His

-_capricci_ include compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown with

-foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting of Venetian palaces, but in

-which the combination is carried out with so much sparkle and nervous

-life and such charm of style, that it is attractive and piquant rather

-than grotesque.

-

-England is richest in Guardis, of any country, but France in one respect

-is better off, in possessing no less than eleven fine paintings of

-public ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the originator of small

-sketches, and perhaps the precursor of those glib little views which are

-handed about the Piazza at the present day. His drawings are fairly

-numerous, and are remarkably delicate and incisive in touch. A large

-collection which he left to his son is now in the Museo Correr. In his

-later years he was reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches in

-the Piazza, parting with them for a few ducats, and in this way flooding

-Venice with small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by his _bottega_

-is said to be at the corner of the Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock

-Tower. The house in which he died still exists in the Campiello della

-Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to

-the Madonna attached to it. When quite an old man, Guardi paid a visit

-to the home of his ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol, and

-made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the route. To this day his name

-is remembered with pride in his Tyrolean valley.

-

-

-SOME WORKS OF GUARDI

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: Landscapes.

- Berlin.  Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.

- London.  Views in Venice.

- Milan.   Museo Civico: Landscapes.

-          Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.

- Oxford.  Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.

- Padua.   Views in Venice.

- Paris.   Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in

-            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; "Jeudi Gras" in Venice;

-            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.

- Turin.   Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.

- Venice.  Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.

- Verona.  Landscapes.

- Wallace Collection. The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);

-            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;

-            The Dogana.

-

-

-

-

- BIBLIOGRAPHY

-

-

-It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to read

-French, German, and Italian, for though translations appear of the most

-important works, there are many interesting articles and monographs of

-minor artists which are otherwise inaccessible.

-

-Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or opinions, yet

-delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable, and new editions

-and translations are constantly issued. Sansoni's edition (Florence),

-with Milanesi's notes, is the most authoritative; and for translations,

-those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs. Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition

-in the Temple classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).

-

-Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian artists, who

-published his _Maraviglie dell' arte_ nine years after Domenico

-Tintoretto's death, is only to be read in Italian, though the anecdotes

-with which his work abounds are made use of by every writer.

-

-Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Painting in North Italy_ (Murray) is a

-storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole, marvellously

-correct information and sound opinion. It supplies a foundation, fills

-gaps, and supplements individual biographies as no other book does. For

-the early painters, down to the time of the Bellini, _I Origini dei

-pittori veneziani_, by Professor Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a

-large book, written with mastery and insight, and well illustrated; _La

-Storia della pittura veneziana_ is another careful work, which deals

-very minutely with the early school of mosaics.

-

-In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has _The Brothers

-Bellini_ (Bell's Great Masters), and the reader should not fail to read

-Mr. Roger Fry's _Bellini_ (Artist's Library), a scholarly monograph,

-short but reliable, and full of suggestion and appreciation, though

-written in a cool, critical spirit. Dr. Hills has dealt ably with

-_Pisanello_ (Duckworth).

-

-Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work _Vittore Carpaccio_,

-translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and Paul Kristeller in the

-equally important _Mantegna_, translated by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans,

-1901), seem to have exhausted all that there is to be said for the

-moment concerning these two painters.

-

-It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson's two well-known

-volumes, _The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance_, and the _North

-Italian Painters of the Renaissance_ (Putnam). They are brilliant essays

-which supplement every other work, overflowing with suggestive and

-critical matter, supplying original thoughts, and summing up in a few

-pregnant words the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding

-stages.

-

-In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater's essay, included

-in _The Renaissance_. The author is not always well informed as to

-facts--he wrote in the early days of criticism--but he is rich in idea

-and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook's _Life of Giorgione_ (Bell's Great

-Masters) is full and interesting. Some authorities question his

-attributions as being too numerous, but whether we regard them as

-authentic works of the master or as belonging to his school, the

-illustrations he gives add materially to our knowledge of the

-Giorgionesque.

-

-When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Life

-of Titian_ (Murray, out of print), in two large volumes, is well written

-and full of good material, from which subsequent writers have borrowed.

-An excellent Life, full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts,

-was lately brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with

-illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian's technique.

-Sir Claude Phillips's Monograph on Titian will appeal to every thoughtful

-lover of the painter's genius, and Dr. Gronau has written a good and

-scholarly Life (Duckworth).

-

-Mr. Berenson's _Lorenzo Lotto_ must be read for its interest and

-learning, given with all the author's charm and lucidity. It includes an

-essay on Alvise Vivarini.

-

-My own _Tintoretto_ (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full account of

-the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively with the scheme

-and details of the Scuola di San Rocco. Professor Thode has written a

-detailed and profusely illustrated Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss

-Series, and the Paradiso has been treated at length and illustrated

-in great detail in a very scholarly _édition de luxe_ by Mr. F. O.

-Osmaston. It is the fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow

-that his judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture

-than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching sermons,

-there are few critics who have so many ideas to give us, or who are so

-informed with a deep love of art, and both _Modern Painters_ and the

-_Stones of Venice_ should be read.

-

-M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese, which is full

-of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to take a copy of Boschini's

-_Della pittura veneziana_, 1797, when visiting the galleries, the

-palaces, and the churches of Venice. His lists of the pictures, as they

-were known in his day, often open our eyes to doubtful attributions.

-Second-hand copies of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the

-later-century artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of their

-period is supplied by Philippe Monnier's delightful _Venice in the

-Eighteenth Century_ (Chatto and Windus), which also has a good chapter

-on the lesser Venetian masters. The best Life of Tiepolo is in Italian,

-by Professor Pompeo Molmenti. The smaller masters have to be hunted for

-in many scattered essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi's

-pictures. Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by M.

-Uzanne, _Les Deux Canaletto_; and Mr. Simonson has written an important

-and charming volume on Francesco Guardi (Methuen, 1904), with beautiful

-reproductions of his works. Among other books which give special

-information are Morelli's two volumes, _Italian Painters in Borghese and

-Doria Pamphili_, and _In Dresden and Munich Galleries_, translated by

-Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter's magnificent

-catalogue of the Mond Collection--which, though published at fifteen

-guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries--has some valuable

-chapters on the Venetian masters.

-

-

-

-

-INDEX

-

-

- Academy, Florence, 28

-   Venice, 13, 16, 19, 32, 36, 38, 40, 43, 47, 52,

-     57, 67, 80, 102, 116, 117, 171, 183, 196, 202,

-     205, 206, 210, 211, 217, 219, 226, 227, 242,

-     262, 267, 271, 277, 281, 286, 295, 296, 308,

-     313, 320

- Adoration of Magi, 28, 31, 116, 131, 197, 205, 287

- Adoration of Shepherds, 116, 196, 222,

-     273, 275

- Agnolo Gaddi, 15

- Alemagna, Giovanni, 29-32, 36, 37, 58

- Altichiero, 24, 25

- Alvise Vivarini, 58-63, 65, 66, 69, 79,

-     104, 105, 112, 187, 190, 223, 330

- Amalteo, Pomponio, 219

- Amigoni, 292

- Anconæ, 12, 17, 18, 24, 36, 45, 59, 60, 187

- Angelico, Fra, 48

- Annunciation, 16, 26, 45, 178, 183, 258, 286

- Antonello da Messina, 50, 51, 59, 62, 66

- Antonio da Murano, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 58

- Antonio Negroponte, 37, 44

- Antonio Veneziano, 15

- Aretino, 163, 166, 167, 172-174, 182, 192,

-     201, 234, 236, 240

- Ascension, 41

- Augsburg, 176, 266, 276

-

- Badile, 229

- Balestra, 287

- Baptism of Christ, 41, 98, 255

- Bartolommeo Vivarini, 32, 36, 37, 38, 48, 58, 59,

-     64, 189, 223, 225

- Basaiti, Marco, 104, 111-116

- Bassano, 10, 247, 269-276, 282

- Bastiani, Lazzaro, 70, 73, 79

- Battoni, Pompeo, 297, 298

- Bellini, Gentile, 48-57, 68, 70, 81, 83, 89, 90,

-     99, 101, 103, 146

- Bellini, Giovanni, 10, 43, 48, 55, 61, 62, 63, 69,

-     78, 81, 82, 84-89, 90, 92, 94-101, 103, 104,

-     107, 109, 112-114, 122, 123, 127, 129, 130,

-     134, 140, 146, 147, 152, 155, 158, 159, 179,

-     186, 187, 223, 225, 318, 329, 330

- Bellini, Jacopo, 27, 28, 39-43, 58, 81-84, 86

- Belotto, 315, 319-331

- Bembo, Cardinal, 97, 111, 174, 240

- Benson, Mr., 47, 80, 116, 117, 143

- Berenson, Mr., 156, 187, 195, 210, 221, 229, 243,

-     307, 330

- Bergamo, 101, 114, 116, 117, 141, 143, 185, 188,

-     190, 196, 211, 219, 226, 227, 276, 308, 313, 328

- Berlin, 19, 32, 35, 47, 57, 66, 80, 101, 115-117,

-     139, 182, 196, 211, 223, 226, 227, 266, 308, 328

- Bissolo, 104, 114, 115, 117

- Blanc, M. Charles, 240, 288, 298

- Bologna, 36, 38, 60, 167, 288, 309

- Bonifazio, 203-206, 210, 243, 245, 250, 270, 281, 310

- Bonsignori, 224, 275

- Bordone, Paris, 203, 206, 208-211, 219, 231, 290

- Borghese, Villa, 154, 188, 194, 197, 331

- Boschini, 104, 282, 287, 331

- Boston, 139

- Botticelli, 127, 159

- Brera, 47, 57, 101, 115, 117, 143, 194, 205, 209,

-     211, 251, 304

- Brescia, 182, 196, 219, 220, 222, 226, 227

- Bridgewater House, 182, 211

- British Museum, 41, 263

- Broker's patent, 130, 169, 248

- Brusasorci, 229

- Buonconsiglio, 223, 224

- Burckhardt, 298

- _Burlington Magazine_, 18

- Byzantine art, 11, 13, 21

-

- Calderari, 219

- Carlevaris, Luca, 292, 315

- Caliari, Carlotto, 282

- Caliari, Paolo. _See_ Veronese

- Campagnola, Domenico, 151

- Canal, Fabio, 307

- Canale, Gian Antonio, 292, 298, 314-320, 322, 331

- Canaletto. _See_ Canale

- Caravaggio, 288

- Cariani, 141-143, 204

- Carpaccio, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 79, 80, 103,

-     122, 123, 146, 191

- Carracci, 88, 288, 298

- Carriera. _See_ Rosalba Carriera

- Castagno, Andrea del, 27, 48

- Castello, Milan, 51

- Catena, Vincenzo, 104, 108-111, 114, 202, 206

- Cathedrals, Ascoli, 47

-   Bassano, 270, 276

-   Conegliano, 115

-   Cremona, 215, 220, 226

-   Murano, 109

-   Spilimbergo, 226

-   Treviso, 183, 211, 215, 226

-   Verona, 183, 227

- Celesti, 287

- Chelsea Hospital, 289

- Churches--

-   Bergamo.

-     S. Alessandro, 117, 196

-     S. Bartolommeo, 188

-     S. Bernardino, 190

-     S. Spirito, 114, 117, 196

-   Brescia.

-     S. Clemente, 227

-     SS. Nazaro e Celso, 182

-   Castelfranco.

-     S. Liberale, 132

-   S. Daniele.

-     S. Antonino, 212, 214, 226

-   Padua.

-     Eremitani, 48, 83, 224

-     Il Santo, 25, 227

-     S. Giustina, 220, 242

-     S. Maria in Vanzo, 276

-     S. Zeno, 48

-   Pesaro.

-     S. Francesco, 102

-   Piacenza.

-     Madonna di Campagna, 216

-   Ravenna.

-     S. Domenico, 117

-   Rome.

-     S. Maria del Popolo, 200

-     S. Pietro in Montorio, 200, 202

-   Venice.

-     S. Alvise, 304

-     SS. Apostoli, 307, 308

-     S. Barnabà, 242

-     Carmine, 107, 116, 197

-     S. Cassiano, 267

-     SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, 245

-     S. Fava, 288, 308

-     S. Francesco della Vigna, 37, 38, 242

-     Gesuati, 296

-     S. Giacomo dell' Orio, 197, 277

-     S. Giobbe, 67, 78, 92, 95, 113

-     S. Giorgio Maggiore, 259, 263, 267

-     S. Giovanni in Bragora, 17, 38, 64, 67, 98,

-         106, 116, 211

-     S. Giovanni Crisostomo, 98, 102

-     S. Giovanni Elemosinario, 168, 287

-     SS. Giovanni and Paolo, 53, 101, 116

-     S. Maria Formosa, 31, 38, 196

-     S. Maria dei Frari, 38, 65, 67, 92, 93, 102,

-         112, 157, 161, 180, 183, 219, 275, 307

-     S. Maria Mater Domini, 109, 116, 267

-     S. Maria dei Miracoli, 20

-     S. Maria dell' Orto, 102, 106, 116, 249, 267

-     S. Maria della Salute, 173, 262, 267, 317, 324, 325

-     S. Mark's, 14, 19, 27, 49, 53, 247, 287

-     S. Pantaleone, 30, 285, 287

-     Pietà, 221, 227, 308

-     S. Pietro in Castello, 287, 296

-     S. Pietro in Murano, 92, 93

-     S. Polo, 259, 267

-     Redentore, 63, 64, 67, 117

-     S. Rocco, 267, 296

-     S. Salvatore, 178, 183

-     Scalzi, 308

-     S. Sebastiano, 230, 236, 241, 242

-     S. Spirito, 173

-     S. Stefano, 260, 267

-     S. Trovaso, 16, 116, 267

-     S. Vitale, 79, 80

-     S. Zaccaria, 17, 97, 112, 134, 325

-   Verona.

-     S. Anastasia, 24, 25, 28, 31, 41

-     S. Antonio, 24, 28

-     S. Fermo, 26, 28

-     S. Tomaso, 296

-   Vicenza.

-     S. Corona, 98, 102, 227

-     Monte Berico, 105, 223, 224, 227, 242

- Cima da Conegliano, 66, 98, 99, 103-108, 123, 322

- Colombini, 319

- Confraternity, Carità, 171

-   S. Mark, 69, 206, 245

- Contarini, Giovanni, 287

- Cook, Sir F., 183

- Cook, Mr. Herbert, 330

- Correggio, 189, 300

- Correr Museum (Museo Civico), 19, 79, 84, 87, 102,

-     117, 287, 311, 313, 326

- Crivelli, Carlo, 38, 44-47, 189

- Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 215, 329, 330

- Crucifixion, 25, 41, 84, 255, 256, 262

-

- Dante, 264

- David, 297, 313

- Doges--

-   Barbarigo, 93

-   Dandolo, 11

-   Giustiniani, 49

-   Gradenigo, 206

-   Grimani, 170

-   Loredano, 100, 109

-   Mocenigo, 325

- Donatello, 34, 82, 87

- Doria Gallery, 194, 331

- Dresden, 139, 182, 196, 210, 211, 242, 266, 276,

-     294, 296, 320

- Dürer, Albert, 59, 99, 150

-

- Edwards, Pietro, 323, 325

- Este, 305

- Este, Isabela d', 96, 97, 159, 229

-

- Fabriano, Gentile da, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31,

-     33, 39, 42, 62

- Florence, 4, 9, 21, 22, 28, 101, 117, 122, 123,

-     139, 182, 197, 202, 211, 242, 266

- Florentine, 3, 5, 7, 35, 121, 122, 125, 135, 153,

-     199, 200, 251

- Florigerio, 217

- Fondaco dei Tedeschi, 129, 130, 147

- Fragonard, 33

- Fry, Mr. Roger, 85, 89, 330

- Fumiani, Gianbattista, 285, 286

-

- Gaston de Foix, 222

- Giambono, Michele, 17, 18, 27

- Giordano, Luca, 285

- Giorgione, 10, 65, 97, 113, 125, 126-135, 137,

-     139-142, 147-149, 152-155, 166, 177, 179,

-     184-187, 193, 206, 210, 213, 214, 216, 219,

-     222, 310, 330

- Giotto, 4, 11, 15, 24, 33, 86

- Goldoni, Carlo, 312, 331

- Goncourt, de, 313

- Guardi, Francesco, 298, 321-324, 326, 328, 331

- Guariento, 15, 17, 62, 122

- Guercino, 297

- Guido, 297

- Guilds, 12, 16, 22, 23, 29, 39, 75, 198, 251

- Guillaume de Guilleville, 94

-

- Hampton Court, 143, 210, 211, 219, 266, 289, 320

- Hazlitt, 6, 8

- Hogarth, 289, 312

-

- Jacobello del Fiore, 16, 19, 27, 164

- Jacopo Bellini. _See_ Bellini

-

- Kristeller, M. Paul, 330

-

- Lancret, 311

- Last Judgment, 238

- Last Supper, 237, 208, 259

- Layard, Lady, 50, 57, 80, 116

- Lazzarini, Gregorio, 286, 287, 296, 300

- Leonardo, 122, 127, 136, 140, 159, 162

- Liberi, Pietro, 285, 287, 295

- Licinio, Bernardino, 218

- Licinio, G. A. _See_ Pordenone

- Lippo, Fra, 48

- London (National Gallery), 47, 57, 66, 100, 101,

-     115-117, 133, 141, 143, 156, 159, 182, 197,

-     201, 202, 208, 211, 218, 221, 222, 226, 227,

-     242, 261, 266, 276, 308, 313, 320, 328

- Longhi, Pietro, 288, 298, 309-313

- Lorenzo di San Severino, 46

- Lorenzo Veneziano, 16, 17, 19

- Loreto, 193, 197

- Lotto, Lorenzo, 172, 186, 187-196, 204, 222, 224,

-     275, 330

- Louvre, 40, 41, 43, 50, 57, 66, 115-117, 143, 161,

-     165, 177, 178, 182, 196, 202, 211, 233, 235,

-     242, 266, 277, 297, 308, 320, 328

- Luciani. _See_ Sebastian del Piombo

- Ludwig, Professor, 94, 203, 330

-

- Madrid, 139, 150, 182, 264, 266, 302, 304

- Mansueti, Giovanni, 56, 79

- Mantegna, 39, 42, 49, 58, 59, 77, 84, 96, 159, 215,

-     223, 224, 300, 318, 330

- Marieschi, 319

- Martino da Udine. _See_ Pellegrino

- Maser, Villa, 231, 242

- Masolino, 41

- Mengs, Raphael, 302

- Michelangelo, 110, 121, 122, 137, 164, 174, 199,

-     200-202, 244, 249, 300

- Milan, Ambrosiana, 66, 116, 275, 276

-   Brera. _See_ Brera

- Mocetto, Girolamo, 225

- Molmenti, Professor, 330, 331

- Mond Collection, 18, 20, 47, 49, 101

- Monnier, Philippe, 306, 331

- Montagna, Bartolommeo, 105, 114, 222-224, 270

- Morelli, 177, 203, 331

- Moretto, 221, 222

- Morto da Feltre, 130, 214

- Munich, 116, 183

- Murano, 29, 102, 116, 217, 226

- Museo Civico. _See_ Correr

-

- Naples, 50, 57, 66, 102, 183

- National Gallery. _See_ London

- Niccolo di Pietro, 16, 17, 20

- Niccolo Semitocolo, 16, 17, 19

-

- Osmaston, Mr. F. O., 331

-

- Padovanino, Il, 286, 196

- Padua, 19, 28, 34-37, 49, 59, 82, 86, 87, 116, 151,

-     155, 183, 223, 226, 227, 242, 272, 276

- Palaces--

-   Milan.

-     Archinto, 301, 308

-     Clerici, 301

-     Dugnani, 301, 304

-   Rome.

-     Colonna, 196

-   Strà.

-     Pisani, 302

-   Venice.

-     Ducal, 15, 87, 90, 102, 109, 114-117, 170, 183,

-         211, 235, 236, 242, 260, 265, 267, 269, 272,

-         277, 281, 295, 308, 316

-     Giovanelli, 136

-     Labia, 304, 308

-     Rezzonico, 308

-   Verona.

-     Canossa, 302

-   Würzburg, 301, 308

- Palma Giovine, 285, 287, 295

- Palma Vecchio, 141, 184-188, 196, 203, 204, 214,

-     219, 231, 244

- Paolo da Venezia, 14

- Paris. _See_ Louvre

- Parma, 115

- Pellegrino, 213, 214, 219, 226

- Pennacchi, 104, 214

- Perugino, 133, 134, 202

- Pesaro, 90, 94, 102

- Pesellino, 48

- Piacenza, 216, 226

- Piero di Cosimo, 135

- Pietà, 86, 87, 179, 199, 223, 224

- Pintoricchio, 74, 135

- Pisanello (Pisano), 21, 22, 24-28, 31, 33, 34, 37,

-     39-42, 62, 224, 330

- Pordenone, 169, 170, 202, 204, 214-221, 226

- Previtali, 104, 114, 115

-

- Quirizio da Murano, 37

-

- Raphael, 140, 161, 174, 200, 213, 221, 234

- Ravenna, 117, 132

- Rembrandt, 285

- Ricci, Battista, 288, 300

- Ricci, Marco, 315

- Ricci, Sebastiano, 148, 288, 292, 296, 315

- Richter, Dr. J. P., 331

- Ricketts, Mr. C., 330

- Ridolfi, 108, 229, 234, 247, 282, 287, 329

- Rimini, 87, 89, 102

- Robusti, Domenico, 246, 282

- Robusti, Jacopo. _See_ Tintoretto

- Robusti, Marietta, 246

- Romanino, 219-221

- Rome, 143, 183, 188, 196, 197, 202, 211, 227, 267,

-     277, 314, 319

- Rondinelli, 104, 114, 117

- Rosalba Carriera, 288, 292-294, 296

- Rubens, 160, 165, 170, 285

- Ruskin, 264, 331

-

- Sansovino, 92, 167, 174, 192

- Santa Croce, Girolamo da, 56

- Sarto, Andrea del, 137, 140

- Savoldo, 66, 222

- Sebastian del Piombo, 140, 198, 199-202, 228

- Siena, 4, 11, 12

- Signorelli, 121

- Simonson, Mr., 322, 326, 331

- Smith, Joseph, 315, 323

- Speranza, 223

- Spilimbergo, 216, 226

- Strong, Mr. S. A., 329, 330

-

- Taylor, Miss Cameron, 94

- Tiepolo, Domenico, 307

- Tiepolo, G. B., 10, 297-307, 309, 312, 314, 315,

-     317, 318, 331

- Tintoretto, 10, 15, 25, 173, 179, 181, 210, 231,

-     234, 243, 245-251, 253-256, 258-267, 269, 273,

-     276, 281, 282, 285, 300, 317, 330, 331

- Titian, 65, 106, 130, 135, 137, 143, 144-160,

-     162-178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 191-193,

-     201, 204, 205, 210, 215, 217, 220, 221, 224,

-     231, 236, 239, 243-245, 250, 256, 265, 273-275,

-     281, 290, 318, 321, 330

- Torbido, Francesco, 225

- Treviso, 108, 183, 186, 202, 211, 215, 226, 239

-

- Uccello, Paolo, 26, 42, 48

- Urbino, 163, 168, 174

- Uzanne, M. O., 331

-

- Valmarana, Villa, 303

- Varotari. _See_ Padovanino

- Vasari, 15, 89, 130, 148, 169, 170, 174, 178, 199,

-     209, 219, 225, 247, 329

- Vecellio. _See_ Titian

- Vecellio, Marco, 171

- Vecellio, Orazio, 164, 174

- Vecellio, Pomponio, 166

- Velasquez, 285

- Venice. _See_ Academy

- Venturi, Professor Antonio, 40

- Venturi, Professor Leonello, vi, 38, 329

- Verona, 22, 24, 25, 28, 183, 227, 229, 242, 302,

-     315, 328

- Veronese, Paolo, 221, 228, 230-242, 247, 253, 269,

-     281, 283, 310, 331

- Vicentino, 287

- Vicenza, 57, 102, 185, 227, 242-277, 296, 303, 307

- Vienna, 67, 80, 110, 116, 117, 131, 143, 149, 183,

-     196, 197, 211, 242, 268, 277, 320

- Visentini, 319

- Viterbo, 202

- Vivarini. _See_ Alvise

- Vivarini. _See_ Bartolommeo

-

- Wallace Collection, 183, 320, 328

- Walpole, Horace, 292, 294, 319

- Watteau, 297, 311, 312

- Wickhoff, Dr., 154

- Windsor, 47, 320

-

- Yriarte, M. Charles, 229, 331

-

- Zanetti, 129, 148, 246, 269, 282, 283, 301

- Zelotti, 230

- Zoppo, Marco, 44

- Zucchero, Federigo, 236

-

-

-

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-<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Venetian School of Painting, by Evelyn

-March Phillipps</h1>

-<pre>

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

-with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>

-<p>Title: The Venetian School of Painting</p>

-<p>Author: Evelyn March Phillipps</p>

-<p>Release Date: September 26, 2009  [eBook #30098]</p>

-<p>Language: English</p>

-<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>

-<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING***</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<h3>E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Anne Storer,<br />

-    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />

-    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="notes">

-Transcriber&#8217;s Note:<br />

-<br />

-Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some

-questionable dates have been left as printed in the original

-text.<br />

-<br />

-Text underlined in blue indicates a transcriber's note. Hover

-the cursor over the text to see the note.</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<hr class="full" />

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<h1>VENETIAN</h1>

-

-<h1>SCHOOL OF PAINTING</h1>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;">

-<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="392" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giorgione.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MADONNA WITH S.

-LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Castelfranco.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h6>

-The Venetian<br />

-School of Painting</h6>

-

-<h3>BY</h3>

-<h2>EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p class="center"><em>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</em></p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p class="center"><span style="font-size: larger;"><strong>BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES PRESS</strong></span><br />

-FREEPORT, NEW YORK</p>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-

-<p class="center"><strong>First Published 1912</strong><br />

-<strong>Reprinted 1972</strong></p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER:<br />

-0-8369-6745-3</p>

-

-<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER:<br />

-70-37907</p>

-

-<p class="center" style="font-size: small;">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br />

-BY<br />

-NEW WORLD BOOK MANUFACTURING CO., INC.<br />

-HALLANDALE, FLORIDA 33009</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>PREFACE</h2>

-

-

-<p>Many visits to Venice have brought home

-the fact that there exists, in English at least,

-no work which deals as a whole with the

-Venetian School and its masters. Biographical

-catalogues there are in plenty, but these, though

-useful for reference, say little to readers who are

-not already acquainted with the painters whose

-career and works are briefly recorded. &ldquo;Lives&rdquo;

-of individual masters abound, but however excellent

-and essential these may be to an advanced

-study of the school, the volumes containing

-them make too large a library to be easily

-carried about, and a great deal of reading and

-assimilation is required to set each painter in

-his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle&#8217;s

-<em>History of Painting in North Italy</em> still

-remains our sheet anchor; but it is lengthy, over

-full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a></span>

-interesting criticism which of late years has collected

-round each master. There seems room

-for a portable volume, making an attempt to

-consider the Venetian painters, in relation to

-one another, and to help the visitor not only

-to trace the evolution of the school from its

-dawn, through its full splendour and to its

-declining rays, but to realise what the Venetian

-School was, and what was the philosophy of

-life which it represented.</p>

-

-<p>Such a book does not pretend to vie with,

-much less to supersede, the masterly treatises on

-the subject which have from time to time

-appeared, or to take the place of exhaustive

-histories, such as that of Professor Leonello

-Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should

-but serve to pave the way to deeper and more

-detailed reading. It does not aspire to give a

-complete and comprehensive list of the painters;

-some of the minor ones may not even be

-mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates,

-and facts would add unduly to the size of the

-book, and, when without real bearing on

-the course of Venetian art, would have little

-significance. What the book does aim at is to

-enable those who care for art, but may not have

-mastered its history, to rear a framework on

-which to found their own observations and appreciations;

-to supply that coherent knowledge

-which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance

-with beautiful things, and to place the unscientific

-observer in a position to take greater advantage

-of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and

-interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic

-apprehension which the Venetian School comprises,

-and which marks it as the outcome and

-the symbol of a great historic age.</p>

-

-<p>The works cited have been principally those

-with which the ordinary traveller is likely to

-come into contact in the chief European galleries,

-and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not

-propose to be exhaustive, but merely indicate

-the principal works of the artists. Those in

-private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate

-importance, are usually eliminated. It has

-not been thought necessary to use profuse illustrations,

-as the book is intended primarily for

-use when visiting the original works.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>CONTENTS</h2>

-

-<div class='center'>

-<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART I</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER I</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Venice and her Art</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER II</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Primitive Art in Venice</span></td> <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER III</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Influences of Umbria and Verona</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER IV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The School of Murano</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER V</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Paduan Influence</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Jacopo Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Carlo Crivelli</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER VIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Gentile Bellini and Antonello da Messina</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER IX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Alvise Vivarini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER X</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Carpaccio</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giovanni Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giovanni Bellini</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cima da Conegliano and other Followers of Bellini</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART II</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giorgione</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Giorgione</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Giorgionesque</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XVIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XIX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Titian</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palma Vecchio and Lorenzo Lotto</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sebastian del Piombo</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bonifazio and Paris Bordone</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Painters of the Venetian Provinces</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Paolo Veronese</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXV</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tintoretto</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tintoretto</span> (<em>continued</em>)</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bassano</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">PART III</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXVIII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Interim</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXIX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tiepolo</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXX</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pietro Longhi</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXXI</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Canale</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <th colspan="3">CHAPTER XXXII</th>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Francesco Guardi</span></td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>&nbsp;</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-

-<tr>  <td align='left'>BIBLIOGRAPHY</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_329">329</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td align='left'>INDEX</td>  <td class="tdp"></td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>

-

-<div class='center'>

-

-<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-

-<tr>  <td align='right'></td>  <td class="td2"></td>

-           <td class="td3">BY</td>  <td class="td4">AT</td>  <td align='right'></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td style="vertical-align: top;" class="td1">1.</td>  <td class="td2">Madonna with S. Liberale and S. Francis</td>

-           <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" class="td3">Giorgione</td>  <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" class="td4">Castelfranco</td>  <td style="vertical-align: bottom;" align='right'><em><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></em></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">2.</td>  <td class="td2">Adoration  of the Magi</td>

-           <td class="td3">Antonio da Murano</td>  <td class="td4">Berlin</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">3.</td>  <td class="td2">Agony in Garden</td>

-           <td class="td3">Jacopo Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">British Museum</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#agony">41</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">4.</td>  <td class="td2">Procession of the Holy Cross</td>

-           <td class="td3">Gentile Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">5.</td>  <td class="td2">Altarpiece of 1480</td>

-           <td class="td3">Alvise Vivarini</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#altar">60</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">6.</td>  <td class="td2">Arrival of the Ambassadors</td>

-           <td class="td3">Carpaccio</td>  <td class="td4">Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">7.</td>  <td class="td2">Piet&agrave;</td>

-           <td class="td3">Giovanni Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Brera</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#pieta">87</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">8.</td>  <td class="td2">An Allegory</td>

-           <td class="td3">Giovanni Bellini</td>  <td class="td4">Uffizi</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#allegory">94</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">9.</td>  <td class="td2">F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre</td>

-           <td class="td3">Giorgione</td>  <td class="td4">Louvre</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#champ">136</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">10.</td>  <td class="td2">Portrait of Ariosto</td>

-           <td class="td3">Titian</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#aris">156</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">11.</td>  <td class="td2">Diana and Actaeon</td>

-           <td class="td3">Titian</td>  <td class="td4">Earl Brownlow</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#diana">161</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">12.</td>  <td class="td2">Holy Family</td>

-           <td class="td3">Palma Vecchio</td>  <td class="td4">Colonna Gallery, Rome</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#holy">185</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">13.</td>  <td class="td2">Portrait of Laura di Pola</td>

-           <td class="td3">Lorenzo Lotto</td>  <td class="td4">Brera</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#laura">194</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">14.</td>  <td class="td2">Marriage in Cana</td>

-           <td class="td3">Paolo Veronese</td>  <td class="td4">Louvre</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">15.</td>  <td class="td2">S. Mary of Egypt</td>

-           <td class="td3">Tintoretto</td>  <td class="td4">Scuola di San Rocco</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#egypt">258</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">16.</td>  <td class="td2">Bacchus and Ariadne</td>

-           <td class="td3">Tintoretto</td>  <td class="td4">Ducal Palace</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#bacchus">261</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">17.</td>  <td class="td2">Baptism of S. Lucilla</td>

-           <td class="td3">Jacopo da Ponte</td>  <td class="td4">Bassano</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#bapt">274</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">18.</td>  <td class="td2">Antony and Cleopatra</td>

-           <td class="td3">Tiepolo</td>  <td class="td4">Palazzo Labia, Venice</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#cleo">304</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">19.</td>  <td class="td2">Visit to the Fortune-Teller</td>

-           <td class="td3">Pietro Longhi</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#visit">310</a></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td1">20.</td>  <td class="td2">S. Maria della Salute</td>

-           <td class="td3">Francesco Guardi</td>  <td class="td4">National Gallery</td>  <td align='right'><a href="#della">324</a></td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<h2>LIST OF PAINTERS</h2>

-

-<div class="box">

-<p>

-Paolo da Venezia, <em>fl.</em> 1333-1358.<br />

-Niccolo di Pietro, <em>fl.</em> 1394-1404.<br />

-Niccolo Semitocolo, <em>fl.</em> 1364.<br />

-Stefano di Venezia, <em>fl.</em> 1353.<br />

-Lorenzo Veneziano, <em>fl.</em> 1357-1379.<br />

-Chatarinus, <em>fl.</em> 1372.<br />

-Jacobello del Fiore, <em>fl.</em> 1415-1439.<br />

-Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.<br />

-Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), <em>circa</em> 1385-1455.<br />

-Michele Giambono, <em>fl.</em> 1470.<br />

-Giovanni Alemanus, <em>fl.</em> 1440-1447.<br />

-Antonio da Murano, <em>circa</em> 1430-1470.<br />

-Bartolommeo Vivarini, <em>fl.</em> 1420-1499.<br />

-Alvise Vivarini, <em>fl.</em> 1461-1503.<br />

-Antonello da Messina, <em>circa</em> 1444-1493.<br />

-Jacopo Bellini, <em>fl.</em> 1430-1466.<br />

-Jacopo dei Barbari, <em>circa</em> 1450-1516.<br />

-Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.<br />

-Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.<br />

-Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.<br />

-Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.<br />

-Gentile Bellini, <em>circa</em> 1427-1507.<br />

-Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.<br />

-Lazzaro Bastiani, <em>fl.</em> 1470-1508.<br />

-Vittore Carpaccio, <em>fl.</em> 1478-1522.<br />

-Girolamo da Santa Croce.<br />

-Mansueti, <em>fl.</em> 1474-1510.<br />

-Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.<br />

-Vincenzo Catena, <em>fl.</em> 1495-1531.<br />

-Bissolo, 1464-1528.<br />

-Marco Basaiti, <em>circa</em> 1470-1527.<br />

-Andrea Previtali, <em>fl.</em> 1502-1525.<br />

-Bartolommeo Veneto, <em>fl.</em> 1505-1555.<br />

-N. Rondinelli, <em>fl.</em> 1480-1500.<br />

-Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.<br />

-Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.<br />

-Giovanni Busi (Cariani), <em>circa</em> 1480-1544.<br />

-Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.<br />

-Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.<br />

-Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.<br />

-Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).<br />

-Morto da Feltre, <em>circa</em> 1474-1522.<br />

-Romanino, 1485-1566.<br />

-Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.<br />

-Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.<br />

-Bernardino Licinio, <em>fl.</em> 1520-1544.<br />

-Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), <em>circa</em> 1498-1554.<br />

-Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), <em>fl.</em> 1510-1540.<br />

-Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.<br />

-Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.<br />

-Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.<br />

-Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.<br />

-Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.<br />

-Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.<br />

-Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.<br />

-Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.<br />

-Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.<br />

-Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.<br />

-Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.<br />

-G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.<br />

-Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.<br />

-Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.<br />

-Belotto, 1720-1780.<br />

-Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.</p></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>

-<h2>PART I</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>VENICE AND HER ART</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether

-in character from that of every other part of

-Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and

-recognisable of all the schools; its singularity

-is such that a novice in art can easily, in a

-miscellaneous collection, sort out the works

-belonging to it, and added to this unique character

-is the position it occupies in the domain

-of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast

-an epoch of art comparable in originality and

-splendour to that of her great Florentine rival;

-an epoch which is to be classed among the

-great art manifestations of the world, which has

-exerted, and continues to exert, incalculable

-power over painting, and which is the inspiration

-as well as the despair of those who try to

-master its secret.</p>

-

-<p>The other schools of Italy, with all their

-superficial varieties of treatment and feeling,

-depended for their very life upon the extent to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>

-which they were able to imbibe the Florentine

-influence. Siena rejected that strength and

-perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly

-struck out on independent lines, achieving a

-magnificent victory.</p>

-

-<p>Art in Florence made a strictly logical

-progress. As civilisation awoke in the old Latin

-race, it went back in every domain of learning

-to the rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin

-and the alien structures left by the long barbaric

-dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour

-had never been a barbarian; and as the mind was

-once more roused to conscious life, Florence

-entered readily upon that great intellectual

-movement which she was destined to lead.

-Her cast of thought was, from the first, realistic

-and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to

-know the truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate

-experiments, to see things as they really were;

-and when she reached the point at which art was

-ready to speak, we find that the governing motive

-of her language was this same predilection for

-reality, and it was with this meaning that her

-typical artists found a voice. No artist ever

-sought for truth, both physical and spiritual,

-more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke

-more distinctly the mind of his age and country;

-and as one generation follows another, art in

-Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied

-to the intellectual movement. The scientific

-predilection for <em>form</em>, for the representation

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>

-of things as they really are, characterises not

-Florentine painting alone, but the whole of

-Florentine art. It is an art of contributions

-and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at

-every step by dominating personalities, positively

-as well as relatively great, but with each member

-consciously absorbed in &ldquo;going one better&rdquo; than

-his predecessors, in solving problems and in

-mastering methods. Florentine art is the outcome

-of Florentine life and thought. It is part of

-the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason,

-of that exactitude of apprehension towards

-which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and

-the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards

-her, formed themselves on her pattern and

-worked upon the same lines, so that they

-have a certain general resemblance, and their

-excellence is in proportion to the thoroughness

-with which they have learned their lesson.</p>

-

-<p>The difference which separates Venetian from

-the rest of Italian painting is a fundamental one.

-Venice attains to an equally distinguished place,

-but the way in which she does it and the

-character of her contribution are both so

-absolutely distinct that her art seems to be the

-outcome of another race, with alien temperament

-and standards. Venice had, indeed, a history and

-a life of her own. Her entire isolation, from her

-foundation, gave her an independent government

-and customs peculiar to herself, but at the same

-time her people, even in their earliest and most

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>

-precarious struggles, were no barbarians who

-had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life.

-Among the refugees were persons of high birth

-and great traditions, and they brought with them

-to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some

-political training and some idea of how to reconstruct

-their shattered social fabric. The Venetian

-Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence

-in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area

-was, every feature and sentiment was concentrated

-and intensified. But one element above all permeates

-it and sets it apart from other European

-States. The Oriental element in Venice must

-never be lost sight of if we wish to understand

-her philosophy of art.</p>

-

-<p>There are some grounds, seriously accepted

-by the most recent historians, for believing that

-the first Venetian colonists were the descendants

-of emigrants who in prehistoric times had

-established themselves in Asia and who had

-returned from thence to Northern Italy. &ldquo;These

-colonists,&rdquo; says Hazlitt, &ldquo;were called Tyrrhenians,

-and from their settlements round the mouth of

-the Po the Venetian stock was ultimately

-derived.&rdquo; If the tradition has any truth, we

-think with a deeper interest of that instinct for

-commerce which seems to have been in the

-very blood of the early Venetians. Did it,

-indeed, come down to them from the merchants

-of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful

-trading race which stretched out its arms all

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>

-over Europe and penetrated even to our own

-island? From the first, Venice cut herself adrift,

-as far as possible, from Western ties, but she

-turned to Eastern people and to intercourse with

-the East with a natural affinity which savours

-of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived

-from her Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped

-with Eastern riches, must have assumed a deeply

-Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained

-many details peculiar to the East. The people

-observed a custom for choosing and dowering

-brides, which was of Asia. The national

-treatment of women was akin to that of an

-Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a

-retirement which recalled the life of the harem,

-only appearing on great occasions to display their

-brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled

-when they passed through the streets. The

-attachment of men to women had no intellectual

-bias, scarcely any sentiment, but &ldquo;went

-straight to the mark: the enjoyment of physical

-beauty.&rdquo; The position of women in Venice was

-a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine

-lady of the Renaissance, who was highly educated,

-deeply versed in men and in affairs, the fine flower

-of culture, and the queen of a brilliant society.

-The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry

-was of Semitic intensity and seemed insatiable,

-and the gratification of the senses was a

-deliberate State policy. But passionate as was

-the spirit of patriotism, enthusiastic the love and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>

-loyalty of the people, the civic spirit was absent.

-The masses were contented to live under a despotic

-rule and to be little despots in their own houses.

-In the twelfth century the people saw power pass

-into the hands of the aristocracy, and as long as

-the despotism was a benevolent one, the event

-aroused no opposition. Like Orientals, the

-Venetians had wild outbursts, and like them

-they quieted down and nothing came of them.

-As Mr. Hazlitt remarks, &ldquo;their occasional

-resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds

-of horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or

-enduring traces behind it. It established no

-principle. It taught no lesson.&rdquo; Venice was a

-Republic only in name. The whole aspect of

-her government is Eastern. Its system of

-espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and

-silent blows,&mdash;these are all Oriental traits, and

-the East entering into her whole life from

-without found a natural home awaiting it. We

-should be mistaken, however, in thinking that

-the Venetians in their great days were enervated

-and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to

-associate with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in

-the end drain the life out of her. &ldquo;It is the

-disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not

-the same thing.&rdquo; The Venetians were by nature

-men with a deep capacity for feeling, and it is

-this deep feeling which has so large a share in

-Venetian art.</p>

-

-<p>The painters of Venice were of the people

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>

-and had no wide intellectual outlook at its

-most splendid moment, such as was possessed by

-those men who in Florence were drawn into the

-company of the Medici and their court of

-scholars, and who all their lives were in the

-midst of a society of large aims and a free public

-spirit, in which men took their share of the

-responsibilities and honours of a citizen&#8217;s life.

-The merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested

-in the solving of problems. They

-pay a price, and they want a good show of colour

-and gilding for their money. Presently they

-buy from outside, and a half-hearted imitation

-of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian

-artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare

-itself with true spontaneity till it feels behind it

-the weight and unanimity of the whole body

-of the people. That true outburst was long in

-coming, but its seeds were fructifying deep in

-a congenial soil. They were fostered by the

-warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and

-at last the racial instinct speaks with no uncertain

-accent in the great domain of art, and

-speaks in a new and unexpected way; as

-splendid as, yet utterly unlike, the grand intellectual

-declaration of Florence.</p>

-

-<p>Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all

-her history, in all her character, is Eastern

-rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom of

-feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion

-as opposed to intellect. Her whole story tells

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>

-of a profoundly emotional and sensuous apprehension

-of the nature of things; and till the time

-comes when her artists are inspired to express

-that, their creations may be interesting enough,

-but they fail to reveal the true workings of

-her mind. When they do, they find a new

-medium and use it in a new way. Venetian

-colour, when it comes into its kingdom, speaks

-for a whole people, sensuous and of deep feeling,

-able for the first time to utter itself in art.</p>

-

-<p>We have to divide the history of the

-Venetian School into three parts. The first

-extends from the primitives to the end of

-Giovanni Bellini&#8217;s life. He forms a link

-between the first and second periods. The

-second begins with Giorgione and ends with

-Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the Venetian

-School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century

-revival, in which Tiepolo is the most

-conspicuous figure, and which is in an equal

-degree the expression of the life of its time.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its

-influence, was particularly strong in Venice,

-where mosaics adorned the cathedral of Torcello

-from the ninth century and St. Mark&#8217;s became

-a splendid storehouse of Byzantine art. The

-earliest mosaic on the fa&ccedil;ade of St. Mark&#8217;s was

-executed about the year 1250, those in the

-Baptistery date during the reign of Andrea

-Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354.

-Yet though the life of Giotto lies between these

-two dates, and his frescoes at Padua were within

-a few hours&#8217; journey, there is no sign that the

-great revolution in painting, which was making

-itself felt in every principal centre of Italy, had

-touched the richest and most peaceful of all her

-States.</p>

-

-<p>Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of

-Byzantinism. It rose as that of the mosaicists

-fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence

-and Siena in being for long almost imperceptible.

-Artists were looked upon merely as artisans in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>

-all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any

-other city they had been placed among the

-craftsmen. The statute of the Guild of Siena

-was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is

-the earliest of which we have any record, and

-bears the date of 1272. There is scarcely a

-word to indicate that pictures in the modern

-sense of the term existed. Painters were

-employed on the adornment of arms and of

-household furniture. Leather helmets and

-shields were painted, and such banners as we

-see in Paolo Uccello&#8217;s battlepieces. Painted

-chests and <em>cassoni</em> were already in demand, dishes

-and plates for the table and the surface of the

-table itself were treated in a similar way.

-Special regulations dealt with all these, and it

-is only at the end of the list that ancon&aelig; are

-mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework,

-having a compartment containing a

-picture of the Madonna and Child, and others

-with single figures of the saints, and these

-were the only pictures proper produced at this

-date. The demand for ancon&aelig; was, however,

-large, and they were very early placed, not only

-in the churches, but in the houses of patricians

-and burghers. Constant disputes arose between

-the painters and the gilders. Pictures were

-habitually painted upon a gold ground, but

-the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds

-themselves. &ldquo;Gilding is the business

-of the gilder, painting that of the painter,&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>

-says a contemporary record. &ldquo;Now the gilder

-contends that if a frame has to be gilt and

-then touched with colour, he is entitled to

-perform both operations, but the painter disputes

-this right, and maintains that the gilder should

-return it to him when the addition of painting

-is desired.&rdquo; It was, however, finally decided by

-law that each should exercise both professions,

-when one or the other played a subordinate

-part in the finished work. Though the art

-of mosaic was falling into decay as painting

-began to emerge, yet the commercial manufactory

-of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been

-established as early as 600, went on, on the Rialto,

-without any variation of the traditional forms.</p>

-

-<p>Florence very early discarded the temptation

-to cling to material splendour, but as we pass

-into the Hall of the Primitives in the Venetian

-Academy, we see at once that Venetian art,

-in its earlier stages, has more to do with the gilder

-than the painter. The Holy Personages are

-merely accessories to the gorgeous framework,

-the embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which

-were in favour with the rich and magnificent

-patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for

-painting as painting, no craving after the study

-of form as the outcome of intellectual activity,

-no zest of discovery, such as made the painter&#8217;s

-life in Florence an excitement in which the

-public shared. What little Venice imbibes of

-these things is from outside influence, after due

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>

-lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of

-merchants and statesmen, she was too much

-bound up in the transactions and sensations of

-actual life to develop any abstract and thoughtful

-ideals.</p>

-

-<p>Perhaps the first painting we can discover

-which shows any sign of independent effort is the

-series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the back

-of the Pala d&#8217; Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark,

-when it was restored in the fourteenth century.

-This reveals an artist with some pictorial aptitude

-and one alive to the subjects that surround him.

-It tells the story of St. Mark&#8217;s corpse transported

-to Venice. The first panel contains a group of

-cardinals of varying types and expressions; in

-another the disciple listening to St. Mark&#8217;s teaching,

-and crouching with his elbows on his knees,

-has a true, natural touch. The dramatic feeling

-here and there is considerable. The scene of the

-guards watching the imprisoned Saint through

-the window and seeing the shadow of two heads,

-as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct

-emotion; and there is force as well as feeling for

-decorative composition in the panel in which the

-Saint&#8217;s body lies at the feet of the sailors, while

-his vision appears shining upon the sails.</p>

-

-<p>Except for the exaggerated insistence on the

-gilded elaborations of the early ancona, there is

-not much to differentiate the early art of Venice

-from that of other centres; but we notice that it

-persevered longer in the material and mechanical

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>

-art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made little

-impression, and many years elapsed before work

-akin to that of Giotto attracted attention and was

-admired and imitated. A man like Antonio

-Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in

-Venice. He had too much of the simplicity of

-the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his work

-to Pisa, where his na&iuml;f and humorous narratives

-still delight us in the Campo Santo. It was in

-1384 that he was employed to finish the frescoes

-of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted

-at Andrea da Firenze&#8217;s death, and the

-fondness for architecture and surroundings in the

-Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome,

-may, as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo

-Gaddi, who had already visited Padua and

-Venice.</p>

-

-<p>In the last years of the fourteenth century

-tributary streams begin to feed the feeble main

-current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was

-employed by the State to paint a huge fresco of

-Paradise in the Hall of the Gran Consiglio of

-the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for

-centuries under the painting by Tintoretto, was

-uncovered in 1909 and found to be in fairly

-good preservation. It can now be seen in a side

-room. It tells us that Guariento had to some

-extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones

-have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more

-the Giottesque than the Byzantine cast and show

-that the old traditions were crumbling.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>

-When painting in Venice first begins to

-live a life of its own, Jacobello del Fiore stands

-out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous

-Venetians. His father had been president

-of the Painters&#8217; Guild. Jacopo himself was

-president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich

-and popular member of the State and a man

-of high character. His works, to judge by the

-specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of

-art, though in the banner of &ldquo;Justice,&rdquo; in the

-Academy, the space is filled in a monumental

-fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the

-lily has something grand and graceful. We

-trace the same treatment of flying banners and

-draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but

-picturesque S. Grisogono in the left transept of

-San Trovaso. Jacobello&#8217;s will, executed in 1439

-in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole,

-with provision for a possible posthumous son,

-shows him to have been a man of considerable

-possessions. He owned a slave and had other

-servants, a house, money, and books. Among his

-fellow-workers who are represented in Venice

-are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and

-Lorenzo Veneziano. The important altarpiece

-by the last, in the Academy, has evidently

-been reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover

-over the Annunciation, and the Saints have

-been restored to the framework in such wise

-that the backs of many of them are turned

-on the momentous central event. In the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>

-&ldquo;Marriage of St. Catherine,&rdquo; in the same

-gallery, Lorenzo gets more natural. The Child,

-in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a

-lively expression, and looks round at His Mother

-as if playing a game. The chapel of San Tarasio

-in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which the

-central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is

-identical with Lorenzo&#8217;s other work. One of

-the finest and most elaborate of all the ancon&aelig; is

-in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work

-of Lorenzo. In this, as well as in that of San

-Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child the apple,

-signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and

-symbolical of the Incarnation. This incident,

-which is found thus early in art, was evidently

-felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child

-from a representation of a merely earthly relationship

-to a spiritual scene of the deepest meaning

-and the highest dignity.</p>

-

-<p>Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of

-the last decade of the fourteenth century, from

-which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,

-but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively

-drawn to the Giottesque movement, but

-not, we may remember, before Giotto had been

-dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has

-been confounded with Niccolo Semitocolo, but

-it is now realised that they were two distinct

-masters. The most important work of Michele

-Giambono which has come down to us is the

-signed ancona with five saints, now in the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>

-Venetian Academy. It is unusual to find a saint

-in the central panel instead of the Madonna.

-The saint is on a larger scale than his companions,

-and has hitherto passed as the Redeemer,

-but Professor Venturi has identified him as

-St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell

-and pilgrim&#8217;s staff. It is clear from his size

-and position that the ancona has been painted for

-an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.</p>

-

-<p>The saints on the right are S. Michael and

-S. Louis of Toulouse. Between S. John the Evangelist

-and S. James is a monastic figure which

-has evidently changed places with S. John

-at some moment of restoration. If the two

-figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible.

-S. John is inculcating a message

-inscribed in his open book, while the monk is

-displaying his humble answer on his own page.

-The use in it of the term <em>servus</em> suggests that

-he is a Servite, though the want of the nimbus

-precludes the idea that he is one of the founders.

-It is probable that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who,

-though considered as a saint from the time of

-his death, was not canonised for several centuries.</p>

-

-<p>The Mond Collection includes a glowing

-picture by Giambono; a seated figure clad in

-rich vestments and holding an orb, probably

-representing a &ldquo;Throne,&rdquo; one of the angelic

-orders of the celestial

-Hierarchy.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>

-Works are still in existence which may be

-ascribed to one or other of these masters, or

-of which no attribution can be made, but we

-know nothing positive of any other artists of the

-time which preceded the influence of Gentile da

-Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that

-the Venetian School in its origin had any pretension

-to be a school of colour, or that it could

-claim anything like real excellence at a time

-when the Republic first became alive to the

-movement which was going on in other parts of

-Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Paolo da Venezia.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Mark&#8217;s: The Pala d&#8217; Oro.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Lorenzo da Venezia.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Nicoletto Semitocolo.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Stefano da Venezia.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of Semitocolo.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Jacobello del Fiore.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Justice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Niccolo di Pietro.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Michele Giambono.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: A &ldquo;Throne.&rdquo;</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master,

-when he reached Venice in the early years of

-the fifteenth century, was already a man of note.

-He had received his art education in Florence,

-and he brought with him fresh and delicate

-devices for the enrichment of painting with

-gold, which, derived as it was from the Sienese

-assimilation of Byzantine methods, was very

-superior in fancy and refinement to anything

-that Venice had to show. He was a man of a

-gentle, mystic temperament, but he was accustomed

-to courts, and a finished master whose

-technique and artistic value was far beyond anything

-that the local painters were capable of.

-He spent some years in Venice, adorning the

-great hall with episodes from the legend of

-Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially

-cited, was of the battle between the Emperor and

-the Venetians. Gentile was working till about

-1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were

-covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>

-some time in Bergamo and Brescia, and settled

-in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching

-Florence, he painted the famous &ldquo;Adoration

-of the Magi,&rdquo; now in the Florentine Academy.

-Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;

-pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo

-S. Trinit&agrave;, and he sent back two portraits after

-he had returned to his native Fabriano.</p>

-

-<p>We have no positive record of Gentile and

-Vittore Pisano, commonly called Pisanello,

-having met in Venice, but there is every

-evidence in their work that they did so, and

-that one overlapped the other in the paintings

-for the Ducal Palace.</p>

-

-<p>The School of Verona already had an honourable

-record, and its Guild dates from 1303.

-The following are its rules, the document of

-which is still preserved, while that of Venice

-has been lost:</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p><span class="smcap">Rules of the Veronese Guild</span> (<em>abridged</em>)</p>

-

-<p>1. No one to become a member who had not

-practised art for twelve years.</p>

-

-<p>2. Twelve artists to be elected members.</p>

-

-<p>3. The reception of a new member depends on his

-being a senior.</p>

-

-<p>4. The members are obliged in the winter season

-to take upon themselves the instruction of

-all the pupils in turn.</p>

-

-<p>5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.</p>

-

-<p>6. Each member is bound to extend to another

-fraternal assistance in necessity.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>

-7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.</p>

-

-<p>8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.</p>

-

-<p>9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.</p>

-

-<p>10. To follow the funerals of members with

-torches.</p>

-

-<p>11. The President is to exercise reference authority.</p>

-

-<p>12. The member who has the longest membership

-to be President.</p></div>

-

-<p>There were also by-laws, which provided

-that no master should accept a pupil for less

-than three years, and this acceptance had to

-be definitely registered by the public notary, a

-son, brother, grandson, or nephew being the

-only exceptions. No master might receive

-an apprentice who should have left another

-master before his time was out, unless with that

-master&#8217;s free consent. There were penalties for

-enticing away a pupil, and others to be enforced

-against pupils who broke the agreement. Severe

-restrictions existed with regard to the sale of

-pictures, no one but a member of the Guild

-being allowed to sell them. No one might

-bring a work from any foreign place for purposes

-of sale. It might not even be brought

-to the town without the special permission of

-the <em>Gastaldiones</em>, or trustees of the Guild, and

-those trustees were permitted to search for and

-destroy forged pictures. Every painter, therefore,

-had to subordinate his interests and inclinations

-to the local school. It helps us to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>

-understand why the individual character of the

-different masters is so perceptible, and one of

-the primary causes of this must have been the

-careful training of the pupils in the master&#8217;s

-workshop.</p>

-

-<p>The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello&#8217;s first

-master, in the Church of S. Anastasia in Verona,

-shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at

-this early time following in the footsteps of

-Giotto. Three knights of the Cavalli family

-are presented by their patron saints to the

-Madonna. The composition has a large simplicity,

-a breadth of feeling which is carried

-into each gesture. The knights with their

-raised helmets, in the pattern of horses&#8217; heads,

-are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and

-dignified, and the saints are grand and stately.

-The picture has a delightful suavity and ease,

-and the colouring has evidently been lovely.

-The setting is in good proportion and more

-satisfactory than that of the Giottesques. From

-the series of frescoes in S. Antonio, Verona,

-we gather that while Venice was still limited

-to stiff ancon&aelig;, the Veronese masters were

-managing crowds of figures and rendering distances

-successfully. Altichiero puts in homely

-touches from everyday life with a freedom

-which shows he has not yet mastered the

-principles of selection or the dignified fitness

-which guided the great masters; as, for instance,

-in the case of the old woman, among the spectators

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>

-of the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing

-her nose. He lets himself be drawn off by all

-manner of trivial detail and of gay costume; but

-again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the &ldquo;Beheading

-of St. George,&rdquo; in the Paduan chapel of the

-Santo, he proves how well he understands the

-force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in

-gesture and expression, while the decorative use

-he makes of lances against the background was

-long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly

-surpassed, by Tintoretto.</p>

-

-<p>Pisanello, who followed quickly upon

-Altichiero and his assistant, Avanzi, exhibits

-the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations

-which commended Gentile da Fabriano to the

-splendour-loving Venetians. Verona, under the

-peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri,

-had long been the home of all knightly

-lore, and the artists had been employed to

-decorate chapels for the families of the great

-nobles. Among these, Pisanello had attained a

-high place. Though very few of his paintings

-remain, they all show these influences, and his

-subtly modelled medals establish him as a

-master of the most finished type. A much

-destroyed fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays

-the history of St. George and the Dragon.

-In the St. George we probably see the portrait

-of the great personage in whose honour the

-fresco was painted. He is mounting his horse,

-which, seen from behind, reminds us of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>

-fore-shortened chargers of Paolo Uccello. The

-rescued princess, also a portrait, wears a magnificent

-dress and an elaborate headgear in the

-fashion of the day. Other horses, fiery and

-spirited, are grouped around, and in the band of

-cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is

-individualised; one is beautiful, another brutal,

-and so on through the seven. A greyhound and

-spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted,

-the background is excellent, and a realistic touch

-is given by the corpses which dangle unheeded

-from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined,

-but fortunately not restored, &ldquo;Annunciation&rdquo; in

-S. Fermo, has a simple, slender figure of the

-Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,

-with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed,

-child-like head with fair hair, is a most sweet

-and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in

-contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes

-round the church. All these paintings are too

-small to be the least effective at the height at

-which they are placed, and can only be seen

-with a good glass. Pisanello&#8217;s art is not well

-adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he seems to

-have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as

-the two we possess. In these he is full of

-originality, and shows his love for the knightly

-life, the life of courts, in the armed <em>cap-&agrave;-pied</em>

-figure of St. George, whose point-device armour

-is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat and feather.

-The artist&#8217;s knowledge and love of animals and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>

-wild nature comes out in them, and his interest

-in beauty and chivalry as opposed to the outworn

-conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.</p>

-

-<p>We shall be able to trace the influence of

-both the Umbrian and the Veronese painter

-on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo

-Bellini, and it is important to note the likeness

-of the two to one another. In Gentile&#8217;s

-&ldquo;Adoration&rdquo; we have on the one hand the

-Holy Family and the gay pageant of the kings,

-of which we could find the prototype in

-many an Umbrian panel. On the other we see

-those contrasting elements which were struggling

-in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals,

-in gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses.

-The two have no lasting effect, but though they

-created no actual school, they gave a stimulus to

-Venetian art, and started it on a new tack,

-enabling it to open its channels to fresh ideas.

-During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello

-del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new

-fashion to his early style, and the horse of

-S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in

-the &ldquo;Adoration,&rdquo; or like Pisano&#8217;s horses.

-Michele Giambono is actually found in collaboration,

-in the chapel of the Madonna da

-Mascoli in St. Mark&#8217;s, with such a virile

-painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno,

-who is evidently responsible for God the Father

-and two of the Apostles; but Castagno must

-have been thoroughly antipathetic to the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>

-Venetians, and though he may have taught

-them the way to draw, he has not left any

-traces of a following.</p>

-

-<p>Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile&#8217;s

-work in the Ducal Palace as already decaying,

-while Pisanello&#8217;s was painted out by Alvise

-Vivarini and Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Gentile da Fabriano.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Adoration of the Magi.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Altichiero.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pisanello.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Fermo: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE SCHOOL OF MURANO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The important little town of Murano, a satellite

-of Venice, lies upon an island, some ten minutes&#8217;

-row from the mother State, distinct from which

-it preserved separate interests and regulations.

-Its glass manufacture was safeguarded by the

-most stringent decrees, which forbade members

-of the Guild to leave the islet under pain of

-death. Its mosaics, stone work, and architecture

-speak of an early artistic existence, and we

-recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese

-painters to be the first to strike out into a more

-emancipated type than that of the primitives.

-The painter Giovanni of Murano, called

-Giovanni Alemanus or d&#8217; Alemagna, names

-between which Venetian jealousy for a time

-drew an imaginary distinction, had certainly

-received his early education in Germany, and

-betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more

-Gothic style; but he was a fellow-worker with

-Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great

-Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>

-large altarpieces in which they collaborated.

-&ldquo;Christ and the Virgin in Glory&rdquo; was painted

-for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an

-inscription with both names on a banderol across

-the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His

-hands on the shoulders of the Mother and Son,

-makes a group of which we find the origin in

-Gentile da Fabriano&#8217;s altarpiece in the Brera,

-and it is probable that one if not both masters

-had been studying with the Umbrian and

-absorbing the principles he had brought to

-Venice. It is easy to trace the influence of

-Giovanni d&#8217; Alemagna, though not always

-easy to pick out which part of a picture

-belongs to him and which to Antonio working

-under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is

-a &ldquo;Coronation of the Virgin,&rdquo; with Gothic

-ornaments such as are not found in purely

-Italian art at this period, but the example in

-which both masters can be most closely followed

-is the great picture in the Academy, the

-&ldquo;Madonna enthroned,&rdquo; where she sits under

-a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here the

-Gothic surroundings become very florid, and

-have a gingerbread-cake effect, which Italian

-taste would hardly have tolerated. Many

-features are characteristic of the German; the

-huge crown worn by the Mother, the floriated

-ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque

-appearance of the throne. Through it all,

-heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>

-the tender expression which came into Venetian

-art with Gentile.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="550" height="358" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Antonio da Murano.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ADORATION OF THE

-MAGI.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Berlin.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Hanfst&auml;ngl.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Giovanni d&#8217; Alemagna and Antonio da Murano

-were no doubt widely employed, and when the

-former died Antonio founded and carried on a

-real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in

-the parish of S. Maria Formosa with his wife,

-who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and

-the wills of both are still preserved in the parish

-archives. Gentile da Fabriano had set the

-example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses

-and strange animals; winding paths in the background

-and foreshortened limbs prove that attention

-had been drawn to Paolo Uccello&#8217;s studies

-in perspective, while many figures and horses

-recall Pisanello. A striking proof of the sojourn

-of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in

-an &ldquo;Adoration of Magi,&rdquo; now ascribed to

-Antonio da Murano, in which the central group,

-the oldest king kissing the Child&#8217;s foot, is very

-like that in Gentile&#8217;s &ldquo;Adoration,&rdquo; but the foreshortened

-horses and the attendants argue the

-painter&#8217;s knowledge of Pisanello&#8217;s work. A comparison

-of the architecture in the background

-with that in the &ldquo;St. George&rdquo; in S. Anastasia

-shows the same derivation, and the dainty cavalier,

-who holds a flag and is in attendance on the

-youngest king, is reminiscent of St. George and

-St. Eustace in Pisanello&#8217;s paintings in the National

-Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences

-of the two artists are combined.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>

-Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo,

-into partnership, and the title of da

-Murano was presently dropped for the more

-modern designation of Vivarini. Both brothers

-are fine and delicate in work, but from the outset

-of their collaboration the younger man is

-more advanced and more full of the spirit of the

-innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall of

-the Academy the Nativity has already a new

-realism; Joseph leans his head upon his hand,

-crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly

-vivid in expression, especially the old hermit

-holding the bell, whose face is brimming with

-ardent feeling.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Giovanni d&#8217; Alemanus and Antonio da Murano.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Murano.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Magi.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE PADUAN INFLUENCE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>And now into this dawning school, employed

-chiefly in the service of the Church, with its

-tentative and languid essays to understand

-Florentine composition, resulting in what is

-scarcely more than a mindless imitation, and

-with its rather more intelligent perception of the

-Humanist qualities of Pisanello&#8217;s work, there

-enters a new factor; or rather a new agency

-makes a slightly more successful attempt than

-Gentile and Castagno had done to help the

-Venetians to realise the supreme importance of

-the human figure, its power in relation to other

-objects to determine space, its modelling and

-the significance of its attitude in conveying

-movement. Giotto had been able to present all

-these qualities in the human form, but he had

-done so by the light of genius, and had never

-formulated any sufficient rules for his followers&#8217;

-guidance. In Ghiberti&#8217;s school, at the beginning

-of the fifteenth century, the fascination of the

-antique in art was making itself felt, but

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels

-it threatened to exercise, and had carried

-the Florentine school with him in his profound

-researches into the human form itself.

-Donatello had been working in Padua for ten

-years before Pisanello&#8217;s death, and in an indirect

-way the Venetians were experiencing some after-results

-of the systematising and formulating of the

-new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual

-life had met with little encouragement among

-the positive, practical inhabitants of Venice, in

-Padua, which had been subject to her since 1405,

-speculative thought and ideal studies were in

-full swing. There was no re-birth in Venice,

-whose tradition was unbroken and where &ldquo;men

-were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo

-of a paganism in the remote past.&rdquo; St. Mark

-was the deity of Venice, and &ldquo;the other twelve

-Apostles&rdquo; were only obscurely connected with

-her religious life, which was strong and orthodox,

-but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms and

-inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand,

-was absorbed in questions of learning and

-religion. A university had been established here

-for two centuries. The abstract study of the

-antique was carried on with fervour, and the

-memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city

-which had never quite died out. It seemed

-perfectly right and respectable to the Venetians

-that the <em>savants</em>, lying safely removed from the

-busy stream of commercial life, should cultivate

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>inquiries into theology and the classics, which

-would only have been a hindrance to their own

-practical business; but such, as it was well known,

-were of absorbing interest in the circles which

-gathered round the Medici in Florence. The

-school of art, which was now arising in Padua,

-was fed from such sources as these. The love of

-the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding

-principle, and influenced the art of painting more

-formally than it could succeed in doing among

-the independent and original Florentines.</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says,

-he may not have been the best of painters, has

-left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as

-genuine and which shows that he was more

-than the mere organiser he is sometimes called.

-He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently

-a dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments,

-which was becoming widespread. When

-he founded his school in Padua he evidently

-was its leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence.

-His pupils, even the greatest, were

-long in breaking away from his convention,

-and few of them threw it off entirely, even in

-after life. That convention was carried with

-undeviating thoroughness into every detail.

-Draperies are arranged in statuesque folds,

-designed to display every turn of the form

-beneath; the figures are moulded with all the

-precision and limitations of statuary. The very

-landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>volcanic character are constructed with the

-regularity of masonry. The colour and technique

-are equally uncompromising, and the surface

-becomes a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite

-in its lines, lacquer-like in its firmness of finish,

-while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been

-so prevalent, were replaced by more or less

-pedantic adaptations from Roman bas-reliefs.

-This system of design was practised most

-determinedly in Padua itself, but it soon spread

-to Venice. Squarcione himself was employed

-there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano

-clung to the old archaic style he saw the Paduan

-manner invading his kingdom, and his own

-brother became strongly Squarcionesque.</p>

-

-<p>The two brothers of Murano come most

-closely together in an altarpiece in the gallery of

-Bologna, where the framework is more simple

-than Alemanus&#8217;s German taste would have permitted,

-and the Madonna and Child have some

-natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive

-art. Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and

-sets out to paint by himself, is crude and strong, but

-full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464, in

-the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking

-them off their pedestals and making them stand

-upon the ground, and though they are still

-isolated from one another in the partitions of an

-ancona, their sparkling eyes, individual features,

-and curly beards give them a look of life. The

-draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>folds, which display the forms, and the drawing

-of the bony structure, exaggerated in the arms

-and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and

-stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In

-several of his other altarpieces, Bartolommeo

-introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,

-such as Donatello had first brought to Padua,

-or which Paduan artists delighted to copy from

-classic columns. Antonio&#8217;s manner to the end

-is the local Venetian manner, infused as it was

-with the soft and charming influence of Gentile

-da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo

-adopts the new and more ambitious style.

-Though not a very good painter, and inclined

-to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he

-was the head of a crowd of artists, and works of

-his school, signed <em>Opus factum</em>, went all over

-Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works

-of his pupils are numerous; the &ldquo;St. Mark enthroned&rdquo;

-in the Frari is as good if not better

-than the master&#8217;s own work, and the triptych in

-the Correr Museum is a free imitation.</p>

-

-<p>Round this early school gathered such

-painters as Antonio da Negroponte and Quirizio

-da Murano, who were both working in 1450.

-Negroponte has left an enthroned Madonna in

-S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of the

-most beautiful examples of colour and of the

-fanciful charm of the Renaissance that the early

-art of Venice has to show. The Mother and

-Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>with antique reliefs, rich wreaths of fruit swag

-above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full

-of flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on

-cornucopias. On either side, four badly drawn

-little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly

-foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful,

-music-making angels which became such a

-feature of North Italian art. The Divine

-Mother, adoring the Child lying across her

-knees, has an exquisite, pensive face, conceived

-with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art.

-It seems quite possible, as Professor Leonello

-Venturi suggests, that we have here the early

-master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love

-of fruit garlands, of chains of beads and rich

-brocades carried to its farthest limits, who takes

-keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively

-little angels, and who gives the same pensive and

-almost mincing expression to his Madonnas.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bologna.</td>  <td class="td5">Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bartolommeo Vivarini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Madonna and four Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Ambrose and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonio da Negroponte.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>JACOPO BELLINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the

-school of Squarcione, which in the next few

-years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,

-another influence was asserting itself, which was

-sufficient to counteract the hard formalism of

-Paduan methods.</p>

-

-<p>When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he

-carried with him, and presently established with

-him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini,

-who had already been working with him and

-Pisanello, and who was an ardent disciple of the

-new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both

-Gentile and his apprentice were subjected to annoyance

-from the time they arrived in Florence,

-where the strict regulations which governed the

-Guilds made it very difficult for any newcomer

-to practise his art. The records of a police case

-report that on the 11th of June 1423 some

-young men, among them, one, Bernabo di San

-Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed

-throwing stones into the painter&#8217;s room. His

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>assistant, Jacopo Bellini, came out and drove the

-assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing

-Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to

-prison in default of payment. After six months&#8217;

-imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a

-penitential declaration set him at liberty. The

-accounts declare that Gentile took no steps to

-be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon

-after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first

-son was christened after his old master, which

-does not look as though they were on unfriendly

-terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and

-was much esteemed by the Estes of Ferrara,

-but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has

-left us only three signed works, and one or two

-more have lately been attributed to him, but

-they give very little idea of what an important

-master he was.</p>

-

-<p><a name="agony" id="agony"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">

-<img src="images/img062.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Jacopo Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AGONY IN GARDEN&mdash;DRAWING.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>British Museum.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>His Madonna in the Academy has a round,

-simple type of face, and in the Louvre Madonna,

-which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to

-recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut,

-curved eyelids. In this picture, where the

-Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d&#8217; Este, we

-see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through

-him, on Venetian art. The connection between

-the two masters has been established in a very

-interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi&#8217;s

-discovery of a sonnet, written in 1441, which

-recounts how they painted rival portraits of

-Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>that he was adjudged the first place. The

-landscape in the Louvre picture is advanced in

-treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its

-stag and its town upon the hill-side, is full of

-reminiscences of Pisanello, especially of the &ldquo;St.

-George&rdquo; in S. Anastasia. We come upon such

-traces, too, in Jacopo&#8217;s drawings, and it is by

-his two sketch-books that we can best judge of

-his greatness. One of these is in the British

-Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered

-not many years ago in the granary of a

-castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo

-as one of the greatest masters of his day. He is

-larger, simpler, and more natural than Pisanello,

-and he apparently cares less for the human figure

-than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings.

-Many of his designs we shall refer to again when

-we come to speak of his two sons. His &ldquo;Supper

-of Herod&rdquo; reminds us of Masolino&#8217;s fresco at

-Castiglione d&#8217; Olona. He sketches designs for

-numbers of religious scenes, treated in an original

-and interesting manner. A &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; has

-bands of soldiers ranged on either side, an

-&ldquo;Adoration of the Magi&rdquo; has a string of camels

-coming down the hill, the executioners in a

-&ldquo;Scourging&rdquo; wear Eastern head-dresses. In a

-sketch for a &ldquo;Baptism of Christ&rdquo; tall angels

-hold the garments in the early traditional way;

-on one side two play the lute and the violin,

-while the two on the other side have a trumpet

-and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>Resurrection, Circumcision, and Entombment,

-repeated over and over again with variations,

-and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice

-(where he was in 1427). Jacopo delights even

-more in fanciful and mythological than in sacred

-subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun

-riding a lion, a &ldquo;Triumph of Bacchus&rdquo; with

-panthers, are among such essays. The fauns

-pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His

-love of animals is equal to that of Pisanello,

-and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix

-between its horns is directly reminiscent of the

-Veronese. His horses, of which there are

-immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied

-from ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of

-single nude figures is often poor and weak

-enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped,

-geological formation of the Paduan School, but

-no one who so drank in every description of

-lively scene about him could have been in any

-danger of becoming a mere archeological type,

-and it was from this pitfall that he rescued

-Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo

-did not overlook any source of art open to him;

-he delights in the rich research of the Paduans as

-much as in the varieties of wild nature and all

-the incidents of contemporary life first annexed

-by Pisanello. He is often very like Gentile da

-Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello&#8217;s domains

-of perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws

-a revel of satyrs and centaurs with a real interpretation

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>of the lyrical and pagan spirit of the

-Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul,

-which found its full expression in his son,

-Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the

-founder of the Venetian School, for its makings

-existed already, but it was his influence on

-his sons which, above all, was accountable for

-the development of early excellence. His long,

-flowing lines have a sweep and a fanciful grace

-which form an absolute antidote to the definite,

-geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we

-see the thorough assimilation of those foreign

-elements which were in sympathy with the

-Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now

-Venice had only imbibed influences, she was

-soon to create for herself an artistic <em>milieu</em>

-and to become the leader of the movement of

-painting in the north of Italy.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

- <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Jacopo Bellini.</em></p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Annunciation and Predelle.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ on Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Crucifixion.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">British Museum: Sketch-book.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Leonello d&#8217; Este: Sketch-book.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CARLO CRIVELLI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We must turn aside from the main stream when

-we come to speak of Carlo Crivelli, who,

-important master as he was, occupies a place

-by himself. A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps,

-as we have noted, of Antonio Negroponte,

-Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the

-Paduans, from whom he learned that metallic,

-finished quality of paint which he carried to

-perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality,

-even genius, in the way in which he grapples

-with his medium and produces his own reading,

-and the circumstances of his life were such as to

-throw him in upon himself and to preserve his

-originality. His little early &ldquo;Madonna and

-Child&rdquo; at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte

-by the elaborate festoons, strings of beads,

-and large-patterned brocades used in the surroundings,

-and has those ugly, foreshortened

-little <em>putti</em>, holding the instruments of the

-Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione

-and Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>state, we are accustomed to think of as

-Mantegnesque.</p>

-

-<p>When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he

-was condemned to six months&#8217; imprisonment and

-to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage on

-a neighbour&#8217;s wife. Perhaps it was to escape

-from an unenviable reputation that he left Venice

-soon after and set up painting in the Marches,

-where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then

-went on to Camerino in Umbria, where his great

-triptych, now in the Brera, was painted, and a

-few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission

-for an Annunciation in the Cathedral.

-This is the picture now in the National Gallery,

-in which the Bishop holds a model of the

-Duomo. After 1490 he worked in little towns

-in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.

-He does not seem ever to have come back to

-Venice.</p>

-

-<p>Shut up in the Marches, where there was

-little strong local talent, and where he could not

-keep up with the progress that was taking place

-in Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the

-artistic movement. He kept the Squarcionesque

-traditions to the end, but moulded them by his

-own love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover,

-he was of a very intense religious bias, and

-this finds a deeply touching and mystical expression,

-more especially in his Piet&agrave;s. The love

-of gilded patterns and fanciful detail was deep-seated

-in all the Umbrian country. His altarpieces

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>were intended as sumptuous additions to

-rich churches, and were consequently arranged,

-with many divisions, in the old Muranese manner.

-His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a

-marvel of elaborate ornament and enamel-like

-painting. The Madonna is delicate, almost

-affected in her refinement. Her long fingers

-hold the Child&#8217;s garment with the extreme of

-dainty precision, the croziers and rings of the

-saints and bishops are embossed with gold and

-real jewels. The flowers in the panel of &ldquo;The

-Immaculate Conception,&rdquo; which hangs beside it,

-are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and

-grotesques or cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty

-of strength, and his male saints have vigorous,

-bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however,

-in his colour that he charms us most, and

-though he does not touch the real fount, he

-is of all the earlier school the most remarkable

-for subtle tender tones and lovely harmonies of

-olive-greens and faded rose and cream embossed

-with gold.</p>

-

-<p>Crivelli continued executing one great ancona

-after another, limiting his progress to perfecting

-his technique, and his influence was most deeply

-felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San

-Severino and Niccola Alunno. The honours paid

-him testify to the reputation he acquired. He

-was created a knight and presented with a golden

-laurel wreath. But though he never, that we can

-hear of, revisited his native State, he always adds

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span><em>Venetus</em> to the signature on his paintings, a fact

-which tells us that far from Venice and in

-provincial districts, her prestige was felt and

-gave his work an enhanced commercial value.

-He had no after-influence upon the Venetian

-School, and in this respect is interesting as

-an example of the tenacity exercised by the

-Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by

-any counter-attraction, they came to act upon a

-very different temperament; for in his love of

-grace and beauty and of rich effects, and especially

-in his intensity of mystic feeling, Crivelli is a

-true Venetian and has no natural affinity with

-the classic spirit of the Paduans.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Jerome and Augustine.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ascoli.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Altarpiece and Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and six Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave;; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation; Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot, Jerome, and Andrew.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>What, then, is the position which art has

-achieved in Venice a decade after the middle of

-the fourteenth century, and how does she compare

-with the Florentine School? The Florentines,

-Fra Angelico, Andrea del Castagno, and

-Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo

-was in his prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four,

-Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But though the

-progress in the north had been slower, art both

-in Padua and Venice was now in vigorous progress.

-Bartolommeo Vivarini was still painting

-and gathering round him a numerous band of

-followers; Mantegna was thirty, had just completed

-the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and

-the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile

-and Giovanni Bellini were two and four years

-his seniors.</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Negro, writing in the early years

-of the sixteenth century, speaks of Gentile as the

-elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is thought

-to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo&#8217;s

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>widow only mentions Gentile and another son,

-Niccolo, in her will. There is every reason to

-believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were

-the pupils and assistants of their father. A

-&ldquo;Madonna&rdquo; in the Mond Collection, the

-earliest known of Gentile&#8217;s works, shows him

-imitating his father&#8217;s style; but when his sister,

-Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is not

-surprising to find him following Mantegna&#8217;s

-methods for a time, and a fresco of St. Mark

-in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission

-which he received in 1466, is taken

-direct from Mantegna&#8217;s fresco at Padua.</p>

-

-<p>As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the

-Squarcionesque tradition and evolved a style of

-their own; Gentile as much as his even more

-famous brother. Gentile is the first chronicler

-of the men and manners of his time. In 1460 he

-settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the

-organ doors in St. Mark&#8217;s. These large saints,

-especially the St. Mark, still recall the Paduan

-period. They have festoons of grapes and apples

-hung from the architectural ornaments, and the

-cast of drapery, showing the form beneath,

-reminds us of Mantegna&#8217;s figures. But Gentile

-soon becomes an illustrator and portrait painter.

-Much of his work was done in the Scuola of

-St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this

-was destroyed by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the

-fine austere portrait of Lorenzo Giustiniani, in

-the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Sultan Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested

-the Signoria to recommend a good painter and

-a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen,

-and departed in September for Constantinople.

-He painted many subjects for the private apartments

-of the Sultan, as well as the famous

-portrait now in the possession of Lady Layard.

-It would be difficult for a historic portrait to

-show more insight into character. The face is

-cold, weary, and sensual, with all the over-refined

-look of an old race and a long civilisation,

-and has a melancholy note in its distant

-and satiated gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile

-every mark of favour, loaded him with presents,

-and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He

-returned home in 1493, bringing with him

-many sketches of Eastern personages and the

-picture, now in the Louvre, representing the

-reception of a Venetian Embassy by the Grand

-Vizier. Some five years before Gentile&#8217;s commission

-to Constantinople Antonello da Messina

-had arrived in Venice, and the spread and

-popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the

-casting off of outworn ecclesiastical methods and

-brought the painters nearer to the truth of life.

-Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the

-notice of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo

-Vivarini was already using them in 1473, but

-he was well known by reputation before he

-arrived, and having probably come into contact

-with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>better opportunities of seizing upon the new

-technique, and was able to establish it both in

-Milan and in Venice. A large number of

-Venetians were at this time resident in Messina:

-the families of Lombardo, Gradenigo, Contarini,

-Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those

-who had members settled there. Many of these

-were patrons of art, and probably paved the way

-to Antonello&#8217;s reception in Venice. At first all

-the traits of Antonello&#8217;s early work are Flemish:

-the full mantles, white linen caps and tuckers, the

-straight sharp folds and long wings of the angels

-have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to

-Venice in 1475, its colour and life fascinate him,

-and a great change comes over his work. His

-portraits show that he grasped a new intensity

-of life, and let us into the character of the men

-he saw around him. His &ldquo;Condottiere,&rdquo; in the

-Louvre, declares the artist&#8217;s recognition of that

-truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic

-disdain, the product of a daring, unscrupulous

-life. The &ldquo;Portrait of a Humanist,&rdquo; in

-the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest

-sense; and in the Trivulzio College at Milan an

-older man looks at us out of sly, expressive eyes,

-with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical

-mouth. It was not wonderful that these

-portraits, combined with the new medium,

-worked upon Gentile&#8217;s imagination and determined

-his bent.</p>

-

-<p>The first examples of great canvases, illustrating

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>and celebrating their own pageants, must

-have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes in

-the style of the reception of the Venetian

-ambassadors were called for on all hands, and

-when the excellence of Gentile&#8217;s portraits was

-recognised, he became the model for all Venice.

-When his own and his father&#8217;s and brother&#8217;s

-paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered

-to replace them &ldquo;quicker than was humanly

-possible&rdquo; and at a very low price. Giovanni,

-who had been engaged on the external decorations,

-was ill at the time, but the Signoria was

-so pleased with the offer that it was decided to

-let no one touch the work till the two brothers

-were able to finish it. Gentile still painted

-religious altarpieces with the Virgin and Child

-enthroned with saints, but most of his time was

-devoted to the production of his great canvases.

-Some of these have disappeared, but the &ldquo;Procession&rdquo;

-and &ldquo;Miracle of the Cross,&rdquo; commissioned

-by the school of S. Giovanni Evangelista,

-are now in the Academy, and the third canvas,

-executed for the same school, &ldquo;St. Mark preaching

-at Alexandria,&rdquo; which was unfinished at the

-time of his death, and was completed by his

-brother, is in the Brera.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img075.jpg" width="550" height="267" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Gentile Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>These great compositions of crowds bring

-back for us the Venice of Gentile&#8217;s day as no

-verbal description can do. There is no especial

-richness of colour; the light is that of broad day

-in the Piazza and among the luminous waterways

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>of the city. We can see the scene any day

-now in the wide square, making allowance for

-the difference of costume. The groups are set

-about in the ample space, with the wonderful

-cathedral as a background. St. Mark&#8217;s has been

-painted hundreds of times, but no one has ever

-given such a good idea of it as Gentile&mdash;of its

-stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and

-he does so without detracting from the general

-effect, for St. Mark&#8217;s, though the keynote of the

-whole composition, is kept subservient, and is

-part of the stage on which the scene is enacted.

-The procession passes along, carrying the relics,

-attended by the waxlights and the banners.

-Behind the reliquary kneels the merchant,

-Jacopo Sal&ograve;, petitioning for the recovery of his

-wounded son. Then come the musicians; the

-spectators crowd round, they strain forward to

-see the chief part of the cort&egrave;ge, as a crowd

-naturally does. Some watch with reverence,

-others smile or have a negligent air. The faces

-of the candle-bearers are very like those we

-may see to-day in a great Church procession:

-some absorbed in their task, or uplifted by inner

-thoughts; others looking curiously and sceptically

-at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds

-to bring together all the types of life in Venice,

-all the officials and the ecclesiastical world, the

-young and old. With a few strokes he creates

-the individual and also the type;&mdash;the careless

-rover; the responsible magistrate; the shrewd,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>practical man of business; the young men, full

-of their own plans, but pausing to look on at

-one of the great religious sights of their city.

-In the &ldquo;Finding of the Cross&rdquo; he produces the

-effect of the whole city <em>en f&ecirc;te</em>. It was a sight

-which often met his eyes. The Doge made no

-fewer than thirty-six processions annually to

-various churches of the city, and on fourteen of

-these occasions he was accompanied by the whole

-of the nobles dressed in their State robes. Every

-event of importance was seized on by the Venetian

-ladies as an opportunity for arraying themselves

-in the richest attire, cloth of gold and velvet,

-plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies

-of Queen Catherine Cornaro&#8217;s Court around their

-Queen upon the left side of the canal. The

-light from above streams upon the keeper of the

-School, who holds the sacred relic on high. All

-round are the old, irregular Venetian houses, and

-in the crowd he paints the variety of men he

-saw around him every day in Venice. Yet even

-in this animated scene he retains his old quattrocento

-calm. The groups are decorously assisting:

-only here and there he is drawn off to some

-small detail of reality, such as an oarsman

-dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting

-the negro servant pass out to take a header into

-the canal. The spectators look on coolly at one

-more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The

-committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of

-unforgettable portraits, grave, benign, sour, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In this

-composition he triumphs over all difficulties of

-perspective; our eye follows the canals, and the

-boats pass away under the bridge in atmospheric

-light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of

-light on broad brick surfaces, light which is

-cast up from the water and dances and shimmers

-on the marble fa&ccedil;ades.</p>

-

-<p>Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as

-others in 1505 and 1506. He left word that he

-was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and

-begged his brother Giovanni to finish the work

-in the Scuola, in return for which he is to receive

-their father&#8217;s sketch-book. The unfinished piece

-is the &ldquo;St. Mark preaching at Alexandria,&rdquo; and

-it shows Gentile still developing his capacity as a

-painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant in sunlight.

-The mass of white given by the head-dresses

-of the Turkish women is cleverly subdued

-so as not to detract from the effect of the sunlight.

-The thronged effect of the great square is studied

-with more than his usual care, and the faces have

-all the old individuality. The foremost figures in

-the crowd have a colour and richness which we

-may attribute to Giovanni&#8217;s hand.</p>

-

-<p>Gentile was always fully employed, and the

-detailed paintings of functions became very

-popular; but he was a far less modern painter

-than his brother, and, in fact, they represent

-two distinct artistic generations, though Gentile&#8217;s

-work was so much the most elaborate and, as

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the quattrocento would have thought, the most

-ambitious.</p>

-

-<p>Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet

-his is a grave, sincere art, and he has an unerring

-instinct for the right incidents to include. He

-cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are

-stern, powerful men, the treatment is historic

-and contemporary, but not gossipy. We realise

-the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide

-of human nature, but we also feel that he never

-forgot that he was chronicling the doings of a

-city of strong men, and that he must paint them,

-even in their hours of relaxation and emotion, so

-as to convey the real dignity and power which

-underlay all the events of the Republic.</p>

-

-<p>We gather from his will and that of his wife

-that they had no children, which perhaps makes

-the more natural the affectionate terms upon

-which he remained all through his life with

-his brother. Their artistic sympathies must

-have differed widely. Gentile&#8217;s love for historical

-research, for costume and for pageants, found

-no echo in the deeper idealism of Giovanni&mdash;indeed,

-his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an

-inducement to the latter to finish his last great

-work, seems to hint that it was an exercise out

-of his brother&#8217;s line; but he knew that Giovanni

-was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we

-might have expected, to his assistants, Giovanni

-Mansueti and Girolamo da Santacroce.</p>

-

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Gentile Bellini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of True Cross; Healing by True Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Antonello da Messina.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Antwerp.</td>  <td class="td5">Crucifixion, 1475.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Three Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Messina.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints, 1473.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Condottiere.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Humanist.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Ecce Homo.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at the Column.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>ALVISE VIVARINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were

-artists still firmly attached to the past, who were

-far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.</p>

-

-<p>One of Antonio de Murano&#8217;s sons, Luigi or

-Alvise Vivarini, grew up to follow his father&#8217;s

-profession, and was enrolled in the school of his

-uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic

-follower of Squarcione, Alvise was at

-first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo Bellini&#8217;s

-efforts had done something to counteract the

-hard, statuesque Paduan manner, and had rendered

-Mantegna&#8217;s art more human and less stony,

-but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque

-painters from importing into Venice the style

-which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo threw

-in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially

-when reinforced by Alvise, maintained

-its reputation as long as it only had to compete

-with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been

-firmly established in Venice for two generations,

-and were the best-known and most popular of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>her painters. Albert D&uuml;rer, on his first visit,

-admired them more than the Bellini. When,

-however, Gentile and his brother set up in

-Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and

-the old Muranese School. The Bellini had come

-with their father from Padua, with all its new

-and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige

-of relationship with Mantegna, and they shared

-the patronage of his powerful employers. The

-striking historical compositions of Gentile were

-at once in demand by the great confraternities.

-Bartolommeo had never been very successful in

-his dealing with oil-painting, though he had

-dabbled in it for some years before Antonello da

-Messina came his way, but the perception with

-which the Bellini at once grasped the new

-technique gave them the victory. We have

-only to compare the formless contours of much

-of Bartolommeo Vivarini&#8217;s work, the bladder-like

-flesh-painting of the Holy Child, with the

-clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of

-Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead

-of the other.</p>

-

-<p>Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity

-with his father than with his uncle. He

-never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as

-Bartolommeo. The expression of his faces is

-much deeper and more inward, and he has something

-of the devotional sweetness of early art.

-His first known work is an ancona of 1475 at

-Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan monastery

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of

-the five panels the Madonna sits with her hands

-pressed palm to palm, in adoration of the Child

-asleep across her knees. The painter here follows

-the tradition of his father and uncle, especially

-in the Bologna altarpiece, in which they

-collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on

-either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in

-the old way, and it is only by degrees that we

-see there is more sweetness in the expression,

-better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer,

-more graceful outline than the earlier ancon&aelig;

-can show. Only five years after this ancona at

-Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated

-saints, we have the altarpiece in the Academy

-&ldquo;of 1480,&rdquo; which was painted for a church in

-Treviso, and here a great change is immediately

-apparent. The antiquated division into panels

-has disappeared, nothing is left of the artificial,

-Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are

-simple, and the scene is a united one. The

-Madonna&#8217;s outstretched hand, the suggestion of

-&ldquo;Ecce Agnus Dei,&rdquo; makes an appeal which

-draws the attention of all the saints to one point,

-and it is made plain that the one idea pervades

-the entire assembly. The curtain, which

-symbolises the sanctuary, still hangs behind the

-throne, but the gold background is abandoned.

-Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape

-or constructed an interior, but he lightens

-the effect by two arched windows which let in the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>sky. The forms are characteristic of his idea of

-drawing the human figure; they have the long

-thighs with the knees low down, which we

-are accustomed to find, and he constructs a

-very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light

-and shade. There is no trace of the statuesque

-Paduan draperies. The Virgin&#8217;s brocaded

-mantle is simply draped, and the robes of the

-saints hang in long straight folds. No doubt

-Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini,

-has more affinity with them, particularly with

-Giovanni, than with the Paduan artists, and as

-time goes on it is evident that he paints with

-many glances at what they were doing. In the

-altarpiece in Berlin he constructs an elaborate

-cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was

-already using. His saints are full of movement.

-In the end he begins to attitudinise and to display

-those artificial graces which were presently

-accentuated by Lotto.</p>

-

-<p><a name="altar" id="altar"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img085.jpg" width="550" height="490" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Alvise Vivarini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ALTARPIECE OF 1480.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time

-been employed in the Sala del Gran Consiglio

-by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy

-school, had hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be

-invited to enter into competition with them.

-At length he wrote the following letter:&mdash;</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">To the Most Serene the Prince and the Most

-Excellent Signoria</span>&mdash;I am Alvise of Murano, a

-faithful servant of your Serenity and of this most

-illustrious State. I have long been anxious to exercise

-my skill before your Sublimity and prove that continued

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>study and labour on my part have not been useless.

-Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and

-praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without

-return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing

-a canvas in the

-<ins class="translit" title="Possibly should be Sala del Gran Consiglio">Sala del Gran Consiio</ins>,

-according to the

-method at present in use by the two brothers Bellinii,

-and I ask no more for the said canvas than that I should

-be allowed the expenses of the cloth and colours as well

-as the wages of the journeymen, in the manner that has

-been granted to the said Bellinii. When I have done I

-shall leave to your Serenity of his goodness to give me in

-his wisdom the price which shall be adjudged to be just,

-honest, and appropriate, in return for the labour, which

-I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the universal

-satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the excellent

-Government, to the grace of which I most heartily

-commend myself.</p></div>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;method at present in use&rdquo; was presumably

-the oil-painting established by Antonello,

-which was now being made use of to replace

-the decorations in fresco and tempera which

-Guariento, Pisanello, and Gentile da Fabriano

-had executed, and which were constantly decaying

-and suffering from the sea air and the dampness

-of the climate. The Council accepted

-Alvise&#8217;s offer with little delay, and he was told to

-paint a picture for a space hitherto occupied by

-one of Pisanello&#8217;s, and was given a salary of sixty

-ducats a year, something less than that drawn

-by Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work,

-scenes from the history of Barbarossa, perished

-in the great fire of 1577.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>Venice is rich in works which show us what

-sort of painter was at the head of the Muranese

-School at the time when it rivalled that of the

-Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either

-side of the altarpiece of 1480, and of these the

-Baptist is one of his best figures, &ldquo;admirably

-expressive of tension and of brooding thought.&rdquo;

-It is large and free in stroke, and particularly

-advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close

-by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type

-of a strenuous, fanatical old woman, one which

-belongs not only to the period, but will be

-recognised by every student of human nature.

-Formidable and even cruel is her unflinching

-gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood

-for Scott&#8217;s Prioress, and looks as little likely to

-show mercy to an erring member of her order.

-In contrast, there is the exquisite little &ldquo;Madonna

-and Child&rdquo; with the two baby angels, still

-shown as a Bellini in the sacristy of the

-Church of the Redentore. It is the most

-absolutely simple and direct picture of the kind

-painted in Venice. The baby life is more perfect

-than anything that Gian. Bellini produced,

-and if much less intellectual than his Madonnas,

-there is all the tender charm of the primitives,

-combined with a freedom of drapery and a

-softness of form which could not be surpassed.

-The two little angels are more mundane in

-spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they

-have nothing of the mystical quality, though

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>we are reminded of Bellini, and the painting

-is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy

-of San Giobbe is an early Annunciation, which

-is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It has the

-old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its

-draperies are of a lovely tint. The priests of

-S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons of

-the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides

-several works by Bartolommeo and his assistants,

-is a little Madonna in a side chapel, which may

-be compared with the Redentore picture. The

-Mother sits inside a room, with the Child lying

-across her knees in the same pose. The two

-arched openings in the background of the 1480

-altarpiece have become windows, through which

-we look out on a charming landscape of lake and

-mountain. In the same church a &ldquo;Resurrection&rdquo;

-is not to be overlooked. It was executed in

-1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the

-sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the

-pink flush of dawn stands the swaying figure of

-the risen Christ, and below appear the heads of

-the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful.

-It is perhaps the very earliest example of that

-soft and sensuous feeling, that rhapsody of

-sensation which was presently to sweep like a

-flood over the art of Venice. &ldquo;What a time

-must the dawn of the sixteenth century have been

-when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous

-and advanced of his age, had the freshness and

-youthful courage to greet it; nay, actually to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in

-the &lsquo;Resurrection&rsquo;! Giorgione is here anticipated

-in the roundness and softness of the figures,

-and in the effect of light. Titian&#8217;s Assunta is

-foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards&#8217;

-expressions.&rdquo; Alvise, if he never thoroughly

-mastered the structure of the nude, and if his

-forms keep throughout some touch of the

-archaic, some awkwardness in the thickness

-of the figures, with their round heads, long

-thighs, and uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily

-refined and tender in sentiment, his

-line has a natural flow and beauty, and the

-heads of his Madonnas and saints cannot be

-surpassed in loveliness.</p>

-

-<p>His death came when the noble altarpiece to

-St. Ambrogio in the Frari was still unfinished,

-and it was completed by his assistant, Marco

-Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably

-of Basaiti, but the venerable doctor is a grand

-figure, and the two young soldier saints on his

-right and left hand are striking examples of

-the beauty we claim for him. The architectural

-plan is very elaborate, but altogether successful.

-The group is set beneath an arched vault

-supported by columns and cornices. Overhead,

-behind a balustrade, is placed a coronation of

-the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so

-as not to interfere with each other, and the

-sword of St. George, the crozier of St. Gregory,

-and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>composition and give length and line. The

-faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,

-and the two angels making music below

-compare well with those of the Bellinesque

-School.</p>

-

-<p>The portraits Alvise has left add to his

-reputation, and remind us of those of Antonello

-da Messina, particularly in the vital expression

-of the eyes, though they are without Antonello&#8217;s

-intense force. The &ldquo;Bernardo di Salla&rdquo; and the

-&ldquo;Man feeding a Hawk,&rdquo; though some critics

-still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which

-make their attribution to Alvise almost certainly

-correct. Indeed, the resemblance of

-Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece

-cannot escape the most unscientific observer.

-There is the same inflated nostril, the peculiarly

-curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.</p>

-

-<p>Among the followers of Alvise, Marco

-Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and Lorenzo

-Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less

-direct are Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco

-Bonsignori, while Cima da Conegliano was for

-a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return

-to these later.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Youth.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints, 1480.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection and Predelle.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Windsor.</td>  <td class="td5">Man feeding a Hawk.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CARPACCIO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini&#8217;s most

-faithful pupil. He and his master stand apart

-in having, before the arrival of the Venetian

-School proper, captured an aspect and a charm

-inspired by the natural beauty of the City of

-the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her

-historic appearance, and Carpaccio gives us

-something of the delight we feel to-day in her

-translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed

-spaces flooded with limpid light. While

-others were absorbed in assimilating extraneous

-influences, he goes on his own way, painting,

-indeed, the scenes that were asked for, but

-painting them in his own manner and with his

-own enjoyment.</p>

-

-<p>Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the

-Venetian State from very early days. The

-first use of painting had been that made by the

-Church to glorify religion, and very soon the

-State had followed, using it to enhance the love

-which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>home to them the consciousness of its greatness

-and glory. Pageants and processions were an

-integral part of Venetian life. The people

-looked on at them, often as they occurred, with

-more pride and sense of proprietorship than a

-Londoner does at a coronation procession or at

-the King going in state to open Parliament. The

-Venetian loved splendour and beauty and the

-story of the city&#8217;s great achievements, and

-nothing provided so welcome a subject for the

-decoration of the great public halls as portrayals

-of the events which had made Venice famous.

-Artists had been employed to produce these as

-early as the end of the fourteenth century, and

-those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which

-perished in the great fire) were a rendering on

-modern lines of the same subjects, satisfying the

-more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.</p>

-

-<p>Besides the Church and the public Government,

-we have already seen the &ldquo;Schools,&rdquo; as

-they were called, becoming important employers.

-These schools were the great organised confraternities

-in the cause of charity and mutual

-help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth

-century. That of St. Mark was naturally the

-foremost, but others were banded each under

-their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of

-rich patrons, for it was the fashion to belong

-to the confraternities. Riches and endowments

-rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting

-business were built, and were adorned

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>with pictures setting forth the legends of their

-patron saints. We have already seen Gentile

-Bellini employed in the schools of San Marco

-and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.

-Ursula and St. George gave commissions to

-Carpaccio, or perhaps it would be more correct

-to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent

-in this art, provided employment for his pupil

-and assistant, and that by degrees Carpaccio

-became a <em>maestro</em> on his own account.</p>

-

-<p>A host of second-rate painters were plying

-side by side, disciples first of one master, then

-drawn off to become followers of a second;

-assimilating the influence first of one workshop

-and then of another. Carpaccio has been lately

-identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who

-had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution

-to this painter of the &ldquo;Doge before the

-Madonna,&rdquo; in the National Gallery, gives some

-countenance to the contention that he was held

-to be of great excellence in his time.</p>

-

-<p>Though some historians advance the suggestion

-that Carpaccio was a native of Capo

-d&#8217;Istria, there is little proof that he was not,

-like his father Pietro, born a Venetian. He

-seems to have worked in Venice all his life,

-his first work being dated 1490 and his last

-1520. In 1527 his wife, Laura, declared herself

-a widow.</p>

-

-<p>The narrative art needed by the confraternities

-was supplied in perfection by Carpaccio,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>and one of his earliest independent commissions

-was the important one of decorating the School

-of St. Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a

-monopoly of the school. No one else had

-a right to collect offerings in her name or to

-put up an image to her. The legend afforded

-an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic

-scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage,

-and the cycle is one of the freshest and most

-characteristic things that has come down to us

-from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous.

-The mediocre masters who have

-educated the painter have made little impression

-on him. He is entirely occupied in delight in

-his subject and in telling his story. The story

-of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the

-daughter of the King of Brittany. The King

-of England sends his ambassadors to beg her

-hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the

-proposal with her father, and makes the conditions

-that Hereo, who is a heathen, shall be

-baptized, and that the betrothed couple must

-before marriage visit the Pope and the sacred

-shrines. After taking leave of their parents, the

-Prince and Princess depart on their expedition,

-but Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in

-which an angel has announced her martyrdom.

-She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000

-virgins, and they are received by Pope Cyriacus

-in Rome. The Pope then makes the return

-journey with them as far as Cologne, where,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>

-however, they are assaulted and massacred by

-the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a

-splendid funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen

-scenes in which the story is told are arranged

-on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed

-them in the chronological order, some

-of the latest events being the least complete in

-artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns

-the following dates to the list:</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p>1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet

-those of the King of Brittany to ask for the hand of

-Ursula. Probably painted from 1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal

-with her father. 1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors.

-1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>4. The ambassadors return to the King of England.

-1496-98.</p>

-

-<p>5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.</p>

-

-<p>6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their

-respective parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.</p>

-

-<p>9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins

-meet the Pope. 1492.</p>

-

-<p>10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.</p>

-

-<p>11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral.

-1495.</p>

-

-<p>13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of

-martyrdom, venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received

-in heaven by the Eternal Father. 1491.</p></div>

-

-<p>No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might

-naturally have been chosen for a first experiment.

-The heads are large with coarse features, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>the proportions of the figures are poor. The

-face of the saint in glory (No. 13), plump and

-without much expression, is of the type of

-Bastiani&#8217;s saints. It may be assumed that such

-a great scheme of decoration would not have

-been entrusted to any one who was not already

-well known as an independent master, but

-perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about

-thirty when the work was begun, was still principally

-engrossed with the conventional, ecclesiastical

-subject. The heads of the virgins pressing

-round the saint appear to be portraits, and were

-very possibly those of the wives and daughters

-of members of the confraternity.</p>

-

-<p>The improvement that takes place is so rapid

-that we can guess how congenial the painter

-found the task and how quickly he adapted his

-already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes

-delight in the opportunity for painting a little

-domestic scene,&mdash;the bedroom of a young

-Venetian girl, perhaps a sister of his own.

-The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,

-are carefully drawn. The clear morning light

-streams into the room. The saint lies peacefully

-asleep, her hand under her head, her long

-eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is

-an idyll, full of insight into girlish life. The

-tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details

-that caught his eye. The crown lying on the

-ledge of the bed is an arbitrary introduction,

-as na&iuml;f as the angel. In the funeral scene the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>luminous light is diffused over all, the young

-saint lies upon her bier and is followed by priest

-and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth

-to nature, the draperies and garments are brought

-into harmony with the sky and background, and

-in all those that follow we find this quality of

-light. The landscape behind the massacre has

-gained in natural character, the city is at some

-distance, houses and churches are half buried in

-woods; the setting is much more natural than are

-the quaint and elegant pages who occupy it, and

-who are drawing their crossbows and attacking

-the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The

-panel in which the betrothed couple meet shows

-a great advance, and this and the succeeding ones

-of the ambassadors, which were painted between

-1495 and 1498, must have crowned Carpaccio&#8217;s

-reputation. He paints Venice in its most fascinating

-aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles,

-its sky and sea, its palaces and ships, the rich

-and picturesque dresses men wore in the streets,

-the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces

-a fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with

-the work of Pintoricchio. His Prince, kneeling

-in a white and gold dress, with long fair

-curls, is a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red

-dress and puffed sleeves, her rippling, flaxen hair

-and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.

-Carpaccio&#8217;s art is simple and garrulous in feeling,

-his conception is as unpassionate as the fancies

-of a child, but he has a true love for these gay

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way&mdash;her

-solid, worthy citizens, men of substance,

-shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure

-seriously with a sense of responsibility. They

-throng the streets and cross over the bridges,

-every figure is full of freedom and vitality.

-The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors

-are the best of all the scenes. In the middle

-of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits

-upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to

-the left is gathered a group of Venetian personages,

-members of the Loredano family, which

-was a special patron of St. Ursula&#8217;s Guild, and

-gave this panel. The types are all vividly

-realised and differentiated: the courtier looking

-critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious

-bourgeoisie; the man of fashion passing with

-his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too

-closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf

-keeper. Far beyond stretch the lagoons; the

-sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What

-is noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the

-absence of women, was then most true to life, for

-except on special occasions they were not seen

-in the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental

-seclusion. The dismissal of the ambassadors

-affords the opportunity for drawing an interior

-with the street visible through a doorway. A

-group at the side, of a man dictating a letter

-and the scribe taking down his words, writing

-laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>head on one side, is excellent in its quiet reality.

-The same life-like vivacity is displayed in Ursula&#8217;s

-consultation with her father. The old nurse

-crouched upon the steps is introduced to break

-the line and to throw back the main group.

-Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the

-funeral scene, and Titian himself adopts his

-suggestion.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img102.jpg" width="550" height="263" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Carpaccio.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a

-charming one. His treatment of light and

-water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense

-of peace and poetry, and though he is influenced

-by Gentile&#8217;s splendid realistic heads, the

-type which appeals to him is gentler and more

-idealised. His fancy is caught by Oriental

-details, to which Gentile would naturally have

-directed his attention, and of which there was

-no lack in Venice at this time. All his episodes

-are very clearly illustrated, and his popular brush

-was kept busily employed. He took a share with

-other assistants in the series which Gentile was

-painting in S. Giovanni Evangelista. In 1502

-the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to

-decorate their school, which had been founded

-fifty years earlier, for the relief of destitute

-Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects

-were to be selected from the lives of the Saviour

-and the patron saints of Dalmatia and Albania,

-St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.

-Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece

-which Carpaccio delivered between 1502 and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of

-the school. His &ldquo;Jerome in his Study&rdquo; has

-nothing ascetic, but shows a prosperous Venetian

-ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library

-among his books and writings. He is less

-successful in his scenes from the life of Christ;

-the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of

-Mantegna; but when he leaves his own style he

-is weak and poor, and imaginary scenes are quite

-beyond him. In the death and interment of St.

-Jerome he gives a delightful impression of the

-peace of the old convent garden, and in the scene

-where the lion introduced by the saint scatters

-the terrified monks he lets a sense of humour

-have free play. The monks in their long

-garments, escaping in all directions, are really

-comical, and in conjunction with the ingratiating

-smile of the lion, the scene passes into the region

-of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the

-comic in the scene in St. Ursula&#8217;s history, where

-the 11,000 virgins are hurrying in single file

-along a winding road which disappears out of

-the picture. In the principal scene in the life

-of St. George, Carpaccio again achieves a masterpiece.

-The force and vivacity of the saint in

-armour charging the dragon, lingers long in the

-memory. The long, decorative lines of lance

-and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole

-landscape. The details show an almost childish

-delight in the realisation of ghoulish horrors.

-He rather injures his &ldquo;Triumph of St. George&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>by his anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon

-at Jerusalem; the flying flags distract the eye,

-and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken

-up into different parts, while the dragon is

-reduced to very unterrifying insignificance. His

-series for the school of the Albanians dealt with

-the life of the Virgin, who was their special

-patron. Its remains are at Bergamo, Milan, and

-in the Academy. The single figures in the

-&ldquo;Presentation,&rdquo; the priest and maiden, are

-excellent. A child at the side of the steps,

-leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows

-once more what a hold this use of a figure had

-taken of him. In the &ldquo;Visitation&rdquo; the figures

-are too much scattered, and the fantastic buildings

-attract more attention than the women. He

-still produced altarpieces, and the Presentation

-of the Infant Christ in the Temple, which he

-was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where

-one of Bellini&#8217;s most famous altarpieces stood,

-challenged him to put forth all his strength. He

-never produced anything more simple and noble

-or more worthy of the cinque-cento than this

-altarpiece (now in the Academy). It surpasses

-Bellini&#8217;s arrangement in the way in which the

-personages are raised upon a step, while the dome

-overhead and the angel musicians below give

-them height and dignity. The contrast between

-the infant and the youthful woman and the

-old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast

-between youth and age is a very favourite one.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>Bellini, in the same church, draws it between

-SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in his

-last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian

-with St. Jerome. This is the most grandiose,

-the least of a <em>genre</em> picture of all Carpaccio&#8217;s

-creations, although he does make Simeon into a

-pontiff with attendant cardinals bearing his train.

-One of his last works is the S. Vitale over the

-high altar of the church of that name, where

-we forgive the wooden appearance of the horse

-which the saint rides for the sake of the simple

-dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by

-the balcony overhead. Nor must we forget that

-study of the &ldquo;Two Courtesans&rdquo; in the Museo

-Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism.

-It conveys to us the matter-of-fact monotony of

-the long, hot days, and the women and the animals

-with which they are beguiling their idle hours

-are painted with the greatest intelligence. It

-carries us back to another phase of life in

-Carpaccio&#8217;s Venice, seen through his observant,

-humorous eyes, and if there is nothing in his

-colour distinctive of the impending Venetian

-richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant

-limpidity; it seems drawn straight from the

-transparent canals and radiant lagoons.</p>

-

-<p>We apprehend the difference at once in

-Bastiani and in Mansueti, who essay the same

-sort of compositions. They studied grouping

-carefully, and it must have seemed easy enough

-to paint their careful architecture and to place

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>citizens in costume with appropriate action in a

-&ldquo;Miracle of the Cross,&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Preaching of St.

-Mark&rdquo;; but these pictures are dry and crowded,

-they give no illusion of truth, there is none of

-the careless realism of Carpaccio&#8217;s crowds,&mdash;of

-incidents taking place which are not essential to

-the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but

-which have their share in producing a full and

-varied illusion. The scenes want the air and

-depth in which Carpaccio&#8217;s pictures are enveloped.

-We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into

-the outer air and refreshed by these heavy personages,

-standing in rows, painted in hot, dry

-colour, and carrying no conviction in their

-glance and action.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ferrara.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen disputing.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Stephen preaching.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Stuttgart.</td>  <td class="td5">Martyrdom of St. Stephen.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins; Presentation in the Temple.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and

-              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of

-              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave of her Father.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ adored by Angels.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIOVANNI BELLINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The difference between Gian. Bellini and his

-accomplished brother, that which makes us so

-conscious that the first was the greater of the

-two and which sets him in a later artistic generation

-than Gentile, is a difference of mind. Such

-pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni was

-engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may

-suspect that their composition was not particularly

-congenial to him, and that the strictly

-religious pictures and the small allegorical

-studies, by which we must judge him, were

-more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal

-feeling which adds so strongly to his claim to be

-a great artist; it was this which drew all men

-to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence

-the art of his day in Venice.</p>

-

-<p>Jacopo&#8217;s wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves

-everything to her two sons, Gentile and Niccolo.

-Giovanni was evidently not her son, but Vasari

-speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it

-is very possible that he was an illegitimate child,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>brought up, after the fashion that so often

-obtained, in the full privileges of his father&#8217;s

-house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini

-was living in Venice in 1437, first near the

-Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio.

-He was a member of S. Giovanni Evangelista,

-and probably one of the leading artists of the

-city. His two sons helped him in his great

-decorative works, and also went with him to

-Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata Chapel.

-Their relative position is suggested by a document

-of 1457, which records that the father

-received twenty-one ducats for &ldquo;three figures,

-done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the

-Patriarch,&rdquo; only two of which were to go to

-the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini&#8217;s signature first

-appears on a document, and at about this time

-we may suppose that he and his brother began to

-execute small commissions on their own account.

-On these visits to Padua the intimacy must

-have sprung up, which led to Mantegna&#8217;s

-marriage in 1453 with Jacopo&#8217;s daughter. At

-Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna,

-drank in the inspiration left there by Donatello,

-the greatest master that either of

-them encountered. It was the humanistic and

-naturalistic side of Donatello which touched

-Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore.

-It chimed in, too, with his father&#8217;s graceful and

-fanciful quality, and there is no doubt that the

-Venetian painters soon exercised a marked influence

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>on Mantegna. They &ldquo;fought for him with

-Squarcione,&rdquo; and even in the Eremitani frescoes

-he begins to lose his purely statuesque type and

-to become frankly Renaissance. In the later

-scenes of the series a pergola with grapes, a

-Venetian campanile and doorway replace his

-classic towers and arches of triumph. In the

-&ldquo;Martyrdom of St. James&rdquo; the couple walking by

-and paying no attention whatever to the tragic

-event, are very like the people whom Gentile

-introduces in his backgrounds.</p>

-

-<p>There are few documents more interesting

-in the history of art than the two pictures of

-the &ldquo;Agony in the Garden,&rdquo; executed by the

-brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by

-Jacopo in the British Museum sketch-book.

-Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling

-before the vision of the Chalice, the figures

-wrapt in slumber, and the distant town. In few

-pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived

-in such sympathy with the figures. As

-we look at this sketch and examine the two

-finished compositions, which it is so fortunate

-to find in juxtaposition in the National Gallery,

-we surmise that the two artists agreed to

-carry out the same idea and each to give his

-version of Jacopo&#8217;s suggestion, and very curious

-it is to see the rendering each has produced.</p>

-

-<p>Mantegna has made use of the most formal

-and Squarcionesque contours in his surroundings.

-The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate

-perspective, and a band of classic figures fills the

-middle distance. The sleeping forms of the

-disciples are laid about like so many draped

-statues taken from their pedestals. The choir

-of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the

-imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully

-conceived Christ, the whole composition would

-leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,

-we can never look at Bellini&#8217;s version without

-a fresh thrill. He, like Mantegna, has followed

-Jacopo&#8217;s scheme of winding roads and the city

-&ldquo;set on a hill,&rdquo; and has drawn the advancing

-band of soldiers; but, independent of all details,

-he gives us the vision of a poet. The still dawn

-is breaking over the broadly painted landscape,

-the rosy shafts of light are colouring the sky

-and casting their magic over every common

-object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred

-Figure kneels, wrapt into the Heavenly Vision,

-which is hardly more definite than a stronger

-beam of light upon the radiance. One of the

-disciples, at least, is a successful and natural

-study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen

-back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep.

-Bellini is less assured, less accomplished than

-Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the

-pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.</p>

-

-<p>Even earlier than this picture, critics place

-the &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; and &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo; of the

-Museo Correr and our own &ldquo;Salvator Mundi.&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>In 1443, when Giovanni was a young man of

-four or five and twenty, San Bernardino had

-held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of

-Venice had thronged to hear him. It is very

-possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests in his <em>Life

-of Bellini</em>, that Giovanni&#8217;s emotional temperament

-had been worked upon by the preacher&#8217;s

-eloquence, and the very poignant feelings of

-love and pity which his early art expresses were

-the deliberate consequence of his sympathy with

-the deep religious mysteries expounded.</p>

-

-<p>In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is

-still going with the Paduan current. In both we

-have the winding roads so characteristic of his

-father, but the rocks in the &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo;

-have the jointed, arbitrary character of Mantegna&#8217;s

-and the draperies are plastered to the forms

-beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and

-a dignity which no reproduction seems able to

-convey. The feeling is already more imposing

-than the execution. Christ and the two prophets

-tower up against the belt of clouds, the central

-figure conveying a sense of pathetic isolation;

-while below, St. John&#8217;s attitude betrays a state of

-tension, the feet being drawn up and contorted.

-This picture prepares us for the overwhelming

-emotion we find in the &ldquo;Redeemer&rdquo; and the

-group of Piet&agrave;s. The treatment of the Christ

-was a development of the early <em>motif</em> of angels

-flying forward on either side of the Cross, but

-here the sacred blood pouring into the chalice

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>is also sacramental and connected with the intensified

-religious fervour which had led to the

-foundation of the Franciscan and Dominican

-orders, illustrations of which are met with in

-the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century

-books of devotion. The accessories, the

-antique reliefs, the low wall, the distant buildings,

-have an allegorical meaning underlying each one,

-and common to trecento and, in a less degree, to

-quattrocento art. Paradise regained is signified

-by the paved court with the open door, in contradistinction

-to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed

-court; the type of the old covenant. In one of

-the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his hand

-into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness

-to suffer. The other represents a pagan sacrifice,

-foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the Cross.

-Figures in the background are leaving a ruined

-temple and making their way towards the new

-Christian city, fortified and crowned with a

-church tower, and in the midst of all this

-symbolism, Christ and the attendant angel are

-placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.</p>

-

-<p>During the next few years, Bellini devoted

-himself to two subjects of the highest devotional

-order. These are the Madonna and Child, the

-great exercise in every age for painters, and the

-Piet&agrave;, which he has made peculiarly his own.</p>

-

-<p><a name="pieta" id="pieta"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img116.jpg" width="550" height="428" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giovanni Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PIET&Agrave;.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Brera, Milan.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Brogi.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering

-of the last subject, so full of passionate sorrow

-that it is hardly possible that it should not, if only

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>half consciously, have stimulated the artistic

-sensibilities of the most sensitive of painters; but

-Bellini&#8217;s pathos shrinks from all exaggeration.

-He conceives grief with the tenderest insight.

-His interest in the subject was so intense that he

-never left the execution to others, and though

-not a single one bears his signature, yet each is

-entirely by his own hand. Besides the Piet&agrave; at

-Milan, which is perhaps the best known, there is

-one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge&#8217;s

-Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin.

-The version he adopts, which places the Body of

-Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite in

-North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief

-(now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), but

-whether he brought or found the suggestion in

-Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left

-sketches in which the whole group is within the

-tomb, and this rendering is followed by Carpaccio,

-Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never

-found in trecento art, and is probably traceable

-to the Paduan impulse to make use of classic

-remains.</p>

-

-<p>Giovanni Bellini&#8217;s Piet&agrave;s fall into two groups.

-In one, the Christ is placed between the Virgin

-and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony

-of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer

-is supported by angels, who express the

-amazement and grief of immortal beings who see

-their Lord suffering an indignity from which they

-are immune.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>Mary and St. John <em>inside</em> the sarcophagus

-shows that they are conceived mystically; Mary

-as the Church, and St. John as the personification

-of Christian Philosophy&mdash;a significance frequently

-attached to these figures. Such a picture was designed

-to hang over the altar, at which the mystical

-sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.</p>

-

-<p>In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini

-has shaken off the Paduan tradition, and is forming

-his own style and giving free play to his own

-feeling. The winding roads and evening sky,

-barred with clouds, are the accessories he used in

-the &ldquo;Agony in the Garden,&rdquo; but the figures are

-treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in

-broad masses, and scarcely a trace is left of

-sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the study

-of the nude, everything is subordinated to the

-emotion expressed by the three figures: the

-helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the tender

-solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed

-look of the despairing friend. Here there is

-nothing of beautiful or pathetic symbol; the

-group is intense with the common sorrow of all

-the world. Mary presses the corpse to her as if

-to impart her own life, and gazes with anguished

-yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to

-have passed to a more complex age in his analysis

-of suffering, yet here is none of the extravagance

-which the primitive masters share with the

-Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his

-intensity.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p><p>In the Rimini version the tender concern

-and questioning surprise of the attendant angels

-contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful

-dead body they support. Their childish limbs

-and butterfly wings make a sinuous pattern

-against the lacquered black of the ground-work,

-and Mr. Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion

-that the effect, reminiscent of Greek vase-painting,

-and the likeness of the Head of Christ

-to an old bronze, may, in a composition painted

-for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no mere accident,

-but a concession to the patron&#8217;s enthusiasm for

-classic art.</p>

-

-<p>In 1470 Bellini received his first commission

-in the Scuola di San Marco. Gentile had been

-employed there since 1466 on the history of the

-Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint

-&ldquo;The Deluge and the Ark of Noah&rdquo; with all its

-attendant circumstances, but of these, except

-from Vasari&#8217;s descriptions, we can form no idea.

-These great pageant-pictures had become identified

-with the Bellini and their following, while

-the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the

-province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected

-a change, for sacred subjects best suited the restrained

-and simple perfection of his style, and

-afforded the most sympathetic opening for his

-idealistic spirit. For the next twenty years or

-more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in

-public work, for we hear of his being given the

-direction of that which Gentile left unfinished

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in

-1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended

-the work for him, and in that year he

-was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand

-Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats.

-Other commissions were turned out of the <em>bottega</em>

-he had set up with his brother in 1471, and

-between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro

-to paint the important altarpiece that still holds

-its place there. It is in some ways the greatest

-and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished.

-The central figures and the attendant

-saints have a large gravity and carefully studied

-individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological

-books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably

-contrasted with the sympathetic, cultured St.

-Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame,

-is a gem of beauty, and proves what an appeal

-nature was making to the painter. The predella,

-illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of

-the saints around the altar, is full of Oriental

-costumes. The horses are small Eastern horses,

-very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse,

-and the whole is evidently inspired by the

-sketches which Gentile brought back on his

-return from Constantinople in 1481.</p>

-

-<p>Looking from one to another of the cycle of

-Madonna pictures which Bellini produced, and

-of which so many hang side by side in the

-Academy, we are able to note how his conception

-varied. In one of the earliest the Child

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>lies across its Mother&#8217;s knee, in the attitude

-borrowed from his father and the Vivarini, from

-whom, too, he takes the uplifted hands, placed

-palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the

-gentle and adoring type, but his later Madonnas

-are stately Venetian ladies. He gives us a

-queenly woman, with full throat and stately

-poise, in the Madonna degli Alberi, in which

-the two little trees are symbols of the Old and

-New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely

-intellectual face with chiselled and refined

-features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it

-dramatically with the bluff St. George in

-armour; and there is another Madonna between

-St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which

-has a curious effect of artificial light.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIOVANNI BELLINI</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian

-Republic appointed Bellini superintendent of the

-Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable

-title of State Painter. In this capacity he was

-the overseer of all public works of painting, and

-was expected to devote a part of his time to the

-decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates

-nine of his historical paintings, which had been

-painted before the State appointment, all having

-reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but

-though he must have been much engrossed, he

-seems to have suspended the work from time to

-time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the

-large altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro

-in Murano, and the one in the Academy, which

-was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the

-last shows the greatest advance and is fullest of

-experiment. The Madonna is a grand ecclesiastical

-figure. It has been said with truth

-that it is a picture which must have afforded

-great support and dignity to the Church. The

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the

-Mother gazes out of the picture, extending

-invitation and encouragement to the advancing

-worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound;

-the artist has been more absorbed

-in the contrast between the beautiful, youthful

-body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe,

-older but not emaciated, and with the exquisite

-surface that his now complete mastery of oil-painting

-enabled him to produce. This technique

-has evidently been a great delight, and

-is here carried to perfection; the skin of St.

-Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of

-a horse in high condition. Everything that

-architecture, sculpture, and rich material can

-supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of

-the group; but the line of sight is still close to

-the bottom of the picture, and if it were not for

-the exquisite grace with which the angels are

-placed, the Madonna would have a broad,

-clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is

-the most splendid in colour of all his works.

-As he paints the rich light of a golden interior

-and the fused and splendid colours, he seems to

-pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste

-of the glory that is to follow. The Murano

-altarpiece is quite a different conception; instead

-of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling,

-<em>plein air</em> scene: the Mother benign, the Child

-soft and playful, the old Doge Barbarigo and the

-patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>garden and medi&aelig;val townlet filling up the

-background, for which, by the way, he uses the

-same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says

-much for his versatility that he could within a

-short time produce three such different versions.</p>

-

-<p>Among Bellini&#8217;s most fascinating achievements

-in the last years of the fifteenth century are

-his allegorical paintings, known to us by the

-&ldquo;P&eacute;lerinage de l&#8217;&Acirc;me&rdquo; in the Uffizi and the

-little series in the Academy. The meaning of

-the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig

-from a medi&aelig;val poem by Guillaume de

-Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote about

-1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has

-taken on Bellini&#8217;s mystic spirit. The paved

-space, set within the marble rail, signifies, as in

-the &ldquo;Salvator Mundi,&rdquo; the Paradise where souls

-await the Resurrection. The new-born souls

-cluster round the Tree of Life and shake its

-boughs. The poem says:</p>

-

-<p style="margin-left: 2em;">

-There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad<br />

-Who has not those who wound his heart,<br />

-And to whom it is not often necessary<br />

-To play and be solaced<br />

-And be soothed like a child<br />

-With something comforting.<br />

-Know that those playing<br />

-There in order to allay their sorrow<br />

-Have found beneath that tree<br />

-An apple that great comfort gives<br />

-To those that play with it.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>

-</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><a name="allegory" id="allegory"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img125.jpg" width="550" height="341" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giovanni Bellini.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AN ALLEGORY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Florence.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort.

-St. Peter and St. Paul guard the door,

-beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy

-conversation. A very beautiful figure on the

-left, wrapped in a black shawl, requires explanation,

-and it has been suggested that it is the

-donor, a woman who may have lost husband and

-children, and who, still in life, is introduced,

-watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.

-SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have

-stepped out of the San Giobbe altarpiece, are

-obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.

-Catherine, at the Virgin&#8217;s side, may be the donor&#8217;s

-own saint. This picture, with its delicious

-landscape bathed in atmospheric light, is a

-forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions

-of &ldquo;pure and unquestioning delight in the

-sensuous charm of rare and beautiful things&rdquo;

-in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed

-than with the intellectual conception,

-and within its small space Bellini seems to have

-enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories

-in the Academy are also full of meaning. They

-are decorative works, and were probably painted

-for some small cabinet. They seem too small

-for a cassone. They are ruined by over-painting,

-but still full of grace and fancy. The figure in

-the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter

-between Luxury and Industry, is drawn from

-Jacopo&#8217;s triumphant Bacchus. Fortune floats in

-her barque, holding the globe, and the souls

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>who gather round her are some full of triumphant

-success, others clinging to her for comfort, while

-several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark

-waters. &ldquo;Prudence,&rdquo; the only example of a

-female nude in Bellini&#8217;s works, holds a looking-glass.

-Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing

-from his refuge. The Summa Virtus is an ugly

-representation of all the virtues; a waddling

-deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of

-justice; the pitcher in its hand means prudence,

-and the gold upon its feet symbolises charity.

-The landscape, both of this and of the &ldquo;Fortune,&rdquo;

-resembles that which he was painting in his

-larger works at the end of the century. Soon

-after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with

-Isabela d&#8217;Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That

-distinguished collector and connoisseur writes

-through her agent to get the promise of a

-picture, &ldquo;a story or fable of antiquity,&rdquo; to be

-placed in position with the allegories which

-Mantegna had contributed to her &ldquo;Paradiso.&rdquo;

-Bellini agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five

-ducats on account. He seems, however, to

-have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in

-competing with Mantegna on his own ground,

-and asks to be allowed to choose his subject.

-Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself

-with a sacred picture, and a &ldquo;Nativity&rdquo; was

-selected. She is at once full of suggestions,

-desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini

-demurs at introducing except as a child, but in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>April 1504 the commission is still unaccomplished,

-and Isabela angrily demands the return

-of her money. This brings a letter of humble

-apology from Bellini, and presently the picture

-is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes that it is

-quite beautiful, and that &ldquo;though Giovanni has

-behaved as badly as possible, yet the bad must

-be taken with the good.&rdquo; The joy of its

-acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began

-to lay plans to get a further work out of Bellini,

-and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he would

-take a fresh commission always providing he

-might fix the subject. From the catalogue of

-her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture

-&ldquo;sul asse&rdquo; (on panel) represented the &ldquo;B.V.,

-il Putto, S. Giovanni Battista, S. Giovanni

-Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>The great altarpieces which remain strike us

-less by their research, their preoccupation with

-new problems of paint or grouping, than by

-their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was

-now nearly eighty years old, and in 1504 the

-young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution

-in art with his Castelfranco Madonna. In

-composition and detail the Madonna of San

-Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the

-Arcadian, innovating fashion of approaching a

-religious scene, of which the Church had long

-since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini

-cannot escape the indirect suggestion of the

-new manner. The same leaven was at work

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>in him which was transforming the men of a

-younger generation. In this altarpiece, in the

-Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which

-have perished, and above all in the hermit saint

-in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he is linked in feeling

-and in treatment with the later Venetian School.</p>

-

-<p>The new device, which he adopts quite

-naturally, of raising the line of sight, sets the

-figures in increased depth. For the first time

-he gives height and majesty to the young

-Mother by carrying the draperies down over the

-steps. He realises to the full the contrast

-between the young, fragile heads of his girl-saints

-and the dark, venerable countenances of

-the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching

-itself like a flower upon its stem, reminds us of

-the type which we saw in his Watcher in the

-sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched,

-dome-like niche opens on a distance bathed in

-golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of

-the old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new

-perfection of feeling and atmosphere. Who the

-saints are matters little; it is the collective

-enjoyment of a company of congenial people

-that pleases us so much. The &ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; in

-S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later

-than Cima&#8217;s in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in

-frank imitation of the younger man. Christ and

-the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without

-much zest, in a weak, conventional way,

-but the artist&#8217;s true interest comes out in the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>beauty of face and gesture of the group of

-women holding the garments, and above all in

-the sombre gloom of the distance, which replaces

-Cima&#8217;s charming landscape, and which keys the

-whole picture to the significance of a portent.

-In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.

-Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini

-keeps his love for the golden dome, but he lets

-us look through its arch, at rolling mountain

-solitudes, with mists rising between their folds.

-The geranium robe of the saint, an exquisite,

-vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden

-sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out

-against the evening sky, and in the faces of the

-two saints who stand on either side of the aged

-visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old

-intensity of religious feeling, a feeling which

-he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a

-more pagan tone.</p>

-

-<p>In 1507, at Gentile&#8217;s death, Giovanni undertook,

-at his brother&#8217;s dying request, to finish

-the &ldquo;Preaching of St. Mark,&rdquo; receiving as a

-recompense that coveted sketch-book of his

-father&#8217;s, from which he had adopted so many

-suggestions, and which, though he was the

-eldest, had been inherited by the legitimate son.</p>

-

-<p>In the preceding year Albert D&uuml;rer had

-visited Venice for the second time, and Bellini

-had received him with great cordiality. D&uuml;rer

-writes, &ldquo;Bellini is very old, but is still the best

-painter in Venice&rdquo;; and adds, &ldquo;The things I

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>admired on my last visit, I now do not value at

-all.&rdquo; Implying that he was able now to see

-how superior Bellini was to the hitherto more

-highly esteemed Vivarini.</p>

-

-<p>At the very end of Bellini&#8217;s life, in 1514,

-the Duke of Ferrara paid him eighty-five ducats

-for a painting of &ldquo;Bacchanals,&rdquo; now at Alnwick

-Castle; which may be looked upon as an

-open confession by one who had always considered

-himself as a painter of distinctively

-religious works, that such a gay scene of feasting

-afforded opportunities which he could not resist,

-for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods,

-sitting at their banquet in a sunny glade, are

-almost fully draped, and there is little of the

-<em>abandon</em> which was affected by later painters.

-The picture was left unfinished, and was later

-given to Titian to complete. In his capacity as

-State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini&#8217;s

-duty to execute the official portraits of the

-Doges. During his long life he saw eleven

-reigns, and during four he held the State

-appointment. Besides the official, he painted

-private portraits of the Doges, and that of

-Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of

-the most perfect presentments of the quattrocento.

-This portrait, painted by one old man of another,

-shows no weakening in touch or characterisation.

-It is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and

-simple. The face is quiet and unexaggerated;

-there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an air

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>of accustomed dignity and thought, while the

-technique has all the perfection of the painter&#8217;s

-prime.</p>

-

-<p>In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church

-of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by the side of his

-brother Gentile. To the last he was popular

-and famous, overwhelmed with attentions from

-the most distinguished personages of the city.

-Though he had begun life when art showed

-such a different aspect, he was by nature so

-imbued with that temperament, which at the

-time of his death was beginning to assert itself

-in the younger school, that he was able to

-assimilate a really astonishing share of the new

-manner. He is guided by feeling more than

-by intellect. All the time he is working out

-problems, he is dominated by the emotion of

-his subject, but his emotion, his pathos, are

-invariably tempered and restrained by the calm

-moderation of the quattrocento. The golden

-mean still has command of Bellini, and never

-allows his feelings, however poignant, to degenerate

-into sentimentality or violence.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Morelli: Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave; (L.); Dead Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.); Salvator Mundi (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Piet&agrave; (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Mond Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Sala Grande: Transfiguration.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Pesaro.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rimini.</td>  <td class="td5">Dead Christ (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);

-             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with

-             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Piet&agrave; (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and Augustine, 1513.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS

-OF BELLINI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense

-of the joy of life and the apprehension of pure

-beauty, which was strengthening in the people

-and leading up to the great period of Venetian

-art, flooded round Bellini and recognised its expression

-in him. He was more popular and had a

-larger following among the artists of his day than

-either Gentile or Carpaccio with their frankly

-mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni&#8217;s State works

-may have been, his religious paintings are the

-ones which are copied and adapted and studied

-by the younger band of artists, and this because

-of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional

-subjects. Gentile&#8217;s pageant-pictures

-have still something cold and colourless, with a

-touch of the archaic, while Giovanni&#8217;s religious

-altarpieces evince a new freedom of handling, a

-modern conception of beautiful women, a use of

-that colour which was soon to reign triumphant.

-As far as it went indeed, its triumph was already

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>assured; as Giovanni advanced towards old age,

-it was no longer of any use for the young

-masters of the day to paint in any way save

-the one he had made popular, and one artist

-after another who had begun in the school of

-Alvise Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni

-Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to

-his assistants, and as everything that went out of

-his workshop was signed by his name, even if it

-only represented the use of one of his designs, or

-a few words of advice, and was &ldquo;passed&rdquo; by the

-master, it is no wonder that European collections

-were flooded with works, among which only

-lately the names of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi,

-Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti, Rondinelli, and

-others begin to be disentangled.</p>

-

-<p>Only one of his followers stands out as a

-strong and original master, not quite of the first

-class, but developing his own individuality while

-he draws in much of what both Alvise and

-Bellini had to give. Cima da Conegliano,

-whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always

-signs himself <em>Coneglianensis</em>: the title of Cima,

-&ldquo;the Rock,&rdquo; by which he is now so widely

-known, having first been mentioned in the

-seventeenth century by Boschini, and perhaps

-given him by that writer himself. He was a

-son of the mountains, who, though he came early

-to Venice, and lived there most of his life, never

-loses something of their wild freshness, and to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>the end delights in bringing them into his

-backgrounds. He lived with his mother at

-Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan

-marches, until 1484, when he was twenty-five,

-and then came down to Vicenza, where he fell

-under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a

-Vicentine painter, who had been studying both

-with Alvise and Bellini. Cima&#8217;s &ldquo;Madonna

-with Saints,&rdquo; painted for the Church of St.

-Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489, shows him still

-using the old method of tempera, in a careful,

-cold, painstaking style, yet already showing his

-own taste. The composition has something of

-Alvise, yet that something has been learned

-through the agency of Montagna, for the figures

-have the latter&#8217;s severity and austere character

-and the colour is clearer and more crude than

-Alvise&#8217;s. It is no light resemblance, and he

-must have been long with Montagna. In the

-type of the Christ in Montagna&#8217;s Piet&agrave; at

-Monte Berico, in the fondness for airy porticoes,

-in the architecture and main features of his

-&ldquo;Madonna enthroned&rdquo; in the Museo Civico at

-Vicenza, we see characteristics which Cima

-followed, though he interpreted them in his

-own way. He turns the heavy arches and

-domes that Alvise loved, into airy pergolas,

-decked with vines. He gives increasing importance

-to high skies and to atmospheric distances.

-When he got to Venice in 1492, he began to

-paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>Baptist with attendant saints, still in the Church

-of S. Madonna dell&#8217; Orto. The work of this is

-rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh,

-and he comes to his best soon after, in the

-&ldquo;Baptism&rdquo; in S. Giovanni in Bragora, which

-Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment

-of copying. It was quite unusual to choose

-such a subject for the High Altar, and could

-only be justified by devotion to the Baptist,

-who was Cima&#8217;s own name-saint as well as

-that of the Church. Cima is here at his very

-highest; the composition is not derived from

-any one else, but is all the conception of an

-ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.

-The Christ is particularly fine and simple,

-unexaggerated in pose and type; the arm of the

-Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to

-give him a refined, tentative look, which makes

-a sympathetic appeal. The attendant angels look

-on with an air of sweet interest. The distant

-mountains, the undulating country, the little

-town of Conegliano, identified by the castle on

-its great rock, or <em>Cima</em>, are Arcadian in their

-sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed

-out, are full of sun, not of rain. The landscape

-has not the sombre mystery of Titian&#8217;s, but is

-bright with the joyous delight of a lover of

-outdoor life. As Cima masters the new medium

-he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms

-lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity

-of his native town ordered the grand

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there,

-and in this he shows his connection with Venice;

-the architecture is partly taken from St. Mark&#8217;s,

-the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a

-group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at

-the foot of the throne. Cima is, however, never

-merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly

-defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls

-are not the curls of Bellini&#8217;s saints, his treatment

-of surface is refined, enamel-like, perfectly

-finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken

-treatment which Bellini&#8217;s natural feeling for

-colour was beginning to dictate. Cima&#8217;s pale

-golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness

-and precision, and though they are full of

-charm and refinement, they may be thought

-lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501

-belongs the &ldquo;Incredulity of St. Thomas,&rdquo; now

-in the Academy, but painted for the Guild of

-Masons. It is a picture full of expression and

-dignity, broad in treatment if a little cold in its

-self-restraint. Cima seems to have not quite

-enough intellect, and not quite enough strong

-feeling. However, the little altarpiece of the

-Nativity, in the Church of the Carmine in

-Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this

-foreshadows the work he did when he went to

-Parma, where his transparent shadows grow

-broader and stronger, and his figures gain in

-ease and freedom. He never loses the delicate

-radiance of his lights, and his types and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>his architecture alike convey something of a

-peculiarly refined, brilliant elegance.</p>

-

-<p>Like all these men of great energy and

-prolific genius, Cima produced an astonishing

-number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt

-had pupils on his own account, for a goodly list

-could be made of pictures in his style, but not

-by his own hand, which have been carried by

-collectors into widely-scattered places. His

-exquisite surface and finish and his marked

-originality make him a difficult master to imitate

-with any success. His latest work is dated

-1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till 1517, and it

-seems probable that he returned to his beloved

-Conegliano and there passed his last years.</p>

-

-<p>If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of

-Treviso, called Catena, gained an immense reputation

-by his industry and his power of imitating

-and adopting the manner of Bellini&#8217;s School. In

-those days men did not trouble themselves much

-as to whether they were original or not. They

-worked away on traditional compositions, frankly

-introducing figures from their master&#8217;s cartoons,

-modifying a type here, making some little experiment

-or arrangement there, and, as a French critic

-puts it, leaving their own personality to &ldquo;hatch

-out&rdquo; in due time, if it existed, and when it was

-sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It

-is here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman

-in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, at a salary

-of three ducats a month, he for long failed to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which

-was possessed by the better disciples of the

-schools. But he is painstaking, determined to

-get on, and eager to satisfy the continually

-increasing demand for work. His draperies are

-confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with

-small features, inexpressive button mouths, and

-weak chins, and his flesh tints have little of

-the glow which is later the prerogative of every

-second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like

-many another careful mediocre man, in securing

-patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened

-he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano

-of a commission to paint the altarpiece for the

-Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal

-Palace. He adapts his group from that of

-Bellini in the Cathedral of Murano, bringing

-in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of

-which he afterwards made numerous copies, one

-of which was for long assigned to Gentile and

-one to Giovanni Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>That Catena is not without charm, we discern

-in such a composition as his &ldquo;Martyrdom of St.

-Cristina,&rdquo; in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which

-the saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels

-upon the water, in which she met her death,

-and is surrounded by little angels, holding up

-the millstone tied round her neck, and laden

-with other instruments of her martyrdom.

-Catena borrows right and left, and tries to

-follow every new indication of contemporary

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>taste. For instance, he remarks the growing

-admiration for colour, and hopes by painting

-gay, flat tints, in bright contrast, to produce the

-desired effect.</p>

-

-<p>It is evident that he made many friends

-among the rich connoisseurs of the time, and

-that his importance was out of proportion to

-his real merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing

-an account of Raphael&#8217;s last days to a friend in

-Venice, and touching on Michelangelo&#8217;s illness,

-begs him to see that Catena takes care of

-himself, &ldquo;as the times are unfavourable to great

-painters.&rdquo; Catena had acquired and inherited

-considerable wealth; he came of a family of

-merchants, and resided in his own house in San

-Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried

-relations with Dona Maria Fustana, the daughter

-of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will

-300 ducats and all his personal effects. As a

-careful portrait-painter, with a talent for catching

-a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in

-some of his heads&mdash;that of a canon dressed in

-blue and red, at Vienna, and especially in one of

-a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden&mdash;he

-attains real distinction. And in his last

-phase he does at length prove the power that

-lies behind long industry and perseverance.

-Suddenly the Giorgionesque influence strikes

-him, and turning to imbibe this new element,

-he produces that masterpiece which throws a

-glamour over all his mediocre performances;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>his &ldquo;Warrior adoring the Infant Christ,&rdquo; in

-the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm,

-rich and romantic in tone and spirit. The

-Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his

-dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of

-her draperies are still unsatisfactory, but the

-knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the

-romantic young page, holding his horse, are

-pure Giorgionesque figures. Beautiful in themselves,

-set in a beautiful landscape glowing

-with light and air, the whole picture exemplifies

-what surprising excellence could be

-suddenly attained by even very inferior artists,

-who were constantly associating with greater

-men, at a moment when the whole air was, as

-it were, vibrating with genius.</p>

-

-<p>Catena was very much addicted to making

-his will, and at least five testaments or codicils

-exist, one of them devising a sum of money

-for the benefit of the School of Painters in

-Venice, and another leaving to his executor, Prior

-Ignatius, the picture of a &ldquo;St. Jerome in his

-Cell,&rdquo; which may be the one in our national

-collection, which remained in Venice till

-1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating

-Basaiti and Lotto, and brings in the partridge of

-which he made a sort of sign manual.</p>

-

-<p>Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro

-Lippomano, to announce that, at his request, he

-is continuing his patronage of Catena:</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p>Though I had done all that lay in my power for

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>Vincenzo Catena before I received your Lordship&#8217;s

-warm recommendation in his favour, I did not hesitate,

-on receipt of your letter, to add something to the first

-piece I had from him, and I did so because of my love

-and reverence for you, and I trust that he will return

-appropriate thanks to you for having remembered that

-you could command me.</p></div>

-

-<p>Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman

-in different workshops and a master on his own

-account. For long the assistant and follower of

-Alvise Vivarini, we may judge that he was also

-his most trusted confidant, for to him was left

-the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to

-S. Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is

-apparent in the execution, and the two saints,

-Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have

-probably been added by him, for they have the

-air of interlopers, and do not come up to the rest

-of the company in form and conception. The

-Sebastian, with his hands behind his back and

-his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite sufficiently

-reminiscent of Bellini&#8217;s figure of 1473 to make

-us believe that Basaiti was at once transferring

-his allegiance to that reigning master. In his

-earlier phase he has the round heads and the

-dry precise manner of the Muranese. In his

-large picture in the Academy, the &ldquo;Calling of

-the Sons of Zebedee,&rdquo; he produces a large,

-important set piece, cold and lifeless, without

-one figure which arrests us, or lingers in

-the memory. &ldquo;The Christ on the Mount&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>is more interesting as having been painted for

-San Giobbe, where Bellini&#8217;s great altarpiece

-was already hanging, and coming into competition

-with Bellini&#8217;s early rendering of the same

-scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is

-interesting to see what it has gained in

-&ldquo;modernness.&rdquo; The landscape and trees are

-well drawn and in good colour, and the saints,

-standing on either side of a high portico, have

-dignity. In the &ldquo;Dead Christ,&rdquo; in the Academy,

-he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints

-and the <em>putti</em>. The <em>putti</em>, looking thoughtfully

-at the dead, is a <em>motif</em> beloved of Bellini,

-but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini&#8217;s pathos

-and significance; they are merely childish and

-seem to be amused.</p>

-

-<p>In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new

-phase. He has felt Giorgione&#8217;s influence, and

-is beginning to try what he can do, while still

-keeping close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch,

-more animated figures, and a brilliant effect of

-landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour

-over his hard outlines and makes his figures

-bright and misty, and though underneath they

-are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising

-that many of his works for a time passed

-as those of Bellini. Though he is a clever

-imitator, &ldquo;his figures are designed with less

-mastery, his drawing is a little less correct,

-his drapery less adapted to the under form.

-Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>colours have the brightness, but not the true

-contrast required. In landscape he proceeds

-from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does

-not dwell on detail, but his masses have neither

-the sober tint nor the mysterious richness

-conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever

-instrument.&rdquo; Both Previtali and Rondinelli

-were workers with Basaiti in Bellini&#8217;s studio.

-Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea

-Cordeliaghi or Cordella, and has left many

-unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and

-Lotto, Palma and Montagna; but for a time his

-work went forth from Bellini&#8217;s workshop signed

-with Bellini&#8217;s name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece

-in San Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes

-the title of Previtali, compiling it in the

-cartello with the monogram already used as

-Cordeliaghi. There are traces of many other

-minor artists at this period, all essaying the

-same manner, copying one or other of the

-masters, taking hints from each other. The

-Venetian love of splendour was turning to the

-collection of works of art, and the work of

-second-class artists was evidently much in

-demand and obtained its meed of admiration.

-Bissolo was a fellow-labourer with Catena in the

-Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he is soft

-and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has

-imbibed something of his tenderness of spirit.</p>

-

-<p>It will be seen from this list how difficult it

-is to unravel the tale of the false Bellinis. The

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>master&#8217;s own works speak for themselves with

-no uncertain voice, but away from these it is

-very difficult to pronounce as to whether he had

-given a design, or a few touches, or advice, and

-still more difficult to decide whether these were

-bestowed on Basaiti in his later manner, or on

-Previtali or Bissolo, or if the teaching was handed

-on by them in a still more diluted form to

-the lesser men who clustered round, much of

-whose work has survived and has been masquerading

-for centuries under more distinguished

-names. It is sometimes affirmed that the loss

-of originality in the endeavour to paint like

-greater men has been a symptom of decay in

-every school in the past. It is interesting to

-notice, therefore, that in every great age of

-painting there has always been an undercurrent

-of imitation, which has helped to form a stream

-of tradition, and which, as far as we can see, has

-done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Cima.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Conegliano.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Parma.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Piet&agrave;; Madonna

-               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the Angel.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome, Mark, and Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Vincenzo Catena.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lord Brownlow: Nativity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Canon.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Marco Basaiti.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave;; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Jerome; Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro: Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510; Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute: S. Sebastian.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Andrea Previtali.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece; Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saint.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and four Female Saints, 1525.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Donor (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Oxford.</td>  <td class="td5">Christchurch Library: Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>N. Rondinelli.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ravenna.</td>  <td class="td5">Two Madonnas with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bissolo.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Redentore: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>

-<h2>PART II</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIORGIONE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings,

-we find our admiration and criticism expressing

-themselves naturally in certain terms; we are

-struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of

-form, by the evidence of knowledge, by the

-display of thought and intellectual feeling. The

-Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive,

-nervous, fervent, or, as in Michelangelo and

-Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But

-when looking at pictures of the Venetian School

-we unconsciously use quite another sort of

-language; epithets like &ldquo;dark&rdquo; and &ldquo;rich&rdquo;

-come most freely to our lips; a golden glow,

-a slumberous velvety depth, seem to engulf

-and absorb all details. We are carried into the

-land of romance, and are fascinated and soothed,

-rather than stimulated and aroused. So it is with

-portraits; before the &ldquo;Mona Lisa&rdquo; our intelligence

-is all awake, but the men and women of

-Venetian canvases have a grave, indolent serenity,

-which accords well with the slumber of thought.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century

-the painters of Venice had not differed very

-materially from those of other schools; they

-had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities

-of drawing, perspective and anatomy.

-They had been painting in oils for twenty-five

-years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for

-pageant-pictures than was felt in other States of

-Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and Leonardo

-to decorate her public palace, but no great

-store is set by their splendid achievements; their

-work is not even completed. The students fall

-upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish,

-instead of being treasured by the nation. Gentile

-Bellini and Carpaccio and the band of State

-painters are appreciated and well rewarded.

-These men have reproduced something of the

-lucent transparency, the natural colour of Venice,

-but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully

-aiming at any special effect. Year after year

-the Venetian masters assimilate more or less

-languidly the influences which reach them

-from the mainland. They welcome Guariento

-and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to

-learn from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans

-contribute their chiselled drawing, their learned

-perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet

-even early in the day the Venetians escape from

-that hard and learned art which is so alien

-to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo

-Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>is ready to follow feeling and emotion, and in

-his old age is quick to discover the first flavour

-of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone

-on upon the lines we have been tracing up

-to now, there would have been nothing very

-distinctive about it, for, however interesting and

-charming Alvise and Carpaccio, Cima and the

-Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when

-we speak of the Venetian School and when we

-rank it beside that of Florence, while Giovanni

-Bellini alone, in his later works, is not strong

-enough to bear the burden.</p>

-

-<p>The change which now comes over painting

-is not so much a technical one as a change of

-temper, a new tendency in human thought, and

-we link it with Giorgione because he was the

-channel through which the deep impulse first

-burst into the light. We have tried to trace the

-growth of the early Venetian School, but it does

-not develop logically like that of Florence; it

-is not the result of long endeavour, adding one

-acquisition and discovery to another. Venetian

-art was peculiarly the outcome of personalities,

-and it did not know its own mind till the

-sixteenth century. Then, like a hidden spring,

-it bubbles irresistibly to the surface, and the spot

-where it does so is called by the name of a man.</p>

-

-<p>There are beings in most great creative

-epochs who, with peculiar facility, seem to

-embody the purpose of their age and to yield

-themselves as ready instruments to its design.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>When time is ripe they appear, and are able,

-with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice

-to the desires and tendencies which have been

-straining for expression. These desires may owe

-their origin to national life and temperament;

-it may have taken generations to bring them to

-fruition, but they become audible through the

-agency of an individual genius. A genius is

-inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the

-seventeenth century, drew to her in Bernini a

-man who could with real power illustrate her

-determination to be grandiose and ostentatious,

-and, at the height of the Renaissance, Venice

-draws into her service a man whose sensuous

-feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed

-by every element around him.</p>

-

-<p>More conclusively than ever, at this time,

-Venice, the world&#8217;s great sea-power, was in her

-full glory as the centre of the world&#8217;s commerce

-and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had

-discovered the sea route to India in 1498, but

-the stupendous effect which this was to exert

-on the whole current of power did not become

-apparent all at once. Venice was still the

-great emporium of the East, linked to it by a

-thousand ties, Oriental in her love of Eastern

-richness.</p>

-

-<p>It would be exaggerating to say that the

-Venetians of the sixteenth century could not

-draw. As there were Tuscans who understood

-beautiful harmonies of colour, so there were

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Venetians who knew a good deal about form;

-but the other Italians looked upon colour as a

-charming adjunct, almost, one might say, as

-an amiable weakness: they never would have

-allowed that it might legitimately become the

-end and aim in painting, and in the same way

-form, though respected and considered, was

-never the principal object of the Venetians.

-Up to this time Venice had fed her emotional

-instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and

-brocades, but with Giorgione she discovered

-that there was a deeper emotional vehicle than

-these superficial glories,&mdash;glowing depths of

-colour enveloped in the mysterious richness of

-chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid

-and suggested more than it revealed.</p>

-

-<p>Giorgione no longer described &ldquo;in drawing&#8217;s

-learned tongue&rdquo;; he carried all before him

-by giving his direct impression in colour. He

-conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little

-if their finely drawn draperies were blue or

-red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their

-dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange

-horizon. He hardly knows what attitudes his

-characters take, but their chestnut hair, their

-deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a

-moving harmony in which the importance of

-exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are

-not composed methodically and according to

-the old rules, but are the direct impress of the

-painter&#8217;s joy in life. It was a new and audacious

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>style in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely

-inevitable consequence, was to substitute for

-form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the

-quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how

-the shades of evening are able to transform

-the most commonplace scene; the dull road

-becomes a mysterious avenue, the colourless

-foliage develops luscious depths, the drab and

-arid plain glows with mellow light, purple

-shadows clothe and soften every harsh and ugly

-object, all detail dies, and our apprehension of

-it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of

-observing and criticising, we become soothed,

-contemplative, dreamy. It is the carrying of

-this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by

-means of chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer

-learned and explanatory, but deeply sensuous

-and emotional, that is the gift to art which

-found full voice with Giorgione, and which

-in one moment was recognised and welcomed

-to the exclusion of the older manner, because

-it touched the chord which vibrated through

-the whole Venetian temperament.</p>

-

-<p>And the immediate result was the picture of

-<em>no subject</em>. Giorgione creates for us idle figures

-with radiant flesh, or robed in rich costumes,

-surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask

-or care why they are gathered together. We

-have all had dreams of Elysian fields, &ldquo;where

-falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows

-loudly,&rdquo; where all is rest and freedom, where

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>music blends with the plash of fountains, and

-fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and

-no one asks what went before or what follows

-after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and

-nymphs: there never has been such a day, or

-such a land: it is a mood, a vision: it has

-danced before the eyes of poets, from David to

-Keats and Tennyson: it has rocked the tired

-hearts of men in all ages: the vision of a resting-place

-which makes no demands and where the

-dwellers are exempt from the cares and weakness

-of mortality. Needless to say, it is an ideal born

-of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise,

-and it speaks to that strain in the temperament

-which recognises that life cannot be all thought,

-but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the

-first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco

-sets that vague dream before men&#8217;s eyes.

-The world, with its wistful yearnings and questionings,

-such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied,

-said little to his audience. Here was their natural

-atmosphere, though they had never known it

-before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused

-and golden lights are what Giorgione grasps

-from the material world, and as he steeps his

-senses in them the subject counts but little in

-the deep enjoyment they communicate. We,

-who have seen his manner repeated and developed

-through thousands of pictures, find it difficult to

-realise that there had been nothing like it before,

-that it was a unique departure, that when Bellini

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>and Titian looked at his first creations they must

-have experienced a shock of revelation. The

-old definite style must have seemed suddenly

-hard and meagre, and every time they looked on

-the glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the

-mysterious shades of falling night, they must

-have felt they were endowed with a sense to

-which they had hitherto been strangers, but

-which, it was at once apparent, was their true

-heritage. They had found themselves, and in

-them Venice found her real expression, and

-with Giorgione and those who felt his impetus

-began the true Venetian School, set apart from

-all other forms of art by its way of using and

-diffusing and intensifying colour.</p>

-

-<p>When Giorgione, the son of a member of

-the house of Barbarelli and a peasant girl of

-Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather

-that he had nothing of the provincial. Vasari,

-who must often have heard of him from Titian,

-describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished

-appearance, beloved by his friends, a

-favourite with women, fond of dress and amusement,

-an admirable musician, and a welcome guest

-in the houses of the great. He was evidently

-no peasant-bred lad, but probably, though

-there is no record of the fact, was brought up,

-like many illegitimate children, in the paternal

-mansion. His home was not far from the

-lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is

-possible to imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>running up to the Asolean hills and with the

-Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he

-received his education in the school of Bellini,

-for when that master sold his allegory of the

-&ldquo;Souls in Paradise&rdquo; to one of the Medici, to

-adorn the summer villa of Poggio Imperiale,

-there went with it the two small canvases now

-in the Uffizi, the &ldquo;Ordeal of Moses&rdquo; and the

-&ldquo;Judgment of Solomon,&rdquo; delightful little

-paintings in Giorgione&#8217;s rich and distinctive style,

-but less accomplished than Bellini&#8217;s picture, and

-with imperfections in the drawing of drapery

-and figures which suggest that they are the

-work of a very young man. The love of the

-Venetians for decorating the exterior of their

-palaces with fresco led to Giorgione being largely

-employed on work which was unhappily a

-grievous waste of time and talent, as far as

-posterity is concerned. We have a record of

-fa&ccedil;ades covered with spirited compositions and

-heraldic devices, of friezes with Bacchus and

-Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti, in his

-seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble

-figure of &ldquo;Fortitude&rdquo; grasping an axe, but beyond

-a few fragments nothing has survived. Before

-he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the

-important commission of decorating the Fondaco

-dei Tedeschi. This building, which we hear of

-so often in connection with the artists of Venice,

-was the trading-house for German, Hungarian,

-and Polish merchants. The Venetian Government

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>surrounded these merchants with the most

-jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant

-connected with them was by law a Venetian, and,

-in fact, a spy of the Republic. All transactions

-of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian

-brokers, of whom some thirty were appointed.

-As time went on, some of these brokerships must

-have resolved themselves into sinecure offices,

-for we find Bellini holding one, and certainly

-without discharging any of the original duties,

-and they seem to have become some sort of State

-retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been

-burnt to the ground, and the present building

-was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys.

-A decree went forth that no marble, carving, or

-gilding were to be used, so that painting the outside

-was the only alternative. The roof was on in

-1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and

-Morto da Feltre were employed in the adornment

-of the fa&ccedil;ade. Vasari is very much exercised

-over Giorgione&#8217;s share in these decorations. &ldquo;One

-does not find one subject carefully arranged,&rdquo;

-he complains, &ldquo;or which follows correctly the

-history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for

-me, I have never been able to understand the

-meaning of these compositions, or have met

-any one able to explain them to me. Here one

-sees a man with a lion&#8217;s head, beside a woman.

-Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love:

-it is all an inexplicable medley.&rdquo; Yet he is

-delighted with the brilliancy of the colour and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>the splendid execution, and adds, &ldquo;Colour gives

-more pleasure in Venice than anywhere else.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Among other early work was the little

-&ldquo;Adoration of the Magi,&rdquo; in the National

-Gallery, and the so-called &ldquo;Philosophers&rdquo; at

-Vienna. According to the latest reading, this

-last illustrates Virgil&#8217;s legend that when the

-Trojan &AElig;neas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed

-out the future site of Rome to the ancient seer

-and his son. Giorgione, in painting the scene,

-is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his

-first great landscape, and all accessories have been

-sacrificed to intensity of effect. He revels in

-the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil

-masses of foliage, the long evening shadows,

-and the effect of dark forms silhouetted against

-the radiant light.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>GIORGIONE</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back

-to Castelfranco, and painted an altarpiece for the

-Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth

-century Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain

-of Free Companions, who had made his fortune

-in the wars, where he had been attached to

-Catherine Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen

-from Cyprus, and when she retired to Asolo,

-settled near her at Castelfranco. His son,

-Matteo, entered the service of the Venetian

-Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances; but

-Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in

-1504, and Costanza had his son&#8217;s body embalmed

-and buried in the family chapel.</p>

-

-<p>Nothing is known of the details of this

-commission, but we are not straining the bounds

-of probability by assuming that in a little town

-like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village,

-the two youths must have been well known to

-each other, and that this acquaintance and the

-familiarity of the one with the appearance of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>the other may have been the determining cause

-which led the bereaved father to give the commission

-to the young painter, while the tragic

-circumstances were such as would appeal to an

-ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of our

-National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione

-for the figure of San Liberale, who is represented

-as a young man with bare head and crisp, golden

-locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the

-suit in which Matteo Costanza is dressed in

-the stone effigy which is still preserved in the

-cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the

-stone figure lies a helmet, resembling that on the

-head of the saint in the altarpiece.</p>

-

-<p>In Giorgione&#8217;s group the Mother and Child

-are enthroned on high, with St. Francis and St.

-Liberale on either hand. The Child&#8217;s glance is

-turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure

-with his lance at rest, his dagger on his hip,

-his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with

-features of almost feminine beauty. The picture

-is conceived in a new spirit of simplicity of

-design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in

-matters of detail. It is the work of a man who

-has observed that early morning, like late evening,

-has a marvellous power of eliminating all

-unessential accessories and of enveloping every

-object in a delicious scheme of light. Repainted,

-cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is still full of

-an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the

-ecstatic, devotional reverie of Perugino&#8217;s saints.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>The painter of Castelfranco has not steeped his

-whole soul in religious imagination, like the

-painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the

-lyric feeling; his work is a poem in praise of

-youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine.

-He uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but

-Giorgione carries his unison of landscape with

-human feeling much further than Perugino; he

-observes the delicate effects of light, and limpid

-air circulates in his distance. The sun rising

-over the sea throws a glamour and purity of

-early morning over a scene meant to glorify

-the memory of a young life. The painter

-shows his connection with his master by using

-the figure of the St. Francis in Bellini&#8217;s San

-Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to

-Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The

-San Zaccaria altarpiece was, as we have seen,

-painted in the year following that of Castelfranco.

-Something has incited the old painter to fresh

-efforts; out of his own evolution, or stimulated

-by his pupil&#8217;s splendid experiments, he is drawn

-into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian

-cinque-cento.</p>

-

-<p>The Venetian painters were distinguished

-by their love for the kindred art of music.

-Giorgione himself was an admirable musician,

-and linked with all that is akin to music in his

-work, is his love for painting groups of people

-knit together by this bond. He uses it as a

-pastime to bring them into company, and the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>rich chords of colour seem permeated with the

-chords of sound. Not always, however, does he

-need even this excuse; his &ldquo;conversation-pieces&rdquo;

-are often merely composed of persons placed with

-indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings,

-governed by a mood which communicates itself

-to the beholder.</p>

-

-<p>With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully

-drawn upon the wall and flat tints were

-superimposed. They knew beforehand what the

-effect was to be; but the Venetians from this

-time gradually worked up the picture, imbedding

-tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting

-another, till the whole rich harmony was gradually

-evoked. With the Florentines, too, the figures

-supply the main interest; the background is an

-arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the

-painter&#8217;s leisure, but Giorgione&#8217;s and Titian&#8217;s <em>f&ecirc;tes

-champ&ecirc;tres</em> and concerts could not <em>be</em> at all in any

-other environment. The amber flesh-tints and

-the glowing garments are so blended with the

-deep tones of the landscape, that one would not

-instil the mood the artist desires without the

-other. Piero di Cosimo and Pintoricchio can

-place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses in

-idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us

-beyond an observant pleasure, a detached amusement;

-but Giorgione&#8217;s gloomy blues, his figures

-shining through the warm dusk of a summer

-evening, waken we hardly know what of vague

-yearning and brooding memory.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>In the &ldquo;F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre&rdquo; of the Louvre he

-acquires a frankly sensuous charm. He becomes

-riper, richer in feeling, and displays great exuberance

-of style. The woman filling her pitcher

-at the fountain is exquisite in line and curve and

-amber colour. She seems to listen lazily to the

-liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard

-music of the pipes. The beautiful idyll

-in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art of composition.

-It is built up with uprights; pillars are

-formed by the groups of trees and figures, cut

-boldly across by the horizontal line of the bridge,

-but the figures themselves are put in without

-any attention to subject, though an unconscious

-humorist has discovered in them the domestic

-circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress

-is there to assist the left-hand columnar group,

-placed at the edge of the picture after the

-manner of Leonardo. The woman and child

-lighten the mass of foliage on the right and

-make a beautiful pattern. The white town of

-Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky,

-the winds bluster through the space, the trees

-shiver with the coming storm. Here and there

-leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp

-touch, in which we can follow readily the

-painter&#8217;s quick impression.</p>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;Knight of Malta&rdquo; is a grand magisterial

-figure, majestic, yet full of ardent warmth

-lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The

-face is bisected with shadow, in the way which

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>Michelangelo and Andrea del Sarto affected, and

-the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of

-the type which seems particularly to have

-pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too, belongs

-the honour of having created a Venus as pure as

-the Aphrodite of Cnidos and as beautiful as a

-courtesan of Titian.</p>

-

-<p><a name="champ" id="champ"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img169.jpg" width="550" height="436" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Giorgione.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; F&Ecirc;TE CHAMP&Ecirc;TRE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Louvre.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Alinari.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511

-is registered by all the oldest authorities. His

-body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members

-of the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church

-of San Liberale. In 1638 an epitaph was placed

-over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.</p>

-

-<p>Allowing that he was hardly more than

-twenty when his new manner began to gain a

-following, he had only some twelve years in

-which to establish his deep and lasting influence.

-We divine that he was a man of strong personality,

-such a one as warms and stimulates his

-companions. Even his nickname tells us something,&mdash;Great

-George, the Chief, the George of

-Georges,&mdash;it seems to express him as a leader.

-And we have no lack of proof that he was

-admired and looked up to. His style became

-the only one that found favour in Venice, and

-the painters of the day did their best to conform

-to it. Few authentic examples are left from his

-own hand, but out of his conscious and devoted

-and more or less successful imitators, there grew

-up a school, &ldquo;out of all those fascinating works,

-rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>many copies from, or variations on him, by

-unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings

-and designs were, for various reasons, prized as

-his; out of the immediate impression he made

-upon his contemporaries and with which he

-continued in men&#8217;s minds; out of many traditions

-of subject and treatment which really

-descend from him to our own time, and by

-retracing which we fill out the original image.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Summing up all these influences, he has left

-us the Giorgionesque; the art of choosing a

-moment in which the subject and the elements

-of colour and design are so perfectly fused and

-blended that we have no need to ask for any

-more articulate story; a moment into which

-all the significance, the fulness of existence has

-condensed itself, so that we are conscious of the

-very essence of life. Those idylls of beings

-wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music

-and the sound of water and the beauty of

-wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all

-our conscious apprehension of life if we are

-to drink in their full fascination. The dream

-of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to

-those who can contrast it adequately with the

-experience, the complication, and the thousand

-distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and

-relaxation, the power of the deeply tinted eventide,

-or of the fresh morning light, and the calm

-that drinks in the sensations they are able to

-afford, are among the precious things of life.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>The instinct upon which Giorgione&#8217;s work rests

-is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the

-thinking faculty, the life of the heart, as compared

-to the life of the intellect, the solution of

-life&#8217;s problems by love instead of by thought.

-It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression

-is conveyed by means of colour, deep,

-restful, satisfying, fused and controlled by

-chiaroscuro rather than by form.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Buda-Pesth.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Man.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Castelfranco.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Sleeping Venus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight of Malta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">A Shepherd.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">F&ecirc;te Champ&ecirc;tre.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Boston.</td>  <td class="td5">Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Evander showing &AElig;neas the Future Site of Rome.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE GIORGIONESQUE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the

-painters round him felt his power. The Venetian

-painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a

-time when the men of one city observed and

-studied and took hints from those of every other,

-how faint are the signs that this particular

-manner attracted any great attention in other

-art centres. Leonardo da Vinci was a master of

-chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his

-forms, and never sacrifices to it the delicacy

-and fineness of his design. It is the one quality

-Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief

-instant at the period when Sebastian del Piombo

-had arrived in Rome from Venice. It takes hold

-most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,

-significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced

-intellectual capacity, but in Venice itself

-it now became the only way. The old Bellini

-finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena,

-Basaiti, Cariani do their best to acquire it, and so

-successfully was it acquired, so congenial was it

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>to Venetian art, that even second-&nbsp;and third-rate

-Venetian painters have usually something attractive

-which triumphs over superficial and doubtful

-drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how

-much to their taste was this fused and golden

-manner, this disregard of defined form, and this

-new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room

-in the National Gallery is full of such examples:

-the Nymphs and <em>Amoretti</em> of No. 1695, charming

-figures against melting vines and olives; &ldquo;Venus

-and Adonis,&rdquo; in which a bewitching Cupid

-chases a butterfly; Lovers in a landscape, roaming

-in the summer twilight; scenes in which

-neither person nor scenery is a pretext for the

-other, but each has its full share in arousing the

-desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to,

-or taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics,

-but have all laid hold of his charm, and have

-some share in his inspiration.</p>

-

-<p>One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose

-work is still confounded with the master&#8217;s, is

-Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times

-in his life also successfully imitated Palma and

-Lotto. In his Giorgionesque manner Cariani often

-creates charming figures and strong portraits,

-though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive

-tone. His family group in the Roncalli Collection

-at Bergamo is very close to Giorgione. Seven

-persons, three women and four men, are grouped

-together upon a terrace, and behind them

-stretches a calm landscape, half concealed by a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is

-restful, though it lacks Giorgione&#8217;s concentration

-of sensation. Then, again, Cariani flies off to the

-gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,

-when he tries to reproduce Giorgione&#8217;s pastoral

-reveries, his shepherds and nymphs become mere

-peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who

-have nothing of the idyllic distinction which

-Giorgione never failed to infuse. &ldquo;The

-Adulteress before Christ&rdquo; at Glasgow still bears

-the greater name, but its short, vulgar figures

-and faulty composition disclaim his authorship,

-while Cariani is fully capable of such failings,

-and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite

-characteristic of him.</p>

-

-<p>These painters are more than merely imitative;

-they are also typical. Giorgione&#8217;s new manner

-had appealed to some quality inherent and

-hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits

-they single out and dwell upon are the traits

-which appeal equally to the instincts of both.

-It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic

-than those of other second-rate painters.

-Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which

-Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to

-them, and it is a medium which does make an

-immediate appeal and covers a multitude of shortcomings.</p>

-

-<p>But Giorgione was not to leave his message

-to the mercy of mere disciples and imitators,

-however apt. Growing up around him were

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>men to whom that message was an inspiration

-and a trumpet-call, men who were to develop and

-deepen it, endowing it with their own strength,

-recognising that the way which the young

-pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out was the

-one into which they could unhesitatingly pour

-their whole inclination. The instinct for colour

-was in their very blood. They turned to it with

-the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks

-the air or a fish the water, and foremost among

-them, to create and to consolidate, was the

-mighty Titian.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Cariani.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Morelli: Madonna (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Roncalli Collection: Family Group.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ bearing Cross; The &ldquo;Bravo.&rdquo;</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>School of Giorgione.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;

-               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>The mountains of Cadore are not always visible

-from Venice, but there they lie, behind the mists,

-and in the clear shining after rain, in the golden

-eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter

-days they stand out, lapis-lazuli blue or deep

-purple, or, like Shelley&#8217;s enchanted peaks, in

-sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy

-slopes. Cadore is a land of rich chestnut woods,

-of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms, sudden

-storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of

-scenery which enters deep into the affections of

-its sons, and we can form some idea of the hold

-its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness

-obtained over the mind of Titian from the fact

-that in after years, while he never exerts himself

-to paint the city in which he lived and in which

-all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly

-constant to his mountain home, enters

-into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm

-and penetrating insight.</p>

-

-<p>The district formed part of the dependencies

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>of the great republic, and relied upon Venice for

-its safety, its distinction, and in great measure

-for its employment. The small craftsmen and

-artists from all the country round looked forward

-to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.

-They tacked the name of their native town to

-their own name, and were drawn into the

-magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came

-back from time to time with stories of her art,

-her power, and beauty.</p>

-

-<p>The Vecelli had for generations held honourable

-posts in Cadore. The father and grandfather

-of the young Tiziano were influential

-men, and with his brother and sisters he must

-have been brought up in comfort. There are

-even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident

-that Titian was always a gentleman, though this

-did not prevent his being educated as a craftsman,

-and when he was only ten years old he

-was sent down to Venice to be apprenticed to

-a mosaicist.</p>

-

-<p>It was a changing Venice to which Titian

-came as a boy; changing in its life, its social

-and political conditions, and its art was faithfully

-registering its aspirations and tastes. More

-than at any previous time, it was calculated

-to impress a youth to whom it had been held up

-as the embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and

-the difference between the little hill-town set in

-the midst of its wild solitudes and the brilliant

-city of the sea must have been dazzling and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>bewildering. A new sense of intellectual luxury

-had awakened in the great commercial centre.

-The Venetian love of splendour was displaying

-itself by the encouragement and collection of

-objects of art, and both ancient and modern

-works were in increasing request. On Gentile

-Bellini&#8217;s and Carpaccio&#8217;s canvases we see the sort

-of people the Venetians were, shrewd, quiet,

-splendour-loving, but business-like, the young

-men fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs,

-splendid patrons of art and of religion. Buyers

-were beginning to find out what a delightful

-decoration the small picture made, and that it

-was as much in place in their own halls as over

-the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was

-gaining in importance, and the idea of making it

-a pleasure-giving picture, even more than a faithful

-transcript, was gathering ground. The

-&ldquo;Procession of the Relic&rdquo; was still in Gentile&#8217;s

-studio, but the Frari &ldquo;Madonna and Child&rdquo;

-was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was

-beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the

-Bellini and Vivarini were in keen rivalship.</p>

-

-<p>Titian is said to have passed from the <em>bottega</em>

-of Gentile to that of Giovanni Bellini, but

-nothing in his style reminds us of the former,

-and even his early work has very little that is

-really Bellinesque, whereas from the very first

-he reflects the new spirit which emanated from

-Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and

-we can divine the sympathy that arose between

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>the two when they came together in Bellini&#8217;s

-School. As soon as their apprenticeship was at

-an end they became partners. Fond of pleasure

-and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement,

-they were naturally congenial companions,

-and were drawn yet more closely together by

-their love for their art and by the aptitude with

-which Titian grasped Giorgione&#8217;s principles.</p>

-

-<p>And if we ask ourselves why we take for

-granted that of two young men so closely allied

-in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione

-as the leader and the creator of the new style,

-we may answer that Titian was a more complex

-character. He was intellectual, and carried his

-intellect into his art, but this was no new

-feature. The intellect had had and was having

-a large share in art. But in that part which was

-new, and which was launching art upon an

-untried course, Giorgione is more intense, more

-one-idea&#8217;d than Titian. What he does he does

-with a fervour and a spontaneity that marks him

-as one who pours out the language of the heart.</p>

-

-<p>The partnership between the two was probably

-arranged a few years before the end of the

-century, for we have seen that young painters

-usually started on their own account at about

-nineteen or twenty. For some years Titian, like

-Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of

-the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The groups of

-figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us

-that while Giorgione made some attempt at

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>following classic figures, Titian broke entirely

-with Greek art and only thought of picturesque

-nature and contemporary costume.</p>

-

-<p>Vasari complains that he never knew what

-Titian&#8217;s &ldquo;Judith&rdquo; was meant to represent,

-&ldquo;unless it was Germania,&rdquo; but Zanetti, who had

-the benefit of Sebastiano Ricci&#8217;s taste, declares

-that from what he saw, both Giorgione and

-Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. &ldquo;While

-Giorgione showed a fervid and original spirit

-and opened up a new path, over which he shed

-a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was

-of a grander and more equable genius, leaning

-at first, indeed, upon Giorgione&#8217;s example, but

-expanding with such force and rapidity as to

-place him in advance of his companion, on an

-eminence to which no later craftsman was

-able to climb.... He moderated the fire of

-Giorgione, whose strength lay in fanciful movement

-and a mysterious artifice in disposing

-shadows, contrasted darkly with warm lights,

-blended, strengthened, blurred, so as to produce

-the semblance of exuberant life.&rdquo; Certain works

-remain to link the two painters; even now

-critics are divided as to which of the two to

-attribute the &ldquo;Concert&rdquo; in the Pitti. The

-figures are Giorgionesque, but the technique

-establishes it as an early Titian, and it is doubtful

-whether Giorgione would be capable of the

-intellectual effort which produced the dreamy,

-passionate expression of the young monk, borne

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>far out of himself by his own melody, and half

-recalled to life by the touch on his shoulder.

-Titian, like Giorgione, was a musician, and the

-fascination of music is felt by many masters

-of the Italian schools. In one picture the player

-feels vaguely after the melody, in another we are

-asked to anticipate the song that is just about

-to begin, or the last chords of that just finished

-vibrate upon the ear, but nowhere else in all art

-has any one so seized the melody of an instant

-and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in

-our ears as this musician does.</p>

-

-<p>Though we cannot say that Titian was the

-pupil of any one master, the fifteen years, more

-or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an

-indelible impression upon him. We have only

-to look at such a picture as the &ldquo;Madonna and

-Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,&rdquo;

-in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that

-in 1503 Giorgione at Castelfranco had taken

-the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary

-and had enthroned her on high in a bright

-and sunny landscape with S. Liberale standing

-sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding his

-liege lady.</p>

-

-<p>Titian in this early group casts every convention

-aside; a beautiful woman and lovely

-children are placed in surroundings whose charm

-is devoid of hieratic and religious significance.

-The same easy unfettered treatment appears in

-the &ldquo;Madonna with the Cherries&rdquo; at Vienna,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>and the &ldquo;Madonna with St. Bridget and S.

-Ulfus&rdquo; at Madrid, and while it has been surmised

-that the example of the precise Albert

-D&uuml;rer, who paid his first visit to Venice in

-1506, was not without its effect in preserving

-Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and

-in inciting him to fine finish, it is interesting

-to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding

-the use of the carefully traced and transferred

-cartoon, and was sketching his design freely on

-panel or canvas with a brush dipped in brown

-pigment, and altering and modifying it as he

-went on.</p>

-

-<p>The last years of Titian&#8217;s first period in

-Venice must have been anxious ones. The

-Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian

-possessions on the mainland, in anger at a refusal

-to grant his troops a free passage on their way

-to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy.

-Cadore was the first point of his invasion, and

-from 1507 Titian&#8217;s uncle and great-uncle were

-in the Councils of the State, his father held an

-important command, and his brother Francesco,

-who had already made some progress as an

-artist, threw down his brush and became a

-soldier. Titian was not one of those who took

-up arms, but his thoughts must have been full

-of the attack and defence in his mountain

-fastnesses, and he must have anxiously awaited

-news of his father&#8217;s troops and of the squadrons

-of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Francesco was riding. Francesco made a reputation

-as a distinguished soldier, and was severely

-wounded, and when peace was made, Titian,

-&ldquo;who loved him tenderly,&rdquo; persuaded him to

-return to the pursuit of art.</p>

-

-<p>The ratification of the League of Cambray, in

-which Julius II., Maximilian, and Ferdinand of

-Naples combined against the power of Venice, was

-disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists

-who depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen

-of all kinds first fled to her for shelter, then, as

-profits and orders fell off, they left to look elsewhere

-for commissions. An outbreak of plague,

-in which Giorgione perished, went further to

-make Venice an undesirable home, and at this

-time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto

-for the Romagna, and Titian for Padua.</p>

-

-<p>We may believe that Titian never felt

-perfectly satisfied with fresco-painting as a craft,

-for when he was given a commission to fresco

-the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of

-St. Anthony, patron-saint of Padua, he threw off

-beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but

-he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants,

-among whom the feeble Domenico Campagnola,

-a painter whom he probably picked up at Padua,

-is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is

-best, as in &ldquo;S. Anthony restoring a Youth,&rdquo; the

-drawing and composition only make us feel how

-enchanting the scene would have been in oils

-on one of Titian&#8217;s melting canvases. In those

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>frescoes which he executed himself while his

-interest was still fresh, the &ldquo;Miracle which

-grants Speech to an Infant&rdquo; is the most Giorgionesque.

-Up to this time he had preserved the

-straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his

-contemporaries, after the practice of Giorgione;

-he keeps, too, to his companion&#8217;s plan of design,

-placing the most important figures upon one

-plane, close to the frame and behind a low wall

-or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame and

-with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes

-he makes use of this plan, and the straight

-clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay

-doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade,

-but the group of women to the left in the

-&ldquo;Miracle of the Child&rdquo; shows that Titian is

-beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own

-type. The introduction of portraits proves that

-he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in

-contradistinction to Giorgione&#8217;s lyrically improvised

-figures. He fuses the influence of

-Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da

-Messina and the Bellini in a deeper knowledge

-of life and nature, and he is passing beyond

-Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When

-he was able to return to Venice, which he did in

-1512, a temporary peace having been concluded

-with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial

-medium of fresco for good, and devoted himself

-to that which admitted of the afterthoughts,

-the enrichments, the gradual attainment of an

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>exquisite surface, and at this time his works are

-remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.</p>

-

-<p>During the next twelve years we may group

-a number of paintings which, taken in conjunction

-with those of Giorgione, show the

-true Venetian School at its most intense, idyllic

-moment. They are the works of a man in the

-pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy,

-an example of the confident, sanguine, joyous

-temper of his age, capable of embodying its

-dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment

-of life, its worldly-mindedness, its love of

-pleasure, as well as its noble feeling and its

-grave and magnificent purpose.</p>

-

-<p>For absolute delight in colour let us turn to

-a picture like the &ldquo;Noli me tangere&rdquo; of the

-National Gallery. The golden light, the blues

-and olives of the landscape, the crimson of the

-Magdalen&#8217;s raiment, combine in a feast of

-emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of

-the woman, whose soul is breathed out in the

-word &ldquo;Master.&rdquo; The colour unites with the

-light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we

-can see Titian&#8217;s delight in the ductile medium

-which had such power to give material sensation.

-In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and

-shoaling blues, the velvety fulness and plenitudes

-of the brush become visible; we can look into

-their depths and see something quite unlike the

-smooth, opaque washes of the Florentines.</p>

-

-<p>In such a masterpiece as &ldquo;Sacred and Profane

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Love,&rdquo; painted during these years for the Borghese,

-there are summed up all those artistic aims

-towards which the Venetian painters had been

-tending. The picture is still Giorgionesque in

-mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff

-suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the

-love-suit of Jason; but the subject is not forced

-upon us, and we are more occupied with the

-contrast between the two beautiful personalities,

-so harmoniously related to each other, yet so

-opposed in type. The gracious, self-absorbed

-lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove,

-her silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and

-spirit to the goddess whose free, simple attitude

-and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal. The

-sinuous and enchanting line of Venus&#8217;s figure

-against the crimson cloak has, I think, been the

-outcome of admiration for Giorgione&#8217;s &ldquo;Sleeping

-Venus,&rdquo; and has the same soft, unhurried curves.

-Titian&#8217;s two figures are perfectly spaced in a

-setting which breathes the very aroma of the

-early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble

-fountain represents nymphs whipping a sleeping

-Love to life, while a cupid teases the

-chaste unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes

-in the water, fallen rose-leaves strew the

-mellow marble rim, around and away stretches

-a sunny country scene, in which people are

-placidly pursuing a life of ease and pleasure.

-What a revelation to Venice these pictures were

-which began with Giorgione&#8217;s conversaziones!

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>How little occupied the women are with the

-story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons

-on her fingers, like S. Ursula. Medea is listening

-to her own thoughts, but the whole scene

-is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and

-happiness of love. The little censer burning

-away in the blue and breathless air might be a

-philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the

-rays of the evening sun strike the picture,

-where it now hangs, and bring out each touch

-of its glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate

-with the joy of life and to thrill with the

-magic of summer in the days when the world

-was young.</p>

-

-<p>With the influence still lingering of Giorgione&#8217;s

-&ldquo;Knight of Malta,&rdquo; Titian produced some of his

-finest portraits in the decade that led to the

-middle of his life. The &ldquo;Dr. Parma&rdquo; at Vienna,

-the noble &ldquo;Man in Black&rdquo; and &ldquo;Man with a

-Glove&rdquo; of the Louvre, the &ldquo;Young Englishman&rdquo;

-of the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the

-portrait at Temple Newsam, which, with some

-critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples

-in which he keeps the half-length, invented by

-Bellini and followed by Giorgione.</p>

-

-<p>After the visit to Padua he shows less preference

-for costume, and his women are generally

-clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than

-the square-cut bodice.</p>

-

-<p>We do not wonder that all the leading

-personages of Italy wished to be painted by

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>Titian. His are the portraits of a man of

-intellect. They show the subject at his best;

-grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared and

-wished to appear; not taken off his guard in

-any way. What can be more sympathetic as a

-personality than the Ariosto of the National

-Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make

-a friend of him, and yet all the time he has

-himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much

-as he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that

-he does not intend us to discover. The painter

-himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he

-does not paint in his own fancies about his

-sitter&mdash;probably he had none; he saw what he was

-meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson

-calls &ldquo;a certain happy insensibility&rdquo; about him,

-which prevented him from taking fantastic

-flights, or from looking too deep below the

-surface.</p>

-

-<p><a name="aris" id="aris"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">

-<img src="images/img191.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Titian.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARIOSTO.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>With the &ldquo;Assumption,&rdquo; finished in 1518 for

-the Church of the Frari, Titian rose to the

-very highest among Renaissance painters. The

-&ldquo;Glorious S. Mary&rdquo; was his theme, and he

-concentrated all his efforts on the realisation of

-that one idea. The central figure is, as it

-were, a collective rather than an individual

-type. Well proportioned and elastic as it is,

-it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious

-and serene, it combines dramatic force and

-profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its

-hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly

-by that throbbing company of child angels and

-followed by full recognition and awestruck satisfaction

-in the adoring gaze of the throng below,

-yet Titian has contrived to keep some touch of

-the loving woman hurrying to meet her son.

-The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the

-garment of glowing blues and crimsons, have

-a more than common share in that spirit of

-confident joy and poured-out life which envelops

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>the whole canvas. In the worthy representation

-of a great event, the visible assumption of

-Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts

-forth all his powers and steeps us in that temper

-of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and confidence

-in the capacity of man, which was so

-characteristic of the ripe Renaissance. In looking

-at this splendid canvas, we must call to

-mind the position for which Titian painted it.

-Hung in the dusky recesses of the apse, it was

-tempered by and merged in its stately surroundings.

-The band of Apostles almost formed

-a part of the whispering crowd below, and the

-glorious Mother was beheld soaring upwards to

-the golden light and the mysterious vistas of

-the vaulted arches above.</p>

-

-<p>The patronage of courts had by this time

-altered the tenor of Titian&#8217;s life. In 1516

-Duke Alfonso d&#8217;Este had invited him to Ferrara,

-where he had finished Bellini&#8217;s &ldquo;Bacchanals.&rdquo;

-It bears the marks of Titian&#8217;s hand, and he has

-introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore

-into the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes

-to propose another painting, and Titian&#8217;s acceptance

-is contained in a very courtier-like letter,

-in which we divine a touch of irony. &ldquo;The

-more I thought of it,&rdquo; he ends, &ldquo;the more I

-became convinced that the greatness of art

-among the ancients was due to the assistance

-they received from great princes, who were

-content to leave to the painter the credit and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>renown derived from their own ingenuity in

-bespeaking pictures.&rdquo; Alfonso&#8217;s requirements

-for his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological

-scenes were already popular. Mantegna

-had adorned Isabela d&#8217;Este&#8217;s &ldquo;Paradiso&rdquo; with

-revels of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception

-of classic myth in the Medici villa, already

-Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was

-to make designs for similar scenes to complete

-the decorations of the halls of Este. The same

-exuberant feeling he shows in the &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo;

-finds utterance in the &ldquo;Garden of Loves&rdquo; and

-the &ldquo;Bacchanals,&rdquo; both painted for Alfonso of

-Ferrara. The children in the former may be

-compared with the angels in the &ldquo;Assumption.&rdquo;

-Their blue wings match the heavenly blue sky,

-and they are painted with the most delicate finish.</p>

-

-<p>We can imagine the beauty of the great

-hall at Ferrara when hung with this brilliant

-series, which was completed in 1523 by the

-&ldquo;Bacchus and Ariadne&rdquo; of the National Gallery.

-The whole company of bacchanals is given up

-to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods

-the deep blue sky and great white clouds of a

-summer day. The deep greens of the foliage

-throw the creamy-white and burning colour of

-the draperies and the fair forms of the nymphs

-into glowing relief, while by a convention

-the satyrs are of a deep, tawny complexion.

-On a roll of music is stamped the rollicking

-device, &ldquo;<em>Chi boit et ne reboit, ne s&ccedil;eais que boir soit</em>.&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines,

-its crimson juice shines like a jewel in crystal

-goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.

-The influence of such pictures as these was

-absorbed by Rubens, but though they hardly

-surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and

-less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance

-is never shown more victoriously than here,

-where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the

-actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian

-than revolting. In the &ldquo;Bacchus and Ariadne,&rdquo;

-Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood

-of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so

-simple, that we must smile in sympathy. The

-conqueror flinging himself from his golden

-chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle

-fluttering on high, is so full of reckless life that

-our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,

-marching with song and laughter, seems to

-people that golden country-side with fit inhabitants.

-The careless satyrs and little merry,

-goat-legged fauns shock us no more than a herd

-of forest ponies, tossing their manes and dashing

-along for love of life and movement.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Yet almost

-before this series was put in place Titian was

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>showing the diversity of his genius by the

-&ldquo;Deposition,&rdquo; now in the Louvre, which was

-painted at the instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis

-of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d&#8217;Este. Here

-he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro.

-While it is satisfying in balance and sweeping

-rhythm, and by the way in which every line

-follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened

-lines of the dead Body, it escapes Raphael&#8217;s

-academic treatment of the same subject. Its

-splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into

-a scene of solemn pathos and tragedy. The

-scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion,

-and what above all gives it its intense power is

-the way in which the flaming hues are absorbed

-into the twilight shadows. The dark heads

-stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor

-of the dead is half veiled by the falling night.

-It is a picture which has the emotional beauty

-of a scene in nature, and makes a profound

-impression by its depth and mystery. This

-same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant

-colouring of the great altarpiece painted for

-the Pesaro family in the Frari. Columns rise

-like great tree-trunks, light and air play through

-the clouds seen between them. The grouping

-is a new experiment, but the way in which

-the Mother and Child, though placed quite at

-one side of the picture, are focussed as the

-centre of interest, by the converging lines,

-diagonal on the one hand and straight on the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>other, crowns it with success. The scheme of

-colour brings the two figures into high relief,

-while St. Francis and the family of the donor

-are subordinated to rich, deep tints. Titian has

-abandoned, more completely than ever before,

-any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural

-majesty. He is a delightful, spoiled baby, fully

-aware of his sovereignty over his mother, pretending

-to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants,

-but occupying himself in making a tent

-over his head out of her veil. The &ldquo;Madonna

-in Glory with six Saints&rdquo; of the Vatican is

-another example of the rich and &ldquo;smouldering&rdquo;

-colour in which Titian was now creating his great

-altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality,

-a solidity, which gives reality without heaviness,

-and finishing with that fine-grained texture

-which makes his flesh look like marble endowed

-with life.</p>

-

-<p><a name="diana" id="diana"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img198.jpg" width="550" height="492" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Titian.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; DIANA AND ACTAEON.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Earl Brownlow.</em><br />

-(<em>The Medici Society, Ltd.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us

-how boldly his own style was established. His

-sacred persons are not different from his pagans

-and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he

-still reminds us of Giorgione. He has been

-constant to the earliest influences which

-surrounded him, and to that temperament which

-made him accept those influences so

-instantaneously&mdash;and this constancy and unity give

-him the untroubled ascendancy over art which

-is such a feature of his position.</p>

-

-<p>With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>sprung to a recognised status in the great world

-of the Renaissance. They were no longer the

-patronised craftsmen. They had become the

-courted guests, the social equals. Titian, passing

-from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua

-and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants,

-was a magnificent personage, whose presence

-was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook

-a commission as one who conferred a coveted

-boon. Among those who clustered closest round

-the popular favourite, no one did more to

-enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant

-unscrupulous debauchee, wit, bully, blackmailer,

-but a man who, with all his faults, had evidently

-his own power of fascination, and, the friend of

-princes, must have been himself the prince of

-good company. Aretino, as far as he could be

-said to be attached to any one, was consistent in

-his attachment to Titian from the time they

-first met at the court of the Gonzaga. He

-played the part of a chorus, calling attention to

-the great painter&#8217;s merits, jogging the memory

-of his employers as to payments, and never

-ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian,

-for his part, shows himself equally devoted to

-Aretino&#8217;s interests, and has left various characteristic

-portraits of him, handsome and showy in

-his prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook

-him.</p>

-

-<p>In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of

-St. Peter Martyr invited artists to send in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint,

-in SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one

-by Jacobello del Fiore. Palma Vecchio and

-Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off

-the prize. The picture was delivered in 1530,

-and during the autumn of 1529 Sebastian del

-Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and

-Michelangelo had sought refuge there from

-Florence and had stayed for some months. A

-quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed

-the picture, so that it may quite probably have

-only been begun after intercourse with the

-Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian&#8217;s

-ideas; for though he never ceases to be himself,

-it certainly seems as if the genius of Michelangelo

-had had some effect. From what we

-know of the altarpiece, which perished by fire

-in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli

-remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms

-of Herculean strength in violent action, but

-there his likeness to the Florentine ended;

-the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep,

-though not altogether successful, attention to

-anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture

-obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness

-from the setting in which the figures were

-placed&mdash;the great trees, bending and straining,

-the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in

-portentous harmony with the sinister deed, and

-overhead the enchanting gleam of light which

-shot downward and irradiated the face of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>martyr and the two lovely winged boys, bathed

-in a flood of blue &aelig;ther, who held aloft the palm

-of victory. Many copies of it remain, and we

-only regret that one which Rubens executed is

-not preserved among them.</p>

-

-<p>When we look at the delicious &ldquo;Madonna del

-Coniglio&rdquo; in the Louvre and our own &ldquo;Marriage

-of S. Catherine,&rdquo; the first of which certainly, and

-the second probably, was painted about this time,

-we cannot doubt that the charm of the idea

-of motherhood had particularly arrested the

-painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio,

-was born, and was followed by another son and

-a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that

-passion of mother-love with an intensity and

-reality that can only be drawn from life, and

-on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his

-name, Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is

-increasing, and the landscape in these pictures

-equals the figures in importance and has engrossed

-the painter quite as much. Every year

-Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in the rich

-woodlands, the distant villages, the great white

-villa on the hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off

-blue mountains and the glooms and gleams of

-storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays

-through the summer clouds, which he has

-painted here, we see how constant was his study

-of his native country, and how profoundly he

-felt its poetry and its charm. He had married

-Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530

-she died, and he mourned her deeply. He

-went on working and planning for his children&#8217;s

-future, and his sister came from Cadore to take

-charge of the motherless household; but his

-friends&#8217; letters speak of his being ill from melancholy,

-and he could not go on living in the

-old house at San Samuele, which had been his

-home for sixteen years. He took a new house

-on the north side of the city, in the parish of

-San Canciano. The Casa Grande, as it was

-called, was a building of importance, which the

-painter first hired and finally bought, letting off

-such apartments as he did not need. The first

-floor had a terrace, and was entered by a flight

-of steps from the garden, which overlooked the

-lagoons, and had a view of the Cadore mountains.

-It has been swept away by the building of the

-Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the

-leases are preserved, and the exact site is well

-established. Here his children grew up, and he

-worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his

-eldest son, was idle and extravagant, a constant

-source of trouble, and Aretino writes him reproachful

-letters, which he treats with much

-impertinence. Orazio took to his father&#8217;s profession,

-and was his constant companion, and often

-drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter,

-Lavinia, was his greatest joy and pride. In this

-house Titian showed constant hospitality, and

-there are records of the princely fashion in which

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>he entertained his friends and distinguished

-foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known

-Humanist and <em>savant</em> of the day, describes a

-Bacchanalian feast on the 1st of August, in a

-pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano

-Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi

-were present. Till the sun set they stayed indoors,

-admiring the artist&#8217;s pictures. &ldquo;As soon as

-it went down, the tables were spread, looking on

-the lagoons, which soon swarmed with gondolas

-full of beautiful women, and resounded with

-music of voices and instruments, which till

-midnight, accompanied our delightful supper.

-Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious

-wines, and the supper ended gaily.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>In the year 1532 Titian for the first time

-sought other than Italian patronage. Charles V.,

-who was then at the height of his power, with

-all Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua,

-and among all the treasures that he saw was

-most struck by Titian&#8217;s portrait of Federigo

-Gonzaga. After much writing to and fro, it was

-arranged that Titian should meet the Emperor

-at Bologna, where he had just been crowned.

-He made his first sketch of him, from which he

-afterwards produced a finished full length. It

-was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares

-that from that time forth Charles would never sit

-to any other master. He received a knighthood,

-and many commissions from members of the

-Emperor&#8217;s court. It was for one of his nobles,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>da Valos, Marquis of Vasto, that he painted the

-allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which Mary

-of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is

-parting with her husband, who is bound on one

-of the desperate expeditions against the terrible

-Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the

-couple are encircled by Hymen, Victory, and

-the God of Love. The composition was repeated

-more than once, but never with quite the same

-success. We again suspect the influence of

-Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before

-Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver,

-for the Church of that name, of which the Doge

-was patron. The figures are life-size, the types

-stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and

-the colours, though gorgeous, are softened and

-broken by broad effects of light and shade. It

-is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that

-in which about this time he produced a series of

-beautiful female portraits, nude or semi-nude,

-chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the

-Duke of Urbino. The Duke at this time was

-the General-in-Chief of the Venetian forces, a

-position which took him often to Venice, and

-Titian&#8217;s relations with him lasted till the painter&#8217;s

-death. At least twenty-five of his works must

-have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro.

-Among these were the Venus of the Uffizi, &ldquo;La

-Bella di Tiziano,&rdquo; in her gorgeous scheme of

-blue and amethyst, the &ldquo;Girl in a Fur Cloak,&rdquo;

-besides portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>would be impossible to enumerate here the

-numbers of portraits which Titian was now

-supplying. The reputation he had acquired,

-not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and

-Germany, was greater than had ever been attained

-by any painter, while his social position was

-established among the highest in every court.

-&ldquo;He had rivals in Venice,&rdquo; says Vasari,

-&ldquo;but none that he did not crush by his

-excellence and knowledge of the world in

-converse with gentlemen.&rdquo; There is not a

-writer of the day who does not acclaim his

-genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of

-money, and had amassed a good fortune. He

-was constantly asking for favours, and had

-pensions and allowances from royal patrons.

-Lavinia, when she married, brought her husband

-a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the

-portraits of the Doges with tolerable regularity,

-but all through his life complaints were heard of

-his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand

-Council. Occupied as he was with the work of his

-foreign patrons, he had systematically neglected

-the conditions enjoined by his possession of a

-Broker&#8217;s patent, and the Signoria suddenly called

-on him to refund the salary amounting to over

-100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during

-which he had drawn it without performing his

-promise, while they prepared to instal Pordenone,

-who had lately appeared as his bitter rival, in

-his stead. Though Titian must have been

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>making large sums of money at this time, his

-expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly face

-the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats

-at the same time that he lost the annual salary,

-nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a second-rate

-rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his

-own hands; he set to work and soon completed

-a great canvas of the &ldquo;Battle of Cadore,&rdquo; which,

-though it is only known to us from a contemporary

-print and a drawing by Rubens,

-evidently deserved Vasari&#8217;s verdict of being the

-finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The

-movement and stir he contrives to give with a

-small number of figures is astonishing. The

-fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment

-advancing with lances and pennons produces the

-illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army, the

-desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises

-all the terrors of war. It was an atonement for

-his long period of neglect, but it was not till

-<ins class="translit" title="Pordenone died in 1539">1439</ins> that, Pordenone having suddenly died, the

-Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his

-Broker&#8217;s patent. One of his later paintings for the

-State still keeps its place, &ldquo;The Triumph of

-Faith,&rdquo; in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad

-form with flowing mantle, kneels before the

-angelic apparition of Faith, who holds a cross,

-which angels and cherubs help her to support.

-Beneath the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the

-Ducal Palace, and the Campanile. It is an allegory

-of Grimani&#8217;s life; his defeat and captivity

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the

-magnificent figure of St. Mark with the lion is

-introduced to show that the Doge believes himself

-to owe his freedom to the saint&#8217;s intercession.

-The prophet and standard-bearer at the sides

-were added by Marco Vecellio.</p>

-

-<p>Though the battlepiece perished in the fire

-of 1577, another masterpiece of this time marks

-a climax in Titian&#8217;s brilliantly coloured and

-highly finished style. The &ldquo;Presentation of the

-Virgin&rdquo; was painted for the refectory of the

-Confraternity of the Carit&agrave;, which was housed in

-the building now used as the Academy, so that

-the picture remains in the place for which it

-was executed. It is one of the most vivid and

-life-like of all his works. The composition is

-the traditional one; the fifteen steps of the

-&ldquo;Gospel of Mary,&rdquo; the High Priest of the old

-dispensation welcoming the childish representative

-of the new. Below is a great crowd, but

-it is this little figure which first attracts the

-eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture

-and the free and glowing country beyond

-is not without meaning, and a broken Roman

-torso, lying neglected on the ground, symbolises

-the downfall of the Pagan Empire. The flight

-of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is an

-idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken

-by him from the sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini.

-The men on the left are portraits of members and

-patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>are the beautiful women in rich dresses at the

-foot of the steps. In this stately composition

-we see what is often noticeable in Titian&#8217;s

-scenes; he brings in the bystanders after the

-manner of a Greek chorus. They all, with one

-accord, express the same sentiment. There is a

-certain acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a

-vein of simplicity flows through his nature. He

-has not the sensitive and subtle search after the

-motives of humanity which we find in Tintoretto

-or Lotto. He has great intellectual power, but

-not great imagination. It is a temper which

-helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality

-of his scenes undisturbed and adds to their effect.

-In the &ldquo;Ecce Homo&rdquo; Christ is shown to the

-populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment

-is a portrait of Aretino, and the contrast of

-the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd

-which, with all its lower instincts let loose,

-thunders back the cry of &ldquo;Crucify Him,&rdquo; is the

-more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit

-which possesses the raging multitude. Other

-artists would have given more incidental byplay,

-and drawn off our attention from the main issue.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TITIAN</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>While Titian was executing portraits of the

-Doges, of Aretino and of Isabella of Portugal,

-and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he

-was also striking out a new line in the ceiling

-pictures for the Church of San Spirito, which

-have since been transferred to the Salute.

-Though painted before his journey to Rome,

-it may be suspected that he had Michelangelo&#8217;s

-work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that

-he was setting himself the task of bold foreshortening

-and technical problems. The daring

-of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that

-this is not Titian&#8217;s element; his figures in violent

-movement give a vivid idea of strength and muscular

-force, but fail both in grace and drawing,

-and though the colour and light and shade distract

-our attention from defects of form, he does

-not possess that mastery over the flowing silhouette

-which Tintoretto attained.</p>

-

-<p>It was in 1543 that his relations with the

-Farnese, whose young cardinal he had been

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X.

-had tried to attract him there without success,

-but now at sixty-eight he found himself as far

-on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was

-with him, and Duke Guidobaldo was himself

-his escort, and sent him on with a band of

-men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in

-Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul III. gave him

-a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed

-his cicerone. It is interesting to inquire what

-impression Rome, with its treasures of antique

-statuary and contemporary painting, made upon

-Titian. &ldquo;He is filled with wonder and glad

-that he came,&rdquo; writes Bembo. In a letter to

-Aretino he regrets that he had not come before.

-He stayed eight months in Rome, and was made

-a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of

-Raphael in company with Sebastian del Piombo,

-and Michelangelo comes to see him at his

-lodgings, and he receives a long letter from

-Aretino advising him to compare Michelangelo

-with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with

-the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian

-was well established in his own style, and was

-received as the creator of acknowledged masterpieces,

-and he never painted a more magnificent

-portrait-piece than that of Paul III., the peevish

-old Pope, ailing and humorous, suspicious of the

-two nephews who are painted with him, and

-who he guessed to be conspiring against him.

-The characteristic attitude of the old man of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick,

-irritable glance, the steady, determined gaze of

-the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and weak,

-wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised

-in a broader, more careless technique than Titian

-has hitherto used. Though he does not seem

-to have been directly influenced by all he saw in

-Rome, we undoubtedly find a change coming over

-his work between 1540 and 1550, which may

-be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic

-horizon and a consciousness of what others were

-doing, both around him and abroad. In its

-whole handling and character his late is different

-from his early manner. It begins at this time

-to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist character.

-His delight in rich colouring seems to wane,

-and he aims at intensifying the power of light.

-He reaches that point in the Venetian School

-of painting which we may regard as its climax,

-when there is little strong local colour, but the

-canvas seems illumined from within. There

-are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are

-suggested by sombre enveloping shades in

-which the radiant brightness is embedded. His

-landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue

-and smiling, filled with loving detail, but

-grander, more mysterious. In the &ldquo;St. Jerome&rdquo;

-in Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely

-surroundings, and the moon, slowly rising behind

-the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray across

-the crucifix. The &ldquo;Supper at Emmaus&rdquo; has

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>the grandiose effect that is given by avoidance

-of detail and simplification of method.</p>

-

-<p>Titian painted several portraits of himself, and

-we know what sort of stately figure was presented

-by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas in

-1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the

-depths of winter to obey Charles V.&#8217;s call to Augsburg.

-The excitement of the public was great at

-his departure, and Aretino describes how his house

-was besieged for the sketches and designs he left

-behind him. For nearly forty years Titian was

-employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had

-been working for Charles since 1530, and when

-the Emperor abdicated, his employment by Philip

-II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of

-1686 contained seventy-six Titians, and though

-probably not all were genuine, yet an immense

-number were really by him, and the gallery,

-even now, is richer in his works than any other.</p>

-

-<p>The great hall of the Pardo must have been

-a wonderful sight, with Titian&#8217;s finest portrait

-of himself in the midst, and the magnificent

-portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which

-he continued from this time forward to contribute

-to it. In this year, which was the

-last before Charles&#8217;s abdication, and during this

-visit to South Germany, he painted the great

-equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field

-of M&uuml;hlberg, and two years later came the first

-of his many portraits of Philip II. The face,

-in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of fury

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the

-sitter is realised as a man of great distinction.

-Ugly and sensual as he is, we never tire of

-looking at Titian&#8217;s conception&mdash;a full length of

-distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent

-colour. Everything in it lives, and the

-slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a

-whole biography in themselves.</p>

-

-<p>The splendid series of allegorical subjects

-which Titian contributed to the Pardo, while he

-was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces

-to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are

-among his most mature and important works.

-Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and

-stronger than in the &ldquo;Jupiter and Antiope,&rdquo; or

-the &ldquo;Venus of the Pardo&rdquo; as it is sometimes

-called. The Venus herself has the attitude of

-Giorgione&#8217;s dreaming goddess, with her arm

-flung up above her head. It is, perhaps, the only

-time that Titian succeeds in giving anything

-ideal to one of his Venuses. The famous nudes

-of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid

-courtesans, far removed from Giorgione&#8217;s idyllic

-vision; but Antiope, slumbering on her couch

-of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with

-adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole

-world of sweet and joyful fancy. The whole

-scene is full of a <em>joie de vivre</em>, which carries us

-back to the Bacchanals painted so many years

-before, and in these Titian gives King Philip

-his most perfect work, every touch of which

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre,

-was given to Charles I. by the King of Spain,

-and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.

-&ldquo;Dana&euml;,&rdquo; &ldquo;Venus and Adonis,&rdquo; &ldquo;Europa and

-the Bull,&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; followed in

-quick succession, but Titian was now employing

-many assistants, and great parts of the canvases

-issuing from his workshop show weak, imitative

-hands, while replicas were made of other works.</p>

-

-<p>His later feeling for the religious in art is

-expressed in the now bedimmed paintings in

-San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes these

-in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety

-years old, the &ldquo;Transfiguration&rdquo; is remarkable

-for forcible, majestic movement, while in the

-&ldquo;Annunciation&rdquo; he invents quite a new treatment.

-Mary turns round and raises her veil,

-while she grasps the book as if she depended on

-it for stay and support. The four angels are

-full of life and gaiety, and the whole has much

-grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in

-the painter&#8217;s later style, in broad and sweeping

-planes without patience of detail. The old man

-has signed it &ldquo;Titianus, fecit, fecit,&rdquo; a contemptuous

-reply to some critics who complained

-of its want of finish. He knew well what it

-was in composition and execution, and that all

-that he had ever known or done lay within the

-careless strength of his last manner.</p>

-

-<p>A letter written to the King of Spain&#8217;s

-secretary in 1574 gives a list &ldquo;in part&rdquo; of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the

-last twenty-five years, &ldquo;with many others which

-I do not remember.&rdquo; On every hand we hear

-of lost pictures from the master&#8217;s brush, and the

-number produced even during the last ten years

-of his life must have been enormous, for till

-the end he was full of great undertakings and

-achievements. Very late in life he painted a

-&ldquo;Shepherd and Nymph&rdquo; (Vienna), which in

-its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its

-mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the

-early days with Giorgione, yet the blurred and

-smouldering richness, the absolute negation of

-all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest

-style, and he has gone past Giorgione on his

-own ground. Then in strange contrast is the

-&ldquo;Christ Crowned with Thorns,&rdquo; at Vienna, a

-tragic figure stupefied with suffering. His last

-great work was the &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo; in the Academy,

-which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and

-very impressive. He places the Virgin supporting

-the Body in a great dome-shaped niche,

-which gives elevation. It is flanked by two

-calm, antique, stone figures, whose impassive air

-contrasts with the wild pain and grief below.

-The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator

-with the wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It

-perhaps hardly moves us like the concentrated

-feeling of Bellini&#8217;s Madonna, or the hurried,

-trembling grief of Tintoretto&#8217;s Magdalen, but

-it is monumental in the sweeping grace of its

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is

-sadly rubbed and darkened and has lost much

-of Titian&#8217;s colour, but is still beautiful in

-its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden

-glow, as of half-extinguished fires. These late

-paintings are of the true impressionist order;

-looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled

-touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step

-farther away, to the right focus, light and dark

-arrange themselves, order shines through the

-whole, and we see what the great master meant

-us to see. &ldquo;Titian&#8217;s later creations,&rdquo; says

-Vasari, &ldquo;are struck off rapidly, so that when

-close you cannot see them, but afar they look

-perfect, and this is the style which so many

-tried to imitate, to show that they were practised

-hands, but only produced absurdities.&rdquo; Titian

-was preparing the picture for the Frari, in payment

-for the grant of a tomb for himself, when

-in August 1576 the plague broke out in Venice,

-and on the 27th the great painter died of it in

-his own house. The stringent regulations concerning

-infection were relaxed to do honour to

-one of the greatest sons of Venice, and he was

-laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn

-procession, through a city stricken by terror and

-panic, and buried in the Chapel of the Crucified

-Saviour, for which his last work was ordered.

-The &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo; of his prime looked down

-upon him, and close at hand was the &ldquo;Madonna

-of Casa Pesaro.&rdquo; His son Orazio caught the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>plague and died immediately after, and the

-painter&#8217;s house was sacked by thieves and many

-precious things stolen.</p>

-

-<p>The great personality of Titian stands out

-as that which of all others established and

-consolidated the school of Venice. He is its

-central figure. The century of life, of which

-eighty years were passed in ceaseless industry of

-production, left its deep impression on the art of

-every civilised country of Europe. Every great

-man of the day who was a lover of art and

-culture fell under Titian&#8217;s spell. His influence

-on his contemporaries was enormous, and he had

-everything: genius, industry, personal distinction,

-character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too

-intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of

-the Venetian spirit, in the way that Tintoretto

-is; it is conceivable that in another environment

-Titian might have developed on rather

-different lines, but this temper gave him greater

-domination. He was free from the eccentricities

-which beset genius. He possessed the saving

-salt of practical common sense, so that the

-golden mean of sanity and healthful joy in his

-works commended them to all men, and they are

-not difficult to understand. Yet while all can

-see the beauty of his poetic instinct for colour,

-his interesting and original technique, his grasp

-and scope, his mastery and certainty have gained

-for him the title of &ldquo;the painter&#8217;s painter.&rdquo;

-There is no one from whom men feel that they

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>can so safely learn so much, and the grand breadth

-and power of elimination of his later years is

-justified by the way in which in his earlier work

-he has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto

-to perfection.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ancona.</td>  <td class="td5">Crucifixion (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Antwerp.</td>  <td class="td5">Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.); Lavinia bearing Charges.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride, 1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.);

-                            Portrait, 1561; Lady with Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman; The Concert (E.); Philip II.;

-                            Ippolito de Medici, 1533; Tomaso Mosti.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537;

-                            Flora; Venus, the head a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora Gonzaga; Madonna

-                            with S. Anthony Abbot.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John

-                            and Catherine.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon,

-                            1559; Callisto, 1559.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden of Loves; Dana&euml;, 1554; Venus and

-                            Youth playing Organ (L.); Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment, 1559;

-                            Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.); Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the

-                            Battle of M&uuml;hlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II., 1550; Philip II.; The Infant;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>

-                            Don Fernando and Victory; Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and Adonis;

-                            Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Medole.</td>  <td class="td5"> (near Brescia) Christ appearing to His Mother.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man with Baton.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Dana&euml;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The

-                            Jealous Husband, 1511.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning

-                            with Thorns (L.); Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.); Francis I.; Allegory;

-                            Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon; Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L&#8217;Homme

-                            au Gant (E.); Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.); Education of Cupid (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Baptism (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Doria: Daughter of Herodias.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Urbino.</td>  <td class="td5">Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert; Assumption, 1518; Piet&agrave;, 1573.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice

-                            of Isaac; Cain and Abel.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo, 1543; Isabela d&#8217;Este, 1534;

-                            The Tambourine Player; Girl in Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.); Portraits;

-                            Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and Callisto; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Louvre.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Glasgow.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Among the many who clustered round Titian&#8217;s

-long career, Palma attained to a place beside him

-and Giorgione which his talent, which was not

-of the highest order, scarcely warranted. But

-he was classed with the greatest, and influenced

-contemporary art because his work chimed in

-so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque

-by birth, he came of Venetian parentage, and

-learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.

-He never really mastered the inner niceties of

-anatomy in its finest sense, and the broad

-generalisation of his forms may be meant

-to conceal uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed,

-matronly women and plump children,

-his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and

-the clear golden polish in which his pictures

-are steeped, made a great appeal to the public.

-His invention is the large Santa Conversazione,

-as compared with those in half-length of the

-earlier masters. The Virgin and saints and

-kneeling or bending donors are placed under

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>the spreading trees of a rich and picturesque

-landscape. It is Palma&#8217;s version of the Giorgionesque

-ideal, which he had his share in establishing

-and developing. The heavy tree-trunk and

-dark foliage, silhouetted almost black against

-the background, are characteristic of his compositions.

-As his life goes on, though he still

-clings to his full, ripe figures and to the same

-smooth fleshiness in his women, the features

-become delicate and chiselled, and the more

-refined type and subtler feeling of his middle

-stage may be due to his companionship with

-Lotto, with whom he was in Bergamo when

-they were both about twenty-five. He touches

-his highest, and at the same time keeps very

-near Giorgione, in the splendid St. Barbara,

-painted for the company of the <em>Bombadieri</em> or

-artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on

-which she stands; it was at her altar that they

-came to commend themselves on going forth to

-war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving

-for a safe return; and she is a truly noble figure,

-regal in conception and fine and firm in execution,

-attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and

-green, with splendid saints on either hand.

-Palma was often approached by his patrons who

-wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses;

-but though he produced a Venus, a handsome,

-full-blown model, he never excels in the nude, and

-his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His

-scenes have a domestic, familiar flavour. With

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>all his golden and ivory beauty he lacks fire, and

-his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In

-his latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of

-scumble or haze. It would, however, be unfair

-to say he is not fine, and his portraits especially

-come very near the best. Vienna is rich in

-examples in half-lengths of one beautiful woman

-after another robed in the ample and gorgeous

-garments in which he is always interested.

-Among them is his handsome daughter,

-Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and

-wearing the large sleeves he admires. The

-&ldquo;Tasso&rdquo; of the National Gallery has been taken

-from him and given first to Giorgione and then

-to Titian, but there now seems some inclination

-to return it to its first author. It has a more

-dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are

-accustomed to associate with Palma; but he uses

-elsewhere the decorative background of olive

-branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny

-colouring, and the pronounced golden haze are

-Palmesque in the highest degree. The colouring

-is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of

-the Ariosto of Titian, which hangs near it.</p>

-

-<p><a name="holy" id="holy"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img224.jpg" width="550" height="413" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Palma Vecchio.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HOLY FAMILY.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Colonna Gallery, Rome.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>No one could be more unlike Palma than his

-contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto, who has for long

-been classed with the Bergamasques, but who

-is proved by recently discovered documents to

-have been born in Venice. It was for long an

-accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and

-his earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>bears traces of Bellini&#8217;s manner. A Piet&agrave; above

-has child angels examining the wounds with the

-grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly

-his own, and the St. Jerome and the branch of

-fig-leaves silhouetted against the light remind

-us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto

-seems to have clung to quattrocento fashions.

-The ancona had long been rejected by most of

-his contemporaries, but he painted one of the

-last for a church in Recanati, in carved and

-gilt compartments, and he painted predellas long

-after they had become generally obsolete. We

-ask ourselves how it was that Lotto, who had so

-susceptible and easily swayed a nature, escaped

-the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful

-of any in the Venice of his youth&mdash;an influence

-which acted on Bellini in his old age, which

-Titian practically never shook off, and which

-dominated Palma to the exclusion of any earlier

-master.</p>

-

-<p>It would take too long to survey the train of

-argument by which Mr. Berenson has established

-Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto. Notwithstanding

-that Bellini&#8217;s great superiority was

-becoming clear to the more cultured Venetians,

-Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still the

-painter <em>par excellence</em> for the mass of the public.

-In the S. Cristina altarpiece the Child standing

-on its Mother&#8217;s knee is in the same attitude as

-the Child in Alvise&#8217;s altarpiece of 1480, and the

-Mother&#8217;s hand holds it in the same way. Other

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>details which supply internal evidence are the

-shape of hands and feet, the round heads and the

-way the Child is often represented lying across

-the Mother&#8217;s knees. Lotto carries into old age

-the use of fruit and flowers and beads as decoration,

-a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the

-Vivarini, but which was never adopted by Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with

-Palma, and for a short time the two were in close

-touch. A &ldquo;Santa Conversazione,&rdquo; of which a

-good copy exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one

-at Dresden, with the Holy Family grouped under

-spreading trees, is saturated with Palma&#8217;s spirit,

-but it soon passes away, and except for an

-occasional touch, disappears entirely from Lotto&#8217;s

-work.</p>

-

-<p>Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo,

-for when in 1515 a competition between artists

-was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a

-descendant of General Colleone, for an altarpiece

-for S. Stefano, he competed and carried

-off the prize. This was the first of the series

-of the great works for Bergamo, which enrich

-the little city, where at this period he can best

-be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed

-to San Bartolommeo) is a most interesting

-human document, a revelation of the

-painter&#8217;s personality. He does not break away

-from hieratic conventions, like the rival school;

-his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the

-church with saints grouped round her, a form

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>from which the Vivarini never departed, but

-the whole is full of intense movement, of a

-lyric grace and ecstasy, a desire to express

-fervent and rapturous devotion. The architectural

-background is not in happy proportion

-in relation to the figures, but the effect of vista

-and space is more remarkable than in any North

-Italian master. The vivid treatment of light

-and shade, and the gaiety and delicacy of the

-flying angels, who hold the canopy, and of the

-putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes

-of throne and canopy and the decorations have

-led to the idea that Lotto drew his inspiration

-from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles

-in some ways; but at this time Correggio was

-only twenty, and had not given any examples

-of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque.

-We must look back to a common origin

-for those decorative details, which are so conspicuous

-in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini,

-which came to Lotto through the Vivarini and

-to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and of

-which the fountain-head for both was the school

-of Squarcione. For the much more striking

-resemblances of composition and spirit, the explanation

-seems to be that Lotto on one side

-of his nature was akin to Correggio; he had

-the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination

-to exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting

-was a vehicle for the expression of feeling,

-but Lotto had also common sense and a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>goodly share of that humour that is allied to

-pathos.</p>

-

-<p>Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in

-Bergamo, where the first altarpiece gained him

-orders for others. The reputation of a member

-of the school of Venice was a sure passport to

-employment. We trace Alvise&#8217;s tradition very

-plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino,

-where the gesture of the Madonna&#8217;s hand as she

-expounds to the listening saints recalls Alvise&#8217;s of

-1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto

-makes use of to the end of his life, lie scattered

-on the step; angels, daringly foreshortened, sweep

-aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour

-is in Lotto&#8217;s scarlet, light blues, and violet.

-He soon shows himself fond of genre incidents,

-and in &ldquo;Christ taking leave of His Mother&rdquo;

-gives a view into a bedroom and a cat running

-across the floor. The donor kneels with her

-hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl

-necklace. In the &ldquo;Marriage of S. Catherine&rdquo;

-at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,

-with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very

-simply and naturally before the Child, and the

-exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young

-woman who represents the Madonna, looks

-out towards the spectator with a mundane

-and curiously modern air. It was probably

-the recognition of Lotto&#8217;s success with portraits

-that led to their being so often introduced

-into his sacred pieces. In the one we have

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>just noticed, the donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is

-brought in, and is on rather a larger scale

-than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not

-found him interesting. The portraits of the

-brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary

-Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate

-that wonderful series of characterisations

-which are his greatest distinction. A series of

-frescoes in village churches round Bergamo

-must also be noticed. They are remarkable

-for spontaneous and original decoration, and

-may compare with the ceremonial groups of

-Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto&#8217;s personages,

-as they chatter in the market-places, are

-full of natural animation and gaiety, and we

-realise what a step had been made in the

-painting of actual life.</p>

-

-<p>Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of

-Italy, the years from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto

-spent in Venice, found that city the gathering-ground

-of many of the most distinguished

-scholars and deepest thinkers of the day. Men

-of all shades of religious thought were engaged

-in learned discussion, and Lotto&#8217;s ardent and

-inquiring temperament must have been stimulated

-by such an environment. During these

-years, too, he became intimate with Titian, and

-experimented in Titian&#8217;s style, with the result

-that his painting gets thicker and richer, more

-fused and solid, and his figures are better put

-together. He imitates Titian&#8217;s colour, too, but

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and

-he soon finds it does not suit him, and returns

-to his own scheme. His colour is still rather

-too dazzling, but the distances are translucent

-and atmospheric. He continues to introduce

-portraits. In his altarpiece in SS. Giovanni

-and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving

-petitions curiously resemble in type and expression

-the ecclesiastics we see to-day.</p>

-

-<p>Lotto was now an accepted member of

-Titian&#8217;s set, and Aretino, in a letter dated 1548,

-writes that Titian values his taste and judgment

-as that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual

-mixture of connoisseurship and clever spite, goes

-on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he

-himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was

-not considered on a par with the masters of

-the first rank. &ldquo;Envy is not in your breast,&rdquo; he

-says, &ldquo;rather do you delight to see in other

-artists certain qualities which you do not find

-in your own brush, ... holding the second

-place in the art of painting is nothing compared

-to holding the first place in the duties of

-religion.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>An interesting codex or commentary tells us

-that Lotto never received high prices for his

-work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about

-in artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and

-leaving a number with Jacopo Sansovino in the

-hope that he might hear of buyers. His work

-ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>undertook commissions at Recanati, Ancona, and

-Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a

-contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by

-which, in return for rooms and food, he made

-over himself and all his belongings to the care

-of the fraternity, &ldquo;being tired of wandering,

-and wishing to end his days in that holy place.&rdquo;

-He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto

-as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of

-pictures which are distinguished by the same sort

-of apparent looseness and carelessness which we

-noticed in Titian&#8217;s late style; a technique which,

-as in Titian&#8217;s case, conceals a profound knowledge

-of plastic modelling.</p>

-

-<p>Though Lotto executed an immense number

-of important and very beautiful sacred works,

-his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting

-to the modern mind that one is tempted to

-linger over them. Other painters give us finer

-pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know

-who the sitters were and what was their story.

-Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality which

-marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born

-psychologist, and as such he witnesses to an

-attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which

-is of peculiar interest to our own. Lotto&#8217;s bystanders,

-even in his sacred scenes, have nothing

-in common with Titian&#8217;s &ldquo;chorus&rdquo;; they have the

-characterisation of distinct individuals, and when

-he is concerned with actual portraits he is intensely

-receptive and sensitive to the spirit of his sitters.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>He may be said to &ldquo;give them away,&rdquo; and to

-take an almost unfair advantage of his perception.

-The sick man in the Doria Gallery looks

-like one stricken with a death sentence. He

-knows at least that it is touch and go, and

-the painter has symbolised the situation in the

-little winged genius balancing himself in a pair

-of scales. In the Borghese Gallery is the portrait

-of a young, magnificently dressed man, with a

-countenance marked by mental agitation, who

-presses one hand to his heart, while the other

-rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a tiny

-skull is half-hidden. The &ldquo;Old Man&rdquo; in the

-Brera has the hard, narrow, but intensely sad

-face of one whose natural disposition has been

-embittered by the circumstances of his life, just

-as that of our Prothonotary speaks of a large and

-gentle nature, mellowed by natural affections and

-happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with

-kindly mischief at &ldquo;Marsilio and his Bride;&rdquo; the

-broad, placid countenance of the man is so significantly

-contrasted with the clever mouth and

-eyes of the bride that it does not need the

-malicious glance of the cupid, who is fitting on

-the yoke, to &ldquo;dot the i&#8217;s and cross the t&#8217;s&rdquo; of their

-future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in

-the Brera, introduces us to one of those women

-who are charming in every age, not actually

-beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly

-dressed, sensible, and self-possessed, and the

-&ldquo;Family Group&rdquo; in our own gallery holds a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments

-united by life in common and the clasping hands

-of children. Lotto does not keep the personal expression

-out of even such a canvas as his &ldquo;Triumph

-of Chastity&rdquo; in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His

-delightful Venus, one of the loveliest nudes

-in painting, flies from the attacking termagant,

-whose virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on

-her breast, and sweeps her little cupid with her

-with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the

-manners of mundane society.</p>

-

-<p><a name="laura" id="laura"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;">

-<img src="images/img235.jpg" width="447" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Lorenzo Lotto.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Brera.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>The painter who was thus able to unveil

-personality had evidently a mind that was aware

-of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation

-and a more earnest and intimate religion.

-His life seems to have been one of some sadness,

-and crowned with only moderate success. He

-speaks of himself as &ldquo;advanced in years, without

-loving care of any kind, and of a troubled mind.&rdquo;

-His will shows that his worldly possessions were

-few and poor, and that he had no heir closer

-than a nephew; but he leaves some of his

-cartoons as a dowry to &ldquo;two girls of quiet

-nature, healthy in mind and body, and likely to

-make thrifty housekeepers,&rdquo; on their marriage

-to &ldquo;two well-recommended young men,&rdquo; about

-to become painters. His sensitive and introspective

-temperament led him to prefer the

-retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the

-brilliant society of which he was made free in

-Venice. &ldquo;His spirit,&rdquo; says Mr. Berenson, &ldquo;is

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>more like our own than is perhaps that of any

-other Italian painter, and it has all the appeal

-and fascination of a kindred soul in another age.&rdquo;</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Palma Vecchio.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cambridge.</td>  <td class="td5">Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family; Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian; Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione with Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Adoration of Shepherds.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Lorenzo Lotto.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Ancona.</td>  <td class="td5">Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Asolo.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna in Glory, 1506.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Colonna: Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Spirito: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Nativity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cingoli.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);

-             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;

-             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Loreto.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer

-             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Recanati.</td>  <td class="td5">Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giacomo dall&#8217; Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione, etc.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>It was very natural that Rome should wish for

-works of the masters of the new Venetian School,

-but the first-rate men were fully employed at

-home. All the efforts made to secure Titian

-failed till nearly the end of his career. On the

-other hand, Venice was full of less famous

-masters following in Giorgione&#8217;s steps. When

-Sebastian Luciani was a young man, Giorgione

-was paramount there, and no one could have

-foretold that his life would be of such short

-duration. It was to be expected, therefore, that

-a painter who consulted his own interests should

-leave the city where he was overshadowed by

-a great genius and go farther afield. The

-influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the

-sixteenth century, so that it was a simpler

-matter for painters to transfer their talents,

-and painting was beginning to appeal strongly

-to the <em>dilettanti</em>, who rivalled one another in

-their offers.</p>

-

-<p>Only one work of Sebastian&#8217;s is known belonging

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>to this earlier time in Venice. It is

-the &ldquo;S. Chrysostom enthroned,&rdquo; in S. Giovanni

-Crisostomo, and its majesty and rich colouring,

-and more especially the splendid group of women

-on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian

-beauty, make us wonder if Sebastian might not

-have risen to greater heights if he had remained

-in his natural environment. He responded to

-the call to Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great

-<ins class="translit" title="Chigi was a banker">painter</ins>, art collector, and patron, the friend of

-Leo X. Chigi had just completed the Farnesina

-Villa, and Sebastian was employed till

-1512 on its decoration, and at once came under

-the influence of Michelangelo. The &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo;

-at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in

-fact, Vasari says that Michelangelo himself drew

-the cartoon for the figure of Christ, which would

-account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian

-embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine

-painter, and, according to Vasari, the great canvas

-of the &ldquo;Raising of Lazarus,&rdquo; in the National

-Gallery, was executed under the orders and in

-part from the designs of Michelangelo. This

-colossal work was looked on as one of the most

-important creations of the sixteenth century, but

-there is little to make us wish to change it for

-the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo. The desire for

-scientific drawing and the search after composition

-have produced a laboured effect; the female

-figures are cast in a masculine mould, and it lacks

-both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>the emotional charm of Sebastian&#8217;s native style.

-We cannot, however, avoid conjecturing if in

-the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a

-conception of the great Florentine. It is so

-easy in pose, so splendid in its, perhaps excessive,

-length of limb, that our thoughts turn

-involuntarily to the <em>Ignudi</em> in the Sixtine

-Chapel. The picture has been dulled and

-injured by repainting, but the distance still

-has the sombre depth of the Venetians. All

-through Sebastian&#8217;s career he seeks for form

-and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly

-is, he is great because he possesses

-that inborn feeling for harmony of colour. This

-is what we value in him, and he excels in so far

-as he follows his Venetian instincts.</p>

-

-<p>The death of Raphael improved Sebastian&#8217;s

-position in Rome, and though Leo X. never

-liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.

-The &ldquo;Fornarina&rdquo; in the Uffizi, with

-the laurel-wreathed head and leopard-skin

-mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is

-curious that any critic should ever have assigned

-its rich, voluptuous tone and its coarse type

-to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions

-for decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and

-S. Pietro in Montorio in fresco, but in the

-latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring

-the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the

-Tuscan ease of hand. Colour, for which he

-possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>colour of Giorgione, is set aside by him; his

-tints become strong and crude, his surfaces grow

-hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of

-bold action, of drawing and modelling. The

-Venetian genius for portraiture remains, and he

-has left such fine examples as the &ldquo;Andrea Doria&rdquo;

-of the Vatican, or the &ldquo;Portrait of a Man in the

-Pitti,&rdquo; a masterly picture both in drawing and

-execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse,

-and damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In

-the National Gallery we possess his own portrait

-by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici.

-The faces are well contrasted, and we judge from

-Sebastian&#8217;s that his biographer describes him

-justly, as fat, indolent, and given to self-indulgence,

-but genial and fond of good company.</p>

-

-<p>After an absence of twenty years he returned

-to Venice. There he came in contact with

-Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship

-with Aretino, who became his great ally and

-admirer. The sack of Rome had driven him

-forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning

-partially to recover from that time of horror,

-he returned, and was cordially welcomed by

-Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost

-ecclesiastical circles. The Piombo, a well-paid,

-sinecure office of the Papal court, was bestowed

-on him, and his remaining years were spent in

-Rome. He was very anxious to collaborate

-with Michelangelo, and the great painter seems

-to have been quite inclined to the arrangement.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>The &ldquo;Last Judgment,&rdquo; in the Sixtine Chapel,

-was suggested, and Sebastian had the melancholy

-task of taking down Perugino&#8217;s masterpieces; but

-he wished to reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo

-stipulated for fresco, saying that oils were

-only fit for women, so that no agreement was

-arrived at.</p>

-

-<p>Sebastian&#8217;s mode of work was slow, and he

-employed no assistants. He seems to have been

-inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,

-and his character shows in his work, which, with

-a few exceptions, has something heavy and

-common about it, a want of keenness and fire,

-an absence of refinement and selection.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Naples.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Visitation, 1521.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Visitation (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Viterbo.</td>  <td class="td5">Piet&agrave; (L.).</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity

-of the different members of the family of

-Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in

-giving the name to one master only. Boschini,

-however, in 1777 discovered the register of the

-death of a second, and a third bearing the name

-was working twenty years later. Upon this

-Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion that we must

-recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the

-name of Bonifazio, but documents recently

-discovered by Professor Ludwig have in great

-measure destroyed Morelli&#8217;s conjectures. There

-may have been obscure painters bearing the name,

-but they were mere imitators, and it is doubtful

-if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.</p>

-

-<p>Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one

-who counts. As Ridolfi says, he was born in

-Verona in the most beautiful moment of

-painting. He came to Venice at the age of

-eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,

-with whom his work has sometimes been

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>confused. After Palma&#8217;s death Bonifazio continued

-in friendly relations with his old master&#8217;s

-family, and his niece married Palma&#8217;s nephew.

-Bonifazio himself married the daughter of a

-basket-maker, and appears to have had no

-children, for he and his wife by their wills

-bestowed their whole fortune on their nephews.

-Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio&#8217;s niece,

-was a painter whose pictures have sometimes

-been attributed to the legendary third Bonifazio.

-Bonifazio&#8217;s life was passed peacefully in Venice.

-He received many important commissions from

-the Republic, and decorated the Palace of the

-Treasurers. His character and standing were

-high, and he was appointed, in company with

-Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy which

-Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly

-dower for five maidens. After a long life spent

-in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew to a little

-farm amidst orchards&mdash;fifteen acres of land in

-all&mdash;at San Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept

-his house in San Marcuola, where he died. He

-was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.</p>

-

-<p>A son of the plains and of Venetian stock,

-his work is always graceful and attractive,

-though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a

-very pronounced aristocratic character, and bears

-no trace of the rough, provincial strain of

-such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very

-fine and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour

-and energy in design. Nowhere do we get

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>more worldly magnificence or such frank

-worship of wealth as on Bonifazio&#8217;s joyous

-canvases. He represents Christian saints and

-Eastern kings alike, as gentlemen of princely

-rank. There is a note of purely secular art

-about his Adorations and Holy Families. In

-the &ldquo;Adoration of the Magi,&rdquo; in the Academy,

-the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady

-of Bonifazio&#8217;s acquaintance. The Child, so far

-from raising His hand in benediction, holds it out

-for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,

-distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the

-cup held by the second, who, in a puffed

-velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably

-that of the donor of the picture, who is in this

-way paid a courtier-like compliment. The

-third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must

-often have seen embarking from his Eastern

-galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A servant

-in a peaked hood peers round the column to

-catch sight of what is going on. The groups

-of animals in the background are well rendered.

-In the &ldquo;Rich Man&#8217;s Feast,&rdquo; where Lazarus

-lies upon the step, we have another scene of

-wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an

-orgy of colour. And, again, in the &ldquo;Finding of

-Moses&rdquo; (Brera) he paints nobles playing the lute,

-making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired

-women listening complacently. We are reminded

-of the way in which they lived: their

-one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>appearing in public in the latest and most

-magnificent fashions. And in these paintings

-Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and

-brocaded gowns in which the beautiful Venetians

-arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions

-of the year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted

-and coiled in the precise mode of the moment.

-The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly

-all his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself.

-As Catena often brings in a little white lap-dog,

-so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a liver-and-white

-spaniel.</p>

-

-<p>Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist

-who most successfully imitated Titian. He was

-the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,

-and received a good education in music and

-letters, before being sent off to Venice and

-placed in Titian&#8217;s studio. Bordone does not

-seem to have been on very friendly terms with

-Titian. He was dissatisfied with his teaching,

-and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting

-from him a commission to paint an altarpiece

-which had been entrusted to him when he was

-only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with

-the manner of the dead Giorgione, and it was

-upon this master that he aspired to form his

-style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was

-painted for the Confraternity of St. Mark, and

-made his reputation. The legend it represents

-may be given in a few words:</p>

-

-<p>In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>there arose a fearful storm in Venice. During

-the height of the tempest, three men accosted a

-poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed

-old boat by the Piazza, and begged that he

-would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where

-they had urgent business. After some demur

-they persuaded him to take the oars, and in

-spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished.

-On reaching the shore they pointed out

-to him a great ship, the crew of which he perceived

-to consist of a band of demons, who were

-stirring up the waves and making a great

-hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands

-on them to desist, when immediately

-they sailed away and there was a calm. The

-passengers then made the oarsman row them,

-one to S. Niccolo, one to S. Giorgio, and the

-third was rowed back to the Piazza. The

-fisherman timidly asked for his fare, and the

-third passenger desired him to go to the Doge

-and ask for payment, telling him that by that

-night&#8217;s work a great disaster had been averted

-from the city. The fisherman replied that he

-should not be believed, but would be imprisoned

-as a liar. Then the passenger drew a ring from

-his finger. &ldquo;Show him this for a sign,&rdquo; he said,

-&ldquo;and know that one of those you have this night

-rowed is S. Niccolas, the other is S. George, and

-I am S. Mark the Evangelist, Protector of

-the Venetian Republic.&rdquo; He then disappeared.

-The next day the fisherman presented the ring,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>and was assigned a provision for life from the

-Senate.</p>

-

-<p>There has, perhaps, never been a richer and

-more beautiful subject-picture painted than this

-glowing canvas, or one which brings more vividly

-before us the magnificence of the pageants which

-made such a part of Venetian life in the golden age

-of painting. It is all strength and splendour, and

-escapes the hectic colour and weaker type which

-appear in Bordone&#8217;s &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; and some of

-his other works. In 1538 he went to France

-and entered the service of Francis II., painting

-for him many portraits of ladies, besides works

-for the Cardinals of Guise and of Lorraine. The

-King of Poland sent to him for a &ldquo;Jupiter and

-Antiope.&rdquo; At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns

-for work done for the great Fugger family.</p>

-

-<p>No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type

-of woman who at this time was most admired in

-Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired,

-with full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and

-ample, with &ldquo;abundant flanks and snow-white

-breast.&rdquo; A type glowing with health and instinct

-with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without

-deep passions, and with no look that reveals

-profound emotions or the struggle of a soul.

-From what we see of Bordone&#8217;s female portraits

-and from some of the mythological compositions

-he has left, he might have been among the most

-sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan,

-in the National Gallery, is an almost over-realistic

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>presentment of a woman who has just

-parted from her lover. His women, with their

-carnation cheeks and expressionless faces, are like

-beautiful animals; but, as a matter of fact, their

-painter was sober and temperate in his life, very

-industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother.

-About 1536 he married the daughter of a

-Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one

-of the many insignificant painters of the end of the

-sixteenth century. Most of his days were divided

-between his little Villa of Lovadina in the district

-of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte

-dell&#8217; Cavallo near the Misericordia. &ldquo;He lives

-comfortably in his quiet house,&rdquo; writes Vasari,

-who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, &ldquo;working

-only at the request of princes, or his friends,

-avoiding all rivalry and those vain ambitions

-which do but disturb the repose of man, and

-seeking to avert any ruffling of the serene

-tranquillity of his life, which he is accustomed

-to preserve simple and upright.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Many of his pictures show an intense love

-of country solitudes. His poetic backgrounds,

-lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling

-water are in curious contrast to the sumptuous

-groups in the foreground.</p>

-

-<p>His &ldquo;Three Heads,&rdquo; in the Brera, is a superb

-piece of painting and an interesting characterisation.

-The woman is ripe, sensual, and calculating,

-feeling with her fingers for the gold chain,

-a mere golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>and prosaic. The go-between is dimly seen in

-the background, but the face of the suitor is a

-strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless,

-and bitter, taking his pleasure mechanically

-and with cynical detachment. The &ldquo;Storm

-calmed by S. Mark&rdquo; (Academy) was, in Mr.

-Berenson&#8217;s opinion, begun by Giorgione.</p>

-

-<p>Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is

-the work of these two painters, it does not reach

-the highest level. It falls short of grandeur, and

-has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity.

-As we study it we feel that it marks the point

-to which Venetian art might have attained, the

-flood-mark it might have touched, if it had

-lacked the advent of the three or four great

-spirits, who, appearing about the same time, bore

-it up to sublimer heights and developed a

-more distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio

-and Bordone lack the grandeur and sweetness of

-Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative genius

-of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour,

-design, and decoration of Veronese, but they

-continue Venetian painting on logical lines, and

-they form a superb foundation for the highest.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bonifazio Veronese.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight

-             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Finding of Moses.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee&#8217;s Children; Return of the

-             Prodigal Son.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Rich Man&#8217;s Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of

-             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;

-             Salome.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Paris Bordone.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Vintage Scenes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portrait of Woman.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Genoa.</td>  <td class="td5">Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Donors.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented

-             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait; Man counting Jewels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>It has become usual to include in the Venetian

-School those artists from the subject provinces

-on the mainland, who came down to try their

-luck at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark

-on their talent. The Friulan cities, Udine,

-Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had

-their own primitive schools and their scores of

-humble craftsmen. Their art wavered for some

-time in its expression between the German taste,

-which came so close to their gates, and the Italian,

-which was more truly their element.</p>

-

-<p>Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times

-in thirty years by the Turks. They poured in

-large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed

-the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred

-and carried off the inhabitants. These terrible

-periods are marked by the cessation of work in

-the provinces, but hope always revived again.

-The break caused by such a visitation can be

-distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,

-at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>Udine obtained the epithet of Pellegrino da San

-Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an early

-visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to

-Cima. He was appointed to decorate S. Antonino.

-His early work there is hard and coarse, ill-drawn,

-the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and

-the colour dusky and uniform; but owing to

-the Turkish raid, he had to take flight, and it

-was many a year before the monks gained

-sufficient courage and saved enough money to

-continue the embellishment of their church.

-In the meantime, Pellegrino&#8217;s years had been

-spent partly in Venice and partly, perhaps, in

-Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing

-to paint a &ldquo;Bacchus&rdquo; for the Duke, was that the

-subject had already been painted by Pellegrino

-da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his

-work, it demonstrated that he had studied the

-modern Venetians and had come under a finer,

-deeper influence. A St. George in armour

-suggests Giorgione&#8217;s S. Liberale at Castelfranco;

-he specially shows an affinity with Pordenone,

-who was his pupil and who was to become a

-better painter than his old master. As Pellegrino

-goes on he improves consistently, and adopts the

-method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form

-to a scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some

-extent, succeeds in his difficult task of applying

-to wall painting the system which the Venetians

-used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He

-was an ambitious, daring painter, and some of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>his church standards were for long attributed to

-Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains

-his chief monument; but for all his travels

-Pellegrino remains provincial in type, is unlucky

-in his selection, cares little for precision of form,

-and trusts to colour for effect.</p>

-

-<p>The same transition in art was taking place in

-other provinces. Morto da Feltre, Pennacchi,

-and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a

-Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went

-far onward, began their career under such minor

-masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes

-his name from his native town of Pordenone, in

-Friuli, was one of these. All the early part of

-his life was spent in painting frescoes in the

-small towns of the Friulan provinces. At first

-they bear signs of the tuition of Pellegrino, but

-it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has

-learned to imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite

-early, however, one of his chief failings appears,

-and one which is all his own, the disparity

-in size between his various figures. The

-secondary personages, the Magi in a Nativity,

-the Saints standing round an altar, are larger

-and more athletic in build and often more

-animated in action than the principal actors in

-the scene. What pleased Pordenone&#8217;s contemporaries

-was his daring perspective and his

-instinctive feeling for movement. He carried

-out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at

-length his reputation, which had long been ripe

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>in his native province, reached Venice. In 1519

-he was invited to Treviso to fresco the fa&ccedil;ade of

-a house for one of the Raviguino family. The

-painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and Titian

-was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the

-work so much that he hinted to Raviguino that

-he would be wise not to press him for a valuation.

-As a direct consequence of this piece of

-business, Pordenone was employed on the chapel

-at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At this

-time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa

-Pesaro were just finished, and it is probable

-that Pordenone paid his first visit to Venice,

-hard by, and saw his great contemporary&#8217;s work.

-With his characteristic distaste for fresco,

-Titian undertook the altarpiece and painted the

-beautiful Annunciation which still holds its

-place, and Pordenone covered the dome with

-a foreshortened figure of the Eternal Father,

-surrounded by angels. Among the remaining

-frescoes in the Chapel, an Adoration of the

-Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.

-Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered

-his services to Mantua and Cremona, but the

-Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and restrained

-grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say

-to what Crowe and Cavalcaselle call his &ldquo;large

-and colossal fable-painting.&rdquo; He pursued his way

-to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he

-passed through Mantua is evident from the first

-figures he painted in the cathedral. In Cremona

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>every one admired him, and all the artists set to

-work to imitate his energetic foreshortening,

-vehement movement and huge proportions.</p>

-

-<p>Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all

-his life an itinerant painter. In 1521 he was

-back at Udine and wandered from place to place,

-painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at

-S. Maria at Spilimbergo, the fa&ccedil;ade of the Church

-of Valeriano, an imposing series at Travesio, and

-in 1525, the &ldquo;Story of the True Cross&rdquo; at Casara.

-At the last place he threw aside much of his

-exaggeration, and, ruined and restored as the

-frescoes are, they remain among his most

-dignified achievements. He may be studied

-best of all at Piacenza, in the Church of the

-Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his

-subjects between sacred and pagan, so that we

-turn from a &ldquo;Flight into Egypt&rdquo; or a &ldquo;Marriage

-of S. Catherine,&rdquo; to the &ldquo;Rape of Europa&rdquo; or

-&ldquo;Venus and Adonis.&rdquo; At Piacenza he shows

-himself the great painter he undoubtedly is,

-having achieved some mastery over form, while

-his colour has the true Venetian quality and almost

-equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,

-which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping

-shadows as only one whose spirit was in touch

-with the art of Giorgione would have understood

-how to use. Very complete records remain of

-Pordenone&#8217;s life, full details of a quarrel with his

-brother over property left by his father in 1533,

-and accounts of the painter&#8217;s negotiations to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>obtain a knighthood, which he fancied would

-place him more on a par with Titian when he

-went to live in Venice. The coveted honour

-was secured, but from this time he seems to have

-been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed

-continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a

-punctual and rapid decorator, and on being given

-the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to decorate

-in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole

-by March 1538. We have seen how Titian

-annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious

-they were to transfer his commission to

-Pordenone, and what a narrow escape the

-Venetian had of losing his Broker&#8217;s patent.

-Pordenone was engaged by the nuns of Murano

-to paint an Annunciation, after they had rejected

-one by Titian on account of its price, and though

-it seems hardly possible that any one could have

-compared the two men, yet no doubt the pleasure

-of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually

-and for a moderate sum, often outweighed the

-honour of the possible painting by the great

-Titian.</p>

-

-<p>No one has left so few easel-paintings as

-Pordenone; fresco was so much better suited to

-his particular style. The canvas of the &ldquo;Madonna

-of Mercy&rdquo; in the Venice Academy, was painted

-about 1525 for a member of the house of

-Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the

-family. It is very free from his colossal,

-exaggerated manner; the attendant saints are

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>studied from nature, and in his journals the

-painter mentions that the St. Roch is a portrait

-of himself. The &ldquo;S. Lorenzo enthroned,&rdquo; in

-the same gallery, shows both his virtues and

-failings. The saints have his enormous proportions.

-The Baptist is twisting round, to

-display the foreshortening which Pordenone

-particularly affects. The gestures are empty

-and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and

-fluid; there is a large sense of decoration in the

-composition, and something simple and austere

-about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often

-the case with Pordenone, the principal actor of

-the scene is smaller and more sincerely imagined

-than the attendant personages, who are crowded

-into the foreground, where they are used to

-display the master&#8217;s skill.</p>

-

-<p>Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he

-had been summoned by its Duke to undertake

-one of his great schemes of decoration. He was

-said to have been poisoned, but though he had

-jealous rivals there seems no proof of the truth

-of the assertion, which was one very commonly

-made in those days. He is interesting as being

-the only distinguished member of the Venetian

-School whose frescoes have come down to us in

-any number, and as being the only one of the

-later masters with whom it was the chosen

-medium.</p>

-

-<p>His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented

-in the National Gallery by a half-length

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court

-by a large family group and by another of three

-persons gathered round a spinet. His masterpiece

-is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari,

-which shows the influence of Palma. His flesh

-tints, striving to be rich, have a hot, red look,

-but his works have been constantly confounded

-with those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.</p>

-

-<p>A long list might be given of minor artists

-who were industriously turning out work on

-similar lines to one or other of these masters:

-Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as

-Pordenone; Pomponio Amalteo, Pordenone&#8217;s son-in-law,

-a spirited painter in fresco; Florigerio,

-who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom

-an altarpiece remains in the Academy; Giovanni

-Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to compile

-his notices of Friulan art, and many others only

-known by name.</p>

-

-<p>At the close of the fifteenth century the

-revulsion against Paduan art extended as far

-as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one

-of the first to acquire the trick of Venetian

-painting. He probably studied for a time under

-Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have

-been at Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan

-disturbances of 1506-12, and about 1510

-Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino&#8217;s

-Palmesque manner. His works at this

-time are dark and glowing, full of warm light

-and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>arches, after the manner of the Vivarini and

-Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed

-in noble architecture.</p>

-

-<p>Brescia was an opulent city, second only to

-Milan among the towns of northern Italy, and

-Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in

-1511 the city fell a prey to the horrors of war,

-was taken and lost by Venice, and in 1512 was

-sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,

-where he found a home among the Benedictines

-of S. Giustina. Here he was soon well employed

-on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the

-high altar, and a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; for the

-refectory. It is also surmised that he helped

-in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several

-of which Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt,

-and the &ldquo;Death of St. Anthony&rdquo; is pointed out

-as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine

-colour, but poor drawing.</p>

-

-<p>Romanino returned to Brescia when the

-Venetians recovered it in 1516, but before doing

-so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects,

-which are among his most effective, in the choir

-of the Duomo.</p>

-

-<p>He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone,

-from whom he sometimes borrows ideas, but

-he is quite a convert to the modern style

-of the day, setting his groups in large spaces

-and using the slashed doublets, the long hose,

-and plumed headgear which Giorgione had

-found so picturesque. Romanino is often very

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>poor and empty, and fails most in selection and

-expression at the moments when he most needs

-to be great, but he is successful in the golden

-style he adopted after his closer contact with the

-Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are

-extremely brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to

-be gaudy and careless in execution, and even the

-fine &ldquo;Nativity&rdquo; in the National Gallery gives

-the impression that size is more regarded than

-thought and feeling.</p>

-

-<p>Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the

-mainland who, coming within the charmed circle

-of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma

-and Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still

-keeps his own gamut of colour, and as he goes

-on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery in

-his tones. He can only be fully studied in

-Brescia itself, where literally dozens of altarpieces

-and wall-paintings show him in every

-phase. His first connection was probably with

-Romanino, but he reminds us at one time of

-Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful

-painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace

-and sentiment of his heads, and as time goes on

-he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the

-&ldquo;Feast in the House of Simon&rdquo; in the organ-loft

-of the Church of the Piet&agrave; in Venice, the

-very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded

-building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape,

-and the costly raiment and plenishing which

-might have been seen at any Venetian or

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>Brescian banquet. In his portraits Moretto

-sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages are

-always dignified and expressive, with pale,

-high-bred faces, and exceedingly picturesque

-in dress and general arrangement. He loved

-to paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra

-Martinengo in the National Gallery, and to

-endow him with an air of romantic interest.</p>

-

-<p>One of those who entered so closely into the

-spirit of the Venetian School that he may almost

-be included within it, is Savoldo. His pictures

-are rare, and no gallery can show more than one

-or two examples. The Louvre has a portrait

-by him of Gaston de Foix, long thought to be

-by Giorgione. His native town can only show

-one altarpiece, an &ldquo;Adoration of Shepherds,&rdquo;

-low in tone but intense in dusky shadow with

-fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his

-shadows, and often rough and startling in effect,

-but at his best he produces very beautiful, rich,

-evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino

-bears witness to the estimation in which he was

-held.</p>

-

-<p>It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has

-most claim to Bartolommeo Montagna, the early

-master of Cima. Born of Brescian parents, he

-settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most

-distinguished of those Vicentine painters who

-drank at the Venetian fount. He must have

-gone early to Venice and worked with the

-Vivarini, for in his altarpiece in the Brera he

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>has the vaulted porticoes in which Bartolommeo

-and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His &ldquo;Madonna

-enthroned&rdquo; in the gallery at Vicenza has many

-points of contact with that of Alvise at Berlin.

-Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and

-the raised throne, and he is specially attracted

-by the groups of music-making angels; but

-Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise,

-and his lines are stronger and more sinewy. He

-keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling for calm

-and sweetness, but his personages have greater

-weight and gravity. He essays, too, a &ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo;

-with saints, at Monte Berico, and shows both

-pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen

-Bellini&#8217;s rendering, and attempts, if only with

-partial success, to contrast in the same way the

-indifference of death with the contemplation

-and anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular

-as Montagna&#8217;s saints often are, they show

-power and austerity. His colour is brilliant

-and enamel-like; he does not arrive at the

-Venetian depth, yet his altarpieces are very

-grand, and once more we are struck by the

-greatness of even the secondary painters who

-drew their inspiration from Padua and Venice.</p>

-

-<p>Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza

-and Giovanni Buonconsiglio were imbued

-with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza,

-in one of his few remaining works, almost

-reproduces the beautiful &ldquo;Assumption&rdquo; by

-Pizzolo, Mantegna&#8217;s young fellow-student, in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>the Chapel of the Eremitani. He employs

-Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate

-Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to

-distinguish between their works. Buonconsiglio&#8217;s

-&ldquo;Piet&agrave;&rdquo; in the Vicenza gallery, is reminiscent

-of Montagna&#8217;s at Monte Berico. The types are

-lean and bony, the features are almost as rugged

-as D&uuml;rer&#8217;s, the flesh earthy and greenish. About

-1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with

-Antonello da Messina; he begins to reside in

-Venice, and a change comes over his manner.

-His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired

-by studying Titian; and then, again, his bright

-tints remind us of Lotto. His name was on the

-register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.</p>

-

-<p>After Pisanello&#8217;s achievement and his marked

-effect on early Venetian art, Veronese painting

-fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna&#8217;s

-influence was strongly felt here, and art revived

-in Liberale da Verona, Falconetto, Casoto,

-the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters

-delightful in themselves, but having little connection

-with the school of Venice. Francesco

-Bonsignori, however, shook himself free from

-the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had

-for a time followed Liberale, and grows more

-like the Vicentines, Montagna and Buonconsiglio.

-He is careful about his drawing, but his figures,

-like those of many of these provincial painters, are

-short, bony and vulgar, very unlike the slender,

-distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori

-works in the new palace of the Gonzagas, and

-several pictures painted for Mantua are now

-scattered in different collections. At Verona he

-has left four fine altarpieces. He went early

-to Venice, where he became the pupil of the

-Vivarini. His faces grow soft and oval, and

-the very careful outlines suggest the influence

-of Bellini.</p>

-

-<p>Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni

-Bellini; in fact, Vasari says that a &ldquo;Dead

-Christ&rdquo; in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed

-with Bellini&#8217;s name, is from Mocetto&#8217;s hand.

-His short, broad figures have something of

-Bartolommeo Vivarini&#8217;s character.</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study

-with Giorgione, and we can trace his master&#8217;s

-manner of turning half tones into deep shades;

-but he does not really understand the Giorgionesque

-treatment, in which shade was always rich

-and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable,

-nor in the lights can he produce the clear glow

-of Giorgione. Another Veronese, Cavazzola, has

-left a masterpiece upon which any painter might

-be happy to rest his reputation; the &ldquo;Gattemalata

-with an Esquire&rdquo; in the Uffizi, a picture noble

-in feeling and in execution, and one which owes

-a great deal to Venetian portrait-painters.</p>

-

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pordenone.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Casara.</td>  <td class="td5">Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Colatto.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cremona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;

-              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned

-              with Saints and Donor, 1522.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Murano.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Piacenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Pordenone.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints, 1535.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Spilimbergo.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Sensigana.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Torre.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Treviso.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family; Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pellegrino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">San Daniele.</td>  <td class="td5">Frescoes in S. Antonio.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cividale.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Romanino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Piet&agrave;.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity; Coronation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cremona.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Polyptych; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Sato, Lago di Garda.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">&nbsp;&nbsp;Duomo: Saints and Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Trent.</td>  <td class="td5">Castello: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Moretto.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Brescia.</td>  <td class="td5">Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna

-             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory

-             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco: Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;

-             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy: Nativity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;

-             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Castello: Triptych; Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria della Piet&agrave;: Christ in the House of Levi.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Bartolommeo Montagna.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony&#8217;s Tomb.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Pavia.</td>  <td class="td5">Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Piet&agrave;; Frescoes, 1491-93.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints; Three Madonnas.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Monte Berico: Piet&agrave;, 1500; Fresco.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PAOLO VERONESE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to

-be placed on the very highest pinnacle of the

-Venetian School, must be classed among those

-few great painters who rose far above the level

-of most of his contemporaries and who brought

-in a special note and flavour of his own. His

-art is an independent art, and he borrows little

-from predecessors or contemporaries. His free

-and joyous temperament gave relief at a moment

-when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened

-to become too sombre, and when Sebastian del

-Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and above all

-Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes.

-Veronese discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries

-and crimsons and oranges, and finds his

-range among cream and rose and grey-greens.

-Titian concentrated his colours and intensified

-his lights, Tintoretto sacrifices colour to vivid

-play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids the

-dark; the generous light plays all through his

-scenes. He has no wish to secure strong effects

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>but delights in soft, faded tints; old rose and

-<em>turquoise morte</em>. In his colour and his subjects

-he is a personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving

-Republic, in which, as M. Yriarte says,

-a man produced his works as a tree produces its

-fruit. We get very near him in those vast

-palaces and churches and villas, where his heroic

-figures expand in the azure air, against the white

-clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the

-Renaissance about whom we know least. Here

-and there, in contemporary biography, we come

-across a mention of him and learn that he was

-sociable and lively, quick at taking offence, fond

-of his family and anxious to do his best by them.

-He was, too, very generous with his work&mdash;a

-great contrast in this respect to Titian&mdash;and

-contracts with convents and confraternities show

-that he often only stipulated for payment for

-bare time. Yet he was fond of personal luxury,

-loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says

-Ridolfi, &ldquo;always wore velvet breeches.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson,

-were Badile and Brusasorci, masters of Verona,

-but before he was twenty, he was away working

-on his own account. His first patron was

-Cardinal Gonzaga, who brought several painters

-from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no

-longer what it had been in the days of Isabela

-d&#8217;Este, and Paolo Caliari soon returned to his

-own town. Before he was twenty-three he had

-decorated Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>with Zelotti, a Veronese, portraying feasting

-gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural

-designs in monochrome. The two painters went

-on to other villas, mixing mortal and mythical

-figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.</p>

-

-<p>Zelotti having received a commission at

-Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek his fortune in

-Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano,

-on the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari

-wrote to him before arriving in Venice in 1555.

-Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable

-part in his destiny, he obtained a

-commission for a &ldquo;Coronation of the Virgin

-and four other Saints.&rdquo; He first painted the

-sacristy, but his success was instantaneous, and

-many orders followed. The ceiling of the

-church was devoted to the history of Esther.

-The whole of these paintings are marvellously

-well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt

-framework, make a <em>coup d&#8217;&oelig;il</em> of surprising

-beauty. They had an immense effect. Every

-one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures

-of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp

-of her ceremonies, the rich Eastern stuffs and the

-glorious architecture of her palaces. It was an

-auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese&#8217;s

-temper; the so-called Republic, now, more than

-ever, an oligarchy, was at the height of its fortunes,

-redecorating was going forward everywhere,

-the merchant-nobility was rich and spending

-magnificently, the Eastern trade was flourishing,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari

-came to work for, preferred the ceremonial to

-the imaginative treatment of sacred themes, and

-he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible

-for illustration. He paints the history of Esther,

-with its royal audiences, banquets, and marriage-feasts.

-His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are

-composed, courtly personages, who maintain a

-dignified calm under misfortune, and have very

-little violent feeling to show.</p>

-

-<p>At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma

-Vecchio was just dead, Tintoretto was absorbed

-by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was

-with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati,

-Bonifazio, Schiavone, and Zelotti, all rendering

-homage to Titian who was eighty years old,

-but still in full vigour. Titian&#8217;s opinions in

-matters of art were dictates, his judgment was

-a law. He immediately recognised Veronese&#8217;s

-genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him,

-and together with Sansovino, who at this

-time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,

-he received the young painter with an approval

-which ensured him a good start. Five years

-after Veronese&#8217;s arrival he was retained to

-decorate the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is

-a type of those patrician country-houses to which

-the Venetians were becoming more attached

-every year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of

-Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait by Veronese

-is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>the ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten.

-Palladio, Alessandro Vittoria, and Veronese were

-associated to build him a dwelling worthy of a

-Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total

-contrast to the gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is

-sober and simple, and well adapted to leisure and

-retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations

-are devoid of gilding and colour, and the

-rooms adorned by Veronese&#8217;s brush show him

-in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did

-not take place till four years later, but he

-has been influenced here by the feeling for

-the antique, and he thinks much of line and

-style. He leaves on one side the gorgeous

-brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually

-delights, and his nymphs are only clothed in

-their own beauty. And here Veronese shows

-his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons,

-the Barbaro family, are his friends, men and

-women of the world, who put no restraint on his

-fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese,

-with the bridle on his neck, so to speak, uses his

-opportunities fully, yet never exceeds the limits

-of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like

-Rubens, but proud, grave and sweet, seductive,

-but never suggestive or vulgar. After having

-placed single figures wherever he can find a nook,

-he assembles all the gods of Olympia at a supper

-in the cupola. Immortality is a beautiful young

-woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at

-her, caduceus in hand; Diana caresses her great

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his head on his

-hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid

-are scattered in the Empyrean, and Jupiter

-presides over the party. Below, a balcony rail

-runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an

-old lady, dressed in the latest fashion, points out

-the company to a beautiful young one and to a

-young man in a doublet who holds a hound in

-a leash. They are evidently family portraits,

-taken from those who looked on at the artist, and

-on the other side he has introduced members of

-his own family who were helping him. These

-decorations have a gaiety, an absence of pedantry,

-a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the

-Renaissance which tell of a happy moment

-when art was at its height and in touch with

-its environment. From about 1563 we may

-begin to date his great supper pictures. The

-Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most

-famous works, was painted for the refectory in

-Sammichele, the old part of S. Giorgio Maggiore.

-The treaty for it is still in existence, dated June

-1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is

-to furnish canvas and colours, the painter&#8217;s board,

-and a cask of wine. The further payment of 972

-ducats illustrates the prices received by the

-greatest artists at the height of the Renaissance:

-&pound;280 for work which occupied quite eight months.</p>

-

-<p>Veronese must have delighted in painting this

-work. Needless to say, it is not in the least

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>religious. He has united in it all the most varied

-personages who struck his imagination. So we

-see a Spanish grandee, Francis I., Suleiman the

-Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and

-Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped

-round a table, are Veronese himself, playing the

-viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo da

-Ponte seated by them, and Paolo&#8217;s brother, the

-architect, with his hand on his hip, tossing off a

-full glass; and in the governor of the feast,

-opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise

-Aretino. Under the marble columns of a

-Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the

-illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us

-an odd and informing document. We can but

-accept the scene and admire the originality of its

-design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness

-and fancy, the way in which the varied

-incidents are brought into harmony, and the

-grace of the colonnade, peopled with spectators,

-standing out against the depth of distant sky.</p>

-

-<p>The celebrated suppers, of which this is the

-first example, are dispersed in different galleries

-and some have disappeared, but from this time

-Veronese loved to paint these great displays,

-repeating some of them, but always introducing

-variety.</p>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img277.jpg" width="550" height="372" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Paolo Veronese.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MARRIAGE IN CANA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Louvre.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani,

-procurator of St. Mark&#8217;s, who was appointed

-ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time

-saw the works of Raphael and Michelangelo and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>the treasures of antiquity. For a time, the sight

-of the antique had some effect upon his work;

-in his famous ceiling in the Louvre, &ldquo;Jupiter

-destroying the Vices,&rdquo; the influence of Michelangelo

-is apparent and its large gestures are inspired

-by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese

-brought home casts from Rome, and statues

-of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have

-inspired the Jupiter. He did not go on long in

-this path; he does not really care for the nude&mdash;it

-is too simple for him. He prefers that his

-saints and divinities should appear in the gorgeous

-costumes of the day, and that his Venus

-and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich

-brocades. But few documents are left concerning

-his work for the Ducal Palace up to 1576;

-much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but

-the Signoria then gave him a number of fresh

-commissions. The most important was the

-immense oval of the &ldquo;Triumph of Venice,&rdquo;

-or, as it is sometimes called, the &ldquo;Thanksgiving

-for Lepanto&rdquo;; the Republic crowned by

-victory and surrounded by allegorical figures,

-Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno and the

-rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom:

-the fair Queen leans back, surrounded

-by laughing patricians, who look up from their

-balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on

-the Grand Canal. The horses of the Free Companions,

-the soldiers who go afar to carry out

-the will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>personages, each of whom represents a town or

-colony of her domain. Like all Veronese&#8217;s

-creations, this will always be pre-eminently a

-picture of the sixteenth century, dated by a

-thousand details of costume, architecture, and

-armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the

-Venier, of Titian, Aretino, and Veronese himself,

-makes a deep impression upon us, and the artist

-reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.</p>

-

-<p>Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can

-show a canvas of Veronese or the assistants by

-whom he was now surrounded. From time to

-time he resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano,

-and his incessant production betrays no trace

-of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the

-saint is a triumph of the beauty of the silhouette

-against a radiant sky. He goes back to Verona

-and paints the &ldquo;Martyrdom of St. George.&rdquo; He

-pours light into it. The saints open a shining

-path, down which a flower-crowned Love flutters

-with the diadem and palm of victory. The

-whole air and expression of St. George is full

-of strength and that look of goodness and

-serenity which is the painter&#8217;s nearest approach

-to religious feeling. Veronese was created a

-Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was asking for

-his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature

-and fond of living with his family. Philip II.

-longed to get him to cover his great walls in the

-Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations

-and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>It was on account of the &ldquo;Feast in the House

-of Levi&rdquo; that in 1573 he was hauled before the

-tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document

-concerning this was only discovered a few years

-ago. The Signoria had never allowed any

-tribunal to chastise works of literature; on

-the contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor

-herself in geniuses of the mind, was the refuge

-of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a

-sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed

-her to set aside or suspend the decisions of the

-Holy Office, from which she could not quite

-emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was

-denounced by some &ldquo;aggrieved person,&rdquo; to whom

-his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an

-outrage on religion. The members of the

-tribunal demanded &ldquo;who the boy was with the

-bleeding nose?&rdquo; and &ldquo;why were halberdiers

-admitted?&rdquo; Veronese replied that they were the

-sort of servants a rich and magnificent host would

-have about him. He was then asked why he

-had introduced the buffoon with a parrot on his

-hand. He replied that he really thought only

-Christ and His Apostles were present, but that

-when he had a little space over, he adorned it

-with imaginary figures. This defence of the vast

-and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and

-he was asked if he really thought that at the

-Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to bring

-in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other

-absurdities. Did he not know that in Germany

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>and other places infested with heresy, they were

-in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church

-into ridicule, with intent to teach false doctrine

-to the ignorant? Paolo for his defence cited the

-Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted

-every figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor

-replied crushingly, that these were disembodied

-spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.

-Could Veronese uphold his picture as

-decent? The painter was probably not very

-much alarmed. He was a person of great importance

-in Venice, and the proceedings of the

-Inquisition were always jealously watched by

-members of the Senate, who would not have permitted

-any unfair interference with the liberties

-of those under the protection of the State. The

-real offence was the introduction of the German

-soldiers, who were peculiarly obnoxious to the

-Venetians; but Veronese did not care what the

-subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for

-a great <em>spectacle</em>. Brought to bay, he gave the

-true answer: &ldquo;My Lords, I have not considered

-all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything

-disorderly. I painted the picture as it

-seemed best to me and as my intellect could

-conceive of it.&rdquo; It meant that Veronese painted

-in the way that he considered most artistic, without

-even remembering questions of religion, and

-in this he summed up his whole &aelig;sthetic creed.

-He was set at liberty on condition that he took

-out one or two of the most offending figures.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>The &ldquo;Feast in the House of Levi&rdquo; (as he named

-it after the trial) is the finest of all his great

-scenic effects. The air circulates freely through

-the white architecture, we breathe more deeply

-as we look out into the wide blue sky, and

-such is the sensation of expansion, that it is

-hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a

-flat wall. Titian&#8217;s backgrounds are a blue

-horizon, a burning twilight. Veronese builds

-marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns

-blanched in the liquid light. His personages

-show little violent action. He places them in

-noble poses in which they can best show off

-their magnificent clothes, and he endows his

-patricians, his goddesses, his sacred persons, with

-a uniform air of majestic indolence.</p>

-

-<p>After his &ldquo;trial,&rdquo; Veronese proceeded more

-triumphantly than ever. Every prince wished

-to have something from his brush; the Emperor

-Rudolph, at Prague, showed with pride the

-canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus. The

-Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of

-Ferrara, added Veronese&#8217;s works to the treasures

-of the house of Este. The last ten years of his

-life were given up to visiting churches on the

-mainland and on the little islands round Venice,

-all covetous to possess something by the brilliant

-Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello,

-Murano, Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent

-and monastery loaded him with commissions, and

-it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his

-most ardent patrons, those who delighted most

-in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were

-to be found in the religious houses. Then, when

-he went to rest in the summer heats in some villa

-on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here

-and there. It was on such an occasion, for the

-Pisani, that he painted the &ldquo;Family of Darius,&rdquo;

-which was sold to England by a member of

-the house in 1857. The royal captives, who

-are throwing themselves at the feet of the

-conqueror, are, with Paolo&#8217;s usual frank na&iuml;vet&eacute;

-and disregard of anachronisms, dressed in full

-Venetian costume&mdash;all the chief personages are

-portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom

-and rapidity of execution, the completeness and

-finish, the charm of colour, the beauty of the

-figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander

-and Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy,

-make this one of the finest of all his works.

-The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it,

-&ldquo;It is absurd and dazzling.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>In the &ldquo;Rape of Europa,&rdquo; he recurred again

-to one of those legends of fabled beings who have

-outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and living.

-Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino

-and Bembo, well versed in mythology, and with

-his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse for

-painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets,

-and a delightful landscape. The wild flowers

-spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro against

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese

-turquoise. It is the work of a man who is a

-true poet of colour and for whom colour represents

-all the emotions of joy and pleasure.</p>

-

-<p>Veronese died comparatively young, of chill

-and fever, and all his family survived him. He

-lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary

-memoirs we know that he lived and dressed

-splendidly. He kept immense stores of gorgeous

-stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew

-everything from life,&mdash;the negroes covered with

-jewels, the bright-eyed pages, the models who,

-robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became

-queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls

-which bedecked them were from his own

-caskets. Though we know little of his private

-life, his work is so alive that he seems personified

-in it. He is saved from what might have been

-a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing

-colour in which he revels; his silks

-and satins are less modelled by shadows than

-tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and

-striped and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously

-combined that the eye rests, wherever it falls, on

-something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is

-where his genius lies, &ldquo;the decoration does not

-add to the interest of the drama; it replaces

-it&rdquo;; in short, it <em>is</em> the drama itself, for his types

-show little selection, and his ideal of female

-beauty is not a very sympathetic one. His

-personages are cold and devoid of expression,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>their gestures are rather meaningless, but by

-means of light and air and exquisite colour he

-gives the poetical touch which all great art

-demands.</p>

-

-<p>On account of their size few examples of

-Veronese&#8217;s work are to be found in private

-collections, but the galleries of the different

-European capitals are rich in them. Numbers

-of paintings, too, which are by his assistants

-are dignified by his name, and directly after his

-death spurious works were freely manufactured

-and sold as genuine.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi; Marriage of Cana.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before

-             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Maser.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna with Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice enthroned.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Barnab&agrave;: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in

-             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;

-             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at the House of Jairus.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TINTORETTO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>It does not seem likely that many new discoveries

-will be made about Tintoretto&#8217;s life. It

-was an open and above-board one, and there is

-practically no time during its span that we are

-not able to account for, and to say where he

-was living and how he was occupied. The son of

-a dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds

-of Venice, the &ldquo;little dyer,&rdquo; <em>il tentoretto</em>, appears

-as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn his chosen

-art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately

-after, summarily ejected from that

-master&#8217;s workshop, on account, it seems probable,

-of the independence and innovation of his style,

-which was of the very kind most likely to shock

-and puzzle Titian&#8217;s courtly, settled genius. After

-this he painted when and where he could,

-pursuing his artistic studies with the headlong

-ardour which through life characterised his

-attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he

-may have worked in Bonifazio&#8217;s studio. He

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>

-formed a close friendship with Andrea Schiavone,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>

-he imported casts of Michelangelo&#8217;s statues, he

-studied the works of Titian and Palma. Over

-his door was written &ldquo;the colour of Titian and

-the form of Michelangelo.&rdquo; All his energies

-were for long devoted to the effort to master

-that form. Colour came to him naturally, but

-good drawing meant more to him than it had

-ever done to any Venetian. Long afterwards, to

-repeated inquiries as to how excellence could

-be best ensured, he would give no other advice

-than the reiterated, &ldquo;study drawing.&rdquo; He

-practised till the human form in every attitude

-held no difficulties for him. He suspended

-little models by strings, and drew every limb

-and torso he could get hold of over and over

-again. He was found in every place where

-painting was wanted, getting the builders to let

-him experiment upon the house-fronts. To

-master light and shade he constructed little

-cardboard houses, in which, by means of sliding

-shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be

-arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of

-this part of his education, as in the end the love

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>of shine and shadow was the most victorious of

-all his inspirations.</p>

-

-<p>The chief events in Tintoretto&#8217;s life are art-events.

-For some years he frescoed the outside

-of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his

-expenses. He decorated household furniture and

-everything he could lay hands on. Then came

-a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,

-organ-doors there, for unimportant churches.

-No one in Venice talked of any one save Palma,

-Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was difficult

-enough for an outsider, who was not one of their

-clique, to get employment. But by the time

-Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was becoming

-recognised; he had painted the two

-altarpieces for SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, and

-the offer he made to decorate the vast church

-of his parish brought him conspicuously into

-notice. In the first ardour of youth he completed

-the &ldquo;Last Judgment&rdquo; for the choir.

-From time to time, during fourteen years, he

-redeemed his early promises and executed the

-&ldquo;Golden Calf&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Presentation of the

-Virgin.&rdquo; Within two years of his offer to

-the Prior, came his first great opportunity of

-achieving distinction. This was a commission

-from the Confraternity of St. Mark, and with the

-&ldquo;Miracle of the Slave&rdquo; he sprang at once to the

-highest place.</p>

-

-<p>The picture was universally admired, and was

-followed by three more dealing with the patron

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful

-young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi,

-as it is indifferently given, the daughter of a

-noble family of the mainland. Tradition has

-always pointed to the girl in blue in the &ldquo;Golden

-Calf&rdquo; as her portrait, while it is easy to recognise

-Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded giant,

-who helps to carry the idol. His house at this

-time was somewhere in the Parrocchia dell&#8217; Orto,

-and there, during the next fourteen years, eight

-children were born, of whom the two eldest,

-Domenico and Marietta, attained distinction in

-their father&#8217;s profession. Another great event,

-which profoundly influenced his life, was the

-beginning of his connection in 1560 with the

-Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity

-which was devoted to combating the ravages of

-the plague and to succouring the families of its

-victims. His work for this lasted to the end of

-his life and is his most distinguished memorial.</p>

-

-<p>The palace to which the Robusti family

-moved in 1574, and which was inhabited by his

-descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified

-in the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into

-two parts, but it is evident that it was a dwelling

-of some importance, a good specimen of

-Venetian Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable

-decoration; the walls are sheathed in

-marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of

-Gothic windows in delicately carved frames and

-little balconies of fretted marble. Zanetti, in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze

-frieze cast from the master&#8217;s design, which ran

-round the Grand Sala. The family must have

-occupied the <em>piano nobile</em> and let off the floors

-they did not require.</p>

-

-<p>Descriptions of the life led by the painter and

-his family are given by Vasari, who knew him

-personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was published

-in 1646, and who must have known his

-children, several of whom were still alive and

-proud of their father&#8217;s fame. We hear of pleasant

-evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic

-love of music, Tintoretto himself and his

-daughter being highly gifted. Among the

-<em>habitu&eacute;s</em> were Zarlino, for twenty-five years

-chapel-master of St. Mark&#8217;s, one of the fathers of

-modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who, in

-spite of his love for magnificent entertainments,

-was often to be found in Tintoretto&#8217;s pleasant

-home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always

-welcome, and as time went on the house became

-the haunt of all the cultured gentlemen and

-<em>litterati</em> of Venice.</p>

-

-<p>It is not difficult from the materials available

-to form a sufficiently lively idea of this Venetian

-citizen of the sixteenth century, as father and

-husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected

-a number of anecdotes, which space forbids me

-to use, but which are all very characteristic. We

-gather that he was a man of strong character,

-generous, sincere and simple, decided in his

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>ways, caring little for the great world, but

-open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,

-observant of men and manners, and sometimes

-rather brusque in dealing with bores and offensive

-persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of good-natured

-banter of his wife&#8217;s little weaknesses.

-A man, too, of upright conduct and free, as far

-as it can be ascertained, from any of those

-laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of

-celebrated men and so easily condoned by his

-age. Art was Tintoretto&#8217;s main preoccupation;

-but he seems to have been a man of strong

-religious bias, making a close study of the Bible,

-and turning naturally in his last days to those

-truths with which his art had made him familiar,

-truths which he had represented with that touch

-of mystic feeling which was the deepest part

-of his nature.</p>

-

-<p>His relations with the State commenced in

-1574, when his offer to present a superb painting

-of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and

-accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto

-was rewarded by a Broker&#8217;s patent, and between

-this and the &ldquo;Paradiso,&rdquo; the work of his old

-age, he executed a number of pictures for the

-Signoria. The only record of any travels are

-confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where

-he went in the &#8217;sixties and again in 1579 to see

-to the hanging of paintings done for the Gonzaga,

-and of which the documents have been kept,

-though the pictures have vanished. Tintoretto&#8217;s

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>last years were saddened by the death of his

-beloved daughter, who had always been his

-constant companion. He died in 1579 after a

-fortnight&#8217;s illness and left a will, which, together

-with that of his son, throws a good deal of light

-upon the family history.</p>

-

-<p>It is not easy to select from the vast quantity

-of work left by Tintoretto. He is one of those

-painters whose whole life was passed in his

-native city and who can only be adequately

-studied in that city. Perhaps the first place in

-which to seek him, is the great church which

-was the monument of his early prime. The

-&ldquo;Last Judgment&rdquo; was probably inspired by that

-of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and

-sketches must have reached the younger master,

-over whom the Florentine had exercised so

-strong a fascination. Tintoretto&#8217;s version impresses

-one as that of a mind boiling with

-thoughts and visions which he pours out upon

-the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe,

-a scene of rushing destruction, of forms swept

-into oblivion, of others struggling to the light, of

-many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and

-light behind the rushing water,&mdash;water which

-makes us almost giddy as we watch it. The

-&ldquo;Golden Calf&rdquo; is a maturer production and includes

-some of the loveliest women Tintoretto

-ever painted. We see too plainly the planning,

-the device of concentrating interest on the idol by

-turning figures and pointing fingers, but nothing

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>can be imagined more supple and queenly than

-the woman in blue, and the way the light falls

-on her head and perfectly foreshortened arm

-shows to what excellence Tintoretto had attained.

-The &ldquo;Presentation&rdquo; is a riper work. The

-drawing of the flight of steps and of the groups

-upon them could not be bettered. The little

-figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new

-dispensation, as she advances to meet the representative

-of the old, thrills with mystic feeling,

-yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy

-simplicity of a child. The &ldquo;St. Agnes,&rdquo; with

-its contrast of light and shade, of strength made

-perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the

-commission of Cardinal Contarini.</p>

-

-<p>It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto,

-especially in the &ldquo;Presentation,&rdquo; has contrived,

-while using the traditional episodes, to infuse

-so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast

-of age and youth, the joy of the Gentiles, the

-starlike figure of the child surrounded by shadows,

-convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with

-the nature of the scene.</p>

-

-<p>Next let us group together the miracles in

-the history of St. Mark. One of the qualities

-which strikes us most in the &ldquo;Miracle of the

-Slave&rdquo; is its strong local colour. It tells of

-Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike Tintoretto&#8217;s

-later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;

-carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet,

-and turquoise-blue. The crimson velvet of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>judge&#8217;s dress is finely relieved against a blue-green

-sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive

-fire and dash which culminates at once and

-without effort in perfect action, &ldquo;as a bird flies,

-or a horse gallops.&rdquo; It startled the quiet

-members of the Guild, and at the first moment

-they hesitated to accept it. The &ldquo;Rescue of

-the Saracen&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Transportation of the

-Body&rdquo; are more in the golden-brown manner

-to which he was moving, but it is in the

-&ldquo;Finding of the Body&rdquo; (Brera) that he rises to

-the highest emotional pitch. The colossal form

-of the saint, expanding with life and power as he

-towers in the spirit above his own lifeless clay,

-draws all eyes to him and seems to fill the

-barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every

-part of the vault is flooded by his life-giving

-energy, and here Tintoretto deals with light and

-shade with full mastery.</p>

-

-<p>As we follow Tintoretto&#8217;s career, it is borne

-in upon us how little positive colour it takes to

-make a great colourist. The whole Venetian

-School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand

-as bright colour. Vivid tints are much more

-characteristic of the Flemish and the Florentine,

-or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong,

-crude colours are to be seen on all sides in the

-Salon or the Royal Academy, but they are

-absent from the scheme of sombre splendour

-which has given the Venetians their title to

-fame. This is especially true of Tintoretto, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut

-becomes more golden-brown and mellow; the

-greys and browns and ivories combine in a

-lustrous symphony more impressive than gay

-tints, flooded with enveloping shadow and

-illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another

-noticeable feature is the way in which he

-puts on his oil-colour, so that it bears the direct

-impression of the painter&#8217;s hand. The Florentines

-had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark

-smoothed away; but as the later Venetians

-covered large spaces with oil-colour, they no

-longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the

-brush, and light, distance, movement, were all

-conveyed by the turns and twists and swirls with

-which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at

-the power of touch in such a picture as the

-&ldquo;Death of Abel&rdquo;; we see this spontaneity of

-execution actually forming part of the emotion

-with which the picture is charged. The concentrated

-hate of the one figure, the desperate

-appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape,

-gain their emotion as much from the

-impetuous brush-work as from the more studied

-design. We come closest to the painter&#8217;s mind

-in the Scuola di San Rocco. He had already

-been employed in the church, and there remains,

-darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative

-of the career of S. Roch, patron saint of

-sufferers from the plague. When the great

-Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>the confraternity asked a conclave of painters,

-among whom were Veronese and Andrea

-Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition.

-When they assembled to display their designs,

-Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling

-of the refectory and discovered a finished picture,

-the &ldquo;S. Roch in Glory,&rdquo; which still holds its

-place there. Neither the other artists nor the

-brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional

-proceeding, but he &ldquo;hoped they would

-not be offended; it was the only way he knew.&rdquo;

-Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of

-the rest, but partly also from the excellence of

-the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto, and

-after two years&#8217; work he was received into the

-order, and was assigned an annual provision of

-100 ducats (&pound;50) a year for life, being bound

-every year to furnish three pictures.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TINTORETTO</strong> (<em>continued</em>)</p>

-

-<p>The first portion of the vast building that was

-finished was the Refectory, but in examining

-the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to

-leave it to its proper place, which is the climax.

-Before beginning, Tintoretto must have had the

-whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt that

-he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and

-recalled its plan and significance; the old dispensation

-typifying the new, the Old Testament

-history vivified by the acts of Christ. The

-main feature of the harmony which it is only

-reasonable to suppose governs the whole building,

-is its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of

-mercy. The principal paintings of the Upper

-Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine

-mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes

-bear upon the central idea. On the roof are the

-three most important miracles of mercy performed

-on behalf of the Chosen People. The

-paintings on roof and walls are linked together.

-The &ldquo;Fall of Man&rdquo; at one end of the Hall, the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient

-eating of the Passover at the other, and is

-interdependent with the Manna in the Wilderness,

-the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves.

-The Miracles of satisfied thirst are represented

-by &ldquo;Moses striking the Rock,&rdquo; Samson drinking

-from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah.

-The Baptism and other signs of the Advent of

-Christ and the Divine preparation, balance events

-in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory

-which opens from the Great Hall, we come to

-the &ldquo;Crucifixion,&rdquo; the crowning act of mercy,

-surrounded by the events which immediately

-succeeded it, and typified immediately above in

-the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen

-Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment

-and succour, two of miraculous restoration

-to health, and two of deliverance from danger.

-The whole scheme has been worked out in

-detail in my book on &ldquo;Tintoretto.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>In the working out of his great scheme,

-Tintoretto is impatient of hackneyed and traditional

-forms; he must have a reading of his own,

-and one which appeals to his imagination. We

-see that passion for movement which distinguishes

-his early work. &ldquo;Moses striking the Rock&rdquo; is a

-figure instinct with purpose and energy. The

-water bounds forth, living, life-giving, the people

-strain wildly to reach it. His figures are sometimes

-found fault with, as extravagant in gesture,

-but the attitudes were intended to be seen and to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>arrest attention from far below, and we must not

-forget that the painter&#8217;s models were drawn from

-a Southern race, to whom emphasis of action is

-natural. Tintoretto, it may be conceded, is on

-certain occasions, generally when dealing with

-accessory figures, inclined to excess of gesture;

-it is the defect of his temperament, but when he

-has a subject that carries him away he is sincere

-and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared

-to him; his colour, however effective, is

-calculated, whereas Tintoretto&#8217;s seems to permeate

-every object and to soak the whole composition.

-To quote a recent critic: &ldquo;He chose to begin, if

-possible, with a subject charged with emotion.

-He then proceeded to treat it according to its

-nature, that is to say, he toned down and obscured

-the outlines of form and mapped out the subject

-instead in pale or sombre masses of light and

-shade. Under the control of this powerful

-scheme of chiaroscuro, the colouring of the

-composition was placed, but its own character,

-its degree of richness and sobriety, was determined

-by the kind of emotion belonging to the subject.

-To use colour in this way, not only with

-emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to

-use it to perform one of the greatest functions

-of art.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>

-

-<p>So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the

-aspect of the groups, the pathos of the faces

-or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the

-atmosphere into which we are absorbed, the

-sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding

-light and shadow, that makes us feel how different

-the rendering is from any other. In the &ldquo;Christ

-before Pilate&rdquo; the head and figure of Christ are

-not particularly impressive in themselves, but

-the brilliant light falling on the white robes and

-coursing down the steps supplies dignity and

-poetry; the slender white figure stands out

-like a shaft of light against the lurid and

-troubled background. Again, in the &ldquo;Way to

-Golgotha&rdquo; the falling evening gleam, the wild

-sky, the deep shadow of the ravine, throw into

-relief the quiet form, detached in look and

-feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far

-above the brutal throng. Nowhere does that

-spiritual emotion find deeper expression than

-in the &ldquo;Visitation.&rdquo; The passion of thanksgiving,

-the poignancy of mother-love, throb

-through the two women, who have been

-travelling towards one another, with a great

-secret between them, and who at length reach

-the haven of each other&#8217;s love and knowledge.

-Here, too, the dying light, the waving tree,

-the obliteration of form, and the feeling of

-mystery make a deep appeal to the sensuous

-apprehension. We find it again and again; the

-great trees sway and whisper in the gathering

-darkness as the Virgin rides through the falling

-evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and in that

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>most moving of all Tintoretto&#8217;s creations, the

-&ldquo;S. Mary of Egypt,&rdquo; the emotional mood of

-Nature&#8217;s self is brought home to us. The trees

-that dominate the landscape are painted with

-a few &ldquo;strokes like sabre cuts&rdquo;; the landscape,

-given with apparent carelessness, yet conveying

-an indescribable sense of space and solemnity,

-unfolds itself under the dying day; and in solitary

-meditation, thrilling with ecstasy, sits that little

-figure, whose heart has travelled far away to

-commune with the Spirit, &ldquo;whose dwelling is

-the light of setting suns.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>It is not possible in a short space to touch,

-even in passing, on all the many scenes in these

-halls: the &ldquo;Annunciation,&rdquo; with its marvellous

-flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of

-pigeons in the Piazza, and how often the old

-painter must have watched them; the &ldquo;Temptation,&rdquo;

-contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh

-that <em>must</em> be fed, with the calm of absolute

-purity; the &ldquo;Massacre of the Innocents,&rdquo; for

-which the horrors of sacked towns could have

-supplied many a parallel,&mdash;we have not time to

-dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist

-has overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the

-dark halls, by choosing strong and varied effects

-of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we

-can picture what the halls must have been like

-when they first glowed from his hand, adorned

-with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung

-with opulent draperies, with the rose-red and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>purple of bishops&#8217; and cardinals&#8217; robes reflected in

-the gleaming pavement.</p>

-

-<p><a name="egypt" id="egypt"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">

-<img src="images/img303.jpg" width="259" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Tintoretto.</em> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><em>Scuola di San Rocco.</em></span><br />

-S. MARY OF EGYPT.<br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto,

-by many renderings, have made the &ldquo;Last

-Supper&rdquo; peculiarly their own in the domain of

-art. It shows how strongly the mystic strain

-entered into the man&#8217;s character, that often as

-Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its

-interest for him, and he never failed to find a fresh

-point of view. In that in S. Polo, Christ offers

-the sacred food with a gesture of vehement

-generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to

-all comers to the Mass, to afford them a welcome

-as they pass to the High Altar, it tells of the

-Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto

-himself, painted in the character of S. Paul,

-stands at one side, absorbed in meditation. We

-need not insist again on the emotional value of

-the deep colours, the rich creams and crimsons

-and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering, in

-S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point

-in symbolical treatment. Some people are only

-able to see a theatrical, artificial spirit in this

-picture, but at least, when we consider what

-deep meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on

-his subjects, we may believe that he himself was

-sincere and that he let himself go over what

-commended itself as an entirely new rendering.

-&ldquo;The Light shined in the Darkness, and the

-Darkness comprehended it not.&rdquo; The supernatural

-is entering on every side, but the feast

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>goes on; the serving men and maids busy themselves

-with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring,

-but not agitated; none see that throng of

-heavenly visitants, pouring in through the blue

-moonlight, called to their Master&#8217;s side by the

-supreme significance of His words. The painter

-has taken full advantage of the opportunity of

-combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring

-out smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight

-and the unearthly radiance, in divers, yet

-mingling streams which fight against the surrounding

-gloom. In the scene in the Scuola

-di S. Rocco the betrayal is the dominating

-incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the

-Saviour is alone with the faithful disciples.</p>

-

-<p><a name="bacchus" id="bacchus"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img308.jpg" width="550" height="467" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Tintoretto.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Ducal Palace, Venice.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Anderson.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Though several of the large compositions

-ascribed to Tintoretto in the Ducal Palace are

-only partly by him, or entirely by followers and

-imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his

-genius. There is much that is fine about the

-great state pieces. In the &ldquo;Marriage of St.

-Catherine,&rdquo; the saint, in silken gown and

-long transparent veil, is an exquisite figure.

-Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden

-light and air, and yet we feel that these huge

-official subjects, with the prosaic old Doges

-introduced in incongruous company, neither

-stimulated his imagination nor satisfied his taste.

-It is on the smaller canvases that he finds inspiration.

-He never painted anything more lovely,

-more perfect in design, or more gay and tender in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>idea, than the cycle in the Ante-Collegio. The

-glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows

-upon ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and

-a refined, unselfconscious joy such as is felt in

-hardly any other work, except the painter&#8217;s own

-&ldquo;Milky Way&rdquo; in the National Gallery. In all

-these four pictures the feeling for design, a

-branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,

-is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne

-all the principal lines, the eyes and gestures,

-converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol

-of union between the goddess and her lover,

-between the queenly city and the Adriatic sea.

-Or take &ldquo;Pallas driving away Mars&rdquo;: see how

-the mass into which the figures are gathered on

-the left adds strength to the thrust of the

-goddess&#8217;s arm, and what steadiness is given by

-that short straight lance of hers, coming in

-among all the yielding curves. The whole four

-are linked together in meaning: the call to

-Venice to reign over the seas, her triumphant

-peace, with Wisdom guiding her council, and her

-warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction

-with these pictures are two small ones

-in the chapel, hardly less beautiful&mdash;St. George

-with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome.

-It is difficult to say whether the exultant St.

-George, the dignified young bishop, or the two

-older saints are the more sympathetic creations,

-or the more admirable, both in drawing and

-colour. The sense of space in both settings is an

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy

-boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the

-composition.</p>

-

-<p>There are many other striking examples,

-ranging all through Tintoretto&#8217;s life, of his

-untiring imagination. In the Salute is that

-&ldquo;Marriage of Cana,&rdquo; in which all the actors

-seem to swim in golden light. The sharp

-silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine

-with which the hall is flooded, and all the

-architectural lines lead our eyes towards the

-central figure, placed at a distance. On that

-long canvas in the Academy, kneel the three

-treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending in

-homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit

-enthroned upon a broad piazza, through the

-marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape

-shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet

-and ermine kneel before the Child, or hold

-counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of

-S. Giustina. The &ldquo;Crucifixion&rdquo; (in S. Cassiano)

-is another triumph of the painter&#8217;s imaginative

-conception. The bold lines of the crosses,

-the ladder, and the figures detach against a

-glorious sky, and the presence of the moving,

-murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of

-the line of sight, the spectator is made to form

-a part, is conveyed by the swaying and crossing

-of the lances borne by the armed men who keep

-the ground. There is a series, too, which deals

-with the Magdalen. She mourns her dead in that

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>solemn, restrained &ldquo;Entombment,&rdquo; where the enfolding

-shadows frame the cross against the sad

-dawn, which adorns the mortuary chapel of S.

-Giorgio Maggiore; and the Piet&agrave; in the Brera, the

-long lines of which add to the impression of tender

-repose, has its peace broken by the passionate cry

-of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto&#8217;s

-ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same

-scene in a dozen different ways, and, in fact,

-the book of sketches lately acquired by the

-British Museum shows as many as thirty trials

-dashed off for one subject, and after all he uses

-one composed for something quite different. It

-is this habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh

-from his brain, that has led to the common but

-superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely

-a great improvisatore, whose successes came more

-or less by good luck. He could, indeed, paint

-pictures at a pace at which many great masters

-could only sketch, but he had already designed

-and considered and rejected, doing with oil,

-ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries

-did mentally. Such achievements as the

-Ante-Collegio cycle, the &ldquo;House of Martha

-and Mary,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Marriage of Cana,&rdquo; the

-&ldquo;Temptation of S. Anthony,&rdquo; to name only a

-few, show a finish and perfection and a balance

-of design which preclude the idea of their being

-lightly painted pictures. When he was actually

-engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with impetuous

-ardour, but we may feel assured he left

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>nothing to chance, though he had his own way

-of making sure of the result.</p>

-

-<p>It is strange to hear people, as one does now

-and then, talking of the &ldquo;Paradiso&rdquo; as &ldquo;a splendid

-failure.&rdquo; It may be granted that the subject is

-an impossible one for human art to realise, yet

-when all allowance has been made for a lamentable

-amount of drying and blackening, it is difficult

-to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his

-admiration of that thronging multitude, ordered

-and disciplined by the tides of light and shadow,

-which roll in and out of the masses, resolving

-them into groups and single figures of almost

-matchless beauty and melting away into a sea

-of radiant ether, which tells us of the boundless

-space which surrounds the serried ranks of the

-Blessed.</p>

-

-<p>Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was

-allotted to him, and it was the last great effort of

-his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved

-both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is

-evident that the painter has framed it upon

-the thought of Dante&#8217;s mystic rose. The circles

-and many of the figures can be traced in the

-poem, and the idea of the Eternal Light streaming

-through the leaves of the rose dominates the

-composition. It is appropriate that it should

-have been his last great work, as it was also

-the greatest attempt at composition ever made

-by a master of the Venetian School.</p>

-

-<p>There is no room here to study Tintoretto as

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>a painter of battlepieces, though from the time

-he painted the &ldquo;Battle of Lepanto,&rdquo; for the

-Council of Ten, he often returned to such

-subjects. His two series for the Gonzaga included

-several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses

-examples. The impetuosity of his style stood

-him in good stead, and he never fails to bring in

-graceful and striking figures.</p>

-

-<p>His portraits are hardly equal to Titian&#8217;s

-intellectual grasp or fine-grained colour, but they

-are extraordinarily characteristic. He prefers to

-paint men rather than women, and he painted

-hundreds&mdash;all the great persons of his time who

-lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian

-portrait by this time was expected to be more

-than a likeness and more than a problem. It was

-to please the taste as a picture, to interest and to

-satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets

-behind the scenes, and we see some mood, some

-aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected to

-show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto&#8217;s,

-but he deals with his sitters with an observation

-which pierces below the surface.</p>

-

-<p>In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often

-unable to discriminate between the turgid and

-melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental.

-The first all must abhor, but the last

-is sincere and deserves to be respected. It is by

-his best that we must judge a man, and taking

-his best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one

-has left a larger amount which will stand the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and

-elevated central ideas, which unify all parts

-of his composition, Tintoretto stands with the

-greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual

-side of life was exemplified in Florentine art,

-but the Renaissance would have been a one-sided

-development if there had not arisen a body of

-men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous

-apprehension seemed of supreme value, and at

-the very last there arose with him one who, to

-their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of

-their chosen medium, added the crowning glory

-of the imaginative idea.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Augsburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator

-             before S. Mark.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old

-             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of

-             Dominican; Knight of Malta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;

-             Origin of Milky Way.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;

-             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before

-             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S. Mark (E.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of Himself.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Turin.</td>  <td class="td5">The Trinity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints

-             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;

-             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea

-             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam

-             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna

-             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in

-             Temple.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;

-             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;

-             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan&#8217;s Forge;

-             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;

-             SS. Andrew and Jerome.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,

-             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:

-             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark

-             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;

-             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);

-             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the

-             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d&#8217; Armata;

-             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.

-             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls

-             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before

-             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Silvestro: Baptism.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of

-             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and

-             Boy; Portrait of Lady.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>BASSANO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We wonder how many of those sightseers who

-pass through the Ante-Collegio in the Ducal

-Palace, and stare for a few moments at Tintoretto&#8217;s

-famous quartet and at Veronese&#8217;s &ldquo;Rape of

-Europa,&rdquo; turn to give even such fleeting attention

-to the long, dark canvas which hangs beside

-them, &ldquo;Jacob&#8217;s Journey into Canaan,&rdquo; by Jacopo

-da Ponte, called Bassano.</p>

-

-<p>Yet from the position in which it is placed

-the visitor might guess that it is considered to be

-a gem, and it gains something in interest when we

-learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo

-Contarini at the same time as the &ldquo;Rape of

-Europa,&rdquo; as if the great connoisseur enjoyed

-contrasting Veronese&#8217;s light, gay style with the

-vigorous brush of da Ponte.</p>

-

-<p>If attention is arrested by the beauty of the

-painting, and the visitor should be inspired to

-seek the painter in his native city, he will be

-well repaid. Bassano once held an important

-position on the main road between Italy and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>Germany, but since the railroad was made across

-the Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little

-town which lies cradled on the spurs of the

-Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana

-opens. It is surrounded by chestnut woods,

-which sweep up to the blue mountains, the wide

-Brenta flows through the town, and the houses

-cluster high on either side, and have gardens and

-balconies overhanging the water. The fa&ccedil;ades

-of many of the houses are covered with fading

-frescoes, relics of da Ponte&#8217;s school of fresco-painters,

-which, though they are fast perishing,

-still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.</p>

-

-<p>Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his

-father, Francesco, who in his day had been a

-pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.

-Francesco da Ponte&#8217;s best work is to be found

-at Bassano, in the cathedral and the church of

-San Giovanni, and has many of the characteristics,

-such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola,

-which we have noticed that Montagna owed to

-the Vivarini. Francesco&#8217;s son went when very

-young to Venice, and was there thrown at once

-among the artists of the lagoons, and attached

-himself in particular to Bonifazio. In Jacopo&#8217;s

-earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a

-&ldquo;Flight into Egypt,&rdquo; Bonifazio&#8217;s tuition is

-markedly discernible in the build of the figures

-and, above all, in the form of the heads. A

-comparison of the very peculiarly shaped head

-of the Virgin in this picture with that of the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>

-Venetian lady in Bonifazio&#8217;s &ldquo;Rich Man&#8217;s Feast,&rdquo;

-in the Venetian Academy, leaves us in no doubt

-on this score. Jacopo&#8217;s &ldquo;Adulteress before

-Christ&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Three in the Fiery Furnace&rdquo;

-have Bonifazio&#8217;s manner in the architecture and

-the staging of the figures. Only five examples

-are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it

-is all in Bonifazio&#8217;s lighter style, not unlike his

-&ldquo;Holy Family&rdquo; in the National Gallery.</p>

-

-<p>The house in which the painter lived when

-he returned to his native town, still stands in the

-little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole fa&ccedil;ade

-retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with

-which he decorated it. The design is in four

-horizontal bands. First comes a frieze of

-children in every attitude of fun and frolic.

-Then follows a long range of animals&mdash;horses,

-oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and flowers

-make a border, with allegorical representations

-of the arts and crafts filling the spaces between

-the windows. The principal band is decorated

-with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now

-hardly discernible, but which represent &ldquo;Samson

-slaying the Philistines,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Drunkenness

-of Noah,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cain and Abel,&rdquo; &ldquo;Lot and his

-Daughters,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Judith with the Head of

-Holofernes.&rdquo; Between the two last there

-formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child,

-with the motto, &ldquo;Mors omnia aequat,&rdquo; which

-was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively

-good preservation.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano,

-where, with the help of his four sons, who were

-all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible

-stream of works, which, it is said, were put up

-to auction at the neighbouring fairs, if no other

-market was forthcoming. From time to time

-he and his sons went down to Venice, and with

-the help of the eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he

-is generally known) painted the &ldquo;Siege of Padua&rdquo;

-and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His

-mature style was founded mainly upon that of

-Titian, and it is to this second manner that he

-owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours,

-and enhances his lights by deepening and consolidating

-his shadows, so that they come into

-strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer

-impasto. He has a marvellous faculty for keeping

-his colour pure, and his greens shine like a

-beetle&#8217;s wing. A nature-lover in the highest

-degree, his painting of animals and plants evinces

-a mind which is steeped in the magic of outdoor

-life. A subject of which he was particularly

-fond, and which he seems to have undertaken for

-half the collectors of Europe, was the &ldquo;Four

-Seasons.&rdquo; Here was found united everything

-that Bassano most loved to paint: beasts of the

-farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with

-their implements, scenes of harvest-time and

-vintage, rough peasants leading the plough,

-cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young

-girls making hay, driving home the cattle,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>taking dinner to the reapers. When he was

-obliged to paint for churches he chose such

-subjects as the Adoration of the Shepherds, the

-Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from the

-Temple, into which he could introduce animals,

-painting them with such vigour and such forcible

-colour that Titian himself is said to have had

-a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint

-his daughters engaged in household tasks, and

-perhaps placed his figures with rather too obvious

-a reference to light and shade, and to the sun

-striking full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom

-shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of Veronese

-and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records

-that when he was one day discussing contemporary

-painters with the latter, Tintoretto

-exclaimed, &ldquo;Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing

-and I had your colour I would defy the devil

-himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to

-make any show beside us.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Bassano was invited to take up his residence

-at the Court of the Emperor Rudolph, but he

-refused to leave his mountain city, where he died

-in 1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd

-of the poorest inhabitants, for whom his charity

-had been boundless.</p>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;Journey of Jacob,&rdquo; to which we have

-already alluded, is among his most beautiful

-works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated

-to the charm of the landscape. The

-evening dusk draws all objects into its embrace.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out

-against a gleam of sunset sky. The tree-trunks

-and light play of leafy branches, which break

-up the composition, are from da Ponte&#8217;s own

-country round Bassano. The pony upon which

-the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among

-the quiet sheep, are given with all the loving

-truth of the born animal-painter. It is no

-wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him,

-and has more than once imitated his whole

-design.</p>

-

-<p>The &ldquo;Baptism of St. Lucilla&rdquo; (in the Museum

-at Bassano) is one of his most Titianesque

-creations. The personages in it are grouped

-upon a flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance

-palace with cypresses against a sky of

-evening-red barred with purple clouds. The

-drawing and modelling of the figures are almost

-faultless, and the colour is dazzling. The bending

-figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling

-on her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before

-the young bishop, St. Valentine, is one of the

-most graceful things in art, and Titian himself

-need not have disowned the little angels, bearing

-palm branches and frolicking in the stream of

-radiance overhead.</p>

-

-<p>Bassano has a &ldquo;Concert,&rdquo; which is interesting

-as a family piece. It was painted in the year

-in which his son Leandro&#8217;s marriage took place,

-and is probably a bridal painting to celebrate

-the event. The &ldquo;Magistrates in Adoration&rdquo;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>(Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light,

-and its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto&#8217;s

-numerous pictures of kneeling doges

-and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.</p>

-

-<p><a name="bapt" id="bapt"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 379px;">

-<img src="images/img323.jpg" width="379" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Jacopo da Ponte.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Bassano.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Alinari.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>Madonnas and saints are usually built into

-close-packed pyramids, but in the &ldquo;Repose in

-Egypt,&rdquo; now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his

-arrangement comes very close to Palma and

-Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child, the

-attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting,

-head on hand, at the Virgin&#8217;s feet and gazing

-in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of

-the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite

-landscape behind them, and the vigorously drawn

-tree under which they recline, show Bassano

-true to his passion for nature.</p>

-

-<p>Hampton Court is rich in his pictures.

-&ldquo;The Adoration of the Shepherds,&rdquo; in which

-the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an

-exercise in the manner of Titian&#8217;s Frari altarpiece.

-His portraits are fine and sympathetic,

-but hardly any of them are signed or can be

-dated. His own is in the Uffizi, and there is a

-splendid &ldquo;Old Man&rdquo; at Buda-Pesth. Ariosto

-and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other

-distinguished men were among his sitters; most

-of them are in half-length with three-quarter

-heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly

-attractive one of a young man with a

-sensitive, acute countenance, robed in dignified,

-picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>linen collar. He stands by the sort of square

-window, opening on a distant landscape, of which

-Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front

-of which a golden vase, holding a branch of

-olive, catches the rays of light.</p>

-

-<p>Bassano has no great power of design, and

-his knowledge of the nude seems to have been

-small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour

-leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates

-other shortcomings.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Augsburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bassano.</td>  <td class="td5">Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three

-             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight

-             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration

-             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending

-             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;

-             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.); Nativity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Carrara: Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Cittadella.</td>  <td class="td5">Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of S. Paul.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; Jacob&#8217;s Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);

-             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men

-             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to Shepherds (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></td>  <td class="td5">Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino

-             blessing the Faithful.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob&#8217;s Journey.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Giacomo dell&#8217; Orio: Madonna and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;

-             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised

-             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the

-             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;

-             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Deposition; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>

-<h2>PART III</h2>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>THE INTERIM</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>Many of the churches and palaces of Venice

-and the adjoining mainland, and almost every

-public and private gallery throughout Europe,

-contain pictures purporting to be painted by

-Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and others of that

-famous company. Hardly a great English house

-but boasts of a round dozen at least of such

-specimens, acquired in the days when rich

-Englishmen made the &ldquo;grand tour&rdquo; and substantiated

-a reputation for taste and culture by

-collecting works of art. These pictures resemble

-the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted

-way. Their owners themselves are not very

-tenacious as to their authenticity, and the visit

-of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition

-tears their pretensions to tatters. In the

-Academia itself the Bonifazio and Tintoretto

-rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal

-Palace has ceilings and panels on which are

-reproduced the kind of compositions initiated

-by the great artists, which make an effort to

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>capture their gamut of colour and to master

-their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them, in

-short, in everything except in their inimitable

-touch and fire and spirit. It would have been

-impossible for any men, however industrious

-and prolific, to have carried out all the work

-which passes under their names, to say nothing

-of that which has perished; but our surprise and

-curiosity diminish when we come to inquire

-systematically into the methods of that host of

-copyists which, even before the masters&#8217; death,

-had begun to ply its lucrative trade.</p>

-

-<p>We must bear in mind that every great man

-was surrounded by busy and attentive satellites,

-helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting

-a large part of important commissions, witnesses

-of the high prices received, and alive to all the

-gossip as to the relative popularity of the

-painters and the requests and orders which

-reached them from all quarters. The painters&#8217;

-own sons were in many instances those who

-first traded upon their fathers&#8217; fame. From

-Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we learn of the

-many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and

-the vast numbers painted by Domenico Robusti

-in the style of their respective fathers. Domenico

-seems to have particularly affected the subject of

-&ldquo;St. George and the Dragon,&rdquo; and the picture at

-Dresden, which passes under Tintoretto&#8217;s name, is

-perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano&#8217;s four sons, Francesco

-&ldquo;imitated his father perfectly,&rdquo; conserving

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>his warmth of tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti

-enumerates a surprising number of Francesco&#8217;s

-works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal

-Palace. Leandro followed more particularly his

-father&#8217;s first manner, was a good portrait-painter,

-and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo

-copied and recopied the old Bassano till he

-even deceived connoisseurs, &ldquo;how much more,&rdquo;

-says Zanetti, writing in 1771, &ldquo;those of the

-present day, who behold them harmonised and

-accredited by time.&rdquo; No school in Venice was

-so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts

-of the imitators, as that of Paolo Veronese.

-Even at an early date it was impossible not to

-confound the master with the disciples; the

-weaker of the originals were held to be of

-imitators, the best imitations were assigned to

-the master himself. &ldquo;Oh how easy it is,&rdquo;

-exclaims Zanetti again, &ldquo;to make mistakes about

-Veronese&#8217;s pictures, but I can point out sundry

-infallible characteristics to those who wish for

-light upon this doubtful path; the fineness

-and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime

-intelligence and grace, shown particularly in

-the form of the heads, which is never found in

-any of his imitators.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Few Venetians, however, followed the style

-of only one man; the output was probably

-determined and varied by the demand. Too

-many attractive manners existed to dazzle them,

-and when once they began to imitate, they were

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered

-that every master left behind him

-stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and

-half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized

-upon, bought or stolen, and utilised to produce

-masterpieces masquerading under his name.</p>

-

-<p>As the seventeenth century advanced the

-character of art and manners underwent a

-change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel

-and bizarre, and the complex was preferred to

-the simple. Venetian art, in all its branches,

-had passed from the stately and restrained to

-the pompous and artificial. Yet the barocco

-style was used by Venice in a way of its own;

-whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament

-as it is, it yet compels admiration by its

-vigorous life and movement. The art of the

-sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was

-alive. It escaped the most deadly of all faults,

-a cold and academic mannerism&mdash;and this at a

-time when the rest of Italy was given over to

-the inflated followers of Michelangelo and the

-calculated elaborations of the eclectics.</p>

-

-<p>Many of the things we most love in Venice,

-such as the Salute, the Clock-Tower, the

-Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico

-and Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth

-century. The barocco intemperance in

-sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini;

-and as the immediate influence of the great

-masters declined, painting acquired the same

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity

-of Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from

-the lightning speed of his imagination and

-the unerring sureness of his brush, became a

-mechanical trick in the hands of superficial

-students. True art had migrated elsewhere&mdash;to

-the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt.

-As art grew more pompous it became less

-emotional. Painters like Palma Giovine spoilt

-their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry.

-The nickname of &ldquo;Fa Presto&rdquo; was deserved by

-others besides Luca Giordano, and Venice was

-overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime

-standard of excellence was the ability to make

-haste. Grandeur of conception was forgotten;

-a grave, ample manner was no longer understood;

-superficial sentiment and bombastic size

-carried the day. Yet a few painters, though

-their forms had become redundant and exaggerated,

-retained something of what had been

-the Venetian glory&mdash;the deep and moist colour

-of old. It still glowed with traces of its old

-lustre on the canvases of Giovanni Contarini,

-or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and

-though there was a perfect fury of production,

-without order and without law, there can still

-be perceived the survival of that sense of the

-decorative which kept the thread of art. We

-discover it in the ceiling of the Church of San

-Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints

-the glorification of the martyred patron, and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>which, fantastic and extravagant as it is, with

-its stupendous, architectural setting, and its

-acutely, almost absurdly foreshortened throng,

-is not without a certain grandiose geniality,

-ample and picturesque, like the buildings of

-that date. In Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino),

-whose &ldquo;Nozze di Cana&rdquo; in the Academia is a

-finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is

-made of cypresses, we seem to recognise the last

-ray of the Titianesque. The painting of the seventeenth

-century passed on towards the eighteenth,

-and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and

-Venuses smile at us, attitudinising and contorted

-upon their cloudy backgrounds. Lackadaisical

-Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the

-Angel of the Annunciation capers above the

-head of an affected Virgin, while violent colours,

-intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto

-betray the neighbourhood of the <em>tenebrosi</em>.

-When, towards the end of the seventeenth

-century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake

-off these influences, he went to the opposite

-extreme. Although a beautiful designer, he

-becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness

-and insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise,

-appearing in a country where the taste for

-luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly

-rooted. The student of Venetian painting, who

-wishes to fill up the hiatus which lies between

-the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth

-century, cannot do better than compare Fumiani&#8217;s

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>vault in San Pantaleone with Lazzarini&#8217;s sober

-and earnest fresco, &ldquo;The Charity of San Lorenzo

-Giustiniani,&rdquo; in San Pietro in Castello, and with

-Pietro Liberi&#8217;s &ldquo;Battle of the Dardanelles&rdquo; in

-the Ducal Palace. In all three we have

-examples of the varied and accomplished yet

-soulless art of this period. Not many of the

-scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the

-seventeenth century have survived. They are

-to be found here and there by the curious who

-wander into old churches and palaces with a

-second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands;

-but in the reaction from the florid which took

-place in the Empire period, many of them gave

-place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal

-Palace, side by side with the masterpieces of the

-Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded

-canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini,

-Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and others like them.

-Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in

-St. Mark&#8217;s are from designs by Palma Giovine

-and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who was a painter

-himself, as well as the painter&#8217;s chronicler, has

-an &ldquo;Adoration of the Magi&rdquo; in S. Giovanni

-Elemosinario, poor enough in invention and

-execution. Two pictures by obscure artists

-disfigure a corner of the Scuola di San Rocco.

-The Museo Civico has a large canvas by

-Vicentino, a &ldquo;Coronation of a Dogaressa,&rdquo; which

-once adorned Palazzo Grimani. We hear of a

-school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi,

-and the names of others have come down to us

-in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards

-the end of the seventeenth century more

-light and novelty sparkles in the painting of

-the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us

-that he was no mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth

-century opens, we become aware of the

-strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta.

-Piazetta studied the works of the Carracci for

-some time in Bologna, and especially those of

-Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts

-of light and shade, has served above all as his

-model. He paints very darkly, and his figures

-often blend with and disappear into the profound

-tones of his backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls

-him &ldquo;a Venetian Caravaggio&rdquo;; and he has

-something of the strength and even the brutality

-of the Bolognese. A fine decorative and imaginative

-example of his work is the &ldquo;Madonna

-appearing to S. Philip Neri&rdquo; in the Church of

-S. Fava. The erect form of the Madonna is

-relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the

-mantle, upheld by <em>putti</em>. Radiant clouds light

-up the background and illumine the form of the

-old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at

-the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is

-a bold realist, and many of his small pictures

-are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,

-Battista&#8217;s son, is described as &ldquo;a fine intelligence,&rdquo;

-and attracts our notice as having forged

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>special links with England. Hampton Court

-possesses a long array of his paintings. In the

-chapel of Chelsea Hospital the plaster semi-dome

-is painted by him, in oils, with very good

-effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill&#8217;s

-studio, and his influence may be suspected in

-the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches in

-Hogarth&#8217;s work.</p>

-

-<p>By the eighteenth century Venice had parted

-with her old nobility of soul, and enjoyment

-had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice,

-among the States of Italy, alone retained her

-freedom. The Doge reigned supreme as in

-the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the

-dreaded Three still sat in secret council. Venice

-was still the city of subtle poisons and dangerous

-mysteries, but the days were gone when she had

-held the balance in European affairs, and she

-had become, in a superlative degree, the city of

-pleasure. Nowhere was life more varied and

-entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.</p>

-

-<p>A long period of peace had rocked the

-Venetian people into calm security. There was,

-indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corf&ugrave;,

-Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was

-retained in the struggles of Europe. The whole

-policy of the city&#8217;s life was one of self-indulgence.

-Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole

-population lived &ldquo;in piazza,&rdquo; laughing, gossiping,

-seeing and being seen. The very churches

-had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues;

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>the convents boasted their <em>salons</em>, where nuns

-in low dresses, with pearls in their hair, received

-the advances of nobles and gallant abb&eacute;s. People

-came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the

-last scandal, sensational stories, were the only

-subjects worth discussing. In an age of parodies

-and practical jokes, the more absurd any one

-could be, the more silly or witty stories he

-could tell, the more assured was his success in

-the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and

-laughter. The Carnival lasted for six months

-of the year, and was the occasion for masques

-and licence of every description. In the hot

-weather, the gay descendants of the Contarini, the

-Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand old houses,

-migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day

-and night the same reckless, irresponsible life

-went gaily on. The power of such courtesans

-as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was

-waning. Their place was adequately supplied

-by the easy dames of society, no longer secluded,

-proud and tranquil, but &ldquo;stirred by the wild

-blood of youth and stooping to the frolic.&rdquo;

-&ldquo;They are but faces and smiles, teasing and

-trumpery,&rdquo; says one of their critics, yet they

-are declared to be wideawake, natural and

-charming, making the most of their smattering

-of letters. Love was the great game; every

-woman had lovers, every married woman openly

-flaunted her <em>cicisbeo</em> or <em>cavaliere servente</em>.</p>

-

-<p>The older portion of the middle class was

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>still moderate and temperate, contented to live

-in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in

-politics, with which it was dangerous for the

-ordinary individual to meddle; but the new

-leaven was creeping through every level of

-society. The sons and daughters of the

-<em>bourgeoisie</em> tried to rise in the social scale by

-aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They

-deserted the shop and the counting-house to play

-cards and strut upon the piazza. They mimicked

-the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and

-made fashionable love and carried on intrigues.

-The spirit of the whole people had lost its

-elevation; there were no more proud patricians,

-full of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public

-service; it was hardly possible to get a sufficient

-number of persons to carry on public business.

-It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet

-among all this degenerate life, we come upon

-something more real as we turn to the artists.

-They were very much alive. In music, in

-literature, and in painting, new and graceful

-forms of art were emerging. Painting was not the

-grand art of other days; it might be small and

-trivial, but there grew up a real little Renaissance

-of the eighteenth century, full of originality and

-fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous

-and banale style of the imitators.</p>

-

-<p>The influence of the &ldquo;lady&rdquo; was becoming

-increasingly felt by society. Confidential little

-boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>mode, and needed decorating as well as vast

-salas. The dainty luxury of gilt furniture,

-designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered

-in delicate silks, was matched by small, attractive

-works of art. Venice had lost her Eastern trade,

-and as the East faded out of her scheme of life,

-the West, to which she now turned, was bringing

-her a different form of art. The great reception

-rooms were still suited by the grandiose compositions

-of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but

-another genre of charming creations smiled

-from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate

-suites of rooms.</p>

-

-<p>It is impossible to name more than a fraction

-of these artists of the eighteenth century. There

-is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;

-Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the

-day; Luca Carlevaris, the forerunner of Canale;

-Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country are

-mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the

-most important are preserved in the cupola and

-spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle Howard.

-Their work is still to be found in many a

-Venetian church or North Italian gallery. Some

-of it is almost fine, though too often vitiated by

-the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day.

-When originality asserts itself more decidedly,

-Rosalba Carriera stands out as an artist who

-acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she

-was a young woman of twenty-four, she was

-already a great favourite with the public. She

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was

-bad, Jean St&egrave;ve, a Frenchman, taught her to

-paint miniatures. She imparted a wonderfully

-delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to

-pastel, she brought to this branch of portraiture

-a brilliancy and freshness which it had not

-known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved

-for us better than any one else, those women

-of Venice who floated so lightly on the dancing

-waves of that sparkling stream. There they

-are: La Cornaro; La Maria Labia, who was

-surrounded by French lovers, &ldquo;very courteous

-and very beautiful&rdquo;; La Zenobio and La Pisani;

-La Foscari, with her black plumes; La Mocenigo,

-&ldquo;the lady with the pearls.&rdquo; She has pinned

-them all to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted

-butterflies, with velvet neck-ribbons

-round their snowy throats and coquettish patches

-on their delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in

-their high-dressed hair and sheeny bodices. They

-look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting

-mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet,

-ephemeral, irresponsible in every relation of life.

-Older men and women there are, too, when those

-artificial years have produced a succession of

-rather dull, sodden personages, kindly, inoffensive,

-but stupid, and still trifling heavily with the

-world.</p>

-

-<p>Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare

-with those of her sitters. She and the

-other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>life of the worker, and found in their art the

-antidote to the evil living and the dissipation of

-the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.

-Rosalba&#8217;s <em>milieu</em> is a type of others of its class.

-She lives with her mother and sisters, an honest,

-cheerful, industrious existence. They are fond

-of old friends and old books, and indulge in music

-and simple pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba

-by preparing the groundwork of her paintings.

-She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on

-the harpsichord. She receives great men without

-much ceremony, and the Elector Palatine, the

-Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of

-Norway, and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come

-to her to order miniatures of their reigning

-beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she

-has plenty of commissions, and the frequently

-occurring names of English patrons in her fragmentary

-diaries, tell how much her work was

-admired by English travellers. She did more

-than anybody else to promote the fashion for

-pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its

-best in the pastel room of the Dresden Gallery.</p>

-

-<p>Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us

-a charming description of a party of English

-travellers, which included Horace Walpole,

-arriving in Venice in 1741, strolling about in

-mask and <em>bauta</em>, and visiting the famous pastellist

-in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba

-has painted Walpole, and has left one of the

-most interesting examples of her art.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p>

-<p class="center">SOME EXAMPLES</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Francesco da Ponte.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on

-             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left

-             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the

-             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to

-             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the

-             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;

-             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are

-             all very rich in colour.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala dell&#8217; Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Leandro da Ponte.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a

-             Blessed Candle to the Doge.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge

-             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one

-             side of the sala.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the

-             Avogadori Family.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Palma Giovine.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Presentation of the Virgin.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: S. Margaret.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Munich.</td>  <td class="td5">Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pietà; Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Il Padovanino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">Uffizi: Lucretia.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Cornelia and her Children.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Venus and Cupid.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Rome.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,

-             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Pietro Liberi.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Andrea Vicentino.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. A. Fumiani.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">San Pantaleone: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Church of the Carità: Christ disputing with the Doctors.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>A. Balestra.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Tomaso: Annunciation.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. Lazzarini.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Pietro in Castello.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Sebastiano Ricci.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. B. Pittoni.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">The Bath of Diana.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>G. B. Piazetta.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-  <p style="margin-left: 10em;"><em>Rosalba Carriera.</em></p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: pastels.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Pastels.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>TIEPOLO</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We have already noted that to establish the

-significance of any period in art, it is necessary

-that the tendencies should unite and combine in

-some culminating spirits who rise triumphant

-over their contemporaries and soar above the

-age in which they live. Such a genius stands

-out above the eighteenth century crowd, and is

-not only of his century, but of every time. For

-two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised

-as extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting

-cupids, nymphs, and parroquets. In the last

-century he experienced the effect of the profound

-discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century

-art had fallen. In France, David had

-obliterated Watteau; and the reputation of

-Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced

-Tiepolo and his contemporaries. When the

-delegates of the French Republic inspected Italian

-churches and palaces, and decided what works of

-art should be sent to the Louvre, they singled

-out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and Guidos,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other

-such forgotten masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a

-Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret of their

-descendants, they disdained to annex a single one

-of the great paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista

-Tiepolo.</p>

-

-<p>Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as &ldquo;an

-artist of fantastic imagination.&rdquo; Most of the

-nineteenth-century critics do not even mention

-him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging

-line of praise, Blanc is equally disparaging, and

-for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his

-influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime;

-only now is he coming into his own, and it is

-recognised that the <em>plein-air</em> artist, the luminarist,

-the impressionist, owe no small share of their

-knowledge to his inspiration.</p>

-

-<p>The name of Tiepolo brings before us a

-whole string of illustrious personages&mdash;doges

-and senators, magnificent procurators and great

-captains&mdash;but we have nothing to prove that the

-artist belonged to a decayed branch of the famous

-patrician house. Born in Castello, the people&#8217;s

-quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth

-with that good draughtsman, Lazzarini. At

-twenty-three he married the sister of Francesco

-Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi

-and Canale and who is a better painter than

-either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.

-The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at

-its height. The life of the aristocracy on the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>lagoons was every year growing more gay,

-more abandoned to capricious inclination, to

-light loves and absurd amusements. And the

-art which reflected this life was called upon to

-give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather

-than character. Yet if the Venetian art had lost

-all connection with the grave magnificence of

-the past, it had kept aloof from the academic

-coldness which was in fashion beyond the

-lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a

-certain natural absurdity. The age had become

-romantic; the Arcadian convention was in full

-force, Nature herself was pressed into the service

-of idle, sentimental men and women. The

-country was pictured as a place of delight,

-where the sun always shone and the peasants

-passed their time singing madrigals and indulging

-in rural pleasures. The public, however, had

-begun to look for beauty; the traditions which

-had formed round the decorative schools were

-giving way to the appreciation of original work.

-Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when

-he is sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the

-taste of the Venetians, and without emancipating

-himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives

-to introduce a fresh accent. All round

-him was a weak and self-indulgent world, but

-within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant

-and inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng

-of personages on the ceilings of the churches

-and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>range from mythology to religion, from

-the sublime to the grotesque. All Olympia

-appears upon his ample and luminous spaces.

-It is not to the cold, austere Lazzarini, or to

-the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or the

-imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he

-was touched by each of them, that we must turn

-for Tiepolo&#8217;s derivation. Long before his time,

-the kind of decoration of ceilings which we

-are apt to call Tiepolesque; the foreshortened

-architecture, the columns and cornices, the figures

-peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds,

-had been used by an increasing throng of painters.

-The style arose, indeed, in the quattrocento;

-Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo

-had used it, though in a far more sober way than

-later generations. Correggio and the Venetians

-had perfected the idea, which the artists of the

-seventeenth century seized upon and carried

-to the most intemperate excess. But Tiepolo

-rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,

-exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this

-time defied all laws of equilibrium, and we

-must go back further than his immediate predecessors

-for his origins. His claim to stand

-with Tintoretto or Veronese may be contested,

-but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese

-is the artist he studied with the greatest fervour.

-Without copying, he seems to have a natural

-affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates

-the ample arrangement of his groups, the grace

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>of his architecture, and his decorative feeling for

-colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo&#8217;s dearest

-friends, writes: &ldquo;No painter of our time could

-so well recall the bright and happy creations

-of Veronese.&rdquo; The difference between them is

-more one of period than of temperament. Paolo

-Veronese represented the opulence of a rich,

-strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo&#8217;s

-lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous

-women, and full of the modern spirit himself,

-he adapts his genius to his time and devotes

-himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental

-vein of the Venice of the decadence. Full

-of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to

-respond to any call. He went to and fro between

-Venice and the villas along the mainland

-and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting

-wider fields, he travelled to Milan and Genoa,

-where his frescoes still gleam in the palaces

-of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici.

-At W&uuml;rzburg in Bavaria he achieved a magnificent

-series of decorations for the palace of the

-Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy,

-he painted altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his

-friends, and a fresh multitude of allegorical and

-mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His

-charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top

-to bottom by himself and his sons, and has

-amusing examples of contemporary dress and

-manners.</p>

-

-<p>When the Academy was instituted in 1755,

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>Tiepolo was appointed its first director, but the

-sort of employment it provided was not suited

-to his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw

-up the post and went off to Spain with his two

-sons. There he received a splendid welcome

-and was loaded with commissions, the only

-dissentient voice being that of Raphael Mengs,

-who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the

-antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian&#8217;s

-art. Tiepolo died suddenly in Madrid in 1770,

-pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,

-the frescoes he has left there show that his

-hand was as firm and his eye as sure as ever.</p>

-

-<p>His frescoes have, as we have said, that

-frankly theatrical flavour which corresponds

-exactly to the taste of the time. Such works

-as the &ldquo;Transportation of the Holy House of

-Loretto&rdquo; in the Church of the Scalzi in Venice,

-or the &ldquo;Triumph of Faith&rdquo; in that of the

-Piet&agrave;, the &ldquo;Triumph of Hercules&rdquo; in Palazzo

-Canossa in Verona, or the decorations in the

-magnificent villa of the Pisani at Str&agrave;, are

-extravagant and fantastic, yet have the impressive

-quality of genius. These last, which have for

-subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full

-of portraits. The patrician sons and daughters

-appear, surrounded by Abundance, War, and

-Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises

-Europe. All round are grouped flags and

-dragons, &ldquo;nations grappling in the airy blue,&rdquo;

-bands of Red Indians in their war-paint and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>happy couples making love. The idea of the

-history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the

-House is paramount, and over all appears Fame,

-bearing the noble name into immortality. In

-Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal

-committee gave the painter a free hand, and on

-the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun in a chariot,

-with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the

-meridian, flooding the world with light. Venus

-and Saturn attend him, and his advent is heralded

-by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth

-joys at his coming, and a concourse of naiads,

-nymphs, and dolphins wait upon his footsteps.

-In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo

-has left one of his grandest displays. The

-haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his ideal of

-the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm,

-and, standing enthroned upon the rolling clouds,

-hardly deigns to acknowledge the homage of

-the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel

-is bestowing her scapulary. The most charming

-<em>amoretti</em> are disporting in all directions, flinging

-themselves from on high in delicious <em>abandon</em>,

-alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal

-virtues. At Villa Valmarana near Vicenza, after

-revelling among the gods, he comes to earth

-and delights in painting lovely ladies with

-almond eyes and carnation cheeks, attended by

-their cavaliers, seated in balconies, looking on

-at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival

-scenes with masques and dominoes and <em>f&ecirc;tes

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>champ&ecirc;tres</em>, which give us a picture of the

-fashions and manners of the day. He brings in

-groups of Chinese in oriental dress, and then

-he condescends to paint country girls and their

-rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and

-Corydon.</p>

-

-<p>Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid.

-He abandons the airy fancies scattered in cloud-land.

-The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano

-affords an opportunity for introducing magnificent

-architecture, warriors in armour, and stately

-dames in satin and brocades. He touches his

-highest in the decorations of Palazzo Labia,

-where Antony and Cleopatra, seated at their

-banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard

-one another silently, with looks of sombre

-passion. Four exquisite panels have lately been

-acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the

-loves of Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast

-of gay, delicate colour, with fascinating backgrounds

-of Italian gardens. The throne-room

-of the palace at Madrid has the same order of

-compositions&mdash;&AElig;neas conducted by Venus from

-Time to Immortality, and other deifications of

-Spanish royalty.</p>

-

-<p><a name="cleo" id="cleo"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 431px;">

-<img src="images/img355.jpg" width="431" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Tiepolo.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Palazzo Labia, Venice.</em></p>

-

-<p>Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a

-tragic mood. In the Church of San Alvise he

-has left a &ldquo;Way to Calvary,&rdquo; a &ldquo;Flagellation,&rdquo;

-and a &ldquo;Crowning of Thorns,&rdquo; which are intensely

-dramatic, and which show strong feeling.

-Particularly striking is the contrast between the

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>refined and sensitive type of his Christ and the

-realistic and even brutal study of the two

-despairing malefactors&mdash;one a common ruffian,

-the other an aged offender of a higher class.

-His altarpiece at Este, representing S. Tecla

-staying the plague, is painted with a real insight

-into disaster and agony, and S. Tecla is a

-pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes in his

-easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a

-S. Anthony, or a Crucifixion, but he always

-returns before long to the ample spaces and

-fantastic subjects which his soul loved.</p>

-

-<p>Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art

-suggests a strong being, held captive by butterflies.

-Sometimes he is joyous and limpid, sometimes

-turbulent and strong, but he has always

-sincerity, force, and life. A great space serves

-to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better

-than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white

-limbs among the clouds, sea-horses ridden by

-Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman armour,

-balustrades and columns and <em>amoretti</em>. He does

-not even need to pounce his design, but puts in

-all sorts of improvised modifications with a sure

-hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring

-poses of his countless figures, and the freedom of

-his line speak eloquently of the mastery to

-which his hand had attained. He revels, above

-all, in effects of light&mdash;&ldquo;all the light of the

-sky, and all the light of the sea; all the light

-of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>He paints not ideas, scarcely even forms, but

-light. His ceilings are radiant, like the sky

-of birds; his poems seem to be written in the

-clouds. Light is fairer than all things, and

-Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of

-light.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>

-

-<p>Nearly all his compositions have a serene

-and limpid horizon, with the figures approaching

-it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and

-diaphanous, while the forms below are more

-muscular, the flesh tints are deeper, and the

-whole of the foreground is often enveloped in

-shadow. Veronese had lit up the shadows,

-which, under his contemporaries, were growing

-gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the

-same lines. He makes his figures more graceful,

-his draperies more vaporous, and illumines

-his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and

-rose, his golden-greys, and pearly whites and

-pastel tints are not so much solid colours as

-caprices of light. We have remarked already

-that with Veronese the accessories of gleaming

-satins and rich brocades serve to obscure the

-persons. In many of Tiepolo&#8217;s scenes the

-figures are lost in a flutter of drapery, subject

-and action melt away, and we are only conscious

-of soft harmonies of delicious colour,

-as ethereal as the hues of spring flowers in

-woodland ways and joyous meadows. With

-these delicious, audacious fancies, put on with

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>a nervous hand, we forget the age of profound and

-ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous

-solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe

-an atmosphere of irresponsible and capricious

-pleasure. In this last word of her great masters

-Venice keeps what her temperament loved&mdash;sensuous

-colour and emotional chiaroscuro, used

-to accentuate an art adapted to a city of pleasure.</p>

-

-<p>The excellence of the old masters&#8217; drawings

-is a perpetual revelation. Even second-class

-men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen,

-proving that drawing was looked upon as something

-over which it was necessary for even the

-meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo&#8217;s

-drawings, preserved in Venice and in various

-museums, are as beautiful as can be wished;

-perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In

-Venice are twenty or thirty sheets in red carbon,

-of flights of angels, and of draperies studied in

-every variety of fold.</p>

-

-<p>Poor work of his school is often ascribed to

-his sons, but the superb &ldquo;Stations of the Cross,&rdquo;

-in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,

-and published as his own in his lifetime, are

-almost equal to the father&#8217;s work. Tiepolo had

-many immediate followers and imitators. The

-colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the

-Church of SS. Apostoli, Venice, may be pointed

-out as an example of one of these. But he is full

-of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson,

-writing of him, says he sometimes seems more

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>the first than the last of a line, and notices how

-he influenced many French artists of recent

-times, though none seem quite to have caught

-the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite

-caprice.</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Aranjuez.</td>  <td class="td5">Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Orangery: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Sketches; Deposition.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Madrid.</td>  <td class="td5">Escurial; Ceilings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Christ at Emmaus.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Str&agrave;.</td>  <td class="td5">Villa Pisani: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding the Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Maria della Piet&agrave;: Triumph of Faith.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vicenza.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,

-             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">W&uuml;rzburg.</td>  <td class="td5">Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; F&ecirc;tes Galantes; Assumption;

-             Fall of Rebel Angels.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>PIETRO LONGHI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>We have here a master who is peculiarly the

-Venetian of the eighteenth century, a genre-painter

-whose charm it is not easy to surpass,

-yet one who did not at the outset find his true

-vocation. Longhi&#8217;s first undertakings, specimens

-of which exist in certain palaces in Venice, were

-elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence

-of the Bolognese School, in which he studied

-for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He attempts

-to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings

-in emulation of Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy

-and common, and the Titans at her feet appear

-as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He

-shows no faculty for this kind of work, but he

-was thirty-two before he began to paint those

-small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style

-illustrate the &ldquo;Vanity Fair&rdquo; of his period, and in

-which the eighteenth century lives for us again.</p>

-

-<p>His earliest training was in the goldsmith&#8217;s

-art, and he has left many drawings of plate,

-exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>their unerring precision of line. It was a

-moment when such things acquired a flawless

-purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their

-beauty with all the sensitive perception of the

-artist and the practised workman. His studies

-of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily

-careful, and he seems besides to have

-an intimate acquaintance with all the elegant

-dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order.

-We feel that he has himself been at home in

-the masquerade, has accompanied the lady to

-the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful

-shoulder, has listened to the soothsayer&#8217;s murmurs.

-He has attended balls and routs, danced minuets,

-and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He

-is the last chronicler of the Venetian feasts,

-and with him ends that long series that began

-with Giorgione&#8217;s concert and which developed

-and passed through suppers at Cana and banquets

-at the houses of Levi and the Pharisee. We

-are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity

-of Bonifazio and Veronese; the immense tables

-covered with gold and silver plate, the long

-lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the

-stream of servants bearing huge salvers, or the

-bands of musicians, nor are there any more

-alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes.

-Instead there are masques, the life of the Ridotto

-or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in dainty

-boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that

-city of eternal carnival where the <em>bauta</em> was

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>almost a national costume. Longhi holds that

-post which in French art is filled by Watteau,

-Fragonard, and Lancret, the painters of <em>f&ecirc;tes

-galantes</em>, and though he cannot be placed on

-an equal footing with those masters, he is

-representative and significant enough. On his

-canvases are preserved for us the mysteries of

-the toilet, over which ladies and young men

-of fashion dawdled through the morning, the

-drinking of chocolate in <em>n&eacute;glig&eacute;</em>, the momentous

-instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing

-patches, the towers of hair built by the modish

-coiffeur&mdash;children trooping in, in hoops and

-uniforms, to kiss their mother&#8217;s hand, the fine

-gentleman choosing a waistcoat and ogling the

-pretty embroideress, the pert young maidservant

-slipping a billet-doux into a beauty&#8217;s hand under

-her husband&#8217;s nose, the old beau toying with

-a fan, or the discreet abb&eacute; taking snuff over the

-morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi&#8217;s

-day pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux

-make &ldquo;a leg,&rdquo; and the lacqueys hand chocolate.

-The beautiful Venetians and their gallants swim

-through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto,

-or they hasten to assignations, disguised in wide

-<em>bauti</em> and carrying preposterous muffs. The

-Correr Museum contains a number of his

-paintings and also his book of original sketches.

-One of the most entertaining of his canvases

-represents a visit of patricians to a nuns&#8217; parlour.

-The nuns and their pupils lend an attentive

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>ear to the whispers of the world. Their dresses

-are trimmed with <em>point de Venise</em>, and a little

-theatre is visible in the background. This and

-the &ldquo;Sala del Ridotto&rdquo; which hangs near, are

-marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of

-colouring, and more animation than is usual in

-his genre-pictures. He has not preserved the

-lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist

-touch which was the natural inheritance of

-Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark

-and heavy, and he makes too free a use of

-body colour; but his attitude is one of close

-observation&mdash;he enjoys depicting the life around

-him, and we suspect that he sees in it the most

-perfect form of social intercourse imaginable.

-Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of

-painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles

-the genial, humorous playwright than he does

-Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared.

-Yet his execution and technique are a little

-like Hogarth&#8217;s, and it is possible that he was

-influenced by the elder and stronger master,

-who entered on his triumphant career as a

-satirical painter of society about 1734. This

-was just the time when Longhi abandoned his

-unlucky decorative style, and it is quite possible

-that he may have met with engravings of the

-&ldquo;Marriage &agrave; la mode,&rdquo; and was stimulated by

-them to the study of eighteenth-century manners,

-though his own temperament is far removed

-from Hogarth&#8217;s moral force and grim satire.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>His serene, painstaking observation is never

-distracted by grossness and violence. The

-Venetians of his day may have been&mdash;undoubtedly

-were&mdash;effeminate, licentious, and decadent,

-but they were kind and gracious, of

-refined manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent,

-and so Longhi has transcribed them. In the

-time which followed, ceilings were covered by

-Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand,

-the scholars of David painted classical scenes,

-and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio

-Francesco Correr bought five hundred of his

-drawings from his son, Alessandro, but his

-works were ignored and dispersed. The classic

-and romantic fashions passed, but it was only

-in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing

-on art, revived consideration for the painter of a

-bygone generation. Many of his works are in

-private collections, especially in England, but few

-are in public galleries. The National Gallery is

-fortunate in possessing several excellent examples.</p>

-

-<p><a name="visit" id="visit"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 441px;">

-<img src="images/img363.jpg" width="441" height="550" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Pietro Longhi.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Hanfst&auml;ngl.</em>)</p>

-

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">PRINCIPAL WORKS</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">Portrait of a Lady.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">Three genre-pictures.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Academy: Six genre-paintings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of Goldoni.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>CANALE</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving

-themselves the inheritors of the great school

-of decorators, Venice herself was finding her

-chroniclers, and a school of landscape arose, of

-which Canale was the foremost member. Giovanni

-Antonio Canale was born in Venice in

-1697, the same year as Tiepolo. His father

-earned his living at the profession, lucrative

-enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio

-learned to handle his brush, working at his side.

-In 1719 he went off to seek his fortune in Rome,

-and though he was obliged to help out his

-resources by his early trade, he was most concerned

-in the study of architecture, ancient and

-modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye,

-by the picturesque masses of stonework, the

-warm harmonious tones of classic remains and

-the effects of light upon them. He painted

-almost entirely out-of-doors, and has left many

-examples drawn from the ruins. His success

-in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>a very young man when he retraced his steps.

-On regaining his native town, he realised for the

-first time the beauty of its canals and palaces,

-and he never again wavered in his allegiance.</p>

-

-<p>Two rivals were already in the field, Luca

-Carlevaris, whose works were freely bought by

-the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures

-in whose views of Venice were often touched

-in by his uncle, Sebastiano; but Canale&#8217;s growing

-fame soon dethroned them, &ldquo;i cacciati del nido,&rdquo;

-as he said, using Dante&#8217;s expression. In a

-generation full of caprice, delighting in sensational

-developments, Canale was methodical to

-a fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing

-every detail of Venetian landscape with untiring

-application and almost monotonous tranquillity.

-He lived in the midst of a band of painters who

-adored travel. Sebastiano Ricci was always on

-the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time in

-other cities and countries, and passed the last

-years of his life in Spain; Pietro Rotari was

-attached to the Court of St. Petersburg; Belotto,

-Canale&#8217;s nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale

-remained at home, and, except for two short

-visits paid to England, contented himself with

-trips to Padua and Verona.</p>

-

-<p>Early in life Canale entered into relations

-with Joseph Smith, the British Consul in Venice,

-a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine

-collection of pictures, but had a gallery from

-which he was very ready to sell to travellers.

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>He bought of the young Venetian at a very

-low price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to

-acquire the right to all his work for a certain

-period of time, with the object of sending it, at

-a good profit, to London. For a time Canale&#8217;s

-luminous views were bought by the English

-under these auspices, but the artist, presently

-discovering that he was making a bad bargain,

-came over to England, where he met with an

-encouraging reception, especially at Windsor

-Castle and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale

-spent two years in England and painted on the

-Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not

-stand the English climate and fled from the

-damp and fogs to his own lagoons.</p>

-

-<p>To describe his paintings is to describe Venice

-at every hour of the day and night&mdash;Venice

-with its long array of noble palaces, with its

-Grand Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways.

-He reproduces the Venice we know, and

-we see how little it has changed. The gondolas

-cluster round the landing-stages of the Piazzetta,

-the crowds hurry in and out of the arcades of

-the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals

-that still retained their splendour: the Great

-Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei Schiavoni on

-the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and

-the entrance to the Cannaregio decked in flags

-for a feast-day. From one end to another of

-the Grand Canal, that &ldquo;most beautiful street

-in the world,&rdquo; as des Commines called it in

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>1495, we can trace every aspect of Canale&#8217;s

-time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of

-its splendour or its animation. At the entrance

-stands S. Maria della Salute, that sanctuary dear

-to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering

-after the visitation of the plague in 1631. Its

-flamboyant dome, with its volutes, its population

-of stone saints, its green bronze door catching

-the light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent

-in our own day, and he painted it over and

-over again. The annual f&ecirc;te of the Confraternity

-of the Carit&agrave; takes place at the Scuola di San

-Rocco, and Canale paints the old Renaissance

-building which shelters so much of Tintoretto&#8217;s

-finest work, decorated with ropes of greenery

-and gay with flags,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> while Tiepolo has put in

-the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the

-gazing populace. Near it in the National

-Gallery hangs a &ldquo;Regatta&rdquo; with its array of

-boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows

-lying across the range of palaces, and telling

-the exact hour of the day that it was sketched

-in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar

-pleasure in expressing quiet days, with calm

-green waters and wide empty piazzas, divided by

-sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding

-about their business in the hot midday, or a

-quiet little abb&eacute; crossing the piazza on his way

-to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the

-light on wall and fa&ccedil;ade, and of the transparent

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>waters of the canals and the azure skies in which

-float great snowy fleeces.</p>

-

-<p>His second visit to England was paid in

-1751. He was received with open arms by

-the great world, and invited to the houses of the

-nobility in town and country. The English

-were delighted with his taste and with the

-mastery with which he painted architectural

-scenes, and in spite of advancing years he produced

-a number of compositions, which commanded

-high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall,

-the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall, Northumberland

-House, Eton College, were some of the

-subjects which attracted him, and the treatment

-of which was signalised by his calm and perfect

-balance. He made use of the camera ottica,

-which is in principal identical with the camera

-oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and

-taught its proper use, but it must be confessed

-that in the careful perspective of some of his

-scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to convey

-a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous

-engraver. Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian

-had placed engraving on a very high level in the

-Venetian School, and though at a later date it

-became too elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought

-it back to simplicity. Canale aided them, and

-his <em>eaux-fortes</em>, of which he has left about thirty,

-are filled with light and breadth of treatment,

-and he is particularly happy in his brilliant,

-transparent water.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p><p>The high prices Canale obtained for his

-pictures in his lifetime led to the usual

-imitations. He was surrounded by painters

-whose whole ambition was limited to copying

-him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,

-Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More

-than fifty of his finest works were bought

-by Smith for George III. and fill a room at

-Windsor. He was made a member of the

-Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime

-Minister of the Elector, obtained from him

-twenty-one works which now adorn the gallery

-there. Canale died in Venice, where he had

-lived nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio

-was a familiar object in the Piazzetta, at

-the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.</p>

-

-<p>His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also

-called Canaletto, and it seems that both uncle and

-nephew were equally known by the diminutive.

-Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career,

-where he attached himself to Panini, a painter

-of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and

-shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of

-vanity and self-importance, and on a visit to

-Germany managed to acquire the title of Count,

-which he adhered to with great complacency.

-He travelled all over Italy looking for patronage,

-and was very eager to find the road to success and

-fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he

-paid a visit to London and was patronised by

-Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector,

-disappointed at not having secured the services

-of the uncle, was fain to console himself with

-those of the nephew. The extravagant and

-profligate Augustus II., whose one idea was to

-extract money by every possible means from

-his subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was

-consistently devoted to Belotto, who was in his

-element as a Court painter. He paints all his

-uncle&#8217;s subjects, and it is not always easy to

-distinguish between the two; but his paintings

-are dull and stiff as compared with those of

-Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour,

-and many of his views are admirably drawn.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">SOME WORKS OF CANALE</p>

-

-<p class="center">It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being

-in private collections.</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Dresden.</td>  <td class="td5">The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;

-             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Florence.</td>  <td class="td5">The Piazzetta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Hampton Court.</td>  <td class="td5">The Colosseum.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;

-             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Vienna.</td>  <td class="td5">Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;

-             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;

-             The Piazzetta.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Windsor.</td>  <td class="td5">About fifty paintings.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San

-             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fête on the Grand Canal;

-             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;

-             A Water-fête; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal

-             in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>

-<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>

-

-<p class="center"><strong>FRANCESCO GUARDI</strong></p>

-

-

-<p>An entry in Gradenigo&#8217;s diary of 1764, preserved

-in the Museo Correr, speaks of &ldquo;Francesco

-Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,

-along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of

-the famous Canaletto, having by the aid of the

-camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases

-(not small) by the order of a stranger (an

-Englishman), with views of the Piazza San

-Marco, towards the Church and the Clock

-Tower, and of the Bridge of the Rialto and

-buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have

-to-day examined them under the colonnades

-of the Procurazie and met with universal

-applause.&rdquo;</p>

-

-<p>Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian

-Tyrol, and his mountain ancestry may account,

-as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and

-vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled

-in Venice, and his brother were painters. His

-son became one in due time, and the profession

-being followed by four members of the family

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>accounts for the indifferent works often attributed

-to Guardi.</p>

-

-<p>His indebtedness to Canale is universally

-acknowledged, and perhaps it is true that he

-never attains to the monumental quality, the

-traditional dignity which marks Canale out as

-a great master, but he differs from Canale in

-temperament, style, and technique. Canale is

-a much more exact and serious student of

-architectural detail; Guardi, with greater visible

-vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation

-in drawing in buildings which do not really

-appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal Palace

-(Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier

-and more spacious than it really is. In his

-&ldquo;Piazzetta&rdquo; he puts in a corner of the Loggia

-where it would not actually be seen. In the

-&ldquo;Fair in Piazza S. Marco&rdquo; the arch from under

-which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he foreshortens

-the wing of the royal palace. He curtails

-the length of the columns in the piazza and so

-avoids monotony of effect, and he often alters

-the height of the campaniles he uses, making

-them tall and slender or short and broad, as

-his picture requires. At one time he produced

-some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr.

-Simonson, who has written an admirable life of

-the painter, believes that the hand of Canale is

-perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his

-natural element, and he often became heavy in

-colour and handling. In 1782 he undertook a

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a

-noted connoisseur and inspector of State pictures,

-and had been appointed superintendent in 1778 of

-an official studio for the restoration of old masters.</p>

-

-<p>Edwards had important dealings with Guardi,

-who was directed to paint four leading incidents

-in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of

-Pius IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves

-had become indifferent patrons of art, but Venice

-attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and

-before the second half of the eighteenth century

-the export of old masters had already become

-an established trade. There is no sign, however,

-that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship

-till 1760, extended any patronage to Guardi,

-though he enriched George III.&#8217;s collection

-with works of the chief contemporary artists

-of Venice. It is probable that Guardi had been

-warned against him by Canale and profited by

-the latter&#8217;s experience.</p>

-

-<p>We can divide his work into three categories.

-1. Views of Venice. 2. Public ceremonies.

-3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually

-that he used the camera ottica, but though we

-may consider it probable, we cannot trace the

-use of it in his works. He is not only a painter

-of architecture, but pays great attention to light

-and atmosphere, and aims at subtle effects; a

-transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the

-sun pierces though the morning mists. His

-four large pendants in the Wallace Collection

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>show his happiest efforts; light glances off the

-water and is reflected on the shadowed walls.

-His views round the Salute bring vividly before

-us those delicious morning hours in Venice

-when the green tide has just raced up the Grand

-Canal, when a fresh wind is lifting and curling

-all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and

-when the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as

-their light craft is caught and blown from side

-to side upon the rippling water. The sky

-occupies much of his space, he makes searching

-studies of it, and his favourite effect is a

-flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass

-of clouds. The line of the horizon is low, and

-he exhibits great mastery in painting the wide

-lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is

-one of the few masters of his day&mdash;perhaps

-the only one&mdash;who succeeds in representing a

-storm at sea.</p>

-

-<p>Often as he paints the same subjects he never

-becomes mechanical or photographic. We may

-sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale&#8217;s

-unerring perspective and accurate buildings, but

-Guardi always finds some new rendering, some

-fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us

-a summer day, when Venice stands out in light,

-her white palaces reflected in the sun-illumined

-water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches

-bathed in shadow and fusing into the rich, dark

-tones of twilight. His boats and figures are

-introduced with great spirit and <em>brio</em>, and are

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>alive with that handling which a French critic

-has described as his <em>griffe endiabl&eacute;e</em>.</p>

-

-<p><a name="della" id="della"></a></p>

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">

-<img src="images/img379.jpg" width="550" height="400" alt="image" title="" />

-</div>

-<p class="caption"><em>Francesco Guardi.</em>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>London.</em><br />

-(<em>Photo, Mansell and Co.</em>)</p>

-

-<p>His masterly and spirited painting of crowds

-enables him to reproduce for us all those public

-ceremonies which Venice retained as long as

-the Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the

-Doge to Venetian churches, to the Salute to

-commemorate the cessation of the plague, to

-San Zaccaria on Easter Day, the solemn procession

-on Corpus Christi Day, receptions of

-ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast

-of the Wedding of the Adriatic. He has faithfully

-preserved the ancient ceremonial which

-accompanied State festivities. In the &ldquo;F&ecirc;te

-du Jeudi Gras&rdquo; (Louvre) he illustrates the acrobatic

-feats which were performed before Doge

-Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is

-erected on the Piazzetta, and gondoliers are seen

-climbing on each other&#8217;s shoulders and dancing

-upon ropes. His motley crowds show that the

-whole population, patricians as well as people,

-took part in the feasts. He has also left many

-striking interiors: among others, that of the

-Sala del Gran Consiglio, where sometimes as

-many as a thousand persons were assembled, the

-&ldquo;Reception of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV.&rdquo;

-(which formed one of the series ordered by

-Pietro Edwards), or the fine &ldquo;Interior of a

-Theatre,&rdquo; exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts

-in 1911, belonging to a series of which another

-is at Munich.</p>

-

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p><p>In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very

-faithful attention to nature. The landscape

-painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson

-points out, were not animated by any very

-genuine impulse to study nature minutely. It

-was the picturesque element which appealed to

-them, and they were chiefly concerned to reproduce

-romantic features, grouped according to

-fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes,

-introducing classic remains, triumphal arches,

-airy Palladian monuments. His <em>capricci</em> include

-compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown

-with foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting

-of Venetian palaces, but in which the combination

-is carried out with so much sparkle and

-nervous life and such charm of style, that it is

-attractive and piquant rather than grotesque.</p>

-

-<p>England is richest in Guardis, of any country,

-but France in one respect is better off, in possessing

-no less than eleven fine paintings of public

-ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the

-originator of small sketches, and perhaps the

-precursor of those glib little views which are

-handed about the Piazza at the present day.

-His drawings are fairly numerous, and are remarkably

-delicate and incisive in touch. A

-large collection which he left to his son is now

-in the Museo Correr. In his later years he was

-reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches

-in the Piazza, parting with them for a few

-ducats, and in this way flooding Venice with

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by

-his <em>bottega</em> is said to be at the corner of the

-Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock Tower. The

-house in which he died still exists in the

-Campiello della Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia

-S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to the

-Madonna attached to it. When quite an old

-man, Guardi paid a visit to the home of his

-ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol,

-and made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the

-route. To this day his name is remembered

-with pride in his Tyrolean valley.</p>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p class="center">SOME WORKS OF GUARDI</p>

-

-<div>

-<table style="margin-left: 5em;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Bergamo.</td>  <td class="td5">Lochis: Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Berlin.</td>  <td class="td5">Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">London.</td>  <td class="td5">Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Milan.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Civico: Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6"></td>  <td class="td5">Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Oxford.</td>  <td class="td5">Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Padua.</td>  <td class="td5">Views in Venice.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Paris.</td>  <td class="td5">Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in

-            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; &ldquo;Jeudi Gras&rdquo; in Venice;

-            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Turin.</td>  <td class="td5">Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Venice.</td>  <td class="td5">Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Verona.</td>  <td class="td5">Landscapes.</td>  </tr>

-<tr>  <td class="td6">Wallace Collection.</td>  <td class="td5">The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);

-            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;

-            The Dogana.</td>  </tr>

-

-</table></div>

-

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>

-<h2>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2>

-

-

-<p>It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to

-read French, German, and Italian, for though translations

-appear of the most important works, there are many interesting

-articles and monographs of minor artists which are otherwise

-inaccessible.</p>

-

-<p>Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or

-opinions, yet delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable,

-and new editions and translations are constantly issued.

-Sansoni&#8217;s edition (Florence), with Milanesi&#8217;s notes, is the most

-authoritative; and for translations, those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs.

-Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition in the Temple

-classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).</p>

-

-<p>Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian

-artists, who published his <em>Maraviglie dell&#8217; arte</em> nine years

-after Domenico Tintoretto&#8217;s death, is only to be read in

-Italian, though the anecdotes with which his work abounds

-are made use of by every writer.</p>

-

-<p>Crowe and Cavalcaselle&#8217;s <em>Painting in North Italy</em> (Murray)

-is a storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole,

-marvellously correct information and sound opinion. It supplies

-a foundation, fills gaps, and supplements individual biographies

-as no other book does. For the early painters, down to the

-time of the Bellini, <em>I Origini dei pittori veneziani</em>, by Professor

-Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a large book, written with

-mastery and insight, and well illustrated; <em>La Storia della pittura

-veneziana</em> is another careful work, which deals very minutely

-with the early school of mosaics.</p>

-

-<p>In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has <em>The

-Brothers Bellini</em> (Bell&#8217;s Great Masters), and the reader should

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>not fail to read Mr. Roger Fry&#8217;s <em>Bellini</em> (Artist&#8217;s Library), a

-scholarly monograph, short but reliable, and full of suggestion

-and appreciation, though written in a cool, critical spirit.

-Dr. Hills has dealt ably with <em>Pisanello</em> (Duckworth).</p>

-

-<p>Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work <em>Vittore

-Carpaccio</em>, translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and

-Paul Kristeller in the equally important <em>Mantegna</em>, translated

-by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans, 1901), seem to have exhausted

-all that there is to be said for the moment concerning these

-two painters.</p>

-

-<p>It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson&#8217;s two

-well-known volumes, <em>The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance</em>,

-and the <em>North Italian Painters of the Renaissance</em> (Putnam).

-They are brilliant essays which supplement every other work,

-overflowing with suggestive and critical matter, supplying

-original thoughts, and summing up in a few pregnant words

-the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding stages.</p>

-

-<p>In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater&#8217;s

-essay, included in <em>The Renaissance</em>. The author is not always

-well informed as to facts&mdash;he wrote in the early days of criticism&mdash;but

-he is rich in idea and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook&#8217;s <em>Life

-of Giorgione</em> (Bell&#8217;s Great Masters) is full and interesting.

-Some authorities question his attributions as being too

-numerous, but whether we regard them as authentic works of

-the master or as belonging to his school, the illustrations he

-gives add materially to our knowledge of the Giorgionesque.</p>

-

-<p>When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and

-Cavalcaselle&#8217;s <em>Life of Titian</em> (Murray, out of print), in two

-large volumes, is well written and full of good material, from

-which subsequent writers have borrowed. An excellent Life,

-full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts, was lately

-brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with

-illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian&#8217;s technique.

-Sir Claude Phillips&#8217;s Monograph on Titian will appeal

-to every thoughtful lover of the painter&#8217;s genius, and Dr.

-Gronau has written a good and scholarly Life (Duckworth).</p>

-

-<p>Mr. Berenson&#8217;s <em>Lorenzo Lotto</em> must be read for its interest

-and learning, given with all the author&#8217;s charm and lucidity.

-It includes an essay on Alvise Vivarini.</p>

-

-<p>My own <em>Tintoretto</em> (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full

-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>account of the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively

-with the scheme and details of the Scuola di San Rocco.

-Professor Thode has written a detailed and profusely illustrated

-Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss Series, and the Paradiso has

-been treated at length and illustrated in great detail in a very

-scholarly <em>&eacute;dition de luxe</em> by Mr. F. O. Osmaston. It is the

-fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow that his

-judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture

-than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching

-sermons, there are few critics who have so many ideas to give

-us, or who are so informed with a deep love of art, and both

-<em>Modern Painters</em> and the <em>Stones of Venice</em> should be read.</p>

-

-<p>M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese,

-which is full of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to

-take a copy of Boschini&#8217;s <em>Della pittura veneziana</em>, 1797, when

-visiting the galleries, the palaces, and the churches of Venice.

-His lists of the pictures, as they were known in his day, often

-open our eyes to doubtful attributions. Second-hand copies

-of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the later-century

-artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of

-their period is supplied by Philippe Monnier&#8217;s delightful <em>Venice

-in the Eighteenth Century</em> (Chatto and Windus), which also

-has a good chapter on the lesser Venetian masters. The best

-Life of Tiepolo is in Italian, by Professor Pompeo Molmenti.

-The smaller masters have to be hunted for in many scattered

-essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi&#8217;s pictures.

-Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by

-M. Uzanne, <em>Les Deux Canaletto</em>; and Mr. Simonson has written

-an important and charming volume on Francesco Guardi

-(Methuen, 1904), with beautiful reproductions of his works.

-Among other books which give special information are

-Morelli&#8217;s two volumes, <em>Italian Painters in Borghese and Doria

-Pamphili</em>, and <em>In Dresden and Munich Galleries</em>, translated by

-Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter&#8217;s

-magnificent catalogue of the Mond Collection&mdash;which, though

-published at fifteen guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries&mdash;has

-some valuable chapters on the Venetian masters.</p>

-

-

-

-<hr style="width: 65%;" />

-<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>

-<h2>INDEX</h2>

-

-<ul>

-

-<li><a name="Academy" id="Academy"></a>Academy, Florence, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>

-  <ul><li>Venice, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,

-          <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,

-          <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>,

-          <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Adoration of Magi, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Adoration of Shepherds, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>

-

-<li>Agnolo Gaddi, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>

-

-<li>Alemagna, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>

-

-<li>Altichiero, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Alvise" id="Alvise"></a>Alvise Vivarini, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Amalteo, Pomponio, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>

-

-<li>Amigoni, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>

-

-<li>Ancon&aelig;, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>

-

-<li>Angelico, Fra, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Annunciation, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonello da Messina, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonio da Murano, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonio Negroponte, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>

-

-<li>Antonio Veneziano, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>

-

-<li>Aretino, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>

-

-<li>Ascension, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>

-

-<li>Augsburg, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Badile, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>

-

-<li>Balestra, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Baptism of Christ, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Bartolommeo" id="Bartolommeo"></a>Bartolommeo Vivarini, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>

-

-<li>Basaiti, Marco, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-<a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>

-

-<li>Bassano, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>

-

-<li>Bastiani, Lazzaro, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>

-

-<li>Battoni, Pompeo, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li>Bellini, Gentile, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>

-

-<li>Bellini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_89">89</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Bellini" id="Bellini"></a>Bellini, Jacopo, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>

-

-<li>Belotto, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>-<a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Bembo, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>

-

-<li>Benson, Mr., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>

-

-<li>Berenson, Mr., <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Bergamo, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Berlin, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Bissolo, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>

-

-<li>Blanc, M. Charles, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li>Bologna, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>

-

-<li>Bonifazio, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li>

-

-<li>Bonsignori, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>

-

-<li>Bordone, Paris, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-<a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li>

-

-<li>Borghese, Villa, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Boschini, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Boston, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>

-

-<li>Botticelli, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Brera" id="Brera"></a>Brera, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>

-

-<li>Brescia, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-

-<li>Bridgewater House, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>

-

-<li>British Museum, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>

-

-<li>Broker&#8217;s patent, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>

-

-<li>Brusasorci, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>

-

-<li>Buonconsiglio, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>

-

-<li>Burckhardt, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li><em>Burlington Magazine</em>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>

-

-<li>Byzantine art, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Calderari, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>

-

-<li>Carlevaris, Luca, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>

-

-<li>Caliari, Carlotto, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>

-

-<li>Caliari, Paolo. <em>See</em> <a href="#Veronese">Veronese</a></li>

-

-<li>Campagnola, Domenico, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li>

-

-<li>Canal, Fabio, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Canale" id="Canale"></a>Canale, Gian Antonio, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>-<a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Canaletto. <em>See</em> <a href="#Canale">Canale</a></li>

-

-<li>Caravaggio, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>

-

-<li>Cariani, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>

-

-<li>Carpaccio, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li>

-

-<li>Carracci, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>

-

-<li>Carriera. <em>See</em> <a href="#Rosalba">Rosalba Carriera</a></li>

-

-<li>Castagno, Andrea del, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Castello, Milan, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>

-

-<li>Catena, Vincenzo, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>

-

-<li>Cathedrals, Ascoli, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>

-  <ul><li>Bassano, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-  <li>Conegliano, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>

-  <li>Cremona, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-  <li>Murano, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>

-  <li>Spilimbergo, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-  <li>Treviso, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-  <li>Verona, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Celesti, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Chelsea Hospital, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>

-

-<li>Churches&mdash;

-  <ul><li>Bergamo.

-    <ul><li>S. Alessandro, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>

-    <li>S. Bartolommeo, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>

-    <li>S. Bernardino, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>

-    <li>S. Spirito, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Brescia.

-    <ul><li>S. Clemente, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Nazaro e Celso, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Castelfranco.

-    <ul><li>S. Liberale, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>S. Daniele.

-    <ul><li>S. Antonino, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Padua.

-    <ul><li>Eremitani, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>

-    <li>Il Santo, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giustina, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria in Vanzo, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-    <li>S. Zeno, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Pesaro.

-    <ul><li>S. Francesco, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Piacenza.

-    <ul><li>Madonna di Campagna, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Ravenna.

-    <ul><li>S. Domenico, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Rome.

-    <ul><li>S. Maria del Popolo, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pietro in Montorio, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Venice.

-    <ul><li>S. Alvise, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Apostoli, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Barnab&agrave;, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>Carmine, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>

-    <li>S. Cassiano, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>

-    <li>S. Fava, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Francesco della Vigna, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>Gesuati, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giacomo dell&#8217; Orio, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giobbe, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giorgio Maggiore, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giovanni in Bragora, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giovanni Crisostomo, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>

-    <li>S. Giovanni Elemosinario, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-    <li>SS. Giovanni and Paolo, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria Formosa, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria dei Frari, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>,

-           <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria Mater Domini, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria dei Miracoli, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria dell&#8217; Orto, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Maria della Salute, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>

-    <li>S. Mark&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pantaleone, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-    <li>Piet&agrave;, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pietro in Castello, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-    <li>S. Pietro in Murano, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>

-    <li>S. Polo, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>Redentore, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>

-    <li>S. Rocco, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-    <li>S. Salvatore, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-    <li>Scalzi, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>S. Sebastiano, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-    <li>S. Spirito, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>

-    <li>S. Stefano, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Trovaso, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>

-    <li>S. Vitale, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>

-    <li>S. Zaccaria, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Verona.

-    <ul><li>S. Anastasia, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>

-    <li>S. Antonio, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>

-    <li>S. Fermo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>

-    <li>S. Tomaso, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Vicenza.

-    <ul><li>S. Corona, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>

-    <li>Monte Berico, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li></ul></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Cima da Conegliano, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>

-

-<li>Colombini, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Confraternity, Carit&agrave;, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>

-  <ul><li>S. Mark, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Contarini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Cook, Sir F., <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-

-<li>Cook, Mr. Herbert, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Correggio, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Correr" id="Correr"></a>Correr Museum (Museo Civico), <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>

-

-<li>Crivelli, Carlo, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>

-

-<li>Crowe and Cavalcaselle, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Crucifixion, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Dante, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>

-

-<li>David, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>

-

-<li>Doges&mdash;

-  <ul><li>Barbarigo, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>

-  <li>Dandolo, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>

-  <li>Giustiniani, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>

-  <li>Gradenigo, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>

-  <li>Grimani, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>

-  <li>Loredano, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>

-  <li>Mocenigo, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Donatello, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>

-

-<li>Doria Gallery, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Dresden, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>D&uuml;rer, Albert, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Edwards, Pietro, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>

-

-<li>Este, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>

-

-<li>Este, Isabela d&#8217;, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Fabriano, Gentile da, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>

-

-<li>Florence, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li>

-

-<li>Florentine, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>

-

-<li>Florigerio, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>

-

-<li>Fondaco dei Tedeschi, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>

-

-<li>Fragonard, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>

-

-<li>Fry, Mr. Roger, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Fumiani, Gianbattista, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Gaston de Foix, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>

-

-<li>Giambono, Michele, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>

-

-<li>Giordano, Luca, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Giorgione, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Giotto, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>

-

-<li>Goldoni, Carlo, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Goncourt, de, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>

-

-<li>Guardi, Francesco, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>-<a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Guariento, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>

-

-<li>Guercino, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>

-

-<li>Guido, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>

-

-<li>Guilds, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>

-

-<li>Guillaume de Guilleville, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>Hazlitt, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>

-

-<li>Hogarth, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Jacobello del Fiore, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>

-

-<li>Jacopo Bellini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Bellini">Bellini</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Kristeller, M. Paul, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Lancret, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>

-

-<li>Last Judgment, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>

-

-<li>Last Supper, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>

-

-<li>Layard, Lady, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>

-

-<li>Lazzarini, Gregorio, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li>Leonardo, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>

-

-<li>Liberi, Pietro, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>

-

-<li>Licinio, Bernardino, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>

-

-<li>Licinio, G. A. <em>See</em> <a href="#Pordenone">Pordenone</a></li>

-

-<li>Lippo, Fra, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="London" id="London"></a>London (National Gallery), <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Longhi, Pietro, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>-<a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>

-

-<li>Lorenzo di San Severino, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>

-

-<li>Lorenzo Veneziano, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>

-

-<li>Loreto, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>

-

-<li>Lotto, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Louvre" id="Louvre"></a>Louvre, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Luciani. <em>See</em> <a href="#Sebastian">Sebastian del Piombo</a></li>

-

-<li>Ludwig, Professor, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Madrid, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>

-

-<li>Mansueti, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>

-

-<li>Mantegna, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Marieschi, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Martino da Udine. <em>See</em> <a href="#Pellegrino">Pellegrino</a></li>

-

-<li>Maser, Villa, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>

-

-<li>Masolino, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>

-

-<li>Mengs, Raphael, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>

-

-<li>Michelangelo, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li>Milan, Ambrosiana, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>

-  <ul><li>Brera. <em>See</em> <a href="#Brera">Brera</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Mocetto, Girolamo, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>

-

-<li>Molmenti, Professor, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Mond Collection, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>

-

-<li>Monnier, Philippe, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Montagna, Bartolommeo, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li>

-

-<li>Morelli, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Moretto, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>

-

-<li>Morto da Feltre, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>

-

-<li>Munich, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-

-<li>Murano, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Museo Civico. <em>See</em> <a href="#Correr">Correr</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Naples, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>

-

-<li>National Gallery. <em>See</em> <a href="#London">London</a></li>

-

-<li>Niccolo di Pietro, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>

-

-<li>Niccolo Semitocolo, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Osmaston, Mr. F. O., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li><a name="Padovanino" id="Padovanino"></a>Padovanino, Il, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>

-

-<li>Padua, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>

-

-<li>Palaces&mdash;

-  <ul><li>Milan.

-    <ul><li>Archinto, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>Clerici, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>

-    <li>Dugnani, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Rome.

-    <ul><li>Colonna, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Str&agrave;.

-    <ul><li>Pisani, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Venice.

-    <ul><li>Ducal, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,

-        <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>

-    <li>Giovanelli, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>

-    <li>Labia, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>

-    <li>Rezzonico, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>Verona.

-    <ul><li>Canossa, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li>

-  <li>W&uuml;rzburg, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li></ul></li>

-

-<li>Palma Giovine, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>

-

-<li>Palma Vecchio, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>

-

-<li>Paolo da Venezia, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>

-

-<li>Paris. <em>See</em> <a href="#Louvre">Louvre</a></li>

-

-<li>Parma, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Pellegrino" id="Pellegrino"></a>Pellegrino, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Pennacchi, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>

-

-<li>Perugino, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>

-

-<li>Pesaro, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>

-

-<li>Pesellino, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Piacenza, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Piero di Cosimo, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>

-

-<li>Piet&agrave;, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>

-

-<li>Pintoricchio, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>

-

-<li>Pisanello (Pisano), <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Pordenone" id="Pordenone"></a>Pordenone, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Previtali, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Quirizio da Murano, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Raphael, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>

-

-<li>Ravenna, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>

-

-<li>Rembrandt, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricci, Battista, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricci, Marco, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricci, Sebastiano, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>

-

-<li>Richter, Dr. J. P., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Ricketts, Mr. C., <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Ridolfi, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>

-

-<li>Rimini, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>

-

-<li>Robusti, Domenico, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>

-

-<li>Robusti, Jacopo. <em>See</em> <a href="#Tintoretto">Tintoretto</a></li>

-

-<li>Robusti, Marietta, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>

-

-<li>Romanino, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>

-

-<li>Rome, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Rondinelli, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Rosalba" id="Rosalba"></a>Rosalba Carriera, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>-<a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>

-

-<li>Rubens, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Ruskin, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Sansovino, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>

-

-<li>Santa Croce, Girolamo da, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>

-

-<li>Sarto, Andrea del, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>

-

-<li>Savoldo, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Sebastian" id="Sebastian"></a>Sebastian del Piombo, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>

-

-<li>Siena, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>

-

-<li>Signorelli, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>

-

-<li>Simonson, Mr., <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Smith, Joseph, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>

-

-<li>Speranza, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>

-

-<li>Spilimbergo, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>

-

-<li>Strong, Mr. S. A., <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Taylor, Miss Cameron, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>

-

-<li>Tiepolo, Domenico, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-

-<li>Tiepolo, G. B., <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Tintoretto" id="Tintoretto"></a>Tintoretto, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_253">253</a>-<a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>-<a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Titian" id="Titian"></a>Titian, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>-<a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>

-

-<li>Torbido, Francesco, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>

-

-<li>Treviso, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Uccello, Paolo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>

-

-<li>Urbino, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>

-

-<li>Uzanne, M. O., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Valmarana, Villa, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li>

-

-<li>Varotari. <em>See</em> <a href="#Padovanino">Padovanino</a></li>

-

-<li>Vasari, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio. <em>See</em> <a href="#Titian">Titian</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio, Marco, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio, Orazio, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>

-

-<li>Vecellio, Pomponio, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>

-

-<li>Velasquez, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>

-

-<li>Venice. <em>See</em> <a href="#Academy">Academy</a></li>

-

-<li>Venturi, Professor Antonio, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>

-

-<li>Venturi, Professor Leonello, <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>

-

-<li>Verona, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li><a name="Veronese" id="Veronese"></a>Veronese, Paolo, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>Vicentino, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>

-

-<li>Vicenza, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>

-

-<li>Vienna, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,

-    <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>Visentini, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Viterbo, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>

-

-<li>Vivarini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Alvise">Alvise</a></li>

-

-<li>Vivarini. <em>See</em> <a href="#Bartolommeo">Bartolommeo</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Wallace Collection, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>

-

-<li>Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>

-

-<li>Watteau, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>

-

-<li>Wickhoff, Dr., <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>

-

-<li>Windsor, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Yriarte, M. Charles, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>

-

-<li>&nbsp;</li>

-

-<li>Zanetti, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>

-

-<li>Zelotti, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>

-

-<li>Zoppo, Marco, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>

-

-<li>Zucchero, Federigo, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<hr style="width: 95%;" />

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-

-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>

-

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>

-These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M&#699;N. Rushforth in

-the <em>Burlington Magazine</em> for October 1911.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>

-This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>

-It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous

-above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in

-the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow&#8217;s &ldquo;Diana and Actaeon.&rdquo;

-The construction of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but

-little-known picture is admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing

-almost as a monochrome, the landscape is full of atmospheric

-suggestion. It is in Titian&#8217;s latest manner, and its ample lines and

-free unimpeded motion can be due to no inferior brush.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>

-Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia, landing

-in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from

-Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably

-an assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the &ldquo;Venus and

-Adonis&rdquo; of the National Gallery, which owes much to his hand.

-He fails conspicuously in form, his shadows are black, and his

-figures often vulgar, but he has a fine sense of colour, and a free,

-crisp touch. He was one of the young masters who flooded Venice

-with light, sketchy wares.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>

-&ldquo;Venice and the Renaissance,&rdquo; <em>Edinburgh Review</em>, 1909.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>

-Philippe Monnier, <em>Venice in the Eighteenth Century</em>.</p></div>

-

-<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a>

-<a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>

-It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.</p></div>

-

-</div>

-

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<p>&nbsp;</p>

-<hr class="full" />

-<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING***</p>

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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Venetian School of Painting, by Evelyn

-March Phillipps

-

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

-

-

-

-

-

-Title: The Venetian School of Painting

-

-

-Author: Evelyn March Phillipps

-

-

-

-Release Date: September 26, 2009  [eBook #30098]

-

-Language: English

-

-Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

-

-

-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING***

-

-

-E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Anne Storer, and the

-Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

-(http://www.pgdp.net)

-

-

-

-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this

-      file which includes the original illustrations.

-      See 30098-h.htm or 30098-h.zip:

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-      or

-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30098/30098-h.zip)

-

-

-Transcriber's note:

-

-      1) Variations in the spelling of names and recording of some

-         questionable dates have been left as printed in the original

-         text.

-

-      2) Chapter IX--Sala del Gran Consiio possibly should be Sala

-         del Gran Consiglio.

-

-      3) Likely corrections are noted in brackets within the text

-         in the format [TN: . . .].

-

-

-

-

-

-THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING

-

-[Illustration: _Giorgione._

-                MADONNA WITH S. LIBERALE AND S. FRANCIS.

-               _Castelfranco._

-                (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-

-THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING

-

-by

-

-EVELYN MARCH PHILLIPPS

-

-With Illustrations

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-Books for Libraries Press

-Freeport, New York

-

-First Published 1912

-Reprinted 1972

-

-International Standard Book Number: 0-8369-6745-3

-Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-37907

-

-Printed in the United States of America

-By

-New World Book Manufacturing Co., Inc.

-Hallandale, Florida 33009

-

-

-

-

-PREFACE

-

-

-Many visits to Venice have brought home the fact that there exists,

-in English at least, no work which deals as a whole with the Venetian

-School and its masters. Biographical catalogues there are in plenty, but

-these, though useful for reference, say little to readers who are not

-already acquainted with the painters whose career and works are briefly

-recorded. "Lives" of individual masters abound, but however excellent

-and essential these may be to an advanced study of the school, the

-volumes containing them make too large a library to be easily carried

-about, and a great deal of reading and assimilation is required to set

-each painter in his place in the long story. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's

-_History of Painting in North Italy_ still remains our sheet anchor; but

-it is lengthy, over full of detail of minor painters, and lacks the

-interesting criticism which of late years has collected round each

-master. There seems room for a portable volume, making an attempt to

-consider the Venetian painters, in relation to one another, and to help

-the visitor not only to trace the evolution of the school from its dawn,

-through its full splendour and to its declining rays, but to realise

-what the Venetian School was, and what was the philosophy of life which

-it represented.

-

-Such a book does not pretend to vie with, much less to supersede, the

-masterly treatises on the subject which have from time to time appeared,

-or to take the place of exhaustive histories, such as that of Professor

-Leonello Venturi on the Italian primitives. It should but serve to pave

-the way to deeper and more detailed reading. It does not aspire to give

-a complete and comprehensive list of the painters; some of the minor

-ones may not even be mentioned. The mere inclusion of names, dates, and

-facts would add unduly to the size of the book, and, when without real

-bearing on the course of Venetian art, would have little significance.

-What the book does aim at is to enable those who care for art, but may

-not have mastered its history, to rear a framework on which to found

-their own observations and appreciations; to supply that coherent

-knowledge which is beneficial even to a passing acquaintance with

-beautiful things, and to place the unscientific observer in a position

-to take greater advantage of opportunities, and to achieve a wide and

-interesting outlook on that cycle of artistic apprehension which the

-Venetian School comprises, and which marks it as the outcome and the

-symbol of a great historic age.

-

-The works cited have been principally those with which the ordinary

-traveller is likely to come into contact in the chief European

-galleries, and, above all, in Venice itself. The lists do not propose to

-be exhaustive, but merely indicate the principal works of the artists.

-Those in private galleries, unless easy of access or of first-rate

-importance, are usually eliminated. It has not been thought necessary to

-use profuse illustrations, as the book is intended primarily for use

-when visiting the original works.

-

-

-

-

-CONTENTS

-

-

- PART I

-

- CHAPTER I                            PAGE

-   VENICE AND HER ART                    3

-

- CHAPTER II

-   PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE              11

-

- CHAPTER III

-   INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA      21

-

- CHAPTER IV

-   THE SCHOOL OF MURANO                 29

-

- CHAPTER V

-   THE PADUAN INFLUENCE                 33

-

- CHAPTER VI

-   JACOPO BELLINI                       39

-

- CHAPTER VII

-   CARLO CRIVELLI                       44

-

- CHAPTER VIII

-   GENTILE BELLINI AND

-   ANTONELLO DA MESSINA                 48

-

- CHAPTER IX

-   ALVISE VIVARINI                      58

-

- CHAPTER X

-   CARPACCIO                            68

-

- CHAPTER XI

-   GIOVANNI BELLINI                     81

-

- CHAPTER XII

-   GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)       92

-

- CHAPTER XIII

-   CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER

-   FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI                103

-

-

- PART II

-

- CHAPTER XIV

-   GIORGIONE                           121

-

- CHAPTER XV

-   GIORGIONE (_continued_)             132

-

- CHAPTER XVI

-   THE GIORGIONESQUE                   140

-

- CHAPTER XVII

-   TITIAN                              144

-

- CHAPTER XVIII

-   TITIAN (_continued_)                157

-

- CHAPTER XIX

-   TITIAN (_continued_)                173

-

- CHAPTER XX

-   PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO     184

-

- CHAPTER XXI

-   SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO                198

-

- CHAPTER XXII

-   BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE         203

-

- CHAPTER XXIII

-   PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES  212

-

- CHAPTER XXIV

-   PAOLO VERONESE                      228

-

- CHAPTER XXV

-   TINTORETTO                          243

-

- CHAPTER XXVI

-   TINTORETTO (_continued_)            254

-

- CHAPTER XXVII

-   BASSANO                             269

-

-

- PART III

-

- CHAPTER XXVIII

-   THE INTERIM                         281

-

- CHAPTER XXIX

-   TIEPOLO                             297

-

- CHAPTER XXX

-   PIETRO LONGHI                       309

-

- CHAPTER XXXI

-   CANALE                              314

-

- CHAPTER XXXII

-   FRANCESCO GUARDI                    321

-

-

- BIBLIOGRAPHY                          329

-

- INDEX                                 333

-

-

-

-

-ILLUSTRATIONS

-

-

-                               BY                 AT

-

-  1. Madonna with S. Liberale  Giorgione          Castelfranco

-     and S. Francis                                       _Frontispiece_

-

-  2. Adoration  of the         Antonio da Murano  Berlin

-     Magi                                                            31

-

-  3. Agony in Garden           Jacopo Bellini     British Museum     41

-

-  4. Procession of the         Gentile Bellini    Venice

-     Holy Cross                                                      52

-

-  5. Altarpiece of 1480        Alvise Vivarini    Venice             60

-

-  6. Arrival of the            Carpaccio          Venice

-     Ambassadors                                                     75

-

-  7. Pieta                     Giovanni Bellini   Brera              87

-

-  8. An Allegory               Giovanni Bellini   Uffizi             94

-

-  9. Fete Champetre            Giorgione          Louvre            136

-

- 10. Portrait of Ariosto       Titian             National Gallery  156

-

- 11. Diana and Actaeon         Titian             Earl Brownlow     161

-

- 12. Holy Family               Palma Vecchio      Colonna Gallery,

-                                                  Rome              185

-

- 13. Portrait of Laura di      Lorenzo Lotto      Brera

-     Pola                                                           194

-

- 14. Marriage in Cana          Paolo Veronese     Louvre            234

-

- 15. S. Mary of Egypt          Tintoretto         Scuola di

-                                                  San Rocco         258

-

- 16. Bacchus and Ariadne       Tintoretto         Ducal Palace      261

-

- 17. Baptism of S. Lucilla     Jacopo da Ponte    Bassano           274

-

- 18. Antony and Cleopatra      Tiepolo            Palazzo Labia,

-                                                  Venice            304

-

- 19. Visit to the              Pietro Longhi      National Gallery

-     Fortune-Teller                                                 310

-

- 20. S. Maria della Salute     Francesco Guardi   National Gallery  324

-

-

-

-

-LIST OF PAINTERS

-

-

- Paolo da Venezia, _fl._ 1333-1358.

- Niccolo di Pietro, _fl._ 1394-1404.

- Niccolo Semitocolo, _fl._ 1364.

- Stefano di Venezia, _fl._ 1353.

- Lorenzo Veneziano, _fl._ 1357-1379.

- Chatarinus, _fl._ 1372.

- Jacobello del Fiore, _fl._ 1415-1439.

- Gentile da Fabriano, 1360-1428.

- Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), _circa_ 1385-1455.

- Michele Giambono, _fl._ 1470.

- Giovanni Alemanus, _fl._ 1440-1447.

- Antonio da Murano, _circa_ 1430-1470.

- Bartolommeo Vivarini, _fl._ 1420-1499.

- Alvise Vivarini, _fl._ 1461-1503.

- Antonello da Messina, _circa_ 1444-1493.

- Jacopo Bellini, _fl._ 1430-1466.

- Jacopo dei Barbari, _circa_ 1450-1516.

- Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506.

- Carlo Crivelli, 1430-1493.

- Bartolommeo Montagna, 1450-1523.

- Francesco Buonsignori, 1453-1519.

- Gentile Bellini, _circa_ 1427-1507.

- Giovanni Bellini, 1426-1516.

- Lazzaro Bastiani, _fl._ 1470-1508.

- Vittore Carpaccio, _fl._ 1478-1522.

- Girolamo da Santa Croce.

- Mansueti, _fl._ 1474-1510.

- Giovanni Battista da Conegliano (Cima), 1460-1517.

- Vincenzo Catena, _fl._ 1495-1531.

- Bissolo, 1464-1528.

- Marco Basaiti, _circa_ 1470-1527.

- Andrea Previtali, _fl._ 1502-1525.

- Bartolommeo Veneto, _fl._ 1505-1555.

- N. Rondinelli, _fl._ 1480-1500.

- Girolamo Savoldo, 1480-1548.

- Giorgio Barbarelli (Giorgione), 1478-1511.

- Giovanni Busi (Cariani), _circa_ 1480-1544.

- Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1477-1576.

- Palma Vecchio, 1480-1528.

- Lorenzo Lotto, 1480-1556.

- Martino da Udine (Pellegrino di San Daniele).

- Morto da Feltre, _circa_ 1474-1522.

- Romanino, 1485-1566.

- Sebastian Luciani (del Piombo), 1485-1547.

- Giovanni Antonino Licinio (Pordenone), 1483-1540.

- Bernardino Licinio, _fl._ 1520-1544.

- Alessandro Bonvicino (Moretto), _circa_ 1498-1554.

- Bonifazio de Pitatis (Veronese), _fl._ 1510-1540.

- Paris Bordone, 1510-1570.

- Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano), 1510-1592.

- Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto), 1518-1592.

- Paolo Caliari (Veronese), 1528-1588.

- Domenico Robusti, 1562-1637.

- Palma Giovine, 1544-1628.

- Alessandro Varotari (Il Padovanino), 1590-1650.

- Gianbattista Fumiani, 1643-1710.

- Sebastiano Ricci, 1662-1734.

- Gregorio Lazzarini, 1657-1735.

- Rosalba Carriera, 1675-1757.

- G. B. Piazetta, 1682-1754.

- Gianbattista Tiepolo, 1696-1770.

- Antonio Canale (Canaletto), 1697-1768.

- Belotto, 1720-1780.

- Francesco Guardi, 1712-1793.

-

-

-

-

-PART I

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER I

-

-VENICE AND HER ART

-

-

-Venetian painting in its prime differs altogether in character from

-that of every other part of Italy. The Venetian is the most marked and

-recognisable of all the schools; its singularity is such that a novice

-in art can easily, in a miscellaneous collection, sort out the works

-belonging to it, and added to this unique character is the position it

-occupies in the domain of art. Venice alone of Italian States can boast

-an epoch of art comparable in originality and splendour to that of her

-great Florentine rival; an epoch which is to be classed among the great

-art manifestations of the world, which has exerted, and continues to

-exert, incalculable power over painting, and which is the inspiration as

-well as the despair of those who try to master its secret.

-

-The other schools of Italy, with all their superficial varieties of

-treatment and feeling, depended for their very life upon the extent to

-which they were able to imbibe the Florentine influence. Siena rejected

-that strength and perished; Venice bided her time and suddenly struck

-out on independent lines, achieving a magnificent victory.

-

-Art in Florence made a strictly logical progress. As civilisation awoke

-in the old Latin race, it went back in every domain of learning to the

-rich subsoil which still underlay the ruin and the alien structures left

-by the long barbaric dominion, for the Italian in his darkest hour had

-never been a barbarian; and as the mind was once more roused to

-conscious life, Florence entered readily upon that great intellectual

-movement which she was destined to lead. Her cast of thought was, from

-the first, realistic and scientific. Its whole endeavour was to know the

-truth, to weigh evidences, to elaborate experiments, to see things as

-they really were; and when she reached the point at which art was ready

-to speak, we find that the governing motive of her language was this

-same predilection for reality, and it was with this meaning that her

-typical artists found a voice. No artist ever sought for truth, both

-physical and spiritual, more resolutely than Giotto, and none ever spoke

-more distinctly the mind of his age and country; and as one generation

-follows another, art in Tuscany becomes more and more closely allied to

-the intellectual movement. The scientific predilection for _form_, for

-the representation of things as they really are, characterises not

-Florentine painting alone, but the whole of Florentine art. It is an art

-of contributions and discoveries, marked, it is needless to say, at

-every step by dominating personalities, positively as well as relatively

-great, but with each member consciously absorbed in "going one better"

-than his predecessors, in solving problems and in mastering methods.

-Florentine art is the outcome of Florentine life and thought. It is part

-of the definite clear-cut view of thought and reason, of that exactitude

-of apprehension towards which the whole Florentine mind was bent, and

-the lesser tributaries, as they flowed towards her, formed themselves on

-her pattern and worked upon the same lines, so that they have a certain

-general resemblance, and their excellence is in proportion to the

-thoroughness with which they have learned their lesson.

-

-The difference which separates Venetian from the rest of Italian

-painting is a fundamental one. Venice attains to an equally

-distinguished place, but the way in which she does it and the character

-of her contribution are both so absolutely distinct that her art seems

-to be the outcome of another race, with alien temperament and standards.

-Venice had, indeed, a history and a life of her own. Her entire

-isolation, from her foundation, gave her an independent government and

-customs peculiar to herself, but at the same time her people, even in

-their earliest and most precarious struggles, were no barbarians who

-had slowly to acquire the arts of civilised life. Among the refugees

-were persons of high birth and great traditions, and they brought with

-them to the first crazy settlement on the lagoons some political

-training and some idea of how to reconstruct their shattered social

-fabric. The Venetian Republic rose rapidly to a position of influence

-in Europe. Small and circumscribed as its area was, every feature and

-sentiment was concentrated and intensified. But one element above all

-permeates it and sets it apart from other European States. The Oriental

-element in Venice must never be lost sight of if we wish to understand

-her philosophy of art.

-

-There are some grounds, seriously accepted by the most recent

-historians, for believing that the first Venetian colonists were the

-descendants of emigrants who in prehistoric times had established

-themselves in Asia and who had returned from thence to Northern Italy.

-"These colonists," says Hazlitt, "were called Tyrrhenians, and from

-their settlements round the mouth of the Po the Venetian stock was

-ultimately derived." If the tradition has any truth, we think with a

-deeper interest of that instinct for commerce which seems to have been

-in the very blood of the early Venetians. Did it, indeed, come down to

-them from the merchants of Tyre and Carthage? From that wonderful

-trading race which stretched out its arms all over Europe and

-penetrated even to our own island? From the first, Venice cut herself

-adrift, as far as possible, from Western ties, but she turned to Eastern

-people and to intercourse with the East with a natural affinity which

-savours of racial instinct. All her greatness was derived from her

-Asiatic trade, and her bazaars, heaped with Eastern riches, must have

-assumed a deeply Oriental aspect. Her customs long retained many details

-peculiar to the East. The people observed a custom for choosing and

-dowering brides, which was of Asia. The national treatment of women was

-akin to that of an Oriental State; Venetian women lived in a retirement

-which recalled the life of the harem, only appearing on great occasions

-to display their brocades and jewels. Girls were closely veiled when

-they passed through the streets. The attachment of men to women had no

-intellectual bias, scarcely any sentiment, but "went straight to the

-mark: the enjoyment of physical beauty." The position of women in Venice

-was a great contrast to that attained by the Florentine lady of the

-Renaissance, who was highly educated, deeply versed in men and in

-affairs, the fine flower of culture, and the queen of a brilliant

-society. The love for colour and gorgeous pageantry was of Semitic

-intensity and seemed insatiable, and the gratification of the senses

-was a deliberate State policy. But passionate as was the spirit of

-patriotism, enthusiastic the love and loyalty of the people, the civic

-spirit was absent. The masses were contented to live under a despotic

-rule and to be little despots in their own houses. In the twelfth

-century the people saw power pass into the hands of the aristocracy, and

-as long as the despotism was a benevolent one, the event aroused no

-opposition. Like Orientals, the Venetians had wild outbursts, and like

-them they quieted down and nothing came of them. As Mr. Hazlitt remarks,

-"their occasional resistance to tyranny, though marked by deeds of

-horrid and dark cruelty, left no deep or enduring traces behind it. It

-established no principle. It taught no lesson." Venice was a Republic

-only in name. The whole aspect of her government is Eastern. Its system

-of espionage, its secret tribunals, its swift and silent blows,--these

-are all Oriental traits, and the East entering into her whole life

-from without found a natural home awaiting it. We should be mistaken,

-however, in thinking that the Venetians in their great days were

-enervated and lapped in the sensuality which we are apt to associate

-with Eastern ideals. Sensuality did in the end drain the life out of

-her. "It is the disease which attacks sensuousness, but it is not the

-same thing." The Venetians were by nature men with a deep capacity for

-feeling, and it is this deep feeling which has so large a share in

-Venetian art.

-

-The painters of Venice were of the people and had no wide intellectual

-outlook at its most splendid moment, such as was possessed by those men

-who in Florence were drawn into the company of the Medici and their

-court of scholars, and who all their lives were in the midst of a

-society of large aims and a free public spirit, in which men took their

-share of the responsibilities and honours of a citizen's life. The

-merchant-patrons of Venice are quite uninterested in the solving of

-problems. They pay a price, and they want a good show of colour and

-gilding for their money. Presently they buy from outside, and a

-half-hearted imitation of foreigners is the best ambition of Venetian

-artists. Art, it has been said, does not declare itself with true

-spontaneity till it feels behind it the weight and unanimity of the

-whole body of the people. That true outburst was long in coming, but its

-seeds were fructifying deep in a congenial soil. They were fostered by

-the warmth and colour of Oriental intercourse, and at last the racial

-instinct speaks with no uncertain accent in the great domain of art, and

-speaks in a new and unexpected way; as splendid as, yet utterly unlike,

-the grand intellectual declaration of Florence.

-

-Let us bear in mind, then, that Venice in all her history, in all

-her character, is Eastern rather than Western. Hers is the kingdom

-of feeling rather than that of thought, of emotion as opposed to

-intellect. Her whole story tells of a profoundly emotional and sensuous

-apprehension of the nature of things; and till the time comes when her

-artists are inspired to express that, their creations may be interesting

-enough, but they fail to reveal the true workings of her mind. When they

-do, they find a new medium and use it in a new way. Venetian colour,

-when it comes into its kingdom, speaks for a whole people, sensuous and

-of deep feeling, able for the first time to utter itself in art.

-

-We have to divide the history of the Venetian School into three parts.

-The first extends from the primitives to the end of Giovanni Bellini's

-life. He forms a link between the first and second periods. The second

-begins with Giorgione and ends with Tintoretto and Bassano, and is the

-Venetian School proper. Thirdly, we have the eighteenth-century revival,

-in which Tiepolo is the most conspicuous figure, and which is in an

-equal degree the expression of the life of its time.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER II

-

-PRIMITIVE ART IN VENICE

-

-

-The school of Byzantium, so widespread in its influence, was

-particularly strong in Venice, where mosaics adorned the cathedral

-of Torcello from the ninth century and St. Mark's became a splendid

-storehouse of Byzantine art. The earliest mosaic on the facade of St.

-Mark's was executed about the year 1250, those in the Baptistery date

-during the reign of Andrea Dandolo, who was Doge from 1342 to 1354. Yet

-though the life of Giotto lies between these two dates, and his frescoes

-at Padua were within a few hours' journey, there is no sign that the

-great revolution in painting, which was making itself felt in every

-principal centre of Italy, had touched the richest and most peaceful of

-all her States.

-

-Yet local art in Venice was no outcome of Byzantinism. It rose as that

-of the mosaicists fell, but its rise differs from that of Florence and

-Siena in being for long almost imperceptible. Artists were looked upon

-merely as artisans in all the cities of Italy, but in Venice before any

-other city they had been placed among the craftsmen. The statute of the

-Guild of Siena was not formulated till 1355; that of Venice is the

-earliest of which we have any record, and bears the date of 1272. There

-is scarcely a word to indicate that pictures in the modern sense of the

-term existed. Painters were employed on the adornment of arms and of

-household furniture. Leather helmets and shields were painted, and such

-banners as we see in Paolo Uccello's battlepieces. Painted chests and

-_cassoni_ were already in demand, dishes and plates for the table and

-the surface of the table itself were treated in a similar way. Special

-regulations dealt with all these, and it is only at the end of the list

-that anconae are mentioned. The ancona was a gilded framework, having a

-compartment containing a picture of the Madonna and Child, and others

-with single figures of the saints, and these were the only pictures

-proper produced at this date. The demand for anconae was, however, large,

-and they were very early placed, not only in the churches, but in the

-houses of patricians and burghers. Constant disputes arose between the

-painters and the gilders. Pictures were habitually painted upon a gold

-ground, but the painters were forbidden to gild the backgrounds

-themselves. "Gilding is the business of the gilder, painting that of the

-painter," says a contemporary record. "Now the gilder contends that if

-a frame has to be gilt and then touched with colour, he is entitled to

-perform both operations, but the painter disputes this right, and

-maintains that the gilder should return it to him when the addition

-of painting is desired." It was, however, finally decided by law that

-each should exercise both professions, when one or the other played a

-subordinate part in the finished work. Though the art of mosaic was

-falling into decay as painting began to emerge, yet the commercial

-manufactory of Byzantine Madonnas, which had been established as early

-as 600, went on, on the Rialto, without any variation of the traditional

-forms.

-

-Florence very early discarded the temptation to cling to material

-splendour, but as we pass into the Hall of the Primitives in the

-Venetian Academy, we see at once that Venetian art, in its earlier

-stages, has more to do with the gilder than the painter. The Holy

-Personages are merely accessories to the gorgeous framework, the

-embossed ornaments, the real jewels, which were in favour with the rich

-and magnificent patrons. There is no sign of any feeling for painting

-as painting, no craving after the study of form as the outcome of

-intellectual activity, no zest of discovery, such as made the painter's

-life in Florence an excitement in which the public shared. What little

-Venice imbibes of these things is from outside influence, after due

-lapse of time. A prosperous, luxurious city of merchants and statesmen,

-she was too much bound up in the transactions and sensations of actual

-life to develop any abstract and thoughtful ideals.

-

-Perhaps the first painting we can discover which shows any sign of

-independent effort is the series which Paolo da Venezia painted on the

-back of the Pala d' Oro, over the high altar of St. Mark, when it was

-restored in the fourteenth century. This reveals an artist with some

-pictorial aptitude and one alive to the subjects that surround him. It

-tells the story of St. Mark's corpse transported to Venice. The first

-panel contains a group of cardinals of varying types and expressions; in

-another the disciple listening to St. Mark's teaching, and crouching

-with his elbows on his knees, has a true, natural touch. The dramatic

-feeling here and there is considerable. The scene of the guards watching

-the imprisoned Saint through the window and seeing the shadow of two

-heads, as the Saviour visits him, imparts a distinct emotion; and there

-is force as well as feeling for decorative composition in the panel in

-which the Saint's body lies at the feet of the sailors, while his vision

-appears shining upon the sails.

-

-Except for the exaggerated insistence on the gilded elaborations of the

-early ancona, there is not much to differentiate the early art of Venice

-from that of other centres; but we notice that it persevered longer in

-the material and mechanical art of the craftsman. Tuscan taste made

-little impression, and many years elapsed before work akin to that of

-Giotto attracted attention and was admired and imitated. A man like

-Antonio Veneziano met with the fate of the innovator in Venice. He had

-too much of the simplicity of the Tuscan and was compelled to carry his

-work to Pisa, where his naif and humorous narratives still delight us in

-the Campo Santo. It was in 1384 that he was employed to finish the

-frescoes of the life of S. Ranieri, which had been left uncompleted

-at Andrea da Firenze's death, and the fondness for architecture and

-surroundings in the Florentine taste, which secured him a welcome, may,

-as Vasari says, be derived from Agnolo Gaddi, who had already visited

-Padua and Venice.

-

-In the last years of the fourteenth century tributary streams begin to

-feed the feeble main current. In 1365 Guariento, a Paduan, was employed

-by the State to paint a huge fresco of Paradise in the Hall of the Gran

-Consiglio of the Ducal Palace. This, which lay hid for centuries under

-the painting by Tintoretto, was uncovered in 1909 and found to be in

-fairly good preservation. It can now be seen in a side room. It tells us

-that Guariento had to some extent been influenced by Giotto. The thrones

-have long Gothic pendatives, the faces have more the Giottesque than the

-Byzantine cast and show that the old traditions were crumbling.

-

-When painting in Venice first begins to live a life of its own,

-Jacobello del Fiore stands out as the most conspicuous of the indigenous

-Venetians. His father had been president of the Painters' Guild. Jacopo

-himself was president from 1415 to 1436. He was a rich and popular

-member of the State and a man of high character. His works, to judge

-by the specimens left, hardly attained the dignity of art, though in

-the banner of "Justice," in the Academy, the space is filled in a

-monumental fashion and the figure of St. Gabriel with the lily has

-something grand and graceful. We trace the same treatment of flying

-banners and draperies and rippling hair in the fantastic but picturesque

-S. Grisogono in the left transept of San Trovaso. Jacobello's will,

-executed in 1439 in favour of his wife Lucia and his son, Ercole, with

-provision for a possible posthumous son, shows him to have been a man of

-considerable possessions. He owned a slave and had other servants, a

-house, money, and books. Among his fellow-workers who are represented in

-Venice are Niccolo Semitocolo, Niccolo di Pietro, and Lorenzo Veneziano.

-The important altarpiece by the last, in the Academy, has evidently been

-reconstructed; two Eternal Fathers hover over the Annunciation, and the

-Saints have been restored to the framework in such wise that the backs

-of many of them are turned on the momentous central event. In the

-"Marriage of St. Catherine," in the same gallery, Lorenzo gets more

-natural. The Child, in a light green dress with gold buttons, has a

-lively expression, and looks round at His Mother as if playing a game.

-The chapel of San Tarasio in San Zaccaria contains an ancona of which

-the central panel was only inserted in 1839, and is identical with

-Lorenzo's other work. One of the finest and most elaborate of all the

-anconae is in San Giovanni in Bragora, and is also the work of Lorenzo.

-In this, as well as in that of San Tarasio, the Mother offers the Child

-the apple, signifying the fruit of the Tree of Jesse and symbolical of

-the Incarnation. This incident, which is found thus early in art, was

-evidently felt to raise the group of the Mother and Child from a

-representation of a merely earthly relationship to a spiritual scene

-of the deepest meaning and the highest dignity.

-

-Niccolo di Pietro has several early works of the last decade of the

-fourteenth century, from which we gather that he began as a Byzantine,

-but that he imitated Guariento and was tentatively drawn to the

-Giottesque movement, but not, we may remember, before Giotto had been

-dead for some sixty years. Niccolo di Pietro has been confounded with

-Niccolo Semitocolo, but it is now realised that they were two distinct

-masters. The most important work of Michele Giambono which has come

-down to us is the signed ancona with five saints, now in the Venetian

-Academy. It is unusual to find a saint in the central panel instead of

-the Madonna. The saint is on a larger scale than his companions, and has

-hitherto passed as the Redeemer, but Professor Venturi has identified

-him as St. James the Great. He has the gold scallop-shell and pilgrim's

-staff. It is clear from his size and position that the ancona has been

-painted for an altar specially dedicated to this Apostle.

-

-The saints on the right are S. Michael and S. Louis of Toulouse. Between

-S. John the Evangelist and S. James is a monastic figure which has

-evidently changed places with S. John at some moment of restoration. If

-the two figures are transposed, their attitudes become intelligible. S.

-John is inculcating a message inscribed in his open book, while the monk

-is displaying his humble answer on his own page. The use in it of the

-term _servus_ suggests that he is a Servite, though the want of the

-nimbus precludes the idea that he is one of the founders. It is probable

-that he is S. Filipo Benizzi, who, though considered as a saint from the

-time of his death, was not canonised for several centuries.

-

-The Mond Collection includes a glowing picture by Giambono; a seated

-figure clad in rich vestments and holding an orb, probably representing

-a "Throne," one of the angelic orders of the celestial Hierarchy.[1]

-

- [1] These interesting particulars are given by Mr. G. M'N.

- Rushforth in the _Burlington Magazine_ for October 1911.

-

-Works are still in existence which may be ascribed to one or other of

-these masters, or of which no attribution can be made, but we know

-nothing positive of any other artists of the time which preceded the

-influence of Gentile da Fabriano. Nothing leads us to suppose that the

-Venetian School in its origin had any pretension to be a school of

-colour, or that it could claim anything like real excellence at a time

-when the Republic first became alive to the movement which was going on

-in other parts of Italy, and decided to call in foreign talent.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Paolo da Venezia._

-

- Venice.  St. Mark's: The Pala d' Oro.

- Vicenza. Death of the Virgin.

-

-

- _Lorenzo da Venezia._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.

-         Correr Museum: Saviour giving Keys to St. Peter.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Ancona.

- Berlin. Two Saints.

-

-

- _Nicoletto Semitocolo._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece.

- Padua.  Biblioteca Archivescovo: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Stefano da Venezia._

-

- Venice. Academy: Coronation of Virgin, with false signature of

-           Semitocolo.

-

-

- _Jacobello del Fiore._

-

- Venice. Academy: Justice.

-         S. Trovaso: S. Grisogono.

-

-

- _Niccolo di Pietro._

-

- Venice. S. Maria dei Miracoli: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Michele Giambono._

-

- Venice. Academy: St. James the Great and other Saints.

- London. Mond Collection: A "Throne."

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER III

-

-INFLUENCES OF UMBRIA AND VERONA

-

-

-Gentile da Fabriano, the Umbrian master, when he reached Venice in the

-early years of the fifteenth century, was already a man of note. He had

-received his art education in Florence, and he brought with him fresh

-and delicate devices for the enrichment of painting with gold, which,

-derived as it was from the Sienese assimilation of Byzantine methods,

-was very superior in fancy and refinement to anything that Venice had

-to show. He was a man of a gentle, mystic temperament, but he was

-accustomed to courts, and a finished master whose technique and artistic

-value was far beyond anything that the local painters were capable of.

-He spent some years in Venice, adorning the great hall with episodes

-from the legend of Barbarossa; one of these, which is specially cited,

-was of the battle between the Emperor and the Venetians. Gentile was

-working till about 1414, and the walls, finished by Pisanello, were

-covered by 1416. After this Gentile remained some time in Bergamo and

-Brescia, and settled in Florence about 1422. The year after reaching

-Florence, he painted the famous "Adoration of the Magi," now in the

-Florentine Academy. Even after leaving Venice his fame survived;

-pictures went from his workshop in the Popolo S. Trinita, and he sent

-back two portraits after he had returned to his native Fabriano.

-

-We have no positive record of Gentile and Vittore Pisano, commonly

-called Pisanello, having met in Venice, but there is every evidence in

-their work that they did so, and that one overlapped the other in the

-paintings for the Ducal Palace.

-

-The School of Verona already had an honourable record, and its Guild

-dates from 1303. The following are its rules, the document of which is

-still preserved, while that of Venice has been lost:

-

-     RULES OF THE VERONESE GUILD (_abridged_)

-

-     1. No one to become a member who had not practised art for

-        twelve years.

-

-     2. Twelve artists to be elected members.

-

-     3. The reception of a new member depends on his being a senior.

-

-     4. The members are obliged in the winter season to take upon

-        themselves the instruction of all the pupils in turn.

-

-     5. A member is liable to be expelled for theft.

-

-     6. Each member is bound to extend to another fraternal

-        assistance in necessity.

-

-     7. To maintain general agreement in any controversies.

-

-     8. To extend hospitality to strange artists.

-

-     9. To offer to one another reciprocal comfort.

-

-    10. To follow the funerals of members with torches.

-

-    11. The President is to exercise reference authority.

-

-    12. The member who has the longest membership to be President.

-

-There were also by-laws, which provided that no master should accept

-a pupil for less than three years, and this acceptance had to be

-definitely registered by the public notary, a son, brother, grandson, or

-nephew being the only exceptions. No master might receive an apprentice

-who should have left another master before his time was out, unless with

-that master's free consent. There were penalties for enticing away a

-pupil, and others to be enforced against pupils who broke the agreement.

-Severe restrictions existed with regard to the sale of pictures, no one

-but a member of the Guild being allowed to sell them. No one might bring

-a work from any foreign place for purposes of sale. It might not

-even be brought to the town without the special permission of the

-_Gastaldiones_, or trustees of the Guild, and those trustees were

-permitted to search for and destroy forged pictures. Every painter,

-therefore, had to subordinate his interests and inclinations to the

-local school. It helps us to understand why the individual character of

-the different masters is so perceptible, and one of the primary causes

-of this must have been the careful training of the pupils in the

-master's workshop.

-

-The fresco left by Altichiero, Pisanello's first master, in the Church

-of S. Anastasia in Verona, shows how worthily a Veronese painter was at

-this early time following in the footsteps of Giotto. Three knights of

-the Cavalli family are presented by their patron saints to the Madonna.

-The composition has a large simplicity, a breadth of feeling which is

-carried into each gesture. The knights with their raised helmets, in the

-pattern of horses' heads, are full of reality, the Madonna is sweet and

-dignified, and the saints are grand and stately. The picture has a

-delightful suavity and ease, and the colouring has evidently been

-lovely. The setting is in good proportion and more satisfactory than

-that of the Giottesques. From the series of frescoes in S. Antonio,

-Verona, we gather that while Venice was still limited to stiff anconae,

-the Veronese masters were managing crowds of figures and rendering

-distances successfully. Altichiero puts in homely touches from everyday

-life with a freedom which shows he has not yet mastered the principles

-of selection or the dignified fitness which guided the great masters;

-as, for instance, in the case of the old woman, among the spectators of

-the Crucifixion, who shows her grief by blowing her nose. He lets

-himself be drawn off by all manner of trivial detail and of gay costume;

-but again in such frescoes as S. Lucia, or the "Beheading of St.

-George," in the Paduan chapel of the Santo, he proves how well he

-understands the force of solid, simply-draped figures, direct in gesture

-and expression, while the decorative use he makes of lances against the

-background was long afterwards perhaps imitated, but hardly surpassed,

-by Tintoretto.

-

-Pisanello, who followed quickly upon Altichiero and his assistant,

-Avanzi, exhibits the same chivalresque and courtly inclinations which

-commended Gentile da Fabriano to the splendour-loving Venetians. Verona,

-under the peaceful but gallant government of the Scaligeri, had long

-been the home of all knightly lore, and the artists had been employed to

-decorate chapels for the families of the great nobles. Among these,

-Pisanello had attained a high place. Though very few of his paintings

-remain, they all show these influences, and his subtly modelled medals

-establish him as a master of the most finished type. A much destroyed

-fresco in S. Anastasia, Verona, portrays the history of St. George and

-the Dragon. In the St. George we probably see the portrait of the great

-personage in whose honour the fresco was painted. He is mounting his

-horse, which, seen from behind, reminds us of the fore-shortened

-chargers of Paolo Uccello. The rescued princess, also a portrait, wears

-a magnificent dress and an elaborate headgear in the fashion of the day.

-Other horses, fiery and spirited, are grouped around, and in the band

-of cavaliers, beyond St. George, every head is individualised; one is

-beautiful, another brutal, and so on through the seven. A greyhound

-and spaniel in the foreground are superbly painted, the background is

-excellent, and a realistic touch is given by the corpses which dangle

-unheeded from the trees outside the castle-gate. A ruined, but

-fortunately not restored, "Annunciation" in S. Fermo, has a simple,

-slender figure of the Virgin sitting by her white bed, and the angel,

-with great sweeping, rushing wings and bowed, child-like head with fair

-hair, is a most sweet and keen figure, thrilling and convincing, in

-contrast to all the dead, over-worked frescoes round the church. All

-these paintings are too small to be the least effective at the height

-at which they are placed, and can only be seen with a good glass.

-Pisanello's art is not well adapted to wide, frescoed walls, and he

-seems to have enjoyed painting miniature panels, such as the two we

-possess. In these he is full of originality, and shows his love for the

-knightly life, the life of courts, in the armed _cap-a-pied_ figure of

-St. George, whose point-device armour is crowned by a wide Tuscan hat

-and feather. The artist's knowledge and love of animals and wild nature

-comes out in them, and his interest in beauty and chivalry as opposed to

-the outworn conventionalities of ecclesiastic demands.

-

-We shall be able to trace the influence of both the Umbrian and the

-Veronese painter on men like Antonio di Murano and Jacopo Bellini, and

-it is important to note the likeness of the two to one another. In

-Gentile's "Adoration" we have on the one hand the Holy Family and the

-gay pageant of the kings, of which we could find the prototype in many

-an Umbrian panel. On the other we see those contrasting elements which

-were struggling in Pisanello; the delight in flowers and animals, in

-gaily apparelled figures, in dogs and horses. The two have no lasting

-effect, but though they created no actual school, they gave a stimulus

-to Venetian art, and started it on a new tack, enabling it to open its

-channels to fresh ideas. During the time they were in Venice, Jacobello

-del Fiore shows some signs of adapting the new fashion to his early

-style, and the horse of S. Grisogono is very like that of Gentile in the

-"Adoration," or like Pisano's horses. Michele Giambono is actually found

-in collaboration, in the chapel of the Madonna da Mascoli in St. Mark's,

-with such a virile painter as the Florentine, Andrea del Castagno, who

-is evidently responsible for God the Father and two of the Apostles; but

-Castagno must have been thoroughly antipathetic to the Venetians, and

-though he may have taught them the way to draw, he has not left any

-traces of a following.

-

-Facio, writing in 1455, speaks of Gentile's work in the Ducal Palace as

-already decaying, while Pisanello's was painted out by Alvise Vivarini

-and Bellini.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Gentile da Fabriano._

-

- Florence. Academy: Adoration of the Magi.

- Milan.    Brera: Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Altichiero._

-

- Padua. Capella S. Felice, S. Antonio: Frescoes.

-        Capella S. Giorgio, S. Anastasia: The Cavalli Family.

-

-

- _Pisanello._

-

- Padua.  S. Anastasia: St. George and the Dragon.

- Verona. S. Fermo: Annunciation.

- London. S. George and S. Jerome; S. Eustace and the Stag.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IV

-

-THE SCHOOL OF MURANO

-

-

-The important little town of Murano, a satellite of Venice, lies upon an

-island, some ten minutes' row from the mother State, distinct from which

-it preserved separate interests and regulations. Its glass manufacture

-was safeguarded by the most stringent decrees, which forbade members of

-the Guild to leave the islet under pain of death. Its mosaics, stone

-work, and architecture speak of an early artistic existence, and we

-recognise the justice of the claim of Muranese painters to be the first

-to strike out into a more emancipated type than that of the primitives.

-The painter Giovanni of Murano, called Giovanni Alemanus or d' Alemagna,

-names between which Venetian jealousy for a time drew an imaginary

-distinction, had certainly received his early education in Germany, and

-betrays it by his heavier ornamentation and more Gothic style; but he

-was a fellow-worker with Antonio of Murano, the founder of the great

-Vivarini family, and the Academy contains several large altarpieces in

-which they collaborated. "Christ and the Virgin in Glory" was painted

-for a church in Venice in 1440, and has an inscription with both names

-on a banderol across the foreground. The Eternal Father, with His hands

-on the shoulders of the Mother and Son, makes a group of which we find

-the origin in Gentile da Fabriano's altarpiece in the Brera, and it is

-probable that one if not both masters had been studying with the Umbrian

-and absorbing the principles he had brought to Venice. It is easy to

-trace the influence of Giovanni d' Alemagna, though not always easy to

-pick out which part of a picture belongs to him and which to Antonio

-working under his influence. In S. Pantaleone is a "Coronation of the

-Virgin," with Gothic ornaments such as are not found in purely Italian

-art at this period, but the example in which both masters can be most

-closely followed is the great picture in the Academy, the "Madonna

-enthroned," where she sits under a baldaquin surrounded by saints. Here

-the Gothic surroundings become very florid, and have a gingerbread-cake

-effect, which Italian taste would hardly have tolerated. Many features

-are characteristic of the German; the huge crown worn by the Mother, the

-floriated ornament of the quadrangle, the almost baroque appearance of

-the throne. Through it all, heavily repainted as it is, shines the dawn

-of the tender expression which came into Venetian art with Gentile.

-

- [Illustration: _Antonio da Murano._

-                 ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

-                _Berlin._

-                 (_Photo, Hanfstaengl._)]

-

-Giovanni d' Alemagna and Antonio da Murano were no doubt widely

-employed, and when the former died Antonio founded and carried on a

-real school in Venice. In 1446 he was living in the parish of S. Maria

-Formosa with his wife, who was the daughter of a fruit merchant, and the

-wills of both are still preserved in the parish archives. Gentile da

-Fabriano had set the example for gorgeous processions with gay dresses

-and strange animals; winding paths in the background and foreshortened

-limbs prove that attention had been drawn to Paolo Uccello's studies in

-perspective, while many figures and horses recall Pisanello. A striking

-proof of the sojourn of Gentile and Pisanello in Venice is found in an

-"Adoration of Magi," now ascribed to Antonio da Murano, in which the

-central group, the oldest king kissing the Child's foot, is very like

-that in Gentile's "Adoration," but the foreshortened horses and the

-attendants argue the painter's knowledge of Pisanello's work. A

-comparison of the architecture in the background with that in the

-"St. George" in S. Anastasia shows the same derivation, and the dainty

-cavalier, who holds a flag and is in attendance on the youngest king, is

-reminiscent of St. George and St. Eustace in Pisanello's paintings in

-the National Gallery, so that in this one picture the influences of the

-two artists are combined.

-

-Antonio took his younger brother, Bartolommeo, into partnership, and the

-title of da Murano was presently dropped for the more modern designation

-of Vivarini. Both brothers are fine and delicate in work, but from the

-outset of their collaboration the younger man is more advanced and more

-full of the spirit of the innovator. In his altarpiece in the first hall

-of the Academy the Nativity has already a new realism; Joseph leans his

-head upon his hand, crushing up his cheek. The saints are particularly

-vivid in expression, especially the old hermit holding the bell, whose

-face is brimming with ardent feeling.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Giovanni d' Alemanus and Antonio da Murano._

-

- Venice. Christ and the Virgin in Glory; Virgin enthroned, with Saints.

-

-

- _Antonio da Murano._

-

- Berlin. Adoration of Magi.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER V

-

-THE PADUAN INFLUENCE

-

-

-And now into this dawning school, employed chiefly in the service of the

-Church, with its tentative and languid essays to understand Florentine

-composition, resulting in what is scarcely more than a mindless

-imitation, and with its rather more intelligent perception of the

-Humanist qualities of Pisanello's work, there enters a new factor; or

-rather a new agency makes a slightly more successful attempt than

-Gentile and Castagno had done to help the Venetians to realise the

-supreme importance of the human figure, its power in relation to other

-objects to determine space, its modelling and the significance of its

-attitude in conveying movement. Giotto had been able to present all

-these qualities in the human form, but he had done so by the light of

-genius, and had never formulated any sufficient rules for his followers'

-guidance. In Ghiberti's school, at the beginning of the fifteenth

-century, the fascination of the antique in art was making itself felt,

-but Donatello had escaped from the artificial trammels it threatened to

-exercise, and had carried the Florentine school with him in his profound

-researches into the human form itself. Donatello had been working in

-Padua for ten years before Pisanello's death, and in an indirect way the

-Venetians were experiencing some after-results of the systematising and

-formulating of the new pictorial elements. Though the intellectual

-life had met with little encouragement among the positive, practical

-inhabitants of Venice, in Padua, which had been subject to her since

-1405, speculative thought and ideal studies were in full swing. There

-was no re-birth in Venice, whose tradition was unbroken and where "men

-were too genuinely pagan to care about the echo of a paganism in the

-remote past." St. Mark was the deity of Venice, and "the other twelve

-Apostles" were only obscurely connected with her religious life, which

-was strong and orthodox, but untroubled by metaphysical enthusiasms

-and inconvenient heresies. Padua, on the other hand, was absorbed in

-questions of learning and religion. A university had been established

-here for two centuries. The abstract study of the antique was carried on

-with fervour, and the memory of Livy threw a lustre over the city which

-had never quite died out. It seemed perfectly right and respectable to

-the Venetians that the _savants_, lying safely removed from the busy

-stream of commercial life, should cultivate inquiries into theology

-and the classics, which would only have been a hindrance to their own

-practical business; but such, as it was well known, were of absorbing

-interest in the circles which gathered round the Medici in Florence. The

-school of art, which was now arising in Padua, was fed from such sources

-as these. The love of the antique was becoming a fashion and a guiding

-principle, and influenced the art of painting more formally than it

-could succeed in doing among the independent and original Florentines.

-

-Francesco Squarcione, though, as Vasari says, he may not have been the

-best of painters, has left work (now at Berlin) which is accepted as

-genuine and which shows that he was more than the mere organiser he is

-sometimes called. He had travelled in Greece, and was apparently a

-dealer, supplying the demand for classic fragments, which was becoming

-widespread. When he founded his school in Padua he evidently was its

-leading spirit and a powerful artistic influence. His pupils, even the

-greatest, were long in breaking away from his convention, and few of

-them threw it off entirely, even in after life. That convention was

-carried with undeviating thoroughness into every detail. Draperies are

-arranged in statuesque folds, designed to display every turn of the form

-beneath; the figures are moulded with all the precision and limitations

-of statuary. The very landscape becomes sculpturesque, and rocks of a

-volcanic character are constructed with the regularity of masonry. The

-colour and technique are equally uncompromising, and the surface becomes

-a beautiful enamel, unyielding, definite in its lines, lacquer-like in

-its firmness of finish, while the Gothic forms, which had hitherto been

-so prevalent, were replaced by more or less pedantic adaptations from

-Roman bas-reliefs. This system of design was practised most determinedly

-in Padua itself, but it soon spread to Venice. Squarcione himself was

-employed there after 1440, and though Antonio da Murano clung to the old

-archaic style he saw the Paduan manner invading his kingdom, and his own

-brother became strongly Squarcionesque.

-

-The two brothers of Murano come most closely together in an altarpiece

-in the gallery of Bologna, where the framework is more simple than

-Alemanus's German taste would have permitted, and the Madonna and Child

-have some natural ease, and the delicacy of feeling of primitive art.

-Bartolommeo, when he breaks away and sets out to paint by himself, is

-crude and strong, but full of vital force. In his altarpiece of 1464,

-in the Academy, he gives his saints reality by taking them off their

-pedestals and making them stand upon the ground, and though they are

-still isolated from one another in the partitions of an ancona, their

-sparkling eyes, individual features, and curly beards give them a look

-of life. The draperies, thin and clinging, with little rucked folds,

-which display the forms, and the drawing of the bony structure,

-exaggerated in the arms and legs, are Squarcionesque. The rocks and

-stones, too, show the Paduan convention. In several of his other

-altarpieces, Bartolommeo introduces rich ornaments and swags of fruit,

-such as Donatello had first brought to Padua, or which Paduan artists

-delighted to copy from classic columns. Antonio's manner to the end is

-the local Venetian manner, infused as it was with the soft and charming

-influence of Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, but Bartolommeo adopts

-the new and more ambitious style. Though not a very good painter, and

-inclined to be puffy and shapeless in his flesh forms, he was the head

-of a crowd of artists, and works of his school, signed _Opus factum_,

-went all over Italy, and are found as far south as Bari. Works of his

-pupils are numerous; the "St. Mark enthroned" in the Frari is as good if

-not better than the master's own work, and the triptych in the Correr

-Museum is a free imitation.

-

-Round this early school gathered such painters as Antonio da Negroponte

-and Quirizio da Murano, who were both working in 1450. Negroponte has

-left an enthroned Madonna in S. Francesco della Vigna, which is one of

-the most beautiful examples of colour and of the fanciful charm of the

-Renaissance that the early art of Venice has to show. The Mother and

-Child are placed in a marble shrine, adorned with antique reliefs, rich

-wreaths of fruit swag above her head, a little Gothic loggia is full of

-flowers and fruit, and birds are perched on cornucopias. On either

-side, four badly drawn little angels, with ugly faces and awkwardly

-foreshortened forms, foreshadow the beautiful, music-making angels which

-became such a feature of North Italian art. The Divine Mother, adoring

-the Child lying across her knees, has an exquisite, pensive face,

-conceived with all the delicacy and simplicity of early art. It seems

-quite possible, as Professor Leonello Venturi suggests, that we have

-here the early master of Crivelli, in whom we find the love of fruit

-garlands, of chains of beads and rich brocades carried to its farthest

-limits, who takes keen pleasure in introducing the ugly but lively

-little angels, and who gives the same pensive and almost mincing

-expression to his Madonnas.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Antonio da Murano and Bartolommeo Vivarini._

-

- Bologna. Altarpiece.

-

-

- _Bartolommeo Vivarini._

-

- Venice. Academy: Altarpiece, 1464; Two Saints.

-         Frari: Madonna and four Saints.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna and two Saints.

-         S. Maria Formosa: Triptych.

- London. Madonna and Saints.

- Vienna. S. Ambrose and Saints.

-

-

- _Antonio da Negroponte._

-

- Venice. S. Francesco della Vigna: Altarpiece.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VI

-

-JACOPO BELLINI

-

-

-While Venice was assimilating the spirit of the school of Squarcione,

-which in the next few years was to be rendered famous by Mantegna,

-another influence was asserting itself, which was sufficient to

-counteract the hard formalism of Paduan methods.

-

-When Gentile da Fabriano left Venice, he carried with him, and presently

-established with him in Florence, a young man, Jacopo Bellini, who had

-already been working with him and Pisanello, and who was an ardent

-disciple of the new naturalistic and humanist movement. Both Gentile and

-his apprentice were subjected to annoyance from the time they arrived in

-Florence, where the strict regulations which governed the Guilds made it

-very difficult for any newcomer to practise his art. The records of a

-police case report that on the 11th of June 1423 some young men, among

-them, one, Bernabo di San Silvestri, the son of a notary, were observed

-throwing stones into the painter's room. His assistant, Jacopo Bellini,

-came out and drove the assailants away with blows, but Bernabo, accusing

-Jacopo of assault, the latter was committed to prison in default of

-payment. After six months' imprisonment, a compromise of the fine and a

-penitential declaration set him at liberty. The accounts declare that

-Gentile took no steps to be of service to his follower; but Jacopo soon

-after married a girl from Pesaro, and his first son was christened after

-his old master, which does not look as though they were on unfriendly

-terms. Jacopo travelled in the Romagna, and was much esteemed by the

-Estes of Ferrara, but he was back in Venice in 1430. He has left us only

-three signed works, and one or two more have lately been attributed to

-him, but they give very little idea of what an important master he was.

-

- [Illustration: _Jacopo Bellini._

-                 AGONY IN GARDEN--DRAWING.

-                _British Museum._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-His Madonna in the Academy has a round, simple type of face, and in the

-Louvre Madonna, which is attributed but not signed, it is easy to

-recognise the same arched eyebrows and half-shut, curved eyelids. In

-this picture, where the Madonna blesses the kneeling Leonello d' Este,

-we see how Pisanello acted on Jacopo and, through him, on Venetian art.

-The connection between the two masters has been established in a very

-interesting way by Professor Antonio Venturi's discovery of a sonnet,

-written in 1441, which recounts how they painted rival portraits of

-Leonello, and how Bellini made so lively a likeness that he was

-adjudged the first place. The landscape in the Louvre picture is

-advanced in treatment, and with its gilded mountain-tops, its stag and

-its town upon the hill-side, is full of reminiscences of Pisanello,

-especially of the "St. George" in S. Anastasia. We come upon such

-traces, too, in Jacopo's drawings, and it is by his two sketch-books

-that we can best judge of his greatness. One of these is in the British

-Museum; the other, in the Louvre, was discovered not many years ago in

-the granary of a castle in Guyenne. These drawings reveal Jacopo as one

-of the greatest masters of his day. He is larger, simpler, and more

-natural than Pisanello, and he apparently cares less for the human

-figure than for elaborate backgrounds and surroundings. Many of his

-designs we shall refer to again when we come to speak of his two sons.

-His "Supper of Herod" reminds us of Masolino's fresco at Castiglione

-d' Olona. He sketches designs for numbers of religious scenes, treated

-in an original and interesting manner. A "Crucifixion" has bands of

-soldiers ranged on either side, an "Adoration of the Magi" has a string

-of camels coming down the hill, the executioners in a "Scourging" wear

-Eastern head-dresses. In a sketch for a "Baptism of Christ" tall angels

-hold the garments in the early traditional way; on one side two play

-the lute and the violin, while the two on the other side have a trumpet

-and an organ. He has sketches for the Ascension, Resurrection,

-Circumcision, and Entombment, repeated over and over again with

-variations, and one of S. Bernardino preaching in Venice (where he was

-in 1427). Jacopo delights even more in fanciful and mythological than in

-sacred subjects. A tournament with spectators, a Faun riding a lion, a

-"Triumph of Bacchus" with panthers, are among such essays. The fauns

-pipe, the wine-god bears a vase of fruit. His love of animals is equal

-to that of Pisanello, and S. Hubert and the stag with the crucifix

-between its horns is directly reminiscent of the Veronese. His horses,

-of which there are immense numbers, sometimes look as if copied from

-ancient bas-reliefs. His treatment of single nude figures is often

-poor and weak enough, and his rocks have the flat-topped, geological

-formation of the Paduan School, but no one who so drank in every

-description of lively scene about him could have been in any danger of

-becoming a mere archeological type, and it was from this pitfall that he

-rescued Mantegna. To judge by his drawings, Jacopo did not overlook any

-source of art open to him; he delights in the rich research of the

-Paduans as much as in the varieties of wild nature and all the incidents

-of contemporary life first annexed by Pisanello. He is often very like

-Gentile da Fabriano, he makes raids into Uccello's domains of

-perspective, he is frankly mundane and draws a revel of satyrs and

-centaurs with a real interpretation of the lyrical and pagan spirit of

-the Greeks, and he has an idealism of the soul, which found its full

-expression in his son, Giovanni. We cannot call Jacopo Bellini the

-founder of the Venetian School, for its makings existed already, but it

-was his influence on his sons which, above all, was accountable for the

-development of early excellence. His long, flowing lines have a sweep

-and a fanciful grace which form an absolute antidote to the definite,

-geometrical Paduan convention. In Jacopo we see the thorough

-assimilation of those foreign elements which were in sympathy with

-the Venetian atmosphere, and while up to now Venice had only imbibed

-influences, she was soon to create for herself an artistic _milieu_ and

-to become the leader of the movement of painting in the north of Italy.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Jacopo Bellini._

-

- Brescia. Annunciation and Predelle.

- Verona.  Christ on Cross.

- Venice.  Academy: Madonna.

-          Museo Correr: Crucifixion.

- London.  British Museum: Sketch-book.

- Paris.   Madonna and Leonello d' Este: Sketch-book.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VII

-

-CARLO CRIVELLI

-

-

-We must turn aside from the main stream when we come to speak of Carlo

-Crivelli, who, important master as he was, occupies a place by himself.

-A pupil of the Vivarini and perhaps, as we have noted, of Antonio

-Negroponte, Crivelli was profoundly influenced by the Paduans, from whom

-he learned that metallic, finished quality of paint which he carried to

-perfection. Crivelli shows intellect, individuality, even genius, in the

-way in which he grapples with his medium and produces his own reading,

-and the circumstances of his life were such as to throw him in upon

-himself and to preserve his originality. His little early "Madonna and

-Child" at Verona is linked with that of Negroponte by the elaborate

-festoons, strings of beads, and large-patterned brocades used in the

-surroundings, and has those ugly, foreshortened little _putti_, holding

-the instruments of the Passion, of the type elaborated by Squarcione and

-Marco Zoppo, and which, in their improved state, we are accustomed to

-think of as Mantegnesque.

-

-When Crivelli was thirty-eight years old, he was condemned to six

-months' imprisonment and to a fine of two hundred lire for an outrage

-on a neighbour's wife. Perhaps it was to escape from an unenviable

-reputation that he left Venice soon after and set up painting in the

-Marches, where he lived from 1468 to 1473. He then went on to Camerino

-in Umbria, where his great triptych, now in the Brera, was painted,

-and a few years later he was in Ascoli, with a commission for an

-Annunciation in the Cathedral. This is the picture now in the National

-Gallery, in which the Bishop holds a model of the Duomo. After 1490 he

-worked in little towns in the Marches, and is not mentioned after 1493.

-He does not seem ever to have come back to Venice.

-

-Shut up in the Marches, where there was little strong local talent, and

-where he could not keep up with the progress that was taking place in

-Venice, he was obliged himself to supply the artistic movement. He kept

-the Squarcionesque traditions to the end, but moulded them by his own

-love of rich and exuberant decoration. Moreover, he was of a very

-intense religious bias, and this finds a deeply touching and mystical

-expression, more especially in his Pietas. The love of gilded patterns

-and fanciful detail was deep-seated in all the Umbrian country. His

-altarpieces were intended as sumptuous additions to rich churches, and

-were consequently arranged, with many divisions, in the old Muranese

-manner. His great ancona, in the National Gallery, is a marvel of

-elaborate ornament and enamel-like painting. The Madonna is delicate,

-almost affected in her refinement. Her long fingers hold the Child's

-garment with the extreme of dainty precision, the croziers and rings of

-the saints and bishops are embossed with gold and real jewels. The

-flowers in the panel of "The Immaculate Conception," which hangs beside

-it, are twisted into heads of mythological beasts and grotesques or

-cherubs; but Crivelli has plenty of strength, and his male saints have

-vigorous, bony limbs and fierce fanatical eyes. It is, however, in his

-colour that he charms us most, and though he does not touch the real

-fount, he is of all the earlier school the most remarkable for subtle

-tender tones and lovely harmonies of olive-greens and faded rose and

-cream embossed with gold.

-

-Crivelli continued executing one great ancona after another, limiting

-his progress to perfecting his technique, and his influence was most

-deeply felt by such Umbrian painters as Lorenzo di San Severino and

-Niccola Alunno. The honours paid him testify to the reputation he

-acquired. He was created a knight and presented with a golden laurel

-wreath. But though he never, that we can hear of, revisited his native

-State, he always adds _Venetus_ to the signature on his paintings, a

-fact which tells us that far from Venice and in provincial districts,

-her prestige was felt and gave his work an enhanced commercial value.

-He had no after-influence upon the Venetian School, and in this respect

-is interesting as an example of the tenacity exercised by the

-Squarcionesque methods, when, unchecked by any counter-attraction, they

-came to act upon a very different temperament; for in his love of grace

-and beauty and of rich effects, and especially in his intensity of

-mystic feeling, Crivelli is a true Venetian and has no natural affinity

-with the classic spirit of the Paduans.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Venice. SS. Jerome and Augustine.

- Ascoli. Duomo: Altarpiece and Pieta.

- Berlin. Madonna and six Saints.

- London. Pieta; The Blessed Ferretti; Madonna and Saints; Annunciation;

-           Ancona in thirteen compartments; The Immaculate Conception.

-         Mr. Benson: Madonna.

-         Sir Francis Cook: Madonna enthroned.

-         Mond Collection: SS. Peter and Paul.

-         Lord Northbrook: Madonna; Resurrection; Saints; Crucifixion;

-           Madonna; Madonna and Saints.

- Milan. Brera: SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino; SS. Anthony Abbot,

-          Jerome, and Andrew.

-        Poldi-Pezzoli: S. Francis in Adoration.

- Rome.  Vatican: Pieta.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER VIII

-

-GENTILE BELLINI AND ANTONELLO DA MESSINA

-

-

-What, then, is the position which art has achieved in Venice a decade

-after the middle of the fourteenth century, and how does she compare

-with the Florentine School? The Florentines, Fra Angelico, Andrea del

-Castagno, and Pesellino were lately dead. Antonio Pollaiuolo was in his

-prime, Fra Lippo was fifty-four, Paolo Uccello was sixty-three. But

-though the progress in the north had been slower, art both in Padua and

-Venice was now in vigorous progress. Bartolommeo Vivarini was still

-painting and gathering round him a numerous band of followers; Mantegna

-was thirty, had just completed the frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel and

-the famous altarpiece in S. Zeno; and Gentile and Giovanni Bellini were

-two and four years his seniors.

-

-Francesco Negro, writing in the early years of the sixteenth century,

-speaks of Gentile as the elder son of Jacopo Bellini. Giovanni is

-thought to have been an illegitimate son, as Jacopo's widow only

-mentions Gentile and another son, Niccolo, in her will. There is every

-reason to believe that, as was natural, the two brothers were the pupils

-and assistants of their father. A "Madonna" in the Mond Collection, the

-earliest known of Gentile's works, shows him imitating his father's

-style; but when his sister, Niccolosia, married Mantegna in 1453, it is

-not surprising to find him following Mantegna's methods for a time, and

-a fresco of St. Mark in the Scuola di San Marco, an important commission

-which he received in 1466, is taken direct from Mantegna's fresco at

-Padua.

-

-As the Bellini matured, they abandoned the Squarcionesque tradition and

-evolved a style of their own; Gentile as much as his even more famous

-brother. Gentile is the first chronicler of the men and manners of his

-time. In 1460 he settled in Venice, and was appointed to paint the organ

-doors in St. Mark's. These large saints, especially the St. Mark, still

-recall the Paduan period. They have festoons of grapes and apples hung

-from the architectural ornaments, and the cast of drapery, showing the

-form beneath, reminds us of Mantegna's figures. But Gentile soon becomes

-an illustrator and portrait painter. Much of his work was done in the

-Scuola of St. Mark, where his father had painted, and this was destroyed

-by fire in 1485. Early, too, is the fine austere portrait of Lorenzo

-Giustiniani, in the Academy. In 1479 an emissary from the Sultan

-Mehemet arrived in Venice and requested the Signoria to recommend a good

-painter and a man clever at portraits. Gentile was chosen, and departed

-in September for Constantinople. He painted many subjects for the

-private apartments of the Sultan, as well as the famous portrait now in

-the possession of Lady Layard. It would be difficult for a historic

-portrait to show more insight into character. The face is cold, weary,

-and sensual, with all the over-refined look of an old race and a long

-civilisation, and has a melancholy note in its distant and satiated

-gaze. The Sultan showed Gentile every mark of favour, loaded him with

-presents, and bestowed on him the title of Bey. He returned home in

-1493, bringing with him many sketches of Eastern personages and the

-picture, now in the Louvre, representing the reception of a Venetian

-Embassy by the Grand Vizier. Some five years before Gentile's commission

-to Constantinople Antonello da Messina had arrived in Venice, and the

-spread and popularisation of oil-painting had hastened the casting off

-of outworn ecclesiastical methods and brought the painters nearer to the

-truth of life. Antonello did not actually introduce oils to the notice

-of Venetian painters, for Bartolommeo Vivarini was already using them in

-1473, but he was well known by reputation before he arrived, and having

-probably come into contact with Flemish painters in Naples, he had had

-better opportunities of seizing upon the new technique, and was able to

-establish it both in Milan and in Venice. A large number of Venetians

-were at this time resident in Messina: the families of Lombardo,

-Gradenigo, Contarini, Bembo, Morosini, and Foscarini were among those

-who had members settled there. Many of these were patrons of art, and

-probably paved the way to Antonello's reception in Venice. At first all

-the traits of Antonello's early work are Flemish: the full mantles,

-white linen caps and tuckers, the straight sharp folds and long wings of

-the angels have much of Van Eyck, but when he gets to Venice in 1475,

-its colour and life fascinate him, and a great change comes over his

-work. His portraits show that he grasped a new intensity of life,

-and let us into the character of the men he saw around him. His

-"Condottiere," in the Louvre, declares the artist's recognition of

-that truculent and formidable being, full of aristocratic disdain, the

-product of a daring, unscrupulous life. The "Portrait of a Humanist,"

-in the Castello in Milan, is classic in its deepest sense; and in the

-Trivulzio College at Milan an older man looks at us out of sly,

-expressive eyes, with characteristic eyebrows and kindly, half-cynical

-mouth. It was not wonderful that these portraits, combined with the new

-medium, worked upon Gentile's imagination and determined his bent.

-

-The first examples of great canvases, illustrating and celebrating

-their own pageants, must have mightily pleased the Venetians. Scenes

-in the style of the reception of the Venetian ambassadors were called

-for on all hands, and when the excellence of Gentile's portraits was

-recognised, he became the model for all Venice. When his own and his

-father's and brother's paintings perished by fire in 1485, he offered

-to replace them "quicker than was humanly possible" and at a very low

-price. Giovanni, who had been engaged on the external decorations, was

-ill at the time, but the Signoria was so pleased with the offer that it

-was decided to let no one touch the work till the two brothers were

-able to finish it. Gentile still painted religious altarpieces with the

-Virgin and Child enthroned with saints, but most of his time was devoted

-to the production of his great canvases. Some of these have disappeared,

-but the "Procession" and "Miracle of the Cross," commissioned by the

-school of S. Giovanni Evangelista, are now in the Academy, and the

-third canvas, executed for the same school, "St. Mark preaching at

-Alexandria," which was unfinished at the time of his death, and was

-completed by his brother, is in the Brera.

-

- [Illustration: _Gentile Bellini._

-                 PROCESSION OF THE HOLY CROSS.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-These great compositions of crowds bring back for us the Venice of

-Gentile's day as no verbal description can do. There is no especial

-richness of colour; the light is that of broad day in the Piazza and

-among the luminous waterways of the city. We can see the scene any

-day now in the wide square, making allowance for the difference of

-costume. The groups are set about in the ample space, with the wonderful

-cathedral as a background. St. Mark's has been painted hundreds of

-times, but no one has ever given such a good idea of it as Gentile--of

-its stateliness and beauty, of its wealth of detail; and he does so

-without detracting from the general effect, for St. Mark's, though the

-keynote of the whole composition, is kept subservient, and is part of

-the stage on which the scene is enacted. The procession passes along,

-carrying the relics, attended by the waxlights and the banners. Behind

-the reliquary kneels the merchant, Jacopo Salo, petitioning for the

-recovery of his wounded son. Then come the musicians; the spectators

-crowd round, they strain forward to see the chief part of the cortege,

-as a crowd naturally does. Some watch with reverence, others smile or

-have a negligent air. The faces of the candle-bearers are very like

-those we may see to-day in a great Church procession: some absorbed in

-their task, or uplifted by inner thoughts; others looking curiously

-and sceptically at the crowd. Gentile tries in his crowds to bring

-together all the types of life in Venice, all the officials and the

-ecclesiastical world, the young and old. With a few strokes he creates

-the individual and also the type;--the careless rover; the responsible

-magistrate; the shrewd, practical man of business; the young men, full

-of their own plans, but pausing to look on at one of the great religious

-sights of their city. In the "Finding of the Cross" he produces the

-effect of the whole city _en fete_. It was a sight which often met his

-eyes. The Doge made no fewer than thirty-six processions annually to

-various churches of the city, and on fourteen of these occasions he was

-accompanied by the whole of the nobles dressed in their State robes.

-Every event of importance was seized on by the Venetian ladies as an

-opportunity for arraying themselves in the richest attire, cloth of gold

-and velvet, plumes and jewels. Gentile has massed the ladies of Queen

-Catherine Cornaro's Court around their Queen upon the left side of the

-canal. The light from above streams upon the keeper of the School, who

-holds the sacred relic on high. All round are the old, irregular

-Venetian houses, and in the crowd he paints the variety of men he saw

-around him every day in Venice. Yet even in this animated scene he

-retains his old quattrocento calm. The groups are decorously assisting:

-only here and there he is drawn off to some small detail of reality,

-such as an oarsman dexterously turning his boat, or the maid letting the

-negro servant pass out to take a header into the canal. The spectators

-look on coolly at one more of the oft-seen, miraculous events. The

-committee, kneeling at the side, is a row of unforgettable portraits,

-grave, benign, sour, and austere, with bald head or flowing hair. In

-this composition he triumphs over all difficulties of perspective; our

-eye follows the canals, and the boats pass away under the bridge in

-atmospheric light. All the joy of Venice is in that play of light on

-broad brick surfaces, light which is cast up from the water and dances

-and shimmers on the marble facades.

-

-Gentile made his will in 1502, as well as others in 1505 and 1506. He

-left word that he was to be buried in SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and begged

-his brother Giovanni to finish the work in the Scuola, in return for

-which he is to receive their father's sketch-book. The unfinished piece

-is the "St. Mark preaching at Alexandria," and it shows Gentile still

-developing his capacity as a painter. It is pale in colour but brilliant

-in sunlight. The mass of white given by the head-dresses of the Turkish

-women is cleverly subdued so as not to detract from the effect of the

-sunlight. The thronged effect of the great square is studied with more

-than his usual care, and the faces have all the old individuality. The

-foremost figures in the crowd have a colour and richness which we may

-attribute to Giovanni's hand.

-

-Gentile was always fully employed, and the detailed paintings of

-functions became very popular; but he was a far less modern painter

-than his brother, and, in fact, they represent two distinct artistic

-generations, though Gentile's work was so much the most elaborate and,

-as the quattrocento would have thought, the most ambitious.

-

-Gentile is essentially the historic painter, yet his is a grave, sincere

-art, and he has an unerring instinct for the right incidents to include.

-He cuts out all unseemly trivialities, his actors are stern, powerful

-men, the treatment is historic and contemporary, but not gossipy. We

-realise the look of the Venice of his day, in all its tide of human

-nature, but we also feel that he never forgot that he was chronicling

-the doings of a city of strong men, and that he must paint them, even in

-their hours of relaxation and emotion, so as to convey the real dignity

-and power which underlay all the events of the Republic.

-

-We gather from his will and that of his wife that they had no children,

-which perhaps makes the more natural the affectionate terms upon which

-he remained all through his life with his brother. Their artistic

-sympathies must have differed widely. Gentile's love for historical

-research, for costume and for pageants, found no echo in the deeper

-idealism of Giovanni--indeed, his offer of the famous sketch-book, as an

-inducement to the latter to finish his last great work, seems to hint

-that it was an exercise out of his brother's line; but he knew that

-Giovanni was a great painter, and did not trust it, as we might have

-expected, to his assistants, Giovanni Mansueti and Girolamo da

-Santacroce.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Gentile Bellini._

-

- London. S. Peter Martyr; Portrait.

- Milan.  Brera: Preaching of St. Mark.

- Venice. Doge Lorenzo Giustiniani; Miracle of True Cross; Procession of

-           True Cross; Healing by True Cross.

-         Lady Layard. Portrait of Sultan.

-

-

- _Antonello da Messina._

-

- Antwerp. Crucifixion, 1475.

- Berlin.  Three Portraits.

- London.  The Saviour, 1465; Portrait; Crucifixion, 1477.

- Messina. Madonna and Saints, 1473.

- Paris.   Condottiere.

- Milan.   Portrait of a Humanist.

- Venice.  Academy: Ecce Homo.

- Vicenza. Christ at the Column.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER IX

-

-ALVISE VIVARINI

-

-

-Contemporary with Giovanni Bellini were artists still firmly attached to

-the past, who were far from suspecting that he was to outstrip them.

-

-One of Antonio de Murano's sons, Luigi or Alvise Vivarini, grew up to

-follow his father's profession, and was enrolled in the school of his

-uncle, Bartolommeo. The latter being an enthusiastic follower of

-Squarcione, Alvise was at first trained in Paduan principles. Jacopo

-Bellini's efforts had done something to counteract the hard, statuesque

-Paduan manner, and had rendered Mantegna's art more human and less

-stony, but Jacopo could not prevent Squarcionesque painters from

-importing into Venice the style which he disliked so much. Bartolommeo

-threw in his lot with the Paduans, and his school, especially when

-reinforced by Alvise, maintained its reputation as long as it only

-had to compete with local talent. The Vivarinis had now been firmly

-established in Venice for two generations, and were the best-known and

-most popular of her painters. Albert Duerer, on his first visit, admired

-them more than the Bellini. When, however, Gentile and his brother set

-up in Venice, a hot rivalry arose between them and the old Muranese

-School. The Bellini had come with their father from Padua, with all its

-new and scientific fashions. They had all the prestige of relationship

-with Mantegna, and they shared the patronage of his powerful employers.

-The striking historical compositions of Gentile were at once in demand

-by the great confraternities. Bartolommeo had never been very successful

-in his dealing with oil-painting, though he had dabbled in it for some

-years before Antonello da Messina came his way, but the perception with

-which the Bellini at once grasped the new technique gave them the

-victory. We have only to compare the formless contours of much of

-Bartolommeo Vivarini's work, the bladder-like flesh-painting of the

-Holy Child, with the clear luminous colour and firm delicate touch of

-Gentile, to see that the one man is leagues ahead of the other.

-

-Alvise Vivarini had more natural affinity with his father than with his

-uncle. He never becomes so exaggerated in his forms as Bartolommeo. The

-expression of his faces is much deeper and more inward, and he has

-something of the devotional sweetness of early art. His first known

-work is an ancona of 1475 at Montefiorentino, in a lonely Franciscan

-monastery on the spurs of the Apennines. In the centre of the five

-panels the Madonna sits with her hands pressed palm to palm, in

-adoration of the Child asleep across her knees. The painter here follows

-the tradition of his father and uncle, especially in the Bologna

-altarpiece, in which they collaborated in 1450. Four saints stand on

-either side, framed in Gothic panels; it is all in the old way, and

-it is only by degrees that we see there is more sweetness in the

-expression, better modelling in the figures, and a slenderer, more

-graceful outline than the earlier anconae can show. Only five years after

-this ancona at Montefiorentino, with its stiff rows of isolated saints,

-we have the altarpiece in the Academy "of 1480," which was painted for a

-church in Treviso, and here a great change is immediately apparent. The

-antiquated division into panels has disappeared, nothing is left of the

-artificial, Squarcionesque decorations, the attitudes are simple, and

-the scene is a united one. The Madonna's outstretched hand, the

-suggestion of "Ecce Agnus Dei," makes an appeal which draws the

-attention of all the saints to one point, and it is made plain that the

-one idea pervades the entire assembly. The curtain, which symbolises the

-sanctuary, still hangs behind the throne, but the gold background is

-abandoned. Alvise has not indeed, as yet, imagined any landscape or

-constructed an interior, but he lightens the effect by two arched

-windows which let in the sky. The forms are characteristic of his

-idea of drawing the human figure; they have the long thighs with the

-knees low down, which we are accustomed to find, and he constructs a

-very fine and sharply contrasted scheme of light and shade. There is no

-trace of the statuesque Paduan draperies. The Virgin's brocaded mantle

-is simply draped, and the robes of the saints hang in long straight

-folds. No doubt Alvise, though nominally the rival of the Bellini, has

-more affinity with them, particularly with Giovanni, than with the

-Paduan artists, and as time goes on it is evident that he paints with

-many glances at what they were doing. In the altarpiece in Berlin he

-constructs an elaborate cupola above the Virgin, such as Bellini was

-already using. His saints are full of movement. In the end he begins to

-attitudinise and to display those artificial graces which were presently

-accentuated by Lotto.

-

- [Illustration: _Alvise Vivarini._

-                 ALTARPIECE OF 1480.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-In 1488 the two Bellini had for some time been employed in the Sala del

-Gran Consiglio by the Council of Ten. Alvise, with his busy school, had

-hoped, but hitherto in vain, to be invited to enter into competition

-with them. At length he wrote the following letter:--

-

-     TO THE MOST SERENE THE PRINCE AND THE MOST EXCELLENT

-     SIGNORIA--I am Alvise of Murano, a faithful servant of your

-     Serenity and of this most illustrious State. I have long been

-     anxious to exercise my skill before your Sublimity and prove

-     that continued study and labour on my part have not been

-     useless. Therefore offer, as a humble subject, in honour and

-     praise of that celebrated city, to devote myself, without

-     return of payment or reward, to the duty of producing a canvas

-     in the Sala del Gran Consiio, according to the method at

-     present in use by the two brothers Bellinii, and I ask no more

-     for the said canvas than that I should be allowed the expenses

-     of the cloth and colours as well as the wages of the

-     journeymen, in the manner that has been granted to the said

-     Bellinii. When I have done I shall leave to your Serenity of

-     his goodness to give me in his wisdom the price which shall be

-     adjudged to be just, honest, and appropriate, in return for the

-     labour, which I shall be enabled, I trust, to continue to the

-     universal satisfaction of your Serenity and of all the

-     excellent Government, to the grace of which I most heartily

-     commend myself.

-

-The "method at present in use" was presumably the oil-painting

-established by Antonello, which was now being made use of to replace

-the decorations in fresco and tempera which Guariento, Pisanello, and

-Gentile da Fabriano had executed, and which were constantly decaying and

-suffering from the sea air and the dampness of the climate. The Council

-accepted Alvise's offer with little delay, and he was told to paint a

-picture for a space hitherto occupied by one of Pisanello's, and was

-given a salary of sixty ducats a year, something less than that drawn by

-Giovanni Bellini. Unfortunately his work, scenes from the history of

-Barbarossa, perished in the great fire of 1577.

-

-Venice is rich in works which show us what sort of painter was at the

-head of the Muranese School at the time when it rivalled that of the

-Bellini. Alvise has two reading saints on either side of the altarpiece

-of 1480, and of these the Baptist is one of his best figures, "admirably

-expressive of tension and of brooding thought." It is large and free in

-stroke, and particularly advanced in the treatment of the foliage. Close

-by hangs a character-study of St. Clare; type of a strenuous, fanatical

-old woman, one which belongs not only to the period, but will be

-recognised by every student of human nature. Formidable and even cruel

-is her unflinching gaze; she is such a figure as might have stood for

-Scott's Prioress, and looks as little likely to show mercy to an erring

-member of her order. In contrast, there is the exquisite little "Madonna

-and Child" with the two baby angels, still shown as a Bellini in the

-sacristy of the Church of the Redentore. It is the most absolutely

-simple and direct picture of the kind painted in Venice. The baby life

-is more perfect than anything that Gian. Bellini produced, and if much

-less intellectual than his Madonnas, there is all the tender charm of

-the primitives, combined with a freedom of drapery and a softness of

-form which could not be surpassed. The two little angels are more

-mundane in spirit than those of the school of Bellini; they have nothing

-of the mystical quality, though we are reminded of Bellini, and the

-painting is an exercise in his manner. In the sacristy of San Giobbe is

-an early Annunciation, which is now definitely assigned to Alvise. It

-has the old tender sentiment, and the carnations of its draperies are of

-a lovely tint. The priests of S. Giovanni in Bragora were great patrons

-of the school of the Vivarini, for here, besides several works by

-Bartolommeo and his assistants, is a little Madonna in a side chapel,

-which may be compared with the Redentore picture. The Mother sits inside

-a room, with the Child lying across her knees in the same pose. The two

-arched openings in the background of the 1480 altarpiece have become

-windows, through which we look out on a charming landscape of lake and

-mountain. In the same church a "Resurrection" is not to be overlooked.

-It was executed in 1498, and some of the grace and beauty of the

-sixteenth century has crept into it. Against the pink flush of dawn

-stands the swaying figure of the risen Christ, and below appear the

-heads of the two guards, looking up, surprised and joyful. It is perhaps

-the very earliest example of that soft and sensuous feeling, that

-rhapsody of sensation which was presently to sweep like a flood over the

-art of Venice. "What a time must the dawn of the sixteenth century have

-been when a man of seventy, and not the most vigorous and advanced of

-his age, had the freshness and youthful courage to greet it; nay,

-actually to depict its magic and glamour as Alvise does in the

-'Resurrection'! Giorgione is here anticipated in the roundness and

-softness of the figures, and in the effect of light. Titian's Assunta is

-foreshadowed in the fervour of the guards' expressions." Alvise, if he

-never thoroughly mastered the structure of the nude, and if his forms

-keep throughout some touch of the archaic, some awkwardness in the

-thickness of the figures, with their round heads, long thighs, and

-uncertain proportions, is yet extraordinarily refined and tender in

-sentiment, his line has a natural flow and beauty, and the heads of his

-Madonnas and saints cannot be surpassed in loveliness.

-

-His death came when the noble altarpiece to St. Ambrogio in the Frari

-was still unfinished, and it was completed by his assistant, Marco

-Basaiti. The execution is heavy and probably of Basaiti, but the

-venerable doctor is a grand figure, and the two young soldier saints on

-his right and left hand are striking examples of the beauty we claim

-for him. The architectural plan is very elaborate, but altogether

-successful. The group is set beneath an arched vault supported by

-columns and cornices. Overhead, behind a balustrade, is placed a

-coronation of the Virgin. The many figures are grouped so as not to

-interfere with each other, and the sword of St. George, the crozier of

-St. Gregory, and the crook of St. Ambrose break up the composition and

-give length and line. The faces of the saints are extremely beautiful,

-and the two angels making music below compare well with those of the

-Bellinesque School.

-

-The portraits Alvise has left add to his reputation, and remind us of

-those of Antonello da Messina, particularly in the vital expression

-of the eyes, though they are without Antonello's intense force. The

-"Bernardo di Salla" and the "Man feeding a Hawk," though some critics

-still ascribe them to Savoldo, have features which make their

-attribution to Alvise almost certainly correct. Indeed, the resemblance

-of Bernardo to the Madonna in the 1480 altarpiece cannot escape the most

-unscientific observer. There is the same inflated nostril, the

-peculiarly curved mouth, and vivacious eyes.

-

-Among the followers of Alvise, Marco Basaiti, Bartolommeo Montagna, and

-Lorenzo Lotto are the most distinguished. Others less direct are

-Giovanni Buonconsiglio and Francesco Bonsignori, while Cima da

-Conegliano was for a short time his greatest pupil. We shall return to

-these later.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.  Madonna enthroned, with six Saints.

- London.  Portrait of Youth.

- Milan.   Bonomi-Cereda Collection: Portrait of a Man.

- Naples.  Madonna with SS. Francis and Bernardino.

- Paris.   Portrait of Bernardo di Salla.

- Venice.  Academy: Seven panels of single Saints; Madonna and six Saints,

-            1480.

-          Frari: S. Ambrose enthroned.

-          S. Giovanni in Bragora: Madonna adoring Child; Resurrection

-            and Predelle.

-          Redentore: Sacristy: Madonna and Child, with Angels.

- Vienna.  Madonna.

- Windsor. Man feeding a Hawk.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER X

-

-CARPACCIO

-

-

-Vittore Carpaccio was Gentile Bellini's most faithful pupil. He and his

-master stand apart in having, before the arrival of the Venetian School

-proper, captured an aspect and a charm inspired by the natural beauty

-of the City of the Sea. Gentile, as we have seen, paints her historic

-appearance, and Carpaccio gives us something of the delight we feel

-to-day in her translucent waters and her ample, sea-washed spaces

-flooded with limpid light. While others were absorbed in assimilating

-extraneous influences, he goes on his own way, painting, indeed, the

-scenes that were asked for, but painting them in his own manner and with

-his own enjoyment.

-

-Pageant-pictures had been the demand of the Venetian State from very

-early days. The first use of painting had been that made by the Church

-to glorify religion, and very soon the State had followed, using it to

-enhance the love which Venetians bore to their city, and to bring home

-to them the consciousness of its greatness and glory. Pageants and

-processions were an integral part of Venetian life. The people looked

-on at them, often as they occurred, with more pride and sense of

-proprietorship than a Londoner does at a coronation procession or at the

-King going in state to open Parliament. The Venetian loved splendour and

-beauty and the story of the city's great achievements, and nothing

-provided so welcome a subject for the decoration of the great public

-halls as portrayals of the events which had made Venice famous. Artists

-had been employed to produce these as early as the end of the fourteenth

-century, and those of the Bellini and Alvise Vivarini (which perished in

-the great fire) were a rendering on modern lines of the same subjects,

-satisfying the more advanced feeling for truth and beauty.

-

-Besides the Church and the public Government, we have already seen the

-"Schools," as they were called, becoming important employers. These

-schools were the great organised confraternities in the cause of charity

-and mutual help, which sprang up in Venice in the fifteenth century.

-That of St. Mark was naturally the foremost, but others were banded each

-under their patron saint. Each attracted numbers of rich patrons, for it

-was the fashion to belong to the confraternities. Riches and endowments

-rolled in, and halls for meeting and for transacting business were

-built, and were adorned with pictures setting forth the legends of

-their patron saints. We have already seen Gentile Bellini employed in

-the schools of San Marco and San Giovanni, and now the schools of St.

-Ursula and St. George gave commissions to Carpaccio, or perhaps it would

-be more correct to say that Gentile, having become pre-eminent in this

-art, provided employment for his pupil and assistant, and that by

-degrees Carpaccio became a _maestro_ on his own account.

-

-A host of second-rate painters were plying side by side, disciples

-first of one master, then drawn off to become followers of a second;

-assimilating the influence first of one workshop and then of another.

-Carpaccio has been lately identified as a pupil of Lazzaro Bastiani, who

-had a school in Venice, and the recent attribution to this painter of

-the "Doge before the Madonna," in the National Gallery, gives some

-countenance to the contention that he was held to be of great excellence

-in his time.

-

-Though some historians advance the suggestion that Carpaccio was a

-native of Capo d'Istria, there is little proof that he was not, like his

-father Pietro, born a Venetian. He seems to have worked in Venice all

-his life, his first work being dated 1490 and his last 1520. In 1527 his

-wife, Laura, declared herself a widow.

-

-The narrative art needed by the confraternities was supplied in

-perfection by Carpaccio, and one of his earliest independent

-commissions was the important one of decorating the School of St.

-Ursula. Devotion to St. Ursula was a monopoly of the school. No one else

-had a right to collect offerings in her name or to put up an image to

-her. The legend afforded an opportunity for painting varied and dramatic

-scenes, of which Carpaccio takes full advantage, and the cycle is one of

-the freshest and most characteristic things that has come down to us

-from the quattrocento. Problems are not conspicuous. The mediocre

-masters who have educated the painter have made little impression on

-him. He is entirely occupied in delight in his subject and in telling

-his story. The story of St. Ursula, told briefly, is that she was the

-daughter of the King of Brittany. The King of England sends his

-ambassadors to beg her hand for his son, Hereo. Ursula discusses the

-proposal with her father, and makes the conditions that Hereo, who is a

-heathen, shall be baptized, and that the betrothed couple must before

-marriage visit the Pope and the sacred shrines. After taking leave of

-their parents, the Prince and Princess depart on their expedition, but

-Ursula has had a vision in her sleep in which an angel has announced her

-martyrdom. She is accompanied on her journey by 11,000 virgins, and they

-are received by Pope Cyriacus in Rome. The Pope then makes the return

-journey with them as far as Cologne, where, however, they are assaulted

-and massacred by the Huns, after which Ursula is accorded a splendid

-funeral, and is canonised. The thirteen scenes in which the story is

-told are arranged on nine canvases, and the painter has not executed

-them in the chronological order, some of the latest events being the

-least complete in artistic skill. Professor Leonello Venturi assigns the

-following dates to the list:

-

-     1. The ambassadors of the King of England meet those of the

-     King of Brittany to ask for the hand of Ursula. Probably

-     painted from 1496-98.

-

-     2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal with her

-     father. 1496-98.

-

-     3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors. 1496-98.

-

-     4. The ambassadors return to the King of England. 1496-98.

-

-     5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.

-

-     6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their respective

-     parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.

-

-     9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins meet the Pope.

-     1492.

-

-     10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.

-

-     11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral. 1495.

-

-     13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of martyrdom,

-     venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received in heaven by the

-     Eternal Father. 1491.

-

-No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might naturally have been chosen for a

-first experiment. The heads are large with coarse features, and the

-proportions of the figures are poor. The face of the saint in glory (No.

-13), plump and without much expression, is of the type of Bastiani's

-saints. It may be assumed that such a great scheme of decoration would

-not have been entrusted to any one who was not already well known as an

-independent master, but perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about

-thirty when the work was begun, was still principally engrossed with the

-conventional, ecclesiastical subject. The heads of the virgins pressing

-round the saint appear to be portraits, and were very possibly those of

-the wives and daughters of members of the confraternity.

-

-The improvement that takes place is so rapid that we can guess how

-congenial the painter found the task and how quickly he adapted his

-already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes delight in the opportunity for

-painting a little domestic scene,--the bedroom of a young Venetian girl,

-perhaps a sister of his own. The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,

-are carefully drawn. The clear morning light streams into the room. The

-saint lies peacefully asleep, her hand under her head, her long

-eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is an idyll, full of insight

-into girlish life. The tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details

-that caught his eye. The crown lying on the ledge of the bed is an

-arbitrary introduction, as naif as the angel. In the funeral scene the

-luminous light is diffused over all, the young saint lies upon her bier

-and is followed by priest and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth

-to nature, the draperies and garments are brought into harmony with the

-sky and background, and in all those that follow we find this quality

-of light. The landscape behind the massacre has gained in natural

-character, the city is at some distance, houses and churches are half

-buried in woods; the setting is much more natural than are the quaint

-and elegant pages who occupy it, and who are drawing their crossbows and

-attacking the martyrs with leisurely nonchalance. The panel in which the

-betrothed couple meet shows a great advance, and this and the succeeding

-ones of the ambassadors, which were painted between 1495 and 1498, must

-have crowned Carpaccio's reputation. He paints Venice in its most

-fascinating aspect; the enamelled beauty of its marbles, its sky and

-sea, its palaces and ships, the rich and picturesque dresses men wore

-in the streets, the barge glowing with rich velvets. He evinces a

-fairy-tale spirit which we may compare with the work of Pintoricchio.

-His Prince, kneeling in a white and gold dress, with long fair curls, is

-a real fairy prince; Ursula, in her red dress and puffed sleeves, her

-rippling, flaxen hair and strings of pearls, is a princess of story.

-Carpaccio's art is simple and garrulous in feeling, his conception is

-as unpassionate as the fancies of a child, but he has a true love for

-these gay crowds; Venice going upon her gallant way--her solid, worthy

-citizens, men of substance, shrewd and valuable, taking their pleasure

-seriously with a sense of responsibility. They throng the streets and

-cross over the bridges, every figure is full of freedom and vitality.

-The arrival and dismissal of the ambassadors are the best of all the

-scenes. In the middle of the great stage King Maurus of Brittany sits

-upon a Venetian terrace. In the colonnade to the left is gathered a

-group of Venetian personages, members of the Loredano family, which was

-a special patron of St. Ursula's Guild, and gave this panel. The types

-are all vividly realised and differentiated: the courtier looking

-critically at the arrivals; the frankly curious bourgeoisie; the man

-of fashion passing with his nose in the air, disdaining to stare too

-closely; the fop with his dogs and their dwarf keeper. Far beyond

-stretch the lagoons; the sea and air of Venice clear and fresh. What is

-noticeable even now in an Italian crowd, the absence of women, was then

-most true to life, for except on special occasions they were not seen in

-the streets, but were kept in almost Oriental seclusion. The dismissal

-of the ambassadors affords the opportunity for drawing an interior with

-the street visible through a doorway. A group at the side, of a man

-dictating a letter and the scribe taking down his words, writing

-laboriously, with his shoulders hunched and his head on one side, is

-excellent in its quiet reality. The same life-like vivacity is displayed

-in Ursula's consultation with her father. The old nurse crouched upon

-the steps is introduced to break the line and to throw back the main

-group. Carpaccio has already used such a figure in the funeral scene,

-and Titian himself adopts his suggestion.

-

- [Illustration: _Carpaccio._

-                 ARRIVAL OF THE AMBASSADORS.

-                _Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Carpaccio is not a very great painter, but a charming one. His treatment

-of light and water, of distant hills and trees, shows a sense of peace

-and poetry, and though he is influenced by Gentile's splendid realistic

-heads, the type which appeals to him is gentler and more idealised. His

-fancy is caught by Oriental details, to which Gentile would naturally

-have directed his attention, and of which there was no lack in Venice at

-this time. All his episodes are very clearly illustrated, and his

-popular brush was kept busily employed. He took a share with other

-assistants in the series which Gentile was painting in S. Giovanni

-Evangelista. In 1502 the Dalmatians inhabiting Venice resolved to

-decorate their school, which had been founded fifty years earlier, for

-the relief of destitute Dalmatian seamen in Venice. The subjects were

-to be selected from the lives of the Saviour and the patron saints of

-Dalmatia and Albania, St. Jerome, St. George of the Sclavonians, and St.

-Tryphonius. The nine panels and an altarpiece which Carpaccio delivered

-between 1502 and 1508 still adorn the small but dignified Hall of the

-school. His "Jerome in his Study" has nothing ascetic, but shows a

-prosperous Venetian ecclesiastic seated in his well-furnished library

-among his books and writings. He is less successful in his scenes from

-the life of Christ; the Gethsemane is an obvious imitation of Mantegna;

-but when he leaves his own style he is weak and poor, and imaginary

-scenes are quite beyond him. In the death and interment of St. Jerome he

-gives a delightful impression of the peace of the old convent garden,

-and in the scene where the lion introduced by the saint scatters the

-terrified monks he lets a sense of humour have free play. The monks in

-their long garments, escaping in all directions, are really comical, and

-in conjunction with the ingratiating smile of the lion, the scene passes

-into the region of broad farce. We divine the same sense of the comic in

-the scene in St. Ursula's history, where the 11,000 virgins are hurrying

-in single file along a winding road which disappears out of the picture.

-In the principal scene in the life of St. George, Carpaccio again

-achieves a masterpiece. The force and vivacity of the saint in armour

-charging the dragon, lingers long in the memory. The long, decorative

-lines of lance and war-horse and dragon throw back the whole landscape.

-The details show an almost childish delight in the realisation of

-ghoulish horrors. He rather injures his "Triumph of St. George" by his

-anxiety to bring in the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem; the flying flags

-distract the eye, and the whole scene is one of confusion, broken up

-into different parts, while the dragon is reduced to very unterrifying

-insignificance. His series for the school of the Albanians dealt with

-the life of the Virgin, who was their special patron. Its remains are

-at Bergamo, Milan, and in the Academy. The single figures in the

-"Presentation," the priest and maiden, are excellent. A child at the

-side of the steps, leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows once

-more what a hold this use of a figure had taken of him. In the

-"Visitation" the figures are too much scattered, and the fantastic

-buildings attract more attention than the women. He still produced

-altarpieces, and the Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple,

-which he was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where one of Bellini's

-most famous altarpieces stood, challenged him to put forth all his

-strength. He never produced anything more simple and noble or more

-worthy of the cinque-cento than this altarpiece (now in the Academy). It

-surpasses Bellini's arrangement in the way in which the personages are

-raised upon a step, while the dome overhead and the angel musicians

-below give them height and dignity. The contrast between the infant and

-the youthful woman and the old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast

-between youth and age is a very favourite one. Bellini, in the same

-church, draws it between SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in

-his last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian with St. Jerome.

-This is the most grandiose, the least of a _genre_ picture of all

-Carpaccio's creations, although he does make Simeon into a pontiff with

-attendant cardinals bearing his train. One of his last works is the S.

-Vitale over the high altar of the church of that name, where we forgive

-the wooden appearance of the horse which the saint rides for the sake of

-the simple dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by the balcony

-overhead. Nor must we forget that study of the "Two Courtesans" in the

-Museo Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism. It conveys to us

-the matter-of-fact monotony of the long, hot days, and the women and the

-animals with which they are beguiling their idle hours are painted with

-the greatest intelligence. It carries us back to another phase of life

-in Carpaccio's Venice, seen through his observant, humorous eyes, and if

-there is nothing in his colour distinctive of the impending Venetian

-richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant limpidity; it seems

-drawn straight from the transparent canals and radiant lagoons.

-

-We apprehend the difference at once in Bastiani and in Mansueti, who

-essay the same sort of compositions. They studied grouping carefully,

-and it must have seemed easy enough to paint their careful architecture

-and to place citizens in costume with appropriate action in a "Miracle

-of the Cross," or the "Preaching of St. Mark"; but these pictures are

-dry and crowded, they give no illusion of truth, there is none of the

-careless realism of Carpaccio's crowds,--of incidents taking place which

-are not essential to the story, and, as in life, are only half seen, but

-which have their share in producing a full and varied illusion. The

-scenes want the air and depth in which Carpaccio's pictures are

-enveloped. We are not stimulated and charmed, taken into the outer air

-and refreshed by these heavy personages, standing in rows, painted in

-hot, dry colour, and carrying no conviction in their glance and action.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.    Madonna and Saints; Consecration of Stephen.

- Ferrara.   Death of Virgin.

- Milan.     Presentation of Virgin; Marriage of Virgin; St. Stephen

-              disputing.

- Paris.     St. Stephen preaching.

- Stuttgart. Martyrdom of St. Stephen.

- Venice.    Academy: The History of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins;

-              Presentation in the Temple.

-            Museo Correr: Visitation; Two Courtesans.

-            S. Giorgio degli Schiavone: History of SS. George and

-              Tryphonius; Agony in the Garden; Christ in the House of

-              the Pharisee; History of St. Jerome.

-            S. Vitale: Altarpiece to S. Vitale.

-            Lady Layard. Death of the Virgin; St. Ursula taking leave

-              of her Father.

- Vienna.    Christ adored by Angels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XI

-

-GIOVANNI BELLINI

-

-

-The difference between Gian. Bellini and his accomplished brother, that

-which makes us so conscious that the first was the greater of the two

-and which sets him in a later artistic generation than Gentile, is a

-difference of mind. Such pageant-pictures as we hear that Giovanni

-was engaged upon have all been destroyed. We may suspect that their

-composition was not particularly congenial to him, and that the strictly

-religious pictures and the small allegorical studies, by which we must

-judge him, were more after his heart. It is his poetic and ideal feeling

-which adds so strongly to his claim to be a great artist; it was this

-which drew all men to him and enabled him so powerfully to influence the

-art of his day in Venice.

-

-Jacopo's wife, Anna, in a will of 1429, leaves everything to her two

-sons, Gentile and Niccolo. Giovanni was evidently not her son, but

-Vasari speaks of him as the elder of the two, so that it is very

-possible that he was an illegitimate child, brought up, after the

-fashion that so often obtained, in the full privileges of his father's

-house. Documents show that Jacopo Bellini was living in Venice in 1437,

-first near the Piazza, and afterwards in the parish of San Lio. He was a

-member of S. Giovanni Evangelista, and probably one of the leading

-artists of the city. His two sons helped him in his great decorative

-works, and also went with him to Padua, where he painted the Gattamalata

-Chapel. Their relative position is suggested by a document of 1457,

-which records that the father received twenty-one ducats for "three

-figures, done on cloth, put in the Great Hall of the Patriarch," only

-two of which were to go to the son. In 1459 Gian. Bellini's signature

-first appears on a document, and at about this time we may suppose that

-he and his brother began to execute small commissions on their own

-account. On these visits to Padua the intimacy must have sprung up,

-which led to Mantegna's marriage in 1453 with Jacopo's daughter. At

-Padua, too, Bellini, in company with Mantegna, drank in the inspiration

-left there by Donatello, the greatest master that either of them

-encountered. It was the humanistic and naturalistic side of Donatello

-which touched Giovanni Bellini, more than all his classic lore. It

-chimed in, too, with his father's graceful and fanciful quality, and

-there is no doubt that the Venetian painters soon exercised a marked

-influence on Mantegna. They "fought for him with Squarcione," and even

-in the Eremitani frescoes he begins to lose his purely statuesque type

-and to become frankly Renaissance. In the later scenes of the series a

-pergola with grapes, a Venetian campanile and doorway replace his

-classic towers and arches of triumph. In the "Martyrdom of St. James"

-the couple walking by and paying no attention whatever to the tragic

-event, are very like the people whom Gentile introduces in his

-backgrounds.

-

-There are few documents more interesting in the history of art

-than the two pictures of the "Agony in the Garden," executed by the

-brothers-in-law, about 1455, from a design by Jacopo in the British

-Museum sketch-book. Jacopo draws the mound-like hill, Christ kneeling

-before the vision of the Chalice, the figures wrapt in slumber, and the

-distant town. In few pictures up to this time is the landscape conceived

-in such sympathy with the figures. As we look at this sketch and examine

-the two finished compositions, which it is so fortunate to find in

-juxtaposition in the National Gallery, we surmise that the two artists

-agreed to carry out the same idea and each to give his version of

-Jacopo's suggestion, and very curious it is to see the rendering each

-has produced.

-

-Mantegna has made use of the most formal and Squarcionesque contours in

-his surroundings. The rocks are of an unnatural, geological structure.

-The towers of Jerusalem are defined in elaborate perspective, and a band

-of classic figures fills the middle distance. The sleeping forms of the

-disciples are laid about like so many draped statues taken from their

-pedestals. The choir of child angels is solid and leaves nothing to the

-imagination, and if it were not for the beautifully conceived Christ,

-the whole composition would leave us quite unmoved. On the other hand,

-we can never look at Bellini's version without a fresh thrill. He, like

-Mantegna, has followed Jacopo's scheme of winding roads and the city

-"set on a hill," and has drawn the advancing band of soldiers; but,

-independent of all details, he gives us the vision of a poet. The still

-dawn is breaking over the broadly painted landscape, the rosy shafts of

-light are colouring the sky and casting their magic over every common

-object, and, lonely and absorbed, the Sacred Figure kneels, wrapt into

-the Heavenly Vision, which is hardly more definite than a stronger

-beam of light upon the radiance. One of the disciples, at least, is a

-successful and natural study of a tired-out man, whose head has fallen

-back and whose every limb has relaxed in sleep. Bellini is less assured,

-less accomplished than Mantegna, but he is able to touch us with the

-pathos of both natural and spiritual feeling.

-

-Even earlier than this picture, critics place the "Crucifixion" and

-"Transfiguration" of the Museo Correr and our own "Salvator Mundi." In

-1443, when Giovanni was a young man of four or five and twenty, San

-Bernardino had held a great revival at Padua, and the whole of Venice

-had thronged to hear him. It is very possible, as Mr. Roger Fry suggests

-in his _Life of Bellini_, that Giovanni's emotional temperament had been

-worked upon by the preacher's eloquence, and the very poignant feelings

-of love and pity which his early art expresses were the deliberate

-consequence of his sympathy with the deep religious mysteries expounded.

-

-In the two pictures in the Correr, Bellini is still going with the

-Paduan current. In both we have the winding roads so characteristic of

-his father, but the rocks in the "Transfiguration" have the jointed,

-arbitrary character of Mantegna's and the draperies are plastered to the

-forms beneath; yet the figures here have a beauty and a dignity which no

-reproduction seems able to convey. The feeling is already more imposing

-than the execution. Christ and the two prophets tower up against the

-belt of clouds, the central figure conveying a sense of pathetic

-isolation; while below, St. John's attitude betrays a state of tension,

-the feet being drawn up and contorted. This picture prepares us for the

-overwhelming emotion we find in the "Redeemer" and the group of Pietas.

-The treatment of the Christ was a development of the early _motif_ of

-angels flying forward on either side of the Cross, but here the sacred

-blood pouring into the chalice is also sacramental and connected with

-the intensified religious fervour which had led to the foundation of

-the Franciscan and Dominican orders, illustrations of which are met

-with in the miniatures and wood-engravings of fifteenth-century books

-of devotion. The accessories, the antique reliefs, the low wall, the

-distant buildings, have an allegorical meaning underlying each one, and

-common to trecento and, in a less degree, to quattrocento art. Paradise

-regained is signified by the paved court with the open door, in

-contradistinction to the Hortus Clausus, or enclosed court; the type of

-the old covenant. In one of the bas-reliefs Mucius Scaevola thrusts his

-hand into the fire, the ancient type of heroic readiness to suffer. The

-other represents a pagan sacrifice, foreshadowing the sacrifice upon the

-Cross. Figures in the background are leaving a ruined temple and making

-their way towards the new Christian city, fortified and crowned with a

-church tower, and in the midst of all this symbolism, Christ and the

-attendant angel are placed, vibrating with nervous feeling.

-

-During the next few years, Bellini devoted himself to two subjects of

-the highest devotional order. These are the Madonna and Child, the great

-exercise in every age for painters, and the Pieta, which he has made

-peculiarly his own.

-

- [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._

-                 PIETA.

-                _Brera, Milan._

-                 (_Photo, Brogi._)]

-

-Close by, at Padua, Giotto had left a rendering of the last subject, so

-full of passionate sorrow that it is hardly possible that it should not,

-if only half consciously, have stimulated the artistic sensibilities

-of the most sensitive of painters; but Bellini's pathos shrinks from

-all exaggeration. He conceives grief with the tenderest insight. His

-interest in the subject was so intense that he never left the execution

-to others, and though not a single one bears his signature, yet each is

-entirely by his own hand. Besides the Pieta at Milan, which is perhaps

-the best known, there is one in the Correr Museum, another in the Doge's

-Palace, and yet others at Rimini and at Berlin. The version he adopts,

-which places the Body of Christ within the sarcophagus, was a favourite

-in North Italy. Donatello uses it in a bas-relief (now in the Victoria

-and Albert Museum), but whether he brought or found the suggestion in

-Padua nothing exists to show. Jacopo has left sketches in which the

-whole group is within the tomb, and this rendering is followed by

-Carpaccio, Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and others. It is never found in

-trecento art, and is probably traceable to the Paduan impulse to make

-use of classic remains.

-

-Giovanni Bellini's Pietas fall into two groups. In one, the Christ is

-placed between the Virgin and St. John, who are embodiments of the agony

-of bereavement. In the other, the dead Redeemer is supported by angels,

-who express the amazement and grief of immortal beings who see their

-Lord suffering an indignity from which they are immune.

-

-Mary and St. John _inside_ the sarcophagus shows that they are conceived

-mystically; Mary as the Church, and St. John as the personification of

-Christian Philosophy--a significance frequently attached to these

-figures. Such a picture was designed to hang over the altar, at which

-the mystical sacrifice of the Mass was perpetually offered.

-

-In his treatment of the Brera example Bellini has shaken off the Paduan

-tradition, and is forming his own style and giving free play to his own

-feeling. The winding roads and evening sky, barred with clouds, are the

-accessories he used in the "Agony in the Garden," but the figures are

-treated much more boldly; the drapery falls in broad masses, and

-scarcely a trace is left of sculpturesque treatment. Careful as is the

-study of the nude, everything is subordinated to the emotion expressed

-by the three figures: the helpless, indifferent calm of the dead, the

-tender solicitude of the Mother, the wandering, dazed look of the

-despairing friend. Here there is nothing of beautiful or pathetic

-symbol; the group is intense with the common sorrow of all the world.

-Mary presses the corpse to her as if to impart her own life, and gazes

-with anguished yearning on the beloved face. Bellini seems to have

-passed to a more complex age in his analysis of suffering, yet here is

-none of the extravagance which the primitive masters share with the

-Caracci: his restraint is as admirable as his intensity.

-

-In the Rimini version the tender concern and questioning surprise of the

-attendant angels contrast with the inert weight of the beautiful dead

-body they support. Their childish limbs and butterfly wings make a

-sinuous pattern against the lacquered black of the ground-work, and Mr.

-Roger Fry makes the interesting suggestion that the effect, reminiscent

-of Greek vase-painting, and the likeness of the Head of Christ to an old

-bronze, may, in a composition painted for Sigismondo Malatesta, be no

-mere accident, but a concession to the patron's enthusiasm for classic

-art.

-

-In 1470 Bellini received his first commission in the Scuola di San

-Marco. Gentile had been employed there since 1466 on the history of the

-Israelites in the desert. Bellini agreed to paint "The Deluge and the

-Ark of Noah" with all its attendant circumstances, but of these,

-except from Vasari's descriptions, we can form no idea. These great

-pageant-pictures had become identified with the Bellini and their

-following, while the production of altarpieces was peculiarly the

-province of the Vivarini. Here Bellini effected a change, for sacred

-subjects best suited the restrained and simple perfection of his style,

-and afforded the most sympathetic opening for his idealistic spirit. For

-the next twenty years or more, however, he was unavoidably absorbed in

-public work, for we hear of his being given the direction of that which

-Gentile left unfinished in the Ducal Palace when he went to the East in

-1479. In 1492, Giovanni being ill, Gentile superintended the work for

-him, and in that year he was appointed to paint in the Hall of the Grand

-Council, at an annual salary of sixty ducats. Other commissions were

-turned out of the _bottega_ he had set up with his brother in 1471, and

-between that year and 1480 he went to Pesaro to paint the important

-altarpiece that still holds its place there. It is in some ways the

-greatest and most powerful thing that Bellini ever accomplished. The

-central figures and the attendant saints have a large gravity and

-carefully studied individuality. St. Jerome, absorbed in his theological

-books, an ascetic recluse, is admirably contrasted with the sympathetic,

-cultured St. Paul. The landscape, set in a marble frame, is a gem of

-beauty, and proves what an appeal nature was making to the painter. The

-predella, illustrating the principal scenes in the lives of the saints

-around the altar, is full of Oriental costumes. The horses are small

-Eastern horses, very unlike the ponderous Italian war-horse, and the

-whole is evidently inspired by the sketches which Gentile brought back

-on his return from Constantinople in 1481.

-

-Looking from one to another of the cycle of Madonna pictures which

-Bellini produced, and of which so many hang side by side in the Academy,

-we are able to note how his conception varied. In one of the earliest

-the Child lies across its Mother's knee, in the attitude borrowed from

-his father and the Vivarini, from whom, too, he takes the uplifted

-hands, placed palm to palm. The earlier pictures are of the gentle and

-adoring type, but his later Madonnas are stately Venetian ladies. He

-gives us a queenly woman, with full throat and stately poise, in the

-Madonna degli Alberi, in which the two little trees are symbols of the

-Old and New Testament; or, again, he paints a lovely intellectual face

-with chiselled and refined features, and sad dark eyes, and contrasts it

-dramatically with the bluff St. George in armour; and there is another

-Madonna between St. Francis and St. Catherine, a picture which has a

-curious effect of artificial light.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XII

-

-GIOVANNI BELLINI (_continued_)

-

-

-In 1497 the Maggior Consiglio of the Venetian Republic appointed Bellini

-superintendent of the Great Hall, and conferred on him the honourable

-title of State Painter. In this capacity he was the overseer of all

-public works of painting, and was expected to devote a part of his

-time to the decoration of the Hall. Sansovino enumerates nine of

-his historical paintings, which had been painted before the State

-appointment, all having reference to the visit of Pope Alexander; but

-though he must have been much engrossed, he seems to have suspended the

-work from time to time, for between 1485 and 1488 he painted the large

-altarpiece in the Frari, that at San Pietro in Murano, and the one in

-the Academy, which was painted for San Giobbe. Of these three, the last

-shows the greatest advance and is fullest of experiment. The Madonna is

-a grand ecclesiastical figure. It has been said with truth that it is

-a picture which must have afforded great support and dignity to the

-Church. The Infant has an expression of omniscience, and the Mother

-gazes out of the picture, extending invitation and encouragement to the

-advancing worshippers. The religious feeling is less profound; the

-artist has been more absorbed in the contrast between the beautiful,

-youthful body of St. Sebastian and that of St. Giobbe, older but not

-emaciated, and with the exquisite surface that his now complete mastery

-of oil-painting enabled him to produce. This technique has evidently

-been a great delight, and is here carried to perfection; the skin of

-St. Sebastian gleams with a gloss like the coat of a horse in high

-condition. Everything that architecture, sculpture, and rich material

-can supply is borrowed to enhance the grandeur of the group; but the

-line of sight is still close to the bottom of the picture, and if it

-were not for the exquisite grace with which the angels are placed, the

-Madonna would have a broad, clumsy effect. The Madonna of the Frari is

-the most splendid in colour of all his works. As he paints the rich

-light of a golden interior and the fused and splendid colours, he seems

-to pass out of his own time and gives a foretaste of the glory that is

-to follow. The Murano altarpiece is quite a different conception;

-instead of the seclusion of the sanctuary, it is a smiling, _plein air_

-scene: the Mother benign, the Child soft and playful, the old Doge

-Barbarigo and the patron saints kneeling among bright birds, and a

-garden and mediaeval townlet filling up the background, for which, by the

-way, he uses the same sketch as in the Pesaro picture. It says much for

-his versatility that he could within a short time produce three such

-different versions.

-

-Among Bellini's most fascinating achievements in the last years of the

-fifteenth century are his allegorical paintings, known to us by the

-"Pelerinage de l'Ame" in the Uffizi and the little series in the

-Academy. The meaning of the first has been unravelled by Dr. Ludwig from

-a mediaeval poem by Guillaume de Guilleville, a Cistercian monk who wrote

-about 1335, and it is interesting to see the hold it has taken on

-Bellini's mystic spirit. The paved space, set within the marble rail,

-signifies, as in the "Salvator Mundi," the Paradise where souls await

-the Resurrection. The new-born souls cluster round the Tree of Life and

-shake its boughs. The poem says:

-

-    There is no pilgrim who is not sometimes sad

-    Who has not those who wound his heart,

-    And to whom it is not often necessary

-    To play and be solaced

-    And be soothed like a child

-    With something comforting.

-    Know that those playing

-    There in order to allay their sorrow

-    Have found beneath that tree

-    An apple that great comfort gives

-    To those that play with it.[2]

-

- [2] This translation is by Miss Cameron Taylor.

-

- [Illustration: _Giovanni Bellini._

-                 AN ALLEGORY.

-                _Florence._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-This may be an allusion to sacramental comfort. St. Peter and St. Paul

-guard the door, beside which the Madonna and a saint sit in holy

-conversation. A very beautiful figure on the left, wrapped in a black

-shawl, requires explanation, and it has been suggested that it is the

-donor, a woman who may have lost husband and children, and who, still in

-life, is introduced, watching the happiness of the souls in Paradise.

-SS. Giobbe and Sebastian, who might have stepped out of the San Giobbe

-altarpiece, are obviously the patron saints of the family, and St.

-Catherine, at the Virgin's side, may be the donor's own saint. This

-picture, with its delicious landscape bathed in atmospheric light,

-is a forerunner of those Giorgionesque compositions of "pure and

-unquestioning delight in the sensuous charm of rare and beautiful

-things" in which the artistic nature is even more engrossed than with

-the intellectual conception, and within its small space Bellini seems to

-have enshrined all his artistic creed. The allegories in the Academy are

-also full of meaning. They are decorative works, and were probably

-painted for some small cabinet. They seem too small for a cassone. They

-are ruined by over-painting, but still full of grace and fancy. The

-figure in the classic chariot, bearing fruit, in the encounter between

-Luxury and Industry, is drawn from Jacopo's triumphant Bacchus. Fortune

-floats in her barque, holding the globe, and the souls who gather round

-her are some full of triumphant success, others clinging to her for

-comfort, while several are sinking, overwhelmed in the dark waters.

-"Prudence," the only example of a female nude in Bellini's works, holds

-a looking-glass. Hypocrisy or Calumny is torn writhing from his refuge.

-The Summa Virtus is an ugly representation of all the virtues; a

-waddling deformity with eyes bound holds the scales of justice; the

-pitcher in its hand means prudence, and the gold upon its feet

-symbolises charity. The landscape, both of this and of the "Fortune,"

-resembles that which he was painting in his larger works at the end of

-the century. Soon after 1501 Bellini entered into relations with Isabela

-d'Este, Marchioness of Gonzaga. That distinguished collector and

-connoisseur writes through her agent to get the promise of a picture,

-"a story or fable of antiquity," to be placed in position with the

-allegories which Mantegna had contributed to her "Paradiso." Bellini

-agreed to supply this, and received twenty-five ducats on account. He

-seems, however, to have felt that he would be at a disadvantage in

-competing with Mantegna on his own ground, and asks to be allowed to

-choose his subject. Isabela was unwillingly obliged to content herself

-with a sacred picture, and a "Nativity" was selected. She is at once

-full of suggestions, desiring to add a St. John Baptist, whom Bellini

-demurs at introducing except as a child, but in April 1504 the

-commission is still unaccomplished, and Isabela angrily demands the

-return of her money. This brings a letter of humble apology from

-Bellini, and presently the picture is forwarded. Lorenzo of Pavia writes

-that it is quite beautiful, and that "though Giovanni has behaved as

-badly as possible, yet the bad must be taken with the good." The joy of

-its acquisition appeased Isabela, who at once began to lay plans to get

-a further work out of Bellini, and in 1505 Bembo wrote to her that he

-would take a fresh commission always providing he might fix the subject.

-From the catalogue of her Mantovan pictures we gather that the picture

-"sul asse" (on panel) represented the "B.V., il Putto, S. Giovanni

-Battista, S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Girolamo, and Santa Caterina."

-

-The great altarpieces which remain strike us less by their research,

-their preoccupation with new problems of paint or grouping, than by

-their intense delight in beauty. Bellini was now nearly eighty years

-old, and in 1504 the young Giorgione had proclaimed a revolution in art

-with his Castelfranco Madonna. In composition and detail the Madonna

-of San Zaccaria is in some degree a protest against the Arcadian,

-innovating fashion of approaching a religious scene, of which the Church

-had long since decided on the treatment, yet Bellini cannot escape the

-indirect suggestion of the new manner. The same leaven was at work in

-him which was transforming the men of a younger generation. In this

-altarpiece, in the Baptism at Vicenza, in others, perhaps, which have

-perished, and above all in the hermit saint in S. Giovanni Crisostomo he

-is linked in feeling and in treatment with the later Venetian School.

-

-The new device, which he adopts quite naturally, of raising the line of

-sight, sets the figures in increased depth. For the first time he gives

-height and majesty to the young Mother by carrying the draperies down

-over the steps. He realises to the full the contrast between the young,

-fragile heads of his girl-saints and the dark, venerable countenances of

-the old men. The head of S. Lucy, detaching itself like a flower upon

-its stem, reminds us of the type which we saw in his Watcher in the

-sacred allegory of the Uffizi. The arched, dome-like niche opens on a

-distance bathed in golden light. Bellini keeps the traditions of the

-old hieratic art, but he has grasped a new perfection of feeling and

-atmosphere. Who the saints are matters little; it is the collective

-enjoyment of a company of congenial people that pleases us so much. The

-"Baptism" in S. Corona, at Vicenza, painted sixteen years later than

-Cima's in S. Giovanni in Bragora, is in frank imitation of the younger

-man. Christ and the Baptist, traditional figures, are drawn without much

-zest, in a weak, conventional way, but the artist's true interest comes

-out in the beauty of face and gesture of the group of women holding the

-garments, and above all in the sombre gloom of the distance, which

-replaces Cima's charming landscape, and which keys the whole picture to

-the significance of a portent. In the enthronement of the old hermit, S.

-Chrysostom himself, painted in 1513, Bellini keeps his love for the

-golden dome, but he lets us look through its arch, at rolling mountain

-solitudes, with mists rising between their folds. The geranium robe of

-the saint, an exquisite, vivid bit of colouring, is caught by the golden

-sunset rays, the fine ascetic head stands out against the evening sky,

-and in the faces of the two saints who stand on either side of the aged

-visionary Bellini has gone back to all his old intensity of religious

-feeling, a feeling which he seemed for a time to have exchanged for a

-more pagan tone.

-

-In 1507, at Gentile's death, Giovanni undertook, at his brother's

-dying request, to finish the "Preaching of St. Mark," receiving as a

-recompense that coveted sketch-book of his father's, from which he had

-adopted so many suggestions, and which, though he was the eldest, had

-been inherited by the legitimate son.

-

-In the preceding year Albert Duerer had visited Venice for the second

-time, and Bellini had received him with great cordiality. Duerer writes,

-"Bellini is very old, but is still the best painter in Venice"; and

-adds, "The things I admired on my last visit, I now do not value at

-all." Implying that he was able now to see how superior Bellini was to

-the hitherto more highly esteemed Vivarini.

-

-At the very end of Bellini's life, in 1514, the Duke of Ferrara paid

-him eighty-five ducats for a painting of "Bacchanals," now at Alnwick

-Castle; which may be looked upon as an open confession by one who had

-always considered himself as a painter of distinctively religious works,

-that such a gay scene of feasting afforded opportunities which he could

-not resist, for beauty of attitude and colour; but the gods, sitting at

-their banquet in a sunny glade, are almost fully draped, and there is

-little of the _abandon_ which was affected by later painters. The

-picture was left unfinished, and was later given to Titian to complete.

-In his capacity as State Painter to the Republic, it was Bellini's duty

-to execute the official portraits of the Doges. During his long life he

-saw eleven reigns, and during four he held the State appointment.

-Besides the official, he painted private portraits of the Doges, and

-that of Doge Loredano, in the National Gallery, is one of the most

-perfect presentments of the quattrocento. This portrait, painted by one

-old man of another, shows no weakening in touch or characterisation. It

-is as brilliant and vigorous as it is direct and simple. The face is

-quiet and unexaggerated; there is no unnatural fire and feeling, but an

-air of accustomed dignity and thought, while the technique has all the

-perfection of the painter's prime.

-

-In 1516 Giovanni was buried in the Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, by

-the side of his brother Gentile. To the last he was popular and famous,

-overwhelmed with attentions from the most distinguished personages of

-the city. Though he had begun life when art showed such a different

-aspect, he was by nature so imbued with that temperament, which at the

-time of his death was beginning to assert itself in the younger school,

-that he was able to assimilate a really astonishing share of the new

-manner. He is guided by feeling more than by intellect. All the time he

-is working out problems, he is dominated by the emotion of his subject,

-but his emotion, his pathos, are invariably tempered and restrained by

-the calm moderation of the quattrocento. The golden mean still has

-command of Bellini, and never allows his feelings, however poignant,

-to degenerate into sentimentality or violence.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Madonna (E.).

-           Morelli: Two Madonnas.

- Berlin.   Pieta (L.); Dead Christ.

- Florence. Uffizi: Allegory; The Souls in Paradise (L.).

- London.   Portrait of Doge (L.); Madonna (L.); Agony in Garden (E.);

-             Salvator Mundi (E.).

- Milan.    Brera: Pieta (E.); Madonna; Madonna, 1510.

- Mond Collection. Dead Christ; Madonna (E.).

- Murano.   S. Pietro: Madonna with Saints and Doge Barbarigo, 1488.

- Naples.   Sala Grande: Transfiguration.

- Pesaro.   S. Francesco: Altarpiece.

- Rimini.   Dead Christ (E.).

- Venice.   Academy: Three Madonnas; Five small allegorical paintings (L.);

-             Madonna with SS. Catherine and Magdalene; Madonna with

-             SS. Paul and George; Madonna with five Saints.

-           Museo Correr: Crucifixion (E.); Transfiguration (E.); Dead

-             Christ; Dead Christ with Angels.

-           Palazzo Ducale, Sala di Tre: Pieta (E.).

-           Frari: Triptych; Madonna and Saints, 1488.

-           S. Giovanni Crisostomo: S. Chrysostom with SS. Jerome and

-             Augustine, 1513.

-           S. Maria dell' Orto: Madonna (E.).

-           S. Zaccaria: Madonna and Saints, 1505.

- Vicenza.  S. Corona: Baptism, 1510.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIII

-

-CIMA DA CONEGLIANO AND OTHER FOLLOWERS OF BELLINI

-

-

-The rising tide of feeling, the growing sense of the joy of life and the

-apprehension of pure beauty, which was strengthening in the people and

-leading up to the great period of Venetian art, flooded round Bellini

-and recognised its expression in him. He was more popular and had a

-larger following among the artists of his day than either Gentile or

-Carpaccio with their frankly mundane talent. Whatever Giovanni's State

-works may have been, his religious paintings are the ones which are

-copied and adapted and studied by the younger band of artists, and this

-because of their beauty and notwithstanding their conventional subjects.

-Gentile's pageant-pictures have still something cold and colourless,

-with a touch of the archaic, while Giovanni's religious altarpieces

-evince a new freedom of handling, a modern conception of beautiful

-women, a use of that colour which was soon to reign triumphant. As

-far as it went indeed, its triumph was already assured; as Giovanni

-advanced towards old age, it was no longer of any use for the young

-masters of the day to paint in any way save the one he had made popular,

-and one artist after another who had begun in the school of Alvise

-Vivarini ended as the disciple of Giovanni Bellini.

-

-It was the habit of Bellini to trust much to his assistants, and as

-everything that went out of his workshop was signed by his name, even if

-it only represented the use of one of his designs, or a few words of

-advice, and was "passed" by the master, it is no wonder that European

-collections were flooded with works, among which only lately the names

-of Catena, Previtali, Pennacchi, Marco Belli, Bissolo, Basaiti,

-Rondinelli, and others begin to be disentangled.

-

-Only one of his followers stands out as a strong and original master,

-not quite of the first class, but developing his own individuality while

-he draws in much of what both Alvise and Bellini had to give. Cima da

-Conegliano, whose real name was Giovanni Battista, always signs himself

-_Coneglianensis_: the title of Cima, "the Rock," by which he is now so

-widely known, having first been mentioned in the seventeenth century by

-Boschini, and perhaps given him by that writer himself. He was a son of

-the mountains, who, though he came early to Venice, and lived there most

-of his life, never loses something of their wild freshness, and to the

-end delights in bringing them into his backgrounds. He lived with his

-mother at Conegliano, the beautiful town of the Trevisan marches, until

-1484, when he was twenty-five, and then came down to Vicenza, where he

-fell under the tuition of Bartolommeo Montagna, a Vicentine painter, who

-had been studying both with Alvise and Bellini. Cima's "Madonna with

-Saints," painted for the Church of St. Bartolommeo, Vicenza, in 1489,

-shows him still using the old method of tempera, in a careful, cold,

-painstaking style, yet already showing his own taste. The composition

-has something of Alvise, yet that something has been learned through

-the agency of Montagna, for the figures have the latter's severity

-and austere character and the colour is clearer and more crude than

-Alvise's. It is no light resemblance, and he must have been long with

-Montagna. In the type of the Christ in Montagna's Pieta at Monte Berico,

-in the fondness for airy porticoes, in the architecture and main

-features of his "Madonna enthroned" in the Museo Civico at Vicenza, we

-see characteristics which Cima followed, though he interpreted them in

-his own way. He turns the heavy arches and domes that Alvise loved, into

-airy pergolas, decked with vines. He gives increasing importance to high

-skies and to atmospheric distances. When he got to Venice in 1492, he

-began to paint in oils, and undertook the panel of S. John Baptist with

-attendant saints, still in the Church of S. Madonna dell' Orto. The

-work of this is rather angular and tentative, but true and fresh, and

-he comes to his best soon after, in the "Baptism" in S. Giovanni in

-Bragora, which Bellini, sixteen years later, paid him the compliment

-of copying. It was quite unusual to choose such a subject for the High

-Altar, and could only be justified by devotion to the Baptist, who was

-Cima's own name-saint as well as that of the Church. Cima is here at his

-very highest; the composition is not derived from any one else, but is

-all the conception of an ingenuous soul, full of intuition and insight.

-The Christ is particularly fine and simple, unexaggerated in pose and

-type; the arm of the Baptist is too long, but the very fault serves to

-give him a refined, tentative look, which makes a sympathetic appeal.

-The attendant angels look on with an air of sweet interest. The distant

-mountains, the undulating country, the little town of Conegliano,

-identified by the castle on its great rock, or _Cima_, are Arcadian in

-their sunny beauty. The clouds, as a critic has pointed out, are full of

-sun, not of rain. The landscape has not the sombre mystery of Titian's,

-but is bright with the joyous delight of a lover of outdoor life. As

-Cima masters the new medium he becomes larger and simpler, and his forms

-lose much of their early angularity. A confraternity of his native town

-ordered the grand altarpiece which is still in the Cathedral there, and

-in this he shows his connection with Venice; the architecture is partly

-taken from St. Mark's, the lovely Madonna head recalls Bellini, and a

-group of Bellinesque angels play instruments at the foot of the throne.

-Cima is, however, never merged in Bellini. He keeps his own clearly

-defined, angular type; his peculiar, twisted curls are not the curls of

-Bellini's saints, his treatment of surface is refined, enamel-like,

-perfectly finished, but it has nothing of the rich, broken treatment

-which Bellini's natural feeling for colour was beginning to dictate.

-Cima's pale golden figures have an almost metallic sharpness and

-precision, and though they are full of charm and refinement, they may

-be thought lacking in spontaneity and passion. To 1501 belongs the

-"Incredulity of St. Thomas," now in the Academy, but painted for the

-Guild of Masons. It is a picture full of expression and dignity, broad

-in treatment if a little cold in its self-restraint. Cima seems to have

-not quite enough intellect, and not quite enough strong feeling.

-However, the little altarpiece of the Nativity, in the Church of the

-Carmine in Venice, has a richer, fuller touch, and this foreshadows the

-work he did when he went to Parma, where his transparent shadows grow

-broader and stronger, and his figures gain in ease and freedom. He

-never loses the delicate radiance of his lights, and his types and his

-architecture alike convey something of a peculiarly refined, brilliant

-elegance.

-

-Like all these men of great energy and prolific genius, Cima produced an

-astonishing number of panels and altarpieces, and no doubt had pupils on

-his own account, for a goodly list could be made of pictures in his

-style, but not by his own hand, which have been carried by collectors

-into widely-scattered places. His exquisite surface and finish and his

-marked originality make him a difficult master to imitate with any

-success. His latest work is dated 1508, but Ridolfi says he lived till

-1517, and it seems probable that he returned to his beloved Conegliano

-and there passed his last years.

-

-If Cima possessed originality, Vincenzo of Treviso, called Catena,

-gained an immense reputation by his industry and his power of imitating

-and adopting the manner of Bellini's School. In those days men did not

-trouble themselves much as to whether they were original or not. They

-worked away on traditional compositions, frankly introducing figures

-from their master's cartoons, modifying a type here, making some little

-experiment or arrangement there, and, as a French critic puts it,

-leaving their own personality to "hatch out" in due time, if it existed,

-and when it was sufficiently ripened by real mastery of their art. It is

-here that Catena fails; beginning as a journeyman in the Sala del Gran

-Consiglio, at a salary of three ducats a month, he for long failed to

-acquire the absolute mastery of drawing which was possessed by the

-better disciples of the schools. But he is painstaking, determined to

-get on, and eager to satisfy the continually increasing demand for work.

-His draperies are confused and unmeaning, his faces round, with small

-features, inexpressive button mouths, and weak chins, and his flesh

-tints have little of the glow which is later the prerogative of every

-second-rate painter. Yet Catena succeeds, like many another careful

-mediocre man, in securing patronage, and as the sixteenth century opened

-he gained the distinction from Doge Loredano of a commission to paint

-the altarpiece for the Pregadi Chapel of the Sala di Tre, in the Ducal

-Palace. He adapts his group from that of Bellini in the Cathedral of

-Murano, bringing in a profile portrait of the kneeling Doge, of which he

-afterwards made numerous copies, one of which was for long assigned to

-Gentile and one to Giovanni Bellini.

-

-That Catena is not without charm, we discern in such a composition as

-his "Martyrdom of St. Cristina," in S. Maria Mater Domini, in which the

-saint, a solid, Bellinesque figure, kneels upon the water, in which she

-met her death, and is surrounded by little angels, holding up the

-millstone tied round her neck, and laden with other instruments of her

-martyrdom. Catena borrows right and left, and tries to follow every new

-indication of contemporary taste. For instance, he remarks the growing

-admiration for colour, and hopes by painting gay, flat tints, in bright

-contrast, to produce the desired effect.

-

-It is evident that he made many friends among the rich connoisseurs of

-the time, and that his importance was out of proportion to his real

-merit. Marcantonio Michele, writing an account of Raphael's last days to

-a friend in Venice, and touching on Michelangelo's illness, begs him to

-see that Catena takes care of himself, "as the times are unfavourable to

-great painters." Catena had acquired and inherited considerable wealth;

-he came of a family of merchants, and resided in his own house in San

-Bartolommeo del Rialto. He lived in unmarried relations with Dona Maria

-Fustana, the daughter of a furrier, to whom he bequeaths in his will 300

-ducats and all his personal effects. As a careful portrait-painter, with

-a talent for catching a likeness, he was in constant demand, and in some

-of his heads--that of a canon dressed in blue and red, at Vienna, and

-especially in one of a member of the Fugger family, now at Dresden--he

-attains real distinction. And in his last phase he does at length prove

-the power that lies behind long industry and perseverance. Suddenly the

-Giorgionesque influence strikes him, and turning to imbibe this new

-element, he produces that masterpiece which throws a glamour over all

-his mediocre performances; his "Warrior adoring the Infant Christ," in

-the National Gallery, is a picture full of charm, rich and romantic in

-tone and spirit. The Virgin and the Child upon her knee are of his

-dull round-eyed type, the form and colours of her draperies are still

-unsatisfactory, but the knight in armour with his Eastern turban, the

-romantic young page, holding his horse, are pure Giorgionesque figures.

-Beautiful in themselves, set in a beautiful landscape glowing with light

-and air, the whole picture exemplifies what surprising excellence could

-be suddenly attained by even very inferior artists, who were constantly

-associating with greater men, at a moment when the whole air was, as it

-were, vibrating with genius.

-

-Catena was very much addicted to making his will, and at least five

-testaments or codicils exist, one of them devising a sum of money for

-the benefit of the School of Painters in Venice, and another leaving to

-his executor, Prior Ignatius, the picture of a "St. Jerome in his Cell,"

-which may be the one in our national collection, which remained in

-Venice till 1862. It is painted in his gay tones, imitating Basaiti and

-Lotto, and brings in the partridge of which he made a sort of sign

-manual.

-

-Cardinal Bembo writes in 1525 to Pietro Lippomano, to announce that, at

-his request, he is continuing his patronage of Catena:

-

-     Though I had done all that lay in my power for Vincenzo Catena

-     before I received your Lordship's warm recommendation in his

-     favour, I did not hesitate, on receipt of your letter, to add

-     something to the first piece I had from him, and I did so

-     because of my love and reverence for you, and I trust that he

-     will return appropriate thanks to you for having remembered

-     that you could command me.

-

-Marco Basaiti was alternately a journeyman in different workshops and a

-master on his own account. For long the assistant and follower of Alvise

-Vivarini, we may judge that he was also his most trusted confidant, for

-to him was left the task of completing the splendid altarpiece to S.

-Ambrogio, in the Frari. His heavy hand is apparent in the execution, and

-the two saints, Sebastian and Jerome, in the foreground, have probably

-been added by him, for they have the air of interlopers, and do not come

-up to the rest of the company in form and conception. The Sebastian,

-with his hands behind his back and his loin cloth smartly tied, is quite

-sufficiently reminiscent of Bellini's figure of 1473 to make us believe

-that Basaiti was at once transferring his allegiance to that reigning

-master. In his earlier phase he has the round heads and the dry precise

-manner of the Muranese. In his large picture in the Academy, the

-"Calling of the Sons of Zebedee," he produces a large, important set

-piece, cold and lifeless, without one figure which arrests us, or

-lingers in the memory. "The Christ on the Mount" is more interesting as

-having been painted for San Giobbe, where Bellini's great altarpiece

-was already hanging, and coming into competition with Bellini's early

-rendering of the same scene. Painted some thirty years later, it is

-interesting to see what it has gained in "modernness." The landscape and

-trees are well drawn and in good colour, and the saints, standing on

-either side of a high portico, have dignity. In the "Dead Christ," in

-the Academy, he is following Bellini very closely in the flesh-tints and

-the _putti_. The _putti_, looking thoughtfully at the dead, is a _motif_

-beloved of Bellini, but Basaiti cannot give them Bellini's pathos and

-significance; they are merely childish and seem to be amused.

-

-In 1515 Basaiti has entered upon a new phase. He has felt Giorgione's

-influence, and is beginning to try what he can do, while still keeping

-close to Bellini, to develop a fuller touch, more animated figures, and

-a brilliant effect of landscape. He runs a film of vaporous colour over

-his hard outlines and makes his figures bright and misty, and though

-underneath they are still empty and monotonous, it is not surprising

-that many of his works for a time passed as those of Bellini. Though he

-is a clever imitator, "his figures are designed with less mastery, his

-drawing is a little less correct, his drapery less adapted to the under

-form. Light and shade are not so cleverly balanced, colours have the

-brightness, but not the true contrast required. In landscape he proceeds

-from a bleak aridity to extreme gaiety; he does not dwell on detail, but

-his masses have neither the sober tint nor the mysterious richness

-conspicuous in his teacher ... he is a clever instrument." Both

-Previtali and Rondinelli were workers with Basaiti in Bellini's studio.

-Previtali occasionally signed himself Andrea Cordeliaghi or Cordella,

-and has left many unsigned pictures. He copies Catena and Lotto, Palma

-and Montagna; but for a time his work went forth from Bellini's workshop

-signed with Bellini's name. In 1515, in a great altarpiece in San

-Spirito at Bergamo, he first takes the title of Previtali, compiling it

-in the cartello with the monogram already used as Cordeliaghi. There are

-traces of many other minor artists at this period, all essaying the same

-manner, copying one or other of the masters, taking hints from each

-other. The Venetian love of splendour was turning to the collection

-of works of art, and the work of second-class artists was evidently

-much in demand and obtained its meed of admiration. Bissolo was a

-fellow-labourer with Catena in the Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1492; he

-is soft and nerveless, but he copies Bellini, and has imbibed something

-of his tenderness of spirit.

-

-It will be seen from this list how difficult it is to unravel the tale

-of the false Bellinis. The master's own works speak for themselves

-with no uncertain voice, but away from these it is very difficult to

-pronounce as to whether he had given a design, or a few touches, or

-advice, and still more difficult to decide whether these were bestowed

-on Basaiti in his later manner, or on Previtali or Bissolo, or if the

-teaching was handed on by them in a still more diluted form to the

-lesser men who clustered round, much of whose work has survived and has

-been masquerading for centuries under more distinguished names. It is

-sometimes affirmed that the loss of originality in the endeavour to

-paint like greater men has been a symptom of decay in every school in

-the past. It is interesting to notice, therefore, that in every great

-age of painting there has always been an undercurrent of imitation,

-which has helped to form a stream of tradition, and which, as far as

-we can see, has done no harm to the stronger spirits of the time.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Cima._

-

- Berlin.     Madonna with four Saints; Two Madonnas.

- Conegliano. Duomo: Madonna and Saints, 1493.

- Dresden.    The Saviour; Presentation of Virgin.

- London.     Two Madonnas; Incredulity of S. Thomas; S. Jerome.

- Milan.      Brera: Six pictures of Saints; Madonna.

- Parma.      Madonna with Saints; Another; Endymion; Apollo and Marsyas.

- Paris.      Madonna with Saints.

- Venice.     Academy: Madonna with SS. John and Paul; Pieta; Madonna

-               with six Saints; Incredulity of S. Thomas; Tobias and the

-               Angel.

-             Carmine: Adoration of the Shepherds.

-             S. Giovanni in Bragora: Baptism, 1494; SS. Helen and

-               Constantine; Three Predelle; Finding of True Cross.

-             SS. Giovanni and Paolo: Coronation of the Virgin.

-             S. Maria dell' Orto: S. John Baptist and SS. Paul, Jerome,

-               Mark, and Peter.

-             Lady Layard. Madonna with SS. Francis and Paul; Madonna with

-               SS. Nicholas of Bari and John Baptist.

- Vicenza.    Madonna with SS. Jerome and John, 1489.

-

-

- _Vincenzo Catena._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Christ at Emmaus.

- Berlin.  Portrait of Fugger; Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).

- Dresden. Holy Family (L.).

- London.  Warrior adoring Infant Christ (L.); S. Jerome in his Study (L.);

-            Adoration of Magi (L.).

-          Mr. Benson: Holy Family.

-          Lord Brownlow: Nativity.

-          Mond Collection: Madonna, Saints, and Donors (E.).

- Paris.   Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo.

- Venice.  Ducal Palace: Madonna, Saints, and Doge Loredan (E.).

-          Giovanelli Palace: Madonna and Saints.

-          S. Maria Mater Domini: S. Cristina.

-          S. Trovaso: Madonna.

- Vienna.  Portrait of a Canon.

-

-

- _Marco Basaiti._

-

- Bergamo. The Saviour, 1517; Two Portraits.

- Berlin.  Pieta; Altarpiece; S. Sebastian; Madonna (E.).

- London.  S. Jerome; Madonna.

- Milan.   Ambrosiana: Risen Christ.

- Munich.  Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.).

- Murano.  S. Pietro: Assumption.

- Padua.   Portrait, 1521; Madonna with SS. Liberale and Peter.

- Venice.  Academy: Saints; Dead Christ; Christ in the Garden, 1510;

-            Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1510.

-          Museo Correr: Madonna and Donor; Christ and Angels.

-          Salute: S. Sebastian.

- Vienna.  Calling of Children of Zebedee, 1515.

-

-

- _Andrea Previtali._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Pentecost; Marriage of S. Catherine; Altarpiece;

-            Madonna, 1514; Madonna with Saints and Donors.

-          Lochis: Madonna and Saint.

-          Count Moroni: Madonna and Saints; Family Group.

-          S. Alessandro in Croce: Crucifixion, 1524.

-          S. Spirito: S. John Baptist and Saints, 1515; Madonna and

-            four Female Saints, 1525.

- Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Marriage of S. Catherine.

- Dresden. Madonna and Saints.

- London.  Madonna and Donor (E.).

- Milan.   Brera: Christ in Garden, 1512.

- Oxford.  Christchurch Library: Madonna.

- Venice.  Ducal Palace: Christ in Limbo; Crossing of the Red Sea.

-          Redentore: Nativity; Crucifixion.

- Verona.  Stoning of Stephen; Immaculate Conception.

-

-

- _N. Rondinelli._

-

- Berlin.   Madonna.

- Florence. Uffizi: Madonna and Saints.

- Milan.    Brera: Madonna with four Saints and three Angels.

- Paris.    Madonna and Saints.

- Ravenna.  Two Madonnas with Saints.

-           S. Domenico: Organ Shutters; Madonna and Saints.

- Venice.   Museo Correr: Madonna; Madonna with Saints and Donors.

-           Giovanelli Palace: Two Madonnas.

-

-

- _Bissolo._

-

- London. Mr. Benson: Madonna and Saints.

-         Mond Collection: Madonna and Saints.

- Venice. Academy: Dead Christ; Madonna and Saints; Presentation in Temple.

-         S. Giovanni in Bragora: Triptych.

-         Redentore: Madonna and Saints.

-         S. Maria Mater Domini: Transfiguration.

-         Lady Layard: Madonna and Saints.

-

-

-

-

- PART II

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIV

-

-GIORGIONE

-

-

-When we enter a gallery of Florentine paintings, we find our admiration

-and criticism expressing themselves naturally in certain terms; we are

-struck by grace of line, by strenuous study of form, by the evidence of

-knowledge, by the display of thought and intellectual feeling. The

-Florentine gestures and attitudes are expressive, nervous, fervent, or,

-as in Michelangelo and Signorelli, alive with superhuman energy. But

-when looking at pictures of the Venetian School we unconsciously use

-quite another sort of language; epithets like "dark" and "rich" come

-most freely to our lips; a golden glow, a slumberous velvety depth,

-seem to engulf and absorb all details. We are carried into the land

-of romance, and are fascinated and soothed, rather than stimulated

-and aroused. So it is with portraits; before the "Mona Lisa" our

-intelligence is all awake, but the men and women of Venetian canvases

-have a grave, indolent serenity, which accords well with the slumber

-of thought.

-

-Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century the painters of Venice

-had not differed very materially from those of other schools; they

-had gradually worked out or learned the technicalities of drawing,

-perspective and anatomy. They had been painting in oils for twenty-five

-years, and they betrayed a greater fondness for pageant-pictures than

-was felt in other States of Italy. Florence appoints Michelangelo and

-Leonardo to decorate her public palace, but no great store is set by

-their splendid achievements; their work is not even completed. The

-students fall upon the cartoons, which are allowed to perish, instead

-of being treasured by the nation. Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio and the

-band of State painters are appreciated and well rewarded. These men have

-reproduced something of the lucent transparency, the natural colour of

-Venice, but it is as if unconsciously; they are not fully aiming at any

-special effect. Year after year the Venetian masters assimilate more or

-less languidly the influences which reach them from the mainland. They

-welcome Guariento and Gentile da Fabriano, they set themselves to learn

-from Veronese or Florentine, the Paduans contribute their chiselled

-drawing, their learned perspective, their archeological curiosity. Yet

-even early in the day the Venetians escape from that hard and learned

-art which is so alien to their easy, voluptuous temperament. Jacopo

-Bellini cannot conform to it, and his greatest son is ready to follow

-feeling and emotion, and in his old age is quick to discover the first

-flavour of the new wine. If Venetian art had gone on upon the lines

-we have been tracing up to now, there would have been nothing very

-distinctive about it, for, however interesting and charming Alvise and

-Carpaccio, Cima and the Bellini may be, it is not of them we think when

-we speak of the Venetian School and when we rank it beside that of

-Florence, while Giovanni Bellini alone, in his later works, is not

-strong enough to bear the burden.

-

-The change which now comes over painting is not so much a technical one

-as a change of temper, a new tendency in human thought, and we link it

-with Giorgione because he was the channel through which the deep impulse

-first burst into the light. We have tried to trace the growth of the

-early Venetian School, but it does not develop logically like that of

-Florence; it is not the result of long endeavour, adding one acquisition

-and discovery to another. Venetian art was peculiarly the outcome of

-personalities, and it did not know its own mind till the sixteenth

-century. Then, like a hidden spring, it bubbles irresistibly to the

-surface, and the spot where it does so is called by the name of a man.

-

-There are beings in most great creative epochs who, with peculiar

-facility, seem to embody the purpose of their age and to yield

-themselves as ready instruments to its design. When time is ripe they

-appear, and are able, with perfect ease, to carry out and give voice to

-the desires and tendencies which have been straining for expression.

-These desires may owe their origin to national life and temperament; it

-may have taken generations to bring them to fruition, but they become

-audible through the agency of an individual genius. A genius is

-inevitably moulded by his age. Rome, in the seventeenth century,

-drew to her in Bernini a man who could with real power illustrate her

-determination to be grandiose and ostentatious, and, at the height of

-the Renaissance, Venice draws into her service a man whose sensuous

-feeling was instilled, accentuated, and welcomed by every element

-around him.

-

-More conclusively than ever, at this time, Venice, the world's great

-sea-power, was in her full glory as the centre of the world's commerce

-and its art and culture. Vasco da Gama had discovered the sea route to

-India in 1498, but the stupendous effect which this was to exert on the

-whole current of power did not become apparent all at once. Venice was

-still the great emporium of the East, linked to it by a thousand ties,

-Oriental in her love of Eastern richness.

-

-It would be exaggerating to say that the Venetians of the sixteenth

-century could not draw. As there were Tuscans who understood beautiful

-harmonies of colour, so there were Venetians who knew a good deal about

-form; but the other Italians looked upon colour as a charming adjunct,

-almost, one might say, as an amiable weakness: they never would have

-allowed that it might legitimately become the end and aim in painting,

-and in the same way form, though respected and considered, was never the

-principal object of the Venetians. Up to this time Venice had fed her

-emotional instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and brocades, but

-with Giorgione she discovered that there was a deeper emotional vehicle

-than these superficial glories,--glowing depths of colour enveloped in

-the mysterious richness of chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid

-and suggested more than it revealed.

-

-Giorgione no longer described "in drawing's learned tongue"; he

-carried all before him by giving his direct impression in colour. He

-conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little if their finely drawn

-draperies were blue or red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their

-dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange horizon. He hardly knows

-what attitudes his characters take, but their chestnut hair, their

-deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a moving harmony in which

-the importance of exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are not

-composed methodically and according to the old rules, but are the direct

-impress of the painter's joy in life. It was a new and audacious style

-in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely inevitable consequence,

-was to substitute for form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the

-quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how the shades of evening are able

-to transform the most commonplace scene; the dull road becomes a

-mysterious avenue, the colourless foliage develops luscious depths,

-the drab and arid plain glows with mellow light, purple shadows clothe

-and soften every harsh and ugly object, all detail dies, and our

-apprehension of it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of observing

-and criticising, we become soothed, contemplative, dreamy. It is the

-carrying of this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by means of

-chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer learned and explanatory, but deeply

-sensuous and emotional, that is the gift to art which found full voice

-with Giorgione, and which in one moment was recognised and welcomed to

-the exclusion of the older manner, because it touched the chord which

-vibrated through the whole Venetian temperament.

-

-And the immediate result was the picture of _no subject_. Giorgione

-creates for us idle figures with radiant flesh, or robed in rich

-costumes, surrounded by lovely country, and we do not ask or care why

-they are gathered together. We have all had dreams of Elysian fields,

-"where falls not any rain, nor ever wind blows loudly," where all is

-rest and freedom, where music blends with the plash of fountains, and

-fruits ripen, and lovers dream away the days, and no one asks what went

-before or what follows after. The Golden Age, the haunt of fauns and

-nymphs: there never has been such a day, or such a land: it is a mood, a

-vision: it has danced before the eyes of poets, from David to Keats and

-Tennyson: it has rocked the tired hearts of men in all ages: the vision

-of a resting-place which makes no demands and where the dwellers are

-exempt from the cares and weakness of mortality. Needless to say, it is

-an ideal born of the East; it is the Eastern dream of Paradise, and it

-speaks to that strain in the temperament which recognises that life

-cannot be all thought, but also needs feeling and emotion. And for the

-first time in all the world the painter of Castelfranco sets that vague

-dream before men's eyes. The world, with its wistful yearnings and

-questionings, such as Leonardo or Botticelli embodied, said little to

-his audience. Here was their natural atmosphere, though they had never

-known it before. These deep, solemn tones, these fused and golden lights

-are what Giorgione grasps from the material world, and as he steeps his

-senses in them the subject counts but little in the deep enjoyment they

-communicate. We, who have seen his manner repeated and developed through

-thousands of pictures, find it difficult to realise that there had been

-nothing like it before, that it was a unique departure, that when

-Bellini and Titian looked at his first creations they must have

-experienced a shock of revelation. The old definite style must have

-seemed suddenly hard and meagre, and every time they looked on the

-glorious world, the deep glow of sunset, the mysterious shades of

-falling night, they must have felt they were endowed with a sense to

-which they had hitherto been strangers, but which, it was at once

-apparent, was their true heritage. They had found themselves, and in

-them Venice found her real expression, and with Giorgione and those who

-felt his impetus began the true Venetian School, set apart from all

-other forms of art by its way of using and diffusing and intensifying

-colour.

-

-When Giorgione, the son of a member of the house of Barbarelli and a

-peasant girl of Vedelago, came down to Venice, we gather that he had

-nothing of the provincial. Vasari, who must often have heard of him

-from Titian, describes him as handsome, engaging, of distinguished

-appearance, beloved by his friends, a favourite with women, fond of

-dress and amusement, an admirable musician, and a welcome guest in the

-houses of the great. He was evidently no peasant-bred lad, but probably,

-though there is no record of the fact, was brought up, like many

-illegitimate children, in the paternal mansion. His home was not far

-from the lagoons, in one of the most beautiful places it is possible to

-imagine, on a lovely and fertile plain running up to the Asolean hills

-and with the Julian Alps lying behind. We guess that he received his

-education in the school of Bellini, for when that master sold his

-allegory of the "Souls in Paradise" to one of the Medici, to adorn the

-summer villa of Poggio Imperiale, there went with it the two small

-canvases now in the Uffizi, the "Ordeal of Moses" and the "Judgment

-of Solomon," delightful little paintings in Giorgione's rich and

-distinctive style, but less accomplished than Bellini's picture, and

-with imperfections in the drawing of drapery and figures which suggest

-that they are the work of a very young man. The love of the Venetians

-for decorating the exterior of their palaces with fresco led to

-Giorgione being largely employed on work which was unhappily a grievous

-waste of time and talent, as far as posterity is concerned. We have a

-record of facades covered with spirited compositions and heraldic

-devices, of friezes with Bacchus and Mars, Venus and Mercury. Zanetti,

-in his seventeenth-century prints, has preserved a noble figure of

-"Fortitude" grasping an axe, but beyond a few fragments nothing has

-survived. Before he was thirty Giorgione was entrusted with the

-important commission of decorating the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. This

-building, which we hear of so often in connection with the artists

-of Venice, was the trading-house for German, Hungarian, and Polish

-merchants. The Venetian Government surrounded these merchants with the

-most jealous restrictions. Every assistant and servant connected with

-them was by law a Venetian, and, in fact, a spy of the Republic. All

-transactions of buying and selling were carried out by Venetian brokers,

-of whom some thirty were appointed. As time went on, some of these

-brokerships must have resolved themselves into sinecure offices, for

-we find Bellini holding one, and certainly without discharging any of

-the original duties, and they seem to have become some sort of State

-retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been burnt to the ground, and

-the present building was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys. A

-decree went forth that no marble, carving, or gilding were to be used,

-so that painting the outside was the only alternative. The roof was on

-in 1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and Morto da Feltre were

-employed in the adornment of the facade. Vasari is very much exercised

-over Giorgione's share in these decorations. "One does not find one

-subject carefully arranged," he complains, "or which follows correctly

-the history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for me, I have never

-been able to understand the meaning of these compositions, or have met

-any one able to explain them to me. Here one sees a man with a lion's

-head, beside a woman. Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love: it is

-all an inexplicable medley." Yet he is delighted with the brilliancy of

-the colour and the splendid execution, and adds, "Colour gives more

-pleasure in Venice than anywhere else."

-

-Among other early work was the little "Adoration of the Magi," in the

-National Gallery, and the so-called "Philosophers" at Vienna. According

-to the latest reading, this last illustrates Virgil's legend that when

-the Trojan Aeneas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed out the future site

-of Rome to the ancient seer and his son. Giorgione, in painting the

-scene, is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his first great

-landscape, and all accessories have been sacrificed to intensity of

-effect. He revels in the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil

-masses of foliage, the long evening shadows, and the effect of dark

-forms silhouetted against the radiant light.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XV

-

-GIORGIONE (_continued_)

-

-

-When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back to Castelfranco, and painted

-an altarpiece for the Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth century

-Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain of Free Companions, who had made

-his fortune in the wars, where he had been attached to Catherine

-Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen from Cyprus, and when she retired

-to Asolo, settled near her at Castelfranco. His son, Matteo, entered the

-service of the Venetian Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances;

-but Matteo was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1504, and Costanza had

-his son's body embalmed and buried in the family chapel.

-

-Nothing is known of the details of this commission, but we are not

-straining the bounds of probability by assuming that in a little town

-like Castelfranco, hardly more than a village, the two youths must

-have been well known to each other, and that this acquaintance and

-the familiarity of the one with the appearance of the other may have

-been the determining cause which led the bereaved father to give the

-commission to the young painter, while the tragic circumstances were

-such as would appeal to an ardent, enthusiastic nature. A treasure of

-our National Gallery is a study made by Giorgione for the figure of San

-Liberale, who is represented as a young man with bare head and crisp,

-golden locks, dressed in silver armour, copied from the suit in which

-Matteo Costanza is dressed in the stone effigy which is still preserved

-in the cemetery at Castelfranco. At the side of the stone figure lies a

-helmet, resembling that on the head of the saint in the altarpiece.

-

-In Giorgione's group the Mother and Child are enthroned on high, with

-St. Francis and St. Liberale on either hand. The Child's glance is

-turned upon the soldier-saint, a gallant figure with his lance at rest,

-his dagger on his hip, his gloves in his hand, young, high-bred, with

-features of almost feminine beauty. The picture is conceived in a new

-spirit of simplicity of design, and shows a new feeling for restraint in

-matters of detail. It is the work of a man who has observed that early

-morning, like late evening, has a marvellous power of eliminating all

-unessential accessories and of enveloping every object in a delicious

-scheme of light. Repainted, cleaned, restored as the canvas is, it is

-still full of an atmosphere of calm serenity. It is not the ecstatic,

-devotional reverie of Perugino's saints. The painter of Castelfranco

-has not steeped his whole soul in religious imagination, like the

-painter of Umbria; he is an exemplar of the lyric feeling; his work is a

-poem in praise of youth and beauty, and dreams in air and sunshine. He

-uses atmosphere to enhance the mood, but Giorgione carries his unison of

-landscape with human feeling much further than Perugino; he observes the

-delicate effects of light, and limpid air circulates in his distance.

-The sun rising over the sea throws a glamour and purity of early morning

-over a scene meant to glorify the memory of a young life. The painter

-shows his connection with his master by using the figure of the St.

-Francis in Bellini's San Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to

-Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The San Zaccaria

-altarpiece was, as we have seen, painted in the year following that of

-Castelfranco. Something has incited the old painter to fresh efforts;

-out of his own evolution, or stimulated by his pupil's splendid

-experiments, he is drawn into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian

-cinque-cento.

-

-The Venetian painters were distinguished by their love for the kindred

-art of music. Giorgione himself was an admirable musician, and linked

-with all that is akin to music in his work, is his love for painting

-groups of people knit together by this bond. He uses it as a pastime to

-bring them into company, and the rich chords of colour seem permeated

-with the chords of sound. Not always, however, does he need even this

-excuse; his "conversation-pieces" are often merely composed of persons

-placed with indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings, governed by a

-mood which communicates itself to the beholder.

-

-With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully drawn upon the wall and

-flat tints were superimposed. They knew beforehand what the effect was

-to be; but the Venetians from this time gradually worked up the picture,

-imbedding tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting another,

-till the whole rich harmony was gradually evoked. With the Florentines,

-too, the figures supply the main interest; the background is an

-arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the painter's leisure, but

-Giorgione's and Titian's _fetes champetres_ and concerts could not _be_

-at all in any other environment. The amber flesh-tints and the glowing

-garments are so blended with the deep tones of the landscape, that one

-would not instil the mood the artist desires without the other. Piero di

-Cosimo and Pintoricchio can place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses

-in idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us beyond an observant

-pleasure, a detached amusement; but Giorgione's gloomy blues, his

-figures shining through the warm dusk of a summer evening, waken we

-hardly know what of vague yearning and brooding memory.

-

-In the "Fete Champetre" of the Louvre he acquires a frankly sensuous

-charm. He becomes riper, richer in feeling, and displays great

-exuberance of style. The woman filling her pitcher at the fountain is

-exquisite in line and curve and amber colour. She seems to listen lazily

-to the liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard music of

-the pipes. The beautiful idyll in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art

-of composition. It is built up with uprights; pillars are formed by the

-groups of trees and figures, cut boldly across by the horizontal line of

-the bridge, but the figures themselves are put in without any attention

-to subject, though an unconscious humorist has discovered in them the

-domestic circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress is there to

-assist the left-hand columnar group, placed at the edge of the picture

-after the manner of Leonardo. The woman and child lighten the mass of

-foliage on the right and make a beautiful pattern. The white town of

-Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky, the winds bluster

-through the space, the trees shiver with the coming storm. Here and

-there leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp touch, in which

-we can follow readily the painter's quick impression.

-

-The "Knight of Malta" is a grand magisterial figure, majestic, yet full

-of ardent warmth lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The face

-is bisected with shadow, in the way which Michelangelo and Andrea del

-Sarto affected, and the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of the type

-which seems particularly to have pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too,

-belongs the honour of having created a Venus as pure as the Aphrodite of

-Cnidos and as beautiful as a courtesan of Titian.

-

- [Illustration: _Giorgione._

-                 FETE CHAMPETRE.

-                _Louvre._

-                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]

-

-The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511 is registered by all the

-oldest authorities. His body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members of

-the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church of San Liberale. In 1638

-an epitaph was placed over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.

-

-Allowing that he was hardly more than twenty when his new manner began

-to gain a following, he had only some twelve years in which to establish

-his deep and lasting influence. We divine that he was a man of strong

-personality, such a one as warms and stimulates his companions. Even his

-nickname tells us something,--Great George, the Chief, the George of

-Georges,--it seems to express him as a leader. And we have no lack of

-proof that he was admired and looked up to. His style became the only

-one that found favour in Venice, and the painters of the day did their

-best to conform to it. Few authentic examples are left from his own

-hand, but out of his conscious and devoted and more or less successful

-imitators, there grew up a school, "out of all those fascinating works,

-rightly or wrongly attributed to him; out of many copies from, or

-variations on him, by unknown or uncertain workmen, whose drawings and

-designs were, for various reasons, prized as his; out of the immediate

-impression he made upon his contemporaries and with which he continued

-in men's minds; out of many traditions of subject and treatment which

-really descend from him to our own time, and by retracing which we fill

-out the original image."

-

-Summing up all these influences, he has left us the Giorgionesque;

-the art of choosing a moment in which the subject and the elements of

-colour and design are so perfectly fused and blended that we have no

-need to ask for any more articulate story; a moment into which all the

-significance, the fulness of existence has condensed itself, so that

-we are conscious of the very essence of life. Those idylls of beings

-wrapped into an ideal dreamland by music and the sound of water and the

-beauty of wood and mountain and velvet sward, need all our conscious

-apprehension of life if we are to drink in their full fascination. The

-dream of the Lotos-eaters can only come with force to those who can

-contrast it adequately with the experience, the complication, and the

-thousand distractions of an over-civilised world. Rest and relaxation,

-the power of the deeply tinted eventide, or of the fresh morning light,

-and the calm that drinks in the sensations they are able to afford, are

-among the precious things of life. The instinct upon which Giorgione's

-work rests is the satisfying of the feeling as well as the thinking

-faculty, the life of the heart, as compared to the life of the

-intellect, the solution of life's problems by love instead of by

-thought. It was the Eastern ideal, and its positive expression is

-conveyed by means of colour, deep, restful, satisfying, fused and

-controlled by chiaroscuro rather than by form.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Berlin.     Portrait of a Man.

- Buda-Pesth. Portrait of a Man.

- Castelfranco. Duomo: Madonna with SS. Francis and Liberale.

- Dresden.    Sleeping Venus.

- Florence.   Uffizi: Trial of Moses (E.); Judgment of Solomon (E.); Knight

-               of Malta.

- Hampton Court. A Shepherd.

- Madrid.     Madonna with SS. Roch and Anthony of Padua.

- Paris.      Fete Champetre.

- Rome.       Villa Borghese: Portrait of a Lady.

- Venice.     Seminario: Apollo and Daphne.

-             Palazzo Giovanelli: Gipsy and Soldier.

-             San Rocco: Christ bearing Cross.

- Boston.     Mrs. Gardner: Christ bearing Cross.

- London.     Sketch of a Knight; Adoration of Shepherds.

-             Viscount Allendale: Adoration of Shepherds.

- Vienna.     Evander showing Aeneas the Future Site of Rome.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVI

-

-THE GIORGIONESQUE

-

-

-Giorgione had given the impulse, and all the painters round him felt his

-power. The Venetian painters that is, for it is remarkable, at a time

-when the men of one city observed and studied and took hints from those

-of every other, how faint are the signs that this particular manner

-attracted any great attention in other art centres. Leonardo da Vinci

-was a master of chiaroscuro, but he used it only to express his forms,

-and never sacrifices to it the delicacy and fineness of his design. It

-is the one quality Raphael never assimilates, except for a brief instant

-at the period when Sebastian del Piombo had arrived in Rome from

-Venice. It takes hold most strongly upon Andrea del Sarto, who seems,

-significantly enough, to have had no very pronounced intellectual

-capacity, but in Venice itself it now became the only way. The old

-Bellini finds in it his last and fullest ideal; Catena, Basaiti, Cariani

-do their best to acquire it, and so successfully was it acquired, so

-congenial was it to Venetian art, that even second- and third-rate

-Venetian painters have usually something attractive which triumphs over

-superficial and doubtful drawing and grouping. It is easy to see how

-much to their taste was this fused and golden manner, this disregard of

-defined form, and this new play of chiaroscuro. The Venetian room in the

-National Gallery is full of such examples: the Nymphs and _Amoretti_ of

-No. 1695, charming figures against melting vines and olives; "Venus and

-Adonis," in which a bewitching Cupid chases a butterfly; Lovers in a

-landscape, roaming in the summer twilight; scenes in which neither

-person nor scenery is a pretext for the other, but each has its full

-share in arousing the desired emotion. Such pictures are ascribed to, or

-taken from Giorgione by succeeding critics, but have all laid hold of

-his charm, and have some share in his inspiration.

-

-One of the ablest of his followers, a man whose work is still confounded

-with the master's, is Cariani, the Bergamasque, who at different times

-in his life also successfully imitated Palma and Lotto. In his

-Giorgionesque manner Cariani often creates charming figures and strong

-portraits, though he pushes his colour to a coarse, excessive tone. His

-family group in the Roncalli Collection at Bergamo is very close to

-Giorgione. Seven persons, three women and four men, are grouped together

-upon a terrace, and behind them stretches a calm landscape, half

-concealed by a brocaded hanging. The effect of the whole is restful,

-though it lacks Giorgione's concentration of sensation. Then, again,

-Cariani flies off to the gayer, more animated style of Lotto. Later on,

-when he tries to reproduce Giorgione's pastoral reveries, his shepherds

-and nymphs become mere peasants, herdsmen, and country wenches, who have

-nothing of the idyllic distinction which Giorgione never failed to

-infuse. "The Adulteress before Christ" at Glasgow still bears the

-greater name, but its short, vulgar figures and faulty composition

-disclaim his authorship, while Cariani is fully capable of such

-failings, and the exaggerated, red-brown tone is quite characteristic

-of him.

-

-These painters are more than merely imitative; they are also typical.

-Giorgione's new manner had appealed to some quality inherent and

-hereditary in their nature, and the essential traits they single out and

-dwell upon are the traits which appeal equally to the instincts of both.

-It is this which makes their efforts more sympathetic than those of

-other second-rate painters. Colour, or rather the peculiar way in which

-Giorgione used colour, made a natural appeal to them, and it is a medium

-which does make an immediate appeal and covers a multitude of

-shortcomings.

-

-But Giorgione was not to leave his message to the mercy of mere

-disciples and imitators, however apt. Growing up around him were men to

-whom that message was an inspiration and a trumpet-call, men who were to

-develop and deepen it, endowing it with their own strength, recognising

-that the way which the young pioneer of Castelfranco had pointed out

-was the one into which they could unhesitatingly pour their whole

-inclination. The instinct for colour was in their very blood. They

-turned to it with the heart-whole delight with which a bird seeks the

-air or a fish the water, and foremost among them, to create and to

-consolidate, was the mighty Titian.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Cariani._

-

- Bergamo. Carrara: Madonna and Saints.

-          Lochis: Woman and Shepherd; Portraits; Saints.

-          Morelli: Madonna (L.).

-          Roncalli Collection: Family Group.

- Hampton Court. Adoration of Shepherds (L.); Venus (L.).

- London.  Death of S. Peter Martyr (L.); Madonna and Saints (L.).

- Milan.   Brera: Madonna and Saints (L.); Madonna (L.).

-          Ambrosiana: Way to Golgotha.

- Paris.   Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Holy Family and Saints.

- Rome.    Villa Borghese: Sleeping Venus; Madonna and S. Peter.

- Venice.  Holy Family; Portraits.

- Vienna.  Christ bearing Cross; The "Bravo."

-

-

- _School of Giorgione._

-

- London. Unknown subject; Adoration of Shepherds; Venus and Adonis;

-               Landscape, with Nymphs and Cupids; The Garden of Love.

-         Mr. Benson. Lovers and Pilgrim.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVII

-

-TITIAN

-

-

-The mountains of Cadore are not always visible from Venice, but there

-they lie, behind the mists, and in the clear shining after rain, in the

-golden eventide of autumn, and on steel-cold winter days they stand out,

-lapis-lazuli blue or deep purple, or, like Shelley's enchanted peaks, in

-sharp-cut, beautiful shapes rising above billowy slopes. Cadore is a

-land of rich chestnut woods, of leaping streams, of gleams and glooms,

-sudden storms and bursts of sunshine. It is an order of scenery which

-enters deep into the affections of its sons, and we can form some idea

-of the hold its mingling of wild poetry and sensuous softness obtained

-over the mind of Titian from the fact that in after years, while he

-never exerts himself to paint the city in which he lived and in which

-all his greatest triumphs were gained, he is uniformly constant to his

-mountain home, enters into its spirit and interprets its charm with warm

-and penetrating insight.

-

-The district formed part of the dependencies of the great republic, and

-relied upon Venice for its safety, its distinction, and in great measure

-for its employment. The small craftsmen and artists from all the country

-round looked forward to going down to seek their fortune at her hands.

-They tacked the name of their native town to their own name, and were

-drawn into the magnificent life of the city of the sea, and came back

-from time to time with stories of her art, her power, and beauty.

-

-The Vecelli had for generations held honourable posts in Cadore. The

-father and grandfather of the young Tiziano were influential men, and

-with his brother and sisters he must have been brought up in comfort.

-There are even traditions of noble birth, and it is evident that Titian

-was always a gentleman, though this did not prevent his being educated

-as a craftsman, and when he was only ten years old he was sent down to

-Venice to be apprenticed to a mosaicist.

-

-It was a changing Venice to which Titian came as a boy; changing in its

-life, its social and political conditions, and its art was faithfully

-registering its aspirations and tastes. More than at any previous time,

-it was calculated to impress a youth to whom it had been held up as the

-embodiment of splendid sovereignty, and the difference between the

-little hill-town set in the midst of its wild solitudes and the

-brilliant city of the sea must have been dazzling and bewildering. A

-new sense of intellectual luxury had awakened in the great commercial

-centre. The Venetian love of splendour was displaying itself by the

-encouragement and collection of objects of art, and both ancient and

-modern works were in increasing request. On Gentile Bellini's and

-Carpaccio's canvases we see the sort of people the Venetians were,

-shrewd, quiet, splendour-loving, but business-like, the young men

-fashionably dressed, fastidious connoisseurs, splendid patrons of art

-and of religion. Buyers were beginning to find out what a delightful

-decoration the small picture made, and that it was as much in place in

-their own halls as over the altar of a chapel. The portrait, too, was

-gaining in importance, and the idea of making it a pleasure-giving

-picture, even more than a faithful transcript, was gathering ground. The

-"Procession of the Relic" was still in Gentile's studio, but the Frari

-"Madonna and Child" was just installed in its place. Carpaccio was

-beginning his long series of St. Ursula, and the Bellini and Vivarini

-were in keen rivalship.

-

-Titian is said to have passed from the _bottega_ of Gentile to that of

-Giovanni Bellini, but nothing in his style reminds us of the former, and

-even his early work has very little that is really Bellinesque, whereas

-from the very first he reflects the new spirit which emanated from

-Giorgione. Titian was a year the elder, and we can divine the sympathy

-that arose between the two when they came together in Bellini's School.

-As soon as their apprenticeship was at an end they became partners. Fond

-of pleasure and gaiety, loving splendour, dress, and amusement, they

-were naturally congenial companions, and were drawn yet more closely

-together by their love for their art and by the aptitude with which

-Titian grasped Giorgione's principles.

-

-And if we ask ourselves why we take for granted that of two young men so

-closely allied in age and circumstance we accept Giorgione as the leader

-and the creator of the new style, we may answer that Titian was a more

-complex character. He was intellectual, and carried his intellect into

-his art, but this was no new feature. The intellect had had and was

-having a large share in art. But in that part which was new, and which

-was launching art upon an untried course, Giorgione is more intense,

-more one-idea'd than Titian. What he does he does with a fervour and a

-spontaneity that marks him as one who pours out the language of the

-heart.

-

-The partnership between the two was probably arranged a few years before

-the end of the century, for we have seen that young painters usually

-started on their own account at about nineteen or twenty. For some years

-Titian, like Giorgione, was engrossed by the decorations of the Fondaco

-dei Tedeschi. The groups of figures described by Zanetti in 1771 show us

-that while Giorgione made some attempt at following classic figures,

-Titian broke entirely with Greek art and only thought of picturesque

-nature and contemporary costume.

-

-Vasari complains that he never knew what Titian's "Judith" was meant to

-represent, "unless it was Germania," but Zanetti, who had the benefit of

-Sebastiano Ricci's taste, declares that from what he saw, both Giorgione

-and Titian gave proofs of remarkable skill. "While Giorgione showed a

-fervid and original spirit and opened up a new path, over which he shed

-a light that was to guide posterity, Titian was of a grander and more

-equable genius, leaning at first, indeed, upon Giorgione's example, but

-expanding with such force and rapidity as to place him in advance of

-his companion, on an eminence to which no later craftsman was able to

-climb.... He moderated the fire of Giorgione, whose strength lay in

-fanciful movement and a mysterious artifice in disposing shadows,

-contrasted darkly with warm lights, blended, strengthened, blurred, so

-as to produce the semblance of exuberant life." Certain works remain to

-link the two painters; even now critics are divided as to which of

-the two to attribute the "Concert" in the Pitti. The figures are

-Giorgionesque, but the technique establishes it as an early Titian, and

-it is doubtful whether Giorgione would be capable of the intellectual

-effort which produced the dreamy, passionate expression of the young

-monk, borne far out of himself by his own melody, and half recalled to

-life by the touch on his shoulder. Titian, like Giorgione, was a

-musician, and the fascination of music is felt by many masters of the

-Italian schools. In one picture the player feels vaguely after the

-melody, in another we are asked to anticipate the song that is just

-about to begin, or the last chords of that just finished vibrate upon

-the ear, but nowhere else in all art has any one so seized the melody of

-an instant and kept its fulness and its passion sounding in our ears as

-this musician does.

-

-Though we cannot say that Titian was the pupil of any one master, the

-fifteen years, more or less, that he spent with Giorgione left an

-indelible impression upon him. We have only to look at such a picture

-as the "Madonna and Child with SS. John Baptist and Antony Abate,"

-in the Uffizi, an early work, to recollect that in 1503 Giorgione at

-Castelfranco had taken the Madonna from her niche in the sanctuary

-and had enthroned her on high in a bright and sunny landscape with

-S. Liberale standing sentinel at her feet, like a knight guarding

-his liege lady.

-

-Titian in this early group casts every convention aside; a beautiful

-woman and lovely children are placed in surroundings whose charm is

-devoid of hieratic and religious significance. The same easy unfettered

-treatment appears in the "Madonna with the Cherries" at Vienna, and the

-"Madonna with St. Bridget and S. Ulfus" at Madrid, and while it has been

-surmised that the example of the precise Albert Duerer, who paid his

-first visit to Venice in 1506, was not without its effect in preserving

-Titian from falling into laxity of treatment and in inciting him to fine

-finish, it is interesting to find that Titian was, in fact, discarding

-the use of the carefully traced and transferred cartoon, and was

-sketching his design freely on panel or canvas with a brush dipped in

-brown pigment, and altering and modifying it as he went on.

-

-The last years of Titian's first period in Venice must have been anxious

-ones. The Emperor Maximilian was attacking the Venetian possessions on

-the mainland, in anger at a refusal to grant his troops a free passage

-on their way to uphold German supremacy in Central Italy. Cadore was

-the first point of his invasion, and from 1507 Titian's uncle and

-great-uncle were in the Councils of the State, his father held an

-important command, and his brother Francesco, who had already made some

-progress as an artist, threw down his brush and became a soldier. Titian

-was not one of those who took up arms, but his thoughts must have been

-full of the attack and defence in his mountain fastnesses, and he must

-have anxiously awaited news of his father's troops and of the squadrons

-of Maso of Ferrara, under whose colours Francesco was riding. Francesco

-made a reputation as a distinguished soldier, and was severely wounded,

-and when peace was made, Titian, "who loved him tenderly," persuaded him

-to return to the pursuit of art.

-

-The ratification of the League of Cambray, in which Julius II.,

-Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Naples combined against the power of

-Venice, was disastrous for a time to the city and to the artists who

-depended upon her prosperity. Craftsmen of all kinds first fled to her

-for shelter, then, as profits and orders fell off, they left to look

-elsewhere for commissions. An outbreak of plague, in which Giorgione

-perished, went further to make Venice an undesirable home, and at this

-time Sebastian del Piombo left for Rome, Lotto for the Romagna, and

-Titian for Padua.

-

-We may believe that Titian never felt perfectly satisfied with

-fresco-painting as a craft, for when he was given a commission to fresco

-the halls of the Santo, the confraternity of St. Anthony, patron-saint

-of Padua, he threw off beautifully composed and spirited drawings, but

-he left the execution of them chiefly to assistants, among whom the

-feeble Domenico Campagnola, a painter whom he probably picked up at

-Padua, is conspicuous. Even where the landscape is best, as in "S.

-Anthony restoring a Youth," the drawing and composition only make us

-feel how enchanting the scene would have been in oils on one of Titian's

-melting canvases. In those frescoes which he executed himself while his

-interest was still fresh, the "Miracle which grants Speech to an Infant"

-is the most Giorgionesque. Up to this time he had preserved the

-straight-cut corsage and the actual dress of his contemporaries, after

-the practice of Giorgione; he keeps, too, to his companion's plan of

-design, placing the most important figures upon one plane, close to the

-frame and behind a low wall or ledge which forms a sort of inner frame

-and with a distant horizon. In the Paduan frescoes he makes use of this

-plan, and the straight clouds, the spindly trees, and the youths in gay

-doublets are all reminiscent of his early comrade, but the group of

-women to the left in the "Miracle of the Child" shows that Titian is

-beginning more decidedly to enunciate his own type. The introduction of

-portraits proves that he was tending to rely largely upon nature, in

-contradistinction to Giorgione's lyrically improvised figures. He fuses

-the influence of Giorgione and the influence of Antonello da Messina and

-the Bellini in a deeper knowledge of life and nature, and he is passing

-beyond Giorgione in grasp and completeness. When he was able to return

-to Venice, which he did in 1512, a temporary peace having been concluded

-with Maximilian, he abandoned the uncongenial medium of fresco for good,

-and devoted himself to that which admitted of the afterthoughts, the

-enrichments, the gradual attainment of an exquisite surface, and at

-this time his works are remarkable for their brilliant gloss and finish.

-

-During the next twelve years we may group a number of paintings which,

-taken in conjunction with those of Giorgione, show the true Venetian

-School at its most intense, idyllic moment. They are the works of a man

-in the pride of youth and strength, sane and healthy, an example of the

-confident, sanguine, joyous temper of his age, capable of embodying

-its dominant tendencies, of expressing its enjoyment of life, its

-worldly-mindedness, its love of pleasure, as well as its noble feeling

-and its grave and magnificent purpose.

-

-For absolute delight in colour let us turn to a picture like the "Noli

-me tangere" of the National Gallery. The golden light, the blues and

-olives of the landscape, the crimson of the Magdalen's raiment, combine

-in a feast of emotional beauty, emphasising the feeling of the woman,

-whose soul is breathed out in the word "Master." The colour unites with

-the light and shadow, is embedded in it; and we can see Titian's delight

-in the ductile medium which had such power to give material sensation.

-In these liquid crimsons, these deep greens and shoaling blues, the

-velvety fulness and plenitudes of the brush become visible; we can look

-into their depths and see something quite unlike the smooth, opaque

-washes of the Florentines.

-

-In such a masterpiece as "Sacred and Profane Love," painted during

-these years for the Borghese, there are summed up all those artistic

-aims towards which the Venetian painters had been tending. The picture

-is still Giorgionesque in mood. It may represent, as Dr. Wickhoff

-suggests, Venus exhorting Medea to listen to the love-suit of Jason; but

-the subject is not forced upon us, and we are more occupied with the

-contrast between the two beautiful personalities, so harmoniously

-related to each other, yet so opposed in type. The gracious,

-self-absorbed lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove, her

-silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and spirit to the goddess

-whose free, simple attitude and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal.

-The sinuous and enchanting line of Venus's figure against the crimson

-cloak has, I think, been the outcome of admiration for Giorgione's

-"Sleeping Venus," and has the same soft, unhurried curves. Titian's two

-figures are perfectly spaced in a setting which breathes the very aroma

-of the early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble fountain represents

-nymphs whipping a sleeping Love to life, while a cupid teases the chaste

-unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes in the water, fallen rose-leaves

-strew the mellow marble rim, around and away stretches a sunny country

-scene, in which people are placidly pursuing a life of ease and

-pleasure. What a revelation to Venice these pictures were which began

-with Giorgione's conversaziones! How little occupied the women are with

-the story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons on her fingers,

-like S. Ursula. Medea is listening to her own thoughts, but the whole

-scene is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and happiness of love. The

-little censer burning away in the blue and breathless air might be a

-philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the rays of the evening sun

-strike the picture, where it now hangs, and bring out each touch of its

-glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate with the joy of life and to

-thrill with the magic of summer in the days when the world was young.

-

-With the influence still lingering of Giorgione's "Knight of Malta,"

-Titian produced some of his finest portraits in the decade that led to

-the middle of his life. The "Dr. Parma" at Vienna, the noble "Man in

-Black" and "Man with a Glove" of the Louvre, the "Young Englishman" of

-the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the portrait at Temple Newsam,

-which, with some critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples

-in which he keeps the half-length, invented by Bellini and followed by

-Giorgione.

-

-After the visit to Padua he shows less preference for costume, and his

-women are generally clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than the

-square-cut bodice.

-

-We do not wonder that all the leading personages of Italy wished to be

-painted by Titian. His are the portraits of a man of intellect. They

-show the subject at his best; grave, cultivated, stately, as he appeared

-and wished to appear; not taken off his guard in any way. What can be

-more sympathetic as a personality than the Ariosto of the National

-Gallery? We can enter into his mind and make a friend of him, and yet

-all the time he has himself in hand; he allows us to divine as much as

-he chooses, and draws a thin veil over all that he does not intend us to

-discover. The painter himself is impersonal and not over-sensitive; he

-does not paint in his own fancies about his sitter--probably he had

-none; he saw what he was meant to see. There was what Mr. Berenson calls

-"a certain happy insensibility" about him, which prevented him from

-taking fantastic flights, or from looking too deep below the surface.

-

- [Illustration: _Titian._

-                 ARIOSTO.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XVIII

-

-TITIAN (_continued_)

-

-

-With the "Assumption," finished in 1518 for the Church of the Frari,

-Titian rose to the very highest among Renaissance painters. The

-"Glorious S. Mary" was his theme, and he concentrated all his efforts on

-the realisation of that one idea. The central figure is, as it were, a

-collective rather than an individual type. Well proportioned and elastic

-as it is, it has the abundance of motherhood. Harmonious and serene, it

-combines dramatic force and profound feeling. Exultant Humanity, in its

-hour of triumph, rises with her, borne up lightly by that throbbing

-company of child angels and followed by full recognition and awestruck

-satisfaction in the adoring gaze of the throng below, yet Titian has

-contrived to keep some touch of the loving woman hurrying to meet her

-son. The flood of colour, the golden vault above, the garment of glowing

-blues and crimsons, have a more than common share in that spirit of

-confident joy and poured-out life which envelops the whole canvas. In

-the worthy representation of a great event, the visible assumption of

-Humanity to the Throne of God, Titian puts forth all his powers and

-steeps us in that temper of sanguine emotion, of belief in life and

-confidence in the capacity of man, which was so characteristic of the

-ripe Renaissance. In looking at this splendid canvas, we must call to

-mind the position for which Titian painted it. Hung in the dusky

-recesses of the apse, it was tempered by and merged in its stately

-surroundings. The band of Apostles almost formed a part of the

-whispering crowd below, and the glorious Mother was beheld soaring

-upwards to the golden light and the mysterious vistas of the vaulted

-arches above.

-

-The patronage of courts had by this time altered the tenor of Titian's

-life. In 1516 Duke Alfonso d'Este had invited him to Ferrara, where he

-had finished Bellini's "Bacchanals." It bears the marks of Titian's

-hand, and he has introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore into

-the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes to propose another painting, and

-Titian's acceptance is contained in a very courtier-like letter, in

-which we divine a touch of irony. "The more I thought of it," he ends,

-"the more I became convinced that the greatness of art among the

-ancients was due to the assistance they received from great princes, who

-were content to leave to the painter the credit and renown derived from

-their own ingenuity in bespeaking pictures." Alfonso's requirements for

-his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological scenes were already

-popular. Mantegna had adorned Isabela d'Este's "Paradiso" with revels

-of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception of classic myth in the

-Medici villa, already Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was to

-make designs for similar scenes to complete the decorations of the halls

-of Este. The same exuberant feeling he shows in the "Assumption" finds

-utterance in the "Garden of Loves" and the "Bacchanals," both painted

-for Alfonso of Ferrara. The children in the former may be compared with

-the angels in the "Assumption." Their blue wings match the heavenly blue

-sky, and they are painted with the most delicate finish.

-

-We can imagine the beauty of the great hall at Ferrara when hung with

-this brilliant series, which was completed in 1523 by the "Bacchus and

-Ariadne" of the National Gallery. The whole company of bacchanals is

-given up to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods the deep blue sky and

-great white clouds of a summer day. The deep greens of the foliage throw

-the creamy-white and burning colour of the draperies and the fair forms

-of the nymphs into glowing relief, while by a convention the satyrs

-are of a deep, tawny complexion. On a roll of music is stamped the

-rollicking device, "_Chi boit et ne reboit, ne sceais que boir soit_."

-The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines, its crimson juice shines

-like a jewel in crystal goblets and drips in streams over rosy limbs.

-The influence of such pictures as these was absorbed by Rubens, but

-though they hardly surpass him in colour, they are more idyllic and

-less coarse. The perfect taste of the Renaissance is never shown more

-victoriously than here, where indulgence ceases to be repulsive, and the

-actors are real flesh and blood, yet more Arcadian than revolting. In

-the "Bacchus and Ariadne," Titian gives triumphant expression to a mood

-of wild rejoicing, so gay, so good-tempered, so simple, that we must

-smile in sympathy. The conqueror flinging himself from his golden

-chariot drawn by panthers, his deep red mantle fluttering on high, is so

-full of reckless life that our spirit bounds with him. His rioting band,

-marching with song and laughter, seems to people that golden country-side

-with fit inhabitants. The careless satyrs and little merry, goat-legged

-fauns shock us no more than a herd of forest ponies, tossing their manes

-and dashing along for love of life and movement.[3] Yet almost before

-this series was put in place Titian was showing the diversity of his

-genius by the "Deposition," now in the Louvre, which was painted at the

-instance of the Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua and nephew of Alfonso d'Este.

-Here he makes a great step in the use of chiaroscuro. While it is

-satisfying in balance and sweeping rhythm, and by the way in which every

-line follows and intensifies the helpless, slackened lines of the dead

-Body, it escapes Raphael's academic treatment of the same subject. Its

-splendid colours are not noisy; they merge into a scene of solemn pathos

-and tragedy. The scene has a simplicity and unity in its passion, and

-what above all gives it its intense power is the way in which the

-flaming hues are absorbed into the twilight shadows. The dark heads

-stand out against the dying sunset, the pallor of the dead is half

-veiled by the falling night. It is a picture which has the emotional

-beauty of a scene in nature, and makes a profound impression by its

-depth and mystery. This same solemnity and gravity temper the brilliant

-colouring of the great altarpiece painted for the Pesaro family in the

-Frari. Columns rise like great tree-trunks, light and air play through

-the clouds seen between them. The grouping is a new experiment, but the

-way in which the Mother and Child, though placed quite at one side of

-the picture, are focussed as the centre of interest, by the converging

-lines, diagonal on the one hand and straight on the other, crowns it

-with success. The scheme of colour brings the two figures into high

-relief, while St. Francis and the family of the donor are subordinated

-to rich, deep tints. Titian has abandoned, more completely than ever

-before, any attempt to invest the Child with supernatural majesty. He is

-a delightful, spoiled baby, fully aware of his sovereignty over his

-mother, pretending to take no notice of the kneeling suppliants, but

-occupying himself in making a tent over his head out of her veil. The

-"Madonna in Glory with six Saints" of the Vatican is another example of

-the rich and "smouldering" colour in which Titian was now creating his

-great altarpieces, kneading his pigments into a quality, a solidity,

-which gives reality without heaviness, and finishing with that

-fine-grained texture which makes his flesh look like marble endowed

-with life.

-

- [3] It is this quality of unarrested movement, so conspicuous

- above all in the figure of Bacchus, which attracts us irresistibly in

- the Huntress, in Lord Brownlow's "Diana and Actaeon." The construction

- of the form of the goddess in this beautiful but little-known picture is

- admirable. Worn as the colour is, appearing almost as a monochrome, the

- landscape is full of atmospheric suggestion. It is in Titian's latest

- manner, and its ample lines and free unimpeded motion can be due to no

- inferior brush.

-

- [Illustration: _Titian._

-                 DIANA AND ACTAEON.

-                _Earl Brownlow._

-                 (_The Medici Society, Ltd._)]

-

-Venuses, altarpieces, and portraits all tell us how boldly his own style

-was established. His sacred persons are not different from his pagans

-and goddesses. Yet though he has gone far, he still reminds us of

-Giorgione. He has been constant to the earliest influences which

-surrounded him, and to that temperament which made him accept those

-influences so instantaneously--and this constancy and unity give him the

-untroubled ascendancy over art which is such a feature of his position.

-

-With Leonardo and with Titian, painters had sprung to a recognised

-status in the great world of the Renaissance. They were no longer the

-patronised craftsmen. They had become the courted guests, the social

-equals. Titian, passing from the courts of Ferrara to those of Mantua

-and Urbino, attended by a band of assistants, was a magnificent

-personage, whose presence was looked upon as a favour, and who undertook

-a commission as one who conferred a coveted boon. Among those who

-clustered closest round the popular favourite, no one did more to

-enhance his position than Aretino, the brilliant unscrupulous debauchee,

-wit, bully, blackmailer, but a man who, with all his faults, had

-evidently his own power of fascination, and, the friend of princes,

-must have been himself the prince of good company. Aretino, as far

-as he could be said to be attached to any one, was consistent in his

-attachment to Titian from the time they first met at the court of the

-Gonzaga. He played the part of a chorus, calling attention to the great

-painter's merits, jogging the memory of his employers as to payments,

-and never ceasing to flatter, amuse, and please him. Titian, for his

-part, shows himself equally devoted to Aretino's interests, and has left

-various characteristic portraits of him, handsome and showy in his

-prime, sensual and depraved as age overtook him.

-

-In the spring of 1528 the confraternity of St. Peter Martyr invited

-artists to send in sketches for an altarpiece to their patron-saint, in

-SS. Giovanni and Paolo, to replace an old one by Jacobello del Fiore.

-Palma Vecchio and Pordenone also competed, but Titian carried off the

-prize. The picture was delivered in 1530, and during the autumn of 1529

-Sebastian del Piombo had returned to Venice from Rome, and Michelangelo

-had sought refuge there from Florence and had stayed for some months. A

-quarrel with the monks over the price had delayed the picture, so that

-it may quite probably have only been begun after intercourse with the

-Roman visitors had given a fresh turn to Titian's ideas; for though he

-never ceases to be himself, it certainly seems as if the genius of

-Michelangelo had had some effect. From what we know of the altarpiece,

-which perished by fire in 1867, but of which a good copy by Cigoli

-remains, Titian embarked suddenly upon forms of Herculean strength

-in violent action, but there his likeness to the Florentine ended;

-the figures were, indeed, drawn with a deep, though not altogether

-successful, attention to anatomy and foreshortening, but the picture

-obtained its effect and derived its impressiveness from the setting in

-which the figures were placed--the great trees, bending and straining,

-the hurrying clouds, as if nature were in portentous harmony with the

-sinister deed, and overhead the enchanting gleam of light which shot

-downward and irradiated the face of the martyr and the two lovely

-winged boys, bathed in a flood of blue aether, who held aloft the palm of

-victory. Many copies of it remain, and we only regret that one which

-Rubens executed is not preserved among them.

-

-When we look at the delicious "Madonna del Coniglio" in the Louvre and

-our own "Marriage of S. Catherine," the first of which certainly, and

-the second probably, was painted about this time, we cannot doubt that

-the charm of the idea of motherhood had particularly arrested the

-painter. About 1525 his first son, Pomponio, was born, and was followed

-by another son and a daughter. In the S. Catherine he paints that

-passion of mother-love with an intensity and reality that can only be

-drawn from life, and on the wheel at her feet he has inscribed his name,

-Ticianus, F. His feeling for landscape is increasing, and the landscape

-in these pictures equals the figures in importance and has engrossed the

-painter quite as much. Every year Titian paid a visit to Cadore, and in

-the rich woodlands, the distant villages, the great white villa on the

-hill-side, and, above all, in the far-off blue mountains and the glooms

-and gleams of storm and sunshine, the sudden dart of rays through the

-summer clouds, which he has painted here, we see how constant was his

-study of his native country, and how profoundly he felt its poetry and

-its charm. He had married Cecilia, the daughter of a barber belonging

-to Perarolo, a little town near Cadore. In 1530 she died, and he

-mourned her deeply. He went on working and planning for his children's

-future, and his sister came from Cadore to take charge of the motherless

-household; but his friends' letters speak of his being ill from

-melancholy, and he could not go on living in the old house at San

-Samuele, which had been his home for sixteen years. He took a new house

-on the north side of the city, in the parish of San Canciano. The Casa

-Grande, as it was called, was a building of importance, which the

-painter first hired and finally bought, letting off such apartments as

-he did not need. The first floor had a terrace, and was entered by a

-flight of steps from the garden, which overlooked the lagoons, and had a

-view of the Cadore mountains. It has been swept away by the building of

-the Fondamenta Nuove, but the documents of the leases are preserved, and

-the exact site is well established. Here his children grew up, and he

-worked for them unceasingly. Pomponio, his eldest son, was idle and

-extravagant, a constant source of trouble, and Aretino writes him

-reproachful letters, which he treats with much impertinence. Orazio took

-to his father's profession, and was his constant companion, and often

-drew his cartoons; and his beautiful daughter, Lavinia, was his greatest

-joy and pride. In this house Titian showed constant hospitality, and

-there are records of the princely fashion in which he entertained his

-friends and distinguished foreign visitors. Priscianese, a well-known

-Humanist and _savant_ of the day, describes a Bacchanalian feast on

-the 1st of August, in a pleasant garden belonging to Messer Tiziano

-Vecellio. Aretino, Sansovino, and Jacopo Nardi were present. Till the

-sun set they stayed indoors, admiring the artist's pictures. "As soon as

-it went down, the tables were spread, looking on the lagoons, which soon

-swarmed with gondolas full of beautiful women, and resounded with music

-of voices and instruments, which till midnight, accompanied our

-delightful supper. Titian gave the most delicate viands and precious

-wines, and the supper ended gaily."

-

-In the year 1532 Titian for the first time sought other than Italian

-patronage. Charles V., who was then at the height of his power, with all

-Italy at his feet, passed through Mantua, and among all the treasures

-that he saw was most struck by Titian's portrait of Federigo Gonzaga.

-After much writing to and fro, it was arranged that Titian should meet

-the Emperor at Bologna, where he had just been crowned. He made his

-first sketch of him, from which he afterwards produced a finished full

-length. It was the first of many portraits, and Vasari declares that

-from that time forth Charles would never sit to any other master. He

-received a knighthood, and many commissions from members of the

-Emperor's court. It was for one of his nobles, da Valos, Marquis of

-Vasto, that he painted the allegorical piece in the Louvre, in which

-Mary of Arragon, the lovely wife of da Valos, is parting with her

-husband, who is bound on one of the desperate expeditions against the

-terrible Turks. Da Valos is dressed in armour, and the couple are

-encircled by Hymen, Victory, and the God of Love. The composition was

-repeated more than once, but never with quite the same success. We again

-suspect the influence of Michelangelo in the altarpiece painted before

-Titian next left Venice, of St. John the Almsgiver, for the Church of

-that name, of which the Doge was patron. The figures are life-size, the

-types stern and rugged, daringly foreshortened, and the colours, though

-gorgeous, are softened and broken by broad effects of light and shade.

-It is painted in a solemn mood, a contrast to that in which about this

-time he produced a series of beautiful female portraits, nude or

-semi-nude, chiefly, it would appear, at the instance of the Duke of

-Urbino. The Duke at this time was the General-in-Chief of the Venetian

-forces, a position which took him often to Venice, and Titian's

-relations with him lasted till the painter's death. At least twenty-five

-of his works must have adorned the castles of Urbino and Pesaro. Among

-these were the Venus of the Uffizi, "La Bella di Tiziano," in her

-gorgeous scheme of blue and amethyst, the "Girl in a Fur Cloak," besides

-portraits of the Duke and Duchess. It would be impossible to enumerate

-here the numbers of portraits which Titian was now supplying. The

-reputation he had acquired, not only in Italy, but in Spain, France, and

-Germany, was greater than had ever been attained by any painter, while

-his social position was established among the highest in every court.

-"He had rivals in Venice," says Vasari, "but none that he did not

-crush by his excellence and knowledge of the world in converse with

-gentlemen." There is not a writer of the day who does not acclaim his

-genius. Titian was undoubtedly very fond of money, and had amassed a

-good fortune. He was constantly asking for favours, and had pensions and

-allowances from royal patrons. Lavinia, when she married, brought her

-husband a dowry of 1400 ducats. He had painted the portraits of the

-Doges with tolerable regularity, but all through his life complaints

-were heard of his neglect of the work of the Hall of Grand Council.

-Occupied as he was with the work of his foreign patrons, he had

-systematically neglected the conditions enjoined by his possession of a

-Broker's patent, and the Signoria suddenly called on him to refund the

-salary amounting to over 100 ducats a year, for the twenty years during

-which he had drawn it without performing his promise, while they

-prepared to instal Pordenone, who had lately appeared as his bitter

-rival, in his stead. Though Titian must have been making large sums of

-money at this time, his expenses were heavy, and he could not calmly

-face the obligation to repay such a sum as 2000 ducats at the same time

-that he lost the annual salary, nor was it pleasant to be ousted by a

-second-rate rival. His easy remedy was, however, in his own hands; he

-set to work and soon completed a great canvas of the "Battle of Cadore,"

-which, though it is only known to us from a contemporary print and a

-drawing by Rubens, evidently deserved Vasari's verdict of being the

-finest battlepiece ever placed in the hall. The movement and stir he

-contrives to give with a small number of figures is astonishing. The

-fortress burns upon the hill-side, a regiment advancing with lances and

-pennons produces the illusion that it is the vanguard of a great army,

-the desperate conflict by the narrow bridge realises all the terrors of

-war. It was an atonement for his long period of neglect, but it was not

-till 1439 [TN: Pordenone died in 1539] that, Pordenone having suddenly

-died, the Signoria relented and reinstated Titian in his Broker's

-patent. One of his later paintings for the State still keeps its place,

-"The Triumph of Faith," in which Doge Grimani, a splendid, steel-clad

-form with flowing mantle, kneels before the angelic apparition of Faith,

-who holds a cross, which angels and cherubs help her to support. Beneath

-the clouds are seen the Venetian fleet, the Ducal Palace, and the

-Campanile. It is an allegory of Grimani's life; his defeat and captivity

-are symbolised by the cross and chalice, and the magnificent figure of

-St. Mark with the lion is introduced to show that the Doge believes

-himself to owe his freedom to the saint's intercession. The prophet and

-standard-bearer at the sides were added by Marco Vecellio.

-

-Though the battlepiece perished in the fire of 1577, another masterpiece

-of this time marks a climax in Titian's brilliantly coloured and highly

-finished style. The "Presentation of the Virgin" was painted for the

-refectory of the Confraternity of the Carita, which was housed in the

-building now used as the Academy, so that the picture remains in the

-place for which it was executed. It is one of the most vivid and

-life-like of all his works. The composition is the traditional one;

-the fifteen steps of the "Gospel of Mary," the High Priest of the old

-dispensation welcoming the childish representative of the new. Below is

-a great crowd, but it is this little figure which first attracts the

-eye. The contrast between the mass of architecture and the free and

-glowing country beyond is not without meaning, and a broken Roman torso,

-lying neglected on the ground, symbolises the downfall of the Pagan

-Empire. The flight of steps, with the figure sitting below them, is

-an idea borrowed from Carpaccio, and perhaps taken by him from the

-sketch-book of Jacopo Bellini. The men on the left are portraits of

-members and patrons of the confraternity. Most Titianesque are the

-beautiful women in rich dresses at the foot of the steps. In this

-stately composition we see what is often noticeable in Titian's scenes;

-he brings in the bystanders after the manner of a Greek chorus. They

-all, with one accord, express the same sentiment. There is a certain

-acceptation of the obvious in Titian, a vein of simplicity flows through

-his nature. He has not the sensitive and subtle search after the motives

-of humanity which we find in Tintoretto or Lotto. He has great

-intellectual power, but not great imagination. It is a temper which

-helps to keep the unity, the monumental quality of his scenes

-undisturbed and adds to their effect. In the "Ecce Homo" Christ is shown

-to the populace by Pilate, who with dubious compliment is a portrait of

-Aretino, and the contrast of the lonely, broken-down man with the crowd

-which, with all its lower instincts let loose, thunders back the cry of

-"Crucify Him," is the more dramatic because of the unanimous spirit

-which possesses the raging multitude. Other artists would have given

-more incidental byplay, and drawn off our attention from the main

-issue.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XIX

-

-Titian (_continued_)

-

-

-While Titian was executing portraits of the Doges, of Aretino and of

-Isabella of Portugal, and of himself and his daughter Lavinia, he was

-also striking out a new line in the ceiling pictures for the Church of

-San Spirito, which have since been transferred to the Salute. Though

-painted before his journey to Rome, it may be suspected that he had

-Michelangelo's work in the Sixtine Chapel in mind, and that he was

-setting himself the task of bold foreshortening and technical problems.

-The daring of the conception is great, yet we feel sure that this is not

-Titian's element; his figures in violent movement give a vivid idea of

-strength and muscular force, but fail both in grace and drawing, and

-though the colour and light and shade distract our attention from

-defects of form, he does not possess that mastery over the flowing

-silhouette which Tintoretto attained.

-

-It was in 1543 that his relations with the Farnese, whose young cardinal

-he had been painting, drew him at last to Rome. Leo X. had tried to

-attract him there without success, but now at sixty-eight he found

-himself as far on the road as Urbino. His son Orazio was with him, and

-Duke Guidobaldo was himself his escort, and sent him on with a band of

-men-at-arms from Pesaro. He was received in Rome by Cardinal Bembo; Paul

-III. gave him a cordial welcome and Vasari was appointed his cicerone.

-It is interesting to inquire what impression Rome, with its treasures of

-antique statuary and contemporary painting, made upon Titian. "He is

-filled with wonder and glad that he came," writes Bembo. In a letter to

-Aretino he regrets that he had not come before. He stayed eight months

-in Rome, and was made a Roman citizen. He visits the Stanze of Raphael

-in company with Sebastian del Piombo, and Michelangelo comes to see him

-at his lodgings, and he receives a long letter from Aretino advising him

-to compare Michelangelo with Raphael, and Sansovino and Bramante with

-the sculptors and architects of antiquity. Titian was well established

-in his own style, and was received as the creator of acknowledged

-masterpieces, and he never painted a more magnificent portrait-piece

-than that of Paul III., the peevish old Pope, ailing and humorous,

-suspicious of the two nephews who are painted with him, and who he

-guessed to be conspiring against him. The characteristic attitude of the

-old man of eighty, bent down in his chair, his quick, irritable glance,

-the steady, determined gaze of the cardinal, the obsequious attitude and

-weak, wily face of Ottavio Farnese are all immortalised in a broader,

-more careless technique than Titian has hitherto used. Though he does

-not seem to have been directly influenced by all he saw in Rome, we

-undoubtedly find a change coming over his work between 1540 and 1550,

-which may be in part ascribed to a widening of his artistic horizon and

-a consciousness of what others were doing, both around him and abroad.

-In its whole handling and character his late is different from his early

-manner. It begins at this time to take on a blurred, soft, impressionist

-character. His delight in rich colouring seems to wane, and he aims at

-intensifying the power of light. He reaches that point in the Venetian

-School of painting which we may regard as its climax, when there is

-little strong local colour, but the canvas seems illumined from within.

-There are no clear-cut lines, but the shapes are suggested by sombre

-enveloping shades in which the radiant brightness is embedded. His

-landscapes alter too; they are no longer blue and smiling, filled with

-loving detail, but grander, more mysterious. In the "St. Jerome" in

-Paris the old Saint kneels in wild and lonely surroundings, and the

-moon, slowly rising behind the dark trees, sends a sharp, silver ray

-across the crucifix. The "Supper at Emmaus" has the grandiose effect

-that is given by avoidance of detail and simplification of method.

-

-Titian painted several portraits of himself, and we know what sort of

-stately figure was presented by the old man of seventy who, at Christmas

-in 1547, set forth to ride across the Alps in the depths of winter to

-obey Charles V.'s call to Augsburg. The excitement of the public was

-great at his departure, and Aretino describes how his house was besieged

-for the sketches and designs he left behind him. For nearly forty years

-Titian was employed by the House of Hapsburg. He had been working for

-Charles since 1530, and when the Emperor abdicated, his employment by

-Philip II. lasted till his death. The palace inventory of 1686 contained

-seventy-six Titians, and though probably not all were genuine, yet an

-immense number were really by him, and the gallery, even now, is richer

-in his works than any other.

-

-The great hall of the Pardo must have been a wonderful sight, with

-Titian's finest portrait of himself in the midst, and the magnificent

-portraits and sacred and allegorical pieces which he continued from this

-time forward to contribute to it. In this year, which was the last

-before Charles's abdication, and during this visit to South Germany, he

-painted the great equestrian portrait of the Emperor on the field of

-Muehlberg, and two years later came the first of his many portraits of

-Philip II. The face, in the first sketch, is laid in with a sort of

-fury of impressionism, and in the parade portrait the sitter is

-realised as a man of great distinction. Ugly and sensual as he is,

-we never tire of looking at Titian's conception--a full length of

-distinguished mien rendered attractive by magnificent colour. Everything

-in it lives, and the slender, aristocratic hands are, as Morelli says, a

-whole biography in themselves.

-

-The splendid series of allegorical subjects which Titian contributed to

-the Pardo, while he was still supplying sacred pictures and altarpieces

-to Venice and the neighbouring mainland, are among his most mature and

-important works. Never has his gamut of tones been fuller and stronger

-than in the "Jupiter and Antiope," or the "Venus of the Pardo" as it is

-sometimes called. The Venus herself has the attitude of Giorgione's

-dreaming goddess, with her arm flung up above her head. It is, perhaps,

-the only time that Titian succeeds in giving anything ideal to one of

-his Venuses. The famous nudes of the Uffizi and the Louvre are splendid

-courtesans, far removed from Giorgione's idyllic vision; but Antiope,

-slumbering on her couch of skins, and her woodland lover, gazing with

-adoring eyes on her beautiful face, have a whole world of sweet and

-joyful fancy. The whole scene is full of a _joie de vivre_, which

-carries us back to the Bacchanals painted so many years before, and in

-these Titian gives King Philip his most perfect work, every touch of

-which is his own. This picture, now in the Louvre, was given to Charles

-I. by the King of Spain, and bought for Cardinal Mazarin in 1650.

-"Danae," "Venus and Adonis," "Europa and the Bull," and a "Last Supper"

-followed in quick succession, but Titian was now employing many

-assistants, and great parts of the canvases issuing from his workshop

-show weak, imitative hands, while replicas were made of other works.

-

-His later feeling for the religious in art is expressed in the now

-bedimmed paintings in San Salvatore in Venice. Vasari describes

-these in 1566. Painted when Titian was nearly ninety years old, the

-"Transfiguration" is remarkable for forcible, majestic movement, while

-in the "Annunciation" he invents quite a new treatment. Mary turns round

-and raises her veil, while she grasps the book as if she depended on it

-for stay and support. The four angels are full of life and gaiety, and

-the whole has much grace and colour, though it is dashed in, in the

-painter's later style, in broad and sweeping planes without patience

-of detail. The old man has signed it "Titianus, fecit, fecit," a

-contemptuous reply to some critics who complained of its want of finish.

-He knew well what it was in composition and execution, and that all that

-he had ever known or done lay within the careless strength of his last

-manner.

-

-A letter written to the King of Spain's secretary in 1574 gives

-a list "in part" of fourteen pictures sent to Madrid during the last

-twenty-five years, "with many others which I do not remember." On every

-hand we hear of lost pictures from the master's brush, and the number

-produced even during the last ten years of his life must have been

-enormous, for till the end he was full of great undertakings and

-achievements. Very late in life he painted a "Shepherd and Nymph"

-(Vienna), which in its idyllic feeling, its slumberous delight, its

-mingling of clothed and nude figures, recalls the early days with

-Giorgione, yet the blurred and smouldering richness, the absolute

-negation of all sharp lines and lights is in his very latest style, and

-he has gone past Giorgione on his own ground. Then in strange contrast

-is the "Christ Crowned with Thorns," at Vienna, a tragic figure

-stupefied with suffering. His last great work was the "Pieta" in

-the Academy, which, though unfinished, is nobly designed and very

-impressive. He places the Virgin supporting the Body in a great

-dome-shaped niche, which gives elevation. It is flanked by two calm,

-antique, stone figures, whose impassive air contrasts with the wild pain

-and grief below. The Magdalen steps out towards the spectator with the

-wailing cry of a Greek tragedy. It perhaps hardly moves us like the

-concentrated feeling of Bellini's Madonna, or the hurried, trembling

-grief of Tintoretto's Magdalen, but it is monumental in the sweeping

-grace of its line, and full of nobility of feeling. It is sadly rubbed

-and darkened and has lost much of Titian's colour, but is still

-beautiful in its deep greys mingled with a sombre golden glow, as

-of half-extinguished fires. These late paintings are of the true

-impressionist order; looked at closely they present a mass of scumbled

-touches, of incoherent dashes, but if we step farther away, to the

-right focus, light and dark arrange themselves, order shines through the

-whole, and we see what the great master meant us to see. "Titian's later

-creations," says Vasari, "are struck off rapidly, so that when close you

-cannot see them, but afar they look perfect, and this is the style which

-so many tried to imitate, to show that they were practised hands, but

-only produced absurdities." Titian was preparing the picture for the

-Frari, in payment for the grant of a tomb for himself, when in August

-1576 the plague broke out in Venice, and on the 27th the great painter

-died of it in his own house. The stringent regulations concerning

-infection were relaxed to do honour to one of the greatest sons of

-Venice, and he was laid to rest in the Frari, borne there in solemn

-procession, through a city stricken by terror and panic, and buried

-in the Chapel of the Crucified Saviour, for which his last work was

-ordered. The "Assumption" of his prime looked down upon him, and close

-at hand was the "Madonna of Casa Pesaro." His son Orazio caught the

-plague and died immediately after, and the painter's house was sacked

-by thieves and many precious things stolen.

-

-The great personality of Titian stands out as that which of all others

-established and consolidated the school of Venice. He is its central

-figure. The century of life, of which eighty years were passed in

-ceaseless industry of production, left its deep impression on the art of

-every civilised country of Europe. Every great man of the day who was a

-lover of art and culture fell under Titian's spell. His influence on his

-contemporaries was enormous, and he had everything: genius, industry,

-personal distinction, character, social charm. He is, perhaps, of too

-intellectual a cast of mind to be quite typical of the Venetian spirit,

-in the way that Tintoretto is; it is conceivable that in another

-environment Titian might have developed on rather different lines,

-but this temper gave him greater domination. He was free from the

-eccentricities which beset genius. He possessed the saving salt of

-practical common sense, so that the golden mean of sanity and healthful

-joy in his works commended them to all men, and they are not difficult

-to understand. Yet while all can see the beauty of his poetic instinct

-for colour, his interesting and original technique, his grasp and

-scope, his mastery and certainty have gained for him the title of "the

-painter's painter." There is no one from whom men feel that they can so

-safely learn so much, and the grand breadth and power of elimination of

-his later years is justified by the way in which in his earlier work he

-has carried exquisite finish and rich impasto to perfection.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Ancona.   Crucifixion (L.).

-           S. Domenico: Madonna with Saints and Donor, 1520.

- Antwerp.  Pope Alexander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro.

- Berlin.   Infant Daughter of Strozzi, 1542; Portrait of Himself (L.);

-             Lavinia bearing Charges.

- Brescia.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Altarpiece, 1522.

- Dresden.  Madonna with Saints (E.); Tribute Money (E.); Lavinia as Bride,

-             1555; Lavinia as Matron (L.); Portrait, 1561; Lady with

-             Vase (L.); Lady in Red Dress.

- Florence. Pitti: La Bella; Aretino, 1545; Magdalen; The Young Englishman;

-             The Concert (E.); Philip II.; Ippolito de Medici, 1533;

-             Tomaso Mosti.

-           Uffizi: Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1537; Francesco

-             della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, 1537; Flora; Venus, the head

-             a portrait of Lavinia; Venus, the head a portrait of Eleanora

-             Gonzaga; Madonna with S. Anthony Abbot.

- London.   Holy Family and Shepherd; Bacchus and Ariadne (E.); Noli me

-             tangere (E.); Madonna with SS. John and Catherine.

-           Bridgewater House: Holy Family (E.); Venus of the Shell; Three

-             Ages of Man; Diana and Actaeon, 1559; Callisto, 1559.

-           Earl Brownlow: Diana and Actaeon (L.).

-           Sir F. Cook: Portrait of Laura de Dianti.

- Madrid.   Madonna with SS. Ulfus and Bridget (E.); Bacchanal; The Garden

-             of Loves; Danae, 1554; Venus and Youth playing Organ (L.);

-             Salome (portrait of Lavinia); Trinity, 1554; Entombment,

-             1559; Prometheus; Religion succoured by Spain (L.);

-             Sisyphus (L.); Alfonso of Ferrara; Charles V. at the Battle

-             of Muehlberg, 1548; Charles V. and his Dog, 1533; Philip II.,

-             1550; Philip II.; The Infant; Don Fernando and Victory;

-             Portrait; Portrait of Himself; Duke of Alva; Venus and

-             Adonis; Fall of Man; Empress Isabella.

- Medole (near Brescia). Christ appearing to His Mother.

- Munich.   Vanitas; Portrait of Charles V., 1548; Madonna and Saints; Man

-             with Baton.

- Naples.   Paul III. and Cardinals, 1545; Danae.

- Padua.    Scuola del Santo: Frescoes; S. Anthony granting Speech to an

-             Infant; The Youth who cut off his Leg; The Jealous Husband,

-             1511.

- Paris.    Madonna with Saints (E.); La Vierge au Lapin; Madonna with

-             S. Agnes; Christ at Emmaus (L.); Crowning with Thorns (L.);

-             Entombment; S. Jerome (L.); Jupiter and Antiope (L.);

-             Francis I.; Allegory; Marquis da Valos and Mary of Arragon;

-             Alfonso of Ferrara and Laura Dianti; L'Homme au Gant (E.);

-             Portraits.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Sacred and Profane Love (E.); St. Dominio (L.);

-             Education of Cupid (L.).

-           Capitol: Baptism (E.).

-           Doria: Daughter of Herodias.

-           Vatican: Madonna in Glory and six Saints, 1523.

- Treviso.  Duomo: Annunciation.

- Urbino.   Resurrection (L.); Last Supper (L.).

- Venice.   Academy: Presentation of Virgin, 1540; S. John in the Desert;

-             Assumption, 1518; Pieta, 1573.

-           Palazzo Ducale Staircase: S. Christopher, 1523.

-           Sala di Quattro Porte: Doge Giovanni before Faith, 1555.

-           Frari: Pesaro Madonna, 1526.

-           S. Giovanni Elemosinario: S. John the Almsgiver, 1523.

-           Scuola di San Rocco: Annunciation (E.).

-           Salute Sacristy: Descent of the Holy Spirit; St. Mark enthroned

-             with Saints; David and Goliath; Sacrifice of Isaac; Cain

-             and Abel.

-           S. Salvatore: Annunciation (L.); Transfiguration (L.).

- Verona.   Duomo: Assumption.

- Vienna.   Gipsy Madonna (E.); Madonna of the Cherries (E.); Ecce Homo,

-             1543; Isabela d'Este, 1534; The Tambourine Player; Girl in

-             Fur Cloak; Dr. Parma (E.); Shepherd and Nymph (L.);

-             Portraits; Doge Andrea Gritti; Jacopo Strada; Diana and

-             Callisto; Madonna and Saints.

- Wallace Collection. Perseus and Andromeda. (In collaboration

-             with his nephew, Francesco Vecellio.)

- Louvre.   Madonna and Saints. (The same by Francesco alone.)

- Glasgow.  Madonna and Saints.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XX

-

-PALMA VECCHIO AND LORENZO LOTTO

-

-

-Among the many who clustered round Titian's long career, Palma attained

-to a place beside him and Giorgione which his talent, which was not of

-the highest order, scarcely warranted. But he was classed with the

-greatest, and influenced contemporary art because his work chimed in

-so well with the Venetian spirit. A Bergamasque by birth, he came of

-Venetian parentage, and learnt the first elements of his art in Venice.

-He never really mastered the inner niceties of anatomy in its finest

-sense, and the broad generalisation of his forms may be meant to conceal

-uncertain drawing, but his large-bosomed, matronly women and plump

-children, his round, soft contours, his clean brilliancy, and the clear

-golden polish in which his pictures are steeped, made a great appeal to

-the public. His invention is the large Santa Conversazione, as compared

-with those in half-length of the earlier masters. The Virgin and saints

-and kneeling or bending donors are placed under the spreading trees

-of a rich and picturesque landscape. It is Palma's version of the

-Giorgionesque ideal, which he had his share in establishing and

-developing. The heavy tree-trunk and dark foliage, silhouetted almost

-black against the background, are characteristic of his compositions. As

-his life goes on, though he still clings to his full, ripe figures and

-to the same smooth fleshiness in his women, the features become delicate

-and chiselled, and the more refined type and subtler feeling of his

-middle stage may be due to his companionship with Lotto, with whom he

-was in Bergamo when they were both about twenty-five. He touches his

-highest, and at the same time keeps very near Giorgione, in the

-splendid St. Barbara, painted for the company of the _Bombadieri_ or

-artillerists. Their cannon guard the pedestal on which she stands; it

-was at her altar that they came to commend themselves on going forth to

-war, and where they knelt to offer thanksgiving for a safe return; and

-she is a truly noble figure, regal in conception and fine and firm in

-execution, attired in sumptuous robes of golden brown and green, with

-splendid saints on either hand. Palma was often approached by his

-patrons who wanted mythological scenes, gods, and goddesses; but though

-he produced a Venus, a handsome, full-blown model, he never excels in

-the nude, and his tendency is to seize upon the homely. His scenes have

-a domestic, familiar flavour. With all his golden and ivory beauty he

-lacks fire, and his personages have a sluggish, plethoric note. In his

-latest stage he hides all sharpness in a sort of scumble or haze. It

-would, however, be unfair to say he is not fine, and his portraits

-especially come very near the best. Vienna is rich in examples in

-half-lengths of one beautiful woman after another robed in the ample and

-gorgeous garments in which he is always interested. Among them is his

-handsome daughter, Violante, with a violet in her bosom, and wearing the

-large sleeves he admires. The "Tasso" of the National Gallery has been

-taken from him and given first to Giorgione and then to Titian, but

-there now seems some inclination to return it to its first author. It

-has a more dreamy, intellectual countenance than we are accustomed to

-associate with Palma; but he uses elsewhere the decorative background

-of olive branches, and the waxen complexion, tawny colouring, and the

-pronounced golden haze are Palmesque in the highest degree. The

-colouring is in strong contrast to the pale ivory glow of the Ariosto

-of Titian, which hangs near it.

-

- [Illustration: _Palma Vecchio._

-                 HOLY FAMILY.

-                _Colonna Gallery, Rome._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-No one could be more unlike Palma than his contemporary, Lorenzo Lotto,

-who has for long been classed with the Bergamasques, but who is proved

-by recently discovered documents to have been born in Venice. It was

-for long an accepted fact that Lotto was a pupil of Bellini, and his

-earliest altarpiece, to S. Cristina at Treviso, bears traces of

-Bellini's manner. A Pieta above has child angels examining the wounds

-with the grief and concern which Bellini made so peculiarly his own, and

-the St. Jerome and the branch of fig-leaves silhouetted against the

-light remind us of the altarpiece in S. Crisostomo. Lotto seems to have

-clung to quattrocento fashions. The ancona had long been rejected by

-most of his contemporaries, but he painted one of the last for a church

-in Recanati, in carved and gilt compartments, and he painted predellas

-long after they had become generally obsolete. We ask ourselves how it

-was that Lotto, who had so susceptible and easily swayed a nature,

-escaped the influence of Giorgione, the most powerful of any in the

-Venice of his youth--an influence which acted on Bellini in his old age,

-which Titian practically never shook off, and which dominated Palma to

-the exclusion of any earlier master.

-

-It would take too long to survey the train of argument by which

-Mr. Berenson has established Alvise Vivarini as the master of Lotto.

-Notwithstanding that Bellini's great superiority was becoming clear to

-the more cultured Venetians, Alvise, when Lotto was a youth, was still

-the painter _par excellence_ for the mass of the public. In the S.

-Cristina altarpiece the Child standing on its Mother's knee is in the

-same attitude as the Child in Alvise's altarpiece of 1480, and the

-Mother's hand holds it in the same way. Other details which supply

-internal evidence are the shape of hands and feet, the round heads and

-the way the Child is often represented lying across the Mother's knees.

-Lotto carries into old age the use of fruit and flowers and beads as

-decoration, a Squarcionesque feature beloved of the Vivarini, but which

-was never adopted by Bellini.

-

-About 1512 Lotto comes into contact with Palma, and for a short time the

-two were in close touch. A "Santa Conversazione," of which a good copy

-exists in Villa Borghese, Rome, and one at Dresden, with the Holy Family

-grouped under spreading trees, is saturated with Palma's spirit, but it

-soon passes away, and except for an occasional touch, disappears

-entirely from Lotto's work.

-

-Lotto may have had relations in Bergamo, for when in 1515 a competition

-between artists was set on foot by Alessandro Martino, a descendant of

-General Colleone, for an altarpiece for S. Stefano, he competed and

-carried off the prize. This was the first of the series of the great

-works for Bergamo, which enrich the little city, where at this period

-he can best be studied. The great altarpiece (now removed to San

-Bartolommeo) is a most interesting human document, a revelation of the

-painter's personality. He does not break away from hieratic conventions,

-like the rival school; his Madonna is still placed in the apse of the

-church with saints grouped round her, a form from which the Vivarini

-never departed, but the whole is full of intense movement, of a lyric

-grace and ecstasy, a desire to express fervent and rapturous devotion.

-The architectural background is not in happy proportion in relation to

-the figures, but the effect of vista and space is more remarkable than

-in any North Italian master. The vivid treatment of light and shade, and

-the gaiety and delicacy of the flying angels, who hold the canopy, and

-of the putti, who spread the carpet below, the shapes of throne and

-canopy and the decorations have led to the idea that Lotto drew his

-inspiration from Correggio, whom he certainly resembles in some ways;

-but at this time Correggio was only twenty, and had not given any

-examples of the style we are accustomed to call Correggiesque. We must

-look back to a common origin for those decorative details, which are so

-conspicuous in Crivelli and Bartolommeo Vivarini, which came to Lotto

-through the Vivarini and to Correggio through Ferrarese painters, and

-of which the fountain-head for both was the school of Squarcione. For

-the much more striking resemblances of composition and spirit, the

-explanation seems to be that Lotto on one side of his nature was akin

-to Correggio; he had the same lyrical feeling, the same inclination to

-exuberance and buoyancy. To both, painting was a vehicle for the

-expression of feeling, but Lotto had also common sense and a goodly

-share of that humour that is allied to pathos.

-

-Till the year 1526 Lotto was much in Bergamo, where the first altarpiece

-gained him orders for others. The reputation of a member of the school

-of Venice was a sure passport to employment. We trace Alvise's tradition

-very plainly in the altarpiece in San Bernardino, where the gesture of

-the Madonna's hand as she expounds to the listening saints recalls

-Alvise's of 1480. The little gathered roses, which Lotto makes use

-of to the end of his life, lie scattered on the step; angels, daringly

-foreshortened, sweep aside the curtain of the sanctuary. The colour is

-in Lotto's scarlet, light blues, and violet. He soon shows himself fond

-of genre incidents, and in "Christ taking leave of His Mother" gives a

-view into a bedroom and a cat running across the floor. The donor kneels

-with her hair fashionably dressed and wearing a pearl necklace. In the

-"Marriage of S. Catherine" at Bergamo the saint is evidently a portrait,

-with hair pearl-wreathed. She kneels very simply and naturally before

-the Child, and the exquisitely lovely and elaborately gowned young woman

-who represents the Madonna, looks out towards the spectator with a

-mundane and curiously modern air. It was probably the recognition

-of Lotto's success with portraits that led to their being so often

-introduced into his sacred pieces. In the one we have just noticed, the

-donor, Niccolas Bonghi, is brought in, and is on rather a larger scale

-than the rest, but Lotto has evidently not found him interesting. The

-portraits of the brothers della Torre, and that of the Prothonotary

-Giuliano in the National Gallery, inaugurate that wonderful series

-of characterisations which are his greatest distinction. A series of

-frescoes in village churches round Bergamo must also be noticed. They

-are remarkable for spontaneous and original decoration, and may compare

-with the ceremonial groups of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio. Lotto's

-personages, as they chatter in the market-places, are full of natural

-animation and gaiety, and we realise what a step had been made in the

-painting of actual life.

-

-Owing to the unsettled state of the rest of Italy, the years

-from 1530 to 1540, which Lotto spent in Venice, found that city the

-gathering-ground of many of the most distinguished scholars and deepest

-thinkers of the day. Men of all shades of religious thought were engaged

-in learned discussion, and Lotto's ardent and inquiring temperament must

-have been stimulated by such an environment. During these years, too, he

-became intimate with Titian, and experimented in Titian's style, with

-the result that his painting gets thicker and richer, more fused and

-solid, and his figures are better put together. He imitates Titian's

-colour, too, but it makes him paint in deeper, fiercer tints, and he

-soon finds it does not suit him, and returns to his own scheme. His

-colour is still rather too dazzling, but the distances are translucent

-and atmospheric. He continues to introduce portraits. In his altarpiece

-in SS. Giovanni and Paolo the deacons giving alms and receiving

-petitions curiously resemble in type and expression the ecclesiastics

-we see to-day.

-

-Lotto was now an accepted member of Titian's set, and Aretino, in a

-letter dated 1548, writes that Titian values his taste and judgment as

-that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual mixture of connoisseurship

-and clever spite, goes on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he

-himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was not considered on a par with

-the masters of the first rank. "Envy is not in your breast," he says,

-"rather do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which

-you do not find in your own brush, ... holding the second place in the

-art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first place in the

-duties of religion."

-

-An interesting codex or commentary tells us that Lotto never received

-high prices for his work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about in

-artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and leaving a number with

-Jacopo Sansovino in the hope that he might hear of buyers. His work

-ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He undertook commissions at

-Recanati, Ancona, and Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a

-contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by which, in return for rooms

-and food, he made over himself and all his belongings to the care of the

-fraternity, "being tired of wandering, and wishing to end his days in

-that holy place." He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto

-as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of pictures which are

-distinguished by the same sort of apparent looseness and carelessness

-which we noticed in Titian's late style; a technique which, as in

-Titian's case, conceals a profound knowledge of plastic modelling.

-

-Though Lotto executed an immense number of important and very beautiful

-sacred works, his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting to the

-modern mind that one is tempted to linger over them. Other painters give

-us finer pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know who the sitters

-were and what was their story. Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality

-which marks Giorgione and Titian; he is a born psychologist, and as such

-he witnesses to an attitude of mind in the Italy of his day which is of

-peculiar interest to our own. Lotto's bystanders, even in his sacred

-scenes, have nothing in common with Titian's "chorus"; they have the

-characterisation of distinct individuals, and when he is concerned with

-actual portraits he is intensely receptive and sensitive to the spirit

-of his sitters. He may be said to "give them away," and to take an

-almost unfair advantage of his perception. The sick man in the Doria

-Gallery looks like one stricken with a death sentence. He knows at least

-that it is touch and go, and the painter has symbolised the situation in

-the little winged genius balancing himself in a pair of scales. In the

-Borghese Gallery is the portrait of a young, magnificently dressed man,

-with a countenance marked by mental agitation, who presses one hand to

-his heart, while the other rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a

-tiny skull is half-hidden. The "Old Man" in the Brera has the hard,

-narrow, but intensely sad face of one whose natural disposition has

-been embittered by the circumstances of his life, just as that of our

-Prothonotary speaks of a large and gentle nature, mellowed by natural

-affections and happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with kindly

-mischief at "Marsilio and his Bride;" the broad, placid countenance of

-the man is so significantly contrasted with the clever mouth and eyes of

-the bride that it does not need the malicious glance of the cupid, who

-is fitting on the yoke, to "dot the i's and cross the t's" of their

-future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in the Brera, introduces

-us to one of those women who are charming in every age, not actually

-beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly dressed, sensible, and

-self-possessed, and the "Family Group" in our own gallery holds a

-history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments united by life in

-common and the clasping hands of children. Lotto does not keep the

-personal expression out of even such a canvas as his "Triumph of

-Chastity" in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His delightful Venus, one of the

-loveliest nudes in painting, flies from the attacking termagant, whose

-virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on her breast, and sweeps her little

-cupid with her with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the

-manners of mundane society.

-

- [Illustration: _Lorenzo Lotto._

-                 PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.

-                _Brera._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-The painter who was thus able to unveil personality had evidently a mind

-that was aware of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation

-and a more earnest and intimate religion. His life seems to have been

-one of some sadness, and crowned with only moderate success. He speaks

-of himself as "advanced in years, without loving care of any kind, and

-of a troubled mind." His will shows that his worldly possessions were

-few and poor, and that he had no heir closer than a nephew; but he

-leaves some of his cartoons as a dowry to "two girls of quiet nature,

-healthy in mind and body, and likely to make thrifty housekeepers," on

-their marriage to "two well-recommended young men," about to become

-painters. His sensitive and introspective temperament led him to prefer

-the retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the brilliant society

-of which he was made free in Venice. "His spirit," says Mr. Berenson,

-"is more like our own than is perhaps that of any other Italian

-painter, and it has all the appeal and fascination of a kindred soul

-in another age."

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Palma Vecchio._

-

- Bergamo.   Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).

- Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).

- Dresden.   Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family;

-              Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).

- London.    Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.

- Milan.     Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian;

-              Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.

- Naples.    Santa Conversazione with Donors.

- Paris.     Adoration of Shepherds.

- Rome.      Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.

-            Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.

-            Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.

- Venice.    Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; Assumption.

-            Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).

-            S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.

- Vienna.    Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.

-

-

- _Lorenzo Lotto._

-

- Ancona.   Assumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).

- Asolo.    Madonna in Glory, 1506.

- Bergamo.  Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.

-           Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.

-           S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.

-           S. Alessandro in Colonna: Pieta.

-           S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.

-           S. Spirito: Altarpiece.

- Berlin.   Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.

- Brescia.  Nativity.

- Cingoli.  S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.

- Florence. Uffizi: Holy Family.

- London.   Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.);

-             Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515;

-             Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.

-           Bridgewater House: Madonna and Saints (E.).

- Loreto.   Palazzo Apostolico: Saints; Nativity; S. Michael and Lucifer

-             (L.); Presentation (L.); Baptism (L.); Adoration of Magi (L.).

- Recanati. Municipio: Altarpiece, 1508; Transfiguration (E.).

-           S. Maria Sopra Mercanti: Annunciation.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Madonna with S. Onofrio and a Bishop, 1508.

-           Rospigliosi: Love and Chastity.

- Venice.   Carmine: S. Nicholas in Glory, 1529.

-           S. Giacomo dall' Orio: Madonna with Saints, 1546.

-           SS. Giovanni e Paolo: S. Antonino bestowing Alms, 1542.

- Vienna.   Santa Conversazione, etc.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXI

-

-SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO

-

-

-It was very natural that Rome should wish for works of the masters of

-the new Venetian School, but the first-rate men were fully employed at

-home. All the efforts made to secure Titian failed till nearly the end

-of his career. On the other hand, Venice was full of less famous masters

-following in Giorgione's steps. When Sebastian Luciani was a young man,

-Giorgione was paramount there, and no one could have foretold that his

-life would be of such short duration. It was to be expected, therefore,

-that a painter who consulted his own interests should leave the city

-where he was overshadowed by a great genius and go farther afield. The

-influence of the Guilds was withdrawn in the sixteenth century, so that

-it was a simpler matter for painters to transfer their talents, and

-painting was beginning to appeal strongly to the _dilettanti_, who

-rivalled one another in their offers.

-

-Only one work of Sebastian's is known belonging to this earlier time in

-Venice. It is the "S. Chrysostom enthroned," in S. Giovanni Crisostomo,

-and its majesty and rich colouring, and more especially the splendid

-group of women on the left, so proud and soft in their Venetian beauty,

-make us wonder if Sebastian might not have risen to greater heights if

-he had remained in his natural environment. He responded to the call to

-Rome of Agostino Chigi, the great painter, [TN: Chigi was a banker] art

-collector, and patron, the friend of Leo X. Chigi had just completed

-the Farnesina Villa, and Sebastian was employed till 1512 on its

-decoration, and at once came under the influence of Michelangelo. The

-"Pieta" at Viterbo shows that influence very strongly; in fact, Vasari

-says that Michelangelo himself drew the cartoon for the figure of

-Christ, which would account for its extraordinary beauty. Sebastian

-embarked on a close intimacy with the Florentine painter, and,

-according to Vasari, the great canvas of the "Raising of Lazarus," in

-the National Gallery, was executed under the orders and in part from

-the designs of Michelangelo. This colossal work was looked on as one

-of the most important creations of the sixteenth century, but there is

-little to make us wish to change it for the altarpiece of S. Crisostomo.

-The desire for scientific drawing and the search after composition have

-produced a laboured effect; the female figures are cast in a masculine

-mould, and it lacks both the severe beauty of the Tuscan School and

-the emotional charm of Sebastian's native style. We cannot, however,

-avoid conjecturing if in the figure of Lazarus himself we have not a

-conception of the great Florentine. It is so easy in pose, so splendid

-in its, perhaps excessive, length of limb, that our thoughts turn

-involuntarily to the _Ignudi_ in the Sixtine Chapel. The picture has

-been dulled and injured by repainting, but the distance still has the

-sombre depth of the Venetians. All through Sebastian's career he seeks

-for form and composition, but, great painter as he undoubtedly is, he

-is great because he possesses that inborn feeling for harmony of colour.

-This is what we value in him, and he excels in so far as he follows his

-Venetian instincts.

-

-The death of Raphael improved Sebastian's position in Rome, and

-though Leo X. never liked or employed him, he did not lack commissions.

-The "Fornarina" in the Uffizi, with the laurel-wreathed head and

-leopard-skin mantle, still reveals him as the Venetian, and it is

-curious that any critic should ever have assigned its rich, voluptuous

-tone and its coarse type to Raphael. Sebastian obtained commissions for

-decorating S. Maria del Popolo in oils and S. Pietro in Montorio in

-fresco, but in the latter medium, though he is ambitious of acquiring

-the force of Michelangelo, he lacks the Tuscan ease of hand. Colour,

-for which he possessed so true an aptitude, the deep, fused colour of

-Giorgione, is set aside by him; his tints become strong and crude, his

-surfaces grow hard and polished, and he thinks, above all, of bold

-action, of drawing and modelling. The Venetian genius for portraiture

-remains, and he has left such fine examples as the "Andrea Doria" of the

-Vatican, or the "Portrait of a Man in the Pitti," a masterly picture

-both in drawing and execution, with grand draperies, a fur pelisse, and

-damask doublet with crimson sleeves. In the National Gallery we possess

-his own portrait by himself, in company with Cardinal de Medici. The

-faces are well contrasted, and we judge from Sebastian's that his

-biographer describes him justly, as fat, indolent, and given to

-self-indulgence, but genial and fond of good company.

-

-After an absence of twenty years he returned to Venice. There he came

-in contact with Titian and Pordenone, and struck up a friendship with

-Aretino, who became his great ally and admirer. The sack of Rome had

-driven him forth, but in 1529, when the city was beginning partially

-to recover from that time of horror, he returned, and was cordially

-welcomed by Clement VII., and admitted into the innermost ecclesiastical

-circles. The Piombo, a well-paid, sinecure office of the Papal court,

-was bestowed on him, and his remaining years were spent in Rome. He

-was very anxious to collaborate with Michelangelo, and the great

-painter seems to have been quite inclined to the arrangement. The "Last

-Judgment," in the Sixtine Chapel, was suggested, and Sebastian had the

-melancholy task of taking down Perugino's masterpieces; but he wished to

-reset the walls for oils, and Michelangelo stipulated for fresco, saying

-that oils were only fit for women, so that no agreement was arrived at.

-

-Sebastian's mode of work was slow, and he employed no assistants. He

-seems to have been inordinately lazy, fond of leisure and good living,

-and his character shows in his work, which, with a few exceptions, has

-something heavy and common about it, a want of keenness and fire, an

-absence of refinement and selection.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Florence. Uffizi: Fornarina, 1512; Death of Adonis.

-           Pitti: Martyrdom of S. Agatha, 1520; Portrait (L.).

- London.   Resurrection of Lazarus, 1519; Portraits.

- Naples.   Holy Family; Portraits.

- Paris.    Visitation, 1521.

- Rome.     Portrait of Andrea Doria (L.).

-           Farnesina: Frescoes, 1511.

-           S. Pietro in Montorio. Frescoes.

- Treviso.  S. Niccolo: Incredulity of S. Thomas (E.).

- Venice.   Academy: Visitation (E.).

-           S. Giovanni Chrisostomo: S. Chrysostom enthroned (E.).

- Viterbo.  Pieta (L.).

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXII

-

-BONIFAZIO AND PARIS BORDONE

-

-

-Some uncertainty has existed as to the identity of the different members

-of the family of Bonifazio. All the early historians agree in giving the

-name to one master only. Boschini, however, in 1777 discovered the

-register of the death of a second, and a third bearing the name was

-working twenty years later. Upon this Dr. Morelli came to the conclusion

-that we must recognise three, if not four, masters bearing the name of

-Bonifazio, but documents recently discovered by Professor Ludwig have

-in great measure destroyed Morelli's conjectures. There may have been

-obscure painters bearing the name, but they were mere imitators, and it

-is doubtful if any were related to the family of de Pitatis.

-

-Bonifazio Veronese is really the only one who counts. As Ridolfi says,

-he was born in Verona in the most beautiful moment of painting. He came

-to Venice at the age of eighteen, and became a pupil of Palma Vecchio,

-with whom his work has sometimes been confused. After Palma's death

-Bonifazio continued in friendly relations with his old master's family,

-and his niece married Palma's nephew. Bonifazio himself married the

-daughter of a basket-maker, and appears to have had no children, for

-he and his wife by their wills bestowed their whole fortune on their

-nephews. Antonio Palma, who married Bonifazio's niece, was a painter

-whose pictures have sometimes been attributed to the legendary third

-Bonifazio. Bonifazio's life was passed peacefully in Venice. He received

-many important commissions from the Republic, and decorated the Palace

-of the Treasurers. His character and standing were high, and he was

-appointed, in company with Titian and Lotto, to administer a legacy

-which Vincenzo Catena had left to provide a yearly dower for five

-maidens. After a long life spent in steady work, Bonifazio withdrew

-to a little farm amidst orchards--fifteen acres of land in all--at San

-Zenone, near Asolo; but he still kept his house in San Marcuola, where

-he died. He was buried in S. Alvise in Venice.

-

-A son of the plains and of Venetian stock, his work is always graceful

-and attractive, though inclined to be hot in colour. It has a very

-pronounced aristocratic character, and bears no trace of the rough,

-provincial strain of such men as Cariani or Pordenone. It is very fine

-and glowing in colour, but lacks vigour and energy in design. Nowhere do

-we get more worldly magnificence or such frank worship of wealth as on

-Bonifazio's joyous canvases. He represents Christian saints and Eastern

-kings alike, as gentlemen of princely rank. There is a note of purely

-secular art about his Adorations and Holy Families. In the "Adoration of

-the Magi," in the Academy, the Madonna is a handsome, prosperous lady of

-Bonifazio's acquaintance. The Child, so far from raising His hand in

-benediction, holds it out for the proffered cup. He does not, as usual,

-distinguish the eldest king, but singles out the cup held by the second,

-who, in a puffed velvet dress, is an evident portrait, probably that of

-the donor of the picture, who is in this way paid a courtier-like

-compliment. The third king is such a Moor as Bonifazio must often have

-seen embarking from his Eastern galley on the Riva dei Schiavoni. A

-servant in a peaked hood peers round the column to catch sight of what

-is going on. The groups of animals in the background are well rendered.

-In the "Rich Man's Feast," where Lazarus lies upon the step, we have

-another scene of wealthy and sumptuous Venetian society, an orgy of

-colour. And, again, in the "Finding of Moses" (Brera) he paints nobles

-playing the lute, making love and feasting, and lovely fair-haired women

-listening complacently. We are reminded of the way in which they lived:

-their one preoccupation the toilet, the delight of appearing in public

-in the latest and most magnificent fashions. And in these paintings

-Bonifazio depicts the elaborate striped and brocaded gowns in which the

-beautiful Venetians arrayed themselves, made in the very fashions of the

-year, and their thick, fair hair is twisted and coiled in the precise

-mode of the moment. The deep-red velvet he introduces into nearly all

-his pictures is of a hue peculiar to himself. As Catena often brings in

-a little white lap-dog, so Bonifazio constantly has as an accessory a

-liver-and-white spaniel.

-

-Vasari speaks of Paris Bordone as the artist who most successfully

-imitated Titian. He was the son of well-to-do tradespeople in Treviso,

-and received a good education in music and letters, before being sent

-off to Venice and placed in Titian's studio. Bordone does not seem to

-have been on very friendly terms with Titian. He was dissatisfied with

-his teaching, and Titian played him an ill turn in wresting from him a

-commission to paint an altarpiece which had been entrusted to him when

-he was only eighteen. He was, above all, in love with the manner of

-the dead Giorgione, and it was upon this master that he aspired to

-form his style. His masterpiece, in the Academy, was painted for the

-Confraternity of St. Mark, and made his reputation. The legend it

-represents may be given in a few words:

-

-In the days of Doge Gradenigo, one February, there arose a fearful

-storm in Venice. During the height of the tempest, three men accosted a

-poor old fisherman, who was lying in his decayed old boat by the Piazza,

-and begged that he would row them to S. Niccolo del Lido, where they had

-urgent business. After some demur they persuaded him to take the oars,

-and in spite of the hurricane, the voyage was accomplished. On reaching

-the shore they pointed out to him a great ship, the crew of which he

-perceived to consist of a band of demons, who were stirring up the waves

-and making a great hubbub. The three passengers laid their commands on

-them to desist, when immediately they sailed away and there was a calm.

-The passengers then made the oarsman row them, one to S. Niccolo, one to

-S. Giorgio, and the third was rowed back to the Piazza. The fisherman

-timidly asked for his fare, and the third passenger desired him to go to

-the Doge and ask for payment, telling him that by that night's work a

-great disaster had been averted from the city. The fisherman replied

-that he should not be believed, but would be imprisoned as a liar. Then

-the passenger drew a ring from his finger. "Show him this for a sign,"

-he said, "and know that one of those you have this night rowed is S.

-Niccolas, the other is S. George, and I am S. Mark the Evangelist,

-Protector of the Venetian Republic." He then disappeared. The next day

-the fisherman presented the ring, and was assigned a provision for life

-from the Senate.

-

-There has, perhaps, never been a richer and more beautiful

-subject-picture painted than this glowing canvas, or one which brings

-more vividly before us the magnificence of the pageants which made

-such a part of Venetian life in the golden age of painting. It is all

-strength and splendour, and escapes the hectic colour and weaker type

-which appear in Bordone's "Last Supper" and some of his other works. In

-1538 he went to France and entered the service of Francis II., painting

-for him many portraits of ladies, besides works for the Cardinals of

-Guise and of Lorraine. The King of Poland sent to him for a "Jupiter and

-Antiope." At Augsburg he was paid 3000 crowns for work done for the

-great Fugger family.

-

-No one gives us so closely as Bordone the type of woman who at this time

-was most admired in Venice. The Venetian ideal was golden haired, with

-full lips, fair, rosy cheeks, large limbed and ample, with "abundant

-flanks and snow-white breast." A type glowing with health and instinct

-with life, but, to say the truth, rather dull, without deep passions,

-and with no look that reveals profound emotions or the struggle of a

-soul. From what we see of Bordone's female portraits and from some of

-the mythological compositions he has left, he might have been among the

-most sensually minded of men. His beautiful courtesan, in the National

-Gallery, is an almost over-realistic presentment of a woman who has

-just parted from her lover. His women, with their carnation cheeks and

-expressionless faces, are like beautiful animals; but, as a matter

-of fact, their painter was sober and temperate in his life, very

-industrious, and devoted to his widowed mother. About 1536 he married

-the daughter of a Venetian citizen, and had a son, who became one of the

-many insignificant painters of the end of the sixteenth century. Most

-of his days were divided between his little Villa of Lovadina in the

-district of Belluno, and his modest home in the Corte dell' Cavallo near

-the Misericordia. "He lives comfortably in his quiet house," writes

-Vasari, who certainly knew Bordone in Venice, "working only at the

-request of princes, or his friends, avoiding all rivalry and those vain

-ambitions which do but disturb the repose of man, and seeking to avert

-any ruffling of the serene tranquillity of his life, which he is

-accustomed to preserve simple and upright."

-

-Many of his pictures show an intense love of country solitudes. His

-poetic backgrounds, lonely mountains, leafy woods, and sparkling water

-are in curious contrast to the sumptuous groups in the foreground.

-

-His "Three Heads," in the Brera, is a superb piece of painting and

-an interesting characterisation. The woman is ripe, sensual, and

-calculating, feeling with her fingers for the gold chain, a mere

-golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid and prosaic. The

-go-between is dimly seen in the background, but the face of the suitor

-is a strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless, and bitter,

-taking his pleasure mechanically and with cynical detachment. The "Storm

-calmed by S. Mark" (Academy) was, in Mr. Berenson's opinion, begun by

-Giorgione.

-

-Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is the work of these

-two painters, it does not reach the highest level. It falls short of

-grandeur, and has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity. As we

-study it we feel that it marks the point to which Venetian art might

-have attained, the flood-mark it might have touched, if it had lacked

-the advent of the three or four great spirits, who, appearing about

-the same time, bore it up to sublimer heights and developed a more

-distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio and Bordone lack the

-grandeur and sweetness of Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative

-genius of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour, design, and

-decoration of Veronese, but they continue Venetian painting on logical

-lines, and they form a superb foundation for the highest.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Bonifazio Veronese._

-

- Dresden.  Finding of Moses.

- Florence. Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight

-             into Egypt; Finding of Moses.

- Hampton Court. Santa Conversazione.

- London.   Santa Conversazione (E.).

- Milan.    Brera: Finding of Moses.

- Paris.    Santa Conversazione.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee's Children; Return of the

-             Prodigal Son.

-           Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.

- Venice.   Academy: Rich Man's Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of

-             Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.

-           Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.

- Vienna.   Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;

-             Salome.

-

-

- _Paris Bordone._

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Vintage Scenes.

- Berlin.   Portrait of Man in Black; Chess Players; Madonna and four

-             Saints.

- Dresden.  Apollo and Marsyas; Diana; Holy Family.

- Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Woman.

- Genoa.    Brignole Sale: Portraits of Men; Santa Conversazione.

- Hampton Court. Madonna and Donors.

- London.   Daphnis and Chloe; Portrait of Lady.

-           Bridgewater House: Holy Family.

- Milan.    Brera: Descent of Holy Spirit; Baptism; S. Dominio presented

-             to the Saviour by Virgin; Madonna and Saints; Venal Love.

-           S. Maria pr. Celso: Madonna and S. Jerome.

- Munich.   Portrait; Man counting Jewels.

- Paris.    Portraits.

- Rome.     Colonna: Holy Family and Saints.

- Treviso.  Madonna and Saints.

-           Duomo: Adoration of Shepherds; Madonna and Saints.

- Venice.   Academy: Fisherman and Doge; Paradise; Storm calmed by S. Mark.

-           Palazzo Ducale Chapel: Dead Christ.

-           Giovanelli: Madonna and Saints.

-           S. Giovanni in Bragora; Last Supper.

- Vienna.   Allegorical Pictures; Lady at Toilet; Young Woman.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIII

-

-PAINTERS OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCES

-

-

-It has become usual to include in the Venetian School those artists from

-the subject provinces on the mainland, who came down to try their luck

-at the fountain-head and to receive its hallmark on their talent. The

-Friulan cities, Udine, Serravalle, and small neighbouring towns, had

-their own primitive schools and their scores of humble craftsmen. Their

-art wavered for some time in its expression between the German taste,

-which came so close to their gates, and the Italian, which was more

-truly their element.

-

-Up to 1499 Friuli was invaded seven times in thirty years by the

-Turks. They poured in large numbers over the Bosnian borders, crossed

-the Isonzo and the Tagliamenta, and massacred and carried off the

-inhabitants. These terrible periods are marked by the cessation of work

-in the provinces, but hope always revived again. The break caused by

-such a visitation can be distinctly traced in the Church of S. Antonino,

-at the little town of San Daniele. Martino da Udine obtained the

-epithet of Pellegrino da San Daniele in 1494 when he returned from an

-early visit to Venice, where he had been apprenticed to Cima. He was

-appointed to decorate S. Antonino. His early work there is hard and

-coarse, ill-drawn, the figures unwieldy and shapeless, and the colour

-dusky and uniform; but owing to the Turkish raid, he had to take flight,

-and it was many a year before the monks gained sufficient courage and

-saved enough money to continue the embellishment of their church. In the

-meantime, Pellegrino's years had been spent partly in Venice and partly,

-perhaps, in Ferrara, for the reason Raphael gave for refusing to paint a

-"Bacchus" for the Duke, was that the subject had already been painted

-by Pellegrino da San Daniele. When Pellegrino resumed his work, it

-demonstrated that he had studied the modern Venetians and had come under

-a finer, deeper influence. A St. George in armour suggests Giorgione's

-S. Liberale at Castelfranco; he specially shows an affinity with

-Pordenone, who was his pupil and who was to become a better painter than

-his old master. As Pellegrino goes on he improves consistently, and

-adopts the method, so peculiarly Venetian, of sacrificing form to a

-scheme of chiaroscuro. He even, to some extent, succeeds in his

-difficult task of applying to wall painting the system which the

-Venetians used almost exclusively for easel pictures. He was an

-ambitious, daring painter, and some of his church standards were for

-long attributed to Giorgione. The church of San Antonino remains his

-chief monument; but for all his travels Pellegrino remains provincial in

-type, is unlucky in his selection, cares little for precision of form,

-and trusts to colour for effect.

-

-The same transition in art was taking place in other provinces. Morto da

-Feltre, Pennacchi, and Girolamo da Treviso have all left work of a

-Giorgionesque type, and some painters who went far onward, began their

-career under such minor masters. Giovanni Antonio Licinio, who takes his

-name from his native town of Pordenone, in Friuli, was one of these. All

-the early part of his life was spent in painting frescoes in the small

-towns of the Friulan provinces. At first they bear signs of the tuition

-of Pellegrino, but it soon becomes evident that Pordenone has learned to

-imitate Giorgione and Palma. Quite early, however, one of his chief

-failings appears, and one which is all his own, the disparity in size

-between his various figures. The secondary personages, the Magi in a

-Nativity, the Saints standing round an altar, are larger and more

-athletic in build and often more animated in action than the principal

-actors in the scene. What pleased Pordenone's contemporaries was his

-daring perspective and his instinctive feeling for movement. He carried

-out great schemes in the hill-towns, till at length his reputation,

-which had long been ripe in his native province, reached Venice. In

-1519 he was invited to Treviso to fresco the facade of a house for one

-of the Raviguino family. The painter, as payment, asked fifty scudi, and

-Titian was called in to adjudicate, but he admired the work so much that

-he hinted to Raviguino that he would be wise not to press him for a

-valuation. As a direct consequence of this piece of business, Pordenone

-was employed on the chapel at Treviso, in conjunction with Titian. At

-this time the Assumption and the Madonna of Casa Pesaro were just

-finished, and it is probable that Pordenone paid his first visit to

-Venice, hard by, and saw his great contemporary's work. With his

-characteristic distaste for fresco, Titian undertook the altarpiece and

-painted the beautiful Annunciation which still holds its place, and

-Pordenone covered the dome with a foreshortened figure of the Eternal

-Father, surrounded by angels. Among the remaining frescoes in the

-Chapel, an Adoration of the Magi and a S. Liberale are from his brush.

-Fired by his success at Treviso, Pordenone offered his services to

-Mantua and Cremona, but the Mantovans, accustomed to the stately and

-restrained grace of Mantegna, would have nothing to say to what Crowe

-and Cavalcaselle call his "large and colossal fable-painting." He

-pursued his way to Cremona, and that he studied Mantegna as he passed

-through Mantua is evident from the first figures he painted in the

-cathedral. In Cremona every one admired him, and all the artists set to

-work to imitate his energetic foreshortening, vehement movement and huge

-proportions.

-

-Pordenone, with his love for fresco, was all his life an itinerant

-painter. In 1521 he was back at Udine and wandered from place to

-place, painting a vast distemper for the organ doors at S. Maria at

-Spilimbergo, the facade of the Church of Valeriano, an imposing series

-at Travesio, and in 1525, the "Story of the True Cross" at Casara. At

-the last place he threw aside much of his exaggeration, and, ruined and

-restored as the frescoes are, they remain among his most dignified

-achievements. He may be studied best of all at Piacenza, in the Church

-of the Madonna di Campagna, where he divides his subjects between sacred

-and pagan, so that we turn from a "Flight into Egypt" or a "Marriage

-of S. Catherine," to the "Rape of Europa" or "Venus and Adonis." At

-Piacenza he shows himself the great painter he undoubtedly is, having

-achieved some mastery over form, while his colour has the true Venetian

-quality and almost equals oils in its luscious tones and vivid hues,

-which he lowers and enriches by such enveloping shadows as only one

-whose spirit was in touch with the art of Giorgione would have

-understood how to use. Very complete records remain of Pordenone's life,

-full details of a quarrel with his brother over property left by his

-father in 1533, and accounts of the painter's negotiations to obtain a

-knighthood, which he fancied would place him more on a par with Titian

-when he went to live in Venice. The coveted honour was secured, but from

-this time he seems to have been very jealous of Titian and to have aimed

-continually at rivalling him. Pordenone was a punctual and rapid

-decorator, and on being given the ceiling of the Sala di San Finio to

-decorate in the summer of 1536, he finished the whole by March 1538. We

-have seen how Titian annoyed the Signoria by his delays, how anxious

-they were to transfer his commission to Pordenone, and what a narrow

-escape the Venetian had of losing his Broker's patent. Pordenone was

-engaged by the nuns of Murano to paint an Annunciation, after they had

-rejected one by Titian on account of its price, and though it seems

-hardly possible that any one could have compared the two men, yet no

-doubt the pleasure of getting an altarpiece quickly and punctually and

-for a moderate sum, often outweighed the honour of the possible painting

-by the great Titian.

-

-No one has left so few easel-paintings as Pordenone; fresco was so much

-better suited to his particular style. The canvas of the "Madonna of

-Mercy" in the Venice Academy, was painted about 1525 for a member of the

-house of Ottobono, and introduces seven members of the family. It is

-very free from his colossal, exaggerated manner; the attendant saints

-are studied from nature, and in his journals the painter mentions that

-the St. Roch is a portrait of himself. The "S. Lorenzo enthroned," in

-the same gallery, shows both his virtues and failings. The saints have

-his enormous proportions. The Baptist is twisting round, to display the

-foreshortening which Pordenone particularly affects. The gestures are

-empty and inexpressive, but the colour is broad and fluid; there is a

-large sense of decoration in the composition, and something simple and

-austere about the figure of S. Lorenzo. As is so often the case with

-Pordenone, the principal actor of the scene is smaller and more

-sincerely imagined than the attendant personages, who are crowded into

-the foreground, where they are used to display the master's skill.

-

-Pordenone died suddenly at Ferrara, where he had been summoned by its

-Duke to undertake one of his great schemes of decoration. He was said

-to have been poisoned, but though he had jealous rivals there seems no

-proof of the truth of the assertion, which was one very commonly made in

-those days. He is interesting as being the only distinguished member of

-the Venetian School whose frescoes have come down to us in any number,

-and as being the only one of the later masters with whom it was the

-chosen medium.

-

-His kinsman, Bernardino Licinio, is represented in the National Gallery

-by a half-length of a young man in black, and at Hampton Court by a

-large family group and by another of three persons gathered round a

-spinet. His masterpiece is a Madonna and Saints in the Frari, which

-shows the influence of Palma. His flesh tints, striving to be rich, have

-a hot, red look, but his works have been constantly confounded with

-those of Giorgione and Paris Bordone.

-

-A long list might be given of minor artists who were industriously

-turning out work on similar lines to one or other of these masters:

-Calderari, who imitates Paris Bordone as well as Pordenone; Pomponio

-Amalteo, Pordenone's son-in-law, a spirited painter in fresco;

-Florigerio, who practised at Udine and Padua, and of whom an altarpiece

-remains in the Academy; Giovanni Battista Grassi, who helped Vasari to

-compile his notices of Friulan art, and many others only known by name.

-

-At the close of the fifteenth century the revulsion against Paduan art

-extended as far as Brescia, and Girolamo Romanino was one of the first

-to acquire the trick of Venetian painting. He probably studied for a

-time under Friulan painters. Pellegrino is thought to have been at

-Brescia or Bergamo during the Friulan disturbances of 1506-12, and

-about 1510 Romanino emerges, a skilled artist in Pellegrino's Palmesque

-manner. His works at this time are dark and glowing, full of warm light

-and deep shadow; the scene is often laid under arches, after the manner

-of the Vivarini and Cima; a gorgeous scheme of accessory is framed in

-noble architecture.

-

-Brescia was an opulent city, second only to Milan among the towns of

-northern Italy, and Romanino obtained plenty of patronage; but in 1511

-the city fell a prey to the horrors of war, was taken and lost by

-Venice, and in 1512 was sacked by the French. Romanino fled to Padua,

-where he found a home among the Benedictines of S. Giustina. Here he was

-soon well employed on an altarpiece with life-size figures for the high

-altar, and a "Last Supper" for the refectory. It is also surmised that

-he helped in the series for the Scuola del Santo, for several of which

-Titian in 1511 had signed a receipt, and the "Death of St. Anthony" is

-pointed out as showing the Brescian characteristics of fine colour, but

-poor drawing.

-

-Romanino returned to Brescia when the Venetians recovered it in 1516,

-but before doing so he went to Cremona and painted four subjects, which

-are among his most effective, in the choir of the Duomo.

-

-He is not so daring a painter as Pordenone, from whom he sometimes

-borrows ideas, but he is quite a convert to the modern style of the day,

-setting his groups in large spaces and using the slashed doublets, the

-long hose, and plumed headgear which Giorgione had found so picturesque.

-Romanino is often very poor and empty, and fails most in selection and

-expression at the moments when he most needs to be great, but he is

-successful in the golden style he adopted after his closer contact

-with the Venetians, and his draperies and flesh tints are extremely

-brilliant. He is, indeed, inclined to be gaudy and careless in

-execution, and even the fine "Nativity" in the National Gallery gives

-the impression that size is more regarded than thought and feeling.

-

-Moretto is perhaps the only painter from the mainland who, coming within

-the charmed circle of Venetian art and betraying the study of Palma and

-Titian and the influence of Pordenone, still keeps his own gamut of

-colour, and as he goes on, gets consistently cooler and more silvery

-in his tones. He can only be fully studied in Brescia itself, where

-literally dozens of altarpieces and wall-paintings show him in every

-phase. His first connection was probably with Romanino, but he reminds

-us at one time of Titian by his serious realism, and finished, careful

-painting, at another of Raphael, by the grace and sentiment of his

-heads, and as time goes on he foreshadows the style of Veronese. In the

-"Feast in the House of Simon" in the organ-loft of the Church of the

-Pieta in Venice, the very name prepares us for the airy, colonnaded

-building, with vistas of blue sky and landscape, and the costly raiment

-and plenishing which might have been seen at any Venetian or Brescian

-banquet. In his portraits Moretto sometimes rivals Lotto. His personages

-are always dignified and expressive, with pale, high-bred faces, and

-exceedingly picturesque in dress and general arrangement. He loved to

-paint a great gentleman, like the Sciarra Martinengo in the National

-Gallery, and to endow him with an air of romantic interest.

-

-One of those who entered so closely into the spirit of the Venetian

-School that he may almost be included within it, is Savoldo. His

-pictures are rare, and no gallery can show more than one or two

-examples. The Louvre has a portrait by him of Gaston de Foix, long

-thought to be by Giorgione. His native town can only show one

-altarpiece, an "Adoration of Shepherds," low in tone but intense in

-dusky shadow with fringes of light. He is grey and slaty in his shadows,

-and often rough and startling in effect, but at his best he produces

-very beautiful, rich, evening harmonies; and a letter from Aretino bears

-witness to the estimation in which he was held.

-

-It is not easy to say if Brescia or Vicenza has most claim to

-Bartolommeo Montagna, the early master of Cima. Born of Brescian

-parents, he settled early in Vicenza, and he is by far the most

-distinguished of those Vicentine painters who drank at the Venetian

-fount. He must have gone early to Venice and worked with the Vivarini,

-for in his altarpiece in the Brera he has the vaulted porticoes in

-which Bartolommeo and Alvise Vivarini delighted. His "Madonna enthroned"

-in the gallery at Vicenza has many points of contact with that of Alvise

-at Berlin. Among these are the four saints, the cupola, and the raised

-throne, and he is specially attracted by the groups of music-making

-angels; but Montagna has more moral greatness than Alvise, and his lines

-are stronger and more sinewy. He keeps faithful to the Alvisian feeling

-for calm and sweetness, but his personages have greater weight and

-gravity. He essays, too, a "Pieta" with saints, at Monte Berico, and

-shows both pathos and vehemence. He has evidently seen Bellini's

-rendering, and attempts, if only with partial success, to contrast in

-the same way the indifference of death with the contemplation and

-anguish of the bereaved. Hard and angular as Montagna's saints often

-are, they show power and austerity. His colour is brilliant and

-enamel-like; he does not arrive at the Venetian depth, yet his

-altarpieces are very grand, and once more we are struck by the greatness

-of even the secondary painters who drew their inspiration from Padua and

-Venice.

-

-Among the other Vicentines, Giovanni Speranza and Giovanni Buonconsiglio

-were imbued with characteristics of Mantegna. Speranza, in one of his

-few remaining works, almost reproduces the beautiful "Assumption" by

-Pizzolo, Mantegna's young fellow-student, in the Chapel of the

-Eremitani. He employs Buonconsiglio as an assistant, and they imitate

-Montagna to such an extent that it is difficult to distinguish between

-their works. Buonconsiglio's "Pieta" in the Vicenza gallery, is

-reminiscent of Montagna's at Monte Berico. The types are lean and bony,

-the features are almost as rugged as Duerer's, the flesh earthy and

-greenish. About 1497 Buonconsiglio was studying oils with Antonello da

-Messina; he begins to reside in Venice, and a change comes over his

-manner. His colours show a brilliancy and depth acquired by studying

-Titian; and then, again, his bright tints remind us of Lotto. His name

-was on the register of the Venetian Guild as late as 1530.

-

-After Pisanello's achievement and his marked effect on early Venetian

-art, Veronese painting fell for a time to a very low ebb; but Mantegna's

-influence was strongly felt here, and art revived in Liberale da Verona,

-Falconetto, Casoto, the Morone and Girolamo dai Libri, painters

-delightful in themselves, but having little connection with the

-school of Venice. Francesco Bonsignori, however, shook himself free

-from the narrow circle of Veronese art, where he had for a time

-followed Liberale, and grows more like the Vicentines, Montagna and

-Buonconsiglio. He is careful about his drawing, but his figures, like

-those of many of these provincial painters, are short, bony and vulgar,

-very unlike the slender, distinguished type of the great Paduan. Under

-the name of Francesco da Verona, Bonsignori works in the new palace of

-the Gonzagas, and several pictures painted for Mantua are now scattered

-in different collections. At Verona he has left four fine altarpieces.

-He went early to Venice, where he became the pupil of the Vivarini. His

-faces grow soft and oval, and the very careful outlines suggest the

-influence of Bellini.

-

-Girolamo Mocetto was journeyman to Giovanni Bellini; in fact, Vasari

-says that a "Dead Christ" in S. Francesco della Vigna, signed with

-Bellini's name, is from Mocetto's hand. His short, broad figures have

-something of Bartolommeo Vivarini's character.

-

-Francesco Torbido went to Venice to study with Giorgione, and we can

-trace his master's manner of turning half tones into deep shades; but he

-does not really understand the Giorgionesque treatment, in which shade

-was always rich and deep, but never dark, dirty and impenetrable, nor in

-the lights can he produce the clear glow of Giorgione. Another Veronese,

-Cavazzola, has left a masterpiece upon which any painter might be happy

-to rest his reputation; the "Gattemalata with an Esquire" in the Uffizi,

-a picture noble in feeling and in execution, and one which owes a great

-deal to Venetian portrait-painters.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- _Pordenone._

-

- Casara.    Old Church: Frescoes, 1525.

- Colatto.   S. Salvatore: Frescoes (E.).

- Cremona.   Duomo: Frescoes; Christ before Pilate; Way to Golgotha;

-              Nailing to Cross; Crucifixion, 1521; Madonna enthroned

-              with Saints and Donor, 1522.

- Murano.    S. Maria d. Angeli: Annunciation (L.).

- Piacenza.  Madonna in Campagna: Frescoes and Altarpiece, 1529-31.

- Pordenone. Duomo: Madonna of Mercy, 1515; S. Mark enthroned with Saints,

-              1535.

-            Municipio: SS. Gothard, Roch, and Sebastian, 1525.

- Spilimbergo.  Duomo: Assumption; Conversion of S. Paul.

- Sensigana. Madonna and Saints.

- Torre.     Madonna and Saints.

- Treviso.   Duomo: Adoration of Magi; Frescoes, 1520.

- Venice.    Academy: Portraits; Madonna, Saints, and the Ottobono Family;

-              Saints.

-            S. Giovanni Elemosinario: Saints.

-            S. Rocco: Saints, 1528.

-

-

- _Pellegrino._

-

- San Daniele. Frescoes in S. Antonio.

- Cividale.    S. Maria: Madonna with six Saints.

- Venice.      Academy: Annunciation.

-

-

- _Romanino._

-

- Bergamo. S. Alessandro in Colonna: Assumption.

- Berlin.  Madonna and Saints; Pieta.

- Brescia. Galleria Martinengo: Portrait; Christ bearing Cross; Nativity;

-            Coronation.

-          Duomo: Sacristy: Birth of Virgin; Visitation.

-          S. Francesco: Madonna and Saints; Sposalizio.

- Cremona. Duomo: Frescoes.

- London.  Polyptych; Portrait.

- Padua.   Last Supper; Madonna and Saints.

- Sato, Lago di Garda. Duomo: Saints and Donor.

- Trent.   Castello: Frescoes.

- Verona.  St. Jerome. S. Giorgio in Braida: Organ shutters.

-

-

- _Moretto._

-

- Bergamo.  Lochis: Holy Family; Christ bearing Cross; Donor.

- Brescia.  Galleria Martinengo: Nativity and Saints; Madonna

-             appearing to S. Francis; Saints; Madonna in Glory

-             with Saints; Christ at Emmaus; Annunciation.

-           S. Clemente: High Altar and four other Altarpieces.

-           S. Francesco: Altarpiece.

-           S. Giovanni Evangelista: High Altar; Third Altar.

-           S. Maria in Calchera: Dead Christ and Saints;

-             Magdalen washing Feet of Christ.

-           S. Maria delle Grazie: High Altar.

-           SS. Nazaro and Celso: Two Altarpieces; Sacristy:

-             Nativity.

-           Seminario di S. Angelo: High Altar.

- London.   Portrait of Count Sciarra Martinengo; Portrait;

-             Madonna and Saints; Two Angels.

- Milan.    Brera: Madonna and Saints; Assumption.

-           Castello: Triptych; Saints.

- Rome.     Vatican: Madonna enthroned with Saints.

- Venice.   S. Maria della Pieta: Christ in the House of Levi.

- Verona.   S. Giorgio in Braida: Madonna and Saints.

-

-

- _Bartolommeo Montagna._

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: Madonna and Saint, 1487.

- Berlin.  Madonna, Saints, and Donors, 1500.

- Milan.   Brera: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.

- Padua.   Scuola del Santo: Fresco; Opening of S. Antony's Tomb.

- Pavia.   Certosa: Madonna, Saints, and Angels.

- Venice.  Academy: Madonna and Saints; Christ with Saints.

- Verona.  SS. Nazaro e Celso: Saints; Pieta; Frescoes, 1491-93.

- Vicenza. Holy Family; Madonna enthroned; Two Madonnas with Saints;

-            Three Madonnas.

-          Duomo: Altarpiece; Frescoes.

-          S. Corona: Madonna and Saints.

-          Monte Berico: Pieta, 1500; Fresco.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIV

-

-PAOLO VERONESE

-

-

-Paolo Veronese, though perhaps he is not to be placed on the very

-highest pinnacle of the Venetian School, must be classed among

-those few great painters who rose far above the level of most of his

-contemporaries and who brought in a special note and flavour of his own.

-His art is an independent art, and he borrows little from predecessors

-or contemporaries. His free and joyous temperament gave relief at a

-moment when the Venetian scheme of colour threatened to become too

-sombre, and when Sebastian del Piombo, Pordenone, Titian himself, and

-above all Tintoretto, were pushing chiaroscuro to extremes. Veronese

-discards the deepest bronzes and mulberries and crimsons and oranges,

-and finds his range among cream and rose and grey-greens. Titian

-concentrated his colours and intensified his lights, Tintoretto

-sacrifices colour to vivid play of light and dark, but Veronese avoids

-the dark; the generous light plays all through his scenes. He has no

-wish to secure strong effects but delights in soft, faded tints; old

-rose and _turquoise morte_. In his colour and his subjects he is a

-personification of the robust, proud, joy-loving Republic, in which, as

-M. Yriarte says, a man produced his works as a tree produces its fruit.

-We get very near him in those vast palaces and churches and villas,

-where his heroic figures expand in the azure air, against the white

-clouds, and yet he is one of the artists of the Renaissance about whom

-we know least. Here and there, in contemporary biography, we come across

-a mention of him and learn that he was sociable and lively, quick at

-taking offence, fond of his family and anxious to do his best by them.

-He was, too, very generous with his work--a great contrast in this

-respect to Titian--and contracts with convents and confraternities show

-that he often only stipulated for payment for bare time. Yet he was fond

-of personal luxury, loved rich stuffs, horses and hounds, and, says

-Ridolfi, "always wore velvet breeches."

-

-His first masters, according to Mr. Berenson, were Badile and

-Brusasorci, masters of Verona, but before he was twenty, he was away

-working on his own account. His first patron was Cardinal Gonzaga, who

-brought several painters from Verona to Mantua; but Mantua was no longer

-what it had been in the days of Isabela d'Este, and Paolo Caliari soon

-returned to his own town. Before he was twenty-three he had decorated

-Villa Porti, near Vicenza, in collaboration with Zelotti, a Veronese,

-portraying feasting gods and goddesses, framed in light architectural

-designs in monochrome. The two painters went on to other villas, mixing

-mortal and mythical figures in a happy, light-hearted medley.

-

-Zelotti having received a commission at Vicenza, Paolo decided to seek

-his fortune in Venice. The Prior of the Convent of San Sebastiano, on

-the Zattere, was a Veronese, and Caliari wrote to him before arriving in

-Venice in 1555. Thanks to the good Prior, who played a considerable part

-in his destiny, he obtained a commission for a "Coronation of the Virgin

-and four other Saints." He first painted the sacristy, but his success

-was instantaneous, and many orders followed. The ceiling of the church

-was devoted to the history of Esther. The whole of these paintings

-are marvellously well preserved, and, inset in the carved and gilt

-framework, make a _coup d'oeil_ of surprising beauty. They had an

-immense effect. Every one was able to appreciate these joyous pictures

-of Venice, the loveliness of her skies, the pomp of her ceremonies, the

-rich Eastern stuffs and the glorious architecture of her palaces. It

-was an auspicious moment for a painter of Veronese's temper; the

-so-called Republic, now, more than ever, an oligarchy, was at the

-height of its fortunes, redecorating was going forward everywhere, the

-merchant-nobility was rich and spending magnificently, the Eastern trade

-was flourishing, Venice was in all her glory. The patrons Caliari came

-to work for, preferred the ceremonial to the imaginative treatment of

-sacred themes, and he does not choose the tragedies of the Bible for

-illustration. He paints the history of Esther, with its royal audiences,

-banquets, and marriage-feasts. His Christs and Maries and Martyrs are

-composed, courtly personages, who maintain a dignified calm under

-misfortune, and have very little violent feeling to show.

-

-At the time of his arrival in Venice, Palma Vecchio was just dead,

-Tintoretto was absorbed by the Scuola di San Rocco, Paris Bordone was

-with Francis I. As rivals, Caliari had Salviati, Bonifazio, Schiavone,

-and Zelotti, all rendering homage to Titian who was eighty years old,

-but still in full vigour. Titian's opinions in matters of art were

-dictates, his judgment was a law. He immediately recognised Veronese's

-genius, which was of a kind to appeal to him, and together with

-Sansovino, who at this time was Director of Buildings to the Signoria,

-he received the young painter with an approval which ensured him a good

-start. Five years after Veronese's arrival he was retained to decorate

-the Villa Barbaro at Maser, which is a type of those patrician

-country-houses to which the Venetians were becoming more attached every

-year. Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, whose magnificent portrait

-by Veronese is in the Pitti, was himself an artist and designed the

-ceiling of the Hall of the Council of Ten. Palladio, Alessandro

-Vittoria, and Veronese were associated to build him a dwelling worthy of

-a Prince of the Church. In style the villa is a total contrast to the

-gorgeous Venetian palaces; it is sober and simple, and well adapted to

-leisure and retirement. Its white stucco walls and decorations are

-devoid of gilding and colour, and the rooms adorned by Veronese's brush

-show him in quite a new light. His visit to Rome did not take place till

-four years later, but he has been influenced here by the feeling for the

-antique, and he thinks much of line and style. He leaves on one side the

-gorgeous brocades and gleaming satins, in which he usually delights, and

-his nymphs are only clothed in their own beauty. And here Veronese shows

-his admirable taste and discretion; his patrons, the Barbaro family, are

-his friends, men and women of the world, who put no restraint on his

-fancy, and are not prone to censure, and Veronese, with the bridle on

-his neck, so to speak, uses his opportunities fully, yet never exceeds

-the limits of good taste. He is not gross and sensual like Rubens, but

-proud, grave and sweet, seductive, but never suggestive or vulgar. After

-having placed single figures wherever he can find a nook, he assembles

-all the gods of Olympia at a supper in the cupola. Immortality is a

-beautiful young woman seated on a cloud. Mercury gazes at her, caduceus

-in hand; Diana caresses her great hound; Saturn, an old man, rests his

-head on his hand; Mars, Apollo, Venus, and a little cupid are scattered

-in the Empyrean, and Jupiter presides over the party. Below, a balcony

-rail runs round the cupola, and looking over it, an old lady, dressed in

-the latest fashion, points out the company to a beautiful young one and

-to a young man in a doublet who holds a hound in a leash. They are

-evidently family portraits, taken from those who looked on at the

-artist, and on the other side he has introduced members of his own

-family who were helping him. These decorations have a gaiety, an

-absence of pedantry, a sound and sane sympathy with the spirit of the

-Renaissance which tell of a happy moment when art was at its height and

-in touch with its environment. From about 1563 we may begin to date his

-great supper pictures. The Marriage of Cana (Louvre), one of his most

-famous works, was painted for the refectory in Sammichele, the old part

-of S. Giorgio Maggiore. The treaty for it is still in existence, dated

-June 1562. The artist asks for a year; the Prior is to furnish canvas

-and colours, the painter's board, and a cask of wine. The further

-payment of 972 ducats illustrates the prices received by the greatest

-artists at the height of the Renaissance: L280 for work which occupied

-quite eight months.

-

-Veronese must have delighted in painting this work. Needless to say, it

-is not in the least religious. He has united in it all the most varied

-personages who struck his imagination. So we see a Spanish grandee,

-Francis I., Suleiman the Sultan, Charles V., Vittoria Colonna, and

-Eleanor of Austria. In the foreground, grouped round a table, are

-Veronese himself, playing the viol, Tintoretto accompanying him, Jacopo

-da Ponte seated by them, and Paolo's brother, the architect, with his

-hand on his hip, tossing off a full glass; and in the governor of the

-feast, opulent and gorgeously attired, we recognise Aretino. Under

-the marble columns of a Grimani or a Pesaro, he brings in all the

-illustrious actors of his own time and leaves us an odd and informing

-document. We can but accept the scene and admire the originality of its

-design and the freedom of its execution, its boldness and fancy, the way

-in which the varied incidents are brought into harmony, and the grace of

-the colonnade, peopled with spectators, standing out against the depth

-of distant sky.

-

-The celebrated suppers, of which this is the first example, are

-dispersed in different galleries and some have disappeared, but from

-this time Veronese loved to paint these great displays, repeating some

-of them, but always introducing variety.

-

- [Illustration: _Paolo Veronese._

-                 MARRIAGE IN CANA.

-                _Louvre._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-In 1564 he accompanied Girolamo Grimani, procurator of St. Mark's, who

-was appointed ambassador to the Holy See, and for the first time saw the

-works of Raphael and Michelangelo and the treasures of antiquity. For

-a time, the sight of the antique had some effect upon his work; in his

-famous ceiling in the Louvre, "Jupiter destroying the Vices," the

-influence of Michelangelo is apparent and its large gestures are

-inspired by sculpture. Ridolfi says that Veronese brought home casts

-from Rome, and statues of Amazons and the Laocoon seem to have inspired

-the Jupiter. He did not go on long in this path; he does not really care

-for the nude--it is too simple for him. He prefers that his saints and

-divinities should appear in the gorgeous costumes of the day, and that

-his Venus and Diana and the nymphs should trail in rich brocades. But

-few documents are left concerning his work for the Ducal Palace up to

-1576; much of it was destroyed in the great fire, but the Signoria then

-gave him a number of fresh commissions. The most important was the

-immense oval of the "Triumph of Venice," or, as it is sometimes called,

-the "Thanksgiving for Lepanto"; the Republic crowned by victory and

-surrounded by allegorical figures, Glory, Peace, Happiness, Ceres, Juno

-and the rest. The composition shows the utmost freedom: the fair Queen

-leans back, surrounded by laughing patricians, who look up from their

-balconies, as if they were attending a regatta on the Grand Canal. The

-horses of the Free Companions, the soldiers who go afar to carry out the

-will of the Republic, prance in a crowd of personages, each of whom

-represents a town or colony of her domain. Like all Veronese's

-creations, this will always be pre-eminently a picture of the sixteenth

-century, dated by a thousand details of costume, architecture, and

-armour. Venice, the Venice of Lepanto and the Venier, of Titian,

-Aretino, and Veronese himself, makes a deep impression upon us, and

-the artist reflects his age with sympathetic spontaneity.

-

-Hardly a hall of the Ducal Palace but can show a canvas of Veronese or

-the assistants by whom he was now surrounded. From time to time he

-resumed the decorations of S. Sebastiano, and his incessant production

-betrays no trace of fatigue or languor. The martyrdom of the saint is a

-triumph of the beauty of the silhouette against a radiant sky. He goes

-back to Verona and paints the "Martyrdom of St. George." He pours light

-into it. The saints open a shining path, down which a flower-crowned

-Love flutters with the diadem and palm of victory. The whole air and

-expression of St. George is full of strength and that look of goodness

-and serenity which is the painter's nearest approach to religious

-feeling. Veronese was created a Chevalier of St. Mark; every one was

-asking for his services, but he was a stay-at-home by nature and fond of

-living with his family. Philip II. longed to get him to cover his great

-walls in the Escurial, but he very civilly declined all his invitations

-and sent Federigo Zucchero in his stead.

-

-It was on account of the "Feast in the House of Levi" that in 1573 he

-was hauled before the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the document

-concerning this was only discovered a few years ago. The Signoria had

-never allowed any tribunal to chastise works of literature; on the

-contrary, Venice, though comparatively poor herself in geniuses of the

-mind, was the refuge of freedom of thought, and, in fact, had made a

-sort of compact with Niccolas V., which allowed her to set aside or

-suspend the decisions of the Holy Office, from which she could not quite

-emancipate herself. Veronese, however, was denounced by some "aggrieved

-person," to whom his way of treating sacred subjects seemed an outrage

-on religion. The members of the tribunal demanded "who the boy was with

-the bleeding nose?" and "why were halberdiers admitted?" Veronese

-replied that they were the sort of servants a rich and magnificent host

-would have about him. He was then asked why he had introduced the

-buffoon with a parrot on his hand. He replied that he really thought

-only Christ and His Apostles were present, but that when he had a little

-space over, he adorned it with imaginary figures. This defence of the

-vast and crowded canvas did not commend itself, and he was asked if he

-really thought that at the Last Supper of our Saviour it was fitting to

-bring in dwarfs, buffoons, drunken Germans, and other absurdities. Did

-he not know that in Germany and other places infested with heresy, they

-were in the habit of turning the things of Holy Church into ridicule,

-with intent to teach false doctrine to the ignorant? Paolo for his

-defence cited the Last Judgment, where Michelangelo had painted every

-figure in the nude, but the Inquisitor replied crushingly, that these

-were disembodied spirits, who could not be expected to wear clothing.

-Could Veronese uphold his picture as decent? The painter was probably

-not very much alarmed. He was a person of great importance in Venice,

-and the proceedings of the Inquisition were always jealously watched

-by members of the Senate, who would not have permitted any unfair

-interference with the liberties of those under the protection of the

-State. The real offence was the introduction of the German soldiers, who

-were peculiarly obnoxious to the Venetians; but Veronese did not care

-what the subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for a great

-_spectacle_. Brought to bay, he gave the true answer: "My Lords, I have

-not considered all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything

-disorderly. I painted the picture as it seemed best to me and as my

-intellect could conceive of it." It meant that Veronese painted in the

-way that he considered most artistic, without even remembering questions

-of religion, and in this he summed up his whole aesthetic creed. He was

-set at liberty on condition that he took out one or two of the most

-offending figures. The "Feast in the House of Levi" (as he named it

-after the trial) is the finest of all his great scenic effects. The air

-circulates freely through the white architecture, we breathe more deeply

-as we look out into the wide blue sky, and such is the sensation of

-expansion, that it is hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a flat

-wall. Titian's backgrounds are a blue horizon, a burning twilight.

-Veronese builds marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns blanched

-in the liquid light. His personages show little violent action. He

-places them in noble poses in which they can best show off their

-magnificent clothes, and he endows his patricians, his goddesses, his

-sacred persons, with a uniform air of majestic indolence.

-

-After his "trial," Veronese proceeded more triumphantly than ever. Every

-prince wished to have something from his brush; the Emperor Rudolph, at

-Prague, showed with pride the canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus.

-The Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of Ferrara, added

-Veronese's works to the treasures of the house of Este. The last ten

-years of his life were given up to visiting churches on the mainland and

-on the little islands round Venice, all covetous to possess something by

-the brilliant Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello, Murano,

-Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent and monastery loaded him with

-commissions, and it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in

-spite of the disapproval of the Holy See, his most ardent patrons, those

-who delighted most in his robust, uncompromising worldliness, were to be

-found in the religious houses. Then, when he went to rest in the summer

-heats in some villa on the Brenta, he left delightful souvenirs here and

-there. It was on such an occasion, for the Pisani, that he painted the

-"Family of Darius," which was sold to England by a member of the house

-in 1857. The royal captives, who are throwing themselves at the feet of

-the conqueror, are, with Paolo's usual frank naivete and disregard of

-anachronisms, dressed in full Venetian costume--all the chief personages

-are portraits of the Pisani family. The freedom and rapidity of

-execution, the completeness and finish, the charm of colour, the

-beauty of the figures (especially the princely ones of Alexander and

-Hephaestion), and its extraordinary energy, make this one of the finest

-of all his works. The critic, Charles Blanc, says of it, "It is absurd

-and dazzling."

-

-In the "Rape of Europa," he recurred again to one of those legends of

-fabled beings who have outlasted dynasties and are still fresh and

-living. Veronese was surrounded by men like Aretino and Bembo, well

-versed in mythology, and with his usual zest he makes the tale an excuse

-for painting lovely, blooming women, rich toilets, and a delightful

-landscape. The wild flowers spring, and the little Loves fly to and fro

-against a cloud-flecked sky of the wonderful Veronese turquoise. It is

-the work of a man who is a true poet of colour and for whom colour

-represents all the emotions of joy and pleasure.

-

-Veronese died comparatively young, of chill and fever, and all his

-family survived him. He lies buried in San Sebastiano. From contemporary

-memoirs we know that he lived and dressed splendidly. He kept immense

-stores of gorgeous stuffs to paint from in his studio, and drew

-everything from life,--the negroes covered with jewels, the bright-eyed

-pages, the models who, robed in velvets, brocades and satins, became

-queens or courtesans or saints. The pearls which bedecked them were from

-his own caskets. Though we know little of his private life, his work is

-so alive that he seems personified in it. He is saved from what might

-have been a prosaic or a sordid style by the delicious, ever-changing

-colour in which he revels; his silks and satins are less modelled by

-shadows than tinted by broken reflections, his embroidered and striped

-and arabesqued tissues are so harmoniously combined that the eye rests,

-wherever it falls, on something exquisite and subtle in tint. This is

-where his genius lies, "the decoration does not add to the interest of

-the drama; it replaces it"; in short, it _is_ the drama itself, for his

-types show little selection, and his ideal of female beauty is not a

-very sympathetic one. His personages are cold and devoid of expression,

-their gestures are rather meaningless, but by means of light and air and

-exquisite colour he gives the poetical touch which all great art

-demands.

-

-On account of their size few examples of Veronese's work are to be found

-in private collections, but the galleries of the different European

-capitals are rich in them. Numbers of paintings, too, which are by his

-assistants are dignified by his name, and directly after his death

-spurious works were freely manufactured and sold as genuine.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Dresden.  Madonna with Cuccina Family; Adoration of Magi;

-             Marriage of Cana.

- Florence. Pitti: Portrait of Daniele Barbaro.

-           Uffizi: Martyrdom of S. Giustina; Holy Family (E.).

- London.   Consecration of S. Niccolas; The Family of Darius before

-             Alexander; Adoration of the Magi.

- Maser.    Villa Barbaro: Frescoes.

- Padua.    S. Giustina: Martyrdom of S. Giustina.

- Paris.    Christ at Emmaus; Marriage of Cana.

- Venice.   Academy: Battle of Lepanto; Feast in the House of Levi; Madonna

-             with Saints.

-           Ducal Palace: Triumph of Venice; Rape of Europa; Venice

-             enthroned.

-           S. Barnaba: Holy Family.

-           S. Francesco della Vigna: Holy Family.

-           S. Sebastiano: Madonna and Saints; Crucifixion; Madonna in

-             Glory with S. Sebastian and other Saints; others in part;

-             Frescoes; Saints and Figure of Faith; Sibyls.

- Verona.   Portrait of Pasio Guadienti, 1556.

-           S. Giorgio: Martyrdom of S. George.

- Vicenza.  Monte Berico: Feast of St. Gregory, 1572.

- Vienna.   Christ at the House of Jairus.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXV

-

-TINTORETTO

-

-

-It does not seem likely that many new discoveries will be made about

-Tintoretto's life. It was an open and above-board one, and there is

-practically no time during its span that we are not able to account for,

-and to say where he was living and how he was occupied. The son of a

-dyer, a member of one of the powerful guilds of Venice, the "little

-dyer," _il tentoretto_, appears as an enthusiastic boy, keen to learn

-his chosen art. He was apprenticed to Titian and, immediately after,

-summarily ejected from that master's workshop, on account, it seems

-probable, of the independence and innovation of his style, which was

-of the very kind most likely to shock and puzzle Titian's courtly,

-settled genius. After this he painted when and where he could, pursuing

-his artistic studies with the headlong ardour which through life

-characterised his attitude towards art. Mr. Berenson thinks he may have

-worked in Bonifazio's studio. He formed a close friendship with Andrea

-Schiavone,[4] he imported casts of Michelangelo's statues, he studied

-the works of Titian and Palma. Over his door was written "the colour of

-Titian and the form of Michelangelo." All his energies were for long

-devoted to the effort to master that form. Colour came to him naturally,

-but good drawing meant more to him than it had ever done to any

-Venetian. Long afterwards, to repeated inquiries as to how excellence

-could be best ensured, he would give no other advice than the

-reiterated, "study drawing." He practised till the human form in every

-attitude held no difficulties for him. He suspended little models by

-strings, and drew every limb and torso he could get hold of over and

-over again. He was found in every place where painting was wanted,

-getting the builders to let him experiment upon the house-fronts. To

-master light and shade he constructed little cardboard houses, in which,

-by means of sliding shutters, lamplight and skylight effects could be

-arranged. It is particularly interesting to hear of this part of his

-education, as in the end the love of shine and shadow was the most

-victorious of all his inspirations.

-

- [4] Andrea Meldola, the Sclavonian, a native of Dalmatia,

- landing in Venice, had a great struggle for existence. He drew from

- Parmegianino, and studied Giorgione and Titian. He was probably an

- assistant of Titian, and helped him, as in the "Venus and Adonis" of the

- National Gallery, which owes much to his hand. He fails conspicuously in

- form, his shadows are black, and his figures often vulgar, but he has a

- fine sense of colour, and a free, crisp touch. He was one of the young

- masters who flooded Venice with light, sketchy wares.

-

-The chief events in Tintoretto's life are art-events. For some years he

-frescoed the outside of houses at a nominal price, or merely for his

-expenses. He decorated household furniture and everything he could

-lay hands on. Then came a few small commissions, an altarpiece here,

-organ-doors there, for unimportant churches. No one in Venice talked

-of any one save Palma, Bonifazio, and, above all, Titian, and it was

-difficult enough for an outsider, who was not one of their clique, to

-get employment. But by the time Tintoretto was twenty-six his talent was

-becoming recognised; he had painted the two altarpieces for SS. Ermagora

-and Fortunato, and the offer he made to decorate the vast church of his

-parish brought him conspicuously into notice. In the first ardour of

-youth he completed the "Last Judgment" for the choir. From time to time,

-during fourteen years, he redeemed his early promises and executed the

-"Golden Calf" and the "Presentation of the Virgin." Within two years of

-his offer to the Prior, came his first great opportunity of achieving

-distinction. This was a commission from the Confraternity of St. Mark,

-and with the "Miracle of the Slave" he sprang at once to the highest

-place.

-

-The picture was universally admired, and was followed by three more

-dealing with the patron saint. At forty he married happily a beautiful

-young girl, Faustina dei Vescovi, or Episcopi, as it is indifferently

-given, the daughter of a noble family of the mainland. Tradition has

-always pointed to the girl in blue in the "Golden Calf" as her portrait,

-while it is easy to recognise Tintoretto himself in the black-bearded

-giant, who helps to carry the idol. His house at this time was somewhere

-in the Parrocchia dell' Orto, and there, during the next fourteen years,

-eight children were born, of whom the two eldest, Domenico and Marietta,

-attained distinction in their father's profession. Another great

-event, which profoundly influenced his life, was the beginning of his

-connection in 1560 with the Scuola di San Rocco, the great confraternity

-which was devoted to combating the ravages of the plague and to

-succouring the families of its victims. His work for this lasted to the

-end of his life and is his most distinguished memorial.

-

-The palace to which the Robusti family moved in 1574, and which was

-inhabited by his descendants so late as 1830, can still be identified in

-the Calle della Sensa. It is broken up into two parts, but it is evident

-that it was a dwelling of some importance, a good specimen of Venetian

-Gothic. It still bears marks of considerable decoration; the walls are

-sheathed in marble plaques, and the first floor has rows of Gothic

-windows in delicately carved frames and little balconies of fretted

-marble. Zanetti, in 1771, gives an etching of a magnificent bronze

-frieze cast from the master's design, which ran round the Grand Sala.

-The family must have occupied the _piano nobile_ and let off the floors

-they did not require.

-

-Descriptions of the life led by the painter and his family are given

-by Vasari, who knew him personally, and by Ridolfi, whose book was

-published in 1646, and who must have known his children, several of whom

-were still alive and proud of their father's fame. We hear of pleasant

-evenings spent in the little palace, of the enthusiastic love of music,

-Tintoretto himself and his daughter being highly gifted. Among the

-_habitues_ were Zarlino, for twenty-five years chapel-master of St.

-Mark's, one of the fathers of modern music; Bassano; and Veronese, who,

-in spite of his love for magnificent entertainments, was often to be

-found in Tintoretto's pleasant home. Poor Andrea Schiavone was always

-welcome, and as time went on the house became the haunt of all the

-cultured gentlemen and _litterati_ of Venice.

-

-It is not difficult from the materials available to form a sufficiently

-lively idea of this Venetian citizen of the sixteenth century, as father

-and husband, host and painter. Ridolfi has collected a number of

-anecdotes, which space forbids me to use, but which are all very

-characteristic. We gather that he was a man of strong character,

-generous, sincere and simple, decided in his ways, caring little for

-the great world, but open-handed and hospitable under his own roof,

-observant of men and manners, and sometimes rather brusque in dealing

-with bores and offensive persons. Full of dry quiet humour and of

-good-natured banter of his wife's little weaknesses. A man, too, of

-upright conduct and free, as far as it can be ascertained, from any of

-those laxities and infidelities, so freely quoted of celebrated men and

-so easily condoned by his age. Art was Tintoretto's main preoccupation;

-but he seems to have been a man of strong religious bias, making a close

-study of the Bible, and turning naturally in his last days to those

-truths with which his art had made him familiar, truths which he had

-represented with that touch of mystic feeling which was the deepest part

-of his nature.

-

-His relations with the State commenced in 1574, when his offer to

-present a superb painting of the Victory of Lepanto was made to and

-accepted by the Council of Ten. Tintoretto was rewarded by a Broker's

-patent, and between this and the "Paradiso," the work of his old age, he

-executed a number of pictures for the Signoria. The only record of any

-travels are confined to two journeys paid to Mantua, where he went in

-the 'sixties and again in 1579 to see to the hanging of paintings done

-for the Gonzaga, and of which the documents have been kept, though the

-pictures have vanished. Tintoretto's last years were saddened by the

-death of his beloved daughter, who had always been his constant

-companion. He died in 1579 after a fortnight's illness and left a will,

-which, together with that of his son, throws a good deal of light upon

-the family history.

-

-It is not easy to select from the vast quantity of work left by

-Tintoretto. He is one of those painters whose whole life was passed in

-his native city and who can only be adequately studied in that city.

-Perhaps the first place in which to seek him, is the great church which

-was the monument of his early prime. The "Last Judgment" was probably

-inspired by that of Michelangelo, of which descriptions and sketches

-must have reached the younger master, over whom the Florentine had

-exercised so strong a fascination. Tintoretto's version impresses one as

-that of a mind boiling with thoughts and visions which he pours out upon

-the huge space. It depicts a terrible catastrophe, a scene of rushing

-destruction, of forms swept into oblivion, of others struggling to the

-light, of many beautiful figures and of a flood of air and light behind

-the rushing water,--water which makes us almost giddy as we watch it.

-The "Golden Calf" is a maturer production and includes some of the

-loveliest women Tintoretto ever painted. We see too plainly the

-planning, the device of concentrating interest on the idol by turning

-figures and pointing fingers, but nothing can be imagined more supple

-and queenly than the woman in blue, and the way the light falls on her

-head and perfectly foreshortened arm shows to what excellence Tintoretto

-had attained. The "Presentation" is a riper work. The drawing of the

-flight of steps and of the groups upon them could not be bettered. The

-little figure of the Virgin, prototype of the new dispensation, as she

-advances to meet the representative of the old, thrills with mystic

-feeling, yet the painter has contrived to retain the sturdy simplicity

-of a child. The "St. Agnes," with its contrast of light and shade, of

-strength made perfect in weakness, is of later date and was the

-commission of Cardinal Contarini.

-

-It is interesting to realise how Tintoretto, especially in the

-"Presentation," has contrived, while using the traditional episodes, to

-infuse so strong an imaginative sense. The contrast of age and youth,

-the joy of the Gentiles, the starlike figure of the child surrounded by

-shadows, convey an emotional feeling, in harmony with the nature of the

-scene.

-

-Next let us group together the miracles in the history of St. Mark. One

-of the qualities which strikes us most in the "Miracle of the Slave" is

-its strong local colour. It tells of Titian and Bonifazio and is unlike

-Tintoretto's later style. The colours are glowing and gem-like;

-carnations, orange-yellows, deep scarlet, and turquoise-blue. The

-crimson velvet of the judge's dress is finely relieved against a

-blue-green sky, and Tintoretto has kept that instinctive fire and dash

-which culminates at once and without effort in perfect action, "as a

-bird flies, or a horse gallops." It startled the quiet members of the

-Guild, and at the first moment they hesitated to accept it. The "Rescue

-of the Saracen" and the "Transportation of the Body" are more in the

-golden-brown manner to which he was moving, but it is in the "Finding

-of the Body" (Brera) that he rises to the highest emotional pitch. The

-colossal form of the saint, expanding with life and power as he towers

-in the spirit above his own lifeless clay, draws all eyes to him and

-seems to fill the barrel-roofed hall with ease and energy. Every part of

-the vault is flooded by his life-giving energy, and here Tintoretto

-deals with light and shade with full mastery.

-

-As we follow Tintoretto's career, it is borne in upon us how little

-positive colour it takes to make a great colourist. The whole Venetian

-School, indeed, does not deal with what we understand as bright colour.

-Vivid tints are much more characteristic of the Flemish and the

-Florentine, or, let us say, of the painters of to-day. Strong, crude

-colours are to be seen on all sides in the Salon or the Royal Academy,

-but they are absent from the scheme of sombre splendour which has

-given the Venetians their title to fame. This is especially true of

-Tintoretto, and it becomes more so as he advances. His gamut becomes

-more golden-brown and mellow; the greys and browns and ivories combine

-in a lustrous symphony more impressive than gay tints, flooded with

-enveloping shadow and illumined by flashes of iridescent light. Another

-noticeable feature is the way in which he puts on his oil-colour, so

-that it bears the direct impression of the painter's hand. The

-Florentines had used flat tints, opaque and with every brush-mark

-smoothed away; but as the later Venetians covered large spaces with

-oil-colour, they no longer sought to dissimulate the traces of the

-brush, and light, distance, movement, were all conveyed by the turns and

-twists and swirls with which the thin oil-colour was laid on. Look at

-the power of touch in such a picture as the "Death of Abel"; we see this

-spontaneity of execution actually forming part of the emotion with which

-the picture is charged. The concentrated hate of the one figure, the

-desperate appeal of the other, the lurid note of the landscape, gain

-their emotion as much from the impetuous brush-work as from the more

-studied design. We come closest to the painter's mind in the Scuola

-di San Rocco. He had already been employed in the church, and there

-remains, darkened and ruined by damp, the series illustrative of the

-career of S. Roch, patron saint of sufferers from the plague. When the

-great Halls of Assembly were to be decorated in 1560, the confraternity

-asked a conclave of painters, among whom were Veronese and Andrea

-Schiavone, to prepare sketches for competition. When they assembled to

-display their designs, Tintoretto swept aside a cartoon from the ceiling

-of the refectory and discovered a finished picture, the "S. Roch in

-Glory," which still holds its place there. Neither the other artists nor

-the brethren seem to have approved of this unconventional proceeding,

-but he "hoped they would not be offended; it was the only way he knew."

-Partly from the displeased withdrawal of some of the rest, but partly

-also from the excellence of the work, the commission fell to Tintoretto,

-and after two years' work he was received into the order, and was

-assigned an annual provision of 100 ducats (L50) a year for life, being

-bound every year to furnish three pictures.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVI

-

-TINTORETTO (_continued_)

-

-The first portion of the vast building that was finished was the

-Refectory, but in examining the scheme, it is perhaps more convenient to

-leave it to its proper place, which is the climax. Before beginning,

-Tintoretto must have had the whole thing planned, and we cannot doubt

-that he was influenced by the Sixtine Chapel and recalled its plan and

-significance; the old dispensation typifying the new, the Old Testament

-history vivified by the acts of Christ. The main feature of the harmony

-which it is only reasonable to suppose governs the whole building, is

-its dedication to S. Roch, the special patron of mercy. The principal

-paintings of the Upper Hall are therefore concerned with acts of divine

-mercy and deliverance, and even the monochromes bear upon the central

-idea. On the roof are the three most important miracles of mercy

-performed on behalf of the Chosen People. The paintings on roof and

-walls are linked together. The "Fall of Man" at one end of the Hall,

-the disobedient eating, corresponds with the obedient eating of the

-Passover at the other, and is interdependent with the Manna in the

-Wilderness, the Last Supper, and the Miracle of the Loaves. The Miracles

-of satisfied thirst are represented by "Moses striking the Rock," Samson

-drinking from the jawbone and the waters of Meribah. The Baptism and

-other signs of the Advent of Christ and the Divine preparation, balance

-events in the early life of Moses. In the Refectory which opens from the

-Great Hall, we come to the "Crucifixion," the crowning act of mercy,

-surrounded by the events which immediately succeeded it, and typified

-immediately above in the Central Hall, by the lifting up of the Brazen

-Serpent. The miracles include six of refreshment and succour, two of

-miraculous restoration to health, and two of deliverance from danger.

-The whole scheme has been worked out in detail in my book on

-"Tintoretto."

-

-In the working out of his great scheme, Tintoretto is impatient of

-hackneyed and traditional forms; he must have a reading of his own, and

-one which appeals to his imagination. We see that passion for movement

-which distinguishes his early work. "Moses striking the Rock" is a

-figure instinct with purpose and energy. The water bounds forth, living,

-life-giving, the people strain wildly to reach it. His figures are

-sometimes found fault with, as extravagant in gesture, but the attitudes

-were intended to be seen and to arrest attention from far below, and we

-must not forget that the painter's models were drawn from a Southern

-race, to whom emphasis of action is natural. Tintoretto, it may be

-conceded, is on certain occasions, generally when dealing with accessory

-figures, inclined to excess of gesture; it is the defect of his

-temperament, but when he has a subject that carries him away he is

-sincere and never violent in spirit. Titian is cold compared to him; his

-colour, however effective, is calculated, whereas Tintoretto's seems to

-permeate every object and to soak the whole composition. To quote a

-recent critic: "He chose to begin, if possible, with a subject charged

-with emotion. He then proceeded to treat it according to its nature,

-that is to say, he toned down and obscured the outlines of form and

-mapped out the subject instead in pale or sombre masses of light and

-shade. Under the control of this powerful scheme of chiaroscuro, the

-colouring of the composition was placed, but its own character, its

-degree of richness and sobriety, was determined by the kind of emotion

-belonging to the subject. To use colour in this way, not only with

-emotional force, but with emotional truth, is to use it to perform one

-of the greatest functions of art."[5]

-

- [5] "Venice and the Renaissance," _Edinburgh Review_, 1909.

-

-So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the aspect of the groups, the

-pathos of the faces or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and

-gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the atmosphere into which we

-are absorbed, the sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding light

-and shadow, that makes us feel how different the rendering is from any

-other. In the "Christ before Pilate" the head and figure of Christ are

-not particularly impressive in themselves, but the brilliant light

-falling on the white robes and coursing down the steps supplies dignity

-and poetry; the slender white figure stands out like a shaft of light

-against the lurid and troubled background. Again, in the "Way to

-Golgotha" the falling evening gleam, the wild sky, the deep shadow of

-the ravine, throw into relief the quiet form, detached in look and

-feeling, as of one upborne by the spirit far above the brutal throng.

-Nowhere does that spiritual emotion find deeper expression than in the

-"Visitation." The passion of thanksgiving, the poignancy of mother-love,

-throb through the two women, who have been travelling towards one

-another, with a great secret between them, and who at length reach the

-haven of each other's love and knowledge. Here, too, the dying light,

-the waving tree, the obliteration of form, and the feeling of mystery

-make a deep appeal to the sensuous apprehension. We find it again and

-again; the great trees sway and whisper in the gathering darkness as the

-Virgin rides through the falling evening shadows, clasping her Babe, and

-in that most moving of all Tintoretto's creations, the "S. Mary of

-Egypt," the emotional mood of Nature's self is brought home to us. The

-trees that dominate the landscape are painted with a few "strokes like

-sabre cuts"; the landscape, given with apparent carelessness, yet

-conveying an indescribable sense of space and solemnity, unfolds itself

-under the dying day; and in solitary meditation, thrilling with ecstasy,

-sits that little figure, whose heart has travelled far away to commune

-with the Spirit, "whose dwelling is the light of setting suns."

-

-It is not possible in a short space to touch, even in passing, on all

-the many scenes in these halls: the "Annunciation," with its marvellous

-flight of cherubs, reminding us of the flight of pigeons in the Piazza,

-and how often the old painter must have watched them; the "Temptation,"

-contrasting the throbbing evil, the flesh that _must_ be fed, with the

-calm of absolute purity; the "Massacre of the Innocents," for which the

-horrors of sacked towns could have supplied many a parallel,--we have

-not time to dwell on these, but we may notice how the artist has

-overcome the difficulty of seeing clearly in the dark halls, by choosing

-strong and varied effects of light for the most shadowed spaces, and we

-can picture what the halls must have been like when they first glowed

-from his hand, adorned with gilded fretwork and moulding, and hung with

-opulent draperies, with the rose-red and purple of bishops' and

-cardinals' robes reflected in the gleaming pavement.

-

- [Illustration: _Tintoretto._     _Scuola di San Rocco._

-                 S. MARY OF EGYPT.

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Leonardo, by one supreme example, Tintoretto, by many renderings, have

-made the "Last Supper" peculiarly their own in the domain of art. It

-shows how strongly the mystic strain entered into the man's character,

-that often as Tintoretto treated the subject, it never lost its interest

-for him, and he never failed to find a fresh point of view. In that

-in S. Polo, Christ offers the sacred food with a gesture of vehement

-generosity. Placed as the picture is, to appeal to all comers to the

-Mass, to afford them a welcome as they pass to the High Altar, it tells

-of the Bread of Life given to all mankind. Tintoretto himself, painted

-in the character of S. Paul, stands at one side, absorbed in meditation.

-We need not insist again on the emotional value of the deep colours, the

-rich creams and crimsons and the chiaroscuro. In his latest rendering,

-in S. Giorgio Maggiore, he touches his highest point in symbolical

-treatment. Some people are only able to see a theatrical, artificial

-spirit in this picture, but at least, when we consider what deep

-meditation Tintoretto had bestowed on his subjects, we may believe that

-he himself was sincere and that he let himself go over what commended

-itself as an entirely new rendering. "The Light shined in the Darkness,

-and the Darkness comprehended it not." The supernatural is entering on

-every side, but the feast goes on; the serving men and maids busy

-themselves with the dishes; the disciples are inquiring, but not

-agitated; none see that throng of heavenly visitants, pouring in through

-the blue moonlight, called to their Master's side by the supreme

-significance of His words. The painter has taken full advantage of the

-opportunity of combining the light of the cresset lamp, pouring out

-smoky clouds, with the struggling moonlight and the unearthly radiance,

-in divers, yet mingling streams which fight against the surrounding

-gloom. In the scene in the Scuola di S. Rocco the betrayal is the

-dominating incident, and in San Stefano all is peace, and the Saviour

-is alone with the faithful disciples.

-

- [Illustration: _Tintoretto._

-                 BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

-                _Ducal Palace, Venice._

-                 (_Photo, Anderson._)]

-

-Though several of the large compositions ascribed to Tintoretto in

-the Ducal Palace are only partly by him, or entirely by followers and

-imitators, its halls are still a storehouse of his genius. There is much

-that is fine about the great state pieces. In the "Marriage of St.

-Catherine," the saint, in silken gown and long transparent veil, is an

-exquisite figure. Tintoretto bathes all his pageantry in golden light

-and air, and yet we feel that these huge official subjects, with the

-prosaic old Doges introduced in incongruous company, neither stimulated

-his imagination nor satisfied his taste. It is on the smaller canvases

-that he finds inspiration. He never painted anything more lovely, more

-perfect in design, or more gay and tender in idea, than the cycle in

-the Ante-Collegio. The glowing light and exquisitely graded shadows upon

-ivory limbs have a sensuous perfection and a refined, unselfconscious

-joy such as is felt in hardly any other work, except the painter's own

-"Milky Way" in the National Gallery. In all these four pictures the

-feeling for design, a branch of art in which Tintoretto was past master,

-is fully displayed. In the Bacchus and Ariadne all the principal lines,

-the eyes and gestures, converge upon the tiny ring which is the symbol

-of union between the goddess and her lover, between the queenly city and

-the Adriatic sea. Or take "Pallas driving away Mars": see how the mass

-into which the figures are gathered on the left adds strength to the

-thrust of the goddess's arm, and what steadiness is given by that short

-straight lance of hers, coming in among all the yielding curves. The

-whole four are linked together in meaning: the call to Venice to reign

-over the seas, her triumphant peace, with Wisdom guiding her council,

-and her warriors forging arms in case of need. In conjunction with these

-pictures are two small ones in the chapel, hardly less beautiful--St.

-George with St. Margaret, and SS. Andrew and Jerome. It is difficult to

-say whether the exultant St. George, the dignified young bishop, or the

-two older saints are the more sympathetic creations, or the more

-admirable, both in drawing and colour. The sense of space in both

-settings is an added charm, and every scrap of detail, the leafy

-boughs, the cross and crozier, is important to the composition.

-

-There are many other striking examples, ranging all through Tintoretto's

-life, of his untiring imagination. In the Salute is that "Marriage of

-Cana," in which all the actors seem to swim in golden light. The sharp

-silhouettes bring out an effect of radiant sunshine with which the hall

-is flooded, and all the architectural lines lead our eyes towards the

-central figure, placed at a distance. On that long canvas in the

-Academy, kneel the three treasurers, pouring out their gold and bending

-in homage before the Madonna and Child, who sit enthroned upon a broad

-piazza, through the marble pillars of which a blue and distant landscape

-shines. Grave senators in mulberry velvet and ermine kneel before the

-Child, or hold counsel on Paduan affairs under the patronage of S.

-Giustina. The "Crucifixion" (in S. Cassiano) is another triumph of the

-painter's imaginative conception. The bold lines of the crosses, the

-ladder, and the figures detach against a glorious sky, and the presence

-of the moving, murmuring throng, of which, by the placing of the line of

-sight, the spectator is made to form a part, is conveyed by the swaying

-and crossing of the lances borne by the armed men who keep the ground.

-There is a series, too, which deals with the Magdalen. She mourns her

-dead in that solemn, restrained "Entombment," where the enfolding

-shadows frame the cross against the sad dawn, which adorns the mortuary

-chapel of S. Giorgio Maggiore; and the Pieta in the Brera, the long

-lines of which add to the impression of tender repose, has its peace

-broken by the passionate cry of the woman who loved much. Tintoretto's

-ideas are exhaustless; he can paint the same scene in a dozen different

-ways, and, in fact, the book of sketches lately acquired by the British

-Museum shows as many as thirty trials dashed off for one subject, and

-after all he uses one composed for something quite different. It is this

-habit of throwing off red-hot essays, fresh from his brain, that has led

-to the common but superficial judgment that Tintoretto was merely a

-great improvisatore, whose successes came more or less by good luck. He

-could, indeed, paint pictures at a pace at which many great masters

-could only sketch, but he had already designed and considered and

-rejected, doing with oil, ink, and paper what many of his contemporaries

-did mentally. Such achievements as the Ante-Collegio cycle, the "House

-of Martha and Mary," the "Marriage of Cana," the "Temptation of S.

-Anthony," to name only a few, show a finish and perfection and a balance

-of design which preclude the idea of their being lightly painted

-pictures. When he was actually engaged, Tintoretto let himself go with

-impetuous ardour, but we may feel assured he left nothing to chance,

-though he had his own way of making sure of the result.

-

-It is strange to hear people, as one does now and then, talking of the

-"Paradiso" as "a splendid failure." It may be granted that the subject

-is an impossible one for human art to realise, yet when all allowance

-has been made for a lamentable amount of drying and blackening, it is

-difficult to agree that Ruskin was all wrong in his admiration of that

-thronging multitude, ordered and disciplined by the tides of light and

-shadow, which roll in and out of the masses, resolving them into groups

-and single figures of almost matchless beauty and melting away into a

-sea of radiant aether, which tells us of the boundless space which

-surrounds the serried ranks of the Blessed.

-

-Tintoretto was seventy-eight when it was allotted to him, and it was the

-last great effort of his mind and hand. Studies for it are preserved

-both at the Louvre and at Madrid, and it is evident that the painter

-has framed it upon the thought of Dante's mystic rose. The circles and

-many of the figures can be traced in the poem, and the idea of the

-Eternal Light streaming through the leaves of the rose dominates the

-composition. It is appropriate that it should have been his last great

-work, as it was also the greatest attempt at composition ever made by a

-master of the Venetian School.

-

-There is no room here to study Tintoretto as a painter of battlepieces,

-though from the time he painted the "Battle of Lepanto," for the Council

-of Ten, he often returned to such subjects. His two series for the

-Gonzaga included several, and the Ducal Palace still possesses examples.

-The impetuosity of his style stood him in good stead, and he never fails

-to bring in graceful and striking figures.

-

-His portraits are hardly equal to Titian's intellectual grasp or

-fine-grained colour, but they are extraordinarily characteristic. He

-prefers to paint men rather than women, and he painted hundreds--all the

-great persons of his time who lived in and visited Venice. The Venetian

-portrait by this time was expected to be more than a likeness and more

-than a problem. It was to please the taste as a picture, to interest and

-to satisfy criticism. Tintoretto, like Lotto, gets behind the scenes,

-and we see some mood, some aspect of the sitter that he hardly expected

-to show. His penetration is not equal to Lotto's, but he deals with his

-sitters with an observation which pierces below the surface.

-

-In criticising Tintoretto, men seem often unable to discriminate between

-the turgid and melodramatic, and the spontaneous and temperamental. The

-first all must abhor, but the last is sincere and deserves to be

-respected. It is by his best that we must judge a man, and taking his

-best and undoubtedly authentic work, no one has left a larger amount

-which will stand the test of criticism. As an exponent of lofty and

-elevated central ideas, which unify all parts of his composition,

-Tintoretto stands with the greatest imaginative minds. The intellectual

-side of life was exemplified in Florentine art, but the Renaissance

-would have been a one-sided development if there had not arisen a body

-of men to whom emotion and the gift of sensuous apprehension seemed of

-supreme value, and at the very last there arose with him one who, to

-their philosophy of feeling and the mastery of their chosen medium,

-added the crowning glory of the imaginative idea.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Augsburg. Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.

- Berlin.   Portraits; Madonna and Saints; Luna and the Hours; Procurator

-             before S. Mark.

- Dresden.  Lady in Black; The Rescue; Portraits.

- Florence. Pitti: Portraits of Men; Luigi Cornaro; Vincenzo Zeno.

-           Uffizi: Portrait of Himself; Admiral Venier; Portrait of Old

-             Man; Jacopo Sansovino; Portrait.

- Hampton Court. Esther before Ahasuerus; Nine Muses; Portrait of

-             Dominican; Knight of Malta.

- London.   S. George and the Dragon; Christ washing Feet of Disciples;

-             Origin of Milky Way.

-           Bridgewater House: Entombment; Portrait.

- Madrid.   Battle on Land and Sea; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;

-             Susanna and the Elders; Finding of Moses; Esther before

-             Ahasuerus; Judith and Holofernes.

- Milan.    Brera: S. Helena, Saints and Donors; Finding of the Body of S.

-             Mark (E.).

- Paris.    Susanna and the Elders; Sketch for Paradise; Portrait of

-             Himself.

- Rome.     Capitol: Baptism; Ecce Homo; The Flagellation.

-           Colonna: Adoration of the Holy Spirit; Old Man playing Spinet;

-             Portraits.

- Turin.    The Trinity.

- Venice.   Academy: S. Giustina and Three Senators; Madonna with Saints

-             and Treasurers, 1566; Portraits of Senators; Deposition;

-             Jacopo Soranzo, 1564 (still attributed to Titian); Andrea

-             Capello (E.); Death of Abel; Miracle of S. Mark, 1548; Adam

-             and Eve; Resurrected Christ blessing Three Senators; Madonna

-             and Portraits; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Presentation in

-             Temple.

-           Palazzo Ducale: Doge Mocenigo commended to Christ by S. Mark;

-             Doge da Ponte before the Virgin; Marriage of S. Catherine;

-             Doge Gritti before the Virgin.

-           Ante-Collegio: Mercury and Three Graces; Vulcan's Forge;

-             Bacchus and Ariadne; Pallas resisting Mars, abt. 1578.

-           Ante-room of Chapel: SS. George, Margaret, and Louis;

-             SS. Andrew and Jerome.

-           Senato: S. Mark presenting Doge Loredano to the Virgin.

-           Sala Quattro Porte: Ceiling. Ante-room: Portraits; Ceiling,

-             Doge Priuli with Justice. Passage to Council of Ten:

-             Portraits; Nobles illumined by Holy Spirit.

-           Sala del Gran Consiglio: Paradise, 1590.

-           Sala dello Scrutino: Battle of Zara.

-           Palazzo Reale: Transportation of Body of S. Mark; S. Mark

-             rescues a Shipwrecked Saracen; Philosophers.

-           Giovanelli Palace: Battlepiece; Portraits.

-           S. Cassiano: Crucifixion; Christ in Limbo; Resurrection.

-           S. Giorgio Maggiore: Last Supper; Gathering of Manna;

-             Entombment (in Mortuary Chapel).

-           S. Maria Mater Domini: Finding of True Cross.

-           S. Maria dell' Orto: Last Judgment (E.); Golden Calf (E.);

-             Presentation of Virgin (E.); Martyrdom of S. Agnes.

-           S. Polo: Last Supper; Assumption of Virgin.

-           S. Rocco: Annunciation; Pool of Bethesda; S. Roch and the

-             Beasts; S. Roch healing the Sick; S. Roch in Campo d' Armata;

-             S. Roch consoled by an Angel.

-           Scuola di S. Rocco: Lower Hall, all the paintings on wall.

-             Staircase: Visitation. Upper Hall: all the paintings on walls

-             and ceiling. Refectory: Crucifixion, 1565; Christ before

-             Pilate; Ecce Homo; Way to Golgotha; Ceiling, 1560.

-           Salute: Marriage of Cana, 1561; Martyrdom of S. Stephen.

-           S. Silvestro: Baptism.

-           S. Stefano: Last Supper; Washing of Feet; Agony in Garden.

-           S. Trovaso: Temptation of S. Anthony.

- Vienna.   Susanna and the Elders; Sebastian Venier; Portraits of

-             Procurators, Senators, and Men (fifteen in all); Old Man and

-             Boy; Portrait of Lady.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVII

-

-BASSANO

-

-

-We wonder how many of those sightseers who pass through the

-Ante-Collegio in the Ducal Palace, and stare for a few moments at

-Tintoretto's famous quartet and at Veronese's "Rape of Europa," turn to

-give even such fleeting attention to the long, dark canvas which hangs

-beside them, "Jacob's Journey into Canaan," by Jacopo da Ponte, called

-Bassano.

-

-Yet from the position in which it is placed the visitor might guess that

-it is considered to be a gem, and it gains something in interest when we

-learn from Zanetti that it was ordered by Jacopo Contarini at the same

-time as the "Rape of Europa," as if the great connoisseur enjoyed

-contrasting Veronese's light, gay style with the vigorous brush of

-da Ponte.

-

-If attention is arrested by the beauty of the painting, and the visitor

-should be inspired to seek the painter in his native city, he will be

-well repaid. Bassano once held an important position on the main road

-between Italy and Germany, but since the railroad was made across the

-Brenner Pass, few people ever see the little town which lies cradled on

-the spurs of the Italian Alps, where the gorge of Valsugana opens. It is

-surrounded by chestnut woods, which sweep up to the blue mountains, the

-wide Brenta flows through the town, and the houses cluster high on

-either side, and have gardens and balconies overhanging the water. The

-facades of many of the houses are covered with fading frescoes, relics

-of da Ponte's school of fresco-painters, which, though they are fast

-perishing, still give a wonderful effect of warmth and colour.

-

-Jacopo da Ponte was the son and pupil of his father, Francesco, who

-in his day had been a pupil of the Vicentine, Bartolommeo Montagna.

-Francesco da Ponte's best work is to be found at Bassano, in the

-cathedral and the church of San Giovanni, and has many of the

-characteristics, such as the raised pedestal and vaulted cupola, which

-we have noticed that Montagna owed to the Vivarini. Francesco's son

-went when very young to Venice, and was there thrown at once among the

-artists of the lagoons, and attached himself in particular to Bonifazio.

-In Jacopo's earliest work, now in the Museum at Bassano, a "Flight into

-Egypt," Bonifazio's tuition is markedly discernible in the build of the

-figures and, above all, in the form of the heads. A comparison of the

-very peculiarly shaped head of the Virgin in this picture with that of

-the Venetian lady in Bonifazio's "Rich Man's Feast," in the Venetian

-Academy, leaves us in no doubt on this score. Jacopo's "Adulteress

-before Christ" and the "Three in the Fiery Furnace" have Bonifazio's

-manner in the architecture and the staging of the figures. Only five

-examples are known of this early work of da Ponte, and it is all in

-Bonifazio's lighter style, not unlike his "Holy Family" in the National

-Gallery.

-

-The house in which the painter lived when he returned to his native

-town, still stands in the little Piazza Monte Vecchio, and its whole

-facade retains the frescoes, mouldy and decaying, with which he

-decorated it. The design is in four horizontal bands. First comes a

-frieze of children in every attitude of fun and frolic. Then follows a

-long range of animals--horses, oxen, and deer. Musical instruments and

-flowers make a border, with allegorical representations of the arts and

-crafts filling the spaces between the windows. The principal band is

-decorated with Scriptural subjects, most of which are now hardly

-discernible, but which represent "Samson slaying the Philistines,"

-"The Drunkenness of Noah," "Cain and Abel," "Lot and his Daughters,"

-and "Judith with the Head of Holofernes." Between the two last there

-formerly appeared a drawing of a dead child, with the motto, "Mors omnia

-aequat," which was removed to the Museum in 1883, in comparatively good

-preservation.

-

-Jacopo da Ponte lived a busy life at Bassano, where, with the help of

-his four sons, who were all painters, he poured out an inexhaustible

-stream of works, which, it is said, were put up to auction at the

-neighbouring fairs, if no other market was forthcoming. From time to

-time he and his sons went down to Venice, and with the help of the

-eldest, Francesco, Bassano (as he is generally known) painted the "Siege

-of Padua" and five other works in the Ducal Palace. His mature style was

-founded mainly upon that of Titian, and it is to this second manner that

-he owes his fame. He makes use of fewer colours, and enhances his lights

-by deepening and consolidating his shadows, so that they come into

-strong contrast, and his technique gains a richer impasto. He has a

-marvellous faculty for keeping his colour pure, and his greens shine

-like a beetle's wing. A nature-lover in the highest degree, his painting

-of animals and plants evinces a mind which is steeped in the magic of

-outdoor life. A subject of which he was particularly fond, and which he

-seems to have undertaken for half the collectors of Europe, was the

-"Four Seasons." Here was found united everything that Bassano most loved

-to paint: beasts of the farmyard and countryside, agriculturists with

-their implements, scenes of harvest-time and vintage, rough peasants

-leading the plough, cutting the grass, harvesting the grain, young girls

-making hay, driving home the cattle, taking dinner to the reapers. When

-he was obliged to paint for churches he chose such subjects as the

-Adoration of the Shepherds, the Sacrifice of Noah, the Expulsion from

-the Temple, into which he could introduce animals, painting them with

-such vigour and such forcible colour that Titian himself is said to

-have had a copy hanging in his studio. He loved to paint his daughters

-engaged in household tasks, and perhaps placed his figures with rather

-too obvious a reference to light and shade, and to the sun striking

-full on sunburnt cheeks and buxom shoulders. A friend, not a rival, of

-Veronese and Tintoretto, Gianbattista Volpado, records that when he was

-one day discussing contemporary painters with the latter, Tintoretto

-exclaimed, "Ah, Jacopo, if you had my drawing and I had your colour I

-would defy the devil himself to enable Titian, Raphael, and the rest to

-make any show beside us."

-

-Bassano was invited to take up his residence at the Court of the Emperor

-Rudolph, but he refused to leave his mountain city, where he died in

-1592. His funeral was attended by a crowd of the poorest inhabitants,

-for whom his charity had been boundless.

-

-The "Journey of Jacob," to which we have already alluded, is among his

-most beautiful works. The brilliant array of figures is subordinated to

-the charm of the landscape. The evening dusk draws all objects into its

-embrace. The long, low, deep-blue distance stands out against a gleam

-of sunset sky. The tree-trunks and light play of leafy branches, which

-break up the composition, are from da Ponte's own country round Bassano.

-The pony upon which the boy scrambles, the cows, the dog among the quiet

-sheep, are given with all the loving truth of the born animal-painter.

-It is no wonder that Teniers borrowed ideas from him, and has more than

-once imitated his whole design.

-

-The "Baptism of St. Lucilla" (in the Museum at Bassano) is one of his

-most Titianesque creations. The personages in it are grouped upon a

-flight of steps, in front of a long Renaissance palace with cypresses

-against a sky of evening-red barred with purple clouds. The drawing

-and modelling of the figures are almost faultless, and the colour is

-dazzling. The bending figure of S. Lucilla, with the light falling on

-her silvery satin dress, as she kneels before the young bishop, St.

-Valentine, is one of the most graceful things in art, and Titian himself

-need not have disowned the little angels, bearing palm branches and

-frolicking in the stream of radiance overhead.

-

-Bassano has a "Concert," which is interesting as a family piece. It was

-painted in the year in which his son Leandro's marriage took place, and

-is probably a bridal painting to celebrate the event. The "Magistrates

-in Adoration" (Vicenza) again gives a brilliant effect of light, and

-its stately ceremonial is founded on Tintoretto's numerous pictures of

-kneeling doges and procurators in fur-trimmed velvet robes.

-

- [Illustration: _Jacopo da Ponte._

-                 BAPTISM OF S. LUCILLA.

-                _Bassano._

-                 (_Photo, Alinari._)]

-

-Madonnas and saints are usually built into close-packed pyramids, but

-in the "Repose in Egypt," now in the Ambrosiana, Milan, his arrangement

-comes very close to Palma and Lotto. The beautiful Mother and Child,

-the attendants, above all the St. Joseph, resting, head on hand, at the

-Virgin's feet and gazing in rapt adoration on the Child, are examples of

-the true Venetian manner, while the exquisite landscape behind them, and

-the vigorously drawn tree under which they recline, show Bassano true to

-his passion for nature.

-

-Hampton Court is rich in his pictures. "The Adoration of the Shepherds,"

-in which the pillars rise behind the sacred group, is an exercise in

-the manner of Titian's Frari altarpiece. His portraits are fine and

-sympathetic, but hardly any of them are signed or can be dated. His

-own is in the Uffizi, and there is a splendid "Old Man" at Buda-Pesth.

-Ariosto and Tasso, Sebastian Venier, and many other distinguished

-men were among his sitters; most of them are in half-length with

-three-quarter heads. The National Gallery possesses a singularly

-attractive one of a young man with a sensitive, acute countenance,

-robed in dignified, picturesque black, relieved by an embroidered linen

-collar. He stands by the sort of square window, opening on a distant

-landscape, of which Tintoretto and Lotto so often made use, in front of

-which a golden vase, holding a branch of olive, catches the rays of

-light.

-

-Bassano has no great power of design, and his knowledge of the nude

-seems to have been small, but his brushwork is facile, and his colour

-leaps out with a vivid beauty which obliterates other shortcomings.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Augsburg. Madonna and Saints.

- Bassano.  Susanna and Elders (E.); Christ and Adulteress (E.); The Three

-             Holy Children (E.); Madonna, Saints, and Donor (E.); Flight

-             into Egypt (E.); Paradise; Baptism of S. Lucilla; Adoration

-             of Shepherds; St. Martin and the Beggar; St. Roch recommending

-             Donor to Virgin; St. John the Evangelist adored by a Warrior;

-             Descent of Holy Spirit; Madonna in Glory, with Saints (L.).

-           Duomo: S. Lucia in Glory; Martyrdom of S. Stephen (L.);

-             Nativity.

-           S. Giovanni: Madonna and Saints.

- Bergamo.  Carrara: Portrait.

-           Lochis: Portraits.

- Cittadella. Duomo: Christ at Emmaus.

- Dresden.  Israelites in Desert; Moses striking Rock; Conversion of

-             S. Paul.

- Hampton Court. Portraits; Jacob's Journey; Boaz and Ruth; Shepherds (E.);

-             Christ in House of Pharisee; Assumption of Virgin; Men

-             fighting Bears; Tribute Money.

- London.   Portrait of Man; Christ and the Money-Changers; Good Samaritan.

- Milan.    Ambrosiana: Adoration of Shepherds (E.); Annunciation to

-             Shepherds (L.).

- Munich.   Portraits; S. Jerome; Deposition.

- Padua.    S. Maria in Vanzo: Entombment.

- Paris.    Christ bearing Cross; Vintage (L.).

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Last Supper; The Trinity.

- Venice.   Academy: Christ in Garden; A Venetian Noble; S. Elenterino

-             blessing the Faithful.

-           Ducal Palace, Ante-Collegio: Jacob's Journey.

-           S. Giacomo dell' Orio: Madonna and Saints.

- Vicenza.  Madonna and Saints; Madonna; St. Mark and Senators.

- Vienna.   The Good Samaritan; Thomas led to the Stake; Adoration of Magi;

-             Rich Man and Lazarus; The Lord shows Abraham the Promised

-             Land; The Sower; A Hunt; Way to Golgotha; Noah entering the

-             Ark; Christ and the Money-Changers; After the Flood; Saints;

-             Adoration of Magi; Portraits; Christ bearing Cross.

-           Academy: Deposition; Portrait.

-

-

-

-

-PART III

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXVIII

-

-THE INTERIM

-

-

-Many of the churches and palaces of Venice and the adjoining mainland,

-and almost every public and private gallery throughout Europe, contain

-pictures purporting to be painted by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and

-others of that famous company. Hardly a great English house but boasts

-of a round dozen at least of such specimens, acquired in the days when

-rich Englishmen made the "grand tour" and substantiated a reputation for

-taste and culture by collecting works of art. These pictures resemble

-the genuine article in a specious yet half-hearted way. Their owners

-themselves are not very tenacious as to their authenticity, and the

-visit of an expert, or the ordeal of a public exhibition tears their

-pretensions to tatters. In the Academia itself the Bonifazio and

-Tintoretto rooms are crowded with imitations. The Ducal Palace has

-ceilings and panels on which are reproduced the kind of compositions

-initiated by the great artists, which make an effort to capture their

-gamut of colour and to master their scheme of chiaroscuro, copying them,

-in short, in everything except in their inimitable touch and fire and

-spirit. It would have been impossible for any men, however industrious

-and prolific, to have carried out all the work which passes under their

-names, to say nothing of that which has perished; but our surprise and

-curiosity diminish when we come to inquire systematically into the

-methods of that host of copyists which, even before the masters' death,

-had begun to ply its lucrative trade.

-

-We must bear in mind that every great man was surrounded by busy and

-attentive satellites, helping him to finish and, indeed, often painting

-a large part of important commissions, witnesses of the high prices

-received, and alive to all the gossip as to the relative popularity of

-the painters and the requests and orders which reached them from all

-quarters. The painters' own sons were in many instances those who first

-traded upon their fathers' fame. From Ridolfi, Zanetti, or Boschini we

-learn of the many paintings executed by Carlotto Caliari and the vast

-numbers painted by Domenico Robusti in the style of their respective

-fathers. Domenico seems to have particularly affected the subject of

-"St. George and the Dragon," and the picture at Dresden, which passes

-under Tintoretto's name, is perhaps by his hand. Of Bassano's four sons,

-Francesco "imitated his father perfectly," conserving his warmth of

-tint, his relief and breadth. Zanetti enumerates a surprising number of

-Francesco's works, seven of them being painted for the Ducal Palace.

-Leandro followed more particularly his father's first manner, was a good

-portrait-painter, and possessed lightness and fancy. Girolamo copied and

-recopied the old Bassano till he even deceived connoisseurs, "how much

-more," says Zanetti, writing in 1771, "those of the present day, who

-behold them harmonised and accredited by time." No school in Venice was

-so beloved, or lent itself so well to the efforts of the imitators, as

-that of Paolo Veronese. Even at an early date it was impossible not to

-confound the master with the disciples; the weaker of the originals were

-held to be of imitators, the best imitations were assigned to the master

-himself. "Oh how easy it is," exclaims Zanetti again, "to make mistakes

-about Veronese's pictures, but I can point out sundry infallible

-characteristics to those who wish for light upon this doubtful path; the

-fineness and lightness of the brushwork, the sublime intelligence and

-grace, shown particularly in the form of the heads, which is never found

-in any of his imitators."

-

-Few Venetians, however, followed the style of only one man; the output

-was probably determined and varied by the demand. Too many attractive

-manners existed to dazzle them, and when once they began to imitate,

-they were tempted on all hands. It must also be remembered that every

-master left behind him stacks of cartoons, sketches and suggestions, and

-half-finished pictures, which were eagerly seized upon, bought or

-stolen, and utilised to produce masterpieces masquerading under his

-name.

-

-As the seventeenth century advanced the character of art and manners

-underwent a change. Men sought the beautiful in the novel and bizarre,

-and the complex was preferred to the simple. Venetian art, in all its

-branches, had passed from the stately and restrained to the pompous and

-artificial. Yet the barocco style was used by Venice in a way of its

-own; whimsical, contorted, and overloaded with ornament as it is, it yet

-compels admiration by its vigorous life and movement. The art of the

-sei-cento in Venice was extravagant, but it was alive. It escaped the

-most deadly of all faults, a cold and academic mannerism--and this at a

-time when the rest of Italy was given over to the inflated followers of

-Michelangelo and the calculated elaborations of the eclectics.

-

-Many of the things we most love in Venice, such as the Salute, the

-Clock-Tower, the Dogana, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rezzonico and

-Pesaro Palaces, are additions of the seventeenth century. The barocco

-intemperance in sculpture was carried on by disciples of Bernini; and

-as the immediate influence of the great masters declined, painting

-acquired the same sort of character. The carelessness and rapidity of

-Tintoretto, which, in his case, proceeded from the lightning speed of

-his imagination and the unerring sureness of his brush, became a

-mechanical trick in the hands of superficial students. True art had

-migrated elsewhere--to the homes of Velasquez, Rubens, and Rembrandt. As

-art grew more pompous it became less emotional. Painters like Palma

-Giovine spoilt their ready, lively fancy by the vice of hurry. The

-nickname of "Fa Presto" was deserved by others besides Luca Giordano,

-and Venice was overrun by a swarm of painters whose prime standard of

-excellence was the ability to make haste. Grandeur of conception was

-forgotten; a grave, ample manner was no longer understood; superficial

-sentiment and bombastic size carried the day. Yet a few painters, though

-their forms had become redundant and exaggerated, retained something of

-what had been the Venetian glory--the deep and moist colour of old. It

-still glowed with traces of its old lustre on the canvases of Giovanni

-Contarini, or Tiberio Tinelli, or Pietro Liberi; and though there was a

-perfect fury of production, without order and without law, there can

-still be perceived the survival of that sense of the decorative which

-kept the thread of art. We discover it in the ceiling of the Church of

-San Pantaleone, where Gianbattista Fumiani paints the glorification of

-the martyred patron, and which, fantastic and extravagant as it is,

-with its stupendous, architectural setting, and its acutely, almost

-absurdly foreshortened throng, is not without a certain grandiose

-geniality, ample and picturesque, like the buildings of that date. In

-Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino), whose "Nozze di Cana" in the

-Academia is a finely spaced scene, in which a charming use is made of

-cypresses, we seem to recognise the last ray of the Titianesque. The

-painting of the seventeenth century passed on towards the eighteenth,

-and, from ceilings and panels, rosy nymphs and Venuses smile at

-us, attitudinising and contorted upon their cloudy backgrounds.

-Lackadaisical Magdalens drop sentimental tears, and the Angel of the

-Annunciation capers above the head of an affected Virgin, while violent

-colours, intensified chiaroscuro, and black greasy impasto betray

-the neighbourhood of the _tenebrosi_. When, towards the end of the

-seventeenth century, Gregorio Lazzarini set himself to shake off these

-influences, he went to the opposite extreme. Although a beautiful

-designer, he becomes cold and flat in colour, with a coldness and

-insipidity, indeed, that take us by surprise, appearing in a country

-where the taste for luminous and brilliant tints was so strongly rooted.

-The student of Venetian painting, who wishes to fill up the hiatus which

-lies between the Golden Age and the revival of the eighteenth century,

-cannot do better than compare Fumiani's vault in San Pantaleone with

-Lazzarini's sober and earnest fresco, "The Charity of San Lorenzo

-Giustiniani," in San Pietro in Castello, and with Pietro Liberi's

-"Battle of the Dardanelles" in the Ducal Palace. In all three we have

-examples of the varied and accomplished yet soulless art of this period.

-Not many of the scenes painted for the palaces of patricians in the

-seventeenth century have survived. They are to be found here and

-there by the curious who wander into old churches and palaces with a

-second-hand copy of Boschini in their hands; but in the reaction from

-the florid which took place in the Empire period, many of them gave

-place to whitewash and stucco. In the Ducal Palace, side by side with

-the masterpieces of the Renaissance, are to be found the overcrowded

-canvases of Vicentino, Giovanni Contarini, Pietro Liberi, Celesti, and

-others like them. Some of the poor and meretricious mosaics in St.

-Mark's are from designs by Palma Giovine and Fumiani. Carlo Ridolfi, who

-was a painter himself, as well as the painter's chronicler, has an

-"Adoration of the Magi" in S. Giovanni Elemosinario, poor enough in

-invention and execution. Two pictures by obscure artists disfigure a

-corner of the Scuola di San Rocco. The Museo Civico has a large canvas

-by Vicentino, a "Coronation of a Dogaressa," which once adorned Palazzo

-Grimani. We hear of a school opened by Antonio Balestra, who was the

-master of Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi, and the names of others

-have come down to us in numbers too numerous to be quoted. Towards the

-end of the seventeenth century more light and novelty sparkles in the

-painting of the Bellunese, Battista Ricci, and assures us that he was no

-mere copyist; and, as the eighteenth century opens, we become aware of

-the strong and daring brush of Gianbattista Piazetta. Piazetta studied

-the works of the Carracci for some time in Bologna, and especially those

-of Guercino, whose style, with its bold contrasts of light and shade,

-has served above all as his model. He paints very darkly, and his

-figures often blend with and disappear into the profound tones of his

-backgrounds. Charles Blanc calls him "a Venetian Caravaggio"; and he has

-something of the strength and even the brutality of the Bolognese. A

-fine decorative and imaginative example of his work is the "Madonna

-appearing to S. Philip Neri" in the Church of S. Fava. The erect form of

-the Madonna is relieved in striking chiaroscuro against the mantle,

-upheld by _putti_. Radiant clouds light up the background and illumine

-the form of the old saint, a refined and spirited figure, gazing at

-the vision in an ecstasy of devotion. Piazetta is a bold realist, and

-many of his small pictures are strong and forcible. Sebastiano Ricci,

-Battista's son, is described as "a fine intelligence," and attracts

-our notice as having forged special links with England. Hampton Court

-possesses a long array of his paintings. In the chapel of Chelsea

-Hospital the plaster semi-dome is painted by him, in oils, with very

-good effect. He is said to have worked in Thornhill's studio, and his

-influence may be suspected in the Blenheim frescoes, and even in touches

-in Hogarth's work.

-

-By the eighteenth century Venice had parted with her old nobility of

-soul, and enjoyment had become the only aim of life. Yet Venice, among

-the States of Italy, alone retained her freedom. The Doge reigned

-supreme as in the past. Beneath the ceiling of Veronese the dreaded

-Three still sat in secret council. Venice was still the city of subtle

-poisons and dangerous mysteries, but the days were gone when she

-had held the balance in European affairs, and she had become, in a

-superlative degree, the city of pleasure. Nowhere was life more

-varied and entertaining, more full of grace and enchantment.

-

-A long period of peace had rocked the Venetian people into calm

-security. There was, indeed, a little spasmodic fighting in Corfu,

-Dalmatia, and Algiers, but no real share was retained in the

-struggles of Europe. The whole policy of the city's life was one of

-self-indulgence. Holiday-makers filled her streets; the whole population

-lived "in piazza," laughing, gossiping, seeing and being seen. The

-very churches had become a rendezvous for fashionable intrigues; the

-convents boasted their _salons_, where nuns in low dresses, with pearls

-in their hair, received the advances of nobles and gallant abbes.

-People came to Venice to waste time; trivialities, the last scandal,

-sensational stories, were the only subjects worth discussing. In an age

-of parodies and practical jokes, the more absurd any one could be, the

-more silly or witty stories he could tell, the more assured was his

-success in the joyous, frivolous circle, full of fun and laughter. The

-Carnival lasted for six months of the year, and was the occasion for

-masques and licence of every description. In the hot weather, the gay

-descendants of the Contarini, the Loredan, the Pisani, and other grand

-old houses, migrated to villas along the Brenta, where by day and night

-the same reckless, irresponsible life went gaily on. The power of such

-courtesans as Titian and Paris Bordone had painted was waning. Their

-place was adequately supplied by the easy dames of society, no longer

-secluded, proud and tranquil, but "stirred by the wild blood of youth

-and stooping to the frolic." "They are but faces and smiles, teasing

-and trumpery," says one of their critics, yet they are declared to be

-wideawake, natural and charming, making the most of their smattering of

-letters. Love was the great game; every woman had lovers, every married

-woman openly flaunted her _cicisbeo_ or _cavaliere servente_.

-

-The older portion of the middle class was still moderate and temperate,

-contented to live in the old fashion, eschewing all interest in

-politics, with which it was dangerous for the ordinary individual to

-meddle; but the new leaven was creeping through every level of society.

-The sons and daughters of the _bourgeoisie_ tried to rise in the social

-scale by aping the pleasant vices of the aristocracy. They deserted the

-shop and the counting-house to play cards and strut upon the piazza.

-They mimicked the fine gentleman and the gentildonna, and made

-fashionable love and carried on intrigues. The spirit of the whole

-people had lost its elevation; there were no more proud patricians, full

-of noble ambitions and devoted zeal of public service; it was hardly

-possible to get a sufficient number of persons to carry on public

-business. It is a contemptible indictment enough; yet among all this

-degenerate life, we come upon something more real as we turn to the

-artists. They were very much alive. In music, in literature, and in

-painting, new and graceful forms of art were emerging. Painting was not

-the grand art of other days; it might be small and trivial, but there

-grew up a real little Renaissance of the eighteenth century, full of

-originality and fire, and showing a reaction from the pompous and banale

-style of the imitators.

-

-The influence of the "lady" was becoming increasingly felt by society.

-Confidential little boudoirs, small and cosy apartments were the mode,

-and needed decorating as well as vast salas. The dainty luxury of gilt

-furniture, designed by Andrea Brustolon and upholstered in delicate

-silks, was matched by small, attractive works of art. Venice had lost

-her Eastern trade, and as the East faded out of her scheme of life, the

-West, to which she now turned, was bringing her a different form of

-art. The great reception rooms were still suited by the grandiose

-compositions of Ricci, Piazetta, and Pittoni, but another genre of

-charming creations smiled from the brocaded alcoves and more intimate

-suites of rooms.

-

-It is impossible to name more than a fraction of these artists of the

-eighteenth century. There is Amigoni, admirable as a portrait-painter;

-Pittoni, one of the ablest figure-painters of the day; Luca Carlevaris,

-the forerunner of Canale; Pellegrini, whose decorations in this country

-are mentioned by Horace Walpole and of which the most important are

-preserved in the cupola and spandrils of the Grand Hall at Castle

-Howard. Their work is still to be found in many a Venetian church or

-North Italian gallery. Some of it is almost fine, though too often

-vitiated by the affected, exaggerated spirit of their day. When

-originality asserts itself more decidedly, Rosalba Carriera stands out

-as an artist who acquired great popularity. In 1700, when she was a

-young woman of twenty-four, she was already a great favourite with the

-public. She began life as a lace-maker, but when trade was bad, Jean

-Steve, a Frenchman, taught her to paint miniatures. She imparted a

-wonderfully delicate feeling to her art, and, passing on to pastel, she

-brought to this branch of portraiture a brilliancy and freshness which

-it had not known before. Rosalba has perhaps preserved for us better

-than any one else, those women of Venice who floated so lightly on the

-dancing waves of that sparkling stream. There they are: La Cornaro; La

-Maria Labia, who was surrounded by French lovers, "very courteous and

-very beautiful"; La Zenobio and La Pisani; La Foscari, with her black

-plumes; La Mocenigo, "the lady with the pearls." She has pinned them all

-to the canvas; lovely, frail, light-hearted butterflies, with velvet

-neck-ribbons round their snowy throats and coquettish patches on their

-delicate skin and bouquets of flowers in their high-dressed hair and

-sheeny bodices. They look at us with arch eyes and smile with melting

-mouths, more frivolous than depraved; sweet, ephemeral, irresponsible in

-every relation of life. Older men and women there are, too, when those

-artificial years have produced a succession of rather dull, sodden

-personages, kindly, inoffensive, but stupid, and still trifling heavily

-with the world.

-

-Of Rosalba we have another picture to compare with those of her sitters.

-She and the other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy life of

-the worker, and found in their art the antidote to the evil living and

-the dissipation of the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.

-Rosalba's _milieu_ is a type of others of its class. She lives with her

-mother and sisters, an honest, cheerful, industrious existence. They are

-fond of old friends and old books, and indulge in music and simple

-pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba by preparing the groundwork of

-her paintings. She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on the

-harpsichord. She receives great men without much ceremony, and the

-Elector Palatine, the Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of Norway,

-and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come to her to order miniatures of

-their reigning beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she has plenty

-of commissions, and the frequently occurring names of English patrons in

-her fragmentary diaries, tell how much her work was admired by English

-travellers. She did more than anybody else to promote the fashion for

-pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its best in the pastel

-room of the Dresden Gallery.

-

-Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us a charming description of a

-party of English travellers, which included Horace Walpole, arriving in

-Venice in 1741, strolling about in mask and _bauta_, and visiting the

-famous pastellist in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba has

-painted Walpole, and has left one of the most interesting examples of

-her art.

-

-

-SOME EXAMPLES

-

- _Francesco da Ponte._

-

- Venice.   Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on

-             ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left

-             as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the

-             Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to

-             command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the

-             Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore;

-             4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are

-             all very rich in colour.

-           Chiesetta: Circumcision; Way to Calvary.

-           Sala dell' Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.

-

-

- _Leandro da Ponte._

-

- Venice.   Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a

-             Blessed Candle to the Doge.

-           Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge

-             Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one

-             side of the sala.

-           Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the

-             Avogadori Family.

-

-

- _Palma Giovine._

-

- Dresden.  Presentation of the Virgin.

- Florence. Uffizi: S. Margaret.

- Munich.   Deposition; Nativity; Ecce Homo; Flagellation.

- Venice.   Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.

-           Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.

- Vienna.   Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pieta;

-             Immaculate Conception.

-

-

- _Il Padovanino._

-

- Florence. Uffizi: Lucretia.

- London.   Cornelia and her Children.

- Paris.    Venus and Cupid.

- Rome.     Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.

- Venice.   Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity,

-             Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.

- Verona.   Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.

- Vienna.   Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.

-

-

- _Pietro Liberi._

-

- Venice.   Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.

-

-

- _Andrea Vicentino._

-

- Venice.   Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.

-

-

- _G. A. Fumiani._

-

- Venice.   San Pantaleone: Ceiling.

-           Church of the Carita: Christ disputing with the Doctors.

-

-

- _A. Balestra._

-

- Verona.   S. Tomaso: Annunciation.

-

-

- _G. Lazzarini._

-

- Venice.   S. Pietro in Castello.

-           The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.

-

-

- _Sebastiano Ricci._

-

- Venice.   S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.

-           Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.

- London.   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.

-

-

- _G. B. Pittoni._

-

- Vicenza.  The Bath of Diana.

-

-

- _G. B. Piazetta._

-

- Venice.   Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.

-           Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.

-

-

- _Rosalba Carriera._

-

- Venice.   Academy: pastels.

- Dresden.  Pastels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXIX

-

-TIEPOLO

-

-

-We have already noted that to establish the significance of any period

-in art, it is necessary that the tendencies should unite and combine in

-some culminating spirits who rise triumphant over their contemporaries

-and soar above the age in which they live. Such a genius stands out

-above the eighteenth century crowd, and is not only of his century, but

-of every time. For two hundred years Tiepolo has been stigmatised as

-extravagant, mannered, as just equal to painting cupids, nymphs, and

-parroquets. In the last century he experienced the effect of the

-profound discredit into which the whole of eighteenth-century art had

-fallen. In France, David had obliterated Watteau; and the reputation

-of Pompeo Battoni, a sort of Italian David, effaced Tiepolo and his

-contemporaries. When the delegates of the French Republic inspected

-Italian churches and palaces, and decided what works of art should be

-sent to the Louvre, they singled out the Bolognese, the Guercinos and

-Guidos, the Carracci, even Pompeo Battoni and other such forgotten

-masters, a Gatti, a Nevelone, a Badalocchio; but to the lasting regret

-of their descendants, they disdained to annex a single one of the great

-paintings of the Venetian, Gianbattista Tiepolo.

-

-Eastlake only vouchsafes him one line as "an artist of fantastic

-imagination." Most of the nineteenth-century critics do not even mention

-him. Burckhardt dismisses him with a grudging line of praise, Blanc is

-equally disparaging, and for Taine he is a mere mannerist, yet his

-influence has been felt far beyond his lifetime; only now is he coming

-into his own, and it is recognised that the _plein-air_ artist, the

-luminarist, the impressionist, owe no small share of their knowledge to

-his inspiration.

-

-The name of Tiepolo brings before us a whole string of illustrious

-personages--doges and senators, magnificent procurators and great

-captains--but we have nothing to prove that the artist belonged to a

-decayed branch of the famous patrician house. Born in Castello, the

-people's quarter of Venice, he studied in early youth with that good

-draughtsman, Lazzarini. At twenty-three he married the sister of

-Francesco Guardi; Guardi, who comes between Longhi and Canale and who is

-a better painter than either. Tiepolo appeared at a fortunate moment.

-The demand for a facile, joyous genius was at its height. The life of

-the aristocracy on the lagoons was every year growing more gay, more

-abandoned to capricious inclination, to light loves and absurd

-amusements. And the art which reflected this life was called upon to

-give gaiety rather than thought, costume rather than character. Yet if

-the Venetian art had lost all connection with the grave magnificence of

-the past, it had kept aloof from the academic coldness which was in

-fashion beyond the lagoons, so that though theatrical, it was with a

-certain natural absurdity. The age had become romantic; the Arcadian

-convention was in full force, Nature herself was pressed into the

-service of idle, sentimental men and women. The country was pictured as

-a place of delight, where the sun always shone and the peasants passed

-their time singing madrigals and indulging in rural pleasures. The

-public, however, had begun to look for beauty; the traditions which had

-formed round the decorative schools were giving way to the appreciation

-of original work. Tiepolo, sincere and spontaneous even when he is

-sacrificing truth to caprice, struck the taste of the Venetians, and

-without emancipating himself from the tendencies of the time, contrives

-to introduce a fresh accent. All round him was a weak and self-indulgent

-world, but within himself he possessed a fund of buoyant and

-inexhaustible energy. He evokes a throng of personages on the ceilings

-of the churches and palaces confided to his fancy. His creations range

-from mythology to religion, from the sublime to the grotesque. All

-Olympia appears upon his ample and luminous spaces. It is not to the

-cold, austere Lazzarini, or to the clashing chiaroscuro of Piazetta, or

-the imaginative spirit of Battista Ricci, though he was touched by each

-of them, that we must turn for Tiepolo's derivation. Long before his

-time, the kind of decoration of ceilings which we are apt to call

-Tiepolesque; the foreshortened architecture, the columns and cornices,

-the figures peopling the edifices, or reclining upon clouds, had been

-used by an increasing throng of painters. The style arose, indeed, in

-the quattrocento; Mantegna, the Umbrians, and even Michelangelo had used

-it, though in a far more sober way than later generations. Correggio

-and the Venetians had perfected the idea, which the artists of the

-seventeenth century seized upon and carried to the most intemperate

-excess. But Tiepolo rose above them all; he abandoned the heavy,

-exaggerated, contorted designs, which by this time defied all laws of

-equilibrium, and we must go back further than his immediate predecessors

-for his origins. His claim to stand with Tintoretto or Veronese may be

-contested, but he is nearest to these, and no doubt Veronese is the

-artist he studied with the greatest fervour. Without copying, he seems

-to have a natural affinity of spirit with Veronese and assimilates the

-ample arrangement of his groups, the grace of his architecture, and his

-decorative feeling for colour. Zanetti, who was one of Tiepolo's dearest

-friends, writes: "No painter of our time could so well recall the bright

-and happy creations of Veronese." The difference between them is more

-one of period than of temperament. Paolo Veronese represented the

-opulence of a rich, strong society, full of noble life, while Tiepolo's

-lot was cast among effeminate men and frivolous women, and full of the

-modern spirit himself, he adapts his genius to his time and devotes

-himself to satisfy the theatrical, sentimental vein of the Venice of the

-decadence. Full of enthusiasm for his work, he was ready to respond to

-any call. He went to and fro between Venice and the villas along the

-mainland and to the neighbouring towns. Then coveting wider fields, he

-travelled to Milan and Genoa, where his frescoes still gleam in the

-palaces of the Dugnani, the Archinto, and the Clerici. At Wuerzburg in

-Bavaria he achieved a magnificent series of decorations for the palace

-of the Prince-Archbishop. Then coming back to Italy, he painted

-altarpieces, portraits, pictures for his friends, and a fresh multitude

-of allegorical and mythological frescoes in palaces and villas. His

-charming villa at Zianigo is frescoed from top to bottom by himself and

-his sons, and has amusing examples of contemporary dress and manners.

-

-When the Academy was instituted in 1755, Tiepolo was appointed its

-first director, but the sort of employment it provided was not suited to

-his impetuous spirit, and in 1762 he threw up the post and went off to

-Spain with his two sons. There he received a splendid welcome and was

-loaded with commissions, the only dissentient voice being that of

-Raphael Mengs, who, obsessed by the taste for the classic and the

-antique, was fiercely opposed to the Venetian's art. Tiepolo died

-suddenly in Madrid in 1770, pencil in hand. Though he was past seventy,

-the frescoes he has left there show that his hand was as firm and his

-eye as sure as ever.

-

-His frescoes have, as we have said, that frankly theatrical flavour

-which corresponds exactly to the taste of the time. Such works as the

-"Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto" in the Church of the

-Scalzi in Venice, or the "Triumph of Faith" in that of the Pieta, the

-"Triumph of Hercules" in Palazzo Canossa in Verona, or the decorations

-in the magnificent villa of the Pisani at Stra, are extravagant and

-fantastic, yet have the impressive quality of genius. These last, which

-have for subject the glorification of the Pisani, are full of portraits.

-The patrician sons and daughters appear, surrounded by Abundance, War,

-and Wisdom. A woman holding a sceptre symbolises Europe. All round are

-grouped flags and dragons, "nations grappling in the airy blue," bands

-of Red Indians in their war-paint and happy couples making love. The

-idea of the history, the wealth, the supreme dignity of the House is

-paramount, and over all appears Fame, bearing the noble name into

-immortality. In Palazzo Clerici at Milan a rich and prodigal committee

-gave the painter a free hand, and on the ceiling of a vast hall the Sun

-in a chariot, with four horses harnessed abreast, rises to the meridian,

-flooding the world with light. Venus and Saturn attend him, and his

-advent is heralded by Mercury. A symbolical figure of the earth joys at

-his coming, and a concourse of naiads, nymphs, and dolphins wait upon

-his footsteps. In the school of the Carmine in Venice Tiepolo has left

-one of his grandest displays. The haughty Queen of Heaven, who is his

-ideal of the Virgin, bears the Child lightly on her arm, and, standing

-enthroned upon the rolling clouds, hardly deigns to acknowledge the

-homage of the prostrate saint, on whom an attendant angel is bestowing

-her scapulary. The most charming _amoretti_ are disporting in all

-directions, flinging themselves from on high in delicious _abandon_,

-alternating with lovely groups of the cardinal virtues. At Villa

-Valmarana near Vicenza, after revelling among the gods, he comes to

-earth and delights in painting lovely ladies with almond eyes and

-carnation cheeks, attended by their cavaliers, seated in balconies,

-looking on at a play, or dancing minuets, and carnival scenes with

-masques and dominoes and _fetes champetres_, which give us a picture of

-the fashions and manners of the day. He brings in groups of Chinese in

-oriental dress, and then he condescends to paint country girls and their

-rustic swains, in the style of Phyllis and Corydon.

-

-Sometimes he becomes graver and more solid. He abandons the airy fancies

-scattered in cloud-land. The story of Esther in Palazzo Dugnano affords

-an opportunity for introducing magnificent architecture, warriors in

-armour, and stately dames in satin and brocades. He touches his highest

-in the decorations of Palazzo Labia, where Antony and Cleopatra, seated

-at their banquet, surrounded by pomp and revelry, regard one another

-silently, with looks of sombre passion. Four exquisite panels have

-lately been acquired by the Brera Gallery, representing the loves of

-Rinaldo and Armida, and are a feast of gay, delicate colour, with

-fascinating backgrounds of Italian gardens. The throne-room of the

-palace at Madrid has the same order of compositions--Aeneas conducted

-by Venus from Time to Immortality, and other deifications of Spanish

-royalty.

-

- [Illustration: _Tiepolo._

-                 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

-                _Palazzo Labia, Venice._]

-

-Now and then Tiepolo is possessed by a tragic mood. In the Church of

-San Alvise he has left a "Way to Calvary," a "Flagellation," and a

-"Crowning of Thorns," which are intensely dramatic, and which show strong

-feeling. Particularly striking is the contrast between the refined and

-sensitive type of his Christ and the realistic and even brutal study of

-the two despairing malefactors--one a common ruffian, the other an aged

-offender of a higher class. His altarpiece at Este, representing S.

-Tecla staying the plague, is painted with a real insight into disaster

-and agony, and S. Tecla is a pathetic and beautiful figure. Sometimes

-in his easel-pictures he paints a Head of Christ, a S. Anthony, or a

-Crucifixion, but he always returns before long to the ample spaces and

-fantastic subjects which his soul loved.

-

-Tiepolo is a singular contradiction. His art suggests a strong being,

-held captive by butterflies. Sometimes he is joyous and limpid,

-sometimes turbulent and strong, but he has always sincerity, force, and

-life. A great space serves to exhilarate him, and he asks nothing better

-than to cover it with angels and goddesses, white limbs among the

-clouds, sea-horses ridden by Tritons, patrician warriors in Roman

-armour, balustrades and columns and _amoretti_. He does not even need to

-pounce his design, but puts in all sorts of improvised modifications

-with a sure hand. The vastness of his frescoes, the daring poses of his

-countless figures, and the freedom of his line speak eloquently of the

-mastery to which his hand had attained. He revels, above all, in effects

-of light--"all the light of the sky, and all the light of the sea; all

-the light of Venice ... in which he swims as in a bath. He paints not

-ideas, scarcely even forms, but light. His ceilings are radiant, like

-the sky of birds; his poems seem to be written in the clouds. Light is

-fairer than all things, and Tiepolo knows all the tricks and triumphs of

-light."[6]

-

- [6] Philippe Monnier, _Venice in the Eighteenth Century_.

-

-Nearly all his compositions have a serene and limpid horizon, with

-the figures approaching it painted in clear, silvery hues, airy and

-diaphanous, while the forms below are more muscular, the flesh tints are

-deeper, and the whole of the foreground is often enveloped in shadow.

-Veronese had lit up the shadows, which, under his contemporaries, were

-growing gloomy. Tiepolo carries his art further on the same lines. He

-makes his figures more graceful, his draperies more vaporous, and

-illumines his clouds with radiance. His faded blue and rose, his

-golden-greys, and pearly whites and pastel tints are not so much solid

-colours as caprices of light. We have remarked already that with

-Veronese the accessories of gleaming satins and rich brocades serve to

-obscure the persons. In many of Tiepolo's scenes the figures are lost

-in a flutter of drapery, subject and action melt away, and we are only

-conscious of soft harmonies of delicious colour, as ethereal as the

-hues of spring flowers in woodland ways and joyous meadows. With these

-delicious, audacious fancies, put on with a nervous hand, we forget the

-age of profound and ardent passion, we escape from that of pompous

-solemnity and studied grace, and we breathe an atmosphere of

-irresponsible and capricious pleasure. In this last word of her great

-masters Venice keeps what her temperament loved--sensuous colour and

-emotional chiaroscuro, used to accentuate an art adapted to a city of

-pleasure.

-

-The excellence of the old masters' drawings is a perpetual revelation.

-Even second-class men are almost invariably fine draughtsmen, proving

-that drawing was looked upon as something over which it was necessary

-for even the meanest to have entire mastery. Tiepolo's drawings,

-preserved in Venice and in various museums, are as beautiful as can be

-wished; perfect in execution and vivid in feeling. In Venice are twenty

-or thirty sheets in red carbon, of flights of angels, and of draperies

-studied in every variety of fold.

-

-Poor work of his school is often ascribed to his sons, but the superb

-"Stations of the Cross," in the Frari, which were etched by Domenico,

-and published as his own in his lifetime, are almost equal to the

-father's work. Tiepolo had many immediate followers and imitators. The

-colossal roof-painting of Fabio Canal in the Church of SS. Apostoli,

-Venice, may be pointed out as an example of one of these. But he is full

-of the tendencies of modern art. Mr. Berenson, writing of him, says he

-sometimes seems more the first than the last of a line, and notices how

-he influenced many French artists of recent times, though none seem

-quite to have caught the secret of his light intensity and his exquisite

-caprice.

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Aranjuez. Royal Palace: Frescoes; Altarpiece.

-           Orangery: Frescoes.

- Bergamo.  Cappella Colleoni: Scenes from the Life of the Baptist.

- Berlin.   Martyrdom of S. Agatha; S. Dominia and the Rosary.

- London.   Sketches; Deposition.

- Madrid.   Escurial; Ceilings.

- Milan.    Palazzi Clerici, Archinto, and Dugnano: Frescoes.

-           Brera: Loves of Rinaldo and Armida.

- Paris.    Christ at Emmaus.

- Stra.     Villa Pisani: Ceiling.

- Venice.   Academy: S. Joseph, the Child, and Saints; S. Helena finding

-             the Cross.

-           Palazzo Ducale: Sala di Quattro Porte: Neptune and Venice.

-           Palazzo Labia: Frescoes; Antony and Cleopatra.

-           Palazzo Rezzonico: Two Ceilings.

-           S. Alvise: Flagellation; Way to Golgotha.

-           SS. Apostoli: Communion of S. Lucy.

-           S. Fava: The Virgin and her Parents.

-           Gesuati: Ceiling; Altarpiece.

-           S. Maria della Pieta: Triumph of Faith.

-           S. Paolo: Stations of the Cross.

-           Scalzi: Transportation of the Holy House of Loretto.

-           Scuola del Carmine: Ceiling.

- Verona.   Palazzo Canossa: Triumph of Hercules.

- Vicenza.  Museo Entrance Hall: Immaculate Conception.

-           Villa Valmarana: Frescoes; Subjects from Homer, Virgil,

-             Ariosto, and Tasso; Masks and Oriental Scenes.

- Wuerzburg. Palace of the Archbishop: Ceilings; Fetes Galantes; Assumption;

-             Fall of Rebel Angels.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXX

-

-PIETRO LONGHI

-

-

-We have here a master who is peculiarly the Venetian of the eighteenth

-century, a genre-painter whose charm it is not easy to surpass, yet

-one who did not at the outset find his true vocation. Longhi's first

-undertakings, specimens of which exist in certain palaces in Venice,

-were elaborate frescoes, showing the baneful influence of the Bolognese

-School, in which he studied for a time under Giuseppe Crispi. He

-attempts to place the deities of Olympus on his ceilings in emulation of

-Tiepolo, but his Juno is heavy and common, and the Titans at her feet

-appear as a swarm of sprawling, ill-drawn nudities. He shows no faculty

-for this kind of work, but he was thirty-two before he began to paint

-those small easel-pictures which in his own dainty style illustrate the

-"Vanity Fair" of his period, and in which the eighteenth century lives

-for us again.

-

-His earliest training was in the goldsmith's art, and he has left many

-drawings of plate, exquisite in their sense of graceful curve and their

-unerring precision of line. It was a moment when such things acquired a

-flawless purity of outline, and Longhi recognised their beauty with all

-the sensitive perception of the artist and the practised workman. His

-studies of draperies, gestures, and hands are also extraordinarily

-careful, and he seems besides to have an intimate acquaintance with all

-the elegant dissipation and languid excesses of a dying order. We feel

-that he has himself been at home in the masquerade, has accompanied the

-lady to the fortune-teller, and, leaning over her graceful shoulder, has

-listened to the soothsayer's murmurs. He has attended balls and routs,

-danced minuets, and gossiped over tiny cups of China tea. He is the last

-chronicler of the Venetian feasts, and with him ends that long series

-that began with Giorgione's concert and which developed and passed

-through suppers at Cana and banquets at the houses of Levi and the

-Pharisee. We are no longer confronted with the sumptuosity of Bonifazio

-and Veronese; the immense tables covered with gold and silver plate, the

-long lines of guests robed in splendid brocades, the stream of servants

-bearing huge salvers, or the bands of musicians, nor are there any more

-alfresco concerts, with nymphs and bacchantes. Instead there are

-masques, the life of the Ridotto or gaming-house, routs and intrigues in

-dainty boudoirs, and surreptitious love-making in that city of eternal

-carnival where the _bauta_ was almost a national costume. Longhi

-holds that post which in French art is filled by Watteau, Fragonard,

-and Lancret, the painters of _fetes galantes_, and though he cannot be

-placed on an equal footing with those masters, he is representative and

-significant enough. On his canvases are preserved for us the mysteries

-of the toilet, over which ladies and young men of fashion dawdled

-through the morning, the drinking of chocolate in _neglige_, the

-momentous instants spent in choosing headgear and fixing patches, the

-towers of hair built by the modish coiffeur--children trooping in, in

-hoops and uniforms, to kiss their mother's hand, the fine gentleman

-choosing a waistcoat and ogling the pretty embroideress, the pert young

-maidservant slipping a billet-doux into a beauty's hand under her

-husband's nose, the old beau toying with a fan, or the discreet abbe

-taking snuff over the morning gazette. The grand ladies of Longhi's day

-pay visits in hoop and farthingale, the beaux make "a leg," and the

-lacqueys hand chocolate. The beautiful Venetians and their gallants

-swim through the gavotte or gamble in the Ridotto, or they hasten to

-assignations, disguised in wide _bauti_ and carrying preposterous muffs.

-The Correr Museum contains a number of his paintings and also his book

-of original sketches. One of the most entertaining of his canvases

-represents a visit of patricians to a nuns' parlour. The nuns and their

-pupils lend an attentive ear to the whispers of the world. Their

-dresses are trimmed with _point de Venise_, and a little theatre is

-visible in the background. This and the "Sala del Ridotto" which hangs

-near, are marked by a free, bold handling, a richness of colouring, and

-more animation than is usual in his genre-pictures. He has not preserved

-the lovely, indeterminate colour or the impressionist touch which was

-the natural inheritance of Watteau or Tiepolo. His backgrounds are dark

-and heavy, and he makes too free a use of body colour; but his attitude

-is one of close observation--he enjoys depicting the life around him,

-and we suspect that he sees in it the most perfect form of social

-intercourse imaginable. Longhi is sometimes called the Goldoni of

-painting, and he certainly more nearly resembles the genial, humorous

-playwright than he does Hogarth, to whom he has also been compared. Yet

-his execution and technique are a little like Hogarth's, and it is

-possible that he was influenced by the elder and stronger master, who

-entered on his triumphant career as a satirical painter of society

-about 1734. This was just the time when Longhi abandoned his unlucky

-decorative style, and it is quite possible that he may have met with

-engravings of the "Marriage a la mode," and was stimulated by them to

-the study of eighteenth-century manners, though his own temperament is

-far removed from Hogarth's moral force and grim satire. His serene,

-painstaking observation is never distracted by grossness and violence.

-The Venetians of his day may have been--undoubtedly were--effeminate,

-licentious, and decadent, but they were kind and gracious, of refined

-manners, well-bred, genial and intelligent, and so Longhi has

-transcribed them. In the time which followed, ceilings were covered by

-Boucher, pastels by Latour were in demand, the scholars of David painted

-classical scenes, and Pietro Longhi was forgotten. Antonio Francesco

-Correr bought five hundred of his drawings from his son, Alessandro, but

-his works were ignored and dispersed. The classic and romantic fashions

-passed, but it was only in 1850 that the brothers de Goncourt, writing

-on art, revived consideration for the painter of a bygone generation.

-Many of his works are in private collections, especially in England, but

-few are in public galleries. The National Gallery is fortunate in

-possessing several excellent examples.

-

- [Illustration: _Pietro Longhi._

-                 VISIT TO THE FORTUNE-TELLER.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Hanfstaengl._)]

-

-

-PRINCIPAL WORKS

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: At the Gaming Table; Taking Coffee.

-          Baglioni: The Festival of the Padrona.

- Dresden. Portrait of a Lady.

- Hampton Court. Three genre-pictures.

- London.  Visit to a Circus; Visit to a Fortune-Teller; Portrait.

-          Mond Collection: Card party; Portrait.

- Venice.  Academy: Six genre-paintings.

-          Correr Museum: Eleven paintings of Venetian life; Portrait of

-            Goldoni.

-          Palazzo Grassi: Frescoes; Scenes of fashionable life.

-          Quirini-Stampalia: Eight paintings; Portraits.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXXI

-

-CANALE

-

-

-While Piazetta and Tiepolo were proving themselves the inheritors of the

-great school of decorators, Venice herself was finding her chroniclers,

-and a school of landscape arose, of which Canale was the foremost

-member. Giovanni Antonio Canale was born in Venice in 1697, the same

-year as Tiepolo. His father earned his living at the profession,

-lucrative enough just then, of scene-painting, and Antonio learned to

-handle his brush, working at his side. In 1719 he went off to seek his

-fortune in Rome, and though he was obliged to help out his resources by

-his early trade, he was most concerned in the study of architecture,

-ancient and modern. Rome spoke to him through the eye, by the

-picturesque masses of stonework, the warm harmonious tones of classic

-remains and the effects of light upon them. He painted almost entirely

-out-of-doors, and has left many examples drawn from the ruins. His

-success in Rome was not remarkable, and he was still a very young man

-when he retraced his steps. On regaining his native town, he realised

-for the first time the beauty of its canals and palaces, and he never

-again wavered in his allegiance.

-

-Two rivals were already in the field, Luca Carlevaris, whose works were

-freely bought by the rich Venetians, and Marco Ricci, the figures in

-whose views of Venice were often touched in by his uncle, Sebastiano;

-but Canale's growing fame soon dethroned them, "i cacciati del nido," as

-he said, using Dante's expression. In a generation full of caprice,

-delighting in sensational developments, Canale was methodical to a

-fault, and worked steadily, calmly producing every detail of Venetian

-landscape with untiring application and almost monotonous tranquillity.

-He lived in the midst of a band of painters who adored travel.

-Sebastiano Ricci was always on the move; Tiepolo spent much of his time

-in other cities and countries, and passed the last years of his life in

-Spain; Pietro Rotari was attached to the Court of St. Petersburg;

-Belotto, Canale's nephew, settled in Bohemia; but Canale remained at

-home, and, except for two short visits paid to England, contented

-himself with trips to Padua and Verona.

-

-Early in life Canale entered into relations with Joseph Smith, the

-British Consul in Venice, a connoisseur who had not only formed a fine

-collection of pictures, but had a gallery from which he was very ready

-to sell to travellers. He bought of the young Venetian at a very low

-price, and contrived, unfairly enough, to acquire the right to all his

-work for a certain period of time, with the object of sending it, at a

-good profit, to London. For a time Canale's luminous views were bought

-by the English under these auspices, but the artist, presently

-discovering that he was making a bad bargain, came over to England,

-where he met with an encouraging reception, especially at Windsor Castle

-and from the Duke of Richmond. Canale spent two years in England and

-painted on the Thames and at Cambridge, but he could not stand the

-English climate and fled from the damp and fogs to his own lagoons.

-

-To describe his paintings is to describe Venice at every hour of the day

-and night--Venice with its long array of noble palaces, with its Grand

-Canal and its narrow, picturesque waterways. He reproduces the Venice we

-know, and we see how little it has changed. The gondolas cluster round

-the landing-stages of the Piazzetta, the crowds hurry in and out of the

-arcades of the Ducal Palace, or he paints the festivals that still

-retained their splendour: the Great Bucentaur leaving the Riva dei

-Schiavoni on the Feast of the Ascension, or San Geremia and the entrance

-to the Cannaregio decked in flags for a feast-day. From one end to

-another of the Grand Canal, that "most beautiful street in the world,"

-as des Commines called it in 1495, we can trace every aspect of

-Canale's time, when the city had as yet lost nothing of its splendour

-or its animation. At the entrance stands S. Maria della Salute, that

-sanctuary dear to Venetian hearts, built as a votive offering after the

-visitation of the plague in 1631. Its flamboyant dome, with its volutes,

-its population of stone saints, its green bronze door catching the

-light, pleased Canale, as it pleased Sargent in our own day, and he

-painted it over and over again. The annual fete of the Confraternity of

-the Carita takes place at the Scuola di San Rocco, and Canale paints the

-old Renaissance building which shelters so much of Tintoretto's finest

-work, decorated with ropes of greenery and gay with flags,[7] while

-Tiepolo has put in the red-robed, periwigged councillors and the gazing

-populace. Near it in the National Gallery hangs a "Regatta" with its

-array of boats, its shouting gondoliers, and its shadows lying across

-the range of palaces, and telling the exact hour of the day that it was

-sketched in; or, again, the painter has taken peculiar pleasure in

-expressing quiet days, with calm green waters and wide empty piazzas,

-divided by sun and shadow, with a few citizens plodding about their

-business in the hot midday, or a quiet little abbe crossing the piazza

-on his way to Mass. Canale has made a special study of the light on wall

-and facade, and of the transparent waters of the canals and the azure

-skies in which float great snowy fleeces.

-

- [7] It is thought that it may have been painted from his studio.

-

-His second visit to England was paid in 1751. He was received with open

-arms by the great world, and invited to the houses of the nobility in

-town and country. The English were delighted with his taste and with the

-mastery with which he painted architectural scenes, and in spite of

-advancing years he produced a number of compositions, which commanded

-high prices. The Garden of Vauxhall, the Rotunda at Ranelagh, Whitehall,

-Northumberland House, Eton College, were some of the subjects which

-attracted him, and the treatment of which was signalised by his calm and

-perfect balance. He made use of the camera ottica, which is in principal

-identical with the camera oscura. Lanzi says he amended its defects and

-taught its proper use, but it must be confessed that in the careful

-perspective of some of his scenes, its traces seem to haunt us and to

-convey a certain cold regularity. Canale was a marvellous engraver.

-Mantegna, Bellini, and Titian had placed engraving on a very high level

-in the Venetian School, and though at a later date it became too

-elaborate, Tiepolo and his son brought it back to simplicity. Canale

-aided them, and his _eaux-fortes_, of which he has left about thirty,

-are filled with light and breadth of treatment, and he is particularly

-happy in his brilliant, transparent water.

-

-The high prices Canale obtained for his pictures in his lifetime led to

-the usual imitations. He was surrounded by painters whose whole ambition

-was limited to copying him. Among these were Marieschi, Visentini,

-Colombini, besides others now forgotten. More than fifty of his finest

-works were bought by Smith for George III. and fill a room at Windsor.

-He was made a member of the Academy at Dresden, and Bruhl, the Prime

-Minister of the Elector, obtained from him twenty-one works which now

-adorn the gallery there. Canale died in Venice, where he had lived

-nearly all his life, and where his gondola-studio was a familiar object

-in the Piazzetta, at the Lido, or anchored in the long canals.

-

-His nephew, Bernardo Belotto, is often also called Canaletto, and it

-seems that both uncle and nephew were equally known by the diminutive.

-Belotto, too, went to Rome early in his career, where he attached

-himself to Panini, a painter of classic ruins, peopled with warriors and

-shepherds. He was, by all accounts, full of vanity and self-importance,

-and on a visit to Germany managed to acquire the title of Count, which

-he adhered to with great complacency. He travelled all over Italy

-looking for patronage, and was very eager to find the road to success

-and fortune. About the same time as his uncle, he paid a visit to London

-and was patronised by Horace Walpole, but in the full tide of success

-he was summoned to Dresden, where the Elector, disappointed at not

-having secured the services of the uncle, was fain to console himself

-with those of the nephew. The extravagant and profligate Augustus II.,

-whose one idea was to extract money by every possible means from his

-subjects, in order to adorn his palaces, was consistently devoted to

-Belotto, who was in his element as a Court painter. He paints all his

-uncle's subjects, and it is not always easy to distinguish between the

-two; but his paintings are dull and stiff as compared with those of

-Canale, though he is sometimes fine in colour, and many of his views are

-admirably drawn.

-

-

-SOME WORKS OF CANALE

-

-It is impossible to draw up any exhaustive list, so many being in

-private collections.

-

- Dresden.  The Grand Canal; Campo S. Giacomo; Piazza S. Marco;

-             Church and Piazza of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.

- Florence. The Piazzetta.

- Hampton Court. The Colosseum.

- London.   Scuola di San Rocco; Interior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh;

-             S. Pietro in Castello, Venice.

- Paris.    Louvre: Church of S. Maria della Salute.

- Venice.   Heading; Courtyard of a Palace.

- Vienna.   Liechtenstein Gallery: Church and Piazza of S. Mark, Venice;

-             Canal of the Giudecca, Venice; View on Grand Canal;

-             The Piazzetta.

- Windsor.  About fifty paintings.

- Wallace Collection. The Giudecca; Piazza San Marco; Church of San

-             Simione; S. Maria della Salute; A Fete on the Grand Canal;

-             Ducal Palace; Dogana from the Molo; Palazzo Corner;

-             A Water-fete; The Rialto; S. Maria della Salute; A Canal

-             in Venice.

-

-

-

-

-CHAPTER XXXII

-

-FRANCESCO GUARDI

-

-

-An entry in Gradenigo's diary of 1764, preserved in the Museo Correr,

-speaks of "Francesco Guardi, painter of the quarter of SS. Apostoli,

-along the Fondamenta Nuove, a good pupil of the famous Canaletto, having

-by the aid of the camera ottica, most successfully painted two canvases

-(not small) by the order of a stranger (an Englishman), with views of

-the Piazza San Marco, towards the Church and the Clock Tower, and of the

-Bridge of the Rialto and buildings towards the Cannaregio, and have

-to-day examined them under the colonnades of the Procurazie and met with

-universal applause."

-

-Francesco Guardi was a son of the Austrian Tyrol, and his mountain

-ancestry may account, as in the case of Titian, for the freshness and

-vigour of his art. Both his father, who settled in Venice, and his

-brother were painters. His son became one in due time, and the

-profession being followed by four members of the family accounts

-for the indifferent works often attributed to Guardi.

-

-His indebtedness to Canale is universally acknowledged, and perhaps it

-is true that he never attains to the monumental quality, the traditional

-dignity which marks Canale out as a great master, but he differs from

-Canale in temperament, style, and technique. Canale is a much more exact

-and serious student of architectural detail; Guardi, with greater

-visible vigour, obliterates detail, and has no hesitation in drawing in

-buildings which do not really appear. In his oval painting of the Ducal

-Palace (Wallace Collection) he makes it much loftier and more spacious

-than it really is. In his "Piazzetta" he puts in a corner of the Loggia

-where it would not actually be seen. In the "Fair in Piazza S. Marco"

-the arch from under which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he

-foreshortens the wing of the royal palace. He curtails the length of the

-columns in the piazza and so avoids monotony of effect, and he often

-alters the height of the campaniles he uses, making them tall and

-slender or short and broad, as his picture requires. At one time he

-produced some colossal pictures, in several of which Mr. Simonson, who

-has written an admirable life of the painter, believes that the hand of

-Canale is perceptible in collaboration; but it was not his natural

-element, and he often became heavy in colour and handling. In 1782 he

-undertook a commission from Pietro Edwards, who was a noted connoisseur

-and inspector of State pictures, and had been appointed superintendent

-in 1778 of an official studio for the restoration of old masters.

-

-Edwards had important dealings with Guardi, who was directed to paint

-four leading incidents in the rejoicings in honour of the visit of Pius

-IV. to Venice. The Venetians themselves had become indifferent patrons

-of art, but Venice attracted great numbers of foreign visitors, and

-before the second half of the eighteenth century the export of old

-masters had already become an established trade. There is no sign,

-however, that Joseph Smith, who retained his consulship till 1760,

-extended any patronage to Guardi, though he enriched George III.'s

-collection with works of the chief contemporary artists of Venice. It is

-probable that Guardi had been warned against him by Canale and profited

-by the latter's experience.

-

-We can divide his work into three categories. 1. Views of Venice. 2.

-Public ceremonies. 3. Landscapes. Gradenigo mentions casually that he

-used the camera ottica, but though we may consider it probable, we

-cannot trace the use of it in his works. He is not only a painter of

-architecture, but pays great attention to light and atmosphere, and aims

-at subtle effects; a transparent haze floats over the lagoons, or the

-sun pierces though the morning mists. His four large pendants in the

-Wallace Collection show his happiest efforts; light glances off the

-water and is reflected on the shadowed walls. His views round the Salute

-bring vividly before us those delicious morning hours in Venice when the

-green tide has just raced up the Grand Canal, when a fresh wind is

-lifting and curling all the loose sails and fluttering pennons, and when

-the gondoliers are straining at the oars, as their light craft is caught

-and blown from side to side upon the rippling water. The sky occupies

-much of his space, he makes searching studies of it, and his favourite

-effect is a flash of light shooting across a piled-up mass of clouds.

-The line of the horizon is low, and he exhibits great mastery in

-painting the wide lagoons, but he also paints rough seas, and is one

-of the few masters of his day--perhaps the only one--who succeeds in

-representing a storm at sea.

-

-Often as he paints the same subjects he never becomes mechanical or

-photographic. We may sometimes tire of the monotony of Canale's unerring

-perspective and accurate buildings, but Guardi always finds some new

-rendering, some fresh point of interest. Sometimes he gives us a summer

-day, when Venice stands out in light, her white palaces reflected in the

-sun-illumined water; sometimes he is arrested by old churches bathed in

-shadow and fusing into the rich, dark tones of twilight. His boats and

-figures are introduced with great spirit and _brio_, and are alive

-with that handling which a French critic has described as his _griffe

-endiablee_.

-

- [Illustration: _Francesco Guardi._

-                 S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE.

-                _London._

-                 (_Photo, Mansell and Co._)]

-

-His masterly and spirited painting of crowds enables him to reproduce

-for us all those public ceremonies which Venice retained as long as the

-Republic lasted: yearly pilgrimages of the Doge to Venetian churches, to

-the Salute to commemorate the cessation of the plague, to San Zaccaria

-on Easter Day, the solemn procession on Corpus Christi Day, receptions

-of ambassadors, and, most gorgeous of all, the Feast of the Wedding of

-the Adriatic. He has faithfully preserved the ancient ceremonial which

-accompanied State festivities. In the "Fete du Jeudi Gras" (Louvre) he

-illustrates the acrobatic feats which were performed before Doge

-Mocenigo. A huge Temple of Victory is erected on the Piazzetta, and

-gondoliers are seen climbing on each other's shoulders and dancing upon

-ropes. His motley crowds show that the whole population, patricians as

-well as people, took part in the feasts. He has also left many striking

-interiors: among others, that of the Sala del Gran Consiglio, where

-sometimes as many as a thousand persons were assembled, the "Reception

-of the Doge and Senate by Pius IV." (which formed one of the series

-ordered by Pietro Edwards), or the fine "Interior of a Theatre,"

-exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts in 1911, belonging to a series

-of which another is at Munich.

-

-In his landscapes Guardi does not pay very faithful attention to nature.

-The landscape painters of the eighteenth century, as Mr. Simonson points

-out, were not animated by any very genuine impulse to study nature

-minutely. It was the picturesque element which appealed to them, and

-they were chiefly concerned to reproduce romantic features, grouped

-according to fancy. Guardi composes half fantastic scenes, introducing

-classic remains, triumphal arches, airy Palladian monuments. His

-_capricci_ include compositions in which Roman ruins, overgrown with

-foliage, occupy the foreground of a painting of Venetian palaces, but in

-which the combination is carried out with so much sparkle and nervous

-life and such charm of style, that it is attractive and piquant rather

-than grotesque.

-

-England is richest in Guardis, of any country, but France in one respect

-is better off, in possessing no less than eleven fine paintings of

-public ceremonials. Guardi may be considered the originator of small

-sketches, and perhaps the precursor of those glib little views which are

-handed about the Piazza at the present day. His drawings are fairly

-numerous, and are remarkably delicate and incisive in touch. A large

-collection which he left to his son is now in the Museo Correr. In his

-later years he was reduced to poverty and used to exhibit sketches in

-the Piazza, parting with them for a few ducats, and in this way flooding

-Venice with small landscapes. The exact spot occupied by his _bottega_

-is said to be at the corner of the Palazzo Reale, opposite the Clock

-Tower. The house in which he died still exists in the Campiello della

-Madonna, No. 5433, Parrocchia S. Canziano, and has a shrine dedicated to

-the Madonna attached to it. When quite an old man, Guardi paid a visit

-to the home of his ancestors, at Mastellano in the Austrian Tyrol, and

-made a drawing of Castello Corvello on the route. To this day his name

-is remembered with pride in his Tyrolean valley.

-

-

-SOME WORKS OF GUARDI

-

- Bergamo. Lochis: Landscapes.

- Berlin.  Grand Canal; Lagoon; Cemetery Island.

- London.  Views in Venice.

- Milan.   Museo Civico: Landscapes.

-          Poldi-Pezzoli: Piazzetta; Dogana; Landscapes.

- Oxford.  Taylorian Museum: Views in Venice.

- Padua.   Views in Venice.

- Paris.   Procession of the Doge to S. Zaccaria; Embarkment in

-            Bucentaur; Festival at Salute; "Jeudi Gras" in Venice;

-            Corpus Christi; Sala di Collegio; Coronation of Doge.

- Turin.   Cottage; Staircase; Bridge over Canal.

- Venice.  Museo Correr: The Ridotto; Parlour of Convent.

- Verona.  Landscapes.

- Wallace Collection. The Rialto; San Giorgio Maggiore (two);

-            S. Maria della Salute; Archway in Venice; Vaulted Arcades;

-            The Dogana.

-

-

-

-

- BIBLIOGRAPHY

-

-

-It is an advantage to the student of Italian art to be able to read

-French, German, and Italian, for though translations appear of the most

-important works, there are many interesting articles and monographs of

-minor artists which are otherwise inaccessible.

-

-Vasari, not always trustworthy, either in dates, facts, or opinions, yet

-delightfully human in his histories, is indispensable, and new editions

-and translations are constantly issued. Sansoni's edition (Florence),

-with Milanesi's notes, is the most authoritative; and for translations,

-those of Mrs. Foster (Messrs. Blashfield and Hopkins), and a new edition

-in the Temple classics (Dent, 8 vols., 2s. each vol.).

-

-Ridolfi, the principal contemporary authority on Venetian artists, who

-published his _Maraviglie dell' arte_ nine years after Domenico

-Tintoretto's death, is only to be read in Italian, though the anecdotes

-with which his work abounds are made use of by every writer.

-

-Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Painting in North Italy_ (Murray) is a

-storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole, marvellously

-correct information and sound opinion. It supplies a foundation, fills

-gaps, and supplements individual biographies as no other book does. For

-the early painters, down to the time of the Bellini, _I Origini dei

-pittori veneziani_, by Professor Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a

-large book, written with mastery and insight, and well illustrated; _La

-Storia della pittura veneziana_ is another careful work, which deals

-very minutely with the early school of mosaics.

-

-In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has _The Brothers

-Bellini_ (Bell's Great Masters), and the reader should not fail to read

-Mr. Roger Fry's _Bellini_ (Artist's Library), a scholarly monograph,

-short but reliable, and full of suggestion and appreciation, though

-written in a cool, critical spirit. Dr. Hills has dealt ably with

-_Pisanello_ (Duckworth).

-

-Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work _Vittore Carpaccio_,

-translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and Paul Kristeller in the

-equally important _Mantegna_, translated by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans,

-1901), seem to have exhausted all that there is to be said for the

-moment concerning these two painters.

-

-It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson's two well-known

-volumes, _The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance_, and the _North

-Italian Painters of the Renaissance_ (Putnam). They are brilliant essays

-which supplement every other work, overflowing with suggestive and

-critical matter, supplying original thoughts, and summing up in a few

-pregnant words the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding

-stages.

-

-In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater's essay, included

-in _The Renaissance_. The author is not always well informed as to

-facts--he wrote in the early days of criticism--but he is rich in idea

-and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook's _Life of Giorgione_ (Bell's Great

-Masters) is full and interesting. Some authorities question his

-attributions as being too numerous, but whether we regard them as

-authentic works of the master or as belonging to his school, the

-illustrations he gives add materially to our knowledge of the

-Giorgionesque.

-

-When we come to Titian we are well off. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Life

-of Titian_ (Murray, out of print), in two large volumes, is well written

-and full of good material, from which subsequent writers have borrowed.

-An excellent Life, full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts,

-was lately brought out by Methuen (Classics of Art), complete with

-illustrations, and including a minute analysis of Titian's technique.

-Sir Claude Phillips's Monograph on Titian will appeal to every thoughtful

-lover of the painter's genius, and Dr. Gronau has written a good and

-scholarly Life (Duckworth).

-

-Mr. Berenson's _Lorenzo Lotto_ must be read for its interest and

-learning, given with all the author's charm and lucidity. It includes an

-essay on Alvise Vivarini.

-

-My own _Tintoretto_ (Methuen, Classics of Art) gives a full account of

-the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively with the scheme

-and details of the Scuola di San Rocco. Professor Thode has written a

-detailed and profusely illustrated Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss

-Series, and the Paradiso has been treated at length and illustrated

-in great detail in a very scholarly _edition de luxe_ by Mr. F. O.

-Osmaston. It is the fashion to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow

-that his judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture

-than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching sermons,

-there are few critics who have so many ideas to give us, or who are so

-informed with a deep love of art, and both _Modern Painters_ and the

-_Stones of Venice_ should be read.

-

-M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese, which is full

-of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to take a copy of Boschini's

-_Della pittura veneziana_, 1797, when visiting the galleries, the

-palaces, and the churches of Venice. His lists of the pictures, as they

-were known in his day, often open our eyes to doubtful attributions.

-Second-hand copies of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the

-later-century artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of their

-period is supplied by Philippe Monnier's delightful _Venice in the

-Eighteenth Century_ (Chatto and Windus), which also has a good chapter

-on the lesser Venetian masters. The best Life of Tiepolo is in Italian,

-by Professor Pompeo Molmenti. The smaller masters have to be hunted for

-in many scattered essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi's

-pictures. Canaletto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by M.

-Uzanne, _Les Deux Canaletto_; and Mr. Simonson has written an important

-and charming volume on Francesco Guardi (Methuen, 1904), with beautiful

-reproductions of his works. Among other books which give special

-information are Morelli's two volumes, _Italian Painters in Borghese and

-Doria Pamphili_, and _In Dresden and Munich Galleries_, translated by

-Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter's magnificent

-catalogue of the Mond Collection--which, though published at fifteen

-guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries--has some valuable

-chapters on the Venetian masters.

-

-

-

-

-INDEX

-

-

- Academy, Florence, 28

-   Venice, 13, 16, 19, 32, 36, 38, 40, 43, 47, 52,

-     57, 67, 80, 102, 116, 117, 171, 183, 196, 202,

-     205, 206, 210, 211, 217, 219, 226, 227, 242,

-     262, 267, 271, 277, 281, 286, 295, 296, 308,

-     313, 320

- Adoration of Magi, 28, 31, 116, 131, 197, 205, 287

- Adoration of Shepherds, 116, 196, 222,

-     273, 275

- Agnolo Gaddi, 15

- Alemagna, Giovanni, 29-32, 36, 37, 58

- Altichiero, 24, 25

- Alvise Vivarini, 58-63, 65, 66, 69, 79,

-     104, 105, 112, 187, 190, 223, 330

- Amalteo, Pomponio, 219

- Amigoni, 292

- Anconae, 12, 17, 18, 24, 36, 45, 59, 60, 187

- Angelico, Fra, 48

- Annunciation, 16, 26, 45, 178, 183, 258, 286

- Antonello da Messina, 50, 51, 59, 62, 66

- Antonio da Murano, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 58

- Antonio Negroponte, 37, 44

- Antonio Veneziano, 15

- Aretino, 163, 166, 167, 172-174, 182, 192,

-     201, 234, 236, 240

- Ascension, 41

- Augsburg, 176, 266, 276

-

- Badile, 229

- Balestra, 287

- Baptism of Christ, 41, 98, 255

- Bartolommeo Vivarini, 32, 36, 37, 38, 48, 58, 59,

-     64, 189, 223, 225

- Basaiti, Marco, 104, 111-116

- Bassano, 10, 247, 269-276, 282

- Bastiani, Lazzaro, 70, 73, 79

- Battoni, Pompeo, 297, 298

- Bellini, Gentile, 48-57, 68, 70, 81, 83, 89, 90,

-     99, 101, 103, 146

- Bellini, Giovanni, 10, 43, 48, 55, 61, 62, 63, 69,

-     78, 81, 82, 84-89, 90, 92, 94-101, 103, 104,

-     107, 109, 112-114, 122, 123, 127, 129, 130,

-     134, 140, 146, 147, 152, 155, 158, 159, 179,

-     186, 187, 223, 225, 318, 329, 330

- Bellini, Jacopo, 27, 28, 39-43, 58, 81-84, 86

- Belotto, 315, 319-331

- Bembo, Cardinal, 97, 111, 174, 240

- Benson, Mr., 47, 80, 116, 117, 143

- Berenson, Mr., 156, 187, 195, 210, 221, 229, 243,

-     307, 330

- Bergamo, 101, 114, 116, 117, 141, 143, 185, 188,

-     190, 196, 211, 219, 226, 227, 276, 308, 313, 328

- Berlin, 19, 32, 35, 47, 57, 66, 80, 101, 115-117,

-     139, 182, 196, 211, 223, 226, 227, 266, 308, 328

- Bissolo, 104, 114, 115, 117

- Blanc, M. Charles, 240, 288, 298

- Bologna, 36, 38, 60, 167, 288, 309

- Bonifazio, 203-206, 210, 243, 245, 250, 270, 281, 310

- Bonsignori, 224, 275

- Bordone, Paris, 203, 206, 208-211, 219, 231, 290

- Borghese, Villa, 154, 188, 194, 197, 331

- Boschini, 104, 282, 287, 331

- Boston, 139

- Botticelli, 127, 159

- Brera, 47, 57, 101, 115, 117, 143, 194, 205, 209,

-     211, 251, 304

- Brescia, 182, 196, 219, 220, 222, 226, 227

- Bridgewater House, 182, 211

- British Museum, 41, 263

- Broker's patent, 130, 169, 248

- Brusasorci, 229

- Buonconsiglio, 223, 224

- Burckhardt, 298

- _Burlington Magazine_, 18

- Byzantine art, 11, 13, 21

-

- Calderari, 219

- Carlevaris, Luca, 292, 315

- Caliari, Carlotto, 282

- Caliari, Paolo. _See_ Veronese

- Campagnola, Domenico, 151

- Canal, Fabio, 307

- Canale, Gian Antonio, 292, 298, 314-320, 322, 331

- Canaletto. _See_ Canale

- Caravaggio, 288

- Cariani, 141-143, 204

- Carpaccio, 68, 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 79, 80, 103,

-     122, 123, 146, 191

- Carracci, 88, 288, 298

- Carriera. _See_ Rosalba Carriera

- Castagno, Andrea del, 27, 48

- Castello, Milan, 51

- Catena, Vincenzo, 104, 108-111, 114, 202, 206

- Cathedrals, Ascoli, 47

-   Bassano, 270, 276

-   Conegliano, 115

-   Cremona, 215, 220, 226

-   Murano, 109

-   Spilimbergo, 226

-   Treviso, 183, 211, 215, 226

-   Verona, 183, 227

- Celesti, 287

- Chelsea Hospital, 289

- Churches--

-   Bergamo.

-     S. Alessandro, 117, 196

-     S. Bartolommeo, 188

-     S. Bernardino, 190

-     S. Spirito, 114, 117, 196

-   Brescia.

-     S. Clemente, 227

-     SS. Nazaro e Celso, 182

-   Castelfranco.

-     S. Liberale, 132

-   S. Daniele.

-     S. Antonino, 212, 214, 226

-   Padua.

-     Eremitani, 48, 83, 224

-     Il Santo, 25, 227

-     S. Giustina, 220, 242

-     S. Maria in Vanzo, 276

-     S. Zeno, 48

-   Pesaro.

-     S. Francesco, 102

-   Piacenza.

-     Madonna di Campagna, 216

-   Ravenna.

-     S. Domenico, 117

-   Rome.

-     S. Maria del Popolo, 200

-     S. Pietro in Montorio, 200, 202

-   Venice.

-     S. Alvise, 304

-     SS. Apostoli, 307, 308

-     S. Barnaba, 242

-     Carmine, 107, 116, 197

-     S. Cassiano, 267

-     SS. Ermagora and Fortunato, 245

-     S. Fava, 288, 308

-     S. Francesco della Vigna, 37, 38, 242

-     Gesuati, 296

-     S. Giacomo dell' Orio, 197, 277

-     S. Giobbe, 67, 78, 92, 95, 113

-     S. Giorgio Maggiore, 259, 263, 267

-     S. Giovanni in Bragora, 17, 38, 64, 67, 98,

-         106, 116, 211

-     S. Giovanni Crisostomo, 98, 102

-     S. Giovanni Elemosinario, 168, 287

-     SS. Giovanni and Paolo, 53, 101, 116

-     S. Maria Formosa, 31, 38, 196

-     S. Maria dei Frari, 38, 65, 67, 92, 93, 102,

-         112, 157, 161, 180, 183, 219, 275, 307

-     S. Maria Mater Domini, 109, 116, 267

-     S. Maria dei Miracoli, 20

-     S. Maria dell' Orto, 102, 106, 116, 249, 267

-     S. Maria della Salute, 173, 262, 267, 317, 324, 325

-     S. Mark's, 14, 19, 27, 49, 53, 247, 287

-     S. Pantaleone, 30, 285, 287

-     Pieta, 221, 227, 308

-     S. Pietro in Castello, 287, 296

-     S. Pietro in Murano, 92, 93

-     S. Polo, 259, 267

-     Redentore, 63, 64, 67, 117

-     S. Rocco, 267, 296

-     S. Salvatore, 178, 183

-     Scalzi, 308

-     S. Sebastiano, 230, 236, 241, 242

-     S. Spirito, 173

-     S. Stefano, 260, 267

-     S. Trovaso, 16, 116, 267

-     S. Vitale, 79, 80

-     S. Zaccaria, 17, 97, 112, 134, 325

-   Verona.

-     S. Anastasia, 24, 25, 28, 31, 41

-     S. Antonio, 24, 28

-     S. Fermo, 26, 28

-     S. Tomaso, 296

-   Vicenza.

-     S. Corona, 98, 102, 227

-     Monte Berico, 105, 223, 224, 227, 242

- Cima da Conegliano, 66, 98, 99, 103-108, 123, 322

- Colombini, 319

- Confraternity, Carita, 171

-   S. Mark, 69, 206, 245

- Contarini, Giovanni, 287

- Cook, Sir F., 183

- Cook, Mr. Herbert, 330

- Correggio, 189, 300

- Correr Museum (Museo Civico), 19, 79, 84, 87, 102,

-     117, 287, 311, 313, 326

- Crivelli, Carlo, 38, 44-47, 189

- Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 215, 329, 330

- Crucifixion, 25, 41, 84, 255, 256, 262

-

- Dante, 264

- David, 297, 313

- Doges--

-   Barbarigo, 93

-   Dandolo, 11

-   Giustiniani, 49

-   Gradenigo, 206

-   Grimani, 170

-   Loredano, 100, 109

-   Mocenigo, 325

- Donatello, 34, 82, 87

- Doria Gallery, 194, 331

- Dresden, 139, 182, 196, 210, 211, 242, 266, 276,

-     294, 296, 320

- Duerer, Albert, 59, 99, 150

-

- Edwards, Pietro, 323, 325

- Este, 305

- Este, Isabela d', 96, 97, 159, 229

-

- Fabriano, Gentile da, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31,

-     33, 39, 42, 62

- Florence, 4, 9, 21, 22, 28, 101, 117, 122, 123,

-     139, 182, 197, 202, 211, 242, 266

- Florentine, 3, 5, 7, 35, 121, 122, 125, 135, 153,

-     199, 200, 251

- Florigerio, 217

- Fondaco dei Tedeschi, 129, 130, 147

- Fragonard, 33

- Fry, Mr. Roger, 85, 89, 330

- Fumiani, Gianbattista, 285, 286

-

- Gaston de Foix, 222

- Giambono, Michele, 17, 18, 27

- Giordano, Luca, 285

- Giorgione, 10, 65, 97, 113, 125, 126-135, 137,

-     139-142, 147-149, 152-155, 166, 177, 179,

-     184-187, 193, 206, 210, 213, 214, 216, 219,

-     222, 310, 330

- Giotto, 4, 11, 15, 24, 33, 86

- Goldoni, Carlo, 312, 331

- Goncourt, de, 313

- Guardi, Francesco, 298, 321-324, 326, 328, 331

- Guariento, 15, 17, 62, 122

- Guercino, 297

- Guido, 297

- Guilds, 12, 16, 22, 23, 29, 39, 75, 198, 251

- Guillaume de Guilleville, 94

-

- Hampton Court, 143, 210, 211, 219, 266, 289, 320

- Hazlitt, 6, 8

- Hogarth, 289, 312

-

- Jacobello del Fiore, 16, 19, 27, 164

- Jacopo Bellini. _See_ Bellini

-

- Kristeller, M. Paul, 330

-

- Lancret, 311

- Last Judgment, 238

- Last Supper, 237, 208, 259

- Layard, Lady, 50, 57, 80, 116

- Lazzarini, Gregorio, 286, 287, 296, 300

- Leonardo, 122, 127, 136, 140, 159, 162

- Liberi, Pietro, 285, 287, 295

- Licinio, Bernardino, 218

- Licinio, G. A. _See_ Pordenone

- Lippo, Fra, 48

- London (National Gallery), 47, 57, 66, 100, 101,

-     115-117, 133, 141, 143, 156, 159, 182, 197,

-     201, 202, 208, 211, 218, 221, 222, 226, 227,

-     242, 261, 266, 276, 308, 313, 320, 328

- Longhi, Pietro, 288, 298, 309-313

- Lorenzo di San Severino, 46

- Lorenzo Veneziano, 16, 17, 19

- Loreto, 193, 197

- Lotto, Lorenzo, 172, 186, 187-196, 204, 222, 224,

-     275, 330

- Louvre, 40, 41, 43, 50, 57, 66, 115-117, 143, 161,

-     165, 177, 178, 182, 196, 202, 211, 233, 235,

-     242, 266, 277, 297, 308, 320, 328

- Luciani. _See_ Sebastian del Piombo

- Ludwig, Professor, 94, 203, 330

-

- Madrid, 139, 150, 182, 264, 266, 302, 304

- Mansueti, Giovanni, 56, 79

- Mantegna, 39, 42, 49, 58, 59, 77, 84, 96, 159, 215,

-     223, 224, 300, 318, 330

- Marieschi, 319

- Martino da Udine. _See_ Pellegrino

- Maser, Villa, 231, 242

- Masolino, 41

- Mengs, Raphael, 302

- Michelangelo, 110, 121, 122, 137, 164, 174, 199,

-     200-202, 244, 249, 300

- Milan, Ambrosiana, 66, 116, 275, 276

-   Brera. _See_ Brera

- Mocetto, Girolamo, 225

- Molmenti, Professor, 330, 331

- Mond Collection, 18, 20, 47, 49, 101

- Monnier, Philippe, 306, 331

- Montagna, Bartolommeo, 105, 114, 222-224, 270

- Morelli, 177, 203, 331

- Moretto, 221, 222

- Morto da Feltre, 130, 214

- Munich, 116, 183

- Murano, 29, 102, 116, 217, 226

- Museo Civico. _See_ Correr

-

- Naples, 50, 57, 66, 102, 183

- National Gallery. _See_ London

- Niccolo di Pietro, 16, 17, 20

- Niccolo Semitocolo, 16, 17, 19

-

- Osmaston, Mr. F. O., 331

-

- Padovanino, Il, 286, 196

- Padua, 19, 28, 34-37, 49, 59, 82, 86, 87, 116, 151,

-     155, 183, 223, 226, 227, 242, 272, 276

- Palaces--

-   Milan.

-     Archinto, 301, 308

-     Clerici, 301

-     Dugnani, 301, 304

-   Rome.

-     Colonna, 196

-   Stra.

-     Pisani, 302

-   Venice.

-     Ducal, 15, 87, 90, 102, 109, 114-117, 170, 183,

-         211, 235, 236, 242, 260, 265, 267, 269, 272,

-         277, 281, 295, 308, 316

-     Giovanelli, 136

-     Labia, 304, 308

-     Rezzonico, 308

-   Verona.

-     Canossa, 302

-   Wuerzburg, 301, 308

- Palma Giovine, 285, 287, 295

- Palma Vecchio, 141, 184-188, 196, 203, 204, 214,

-     219, 231, 244

- Paolo da Venezia, 14

- Paris. _See_ Louvre

- Parma, 115

- Pellegrino, 213, 214, 219, 226

- Pennacchi, 104, 214

- Perugino, 133, 134, 202

- Pesaro, 90, 94, 102

- Pesellino, 48

- Piacenza, 216, 226

- Piero di Cosimo, 135

- Pieta, 86, 87, 179, 199, 223, 224

- Pintoricchio, 74, 135

- Pisanello (Pisano), 21, 22, 24-28, 31, 33, 34, 37,

-     39-42, 62, 224, 330

- Pordenone, 169, 170, 202, 204, 214-221, 226

- Previtali, 104, 114, 115

-

- Quirizio da Murano, 37

-

- Raphael, 140, 161, 174, 200, 213, 221, 234

- Ravenna, 117, 132

- Rembrandt, 285

- Ricci, Battista, 288, 300

- Ricci, Marco, 315

- Ricci, Sebastiano, 148, 288, 292, 296, 315

- Richter, Dr. J. P., 331

- Ricketts, Mr. C., 330

- Ridolfi, 108, 229, 234, 247, 282, 287, 329

- Rimini, 87, 89, 102

- Robusti, Domenico, 246, 282

- Robusti, Jacopo. _See_ Tintoretto

- Robusti, Marietta, 246

- Romanino, 219-221

- Rome, 143, 183, 188, 196, 197, 202, 211, 227, 267,

-     277, 314, 319

- Rondinelli, 104, 114, 117

- Rosalba Carriera, 288, 292-294, 296

- Rubens, 160, 165, 170, 285

- Ruskin, 264, 331

-

- Sansovino, 92, 167, 174, 192

- Santa Croce, Girolamo da, 56

- Sarto, Andrea del, 137, 140

- Savoldo, 66, 222

- Sebastian del Piombo, 140, 198, 199-202, 228

- Siena, 4, 11, 12

- Signorelli, 121

- Simonson, Mr., 322, 326, 331

- Smith, Joseph, 315, 323

- Speranza, 223

- Spilimbergo, 216, 226

- Strong, Mr. S. A., 329, 330

-

- Taylor, Miss Cameron, 94

- Tiepolo, Domenico, 307

- Tiepolo, G. B., 10, 297-307, 309, 312, 314, 315,

-     317, 318, 331

- Tintoretto, 10, 15, 25, 173, 179, 181, 210, 231,

-     234, 243, 245-251, 253-256, 258-267, 269, 273,

-     276, 281, 282, 285, 300, 317, 330, 331

- Titian, 65, 106, 130, 135, 137, 143, 144-160,

-     162-178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 191-193,

-     201, 204, 205, 210, 215, 217, 220, 221, 224,

-     231, 236, 239, 243-245, 250, 256, 265, 273-275,

-     281, 290, 318, 321, 330

- Torbido, Francesco, 225

- Treviso, 108, 183, 186, 202, 211, 215, 226, 239

-

- Uccello, Paolo, 26, 42, 48

- Urbino, 163, 168, 174

- Uzanne, M. O., 331

-

- Valmarana, Villa, 303

- Varotari. _See_ Padovanino

- Vasari, 15, 89, 130, 148, 169, 170, 174, 178, 199,

-     209, 219, 225, 247, 329

- Vecellio. _See_ Titian

- Vecellio, Marco, 171

- Vecellio, Orazio, 164, 174

- Vecellio, Pomponio, 166

- Velasquez, 285

- Venice. _See_ Academy

- Venturi, Professor Antonio, 40

- Venturi, Professor Leonello, vi, 38, 329

- Verona, 22, 24, 25, 28, 183, 227, 229, 242, 302,

-     315, 328

- Veronese, Paolo, 221, 228, 230-242, 247, 253, 269,

-     281, 283, 310, 331

- Vicentino, 287

- Vicenza, 57, 102, 185, 227, 242-277, 296, 303, 307

- Vienna, 67, 80, 110, 116, 117, 131, 143, 149, 183,

-     196, 197, 211, 242, 268, 277, 320

- Visentini, 319

- Viterbo, 202

- Vivarini. _See_ Alvise

- Vivarini. _See_ Bartolommeo

-

- Wallace Collection, 183, 320, 328

- Walpole, Horace, 292, 294, 319

- Watteau, 297, 311, 312

- Wickhoff, Dr., 154

- Windsor, 47, 320

-

- Yriarte, M. Charles, 229, 331

-

- Zanetti, 129, 148, 246, 269, 282, 283, 301

- Zelotti, 230

- Zoppo, Marco, 44

- Zucchero, Federigo, 236

-

-

-

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